Julius

...this actually looks passable? I feel like this has to be coming to the West. I know Dragon Quest isn't as big over here as it is in Japan, but that looks like way too much effort to not just half-heartedly release it over here.

We're in the bad ending timeline.

Sony projection for this financial year is to sell 15 million PS5's, and then 23 million the year after. For reference, at the same point in the PS4's life cycle that they expect to reach 50 million with the PS5, there were 40 million units sold.

Zidane is off again: Guess we'll see him back there in a year or two once they've bought Mbappé. This is going to start the circus of manager transfers this summer. Conte looks to be leaving Inter as they won't let him make some big buys (poor guy always seems to have this issue), Allegri has been sitting out for a long time now...should be interesting to see what happens!

PlayStation Direct is coming to Europe:

So turns out Horii straight up said during the stream that they might get to Dragon Quest I and II remakes after this The whistle is hilarious. Horii gone rogue!

I don't mean to put pressure on Team Asano, but...just do it for all of the 2D FF's and Chrono Trigger! HD-2D Frog, are you kidding me?!

The mention of a new battle system makes me think that they're going to take that extra step forwards with the free-roaming you could go during battle in XI? I'm half expecting something not too dissimilar to what we saw in VII Remake, but this is DQ, I kind of feel like offering a classic way to play turn-based is a big part of the appeal. This feels like a last ditch effort to finally see the series do well in the West, so it has me a little nervous, but I'm sure they'll deliver.

It looks to me like this is what the new Dragon Quest Monsters that they originally announced in 2018 has pivoted into? Producer Taichi Inuzuka said this today: The exact same character art shown in the trailer is the same as that shown for the new DQM project back then, which also had Erik and Mia planned as it's leads: Inuzuka said at the start of last year that development on the new DQM wasn't going well...at all. So I'm guessing that's what the mention of "twists and turns" is about. Quotes from Siliconera (Jan 2020): From what I'm reading it sounds like a new Dragon Quest Monsters is still in the works, but this isn't it, and it's probably a ways off.

This looks great! I think a concern when transitioning anything to a new look like this is that some of the original charm is gone, but it all seems intact. I love the look of the battles in particular. Can't help but wonder if we might see something similar for next year's Final Fantasy anniversary... Honestly, I feel like that's why I've been dragging my heels on playing the port of the original DQ, it looks horrible. All part of Square Enix's plan to drum up hype for eventual HD-2D remakes I guess

GOTY 2023. Bets on how often we hear "It's the Dark Souls of Dragon Quests" with a title like that? Also, just seen that it's a worldwide simultaneous release

Ragnarök has seemingly been confirmed to be the title of the game in the Game & Network Services Segment of Sony's recent info release to investors. Think this is the first time we've seen this title treatment for the game too. Think we all expected it to be the title after the teaser we got, and I always found it kind of odd that they didn't go with this as the title at that point.

Easy Allies are going to be back in the studio on June 10th! Awesome timing given E3 kicks off that weekend! I know they sometimes say that it feels like the views that their reactions get undermines some of their other work, but man, after the last 12+ months feeling so stilted, I can't wait for them to be back in the studio and reacting together. The last few months it felt like the energy was draining and now they can feed off each other once again

This week has been pretty crazy in terms of news! Feels like a proper pre-E3 season. Now, where are those Walmart leaks?

New Unreal Engine 5 demo with Geoff Keighley, following on from last year's, to show the engine off in early access:

Huh, that is interesting. Off the top of my head I don't think they have for any of the previous main series games, and even if we consider this a spin-off, I'm struggling to remember this being the case for any of the spin-off games too. I feel like there might be one or two, but nothing comes to mind. Wonder if they'll change this down the road or if it's a decision made because open worlds are generally seen as being more palatable to a western market? It looks like the D&P remakes are in Japanese as they were before too, strange. EDIT: okay, they did the same for Breath of the Wild, which was the first game that came to mind to check. I know you've still got the Japanese there, but with the English included too, maybe it is more to do with the game (and open worlds) being marketed towards the West?

Ah yes, Nintendo's new annual tradition of sacrifice ahead of their end-of-year financials, now it makes sense

Same. I know early 2022 was always their announced plan, but especially with the Sinnoh remakes just two months prior, it feels like they're trying to get it out of the way for something, because leaving it for Christmas next year would surely be more lucrative (and give them more time to iron things out). Unless the Breath of the Wild sequel is being pushed back and they want this to push the potential Pro in its place? Maybe it'll be made clear the next time we see gameplay, but I'm with you and everyone else. Give it time to cook. I think it'll be one of the more stupid moves Pokémon's made in the last decade if they stick with January. I mean, thankfully this is Game Freak, so don't expect that to happen unless there's something actually game-breaking going on

For me the 3D models make it look fan-made? I don't know, guess I just prefer Sugimori's art most of the time. That's not to say that I'm normally a big fan of main series Pokémon game covers though, I don't think they've been anything particularly special since the nice flourishes HeartGold and SoulSilver got on theirs with the silhouettes of some places from Johto, though X and Y both had pretty clean covers! Could take a few pointers from some of the spin-off games in my opinion and just fill up the empty space a bit more. The Pokémon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon games always had enough going on with theirs

Uhhhhhhhh...this is a weird way to announced the release date. Coming 19th November 2021. Feel like this has the overwhelming potential to perform the worst of any of the remakes to date, simply based on it releasing just two months before Legends. Also really not digging those covers.

Releasing 28th January 2022... What a strange way to announce it. Normally we'd be expecting a Pokémon Presents or some other Pokémon event ahead of E3 as was the case previously, and this seems far too close to the D&P remakes. What are they thinking? Based on what we've seen so far (admittedly very little), I get the impression that having this come out so relatively soon could be a mistake. I wonder if this is being pushed out ahead of the Breath of the Wild sequel potentially coming in March/April of next year? Quite like the box art though, even if it is a bit generic for an open world game. It's like they looked at the BotW cover and went "that, but Pokémon" Also pretty sure you can see the silhouette of Spear Pillar at the top of Mt Coronet from before it fell apart, looking like a Greek temple. That has me excited.

After listening to this game's soundtrack again today, I'm chomping at the bit to talk about it. It's time. SUIKODEN II | 1998 In the mid-to-late 1990's, after the success of his directorial debut and at a time when gaming was expensively transitioning from two dimensions to three, Yoshitaka Murayama of Konami found himself with a limited budget and a difficult decision to make: to either make the leap with the giants of the JRPG landscape, Final Fantasy, into the elusive third dimension, or to take onboard fan feedback from his first game, and instead focus the budget on further realising the world, story, and characters that they had quickly come to adore. He chose the latter. Suikoden II begins on a cool, quiet night as the player character, Riou, and his childhood friend, Jowy, prepare to return home from their time with the Unicorn Youth Brigade, a unit of teenage soldiers whom had recently been tasked with overlooking Tenzan Pass, as rumours abound that their home country of Highland is on the verge of signing a peace treaty with the neighbouring City-States of Jowston. When the pair awaken to the sounds of bloodshed and slaughter, they quickly scramble to escape, but not before learning the shocking truth that their unit died at the hands of their own countrymen in a ploy to rally public support against Jowston, allwoing them to stage a false flag invasion. Being chased away from the camp's remains, Riou and Jowy quickly find themselves cornered at the edge of the nearby cliffs, and after marking a nearby stone and making a pact that they would return to this spot if they got separated, dive into the rapids below, as their destinies begin to take shape. The opening credits come in and evoke a wistful nostalgia as the hauntingly beautiful Reminiscence carries you through scenes of their childhood... ...and thus the tale begins. As was the case in the first game, Suikoden II does away with some of the major tropes seen in many other JRPG's at the time (and which we still see to this day), such as the exponential escalation towards fighting a god in order to save the world, and instead focuses on a localised conflict as you once again gather the 108 Stars of Destiny to save your corner of the world from the ruins of war. Throughout your journey there will be many familiar faces from the first game, with many loose ends picked up and continued here, and I was surprised by just how many of the first game's enormous cast I could instantly recognise, be it from their portrait, sprite, or in many cases even only a mention of their name, which I think speaks to the first game's strengths in spades, and players who gathered the 108 Stars in the first game are rewarded handsomely. Unfortunately, a few of these recruitable characters become permanently missable beyond a certain point in the game, such as if they are introduced on the field in a strategic battle, or in some cases missed during a short stay in a town or city. Missing out on these characters means that you won't be able to recruit all 108 Stars, and as a result of that, just like in the first game, you won't be able to see what is considered by most fans to be the better of the potential four endings, which are decided to some extent by your choices in the game. I had an issue with this early on where, even using one of the more popular recruitment guides for the game, I missed one of these permanently missable characters and lost over 5 hours of progress, and I do think that even more so than was the case in the first game, it is an incredibly tedious undertaking to not only recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny, but also to ensure that you are taking the right actions during your playthrough to keep the option of the supposed better ending open when the end of the game arrives. The game generally does a better job at naturally curating your recruitment of these Stars, with an early recruit being this private eye who can dig up dirt on your companions or offer hints on where a potential recruit might be. Something also slightly improved upon from the first game is that when a new character is recruited, some can be moved into your Convoy (two additional slots for your party where they will travel with you but not take part in battles) and others will kindly ask you if you want them to join your party now or make their way over to your castle instead, but this is not the case for every recruit, and there were many instances where I found someone forcing their way into my party, which meant having to send a party member I was confident using back to the castle in their place. The game doesn't waste any time at all, immediately sticking you straight into its story which goes by at a breakneck pace at times as it is saturated with memorable moments and important story beats one after another, and not holding back any punches when it comes to shining the light on the atrocities of war. It paints a vivid picture of a land and its people tired of battle through a deeply researched and considered history, not pushing you towards what is right and wrong but rather letting you walk down that path of empathy yourself, emphasised further during your skirmishes with its oppressive antagonists. Early on in the game's story, Highland torches villages in the eastern countryside as their ruthless and sadistic prince, Luca Blight, blazes a path of revenge towards the City-States' largest city of Muse. Though I don't want to highlight the exact reasoning for Luca's search for vengeance, his is amongst one of the darker and more origins for a villain in a JRPG, and he is also easily made to be one of the most formidable. Similar to the first game, Suikoden II is rarely difficult to get through, but Luca Blight justifies his presence as the game's primary antagonist time and again, very early on in the game introducing himself as a force to not only be reckoned with, but genuinely afraid of, which is in stark contrast to how the main villain from the first game was handled. In many ways Suikoden II is an evolution of the foundation seen in the first game, and that couldn't be made any more evident that in its standard battle mechanics: it is, for all intents and purposes, essentially the same. Long-, mid- and short-ranged characters make a return; you're picking your entire party's actions before you see them all play out; and the need for grinding is still virtually non-existent due to the experience multiplier based on level differences between your characters and the enemy, so fighting in an area until given an option to 'Let Go' rather than 'Run' is still the most effective way to level up your party. A small but noticeable change is that you can equip each character with up to three runes rather than one this time around, with more slots opening up the higher your magic stat, which gives you much more freedom and room to experiment. For example, something I found to be extremely overpowered throughout the course of the game was to equip a character with the Double-Beat Rune (which allows them to perform twice as many physical attacks, and given that this character used a three-piece rod and would hit twice per turn normally, allowed for four standard physical attacks per turn) and Spark Rune (allowing every other party member performing a standard physical attack to do so immediately after she did). Duels also make a return from the first game, and are also largely unchanged, with the biggest changes of all to the combat made to Army Battles. Gone is the simple rock-paper-scissors base - even if the three classes of Infantry, Archers, and Mages do return - instead replaced by a traditional top-down, map- and turn-based strategy format as you would expect to see in something like Fire Emblem. Speaking to your strategist, Apple, you can rearrange your units with the members of your army to boost attack and defence stats, or add additional passive skills such as Cavalry (which will mount that unit on horseback and increase their mobility) or Bodyguard (which lowers the odds of the enemy landing a critical hit). It works exactly as you'd expect, and though I think it's generally an improvement overall to the way Army Battles were handled in the first game, it isn't without its issues, the first of which is that it certainly holds your hand throughout a few too many of the early battles, not giving you full control of your units. Though this makes sense in the context of the game - as you aren't at that stage the leader of your army - it brings me onto the point that sometimes these battles can feel aimless, without a clear objective, and oftentimes when there was a clear objective going into the battle, changes on the battlefield as a result of scripted story elements meant that you didn't really need to do all that much anyways. When this is coupled with the fact that even the range of units on horseback don't feel like they have a great enough range to actually outmaneuver the enemy, let alone in some cases actually utilise all of your units, you often end up feeling like you're just there as part of the ride. The game does seem really cool things in these Army Battle stages to push the story forwards and give a sense of scale to what's happening (reminding me a bit of how Final Fantasy VI sparingly had cutscenes play out inside its battle screens, or even during battles), but its greatest sin is that not only is it heavily RNG-based, but that it depends quite heavily on your Luck stat, meaning that even if you outclass an enemy in every way, there's still a chance that you won't land your hits. To share how absurd this could be at times, I went out of my way to test this: in one of the final Army Battles in the game, where I spent over half an hour on my first attempt at the battle with the final enemy on the battlefield surrounded from all sides and dodging attack after attack until they eventually succumbed, I restarted the game after doing so and destroyed their forces in just over 10 minutes - not as a result of a different strategy, but simply because my attacks landed this time. I know this is true to some extent for most strategy games and JRPG's in general, but it seemed like it was worth highlighting, as I thought this was a pretty egregious mistake made by the team, and was one of the consistent things getting in the way of the pacing of the game. There are other issues to highlight in this game, such as the fact that - for whatever reason - this game's framerate can quite noticeably dip at times, made obvious most of the time by how sluggishly a character sputters out their lines of dialogue. I can't remember this happening at all in the first game, so I'm not sure whether it's a result of larger settlements and a larger world map, but I was pretty stunned when I noticed it for the first time, considering the level of polish applied to much of the game. There is also something strange that happens with the camera when walking up stairs where it jitters about and actually looks exactly like the framerate dropping; it's an unfortunate coincidence at worst, but still, it's something I was surprised to see made its way to the end product. There were also one or two times where I would be in a dungeon and I wouldn't clock onto how to complete a very light puzzle simply because of the way parts of the room appeared, for instance in a late-game dungeon where a gap which you could plug between two platforms looked like a rock outcropping, giving me the impression that I couldn't plug that gap between those platforms as it was already filled with something else. It probably isn't too much of a surprise considering the time that this game released, but its localisation had some issues which would take me out of the game for a moment, which was also something that happened in the first game (and virtually every other JRPG around at the time, so its not like this is a deal-breaker). There are also some strange audio bugs when performing some Rune Spells, mainly high-pitched beeping noises, most notably in boss battles (though that could be because I generally avoided using them outside of boss battles), and the game crashed on me with an endless black screen after beating what is by far the longest and most difficult battle in the game, which was pretty annoying. I haven't seen any mention of the the game crashing like that elsewhere, so I might have been one of the unlucky few there. My biggest issue with the game is a holdover from the first game, unfortunately, which is further compounded by the importance at times of how quickly you make a dialogue choice and the dialogue choice that you make, which is that there were times when tapping X to get through the next line of dialogue would register as selecting a line of dialogue if a choice was following that text box. It's by no means a game-breaking issue - you just need to remember to slow down when you feel like a choice is coming up, and the game is generally very forgiving if you make what most would consider to be a poor choice - but it's the fact that this happened to me at the very end of the game, when I was essentially choosing the ending that I would see play out, that highlighted just how much of an issue it could be. But these issues are nothing compared to the issues that I felt that the first game suffered from the most, and above all else, that was extremely poor item management. I don't know if this was a common criticism of the first game at its time of release, or if this is just something that the team worked to implement in this sequel anyways, but they went a long way to addressing my earlier criticisms in this game! The main way that they tackle this is by adding a shared inventory where you can store up to 30 items, and each member of your party can equip up to 3 pieces of armour as well as hold 3 further items, giving you a greater total of item slots than you had in the first game when away from your castle. The castle storage area is also larger, with storage of up to a further 60 items. These changes are then supplemented by further quality of life improvements, such as the ability to sell items directly from your storage room at your castle; being given the option to either store or immediately sell items that you're replacing on a party member (for example, if you're upgrading to a better set of body armour, do you really need that old set taking up valuable space?); being able to equip items to recruits not in your party when at your castle; and having an option to default a character to the best gear currently available in your inventory. There is also a Special Items box in your inventory, most importantly where your Blinking Mirror (to teleport you back to your castle) is kept, which is a big improvement over the first game, where you could theoretically equip it to someone who isn't your player character and they leave without little warning, meaning that you would be without the Blinking Mirror until they turned back up. I mentioned before how there are four endings, and how I accidentally only saw the "good ending" instead of the "best ending", which my immediate response to was to say that the "best ending" was infinitely better than the lesser "good ending". The more I've thought about it since completing the game, the more that I realise I may have jumped the gun in saying this: though the "best ending" seemed much stronger to me, at the time, this was based on my own interpretations of the characters, story, and world presented by the game. Further reflection on this has landed me on feeling that the choice you are given at the end of the game does feel substantiated by the story told, and if you interpret the story differently to how I did - with a little less optimism and a bit more scepticism - then I can understand why that choice is made available. It's a great ending in its own right which I might have undermined based on my initial gut reaction, and its inclusion is more than warranted, and it also kindly points you towards the "best ending", as if telling you to seek it out. One of my absolute favourite aspects of this game which I can't go without mentioning is the sprite work. I've thought about it a lot the last few days, and I genuinely think that this might have my favourite sprites of any game I've played so far. There's a level of undeniable polish here that just wasn't touched upon in the first game and pays off constantly throughout, such as the ridiculous number of unique sprites. Early into the game I can still remember being left astonished by the effort put into having a youth brigade member polish his sword, Riou bend down to pick some rope off the floor, or scrub the floor, another time when a character trips then struggles to get up, and when a dog dives onto someone before snuggling up to them. These unique sprites help to keep cutscenes fresh and go further than any other sprite-based game I've played to realising a character through their movement and interactions with the world, which makes it so obvious that the choice to stick with two dimensions and instead push the game further with a focus on story, rather than make the jump to three dimensions, was objectively the best decision, and in hindsight has helped Suikoden II to age far better than many of its early 3D JRPG counterparts. The crazy part is that even though they decided going against fully 3D, they did use FMV's throughout, such as for high level spells or to accentuate the atmosphere of certain scenes, and the decision to steer well clear of having anything resembling these characters fully realised in 3D - at best, we get their shadows - was an immensely important one. There's also a small detail I noticed branching off from their attempt to better include "shade" in the game - giving further depth to spaces which by comparison can make the first game look a little flat - where when you step into little pockets of light, such as light filtering through the treetops in a forest, there's a blink-and-you-miss-it colour transition for your character from dark to light. I had a grin on my face a lot of the time playing this game purely because of its sprites, and I even found that there were unique sprites to be found in the credits sequence! In one of the castle mini-games, the cooking contests, the amazing sprite work is on show once again. It's simply wonderful how much it adds to this game. Miki Higashino returned to compose this game's score after the resounding triumph that was the first game's soundtrack, composing a total of 98 of the 105 tracks on the OST, the total number of tracks making it one of the largest JRPG soundtracks at the time of the game's release. She completely knocked it out of the park, with a soundtrack which bursts at the seams with originality and flair, and for me is in contention for being one of my favourite video game soundtracks, thanks to its sheer variety of influences making so many of its moments and locations feel distinct and unique, not only within the Suikoden series up to this point, but in JRPG's as a whole. In an interview about this she said that she would often look at the game's map and towns, and assign different musical influences to each, such as Celtic, Spanish, Middle Eastern, and Japanese, to name but a few. As I went through the game it's no exaggeration to say that I noted down almost every track as being superb. I obviously don't want to spoil the game for anyone, but unfortunately some of my favourite tracks contain the names of places, events, or characters which might spoil certain moments in the game, and I've had to refrain from talking too much about another aspect of the game - one of my favourite aspects - to try avoid spoiling things too. Fortunately, there are still plenty of other tracks to discuss, and I've had plenty of other things to say about the game. The first track that I want to highlight is Days Past, which stands alongside Reminiscence as one of the more wistful and melancholic tracks in the game - you can feel the pain of memories from a simpler time grabbing hold of you and whisking you away. Almost completely at the opposite end of the spectrum to that is Beautiful Morning, a light and cheerful track, which hasn't failed to put a smile on my face any of the times that I've listened back to it. And, it almost feels like cheating doing this, but there's Heart-Softening 1, Heart-Softening 2, and Heart-Softening 3. The first is a slowed down version of the main theme, and the second is even slower, but what makes them so impactful is just how much you can hear the instruments straining at times, and there's a lot of texture added to the tracks because of this. The third hits me the hardest, though, because not only does it strain, almost with agony, but it has a wider range of highs and lows, and immediately puts you exactly where it wants you emotionally. To highlight some of the town music, Carried on Rippling Waves is this light and heartwarming take on the main theme; Radat's Theme calmly ascends while its percussion continues pushing on throughout, which is a pretty accurate reflection of the people you'll find there in the game; and Withered Earth frantically strums you through the western settlements you'll find in the game. Secret Village of the Ninja might be one of my favourite tracks from the series - and any game - period. Early on, it lulls you into this dreamlike state, before it's pierced by the flute which carries its main melody, and then the female vocals come in as if to snap you back to reality. There's also the epic fully orchestrated opening FMV, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and We Will Always Be, the game's glorious credits track which in its second part heavily leans on the work of Heart-Softening 3 to great effect, that choir gets me every single time. Unfortunately, in 2001, after more than 15 years at Konami, Higashino left the company on maternity leave but never returned, walking away from working full-time on compositions to prioritise her life at home as a new mother. In the years since, she's shared that she found herself seriously overworked and overwhelmed by her role on Suikoden II in particular. She's not the only one to say something along these lines, as series creator and game director Murayama, who left just a few years after Higashino, has also shared that he wrote almost all of the NPC dialogue in the game, slept at the office for months during development, and on several occasions fell asleep writing only to wake up hearing voices. These are two masters of their craft who were pushed far beyond any reasonable limit, and though Murayama is coming back as the driving force behind Eiyuden Chronicle, Higashino's only major work since leaving Konami was composing for 10,000 Bullets with Yasunori Mitsuda and Pop'n Music: Adventure. Next year it will have been 15 years since she last composed for a game, with Suikoden II over 20 years later remaining her last major soundtrack effort. It's unfortunate that she no longer actively composes, but it's fitting that her last effort wasn't just good, or great - it was nothing short of a masterpiece that has moved every person who has played the game. I hope that she knows that. Lately, I've been thinking about how certain "Holy Grail" games can be easily overhyped when recommending that people check it out. I think it comes from a well-meaning place, of wanting to share something which resonated with you with others, which is a very human thing, but this can come at the cost of the game not living up to those lofty expectations. Sometimes, I find it intimidating to play a revered classic: what if it simply doesn't click with me? I felt that way going into Suikoden II, especially after enjoying the first game so much, and I know that many others might feel the same way. A game can be brilliant without being life-altering, and, like with all art, how you interpret it and what you take away from your experience with it might be vastly different to mine. You might not like it's battle system, it's world, or not care at all for its sprite work, and that's okay. Suikoden II is not a perfect game, but it is a sequel in the truest sense of the word. It builds on every foundation you can find in the first game and attempts to improve upon what was there before. With a beautiful soundtrack up there with the very best, a rich and storied world, charming and memorable characters, masterful sprite work, and a story which will captivate you from beginning to end, I truly believe that Suikoden II thoroughly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as some the greatest games in the genre. If you haven't already, then I implore you: play these games.

Anyone else getting déjà vu?

Jeff Grubb said some stuff about Nintendo at E3. I'll stick it in a spoiler tag for those trying to avoid it, but it's not exactly unexpected. Also, let me know if no-one minds this stuff being out in the open and I'll stop doing this, but until then...it stays