Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 115

Chuusotsu: A Thought-Provoking Story in a Lighthearted Package

After I played the demo for Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time, I backed it on Kickstarter.

From the demo, I expected it to be a lighthearted, funny story set in a weird world with a wacky dystopian setting.

And it was! But it was also much more than that.

In this world, everyone is given a seal that determines their job and capabilities. The main character, Arue, is a Chuusotsu, someone who didn’t graduate from middle school and therefore lost her seal. Without a seal, she is both physically and mentally weak, but she signs up for a program that will help her get a chance to take a re-evaluation test.

She and two other Chuusotsu girls are given an apartment to stay in, but there is a condition: they have one week to reach full synchronization with each other and answer the philosophical question, “What makes a wonderful life?”

As I read it (it’s a kinetic novel, so there are no choices), my first impression was that it was the most lighthearted dystopian story I’d ever seen. The three main characters are lovable, there’s lots of goofy moments, and it made me laugh… despite the obvious dystopian setup of their society.

Yet as I read more, the story became more meaningful. It’s pretty funny at times, but it also takes a serious look at Arue’s past and the decisions that brought her to this point. Arue is also torn between two things: what she believes she needs to do (pass the re-evaluation and become a government worker to support her family) and what she wants to do (write manga). You might see the ultimate message coming from a mile away, but it takes a serious, heartfelt journey to get there.

And it doesn’t shy away from the dark side of the setting, either. My early view of it didn’t quite hold up. It has lighthearted moments for sure, but it knows it’s a dystopia.

There were a few twists in the story I never saw coming, and while the main plot wraps up nicely, it does leave several questions for the potential continuation teased at the end.

Click for major Chuusotsu spoilerMore than anything, I’m curious about how they changed Kokoro’s fate. Arue credits the butterfly effect with altering certain things, and that works for most of the changes (in one scene, Arue notices that the anti-Chuusotsu message board gets more extreme in each loop, and I assume that is tied to how they interacted with Kokoro and what she witnessed them doing), but not that final change.

Kokoro would have already had her job long before that week, so how did their final time leap change that? She also spoke differently, which makes me believe it wasn’t a sudden change.

Since the Soul Link machine keeps a record of being activated even after a time leap, my guess is that it–whatever its true purpose is–played some role in changing Kokoro’s past.

There’s a side story coming up next that I’m excited for, but even more than that, I hope they write (and translate) a sequel. I’d love to see more in this universe.

Overall, Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time is a thought-provoking visual novel with a good message about friendship, following your passions, and what makes a wonderful life. It looks cute and quirky on the surface, but it also has a lot of depth.

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Thoughts on the Spyro Reignited Download Situation

I’ve been excited for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy ever since it was announced.

I love the original three Spyro games, the Reignited Trilogy looks fantastic, and seems to be an ideal remake.

Then people noticed that the box art for both the PS4 and Xbox One versions say “requires content download.” Content download? What content do we have to download?

According to the official website, the second and third games.

The Spyro Reignited Trilogy will ship with Spyro the Dragon playable immediately, but you’ll need a download to play Ripto’s Rage and Year of the Dragon.

Activision told Game Informer that this will be a required update (so it shouldn’t be a download code; used copies should still be able to play all three games), but it’s unclear if you’ll be downloading the entire games or not.

(Note: This is not the same as how the N. Sane Trilogy handled it. Crash 2 & 3 needed to be installed, not downloaded. You didn’t need an Internet connection.)

I’m not fond of this decision. People without Internet access will only be able to play one of the three games, and for people with slow Internet connections (like me), the size of the download matters a lot. And of course, some people are worried that many years from now, you won’t be able to get them at all.

Patches are fine. I have nothing against day-one patches that make last-minute improvements or fix issues… but the games should be playable without an Internet connection. It’s a weird mix where you’re getting a physical copy, yet it’s partly like a digital-only game.

This does make me less inclined to get the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, depending on how big the downloads are. And that’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to it. But what do you think about this decision? If you’re getting the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, how do you feel about needing a download to play the second and third games?

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Final Fantasy XIV Will Be My First MMORPG… Again

Remember a few years ago when I announced that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was my first MMORPG?

I did keep playing it after my free 30 days and made some progress through the story, but I ended up quitting. Online games really aren’t my thing.

Yet I still hear people talk about how the main story for Final Fantasy XIV is actually pretty good, possibly the sort of story you want if you miss the old Final Fantasy games.

They recently did a promotion where inactive players could rejoin the game and play for four days for free. Since it’s been so long, I made a new character, but this time I think I’m going to really stick with it and see how Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s story turns out.

Or I could end up sidetracked by the Gold Saucer again. We’ll see.

Have you played Final Fantasy XIV? If you’re primarily a single-player fan, like I am, are there any MMORPGs that won you over with their stories?

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Kingdom Hearts 3 Main Story Will Last 40-50 Hours

One of my biggest hopes for Kingdom Hearts 3 is that it will be longer than the previous Kingdom Hearts games.

I love Kingdom Hearts, but by RPG standards, they aren’t really that long. With Kingdom Hearts 3 wrapping up the Dark Seeker Saga and dealing with so many characters, I kept wishing it would be more on par with major JRPG lengths.

Well, it sounds like I might get my wish.

A preview article from Geek.com says:

Kingdom Hearts 3 is around 40-50 hours if you stay on the critical path. Including the mini-games, players can expect 80+ hours of content.”

40-50 hours for the main story, and over 80 hours if you include side content? That sounds great!

Now, it’s unclear how official this estimate is. While the writer mentions a Square Enix PR representative answering questions, he doesn’t directly say the representative gave him that number. Some fans believe he came up with the estimate himself based on how long the demo was.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that companies do overestimate game lengths at times… World of Final Fantasy’s director said the story would take 100 hours to complete, and while World of Final Fantasy is a delightful game and I want a sequel, it took me a bit over 50 hours with some side content.

But it’s still encouraging to hear a playtime estimate for Kingdom Hearts 3 that is notably higher than previous entries in the series. I hope it will be a long, epic conclusion to the saga.

Meanwhile, a Riku Nendoroid has also been revealed!

How long do you think (or want) Kingdom Hearts 3 to be?

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Kingdom Hearts Nendoroids Are Finally Happening

Of all the little figurines I’ve seen online, one brand always stood out to me as being the cutest: Nendoroids.

Nendoroids are always absolutely adorable, like the N Nendoroid I praised in my Pokémon Black and White review, and whenever Kingdom Hearts figurines have been announced, I’ve always hoped for Kingdom Hearts Nendoroids.

Well, Good Smile Company has announced Nendoroid Sora!

Like all Nendoroids, it is ridiculously cute. It will be released in December and can be pre-ordered now from Good Smile and places like Crunchyroll.

Now, Sora wouldn’t be my first choice – personally, I want a Nendoroid Xemnas. But the most important thing is that Kingdom Hearts Nendoroids are finally happening, and maybe Sora will just be the start.

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Let’s Talk About Earthlock

Octopath Traveler might not have turned out to be quite what I hoped for, but there are quite a few RPGs out there aiming for that old school turn-based JRPG feeling.

I’d like to talk about a recent one I particularly enjoyed, Earthlock from Snowcastle Games.

Two years ago, I reviewed a game called Earthlock: Festival of Magic for MonsterVine. I appreciated its combat system and the inspiration it took from classic JRPGs, but its story fell short of the mark.

Eventually, the developers announced a “should have been” edition. This new version was simply called Earthlock, and owners of the old game got the new one for free. (Although I believe Wii U owners got the Switch version, since the new Earthlock never came to the Wii U.)

I once again reviewed it for MonsterVine, and I was blown away by the changes.

It still has the classic JRPG style and unusual combat system, but it added repeatable side quests, things to do on the world map, cute creatures to collect and populate the home base with, buried treasure to find, and optional conversations between the characters (something I always enjoy).

It also smoothed out the storytelling, filled in the gaps in the plot, and generally made it into a story I was much more interested in this time around.

Earthlock is on all major platforms now, and if you’re interested in nostalgic turn-based RPGs, I recommend giving it a look. In particular, if you decided to avoid the original Earthlock: Festival of Magic because of its reception, you should know that the improvements made to Earthlock are staggering.

The developers are working on an Earthlock 2, and I’m looking forward to it – not only because I enjoyed Earthlock and can’t wait to see what they do with its sequel, but also because I appreciate how they responded when their game didn’t turn out to be quite what it should have been at first.

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Is a New Wild Arms Game on the Horizon?

Today, Wild Arms fans’ hearts leaped as headlines appeared saying that the Wild Arms developer was hiring for a new PS4 RPG.

Could this be a sign that the mobile game isn’t the only Wild Arms game coming out and that we’ll finally see a new Wild Arms for the PS4?

Well, it might be a little early to get our hopes up.

Yes, Media.Vision is hiring a 2D designer for a PlayStation 4 RPG. Yes, Media.Vision developed the Wild Arms games.

However, it’s not like they’ve been silent ever since then and suddenly emerged from the shadows. Media.Vision has worked on many games since then, including Shining Resonance and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

I mentioned those two in particular because they’re the most likely candidates for a connection to this job post. Since Shining Resonance Refrain just came out, it’s possible there will be another Shining game to follow it. As for Digimon Story, the producer already confirmed that a new Digimon Story game was in development for the PS4, with Hacker’s Memory made to keep fans interested in the meantime.

If I had to guess, I’d say the new PS4 RPG Media.Vision is hiring for is most likely the next Digimon Story game.

But still, we can dream of a day when Wild Arms 6 will be announced. Maybe it will still come true.

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I’m Conflicted About Octopath Traveler

If you’d asked me a few months ago, I would have said I was absolutely getting Octopath Traveler. I even planned to pre-order it.

After all, it was one of my most-anticipated games of the year.

I figured there were three possibilities:

You play as each of the 8 characters, and then they team up for an overarching plot.
There is no overarching plot, but all 8 characters help one another with their personal stories.
All 8 stories are completely separate.

#1 was always what I wanted the most, but after they revealed that you could recruit the other characters and see all eight stories in a single playthrough, I figured #2 was the most likely option.

What I hadn’t imagined was that all 8 characters would team up and still somehow have separate stories.

Now that Octopath Traveler has been out for a bit, the mystery of its overarching story has been solved: there is lore and worldbuilding shared across the stories, and there is a post-game dungeon that brings that together.

There is not a larger plot once you complete all eight stories, like some people thought there might be.

And that’s okay. However, what really bugs me from discussions and feedback about the game is that the story cutscenes pretend your party members don’t exist – to the point where some scenes refer to the character being alone even if you have companions with you.

You can recruit Octopath Traveler characters in any order and even skip them if you want, but I’m not asking for the game to have a unique scene for every possible party combination. Even acknowledging that the character has allies with them would be good. But it’s jarring to have multiple characters for combat and banter conversations, then switch to story scenes where the party members suddenly don’t exist.

But let’s forget about that for a minute. All right, so it’s effectively 8 individual stories, but you have a party for gameplay reasons. Okay. How are the stories?

When I played the first Octopath Traveler demo, the stories for Primrose and Olberic both had me interested. Unfortunately, it seems like there’s a general consensus that the story/writing is the weakest part of Octopath Traveler. People who love it praise the gameplay, but I’ve seen enough comments about the story being weak to make me worry.

I love a good turn-based JRPG, but the story and characters are what really keep me invested. Bravely Default has been heralded was one of the greatest returns to traditional JRPG gameplay, but I was so uninterested in the story and characters that I couldn’t stick with it.

What do you think? Octopath Traveler was one of my most-anticipated games of 2018, but mainly for the story. Should I give it a chance? Or is this one I should pass on after all?

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Granblue Fantasy Project Re: Link is Being Localized

Granblue Fantasy Project Re: Link is quite a title, so let’s step back to take a look at what this game is.

(It has nothing to do with Project Re Fantasy, either; what’s up with these names?)

There is a mobile/browser turn-based RPG developed by Cygames called Granblue Fantasy. It has an English language option available.

In 2016, Cygames announced that PlatinumGames would be developing an action RPG set in the Granblue Fantasy universe called Granblue Fantasy Project Re: Link. Ah, PlatinumGames? You have my attention.

Granblue Fantasy Project Re: Link is a PlayStation 4 game with both single-player and four player multiplayer options. From the gameplay that has been shown, it looks pretty great!

(The combat section starts at around 2:30 in the video.)

So we’ve got a cool-looking action RPG developed by PlatinumGames… and Cygames confirmed to Gematsu that it will be localized into English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

They didn’t specifically confirm it would be released outside of Japan, but since the PS4 is region-free, having an English version would suffice even if they don’t release it here for some reason.

More information about the game will be revealed during Granblue Fantasy Fes 2018 on December 15-16.

Are you interested in Granblue Fantasy Project Re: Link? Do you think that will be its final name? Should I try the mobile game too? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Let’s Talk About the Latest Yo-Kai Watch News

With Yo-Kai Watch 4 unveiled for the Switch and 3DS support winding down, some fans have wondered if Level-5 will skip Yo-Kai Watch 3 in the west.

Since they’re even localizing the spin-offs, that seems unlikely.

Localization of the Yo-Kai Watch Busters games was rumored for a while, and it finally became official near the end of June.

Yo-Kai Watch Blasters: Red Cat Corps and Yo-Kai Watch Blasters: White Dog Squad for the 3DS will be out on September 7.

(The Busters -> Blasters localization change seems to be to avoid copyright trouble with Ghostbusters, as was the redesign of a particular yo-kai.)

The third “version,” Moon Rabbit Team, was actually a post-launch update rather than a separate game. Since the official announcement says “a free post-launch update to the game will add additional side stories, Yo-kai, bosses and missions,” it sounds like that will also be localized.

Unlike the main series, these are action spin-offs where you fight yo-kai in a beat ’em up combat style, either alone or with friends. It’s basically the Blasters mini-game expanded into a full game with new features.

With Blasters on the way in September, everyone is wondering what this means for the rest of the series. Personally, I think Yo-Kai Watch 3 is coming next. If they were only going to localize one more 3DS title, why would they pick the spin-off?

I think they’ll localize Yo-Kai Watch 3 soon and then follow that with 4 (which looks fantastic so far). And since Yo-Kai Watch 4 isn’t even out in Japan yet, maybe we’ll start to catch up!

Speaking of catching up, I need to play Yo-Kai Watch 2…

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