I was mainly just having Operation Rainfall flashbacks. Hope it doesn't come to that this time. Sure, they'd be crazy to release it in Europe and not North America, but stranger things have happened. At least I can be little more optimistic about them not forgetting about the West entirely.
I was disappointed that they never announced anything DQ 3DS during E3.
The localisations of the 3 DS remakes of DQ IV, V, and VI were each done with the European release at the same time, or a month or so afterwards, so they are no doubt being developed in tandem with each other. From what I recall, DQ VII has a ton of text to translate, probably the most of any DQ games.
I'm hoping since Horii already let the cat outta the bag, Squeenix will announce something soonish. I wouldn't put too much faith into it being released this year, tho. My guess would be Feb 2016 at the soonest.
Woo @ DQ. Hope it's legit/true/not a misunderstanding.
About to start Trails in the Sky finally. I've heard it can be a time sink if you talk to all the NPCs since their dialogue changes after nearly every event. I talk to all the NPCs multiple times in Fantasy Life for shit's sake... This is gonna take a while haha
Finished with Suikoden with all 108 of the recruits. Clocked in at just over 26 hours, and at least 2 of those were grinding, mostly for money at the cup game. The story wasn't all that great, the music pretty forgettable, and the gameplay was pretty simple. Despite all that, it was still enjoyable for its old-school charm. It was the perfect length, because if it was another 40-hour jrpg, I would probably have gotten bored with it's simplicity. All-in-all, I would recommend it to anyone who likes old-school turn-based jrpgs.
I guess up next would be Suikoden 2. I've heard the story is much much better than the first Suikoden, but I am interested to see how they evolve the gameplay.
So far, Suikoden II is an improvement upon everything that Suikoden 1 presented. Its the same gameplay, but enhanced with more options. Its the same art style, but better pixel graphics with sharper colors. Even the story seems kinda similar. The biggest diversion from the original so far has been the war battles. I'm only a little past the first one, and while it was short and senseless, that little taste of it has really intrigued me and has me looking forward to the next one.
And the scene with the villain making the peasant woman act like a pig was hilarious!
Suikoden V is pretty good too if you can handle the long load time.
I am currently playing Phantasy Star IV again. That game is so underrated and would have been better for it if it would have released before Final Fantasy VI. Sega just took to long with the translation.
I haven't heard anything about them adding 4 or 5, but it would be great if they did. Konami's a piece of crap right now, so who knows what kind of crazy juice they drinking. I've heard S5 is the best of the PS2 Suikodens.
I missed that sidequest you can only get if you reach a certain spot in under 11 hours. I was at 13 hours and read the part in the guide and was like, "Aw man, that sucks". Really, that's some bad game design making a quest so time-restrictive. Oh well, I guess that's the only complaint I have so far with the game. Other than making the triangle button the cancel button. I mean, WTF, who makes the triangle the cancel button? Konami does.
Finally got back on the RPGs and started Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love this week. It is mad cheesy, and not good cheese, either… more like Kraft Singles-style American cheese. Which is appropriate. Also, the game's rendition of NYC is… something. It's not totally turning me off, though, so I'll stick with it.
Also played through Evoland. Wish there had been more to it than it being mostly Zelda and Final Fantasy callbacks, but it was fun enough. Hope the sequel will have more variety.
Oh, and I picked up Legend of Dungeon again for a little while. The last major patch they did had improved the game quite a bit (added classes and pets, balanced things a bit better overall), so I've been playing it on and off again. On my most recent best run, I got to the lowest floor and got the treasure, but didn't make it back alive. I'll beat that game eventually.
Beat and adored Mother 3. Put Xenoblade into the 3DS despite having already beat it on Wii. Just kinda got the itch. Considering starting Breath of Fire 4 on the ol' Vita instead though.
Well, last September Harada talked about doing a HD collection but wanted to hear more fan support. Its possible he got it. Personally, I would prefer Takahashi and Monolith Soft to handle the job, but since that would probably mean a Nintendo exclusive, I doubt that would happen, but Reggie did state back at E3 that he was heavily pushing for more console RPGs for Nintendo. The huge amount of cutscenes would probably take awhile to upscale everything, so it would be 2017 at the earliest that we'd see it, and this would probably put it in the same window as the NX console release, so it is possible that Nintendo would throw money at Namco to do it if they really do want more console RPGs. It's more plausible that Namco would probably hire it out to a third-party to handle the upscale for PS4, and who knows how that will turn out.
Here's what the neogaf insider posted if you guys are wondering what it was:
I can't wait to match my post to the 108 Stars of Destiny? It's fate Psycho.
1. New Suikoden game in the works now. This one is very far off though as it's a recent thing as far as I know. I'd think 2016 is the earliest we start hearing stuff about it.
2. Superman is looking to make his triumphant return to video games, in a non-fighting game this time.
3. New Virtua Fighter game to come.
4. Good news for some PC MGS fans, there are plans from the top to bring the HD collection to PC. Not that anyone isn't expecting that, I'm sure.
5. On the back of that, FFXII HD on current gen is basically confirmed at this point. As is one of the older Dragon Quest titles in HD (I've genuinely forgot which number though since it's been a while). In addition to that, there is a spin-off Final Fantasy title planned for consoles. Not big budget. Not FFX or FF7 in case people take it there. Not a traditional RPG either.
6. For you, thou shall bring a Xenosaga HD collection. I'm also looking forward to this as I've never played them. Took a whole lotta tryin' just to get up that hill. Now we're up in the big leagues, gettin' our turn at bat. As long as we live, it's you and me, baby.
7. You will start to hear about digital revivals of some old IPs in the next one to two years. Playstation and otherwise.
8. Another unnamed IP which is coming to Playstation exclusively from Sega should hopefully be announced next year. It's had teething issues which seems to be making it take longer than I thought, as have most other projects on current gen to be fair from the looks of it, but I'm happy to mention it again because it looks like we might finally get an announcement next year. I'm hoping at least. This one's not a fighting game.
9. Third Person IP which is big budget is coming and it's set in the Indian subcontinent. Mentioning this because I feel it's quite notable something big is going this route. I don't think I've ever seen a big title in this kind of setting. I find it very surprising, but also very exciting. Western developed.
10. Japanese new IP which is set in...Japan. Third person action adventure title with monsters and machines. Might have RPG elements, not too sure on that unfortunately. Futurisitic setting. Playstation exclusive.
Now for more something which is what you would say is a tease but actually makes perfect sense:
We should have news on all of the above over the coming 2 years I'd think. There's one or two "twists" here and there where one may not like what happens, but it's all true. I honestly think this is going to be an amazing generation.
It's strange how it's not clarified as a "remaster" of FFXII either, though. A remaster would make a lot of sense, but the way that Facebook post was worded was pretty vague and dismissive about the whole thing.
The first comment about it possibly pertaining to a remaster of the soundtrack is somewhat reasonable as well. The SNES-era FFs have gotten remastered soundtracks lately, but I don't think any of the more recent games have.
If a new Suikoden game is in the works please have it be a real continuation of the main story and not some standalone story like we got with Teirkrisis and that PSP one. And no portable, console please. But it is Konami so I'm not expecting much.
If anything it's probably just another pachiko machine.
Suikoden Pachiko confirmed, as far as I'm concerned. Especially after reading that Nikkei report that make it sound like yakuza are running the company.
I've been taking a break from Suikoden II to play Lost Dimension. I love the battle system, kind of like Valkyria Chronicles or XCOM. The story is kinda wonky, but I expected that. The music is mostly good. I say "mostly" because the music in the lobby, where you spend a lot of time managing your party, is not good at all. Still, I'm enjoying it so far. Gotta find that traitor!
Has anyone played through Sunless Sea? I played through a hell of a lot of it, but I just wound up quitting it last night due to a weird encounter.
I didn't have the problems most people have with it. The ship speed is a touch slow, but I can see why the dev made that choice ("atmosphere" and the terror mechanic). And I only played on a single captain I put roughly 40 hours into (humblebrag). It wasn't bad at all, it was good mostly, just very, very grindy. Good writing, and what seemed to be a potentially rewarding story, so I went along with it.
The encounter I alluded to --
the "Corridors" encounter at Frostfound
-- required the player to permanently forfeit stats in skills in order to progress through the encounter. For some reason, after having put that much time into my captain and having been in a shit mood, it put me off the game. I quit midway through the encounter and GTFO of the game for good.
I come to RPG XIX to ask: has anyone encountered a similar mechanic in an RPG? I'm a little surprised at myself and my reaction to it, I didn't realize how hidebound and conservative I am when it comes to character builds. "You want to do WHAT to my Evasion? 'MINUS 1'? As in take away? Forever? Goodness gracious, why I never..." So I learned that you can with my guy/gal in however many ways you like so long as you don't with my stats. Then I get all prudish and offended. Still, I kind of admire the dev for trying it out. It made me think about RPGs.
Oh, if you are interested in Sunless Sea, no matter what the dev says, it is not a roguelike. Don't try to play it like a roguelike. You can do so if it makes you feel awesome. I did that, and I felt awesome (at first), but looking back that's a lot of shit to read and re-read again and again. There's a lot of story to read through, and while you can skip some, it's still a lot of involved encounters that you have to pay attention to no matter what.
It would only be fair to call it a roguelike if the ship speeds were higher, the monster encounters randomized, permadeath opportunities more present (or less obvious), and the weapons/ships/perks more varied. So play it in save mode if you're like me, you're in it to enjoy the text. Otherwise you might end up like me, pissed that your awesome captain lady just got permanently ed out of X points in Veils or whatever the shit.
As much as I like them, I can't buy any more roguelikes/likes right now. There's two I haven't beaten yet, plus I haven't even started Crypt of the Necrodancer or Etrian Mystery Dungeon…
As for the Sunless Sea forfeiting stats thing, in some roguelikes/mystery dungeons, there are enemies which can permanently damage the stats on a piece of equipment, which is pretty similar. I've probably run into the permanently-damage-actual-character-stats thing as well in roguelike/likes, but I'm drawing a blank as to what those games would be. Outside of those genres, don't think I've ever seen such a thing happen.
In other news, I finished Sakura Wars 5 last week (my overly long thoughts about it are here if you're interested) and started Pokemon Conquest yesterday.
And no, I didn't intend to play two games featuring Oda Nobunaga back to back
As for the Sunless Sea forfeiting stats thing, in some roguelikes/mystery dungeons, there are enemies which can permanently damage the stats on a piece of equipment, which is pretty similar. I've probably run into the permanently-damage-actual-character-stats thing as well in roguelike/likes, but I'm drawing a blank as to what those games would be. Outside of those genres, don't think I've ever seen such a thing happen.
Yeah, in-battle, temporary stat loss I've seen. Permanence is another deal entirely.
I pushed through and played Sunless Seas some more (passed along my goods through a few scions), but I wound up running into a bug in completing a game-ending objective. The game just hangs when I try to finish a game-winning condition, nothing happens.
That was enough to put me off of it permanently. Looking back, I rather would have read a novel set in the SS world than played the game itself. With the combat being what it is (a joke), the interface being relatively poor, the game itself being slightly buggy, and the captain-to-captain thing being as repetitive as it it, the game gets old fast. It does a good job of building a world, and making you feel invested in the stories and threatened as you sail around, but after so many captains the atmosphere inevitably becomes very ho-hum. Also so many objectives are a flat-out grindfest.
with my guy/gal in however many ways you like so long as you don't 
