Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Hopes and Predictions for the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Event

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Apr 082022
 

It’s almost upon us: the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event will take place this weekend.

There won’t be any live stream to watch, but if any exciting information is revealed, we should hear word from people attending the event in person.

On March 28, the actual anniversary itself, Nomura shared the in-progress 20th anniversary art being prepared for the event. That’s all we know, but of course there are plenty of hopes and predictions.

So here are some possibilities for what could come out of the anniversary event…

Kingdom Hearts Steam Ports

This feels like the most likely prediction to me. The Kingdom Hearts series came to PC last year, but only via the Epic Games Store. Since other EGS exclusive have had exclusivity periods of a year, a lot of people think Steam versions could be announced soon.

That doesn’t personally matter to me too much, but I know many fans are hoping for it, and it seems like the safest bet.

Dark Road Finale Update

When Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road went offline, we were supposed to get the conclusion to the story in a finale update later on. However, the conclusion was delayed to winter, and then delayed again, this time due to a “major scenario addition.”

I’m not the biggest fan of mobile games, but I was interested in Dark Road’s story. I’m looking forward to when we finally get that finale update, so here’s hoping some news is on the way.

Next Kingdom Hearts Game

Finally, the least-likely-yet-not-impossible prediction for the anniversary event is the announcement of the next entry in the Kingdom Hearts series. They did say 2022 would be a good year for Kingdom Hearts, and we’re getting far enough along to hope for at least a teaser of the next game.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was also on the list from the Nvidia leak, which so far has proven to be pretty accurate. I don’t know if the next game will actually be Kingdom Hearts 4, but that lends support to the idea.

I’d absolutely love it if the next entry in the series was announced during the 20th Anniversary celebration.

Of course, there’s also the fear of another mobile game being announced…

What do you think will happen at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event? Will one of these announcements be made? Will something entirely different be announced? Will there be no game-related news at all? We’ll find out soon enough.

Let’s Talk About Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

 Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Mar 142022
 

There’s one more big announcement from the end of February that we should discuss, and that’s the reveal of the next Pokémon generation, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Scarlet and Violet were announced at the end of the Pokémon Day live stream, which otherwise didn’t show too much of note.

The announcement trailer started out with a live action scene that made me think it might be the Detective Pikachu sequel. However, even though that was recently confirmed to still be in development, the stream came and went without a trace of Detective Pikachu.

No, it shifted into the reveal of Pokémon Gen 9, with gameplay environments, the player characters, and the starters being revealed.

My first takeaway from this trailer was that it looks beautiful. I might be in the minority there, but the trailer left me excited to see this new Pokémon world.

However, my excitement did diminish upon learning that it’s an open world game.

There’s no room for doubt this time; the Pokémon Scarlet/Violet website clearly describes it as “a richly expressed open world” where “various towns blend seamlessly into the wilderness with no borders.”

Some players have dismissively said the same claim was made about Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but Legends was never officially described as open world. People looked at the trailer and started describing it that way themselves.

(Speaking of which, I’ve been playing Legends: Arceus and enjoying it!)

Open world doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker for me. I’ve been enjoying my time with Elden Ring so far, and you know I never miss a chance to praise Xenoblade Chronicles X. However, it does have to be pretty compelling to convince me. Since I skipped Pokémon Sword/Shield and BDSP, Scarlet and Violet will need to look fantastic to get me to go for an open world Pokémon game.

What are your thoughts on Pokémon Scarlet/Violet? Are you excited for open world Pokémon and Gen 9, or do you have doubts?

Everything We Know So Far About Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Mar 092022
 

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?

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