Julius

Wow, did not expect an update on this so quickly! The Dark Prince arrives 1st December 2023:

The Dragon Quest Monsters game we only heard about like three weeks ago?! And with the Hero from IV?! AAAAAAAAAH

The little snippet we saw has been shared on their Twitter: Doesn't seem like it's going to get a dedicated YouTube release (I mean, it's only 26 seconds, so )

That Peach and Luigi's Mansion 2 "so, uh, yeah there'll be info at some point and they're coming next year"...was odd Switch is definitely winding down, reminds me of the last few 3DS announcements we had

AHHHHHHHHH IT'S HAPPENING Can finally get around to checking it out!

The reviews are flooding in! Looking good

woah, they started with the Pokémon DLC when it's normally not ever at these things maybe there is hope for Detective Pikachu 2 to turn up here after all?

ONE. MORE. DAY! Reviews should be dropping this afternoon.

Unfortunately, it does seem that it's been confirmed, but outside of the context of the trailer (which I guess only implies it). I've just done a little digging and here's what I've found. From an updated excerpt from the February 8th Q&A on the Bandai Namco site: I don't recall this answer from when I first posted about it (otherwise I think I would've mentioned it), so it seems they've updated it on the down-low since then. This page is the only official source I can find for the Japanese-only VO (the Nintendo site doesn't list VO languages, only text languages) on any of the sites you'd expect to get official details from, but the following question in the Q&A focusing on specs also then highlights the Japanese-only VO and text languages for the game. It's a shame, and while I'd love for them to update it with the English VO, the 'Answer has been updated to reflect comments from fans. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.' portion of the Q&A response seems very non-committal to that ever coming to fruition. I feel they would have said something completely nondescript instead of apologising if they even had the slightest inkling of getting around to it. But, I will say, stranger things have happened in updates before, so who knows? I'm kind of curious to hear what the English VO was like and hate random little pieces of gaming history like that falling into the aether with re-releases, so fingers crossed they can update it at some point! Inevitably like two years from now, but still, Namco gonna Namco

Trailer is now up on the NoA channel as of an hour ago - yeah, got to imagine it's a case of someone over at Bandai Namco SEA jumping the gun. I suggest this because even the linked website for the game doesn't yet have the release date of September 14th; imagine it'll be updating tomorrow. Hope whoever might have pulled the trigger early doesn't get in too much trouble

Available now for pre-load for those going the digital route...

Hmm, I wonder if this could be pretty DLC heavy? Wouldn't be shocked if TOTK gets DLC announced here (even if I think it'd be a bit too soon; I think plenty, myself included, are still playing through the game!). Then there's Splatoon 3. And the next wave of Mario Kart. Curious to see if they just throw out a bunch of ports too, like the long rumoured Wind Waker and Twilight Princess ports, or even ports of Prime 2 and Prime 3? Probably be more basic than the Prime Remastered effort, but might as well cash in if it's in the works I suppose? I also think this feels like a potential last big Direct for the Switch (disclaimer: we're going to be saying this about every Nintendo Direct we get from now up until we hear about the Switch successor, sorry), obviously depending on what Nintendo's plans actually are for its successor. Which I think begs the bigger question: do we finally see Metroid Prime 4 here? Or is that now just Schrödinger's Metroid Prime 4 until we finally learn about the Switch successor?

Developer interview with Hashino, Meguro and Soejima: Going to shamelessly steal the key points from elsewhere: Okay, travelling the world in a tank to gain supporters to become King sounds fairly insane. I'm so in. Just please don't come out in a busy period! Also, this being a simultaneous worldwide release - something SEGA and Atlus have been building towards and then doing pretty consistently over the last few years - gives me hope that Persona 6, when it does eventually drop in 2035 after they're done with Persona 5 spin-offs (I read the other day that Persona 5 as a series accounts for more than 50% of the Persona franchise's sales!), will drop everywhere all at once, rather than needing to wait over six months, as was the case with Personal 5.

The rumours were true! Seems like a chunky Direct, I was worried we were sleepwalking towards another Partner Showcase or Direct Mini. For anyone curious, there have been a couple of rumours floating around for this one, such as... I'm really curious to see if any of the many Atlus announcements from the Xbox Direct get Switch versions announced here. Oh, and it does seem like someone indeed jumped the gun on Baten Kaitos in SEA, seems almost certain to be shown off here. Anyways, now we have Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters (albeit not enough physical copies)...time for me to hop on the Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger ports/remasters/remakes train, let's see 'em Square!

So, uh, Clive's Invictus sword is on display in London for the next month: Just two days to go! And it's looking like reviews will be dropping tomorrow, so I'm very curious to see how it fares with reviewers!

A new trailer has gone live, and - at the time of writing - is only on the Bandai Namco SEA Channel. Wonder if someone has jumped the gun? Anyways: September 14th 2023. Shame about the delay from summer, but also...thank goodness, because June is stacked. Oh wait, it delayed to September, which is also stacked, so... I'll get to you when I get to you, Baten Kaitos!

Yeah, it really does look (and play) fantastic! It's also interesting because, for me, it's one of still only a handful of games that has felt next-gen in how far it is clearly pushing things; because of games like Ragnarök and Forbidden West ending up cross-gen, this feels like the first next-gen game that has the potential to make my PS5 spontaneously combust because it's trying to do so many exciting things. Compare that to Jedi Survivor, which wanted to do the same thing when I hopped from one ledge to another As for Platinum's involvement in supporting, yeah, it's kind of wild to me just how we all just accepted that a former DMC combat designer came in to direct this game and no-one suggested for a second that Platinum - somehow, someway - might have some involvement. It feels so, so obvious once you start playing the game! Similar goes for the Kingdom Hearts team, even with the scant time I've put into the first of those games playing with my younger brother a good while back now, it's super obvious. I was really worried going into the demo that the combat wouldn't be all that engaging, and by all means, like any other mainline FF (at least that I've played), I do get the sense that you could brute force your way through this game without needing to dive deep into the combat. And that's the beauty of it (and the NG+ Final Fantasy and Ultimaniac Modes), after watching others play the demo, I'm really excited to try some new things out once I get my hands on it! Yep, I've got the same rule in place for myself too, and at the moment it's hard at work deflecting the alluring potential of Starfield. I just need that game to release and I know I'll be fine, though, there's no way it releases in good enough shape to tide me over based on every Bethesda Softworks launch over the last decade As for it coming to PC - yes it is! I believe it was first announced for it when it was revealed way back in 2020, I think the splash screen was basically PLAYSTATION CONSOLE EXCLUSIVE *also available on PC so I imagine it'll probably be on PC next summer if VII Remake's deal is anything to go by? I just want to see the inevitable Jack mods Thanks! Yeah, if the demo is anything to go by, I'm sure I will I've been listening to the Battle Theme nonstop and I'm hooked, and I have no doubt while it feels like they've shown a lot they also have plenty hidden up their sleeves! It's interesting because I completely bounced off The Witcher 3 too, really seems to have drawn a lot of people in, and those that are into it end up loving it and are glued to it, whereas those that bounce off it REALLY bounce off it. Also that TV spot was awesome! THREE DAYS TO GOOOOOOOOOOOO

Here's an absolutely nothing teaser for the Netflix show, arriving 2024: And here's the main cast looking like the main cast... ...apart from maybe Sokka, who is kind of giving me the Ember Island player vibe, but hey it's still pretty close!

Yeah, I was thinking the same about X and XIII after I posted, so I agree. So either XIII (13 years ago) or IX (23 years ago)...yeah, either way I think it's safe to say it's been a minute since the last mainline FF which (at launch) was friendly to newcomers!

To clarify, my point was that they haven't played an FF before (so there was definite hesitation that they'd be into it) and came out loving the demo to the point that they're considering picking up the full game, so the demo pretty much singlehandedly won them over to the point that they're thinking about picking up their first FF nothing to do with the combat or anything like that carrying over and helping Anyways, that seems to be a sentiment I'm seeing a whole lot across the board from streams and reactions to the demo, it seems to be onboarding a whole lot of new people to the franchise and I don't even think it's just down to being more of an action game, but the story, characters, world and music (all the consistent bread and butter of FF imo) are doing a lot of heavy lifting for prospective newcomers too! It feels like the first mainline FF in a long time where you can just come in fresh and without the game having some sort of baggage. VII Remake, much as I love it, is a hard sell even though I loved it because newcomers are going to be lost with no VII experience to lean on. XV had it's multimedia mess which split it's story up. XIV, well, is an MMO and a daunting thing to get into now, but obviously was a mess with its original launch and took years for Yoshi-P and CBU III to fix. XIII was a trilogy. Which means XII...maybe was the last one you could come in fresh to? And even then: Ivalice. XI, is, well, another MMO. So, honestly, does that mean X was basically the last mainline FF serving as potential ideal entry for newcomers and a complete blank slate, that wasn't an MMO? I know there's X-2 and people love that game's combat, but I also don't see X-2 talked about as being essential to the X experience in the way the latter games in the XIII trilogy are often talked about as essential to enjoying XIII more Anyway, point is: wild that the game's winning so many new people over with its demo (can't remember the last time I saw a demo have this sort of impact), and kind of wild it's the first blank slate the series has had in a super long time. Hopefully it crushes and we get to see Yoshi-P and CBU III continue the good work

Good stuff. No real surprise I don't think, I know they've said before they want the game in a state printed on disc where a Day 1 Patch won't be required, but this is also Yoshi-P and CBU III we're talking about; I haven't played XIV, but from the Live Letters to the short delays to touch up cutscenes here and there, I get the feeling that they're kind of perfectionists, so even if not a Day 1 Patch, a Week 1 Patch seemed all but inevitable, because I'd bet a lot of Gil that they'd been working on an update anyways in the 2-3 months since the game went gold. Motion blur options is the main one for me, I said it in my thoughts on the demo but the frame rate and motion just felt a little disorienting at times (I never think the off-centred over-the-shoulder camera works great when those are lagging) as I'm super sensitive to those things when I first play most games before I adapt after a few hours/a second session. Cannot wait until Thursday, I convinced a friend to try the demo and he loved it (no previous FF experience). Trying to get two of my other friends to try it out too. I'm so ready for this game. The hype is palpable; the hype is real

Fire Emblem [The Blazing Blade] lands on NSO GBA next week!

So apparently SEGA Korea actually revealed that, unsurprisingly, this is also coming to PS4, PS5, and Steam...3 days ago! No surprises there, but still, no Switch again. Oh man they're 100% setting people up for the double dip a year after launch, huh? Or maybe they're waiting for the Switch successor to be announced to pop it on there exclusively... Honestly, when the trailer started I was like "uh, is this an SMT continuation?" because it looked way more SMT than it did Project Re:Fantasy or Persona for me Which, honestly, is a bit of a shame! I thought the concept art looked great from when Re:Fantasy was announced waaaaaaaaaay back when, would've loved a more pure medieval RPG rather than, well, the modern twist that we seem to get everything with Atlus these days, but

Here's the lineup for June's PS+ Extra and Premium additions, available from 20th June: As mentioned in the blog post, we also have the first details on PS5 game streaming. And lastly, this month's PS Classics were mentioned in the PlayStation All Access video covering this month's PS+ updates: There was also mention of Coded Soul in a tweet by PSUK, which has since been deleted.

Previews have shadow dropped following some demos behind closed doors at Summer Game Fest: Kind of crazy that this is out in two and a half months and we've seen virtually nothing, but the customisation looks great!