Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 35

Corpse Party II: Darkness Distortion Announced for 2024

A new Corpse Party game has been announced!

Corpse Party II: Darkness Distortion is set for a 2024 release in Japan. Platforms haven’t been given yet.

According to Gematsu, the new game has been described as “an all-new entry and true sequel to the series.”

You might find yourself puzzled by this news, thinking that Corpse Party II already exists. The series’ play order was already confusing, and it looks like it just got a bit more so.

Yes, it seems this is a different game entirely from Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient, which I included on a list of upcoming horror games back in 2018. That one is an episodic game intended to be released in four parts, but only the first chapter and an extra chapter are out.

Meanwhile, Darkness Distortion was first teased 3 years ago in a short video that ran through the timeline of the series before showing the words “Darkness Distortion.”

Now it’s finally been officially announced as a new entry in the Corpse Party series.

In between Corpse Party and Dead Patient are three other games, Book of Shadows, Birthday Bash, and Blood Drive, all of which are canon parts of the series. At least the 2021 remake is the most definitive version of the first Corpse Party, which previously made the series look even more daunting thanks to multiple versions that each had various added content.

Will Dead Patient ever be finished? Who knows? But I’m excited to see a new game announced. I enjoyed the 2021 Corpse Party remake, and I’m looking forward to progressing through the series ahead of Darkness Distortion.

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Like a Dragon: Ishin: The Whole is Greater Than the Parts

When I got into the Yakuza series and learned of the existence of Ishin, a spin-off set in the samurai era, it jumped to the top of the list of games I most wanted to see localized.

After years of hoping and wondering, its localization was finally announced last year in an exciting State of Play.

Now I’ve finally finished it.

Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of the original Ishin with some changes and additions, the most notable one being changing several characters’ appearances to match those of characters from Yakuza games that came out since then.

You see, even though Ishin has its own cast primarily based on historical figures, they all share the likenesses of characters from the mainline series.

For example, you play as Sakamoto Ryoma (who is also Saito Hajime, because Ishin has fun playing around with historical details for the sake of its story), but he looks and sounds like Kiryu.

Ryoma pointing Ace Attorney style during a mochi theft substory

(And let me tell you, I’m not going to be able to play Hakuoki any time soon, because most of the love interests in that game are historical figures who are also in Ishin.)

It was a lot of fun waiting to see whenever a new character was introduced if it would be someone I recognized from the main series. Despite falling back on their main series counterparts from time to time if I forgot someone’s name, I eventually got used to their roles here.

So, was Like a Dragon Ishin as good as I hoped, after anticipating it for so long? I find my feelings on this one to be almost contradictory.

The story in Ishin is interesting enough. I feel like some of its plot points would hit harder if I was more familiar with the historical context. For the first time, I understood the concerns that Ishin wouldn’t resonate as well with an audience that doesn’t know Japanese history. However, while it lacked the real emotional pull that kept me on the edge of my seat in games like Yakuza 0 and Judgment, it was still exciting enough for me to be invested in the story.

Combat is fine, a little difficult to get used to at first because of its different styles. You have a traditional brawler style, but also swordsman style, gunman style, and wild dancer style, in which you wield a sword in one hand and a gun in the other. Despite initially trying to balance my use of them, I ended up using swordsman almost always. And I have to say, even if they gave me trouble at times, sword battles are as cool as I’d hoped.

One change from the original Ishin is that you now get “troopers” to equip, which basically give you special abilities to use on a cooldown. While I didn’t use the trooper system a whole lot, I liked having those extra powers to assist in tricky situations.

I do have a minor combat nitpick, which is that bosses don’t have multiple health bars, so instead you chip away at one big health bar. Even if it’s functionally the same, seeing those health bars disappear makes it feel like I’m doing more damage.

My other criticism of Ishin relates to its substories. Don’t get me wrong, Ishin has some really great, funny substories! However, a significant number of them just introduce you to a new friend, and then the substory ends. The friendship system, meanwhile, has far too many where you need to give the NPC an item, then come back later to give them another item, over and over until their friendship gauge fills up. You can’t give them the items all at once, and there are so many friendships like this that it feels tedious. On the other hand, a lot of the stories surrounding these friendship were amusing and/or heartwarming.

A lot of the usual mini-games return, as well as some new ones. I love the Edo-style remixes of the karaoke songs, which made this my favorite iteration of karaoke. Meanwhile, the courtesan’s mini-games frustrated me to no end, but made up for it by being some of the most hilariously what-the-heck mini-games in the series. Never change, RGG Studio. Please.

Finally, Ishin is yet another in the series that has a sizeable side activity alongside the other content. This time, it’s farming. Yes, you get a little house with a little farm, where you can grow crops, cook meals, and fulfill customer orders by selling your crops/fish/etc. It’s simple, yet addicting, and gives the game a strangely cozy feel despite the main story being bloody and violent.

(You can also adopt cats and dogs and interact with them at your home, which is already enough to make Ishin climb a few ranks.)

And this is where we come to my contradictory feelings about Ishin. Does it have the best story in the series? No. Does it have the best combat? No. Does it have the best substories? No. Does it have the best side content? No. Yet all of these aspects are enjoyable enough, and without any glaring flaws, that Ishin rose above many other games in the series for me and stands among my favorites.

Despite burning out on the amount of tedious activities for completion and being ready to finish the game, part of me didn’t want to leave. I wanted to keep tending my farm and visiting my friends in the city forever. I wish we could return to Kyo like how we always return to Kamurocho, except I know being historical fiction means it can’t be done in the same way.

All the different aspects of Like a Dragon: Ishin came together to make it a game that I really enjoyed, even if it doesn’t excel in any one area.

Now I’ll return to working through the main series and hoping Kenzan gets the same treatment someday.

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Will a New Tales Game Be Announced Soon?

Can you believe it’s coming up on two years since Tales of Arise?

Lately I’ve found myself wondering when the next Tales game will be announced.

Two years isn’t such a long time to wait for most series, but the 5-year gap between Berseria and Arise was unusual for Tales, and even then, Arise was announced in 2019.

Now, the time since Arise hasn’t been completely devoid of Tales games. Tales of Luminaria, the latest in their long line of ill-fated mobile games, came out in January 2022 and shut down 6 months later. Tales of Symphonia also got a remaster, although one of questionable enough quality compared to the other versions that I didn’t get it despite it being one of my favorite games of all time.

But neither of those is enough to keep me from looking forward to the next Tales announcement, whether it’s the next entry in the series or another remaster. For that matter, we still don’t know what Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn is.

It would be strange for DLC to come out after all this time, so an adaptation feels more likely now.

(Meanwhile, in that post from when Beyond the Dawn’s trademark first surfaced, I lamented the lack of news related to Capcom’s Apollo Justice trademark, so I’m happy to look back on that now that we have the Apollo Justice Trilogy coming next year.)

Some sort of Tales news is set for this Thursday at 4 AM PT / 7 AM ET, but it’s not clear if it’ll be a game announcement or something else entirely. I have my fingers crossed, though.

When do you think the next Tales game will be announced?

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Atelier Announcement and Pokémon Presents Both Set for August 8

August 8 looks like it could be an exciting morning for video game news.

First, there’s a new Atelier announcement coming on August 8 at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET.

While not specifically stated, this is widely expected to be a new game.

Gust is the company that never sleeps, as they already released Atelier Ryza 3 back in March, as well as the Atelier Marie remake last month. If they are announcing a new game, I’d expect it to be for 2024. Three Atelier games in one year would be a bit much even for them.

With the Ryza trilogy concluded, a lot of fans are expecting this to be the start of a new Atelier trilogy. However, some fans are hoping for a fourth entry in one of the older trilogies or another remake.

Since the first game, Atelier Marie, was just remade, it’s possible they could follow it with a remake of the second Atelier game, Atelier Elie. In an interview with Siliconera, Gust Executive Officer Junzo Hosoi said their goal is to eventually have the entire Atelier series available digitally.

Atelier feels like a series I’ll never catch up on, because they release new games so fast. Still, my enjoyment of Atelier Ryza left me really interested in digging into the series more.

Moving on, the Pokémon Company announced a Pokémon Presents for that same morning at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET. It will last 35 minutes. That’s long for a Pokémon Presents, which usually run around 15-25 minutes.

The announcement tweet includes a short video, which shows the announcement glitch out into a neon purple version before reverting back. What this means, I don’t know. The neon aesthetic is reminiscent of the first Detective Pikachu movie, while some fans think it’s a hint at a Mewtwo event for Scarlet & Violet.

One way or another, we’ll find out on August 8. I’d love to see more of Detective Pikachu Returns, and I have my fingers crossed that the rumors of a new Unova game (especially one in the style of Pokémon Legends) might be true.

August 8 could be a great day for RPG fans! What are your hopes for the Pokémon Presents? What about the new Atelier announcement? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments!

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Fantasian Appears on SteamDB

Fantasian is a game I’ve had my eye on ever since it was first announced.

The most recent game to come from Hironobu Sakaguchi’s company Mistwalker, Fantasian is a turn-based JRPG reminiscent of classic Final Fantasy, and it looks fantastic.

However, it’s currently exclusive to Apple Arcade.

Back in December, when we learned of a new Mistwalker game in development, I mentioned that I finally had a device capable of playing Fantasian. Indeed, I used the Apple Arcade free trial that came with my new iPad to start Fantasian a few months ago.

I really like what I’ve played so far… and I really dislike playing it on a tablet.

It looked like there was no port in sight, but now that might finally be changing. Fantasian has appeared on SteamDB, the site that tracks everything in Steam’s database. While there’s no official announcement yet, this could mean an impending Fantasian PC port.

Since I’ve only played the start so far, I’d be more than happy to buy Fantasian on PC and play it there instead. Having it on consoles would be even nicer, but I’m just excited at the possibility that it might be finally leaving Apple Arcade exclusivity.

Will you play Fantasian if it’s finally ported?

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Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Weird, Dark, and Worth Playing

So when I finished Danganronpa 2 back in May, I wasn’t sure which entry to move onto next.

In the end, I decided to go with Ultra Despair Girls first and from there proceed to 3 and then finally V3, so let’s talk about Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.

(Note: It’s impossible to completely avoid spoilers for the first Danganronpa while discussing Ultra Despair Girls, so if you haven’t played the first game, you might want to stop reading here.)

Set in between Danganronpa and Danganronpa 2, Ultra Despair Girls puts you in the shoes of Komaru Naegi, Makoto’s younger sister. As part of the motives for the first game, she was kidnapped and imprisoned in a mysterious apartment. Things take a turn for the worse when the city comes under attack by hundreds of Monokumas, and Komaru ends up joining forces with Toko in order to escape.

Now, I was a little worried about what it would be like to spend an entire game with Toko as a companion… but it actually turned out to be great!

This is basically Toko Character Development: The Game, and she (both regular Toko and Genocide Jack) have some great scenes that are among the most standout moments of the game for me. While she and Komaru clash terribly at the start, their interactions are a definite highlight.

Unlike the main series, Ultra Despair Girls isn’t a visual novel or adventure game. It’s largely a third-person shooter, as Komaru gets a special gun that allows her to fight back against the Monokumas. Over the course of the game, you get different bullets that have different effects. You also have a special meter that allows you to switch to Toko, who (as Genocide Jack) uses powerful melee attacks and special moves. Defeating enemies rewards you with Monokuma Coins, which you can spend on enhancements for your bullets or upgrades for Genocide Jack.

Gameplay also has a decent puzzle component. While some of these are riddles, there are also a number of challenge rooms where you’re tasked with killing all the Monokumas in a specific way. Figuring out how to use different bullets and the way different Monokuma variants react to them to meet the challenge’s criteria was one of my favorite parts.

And although exploration isn’t a huge part of the game, it’s worth poking around optional paths for the numerous collectibles, including notes that shed light on the grim occurrences in the city.

Speaking of which, this is probably the darkest Danganronpa game, easily darker than the first two. While death is a constant focus in those games, it’s presented in such an over-the-top way that the games maintain a lighthearted tone, but Ultra Despair Girls shows events with a much bleaker mood despite still having humor and wacky Monokuma antics. Aside from the terrified survivors hiding from the rampaging Monokumas and vengeful children who will gleefully torture and kill them, the main antagonists are children whose backstories involve various types of child abuse, and the game doesn’t shy away from very heavy themes.

It also has one… questionable mini-game section that made me wonder how it got past the ESRB. (Or onto Steam… I feel like with the way Steam is nowadays, it would get banned if it came out today.)

But it’s still as bizarre and over-the-top as the other games in the series – maybe even more so. It’s weird even by Danganronpa standards, and however far you need to stretch your suspension of disbelief to accept the Tragedy in general, prepare to stretch it even further. The heavier themes just make its clash in tones a bit more jarring than usual.

There are plenty of little callbacks to the first game that I enjoyed, as well as a few connections to the second. Despite being set in between the two games, it does contain some spoilers for Danganronpa 2, although it takes a couple of steps possibly meant to mitigate how much it spoils.

Click for Ultra Despair Girls and implied Danganronpa 2 spoilersFor example, the scene with Izuru seems to go out of its way not to show his face, and Nagito wears a glove on his left hand for the entire game. While things like the Future Foundation are spoiled completely, little details like those made me think they wanted to obscure the biggest spoilers for anyone who played Ultra Despair Girls before Danganronpa 2.

Anyway, with as divisive as Ultra Despair Girls is among fans, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The gameplay was simple, but passable, and the story was interesting. It wasn’t included in the recent Danganronpa collection, so if you want to play Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, you’ll need to pick it up on Steam, PS4, or Vita. It’s pretty different from the others, but I’m happy I decided to play it after all.

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Eiyuden Chronicle Delayed to 2024, New Final Fantasy XIV Expansion Announced

Eiyuden Chronicle was one of my most-anticipated games of 2023, but it looks like I’ll have to push that to 2024.

Announced in 2020 with a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, Eiyuden Chronicle is a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series.

Everything about it looks great, so I’m pretty excited for it. While it was originally planned for 2022 and then moved to 2023, however, it’s now been delayed to Q2 2024.

I’m a little disappointed in the delay, but I’m so mired in my backlog right now that I don’t mind as much. Maybe by the time it comes out in 2024, I’ll be all caught up!

…All right, so that’s an unrealistic goal. Maybe I’ll at least have finished enough of my must-play titles to be ready to dive into Eiyuden on day one.

(The actual Suikoden series is supposed to see the HD remaster of Suikoden and Suikoden II released this year, too, but there haven’t been any updates in a while.)

Meanwhile, the new Final Fantasy XIV expansion was announced today! Titled Dawntrail, it’s set for summer 2024. That’s as much as I’ve seen about it, because I still need to avoid spoilers. The winner of our last contest tasked me with playing Stormblood, so at least I’m making progress! Maybe I’ll be completely caught up in time for this new expansion?

2024 is already shaping up to be a fantastic year for RPGs. Are you planning to play either of these? What other 2024 RPGs are you looking forward to?

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Dark Shadows: The Beginning (Episodes 1-209) – Overlooked, but Worthwhile

Last October, I reached the end of Dark Shadows, the gothic soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971.

Despite falling off in its final plot arc, it was a wonderful experience I hold near to my heart.

But since I have the complete series, yet started from the arrival of Barnabas, I’ve spent the time since then steadily watching the previous 209 episodes.

(Since the individual Dark Shadows collections start with episode 210, the early episodes are sold separately as Dark Shadows: The Beginning. All episodes are included in the complete set.)

For as much as these episodes are often overlooked, I enjoyed them quite a bit. While it starts out with no overt supernatural elements, those early episodes carry their own drama, and the slower parts of the show lead into more exciting plot arcs later on.

It was strange to watch these early episodes knowing how things would end up. During a murder mystery plot, I suspected the true culprit based on him being gone from the show by episode 210 and implied to be a villain. The arrival of Laura made me gasp because I recognized her from a later plotline. Character relationships and dynamics early on had me invested in how they would change to become the way I remembered them. It was an experience very different than if I’d started the series with episode 1.

Click for Dark Shadows spoilersI bet I would have suspected Sam Evans as the murderer if I’d started from episode 1. The evidence against Roger was too heavy, while subtler hints were being dropped about Sam. I think I would have jumped on that and missed the handful of clues hinting at Matthew.

Yet at the same time, many of the tense scenes were still tense even though I had a rough idea of how they would work out. There’s no reason to worry about the fate of a character I know will still be alive in later episodes… but I did. That’s a credit to the writing.

With the knowledge that Dark Shadows eventually becomes the supernatural show opera with Barnabas Collins as its lead character, it’s fascinating to watch the progression in these early episodes – from ghosts being referred to mainly metaphorically, to ambiguously supernatural elements, to the first on-screen appearance of a ghost in episode 70, to ghosts being used as part of the plot, to the Phoenix plotline and its explicitly supernatural antagonist, and finally to the build-up to Barnabas.

The Phoenix storyline is especially interesting, because it feels like Dark Shadows. Aside from the absence of Barnabas and other characters who would eventually become mainstays, the Phoenix story feels like it could have happened later in the show without feeling out of place. While the arrival of Barnabas would change the course of the series forever, it had already found its tone with the Phoenix.

Now I’ve come full circle and reached the arrival of Barnabas once again, with the full context of what is happening with the surrounding plot. It’s been such a long journey, but it’s worth it. I’m happy I have the Dark Shadows complete set, and I’m happy I went back and watched first 209 episodes after all. They’re often overlooked in favor of starting the show with Barnabas, but they’re definitely worth watching.

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Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 4: An Intriguing Change of Pace

Having just finished the third chapter of Higurashi, I’d normally take a longer break, but instead I decided to continue on and read Higurashi When They Cry – Ch. 4 Himatsubushi since it’s shorter than the rest and concludes the Question Arcs.

All of the chapters have taken different approaches so far, but Chapter 4 is the most noticeably different.

Instead of following Keiichi after his arrival in Hinamizawa, it’s set several years earlier and follows a young police officer visiting the town to investigate a kidnapping that could be related to the protests against the dam project.

It has less of an emphasis on horror, although it does have a few unsettling moments.

As I mentioned in my last review, I have theories about what’s going on that never quite seem to answer everything. In keeping with the chapters before it, this one adds a few more details that could support one idea or another but isn’t enough for me to put the pieces together yet.

Click for major Higurashi Chapter 4 spoilersRika’s apparent ability to see the future, particularly as shown in the TIPS from her mother’s point of view, make it seem more likely than ever that there’s a real supernatural element.

That, together with her wanting to escape her fate, could fit into my parallel timelines theory… maybe? Maybe she keeps seeing the future and changes things to try to avert it, and that’s how we get different outcomes?

On the other hand, her general predictions could be coincidence while her predictions of the upcoming deaths point to an elaborate conspiracy planned years in advance. Someone with the power the Sonozaki group has could theoretically arrange a sequels of deaths/disappearances to take place across years to create the illusion of a curse. That would still leave way too many questions about the other seemingly-supernatural incidents that have occurred in the previous episodes, though.

I don’t have too much to say about this chapter, although I found it to be an interesting change of pace. This also wraps up the “Question Arcs,” which means the next chapter starts the Answer Arcs… where we’ll get some answers at last, possibly.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next chapter brings!

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Could Breath of Fire Return?

Remember when Capcom had a turn-based JRPG series called Breath of Fire?

Breath of Fire feels like a forgotten series, with its last release being a 2016 Japan-exclusive mobile game that fans hated, and the last entry before that being from 2002.

But maybe we shouldn’t lose hope yet.

As part of its new “Capcom Town” feature, Capcom has been holding polls about various Capcom games.

The latest poll, which just ended on the 17th, asked fans if they wanted Sengoku Basara, Breath of Fire, or Capcom Arcade Stadium featured in the next Capcom Town museum exhibit.

Now the results are out (presented by Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, just as the previous poll’s results were, and I love that Capcom apparently considers Ace Attorney iconic enough to give them this role), and… Sengoku Basara won. But the international breakdown shows that Breath of Fire got 71% of the vote in North America and Europe, as well as 56% of the vote from countries under “Others.”

After the voting ended, Capcom also posted an additional poll on Twitter asking fans which Breath of Fire game they played first. They did a similar poll for Sengoku Basara, although only in Japanese.

While celebrating Capcom history is a big focus of Capcom Town, even this much attention being given to Breath of Fire is more than the series has seen in a while. With fans showing their love for the series, maybe Capcom will realize it’s popular enough to deserve a collection or even a new entry.

Breath of Fire III is still the only Breath of Fire game I’ve played, so I might not be in the best position to ask for more. But I love JRPGs, and I’d love to see the series return. It’s been my hope for a while now that the success of Monster Hunter Stories will show them that they have a market for turn-based RPGs.

In the meantime, maybe I should get around to playing the other Breath of Fire games that are still in my backlog…

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