Spotted this on r/shmups. I’m highly invested in Aleste Branch news, so it grabbed my attention!

Transcript (via Google Translate):

[Music] Happy New Year, M2 Co., Ltd. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the people who have enjoyed the various reprints of M2 developments over the past 10 years.

The 2025 New Year’s card you are looking at was drawn by Shohei Sato, also known as Haruhata, who was in charge of the new illustrations for Dodonpa Daioujo Rinne Tensei, and features the main characters of the original new work Aleste Branch in the M2 Shot Trigger series.

Thank you, Aha-san.

So, this is an update on the development status of Aleste Branch.

The game part of the development is almost complete.

Please take a look at the picture. It is in the mountains. As you can see, the game is complete and we are currently working on implementing it for various hardware. The content is perfect, so don’t worry, I look forward to seeing you guys this year. [Laughs]

Also, Night Striker Gear. This work, which was revealed during the Zuta Night live broadcast last November, is a completely new work in the Night Striker series made by M2. It is a reprint of Operation Night Strikers, commonly known as Ost, Operation Wolf, etc., which are also scheduled to be released on Steam. This work will be released by Fuji-sama. It is scheduled to be released in 2025. Development is of course handled by M2. If you register your wishlist on the Steam store, you will receive notifications not only for the latest information on Ost, but also when the Steam store page for Night Striker Gear is released.

If you haven’t registered your wishlist yet, please register your wishlist now. And of course, the development of the music by Director Uchi is still ongoing. This song will be a book.

[Music]

Happy New Year. This is Mominoki, who is putting together the transcriptions. Last year, including the broadcast, we were unable to provide you with much new information. However, I will be working on the next project with the team that worked on Dodonpa Daioujou Rinne Tensei, and I have also been working on other projects, so I think we will have a lot of information this year. I think there will be many opportunities to announce things this year, so I hope you will look forward to it. Once the situation is ready, I would like to give you all the latest information directly on the Mz Shot Trigger live broadcast, so if you are interested, please subscribe to the channel now. Thank you for your continued support of M2 Co., Ltd. this year.