Random GAMES! Thread #24: E3 MMXIV - http://www.mmcafe.com/ Forums


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chazumaru
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"Random GAMES! Thread #24: E3 MMXIV" , posted Fri 6 Jun 20:09:post reply

>>#23 (154 replies)

E3 2014 is coming!
FF15, not so much, apparently.

Also Brandish PSP is coming to the US! Wow! I am not sure it meakes sense, but it makes me happy that more people get to play this game. I hope it comes to Europe as well.

Here is GAF's timezone-friendly schedule for all E3 conferences.

We collected a bunch of trailers over there if you are too lazy to go through the different announcements.





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Sat 7 Jun 03:31]

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Spoon
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"Re(1):Random GAMES! Thread #24: E3 MMXIV" , posted Sat 7 Jun 02:07post reply

quote:
>>#23 (153 replies)

E3 2014 is coming!
FF15, not so much, apparently.

Also Brandish PSP is coming to the US! Wow! I am not sure it meakes sens, but it makes me happy that more people get to play this game. I hope it comes to Europe as well.

Here is GAF's timezone-friendly schedule for all E3 conferences.

We collected a bunch of trailers over there if you are too lazy to go through the different announcements.



Wow Brandish PSP comes complete with the tile based movement and entire dungeon spinning when you turn that I remember from the SNES version!

Do the niche RPG/adventure game releases in NA for PSP actually manage to sell copies? It seems to me that many of the people that would be interested in those games already have (soft)modded PSPs (sometimes for legit region-lockout reasons!).





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"Re(2):Random GAMES! Thread #24: E3 MMXIV" , posted Sat 7 Jun 02:23post reply

I'm so happy I'm going to post it here too: Electronic Super Joy, a fantastic hardcore PC platformer with amazingly vulgar music that was released last year, is getting a new episode just today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK92tOtJoCE
There really is a visibility problem amongst indies, if I wasn't aware there was a sequel to a game I played to death last year, and I only found out about it by chance.
Still, to the strip club!





chazumaru
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"Re(2):Random GAMES! Thread #24: E3 MMXIV" , posted Sat 7 Jun 03:31:post reply

quote:
Do the niche RPG/adventure game releases in NA for PSP actually manage to sell copies? It seems to me that many of the people that would be interested in those games already have (soft)modded PSPs (sometimes for legit region-lockout reasons!).



... ? The PSP had no region-lock whatsoever. I assume the problem for most importers is the language barrier. Considering that the game came out in 2009 on PSP, I assume they either have a niche audience for those games or a very punishing contract with Falcom.

For a digital release limited to a single language, maybe they already make up for the costs around 10.000-15.000 sales. (That's still quite a number!) What surprises me more is that Falcom has both the infrastructure, the software architecture and the available staff to implement translations for such old games.





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Sat 7 Jun 03:32]

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"Final Fantasy Forever" , posted Sat 7 Jun 13:48:post reply

quote:
FF15, not so much, apparently.
Hahahaha. From the original: "Internally, we have already been investigating the optimal timing to deliver FFXV info to the fans, and looking at our promotion plans, we determined that E3 was not the optimal timing to make FFXV info public." That sure is a cute way of saying, "an optimal time would be when I actually have a game to show you, you see," or even more honestly, "god help me, eight years later we still don't have a remotely playable game and look forward to continuing running jokes of XV becoming the new Final Fantasy XII Dragon Quest VII Final Fantasy XIII Duke Nukem Forever of Square-Enix games."

I'm kind of hoping for another gorgeous FFXII situation where the director has a nervous breakdown midway through and somehow Kawazu Akitoshi of all people is deemed the most sane man in the room to finish it up.





人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は...

[this message was edited by Maou on Sat 7 Jun 15:17]

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"Re(1):Final Fantasy Forever" , posted Sat 7 Jun 19:09post reply

quote:
somehow Kawazu Akitoshi of all people is deemed the most sane man in the room to finish it up.


Hey! Don't do that! Kawazu is busy writing awesome messages daily on his twitter for all us true believer to bathe in His glory!
Plus, he's probably working on a game for the TGS or something. It might even not be moshimoshi! (wishful thinking).

I believe FF15 will be the surprise release to celebrate the 10 years anniversary of FF13V's announcement.





chazumaru
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"Re(1):Final Fantasy Forever" , posted Sat 7 Jun 19:12post reply

That would be hilarious indeed; although with the way SQEX teams are organized now, I don't think it could happen. But you also make me realise there is now a genuine race happening between the release of FF15 and the retirement of Kawazu. He'll turn 52 this year.





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"Kawazu forever" , posted Sun 8 Jun 01:39post reply

Actually, while on one hand I think Kawazu is a lunatic and do not want to ever play one of his games, I am so happy that he exists.

I would like to see Kawazu promoted to the position of Fixer so that he gets to be the final director of every delayed game. Just imagine: with XV, it would mean that Nomura (my god, that guy is the director? No wonder.) had had a breakdown (the total absence of gravitas of him lapsing into hermitdom compared with Matsuno would be hysterical), and then I imagine him just kicking open the door of the XV studio and exclaiming WELL WHAT'S ALL THIS NOW and immediately cutting out the main character, adding a new experience system where you level up by literally running around in a circle or punching walls, and maybe a peculiar puzzle game where you raise cows.

I mean, my god, look, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of SaGa, he is actually recalling at least one scene each day from his games with startling detail, meaning that he was lucid when he made all these things!





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"Re(1):Kawazu forever" , posted Sun 8 Jun 03:01post reply

quote:
I mean, my god, look, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of SaGa, he is actually recalling at least one scene each day from his games with startling detail, meaning that he was lucid when he made all these things!

As I was saying, I cannot start my day without first reading what fragment of my lord's wisdom he has decided to pour upon myself today. Sometimes it's some mundane remarks, such as today "U: Saga has its main character being a widow and another hero being married with kids, which is everything but common", some other time it's about the naming process, like "I called her Monica because I had forgotten I had a character with the exact same name 2 games prior" or "I liked Paul and Nina in RS3, so in SF2, which is utterly unrelated, an old couple with the same name appear". Sometimes it's about the process, like the decision of what magical elements (fire water earth etc) will be available to the player, and when he got bored with the Aristotelian elements in RS3 and went with Taoist elements, while the 4 lords represent the 4 western ones to "defeat". Sometimes it's about world building, like when he said it's important to keep it mind that while a game's end is the end for a player, it's just an event in the life of the characters and their life goes on (which is why RS2 is the most lovable game of the universe up to the last second).
Each post is precious because they shed light on how he works and how he builds universes. And he always come out as creative, quirky, endearing, and most of all humble. Like when he went back through the game files just to look for the source of the RS3 meme "I'm the mayor" and found absolutely nothing (there was no follow-up event, or treasure, or even reaction, no: that was the way it was supposed to be) and he apologized for being so careless. My heart just melted reading that.





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"Re(2):Kawazu forever" , posted Tue 10 Jun 08:32post reply

In E3 news something for Dead Rising 3 was announced. There was a time when DR3 looked like it was going for a more gritty, rubble strewn look. That look seems to be going away.





nobinobita
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"I'm Nucleeeeaaaarrrrr" , posted Tue 10 Jun 18:53:post reply

quote:
>>#23 (154 replies)

E3 2014 is coming!
FF15, not so much, apparently.

Also Brandish PSP is coming to the US! Wow! I am not sure it meakes sense, but it makes me happy that more people get to play this game. I hope it comes to Europe as well.

Here is GAF's timezone-friendly schedule for all E3 conferences.

We collected a bunch of trailers over there if you are too lazy to go through the different announcements.



I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/






www.art-eater.com

[this message was edited by nobinobita on Tue 10 Jun 18:54]

Professor
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"Re(1):I'm Nucleeeeaaaarrrrr" , posted Tue 10 Jun 19:42post reply

quote:
I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/



Holy smokes, did you do all that writeup just today? Incredible. And as always, a great writeup quite worth reading-- your prediction with the Ogre folklore is very interesting!


I'm going to try and catch up with the E3 fever tomorrow, this week is a tad nutsss





chazumaru
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"Re(2):I'm Nucleeeeaaaarrrrr" , posted Tue 10 Jun 21:54:post reply

Thanks Nobi, that was much, much, much more interesting than the entire Sony conference...

Very disappointed by the CG trailer of Bloodborne/Project Beast. Thank Car the leak showed much more about the game. The close-up on Old Nathan's face was impressive. I wonder if the median age and of main characters will significantly increase, and their general hygiene decrease, to show off that current platforms can show wrinkles, coffee marks on teeth and acne better than previous ones.

Reminder: I try to collect all the trailers on this page.

Nintendo's conference is in three hours!
[edit]Nintendo's conference is done! Wow! Link!





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Wed 11 Jun 05:22]

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"Re(1):I'm Nucleeeeaaaarrrrr" , posted Wed 11 Jun 13:31post reply

quote:

I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/



One more congrats I guess, but great post! I'm always in this sort of article. It looks like your Oni theory is probably on the right track as well.

That also reminds me of a random question, can anyone tell me if Onimusha 4 was worth playing?





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"Re(4):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 15:09:post reply

quote:

Nintendo's conference is in three hours!
[edit]Nintendo's conference is done! Wow! Link!



On a very interesting note, Ika Musume author Masahiro Anabe had this to post in his twitter after Splatoon's reveal.

And hot damn that was quite the Xenoblade Chronicles X reveal Are they trying to tie it more and more with Xenogears?

In other news, Lily Bergamo turned into Let it Die (meh), and Devil's Third oddly enough landed as a WiiU exclusive even when it seems Nintendo never really asked for it. Zelda Musou is looking surprisingly nice, and Bayonetta 2 comes with a copy of Bayonetta 1 with new outfits.

Pac Man also confiremd for Smash.





[this message was edited by sfried on Wed 11 Jun 15:56]

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"Re(5):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 17:04post reply

I've watched the Metal Gear trailer again and again, but ughhhhhh, no more! I don't want to be spoiled with trailers that show too much or underwhelmed with trailers that show too little. No more trailers! I'm ready for the game now! There's something wonderfully sad about Boss' face. It must be an extraordinary render to tug at my heartstrings every time I see it. This game is going to wreck me.

People aren't exploding into E3 discussion, so I won't rant about every little thing, just talking to myself, but I'm itching to say something...
quote:
Thanks Nobi, that was much, much, much more interesting than the entire Sony conference...

I felt like the Sony conference was full of a lot of very positive news that was of little to no interest to me. I'm still sold on the package, but all my "Wow" moments were followed by "that must be cool for SOMEBODY. Not me, but..."

Microsoft on the other hand is really sad. Although they've backtracked on all their awful ideas, there's no vision anymore. It's like "we listened to consumers and found out what they really wanted was a PS4." If they could've announced even one more awesome exclusive, I could grudgingly agree to buy the system, but having nothing but a pre-rendered trailer from a Platinum game (not their strong point) has left me in an irritating purgatory.

Nintendo came out swinging and cleaned up. They are challenging my previously-held belief that first-party games alone aren't enough to hold my interest in their systems. They're turning into one of my favorite developers again for the first time since...grade school?

Random Bits:

-I don't trust Suda with a multiplayer game.
-I applaud Ubisoft on being bold enough to go next-gen exclusive on the new Assassin's Creed, but I share in the disappointment that they couldn't squeeze in a female protagonist among the four initially indistinguishable guys.
-The faces in the new Xenoblade look awful. Still excited about the game, though.
-If they rebalance the difficulty on the Type 0 remake (it's a real mess), they'll have an extraordinary game on their hands.

quote:
That also reminds me of a random question, can anyone tell me if Onimusha 4 was worth playing?

Are you super hungry for Onimusha? It felt like a weirdly different approach and a step down in the budget department from Onimusha 3, but if you're like "mannn, too bad about them not making Onimusha anymore--WAIT! I still haven't played 4!" then I think you might enjoy it. I liked having multiple characters, but felt like the difficulty balance was poor.





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"Re(6):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 18:25post reply

quote:
That also reminds me of a random question, can anyone tell me if Onimusha 4 was worth playing?


Are you super hungry for Onimusha? It felt like a weirdly different approach and a step down in the budget department from Onimusha 3, but if you're like "mannn, too bad about them not making Onimusha anymore--WAIT! I still haven't played 4!" then I think you might enjoy it. I liked having multiple characters, but felt like the difficulty balance was poor.
I agree that the game is vastly different from the previous 3, so you may end up disappointed. However, I enjoyed it tremendously. It feels like a downgrade compared to 2 and 3, but after a while, I started thinking the main budget went from "famous actors and amazing pre-rended video" to "actually making the game".
I spent 10-ish hours on each previous game (maybe 3 was longer... 15?) but I spent 60 hours on 4, so that's it. It has much fewer memorable moments than the previous 3, but there was many more enjoyable things to do. I suppose it's the difference between a short but powerful novel that stays with you, and a popcorn movie you enjoy while you watch it, but later you only remember "shit exploded from beginning to end".

As for E3, the feeling I have is "everybody wins". Sony fans are happy because Bloodborne and Uncharted, Nintendo fans are ecstatic because Zelda, Smash, and... well, every single thing they showed looked amazing and then there was even more (I still can't understand how Starfox U was deemed not worthy to be shown in the presentation, but is playable on the salon. I mean, Starfox !), Platinum fans are happy because Bayo is not one for pets who don't listen to their master (and that ugly-ass thing for XBone), fans of Ubi got the same game as ever with a slightly different skin, and I suppose MS fans are happy for Halo.
Capcom fans got... errrr... Dead rising's hilarious multiplayer mode, even more ironic in that the dead rising this time are dead licenses? And MGS fans got the most depressing MGS thing I've ever seen, so they can boast on how mature it has become. Even SQEX fans got Type 0 HD!

It's surprisingly nice! Of course, it will all be spoiled by fanboys saying "My favourite company won E3" / "No my favourite company won E3", but I think everyone performed honorably or better.
As a friend was saying, Nintendo apparently acknowledged this year that their fan are insane manchildren and decided to roll with it. Their marketing department keeps having great ideas, from the treehouse to the awesomely dumb fight at the beginning to the nod to the Luigi Death Stare meme (nothing too much, just a nod, which was perfect). For a company that does so many things like it was 2004, it's quite a nice surprise.
Also, Bayo, Smash and Zelda Musou's release date is 1 month earlier in Japan, so August for Musou and September for Bayo and Smash. Hurray! Hurray!
My only regret was when Aonuma said "I was amazed on how creative the Musou team was when creating moves for the characters" and I said out low "If only it had been Zelda Basara instead".
Oh, well. Apparently, they're showing Metroid for 3DS today? Does anyone have time (not to mention money) to play all these games?





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"Re(7):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 19:00post reply

quote:
Capcom fans got... errrr...

There was a new Deep Down trailer as well, though for a company that recently expanded, I was hoping for something a bit more. I love that they made a Deep Down E3 trailer, because the game technically isn't announced for the US yet. One of the developers, when asked/criticized by a western publication about the lack of female avatars in the game made sure to say "the game hasn't been announced for the west" as an excuse, as if that makes any sense. I'm going to stop there, rather than outline everything that's stupid about this whole situation.

quote:
Apparently, they're showing Metroid for 3DS today? Does anyone have time (not to mention money) to play all these games?

If that's true, then Nintendo can say "we gave them everything!" even if they still end up in the red.

quote:
FFXIV Rant

Our big FFXIV news was gay marriage and ninja. I think both elicited equal excitement. I've been a firm supporter of FFXIV, but the inclusion of ninja is their first massive misstep. Queuing for dungeons is instant as a tank, almost instant for a healer and up to an hour for direct damage classes. Now, they're adding a new direct damage class that is totally awesome (really, watch the trailer!) and everyone is going to want to use, further upsetting the already busted player distribution. I'm mad.





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"Re(8):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 19:51post reply

quote:
As for E3, the feeling I have is "everybody wins".

Everybody in 2015 wins. I am not so fond that my favorite hobby needs to be preempted with the caveat: "as long as Russia does not start a World War in the next ten months".

But yes, good times for all players.

Except Vita owners, maybe. Considering how the poor Vita was mistreated all week, I find amazing that, in about three months, when TGS comes, the stars of the show will most likely be Vita and mobile. It's like the Bizzaro version of E3. TGS!





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"Re(8):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 21:23post reply

quote:

Our big FFXIV news was gay marriage and ninja. I think both elicited equal excitement. I've been a firm supporter of FFXIV, but the inclusion of ninja is their first massive misstep. Queuing for dungeons is instant as a tank, almost instant for a healer and up to an hour for direct damage classes. Now, they're adding a new direct damage class that is totally awesome (really, watch the trailer!) and everyone is going to want to use, further upsetting the already busted player distribution. I'm mad.



Ninja became a blink/evasion tank in FFXI thanks to an exclusive ability it had that turned out more powerful than expected, although it was designed as a ranged damage dealer - an odd turn of events for a class associated with stealth, but it eased up the reliance on paladins and occasional warriors as tanks. Maybe some cross-class skills and gear will enable that for FFXIV as well?...


I wasn't expecting much from E3, but I still like how Pac-Man turned out in Smash - Sakurai and Nintendo in general are doing a fine job curating video game history better than a lot of IP holders, while keeping things fun and interesting in the medium.
Which reminds me I never really expected Toad to get his own game, but there you go.





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chazumaru
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"Re(9):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Wed 11 Jun 21:33:post reply

Well, I think *technically* Captain Toad is not the same character as Toad.

I can't wait for a someone to create the Toad Timeline so we get a better understanding of why we are allowed to have fun!





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Wed 11 Jun 21:33]

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"Onimusha 4: last hurrah for Bengus" , posted Thu 12 Jun 01:03:post reply

quote:

I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/


One more congrats I guess, but great post! I'm always in this sort of article. It looks like your Oni theory is probably on the right track as well.



Thank you all for reading!


quote:
That also reminds me of a random question, can anyone tell me if Onimusha 4 was worth playing?


I didn't play part 4 much, but i really enjoyed the art Bengus created for it. As far as I can remember, that was the last game that he was the main artist on.

It's the most painterly art he's ever done, with basically no visible outlines; a huge departure from his usual line driven work:

Here's Soki brandishing a sword

Here's Sakon Shima, the cool loyal honorable bad guy Samurai

(I really like how the Samurai dudes in this game almost look like buildings, like their armor's made out of roofing tiles and ornaments)

Here's Bengus' take on the classic Evil Pope badguy

Here's a cool Keita Amemiya-ish evil white snake demon (maybe the last boss?)

Nice shot of the two main characters

Adorable samurai lady

Source:
Lots more art here

Bengus where are youuuuu?? I'd heard that he became primarily a 3d modeller at some point after this. Wonder what he's up to today. I know he goes by Gouda Cheese now. I think i saw a scan of some kinda doujinshii artbook that he put out a few years ago, but for the life of me I can't find those scans on the internet anymore.






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[this message was edited by nobinobita on Thu 12 Jun 01:05]

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"Re(1):Onimusha 4: last hurrah for Bengus" , posted Thu 12 Jun 01:24post reply

Vague promises about what may happen in the future, blind faith, and pointless tribalism; E3 is what would happen if political parties held all their rallies in the same room. My main thought when looking over the information about E3 2014 was that I was watching an extended preview for E3 2015. Sure, Bloodborne has a good pedigree but how does it actually play? The new Zelda game promises to break the mold of the franchise while somehow simultaneously going back to the original games for inspiration. How does that work? Who knows! Maybe it will be cool but all I can do right now is let my imagination fill in the blanks based on a spiel that sounds like every other pitch used to sell Zelda games for the past decade. Even though Devil's Third looks to be an atrocious pile of crap it at least had the decency to show actual gameplay.

Oddly, it was genres that weren't center stage, such as fighting games, that were far more generous with details. Seeing the actual in-game characters moving around in the current build of the engine made me far more excited than CGI cut-scenes and vague buzzwords. Yeah, I'm being snarky with this post but the presentation at E3 doesn't always work for me.

quote:
Here's Sakon Shima, the cool loyal honorable bad guy Samurai

I always wondered what happened to Bilstein from Star Gladiator. It turns out he wandered over into the Onimusha games.





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"Re(1):Onimusha 4: last hurrah for Bengus" , posted Thu 12 Jun 05:20post reply

quote:
Bengus where are youuuuu??

Bengus/Mido Shiito/Holy Homerun/Gouda Cheese/CRMK (?) is on Twitter.





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"Re(2):Onimusha 4: last hurrah for Bengus" , posted Thu 12 Jun 07:49post reply

quote:
Bengus where are youuuuu??
Bengus/Mido Shiito/Holy Homerun/Gouda Cheese/CRMK (?) is on Twitter.



OH MY GOD. Thank you for sharing this!






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"Re(3):I'm Nucleeeeaaaarrrrr" , posted Thu 12 Jun 11:18post reply

So much stuff to comment, and so little time!

quote:

Nintendo's conference is in three hours!
[edit]Nintendo's conference is done! Wow! Link!



Right now Wii U is looking more and more as the most appealing next-gen system to me... (I'm still stuck on PS2 days, so I have little problem admitting WiiU as next-gen, mind you). The number of games I want to play is growing by the day. Another console piled up on my living room is probably the last thing I need, but I know for sure I won't be able to resist that Hyrule Musou + new Zelda combo. Damn you, Nintendo! I managed to avoid the temptation when SM3DW came up, but this is just too much for my poor soul...

quote:
Big Oni Boss rant


Kudos to Nobi for the ultra-interesting post, as always! I didn't know about that Red Oni, Blue Oni story but, seeing the trailer, it sure makes sense. I wasn't aware that Big Boss had grown horns, however. Good thing he's not spanish, because he wouldn't be able to escape from people's smirks even shutting himself out in Outer Heaven.

quote:
Bengus Onimusha art


I had almost forgotten about Onimusha 4! Seeing those beautiful concept arts sure brings back good memories. They almost don't look as Bengus art, tough! It's amazing how his style has evolved. As for the game itself goes, I'd say if you liked previous Onimusha incarnations you are sure to enjoy 4 as well. I have fond memories of the collaboration (?) segments between the two protagonists. Even though I was a bit skeptic about having a cheeky loli posing as Yagyuu Juubei, at the end of the day she proves to be a lovable character.

That's all for this year's E3 I guess! Man, 2014 and still no news of The Last Guardian...





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"Re: I'm Ueda's angry ghooost" , posted Thu 12 Jun 11:27:post reply

quote:
The Last Guardian
Don't fear, that one is scheduled for a Q3 After FFXV Release. In my continuing fantasy, Kawazu will somehow get called in as a consultant to complete The Last Guardian Kawazu right after he pinch-hits as director for the much-delayed Final Kawazu XV.
quote:
And hot damn that was quite the Xenoblade Chronicles X reveal Are they trying to tie it more and more with Xenogears?
I guess it's conceivable they were actively hoping to sell fewer copies rather than more!





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"Re(1):Re: I'm Ueda's angry ghooost" , posted Thu 12 Jun 12:09post reply

quote:
I guess it's conceivable they were actively hoping to seller fewer copies rather than more!



This is going to be some kind of SNES-era Chrono Trigger strategy where the MSRP of the game is nearly $100.

quote:
Wii U


As much as I am excited for No Man's Sky (seriously, how did that studio go from Joe Danger to that?!), the sheer quantity of new titles which excited me at the Nintendo conference made me want to get a Wii U. I figure that even though the bulk of those exciting titles won't be out till sometime in 2015, I can use the time up until then to play the good stuff that's already out!

quote:
Kawazu fixing projects


I'm imagining Kingdom Hearts 3 going into overtime and Kawazu being called in to fix THAT. Kawazu Hearts 3 is probably more than the world can handle.





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"Re(2):Re: I'm Ueda's angry ghooost" , posted Thu 12 Jun 18:59post reply

quote:
As much as I am excited for No Man's Sky (seriously, how did that studio go from Joe Danger to that?!)
Easy: by making a target render movie of what the game they're aiming for might look like when it's developed.
In other words, keep dreaming.





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"Re(3):Re: I'm Ueda's angry ghooost" , posted Fri 13 Jun 01:02post reply

quote:
As much as I am excited for No Man's Sky (seriously, how did that studio go from Joe Danger to that?!) Easy: by making a target render movie of what the game they're aiming for might look like when it's developed.
In other words, keep dreaming.



Except that they've said at the very start of the first trailer that the footage is not pre-rendered, and I don't see any visual effects they are doing that is extraordinarily demanding: the surfacing is relatively simple, there's no real global illumination, the shadow map aliasing is obvious, etc. I would actually be really impressed if a pre-rendered trailer deliberately inserted shadow artifcats/aliasing to try to pretend that it wasn't pre-rendered!

What it does have is really great colour choice, a really nice model for haze, geometry errs on the side of simple (to its benefit), and tesselation/tetrahedralization for asteroid fracturing that pretty much anybody can do real-time nowadays.





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"Re(1):Onimusha 4: last hurrah for Bengus" , posted Fri 13 Jun 01:31post reply

quote:
I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/

I finally got around to watching the MGS5 trailer so now I can also congratulate you on this article. I'm not certain I will ever get around to playing MGS5 I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the game.

Random E3 thoughts:

For the longest time I thought that Destiny was not for me until I realized I could play the game as a robot wizard. Why have they not been using that as a selling point?

Project STEAM is quite the strange follow-up to Sakura Taisen. Playing a squad created by Abraham Lincoln that do battle using something called the "Bear Grenade" sounds great. Too bad the art style is like nails on a chalkboard. A tiny, 3DS sized chalkboard.





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"Bromance of the 3 Kingdoms" , posted Fri 13 Jun 02:33:post reply

quote:
I really liked the new Metal Gear trailer. I really should have been asleep a few hours ago, but here is an overlong blog post about the trailer and its use of the song Nuclear by Mike Oldfield:

http://art-eater.com/2014/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-song/
I finally got around to watching the MGS5 trailer so now I can also congratulate you on this article. I'm not certain I will ever get around to playing MGS5 I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the game.



Thanks!


quote:
For the longest time I thought that Destiny was not for me until I realized I could play the game as a robot wizard. Why have they not been using that as a selling point?


Destiny looks like the kind of game most artists and developers only dream of making. That one stop shop for all your sci-fi/fantasy/shooter/RPG/MMO needs. It particularly reminds me of the classic pen and paper RPG Rifts, which had a really great high fantasy/sci-fi mashup setting.

For instance the Warlocks in destiny look a whole lot like Ley Line Walkers:

http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/12013/Line_Walker.jpg

I hope the game can really come together, cos it looks ENORMOUS.

*edit*
Now that I took another look at the art for Destiny, it turns out EVERYONE looks like a Ley Line Walker with their cloak/trenchcoat over future armor look haha. I hope they can do a little more to differentiate the characters. For instance, the Warlocks could use something to punch up their magical aspects. Maybe some natural looking horns, or some more ancient/lowtech/handcrafted looking ornaments on top of their high tech gear. It would be unfortunate if they put all this work into the game, but in the interest of trying to make everyone look maximum cool they forget to make them look distinct from one another.

quote:
Project STEAM is quite the strange follow-up to Sakura Taisen. Playing a squad created by Abraham Lincoln that do battle using something called the "Bear Grenade" sounds great. Too bad the art style is like nails on a chalkboard. A tiny, 3DS sized chalkboard.


LOL well put. I'm not big on the art style, but the weirdness might win me over. I love the concept of Sakura Taisen with buff American bros. This sounds like something my bro Andy would have come up with. Ever since Gears of War he's strongly believed that all dudebro games could really benefit from dating sim mechanics.






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[this message was edited by nobinobita on Fri 13 Jun 02:48]

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"Re(3):Re: "Bromance of the 3 Kingdoms"" , posted Fri 13 Jun 03:30post reply

quote:
As much as I am excited for No Man's Sky (seriously, how did that studio go from Joe Danger to that?!) Easy: by making a target render movie of what the game they're aiming for might look like when it's developed.
In other words, keep dreaming.



Meanwhile, there's Elite: Dangerous, which is already up and running on my PC (Premium Beta here). Can't wait for the return of my beloved PC genre: The space sim (and screw out all the mouse and keyboard lovers out there with my flightsticks, like the good ol' days).





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"Re(4):Re: E3" , posted Fri 13 Jun 03:53:post reply

Just wanted to say thanks to Nobi for that great MGSV article. I thought about how I enjoy reading your art-eater articles and wish you would do them more often, but I think the onus falls not on Nobi but on the games deserving of such careful analysis, which a so few and far between. Most games seem to be either shallowly inspired by movies or by older games, always complete with direct quotes and references, ones that are quite obvious and don't have much to reveal beyond what they are. Even some of the more artistically driven titles can have very questionable inspirations. I'm not judging the game, I'm just saying that it may not be one with cleverly hidden themes and meanings worth digging up.

quote:
LOL well put. I'm not big on the art style, but the weirdness might win me over. I love the concept of Sakura Taisen with buff American bros. This sounds like something my bro Andy would have come up with. Ever since Gears of War he's strongly believed that all dudebro games could really benefit from dating sim mechanics.
I hope Andy has played Binary Domain since that game can be basically described as "dudebro shooter with dating sim mechanics". The relationship parts didn't play a significant part in the end. But the simple fact that they are there and that I as a player knew that they were there had a placibo affect of me being too careful with my squadmates not to hurt their feelings or leave them for dead on the battlefield. I remember that when playing Gears Of War that I would just ignore Dom in almost any battle when he's down since I knew that he can't die and that he'll immediately spring back to life when a battle is over. And it really clashed with the comradery between Marcus and Dom. Of Course, you can go the other end and have the AI characters die (which can lead to either a game over situation or a permadeath, the story moves on even after certain characters are dead, both of which can lead to frustrations). Binary Domain strives towards a nice, middle ground. And it's also fun mechanically speaking.

[3rd edit for E3 stuff]: I don't really have something new to say about E3. The thought of getting a new Phantom Dust (sequel? remake? free to play? who knows.) still feels so bizarre. Retroactively, with how Sony teased Vib-Ribbon and Nintendo teased Mother 3, Phantom Dust could also fit that "super niche game getting mentioned just for cool point and maybe trolling points" that Phil Spencer could have just mentioned Phantom Dust and then left it at that. But I'm glad they're committing to it and making SOMETHING out of it, unlike the other 2, which is great.

But yeah I think Nintendo did a great job countering every Wii U criticism(new IP, games that use the GamePad). And the Nintendo figures thing will almost surely be a success (though I doubt it will push that many consoles). I'm plenty excited for Splatoon since I love how dynamic and kinetic it looks. It reminds me of older Quakes and such, which I loved back then. I played TitanFall recently and thought that would bring back that specific style of shooter, but it didn't. Bayonetta looks great (both 1 & 2). And I'm actually interested in Devil's Third since it has that Arachy Reigns "no one would play this but I imagine it would be fun and surprisingly deep Multiplayer" sheen to it. And I still have faith in Itagaki.





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[this message was edited by badoor on Fri 13 Jun 05:02]

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"Re(5):Re: E3" , posted Fri 13 Jun 07:49post reply

quote:
Most games seem to be either shallowly inspired by movies or by older games, always complete with direct quotes and references, ones that are quite obvious and don't have much to reveal beyond what they are. Even some of the more artistically driven titles can have very questionable inspirations. I'm not judging the game, I'm just saying that it may not be one with cleverly hidden themes and meanings worth digging up.


I actually spit out my drink when I read the one line in this article: " Speaking to us during this year's E3 event, Mahler notes that modern game developers have not tapped into the gameplay-centric philosophy that once existed in old school metroidvania titles. "I grew up playing Super Metroid and I want games like that again," he told us. "I read NeoGAF and constantly read how they want games like this but it's not being done." "

I mean... is he serious? Maybe he's not including indies, but every 5.2 seconds, somewhere in the world, an indie Metroidvania is getting made. And that's not even considering 'bigger than indie, smaller than AAA' games like Guacamelee. Or did I misunderstand the whole comment somehow and/or have a stroke?

E3 on the whole was fine as far as I'm concerned, with a bunch of really nice looking and exciting things, but somehow Bayonetta 2 manages to stand out for me above most of the others, but I guess that's to be expected.

Polly, I agree with you-- I don't trust Suda51 with a multiplayer game, and while I like the goofy aesthetic of the skateboarding reaper in the logo, the game just looks dull to me. It also gets points off for being the game that Lily Bergamo has seemingly been turned into.

Let's see... Platinum's XBone exclusive isn't nearly interesting enough to get me to buy an XBone. The new Zelda of course looks nice, but I'll be curious to see if it looks anything like this by the time it drops. I was amused at how excited the Internet was at the idea that the 'Link' in the trailer might not actually be Link, only to have it be a joking offhand comment. I was astonished at myself for being kinda a little bit excited about Mortal Kombat X, especially since you can play as Master/Blaster from Beyond Thunderdome. Oh, and Sony got snippy about Last Guardian!

Since we were talking about Onimusha 4, I'll chime in on that as well. While I appreciated the effort that was made with it, it didn't quite feel like an Onimusha game to me. It was fun, I finished it, and I didn't hate it or anything, it just felt a little cheaply made to me.






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"Re(6):Re: E3" , posted Sat 14 Jun 09:36post reply

I watched the Smash Bros tournament, otherwise known as YELLOW DEVIL BROS. Seriously, he got more action than anyone else.
quote:
Except that they've said at the very start of the first trailer that the footage is not pre-rendered, and I don't see any visual effects they are doing that is extraordinarily demanding: the surfacing is relatively simple, there's no real global illumination, the shadow map aliasing is obvious, etc. I would actually be really impressed if a pre-rendered trailer deliberately inserted shadow artifcats/aliasing to try to pretend that it wasn't pre-rendered!

Iggy used the term "target render movie." I've never heard that before. Is it the same as pre-rendered? While I don't believe that the video was pre-rendered and I'm sure the game might look just like that, I'm not confident that the footage they showed is necessarily representative of what your game experience will be. Either way, this game was at the top of my list of "look exciting for someone, just not for me."

quote:
Destiny

It's just now that I've come to understand that this is more than just "a shooter with some RPG elements" (what doesn't have RPG elements these days?) In the same way that footage of shooting action in Borderlands without greater context doesn't make the game look that impressive, now that I understand the "big picture" on Destiny a little better, I'm very excited about it. All I needed to hear was "it's more like Borderlands than Halo." In the context of all it had to offer, Borderlands 2 is arguably one of the best games I've played.
quote:

I was astonished at myself for being kinda a little bit excited about Mortal Kombat X, especially since you can play as Master/Blaster from Beyond Thunderdome.

This was a big plus for me, too. I was really laughing at all of their animations. I've been upgraded from "pensive" to "cautiously optimistic."
quote:
I'm actually interested in Devil's Third since it has that Arachy Reigns "no one would play this but I imagine it would be fun and surprisingly deep Multiplayer" sheen to it. And I still have faith in Itagaki.

They didn't post any footage of this I might have missed, other than the one trailer, right? The multiplayer aspect of the original (a billion years ago) got me excited. The trailer itself left me a little speechless, because I wasn't sure how funny it was supposed to be. The game looks pretty solid, though and even if the main character looks terrible and is bald, he's at least...unique.

quote:
MGS fans got the most depressing MGS thing I've ever seen, so they can boast on how mature it has become.

I'm seeing more MGS fans complain or show apprehension about the game not being silly enough, so while I'm guilty as charged when it comes to being excited about tragedy, I don't know if that's the popular opinion or not.
quote:
Polly, I agree with you-- I don't trust Suda51 with a multiplayer game, and while I like the goofy aesthetic of the skateboarding reaper in the logo, the game just looks dull to me. It also gets points off for being the game that Lily Bergamo has seemingly been turned into.

Ooops, looks like the game isn't actual multiplayer and I misunderstood. My statement still remains. Kind of nuts that we have two reasonably big Japanese free-to-play productions coming out for PS4, especially when the install base is so small in Japan.





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"No Man's Reality" , posted Sat 14 Jun 12:06post reply

quote:
As much as I am excited for No Man's Sky (seriously, how did that studio go from Joe Danger to that?!) Easy: by making a target render movie of what the game they're aiming for might look like when it's developed.
In other words, keep dreaming.



Cynicism is a great defense against disappointment, and it's a method that I often employ myself, but in this case it's unnecessary.

I saw the game demoed live at E3 and it looked exactly as it did in the trailer. They actually went into debug mode and flew around a planet, the game generating scenery as they went along.

So while I can't vouch for how the game actually plays, this is really how it looks.





/ / /

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"Re(7):Re: E3" , posted Sat 14 Jun 19:09:post reply

quote:
quote:
Devil's Third

They didn't post any footage of this I might have missed, other than the one trailer, right? The multiplayer aspect of the original (a billion years ago) got me excited. The trailer itself left me a little speechless, because I wasn't sure how funny it was supposed to be. The game looks pretty solid, though and even if the main character looks terrible and is bald, he's at least...unique.

IGN had a gameplay demo that you can see over here if you can stomach their video player. They show off some of the multiplayer as well (mp trailer starts at 7:47), which is... a bit unique, yes. And Itagaki is a graceful presence, as always.
Interviewer: "Thank you for showing us the game."
Itagaki: "YOU ARE LUCKY."

quote:
quote:
MGS fans got the most depressing MGS thing I've ever seen, so they can boast on how mature it has become.

I'm seeing more MGS fans complain or show apprehension about the game not being silly enough, so while I'm guilty as charged when it comes to being excited about tragedy, I don't know if that's the popular opinion or not.


While I understand that some people were disappointed by the lack of humor in the presentation, MGS humor has never been entirely in your face. It's mostly been hidden off the beaten path under layers of optional conversation. When Kojima makes a point of showing us that your horse in Phantom Pain poops in real time, perhaps it is a reassurance that he hasn't abandoned his sense of humor for this game.





[this message was edited by Gojira on Sat 14 Jun 19:10]

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"Re(1):No Man's Reality" , posted Sat 14 Jun 21:00post reply

quote:
I saw the game demoed live at E3 and it looked exactly as it did in the trailer. They actually went into debug mode and flew around a planet, the game generating scenery as they went along.
So while I can't vouch for how the game actually plays, this is really how it looks.


It's not so much cynicism as judging a company by its track record, in a way. But if there's a game on which I'd be happy to be proven wrong when it's released, it's definitely this one!
Unfortunately, atm, I cannot really help but thinking this will end just like Spore.





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"Re(2):No Man's Reality" , posted Sun 15 Jun 09:23post reply

quote:
MGS tone
I think my worry with Phantom Pain is that it will maintain the grim tone of Ground Zeroes and try to be "controversial" again by dealing with serious, dark issues, issues that I believe Kojima is incapable of handling well (this is coming from someone who believes Metal Gear has some of the most moving stories in the medium). And no amount of horse poop or flying goats could really humor that away.

quote:
I saw the game demoed live at E3 and it looked exactly as it did in the trailer. They actually went into debug mode and flew around a planet, the game generating scenery as they went along.
So while I can't vouch for how the game actually plays, this is really how it looks.

It's not so much cynicism as judging a company by its track record, in a way. But if there's a game on which I'd be happy to be proven wrong when it's released, it's definitely this one!
Unfortunately, atm, I cannot really help but thinking this will end just like Spore.

Spore is a really apt analogy. While the procedurally generated planets look really impressive, I'm concerned that the combat-heavy, shooting guns and lasers, "completing objectives" part of No Man's Sky may bring it down. I feel like they should take a page out of Minecraft and remove the objective part of the game, or at least make it a light-weight "try to survive but in the mean time just explore and mess around the world" type of game.





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"Re(2):No Man's Reality" , posted Sun 15 Jun 14:18:post reply

quote:

It's not so much cynicism as judging a company by its track record, in a way. But if there's a game on which I'd be happy to be proven wrong when it's released, it's definitely this one!

Unfortunately, atm, I cannot really help but thinking this will end just like Spore.



It does seem that the "infinite worlds" concept could easily set up impossibly high expectations, but unlike Spore the point of the diversity of worlds and life forms isn't to mechanically drive gameplay or simulate a working model of evolution. The variety is there to give you things to see and discover, and their tools look like they'll do a pretty amazing job.

The question of what you do still seems to be a bit vague, although to respond to Badoor it does very much seem that they're going for a more exploration-driven survival game rather than something objective based.

So I understand your reservations, and I have a few myself, but suspecting that the devs are trying to deceive you with a target render video does qualify as a little bit cynical. Glad I could put at least one of your fears to rest, anyway.





/ / /

[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Sun 15 Jun 14:23]

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"Re(8):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Sun 15 Jun 14:48post reply

quote:

Our big FFXIV news was gay marriage and ninja. I think both elicited equal excitement. I've been a firm supporter of FFXIV, but the inclusion of ninja is their first massive misstep.



I was hoping they'd go with the XI style Ninja-as-evasion-tank. They could've done it like Arcanist-Summoner/Scholar where a base class branches into a job with a different role. There's just not enough tanks and healers in FFXIV.

Now, time for me to go on a tangent and speculate on future FFXIV class/jobs

-Gun class (striker) that jobs into Ranger (striker) and Corsair (Healer, Monster Hunter has already set a precedent for shooting hitpoints into people and corsair was a support class)
-G.Katana class (tank) that jobs into Samurai (tank), the Bravely Default katana using class focusing
-Automation using class (healer) that jobs into Puppeteer (tank) and Machinist (healer)
-Redmage job ('healer') that comes out of gladiator, buffs party with elemental weapons and protects party with curatives and elemental shields. Think 'damage mitigation'
-Dark Knight job(tank) that comes out of marauder. Scythes can just be a subset of axes. Marauders already have draining and blood sacrifice attacks so it fits.



This E3 has convinced me to get a Wii-U. I played a Mario Kart 8 demo at best buy and it just made me smile the whole time, and Xenobade Chronicles looks fun.





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"Re(9):Ika Musume the 3rdperson shooter" , posted Sun 15 Jun 19:22post reply

I played the Destiny alpha today and couldn't put it down. The game isn't exceptional in any way, but the total package is really nice. I like how multiplayer is implemented into the game itself, rather than being an "extra mode." The character creation is also kind of fun, because you have like, a 90% chance of making a character that looks like they belong in an intergalactic glam rock band.
quote:
IGN had a gameplay demo that you can see over here if you can stomach their video player. They show off some of the multiplayer as well (mp trailer starts at 7:47), which is... a bit unique, yes.

Whoooooa, thank you, that looks really in depth. Let's just hope there are enough people to play it online. Also, I don't know how I missed this before, but he must have really liked that Team Ninja intro, since he sort of...took it with him to his new studio.
quote:

I was hoping they'd go with the XI style Ninja-as-evasion-tank. They could've done it like Arcanist-Summoner/Scholar where a base class branches into a job with a different role. There's just not enough tanks and healers in FFXIV.

Now, time for me to go on a tangent and speculate on future FFXIV class/jobs...


Yeah, even if the ninja could "soft tank" through a "trick" like in XI, it wouldn't do any good, since some content requires an actual tank, not just "trust me, I'm a tank." Really is a shame, as I can't think of any other class that would draw new players to tanking (the class disparity isn't a big deal among "end-game" players). It'd be a cool way to show that "tanks don't have to be meat shields in design" too.

They mentioned hybrid classes in passing before and I don't know if they're sticking with that plan, but I hope, if they do, that the classes count as "half" and "half" to make for some more interesting party combinations. What I mean is like...say you have Puppetmaster and Red Mage. Puppetmaster would be Tank/Heal and Red Mage would be Damage/Heal. You could think of White Mage as Heal/Heal and Black Mage as Damage/Damage, using this system. Current classes would be a FULL Damage, Tank or Heal. A hybrid class would act as a half.

So, in a 4 player setup you could have 2 Puppetmasters (which count as .5 tank and .5 healer each) to cover your tank and healer slots, then whatever "full" Damage characters for the other 2 slots. Or you could have 2 red mages cover your healer and one Damage slot, then have one "full" Damage and one tank.

This moves more characters out of the "I just want to do Damage" setup and would make for some interesting party variations, though they would have to introduce it with an expansion so that there were enough classes to justify the system.





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"Re(3):No Man's Reality" , posted Mon 16 Jun 13:10post reply

So I just got back from a place with no internet access, and I'm surprised to see how much discussion came up about teaser trailers, specifically for No Man's Sky.

"target render" is something I have never heard of outside of the context of something that is either prerendered or heavily composited. It is stuff like, "we would like the lighting to look like THIS *shows image with ideal lighting hand painted onto it*"

I think my expectations for what it would do gameplay-wise are relatively low, certainly much lower than anything on the scope of Spore. I am literally expecting Elite with multiplayer and better graphics. If it has anything beyond flying around, seeing interesting geography/creatures, shooting other stuff, harvesting/trading resources, and buying ships, I will count that as a bonus. I don't feel like I was promised the moon (see: Star Citizen), and my expectations weren't calibrated as such. Seriously, if you want to see outrageous and impossible expectations for a spaceship game, look at Star Citizen.





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"Re(4):No Man's Elite Dangerous" , posted Mon 16 Jun 15:38:post reply

quote:
I am literally expecting Elite with multiplayer and better graphics.
Uh, don't we already have this? In fact I'm playing it right now.
(Granted planetary landing will come out as an expansion, but Frontier: Elite II did pioneer it and it only seems fitting that Braben & Co. would do it again)

Also, is it just me or is there suddenly a ton of Splatoon squid girl fanart out there? I know Mashiro Anbe made some fanart on twitter but man...





[this message was edited by sfried on Mon 16 Jun 15:39]

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"Re(5):No Man's Elite Dangerous" , posted Tue 17 Jun 03:51post reply

quote:
Also, is it just me or is there suddenly a ton of Splatoon squid girl fanart out there? I know Mashiro Anbe made some fanart on twitter but man...

Those squid girls have a nice design so I'm not surprised they have already developed a fan base. Plus, unlike Ubisoft, Nintendo actually budgets for the inclusion of female characters in their games so that sort of thing should be celebrated.





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"No Man's Squid" , posted Wed 18 Jun 12:59post reply

quote:
Also, is it just me or is there suddenly a ton of Splatoon squid girl fanart out there? I know Mashiro Anbe made some fanart on twitter but man...
Those squid girls have a nice design so I'm not surprised they have already developed a fan base. Plus, unlike Ubisoft, Nintendo actually budgets for the inclusion of female characters in their games so that sort of thing should be celebrated.



These squids are not only cool designs, they know what they're doing on the battlefield as well. Great concept in the color-coded turf war, you can paint the walls but only the ground counts, which shows up on the minimap where you can tap a teammates icon to blast off to their location.

The feel of moving in squid form under the ink is great, super-smooth, leaping from puddle to puddle or quickly retreating after springing an ambush. Even the gyro-sensor aim felt good to me. Probably the most fun I had at E3.





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"Re(1):No Man's Squid" , posted Mon 23 Jun 01:05post reply

The International 4 dota 2 tournament sent physical invitations to every team, signed by Gabe Newell.

In short, TI4 is KOF.





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"Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 01:35post reply

Platinum Games is making a Legend of Korra game. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.





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"Re(1):Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 02:51post reply

quote:
Platinum Games is making a Legend of Korra game. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.



Definitely did not see that coming. Seems like a perfect fit though! This might become their best selling game






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"Re(1):Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 03:40post reply

quote:
Platinum Games is making a Legend of Korra game. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.



What's even more baffling is that it's not getting a Wii U version. A licensed Nickelodeon title, developed by Platinum, not getting released for a Nintendo console? Wii U must be in serious trouble now.





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"Re(2):Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 03:48post reply

quote:
Platinum Games is making a Legend of Korra game. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.


What's even more baffling is that it's not getting a Wii U version. A licensed Nickelodeon title, developed by Platinum, not getting released for a Nintendo console? Wii U must be in serious trouble now.



It's just work for hire, not their own original property. It makes sense to publish a licensed game like this on the last generation of systems since they have much wider distribution. Many of my Korra loving friends are happy to see its for PS3/360 cos they don't plan on buying any current gen systems any time soon.






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"Re(3):Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 05:56post reply

quote:
Platinum Games is making a Legend of Korra game. I don't think anyone saw that one coming.


What's even more baffling is that it's not getting a Wii U version. A licensed Nickelodeon title, developed by Platinum, not getting released for a Nintendo console? Wii U must be in serious trouble now.


It's just work for hire, not their own original property. It makes sense to publish a licensed game like this on the last generation of systems since they have much wider distribution. Many of my Korra loving friends are happy to see its for PS3/360 cos they don't plan on buying any current gen systems any time soon.



As a person completely unfamiliar with the franchise (other than posts by friends on Facebook), all I can say is: it's the perfect time for me to get familiar with the franchise, haha!






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"Re(2):Speaking of random..." , posted Thu 26 Jun 06:46post reply

quote:
What's even more baffling is that it's not getting a Wii U version. A licensed Nickelodeon title, developed by Platinum, not getting released for a Nintendo console? Wii U must be in serious trouble now.

Just like Strider or MKX, cross-platform now seems to mean making a game for every system under the sun except the Wii U. At least the 3DS will get a turn based strategy Korra game (Fire Bending Emblem?) so that's something I guess.





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"Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Sat 28 Jun 03:47post reply

I've had a chance to complete half-way of the game and I have to say, with so many retro remakes and retraux games out there, none of them have been as tightly polished or as lovingly crafted as Shovel Knight's level design, which kind of reminds me of the best sequences of a Capcom or a Treasure game, and it isn't necessarily set piece moments either! You more often or not dicover new quirks and figure stuff out on your own without a single prompt. I might be quoting this from many who've said it, but its like they're really lifting that intro sequence from Mega Man X and carried it along the rest of the game.

I'd go so far to say that its so tightly designed with no fat that this should've been a retail title.





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"Re(1):Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Sun 29 Jun 04:36post reply

quote:
I might be quoting this from many who've said it, but its like they're really lifting that intro sequence from Mega Man X and carried it along the rest of the game.



Wow that's really high praise! At first Shovel Knight caught my eye for its superior pixel graphics (they're not messing around and wearing the 8-bit graphics as a time saving fashion statement, they know what they're doing). But I can't imagine a better accolade than being compared to the intro of Megaman X, a high water mark for intuitive game design that's rarely matched today.

I will have to support this game!






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"Re(2):Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Tue 1 Jul 07:02post reply

I didn't feel any excitement for Shovel Knight, but now I feel like checking it out at least.

I seriously thought the name of the game was ARTDINK'S DIVE the first time I saw this, which confused me greatly.

Meanwhile, on the subject of pixel arts, the environments and audio of this short work really caught my imagination.
The Last Night





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"Re(2):Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Tue 1 Jul 15:54post reply

quote:
I might be quoting this from many who've said it, but its like they're really lifting that intro sequence from Mega Man X and carried it along the rest of the game.


Wow that's really high praise! At first Shovel Knight caught my eye for its superior pixel graphics (they're not messing around and wearing the 8-bit graphics as a time saving fashion statement, they know what they're doing). But I can't imagine a better accolade than being compared to the intro of Megaman X, a high water mark for intuitive game design that's rarely matched today.

I will have to support this game!



Nobi (and everyone else) - read this article. They definitely put some thought into the design aesthetic.





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"Re(3):Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Wed 2 Jul 01:58post reply

quote:
Meanwhile, on the subject of pixel arts, the environments and audio of this short work really caught my imagination.
The Last Night

More games should have music that sounds like the soundtrack from To Live and Die in LA.

quote:
Nobi (and everyone else) - read this article. They definitely put some thought into the design aesthetic.

The dedication and thought they put into the design of Shovel Knight has improved my opinion of the game. This is an appreciation of the designs and techniques of a previous generation and not simply the blind nostalgia that so many of these types of games fall victim to.





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"Re(3):Re:Shovel Knight" , posted Wed 2 Jul 03:09post reply

quote:


Nobi (and everyone else) - read this article. They definitely put some thought into the design aesthetic.



Really awesome!
I love that they cited Recca as one of the examples of games getting around sprite limitations, because that game is one of the busiest famicom games ever made!

One of the things that felt funky to me when I first saw Shovel Knight was that it seemed more colorful than any NES/FC game I could think of, but I just thought that it was me being crazy. I'm surprised that my gut was right!

Love that they composed music within the limitations of VRC6 as well.

Definitely more interested in this game now, they really took on a bunch of unique design constraints and challenges head-on. It makes me wonder a lot about the Game Center CX games now!





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"Re(4):Re:SNES 2D platformers" , posted Wed 2 Jul 05:35post reply

I notice that certain games just in screenshots have the power to capture my imagination, but I have yet to solidly establish a pattern on all the precise things that do.

I do however think that one such game that very strongly did was ActRaiser 2. The frame of the main character swinging his sword upwards is HEROIC, though once you actually play it, you discover it's just a 2 frame animation. I remember looking at backgrounds like this and being wowed by the gorgeous painted look the game had, which a number of great 16-bit titles also had. I wish I knew the correct era/style to attribute that to!

I guess what I'm getting at is that I hope Yacht Club tackles the SNES next. The dedication they have on display in Shovel Knight is really impressive.





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"Re(5):Re:SNES 2D platformers" , posted Wed 2 Jul 07:36post reply

Shovel Knight question...does the game use the left/right triggers in any way, or is it "genuinely NES" in its control scheme as well? I find great happiness in any excuse to use my joysticks, so I think I'll get the PC version vs WiiU if the control scheme is joystick-friendly.
quote:
These squids are not only cool designs, they know what they're doing on the battlefield as well. Great concept in the color-coded turf war, you can paint the walls but only the ground counts, which shows up on the minimap where you can tap a teammates icon to blast off to their location.

The feel of moving in squid form under the ink is great, super-smooth, leaping from puddle to puddle or quickly retreating after springing an ambush. Even the gyro-sensor aim felt good to me. Probably the most fun I had at E3.


Late to the party on replying to this, but I'm really happy to hear a positive impression from someone who actually played the game. So, for the gyro sensor aiming, you just move the tablet and it changes the position of your gun, but not the camera? And it works because the game doesn't require pinpoint accuracy? I suppose this is good for this particular game because looking at the map would be very important and this lets you aim and do that at the same time?





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"Re(6):Re:SNES 2D platformers" , posted Wed 2 Jul 08:36post reply

quote:
Shovel Knight question...does the game use the left/right triggers in any way, or is it "genuinely NES" in its control scheme as well?



It's "genuinely NES", as in:
it's dpad, one jump button, one attack button, one inventory button, one pause button.





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"Re(6):Re:SNES 2D platformers" , posted Wed 2 Jul 09:32:post reply

quote:
Shovel Knight question...does the game use the left/right triggers in any way, or is it "genuinely NES" in its control scheme as well? I find great happiness in any excuse to use my joysticks, so I think I'll get the PC version vs WiiU if the control scheme is joystick-friendly.

The game literally uses two buttons + Start/ Select. Using subweapons is similar to Casltevania/Faxanadu by pressing Up + Attack button. (Of course, if tha isn't your style, you can edit the button binding and change it so that the subweapon is relegated to its own separate button, but it would, in a sense, "break the feel".)

I recommend the WiiU version whole heartedly for the inclusion of the "Digger's Diary" (sorta like a Dark Souls message leaving system). Not only is it seeing what people posted on the MiiVerse, but even the way it's presented on your GamePad doesn't break the "fourth wall" aesthetic established by the game (All of the "Yeah"s, for instance, change to "Verily"s). It's also the closest to simulating catcalls from your siblings who are watching you play (since it no way intrudes the actual gameplay unlike the messages in Dark Souls).

Having on-the-fly subweapon switching is pretty handy too, but I don't use it, so I mainly leave it displaying Digger's Diary comments.

quote:

Definitely more interested in this game now, they really took on a bunch of unique design constraints and challenges head-on. It makes me wonder a lot about the Game Center CX games now!



I wholey recommend being able to at least try this game out. The one thing I really love is that it doesn't rely or bank on retro style looks to gain charm, but actually picks up on some of the best level design choices from the classics of the past and utilizes some of the more modern sensibilities found in todays games (i.e. no lives, but dying makes you lose a lot of your loot, and checkpoints can be broken for more loot, but you lose that checkpoint). It's just something that has to be played in order to comprehend.





[this message was edited by sfried on Wed 2 Jul 09:42]

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"Random Gackt and Video Games" , posted Wed 2 Jul 14:58post reply

I saw this on impress gamewatch



Gackt playing(watching?) Rockman 2 on Famicon

It appears to be part of a promotion with Nestle where they will upload a new video everyday for a year. He doesn't play through the whole thing, just a quick level from the look of things.

I just wandered over to the offical Gackt site and was surprised to see he is 41. Thought he would be late 30's at the oldest.





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"Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Wed 2 Jul 15:57post reply

quote:
Nobi (and everyone else) - read this article. They definitely put some thought into the design aesthetic.



Thanks for the insightful article!! It sure explains many useful low-res design tips and the technical fundamentals behind them which regular, uninitiated readers (like me) appreciate so much.

BTW, it seems that, after so many years in the shadows, Ken Sei Mogura's emulation has just begun. Man your hammers and be ready for a dramatic battle against Shadaloo Dictator!!!





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"Re(1):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Thu 3 Jul 04:16post reply

quote:
BTW, it seems that, after so many years in the shadows, Ken Sei Mogura's emulation has just begun. Man your hammers and be ready for a dramatic battle against Shadaloo Dictator!!!


This needs to be on the main stage at Evo.

In the latest Musou news I'm not certain who Cube Girl is but I do like that the Koei folks seem to be using the Zelda license as an excuse to go full-on Basara with a game.





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"Re(2):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Thu 3 Jul 11:34post reply

In other strange news, Sega finally decides it's time to bring Project Mirai outside Japan.





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"Re(3):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Sat 5 Jul 02:03post reply

quote:
In other strange news, Sega finally decides it's time to bring Project Mirai outside Japan.


There have been many pop stars from Japan and elsewhere in Asia who have tried to find success in the West but somehow Miku is putting all their efforts to shame.

While I'm glad that Sega has found their new thing I wish they would throw a little love to Yakuza fans. Perhaps the next Vocaloid game can feature Miku walking the streets of a thinly disguised Kabukicho in order to beat the holy crap out of any punks that get in her way.





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"Re(4):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 01:06post reply

quote:
Shovel Knight



I know I'm a bit late to the party, but Shovel Knight is possibly the best NES-ish game I've played in quite some time!

I feel like I'm endlessly being forced into being critical about the constant stream of faux-Famicom 8-bit titles being churned out by development houses big and small (I even wonder if the number of Famicom-likes is approaching or surpassing the number of titles actually ever released for that storied console), but in the case, spurred on to play by the sheer silliness of shovel-as-weapon I went for it, and it's been a delight. Shovel Knight does what everybody else seems to be doing, but actually does it right. They held themselves to the constrains of the 'platform' to a surprising degree, while letting just enough modern trappings (like an actually good control system) in.

In other news, they're asking for MORE money? I know making and marketing a game costs quite a bit, but I thought $4 million plus would have taken care of it, unless of course they figure everyone who will buy the game already ponied up (surely not the case).






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"Re(5):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 06:06post reply

quote:
Shovel Knight


I know I'm a bit late to the party, but Shovel Knight is possibly the best NES-ish game I've played in quite some time!

I feel like I'm endlessly being forced into being critical about the constant stream of faux-Famicom 8-bit titles being churned out by development houses big and small (I even wonder if the number of Famicom-likes is approaching or surpassing the number of titles actually ever released for that storied console), but in the case, spurred on to play by the sheer silliness of shovel-as-weapon I went for it, and it's been a delight. Shovel Knight does what everybody else seems to be doing, but actually does it right. They held themselves to the constrains of the 'platform' to a surprising degree, while letting just enough modern trappings (like an actually good control system) in.

In other news, they're asking for MORE money? I know making and marketing a game costs quite a bit, but I thought $4 million plus would have taken care of it, unless of course they figure everyone who will buy the game already ponied up (surely not the case).



It's really exhausting following Inafune's career. For me, he's always taking one step forward (I'm returning to my roots! I'm using Kickstarter in a smart way!) and two steps back (I still hate Japan! Gimme More Money for the same product you already funded!)






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"Re(5):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 06:56post reply

quote:

In other news, they're asking for MORE money? I know making and marketing a game costs quite a bit, but I thought $4 million plus would have taken care of it, unless of course they figure everyone who will buy the game already ponied up (surely not the case).


I know I ragged on this before, but that seems like a grossly inflated estimate for English voice acting. Also, I don't even want that! How much talking would be in the game!? That's nuts!

So, let's say it's $50 an hour for the director and $50 an hour for the sound engineer, with $200 an hour for the actor. That's $300 an hour to record. We'll set aside $10,000 for mix, which is probably pretty generous. Average recording time is 30 lines an hour. So that's...9000 lines!? That's about twice as much as a 12 episode anime series.

I'm sure there are a host of other costs involved that would completely skew this estimate, but even if you cut it in half, that still leaves you with enough money to dub an entire anime series at the inflated video game rate for dubbing. So either somebody somewhere is charging too much or Mighty No. 9 is going to have an assload of dialogue.





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"Re(1):Random Gackt and Video Games" , posted Tue 8 Jul 15:25post reply

quote:

I just wandered over to the offical Gackt site and was surprised to see he is 41. Thought he would be late 30's at the oldest.



I just want him to do a Tale of Genji movie before he gets too old for that.





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"Re(4):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 20:03post reply

quote:
While I'm glad that Sega has found their new thing I wish they would throw a little love to Yakuza fans.



They will bring Yakuza where you live if you import enough Japanese porn DVDs.





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"Re(6):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 20:18post reply

quote:

In other news, they're asking for MORE money? I know making and marketing a game costs quite a bit, but I thought $4 million plus would have taken care of it, unless of course they figure everyone who will buy the game already ponied up (surely not the case).

I know I ragged on this before, but that seems like a grossly inflated estimate for English voice acting. Also, I don't even want that! How much talking would be in the game!? That's nuts!

So, let's say it's $50 an hour for the director and $50 an hour for the sound engineer, with $200 an hour for the actor. That's $300 an hour to record. We'll set aside $10,000 for mix, which is probably pretty generous. Average recording time is 30 lines an hour. So that's...9000 lines!? That's about twice as much as a 12 episode anime series.


And now it's another additional $10,000 for full Jp voices! Even though the costs are obviously different between the two countries. I really wonder how Inafune came up with these figures.





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"Re(5):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 23:26post reply

quote:
In other news, they're asking for MORE money? I know making and marketing a game costs quite a bit, but I thought $4 million plus would have taken care of it, unless of course they figure everyone who will buy the game already ponied up (surely not the case).


Somebody planned for additional stretch goal features like a huge number of multiplatform ports, extra characters, extra bosses, extra stages, extra soundtracks, and get to the end of their funding and realize they forgot to budget for voices

They even wrote in the kickstarter FAQ that their companies have enough resources to fund the project to finish even though the 900k target was an unrealistically low amount, but I'm guessing they apparently don't have those resources now.





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"Re(6):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Tue 8 Jul 23:53:post reply

quote:
Somebody planned for additional stretch goal features like a huge number of multiplatform ports, extra characters, extra bosses, extra stages, extra soundtracks, and get to the end of their funding and realize they forgot to budget for voices


Wow. That's an epic fail for a seasoned producer.
どんな判断だ




Note: Photo is from a documentary where Inafune is bashing one of his younger producers telling him "You're throwing money into mud"





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 8 Jul 23:54]

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"Re(6):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Wed 9 Jul 03:16post reply

quote:

So, let's say it's $50 an hour for the director and $50 an hour for the sound engineer, with $200 an hour for the actor. That's $300 an hour to record. We'll set aside $10,000 for mix, which is probably pretty generous. Average recording time is 30 lines an hour. So that's...9000 lines!? That's about twice as much as a 12 episode anime series.

I'm sure there are a host of other costs involved that would completely skew this estimate, but even if you cut it in half, that still leaves you with enough money to dub an entire anime series at the inflated video game rate for dubbing. So either somebody somewhere is charging too much or Mighty No. 9 is going to have an assload of dialogue.



That is why I am suspect with the recent announcement of a 26 episode cartoon series at the same time. Unless they go Wayforward Ducktales Remastered with the dialogue I can't see there being too much outside the intro/ending and a little pre-boss dialogue. I have a bit of doubt that this is just for the game and will transfer over to the cartoon as well even though they say that Digital Frontier will seek funding separately.

I really hate "make it up as you go along" stretch goals too. It signals to me a lack of a definitive vision when you are working with limited resources. I wouldn't be surprised if we see alternate costumes for Call in there as it would allow them to market more figures and the like.





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"Re(7):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Wed 9 Jul 05:41post reply

I wonder what will happen when Mighty No.9 is finally released. What are the expectations for this game? Do people think an unpublished game is such an amazing property that it should have an animated series? Can No.9 live up to over a quarter of a century's worth of nostalgia that has funded this project up until now? Will Inafune ever step away from the all you can eat buffet that is Kickstarter? For the folks who are fans of this genre I hope the actual game turns out well in spite of the circus that has sprung up around MN9.
quote:
They will bring Yakuza where you live if you import enough Japanese porn DVDs.


A package deal where JAV's would give you credit toward Yakuza games would be the best of both worlds. It would certainly be money better spent than throwing $200,000 at voice acting.





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"Re(7):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Wed 9 Jul 17:13post reply

quote:
I really hate "make it up as you go along" stretch goals too. It signals to me a lack of a definitive vision when you are working with limited resources. I wouldn't be surprised if we see alternate costumes for Call in there as it would allow them to market more figures and the like.


It kinda reminds me of what happened to Skullgirls... They "needed" Umbrella, Marie and Daliah to finish the story, but the fans decided otherwise and we got a quite different product as a result.
But hey! Eliza is almost finished (they said "after Evo") and she looks AMAZING. By far the best looking character of the bunch, even better than Peacock in my opinion.





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"Re(8):Shovel Knight and Kickstarter funding" , posted Fri 11 Jul 02:59post reply

quote:

And now it's another additional $10,000 for full Jp voices! Even though the costs are obviously different between the two countries. I really wonder how Inafune came up with these figures.

I'd suspect they'd at least finish the game first before asking for another crowdfunding. It's like TRIGGER suddenly asking for another $150,000 for LWA2 because they want to make it a series now...





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"Re(8):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Fri 11 Jul 05:12post reply

quote:
I wonder what will happen when Mighty No.9 is finally released. What are the expectations for this game? Do people think an unpublished game is such an amazing property that it should have an animated series? Can No.9 live up to over a quarter of a century's worth of nostalgia that has funded this project up until now? Will Inafune ever step away from the all you can eat buffet that is Kickstarter? For the folks who are fans of this genre I hope the actual game turns out well in spite of the circus that has sprung up around MN9.


The game does look good from the footage that they've shown, but I'm starting to feel that the budget is going into marketing as much as anything. Again, I'm scoffing at the voice over price and the idea of a bunch of dialogue in the game altogether, but even if it doesn't benefit me specifically as a consumer, I'm impressed by Inafune's drive to turn what essentially started out as a budget game into something big. As long as the game itself is good, I'm happy for the circus. Better that than have people pass it up.

As for the "should have budgeted for this from the beginning" with the voice acting...well, I imagine the animated series plays heavily into their decision to dub it, which would make it a fairly recent decision. After all, if people who haven't played the game watch the animated series, THEN move to the game, it'll be a letdown if it doesn't have the same voices they like from the show. Still, with such an obvious reason to include it, it feels a little insulting to have it "locked behind a paywall." If the game is a big enough deal to put it in this situation already, they need to ensure that their potential fans won't be disappointed simply because "they didn't pay enough to get what they wanted."

I can't seem to find the right words to express this, but my point is that the fans have already "paid their dues" to turn this into a thing and now that it's become an even bigger thing, Inafune and Co. should treat it as such, not just for the fans, but for their own sake as well.





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"Re(9):Shovel Knight and Whack-a-Bison" , posted Fri 11 Jul 21:48post reply

Platinum's website has english translated posts from the developers. On the Samus outfit added to Bayonetta 1:

"One special feature that comes with the Samus suit is the ability to put the visor up or down during cut scenes. I think you’ll be surprised how fun this is. See how good it feels to slam your visor down right after telling an enemy off, or discover the amusement in endlessly going up-down-up-down during the game’s more serious moments. This can put the game’s cut scenes in whole new light!"





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"Re(10):Shovel Beast" , posted Mon 14 Jul 02:33post reply

Do you need an Altered Beast t-shirt? Or perhaps an expensive, slightly junky looking model of the first Altered Beast boss? Never fear, because geeklife.jp has you covered.





karasu
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"Re(2):Re(10):Shovel Beast" , posted Mon 14 Jul 04:44post reply

quote:
Do you need an Altered Beast t-shirt?

YES I DO. Actually, I prefer the Space Harrier one, but still!

quote:
Or perhaps an expensive, slightly junky looking model of the first Altered Beast boss? Never fear, because geeklife.jp has you covered.


To be completely fair, it's less a problem of the model and more of the boss himself being slightly junky, but point taken.

I will also be snagging one of those Shinobi sleep masks!






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Spoon
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"ACE Team's Abyss Odyssey" , posted Thu 17 Jul 01:59post reply

I want the Galaxy Force 2 shirt, but that's way too expensive.

One of my favourite games from the past few years was ACE Team's Rock of Ages. Just a day ago, their new action sidescroller Abyss Odyssey is out, and it's on sale. Has anybody heard of/tried it yet?

You can also play as any of the game's monsters in a 4 player versus mode so you can pretend it's Guardian Heroes.

Did I mention that the music they use in the gameplay trailers sounds like it comes from the 90s?





karasu
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"Re(1):ACE Team's Abyss Odyssey" , posted Thu 17 Jul 02:27post reply

quote:

One of my favourite games from the past few years was ACE Team's Rock of Ages. Just a day ago, their new action sidescroller Abyss Odyssey is out, and it's on sale. Has anybody heard of/tried it yet?

You can also play as any of the game's monsters in a 4 player versus mode so you can pretend it's Guardian Heroes.

Did I mention that the music they use in the gameplay trailers sounds like it comes from the 90s?


Yeah, and the logo is sheer 90's insane perfection! I hadn't really been that thrilled about the game (for some reason I don't care for ACE's aesthetic overall), but maybe I'll give it a shot, especially since you've reminded me of how great the music is!






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"Re: Fatal Frame V" , posted Sat 19 Jul 13:44post reply

In case you missed the NicoNico broadcast:

Official Site here

Official trailer here


Stuff from 4Gamer

All that coinciding with an official movie adaptation (that comes a day before the game), an official manga adaptation, and even a Hollywood adaptation.

If you have NicoNico premium you can watched the stream again here...I think.





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"Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sat 19 Jul 21:12:post reply

Sort-of-game related, the Persona 4 Golden anime started its air and it's pretty interesting.

In a nutshell, it's P4. However the protagonist's beat through the game/story a few times, so he knows all the right dialogues choices from the get-go and his stats are maxed out. He's also super friendly because his commu is max'ed as well. The game/story's difficulty seems to be set on Hell, but so far he's been Musou-ing his way through.

From episode 2, the story is totally different from the original P4 anime series so it should be worthwhile to watch even if you've seen it.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 19 Jul 21:23]

chazumaru
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"Re(1):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sun 20 Jul 07:38post reply

That seems like an interesting concept.

Out of curiosity, how close was the P4 anime to the game?
I have been trying to go through P4G on Vita but the dungeon design doesn't cut it for me... If the anime's scenario is close, I might go with that to catch up on the story.





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"Re(2):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sun 20 Jul 07:50post reply

quote:

Out of curiosity, how close was the P4 anime to the game?
I have been trying to go through P4G on Vita but the dungeon design doesn't cut it for me... If the anime's scenario is close, I might go with that to catch up on the story.


I only watched two scattered episodes, but the parts I saw were extremely close to the game. Like, it's accurate to the show's detriment, almost. I feel like, surely, there's better things to do with your time than watch it, but since Persona 4 just won't go away, I can see the temptation to finish it out.

I liked 4G a lot better than PS2 4, but the things that still bugged me about it eventually bugged me too much to get all the way through. If we see the same social link system in P5, I'm going to flip out.





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"Re(3):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sun 20 Jul 08:13post reply

quote:
I only watched two scattered episodes, but the parts I saw were extremely close to the game. Like, it's accurate to the show's detriment, almost.

After the Prof's comment (and because I'm still weighting out how much money I can bother to waste on P4U2), I went out of my way to watch the 2 episodes of P4G, and I can totally see what you're talking about (if the original was like that too). It is impossible to ignore you're watching a series adapted from a game, it's almost a superplay of all the social parts of the game.
Has the new series reused much of the previous one? Or is it like Endless Summer, where even the scenes that are similar will be redrawn?
Also, is that Marie girl as atrocious in the game as she is in the series? It feels like they introduce her to make everyone sympathetic and cute in comparison.





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"Re(4):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sun 20 Jul 21:42post reply

quote:
Has the new series reused much of the previous one? Or is it like Endless Summer, where even the scenes that are similar will be redrawn?
Also, is that Marie girl as atrocious in the game as she is in the series? It feels like they introduce her to make everyone sympathetic and cute in comparison.


I'm also wondering whether to Pick up P4U2. The game doesn't seem too different from the previous release, although the thought of being able to walk around a lobby that looks like Junes is intriguing.

The P4G anime doesn't recycle any cuts from the previous P4 anime. Ep1 was a redrawn recap from the previous anime but Ep2 is completely new, and from the looks of Ep3's preview, that seems to be the direction that P4G will be heading.

The anime version of P4 came out before I had the chance to actually play the games (P4/P4G). I've heard a lot of players saying that Marie in P4G "stuck out" from the rest of the characters. I'm assuming it'll be the same with this anime.





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"Re(5):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Sun 20 Jul 22:27:post reply

Thanks to the anime, I already caught back on where I left P4G (just before Kanji's story) and so far I don't regret my choice. I really like everything about this IP except the game itself. The anime is actually getting me pumped up to play all the spin-offs, especially the dancing game. I had forgotten how much I liked the soundtrack.

Marie's the new emo girl from P4G, right? Even without playing P4 before like in my case, she felt like a cameo from a different game.

[edit] Done. I understand certain DLC choices better now.

Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
Why is almost every video-game detective story these days basically Portopia?

End of Spoiler







夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Mon 21 Jul 18:36]

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"Re(6):Persona 4G: The Animation" , posted Tue 22 Jul 14:02post reply

quote:
Thanks to the anime, I already caught back on where I left P4G (just before Kanji's story) and so far I don't regret my choice. I really like everything about this IP except the game itself. The anime is actually getting me pumped up to play all the spin-offs, especially the dancing game. I had forgotten how much I liked the soundtrack.

Marie's the new emo girl from P4G, right? Even without playing P4 before like in my case, she felt like a cameo from a different game.


Whoa, you quit early! Well, the game was unnecessarily long anyway.

I liked Marie okay, but it was all about context. The social links in the game were sooooo bland to me and having played through the game once already, doing them again was double boring. Marie's scenarios were at least comparatively fun and something new to experience, so...eh. I'm eager to see her in U2 as well, since it seems like Rise and Adachi turned out so well. Even the boring Persona 3 characters turned out fun in fighting game form, though I don't know how excited I would be to see them in an anime.





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"FFXIII series" , posted Tue 22 Jul 14:53post reply

Has anybody here played through FFXIII, -2, and Lightning Returns?

I'd like to give the games a try, but I have no idea which one I should throw my time in with, and some of the people I do know who played one or more of the games just mutter angrily when I bring up the subject. I remember the opinion here of FFXIII being along the lines of "it is often clearly the result of a hugely messy production but it looks awesome and doesn't play too badly", but I wonder about the series as a whole.





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"Re(1):FFXIII series" , posted Tue 22 Jul 16:13post reply

quote:
Has anybody here played through FFXIII, -2, and Lightning Returns?

I'd like to give the games a try, but I have no idea which one I should throw my time in with, and some of the people I do know who played one or more of the games just mutter angrily when I bring up the subject. I remember the opinion here of FFXIII being along the lines of "it is often clearly the result of a hugely messy production but it looks awesome and doesn't play too badly", but I wonder about the series as a whole.


I probably have the least valuable opinion, since I've already expressed something or other about all 3 games, but here goes all the same...

I wouldn't especially recommend any of them, I suppose.

Once the battle system took off, I enjoyed FFXIII enough until it became evident that it just wasn't going to come together properly. If you temper your expectations and the characters/world look at least mildly appealing to you, I think you can have some fun with it. The game system isn't super meaty, though.

XII-2 has a sizable demo, so you can try it out and ask yourself "can I see myself doing this for hours?" I kind of like the mythology and conclusion to the game, but sequentially, it's kind of boring. Like, it sets up an interesting situation and concludes that situation, but most of the game itself is kind of "whatever." It has customizable monsters (you can give them hats) to recruit, so that may be a selling point for some. I really don't like Serah and Noel, so that was a big negative for me.

Lightning Returns is really interesting. It's overflowing with unique ideas. The battle system is neat and it's super open-ended (with a timer). It reminds me much more of a SaGa game than a FF one. I don't know if it's a genuinely good game or not, but it's a daring and creative one that challenges the player. The plot concept was very appealing to me, but the execution is garbage. A more compelling narrative, or one that took advantage of the interesting setup might have made the game a big favorite of mine. There is a demo of this as well, but it only gives you a taste of the battle system-not the open world-ish timed quest stuff, which is going to make or break your opinion on the game.





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"Re(2):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 01:08post reply

quote:

I probably have the least valuable opinion, since I've already expressed something or other about all 3 games, but here goes all the same...



Since you're the person who plays the most RPGs around here, I actually think your opinion is one of the most valuable since it comes with the greatest amount of contextual awareness.

The entire interest came to me because of the Lightning Returns demo! I launched it and realized I have to make lots of guesses about what the game is going on about plot-wise, I have no idea what the relationships or backgrounds of the characters are... but since the game looks so good and has this interesting party-of-one ATB system, what I really wanted to know is what is the rest of the series like in comparison, and whether or not I would be better off playing the earlier games first, especially if the earlier games are as immediately interesting as this one.





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"Re(3):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 05:34post reply

quote:

The entire interest came to me because of the Lightning Returns demo! I launched it and realized I have to make lots of guesses about what the game is going on about plot-wise, I have no idea what the relationships or backgrounds of the characters are... but since the game looks so good and has this interesting party-of-one ATB system, what I really wanted to know is what is the rest of the series like in comparison, and whether or not I would be better off playing the earlier games first, especially if the earlier games are as immediately interesting as this one.


They are not as immediately interesting. Lightning Returns is actually much more interesting than the demo implies.

Ughhhhh...I don't know. The characters are handled so poorly in Lightning Returns that it almost doesn't matter if you know anything outside of just basic information. You need to understand the mythology from XIII-2 and what happened in the ending (which is kind of great) to appreciate the state the world is in, but that's about it. You can read that and watch the ending on youtube.

The characters are handled fairly well in the original XIII, despite its faults, so if you're interested in the series as a whole, that game is probably cheap enough that you could play it until it bored you. Same with XIII-2, I suppose. Maybe all the game are fine if you temper your expectations appropriately.

This is a challenging conversation for me, because it's like "I wouldn't especially recommend the FFXIII games, but if I had to, how would I?"





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"Re(4):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 06:38post reply

quote:

Ughhhhh...I don't know. The characters are handled so poorly in Lightning Returns that it almost doesn't matter if you know anything outside of just basic information. You need to understand the mythology from XIII-2 and what happened in the ending (which is kind of great) to appreciate the state the world is in, but that's about it. You can read that and watch the ending on youtube.


That is the first time I've heard anyone say anything remotely positive about the XIII-2 ending, even from people that enjoyed the game. Are you speaking of the original ending? Or did the DLC have something significant to add?

Thanks to this subject I was just thinking of going back and trying the DLC that I ignored in XIII-2. I thought I would do it before LR came out but then when the demo hit I kind of decided I didn't need LR right away and forgot about it. Is any of the DLC worth doing, or am I better off just forgetting about it again?





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"Re(5):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 08:09post reply

quote:

That is the first time I've heard anyone say anything remotely positive about the XIII-2 ending, even from people that enjoyed the game. Are you speaking of the original ending? Or did the DLC have something significant to add?

Thanks to this subject I was just thinking of going back and trying the DLC that I ignored in XIII-2. I thought I would do it before LR came out but then when the demo hit I kind of decided I didn't need LR right away and forgot about it. Is any of the DLC worth doing, or am I better off just forgetting about it again?


There's like a "true ending" add-on thing, but no DLC ending. I mean, the game kind of had to end how it did for Lightning Returns to happen, so there wasn't much leeway in terms of providing a different outcome. The DLC didn't provide anything in that realm as far as I know (didn't play it).

I am sick to death of half hour "pat on the back" endings and it drives me insane when people say "I spent all this time with the game, so I deserve a happy ending" or "I didn't like the ending because my favorite character died." Do we need another goddamn RPG ending where everything interesting is settled before the last boss, we get a tired old set of pre-boss speeches, then the characters escape an exploding whatever only to leave someone behind until you find out that they miraculously made it out alive and everyone is happy? Do people actually like to see that? Do they nod at the screen and think "Good, I saved the world and everyone is happy."? Is that more important than a compelling narrative?

People felt "cheated" by the XIII-2 ending, where I felt rewarded. I got fancy FMV and something I'd never seen before. What more could I ask for? I think developers should save something interesting for the ending, rather than have some slow, meaningless victory lap.

Also, even though they squandered in the end, FFXIII-2's end made the interesting world of Lightning Returns possible, so that's another plus. I don't know if I would rank the ending among my favorite thought-provoking or emotional endings or whatever, but it was gutsy and enjoyable and made me feel better about the game and interested in the sequel.

On a side note, the only game that's done the "leave someone behind" thing in an interesting way was Tales of the Abyss, which left the player in a very unique place in the end. It wasn't a sad ending, but I really had to sit down and sort my feelings on that one. (Also "wait, did the last line from the opening song spoil the ending all along!?")





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"Re(3):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 13:42post reply

quote:
I have to make lots of guesses about what the game is going on about plot-wise,


I am only half-kidding when I tell you this: it feels like the developers were in the same boat.

I haven't played Lightning Returns. I finished XIII. I played the first 10 hours of XIII-2.

----

I cannot *recommend* XIII, but I can tell you what's good about it. The overall world setting is rather interesting. The combat system is possibly one of the best ever designed by Tsuchida (of Front Mission fame), provided you are not bothered that it is introduced by one of the most spread out tutorials ever (there are 13 chapters in the game and I believe you pass the last battle tutorial segment on chapter 10). The battle system also forsakes tons of stupid outdated RPG rules, allowing for instant retry upon death, and over user-friendly features that now seem normal in the days of Xenoblade and Bravely Default but remained a novelty in Japanese RPGs until FF13 arrived.

When it came out, the game was visually breathtaking at times. While the graphics have probably not aged so well from a technical standpoint, the strong visual style of many sceneries and the overall effort in production value (for example, in wall textures that will only ever be used once in the entire game) should help the game keep up with modern gamer eyes. I have spent 100+ hours into Curtain Call and according to my songs bookmarked as favorites, FF13 has my favorite soundtrack in the series (!).

Now, for that went wrong.

The characters are insulting your intelligence. Not only do they reek of a peculiar kind of consumer survey "we made character A for audience 1, character B for audience 2 etc.", most of them are shallow, contradictory and unlikable. My favorite character in the first game is actually the oft vilified Vanille, because she is the one that makes the most sense throughout the game (I would say more but I do not want to spoil too much). She certainly does not have a personality I would like in real life, but being able to understand the motivations and actions of a character was downright uncommon in FF13.

The story is incredibly dumb. It starts stupidly then goes downhill. The basic outline is rather simple, except it's made very hard to follow because the script is tainted by a golden shower of similar made-up words à la Square-Enix, such as "Fal'cie" and "L'cie" (which are TOTALLY DIFFERENT THINGS please pay attention). The bad guy's motivations are incoherent with their actions. Some characters are presented as important (with dedicated CG, high profile voice actors) yet barely have five lines of dialogues, because their story arc has obviously been cut due to development hell / deadlines, but the CG had to be justified so the character was not cut entirely. The end is terrible. I wanted to punch Square-Enix in the face at the very end of the game. But I did reach it, which means in retrospect, the adventure wasn't that bad.

The game comes with an integrated Wiki, which would have been a positive point if not for the issue that reading the Wiki is pretty much an obligation if you want to make sense of some events and character interactions in the adventure. Many scenes and events which were cut are explained in the wiki (this is how you get to understand the original purpose and motivations of the underused characters I described above). I also sometimes felt that the Wiki contradicted what the rest of the game told me, or at least described the exact opposite of how I had understood a peculiar scene.

The fights are good, yes, but the battles themselves are rarely memorable. I basically remember two clever Boss fights (including the last one, which is pretty good).

The weapon forging system is bafflingly esoteric ; in a nutshell, it's completely useless to try and guess who to forge weapons correctly without a guide/wiki. Even the true ending of Valkyrie Profile is "Wii Sports Resort" next to this mess. What is infuriating is that the confusion was clearly intended; it justified the guidebook for a game with straight corridors and a rather intuitive battle system.

Quite famously, the level design is a succession of corridors. That in itself is neither new (FF10 says hi!) nor necessarily a deal breaker for me. But the many straight lines are unfortunately incredibly boring. It would have been fine if more variety would have increased the rhythm of the stages. One chapter breaks up with that problem entirely, and it almost feels like you are playing a completely different game, but as soon as you progress in the story, you go back to the same level architecture issues. The rare mini-games are shallow and feel forced in the game.

----

From the roughly 10 (straight) hours I spent on XIII-2. I recall three things.
1. The fighting system was pretty much a natural evolution from XIII, maybe even better since it mixed the previous system with the good old monster taming system which you can find in Megaten or some DQ games. That part felt very close to those old DQ games, actually.
2. The story was so stupid, it remains the most hilarious evening I have ever spent with Iggy (who happened to be there the evening I played the game). We were literally in tears. The internal logic of the game's time-travelling principles kept making less and less sense, as if the characters each had been taught a different set of rules. The in-game events were at the same time extremely confusing yet ultimately pointless; weird events involving returning characters were meant to add gravitas to their involvement in the protagonists' adventures, but they were at the same time completely peripheral/pointless yet obfuscating the rather simple plot. Also Noel was surprisingly not unlikable. I did not say he was a good character. But he is actually de facto one of the characters I like the most in the entire roster.
3. The soundtrack featured a comically bad cover of the Chocobo Theme. Curtain Call reminded me that the entire soundtrack felt like it gathered rushes, prototypes and rejected reprises of XIII's soundtrack.





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"Re(4):FFXIII series" , posted Wed 23 Jul 17:09post reply

quote:
FFXIII bizarre adventure


I think I've fairly desensitized to incoherent and nonsensical plotting/writing in games, but then again I realize that some of the games I forgive this for are really quite outstanding in other ways, like Valkyrie Profile 2....

quote:
Even the true ending of Valkyrie Profile is "Wii Sports Resort" next to this mess.


.... wow. Just wow.

Thanks for the huge, informative, and entertaining write up, chaz! I honestly now am uncertain as to whether I am more or less interested in experiencing this trainwreck first hand.





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"Re(5):FFXIII series" , posted Fri 25 Jul 02:49post reply

quote:
FFXIII bizarre adventure

I think I've fairly desensitized to incoherent and nonsensical plotting/writing in games, but then again I realize that some of the games I forgive this for are really quite outstanding in other ways, like Valkyrie Profile 2....

Even the true ending of Valkyrie Profile is "Wii Sports Resort" next to this mess.

.... wow. Just wow.

Thanks for the huge, informative, and entertaining write up, chaz! I honestly now am uncertain as to whether I am more or less interested in experiencing this trainwreck first hand.



XIII was on of my favorites games last gen, but everything that chazumaru said is spot on. I enjoyed the game because was my first ff that i purchaes (for the shiny boxart, lol) and I had zero expectations for this game


XII-2 was ok I guess, but since my PS3 exploded while playing that game I decided to never finish it

Funnily enough, iyou really realize how fucking stupid is the story in the XIII series when you watch the 16 bit resume demake that SE made to promote LR





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"Re(6):FFXIII series" , posted Fri 25 Jul 03:59post reply

quote:
FFXIII bizarre adventure


I should be the last person to suggest one way or another that anyone try any of the three XIII games, since I have't seriously played a Final Fantasy game since VI. I did play through a decent chunk of XIII, and then I played a few times through the demos for XIII-2 and LR. LR in particular I was especially interested in, just because there was so much going on, even in the tiny portion served up by the demo. I ultimately passed on it because I couldn't get used to the combat system, which felt awful button-mashy to me. 2 seemed interesting and there was one nice point where it honestly felt like a lush, full 3D representation of what went on in older, 2D RPGs. Ultimately I never ended up buying any of them though, especially not at full price. These days though, you can get the first two games at bargain-basement prices, and the third for just a little bit more than that. I'd say all three are worth that super-low-end price ($15-$20 in the US) without question, despite their serious flaws.

As an aside, I've gone over to the dark side lately and picked up the Vita version of Final Fantasy X/X-2. A decade ago I bailed on the game in frustration, but the price I found this for was so outrageously low I decided to go for it. I'm only about three hours into X at the moment, which is further than I made it last time. I can't say I love the game (I find most of the cast to be unlikeable and their outfits are like a checklist of all the things that I find to be ugly and ridiculous about SquareEnix designs) but I do kinda like it. A little. Well, let's just say I'll keep playing it, haha.






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"Re(7):FFXIII series" , posted Fri 25 Jul 07:27post reply

There are times when I will actively seek out a piece of entertainment that I know isn't going to be very good. Grinding my teeth through a bad movie or skimming a poorly written book can be an illuminating experience. Not only does it give me a deeper appreciation for just how hard it is to make a quality product but it's clinically interesting to perform a mental autopsy to determine just what went wrong. I will even occasionally do this with games. This is the reason I recently picked up a cheap copy of Dragon Age 2. It's also the reason that FFXIII has a morbid appeal.

I don't want to play XIII but this thread makes it sound so very appealing. It's not that this thread is an endorsement of the game; instead it's a good representation of the idiom "damned with faint praise." For every good point listed there are ten points where the game could have been good but wasn't or is just plain confounding. It would be one thing if Square-Enix's folly had been contained in one game but they decided that the world wanted to chug through three games of this misguided nonsense? That's incredible! Finding out that Sibarraz's PS3 would rather commit suicide than run XIII-2 is the icing on the cake.

I don't know if I will ever dabble in the never ending series that is XIII but I appreciate those who have. Thank you for all your hard work, you took one for the team. As for me I need to find some sucker on whom I can unload my copy of Dragon Age 2. That game plays like an interactive version of an Asylum movie.





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"Re(8):FFXIII series" , posted Fri 25 Jul 10:14post reply

quote:
Dragon Age 2


There is so much about that game that makes no goddamn sense, that is uncomfortably pandering, that is penny-pinchingly cheap, but I finished it anyway.





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"Re(9):FFXIII series" , posted Fri 25 Jul 12:26post reply

quote:
I should be the last person to suggest one way or another that anyone try any of the three XIII games, since I have't seriously played a Final Fantasy game since VI. I did play through a decent chunk of XIII, and then I played a few times through the demos for XIII-2 and LR. LR in particular I was especially interested in, just because there was so much going on, even in the tiny portion served up by the demo. I ultimately passed on it because I couldn't get used to the combat system, which felt awful button-mashy to me.

Although there is a learning curve to the combat system in LR, it's definitely not "button mashy." On the contrary, most battles, non-bosses included, require very specific strategies. Since most resources in the game are in extremely short supply, learning how to handle each particular encounter can be a necessary survival strategy. The precise timing on both attack and defense is a challenge to learn as well. I don't like "taking it slow and playing it safe" in RPGs, so I constantly found myself in difficult battles that tested both my creativity and my timing.

I wish that the animations would be a little more "snappy" and a little less "floaty," though. Not only would that look better, it would cue you in on the correct timing for attacks and blocks. I appreciate the challenge and the real-time element, but I think the system would be better served if it was a little easier and more transparent.

As for the rest of the game, on paper, I think the way that you can screw around until the end of the world, then start again NG+ is a great idea. That way, you're getting stronger by experiencing the game at your own pace, rather than just grinding. Then, when you tackle it again, your stats as well as your knowledge, will make the timer less relevant.

However, I don't think players who enjoy grinding for an easy ride will "get" that concept at all. I've seen numerous people who hated Bravely Default because it was "too hard" and the encounter rate was "too high," even though both of those things are perfectly customizable and they were perfectly aware of that. This is a different situation than LR, but my point of comparison is that they both employ creative solutions that players are likely to be uncomfortable with for whatever reason.





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"Re(10):FFXIII series" , posted Mon 28 Jul 04:51post reply

quote:
survival strategy.


Survival strategy?

The 6 usable item limit is certainly a huge change from most previous FF games, that's for sure. I was shocked when I first saw it in the demo!

The hoarding of usable items is something that I associate with a lot of RPGs (especially FF!), so I'm somewhat glad that right off the bat they're throwing X-Potions and other other items with big effects at you and encouraging you to use them.





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"Re(2):Re(10):FFXIII series" , posted Mon 28 Jul 06:13post reply

The console Korra game is looking like fun. Let's hope the game gets released before Nickelodeon does something else horrible to the show.





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"Re(10):FFXIII series" , posted Mon 28 Jul 08:13post reply

quote:
Although there is a learning curve to the combat system in LR, it's definitely not "button mashy." On the contrary, most battles, non-bosses included, require very specific strategies. Since most resources in the game are in extremely short supply, learning how to handle each particular encounter can be a necessary survival strategy. The precise timing on both attack and defense is a challenge to learn as well. I don't like "taking it slow and playing it safe" in RPGs, so I constantly found myself in difficult battles that tested both my creativity and my timing.

Haha, like I said, I'm not the best person to talk about it, especially since my experience was only with the demo. Given that the price is so low, maybe I'll give it another shot and see if it feels different to me. I've got to say that the mechanic of the world ending and being able to go back over and over sounds like an interesting one.






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"Re(2):Re(10):FFXIII series" , posted Mon 28 Jul 08:52post reply

quote:
I've got to say that the mechanic of the world ending and being able to go back over and over sounds like an interesting one.



Kind of reminds me of Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter, which is the only BoF game I have ever beaten.

Alternatively...





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"Re(10):FFXIII series" , posted Mon 28 Jul 23:34:post reply

quote:
I've seen numerous people who hated Bravely Default


But have you seen a million of them?





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Tue 29 Jul 22:42]

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"XBone PSA" , posted Tue 29 Jul 19:39post reply

In case you happen to live in America, have a Microsoft Store nearby and have an Xbox 360 collecting dust, you can trade it in for $100 towards an Xbox One, no accessories or anything required. I happened to have two of them just sitting in my closet, so this was an obvious choice for me, even though I had zero enthusiasm for the XBox One. (it turns out I have a great enthusiasm for clearing up space, though!)

I don't know if anyone other than Chaz picked one up or has any interest, but I'd love to hear any impressions. So far for me:

GOOD:
-The OS is nice and very easy to get around. Customizing colors is cool and I like how huge your icon is. Pinning favorite games/programs is great.
-Voice commands are very responsive and well-implemented. You really can get what you want quite quickly this way, rather than navigating increasingly complicated system menus.
-Sleep mode is super handy. The system starts up very fast and you can resume games quickly and easily.
-It's not too loud.
-The controller is nice. Comparable to the PS4 one at least.
-I like the packaging that the official merchandise comes in.
-Kinect 2 is an improvement, is great at recognizing you and blows the PS camera out of the water (well, it had better, at double the price).
-You can use the controller on your PC with no hassle.
-Most other PS4 conveniences I haven't mentioned here are included.

BAD:
-It takes forever to start up if you don't use sleep mode (well, no big deal).
-The system has glitched out on me in minor ways a few times.
-It's HUGE and you can't stand it up vertically. Like, it doesn't even fit in my entertainment center properly. I have to put it on top of my subwoofer.
-Although it allows you to play games while they are still downloading updates (like the PS4), my experience with this was straight up awful. I got Ryse (on disk) and had a whopping 9.5 gig update to download. At 80% or so (which took forever), it allowed me to start the game, which immediately dumped me into a super long installation. I would expect at least a 3 hour wait between putting the game in your system and actually playing it.
-Some things (such as demos) are difficult to find without voice commands (though quite easy with).
-Everything comes with frustratingly tiny Xbox Live coupons. Free 2 days. Free 14 days. Free 3 days. Just give me a damned month or don't bother.
-The controller+battery charger is expensive. (A little cheaper on Amazon now, though) A normal micro USB chord doesn't plug into it properly, so you need to buy the battery set addon thing. Their chord is pretty nice at least, with a neat lock-in block thingie than lights up to indicate battery charge.
-There really aren't any games. Like, for real.

I hope the system can find and "identity" moving forward, though the option to buy it without a kinect does not make those prospects good.

On a related note, I picked up Ryse sort of on a whim and mostly because it's already down to nearly half its price. I love it. I'm shocked. I had zero expectations and it blew me out of the water. It's not really deep or interesting, but it's one of those blockbuster summer movie games that look outstanding and whisk you through the action painlessly with just enough dazzle and variety to keep you engaged for the relatively short length.

If you think of it as the most beautiful beat 'em up ever made, it'll certainly satisfy you, though I supposed if you aren't swayed by graphics, even for the sake of enjoying impressive artistry, you might be less amused. The combat is sort of like the Arkham games mixed with maybe like...a Suda game? But it works. Everything works splendidly. Without being boring or too easy, it offers "no resistance."

The environments really are extraordinary, as is the lighting and face animations. My only complaint is that the eyebrows are strangely stiff compared to the rest of the fantastically animated faces and despite being so violent overall, the gore itself is kind of bland. Like, the finishing moves are well-designed, but the blood and violence just doesn't get any kind of reaction from me. It feels like maybe they intentionally didn't get into that too much, which is probably for the best.

So yeah, I think if you know what you're in for, it's a really good buy. I've had a blast with it. I have positive impressions of Killer Instinct as well, but without a joystick, that one's dead in the water for me.





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"Re(1):XBone PSA" , posted Tue 29 Jul 22:42:post reply

That sounds like an insane deal, especially for the US market where I assume many 360s are lying around. The XBO is failing in Europe, selling less than Wii U at the moment, yet we do not see this kind of aggressive promotion. But I guess we don't have Microsoft Stores (or do we?). Are there many Microsoft Stores in North America? Or do you happen to be lucky to have one nearby / in the same State?
(I am never sure what you guys consider "near" from where you live, given the size of your States and the more established tradition of driving somewhere to do something.)

I actually turned my Xbox One back on yesterday to play MGS5 Ground Zeroes and reach the credits after 90 (rather entertaining) minutes. I was getting depressed last week that I had not bought a single XBO game in 2014 so I gave up the idea of playing Ground Zeroes on PS4 for an even cheaper price in a couple of months.

I was surprised that you can set the game in any language (even Japanese). Nowadays, most games don't even let you pick another language than the one selected for your console's OS or region.





夏色の 誘惑 が大人になる頃、 益々 憂は エキサイティング クオリティ

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Tue 29 Jul 22:43]

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"Re(2):XBone PSA" , posted Wed 30 Jul 17:15post reply

quote:
That sounds like an insane deal, especially for the US market where I assume many 360s are lying around. The XBO is failing in Europe, selling less than Wii U at the moment, yet we do not see this kind of aggressive promotion. But I guess we don't have Microsoft Stores (or do we?). Are there many Microsoft Stores in North America? Or do you happen to be lucky to have one nearby / in the same State?
(I am never sure what you guys consider "near" from where you live, given the size of your States and the more established tradition of driving somewhere to do something.)



I love that the measure of failure is always "selling worse than the WiiU." Again, without Kinect, the XB1 is essentially the inferior PS4, so without a deal like this, I can see why few would be motivated to buy one. I wonder if the game plan is "just weather the storm until Halo comes out," which might have been like Sony with Metal Gear before.

Microsoft Stores are in all the big cities, I think. I'm close to two of them, so they're not grossly uncommon.

I have lived either right in the middle of a city or close to one my entire life, so my viewpoint might be skewed a bit, but I've never personally known anyone more than two hours away from a decent city. I'd say "one hour" is considered reasonably close.

I can't even imagine what it's like to live in the wildlands where I wouldn't have access to things like decent food markets or international cuisine. The closest taste I've had of that was visiting a local burger place while on a road trip. There was this really sad goth kid in there with a super thick country accent (a charming combination!), who was so excited to see my and my friends. It was like he thought he was the last unicorn on Earth and we were a convoy from Unicorn Mountain. I don't remember what I was wearing...I mean, it wasn't like, crazy makeup or a lolita dress or whatever, but whatever it was, it was enough for him to throw himself at my feet and go on and on about heavy metal music and such in this "nobody understands, but you do!" kind of way. It was actually kind of unsettling. Anyway, the point is, there are probably some very sad places in America I don't understand that are definitely not close to Microsoft Stores.

More on topic...
The PS4 isn't exactly the shining beacon of hot games, but I didn't realize how important all the indie titles and upscales were until I looked at the barren XB1 lineup. On the other hand, I haven't played one single "big budget built for next gen" game on PS4, (I'm excluding budget games and cross-generation games) whereas I've had Ryse to drool over on XB1. Next month, Xbox Live Gold gets Crimson Dragon for free and a bit after that, is Sunset Overdrive, so that's not too bad. PS4 is still lacking "legit next gen" games that I'm interested in, but it's still my system of choice for everything else.

Is Crimson Dragon awful? Reviews said "awful," but it seems they patched some things since then?

(As a side note, although I'm mentioning Crimson Dragon as a positive, it doesn't pass my silly "legit next gen" test, which is meaningless as anything but a point of reference anyway)





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"Re(2):XBone PSA" , posted Thu 31 Jul 01:56post reply

quote:
That sounds like an insane deal, especially for the US market where I assume many 360s are lying around. The XBO is failing in Europe, selling less than Wii U at the moment, yet we do not see this kind of aggressive promotion. But I guess we don't have Microsoft Stores (or do we?). Are there many Microsoft Stores in North America? Or do you happen to be lucky to have one nearby / in the same State?
(I am never sure what you guys consider "near" from where you live, given the size of your States and the more established tradition of driving somewhere to do something.)


I agree with Polly that it's funny that the WiiU is used as the point of no return. It is, however, a good signpost since when I saw that line my thought was "The XBO is doing THAT badly in Europe?!?"

How did the previous Xboxes do in Europe? Does MS have a plan for getting the XBO moving in that part of the world? Or with all the restructuring that MS is currently undergoing is keeping the XBO afloat in Europe even a priority at the moment? It's startling to see how quickly the XBO has gone from being unveiled as a multimedia experience to the thing that Americans use to play Titanfall.





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"Re(3):XBone PSA" , posted Thu 31 Jul 02:47post reply

quote:

I agree with Polly that it's funny that the WiiU is used as the point of no return. It is, however, a good signpost since when I saw that line my thought was "The XBO is doing THAT badly in Europe?!?"

How did the previous Xboxes do in Europe? Does MS have a plan for getting the XBO moving in that part of the world? Or with all the restructuring that MS is currently undergoing is keeping the XBO afloat in Europe even a priority at the moment? It's startling to see how quickly the XBO has gone from being unveiled as a multimedia experience to the thing that Americans use to play Titanfall.


It's stunning to think that MS can apparently keep the ばついち alive based purely on its performance in the States. I know it's the system of choice for a lot of people, even some here at the Cafe, but given that in the last year before the XBone came out I didn't buy a single game, and had shifted completely over to using the PS3 exclusively, I haven't even been remotely tempted to buy an XBone. Well, with the exception of the very intriguing looking and exclusive-for-now Below, which made me hesitate for a half a second.

It was surprising to see that I've within close distance of two MS Stores myself, both of which I had no idea were there!

I also enjoyed the story about the poor, isolated Goth kid. Every now and then I encounter some similar person (who's vegan or vegetarian rather than goth, in my case) when I'm visiting my hometown or some other place, where that kind of thing is scarce, and they go crazy trying to tell me how hard it is for them. Poor sad folks!






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"Re(4):XBone PSA" , posted Thu 31 Jul 23:34post reply

Because subtlety and good taste are overrated D3 has decided to go ahead and release a new Oneechanbara game on the PS4. This is the eleventh game in the series!





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"Re(5):Old games PSA" , posted Sat 9 Aug 07:54post reply

So, I've finally decided that I need to sell off some of my game collection, including PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube games, and possibly some PS1 games (I'm keeping an absurd amount of games still, don't worry ). While I'd love to hang onto this stuff, much of it I haven't even touched since I put it all on a shelf around 2006 or so. That's way too long. I'm probably going to end up selling it via Amazon or eBay, but I thought I'd give everyone here a chance first-- that is if anyone's interested. That way I'll feel like I'm 'keeping it in the family' so to speak. For Cafe folks I'd trade for newer items (game related books or magazines, newer games, etc.) that I might have interest in rather than ask for something so gauche as money (although I'll certainly sell things as well). My question then is this: is anyone interested at all in seeing the list? If not I'll just quietly list everything elsewhere.






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"Re(6):Old games PSA" , posted Sat 9 Aug 12:55post reply

quote:
So, I've finally decided that I need to sell off some of my game collection, including PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube games, and possibly some PS1 games (I'm keeping an absurd amount of games still, don't worry ). While I'd love to hang onto this stuff, much of it I haven't even touched since I put it all on a shelf around 2006 or so. That's way too long. I'm probably going to end up selling it via Amazon or eBay, but I thought I'd give everyone here a chance first-- that is if anyone's interested. That way I'll feel like I'm 'keeping it in the family' so to speak. For Cafe folks I'd trade for newer items (game related books or magazines, newer games, etc.) that I might have interest in rather than ask for something so gauche as money (although I'll certainly sell things as well). My question then is this: is anyone interested at all in seeing the list? If not I'll just quietly list everything elsewhere.



Let me know if you got any J-RPGs (any system) in that list of Yakuza 2 on PS2.





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"Re(7):Old games PSA" , posted Sat 9 Aug 23:38post reply

If you have a list you could easily paste in I would love to see what games you have on the chopping block! At the moment I'm trying to reduce my own pile of games so I have no business looking for games to add into my collection but I've never been logical about these sort of things so why start now?





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"Re(8):Old games PSA" , posted Sun 10 Aug 07:22post reply

quote:
If you have a list you could easily paste in I would love to see what games you have on the chopping block! At the moment I'm trying to reduce my own pile of games so I have no business looking for games to add into my collection but I've never been logical about these sort of things so why start now?



I'm still in the process of gathering everything together, but once I have a list I'll paste it here, now that I know you guys have some interest. I'm debating jettisoning some of my DS and PSP games too!

quote:
Let me know if you got any J-RPGs (any system) in that list of Yakuza 2 on PS2.


I know for sure I DON'T have Yakuza 2, and that I at least have Disgaea 1 and 2 as far as JRPGs go. I may have more, but those are the two that come to mind.






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"Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Thu 14 Aug 23:07post reply

I hate to double post, but I thought perhaps I should mention that Hiroshi Iuchi is making a new shooter. Since he was the director of Ikaruga, I thought perhaps this could complete a successful Maou summoning, but... we'll see.

Also, Ishmael, I'm working on that game list but I partied all weekend and had to make up for it by working extra hard this week I got busy.






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"Re(1):Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Fri 15 Aug 09:14post reply

quote:
I hate to double post, but I thought perhaps I should mention that Hiroshi Iuchi is making a new shooter. Since he was the director of Ikaruga, I thought perhaps this could complete a successful Maou summoning, but... we'll see.

Also, Ishmael, I'm working on that game list but I partied all weekend and had to make up for it by working extra hard this week I got busy.



I'm interested in this.





/ / /

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"Re(1):Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Fri 15 Aug 12:29:post reply

quote:
I hate to double post, but I thought perhaps I should mention that Hiroshi Iuchi is making a new shooter. Since he was the director of Ikaruga, I thought perhaps this could complete a successful Maou summoning, but... we'll see.

You called? "Warning, the huge enemy game is approaching. According to the data, it is identified as Butsutekkai our shooting lord and savior Iuchi's next game." Exciting news indeed. Mushihimesama is a pretty bullet hell-y kind of thing, but I guess that's the crowd he's with nowadays. High hopes!





人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は...

[this message was edited by Maou on Fri 15 Aug 12:55]

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"Re(2):Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Sat 16 Aug 01:05post reply

quote:
I hate to double post, but I thought perhaps I should mention that Hiroshi Iuchi is making a new shooter. Since he was the director of Ikaruga, I thought perhaps this could complete a successful Maou summoning, but... we'll see.
You called? "Warning, the huge enemy game is approaching. According to the data, it is identified as Butsutekkai our shooting lord and savior Iuchi's next game." Exciting news indeed. Mushihimesama is a pretty bullet hell-y kind of thing, but I guess that's the crowd he's with nowadays. High hopes!


It's always chancy to invoke your diabolical name! I'm glad it worked out well.

I believe that M2 just handled the X360 port of Mushihimesama-- since Cave was the original developer for the arcade version. Although I'll admit these days I'm not picky: I'm just happy that someone is still making shooters.

On a related note, Steel Empire, AKA Koutetsu Teikoku, AKA 鋼鉄帝国, another shooting game that you, Maese, and Professor may recall I was nearly driven to madness trying to track down in Tokyo last year, has received a US 3DS release, which is good news! But! It comes at a terrible price-- namely, $30. The idea that someone thought that it could sell at that price is astounding, given that I could probably buy the loose cartridge, a somewhat worn Genesis, and five other games for the same price.






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chazumaru
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"Re(3):Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Sat 16 Aug 01:27post reply

For what it's worth, I have the Japanese version and I think it is an amazing port of the game.

Maybe they are counting on reaching a niche of 1000~2000 shooting game fans at that price, rather than appeal to a wider audience who might as well reject the game, even at $8. And if the $30 price point doesn't work, there is always a sale possible.

Aren't most recent STG on consoles sold at that kind of price anyway?
Speaking of which, I am still waiting for that EU release of Raiden Fighters on Xbox 360...





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kofoguz
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"Re(4):Random question on random thread." , posted Sat 16 Aug 04:27post reply

Does anyone know where this image is from? I rember something news worthy about this in here.





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"Re(5):Random question on random thread." , posted Sat 16 Aug 04:45post reply

quote:
Does anyone know where this image is from? I rember something news worthy about this in here.


Wasn't that the artist that was working on that BL fighting game? Every single one of their social media accounts have been deleted as well as the page for the game, though. Very strange!

The artist's handle is "Gyukon," but again, accounts everywhere deleted.





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karasu
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"Re(4):Random Games: Satori mind" , posted Sat 16 Aug 06:45post reply

quote:
For what it's worth, I have the Japanese version and I think it is an amazing port of the game.

Maybe they are counting on reaching a niche of 1000~2000 shooting game fans at that price, rather than appeal to a wider audience who might as well reject the game, even at $8. And if the $30 price point doesn't work, there is always a sale possible.

Aren't most recent STG on consoles sold at that kind of price anyway?
Speaking of which, I am still waiting for that EU release of Raiden Fighters on Xbox 360...


That's a good point, but I thought that the inflated price of danmaku and other shooters mostly applied to their Japanese release-- I want to say that Raiden Fighters US version was only about $20 on launch.

It's good to hear that it's a well done port, and it's a game I've loved for years so despite my complaining I'll probably bit the bullet and pick it up, sale or no.






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kofoguz
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"Re(6):Random question on random thread." , posted Sat 16 Aug 07:48post reply

quote:

Wasn't that the artist that was working on that BL fighting game? Every single one of their social media accounts have been deleted as well as the page for the game, though. Very strange!

The artist's handle is "Gyukon," but again, accounts everywhere deleted.

That's a shame. I believe there's no chance this strange account deleting and site disappearing leads the project getting into top secret status, no?

I thought BL was a series rather than a category. I really liked the characters. Especially those two.





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"Re(7):Random question on random thread." , posted Mon 18 Aug 08:05post reply

quote:

Wasn't that the artist that was working on that BL fighting game? Every single one of their social media accounts have been deleted as well as the page for the game, though. Very strange!

The artist's handle is "Gyukon," but again, accounts everywhere deleted.
That's a shame. I believe there's no chance this strange account deleting and site disappearing leads the project getting into top secret status, no?


The fujoshi fighter has disappeared? Here I thought that pretty boys with washboard abs were eternally popular. Then again, perhaps there wasn't as much crossover between the two fandoms as hoped.

Speaking of games with a very specific audience...

One good thing that comes out of a console winding down is that publishers start taking chances on smaller, specialized offerings. In other words, all the weird games start coming out. It looks like the PS3 has hit that point if a game like this made it over to the US.





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"Re(8):Random question on random thread." , posted Mon 18 Aug 10:44:post reply

quote:

Wasn't that the artist that was working on that BL fighting game? Every single one of their social media accounts have been deleted as well as the page for the game, though. Very strange!


The leading artist (Gyukon) was discovered for having a history of plagarism, and internet users started bashing her from all directions. She launched an apology blog so that it wouldn't break apart the BL fighting game project, but things didn't work out.

Her plagarism mostly came in the form of borrowing parts of other people's background art or photos, using them as parts of her own background, or for texture. I don't think it would've flamed as much if she stuck to royalty-free/stock photos.

She's also accused of imitating layouts from other people, and very occasionally tracing over photos or characters for their outlines. --Personally, I wasn't too fond of hearing this because I don't think tracing is of any help in improving art skills.


You can find examples here-
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/5.html
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/6.html
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/9.html



I'm amazed at the great lengths that these internet users went through to find her recyclings-- most of them are too subtle to notice, like these examples.





[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 18 Aug 10:46]

chazumaru
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"Makuhari's mess" , posted Mon 18 Aug 16:31post reply

Found on GAF, a good summary of what we'll find at TGS next month.
(I am actually slightly excited by TGS for the first time in a while. Not because of anything on that page, though.)





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"Re(9):Random question on random thread." , posted Mon 18 Aug 17:44post reply

quote:

I'm amazed at the great lengths that these internet users went through to find her recyclings-- most of them are too subtle to notice, like these examples.


Most of these aren't so bad, considering that they were personal works, not commissioned artworks or commercial projects. However, seeing it all, the trend is not encouraging and I've seen artists crucified for much less when it comes to borrowing from other works.

quote:
Found on GAF, a good summary of what we'll find at TGS next month.

I thought I was over the whole "ios Apocalypse," and normally I would just smile and nod at this sort of thing, but just recently, Capcom shut down a large number of their mobile games. It's frightening knowing that the "new market" consists of mediocre games mostly just designed to get at your wallet that can disappear at any moment and you never actually "own" no matter how much money you spend. Yikes.

I mean, of course, that was always a reality, but as more and more games bite the dust, it becomes a more sobering reality.





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"Re(10):Random question on random thread." , posted Mon 18 Aug 19:50post reply

quote:

I'm amazed at the great lengths that these internet users went through to find her recyclings-- most of them are too subtle to notice, like these examples.

Most of these aren't so bad, considering that they were personal works, not commissioned artworks or commercial projects. However, seeing it all, the trend is not encouraging and I've seen artists crucified for much less when it comes to borrowing from other works.


Not to mention Araki is also doing tracing /by looking/ sorta thing. So what if she used some subtle backgrounds from other artworks. I thinks she have a style with bad anatomy/model perception. Why internet doesnt let good thins from happening!





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"Re(10):Random question on random thread." , posted Tue 19 Aug 01:10post reply

So the BL game died because the main artist had the same work principles as Greg Land? That's too bad but at least it's good to hear the project fell apart due to outside factors and not due to lack of interest. I wonder if someone else will try to make a similar game in the future?

quote:
It's frightening knowing that the "new market" consists of mediocre games mostly just designed to get at your wallet that can disappear at any moment and you never actually "own" no matter how much money you spend. Yikes.

I don't know who used a monkey's paw to make video games go back to the way they were in arcades but the "good old days" are back with a vengeance.





nobinobita
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"Re(9):Random question on random thread." , posted Wed 20 Aug 03:20post reply

quote:

Wasn't that the artist that was working on that BL fighting game? Every single one of their social media accounts have been deleted as well as the page for the game, though. Very strange!

The leading artist (Gyukon) was discovered for having a history of plagarism, and internet users started bashing her from all directions. She launched an apology blog so that it wouldn't break apart the BL fighting game project, but things didn't work out.

Her plagarism mostly came in the form of borrowing parts of other people's background art or photos, using them as parts of her own background, or for texture. I don't think it would've flamed as much if she stuck to royalty-free/stock photos.

She's also accused of imitating layouts from other people, and very occasionally tracing over photos or characters for their outlines. --Personally, I wasn't too fond of hearing this because I don't think tracing is of any help in improving art skills.


You can find examples here-
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/5.html
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/6.html
http://www60.atwiki.jp/gyutan/pages/9.html



I'm amazed at the great lengths that these internet users went through to find her recyclings-- most of them are too subtle to notice, like these examples.

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --


Good lord those are really specific! I'm very impressed they manage to find the sources. I feel like the way she used those sources wasn't really out of line though, especially for a doujin game with a presumably tiny team. I've seen far worse cases of actual plagiarism from professionals working on high profile games.

Also, "photo-bashing" is becoming a very popular technique for digital speed painters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5lOn8OMxg

I'm personally not a fan of it because i think it only gives you a very limited, superficial sense of reality, but it is a useful technique none the less, especially when you're expected to churn out very realistic art on a tight deadline.






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kofoguz
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"Re(2):Re(10):Random question on random thread" , posted Wed 20 Aug 04:00post reply

quote:
So the BL game died because the main artist had the same work principles as Greg Land? That's too bad but at least it's good to hear the project fell apart due to outside factors and not due to lack of interest. I wonder if someone else will try to make a similar game in the future?



The video I tried to find last time
Imagine those nitpicking cry babies of internet had the chance destroy Araki, as they can destroy this BL fighting game and its artist now, we wouldnt have four balls, two tounged -I strongly speculate that it will be revealed as main antogonist- pratagonist. Good job internetz!





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"New topic warning!" , posted Thu 21 Aug 20:42:post reply

I was waiting to reach the end of the month but it seems the Japanese publishers have already started their PR offensive for TGS so I think it's time for a >>new topic.





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[this message was edited by chazumaru on Thu 21 Aug 20:49]