Board 8 > My top 20 most anticipated games -- post summer games fest edition...?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Clearly the end is a fight to the death

My entire issue with Blanc is whether or not the game is going to destroy me or be wholesome the whole way through and with these indie games you just never know which way its gonna swing. If its anything but wholesome I will get destroyed

If anything happens to the fawn Im just gonna quit video games

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

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.

Did you play Triangle Strategy? It's a pretty good FFT-like game.

Triangle Strategy is great

after Remake, I think Im gonna wait until its all released before I jump in again.

I feel like Ive heard murmurings about Arcadian Atlas over the last little bit, but I never really saw much on it. Gonna keep an eye on that! Also, add me to the group that thinks Triangle Strategy is awesome. I never fully finished it, but Im planning to go back here soon. Maybe. Live a Live is close

transience posted...

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

Truly a guarantee at this point

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.

I'm curious about Live A Live, but I'll probably wait until it's cheap to give it a try.

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.

I agree, generally, about 2D-HD. I thought Octopath was kind of a headache, visually. The glimmering water, the bloom it was a lot. Live a Live seems more toned down from what I can tell. I didnt find it quite as offensive from the two stories I played in the demo, at least. I never played it back on the SNES, but the idea of multiple stories told across different points in time with different characters speaks to me. It doesnt play like it at all, but it feels almost CT adjacent in a way.

I thought Arcadian Atlas DID confirm Booker and Elizabeth back in the day, lol

They picked some weird chapters for the LAL demo, Prehistory is the most straightforward RPG-like one so they probably should've put that in there instead of Far Future.

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.

I look back on 2 positively but yeah theres some real bad shit in there. But since then we have had Torna and Future Connected which have my hopes up.

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

Leonhart4 posted...

I keep debating whether or not I should try to play Stardew Valley.

Stardew is incredible and I have bounced off every other type of that game before and since.

If Haunted Chocolatier has 80% of the magic Stardew has it will be one of the best games of whatever year it releases

Tag!

I always enjoy your lists and impressed with how quickly you finish them

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.

The actual working title is The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I think

th3l3fty posted...

transience posted...

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.

this is exactly why I stopped playing just over 10 hours in

been considering going back to it using the mod that lets you warp between benches because there's no way I'm going back if I have to walk everywhere

I didn't feel as if transportation was limited in Hollow Knight, except when you're first going through Fungal Wastes into City of Tears. I mean, yeah, the Greenpath stag station is on the back end of the area, but that's for easy egress once you fight the boss there. Once you get to the City Storerooms, which is either the third or fourth stag station for most people, I don't think you'll have that much of an issue unless you're just impatient. Outside of Deepnest, which is that way on purpose.

Yeah, this is the first time ever being hyped for a new Zelda game for me, too!

The last time I was hyped for a Zelda game was Majora's Mask. Boy, did that not pan out.

I think people are overestimating how complicated Xenoblade 3 is gonna be. The battles themselves seem more streamlined than 2, since there's no blade combos to keep track off. You just use your artes and sometimes you get other artes to use, and then sometimes you do the fancy fusion thing, but that just seems like using more artes only flashier.

And in the same way that you could plow through 1 with just Shulk/Reyn/Sharla the whole game, 3 will likely be manageable without delving too much into the FFV job system. Similarly, it might be too vital to worry about micromanaging by swapping characters in battle, and just let the AI do some healing as and whatnot.

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.

I think Xenoblade X's problem was it didn't explain anything. Like I beat the entire game and then had to look up what a Soul Voice was.

theres so much in that game that I didnt understand, and I played it for like 80 hours and liked it. I think they probably learned their lesson but 2 wasnt exactly straightforward either.

Xenoblade 2 was a bit better as long as you know to take a picture of the tutorial pop ups so they can be referenced when needed later on. But, Xenoblade 2 also has a lot more layers to its system.

Edit:
One day I want to do a replay of XCX where I actually understand the game mechanics going in. But, so far I've never gotten around to it.

I just wish there was a way to move the HUD

weirdly enough this would be perfect for a Wii U esque game pad

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

It's been a while since I played XCX, but I don't recall anything that couldn't be stuck inside the menu or as a minimap.

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!

transience posted...

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

Super Mario Maker says hello

Super Mario Maker 2 also exists. >_> Like the level editor is clearly worse but it's still functional.

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!

Lower than I expected!

God, remember how good Rocket Slime was?

I never played Builders (even DQ couldnt manage to make me care about Minecraft), but the first two Monsters games are near and dear to my heart. Definitely picking up Treasures and hoping its good!

I hadnt heard of Blanc before the Direct, but it looks super cute. Heavily considering getting that.

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

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.

DQB2 has a really huge demo, to the point I felt kind of satisfied enough with my experience and didn't buy it. <_<

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

God, remember how good Rocket Slime was?

legitimately maybe my favorite DS game

im so bummed none of the other games came out here

Im more into DQ spin-offs more than the main series. Give me any genre as long as a Slime is there.

I'm tentative on Stray because I feel most games that start from a cute "gimmick" like that don't end up good because all they had was a gimmick and not a fully-realized plan outside of that. I feel none of those games ever really end up being hits? The only one I can think of is Goose Simulator though I haven't played it. Stray does look very pretty though.

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.

Oh, that looks nice. I hadn't heard of that at all.

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.

Was this what you were beta testing?:
https://twitter.com/terrycavanagh/status/1542538589115801601

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.