Lurker > transience

pretty successful kickstarter, all told. hit all the stretch goals too.

funny you mention that, cause I had this fun exchange the other day

https://i.imgur.com/EHJYPdT.png

yeah I know, and agree. I kinda don't expect it to pick up at the end though because there's not much being offered in terms of stretch goals (and that's probably good)

it's slowed down a bit after really cruising earlier. Japan is really boosting the donations and you can tell when they go to bed.

WA is definitely more popular than SH but I don't know how much the individual numbers mean when like 85% of the pledges are for both. there's some serious SFF there!

the $1m stretch goal are console versions, if anyone is waiting for that

lol gamefaqs

someone can make a new topic if you want.

looks like Japan woke up. the UK and Canada were ahead of them in donations and Japan is in a clear second now. I feel like I'm analyzing the Nintendo hour or something.

I obviously hope you're right. I'm keeping my expectations low on purpose, probably. I've been beaten down by how unpopular Shadow Hearts is for 2 decades now, but maybe Wild Arms is a big enough draw and the double dip aspect of this probably means that it gets close to double what it normally would.

also I feel bad that this became the update topic since the Wild Arms game got short changed in favor of Penny Blood. my bad. it's certainly the bigger game of the two.

Suikoden is bigger than Wild Arms which is bigger than Shadow Hearts. I would say that this is tracking to hit a little over 1 million. this is definitely going to be frontloaded given the cult status of these games, especially Shadow Hearts.

that said, this launched at 2am Japan time and it's only 7:30am there. if you look at the community tab, even the UK has more backers than Japan right now. if Japan backs this like you'd think they would, it could go up a lot faster.

I have to say, I haven't enjoyed watching some numbers go up on a webpage this much since Samus rocked Solid Snake in the last character battle

I really hope this hits the stretch goal of coming to consoles because otherwise those physical copies are going to be pretty weird

(it'll come there regardless, I'm pretty sure)

I think they're just for whales who have money to blow and a dream to get this going. I bet they'd rather not do those things but hey anything for money.

I went for $60 for the penny blood + digital ost option. hopefully the wild arms spinoff is good and I know you love those games, so you should probably go for both at the very least!

the pitch video absolutely killed me. I got a tear in my eye at the end which is so weird for such a cheesy video but man, it's shadow hearts 4

kickstarter is live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublekickstarter/armed-fantasia-and-penny-blood

and there's some new yoshitaka hirota music!

https://soundcloud.com/penny-blood/fhathast-beo-penny-blood-main?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fpenny-blood%252Ffhathast-beo-penny-blood-main

https://soundcloud.com/penny-blood/vicious-1923-normal-battle01?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fpenny-blood%252Fvicious-1923-normal-battle01

https://twitter.com/Coca_Colm/status/1563515207120744448

hello judgment ring (and hirota music)

there's another thread on the dual kickstarter, but it didn't feel right without me creating a thread on the new Shadow Hearts game. I mean just look at this thing. I've been staring at this picture for 24 hours now and keep coming back to it.

https://i.imgur.com/Vo0gAdb.jpeg

Fusion, the SH2 combo meter, SP, it's all there. here's the PR for it. we'll see more in a couple days when the kickstarter launches.

The easy to learn, difficult to master Psycho Sigil battle system combines traditional turn-based JRPG strategy with twitch-trigger reaction time in order to maximize the potential of attacks, keeping players on their toes with every encounter. Players can embrace the darkness within by using Fusion to call upon the abyss and fight fire with fire, harnessing the power of the darkness to hurl demons back from whence they came. Interactions with the demonic will affect the heroes Sanity Points. If players lose too many Sanity Points, their allies will succumb to madness, gaining strength and losing composure. However, that boost in power might be just what is needed to turn the tide in battle.

Returning to the helm as composer is Hirota Yoshitaka (of Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant fame) to inject a sense of dread and eerie unease befitting of the atmosphere. And accompanying him is Akari Kaida of Breath of Fire 3, infusing a heavy dose of jazz into the Roaring Twenties setting.

This is my second chance. Chances to make another game like this are rare, so please give me your support, says lead game designer, Matsuzo Machida.

With direction from Matsuzo Machida, character design by Miyako Kato and music and sound composed by Yoshitaka Hirota and Akari Kaida, Penny Blood promises to sink its claws into players as it revives the darker side of Japanese RPGs.

hell yeah. I'll leave with this thing called Atam, which is almost a straight rip of Atman from SH1.

https://i.imgur.com/39eXBQI.jpeg

there's a lot of mechanical changes in there as well. it looks more in line with the original in some spots, and goes in new directions too based on the screenshots that have been shown.

a good birthday present

yeah. I wouldn't compare it to Chrono Trigger, really - maybe more Phantasy Star? not sure. it's been a while but I remember liking it but not loving it. it's a little goofier than you'd want and the story doesn't really hit. I actually prefer the Cthulhu games from Zeboyd more.

1. Sea of Stars

2023
PC/Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqK-1WGqYmI

This game is kind of a dream. You've got the developers behind The Messenger, one of the best 2d action games of the last several years, and maybe more importantly for this case, some really amazing sprite artists. You've got them making an RPG that looks like the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. Those two things go together absolutely perfectly. They've even got Mitsuda doing some music. Everything here looks kinda perfect.

The big questions here come down to: can this group make an RPG with the proper writing and tone given how The Messenger's story was largely living on puns and jokes? So far, the answer to that seems to be yes. They've put out tons of media that's all hit the right tone for what a proper CT-like would warrant. I follow these guys and every week they put out a 5-10 second snippet of something that just seems to get it. But, it's still an open question. You can have the look of a Chrono Trigger but nailing the feel and the charm is a monumentally harder task.

This game got delayed to 2023 today, which really made me consider putting it elsewhere in my rankings because now it's possibly not coming out for over a year. But in the end, I think I kinda like that they're taking their time with this one. When you aim so high, I'd rather that you spend as much time as you need trying to make it perfect. It's got high standards to live up to.

2. Street Fighter 6

2023
PC, Xbox, PS5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eF-AdGAAek

SF6 looks pretty awesome. I've spent a ton of time watching footage and trying to understand the systems of the game. The question about 6 has been about what the systems would be - 3 has parries, 4 has focus attacks, 5 has v triggers, etc. SF6 has all of it jammed together. There's so much going on, multiple meters, and it's probably overwhelming.. but all of it also looks super fun.

If I was in my teens or 20s, this would be the easiest #1 pick in a while. I would play the ever loving hell out of this. But, as I get older, I kind of recognize that I'm probably never going to devote myself to playing dozens of hours to learn the intricate nuances of a competitive game. It's just not something I'm willing to commit to when I have so many other things going on and so many other options to play. And so, this is a game that I will probably admire at a distance, assuming it actually is as good as it seems. I'll love watching the competitive scene and following the tier lists and trying to do a few moves here and there with Ryu because that's about all I can really commit to. And the game will still be great - just with me mostly by the sidelines.

I almost wish I could have gotten that sight unseen with no clue of what the game had in store, and then suddenly oh my god

nah, just the main game. I haven't played that yet but I will certainly be doing that next week!

edit: but I guess if you're talking about the mobile versions, yeah.

3. The Plucky Squire

2023
PC/Consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr1YO7nxZLU

It's been a while since a trailer managed to blow me away quite like this one, and it does it in barely over a minute. What the hell is this?!?!?!?!!? What is this game? The answer seems to be everything. It's a Zelda-like. It's Punch-Out. It's an adventure game. It's a horizontal shmup. It's 2d. It's 3d. It's.. it's amazing. It's got all of the joy that video games should theoretically be able to offer: just a view into a fantastic world full of possibilities, and the game seemingly delivering on every one of them all at once.

I guess there's the potential that this is just a weird collection of minigames with some really good presentation, but nah. I'm believing in whatever the hell this thing is.

4. Planet of Lana

2022
PC/Xbox

There are a lot of, for lack of a better term, "Inside-likes" coming out soon -- these atmospheric, sidescrolling environmental puzzle platformers that directly descend from Playdead's games, Limbo and Inside. The Playdead team has kinda sprawled all over the place, with one of the devs creating the 2022 game Somerville and another one making Cocoon that showed up at the Xbox conference this year. But for my money, the best looking one of those is Planet of Lana.

Most of these kinds of games are dark and some could even be called horror games. Lana instead goes for a more mystical, almost Ori-like presentation, or maybe even a team ICO game. I like what they're going for. You've even got a mystical companion named Mui. The gameplay looks fairly similar to Inside - pulling boxes and hitting switches and the like - but some of the environmental effects look pretty cool and you can control your companion to help solve some of the puzzles and interact with the environment. And, there's also lots of creepy crawly things trying to get you that are really reminiscent of Limbo, so it's not like it's all rainbows here.

The reveal trailer is what hooked me on this game, where you're playing with your dude and suddenly this crazy meteor shower hits. I'm in on whatever's going on in this game.

5. Stray

July 19th, 2022
PS4, PS5, PC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJawWyRUOBM

YO THAT IS A FULLY PLAYABLE CAT. There are other games where you play as animals but they usually don't have fully realized worlds like Stray seems to. Sometimes you'll get a weird-ass game like a Tokyo Jungle but not an honest to god third person action game like Stray.

Stray has some kind of post apocalyptic world where you're interacting with a drone to talk to people and use gadgets against enemies. There doesn't seem to be any direct combat and a lot of what I've seen so far has been running away from enemies rather than trying to engage. I'm guessing this is more of an environmental action game where you're pushing blocks and solving simple puzzles to advance. But there's also quests and seemingly some kind of story? I wonder what the backstory of the game is, or if they even go into it. Maybe they just play it straight and don't explain it because, hey, you're a cat.

This game just looks so cool. I wish it was on Xbox as well as PS4/PS5 but maybe it comes there later.

you should get Builders 2. just trust me on this.

6. Dragon Quest Treasures

12/9/22
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvwQnMpjLUU

I love me some DQ spinoffs. Rocket Slime? Heck yeah. Builders? Those games, especially 2, are legitimately great, to the point that I'm disappointed we haven't heard about Builders 3 yet. Monsters? There are not many franchises that I like more than the DQ Monsters series, and that's just a spinoff of the main series. I might even like it more depending on what day you ask me.

DQ Treasures started off its life as a Monsters game, and it shows in the trailer. This thing lets you control a monster party and have some kind of pseudo action RPG battle system, almost like a DQ Builders, or perhaps what they showed for DQ9 before it got retconned into a proper turn based game due to fan backlash. You're controlling a couple of DQ11 characters here who are out trying to gather money. I don't totally get the loop just yet but it seems like a fun excuse to wander around and play with the world of Dragon Quest and its monsters. They showed off more gameplay in the Japanese Direct and it just left me more confused.

I won't lie - there's a chance here that this isn't great. The concept behind hunting for treasure on an island isn't the best and this game has had some reported delays and development issues. But I've played enough DQ spinoffs to just give myself over to it. Once upon a time, someone said, "hey what if we jammed Minecraft into Dragon Quest?", and what seemed like a laughable money grab turned out pretty fantastic!

7. Earthblade

2023
Probably consoles/PC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSW8RxkDnSI

A year later, the follow up to Celeste still hasn't been formally unveiled. All that's out there is just a minute of music from Lena Raine, some words about how it's an action RPG that's being playtested, and that it's coming in 2023.

This most likely shoots to #1 the nanosecond it gets properly revealed. Celeste is probably my game of the decade for the 2010s and I've been a huge fan of Maddy Thorson since his old Jumper games. For now it's just an idea to the mass public, but at least they've actually given a name and a year!

XCX remains the only true proof of concept for the Wii U controller. that game can never be ported because of that

we'll see. Xenoblade X had classes and that felt impossibly complicated. I would sooner look within the series than make an assumption that it's like SNES Final Fantasy. games just aren't that simple anymore and Xenoblade especially.

8. Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 (working title)

2023
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITZu1nqJ3l8

Not much to say here. Whatever this game's name is, it looks really good, just like the original. Hopefully we hear more about it soon because it's been a year with nothing.

My biggest thought is how BOTW is such a magical game and that following it up worries me, not just because it will be hard to recreate that magic but also because I don't want some technically superior sequel that lacks the magic that the original had. If they just respond to the complaints and, I don't know, remove weapon damage, add more dungeons and a couple more powers and call it a day, I'll be pretty disappointed.

What I want from this game is to be surprised and overwhelmed with feeling again as I explore a crazy space in a novel way. It's an unfair pedestal to put this game on, but I want it to swerve in a way that doesn't bring it back to classic Zelda and doesn't turn the original into an archaic game. So far it largely looks like BOTW1 with some kind of time travel mechanic I guess? We'll see. Either way, I'm here for a Zelda game on day 1 for the first time in my life.

I couldn't convince myself to try Torna given the bad taste that 2 left me with

9. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

July 29th, 2022
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_hINfOz28

Okay, I was conflicted on FF16 but some of that conflict is just apathy for a once great franchise. Xenoblade, though. I *love* the Xeno series. Xenogears is the GOAT, I've always liked Xenosaga, and even Xenoblade 1 is a really good game. But Xenoblade 2 is one of the most disappointing games in my memory, a game ruined by bad design, weird gacha mechanics and a really gross story rife with anime tropes. I played through the whole thing but I felt kinda gross the whole way.

So we come to Xenoblade 3 and.. is it more of what 2 offers? I can't totally tell. The setting looks promising. I couldn't explain it well without rewatching the trailers and the Nintendo Direct they did, but it's got kids coming together from competing factions that have a limited lifespan due to some social system that's in place. I'm not going to try to explain it beyond that, but it looks intriguing.

Here's my thing: if this game had a different title on it, like Tales of Xenobia or something, would I even pay close attention? Probably not. I'm relying more on the pedigree of the developers. I'm also a little intimidated by the overload of systems. Xenoblade has always had overwhelming systems but this one also adds a class system and some kind of guest system where an NPC joins you and I get overwhelmed just thinking about trying to juggle all of that.

But man, no one puts a setting together like the Xeno team, and if Xeno 2 was just a hiccup then this could be really great. I'll probably pick it up just out of hope. I'm sure it's some sprawling 100 hour behemoth and will consume me for 3 months. Don't ruin my decades of fandom, MonolithSoft.

Honorable Mention: Tactics Ogre: Reborn

So I'm a huuuuge Let Us Cling Together guy. Have been since the 90s. It's one of only a dozen or so games that has made every game list of mine since 2003. I'll play anything with the Tactics Ogre name on it.

But.. I'm pretty sure this is just a port of the PSP version of LUCT to newer platforms. The art on the leaked Playstation page is just the old art for LUCT. Now, maybe it's placeholder art, but that's a weird thing to drop there. It would also be extremely weird to remake LUCT a second time before doing the same with FFT. So... I don't know what this is and I'll keep extremely close watch on this, but realistically it's probably just a port of an existing great game, one that I already play.

Ironically, I've been playing LUCT for the last 2-3 months, specifically the One Vision mod that rebalances the game. I just looked and I'm 96 hours in, going through some of what is essentially postgame content but I'm grinding through it before bothering to beat the game. LUCT is such a good game, man. I think I'm more excited for the supposed FFT remaster/remake that came along with the same leak that leaked Chrono Cross and Tactics Ogre remasters.

did you play the live a live demo? I gave it a look and bounced off of it. I wasn't that excited about it though. HD 2D is just a bad style if you ask me. Triangle Strategy is fine despite it but yuck.

Triangle Strategy is great

10. Arcadian Atlas

Summer 2023
PC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_3faIObbrk

I kickstarted this FFT-like about 6 years ago. It's long enough ago that one of the kickstarter rewards, which thankfully it did not reach, was playable Booker DeWitt. The very idea of that is even funnier today than it was then, and it was funny then.

Arcadian Atlas has been through some development hell but they finally picked up a publisher and just announced a release date a couple weeks ago. I've been excited about this one for a long time, but ironically, I'm a little muted now that it's actually coming along and getting closer to release. When I backed this, there was a dearth of FFT-likes on the market, but now there's stuff like Fell Seal and Triangle Strategy and whatever the heck Tactics Ogre: Reborn ends up being. There's even talk about an FFT remaster/remake, which, it's about damn time.

But I'm still excited about it, because I just love those kinds of games and these devs seem to really get the appeal that a Final Fantasy Tactics brings to the table. It's only on Steam for now, but they shifted to Unity as part of their development so theoretically porting this to consoles should happen.

I love how eye to eye we are on this one, and most things

11. Blanc

Feb 2023
PC/Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjI5XI363Ss

This game is so clearly inspired by Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Brothers is a fantastic little co-op action puzzler about the bond between two characters that don't ever speak (in English, anyway). Blanc looks to be the same thing, only instead of controlling two characters on one stick, this can support proper co-op. All the other emotional notes seem to be there.

The question I have with Blanc is if this is going to be inspirational or dark. Basically, are one of these dudes going to die at the end? Is this something you can play with kids or will it be devastating? If it follows the Brothers path, tragedy is going to strike. I'm happy either way and honestly I'd rather not know what to expect. And yo, that art.

12. Sports Story

TBD
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzzcgCi20Z8

Golf Story is amazing, a great little lighthearted indie story about golf and life. It's honestly more simple RPG than sports game. Sports Story looks like the same thing.. just adding in new sports and expanding on the formula.

This game has gone dark for something like 3 years now with the devs admitting that they really went big with some of the sports mechanics and scope. I get the feeling this doesn't show up until it's ready to go, and maybe gets stealth dropped at a Direct or something like that. I'm excited to see its final form, whenever the hell that is.

Jakyl25 posted...

I thought that was the point of the ending, to break the chains of destiny enforced by the Whispers for good

you're probably right. I was too busy being blown away by "this is FF7....?!" that I had a hard time committing any of it to memory.

13. Final Fantasy VII Stuff

FF7 Ever Crisis

Winter 2022 (By March 2023)
Mobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCACixN2SyE

Crisis Core: FF7 Reunion

Winter 2022 (By March 2023)
PC/Consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCl1Lc2ktpk

FF7 Rebirth

Winter 2023 (March 2024 if we're lucky)
PS5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2aNzos4qi4

I'm just going to lump these all together. The FF7 compilation is out of control. It's practically its own company at this point. Every year there's new hints of FF7 stuff and it just never ends. That's not even a criticism - just an amazement of how this one beloved RPG has spawned off its own line of products that has been giving for 25 years now.

Let's start with Crisis Core since it's probably the easiest to unpack. That game is hilarious to look at. Crisis Core is very much a product of 2008 and this remake seems to just be carrying all of that weirdness forward. It has been quite a while, but my memory of Crisis Core was really enjoying the battle system and liking the last act with Cloud/Zack/Sephiroth, but all of the new characters added were a total mess and the dialogue was high cringe.

That stuff just seems to exist as is in Reunion and it'll be interesting to see what tweaks are made, if any. I remember having to do missions where you hugged the wall because encounters wouldn't trigger and that made for a really strange gameplay experience. But, I also remember really liking the mission system in this game. I can't believe this is just coming back as is without a lot of changes. I kinda want to get this just to look at it and relive a game that I have fond memories of but that would probably fall apart if I were to take a look at it in 2022.

I think the most interesting thing about Reunion is that putting this out alongside the FF7 Remake means that it's basically canonizing all of the Angeal/Genesis stuff and those characters will likely play a major part in FF7 Rebirth. That is dangerous ground to tread on so I'm really interested to see them make it a thing. The end of FF7 Remake made it clear that Zack isn't just going to be a throwaway side story. Hell, nothing that was in OG FF7 gets left to the side.

FF7 Rebirth.. okay, I probably need to talk about part 1 first. Remake is an absolutely fascinating thing and it's wild that it exists. I'm still trying to come to grips with what happens at the end of Remake and wondering what it looks like as it carries into this next act. For that alone, I'm super curious about what this game might hold. The best part of FF7 should be in Rebirth - the Kalm flashback, Nibelheim, the Midgar Zolom and the immense power of Sephiroth.

But.. what even is going to happen here given all the weird swerves with the ghosts and Sephiroth showing up all throughout Remake? I don't know, and I can't tell if I want to play this because it's good or just out of morbid curiosity. I also don't plan to have a PS5 so I'm not sure if I'm even going to play this thing at launch.. but also, if you're not there day 1 you might as well just watch it on youtube. So, I'm not really sure how to feel overall about this game.

It's all weird. And that brings me to Ever Crisis - maybe the one I am most excited about? In my mind, for all the years where FF7 Remake was just a rumor that people claimed would show up at e3, Ever Crisis was what I expected: a nice, high-res version with prerendered backgrounds and a better translation. In reality, this might be the thing I want the most out of the FF7 stuff, without the bloat. I feel much more comfortable with basic menu based combat than whatever the ATB system is in Remake. Sometimes with Remake, I just feel like I'm playing a corridor shooter but with a sword, and that ends up not feeling like an RPG to me.

But Ever Crisis has this other weird drawback in that it's just on mobile. Now, I don't mind mobile RPGs -- Fantasian is one of the highlights of the last couple of years -- but I'm worried about what a pricing model might look like. I somehow doubt you're just buying the full Remake for $60 or whatever. It's probably going to be drip fed by chapter with each costing some amount of money, and maybe even released over time as they get developed. Are there gacha type mechanics jammed in here? Without knowing that it's hard to get too amped up. If this was a straight remake on Switch or whatever, sign me the hell up.

Every piece of the FF7 compilation leaves me conflicted, which is weird because I don't even love FF7. But it's such a unique period piece that watching it be molded 5 different ways over decades is fascinating and I can't avert my eyes.

14. Terra Nil

TBD (likely 2022)
PC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhKBeFlZ0bw

Terra Nil is a 'reverse builder' where you take a polluted area and breathe life back to it, adding water, trees and all other manner of greenery. It's like reading The Lorax in reverse.

I've played a demo and the game just feels super serene as you repopulate the world. The music and the feeling this game gives off hits me right. I love me some builder games, but not the ones where you have tons of options to create a sprawling metropolis like a Cities Skylines or whatever. Give me something simple and chill.

Terra Nil has puzzle elements where you have to build certain types of structures within a set number of 'moves', and those little game-y elements are fun. But it's also fun to just rebuild and be in the right space. Games like this, or the recently released Dorfromantik, just do it for me.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

when's UFO50

hell yeah now we're talking. I'm sure that was on a list of mine like 5 years ago. shame that Spelunky 2 came out and then this never came to fruition. as far as vaporware e3 announcements go, I spend a lot of time thinking about Source, a "3d metroidvania with wings" that never showed up anywhere ever again -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CucHsoxJQEQ

Kenri posted...

Haha, all this stuff is exactly why I like Hollow Knight -- I feel like it does traversal and feeling more powerful super well, and compared to lot of more modern Metroidvanias I don't think it's particularly combat heavy (or rather, it is, but has tons of platforming and stuff too, where lots of indie MVs are just combat). Definitely the indie Metroidvania that's best captured the magic of games like SotN and Metroid Prime for me.

it's been some time since I last played Hollow Knight, but my memory is that warp points are few and far between so there's a lot of horizontal and vertical backtracking through large rooms and just having to nail the platforming over and over. the platforming is good but it gets a little tiring. I'm also one of those people with notoriously bad direction and having to find those map dudes drove me crazy. I spent so much time lost in that world and it wasn't something where you feel engrossed in it.

15. Hollow Knight: Silksong

2023 (supposedly)
PC, consoles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSfuFlhsxZY

I *love* Metroidvanias. Have since the original Metroid came out. I've been playing maze-y platformers for as long as they've existed and they take up a good chunk of my top however many games. I consider myself somewhat of an authority on them. And so, of all the games out there, I think people's glowing reactions to Hollow Knight is probably the one that puzzles me the most.

Don't get me wrong - I like Hollow Knight. It's well made. But it's more of a 6/10, 7/10 game to me, not the pinnacle of the new age metroidvanias and a game that a lot of people put up there with Super Metroid. That's hallowed ground, man. Maybe it's because the thing I like the most in a 'vania is the feeling of traversal and feeling more powerful as I get more and more stuff. Hollow Knight doesn't really go down that path. Your movement abilities aren't that good. It's much more of a mechanics based, combat heavy one of those instead of, I don't know, an Ori. I think Hollow Knight subscribes to that Dark Souls thinking of "let's make you feel weak and uncomfortable so that you feel a sense of satisfaction when you get through it." I didn't think Hollow Knight was exceptionally hard or anything and so that feeling leaves me feeling kinda empty.

The thing is, I'll take a good metroidvania any day of the week, and so despite the muted feelings I still am looking forward to Hollow Knight: Silksong. Hand crafted metroidvania games are actually fairly rare. There's a lot of these in the indie spaces but most are low budget, don't have enough scope or utilize procedural generation. More and more of them are run based. So when one comes out that has a level of craft and care like Hollow Knight so clearly does, I'll play it immediately. This being a day 1 Game Pass game makes the choice all the easier.

Silksong looks like more of the same thing and I don't expect it to deviate too much from the original, not any more than your standard Metroid game would. I'm sure it will have new movement abilities but I doubt it's going to change up the formula too too much. That's probably a good thing. I hope it isn't as long, but given how long they're taking to make it, it's probably going to be even huger.

16. Haunted Chocolatier

TBD
PC, Consoles eventually?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASlkM-mf1zk

ConcernedApe's next game has a ton of hype and deservedly so. Stardew Valley was a once in a generation hit, a game that kinda spawned its own genre. Yeah, there were a lot of other games it drew inspiration from, but the 'cozy management' line of games -- Spiritfarer, Cozy Grove, Portia, those kinds of games -- all of those descend from Stardew. It's not about the gameplay, it's about the feel. It might be one of the most influential games of the decade.

I haven't actually played Stardew, but I have watched a lot of it played in this house. Haunted Chocolatier looks like more my thing - a little more RPG-ish with a touch of the early indie classic Recettear. But it's also just unapologetically Stardew. It's just a touch darker than Stardew, at least from the reveal trailer.

I hope it doesn't take 3-4 more years to come out. My wife is dying for this thing. Stardew is probably her favourite video game.

17. Final Fantasy XVI

PS5
Summer 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA1C9mghADo

Man, I struggle with my feelings on this one. For a long time, I was the biggest Final Fantasy fan around, during that 1990-2005ish time period. I've beaten all those games numerous times and I've done unhealthy things in most of those games, whether it's solo runs or level 1 challenges or playing 130 hours of Final Fantasy X-2.

But everything from 2010 and on, just doesn't feel like FF to me. FF13 is basically FF10 with a bad story, but I still enjoyed my time with it. FF13-2, though. I played 2 hours of that game, put it down in disgust and haven't played one since (well, besides Remake). Never touched 13-3 and never even considered playing 15. The bro road trip aspect of it never appealed and, I don't know, I just feel like a scorned fan.

But FF16 looks good! Well, it hits the notes you'd want at least. It's still this high budget, glossy thing with its Ifrits and Bahamuts all over the place. Its presentation looks nice, almost like FF: Game of Thrones edition or something but with huge summons as the core of its story.

But even as it looks nice, there's just something that doesn't feel like Final Fantasy to me. It's the heavy action style and the overly flashy visuals. FF was always flashy, right? It made its presence known with its flash -- but it didn't feel overwhelming and alienating in quite the same way. I think I just want the old style back.

Most likely it's because I haven't played a new one of these in almost a decade and I might just need to jump back in and get immersed. Big trailers with lots of fancy cuts can make these games feel like it's an Uncharted game or something like that. Who even knows what one of these are now? I really want it to be good because the FF team at this point just feels like it can't do anything more than FF7 and I'd like to see them move past it.

heroicmario posted...

So I played around with this for quite a while. It makes sense that a lot of people wouldnt really care much for it - theres not a lot of meat there - but as a little 10 hour one off building up this little village and doing side quests, it was fun in a relaxing kind of way. Its definitely not special, but I kinda liked it. Really excited for the main game, tho. Looks way better!

oh that's good to hear! I'm surprised we never talked about this

18. Into the Breach: Advanced Edition

7/19/22
PC/Consoles + Mobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8DCsU8MJxE

Into the Breach isn't a new game. The FTL developers came out with this in like 2018, a nifty little run-based SRPG with very exacting mechanics and lots of different classes. Each fight is a puzzle, even moreso than your FFTs or whatever. Into the Breach is a cool game that I played and beat a couple of times, but never dived totally in on.

Years later, they're coming out with a big content update, adding new units and classes and weapons and etc, all the usual stuff you see with expansions. But this thing is coming out on mobile as part of this too. Here's the crazy part: it's coming out on Netflix. Like, you log into the Netflix app on your phone, go to the Games section and just start playing games as part of your subscription. Did you guys know this was a thing? I had no idea. It seems crazy!

So, I have a bit of a problem with run based deckbuilders on mobile devices. I crossed 1000 hours in Slay the Spire last month. More recently, I've been beta testing Dicey Dungeons on mobile and oh my god that has taken me over. I played a ton of Dicey Dungeons before it hit mobile, even diving deep into the alpha with placeholder art years before it came out on Steam. But put a game like that on mobile and I do several runs a day. My current record on hard mode is something like 120 wins to 100 losses across all classes.

Anyway, Into the Breach. The new classes and all that is nice, but give me a smart game like Into the Breach on mobile and it could be bad if I get hooked.