Julius

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...

@Tim B and @MindFreak, I agree that we'll probably see more than just Gen VIII tomorrow. I think Detective Pikachu is a great shout, and makes far too much sense, but I wonder what else there could potentially be, if there is more? A Pokémon Snap remake/sequel actually doesn't seem impossible. We saw Red/Blue/Green/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal on the 3DS -- maybe we could see Ruby/Sapphire make their way over to the Switch? I'd love another Mystery Dungeon game, or maybe a Ranger game...or heck, maybe even something entirely new.

Yeah, I think you're completely right about the lack of focus on what's new (Pokémon, characters, the plot, et al) in the games being one of those things that's been missing for me. I'm not even sure if Black/White's sales should factor into it too much, though, considering that their sales aren't actually that far behind some of the other introductory pairs of games for a new generation. I can completely understand why we haven't had a sequel since Black 2/White 2, though... I'm not quite sure how it resulted in them trying to bring older fans back with perhaps too much of a focus on Kanto, though, seeing as Diamond/Pearl are the only introductory pair for a new generation to really outperform their peers, but alas, that's where we're at thing is, I can kind of understand it with Alola as Sun/Moon were for the 20th Anniversary of the franchise, and I thought that there was a pretty decent mix of Pokémon from earlier generations in those games. People will buy Pokémon games regardless, and I'm sure they know that, so it always surprises me when they're not a bit more ambitious than they normally come across as being. I don't see them taking a step backwards by reverting back to random encounters, to be honest. I grew up on the Pokémon games, and so I'll always be content with random encounters (I think that's why I'm happy to try out older JRPGs where I can), but I do feel that Pokémon appearing in the overworld is a great quality of life improvement, in that it respects the player's time and effort a little bit more than random encounters. For instance, you talked about newer Pokémon not being as common as some of their older peers in their own regions, which is something that has irked me for a while too, and I think that's where an overworld presence could help in spotlighting the new Pokémon -- "Zubat, Zubat...wait, who's that Pokémon?!" I'm a fan of options, though, and that seems like something that could easily be turned into a toggle too, since Pokémon have been fixed to certain routes at certain encounter rates in previous games for random encounters. I'd imagine that the spawn rates in the Let's Go games were based on similar numbers, so yeah, it should definitely remain an option in my eyes for those that want it 100% with you on the shiny Pokémon, though -- I've never encountered a wild shiny Pokémon out in the wild before, and so seeing how Let's Go handled it was...kind of odd to me, and it seems less special now that everyone and their Lillipup has ten shiny Pokémon in those games. From how you've described it, DQXI seems very similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 in that regard (though the "open" areas aren't quite as large), so I have a feeling that you'll love it. I've yet to play BotW, so I can't comment on that game in particular, but I've tried my hand at a few of the critically acclaimed open world games from this generation like Horizon Zero Dawn, and I don't think that games that are too open for me are quite my cup of tea -- at least not in the way that they're often promoted. I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn, but after about ten hours, I found myself only following the story path of the game from one point to another, because I would normally feel lost when it came to the story by the time that I got to the next point on the map to continue on with it. You mentioned using badges to lock certain areas off until you've progressed so far into the game, and it surprises me that Game Freak haven't done that too much, seeing as badge gates felt like such a thing in some of the earlier games. I too am tired of the power cutting out and grumpy Tauros blocking your path... Guys, I swear I didn't actually mean to throw any shade at Mega Evolutions! Its probably the way that I phrased it, but I'm actually a big fan of Mega Evolutions (for the love of Arceus, Game Freak, give me Flygonite and Dragoniteite already); my problem is with how they were so quick to drop them after Gen VI, give us Alolan forms and Z-Moves, and then...potentially drop those too in favour of another new gimmick that will be thrown to the wayside by the start of next generation. I see them dropping Ultra Beasts for now too, but maybe they'll come back for the Diamond/Pearl remakes? For me, they should keep Mega Evolutions, regional forms (if Pokémon from a region other than Kanto are actually going to get them this time), and maybe start giving evolutions to some older Pokémon that don't seem like prime candidates for Mega Evolutions (i.e. Dunsparce) -- it's probably the easiest way to bring up the number of new Pokémon that we'll be getting, and I hope that we're closer to 100 this time around. Drop Z-Moves. I'm with you @Dcubed, it doesn't feel like anything too special. And I forgot to mention an orchestral score in my last post so...I'd like that too.

Hey @drahkon, I think @Dcubed is giving us a preview of @Glen-i's reaction So, all aboard the BOTW knock-off train?

WOOOOOOOOOO So, 14:00 GMT for those of us in the UK

@Sméagol, I think you might have missed a pretty small indie game out?

I believe Up and Toy Story 3 also received nominations for Best Picture in their respective Oscar seasons too?

Finally.

Is that the DSi Shop music I hear? Also, @Ronnie, just play what you want to play -- I think it's great that you're having a fun time with the game, and I genuinely hope that it just gets better from here on for you and others that are enjoying the game. I don't think that anyone here is going out of their way to slate the game, and from what I've read, no-one here wants BioWare and their devs to fail. That being said, like @Hero-of-Time brought up, the GaaS framework simply hasn't been flawlessly executed to this point, and Anthem seems no different. I can appreciate that it is a "live game", but at the same time, the experience of the game on Day One should be as polished as can be to avoid people slating things such as the game's load times, at the very least. It's small things like that which add up and reverberate around the echo chamber of the internet, and the game finds itself facing an uphill battle upon launch as a result. From the sound of things, better loading times would have at least boosted the critical scores of the game. A game like this doesn't end up with scores like these because of the echo chamber, though -- these reviewers had their hands on the game well before launch: You might say that they haven't played the game with a Day One patch (quite a few reviewers have now chosen to delay posting their reviews because of said patch), but considering how much time EA is asking these reviewers to spend with the game prior to launch, shouldn't the game be as polished as possible for them, so that they don't have to face hindrances such as long loading times, and find themselves offering not-so-great scores to the echo chamber of gamers on the internet?

I find myself lost somewhere between excitement and apprehension, @Glen-i, and I really get how you feel. Admittedly, I haven't played LGPE since I don't yet have a Switch, but I've had a strange relationship with the core Pokémon games ever since they transitioned to 3D graphics back with X&Y. I can't quite put my finger on it exactly, but it just really feels like they've been missing something since. Looking back, I find myself agreeing with you about the pandering to Kanto that we've had since that transition to 3D. These games sell ridiculously well no matter what, though, so what's with that? It feels like they've grown far too comfortable in their own bubble sometimes. Personally, I want to see some respect for the fans that I'm sure they're aware weren't fans of LGPE, like yourself @Glen-i. What I mean by that is if something like the capture mechanic from LGPE is going to make it's way over to these new games, have it be the non-default option, and bring back the traditional capture mechanics as the default option. Besides that, I want to see some ambition. The reason that I remain somewhat optimistic that Pokémon is going to evolve into something of a modern JRPG is that, during Masuda-san's and Ohmori-san's interview with Game Informer shortly after the E3 2017 announcement, they were aware of just how high fan expectations are for these games. It's the first time that I've noticed someone from Game Freak acknowledging fans expectations. I feel like Sun & Moon was a step in the right direction from X&Y (with a better story, and Alolan Pokémon variants seem like a better direction to head than the power creep that Mega Evolutions were starting to bring), but since then we've had a third version in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon (which slashed Sun & Moon's sales, when they were on target to become the second best-selling pair of Pokémon games) and a pseudo-remake in Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee, so it's hard to tell which direction they're heading in. And, for the love of Arceus, I don't think that a fully controllable camera in a truly 3D environment is too much to ask for. It feels like we've been playing early PS1 games since X&Y, and what I mean by that is that despite having 3D models, the games (for the most part) have the exact same camera angle that they had in older games, making them still feel like 2D games. The closest that they've got to getting away from that, in my opinion, was with Lumiose City's camera, which followed you from behind and changed angles in alleyways, but that was over five years ago now. It's time to see that evolved. I'm glad that LGPE brought with it Pokémon in the overworld -- that's something I'd been hoping to see -- but right now, at least from what I've seen of it, it seems like it's a system being taken advantage of for shiny Pokémon in a similar way to Metal Slimes in the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII (with how frequently Pokémon load in to an area), so I hope that's something that the figure out going into these games. Speaking of Dragon Quest, I feel like this is the time to say it: Pokémon needs to look at how they transitioned from their 2D games to Dragon Quest VIII, and have (at least in my eyes) perfected a modern "open world" JRPG with Dragon Quest XI. It's a linear open world with its utilisation of zones, but it is absolute perfection: it looks gorgeous, there's a sense of scale, and a real sense of adventure conveyed by the world as a result. I don't think that Game Freak is in a position to gun for a seamless open world with this upcoming pair of games, and I agree with everyone here that expecting that much is asking for disappointment. DQVIII and DQXI are, in my eyes, what they should be looking towards for inspiration of they make the leap into a fully realised 3D world, and I'm going to be sorely disappointed (and I'm sure I won't be the only one) if they don't take that plunge now. Because when would be a better time to do so? I'm curious what your stance is in this @Glen-i: do you want them to take that plunge, or are you okay with them continuing with what they've been doing to this point? I guess that sort of transitioned into my wishlist for these games... Oh, and please: no more new gimmicks like Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves. Can we just get some more regional variants if we need to supplement the number of new Pokémon? And more in-depth character customisation. That too.

So, it seems that the not-so-infamous Chinese Riddler (cousin of the actually-infamous Chinese Riddler) from Gen VII has returned: This is the one that revealed that core series Pokémon games for the 3DS (Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon), not game for the Switch, would be revealed in the days before E3 2017. Pretty sure they also revealed Team Rocket would be present in the game as Team Rainbow Rocket, too. So, to be clear: not the one who put out a ton of great and surprisingly accurate riddles for fans to chomp on as we patiently waited for Sun and Moon back in 2016. It's worth noting that them being brought to tears is a mistranslation/exaggeration. Here's what their post actually days: For those unaware, it was recently announced that Nintendo Treehouse Q&As would be taking place during this year's Pokémon Day celebrations, beginning on this upcoming Wednesday, which could be a hint of things to come. I was sceptical about us getting anything for the new games in the most recent Nintendo Direct, but if the reveal of these games is going to take place before Easter, Pokémon Day is without a doubt the most likely date for such a reveal. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but hey, I'm always ready for some more Pokémon news