Today Bushiroad confirmed that the upcoming anime-inspired shoot 'em up Macross: Shooting Insight will release simultaneously worldwide, excluding China.
The anime-inspired game will launch on January 25, 2024, for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam, following the recently-announced delay out of 2023.
Yet, as many expected, something is definitely missing from the release in English. Above, you can see the key artwork for the West, and below, you can take a look at the version for Japan.
You certainly need to try too hard to spot the big difference, as original Macross heroine Lynn Minmay has been unceremoniously removed from the middle of the Western version's art.
In order to pull this off, all content from the Macross: Do You Remember Love film will be included only in the packaged versions (standard and Limited Edition), which will be exclusive to Japan.
This means that the classic VF-1S Valkyrie, Hikaru Ichijyo, Lynn Minmay, Maximilian Genius (as in-game rival. His older version still appears in the story), and Misa Hayase, on top of all the related stages and songs will not be included in the digital version.
Japanese players will be able to purchase that content separately via day-one DLC, but no mention is made of it in any promotion for the West.
While nothing has been said officially (Bushiroad is simply not talking about it), this is likely due to the ongoing agreement between Bigwest and American film company Harmony Gold.
Thanks to the agreement, Bigwest can at least release the rest of the series in the West, but everything related to the original TV anime and the Macross: Do You Remember Love movie including characters and mecha remains under Harmony Gold's control, to be horribly distorted into that unsightly abomination called Robotech.
Incidentally, today we also got a brief trailer. Of course, the version for Japan is completely different.
Character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto himself drew an illustration for the game, which will be used on the cover of the physical limited edition, which is exclusive to Japan.
If you'd like to see and read more about Macross: Shooting Insight, you can check out a trailer recently showcased at a Bushiroad event from Japan. You can also read more details about the title in our previous article about story and gameplay, another about simulated battles, and one more about replays and the sync system.
If you're unfamiliar with Macross, it's one of the most famous and beloved sci-fi and mecha anime franchises of all time, having debuted in Japan in 1982 from the genius of Studio Nue and Shoji Kawamori (who recently did the mecha design for Marvelous' Daemon Ex Machina).
Since its original creation, the IP has sparked plenty of sequels and additional forays into other media. The latest TV series, Macross Delta, aired in 2016, followed by two theatrical movies.
Unfortunately, its popularity in the West has been hindered by licensee Harmony Gold as mentioned above. The company completely warped the original series and remixed it with the unrelated anime Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, creating the Frankenstein monster known as Robotech.
As we just saw, this nonsense still haunts the fans of the series today and likely will for the foreseeable future.
