Ralizah

Didn't care for the original Ni no Kuni at all. Maybe this one will improve on the problem areas in that game.

Still need to try one of these games.

If FH6 is set in Japan, I probably won't be able to resist playing it. If it runs OK on my computer, that is.

Soul Hackers 2, for sure. It's what I resubbed to play. No interest in the rest.

@EvilSilentFrame I don't even own a modern Xbox console and I'm all over Microsoft Rewards. They're actually super generous with points if you combine web searches/quizzes + Game Pass quests.

Contrast is supposedly a very quick experience, so scoring three achievements in it probably shouldn't take too long.

Supposedly Little Witch doesn't even have achievements.

@Romans12 The ten year deal was to port CoD games to Nintendo systems, not to grant access to Xbox Game Pass.

@Romans12 Game Pass is not on Switch.

@InterceptorAlpha What good TV series does Nintendo have?

@NEStalgia Engage is probably the most tactically satisfying FE game to date. Or at least on par with Conquest. The "weebier" these games get, the more improved their tactical gameplay is.

Mario + Rabbids 2 underperformed because the Nintendo playerbase wised up to Ubisoft's pricing antics. Strangely enough, parading around the first game on sale for $10 with all DLC included made people less willing to part with $100 for the game + all DLC. You literally couldn't go anywhere online without people making "this game will be $10 in a year" comments.

Nintendo fans are less used to and accepting of abusive pricing strategies like this. When we pay full price for a game, we expect it won't be in the bargain bin within the year.

Although it's also true that Switch is wildly oversaturated with SRPGs at this point. I'm actually sort of surprised the genre is still selling as well as it is, given this fact.

As someone who was a pretty big fan of the Xbox 360 (minus the controller), I've given up on the brand when it comes to Japanese games outside of the most mainstream publishers like Capcom and Sega. The player base doesn't seem interested in those games, and Japanese publishers frequently need to be bribed with GP deals to even consider porting their games to the platform. The existence of the Xbox fan who is also into Japanese games is one that is marked by pure, unfettered suffering, which is why you don't see very many of them.

Nintendo either exists or doesn't exist depending on the point these companies are attempting to make. It's silly, but if it keeps them from being sucked into this never-ending legal drama, I doubt they care too much.

@NEStalgia @mousieone It'd be pretty sad if a Wii U-exclusive flop did worse than a flop available on most modern platforms! The funny thing is that I think the Switch remaster somehow did worse, despite nearly everything selling better on Switch. Aside from those twelve people who really wanted a TMS remaster, everyone was over it.

I own both versions of the game, btw.

It's hard to imagine this particular development team getting more work any time soon. Even Atlus' less well-known series, like Etrian Odyssey, still tend to find a passionate niche that love and support them.

I should appreciate their work properly, though. I've only played through the first several dungeons of TMS on Wii U. I'll be playing Soul Hackers 2 soon, and then, afterward, I'll go back and give the Switch version of TMS a proper go.

@HarmanSmith "I know BT is a talented studio (otherwise, Konami wouldn't have chosen them for the Silent Hill remake) but I am not a fan. "

Considering their botched HD collection of the PS2 games and the way they handed the series off to random Western developers to mess with in the seventh gen, I'm not entirely sure I agree with this sentiment.

I do hope Bloober doesn't botch the remake, though. SH2 is a classic and deserves only good things.

@mousieone Ralizah#6794 on Discord. Unsure what code you're referring to, but feel free to hit me up!

@NEStalgia Skipping the one platform where JRPGs tend to sell consistently well was a mistake. Especially considering, by all accounts, it's effectively just a prettied-up PS2 game in terms of the game design.

It's not only one of their lower-selling games, but was panned by both audiences and critics. Like, it was received significantly worse than Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and that's a game that actively irritated both fanbases in its respective crossover.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/soul-hackers-2

I do want to play it, because even mediocre Atlus games are fun, but man, was this a colossal misfire!

@NEStalgia There's no getting off this ride. Even if we bomb ourselves back into the dark ages, we'll eventually just regroup and try again at some point. It's in our nature.

As a weeby teen in the early 00s, I grew up watching Japanese media that went to pains to warn me about the dangers of information technology when it becomes sufficiently integrated into human life, so it will be with little grief that I watch the downfall and painful transformation of human civilization into something unrecognizable.

Kinda wish I hadn't used my $1 f/three months deal last year. Oh well.

I'd be surprised if SH2 doesn't also go to PSPlus Extra at some point. This game was a megabomb, and Sega will likely do whatever they can to make their money back.

Sony is going to fight this deal until the very last moment. And why wouldn't they? Their whining has already called the very future of this acquisition into question. There is zero incentive for them to play ball.

If it comes down to it, they'll sign a 'deal' if the only alternative is having no access to the series at all.

@NEStalgia AI research was always going to get to this point eventually, with or without government involvement. It's the inevitable result of persistent scientific advancement.

Like all technology, it'll be abused by powerful actors, and we just have to hope we overcome whatever hurdles lie in front of us. Although given the instability of the U.S. atm socially and politically, I'm inclined to think our country won't survive the transition process.

For better or for worse, societies like China and India are probably going to define the mid-to-late twenty-first century.

Just waiting until one of these AI deepfakes triggers a major political event like a war or uprising of some sort. You know it's coming.

@Total_Weirdo No real interest in this game, but I won't lie, I'm deeply interested in seeing how the Switch version fares.

Monster Hunter has been gradually refining and polishing its own formula for decades, so the fact that this doesn't compare favorably to Rise doesn't especially bother me.

The monster design will be a big thing, though. It's arguably the biggest point of contention in any game that centers around collecting or battling fictional animals. Monster Hunter has built up an iconic bestiary over the years, and it'll be difficult go for something similar without it feeling like a mere imitation.

Less. Why would I buy a game I already have access to on PC Game Pass?

And if a new game launches on GP, I won't buy it at a non-discounted price on any platform, even if I don't intend to play the GP release. At that point, I'm waiting for a 50%+ discount at minimum before I try your game.

I don't think it's an accident that big AAA titles tend to avoid the service for a good while after launch, or that smaller publishers are often eager to have their games included.

I know some gamers decry the lack of AAA content on GP, but its most effective function really does seem to be to shine a spotlight on smaller content that might otherwise get lost amidst a busy release schedule of bigger third-party titles.

Basically, if your sales expectations are low, it's a pretty massive net positive to get both the payout from Daddy Warbucks and have attention called to your product. If you expect to sell hundreds of thousands or millions of units on Xbox, though? Ehh, maybe not so much.

I will say that there are at least a few games I haven't bought because they launched on Game Pass. I was gonna grab the console port of Omori at launch, but I couldn't stomach paying $29.99 when it was free on GP. The same will likely be true of Silksong.

Overall, though, I do see it as being beneficial to smaller devs and publishers.

@NEStalgia Just sounds like it's dropping to 50fps in spots. Not ideal, but still sort of an overblown problem, IMO. Honestly, framerate dips are practically an integral part of the Novigrad experience at this point.

Or, you know, go play Persona 5, which you've bought, like, three times now!

@NEStalgia The game has been perfectly playable since 2015.

Really hope this sells decently. I at least want remasters of the first three games and a sixth mainline entry before the series goes dark again.

Since I tend not to like emulating games, I have no experience with this entry, so it's as good as a brand new game to me.

On Xbox? Almost certainly Monster Hunter Rise. It's an awesome game.

Overall? Fire Emblem Engage. 63 hours deep in just two weeks. I can't stop playing it.

He's not very well going to come out and say that the future of Xbox is bleak and that he has no faith in the future of the brand, now is he?

Starfield is the only one of these titles I'm interested in, although "excited" is a strong word. That last showcase sapped a lot of my enthusiasm for the title. We'll see what happens, though.

@Xiovanni Xbox 360 was my main console during the seventh gen, and I've still never touched a Halo game, lol

@Dezzy70 I know the showcase footage was a little choppy, but surely Starfield will have a 60fps option on Series X. It's such a powerful console. I know Bethesda games are poorly optimized, but it's difficult to imagine the game won't manage higher framerates on a 12TF system.

I'll be shocked if there's isn't at least an option for a lower-resolution performance mode.

@NEStalgia I guess Craig memes are going to end up being the only enduring positive legacy this game left behind.

@Dezzy70 Wait, which of their games only run at 30fps? I know Gotham Knights did, but that's a third-party game.

Nothing should be running at 30fps on modern power consoles. I put up with it on Switch because that's the price you pay for gaming on a glorified gaming tablet that was out of date half a decade ago.

@NEStalgia I'd like to think the big man has confidence in his own product.

Christ, he really lays it on thick with the schmaltz, doesn't he?

I also enjoy how he never misses an opportunity to boost Sony's releases in his statements. He's a better spokesman for the Playstation brand than Jim Ryan is. Who has, by the way, spent the last year jetting around the world trying to sabotage the future of the division you're running.

The pure "kill it with fire" attitude toward Halo Infinite is so funny after the initially super positive reception it enjoyed.

Is Halo Infinite really that bad? Like, speaking from a Nintendo fan perspective, I thought Splatoon 3 was kind of a mediocre sequel on the Switch, but it's still fun to pop into from time to time. I couldn't imagine retiring the series or something just because it wasn't a GOTY contender.

@Dezzy70 No interest in Starfield or... whatever else happens to be releasing this year, I take it?

@mousieone I'm guessing the big reason we never got a physical of Sunbreak is because of how expensive the bigger Switch carts tend to be. Which makes me wonder how physical games are going to work out on the successor, when they're pushing higher resolution textures and whatnot.

@stvevan I think Rise is digital only on everything other than Switch.

It's a real shame there's no cross-platform play here. Or at least cross-save.

@stvevan You realize access to Sunbreak requires beating MHR, right? So you're gonna beat the game on Xbox, then go back and beat the game again on PS5 so that you can play Sunbreak on there? Why not just play it on PS5, in that case?

I'm not criticizing, but I am curious.

Sounds like they're following the same path EA took with Dead Space, lol. Even that series didn't sell 5 million at its peak. Unless you're Capcom, 5+ million sales for a horror game is unrealistic.

Amazing these companies can secure so much funding for development and not really have manageable expectations for how the market will react.

That pig in the header image is pure nightmare fuel.

@Kaloudz Several months back, a multiplatform remake of the Japan-only Wii entry, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, was announced during a Nintendo Direct.

https://youtu.be/5CwTfLlGMug

@Kaloudz Let's hope people actually buy the Fatal Frame 4 remake when it releases in March. For anybody in the West who didn't play a translated ISO, it's effectively a new game.

@abe_hikura Sony is only really interested in the AAA stuff. Smaller releases almost all seem to be Switch-focused, with many of them being exclusive to the platform.

I feel like a lot of excellent games this year are going to fall victim to their own hype cycles, Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield included.

Can't wait to see how my 2015 GPU chokes on this game!

Most of the best experiences in any medium typically aren't the ultra-mainstream stuff that everyone fixates on. It always amuses me when "core gamers" brag about only playing AAA games. Which, to me, would be like someone claiming to be a cinephile who only watches The Fast and the Furious, Marvel blockbusters, Star Wars, etc.

There's absolutely room in my heart for big, loud, spectacle-driven experiences that cost a fortune to make and sell 10+ million copies. But there's so many richer experiences to be had if one should look just under the surface of what is offered up for mainstream consumption.

@Would_you_kindly I'm not bashing the PS1. It's one of my all-time favorite consoles. But Sony signed multiple exclusivity agreements back in the day, including with Square, which locked down several major players in the Japanese gaming market. It's just how they do things, and have done things, as long as they've been in the industry. It wasn't even until the PS3 that they started to develop first-party games that could compete with what Microsoft and Nintendo were putting out.

P5R, Omori, Signalis, and Ninja Turtles are the only releases this year that really caught my attention.

Paying publishers to starve rival platforms of software support has been Sony's go-to strategy for generations. Literally since the PS1. I don't know why the thought should alarm people now.

Sony only locks down the AAA stuff from S-E (FFXVI, FFVII Rebirth, and Forspoken currently). As for the smaller stuff (Octopath 2, Front Mission 2 + 3 remakes, FF Pixel Remasters, etc.), I'm willing to bet S-E doesn't bother with Xbox ports unless they can secure Game Pass distribution deals from Microsoft.

It was weird not seeing Octopath 2 be announced for release on Series S/X when the last one was ported to GP and Xbox, for sure. If I had to guess, engagement numbers for it probably weren't great when it went to GP. and Microsoft likely didn't bother offering a similar deal for the sequel. Would also explain why Triangle Strategy was a no-show for the platform.

Microsoft can push for having more JRPGs on the platform, but if people aren't playing them on GP, there's no incentive for them to pay out for future entries or similar games from the same publishers. You see this in reverse when engagement is high with the Yakuza games, for example, where Microsoft is clearly intent on keeping the series available on the service long-term.

Apparently I played on my PS4 a grand total of 47 hours this year. Oof!