Hey, look. I put links in mine. Click ‘em for trailers or gameplay or what-have-you.
Final Fantasy XVersus (PS4, Xbone)
What… else can I possibly say about this? For those of you who were around, you know I was going pretty crazy over it, so much so that I couldn’t type and that my hands were just trembling so much. I’m fairly certain that I couldn’t speak, either, since words weren’t coming out right. And I don’t usually go nuts over games like that. If I have, it’s been years—perhaps a decade—since that’s happened. I don’t even remember the last time I’ve felt that excited over a game. It was perhaps since the last mainline Genso Suikoden game was announced, and that was in 2005.
Final Fantasy XVersus isn’t exactly what I expect from a mainline Final Fantasy title at all. I don’t think it’s what I want from a mainline title at all, nor do I think it’s going to be a game that will be without criticism from me (for instance, the Uncharted-esque / cutscene-boosted gameplay doesn’t really strike a chord with me, and you all know I don’t like that sort of style of game at all). With that said, however, I like what I saw. I liked what I saw a lot. For some stupid reason, being someone who was never ever enamoured with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and not caring much for the staff and not caring much about any of the gameplay I’d seen in the trailers prior, I was excited when this darn trailer was rolling and eagerly awaited everyone’s reaction when it was finally revealed that the project had shifted from a sidegame to a mainline game.
I don’t like Kingdom Hearts’s gameplay and style. I think it’s boring as hell to play, I don’t like the speed of Sora’s animations at all, I don’t like some of the skills that have to be equipped and I think those should be defaults, and I just fucking hate the general story and all of the characters (besides Aqua) because every part of those bits make my eyes roll since I think that everything is stupid. Kingdom Hearts just always felt so slow, one-note, and by-the-numbers to me. And it had a stupid nauseating camera. It never really felt like it was an evolution of the action RPG style in the way Ys, Tales, King’s Field, Baldur’s Gate, etc attempted to revolutionize the genre. But XVersus? Look at that shit in the trailer. It finally does many things that I wanted the KH series to actually do.
It’s fast. It’s constant. It keeps the flow going outside of those dang cutscene bits. It seems to have some sort of positioning that matters (with parrying and dodging). Warping around and choosing where your battlefields are, even if they defy gravity. Everything is finally mapped to a button and it isn’t menu-based. It doesn’t seem like you’re forced to stick to a certain amount of commands depending on what you equip (at least, I hope not). Dodge and Block aren’t commands, but rather, they’re mapped to buttons as opposed to another game that SE is releasing this year and next. While animations leave a bit to be desired, they seem to flow well into each other when speeding through an enemy and slashing them to bits. I wish it weren’t so hack and slashy and apparently button-mashy, but it finally looks faster than Kingdom Hearts (and Lightning Returns—XVersus is putting LR to effing shame with respects to its action engine). Weapons you wield finally apply a weight to your animations and thus you have to time your slashes as opposed to mashing on the button all the time. The weapon ring looks rather interesting, and it makes the lead character look like a Jack of all Trades despite the other party members being specialists in other matters (ex: ranged attackers, tanks, brutes, clerics, etc.).
What’s also nice about it—as I’ve already noted—is that the playable character group seems to share a sense of camaraderie. This is a feeling that I haven’t felt that Final Fantasy has had since Final Fantasy X-2. While FFXII had its assorted set of characters, they never really seemed to part of a whole. You simply had standouts, and some people who bonded, but they never really had that sense of fellowship that earlier casts had. I appreciate that I’m getting this notion that Noctis’s group are showing that just with small snippets of footage alone. Of course, that may change in the final product.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to hearing more about this game. Not about its story or anything because I don’t really care about that and I never really will. I just want to see more battle footage. Congrats, Square Enix. You finally got my attention, and I’m finally excited about an FF game for the first time in what seems like a decade since FFX-2.
(No, I wasn’t excited about FFXII at all back then. That DQ8 demo was shit.)
Transistor (PC, PS4)
So, uh, if you didn’t know, my vision sucks. My first time looking at Transistor, I couldn’t really see myself playing it because I couldn’t see a thing. It certainly looks pretty, but I couldn’t see the player character very well. Hands-on impressions paint a lovely picture for it. You play as Red, a singer whose voice was stolen away from her. The sword she wields, the Transistor, is the narrator the tale and is limited to two attacks: a short ranged attack and a long-ranged attack. You may use R2 to stop time and use a variety of Red’s abilities and plan your attacks. Stopping time seems to be a more efficient manner of getting things done in this game as opposed to normally attacking, so I’ll be genuinely interested in this game leading up to its release date.
Transistor’s audio design is amazing. I’m very impressed by it. The narration is something I could take or leave (but I certainly don’t mind it), but the SFX and the background music is nicely done and rather intricate to hear.
Puppeteer (PS3)
It takes many hints from theatre and production and is presented like a puppet show. Sets fly in and out, there are curtain calls, and the audience applauses. It’s this thing that makes me think of my theatre days in high school… and also of Super Mario Bros 3 / Paper Mario. Your puppet can carry an assortment of heads which affect the type of magic that our puppet can cast. If you put the spider head on, you’ll be able to go to the bonus level if you find a spider icon. Put the cheeseburger head on, and a cheeseburger will appear acting as a trampoline. The music seems really nice as well.
What I got out of some of the gameplay footage was that it was faster than I’d expected it to be, and I like the inventory-based puzzle aspect of the game quite a bit. The fact that you have an audience to please who can actively boo and cheer your every move while playing is quite interesting as well.
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS)
It’s an M&L RPG. How can I not be excited for it? The art looks so darling, too. So, uh, I didn’t know a lot about this game prior to E3 and reading impressions. Mario & Luigi had this sort of duality setting for a while now, and this time, we venture through the real world and the dream world. The style’s different from other M&L games, using 3D models as opposed to sprites (which I still think is a bit of a shame). Luckily, the battle system remains intact and there is little detraction from the tried and true formula as opposed to last year’s Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
What differs is the Dream World. The game switches to a 2D sidescroller instead. Luigi may be able to possess environmental objects like a pillar. Using his mustache on the touch screen, you are able to make the vines on the pillar stretch to sling Mario to get past obstructions. Combat here is also different. Mario fights alone and moves up and down with the circle pad. Sometimes you have to use the 3DS’s tilting in order to fight bosses with the multiple Luigis. And in other segments, you have to hold the 3DS like a book and use the stylus to dodge attacks. Essentially, it comes off as an RPS sort of affair.
Even if it’s a little different, I hope that the play between the Dream World and the Real World will be balanced enough to keep things fresh. I’m very excited about picking this up in August and giving it a whirl.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)
I still don’t like how this game looks. I’m sorry. It’s not the sort of style I like, and I kind of wish they’d went with some other visual style for the game as opposed to the one they did. I don’t think I’ll ever like it. Part of the reason is because the visual style screams “clunky and slow animations with weird camera angles” to me. And… it … does have that. The bits where Link’s turning 2D to 3D and back again has the camera doing some weird quick movement that makes me feel nauseous.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of my favourite Zelda games. I’m kind of biased when it comes to Zelda, and I generally tend to like most of them for what they are. The reason why I’m looking forward to this is because I’m a huge Zelda fan. I don’t really like how to it looks, and I’m fairly certain that the camera is going to drive me bonkers at points. The sense of familiarity with ALttP’s map is due to be a boon here. What’s interesting is that the game doesn’t require arrows this time around. Firing the bow itself will drain the magic meter. The Hammer also uses magic power, as does Link’s new painting ability that they seem to love showing in trailers. I’m not sure how I feel about them taking an inventory system away here, but we’ll see how it goes in the final product.
Honourable Mentions:
Tearaway (PSV)
While Tearaway doesn’t seem like it could be a system-seller, it does something that I thought was nicely implemented in LittleBigPlanet Vita, and that’s show off why the Vita’s control scheme actually matters. This is one of the better-looking MediaMolecule games, but because it’s a Mm game, I wonder how it’s going to feel. I genuinely dislike LittleBigPlanet when you think about it exclusively as a platformer because the platforming doesn’t feel very good at all.
In general, Mm games are usually seen as a customization haven. In Tearaway, you may customize the main character Iota/Atoi’s features, right down to handedness. You can cut certain items out of construction paper using your finger on the touchscreen. Using the back touchpad allows you to poke your way through the world and hit enemies with the back touchpad. The only thing that makes me feel a little iffy is that there is no jump button, apparently. Regardless, this has been on my radar for a while, and I’m interested in seeing how the final product turns out.
Watch_Dogs (whatever Ubi feels like putting it on; it’ll probably be on my toaster one day)
I don’t really care how it looks at this point, and I don’t really mind that it looks like a modern-day Assassin’s Creed, either. I like Assassin’s Creed. A lot. I’m not sure how I feel about the multiplayer, because I’m usually shy when it comes to MP modes (and this one’s like Demon’s Souls, so that should be really neat). So, essentially, the hacking tool usage isn’t going to be repetitive to use as they are in Assassin’s Creed (because half the time in those games, one thing tends to work all the time). You’re introducing random variables into the player’s environment, so it should be interesting to see how people deal with it. You’ll have more RPG elements in terms of being able to purchase and upgrade new equipment, and they’re not cheap either.
I’ll say that I finally want to switch to the PS4 version.
Pac-Man Championship CE DX+ (PC, PS3, 360)
Being able to play through a Pac-Man match with that menu music is a major plus. You all just don’t know how strongly I feel about that. There may not be any gameplay changes at all, but having new skins, levels, and music is a super-nice touch. Especially for this game, which was near the top of my GotY 2010 list. The new maps are apparently tighter with different enemy placements (obviously). Learning a bunch of new maps feels exciting for me.
Stealth Inc (Vita)
This was formerly known as “Stealth Bastard” from Curve Studios. I’m bringing this game up for its
music, and I’m sure some people will be interested in the music for it. I checked out some gameplay footage, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It’s something I’ve genuinely come to love about indies now; much of the music composed for many indie games are fantastic. As for the gameplay, you play as a character that can be OHKO’d, but you have to move fast to get things done. Luckily if you die, you will respawn quickly. Kind of reminds me of Super Meat Boy a little bit. You can see the PS Blog post about it
here
Contrast (PS4)
This game, I think, got buried. You play as a woman who is able to shift in and out of shadows, and use those shadows as a way to platform throughout the landscape. I absolutely love the film noir style, too. I'll keep an eye on it.