Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 25

The Reynatis April Fools’ Joke is a TWEWY Collaboration

Video game news on April Fools’ Day can be frustrating, whether it’s because of fake announcements you wish were real or yet another developer using “we’re making a visual novel” as the whole joke.

But sometimes it leads to something genuinely cool, and that’s the case with the Reynatis joke this year.

I’ve been interested in Reynatis since it was announced and thrilled when its localization was confirmed. It’s an action RPG set in Shibuya…

…so what better game for a fake collaboration than The World Ends With You?

As detailed by Noisy Pixel, this April Fools’ Day joke began with tweets from the official TWEWY and Reynatis Twitter accounts about something occurring in Shibuya.

Although it’s since gone back to normal, the Japanese website for Reynatis then posted new art with the main characters of Reynatis added to the NEO: The World Ends With You key art.

Additional artwork, pictured above, later surfaced showing NEO: TWEWY’s Rindo and Reynatis’s Marin standing together.

Meanwhile, the two Twitter accounts continued to post messages in a back-and-forth conversation between Shoka from NEO: TWEWY and Sari from Reynatis.

This is a cool April Fools’ joke for many reasons, not only because the developers of Reynatis chose TWEWY to acknowledge, but also because even if the collaboration itself is fake, Square Enix clearly worked with them on it. Coming out of NEO: TWEWY’s launch, there were a lot of concerns about its sales numbers. But regardless of how it sold, it seems Square Enix still cares enough about the TWEWY brand to participate in a joke like this.

It also works as genuine cross-promotion; I’ve already seen TWEWY fans looking into Reynatis because of this, and I’m sure some people who were looking forward to Reynatis have been introduced to TWEWY now as well.

In short, while it might not be actual The World Ends With You news, it’s nice to see it still getting attention, and I’m even more interested in Reynatis because of it. Of all of this year’s gaming April Fools’ jokes, this one is my favorite so far.

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Edgeworth Wins Yet Another Official Popularity Poll

There’s a lot we could be talking about right now – Uchikoshi’s cryptic tweets, Corpse Party II localization, Cupid Parasite fandisc release date, Reynatis gameplay footage – but let’s talk about Miles Edgeworth instead.

Around a month ago, Capcom opened an Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy popularity poll. Fans were asked to vote for their favorite character from the Apollo Justice Trilogy, and the top 3 characters would be featured in new artwork.

Well, the results are in… and the #1 most popular character in the Apollo Justice Trilogy is Miles Edgeworth!

Phoenix Wright (Apollo Justice version) and Apollo Justice himself came in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, so art director Takuro Fuse released a beautiful new piece of artwork featuring the three of them together.

Also ranking in the top 10 were Trucy Wright, Klavier Gavin, Simon Blackquill, Phoenix Wright (Dual Destinies/Spirit of Justice version), Maya Fey, Athena Cykes, and Ema Skye. I’m satisfied with Blackquill ranking #6, if surprised that he lost to Klavier, and pleased to see Athena in the top 10.

But while Phoenix managed to rank in the top 10 twice, the most impressive thing here is that Edgeworth took the #1 spot. (Although who knows, maybe Phoenix would have won if he wasn’t counted as two separate characters.) I love Edgeworth, but he barely qualifies as an Apollo Justice Trilogy character. Of the 16 cases in the Apollo Justice Trilogy, I believe he only appears in 3.

This follows in the footsteps of last year’s poll about which character you’d want to defend you, which Edgeworth won despite being a prosecutor for the majority of his appearances.

It would seem Edgeworth is so popular that he can win any Ace Attorney popularity poll he technically qualifies for. If Capcom wasn’t planning to remaster Investigations, I’d bet they’re considering it now. Speaking of which, if you’ve been keeping track of Capcom acknowledging Investigations 2, Fuse’s message about the new artwork mentions that Edgeworth in his vest “has not been shown since the opening of Ace Attorney Investigations 2.”

Look, I still believe a new Ace Attorney game should and will come first, but a remaster of Investigations & Investigations 2 feels more likely than ever now… because if Edgeworth really is this popular, it’ll fly off the shelves.

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Several Tales Games on PS3 (and Vita) Have Been Delisted

After my mixed feelings on Tales of Arise, I still haven’t bought the DLC, but I’ve nevertheless been looking forward to news from the Tales series.

Well, this isn’t exactly the news I’d hoped for.

Several older Tales games have been delisted from PSN without warning. After seeing a Reddit post about it, I took a look for myself to confirm it.

In North America, Tales of Symphonia Chronicles has been delisted, although you can still purchase Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World separately. In the reverse of that, Tales of Xillia and Tales of Graces f can be bought together as a bundle, but aren’t available separately. Tales of Xillia 2 has been delisted completely, as has Tales of Hearts R for the Vita.

According to the online reports, similar delistings have occurred in the European and Japanese stores as well.

Bandai Namco hasn’t made any official statement about the games being delisted yet, so it’s not clear if this was intentional or just an oversight. The most optimistic take would be that they delisted them in preparation for bringing them all to modern platforms… but I don’t feel even that optimistic, especially when what’s been delisted is so inconsistent.

However, next year is the 30th anniversary of the Tales series. Maybe they’ll surprise us after all.

Now my backlog is overflowing with Tales games, because I bought all the games that were available at the time, so the games being delisted doesn’t affect me personally. But as a Tales fan, it’s sad to see a number of the games suddenly become that much harder for players to get.

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Stellar Blade Demo Launches March 29

A little over two weeks ago, a Stellar Blade demo was released… and then quickly taken down. Apparently it was released earlier than it was supposed to be.

Some people did manage to play it during that time frame, and their impressions left me eager to get a chance to play the demo myself.

From the trailers, I had been imagining it as closest to Bayonetta or Nier Automata, but I heard a lot more Souls-like comparisons than I expected.

Well, those of us who missed the accidental demo will have our chance at the end of the week. The Stellar Blade demo has been announced for March 29. Moreover, your demo save data will transfer to the full game.

I’ve been intrigued by Stellar Blade since back when it was known as Project Eve, and I can’t wait to try the demo.

Stellar Blade itself will be out on April 26, which puts it right around other games I’ve got my eye on, like Eiyuden Chronicle (April 23) and Sand Land (also April 26). I haven’t tried the Sand Land demo yet either, so maybe I’ll try that as well to figure out what games to prioritize!

Not that I’ve even finished the games that came out earlier this year yet…

Anyway, it’s good to have an official date for the demo now, and I’m looking forward to trying it. Will you be playing the Stellar Blade demo?

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The Day Capcom Accidentally Stirred Up Ace Attorney Fans for No Reason

You know how sometimes we talk about little things Capcom does and hope it might be a hint of upcoming Ace Attorney news?

This is not one of those posts.

Actually, this post is the exact opposite.

Everyone got stirred up yesterday over what turned out to be a mistake… and since people keep seeing the original stir and think something’s happening, I decided to write about it.

Ever since the release of the Apollo Justice Trilogy, the official Ace Attorney Twitter account has been holding a weekly “book club” where they discuss one of its cases. They’re up to The Cosmic Turnabout now, and so yesterday they tweeted their Cosmic Turnabout book club post.

Except they forgot to include the text of the tweet. They just tweeted a screenshot of the Earth with no explanation.

This being a particularly context-free screenshot, it was not easy to immediately recognize as being from The Cosmic Turnabout. It appeared to be the official Ace Attorney Twitter account tweeting something new. So like the time when they changed their social media icons, the replies were immediately flooded with people asking if it was a hint of something.

Some people took it as a hint of an Ace Attorney 7 announcement, some took it as a hint that Investigations 2 was going to be localized, and only a handful said, “Wait, isn’t that from Dual Destinies?”

Capcom deleted the original tweet and followed up with the correct one, which now has the book club text, and the incident was forgotten. Or not, since as I mentioned at the start, some people have just seen the chaos without the resolution.

So no, Capcom did not hint at Ace Attorney news yesterday. It was not a sign of Ace Attorney in space. It was not a sign of Ace Attorney 7 having a new setting. It was not a sign of Investigations 2 coming to the whole world. But if nothing else, I hope the reactions showed them how much demand there is for a new Ace Attorney game.

(Unless that was the plan all along? Tweet an out-of-context screenshot to test how much excitement there would be? Nah… now I’m the one overthinking it.)

If you haven’t noticed, I’m desperate for Ace Attorney news once again. I never did that Apollo Justice Trilogy replay once the unlockable art was revealed, though, so maybe I should… while I wait for actual news to come.

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Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- Will Be Out on June 27

One of the otome games announced during February’s All Aksys showcase that I’ve been looking forward to is Radiant Tale -Fanfare!-, the fandisc for Radiant Tale.

If you weren’t here for our past fandisc discussions, you can think of it as a game-length epilogue or a sort-of sequel focused more on fluff than plot.

I had a lot of fun with Radiant Tale, a lighthearted romance about a circus troupe bringing happiness in a fantasy world, and I finished it hoping the fandisc would be localized.

Now it has a release date: June 27.

Aksys announced the release date yesterday, while also opening preorders. Since I’d nearly preordered Tengoku Struggle and Tokyo Xanadu the night before, only to decide to wait until morning, that was incredible timing. Preordering them all together let me get free shipping!

I’m looking forward to Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- and I hope I’ll be reasonably caught up on my backlog by then (hah).

In other otome news, Idea Factory revealed the opening movie and limited edition for the Cupid Parasite fandisc, which has no release date yet beyond 2024.

Unrelated to both of those, the upcoming otome game Him, the Smile & Bloom will launch with both Japanese and English options. I wasn’t familiar with this one before, but it looks cute… although that English title has me waiting to see more about the translation before I go for it.

It’s a good time to be an otome fan!

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Will The Thousand-Year Door Lead to a Paper Mario Revival?

It’s a good time to be a fan of Mario RPGs, which isn’t something we’ve been able to say in a long time.

Not only did Super Mario RPG get remade last year, but a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is due out on May 23.

I’m excited for that remake because I love Thousand-Year Door and think the remake looks beautiful, but I also can’t help but hope that this could lead to a revival of the Paper Mario series in general.

It’s no secret that I’ve been… critical… of the direction Paper Mario took starting with Sticker Star. (Heck, my reaction to Color Splash’s announcement made it into one of Arlo’s videos, and even though I enjoyed Color Splash more than Sticker Star, I still wasn’t exactly thrilled with it.) But with Thousand-Year Door coming to a new audience, things might finally change.

I haven’t played Origami King yet, and I do intend to, to see if the story is as big an improvement over Color Splash as people say. But one of the most perplexing things we’ve discussed in regards to Paper Mario is the Origami King interview in which the producer suggested RPGs are too hardcore for a casual audience.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is not a “hardcore” game. Turn-based RPG combat is not inherently harder to understand than what they did in the later Paper Mario games. It’s an argument that never made sense to me, and I hope this new remake will prove it wrong.

If Super Mario RPG and Thousand-Year Door both do well, it might prove that it isn’t just a small hardcore audience clamoring for Mario RPGs after all.

And then… will we finally get a new Paper Mario in the old style after all?

That’s something I’d stopped hoping for. I’d given up and let Bug Fables fill the void Paper Mario left behind. I’d resigned myself to the fact that Paper Mario would never be an RPG series again.

But anything is on the table now.

This is more than just a simple port. It suggests they have actual faith that classic Paper Mario is worth paying attention to. Of course, I’d be happy to see the original Paper Mario and Super Paper Mario get remakes as well, but the possibility of a new classic-style Paper Mario game is now at the top of my list. If such a game was announced as a launch title for the next Nintendo console, that’s something that would get me there day one.

Do you think we’ll see a new Paper Mario game in the style of the originals?

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A Jack Jeanne Sequel is in Development!

Almost exactly a month ago, I reviewed Jack Jeanne and wished for a sequel, even though I thought the scale of the project made it unlikely.

But it’s actually happening.

It’s actually happening! A Jack Jeanne sequel is in development!

Jack Jeanne had a third anniversary live stream this morning, and although I didn’t watch since there was no translation, I woke up to the news that they announced a new game project, a live-reading drama, a new drama CD, and a new novel.

The sequel announcement is the biggest and most unexpected pieces of news. Next to no information is available so far; even the Famitsu article about it only lists the announced projects.

But even with next to no information, the fact that Ishida and Towada are making a sequel is enough for me to be excited! I loved Jack Jeanne, I wanted a sequel so much, and I’ll be looking forward to this no matter how long it takes (I’m expecting years before it’s even out and then another wait for localization).

Fingers crossed we get routes for some of the side characters, along with continuations of the original love interests’ stories! And since the music was so great, I can’t wait to hear see the sequel’s performances are like.

Are you looking forward to the Jack Jeanne sequel?

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I Finally Played Crisis Core (With Mixed Feelings)

I haven’t started Final Fantasy VII Rebirth yet, and one of the reasons is that I wanted to finish Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion first.

I always regretted not being able to play Crisis Core, since it was a PSP game with no digital version and I never had a PSP. So I was thrilled when a remaster was announced.

But my feelings about it ended up more mixed than I expected.

Crisis Core follows Zack, who plays a significant role in Final Fantasy VII’s backstory (the best way I can describe it without spoilers). For me, the game is at its best when it expands on events from the original game.

I loved the relationship between Zack and Aerith; it was very cute. I also enjoyed the friendship between Zack and Cloud. Sephiroth takes a good role in Crisis Core, too, and seeing more of him before the incident makes the eventual events feel all the more tragic.

There are a lot of fun little worldbuilding details in Crisis Core, like emails you get from various sources throughout the game and fan clubs for different members of Soldier, and that was great.

But many of the story elements added for Crisis Core fell flat for me. Genesis and Angeal, two new Soldier characters, feel like they’d be interesting in concept, but neither really worked for me in practice. Unfortunately, since they’re an important part of the main plot, that means there was a good chunk of Crisis Core’s story that I didn’t enjoy.

(There’s also a new Shinra scientist character called Hollander who felt pointless to me. I think it would have been better if that part had been reworked so the experiments were previous experiments of Hojo’s.)

Now, let’s talk about the gameplay. Crisis Core features random encounters with action combat that’s fairly standard, aside from the slot machine mechanic. While you play, slots will roll in the corner with images of important characters you have connected to. Different combinations give you buffs, special attacks, and level ups. You’ll also equip materia for magic and other benefits, and a materia fusion system lets you combine materia to get new or stronger ones, which allows for a fair bit of customization.

The game is quite linear, although there are occasional times when you can explore and get side quests. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more exploration, but it’s fine for the sort of game that it is.

Then there are the missions. Whenever you’re at a save point, you can choose to go on missions. Some of these are linked to side quests, while others are unlocked as you play. Missions reuse previous areas, but with a small section cordoned off with a number of treasure chests to find and a battle to reach as your goal.

When I started playing, I found these missions fun. They were basic, but I found it fun to do a few between story segments or while watching a video. I’d probably praise the missions if there were, say 100 of them. Maybe even 150.

But there are 300 of these simple, repetitive missions, and I got 37% of the way through the list before I got so sick of them I ignored them for the entire second half of the game.

Crisis Core is at its best when it expands on details from Final Fantasy VII and at its worst when it focuses on its original plot awkwardly shoehorned in alongside the existing material. I often love insane stories that other people find convoluted, so I hoped I’d be on board with Crisis Core’s more divisive elements, but I unfortunately wasn’t. However, I’m still happy I played Crisis Core, because it does have a lot of great moments despite its flaws.

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Tokyo Xanadu Sequel Announced, Paper Mario Release Date

Last week the posting schedule got a bit off track, but that shouldn’t repeat itself this week.

Anyway, what would have been the topic of Friday’s post if I hadn’t jumped the gun and posted on Thursday, is that a Tokyo Xanadu sequel has been announced!

Last month, one of the announcements from the All Aksys Showcase was that the Switch version of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ will be coming west with an updated translation.

I’ve enjoyed what I played of Tokyo Xanadu but never stuck with it, so that announcement convinced me to officially put my playthrough on hold and wait for the Switch version. Meanwhile, Falcom had been teasing a sequel lately, as well, so it’s exciting to see that turn into an official announcement at last.

The new game appears to be set in Kyoto, so whether it will keep the “Tokyo Xanadu” title for familiarity or adopt a different one (Kyoto Xanadu?) remains to be seen.

No western release has been announced yet, but chances of it happening seem pretty good. (Maybe Aksys will announce it at another showcase?) Since I’m intent on playing the Switch version when it comes out, I might actually be caught up in time.

Moving on to something completely different, yesterday was Mario Day, and Nintendo’s announcements included a release date for the upcoming Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake.

May 23!

That’s actually a lot sooner than I expected. Since it was announced with a simple “2024” release window, I assumed it would be late in the year. Coming out in May makes it feel like it’s almost here already!

So Paper Mario is coming soon, and more Tokyo Xanadu is on the way. This really is a good year to be an RPG fan.

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