Tales of Vesperia - Second Opinion - PS4 Review

The Tales series of games has always been a forerunner in the list of “things I want to pick up when they come out”, and when Tales of Vesperia was first announced, of course it made my list. Until I found out it was a 360 exclusive. Now finally available on systems that I own, I can finally rejoice at having my Tales collection come back together, instead of me being forced to borrow my friends Xbox.

Since Vesperia has been reviewed earlier by Robert, I’m not going to go in-depth into review, rather just point out things I liked/didn’t, and some aspects that stuck with me. First of which is the characters. I personally find that the main qualifier of whether I enjoy a Tales game more or less is all about who the recurring cast is, whether it be bland “justice junkies” like Flynn or Sorey, or the sassy quipping characters like Raven and Edna, what really makes a Tales game pop is the interactions between the characters. I can honestly say that Tales of Vesperia, while not actually having any of my favorite characters, definitely had my favorite cast. Apart from Karol, all the characters were interesting or unique in their own right, and their interactions and skits were really fun to watch.

Even though the newly added Patty doesn’t have a lot of leeway, since she was basically slapped in as an “append”, I loved the way she was introduced. Best pirate ninja move. And you keep the substitution doll, I loved it. Also, the only Tales game I know where you can beat people up using a dog with a dagger. Repeede is best doggo, and the fact that he now has actual costumes and can be the party leader is even better.

The second qualifier for me about Tales quality is the battle system. Is it fun? Annoying? Did they overextend trying something new? Did they turn a 4 player possible game into a soft cap 2 player *cough*Zesteria*cough* ? While the button placement has been swapped up a bit, and the “downtime” between combos is disgustingly long, the skill learning was fun, and I’ll be damned if me and two of my friends didn’t sit down to abuse the hell out of the bonus skills. “Blah Blah Blah meteor storm” comes to mind. Pro tip, on the Xbox version you could crash the game if you had too many meteor storms going at the same time. Rita is now an ascended meme mage amongst my friends. Speaking of battling, screw the dog at Emmead Hill. Y’all know what I’m talking about if you’ve played the game before. Hardest boss in the game, and he’s like, what, the third? So dumb.

So. The story. Well, the second half got better? I mean, the first half of the game is basically “I’m going the complete opposite direction from you, but I’ll join you anyway”, and felt super forced. At least you get a decent sized team for couch multiplayer rather fast.

If you weren’t aware, you now know that the original voice actor for Yuri did not come back to voice the swathe of extra scenes/voices added for the definitive edition. On the plus side, you don’t really notice unless you’re aware and looking for it, barring a few minor exceptions.

Last line of complaint: GLOWING. SKY. ORB.

Please, Namco Bandai, we aren’t three. We can handle big boy puzzles.

As a general whole, while Vesperia definitely won’t hit my number one favorite Tales installment, it’s pretty solid in at number three or four, which is a big thing considering how much less I had to play it when it originally came out. Backed by a swell cast of characters, some solid voice acting, a great opening theme, and a swell soundtrack, not to mention the character customization through the use of skills, Tales of Vesperia is definitely a title to get your friends into the series, and to leave series veterans pleased. It also looks and runs really nicely on the PS4 which I'm happy to own.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Namco Tales Studio
Publisher(s):
Bandai Namco
Genre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
4-Player Battle coop
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
PC

Source:
Purchased

Article by Richard

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Assault Android Cactus+ Comes to the Switch March 8th!

BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND – Feb. 20, 2019 – Assault Android Cactus+, the action-packed arcade-style twin-stick shooter by Witch Beam, debuts on the Nintendo Switch March 8.

Assault Android Cactus+ is an enhanced edition of the acclaimed twin-stick shooter, bringing everything Cactus is known for to the Switch including the vibrant roster of playable characters with unique loadouts, transforming stages, and smooth 60 frames-per-second mayhem. This edition adds new character costumes, aim assist options and Campaign+, a completely reimagined version of the 25-stage campaign.

Campaign+ caters to experienced players by rebuilding each stage with new enemy waves and dynamic elements, utilizing the game's full arsenal of enemies for new encounters and amped-up boss fights. Veterans and newcomers alike will be able to go deeper than ever before and have even more online leaderboards to conquer.

Thanks to the Switch, Cactus+ is not only playable on the go, but single Joy-Con support makes it a snap to play co-op anywhere. With aim assist, players focus on dodging, shooting and managing weapons, retaining the heart of the experience even without twin joysticks. Aim assist also works with dual Joy-Con and Pro Controllers making it ideal for players learning the ropes or anyone wanting to give their thumb a rest. It's the perfect equalizer for gathering friends for up to 4-player couch co-op.

Boss Rush and Infinity Drive give determined players even more action, while Daily Drive gives them one shot at setting a worldwide high score in a newly generated level. Developer Commentary, Jukebox, and Sound Test modes are joined by a new Movie Gallery for revisiting cinematics. Unlock new costumes for all nine Androids and earn credits to enable EX options like first person mode, AI players and the newly re-balanced MEGA Weapons that are more destructive than ever.

"We're proud of what we achieved with Assault Android Cactus Plus," says Tim Dawson, director, Witch Beam. "Campaign+ is our love letter to hardcore genre fans and aim assist is making our game even more accessible. More people are going to be able to get more out of it."

Assault Android Cactus+ will release on Nintendo Switch on March 8 for $19.99 and can be pre-purchased now with a 25% discount for $14.99. The game supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese languages.

For more information about Assault Android Cactus, please visit the official website or follow the game on Twitter and Facebook.

About Witch Beam

Witch Beam is a Brisbane-based Australian indie development studio comprised of industry veterans whose resumes cite BAFTA and GDC awards for work on titles including L.A. Noire, Alien Isolation, Need for Speed, andHand of Fate.

Witch Beam consists of former Midway, Electronic Arts, and Sega developers. Together, they’ve won the Best International Game award at BitSummit 2015 and Best Action Game at Intel Level Up 2013 for Assault Android Cactus.

Witch Beam strives to develop substantial experiences on core gaming platforms with polished gameplay that focuses on mastering select elements.

To learn more about Witch Beam, please visit their official website.

Article by Susan N.

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Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack: Switch pouch, release date, day-one goodies and more revealed - News

Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack: Switch pouch, release date, day-one goodies and more revealed

The ultimate anime retro action arrives May 17th!

PQube (London, UK) February 21st, 2019 - Arc System Works and PQube are excited to share the release date and more details about the Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack, which bundles up the original Guilty Gear and GUILTY GEAR XX ΛCORE PLUS R for Nintendo Switch.

Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack will release on May 17th as a special day-one edition, including

• a personal letter from Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari
• an artbook with unreleased works of his

Both games included in the pack will be available as separate digital versions for Nintendo Switch and the original Guilty Gear will release digitally for PlayStation 4.

Finally, a limited edition of only 500 pieces in Europe has been announced that comes with the only Nintendo Switch pouch anime fighting game fans will ever need! PQube is partnering with RICE Digital to bring this to the west and will have more details soon.

Guilty Gear

In 1998, one game made huge waves within its genre: Guilty Gear for the original PlayStation. Spectacular special moves that brought the console to its limits, a hardrock soundtrack that still has to meet its match, innovative mechanics and unique charactersthat kicked off an incredibly complex and epic anime story will equally fascinate fighting game fans today, as it did 20 years ago!

GUILTY GEAR XX ΛCORE PLUS R

First released in 2008 in Japan, GUILTY GEAR XX ΛCORE PLUS R is the final installment and epitome of the Guilty Gear XX series that polished everything introduced in the 12 previous installments to reach optimal balance. Mechanics like the universal overhead attack "Dust" as well as "RomanCancel", which allows players to cancel all kinds of actions and therefore increases their options dramatically, set the bar for the series' sequel: Guilty Gear Xrd.
--
Stay in the loop on everything Arc System Works on Twitter https://twitter.com/ArcSystemWorksU as well as Facebook https://www.facebook.com/arcsystemworksu/and the official homepage: https://arcsystemworks.com/


Article by Pierre-Yves

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Dick Wilde 2 - PS4 / PSVR Review

Dick Wilde 2 has a target audience (pun intended) with its wave / rail shooter design that works really well with the PlayStation VR headset. It checks all of the boxes of 'improvement' that you would want from a sequel, without really doing anything revolutionary along the way.

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Warhammer: Chaosbane First Images of Gameplay - News

Lesquin, France, February 19, 2019 – After having introduced the soldier Konrad Vollen and the mage Elontir, Bigben and Eko Software are happy to reveal a video of the dwarf Slayer, one of the 4 playable characters in Warhammer: Chaosbane.

Bragi Axebiter, the dwarf Slayer has taken the oath of the Slayer, vowing to cleanse his honour by dying in combat against a formidable adversary. This exceptional warrior is always searching for the most powerful enemies so that he can “finally” honour his oath. An expert in hand-to-hand combat, Bragi benefits from a high degree of mobility which allows him to launch into the heart of a melee in order to eliminate a particular target.

This ease of movement is augmented by the dwarf’s unique ability: he can throw his axe and launch himself at whatever it’s stuck in, whether that’s a wall or a Nurgling, using the controller’s right joystick or holding down the space bar to target. Then he can rain down blows upon his target before jumping to the next enemy. In cooperative, he’s the perfect character for eliminating a dangerous enemy who’s far from the melee while his teammates take care of the front line.

Warhammer: Chaosbane offers a unique game mechanic, which can be activated by all 4 playable characters: by massacring the Chaos hordes, heroes can charge their Bloodlust meter by collecting red orbs. Once it’s full, the player can unleash their rage and activate new ultra-powerful skills. His worship of Grimnir, the Slayers’ ancestral god, lets Bragi Axebiter access a unique skilltree of overpowered spells.

The first hack and slash to take place in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world, Warhammer: Chaosbane plunges the player into the heart of the Old World, a continent marked by the Great War against Chaos, a bloody conflict which ravaged the Empire of men. They will embody a human, a high elf, a wood elf, or a dwarf, and discover the iconic locations of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles universe that’s captured the imaginations of millions of fans across the world.WARHAMMER: Chaosbane will be available on PlayStation 4TM, Xbox One, and PC starting June 4th, 2019 and beginning May 31st for owners of the Magnus Edition.

More information about the game on warhammer-chaosbane.com 
Find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
 
About Bigben 
Bigben is a major player in video game publishing, in the design and distribution of smartphone and gaming accessories as well as furnishing customized audio products. Known for its innovation and creativity, the company group aims to become a leader in each of its industries. For more information about Bigben: www.bigben.fr
 
About Games Workshop
Games Workshop® Group PLC (LSE:GAW.L), based in Nottingham, UK, produces the best fantasy miniatures in the world. Games Workshop designs, manufactures, retails, and distributes its range of Warhammer®: Age of Sigmar® and Warhammer® 40,000® games, miniature soldiers, novels and model kits through 507 of its own stores (branded Games Workshop® or Warhammer®), the www.games-workshop.com web store and independent retail channels in more than 50 countries worldwide. More information about Games Workshop and its other, related, brands and product ranges (including our publishing division ‘Black Library’ and our special resin miniatures studio ‘Forge World’) can be found at www.games-workshop.com.

About Eko Software
Established in 1999, Eko Software is an independent game developer and publisher based in Paris - France. Eko Software is developing games on all major gaming platforms (consoles - PC - Smart TVs). Mainly focused on development and content creation, the company develops games for top publishers or creates new IPs that are published in partnership with worlwide publishers or self-published through digital distribution channels. IPs created by Eko include Aqua Panic!, Wanted Corp., SPRay, and How to Survive. For more information on Eko Software and its products please visit www.ekosystem.com.

Warhammer: Chaosbane © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019. Chaosbane, the Chaosbane logo, GW, Games Workshop, Warhammer, The Game of Fantasy Battles, the twin-tailed comet logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likeness thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world, and used under licence. Published by Bigben Interactive and developed by Eko Software. All rights reserved to their respective owners.

Article by Susan N.

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Want to win a copy of Song of Memories for the PS4? Now's your chance!

Following our review earlier this morning, we have one copy of Song of Memories to give away!

What do you need to do to win?

One lucky winner will be drawn at random from those that give our friends at pQube Games a follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PQubeGames and then send a quick email to Nick@Chalgyr.com letting him know you've followed them and are entering the contest.

And that is it!

The contest kicks off with this post (so 12M Eastern Time on Tuesday, February 26th, 2019) and will run for a week (so get those emails in by this time on the March 5th). That night we'll take all of the entries, run them through a random drawing and reach back out to the winners via email with a code.

Good luck!


Article by Chalgyr's Game Room

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Song of Memories - PS4 Review

Song of Memories is certainly a thing. What kind of thing? Somewhere in the middle of being a Visual Novel, rhythm game, and male-audience dating sim. And in the middle of being in all the three above categories? Song of Memories is does not quite meet the expectations of any of them.

Song of Memories is what I can only describe as an extremely generic and cliché dating sim that tries to cover/parody the genre, but ultimately fails to truly pull through with it. The game starts by introducing you to generic McFaceless protagonist who's parents died in a plane crash prior to the games start, who's kind of a doormat, kinda stupid, and super dense. You soon get introduced to: the not-blood-related tomboy little sister, the athletic childhood friend, the terse and serious upper classman, the cool mysterious older woman, the “hospitalized for long enough to be super concerned” childhood friend, and the lower shy classman with disproportionately large boobs. Oh, and the MCs best friend, but he's male and super perverted so we don't really care about him.

The story then proceeds to tell you how you're taking your soon to be released from the hospital childhood friend to live with you, because apparently that's perfectly acceptable to just have some other highschool student with no family take care of another recently hospitalized highschool student with no parents. Cue the start of the game, as you hang out with your friends (love interests) and get ready for your school's culture festival! Well, except for the fact that you get attacked by some weird mutant monster. And then virtual idols pop out of a weird smartphone (that totally doesn't look like a smartphone). And they sing at the monster and kill it.

Yeah, I'm not kidding. Before you lock in to a characters “route”, you fight maybe three battles, which are done in a really awful attempt at a rhythm game. The songs don't sound that bad, but they do sound “stitched” together, the timing doesn't really math with the tune, and the elemental wheel of “what beats what” is confusing and, as far as I can tell, mostly pointless. On the plus side, you can set the battles to auto-complete the rhythm part, or you can just skip them entirely.

Honestly, maybe try one or two fights and set it to auto, because between the off-tempo button indicators, and the distracting…bounce, of the idol characters, it may be an interesting distraction from the generic rest of the cast, but it will start to grate on you later. Speaking of bounce, pretty much all the characters are rather well endowed. Especially Natsume, who has cleavage bigger than her head. Seriously, it doesn't make physical sense. Since all the characters have dynamic anime style “character portraits”, you'll get to see a lot of “physics”, and “plot”.

While the general plot can be figured out about a mile away, even the “twist” if you pay even a remote amount of attention, there were a couple of things I appreciated seeing. Namely, the “Chart” function, that is always available and stores system data on requirements to view scenes, what choices provide character affection, and allow you to move to any scene that's been viewed and start from there. It also let's you know when a character “flag” has been set, which is quite useful.

Unfortunately, that's about all I really liked about the game. It had an interesting premise of trying to do something different, but ultimately fell short. The music is actually pretty good though, which is at least a part of a saving grace. The animations are nice, the fact that characters will change expression mid sentence to reflect what they should be feeling is something I've been hoping to see happen for a long time, so it's nice that they did so. The Chart function is super in-depth and helpful. The storyline after a route has been locked also…has a lot of promise, but is unfortunately bogged down by a combination of blatantly obvious plot points, and a distinct lack of any sort of information, at least based on the routes I've unlocked as of writing this.

Seriously, if you wonder what the mysterious virus plaguing the town is, what the monsters actually are, why the virus is even a thing, what the idol group who can sing monsters to death is, or even what happens to some of the other characters in different endings, prepare to be disappointed, because I certainly don't know the answer to all but ONE of those questions.

Ultimately, I'm extremely conflicted about song of memories. It held a lot of promise I felt it just failed to deliver. I liked the music, the “2nd half idea”, the animated and dynamic expression character portraits, and the chart was essentially having an “as you unlock” wiki or strategy guide handy. Unfortunately, there is a lot that was just as poorly planned out. Characters are super generic and fairly bland, there were so many questions left unanswered it felt like part of a political press conference, most of the characters do some ridiculously dumb shit, and for the love of all that is good and wholly, who was in charge of the ending scenarios?

Like, seriously...

I haven't been this disappointed in the first ending I got since…geez, I don't even remember the last time I was as disappointed as I was with the ending I got. Ultimately, Song of Memories had some pretty solid potential, but ultimately squandered a bunch of it with generic characters and poor rhythm gimmick. If a little more though was put into explaining unanswered questions and making the characters a little more unique, this could've been a real gem.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Future Tech Lab
Publisher(s):
pQube
Genre(s):
Visual Novel
Dating Sim
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

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New Content Unleashed for Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption

HONG KONG – Feb. 19 2019 – Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption, the boss battler from publisher Another Indie and the AAA veterans at developer Dark Star Game Studios, brings new challenges and content to the arena today on Discord and Steam alongside its Steam launch. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will receive the free content update before the end of this month.

Adam’s quest for redemption continues with the addition of a new non sequitur boss to defeat - a giant armored chicken. Armed with a deadly peck and minion-spawning eggs, Cowardly Modic pits Adam against his fowl-est challenger yet. Two new weapon sets, twin swords and a sword and shield combo, add fresh options to an already powerful arsenal, each harnessing the power of conquered bosses.

In addition to a new boss and weapons, three more challenges await in New Game+. The Trial of Speed grants Adam swiftness in exchange for losing invulnerability during dodge rolls, while the Trial of Consequence restricts Adam to a single life and Trial of the Sinner fuses both into the ultimate test of skill.

“We couldn’t bring Sinner to Steam without a bit of fanfare, which is why we’ve released our biggest update across all platforms,” says Iain Garner, director of developer relations, Another Indie. “The new boss is unlike anything players have seen before, and the rest of the added content expands the difficulty so that even the most battle-hardened warriors will have something to look forward to.”

Embark on a journey through a macabre world and take on specters of past misdeeds, each based on one of the seven deadly sins. Each boss demands a sacrifice, weakening Adam and making each fight harder than the last. With an array of weapons at his disposal and endless paths through to the final boss, Adam’s journey can be customized to fit any playstyle.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Discord for $18.99 in English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Russian. 

For more information about Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption visit the official website, check out the Another Indie Discord or follow the game on Twitter and Facebook.

About Another Indie

Headquartered in Mongkok, Hong Kong, Another Indie believes that language and geography shouldn’t be an obstacle to gamers who want to enjoy the best that the world has to offer and strives to bring to the west the best games coming from China and Southeast Asia.

About Dark Star Game Studios

Composed of seven Chinese AAA veterans with backgrounds at companies including Ubisoft, Blizzard and Konami, Dark Star Game Studios aims to make AAA quality games for a hardcore crowd.

Article by Susan N.

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Want to win a copy of Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage for the PC? Now's your chance!

Following our review earlier this morning, we have four copies of Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage to give away!

What do you need to do to win?

Four lucky winners will be drawn at random from those that give our friends at Enkian Games a follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnkianGames and then send a quick email to Nick@Chalgyr.com letting him know you've followed them and are entering the contest.

And that is it!

The contest kicks off with this post (so 12M Eastern Time on Monday, February 25th, 2019) and will run for a week (so get those emails in by this time on the March 4th). That night we'll take all of the entries, run them through a random drawing and reach back out to the winners via email with a code.

Good luck!


Article by Chalgyr's Game Room

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Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage - PC Review

It must have been almost a decade ago now when I thought to myself that all I wanted was a good solidly built indie RPG. Not really getting what I wanted through Steam at that time, I started to look elsewhere and came across Whisper of a Rose which changed my entire concept of thinking as to what I wanted in an Indie RPG. Fast forward to today and we've had plenty of excellent entries such as titles from Critical / Dancing Dragon / Stegosoft / Radical Fish Games and Connor O.R.T. Linning just to start. These alone have made it much harder to do something unique with the volume now more much accessible. Moving to Jordan Allen and Howard Ross IV's recently released Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage, there may be another gem out there even if it may still need a little bit of polish.  

Kicked out of his parent's house for being super lazy, Gargan the Ogre sets out on an adventure to prove to his father that he isn't as useless as everyone thinks. Now the surprising thing is that this lazy bum is actually quite resourceful and it doesn’t take him long to get a travelling companion and start picking up quests and crossing them off his list. Is he nice about it though? Oh hell no. Theft, extortion and pure violence as you take out the pests eating a garden and leave their corpses behind for someone else to clean up. It’s all there but comedically so as Tale of Enki isn’t a dark tale, but a sarcastic and fun one that pokes some fun at the genre.

Graphically Tale of Enki fits quite well into that nostalgic 16-bit era retro feel from the SNES. Character models are unique allowing for an easy distinction of what you’re looking at on the screen which is really helpful as humans are finally not the “in” thing! This alone was nice because I mean, your protagonist is an Ogre, from a village of Ogres. You don’t start off as the sole being of another race inside of a human settlement and it was great. As for the environments, they are split into smaller pieces that work well with the sprites. It felt a bit odd at first as I’ve gotten very used to environments that will scroll the screen along but Tale of Enki instead is designed with a what you see on your screen is what you get allowing you to instantly know where you are going.

Battle isn’t quite what I would have expected and this was a good thing. While you characters get their chances to attack and the enemy gets their chances to attack you in the form of an initiative race, you don’t just select “attack” and be done with it. Instead, each character has stamina that dictates how many attack can be performed. Using all your stamina in the first round isn’t exactly a bad idea if you have a notion that you could win the battle but don’t expect to get it all back on the next turn as stamina comes back in segments and not in full. Once the enemy has been dispatched, and you are the the one remaining standing victorious, that’s it, move on, there’s no experience train here people.

This begs the question, why have battles if you’re not going to get anything out of it? That would be the wrong question to ask. You get plenty out of battle like some good old hard earned cash to buy stuff, but not experience. Honestly? This made for a more interesting time while on Gargan’s adventure because you never felt the need to grind. If you needed or wanted to buy something? Go attack a few monsters. Sometimes you really can’t help needing to plow through them as they are in the way, but generally you can squeak by them if you need to. So, how does one level up? Through the use of items that you find or are given. Health for example comes in these fancy red potions that also restore your entire health pool. So you can use them right away or you can wait until you really need to heal and then use them then.

Now while Tale of Enki was a lot of fun to go through, I had a lot of issues when it came to the visuals of the menus and I have no issues when it comes to color accessibility. The menus are a shade of beige while your menu cursors for the boxes are white. I seriously couldn’t tell what I was clicking on at first until I got into the habit of knowing where to click and for what. It may not seem like a big thing, but people like Robert wouldn’t be able to play this as they just wouldn’t be able to tell where their cursors ever were which is sad because this Ogre’s journey is a good one.

Overall, Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage is a solid title. With a great 16-bit era design, combat system and sarcastically written dialog, it’s an indie RPG worth visiting!

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Enkian Games
Publisher(s):
Enkian GamesGenre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Jaggy's Corner! - Sunday February 24th

This week we're going to cover more disheartening news as NCSoft has decided to cut up to 132 employees of the total 400 employees. Not only have they decided to layoff a ton of their employees but so has EA joined the ranks in mass layoffs. It begs the question, are the big AAA companies dying off? Well, I have a theory...

Update from ArenaNet https://t.co/vl5WRxomHl

— ArenaNet (@ArenaNet) February 22, 2019

Let's begin with NCSoft, the company that developed games like Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Aion, Blade & Soul, Exteel, and Master X Master. Looking at this roster, most of them are no longer running. And it is widely known that WildStar's studio was shut down in September of 2018. Songyee Yoon, the CEO of NCSoft West said in this article, “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.” As such, the company plans to restructure the company as well as merging ArenaNet and NCSoft's publishing divisions. Unfortunately, no one knows how many people's jobs will be affected. Suffice it to say, the projects they were working on have not been smooth. ArenaNet has not had any new IP's and therefore hasn't made as much money as they could be – a fact that is quite noticeable to investors. The only point that has been confirmed is the employees will receive two months of severance pay plus a bonus based on the time worked at the company.

About a day after the news broke about NCSoft, EA's Australian studio FireMonkeys is also undergoing restructuring. FireMonkeys was responsible for games like Real Racing 3, The Sims: Freeplay, and Need For Speed: No Limits. Right before announcing that massive layoffs are taking place for this development studio, the project for Real Racing 4 was cancelled. And while FireMonkeys has about 200 hundred people (according to this article here), it is said that about 40-50 people lost their jobs. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any information about their compensation packages, which is different from the other two massive layoffs in the last couple of weeks.

In total, about 900 gaming professionals between Activision/Blizzard, NCSoft, and EA are all heading into the job market for positions. But what this massive bout of layoffs says to me is that the AAA gaming industry is perhaps not as sustainable as it once was. Gone are the days where these major companies deliver a game in a full state without massive DLCs and void of most game breaking bugs. And, many of these companies have embraced a pay structure that is better suited to mobile games (ie microtransactions) while expecting that their consumers aren't going to care.

Why is this happening? Well, I have a theory based on a friend of mine who posed a couple of questions, “Why do you think investors are pulling out of gaming? What are they afraid of or, what changed to make investors believe that the gaming industry is not where they want to put their money?” At first I speculated that maybe investors fear that article 11 and 13 copyright laws might be part of the issue. But now that I'm thinking about it again, I wonder if the backlash of gambling in the form of lootboxes might have their jimmies rustling. My reasoning behind this thought comes from breaking news that released a couple of days ago about the FTC planning a public workshop on lootboxes.

Can you imagine? There is going to be a workshop to illustrate how lootboxes work! Aside from the fact that this seems like a ridiculous notion, what I want to know is how long would such a workshop last? If it's anything over about 10 minutes, I'm asking questions. And I think this workshop most likely be directed at how gambling works and/or what to do if children are sucked into this exploitative profit scheme. But this also leads to the idea that without microtransactions gaming companies will make LESS money. As much as I dislike the microtransaction business model, they do offer game companies monetary stability – a fact that is lacking when you consider the total number of units needed to be sold in order to break even from a games' development costs.

What I'm saying is, if AAA gaming companies are forced to get rid of lootboxes and/or microtransactions because they are perceived to be gambling, the top companies would be losing a significant amount of income. And to me, it feels like investors fear the worst and are pressuring the companies for more profits OR are threatening to drop their investments.

To tack on to that idea, here is a wonderful article titled the 'Economics of Microtransactions'. This article contains an important quote when looking at an industry that has become dependent on this business model:

“Game studios are now purposefully designing bad systems and mechanics, hoping that people will be willing to pay to get past the poorly-made parts of the service: when microtransactions are the sole source of income, we start to build our entire product around that model.”

Yikes. Maybe there is a solid reason as to why hundreds of people are being let go? And it's not because the people don't have value, but because companies fear the loss of their cash infusions. (I'd also like to pat myself on the back for last weeks article where I stated that Bobby Kotick was only part of a greater systemic issue...I still believe that firing the guy would not solve the issue. But that's just me.)

Anyways, what do you think about this speculation? Are the layoffs a reaction to investors fearing that the gaming industry will cease to have monetary stability?

Until next time.

Article by Susan N.

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Deck of Ashes Launches Soon in Early Access - News

Deck of Ashes, the story-driven deck-building RPG, is coming soon to Steam Early Access

There is an ancient evil lurking in the shadows — one that only you can rid the world of!
Deck of Ashes, the story-driven deck-building RPG, is coming soon to Steam Early Access. Deck of Ashes is a procedurally-generated turn-based RPG with a unique twist: players must explore the world as they track down powerful cards in order to forge a powerful Battle Deck. After battling an ever-more challenging succession of foes, players will use their deck to battle the ultimate evil and dispel the Ash Curse. Be careful, though, as losing a battle means having to start fresh! 
 

In Deck of Ashes, players will find themselves scouring a grim fantasy world in search of combat cards, supplies, and other resources - all while battling against some of the vilest beasts the cursed land has to offer. While collecting cards to outfit their deck with a band of ruthless antiheroes, players will choose their champion — each of whom has a unique card deck — and take on the world, one intense encounter after another.

 Key Features Include:  

• Build Power-Fueled Decks: Test your wit and your strategic mettle with powerful Battle Decks, each crafted with unique combat cards that deal staggering combos and unforgiving effects
   
• Eerily Wonderful Environments: Explore and navigate a completely hand-drawn cursed landscape with dangers lurking in every shadow
   
• A Biome (and Monster) for Every Occasion: Discover unique biomes, each harboring different monster types
   
• Stayin’ Alive, Stayin’ Alive: Enjoy an ever-changing, new experience each game with procedurally generated realms waiting to devour the next unwary traveler
   
• No Mercy for the Weary: Mistakes are unacceptable, death is forever — without the use of dark magic, once you die, you’re gone for good

Developed and published by AY Games, Deck of Ashes is a single-player rogue-lite RPG with deck-building mechanics. Deck of Ashes will come to Steam Early Access in April with a full release planned for later in 2019. For more information, visit https://aygamesco.com/.

Article by Susan N.

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Tales of Favorites - Part 2

I’ve been playing the Tales of Series since that fateful day that I saw Tales of Destiny on the shelf at the local video store. Renting it, falling in love with it, it wasn’t long until I grew sad that it was damned near impossible to buy and it would be years before I owned both Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny 2 for the PS1 in which “2” is actually Tales of Eternia. They did the whole Final Fantasy naming thing as well.

Moving years down the line, I own just about every instance that I could get my hands on and only as of last week due to a wonderful woman in my life, have Tales of Vesperia’s HD treatment on my Switch. So who did I go ahead and crown as favorites? Check it out below!

Rollo

While my actual #1 is Judith because she’s such a badass, I’m going with my other #1 as I've already written about Judith. So instead of the gushing over the badass spear wielder, I’m going to go ahead and gush about this cat.

Rollo is a cat. Plain and simple. Well… that’s not quite true as he’s a fat and adorable cat. And that’s it.

Now while that should be enough, because cat, it’s the fact that Rollo is just a plain old cat that makes him absolutely fantastic. He follows Lugar in Tales of Xillia 2 out the door and hangs around for the entire adventure. Why would he stay at home where there’s no chance of him being fed when he can follow along and be dotted on? So many times I worried about this cat but he’s just amazing and spoilers or not, survives the whole ordeal and the near end of the world as many a cat would.

- PY

Cheria Barnes

From the moment I met the sickly young girl in Tales of Graces F I was hooked. Here she was in poor health but still focused on protecting her childhood friends. Enter Cheria a number of years later, as she is tasked with bringing Asbel back from the big city for important family business, and she is this steel-y strong, yet pristine and delicate; a series of traits she adequately maintains throughout the entirety of the game. In fact she stays very true to her core, only growing to be slightly more flexible as her feelings for others are nurtured throughout the rest of the playthrough. That really stuck with me …

-Robert

Moses

I had to think long and hard as to who my actual second favorite character was. There’s obvious choices like Alvin from Tales of Xillia, Yuri from Tales of Vesperia, Jade covered by Natasha from Tales of the Abyss. But if I go back far enough, as much as I enjoyed Stahn from Tales of Destiny, I realized that I freaking love Moses from Tales of Legendia which was the first Tales of that I owned. This crazy assed bandit was not only fun throughout the story, but his ending lines were some of the best with my personal all time favorite “Moses Happy Dance! Yeehaw”

- PY

Rowen Ilbert

I'd like to preface this one with the fact that this is regarding the Tales of Xillia appearance, not the Tales of Xillia 2 appearance. The cast of Xillia is generally … not horrific, but Rowen really stuck with me throughout the game. He has an aloof attitude, is wholly devoted to his charge, and far more capable than his quiet demeanor belies. Plus he is hiding a secret that he thought defined him (which didn't). That is a very human-like behavior and outlook, and seeing the revelation of it throughout the course of the game is great. Plus he has some of the best quips in the game.

-Robert

Worst?

Cumore. He’s an ass. An entitled, obnoxious ass. And while I have my issues with Luke from Tales of the Abyss, who happens to be the protagonist, Cumore just has it coming in Tales of Vesperia and I am so, SO, happy that Yuri gives it to him. SO HAPPY. It was in that moment in which my respect for Yuri increased more than it already was because he was ready to do what needed to be done to keep others safe even if it meant getting his hands dirty.

The only, and I mean ONLY good thing about Cumore in English? Is that he’s voiced by Liam O’Brien. That’s it. Glad he’s gone. Ugh I had him and his purple jockstrap that he keeps on the outside of his pants.

- PY

"Least favorite"

Literally any one of the "moe" characters (Elise from Xillia, Beryl from Hearts, Magilou from Berseria, etc… in fact, about the only "moe" character I like is Edna from Zestiria). These characters are thrown in for some ridiculous reason and I have no idea why; they tend to detract from the overall feel and emotional aesthetic of the game.

A close second, if not a tie, to that "class" of character would be the "I'm an immature turd but it's all an act because I'm fake as all hell" group (Hisui from Hearts, literally the entire cast of Berseria minus Eleanor, Alvin from Xillia, Raven from Vesperia, Malik from Graces, etc.).

Both of these groups do nothing for the overall story, show extremely little by way of character development, and more often than not are eye-rollingly embarrassing. I cannot stand either and to see their roles in Tales to be refined would be a massive step in the right direction.

-Robert

Article by Pierre-Yves and by Robert

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