Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Nintendo Direct Highlights: Detective Pikachu, Star Ocean 2, and More!

 Video games  15 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jun 212023
 

The rush of showcases seemingly ended last week, but Nintendo decided to continue the rush of gaming news with a new Nintendo Direct. I’ll be covering the highlights that stood out to me, so be sure to watch the whole thing for more.

They started off with a bunch of different things, including the Pokémon Scarlet/Violet DLC and another look at Sonic Superstars. They also showed Persona 5 Tactica (but not Persona 3 Reload, so maybe the persistent rumors that it’s coming to the Switch after all are false).

After a few more things, they then showed a game we’ve been waiting on since 2019… the Detective Pikachu sequel!

Detective Pikachu Returns will be out on October 6. While there were some concerns when it was announced that it might be yet another expanded version of the original game, it appears from the trailer to be an all-new sequel. When I played Detective Pikachu last year, I found it to be pleasant enough to play a full sequel if that was what the new game turned out to be, so it looks like I’ll be playing Detective Pikachu Returns!

For me, the Direct had picked up tremendously at that point, and it continued with that momentum – because the next game announced was a remake of Super Mario RPG! I played Super Mario RPG back in 2016 and enjoyed it, although I felt the hype surrounding it was overblown.

The remake looks beautiful, though, so I’m tempted to get it nevertheless. It will be out on November 17.

They also teased a game starring Princess Peach. I assume they would have just said if it was a remake of Super Princess Peach, so it’s most likely a brand-new Peach game. The teaser was so short, I’m not even sure what type of game it is, but I’m looking forward to learning more about it. It will be out in 2024.

After that, they showed Luigi’s Mansion – but it’s just a remaster of Dark Moon. Dark Moon is my least favorite of the Luigi’s Mansion games, so I doubt I’ll get that.

The Batman Arkham Trilogy is also coming to the Switch, yet another reminder that I should play Arkham Knight someday.

Quite a few games I’m not interested in followed after that (as well as the DLC for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, yet another series I still haven’t tried), but then it was time for another one that caught my eye – a new Dragon Quest Monsters game!

A new Dragon Quest Monsters was said to be in development back in May, and now it’s been officially unveiled as Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. It will be out on December 1.

I’ve never played a Dragon Quest Monsters game before, but it looks great! I’m excited to try it.

Pikmin 4 got a long segment, as well as the announcement of HD remasters of Pikmin 1 & 2, which are out now. Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 was also confirmed to be coming to the Switch, although the Switch version will require downloads. (It figures these Metal Gear Solid collections would start coming out after I bought the PS3 collection.)

After a few more game announcements and more Mario Kart 8 DLC, they revealed a game I’m pretty excited for that leaked a few days ago: Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Due out on November 2, this is a Star Ocean 2 remake that looks incredible!

While I had mixed feelings about First Departure R, the second game gets so much praise that I wanted them to at least port the original or its PSP remaster… so this is more than I ever hoped for.

(It’s also getting a $200 Collector’s Edition, but it doesn’t look worth it to me.)

Anyway, they announced a new WarioWare game and some other updates, and closed out the show with the announcement of a new 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros Wonder. It will be out on October 20.

All in all, this was a pretty good Nintendo Direct. Detective Pikachu Returns, Super Mario RPG, the Princess Peach game, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and Star Ocean: The Second Story R are all new announcements that have my attention, plus the already-announced Persona 5 Tactica. And while I’m not the biggest fan of 2D Mario, the new game looks interesting enough for me to consider. The end of 2023 is already stacked for me!

Hey, maybe if the Super Mario RPG remake sells well enough, the constant Thousand-Year Door rumors will finally come true.

How did you like the new Nintendo Direct? What games stood out to you the most?

Thoughts on the Star Ocean: The Divine Force Demo

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 302022
 

After playing the Harvestella demo, I moved on to the demo for another upcoming JRPG I’ve been interested in, Star Ocean: The Divine Force.

Despite having some mixed feelings about First Departure R, the only other Star Ocean game I’ve played so far, I’ve been intrigued by Divine Force (or Star Ocean 6) ever since it was announced.

And the demo… turned out to be really fun!

In the full game, you’ll be able to choose between the two lead characters, but the demo only features the first two hours of Raymond’s story. They spend most of the demo in the same party, though, so it’s not clear yet how much the two stories will diverge.

I loved the intro, when the characters are in space. Although they quickly end up on an “underdeveloped planet,” which leads to more of a fantasy approach, I hope there will be at least some space travel later in the game.

Anyway, I got used to the doll-like look of the character models quicker than I expected to. As far as their personalities go, Raymond could be slightly grating as a protagonist, but I found the other characters introduced here to be pretty entertaining.

(Especially Albaird. I love him and his grumpy complaints about everything.)

The D.U.M.A. system is a bit odd to control in the field, since what looked almost like a jetpack system in the trailers instead works by you shooting yourself a set distance into the air, after which you can climb up a short distance if you’ve hit an obstacle or use a very awkward glide to reach lower ground. You can’t aim very high, so it feels cumbersome.

In combat, I found it to be much more fun. You mix it up with your regular attacks to charge enemies from a distance and try to blindside them. Once I got into it, I had a great time doing that.

The world is beautiful, although the frame rate did struggle a bit in one of the large field areas. My biggest criticism, though, is that the party members talk way too much about where they are in the environment. I don’t mind party chatter, but this all seemed to be of the “We need to go south,” “We need to cross through this area” variety, which was an annoyance while I was having fun exploring.

It ended on a strange note, as if it was meant to be a cliffhanger cutscene, but didn’t hold any particular meaning for me. Nevertheless, I’m excited to play Star Ocean: The Divine Force!

Have you tried the new Star Ocean demo? What did you think?

Star Ocean: First Departure R – A Slightly Tedious Journey

 Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 042022
 

Back when Star Ocean: The Divine Force was announced, I said I intended to play Star Ocean: First Departure R before it came out.

And you know what? I actually did!

In the midst of all the romance games I played in February, I also played through Star Ocean: First Departure R, which is a remaster of the remake of the first Star Ocean game (whew).

The story starts out with a group of friends in a small village who encounter a terrible disease that is turning people to stone. While searching for a cure, they run into two people from a starship and learn that, their planet is part of a universe with advanced technology and has been caught up in a war with an alien race.

Now, you might expect this to turn into a spacefaring adventure. That doesn’t exactly happen. The space opera setting is there, but they soon learn that the only way to find a cure is to go back in time to their own planet’s past.

As a result, the majority of the game has a medieval fantasy setting despite the larger context.

It is an action JRPG, and the combat is… fine. More interesting is the skill system, which lets you put points into a lot (and I mean a lot) of skills to increase stats, gain combat bonuses, and learn special abilities.

Unfortunately, this eventually resulted in First Departure R feeling tedious to me. Some of the abilities are great, such as one that lets you change the encounter rate or one that lets you temporarily lower your stats in exchange for more exp. But a significant number are related to the game’s numerous crafting skills. Crafting requires materials and often special crafting items as well. Attempting it uses up those items, but there’s a chance of failure even if the skill is at max level.

You can influence the success rate further, however, by playing music. Music is tied to other skills. You’ll need instruments, and you’ll also need to have music written. These skills also require items and have their own success rates.

I can see how the system sounds neat, and I’m sure there are people out there who adore it. I am not one of those people. Using items with skills to help me use different items with different skills to craft something and not even be guaranteed success drove me crazy. After a certain point, the game felt like it expected me to be crafting better gear, too.

It’s a shame, because there are other aspects of the game that I really liked. The story is nothing special, but there are multiple party members to recruit based on different conditions, which means I only got to see some of the characters and their stories.

Character interactions also come into play through “Private Actions,” a system which lets you split up in town and witness special character events.

(Unfortunately, there is no airship, so the only way to backtrack is to use ships to travel between port towns and walk across the world map for everything else. I like backtracking, but that was annoying enough that I didn’t backtrack to check for new Private Actions as much as I would have liked to.)

In short, Star Ocean: First Departure R left me with mixed feelings. It has some aspects I loved, but also some that annoyed me enough that I was just ready to be done with it. As you might guess, that presents me with an important question… will I enjoy other Star Ocean games?

What are your thoughts on First Departure R and the Star Ocean series?

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