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I legit wonder how they're going to write Cid, because they sure as hell can't have him be the domestic abuser he was in the original.
Announcement was in 2015, but in 2017 Square moved the development of the game in-house after terminating their partnership with CyberConnect2 and started fresh. That means the game actually took only 3 years to finish.
Nomura even outright said that they shouldn't have announced the game so early (same for KH3.)
@Cyan:
I legit wonder how they're going to write Cid, because they sure as hell can't have him be the domestic abuser he was in the original.
Bloody Baron in Witcher 3 was how long ago?
I don't really get-okay.
July 27.
Yes pls.
While you wait for that:
I like those character designs, even if there's a little too much black and you can definitely play "spot the Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts character" with a few of them. Like the first game they're still exaggerated and cartoony, but avoid the tackiness that Nomura's infamous for. Square Enix has always been good about this, but it's also cool that they managed to bring back all the voice actors for the returning characters even the ones who, as far as I know, don't normally do video game work.
The trailer doesn't provide much context though. It looks like this time around the Reapers' Game has Players forming teams and they're allowed to directly attack each other? Come to think of it, the only Players you ever actually encountered in the first game outside of the main group was that one delinquent couple. And I guess the presence of the Shinjuku Reapers is supposed to tie in to the Switch port's new content. Need to see more details on the battle system too - it looks like everyone can only equip a single pin at a time and the new Light Puck-esque mechanic lets you trigger combo attacks.
Urban fantasy action RPG set in Shibuya, Tokyo where teenagers find themselves trapped in a "Reaper's Game" that they must win or be erased from existence.
The original game was released on the Nintendo DS back in 2007 and used virtually every last one of the handheld's features in clever ways that tied into the game's themes albeit with an unorthodox battle system that's not to everyone's liking. The World Ends with You has a very strong punk aesthetic and, most importantly, had a good story that avoided embarrassing itself like many other modern-day Square Enix titles are prone to do.
NEO, the sequel up there, probably won't require playing the original game to understand everything but that trailer is already showcasing a chunk of returning characters from it, one of them even being a party member this time. If you're interested enough to give the original game a whirl and don't want to track down a DS copy The World Ends with You is also available on mobile and the Switch, though with an altered battle system since the original required two screens. The Switch port has an extra story chapter that supposedly ties in to NEO.
Crossword already answered your question as well as I could possibly do… but when he says "and used virtually every last one of the handheld's features in clever ways " that's an understatement.
I have not seen a game before or since that used every feature of that thing nearly so well. The touch control features on the botom screen while simultaneously having a different battle going on in the top screen that used the arrows, and switching between them? Combat abilities using the stylus like whirls and loops and straight line slashes, so that the power up choices weren't just about pickign the best attacks, but the ones that synergized and were most comfortable to do together... it was really something else and no other system will ever have a combat quite like it. Any ports or sequels are by necessity going to be lacking that... though it seems like this one is keeping the style pretty good.
It also had a banger of a soundtrack punching well above the weightclass of a handheld. In both Japanese AND English.
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The dual screen thing wasn’t so much of a plus tho, clever as it might be it was a high barrier of entry to getting good in the game, to follow two simultaneous battles, and the ones at the top screen weren’t that interesting compared to the wide number of powers and skills required at the bottom screen, but it was still needed because the big finishers and the combo system required cooperation.
One of my small worries is that it’s been said that this game is a sequel to the anime. It’s likely just to keep things consistent to modern times, but you see episode 1 and it’s…ughh. But while they are so far fairly faithful to the game, there’s enough minute details here and there that makes me wonder what aspects they might try retconning that transfers over to the sequel.
I’m also trying not to speculate too much though. Excited to experience the game fresh.
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The dual screen thing wasn’t so much of a plus tho, clever as it might be it was a high barrier of entry to getting good in the game, to follow two simultaneous battles, and the ones at the top screen weren’t that interesting compared to the wide number of powers and skills required at the bottom screen, but it was still needed because the big finishers and the combo system required cooperation.
they did have auto mode though for people who didn’t dig the system, so it becomes optional at the end of things
I'm not sure you are able to do the rematch bosses, extra noises or high difficulty encounters with auto beat failing to match cards.
3DS FC: 0516-7666-3837
SW-4128-8032-0729
I used the setting where the partner's on auto but the player can jump in at any time. Worked out well.
No effin way!
No effin way!
Oh man, those Boss Battles and Summons look epic!
I don't know who any of the characters are but still looks great
I don't know who any of the characters are but still looks great
Ah, Dirge of Cerberus. That would be why I recognize literally none of that.
Figured it had to be something, that was way too many specific designs to be random filler.
Development of the next release is going so smooth Nomura already wanted to start showing stuff, but Kitase won't allow him yet.
Chaos?
Chaos!!!
The guy with the big sword is so out of place wearing that casual t-shirt.
This feels like if someone took Dragon Quest 3, made it grimdark and the hero's focus being "I MUST KILL ZOMA".
Hard pass.
Why does that look like a ps3 game? The models, the textures, everything screams 10 year old game.
Also in general, I'm kinda getting sick of that really awkward way japanese animated/motion captured video game characters unaturally gesture wildly. It was acceptable a few generations back, but when I see it in FF7 Remake, Monster Hunter World and even this…thing, it just really takes me out of the game
. It ends up looking funnier than I feel they intended it to.
Why does that look like a ps3 game? The models, the textures, everything screams 10 year old game.
Also in general, I'm kinda getting sick of that really awkward way japanese animated/motion captured video game characters unaturally gesture wildly. It was acceptable a few generations back, but when I see it in FF7 Remake, Monster Hunter World and even this…thing, it just really takes me out of the game
. It ends up looking funnier than I feel they intended it to.
Many of these games let your characters goofily emote I think they’re supposed to look goofy even if it creates tonal dissonance. As for why the game looks dated? Welcome to japanese game design where old is new…though to be honest the game doesn’t look that bad.
so out of place wearing that casual t-shirt.
Sounds like Final Fantasy to me.
This feels like if someone took Dragon Quest 3, made it grimdark and the hero's focus being "I MUST KILL ZOMA".
In order for that to happen wouldn’t the hero have to have three ability to talk?
So I guess it's safe to assume that this is Square's reimagining of the first Final Fantasy? If so, WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL WERE THEY THINKING?
C'mon now.
I actually hope the later stages of the development turn out FAR better than what is currently being teased, because all I'm left with right now is total distaste.
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Why does that look like a ps3 game? The models, the textures, everything screams 10 year old game.
Also in general, I'm kinda getting sick of that really awkward way japanese animated/motion captured video game characters unaturally gesture wildly. It was acceptable a few generations back, but when I see it in FF7 Remake, Monster Hunter World and even this…thing, it just really takes me out of the game
. It ends up looking funnier than I feel they intended it to.
The graphics are the least of this project's issues right now. But that's maybe because I'm not a big graphics guy and most of my favorite video games have graphics that the current generation would frown upon (older console games).
I'd be ok with Nomura pulling a Mistwalker and leaving for his own studio now.
Unless he gets fed up with bullshit or pulls a Yuji Naka and puts out a shitty game behind one that went through development hell you're stuck with him.
FF 1-6 are getting Pixel Perfect releases… Presumably direct ports and not the blurred garbage of the last releases, and not 2.5 D reimagines. Details are scarce but... Ports. With widescreen.
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Someone went through and broke apart the trailer hyper hard.
Looks like the FFReamsters aren't just going to be ports, they've actually redone the pixel art, similar to what they did for the PSP release of 4 several years ago.
But it actually looks like pixels unlike the blurry poorly posed messes from a few years ago. I am now actually excited about this instead of bored by the idea of another port..
They're keeping the proportions 24 pixels high unlike the 48 pixels high of the 2013 versions… but with a 32 bit color pallette instead of 16 bit. So it'll still look, well, pixely on bigger screens, but it means the rest of the game tiles should proportion out the same so it should look like a unified artstyle... again unlike the 2013 ports. It doesn't work to only make the characters higher rez when you don't do it to anything else.
I'm actually interested for this animated adaption of Final Fantasy IX. Since It's my favorite Final Fantasy game.
Sweet! 9 is my overall favorite, so I am down with this.
Bonus points if they bring in Lupin actors to play Zenigata Steiner.
The latest NEO: The World Ends with You trailer, probably the last one until launch next month. If anyone's trying to go in as blind as possible I'd recommend against watching it, the second half especially since it's pretty loaded.
! Is that supposed to be Joshua at the very end? He looks completely different, and there is a shot of a shirt that looks more typical of him a little earlier shown in proximity to cameos of Shiki and Neku, but that definitely sounds like him. It's also weird how little presence Minamimoto has had in these trailers; I guess he's one of those RPG characters who start out overpowered compared to the rest of the party, dip after the introductory stages, and then rejoins later one once the rest of the cast has caught up power-wise.
! Since it's what I've been playing lately that sequence of Shibuya being destroyed really, really reminds me of the Conception cut scene from the start of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
A demo's supposed to go up tomorrow, one of those "play a bit of the game and carry over progress" ones. I probably won't check it out since I'm already 100% aboard and have plenty to play until next month, but it might be a good idea since this new battle system seems like it's easier to understand with hands-on experience versus just reading impressions.
More than anything else, it's the sheer amount of 2D character art and assets on display that warms my heart.
WOW. A Final Fantasy game adapted into anime, and it's 9 of all things?
Don't wake me up if this is a dream - my favorite Final Fantasy is going to have an anime version. Never, ever, did I think anything like this would even be a possibility let alone actually exist.
What a time to be alive.
Speaking of anime’s, TWEWY anime finished up. Better adaptation than I expected, albeit still a rushed one. The epilogue of the series though has a very cheery/explicit interpretation of the events that occurred in the game, and not just the stuff implied in the secret reports. It implied Hamekoma’s pin wasn’t just(actually?) a key pin but a pin that allowed for Neku’s final attack. And it showed a bunch of characters being revived that wasn’t implied to be revived in the game; that I’m not sure of what to think given there’s the question then of why other people ie villains weren’t revived etc.
Originally Posted by Nightwing
Stay focused, cause right now you have a decision to make. Are you a man perpetually looking back at what he’s lost, or a man looking forward, to what he might become?
So I have been trying my hand at the NEO TWEWY demo after all which covers about the first hour and a half-ish of the game it feels. It's a little hard to believe that it's really been fourteen years because almost everything feels very familiar. Wandering around a (presumably) faithful recreation of Shibuya, mind reading passersby to see what silly things they're thinking, gaudy and cartoony designs that manage to stay on this side of tacky (that said it is pretty easy to spot which characters were 100% designed by Nomura himself and which ones weren't), finding a Pig Noise squirreled away in a back alley, Minamimoto's math word salad (it is strange at first to hear him talk at length in a "oh so that's what they actually sound like" way), and a soundtrack that's an eclectic mix of hip hop, rock, pop, and funk: it's all there as if it never left.
As a protagonist Rindo's not the same as Neku; he's very much treated as the party's straight man and he comes off as being more introverted and prefering to keep people at arm's length compared to how anti-social Neku was at the start of his game. He and Fret bounce off of each other fairly well so far and while their dialogue is peppered with the occasional modern slang (this is the first time I've seen "galaxy brain" used outside of the Internet, let alone spoken aloud) including some that I've never heard of it hasn't been used heavily or unnaturally enough to fall into "how do you do, fellow kids?" territory. Yet. I can totally buy them as zoomers born with smartphone in hand.
The battle system is obviously the biggest change from the original. Now you have all party members on the screen at once and everyone can only equip a single pin. Each type of pin has a different button input (Slasher and Force Rounds require hitting X and Y respectively, Pyrokinesis needs to you hold down ZL, and Minamimoto comes with a new pin that lets him unleash a flying kick after charging with R, etc.) and the name of the game is to switch to a different partner when a wheel meter pops up in order to build a synch gauge and unleash fusion attacks. It's fairly simple and button-mashy this early in but I can see the battle system really opening up deeper in the actual game once more party members join and you collect and evolve more and more pins (there are over 300 according to the menu) and have access to many more types of attacks. Like the first game proper multi-tasking and timing is going to be key and I ran into some situations where I'd "used up" all of my pins and was a sitting duck while waiting for them to recharge. NEO's battle system is probably more approachable than the first game's dual-screen setup but I need to practice with it more and I definitely see it being something that either clicks or doesn't. Even if it doesn't the level scaler and difficulty mode selector and drop manipulation mechanics still work.
Some minor introductory story-related commentary:
! The circumstances of Rindo and Fret being involved in the Reaper's Game are extremely suspect. Unlike with Neku you actually spend a little time with them in the real world before the Game begins and there's never a moment that you can point to and say, "Okay, that's when they probably died. They just arrive at the Scramble Crossing as part of their daily plans, see Players fighting Noise, and think the whole thing is some kind of movie or AR competition at first and don't believe the Reapers when they're told that all the Players are dead. Also if you pay attention it's implied that Joshua had a hand in their entering the Shibuya UG. Minamimoto has a cryptic line that implies there's been some sort of repetition or Groundhog Day stuff going on too.
NEO's art direction leans even more heavily on the first game's comic book styling to the point where dialogue scenes are laid out like manga panels and all the characters have many, many expressive hand-drawn character portraits and poses - the massive amount of 2D assets this game seems to have are great to see in a Square-Enix RPG. From this little slice of the game it feels very confident and is certainly trying to put its best foot forward. So the question of whether Square-Enix can capture lightning in a bottle a second time almost fifteen years later still remains and the story can always spiral off into complete nonsense territory my takeaway from the demo is: I am playing a sequel to The World Ends with You in the year 2021 and it is (so far) good.
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Oh yes, and here's a link to a playlist of all the music tracks that played during the demo for those curious: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbZ6KU8F7JTxpW-HKSZD01pPYYI4RSAZ
There's a good mix of new and old songs in there.
Reviews came out for Neo The World Ends With You. Haven’t read them yet but it seemed the embargo lifted half an hour ago.
Reminder that the game comes out completely tomorrow. And be weary of spoilers. The game leaked already accidentally by Nintendo a week or two back so spoilers are already abound with folks already have completed the game and datamined it.
Cinder
I wonder when we will get new info on Final Fantasy 16
that looked really cool
Unless something pops up at the Tokyo Game Show I presume we won’t hear about the game until sometime next year at the earliest.
Hopefully SE and Disney are planning to release content update for the games around the time of movie releases, then again what publisher wouldn't be smart enough to do that.
they basically got really full of themselves and set unrealistic sales goals and expectations when it came to designs etc. They do get the odd great game as you do, but their consistency has gone out of the window and their headliner in final fantasy divides opinion for every game since X (and only XIV gets universal praise these days IMO.)
I dropped elden ring for a bit to play triangle strategy not cause elden ring is bad or anything but I've been feeling to tired to play it after work. Triangle Strategy is way less stress and pretty fun. Very story heavy. Doesn't have the depth of the FF tactics job system though. Most of the depth comes from the interplay of character specific abilities and you recruit more characters along the way where a new character = new battle tool/toy. All the outside battle systems are mostly straightforward upgrade progression system(weapon and promotion) so very low on actual meaningful customization(the only thing is some characters have weapon upgrades that you can toggle between 2 different effects). I don't wanna hype the story too much to not set false expectations but if you're down for like a very wordy game where battles take the backseat to the story, the story is pretty solid imo. Very politically focused with characters just trying to operate in midst of the agendas of differing nations.
So, anyone see the bullshit price of the FF6 statue?
For foreigners like $11,000
If you get paid in yen (hello) roughly $14,000
It's not a question of whether I can afford it, it's a question of…..should I be giving a company this much money for NOT that much? There's a f***ing 1:1 scale Ayanami Rei that costs just barely over that price. Wtf?????
Super gross SE. Who do you think you are?
Ugh yeah that's gross.
12K is just… that's a down payment on a house or outright buying a used car. WHo the hell is it for at that price?
Have people heard about this?
Yes but I don’t know if I would argue their reasons for selling them is “awful”
Publisher’s selling off IPs or whole studios in this case is rare but there’s generally a good reason for that. In this particular case I don’t think Sqaure saw much value in Crystal Dynamics or the IPs though for what it’s worth Sqaure didn’t exactly manage CD all that well.
All those years and you had them make 5 Tomb Raider games which were a mixed bag and Marvel Avengers a game noted for losing 60 million dollars
Yep it's not an awful reason. Square didn't see a good return on running their western studios vs the cost(like I saw some tweet digging through financial reports and crystal dynamics had like a below 1% return vs operating cost). That said I do think a big reason for that is that square just has no clue on how to run their western side. Not sure if these studios can bloom under Embracer Group since we have no clue how they're going to run things but I/O interactive is an example of an IP/studio faring much better outside square than inside square.
If we’re being fair their management of the Japanese side has been pretty spotty of the last few or so decades.
I tried the Diofield Chronicles demo and have been positively surprised. It kinda feels like what if Fire Emblem was an RTS and units were like WC3 heroes but more with JRPG progression/mechanics. Might turn out a sleeper hit.
Also nothing really comes to mind when I'm trying to recall if Japan has ever had a prominent RTS before so just from the novelty angle this one is also very interesting,
I really hope they visit the Avengers, and do the iconic scene where they show the whole team in a circle preparing to fight the aliens, or as I like to call it, the money shot, but this time with Sora in it
square has an extended trailer from the nintendo direct announcement.
Immensely excited for this one cause I appreciated the first game more on a mechanics based perspective and I wasn't too let down by the story structure.
Apparently they are addressing that though in the second game for people wanting more out of the story.
Hang in there, Kierkegaard.
