Yeah, goes back a ways! I feel like it has a knack for resurfacing after I’ve completely forgotten about it. I like what I’m seeing here with the gameplay.

It’s fairly one-note at first, but you will get options later that will allow you to soak some hits. Make sure you’re keeping your pictos updated.

That said, yeah, in a game with a fully developed dodge and parry system, you’re going to be expected to at least dodge almost everything when playing on high difficulty.

LT: I knew pretty early the scope of the universe, the level, and the script, so I made my dream soundtrack. For example, I would take a level and would want to write three environment tracks, two battle themes, and one boss theme. I do that for the whole game and — one by one — I’d write the track for five years until the end.

This is what’s so nuts to me about this soundtrack. It’s not only quality; it’s quantity too. Those who have played the JRPGs that inspired this game know: for the entire game, you get a few regular battle themes, a few boss themes, and a final boss theme. Some of the consensus top soundtracks in the genre aren’t this big. Yet this single composer did multiples for each level. Only the biggest projects in the genre get this kind of treatment.

I’m glad Broche gave Testard so much run for this game, and gave him the tools to make it sound great, too.

Mine does, yes, and it has a great inter-library loan system, too. As long as it hasn’t come out recently, I have access to a big chunk of the Switch library.

Unfortunately, it looks like going forward that it’s not software costs that are going to be the biggest problem, it’s hardware. Adjusting for inflation, hardware has never been this expensive this late in a generation in my country. Not even the PS3.

For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn’t been topped. Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.

They are both cliché to recommend at this point for video game stories, but my personal favorite video game stories are Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium.

If you’re up for Japanese-style games, I also love Xenogears and Final Fantasy X.

If you need something newer (other than Disco), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, Citizen Sleeper, and Death Stranding are all recent highlights.

Like you said yourself, it’s risky.

That said, I think SQEX is one of the better large publishers out there about giving ideas some leeway. Hell, they let Yoko Taro make really fucking weird shit for far longer than was reasonable until it finally paid off with NieR: Automata.

If by capital “R” Remake you mean the full three-game treatment FF7 received, Kitase’s already said they’re not planning on doing that again. Future remake projects, should they happen, will be smaller in scope. An FF9 project was leaked twice and is heavily rumored, so it’s most likely next (if it wasn’t quietly cancelled, anyway). We also don’t know exactly where it would fall on the spectrum between remaster and remake, but the Epic leak suggests it’s more of a remake.

FFT is the one I’d like to see the most, and it has even more rumors around it. But, I would expect that would look something like Tactics Ogre Reborn, mostly a remaster. It could really use some modern features, like a move undo and some UI enhancements, like a helper for zodiac signs. What I want the most from it is an orchestrated soundtrack. It’s a gorgeous work that deserves the full treatment. I’d also love to see more content, like extra side quests, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

FF6 is the most logical next step after those in terms of enduring popularity, especially if they want to target the Western market. It would probably be super controversial in the fandom, though.

I’ve actively tried not to be a Blizzard doomer, but Nexon? I guess wealth extraction is where these IPs are now. Bleh.

Pains me to hear it called a failure, it’s such a delightful game. While the Western release years after was not part of initial development, it’s also a landmark game in English localization history. The script brilliantly handles the puns and other specific quirks of the original Japanese while also setting a standard tone for this series and similar games that followed. For example, I don’t know if Kansai-ben was translated into a US Southern dialect in a video game before this one.

I think this one’s going to sell quite well once word-of-mouth spreads.

I’ve played several hours of this already and the deeper I get, the more it makes me think of Dark Souls. It has that same sort of cadence in the dungeons, just turn-based instead, with a party. What’s wild is even with how derivative the concept is, it’s a brilliant, fresh-feeling idea for dungeon design. I’ve been feeling like JRPG dungeons have been stale for a while now, and I’m loving both how dangerous the dungeon trash is and how there isn’t a ton of it. Normally by this point in a more traditional Japanese-style RPG I’m starting to skip around in boss rush mode. Not here. I’m wanting the challenge.

It’s nowhere near as difficult as a Souls-like though. I’ve seen many complaints about how not-optional the dodge/parry system is, but at least so far, I think there are ways around it. I’m not even through Act 1 and there are already enough tools that even people that miss most dodges can find busted builds to offset with (and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of helpful Pictos and other loot already).

I have some nits to pick, but it’s been a great game on the whole so far. The soundtrack and voice acting in particular are top-notch.

Really curious about how well this game does. Being at a significantly lower price point, if it ends up a major GotY contender, that will make waves.

Depending on just how JRPG the game feels, it could also have a big impact there, too. The genre doesn’t have a regular, clear market leader anymore.

Headline doesn’t match what’s in the report. It’s not just gacha; the question in the survey is inclusive of other games that offer in-game purchases (課金 in Japanese). So we’re talking about skins and boosts in MMOs, MOBAs, and shooters, hints in games like Candy Crush, etc.

The report posted here last week showed just how much MTX spending there is on PC, of which gacha is still a small part. I suspect there is a higher rate of gacha spending in Japan than there is globally (outside of China, perhaps), but I’d be surprised if gacha even made up half of the spending SMBC is reporting on here.

Can’t wait to play the new Star Wars game from XCom devs and miss a 90% as a freaking Jedi 😒

Jumped back into Baldur’s Gate 3 after the new patch dropped to try out the new subclasses. Giant barb is fun! My Tav is a relatively boring diviner, but I realized I haven’t played a wizard face character before and some of the dialogue options have also been interesting. I rolled a Zariel tiefling so it’s also been amusing to use Intimidate checks as a cloth-wearer. Got a Death cleric that’s been not quite as exciting (planning on replacing with Circle of Stars druid a little later) and my crit build martial character I’ve run half a dozen times before will be trying the notorious Hexblade dip.

Side note, I play on Honour difficulty and I’ve run into a few bugs/blips already, more than usual. Frustrating as hell, though I guess I could always dig into my file system if I really wanted to load a save for a (legit?) reason.

I did like the one on the brand surgery. I had a hunch that one would be good and went with it. However, what I really wanted was more on

but from what I can tell, there wasn’t one for that. Just the one with the flowers. (I haven’t played the DLC, though I plan to some time.)

Ah yeah, this one’s not nearly complicated enough to have all that, hah. You’ll get a prompt concisely describing a new system when you unlock one and a small summary of new powers when you get them. That’s about it.

If Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the ultimate hand-holding tutorial experience, FFXVI is about as far as you get on the other side of the spectrum while still having tutorials/descriptions.

Even among JRPGs, Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI were turn-based games that were big sellers. Octopath and Like a Dragon have had some success too.

But yes, it does seem like the division leads at SQEX want action combat for mainline Final Fantasy. Maybe we’ll get something in a hybrid style like Metaphor or the recent Trails games.

This was ultimately my least favorite release of the series, but I agree that the “choices matter” element of the game is quite strong. I always appreciate a lower budget game like this really going for it in that realm.

The story hasn’t aged well for me–this game’s initial plot hook would have looked a lot different after 2020–and it’s sad that the atmosphere of the game feels quaint today. A lot of what the two go through is disturbingly commonplace among persons of color in the US, but then they have this cult chapter of the story that stretches suspension of disbelief well past the breaking point. I’m still annoyed at its inclusion, which I think undercuts the (very important) greater message the story was trying to tell.

I think this money grab wouldn’t have gotten as much run in the media if it hadn’t been front and center in the Direct. Feels like a misstep, but then, so does €90 Mario Kart…