Julius

I’ve had an extremely busy start to the year, and it only looks like it’s going to get busier as I prepare for my summer exams; as a result, I’m probably going to end up updating this at the end of a month’s second week for updates on what I’ve been playing, and at the end of a month to give some more fleshed out thoughts on - and a list of - games that I’ve completed. Without further ado, then, here are my thoughts on the games that I completed this month! January 1. Final Fantasy VII (1997) My first dive into a Final Fantasy game, and traditional JRPG with it, is - at last - out of the way! I played the PS4 port of the game and the game holds up fairly well aesthetically, thanks in large part to its pre-rendered backgrounds and ahead-of-its-time full-motion video. I can absolutely understand why this game was a hit, as it took and executed a number of film elements and incorporated them into a video game extremely well, such as establishing wide shots; the camera swooping through environments; feeling like a film thanks to the change in angle with every change in area, which in many ways is similar to how shots are cut together in a film. This game’s music is easily some of the best video-game music that I’ve ever heard, and Nobuo Uematsu is an absolute genius. Every single piece of this soundtrack doesn’t just encapsulate whatever is happening with the character’s on-screen, but actually hints at the underlying themes and motives behind each scene, and this really helps to flesh out the characters and, in my opinion, is what raises this game from being good or great to being one of the best. I actually purchased this OST on my phone - the first time I’ve ever purchased a video game soundtrack, but surely not the last - and love just flicking through and remembering which pieces are tied to which scene/event/character. The only down side to this OST would be that One Winged Angel is cited as being Sephiroth’s theme, despite absolutely not being Septhiroth’s theme based on the contents of the game. In fact, the choral and menacing One Winged Angel, so far as I can remember, is only played once in the entire game, in the game’s penultimate showdown! The brooding and foreboding Those Chosen By The Planet is, by all means, Sephiroth’s theme. Music-induced rant over. Finally, onto what I think are the core components of a JRPG based on my experience with FFVII: the characters, the world, and the story. I don’t think that there’s any doubt in my mind that this game is remembered as fondly as it is because of its focus on characters. Despite the massive scale of the world and the massive scope of the game’s story, the first 50% to 70% of this game is almost entirely about character development, as we learn about each character’s motivations and backstory, but, quite noticeably, not always necessarily in that order. For instance, Barret’s motivation from the start of the game is very clearly to save the planet from the greedy Shinra Corporation, who have been destroying the environment for a large number of reasons. However, as the game goes on, we learn about Barret’s past and his fundamental reason for wanting to take out Shinra, whilst somewhat selfish, helps him to become much more relatable as a character. The decision to mix up how we are introduced to these characters, and the order in which we find out about their backstory and motivations, helps to keep the game fresh, and also to keep the characters from becoming a bullet-pointed list of events and emotions. I absolutely loved this game’s cast, and each character’s nuance, and the villains of the game receive a similar respect with regards to the backstory as the main cast of heroes. I adore the cyberpunk look and feel to Midgar, and the world overall has a palette of distinct biomes and architectural designs which make it feel like a truly lived-in and tangible world. Because of this, journeying the world truly feels like an adventure. Like I mentioned before, I think that the opening 50% to 70% of this game’s story feels like a very clear focus on character development, and I think that this focus works tremendously well for the purpose of the story. It makes the typical “the world’s going to end” narrative unique, and one we don’t want to see come to a head because of the characters in this world. That being said, I think that the story quality of this game comes to its peak in the Temple of the Ancients, or shortly thereafter. In my opinion, the game loses its previous sheer focus on its characters to focus on a confusing and muddied timeline and history, which ultimately contributes to the game’s ending feeling somewhat underwhelming (at least compared to the trajectory that I thought it was on before). Whilst I really enjoyed my time with this game, I think that it has its fair share of problems, too. For one, it’s controls haven’t aged all that well, and it can quite easily make one dizzy attempting to navigate the world’s pre-rendered background. Another problem I had is that I couldn’t help but resort to guides and the PS4 port’s cheats (specifically to speed up time and get rid of random encounters), as the game became somewhat frustrating to navigate without those cheats turned on and without some idea of which direction to move in. Overall, though, this game had an excellent cast of characters, great music, and a mostly great story, and is a game which I look forward to experiencing again in the future! Rating: 9.3/10 This game has really got me hooked into the idea of traditional JRPGs, and I look forward to playing Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest VIII and Xenoblade Chronicles later this year to widen my appreciation of the genre. When I do eventually return to the Final Fantasy series, my plan at the moment is to tackle either VI or IX. 2. Pokémon Ranger (2006) I’m going to try to keep this a little shorter than my FFVII thoughts, as that was my first time playing that game, whereas this was my third time playing Pokémon Ranger (my first was nearly 10 years ago!). I think that this game is as solid of a good game as a game can possibly be: an interesting set of mechanics (and probably one of the most intuitive and memorable uses of the DS stylus); a catchy-but-somewhat-forgettable soundtrack; a not-so-great-but-not-so-bad story. However, during my time playing this game, there were noticeable glimpses of what I’ve come to think should be included in the Pokémon core series RPG for Nintendo Switch. For example, Pokémon appear in the game’s overworld, and calm or slow Pokémon can be easily avoided, whereas angry or fast Pokémon will often beeline straight for the player character, making for something of a mini-game experience in the game’s overworld alone. I walked into a room of Poliwhirl only for them to become shy when they noticed that I was there, running away from me and jumping back into the pool of water at the centre of the room. But anyways, back to my rating for this game! Rating: 7.5/10

That was an excellent read, @Glen-i! I’ve had Pokémon Switch on my mind a lot lately as I’ve been playing through SoulSilver and, interestingly, even Pokémon Ranger (I mean, it was on my mind anyways..), and looking back at those games really has given me a better idea of what I’d want from the next main series instalment (and, adversely, what I certainly don’t want). I have an idea that your thoughts in this thread will help me go through and re-analyse some of my own thoughts (dare I say, evolve them? :P) on the series’ past, and so I look forward to you talking about Gen II!

I've just spent over half an hour searching for a dedicated Cyberpunk 2077 thread to update, but I couldn't find one (if there already is, please, by all means, delete/merge this thread), so I thought it best to start one in the event of its absence. Cyberpunk 2077 is an upcoming RPG developed and published by CD Projekt Red, whom are most well-known as the Polish developers and publishers of the The Witcher video game series. What we've seen so far: The game was initially announced in May 2012, before a teaser trailer was released on 10th January 2013 (which garnered a number of trailer awards). Some concept art images were also released alongside the trailer. What we know so far: The game is likely to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. It will be playable in both first- and third-person perspectives. The game will feature both a single-player story and an online multiplayer component. The game is based on loosely on the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop role-playing game, which was created by Mike Pondsmith. Pondsmith is consulting on the project. Marcin Przybyłowicz, the composer for The Witcher 3, was chosen to write the game's music. CD Projekt Red started upgrading its REDengine 3 game engine for the game around the time The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released; a funding application for the Polish government, granting CD Projekt Red $7 million (USD), confirmed the employment of the next iteration of said engine: the REDengine 4. The same funding application noted that the game's release could potentially take place in 2019. It will be set in an openworld metropolis called Night City, a fictional city located between San Francisco and Los Angeles. "Braindance", a digital recording device connected to the player character's brain, will enable the player character to experience the thoughts, emotions and muscle movements of other people (likely NPCs, but possibly even the player characters of other players) as if they were the character's own. The game will feature non-English speaking characters. If the player does not speak a character's language, they can purchase translator implants to improve their understanding of them, with translation quality depending on the quality of the translator implant (i.e. an expensive implant will translate much more accurately than a relatively cheaper one). During pre-production, approximately 50 staff were working on the game. As recent as last summer, around 550 staff were reportedly working on the game (compared to the peak staff volume of The Witcher 3 at 200). As of October 2017, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski revealed in a joint statement that the game was moving along as planned. In June 2017, CD Projekt Red published a statement explaining that data containing early designs had been stolen and threatened to be released to the public. The developer refused to comply with the ransom demand; the stolen data/ early designs have yet to be leaked. Now, onto why I wanted to update the relevant thread... Earlier this month, on January 10th (5 years to the day after the release of the game's teaser trailer), the game's official Twitter account posted for the first time since December 2013, after recently being verified. A few days later, on 15th January, Gry-Online - the largest gaming website in Poland (more-or-less their version of the US's Gamespot) - published an article revealing that they had received information from two separate sources about Cyberpunk 2077 being present at E3 this year (12th - 14th June), with both a trailer and gameplay footage to boot (The Witcher 3 was previously present at E3, so this wouldn't come as too much of a surprise). According to their sources, the game will likely appear as part of either Sony's or Microsoft's conference, though they stated that it is more likely to appear at the latter; their sources also stated that a playable demo will be available at E3 behind closed doors for industry journalists. They ended the article by stating that this information should all be taken with a grain of salt, as the game's presence at E3 could be subject to change depending on how the development of the game continues over the coming months. In the article's comments section, it was posited that the site's information is "bulls***", but interestingly, the website's editor-in-chief responded to the comment by telling them to "Save this page and come back here in June. We'll talk then." It's also worth noting that CD Projekt Red's co-founder - the aforementioned Marcin Iwinski - previously praised Bethesda's rollout of Fallout 4, saying that "We're impressed with Fallout 4's rollout. [Bethesda] came on stage and said, 'It's here, it's real, and it's coming out on this date.' We're going to do something similar. We're going to wait [to reveal Cyberpunk 2077] until we can show off a very meaningful piece of it." Granted, if the game is at this year's E3 then there's no guarantee that it will be released by the end of the year, but it's presence could certainly signify that it will be released within the following 12 months, given that the game has been in development for a number of years now.

Some big updates are on their way, most noticeably a revamped progression system. Courtesy of the official website:

I think that’s absolutely a possibility, especially when we consider what EA did with Visceral only a few months ago. Honestly, after the response to Battlefront II’s loot crate system, I think that the future of Anthem - and consequently, BioWare - could almost entirely depend on whether or not EA pushes a similar agenda here with regards to microtransactions and the like. Why this wasn’t retooled from a new IP into something of a guaranteed success with the Star Wars license I’m not sure. BioWare has been sliding a bit as of late, in my opinion, and I hope that EA’s shareholders aren’t the major hurdle that they have to overcome when this game releases.

According to Kotaku’s sources, the game will be pushed back to Q1 2019.

Norman Reedus talked about Death Stranding on a B&H podcast; here’s what he had to say:

Quantum Dream - despite everything going on over there at the moment - has reaffirmed that the game will be releasing in spring of this year. So we have this some time between March and June (likely prior to E3), and God of War on April 20th, which seems to keep in line with what Sony said a few months ago about all first party games dated with a 2018 release to come in the first half of the year. If this does turn out to be true, and we end up with those two games, Days Gone and Spider-Man by the end of June, it does makes me wonder about what - if anything - they could be holding back on for release in H2.

Dead Cells - a Roguelike, Metroidvania action-platformer - is coming to the Switch later this year.

According to GDC’s “State of the Industry” report, developers are working on as four times as many games for the Switch this year when compared to last year. In a survey of around 4000 developers, 12% were found to be developing games for the Switch, compared to 3% last year, and 15% are saying that their next game is for the Switch.

I’m fairly confident we’ll see something pretty content-filled within the next four to six weeks. Not because I’m second-guessing Nintendo and they have to show something, but we’ve known about a main series Fire Emblem coming to Switch since last January. Fire Emblem games typically release in H1, and the last three were all released in Q2 in all major territories apart from America, who got Awakening and Fates in February. Looking back, Animal Crossing typically releases towards the end of the year, and I think Pocket Camp’s existence all but confirms that something’s on the way with regards to AC on Switch (what, with Pokémon GO and Mario Run being followed by main series entries within less than twelve months of their release). Likewise, we’ve known about games such as Project Octopath Traveller and Shin Megami Tensei V since last January too, and we still haven’t heard much of an update with regards to them, either - despite the latter getting a public demo a few months ago. Based on nothing but speculation, I think that we’ll have a Direct by mid-March (which will detail everything up to the start of H2), before getting the silent treatment - bar, perhaps, another Direct Mini - up until E3 (which will detail major tentpole releases up until the year’s end).

The game will be releasing on April 20th 2018, as revealed by this new story trailer:

Steamworld Dig is coming to the Switch on February 1st.

We’re almost three weeks into 2018 already, so it’s time for an update! I haven’t had much of a chance to play on my PS4, so Horizon and FFVII are still lying in wait for my return. It’s also already become rather apparent that my studying is going to eat into my gaming until the end of my exams in June, so I probably won’t make much headway with regards to buying new games and completing them before then. Because of this, I’ve decided to start burning though my DS/3DS catalogue for one last time (before I hopefully get a Switch after this summer). I’m just over 10 hours into Pokémon SoulSilver, and have 6 Johto badges. I’m actually surprised at how quickly I’m getting through this game, considering that this is the first time I’ve played through it in nearly eight years and that I’m making a point to battle every trainer I come across! However, because I’m battling everyone, something’s becoming rather apparent: this game was not at all designed to scale with the trainer’s progress, and I’m probably going to have to start a pretty focused grind prior to my challenging of the eighth gym. I’ve also played a few hours of Pokémon Link!, a fun, Tetris-styled game, which I really need to return to so that I can complete it at some point. New Super Mario Bros. DS is another game that I’ve returned to, and I’m really enjoying the music and level design so far. I’m about halfway through the sixth world now, and there have been a few times where I’ve found myself smiling at some of the smarter moments in the game. I mean, there are also some other frustrating parts in my Star hunting which has made me want to break my New 3DS XL, but that’s besides the point Finally, earlier tonight, I started Pokémon Ranger for the third time, and I’m loving it. The ingenious incorporation of the stylus into the gameplay, the layout of the overworld, the art style, and the music have all been things that I’ve found vivid and appealing so far. I’ll be sure to return with more extensive thoughts on these games as and when they’re completed!

I asked about this a while ago and was pointed to the ‘Hide’ option under ‘Options’, which seems to have the same effect?

I’ve given this a little more thought, and honestly, I think opening the year with a Direct Mini was a very smart - if risky - move by Nintendo. It’s not that my opinion of the Direct Mini was negative - I actually quite enjoyed it - but I can sort of see Nintendo’s logic behind leading with a Direct Mini this year. Games which might have been otherwise buried in a typical Direct already have some mindshare, meaning that, when we do eventually see a typical Direct, they shouldn’t be crowded out by the hype for some of Nintendo’s larger franchises coming to the Switch. Similarly, it means that they can spend less time talking about these games during the Direct, other than perhaps showing off a release date for games which currently don’t have one, and give a greater focus to games that they didn’t talk about during the Direct Mini.

It should definitely be there or thereabouts by now, I would think.

I’ve actually been thinking similarly about the Xbox One X being able to play Xbox Two (or whatever it’s called) games, and becoming the budget alternative to Microsoft’s next console, should they stay in the hardware business. However, I doubt Sony would take that route, mainly because they don’t need to, but also because the PS4 Pro isn’t as large as a technological leap from the based model as the X was from the Xbox One. Something I definitely want to see from them with the PS5, though, is complete backwards compatibility with the entire catalogue of PS4 games, as opposed to 2 years of porting titles with slight visual touch-ups.

Only just seen this, and honestly, it was not something that I was expecting. Actually, I don’t think it was something that anyone had been expecting. That being said, it really does seem like an interesting piece of kit, and I can’t wait to see how it’s supported going forward. Oh, and I could absolutely see the next Nintendo themed cereal box being a compatible net for this too, so if Nintendo doesn’t already have that planned...they should get in on that promotional tie-in.

Official plot synopsis: Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.

Square Enix have announced the Royal Edition of the game, which has an RRP of £39.99. The Royal Edition includes: • An all-new dungeon - Insomnia City Ruins: Expanded Map • New features such as first person mode, new gear, and new bosses. • Armiger Unleashed – after you collect all 13 royal arms, a more action-oriented mode of the Armiger is unlocked • Royal Vessel – the boat from FFXV is now a controllable vehicle. The same body of water (between Cape Caem and Altissia) can now be freely explored. • All season pass content – Episode Gladiolus, Episode Prompto, Multiplayer Expansion: Comrades, and Episode Ignis. • Over a dozen pieces of DLC, including weapons, Regalia car skins, and item sets.

It was a bit odd to find this in General Gaming! It feels like this needs a little bit of updating In June of last year, the game was delayed from December 2017 to an undetermined date in the latter half of 2018. Back in August, Deep Silver (Metro, Saints Row, Shin Megami Tensei) was announced as the project’s publisher, and this teaser trailer was debuted at Gamescom: In late September, WWG reported that they had learned that HD re-releases of Shenmue I & II were due to be announced in 2017, with their sources purportedly being linked to SEGA. The HD re-releases as described by the outlet would be coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, and have been in development since 2016. However, a few days ago [January], WWG reported that the project is still under way at SEGA, and that the HD re-releases were delayed as a result of the delay of Shenmue III to the latter half of 2018. News of this came courtesy of their alleged sources linked with SEGA from before, as well as being reiterated by journalists in Europe when contacted. SEGA were initially planning to announce Shenmue I & II HD at E3 2017, according to one source linked directly to SEGA, but are now apparently waiting for a more opportune time to reveal the HD re-releases when a release date for Shenmue III is pinned down. Some brand new screenshots from Shenmue III were revealed today [January]: Next month, in February, more details and screenshots are expected of the game, as Yu Suzuki will be attending the Monaco Anime Game International Conference on February 24th.

Summary of Tatsumi Kimishima’s most recent interview with Mainichi Shimbun via Nintendo Everything.