Earlier today, ARC SYSTEM WORKS held their own showcase event in the vein of a Nintendo Direct, sharing their upcoming titles and more as we leap into the second half of 2025. The 35-minute broadcast shared both new announcements as well as updates on already announced titles.

Perhaps best known internationally for their contributions to the fighting game genre, with fan-favorite franchises such as Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and Dragon Ball FighterZ, and positioned just three weeks after the massive announcement that ARC SYSTEM WORKS would be developing the upcoming MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, there was a lot of excitement leading into the showcase for fighting game fans.

Whether or not that excitement was delivered on ultimately depends on preferences, but let's take a look at everything that was shared today.

The first announcement in the showcase, Dear me, I was is an interactive textless adventure game coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this summer, featuring rotoscoped animation throughout. The self-described target audience for the game is adult women, and is a story that aims to leave them feeling more positive after playing.

Following this, we saw follow-up information on Double Dragon Revive, with an all-new trailer in tow. Bringing the game's original 2D sprite-based visuals into a modern 3D experience, Double Dragon Revive will be releasing October 23, 2025.

Next we see the promotion of Absolum from French game developer Dotemu, a combination roguelike/beat 'em up from the team that brought Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge to life. ARC SYSTEM WORKS will act as publishers for the title across Asia. The game does not yet have a release date.

In addition to this, we also see two more announcements – this time from Super Niche's Sohei Niikawa and Taito Corporation's Tomohito Oka for Demon's Night Fever and the latest title in the Bubble Bobble series, Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons respectively. While information on Demon's Night is still slim, we do know the extremely long genre for the game, "Enemies? Allies? Kill Kill Kill! The more you die, the stronger you become! Raising Speedrunning Simulation RPG". Meanwhile, Bubble Bobble: Sugar Dungeons takes a more cutesy approach, offering a nice contrast.

The last three announcements quickly jumped back into familiar territory for fans of fighting games, with the upcoming HUNTER x HUNTER NENxIMPACT and the already-released UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes. While HUNTER x HUNTER NENxIMPACT showcased some gameplay footage and highlighted several features of the game, it was shared that UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes will be receiving an all-new DLC character called Izumi, with a pre-release demo for her available at Anime Expo 2025 in Los Angeles, USA.

Lastly, Chief Creative Officer Daisuke Ishiwatari tied together the showcase by affirming that ARC SYSTEM WORKS is branching out from their identity as solely a fighting game company. He did this while explaining that the company wants to introduce more "mid-range games," describing that the current state of the gaming industry is making it harder than ever for new original series' to flourish – as such, young creators have lost opportunities to create their own projects. Looking back at the roots of Guilty Gear, a franchise that has now topped a million sales, Ishiwatari reminds viewers that it too started out as a small-scale project, that was able to be nourished over time. Through the development of mid-range titles, ARC SYSTEM WORKS hopes to similarly flourish new original works as a company moving forward. This comes together with the introduction of DAMON and BABY, an isometric game that received a brief preview during the showcase event.

It will be interesting to see how the announcements shared today, as well as the future framework for ARC SYSTEM WORKS, plays out for the company. While there is an initial backlash from fans in the comment section of the stream who perhaps expected more of a focus on fighting game titles, it seems like this is the direction we can expect from the company moving forward.

For those interested in checking out more information about today's announcements, be sure to check out ARC SYSTEM WORKS' official website.