Sorry I don't have anything for you today. I'm making slow progress in the games I'm currently on (which is Project X Zone and Xenoblade Chronicles) as for anime, having spent the last few week watching all of Teen Titans, I'm not really prepared on that front either. True, I could review Teen Titans, but having just reviewed Young Justice, I want at least one "True" anime to review before I tackle another series that argued on whether it counts as anime or not. Other than that, I'm currently in a Smash Bros. tournament over on the Mighty No. 9 forums. Well Two tournaments, but I'm knocked out of the "For Glory" bracket rather decisively; however, I'm still in the running in the "For Fun" bracket. I might have those videos for you guys, if I ever get any kind of camera to record off of my 3DS (since I have both matches saved as replays). And so I decided to just rant on about a few games that I'm looking forward to: One of which is a game nearly everyone knows about and are waiting with baited breath to get, the OTHER is a game you probably don't know about.
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| Now that all of your "Squees" have been collected. |
The Xeno series has had a very interesting history, one mainly marked by the current status of it's creators "Monolith Soft." Starting off as Xenogears, while the team was still members of Square, it later became Xenosaga when the Xenogears team left Square to become Monolith and was financed almost entirely by Namco. Then the Xenosaga was cut short and shortly afterwards Monolith was completely bought out by Nintendo and now is running around as Xenoblade. Although with each time this has happen, the story connections between each "series" have been completely cut, the reoccurring thematic elements have made fans regard each of these spiritual successors as part of the same franchise. And now, after the major success of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii (despite it's MASSIVELY limited print run that made copies of the game go for up to $90 used) the game is not only being ported to the New 3DS model, but we are getting a sequel in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Well, at least as much as a sequel as all 15 Final Fantasy games are sequels.
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| To seek out strange new life and civilizations... to murder. |
From what has been revealed, X will keep the basic battle system from Xenoblade with some modifications like switching between weapons on the fly (Namely swapping from ranged weapons to melee weapons) and the ability to target particular body parts of the enemies ala Monster Hunter; however, the plot will be completely original with no concrete connections to the first Xenoblade. Instead of a world of two dead giants, it is a sci-fi story about two alien races going to war with one another and Earth being caught in the crossfire. The survivors of Earth, make a crash landing on the planet Mira, and are now trying to eek out an existence on an alien planet. One of the BIGGEST draws of this game is it's scale as the environments are MASSIVE with everything you can see being a location you can explore. The original Xenoblade Chronicles had a massive environment, but it was quartered off into a number of areas that had to load inbetween. What X promises is an entire uninterrupted world where everything can either be walked to on foot, or flown to by giant robot.
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| There is only so many synonyms for "Big" I can think of to describe this. |
Seriously, if you haven't seen Nintendo's first 40 minute gameplay footage, then you have NO IDEA just how BIG this game is. It is impressive and despite the fact that Nintendo's Wii U is long since dismissed as the Underpowered console among the three, Xenoblade Chronicles X pretty much proves that it isn't the size of your processor that counts, it's how you use it. The only thing I'm skeptical about X is the custom main character. Don't get me wrong, I like custom characters as much as the next guy, and from what I've seen the customization options look impressive (Not as impressive as Phantasy Star Online 2..... SEGA WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FREAKIN' RELEASE THAT IN THE US!!), it's that I'm very big on interpersonal relationships in my stories. That's why I love the Fire Emblem and Persona series so much, and I'm afraid that with this custom character we will have a boring blank slate as our protagonist, unable to make realistic connections with the other members of the party.... Okay, what I want is the ability to hook up with one of the female characters, okay! If I can't hook up with someone who reminds me of Melia, I'm going to be rather disappointed.
Which brings me to the other game I'm going to be talking about, Forbidden Magna.
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| For those of you who can't read Japanese.... Well you can't read Japanese. |
Forbidden Magna is a strange little game that I really shouldn't be as interested in it as I am. But I have had my eye on this game for a while. What it is is a Dating Sim, crossed with an Inn Management simulator, and a Strategy RPG... If you think that is an odd combination then perhaps stating that it is made by the team behind the Rune Factory games would clear up a lot of confusion. Personally, I never got into Rune Factory. I never saw the appeal of Harvest Moon, and I thought Rune Factory's combat and exploration systems where a little to simplified for my tastes. So, why am I interested in Forbidden Magna? Wouldn't running an inn be just as boring as maintaining a farm? Well, yeah. It isn't the Inn management system that I'm interested in (though that may grow on me if I play the game), it is instead the battle system and the SRPG element of the game that has peak my interest.
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| On a scale of 1 to 10, how many of you guys are dead? |
I've seen websites describe the battle system as being akin to Valkyria Chronicles, a game I've played and loved. But when I look at this game I see less Valkyria Chronicles, and more Sakura Wars, which is far more of an apt description of the game given that all of your party members outside of the protagonist are female. From what I've seen, Battles take place on a gridless battlefield, ala Sakura Wars or NIS's Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom, where your maximum movement is represented by a radius from the character's starting position, and attacks likewise have a field of effect that will hit all targets caught. It also appears that most enemies are easily dispatched mooks who are summoned on-mass by harder to kill leaders. It looks really interesting, and I've always enjoyed the battle system in Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (I only wished there where MORE battles in that game), so this might scratch my unconventional SRPG itch I've been having for some time.
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| I'm sure she is saying something along the lines of "I want to be a Maid." |
Unfortunately, as of writing this blog, there has been no announcements about localizing Forbidden Magna in the US. There has been talk of it, XSeed games, for instance, has expressed interest in the game and out of all the companies to handle this kind of project, they are one of the best (it also helps that Marvelous!, the company that owns XSeed, is the company that made Forbidden Magna). However, there is still no confirmation as to whether the game is to be released outside of Japan or not, even after it has seen it's Japanese release early this month. Keep your fingers cross, because it is possible that this is just going to be forgotten among the crowd of new games.
Anyway, I hope I have successfully wasted your time ranting about stuff I care about, and that you are not totally pissed that I don't have a new review.
Until next time.
-Crescent, Dunban!?
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