Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 105

Neon Tide Demo: Intriguing, Yet Confusing

Recently, the developers of Neon Tide contacted me to tell me about their Kickstarter campaign and ask if I’d be interested in playing their demo.

Neon Tide is a cyberpunk visual novel set in a world with sentient AI and a virus known as the “Neon Tide” that is affecting robots.

The visual novel itself is almost completed, and the Kickstarter campaign is so they can add voice acting as well as a Japanese translation.

It’s clearly an ambitious project, with character models instead of the typical 2D sprites used in visual novels and a mixture of still shots and animated scenes. The cyberpunk aesthetic is visible throughout the game, including its menus, which gives it a nice flair.

However, I feel like it could benefit from a bit of traditional visual novel storytelling as well. The silent scenes in the demo, while impressive, were a bit hard to follow. I found myself hoping for a bit of narration to give more context to the game’s events.

(Then again, maybe the ambiguity is intentional, especially if it’s the start of the game.)

Neon Tide’s demo tosses you into the fray with two characters. One is a sentient hologram whose motives are unclear aside from hating AI, and the other is an AI infected by the Neon Tide trying to escape some sort of robot facility.

I was intrigued by what was happening, but again, I wanted a bit more context. Similarly, while the hologram character (Beta) had a few moments of internal narration, it wasn’t quite enough yet for me to connect to him as a character. He seems like the main protagonist, but I was more interested in what was going on with the robots.

According to the Kickstarter page, the fully-infected AI wants to rule over humanity while the partly-infected AI wants the two groups to live in harmony, and it sounds like Beta will be swept up in trying to learn the truth about the Neon Tide.

Neon Tide has an intriguing premise and an ambitious vision. The demo left me just a bit too confused to be sold on its storytelling, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it as we go forward.

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Skies of Arcadia is a Fun Journey

Recently, I played a JRPG I’ve been interested in for quite a while: Skies of Arcadia (or to be more precise, Skies of Arcadia Legends on the GameCube).

Skies of Arcadia is set in a world of floating islands, with a strong emphasis on airship travel. In fact, you have an airship from the very beginning, and flying through the sky’s “oceans” essentially acts as the overworld.

You play as Vyse, a young air pirate who dreams of having his own ship. Now, there are two factions of air pirates in Skies of Arcadia: Blue Rogues and Black Pirates. Black Pirates are what you probably think of pirates as – criminals who attack other ships to steal from them, regardless of who they are or who might get hurt.

Blue Rogues, meanwhile, are basically what people think of when they romanticize pirates – daring heroes who search for treasure and adventure and fight for justice. The Blue Rogues never attacked unarmed ships or merchants, and they mainly fight the oppressive Valuan Empire (or Black Pirates).

Vyse and his close friend Aika are Blue Rogues. When they rescue a mysterious girl named Fina, they soon join her mission to find the powerful Moon Crystals before the Empire can use them to threaten the world.

The story is pretty straightforward, with nothing too unpredictable, but it’s well-told and I enjoyed it a lot. The main characters are likable and there’s a fair amount of humorous moments alongside the more serious scenes.

It’s a turn-based JRPG, with some interesting combat ideas that don’t quite meet their potential. Magic only costs 1 MP to use, along with an SP cost. SP (Spirit Points) is used for both magic and for S Moves, special skills each character has. That opens up a lot of options… but after a certain point, once you have more SP available, saving up SP to use your strongest S Moves is so much better than any other strategy that I almost never used magic or even regular attacks anymore.

Meanwhile, there is no traditional overworld as I mentioned earlier. Instead, you’ll fly your airship from one location to the next. I liked that, although the random encounters during flight annoyed me and made me explore less than I normally would.

(Every time I got annoyed with the frequency of random encounters, I reminded myself that the GameCube version improved the encounter rate from the original Dreamcast version.)

When you are exploring, there are numerous Discoveries for you to search for. I love this in concept, but I much preferred the Discoveries that you can actually see and go investigate, versus the ones that are invisible and you have to find by getting directions to.

There are also separate airship battles, which are a lot of fun aside from the animations taking a long, long time to get through. (I could leave the room to do something and come back to find the turn still playing out.)

Don’t let these little criticisms make it sound like I didn’t like it, however. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Skies of Arcadia, and I really wish they had made a sequel to it… or at least a newer remaster/port, since it’s pretty hard to find nowadays.

Have you played Skies of Arcadia? Do you think we’ll ever see a sequel or spiritual successor, or even a remaster?

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Monolith Soft is Working on a New Zelda Game

While I mainly think of Monolith Soft as the developer behind JRPGs like Baten Kaitos and Xenoblade, they have a supplementary studio in Kyoto that works with Nintendo on other games.

The Kyoto branch worked on three games in the Legend of Zelda series: Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, and Breath of the Wild.

Now, it appears they’re getting ready to work on another. According to the translation from Gematsu, Monolith Soft’s latest job post is looking for technical artists, programmers, planners, designers, and a project manager for work on a title in the Legend of Zelda series.

With the Link’s Awakening remake coming out this year, does this mean the announcement for the next major Legend of Zelda title will be coming soon? I can see it being announced at E3.

This also should be the third game Monolith Soft is currently working on, since they were previously hiring for a new Xenoblade game and they have a new fantasy IP in development as well.

When do you think the new Legend of Zelda game will be announced?

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Episode Ardyn is Available Now

The final piece of Final Fantasy XV DLC, Episode Ardyn, is now available for $9.99.

When the release date was announced, I speculated that Episode Ardyn would be longer than the previous DLC episodes.

This made sense for two reasons. First, they had originally said they might make an entire game based around Ardyn, which suggested they had a lot of material. Second, it costs twice as much as the previous DLC episodes, which are $4.99 each.

However, players have reported that Episode Ardyn is about 2-3 hours long, just like the others.

So I’m not sure why it costs $9.99 when it’s the same length as the previous DLC episodes. I haven’t actually bought it yet, because I lost some of my enthusiasm. The anime prologue wasn’t as interesting as I hoped, either, partly because it’s so short. It added a few more details to the story we already knew, but it was nothing like the look at Ardyn’s past I’d hoped for.

I’ll probably still get Episode Ardyn eventually (and maybe Episode Ignis too), but right now I have other games I’d rather play instead.

Are you getting Episode Ardyn?

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What Is Persona 5: The Royal?

I loved Persona 5, so when “Persona 5 R” was first teased, I was interested in what it might be.

Would it be the much-rumored Switch port? Would it be an upgraded version, along the lines of Persona 4 Golden? Would it be a spin-off?

With the initial teaser, Atlus said more information would be announced in March, and now Persona 5: The Royal has been revealed for the PS4!

…and we still don’t know what it is.

The teaser trailer for Persona 5: The Royal shows a new female character who is asked her opinion of the Phantom Thieves. She says she doesn’t agree with their methods.

This has caused a flurry of theories.

Many people believe Persona 5: The Royal is an enhanced version of Persona 5 that will have the option for a female protagonist, like Persona 3 Portable did. However, based on her uniform, she’s a first-year student, so it doesn’t seem like she’s just a female Joker.

It’s possible she’s a female protagonist with a different campaign, but she might just be a new confidant or supporting character (although it seems strange for the teaser to feature her if she isn’t too important).

And what about her comment on the Phantom Thieves? Some people think she opposes the Phantom Thieves, while others believe she’s lying in the teaser.

The other popular theory is that Persona 5: The Royal is a sequel or companion game, with an all-new story.

More information is coming on April 24, so we should get some answers then… hopefully. Personally, I’d rather it be an entirely new game, since I’m not likely to buy and play a new version of such a long game for just some extra content. What do you think Persona 5: The Royal is?

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Judgment is Not Delayed!

I was worried about the western release date for Judgment after sales were halted in Japan due to one of the actors being arrested.

Since they hadn’t said anything and it seemed probable that they’d completely replace both his voice and character model, I thought a delay was likely.

However, Judgment has not been delayed!

The official Twitter account announced this morning that Hamura’s character model and Japanese voice will be changed, but gave the release date as still being June 25.

Judgment is one of my most-anticipated games of 2019, so I’m happy it hasn’t been delayed! Hopefully this means sales will resume in Japan soon, too. The whole situation is unfortunate, but at least it didn’t do too much damage.

In other news, unrelated to Judgment, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was announced for 2020. I’ve had the original Bloodlines in my backlog for years now. Maybe it’s about time I played it.

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My Story Is Available Now in Domino Lady Vol. 3

Last June, I learned about pulp fiction and the resurgence of pulp fiction heroes.

Now I’m excited to announce that my first pulp fiction story is available now in Airship 27’s Domino Lady Volume 3.

The Domino Lady was a masked heroine who fought crime and corruption in a series of pulp fiction stories written in 1936. This new collection is the third volume of new Domino Lady stories released by the pulp fiction publisher Airship 27.

Domino Lady Volume 3 includes five stories, including my short story “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” in which she takes on a secret investigation when a friend dies under suspicious circumstances.

It is available now from Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher (scroll down to find it; they’re listed alphabetically by series/character).

You can also add it on Goodreads.

I’ve gotten pretty interested in pulp fiction, so I hope this is only the first of many pulp stories I can share with you.

If you’re a fan of the Domino Lady or interested in giving some new pulp fiction a try, check out Domino Lady Volume 3. Don’t forget to leave a review and let me know your thoughts on “The Domino Lady Takes the Case.”

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Destiny Connect Was Almost a Horror Game

We’ve talked a few times now about Destiny Connect, an upcoming turn-based JRPG that features time travel… and apparently it started out as quite a different game.

According to an interview translated by Siliconera, Destiny Connect was originally planned to have a scarier atmosphere, more like a horror game.

It would follow a girl who entered a dream-like world and met a robot there. Instead of involving time travel, it would be more of an adventure, and “the world would slowly break down like in Alice in Wonderland.”

This might explain why there are no side quests, as we discussed last time, since the original vision for the game was so different.

Actually, the characters journeying through a dream-like world with a horror atmosphere sounds pretty interesting to me. I almost wish they had stuck with that version. What do you think of Destiny Connect and its original premise?

(And speaking of horror JRPGs, I wonder when we’ll hear more about Ushiro…)

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Eternal Radiance’s Kickstarter Was a Success!

Last month, I posted about the Kickstarter campaign for Eternal Radiance, the action RPG / visual novel hybrid I’m writing the script for.

I’m pleased to say the Kickstarter was a success!

Eternal Radiance met its funding goal early on and then made the first stretch goal as well. While we couldn’t quite reach the second stretch goal, it was a great campaign overall.

You can still check out the Kickstarter or website if you’re interested in learning more about the game, and of course you can ask me any questions you have as well.

I’ll be hard at work writing the next part of the script. Eternal Radiance is planned for the PC, PS4, and Switch. Are you planning to pick it up when it’s finished? And if you tried the demo, how did you like it?

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Judgment Sales Halted; Impact on the Western Release Unknown

Judgment is one of the upcoming games I’m looking forward to the most, so seeing bad news about it is definitely concerning.

In Japan, Sega halted all shipments and digital sales of the game after actor Pierre Taki was arrested for drug use.

He provides the voice and face of Kyohei Hamura in Judgment, captain of the Matsugane Family of the Tojo Clan. There was a similar situation when Yakuza 4 was remastered for the PS4, where a character was recast (and remodeled) after the original voice actor retired after allegations of drug use.

Drug scandals seem to be a major deal in Japan.

In addition to halting sales, Sega’s Japanese Twitter account also deleted its tweets related to the game. So, what does mean for the western release of Judgment?

A reporter for the Wall Street Journal stated that Sega is “discussing what to do” about the western release, and that’s all we know so far. Considering what they did with Yakuza 4, recasting the character seems like their most likely move.

It’s also quite possible that Judgment will launch in the west without dual audio, since a new Japanese voice actor for Hamura would have to be called in to redo his lines. Either way, since the model was also based on him, it might mean Judgment will be delayed.

I’m really looking forward to Judgment, so I hope this doesn’t impact its western release too much. (And I hope sales in other regions resume sooner rather than later.) What do you think will happen?

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