Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 50

New Atelier Game Teased

With TGS less than two weeks away, Koei Tecmo is teasing a new Atelier game.

This was largely expected already. Koei Tecmo’s TGS schedule includes a spot for a new game from Gust.

While Gust develops other games besides Atelier (I wouldn’t mind seeing more from Blue Reflection in the future), they almost always release a new Atelier game each year, so an announcement felt likely.

Well, in the new Atelier 25th Anniversary Trailer celebrating the series, they tease the next title directly.

The trailer walks through the entire series, from Atelier Marie back in 1997 all the way up through this year’s Atelier Sophie 2, although it skips spin-offs like Nelke. At the end, after showing frames for all the protagonists, it focuses on a new frame and shows glimpses of new environments and locations.

I’ve been expecting Atelier Ryza 3 to be the next Atelier game, since Ryza has been a big seller and they usually make each cluster of games a trilogy. The music at the end of the trailer sounds like Atelier Ryza music, so that supports the idea.

However, fans have pointed out that since the new game gets its own picture frame in the teaser, that might mean it’s a new protagonist. The trailer also specifically referred to Atelier Ryza and Atelier Ryza 2 as the Secret series, not the Ryza series. Ryza’s voice actress also sent a tweet that many fans are taking to mean she’s involved, which would most likely make it a third Ryza/Secret game, but she could just be restating her appreciation for being in the series rather than specifically saying she’s in the new game. In short, the clues are pointing toward a third game in that world, but the specifics aren’t clear yet.

Whatever it is, the glimpses from the trailer look like it’ll be a beautiful world.

(Meanwhile, am I the only one bothered by Atelier Lulua appearing with the other Arland games in the trailer but Atelier Sophie 2 not being grouped with the Mysterious series?)

If you’ll recall, the Atelier 25th Anniversary was set to include 6 new Atelier projects. Of these, the first was Atelier Sophie 2, the second was a collaboration with Tales of Arise, and the website still lists the remaining four as unannounced. One is certainly this new game, but that still leaves us with three unknown projects. Is it too late to hope for a remastered collection of some of the older games?

This trailer reminded me painfully of the huge backlog of Atelier games I have, but I’m still looking forward to seeing the new game when it’s announced at TGS! What do you hope the new Atelier game is?

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RGG Studio Sneak Peek Trailer Set for September 8

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has an upcoming short broadcast set for September 8.

It will be held at 20:00 JST, which is 7 AM ET, so I doubt I’ll catch it live.

They do these short broadcasts every now and then, but this one is titled “Sneak Peek Trailer Brought to You by the Director!”

So we’ll be getting a trailer!

Since they’ve already confirmed and even teased Yakuza 8, that feels like the most likely possibility, the first actual trailer for the next Yakuza game. On the other hand, we also know RGG Studio has multiple games in development, so it could well be something else. It doesn’t even have to be a Yakuza game.

(Obligatory wish for Kenzan/Ishin remasters, nevertheless.)

The broadcast is less than a week away, so we don’t have long to wonder. What do you think RGG Studio’s upcoming sneak peek trailer will be for?

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Kingdom Hearts Dark Road: An Emotional Finale

It’s finally time to talk about Kingdom Hearts Dark Road.

When the Kingdom Hearts mobile game was shut down, Square Enix decided that Dark Road would be completed as an offline app, which I greatly appreciate.

Don’t get me wrong, Dark Road still has gameplay built around the idea that you’ll set combat to auto and grind endless battles while you do other things, but now that it’s offline, I could do that without worrying it might lose the Internet connection partway through.

That doesn’t make it any more fun, though.

In fact, starting Dark Road now probably feels grindier than ever since there are no longer daily/weekly/monthly events to help you level. But as someone who had played up until the closure, I found myself at a high enough level to make it through the finale content without too much trouble (aided by my stockpile of revive items).

You’ll never catch me saying Dark Road was fun to play… but it’s worth it for the story.

The early chapters of Dark Road doled out its story in tiny snippets interspersed with far too many grindy battles, but the finale made some major improvements in that regard.

First, battles are much less frequent. There are still some quests that just give you a string of enemies to fight, but the majority had story content.

Second, these chapters lock you into a certain party. One of my biggest criticisms of the story before this was that who you added to your party didn’t seem to matter, making the supporting characters feel interchangeable. Now that the party members were locked in, and therefore the quests could have scenes related to the specific characters in them beyond just Xehanort and Eraqus, the characters felt much more real and distinct.

Third and most importantly, the finale has some of the best story moments of Dark Road that make it (much like KHUX) a story that deserves better than a mobile game many people will probably ignore.

After that first chapter, I expected Dark Road might have some emotional moments, but I was still taken aback by how bleak some aspects of the finale feel. This might be the darkest Kingdom Hearts game.

Click for Dark Road spoilersThey set it up with that early flash-forward to Xehanort visiting the graves, but watching the most of the cast be murdered – not turned into Heartless/Nobodies, straight-up killed – was brutal.

And the scene of Baldr falling to darkness was chilling.

Aside from these emotional scenes, it also has some comedic moments that really made the characters feel like a group of friends.

(The carpet conversation was pure gold.)

It also had some interesting twists, one which I definitely should have seen coming but had forgotten all about, one that completely took me by surprise, and some that have me questioning what will happen next.

Click for Dark Road spoilersBragi being Luxu… okay. Okay. I really thought the name being so similar to Braig was a coincidence, but nope! That said, the actual reveal was fantastic. Having him reference vessels and wanting to keep his body made me realize it was him, and then just following it with a casual “As if!”? Yeah, that was great.

On the other hand, the Player reincarnating into the blue-robed figure is insane, because I (like nearly everyone else) completely took that KHUX ending scene to mean the Player reincarnated as Xehanort! For it to actually be the mysterious character WITH baby Xehanort, that was clever.

And then there’s stuff like Xehanort saying he’d want 14 lives, 13 to rebuild the world and 1 to explore the new world… is that a hint that we’re going to see him again?

The story of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is still on my mind, especially how somber and impactful some of those later scenes were. I only wish this story was available as something other than a tedious mobile game.

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is not particularly fun to play, but its story makes it well-worth experiencing. I had some concerns when it was delayed, but the wait for the finale was definitely worth it.

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Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood Kickstarter is Live Now!

On Friday we discussed the exciting announcement of Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood, and now the Kickstarter campaign is live!

Once again, this is a double Kickstarter to fund both a Wild Arms spiritual successor and a Shadow Hearts spiritual successor.

I love both series, so I had to jump on this.

The platforms are now clear: the initial funding goal is for PC, there is a console stretch goal for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and a Nintendo option will be included in case a Switch successor comes out in the meantime; if one doesn’t, they’ll work something out with people who chose it.

(So no Armed Fantasia or Penny Blood on Switch.)

When I first heard about this Kickstarter, I thought it might be confusing for someone who is only interested in backing one of the games, not both. It turns out I was wrong. This Kickstarter is much more confusing if you want both.

Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood each have a nice selection of tiers with various rewards, but only a handful of tiers include both games. Some rewards are available as add-ons, although they’re somewhat expensive and are missing some notable options, like the soundtrack CDs.

I would have liked to get physical copies of both games and both soundtracks, but that seems to be impossible at the moment outside of the super high tier that includes everything. They’ve said in replies to comments that additional add-ons might be possible through backerkit later on.

So the tiers are a bit confusing right now, and there’s also a lot of stuff about community goals and how supporting them for one game or the other will work that seems a little complicated, but if you’re interested in one or both of these JRPGs, check out the Kickstarter!

(I was going to review Dark Road today, but we’ll have to save that for next time.)

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Spiritual Successors to Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts Announced for Double Kickstarter

I keep hoping for a new Wild Arms announcement. I keep hoping for a Shadow Hearts revival, too.

But in the absence of those two things, spiritual successors have been announced.

Yes, one for each.

WILD BUNCH Productions, founded by Wild Arms creators, has announced Armed Fantasia: To the Ends of the Wilderness, a large-scale JRPG inspired by Wild Arms.

At the same time, YUKIKAZE, founded by Shadow Hearts creators, has announced gothic horror JRPG Penny Blood, inspired by Shadow Hearts.

The two will hold a joint Kickstarter for these games, with a combined funding goal of $750,000 for PC releases. The campaign will begin on August 29.

Overviews of the two games, along with information about how the joint Kickstarter will work, are detailed here by Gematsu. An interview with the two development teams also sheds further light on them.

What stands out to me the most is that these two games are fully embracing their inspirations. Armed Fantasia looks like Wild Arms, and Penny Blood looks like Shadow Hearts.

(According to the interview, the Armed Fantasia characters being called Pathfinders is even just a different translation of the same Japanese word that was translated as Drifters in Wild Arms.)

Armed Fantasia is aiming to have a “gigantic” world map, with the aim being a world map “so big that there isn’t a word to express how big it is.” That makes me a little nervous, both because this is a crowdfunded project and because having your goal just be to have the biggest map possible doesn’t feel to me like the best priority. However, it also sounds like there’s a chance that it’ll be a traditional JRPG world map, which would make me very happy.

Moving on to Penny Blood, while it looks like a Shadow Hearts successor through and through (it’s not visible in any of the screenshots, but the interview describes a “Psycho Sigil” that sounds like the new version of the Judgement Ring), it stands out from its predecessors by involving murder investigations. According to the interview, sub-quests will feature “fingerprinting, voiceprint profiling, mental profiling such as Rorschach tests, and other pioneering methods of criminal profiling.”

One concern I had initially is that the funding goal seems low for this sort of project, but it sounds like the Kickstarter is intended to be used to demonstrate interest and get a publisher on board. With as ambitious as these games look, I hope they succeed.

So a Wild Arms spiritual successor and a Shadow Hearts spiritual successor that’s also a detective game; I haven’t been this excited for a Kickstarter in quite a while! Check out the articles I linked above to learn more about the games, and then join me in waiting for the Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood Kickstarter campaign to go live!

What are your thoughts on Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood?

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Gamescom 2022 Opening Night Highlights

Yesterday was the Gamescom Opening Night live stream, and none of my hopes/predictions came true.

There weren’t any huge surprises, either.

But it still had some good trailers, so here are a few of the highlights that stood out to me.

I’ve never played Lords of the Fallen, but about a year ago, the first details came out about the in-development Lords of the Fallen 2. So when a trailer dropped the phrase “the lords of the fallen” partway through, I knew we were seeing a trailer for Lords of the Fallen 2.

Except that’s not what it’s titled now. It’s titled The Lords of the Fallen.

Yes, they dropped the 2. No, it’s not a remake. It’s confirmed to be a soft reboot, but also a sequel, set 1000 years after the first game.

So now we have Lords of the Fallen and its sequel, THE Lords of the Fallen. I assume they want to make it clear that you can start with this one, but I expect it to cause a lot of confusion instead.

Now, I really got excited when Brandon Sanderson appeared ahead of a game’s announcement, since he’s one of my favorite writers. The game itself, Moonbreaker, is a turn-based tactics game with digital mini-figures like for a tabletop game, which you can digitally paint and everything.

It’s not my typical sort of game, but since Brandon Sanderson is involved, maybe I’ll check it out.

Meanwhile, a new trailer was revealed for Lies of P, the steampunk Souls-like based on Pinocchio. Yes, Pinocchio. I was interested in it when it was first announced, and this newest trailer makes it look even more intriguing. I love the dark fairytale vibe it has going.

Another new game announcement that caught my attention was Atlas Fallen, a semi-open world action RPG that I wasn’t too sure about at first, but became more interested in as time went on.

Wyrdsong and Where Winds Meet also look interesting, although since they’re both open world, I’m not sure if I’d enjoy them.

Other Gamescom highlights include Hideo Kojima making an appearance, at which point I thought my Death Stranding 2 prediction was about to come true, only for him to announce a podcast.

A car was also announced. A car. It has a Pokémon theme. I sat through the whole presentation and I still don’t understand what that was about.

Anyway, these are a few things that stood out to me from the Gamescom 2022 Opening Night live stream. What games are you most interested in?

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Birushana is a Thrilling Historical Fantasy Otome

Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei is an otome I was practically counting down the days to.

It’s a historical fantasy visual novel set during the time of the Genpei War, with a twist: Shanao, the youngest son of the Genji, is actually a woman, disguised as a man to fight.

Now, I know very little about this period of history, so I can’t speak to how many liberties it took with the historical setting aside from the obvious fantasy elements that show up in the form of a mysterious power Shanao possesses.

But this sort of setting, with a war going on and love interests on both sides, caught my attention as soon as I heard about it, and I was so excited to get started.

I knew I was in for quite a ride when I finished my first route, which had some unexpectedly intense situations and moments where I thought I’d gotten a bad ending until the story kept going, and then saw that a lot of fans considered it to be the boring one. I disagree on that, but Birushana is filled with high-stakes situations and intense confrontations.

There are five love interests, and I ended up liking them all, more or less. One I found a little boring, and another I thought needed a bit more of a gradual development in his route, but I didn’t dislike any of them.

Click for Birushana spoilersI’m talking about Tomomori with that second comment. I love him as a creepy obsessive villain, and I also love that he ends up being surprisingly sweet and devoted, but the shift from one to the other felt too abrupt for me. I needed creepy and sweet to intersect a little more before Shanao started caring for him.

The shining star of this story for me is Yoritomo, whom I started off feeling lukewarm toward but ended up adoring, as his route spoke directly to my kuudere-loving heart. Meanwhile, Noritsune’s route isn’t far behind, since it features some of my favorite romance tropes.

Birushana also does something wonderful. Like many otome games, it has a number of side characters whom I immediately wished were love interests. But instead of just sidelining them, four of the side characters have short mini-routes of their own, unlocked upon completing a main route.

These were delightful, a perfect touch.

Click for Birushana spoilersEspecially Shigehira, what the heck?? He’s even crazier than his brother, so I was amazed at how fun his story was.

The common route is deceptively short, because there are a handful of common scenes that occur within the routes themselves. Fortunately, the game recognizes most of these as read if you’ve already seen them once. On the other hand, there are a couple of scenes that show up nearly word-for-word in multiple scenes and yet the game always treated them as unread text, which was slightly annoying. The dictionary also bugged me, because it notifies you of entries even if you’ve already scene them before.

But those are minor complaints about what was overall a wonderful experience. There are also some grammar issues (Birushana does not like commas), but not enough to bother me too much.

Shanao is a great protagonist, and I love how Birushana handled fight scenes. Although it’s a visual novel, the characters clash with one another convincingly enough (especially as they all have both front and back view sprites) to bring the action to life.

Birushana was a delight. I read each route slowly at first, but once I’d reach the later chapters, I’d find myself unable to put it down as the stakes rose higher and higher. If you like historical fantasy and otome, I highly recommend it. Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting in the hopes that they decide to localize the fandisc (which gives those side characters full routes) as well!

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Gamescom 2022 Hopes and Dreams

Gamescom is fast approaching, with the opening night broadcast set for August 23 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET.

I, of course, have my hopes set on TGS for potential Ace Attorney news (please), but that doesn’t mean I don’t have hopes for Gamescom.

Last year, Gamescom Opening Night included a new trailer for Lost Judgment, so I’m hoping RGG Studio will have a presence there once again.

Maybe a Yakuza 8 trailer is too much to expect – that’s another one I’d expect to be announced at a Japanese event first – but I haven’t given up on hoping they’ll reveal Kenzan and Ishin localizations in the works. Or maybe they’ll shock everyone with a Judgment PC port, since a lot of people are hoping for that.

Sega is among the companies confirmed to be there, so there’s hope.

Another company that will be at Gamescom is Bandai Namco. Last year, they announced the short-lived Tales of Luminaria, so I can’t help but wish for the announcement of a new Tales game or a remaster of one of the older ones. My heart is still set on the games that were never translated before, but I’d be happy with anything besides another doomed mobile game.

Finally, I think they’ll announce a Death Stranding sequel, which has been widely rumored because of stuff like Norman Reedus saying he worked on Death Stranding 2. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut was announced at last year’s Gamescom, 505 Games is confirmed to be there, and they just announced that Death Stranding (base game) is coming to Game Pass for PC, with perfect timing if they want to build up to something.

So there are my hopes and dreams for Gamescom this year, while I continue to pin even more hopes on TGS. What do you think (or hope) will be announced?

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Square Enix Collective Announces Horror RPG Little Goody Two Shoes

Square Enix Collective will be publishing a horror RPG called Little Goody Two Shoes, developed by AstralShift.

Square Enix Collective is Square Enix’s indie publishing service, which previously published games like Forgotton Anne, Goetia, and Tokyo Dark.

(Those first two have since had their publishing rights revert back to the developers.)

Meanwhile, AstralShift previously developed a gothic horror RPG called Pocket Mirror, which is getting a remastered version that I’ll definitely look into now.

Square Enix introduced Little Goody Two Shoes today through a number of tweets written from the perspective of the game’s main character, Elise.

The tweets show some short gameplay clips and character interactions, along with the ominous comment that “sacrifices” may be required for Elise to find a way out of the superstitious village of Keiferberg.

The gameplay style and story premise already have me interested.

According to Gematsu, Little Goody Two Shoes is an homage to PS1 and PS2 RPGs in which players will “complete their daily tasks by day and uncover the woodland’s darkest secrets by night.” Puzzle-solving and relationship-building are also part of the game.

I’m pretty intrigued by this game, so I’ll be keeping an eye on it for sure! What are your thoughts on Little Goody Two Shoes?

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Alone in the Dark Reimagining Announced

On Friday, THQ Nordic held a showcase in which a new Alone in the Dark game was announced.

(It was less of a surprise than it should have been, since a site accidentally posted details about it early that morning.)

Titled simply Alone in the Dark, it’s a reimagining of the original Alone in the Dark from 1992.

Like you might guess from that release date, Alone in the Dark was a key game for the survival horror genre and is one of the earliest survival horror games ever.

According to the official website, this new entry is “a completely original story” but will “incorporate characters, places and themes from the 90’s original trilogy.”

I’m not entirely sure why they would reimagine the game with a new story instead of making it an all-new entry, but that seems to be the approach.

Alone in the Dark will be written by Mikael Hedberg, who wrote Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA, and is described as having elements of Lovecraftian horror. I’ve never played the original Alone in the Dark games, but it sounds like it’s right up my alley, so there’s no way I can miss this one.

Meanwhile, Steam has a bundle of Alone in the Dark games that includes the original trilogy and the 2008 entry, so maybe I should pick those up to play in the meantime!

Are you interested in the new Alone in the Dark? Have you played the originals?

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