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[Dragoon En Regalia]

Some neat stuff in this first blog:

There was a 7-year gap between the first and second Zwei games in Japan, and Falcom couldn’t assume players would’ve played the earlier entry, so the structure is something more akin to Trails in the Sky versus Trails of Cold Steel, where the games take place in the same world, but in different locations and with different casts. This makes it easy to jump right in.

[Talking about leveling up using food] It probably sounds weird (it certainly did to me when I first learned about it), but in practice, it actually works really well. It frees you up from having to grind in dungeons, or feel like you absolutely MUST kill every enemy on the way to your destination. It also gives you a lot of control over your own challenge level. When I was playing the Japanese version of the game, my loose rule was that I’d never eat food just to level – I’d just use it when I was hurt, to restore HP. I ended up going through most of the game under-leveled because of this, but never TOO under-leveled, because the more under-leveled I was, the more damage I’d take, thus getting infusions of EXP more frequently from using food to heal myself. There’s a strange sort of balance to it, and the game isn’t stingy about giving you food in chests, as drops from enemies, and even from giant slot machines you’ll find in each dungeon, so you can decide whether you want to blow through the game as a force of nature but with less on-demand healing available, or a bit underpowered but with a fully-stocked pantry.

You probably know from personal experience that stories more focused on being comedic sometimes run the risk of not being able to successfully shift into a more serious mode when the story calls for it, but thankfully, Zwei II doesn’t suffer from this issue. It’s surprisingly adept at conveying a serious atmosphere when the story calls for it, making for some excellent dramatic moments, and even a dab of pathos here and there. But on the whole, Zwei II is a game that feels deeply informed by 90s anime and manga, with all the oddness and charm that comes with that.

The second-to-last paragraph brings up interesting opinions about how suspiciously un-Japanese the characters, lack of politeness, and strange humor can get in Zwei II. It's certainly a big contrast from Trails of Cold Steel if we're talking about the script itself, not just mechanics and presentation.

 

[Psxphile]

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection - Localization Blog #2
New blog post up! In which we learn why '90s anime was best anime.

Also, XSEED is going to livestream the game today on their Twitch channel in approximately two-and-a-half hours:

 

[CrimsonFist]

https://www.twitch.tv/xseed_games livestream is live now

 

[CrimsonFist]

Ys Seven PC port announced on stream, being shown off now.

 

[BBboy20]

That pink frog is a bonafide hit.

 

[Big_Al]

https://www.twitch.tv/xseed_games livestream is live now

Ys Seven PC port announced on stream, being shown off now.

Ooooooh I wonder if this means they've licensed the Joyland ports of Ys VII (and Celceta maybe ?) and are releasing those (well maybe Sara's cleaning them up a bit)

 

[Dr. Letz Shake]

I've only recently realized how much I'd like so many Falcom games. I never played a single one and so many look great to me. I might have to get a decent pc to play their games!

 

[Tizoc]

I've only recently realized how much I'd like so many Falcom games. I never played a single one and so many look great to me. I might have to get a decent pc to play their games!

Well if you don't mind laptops, you could get a decent rig for under $1000s

Most of their current games on Steam and GOG are from the early to mid 2000s era so any PC or laptop should be able to run them without any issues.

 

[Oreiller]

I've only recently realized how much I'd like so many Falcom games. I never played a single one and so many look great to me. I might have to get a decent pc to play their games!

I don't know about Zwei but Ys Oath in Felghana runs at a rock solid 60fps on my shitty $300 notebook, so you really don't need a top of the line PC.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Zwei II is likely more demanding than most of Falcom's Windows games, but still well-optimized and easy to run on toasters, even if not at the best quality. The stream people didn't answer any real technical questions, so I don't know if there can be an FPS fix either from XSEED or through modding yet. Gurumin runs damn well on toasters as well, and Zwei II's engine is likely quite similar.

 

[rjc571]

Doesn't Zwei mean 2? So the game is called 2 II?

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Doesn't Zwei mean 2? So the game is called 2 II?

It's called Zwei: Ilvard Insurrection.

 

[bomblord1]

Been watching this game and starting to get legitimately hyped for it. I have an eye for this kind of stuff and I can tell this is going to be good.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Since the Aurone Tower dungeon text wasn't in English during XSEED's stream yesterday, here's the old subbed video Tom made for the Gallandeau dance scene back in 2009. It's clear this scene's maybe the shortest you get with Zwei II's masked man, so I'm looking forward to Ragna and Alwen's first encounters.

 

[Geddy]

Would love to get some good firm commitments for support on the Switch! It can really use some solid ARPGs.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

The Zwei II stream's up on YouTube now (plus the Ys Seven surprise announcement).

Some highlights:

• Fighting chickens in the Experimental Bio-Fusion Reactor
• Maid in the light-bult, and a slot machine of food
• Details on other playable characters and first glimpse of Zwei II's main town and Castle Moonbria
• Glide Gear (a la Kirby Air Ride) and some talk about tool puzzles and the soundtrack
• An actual merciless, shivering vase
• Mud-wrestle a maid today!
• Messing with widgets (from a character chase-cam to a calculator which adds to your combo ticker when you solve a problem)
• Bonus dungeons, an airfield, returning characters, and a non-spoiler cutscene
• A visit to Roalta, the giant veggie village
• Snowboarding!

 

[Admiral Woofington]

I might be missing info, but is it like Ys where they give you a vague idea of where to go next and you then spend the rest of the time walking around the map fighting enemies and grinding until you figure out what to do?

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I might be missing info, but is it like Ys where they give you a vague idea of where to go next and you then spend the rest of the time walking around the map fighting enemies and grinding until you figure out what to do?

AFAIK none of the dungeons rival Darm Tower or Solomon Shrine in terms of backtracking and vague goals. They're all separate, accessible from the world-map, and you get a map to help navigate the different floors and sections. So while this definitely isn't as friendly as Falcom's most recent games, it's more accessible and easy to follow than parts of mid-2000s Ys.

 

[Tohsaka]

The game has been delayed until "Fall." I, for one, am shocked.

 

[SunDimension24]

The game has been delayed until "Fall." I, for one, am shocked.

Summer literally ends in 2 days so unless they did some "It's available now" type marketing in the next two days, it was gonna be fall at this point.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Eh, whatever. There's plenty of Falcom to go round right now anyway.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

October's fine, but they need to market the hell out of this on FB/Twitter and get a few streamers interested. The new website's actually really good, and definitely by the webmaster of Digital Emelas. I've now got enough assets for the GAF OT just sourcing from visitilvard.com and Falcom's site.