Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Is a New Opoona Game Being Developed?

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 162019
 

I’ve never played Opoona, but I’ve heard good things about it.

From what I understand, it’s a somewhat casual JRPG with life sim elements, and it gets a lot of praise from people who have played it.

Well, there’s good reason to hope either an Opoona port or sequel is being developed. Let’s take a look.

On November 1, 2017, the game’s director sent out a tweet with a message translated here by Gematsu as:

It is November 1, 2017. Today is the anniversary of ArtePiazza’s establishment. And it has also been 10 years since the release of our lifestyle RPG Opoona!! I’ll be making a wonderful announcement in the near future, so please give me a little more time.”

While his message didn’t directly say it would be an Opoona announcement, he did include the #opoona hashtag.

Last September, almost a year after that tweet, a new Opoona Twitter account was made. It’s been active ever since then, tweeting out in-character comments.

There hasn’t been any direct Opoona activity aside from that… but the developer Cattle Call has added the Nintendo Switch to its list of consoles.

While I read the news hoping this means a new turn-based JRPG from Cattle Call (they developed The Alliance Alive, which I intend to play soon), Cattle Call has also worked on several other games, which includes helping ArtePiazza develop Opoona. Their Twitter account also retweeted the first tweet sent by the new Opoona account.

Is Cattle Call’s work for the Nintendo Switch related to Opoona? It’s too early to say, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get an Opoona announcement in the near future.

Have you played Opoona? Do you think a port or new game is being teased? Let me know in the comments.

Tales of Phantasia: A Heartfelt Classic

 Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 142019
 

After playing a few games in the Tales series and becoming a fan, I finally went back to where it all began with the very first Tales game, Tales of Phantasia.

Tales of Phantasia has only been officially translated into English twice: first for the Game Boy Advance in 2006 and then as a disastrous iOS port in 2014 that has since been removed.

Since I prefer to play official releases and heard negative things about the GBA version, I didn’t think I’d get to play Phantasia unless they remade it… until I heard the GBA version’s glorious voice acting, at which point I bought a copy as soon as I stopped laughing.

(I’m not even joking.)

(Un)fortunately, voice acting does not show up often in Tales of Phantasia, mainly limited to battle cries and that beautiful intro. The story follows a young man named Cress who is sent back in time to find a way to defeat the Demon King Dhaos, who was sealed away in the past but now is free again.

Time travel is at the core of the game’s story, although there isn’t much back-and-forth. It’s a simpler story than what I’ve seen in other Tales games, and the GBA version lacks skits, but it’s an enjoyable game with an interesting plot and likable characters.

Click for Tales of Phantasia spoilers
And when I say the story is simpler, I mean they wait until the very end to reveal the big twist in regards to Dhaos’s motivations. The story still has its intricacies, it’s just presented in a more straightforward manner.

I would have preferred to actually hear Dhaos explain his story, though, instead of having the characters recount what he said after the fact.

I also completely missed that Dhaos in the future is different than Dhaos in the present because of them changing the timeline. Okay, maybe it’s not such a simple story after all.

The final party member joined too late to ever really feel a part of things, but I read that she was an NPC in the original version, so it makes sense that her role would be lessened. Aside from her, I thought the cast had a good dynamic.

Now, it’s an old game. At times, it feels old. Combat in particular is strange and slow and pauses entirely for most spells, and there are also little frustrations such as having to equip the Sorcerer’s Ring as an accessory to use it.

Then there’s the translation, which had some dubious moments, the best of which is its infamous “Kangaroo” line (instead of Ragnarok).

But it really has a lot of heart. I’m not entirely sure how to explain it, but as I was exploring the world, discovering side quests and secrets, and watching the characters interact with each other, it made me think about how much I love this genre. Tiny sprites and limited graphics don’t stop Tales of Phantasia from being emotional and sincere. Sometimes I feel like newer JRPGs have lost some of that soul. It’s hard to say what it is, but there is something heartfelt about older JRPGs like this.

I’d love to see a remake of Tales of Phantasia (or an official English release of one of the later versions), preferably keeping its world map and everything else intact.

Overall, I liked Tales of Phantasia a lot. Its age shows and the GBA version might not be the best way to play, but I enjoyed seeing the origin of the Tales series. Have you played Tales of Phantasia?

Kingdom Hearts III’s Epilogue and Secret Movie Will Be Added January 30 and 31

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jan 112019
 

I’ve pretty much stopped checking Kingdom Hearts III news to avoid spoilers, but this is the kind of news I still want to know ahead of time: when the epilogue and secret movie will be available.

Now, some people are making a big deal out of this announcement, but they actually revealed they were going to do this quite a while ago.

Nomura mentioned the idea at least as far back as September, during the Stage Show at TGS.

When asked if Kingdom Hearts III would have a secret movie, Nomura said yes, but that he was trying to think of a way to release it so that spoilers wouldn’t appear online.

After the full game was leaked in December, Nomura released a message that repeated this point:

The game’s epilogue and secret movie, which are the biggest spoilers in this game, are planned to be released at a later date just in case, so they will not be shown before the game’s release.”

So this shouldn’t be a huge shock… but since lots of people are only learning about the news now, it’s important to repeat that the full game and its ending are available on the disk. These are an epilogue and a secret movie held back so they wouldn’t be spoiled.

(Based on the epilogues and secret endings in previous Kingdom Hearts games, it will probably tease the next saga in some way.)

Anyway, the schedule has been revealed:

  • January 29 – Data fixes and the Memory Archive (story recap videos)
  • January 30 – Epilogue
  • January 31 – Secret Movie

The epilogue can be viewed after you finish the game and see its ending. The secret movie can be viewed after you finish the game and see the ending while meeting certain criteria, which will be different depending on the difficulty level you played on.

Note the fact that you have to see the ending to watch the epilogue. That must mean they consider the epilogue separate from the actual ending of Kingdom Hearts III.

Anyway, unlike the Spyro situation, this doesn’t bother me too much. I appreciate their reasons for doing it, the full game is completely playable without the download, and finding a video online is much easier than finding a way to download a game (in the case of people with no/slow Internet).

I’m excited for Kingdom Hearts III, and I’ll be looking forward to the epilogue and secret movie once I finish. How do you feel about the latest news?

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