New and tentative game announcements (V2)

[Kikki]

I'm pretty sure we all knew this would be the case, but...at least it's nice to have official confirmation that Switch 2 will be backwards compatible and able to play all current Switch games.

This is only confirmed for DIGITAL games. We haven't found out yet if we will be able to play our PHYSICAL Switch 1 games in Switch 2 or not.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

So... this happened.


Hashimoto's studio is coming with one more game being published by Bushiroad Games. Guild management game with combat, daily life activities and romance as features. Rear Sekai/Elrentaros Wanderings was a huge failure so I'm surprised they're coming up with a new game, quite similar to it from what it seems, this quick. I heard Rear Sekai was quite heavily advertised in Japan too but it was avail to no commercial results.

Can't form a concrete opinion based on such limited information and HAKAMA's past record with Rear Sekai but I really like the graphics from what we can see in this image. Very reminiscent of Rune Factory 5, except it seems to look more polished.



I do wonder what will happen with Hashimoto and his involvement in future Rune Factory titles. I just have a lingering feeling that Marvelous wants to proceed with RF without his involvement.

[Kikki]

He's sure stuck on the idea of tedious grindy battle systems, isn't he? He makes boring games, imo. The SoS games were way better before he left that team (though maybe it was some of the rest of his team that was responsible for how good they were, I don't know) but the games he's made since parceling his group off from Marv into Hakama are just tiresome. RF5 was pretty much just a reskin of RF4. RF4 was great, so that's not the worst thing, but it was uninspiring.

For me, Hakama's been really disappointing. I know nothing about Dragon Marked for Death but I never hear anyone talking about it at all. I bought Worth Life, but it was boring. Rear Sekai (which really should be translated in English as REAL Sekai, not rear, but Rs and Ls are treated interchangeably in Japan...but basically the title means something like 'Real World'. Which makes sense! Because you're shifting between the 'real world' and a fantasy world. Not sure why they called it Elrentaros Wanderings. That title is meaningless; it gives no impression of what the game is actually about.) is almost unanimously seen as terrible, though I haven't tried it.

Makes me a bit sad. I can't say I feel optimistic about Progress Order. Who is coming up with the ideas for these games, and why do they think they're good ideas? What are they going for? What market are they trying to appeal to? I really don't understand who they want to buy their games. They don't make them for farming sim fans, and they don't seem designed to appeal to those who like fighting games, either. What market are they aiming for?

Whatever it is, they're clearly missing. 'Rear Sekai' was a spectacular failure, sales-wise. Nobody thinks the game is for them. (Though if it goes on an extreme sale, I'd probably pick it up of morbid curiosity, lol. I hear the characters are interesting, though kind of 'incomplete' and not well integrated.) Azuma isn't out yet and won't be for a while...I'd rather they went all-in on news about development and continual improvements to that, than hearing about another game they're working on.

[PaleSunflower]

HAKAMA is a subsidiary of Marvelous, right? All of this would be Marvelous at the end in my eyes.

One of the reviews for Rear Sekai/Elrentaros Wanderings mentioned that the game felt like a tech demo rather than a full game. If Progress Order is basically Rear Sekai/Elrentaros Wanderings, but "better", then it would add to that idea. This wouldn't be the first game from Marvelous to unsuccessfully merge farming with another genre, either. It seems that none of their games that include farming, such as Farmagia, Deadcraft, and Silent Hope, have been particularly successful lately.

(Another common review complaint I saw for those games is that they weren't worth the money at full price. It seems that Marvelous is struggling not only to add farming to games, but to make those games not feel cheaper than their asking prices.)

The Rune Factory series has been the most successful at combining farming with another genre, but Rune Factory 5 had the weakest farming of the 3 Rune Factory games I've played in my opinion. The next Rune Factory game is focusing more on dancing and combat than farming (at least story-wise, since these Earthmates use dancing to connect to the earth instead of farming), with farming being a side activity whose importance is unclear.

SoS:PoOT also had the complaint of not being as focused on farming as its predecessors, with a lot of people going mining instead. I am starting to think that Marvelous knows that Stardew Valley got famous for its farming, is trying to replicate that success by adding farming to games that could easily do without, and failing. Alternatively, Marvelous is too well-known for farming games and feels obligated (either by investors, some audience, or something else) to keep making them (even when Marvelous makes games in other genres, resulting is a slew of unsuccessfully genre-crossing games). Marvelous used to be the company for farming games, but now it's struggling, with a lot more misses than hits. It raises concerns about the next new Story of Seasons games, in my opinion.

[Kikki]

The next Rune Factory game is focusing more on dancing and combat than farming (at least story-wise, since these Earthmates use dancing to connect to the earth instead of farming), with farming being a side activity whose importance is unclear.

That's Guardians of Azuma, and while it has Rune Factory in the title, it isn't the next Rune Factory, it's a spin-off. Rune Factory 6 is in development, but we don't know anything about it yet, except we've seen the title text graphic. Nothing else. Guardians of Azuma appears to be more about town reconstruction/development of some kind, more than farming. We're probably going to get a 'normal' Rune Factory for #6, so RF has not yet gone off the rails. They're just using the RF name to try more new things, possibly as ill-advised as most of the rest of their recent games, but...unlike Farmagia, Progress Order, and Elrentaros Wanderings, Azuma looks to me like it could be really fun, since I love town-rebuilding. I hope they do it well. I'd like anything with the RF tag to turn out well, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, we can hold out hope even if Azuma turns out to be awful, because Rune Factory 6 has already been confirmed as in development, but we haven't been shown anything, so hope is still alive.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

To me, Rune Factory worked so well as a genre-bending game because it didn't neglect the life/farm sim elements at all. It was really easy for the HM/SoS fanbase to translate over to Rune Factory. Meanwhile farming just feels like a half-assed gimmick in these latest Marvelous games, and it's real easy to see that it's just a cashgrab moment for them.

I just find it so ironic that Marvelous is aware that farming as a feature sells yet the latest SoS game strayed so further from giving it depth. PoOT's entire game design was just... criminal. What do you mean that the latest game from a series well known for mixing life sim elements and farming sucks at both of these aspects? Farming was almost, if not entirely, pointless in that game. I genuinely don't remember many instances where I had to farm in that game. Majority of the quests didn't require it and outside very few crops, it wasn't really a profitable way to earn income from either. It felt like it was just there for sake of it. At least the social sim system was properly implemented, even if it wasn't the best, but I don't know how and why it never crossed to anyone in the studio that the farm sim you're making has the main gig it's known for being barebones. My first impression with PoOT was so disappointing that I still can't bring myself to give it another try.

At the present, I'm more hopeful with RF as a franchise than SoS, for sure. RF5 was just poor execution of the same old formula whereas SoS de-railed from the formula AND did a poor job with it as well. I guess it also helps that we've seen more of the next RF game and it seems quite promising. The fact it's advertised as a spin off sets the expectations quite right as well.

I've not totally lost hope in SoS as of yet only because the entire fandom was very vocal about what they did not like about the game. If the devs still disappoint despite so much feedback and guidance from the fans, it'd be the biggest fumble in the history.

Well, we're going to know if they actually did learn from their lesson soon enough when they reveal more about the game other than how much they've improved when it comes to the visuals. It's kinda become predictable with SoS and RF announcements as of late because they only have two platforms to make major announcements in. So the next announcement will happen in one of the following: the upcoming Nintendo Direct in February, Marvelous Showcase in May, or the Nintendo Direct in June. I personally predict the proper reveal to be in 2 months at the Nintendo Direct for a release in June-October. The Marvelous Showcase will most likely just share more of the features in the game. Time sure does fly fast because it'd be past 4 years since PoOT was released by then.

[Milo]

Rear Sekai (which really should be translated in English as REAL Sekai, not rear, but Rs and Ls are treated interchangeably in Japan...but basically the title means something like 'Real World'. Which makes sense! Because you're shifting between the 'real world' and a fantasy world.

What weirds me out is why they would feel the need to put that word in English at all. I mean, surely Japanese has a native word for "real". It's not even consistent, since "Sekai" is in proper Japanese.

The Rune Factory series has been the most successful at combining farming with another genre,

Eh. Something that's bugged me about the Rune Factory games is that the farming gameplay and combat gameplay were both decent individually, but weren't integrated much. Like, the protagonist of each game just happens to be a multiclass farmer/hero, but the two have nothing to do with each other. You fight generic plotting-to-take-over-the-world villains, not enemies threatening your farm or anything. You grow normal food crops, not alchemical ingredients or anything fantasy-themed. Magic is used solely for combat, it's not like you can use a water spell to irrigate your crops. Just about the only way in which the two aspects of the game meaningfully interact with other is that you raise Pokemon instead of normal livestock.

SoS:PoOT also had the complaint of not being as focused on farming as its predecessors, with a lot of people going mining instead.

That's... new? I've spent more time mining than farming in just about every Harvest Moon game I've played that featured a mine.

There's a limit to how much farming you can do in one day: once you've watered all your crops, that's usually it and you have to wait until the next day. (Sowing and harvesting time are more work-intensive, so if I plant crops based on how much work I can do on a worst-case day, I'll have more free time on the days where I'm merely watering.) By contrast, the mines just contain infinite gems and produce more rewards the longer you spend exploring them. So it's a default "time-killing" activity once I'm done doing all my farm chores and talking to anyone I want to befriend. And in many games, gems are worth so much that it's way more lucrative in terms of money than selling crops, too. Which... sort of makes sense, gems are more valuable than vegetables in real life, but then again in real life gems are a lot rarer even in mines while farms usually grow more than a few dozen plants at a time. The worst part is that the mining gameplay isn't even fun, necessarily. It's just grinding. But it's so valuable that it feels like I have to do it.

[PaleSunflower]

The Rune Factory series has been the most successful at combining farming with another genre,

Eh. Something that's bugged me about the Rune Factory games is that the farming gameplay and combat gameplay were both decent individually, but weren't integrated much. Like, the protagonist of each game just happens to be a multiclass farmer/hero, but the two have nothing to do with each other. You fight generic plotting-to-take-over-the-world villains, not enemies threatening your farm or anything. You grow normal food crops, not alchemical ingredients or anything fantasy-themed. Magic is used solely for combat, it's not like you can use a water spell to irrigate your crops. Just about the only way in which the two aspects of the game meaningfully interact with other is that you raise Pokemon instead of normal livestock.

How well farming and fighting is integrated depends on the game. Crops are normally used in some crafting recipes. For example, the turnip head, pumpkin head, and veggieblade require crops in their recipes. There can be some magical crops, such as the sword and shield plants of Rune Factory 4. Some games, such as Rune Factory Frontier, allow crops to be grown in dungeons. (Rune Factory Frontier in particular required the player to grow a certain flower in a particular dungeon field in order to get married.) All but 1 of these dungeons were also magically locked to 1 season year-round. Rune Factory 4 also has season-locked fields, but, while they aren't directly in dungeons, they are not a part of or readily accessed from the farmland. The monsters can be used to tend to the main fields as well. There are probably more examples, but these are ones I know of off-hand.

I believe that Rune Factory 5 only kept the "some recipes require crops" and "monsters can tend to fields" parts. The farm dragons certainly exist in that game, too.

I should probably mention that "most successful" here doesn't mean ideal. Rune Factory is the biggest and most successful franchise from Marvelous that combines farming with another genre that I know of. This doesn't mean that Marvelous and Rune Factory can't do better, not by a long shot. It is possible that the next (mainline, spin-off, etc.) Rune Factory game will build upon combining farming and adventure together, but, with Marvelous' recent attempts to add farming to non-farming games being lackluster at best and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma seemingly being less focused on farming than the other entries, including other spin-offs, except the also upcoming Piczle Cross: Rune Factory, I'm not feeling too hopeful.

On a related note, Deadcraft actually does integrate farming with the zombie-apocalypse setting between better than Rune Factory 5 did with its setting. There is an entire branch of crafting that uses zombie remains, including crafting equipment. Tame zombies can be "raised"/grown (players raise them exactly like crops - you plant something in a crop square and water it until it's fully grown/undead?) in a field and can either be used to aid in fights or to make other items. Weapons can be made with zombies. Zombie-fied crops are grown by using zombie blood and used to make food.

(Note - I would not recommend Deadcraft. The game tries to combine a bunch of elements at once and doesn't really succeed at any of them. There's farming, there's survival mechanics, there's crafting, there's a morality system, there's melee combat, there's third-person shooting, there's horror, there's social aspects, there's driving, and probably a few other things, but none of them are particularly fleshed out. Basically all of them are either shallow, pointless, or easily trivialized. For examples of each, for farming, there are no seasons and the number of crops, excluding their zombie-fied versions, are less than 10. The morality meter resets every day and only matters in towns, which really makes me wonder why Marvelous bothered to implement a morality system in the first place. The combat, regardless of whether the player uses a melee weapon or a gun, is trivialized by the fact the player can make the main character eat 5 stews or whatever from the menu to restore all health in less than a second. Survival is also trivialized, by food, water, zombies, basically morality-meter-free living human enemies, and other supplies being plentiful and replenishing regularly, despite the post-apocalyptic setting.)

[Kikki]

No date except for '2025', but this appears to be new today from Nintendo UK. Except it's not. It's posted all over the internet today as though it were new, but this is the same one posted 2 months ago, so I don't get it. Am I missing something?:

[Bluie]

Hmmmm. HMMMMM. I'm mixed on this, because it looks wildly fun, but they're going to have to deliver before I consider. Still, I admire the ambition to make a FTP Gacha into something we haven't seen before. It's basically a sandbox like GTA with Spiderman movement mechanics which is very fresh compared to all these open world and auto-battlers. I'll keep an eye on it regardless, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

[Code_Name_Geek]

There was a mini showcase by Wholesome Games yesterday that showed off a bunch of upcoming indie games. Personally I'm most interested in the train one, Loco Moto.

(Or if anyone would rather just read through a list instead of watching a whole presentation, all of the games shown are also listed here.)

[Harvest Moon kawaii]

[Kikki]

Was anyone interested in Cuisineer? (Published by XSEED, already on Steam for a year but due to hit Switch in about a month. If you don't remember it, you probably remember Silent Hope. Like SH, this game also uses some Bokumono assets. The animals in the dungeons include chubby Bokumono chickens and pigs and things.) It's a dungeon-crawler/cooking/restaurant-management game. It looks like a cuter, non-pixelated version of Moonlighter, sorta, but with more detailed cooking/restauranteur-ing than Moonlighter has of its shopkeeping.