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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 4, 2019 11:14:03 GMT -5
According to USGamer, former Nintendo lawyer John Kirby has passed away at the age of 79 due to complications from blood cancer. Kirby was the lawyer who took over for Howard Lincoln during the infamous Donkey Kong lawsuit with Universal. Obviously, he also shares a name with the Nintendo character. I seem to recall an interview with (I think) Shigeru Miyamoto where he said the character Kirby wasn't directly named after John Kirby, but the connection was definitely something they took into account when naming him. (There might be a link somewhere around here on the forum.)
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 2, 2019 10:45:30 GMT -5
I like the one with the character collage.
I can recognize most of the characters. Mostly the Xenoblade characters, some of the Xenosaga characters, some of the Baten Kaitos characters (wish those games would get re-released), and the guy from Disaster: Day of Crisis on the left. I'm guessing the two characters just to his right are from Soma Bringer?
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Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 2, 2019 10:35:02 GMT -5
That's unfortunate.
I've never played any of the Mario & Luigi games. I've heard that the last couple, both remakes on 3DS, didn't sell very well.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 30, 2019 10:52:13 GMT -5
Almost feels like Nintendo is attempting some kind of casual turn. What's next? Switch Sports?
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 30, 2019 10:49:34 GMT -5
Apparently, R-Type Final 2 is getting a second crowdfunding campaign throughout the entire month of October, due to requests from fans who missed the first one. As of this post, there are no details on where and how the campaign will be held. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 30, 2019 10:41:50 GMT -5
October 1st is the 20th anniversary of Monolith Soft. They became a subsidiary of Nintendo in 2007.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 29, 2019 20:33:38 GMT -5
Here's a bunch of new details from Siliconera: Producer Ryoma Araki originally played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles as a regular consumer, as he was a game designer working at a different studio on another GameCube game, and he remembers being flabbergasted at how the game really used the specs behind the console.
Designer Toshiyuki Itahana mentions that the reason why the characters of Crystal Chronicles look a bit generic is because of the multiplayer and character creation aspects of the game. Essentially, it wasn’t a game about detailing the individual heroes, as would be in a mainline game. While he considered whether to redo the designs for the remaster, some staff mentioned they’d like to recreate the designs they used in the original game, so instead one new male and one new female design have been added to each race respectively.
Regarding music, composer Hidenori Iwasaki mentions that the remaster wasn’t originally going to have rearranged tracks, but they went for it when Iwasaki called Araki out one day and said, “Hey, I have this on hand.” The original game is known for its music, but as there were hardware limitations, there were some tracks that couldn’t be added in, which will be added in in the remaster.
Dungeons originally in Crystal Chronicles will keep the old music, while new dungeons have newly composed tracks for them.
Iwasaki jokes that during the planning phases for the original game, a planner suggested to go with a techno music direction, but was promptly ignored.
One of the big additions to Remastered Edition is the inclusion of cross-platform online play, which wasn’t possible back then. Itahana mentions that they still get photos from overseas fans showing that they managed to assemble the 4-player setup of connecting multiple Game Boy Advances.
The console and smartphone versions will have different UI. For multiplayer, you don’t need to wait in a lobby, as players will show up when they join naturally as you advance. They also reiterated that cross-platform saves are a feature for the Remastered Edition.
Extra difficult “alternate” dungeons have been added as well, which change up the atmosphere and appearing enemies in existing dungeons. It’s meant for endgame multiplayer content after beating the main game’s dungeons, and is balanced as such, although it’s not impossible to do it solo. The new dungeons will drop new weapon recipes for newly designed weapons by Itahana. Over 10 new tracks have been composed for the new dungeons.
Why not remake the game? Araki mentions that this was an option, but he felt it had to be a remaster for Crystal Chronicles, in order to show to the fans (including himself) that Crystal Chronicles was truly back. Because he played it as a regular player back then, Araki has made sure to change the game in areas that needed updating to modern standards. So, it sounds like it will include unused music from the original, as well as new music. Kumi Tanioka left Square Enix long ago, but IIRC, Hidenori Iwasaki was one of the composers for The Crystal Bearers. Also, kinda wondering how well that drop in/drop out multiplayer will work. One of the problems with the online in Echoes of Time was that a novice player could randomly end up joining someone who was very far in the game and be totally under leveled. (Not to mention, having later parts of the game spoiled for them.) Plus, in the original game, every player was a resident of the main village with parents who had a unique profession. I wonder if/how that will be handled, or if online players are simply "guests" in other players' games (which could also be done in the original game). |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 28, 2019 10:57:16 GMT -5
Here's a documentary about M2. It came out last May, but I only just got around to watching it.
It's fairly comprehensive, and covers everything from their founding to current projects. It was produced by Limited Run Games, and made by the guys from My Life in Gaming. It's really interesting, and well worth watching. (Be sure to turn on captions for the English translation.)
One thing that stood out to me was that they were really impressed by WayForward's Contra 4, so with Contra Rebirth, they aimed to make a game that would rival it.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 25, 2019 22:22:23 GMT -5
As of this post, Freespace 2 is, appropriately, FREE on GOG for about a day.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 24, 2019 23:05:16 GMT -5
All right, finally finished Three Houses. I was playing on Normal Classic, and it took me about 85 hours. I did not let any units die, but that was pretty easy with the Divine Pulse. As someone who has only previously played pre-Awakening FE games, I think I kind of agree with YL in that it didn't quite feel like Fire Emblem. I think I've mentioned in the past that FE can feel a little rigid, but maybe Three Houses went a little too far in the other direction. All the instructing, exploring the monastery, and the endless support conversations got a bit boring and tedious for me. I know a lot of that is optional, but if I skipped it, then I would feel like I was missing something. I did like customizing my characters to a degree, but it felt like it took too much effort. At the same time, I also understand that Fire Emblem has to evolve and try new things, and that's better than stagnating, so I can't begrudge it. It was a very ambitious game, with its multiple routes, customization, and full voice acting, and I appreciate that. I liked that I played a character in the story, which was something I liked about the tactician in FE7. I don't know if this had quite the same charm, as you're not just an observer that the characters occasionally talk to, but there were a few instances where I did feel like I was connecting with other characters on a personal level. And speaking of which... (ending spoiler) ...I also liked that the marriage part was saved until the very end. It reminded me of Marth and Caeda's subtle romance in Shadow Dragon. I thought that was a nice touch to the ending of that game, and I think it worked nicely in this game as well. (And yes, I did end up with Marianne.) So, yeah, don't think I'm going to play through the game again right away, although I am curious to try one of the other houses. (And part of me wants to put it on Maddening Classic, just to see how quickly I get myself wiped out. Probably in the tutorial stage.) |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 23, 2019 16:52:41 GMT -5
Just wanted to archive this cool artwork. Love the art and character designs in these games.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 22, 2019 10:13:56 GMT -5
September 23 is the 130th anniversary of the founding of Nintendo. Y'know, in case anyone around here is interested in that sort of thing.  |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 21, 2019 15:08:01 GMT -5
Complete silence for a few days, yay. I was still playing, but my tendency to explore everything means my progress is slow. First off, we get an overview of the rest of the DLC. I'm not sure if I want it; I still need more details first. I don't want to see unnecessary additions ruining an otherwise perfectly fine game. I was going to post about the DLC, and then I forgot. Now I feel irresponsible. Maid and butler outfits? Makes sense considering that the school uniform cliché is already the default costume. I stil haven't finished my first playthrough. My rhythm seems to be to play it a lot one day, then take a couple of days off. I'm on chapter 21, so I guess I'm getting near the end. Just have to say, I don't like the music when you're exploring the monastery. It feels too tense, and it causes me anxiety. |
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 17, 2019 10:47:41 GMT -5
Here's a panel from TGS that I thought was cool. It's all in Japanese, but there are some things of note.
There's new gameplay footage at about the 31:00 mark showing the mobile version. At about 38:15, they demonstrate the crossplay between Switch and PS4. The players include Toshiyuki Itahana (character designer), Kumi Tanioka (original composer), Lynn (voice actor for Princess Fiona, I think), and the producer for the remastered edition (I think). They play through the entire first dungeon, and also show new character skins.
At 53:20, the original Japanese singer and narrator, Yae, performs the two songs from the game. For the second song, Kumi Tanioka accompanies her on keyboard.
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Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 15, 2019 11:18:15 GMT -5
Hamster has announced the next round of Arcade Archives, and it includes some interesting selections: - Scramble - Time Tunnel - Nintendo’s Golf - T.A.N.K (TNK III) - Kaitei Daisensou (In the Hunt) - VS. Castlevania - Balloon Fight - Detana!! TwinBee ( Source) What caught my eye were In the Hunt from Irem, and Detana!! TwinBee from Konami, because both are from the '90s. Aside from ACA Neo Geo, Hamster normally sticks to arcade games from the '80s (the lone exception being a Shanghai game, of all things). This, perhaps, opens the door for other '90s arcade games. In particular, I hope to see the rare R-Type Leo. Also, Irem's GunForce series, which are considered precursors to the Metal Slug series. GunForce II, in fact, is so similar to Metal Slug that fans often refer to it as "Metal Slug Zero." (GunForce II and In the Hunt were made by the same devs that eventually left Irem and made Metal Slug.) |
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