Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 54
June 11, 2022
Not-E3 2022 Part 4: Guerrilla Collective and Wholesome Direct
Not-E3 2022 Schedule
Limited Run Games
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Summer Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox & Bethesda
PC Gaming Show
Capcom
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended
Today’s Not-E3 events kicked off with two showcases, the first of which was the Guerrilla Collective showcase. They started out with From Space, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, a dark-looking puzzle-platformer called Ugly, Boundary, and an RPG called Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms.
Then we reached the horror segment of the show (there have been a lot of horror games this Not-E3), with Daymare 1994: Sandcastle (the prequel to the previous Daymare, which I haven’t played yet), Signalis, Gravewood High, Madison, and the Fridge is Red. Of these, Signalis and The Fridge is Red look especially interesting to me.
The next games shown were Industria, South of the Circle, a remaster of This War of Mine, This Last Worker, Slope Crashers, and Cassette Beasts, which looks interesting to me, although it’s open world.
Contract Killer came next, followed by one I had a hard time reading the logo for, which turned out to be Rytmos. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge showed up again, then an intriguing RPG called Skald: Against the Black Priory.
BATS was also shown a second time, then a trailer for Arkanoid: Eternal Battle, and then another look at Nine Years of Shadows.
They then showed Wrestle Quests, Zoeti (which didn’t interest me, but did get my attention by being described as a “poker-based roguelike”), and then a quick montage trailer for Grid Force: Mask of the Goddess, Live by the Sword: Tactics, and NecroBoy: Path to Evilship.
The next game, though, was Alterium Shift, a turn-based RPG I really like the looks of.
Greedventory, Keylocker, and another look at Symphony of War were shown next, followed by Batora: Lost Haven and Asterigos: Curse of the Stars, which also looks like it could be cool.
An action-adventure game called XEL was next, then a magical school action game called Spells & Secrets, and a co-op platformer called River Tails: Stronger Together.
They also showed Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure, which I want to be excited for since I loved Earthlock, but it just makes me wish they’d made another turn-based RPG. (I know this is a spin-off, but Earthlock 2 is an open world action RPG.)
Time on Frog Island was followed by another look at Frogun, so I guess this was the frog section of the show. (Even though they pronounced Frogun like fro-gun.)
After that, they showed a game called I Am Future, Flateye, Garden In, Witch Strandings, Monster Outbreak, another look at The Cub, and then an action platformer called Mira: The Legend of the Djinns.
The expansion for Rain World was next, followed by Exo One, and an unusual game called Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography.
That was the last game in that showcase, but the Wholesome Direct started right afterwards!
Wholesome DirectIf I expected one thing from the Wholesome Direct, it was cute games, whether their genre interests me or not. Indeed, they had plenty of cute games, and they seemed determined to fit as many games into their showcase as possible.
Terra Nil from the other day returned, followed by Little Bear Chef, a musical game called Melodyssey, and Lumbearjack (I guess this was the bear segment?). The Garden Path, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain (one of many games in which you play as a witch), and 30 Birds followed. 30 Birds especially stands out because of its art style.
The next game was Mail Time, and then Usagi Shima, described as a “cozy, relaxing, bunny-collecting game.”
They moved on to A Walk With Yiayia, Chicken Journey, Island Skies, Freeride, How to Say Goodbye, and then an update coming to the game Calico.
Now, the next game is both interesting and frustrating for me. It’s called Paper Animal RPG, and it definitely took some inspiration from Paper Mario (even the logo), but apparently it’s a roguelike.
They showed a game called Fall of Porcupine, a VR game called the Last Clockwinder, a game about birds searching for love called Lovebirb, a match-3 puzzle game called Spirit Swap, the sequel to Coffee Talk, a musical game called Oddada.
Then Frogun got featured again (pronounced frog-un this time). Well, it is adorable and wholesome.
Garden Witch Life brought us yet another witch game, and then an update/expansion was announced for Princess Farmer, followed by the announcement of Ooblets leaving Early Access.
Bubblegum Galaxy, free DLC for Here Comes Niko, and Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley were featured after that, then Feed All Monsters, an update coming to Skatebird, an intriguing puzzle game called Paper Trail, and Passpartout 2.
A surprising number of frog games were shown in today’s showcases, and another cute one is the musical turn-based RPG A Frog’s Tale.
These showcases tend to have some unusual ones, so a donut factory puzzle game called Freshly Frosted came just ahead of a kaiju dating sim called Kaichu.
After that we got to learn about Wholesome – Out & About (a must for a Wholesome Direct, I suppose), Paradise Marsh, Gaucho and the Grassland, Lil Gator Game, We Are OFK, Potion Permit (potion games seem popular), Pixelshire, SCHiM (which does not stand for anything, despite the way it’s written), Pekoe, Bilkins’ Folly, and Kitori Academy, which is probably my favorite of the magical school games shown recently.
Several games remained in the showcase: Togges, Tracks of Thought, and one called DokiToki where you use the power of love to slow down time.
Critter Crops, Toroa, and The Spirit and the Mouse followed quickly, and then we got another look at the ever-adorable Snacko.
They then showed a game called A Little to the Left, and then a new trailer for Kokopa’s Atlas, which I remembered looking really cute… but this time they mentioned that it’s procedurally generated, which I either didn’t know or didn’t remember.
Two “village” games followed next, The Wandering Village and Lonesome Village.
And remember when I said they tried to fit in as many games as possible? That was never clearer than when they ran through a montage of quick game trailers that featured: Hamster on Rails, Garden of the Sea, Olliefrog Toad Skater, With You, Miska, Bread & Fred, Kity Builder, Garden In, Petit Island, Flore, Pine Hearts, Hello Goodboy, Harmony’s Odyssey, Seal World, Love Ghostie, Potion Prodigy, Moonstone Island, Super Mini Mart, Ova Magica, PaperKlay, Puzzles for Clef, Lemon Cake, Star Stuff, San Zoolin, Townseek, Skye Tales, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Tiny Witch, The Courier, The Hundred Year Kingdom, Lost Twins 2, and Bloom.
Finally, they ended with a game called Melotonin.
That was in for the Wholesome Direct, but don’t go away – we’ve still got one more showcase to cover today. Which were your favorites from the Guerrilla Collective 3 showcase and Wholesome Direct?
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June 10, 2022
Not-E3 2022 Part 3: Netflix, Tribeca, and Freedom Games
Not-E3 2022 Schedule
Limited Run Games
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Summer Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox & Bethesda
PC Gaming Show
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended
I was a little uncertain when I saw Netflix had a game showcase, but I decided to give it a chance. They started with trailers for two animated shows based on games, Dragon Age: Absolution and Tekken: Bloodline.
Then they started announcing games based on shows. First was Shadow and Bone: Destinies, a game I might be interested in if it wasn’t a mobile game. The next was a dating sim based on Too Hot to Handle, which I’m not familiar with at all, but it looked to me like a lot of mobile visual novels I’ve seen. Third was La Casa de Papel, a mobile heist game. Finally, they announced The Queen’s Gambit Chess, which as far as I can tell is just chess.
Moving back to shows based on games, they featured the Cuphead show.
Next was a platformer called Lucky Luna and a turn-based strategy game called Desta: The Memories Between, which was actually announced earlier this week. A new entry in the Reigns series was announced next, Reigns: Three Kingdoms. Then came Terra Nil, a reverse city builder, and Poinpy, a vertical climber.
Back to shows, they featured DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, Sonic Prime, and Castlevania: Nocturne. In between, they also announced some existing games that will be available with a Netflix subscription.
If you can’t tell, the Netflix gaming showcase didn’t exactly do much for me.
Epic GamesEpic Games also had a showcase today, but it was mainly focused on already-announced games coming to the Epic Games Store, so I’m not officially counting it as a Not-E3 show. One exception was Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, a new Epic-exclusive Lord of the Rings game.
Tribeca Games SpotlightThis was also our first year watching the Tribeca Games Spotlight, which focused on already-announced titles, with an extended look at each of them. Thirsty Suitors, The Cub, As Dusk Falls, and Venba don’t particularly interest me, but I did enjoy seeing more from A Plague Tale: Requiem.
They showed the Cuphead DLC again, and then Oxenfree 2. I enjoyed the first Oxenfree, although not as much as some people did, so it could be interesting.
After that, they showed Immortality, an interactive FMV game that looks like it could be pretty cool.
American Arcadia was featured once more as the final game in the show.
Freedom Games Summer ShowcaseThe final showcase today came from publisher Freedom Games. Like the previous showcase, most games had a small segment of the show devoted to it.
They started with an open world sandbox crafting game called Good Heavens!, and then shadow dropped a turn-based strategy RPG called Symphony of War.
Next was a survival game called Retreat to Enen, and then a mystery thriller called Broken Pieces that could be interesting.
After that, they showed a pixel art adventure game called Monorail Stories, an open world monster catching RPG called Monster Tribe, a cyberpunk action game called Neon Blight (not to be confused with yesterday’s Neon White), a multiplayer game called Against All Odds, and a space farming sim called One Lonely Outpost.
Nine Years of Shadows was the next game to get my attention, a Metroidvania that looks beautiful (but sadly was one of the only games not to be discussed beyond showing the trailer).
The next game was an open world zombie game called HumanitZ, then new content for the open world game Sands of Aura, and then a turn-based strategy game called Tyrant’s Blessing.
Meanwhile, Voltaire the Vegan Vampire is a bizarre concept I love, but since it’s described as an “action-farming-roguelite,” I don’t know that I’d actually enjoy playing it.
Terracotta was the next game shown, an action-adventure game that I definitely want to keep my eye on.
Open world deck-building survival game Death Drive was next, then Mars Base, and then Blood and Zombies. A montage of monster catching games was the last thing before the end.
Today was a somewhat slow day for me as far as showcases went, with only a couple of games that caught my eye. Still, what games from these showcases stood out the most to you?
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June 9, 2022
Not-E3 2022 Part 2: Summer Game Fest and Devolver Digital
Not-E3 2022 Schedule
Limited Run Games
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Summer Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox & Bethesda
PC Gaming Show
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended
Today brought us two E3 events, the first of which was the Summer Game Fest 2022 Showcase.
It began with another look at Street Fighter 6, which was previously shown at the State of Play last week. Next up was the announcement of Aliens: Dark Descent and then another look at The Callisto Protocol, which certainly looks like it will be a dark, intense game.
Then they spent a long, long time on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, before making the surprise announcement of Flashback 2, a sequel to 1992’s Flashback, which was remade in 2013. (Although apparently the original Flashback already has a sequel from 1995 called Fade to Black.)
Next up was the dark fantasy FPS Witchfire, followed by a thriller called Fort Solis that looks pretty interesting.
But oh my, I thought I was dreaming when I saw the next announcement, because the next game revealed was a sci-fi horror game called Routine.
Yes, that Routine. The Routine that was on my list of top 5 upcoming horror games back in 2014. The Routine we were still waiting for in 2017, when the developers promise fans it wasn’t cancelled. Honestly, so much time passed that I assumed it was cancelled after all, but Routine is back!
While I was still reeling from the shock of Routine being re-announced, they showed a movie trailer and then moved on to an Outriders expansion called Worldslayer, a montage of upcoming Switch games we already know about, and a new trailer for Fall Guys, which is going free-to-play, before revealing a real-time-strategy game called Stormgate.
Next was a turn-based strategy game called Highwater, a puzzle-platformer called American Arcadia, and a funny bait-and-switch trailer to announce Goat Simulator 3 (I’m pretty sure there is no Goat Simulator 2).
They showed Marvel’s Midnight Suns next, followed by a look at Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, and then a release date trailer for the first-person action game Neon White. Now, that caught my attention because Neon White was the focus of recent Nintendo Direct rumors, with the date theorized due to the belief that Neon White would be shadow dropped after a Direct.
So the shadow drop part isn’t true, but I’m still hoping for a Nintendo Direct.
The next game was Midnight Fight Express and then some new stuff for Warframe, and then it was time for two games from miHoYo, the developer behind Genshin Impact. Honkai: Star Rail is a turn-based strategy RPG set in space, while Zenless Zone Zero is an urban fantasy RPG. I’d be potentially interested in both, but they’re probably that same free-to-play model, which doesn’t appeal to me.
We got to see a new trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, DLC For Humankind, and a look at One Piece Odyssey. I’m not familiar with One Piece, but the game looks good.
Then after that came one I am interested in, Soul Hackers 2 from Atlus, with its first English dubbed trailer! I’ve never played the first Soul Hackers, but I picked it up during Atlus’s recent 3DS sale.
Capcom Arcade Stadium 2 was announced, followed by new trailers for Mario Strikers: Battle League, Metal: Hellsinger, and The Quarry. The Quarry looks interesting, and it’s from the same developers who made Until Dawn, which is on my list to play someday.
Open world survival crafting Nightingale came next, then another look at the new Saints Row, and then Warhammer 40k: Darktide.
Bloober Team then officially revealed the new Layers of Fear game they’d been teasing… Layers of Fears. At first I thought it was a new entry in the series, but apparently it’s some sort of remake/reimagining of the previous Layers of Fear games, with new story content.
After a new trailer for Gotham Knights, they finished with a long look at various projects related to The Last of Us, including a remake of the first game, and a standalone multiplayer game.
That was it for Summer Game Fest, with no sign of the games I was hoping to see (but quite a surprise with Routine).
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022Then, later in the evening, it was time for Devolver Digital’s show. If you did not watch, here is the link to the full show, because it was an insane experience as usual. This year’s show involved Suda51 as a giant robot and video game singularities.
In between their bizarre story sequences, they showed off trailers for Cult of the Lamb, Anger Foot, and Card Shark, and announced The Plucky Squire and Skate Story. Of these, the most interesting to me by far was The Plucky Squire, an action adventure platformer that includes both 2D and 3D worlds.
As usual, Devolver’s show was worth it for the entertainment alone. That was the last of the showcases today, but we have several more coming up tomorrow! What were your favorite announcements from today’s showcases?
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June 6, 2022
Not-E3 2022 Part 1: Limited Run Games LRG3
Not-E3 2022 Schedule
Limited Run Games
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase
Tribeca Games Spotlight
Freedom Games Summer Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox & Bethesda
PC Gaming Show
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended
The first showcase we’ll be covering for this Not-E3 season is from Limited Run Games. Of course, since LRG publishes physical editions of games that would otherwise be digital-only, their showcases usually focus on games that are already out or announced. Still, sometimes there are surprises. Let’s take a look.
To start with, their show was framed as an action story about agents fighting terrorist aliens… or something like that… while finding game trailers all over the place. I didn’t enjoy it, so let’s just talk about the games.
They announced physical editions for River City Girls 2, Undermine, Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, PowerSlave: Exhumed, Spidersaurs, Lunark, the Shadowrun Trilogy, and then a pair of games that caught my attention for how unexpected the announcement was, Go! Go! Kokopolo – Harmonious Forest Revenge and its sequel Go! Go! Kokopolo 3D – Space Recipe for Disaster.
The 3DS era might be coming to an end, but these two are coming out physically for the 3DS, both separately and as a dual pack.
From there they announced Skelattack, Doom 64 for Xbox, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Retro Collection, Rendering Ranger: R2, and the original Shantae for PS4 and PS5, while also unveiling a Shantae figure for the 20th anniversary.
Next up was A Boy and his Blob: Retro Collection, Konami Arcade Classics, and Knights of the Old Republic II (which is getting the cut content added as DLC). They also showed Garden Story, which I played a demo for a while back and found interesting.
DoDonPachi Resurrection, Plumbers Don’t War Ties: Definitive Edition, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and Blossom Tales II followed. I haven’t played Blossom Tales, but I remember it looking interesting, and the sequel is due out on August 16 with the physical edition coming later.
Then came announcements for Enclave, American Hero, Prize Fighter: Heavyweight Edition, BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad, Night Trap, and one I recognized – D, a horror game we discussed a couple years ago. It’s not coming to modern consoles, though, but getting a physical release for the PC and 3DO.
After ESPGaluda II, they announced Glover… for the Nintendo 64. Yes, a physical Nintendo 64 game is coming out.
The next announcement was Tetris Effect: Connected, followed by an upcoming 3D platformer called Frogun, which looks like it could be fun.
Deathwish Enforcers came next, and the final game of the show was Doom Eternal for the Switch.
Not a whole lot of games I’m interested in, but there were a few interesting announcements in there. What did you think of this year’s Limited Run Games show?
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Not-E3 2022 Schedule and Hopes
It’s that time of year again… sort of. E3 2022 was cancelled, but companies have once again picked early June to hold their showcases as usual. So another Not-E3 is upon us, and here’s what the schedule looks like!
Not-E3 2022 ScheduleJune 6
Limited Run Games – 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET
June 9
Summer Game Fest – 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET
Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing 2022 – 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET
June 10
Netflix Geeked Week 2022 Games Showcase – 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
Tribeca Games Spotlight – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET
Freedom Games Summer Showcase – 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET
June 11
Guerrilla Collective – 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET
Wholesome Direct – 9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET
Future Games Show – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET
June 12
Xbox & Bethesda – 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
PC Gaming Show – 12:30 PM PT / 3:30 PM ET
June 13
Capcom – 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET
June 14
Xbox Games Showcase 2022 Extended – 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
Some of the usual showcase are missing from this year’s current lineup, most notably Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft, and EA. Ubisoft and EA are confirmed not to have showcases planned for this period of time, but the other two are unknown. A lot of places are counting Sony’s State of Play last week as the kick-off of “E3” season, but even though it had some exciting announcements, it wasn’t on the level of an E3 show so I didn’t include it. Here’s hoping Nintendo announces a Nintendo Direct soon!
Not-E3 2022 Hopes
With the schedule more or less set, there are a few games I’d love to see.
First off, Bayonetta 3. It’s supposed to come out this year, so getting a Nintendo Direct with a release date would be fantastic. Another trailer might also clear up some of the questions the previous trailer left us with.
Next, since we only got the tiniest update on the next Yakuza game at their stage show in April, I’d love to see an official reveal of Yakuza 8 or something else from RGG Studio (*cough* Kenzan and Ishin localizations *cough*). Sega is confirmed to be at Summer Games Fest, so here’s hoping.
Capcom is also included in the Summer Games Fest list, so between that and the potential for a Nintendo Direct, I have my fingers crossed for Ace Attorney news, be it Ace Attorney 7 or something else (we never did find out the meaning of that strange Apollo Justice trademark). Update: Capcom has now announced its own showcase, although it says it’ll be about previously announced titles. Here’s hoping, nevertheless…
And I might as well include last year’s pipe dreams, one of which (Crossbell localization) became reality in the meantime.
What are you hoping to see from this year’s not-technically-E3 showcases? Do you think we’ll get a Nintendo Direct announcement soon?
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June 3, 2022
Final Fantasy XVI New Trailer, Resident Evil 4 Remake Confirmed
There was a State of Play yesterday, and it had a few nice surprises.
In particular, all I wanted was news about Final Fantasy XVI, and we finally got it!
Final Fantasy XVI now has a summer 2023 release window. That’s a bit further off than I was hoping, since I thought it might actually come out this year, but on the other hand, it gives me more time to work through my backlog.
(Especially with games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 coming out this year already.)
The release window came along with a new trailer. It’s age-restricted so you can’t watch it outside of Youtube, but I’ll embed it below so you can follow the link.
It’s now rated as “likely Mature,” so it seems this will be an M-rated game like was speculated before.
The trailer introduces some new characters, most notably a woman named Benedikta Harman, who is Garuda’s Dominant, and a man named Hugo Kupka, who is Titan’s Dominant. The official Final Fantasy XVI website has more details about these two, saying that Benedikta “crosses paths with a like-minded Clive and is forced to face her past” and Hugo amasses a fortune but “Benedikta Harman will teach him money and power are far from all the world has to offer.”
The website was also updated with some beautiful new screenshots, including the one I used in this post, so be sure to check those out. It looks incredible.
Getting back to the trailer, we also got a better look at combat.
Three main types of combat appear to be showcased. One type shows Clive up against a single opponent, with each of them having a large health bar. Boss battles, perhaps? We also see Clive facing several enemies with small health bars above their heads. One of these short clips has a different UI for Clive, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. Finally, we see several combat segments in which the player appears to be controlling an Eikon, fighting another Eikon.
Combat seems to be fast-paced and stylish, with special abilities linked to some sort of class system the player can switch between. Judging by the icons in the upper-left, this probably is related to the Eikons.
Now, much attention has been drawn to the fact that Clive appears to be fighting alone. There is no indication of party members in this trailer. However, one thing does stand out as odd, and that’s the UI difference I mentioned above. Most combat clips in this trailer show three class icons in the upper left beside the health bar. However, the clip at 0:49 instead shows Clive’s name there.
Showing his name in the UI suggests it might be possible to control someone other than Clive. On the other hand, that never reappears in any of the other combat scenes, so I don’t know what that means.
The other possibility of having a party, or at least companions outside of combat, is the way Benedikta and Harman are described. I wouldn’t rule out the idea of them traveling together with Clive. That could be linked to how he apparently gains power over multiple Eikons.
Anyway, there’s a lot we don’t know about Final Fantasy XVI, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Combat looks very different for Final Fantasy, but it has a strong team behind it, including the main scenario writer for Heavensward (which I greatly enjoyed), Kazutoyo Maehiro, as the creative director and screenplay writer. And while it was widely assumed already, it’s now officially confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV composer Masayoshi Soken is also the composer for Final Fantasy XVI.
So I’m interested. I want them to say there’s a party, but either way, I’m looking forward to more details about the game being revealed.
Before we finish up for today, the State of Play also included the official announcement from Capcom of a Resident Evil 4 remake for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Now, I haven’t made a big secret of the fact that I’m in the minority that doesn’t like Resident Evil 4, and I resent it for steering the series more toward action. But the interesting thing here is that the remake looks like it might have more horror elements. If they remake Resident Evil 4 as an actual survival horror game… yeah, I’d be on board with that.
The official Resident Evil 4 remake website also says it will have “a reimagined storyline,” so it sounds like it might be significantly different from the original. I’m not sold yet, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it. It’s set for March 24, 2023.
And those were the two big announcements from the State of Play that caught my attention. What are your thoughts on the new Final Fantasy XVI trailer and the Resident Evil 4 remake?
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June 1, 2022
The Cruel King and the Great Hero is an Adorable JRPG
(Please forgive the same formatting differences as I continue to go without Internet. Update: Fixed!)
So what did you think of May Mystery Game Madness? Was it a fun celebration? Worth repeating? Or would you have preferred something different?
In the middle of all of our mystery games, I also finished one of my most-anticipated games of the year, The Cruel King and the Great Hero.
The Cruel King and the Great Hero is from the same team that made The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, which I reviewed for MonsterVine and loved. So when the new game was announced, I was excited even before I learned it would be a turn-based JRPG.
You play as Yuu, a little girl who dreams of being a great hero like her father. Every night, the Dragon King tells Yuu stories about her father and how he saved the world from the cruel Demon King.
With a pot as her armor and a stick as a makeshift sword, Yuu sets out to become a hero.
It’s adorable. I can’t say that enough. Not only the art style, but also little details like how the Dragon King secretly keeps watch in the background in case Yuu ends up in real danger. She has an attack where her sword ignites with fire, but really it’s the king breathing fire on it.
(When you end up in an area where he can’t follow and use that move, the sword never ignites, and the little question mark that appears by Yuu is also adorable.)
It has a turn-based combat system where your energy for special attacks regenerates each turn, adding a bit of strategy to deciding when to use special attacks, when to defend to regain extra energy, and so on. Yuu is joined by a few different party members depending on the point in the story, but only one at a time.
The story is really nice. I was worried about how emotional it might get, due to having played The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, but while it has some emotional moments for sure, it really ends up being a pleasant, cute story overall.
I wish the party traveled as a group, even if you could only have one partner in combat, to get more interaction between them, but it’s fine.
There are also a ton of side quests, or Acts of Kindness, that you can do to help out characters you meet along the way. While these are mostly fetch quests that often require you to backtrack through previous dungeons, most of them are part of quest chains with their own storylines. They were worth doing for the stories.
And that’s good, because the one thing I disliked about this game was the backtracking. Now, I usually don’t mind backtracking, sometimes even like it. But the problem is that Yuu’s walking speed is so slow.
Once you’ve out-leveled an area, you can run. Until then, you’re forced to walk at this incredibly slow pace, hitting random encounters the whole time. There’s an item that repels enemies, but it only works on enemies you’ve out-leveled. Fast travel is also an option, but the fast travel points are few.
All of this combined means that traveling through an area you’re at relatively the right level for is tedious and time-consuming.
But again, the story (both main story and side quest stories) makes it worth it. The Cruel King and the Great Hero was a lovely little JRPG, and I can’t wait to see what this team makes next.
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May 31, 2022
May Mystery Game Madness: AI: The Somnium Files Review
Today is the last day of May, bringing our mystery game celebration to an end! This post should have gone up yesterday, but Internet trouble got in the way.
(Apologies for any formatting strangeness; I’ll fix it as soon as I have proper Internet again.)
We’ll be closing out the celebration with AI: The Somnium Files.
I’ve heard good things about this one and intended to check it out for a while, especially since the sequel is coming out soon.
You play as Kaname Date, a detective who is part of a special division that makes use of advanced technology to enter people’s minds in a dream world called Somnium. A murder soon puts him on the trail of a killer who gouges out the victim’s left eye.
Date’s own eye is also missing, but it’s been replaced by AI-Ball, or Aiba, an artificial intelligence that acts as your partner and also gives him special skills to use in his investigation.
While everything is conducted in a 3D space, the majority of AI: The Somnium Files has a lot in common with visual novels. You spend a lot of time talking to characters. You also can investigate by inspecting objects in the room. Sometimes it’s completely unnecessary, but it’s well worth it for the funny dialogue, which is often so off-the-wall I never knew what to expect.
Despite that humorous side, it’s a fairly dark story overall, with grim murders and a twisted mystery that keeps piling on more layers.
The Somniums, which I mentioned earlier, provide more gameplay-focused segments. You enter a character’s dream world as Aiba and search for a way to unlock the subject’s mental locks to see the secrets they’re hiding. It gives you a clue about what to do, and you need to figure out how, using the strange logic of the characters’ dreams.
There’s a 6 minute time limit in these sections, but don’t panic. Time only passes while you’re moving or performing an action.
Each action takes a set amount of time to complete, and you can gain optional “timies” that let you reduce the time used, so the time limit really just turns it into a puzzle. How can you manage your actions and timies to bypass the mental locks without running out of time? (And if your final action would go over the time limit, it lets that slide.)
Believe me, I was worried when I first saw that timer appeared, but I ended up enjoying the Somniums.
I was less crazy about the other gameplay segment, occasional action sequences that have you perform QTEs or line up a shot within the time limit. I could have done without those.
The game also has a flow chart, which immediately brought to mind the Zero Escape series, since it’s from the same creator. However, the flow chart is much more straightforward here. Some Somniums have branching paths that lead to different routes, and certain routes are locked until you’ve made progress on others (I only encountered two locks, but I don’t know if that’s because of the order I went in).
Each route leads to different discoveries and pieces of the truth, which makes the story confusing at times, but it’s once the pieces finally start to come together, everything that didn’t make sense before falls into place.
I loved AI: The Somnium Files. The story was fantastic, the oddball humor was a good way to temper the dark mystery, and the Somnium gameplay was pretty clever. I hope the sequel is as good as this one, because now I can’t wait to play it!
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May 27, 2022
May Mystery Game Madness: Sudd City Adventures Review
Our mystery game for today is another lighthearted one, Sudd City Adventures.
Sudd City Adventures is a point-and-click adventure game set in a world where superheroes exist. You play as Silvia, an agent assigned to manage superhero relations.
So when one superhero says his ring has been stolen, it’s up to you to investigate, question people, and establish alibis for other characters to determine the truth.
It’s very lighthearted and plays around with superhero tropes as you interact with the eccentric cast, and it takes place in the house that serves as their headquarters. Like the previous lighthearted adventure game we looked at, it’s also quite straightforward when it comes to gameplay.
Characters have problems you’ll need to solve either to get information from them or access a new part of the house. The order in which you can approach tasks is pretty linear, and you just need to find or otherwise obtain the item the character in question needs. Some characters do move to other parts of the house as you progress, so you might need to pop into various rooms to find the person you’re looking for, but otherwise your direction is quite clear-cut.
This also is another short game and only takes an hour to wrap up the whole mystery. The ending implies there will be more eventually, but I don’t know if additional content will be added to the game (since the title implies multiple adventures) or made as a sequel.
Either way, Sudd City Adventures might not be the most challenging or compelling mystery, but it’s lighthearted and amusing. And hey, it’s one of the few games in our celebration that isn’t about murder!
Don’t forget that you have until the end of May to participate in this year’s contest by leaving comments on May Mystery Game Madness blog posts! If you’ve just arrived, check out the introduction post to learn about the contest and this year’s prizes.
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May 25, 2022
May Mystery Game Madness: Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk Review
A little over a year ago, we talked about Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past, which I found I’d mysteriously left in my DS and decided to play.
So as part of our mystery game celebration this month (if you’ve just arrived, be sure to read that post to learn about the contest!) I decided to follow up with the next localized game in the series, Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk for the 3DS.
(Which has become difficult to find everywhere except directly from the publisher.)
If you’ll recall, the Jake Hunter release history is rather chaotic. Memories of the Past included the first five mobile game cases and a sixth new case. Ghost of the Dusk has a similar model, this time with another brand new case as well as mobile games 21-24.
So what happened to mobile games 6-20? They’ve been re-released along with other new cases in games that were never localized.
Anyway, let’s get back to Ghost of the Dusk. The main case lasts a few hours and tells an intriguing story, while the other four cases are shorter, but still have their high points. Most of the gameplay is still handled through menus, but now you’ll occasionally have an investigation section where you need to tap objects to investigate, although sometimes the areas it wants you to click felt a bit too precise.
I found it to be much more straightforward than the previous game, with far fewer times where I needed to repeat actions to get new results.
I also enjoyed the mysteries more, especially Ghost of the Dusk itself. Focusing on an old mansion people claim is cursed, it starts out as a single murder and quickly spirals into a much larger conspiracy. They’re the sorts of mysteries where I could think over the clues to try to piece together the case as the protagonists did.
In addition to the five main cases, there’s also another Jake Hunter Unleashed case, a chibi story that tasks you with solving a smaller mystery.
Now, Memories of the Past is one of those games that is clearly set in Japan but tries to convince you its localization is set in America. Since Ghost of the Dusk takes place in the same fictional city of Aspicio, I assumed it was doing the same thing right up until one case had Jake mention how he once traveled to America. That’s right, unlike its predecessor, this game’s localization now claims to not to be set in America… but not Japan either despite its very Japanese background images, so it seems Aspicio now exists in a vague fictional country.
(It also continues to pretend its yakuza characters are mafia, except for one case that straight-up calls them yakuza, so I don’t know what was up with that.)
My guess is they wanted to drop the pretense of being set in America but keep the existing localized names, and since things like Aspicio and Tripudio don’t sound Japanese (not to mention the names of Jake and his supporting cast), that resulted in this strange change to the setting.
Anyway, I quite enjoyed Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk. It’s a nice collection of detective cases, and it makes me sad that Prism of Eyes still hasn’t made an English appearance. There’s a prequel game that was localized, though, so I’ll be sure to pick that up one of these days.
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