New and tentative game announcements (V2)

[Kikki]

HMM, the video of FLi did look good, but the one screenshot I saw looked appalling. Blurry and very low detail. Weird. Well, we knew it was gonna be next year, so...meh. Dunno if they just needed more time or if they're aiming for the release of the Switch 2. But I doubt they know the release date of the Switch 2; Nintendo is no doubt keeping that under tight wrap, not doling out out to any old dev group.

~

Well...the My Time at Evershine kickstarter is live, and it looks great. No surprise, given how good the was to begin (on Steam anyway!), and how much better it got with Sandrock...my expectations for Evershine are ruinously high. I doubt they can live up to them. Though honestly, if it's as good as Sandrock, I'll be pretty happy. But they've figured out how to cater to their market, lol. I'm actually a little worried that they've gone all the way to 'pandering', and that's...potentially not a good thing.

I do think the characters are very attractive, but the very even attactiveness of everyone is much more generic. The distinct style of Portia and Sandrock is definitely watered down. It looks great and yet the uniqueness is missed. By me, anyway.

Their write-up on the kickstarter is pretty inviting. They're in about 9 hours and have already gotten a million. (Literally.) I won't be backing within September but I'll consider it on October.

The video there is much longer than the little one we've seen so far, and it looks like they're going hard on character backstories, at least for romanceables. They are aiming for FULL release on PC in May 2026, with consoles soon after. They may not do early access at all, ONLY alpha access for backers. They're not sure yet. (I daresay it'll depend on if they need more funding before full release.)

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

I really enjoyed the Level-5 2024 Presentation. Although I wonder

Spoiler:

if the games slated for 2026 will still release on the Nintendo Switch, or the Switch's successor?

[Bluie]

Good ol' nearing the end of the year release date / new games drop. Lots of stuff I care about and am tentatively intrigued by. Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is coming out on January 30th, Monster Hunter Wilds releases on February 28th, and Ghost of Yotei are definite standouts.

I DO NOT trust and of Level 5's release dates until the games are in my hands. I've had enough of their « Male Cow Poopoo ».

[JustABeautifulGuy]

Just caught up with My Time At Evershine's Kickstarter campaign and I'm thoroughly impressed and hopeful that this will offer a big quality jump from Sandrock. 25 days to go and they've already raked in 1.36M dollars. I genuinely think this My Time At series game will put it leagues ahead of other games in this genre with how many resources will be invested into it. SoS already has so much competition to catch up on and now there will be this game acting as a huge wall...

First and foremost, the graphics and world look insanely good. Extremely detailed, and every part of the world appears to showcase an intriguing landmark for you to discover. Looks like they're studying the world design formula from Monolith Soft's games for this. The addition of visible overworld elements such as fog, winds, and moving petals, combined with appropriate lighting, makes the world feel very alive.

Spoiler:

Seems like there will be non-core romanceables with far less content as well. Basically the same as ever but this time they'll make a clear distinction. Weirdly, I kinda like the non-core romanceable designs more.

Spoiler:

In comparison to prior Kickstarter campaigns, we have little information about the non-romanceable cast this time around. I'm somewhat concerned about this aspect personally. Sandrock's non-romanceable cast really stood out and added a lot to the game because it had so many unique characters with complex personalities as well as their interactions with each other that really made the town feel alive. I'm scared that the developers will be so focused on making the romanceables appealing to the audience that they will overlook this aspect. Hopefully, I'm proven wrong!

Spring 2026 release window seems very ambitious to me for a game at this scale considering it's almost just about a year from now but they seem confident about it so let's wait and see.

[FarmingForDaysMan]

Super hyped about Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, though I couldn’t take the trailer seriously when they started it off with Luke and Layton encountering Gunman King Joe

What a name.

[Fireswarmdragon]

I dunno if this will excite anyone else, but they're making a vr version of triangle strategy and I'm very tempted to pick it up, that game was incredible, and I'd certainly like to experience it in vr, it looks like it'll work super well for that with the maps being little dioramas you move your pieces around.

[Kikki]

Did anyone else do a giggle-snort at the announcement of 'Alarmo'?

Not that the idea's bad. Especially if the features work really well. But it's still a crappy plastic alarm clock they're charging $100 (US!) for. That's outrageous. I get that it'll get some updates, but unless it has some major integration with "Switch 2", I can't see it being worth its price.

[Kikki]

I just got a notification that Luma Island now has a demo. The game has weirdly good looks. Is it not an indie company? I've never heard of them before, but its style isn't pixel and it's not quite like anything else I've seen.

[K8sMum]

Did anyone else do a giggle-snort at the announcement of 'Alarmo'?

Not that the idea's bad. Especially if the features work really well. But it's still a crappy plastic alarm clock they're charging $100 (US!) for. That's outrageous. I get that it'll get some updates, but unless it has some major integration with "Switch 2", I can't see it being worth its price.

I did more of a spit take. Here the world of gamers is hanging on for any news about the Switch 2 and they give us an over-priced bit of tat. If it's motion sensitive is it going to go off when the sleeper gets up to pee? When the dog jumps on the bed? Electronics do get quirks, for want of a better word.

So many people have smart watches that connect to their phones that this already feels a bit obsolete. Expensive for kids and their PR plug showed adults using it.

Colour me disappointed.

[Fireswarmdragon]

I did more of a spit take. Here the world of gamers is hanging on for any news about the Switch 2 and they give us an over-priced bit of tat. If it's motion sensitive is it going to go off when the sleeper gets up to pee? When the dog jumps on the bed? Electronics do get quirks, for want of a better word.

So many people have smart watches that connect to their phones that this already feels a bit obsolete. Expensive for kids and their PR plug showed adults using it.

Colour me disappointed.

The alarm should only make motion detected sounds when it's going off, so getting up to pee and the like shouldn't be an issue. I've already picked up the silly little thing, just gotta wait on shipping.

As for why? It seems like a nice looking little clock, and honestly my current clock kinda stinks, it desyncs way too often. I'll see if I can get anything out of the motion tracking stuff, but mainly I just like the look and basic functionality of the clock.

I also wouldn't wear a watch when I sleep, that sounds a bit too uncomfortable, but I've also never bothered with a smart watch since my phone has all that functionality.

Alarmo is definitely too expensive though, but eh, I'll get my mileage out of it one way or another

[Kikki]

I don't think Alarmo's features will be much use, yet...it's probably intended to integrate with something else they haven't revealed yet. Maybe some health program on Switch 2. (Personally I'm hoping they'll go more into stuff like Ring Fit on Switch 2.) Right now I think it's probably only good as an alarm clock and that the motion tracking feature will only be useful to tell the thing when you've actually gotten up. *shrug* It's WAY too expensive for such a dinky and ugly plastic clock. It'll have to have some major features to make it worth that price tag, but I guess we'll see if they've got bigger plans for Alarmo eventually.

~

I don't know if anyone follows Trails other than me, any more, but 'Daybreak II' has been dated. It's to be released on February 14th. Sooner than I thought. It'll be on PS4, still (also Switch and PS5) but I wonder how much longer they'll keep releasing for PS4. That's where I like my Trails games since I like the achievements, but I daresay they'll ditch the PS4 as soon as the Daybreak games are done. (Presumably with #3.)

[Bluie]

Oh yeah, I'm buying this.



After the piss poor showing of Nintendo's Fashion Dreamer, this looks super fun.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

I've been so caught up with my Echoes of Wisdom playthrough that I haven't had enough time to see what else Nintendo has been up to. All I remember is that they held a Direct in August rather than in the usual month of September, which led everyone to believe that the Switch 2 reveal trailer would be released soon, but now we're halfway through October and we instead got an alarm device announcement and a new NSO playtest program happening later this month.

Alarmo looks fun, but I simply don't think it's worth my $100. I am better off saving for the next Nintendo system, sorry! I have no clue what the NSO playtest will be about, but I assume we're going to know sooner or later as around 10,000 people are going to be a part of the test, and I don't think all of them will manage to keep their mouths shut. I've seen some speculation that it's going to be a cloud based GameCube emulator; I think that'd be a really neat addition, but I really wish Nintendo would move on over the dripfeeding method. Just give us the ability to play all the possible games right from the start!

Now my question is: where exactly is Switch 2 in all of this? I was genuinely expecting an announcement to happen in either September or October, but it's looking likely that they might actually announce it next year. Nintendo's next fiscal year meeting is slated to happen on November 5th, so I'm assuming we'll either get an announcement close to before that meeting or some sort of mention regarding when it's going to happen during the meeting. 

----------------

In other news, My Time At Evershine's KS campaign has reached a whooping amount of ~$2.1M in pledges! They've introduced some last minute goals that reach upto $3M but I doubt they'll manage to hit that milestone in just 7 days; I'm personally hoping they manage to reach the rival romances milestone at the very least somehow! Feels like this genre has been missing out on this feature for so long and I can't remember the last new game that had a proper implementation of it, so it'd be neat to see it make a return. All in all, I'm really proud of their success. I've been catching up on their KS updates and I'm really optimistic that this game will be amazing.

They've made a comment regarding the reception of the new art style as well: "There have been feedback from some players that worry we will have less fun designs and diversity, and become more generic in general. That was also one of our main worries as well, especially in the early going. Worry not though, after our artists got use to the new style and started pushing the envolope, we're currently satisfied with our direction. We have been able to design fun and diverse characters in the new style. And we'll continue to tweak characters as well to make them more unique. The last thing we want is to be called generic, our pride is on the line."

[PSI_Nightshade]

As far as the next Nintendo console, they did confirm that it will be revealed sometime before the end of the 2024 fiscal year so before May 2025. However, I'm pretty sure that they are holding off talking about it until a certain date *cough* Black Friday *cough* is done.

[Kikki]

As far as the next Nintendo console, they did confirm that it will be revealed sometime before the end of the 2024 fiscal year so before May 2025. However, I'm pretty sure that they are holding off talking about it until a certain date *cough* Black Friday *cough* is done.

April. Nintendo's fiscal year ends in March, so the reveal has to happen before April 1, unless they delay it. Supposedly, by rumor only, as far as I know, the Switch 2 is already ready to go, so there shouldn't be a reason to delay. But we'll see.

It does seem likely that Nintendo won't want to squash sales in holiday season, though I consider that very dirty pool, getting people to buy Switch 1 when Switch 2 is so close in the offing. But then, anyone who buys a Switch 1 knowing the Switch 2 is so close is rather weird, imo.

Though plenty of parents buying for kids have no idea of gaming news, so I guess they might not know. But who waits nearly 8 years before finally buying a console? You HAVE to know it's on its last legs at that point!