#square enix when is he gonna be playable…

[reiveriie]

I miss them, chat… I miss them a lot

[themattress]

OK, this post is a little confusing. You constantly speak of rebooting Kairi only to later say "in the new rebooted universe"....which means what you are actually advocating for is rebooting Kingdom Hearts altogether. And yeah, absolutely! I may love Kairi - well, in KH1 and KH2, anyway - and absolutely despise what has been done with her, but she's just one character and not worth throwing everything else out for if that everything else was good. The real issue is that everything else is NOT good. People can hate me all they want for advocating this but I don't care: the corporate heads at Disney and Square need to forcibly take Kingdom Hearts away from Nomura. Its problems are only getting worse the older Nomura gets and the longer he stays in control. It needs someone who can make it the easily accessible, inoffensive franchise that it has absolutely no business not being given its basic concept.

I used to emphasize Sokai, but now I'm more on "meh". Because Sora would not make a good boyfriend based on what happened.

That's because Sora, Kairi and their relationship changed since KH2. Up to that point, they felt like believable teenagers with believably budding feelings of strong friendship turned romantic. But then, Sora just kind of forgets about Kairi. He never mentions her, he never thinks about her, she just doesn't seem like a big concern for him. Sora, meanwhile, is still an all-consuming concern for Kairi, making her look pathetic. That's why even for many former Sokai fans like myself, the sudden push for it in the last few hours in KH3 felt so deeply unsatisfying: it came out of nowhere and after both characters have changed for the worse so much that the chemistry they used to have is nil. And of course, there was no good pay-off for either of them; if anything it kind of ended up showing how them being together was a bad, self-destructive idea, which is as far from the message of the original KH1 as you can get.

@evaundertale: I still think there's hope but your comment about saying Sora and Riku should be sidelined is just never gonna happen. One of the people who worked on kh said the series as a whole involves around Sora and Riku.

First off, there is no hope as long as Nomura is in charge. None. If Nomura wanted to do right by Kairi he would have done so already simply by following the obvious path KH2 had forged for her. Instead he made her OOC and pushed her to the sidelines, then brought her in to sideline her in a different way under the nonsensical justification of "training", and then after all that....well, you know. He then gave her some basic respect when caving to fan pressure with Re:Mind, only to then once again push her to the sidelines, then once again bring her in to sideline her under the "training" justification! Kairi's going in circles and that's how Nomura likes it, I'm afraid, especially after years of vocal Soriku shippers who, unlike you, despised Kairi making their voices heard online clearly caused Kairi deemed to be bad for business among the core consumer base. Why put in effort writing for the most hated character?

Secondly, whoever gave that line about Sora and Riku was bullshitting. Maybe it's true now, but it wasn't true early on in the series. Early on, the series was about Sora, Donald and Goofy. Riku was a major supporting player, but so was Kairi, and Namine, and Roxas, and King Mickey, and the whole Traverse Town / Hollow Bastion crew. Unfortunately, the success of CoM (where Sora and Riku have playable campaigns) and KH2 (where the final boss battle is fought with Sora and Riku) imparted the wrong lessons on Nomura and Square Enix, meaning that, following Days and aside from the whole X sub-series, Sora and Riku became the series' dual protagonists. And that choice has been a disaster for all other characters.

#rebootkairi

I can't say this enough, but Kingdom Hearts really needs to reboot Kairi. Current story has sidelined and mistreated her so badly she's become nothing but "damsel-in-distress" and "useless pink girl" in public eyes. With me being a big Kairi fan, I cannot help but feel skeptical about her future. I'm a firm believer that Nomura will do nothing to develop her character arc and make her a good heroine. Because he never intended to. He hates her and he doesn't want to do anything with her ever again. He's the embodiment of Xehanort and his job is to utterly ruin Kairi.

With Western games emphasizing powers of female lead characters and their cultural impacts, I think Disney needs to wipe the slate clean and reboot Kairi as a whole. She's technically a Disney princess, after all, and Disney itself is dry of a good princess character lately. In the new rebooted universe, Kairi should be a main character, remaining faithful to her origin but being treated as a character, not a plot point. Her troubling background with darkness would give her reasons to fight back and prevent dark entities and masters from taking over worlds.

Now what to do with Sora and Riku? Honestly, I don't care. The two had their fair share of spotlight. They can be put aside to bring fresh characters or other less known KH characters as part of rebooting. I used to emphasize Sokai, but now I'm more on "meh". Because Sora would not make a good boyfriend based on what happened. If I sound like an angry toxic feminist, I'm NOT. I just hate soriku cringe clowns. They act as if Sora and Riku are only KH characters, forcing their shipping in most toxic ways. They, along with incompetent writing, made me absolutely despise KH lately. With more games, even Nintendo's Peach game, emphasizing more on female character development, what they did to Kairi is just an embarrassment. It's better off burnt to the ground and started all over.

[allexiaah]

G'raha Tia for the bingo?

AAAA TYSM for the ask Ana!! This was so fun to dooo I didn't expect to get an FFXIV one.

There was so much to fill out. I love him so much. G'raha Tia is my guy <3 I hate to debate whether or not to fill in the "I want to carry them in a handbag like a tiny dog" spot lol. This character is so much deeper than you'd expect when you first meet him. God I love him. He's SOO cool we're adventuring best friends <3

God that reminds me. I need to post photos of my Warrior of Light at some point 👀

[friskibitz]

What do you think the chances are of Frisk getting into smash? Not asking in a skeptical poo-pooer way. So much as... how much do you see each of the three parties (fox and team, sakurai and his team, and nintendo as a whole) being likely to colaborate with each other for inclusion of the character? The likelyhood of fox offering frisk, of nintendo/sakurai accepting frisk, etc. i like hearing about ssbu spec, and you seem more confident in frisk than sora, which i havent seen yet. so im curious.

=D Thank you, I’m glad you are!

First of all, I’m actually super confident in Sora, and I absolutely NEED to have him in. He’s one of the most iconic and popular characters that ISN’T in Smash yet. However, three things:

Sora has more widespread support than Frisk, I feel, so I’m just taking up the reins for the determined kid.

Sora’s owned by Disney, not exactly Square Enix. This, I feel, is a preeetty big obstacle in Sora’s path to Smash, despite everything else he has going for him.

Frisk... actually seems more likely to me at this point. Part of it is because of Disney probably hindering Sora, but the rest of it is gonna be the topic of this post!

In regards to Toby Fox and Nintendo, I’ve actually had these suspicions for a while, and it looks like those suspicions have been confirmed! That being, Toby having some sort of involvement with Nintendo.

First of all, there’s the Undertale Switch announcement and port. UT for Switch was announced on a major Nintendo Direct, the one that announced Smash, in fact. 

Then, pretty soon after Deltarune Chapter 1′s release, it got a Switch port. Again, this was announced in a mainline Direct, not an indie one. At this point, my friends and I were wondering... does Toby have some sort of connection with Nintendo? After all, his work, indie games, were getting recognized in pretty big Directs.

And, well, looks like we were right! First, Game Freak got Fox on as the lead composer for their new game, Little Town Hero! And then, of course, later that day...

On that note, the next topic: Toby Fox and Masahiro Sakurai.

As we can see, Sans (as a costume) and Megalovania are in Smash. The Sans costume just straight-up looks like a 3D rendition of him, and Fox went to Sakurai’s house. So of course they know each other personally, and therefore already have a connection. Furthermore, we don’t even need to worry about Undertale being recognized by Smash because of this.

Sakurai has done stuff for people he personally knows. For example: “Snake makes his debut in the Smash series as a playable character in Brawl, announced via a surprise teaser shown after the first trailer for the game. Snake's appearance in the Smash series was unusual; prior to the announcement, no third-party characters had ever appeared in a Smash game. Kojima asked Sakurai himself to add Snake; as the two were personal friends, Snake was added to the expanding roster of characters. His appearance is based on his design from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.” https://www.ssbwiki.com/Solid_Snake#In_Super_Smash_Bros._Brawl

Toby Fox is one guy rather than another corporation. He pretty much has full creative control over his characters. This way, it’s much easier to deal with him to add UT content to Smash, and so he just might be an exception to other company deals in the past.

Also, I think it’s prime time to add a UT fighter. It would be riding on the success of the Sans costume, and this is the end of Fighter Pack 1; as Joker made waves with his announcement, I really do think this one should end with a BANG.

Now, for Frisk themself. Of course, I’m personally rooting for them a TON, but there are a few things:

It just makes sense, I think. Smash has always featured protags when inviting new games to its roster. Also, with Frisk’s connection with other UT characters, they have the opportunity to borrow abilities from all of them and more, helping represent UT as a whole. There’s even precedent for moves like this; for example, Ness and Lucas use PSI that their friends can use, but they can’t.

I’m sure Frisk would be accepted. Smash is from Japan, of course, and centered mostly with games and character popularity there. As it turns out, from some looking on Twitter, Frisk is actually super popular as a Smash pick in Japan! Not to mention the adoring fanbase of Undertale fans there, who really love the game and are excited about UT content.

On Toby’s side of things, while we don’t see many of his own opinions on characters, there are two major people in the UT crew who are more outspoken than he is: Temmie and Chess! Temmie is the lead artist for UT/DR, and Chess is also a major artist for UT/DR and Toby’s partner in developing the Undertale alarm clock app! Temmie’s definitely drawn Frisk quite a few times (quite cutely, I might add), and Chess has drawn them and even talked about some headcanons for them on her Twitter! So there’s definitely some love from the source too.

Soooo yeah, there you have it! TL;DR I love Sora and I want him in Smash, but I’m picking up the reins for Frisk support because there’s less of that, and there’s a lot of things pointing towards the possibility of them. Thanks for reading!

[zerolympiustrife]

Favorite video games of all time?

Get ready for a LONG post, folks! However…allow me to break this down to my three favorite video game genres: Fighting games, RPGs/JRPGs, and Platformers/Action Platformers (both 2D and 3D). However! Since I feel like these posts are gonna take MUCH longer than I thought it would, I’m just gonna divide the genres into separate posts. But for now, let’s stick with the…

FIGHTING GAMES!:

Dragon Ball FighterZ: My number one favorite (traditional) fighting game of all time. My favorite ArcSys game of all time. My favorite Dragon Ball game of all time. This game is the reason how I got into the Dragon Ball franchise back when I’ve had to little to NO interest in the franchise, even when I’ve watched the ENTIRE Namek saga from the original anime back in 2009. The game’s GORGEOUS art style, every character animation’s (such as specials, supers, intros, victory poses, and ESPECIALLY the Dramatic Finishes) faithfulness to the original manga AND anime of Dragon Ball Z and other DB properties (such as GT and Super), the AWESOME soundtrack (courtesy of ArcSys theirselves, who’re known for awesome music in their games), the 3v3 gameplay, the character roster (though I’ll admit that having five Gokus and Three Vegetas is rather silly), having a new character design by DB creator Akira Toriyama himself, and lastly, being a breath of fresh air to those new to the fighting game genre (since the genre itself is notorious for its high learning curves) AND to Dragon Ball fans who were sick and tired of having the story of DBZ recapped over and over and over AND OVER AGAIN is a fucking sight to behold. This game FUCKING RULES (and a million times better than MvC:I). However, I wouldn’t call it perfect. I’ll admit that the Story Mode is rather lackluster, Arcade Mode is rather lacking, the Shop is completely randomized, and the Online Mode, much like every other fighting game, suffers from lag, spammable players, or just outright ragequitters. That, and the fact that, unlike MvC3 and BB:CTB, every character assist only sticks to ONE attack (meaning that more than one character is gonna have a Kamehameha assist), and that MOST PLAYERS you’re gonna run into is gonna main the likes of Cell (who ENJOYS dragging out combos for as long as possible), Adult Gohan (like Cell, also drags out long combos), and Vegeta (Super Saiyan, because of his assist. Need I say more?). But aside from those flaws, it is hands down the BEST fighting game I’ve ever played, next to…well, below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: My number one favorite (unique) fighting game of all time. My favorite Nintendo game of all time. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai is a man that I’d like to describe as…well, not only doing the impossible and HIGHLY respected, but also putting those filthy naysayers about certain characters in their place. The fact that the whole point of Smash Ultimate was to include EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER FROM SMASH 64 TO SMASH 4 (Wii U and 3DS), INCLUDING EVERY THIRD-PARTY CHARACTERS DESPITE THE LICENSING AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES THIS WOULD CAUSE is another sight to behold. FUCK Melee, THIS is hands-down the best Smash game of all time! The inclusion of Spirits, the Adventure Mode, the Boss battles, the gameplay, the kind of chicanery you can pull, the game’s main theme “Lifelight”, the roster, the soundtrack…there’s just ALOT about this game that I just fucking adore. What can you make folks more hyped about this game? Oh, I don’t know…why not shock everybody with JOKER (from Persona 5) AND BANJO & KAZOOIE (who’s still owned by Microsoft) being in the game. What I love about Smash Bros is how Sakurai is just outright defies those say certain characters can’t appear in the series for silliest (or justifiable) reasons. Cloud can’t be in Smash because his game was never released on a Nintendo console until 2019? No problem! Ridley’s too big therefore he can’t be playable? Fuck that! Banjo & Kazooie can’t be in Smash because they’re owned by Microsoft of the Xbox brand? It’s fine! Why? “Because I AM HERE!” -Banjo (JK, but seriously, the fact that Banjo’s in was quite a surprise.) Smash 4 is the reason how I got into Final Fantasy VII, and I hold the entire Smash series in high regard for doing so. Goddamn, do I love this franchise! But! Again, it’s not perfect. The Online Mode is MUCH worse than DBFighterZ (to the point where you’re more than likely to end up in a battle with Items TURNED ON or stages with distracting hazards, OR end up fighting the SAME fucking characters I hate fighting against, such as Little Mac, Falco, Inkling, Incineroar, etc.), and that fighting against EVERY single spirit in the Adventure Mode to get 100% can get rather tiring (not to mention that you gotta get BOTH bad endings from fighting Galeem solo AND Dharkon solo), lack of additional content upon release (Stage Builder and Home-Run Content weren’t even implemented into the game at first), and lastly (although these two complaints are one of more personal matter and one towards Square Enix), the fact Zero from Mega Man X, my favorite video game character is ASSIST character instead of a playable was really heartbreaking to see (but hey, I’m not complaining TOO much since I enjoy interacting with him in my free time in Training), and lastly, the fact that Cloud, and to high extent, Final Fantasy VII AND the FF franchise as a whole has LITTLE TO NO representation in this game whatsoever (again, I feel like this was more of SE’s fault than Sakurai’s). No spirits, no “Fighter Spirit” artwork from the original FFVII, no Assist characters, not being dubbed in English AGAIN (though this was more of a contract issue with SE), no additional music on Midgar, NOTHING. But, nonetheless…this game is fucking awesome.

Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle: Ahahahahaha! Ah…Oh, Blazblue…I love this franchise oh-so much, but the fact that it hasn’t received the same treatment as Guilty Gear lately (not to mention the mainstream Blazblue games, aka the C-series, has pretty much came to an end) is a rather sad sight to see…depression aside, I love Blazblue. I REALLY do! I love the characters, I love the stages, I love the music, the story is confusing as FUCK, but it’s a fighting game franchise I’ve discovered WAY back 2012 and I still love to this day, even more so than Guilty Gear (don’t @ me). So…what to do now? Could there perhaps be another Blazblue game? A game that just so happens to be a crossover? One just as awesome as Smash Bros? Ooh! How about…PERSONA 4?!? UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH?!? A FRANCHISE THAT, LIKE DRAGON BALL AND FFVII, I’VE HAD NO INTEREST IN UP UNTIL 2018 (aka RWBY)?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Fangasm aside, the fact that this game even EXISTS is an achievement in its own right. As stated before, this game is the reason how I got into RWBY. What I really love and adore about the game are the interactions among the characters. That, and I was SO HAPPY to hear that the game would be dubbed in English, after GG:Xrd Revelator and BB: Central Fiction lacked a dub. I was not only excited to hear the likes of Ragna, Noel, and Hazama voiced in English again, but I was also happy to hear that any characters who’ve never been dubbed in English in the past (characters from UNIB, newcomers in BB:CF, etc.) would be dubbed in English as well. Hell, the fact that the characters from both Blazblue AND Persona 4 (two franchises/games I really love) being in the EXACT same game together was enough to make me be all like “Shut up, and take my money!”, considering how crazy excited I was in the past to see them interacting with one another via fanart and fanfiction (thanks to the Persona 4 Arena games being developed by ArcSys). And if you thought having only THOSE four franchises in the game was enough, you’d be wrong! Here’s Arcana Heart! Here’s Senran Kagura! Here’s a FIFTH character from RWBY: Neo Politan! This game, much like DBFZ and Smash Ultimate, is awesome. However, complaints I do have towards the game are the Online Mode (although the chibi interactions are cute and adorable and I will praise the Online Mode for that, and ONLY THAT), Gordeau from UNIB is still a problem, the rest of the half of the roster is entirely DLC, lack of additional content upon release, the control scheme is WAY too simplistic (even moreso than DBFZ), and lastly, while I love the sprites ArcSys did for RWBY, the reused sprites from Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and UNIB is also a complaint I have (but a minor one, mind you. They could’ve just easily redone the sprites specifically for this game, but…no). And while this game isn’t exactly in my top two favorite fighting games, it’s definitely in my top THREE. Also, I have yet to actually to play the Story Mode of this game, but I haven’t yet, therefore, I hold no opinion on the story as of currently. Marvel vs Capcom-styled traditional fighting games are hands-down, my go-to preference for traditional fighters.

Dissidia (and Dissidia 012): Final Fantasy: Forget Dissidia NT, THIS game (mostly Dissidia 012) is what an awesome 3D Action Fighting game is about! Much like how Smash Ultimate’s a unique fighting game (a Platform Fighter), this game is also a unique type of fighting game, possessing RPG elements and just having a blast with its awesome combat system. Cloud and Sephiroth were just so much fun to play as, with Terra, Squall, and WoL being my other favorite characters in this awesome game. This game is also essentially a HUGE homage to Final Fantasy as whole. From the ongoing conflicts between Cosmos and Chaos, to MULTIPLE references to the character’s original games, to additional modes that involve unlocking the likes of Gilgamesh from FFV, or fighting against the most frustrating secret final boss I’ve ever had the displeasure of fighting against (Feral Chaos), these games are awesome! Also, the reason why I’m addressing both games as a single installment here is because technically, while Dissidia 012 IS a prequel, it pretty has the same content (no, scratch that, MORE content) from the first Dissidia game and it’s pretty much an updated…well, not a “port”, per say, more like an enhanced re-release, much like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or any of the Blazblue EXTEND re-releases. However, complaints I have for Dissidia is that certain characters are annoying to fight against (such as Jecht, FUCK that character), the RPG system takes a while to build up until your favorite characters are FINALLY at Level 100, trying to get the rarest Equipment is rather difficult, and lastly, the action commands for certain character’s EX Bursts can be retooled for the sake of a proper fighting game, but then again, Dissidia ain’t a “traditional” fighting game. But aside from that, not only is this my favorite Action RPG/Fighting game of all time, but this is also my favorite Final Fantasy Spin-Off of all time.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars: What’s that? You were expecting a Marvel vs Capcom game to be on this list, let alone my top 5? Too bad! It’s Tatsunoko, baby! This one definitely holds a spot in my heart as this game stands as my number one favorite “Capcom vs Whatever” game of all time (yes, even moreso than Marvel vs Capcom itself OR any of the SNK vs Capcom games, don’t @ me). I love this game. I love its soundtrack (ESPECIALLY its main theme, “Across the Border”), I love the roster (despite being small), I love the final boss of the Arcade Mode (Yami, from Capcom’s Okami), and I love the gameplay. My complaints goes towards the lack of additional content outside of Arcade and the Gallery (although the top-down shooter minigame is rather fun), and, as stated before, small roster. But other than that, this game was really fun to play.

OTHER FAVORITE FIGHTING GAMES:

Sonic Battle, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SvC: Chaos, and Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma.

Coming up next: My favorite RPGs/JPRGs!

[angel-with-a-pipette]

I have something to confess that's probably might trigger people...I'm done with Riku, Everytime I see him I just get annoyed like yes square enix we get it you like Riku a lot but can they for once just focus on Kairi? I remember when they (square) kept quiet about Khiii second playable character, it shouldn't even have been a secret cause I already knew it was gonna be Riku, I'm so done by this point in Khiii they just dulled Kairi's character to satellite love interest and it was the most-

I totally understand your feelings. Making the (second) playable character(s) such a huge secret when it only turns out to be Riku and Aqua and only for a tiny portion of the game was a bad choice. Makes me once again think that they cut the whole Radiant Garden portion from being playable, because then the hype about Riku being playable would be deserved. Even though you’re right, it shouldn’t have been a secret even then since he was always the most likely candidate. Or make it a true secret, don’t mention it and hit the player over the head the second the camera turns to third person with them. The surprise with Aqua worked tremendously and the surprise with Riku worked on me, too (I didn’t watch the Final battle trailer until after finishing the game), despite expecting Riku.

I’m pretty disappointed with Kairi’s treatment in this game and fandom too. I don’t really know what to tell you, of course I have my own thoughts, hopes, dreams and fears about Kairi’s future in the series.

If you’re truly done with the game, I’m sorry to hear that. Nothing I can say as of now will make it better. I don’t want to get your hopes up and I also don’t want to drag other people down with my fears. Maybe a break would be the best, maybe it would be enough to stay away from the fandom because God knows I know they make everything worse. Maybe the DLC will help. Maybe the new saga will get your attention and excite you even if it doesn’t do justice to Kairi.

Hang in there. Maybe one day you'll be able to enjoy it again.

[chibi-jing]

About FFXV Episode Ardyn – Prologue

I believe (and hope) that this future piece of animation will contain everything we ever wanted to know about Ardyn’s past.

In fact, Ardyn’s DLC seems more focused on his awakening and his early years with the Empire, as the teaser trailer showed us. And that’s logical: in this way Square Enix can reuse things already done for the main game but never fully exploited like Regis model for example, or can pick up existing stuff to tell a new story like older Prompto model for young Verstael or even Insomnia. It also seems pretty rational from SE point of view to let us play Ardyn as he appears in FFXV and not someone completely different as he sure was in his past: it’s this character that people wanted to see when they voted for him in last year survey (and besides parts of his moveset already exists, facilitating the process).

But most significantly, it’s almost impossible for SE to give us Ardyn’s past in a form of a game. It would cost to much to be produced, would be too complicated and would offer too little possibilities in terms of gameplay compared to the workload needed to create a whole new world 2000 years before FFXV. These complications don’t apply to animation. Drawings always come from scratch and it doesn’t matter if you have to picture today’s landscapes or futuristic cities: the amount of work will be the same and the ratio quantity-price is far better than the cost of a lot of new assets for a 2 hours DLC. To summarize, you can tell more with animation for a lower cost compared to the equivalent you would need to create for a video game.

You could argue that we did see Somnus in the trailer so SE has already made new content regarding Ardyn’s past. That’s true, but what reinforces my theory is that this scene with Somnus takes place in a vaste empty field with no specific decor at all and is shown from a first-person viewpoint. This is not something that looks playable and since we’re watching it through Ardyn’s eyes, I believe all we’re gonna get from this time period will be cutscenes when Ardyn remembers or talks about his past. And that will be a totally good choice if what happened 2000 years ago is told in this animation. As SE did with Kingsglaive, we can see the tragic backstory before playing the DLC.

 By the way, the title clearly mentions “prologue”. What could be Ardyn’s prologue if not his past life as Ardyn Lucis Caelum? ^^

 You can do so much with animation, I sincerely hope they left their imagination go further than FFXV as a game and that they’ll offer us some amazing new visuals about the early Lucis, Somnus, and Ardyn as a hero. I do believe it!!!

[flynn-science]

Ryan Reacts to Kingdom Hearts 3

Okay, so this is a mix of live reactions and post-world reactions. Lot of live reactions in the beginning and end, more sporadic in between. You can probably guess what I’m reacting to most of the time from the sequence of events.

Mmm dat orchestral Don’t Think Twice Needed a minute on the menu. Finally seeing it say KH3 was A Lot. HOLY FUCK WHAT A COOL INTRO The speed is the same as 0.2, with that sprint that kicks in. Will take some getting used to. The stained glass looks gorgeous though Nice touch of KH1 Sora’s jump animation changing to KH2 Sora’s Making choices again like the original. Vitality is probably health, Wisdom is probably magic, and Balance is, well, balanced. I’ll go balanced. (I’m on Proud, btw) Guardian, Warrior, Mystic. Same as the weapons in KH1. In that case, I’ll make the same choice I do there: Guardian. SORA HAS AN IDLE ANIMATION OH MY GOD BLOCK AND DODGE FROM THE START! Also this sky place is new for a Dive to the Heart (AND THOSE HOOOORNS, LISTEN TO THEM) The water looks great A four-hit combo instead of the usual three? Huh Scan from the start too Nice detail of Sora’s head angling towards the locked on target All this music sounds SO GOOD I’MMA NEED THIS SOUNDTRACK ONCE I’M DONE Ahhh that little soft version of Sora’s theme WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS II.9 SHIT These Instagram-style posts on loading screens are adorable Oh damn, we get a LOT of abilities from the start. And this is on Proud! Dodge Roll, Air Slide, Aerial Dodge (formerly a Master Form ability), plus all the Flowmotion stuff Wow, THREE shortcut menus! 12 total! Wow, and a LOT more control over how allies use items. That can be very useful! Sweet, synthesis materials are back! Water is an interesting new spell. And being able to reorder the Magic menu is nice (though I only use shortcuts). Kinda glad the item art has stayed the same. Also hey, Wellspring is from BBS. And first AP Boost of course goes into Sora, as will they all. WOW USING THOSE IS WAY FASTER NOW Yooo that Underworld music with the Titans’ appearance Take a shot every time someone says “Sora, Donald, Goofy” Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 1 HERCULES HAS JOINED THE PARTY “Team Effort: Always start battles with a team attack command.” Damn, what are those that this ability is FIFTY AP?! (Are team attacks that move we saw Sora and Goofy do in a trailer? The throw?) I like that tutorials are playable at any time Also I was worried Save Points might not return with that auto save message at the start ALSO THIS IS NIGHT OF FATE PLAYING IN THE COMBAT TUTORIAL Ooh, Panacea art is nice. (Panacea has only appeared as a command in games like BBS and re:coded, so it hasn’t had art before) *reads Ability Ring* Damn, if 10 AP is a SMALL boost, I can’t imagine how expensive abilities are gonna get (well, Herc does have that one 50 AP ability) Ultima Weapon returns, looks like Synthesis recipes are based more on collector’s goals than finding them. Looks like there’s 60 synthesis materials, sounds about right. Ooh, synthesis item rarities, types: soothing and pulsing are from BBS, writhing, betwixt, sinister are new. Looks like everything goes in Shards, Stones, and Gems. Ooh that’s a lot of Heartless. Hey when is Jiminy gonna show up? Gonna need to complete that Journal again. Oooh battle music has bits of the old Coliseum battle music. Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 2 Environmental fire damage followed by Sora’s butt on fire limiting my actions. Neat. Okay, these have been live reactions so far, but I’m gonna stop doing that because it’s slowing my progress. “What the heck is Rage Form?” “OH. OH THAT’S A THING.” I keep seeing hidden Mickeys, I bet those are gonna be a thing with the camera once I get it. Also damn are they giving me a lot of ingredients for the cooking minigame I can’t play yet. So the biggest thing I’ve noticed about the new combat is that because they give you so many really powerful abilities (grand magic at higher levels, formchanges, attractions, team attacks) that are all basically free (are you hitting things with your keyblade or magic? Can you hit this specific enemy once? Can you wait for your teammate to give you a prompt?), the number of enemies in each fight seems to have SIGNIFICANTLY increased from previous entries. KH2’s level design this is NOT. Lots more nooks and crannies to search. Me approaching the gates of Olympus: “Is this Anor Londo?” Yay nostalgic Coliseum music! And oooh little environmental puzzles are back! Like from KH1! I forged Goofy a new shield! Aaaand playable Riku. I have no idea why they were so dodgy about the second playable character. This is only the third time Riku’s been playable. Anyway, gotta fight the Demon Tower again. Damn, Riku is WAY stronger than Sora right now. Wish I could have read his abilities (and moved shortcuts). Nice emulation of the death screen. Also hot damn, is that Repliku talking??? I guess Riku’s “other me” really could be Repliku. Awwwww yeah, Lea’s getting new clothes too! YEAH JIMINY! “Dream Heartbinder” So Heartbinders must be this game’s summon gems, and this one lets me use Dream Eaters. SORA’S THEME IS THE RINGTONE!!! Ienzo’s here, with a bit of OrgXIII music from CoM. HOLY SHIT THE GUMMI SHIP IS THE BEST IT’S EVER BEEN UPGRADEABLE KEYBLADES?! I guess that makes sense, considering they all have different formchanges. They want all of them to stay viable throughout the game. OH MY GOD, DEMON TIDE HAS SO MUCH HEALTH I guess the bosses have to with all these powerful attacks I have Does Hayner have a new voice? Olette sounds different too. Checked the wiki, all three have different actors. Pence sounds closest to his original though. So judging by the Dusks and Snipers, no more enemy-specific reaction commands. The Ducklings sell Gummi blocks now?? Huh. Whoa wait, the road out of Twilight Town’s Tram Common leads back to the world map? Can I NOT go to the clock tower in this game?? Man, Twilight Town felt really small. Hope the remaining worlds don’t, though they’ve certainly seemed significantly larger than the two I’ve been to so far. Also, totally called the Lucky Emblems, though I’m gonna keep calling them hidden Mickeys. I think Tou Story is my favorite world. Granted, I’ve only been to three, but still. The Gigas are super fun, Woody and Buzz look amazing, and I can’t stop whistling/humming along! AHHH CREEPY DOLL Lol, the Verum Nox poster even has a Square Enix logo. First death, the Gigas battle in the video game. GOD DAMN! WOODY dropping an amazing “The Reason You Suck” speech to Xehanort! “Unless you’re in the ~real~ Organization too? Good for you!” Damn, Sora! Also love hearing that music from Chain of Memories every so often Glad flowmotion’s jump isn’t as level-breaking as it was in DDD. Same goes for the attacks. Wow, so Rapunzel permanently leaves the party. Was wondering they’d just give her a different moveset like with Mulan/“Ping”. This is the first time a character permanently leaves your party. And of course, Marluxia. Who I didn’t think could or would return. And Vexen who rejoined willingly, which is, man. Not something I’d have done. Both Norted of course. And was Saïx missing his scar? Maybe he’s just Isa now. I could tell it was Unversed, and Flood specifically, in that first Monstropolis cutscene just from the sound of them spawning. That’s how I know I’ve put a lot of hours into this series. Monstropolis feels the most linear so far. Arendelle’s ice labyrinth is awesome, the level design gives me some light Dark Souls vibes. I like how there’s zero explanation for Sora, Donald, and Goofy being able to breathe underwater in The Caribbean. And by that I mean I would have liked even just one line to explain it. The ship combat isn’t as good as AC3’s and AC4’s, but it’s still pretty good for a one-world mechanic! The ship is a LOT more responsive than the AC ones. And damn, is this world open. Okay, San Fransokyo is gonna be a pain to search for chests and Mickeys. PRESS TRIANGLE TO SORA IS THE BEST REACTION COMMAND I HAVE EVER SEEN Jiminy telling people about summaries on the gummiphone is Square Enix saying “IF YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE GAMES, READ THE FUCKING SUMMARIES” Giant battle at the start of Keyblade Graveyard was cool, but hurt the frames, especially on the fake shadows. And just as I was getting hyped at the possibility of having Riku and Aqua as party members. Oh hey, just realized Riku’s keyblade has a Mickey keychain now too. “And so, as legend foretold, darkness prevailed and light expired...” “Your hearts will be torn from your bodies” “To move through time, you must leave your body behind.” THE FINAL WORLD?! Wait, Sora’s been here MULTIPLE times?? Okay, so the star talking about the person who’d miss them, whose heart has been taken by another’s? Strelitzia? Talking about Lauriam? Love and hate? Going back for fight after fight? Hm. Cloud or Sephiroth maybe? (Longshot, but it doesn’t sound like a khux character, or anyone else) Identical pair? There’s no twins in this series. Like walking alongside a mirror... maybe it’s not an literal identical nature? Same clothes, same food, maybe Xion?? “Nothing left to teach you”? Damn, that’s not much to go on. Maybe Eraqus’ and Xehanort’s master?? “Just friends... stepped back” Skuld maybe? “I’m gone... they’ve added another member” Could that be Xion? Wait, no, how could Xion be here, she’s still within Sora’s heart. Are these actual named characters we’ve met before? Or not? The one who was defeated and supposed to fade... Repliku?? But he’s with Riku now... Someone searching for their Papa??? Most of the characters in this series don’t have parents at all, so my only guess here is Pinocchio?? No way a Disney character ends up here though. I don’t think all of these are characters we know. Someone holding onto a sliver of memory, and a servant?? Yeah, these could all just have been ordinary people. Naminé?! What happened to Kairi??? Okay, so the darkness split them. KAIRI IS KEEPING SORA FROM FADING AWAY OH MY HEART “GO TO HER” SHE SAYS "That's not the official thank-you!" Lol Damn, this area is fuckin huge, why is it so huge?? A PORTAL?! A DDD PORTAL HERE?! Well this place is rad. I better see that weird Darkside at some point here OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH OH IT ROTATES THAT'S FUCKIN SICK God damn, this game's got some of the best level design of the series! Is... is this OUR Chirithy? “He doesn’t remember the past”? Although I guess it could be Marluxia/Luxord/Demyx’s too. Or Ven’s. My bet is that it’s Ven’s. DID SORA JUST TIME JUMP BACK A FEW MINUTES??? Aaaand did nothing different. So now we’re world-hopping like we did back in End of the World. OH WHAT IS THIS DIVING INTO STATIONS TO PICK A WORLD?!?! YOOOOOOOO Just Kairi and Lea are left. Haven’t hit San Fransokyo or Twilight Town yet. Guess they must be in those two. Last one is San Fransokyo. Lea must be here. Kairi’s probably gonna be the last. “Traversing hearts to reach worlds” That must be what I’ve been doing here. Not jumping between worlds, jumping between HEARTS. Was Sora just considering telling her he loves her? He should have. Wait, am I back in time? This already happened... OH SHIT! THE LINGERING WILL IS HERE! EPHEMER! OHHHHHHH HO HO WOW! OHHHHHH FUCK! YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Congrats to all the lucky people who got their names in the game! PRESS TRIANGLE TO UNION X GIANT SHADOW MASTER XEHANORT IS TERRIFYING I like how Axel is holding his keyblade by the guard instead of the handle OH SHIT MASTER YEN SID! YOOOOOO! Okay KH3, I want to fight thirteen bosses now, you hear me? DAMN that Ancient Light finisher on Starlight’s Second Form is STRONG YOOOOOOO THREE BOSSES AT ONCE??? (I really hope this is as tough as they were before, but seeing as Xemnas was harder in 1 than in 2, doubt it) Went to help Mickey first, so I’m taking on Marluxia, Luxord, and Larxene Oh come ooooon, I barely got to fight them! Luxord’s out, 12 to go OH SHIT THE OTHER TWO Larxene’s done, 11 to go. With XI conveniently up next. Marluxia’s defeated once again. 10 left. Hey whatever happened with that comment of their ancient keyblade legacy...? Xigbar... might be gone? So maybe 9 left. Dark Repliku is defeated, and light Repliku gave himself up so the Replica could be used for Namine. That’s sweet. 8 left. YO actual time of day change! I like the door switches. Nice having little environmental things like this. Hm, Kairi and Lea one way, Aqua and Ven the other. Well that’s no contest, gotta go back up my girl Kairi! Mysterious new hooded figure??? Oh. Oh no. I think it’s Xion. D: Yeah. It’s her. *Xion stops Xemnas “YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYYE YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH” *Roxas shows up “OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK” THE WHOLE GANG’S HERE YOOOOOOOOOOO Shout outs to Ienzo, Ansem, Vexen, and Demyx for helping Roxas return! WHY THE FUCK IS KAIRI GETTING KIDNAPPED A-FUCKING-GAIN, NOMURA WHY WAS SHE EVEN TRAINING, FUCK Okay, so Kairi and Lea/Axel are out, BUT ROXAS AND XION ARE IN OH HOLY SHIT, SORA SQUAD FORM UP!!!! I HAD TO STOP AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC FOR A MINUTE It’s all three of their themes! (Plus a bit of Another Side) THIS IS THE HYPEST SHIT Aww, Saix’s death mirrors Xion’s. AND THE SEA-SALT TRIO REUNITE! Saix is out, 7 left. Xion turned, 6 left. Vanitas fades again, 5 left. I know some people had hoped for a heel-face turn, but I knew it wasn’t likely. WHAT TERRA’S HEART WAS IN ANSEM’S GUARDIAN THIS WHOLE TIME. THAT THEORY WAS RIGHT! Terra-nort’s back to just Terra. 4 left. Just wanna say, I love that it’s Sora who gets to turn the tides of all these fights. Who’s dull and ordinary NOW, huh?? AND he’s still going! Oh boy, time for a triple Xehanort fight! UMMM NINE KEYS (but why are they No Name and not the X-blade?) OOOOOOOHHHHHHH THIS BLEND OF ANSEM, XEMNAS, AND YOUNG XEHANORT'S THEMES Guardando Nel Buio, Darkness of the Unknown, and Impeto l’Oscurito 1V3 ME, I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON Young Xehanort returns to his time. 3 left. I like how we all agree to pause the fight whenever someone falls. Xemnas fades. 2 left. Ansem as well. Just 1 darkness left. WHAT THE FUCK, KAIRI NOOOOOOOOOOOO AH SHIT HE’S GOT THE X-BLADE AH SHIT HE’S GOT KINGDOM HEARTS Oh hey, everyone’s caught up. Donald: “You can’t do anything without us, Sora.” Me: “Donald, shut the FUCK UP.” Xion: “Kairi will be alright.” Me: “OH THANK GOD” Scala ad Caelum. Stairway to Heaven. It looks like a proto-Land of Departure. But the music is Case of the Foretellers from X Back Cover. Could this place and Land of Departure once have been Daybreak Town? Damn, Dark Kingdom Hearts is over the ENTIRE Keyblade Graveyard now Spooky twelve figures are spooky Why do they have the Organization’s weapons?! I love this return of Destati though They all had a shared HP bar? Scala ad Caelum’s world icon is kinda shaped like a heart Oh wow, full Inception Weird hearing Rage Awakened without the Lingering Will here “There is one sky, one destiny!” “DEEEESTAAAATI!” Ohhhhh shit Shout out to the heart in the floor design though And the figure in the middle has 7 points Classic Xehanort pose from the KH2 secret ending Aaaaand now he’s got ANOTHER Kingdom Hearts! GREAT WHOA HE FORCED ME INTO RAGE FORM DESTATI IN FULL FORCE WHAT A RAD FINISHING BLOW! The canon death screen, the heartbeat, Donald and Goofy calling from my controller! ONE BIG BLAST! So Xehanort sees himself as some sort of white knight? A templar to guide the masses with an iron fist? Yeah, no dice dude. Sora’s right, not your choice to make, and destiny is beyond your control. So Eraqus really WAS with Terra all this time. MARK HAMILL IS BACK!!! Xehanort just hands it over, huh? Wow, closure between Eraqus and his apprentices after all these years Eraqus and Xehanort mimic Sora and Riku from KH2, and pass on. Go get her, Sora. HIKARI ORCHESTRAL Ven met his Chirithy! Lea’s finally wearing his new outfit. Aw, Xion looks good too! And Isa’s here! Naminé is back too! And I bet the Namine/Riku shippers are happy! AWWW They’re all hanging out at Destiny Islands! Look at them all being friends!!! THERE THEY ARE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

Epilogue: XIGBAR HAS BEEN LUXU THIS WHOLE TIME?! WHAT WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?! You know while watching Back Cover I was like “Man, the Master of Masters really talks like Xigbar for some reason.” BOY DOES THAT MAKE SENSE NOW So what was it about Ava’s role with the Dandelions that led to her absence here? AND WHAT’S IN THE GODDAMN BOX Is it a Book of Prophecies? Something else entirely? In any case, I doubt Maleficent and Pete would be able to get it away from them all. Secret Ending, “Yozora”: Ooh, “Another Side, Another Story” vibes right off the bat. SORA! And... Riku? Well this is just Japan. Wait, the guy from Verum Rex? And a black coat, who’s probably Xigbar/Luxu or the Master of Masters? After watching, a friend informed me that Riku is in Verum Rex. And Sora’s dead. Cause he’s in TWEWY’s version of Shibuya, since that one building said “104.” But which one is the black coat in? It could be the Master of Masters dead, in Sora’s world. Or Xigbar/Luxu, still watching things.

I have no idea what comes next. But I am excited.

[davidmann95]

Some Kingdom Hearts future thoughts

Have to get ‘em out! Went into some thoughts with my psuedo-review of III, but I’ve got others and stuff worth expanding on. I’ll put them under the cut since it clearly goes into spoilers, except for my boldest, most controversial guess: along with being announced either this year or next (since Kingdom Hearts has never reached the end of a calendar year after a release with nothing on the horizon) I think Kingdom Hearts IV is going to be a 2022 release. I recognize that sounds like an intensely generous timeframe, but I have several reasons:

1. Above all else by far: once again, Square Enix and Disney are going to be on Nomura’s ass, nose to the grindstone, to get him to start delivering these on a consistent basis again. Do you think they’re looking at Kingdom Hearts III topping sales charts and thinking “well, it sure was worth the wait”, or do you think they’re going “gosh, these are some nice sales, sure would be nice if it came out years ago and we had a bunch more similarly-selling titles by now, let’s try and aim for something closer to that in the future”. Especially-especially since Nomura and the actors aren’t getting any younger and the series is at a point where the core fanbase for the franchise as-is is going to be the primary target rather than new audiences, which means it has to wrap up in a timeframe where that’s still a viable market. So rapid, priority development and few if any more spinoffs. I mean, not as if there’s really a handheld platform for them to be on anymore.

2. My understanding (and this is going somewhat into the technical side of things, so I’m going thirdhand here based on what I’ve heard from others) is that the lifecycle of the current console generation isn’t going to run out for quite a bit yet, so they can reuse a lot of the assets and whatnot from III.

3. A big deal was made about Dream Drop Distance coming out on the 10th anniversary of the franchise, and given 20 is a much wilder number for this series than most equivalents when it’s about a single cast of characters going through a single story, I can’t imagine they won’t want to push that as at least a similarly big deal.

4. Finally, when things don’t go as catastrophically off the rails as III did, these games seem to have a fairly consistent 3-4 year development span (even III, once they announced the beginning of development in 2013, would have come out 2017-early 2018 if not for switching from Luminous to Unreal Engine), and for the reasons I listed above I think this is going to be on the speedier end of that.

* Firstly: the main discussion I’m seeing at this point regarding IV is “it’s gonna be a Kingdom Hearts/The World Ends With You/pseudo-Final Fantasy Versus XIII crossover!”, and I really expect and hope that isn’t the case. Not that I’ll be pissed if it is, I’m sure it would still be rad, but it strikes me as both unlikely and the lesser outcome. I don’t know that I see the powers that be diverting resources in one of their biggest cash cows towards a sequel to one of their minor games - one that’s already been in Kingdom Hearts, meaning its inclusion here wouldn’t reasonably be a huge enough deal to base a lot of the full story on - and a way to reimagine another project. And for that matter it strikes me as conceptually small-scale given the setup. Nomura went with a name in Yozora that doesn’t just have the bent meaning of Sora’s name but actually literally sounds like him, went with a setting that aside from the one cameo sign mainly screams to viewers “Sora’s suddenly in the real world, holy cow”, and unless I entirely misread it Verum Rex was presented as a total self-roast in Toy Box. It doesn’t strike me as spot-the-reference (even though that’s 100% in there) nearly so much as establishing a tonal contrast to Kingdom Hearts.

I joked initially about this being a Flash of Two Worlds! (linking to a description for non-comics readers who are here because I tagged Kingdom Hearts)/’Kingdom Hearts goes to war with its own gritty fanfic’ setup, but...I actually suspect that’s pretty close to what’s going on here? This seems like a send up of Final Fantasy’s relative self-seriousness and over the top Super Cool characters, as a contrast to Sora’s goofy open-hearted sincerity and optimism. It’s the Secret Movie aesthetic that some want not just more prominent but as the actual main tone of the series morphed into an entire universe all its own, and Sora, out of place, has to find his way through and back home even as the real threat mounts, and probably has to save this world and get through to its heroes who aren’t likely prone to grinning through off-the-cuff monologues about the heart. That is not only entirely my kind of ridiculous meta jam, it feels like a logical next step for the series: if the first trilogy was in part about growing up, the next (and I suspect last, as the Master of Masters and his Foretellers have been set up as the primordial antagonists of the entire mythology and this is where they’re coming to the fore; my old theory of Eraqus being the big bad of an intermediary trilogy looks solidly shot to hell) could very well be about reaching adulthood, in which case it makes sense Sora would have to pass through a near literal fire of Adolescent/Adult Cynicism.

* Speaking of where Sora ends up: I kinda doubt he’s literally dead, or that if he is it’ll last past the opening of the game. They’ve already made a big theatrical production of Sora dying twice now, the second time in the most literal way possible and just a few hours prior to this, so while third time’s the charm I think there’ll be more to it than that. The again common thing I’ve been seeing is that he’ll have to play the Reaper game to win his life back (not something I’m much familiar with but I think I’ve got the basics), but again, while it’ll certainly be part of the game I don’t think TWEWY is going to be the big thing here (like they’d really make that a bigger deal than the Final Fantasy elements have been), and he just dealt with the afterlife and had to essentially play a game to win his soul back, and this wouldn’t even be a game he’s unfamiliar with. My impression is he’s incorporated back and whole - if likely powered down from the ordeal to justify him being back at level one - and the mystery is less whether or not he’s truly alive so much as how he ended up here and how to get back.

* On the other end of things - and I realize it’s a risky prospect to suggest after her getting a shockingly small role compared to everyone else in III was the damning weak aspect of its otherwise basically perfect finale - I think this is where Kairi is actually going to start to come to the forefront. She and Riku would be at the head of a search that everyone would be a part of (they were there when it happened, they know death is negotiable in their world, and they’re good people who all owe him), her especially since he’s her boyfriend - they may not declare it outright but there’s clearly no ambiguity between the two of them as to their situation anymore - and the one he sacrificed himself for, and she’s out there fighting now even if she’s inexperienced. And Riku seems like he’s going to end up lost himself on the search, leaving her behind as the sole Destiny Trio representative. So even if she isn’t a playable co-lead I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one going on a more traditional Kingdom Hearts adventure searching with the rest while Sora and later Riku deal with the genre mindfuck. On the bright side if nothing else, she’s died twice now too and they’ve both been presented as dead in a “maybe this time for real” way for a finale, so while again third time’s the charm, I figure she and Sora are relatively bulletproof from here on out.

* Speaking of Riku, while this seems more like an old-school proof of concept trailer from I and II rather than the more recent actual scenes, meaning his appearance might well change just as Kairi was different in I’s Secret Movie than she really was in II, it’s very notable that he hasn’t aged at all. So likely instead of another tragic I to II scale timeskip of Sora being lost from his friends, it looks like IV will be picking up immediately and the search for him won’t take long to succeed. Also speaking of Riku, I seem to see people thinking he’s with Namine now? Not that that seems impossible, but while the scene as a whole is romanticized in that it’s basically a princess being carried away by chariot to her happily-ever-after, it reads to me less as an actual romance than Riku fulfilling his ‘brother’s promise. Though if Square/Nomura does want to really get into romance with the next trilogy, since Sora/Kairi is locked down maybe they’ll just say fuck it and do a whole Riku/Namine/Xion/Roxas Love Square situation.

* Actual prediction rather than analysis of evidence: I suspect this is the last major time the Destiny Trio is going to be split up, at least in the searching-for-each-other, not-knowing-if-everyone’s-alive sense. I was the search for Kairi, II for Riku, and now IV for Sora - that cycle looks to be completing. Wouldn’t be surprised if V and/or the finale was finally the three of them as the adventuring party as fans have wanted for so long, with III as the grand finale to Sora/Donald/Goofy.

* It seems early to predict the main villain, but at the same time everyone was accurate in assuming a Keyblade-wielding Xehanort would be the final boss of the trilogy circa 2006, so I’m gonna go ahead and say Xigbar/Luxu is gonna be the end-all with IV. The Master of Masters is still the end of the road, and perfect for it because he’s a real-world normal savvy guy who can manipulate this world of straightforward classical adventurers with ease, while Sora at the opposite end of the scale is silly and sweet even by that world’s standard. But Luxu addresses the same ideas in a way that’d be perfect for this game in particular as it seems to be set up, he’d be the villainous connective tissue as this game moves from one trilogy to another, and he has the dangling personal thread of the ‘reward’ he suggested was coming for Sora. Or hell, since now it looks like she’s at least somewhat privy to what’s going on, maybe Maleficent will finally step back up.

EDIT: Ooh, just remembered, speaking of what Xigbar says to Sora, his Olympus conversation also predicts Sora’s fate? The whole “if you leap in to save somebody, you might just end up in the clutch needing to be saved yourself” lecture, i.e. the premise for IV. Maybe his teach isn’t the only one privy to future events?

* Not both, they’ll wanna space it out, but I’m like 70% sure this is where Marvel or Star Wars are gonna happen.

* Finally, while I’ve heard speculation that the Mystery Star is one of the Foretellers or the person who died in that Union X game, I don’t think she’s one of them given it’s a new voice actor and she cites a name Sora knows. More likely she’s ‘Subject X’ (I went ahead and looked up the Secret Reports, haven’t gone back and done all the bonus challenges myself yet and won’t I imagine for some time), who does seem to be from that time but is I think someone new.

[eggoreviews]

Smash Bros. Ultimate  FINAL ROSTER PREDICTIONS (Redux)

I already did this, but loadsss of stuff changed since then. As release day draws closer, I thought I’d sift through my predictions for characters. Have a read if u want, then if you disagree lemme know bc my hype hasn’t died down since it was announced i need help (and hey if u look at my old prediction post, I already predicted Simon, K. Rool and Dark Samus so I can’t be the worst, right?)

Okay so my predictions have changed A LOT since I started this blog a few months ago and I think I’ve narrowed it down a lil now. So to put it simply, I think we’re definitely getting one more Smash based direct in October/November. Considering the fact that they’ve got the Mystery Mode™, online play and a whole load of other modes/assists/a few characters we aren’t aware of yet, I reckon they’ll have plenty to talk about in it. My other prediction is that we’re getting 2 newcomers and 1 more echo MINIMUM. Could get maybe a couple more echoes or 1 or 2 standalone character reveals as a stretch but I think we can at least expect that much.

Characters (Base Roster)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

This wooden eggo has been the only character that’s been a constant in my predictions since the get go, despite the fact that I know basically nothing about him. But he’s the character I’m most confident about getting in.

This newcomer cycle has had a big ol focus on fan appeal this time, most likely stemming from the ballot. This was kind of clear from the Ridley reveal, but the addition of King K. Rool kind of made this a lot more likely. And I would go as far as to say that Geno is probably the most highly requested Smash character since ever.

Sakurai has stated multiple times that he wanted Geno in Brawl and then in Smash 4, but the best he could get was a mii costume. But yeah, not a lot of characters can say that they not only have long standing fan demand, but also are wanted by Sakurai himself.

Considering that Square Enix were previously unwilling to play ball with Nintendo on Geno, but then they went and put arguably their most lucrative character in Cloud as DLC for Smash 4, I don’t think Square’s gonna be too bothered about handing over this character, especially since it’s a character they’re never going to do anything with (Don’t know about you but I’m not seeing a Mario RPG sequel in the pipeline)

And as much as I hate to allude to leakers in my predictions, you can’t deny the fact that Vergeben has not gotten a single thing wrong regarding Smash so far. And he has mentioned a new Square rep and I honestly don’t know who else that could be. Chrono? Lara Croft? But then there’s no way either of those beat Geno in the ballot.

Incineroar (Pokemon)

We’ve yet to receive a Pokemon in this game and really that’s reason enough in itself. Considering that we’ve had at least one new Pokemon rep in every game, I v much doubt they’ll break that tradition now

The two Big Guesses that everyone has been throwing out since day 1 have been Incineroar and Decidueye, both from Gen 7, as we know from Smash 4′s Greninja inclusion that Pokemon is the only franchise with the power to get a rep in before their game releases. And because of this, Pokemon reps are the only ones that are exceptions of my usual rule to discount any characters that released after the time Sakurai has stated he locked in the roster for this game in 2015/16 (looking at Spring Man and Rex & Pyra here, but I’m almost certain they will be DLC)

Yet again, calling on Vergeben here. He has explicitly said Incineroar is in over Decidueye. But hey, he’s not god so he could be wrong eventually. I’m still fairly convinced of Incineroar’s inclusion tho (as much as I’d prefer Decidueye)

Ken as a Ryu echo (Street Fighter)

Ken is the only echo I’m convinced is getting in. A lot of this is honestly, again, down to Vergeben’s leaks and a screenshot of Ken in a Smash Ultimate stage that has yet to be debunked. I don’t have a lot to say on this character purely because I don’t think there are many more people that need convincing.

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic series)

Shadow’s assist is missing and has been replaced out of nowhere with Knuckles, as you probably know. This is a huge notch in his favour, especially if you consider that Isabelle’s assist was replaced with Kapp’n in the August direct and now ta dah here she is. Honestly, with Shadow I think it’s only a matter of time, whether they release him as an echo alongside Ken in the final direct in the same way they did with Dark Samus and Chrom or they save him for DLC as a unique fighter (if Isabelle can be unique, Shadow definitely can).

These four are my picks for the most likely characters left to be revealed, but hey there’s some Hot Picks™  that I left out that u may be curious about so here’s why they’re not here. I guess you could call these my back ups, but they all have too much doubt around them for me to place them in my main predictions (a lot of this is pure speculation so I’m probably wrong but what the hell):

Isaac (Golden Sun) - Now don’t get me wrong, I know Isaac has his fans and he genuinely has a good shot of getting in to Ultimate, especially if you consider that the only new first party franchise we’ve had so far is Splatoon. But what’s holding him back in my mind is that the likes of Ridley and K. Rool are in, villains from huge franchises that have had endless support since forever. And while Isaac has some sense of seniority, I don’t think his place on the ballot matched that of those particular characters. And if the likes of Ashley and Shovel Knight have been assist’d, I can’t see Isaac placing any higher than them if you think about how niche Golden Sun is (but u know, look how ‘niche’ Mario RPG is and Geno’s way up on my list so don’t listen to me). The other thing is that, in the E3 presentation, it was revealed that there are ‘over 50′ assist trophies in this game. We’re currently aware of 40, a fair majority of which have returned from previous games. That doesn’t look good for characters like Isaac if we’re looking at another 12-15 assists to pop up in the next direct. So all I’m saying is, don’t be surprised if that happens. But I definitely think he’ll pop up in some form, whether that be assist or playable.

Skull Kid (Zelda series) - This is one I was uncertain about for a long while, as the fact that his assist is missing and replaced with the Moon from Majora’s Mask is a notch in his favour but I think I’ve settled on the idea that they may be saving Skull Kid for something else: Boss character. We’re all pretty much thinking that mysterious mode is probably gonna be a story mode by now and Ultimate is already filling its boots with iconic characters fitting in as bosses with the likes of Dracula and Rathalos being announced. And as much as I want Skull Kid in, I would say that he is the most iconic Zelda villain besides Ganondorf, which places him in a weird position where he would be v much suited to a character slot but would also make for a viable boss addition. So yeah, could go either way but for me, there’s too much doubt around him to count him as a dead cert for the roster.

Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby series) - Another very very likely candidate for the roster, this cute lil squishball would complete the Kirby set™ and he’s v popular in Japan. But he’s in the same position as Isaac where I’m not sure he got as much attention as peeps like Ridley and K. Rool. But hey, with Kirby and this character being Sakurai’s babies, this could sway him otherwise (I rlly hope so, can u tell I want him in)

Chorus Kids (Rhythm Heaven) - As my final back up/unsure pick, the Chorus Kids take their spot alongside Isaac in the ‘first party franchises that really need Smash attention’ category. The other things that make me pick the Chorus Kids over others is the fact that people doin’ some digging a while back revealed that the Chorus Kids were a scrapped character from Smash 4 so it isn’t a stretch to say that Sakurai could’ve gone back to that idea and make it work. Plus, the Chorus Kids would tick another box we’ve yet to account for; this game’s ‘weird’ rep. Much like Pokemon, it’s pretty much tradition at this point for each Smash game to contain a newcomer or two from odd franchises that not many would expect (Ice Climbers and Game & Watch in Melee, R.O.B. in Brawl, Wii Fit Trainer and Duck Hunt in Smash 4) and this is yet another tradition I don’t see them abandoning for Ultimate. As well as ticking this box, Chorus Kids are also a v popular pick so I have them in mind as the most likely pick if Sakurai is keeping the usual ‘weird’ rep tradition alive. But really what’s keeping Chorus Kids out of my main predictions is the fact that we have no idea if we’ll even get a rep in that vein this time, especially since competition for roster slots is so intense this time around.

OKAY so that’s all my dudes. If u happened to read my last post, you will notice that my number 1 fave pick ever Rayman is now gone from my predictions. But that’s bc I think he’ll be DLC now. So there you go. Tune in at some point when I’ll probably do a DLC posty boi. Have a good day.

[gal-the-violet]

Gal Talks Blue Mage in FFXIV

This is mostly me having verbal diarrhea about a topic that I have been thinking about WAY TOO OFTEN lately. So read it up if you want, or don’t, I’m not your mom, I’d remember ripping myself from puss to butt to birth something as ugly as you. This post will contain rumors, so if you count rumors about possible playable classes as spoilers, please don’t read this pile of shit?

Quick overview of what’s a blue mage:

There’s one thing that’s pretty consistent about blue magic is that it’s about gaining enemy abilities and being able to use them for yourself. They first appeared in FF V, one of the 4 main series FFs I have yet to touch. Later in the series, Blue Magic did return, but at times, it simply was not called that, but its spirit was very true. So beyond V, what other blue mages were there? There’s Strago Magus, the old guy from VI, though he was referred to as a Lore Master. He did not even have to be on the receiving end of an attack to learn it, he simply had to witness it. VII had a materia that helped you learn enemy attacks, but that’s not super pertinent to this conversation, thank you. Quistis of VIII used Blue Magic as well, girl had a whip as a main weapon and as a limit break used blue magics learned from items dropped by enemies. IX, one of my favorite entries, brought us Quina Quen s/he would EAT low-healthed monsters to gain their abilities, gurl was famished and used forks as weaponry. X had Kimahri Ronso, the big panther guy was able to learn enemy abilities with his lancet and use them in his overdrive. Then came XI, an expansion brought Blue Mage as a class for your main character! Awesome! In the MMO Blue magic had a pretty dark connotation as you were using abilities that were not meant for mortals, effectively perhaps tainting your soul! They were mostly assassins, with their choice of garb being absolutely Arabian inspired, no? (I won’t talk about FF tactics, but I do believe there are blue mages at some point in there, the above image is from that, while the one below is from XI)

The FFXIV rumors:

I’m not gonna actually provide proof of leaks or what have you. You’ll do your own little work and will google for your own self. But, the next expansion, which might be called Shadowbringers, would be bringing Soldier(gunblade tank), Dancer(Healer) and Blue Mage(DPS). This would have come from some datamining, I don’t understand datamining, never understood datamining, never will understand datamining, so take this with a grain of salt.

The three distinct possibilities for blue mage in FFXIV:

It’s hard to imagine a system where your character will need to fight a certain monster or number of monsters to learn abilities. In FFXIV, abilities are learned through quests or level. It is my belief that this will continue still with blue magic, even if it kinda goes against what it means. Your quests will simply be about gaining the new spells by fighting a specific enemy/boss. So, the possibilities I see:

Learn magic from beasts/enemies: Pretty likely. I heard that some of the leaks did point towards this.

Learn magic from beastmen: Somewhat likely. I, as a player of an IC beast tribe researcher, would die if this was the case. Instead of having to beat them, perhaps they actually teach your unique forms of magic?

Learn magic from primals: I totally see Square coming from behind with this. It would be disappointing for roleplayers though. Summoners already have this, by having to have been present when a primal dies to be able to summon their egi, would they do it again by having your character learn abilities after defeating primals? I would hope not, but it’s possible, though I think it is less likely than the two others.

How I would make BLU:

With any future implementation of a new job, you need to figure out why it’s not part of today’s Eorzean society. Machinist is new, Red Mages fell twenty years ago to infighting, etc...

I’d go for option 1 and 2 though, that blue magic is learned from monsters or beast tribes, and such a type of magic would be ill received by most modern city states, hence, the blue mages are nomadic, they keep to themselves, teaching one another the art and passing down soul crystals. They do not write down their traditions because their writings could be found, and could lead to persecution, or worse misuse. So, it’s all oral and soul crystals, I’m taking some inspiration from the Speakers of the Castlevania Netflix series, admittedly. Perhaps instead of being from Eorzea, they are from Ivalice, another reason why Blue Mages are not mentioned anywhere yet, because people do not know about them! One master could have come to Eorzea to perhaps scout out if it is safe for the blue mages to follow, the WoL meets them, stuff ensues, and you’re the first Eorzean accepted in the order and taught blue magic. So roleplayers COULD get away with it, while still putting on clear limits like Square Enix seems to love to have for their jobs.

For their choice of weapon? I would SOOOO go whip. Though this would be the wet dream of dominatrixes, I just feel it ties well with the whole dealing with beasts well, keeping them at a distance while you copy their abilities, etc... We already have a few classes that have swords, I’d rather not go sword!

------------------

Well, that is about it honestly, thanks for reading :3

[anonymouscomrade]

aC’s Smash Ultimate wishlist

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS (yes i know getting all or even most of these is unrealistic, this is a wishlist damnit):

Isaac (Golden Sun)

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Saki (Sin and Punishment)

King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)

a Tales character, either Lloyd (Tales of Symphonia) or Cress (Tales of Phantasia)

a Square-Enix character who’s actually relevant to Nintendo (my personal preference would be Crono from Chrono Trigger or Terra from FF6, but i could see a throwback character like one of the FF1 classes or even the player character from Dragon Warrior being a good choice)

Ken (Street Fighter) as an echo fighter for Ryu, i mean come on he’s the original echo fighter

“probably won’t happen but it’d be rad as hell” tier: Simon Belmont (Castlevania) and Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)

“never gonna happen” tier: Shovel Knight, and Nester from the old Nintendo Power comics

STAGES:

one of the elemental lighthouses from Golden Sun

something with the Earth Mimicry from Sin and Punishment

a (preferably) Tetris or (more likely) Dr. Mario stage where you have to dodge the pieces that drop in

SHIFTY STATION (Splatoon 2)

ITEMS:

look if you just put in the shoe from Mario 3 that’s all i really need

ASSIST TROPHIES:

Guile (Street Fighter): kind of like Little Mac in Brawl if he had a projectile, runs around the stage attacking people and using Sonic Boom and Flash Kick. could use his Double Flash or Sonic Hurricane super before disappearing

Elite Beat Agents: beat markers show up around the level and explode in tune with the stage music, don’t hang around them when they’re set to blow or you’ll take damage

Bald Bull (Punch-Out), rushes around the stage and delivers huge knockback with his signature bull charge attack

the players from NES Ice Hockey, with the sprites running around a la the Advance War soldiers or Excitebike racers and bumping into the fighters. i dunno i just really liked that game and it’d be cool to see it recognized

the Angry Sun (Super Mario Bros 3): anyone who was a little kid who played SMB3 remembers this fucking thing being terrifying and it’d be cool if it were an assist trophy and acted just like it did in that game

the Gunstars (Gunstar Heroes) or Lance Bean and Bill Rizer (Contra), running and gunning like you’d expect

MUSIC:

a shitload more Final Fantasy music than we got in Smash 4, that’s for damn sure (might i recommend Force Your Way, Battle in the Dungeon #2, Awakening, Torn From The Heavens, Battle 1 (FFIX), and Battle 2 (FFIV) for starters)

Color Pulse COLOR PULSE COLOR PULSE (Splatoon 2)

also Calamari Inkantation (Splatoon) but i’m pretty sure that’s a shoo-in at this point

ALSO, the last minute of a timed match on any Splatoon stage should change to this

has... has the gen 1 Pokemon Gym Battle Theme even BEEN in a Smash game yet? i’m struggling but i don’t think it has despite being hands-down one of the best themes in the series

[patchun]

Smash time

Alright, so I’ve been thinking about this a lot and now I’m going to try to compile all this into some posts. I’ll also tag this as long post, and “smashlongpost” in case you get tired of seeing it somehow.

First majorly important thing is this: since the release of Smash Wii U, how many new titles has Nintendo made? That’s right - unless I’m completely missing something, that answer is... 2. If not 2, then still pretty low. Splatoon (which may have come out before Smash Wii? I don’t remember, not important, I’m gonna count it.) and Arms.

So, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that, along with Inklings, we’re going to get Springman/Ribbongirl, either as two different characters or as one character, HOPEFULLY one character. Unfortunately, Rex is also a likely addition here. I can’t really emphasize my dislike of Rex enough, but in case any of you here like him... I’m sorry. I hate him. So much. But I also fear he’s inevitable, like the Arms characters.

Another safe bet is a new Pokemon rep. After a lot of thought, I think the top candidates for this are either Decidueye because of his immense popularity, or Mimikyu. However, considering Mimikyu’s similarities to Pikachu appearance/size-wise, it seems more likely they’d choose Decidueye. Another option on the Pokemon side of things, though, is an unknown Gen 8 Pokemon, since Pokemon Switch is currently in development. Since Greninja was being developed for Smash Wii U before Sun and Moon were released, the same thing could easily happen with this new game, I think.

But, with only two new titles, that only gives us two new characters excluding some switched out ones, right? Kind of, and this is kind of bad news - but at the same time it is great news.

Why is it great news? Because! Because Nintendo doesn’t have many new titles, that means there’s a bigger chance of them looking to 3rd parties! And this is very exciting news. Which brings me to a list of possible candidates, and desired candidates. First of all, there are three newcomers that seem somewhat unlikely, but that I’d love to have. They are:

Marx (Kirby) - This is so unlikely. But man, I love Marx, and his announcement for Star Allies really refueled a fire in my heart. Being playable in Star Allies will be enough for me, but oh boy, if he was playable in Smash that would be something.

Sans///or Frisk - People are joking about this, and also treating it as if it’s a bad thing. Listen. Undertale wasn’t immediately acknowledged by the big gaming companies, I don’t think, because they’re busy making games, not following what’s hip on the Indie market. But Undertale made a HUGE impact, and also, Japan loved it. Since it was announced as coming to the Switch in the same trailer as Smash, I wouldn’t even say that Sans or Frisk coming to Smash would be unlikely, and unlike those treating Undertale as a bad thing for some reason, I think that could be really cool. I’m not going to say it’s extremely likely, but is it possible, and probably more likely than Marx? Yes.

Reimu - Of course, my most desired would have to be none other than Reimu. The chances of this are so slim, probably more slim than even Sans, but the impact on Touhou as a whole that Reimu in Smash would have would be unspeakable. Let me make my case. First of all, the basis of all of this hope is that Touhou is on the Switch now. Copyright things may have already been dealt with in order for a fangame to make it to the Switch, meaning ZUN may not need to worry about that, though I don’t know exactly how the copyright stuff works. So, with that in mind, consider this: Nintendo likes money. Nintendo, with Smash, wants to appeal to as many target audiences as possible. And, according to what I’ve heard, Touhou in Japan has been pretty big lately, particularly for young girls (you know, because ZUN actually treats girls as people unlike almost every other thing Japan makes!!!!). So... Reimu in Smash would be perfect to appeal to that audience. In the west, Reimu in Smash would have such a huge effect. You know how you probably didn’t know who Ness or Lucas were until you saw them in Smash, got curious, google them, then played Earthbound and now you love them? Think about how much exposure this could give Touhou and ZUN. This could create an entire wave of Touhou fans in the west, and I really hope ZUN can see this. Unfortunately, I don’t see this as likely. The best case scenario is that someone on the Smash staff has a daughter who really likes Touhou, and so basically what ends up happening is that Nintendo WANTS Touhou. Since I can’t see ZUN taking any initiative to put Reimu in Smash himself, the way I see it having to happen is for Nintendo to be the one who initiates. That way, I can at least see ZUN possibly agreeing. I know the chances are slim, but I really, really hope this happens - and I can’t stop fanboying over the idea of a 3d rendered Reimu in ZUN style.

Waluigi - Waluigi is interesting because, like a Touhou character, it seems that the fanbase basically... made him. I don’t know exactly what his moveset would be or how it could be made unique, but I know so many people who love Waluigi who would be happy to see him playable, including myself.

That ends the list of characters I really want. Otherwise, I’ve thought of some characters that have a pretty good chance of getting in, in no particular order.

Crash Bandicoot (convenient timing for a Switch release, a gaming icon similar to Pacman and Sonic)

Jibanyan from Youkai Watch

A Rabbid (Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle, I didn’t like this at first, but that game was actually pretty fun! I wouldn’t be opposed to playing as Rabbid Luigi)

Yooka-Laylee (I’d personally rather not a character slot be taken up by this, better to put Banjo-Kazooie or Hat Kid)

Bomberman

Shovel Knight

Shantae

Phoenix Wright (maybe... doubtful but maybe, I’d like this)

Sora - THERE’S NO WAY SORA IS GETTING IN. I like Sora, but the Disney copyright barrier is too strong. It’s like, Cloud getting in was a miracle enough - but imagine Nintendo not only having to go through the Square Enix barrier but also the Disney one.

Bandana Waddle Dee - I wouldn’t mind this! I’d like it... but I’d prefer Marx.

Then we have other Nintendo characters, like K. Rool, Ridley, Wolf, etc. But... honestly, I’d prefer 3rd party characters to these. That’s just personal preferences.

Finally though, depressing reality kicked in when I realized that, sure, I *hope* that Nintendo will be looking at and considering relevant and modern characters... but, there’s also a chance that Nintendo is just going to bring us another Mr. Game and Watch, or a ROB, or a Little Mac. An old property that they bring back. Some people may like this, and I wouldn’t really be opposed to it so long as a few relevant and not-previously-in-Smash get to shine too.

In the end, I just really hope Nintendo is given the opportunity to consider Reimu. She’d be such a great addition.

Please respond with your opinions, I’d really like to interact with you guys.

[turkiyeecom]

E3 2019 in photos: Gooigi, crazy arcade machines, and a DOOM museum

"Great work!" — Plus, the National Videogame Museum returns with some of its craziest rarities yet. Sam Machkovech and Kyle Orland - Jun 16, 2019 1:00 pm UTC LOS ANGELES—If you couldn't or didn't make it to E3 2019, you're not the only one. Anecdotal evidence suggests this was the most poorly attended E3 in some time (though its organizers at the ESA insist that this E3 had only 3,000 fewer attendees than 2018's jam-packed affair), owing perhaps to Sony's no-show or the abundance of live-streamed options for enjoying the event at your own home. Luigi and Gooigi attracted hordes of attendees excited to pose for photos. Sam Machkovech Inside the Luigi's Mansion 3 booth, fans could pose with a guy in a Luigi costume. Nintendo went all-out building a haunted house for these kiosks, but my photos of it turned out terribly. It was easier to get photos of the toy dioramas built around the Link's Awakening gameplay kiosks. Nintendo built four of them in all. A closer zoom on the plastic minis Nintendo built just for this occasion. Link delves into a dungeon. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" "Wrong series, dude." I'll admit, I kinda lost my mind seeing this adorable Link and Marin meet-cute diorama. Marin in Smash Bros. Ultimate? A guy can dream, right? The EA Play event at the Hollywood Palladium included this impressive cast of paid Apex Legends cosplayers. Yes, the person cosplaying as Octane is a bilateral amputee. You couldn't buy these impressive 10" Apex Legends statues at EA Play. But you could buy a ton of shirts and hoodies. As an Apex Legends fan, Ars's Sam Machkovech nearly bought the "bamboozled" one. For some reason, EA Play hosted an Anthem gameplay session... and for some reason, attendees actually waited for it. FIFA '20 hosted an arena-soccer match. The McLaren Senna features in the new LEGO Speed expansion pack for Forza Horizon 4, so naturally, Microsoft had someone make a life-sized McLaren Serra model out of LEGO bricks. They went to pretty insane trouble to include significant elements from the real deal. Real wheels, real LEGO blocks. This refreshed version of the Xbox Elite Controller (dubbed "version 2") will launch in November for $180 and features such perks as a rechargeable battery, a controller-charging case, increased hair-trigger responsiveness, and more. We couldn't test the new XEC with any games, but its newly texturized grip and significant heft felt good to hold on its own. C'mon, Xbox, you think we're gonna steal this thing? How dare you. Say hello to one of Gears 5's newest, most disgusting monsters. It's not a Gears of War character if it doesn't have chest-high cover nearby. The best thing about Gears 5's new "Escape" mode is that it supports three-player split-screen co-op. More of this kinda thing, please, Xbox Game Studios. The newest LEGO Star Wars release this coming holiday season revolves around the "Skywalker Saga," so naturally, it's time to trot out the old LEGO Han in LEGO carbonite statue again. Coach's Pac-Man line of bags and accessories. For the discerning, fancypants gamer. More Pac-Man and classic-Namco swag. Pretty solid 10" Tekken statues. The entire Bandai Namco fancy-collectible wall was pretty great, honestly. I couldn't take photos of the Final Fantasy VII Remake gameplay kiosks, but I could take photos of the series' Shinra Corporation stuff all around it. For example, this recreation of an iconic FFVII backdrop. Square Enix put up a few Shinra advertisements around the kiosks. See? They have Midgar's best interests at heart! I really hope there's a full cartoon series hidden inside of FFVII Remake starring this cartoon dog. Someone please translate this for us. A small detail of the amazing theater room for Psychonauts 2. TEETH! Arcade1UP had a significant E3 presence with its home-friendly versions of classic arcade machines. The manufacturer used E3 to reveal its newest product: a Star Wars Atari arcade trilogy collection, coming "late 2019." Another look at its handsome side cabinet art. I had to stand on a stool to get a better look at the screen and controller. Because this cabinet was set up on a precarious platform, it was not playable at E3. An Arcade1UP representative said it collaborated with Disney and Lucasfilm in the making of this cabinet, then studied original classic arcade hardware to recreate the controller. Rather than answer my technical questions about how the controller was constructed in this modern version, the Arcade1UP rep insisted that it sought input from arcade cabinet collectors to confirm that its version nailed the original cabinets' feel and mechanical action. Another new Arcade1UP cabinet: the TMNT collection, which includes both of Konami's four-player brawlers in one cabinet. (Most of their cabs include at least two games, if not a few more.) It seems to comfortably support four players, but I liked this group's tweak: letting the middle player simultaneously control two turtles. Then there was this absolutely ridiculous thing that Arcade1UP built for the heckuvit. That's intrepid Ars Technica editor Sam Machkovech up there pretending to play the game. I hope the hand on the joystick makes clear how stupidly massive this whole rig was. But it worked... and Sam won his match. Really, Sam? Be professional. Sega's booth had its own oversized-controller gimmick to celebrate the impending launch of the Sega Genesis Mini this September. It's not really E3 until Ubisoft has a stage full of professional dancers and average fans getting down to Just Dance as one awkward collective. A peek at the poster-covered walls inside of Cyberpunk 2077's behind-closed-doors booth. Capcom had a relatively meager showing at E3, with this new Monster Hunter World expansion taking up most of the company's booth. But, hey, at least they had some nice 10" dragons under glass. Hold me closer, tiny draaaagonnnnns. Sorry, Street Fighter fans. Capcom didn't come to E3 2019 with any news about either SFV or any new fighting games. Just 10" figurines. Chun-Li and Cammy, kicking ass beneath glass. Larger than life. Just like Borderlands should be. Kyle Orland This was by far the best part of the Destroy All Humans revival attempt. Kyle Orland Pixl Cube was one of the more inventive games at the Indiecade booth, a tilt-sensitive box with LED dots that moved through a maze as if pulled by gravity. Kyle Orland In the entryway for Youtube Gaming's creator space, blocks from the show floor, a Google Stadia controller sits behind glass with a mock-up of a retro game store. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming space also featured some streamers on old-school CRT TVs, which was a weird look. Kyle Orland Cute. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming logo sits on a fake cartridge alongside... Hyper Chroma Ultra? Kyle Orland Nothing says "E3" like a guy in a Yoshi/Mario costume livestreaming himself as he balks loudly at the show floor's $6 pretzels. Kyle Orland New Wave Toys is expanding its Replicade line of authentic miniature cabinets with the likes of these two Capcom classics. Kyle Orland MyArcade is expanding from miniature cabinets to massive portable systems capable of playing actual NES and SNES cartridges. Kyle Orland MyArcade's upcoming Contra cabinet even includes link cable support for two player action. Don't you DARE touch this actual Contra cabinet in the MyArcade booth, though. Kyle Orland That being said, we attended, and Ars Technica came back from Los Angeles with plenty to show for it. In addition to a few more hands-on previews coming (which will build upon the best-of E3 2019 list we already filed), we took our cameras out at both the official E3 halls and nearby events (Xbox Fan Fest, EA Play). I gotta say, in this modern political climate, I have been calling every year "the year of doom." A very nice pencil sketch taken from the original PC game's box art. I'd never seen these minis before, but now I want to play DOOM-opoly. A better zoom on these metal beasts. Collect me plenty. Now for some impressive 3D molds of famed DOOM demons. See? It's like a museum. Funnily enough, this is my "I don't know what to do with my hands" pose when I stand for photos. The secret for awkward photo poses: turn your arms into massive rocket launchers. Way less awkward! As one of DOOM 64's longtime fans, I stood at this specific panel for a while. This might be the least-blurry these N64 sprites have ever looked. (The N64 famously smothered its sprites in a disgusting, smeary blur.) More figurines on display. More figurines on display. More swag on display. More swag on display. The result is a whopping three image galleries here. The first is a catch-all for most of the basic, expected fare, while the second and third focus on retro elements: a DOOM-specific mini-museum, and a curated collection of very rare gaming hardware and collectibles courtesy of the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Tex. (If you've never been to that physical location before, we strongly encourage you to book a trip.) You know the retro portion of E3 is serious when they put this thing behind a rope. Truly one of a kind. Click the image to get a better look at the information placard. Yep, those are traditional Saturn controller ports. We'd never seen these Vectrex prototypes and variants before. The innards of a prototype color Vectrex system that never saw production. Kyle Orland Anybody think they can repair this thing? Yes, the only scoring cart that remains from this Super Nintendo championship event. Also, a killer Vectrex jacket. How the heck does the NVM keep finding and showing off such incredible game-history rarities? Some cool mementos from the original Mortal Kombat. The placard explains how rare this system is... ... based on this specific message signed by none other than Bill Gates. I don't care how puffy this jacket is. I'd wear it. Every year, the National Video Game Museum trots out at least one previously confidential binder taken from a major gaming company. This year's was Nintendo. I'm always fascinated by internal '80s and '90s documentation about piracy and cartridge backup systems. This section went on for a few more pages and even included grainy photos of various cartridge-copying devices. Video games: the board game! Video games: the, uh, VHS game! Well before the Game Boy revolutionized portable gaming, kids of the '70s and '80s were stuck with these clunkers. One wall was dedicated to particularly rare game consoles that launched solely in Japan. Eat your heart out, Donkey Konga. This is one of Gunpei Yokoi's classic electronic games that he designed for Nintendo in the '70s. This makes me wish Ulala was in an actual '80s cartoon. Kyle Orland In addition to popular and common fare in the coin-op section, the NVM trotted out a few machines we rarely see at classic gaming expos, like this fetching Jungle King cab. True story: we asked Double Fine studio founder and creative director Tim Schafer if he could step back for a second so we could take a photo of this handsome Omega Race cabinet. "I used to play this game all the time as a kid," he remarked before stepping away slowly. (If you're wondering, he signs his name "TIM" in high-score tables.) And we couldn't leave E3 without a walk through the almost carnival-like selection of vendors and inventions in the expo's very back hall. Look below at the show's weird "et cetera" section. Here's a gallery of E3 2019's oddest booths and products. "Wow, how nice and COOL!" we're sure you are saying to yourself. Kyle Orland Thermoreal uses superconductors (?!) to simulate a cold or hot feeling in metal. The company integrated this tech into VR-compatible gloves and a VR headset. As the VR environment changes, so does the sensation of real-life temperature. Trippy! Kyle Orland This 1,000 MaH battery pack for the Switch was heavy, but the harness made it pretty easy to slide on and off to use only when it's needed. Kyle Orland Some extremely generic-looking custom chip boards for use in mini-arcade devices and portable emulation devices. If anybody reading this has the rights to the Atari Jaguar Mini, look them up. Kyle Orland Why stream games to a smartphone with Google Stadia when the Smach Z packs an entire 1080p gaming PC with a 6" screen into a rather bulky portable package? Doom (2016) ran with noticeable judders, and the unit got noticeably hot in our test. But the fact that it works at all was impressive. Kyle Orland The Tactsuit haptic system jolts your body when playing compatible VR games and software. Kyle Orland The Vuvana system has something to do with using a new blockchain cryptocurrency to buy and "own" items in virtual reality, which you can view on a cell phone with this included viewer, apparently. Kyle Orland Oversized controllers were all the rage at E3 2019, but this one went to the trouble of building in a monitor for its game, Street Fighter 2. Kyle Orland Remember the iCade Mini? Someone sure does... Kyle Orland GameBoks is just like it sounds—a wooden box that houses a monitor, power supply, and a space to hold and connect your game console. Between this and the new Atari VCS, wood paneling is apparently the hot new retro-hardware trend. Kyle Orland Proximat is being sold as a "mousepad for your virtual reality feet." It gives VR players a physical indication of their play space's center point, complete with high-grade gel for foot comfort. Kyle Orland If this is a thing you're looking for (for some reason), E3 has you covered. Kyle Orland Amazingly, a product with "360 ONE X" in its name has nothing to do with Xbox (it's a 360 degree camera designed for VR) Kyle Orland Neither vinyl nor fidget spinners are dead at E3 2019. Kyle Orland I need some quick energy after seeing all of these amazing products. It's my lucky day! Kyle Orland How do you make money selling $100 worth of stuff for $40? It's an economic miracle! Kyle Orland This balance board is mainly meant for some easy exercise while at a standing desk, but its producers were marketing it to gamers with a Mortal Kombat 11 display. Kyle Orland And the award for "most dystopian sounding slogan at E3" goes to... Kyle Orland "In the 1989 Future" is a legitimately great tagline, we have to admit. Kyle Orland Listing image by Sam Machkovech Read More Read the full article

[icarusdusoleil]

Who is up for another round of opinion time with Skip? This time, the subject is Final Fantasy XV!!! It’s long a long rant, so I put it under the cut. Also, there are obviously a lot of spoilers.

So, first and foremost, I love Final Fantasy XV. However, I have a lot of positive and negative opinions about it. On one hand, it didn’t take long for me to love the characters with all of my heart... but on the other hand, the storytelling could have been written so much better.

Initially, I wasn’t even interested in the game, because my gut reaction was: “oh look, a Squall clone and a Cloud clone go on an adventure with two other generic Squeenix people”. While I still have my reservations about Square Enix’s same-face problem I’m so happy that I was proven wrong about the characters. And I’m not gonna lie, my main reason for checking out the game was because of the “THAT’S IT! I’VE COME UP WITH A NEW RECIPEH” meme and Prompto’s photographs.

I loved Prompto and Ignis straight off the bat. I think their characters are handled wonderfully and I’m extremely glad that we got to see them both at their highest and lowest points. I was actually extremely surprised that I ended up liking Gladiolus, but after seeing his character and learning more about him, I really shouldn’t have been surprised because I always like the big, tough shield with a soft heart.

And I’m going to be perfectly honest... I’m still not sure if I like Noctis.

This is kind of stemming off being tired of Squeenix’s tendencies to have angsty main characters. I get that it’s their main type, but I’d like to see something new. Luckily, Noctis has a lot of moments where he isn’t moping and I relished those moments. His dry sarcasm and his tendency to act like a (dare I say) royal brat actually won me over. However... I would have liked to see more growth and maturity from his character throughout the game.

I understand that he has a lot of responsibilities and that he’s thrown into them abruptly... but Gladios, Prompto, and Ignis all took up their new responsibilities and handicaps without complaint. In fact, they pushed aside their own problems and shouldered Noctis’ way more than they should have. I’m glad Gladi occasionally tried to put Noctis in his place, even if his attempts were a little crass. Anyway, I’m fine with Noctis acting like a royal brat and I’m even fine with some level of angst... but I would have liked to see him mature more. He kept this certain level of apathy throughout the entire game and it made me question whether he really cared or not.

Now let’s talk about Luna. So, I want to like Luna. I really do. But the game did a lot of tell don’t show which is a BIG NO-NO (and boy howdy I’ll rant more about that later). They kept telling you how cool Luna was and how powerful she was and how great she was... and the only time you really get to see her in action was when she talked to the Hydraen (and we all know how badly that ended...). If you’re going to say that Luna is the main female lead, you need to give her more time to do her stuff on screen. Also why the heck can’t she run around with the party? Why can’t she be a playable character?? Why didn’t we see more Luna??? Why do Cindy and Iris get more screentime than Luna if she’s the main female character????

I think the idea that Luna and Noctis are betrothed as a power couple that will bring world peace is an interesting idea... however, I don’t really buy their special connection. Even though they knew each other as kids and they send their little love letters or whatever, their relationship with each other doesn’t seem that strong? Or tangible? Or believable? I just think they could have written that long-distance relationship so much better. I think this also has to do with Noctis’ whole apathy and immaturity issue: because whenever the subject of Luna was brought up, his reaction was often an avoidant “ehhhh”. And then the one flashback we see of Luna being all like “I can’t wait to get together with Noctis” just seems so... fake. It’s just not believable and I wasn’t like “I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THEY’RE UNITED”... it was more like, “wait Nocits is fishing again... shouldn’t he be, I don’t know, meeting his betrothed or something? Whatever, what’s one more fish?”

ALSO... PLEASE. STOP. FRIDGING. YOUR. FEMALE. CHARACTERS. I’m soooo tiiiired of this trope. It needs to stop.

Back to the tell don’t show issue, oh man Squeenix... you dropped the ball on a lot of storytelling aspects of the game. Where’s the story of how Gladios got his new scars when he ran off by himself for that short time? Why did he run off on his own anyway? Why don’t we see the struggles of evacuating an entire city while Noctis fights the Hydraen? Why can’t we see Ignis get blinded? Why don’t we see how the Empire/Ardyn captured Prompto and took him to that creepy lab? What were they even doing with him strapped to the machine anyway? Why don’t we get to see Luna actually talking to the gods and doing her job in non-flashback scenes? I get that the game is from Noctis’ POV, but I would have liked to see more of the world from other POVs too or at least catch Noctis (and the player) up with the events that have happened while he’s not around. It would have made the world seem so much bigger.

And my last beef is that the game introduced a lot of potential antagonists and never really had a good follow up with... any of them? Like I understand that Ardyn is the main villain... but I don’t feel like Ravus, Iedolas, and Verstael were even necessary. I get that Squeenix was trying to trick the player into thinking that Ardyn wasn’t actually that bad (even though you could peg pretty early on that he was bad news and that he would continue to be bad because he kept showing up). Like AGAIN, it’s the show don’t tell thing. If you keep showing Ardyn, but you’re telling the viewer that there are bigger and badder guys... but the only time you show the supposedly badder villains, they’re just a one-time deal? That’s not good storytelling.

So, all in all... I love FFXV for its characters and the potential it has to be a much better story. Even not including the additional movies and DLC to show more of the characters’ backstories, I was sold on the four boys’ friendship just by how they act around each other. I think their relationships are incredibly heartwarming, but I just wish that the plot itself would have been given the same care and attention. I want to see and play more of this story and experience more of these characters (GIVE ME MORE LUNA!!), so I hope they expand on this story like they have with the other FFs.

What are your opinions on the game? What did you like the best? What did you like the least? I’d love to discuss it!

[longroadstonowhere]

first thoughts on kh3 dlc

i was gonna do just one big post on the whole thing, but uuuhhhh there’s a second half i didn’t know about? and that’s just all data org thirteen battles, which is gonna take me a while since i don’t have any strategy guides to give me advice yet, so who knows when i’ll finish that chunk

but let’s talk about retcon sora

i’m..... not sure how i feel about the whole concept of the dlc? like, how it interweaves with the final segment of kh3 and basically is a replay for major chunks, but where you can finally play as some of the other keyblade wielders, because on the one hand, it got really tedious at certain points watching cutscenes i’d already seen a few times (because deaths), but on the other hand, i loved every single moment where the cutscene was happening but someone else was talking over it because it was like they were saying ‘we know you know what’s going on here, we just have to gap this little bit of story for the next beat to make sense’

running around scala ad caelum was also pretty nice, once i figured out certain things (still got two treasure chests i have to find at some point, so that’s gonna bother me until it happens, but i’ve got a save file at that point so i should be good to do it eventually)

the dlc earns a decent amount of points for finally giving me playable kairi, although i wish some of her fighting lines were less wishy-washy, but also it was the final battle and then.... well, i’ll get to that in a second i think

anyway, i do appreciate how these things filled in the gaps somewhat, but i’m not sure if it was consistent, exactly, with how sora’s powers were laid out in kh3 - like, chirithy says ‘you can’t interfere with things this time around’, but then he does and it’s actually totally fine? unless sora always did these things and it was a stable time loop situation, but that’s not how the game presents it, especially with how the dlc ends

which reminds me, are there just.... two soras wandering around the multiverse now? or no, i guess at the end of the game kh3 sora becomes dlc sora, and dlc sora is the one who gets to say goodbye to kairi, so i guess that all works out (as well as anything works out when it comes to time travel in kingdom hearts)

anyway, it was a pretty fun little adventure, took me about three to four hours to get through that bit, which is a respectable speed i think considering how much time i spent just wandering around scala ad caelum until i found the sewers

then we get to limitcut

first off, so glad the ff characters are around, i missed them dearly in this whole kh3 adventure, so even if they’re just there for the.... oh my god, i cannot think of this phrase, it’s like bookends and setting and staging?????? the thing where like.... oh, like in the princess bride, where you have the story of wesley and buttercup, but you also have the story of the grandpa reading the book to the sick kid, whatever you call the second thing, i’m okay if that’s all the final fantasy characters are used for, i just missed their existence

so then riku explains what everyone’s been up to while sora’s been gone for a year(?!?!?!?), like twilight town gang is searching roxas and xion’s memories, bbs gang is having a dark realms road trip, and...... kairi’s in a coma

like, fuck off square enix, seriously

you lose all points for giving me playable kairi by immediately turning around and saying she has to be in a coma in order for them to search her heart to find sora clues

are roxas and xion in comas? if so, that should definitely be mentioned, and if not, why the hell should kairi be in one??? also where the hell is namine in all this? is she just generally assisting one of these groups, or are we not supposed to ask questions like that until we defeat thirteen superbosses?

just, ugh, i hate that they keep doing this to her, just give me protagonist kairi or leave her alone, because clearly they can’t treat her right at all

anyway

i appreciate the return of data sora, who may or may not come with existential questions about identity this time, and i guess i’ll just bash away at org thirteen battles for the next week or so

gonna focus on fire emblem for the rest of today, though, since i’m real close to the end of the blue lions bit and i’m eager to get to golden deer (wrote goldeen deer at first, which would be hilarious)