Titans of the Past, an indie dungeon crawler RPG by Ukrainian developer Devil’s Dozen Games, has recently been going viral over on the Japanese side of X, and the reason for it is more adorable than one might think. While the game released only around a week ago, it has been garnering steady attention from Japanese gamers because of the “pet” section in its main menu.
Post translation:
“The game I just bought had a pet section in the main menu, and when I went to check what it actually was, turns out it was just a page to showcase the developers’ pets lol”
The post showcasing the game’s silly (but endearing) feature made rounds on X with almost 100k likes and nearly 4 million views. Many Japanese gamers praised the cute “bonus content,” joking that it should be mandatory for all games to have a similar page spotlighting the devs’ pets. Of course, this isn’t the first time developers attempted to sneak their furry (or scaly) companions into their games. Other notable examples include the names of “guerilla babies” in the credits for Horizon Forbidden West, and the developers’ message in Queen’s Domain. Studio Devcats, for example, goes as far as to make cat-themed games while presenting themselves as literal kittens (most likely the developers’ pets) with the goal of raising awareness about cat adoption and rescue.
Funnily enough, some Japanese X users started replying to the original Titans of The Past post with their own suggestions on how the devs can “improve” the feature. “If they’re going to take it this far, I want them to take responsibility and add more pet photos when they update the game,” a user jokingly commented. Another popular suggestion was to add videos of the pets that play after clearing the game. Hopefully, the devs are reading this article and taking notes.
Titans of the Past is described as literally “standing on the shoulders” of games that are widely considered “titans” of fantasy RPGs. According to the developers, it was heavily inspired by classic titles like Wizardry, Might and Magic VI-VIII, The Bard’s Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and Legend of Grimrock. The first-person dungeon crawler allows the player to command a party of characters, develop their skills and explore the world in an environment “that any 90s gamer feels familiar with.” Another signature mechanic of the game is that the world moves only when the character moves, meaning that the action plays out in real time which only flows when the player is actively controlling the characters. Pausing the controls freezes time, giving the player some leeway to think through their tactics and course of action. The game is currently rated Very Positive on Steam with 55 reviews, 13 out of which are in Japanese.
Titans of the Past is available for PC (Steam).
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