Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 111

NaNoWriMo 2018 Plans

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.

Yes, it’s that time of year again! NaNoWriMo is here!

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. For the month of November, writers challenge themselves to complete a 50,000 word novel.

I’ve done it for several years now, with results that range from me finishing up an 80,000 word novel ahead of the deadline to scraping by with a 50,000 word disaster at the very end.

Last year was the latter, because I barely had an idea going into November, but this year I’m more confident in my story. This year’s NaNoWriMo project is a fantasy novel with a loose retelling of The Little Mermaid that involves an eldritch artifact being taken from the bottom of the ocean.

I’m already over 13,000 words and I have a good idea of where I want the story to go next, so things are looking good.

What about you? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

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Contest Winners, WoFF Sequel Chances, and Deltarune

November is here, which means our Celebrating All Things Spooky contest is over. We had four winners this year: Moombit in first place with 33 points, Tord Laudal in second place with 28 points, and Jonathan and Ludwig Von Koopa tied for third place with 10 points each. The winners have been contacted about choosing their prizes.

When I reviewed Costume Quest 2 on Halloween, two other topics could easily have made for a blog post instead, so let’s cover those now.

World of Final Fantasy 2??

I loved World of Final Fantasy, and the amount of optional lore made me hope they had a sequel or prequel planned.

When World of Final Fantasy Maxima was announced, I was a little disappointed it wasn’t a sequel (and that I can’t update my Vita version to get the new content), but thought it might increase our chances of getting another game.

In a recent interview, World of Final Fantasy director Hiroki Chiba spoke about the possibility of a sequel, as reported here by Gematsu.

First, the new content in Maxima “tells a bit of the afterstory of Lann and Reynn.” More importantly, however, he wants to make a sequel:

While there are no plans for a sequel, I have fully written the story. If Square Enix gives us its approval, we can start development right away.”

The story for a theoretical World of Final Fantasy 2 has already been written, and all they’re waiting on is for Square Enix to decide a sequel should be made. This makes sense, especially given the lore I mentioned earlier. With all those background details, I’m not surprised they had sequel ideas… although it being fully written already is more than I expected.

I’d buy a World of Final Fantasy sequel in a heartbeat. Say the word, Square Enix, and my preorder is yours.

And amidst my hopes for a World of Final Fantasy sequel, a different not-quite-sequel made an appearance.

Deltarune

Basically, the Undertale Twitter account told players who had finished the game to be ready for something on Wednesday, and it turned out to be a link to Deltarune.

Being a huge Undertale fan, I downloaded it right away with the hope that it would be some sort of demo for a new game from Toby Fox.

And then it just kept going.

You can either view Deltarune (or more properly, Deltarune: Chapter 1) as a long demo for Toby Fox’s next game or a short game that will eventually be continued. As for its connection to Undertale, that’s still a bit unclear.

Click for Deltarune spoilersWhen I started Deltarune, at first I thought it was a sequel to Undertale’s pacifist ending, but too many things didn’t add up.

Then I thought it might be a prequel, with Kris being the first fallen human’s actual name… but again, too many things didn’t add up.

It seems like it’s an alternate universe, possibly due to Gaster’s experiments. There are signs that Gaster is linked to Deltarune, and Gaster being alive in this universe would explain at least a few of the differences.

Anyway, Deltarune: Chapter 1 is a nice little game in its own right. It feels a lot like a fresh take on the Undertale format, especially where combat is concerned. In Deltarune, you have new options, such as the ability to defend, use magic, or ask one of your party members to perform an action.

Undertale is one of the funniest games I’ve played, and while Deltarune didn’t have the same effect on me, it was still enjoyable. It had funny moments (especially thanks to Susie and Lancer), heartwarming moments, and a few surprises.

Click for major Deltarune spoilersAnd then the ending happened. What was that? What was that?!

Right now, the most prominent fan theory is that Kris was rejecting the player’s control, since characters in the epilogue comment on how different you’ve been acting and you still have control over the heart at the end.

It was a pretty unsettling scene, and it left me wanting to know what will happen next.

If you haven’t played Undertale, I think you could play Deltarune and still enjoy it. You just won’t get as much out of the references… and theories from fans about what’s going on in Deltarune are a minefield of Undertale spoilers.

Since the release of Deltarune: Chapter 1, Toby Fox finally released some information about it.

First, he describes it as “not the world of Undertale.” This has led some fans to believe he’s saying the two are completely unrelated, but if you go on to read his full answer, I think he’s mainly reassuring fans that this hasn’t undone the game’s ending or anything like that. Alternate universe theories still feel applicable.

(Especially since there are too many connections for it to be completely separate.)

Next, he says that creating the full game might be impossible.

……

To be more precise, he says it took him a few years to make this demo, and given how long the rest will be, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to make it without a team. He has no idea when it will be finished, although he mentions 7 years as the maximum amount of time he’d want to put into a project.

Deltarune will be released once all the chapters are completed. This is good news to me, because I was concerned it might be an episodic release. Chapter 1 serving as a demo for a longer, full game is much better.

He also say there won’t be multiple endings, which is a little disappointing, but one of the big takeaways here is that he isn’t trying to make Undertale 2. He just wants to make a new game.

Anyway, Deltarune: Chapter 1 was a lot of fun, and it pretty much stands on its own even though it’s obviously hinting at more to come. I just hope we don’t have to wait until 2025 to see how the rest of the story works out.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Costume Quest 2

Once again, let’s spend Halloween discussing one of the most Halloween-themed games imaginable: Costume Quest 2.

Like its predecessor, which I reviewed two years ago, Costume Quest 2 is a turn-based RPG from Double Fine in which your current costume determines the form you take in combat (as well as exploration skills you have outside of battle).

Combat is turn-based, but with action commands to make your attacks more powerful (similar to the Mario RPGs). Each costume has a regular attack as well as a special attack, and there are also cards you can find or buy to use additional abilities with a 3-5 battle cooldown meter.

This time, the twins from the first game go on a time-traveling adventure to save Halloween after an insane dentist manages to erase Halloween and create an anti-Halloween/anti-candy dystopia in the future.

It’s a silly premise, but it works perfectly with the Halloween themes.

The game’s pacing felt a little odd to me, mainly because of how it handles time travel. I expected a journey through Halloween in different eras, but while it does involve visiting the past, the majority of the story takes place in the future dystopia.

Click for minor Costume Quest 2 spoilerI also didn’t particularly like that your third companion changes as you travel between eras. It makes sense, but it meant the playable characters besides the twins didn’t get as much development (not that Costume Quest 2 is really a big game for character development, but still).

Unlike in the first game, where the trick-or-treating and candy-gathering was a major part of the story, here it comes into play in more indirect ways, such as gathering illegal candy as a favor to another character.

It’s cute and funny and full of Halloween spirit. Overall, I enjoyed the first game more, but if they ever make a Costume Quest 3, I’d definitely get it.

Have you played Costume Quest 2? Share your thoughts in the comments.

(And in case you’re wondering, I’ll have thoughts on Deltarune very soon.)

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Parasite Eve

Parasite Eve has always interested me, and after taking a vote on a horror game from my backlog to include in this year’s reviews, I finally played it.

Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was both a horror game and a JRPG, but how would those two elements come together?

Parasite Eve has the aesthetics of a survival horror game, particularly something like Resident Evil, with abandoned facilities to explore, mutated creatures to fight, and doors to unlock (although not nearly as many as in survival horror).

Yet it plays like a JRPG. Battles reward you with items and experience, and you level up to increase your stats. You even have a form of magic you can use, with new abilities learned as you level up.

As for the combat system itself, it’s a hybrid of action and turn-based systems. Enemies appear in set locations and you avoid attacks in real time, but when your ATB meter fills up, you choose your action like in a turn-based RPG. It’s a pretty cool system, and one of the best action/turn-based hybrids I’ve seen.

Upgrading your guns and armor is also a big part of the game. Equipment comes with special traits, and by using Tools, you can transfer traits and stat boosts from one piece of equipment to another.

Parasite Eve has a more story-driven focus like a JRPG, lots of dialogue, and even a hub area where you can talk to a few characters (although not to the same degree as in a typical RPG). The plot itself, however, is definitely horror. You play as Aya Brea, a cop who is attending an opera when the singer on stage suddenly makes everyone else spontaneously combust.

The culprit turns out to be Eve, a being that is essentially evolved mitochondria taking over the body of her host, and she plans to bring about a new race of superior beings.

In case that didn’t give it away, the science in Parasite Eve is absolutely insane. Its use of actual science is intriguing and helps with its survival horror vibe, but there’s definite JRPG-level insanity to this plot and its explanations.

I love it.

Now, so far I’ve only played through the main story. I understand that second playthrough includes a large bonus dungeon that unlocks the “true ending,” but that will be something for another time.

Parasite Eve combines two of my favorite genres, even though it had less survival horror elements than I expected, and I’m happy I played it. The sequel is definitely on my list of games to try.

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God of War: Starting With the Original

In January, if I question why I never seem to make a dent in my game backlog, remind me that when people recommended I play the new God of War game, I decided I wanted to see the full progression and bought the God of War Saga collection.

Going into the first God of War, I had a vague impression of the original series as “angry Kratos kills everyone.” Now I lean more toward “Kratos’s life is awful and you’d be angry too.”

Our story begins with Kratos despairing, and then the narrator tells us we’re going to learn what brought him to that point. The majority of the game, therefore, shows the events leading up to the beginning.

As Ares attacks Athens, Athena tasks Kratos with killing him. In exchange, she promises that his sins will be forgiven. Kratos is plagued by nightmares and wants Ares dead anyway, so he accepts the seemingly impossible task of killing a god.

The story was more prominent than I expected, with important flashbacks to Kratos’s past in addition to the present-day events (and a few lore/worldbuilding notes here and there, too). I already knew the basics of what happened to him, but I almost wish I’d gone in completely blind so those moments would have had a greater impact.

When it comes to the gameplay, all I really knew going in was that it was an action game with hack-and-slash combat, so the puzzles came as a pleasant surprise. The sheer amount of platforming challenges were also a surprise… though not quite as pleasant. Some of those platforming sections were brutal.

I didn’t particularly like all the quick time events, but back when it came out, I suspect QTEs still felt fresh and epic, so I can’t really fault it there (except for the parts that make you mash R2, which is awful on a PS3 controller).

I enjoyed exploring and searching for treasure chests, and even though the series is known for its combat, I often had more fun with these action-adventure moments than when I was just fighting enemies.

Back to the story, though, what I really liked the most was how it felt like a Greek tragedy. It could have easily borrowed from Greek mythology without capturing the same tone, but many moments made me stop and think about how well it fit in with those stories.

Kratos’s backstory has all the key parts to make him a tragic Greek hero (he even parallels Heracles in several ways). Now he’s obsessed with revenge, filled with rage, and really not a nice person at all.

When I was in college, we read the Iliad in one of my classes and reached a point where Achilles was being particularly brutal. We stopped and discussed the fact that heroes in Greek mythology are not necessarily good people. They’re strong and capable of amazing feats, but they also might be angry and vengeful.

And that’s perfect for Kratos. He’s serving the gods and fighting powerful monsters, overcoming challenges no one else has managed. He’s their hero, even if he might not seem like what we’d call a hero.

Sure, I felt guilty at a couple points (that poor guy in the temple…), but Kratos’s actions fit both his backstory/motivations and the sort of Greek tragedy vibe the entire story had going for it. I enjoyed that a lot, and I’m interested in seeing if the sequels stay true to that feeling.

Have you played the original God of War? What did you think of it?

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Level-5’s Horror RPG Ushiro is Alive and Planned for the Switch

Last week, Level-5 teased the revival of a cancelled or inactive video game project, and it turned out to be Ushiro.

Ushiro was originally announced in 2008 for the PSP. It appeared to be a horror turn-based RPG, and it focused on a spirit that could possess and control people.

Then Level-5 stopped talking about it. In 2010, the official website was deleted.

In 2014, they reported that they were considering new developments for it. Ushiro got a novel series after that, followed by a manga. It seemed like the game itself would never be released.

…Until now, because Level-5 claims it might still be made. According to the interview with Akihiro Hino translated by Gematsu, they still want to make Ushiro. Instead of the PSP, it is now planned as a Nintendo Switch title.

The information is a bit vague, and it doesn’t sound like they actually have it in development right now… but on the other hand, they have ideas for it and they want to make it a reality.

I wasn’t familiar with Ushiro before, but it sounds like a cool idea. A turn-based RPG with horror elements? I’m on board with that. It also feels like some of its inspiration went into Yo-kai Watch, so is there a chance for Ushiro to take those ideas in a darker direction?

Here’s hoping we hear more about Ushiro soon and that the Switch version fares better than the PSP version did. Do you think Ushiro will really be released?

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Tacoma

Who told me Tacoma was a horror game?

Oh well, exploring an abandoned space station to investigate a mysterious incident is a creepy enough premise to count.

(On that note, a lot of the non-horror games we end up looking at in October tend to be “creepy” rather than exactly “spooky.” Maybe I should have called this Celebrating All Things Creepy.)

I had my doubts about Tacoma, because I didn’t enjoy Gone Home. I found the ending disappointing and the love story less-than-stellar. Fortunately, Tacoma proved to be a pleasant surprise.

Aboard the space station, you tap into its AR digital recordings, which essentially let you see moments of the crew’s activity actually unfold. These recordings included multiple points of additional AR information you could grab, and you could restart, rewind, or fast forward each recording as you pleased.

This is a really cool way to handle that sort of storytelling. I enjoyed following characters through a given recording and then rewinding to see what the other characters were doing at the same time.

It’s a short game, taking me about 2 and a half hours to play, but that’s enough time to learn about the crew, their relationship, and the incident, leaving you invested in the outcome as the station’s final recordings play out. It ended up being much less creepy than I expected – I’d call it a science fiction story rather than sci-fi horror – but it was an enjoyable experience.

I enjoyed it so much more than Gone Home, I’m baffled as to why it got lower review scores. Walking sim? Sure, but one with a good story and a neat method of storytelling. At least it sounds like Fullbright is still developing games, because if their next game is like Tacoma, I’ll definitely give it a try.

What did you think of Tacoma?

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Celebrating All Things Spooky 2018 – Top 5 Upcoming Horror Games

In 2014, we looked at 5 upcoming survival horror games. Three were released, one was cancelled, and poor Routine is still in limbo.

In 2017, we took a look at 5 more horror (not exclusively survival horror) games. Only one of them is out, to mixed reviews, but the other four remain promising.

So while Allison Road, Call of Cthulhu, the Resident Evil 2 remake, and Moons of Madness are definitely still horror games I have my eye on, let’s take a look at 5 more upcoming horror games.

Honorable Mention: Luigi’s Mansion 3

First off, an honorable mention. I can’t really include Luigi’s Mansion 3 on a list of horror games, but it certainly fits the spooky theme of this month, so it deserves to be named. Here’s hoping we learn more about it soon… and that it’s structured like the original Luigi’s Mansion rather than Dark Moon.

Now, onto the list proper.

5. Man of Medan

Somewhere, deep in the dark depths of games that haven’t even made it to my backlog yet but that I want to play someday, you’ll find Until Dawn. So when the developers announced a new horror game, I was intrigued.

Man of Medan is the first in a series of short cinematic horror games called The Dark Pictures. It’s based on an actual legend about a ghost ship, and the first trailer was intriguing. I’m looking forward to learning more about this game. It’s due out in 2019 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

4. Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient

I definitely want to play the Corpse Party series someday… as soon as I figure out which entries to play, since there are remakes and re-releases with different content… (Is the 3DS game the definitive version of the original?)

Moving on from that, however, we have a new entry finally making its way west this year for the PC. Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient is apparently being released chapter-by-chapter in Japan and isn’t complete yet, but the English version will ship with Chapter 1 and Extra Chapter 1 (which is what is currently available in Japan).

I’m not sure how I feel about the episodic-style release, but the Corpse Party games have always struck me as an interesting horror series that I need to just play already.

3. World of Horror

A retro horror RPG inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito? Yes, you have my attention.

World of Horror features turn-based combat, branching stories, and what appears to be investigation-style gameplay. It also mentions roguelite elements, which isn’t my favorite thing, but I’ll give it a chance for something like this. Between its inspirations and unique aesthetic, it looks promising.

Check out the announcement trailer here. World of Horror is coming to the PC, Switch, and PS4 in 2019.

2. Observation

Not to be confused with the horror game Observer (a mistake I nearly made while writing up this post), Observation is a game planned to release in spring 2019 for the PC and PS4 from the developers of Stories Untold. The player will control an AI on a space station after a mysterious event leaves only one member of the crew on board.

I reviewed Stories Untold for MonsterVine and enjoyed it, so I was excited to hear they had a new game coming out. Now, Observation is described a “thriller” rather than a horror game, but the reveal trailer is creepy enough that I think we can count it.

And that brings us to my most-anticipated of these five horror games…

1. Devotion

When the horror game Detention came out on the Switch, I reviewed it for Nintendo Chit Chat and fell in love with its atmosphere, exploration-based gameplay, and puzzles. Despite the lack of combat, it had the survival horror mechanics I love.

(Detention is one of the games you could win by leaving comments on my blog this month.)

This year, the developers announced Devotion, a first-person horror game. All that’s available so far is a short teaser, without platforms or a release window announced yet, but I enjoyed Detention enough to already be excited for Devotion.

Conclusion

Those are my latest top 5 upcoming horror games, but I’m sure I missed some. What horror games are you looking forward to the most? Which of these do you want to play? Let me know in the comments.

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Pokémon Was Always Accessible

Okay, today was supposed to be another horror post… but my copy of Claire: Extended Cut started crashing and I decided I wasn’t enjoying it quite enough to work around the crashes.

Instead, let’s talk about a Pokémon topic that’s been confusing me lately.

First off, I have nothing against the idea behind Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon Let’s Go, Eevee! Pokémon GO attracted many new fans, and creating a game to bridge Pokémon GO and the mainline series makes sense.

Create a Pokémon game that is similar to traditional games in the series, but with simplified mechanics and connections to GO, and use that to ease Pokémon GO players into the series to be ready for the next traditional entry. Will it work? I don’t know, but I understand the reasoning.

I’m more concerned about the fact that Pokémon X/Y and Pokémon Sun/Moon also simplified certain aspects.

Both were more linear than past Pokémon games, and Sun/Moon in particular carefully guided the player along. They felt simpler and easier. They lacked the more complex dungeons and challenges. And these were mainline Pokémon games, so who’s to say the 2019 game won’t be like that?

Whenever these concerns are mentioned, or when the Pokémon Let’s Go games are criticized, people using defend these changes by saying:

It’s a game for kids.
New players might be scared off by the complexity.
They need to be accessible games.

And all of that is fine, except… we’re talking about Pokémon! It was always a kids’ series, and it was always accessible.

People have started acting like the first few generations of Pokémon games were dense, hardcore RPGs that kids and new players couldn’t possibly understand. Where did this idea come from? Kids played the old Pokémon games. They had more challenge and complexity than the newer ones, but they were never ultra-challenging games.

So why act now like Pokémon suddenly needs to be simplified for the sake of kids?

I’m hardly a hardcore Pokémon player. I don’t play competitively, I never complete the Pokédex, and I rarely worry about the more in-depths elements like EVs and IVs and whatever else. But the recent games have lacked some of the challenge and sense of exploration and discovery that I enjoyed, and I hope the 2019 game is different.

What do you think? Could kids today understand the old Pokémon games? Are these changes actually being made for adults, with kids being the excuse? Was old-school Pokémon actually a tough, inaccessible RPG series after all and I’m just crazy?

And how do you think the 2019 Pokémon game will compare to past entries?

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Chances of a Dragon Quest X Offline Version

I had a busy weekend thanks to two exciting book signings, so no new horror games to discuss today. Instead, let’s talk about some recent news regarding the Dragon Quest series.

Dragon Quest has seen many more localization recently, but the one exception that stands out is Dragon Quest X.

Unlike the rest, Dragon Quest X is an MMORPG.

In Japan, it’s appeared on a ton of systems (Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Switch, PS4, PC, iOS, and Android), but it’s never seen a western release. Managing the servers for an MMORPG in a series like Dragon Quest in the west probably just doesn’t seem profitable enough to Square Enix.

However, in a recent conversation translated here by Gematsu, the game’s former producer Yosuke Saito mentioned the possibility of bringing an offline version of Dragon Quest X to the west.

Dragon Quest series producer Yuu Miyake agreed, saying, “Since Dragon Quest X has tons of rich stories, I would like to make something that can tell those stories, including to players overseas.”

Both referenced its storytelling as a reason to make an offline version, and I’ve seen many players describe Dragon Quest X as a very solo-friendly MMORPG. It’s also notable that Miyake’s comment specifically references the idea of bringing it overseas.

If Dragon Quest X had a chance to be localized as an offline, single-player version of the game, that would be fantastic news. (Especially for someone like me, who prefers offline games anyway.) What do you think? After all these years, is there a chance Dragon Quest X will come west?

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