We don’t own our games anymore, so I need to know my library’s going to stick around if I’m going to invest in it. Last I heard, EGS hasn’t made a profit, so that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me that it’ll still be around in five years.

I think competition is the answer to a lot of problems consumers face, but unfortunately the “are you going to be there tomorrow?” problem is going to be a major disadvantage for any storefront that competes with Steam. It’s why my most preferred shop is GOG, because I still have all my games with them if they close up.

I’ve made a conscious effort to start doing this in conversations in general instead of opening up a browser tab. Yeah, “just google it” is a thing, but asking is often enough if you’re not in a hurry, so why not?

They overhauled the skill system in 2.0, and the major bugs like police spawning were fixed a while back. There might be some stuff from early marketing that still never made it in. I know the rail transit system was one of the common talking points, and it’s in there now, but I wouldn’t call it an essential part of the game or anything.

That said, I first played it after 1.3 and I can’t say I ever felt like it was outright incomplete. It’s probably still the most technically impressive game I’ve played and it’s a fun sandbox. Solid writing and voice acting, too.

I lived out this way once upon a time and miss it dearly. I never did get as far north as Tillamook Bay, but I have great memories of Lincoln City and Newport. Imagine my reaction when this game was announced, hah.

The photo in Chloe’s house of Arcadia Bay is one of Garibaldi, just mirrored. For plausible deniability, of course!

Freelancer would have been fresher in memory 15 years ago, and that’s one that had seamless intra-system travel. Gameplay in Freelancer even flowed better than NMS for getting from orbit to orbit and having encounters or discoveries along the way. It just didn’t have the on-foot gameplay. I had the same problem with loading screens in Everspace 2. Killed the flow. Whoever tries to do this again is going to have to make sure transitions are minimal.

And that’s what I don’t get about Starfield, conceptually. With this project scope, you’re not competing well with NMS for ship-to-foot or orbit-to-surface transition, you’re not doing better than Freelancer–a 20+ year old game–for all the in-space stuff, and the procgen hamstrings you with all the “Bethesda magic” their worlds are known for. It’s like someone said “let’s do Daggerfall in space” and went rigid top-down design with it, retrofitting whatever they could along the way to make a functional game around the procgen.

Yeah, goes back a ways! I feel like it has a knack for resurfacing after I’ve completely forgotten about it. I like what I’m seeing here with the gameplay.

It’s fairly one-note at first, but you will get options later that will allow you to soak some hits. Make sure you’re keeping your pictos updated.

That said, yeah, in a game with a fully developed dodge and parry system, you’re going to be expected to at least dodge almost everything when playing on high difficulty.

LT: I knew pretty early the scope of the universe, the level, and the script, so I made my dream soundtrack. For example, I would take a level and would want to write three environment tracks, two battle themes, and one boss theme. I do that for the whole game and — one by one — I’d write the track for five years until the end.

This is what’s so nuts to me about this soundtrack. It’s not only quality; it’s quantity too. Those who have played the JRPGs that inspired this game know: for the entire game, you get a few regular battle themes, a few boss themes, and a final boss theme. Some of the consensus top soundtracks in the genre aren’t this big. Yet this single composer did multiples for each level. Only the biggest projects in the genre get this kind of treatment.

I’m glad Broche gave Testard so much run for this game, and gave him the tools to make it sound great, too.

Mine does, yes, and it has a great inter-library loan system, too. As long as it hasn’t come out recently, I have access to a big chunk of the Switch library.

Unfortunately, it looks like going forward that it’s not software costs that are going to be the biggest problem, it’s hardware. Adjusting for inflation, hardware has never been this expensive this late in a generation in my country. Not even the PS3.

For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn’t been topped. Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.

There are a few franchises that still have me day 1 even if they went to that price point (The Witcher, Persona, Trails). Those are always 80 hours minimum, though.

Per Gematsu (and others by now, I’m sure).

The irony is outlets have never been more transparent about review process, embargoes, disclosures, etc. because of all that, and yet…

Can only lead a horse to water, though. A staggering amount of people can’t tell the difference between independent reviewers and paid influencers.

Like you said yourself, it’s risky.

That said, I think SQEX is one of the better large publishers out there about giving ideas some leeway. Hell, they let Yoko Taro make really fucking weird shit for far longer than was reasonable until it finally paid off with NieR: Automata.

If by capital “R” Remake you mean the full three-game treatment FF7 received, Kitase’s already said they’re not planning on doing that again. Future remake projects, should they happen, will be smaller in scope. An FF9 project was leaked twice and is heavily rumored, so it’s most likely next (if it wasn’t quietly cancelled, anyway). We also don’t know exactly where it would fall on the spectrum between remaster and remake, but the Epic leak suggests it’s more of a remake.

FFT is the one I’d like to see the most, and it has even more rumors around it. But, I would expect that would look something like Tactics Ogre Reborn, mostly a remaster. It could really use some modern features, like a move undo and some UI enhancements, like a helper for zodiac signs. What I want the most from it is an orchestrated soundtrack. It’s a gorgeous work that deserves the full treatment. I’d also love to see more content, like extra side quests, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

FF6 is the most logical next step after those in terms of enduring popularity, especially if they want to target the Western market. It would probably be super controversial in the fandom, though.

I’ve actively tried not to be a Blizzard doomer, but Nexon? I guess wealth extraction is where these IPs are now. Bleh.

Pains me to hear it called a failure, it’s such a delightful game. While the Western release years after was not part of initial development, it’s also a landmark game in English localization history. The script brilliantly handles the puns and other specific quirks of the original Japanese while also setting a standard tone for this series and similar games that followed. For example, I don’t know if Kansai-ben was translated into a US Southern dialect in a video game before this one.

I think this one’s going to sell quite well once word-of-mouth spreads.

I’ve played several hours of this already and the deeper I get, the more it makes me think of Dark Souls. It has that same sort of cadence in the dungeons, just turn-based instead, with a party. What’s wild is even with how derivative the concept is, it’s a brilliant, fresh-feeling idea for dungeon design. I’ve been feeling like JRPG dungeons have been stale for a while now, and I’m loving both how dangerous the dungeon trash is and how there isn’t a ton of it. Normally by this point in a more traditional Japanese-style RPG I’m starting to skip around in boss rush mode. Not here. I’m wanting the challenge.

It’s nowhere near as difficult as a Souls-like though. I’ve seen many complaints about how not-optional the dodge/parry system is, but at least so far, I think there are ways around it. I’m not even through Act 1 and there are already enough tools that even people that miss most dodges can find busted builds to offset with (and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of helpful Pictos and other loot already).

I have some nits to pick, but it’s been a great game on the whole so far. The soundtrack and voice acting in particular are top-notch.

Really curious about how well this game does. Being at a significantly lower price point, if it ends up a major GotY contender, that will make waves.

Depending on just how JRPG the game feels, it could also have a big impact there, too. The genre doesn’t have a regular, clear market leader anymore.

Highly recommend the sitting in the character’s shoes approach. I ended up

and really kicked myself for missing that cue after. Still one of my most regretfully memorable gaming moments.