Julius

Someone might have already posted something about this, but if so, I missed it Today, Cygames announced Granblue Fantasy Versus, a fighting game based on the popular mobile game Granblue Fantasy, which is to be developed by Arc System Works, and released in 2019 in Japan. People are probably confused as to what this has to do with Smash, and well... On the Monday just gone, December 10th, someone posted this message on 5Channel, a popular messaging board in Japan: We already knew at the time that Joker was coming to Smash, but the implication that Persona 5 Arena is being delayed due to Arc working on Granblue Fantasy Versus seems to have some trace of truth to it considering that that game was confirmed to be in the works today. Of course, the supposed leaker seemingly confirms that a Persona 5 Rouge/Complete/Ultimate/whatever is on the way next year, as well as Persona 5 Arena, but what’s this all got to do with Smash, I hear you ask? Well, in another post, that same poster might have revealed the identity of one of the four yet-to-be-announced DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And it’s a character that makes all too much sense, given that it seems to be the case that Nintendo of Japan are the ones calling the shots on the game’s DLC, and given that Joker from Persona 5, of all characters, was revealed to be coming to Ultimate. And given the current renewed interest in Persona 5 after Joker’s reveal, this could be a very, very smart move by Nintendo and the other party potentially involved. Here was the other post made by that user:

WARNING: KINGDOM HEARTS III HAS LEAKED Despite being a little bit over a month from release as of today, some people have got their hands on the game early and have begun uploading videos to sites like 4Chan and YouTube — apparently one guy in particular stole the games from his workplace, and is attempting to upsell the game for audacious prices on auction sites such as eBay. Yeah, let’s see how long that lasts... So, yeah. Do what you need to do now if you’re trying to avoid spoilers: media blackout; video blocker; delete your watch history on YouTube and avoid stuff there through adjusting your Google settings, etc. Hopefully no-one here that is eagerly awaiting the game’s release is so unfortunate enough as to get the game spoiled for them.

My first game was Star Wars Battlefront. I’ve played for 1969 hours [insert joke about landing on the moon here] across 53 games. And now the interesting part where my younger brother completely skews my statistics... Most played games: • Fortnite — 449 hours • Star Wars Battlefront — 235 hours • FIFA 18 — 187 hours I myself have literally only played two hours, at most, of Fortnite, so... I’d imagine that the next few games in that list would be FIFA 17 and Dragon Quest XI; for the latter, I know from the in-game data I put over 100 hours into it I’ve earned 796 trophies since I got a PS4 in December 2015, with the breakdown being: • Platinum: 7 • Gold: 44 • Silver: 157 • Bronze: 588 My rarest trophy is the Platinum for Shenmue II, Now I Can Sleep, which 4287 players have unlocked. Man, I really love when we get to see our statistics broken down like this — if only Sony would let us view our complete stats breakdown whenever we wanted to

Have a great time with the game @drahkon! Everything that @Hero-of-Time alluded to is spot on; you’re in for a great time I’ve been chipping away at Dragon Quest VIII over the last month, @Grazza — though I’m taking it much slower than I did XI (I really don’t want to overdo it and accidentally burn myself out) — and I can certainly attest to the games being cut from the same cloth from what I’ve experienced in VIII so far (I’m around 35 hours in) these games are so charming, and as someone who was only really exposed to JRPGs through Pokémon growing up, it was so, so refreshing with these games to find myself remaining fully engaged during battles!

Makoto Shinkai’s next film has been revealed to be titled Tenki no Ko: Weathering With You (Weather Child: Weathering With You). The reveal also came with the release of the first promotional image for the film, with the tagline reading “This is the story of the world's secret that only she and I know.” Anime News Network also gave a rough translation of the synopsis: Makoto Shinkai is credited with the original work, as well as directing and writing the film; Masayoshi Tanaka (Your Name, Anohana, The Anthem of the Heart) will return alongside him as character designer; Atsushi Tamura (The Cat Returns, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin) will serve as the film’s animation director; and Hiroshi Takiguchi (The Garden of Words, Ajin) as the film’s art director. STORY inc. is credited as producer, and TOHO will distribute the film. The film will release in Japan on July 19th 2019. Unsurprisingly, after the astounding success of Your Name internationally, it has been confirmed by Shinkai-san that the film will see release worldwide, with releases already decided for Europe, North America, Asia and South America — though the dates of these international releases have yet to be confirmed, it is likely that it will be late next year based on recent precedent.

I think I’d move some stuff around, like: Pokémon to November (since every core series game since ORAS in 2014 has released in November); Bayonetta 3 to October, if it even comes next year (perhaps as counterprogramming to Luigi’s Mansion 3; also seems like the first two games have had a good chunk of their (re)releases in October across all regions); and I’d lean towards Metroid Prime 3 being in August/September based on past releases (again: if it even comes next year?). I think that a Switch exclusive Square Enix title was probably fast-tracked after the success of Octopath Traveller — so I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw something revealed by them at E3 and released by the end of next year. Plus, I’d imagine that Dragon Quest XI S could be on the way next year, and elsewhere, I don’t see Atlus skipping the opportunity to put Persona 5 on Switch next year either. And we’re still waiting on Shin Megami Tensei V, so...it could be a disproportionately large year for JRPGs on the Switch I mean, they have said that it’s coming in Q2/Spring 2019? I’m curious what games you think they might have some DLC cooking up for? I feel like everyone’s been waiting for and has been expecting Odyssey DLC, but it’s been so quiet on that front...a potential shadow drop at the end of a Direct, maybe?

Who’s reporting that? Because it seems...very unlikely. The only reason that The Force Awakens received an initial teaser trailer at Thanksgiving in 2014 was because a full year of marketing was put in place for the return of Star Wars — at the time of the trailer’s release, principal photography was ongoing. As far as I’m aware, principal photography had wrapped on all Star Wars films since prior to the release of their first teaser trailer to the public (I say this as a Rogue One teaser exclusive to Star Wars Celebration 2015 was shown prior to the start of that film’s principal photography). Solo: A Star War Story likely had an atypically short marketing campaign of three months so that it didn’t overlap with The Last Jedi, but also so that it didn’t step on the toes of the marketing campaign for Avengers: Infinity War, and that’s potentially another reason that our first look at this film won’t come until a trailer is dropped at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in mid-April. Trailers such as these are typically released in the two week window prior to the release a big film to ensure that they are attached as a trailer to that film, and what better film to attach the first trailer for Episode IX to thank The likely record-busting Avengers? What’s more, the titles of Star Wars films under Disney have all been released prior to the release of the first teaser trailers for said films. So, if anything, I think that we would only see a title for the film released this month — and even that I’m not convinced of. We should have a title by the end of February; the only reason that I say that as opposed to in January like with The Last Jedi is because I do see them going all out and potentially revealing the title during the Super Bowl.

I didn’t say that Hux would take the reins, but that many fans speculate that he’ll stage a coup; I agree with your opinion that we’re past that now. And that’s exactly what I mean by a “Bigger Bad” (as opposed to a “Big Bad”, which would be like The Emperor, as you mention): in the event that Ben does anything but stay aligned with darkness, there needs to be a catalyst for change greater than even Han, Leia, or Rey — a threat to his rule of the galaxy (i.e. a “Bigger Bad” than he or Hux). But then, as I mentioned, that’s if Ben even walks any path other than the one he was heading down at the end of The Last Jedi — he murdered his own father, slaughtered his fellow pupils; was responsible for the death of his uncle, Luke, in one way or another; murdered his new master in a lust for power; and betrayed Rey. Some might argue that Vader did worse, and in terms of sheer numbers he likely has murdered more than Ben (though Ben, thanks to Starkiller, might be able to challenge that if we talks about murder by association), but he never did bring himself to murder his own family. Even if Padmé’s heartbreak is a consequence of his own actions, the very fact that she died is the only reason that Anakin resigns himself to remaining Vader until he learns that he his son is still alive. I think that the creative team are in a difficult place when it comes to IX, actually, because of this. Ben hasn’t really “won” at all so far in this trilogy, besides murdering Snoke and taking his place, and him getting a typical redemption arc is going to see them get a lot of flak. Anyway, as @Cube mentioned, the return of Thrawn in IX would likely bring plenty of baggage with it — many fans aware of his return to canon won’t be happy about him being shoehorned in (and offer space for further criticism of how poorly this trilogy’s arc has been continued as a whole) at the last second as a plot-advancing device, and likewise, he’ll be lost on casual fans. Sure, he can be introduced prior to the film’s release during the marketing campaign, but then the baggage of his past — in the novels and Rebels — comes to the forefront as people will learn more about him, and then everyone’s asking questions about what happened to [insert Rebels character’s name here] and why they aren’t here. It could give rise to the same widespread confusion as a result of wild speculation that DJ from The Last Jedi was Ezra — so if Thrawn were to appear in any shape or form, then I think that he would be best suited as an unannounced cameo. If anyone is going to fill that potential role, many fans might argue that it could still be Snoke. It’s not something that I necessarily subscribe to as a theory, but I think that it’s interesting nonetheless that Snoke resembles the Prime Jedi at least in passing, and, at the end of The Force Awakens, asks Hux to bring Kylo to him to complete his training: was his training actually completed by killing Snoke? It’s a stretch, for sure, but it has long been talked about — since the character name’s reveal, in fact — that Snoke might be a reference to snoek, a mackerel often referred to as a red herring. The red herring might be that we were led to believe that he would remain the Big Bad of this trilogy, but there’s enough subsidiary lore that some think that it might also be that the physical embodiment of Snoke himself is a red herring, and that there is someone/thing else pulling the strings. I don’t know — I think it’s an interesting point of potential discussion.

If there were to be a Bigger Bad, I’d love for it to be Thrawn — however, I feel like the relevance of such a character would be completely lost on the majority of the audience, which is one of the many reasons why I feel Snoke wasn’t Plagueis: the importance of such a reveal would reward the majority of the audience with confused looks. I personally wouldn’t be very happy if Thrawn were simply utilised as a storytelling tool to progress Ben’s development. I do agree with you that the presence of a Bigger Bad being in this film would make sense if Ben were to be redeemed/forge his own path; some might see Hux taking such a stance, and perhaps even turning high ranking members of the First Order against Ben, but I personally feel like the time for political intrigue and infighting isn’t in the final film in the trilogy.

Caught up by watching it last night. Didn’t hit it out of the park with massive game announcements/reveals like it did in recent years, but honestly, the sheer volume (and seemingly high quality) of games announced/revealed was well beyond that found in recent years. The show was also a much better watch than in recent years, with a lot of the moments of awkwardness pushed aside by a much smoother show. Keighley did a great job presenting, and it definitely did feel like a celebration of all things gaming. Sort of thought we were heading in the direction of seeing some massive cross-platform cross-play initiative when Shawn, Phil, and Reggie took to the stage, but alas, it was great to see them all on stage together. Also, I guess the Kinda Funny Games Showcase can go in here? I’ll be catching up on it later.

It was revealed during the Kinda Funny Games Showcase that the game is coming West under the name of Judgement in summer 2019.

We have our first poster for the film! It also officially confirms the film’s release date: Friday 26th April 2018.

@MindFreak, I know some people might not mind, but it seems like Marvel intentionally left out the subtitle in the name of the video because they probably want people to learn it for themselves when they first watch it, which is why I didn’t mention it in my post

I get the feeling that this being exclusive to Switch might have something to do with there being little chance of The Avengers project making its way over. This way, everyone gets some Marvel goodness on their console.

BOOM. You looking for this? HELL. YES. Now THAT is a great trailer. It feels epic, tells us virtually nothing — and gives us more than enough to speculate to our heart’s content. Also: Ronin. Roll on April

It’s official. And yeah, for sure — after all, the first Infinity War trailer dropped pretty much this time last year. Then again, Spidey is Sony, so Marvel Studios don’t have much of a say with regards to when that drops (plus Venom doing surprisingly well and Into the Spider-Verse releasing very soon is more than likely the reason that trailer is dropping now). I’m just saying that “insiders” have been saying that the trailer will drop for the last four or five weeks, so while I think and hope it drops today, I think it’s worth mentioning that it’s still worth taking with a grain of salt Either way, I’m just excited to see how they market this film (I expect some time/space travel shenanigans, so it’ll be interesting to see if we get hint of that in the trailers) and to finally learn what the title is

Yeah, it’s been rumoured to be coming this week for a while now: originally it was Monday Night Football (which Captain Marvel got), then it was supposed to be Wednesday (possibly postponed due to the Bush funeral), and it’s been heavily rumoured to be dropping today, but there’s currently nothing substantial to indicate that it actually will (i.e. no official confirmation, no word from people in the rumour mill other than those who are hit-or-miss and have been saying “it will drop any day now” for weeks). It’s certainly the right time to do it, either way, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see either way, it’s been a massive week for Marvel fans. Also, the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home drops tomorrow; it will be first shown at the Brazilian Comic Con.

I decided not to stay up to watch the Awards because I have an interview in a few hours, and I’m kind of glad. I’ve only glanced over some of the reveals when scrolling through my YouTube subscription feed, but at face value, it seems like a real step down (only at face value — I’m sure many of these games will be great) from last year’s reveals and announcements. Looking forward to catching up on the show later, but I’ll probably be watching it with EZA commentary in any case Also, very strange that there was seemingly no Death Stranding trailer. I know that we only had one a couple of months ago at TGS, but still...I can’t shake the feeling that they’ve only skipped TGAs to save it for a potential PS5 unveiling/PlayStation Direct-style video in a few months.

On December 22nd, producer Okamoto Hokuto, director Takeshi Uchikawa, game designer and scenario writer Yuji Horii and a yet-to-be-named special guest will be delivering more information on Dragon Quest XI S from 14:00 - 14:50 JST (06:00 - 06:50 GMT) at Jump Festa 2019.

Seems like Kojima-san and Geoff are having fun toying with people... Also, seems like we could be seeing a first during the show... A demo or game shadow-dropping, perhaps? A live game demonstration? Or a three-way arm wrestling contest between Reggie, Phil and Shawn? Finally, it might be TGA-related or it might not, but Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi has teased a project in the works which will surprise fans — by the fact that they’re working on it. Dragon’s Dogma II? Deep Down actually existing?

I know how much some of you love physical versions and miss manuals, so I thought I’d share that someone has very kindle made a high quality, comprehensive manual for the game. To give you a taste: The manual in its entirety is free and available for printing here