Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 31

Mixed Feelings About Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

Two years ago, I beat Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and found it to be an exciting, enjoyable adventure.

I mentioned at the end of my review that while I’d be taking a break, I was excited to keep playing to see what would happen in the post-Heavensward patches.

But you know what happened at the same time that I finished Heavensward? The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles came out and took over my thoughts forevermore. (NEO: The World Ends With You also came out at the same time, because that was a crazy period of time for great games.) I’d finished Heavensward intentionally to make sure it wasn’t competing with those, but little did I realize the resulting break and Ace Attorney obsession would lead to Final Fantasy XIV once again being relegated to weekly check-ins for the cactpot.

However, the winner of this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious contest back in May chose the second Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Stormblood, as the game for me to review, and so I resumed my progress.

The post-Heavensward patches were exciting and wrapped up the Heavensward storyline in a satisfactory way. Then I began Stormblood proper. This time, the story returns its focus to the Garlean Empire, as our characters spearhead a move to free Ala Mhigo from imperial control.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy Stormblood as much as I enjoyed Heavensward, and not just because I prefer Ishgard as a setting.

The biggest reason, which I realized near the end of the expansion, is that it largely focused on a supporting character whom I just didn’t find interesting. Her development throughout the story fell flat for me, which meant it had a lot of moments that were supposed to be epic or emotional that didn’t have much of an impact on me at all. And the second big reason is that the story felt disjointed at times.

Stormblood is supposed to be about the liberation of Ala Mhigo, but the characters eventually conclude that the best way to do that is to free the eastern country of Doma from imperial control first. There is a link there, but the Ala Mhigo and Doma plots felt too separate to me, which gave the overall plot an odd feel.

Now, despite these complaints, the final few parts of the story were actually pretty epic. They made it feel like it was worth going through the rest. I also found a greater appreciation for the villain when I realized there’s some oddball humor to his portrayal.

Click for Stormblood spoilersFor example, partway through the final encounter, Zenos basically tells the player character that he thinks they could be best friends, and if you reject the idea, he says wanting to fight him is just even more proof that you and he are similar. It’s the funniest take on the “we’re not so different” trope, because it comes across like he’s not trying to persuade you of anything, he’s just really happy to find a kindred spirit (even if you don’t see it that way at all).

Anyway, I didn’t enjoy Stormblood nearly as much as Heavensward, but it did have some good moments. I’ve also seen people say it picks up a lot in the post-Stormblood patches.

I do want to highlight one thing that isn’t about Stormblood specifically, but was added with more recent patches to the game – the ability to play through story dungeons with an NPC party. I love this addition. I used to dread dungeons, because the party would always rush through and leave me no time to enjoy the dungeon itself. Now I’m able to enter the dungeon with story-relevant characters, explore it at my own pace, and even get some banter between characters! It’s a wonderful addition that really made that aspect of the game much more enjoyable for me.

I’ll be taking a short break from such devoted Final Fantasy XIV playing to focus on some other games, but I’m looking forward to getting into the patches and eventually reaching the much-praised Shadowbringers.

Now, I noticed while writing this that my Heavensward review began with me mentioning that it had been two years since I beat A Realm Reborn, much like this one began with me pointing out that it had been two years since I beat Heavensward. So… see you in 2025 to discuss Shadowbringers!

Kidding, kidding. I’ll put in my best effort not to let that happen again. In the meantime, if you’ve played Stormblood, how did you feel about it?

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Level-5 Showcase Announced for November 29 (with Professor Layton News Confirmed)

Following yesterday’s announcement that Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has been delayed to 2024, Level-5 announced Level-5 Vision 2023 II for November 29.

The first Level-5 Vision online event was back in March, when we got a few more details about the upcoming lineup of games they’d announced earlier in the year, most of which had 2023 release windows.

Now we’re here, nearly at the end of 2023, and none of them are out yet.

I have to say, it’s made me a little nervous. When Level-5 came out swinging in that fateful Nintendo Direct with three new announcements, it felt like their triumphant return after such a long period of silence. Then most of the year passed without any of those games even getting release dates.

Level-5 Vision 2023 II should help with that. Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, DecaPolice, Fantasy Life i, Megaton Musashi Wired, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will all be featured. According to the Fantasy Life i delay announcement, release dates will be announced for at least it and Inazuma Eleven.

Since only a single month of 2023 will be left by that point, I’ll be surprised if Inazuma Eleven, DecaPolice, and Megaton Musashi all still have 2023 release dates, but who knows?

Meanwhile, the official Professor Layton account also confirmed that new footage from Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will be shown.

Professor Layton is likely the farthest out of all these titles. While the others were given 2023 release windows, it never was, with a presumed 2024 release window instead. If the other games are being delayed to 2024, that makes me worry that Professor Layton could be pushed to 2025. But again, we’ll just have to wait for Level-5 Vision 2023 II to see what Level-5 has to share with us.

The live stream will take place at 9 PM JST, which is 4 AM PT / 7 AM ET, so I doubt I’ll watch it live. Either way, though, I’ll be eager to see the new Professor Layton footage and potential release dates for their other games. Are you planning to watch?

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Sympathy Kiss is Coming Out on February 27 (Why Would I Expect Anything Else)

Back at Anime Expo, Idea Factory announced two new otome localizations: My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! – Pirates of the Disturbance and Sympathy Kiss.

Ironically, I commented in that post on how My Next Life As a Villainess’s winter 2023 release window (which turned out to be November 28) added yet another game I was interested in to the second half of this year. Little did I know early 2024 would soon be even more packed…

Yesterday, Idea Factory announced that Sympathy Kiss will be out on February 27, 2024 and also revealed the Limited Edition.

It’s a pretty fantastic Limited Edition, too. Not only does it come with a collector’s box, trading card, soundtrack, drama CD, and a hardcover art book, which are fairly standard Limited Edition contents for IFI, but it also has a notebook, a tumbler, paper tabs, sticky notes, and a memo pad.

That’s a lot of stuff! I guess they’re going all in on the office worker theme!

(The Villainess Limited Edition feels almost barebones in comparison.)

Idea Factory raised the bar for Limited Editions in my eyes a while ago, and this latest one has kept that going.

While I have mixed feelings on Sympathy Kiss having an eyeless protagonist design, I’ll probably go for this. I’m interested enough in the game for such a nice Limited Edition to grab my attention. However, this makes my early 2024 gaming predicament even more dire than it was already!

For whatever reason, every developer releasing a game I’m excited for seems to have decided the roughly month-long span between the end of January and the end of February is when their game should come out. Just take a look:

January 25 – Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (which I wasn’t going to replay until I heard people speculating that what if the unlockable art for beating all three games teases a new entry)January 26 – Like a Dragon: Infinite WealthFebruary 1 – Granblue Fantasy: RelinkFebruary 2 – Persona 3 ReloadFebruary 15 – Spirit Hunter: Death Mark IIFebruary 27 – Sympathy KissFebruary 29 – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

This will be one of those times where a game that would otherwise have been an immediate buy, like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, will have to be pushed aside in favor of the games I’ve prioritized ahead of it. Even if I had all the free time I could want, there’s no way I’d manage to play all of those in such a short span of time.

(And there’s still weeks in February that could be filled up with more games! At this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised, just sadly laugh while staring at my backlog.)

With the addition of Sympathy Kiss, my game priorities for February 2024 have yet another contender. Are you planning to pick it up?

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Let’s Talk About the Kingdom Hearts Missing Link Trailer

Last week while we were finishing up our Halloween celebration, Kingdom Hearts Missing Link finally made another appearance.

We haven’t talked about the upcoming mobile game Missing Link since last December, when the key art was revealed.

All year long, Missing Link has been… well, missing. But not anymore!

After the Twitter account was updated on October 26, a new trailer followed on October 30 with a 2024 release window, along with the announcement of a closed beta test for the United Kingdom and Australia.

My first takeaway from this trailer is that Missing Link is beautiful. It looks like it should be a console game. This also looks like the explorable Scala ad Caelum I’ve been hoping for ever since Kingdom Hearts III.

Meanwhile, I’m still somewhat puzzled about how this game will actually play. We can see action RPG combat in the trailer, and the “character pieces imbued with powers” look like how the gacha aspect will factor into the gameplay, as they appear to provide different types of attacks. But the GPS part is still unclear.

Missing Link is a “GPS Action RPG,” which would make me think of something like Pokémon Go, but then the trailer says you can “travel the world without stepping outside.” So it seems like it uses real-world map data, but you can still play from home.

Story-wise, I’m not sure what to make of it either. Based on everything we know, Missing Link takes place in between KHUX and Dark Road. The end of the trailer describes it as “the blank era, one that will eventually be forgotten,” which is certainly interesting.

I’m curious about Missing Link’s story, but I don’t have a good track record with mobile games. I still haven’t played Ever Crisis since the last time we discussed it. Missing Link sure is beautiful, though.

Are you interested in Kingdom Hearts Missing Link?

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Voltage Announces 3 New Otome Games With a Worldwide Release

Last night, Voltage announced 3 new otome games for the Nintendo Switch.

Voltage is a company that primarily makes mobile games, but they ventured into console otome games last year with Even if Tempest, and then its fandisc this year.

I haven’t gotten around to playing Even if Tempest yet, but it’s on my list to try eventually. Every time it goes on sale, I feel tempted…

Anyway, Even if Tempest must have done well for them, because they announced three more console otome games all at once. Not only that, but English releases have already been confirmed for them.

The first was announced as Project Code Neon Mafia, set for a 2024 release. It’s bright and colorful, and from the way the trailer introduces its characters, it’s probably the one that’s furthest along in development.

The second is Project Code Kaleido Tower. Also planned for a 2024 release, this one is the vaguest to me from its trailer. My initial impression of it was that it will only have one love interest, the “poisoned youth” referenced in the trailer, but that could just be because it’s an early trailer. Whatever the case may be, the trailer is certainly haunting.

Finally, the one that interests me the most is the third one, Project Code Vampire Hunter. It won’t be out until 2025, but the premise of playing a vampire hunter had me intrigued. It looks beautiful and gothic, and although only a single male character is shown fully, two more characters have bodies briefly appear, so I suspect those will be other love interests.

It’s exciting to see all of these new otome games announced. When I first started playing otome games, it felt like new releases were few and far between. Now it’s better than ever, and my backlog can’t keep up! I can’t even feel disappointed in the 2025 release window for the one I’m most interested in, because I have plenty of games to occupy me in the meantime. (And who knows what Aksys might have in store, since so far they only have a single 2024 otome game localization revealed.)

I’ll probably try to play Even if Tempest before these come out, but either way, I’m excited to learn more about them. Are you looking forward to the three newly-announced otome games from Voltage?

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NaNoWriMo 2023 Begins!

November is here, which means our 2023 Celebrating All Things Spooky event is at an end and the contest winners are in the process of being notified. Thank you all for your participation.

It also means that NaNoWriMo has begun!

Yes, this is one of those rare posts where instead of covering video games, I talk about writing.

I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo, or the National Novel Writing Month, for years now. It’s a challenge in which writers try to finish a 50,000 word novel in November.

This year, my project is a fantasy romance novel I’ve had on my mind for quite a while. I got an early start at midnight to write the first 2,000 words, then followed up with another 3,000 words when I woke up. Off to a good start!

Since I’ve spent the past few years hitting the 50,000-word goal without it being in too much doubt (although the quality of the writing is another question, as sometimes I run out of ideas before I hit the mark and spend the rest of the words on scenes that will absolutely need to be cut from the finished story), I’m tempted to add an additional goal to work on short stories this November as well. But let’s see how the novel progresses, first.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Project Kat

Project Kat, which now has the full title of Project Kat – Paper Lily Prologue, is a short game about a girl preparing to perform a ritual in the school at night.

There are puzzles to solve along the way, as well as various options for how to interact with your classmates.

Puzzles have multiple solutions, so going with a method that feels less obvious could lead to a different outcome. Even something as simple as how much you talk to the other characters can have an effect.

Because of this, even though Project Kat seems simple on the surface, it’s more complex than you might think. I played through it assuming there might be 1 or 2 alternate endings based on choices I’d noticed along the way, only to look online and learn there are ten possible endings.

(I didn’t go back through to try to get them all, however.)

Project Kat is also surprisingly creepy. Despite the simple graphics and presentation, it uses what it has to great effect, with several unsettling moments.

As the full title suggests, it is a standalone prologue to an upcoming game called Paper Lily. Paper Lily – Chapter 1 is currently available in an early state, with additions to come in an update, and the game will potentially have 5 total chapters. After playing Project Kat, I’m interested in seeing what they can do in a longer game, although I’ll probably wait for the full release before playing.

Project Kat – Paper Lily Prologue is a short, spooky game worth checking out – especially for Halloween!

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest

One game that’s been in my backlog for a while now that I finally decided to try this October is Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest.

It’s based on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse tabletop setting, which I’m unfamiliar with, so I went into it not knowing what to expect.

You play as Maia, a young woman who keeps having strange, ominous dreams about the ancient Białowieża Forest. Seeking answers about her family and these dreams, she travels to the forest to see what she can learn.

It is largely presented through text, with illustrations in the background to provide somewhat of a visual novel experience, although I’d be more inclined to call it interactive fiction. Numerous dialogue choices lead you down different paths, affect your relationship with the other characters, and influence the story in other ways.

Depending on how you answer certain questions at the start, you end up with various stats that open up new dialogue options and may provide different ways to approach situations. You also have 3 stats to keep an eye on, health, willpower, and rage. These can be spent to make certain choices and replenished through others.

There are a lot of characters, possibly too many for the few hours a single playthrough will take. I had trouble keeping track of the cast, let alone feeling like I’d made a bond with anyone.

Now, I mentioned at the start that I wasn’t familiar with this setting going into it. If I was, I might not have been as surprised when it turned out to be an environmentalist story about trying to save the forest and the clashes between different groups with different opinions about what should be done.

Plus werewolves. Partway through the story, the werewolf aspect comes into play, although by that point you’re so deep into the game that it feels more like it should be setting up a larger narrative.

Despite a single playthrough being fairly short, there are several paths to take. Since you can’t manually save, however, you have to start over to try different options. Because of that, I decided not to replay it. I was happy enough with my outcome, even if some of my choices didn’t work out the way I’d hoped.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest has some neat ideas, although it wasn’t quite what I expected. The werewolf aspect takes a backseat to the environmentalism, and it feels shorter than it should be. The premise feels like it should set up a creepy, atmospheric story, but it didn’t quite work for me. However, since it’s part of a larger universe, maybe it appeals more to fans already invested in its lore.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Textorcist

Today, we’re actually going to discuss a game that I’ll probably never finish but still want to give a shout-out in this year’s spooky celebration.

The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia is a bullet hell typing game in which you play as an exorcist standing against the forces of darkness.

Your demonic foes attack with tons of projectiles that you must dodge, and your means of fighting back is to perform exorcisms – by typing out the words as they appear.

(…It just occurred to me while writing this post that the forces of hell use bullet hell attacks; that has to be intentional.)

This is a bizarre blend of genres in which you’ll frantically dodge projectiles until you get a brief window between attacks, at which point you’ll type as fast as many words as you can before you need to dodge again. Of course, you can also try typing with one hand while you dodge.

If you get hit, you drop your Bible and need to retrieve it to continue typing. If you take too long to get it back, however, you’ll need to start your current prayer over from the beginning. And if you get hit when you aren’t holding the Bible, you lose one of your precious hearts.

The Textorcist is a little creepy, pretty funny, and such a unique idea that I can’t help but love it… but it’s also brutally hard.

I’ve never been much of a bullet hell player, and dodging all those attacks while finding time to type in between pushed the limits of what I can do. Fights also take a while, as they’re all lengthy boss fights and sometimes have dialogue partway through. Lose all your hearts, and you start the fight over. The game also only saves after each battle, so if you take a break from a fight and quit the game, you’ll need to watch the preceding scenes again.

(Technically you can skip dialogue, but it seems like it won’t skip anything with animations, so you need to rewatch some parts and skip multiple times if you’re repeating a scene.)

The Textorcist is a unique game that I wish I could finish, and maybe someday I’ll return to it, but right now the frustration of attempting these boss fights over and over and over caused me to reluctantly set it aside. However, if you love typing and bullet hell games, it’s well worth a look.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Dracula: Love Kills

Two years ago, we talked about the adventure game Dracula: Origin, which I got in a bundle of adventure games years ago.

Now it’s time to discuss the sequel, Dracula: Love Kills.

Dracula isn’t the antagonist this time around. Instead, he’s the one you’re playing as!

After the events of Dracula: Origin, Dracula wakes up to find that the world is in danger from the Queen of Vampires, and so he sets out on a journey to find the artifacts he needs to gain the power needed to defeat her… even if that means working together with his enemy.

Unlike the first game, which was a standard point-and-click adventure game, Dracula: Love Kills retains only some of those elements and instead is mostly a hidden object game.

You’ll inspect each environment, play hidden object sections that give you a cluttered array of objects to search for the listed items, and solve puzzles to progress. The gameplay is fine, although it gets a bit repetitive. What makes things a bit more interesting is that you also unlock new vampire powers as you go, which you must use to find certain items as long as you have enough blood.

It’s really just a matter of having a different way to interact with certain key spots, but it was still nice to get new powers.

At certain points, you also have a choice of whether or not to bite someone, although there are plenty of blood vials scattered around if you choose not to. It’s mainly there for story purposes, as there are two different endings depending on your actions.

The story is pretty basic, and I found Igor more annoying than funny, but I enjoyed the premise of Dracula and Van Helsing joining forces against a greater threat. Overall, Dracula: Love Kills was a decently enjoyable vampire game with a good theme for Halloween.

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