Julius

Gameplay featuring the first look (listen?) of the English VA has been released at Anime Expo, and sounds great! Seriously, please don't release too close to VII Rebirth...

Kind of? It's certainly not an open world in the same way that XV was, or how games like Zelda BotW/TotK, Ghost of Tsushima, Skyrim, etc., are, but it's also not linear in the way XIII was (from my understanding of the game from documentary-style videos and just general chit chat about it). There are certain linear sections earlier on to ease you into the game's flow or to lead into key story beats, but I think it's most comparable to something like Dragon Quest XI, and would describe both as having wider zones rather than an open world (XV)/zone (something like Xenoblade) structure. There is a world map to access locations from, with local maps clearly defined in their borders, with some key landmarks peppered into a zone, and oftentimes open stretches to challenge the local fauna in. For reference – Dragon Quest XI (world/local maps): Final Fantasy XVI (world/local maps): Hope that helps there's a demo available (with save transfer to the full game) which is roughly 2 hours long and I think gives a great taste of the game, would definitely recommend checking it out for yourself if you get the chance!

Teaser for Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2: Still scheduled as Fall 2023...

A new trailer for Pluto, and I think it looks pretty incredible: I cancelled my Netflix subscription a few months back, and will absolutely be returning for this. They've announced that it will be released in 8 episodes at 60 minutes apiece – I've put off reading the manga to experience it this way first, but my understanding is that that'll mean we're getting one entire volume adapted per episode. That's freaking awesome. Key staff/involvement... Just want to highlight that Yugo Kanno is doing the OST. I've not watched JoJo's still - somehow, I honestly don't know how that's happened - but yeah, Giorno's Theme bangs, and that little burst of a choir we get at the end of this trailer has me super excited to hear what else he's got planned for the music. Really hope this lives up to the hype of its source material!

Poster collection dropping next year:

Physical or digital? Digital, I have no idea. Square Enix have started to improve somewhat when it comes to releasing their OSTs digitally, but I still think VII Remake and XIV expansions took a good while before seeing their OSTs made available. As for physical... ...I believe it releases next month (well, this month now! How is it already July?!) I've got myself down for the Ultimate Edition also considering picking up the Torgal plush (the pup, not the big boy, because...money? And also size. Probably. Yeah let's say that), no idea what I'd do with a plush buuuuuuuut idk, it's calling to me I've not made any progress since my last post (I will this weekend though, I swear!!) but, honestly, it feels like a really solid foundation for more. Whether that's in the form of some DLC or a sequel, I'm not sure, but I remember Yoshi-P in the past saying he'll judge the game's success after 18 months, not it's first weekend, so...fingers crossed? Look forward to reading your thoughts *goes back to Valisthea*

Another Dune: Part Two trailer: (also, agree with all the above Across the Spider-Verse love. Been to see it twice, loved it twice)

Game has been bumped up from Autumn/Fall...to July 27th! Overview trailer:

... Welp, there it is. My wallet! (jk I'm excited as all heck for this )

Comunicado oficial:

Yeah, I'm going to disagree, because I think there's a lot of context being missed here – I do think it's a very good result. Final Fantasy VII Remake sold 3.5 million copies on an install base of 110+ million consoles in 3 days, and that's with arguably the most hype and marketing going into an FF, just due to its nature as a remake of the best-selling game in the series. By contrast, XV had been around F O R E V E R. XVI did 3 million in (less than a week? Both are going to be heavily frontloaded so I don't think it matters if it's a week or over a weekend for either, VII Remake took another 4 months after release to work its way up 1.5 million units to 5 million units sold) on a console which had just over 38 million units sold per their last shareholder's meeting. That's roughly an install rate of 3.1% for VII Remake on PS4 at launch compared with 7.9% for XVI on PS5 at launch. That's more than double. That seems very good to me. I think the better comparison is XV as a unique new entry (I mean, besides all its baggage, which I'll come back to), which sold 5 million copies in November 2016 at opening on a console which was at 43.5 million units sold in June 2016 and 53.4 million units sold by January 2017 (can't find a figure in-between to split the difference, unfortunately). Now I appreciate holiday sales in a calendar Q4 typically dwarf Q3, so let's say that of the 10 million sold between June 2016 and January 2017, roughly 70% were sold at Christmas – so an additional 3 million units by the time of XV's launch. That's an install rate of 10.8% if we say roughly 46.5 million units were in the wild at that point - and from that perspective I think it could be said that XVI hasn't quite performed as well. BUT! That's also across Xbox. XVI is exclusive. Now I don't think it makes an insane difference (I'd guess Xbox were probably 500k to 1 million of those sales at launch, at best), but it is worth mentioning. As for its legs, XVI has reviewed much better than XV did, hasn't been set up with loosey goosey promises of DLC in mind from launch, and doesn't have all of the baggage that XV comes with in terms of supplementary material which could easily put off newcomers (it's one of the reasons I've been able to put if off for so long). I'm not saying XVI will surpass XV in sales as a fact, but XVI has the benefit of word of mouth, better reviews, and an absolutely excellent demo to hook people in. It's also launched in one of the busiest Junes in gaming in recent memory (we've had Jedi Survivor, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV and Street Fighter 6 all release in a 2 month timeframe), and across those games, I'd wager there's an overlap in interest in XVI. Heck, I don't even think @drahkon has dug in yet because he's busy living Diablo IV (no rush by the way, of course!), and I know that's at least one more person who will play the game. It's just such a (surprisingly) busy period for games right now, we've had 4 games that'll shown up as genuine GOTY nominees at the end of the year release in an 8 week window. But, releasing in June gives them all time (well, besides Zelda) to reduce in price pretty noticeably by the holiday sales period - not to mention deals like on Black Friday - so I think it's well positioned as things stand. And it'll very likely get a decent-to-good PC port, given how CBU III function, which we at least know is on the way. I don't think these numbers are setting the world alight, but these aren't numbers to scoff at in the slightest, or cause for concern either. It has a higher attach rate than VII Remake did at its launch, which is insane. Really insane. I don't think it makes these numbers without the demo, honestly. Anyways, most other big third party companies would kill to have a 3+ million opening week, which S-E seem to have all but guaranteed for their AAA Final Fantasy launches as of late. I feel like judgement here is easily clouded by first party figures from Nintendo and PlayStation. I do genuinely wonder if part of this is a communication issue - they've tried in their marketing to say that this is a standalone adventure, but being the 16th entry, anecdotally, I've found it just hasn't worked. I've talked to my own friends about FF in the past (I'm the only one in my group who has a varied palette when it comes to games, and especially JRPGs) and made it crystal clear that the mainline games are standalone unless there's a reason to think otherwise in the title (like with X-2), and I still had to explain - after getting one of them to try (and fall in love with) the demo - to another friend that they should try the demo, and he thought it was the 16th game in a continuous series rather than a standalone. So I had to explain it again, having done so before. I seriously think the numbers and the name being around for so long might be putting some people off. Anyways, closing statement: if I remember right, XV is at over 10 million copies sold in total, or was at some point last year. I wouldn't be totally shocked if XVI gets close to that when all is said and done. At the very least, from what I've played so far, I think it would deserve it.

As we already know (no-one forgot, and totally not me ), Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is coming to Switch and Steam on 18th August. What we didn't know was that it's also destined to land on PlayStation and Xbox "shortly after":

Paging @drahkon for next month's supposed Essentials games! As always, per billbil-kun: a super light-hearted month as we head into the summer, then

The game has shipped and digitally sold 3 million copies! Excellent initial figures for a third party exclusive I feel, and I'm sure that demo and a likely decreasing price in the coming months is going to shore it up with more sales. It being a standalone title compared to VII Remake makes me also think it's in a good position to continue to onboard newcomers, as myself and others will surely be pointing at XVI when people ask how to get into the series (with a modern entry)!

Four more games have been added for the Mega Drive/Genesis:

I'll save more complete thoughts for once I've completed it, but this genuinely could be in with a shout at being my personal GOTY over Tears of the Kingdom. I'm about halfway through (I love that there's an accurate % completion for the main story available from the PS5 home screen! Not to mention the changing backgrounds!). I'm just going to say it: I loved Ragnarök last year, but what God of War has lacked in epicness since its reboot, Final Fantasy XVI is carrying the torch on. The music. The boss fights. The story. The gorgeously animated pre-rendered cutscenes, which at times are interspersed between in-engine cutscenes! It's the new definition of a game being considered "epic" for me, it's crazy what they've done. I'm digging into as much lore as I can (as mentioned before, ATL needs to now become an industry standard in lore-heavy story-based games), and the combat is just incredible, this might be my favourite action JRPG, and that's even considering NieR Automata, which I loved for its combat (I mean, Platinum doing Platinum things I suppose!). Totally agree with you @Choze, I think the XIV/MMO inspiration is super on the nose here – and there's no real reason it shouldn't be, it's generally very good when you notice the carryover. I felt like Xenoblade Chronicles was very MMO-like as well, and so things line zones, a main hub, the way levels are laid out, heck even going so far as some of telegraphing attacks in a similar way in some boss battles with how the floor lights up! All works. Only thing that's not working for me so far in this regard, and where the game definitely also feels like an MMO, is in most of its side quests. I've heard that they get better towards the end, but they're very fetch-questy as things stand, so again, basically Xenoblade. Only other real negative I have is just the Performance Mode still not being fixed (it's a really solid 60 fps in combat, but in combat only, weirdly, which is very jarring, and it makes the world look like mush) and not having that motion blur toggle out, so I've been playing in Quality Mode to at least not get that queezy feeling every time I play. I'm sure there's going to be conversation about diversity and the handling of a core element of the story (Bearers). Look, I'm mixed race, and I'm all for inclusion, but I don't think every single story/game/whatever NEEDS representation. It's awesome when it happens naturally, but I'm so tired of it being considered a need; look, it's a fantasy-based game made by Japanese devs who aren't necessarily going to be as exposed to different cultures in the same way the West are, and heck, I don't think I've seen any Asians in this game so far in the same way I haven't seen any dark-skinned black people (jury's out on the people of Dhalmek I guess). I also think, just considering how the Bearers are presented in this game, that would've been a very slippery slope to navigate. I've also read that the writer of this story, who did A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, maybe wasn't the best writer on XIV either when it came to his treatment of some characters? So I don't know how this game goes, but if we end up with a sequel/spin-off/XVII being worked on by CBU III again, would be really curious to see what the more trusted writers from that team can do (to be clear: I've loved this story so far, I guess I'm talking more to the potential of an even greater story). And look, I don't know how this game ends, so unless the game ends with the entire world blowing up? I could see this getting a sequel. The combat and lore is simply too good and rich to be tossed aside. I'd love more. I know I'm going to want more when it's over. Anyways: it's still the horniest FF. It's still on track to be my favourite FF soundtrack, or definitely up there. It's probably going to end up being considered the best modern FF, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of my favourites when all is said and done. It's so good it's making me seriously consider picking up and getting into XIV after I finish it. I'm not joking. It's. Just. That. Good!

Might as well throw my hat in the ring Name: Nintendo Switch Two (spelt out, not as a number) Release: November 2024 Price: £349.99 Features (& marketing): • it's still a hybrid console, with detachable Joy-Cons. You'll be able to use old Joy-Cons but, because the base unit will be a bit larger than the standard Switch and OLED (8" screen?), there'll be a case made available which serves as something of an adaptor. Because money: if they're going to let you use old Joy-Cons, you'll be damn sure they'll find a way to make some money from it. Hence the slightly bigger screen and adapter case. • Full HD 1920 x 1080 handheld, upscaled 4K when docked. • customisation and wallpapers is going to be in their marketing, because it's nonexistent on the Switch and I refuse to believe that Nintendo are stupid enough to have held back but for any reason other than to make it a selling point for the Switch's successor. The kickstand will be slightly larger than it is on the OLED, and will be removable to be replaced with a whole host of kickstand designs, similar to 3DS faceplates. • launch colours will be blue, red, and black (not to be confused with the dark grey of the Switch). Special editions of Metroid Prime 4 - available from launch - will include an exclusive Metroid Prime 4 kickstand. The docks and backs of the consoles will match the colour of the main unit. • the marketing noise we'll grow to love will be two clicks in succession with a slight overlap, compared with the Switch's one. This is probably the only thing I think Nintendo should actually do if the next console is a true Switch successor, it's too easy a differentiator to miss out on when it comes to marketing. • the logo will basically be the Switch logo, except there'll be more of a gap between the Joy-Cons to have it printed to say 'T W O', and it won't say 'Nintendo Switch' (because they're that confident in how well the Switch was branded and marketed) underneath, but will bring back the circled Nintendo logo. So pair of Joy-Cons, 'T W O' in the middle, circled Nintendo logo at bottom of the back. I wanted to be cute and say you just do the current logo on its side because it kind of looks like a 2, but nah, that's too logical for Nintendo. • the console will be fully backwards compatible with the Switch, and yes, online games and all our accounts will carry over. As President Shuntaro Furukawa sort of gets at here: • they'll mention that they're hard at work on the next set of online features, but will ask us to wait a bit longer, so NSO at launch is as it will be on the Switch when the new console is announced. Nintendo Switch Online will expand to include GameCube games in September 2025. • this is because the main change in terms of services will be a complete eShop overhaul. I don't know about you guys, but I think the Switch eShop is really poorly curated, and I think this is something they'll have worked on. There'll be a jukebox feature in the eShop to choose from remixes of your favourite classic eShop tunes. • Metroid Prime 4 will be a launch title. • the branding colours will be inverted: we'll go from white on red to red on white. • in talking about the new Joy-Cons - which will include a proper D-Pad this time, as will the new Pro controller - they won't directly say "we've fixed the Joy-Con drift!", but will talk about how they've put in R&D to make it more durable, used new materials, etc. I give it three weeks after launch before DriftConGate becomes a thing, as people stress test this and say it patently doesn't work (but in some cases it genuinely won't). • analogue triggers baby • you can feel two more ice cubes in the slightly larger new Joy-Cons. Oh, and they'll be called Joy-Cons Plus because of the new D-Pad. The buttons will feel nicer, more in line with the 3DS than the flat buttons we have currently. I didn't want to jump on the idea myself, but @Dcubed, I do love your idea of a bendable screen to use for dual-screen gaming and local versus. If something like that happens I say call it the Switch Duo (clearly a successor to the Switch and speaks to the functionality) and you're golden! So obviously they'll call it the Switch On/Off instead knowing Ninty

Just realised that this was the first time we'd actually seen footage of gameplay for this Collection, which is kind of wild... ...and also really smart. I'd imagine the Switch version is going to be the "weakest" version in terms of technical performance (considering the age of these games I'm not saying it'll struggle, I'm just saying MGS3, even in the Bluepoint remasters, dropped some frames back on the PS3 with certain weapons), so this sets the bar as low as it reasonably can be for the performance of the game. Also, big get to have them save the date for the Direct too, even if it made its appearance at PlayStation last month seem pretty lacklustre. Heck, maybe that's why they did it? Backdoor. Shady. Deals.

And it is done, even upgraded to the Deluxe Edition just for the pretty box Time to see what this install size and time is like!

Royal Mail have pulled off an almighty blunder and so despite being in, they've not delivered. So, naturally, I'm now in an Uber on my way to my nearest GAME to pick up a copy in-person...which I don't think I've done for any game since I picked up my Switch over 4 years ago. But XVI can't wait another day, so I'm just doing what must be done

Into. My. Freaking. Veins. All of the art I've seen so far for XVI has been beautiful, and I honestly think it's some of the nicest we've seen for modern FF. Will absolutely buy an art book if/when one arrives. My copy got dispatched earlier today, and tracking is saying that it's on course to arrive tomorrow morning. Will get it installing while I work and then plan to dive in head first as soon as I finish!

Honestly, I thought the exact same thing! I spent the first half of the trailer waiting for a wipe transition to new and improved HD that never came and then was like 'huh, Returns? So this 3DS-lookin' mess is the sequel¿?'

Yoko Shimomura has announced her return as composer for the remake!

Digital Foundry tech review is absolutely glowing: Currently sitting at an 88 on Metacritic and a 90 on Opencritic, which is super exciting to see! I never put too much stock in review aggregation other than to get a general idea of what the general consensus will probably end up being (I'd rather make up my own mind based on my own time with the game!), but man, that's a well-reviewing game if I've ever seen one!

A Disney Galley for Mando S3 has just been announced, and will be dropping next Wednesday (28th): Phil Tippett hype!