Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Dragon Quest Treasures Story and World Details

 Video games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 112022
 

One game we’ve discussed a few times now, most recently after the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, is the upcoming Dragon Quest spin-off Dragon Quest Treasures.

It’s coming out in December, but we still hardly know anything about it.

The official Japanese website was recently updated with new details about the main characters and the story and world, and Gematsu translated these new details here.

Dragon Quest Treasures follows Erik and Mia, who are pulled into the world of Draconia where they begin searching for treasure. This world is inhabited by monsters, and they gain the ability to communicate with monsters thanks to something called the Dragon’s Dagger.

Erik and Mia are also joined by a cat spirit and a pig spirit, who partner with them. It goes on to say you can press a button to switch between Erik and Mia, who share the same level.

Putting that together with what we saw in the Nintendo Direct trailer, it sounds like you’ll control one human character directly while three monsters join you in your party. From the little bits of combat shown in the trailer, though, I’m not sure if that means there’s a meaningful difference between playing as Erik or Mia or if they’re functionally the same.

I’m most curious about what the gameplay loop is like, since it has such a focus on treasure-hunting. The story details revealed here don’t give much of an indication of what the overall goal is, either.

Now, Dragon Quest Treasures has been described by many people as being a successor to the Dragon Quest Monsters games, but back when Treasures was first announced, they said a new Dragon Quest Monsters game would be announced in the future. I’m looking forward to that.

I feel like I don’t have a solid grasp on what Dragon Quest Treasures is like yet, but it does look worth keeping an eye on. What do you think of Dragon Quest Treasures so far?

Crisis Core Remaster Will Remain Faithful, Rebirth Won’t Cut Content

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Jul 082022
 

Several new interviews have come out about the Crisis Core remaster and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which were officially announced last month.

Since their announcement, there has been much speculation on how Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion might tie into the remake and how much Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will diverge from the original.

These new interviews shed some more light on the matter.

Gematsu has a nice round-up of the key information, as well as links to the individual interviews.

Although they’re officially referring to Crisis Core as a remaster, it sounds like they’ve done quite a lot. The assets have been replaced, combat has been adjusted to make it smoother, with combos and shortcuts, and the camera can be freely controlled.

However, when it comes to the story, it is a “faithful reproduction” of the original Crisis Core, and “no new story has been added as a result of Final Fantasy VII Remake.”

Fans have interpreted this in many ways (including some who are convinced they’re lying).

Now let’s talk about what the interviews covered regarding Rebirth. First, their rationale for calling it Rebirth instead of Remake 2 is that… calling it Remake 2 might make fans think there will be a 3, 4, 5, etc. They also want the title to give the impression that you can play Rebirth without having played Remake.

Okay… I don’t even know what to do with that first part, but this is the same company that picked the title Bravely Default 2 to make sure fans wouldn’t think it was a direct sequel…

The second part of that is surprising, though. Apparently they believe the story in Rebirth can be enjoyed on its own without the context from Remake. (Then again, companies tend to insist you can start with the newest entry no matter how reliant it is on its predecessors.)

Rebirth will be massive and vast, but they haven’t revealed whether or not it will be open world yet. That will be part of the next batch of information about the game.

More importantly, they assured fans that the trilogy will not trim down the story. Some of the progression is different, and “the order in which you visit some places may change,” but their policy is to not cut content. It will also contain new mysteries, but they’ve tried to avoid deviating from the original, which is… interesting.

That comment in particular has led to a new wave of arguments over whether this remake is telling a completely new story or if it is still following the original’s plot.

I’m curious about where they’re going with this. I’m also looking forward to the next time they release information about Rebirth, since it sounds like it’ll deal with the world. I’d prefer for Rebirth not to be open world, but having large zones to explore would be nice to see.

What do you think about the latest Crisis Core and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth interviews?

Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher Will Have an English Release

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with:
Jul 012022
 

While the Partner Showcase was filled with exciting games, Japan’s Partner Showcase included another interesting announcement: Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher.

I’ve never played the Monster Rancher games, but it’s a series that’s interested me, especially since 1 & 2 were recently remastered.

Monster Rancher is a monster-raising game in which you get monsters by using CDs. Later games used different methods, and the remasters opted to use a music database to let you search for songs to generate monsters from.

This new entry is a crossover with the Ultraman franchise, so the monsters you’ll be raising are Ultra Kaiju.

That’s… such a strange combination, but the idea of raising kaiju is so bizarre I love it.

And while no global release has been announced, it turns out there will be an English version. The Southeast Asia version will be released with an English translation, and since the Switch is region-free, that means we’ll be able to play it even if it isn’t released here.

Play-Asia already has a page up for the English version, although preorders aren’t open yet.

Update: A digital western release was later confirmed.

Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is the sort of weird idea I can’t help but be interested in. I bet most people wouldn’t have guessed the first new Monster Rancher game in over a decade would be this. What do you think of this unexpected crossover?

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