Julius

Yeah, I'd definitely second what @Happenstance said and recommend Brotherhood -- for me it's comfortably in my three favourite anime series. I haven't watched all of the original Fullmetal Alchemist, but it does take a bit more time with setting things up...before they ran out of material and started with the filler/going their own way with the anime. I say this just in case you don't gel with FMA, because FMA:B is a faithful adaptation made after the manga was completed, so they're two shows which start in the same place, have a lot of overlap in cast, but diverge pretty noticeably at a point. If you ever do want to check out Brotherhood, I think it moved from Netflix to Funimation just a few months back. Still, curious to hear you get on with it! I should probably get back to the original series at some point

Yeah, got to agree with you there. It doesn't exactly weaken the first game, but another arrow in the quiver in this situation can only be a good thing, I think. That we saw a settlement in the September State of Play trailer gives me confidence with this, though, and it makes me hope for another two or three more! Total aside, not related to the gameplay but rather the story: I'm not a fan of how they've come out and said it's a duology rather than a trilogy ahead of release, as I think we all assumed would be the case. Because now I feel like the ending is going to be pretty predictable, whereas if we went into this game expecting a trilogy and realised it was only a duology once the credits rolled, it would've been much more exciting I think. I feel like a relatively easy way they could have kept it fresh, based purely on what we've seen in the trailers but taken a bit further, is to just throw Hyrule Castle so high that certain parts of the map are in an eclipsed state and are much cooler -- for example, imagine if snow spread down into the Gerudo desert because of this, which would change so much of the game's economy (for example, certain fruit might not be able to grow there anymore), and most importantly it would just visibly look different, as well as give a reason to see characters crop up elsewhere (items to change the weather, which given the rain situation in the first game I think should be coming anyways, could also play into this). Or they could've just basically nuked Hyrule when the castle went up into the sky I guess, like how Elden Ring clearly has chunks of castles and stuff just sticking out of the ground. We'll see, but yeah, based on what we've seen so far I'm a bit nervous. Adding new sections through verticality with the underground and sky is awesome, but if the ground level looks essentially the same just with different enemy compositions and maybe another couple of towns, I don't think that's enough of a shift, because I could see it forcing me down the critical path. It's a tricky one, and I don't envy them. Obviously a lot of this is based on pretty short trailers for a massive open world, so fingers crossed it's just a case of them not showing us those changes yet!

The official box art for the game has been revealed: That's Square Enix box art alright. The stitched together character portraits form Chaos.

Fulfillment update is coming on Monday, for those who have got Analogue Pocket pre-orders in recently: Fingers crossed mine comes sonnet rather than later, but yeah, got enough elsewhere to keep me busy just in case!

If this year was the Year of 9's, next year - on paper, at this moment in time - has a seriously high chance of being the Year of 10's, and one of the greatest years in gaming. So I'm hyped. For me there's a lot I'm looking forward to, but next year I want to focus mainly on knocking games off of my shelves because I've got too many that I haven't yet played, and to save this list from getting too long I'll focus on the titles I'll be picking up Day 1, no questions asked, which I would choose over other games: Elden Ring I'm still relatively new to From Software's Soulsbornekiroring games, but I had a great time with both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and so I'm hyped to go into one of these games fully blind and at the onset of the zeitgeist. Biggest challenge for me that I foresee is that I've played their two oldest games that are like this, so I imagine this will be a lot faster paced when it comes to boss fights. This game is also the reason you won't see Horizon on my list - I'm excited by it, but there's no way I'm risking burnout on open world games by playing that in the week leading up to Elden Ring. Gran Turismo 7 is a week later too, so I guess that's not getting on this list either. Pokémon Legends: Arceus I'm cautiously optimistic on this one, but coming off the back of the nostalgia trip that was Brilliant Diamond - which is the most I've engaged with a Pokémon game in a very long time, and I had a whole lot of fun with it - I definitely have the appetite for another Pokémon game, and so how I'm going to stave that off until Arceus I'm not quite sure. Looking forward to seeing the new evolutions and Hisuian forms, and obviously to see how well Game Freak's first "open world" turns out. God of War Ragnarök Like others, I loved the 2018 game, and I can't wait to see how the story pans out, but also for any new mechanics (or weapons) that SSM might be keeping to themselves. This is probably the one I'm most confident about turning out well, because it doesn't seem to be diverging from what we see in GoW 2018 (which is a good thing, because it doesn't need to!). Starfield I've also yet to play a Bethesda game (I won't lie, I am very tempted to dive into Skyrim), but this has spoken to me since before it was announced at E3, and was only a rumour. Something about this project is just gripping to me, I guess I'm kind of hoping to see the strengths of space exploration seen in a game like No Man's Sky combined with the RPG nous of Bethesda Game Studios. Probably the biggest reason I'm going to be picking up a Series X next year. The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I know there's a decent chance it'll slip into 2023, but right now it's slated for 2022, which means I'm going to be holding onto some of my work holidays for next year until we either see this delayed or it gets a 2022 release date, because I can't wait to just lose some days to exploring Hyrule again. I was late to the party in getting a Switch and playing Breath of the Wild, and despite it having glaring areas to improve in, I couldn't be more onboard, I loved my experience with that game. To be frank, though, this is also the one which I think could have the toughest time living up to expectations -- how do you keep that sense of exploration fresh this time around, when we're already intimately familiar with the map? I had hoped Link would be relegated to the underground and that Zelda would be playable above ground, with us rebuilding Hyrule, seeing a bunch more settlements, and getting to use her magic, but the trailers so far seem to point to anything but that happening. Granblue Fantasy Relink I've been following the development of this game for a few years now, and I'm super excited to see what Cygames has in store for us with their first console RPG. For those that don't know, Granblue Fantasy is a huuuuuuge mobile game in Japan, and has drawn many comparisons to Final Fantasy games of old (having the same composer and character designer probably helps that somewhat!), so assuming this does release in 2022, I have high hopes and expectations for it. At the very least, it looks stunning! Omori I've heard too many good things from those who played it on PC to not be super excited about it. Now, in terms of things that don't have a 2022 release date attached, but I'm bullish about releasing next year... Final Fantasy XVI Why we haven't seen this game in 2021 I'm not sure, but next year is the 35th anniversary for the series, and both Stranger of Paradise and Forspoken are scheduled to release in the first six months of 2022 -- barring any significant delays, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to piece together when they're hoping to release XVI. If you need a reason to be excited beyond the trailer we had last year, look at the love XIV and Endwalker is getting, and think of what Creative Business Unit III could achieve in a single player game. Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters - ON CONSOLE For years I have been yammering on and on around here about wanting the first six Final Fantasy games to be brought to modern platforms, and well -- the gaming gods heard me, decided I wasn't specific enough, threw a monkey's paw middle finger my way, and put them up on Steam and mobile. Not. This. Time. It's happening in 2022, on modern consoles, or so help me Gilgamesh! It's the 35th anniversary for the franchise and they have put so much more effort and time into this than their other PC ports of beloved games (I'm sorry Chrono Trigger). They know the hunger is there for it to happen. It would be one of the most idiotic moves made by Square Enix in years if it doesn't happen. Do it you cowards.

First trailer for How I Met Your Father... ...yeah, I think I'm good.

Been a little while since I've updated with casting news for the Netflix live-action adaptation, but with yesterday's announcements it's time to dig in. Firstly, last month on the 16th, there were three additional castings that were made official at the time production started for the show: From left to right we've got Paul-Sun Hyung Lee cast as Uncle Iroh, Lim Say Kiu cast as Gyatso, and Ken Leung cast as Commander Zhao. There were some details on production also included in this Deadline article which I thought were cool to hear about. Also wanted to share this clip of Hyung Lee getting emotional over how this cast is great for representation and inclusion, and I agree - think they've done a great job with the casting! And speaking of casting, there's the news we got yesterday: In case that image ever goes down, from left to right and top to bottom: Elizabeth Yu has been cast as Azula, Maria Zhang has been cast as Suki, Tamlyn Tomita has been cast as Yukari, Yvonne Chapman has been cast as Avatar Kyoshi, and Casey Camp-Horinek has been cast as Gran Gran. For anyone else wondering who the heck Yukari is, she's an original character for the Netflix live-action adaptation of the show -- she's Suki's mother, as well as the mayor of Kyoshi Island. In the original show the mayor was male and had no relation to Yuki. I'll be honest, this is a change which makes me a little nervous? What was so cool about the Kyoshi Warriors was that they were strong and independent characters, and I always got the sense that they'd all gone through some sense of loss; off the top of my head I don't think Suki ever mentions her parents in the original show, so I kind of assumed that like a lot of the other characters in the show that she was either an orphan or separated. Either way, I just don't want her to be asking for permission from her mother to help Team Avatar, coming to loggerheads with her over their difference in opinion, before she either runs away or Aang and the team somehow prove themselves, and so her mother is now happy for Yuki to support them/be friends with them/whatever. Oh and also: Netflix just better see this through, unlike how they treated their Cowboy Bebop adaptation. At the very least they've got the castings spot on so far from my point of view.

Five SEGA Mega Drive games being added today.

Found the original Famitsu scans, as expected the work shown above is only for select scenes: Famitsu's cover and content is laden with the Pixel Remasters this month for the series' 34th anniversary, if anyone's wondering why this image has come from Famitsu. The aim for the Pixel Remasters was to have them all available by the end of 2021, right? Or at least, VI still shows as being scheduled for release in 2021 on Steam...wonder if we'll hear anything about it on the day of the anniversary (Saturday)? Apparently the Famitsu article says it's coming "this winter", so I guess don't expect a shadow drop or it to actually release this side of the New Year

So, uh...VI is getting a bit of a facelift in its Pixel Remaster! Two new screenshots from Famitsu: Almost like they've tried to make it look something like Octopath, which is to say it looks fantastic. You better not take all of next to announce this is coming to other platforms in 2022 for the 35th anniversary, Square. I swear to Gilgamesh.

A new trailer with a focus on the Machines of the Forbidden West:

A heads-up to everyone interested in this game: the Network Test has been datamined and over 3000 audio files from the game are now out there. Naturally, that means a lot of the story is now out in the wild too. Thought I'd share because I wouldn't be surprised if we unfortunately see a lot of videos and articles in the next two months spoiling a lot of these details, so take care in avoiding spoilers.

There's an interview up on the official Ubisoft site from three developers on the project, here. What an underwhelming way to announce this remake: "there you go, it's happening, please be excited."

Solid showing. The three games I have my eyes on: Sea of Stars - I remembering seeing this game back around the time it landed on Kickstarter, I remember reading that Yasunori Mitsuda came on board to compose, and I remember that I then heard virtually nothing after that. The Chrono Trigger influence is real, and boy am I here for it. Hope this shows Tokyo RPG Factory how influence is done! But it's still so far away Omori - I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw this pop up late last year in a handful of GOTY 2020 lists, and was immediately intrigued because they hadn't seen anyone really talking about it? I've steered clear of the game since - as apparently it's got a great but easy to spoil story - but have been patiently waiting on this, so yeah. Surprised it wasn't a shadow drop, but I'm happy it wasn't -- got enough games on my plate right now as it is! Spring 2022? Day 1. Endling - Extinction is Forever - think we're going to get an increasing number of games and films over the coming years which are going to be screaming at the top of their lungs about climate change, but this looks to be one of them. Very curious about the little they showed of it here, and we don't have to wait long as it's another Spring 2022 title. Will 2022 finally be the year Julius plays indie games on his Switch? Stay tuned to find out!

Just got back from No Way Home... Absolutely needs a second watch, though heading into the city centre to watch this on opening night is about as much as a risk as I'm willing to take -- might just need to wait until after the New Year once it's calmed down a lot, or wait for the home release. Go see this as soon as possible - before it gets spoiled for you - is my recommendation.

Guerrilla have shared screenshots of the PS4 version of the game: Now, I'd assume it's running on the PS4 Pro, but it still looks to be a noticeable step up from Zero Dawn, even if it's a clear step down from the PS5 version. Still looks great!

First details on Makoto Shinkai's next film, Suzume no Tojimari (Suzume Locking Up The Doors), has been scheduled for a Fall 2022 release in Japan. Here's a Shinkai-ass looking poster for it! Doesn't sound like a romance based on that, but we'll see. This is Shinkai now time to wait to hear about Radwimps doing a song for it!

Some new patents may have just shed some more light on mechanics we've seen in the trailers for the game so far. Even though we've seen these mechanics before, these patents suggest that they might be more fleshed out than they originally appeared, so I'll throw them in spoiler tags for now. Courtesy of Gamereactor: Very interesting stuff, though I'm never a fan of patenting mechanics, because it just inhibits the progress of creativity and innovation

I've been checking daily to see if I can book an appointment (waiting for the booking site to open up to those 18+), and it finally updated this morning. Got it booked for 4th January that'll be in the middle of my break for Christmas anyways, so I've got recovery time covered (well, I hope!). Could've got it on the 3rd, but, well, Mondays... I didn't have any crazy reactions to either of the first two jabs: first jab was a slight fever for a couple of hours which went down after a quick nap, some paracetamol, and a lot of water; second jab I didn't notice any reaction to be honest. Hoping that this booster jab isn't too bad, obviously, but worst case scenario I'll just bundle myself up in front of the TV and watch some films

Yeah, I finally got around to starting Season 5 a few days ago now the dub is finished (the dub is dumb fun and not half bad). I got two and a half episodes in, and it is not clicking at all, a lot of it for the reasons that you mentioned. I think what really hurts the start of their seasons - specifically Season 4 and Season 5 - is that the first episode or so is 90% "filler", but even calling it that is generous in my eyes. "Filler" in most cases with big anime shows historically is down to a necessity to stretch the existing content in the manga out as far as you can, and then making filler content to fill the gaps as they wait until they have enough manga material to adapt. This isn't at all the case with My Hero: last year when I caught up on Season 4 and read until I was up-to-date with the manga, even going so far as to read new chapters weekly for a while (because there was a two month stretch where it was "oh holy crap" moments every week), I'm confident in saying that there was at least enough material to take us up to the halfway point of what would be Season 6 in the anime, maybe even a bit further. Personally, I don't mind having things calm down towards the end of the season to accommodate character focus and growth...but it just feels so contrived in My Hero. I've read the manga, we've seen it in the trailers, the first actual arc in Season 5 is a training course for 1-A vs 1-B, so whose bright idea was it for the filler opening episode where we're given a character card every five seconds to be another - very low budget - training course? I know I haven't got to any meaty action scenes yet, but I feel like I can already see the cut corners in the animation like I could in Season 4, which was so much weaker than Season 3, which was weaker than Season 2. I just think it started getting adapted at the wrong time, and was caught between the old shounen format and what we've seen in the awesome handling of Demon Slayer: movies which are actually canonical, seasons not being longer than they need to be, taking their time and not coming out with annual seasons just for the sake of it. Mugen Train was phenomenal, and as much as I love the climax of MHA Season 3, imagine if that had been given the same love and care that Demon Slayer has clearly been in the receiving end of? Oh, and let's not forget my biggest pet peeve: the fact that everything that's happened so far has happened in their first year at U.A.! I'm sure I'll carry on with it, but yeah, rough start I just hope they haven't messed up one of my favourite moments in the manga so far, which I imagine is probably towards the end of this season. That'll keep me going, hopefully!

It's been five days, and Hisuian Voltorb is already the superior Voltorb.

Hey Alexa, play the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme. Whoops.

Well, I got one. Just waiting for that dreaded email to say when! Was on an emergency meeting which started when I was supposed to finish at 15:30, so stepped away for 2 seconds because "someone was at the door" and got in the queue. Not auto-filling payment details was a bit of a pain, but otherwise relatively smooth. Still waiting on that confirmation email, mind...anyone else get lucky? EDIT: well, confirmation email get, but no mention of when to expect it. Going off what I've seen elsewhere I doubt I'll be part of the January shipments, but like I said before, don't mind waiting as I'm in no real rush

Square Enix have announced a livestream of the game to take place on December 18th at 19:00 JST (10:00 GMT) to commemorate the franchise's 34th birthday. Source: Gematsu

Yeah, unfortunately like all of the other announced Star Wars gaming projects, I think it's just a case of slowly starting up the marketing train when they can to line up with a slate of regular releases for when the EA exclusivity deal comes to an end. Super glad that they've gone for the High Republic era, think it's taken them long enough, the only real surprise to me is that we're getting this before even seeing anything besides a logo for The Acolyte. Think this really could set a great tone for the rest of the High Republic era stuff, much more so than I think even The Acolyte could, which means there's a whole lot of pressure on Quantic Dream to deliver. And seemingly on a scale that they've not even got close to touching before. And yes, agreed about the logo -- the name is great too! Trailer coupled with the title definitely gave me some Dune vibes! This all being said, I was a bit surprised that this was an announcement for a new project rather than a trailer for Jedi Fallen Order II - maybe in June, depending on the scale of what they have planned? Also, goes without saying, but the situation at Quantic Dream sucks and David Cage can go get his face sucked by a swarm of mynocks. I actually haven't! Reading has definitely taken a backseat for me since the first lockdown last year, which is a shame because I'd managed to just get back into it before then, so I think I'll need to make one of my goals for 2022 to read more books (my shelf would definitely thank me for it). I've fallen very (very) behind with Star Wars books, so maybe I'll need to turn my attention to catching back up. I could probably look it up, but I always like to ask people their opinions on things like this: am I starting with Light of the Jedi and then branching off from there, or should I start elsewhere?