Random JRPG News Thread

[InD_ImaginE]

Nippon Ichi's 2007 tactics thing Soul Nomad & the World Eaters is coming to Steam

The evil route leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I need to play moege visual novels to wash out the aftertaste.

Spoiler

The ending where your airhead childhood friends decided to be trapped in the sword with you so you won't be alone for millenia was really sweet tho

Fun game with good animations as well. Will probably buy this for nostalgia.

 

[Rahdulan]

Soul Nomad certainly opens a whole other can of worms in terms of what can be ported over, especially if it's based on the PSP version. Doesn't look that great with seemingly no improved 2D assets or anything. I'd like to see the often overlooked Makai Kingdom next.

 

[Irxy]

The Caligula Effect 2 trailer and gameplay video.
https://www.gematsu.com/2021/02/the-caligula-effect-2-debut-trailer-eight-minutes-of-gameplay

(Gameplay available from 40:22 to 48:18.)

Was the original a success to warrant a sequel?
I remember the scores were mediocre, due to a ridiculous "social links" system and monotonous grinding gameplay.
Story was also shit, characters were fine though.

 

[Dodo1610]

Do we have a tales Of Thread?



Finally, some news, looks we get a release date during the rumoured Bandai Next show-

 

[Reinhardt]

Unreal? So epic exclusive?

 

[4249]

Do we have a tales Of Thread?

Yes: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/tales-of-series-vesperia-out-on-steam.89695/

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[infidel]

The Caligula Effect 2 trailer and gameplay video.

So is the first one worth playing or is it just a mediocre Persona rip-off?

 

[Gerrard]

Unreal? So epic exclusive?

Bamco is not known for their smart business decisions, so probably.

 

[CyberModuled]

So is the first one worth playing or is it just a mediocre Persona rip-off?

It's not bad but it's also very muddled. Story scenario is somewhat neat but the progression and characters are very lukewarm. The "Overdose" edition added some content where you can work with some of the antagonists but it feels like filler most of the time as well since the character investment is whatever. The most praiseworthy thing about the game is ironically the combat.

It's essentially a turn based combat system where you place up to three moves of each of your party on a timeline and then initiate to see how your moves play out with the enemies. The general key is to chain attacks in such a way where enemies are stun locked and can't attack your characters until they're beaten and it's pretty satisfying to do. It's without a doubt way more engaging than any mainline Persona game personally. However, the game also has a RNG hit/miss system for attacks where depending on your level, the enemy level, and buffs/debuffs. While I understood the point of it was to make battles not be "solvable" immediately, it also causes an issue where if you end up fucking up a single attack in your chain, the enemy's most likely going to be active on the field and attack back and there's no way to cancel a character chain once you set it up until the chain is finished so either your character gets railed by the enemy or is flailing around like a retard because your cool plan went to shit and have to wait for the animations to play out and the cooldown before being able to do more commands. Add in the fact that the only challenging way to play with the game is on max difficulty (where enemy damage gets buffed up so much that even being above level in an area usually has enemies doing two or three hits for a player to go down) because even "hard" is way too easy and the RNG just feels like nonsense that can't be improvised around or even completely averted through just buffing characters (because there's always a 5% chance of missing an attack even if you're way over leveled compared to an enemy). Also dungeon designs are a joke, character progression is extremely boring (it's a very generic shared skill point system where each ability can only be upgraded three times and all it does is increase overall percent rates rather than doing anything new ability wise), and there's no interesting equipment to put on a character that isn't just straight stat bonuses. That being said, I'm not going to dismiss the sequel completely yet since it seems like they're changing up the RNG stuff so you can make more guaranteed chain attacks without the game being an immediate cakewalk.

For what it's worth, Tadashi Satomi was the lead writer of Caligula (guy who wrote most of P1/Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment) so it coming off as a rip off is more due to being from the original scenario writer of the series. Hell, I'm almost certain it's why old Persona fans shill it purely because of his involvement because otherwise they wouldn't be mentioning it due to lack of namesake. I can only really recommend it if you want to try something different in terms of a JRPG combat wise.

Unreal? So epic exclusive?

Bamco is not known for their smart business decisions, so probably.

Surprisingly, they find it as a threat so most likely, nah. None of their JP related IPs are even on the store as well so I'm willing to believe them somewhat. There's always the threat of Epic paying them for temporary exclusivity rights, but I have the feeling they're focusing on Square Enix with KH and FF7R (which is using UE4).

https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news...nd-subscription-models-are-potential-threats/

 

[LESS T_T]

"Hey, you want Metal Max games on PC? Okay, you'll get Metal Dogs! The official spin-off hack and slash where you play an armed dog!"

-A battle dog of the past meets a mysterious old scientist.

Metal Max 30th Anniversary "Metal Dogs
Set in a devastated world at the foot of Mt. Fuji, hunt down the series' familiar monsters!
In this 30th anniversary edition of the series, you can enjoy a unique worldview with simple controls that differ from the main series!

What is "Metal Max"Series?
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Metal Max is a role-playing game series featuring a high degree of freedom in which the player rides a "tank", a relic of civilization, to hunt down WANTED (bounty) monsters in various locations, and uses the prize money to modify his own tank.

This roguelike action game is a sequel to the latest console title, "Metal Max Xeno Reborn", and follows the story of Pochi, a battle dog who was part of the battle.

 

[infidel]

...
Also dungeon designs are a joke...

To be fair, so are the dungeons in P3 and 4.

...
For what it's worth, Tadashi Satomi was the lead writer of Caligula (guy who wrote most of P1/Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment) so it coming off as a rip off is more due to being from the original scenario writer of the series. Hell, I'm almost certain it's why old Persona fans shill it purely because of his involvement because otherwise they wouldn't be mentioning it due to lack of namesake. I can only really recommend it if you want to try something different in terms of a JRPG combat wise.

Ah, that's what I was looking for. I was wondering why is it even talked about since no one apparently likes it (got only ~200 reviews on Steam). Okay, interesting combat and P2 writer at least deserves the "buy on sale".

 

[CyberModuled]

To be fair, so are the dungeons in P3 and 4.

Definitely. It's just a shame since I like the general motif of each area and they have more personality that 3/4, they're just hand crafted in a dull way.

Ah, that's what I was looking for. I was wondering why is it even talked about since no one apparently likes it (got only ~200 reviews on Steam). Okay, interesting combat and P2 writer at least deserves the "buy on sale".

That is another thing I'll give the game that I initially didn't point out. Similar to the older Persona games, you're definitely not "friends" with the people you're working with more than just the fact you happen to have the same objective as they do.

 

[LESS T_T]

June 25th

 

[LESS T_T]

Experience announced its next dungeon crawler Monster wo Taoshite Tsuyoi Ken ya Yoroi wo Te ni Shinasai. Yuusha Tai ga Maou wo Taosu Sono Hi wo Shinjiteimasu. (Defeat Monsters to Get Strong Swords and Armor. We Believe in the Day the Heroes will Defeat the Demon Lord.



https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/experience-announces-dungeon-rpg-monyuu-for-switch

Experience announces dungeon RPG Monyuu for Switch
Due out this summer in Japan.


Experience has announced Monyuu, a new dungeon RPG for Switch. It will launch this summer in Japan.

The game’s full title is actually Monster wo Taoshite Tsuyoi Ken ya Yoroi wo Te ni Shinasai. Yuusha Tai ga Maou wo Taosu Sono Hi wo Shinjiteimasu. (Defeat Monsters to Get Strong Swords and Armor. We Believe in the Day the Heroes will Defeat the Demon Lord.) Monyuu is the official abbreviation.

Monyuu is developed by the staff behind Undernaughts: Labyrinth of Yomi, with character designs by Mota and monster designs by Akifumi Yamamoto. Its staff includes producer Hajime Chikami, director Motoya Ataka, and composer Naoaki Jimbo.

Further details will be announced during the “EXP Channel 3rd Season #24” live stream on March 26 at 21:00 JST.

Watch a teaser trailer below. Visit the teaser website here.

Wonder if they want to fill the absence of Etrian Odyssey.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Experience announced its next dungeon crawler Monster wo Taoshite Tsuyoi Ken ya Yoroi wo Te ni Shinasai. Yuusha Tai ga Maou wo Taosu Sono Hi wo Shinjiteimasu. (Defeat Monsters to Get Strong Swords and Armor. We Believe in the Day the Heroes will Defeat the Demon Lord.



https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/experience-announces-dungeon-rpg-monyuu-for-switch

Interdasting. The studios previous release, Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi, is coming out in the west this year. Not sure if this is a repost but here's the article for that game: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/10837-...-xbox-one-nintendo-switch-and-pc-in-fall-2021

Hopefully they're good. The only Experience game I'm familiar with is Stranger of Sword City and I was not impressed by it, but this is a different dev team so maybe this has potential.

 

[Siveon]

Hopefully they're good. The only Experience game I'm familiar with is Stranger of Sword City and I was not impressed by it, but this is a different dev team so maybe this has potential.

The Demon Gaze children from Experience (that's not a jargon phrase that's just what I call them cuz they all have similar veins) aren't really games that were made for quality. More or less it's like the Kemco JRPGs on mobile, DRPGs for the addicted who already played Elminage, Etrian Odyssey, etc, and just want more. And also for people who don't have a Vita to play Dungeon Traveler 2 lol.

This game and Undernauts seem to be more game games.

 

[LESS T_T]

Interdasting. The studios previous release, Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi, is coming out in the west this year. Not sure if this is a repost but here's the article for that game: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/10837-...-xbox-one-nintendo-switch-and-pc-in-fall-2021

There's a thread for that game, but its title need to be changed. https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...e-guys-who-did-stranger-of-sword-city.123210/

Maybe Infinitron if you don't mind.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...nger-of-sword-city.123210/page-2#post-7204835

 

[Vorark]

Wonder if they want to fill the absence of Etrian Odyssey.

What's up with the EO team anyway? Radio silence since X was released in 2018.

Makes one think they are either running into trouble translating touchscreen map-drawing to a single screen or are cooking up some sort of spiritual sequel that automaps the floors, a la Sega Ages Phantasy Star on Switch.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Wonder if they want to fill the absence of Etrian Odyssey.

What's up with the EO team anyway? Radio silence since X was released in 2018.

Makes one think they are either running into trouble translating touchscreen map-drawing to a single screen or are cooking up some sort of spiritual sequel that automaps the floors, a la Sega Ages Phantasy Star on Switch.

Atlus has been painfully slow when it comes to making games for HD systems. Basically every game they worked on that was for post ps2 consoles, and not handheld, has been in development hell.

 

[Endemic]

"Hey, you want Metal Max games on PC? Okay, you'll get Metal Dogs! The official spin-off hack and slash where you play an armed dog!"

Good to know Kadokawa are still working on stuff besides RPGMaker.

 

[LESS T_T]

Astria Ascending, from the Canadian developers behind Super Neptunia RPG, made with some help of Japanese RPG developers.

 

[karoliner]

Who even remembers Blue Reflection?

https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/blu...flection-sun-announced-for-ios-android-and-pc

Blue Reflection Tie announced for PS4, Switch, and PC; Blue Reflection Sun announced for iOS, Android, and PC
New games join the upcoming anime.



Koei Tecmo has announced Blue Reflection Tie for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (Steam), and Blue Reflection Sunfor iOS, Android, and PC (DMM Games). Release dates were not announced.

The two games join the upcoming anime Blue Reflection Ray as one of three new Blue Reflection projects following the release of the original game in 2017.

The concept artwork above, illustrated by Mel Kishida, represents each project: Blue Reflection Ray on the left, Blue Reflection Tie in the middle, and Blue Reflection Sun on the right.

More information will be released at a later date.

Get a brief overview of each project below. Visit the newly launched Blue Reflection Project website here.

Blue Reflection Ray



A television anime set to begin broadcasting on April 9 on the “Animeism” programming block. Distributed by d-Anime Store and other distribution websites. Official website here.

Blue Reflection Sun



A new game for iOS, Android, and PC. Distributed by DMM Games. Release date to be announced.

Blue Reflection Tie



A new game for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (Steam). Published by Koei Tecmo. Release date to be announced.

 

[LESS T_T]

Since Sony is about to close PS3/PSV/PSP stores, Shoji Masuda is asking if people are interested in PC/mobile ports of his games like Linda Cube Again, Gunparade March, and Oreshika. I want to send YES to all, but he has to choose only one because of budgetary reasons. (To be honest publishers like Playism, Degica, and Ghostlight would gladly help them to port all.)



I hope more Japanese devs to follow this line of thought!

Current status btw:

Linda, Oreshika, Gunparade.

 

[Abu Antar]

Oreshika, no doubt.