What secrets are Nintendo hiding? (pic: Nintendo)
The Tuesday letters page is all in favour of more remakes, including Final Fantasy 6, as one reader looks forward to Bomb Rush Cyberpunk.
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No guarantees
So, it’s looking pretty certain that the Switch 2 is going to be released next year, the only question is whether it’s in the first half or the second half of 2024 – which seems to be dependent on how many they can make in time. The big question is whether it will be as successful as the Switch. Nintendo has never quite managed two massively successful consoles in a row; no one has except Sony, so I don’t think it’s a given.
In a sense, all the rumours about hardware and power and storage and whatever are kind of irrelevant as it’s always just about the games, especially with Nintendo. The Wii U may have been a weird idea but I’m sure it would’ve been a big hit if it had just had some decent games early on, but it never did.
The rumours suggest the Switch 2 won’t be that different, physically, to the current model, which seems sensible to me. I would feel a lot more confident about predicting its likely success, though, if we just had some rumours about its games. If it’s just a director’s cut for Zelda and some experimental stuff like I-2-Switch then I don’t think anything’s guaranteed.
Arnie
Counter-programming
I actually think releasing Baldur’s Gate 3 the same day as Starfield is a good idea, and I’m sure Sony was behind it. A lot of people are sleeping on Baldur’s Gate 3, because it’s more of a PC game and has been in early access for a while, but Divinity: Original Sin 2 got a lot of 10/10s, including from GC, and everything I’ve heard about the new game sounds very positive.
If it ends up scoring better than Starfield, which is entirely possible, then Sony will have defused their biggest obstacle for a while and all without any exclusivity deals. In fact, the reason Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t on Xbox at the same time is purely because of Microsoft’s policies over the Xbox Series S. So, it’s basically their fault!
I don’t mean to come across as fanboy-ish but I think it’s interesting that for the first time in forever publishers are actually using release dates to their advantage.
EinsteinII
Start with three
Although I’d welcome an Oblivion remaster perfectly happily I would’ve been much more interested in a Morrowind remake. It’d have to be a remake because the original is too old but to my mind it’s still the best of the series and a lot more in-depth than either of the games that came after it.
It’s much more of a traditional role-playing game than the action packed first person games that Oblivion and Skyrim became and I’d love to see that style of game return with modern gameplay and quality of life features. I don’t think it would ever happen because it’d take almost as long as a full sequel, but when I see great remakes for things like Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy 7 I do wish that Morrowind could get the same treatment.
Bosley
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Just one more
Although the number of Final Fantasy remasters and remakes being talked about is starting to get a bit ridiculous I would definitely be in favour of a full remake of Final Fantasy 6. We’ve never really had a big budget remake of a 16-bit title and I’d really like to see how they interpret those low tech visuals into modern 3D game.
Final Fantasy 6 was a really great game too and was very ambitious with some of its set pieces so, as Square Enix has admitted, it’d be very expensive to get it all done. I was worried they’d just do it as pixel art thing, maybe like Octopath Traveler and those games, but from the interview they were talking about a Final Fantasy 7 remake.
Even if we have to wait a while I think that would be amazing, but if they have to finish Final Fantasy 7 Remake first we could be talking at least eight years. The original will be 37 years old by that point!
Dolan
We have no idea
The other night I was flicking through the channels and I came to BBC2 and there was a show called Claimed And Shamed. Looking at the episode’s description, the main story seemed to be about ‘a con woman posing as a grieving widow‘ who fakes her husband’s death! I couldn’t help but chuckle and be reminded of the G-Men in legendary Psychonauts level The Milkman Conspiracy.
Boo-hoo and indeed, oh, boo-hoo! Perhaps if she had only gone to the cemetery, which is filled with dead people, where she would have found sisters in grief. Because there are dead people underground and they have brought flowers because they are sad.
Why, God, why?!
I’m really old, aren’t I?
DMR
Unofficial sequel
Now this must be the concept of love. I can’t tell you how excited I am to play Bomb Rush Cyberpunk. The Jet Set Radios were a breath of fresh air when they came out at the turn of the millennium, and there still isn’t anything quite like them, over two decades later.
So, I’m hoping Team Reptile’s paean to the beloved Dreamcast and Xbox games can fill the void by replicating the kinetic and aesthetic splendour of SegaA’s skate ‘n’ spray ’em-ups.
I’ll be there day one irrespective of what the critical consensus reveals, because I’m a sweet soul brother. Moreover, knowing that Jet Set Radio composer Hidetaki Naganuma is involved, I just know I’ll be humming the bassline.
Galvanized Gamer
Storage costs
Regarding the PlayStation 5 beta news. The cheapest deal I have seen for an 8TB PlayStation 5 compatible drive is almost double the price of the console and it is a preorder; other compatible drives are more than double.
Great news, only for the wealthy though.
Sheel
More: Trending
Phantastic game
Just logged on to last week’s inbox and saw discussion of 8-bit gems and happened to have just got into Master System Phantasy Star on Switch. It is a delight! Although you might not think it, it’s very easy to play owing to its simplicity. Modern Japanese role-playing games overwhelm me with their systems and skill trees and complex plots – this one doesn’t. Maybe it’s because of this that I have found it so playable.
Truth be told, there are very few decisions to be made on behalf of the player, as you travel from town to town and dungeon to dungeon, collecting another McGuffin just to be able to do such and such. What’s more, the translation is so rudimentary and dialogue so minimal that it’s easy to forget what you’re doing – goodness knows how anyone got through this game back in 1988! I’ve heard that there are game-breaking features too, like the ability to drop vital items which make it impossible to finish the game.
The appeal, then, is the charm in knowing how formative this game was to the genre, the incredible graphics and animation for the time, and the beautiful soundtrack (which I prefer listening to in classic Master System mode, not FM). The Switch version has introduced some very useful quality of life improvements and you can find yourself making lots of progress pretty fast. Phantasy Star is like retro comfort food and an education in Japanese gaming heritage rolled into one.
I haven’t played any other game in the series but might well look up which of the sequels is best regarded.
Owen Pile (NongWen – PSN ID)
GC: Phantasy Star 4 is particularly good but Phantasy Star Online is an almost entirely different game.
Inbox also-rans
I don’t know what stupid name they’re going to make up for it, but as well as Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3 on the same day there’s also Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Spider-Man 2 too! Mario-Man? Spider Bros.? There’s not much to work with there.
Golem
My preference for Resident Evil 9 would be to have Claire Redfield back in the spotlight. She was always my favourite but she’s never really had a game to herself and the closest she got, with CODE: Veronica, is never getting a remake.
Orbit
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gain2, who asks what is your favourite game that does not have a sequel?
Even if they’re not that that successful, most games get sequels at some point, but which is your favourite that never did? Why do you think it never got a follow-up and does it at least have a spiritual sequel or something similar?
Do you feel it’s too late for a sequel now and if not, how would you like it to look and play? If it’s a game with its first sequel coming up soon, how do you hope it will have evolved from the original?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
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The Tuesday letters page is all in favour of more remakes, including Final Fantasy 6, as one reader looks forward to Bomb Rush Cyberpunk.