Dcubed

It's times like this that I'm grateful for the Wishlist feature! Edit: The Trials of Mana remake is 40% off! Nice! Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 is also 50% off, but strangely the second volume isn't... Ok? Otherwise, it's mostly the usual suspects and a whole heap of shite surrounding them.

Abyss actually has some semblance of dungeon design, with actual puzzles to figure out! (basic as they are, they are there!). It has some meaningful sidequests, minigames (even a stealth sequence!) and some actual exploration and meaningful gameplay outside of just fighting enemies endlesly! Unfortunately all that stuff started disappearing after Abyss came out. Vesperia was a sort of last gasp, before the series basically turned into a glorified combat simulator; where every "dungeon" basically became a linear corridor with nothing to do other than fight enemies, and any sort of sidequest that involved anything other than killing enemies was stamped out.

Very interesting to see how the top Battle System rankings don't really correspond well with Most-Played games... Just goes to show that an RPG is so much more than just its battle system. And that's where the Tales of series has really fallen off in recent years. Abyss was the last game that really had substantial gameplay outside of its battles (and even that was a big drop off from Symphonia in that regard), as the series has pushed to become more and more combat focused at the expense of literally everything else (Tales of Graces perhaps being the biggest inflection point for this. Hell, even the poll results bear this out!).

Online multi is always going to be an inferior experience to local multiplayer. Fundamentally, it is a substitute for when an equivilent local multiplayer experience is either impractical or impossible. That being said, there are methods developers can use to help mitigate the shortcomings of online play (such as voice chat, chat moderation, anti-cheat systems etc), but you fundamentally have two problems with online multiplayer that do not apply to local multiplayer. First, there is the social interaction aspect. No matter how well designed an online multiplayer game is, it's never going to be the same experience as sitting within punching distance of your buddies. Mario Party is probably the ultimate example of this; what is an absolutely riotously fun local multiplayer game would be an absolute snoozefest when played online, because you just don't have that same communal feel that makes the board game aspect so fun. Even in the best case scenario, with all of the online chatting tools in the world, it just isn't the same when your friends aren't in the same room as you. And as for online with strangers? You are also inevitably going to come afoul of pricks and trolls online who want to spoil your fun. No matter what kind of game it is, no matter how well thought out an anti-cheat system or well staffed a moderating team, there will always be cheaters and there will always be people who will hurl abuse at you and your kids. This can fundamentally ruin even hardcore competitive games, let alone casual fun ones. Second, the technical side. You will never have as seamless and stable an online multiplayer game as you get with local multiplayer. Even with a perfect fiber connection on both sides, some gameplay experiences will just never work as well with online as with local. Games like Pikmin 3 and Super Mario 3D World will never work well online, (and for the latter, we're about to see this disaster actually play out in a couple of months ) because they rely on pixel perfect and frame perfect precision in a dynamic & constantly updating environment; where any amount of lag at all will ruin the experience. Of course, this works both ways, as some games (Battle Royales and MMOs quickly come to mind) are just completely impractical to make work in a local multiplayer setting. The second problem is perhaps solvable in the (very) distant future, but I don't think you will ever really see a solution for the first problem. Online multiplayer certainly has its place, but it'll never be a true substitute for local multiplayer.

Well, I’ve just received the COVID vaccine and I haven’t turned into a radioactive spider yet; so I reckon things are looking pretty good!

Pirate class units can walk on water in this game (as well as every FE game). Only Pirates and Pegasus/Wythern Knights can do this in FESD&TBoL (yes I know it’s a ridiculous acronym, but I can’t just call it Shadow Dragon thanks to that being the DS remake ) Annoyingly, there are a lot of pirates early on; but they thin out after the first 4-5 chapters.

It’s Actraiser’s 30th anniversary! So Yuzo Koshiro has done a new arrangement of Filmore in celebration! Bow before The Master

Super Valis 4 is a very interesting choice. First time it has ever been re-released! Looks like Telenet’s library might be up for re-release on Switch now!

Warp staff is broken beyond belief. That is all

Among Us is huge for the platform. Great get! Cyber Shadow and SMBForever look great! Hard to believe that SMBForever is FINALLY coming out! It’s been... well... forever since it was first announced!

This is why you don’t pre-order sight unseen. Was plainly obvious that CDPR were attempting to pull the wool over your eyes with the console versions; and quite frankly, it’s shocking that this actually passed certification with the ridiculous number of crashes it suffers on both PlayStation & Xbox. Quite frankly, both console manufacturers are complicit in this as far as I’m concerned. The fact that Sony are now refusing refunds is just adding insult to injury. Absolutely horrendous state of affairs.

Yeah, it’s remarkable how long and how well they’ve held on (going all the way back to the Gremlin Graphics days; they’re the longest surviving British developer alongside Rare/Ultimate!) Fingers crossed that they can hold out, but with the way the industry is now (very rapidly!) consolidating? I bet they’re gonna get bought out by Microsoft soon...

Very sad day for British game development... Sumo Digital is now the one and only large scale independent British developer left. Gee Whiz. Where are we going Papa EA?

I’m more surprised that people aren’t attempting to call you out of Roy being GameCube and Luigi being G&W. The former is a really petty technicality (the best kind of technicality!) and the latter is super obscure knowledge (the best kind of knowledge!) That being said, Hero could just as easily count under 3DS; both the PS4 and 3DS versions did release on the same day in Japan after all...

Website is up now, and it comes with new details! https://www.ghostsn-goblins.com/resurrection/us/ Branching level paths are in! (ALA The GBA version of Super Ghouls N' Ghosts! Which is awesome BTW!). Seems like certain levels will be specifically inspired by Ghosts n' Goblins, while some will be inspired by Ghouls n' Ghosts (which explains why some looked so similar during the trailer); while others will simply just be completely new. Not sure if I'm keen on the idea of the Umbral Tree (skill tree) though... The RPG stuff sucked balls in UGnG, so I'm not exactly thrilled to see this... Still, if it's handled more like Devil May Cry/Bayonetta than UGnG, it could still be good.

Completely and instantly.

Took me a couple of days. Can supposedly take 2-3 days from what I hear.

Got a friend of mine (figuratively) mashing F5 like a madman for that Banjo amiibo

Fighters Pass 2 is all Nintendo's choices, not Sakurai's.

That's pretty hilarious considering that Roy was THE promotional tie-in character for Melee, as he was put in to promote the (then) upcoming release of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade in Japan (Yes, he was just as bad as Byleth!).

Yeah, an amazing choice that nobody saw coming (sorry guys, but your prediction points continue to plummet!). While I'm a bit disappointed that we aren't seeing any representation from any other games in the series, I aint complaining about getting them! Awesome choice!

It's a new game, but it does seem to be taking quite a few elements from the second game in the series (Ghosts n' Goblins); the Windmill stage shown here is very similar to the one from Ghouls n' Ghosts, while the Worm boss and the Twin Gargoyles seem to be making a return from it too. Most of it looks new though. Man, I am SO incredibly pumped to FINALLY be getting a new Gn'G game!! It's my favourite Capcom series! I wasn't much of a fan of Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins though, as they shoved loads of RPG elements into it and watered down the pure arcade pacing and balls hard level design as a result (and no, the JPN only revision doesn't fix its fundamental problems). But this? This looks like the real deal! Hell Yeah!!! I'm so stoked!

More (and higher quality) screens... https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/80e70977-97e9-4b14-9912-3bd5b9e84378 https://www.famitsu.com/news/202012/11211036.html Looks like there's some sort of way to power up your gold armour and increase your magic attack power this time around (and also some way to equip limited use magic ALA Ninja Gaiden NES?)... There's also four(!) difficulties to choose from (With one being a Baby Mode of sorts that prevents you from fully completing the game)... ... the lower difficulty was actually shown in the trailer, as it allows Arthur to take more than one hit before his armour shatters (No doubt the highest difficulty follows the classic, Two Hits And You're Dead model; much like how Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins handled its difficulty settings). Priced at 3600 yen (£26) and it's download only in Japan. Basically just like Mega Man 11. Well. I'm sold!

I got my new Ghosts N’ Goblins game. That’s all I wanted out of the show, so I’m happy

A Rogue Squadron movie!?!? Holy shit!! RELEASE THE WII REMASTER TRILOGY ALONG WITH IT YOU BASTARDS!!!