The end is here with the thirteenth and final volume of Shotaro Tokuno’s New Game! manga. Aoba has had a crisis of confidence, and the deadline for Eagle Jump’s next game is rapidly approaching.
Front cover of the thirteenth and final volume of New Game!, featuring Aoba Suzukaze
This volume begins with a very depressed Aoba, hiding away from the world after the events of the previous volume of the manga. It might be the darkest place we ever see her in, but she still has plenty of people who are willing to lend her their support. Even if she can’t bring herself to believe it at first. Fortunately, she works with people who are more than willing to literally knock some sense into her.
So once Aoba is back on her feet, the focus is on the continued development of FS4 right up until the final deadline. The Eagle Jump ladies place a lot of faith in Aoba; even more than she realises at first. It seems to be for the best, though, since Aoba was going through quite a lot at the beginning of this volume. Better to find out that stuff after the fact.
The development of FS4 brings in a lot of new employees, who have their own struggles to deal with. They do have an experienced team to lend them a hand, though, so things are able to run fairly smoothly. Well, right up until a crash is discovered at the last minute – then it becomes all hands on deck for the debugging team, plus anybody else who is free. Got to be careful with that Konami code…
It’s been a joy to read about the development of FS4 from start to finish, with all its trials and tribulations it brought along with it. If it was a real game I’d definitely be interested in playing it. It’s not just FS4, though – New Game! has been about Aoba’s growth as a character designer. I’ve enjoyed each and every volume of this series, which has provided quite an interesting insight into game development. It is more light-hearted in general, which I do like a lot.
After all is said and done, this volume provides an epilogue detailing what the characters are doing after the events of the manga. I think the most important thing to take away from that is a certain piece of information regarding Kou and Rin. A shame it is tucked away in a single text box in an epilogue, but I’m definitely happy for them.
No such information for other potential couples such as Aoba and Hifumi or Nene and Umiko, but I’m just gonna go ahead and make my own assumptions.
New Game! has been a lot of fun to read from start to finish. It has been an honour to experience Aoba’s growth over the course of these thirteen volumes. New Game! is definitely a series I am more than happy to consider among my all-time favourite manga. All in all, just an utterly superb series. Thank you Shotaro Tokuno for creating such an amazing manga.
Rory Muses 