You already know my most-anticipated games coming out this year, as well as the wilder announcements I want from E3. Now we have two new games to consider, recently-announced titles that have vaulted to the top of my list.
Holiday Star
On Thursday, Devolver Digital announced that Holiday Star will be coming to the PC, PS4, and PS Vita this fall. Holiday Star is the sequel to Hatoful Boyfriend, one of the greatest games I played last year.
After I finished Hatoful Boyfriend, I looked into the rest of the series. Among other things, I learned about the Absolute Zero manga (which I read and loved), and Holiday Star. While it’s possible to play Holiday Star already, I hoped it would receive the same sort of remastered release that Hatoful Boyfriend got.
So, I reacted to the Holiday Star news about like you’d expect.
Not only is it coming, but it’s being released this fall? YES!
Unlike Hatoful Boyfriend, Holiday Star is more a visual novel… but since arguably the best part of Hatoful Boyfriend, the BBL route, was a visual novel, that’s hardly reason for disappointment. It is episodic, with 4 main episodes, 6 shorter episodes, and apparently a radio show. It features both new characters and old favorites.
Holiday Star is described as a sequel to Hatoful Boyfriend, but it is an alternate universe sequel where the BBL storyline never happened. Interesting.. I can’t wait to see what twists and turns Holiday Star has in store.
There are a few, select series I consider “priority” games. If a new Ace Attorney game comes out, for example, I play it even if I’ve had other games lined up. If a new Professor Layton game comes out, I do the same thing.
Well, when Holiday Star releases this fall, I don’t care what PC game I’m in the middle of or about to start–it’s time to play Holiday Star.
Tales of Berseria
Earlier this year, when Bandai Namco trademarked three new Tales names, including Tales of Berseria, I hoped one of them would be a prequel to Tales of Symphonia starring the Kharlan heroes, one of my many video game pipe dreams.
Well, at this year’s Tales Festival, Bandai Namco announced Tales of Berseria. I doubt it’s a disguised Symphonia prequel, unless there was a large nautical element to the Kharlan War never mentioned. You see, Tales of Berseria is about pirates.
A Tales game with pirates? Both are part of the geeky holidays I celebrate, so how could I not be pleased? Plus, if this game involves pirates and sailing… maybe Berseria heralds a return to the classic world map!
Very little has been revealed about the game, but we did get a glimpse of the main protagonist, Velvet.
Many fans are excited that this is the first Tales game where the sole main character is female (Milla shared the spotlight with Jude, although really, I think Milla was much more the main character regardless), but I’m more interested in her being a pirate!
(World map? Please?)
Tales of Berseria hasn’t been confirmed for a Western release yet, as far as I know, but there’s still plenty of time for an announcement. Tales of Zestiria isn’t even out here yet. I’m still looking forward to Zestiria, and I have many other Tales games to catch up on, but that doesn’t make me any less excited for the newly-announced Tales of Berseria.
Have your own hopes for Tales of Berseria? Curious about Holiday Star? Share all your thoughts on these upcoming games in the comments below.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButThouMust
Dat poll.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend
In the first section, down to the entry for But Thou Must.
…There we go.
BTW we need to have a nice private convo at your convenience.
Yeah, so it’s kind of become a joke/shout-out to reference that character and give the choices of “Yes,” “Yes,” or “Yes.”
All right.