Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Level-5 Vision 2024 Scheduled for September 24

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 042024
 

When we discussed the Fantasy Life i delay a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that Level-5 had yet to announce a date for their showcase that was delayed from April to this summer.

However, we now have a date!

The rescheduled Level-5 Vision 2024 has been announced for September 24 at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET. It will have English and Chinese subtitles.

So… that’s not actually “summer” anymore, but at least it’s not too far off.

Titles featured in the showcase will be Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Fantasy Life i (including information about the delay), Decapolice, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, and a brand-new title.

Now, with the delays we’ve seen so far, I don’t know how I feel about them announcing a new game before any of those four are even out. It’s probably going to be the maybe-Yokai-Watch-maybe-spiritual-successor teased last year, but I just wish it didn’t feel like they were taking on too much all at once.

But who knows? Maybe this was the final stumbling block and things will finally get moving. Hopefully we’ll get a release date for both Inazuma Eleven and Fantasy Life i. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at least Decapolice has now been bumped to 2025, and I worry Professor Layton could get pushed even further off as a result.

(Hey, what ever happened to Ushiro? We never heard anything after it was un-cancelled, although it amusingly keeps showing up on Famitsu lists of Japan’s most-anticipated games.)

Level-5’s resurgence still has me worried, but here’s hoping we get some good news. What do you expect from the Level-5 showcase later this month?

Atelier Yumia Live Stream Reveals Party Members, Combat, and More

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 022024
 

Heads-up: if you’re a blog subscriber, it may be a few days before you get email notifications again, as the service I was using shut down.

All right, now let’s get into today’s topic – Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land and the unanswered questions we had about it after its announcement trailer.

This morning, Gust and Koei Tecmo held a live stream at which they revealed new information about Atelier Yumia, followed by a 10-minute English trailer.

Now, the stream wasn’t translated, so I had to pick up what I could just by watching it and then fill in some details with the English trailer later. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard to see that the next trailer they showed was featuring party members. I don’t know if they saw fans jumping to conclusions that there wouldn’t be party members or if they always intended to introduce them during this live stream, but they showed off five party members.

Their next focus was on field exploration. It looks like you can shoot enemies and materials in the environment. They showed some crafting after that and then moved onto combat.

Combat was the other big question from the announcement, and I watched the combat section over and over to try to figure out if it’s action combat or very fast-paced ATB. They show the character moving right at the start, but for the most of it they stay more or less in one place aside from movement related to the attacks, and there’s a “range” button that changes what range you’re attacking at, so right now I’m leaning toward it being a highly fast-paced ATB system like in the Ryza games. You can also switch characters on the fly.

Base-building also looks like it’s going to be a big deal, as you not only can create and arrange furniture, but also construct entire buildings?? I’m really curious about how much that’s going to play into it.

The story does seem darker than usual for the series, but it also looks like a beautiful game. The environments they’ve shown so far have been breathtaking!

(Oh, and they’re definitely aiming for fanservice again with some of those designs. They know it worked with Ryza and want to keep that momentum.)

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land will be out on March 21, 2025. I still have not played most of the Atelier games in my backlog. I promise to get on that! In the meantime, are you looking forward to Atelier Yumia?

RGG Summit Set for September 20

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Aug 302024
 

RGG Studio has announced the next RGG Summit.

It will be held on September 20 at 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET, and they’re expected to announce the next game in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series.

Previously they said their next game would be revealed at TGS, which is roughly a week later, so I’m not quite sure what to make of that. Either they meant they’re going to show their next game at TGS and it was misinterpreted to mean an announcement since they hadn’t mentioned the RGG Summit yet, or they have multiple games to announce.

Let’s talk briefly about the past RGG Summits.

The first one was in September 2022. Like a Dragon Ishin had been announced the previous night at a State of Play, and the Summit provided more information about that, along with the first reveal of Like a Dragon 8 (later titled Infinite Wealth) and the surprise announcement of Like a Dragon Gaiden. While not being announced at the Summit, Judgment and Lost Judgment PC ports were shadow-dropped afterwards.

In short, the first RGG Summit was huge.

In June 2023, the RGG Summit returned to show trailers for Gaiden and Infinite Wealth that had already been shown at other events, with a little more information provided.

Then in September 2023, there was another RGG Summit that provided a deeper look at Infinite Wealth.

So this is the first time since 2022 that we’re going into an RGG Summit without the next game(s) already having been announced (unless you count the Switch port of Kiwami). That opens up the potential for it to be an exciting event with multiple announcements like that first RGG Summit was.

Personally, I’d love to see a new Judgment game, and I haven’t lost hope for a Dead Souls remaster. A Kenzan remake would also be quite a pleasant surprise. It feels too early for the next mainline game to be announced, but another Gaiden side game isn’t out of the question. And let’s not forget the mysterious “Yakuza Wars” trademark we thought would be the TGS announcement.

I’m probably in the minority on this, but I don’t want a Kiwami 3. Yakuza 3 might feel a bit clunky to play, but its remaster is still fine and I’d rather them use their time and energy on other games.

Meanwhile, I’ve started Infinite Wealth but am still early in the game, and I’m partway through Lost Judgment. Here’s hoping I make enough progress before September 20 so that I don’t risk spoilers by watching the Summit…

What are your hopes and expectations for this year’s RGG Summit?

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