Julius

Square Enix recently held a Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary concept art exhibition in Tokyo, where some previously unseen VII Remake concept art was shown off. Though SE currently have no plans to share the concept art elsewhere, some interesting details have emerged from those in attendance. According to some of the fans in attendance, there’s been a change in Cloud’s design. According to development leader Naoki Hamaguchi, this new design was said to have finally got the go-ahead from director Tetsuya Nomura. While it’s been a struggle for the team, the hard work appears to have paid off as Tetsuya Nomura went as far as acknowledging it as “the closest one to the original [Cloud design] up until now.] A fan also described Cloud’s new design as a more natural look. Nomura and Hamaguchi mentioned that “while Cloud may look this way, he was a dork. I believe those of you who played the the original would understand what I mean by saying he’s a dorky character.” That said, we’ll see more of the youthful side of Cloud rather than the always-serious one we’ve seen more outside of the original game. The four screenshots also showed other members of AVALANCHE, and one fan described Biggs as “super handsome,” Wege as “refreshingly chubby,” and Jessie as “cute!” Personally, I think that this is great news, as I honestly wasn’t digging Cloud’s redesign and art style in the trailers we’ve had for the game so far. I feel like this ultra realistic art style doesn’t seem suited to the game, and I think that a design more along the lines of the original concept art and FMV for the original game - with larger eyes and a more anime/manga-styled design, in particular - would be more suited to Remake. But that’s just my two pence, anyways

GTA V has sold over 90 million units worldwide, having sold a total of 15 million units in 2017 alone. Approximately 1 in 3 current gen gamers have purchased the game. Must be nice. [for Rockstar]

It’s great that we finally have word on what’s going on with this. I won’t be getting a Switch until later this year, but the more we know about how they’re going to handle things going forward, the better! 5% for downloaded games and 1% of the download value for physical games isn’t great, but I think that it’s good enough to warrant registering games anyway (and should definitely be a great way to pick up some Nindies and smaller titles every now and then). My next question, of course, would be whether or not these points can be used for Virtual Console, if and when it launches, or if perhaps it will tie into the Switch Online somehow? Just as an example, PS Plus delivers some exclusive discounts to members, so membership to Switch Online could perhaps offer exclusive discounts or even greater earn rates?

Lovely jab at DC, and nice to see them putting nods in to their new Disney overlords already

David Benioff and D.B.Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones, will be writing and producing a new series of Star Wars films. These films will be separate from the episodic Skywalker Saga and the recently-announced Rian Johnson trilogy. No release dates have yet been set for these films.

This purported LinkedIn listing has Bandai Namco working on two projects exclusively for the Switch: Ridge Racer 8 and an unannounced IP which is a first-person shooter adventure. Some have taken this to mean that they're working on Metroid Prime 4, which would tie in nicely with the supposed leak from a few months ago which detailed that they were working on MP4, but I think it being slated as being for an unannounced IP goes some way towards debunking that particular line of thought. Either way, if this turns out to be accurate, I'm happy to see Nintendo continuing to strengthen its relationship with third parties that they have already developed some good games with.

The game’s producer - Square Enix’s Masashi Takahashi - and director - Acquire’s Keisuke Miyauchi - sat down with Famistu to talk about Project Octopath Traveller. To summarise: Development • The biggest theme of this game is ‘the journey’. The world is ripe for exploration with any of the eight characters. • The project was started by Takahashi and producer Tomoya Asano, who headed the Bravely series. • Acquire was chosen as development partner thanks to their work on the What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? series, showing off their pixel art prowess. Miyauchi recalls Takahashi and Asano coming together and suggesting, “What would this look like with rich-looking pixel art enhanced by modern technology, instead of just normal pixel art?” • It took a long while to perfect the HD-2D look. At first, they didn’t add enough depth to the view, and it was uninteresting. Another time, they went too far on the resolution and saturation, losing the appeal of pixel art. It was tough to balance things, such as whether water should be pixel or photoreal. • Furthermore, sprites looked lonely and simple in the context of a larger screen. In order to keep the appeal of sprites, the development team increased the density of tile variations and colors to create an altogether richer view. Characters • In order to have different party variations, they decided on having 8 characters: four male, and four female. In order to have different experiences with each character, they took care to differentiate each character’s storyline. • All the characters have different classes, and more info will be released later. However, Takahashi mentions that character classes verge on the realistic side, being based on different occupations in Medieval Europe. The field commands were devised based on the classes. • Olberic is popular with the Square Enix side staff thanks to being the first created character, but the man on the very left of the key art, reading a book, is popular with female staff. On the Acquire side, the man with the muffler and the woman with the hat are popular. • Olberic and Primrose were chosen to be the demo protagonists as their stories started in a similar place, and the developers wanted people to be able to recruit the other character after beating the story. Battle System • Asano and Takahashi requested to Miyauchi that the battle system be something that everyone can enjoy, even if it is old school. Takahashi further elaborated, stating that the action RPGs that are the current trend are hard for him. • A simple turn-based battle system wouldn’t be turning any heads, so after trial-and-error the Command Boost and Break systems were added. Both aren’t new concepts, but go well with turn-based systems and add another layer of strategy. • In order to add to the fun of the game, the guard points are displayed, showing how many attacks under a Break occurs. This means that players can set off their own combos, which is always a good feeling. • Battle difficulty in the game is based on area, and not by character level.

I’m not not really sure how I feel about it. Take out Chewie, the title card and the Star Wars theme and it looks, feels and sounds like a run-of-the-mill sci-fi blockbuster.

I kicked off my love of Pokémon games with Ruby, but Diamond & Pearl (released the summer I returned to England) was the version pairing which swept across my primary school like nothing I'd ever seen, and this was the point where many of my friends jumped in and were probably the most engaged that they would be with Pokémon. Ironically, I had already been privy to the designs of many of Sinnoh's Pokémon earlier in the year, and thought for a while that many of the Pokémon designs were fake, etc. (with good reason, given the timing of my observations of early Gen IV promotion). Gen IV - Diamond, Pearl and Platinum in particular - holds a very special place in my heart. It was a time in my childhood when I couldn't just enjoy something I loved; it was one of the first times I could share it with almost any one of my friends. The world design, story structure and sprite art were greatly evolved from Gen III with the jump from GBA to DS, and were further evolved in Gen V - I think that Gen IV was a necessary step for Game Freak to take before Gen V, which I would argue is one of the strongest Pokémon generations (in terms of story, world design, etc.). It was also the one and only time for me, personally, where a Pokémon that wasn't my starter - a lowly, Lv. 2 Starly - became the star of my team. Whilst I loved Omega Ruby for all of the great things that it did in remaking Hoenn, I cannot wait to see - and hear - what Game Freak will do when we return to Sinnoh. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention: the vibes given off in the soundtracks for these games are something to marvel at, and I think that a very, very strong argument could be made for Gen IV having the best music of any generation of Pokémon, period. It feels the freshest in terms of new sounds and types of music, ranging from sombre pieces to a techno jazz, and yet still feels almost innately familiar. In particular, I would like to highlight the high tempo jazz associated with both Team Galactic - in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum - and Team Rocket - in HeartGold and SoulSilver. I'll also list off a few more, because there's a lot of great stuff to be heard! I guess I should probably stop there...and go over to the best gaming music thread to upload even more! Thanks once again for the in-depth glance back at the mechanical evolution of the main series games, @Glen-i; I look forward to reading your write-up on Gen V! And I hope you don't forget to include what is/are probably my favourite quality of life improvement/s that any generation introduced, even if they aren't central to the mechanics of the games

I couldn’t agree more. In addition, it just shows a lot of respect to their existing customers: not everyone has the disposable income to make the jump to Switch within two years of launch (heck, I haven’t made the jump yet). It also makes the Nintendo brand as a whole something that parents/guardians might find easier to invest in with continued support of a now budget option, and will continue to help to introduce plenty of people to Nintendo’s IPs, much like their jump into the mobile game space has.

Box Peek promo for EZA. Looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun

Speaking to Japanese financial outlet Nikkei, (link in Japanese), Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that he wants to continue support for the Switch beyond 5/6 years to up to a decade. I think that this is probably as a result of the 3DS’s prolonged success since its 2011 launch, and with the 3DS being sold as the budget option to play Nintendo games now that the Switch is out, I believe that the Switch will eventually become the budget option to whatever Nintendo has in store next (the Super Switch, I guess?).

Kaz Hirai is stepping down as Sony Corp. CEO, and will be replaced by Kenichiro Yoshida at the start of the next fiscal year, on April 1st. Hirai will become a chairman, which is largely an honorary role. Hirai has overseen the turnaround of Sony during his reign since 2012 from heavy losses to forecast record profits for the current fiscal year to March.

I think they sell paired Joy-Cons in that colour configuration? EDIT:

Part of me is hoping that they port the original prior to release, as myself and plenty of others haven’t played it yet. All the same, it’s exciting that we finally have a game with a specific release date in H2. It’s crazy that we didn’t before; is everyone planning on sitting on their release dates for the second half of the year until E3?

Honestly, I think the game could (and probably should) be reworked to be played without motion controls, but I don’t think that the lack of motion controls would be too much of a problem, given the gyro of the Joy-Cons. I agree with you, though, that to do so would likely require some serious reworking of the game already in place. Reading this Nintendo Life article, which about the motion controls of Resident Evil Revelations on the Switch, it seems that the Joy-Cons could be better than the Wiimote with Motion Plus in some ways, whereas in others it might be just as hit-and-miss. Either way, it seems doable to some extent, and retooling/remaking games which made use of a previous Nintendo “gimmick” will be something interesting to see play out with The World Ends With You Final Remix, which, I’ve heard, made great use of the DS’s dual screen set-up. I think that giving the player the option to play the game with or without motion controls could be the way to go with a game like this, and so the game would have to be redesigned to allow for that, in my opinion; then again, reformatting the game to be compatible with minimal-to-no motion controls, whilst deviating from the original experience, is arguably the best way to go. I think that Skyward Sword HD is probably somewhat inevitable, as I can’t see Nintendo letting Twilight Princess HD and Wind Waker HD being allowed to go to waste having only released on the Wii U, and most major titles up to and including Majora’s Mask will likely be making their way to the Virtual Console, if - and when - it (eventually!) arrives. When do you folks think we’ll hear more about the online service? I can’t see them bringing it up in a major way at E3 unless it’s tied to a release date for a game such as Smash; it seems more like a post-E3 Direct thing to me.

It’s great to be hear, and it’s pretty specific, so I’ll be surprised if they deviate from the September launch date. Next up on the agenda should definitely be the Virtual Console/HD Classics, I hope. Not that the console is doing poorly without them - the abundance of brilliant indies and amazing AAA titles has made sure of that so far - but I think it would help to just provide the padding that the console needs to further consolidate consumer mindshare. Without a doubt, Nintendo has had the strongest catalogue of games over the generations. I think it would be a waste to both consumers and to them as a business to have a Netflix-style system as opposed to traditional Virtual Console. HD remasters of Metroid Prime Trilogy, Skyward Sword, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc., could be massive releases in their own right, with consumers looking to play through previous Prime games ahead of 4; some are already beginning to crave another Zelda experience on the go; Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has sold very well so far, and so remasters/ports of Chronicles or X would be more than welcome, I’m sure.

Over 4 million units sold so far worldwide.

The artist of these images has come out and revealed that they are fake/fan creations (I’ve edited the above post to reflect this).

That’s awesome, and this game will probably do great. It does make me wonder if that means that Mario Kart 9 is already in the works (I suppose a 2019/2020 release for the next Mario Kart wouldn’t actually be too crazy). Pokémon GO launched a few months ahead of Sun and Moon; Super Mario Run launched a month ahead of the Super Mario Odyssey announcement; Fire Emblem Heroes launched not long after the announcement of Fire Emblem Echoes, Warriors and Switch; we’re (kind of) expecting the announcement of an Animal Crossing game for the Switch by the end of the year to capitalise on Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’s release, etc. Given that the Switch is a hybrid console and that most of Nintendo’s focus is now on their flagship piece of hardware, I think Nintendo have been doing an excellent job of using the mobile game market to both increase revenue and to tie into brand awareness ahead of reveals/releases/etc.

It’s a purported leak and absolutely nothing more at this point, but there is an image floating around claiming to be of the game’s three starter Pokémon, apparently originating in a now deleted thread. In light of the leaks nearly two years ago regarding the final evolutions of the Alolan starter Pokémon in the lead-up to the release of Sun and Moon, I’m going to hide this behind a spoiler tag, on the slim chance that there is actually some truth to these supposedly leaked images. @Serebii has noted that there are some (pretty big?) problems with the grammar of the kanji presented in these images, and my gut instinct is that these designs feel a bit...off? We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess, but take this all with some very salty chips. Very salty. EDIT: the artist of these pieces has come out and revealed them to not be the real deal.

That figure of 20 million units sold by the end of the next FY isn’t just not looking crazy at all, it’s actually starting to seem rather on the conservative end. Crazier still is that Super Mario Odyssey is already up to 9.07 million units sold, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is up to 7.33 million, and Breath of the Wild is up to 6.70 million. Oh, and Xenoblade is already sitting at 1.06 million units sold! Warms my heart to see Nintendo thriving once again.

“It was a good year, but we’re sure the next will be even better. You can see for yourself. 😉” is how CDPR closed their Christmas party summary over on their website. I’m not sure how that couldn’t be taken as a strong and suggestive hint that we’ll see something about the game this year. The wait continues...

The indie horror game Bendy and the Ink Machine is coming to the Switch later this year.

Improvements video based on the demo feedback (with English subtitles). The demo has had over one million downloads and 45500+ survey responses. A summary of the improvements made to the game in response to the demo feedback: