Operation Backlog Completion 2025

I’m Becoming Oddly Interested in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

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Sep 232019
 

During Microsoft’s E3 press conference, I very briefly mentioned the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, but didn’t say too much about it. After all, I’m not a Dragon Ball fan.

Lately, however, I’m actually becoming somewhat interested in the game despite my general unfamiliarity with the series.

They’ve shown off things like a driving mini-game, a baseball mini-game, RPG elements, and basically a lot of things that make me think I’d be following it if it was a brand new IP.

My knowledge of Dragon Ball Z is pretty slim and mainly consists of things a friend told me about in elementary school, but from what I’ve seen, it sounds like the game is going to cover the major story arcs of Dragon Ball Z.

Together with my newfound interest in the game thanks to these mini-games and such, I’m starting to think I might play Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and let that be my introduction to the series. Then again, maybe it would be better for me to get into the series first to have a better frame of reference going into the game.

What do you think of what we’ve seen from Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot? Do you think it’s a good game for a series newcomer like me?

(I considered blogging about the hints that a new Batman Arkham game is coming, but decided to save that for when there’s more news.)

Shantae & the Seven Sirens is Split Into Two Parts for Apple Arcade

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Sep 202019
 

The next Shantae game is called Shantae and the Seven Sirens, and it looks like it’s on track to fix all the things I disliked about Half-Genie Hero.

It’s got an interconnected, non-linear world and dungeons are back, and even the basic description suggests there’s more of an overarching plot than Half-Genie Hero had.

Will the story be as good as Pirate’s Curse? That remains to be seen, but everything else sounds fantastic.

Now, Shantae and the Seven Sirens had been announced for the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and the new Apple Arcade service, with no release date given yet.

But on Wednesday, WayForward made an announcement that left fans a bit confused.

“Part 1” of Shantae and the Seven Sirens would be releasing soon for Apple Arcade.

Some fans were annoyed about Apple Arcade getting the game first, but most people were just confused about it being Part 1. No one had said anything about a Part 1. How many parts would there be?

(The fears of a more segmented game structure were perhaps rising up again.)

WayForward wouldn’t say anything, but it seems like that must have been due to some sort of NDA, because they’ve clarified everything now.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is only split into two parts for the Apple Arcade release. The PC and console versions will be a single release. Part 1 is longer than a demo, but is less than half the game and only includes up through the first two dungeons.

So Shantae and the Seven Sirens is not an episodic game, the other versions will be a single release, and it seems likely that they just wanted part of the game to be available alongside the launch of Apple Arcade.

I’ll admit I felt a little nervous when I saw that “Part 1” in the tweet, but now I’m back to feeling confident that Shantae and the Seven Sirens will be the return to form I hoped for after finishing Half-Genie Hero.

All the Yakuza: Like a Dragon Details from TGS

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Sep 182019
 

After learning Yakuza 7 will be turn-based and titled Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the west, TGS revealed a wealth of new details we haven’t gotten to talk about yet.

Several new mini-games were revealed, starting with Dragon Kart!

Yes, Yakuza now will have its own kart racing mini-game, complete with item pick-ups to give you a boost or attack your opponents with.

There is also a movie theater mini-game where Ichiban will need to fight sleepiness by repelling sheep so he can stay awake for the entire move.

Finally, they revealed a PachiSlot mini-game that will include collaborations with actual Pachislot games.

A story trailer was also released. While it covers a lot of the same points as the original announcement trailer, it includes new details as well, especially near the end where it shows some of the characters and factions Ichiban will encounter.

What we were really waiting for, however, was seeing the game in action at TGS. A demo was shown, which also revealed a can collection mini-game and a Summons system – Ichiban will be able to summon allies during battle by using his phone. And of course, it showed off the new turn-based combat system.

There had been some mystery leading up to TGS, with fans unsure if combat would be like the April Fools Day joke or not and the director saying it would be fast-paced and might feel like an action game if you didn’t know.

So from TGS, we finally got to see the new combat system.

And…

It pretty much looks like a turn-based RPG to me.

I expect Yakuza: Like a Dragon to be a fun turn-based game, but this certainly didn’t calm the worries of people who expected it to be slow-paced.

How do you feel about the next Yakuza game? What do you think about the new details and gameplay footage revealed for Yakuza: Like a Dragon?

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