This is oddly common in ROM hacking/mod scenes. There’s been no shortage of drama in the Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics communities, too.
At the very least I wish people would consider the bus test once a site/project gets to a certain critical mass. Insane to me that a site with this kind of profile never had coverage for that scenario this entire time.
The bulk of my finds come from chat either on Lemmy communities (!jrpg, !patientgamers, or this one) or a couple Discord servers I’m on. Sometimes a game will catch my eye unexpectedly while I’m on OpenCritic looking up something else, too.
Otherwise it’s generally gaming news. I get that from also Lemmy/Discord, my RSS feed, or showcases. I always end up wishlisting half a dozen games during the summer showcases. My RSS feed right now is DualShockers, Eurogamer, Gematsu, PCGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Siliconera, and Denfaminicogamer (Japanese site). Always open to more suggestions for the feed; the problem is not everyone does RSS these days.
The hilarious thing about you getting downvotes immediately is Kotaku led the reporting on this news this morning. Link is in the posted article, y’all.
The Gamestop deal would have been 2002-ish. I actually hadn’t heard of the magazine before we started pushing it in the store. With Game Informer’s features mirroring our store marketing, it was the first time I realized how incestuous the industry was (easy to see the signs of it now when looking back at even older mags). The bizarre amount of coverage it had on the PS2 game State of Emergency was one example from the time. It’s wild to me to hear it being called reputable here and elsewhere today when it had such a fundamental conflict of interest for the vast majority of its run.
I predict some grumbling from the JRPG crowd that just wanted hi-fi visuals in turn-based combat without the reactive combat elements they are discussing here. I have to imagine they’ll make the system flexible enough to appeal to everyone, though. “Turn-based with a little extra” is the new hotness right now, so it’s what will be marketed leading up to the release.
Hoping to see another trailer soon, last one was great!
This likely has less to do with cheating and more to do with making sure players use the game shop, whether it’s blocking third-party skins or bots that automate currency grinds.
Overall, Surviving Mars might be my favorite work soundtrack. Assorted tracks from Stellaris plus the Age of Wonders and Civilization series are also good. Something about the soundtracks in 4X games and games like them always puts me in a productive mood while not making me emotional and thus distracted like RPG soundtracks can sometimes.
Since you like FF, I’d suggest looking into Uematsu’s other works as well, especially Lost Odyssey. For similar ones in the genre, there’s also Yasunori Mitsuda’s work in the Chrono and Xeno series.
Also love cello, and it’s why I keep hoping the long-rumored new version of Final Fantasy Tactics will surface soon. Even with a fifth console gen soundfont, Sakimoto’s strings are so good in that soundtrack.
The accompanying Dragon Quest I & II announcement was a surprise. DQIII is the kind of game that could sell massively in Japan, so this is likely not the last we’ll see of HD-2D remakes.
The Square Enix ones mentioned in the article are nothing earth-shattering–the Final Fantasy XVI PC port and what’s most likely the Final Fantasy IX remake. FF9 was part of the previous Nvidia leak.
It’s the typical end-of-generation lull right now, but even with that, the brand is broadly, wildly popular. The Switch is approaching the PS2’s sales record. Throw in all the money from MTX now and it’s surely the most profitable venture ever in traditional video games.
That’s precisely why Nintendo can afford to burn up goodwill with trash like this move.