It’s no delusion, our hopes have come true, the Chaos;Head Noah / Chaos;Child Double Pack released for the Switch is being localized!
After it was teased a few weeks ago, Spike Chunsoft officially announced it yesterday.
The double pack will be released on October 7, with a steelbook launch edition also available to order.
Not only will this be the first time Chaos;Head receives an official English translation, Chaos;Head Noah is the expanded re-release that added significantly more content and is said to be improved in every way. My understanding is that this version is based on the PlayStation release of Noah, which censored some of the more gruesome sections, but it should still be an excellent visual novel.
(The launch edition also includes lingerie costume DLC for the girls in Chaos;Head Noah, except for Seira, whose costume is not included in the western release.)
I played Chaos;Head with the fan translation last October and loved it, so I’m absolutely picking up this new release.
Now, Chaos;Child came out in English a few years ago (despite the questionable decision of translating only the sequel of an untranslated game) and I actually started my Vita copy last year after I finished Chaos;Head, so now I’ll need to decide if I want to finish that or wait for the double pack since I’m still near the beginning. As far as I know, it’s the exact same version, but since the original Chaos;Child translation apparently has some parts that just… aren’t translated… maybe we can hope they’ll fix that for the Switch version?
Either way, I’ll pick up the double back for Noah, at least.
I don’t know what’s up with this recent trend of games people said would never be localized suddenly getting localization announcements, but I’m delighted by it and I hope Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin are next. (Seriously. The Great Ace Attorney, the Crossbell games, and now Chaos;Head? If those are possible, Kenzan and Ishin definitely are.)
Are you planning to pick up the Chaos;Head Noah / Chaos;Child Double Pack? And more importantly, whose eyes are those eyes?
Ah, now those are words I’m delighted to be able to write!
In the middle of our romance celebration in February, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced for the Nintendo Switch.
Not only that, but it already has a release window: September 2022.
That’s right, the next Xenoblade game is coming out this year!
I’m still hoping we get a Xenoblade Chronicles X sequel someday (with a Xenoblade Chronicles X port as a likely first step), but I’m thrilled to get any Xenoblade game.
(As excited as I am for Bayonetta 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 vaulted into the top spot as my most-anticipated game of the year as soon as it was revealed.)
And in what is very interesting news, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a sequel that brings together the future of both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In fact, the trailer actually shows that, with some familiar locations popping up in the gameplay segments.
So let’s start by watching the trailer.
The trailer is exciting and teases many intriguing details about this new game in the series, especially the glimpse of two masked characters near the end who are widely believed by fans to be Melia and Nia.
It also shows us a world filled with conflict, a reference to people being used as fuel, and a puzzling line in which a character asks, “What good’s filling up these flickering clocks in our eyes?” Some intriguing story elements are definitely being set up.
The protagonists, as detailed on Nintendo UK’s official Xenoblade Chronicles 3 page, are Noah and Mio, two “off-seers” who mourn for soldiers who lose their lives (which seems to have something to do with the flutes that they play).
Joining them in the main cast are Lanz, Eunie, Taion, and Sena. Curiously, character details translated from the official Japanese Xenoblade Twitter account revealed that all 6 main characters are age 18, except for Mio, who is 19. Yes, even the High Entia and Machina (?) characters, even though they shouldn’t age like Homs, are 18. What does this mean? I have no idea. A popular theory is that enough time has passed for the genetics to have diluted to the point of giving them Homs-like lifespans.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 deals with a war between two nations called Keves and Agnus. Noah, Lanz, and Eunie are from Keves, while Mio, Taion, and Sena are from Agnus, so it seems as though their groups will come together despite the conflict between their countries. Interestingly, “Keves” means “sheep” in Hebrew and “Agnus” means “lamb” in Latin. Is this significant? It can’t be a coincidence.
Eagle-eyed fans have also caught a lot of tiny details in the trailer that I would have missed on my own, such as a shape that might be the Conduit on the machine at 1:10, a symbol that appears on the bodies of the three Keves characters, and ouroboros symbols on the party’s weapons (which is especially interesting since the character who might be Melia says, “Ouroboros abhor this world”). Noah and Mio also appear to exchange flutes at some point in the story.
Finally, let’s talk about the art at the very end of the trailer, which shows the sword of the Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles alongside the Urayan Titan from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This is a puzzling scene if this is the future of both worlds.
Click for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 spoilers
The Mechonis’s sword was destroyed during Xenoblade Chronicles, and Uraya merged into the landmass at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. So why are both intact in the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3?
What makes this even more interesting is that in a message from Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, he brings up this key visual as an important point and says that the image of the Mechonis sword alongside the wounded Urayan Titan was first thought up between the development of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
So whatever this visual means, whatever this is all building up to, they actually had it in mind before they made Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Knowing this has been planned for so long makes me even more excited for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve tried to cover everything we know about it at this point, but if I missed anything, let me know in the comments! Are you looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles 3?
We might have just finished our February contest, but today’s post goes back to October, as the winner of last year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky contest opted for a game review, with Spiritfarer as the chosen game.
(While it might seem like I took an exceptionally long time to finish, the winner recomended I wait to start until the final update came out in December.)
Spiritfarer puts you in the shoes of a woman named Stella, who takes over for Charon in his duties of shuttling spirits of the dead to their final rest.
It’s difficult to describe the gameplay genre of this one. At its core, Spiritfarer’s gameplay is sort of a combination of light 2D platforming and a management sim. You have a ship, upon which you can build various houses and facilities, and take care of the spirits who join as your passengers.
You’ll plant seeds and grow crops to cook into meals, fish as you sail around the world, and also use materials you’ve gathered to craft various structures and items to fulfill side quests.
The world is a series of small islands, which you’ll discover as you sail your ship around the world to meet new spirits, take on side quests, and gather resources. It has some light Metroidvania elements, since certain spots and areas can’t be accessed until you have the right abilities, but I’d say that’s a comparatively small part of gameplay.
There are also mini-games that become available on the ship throughout the game to gather special resources.
Exploration and mini-games require a slight bit of platforming know-how, but it’s fairly simple aside from one part that leans a little more into the platforming side of things.
And of course, as you do all of this, it’s to aid the spirits you’ve met and help them move on to their final rest. The tone of Spiritfarer is mixed, since at times (especially when dealing with side quests and characters in the larger world) it can be fairly humorous, while a significant portion of the game deals with death and helping spirits come to terms with their own life, death, and regrets.
However, it never resonated with me quite as much as I expected it to. A couple of characters had stories that hit me hard, but many didn’t strike that emotional chord. That became increasingly common near the end, as I felt I spent less time getting to know the characters and instead simply did a few tasks before they were ready to move on.
(That could partly be a side effect of how by late-game I had so many more resources available to me that I could complete requests faster, though.)
One major thing also disappointed me a bit, although I can see why people would like it.
Click for major Spiritfarer spoilers
So the entire journey seems to be taking place within Stella’s mind, as she’s currently dying, either as a metaphorical journey for her to come to terms with her own death or as a look through her memories since she knew many of the spirits in life.
When I realized it was going in that direction, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed, just because I’ve played so many games now where the fantastic adventure or supernatural events are symbolic of normal real-world things happening to the character.
Maybe it’s a little hypocritical of me, since there are games with that premise that I love, but I just found the on-the-surface premise of taking over for Charon to be much more interesting than another symbolic story.
Overall, I ended my Spiritfarer playthrough with mixed feelings. I expected an emotional experience in which I’d really fall in love with the characters. I ended up with a pleasant game that tugged at my emotions a few times, but didn’t leave a lasting impression. Oddly enough, I found the gameplay more addicting, despite expecting its simple systems to be a backdrop to the characters.
I did enjoy Spiritfarer, in the end, but it was a different experience than I thought it would be.
It’s no delusion, our hopes have come true, the Chaos;Head Noah / Chaos;Child Double Pack released for the Switch is being localized!
