New and tentative game announcements (V2)

JustABeautifulGuy · Post Posted: Sep 02, 2024 7:42 pm

It's such a shame Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time got delayed again. How many times has it gotten delayed already? The title makes sense to me now; our time was definitely stolen.

I was honestly looking forward to play it next month but oh well. Atleast I have the new Zelda to play!

Honestly, I'm enjoying this somewhat "silent" time before all the new game announcements that will come to overwhelm me after the Switch 2 is announced. Not too long now before that happens though...

Bluie · Post Posted: Sep 03, 2024 11:13 am

SIGH.

So Atelier Yumia looks good - it looks like it'll be a great JRPG. Like, despite all my bellyaching, it's probably going to be a fantastic game regardless. I am just... so disappointed that this is the direction Atelier is going in. The charm, the, for lack of a better word, 'coziness' is gone. Atelier is about alchemists brewing recipes in their ATELIERS and interacting with the people around them for better or worse. The main draw of the games was the small, bite sized stories that led to different endings depending on how you played and encouraged replays to get them all. Now they're just... long « Mr.Gourmet's hat » JRPGs with alchemy slapped on, no multiple endings - just one forced goal. I rarely want to spend 50+ hours on a game any more, I much prefer 5-10 hour runs that leave me feeling satisfied instead of exhausted that I was held captive until I saw the story's end.

Also, I get it, Ryza's thighs sold a lot of copies. The Atelier protagonists have always been sexualized, I'm not blind to this, but they were usually in optional costumes and promo art that was made to sell merchandise, but for the love of everything, look at the Arland games and the Dusk games, look at their protagonists, then look at Ryza and Yumia. They are sexualized as much as possible to be wank material, and it's frustrating to see as female gamer. Ryza's thighs were focused on so much in the games that it became annoying, disgusting even. Now Yumia's « Mr.Gourmet's hat » is in every promotional art piece. Like, instead of just drawing her standing normally in her concept art, she's got her whole « Mr.Gourmet's hat » out facing the camera. Like, ffs, it makes my skin crawl. Like, I could easily play Atelier Rorona or Ayesha in front of my niblings, but I wouldn't be caught dead playing any of the Ryza's or this new title around them.

This new era of GUST feels like they're backhanding their old fans to make way for the thirsty perverts, and it's never going to stop pissing me off.

K8sMum · Post Posted: Sep 04, 2024 8:21 am

The final update to Wylde Flowers releases on Friday. It looks pretty extensive. Lots of new pets, etc.

Biggest news is we can finally

Spoiler:

I have enjoyed this game so much. And they've updated it regularly for free.

fuulatatata · Post Posted: Sep 04, 2024 8:31 am

as someone whose jumpstart to the atelier series was ayesha on the ps3 i was also disappointed by the trailer. they seem to be going in a serious direction with the main lead's characterization but i think they're overdoing it... the designs are really lacking in creativity and the art style is not a great fit for a series like atelier. i miss the shoujo-like, art nouveau inspired style in atelier marie. instead they all look those cutesy gratuitous moe drawings you'd see on the front page of pixiv... i understand that moe has always been the main draw of atelier considering its large male-fanbase, but it just looks so oversaturated and cluttered to the point i don't feel comfortable looking at it. it's a shame.

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 04, 2024 10:26 am

Bluie wrote: ↑Sep 03, 2024 11:13 amThis new era of GUST feels like they're backhanding their old fans to make way for the thirsty perverts, and it's never going to stop pissing me off.

Sadly, old fans always get left behind eventually as the tides shift to accommodate a different market, though that being true makes the awareness no less sucky. And atm, the entire gaming industry is in such intense distress that they will sink to just about anything to make their games sell. I don't know if the current state of affairs can take all of the blame, but I'm sure it's contributing to the excessive levels of fan-service in gaming right now.

Falcom is going hard into the fan service, too. Just look at Trails. They made it VERY clear in CSII and III that the Jusis/Millium relationship was completely unromantic...that they were like siblings. Even in IV there was nothing you could point to and say it was proof that there was more.

But with Reverie, they've made it a romance, just like they did with Tita and Agate. Trails just loves to partner 10-14-year old girls with 24+ year-old men, and it's not well-liked in North America, but they seem to eat it up in Japan. And whatever pairing Japan is into, even if the games made it really clear that they were NOT romantic...in following games, they BECOME romantic. The nudge-nudge-wink-wink starts happening in the dialogue and events.

They also VERY forcefully pushed Alisa as Rean's real love interest in CSI and CSII and even in III and IV but Altina was mega-popular with Rean (GROOOOOOOOSS. I get that she's not [redacted], but the fact is, she's even YOUNGER than she looks, not older!) In III and IV, they gradually started bringing Altina forward. They pushed Fie a bit to the front as a whole (cuz Fie is popular) but it's Altina they keep sticking with Rean, now.

I don't like Alisa. I find her voice annoying and her personality rather whiny and blah...only her family connections make her interesting rather than anything about HER, and she's the least interesting of all the girls, to me, BUT it would have been better to see her as Rean's canon love interest, written firmly into the story, than for Rean to have 20 love interests that he never actually commits to. (And the one they push as the 'default' has gradually changed over time in response to fan reactions.)

Anyway, I think game devs are really desperate, right now, to keep from going under or dramatically 'restructuring' in the current industry. These things would happen anyway, most likely, but slower and more subtly.

Gust has always given me the wiggins, personally. It's a shame they're going more overt with what used to be subtle.

EDIT: And I keep seeing non-indie game devs trying to look indie, lately! And Marvelous JP, ugh. They're trying hard in all the wrong directions, the last few years. They're trying to be Stardew, now, or were with Olive Town, imo. Stardew copied YOU, stop trying to copy it back and just use your IP properly!

Oh well. I've already moved on from Bokumono. It's not my series any more. I was very upset for a while but I can't maintain such feelings for long, I get tired too fast.

Bluie · Post Posted: Sep 05, 2024 12:48 am

fuulatatata wrote: ↑Sep 04, 2024 8:31 amSnip

Yeah, it feels like ever since Sophie debuted that things started going overly moe. The Marie remake was such a breath of fresh air, it made me hopeful for the series again... and now we're back to whatever this is. Ugh.

Kikki wrote: ↑Sep 04, 2024 10:26 amSnip

I never understood why they even bothered letting us romance/bromance our entire friend group in the Cold Steel if they were just going to shove the canon choice down our throat regardless. And the whole Altina/Millum/Tita thing is so... out of touch, it feels. Did mentally stable people actually ship Tita with Agate? Like back when she was a literal child? The actual « Snuggly Bunny », holy.

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 06, 2024 4:54 am

I've seen on Steam that a bunch of people agree. That Atelier has turned into another 'save the world!!' JRPG when it used to be slice-of-life, and they miss it, because save-the-world is the typical, easily-found kind of JRPG, but slice-of-life JRPGs are more rare.

I can sympathize. Personally, I can't get into slice-of-life stories. I need the massive motivation of saving the world (especially if it means saving the actual planet from environmental disaster) to compel me. But I definitely sympathize with an underserved market becoming even LESS serviced because one of the few slice-of-life types is going more mainstream. That's really a shame.

I'm actually surprised the reviews on Steam aren't particularly pervy, even for Ryza. The worst I saw was 'come for the thighs, stay for wholesomeness and alchemy system', which is pretty mild. (I also saw 'her thighs are bigger than her head', which was a thumbs up review, so I assume that was praise, but honestly that was the entire review, so I'm a little confused how that could be taken as anything helpful. Do people search for games depending on how large a girl's thighs are in proportion to her head?)

But really the reviews are mostly ACTUAL reviews from people who thoroughly played the systems, and mostly enjoyed them, it appears, so it seems that Atelier is still doing well and at least in an English-speaking market, is not full of hopeless weird pervs.

I don't know. Atelier wasn't my thing when I played Rorona or Lydie and Suelle. I did think I might be more interested in Escha and Logy, since I like a bigger, more compelling main story, but I think it's just not my series. Which is okay. Really, each person only needs a couple of favourite series to cuddle and obsess about. Atelier always just gives me the feeling like I'm SUPPOSED to love it, and then feel mixed up and like I got something wrong when I don't. Like I just tried the wrong entry or something. But I think it's just never been for me cuz to me it still leans into the slice-of-life.

But I can see where that quality has started to shrink and the series is shifting to something a little more standard-fare JRPG.

JustABeautifulGuy · Post Posted: Sep 06, 2024 4:35 pm

So... Pathea Games has just announced a brand new My Time At title named My Time At Evershine. They'll be doing a Kickstarter once again to cover the costs.

https://x.com/PatheaGames/status/1831901279519699034

A huge artstyle change. Not sure how I feel about it; it's definitely a radical change. They posted some character art in their Discord server as well. I can get behind the character designs weirdly segregated on the right side but the ones on left oddly stick out. They feel way too gacha-gamey for me.

Spoiler:

On the Steam page, they also told the reason for why they're still doing a Kickstarter. The most shocking info for me was that Sandrock had a budget of 12$ million. They're definitely doing way better than I thought they were.

Bluie · Post Posted: Sep 07, 2024 2:35 pm

Kikki wrote: ↑Sep 06, 2024 4:54 amBut I can see where that quality has started to shrink and the series is shifting to something a little more standard-fare JRPG.

Saw an interview with the director of Yumia today openly admit that they're making it as standard JRPG as possible to attract newcomers to the series. Said they wanted to focus more on the story over crafting. Like, my dude, did you forget the game's namesake all for the sake of shilling to new fans? And don't get me wrong, I'm all for more people getting into the series, but alienating your current fanbase on purpose is such a slap to the face. This game has gone from 'possible day one purchase if I have time/money' to buy on a heavy, heavy discount. Having a series I love being deliberately made not for me any more means it doesn't get my attention. Wake me up when we have another remake.

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 08, 2024 5:20 pm

JustABeautifulGuy wrote: ↑Sep 06, 2024 4:35 pm So... Pathea Games has just announced a brand new My Time At title named My Time At Evershine. They'll be doing a Kickstarter once again to cover the costs.

https://x.com/PatheaGames/status/1831901279519699034

A huge artstyle change. Not sure how I feel about it; it's definitely a radical change. They posted some character art in their Discord server as well. I can get behind the character designs weirdly segregated on the right side but the ones on left oddly stick out. They feel way too gacha-gamey for me.
Spoiler:
On the Steam page, they also told the reason for why they're still doing a Kickstarter. The most shocking info for me was that Sandrock had a budget of 12$ million. They're definitely doing way better than I thought they were.

Fantastic. Sandrock was amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing if Evershine could improve as much upon Sandrock as Sandrock did on Portia. I don't think it possibly could.

Though why Evershine? Sandrock was a place we heard of in Portia, in the Alliance of Free cities, such as Atara, Highwind, Tallsky and Walnut Groove. (As an avid watcher of Little House on the Prairie as a kid and a fond reader as a very young child, I'm quite tickled by the name Walnut Groove.) Even Seesai, we've heard of. And Barnarock. But Evershine is coming out of nowhere. It's not only not listed in the Free Cities area, it doesn't seem to be anywhere in the My Time universe.

That disappoints me a lot. I wanted to keep going around the towns the story has already connected to in some way, not jump to some place they've shoehorned in out of nowhere. Why did they invent some new place when there were so many existing and known ones to explore?

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 19, 2024 3:44 am

A little more info about the My Time at Evershine campaign, which will open on Kickstarter on September 24.

I want this game a LOT, lol. Though I can't imagine they could possibly improve on Sandrock as much as Sandrock improved on Portia. That would be a game that ate your entire soul.

Our builder is going to become more powerful than usual. They get to be Governor this time (though I don't know if they're governor from early on in the game) and send out characters to do their bidding (foraging and stuff!) while they fart around with building and ruin diving.

I THINK I know why they've gone to Evershine, now. It's an entirely new town/city, built 3 years after Sandrock and some intense strife with Duvos, who keeps trying to harvest all the ruin and hoard the goodies for their own nefarious (?) purposes. Sounds like Evershine will be in the Ethea region? And really close to Duvos. I did think we might keep moving closer to Duvos. I wanted to go to Lucien, but...this might be better, I suppose!

EDIT: With the Kickstarter coming up SOON, I should say, to anyone familiar...I do NOT recommend backing this for console. Portia was a disaster on all consoles, especially Switch. It eventually became respectable on other consoles and almost respectable on Switch. Sandrock did a little better...but on Switch, very little, in terms of how well it performed. (Mechanically, NOT in content. The content is fantastic on all platforms.)

Early Access on PC seems to have been a great experience for both Portia and Sandrock, so that I'd give a thumbs-up to. They didn't get full Steam Deck compatibility very early so that's more in doubt, but if you want to play in Early Access on PC, that seems to be a lot of fun, if you like being in on games as they develop.

EDIT 2: I'm actually super excited about this. The further we get into the series, the more interesting the lore becomes. I'm generally not into series' lore. I love Trails, but I can't be bothered with the lore. I love Zelda (well, SOME Zelda...the more RPG-leaning ones) but I can't be bothered with the lore. But for some reason, My Time? Super into the lore!

JustABeautifulGuy · Post Posted: Sep 19, 2024 3:27 pm

Yeah, the new My Time At game looks really good. I haven't played Portia, but it appears that there are many returning characters from that game, so I may have to pick it up just in case to understand the lore better. Sandrock was amazing in terms of story and lore, and this appears to be a good continuation of Sandrock's Duvos story. Playing Sandrock made me feel like I didn't have to touch Portia to understand the game's story, so I'm assuming the same will be true here, but now that I've played Sandrock, both Sandrock and Evershine seem far more intertwined than I thought they would be. Is this how Portia gamers felt about Sandrock's story?

Also a neat thing I remembered; spoilers for those who have yet to finish Sandrock's journey and reach Musa and Avery's arrival:

Spoiler:

I'm really happy that we're the governor this time. A New Beginning fan in me is happy to learn that! Multiplayer for the story mode is great too; I remember them wanting to implement this for the multiplayer but ran into some troubles so ultimately had to settle for a sandbox multiplayer.

The graphics look insanely good. The landscapes in each pic look very cool. I just hope my laptop can handle it!

Definitely backing this game up for a PC key. September 24th isn't that far but I'm ready!

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 19, 2024 4:13 pm

JustABeautifulGuy wrote: ↑Sep 19, 2024 3:27 pm Also a neat thing I remembered; spoilers for those who have yet to finish Sandrock's journey and reach Musa and Avery's arrival:

Spoiler:
This has to be the Northern settlement Musa, Avery and that chic nerdy guy were talking about. I don't clearly remember the details but I'm sure Musa's failed first impressions had him talking about how he could relocate us all to Northern Eufala where every Sandrocker wouldn't have to struggle with the greenification and could put their efforts on a new settlement; to which everyone obviously disagreed to. I don't really remember Avery's interactions in the game but I'm sure he talks about the plan briefly too. It's really neat that they actually hinted at this.

I remember Musa and his offer, but if the place he mentioned already existed in Sandrock, then it can't be Evershine. Evershine didn't come into existence until 3 years after the events of My Time at Sandrock. But if Musa's mentioned place didn't exist yet, if it was just a potential thing at that time, still a few years into the future, then it could be Evershine or one of the other new habitations that was created.

I feel like the plot with Duvos is progressing too quickly if they mean to continue My Time for a long while yet. It doesn't seem like it'd be resolved in Evershine, but at this speed, it feels like it would be resolved in whatever game follows Evershine. And I'm still surprised that Evershine has been announced so soon after Sandrock's 1.0 release! This is SO much faster than the gap between Portia and Sandrock. I guess they're getting good at it, and maybe they've stopped making other games and are going all in on their big money maker.

The improvement between Portia and Sandrock was so big that I can't imagine they could possibly duplicate such a leap, but I can't help but anticipate it, all the same. If they manage half the amount of improvement, Evershine is going to be ridiculously good.

Kikki · Post Posted: Sep 20, 2024 3:53 am

Apparently Nintendo/The Pokemon Company are suing Pocketpair. (The makers of Palworld.)

~

This makes me sad. As do the comments within that article, which seem like just a bunch of men and boys (probably a few girls/women squeezed in there, but the content, averaged out, seems more masculine than feminine, to me) who just want to shout their own opinions with minds COMPLETELY shut, not interested in hearing any other opinion except for points they can 'disprove'. It doesn't come across as a debate, just two entrenched sides flinging « Puppy Doodoo » at each other, to no end.

I wish Nintendo wouldn't do this. I'm not a Palworld fan, but even so.

Spoiler:

Basically, rather than suing the competition, I wish Nintendo/TPC would just up their game. Prove that all the interlopers are inferior copies and blow them out of the water with the quality of their own games, instead of trying to squash them out of existence.

There's plenty of room in the gaming world for many creature-catching games. Well, without Nintendo SAYING exactly how Pocketpair is infringing, we don't know why they, specifically, were targeted, when so many other creature-catching games were not.

K8sMum · Post Posted: Sep 24, 2024 7:27 am

I see that Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time has now got a release date of April 2025. NintendoLife has an article up.

Seems to have a much bigger open world than was previously thought. I thought it looked a bit better, but hadn't had my coffee yet so I could be wrong.