It’s SO bright and colorful and pretty, and it really is a lovely combination of genres. I think I got it from GOG, maybe it was redeemed on Epic, but I played it a few months ago and fell head over heels for it. Feels perfect on a handheld, too!
As someone who loves JRPGs as a genre but has generally grown out of their anime phase, Expedition 33 looks really interesting. I’ve been eyeing it since the announcement trailer and its recent success got me curious. A co-worker told me that it’s just 20-30 hours to beat, which is a huge plus for me (don’t have the patience to clear 100-200 hrs games anymore - looking at you, Persona 5).
I’ll probably get it this summer as soon as I manage to get some free time from work.
Everything but the combat looks amazing to me. The was a Steven universe mobile game that was this same kinda turn based with timed actions. Didn’t really like it. I feel like I’d rather have turn based or real fine. It seems kinda gimmicky. But who knows maybe I’d enjoy it in actual gameplay
Nothing went wrong. Remember the era where every sequel was straight to DVD? Who remembers The Lion King 2? How about Brother Bear 2? Sonic Adventure 2?
It’s difficult to iterate on a piece of media that was written to be a standalone entity.
The only exceptions really are when stories are split into multiple games (such as halo 1-3)
100% on everything except including sonic adventure 2 in your list. The chao garden was so great in that one i still go back and play it now and then. And the music to the intro stage is a straight up classic lol
I forgot who or what it was who said this, but it was about musicians making albums. The first album they make was made with ideas from their entire lives before that point. The next one they only had a year or a few.
The same could be said for great movies with shit sequels: first movie is a ball of fantastic ideas, anything lesser probably gets taken out… To be put in a crappy sequel. And then the next movie has to come out in only a few years. That just isn’t very much time to read and experience the world and innovate and stuff.
Sure, it happens, but extremely rarely. And when it does, those are the truly special people worth following and giving loyalty to, in any platform or format or product or medium.
Hey, just wanted to say I appreciate your posts. They give me the vibes of cracking open an old EGM. It’s nice to have a nice curated newsletter that doesn’t read like the SEO garbage that’s all over the web.
Exactly what I am going for, since I wasn’t alive for the old blogs and newsletters and old gaming sites. I’m tired of sites begging for Patreon members, and using ads, and its all such a drain.
Thanks for saying so, it makes me so happy seeing anyone read these damn things!
I read all of these too and I love them so much!!! I don’t have to close 2 separate video players playing ads, one taking up the top half of the screen and the other taking up almost the entire bottom left or right…which pop back up after like 2 minutes.
There’s also no agenda or weird outrage- just pure gaming news and neat little oddities that I enjoy reading about.
You should definitely look into starting a website as well as a career in journalism because you are amazing at creating this here little ‘zine and I’d love to see it flourish into a career if it’s something you enjoy doing :)
I recently tried both the last beserker as well as lies of P, and I just couldn’t really get into either of them. I think maybe full blown souls games are just done for me. Death’s door was great though, I really liked that one! I never got into Tunic, but definitely have been eyeballing it for quite a while now…
I reaaaally tried Lies of P. I have one book I really, really adore called Drood - which is about Dickens and the setting to that beautiful and terrifying book feels pretty close to Lies of P.
But…just like Elden Ring, while I love the setting and atmosphere, the combat is just not for me! I even keep a little notebook with games I’ve played, games I want to play, etc. In that I have written very prominently to not bother trying Elden Ring again (even with mods to make it ‘easy’).
Its funny though how the vast majority of gamers are the opposite, and just can’t get enough!
Sekiro is what did it for me in terms of Souls-like games. That’s the one that “clicked” with me, and I still consider it perhaps my favorite game of all time.
Yes but the problem is with Square Enix themselves. For some reason, they have the mindset that the only remake that would sell is FF7. This is the reason why they’ve been working not just two completely different remakes of the original game but also remakes of the sequels and prequels, along at least one new game that takes place in FF7’s universe. A remake of any game prior to FF11 would sell well but they exclusively chose to remake FF7.
They wouldn’t even have to go as far as they did the FF7 remake. They could easily remake one of the games in the style of something simpler like either Crisis Core or FF12 and it would probably sell very well, especially if it’s decently priced.
I would love FF8 if they could keep it faithful. But I’d be worried that they would overhaul it instead of tweaking it. The level scaling isn’t a problem, they just need to call out that it makes traditional grinding unnecessary.
Drawing doesn’t need to go away. Just make it one full draw (100) and remove it from the enemy.
Oh, and make magic more powerful so it’s useful to expend.
For cities skyline. The first game was pretty shit all things considered. The game had so many dlcs and mods were what added a lot of the good functionality.
Cs2 was way more ambitious with the simulation aspect and utilising new dev tools. Once we get more mods and more dlcs cities 2 will be looked at as an amazing city builder.
I would be inclined to agree with you, except that the simulation is one of the weakest parts of the second game.
But also part one did not have the same ludicrous number of game-breaking bugs on release.
CS2 has gotten better for sure, and will keep doing so over time, but I’ve given up on wanting to buy it because it seems fundamentally worse than its predecessor.
If they ever add DLCs for true simulation of the economy and for showing fire, police, and ambulance crews at work as well as re-adding bicyclists I might reconsider.
Yeah I know cs2 sim sucks, believe me I’m one of the biggest cs2 haters there is. On release the cs2 sim was the same as cs1, all smoke and mirrors. Except cs1 didnt promise to be calculating all these things.
Cs2 has been pretty bug free for me up until economy 2.0 added a few simulation bugs.
My wishlist is for them to remake all the vanilla assets, they look terrible. Add bikes and e scooters. Then add an industries DLC.
If by capital “R” Remake you mean the full three-game treatment FF7 received, Kitase’s already said they’re not planning on doing that again. Future remake projects, should they happen, will be smaller in scope. An FF9 project was leaked twice and is heavily rumored, so it’s most likely next (if it wasn’t quietly cancelled, anyway). We also don’t know exactly where it would fall on the spectrum between remaster and remake, but the Epic leak suggests it’s more of a remake.
FFT is the one I’d like to see the most, and it has even more rumors around it. But, I would expect that would look something like Tactics Ogre Reborn, mostly a remaster. It could really use some modern features, like a move undo and some UI enhancements, like a helper for zodiac signs. What I want the most from it is an orchestrated soundtrack. It’s a gorgeous work that deserves the full treatment. I’d also love to see more content, like extra side quests, but I’m not holding my breath on that.
FF6 is the most logical next step after those in terms of enduring popularity, especially if they want to target the Western market. It would probably be super controversial in the fandom, though.
I don’t trust them to create new remakes, to be honest, only if they are as close to the original as possible, but I doubt they will do that, unfortunately.
Only if they DON'T drop the classic turn-based combat. I actually hate the idea of a 'remake' that changes genre entirely.
1-6 recently got the Pixel Remasters, and before that 3 and 4 had the DS remakes. I'd like to see proper remakes of 5 and 6 myself, but that's unlikely to happen since the Pixel Remasters exist.
7, personally I'd play a faithful remake, but it'd be silly to make one since they already have the non-faithful 'remake'.
8 is the one game that could benefit the most from a non-faithful remake. It's a game that's worth remaking because the original was such a mess. But I feel like a bit of a hypocrite for saying that right after complaining about FF7. What I'd do is still keep it turn-based, but completely overhaul Draw and level scaling.
9 would be the most likely candidate as a fan-favorite that could be kept faithful and still hold up well. And rumors have been swirling around for a while that one may be coming.
10 and 12 already have the HD Remasters, and those are excellent. So no need.
11 is the most in need of some way to preserve it for future generations, but I don't know how that would even work. Could it perhaps be adapted in some way like they did with Dragon Quest 10 Offline?
13 onward, too new to need remakes. (And also I have no interest in the direction the series has gone since then anyway)
You leave 8 alone! It’s not turn based (in a strict sense) and Draw/Junction is the foundation of the entire game, mechanical and narrative. The scaling is a little weird because there’s two main experience bars and only one of them makes enemies tougher and it’s not explained, but so be it. All I want is the Japan exclusive Chocobo World and updated graphics without changing the visual style and maybe a soundtrack that doesn’t sound so MIDI.
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