Adam Vitale
@drseda
I'm Seda in most places on the web. I am the Editor-in-Chief RPG Site. RPG gearhead. Scientist by day. He/him. Contact: adam@rpgsite.net
I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. This was back in March. I guess July/August is technically 'in the coming weeks' still.
16.) Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia Great art, good music, and an interesting vignette storytelling style. The macro-gameplay is pretty much Risk. The micro-gameplay is grid-based tactics. It has cool class and item systems. Unfortunately, most of the actual battles kinda feel the same.
Here's the direct source if you're looking for it (from Sega Sammy's IR website).
15.) The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales This game has several shortcomings. The world is repetitive, combat is nigh-pointless, puzzles are trivial, and the narrative is rather plain. It could be a decent foundation for something better later on, but I think this is a weak HD-2D entry.
14.) Mina the Hollower Great game. The opening sections are probably the most frustrating before you gain a few stat upgrades, but the combination of art style and game systems is creative, allowing the game to feel both classic and fresh.
As someone who is usually an Inbox Zero person, I've got a bit to catch up on.
13.) Final Fantasy VII I played through this twice to write a walkthrough. I've never really had a strong attachment to FF7, though. I still don't, although now I am quite familiar with the ins and outs of the game lol.
This is a little bit tricky. The writers themselves want it to stand on its own - I spoke to them at GDC. The PR/marketing *definitely* want you to know it's from the same studio. But then of course, many of the original creatives were fired after an (allegedly) illegal takeover of the studio.
Square Enix posted their FY results. The main takeaways for me are: 1.) Income going up despite sales going down, which they cite 'profitability' due to reorg, licensing, etc 2.) Ports & smaller scale HD titles in recent years are more profitable 3.) Sales forecast next year expected to be flat.
12.) GreedFall: The Dying World On one hand, this feels more like an old-fashioned 2000s-era RtWP CRPG that I'm fond of. On the other hand, I think the initial premise wasn't very interesting to begin with, the execution is middling overall, and the game feels only about 70% finished. RIP Spiders.
11.) Wild ARMs 4 Probably my least favorite game in the series w/ some bright spots. Poor presentation, corny dialogue, weak antagonists, & unbalanced combat that feels like a prototype to WA5. Although I joked about it, Raquel's character story is probably the most compelling part of the game.
Wild Arms 4 is a junky game but it also has Raquel so who can say if it is bad or not
10.) Tales of Berseria Remastered Might be my favorite playable cast in the series, and despite a few middling components (equipment), a huge rebound from Zestiria all around. Soul gauge combat improves throughout the game. I had forgotten how cathartic the "Will You STOP WHINING?!" cutscene is.
9.) Tales of Xillia Remastered I came into this replay thinking Xillia was a middle-of-the-road, relatively unremarkable Tales game. After a replay, my thoughts are mostly unchanged. OK combat, but copy-paste field areas are tedious, & some of the plotting is nearly nonsense. MUTTON FRESH MUTTON.
Also, this reminds me of a nice, small write up about Raquel that I'm glad still exists on Game Informer, from 2013: gameinformer.com/b/features/a...
Here's a comparison between GOG (Point Sampled) and Steam (nothing). Game running at 4K with aspect ratio correction ON if you were curious about pillar bars.
The interview includes a specific example of a writer/creator getting into games (and now development) from a underprivileged country thanks to emulation.
8.) Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster Good game, great combat, bold premise, excellent soundtrack. Its legacy will be how it a path forward for Team Asano. I would enjoy the game more had it not spent a considerable chunk of the story involving Master Roshi making clothes for young women.