I’m aware. Unfortunately, some people can’t enjoy a JRPG unless the story is present every moment of every sequence. Games like SMT, Etrian Odyssey, and FF 12 give the gameplay room to breathe and assume that the gameplay will be strong enough to carry the experience hours at a time.

It’s an Atlus game. If you’re gonna get into it you’ve gotta be in it for the gameplay because that’s what’s best. That’s how Atlus rolls with everything that isn’t Persona. You didn’t even include 7th dragon on this list, but #FE is for the same people.

Madness. Jak 3 is “You know what this universe really needs? Jak needs to be the chosen one, he needs to find his absent father, and he needs to save us from the reapers/flood/Assassins Creed universe ancient space bad guys returning to destroy is.” Throw in there that the beginning invalidates a lot of the resolution…

This made me feel a little smug. “City slicker gets caught in Midwest blizzard, can’t take the (lack of) heat”. This foreign experience you discovered and described is just... you know, my life. Gotta deal with this stuff. Work doesn’t close when there’s a blizzard yo.

Man, Soul Calibur is a favorite of mine but the art is STILL shamefully bad here. It’s the perfect casual fighting game for me. Simple and slow enough that I can kinda feel like I’m figuring shit out, and casual enough that if you’re just pressing buttons sometimes you do something cool! (Compared to more competitive…

I understand that players and owners dislike the notion of relegation. They want guaranteed access to the LCS. That’s where the visibility and potential for payout is. But relegation doesn’t exist for their benefit. It exists for the viewer benefit. Relegation guarantees that low quality product is removed from the…

For those people on the fence regarding this console, and are now facing the final opportunity to purchase one: I love my Wii U dearly and I genuinely believe that anyone else who loves Japanese games will also. This isn’t a professional marketing shill but... there’s quality software here.

Well there was shirtless sumo wrestling in Twilight Princess. Wrangling Gorons was hardly the most erotic action Link’s ever participated in, but it is precedent I suppose.

Man, I had to double check the author to confirm this wasn’t by the commerce team. Toy collection doesn’t really grab me I guess. You only need to move once or twice in your life before all such things start being g regarded with suspicion. “Do I really want this, or is this a thing that will be quickly forgotten and…

Lol, and what would they do? Take the money back? It’s spent. At this point Unsung Story is a promise between a company and some consumers. Kickstarter stopped being part of this equation over a year ago.

You know, Unsung Story just sent out a new backer update. Said that they have secured outside funding and work on the game continues. Nothing to show, but they just wanted people to know that they’re still trying to ship a product.

Can I just say that it’s a wonderful thing that Leon Kennedy has gotten a second life as the protagonist of cheesy B level CG Zombie flicks? I think that this is the perfect setting for the character. No pretense at being anything but dumb schlock.

I’m not shocked that IGA underestimated the time needed for this. Back working on his handheld Castlevania games at Konami he 1. Had a consistent team and engine he always worked with 2. Was able to recycle or lightly modify assets from the entirety of Castlevaia history to shortcut time intensive new sprite creation…

Well that’s... false. That hasn’t been true in a decade. Look at the last three main Dragon Quest games. 8 was on PS2 and had traditional gameplay but gorgeous 3D graphics. 9 was on the DS and had reduced graphics (though it was still 3D!) but it pushed new frontiers for JRPGs with it’s extended multiplayer and free…

I see that you wrote two big responses to different thoughts I posted in this thread. I want you to count this as a single response to both of those. I’ll reference both the continuing issues with Square Enix Japan and also the Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy quality split here.

I don’t see Dragon Quest 7 getting delayed. That’s just a localization job, not a new development.

Well, there are two possibilities. Square Enix are a bunch of liars, or Square Enix is incompetent. “Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice”. Hanlon’s Razor. Think back on, say, the last 10 years of Square Enix development. Do you REALLY think that they couldn’t have miscalculated their ability to finish this…

Oh come on, you don’t believe that surely? Black Friday is a HUGE deal. People are in a buying frenzy. People don’t just buy things on deals during the holiday, they buy things that they normally wouldn’t buy too. Final Fantasy misses Black Friday = fewer impulse buy “Hey, it’s the new Final Fantasy!” discs = stores…

Cross marketing works better when you’re advertising for something that actually exists. The IDEA is that someone who plays the game might go see the movie in theaters... except now the theatrical run will already have ended. They’re gonna see similar issues when the lunchbox (/whatever merch) is hitting shelves…

Oh my god it all makes sense now. The reason Stephen Totilo hasn’t released Dark Cloud 3 yet is that Jason is constantly delaying it! WHY JASON. Did you join Kotaku specifically to shut down Dark Cloud 3? Is that not enough? Now you had to delay Final Fantasy also?