New and tentative game announcements (V2)

[Kikki]

Oh, I know what 'indie' means, if we're talking in the actual meaning of the word being merely a shortform of 'independent'. But I still think that a game being indie is a different thing entirely than the technical explanation of when or if a company qualifies as 'independent' or not, which itself is a bit amorphous, as far as I know. Just being made by a group that technically qualifies as independent doesn't make a game an 'indie', to me. Plus I'm not sure there's a specific definition of what makes you 'independent', either. Must have less than 20 employees? Must make less than 1M per year? Must not be incorporated, have shareholders...what? I don't know. Don't really care, either...it's not really what I was getting at. I just think that the term has broadened a bit too much, so as to become a bit meaningless. At the very least, there are definitely degrees of 'indie', and I judge 'indie-ness' based mostly on how big of a network had to be there for the game to reach the player. The smaller the network, the more indie I feel it is.

I had added my comment on the 'Mini Direct' as an edit to my previous comment...not sure if I missed saying anything, and don't wanna splort too much out openly, in case there's those who want to see the surprises for themselves. But man, it was full of surprises. I don't know that I expected any of that beyond the two known upcoming games. I may actually buy about half a dozen games shown there, which is UNHEARD OF, for me. There's so many implications in this Direct.

[yzafre]

Here's the "Rune Factory-like" from the direct for anyone who missed this morning:

[Shan O 123]

This oddly has my curiosity

[Kikki]

Why oddly? I'm pretty sure that's the one that'd catch everybody's eye on Fogu, at least as a curiosity. I'm very interested, though I don't know yet if I'll actually buy it. Seems like a prettier Rune Factory, probably with a slightly heavier story, but perhaps with less relationship building. (Or none...can't tell!)

There was quite a lot of farming in that Mini Direct, here and there. Though I didn't actually like Stardew Valley, always have to admit that the genre has a lot to thank Eric Barone for. That the effect is continuing to snowball is what surprises me. He made the AAA companies realize that it's nowhere near as niche as they thought, that there's actual money to be had. But...not sure that they can copy his success. His game is so, SO cheap, just about anyone can afford it. There are other reasons, but that's certainly one of the main ones why Stardew was such a runaway success.

Be interesting to see what comes of these big, BIG names having a go at the farming-life genre. And I'm very happy with the Direct, since I was down to ONE game on my watchlist, and now I have 8. (I think I've forgotten a couple, but meh.)

EDIT: As usual, a handful of hours later and Nintendo has the Direct in their archives. You can go HERE to either watch the whole presentation, or scroll down past the main video choose from the list of all games shown, to watch only the clips of the ones you're interested in.

[simside]

I don't think I've ever been happier with any game presentation. It's like they called me and asked what I wanted to play. I loved the first Doraemon SoS game, I know a lot of folks passed due to the lack of marriage system, but the story and social elements were really good, and I loved the gadgets and farming. And Bandai Namco did it, so it was very polished and nice-looking. I was scrolling through announcements and watched the Harvestella trailer in Japanese, so it took me a minute to realize that the game was coming out in English, which is even better.

I'm probably on board for Harvestella (though I wish it was isometric ;_;), and I'm definitely on board for Persona 5 Royale, I can't believe that one's coming out first! Aaahh, so excited about that. I hope I have enough time to play before Pokemon comes out.

[Kikki]

Okay, so I noticed on the Playstation listing for Disney's Dreamlight Valley is in-game purchases REQUIRED. (It specifically said 'required', and that's the first time I've seen that.) The Nintendo page doesn't say that, but I suspect that's because of the big upset when people suddenly suspected that there would be micro-transactions in New Horizons. (I wasn't one of those people.) They removed that from that page back then, so I figure 'in-game purchases required' is applicable on Switch as well, they just haven't admitted it yet.

Looking into it more, it sounds almost definite that this is a F2P game, and quite probably not a very fair one. (Some free-to-play or free-to-start games are fair about their in-game purchases...but others are not, and will vigorously attempt to bleed you of every drop of your money, 99¢ at a time.) Well, I'm not 100% against the business model as a whole. 99%, but not 100%, lol.

I'm willing to try it, but the minute I see that anything actually worthwhile is locked behind microtransactions, with no way around, I'm out. Sometimes the challenge of going through a game while resisting all the microtransactions and getting stuff for yourself (if it's an option!) can be cool, but I'm nobody's whale.

EDIT: Kept looking. Found some info on the monetization. From that FAQ, it sounds like those who play in Early Access will have to buy a 'founder's pack', and then once out of e.a. the game becomes fully F2P, but they say:

After Early Access, Disney Dreamlight Valley will include an in-game store filled with cosmetic items to customize your character and House. The game features no monetization mechanisms such as a paid Energy system or gameplay time skipper. Paid content is limited to cosmetic or paid game extensions, which will be available in the future.

[*LaI*]

About Disney's Dreamlight Valley, I've been following the game for a bit (for the Steam version, but same thing) and it's been quite clear from the start that it's going to be a f2p game, but that the early access will be paid, with items that will carry over to the game once released. I'm just waiting for the price to be announced to see if I want to try it earlier or just wait.

No idea why they didn't just say that directly for the Switch, it surely will be the same model.

[Kikki]

I'd never even heard of it before the Direct Mini. Thanks, LaⅠ, yeah...Dreamlight Valley is kind of up-in-the-air for me until I know more about this Founder's Pack (price and contents!) BUT...if it's true that the final version will only charge for cosmetic stuff...customizations and so on...then it's probably within the realm of fair. I have a bad feeling about this fall/winter. I'm already having depth-of-winter cement-head fatigue issues for some reason, so I'm concerned about when ACTUAL depth of winter comes, as it's glorious summer right now and I've been soaking up the sunshine and my head is still all full of cement. Anyway, my point is, I'm gonna need something absorbing. That could be this...if the monetization isn't predatory. The one thing I tend to like about mobile-type games is that they're maintained, so they don't get boring. Though sometimes that goes along with the aforementioned predatory monetization practices.

Well...can only wait and see. If this Founder's Pack costs no more than the price of a regular console game, and was the only thing I'd ever NEED to buy and then the bulk of the game would be available to me without any further expense, I might be okay with that. (If the game lets me try it a bit to know if it's even worth the price of admission, that is.) I'm plenty curious, but also feeling very cautious of this one.

Though the Mini Direct was positively LOADED with October releases, so I may not need to pay much attention to Dreamlight Valley anyway.

EDIT: Speaking of October releases, man...the universe is piling games on me this autumn. (Thank you, universe.)

[Shan O 123]

I’m excited for Dreamlight Valley. I’m a huge Disney fan and if they do add a pass DLC thing for it, I bet it’s just clothes and such. There’s no way they’d put a paywall on the main story. At least, I’d hope not.


Yeah fall/winter is going to be expensive X.X
I have my eyes on a few games Pokémon included.

[Bluie]

This has my attention.

Monster Rancher, but with Kaiju from Ultraman. I have a soft spot for Monster Rancher as I loved the anime growing up and I played one of the GBA titles a lot in my youth. I'm not really into Kaiju or Ultraman (my FiL is though, I can't wait to show him this!), but a brand new Monster Rancher is 100% great in my books. Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX is still cool and all, but I very much would prefer a new entry over a remaster.

[greensara]

Saw today in the eShop that Bit Orchard got a new update dlc that adds chickens! Makes me wish I would have waited to pick it up as it's included in the present $1.99 bundle now, but I may still pick up the chicken dlc if I decide to play it again.

Also I saw today a beekeeping/conservation game called Apico is out on Switch. It looks like an interesting concept. I may consider it if it goes on sale.

[Bluie]

Essentially Kirby Fall Guys

I'll probably buy/play this.

[Mikodesu]

Just saw the Bayonetta 3 release date trailer that was just...dumped online yesterday (Seriously, Nintendo? ) and happened to notice at the same time they dropped a trailer for a little indie "Time on Frog Island". Cute, chill little puzzle solving game I saw on PC a while back. Thought I would share since it's out now. I just have it wish listed for the time being, so no real opinions to share.

[greensara]

I don't know if anyone else was waiting on this, but today they revealed the release date for the TMNT Cowabunga Collection, on basically all platforms! So excited, though I know it's highly nostalgia fueled, lol. August 30th!

[Bluie]

I somehow completely missed this, but Phantasy Star Online 2 is finally leaving PC/XBOX jail in the West.

TEN YEARS I've waited to play this game! I remember being so jazzed for it to be localized 2ish years ago, only for it to be stuck on xbox due to a stupid exclusivity deal, and I hate PC gaming so I was out of luck. Now that it'll finally be here by the end of next month feels surreal. I hope I'm not too jaded to enjoy it, that the wait was worth it.