Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Tales of Arise: Combat Details, Skits Confirmed, and More

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 242021
 

After the Tales of Arise release date trailer and gameplay footage, there were still a lot of questions, but a recent interview in Weekly Famitsu has revealed more information.

Translated here by Frontline Gaming Japan, producer Yusuke Tomizawa goes into more detail about the combat system in this interview.

A new feature in battles is the Boost Attack, a support action party members will use when you reach certain conditions. There are also Boost Strikes, powerful finishing moves performed by two characters.

It sounds like working together with party members is going to be a big part of combat, and so is dodging. It’s a fast-paced combat system that encourages the player to watch for enemy tells, dodge the attack, and counter. They’ve included difficulty modes and auto-battle options to help fans who aren’t as good at action games.

Traditional combat elements will also return, including Mystic Artes, although they’re activated in a new way.

Now, when the combat footage was revealed, the lack of victory screens (and therefore victory screen banter) stirred some fans up. Here, Tomizawa makes it clear that post-battle conversations occur on the field after the battle, so it really sounds like the usual banter is still present, just not on a distinct screen.

Another thing fans have been wondering about is the presence of skits. Skits are confirmed to be returning, but “in another form.”

I’m not really sure what that means or why they can’t be revealed yet. Are they going to be field conversations? Animated scenes? The party member conversations in skits are a big part of Tales, so I hope they still feel like skits in whatever form they take.

Tales of Arise also has more anime cutscenes than any previous Tales game.

The interview also confirms Hootle as the game’s mascot and a sign of the lighter elements the series usually has, and repeats the fact that there are still party members who haven’t been revealed yet.

Tales of Arise’s themes deal with division and friction between races and the two worlds of Dahna and Rena, which personally makes me think about Tales of Symphonia, so that’s a plus. The characteristic genre name for Tales of Arise is “an RPG to speak of the dawn of the heart.”

I’m really looking forward to Tales of Arise, and I have high hopes for it! I’m currently playing Tales of the Abyss, but I should be able to finish that without getting too close to Arise’s September 10 release date.

(Meanwhile, I’m also pretty excited about those new Final Fantasy rumors, but now I’m trying to avoid reading too much about rumors and supposed leaks ahead of E3, since surprises are often the most fun part.)

Anyway, what do you think about the latest Tales of Arise details? Are you looking forward to it?

Persona 5 Strikers: A Surprisingly Good Sequel

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 212021
 

I wasn’t sure what to think when Persona 5 Strikers was first announced, a Persona 5 sequel in the form of a Dynasty Warriors style spin-off.

The more we learned about it, though, the more interested I became.

Now that I’ve finished it, I’m happy to say that despite the different genre of gameplay, Persona 5 Strikers really does feel like a sequel.

Set after the events of Persona 5, the main cast of characters gets back together for summer vacation, only to discover that people’s hearts are being changed.

Instead of Palaces, strange areas known as Jails are appearing in the Metaverse across Japan and changing people’s behavior in the real world, and so the Phantom Thieves set off on a journey to stop the phenomenon and learn the truth of what is happening.

A couple of new characters are also introduced as part of the main plot, and they’re great (especially Zenikichi).

Gameplay-wise, it’s technically a Musou (Dynasty Warriors), but really it ends up feeling like a regular action JRPG. In fact, it does an impressive job of incorporating Persona 5’s gameplay elements into the new combat to really make me think, “Yes, if Persona was an action RPG, this is what it would feel like.”

You’ll hack-and-slash your way through groups of enemies, but also make use of summoning Personas, exploiting enemy weaknesses, and triggering follow-up moves and all-out attacks. It gets pretty challenging at times, too.

Oh, and I have to mention that the music is fantastic. My favorite is “Daredevil,” which plays at a key point in each Jail, and whenever it started playing, my only regret was that progressing in the story meant it would stop playing.

There’s a lot of great music, but that one especially stands out to me.

The one thing it’s missing from the Persona gameplay loop is the social aspect, since the calendar only moves based on story progress and you don’t have separate stories to progress with the other characters. There are still points where you can talk to your party members and see short scenes with them, as well as earning “Bond Points” to spend on special bonuses, but there’s nothing really like the confidant system.

With that said, it still feels very much like Persona 5 in tone. The story, the character interactions, the fun scenes with the characters hanging out at various places – it’s all there, and it’s as Persona as it can be.

I really enjoyed playing Persona 5 Strikers, and I can’t get over how much it felt like a proper sequel instead of just a quick spin-off. If you liked Persona 5 and aren’t wholly opposed to action JRPGs, I definitely recommend you give Persona 5 Strikers a try!

Psychonauts 2 New Screenshots and Coverage

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
May 192021
 

I love Psychonauts, and Psychonauts 2 is one of my most anticipated games of the year.

Psychonauts is a 3D platformer in which you travel into people’s mental worlds, which leads to a number of really unique levels (and a lot of humor). If you haven’t played it, you really should give it a try!

(It’s on Game Pass now, too.)

The long-awaited sequel is due out this year for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X, and Game Informer has now revealed it as their new cover story.

That means that we have a lot of Psychonauts 2 information coming soon. Not only is it the featured article in this month’s issue of the magazine, but they’ll also be covering the game throughout the month.

The video announcing their Psychonauts 2 coverage includes gameplay footage, some of which I believe is new. It all looks fantastic and very fitting to the Psychonauts style.

For a while, I was nervous about Psychonauts 2. I love the original so much that I worried a sequel wouldn’t be able to capture that same magic, especially when I had mixed feelings about some of Double Fine’s more recent games, such as Broken Age. However, the things I’ve seen since then restored my excitement for Psychonauts 2 and left me hopeful that this really will be the sequel it deserves.

I don’t have a copy of the magazine to check out the new content, but screenshots from the article have been posted online, and they look great!

That’s in addition to earlier screenshots that have been shared by Double Fine. All together, these screenshots show a wide variety of levels, which is exactly what I’d expect from a Psychonauts game.

Earlier this month, Psychonauts 2 was briefly made available to pre-load from the Xbox store, although it was since taken down.

A lot of fans took that as a sign that the game is almost ready to be released, although it’s possible the pre-load was meant for a preview build accidentally opened up to everyone at first. Either way, that together with it being the central story of a major gaming magazine makes me think we’re getting close to a release date.

Personally, I now expect it to come out in the summer, right in the middle of all the other games I want to play at launch, because why not make the decision even harder? Either way, I can’t wait for Psychonauts 2 to come out!

I probably should look up the story of Rhombus of Ruin in the meantime…

Are you looking forward to Psychonauts 2?

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