RR529

I enjoyed both Fire Emblem Warriors & Hyrule Warriors, but surprisingly I think One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 is my favorite of the bunch, and although I have seen parts of it on & off, I'm not even a huge fan of the anime or anything (maybe it's just because I like running around as Nami & Robin in skimpy costumes, lol).

Haven't played any Warriors titles since though, since I got a little burnt out.

The blue in the US version does provide better contrast than the pink in the JP version, however I still voted for JP as the art is better centered & isn't as cluttered.

Just came by to say a love that retro anime aesthetic in the thumbnail.

Really been getting into older anime on Retro Crush, recently starting on City Hunter which I've never heard of before but I'm enjoying it so far & there's a ton of it.

@JeanPaul, @nessisonett, Stylistically I think Astral Chain seems to borrow a lot from the 80's/90's OVA vibe, IMO. That, and the art direction in the Famicom Detective Club remakes seems on point for the era.

Yeah, there is usually exactly one game in an Indie World that looks really good, and this was that game this go around (though that crab themed action platformer looked good too, I'll admit).

Definitely looking forward to it.

I guess Capcom probably just wouldn't want to put up with any legal trouble, but would Lee's family really have any legal ground to stand on if they did want to continue using the character?

While (obviously) inspired by Lee, as a fictional character I highly doubt Capcom's ever had to get permission to use him (same with all the other fighters with Lee tributes). At best he likely falls under parody (and thus should have legal protection).

I do prefer the bloody logo & wild eyed looking Dracula on the JPN cover, but the artwork is overall better & more dynamic on the NA box, so that's what I voted for.

In the first video you can see the obligatory early game giant ape that'll wreck you up if it sees you, lol.

I wonder if that point around the 4:15 mark will have to be censored (had to rewind the video and pause to make sure I saw what I thought I did).

Not making a judgement call, just wondering.

This is WAAAY out of my price range, lol (never played FFVI anyways).

It looks stunning though.

@KingMike, it wasn't bloody. It was sort of melty looking (in a very cartoon way).

Just look up US Kirby commercials on YouTube. It'll be the one with the white Kirby (if it's a collection of all the commercials it'll be the very first video since it's the oldest one).

Is their any reason why the western box isn't labelled as NA/Europe instead of just Europe (same with the Zelda box being NA only last week)?

When you used to do these, when the western boxes were near identical you'd count them as one (giving them both a win if it won) instead of arbitrarily picking one or the other to represent.

Daemon X Machina was pretty solid, but this doesn't look nearly as interesting.

@Specter_of-the_OLED, they were making playing cards for decades before they started "gig hopping" (and I believe still produce cards to this day, albiet in a much more limited capacity).

It wasn't until after 50 or so years of being solely in the business of cards that they started looking for other avenues of revenue (after the president was disappointed in seeing how small the headquarters of the world's largest playing card company was during a visit to the US), and even then they still made cards alongside all those failed ventures, as well as when they finally settled into toy making & game making.

Though yes, we can all be glad they made it big in the gaming market.

I read the source article about an hour ago on MSN & found it really interesting from a history perspective.

Interestingly enough, the author said that this hasn't been looked into before because Nintendo started out making Hanafuda cards, and card historians in Japan often look down upon Hanafuda for it's connection to gambling/Yakuza & tend to focus their efforts elsewhere.

Probably a bit of nostalgia at play here, but I went with NA.

Also not a huge fan of how Link just seems to be overlayed over the background art instead of a part of it on the JP box. I think it'd be a bit better if the background was a bit more anime to match Link, or vice versa.

I'll admit I actually got a bit of a kick out of the kinda cringe "boy's club" vibe given off by the Computer & Video Games article. Sure, it's out of date by today's standards, but kinda endearing in a way.

Never read it back that far, but I did have a Nintendo Power subscription during it's last few years & I miss it dearly.

@Xiovanni, ew, why?

I can understand that more Goku is pretty boring, but aside from the main antagonists like Hit & Jiren, there's no appeal to most of the new characters added to Super's tournament arcs, especially the "tournament of power" where they had to come up with so many characters they just kinda threw them together. The Trio of Danger feels like random OC furries at worst, or mooks that would have been one shot during the tournament prelims (back in the OG Dragon Ball) at best, and none of the other new tournament characters fare much better.

I'll go with Japan this time. It has an artful bent that's befitting of the more sophisticated side of the gentlemen's game.

Looks like it could be good.

Looks incredibly dapper.

This review just reminded me that I have this on PS4, played the first two games in the collection & haven't went back.

I thought the story was okay, it was great from a world building/lore perspective (I loved that the main menu was like a computer desktop and that you'd have to "log out" of the game every once in awhile to trawl through forums, email, & the like to further the story & get new lore info), and I remember liking the card game mini game.

However, the main core gameplay loop got soooo dreadfully boring thanks to the copy paste dungeon layouts.

Yeah, while I do enjoy news based on fan made content & this looks really good for what it's trying to do, it really has no connection to Nintendo whatsoever.

It's a PS1 inspired PC exclusive fan game, spinoff of another PS1 inspired PC exclusive fan game, inspired by a PS4 exclusive game. Is it cool, sure, but this makes about as much sense as Push Square publishing an article about that Mario fan art inspired by traditional Japanese paintings you (this site) put up recently.

FYI, Stranger of Paradise was developed by Team Ninja, not Ninja Theory.

Anyhow, interested to see what kind of legs it has considering it hasn't had the best of receptions IIRC.

Paper Mario is the only title listed in the headline that had me scratching my head at whether or not this was official. Banjo & Perfect Dark releasing on PC wouldn't surprise me at all seeing as how they're owned by MS (honestly surprised they're not already).

Glad to have it cleared up though.

Can't wait until Friday! It looks delightful.

Is it possible the whole thing's a joke? I know there are some weird people out there, but this feels a bit off, lol.

I'm impressed with all the Tour tracks. Ninja Hideaway is the clear winner, but Paris Promenade & Tokyo Blur both do interesting things with extra laps that really elevate them.

Otherwise Shroom Ridge & Coconut Mall are pretty fun with Choco Mountain coming in just behind them.

Toad Circuit & Sky Garden at the bottom for me, but still fun.

@SigmaNoire, the brand name of the figure line it's a part of.

@BlubberWhale, I'm almost certain it's western developed. While it's clearly trying to emulate a Japanese style, much like Waifu Uncovered & Crawlco Block Knockers (actual Switch games, I promise), you can tell there's something off about it.

This is looking fantastic. Will be my first Switch game of the year, probably.

@JustMonika, yeah, I subscribed to HiDive awhile ago as well & watched Triage X, Momokyun Sword, & Is it Wrong to Try & Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? (though only the first actually had any actual nudity), but I really couldn't justify subscribing to both that & Funi at the same time, and since the latter is simulcasting YashaHime (as a big InuYasha fan I don't mind to simulcast) it got to stay.

Assuming they've been moved over I'd add Tenchi Muyo!, Senran Kagura, Keijo!!!!!, & Bikini Warriors to your "cultured" list, lol.

Yeah, I like Funimation because I prefer to wait for a show's "uncut" home video version to be uploaded, while (aside from shows they co-produce I assume) Crunchyroll's deals only extend to the network broadcast versions of shows (that's why they're mostly subbed only, and retain any broadcast censorship that may be in place).

So hopefully all of Funi's uncensored content gets moved over in full.

Surprised that it wasn't the other way around, what with Funimation being the older, more established brand (that, and it was Sony, who already owned Funi, who acquired Crunchyroll & not the other way around).

Not a big deal either way though, so I'll have to move over at some point or another.

It honestly doesn't look all that "naughty". Character designs don't look all that out of the ordinary for your typical JRPG or Japanese action game (I'm well aware the game isn't Japanese), and it's only rated "T".

Not saying it's a bad or a good thing, just pointing it out.

Looks absolutely stunning. I don't have too much room to dedicate to figures so I mostly stick with characters from properties I'm more intimately familiar with, but man if she isn't gorgeous.

Looks cool, but I still need to hunt down Pyra & Mythra first.

Wonder what caused it to be removed from Steam? Granted, I haven't played it, but I see stuff all the time on there that looks just as (and definitely even more) risque.

I will never understand why people overreact to XC2's designs being "embarrassing" or "hard to play in public" like it's even remotely close to a Senran Kagura or Gal Gun game, lol.

Outside of some of the (optional) unique Blades, the only real offending character is Pyra/Mythra, and it's hardly the first time a JRPG has had a busty/sexy female party member (Lulu, Tifa, Tear, Violet, heck even Sharla from the first game, etc). Granted, I can completely understand if such characters aren't exactly your thing (and I agree that I'd like the option to put characters in different armor sets like the first game), but let's not pretend XC2 is some kind of deviant from the norms of the genre that makes it a special kind of "embarrassing".

That said, I'm not too sold on XC3's designs yet (a little too basic black/white for me), but I imagine we'll be able to get new armor sets for them that might liven things up a bit.

Played it for a bit after it first came out, and came back once after that for a bit, but haven't touched it since.

Right now Senran Kagura: New Link is my mobile gacha of choice (though I haven't spent a cent on it yet), and have been playing it for the past few months, so it's been holding my attention pretty well.

Absolutely great list from a Nintendo perspective, and largely good too see that western AAA games still aren't making a big inroad culturally there (I do like the occasional western AAA title, but it's refreshing to see they're not ubiquitous everywhere).

That said, I would have loved to see games like Tales of Arise, RE Village, & Scarlet Nexus chart higher. I love how the bigger budget Japanese games these past few years feel modern yet still distinctly Japanese (Ace Combat 7, Tales of Arise, Sakura Wars, etc.) & I'm afraid that if they don't sell too well in Japan they'll begin to westernize them too much like they tried back in the PS360 era.

Will probably get this down the line (though on Steam if it releases there).

If I'm not wrong, as long as he's not selling it, wouldn't making a fan game and posting a video of it be the same as someone baking homemade Pikachu cookies and posting pictures of them to Facebook or the like, at least in the legal sense? Certainly as long as they aren't actually reusing code/assets from the proper games (I think he took the models from another fan game).

It should also be noted that TPC successfully implementing a DMCA takedown on the video doesn't necessarily mean they're legally in the right to do so, given that YouTube's policy is to take down first, ask questions later, when it comes to these things as far as I'm aware.

Just look at Team Four Star's "Dragon Ball Z Abridged". All they essentially did was redub actual anime footage to be more jokey (arguably reusing more of Toei's work than this guy did TPC's), and Toei used to successfully DMCA the entire series like once a year, however each and every time TFS was able to get it back up because Toei didn't legally have a leg to stand on, even though I believe the videos were monetized.

@link3710, Sony has baseball (MLB the Show), so that's only leave Madden, NHL, & UFC(?) for EA.

One thing's for sure. Whatever mangaka signs on to do this will be wasting their artistic talent.

Not a knock against the game itself, but it does look to have very barebones (and yet kinda ugly) art direction

Neat. I'd love to see them add in new spirits a few times a year to tie in with new/upcoming releases (I can't imagine it'd require any notable development time, or the assistance of high ups like Sakurai), but given SMTV hasn't gotten any yet, this is likely a one off.

@lyle_catcliffe, believe me, Anti-Matter totally isn't trolling when they say they're interested in Race for Ryan.

They post their game collection in the forums from time to time & own copies of games like Hanna Montana & other tie in properties like the Chicken Little movie game.

I want to point out that I'm not making fun of their tastes (people like what they like), but they are certainly are interested in such games.

@GayusGayer (post 17)

1. I'd assume some sort of charitable program/arm of PepsiCo.

2. It's a chip/snack company.

It was my first in the series and I actually just finished it off a couple nights ago (really proud of myself for completing it on Normal, given how hard it's generally perceived).

It could have used a bit more environmental diversity & I wasn't too hot on the few dungeons the game had (and I personally prefer a more story driven JRPG), but there's no doubt it's a great game. The large Xenoblade-esque areas (which are like 80 - 85% of the game) are really fun to explore and really gives you the sense of "just one more abscess, treasure, or other point of interest" (the difficulty adds some tension to this, but you get the ability to warp back to the last save point relatively early on so it's never too stressful). While I wouldn't like it for every JRPG, I can definitely see the appeal of the control the game gives you over your party's makeup & it was satisfying doing things like cooking up the perfect setup to completely null a boss' efforts (although endgame can get a bit annoying with bosses with no specific weakness & with attacks that ignore your own resistances).

I do like reading a manga chapter or two on my Fire tablet in bed before going to sleep, but unfortunately it doesn't look like any of the Nintendo ones have been released on digital storefronts here in the States.

I'd totally read it if it were available (I'm getting close to getting all caught up with Triage X, so I'm gonna' be needing something new to read too).

Surprised to see that Abyss is the highest (only?) rated Tales game. It's the game that got me into the series, so I'm not complaining!

Also, way to go Xenoblade Chronicles 2!