At the conclusion of Day 1 of the Dawntrail Media Tour, members of the media were permitted to submit questions for Naoki Yoshida, the producer and director of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, to answer over an hour block of time. The gamut of questions ranged from suggestions for gameplay about Materia to whether or not Dawntrail is the start of a new saga for FINAL FANTASY XIV Online.

Below is a summary of that Q&A for all of the questions asked.

This Q&A has been edited for content and clarity.

Are there any examples of “improved reward” as shown in previous PLL [OR Note: Producer Letter Live] and also today’s presentation? Is it more tomestones cap over 7.x patches? Is it more gear drops from 8man/24man raids or existing contents? Or simply just more rewards like cosmetic purposes (minions/mounts)

Yoshida-san made it clear the tomestones cap will not be increasing. [OR Note: It was announced earlier this week that new tomestones will be released and others will be discontinued, however.] Some of the feedback they’ve received is that the rewards are lacking (including in amount) for a lot of the dungeon content, especially for the variant dungeons. They did not have the resources to allocate towards having player-fulfilling rewards for offered content, and so they want to improve upon the rewards given and to increase the reward amounts for dungeons. This does not mean just for minions and mounts, but gear and weapons.

Another factor is they want to bring in different content than what has been offered before, and those rewards will be to fill in gaps – the gear drops may not provide maximum iLvls, but they will still raise average iLvl to midlevels. Yoshida-san admitted it is hard to explain in words, but to look forward to Patch 7.1 for more information. He did reiterate they will increase the amount of gear given as a reward.

I would like to know if there are plans to create a central Party Finder since many raiders DC travel to Aether for NA if they want to find groups. We could even tie in the Oceanic region as well!! This leaves players without access to FC buffs, mail, retainers, etc while they are trying to fill groups. Also, since we are getting many graphical and system updates in Dawntrail, are there plans for a modernized friends list similar to Blizzard’s Battle.net or Steam friends?

Yoshida-san said they are aware players want this, but he said traveling between different physical data centers and having different party finders will need a separate system to manage. If they had this in place, it would solve a lot of problems, but it would be nice. It would take two to three years of work to make happen, and so they wonder if there is an alternative method that would work. They are currently focusing resources on 7.0 at the moment. Once that has settled down, they will talk more about this subject. Yoshida-san said that he does want to solve this, he isn’t giving up on it, but they have to talk about it more.

As for the friends list and improvements, there has also been a lot of feedback for it. But they are improving the blacklist first, and once that has settled down, they are looking at adjusting the friends list as well. Yoshida-san noted that Battle.net, etcetera, are things companies have put their full resources into. They will try to do their best.

In terms of new player experience, can we see more skills becoming available to players at low levels (as has been done in the past) to refresh that starting experience?

Yoshida-san said with the level cap growing to 100, the team had to review each job’s available actions and their level distribution. He said they tried to keep a good balance across the levels, but they aren’t completely sure about the lower levels, and they do welcome specific feedback on the forums.

It does raise a question about striking a good balance, because people expect they will get new actions when the level cap goes up. They can always increase the number of available actions, but there can be too many and it will be cumbersome. He pointed out that conversely, if you learn it all at lower levels, then what is the purpose of leveling at the higher levels? Furthermore, they don’t want to decrease back to, say, level 50. They said they do think about this, and they are trying to do their best too.

If you could recommend any quests (job, side content, etcetera) to complete before Dawntrail, which would you recommend for players really into FFXIV lore?

Yoshida-san pointed out that if people are really into lore, then they would have already done a lot of the side content. He said he doesn’t want to give away too much, but the most recent alliance raid, Myths of the Realm, would give background information. He also referenced the names of all 14 seats of the Convocation. He said that is a good place to start to get into FINAL FANTASY XIV Online lore.

What were some of the inspirations for Dawntrail?

Yoshida-san referenced what he said during the Fan Festivals, and that one of the inspirations was giving a summer vacation for players. He stated they previously went to the edge of existence in Endwalker and to the Thirteenth in more recent patches. He said what they were doing started to feel all narratively similar, and so they wanted to bring in a new perspective in the Source with a new adventure and new lands and diverse cultures and people with different values. The theme is more uplifting and with adventure – to bring that kind of vacation feel.

Yoshida-san drew a comparison to the real world and all the sad news about war and chaos taking place. He stated with FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, they want to focus on relationships between people for both in-game people and real-life players with different values. They are showing this through the history of Tural and the cultures they represent and how they interact. He hopes it brightens the real-life future as well. Additionally, Warriors of Light wouldn’t be excited with just relaxation, and so there are exciting battles and content ahead, and Yoshida-san encouraged people to play all the way through 7.0.

With the introduction of Viper, there are now six melee DPS. Within these six jobs there are: Striking, Scouting, and Maiming left-side gear as well as Slaying and Aiming right-side accessories. As you can imagine, these make managing gearsets and Materia melds (specifically for skill speed) very hectic. Are there any plans moving forward for either consolidation of melee gearsets and/or Materia loadouts?

My suggestion to fix this easily would be to have players meld material onto their job stones or a skill tree instead of directly onto gear which is being shared across multiple jobs.

Yoshida-san said he is always wondering what direction they want to take simplifying into and how much they should support that. He stated how they wanted to bring a more fulfilling gameplay experience from 7.0 into the 7.x patches, and they talk about how to make more robust content that will challenge players. They looked at more recent content, including battle content, and it started to feel more similar to each other. They have used unique mechanics in the past where parties had to get creative about it. Over the years though, the development team has gotten more conservative about those mechanics, and the player feedback has been harsh about it too. The development team therefore included less unique dungeon elements.

He said they want to address any ‘pain’ points for players – and he described the targeting circle sometimes being as big as the entire field as an example of that. They are trying to shift focus into more robust gameplay, such as the main tank and off tank having specific tasks to be doing or removing one of the DPS and having them fighting a different enemy. They want to introduce fresh mechanics into battle. They’ve also heard comments about how a lot of the content feels similar. He also pointed out that there is feedback from players about how one job has a particular action and yet another job does not. They are not saying that player feedback is bad, but they want to make sure that players are having fun with the game.

Yoshida-san feels, though, that they have gone a bit too far. They would love to go into the various jobs and make them all individual but won’t do it at the same time as they are adjusting gameplay content, because doing it all at once would be a problem. Their current goal is to work through 7.x series to improve on content and then bring a fresh a new perspective to players. Yoshida-san then said that it comes down to different jobs and how much do they accommodate that kind of support on the developer side. He explained that with the different jobs available, if they make it simpler to manage melded Materia for gear – like making it one-button clickable to replace the Materia – the question becomes if it will contribute to a fulfilling gameplay experience.

They are serious about the adjustments and the choices they make but the team does feel they have introduced too many types of Materia, and they should revise that system. Yoshida-san stated this was a good idea that was put forward in the question, and that he may talk with the team about among the other discussions.

How is Dawntrail shifting away from the single player orientation brought about during Shadowbringers to encourage collaborative play [among] the Warriors of Light?

Yoshida-san said that he, and other core team members, wanted to emphasize they are watching your streams and that they want feedback. He said it is not a shifting away, per se. The development team have a long-term goal to accomplish – and this is part of it. The biggest reason people hesitate to play an MMORPG is because people don’t want to play with other players. He wanted to change that hesitation, and he said that one advantage they have is that the story is so good. He wanted to pull people into FINAL FANTASY XIV Online without them having to deal with the pressure of working with others. If he got those people who hesitated to jump in, then that increases the number of players who are available to play together. They decided to make solo-focused gameplay because of it.

Yoshida-san further explained this solo-based content built a playerbase that allows them now, with Dawntrail, to go back to the MMORPG elements to play together in a new stage of the game. He said he is sure that people will find out that the FFXIV community is kind and helpful, and he said if a Sprout fails a mechanic, then they aren’t going to be yelled at or anything. He further explained the solo runs are used by some people as ‘practice runs’, so that when they are grouped with other people, they will have knowledge of the dungeon so it will go more smoothly.

In the future, are [there] plans to rehaul the iLvl sync system? Currently, the calculations are very convoluted and confusing for new players when syncing for various contents, including high level raids, where the higher iLevel gear may not actually be best in slot. For example, this is in part due to Materia stats not being included in syncing.

My suggestion would be to include Materia stats, in addition to the base stats, but also put a cap on them.

Yoshida-san said that calculations for iLvls are quite complex, and it does put a load on the servers. He said they are aware there is a misalignment with Materia. The iLvl system comes from FINAL FANTASY XI Online and the formula for it was developed solely by Mitsutoshi Gondai. [OR Note: iLvl was introduced in 2013’s Seekers of Adoulin expansion.] With the iLvl sync system in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, they got Gondai-san to program it in. He was also the first battle director for FFXIV. He is still involved with FFXIV, and he is a very dedicated team member.

Yoshida-san further explained that iLvl system in FFXIV was rather rushed, because they were trying to get the game ready for launch. He said it was a good idea and they will take it back and discuss it further while trying to also keep a lower load on the servers.

In Producer Live Letter 81, you stated that the discussions for the next expansion -8.0- had already started. Is Dawntrail the start of a new saga that will be continued into further expansions, or is it intended to be a standalone story?

Yoshida-san opened by saying that whether or not they want to make Dawntrail an ongoing saga or not has not been determined yet. He said that this is because when they released Heavensward, they did not know it was going to be one long saga. At the time, they were focused on rebuilding FINAL FANTASY XIV Online after the harsh 1.0 launch, that they wanted to just make sure to continue the game and that it would continue to exist. He said that at that time, it was just one step at a time, and they didn’t have a mind to go to SQUARE ENIX and tell them that it would be just one long saga because they would just call it crazy.

He said that around the time of Stormblood, they started to say it looks like it is just one continuous story for them to tell. He said that there was some foreshadowing in Heavensward and Stormblood in the hopes they would be able to depict a larger overarching story. In similar fashion, there will probably be some foreshadowing that might lead to something throughout Dawntrail’s story.

Yoshida-san said he has to wait to see how players react to Dawntrail’s story and the finale of the expansion. But they do have several ideas in their pocket about where to go to. They have something incorporated into 7.0 that is exciting that they can’t say quite yet. Yoshida-san said that they will wait and see what the future holds. He said in his mind, there are storylines for the next two expansions, and so he hopes that players will continue to be excited over FINAL FANTASY XIV Online and he will see the players reactions to Dawntrail. He said Dawntrail is all about a summer vacation, so next time may be all ice and frozen. He concluded that rather than worrying about it all being one long saga or not, he wants to bring excitement, new exploration, and new elements to players for them to enjoy in Dawntrail.

Please check out my thoughts on the new Viper job, on the new Pictomancer job, and what my overall thoughts are for the Dawntrail demo.

If you want more FINAL FANTASY XIV Online-themed content, then be sure to check out my ongoing cooking series, Cooking Eorzea!

Also, check out what eleven FINAL FANTASY XI Online enemies that I think need to be part of the upcoming Echoes of Vana’diel raid series in Dawntrail.

What new features would you like to see in Dawntrail and in future expansions?

Are you ready for a summer vacation in Tural?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Dawntrail Media Tour: Media Day 1 Q&A with Naoki Yoshida appeared first on oprainfall.

Lately, I’ve been playing a ton of mahjong and hopping between a couple of other games. A few weeks ago was the Whale Cup tournament in Riichi City, which I joined last year and yet again signed up for this year. I feel like I possibly did even worse than last year. However, Riichi City‘s helpful tip features, dora tile highlights, winning tile wait hints, etc., being turned off for the tournament, I didn’t find much of an inconvenience at all this year. Last year, that was a bit odd for me and I more significantly felt that change from how I usually play. This year, it didn’t really matter to me much at all. So I suppose in some ways I’ve improved. Although, I have been having horrendous luck in mahjong overall, all year.

Not only did I do miserably in that tournament for the second year in a row, but I’ve also managed to recently lose my rank in Mahjong Soul. I went from an Adept 3 star rank, back down to 2 star. I wasn’t even a high rank to begin with, but I just haven’t had much luck lately. Some of it is my own fault. Nonetheless, these last couple weeks I’ve been using the efficient discard method to try and rank back up and I haven’t been making significant progress without eventually losing it all simply due to bad luck. Sure, occasionally I’ve taken a risk or two and those losses have been my fault, but in the majority of my matches I’ve been making myself play efficiently and it’s been going extremely slow. I already felt like Expert 1 star and the gold ranked rooms were quite far away, now I feel like I won’t even ever rank back up to where I was. I’ve pretty much been losing all my points this year in both Mahjong Soul and Riichi City.

Other than mahjong, I’ve done a smidgen of console gaming here and there, but not a lot lately. Finishing up Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, has been going a bit slow. I’m nearing the end, but also trying to finish up various side adventures. I’m attempting to not simply rush through the end like I did Gaiden, back when I wanted to finish it and be ready for Infinite Wealth right at launch. I mostly want to finish Infinite Wealth simply because it’s been months now, in addition to the fact that I finally got my hands on Persona 3 Reload a while ago during a sale and have been anxious to start that. Persona 3 was always my favorite Persona. Also, this past week I managed to get my hands on Endless Ocean Luminous as well, thanks to Nintendo. I’m playing that with the purpose of reviewing it, so I won’t say too much about it now. I’ve gone on some solo dives, made a bit of story progress and have done some online dives as well, plus I checked out the first online event this past weekend. But once again, if you want to hear more about my thoughts on Endless Ocean, you’ll have to wait for my future review. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: May 5 – 11 appeared first on oprainfall.

This interview about Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution was originally supposed to go live during the time window while you could still pre-order a physical Game Boy Advance copy of the game from Limited Run Games. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, this interview ended up being delayed into May for publication. However, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution will be coming to home consoles, and so you can still definitely pick up a copy of the game then.

You can find out more about WayForward and Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution on the official website, on Discord, on Facebook and Instagram, on X, on TikTok, on YouTube, and on Twitch. 

You can also check out my impressions of a hands-on demo of Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution here.

Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution is set to release in 2024 on Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Operation Rainfall: My name is Quentin H. with oprainfall, and could you two introduce yourselves?

Matt Bozon: I’m Matt Bozon, I’m the director of the Shantae series — but specifically here, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution.

Erin Bozon: And I am Erin Bozon, the creator of Shantae.

OR: Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution started at a Game Boy Advance title in 2002. What can you tell us about this title, and why was it never released?

MB: Well, it is a sequel to the original Shantae game — early, early ideas for this game started in November of 2000, which was when we got our dev kits. Shantae 1 was still in development, so we were starting to think about what a sequel might be. I actually started to have some of its early, early framework — or I guess design ideas, I should say — getting worked on even while the first game was not quite done.

You asked why it was not released. So, Game Boy Advance was very difficult at retail. It was very license driven, toy aisle, movie tie-ins, TV show tie-ins. It was very challenging. And prices of those cartridges were very expensive, so it was very hard to get publishers to want to take a gamble on an expensive cartridge for a completely unknown property. [And] the first game hadn’t even come out yet. And by the time it did come out, it had proven to not be a great seller. It was a fan favorite-

EB: -it only sold 10,000 copies.

MB: So yeah, it got cult [classic] status.

EB: It had a limited release.

MB: Yeah, it had a fan following, but not really a lot. Not enough to prove it would be successful as a Game Boy Advance game. Which, as I mentioned, was so much more expensive to manufacture and produce. Margins were very slim, and so, ultimately, there were a couple of places that looked at it and went ‘Maybe we could do something with this if you can get it on the cheapest cartridge and you can cut the content down.’ Really nice people who tried their best. But we’re like ‘We can’t even fit the demo on one of these tiny cartridges, much less the whole game — there’s just no way.’

EB: We [had] maxed out all the features, so to cut it down wouldn’t have worked.

MB: So, it just got put away and Shantae didn’t really come back again until digital distribution, which was like a rebirth — that was Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, which was a completely different game. This one just kind of went away and stayed away.

EB: And waited for more updated technology.

MB: For us, Risky’s Revenge was the third game we developed. But it’s the second game anyone ever saw.

“We’re always trying to do the next Shantae game, always. It’s always on the forefront.”

OR: How much progress was actually made in Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution before the project was shelved? How much of what WayForward did back in 2002 was actually still usable for this upcoming release?

EB: I think 50 percent?

MB: Fifty percent of the game’s systems, all of the player mobility, transformations, animations, big ideas that had already been built — engine, all that kind of stuff. What it didn’t have was the Golden Path adventure. You could only do 25 percent of it. So, if you’re speaking purely of game development, that is about halfway through the development process. Usually, the back half is a lot of ‘Now you’ve got to mass produce your content.’ We had done all the legwork, but we hadn’t done all the other stuff where you build out the full game experience.

This was really, really important at the beginning of the project: ‘Were we going to just resume work?’ And we ended up doing that. It’s just the same work, same code, same tools — tried to put our computers in the state they were in 20 years ago, back when resolutions of 1024 by 768 was as big as your computer monitor could possibly display. We had to go back in time and actually work in those constraints. Stuff and tools that were not even Windows-compatible yet, they were in DOS. Animations were made in DOS. A lot of this stuff — we’re working on stuff that is old, even back then. In the early ’90s, we were working on tools from the ’80s.

EB: Dpaint! [OR Note: Also known as Deluxe Paint.]

MB: Dpaint, yeah!

EB: DPaint was our go-to for the first game and the second one.

MB: All that stuff was still the same stuff. While we made improvements, we didn’t ditch the old things. We just continued. And that’s kind of like having one or two hands tied behind your back, honestly. So, you get none of the advantages of modern game development, other than being able to communicate with Teams and talking and chatting on a video call. But not the game.

EB: You were saying that there was no ‘undo’, right?

MB: There’s no undo! *laughs* We didn’t have that kind of technology yet! It’s Game Boy Advance, through and through. That’s what it is.

OR: Why look to the past to bring Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution back now instead of working on the next ‘big thing’ after Shantae: Seven Sirens and after the re-release of the first two Shantae games?

MB: That’s the best question ever.

EB: We’re always trying to do the next Shantae game, always. It’s always on the forefront. But you have to find someone to help fund it, you have to find the time and the staff and a slot — because a lot of times, you have to work on other titles in order to afford to do something that’s an indie game. So we came to a point where’s it’s like ‘Okay, we can afford to work on another Shantae game because he had just finished working on — I’m not sure we can say it-‘

MB: *laughs* I help out a lot at the studio! I was between projects I was helping out on.

EB: Yeah, we can’t say exactly what he was working on, but he had been on something for a year, and then he was going to have a time where he could actually work on maybe a Shantae game. So, we did talk about doing the next one in the series. But there was this one that had never been released, and it told us a little more of the story. It’s like — it’s there, and when can we release it? And retro stuff is really on the rise right now. So, it’s like ‘Yes, we could do a new one, but when are we ever going to go back to finish this one?’ And so, it just seemed like a good time.

And we did ask different companies if they could help fund it, and we did show them different games. And they were like ‘Yes! Let’s do this!’ and we were so thankful that someone will help fund it so we can get another Shantae game out.

So things lined up — Michael Stragey was available, and he did the engine for the first game, and Matt was available, and we had a lot of the art already done. So instead of maybe taking a year or two to do the whole new game, this one could fit into a slot that was less than a year. So timewise too, for Shantae fans, you don’t want them to go too long before a new game comes out. So to know that it had already been since 2020 or 2019 since the last Shantae game came out, we were like ‘Ahhh, if we can just get another one to play while we work on the next one, that would be great!’

MB: Completely along with that — Limited Run Games had been doing more reproduction cartridges — like that great thing with Shantae on Game Boy Color. It was like everything aligned nicely.

EB: Josh [Fairhurst] is such a fan that he was all for it, and that they would come on board and help us make another game. We can’t do it ourselves.

MB: He totally believed in us and in the preservation mission that he has. ‘Yeah, we’re finding an old game — here is an old copy laying around on a hard drive, and it should have existed but it didn’t.’ And so, he gave it another shot.

And like you said — Mike Stragey — we weren’t working together anymore. He had gone on to do other things, and it had been 20 years. So, he was between projects, and the timing was right. He’s like ‘I could do it, is it real?’ and we were like ‘Maybe it’s real! I don’t know!’ And then all the pieces fell into place. Super cool, also kind of a now-or-never thing. I feel if this was five years later, I’m not sure it would have made any sense — I feel like it would have gone away again.

EB: Especially as we continue to make more and more advancements with the Shantae series, I feel like now is a good time because we’re still [re]-releasing some of the older ones.

MB: Definitely.

OR: You streamed Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution demo as part of the Kickstarter campaign for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero in 2013. During that demo, you mentioned “I’m playing this game with an analog stick — this game was not designed for an analog stick” — and obviously, platforming with a D-Pad is way different than platforming with a Switch [Joy-Con] or PS4/PS5 controller, and this game has been announced for modern consoles.

How difficult was it to adapt the game’s GBA controls to modern console controllers?

MB: So, I guess I’ll say that that is a work in progress. The closest thing to this game, and I know it’s very strange — once this game is done, it will be as though it was done 20 years ago. Pretend that it was remembered fondly by people who played it — even though they didn’t — and now pretend that it is now time for the port by Carbon Engine team to modern consoles. It will be very similar to how they did the port for Shantae Game Boy Color. And since we’re working on it together — WayForward and Limited Run — it’ll also be very similar to when we ported Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse from the Nintendo 3DS with that upscaler kind of look to it. Not upscaling the pixels, the pixels are clean — I don’t like blurry pixels, it’s a thing of mine I can’t stand that, I like clean pixels — but the illustrations.

Erin’s group has artists redrawing everything at 4k resolution, and it will be beautiful. Your Carbon Engine port will have your Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse­-like, if you’re playing that game on a modern console, similar. You have your pixel art in the middle, your beautiful portrait art on the edges, your illustrations. And if you want, you can still play the cartridge version on [modern consoles], too.

So, if you are like ‘I want the way it really looked without all the high-res art’ — same with the controls. Just like on Pirate’s Curse, you can use the control stick to move around. If that’s what is comfortable for you, you can do that. But for, I think a lot of players, they are going to reach down lower on the controller and get the control pad and use that for the more traditional controls. So you can use both.

For me? I actually tend to play it both ways. When I’m getting into the precision-type fighting moments, I go down on my control pad. When I’m starting to wonder about, I’m taking a little rest and using my analog stick for my thumb. So, you can do both. But traditionally though, people are gonna wanna use the control pad.

Or I’ll plug in my Super Nintendo controller — I use that all the time for Switch stuff. I love plugging that thing in — any device that will support my SNES controller. I love it.

OR: Something interesting for a Game Boy Advance game — you can’t really patch it after release. We saw that when Nintendo tried to Berry patch Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. How does it feel knowing that you have to get it right now?

MB: I’m nervously laughing. The reason I’m nervously laughing is — okay, Erin and I have done so many games. We have a Sabrina game that got 25 percent of the game deleted the day before the game shipped. Not the day before — at midnight, it was shipping in the morning to manufacturing. You really made 25 percent of the games, between midnight and 6 a.m.? Does that sound familiar?

EB: And I was pregnant — I was eight- or nine-months in.

MB: So, you’re making levels and people at the same time? *laughs* That’s crazy. It is a completely different mindset that I think is kind of gone from the world today. You have to live with everything that’s going out there. When it’s done, it’s not done. You have people who play it — as many people as can get hands on it.

EB: That’s why, after beta, we have a playtesting phase that goes for a month or something. You have as many people get their hands on it to try to find as many bugs. Our son was a play tester for years, and now he animated some of the Shantae characters. But he was a play tester since he was 15, until a couple of years ago.

MB: He’s good with the glitch theory-type stuff.

EB: He tries to break it.

MB: He’s like ‘If this is a game that is built on these types of things, then theoretically, they will probably do these things.’ And then he goes checks it.

EB: He’s a genius — he is like ‘I can break it, I know I can!’

MB: So there’s ‘Yeah, we’re gonna do the traditional Q&A looking for bugs’, and we’re also more like the quality — is it fun? And then there’s a whole other thing that Limited Run is going to do — and I had never heard of such a thing, and I thought it was actually crazy when I heard this. They have a fairly involved manufacturing process, because they are creating a specific chip set to make sure this thing runs just right on the card. And then they are going to individually test each individual cart by hand. I have never heard of such crazy stuff before.

EB: Just such quality assurance.

MB: I guess what that means is — and back in the day, old school development, you always shipped knowing there was a bug. Not one you knew of, but you knew. Once this thing expands out into the hands of [the public], something will be found. When it’s found, it will probably have to be like ‘Yeah, that’s part of the game’ and you hope it isn’t some egregious thing.

And yeah, you’re right, you cannot patch it. The only thing that can happen is you could — in this case, there is something a little slightly different because there is a Carbon Engine port coming [and] you could patch that original game. And then include it — that would be the fixed or patched version of the game. But even that is even a little bit unusual, because we’ve done re-releases of games in the past — like Shantae 1. Shantae 1 has some well-known bugs or weird exploits.

EB: We’ve seen people do run-throughs where they could skip stuff because they went through a wall. But it’s kind of fun to see people break the game.

MB: And if they like it, we want to leave it in. It’s only the things that would spoil the experience — we don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone. If there are some things that are kind of fun to break, then it probably is best that it be left in there. But you’re right, you can’t patch it, so you gotta check it and check it and check it again. But from the beginning of time, until only around not so long ago, you couldn’t patch anything anyway.

So, all we’re doing is going back to how you had to do things before, when you had to be absolutely sure before you hit that submit button — that you were absolutely done.

OR: Something else mentioned during the livestream was that [Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution] would be 20+ hours, which would make it the lengthiest Shantae game by far. Has that length been retained for this coming release?

MB: No, no. I think that would have been based on everything we had come up with to that point. Now that we’ve actually made the game, and it’s full quest line, I can say, I think with a fair amount of confidence, that that would have been a fairly drawn out 20 hours. This clocks in with much better pacing right around…I would say a little longer than, considerably longer than, Risky’s Revenge and a little shorter than Pirate’s Curse. Not as long as Half-Genie Hero with all of its DLC options. Right around in that sweet spot is where it lands. I think it’s going to be a satisfying length and move at a good pace for most of the people who are going to be into it.

EB: Not including the speedrunners.

MB: Yeah, without overstaying its welcome. Another way to put it is that every Shantae game has a ‘How fast can you beat it time?’ seems to be clocking in at about all of the other Shantae games. What you don’t want is a 20-hour game where it’s 10 hours of backtracking. A nice, clean, streamlined, respect-your-time game. As a result, shorter, but I think, more dense. Less watered-down flavor.

“And so, what happens, of course, with all of the Shantae games is when something finally doesn’t happen, all of those animations don’t get thrown away because I don’t like to waste anything.”

OR: Let’s talk about some other Shantae cancelled projects.

In an April 2021 interview with Nintendo World Report, you said that “CAPCOM did entrust us with a Dolphin development unit sometime around 2002 in hopes that we could come up with a Shantae GameCube sequel” and that “[w]e did some very early exploration into this idea, but ended up focusing on Shantae Advance instead ‘because that was where the work-for-hire jobs are and you have to keep the lights on’.”

Can you talk any about that early exploration with the GameCube? How far along did you get, and what was the concept behind the title? What was it like to essentially tell CAPCOM ‘thank you, but no’?

EB: GameCube is like my favorite console.

MB: This one is tricky. The reason it’s tricky is because I don’t know all of the facts. So, [CAPCOM was] very happy with Shantae Game Boy Color. That was excellent, they weren’t worried that it didn’t sell well. They were just happy with the quality — for them, it was very high. I was aware of a whole CAPCOM thing, they were trying to greenlight five CAPCOM games at the time. What was it? Viewtiful Joe, P.N.03, Resident Evil 4, and a mystery cancelled game. [OR Note: The cancelled title was ‘Dead Phoenix’, and the fifth unmentioned title was ‘Killer7’.]

So, we found out about that too. We didn’t know if we were one of those five, or not. I always wondered if we were supposed to be, but the timing was always the same — ‘oh, that’s why they gave us a kit.’ But we were new to 3D [and] we were trying to figure it out. And so we didn’t have a ton of confidence — there was a lot of R&D and experimentation phase during that time.

So, what ended up happening there was ‘Well, Shantae shouldn’t probably be the experiment — we should go straight into the thing that’s working that at the time was our core business.’ Which was the handheld team. So that’s why I went in that direction, and just let some of the — handheld was a small part of the studio at the time. About six out of the 20 or 30 people. So, I was like ‘Okay, we’re going to huddle up, focus on this, get really good at handheld’ — which is what evolved from Game Boy Advance into the DS.

Other parts of the company were going more 3D, PC — trying out various things on console, testing our reach as a studio. And those early, I guess, experiments, just kind of kept shifting from one thing into the next. So, while it was Shantae, I can tell you that the theme of the [GameCube] game was river rafting. The concept was revisited for Nintendo DS, which would have been Risky Waters.

There was concept art, there were some test videos made using really crude 3D. Not anything that was put through an actual art team — just ‘Hey, let’s make some basic geometric shapes and try moving a raft through it.’ And the concept of that was ‘What can the controller do, and what’s that like?’. And it’s like ‘oh, it’s fun to squeeze those analog triggers, it could feel like paddling through the water. Maybe this is what we do. Put all four characters on a raft, have four inputs, you’ll paddle paddle paddle, you’ll smack monsters, you’ll pull over off onto the shore, go into a dungeon, do traditional Shantae gameplay, pop out of the dungeon, get back onto the raft.’

That was the concept, and in that era, a lot of games were doing sort of strange and unusual things. It felt like experimentation was in the air, and it was a fun time.

OR:  You mentioned in a 2007 interview with MTV that you assembled a treatment for Shantae: Risky Waters on the DS after the console was announced, but you couldn’t find a publisher for it. Can you tell us more about that treatment? How close was it to the GameCube version?

MB: Okay, I can talk about that! No one’s ever asked about this as far as I know — this is a really funny one.

So, it was very similar. Our early test kits for Nintendo DS did show that you could do things that were very similar to GameCube. Like, ‘that’s very similar — let’s get this design out and bring it back in!’. So, what I had for that was — it was dual screen, which we didn’t end up doing until Contra 4 — I designed and directed Contra 4, so a lot of those same designs and ideas — I was like ‘I want to play with this and that for Shantae’ — did get experimented with. It was dual screen gameplay, so what you had gameplay on the top and bottom, and you had to manage both.

So, when you’re on the bottom, rafting in 3D, on the top, you had Sky on her bird. I don’t recall what the task was, but you were doing flyby things. You could target and drop powerups onto the crew below on the raft. When you pull over to a place to go into a battle area or a labyrinth or a dungeon, then you would have the action on the bottom. You’d be exploring, and your team members would be on the top. And you could manage them also just using L and R buttons. It’s like, ‘Can you play two games at once? Can you do platforming while managing some light gameplay on the top?’.

And the way that worked was that you had Uncle up top mixing potions and health items, and then he would throw them down into the dungeon for you. And each character had its own sort of thing. Rottytops would play almost like a tower defense thing where a bad guy would would come in, and she would be ripping off her leg and beating up the bad guys as they’re trying to get in — which would keep the number of bad guys down in the labyrinth in the bottom of the screen from getting overwhelming.

And so, what happens, of course, with all of the Shantae games is when something finally doesn’t happen, all of those animations don’t get thrown away because I don’t like to waste anything. Those animations got all put into Risky’s Revenge. So, the reason that you fight Uncle Mimic in that game is — you get to a point where you’re like ‘What’s the boss of this area going to be?’. Well, we had this full animation set of Uncle Mimic fighting and mixing potions, throwing bombs, all of this stuff. That was him as a helper character from what would have been the Shantae dual screen game. But instead, it’s like ‘Well, we’ll make up a new guy, he’s the Hypno Baron, he is making Shantae think she is fighting her uncle.’ There, I’ve got all the animations and I don’t have to throw them out and I can use them. And that’s what that was.

That’s about as much as I can get into without going back and re-reading that document.

OR: You were also the first e-Reader licensed in the United States.

MB: I think we were the only one, at least Nintendo told us at one point that we were the only person to ever ask for e-Reader.

OR: What was the process like to become a licensed e-Reader developer, and can you talk about that from the developer side? It’s a Nintendo product that really fell on the wayside.

MB: I love, I love the e-Reader, or Card e-Reader, or the e-Card Reader, depending on what region. We ran to the Celebi movie [OR Note: ‘Pokémon 4ever’] to get the cards to watch the little cartoon in the e-Reader. Totally loved that device. I was pushing really hard for a Shantae game on the cover of Nintendo Power — ‘I want to print the code, have people swipe their e-Reader cards through the Nintendo Power cover and get a little game.’

Because of that, I asked our CEO: ‘Can someone at Nintendo get us that dev kit?’. His response after awhile was ‘No one has ever asked for that dev kit, because who would want that?’ And I was like, ‘I want that!’. So, they sent us a dev kit, and I’m sure there is a lot of NDA stuff that is like ‘Don’t talk about what’s on the thing’, but it was a development kit with an e-Reader where you could look inside and see the guts of it, see what it was capable of doing.

We did some experiments. The experiments were Shantae battle cards, and you couldn’t physically do this, in theory what you would have done — is you’d swipe your move through. ‘I want fireball, I want hair whip, I want a high kick’, and you’d swipe them through. And there was just enough space to have really simple, tiny, tiny, I think the animations had to be down to 14k or something — like barely anything — but we did make a tiny animation set of Shantae. She looked just like the Game Boy Color Shantae for all practical purposes, but she could just do one of a few actions. And you’d just swipe in a bad guy card and swipe in up to, I think, three Shantae moves, and you’d be able to combat a thing and see if you would win or lose.

Not sure why it never went anywhere — I think it was because, honestly, that era ended so quickly. We had those Super Mario Bros. 3 cards come out, and then it very quickly became Pokémon Battle-e, and then they were kinda gone. So, it had its really cool moment, and there was just no catching up to it and getting into the card manufacturing. Man, if we could do that today? Because we do card manufacturing. I mean, actual trading cards- cards. We can do Shantae cards now. But no one had those anymore.

EB: We love all that old school stuff — Pogs, etc.

MB: The Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution game is only available until April 7th, but there is no preorder. In the future, you can’t get it anymore. So, when the preorder closes-

EB: -You can get it on other systems, but if you want a cartridge, it’s the only time you can get it. They aren’t going to reprint it. So, the collectors who really want to play it on the system, you really have to get the cartridge before April 7th when its gone.

MB: Yeah, after that, you’re just waiting on the Carbon Engine. Which I have a lot of confidence that will be a great port, but the port is not the same as the game. Even if the port has all these cool bells and whistles.

EB: I think a lot of Shantae fans are collectors, and sometimes they will get upset: ‘Oh, you need to re-release this thing!’, so if they can hop on when its actually pre-orderable, that’s the best.

OR: Lastly — there is a four-player mode announced for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. Can you tell us briefly about it?

MB: Yeah, the four-player battle mode is for two to four players. You only need one cartridge, so you don’t need to go buy four. You can plug in anywhere up to four Link Cables. Once you do that, it transmits the game to all the empty devices, and then you’ve got four people playing in a combat arena. It’s a constantly rotating play field, where if you don’t grab onto the fence, you will fall off and land on some spikes and die. It’s kind of last-man-standing, like Bomberman.

Everyone has a different animation, but you basically have a punch attack, a character-up-and-release attack that will clobber a guy and send him bouncing all around, and then you’ve got to watch out for when that arena is about to rotate. Then you grab a fence, or you’re going to fall and get knocked out. It’s just fun, light-hearted Link Cable stuff [that] the world hasn’t seen in a long time.

OR: Thank you very much.

Are you excited for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution? What is your favorite Shantae title?

Did you ever play with the e-Reader?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 INTERVIEW- WayForward Talks Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, the Nintendo e-Reader, and Other Cancelled Shantae Games appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

Teatopia is one of those games that feels absolutely peaceful and a bit like a slice of life game. The basic premise is that you inherited land from your grandfather, and you have to build your own farm up and integrate your life into the community at large. While the demo I played was a bit limited in content, I really enjoyed what I found and it made me want to see everything Teatopia has to offer.

The graphic art style is absolutely gorgeous. Quite frequently, Chinese-inspired slice-of-life games will go for a paint-and-brush art style that seeks to invoke calligraphy in the gamer’s mind. Teatopia instead uses vibrant colors that pop off of the screen with clearly defined art to bring its world to life — and I kept commenting on how beautiful everything was during my demo. The character models are 3D and the world itself is 2D, which helps to really make the NPCs stand out among everything else going on. Teatopia is truly a very cozy world to exist in.

Of course, gameplay is what makes or breaks a game. Thankfully, I was able to try out a handful of activities in Teatopia ranging from fishing, breaking rocks, and planting crops.  The gameplay mechanics for farming and clearing land thankfully aren’t out of the ordinary. I also was able to try out the fishing mechanics — and while they were a bit rough (it is a minigame experience!), I was pleased with that too. After GDC 2024, I popped over onto the official Teatopia account, and I saw there are other gameplay mechanics such as building a waterwheel connecting the local stream to your crops to help irrigate them. This game simply oozes creative potential for gameplay and exploration.

Teatopia, which has a Kickstarter that will eventually be launching, honestly has a lot of potential. During my demo, there was a lot of talk about being able to cook all sorts of dishes, raise animals, make tea, play gambling games like Cee-lo, and more in the world. I checked out all of the videos the development team has put out, and I was more than a little impressed with how they are committed to making sure even tiny details like having the plants sway when you walk past them are included in Teatopia. We unfortunately do not have an officially confirmed date for the Kickstarter to go up. However, just from my brief time with the game? I think it is something worth keeping an eye on as it heads ultimately towards release.

Are you excited to make tea and raise animals? What about gamble and fish?

Let us know in the comments below what you want to see in Teatopia!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Teatopia appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

When I played a demo of Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore at PAX East 2024, the biggest impression I walked away with was that Seedy Eye Software had done the impossible: they created a game that invoked the heart and soul of the CD-i console platform and made it into a quality gaming product for 2024. Set in the land of Faramore, Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore has the titular hero go out on a quest to stop the evil Daimur.

The creator behind the game, Seth Fulkerson, has repeatedly stated that Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is inspired by The Legend of Zelda CD-i games, and I certainly believe that. The gameplay is a 2D adventure where you jump and slash your way through enemies towards the end of the level. The gameplay itself fits well in 2024, and I was happy to find out that the enemy hitboxes were on point, and the platforming controls worked well. Even as I killed enemies and fought a boss at the end of the demo, I found myself becoming thoroughly engrossed by the gameplay itself. The game bills itself as Arzette being able to unlock more abilities as it progresses, and I am personally curious to see what all she can do when she is fully unleashed. During my demo, I was able to try out the bombs, and I ended up using them to great effect to help destroy the stage-end boss.

Of course, the hallmark of the CD-i was the animated cutscenes, and Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore does not disappoint. The distinct, low quality art style of the CD-i games has been lovingly recreated for Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore. The voice acting is over the top, and the cutscenes pop up to tell the story more frequently than what you would expect. The world levels themselves are beautifully done, and you can tell that a lot of care went into them. The more I kept playing, the more it reminded me of Working Designs’ Popful Mail in terms of gameplay quality and charm.

There is one other important note to mention: I tried the game with both the 2024 controller option and the remade CD-i controller option that was released through Limited Run Games. Unfortunately, that CD-i controller is awful, and I found it difficult to control Arzette with it. Using that controller really made me appreciate joysticks and other video game innovations in the past 20-plus years.

Ultimately, the PAX East 2024 demo I played of Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore takes inspiration and heart from a long-dead, barely remembered home console, while simultaneously transcending it into a final product that is far better than its inspiration. The final product was released back in February, and I think it is well-worth trying it out if the demo is any indication of the final game…and thankfully, it is out now!

Did you ever play any CD-i titles? Are you planning on picking up Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX EAST 2024 IMPRESSIONS- Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

Renaine is a Kickstarter-originated title that bills itself as “a game about overcoming failure.” The protagonist, Aine, is able to come back to life an infinite number of times, but also has to defeat a Dragon as an act of revenge while traveling across the Kingdom of Lineria. You jump, roll, and attack with your sword in order to move across the 2D map in an action-adventure, platforming, adventure with very busy pixelated graphics.

I am going to just open with my favorite two parts of my Renaine demo: the writing and the music. The NPC dialogue is frequently snarky and fantastic, and I kept wanting to laugh while playing. For example, when you enter the dojo at the start of the demo to learn how to play the game, one of the NPCs gives the cliché statement that how anyone can become a pro with enough hard work and determination. Immediately to the right, another NPC states a more realistic answer of how SOME can become a pro with enough hard work and determination. After training and learning basic combat, a different NPC explains that advanced lessons are for the full game, and you’ll even run into an NPC with an upside-down head who talks about it and tries to get you to relate to him. This style of snarky and fourth-wall break humor was peppered throughout the demo without wearing out its welcome. The music, which is a very jazzy set of tunes, is incredible as well and is a fairly unique aspect for a platforming title. I actually found myself wanting to buy a copy of Renaine’s soundtrack to just put on in the background while I am living my day-to-day life. If you listen to the above linked trailer, you’ll see what I mean!

Of course, Renaine is more than just music and humor, and thankfully it also delivers in gameplay. The platforming and combat controls were pretty tight, and I felt like I could accurately judge where Aine was going to land when he jumped, and that if I was fast enough, I could hit what I was aiming at with my weapon. The real surprise though was that there is a fairly unique powerup gameplay loop. Whenever you kill enemies, you get money to collect. And fairly frequently, you run across an NPC shop that gives you different weapons or abilities to buy for a price — and you could get one at a time. You’re making choices between a fire rod that shoots flames, bombs that walk around, and so much more. There are even more surreal items such as different mushroom powerups that…well…turn you into an actual mushroom. All of this actually incentivized me to kill all the enemies I could find in order to get more money to keep trying out new powers as I would come across them. In the second half of the demo, I actually was partnered up with another, much larger, NPC, who helped me to fight enemies all throughout a sand area and I loved how it mixed up the gameplay.

Overall, Renaine was a blast to play and to experience. I was not expecting such sharp humor and writing while demoing it, but that, along with the constant powerups gameplay loop, really drew me into wanting to see more and more of the kingdom of Lineria and its inhabitants when it eventually releases for PC and for Nintendo Switch.

Are you excited for Renaine? What powerups are you hoping to find and use in the game?

Let us know below!

The post PAX East 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Renaine appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

The longer I kept playing The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle, the more I kept thinking “this is so cool!” and the more I wanted to keep playing and wanting to get it when it is released. The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle bills itself as “an old-school wuxia turn-based RPG set in the chaotic times of ancient China,” and it has you start off as a no-named individual who has to learn martial arts as you shape the fate of Wulin.

While the game’s website claims it is a turn-based RPG, the demo I played at GDC 2024 was more like a grid-based tactical RPG game with up to five combatants on your side at once instead. During battle, you can move your characters a certain number of squares around, and you can also attack only within a certain number of highlighted squares too. This isn’t a knock against The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle whatsoever, but I do think it is important to be clear what this game is and is not.

What sets The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle apart from any other RPG of its genre is the combat move pool itself. Every attack is drawn from a pool of over 200 styles of martial arts, and so you will get to experience a lot of different moves. As you use moves over and over again, they will get stronger and level up over time. In other words: you’re literally practicing martial arts in the game and getting stronger and better for it. You can also learn new moves through manuals you collect throughout the world. I hardcore geeked out over all the ingenuity in combat, as I practice kendo in my spare time and it honestly reminded me of walking along the Avenue of the Stars by the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

The enemy AI felt fairly fleshed out and intelligent, and I was impressed that I had to use tactical thinking in order to win my fights (bouts?). While I did not get to experience much of the storyline, as I had to skip a lot of the dialogue to fit the whole demo into my timeslot, I was entertained by what I saw of the wuxia and historically-based atmosphere. Finally, the graphics are detailed pixel-art with vibrant colors. While I was playing my demo, the developer told me that The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle is supposed to be 30-plus hours and it has multiple storylines for you to complete. I am honestly excited for when this game comes out, as I want to play it, and I think you should consider picking it up too if you like the demo/early access that is currently out on Steam.

What martial arts style do you hope makes it into The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle?

Do you plan on picking the game up?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS- The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

Bread & Fred is deceptively simple: two people, each controlling a penguin, have to work together to climb higher and higher in the snowy mountain environment until you reach the top and finish the game. Oh, and you’re tied to each other by a rope. However, Bread & Fred is anything but simple in practice. During my hands-on demo during PAX East 2024 with one of the developers as my co-penguin, I found a brutally difficult — yet incredibly fun — game that required us to count in unison to time jumps, swings, and wall grabs.

The pixel art is beautiful, and I loved how the colors popped off of the screen. The controls were also incredibly fair, and every time we fell down, it was absolutely deserved. The gameplay though? Brutal. A lot of the jumps and rope swings have almost no room for error, and everything has to be perfectly timed in order to climb further upwards. If you and your partner do not have excellent communication and a willingness to plot the next several jumps ahead of time, then you won’t get far in Bread & Fred. This game is incredibly challenging in gameplay execution versus mechanics, and I think that really works to show off Bread & Fred’s strengths to force people to cooperate to succeed. As you climb higher and higher, the terrain can get more and more difficult with environmental hazards, such as the blowing wind, that can derail even the most calculated of jumps.

As a side note, I did not try the single player mode — Bread & Fred is clearly meant to be a co-op experience.

During my PAX East 2024 Bread & Fred demo, I also was able to try out the new race content. In this, you and your partner penguins are competing against a polar bear in a closed map environment to see who can get to the end first. During the race I tried out, it felt like it was more complicated than the gameplay environment I was previously in, and it was less forgiving with how far you ‘drop’ if you miss a jump. The polar bear also repeatedly fell, surprisingly, and so it did not make me feel like the race was over the moment I or my partner miscued a jump or swing from platform to platform. Ultimately, I think it is a nice little add-on to Bread & Fred.

New content for Bread & Fred includes competitive races on new maps!
They are harder than they look. (Images courtesy of Apogee Entertainment.)

So, I’ll be honest: I loved Bread & Fred and the new race content, but it definitely isn’t for those who cannot communicate with their partner penguin well. It took me and one of the developers (who made the game!) time to connect well enough to get our penguins partway up the mountain and to try to (but fail at) crushing the polar bear during the race. Bread & Fred’s already out now, so definitely give it a try!

What do you think of difficult co-op games? Have you tried out Bread & Fred?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX East 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Bread & Fred appeared first on oprainfall.

Twitter

One of the most exciting things for me to try out at PAX East 2024 was an early hands-on build of Turbo Overkill on PlayStation 5. Developed by Trigger Happy Interactive and inspired by classics such as Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D, Turbo Overkill has you play as Johnny Turbo as he returns to his hometown and finds everyone possessed by a rogue AI and its associated army.

The biggest difference between the PC version and the upcoming console build is just how slick everything feels, and how it is clear Trigger Happy Interactive really wanted to plus all the gameplay by making this the best possible version of the Turbo Overkill. The original PC build was designed to have you go as fast as you can through each area while solving combat puzzles and killing enemies, and they have tweaked the PlayStation 5 build to remove any potential slowdown spots in the game. I slid around a lot on my chainsaw leg (it is a weapon too!) and I ended up relying on that ability to repeatedly kill as many enemies as possible in areas where I had to kill everyone to proceed. Combat flowed so incredibly well, whether I was shooting or attacking through movement, and I had the biggest silly grin on my face during the entire demo.

As I alluded to, Turbo Overkill is a game designed to have you move fast, and that was perfectly showcased on the PlayStation 5. I was throwing myself from ledge to ledge, rooftop to the ground, and through tunnels and everywhere you could imagine as I tried to go as fast as I could while slaughtering anything that got in my way. It felt a lot like a 2024 version of Mirror’s Edge at times with how fluid and satisfying it felt to platform and move my way around the level while running and gunning.

Something that not every PC-to-console port does well is setting up converting a PC/mouse control scheme over to a controller without sacrificing any of the gameplay quality in the process. Thankfully, there was no such issue here for Turbo Overkill. The controller controls felt incredibly natural, and I would have been hard-pressed to tell you that this was not a game designed from the ground-up for the PlayStation 5 by the time I was done with my demo.

Did you play Turbo Overkill on PC? Are you excited for the upcoming console release?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX East 2024 PlayStation 5 IMPRESSIONS: Turbo Overkill appeared first on oprainfall.

Publisher(s): Toge Productions
Platform(s): PC
Release Date: January 17, 2024

Steam Link

TEST TEST TEST is probably one of the wildest, most unique and thought provoking games I played throughout all of my time at PAX East 2024. The concept is simple: you are an office employee who has to finish different tasks within 15 minutes or be executed and have your day start over again. The art style is hand-drawn pixel-art that I think is meant to invoke the 32-bit era, and it frankly looks gorgeous.

Where TTT really shines though is the puzzle solving. As you go through more and more time loops, carrying over real life-knowledge of what you’re experiencing, you will start to get quicker and quicker at doing things that lead up to where you inevitably failed (and you will repeatedly fail) during the prior time loop. Each time I did a time loop, I felt myself uncovering more and more of the story — and the Alternate Reality Game (“ARG”) elements kept surprising me in more and more ways.

You will have to think incredibly creatively in order to beat TTT and make it through to the end. I am being purposefully vague about the ARG elements, as I do not want to rob any player from figuring it out and experiencing it for themselves. I promise you there will be multiple moments when it will all click together in your head of what you need to do next, as TTT does a brilliant job giving you just enough to figure out what to do if you think about it while not being purposefully obtuse like 2007’s Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. Fascinatingly, the game also peels back the underlying storyline during each loop you play through — and you will want to figure out what the heck is going on.

If you’ve got several hours to set aside to play a game, and you want to really work your brain in a great way, TEST TEST TEST is the perfect game for you. I will say that I got pretty far in it with my hands-on demo (with some help from the developer sitting next to me!), and I loved how well-crafted this game is. It was released back in January of this year, and I think it is worth picking up — especially because it is free on Steam.

What do you think of ARG games?

Are you going to give TEST TEST TEST a try?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX East 2024 IMPRESSIONS: TEST TEST TEST appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has been billed by WayForward as the ‘lost chapter of the Shantae saga’ that went into development for the Game Boy Advance in the early 2000s, but was shelved indefinitely until now. Set between the original Shantae game and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has the half-genie Shantae protecting Sequin Land from another evil plot by Risky Boots, and I found myself loving a retro – yet incredibly modern-styled game – that fit right in with 2024.

I grew up playing Game Boy Advance games, and so I was extremely happy to be able to go hands-on with Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution on an authentic Game Boy Advance console before shifting to a modern-era handheld replica device. Even though the GBA uses a D-Pad, I was surprised at how well Shantae’s controls worked, and it did not feel like a step backwards from Shantae And The Seven Sirens with the quality of gameplay. Fighting with the hair whip, jumping and dodging, and even the dive mechanics all are beautifully done – and most crucially, when I died, I knew that it was clearly my fault and not the game or the console’s fault. The enemies were also challenging, and while I did die on the one boss fight I had available in the demo, it was absolutely a blast to figure out the combat pattern and then absolutely obliterate it. There are even gravity-based mechanics in this game for diving into the water in order to get deep enough to glide to the next area through a water-filled tunnel.

The graphics are also gorgeous. The Shantae team clearly pushed the Game Boy Advance hardware to its limits to make Sequin Land pop off of the screen as much as possible. During the demo, I was able to check out one of the towns, and I was impressed with how active the character models were and how detailed even minor NPCs were. The game’s colors are also incredibly vibrant, and I was just impressed with how much attention went even into the background graphics of each area.

The detailed background art is incredibly necessary to have, thanks to the gimmick for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution. In this adventure, Shantae can go through portals and jump between the background or foreground of each area ala Virtual Boy Wario Land. Jumping between the background and foreground effectively doubles the amount to explore in each area and makes you think about how to get to your goal. It also meant that sometimes I would see something in the distance on the other layer, and I wanted to get to it. I unfortunately did not get to experience the full potential of how this would play out in a variety of levels, but I loved what potential I could imagine for it. The other gimmick that Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has, where Risky Boots can flip the gameplay world upside down, was unfortunately not something I was able to see during my demo.

Ultimately, would modern-day Shantae fans be pleased with Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution? I think the answer is absolutely ‘Yes.’ While this does feel like a throwback game, it controlled neatly and precisely like a modern-day title. It also had that fun gameplay the Shantae series is known for. While preorders through Limited Run Games are closed for the Game Boy Advance version, this game will still make its launch on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and on Steam later this year.

Are you excited for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution? Did you pre-order the Limited Run Games version in time?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS- Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

During my hands-off showcase of Flint – Treasure of Oblivion, the part that stuck with me the most was how unique the Savage Level development team tells the game’s story of searching for a legendary treasure that promises freedom and fortune for Captain Flint, his second-in-command Billy Bones, and his crew. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Treasure Island and set during the golden age of piracy, Flint – Treasure of Oblivion tells its story through comic book panels that will pop on and off the screen in the Franco-Belgian bande dessinée style. These comic book panels help to bring life and attitude to the different characters in a way that mere pixels on the screen cannot, and they are used for everything from opening a treasure chest to major story beats. If there is one thing that separates Flint – Treasure of Oblivion from every other tactical RPG game on the market, it is that story telling mechanic because it truly is that stunning.

The gameplay for Flint – Treasure of Oblivion was fun to watch as well. You can have up to 15-on-15 pirate battles, and there are over 50 different weapons that all have different effects on the battle and have their own durability. The battle system itself reminded me a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. When you take an action in battle, you spend points. When you attack, you will then roll in-game dice that determine the amount of damage you can do – and it can be influenced by weapon effects and other things. Additionally, you can have multiple weapon attacks to use at once – meaning you don’t fall into the ‘one weapon’ archetype, but instead can make each of your pirates more flexible for combat. Additionally, each pirate has their own attribute cards that allow them to affect combat and gain an advantage over opponents. If all of that complexity already wasn’t enough, there are environmental factors such as being able to roll a barrel across the ground to damage whatever is in your pirate’s way. All of these elements, including the sheer number of potential fighters, really makes the gameplay more than just a one-tone effort with a high degree of customization.

I know that I’ve talked about the story telling mechanics already, but what I glimpsed of the story was enjoyable. During my demo, the story was set up that I needed to build my own pirate crew and there were multiple goals gradually set for me to accomplish it. The writing was both enjoyable and witty – especially with the accompanying comic panels. From what I saw, I was drawn into the world of Flint – Treasure of Oblivion, and I wanted to see where this story was going to go over the 15 to 20 hour gameplay time.

It says something about an off-hands presentation of a video game that it makes me want to pick it up and try it for myself as soon as the developer was finished. And with Flint – Treasure of Oblivion, that is absolutely true. I wanted to build out the pirate crew, and I wanted to try out a variety of weapons and try out the isometric battle mechanics itself. Personally, I cannot wait until Flint – Treasure of Oblivion is released later on this year.

Are you excited for Flint- Treasure of Oblivion?

What kind of pirates would you want on your crew?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Flint- Treasure of Oblivion appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

Rose & Camellia Collection, and the five games contained within it, was probably one of the craziest and funniest games I played at PAX East 2024, and it presented a surprising amount of actual gameplay depth for you to figure out that I can see people loving. The gameplay is simple enough to grasp: get hit enough — or hit your opponent enough — and they will lose hit points that are symbolized by icons beneath their names. Whoever loses all their points first is the bout’s loser.

In my hands-on demo, I played story content from the never-before-seen Rose & Camellia 4 and Rose & Camellia vs. La-Mulana. The voice acting and writing is absurdist and frequently over-the-top, but not in a way that descends into awfulness. Instead, the story for both games kept building up in a way that takes itself (somewhat) seriously and I found myself both quite amused and wondering what was going to come out of these characters’ mouths next. The story is also told in what reminds me a bit of a visual novel — with character cutouts changing expressions and poses as new text appears on the screen, but it isn’t nearly as wordy or complicated as that genre usually is. If you are a fan of La-Mulana, you will see plenty of returning series’ characters, and you will enjoy the story content for it too.

Where Rose & Camellia Collection truly shines though is the gameplay, complete with Joy-Con controls. And the controls are fairly simple: You press A and move the Joy-Con to slap, and you press R1 and move the Joy-Con back to dodge the return hit. Where the complexity comes from is knowing how — and when — to dodge. Each opponent you face has one or more ‘tells’ of when they are about to attack, and you have to figure out that secret and then be quick enough on the reflexes to avoid the hit. If you manage to dodge, you can then counter and get a surprise hit in while your opponent’s guard is down. Sometimes, you can even manage to daze your opponent enough to then grab them and make multiple slaps (done by swinging the Joy-Con back and forth wildly) to drain as much health as possible. In a lot of ways, the motion controls and the combat style remind me — in the best possible way — of Punch-Out!! on the Nintendo Wii.

Even though the game and the slapping combat style seems absurdist and isn’t something to take seriously, the combat itself is not a joke. The fights in each game start out fairly easy, but quickly get harder and harder. I found myself starting to lose multiple slap fights until I could figure out my opponent’s tell and then react quickly enough to dodge. And even then, I still lost sometimes — but each loss felt incredibly fair, and I never felt like I wanted to blame anything other than myself for not being quick enough. This incredibly fair combat system also resulted in me feeling a great deal of satisfaction when I WAS able to win that incredibly hard fight, and I was able to move on in the storyline.

So, is Rose & Camellia Collection worth picking up? Just from my brief PAX East demo — unequivocally ‘yes’. If you think this is just a silly slap game, then you are wrong because the gameplay mechanics have so much more depth than what you’d expect just looking at the story from first glance. And with a two-player mode, Rose & Camellia Collection sounds like a great way to solve any disagreements on where to go out to eat in the future!

Are you a fan of motion control games?

Which game in the Rose & Camellia Collection are you most excited to play through?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX EAST 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Rose & Camellia Collection appeared first on oprainfall.

Website
PC Demo

SunnySide has a special charm to it that is honestly hard to describe, despite me having an opportunity to go hands-on with it at GDC 2024, but I found myself wanting to spend more and more time in this world. The plot setup is straight forward: you purchase a plot of land in the Japanese countryside, and you have to build your own life in it. You can use technology to build up a farm, you can participate in local community life by falling in love, buying from businesses, and meeting people in the world around you.

During my hands-on time with the game, my biggest surprise was that I didn’t feel ‘pressured’ to go do anything. Sure, I had goals set up for me to do, but if I wanted to not bother doing all that and instead run off into the SunnySide countryside to see what I could find, then I felt like it was perfectly okay to do so. The graphic style is fairly unique here, too. Your fully customizable character exists in a 3D world that really pops with color, and it had a solid anime feel to it, too. A lot of the more well-known farming sim games rely upon throwback pixel graphics, and it was nice to see that SunnySide took a different approach to it. The music was also very relaxing and charming, and I was surprised to find out that you can access the playlist on your in-game phone to play what you want.

As for the farming itself? Planting takes place on a grid. You select the spot you want to plant, you dig, and then you plant. It is surprisingly simple to do, and it didn’t require me to select the type of soil I wanted to use, or to water the plant, or do anything else if I did not want to — though I assume it is certainly an option if you want. Additionally, setting up structures also took place in the grid system and you can shape it however you want it to look. To assist with your own master farm layout, SunnySide has a drone feature available that you can activate through your phone in order to see your plot of land overhead. It was a surprisingly helpful tool, and it was a clever way to naturally integrate an overhead viewpoint when you need to have a ‘big picture’ view of the world.

During my demo, I unfortunately did not get the in-game combat or visit the nearby big city. However, I was told that the combat is a turn-based, card-based combat system and that there is a lot to do in the cities. I was also told there are around five years of in-game story content to complete, that there are 28 days in a season, and there are 20 real-life minutes in a day.

So what does all this say about SunnySide? Even though I was only able to play it for a brief time, SunnySide is clearly meant to be a cozy, gentle, farming simulator title that wants you to just lose yourself in that world. I’m curious to see what SunnySide looks like when the full game is available on May 24 for PC and for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on June 10. If you cannot wait until then, there is a PC-only demo currently available for download, and I would recommend you check it out!

Are you excited for SunnySide? What would you want to grow in your garden?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS: SunnySide appeared first on oprainfall.

Steam Wishlist

Empire of the Ants, based upon a novel written by Bernard Werber, is a photorealistic real-time-strategy game where you play the role of a general in your own personal army of ants as you direct them over a battlefield comprised of leaves, fallen branches, water, and more. Empire of the Ants also has one of the most satisfying RTS gameplay loops I have encountered yet, and I honestly struggled to believe that was not a finished product being presented to me at GDC instead of an early version of the game. My demo was a PC build played via a regular home console controller.

Instead of a top-down god-eye view of the entire environment, you are in the thick of the effort as an ant who can jump, run, and cling to any and all surfaces on the environment as you run around. Interestingly, you can only direct your troops around to where you can see it in your area. This ended up making me constantly run around to check on all the different war efforts I had going on in order to make sure the different efforts were going well.

I started off with a single ant hill to summon from, and I ended up summoning regular warrior ants. As I marched to war against other ant hills and directed my ants to subsequently conquer them, I would summon additional worker ants that I would send off to collect materials to supplement my war effort. As I conquered more and more ant hills, slowly spreading my Empire of the Ants (the name makes sense!) across the map, I gradually summoned aphids to help heal up my units and even ants that would shoot from a distance! And all the while, the worker ants became the backbone of my war effort by helping me summon additional units faster and faster through their material gathering. This all felt extremely intuitive to figure out, and I did not really need the (extremely kind!) development team to hold my hand in figuring out how to build up my forces appropriately. Ultimately, I took on the final boss in the area, termites, and I CRUSHED them using all the attacking forces, defensive forces, and assisting forces that I had built up in my demo playthrough. If anything, it made me hunger for more, larger, and harder foes to defeat.

I used a controller to play my Empire of the Ants demo, and I was surprised at how well the game worked with it once I got the hang of it. I am used to using a mouse for RTS games, and so I was curious how it all would work. You can split and combine different units into two (or more, presumably) larger battalions with a couple button presses, and then direct each battalion off to do a different task — as long as that end goal is within eyesight of the ant you control. The wedged circle design of selecting each unit was slightly clumsy, as I found myself wishing I had a way to ‘snap’ between wedges more easily than what I had. With Empire of the Ants coming to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S later this year, it is honestly important that these controls work for more than just PC — and honestly? I like how Tower Five made it work.

If I had only one kind-of complaint, it would be that this game is sometimes too photorealistic. More than once at the beginning of the demo, a cutscene would end and I would just be…standing around…because I was not aware the cutscene had ended, since graphics looked just that good and the game transitioned that seamlessly from the story back to the gameplay. More than once, the development team would have to gently tell me that I could start playing again. I will also say that if you have Entomophobia – fear of insects — then Empire of the Ants would not be a good game for you, because the graphics are just that real in Unreal Engine 5. There is also a day/night cycle, but I unfortunately did not get to see it in my demo.

So, what’s the verdict on my GDC demo of Empire of the Ants? One of the biggest keys to making an RTS game fun to play is figuring out how to balance encouraging players to build troops and gather resources while also making sure players can figure out how to expend those resources in a way that keeps the gameplay going instead of being just a resource building sim. And frankly, Empire of the Ants absolutely succeeds in that. I genuinely want to play this game when it is released later in 2024, and you should too.

Are you excited for Empire of the Ants? What kind of natural creatures would you want to fight with your own ant army?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC Preview: Empire of the Ants is a Crazy Fun RTS Title appeared first on oprainfall.

It’s been a while since I’ve gamed, as the urge to play just hasn’t been there for me lately. I’ve been reading less manga too, but have read a few more LNs here and there. However, I had a chunk of time this weekend and decided to replay Aria of Sorrow. I really needed to just turn my brain off and I know I can easily blitz through this game in a sitting or two effortlessly.

Hardly any story to be had, Aria of Sorrow follows exchange student Soma Cruz as he finds himself transported from Japan to Dracula’s Castle, which is currently bound within an eclipse. To find a way out, he must traverse the castle and reach the throne room, utilizing his newly awakened ability to collect the souls and copying the abilities of enemies.

Anyway, having replayed this many times, I know which weapons and souls to go after to mow down everything in the least amount of time. And, well, it’s kinda satisfying, in that it’s a game I can quickly get into, while also being quick for me to complete without feeling guilty for playing it over something in my ever-growing backlog.

After this, I may revisit Dawn of Sorrow, as I’ve only played that twice or thrice, though I distinctly remember enjoying it far less than Aria due to gimmicky touch-screen nonsense and powers that felt lame. Thinking about it as I write this, maybe I’ll do the Julius mode for that so I can play as Alucard instead. – Drew D.

So I’ve been waiting ages for The Alliance Alive HD Remastered to go back on sale in the eShop. I loved the game on 3DS and have been wanting to replay it on Switch. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Switch physical copy before it went out of print and I also missed out on the last eShop sale over 10 months ago, not realizing it would be so long before it went on sale again. Anyway, it finally went on sale again a few days ago and I’ve spent this past weekend beginning my replay. I always loved The Alliance Alive. Back when it came out on 3DS, I do believe I had already bought my PS4 and played a little bit of some more recent console games I missed out on for years. But it really hadn’t been that long since the newest RPGs I played and had access to, were all on the 3DS. I was still pretty behind on current console stuff and hadn’t played all that many modern games. I spent so much time on the most wonderful 3DS games for years, which I might not have even noticed if I was distracted by a bunch of fancier and larger console titles at the time.

Replaying it again for the first time in years, now having played tons of flashier RPGs and other games on both Switch and PS4, I see now how simple The Alliance Alive is. The visuals are very basic and the cinematic scenes almost seem like they couldn’t make them quite as HD as the rest of the game in this port, they’re somewhat more blurry. Also, there is no voice acting. However, despite all this, I still find it to be an extremely charming little RPG so far. I don’t think I would pay full price for it today, but I still think it’s a fantastic game to pick-up and get into during a sale.

The Alliance Alive has always felt like it was the answer to the various complaints people had about The Legend of Legacy, its predecessor. Now, I personally enjoyed the time I spent with The Legend of Legacy, but thinking back, it was definitely an even simpler game and the story was something subtle you had to piece together for yourself. Nonetheless, Cattle Call seemed to add all of the features “missing” from The Legend of Legacy when they came up with The Alliance Alive. You’ve got charming characters, a much more present and significant story and a whole world to explore in typical RPG fashion. I’m quite enjoying the time I’ve spent so far replaying the game. I do think they could’ve added a speed toggle on cinematic scene dialogue, it skips ahead a bit quick sometimes. But other than that, I like the simple charm of the game and it’s still a pretty great game. I definitely think it’s an underrated gem a lot of people missed out on, possibly due in part to people’s fear of it being just like The Legend of Legacy and also simply because many people haven’t heard of it before.

Before The Alliance Alive finally went back on sale, I also checked out the Switch version of the SaGa Emerald Beyond demo. Honestly, I didn’t find myself eager to finish it after playing for about an hour or two. My main issue with the game, is it seemed ridiculously cheesy. I think a significant part of what makes it feel so cheesy, is the English dub. For example, in the early game this narrator voice is constantly cutting in during battle to explain basic mechanics, and the way they voice their lines makes it sound like they’re trying to explain to a child how awesome and exciting all of the game’s basic battle features are. Also, the overall game seemed very simple and like it didn’t have a lot going on. Although, it is the very early game, so maybe I judged it too quickly. But typically if it’s a game I would normally play and is actually good, the demo sucks me in relatively quickly and I find myself impatiently anxious to experience the full game. SaGa Emerald‘s Switch demo did not do that for me, at all. Plus, I felt like battles moved a bit slow and I just really didn’t enjoy my time with it. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Mar 31 – Apr 6 appeared first on oprainfall.

I spent most of this week finishing up Unicorn Overlord. I will have a full review coming very soon, and despite the last battle being a bit crazy it was still pretty fun. I’m playing one very familiar game for review on a console I never thought I would see it on. It feels very strange, and I’ll have more to say on this one shortly as well.

I started playing Azur Lane again as well this week. I left cause I felt the designs were getting very boring with every boat being huge tiddy bunny girls, but they added some fantasy skins and new girls to the mix I thought looked very nice. I mean she’s a cute maid, it’s like a moth to a flame! I’m hoping to dig into Yohane the Parhelion – NUMAZU in the MIRAGE later this week. I do love a good card game and Yohane as well so I think I’ll really love it! – Steve 

Last week I finished Stranger of Paradise and had a great time with it but wanted to follow it up with something lighter. Princess Peach Showtime! fit that bill perfectly. This game was oozing with charm and creativity with every level featuring Princess Peach as the lead actor in a play. From decorating cakes to becoming a martial arts master or saving the world from an alien invasion, Peach was allowed to express herself in ways we rarely get to see. The variety here was incredibly welcome even though I can see some of the slower paced plays like the detective one not being as engaging on a replay. Still, it’s refreshing to see her exist without Mario or even Bowser for that matter. They even managed to throw in some platforming sections so the game can still feel like it belongs in the greater Mario series. Princess Peach Showtime! was not an especially long or challenging game, but it was one that had me hooked from start to finish and left me wanting more. Despite there being some decent post game challenges, I do wish there a couple extra unlockable plays or a two player mode as I can see this game being a great one to play with friends or kids. – Justin

This week I dug my teeth in the Stellar Blade demo for the PlayStation 5. The first thing that hit me when booting it up was how Nier: Automata it felt, to the point I started naming all the similarities that cropped up in just the opening sequence to my husband. Scantily-clad female androids? Check. Disastrous decent that leaves most of your squad dead? Check. Trying to reclaim Earth from an alien threat so that humanity can return? Check. Floating drone sidekick? Check. Music? Check. This is not in and of itself a problem – lots of games lean into their inspirations, and Shift Up was pretty open about Nier being one of several influences for this game. But it did end up veering just this side of derivative. The caveat here, of course, is that the demo is just a slice of the game so how derivative it pans out to be remains to be seen, but it constantly tickled the back of my thoughts as I played.

That being said, I found the character and enemy designs quite appealing. EVE is lovely, and I’m a fan of the blend of human skin and cybernetic prosthetics. The fanservice itself isn’t even all that in-your-face, at least during gameplay (unless you want it to be), though I did find it borderline distracting during a couple cutscenes. I don’t necessarily need to see an android’s ass jiggle while she’s being impaled, that just comes across as silly and undercuts the horror of what’s going on. It’s not deal breaking or anything, but I do find it a touch crass. (Ogling EVE’s ass while she swings from an overpass is whatever, you do you fellow nerds. Goodness knows I had fun with the camera.) EVE feels great when she’s running around and swinging over obstacles, but water sections were a chore. She’s difficult to redirect when swimming and because she does not latch onto items you need to move in the water, directing them is a struggle. EVE also feels super sluggish in combat, at least when it comes to parrying and perfect dodging. I am not going to completely rule out user error here, but inputs felt incredibly laggy, and Shift Up’s cheeky Tweet about making sure your TV is set to Game Mode was unhelpful. (Mine is, and it didn’t help.)

Overall I enjoyed what I played of the Stellar Blade demo, though I still haven’t done everything it has to offer. I’m concerned about input lag and the game borrowing too heavily from other titles, but I’m also excited to see how the total package comes together. The monster designs are fantastic and I think there’s some really neat worldbuilding to be had here. The lack of a Japanese voice track in the American demo is annoying, but you can download the JP version and not have an issue. Imports of the game will also include English text so if you want the entire package there are options. I’ll be playing the game with Korean VO so it’s not a particular issue for me outside principle, but JP VA contracts are weird.  If you’ve got a PS5 this one is at least worth checking out the demo for. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Mar 24 – 30 appeared first on oprainfall.

The thing about Selfloss is that it is a beautiful, slightly slower paced, puzzle-like game that you can irrevocably fall in love with quite easily like I did during my brief hands-on demo. Inspired by Slavic lore and set in a fantasy world, you play as Kazimir, an old healer who is trying to heal his own soul wound. For my Selfloss demo, I was dropped in at the beginning of the game and I was given an opportunity to complete the first level.

The gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward: You can maneuver around the world, and you use the light from a magic staff in order to destroy Miasma — which are dark blobs that threaten the world. You focus the light from your staff on enemies to defeat them or on particular ‘spots’ to light up runes in order to solve puzzles. You can even park your staff in one spot and direct the light around with one joystick while you run around with Kazimir elsewhere.

Truthfully though, you will have a hard time not enjoying how simply beautiful the world is and how wonderful the music by Arigto is. The waves of the water are mesmerizing, the graphics are clearly inspired by paintings in a format similar to BABYLON’S FALL, and the world feels like a truly semi-open experience. I felt like I spent more time wandering around the world of Selfloss just seeing what is around each corner — as there are large optional areas to explore — than I did actually pushing through the demo storyline.

The puzzles in Selfloss often have multiple ways to solve them. I did one rotating ruins puzzle towards the end of my demo where I would hit the button, rotate the necessary rune around, and then hit it with my light staff to glow. After I finished, the game’s developer explained to me that another way he had seen people solve it was to drop the magic staff next to the runes, hold the light on the spot where the runes appear, and just stand on the button to light them all up at once. Both approaches are equally valid, and I honestly did not feel dumber for how I did it versus how other people did it.

Selfloss‘ story is told through images that appear in thought bubbles above various characters’ heads, and I was able to follow the plot for the most part. The goal for each level is to solve the soul wounds and to help beings move on via the Selfloss ritual. For the demo level I did, I had to help a sea turtle move on. In order to do so, I needed both a Blue Feather and to extract the essence from a Selfloss fish. Obtaining the blue feather was fairly simple, but extracting the Selfloss fish essence was a different matter. You play a type of reflex minigame where you have to hit buttons in time with audio/visual cues, and I struggled to do that. It honestly took me longer than I expected to do, though that will hopefully be something better ironed out before release.  One final aspect that I want to talk about is combat — you have to use your light staff on Miasma enemies in order to defeat them. The fighting is fairly basic, but it was fun enough to do and not overly difficult.

I am genuinely looking forward to Selfloss when it comes out in Q3 2024. This game feels like a story experience that is meant to be explored by gamers over time to uncover all the little secrets everywhere within it.

Are you excited for Selfloss and its focus on storytelling?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Selfloss appeared first on oprainfall.

Publisher: SQUARE ENIX
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Release Window: Summer 2024
Website

If there is one takeaway you should take from my hands-on demo from Visions of Mana, it is this: Visions of Mana takes the best of Dawn of Mana (Review) and Secret of Mana (HD Review) gameplay and blends them together into something that is amazingly fun and easily accessible for modern players. Masaru Oyamada’s decision to bring back Hiroki Kikuta, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Ryo Yamazaki, HACCAN, Airi Yoshioka, and Koichi Ishii to create Visions of Mana meant that a legendary pedigree of Mana creators — who truly know what makes a good Mana series game — all had a hand in creating what will hopefully be an insta-series classic.

The basics of the story fit in with any other mainline Mana series game: Hinna is anointed the Alm of Fire at a festival held every four years by the Faerie, and she is charged with going to the Tree of Mana, along with other alms, to rejuvenate the flow of mana power. Her friend Val is appointed Hinna’s soul guard, and acts as the protagonist of the game while accompanying her on her pilgrimage.

In my hands-on Visions of Mana demo, I visited two different parts of the game: Fallow Steppe and Mt. Gala, which are set at two different parts of the game and provided a contrast in gameplay experiences.

Fallow Steppe felt like a real fulfillment of SQUARE ENIX’s assertion that players would get to experience a semi-open field in the early December 2023 announcement. I purposefully ran all over the map and found myself discovering treasure chests, enemies, side quests, buildings, and more all over the place. I was honestly surprised at how much it felt like that was to see and do, and I kept walking all over and stumbling over something new to check out every few moments. The graphics are classic Mana with a cheery and natural aesthetic. The grass blows, the peach trees wave in the wind, and the river waters look lively and bubbly. Fallow Steppe looks like a place that is lived in, and one that perfectly fits the aesthetic of Secret of Mana from the Super Nintendo or its (fairly!) recent remake.

Mt. Gala, in contrast, is somewhat linear, but still has plenty of secrets to find on its own, too. I kept finding treasure chests to grab and enemies to fight among the snow-topped mountains. It was also an excellent opportunity to use one of the Elemental Vessels — in this case the Vessel of Wind — to jump across large gaps with the wind or to summon floating platforms to help me. The integration of the Elements into the action-adventure gameplay did not feel forced, but instead felt like a natural inclusion into the adventure because of course the alm and her soul guard would have the elements at their disposal to complete their adventure. Furthermore, the platforming elements were well done and I found that I only had myself to blame when I made a bad jump across floating platforms.

Of course, a Mana game would not be complete without combat, so let’s talk about it.

Much like Dawn of Mana, the combat takes place in the active world through real-time combat. While you can only control one member of your party of three at a time, the other two will continue attacking on their own. Thankfully, you can switch between everyone at any time with a button press. While hitting things with a sword is nifty, the real showstopper in Visions of Mana is how magic and items are integrated into the game. You can set items and magic spells to the different buttons and arrow keys that are brought up when holding down the appropriate menu button, and it felt incredibly natural to use. Fire, wind, and more elemental spells are all available to use — alongside spells that will change the stats of player characters or enemies. When I wanted to use an item on another character and take my time doing so, I could also bring up the Mana-classic Ring menu.  This would pause combat and allow me to select and use what I wanted to use and who I wanted to use it upon.

To add to that, there are a variety of jobs you can utilize per character by equipping relevant Elemental Vessels. While I was only able to use two Elemental Vessels, I was surprised to see how both job options play vastly differently and how no two jobs are the same for anyone. What this means is there is a real incentive to try out all the different Elemental Vessel classes for each of the characters to try to find out what is the best fit of jobs for you. I actually played through the demo twice because I wanted to see what other combat options there were to try — and I found out that Val’s combat speed and fighting style actually seems to change based upon what Elemental Vessel he has equipped.

While you cannot have two buddies join you (at least, as far as I know!) to play the other two members of the party ala Secret of Mana with the SNES multi-tap, I found it incredibly easy to hop from character to character and utilize them to their fullest in combat. Sometimes, I would direct one character towards a particular enemy and then switch off again, or I would start unloading multiple magic spells on a different enemy until I decided to switch again. Visions of Mana’s combat all felt very natural and organic in the moment and was something I genuinely enjoyed.

There are a couple other battle mechanics to mention: at the end of the Mt. Gala segment, I encountered a boss fight. If you’ve ever played FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, then you are most likely familiar with circles or cones that show where the enemy is aiming a special attack. This revisited battle mechanic allowed me to move my character(s) out of the way as needed in order to continue fighting, and I found that I had plenty of time to respond. Additionally, with every attack, a Class Strike bar will fill up. When it is done, you can unleash a special attack that will act as a mini-cutscene and do a lot of damage to the enemy. These Class Strikes were fun to utilize whenever they popped up, and it turned out that I got an EXP bonus for killing the final demo boss with a Class Strike! In fact, you can achieve certain EXP bonus percentages for killing enemies quickly enough, with a Class Strike finisher, etcetera — and it functions to really encourage you to experiment with battling in order to level up more quickly.

At the very start, I said that my hands-on demo of Visions of Mana is like an amalgamation of the best of Dawn of Mana and Secret of Mana, and I truly do mean that. This game has the gameplay-inspired style of Dawn of Mana mixed with the heavy magic usage of Secret of Mana, and it has both games’ amazingly gorgeous and distinctive art style. It may have been 16 years (and counting!) since we last got a mainline Mana entry, but Visions of Mana seems to be worth the wait, and I cannot wait to get fully into it when it is released in Summer 2024.

What is your favorite entry in the Mana series?

Are you excited about Visions of Mana?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX East 2024 IMPRESSIONS: Visions of Mana appeared first on oprainfall.

I was planning on having something to say for a Week in Gaming article last week, but my copy of Unicorn Overlord came late. I was quite annoyed I pre-ordered in advance with 1-day shipping which should’ve shown up on release day, but I had to wait until last Monday to finally get my copy. Anyway, after the game came I finally went and spent the full amount of time allowed in the demo, before transferring my progress and continuing on in the full game. I think my game clock says I’ve spent around 20 hours or so total, playing Unicorn Overlord. I cleared out most of the early game Cornia battles and built up my army. There are a few leftover battles there still which I’ve been periodically going through and a couple much higher leveled ones I can’t touch until later game.

But now I’m just trying to grind to start getting further into Drakenhold. I decided it made more sense to go there first than straight to Elheim. Elheim, story wise at least, sounded like it continues the main story. Drakenhold sounded more like a good preparation detour, so that’s what I went with. I’m really glad I went there and picked up Virginia. Her little party I put together absolutely destroys enemies. I’ve got her paired with her Drakenhold Swordfighter friend, one of the Warrior class girls and I believe I put a healer of some kind on her team as well. I’ve got a couple units that have worked out really nicely. In the early game, I found I relied on Josef a lot, being that he’s higher leveled. But now I’m finding I’ve got even better units put together and don’t need to rely as heavily on him. I’ve barely gotten into Drakenhold yet, I went back to leftover Cornia battles for grinding, but I think I’ll be ready soon to get further.

I’m enjoying Unicorn Overlord quite a bit so far. I am realizing however, that I need mini breaks during SRPGs more often than other games. Nonetheless, overall I’m having fun with the game. It’s a nice change having an SRPG with an actual overworld map to explore. I don’t know if any SRPG has done it before because obviously, I haven’t played every strategy RPG that exists. But it’s my first time playing one set-up like this. It’s nice being able to explore and collect stuff, not simply go straight from story, to a battle stage and then back to another story bit. It did take some getting used to the battle system at first though. I had a hard time in the demo trying to get multiple parties to move at once. The demo insists on teaching you how to, but I find I don’t even use it anymore since I like to check on my individual units and send a lot of them after different enemies or to alternate spots. I also turned on the setting to automatically pause at the start of battles so I can look around and plan things out, and have thus left it like that ever since. I’m looking forward to getting further, seeing where the story goes, exploring new places and getting to know some of the characters better. – Jenae

I spent most of this week playing Unicorn Overlord, and I’m pretty much addicted to it at this point. The story is your typical prince escapes a hostile takeover of his lands, but there are plenty of plot twists along the way to keep it fresh. Characters get a lot of development as you play through the story, so whenever I get a new companion its great getting to know more about them.

You expect great artwork from any Vanillaware title and Unicorn Overlord delivers. Every character has a ton of details and each area looks as good as any top tier fantasy movie you will ever watch. The gameplay is great as well with a mix of unit positioning, formation balance and skills. I love finding new ways to take on each different obstacle I have encountered. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Mar 10 – 16 appeared first on oprainfall.