Julius

@bob, listen to @Shorty! My Hero is awesome

PlayStation Destination, an event held by PlayStation to give retailers and insiders an idea of the year ahead, took place in Arizona over the last few days, and it seems some leaks have slipped through the cracks -- despite the NDAs in place. There's some pretty interesting stuff if the news coming out is accurate, but just in case people here don't want it spoiled and would rather learn about this when PlayStation plans to share this information with us, I'm going to throw the major points into the spoiler tag below.

The limited edition PS4 Pro they're putting out for this game looks insane!

Disney's Imagineers have put up a video which shows off their incredible animatronic work on Hondo Ohnaka, which will be coming to Galaxy's Edge:

Final trailer:

Also:

Beep boop. A 2019 release is still not totally off the cards...

Uh...I wasn't expecting DP remakes in Gen VII. We got FRLG in Gen III, HGSS in Gen IV, and ORAS in Gen VI; since ORAS, I've been under the assumption that they're aiming for remakes every other generation (one reason other than the pattern being that they won't run out of material to remake too quickly), so I've expected it to be coming in Gen VIII for a while now. At the very worst, the introduction of Let's Go might have pushed the games back a year, and though we are probably looking at this game coming after potentially the longest break between remakes, I think that Sinnoh in the Sword/Shield engine would be more than worth the wait. @Hero-of-Time @Shorty @Jimbob and others have mentioned the lack of Pokémon in the overworld, and that's something I've been thinking about too. I think it's something that could and should be an option which could be toggled (I think I mentioned this the other day) -- encounter rates in a specific area were probability based for random encounters prior to LGPE, and I would assume that the same is also true for spawn rates in LGPE. It's always nice to have options. What I've been thinking is that there a couple of things not present in this reveal that do still have a chance of being in the game: namely, Pokémon in the overworld and a controllable camera. Let me explain. If you'll recall, during the reveal for Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, Junichi Masuda promised that another core series title was in the works, saying something to the effect of it being aimed at more experienced/older fans (and likely the Japanese market). From their perspective, a return of random encounters was clearly seen as a desire of more experienced fans -- as much is made evident by their presence in yesterday's reveal. From a PR perspective, I think that such a stance makes sense, given how relatively poorly the Let's Go games sold in Japan when compared with the West and previous core series releases. If their aim was to get Japan and more experienced/older fans back onboard with yesterday's reveal, then I don't think that they had much to gain by showing Pokémon in the overworld -- and if it's an option which can be toggled, perhaps that's something best explained in a Q&A during their Pokémon Day celebrations this week, or a demo at E3 during Treehouse (they had one for Sun/Moon in 2016, so this doesn't seem too Farfetch'd to me). What's more, from a promotional perspective, if this game does have an option for this which can be toggled on and off, wouldn't it be best to turn it off when recording footage for a reveal such as this? It saves them the meticulous work of editing code to ensure that no new Pokémon are shown in an unplanned way, which could in turn worry other fans that there are no new Pokémon coming at all, or not common enough to be seen...it has the potential to open up a pretty big rabbit hole. What's more, it's clear to me that they wanted the focus to be on the Galar region and how it looked in-engine; perhaps they feel that Pokémon running around in the overworld would have only distracted from their focus (I know that I would have been). I think that more evidence of this is that we only see one (?) NPC in the entire reveal (even then, that was only to show how trainer battles would be started), and there's no way that the routes and towns/cities/settlements are nearly as empty as we saw them here; that beautiful Route 1 shot at the beginning of the trailer made it very clear to me that they they've pared the game's contents back a bit for this reveal. As for a controllable camera, though much more unlikely, I'm really struggling to think of a way in which they could have shown that off in the trailer in an effective way which clearly illustrates that there is now a controllable camera. This is our first look at these games, so the pans and wide shots of the environment and following the protagonist around were to be expected -- as I said before, there was a real focus on showing off the Galar region. The smooth movement of cameras suit the purpose of the reveal and the focus on the world, and even if they had the camera completely circle the protagonist in a third person view, I still think it would be too smooth to convey to us that the camera can be controlled this time around. Again, if this is in the game, it seems like something best saved for a Q&A or demo.

Could be. Though, I'm praying that we don't get a third version this time around, to be honest. I feel like Game Freak took a huge step backwards by bringing out Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon -- yeah, I know they were only really just put out to hold people over in a rather low effort way until Let's Go came to Switch, and to keep Pokémon an annual title, so it was virtually unavoidable. But still: they were the first enhanced version games we've had in the core series in nearly a decade (since Platinum!), and historically speaking, the enhanced versions don't exactly set the world on fire (to be very clear: by Pokémon sales standards; almost any other franchise would gladly take these numbers!): Sadly the graph also shows why we won't be getting another sequel any time soon... With the introduction of the Let's Go sub-series (I acknowledge that it's cisnidered part of the core series, but it has its own brand name and mechanics, so that's why I refer to it that way), I don't think that Game Freak has any reason to go back to enhancing recently released games as they have in the past. It seems like they utilised an improved of the Gen VI engine, which I imagine cuts down on costs considerably, so it's got that going for it too. It'll be interesting to see if they continue to utilise and improve that engine for Let's Go, or if they use Gen VII's engine next time around. My guess would be that we see Let's Go games biennially, in-between core series games set in new regions and remakes of games in the most recently utilised engine. At the very least, I imagine that we'll see one more pair of Let's Go games after the success of Pikachu/Eevee, and they'll probably decide whether to continue the sub-series if it remains successful. So, I think we'll see something like: • Sword and Shield in 2019 • Let's Go [insert cute, marketable Johto Pokémon here] in 2020 • Diamond and Pearl remakes, utilising the Sword and Shield engine, in 2021 • Let's Go [insert cute, marketable Hoenn Pokémon here] in 2022, assuming that the brand continues to be successful -- and that Game Freak actually want to continue with the . Otherwise, Gen IX? This is all assuming that they're going to continue with the Let's Go games for the foreseeable future -- and I don't see any reason why they would pull the plug on those yet.

Would also highly recommend checking out StarWars.com's latest update on the making of the park, as well as Entertainment Weekly's tour.

After some crew members jumping the gun on social media a few weeks back, we got official confirmation today from Lucasfilm that The Mandalorian has wrapped. Really looking forward to seeing what they've cooked up.

Saw this earlier, and my reaction is kind of nonplussed: it was expected, and I would have been really disappointed (and doubted it's potential to release at the end of the year) if we didn't get anything at Celebration. What I'm much more interested in is that there have been rumours going around that there's going to be a lot more than just Fallen Order present on the gaming side of things at Celebration -- outside of the games that will be returning (Galaxy of Heroes, Pinball, and SWTOR). A few more details on the panel from StarWars.com's press release: I'm just realising how top-heavy this year's going to be for Star Wars fans. It's been virtually silent up until this point (and could potentially be until the first trailer for IX at Celebration in April), and then in the last three or four months of the year we get 10 episodes of The Mandalorian, a new live-action TV series; 12 episodes of The Clone Wars, a returning animated TV series; Jedi: Fallen Order; and Episode IX. Can't help but feel that, despite all of its recent success since it's return, the franchise is in a real weird place right now. Hopefully this game can begin to make things right.

...so I take it you won't be picking it up, then?

I've been following this game for a while now, but with yesterday's announcement from Tetsuya Fukuhara confirming that there plans are for both Relink and Versus (a fighting game) to each be released worldwide simultaneously, I finally decided to go ahead and make a thread dedicated to the game. I feel like the stage needs to be set regarding Granblue Fantasy, as it is a franchise currently only accessible in Japan, and so some here might not be familiar with the franchise, its importance, or success. Background A free-to-play turn-based JRPG developed and published by Cygames, Granblue Fantasy is playable on iOS, Android, and web browsers in Japan, releasing in March 2014. Here's a brief gameplay description from over on Wikipedia: Most notably, the game reunited legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, renowned mostly for his work on Final Fantasy, with art director Hideo Minaba, also renowned for his work on Final Fantasy. The pair previously working together on Final Fantasy V (1992), Final Fantasy VI (1994), Final Fantasy IX (2000) and Lost Odyssey (2007), and in part thanks to their work on it, the game garnered a lot of attention. Uematsu worked on eleven tracks for the game -- which were accompanied by Tsutomu Narita's nine tracks (he was the composer for Final Fantasy XV: Comrades, and also worked in the music department on Xenoblade Chronicles) -- and it is believed that Minaba drew nearly one hundred potential character designs for the game. To give you a taste of the game's gorgeous soundtrack (at least judging from what I've listened to so far), here's the main theme: To speak to the game's success, it has been a commercial juggernaut in Japan, having been downloaded over 10 million times two years after its release in March 2016, and had been downloaded over 22 million times as of October 2018. Thanks to its implementation of a gacha system seen in many other successful mobile games in the Japanese marketplace, such as in Fire Emblem Heroes, the game grossed at least ¥54.8 billion ($489 million) in Japan between 2017 and 2018. Outside of its commercial success, though, it has all been received very positively by critics, with many journalists comparing it favourably to early Final Fantasy entries. Project Re:Link Originally announced as Granblue Fantasy Project Re:Link back in August 2016, the game was revealed to be an action RPG serving as a collaboration between PlatinumGames (Bayonetta franchise, NieR: Automata) and Cygames (who would also be serving as the game's publisher), with Nobuo Uematsu and Hideo Minaba reprising their roles as composer and art director, respectively, and the aforementioned Tetsuya Fukuhara set to direct. The game will be set in the same fictional realm as Granblue Fantasy, with some characters from the original game appearing, but in an entirely different location. One month later, in September, it was revealed that Cygames were aiming to release the game on the PS4 -- and that was the first and last time we heard about what consoles the game was aiming to be released on. It was at this point that they also mentioned that they were aiming to connect the mobile game and PlayStation 4 game, with each unlocking special events/items in the other. The first gameplay trailer was shown in December 2017, during Granblue Fes 2017, which was shortly after I learned about the game. And it looked great: Around this time, director Tetsuya Fukuhara also revealed some gameplay details, the most interesting of which undoubtedly being that the game could be played in four-person cooperative multiplayer, or enjoyed as a single player experience, with three remaining characters being controlled by AI. Localisation for the game in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian were announced in July 2018. Its official title was revealed to be Granblue Fantasy: Relink in December 2018 during Granblue Fes 2018, where another gameplay trailer was shown, which continues to look incredible: As of February 4th 2019, PlatinumGames left development of the project -- supposedly, they were unsurprisingly contracted for the action elements of the game, and it is believed that their contract was complete -- leaving Cygames to complete development on the game. As of yesterday -- February 26th 2019, at the time of writing -- after the game's delay from its initial target of a 2018 release, director Fukuhara announced that the game was aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release, and that they would not be revealing further details on a release date until they were comfortable to do so. Hopefully I've been able to bring the game to the attention of some of the JRPG and/or Platinum fans here, as I really do think that its one to keep an eye on!

Loved the tease at the end that they have more in the works from the franchise for 2019. Was smart not to mention it here, but to tell us that more is coming. See you at E3, Pokémon Let's Go to the Mystery Dungeon!

Watched the Direct a few more times, and have had a good look at the map; here are some things I spotted/thought were worth mentioning: Galar certainly seems to be based on Great Britain, but very rearranged (unless Galar is kind of a flipped Great Britain?). Looks like our adventure starts at the very bottom of the map, in the house slightly to the west, judging from the colour variety of the fields found in the opening shots of the trailer. What I assume is the Grass-type gym (the stadium with a leaf symbol and a green background for it -- though it could also be a feather for a Flying-type gym?) is located around the middle of Galar, slightly to the west, judging from the golden fields located just south of it. The main character doesn't appear to have a Switch dock?! Those foggy woods look awesome! There seem to be railways connecting many of the settlements, and there are trains running. I spot one in particular connected to the settlement just past your house (the one seen beyond the Route 1 sign in the trailer), leading into a tunnel located in the hills/mountains, emerging west of the lakes, seemingly connecting to the major industrial city we saw in the trailer, as well as in other areas of the map. Would be great if we got to use them! Benches make their triumphant return! Creeping up on wild Pokémon seems to be back in some form, as we see the female main character doing this. Backgrounds for battles are very detailed, with route signs seen in the background when the male MC throws a Poké Ball. Great to see them push that a bit further. Seeing some ladders in the backgrounds of some of these battles...wonder if we can climb up them? Pretty cool ripple effect on the screen when transitioning to battle. The focused line of sight when nearing the line of sight of a trainer from Sun and Moon seem to be gone, as there isn't one seen when the female main character locks eyes with a trainer. This battle seems to take place just before the northeasternmost building situated prior to the hilly/mountain range which stretches from west to east, as made evident by the purple roof. Game Freak logo hidden in the background of the stadium when Lucario is on-screen, just below the floodlights? Neat Easter egg! Speaking of which, the stadium in which Lucario is battling Tyranitar looks like it could be situated in the northernmost settlement, judging from the size of the crowd and the stadium's colour palette, beyond the snowy area. The multi-coloured emblem above the screen when Tyranitar is shown made me think it could be the home to the Pokémon League, or the eighth gym, but looking at it again...it kind of reminds me quite a bit of the Battle Frontier emblem? Probably a reach, but thought I'd mention it, because taking another look, it looks to me like the Pokémon League might be actually situated in the area with a large tower located just south of the large crater/wall, just above the middle of the region. It looks like the settlement beyond the wall and snowy area to the north is actually connected by train to what I thought looked like the Pokémon League. This area actually has a tower (based on The Shard?), stadium (Wembley?), what looks like the House of Parliament and Big Ben, a wheel based on the London Eye... @Glen-i, I'm really starting to think that that's a Battle Frontier! Assuming that the stadiums are gyms, I think I see six on the map? I imagine the other two are located in the larger cities, and its quite hard to distinguish Move animations unsurprisingly look much better across the board. Partner Pokémon following you does not seem to be making a return. We've got mines! They're reminding me a lot of Sinnoh's Underground and Glittering Cave in Kalos...there are mine carts too. Just to the west of the settlement where the Grass-type gym seems to be located, we see white grass depicting what looks like a legendary Pokémon? The small white Pokémon around the larger Pokémon really remind me of the kodama from Princess Mononoke and their relation to the Forest Spirit. The larger Pokémon looks like it is blowing a cloud which is giving off electricity. We see the main character in some type of sports uniform? Given the focus on stadiums being a nod towards Britain's history with football, maybe we join a team of sorts? Doesn't seem like there is a controllable camera -- if there is, I don't think we saw it used, outside of what looked like cutscenes/in-engine promo shots? Seeing as we see the starter Pokémon in CG in the main industrial city, maybe this is where the professor is located? Could just be for some good-looking shots, though.

Sword and Shield! England/UK..?

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield! Set in the Galar region. Absolutely looks like it was inspired by Great Britain! Grass-type starter: the chimp Pokémon, Grookey; Fire-type starter: the rabbit Pokémon, Scorbunny; Water-type starter: the water lizard Pokémon, Scobble. Looks like capture mechanics are as they were prior to Let's Go, and what's more, it seems like random encounters are back! I imagine @Glen-i is happy right now Releasing simultaneously worldwide in Late 2019.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH YESSSSSSS

Here we go...

I'm fortunate enough to be at home, so I'm watching this on a pretty big TV, with the volume turned up high. Hope those of you at work get a good connection as you watch, and aren't interrupted by anything else

Not long to go now... We only got around two minutes of footage when X/Y were first revealed, revealing the titles, box art legendary Pokémon and starter Pokémon, and we got a two minute montage trailer for the 20th Anniversary, ending with quick glimpses of concept for Sun/Moon before their titles were revealed. At the very least, then, we should be getting titles today, and I would imagine a look at the three starters given the presence of the three Poké Balls. They'll probably spend a good two or three minutes talking about the history of Pokémon's core series games too, based on their recent core series reveals.

Just passed the sixty hour mark. Music is still great. Gameplay is still great. The story's still got me intrigued, and it's starting to pick up quite a bit. Finished the fifth palace yesterday. Aside from the problems I mentioned in my last post, I'm really enjoying my first Persona

Yeah, I've got to agree. One of the big selling points early on was that a Netflix subscription might have most of what you want to watch, so you can throw your cable fees out of the window and save a lot of money per month. How long before we start to see people just bundling these subscriptions together and we find ourselves where we were at a decade or so ago, but with cable television? It's pretty barmy. I don't watch much television either, but when I do, I'm pretty particular when I go about it, and build up a short list of things that I can watch if I subscribe to, say, Netflix for a month, and then cancel my subscription after that month. I know that some of my friends pretty much swap between streaming subscriptions every month too. My worry going into Disney+ (which I'll pick up for The Mandalorian and the return of The Clone Wars) is that I can see them drip-feeding episodes, as opposed to dropping them all at once so that they can be binged like they can elsewhere. For Star Wars fans, for instance, like me who are planning to subscribe solely for their Star Wars offering, both The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars are expected to be released by the end of the year, the former having 10 episodes and the latter having 12. I'm not sure how long episodes of The Mandalorian are going to be, but assuming that they're an hour long, and The Clone Wars episodes are going to be in similar in length to the 22 minute runtime they had before, you're looking at 14-15 hours of content. It certainly won't be the case for everyone, but I know a lot of people who could get through that in a week Pretty annoying that football rights have been splintering off left and right too...