Julius

To watch the world burn Optimistic take: free upgrade. Pessimistic take: upgrade will be bundled with Factions.

Aaaaaaand I guess I know what me and my friends are playing on Fridays this summer It looks great!

All four clips in one video which will undoubtedly be taken down: That door opening animation seals it for me

Would have to imagine that other than the recording of the footage itself, there's the potential that the trailer itself could be an older trailer, COVID and event delays/cancellations considered. That being said, I still think it's intriguing, especially the idea of a From game in an open world and riding around/fighting on horseback. Oh and that shot of the steep and wide stairway into the archway gives me major 4-1 vibes from Demon's Souls, and reminds me of just how much I hated that black skeleton I still have every intention of playing Dark Souls next, but I think it makes a lot of sense from a marketing perspective, as getting into a trilogy (especially one of the length and relative difficult of the Souls games) can be a tough thing to sell people on. Open world (to be fair I think this is a tough think to convey in trailers a lot of the times anyway, especially depending on your world's topography) + Dark Souls spiritual successor (in that it's returning to a medieval kind of vibe) + the potential for some kind of kingdom/Nemesis system from the little we've heard and seen about the lore from the first trailer and press release, obviously the pull of GRRM sticking his name on this, etc., I think it's going to be interesting to see how it all comes together in the end.

Fair Also fair! I thought I'd stick it in a spoiler tag just in case anyone would rather wait until the trailer releases, regardless of if the apparent leak is true or not, but I did read it thinking that other than that one thing, it could even describe Demon's Souls

Well, there it is, that's pretty cool! Also something I found funny about all these feudal ties is that the aspect ratio changes in battles, similar to how Ghost of Tsushima did with its standoffs. Not saying it's borrowed from that game necessarily, just found it funny that the game becomes serious in battles I'm actually not totally sure on this. While I don't expect absolutely no NPC's or other settlements in the game, the way they've set it up could be a way to contextually justify only have a very small number of settlements and very, very few trainer battles (if any). I also think it largely depends on how long they're trying to make the game (if the focus is purely on exploration and catching Pokémon to complete the Dex, for instance, then I don't think that an abundance of trainers is necessarily required, though I could still see there being an "evil team" of sorts), but I see this more as an experimental stepping stone towards their vision for Gen IX in trying to realise the core tenets of Pokémon in an open world environment, and it's there where we'll probably see the usual abundance of trainers, settlements, etc. Not basing it on the trailer as such, just a hunch more than anything with how they seem to be marketing it with the town being your base of operations. What I would really like to see is some town-building based on Dex progression and quests

VGC are reporting that they've seen the leaked footage of the Elden Ring trailer floating around. I've popped their description of the footage in the spoiler tag below: Exciting stuff. Surely we'll see something soon?

Don't think it really warrants its own thread, but I know a few here were interested in the Panzer Dragoon remake, and it seems like Square Enix have got Forever Entertainment onboard for some remake projects with them. Should be interesting to see what comes of it!

On the one hand, yeah, this was always going to happen. The ESA sucks, and after everyone and their mother learned how to pivot to their own online presentations, it was only a matter of time. So E3 might finally be as good as dead? Though I could see them trying to bring it back once COVID is no longer/less of a factor (and probably fail, too). On the other hand, I hope companies learned from last year - and Keighley's Summer of Gaming in particular - that spreading things out so much isn't great from a consumer perspective: too many events with the same presentations/trailers, not as many eyes on it, etc. If the big companies could just turn around and collectively say "we're all going to talk about the second half of the year in June" with set dates for presentations, I feel like it'd just be better from a numbers and consumer perspective. But we'll see. Also, add Bandai Namco to the list of publishers wanting to do their own thing...

For me, I've pronounced it that way ever since I was a little kid, when reading up on Arceus for the first time on serebii.net and elsewhere back in the day, and I still remember how ridiculously long it took the Pokémon Company to acknowledge it's existence (and I loved how Pokémon World took little jabs at them in their news section for it). There aren't many times off the top of my head arc- is pronounced with a soft c, though I'll admit I'm a bit tired so don't want to commit to saying that it doesn't at all. The dude also has a literal arc on his back, so that's what I stuck with. For my friends, it was rarely the "Arkeus" vs "Arseus" discussion (though it definitely brought us kids a laugh), and more "Arkeus" vs "Arkayus". I didn't really care what they said and just stuck with what I thought from the start What set this in stone for me as the "right" way to pronounce it, in terms of anything official, was the Arceus and the Jewel of Life trailer. Dubbed Pokémon movie title narration has always been an instantly blinding wave of nostalgia for me, I can't tell you how many times I've watched some of those trailers. Found this funny tidbit on Bulbapedia when just looking up the origins of its name on the English dub pronunciation which I thought was worth sharing: Just want to add, I think it's fascinating when it comes to naming legendary Pokémon. You don't really think about it, but they have to come up with something which has an almost larger than life meaning in most languages, and can be tied to various origins from around the world (and the same goes for the design philosophy behind them too).

I watched both seasons of Assassination Classroom over Christmas, and absolutely loved it too, so good to hear you're enjoying it. Some of those OP's are great too! Season 2 is one hell of a ride

Heck yeah, enjoy! Also: happy birthday!

Some new info coming from Famitsu about the Yuffie DLC: Hype.

Looks like we'll be getting an update on this soon. Jeff Grubb on the GB Decides podcast had this to say: And Jason Schreier has just jumped onboard too: So...Soon™.

Yeah, because Pokémon Legends: Arceus rolls off the tongue half of the fans still have no idea if they're pronouncing it right! I think, seeing as they're going for a mythical Pokémon this time around, that's what we'd see moving forwards if the Legends series continues, so a return to Johto would probably mean a Legends: Celebi title instead? And I mean I'd be down to go back to Johto now we're getting the chance to go back to Sinnoh. I'm just saying, but a time-travelling game to some extent (the Celebi aspect, even if it's just in an ancient Ilex Forest) and the history of the region (Burned/Brass Tower, Bell Tower, Whirl Islands, Kimono Girls, Kurt and his berry balls et al) would be awesome. Also, and I said it before: Legends games set in Unova for the ancient war and the original dragon story, and one set in Kalos for their war, would be awesome. That being said, I kind of expect them to have a return to Johto be the next pair of Let's Go games, though it depends entirely on where they're at by that point. I could honestly see them being outsourced to third parties if that's something they continue with after the Diamond & Pearl remakes, too, which would buy them plenty of time to figure out and execute on Gen IX (which they could feasibly push all the way to 2024 if they play their cards right). Back to the starters, though, I think the really simply reason we're getting Cyndaquil and Oshawott in particular is because, after we get the Diamond & Pearl remakes, they belong to the starting trios next in line for remakes. The reason they chose these three specifically from their trios might have to do with lore and the inspiration for their designs, but it's been a long time since they've been the focus of marketing campaigns, so I just think it makes financial sense above all else. Rowlet, of course, is the exception to this, but it being part of the 20th anniversary celebrations in a big way and it honestly just being more marketable, in my opinion, than Chespin, is the likely reason it got the nod over it. Oh, and also, I almost expect more Johto links in this game, just from a lore perspective, because of the Sinjoh Ruins event we got in HeartGold & SoulSilver, and how that ties Sinnoh, Johto, and Arceus all together in a way which this game could very easily build upon.

VGC reporting that Google backed out of proposals from both Kojima and Yu Suzuki. I'm sorry, but this is absolutely hilarious to think about. Can you imagine the absolute meltdown from these projects having been exclusive to Stadia, forcing the hands of fans to try the system out?

I don't think anyone's assuming they're infallible, but from the little I've experienced of the graphic novels, I do think it's great to have them on board. What I would say about them leaving the Netflix project due to creative differences is the fact that they chose to leave, rather than being forced out and "creative differences" being the nebulous reason Netflix points to (like we've seen with plenty of potential Star Wars directors since Disney's takeover), gives me a confidence that they understand just how important TLA is to so many people, and aren't comfortable sticking around on a project they're not all-in on. The Netflix project could still turn out great, but the potential of what they could do on Paramount+ is much more exciting to me. I view it the same way I view the Star Wars sequels: should George Lucas have been the only storyteller, and the final decision maker on every story decision? No. But I do think his vision - and an overarching narrative - could have helped it immensely. While I agree that The Legend of Korra isn't as strong as The Last Airbender, it's worth pointing out that it's so disjointed almost entirely because of Nickelodeon's production decisions, rather than the storytelling skills of Mike and Bryan. With The Last Airbender they had the overarching narrative and character arcs planned out, whereas the end point of The Legend of Korra kept getting pushed back as Nickelodeon ordered more and more from them (it was supposed to be a 12 episode miniseries, then got expanded to 26 episodes, and then later 52) while production was going on, and like I said before, in the latter stages the show got shifted over to the Nickelodeon website from the channel, so clearly they weren't given the backing and support that I think the quality of TLA would justify. Heck, they ran up against obstacles from the start on that show, because Nickelodeon didn't want a female lead. I think the escalation of climaxes of each season for these potential end points (Air, Spirits, and Balance) - and each season feeling so separated from the ones around them - shows that they ended up a little hamstrung creatively as a result. Don't get me wrong, there were absolutely some weird decisions made along the way - such as with the example you have - but them having more control, support, and creative freedom, and being able to actually plan something from beginning to end, is a good thing in my eyes. I do appreciate you coming from the other side of it though, because I think it makes for decent discussion, and I think having some reasonable level of doubt is justified. Will Nickelodeon continue to give them the support and freedom here that they're stating they will, or will they get that for one project (the film) before potentially going back on it? I suppose the proof will be in the pudding when a few things from this have been aired, and we're either hooked or somewhat indifferent. I'm very excited, but I am cautious, and I think there is a lot of pressure on whatever story they choose to tell first. I'd love to see more stories about the earlier Avatars - for instance, the second Avatar meeting Wan's Avatar Spirit must have been one weird ride, and Kyoshi just seems a natural pick for her own show at some point - but there's also a lot of space to fill between TLA and TLOK (potential graphic novel adaptations, but also original stuff, like the adventures of adult Aang which we got teases of in TLOK), and of course they could always continue Korra's story or move onto the next Avatar. Heck, one of my favourite parts of TLA is the political intrigue and history of the Fire Nation, so they could totally go back a few hundred years and set up different "Houses"/Families and I would be all about it. Fingers crossed things go smoothly!

Just to clarify my thoughts on the art style a bit further: I'm not writing the whole thing off, but it's the way the NPC's and player character look which is off to me. That's the part to me which looks like a mobile game, they've gone the chibi route, but completely the wrong way in my eyes. Individual fingers and thumbs? A camera angle where, from behind, you can't see the player character's body? Those clown feet? Watch Lucas's waddle towards Dawn in Jubilife and tell me that it doesn't make you shudder. Legitimately looks like some knock-off Playmobil figure. The lighting and shading on Lucas in that battle when he throws Piplup out, on buildings, and just generally on structures and objects in the environment looks so...off to me. It's such a shame, because I think it looks it's best when you jump into a battle. Also, no-one has mentioned it, but they managed to pull off the Dialkia statue in Eterna in 3D, and I think that's the highlight of the whole trailer for me.

This was a rollercoaster of emotions Totally agree. I've always been a bit confused about how online discussion often boils down to you either being vehemently for or against something, as if you can't be happy for others getting something they've been waiting for, indifferent, or just accepting of it. It's funny sometimes too, because it's clear you might be coming from the same place as someone else (such as a love for Pokémon) but have different perspectives on things, and obviously that's okay. Does the Sinnoh remakes getting shafted (when compared to previous remakes) hurt? Sure. Will I probably moan about it until they hopefully share more details outlining that there's going to be some reason to play this rather than go back and play Platinum instead? Yeah, that's pretty likely. But I'm not going to shout louder than everyone else. More power to you if you're a fan of that art style, but the way it looks is just not for me. And do I care about any of those anniversary events for mobile apps they announced during this event? Not in the slightest. Totally stoked for anyone who enjoys them, though! As someone who dabbled (at best) with the original Pokémon Snap at a friend's house at some nebulous point in my past, I'm very excited for it, and I still think it looks better visually than any other 3D game in the franchise so far. It is a tough one to gauge, though, because it being Pokémon aside, like I think @MindFreak mentioned in that game's thread, I don't think beating your own high scores is as appealling these days to most players. Is it to do with attention spans or some of the near universal parts of modern game design, or a bit of both? I'm not quite sure, but I can see this game having a huge drop-off when it comes to player engagement after its release weekend, which I feel is a bit of a shame. Though it'll still seem like hotcakes, so I don't feel that bad. Though, as ever, a port of the original wouldn't hurt in helping to appreciate this either...

I think @Dcubed was implying that this is more the future of the series as a whole, and likely the general direction Gen IX will head in, rather than being the start of Gen IX itself. I'm inclined to agree with @Glen-i that this is a Gen VIII game simply because it lacks a new region and will likely lack new Pokémon, and it being so different to other games in the generation visually and in terms of its engine isn't much of an issue anymore, because that was thrown out of the window in Gen VII with the Let's Go games. Honestly, with this being so experimental and such a drastic change from what else we've had before it this Gen, I think the Let's Go games are the closest thing we can compare them to. It's an experiment, and I think they'll see how it does before it truly impacts the "real core series" games (honestly, the lines between core series games and generations are just becoming blurrier and blurrier). I do think that they were wise to brand it as its own subseries, "Legends", like they did with the Let's Go games, because it gives them space to pivot if it somehow, against all odds, manages to flop. If it does, they can just wave it away as being it's own subseries and not bringing much over to the "real core series" games, but either way, with Let's Go too, I think they really want to set Legends up as its own thing they can come back to (original dragon and the Ancient War in Unova next? And then the Kalos war after that? Heck, I'm down) and are using this as a testing ground at the moment for the more radical potential changes to the norm. The lack of settlements (seriously, what a great job they've done of contextualising an empty world ), the new rolling mechanics, lack of trainers, etc., isn't what I would expect to make its way over to the next generation of games, but rather the open world design philosophy, should it prove a success. Will it be as open as this appears to be striving for? I'm not totally sure, but I would imagine so. If we consider that they've got outsourced remakes coming later this year, this game at the start of next year, and the potential to plug another year or two up with the possibility of an Expansion Pass and/or Let's Go games set in Johto? Then they've effectively bought themselves until either 2023 or 2024 before we saw Gen IX, at which point I would be very, very surprised if it doesn't end up being a mix of more traditional mechanics (trainer battles, capture mechanics, etc.) with an open world like they're attempting to realise here. And the fact that this easily has the highest sales potential of any Pokémon games since the original games, on a Nintendo console which is destroying sales records, doesn't give me much confidence that Game Freak won't continue down this line of development moving forwards. I noticed that and loved it, and I also love that no-one knows how the Cyndaquil line and Typhlosion could fit in. Something I haven't seen mentioned here is the fact that Piplup will be available in the wild in Sinnoh for the first time in this game, at least going off this trailer. The fact that it isn't in the wild by the time we get to modern times Diamond & Pearl/their remakes to me suggests to me that it's either a victim of over-hunting as the Sinnoh region's choice of water-type starter Pokémon. And considering we're the ones making the first Sinnoh Dex...does this make us responsible?

Hell yes let's see him go off the deep end and slowly lose his sanity I did say reportedly and sure, it totally could be the case that they found an older actress than they found for Sokka. But when I look at the rest of Netflix's insanely big catalogue of shows, there is a whole lot of romantic triangle/drama stuff, so I don't think it's so crazy that they would lean harder into the Zutara angle (I mean, it's one way to make things different, that's for sure). As for remaking it, I suppose you could argue that, in itself, could be the issue with something like this: the original is almost universally beloved by its fans, is critically acclaimed, and has gained a massive following over the last few years in particular with very high expectations as a result of the original show's quality. Is that fair? Perhaps not, but I feel like it would have been more interesting if they focused on expanding the world, rather than retelling the story in a way which the original creators clearly won't interested in them following through on. I look at it almost like a Final Fantasy VII Remake situation...except, even if you didn't like that game and loved the original, it was doing a whole lot more than simply retelling and expanding on the original story. It's definitely a difficult and fine line to walk. I've always been somewhat wary of live-action remakes of animated content, simply because, unless it was down to budget constraints, there's a reason it was told in that medium. In Avatar's case, bending the elements is something they went with because not only was it a great way to express characters and their heritage, but the show had to be made in a way where fights could take place without blood being spilt and sharp weapons flying around, due to it airing on Nickelodeon. Some level of restraint is often a great thing when it comes to creativity, and I feel like they utilised the medium incredibly well. Hey, I hope the first attempt at adapting that story to live-action goes well, but if it doesn't - like with most remakes, I guess - there's still the original to fall back on. And yes it is the first attempt. I don't know what you're talking about. Totally agree. There's been some terrific 2D animation in the West over the last decade or so (immediately springing to my mind is Adventure Time and Over The Garden Wall), but simply not enough, and it's been tough seeing fewer and fewer 2D animated films from Western studios. You look at how anime has grown in popularity over the last few years, and how the Demon Slayer movie has destroyed much of the southeast Asian box office over the course of the last few months, and it's clear that there's an audience for quality storytelling in 2D animation. Thank goodness too! About the original stuff, don't get me wrong, I hope we see lots of original stuff too! It's just a lot easier to speculate about what we already have I guess plus, I do think - unless they already have something in mind and fully planned out, which in fairness is totally possible - it would likely have the fastest turnaround time. I was thinking of The Search trilogy in particular, and was thinking less of a dedicated series (though I guess a miniseries could work?) and more about a film adaptation of that story. It's one of the only graphic novel sets I've checked out from them (though this news certainly makes me want to go back and get to the others!), and it follows the thread left at the end of the main show regarding Zuko and his mother. I think it would make sense to adapt it for a number of reasons, the main one being because it serves as something of a continuation to the Last Airbender story, so you know the demand would be there from fans for it, and it would have an established audience. Also, originally it was actually pitched as a television movie, but Nickelodeon rejected it, which means that even if there might be some fat to trim from the print version, they likely have plans around still for that original television movie version. I know the Kyoshi graphic novels have been received really positively too, but I haven't read them yet, so can't comment on how well they might translate, but many - if not all, maybe? I'd have to fact check that - of the graphic novels had Michael and/or Bryan work on them. As for retreading stories already told, while you could consider it from that perspective, I think it's always worth considering the potential hurdles in other countries to get access to these graphic novels, and adapting these stories would get a lot of fresh eyes on the story. I don't think any ATLA fan who has already read a particular graphic novel would be against it (speaking from my experience with some of the Star Wars canon novels, graphic novels, and fully rigged episodes which haven't been adapted for The Clone Wars, I can tell you that most would probably be ecstatic about it), so long as that's not all they end up with, and by all means, it looks like there's - thankfully - plenty in the works! As for Toph vs Bumi, if I'm remembering right, that was from a comic and set in the third Book of ATLA, so I don't think it's a great example of what I mean, though I do agree that would be better off as a short if it was going to end up being adapted. I'm fairly sure that probably ended up in last year's anthology The Lost Adventures, where they collected a lot of those comics in one place, so yeah, definitely not suited to be it's own standalone story like some of the longer stories might be. Yeah, I feel like I've pretty much talked myself into catching up on the graphic novels and comic stuff now, though I'll try to save it until I'm caught up Attack on Titan S4 and get up-to-date with My Hero's manga!

I've been thinking about this a lot since watching the trailer last night, and...SAME! I think it's episodic? So I would have to imagine that that's why it's only being announced for mobile at the moment, I fully expect this to get a console version once it's complete, like we saw for XV Pocket Edition! And is it me or is it totally evocative of what we saw with the Sinnoh remakes today? Chibi/simplified character models in the overworld based strongly on the original look, yet jumps up to modern standards inside of battles? Found that super strange!

Yeah, definitely! For me all it did was remind me that they had a boat load of apps which they're making an absolute killing on.

Right, this is exactly how I feel. Does it have Platinum content at all, even if it's just a Delta Episode situation? Do we get a fully fledged Battle Frontier, or is it just the Battle Tower? How about Sinnoh forms, Z-Moves, Mega Evolutions, Gigantamax, etc.? I mentioned it in the Presents thread, but that music even sounds like the original MIDI music. We haven't seen the case covers, which I think is a bit odd, and might suggest that we get Primal Forms or something for Dialga and Palkia. But other than that extrapolation, I'm finding it difficult to see - so far - why you would wait for this instead of playing Platinum, besides QoL things like faster battle animations, being able to play it on a bigger screen, and visual updates like the better looking battles (I'm landing firmly on the side of the overworld and chibi models looking borderline like a mobile game).