Julius

Ahead of E3 kicking off this Saturday, I've found myself getting very excited. Perhaps, naively, this is the most excited I've been for E3, even with big publishers like EA and PlayStation not being present, simply because the last year or so has at times felt never-ending and gaming - and N-Europe - have been great escapes for me, and I'm sure many others here, from what's been going on around us. Now, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination an E3-watching veteran. As I've made clear many times over the last 5 years, I still consider gaming to be a relatively new interest for me, as I'm still constantly learning new things, and this is despite growing up around certain games and having great memories of gaming from growing up. 2015's E3 of Dreams was in the summer I left high school, when by far my biggest interest had recently become films, and while gaming news would occasionally filter through from console-warring friends growing up (who didn't see the face-off between Xbox's and PlayStation's E3 2013 booths?), it wasn't until I bought myself a PS4 for Star Wars Battlefront in November 2015 that I truly started to get into games. Fast forward a few rough months in my personal life and I landed here, and fast forward a few more months and I found myself watching my first E3 live. Now, E3 had crossed my path certain times growing up, such as when learning about Pokémon news in Pokémon World or on serebii.net, or seeing the 3DS on BBC News after it debuted at E3 2010, and I've since gone back to watch older conferences, but I didn't really get what E3 was until I had spent some time here and watched my first E3 live. And E3 2016 was quite simply magical as my first E3 experience. PlayStation's E3 2016, 5 years on, remains by far and away my personal favourite E3 conference - and one of my favourite gaming conferences in general - simply because it was electric. I was learning new names and faces while Shawn Layden absolutely killed it on that stage, backed by the biggest trump card of them all in my opinion - a live orchestra conducted by Bear McCrearey, who live-scored many of the conference's trailers and demos, including the opening demo for God of War. It was a series I'd heard of, a character I'd seen many times before, but it blew me away. This was followed by the reveal of Days Gone (which looking back really could have quite easily been a Last of Us spin-off if Sony were going to place a massive emphasis on review scores and sales, but that's besides the point), then a release date trailer for The Last Guardian, a new trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn, the reveal of Detroit, that insane reveal trailer for Resident Evil 7, some great VR stuff (X-Wing VR Mission, Arkham, that hilarious XV VR trailer), the announcement of the Crash remasters, Kojima revealing himself and Death Stranding's reveal trailer, the Spider-Man reveal trailer, and then finally looping back around to a live demo of Days Gone. Insanely stacked, mostly killer and very, very little filler, and I remember smiling through most of it not having a point of reference for so much. I even remember reading up on some of the names on the stage after the conference, I really enjoyed learning more about the industry, and this show in particular is a standout to me not just in terms of content, but in that it kind of hooked me. This was followed a few days later by what is my favourite E3 trailer, hands down: I genuinely think I've watched that trailer hundreds of times, and every single time I get chills. It's the trailer that got me willing to buy a Switch without even really having the financial capacity to at the time (if anyone remembers, I actually did pre-order the Switch, Breath of the Wild, and a whole bunch of those amiibo before talking myself down a few weeks ahead of the Switch's launch; I went on to pick it up with my first salary after getting my first full-time job a few years later). What's fascinating about the trailer to me is that it starts out very quiet, but immediately captures your attention, showing you the different landscapes of Hyrule with the ambient sounds of the world accompanying some soft piano strokes, all before Link jumps off that ledge. The freedom of the game is instantly on show, so many of its different mechanics and systems are highlighted relatively quickly one after another, and then the music - that erhu! - just kicks in after that split second of silence and darkness, and immediately sends your hairs standing on end. It's mesmerising. I think a massive part of it for me is that it captures a vibe that I've only otherwise experienced in Princess Mononoke, one of my favourite films; there's some weird blend of melancholy, hope, and natural wonder that only these two pieces of media have ever managed to capture for me. Crazy part is that despite being my favourite E3 trailer, it's not even my favourite trailer for this particular game! That honour belongs to the game's Switch Presentation trailer (which might be my favourite game trailer). What really put the bow on that E3 for me though was Nintendo Treehouse, just watching them explore Hyrule in Breath of the Wild filled me with a sense of awe I think is rare to come by - that and the little bits of Pokémon Sun and Moon footage we were treated to. But I don't even think that Nintendo Treehouse was the best demo I've seen at E3, either, because I think Square Enix absolutely knocked their demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake out of the park at E3 2019. JRPG's are long, so from what I've watched at E3 are something of a nightmare to demo, and there was probably more pressure on this demo than any other I've watched at E3. And they killed it. Excellently paced and coordinated, it answered a lot of questions about what the game was going to be in comparison to the first game, what would be carrying over in terms of general gameplay, what wouldn't, and a whole lot more. I really hope we see something similar for XVI at some point! So, yeah, E3. It means a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for me is one of the most exciting times of the year, even if the number of attendees and overall quality of the show has been on the decline as of late. Not to be hyperbolic, but I genuinely look forward to it more than I do my birthday. I've questioned myself before on this - isn't it a bit sad to be excited for a bunch of adverts? - but I think it's okay, because it's something I genuinely care about. Over the last 5 years, gaming has become something I'm incredibly passionate about, whether that be learning more about how they're made, writing about them and sharing my thoughts on here, and above all else, playing them. I've even booked next week off - a combination of E3, the Euro's, new game releases, and just being a bit burned out at work - and have started up my typical E3 tradition of going back and watching conferences to perpetuate my excitement (which, as you can see, seems to be working). This all brings me to the actual reason I wanted to start this thread ahead of this weekend: I wanted to hear about everyone else's experiences with E3. When did you first hear or read about E3? When was the first time you watched an E3 live? What are some of your favourite E3 moments or trailers? Is there a standout E3 for you? A standout conference in particular? Which E3 were you most excited going into? On the other hand, are there any moments, E3's, or conferences which stand out to you as being particularly dreadful? Which game do you think demoed best at E3? Have there been any moments where E3 has unexpectedly crossed over into your day-to-day in one way or another, such as through a colleague or seeing it covered on the news? Have any of you attended E3? For those who haven't - would you want to attend E3? Is there a game that was revealed at E3 which has since been cancelled that you'd most want to see be realised? Do/did you have any E3 traditions? Is there a particular outlet or personality you would seek out during E3, either for coverage or their own impressions/reactions? Is there still a game you wish to see announced at E3? And what do you think the future of E3 holds?

13 minutes of gameplay from IGN's Summer of Play:

Confirmed times for both the PC Gaming Show and Future Games Show ahead of Sunday 13th, which are forming a double-hitter. The bad news is that despite Monday being WIDE OPEN, the PC Gaming Show starts at 22:30 BST, and the Future Games Show at 00:00 BST (yeah, midnight, for some reason). Gearbox are having their showcase at 22:00 BST on Saturday 12th, which follows Devolver Digital's event at 21:30 BST (which I somehow missed them announcing before?), which in turn seems to be directly following Ubisoft Forward, which we already knew started at 20:00 BST - so a solid two and a half hours there. If I'm remembering right Randy Pitchford has something big to announce, but nice to see Gearbox bring his magic back up Does anyone else hear Geoff Keighley's boss music?

Is this because of what I thought of Ratchet & Clank? Because I stand by it! While the timing of this might suggest E3, I've been keeping my hopes related to this quiet for the last few months simply because of the 35th anniversary being next year, so even if it is coming, I expect this to be announced towards the end of the year or next year rather than this weekend (depending on where XVI, Forspoken - not FF but still AAA and by a related team - and that other rumoured FF title end up landing). Honestly, Square Enix's wording for this weekend's E3 event has me a little nervous that we might not see that much from Final Fantasy as it is. Rumoured title aside, we already know about XVI, so if it was going to be shown here, why wouldn't they tell us it was going to be here like they did with VII Remake? And then there's the whole thing about it being PlayStation exclusive, so it could be saved for their potential event this summer...someone make this madness end

So I had to get my head straight and do some digging, because I was thinking the same thing, but they also seem to have their fingers in a lot of pies over at Square Enix. After looking into it more, the impression that I'm getting is that Team Asano work in the capacity of producers rather than key developers on projects, because since Octopath Traveler, in terms of major releases (speaking to their console work rather than anything they've touched on mobile) they've worked on Bravely Default II, and I assume, are currently working on Project Triangle Strategy, however it's worth noting that Octopath Traveler was developed by both S-E and Acquire, and for Bravely Default II the main developer cited is Claytechworks, with Team Asano being cited as producers in the announcement trailer (link to timestamp in trailer). Similarly, Team Asano's logo was featured prominently at the end of the Octopath Traveler reveal (link to timestamp in trailer) back at the Switch Presentation in January 2017. What I find interesting is that the Project Triangle Strategy reveal trailer made no mention of Team Asano at all, nor did it feature their logo, instead opting to go with the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer), which is peculiar to me because their other works have gone out of their way in their reveals to state that they were being made by Team Asano, their logo remains what it was before on their Facebook page - so we know they haven't rebranded to be 'Team HD-2D' - and we know that Team Asano is involved based on this post on their Facebook page and this interview which cites Toyoma Asano as the game's producer. This brings us onto the Dragon Quest III Remake, which also had no mention of Team Asano, but did carry the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer). Unlike Project Triangle Strategy, there is nothing to directly confirm Asano is actually working on this project, however given the HD-2D branding, I think it's a fair bet to say that they'll involved in some capacity - and I think that capacity is that they will be producers on the project, with the key developers either being the Dragon Quest team (who are also in Square Enix's Creative Business Unit II with Team Asano) or some third party studio (as was the case on Asano's earlier projects). I'd lean towards it being the Dragon Quest team, considering just how much say that team has on their key projects (and also considering how haphazardly Horii shared that they were looking at remaking I and II also, which I don't think he'd say if it was being worked on by someone else), but that's just my own guess. In fact, all of Team Asano's major releases have been developed by external teams up to this point (the original Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer were both developed by Silicon Studio), which leads me to believe very strongly that they are also producers on Project Triangle Strategy and that development will be helmed by a third party. I don't want to sound like I'm undermining how much work Team Asano does as producers, but with Bravely Default II releasing and announcing both Project Triangle Strategy and the Dragon Quest III Remake this year, my best guess would be that while they might support in development in some way - likely the implementation of their engine and realising games in their particular style - their main purpose may currently be to oversee upcoming HD-2D projects, which could be why we haven't seen their name on these two new projects, but have seen the HD-2D branding. And I would like to believe that this is the case, because it would be a very smart move by Square Enix. And just to throw some fuel on the fire, while I don't think this strengthens the arguments for Final Fantasy HD-2D remakes, the first two games Toyoma Asano served as the main producer on were the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV DS remakes, the two games renamed weirdly in the app stores. I really don't think it means anything, but found it quite funny! Also on the topic of funny and totally unrelated to this topic, adding those links to the trailers has taught me one thing: Team Asano absolutely uses the same person to direct their trailers. Other than the Octopath Traveler reveal, where it happens at the end of the trailer, the reveals of Bravely Default II, Project Triangle Strategy, and the Dragon Quest III Remake trailer all have a transition at the 0:27/0:28 mark to show a logo (either Team Asano's or HD-2D's) Honestly, I'll take this or HD-2D remakes, I don't mind which - so long as one is on the way, S-E, or I swear! There's a charm to their sprites in I - VI which is absolutely destroyed by the most widely available versions currently, based on the mobile ports, and it's why I bought the games on the app store and then added them to my NES and SNES Classics. Heck, I even think there's a bit of charm lost to the sprites in the Dragon Quest III Remake with it being HD-2D too - though it's still undeniably easy on the eye and battles look particularly gorgeous - and looking at images of the different versions, I think the SFC sprites are probably the strongest, followed by the GBC ones. I really think it's all in the eyes; the simpler they are when they come to sprites (generally), the more likely I am to enjoy them.

I think it comes from a well-meaning place. He's a respected journalist, a hype man of sorts for the entire industry, and in the case of The Game Awards, wants to see games recognised for the distinct art form that they are - and their creators too. I think back to his Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart interview from last year's Opening Night Live for Gamescom and you can see him getting excited while still pushing for more than he knows he should, and I think it's commendable what he does for the industry as a whole. The Game Awards continues to get bigger and bigger every year, he consistently lands some massive reveals, my only real issue is that - as a hype man and organiser with high standing in the community - he ends up hyping all events up equally, to the point that you seriously can't know what to expect. As for E3, let's not forget that Geoff walked last year mainly because of the details of many planned attendees getting leaked, when many were getting up in arms over the show as it was. Summer Game Fest from the beginning was supposed to be a way to keep track of what was going on in traditionally the biggest time of the year for games media, and highlighting other announcements (such as Unreal Engine 5, Crash Bandicoot 4, etc., last year). I think it's a bit sneaky to mention E3 in the Summer Game Fest calendar, but it's kind of the original point of it being a hub for these events, and I can't blame him for doing it really.

Does this mean what I think and pray it means? Why else would you need to differentiate between 3D remakes of what were 2D games, unless...HD-2D or 2D remakes of the original games are in the works? Right? RIGHT?! Please please please please please, S-E, don't toy with my emotions. A Final Fantasy I - VI Collection is the main thing I've been asking for these last few years, but I'll gladly take some remakes instead

The base Home Circuit set is down to £55.15 on Amazon UK for anyone still interested in picking one up

We'll see how this all plays out for Microsoft over the next few years, but they haven't even had their first true wave of exclusive first party games consistently release as a result of their purchases, and so I think it still remains to be seen just how well they can actually curate Game Pass and it's content, let alone match PlayStation and Nintendo in terms of the general quality of their first party output. I expect there to be growing pains, what with how many studios they now have, just in terms of internal structuring and adjusting the release schedule to make room for everything. I think it's honestly more important for them now to actually start getting games out of the door rather than picking up more studios, because it's going to backfire massively if these now first party games come out and we end up with a few duds in a row, because then people will start being nervous about the acquisitions that they're still in the process of making (and likewise, the studios they're looking to acquire might start getting nervous too). PlayStation seriously needs to get a move on with picking up Bluepoint, because I think it would be silly if Xbox weren't looking to acquire a studio of that calibre. I don't think PlayStation need to wait until their next game, potentially a new IP, to prove themselves. They should've bought them three years ago after Shadow of the Colossus!

Trailer for Thursday's Summer Game Fest Kickoff: And some more details on the show from Keighley: I really, really hope there's one thing I come away from this wanting to check out that we don't already know about, and that it flows reasonably well. The Game Awards get better year on year in my eyes, but ONL at Gamescom last summer was one of the worst gaming shows I've ever seen.

Had my mind somewhat blown this morning, as it turns out Demon's Souls in fact wasn't my first From Software game! After the recent update out of the blue to the PS3, I checked the Store as I'm interested in getting the games I want for the system digitally sooner rather than later, mainly wanting to look at Beyond Good & Evil HD's price. Yeah, I don't know if they've done this on purpose, and I know it wasn't great before, but that PS3 Store is now somehow slower than before, and even bringing up the menu to turn off the console or controller runs slow with it in the background, registering button inputs with a very noticeable delay. Naturally, this has got me wanting to get a list of games I want on the system and maybe just spend some time listening to a podcast as everything slowly gets bought and downloaded, so I looked up the list of PS2 Classics on the PS3 on Wikipedia. Nothing was really taking my fancy as I scrolled through, and I eventually came across The Adventures of Cookie & Cream - made by From Software? Obviously that must be pre-Souls, but something that sounds so innocent by them caught my eye, and so I had to look it up. Turns out? That's what the game is called in North America. Over here and in Japan, it got released as... ...Kuri Kuri Mix! I played this back on the PS2 with my younger sister, and it was one of those games we picked up extremely cheap in the Used section at GAME. For a game aimed at kids, I can remember it at the time feeling bland and a bit difficult to make your way through at times, and was by no means a good game. We'd often play it for a couple of hours, making very little progress, and end up swapping over to something else, but it truly melts my mind that this was in fact my first From Software game. It's kind of got me curious to get it from my parents' and hook up the PS2 now! It's got me curious - are there any games that anyone here has come across where they played it through only to be surprised by the developers or people involved?

Finally got around to sitting down and going through my notes on the game, so I've added general tips and notes on the recruitment guide (which can get confusing at times), including some info on permanently missable characters, to the first post. I've also added a few for Suikoden too, but I'm sure I'm forgetting some for both, so will likely end up adding more to those in the future (such as canon name options, etc.). A couple of weeks have passed and I'm still listening to the soundtrack a whole lot and thinking back fondly on my time with Suikoden II. I'm not sure if I'll get to Suikoden III anytime soon, mainly because there are some other chunky JRPG's I want to get to first, but I'm also not even sure if it'll be the next Suikoden game that I play! While it never releasing in the west means I'll have to depend on fan translations, and I won't be able to transfer data from Suikoden II which is a massive shame, I think I'm going to find a way to play both volumes of Genso Suikogaiden (which runs concurrently with Suikoden II, and also sets up III), a set of visual novels written by Murayama and with some music composed by Miki Higashino (making this truly her last work on the series) released in 1999 and 2001 in Japan for the first PlayStation. Think I'll probably track down a PlayStation Classic to add them too to be honest!

I can't even remember what event stream it was that I watched him on (maybe SEGA or something related to Square Enix?), but J-Mon is such a wholesome presenter for some of these events, so glad to see him on this! Also, the start of E3 this year just feels really blurred, more than in previous years - I guess it's a bit of a hangover from last year? We've got E3 proper kicking off with Ubisoft next Saturday, but between now and then there's also: - the Guerrilla Collective at 16:00 BST today - the Battlefield reveal on Wednesday (though these are always kind of meh) - the Summer Game Fest Kickoff on Thursday And then other things like the Koch Media stream, IGN Expo, another Guerrilla Collective event and more scattered in too. I want to say I really hope they keep it limited to this month, as I think last summer was a bit of a nightmare, but we already know EA has decided to throw an event in towards the end of next month so

Honestly though, that's good to hear, fair play to you for selling it on! I know that if I were in your position I would probably have just hung onto it and let it collect dust if we weren't having a great time with it, but would almost feel a sense of guilt for not using it and some sense of buyer's remorse, so end up just hoping that a personal dream game would come down the line, however far away that may be. For me, I've got plenty to play as it is, so don't see myself picking up a Series X at any point in the immediate future (especially with a new Switch model on the way), but I do think I'll end up picking one up in the next year or two. I haven't played Forza since Motorsport 4 and the first Horizon, before I got my PS4 some 5+ years ago, but it's a standard of racing game feel that I genuinely miss and would want to return to; I've never played a Halo to completion; and other games which will surely be exclusive, like Starfield, have me really intrigued too. It is weird though, because with Game Pass, I almost want to not get physical games when I do get an Xbox (despite going out of my way to grab them for other consoles I own), so maybe deep down I'm waiting for a digital edition Series X. Either way, it seems like a lot of you are enjoying your Xbox experiences and fingers crossed that Xbox deliver for you all at E3!

I don't think CeX allow you to trade in dogs

Yeah I agree. I think the game in question was due an update anyways as it was meant to be releasing this year and we hadn't heard anything for a good while, so I kind of expected to see it at E3 and to get this update there. I get why @Glen-i wouldn't outright share it though, as some people online (not necessarily here) are sensitive to anything and everything, and it feels like absolutely everything is "spoiling" something these days, which is...silly. I know there have been times where I throw things in spoiler tags and I genuinely have to question whether it's necessary or not, but there are other times where I enjoy the discussion here that comes with discussing a potential leak (such as that apparent recent Final Fantasy-related leak), or there are instances where the game is so big that as much as I hate seeing it leak, it's everywhere and so would feel weird to not talk about it (ahem, Elden Ring). A lot of these spread so quickly (and there are so many that aren't true as it is!) that even if you stop diverting your eyes for a moment you might come across one. Personally, in this instance, I don't think it's that big of a deal as it's a slip up on the publisher's side (so not really a leak as such), and would be the kind of thing I think is worth discussing. But I don't know, it's possible that someone else here will strongly disagree with me on that. It might seem silly, but I don't know, maybe it would be worth having a discussion at some point about what we're comfortable having out wide in the open in threads. I feel like it's generally handled well and people know when something might be bigger and worth throwing behind some spoiler tags (for instance, the actually massive and legitimate E3 leaks like the ones we got in 2017), but there are times where it seems like a select audience is interested and foaming at the mouth for news and that discussion, and if you're a fan of a series then you're probably there with your ear to the ground anyways (such as with Final Fantasy or Elden Ring). I think the biggest ones which we probably should throw behind spoiler tags are things like leaks that actually seem legitimate going into big events such as E3 or The Game Awards, mainly for the bigger publishers, and especially Nintendo, just seeing as that is where most of the conversation here naturally drifts towards anyways and how they have events throughout the year. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it a bit, but I also don't want to set a precedent where I myself am going too far, throw anything and everything behind a spoiler tag, and others feel like they need to do the same, so we end up missing out on worthwhile discussion (or we do have a worthwhile discussion, but it's all hidden behind spoiler tags anyways for something that isn't that big of a deal).

One of the supposed leakers that broke the news of a Pro announcement being pre-E3 now has reason to be unsure about that actually being the case: It's going to be interesting to see how this shakes out in the end. If it is coming and aiming for the end of this year, you'd imagine production would be starting soon, so the later a reveal is pushed back the higher the risk will be of details leaking. And you'd imagine third parties might want to share details of any games they have in store for it sooner rather than later. But it's Nintendo. No idea what they have up their sleeves

Berserk volumes have finally arrived

You and @Ronnie forgot GOTY 2020: Jump Rope Challenge!

Rebrand to Babylon Rises confirmed?!?! But seriously, curious to see if Platinum are still attached. You'd hope so, but it's been a looooooooong minute or two since we last saw this game.

The ESA has - finally - shared their E3 schedule (courtesy of Kotaku) as fan registration went live today. The missing piece of the puzzle was Square Enix, who look set to present on Sunday 13th (exact time to be confirmed). Over on ResetEra, Keighley has provided some clarification on some of the other publishers here: I'll update the original post with dates and times once we get Square Enix confirmed. They would not have been my guess to be the company that left us waiting the longest! EDIT: 5 minutes later... Well, guess it's time to go edit that post. Probably my most anticipated show this year alongside Nintendo's Direct. XVI? The rumoured Final Fantasy Origin? Hype EDIT 2: oh shoot, Babylon's Fall isn't dead! No mention of XVI. Don't toy with my emotions S-E!

Game Informer have put up an interview with the game's director Mathijs de Jonge and narrative director Benjamin McCaw: Key takeaways: Free climbing was one of the things I wanted to see the most with this game (not nearly enough games have tried something like it since Breath of the Wild), so I'm really excited to see what they do with it! And what they mention about micro-stories and more densely populating the world with things to do has my attention. I enjoyed the combat with the machines in the first game, but it really felt empty. I'd love to be able to remove as much of the HUD as I can, like I did with Breath of the Wild, and then just come across things naturally instead, and I think a world with more things to do might help lend this game to that. In Julien Chièze's interview, they also confirmed that there will be a 60 fps Performance Mode on PS5. And PlayStation have also just put up a tweet spotlighting the game's composers:

Yeah, considering that we got footage of the first game at E3 2016 and it released just under two years later, but didn't get any footage last year, it always seemed too good to be true. I want to say that I can't blame them, because I can understand from a business perspective wanting to do that to try to drive demand, but did anyone ever doubt that a God of War sequel was on its way? I feel like there was enough reason for me to pick up a PS5 after the rest of the presentation (to be fair last summer The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima tried to kill my base PS4, so I was always onboard for getting in early on next-gen hardware) but everyone instantly new what the "one more thing" was because it was the only major PlayStation IP from the last 5 years that we would have feasibly expected to see close out a show that was already pretty stacked with quality first party content (not talking specifically next-gen exclusive here). Yeah, not too surprising given their history, think it's a pivot to do with not being able to sell through what they initially forecast as a result of production delays. It's been a slow trickle of next-gen exclusives so far, and there are still some good games releasing for last gen, but yeah, my concern is with the design of these games now. No flying mounts in Forbidden West, the Bifrost paths are here to stay from God of War, as are I imagine a lot of small gaps to squeeze between. The small gaps are going to be the roughest part for me personally, never been a fan of them. It's a shame, but I'm not too fussed. Again, I was pretty confident my PS4 would kick the bucket if I didn't jump up to PS5. I honestly want to see some more "smaller" AAA projects at this point that end up exclusive (such as Returnal, which was a big risk), as I can understand why they'd keep other titles cross-gen, like what we've had so far, but maybe just a bit more frequent. As much as I wanted to see some things change in existing IP, seeing new IP built from the ground up for next-gen, or taking some really cool things like Rift Apart is doing and focusing on those, is what I want to see more of: games explicitly focused on delivering a next-gen experience. Even if Ragnarök and Forbidden West did end up being exclusive, I think we would have ended up asking why there are still small gaps to squeeze between, and if a PS4 really couldn't run a lower fidelity version of this. I mean, I loved it, but take away the crazy quick load times for Demon's Souls and adjust for a lower asset resolution and I feel that easily could have been released for PS4 too.

We are apes with lizard brains who have developed in search of that dopamine kick. Dread it. Run from it. Achievements still arrive.

Yeah, agree with a lot of what has been said so far about trophies/achievements. They can add to the experience if done right, making you try things out in a game that you might not have otherwise, and can give you a great reason to keep playing after that initial run through the game, whether it be in the form of New Game+/another playthrough, challenging you to beat certain parts of the game in a certain time (such as races or speedruns), or in the post-game. On the flip side, as rightly mentioned by most again, there are a lot of cases where I think trophies aren't really as considered as they need to be. What I think really needs to be considered is the game's flow and design. Some of the ones in the Uncharted games that I've seen (kill X number of enemies hanging from a ledge, kill X number with X weapon), while shaking things up, actively go against the game's flow of being a fast-paced, linear, story-driven adventure, because you need to slow yourself down and go out of your way to do some of these when everything about the game is Naughty Dog screaming at you to keep going forwards. Also, in those games anyways, there are collectibles that already make you go out of your way and slow down to fully explore a location, which is a better example I think, as it makes sense contextually in the world of the game and doesn't get in the way of what the game is aiming for. I can't see Nintendo themselves pushing for trophies/achievements, but if someone came along willing to put that work in for the infrastructure then I think they might, and something I was thinking about a little while back was a unified achievement system between brands. We know that Discord is coming to PlayStation, they have a working relationship with Xbox, and if they got onboard with Nintendo, then I think a unified player achievement system which counts all of your trophies/achievements/Stars (that's totally what Nintendo achievements would have, right? Mario's Stars, Moons, and Suns?) towards one profile would be really neat, and I think it would be at that point that Nintendo might actually consider adding them in. At the same time, though, I can see why Nintendo aren't seemingly trying to push this in their games. I think of Breath of the Wild and how they handled getting all of the Korok seeds in that game, and not only is it clear that they don't care about completionists anyways, there's so much to collect in that game and Odyssey that it would enter the realm of stupidity in pushing players to pursue that. Which makes me think that not having them focus on the actual collectibles involved in all games might be best, and instead they can focus on pointing you towards cool things that you can find in the game instead; for example, finding Captain Toad in every world in Odyssey, or finding the Lord of the Mountain in Breath of the Wild, as these games are very much about exploration in their levels as is. For something like Xenoblade Chronicles I think it would be silly to ask players to complete all of the quests, considering just how many are missable, but quests do play a very active part in levelling you up in that game, so instead of asking players to do all of them, just point them towards completing X amount, which they will likely do playing the game anyways. Feel like I'm waffling now, but point is, I think if Nintendo ever do get an achievements system, I would be disappointed if they didn't put more thought into it than most other developers. Actively pushing players to 100% Breath of the Wild is an insane ask, but pointing them towards cool things in the world (heck, you could make it like Talkatoo in Super Mario Odyssey or something, so that players don't need to actively look at their achievements to see what's next, and in something like Breath of the Wild it could point you towards things in your general area) I feel would suit Nintendo's design much better. But I don't think they'll do it just because they want to, I think there has to be someone else involved for them to even consider it.