Ralek85

@LunarFlame17 Yeah, coming off Final Fantasy VII Remake, hearing Duran talking even like 2 minutes in was a cold harsh reminder of the reality of jRPG voice acting in general. One brilliant exception makes for no rule ... even if it's a game remake by the same company, being released in the same month.

It's also worth noting that the game is lacking HDR support on PS4, which FFVII Remake offered handily.

I'm glad that this is a game retro fans can enjoy. Personally, I did not click with me at all. And no, it's not because it is oldschool. I'm currently replaying Vargrant Story on my Vita (like 15 hours in), and I highly enjoy it despite it's age and some archaic design choices.

I'm sadly just not into that whole shonen'esque anime angle 95% of all jRPGs have going these days.

I pray to the gaming gods, that Square will give us an annoucement for a Vagrant Story remake/remaster or even sequel. A while back I'd say that is never going to happen, but with FFVIIR, Shemnue 3 and Nier Automata and the NIER Remaster ... I dunno, everything is up for grabs apparently and February was the 20th anniversary for VS.

Also, Square is actually releasing Playarts Kai FIgures for Ashley and Syndey, soooooo

I'm confused, why pay like 4x the price of the digital version? Oo

@Razmoudah Think along the lines of dates, not years ... obviously

I think most people that were offended (which is the right word, I guess) were more concerend with the ending, as well as the whole arbiter-of-fade entities showing up all the time, screwing with events. And I haven't bothered with anything other than Normal myself. I'll keep hard for my second playthrough down the line. I hope the PS5 can address the texture loading issue, as I found it to be most annoying technical issue with the game for sure, and would very much like to play it once more without that ^^

But yeah, in general I am not sure that a 1:1 to remake, even as far as the basic plot goes, was ever promised. Looking back now, I do feel the title itself was a clever subversion. I alway wondered why it was not named Episode 1 or something like that. Now we know why, it's not really Remake the noun, but more like: Final Fantasy 7: remake! - the verb ^^

Jim Sterling made a good point there I think: whether you consider the ending and changes in general false advertisement/"a betrayel" or a clever subversion, is really subjective and hinges on whether the game is bad, then it's former, or good, than it is the latter.

I'm firmly in the camp of clever subversion, well, I would be, if I knew how the original unfolded going forward. I'm in the camp of: I hope Part 2 will be just as fun to play, I do not care about their faithfulness to the original, like not one bit. In fact, my personal experience with FF leads me to believe, that I would prefer a game that heavily deviates from their usual fare. I know, that might be harsh to hear for a long-time fan, but ... ah well, it's just the truth.

Given your experience with Trials then, which character would you suggest to take for a spin? I figured that Duran might have been an unlucky pick on my end, but then again, just going by the visual design of each character, I was not confident, that I would really fare THAT much better with one of the others ^^

I'm definitely not down for Charlotte to be honest. Not a fan of the design, and the voice ... no, just not for me, no offense

I hear you on the Grandia Collection. I wager I'll pick it up during it's next sale! The thing with graphic is like, earlier today I started playing a bit of Vagrant Story once more (the game is just one of those titles, that really sticks me like few other media ot there) and while it's probably one of the very best looking fully polygonal-rendered PSX games out there, with incredibly strong architecture and general art direction and character design (Akihiko Yoshida is a genius in my book, I pretty much only played Bravely Default due to him being involved ^^), it's not always a joy too look at these days. It works pretty well on Vita though. Running it on my 4K TV would be ill advised though, even at a higher native resolution.

Anyways, sprite-based games, as well as games with hand-drawn backgrounds, do fare better still I feel, better than early days 3D rendered ones that is. I still feel that Baldurs Gate II looks grand, not the characters, but all the backgrounds. Just beautiful art, that never really gets old. Some of the sprite works on like Suikoden 1 and 2 also stands the test of time pretty okay, I feel. In short, the more artistic the original approach and the less technical, the better PSX games hold up in my view.

Vagrant Story is nevertheless brilliant of course - back then, and still today (Speaking of Vagrant Story, have you ever tried Crimson Shroud on 3DS? It's like 5 hours long, but also by Matsuno, and I really enjoyed it alot - not sure if I mentioned it before). Therefore, I do not think that visuals really deter me by themselves.

Grandia III was pretty much carried by the combat for me. I honestly don't remember much about it outside of that I'm curious to see how the others will click with me. It is really great to have these games conveniently available on the Switch like that (and legal on top of that). I wish we'd also get games like Valkyrie Profile 1&2 for instance.

Eternal Sonata, I can definitely recommend, I tried almost all Tales of ... games, and that one, even if not part of the official series, is by far my favourite. It's a few unique quirks compared to the others, that can be hit and miss, and Tales of Symphonia and Vesperia have their own strong appeal, with Graces probably featuring the best combat, but Sonata packed the most punch, as it just featured the most humane story of the bunch by far, and everything else was also solid, like the combat, or really great, like the music -even if the music lacked a bit of range, as it was obviously very Chopin-centric.

Are you talking about God of War for the PS4 or the original series? I mean, I can recommend both, but I'd consider the PS4 reboot to be a most play. Do NOT play it starting with the PS4 one. I mean, I wouldn't. Kratos will feel like a very one dimensional character if you go down that route. If you start with the original games, it's not something that will initially bother you, but it very well might coming off of the reboot.

If you want to try just one game from the original series, that also kinda works as a standalone game, I would suggest Ghost of Sparta. It was probably my favourite of the bunch incl. God of War III; but that one heavily relies on existing knowledge of previous stuff to really make any sense and give you a sense of closure.

I cannot recommend Ascension, it's the only game in the series I never got through. Part of it is that the series had run it's course for me then, but part of it is also that it's just an entry that nobody asked for, devoid of anything to add to an epic saga, that had reached it's climax already.

Well, then I hope you have a couple of successful work days, and ... do stay safe out there!

@Razmoudah Fair enough But yeah, I kinda feel that way, the majority for sure feature some kind of turn-based systems, in fact most franchise I am ware of, rely entriely on it. Truly full on action-combat systems are certainly rare - and again, not in and off itself objectively "better".

I actually have the collection on my wish list, as I only ever played Grandia III and remember kinda liking the combat. Still, the last couple of months or maybe even years have given me pause. I really tried to get into a bunch of jRPGs the same way I used to, but I found all these issues I laid out before - in relation to combat, but also to narrative stereotypes - harder and harder to deal with. I wanted to love DQXI, I really, really did, but I could not look beyond the combat. It is such an integral part of the experience, and even with the changes you described so eloquently to me, it never clicked, I never felt engaged, and more crucially, I also never get that sense of accomplishment and satisfaction out of it, I kinda really do need these days to stick with a game for some odd 60+ hours.

I wonder if it will be different for Grandia. I am still very much willing to try just about everything though to see if it works for me. VOice acting is not a deal breaker for me, despite what I said here for FFVIIR. It is more a thing that can elevate a game beyond it's initial graps, than a thing that drags an otherwise brilliant game down into the mud.

As for FFVIIR, I was consistently blocking, esp. since there are materia, that incentize it, plus on Cloud ... there are a handful of attacks that are better to be dodged though, but like, really only some, I feel, and only on a limited number of enemies. As a rule of thumb, I found blocking to be the way to go if in doubt I also liked how you coul dodge out of Punisher mode. That might have been OP in a way, because it eliminates the implied trade-off movement speed vs damage/parry for the most part, but it still made it super useful and those parries are so damn satisfying to watch

I never tried the game on easy, because as I said, it's not really a mind- and/or finger bender on normal either. I doubt I played any other jRPG for like 48 hours dying LITERALLY less than a handful of times - with 0 seconds of grinding on top of that. That is still surreal to me, having spend hundreds of hours grinding in my life! ^^ That alone might be one thing I will have a hard time coming back from to older games and that is true in particular because I actually deeply enjoyed fighting in FFVIIR. I was never annoyed to enter into a fight even once. Few jRPGs can lay such claim, none with random encounters for instance

Interesting, having no really experience with the Trials demo, I did not pay any attention to it that aspect at all. I was just pushing on to see what else there was to unlock, as I remember many a jRPG unlocking it's full combat potential rather far into the game (cough FFXIII cough).

Haha - oh no! So you're saying the two EO's I do not own do better with combat presentation? Darn ^^ I picked up about every Atlus game on the 3DS, I did not already on, when they were on sale last week. That's also how I ended up with the lovely Radiant Historia, but I skipped on EO V and NExus, because they were still pretty expensive and like I said, EO is one of the series, that I should love, I used to love all those D&D inspired Dungeon Crawling games on PC going back 20+ years as well, but it just was too stale for IN actual combat encounters. Did love the whole 1st party exploration though.

Do you know the "The Quest" and "Orcs & Elves" (on the NDS, and amazingly designed by THE John Carmack)? Two of my favourite games right there, not kidding. I loved the Turn-Based combat in those, as it cover the whole player engagement and applied equal rules for both player and NPCs. Just LOVED them Sadly "Orcs & Elves 2" never made it outside of a java mobile release .... still hoping to see some "remasters" for Switch for example some day. I would instantly grab those day one. They were also pretty challenging games honestly. The Quest would also be an amazing game for the Switch, even though I already own it on Steam and Android.

I do remember those days quite well indeed. I can definitely tell, that you are much more deeply versed in the genre than myself. I've always had a rather ecclectic games in general, with little adherence to one particular genre (actually that goes for all media). But I am well aware of Square's efforts, because two of my best friends were and still are pretty much die hard fans. They were playing FF games, while I was pretty much doing stuff like Vagrant Story, Shadow Hearts, Xenogears/Xenosaga, Nocturne and everything else SMT, particuarly Digital Devil Saga later on, and such.

In short, I liked the games with a more somber cast and atmosphere, the less kids I played the better, and a stronger reliance on philosophical themes than just ... drama, be it romantic or apocalyptic.

I also really only came to the genre as something I favoured in the PS2 era, not before. Before that I was much more invested in western RPGs. I always say, that what FFVII was to many of my friends, Incubation was to me (and also MGS1) - the kind of formative experience, you get as a kid I loved tactical games, with a strong puzzle'esque nature and punishing difficulty ever since, I also always loved Scifi more than Fantasy.

I think in many regards, Square did play a pivotal role to drag the industry forward, particularly in their golden years on PSX. From what I understand, they were pretty much struggling to recreate FFVII going forward until Kingdom Hearts showed up, also basically open the door for the merger with Enix, after having lost tons of money on failed projects like The Spirits Within. And yeah, I hear you on both their role on FMVs (which to be fair, were always a thing on PC, just think like Diablo, which released in the same year as FFVII as well, plus a year later on PSX.

As for FFX, you are absolutely right! I forgot about the character swapping, Funnily enough, I just laid for @retro_player_77 above, how much I enjoyed that every character in FFVIIRemake played differently and thus mattered from a MECHANICAL standpoint (and also how you never had more than 3 characters anyways, so "neglecting" a bunch, was a non-issue from a narrative point as well). So yeah, absoutely, point well taken.

I will definitely have to try to get into Star Ocean. I got First Departure R on Switch, and I'll make sure to give that fair shake. I also have Tilll The End of Time on PS4.

How did you fell about Integrity and Faithlessness then, if I may ask? Most reviewers seemed to hate it apparently, and since I did not particularly love Last Hope outside of combat, I steered clear.

Haha, oh man, you are like the first person I can recall, that ever brought this up. I HATED how they changed the name, like seriously: Resonance of Fate sounds more generic, these namechanges are 9/10 entirely pointless anyways, be it movies or games, and in a narrative sense, End of Eternity did make SENSE in the game's actual context ... Resonance of Fate did not, well Fate plays a crucial role for sure, with some characters resigning themselves to theirs and others not, but the Resonance Of ... I could never quite make heads or trails of that. Still most people have never heard of RoF, so End of Eternity would just cause utter confusion ...

I do think they changed it up quite a bit: Positioning is key in this game, but not just that, but also "Sightlines", meaning that actual 3D enviroments matter ALOT in this game. Also, the way you expend the same ressource for action as ressembles your "lifebar", means that there always trade-offs involved, which is just a basic premise I always appreciate. Like, do I kill the adds for the boss first ... normally, that is what you do, because these tend to be high dps, low hp enemies, plus they often offer up debuffs and interrupt combos etc.

In RoF though, that is not necessarily the way to go, as you can "break" them to regain your bezels, or more to the point: you will probably NEED them as a bezel-kind-of resservoir. This combined with the fact, that an enemy, any enemey, was a PHYSICAL object within in the combat space impeding movement and sightlines as far as I recall, made any such decision 10x more meaningful than in any other turn-based jRPG I can remember.

The whole question of: Will not-having-that-enemy-alive hurt me a couple of turns from now ... I dunno, but that is not a question I can quite recall ever asking myself outside of RoF.

Also, I loved the setting, like LOVED. The simple fact, that we were playing young adults really, in a mature, non-fantasy world, with GUNS instead of swords&sorcery, was such a piece of fresh air, and yeah, obviously the sheer presentation on the combat is still the best in class, like so much dynamic movement and intrinsically linked to combat, like how jumping above an enemy is actually flashy, but also serves a mechanical purpose ...

I still think that the game's combat had several genuine moments of brilliance, and I keep coming back to time and time again. Sadly, even the 4K remaster did little for people to notice it, hence we will probably not ever see anything like that ever again

So as for Trials, no I haven't played the original or any previous Mana game at all. But yeah, the way you lay it out, it makes me think, that I might have to give the game another look at some point actually. I mean, like I said above, I was hoping for it to get more engaging later on, with a bigger party, a wider selection of skills, less tutorial-esque enemy and so. Thanks for that, also for your point about the narrative structure. That was I guess unfair then on my end, to pass this kind of quick, summary judgement. I wil say this though: Having started out with Duran, it's not really all that important, if he is really a chose one fighting an ancient evil, or just the legacy of great and loyal house, trying to right a wrong done to his kingdom. It's like ... it's hitting the same beats, I feel, like Dragon Quest. Not in the details, but certainly in tone. Duran is not a Joe-Nobody, that is made clear 2 minutes into the game. He is not thrust into that situation by an outside force. In fact, the game pretty much tells you, he was going to be an adventures of sorts, because ... daddy and stuff. It's still rather generic in that regard, at least his origin as far as I can tell based on the game's beginning.

In terms of FFXV, I do think it looks pretty and the combat does LOOK kinda exciting (just google the Leviathan fight for instance). While we established that this matters to me, it does not change that everything you say about it, is utterly true.
Like, not a FF nerd here, but even I noticed how FF had this -intentionally or not- message at heart, that group of diverse people, a ragtag band of inviduals of all races, colors and ages, can band together, can become friends, and make the world a better place.
All FFXV has is 4 DUDES, wearing the SAME CLOTH, having lived their entire LIVE in the SAME city ... it's odd to say the least. Also, the narrative is split off into several other medium. Like you will not understand why these are basically "brothers" unless you watched at least the brotherhood mini-series anime on youtube. Like ... the game tells you they are super close, but never ever how and why. Well, not quite, there are the DLCs that get into it I guess, but those released after the fact and are entirely decoupled from the main game once more.
It's baffling really, like ... I do NOT understand the point of any of this at all.

And yeah, despite the combat looking appeal for sure, it is mechanically broken. I will leave it at that, as I said enough before. It just is ... on so many levels, not at all about the player making choices, it is anti-player-agency in fact.

it's even more baffling to me than the narrative media experiment, because I see no point in a combat system, that is meant NOT TO ENGAGE THE PLAYER. WTF

Hell, I hated much about FFXIII, but looking back to day, the combat was by far it's strongest assest, I actually kinda really liked it in fact. I hated hope, and really msot of the cast, the story was arcane non-sense with so much lore-name-dropping, that a couple of hours of wiki-reading-up, was necessary not to rage quit the world building (in a SquareEnix game, I mind you, consider that fact for a moment if you will) ... but the combat was neat.

I mean, you had to turn off "Auto Battle" in the options menu, but as far as the normal, non-boss encounters game, I will say that I found FFXIII to be the most challenging and demanding game in the series, based on what I have played. The game was also very strong in terms of it's use of buffs and debuffs.Those were integral parts of your tactic ... if they weren't you were in trouble, and this goes beyond haste for sure. Few FF games I can recall, put that much emphasis on those.

The combat was also super-faced, like this ATB-version on steroids. It was not for everyone, but I liked it. It also shared a similar "dynamic presentation" like in FFX, which also worked in it's favour. I did not really like the upgrade systems though, neither for weapons nor for characters.

Anyways, the game had many flaws, but it was a technical achievement, still looks excellent on Xbox One X to this day btw, and the combat was highly enjoyable - if you'd ignroe the auto-battle system. Too bad, the world and characters were actively annoying, not as bad but kinda like in FFXV.

I never had much "faith" in FF to begin with, but FFVII Remake, like this is first time in my life I care about FF I am actually considering giving Tetsuya Nomura's other brainchild, Kingdom Hearts, which never looked appealing to me at all, even as a Disney fan at heart, a shot. I'm not quite there yet, but I think eventually, I will pick up the first remaster, and just take a gander.

I'll also go back and really get into FFX again for sure. Actually, I'm just kinda waiting for Xbox Series X to arrive. FFX was a pretty colorful game with many effects going on through-out. The XBX actually also renders in 4K. Anyways, I have really high hopes for the "Auto-HDR" features announced for Series X. It's the main reason, I plan to pick it up. I think something like FFX will really benefit from this. Kingdom Hearts potentially as well, offensively bright and colorful as it is I found HDR to offer the most visual bang-for-buck and I have a hard time these days, as any SDR games, at least for the first 30 minutes or so, really looks "off" in a fundamental way. Like the first time you put on toned glasses during summer. Everything dulls down in that uncanny way. After a while you stop noticing, but the first time is always very off-putting to me, as the world just looses it's luster. That is what SDR feels like to me: A virtual world, having lost it's luster.

IGNORANCE REALLY IS BLISS, let me tell you ^^

Oh and on Trials again, still, as you say, the fact does not quite change that it is - at least thematically and I'd argue artistically - geared towards a younger audience, or if you will, towards nostalgia of older players. Well, that is unfair, too, there is nothing inherently wrong with a colorful, fairtale esque setting and shonen'inspired idealistic heroes. I just had my fill of it, I guess, at least for now. I do not want to protray my personal preferences in that regard as "superior".

I do enjoy the occasional shonen, for instance I watch Kimetsu no Yaiba, FMA, Hunter X Hunter and definitely Haikyu! with great joy, with the later maybe being my favourite anime of all

I just find that many games hitting those tropes, are just not meant to for me. You pointed out the intricacies of the leveling system in the original, but the thing is, that most of these games are just devoid of the challenge that makes me want to dive that deep, or the combat is just too dull for me to spend any more time with it, than I have to, to see the story through.

Oh, and btw, my age is right in my name

I'm really curious to see how SMT V will shake out. That is one "traditional" jRPG, I am very much looking forward to. I really hope that some, if not all of the lessons they learned going from Persona 4 to Persona 5, will be applied to SMTV. I'm talking like the scene transitions, the small animations that you get for everything (like opening a menu even), the fact that many basic actions are mapped to buttons, keeping menu interactons to a minimum, the dynamic camera, the proper combat animations for just everything and all that. Persona 5 really goes out of this way to obfuscate the rote and archaic nature of it's combat, even accounting for additions like batton pass and and such, and it does so really succesfully.

It's artistical cohessiveness and clarity are really one of the kind, and this time they managed to really translate into all aspects of the game, going way beyond P3 and P4.

I do not want them to hit the same tone as Persona, not at all, but as far as presentation goes, there is ALOT here, that needs to be accounted for in a new 3D SMT Mainline game, running on (somewhat) modern hardware. I'll loose my **** if the game unfolds like Nocturne, which was not so much bad, as a chidl of it's Pre-Persona 5 time

Edit: For some reason, I just keep thinking about Voice acting a bit, since you brought it again, and I feel that 1997/8 must really have been like the pivotal year here in hindsight, because it also gave us Star Fox 64, which ... I mean, has some super cheesy over-the-top voice acting, but delivered so perfectly, fitting the game beyond well, that it really left a strong impression of me and became completely linked to my memory of the game. And I'm not just talking about "Do a barrely roll" (enter that into google though 4fun ^^), but the game's cartoon vibe was really brought to live with the voice acting.

@retro_player_77 Interesting perspective, first off, which system did you play on? I played on PS4 pro, and aside from the texture loading issue/pop-in I had zero technical issues. It might have dropped a frame here and there, but I certainly never noticed it. I'm susceptible to it, but not overly so in general I say. Digital Foundry also found the game to be an almost perfect performer. I'm extremely susceptible to input lag, as I've been playing on Gamemode consistently for 10 years now, first on Panasonic Plasmas now on LG OLEDs, and I definitely did not notice that either, like not at all.

Plus, this is hardly Dark Souls, you can just hold your guard in punisher and will get that parry, it does not matter if you do it a second early or late. So even if there were input lag issues, which again, I did not notice at all, I do not think it would be a big deal at all. I would certainly dislike it, as I feel it creates a disconnect between me and the game, on a very fundamental level, but still, as long as it is consistent (and not spikes, like you mentioned, and it's not an action game per se ...).

I do agree that there are problems. I alluded to quite a couple around here already: The camera is sometimes unable to deal with narrow spaces you fight in particular with bosses, leading to situations of utter confusion. Generally speaking, the game does not deal super well with large group of enemies, particularly fast moving ones. The game desperately needed a jump button (one thing I liked about Trials of Mana here), because otherwise flying enemies becoming an annoying chore.

The game is clearly geared towards prolonged single-enemy encounters, since otherwise neither summons nor limit breaks nor buffs and debuffs make any sense (this ain't FFXIII by a long shot), yet 80% of your encounters are with groups of small, fast moving enemies in tight spaces ...

Still, I refuse to except your Mario Run comparison, like even on it's premise. Mario Run is a severly dumped down version, geared towards a particular input theme, that does not allow for much more interaction that what it actually offers.

The input scheme for FFVIIR is more complex though than with the original, there are more moving parts, things to consider... crucial you make more meaningful decision over a shorter period of time, which I consider more engaging as long as I am not overtaxed. I am never overtaxed though, because I can pause the game at any time and plan my next moves. Crucially, all characters in FFVII remake play entirely differently and serve different purposes (like Barret is strong against flying enemies, see above, Tifa excells at stagger increases, Cloud's parry devastates certain enemy types solo ...). That was not the case in the original and a clear improvement.

So yeah, the changes bring with it new problems, that did not exist before. But they also remove problems (think for instance: random battles, which no one ever liked as far as I can tell, same'y and interchangeable characters etc.) the original had. I will say this clearly: Personally, for me these are changes for the better all-around and I am perfectly confident, that the system will shine much more in the more open areas I fully except to be playable in Episode 2. In fact, I think the system was ironically designed with encounters in these areas in mind, and just had to fit the bill for the 1st episode as well.

Just my thoughts though, I really loved FFVIIR. It was one of the most mechanically engaging jRPGs I have played so far, certainly the most technical accomplished, and yet also one of the most moving and most humanized one.

I can totally understand though, that the story bits are controversial, particularly the ending. I felt the added bits really shined bright and made me care, for instance about Avalanche, in a way I never did before. But that is up to one's personal taste.

The thing is, in the grander scale of things, not knowing at all what is going to happen next, is more exciting to me. Simple as that. I'm looking forward to finding out what is going to happen, is it really and literally an "unknown journey"? I feel that is pretty cool, evne if they are going to continue to hit major story beats. FFVIIR really has a stromg romantic rom-com going, one I finally care about, and just on that level some liberties they might take, might offer a big emotional pay off for me, even if the actual "plot" plays out much the same.

So anyways, in your analogy, I would flip it, and argue that FFVIIR is definitely the richer and more engaging game, different yes, but the original would to me be the simplistic Mario-Run-esque version.

I'm also not entirely sure why everyone expected this to be a faithful 1:1 remake. We've spend half a decade seeing snippets of footage and it was immedtiately obvious, that this was going to be a very different beast than the original - even to me, someone who never in his life cared much about FF as a franchise, with only passing knowledge and interest for the most part.

@Priceless_Spork Depends, personally, I did not like it. It felt like a new coat of paint (that might be a bit to harsh but still) for a game that might not really have aged incredibly well, despite the combat being ahead of it's time - back then I wager.

If you don't mind the fairtale'esque setting, shonen-inspired characters, comically bad voice acting, glacial pace, sterile towns and environments, and everything else we stereotypically associate with generic jRPGs, then you might still find a highly enjoyable game here.

Music is great, the graphics are pretty nice and set the mood and tone effectively, and the combat I probably only disliked because I came straight of 48 hours of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Just don't expect anything with the amibiton of said FFVIIR or the quality of that game in it's individual parts (visuals, voice acting, animation, art direction, combat, etc.).

I hope that was more digestible and concise enough Full disclosure, I have no attachement to the original or to the series as a whole. If you are an established fan, this might be EXACTLY what you were looking for. If you are looking for another "modern" jRPG Remake coming off FFVIIR like me ... this is not it, not at all.

@Razmoudah I did not mean to imply that there were no jRPGs using anything other than turn-based combat (did it come across that way?), in fact, I do not even have a problem with turn-based combat itself.

For me, like I tried to lay out, it matters most if a) the game feels turn-based, meaning that often times, my actual experience is just paused and on-hold and b) does it offer player engagement in terms of meaningful decision above and beyond what could be done in real-time, without overtaxing the player (not everyone is a pro player with 250 actions-per-minute after all ^^).

While you are obviously well versed in the minutae of many a jRPG turn-based system (incidentially, I kinda liked the combat in FFX quite a bit, of the bit I have played so far, without ever thinking to much about why that may be so), I think the problem with FFXI is not the mechanical refinements, but that the presentation.

On a very basic level, I enjoy the combat in SMT games for instance. Without getting into the nuts and botls of it, I think there is a striking difference in my expereince of SMT III vs SMTIV/A and esp. vs Persona 5 and Tokyo Mirage Session: animations.

Simply out, the 3DS ones do not let you see the action play out. It's just literally bunch of 2D art pieces (which are gorgeous) shaking a bit on screen and some fire effect or whatever being thrown up the screen. It's supremely static.

Pretty much the exact same type of combat feels entirely different if you compare it to the other games mentioend. Particularly TMS#FE head so much going on visually, that watching it felt exciting. I mean, I don't do streaming, but I imagine a stream of SMTIV would be nauseating beyond belief. I mean, do love the game, there is brilliance to it, but the combat felt about as engaging as watching slow-mo replay of 20 year old chess tournament.

As for Tales, I do appreciate the combat, and I LOVED Symphonia on the Gamecube, but beyond that, I could never really get into the series, just as with Star OCean, for reason utterly unrelated to combat. Just could not stand the characters. Star OCean Last Hope had actual combat. Played back then on the 360, but the art direction was super uninspired, the music so-and-so, and for the life of me, I did not care for anyone in my party. It just felt very generic and cookie-cutter jRPG stuff.

I will say, that one of my favourite jRPGs of all time remains Eternal Sonata. It had the Tales system, with some clever twist like the dark/light mechanic, but mostly, it was the unique setting centered around the life of Chopin and the OUTSTANDING interpretation of his music, that captured me entirely. I even got the OST, because I totally dug the Nocturnes interpretation most of all.

I do agree with your sentiment about shake ups to established turn-based tropes. The basic party one turn, party two turn, rinse and repeat is not just the most mechanical unengaging, but also the most artificial and sterile one to look at. It feels like a battle from the early days of infantry combat. Just lines standing there, shooting at each other. Utter madness in it's own way, for a purpose sure, but looking back: utter madness.

There is nothing about that I can relate to, that can pull me. And yeah, I agree about Grandia as well, at least III as I don't recall actually playing any other, and Dragoon for sure.

Hell, I currently in the process of playing Operation Darkness on X360, one of Atlus' most obscure releases I think, and I really like how there Turn-Order and number of actions is determined not just by speed but also by weight: Thus if you bring more, say bazooka rockets, to a fight, you pack a lot of destructive punch, but the flip-side is, that some of your characters will get to act 3 times as often as others. It's something you have to weight, because you might actually face a scenario, were you are killed off, before you can do ****.

In that regard, I also like what Radiant Historia did: You get to determine the turn-order, linking many characters together for repeated terms in a row, grants devastating combos, which are essential for winning, but this comes at the cost of putting your characters in a vulernable state, where there are almost certain to receive critical hits.

Basically, if you swap place with an enemy at a later turn, but whos turn comes within the rest of your chain, thus breaking it, you will get a longer combo, but your swapping character will also likely be crit'ed, even by the enemy you swapped up.

The other DQ I really played was DQVIII, which stil think highly off all in all, so no, I do not really notice those changes playing the demo at least. I gotta say though, I was more looking forward to the option to freely move while in combat. Sadly ... yeah, this does nothing ultimately, not even for the general sensation of the ebb and flow of the combat. It does not make it feel any more dynamic.

On that note, thinking backt to FFX, I'm not postive here, as it's been a very long time, but I vaguely remember the game having a pretty decent camera, that dynamically framed the characters movement and actions. I do think that is probably part of why FFX clicked more with me than any previous FF I had laid hands on - not all of it, but part of it.

That is alos something absent from DQXI, it's so static, it almost seems entirely purpusefully. Like movement is kept to a minimum. It's odd to, because it has this colorful cartoonish vibe and one thing cartoons tend not to be: is static.

I said this on the comments for the DQXI review back then, I do not need the game to play as action'y like FFVIIR for instance. But I DO NEED to be presented as excited as something as TMS#FE or Peronsa 5, even Lost Odyssey, or preferably Resonance of Fate

That is still my favourite turn-based system fo all time, if go by both criteria, engagement and presentation - just as a sidenote. There are deeper systems, that I enjoy more mechanically, but only a handful, but still the combination of position, decent 3D visuals and music, paried with John-Woo-style acrobatics made even the grind-hell that was RoF mostly tolerable

As for the whole problem of personal skill ceiling. I hear you on that. I am not like a god tier player myself, but I can definitely handle any action in any jRPG I've seen yet, plus most of what Soulsborne can throw it me, incl. Nioh, though Sekiro pushed me to my breaking point many times over, with no little frustration involved. FFVIIR then though, felt entirely "fine". Like I said, I did like 4-5 times on normal playing roughly 48h hours to the point almost. The "normal" fights, which lasted like 20 seconds, I doubt those gave anyone any trouble. Some of the bosses were no push-overs, but it was still - in my book - more about management skills than about relfexes or timing.

It's not like active parrying or doging was a big deal in FFVIIR. As a rule of thumb, you want to maximize all your characters meaning that ideally, you were never on any of your characters for more than 3-4 actions really. They would wander of doing crazy stuff, or pointlessly standing there, so it was your job to keep in the game and in the right spot. It was actually pretty hectic.

Thing here is, I might have enjoyed like top-down version, with pause function as well. Like being able to navigate these characters around, giving them act orders and such, while being able to jump into anyone of them at any time, as AI was just flat out bad. Hell, I would have prefered such an option to be honest, and I feel that would it also make it more accesible still to less action oriented players.

Having said that, there is classic mode. Plus, and that is my main concern here, all these other series, like EQ for instance, which you mentioned as well, are NOT going anywhere. Atlus is never going to throw millios nand millions at a series like EQ to create anything akin to EQ. They would never take that risk and the money is unlikey to be made back for sure.

Trials of Mana the demo was a good example though, of how "action combat" is not a cure-all by itself, not by a long shot. Personally, like I laid out, I did not like it at all. The way the game went along with me just hammering Square-Button was an unpleasant reminder of FFXV, which just played itself, as you are probably ware. Sure it picked up with later, with one encounter in particular, but it was still pretty darn basic.

Sad part is, the button smasher feeling is one thing, but even back on the PS2, games like God of War nailed that formula to perfection. Trials has nothing on those games, as fluidity goes, combat animation, impact of hits, frange of movement, variety of enemies, attack patterns, speed ... it's like granny version of GoW drenched in the Disney-color-palette. It was an odd experience to be honest, as I had to wonder: who is this for?

I felt Star Ocean last Hope on the 360, as I mentioned, had about 100 times more engaging feedbackloops going on that this and that was back in 2009 ... like wtf party people?

Like, the way the Blinding Siding was animated, really gave it a decent feeling of momentum, if you will. I still feel it was too unreliable an just going for a normal dogde the better option, but the visual feedback was pretty good and actual incentive to pull it off, more so in view than the free hit. Strange ... I know, but a game this grindy makes you imho think about these things

The problem I see in the whole action-combat appraoch we are talking about here, like with Trials, is the point of reference. The combat invites, as I did above and in my original comment, comparison to games from an entirely different genre. I do not mean necessarily in terms of mechanics (like DMC combos or whatever, parrying windows, i-frames and such), but certainly presentation.

I think that is fair, and given that this 2020, I do think any comparion should be to the gold standart here and this remains GoW (2018). That is also unfortunate, because there is no apt comparison to be made here. I imagine that is also one reason, some developers shy away from this for sure, as producing a system, that is is engaging and also looks the part (and sounds frankly, the SFX are also an issue in Trials for me) takes time and is expensive, for many projects prohibitevly though.

On the upside, as I said, it is pretty much a guarantee that you will never round out of EQ or Demon Gaze'like games. I mean, EQ is alos a prime example of a game, where the combat presentation killed an experience, that I found otherwise rather engrossing. I own all of them except V and Nexus on 3DS, but never really got toooo deep into either one. I have the same problem with it as with SMTIV, which I finished though: it's once more mind-numbingly static. Having a bunch of 3D modells doing their thing on screen would have done wonders for me. (No, I am not the type for text adventures, certainly not anymore ^^).

Persona Q works actually much better for me in that regard. Some small subtle changes made a world of difference there. Funny, I know, but that is just the way it is. I do feel justified in expecting a game to entertain my senses as well as my intellect.

Hell, XCom had it's own like fancy slow-down killcam. Did not make the game any less deep or iron man any less taxing, just all-around more engaging to play.

Thanks for the write-up about the Black Rabite, I had like no idea as someone really not invisted in the Mana series at all. That's kinda the stuff, that can become like a myth if you experience it as a kid. Made me laugh out with joy! ^^

Edit: I forgot to say, I do feel like FFVIIR is the culmination of Square's work in their quest for a flashy, yet tactial combat system, that I feel started with X. FF XIII and FFXV are both parts of that progression and so seems is Kingdom Hearts. It's an interesting journey in and off itself, and I feel they've kinda gotten there now, and this then made worth in retrospective the mess that was XIII, the only one I really finished though for some reason, and the broken, broken, oh so very broken game, that was Versus XIII aka XV.

Think about that! That is an almost 20 year journey for them, starting at the turn of the millenium to now. They pushed out Advent Children in like 2005. 15 years later, they have a game that looks as good, sometimes better, but more crucial it captures the game's flashy action without loosing VII original variety and depth (not that it was ever theee most deepest system out there).

That is just ... I dunno, that just feels mythical in it's own way. I imagne it must have been a relieve for them, when they shipped VII and it was received by and large this well. 15-20 years is a long time trying to refining a system ...

@dudujencarelli Never played Castle of Illusion, but I do think I know what you mean. Basically, you get meaningful dialogue, likely exposition dumped on you during "normal" gameplay, and that causes issues with SFX and well, just your ability to concentrate on it.

That's pretty poorly done, granted, but that is not what I mean. FFVII R also did not do that. 1st of all, the banter I was talking about, was not essential exposition or character building of any sorts, that what the game uses cutscenes for, but just pieces, mostly rather humurous or mundane, to flesh out the world or characters a tiny bit. It also did not delivers them almost exclusively when you are pretty much just running or walking around. One could argue, that these moments should be cut entirely, no pointless travel time (there is a quick travel option later on), but then again, some people are already apparently angry as it is.

I would also suggest that FFVII is going for a different objective here than Castle of Illusion (or any platformer I guess) entirely: It sets out to create a believe world, fantastical sure, but not that personal level of the characters and their interactions and their good old feelz.

Yes, let me put it clear as day, for that to really succeed you need strong voice acting. I could imagine a scenario, where really on-point art, framing&direciton and music might be able to deliver an emotional punch and a level of relateability compareable to strong voice acting, but that is mostly academic.

Plus, it would still pose the problem, that you pretty much have to stop all player engagement and pretty much just deliver a cutscene, because relaying emotion without voice acting and facial animation ... gee, that is a task that will fail miserably 99% of the time.

One thing I can think of, that worked for me personally, were the "A Thousand Years Dream" in Lost Odyssey. Those packed an incredibly punch, but that was due to really good choices in music, proper framing within the games grander narrative and handsdown, without even a smidge of doubt THE BEST writing I've ever come across in a jRPG, maybe in a game at all.

Shook me to the core, even if it was as basic as it gets from a visual standpoint and there was literally not human emotion on display neither visually nor accustically.

Hell, I did go back and booted FFVII up on my vita, the original PSX version. I wanted to feel it, the humor, the sadness, just the humanity of the characters if you will, and not too sound to pretentious here, but I am sorry, neither the chibi'Esque cutscenes, nor the stilted text within the artificial textboxes was doing anything for me.

I have zero doubt, that like 20 years ago, in a different time, and much younger me, would have been deeply impacted by what I saw and read. Here, now and today, I am not though. This kind of stuff is in my view NOT actually "forever".

The Divine Comedy is forever. The art direction in Dante's Inferno is rather incredible, but it's not like anyone ever even entertained the thought of it like 'replacing' the Divine Comedy. That is not going to happen. That art form is pretty much unchanged. Sure, new styles and formats have emergered, but the fundamentales are the same.

This is decidely not true for videogames. The fundamentals are very much not the same now, as they have been in 1997. Hell, I remembered being AMAZED by Metal Gear Solid back then, pretty much around the same time really, when I first booted it up. As soon as I heard David Hayter I was like ... what is this? He sounds gruff, like ... like a badass mercenary gruff. I was hooked right then and there, on the game itself, but also Hayter as a voice actor, and really just the concept of voice acting in general.

It's not something that meant anything to me before MGS1 on the PSX. It certainly did after. It made MGS the experience it was, not by it's lonesome, but it played a friggin huge role in it.

Voice Acting was not entirely new at this point, but to me, I would argue, it kinda was at least at that scale and in this quality. I didn't understand what "cinematic" meant back then, but I sure as hell FELT it. Snake, Meryl, Naomi, Psycho Mantis .... Sniper Wolf ... gee, after all this time I still choke up here.

The voice acting was far from perfect or the best ever, but back then, it was certainly felt that way and put the whole experience on a completely different level for me. I hadn't really actively noticed the PSX audio capabilities until the opening moments of MGS ...

I will say this, just looking before that point, let's say Resident Evil, and also what Square did with FF after VII, I can see how many folks never really placed high value on voice acting, or really much cared for it. There was more horrendously bad voice acting being produced, particularly for jRPGs in the west (with no option for the original VO more often than not), that a certain irritation or even disregard is highly understandable. I mean, this is kind true to this very day.

I don't think it's true for FFVIIR though. I personally found tifa, JEssie and Aerith in particular to be absolutely outstanding, and really carrying these characters, like making me care for crying out loud, not 20 hours in, but even 2 hours in (later with AErith obviously). Also Barret ... a bit over the top for sure, but a couple of hours in, I did not longer care, because I had become a believer. There was conviction in his voice and all his theatrics were just part of his personality, a personality build around loyality and honesty and an insurmountable drive to see justice done.

Nothing conveyed that part of his nature stronger to me than his voice performance, nothing. It was integral to really sell me on this at heart super goofy character. An obvious racial stereotype -sorry, but the angry-black-guy-stereotype was just an unavoidable assocation- with a mini-gun for a hand ... is not exactly an easy sell, and the original just can't do it for me.

To each their own though, but I do agree that voice work should be delivered in a way, that the player can pay attention to it, without having to stand still and create their own cutscenes. Many games tend to this constantly, I know, but that is just bad design. Many games have parts of their level desgined for no other purpose than to mask loading times. These are ideal areas for that kind of VO banter to pass the time, just one example really.

@retro_player_77 Hmm, I'm honestly not sure that is a good reason, as the original still exists. What would be the point of it playing the same way?

I haven't really ever played Kingdom Hearts, as it's just too ... I dunno, like abstract for me? I watched a couple of reviews and gameplay moments, but it all just feels weirdly throwing together to me, without much rhyme or reason, plus unncessarily convoluted starting with the very names of different entries

Mostly though, I do not feel the setting, like not at all. It's just my cup of tea I guess, which is fine. The combat was actually the one thing that looked kinda entertaining, at least a first glance.

Since FFVII Remake and KH share the same director, it would only make sense for them to have a strong semblance.

As for FFXV ... I have to strongly disagree. There is very little those two titles have in common, besides them both featuring action-based combat. The combat in FFXV is broken, like complet and utterly broken. It basically consists of three things: holding down square, holding down circle and spamming heal potions, which have zero opportunity cost and are dirt cheap. Hell there are entirely battles that look amazing, but feature no input beyond pressing down square. Magic is also broken, with little reason to use. You are often fighting groups, that make it impossible to tell when to phase-evade and not, with just a jungle of limbs flailing all around you. There are attacks that cannot be phase-evaded, but must be dodge-roll-evaded ... sadly the game does not give you any clear visual clue as to what attacks that may be (unlike say Arkham or Sekiro with clear visual indicators poping up).

All of this is meaningless so, as taking damage has zero bearing on your success. There is no ATB gauge, there is zero just (besides like 100 gil) associated with healing, you have unlimited access to even elixirs (up to 99 per fight ....) ....

Buffs or Debuffs, timing, positioning, spell "equipment", none of this matters one single lick. Summons are also broken.

The whole combat exists for one purpose: too look cool. You as the player have virtually zero agency in it. Hell, for the most part of the game's existence you could even only control Noct.

This extends to the other mechanics as well. Though mechanics is a lie. Take link attacks. Since you have zero control over positioning in this game, link attacks happen almost exclusively at random (you influence your own position to a degree of course).

It's the worst combat I've ever played, in fact, it was so bad, that it baffled me enough to put the controller away 3 or 4 hours into the game to read up on it ... I mean, I was 100% CERTAIN I was just missing something crucial. I was not missing a single thing though.

So, while the combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake is up to one's taste, I really cannot accept the comparison drawn to XV. Nothing about VIIR is broken. The camera is often an issue in narrow spaces, sure, like many 3rd person action games, and some of the mechanics like Limitbreakers, summons, debuffs, etc. fall apart with all the short & easy battles in the game ... yeah granted, the combat is best when fighting one - three single powerful enemies over a long period, but that just means it is not perfectly suited to each and every scenario.

Personally, I loved the combat and if Dragon Quest XI had had a similar combat, I would have been eagerly spend a 100 hours playing it. Alas, it stuck to the stare-down-duel-style of traditional turn-based combat, we've got to enjoy the last 30 odd years. I'm kinda done with that. I'm fine with turn-based combat, if it's done like in say Resonance of Fate, with crucial elements to positioning and foresight involved while feeling and looking like a John-Woo-flick, but this nonsense ... thanks but not thanks.

Fire Emblem also offers crucial elements, like (optional) flashy battle animations and of course positioning as a crucial element. I can digg that, hell I can even digg the turn-based combat in games like Persona/Tokyo Mirage Sessions, because it is so well put together.

Other games so like DQ? It is soooooooooooo static. There is this movie: The men who stare at goats. I always think of it when playing something like DQXI. It's more like "adventures staring at Slimes".

Important to me is engagement and feelz. The combat has to offer meaningful choices for me to take, the more over a given period of time, the better. It also has to feel like ... COMBAT. Combat tends to be an energetic, visceral affair - or like a battlefield form the view of a commander, which tends to be a hectic, yet cerebreal affair, which is all about adapting to changing circumstances, and having the foresight to be prepared to those.

I can digg both scenarios. FF VII Remake, I feel, got pretty darn close of offering both of these engagement triggers. There is viscearl action, with some fantastic presentation going on, but there are also ways to just pause everything and carefully consider your next moves, plan ahead and prepare to adapt for your enemies next move.

Like say, you expect Leviathan to throw up a tidal wave anytime soon, so you get your hp up or buffs going. Or, another example, you are getting close to feeling your enemies stagger gauge, so you carefully consider your ATB stock, to be ready to unleash devastation in a few moments across three characters.

I absolutely loved that and while the game was rather easy, I never had to grind one single second in this entire game and I still only died like four times on Normal when all was said and done. The game was decently balanced and rewarded you for being aware of what was happening on the battlefield.

To me, so far, it was the best mixed of action- and turn-based combat I have yet played and I hope it will become a model for more jRPGs going forward. Not for everyone, mind you, Fire Emblem is mechanically mostly fine for instance, but for something like DQ for sure. It won't happen, because DQ seems at this point specifically designed to pretend that we are still bound by the same limitations that we had in the PS2 era, but oh well, for other series then.

I feel I would have alot more symphaty for your point, if traditional turn-based combat had really become a rarity of sorts, even given the fact, that hundreds and hundreds of classic games in it's vein still exist. But there are so many jRPGs that still stick to their roots, as you put it, and have done so for 2+ decades, that it feels like a crucial part of the story, that is the decline of jRPGs in popularity.

Other genres have become really god in providing the kind of high-stakes, deeply personal, dramatic, character-driven story-telling that jRPGs have led for 20 years. The reason to play these games are slowly but steadily diminsing. I feel like Persona found a way to counteract it, but outside of that ... there are the traditionalist series, who are struggling to find broad appeal among new fans, which means their are on a dying track long term and then there is, as you point out, stuff like Final Fantasy, that is willing to experiment with each new entry to various success.

I think it paid off here big time: When FFXV was broken, as I said, FFVII was resounding success. I feel they nailed 90% of it. A few minor changes here and there, mostly to the encounter design, rather than the system itself, and they will have a recipe for success going forward for at least another 2 console generations.

That's the really good news here. This is a big jRPG that is not just run on nostaliga or narrative prowess or world building, but also technical achievement and mechanical appeal on top of that. Good news for the industry, which felt borderling on the brink of disappearing in the PS3 era, with failed projects like FFXII and the 10 year odyssey of FFXV ending in desaster (it has indeed been 10 years between 2006 and 2016, more actually given that the game was in development before 2006).

Edit: Oh yeah, that fact that Square has mastered Unreal Engine 4 is also frigging huge. They done great with for a coupel of games now, but FFVII is their crowning achievement. This used of established middleware, that is not abadoned and rebuild from scratch for each game, will dramatically lower turn-around time for developments and thus lower cost and thus lower risk. It has been a long time coming, but I think this will eventualyl catch on with other japanese Developers. Esp. for the new generation, I expect dramatic gains here. Just a sidenote of course, but another thing that feels me not just with hope for the future of the genre, which looked so very bleak for many years, but actual exitement. I wanna see where FFVIIR goes next on PS5, but I also want to see where Square takes their other IPs. I might actaully be excited for the 1st time in my life, for a new mainline Final Fantasy Game.

Also: I want badly for them to remake FFVI in this fashion. The game's world and narrative and setting has so much appeal, like VII's, it would be ashme not to see it brought to life in such splendid fashion as VIIR!

@retro_player_77 I'd say so, as far as the literaly "remaking" goes, based on the demo, I'd also say though, that Final Fantasy VII Remake is the technical superior game, vastly better voice acting and pacing, much, much stronger beginning and alot more engaging combat. And while I might catch flak for that, FFVII Remake seems mostly geared to it's audience from the late 90s, as far as demographic goes, while trials still feels to target teens to be quite frank. Which is fine, it probably did back then, and as a faithful remake, it has not much choice in the matter, but as a no-longer-teen - who has since devoured dozens up dozens of jRPGs as well as animes and mangas that have the exact same tone and narrative beats as well as structure - I found myself bored to tears by it.

FFVIIR has the benefit of having young adult characters, inhabitating a uniquely designed jRPG world, not intitally pitting you against some ancient evil or evil empire. It feels like a breath off fresh air almost in that regard. All of this is not entirely unique of course, but it IS definitely on the rare spectrum for the media, as for every FFVII, Lost Odyssey or Resonance of Fate, you get to play about 50 teenage boys on a mythical Hero's Journey to defeat the most evil dragon XYZ about to devour the land. Just saying!

@Priceless_Spork Kinda glad to hear someone else feeling this way to be honest. I know FFVIIR is getting and going to get alot of flake for it's changes, it'S ending (which is already controversial according to the internetZ), but I think the game add value to invest more time into the same world this way, beyond being just pretty as hell. It's going to garner even more outrage going forward, as big changes are up ahead - I mean the game literally tells you, the journey forward will be UNKNOWN - but that makes me excited. Can't wait to see what happens next.

And maybe even more importantly, the gameplay is shaken up so significantly and modernized in such smart and engaging ways (90% of it actually works thankfully), that it feels less like a remake of an almost quarter century old game, and more like the next Final Fantasy.

Maybe they just should have called it XVI, but then again, the marketing power of FFVII is probably too sweet a seduction to ignore. Still, to me, this is just the better version in almost every way.

Thing is, given the action roots of Trials, I can totally see how they could have done something similar here, be it VASTLY more ambitious reimaging or an entirely new game. It's cheaper to do the reimanging part, as you can rely on established characters, plot points and most importantly marketing nostalgia.

@Wavey84 Haha fair enough, I mean, if jRPGs are not your jam typically, I can totally see how Trials would definitely bore you to tears and then some. It is guilty of several of the major sins so many jRPGs tend to fall victim to, like you mentioned already. I also really feel the whole glacial-pace-beginning-it'll-get-exciting-10-hours-in is hurting these games pretty bad. I can normally stomach that (just look at Persona), but FFVII Remake really made me feel like more jRGPs need to hit the ground running in the future. None of that b*s* we're you have played 30mins to an hour before you run into a battle.

I also wanna give a shout out to Lost Odyssey which is definitely my favourite Final Fantasy. I noticed that LO does two things the same way FFVII does: It starts with a mood-setting cutscene, then almost seemingly (the FFVIIR at least) transitioning to gameplay, while having you engage in a battle RIGHT AWAY, with exactly zero delay. It's the way to start an epic adventure, as you are instantly getting the sense, that stuff is happening, things matter and your actions have meaning. That is not the case, if the game has you meandering around for an hour - worst of all, spending that hour telling you, that you need to do stuff, because the fate of the world demands it .... right.

@Ulysses Well, if done right, I think voice acting can ADD a lot to a game's ability to draw you in and bring it's characters to live. I really appreciated the voice acting they added to Radiant Historia, as I mentioned. While not always 100% perfect (which VO-track ever was, no matter the medium), it enhanced the characters personality and added - in my view - significant value to the remake.

Same goes for FFVII Remake. There were a small number of characters, I felt the voice acting was a bit of with, but overall most on them were on point. In fact, all of the main cast was just flawless to me, particularly Tifa, Aerith and Jessie. I cannot imagine having enjoyed this game half as much without the outstanding voice work to be brutally frank.

There is another thing to consider: Voice acting allows gameplay AND narrative to occur simulanteously. So you can run around, do quests even fight (to some degree), while banter happens and sometimes actual narrative dialogue unfolds. That is also a much more natural way for content to be delivered than just cutting gameplay off entirely for everyone to stand around and talk at each other.

In fact, this is what made the dull sidequests in FFVIIR work for me to be tolerable. There was always another character with me, and there was always someone talking. It just felt alive and a quip or something by Aerith or Tifa, that made me smile or laugh, was never more than mere moment away.

It also made the sheer act of running along those corridors the world is build out of a less tedious task. So .. that's my view on this at last.

Thing is, jRPGs in particular have a horrible track record mit Voice Acting. As a big jRPG player, that has always bothered me, more so now than 20 years ago of course, when the fact that VO existed was a feat in and off itself. I remember Baten Kaitos Origins, a game I really revere, being one of those featuring in part downright horrific VO. I still love the game, but as you imply at times the VO was sadly hurting the experience.

Again, though, if done right, and I was pleasently surprised with the Radiant Historia remaster here, it can really bring alot of gains to the table. I could never really care for much of FF, not even FFVII, but the remake drew me in good. The voice work was absolutely crucial to that end, of that I am 100% sure. Having had only textboxes (that again would have killed the game's incredible momentum und mostly tight pacing), it would have made for a different, vastly inferior experience.

@Axlroselm Interesting, I really enjoyed FFVII Remake as well. I immersed myself into it for almost 6 days straight and right the next day, I played the demo for Trials of Mana.

For the life of me, I could not stomach it. It just felt too archaic and beyond tedious in about every way imagineable. The contrast was stark to say the least. I'm worried, that I'm really done with this particular subset of jRPGs now and forever. FFVIIR spoiled me for good.

Obviously, the visuals and voice work cannot hold a candle to FFVII Remake. And while -from what I can tell- Trials is a very, very faithful remake, like 20 mins into the game, the difference could not be more drastic. The game starts a glacial pace, and even the action-combat cannot hide the games ancient design roots. Like you have about 2m range on your lock-on, how it all gets started by beating the Mana equivalent of every MMORPG's start-area "rats" ... I had to put it down like an two hours in. By that time I had already done and seen so much in FFVII Remake, that in contrast it felt as if Trials was actively and intentionally trying to annoy me by just draaaggggginngggg it's feet. That is tragic, consindering FVIIR is not free of padding itself, but at least the 1st couple of hours move at an engaging almost breack-neck pace.

I know that it's not the game's fault. It is what it is and it was never meant to be directly compared to FFVIIR, and yes, I am glad that fans are getting such a faithful remake of what is apparently a classic to many jRPG fans, but I am not 100% sure why they had to release it right after FFVIIR thus really INVITING comparison.

Also, it's worth noting, that Trials is really a downgrade in several curious way, like while it was afaik also build on Unreal Engine (THANK GOD Square stopped creating their own engine for every new game ... sinking money into a pithole this way) like FFVIIR, but not only does the game lack HDR support, the glorious particle effects from FFVIIR seem also entriely absent, just as the truly excellent per-object-motion blur seen in FFVIIR.

Besides the visuals, and the -almost charmingly retro- phoned-in over-the-top voices, the animations also just so-and-so. Hitting enemies feels like hitting a plushie with a wooden bat. There is no sensation of weight here or impact, compeletely unlike FFVIIR, which took obvious cues from the techniques used in God of War (most prominently).

It just feels irritatingly dull and lifeless coming off of FFVIIR. The towns are also dead. NPCs just stand around, nobody talks. I get it, it's like in the good old days.

Thing is, I don't think it's "good" anymore, just because it used to be that way 20-odd years ago. People were worried that FFVIIR would be a nostalgia fuelled letdown ... having had zero nostaglia for neither FFVII nor Trials, I kinda feel that Trials is much more reliant on nostalgia for sure.

As a quote-unquote modern action-RPG, I don't really see Trails doing much for anyone. It's pretty sad honestly, I mean, I was really in the mood to jump right into the next Square remake for sure, like itching for it and I do think Square hoped people would move straight from FFVIIR to Traisl. That would have worked supremely well, as it was just what I had in mind downloading the demo the very next day, but ... there is an abyss here, that I would have had a rought time navigating before laying a finger on FFVIIR, but after having gone through that tour-de-france of audio-visual events and truly engaging combat (even if it was really quite a bit to easy in the end, it never felt to entertain) that is not gonna happen for me.

Oh and just to clarify, I'm not generally opposed to traditional design. Instead of Trails, I started playing Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology on my 3DS. Which as it turns out it, is an absolutely fantastic game, with engaging turn-based combat (of all things), an interesting story, a well thought-out timetravel mechanic and - of all things - subjectively better voice-work than 90s-afternoon-shonen'esque delivery of Trials, which I found painful, like actively so - it IS 2020 after all.

That said, the music in Trials was pretty darn sweet. Didn't take me in the same way as FFVIIR, but still something I appreciated right from the starting screen.

I'm very, very, very interested to see the next few weeks and how the different fandoms as well as newcomers react to these very, very, very different games, despite both being remakes of classic Square games, featuring action-combat, released in the same month I wonder how other people will feel coming off FFVIIR going potentially also directly into this.

Last but not least, it also made me realize how deeply I appreciate FFVII not directly going all-out Hero-On-A-Journey on me as a player, throwing an archetypical idealistic good-boy/gal-on-a-quest character at my face. Not every game needs set the same mood as FFVII, but alas, most jRPGs don't anyways, so it IS deeply appreciated. Just another stark contrast, but one I cannot blame the Remake of Trails for at least.

Been playing the remastered for like 2 hours a couple of weeks back on XBX. I thought I might have misjudged the game last time around on last-gen, but honestly ... it looks miles better than Revenge, but even given that, I much rather play Revenge any day of the week. Revenge runs very smoothly on the XBX and still looks alright to this day, the music is still aces obviously and it just plays fantastically. The sense of speed is great and the take-downs are a lot of fun. Hell, there are a bunch of games, like say Split/Second I would absolutely recommend over Paradise.

I for one play BurnOut for the sense of speed, the takedowns and the boost-"management", if you will. I think takedowns and thus boosting really take a back-seat in Paradise compared to Revenge. Personally, I found no joy in plotting my own route to vicotry, esp. not since often, I was on one street and the competition on another. Not much takeing-down going on then obviously ... maybe I was playing wrong, dunno, don't care.

Alas, Revenge is about as likely to come to Switch as FFVII Remake ... so it is kinda of take-it-or-leave-it situation. In that case, I'd leave it and play Mario Kart 8.

@NotoriousWhiz The e-shop is in dire need of some in-depth curating. We also need more filters and a proper review & recommendation system. Why not also employ some basic machine learning to have suggestion pages for people based on the games they've spend the most time with? Seems easy and straightforward enough and would ultimately lead to increased sales. Not sure what's keeping Nintendo, other than being them being all Nintendo about this stuff.

Cyberpunk used to be about alot more than just a general aesthetic of sorts. It's not a big deal, but the term gets - subjectively - thrown around more and more these days. I just don't want it to become one of those hollow marketing phrases that have long since moved beyond any significant meaning.

If a game is urban, night-time'ish, with plenty of neon lights ... it's just that for the time being and nothing more.

To be fair, I have no real idea what this game will ultimately be like, but from the first look provided, it does not seem that it will really tackle any of the themes connected to this (sub)genre.

I mean, it IS a cool aesthetic though ...

I quite enjoyed both BMZ games. The 1st one was actually my very 1st Switch game. Not normally my cup of tea, but I came away positively surprised. This though ... I had forgotten it existed. Not saying it's necessarily bad or anything, but it obviously did not strike a nerve with me.

@Atariboy I did read that as well, that is them starting from scratch after getting the rights. It's just odd then that much of the footage I saw, textures and all, look quite alot like a PS3 game actually. Maybe some they could re-use some assets? I dunno, but in the end, it might as well have started as a PS3 project.

Considering this started out as a PS3 game, it is really disheartening to read that even the PS4 version is anything but smooth sailing. Still, the setting is certainly intriguing and it has a certain "zeitgeist" quality to it for sure. Not something high on my list though, esp. when it screams 75% off at Blackfriday. This goes double once I consider that this game IS ugly. That is not crucial to anything, but it is also not something I can flat out ignore. Other companies put a ton off work and passion in making their games treats for all senses, be it visuals, sound, voice acting or music, and some ... well, some don't. It would be unfair to pretend that this should not be factor at all.

Good news, the game actually proofed much more taxing for my laptop than I had anticipated!

I've even only heard of two of these games to be quite honest. Disaster Report ... gotta wait & see some reviews. It might be something unique, but it truly is ugly.

Trials of Mana, I dunno about yet. Looked fun, but probably not really a must-play-right-away kinda game. I'm thinking it'll have a tough time going up against P5 Royal and FFVII Remake. I'm definitely going with the latter. If I hadn't played P5 already, Trials of Mana would probably not be something I would have taken much note of at all this packed month.

@AlexSora89 Not sure what you are saying, but the focus of next-gen certainly ain't graphics. I mean, that is obviously always a part of the appeal and certainly in terms of marketing, as it is by far the aspect that is most straightforward to showcase, but at least on Sony's end, they have made it abundantly clear, that their focus is elsewhere.

Again, though, we are going to get some nice leaps in visuals, for sure, but most of it gonna be more QoL focused I imagine, like finally locking to 60fps, up to 120fps, with VRR inbetween, image quality improvements all-around, extra details thanks to ray-traced shadows, reflections and so on and so forth.

This is not your typical generational leap this time around imho.

@InJeffable I'd be surprised if we spend 3+ years with only cross-gen 3rd-party content. That would be very much unprecedented. I imagine that for a period of up to ~2 years MOST, definitely not all, 3rd-party games will see cross-gen releases, based on a case-by-case basis.

While the underlying SoC-architecture ought to make it easy to upscale projects to next-gen, the other way round, meaning projects conceived from the ground up for next-gen consoles, will be unfeasible to downscale to current-gen devices for the most part.

I cannot imagine that 3rd-parties want to spend the next years, or in other words the 1st half of the entire next generation, being way, way behind the curve.

Having said that, it is quite likely that we are headed for the worst global recession since the 1920s, so in that regard all bets are off anyways. Majority of folks might simple lack the ressources to upgrade at all, devs might have to significantly scale back their productions anyways, so ...

@InJeffable I agree, but I do not think it will be as long for Sony exclusives. Given the advantages Xbox has with Backwardscompability and multiplatform games already and going forward, they are under pressure to either once again offer the better value proposition (be cheaper) or to pull people in with exclusives, at which they excelled last gen.

Cross-gen exclusives won't cut it then. Not just because they'll don't necessitate a PS5, but more importantly because they cannot showcase the power of the system. The gap in some regards, particularly in terms of the SSD and sound engine, is more than just one generational leap, but several. I dunno, I don't see away to showcase these features with anything the base PS4 could run, and you certainly cannot put these features at the core of your design then.

That's probably besides the point though, because those exclusives true to their nature would never have made it to Switch anyways. As for 3rd-party content, I think it will indeed be a good while yet. Still, even if the ports keep coming for another 2 years or so, the gap will turn into an obvious abyss and already there is content we'll never see on Switch as it is.

Whenever you have to explain a joke or prank ... things went horribly wrong.

@NightMiroir I added you PSN and you're welcome to add me on NO as well. How come you have no access to PSN in this day and age? ^^

I'm absolutely with you on SMT V, anxiously awaiting ANY news on the game. I don't think it's canacelled or anything, but going this long with just confirmation that things are progressing is kinda disappointing. I love Peronsa, but the last couple of years, I got the strong impression that Atlus really only cares about Persona anymore, with SMT taking a backseat and then some. THey even removed the "SMT" from Persona altogether, so some people don't even realize that there is such a thing as SMT and that Persona is part of it, furthermore "just" a spin-off if you will.

I really, really hope that this year around E3 or TGS at the latest, we will get SOME news about the game, even if it is just another vague teaser.

As for FFVII I have to say I am excited about the combat. I used to love "classic" turn-based games, but in recent years, I came to crave games that made me forget, that I was playing a turn-based game for the most part. TMS#FE had a really nice flowing presentation, that made the game look very dynamic, alive and action'y, while actually being as turn-based as they come. Dragon Quest though, for all it's glorious beauty, was incredibly slow paced in combat and it also really presented itself that way. I could not stomach it.

This ties in directly with Etrian Odyssey. I have bought several entries for the 3DS and I recently bought a New 3DS as well (cost me a pretty penny, too, importing from the US, got me the Metroid Ediiton^^). THe issue I have, despite finding much to like about the series at it's core, is that the combat looks incredibly static. It's one of the things I really liked about Persona 3 right off the beat over games like SMT V for instance. The way your own actions are animated and you are not just represented with static demon images (although the art on display is always absolutely fantasic), but you see characters moving, casting spells etc. The whole experience just feels so much more engaging that way.

It's also what made games like Resonance of Fate stand out to me. Once you set up your action, the game looked like the sickest John-Woo-action-flick ever. It was bonkers and stand to this day, in my view, as one of the best turn-based systems I ever played as well as the flat-out best presented - period. And yes, I know the game had plenty of flaws outside of combat, sure, but that does not take away from this achievement at all.

I actually bought Blasphemous on Switch the other day, after trying the demo. Haven't played any further so far (sadly the demo state didn't care over), but I am definitely going to. Hollow Knight was insanely good, like one of my favourite games this gen. Super tight gameplay, very strong Soulborne inspired environmental storytelling and atmosphere, just all around virtually perfect. Very much looking forward to Silksong.

Nioh 2's parrying is much closer to traditional Souls from what I can tell, and yes, it's rather optional and in my view not advised since it can be very unreliable and the benefits are not nearly as significant as Sekiro. I think the thing about Sekiro was the game was built around parry in many ways and in that regard, the game was actually more about rythm, yes, like a rythm game, than mere timing. I guess, that made it easier for some that what one would initially expect.

I, too, fund Sekiro ALOT harder than any Souls game that came before, mostly because there was just this one style of play with no customization and no real stat boosting to make things marginally easier for yourself. So, in Demon Souls and in Nioh 2 I am pretty much a caster. In Dark Souls I most played a tanky built with shields.

In Sekiro none of these styles are an option. It's a severe downgrade in that regard, although I get how it came to be and I still love Sekiro too death. Yet, it was and still is a hard game on me, with some bosses pushing me as hard as I have ever been pushed as gamer. I still need to get back to that final boss even. But having not play in like a year, that is a tall order right now.

I didn't have that much trouble with "normal" enemies as far as the faster pacing goes. I played plenty of faster action games before, even Bloodborne was a helluva lot faster than DemonS or DarkS, but like I said, Sekiro is very narrow in what it asks of you, with no room for deviation and rhythm games are not typical my thing at all, making it even more of an adjustment. Some boss fight frustration aside, which comes with the territory, I loved every second of it and the world.

In fact, I was re-reading "Blade of the Immortal", one if not my favourite manga of all time next to Berserk and Dorohedoro, while I was playing Sekiro - it was pure chance actually - and it struck me how much obvious inspiration SEkiro has taken from Blade of the Immortal. Hidetaka Miyazaki is well known to be a bit of "book worm", if you will, you takes inspiration from literature and architecture left and right - which was super obvious already with Dark Souls, which really just copy&pasted (imitation is after all the sincerest form of flattery) whole enemy designs right of the pages of Miura's seminal work on Berserk. Miyazaki was always very open about this, and again, why not steal from the best? It only makes sense. The way in which Bloodborne took more than cue from H.P. Lovecraft is also obvious right away. But I love Miura's work, just I think some, not all, but some of Lovecrafts writing is genius. Yes, there is plenty of sexism and anti-semitism in there, plus a overwhelming sense of general xenophobia, but works like "The Music of Erich Zann" are proper brilliant works still. Generally, the whole cosmic horror genre obviously owes alot to him regardless of his many flaws.

In short, I'd love Bloodborne 2 to happen eventually and build on everything From Software learned since BLoodborne 1, from games like Sekiro and so on, but I'm also okay with Elden Ring for now

@NightMiroir I'm not big on Final Fantasy personally. I was always more into SMT or other niche games like Lost Odyssey, Shadow Hearts, Resonance of Fate and such - generally the more tonally "somber" games, with obvious expections like Persona 3-5 (1+2 were pretty somber though actually ^^) or TMS#FE.

Anyways, I did play some of the earlier FF on NDS as well as VII and XII and as you say, the demo for FF VII Remake was rather glorious. I think the game will be substantial even if it only covers the Midgard section of FFVII. Square said the they significantly expanded upon the original content and that it will be comparable in length to other mainlaine standaline FF games. I do expect and hope to get like 30h out of it, esp. since I'm the kinda of player who meticiously checks ever nook and cranny.

My only concern is that the demo was super easy. But FFVII if I recall startet out rather easy as well, so here is hoping to things picking up later on.

As for Nioh 2 I'll say that it is proper brilliant. There are small design flaws here and there, but overall it's everything you could ask for in a game like this and in my view it is Team Ninja at their absolute best. The most important aspect is that virtually all of the game can be played in co-op (there are some 1-on-1 missions as well as the Dojo missions that afaik you have to play solo, but most other submissions as well as all mainmissions work) and that's really a great deal of fun. The co-op is also straightforward. One player host a match for friends, those can simply join the lobby, a mission is selected and then things get underway. Progress is shared between coop and single-player, which is crucial to me, since I hated how in Bloodborne progress counted only for the "hosting" player and the whole system was super obtuse to initially setup. Be warned though, that currently the PSN is broken during the day, so at least for me an my buds, we can only play after like 11 p.m. at night.

It's basically Sekiro meets Diablo. For many players, that will be a dream come true. I think it's a fair bit easier than Nioh 1 to be honest, but that may be in some part due to me "learning the ropes" in Nioh 1 as well as co-op of course, having played Nioh 1 only solo. Still, even in Solo missions I tend to take bosses within 1-3 attempts, when in Nioh 1 I often took a dozen tries.

I also think the game is ALOT easier than Sekiro in my book. I've beaten all the bosses in Sekiro except the final one since sadly my vacation ran out then, I haven't gotten back to the game since, but I do remember that some fights took me like a whole day to nail down, like the fight against Owl for instance. I think I am 2/3 through Nioh 2 now (the 1st run at least), and none of the bosses took me more than hour, with several of them going down 1st try - definitely in co-op.

Be aware though (although you probably know this already having tried Nioh 1), that Sekiro and Nioh 2 are vastly different games, despite some similiarites. Parrying for instance works entirely different, with completely different timing windows, additional effects skewing these windows even further and in general ... I don't parry in Nioh 2 at all. I dodge or block as the pay-off in Nioh 2 is not worth the risk. It's way more important to get your burst counters in, which more about positioning than timing though (at least with Brutes and Ferals).

In general, I absolutely addored Sekiro, but I also love Nioh 2. Both share a commong setting and some mechanical similarities being both "soulsborne" games, but Nioh 2 in many ways is much closer to Demon Souls than Sekiro actually. Still, some aspects still flat out do not work in Nioh 2. The level design ins subpar compared to Soulsborne. The way the world is split into small areas accessible as missions kinda of kills the sense of place. Both of which makes the environmental storytelling barely existent and really hurts the atmosphere. Nioh 2 is also super grindy compared to your typical Soulsborne. You have not just levels to worry about, but weapon familiarity as well as Skill proficiency for Ninja/Samurai/Shiftling and Magic skills individualls as well as for each weapontype seperately.

THe way way Nioh 2 is structured is more like a game like Diablo. It's "real" meat is the endgame content/ New Game+ where all the real good gear awaits and the game opens up giving you tools for proper builds and min-maxing. That is not everyone's cup of tea and I say as a single-player game, you play only once start to finish to experience the world and the story, Nioh 2 is inferior to Sekiro in many ways.

As an extended experience, where you try dozen of different builds, optimize your gear and play a fair bit of co-op, it is clearly superior to Sekiro, which had no multiplayer and only a very limited NG+, that was - in my view - aimed at hardcore fans, offering little new options over your 1st run expect to experience a tougher challenge (the game was plenty tough already though imho) as well as to experience the other endings.

The story in Nioh 2 is pretty hard to follow if you do not have extensive background knowledge of Japanese history in the Sengoku period. Times, places and famous individuals are heavily referenced and prominently featured in the game, but if you only go by the cutscenes between missions you will have a hard time really "getting it" nor will you be invested in what is happening. Nioh 2's storytelling is entirely unlike Soulsborne, but given the games particular structure I feel the game is poorly severed by this traditional linear cut-scene heavy storytelling.

It's something that did not really work for me in Nioh 1 and it sitll doesn't work here. Given the games qualities, as I elabored above, plus the excellent combat mechanics (allowing like Demon Souls did for ranged combat builds, with magic or Ninja skills for instance as well as very cool melee combat), that is something I can easily forgive though. I don't think people spend 200h with Diablo 3 for the story either ...

Long story short, if you look challenging, fast paced action games, set in the setting of Sekiro, you'll like it. If you liked Nioh 1, you will like it. If you like Team Ninja games, you will like it. If you like loot-and-min-max'ing heavy games like Diablo, you will like it.

I'd say it stands overall toe-to-toe with Sekiro. Both games focus on different aspects on the Soulsborne genre. But both largely succeed in their particular endeavours. Final note: Like I said, if parrying ain't your thing in general, do not worry, blocking, dodging is the name of the game in Nioh 2 and the only areas where parry comes in is burst countering, but that is far, far, far, far, far more forgiveable than Sekiro. If you could handle Sekiro you will be more than fine in Nioh 2, trust me. Compared to that, it's a cakewalk. If you ever want to play Nioh 2 (or just talk trash ^^) feel free to hit me up on PSN (Ralek_US) btw.

As for Caligula, I read as much in other reviews as well, particularly about how long the encounters take and how many there are. I feel like combat is really cool, but from what I've seen and read, it does not evolve all that much and it lacks the "snappiness" and style of, say, Persona 5, which made each fight feel like the coolest thing, and it was very brisk at it as well.

I bought Culdcept already. Not sure when I'll get to it, but it sure looks very much down my alley. I do love deep cardbattling systems and it seems to have that in spades, plus some cool twist to it. Looking forward to immersing myself into it eventually.

@NightMiroir I would too but I've already played and finished P5 with like 120h on the clock, so even given the changes and extra content, it's much fresher in my mind than FFVII and obviously FFVII Remake is a vastly more drastic overhaul than Royal ^^

And yeah, Nioh 2 is absolutely fantastic as well with copious amount of content, not to mention everyone's best friend: the backlog ^^

You're right though, I'll wait for a really good bargain with Caligula. Definitely want to try that combat system myself some day, but that's really no rush. Culdcept I'm going to get though. That intrigued me since the 360 days

@NightMiroir Thanks for the input. I think I'll hold off then and pick it up eventually at a better deal. FFVIIR will keep me plenty busy, I guess, still playing Nioh 2 and actually kinda itching to (re)play Persona 5 Royal come tomorrow

So all of them huh ... yet both Baten Kaitos 1&2 Remastered and FE RoR/RD are too much to ask, Nintendo? Because we lack Mario content on the Switch? Come on!

That aside more classy games are always welcome

Gonna get Culdcept. Wanted to try that forever, but never got around to it. Seems like as good an opportunity as I am going to get, given with whats going on.

I'm also curious about Caligula Effect. The combat always looked intriguing but the reviews are so mixed to say the least of it. Anyone tried the Switch version yet?

I have FF VII Remake PO'ed, so I do have most of FF needs covered for now. Thought up finally picking up FF X remastered, but having done a little reading just now, it seems to run in 4K on X1X, where it's also on sale. Going to go with that version then.

I also really enjoyed the Oninaki demo, but given what most reviews said, the game does not evolve much, and I can see the demo gameplay get stale a dozen hours in. I'll wait for hopefully deeper sale.

@retro_player_22 Not sure I get what you are saying. You wouldn't/ don't care because ... it's on Xbox or what are you getting at.

I dunno about the Metacritic score, haven't used Metacritic in years, but given what I saw myself, the issues are real and extend far beyond anything Digital Foundry specializes in.

It's fair to enjoy the game in it's own right. If the developer had intended that though, they'd better had made their own game instead of remaking someone else's creation. I guess, that is oldfashioned thinkin, but I feel that such an effort should always consider the effort made by the people that came before. If you are basically doing a 1:1 remaster, with little to no of your own input, you better make it the best it can reasonably be. Under no circumstances whatsoever can you "invent" problems that the original never had (like those overlapping rectangles or the dragoons weird*** take on head bobbing). That's a big No! to me, and the latter actually messing with the gameplay, is like ... it's kinda disrespectful to the clean arcade-action-orientied design of the original.

Alas, that is just old grumpy me.

Looks cool actually! Love the look of it.

Still gonna pick it up at some point, in the hopes of one day getting Saga remastered or even remade. That's what I'm really looking forward to. Personally, I think it doesn't get better than Orta anyways, so all of these are just a bonus, erring heavily on the side of nostalgia.

Having said that, I'm disappointed to see that some issues that seemed odd from the outset, like how the dragoon bobs up down during flight or how the aiming rectangles overlapp with it (what the **** ... I figured this must be some bug, but apparently isn't, never seen anything like that in an on-rails-shooter), were not ironed out.

I'm not a fan of how they turned it into a cartoony game as well, from the basic geometry, to the color choices and lighting. The mood is very different from the original, but that was not necessarily a deal breaker, esp. not to someone who might not even ever have played the original.

Still, a classic game deserved better treatment. Hopefully the attempt for the second game will be vastly more ambitious. I mean, this is out days before Resident Evil 2 remake. No one expected close to that level of commitment, sure, but still, in comparison, this just seems like weaksauce - or just disappointing

@retro_player_22 Orta holds up much better in general. It's a very modern game in comparison and all in all more involved. You are probably aware, but Orta is available on Xbox One, on XBX it even runs in native 4K. Series X will apparently add HDR support by way of machine learning, which given all the effects in the game, will most likely look nothng short of spectacular. Not to trash this "remake", but Orta on XBX is the all-around superior game by miles, plus even more aesthetically pleasing and running way better (silky smooth 60fps).

@Bermanator Have you tried Rez Infinite on PSVR? It's absolutely mindblowing. It's already a crazy good time on a decent TV set, but on PSVR it's really an experience, and that's not hyperbole. Sure, a couple runs in, it does not wow you same as in the beginning, but that 1st run in VR ... nothing too shabby I gotta say

I do really love these shadow drops for games, but with this one, I'll wait for the Xbox One version. I already have Orta on Xbox, which looks amazing in 4K, and with Auto-HDR coming later this year, I've gotten extremely reluctant buying multiplatform games anywhere else. Well, except for games I feel I'd really love to play portable or actually prefer on handheld.

Can't see myself dropping Nioh 2 for this either, so it's probably for the best

Still, quite the nice surprise, and if the situation were different, I'd definitely be picking it up right now! Also, nice "Mini" Direct - did not see that coming at all!

Sounds good, as I generally love sRPGs and card games. It does look horrible though. I mean, the 2D assets look decent enough actually, but the 3D assest? Boy oh boy

Has that "generic middle-of-the-road budget 3D visuals" (quite the mouthful ^^) look to it, that unfortunately has the potential to take you right out of the experience, esp. if the game has a heavy focus on narrativen, setting, atmosphere and such. Less of an issue for a multiplayer game then, but for a story-driven RPG? Kinda a big deal.

Not saying it is a deal breaker, if the gameplay is really good, and maybe some decent voice acting and music, it won't matter that much.

I'm currently playing Operation Darkness on X360. The game features decent music, very strong voice acting und really good 2D character art. Unfortunately, the 3D side of things is butt-ugly, like cheap late-PS2 era ugly. Still, it is an sRPG with a lot of heart and one of the coolest settings out there for RPGs such as this (think basically Hellsing as a jRPG, as you'll be fighting alot of Nazi Vampires and Tiger Tanks among others).

Might be good to have a demo for this then. I'm only playing Operation Darkness because the setting intrigued me enough to try the demo, which in turn - despite some other flaws like a really unwieldy camera for instance - sold me on the entire experience. Also, demos are a good idea in general. Some games might not be ideally suited for being demo'ed, but this, I assume would.

Seeing as it is on Steam though, there is always the option to try it their and return it, if it's not to one's liking. I generally don't bother with that though, hence I'd definitely prefer a demo

@NEStalgia That does sound like a dangerous mix of ignorance and unintended consequences, that rear their ugly head. I do think that the "cosmopolitan generation" probably played a part in spreading the virus, as did the cheapness of going by plane in general (which has been raising questions ever since the word carbon emissions was ... well, a thing), but on the other hand, there is no denying that we live in a globalized world and no virus is going to stay in one place for long in this world. It's not something I can really lament though. It's good that the world is connected. It's our one best shot at not just a peace, but also technological, societal and cultural progress. We are less prone to shot each other, if we know and understand each other, if we learn from each other and if that relationship provides benefits for everyone involved. I'm certainly someone who is glad he gets to enjoy the cultural output of the world at large from Japan to U.S. I cannot imagine a world without all of that.

I think this whole crisis is - like all crisis probably are at heart - a huge opportunity for us. It could be an opportunity to realize that not ALL globalization is necessary or even good. That some trading we do, causes more harm than good (an issue we saw give rise to Trump among others long before this virus struck). But also what work we value in what way.

It is strange but part of the news that break my heart the most is seeing picture of italian nurses collapsed from exhaustion. These people do a rough job EVERY damn DAY of the year. Now, the do an impossible job, but rough? It's always rough. I spend my social year working as a caregiver in an elderly living facility, and that changed my outlook significantly. These people provide essential services, their job puts demands on their body and psyche that are often extreme under normal circumstances, yet they get no respect in society, like zip - definitely outside of Sunday sermons - and they get payed close to nothing as well.

Then there is public service. An area that has been bled dry of personell for years on end now. Local public health deparments were understaffed years before this crisis hit. They were barely able to fulfill their legal obligations as it were. Obviously they are by and large overwhelmed by this stuation.

The idea of a "slims state", not just effective but efficient, less people, doing ever more tasks, has already reached a breaking point, but this crisis works as kind of focus lense to bring into sharp focus the shortcomings of our societies structure. If and when the dying starts for real here, as it sadly has in Italy, this contrast will become even more stark.

Then there is like nature. Amazing pictures of cities free of smog. Wildlife return to Venedig ... Satelite image showing parts of Europe almost free from emissions by comparison with weeks before. People work from home and some might realize that it is not necessary spending two hours a die driving back and forth by car ... It's not all bad, is what I am trying to say.

From what I can tell, most people around here actually adhere to the curfew and restrict themselves to the base necessities. People are barely any more concerened with "personal space" than they were before. There are plenty of examples of individuals that go the extra mile, like providing support to elderly neighbours for instance, but also police reports of "teens" (some of them like laaaaateeee teens sadly) intentionally "coughing" at seniors citizens while screaming Corona. And no, I am not kidding.

I share your anger and in fact, from what I can tell, deep resentment at folks who STILL haven't caught on now. Who still behave as if they are not just invulernable but in fact an island, unable to hurt anyone else. No man or woman is an island though. The lack of empathy and just common decency a part of the population is displaying, and has been displaying for like two weeks now (that made this curfew necessary in the first place) was sadly not surprising, but still very much unsettling. Seeing young police officers being yelled at by citizens because they are told to ... well, get lost, or even worse in a way, seeing supermarket staff being yelled because there is no toilet paper left ... what can I say, I had experience that made me question folks humanity und a very fundamental level. I mean.. don't yell at people that keep your markets stocked, but people who do it these days? How about a "thank you"!!?? I wouldn't want to work in a supermarket, not ever, but defintely not now.

Some people are obviously beyond morally bankrupt. They have zero empathy and no sense of responsibility beyond their immediate social circle. They might still be loving fathers or mothers or whatever, and care for their parents and friends, but boy, anything beyond that circle is apparently barely even human as soon as the going goes even a bit rougher.

It is disgusting, and the fact remains that we might face worse pandemics or other comparable crisis yet to come so.... what to do? What do we do about people that will still ignore all public health advice when the next virus hits, that might not kill 2% of infected, but 40%?

Then these ***holes might quite literally be the death of us all. I have no real answer, but what I said above about the things that are hopeful, makes me think that this might demonstate to a democratic majority of folks that we need to find a different way of dealing with life outside of a crisis, so that we are better prepared for a life within a crisis. Like how we need to foster and train empathy on a daily basis, because it does not just suddenly appear out of thin air, when it is needed most, in times like this, within weeks or even just days.

And I do feel that might have to go down the uncomfortable road of setting examples. Nobody wants to do that. But when I read news about a company like Gamestop ordering their employees to stay open because they "provide essential services", I do feel like action has to be taken. Like severe action, within the legal framework of course. People that make these kind of decisions, putting thousands of lifes at risk for very little reason other than a very shortterm economic gain, need to be REPONSIBLE and in a pubilic manner.

Social control only works, if people have the knowledge to "enforce" it. That at times demands that some examples be made.

As Thomas Mann has once written so famously: "Tolerance becomes a crime once applied to evil".

There gotta be limits to the publics patience, and ignoring all public necessity for ones own selfish enjoyment, is certainly a form of evil. We ought not tolerate that, we really ought not.

@Alpha008 I figure that is only the number of people caught and actually sanctioned not just reprimanded. The dark figure of idiots is like much, much higher. Having said that, "idiots" is not really an approriate term imho. Considering that someone at 31 is hardly the group most at risk (still a risk though), he is mainly potentially endangering third parties. If idiots want to go down Niagra falls in a barrel ... sure, why not. There is a reason we have something like the Darwin Awards after all

There are acurate terms for folks who just don't care or don't bother to stop to consider the well-being of others, much more at risk than themselves. I'm not gonna spell it out, because I'm trying to respect the community rules here.

As it always is in life: The second you or someone close to yo or some close to some close to you ^^ is affected by this, it stop being even one tiny bit funny to "Go catch'em all" consequences be damned. I am not even going to point out, that there is such a thing as setting a bad example for a child. That much ought to be obvious, but then again, there is no one stopping anyone from procreating - it's one of the areas where "anything goes" is still the rule of the land!

@Maxz Isn't it also worth noting that, from what I read, Japan has now tested about the same amount of individuals as South Korea is roughly testing A DAY? In other words, how reliable is any infection rate reported out of Japan really?

From what I understand, it's been just over two weeks since testing in private hospital was even allowed (!?) and the costs were covered by national insurance.

I do hope the rate of infection is actually as low as it is being reported these days. Whether this is more than solemn hope is entirely unclear to me though. Given that Japan has a much higher urban population focus than other major affected areas in Germany, and more so France and Northern Itality I am very curious if early school closures can really account for the vast gulf between the infection rates.

Quite possibly, the numbers are under stated and Japan is just a week or two behind the curve, so to speak. I hope that turns out to be entirely wrong, but given what we know ... it's a worrisome situation if you ask, esp. if life is already going back to normal, as you suggest. Stay safe!

@Peshokinha That would be more amusing, if the mortality rate among the elderly were less devastating than it actually is and if Japan had ... less of an elderly population.

@roboshort It's just not entirely clear to me why Japan would be that much less affected than South Korea. It might be ... but might also not be and just not be aware - as you say - yet. The tragedy here is that by the time this crisis hits local hospital and makes people notice, it'll already be to late to stop this from becoming wide-spread and taking its toll on senior population as well as those vulnerable to it for other reasons.

I'm not expert, but those who are - the WHO chief among them - has consistenly called for PREVENTIVE measures ... Japan seems kinda of in a bubble here from what I can tell. I pray that this is not a miscalculation on their part

@Beetoe I'm neither religious nor one for empty words, but given the times: thoughts and prayers, my friend, and ... stay safe!

Beyond that, I sincerely hope that Abe is above downplaying a serious crisis for sake of the Olympics. I mean, it is not gonna work either way, is it? It's an international mega event, and even with 0 infections in Japan, I can't for the life of me, figure out how it could be considered a reasonable idea to go forward with it under the best of circumstances. I guess in theory, they could test every single individual coming in and going out, but .... no, not worth the risk.

Also, why not just postpone it? I get that this is a severe measure for the people affected and the tradition as well, but in the face of a global pandemic with severe economic implications on top if it, it is hardly beyond the pale.

Seriously, what could be less in taking with the Spirit of the Olympic games than putting business before health and human lifes? It would be an utter travesity, if these games led to but one entirely avoidable death!

These do not look like queues where people keep a distance of 1.5 m to 2 m each ... not all. I live in Bavaria and like an hour ago, we had declared a universal state wide curfew starting at midnight. Point being, it is kinda ... well, creepy to see people huddle together like this for a videogame of all things.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people get something they enjoy, and glad for the game's apparent success, but still ... just creepy. I mean Italy runs military transport at nights to get all the bodies that are literally piling up left and right cremated and in Japan, where there is from my understanding very, very little testing done possibly for political reasons, we get pictures of queues like that.

It is simply hard to understand and again: creepy to think about.

@Grumblevolcano I just realized this, my bad, but why are we êven talking "reveal" at all.

We haven't seen the system. It has NOT been revealed. It's existence has been know way beforehand, so has the logo ... we still have no idea what it looks like, or what it costs or when it launches. Makes zero sense to title this a "reveal" event - even if it hadn't been a GDC talk. The system was not revealed. I even checked their twitter feed: "a deep dive into PS5’s system architecture" ... Oo

Sorry, but going through more comments, reading yours, that thought just struck me ^^

@PanurgeJr You can argue whether you or anyone else were the target audience. That is everyone's prerogative, but it still was their GDC talk. I'll grant you that this could have been made much clearer, but I think the issue is (or was) that most people probably did not quite "get" what that actually entailed. So people might have realized on some level, that this was "just" their GDC talk, but still expected a kind of reveal event or something akin to an E3 stage presentation.

Given that this was their GDC talk, broadcasting at the time the GDC would have been held, if it hadn't been cancelled due to the Corona-crisis, this was never going to happen.

I don't think there is any need then for apologists, because what you are talking about is expectations. Sony ought to have known that this would rub people the wrong way, and the least they ought to have done is make an announcement when the "actual" presentation people want to see is coming, but ... rest assured, what folks were expecting (in my view still, without reason) IS still coming.

Having said that, it's not like the public is generally without interest or any access to GDC, even though it is primarily a ... developers conference. There is always some reveal or what not targeted at the gaming audience at large.

I'd also like to point out, that Sony sadly failed to achieve what they set out to do: Make their vision clear.
How do I know? Well, I spend a fair bit amount of time reading comments, analysis (^^) and watching influencer videos and it becomes readily apparent that folks, even those who deal with this kind of news professionally, don't really grasp what Sony was shooting for. The best example is all the talk about loading times, and how Sony might be faster in loading games .... as if that was even remotely the pertinent point they were trying to made.

Just look at the comment right above by @retro_player_22 for one example here (among thousands like it, not meant to throw shade at any one person plz!).

Cerney made it clear, that they aimed to set developers free from a restriction that has been a guiding post for any game made in the last 20 years and that this is a big deal.

Sadly, that kinda got drowned out in the war about teraflops and SSD space and whatnot.
That much was obviously going to happen. I'm gonna come out and say it: Most people are somewhat simple minded with this stuff and are happy to rage and talk **** and most of all: BE TRIBAL.

Yes, people enjoy their Tribalism and having their biases reinforced. That is my main criticism of articles like this one here. It reads like "You made the right choice buying a Switch, and being an Nintendo fanboy. Nintendo gotz the joy, Sony gotz the techno brabble."

Yes, they gotz the techno brabble, but for some games that are not aimed for SNES nostalgia (nothing wrong with that, but it is just one aspect of gaming ^^), that kind of techno brabble is kinda essential to make the kind of things happen, a dev has been desperate to do for decades.

I see how this kind of unprecedented leap is hard to grasp right away, how the implications feel far off and intangible, but I do kinda expect more from fans of a company priding itself for their innovative spirit and for giving developers the tools to make dreams come true.

I look around and I see little to exactly none of that spirit.

Anywho, no, you were obviously not the primary target audience. No hard feelings about it, but it is just the way it is. Sony is not beholden to your or anyone elses expectations. The kind of...

"This is our box, it is $ XXX and launches on XX.11.2020. Now enjoy a sizzle reel of upcoming games ...!"

... presentation is still coming, be patient. Even Microsoft has not gotten to that point yet, so I am not sure why everyone is this angry for no good reason. Disappointment is kinda understandable, but still also kinda everyone's own fault. I too was down for a moment, because I hoped for more, but spending a mere moment to consider what Sony had put forth, I came away deeply impressed.

This is huge deal, like really one of the biggest in the history of these systems. It's far beyond "more powerful". It's a paradigm shift on more than one level - certainly for PS5 exclusive content, which is frankly, why I would buy a PS5. That kind of stuff happens only ever so often in one's entire lifetime.

Don't suck the joy out of this folks, just don't. It's gonna be good, trust me These days we got enough naysayers on every corner just about everything. There is no reason to joy their ranks, because you are ... IMPATIENT.

Maybe they will get the rights to creating games based on those IPs, but I can't see it going any further than that. Still, I'd love to see P. T. become a reality, esp. as a PS5 exclusive. Kojima proved that he and his company are more than capable of taking advantage of a system like that and given Death Stranding success and quality (at least I for one came away impressed and truly moved by the experience) this could potentially turn into another milestone for them.

Bringing P. T. back for PS5 would also be marketing gold. I'm also not opposed to Castlevania. I recently re-played the early parts of Lord of Shadows and while not flawless, I still feel it holds up well and is actually a bit of rough gem, definitely underrated in my book.

I'd be interested to see what they could do with the rights to making games for it.

As for Metal Gear ... I think the series has deserved a rest, at least for now. There will be a time and a place for bringing it back in some form, but for now, let's not beat a dead horse here.

@LUIGITORNADO Thing is, the leap with this gen is not going to be power. I mean, that is there, it's very real, no two ways about it, but given the power budget already available to devs on the Pro and XBX, I have my doubts that people will come away impressed by the significant further gains of PS5 and XSX. Call it diminishing returns if you will, as far as user experience goes.

Now, stuff like the SSD, custom I/O silicon and the Tempest engine ... these are game changers, that will truly show their potential 2 or 3 years down the line, I wager. After that, there is no going back.

I'm sorry, but this article is just plainly written in bad faith:
"they're fighting for the title of the most powerful home console and that's why teraflops and compute units in GPUs matter"

Cerney made a big point about how this was not about "teraflops", but their vision for the future of Playstation, and while yes, the talk was stiff and technical (it was GDC talk, aimed at fellow developers for the most part), it worked pretty well in my view to lay out what they figured mattered for the future on a TECHNICAL level.

This was not a piece of MARKETING aimed at CONSUMERS - it simply was not.

And these things do matter, as we are looking at a fundamental shift in how game design will be approached going forward. The reasons are not "teraflops" so much, but those "I/O speeds" the author more or less ridiculed as if they were just arcane numbers without tangible meaning for game design or gamers themselves.

In short, with Sony approach, if it turns out to actually work that way, their SSD will be able to provide data at blistering speeds, roughly 100x of what has been previously possible on the PS4. This means that the entire RAM (basically, a place where data is cached that is currently needed and data that MIGHT be needed at a moments notice) can be replaced within roughly ~2 seconds.

Now this means that much less of that RAM will be wasted on data that one might need in a few moments, but ultimately does not need at all, because the player behaved one way instead of another. It also means that game design has no longer to account for those possibilities, which was way it has been for like ~30 years now, I guess.

In other words, the levels, and really, the worlds we can build now, are no longer restrained by access to the data that makes them up, so to speak. They can be bigger, truly seamless, incredibly dense and accessed at blistering pace. Basically, we could have a much more denser version of Insomniac's Spider-Man, but instead of swinging through it, we could have an F-Zero or Wipe-Out game set within, with hundreds of divering paths, interactive objects, weather and daylight cycles, physics and what have you all "Played through" at speeds that would actually overwhelm us.

The creative vision will no longer be constrained by the dire question of how one makes sure the right data is in the right place at the right time. That is not a small thing, but one of the biggest leaps in technology, enabling new and unrestricted experiences, we've ever seen.

I'm not gonna even get into what they are trying to do for audio, which has seen little to no progress in almost two decades.

Anywho, this write-up is not born out of due dilligence, hardly even an opinion piece ... honestly, I don't know what the point of it is. It comes across plainly ignorant imho - sorry to say.

To the point of ignorance: This will also help make games smaller btw. Why? Because SSDs have no seek times, meaning any particular piece of data can be accessed just like that. Developers will no longer have to restort to creating duplicates grouped together with other data for faster access (to severly oversimplify the issue).

That is also tangible as far as benefits go, just as the fact that games are aimed at loading times of roughly a second, instant respawn, instant fast travel and so on. Having read reviews on that very side, that point to long loading times as a detriment to enjoyment .... whatever, point being: there is more than one approach to gaming hardware and Nintendo is not the only one doing stuff in an innovative manner.

Back-to-business-as-usual is not going to happen by end of July - unfortunately. Things might be less severe, but this kind of big gathering with folks from all over ... nope, can't say I see any way how this could be considered anything but a terrible idea within at the very least the next 6 month, if not significantly longer depending on a number of variables.

I understand how they might not want to make a decision right now, if it's still this long off, but I wager that in the end, it will get cancelled never the less. Not sure what the Olympics are waiting for though, that just strikes be as beyond irresponsible. I get how that is a much bigger "loss", if you will, but still, the notion of the Olympics in Japan of all places, sounds not just insane but downright insidious - different topic though ^^

Looking forward to it. I wonder if there will be another stealth drop at the end.

Still hoping for Invisible Inc. on Switch, but most of all I'd love to see more off Sports Story and maybe get a release date.