Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 30

A New Detective Grimoire Game, The Mermaid’s Tongue, Was Announced!

All the way back in 2014, I fell in love with a short point-and-click adventure detective game called Detective Grimoire.

Then, in 2022, I finally played the sequel, Tangle Tower, which I found to be quite enjoyable despite the ending feeling rushed.

At the time, we knew a sequel was in development… and today it was officially announced as part of the Day of the Devs indie game showcase in connection with the Game Awards.

This new entry in the series, The Mermaid’s Tongue, follows Detective Grimoire and Sally as they investigate a murder on a submarine. It will be out in 2024 for PC and consoles.

A demo is currently available on Steam, and while it’s pretty short, it provides a good sample of the gameplay and humor. The biggest new feature that stands out is that evidence now has 3D models that you can rotate, so that’s a nice touch.

The demo left me looking forward to the new release, although I just hope it isn’t overlooked as easily as Tangle Tower was. I don’t know why the developers aren’t using a series name to make them more recognizable, but I nearly scrolled past the headline until I saw the characters in the art.

Anyway, this was exciting news and a great start to the Game Awards announcements. Are you interested in the Detective Grimoire games?

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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Full Reveal Set for Summer 2024

Remember when Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first teased back in 2018?

The teaser told us next to nothing, but I was excited by the tagline “The Dread Wolf Rises,” due to the implications for how it would follow the events of Inquisition.

From then on, it felt like we were doomed to have BioWare show up once a year or so with a new teaser to show some art, environments, etc. but not anything substantial from the game itself. We eventually got the title Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but the game itself remained elusive.

Well today, BioWare did it again. They released another short teaser that shows some environments. However, this one promises that the full reveal is coming in summer 2024.

The official blog post about it gives some more details, most importantly that the full reveal next summer will include “new trailers, gameplay, and—of course—the long-awaited release date.”

I wish I was excited for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. While neither reached the same level as Origins, I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. But having gone this long without seeing anything from the new game, not to mention seeing all the reports of people leaving BioWare, I can’t help but be nervous instead of excited. However, maybe the full reveal next summer will revive my enthusiasm.

Are you looking forward to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf?

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Parts of the Ace Attorney Anime & 20th Anniversary Orchestra Concert Are Available for Free

Preorders have been opening up for the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, with physical Switch copies in North America confirmed.

Digital preorders have finally opened as well.

While I was puzzled before about why so much time passed before they opened preorders, I now wonder if they were waiting to decide about physical preorders first.

But preorders aren’t the only thing Capcom has made available!

To celebrate the upcoming release, Capcom has made some paid Ace Attorney content temporarily available for free. First up, select episodes from the Ace Attorney anime adaptation can be watched for free until February 29. Second, selections from the 20th Anniversary Orchestra Concert will also be available for free until February 29.

Capcom is really putting in an effort to promote and celebrate the series ahead of the Apollo Justice Trilogy’s release, and I’m thrilled about that. I don’t remember promotional efforts like this ahead of the original trilogy’s release.

Between that and the physical preorders, it just further fuels my optimism in Ace Attorney’s future. If they’re giving the series this much attention now, I think we’ll see an Ace Attorney 7 announcement sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, we’ve got some free Ace Attorney content to enjoy!

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Professor Layton Delayed to 2025, Cupid Parasite FD Confirmed, and More!

Today had the potential for some exciting video game announcements, so I was looking forward to it, starting with Level-5 Vision 2023 II early this morning.

It began with a message from Professor Layton’s Japanese voice actor, who revealed that when he was first given the part of Professor Layton, he drew inspiration from James Bond. Not what I expected, but that’s a fun detail.

The first game they showed was Megaton Musashi Wired, which will be out on April 25, 2024.

Getting an actual release date for one of the games relieved some of my worries, even though I’m not interested in that one specifically.

Next up was a new trailer for Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, which I’m really looking forward to! The new trailer highlights changes from the first game as well as a summer 2024 release window. While that’s further off than I’d like, at least it gives me a chance to get through the rush of early 2024 games first!

They spent a good deal of time looking at the next Inazuma Eleven game after that. I’ve never gotten into that series, but since this game has been delayed over and over again for over 7 years now, it’s nice to see it finally making progress. While it didn’t get a release date, there will be a closed beta test for the online features in March 2024.

Now, you know I only watched this live because I wanted Professor Layton news, so I was thrilled when they showed Professor Layton and the New World of Steam next.

The new trailer shows a small section of the game, including a 3D cutscene and some gameplay. Watching them tap around for hint coins and encounter a puzzle might not sound like a big deal, but seeing that good, familiar Professor Layton gameplay make me so happy. Hearing narration during the puzzle-solving was a bit odd, so I think that might have been purely for the trailer (unless that’s the way hints will be handled in this game). It also appeared like they were using the touchscreen, which is interesting.

Unfortunately, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam won’t be out until 2025. With the other games all delayed to 2024, I was expecting it, but it was still a little disappointing.

I had expected them to end with Professor Layton, but instead they went on to briefly discuss the success of the Yokai Watch mobile game, and then they continued with Decapolice.

I’ve been interested in Decapolice since I love mystery games and it seems to have JRPG elements as well, but I was surprised to hear them describe it as an open world game. The showcase also said the release date had been moved to “post-2024,” although a tweet later clarified that they meant 2024.

The showcase ended with the announcement that the next showcase, titled Level-5 Vision 2024: To the World’s Children, will be held in April 2024, teasing an announcement implied to be a new Yokai Watch game. So that’s certainly exciting!

While it was mainly a showcase full of delay news, I was still thrilled to get a longer look at the new Professor Layton game. And the day wasn’t over yet, because Idea Factory’s otome-themed “just chatting” stream was coming up next with the promise of an announcement.

Indeed, Idea Factory kicked things off with the announcement that Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling, is being localized! This is the fandisc of Cupid Parasite, which I loved.

I’ve been hoping the fandisc would get localized, so that was a great surprise! It will be out in 2024, and a Limited Edition will be available as well.

All in all, it was a great day for video game news for me. And while the Level-5 delays might be disappointing, I’ve got plenty of games in my backlog to occupy me in the meantime.

How do you feel about the new trailer for Professor Layton and the New World of Steam? What about Level-5’s other announcements? Are you excited for the Cupid Parasite fandisc?

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Idea Factory Has An Otome “Just Chatting” Stream This Week

We’ve got a few video game live streams lined up for this week, with the big ones being a Dragon’s Dogma II showcase tomorrow at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET, and of course Level-5’s showcase the following morning.

But the one that’s gone under the radar is that Idea Factory announced an otome-themed “just chatting” stream for November 29 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET.

Now, since it’s a chatting stream, we probably shouldn’t expect any new announcements. All the same, they did say we “won’t want to miss this one,” so who knows?

The last time IFI announced otome localizations, it was at Anime Expo, with the announcements of My Next Life As a Villainess and Sympathy Kiss. My Next Life As a Villainess is out tomorrow, and Sympathy Kiss is set for February 27, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they have another 2024 title coming. Given the timing, however, it’s even more likely that the stream will highlight My Next Life as a Villainess instead.

Either way, I’ll probably tune in just to see. Who knows, we could end up with a surprise announcement out of this after all.

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Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Might Get a Physical Release in North America After All

I’ve been pretty excited for the upcoming release of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, but the one disappointing fact was that it seemed to be digital-only in the west again.

However, that might not be completely true anymore.

Yesterday, listings started going live at Canadian retailers for a physical ESRB copy of the Apollo Justice Trilogy for the Switch. VGP even confirmed it and said anyone who preordered the import with them and wants to change to the North American version should get in touch.

So it seems the North American Switch version, at least, will be available as a physical copy. (Amazon Canada listed it as the “Pollo Justice Trilogy”, which is questionable, but everything else seems legitimate.) Other retailers haven’t followed suit yet, but yesterday being Thanksgiving might have something to do with that.

I’m excited about this for several reasons. First, I just like having physical copies of my games. I’m one of those people who preordered the import already since it seemed like it would be digital-only here. Second, since Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice were digital-only 3DS releases, this will be the first time those games are getting a physical release in North America! And third, this bodes well for how Capcom views the series.

I mentioned earlier this year that Ace Attorney’s future looks brighter than ever (or at least brighter than it has been in over a decade). The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles getting a localization and a physical Switch release in North America felt like Capcom had faith in the series, faith rewarded by its excellent sales. The Apollo Justice Trilogy being made at all was already another promising sign, and if it’s getting a physical release in North America, that really suggests Capcom believes it will sell enough to be worth it.

(Though apparently they don’t have that same faith in European and PS4 players, let alone Xbox players.)

This is exciting! I’m more convinced than ever that Capcom will follow through with more Ace Attorney games, such as our long-awaited Ace Attorney 7. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to switch my import preorder to an ESRB copy and keeping an eye on other retailers to see if they’ll list the Apollo Justice Trilogy as well.

Will you be buying a physical release of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy?

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Atelier Resleriana is Coming West

Remember back in August when I was excited for the upcoming announcement of a new Atelier game and then never said anything about it ever again?

(Well, not entirely. I mentioned it briefly when making TGS predictions.)

I woke up early that morning to watch the live stream, and they did indeed announce the next mainline entry… which turned out to be a gacha game for mobile and PC, Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night.

A mobile gacha game being the next mainline entry was not well-received by fans, and many assumed it would never come west anyway. Well, it’s still a mobile gacha game, but it was recently announced that it will be coming west after all, in 2024.

It’s a shame it’s a gacha game, because it looks beautiful.

But you know how I am with this type of game. Even when it’s something that interests me quite a bit, like Tears of Themis or Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, I find it a difficult format to stick with. Reception to Resleriana’s Japanese release doesn’t seem too great, either.

Nevertheless, if you were hoping for a western release of Atelier Resleriana, you’ll get your wish next year.

I doubt the backlash to Resleriana would be as strong if it had been announced as a spin-off title. Being a main entry, however, has fans worried that it could define the series going forward if it’s successful. On the other hand, the optimistic view is that a successful mobile game could provide Gust with enough funding for future console Atelier games to have higher quality. Time will tell.

For me personally, I just see it as a break in their normally-rapid release schedule for me to make progress with the previous games… as I have more Atelier games in my backlog than any other series.

How do you feel about Atelier Resleriana? Do you intend to try it when it comes out in the west next year?

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Metroid Dread is Exciting, Tense, and Fun

It took me long enough to get here, but I finally played Metroid Dread.

I actually started it last October, but played only about an hour or so and then put it on hold until this year, when I started over since I’d made so little progress the first time.

Metroid Dread is set after the events of Metroid Fusion, which makes it the latest game in the timeline, and follows Samus as she heads to a remote planet to investigate the loss of contact with the EMMI robots deployed there.

EMMI featured heavily in the marketing, because it adds a new element to the gameplay. While most of the world is the usual Metroid-style exploration and combat, certain areas are “EMMI zones,” patrolled by the rogue EMMI robots intent on destroying Samus. You can’t fight them normally, and they can kill you in a single hit, which means you need to use stealth and/or run to avoid them.

The EMMI sections are tense and exciting, although there were times when I started to get annoyed with them (especially when it seemed like the EMMI was intent on staying in the tiny area I was trying to traverse instead of patrolling).

Dread was developed by MercurySteam, who also did Samus Returns, and the melee counter system from that game returns. In general, the combat feels really good, which makes it a lot of fun to play. That’s good, because I found some of the boss fights to be really hard. There were several where I started out thinking the fight was impossible until I slowly learned how to react to the various attacks.

As far as exploration goes, to some extent the progression feels a bit too guided, with the game making it clear where it wants you to go first. However, once things opened up a bit more, I got to enjoy its design anyway. It felt like it wasn’t geared toward backtracking after each upgrade quite as much, but I had fun sweeping through each area once I had all my abilities to get as many upgrades as possible.

Now, this one is a bit more story-driven than the others in the series… but I kind of played it as though it wasn’t. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe I’m just not attached enough to Metroid lore or wasn’t in the right state of mind for Metroid storytelling, because even though I wanted to be interested, I didn’t pay as much attention to it as I normally would.

But regardless of my lack of attachment to the story, I definitely enjoyed my time playing Metroid Dread. I still need to play Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime games, but if they announce a Metroid 6, I’ll be interested for sure!

(Since Metroid Prime 4 seems to be in limbo, maybe I’ll have time to play the Prime games before it comes out.)

What did you think of Metroid Dread?

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The Imperial Capital Burns (Teito Moyu) is Out Now

Back when the remaster of Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse was coming out, one point we discussed was how it did not include the prelude story.

Teito Moyu, or Burning of the Imperial Capital, had been included with the original Total Eclipse and was mentioned in the Muv-Luv translation Kickstarter campaign, so its absence had us wondering if/when we’d see it in English.

Well, the time is now!

With the official English title of The Imperial Capital Burns – Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse, it’s now available on Steam as a standalone release.

Now, it might have occurred to you that I still haven’t written a review of Total Eclipse despite how excited for it I was. That’s because I started to read it, but found myself sidetracked by other games and never got back to it.

Since The Imperial Capital Burns is a prequel, I’ll probably get it and read it first after all before returning to my playthrough of Total Eclipse. Hopefully that will reignite my enthusiasm for Total Eclipse, as well!

Are you planning to pick up The Imperial Capital Burns?

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Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution Confirmed for Other Platforms

Back in July, the most exciting announcement to come out of this year’s Limited Run Games showcase was that Shantae Advance was being revived as a new entry in the series.

Originally planned to be the second Shantae game, Shantae Advance was cancelled due to being too ambitious for what the sales of the first game allowed the developers to do.

From what I understand, Risky’s Revenge was written as though the second game had happened, which left some gaps in the story we never got to see.

Now it’s being revived and completed, to be released as a full game called Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. At the time, WayForward would only confirm a Game Boy Advance release, so some fans worried it might be exclusive. However, it has now been confirmed to be coming to modern platforms as well.

After showing a new trailer in yesterday’s Indie World Showcase, which confirmed a Switch release, WayForward officially announced that Risky Revolution will be released for the Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC after the GBA version.

It has no release date yet, only a 2024 window. (And I tell you, I was holding my breath in anticipation that a February release date might appear, so I’m relieved it’s still unknown. Let’s save some games for the rest of the months.)

From the trailer, it sounds like it has some intriguing gameplay ideas, such as a mechanic where you move elements of the background and foreground and switch between them to solve puzzles. There’s also a new 4-player battle mode. The rest of the gameplay sounds like traditional Shantae.

I’m looking forward to Shantae Advance, and I’m glad to learn it’s coming to other platforms besides the GBA. If I was a longtime fan who had been in the series from the beginning, maybe I’d have gone for it, but as someone who got into Shantae with more recent ports, I’ll be just as happy to pick up a copy for my Switch.

Are you planning to play Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution?

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