CORE OF THE ORIENT

Despite its Soviet propaganda aesthetic, The Tomorrow Children has a distinctly Japanese influence: it’s there in the colossal Gojira-esque monsters, but also in the way it promotes the idea that the hardest workers will earn the greatest rewards. There may even be something of the autobiographical about it. Lead designer Dylan Cuthbert did, after all, leave Britain as a teenager to work with Nintendo in Japan – might the early confusion and awkwardness of communication reflect the challenges of a second language and a new country? The striking image of a lone reflection in the window of a train carriage on the initial loading screen certainly hints at the solitude of someone starting a fresh life in unfamiliar surroundings.