Operation Backlog Completion 2024

Pokémon Sword and Shield Have Been Announced

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 272019
 

We’ve been waiting for news on 2019’s mainline Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch, and they were revealed today in a special Pokémon Direct.

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield will be released worldwide in late 2019.

The three starters are the grass-type monkey Grookey, the fire-type bunny Scorbunny, and the water-type lizard Sobble. It’s set in the Galar region, which appears to be based on the United Kingdom.

“Sword” and “Shield” feel like rather odd titles for Pokémon games, since this isn’t a series that typically involves swords and shields and it certainly doesn’t look like medieval Pokémon or anything like that. The names did make me think of Team Plasma’s knight motif, so I wonder if we’ll have something similar as this generation’s villainous team.

Responses to the reveal are a lot more negative than I expected. It seems like a lot of people were expecting a massive open world Pokémon game, which honestly would have disappointed me.

From what we’ve seen so far, Galar looks like a beautiful region and the gameplay looks like standard Pokémon gameplay. Gyms are back, as well. I’d hoped they might keep the wild Pokémon visible on the field from the Let’s Go titles, but I’m fine with random encounters.

(But here’s hoping HMs are still gone; that was the best change Sun and Moon introduced.)

And could that be the sneaking mechanic from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire?

It’s too early to say if Pokémon Sword and Shield will address the criticisms I’ve had with the last few Pokémon games (although the world map looks like there might be side areas), but right now I’m optimistic and excited to see more!

What did you think of the Pokémon Sword and Shield reveal?

In other news, the Ace Attorney Trilogy will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on April 9, but it’s digital-only.

The Sinking City Might Be Delayed

 Video games  No Responses »
Feb 252019
 

We haven’t talked much about The Sinking City, but it’s an upcoming game I’m intrigued by.

On one hand, it’s supposed to be open world, and I’m not a huge fan of open world games. On the other hand, it’s heavily inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, so I’m interested.

It’s also an investigation-based game where you’ll need to play close attention to clues and observations to know how you should proceed with your quests. From what they’ve said, it sounds like they really want to put the investigation in the player’s hands.

The Sinking City is set to be released on March 21, 2019… but it might have been delayed.

While no official delay has been announced yet, the game’s Amazon page suddenly changed the release date from March 21 to May 31 (or May 24, depending on which region’s Amazon site you look at). Its Steam page also changed the release date to simply “2019.”

That makes a delay seem likely.

I’ll probably play The Sinking City eventually once it does come out, especially since both the story and gameplay sound interesting to me. For now, we’ll have to wait and see if it’s been delayed or not.

Yes, Last Idea is a Mobile Game

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Feb 222019
 

Since we talked about it on Wednesday, we might as well follow through. Square Enix officially revealed Last Idea, and yes, it is a mobile game.

Describing it as a “treasure hunting RPG” for iOS and Android, they released a short trailer that shows… well, pretty much nothing.

Fortunately, some additional information about Last Idea was also announced. You play a treasure hunter who travels to the “Silent Castle” in search of treasure and rescues a girl with amnesia.

It is supposed to be a simplified hack-and-slash action RPG.

So… still no clear reason for it being called Last Idea. Now, mobile games aren’t inherently bad, it’s just that the microtransaction-heavy free-to-play gacha system is apparently so profitable, they’re the mobile games that make it. They haven’t said yet if this will be a gacha game, but on the other hand, there’s nothing particularly compelling about what they’ve announced.

I was intrigued by Square Enix announcing a new game, but so far Last Idea doesn’t seem like it’ll be my sort of thing. What do you think of Last Idea?

In other news, don’t forget that the Kickstarter campaign for Gehenna & Hinnom’s 2019 lineup, including my sci-fi horror story “The Rings of Khal’Uth,” has just over a week to go. It’s almost reached its first stretch goal, so spread the word!

Meanwhile, we’re still going strong with the Eternal Radiance Kickstarter campaign, having met our initial funding goal. Now we’re aiming for the stretch goals as well. If you like visual novels and action RPGs, take a look!

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