Operation Backlog Completion 2024

Paper Mario is Back, FFVII Rebirth Has a Release Date, & More!

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , ,
Sep 152023
 

Yesterday was both the Nintendo Direct and the State of Play, and while they weren’t as unbelievably exciting as last year’s, they still had some great announcements.

A few things from the Nintendo Direct leaked ahead of time, including one I never would have expected: a remake of Trace Memory and its sequel.

Another Code: Two Memories, titled Trace Memory in North America, was a DS adventure game about a girl named Ashley searching for her father on a mysterious island while solving puzzles. I loved it, and I was so disappointed that the sequel, Another Code R for the Wii, was never released in North America. Considering how niche they were, I never expected to see them again.

But now Another Code: Recollection has been announced for the Switch, a collection that includes both games. Not only that, but they appear to be fully remade.

They look amazing. Another Code: Recollection will be out on January 19 (even with a physical release), and I can’t wait.

They also showed the upcoming Princess Peach game that was announced in the last Direct, and you know what? It looks like it could be incredibly fun.

Princess Peach: Showtime! sees Princess Peach trying to save a theater that’s been taken over by a group of bad guys, and the way she does this is by transforming to get new costumes and skills suitable to the situation at hand. Swordfighter Peach fights with a sword, Detective Peach investigates a scene to find clues, etc. I was curious about it before, but now I really want it!

This one will be out on March 22.

(Lots of people have been describing it as “Balan Wonderworld, but good” and that’s… actually somewhat fitting.)

Vanillaware’s new game was also announced at the Nintendo Direct: Unicorn Overlord. I was excited to learn what their next game would be because of how much I loved 13 Sentinels, but I’m not sure if Unicorn Overlord will be my type of game.

Nevertheless, I’ll keep an eye on it.

It will be out on March 8.

Eiyuden Chronicle also got a new trailer and an April 23 release date. When I backed Eiyuden Chronicle on Kickstarter, its 2022 projected release window felt like it was so far off, and here we are waiting until April 2024. But it looks excellent, so I’m looking forward to it a lot.

Finally, the Nintendo Direct closed on a surprise announcement… one that’s been rumored so often that the last time it was rumored earlier this year, I dismissed it and actually forgot all about it. Yes, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is being remade.

It looks great, and it appears to be more than just a simple graphics upgrade. In addition to the upgraded visuals, fans also noticed that several characters such as the partners have back sprites now, the partners are more expressive, and there’s at least one new NPC.

I’m so happy. I love the original Paper Mario games, and it’s been so long since we’ve had an actual true Paper Mario game in the original style. I loved Bug Fables enough to come to terms with the possibility of never having a Paper Mario RPG again, but now my hopes have returned. While this might not be a new game, it’s clear they’re putting a lot of effort into it. If the Thousand-Year Door remake sells well, we could see Paper Mario return to the original style with a new entry!

So while it wasn’t a thrilling Nintendo Direct, Another Code: Recollection, Princess Peach: Showtime!, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door were enough to make me happy.

Then came the State of Play in the evening, and while there wasn’t anything as Earth-shattering as last year’s Ishin reveal, we finally got to see the reason for that mysterious Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn copyright.

That’s right, Tales of Arise came out two years ago, Beyond the Dawn was copyrighted almost one year ago, and now Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn has been revealed as story DLC set after the main game.

According to official details about it, it’s supposed to be around 20 hours long. That’s edging into being an expansion, so maybe the long wait makes more sense.

Although I had mixed feelings about Tales of Arise (which is how I already intended to write that before looking back and realizing it’s literally what I titled my review post), I’m intrigued by the idea of the DLC. Unfortunately, it’s out on November 9, which means it’s probably not being played before Like a Dragon Gaiden.

Meanwhile, the State of Play closed with a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and it looks fantastic. The parade scene? The Nibelheim flashback? Cait Sith? Vincent? The Gold Saucer and its mini-games? Oh, I was worried they wouldn’t include the Gold Saucer mini-games in the remake, but there they are and I couldn’t be happier!

It’s appearing more and more like there really are changes being made to the story and my big theory will come to nothing, but I’m pretty excited for what was shown here.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be out on February 29, which means next February will truly be an insane time for JRPG fans.

Overall, I would give a slight edge to the Nintendo Direct for having three games that really excited me, compared to the State of Play’s two (one of which is DLC while the other is a new trailer for a game I was already looking forward to), although both events were kind of medium overall with just a few standout moments.

What games are you most interested in from the Nintendo Direct and the State of Play?

What Is Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn?

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Dec 072022
 

Yesterday, Bandai Namco filed a trademark in Japan for “Beyond the Dawn.”

It didn’t particularly stand out to me. A title like that could be for anything.

Today, however, they followed it with a European trademark for “Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn.” Now it’s much more interesting to me.

So, what could Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn be?

Back in April, the developers said there were no plans for a Tales of Arise sequel or story DLC, as they wanted it to stand on its own without the need to continue the story. Some fans are now wondering if they’ve changed their mind and decided to make an expansion or DLC after all.

Another possibility is an anime adaptation. A handful of Tales games have gotten anime adaptations, such as Tales of Zestiria the X.

The worst-case scenario is that it’s a mobile game. That’s not even just because I’m not a big mobile gamer; the last couple of Tales mobile games have been shut down so quickly, I’d have no faith in a new one to last. Luminaria didn’t even make a full year.

If Beyond the Dawn is game-related, we could hear something at the Game Awards tomorrow. Of course, trademarks sometimes go a long time without any news coming of them. I’m still waiting for something to come from Capcom’s mysterious Apollo Justice trademark. Yes, I’ll be hoping for Ace Attorney news tomorrow, too. Let me dream.

What do you think Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn will be?

Mixed Feelings on Tales of Arise

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Dec 242021
 

It’s Christmas Eve (which, remember, means it isn’t Christmas), but we aren’t talking about a Christmas game today.

No, we’re going to talk about Tales of Arise.

Tales of Arise was one of my most-anticipated games of the year, and during the first few weeks after it came out, I played it nonstop and felt it had the potential to become one of my favorites in the series.

But now that I’m done, I find myself with mixed feelings.

Parts of the game were great, but later parts ended up feeling… just okay, to me. So let’s step back and take this one piece at a time.

Gameplay in Arise feels significantly different from past Tales games. Dodging is much more important in combat, and the combat overall is much tougher. Constantly being on the brink of using all my healing items was the norm for much of the game, especially since gald is hard to come by. Yet it walked a fine line where I always was able to get just enough to make it through.

Now, this is tarnished somewhat by the DLC practices. Arise’s DLC is slightly intrusive, with the camp menu reminding you that there’s DLC to buy. Some of the DLC providing exp boosts, gald boosts, additional abilities, etc. also makes it tempting to buy it when things get tough.

You do not need DLC to beat Tales of Arise. However, it sometimes feels like the difficulty was set to make you think you should.

Outside of combat, gameplay also involves things like gathering ingredients, fishing, and other little details that made it fun to explore. You can cook for buffs when you set up camp, and you eventually get a ranch as well (although I felt it was underutilized; it just gives you a supply of meat).

This game is also beautiful! The breathtaking environments are what stood out to me the most. Every area made me pause and look around to take in the sights.

Moving on to the story, this is another Tales game that involves two worlds, Dahna and Rena. Dahna has been invaded by people from Rena, who subsequently enslaved the Dahnans. You play as Alphen, an amnesiac slave who can’t feel pain, who ends up joining forces with a Renan woman named Shionne trying to overthrow the Renan lords for her own purposes.

Although I made a lot of joking Tales of Symphonia comparisons in the early hours (okay, for like half the game), I did enjoy the story for a while. The characters are likeable and have a good dynamic, and the story is pretty interesting. Aside from one point that made me pause the game in anger to RANT, the story was off to a great start.

Click for Tales of Arise spoilers
That point was, as you might guess, the Almeidrea scene with Law and Rinwell.

Look, I get what it was going for. Revenge is bad. Perpetuating a cycle of revenge is bad. Killing someone out of hatred is bad.

But when we have spent the entire game so far on a mission specifically to kill the lords, Almeidrea is a clear and present danger and arguably the most evil of the lords we’ve seen at that point, and she is standing right there, Law turning his back on her to stop Rinwell from killing her because he doesn’t want her to be consumed by hatred and kill out of revenge (and Almeidrea just stands there waiting patiently for them to be done) comes across as borderline nonsensical.

Then they don’t even have to deal with the consequences of how to nonlethally stop someone as dangerous as Almeidrea, since she dies anyway.

But in the final arc, things just… I don’t want to say they fell apart, because they didn’t. This isn’t a Tales of Zestiria situation. Instead, it feels like the final arc is rushed.

So much story is crammed into such a short period of time that it loses its impact. Some parts of the plot just needed time to develop more gradually and immerse the player as much as earlier events did.

Click for Tales of Arise spoilers
I thought the Red Woman twist was pretty neat. I’d been suspicious of her for most of the game, so I felt so vindicated that this silent background NPC I was paranoid over actually was someone important.

But after that, it just hurtles through plot points and revelations so fast it’s hard to take them all in.

(I also think the Red Woman design is creepier than the Helganquil, so they became less intimidating once they started using their true forms.)

I wasn’t crazy about the Great Spirit and its motivations, either. I wish they would have gone all in on the ancient aliens angle instead of having the Helganquil be puppets of a planet’s will trying to save itself.

But no one suffered from this breakneck pacing more than Vholran. When he showed up at the end, I realized I barely knew more about him than I did at the start. He suffers from a severe lack of character development, especially for the important role he has. His design is cool and he has some cool scenes, but he’s pretty bad as a main villain.

(And I call him the main villain lightly, really only because he’s the final boss.)

Sometimes the dialogue and subtitles just didn’t match up, too, but that’s a minor complaint.

So in the end, I’m not sure how I feel about Tales of Arise. A significant portion of it is an excellent Tales game, and it’s definitely worth playing, but my final feelings toward it ended up being much more lackluster than I expected.

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