Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 10

Top 5 Mario Games I Still Need to Play

Happy Mario Day!

March 10 is Mario Day, and even though I’ve played and loved quite a few Mario games in my time, there are still several notable ones that I haven’t played.

So today, I decided to take a look through at the top 5 Mario games I haven’t played yet, but would like to someday.

5. Bowser’s Fury

When Nintendo brought Super Mario 3D World to the Nintendo Switch, they added a new side story called Bowser’s Fury. Unlike the main game, it’s more of a free-roaming collect-a-thon, which is the type of 3D Mario game I enjoy the most. I was interested in Bowser’s Fury ever since we saw what it was like, but I still haven’t picked it up.

I didn’t enjoy 3D World enough to play the main game again, so I’d really be buying it only for Bowser’s Fury. I’ll probably pick it up someday if it gets a good sale, but right now it’s not a priority.

4. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

I’ll never forget how quickly my opinion on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle turned around, from complete negativity toward the idea when it was rumored to unexpected interest once it was revealed. It’s an idea that sounded terrible to me but ended up looking great when I actually saw it.

I still find rabbids unappealing, but the strategy RPG gameplay has me intrigued. I picked it up in a sale a while back, so one of these days I’ll get around to playing it.

…Since I also picked up its sequel in a sale, I sure hope I enjoy it.

3. Paper Mario: The Origami King

My feelings on Paper Mario: The Origami King are all over the place. It’s gotten the most positive feedback of any of the newer Paper Mario games, with many people saying it’s a fantastic game, but I still hate the thought of having scissors and staplers as bosses. Still, my feelings toward it have softened, due to both Bug Fables giving me what I wanted and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door being remade.

I’d still like to see another true RPG Paper Mario, but in the meantime I might just check out Origami King to see for myself what it’s like.

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2

For someone who rambles about loving 3D platformers as much as I do, it might be a bit of a surprise that I still haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy 2. There are a few reasons for that, but the biggest one is that while Super Mario Galaxy is closer to my preferred style than 3D World is, for example, its levels are still more linear than those of 64/Sunshine/Odyssey. So while I enjoyed Galaxy, I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to play Galaxy 2 (especially since I heard it’s even more linear).

Still, I have it and I love 3D platformers, so I should play it one of these days.

1. Mario & Luigi: Brothership

The newest entry on this list is, of course, Mario & Luigi: Brothership. When they announced a new Mario & Luigi game during that amazing Nintendo Direct, I couldn’t believe it. I preordered it right away and waited eagerly for it to arrive…

…except my backlog got in the way, so instead of being played at launch, Brothership got politely set aside to wait for later, and it’s been waiting ever since. I’m still eager to dive into it to see how the return of my beloved Mario & Luigi series stacks up against the previous ones, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

Conclusion

Maybe I should start one of these today to celebrate Mario Day with…

Anyway, these are the top 5 Mario games I still need to play, but what about you? Got any Mario games you’ve been meaning to play but just haven’t gotten around to yet?

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Mystery Visual Novel Kindaichi Mystery Series: The Honjin Murders Announced

A new mystery visual novel has been announced by the Japanese developer Coly.

Kindaichi Mystery Series: The Honjin Murders is a visual novel based on Seishi Yokomizo’s 1946 mystery novel The Honjin Murders, the first in a series of detective stories starring a detective named Kosuke Kindaichi.

I was unfamiliar with the books, but apparently they started getting English translations in 2020.

This visual novel will have the player connect testimonies and clues to piece together the truth of the murder. (It reminds me a little of the Logic gameplay mechanic in Ace Attorney Investigations, except with longer sections of dialogue that need to be connected.)

It will be out on Steam on March 20 with Japanese, English, and Chinese language options, with a Switch version to follow near the end of March.

The announcement page says it will cost 1500 yen, so although the dollar price hasn’t been revealed yet, it should be fairly inexpensive. I wonder if that means it’s going to be a short game. The nature of the title makes me think they want to turn it into a series with subsequent games based on the other Kosuke Kindaichi stories.

Now, I was curious about the developer since I hadn’t heard of them before, so I looked around their website. When I looked at their past games, I still didn’t recognize any… except for Stand My Heroes, a Japanese-only mobile otome game I know only because it has an Ace Attorney collaboration back in 2022. That wasn’t a title I expected to see while researching a new mystery game!

All in all, Kindaichi Mystery Series: The Honjin Murders is a game I’ll want to keep an eye on. What do you think about it so far?

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Suikoden Anime and Mobile Game Announced

The Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is out tomorrow, and Konami held a special Suikoden broadcast on Monday to celebrate.

It was hard not to hope they’d announce a remaster of Suikoden III or a brand-new game, especially when they said the Suikoden I & II remaster was only the first step of their Suikoden plans.

Then they announced Step 2…… which turned out to be an anime.

Suikoden: The Anime is an anime adaptation of Suikoden II and will be produced by Konami Animation. It’s not the news I was hoping for, but it was neat to see.

After that, they said the anime was only the first part of Step 2. Step 2 also includes a new game… for mobile devices.

All right, that was the part that hurt, especially because Suikoden: Star Leap actually looks beautiful. If this was a regular game, I’d be excited for it without question. But it’s going to be a mobile gacha game, and even though they claimed the gacha is just an additional aspect that you don’t have to worry about, I’m too skeptical to accept it that easily.

Is there a chance I’ll give Star Leap a chance? Sure, if it comes out and people say the gacha really is non-intrusive, I might give it a try after all. I would much rather see a regular, non-gacha game come out, though.

They also announced a stage play as the final part of Step 2.

Well, this does leave the door open for a “Step 3” that could include more remasters or a new (non-mobile) game, but it was a little disappointing (if funny) to watch them keep announcing other things instead.

For my part, though, I’m still at the very start of the series. I played and enjoyed Suikoden back in 2016, but I never got around to starting Suikoden II before the remasters were announced. I’ll probably play the remaster, since it seems to be well-received. Maybe by then, it’ll be time for Step 3?

What do you think about the latest Suikoden announcements?

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New Details About Fantasy Life i’s Development

You know I’ve had some concerns about Fantasy Life i despite my initial excitement when it was announced, both due to the increased scope and its several delays.

Well, thanks to a new Level-5 blog post, we’ve gotten some insights into what happened during Fantasy Life i’s development.

The biggest revelation is that Keiji Inafune left Level-5 last year.

In case you’re unfamiliar with how things went, Inafune’s studio Comcept was acquired by Level-5 in 2017 and became Level-5 Comcept, and they were in charge of developing Fantasy Life i. According to this blog post, his departure meant they had to “reassess and restructure” the game.

This included “adding open-world exploration and parkour-style actions, restructuring the system’s progression flow, improving the core mechanics, and refining the scenario to be even more emotionally impactful.”

Knowing this makes me feel better about the game’s expanded scope. At the time, it had me worried they were making it bigger just for the sake of being bigger, but now that I know it happened as part of the project being overhauled after the producer left, it makes a lot more sense. Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino took over as producer, and since he was the producer of the first game, that makes me more confident too.

Meanwhile, the blog post goes on to mention that Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road might be delayed again due to all the trouble with Fantasy Life i. That poor game’s been delayed so many times it’s almost funny. More information about Inazuma Eleven will be coming in a showcase on April 11.

It’s funny to read a blog post about troubled development and delays and come out feeling more optimistic about the game, but this look at what was going on with Fantasy Life i did clear some things up. I’m looking forward to Fantasy Life i when it launches later this year – hopefully without any further delays.

What do you think about the latest Fantasy Life i news?

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Let’s Talk About the Pokémon Legends: Z-A Trailer

Yesterday was the Pokémon Presents, and it wasn’t especially thrilling.

It mostly focused on updates to the mobile games, a new battling game for Switch & mobile called Pokémon Champions, and finally a new trailer for Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Check out the full presentation if you want, since I’m going to focus on Z-A.

We didn’t get a release date after all, only an updated release window of “late 2025.”

I’m a little disappointed in that, but on the other hand, having a longer development cycle might be a good thing. I can’t really complain.

So let’s focus on the new details we’ve learned about the game.

In addition to the trailer, they also released a second video that shows off more of Lumiose City and gives a closer look at how gameplay will work.

The three starters are Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile, which is an unusual selection since Chikorita and Totodile were Gen 2 starters while Tepig was a Gen 5 starter. Since it takes place within Lumiose City, it’s not entirely clear how exploration will go, but the trailer shows things like climbing onto rooftops. In the extended look, we see that parts of the city are designated as Wild Zones, where you can find and catch Pokémon.

It also seems to be set after Pokémon X/Y after all, instead of in the past like I had theorized. AZ is running a hotel. Zygarde is also shown, although its role in the story hasn’t been revealed.

Catching mechanics look like those from Legends: Arceus, but the combat system is completely new. Instead of turn-based combat, it’s now a real-time system where you’ll need to pay attention to positioning and timing. Your Pokémon’s moves are on a cooldown, which makes the new combat system remind me more of Xenoblade than anything else (albeit with more action).

I have mixed feelings about these new details. The time setting doesn’t bother me; even though I theorized it was set in the past, being a sequel is still fine. The extended look also shows what appears to be Looker’s office, so I’d love if he has a new story here. And even though I’ve seen a lot of criticism about how the graphics look, I think it looks fine.

On the other hand, the city setting doesn’t quite look like it will capture the same sense of exploration that the zones in Arceus did, which is disappointing. I hope there’s more to it than what they’ve shown, because the Wild Zones aren’t impressing me so far. Games set within a city can be great (for example, Yakuza), so I hope they make the most of this setting to keep it interesting.

Finally, I’m a huge fan of turn-based combat. I was so happy that Arceus still had turn-based combat. I don’t have anything against Z-A’s new system, but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed in it.

We’re still a long way off from Legends: Z-A’s release, and I’m sure we’ll learn more about it in the meantime. That could help sway me in one direction or another. After all, I had mixed feelings about Legends: Arceus when it was first announced, too, and I ended up loving it!

What are your thoughts on Pokémon Legends: Z-A?

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Top 5 Ports or Remasters I Still Want to See

In less than a month, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition will be out for the Switch, which for a while seemed like it would never happen.

It’s only one of many unlikely remasters we’ve gotten over the past few years, with Ghost Trick and Baten Kaitos being among other notable ones.

There are still many games out there that I’d love to see ported or remastered to make them more readily available, so here are five that stand out to me the most. (I’ll ignore unlocalized games for the sake of this list to avoid overlap with the games I’d most like to see translated.)

5. Skies of Arcadia

I played Skies of Arcadia back in 2019 on the GameCube and found it to be a fun JRPG that I’d love to see a sequel for. Of course, a sequel to a game that’s nearly inaccessible now is even less likely, so getting a remaster would be the best first step. Sega filed a trademark for Skies of Arcadia about a month ago, along with a trademark for Eternal Arcadia, its Japanese title, so it seems like we might actually have a chance.

4. Flower, Sun, and Rain

Flower, Sun, and Rain is a PS2 and DS game from Grasshopper Manufacture, set in the same universe as The Silver Case. I’ve wanted to play it ever since I finished The Silver Case and The 25th Ward, and I keep hoping for a remaster.

We last discussed Flower, Sun, and Rain back in 2021, when Suda51 said he already has a partner picked out for remastering it. There hasn’t been any news since then, but I still have my fingers crossed.

3. Rhythm Thief

By now you’re probably tired of me asking for a Rhythm Thief remaster, as it’s been just over a month since my last lament about the lack of a Rhythm Thief sequel or remaster. I won’t go over everything again, but Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure is definitely one of the top games I want to see remastered or ported… to pave the way for an eventual sequel.

2. .hack//IMOQ

When the .hack//G.U. trilogy was remastered in 2017 as the Last Recode collection, I had a great time playing them and finished the collection with the hope that someday the original tetralogy might return as well.

.hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine have reportedly not held up as well as their successors, but that’s all the more reason why a remaster with quality-of-life improvements would be great!

(An all-new game would be good too, just saying.)

Back in 2023, we learned that the developer wanted fans to let Bandai Namco know there’s interest, in the hopes that such a remaster could be made. The initial fervor has died down a little since then, but I’m still hoping we’ll see these four games remastered someday!

And speaking of Bandai Namco…

1. Xenosaga

I really want a remastered Xenosaga trilogy. I watched playthroughs of all three games so I’d at least know the story, but that just made me want to play them someday even more. The last we heard about Xenosaga was in 2019, when we learned the possibility of a Xenosaga remaster had failed the market analysis. That’s pretty discouraging… but on the other hand, never say never. I remember when a Xenoblade Chronicles X remaster was ruled out as unfeasible, and here we are only a few weeks away from playing it! Maybe a few years from now, we’ll be talking about a Xenosaga remaster in the same way.

Conclusion

These are five of the games/series I’d most like to see remastered. Of course, I might have forgotten something obvious that I’ll regret leaving off the list later, but for now, these are my top 5! Which ports or remasters are you still hoping for the most?

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Bustafellows Season 2 Demo Out Now

There are always a bunch of demos that go live whenever Steam holds its Steam Next Fest celebration, and this time Bustafellows Season 2 is included.

Bustafellows Season 2 is the sequel to the mystery otome game Bustafellows, which we discussed back in 2023. Despite their use of “season” in the title, each is a full game.

I enjoyed Bustafellows enough to pick up the sequel, so I probably won’t play the demo.

After all, despite being called a “gameplay demo,” it’s a visual novel. A demo would only give a sample of the story and characters, and I already know I like the characters enough to see more of them. As for the story, while that was my biggest criticism of the original, a demo won’t be enough to draw any conclusions.

Bustafellows 2 is due out later this year. Although no release date has been given yet, its listing at VGP says it will be out on July 17.

(Meanwhile, I keep getting confused because DesperaDrops, another crime-focused otome that reminds me of Bustafellows, comes out on March 6.)

This year hasn’t been quite as packed with anticipated games for me as the past few years have been, but I still feel like all of these release dates are sneaking up on me and my slow backlog progress! It’s better than a lack of games, though!

Are you planning to try the Bustafellows 2 demo?

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Pokémon Presents Announced for February 27

Can you believe it’s almost been a whole year since Pokémon Legends: Z-A was announced?

February 27 is always Pokémon Day, and there’s usually a Pokémon Presents on that day to celebrate.

2025 is no exception, as the next Pokémon Presents showcase has been announced for February 27 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET.

Last year, Game Freak took everyone by surprise when they announced not a new Johto or Unova game like rumors claimed they would, but a new Pokémon Legends game set in the Kalos region and seemingly involving Zygarde, Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

We still know almost nothing about this game, except that it will be out this year for the Nintendo Switch.

I absolutely loved Pokémon Legends: Arceus, so even though X/Y wasn’t one of my favorite Pokémon generations, I’ve been excited for Legends: Z-A ever since it was announced. Learning more about it at this Pokémon Presents feels almost like a guarantee, and it’s the one thing I’m looking forward to the most.

It would also be nice to see another spin-off announced, too, like a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (no, I haven’t played the ones in my backlog yet) or a third game in the style of Detective Pikachu (I might be the only one cheering if that happens), although they tend to devote a lot of time in these presentations to their mobile game updates.

And is it too soon for them to announce the next gen? If they do, I wouldn’t expect more than a tiny teaser, to avoid distracting from Z-A.

What are you expecting or hoping to see from the Pokémon Presents?

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Xenoblade Chronicles X Previews Reveal Promising Quality-of-Life Changes

Previews for the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition went live today, and there are a lot of interesting details!

The biggest overview has come from RPG Site, which describes several quality of life improvements.

For me, the best piece of news is that you can change your party at any time. I mentioned before how tedious it was in the original X that you had to find your party members in the city and talk to them to switch them into your party – with 18 party members and a big city, I actually kept notes about each party member’s location. Being able to change party members from a menu is the one change I was hoping for, so I’m glad to have that confirmed.

The site also shows a screenshot of the party screen, which has spots for 22 party members. That means there’s four new party members being added, not just one or two?!

Blade level, Division points, and most Field Skills are also gone, which is a change I’m a little more indecisive toward. I like coming across things that I can’t interact with yet while exploring and needing to come back for them later. Still, that’s not such a terrible change that it outweighs the positives for me.

There are some other nice changes as well, like a gauge you can spend to ignore an Art’s cooldown time and exp gain for party members not in your active party. The preview from Destructoid also confirms multiple save slots, and a look at the settings from Shacknews reveals dual audio.

All in all, Xenoblade Chronicles X sounds like it will be a wonderful Definitive Edition. My biggest disappointment is that it doesn’t look like it’ll get a collector’s edition, but I’ll still hold out hope for a little longer.

What do you think of the new changes described in these previews?

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Let’s Talk About the State of Play Highlights

The State of Play on Wednesday didn’t have any news earth-shattering enough to get its own post over the latest Fantasy Life i news, but it still had some good announcements.

I’ll only be talking about the highlights that stood out to me, so be sure to check out the full showcase if you want to see everything.

The first major highlight for me was one we sort of already expected.

As anticipated from the surprise retailer listing, a new Digimon Story game was announced.

Digimon Story: Time Stranger is set for later this year and involves traveling between the human world and the Digital World to prevent an apocalypse.

It’s also been confirmed to be a turn-based RPG, so that’s great! Sign me up!

Right after that was a new trailer for Lost Soul Aside, which will be out on May 30.

I remember when this game was first shown, and all the Final Fantasy XV / Versus XIII comparisons it got. It still definitely has that look, and it also still looks fantastic. Depending on the state of my backlog when the end of May rolls around, I’ll want to play this one eventually.

Moving on, a demo was announced for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii! I won’t be trying the demo, since I already know I’m going to play it once I finish Infinite Wealth, but now is the time to be extra careful about avoiding spoilers.

Like a Dragon is also getting a crossover with Dave the Diver, which is unexpected yet entertaining. I haven’t played Dave the Diver, but it sounds like a fun collaboration.

There was a new trailer for Split Fiction, which looks interesting, and the announcement of a new game from Supermassive, Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game.

Onimusha also got highlighted at the State of Play, with both a trailer for the Onimusha 2 remaster and a new one for Onimusha: Way of the Sword. It looks great, and it seems you’ll be able use the environment to your advantage in combat. The new trailer also confirms that the protagonist is Miyamoto Musashi.

The Lies of P DLC could be interesting (if I ever get around to playing the main game), and Dreams of Another looks very surreal and unique. Stellar Blade is also getting more DLC, this time a collaboration with Nikke, in June. (Hey, maybe by then I’ll have played that one at least!)

Blue Prince looks intriguing, too, a sort of puzzle exploration game set in a manor where the floor plan changes each day.

But the standout surprise for me was Tides of Annihilation, an action game inspired by Arthurian legend. It looks beautiful and like it could be a lot of fun.

There were other games shown, of course, including a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta and the next game from Housemarque, but these are the highlights that stood out to me the most! Overall, it was a decent State of Play, but one without anything huge.

What did you think of the State of Play?

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