Julius

So, I thought about making a dedicated thread for the Avatarverse (not my name of choice for it, but whatever, it's stuck with the press apparently!) last summer after rewatching The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, but I didn't think there was enough to drive an ongoing discussion in a dedicated thread, besides more people potentially getting into the show through Netflix, which it owes a lot of its resurgence to. However, after Bryan and Mike left the Netflix TLA project, I had a suspicion that it wouldn't end there. So, while Netflix is off reportedly casting a 12 year-old Aang and a 16 year-old Katara - who will be a big sister to Sokka, completely killing his character arc, and probably trying to force Zatara on us all - Nickelodeon has finally decided to acknowledge the golden egg they've been sitting on for years. From Deadline: And confirmation from Paramount what to expect: new series, short-term content, spin-offs, and theatrical films. Oh, and the Avatar Studios logo, which looks great! Well, I think it's safe to say that that might be able to drive and sustain some discussion beyond returning to The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and expanded lore. I genuinely never thought this would happen, just considering how they completely kicked Legend of Korra to the curb. You know, when they ordered one season, then ordered way more, then brushed it under the rug and moved brand new episodes over to the Nickelodeon website? And now they're back! What do you hope to see come of this? What's your experience with the series to this point? And do you think the cabbage merchant will make his return? Personally, I'd love to see adaptations of the graphic novels, as they seem like a natural and relatively straightforward place to start.

Update on the Japan Studio restructure, from IGN. Pretty much just confirms the news VGC broke before, and in corporate speak, is putting Japan Studio to rest. EDD being integrated more into PlayStation Studios directly, with the right support, could be a great way for them to continue supporting third party relations, especially when it comes to projects such as those we've seen Bluepoint handle so far. Otherwise, yeah, this still sucks.

March is the third month of the year. Third. Three. It's been nearly three years since God of War released. Fimbulwinter lasts three long years before Ragnarök arrives.* We aren't getting a game in March for PS+. So, as you say, March is cancelled. And if March is cancelled then the year is only 11 months long. Making 2021 a short year. Meaning it won't have been three long years before Ragnarök arrives. Meaning Ragnarök isn't arriving in 2021. Ragnarök is delayed to 2022 confirmed. *(okay but seriously this is probably the only reason they announced it as coming in 2021)

Just checked the PS Store and prr-orders are up, which means we now know the cost of this thing! Standard Edition will be £32.99 / €39.99 / $39.99 USD and the Digital Deluxe Edition will be £39.99 / €49.99 / $49.99 USD. Pre-order bonus: Digital Deluxe Edition bonuses: The Golden Rot skin is adorable...until you start wondering if that's what Minions look like without the goggles and overalls.

Yeah, the combination of price and not knowing exactly how a decent stretch of moment-to-moment gameplay will pan out is giving me pause for now. It also doesn't help that it's releasing in a pretty busy 3 or 4 week period, I think it might end up a little bit buried unfortunately. Because of that, I really think it could benefit from a demo to make a bit of a statement, and let the audience get a feel for it before committing to dropping £70 on it. The games I'm looking forward to around that time - Mass Effect, NieR Replicant, New Pokémon Snap - are all known quantities in some way or another, and it makes it a lot easier to get behind them for me than it does this.

Agreed with all of those saying it was a bit of a meh showing. I went in with relatively low expectations and was prepared to come away pretty indifferent until we got the Episode Yuffie / Intergrade news for Final Fantasy VII Remake, and that was the only real saving grace of the presentation for me: free upgrade, it's out in June, additional content for a game I really enjoyed, etc. Is it enough to pull me back in June rather than wait until we're a bit closer to Part II, I'm not so sure, but I'm looking forward to it, whenever I do get around to it. A few of the updates we got felt kind of pointless. Crash 4 upgrade news, as far as I can remember, was stuff we had already learned just a couple of weeks ago. It was cool to see gameplay of Solar Ash and FNAF: Security Breach, but both of those having vague 2021 windows doesn't really tell us too much of consequence, and I feel like a smarter move would have been to save that news until later on down the line, when they were closer to release. The Deathloop trailer was cool, but even though we already have a date for that one, it didn't really feel like it got me more excited for the game? Oddworld Soulstorm wasn't really on my radar before, and again I felt like it was a showing for it which was just lacking in so many regards, but it being free in April for PS+ is pretty cool. Sifu's art style and hand-to-hand combat definitely caught my eye, and it's one I'll be keeping an eye on, but again, I really don't see the purpose of showing it here if it's nebulously set to arrive in 2021. I feel like taking a leaf out of Nintendo's book and having a short lead time from announcement to release, big titles aside (and this clearly isn't a big title, nor is it trying to be), would work in their favour here. COVID is still a factor in things, I don't see the point in February of saying a game will arrive at some nebulous point in the year, when we've already seen how quickly things can change. But maybe that's just me. Returnal still looks good, but like I said before, I really feel like it needs a longer showing to hook me in and better communicate the moment-to-moment gameplay. If this is what constitutes a deep dive, especially looking back at how they've previously defined a deep dive, well...it's a pretty shallow dive. Heck, game could probably benefit from a demo. And then there's Kena, which got delayed from being a Q1 title and got pushed all the way to August. It was great that we got to see it here, and see that it's clearly coming along, but showing a trailer here kind of suggested to me that it was much further along than an August release date. The delay doesn't bother me, it's understandable because of the times we're in, but this could have just as well been saved for, say, a potential State of Play in the summer and the delay could have been announced in the PS Blog, and I feel like it might've just come off a bit better. A little disappointed we didn't see any Ratchet & Clank here after we didn't really get much new footage with the release date a few weeks back, but there's still plenty of time to go until it releases in June, so there's no real rush. As soon as we saw Crash 4 open up the presentation my hope for seeing a bigger title releasing after June (such as footage for Horizon) kind of petered out. It's not a presentation I went into with high expectations, yet Yuffie and prettying up Final Fantasy VII Remake aside, I was still pretty disappointed, and on the whole, I do think it was a weak showing. I'd score it a 6/10.

Short gameplay walkthrough we got in today's State of Play: Still think it looks good, but I guess it might just be one of those games I need to get my hands on, because I really feel like it needed a bit of a deeper dive than this to get more of my attention.

Today's State of Play trailer: Delayed from Q1 2021 to 24th August 2021.

I don't believe it is, from the upgrade image in the trailer it seems like it's only available once you've got the upgraded version of the game on PS5 This isn't confirmed, but I would also imagine that Intergrade and the Yuffie Episode might be PS5 exclusive? The timing of its release and it not being on PS4 makes me think PlayStation have thrown more money Square Enix's way, and so - just my own speculation - only the exclusivity on last year's version of the game could be up this year, kind of killing an Xbox release on arrival. I could be off on that, but it's just a gut feeling I have with the Yuffie Episode not being on PS4. And I think that would be very shady.

Key art for Yuffie Episode looks phone wallpaper-worthy: And @drahkon, they made a "remake", then made a demake of the game they remade, and announced tonight that they are releasing an update with new chapters to the "remake", all while working on the second part of the "remake". Sounds about right But at least there's some good news other than the Yuffie Episode related to the game tonight! The soundtrack is finally coming to every music platform I don't use!

They made a "remake", then made a demake of the "remake", and announced tonight that they are releasing an update with new chapters to the "remake", all while working on the second part of the "remake". ...okay. But at least there's some good news other than the Yuffie Episode related to the game tonight! The soundtrack is finally coming to every music platform I don't use!

Oh no. Ever Crisis is a mobile game too! Urghhhhhh, alright, this is more like it neat enough idea though, the entire FFVII Compilation (and more?), and definitely more interesting to me than The First Soldier has turned out to be. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw this ported to consoles like XV Pocket Edition was, actually. Seems like it could be a decent way to get people caught up? I'd play it (somewhat begrudgingly) if it got ported, depending on how it covers the other Compilation stuff, because I haven't played through any of that myself before.

I get a feeling they won't, but hey, I mean, I wouldn't ever argue against it I really wanted to save my Platinum run of the game for a replay just before Part II as well! There goes that And yeah, makes me curious if we could see these DLC chapters - and maybe even some demo-esque thing - pretty much every year until Part II (which I'm guessing is probably 2023/2024 at the earliest?). Keeps it fresh and us involved I guess? Surprised it wasn't any of the other titles we heard of, but just spotted The First Soldier is a mobile game (trailer just went up on the FF channel): That one stings a little. That title is way too cool and evocative to just be for a battle royale mobile game! Please don't be story related...

Considering the upgrade is free and it's just DLC chapters we're paying for, I actually don't mind. It helps tide us over until the next game, and I think it gives the team a good chance to figure out the other characters mechanically too. Definitely prefer it over waiting in silence, anyways!

Get Intergraded. Free upgrade for PS4 players to PS5, Yuffie Episode available for purchase separately in that case. PS5 enhancements breakdown:

Free upgrade. And oh deary me, a photo mode?! Wow, this is so unlike Square Enix guess I'm going back for that Platinum this year instead of waiting around for Part II then!

YUFFIE! AHHHHHHHH They're making us buy this again, aren't they?

Kena being in August feels so right, definitely has that cosy, late summer game vibe. Selfishly kind of sucks it's so far away, but by all means, let it cook, there's plenty of other stuff to play, and it's important that Ember Lab get it right. Also, did we see that mask in the last trailer? Because you can definitely tell they were the ones to make that Majora's Mask fan film just based on that Also effectively nips the bud on the whole CES list of dates I guess? Unless we're going to argue it got delayed six months due to COVID, which is totally possible

Okay but seriously, how many times can you show Oddworld?

Yeah, though it looked good! I still really just want to see a solid 10 minutes of gameplay or so without interruption just to get a better idea of the moment-to-moment gameplay flow, though. Yeah, same boat here (and it's weird me not being hyped as heck for an event for a change). One meaningful update on a game beyond June, like footage for Horizon or something like that, would leave me satisfied. Feels weirdly low stakes, but it's nice for a change.

Anyone else tuning in? I almost fell asleep watching the return of the animations similar to what we saw at last year's PS5 events

Original game development at Japan Studio is winding down, reports VGC. Their original efforts include Gravity Rush, Knack, and Ape Escape, and in recent years they have been probably most noticed for their role in developing 2018's Shadow of the Colossus and last year's Demon's Souls alongside Bluepoint Games. This follows Project Siren/Team Gravity leader Keiichiro Toyama leaving with Sony Japan veterans Kazunobu Sato and Junya Okura to form Bokeh Game Studio late last year. Bloodborne producer Masaaki Yamagiwa also left earlier this week, amongst others. According to VGC's sources, this is happening because Japan Studio hasn't been profitable enough in recent years, but also because of the shift in power away from Japan to the US internally at PlayStation over the last half a decade or so. It is unclear at this time what will become of their External Development Department (the team which collaborated last year with Bluepoint on Demon's Souls), but one source suggested it would continue as is. ASOBI Team, the studio behind Astro Bot, appears unaffected, and will remain a standalone studio, with some remaining members of Japan Studio being moved over to ASOBI for their next endeavours. This sucks.

For a split second there... This countdown has been a serious rollercoaster of emotions

Alright, I'm going to try to keep my expectations in check. Not so much my wildest hopes and dreams, but of a bit ramble about what we might expect to see. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Remakes are inevitable...right? - Personally, there's no question in my mind that this is the year we return to Sinnoh. Yes, it's the 25th anniversary of the series as a whole, but this is the longest it's taken for them to remake a core series title from its initial release (it's Diamond & Pearl's 15th anniversary this September, vs the 12 years it took to remake Ruby & Sapphire), it would follow the trend of having a pair of remakes every other generation since HeartGold & SoulSilver with Gen IV after the release of the opening pair of games set in a new region, and to push my point even further, Sinnoh is the only region from the core series titles which we haven't returned to in any form since Platinum released in 2008. So, yeah, this would be well overdue! For me personally, then, it's not a question of whether or not Sinnoh games are coming this year, but rather a question of if they are announced here, and the only reason I dare suggest for a moment that they wouldn't is simply based on what I remember of past remake reveals: the last three remakes - HeartGold & SoulSilver (2009), Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire (2014), and Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee! (2018) - were all officially revealed for the first time in May of the year they were released, the latter two pair releasing in November of the same year they were revealed, and HeartGold & SoulSilver in September of the same year (in Japan). I had to look this up for FireRed & LeafGreen (2004), as I would have been too young at the time to be in the know, but apparently those were officially revealed in September 2003 and released in Japan in January 2004. Point is, the longest wait from official reveal to launch has been about six month or less, and if Diamond & Pearl remakes do end up being announced tomorrow for a November release (and considering the last five pairs of games, starting with Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire in 2014, have all been released in November, I think that's a fair to predict that these would come in November too) then it will be the longest we've waited from official reveal to release for any Pokémon core series remake to date. This isn't me saying that we won't see them tomorrow - I'm in the cart which thinks we do, simply because it's the anniversary celebration, and it's the only time a potential remake reveal has landed in an anniversary year of the series - but if we don't for whatever reason see a core series title announced tomorrow (and considering COVID could be a factor in any delay to such news, though they announced Sun & Moon with art and renderings from around the office in the year it was released, so...), then May seems the other likely slot they might try to fit it into. If you want some totally wild and unfounded speculation I've thrown around in my head, I think it's totally possible that the Switch Pro and BotW2 were aiming for November of this year, and because it doesn't make sense to release such massive titles on the same system in the same month, the remakes could have been planned to be released in September (their anniversary month) to free room up for that in November. Again, totally unfounded speculation on my part - Pokémon kills it in Q4 - but it's just something interesting to think about, I think. Not that I really think that's happening Now, I think it would be a pretty big misstep if we ended up with something else other than Sinnoh remakes this year - regardless of the form they would take - but this is Game Freak we're talking about. If Gen VII taught us anything, it's that a) they care enough about major anniversaries to basically make a new pair of games Pokémon Anniversary: The Video Game for one (I loved Sun & Moon for that, even if I think it fell short in other areas), and b) they really don't care too much about past precedent. I mean, we ended up with a second pair of Kanto remakes in a brand new subseries with the Let's Go games before getting Sinnoh remakes, the first multi-platform Pokémon generation, and the first enhanced editions (albeit a pair of them, for a change) in nearly a decade at that point. I think Diamond & Pearl remakes are the obvious choice to go with this year, and are more likely than the next pair of true and proper Let's Go games if that series does continue (a second pair of Johto remakes before a first pair of Sinnoh remakes would seriously cause some uproar), but they could go another direction. This is basically me talking myself down from a ledge here, but Red 2 & Blue 2 (aka Kanto's Back Again Again Again Again Again: Give Us Your Money Edition) or a brand new pair of games isn't totally impossible. Unlikely? Yes. Do I think we'll get Sinnoh games instead of those? Yes. But impossible? No. As for the reveal itself of potential Diamond & Pearl remakes, logically it would be the thing you close on (unless somehow even with Diamond & Pearl reveals, for the 25th anniversary, they decide to tease the development of Gen IX for next year if it is a noticeable step up from Sword & Shield in its ambition, but I don't see it). If you're going full-on Sword & Shield engine with Wild Areas, stick on Professor Rowan's Laboratory while you give us some environmental shots, I don't expect them to go too crazy with the reveal simply because compared to other remakes, again, this would be the furthest out we've seen anything. If it's top-down like the Let's Go games, but keeping the core series mechanics, either make that clear or, again, jjust tease some environmental shots. Whatever you do, I find it hard to believe you can come up with something worse than the Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire reveal. It's called the Advance for a reason - Okay, so Game Freak ported the Gen I games over so that we could return to Kanto on the 3DS back in 2016 for the 20th Anniversary. Please don't do that again! As fun as those earlier games can be to return to, with the later release of Gen VII titles and ports of the Gen II on the 3DS, you could play through six of the seven generations of core series titles at that time on your 3DS, thanks also to backwards compatibility with DS titles. The only generation missing? Gen III, the Game Boy Advance titles. You want to send us back to Kanto again for the 25th Anniversary? Release FireRed and LeafGreen on the Nintendo Switch's eShop. Sell them for £10 - £15 each, you don't have the issue you might end up with for later DS titles where they were designed for two screens, and the best part is that it's Hoenn's 20th anniversary next year, so you can then port over Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald for that too. Easy money. Nintendo Switch: Ports Extraordinaire - I don't think this necessarily needs to take time up here and can just be scattered throughout the year, but the Wii U saw a lot of ports back in 2016 for the 20th Anniversary, with various spin-off titles making it over: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Pokémon Ranger, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs, and PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure. A lot of these depended on a second screen or a touch screen, so I don't know how feasible it would be to see some of these come over, but if they could find a way to port the Ranger games over in a collection, I think they'd go over great. The Trozei games, from what I remember, wouldn't need too much changed to make them a single screen experience, too, so maybe those could come over? The you've got Pinball, the Puzzle games, the TCG games...there are a lot of Pokémon spin-offs! Personally I'd want to see Pokémon Colosseum or XD: Gale of Darkness come over, just because I think they were - and are still - a pretty unique spin on the formula, and I loved watching my friend play them on his GameCube growing up. And a port of the original Pokémon Snap later in the year once the hype for New Pokémon Snap has died down would absolutely be welcome (or heck, even just make it an add-on for that game). Spinning off like a Hitmontop - And yes, the 20th Anniversary also saw a number of spin-offs too, so continuations/remasters/remakes of old series, or completely new series, would be great to see. Back in 2016 the Wii U version of Pokkén Tournament was released, Detective Pikachu released in Japan, Super Mystery Dungeon made its way to Europe and Australia after releasing in 2015 in Japan and North America, I'm pretty sure another one of those Japanese arcade puck games got released, and let's not forget that Pokémon GO turns 5 this year and will likely have a bunch of events coming up (if they haven't already announced them), though I don't think this is necessarily the place for that. In terms of what I'd love to see, I know we only got Rescue Team DX, but the sooner we get an Explorers of Sky remake, I think @Glen-i will agree, the better! In terms of other series they could bring back, I'd love Ranger to get a new game to serve as a bit of a reboot, just because I don't think those games would necessarily be best ported over, but would need a lot of work on a mechanics level to translate that experience to the Switch. I have no idea how popular Pokkén Tournament ended up being, and I have no idea how Bandai Namco's teams are structured - so it could by all means be the same people working on New Pokémon Snap, though I kind of doubt it based on just how different they are mechanically - but that always seemed like a shoe-in for a sequel to me. In terms of new spin-off titles, I'm not super sure. It's hard to bet against some other Pokémon app being announced, but other than that, the only real thing springing to mind would be a Pokémon Warriors game, though I'm not sure how likely it would be we'd get one this year just with the ongoing support Age of Calamity is getting. Seriously, though, if and when they do get around to it, that'll be the easiest money they've ever made, and maybe one of the only realistic ways to surpass Age of Calamity's great sales figures in a massive way. I kind of envision this as Pokémon just running amok and you playing as a trainer, catching and swapping between Pokémon on your way up to the top, levelling them up as you go, helping save some region from certain demise. To make later playthroughs rewarding, have other trainers from throughout the franchise's history unlock which you can use in a New Game+, such as using Red's team from Mt Silver, Cynthia's team from Diamond and Pearl, Youngster Joey's Rattata/Raticate, etc. It would be such an easy game to support in that way, and heck, you thought Dexit in Sword & Shield was bad? Because could season pass the absolute stuffing out of a game like that. Updates on already announced titles - A pretty safe thing to expect, but also a pretty easy thing to forget: updates on Pokémon Sleep and Pokémon Unite as @Ashley and @Londragon mentioned, respectively, are a great shout. We also haven't heard about the Detective Pikachu (video game) sequel since it was first announced in May 2019, so that could turn up, and I think another look at New Pokémon Snap now that it's just over 2 months away - and wasn't at last weeks Nintendo Direct - would be a smart choice. I don't expect to see much of New Pokémon Snap, just because I don't think a deep dive necessarily helps sell that game any better than short snippets, and at most before the game's release (but not necessarily here in this presentation) I think we might see a playthrough of a level or two, just to share with those not familiar with the first game what they can expect. But again, I think that game is a fairly easy one to market in short snippets, so I don't think it should take up too much time here.

All aboard!