Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Not-E3 2020 Part 9: Nacon Connect?

 Video games  14 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jul 072020
 

Table of Contents

Indie Live Expo 2020
The Escapist Indie Showcase
PlayStation 5 Showcase
Guerrilla Collective
PC Gaming
Future Games Show
EA
New Game+ Expo
MonsterVine Hot Games Summer Showcase
Nacon Connect
Limited Run Games
Devolver Direct
Ubisoft
Nintendo
Microsoft

Nacon Connect 2020

When Nacon Connect 2020 was announced for today, my first thought was, “What is Nacon?” It wasn’t a name I expected to see among our Not-E3 showcases. But with other presentations still to come, our Not-E3 coverage isn’t over yet – so let’s take a look at Nacon Connect.

(Nacon, as it turns out, is a gaming accessory/peripheral company that also publishes games. Earlier this year, they merged with Bigben Interactive.)

The show started off with Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, an upcoming story-driven RPG set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe. I still need to play the one I have (Bloodlines), but I like vampires, so I’m intrigued enough by this.

Next, they announced a motorcycle game called RiMS Racing, which doesn’t particularly interest me, and then a roguelike called Rogue Lords (which sounded kinda cool, except that I’m not a big roguelike fan).

They talked about the Nacon brand, peripherals, and a peripheral deal with Microsoft, and then it was time for the next game reveal: the next game from Spiders, the developer of Greedfall and Bound By Flame.

Although I haven’t played one of their games yet, I’m interested enough in them that this reveal was the thing I was most looking forward to from the showcase. They announced Steelrising, an action RPG set during the French Revolution, except King Louis XVI has a robot army. That could be cool, although the teaser trailer shows almost nothing.

After that, they showed a gameplay trailer for another upcoming action RPG, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. I like the little glimpses shown here, but I’d like to see more of it.

(I was also pleased to finally see gameplay from that werewolf game teased in previous Not-E3 presentations… until I double-checked and found that that was Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, so I guess there’s two games in the same franchise coming out.)

That was the last major game in the showcase for me. They went on to show Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (racing), Roguebook (roguelike deck-builder), Tennis World Tour 2 (self-explanatory), the tiniest announcement of Warhammer: Chaosbane coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X (it was literally a still image with the news written on it), and WRC 9 (racing).

Overall, it wasn’t the most thrilling presentation, but it had a few interesting announcements. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Limited Run Games presentation as our Not-E3 coverage continues! What did you think of Nacon Connect 2020?

Muv-Luv photonmelodies Releases July 30

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 032020
 

When the translation of Muv-Luv was successfully crowdfunded, the campaign also met its goals to translate two side story collections.

The first, Muv-Luv photonflowers*, was released last year. Now, the second collection finally has a release date. Muv-Luv photonmelodies will be out on July 30 for $29.99.

This collection contains three stories:

  • Altered Fable: A Shimmering Shard of Spacetime – an epilogue story set after the events of Muv-Luv Alternative
  • Adoration – a story set in Europe, following a Japanese cadet who visits England to join a TSF battalion
  • Resurrection – a story set ahead of Muv-Luv Alternative, following a spy

Although the Steam page isn’t up yet, a short teaser trailer has been released.

Kickstarter backers received photonflowers* ahead of the public release, but I don’t know if the same will happen for photonmelodies. Either way, I’ve heard a lot of praise for this collection, so I’m excited that we don’t have much longer to wait!

That should be the last of the content included in the Kickstarter. There are still some Muv-Luv spin-offs we don’t have available in English (there was a Steam Greenlight page for Schwarzesmarken, but it’s been four years since they said anything about it) and of course the new sequel and spin-offs coming soon. I’ll be looking forward to them as well.

If you’re a Muv-Luv fan, are you looking forward to photonmelodies?

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road Isn’t What I Expected

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 012020
 

(But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.)

When I learned we were getting a Kingdom Hearts prequel about Xehanort, I was excited. When I saw it was a mobile game, I was much less excited. Nevertheless, I decided to give Kingdom Hearts Dark Road a try once it came out.

I hoped it would be more like a traditional game than KHUX, despite being a standalone game within the same app, preferably without the filler that eventually drove me away. I was prepared for it to be the same sort of gacha experience dragged down by all the mobile trappings.

But Kingdom Hearts Dark Road isn’t quite what I expected at all.

It’s largely an idle game, because although you can manually fight using the card-based combat system (and should, for tougher battles), Dark Road is really designed for you to set it on auto-battle and just leave it run while you do other things. You’ll need to grind a lot to earn enough BP to level up, and you get missions in between story quests that ask you to defeat a large number of Heartless before you can move on.

Everything else is fairly streamlined, as well. There is a gacha system to get more cards, and any duplicate cards you get automatically fuse with your current copy to boost its power. In addition to earning BP to level up, you also get automatic stat boosts from fighting new enemies and getting new cards, and the game rewards you with jewels, gacha tickets, and other prizes for completing certain goals (which usually means defeating a set number of enemies).

Dark Road has an episodic story, and currently only Episode 1 is available. I enjoyed the handful of cutscenes presented here, but the new characters didn’t add much to the story so far (especially since who you add to your party doesn’t seem to affect much).

However, the episode ends with quite a gut punch, so I’m curious to see where the story goes next.

Right now, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road doesn’t have a lot going for it. However, as someone who does not enjoy playing mobile games, I kinda appreciate that this one doesn’t require much playing.

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