Let's do this again!
Like last year, I am not going to have a lot of money to splurge on video games so don't expect me to fully dive into all of these games later but I think first impressions CAN be interesting. Hopefully, my impressions are. I'm more doing this to talk about things we all know about and offer a potentially fresh perspective as well as expose whoever is reading this to things they may not have known about. Doing these lists also forces me to look up stuff and discover things I would not have otherwise. So I'm going to look up all of the games currently announced for 2019 and talk about the ones that I find the most intriguing. And Kingdom Hearts III. But other games too. Probably. I'm still debating that upon typing.
[side note: the console I show in parenthesis next to the game's title are just the systems that I have and can play them on. Some of these are also available on other stuff I just don't bother mentioning them. Anything you see on here that you might like, check and see if it's on your X-Bone. It might be.]
KINGDOM HEARTS III (PS4)
excitement: 5/5
This is now the THIRD OGIGACA list in a row where Kingdom Hearts III has been on the list and I have been made into a colossal fool for thinking it wouldn't be delayed. But this time I have it pre-ordered damn it! It's becoming real! I have not been looking much into the recently released trailers or announcements because I want KH3 to be a brand new experience for me. Despite how repetitive the gameplay can be and how long-winded and nonsensical the plot is, this is still a game that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. The gameplay looks a lot more varied and improved based on what was brought to the table in Fragmentary Passage. As I have been saying since 2017: all Square Enix has to do is make a coherent experience likened to Fragmentary Passage with a conclusive plot and I will be more than content. The plot doesn't even have to be good. The ending doesn't even have to make sense. I'm just waiting on an actual ending. And another Kingdom Hearts game. Hopefully, one that doesn't make me feel guilty for playing it.
JUMP FORCE (PC, PS4)
excitement: 2/5
I might honestly not buy this one because I am not the biggest fan of most of Shonen Jump's library. I am not necessarily disapproving, just out of the loop. I did not grow up with Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, etc, etc. I am interested in this game because it looks like everything I theoretically liked about the Jump crossover games but more like the recent Xenoverse games in terms of active gameplay. I'm still curious how they are going to pull Light Yagami and Ryuk from Death Note being in the game if nothing else. I have a similar concern that many people have with the game looking "gross". The visuals overall do feel weird but not in a way that benefits a game where cartoon pirates fight space monsters and Yu-Gi-Oh! shit. I'm not personally that concerned with it so long as you can see everything going on. At the same time, Smash Ultimate has me covered for ridiculous crossover games where people beat the snot out of each other so I might not make it to Jump Force this year.
SHOVEL KNIGHT: SHOWDOWN [and King of Cards???] (Wii U)
excitement: 5/5
Yeah, I know, the Wii U version. Shovel Knight: Showdown is more free Shovel Knight DLC that makes me feel guilty for owning the game because Yacht Club adds so much crazy stuff that I would gladly pay for. On top of this, I am pretty sure King of Cards is coming out sometime this year. That is a whole new campaign and supposedly the last one they are making, at least for a while. The original campaign (now called "Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope") was fantastic. Plague of Shadows was not my favorite but wholly unique and commendable. Specter of Torment is one of my new favorite games of all time. So it goes without saying that I am just as excited for King of Cards as I am for Showdown. And now it goes with saying. Usually, I don't talk about DLC on these so much but as anyone who has played Shovel Knight after the release of Plague of Shadows already knows, each installment might as well be its own game.
I am curious how Showdown and King of Cards will play out on the Wii U versions of those installments. The Wii U version of Shovel Knight is my favorite version. This version allows you to switch between items and equipment in your inventory by tapping them on the screen as opposed to the Mega Man-like toggle system in the other versions. Another alternative is pausing and equipping an item in the inventory from there. Not to be the "immersion" guy but the feeling of quickly having to switch between items keeps me glued to the combat more. Toggling with the shoulder buttons can be irritating to me and stopping time with the pause button throws off the rhythm of the fight, which is important to how Shovel Knight's bosses and some puzzles are designed. Being able to switch weapons on the fly adds a bit of precision and timing to the combat that is not as prevalent in the other versions. I wonder if that will even be applicable to Showdown and am not sure how it is going to work with cards and card-based gameplay. Regardless, I am more than excited for another pixel-art game on a console no one plays anymore.
PS. If you haven't played Shovel Knight yet, you can play it on almost literally anything so go do that.
TEAM SONIC RACING (PC, PS4, Switch)
excitement: 2/5
I didn't buy into the All-Stars Racing games because they seemed like the same Mario Kart clone I have already seen a million times but with clunkier elements of more realistic racing games. The part-switching system in Transformed was interesting to me but not much else in the game really was or at least not enough for me to pay full price for it. Being realistic, I can't see myself pre-ordering Team Sonic Racing or anything but I have to at least applaud it for trying something different, if only on paper. Team Sonic Racing lets you race in a team of three people and they all have different types, like MOBAs or team-based shooters do. The idea here is that the racers in the back can actually catch up easier. People in the back can piggyback off of teammates closer to the front or send support stuff to screw with the opponents further up. I am curious to see if this chaos is actually fun in execution. In relation to the racing game genre, this slight deviation would be groundbreaking in relativity... if it isn't shit... because let's keep in mind that this is a Sonic game.
ANIMAL CROSSING (Switch)
excitement: 1/5
Animal Crossing is game franchise that I have always cared about but I never figured out why. Animal Crossing is a really simplistic, silly, and stylized life sim. The games have not really changed much since the first one other than adding new stuff to do that still just add to you paying off a mortgage and doing errands for anthropomorphic animals. There's the mobile thing too but I sincerely don't care. New Leaf is pretty much just the best installment for several reasons but mostly because of pure accessibility both in online play and local play. I cannot imagine a new installment doing much to top this without dramatically changing the game but if there is one game company that can pull something off in the weirdest way possible, it is Nintendo. I am not necessarily excited for a new installment of Animal Crossing as much as I am curious if they are actually going to do anything worth mentioning in it or if it is simply going to be Animal Crossing on Switch. Each installment has added enough to justify its original purchase. The Gamecube release was fairly necessary since the original was Japan exclusive and the Nintendo Disc Drive that the international release was planned for was canceled completely. Wild World for the DS does not provide anything that New Leaf doesn't but at the time it was a very worthy and engrossing sequel. If you like life sims. City Folk is the only installment I can say was almost completely pointless to fans of the series unless they had never played one of the other games and really wanted to play it on Wii for whatever reason. Anything you would want out of the previous games (except for the NES ROMs from the Gamecube one) is present and organized better in New Leaf. A lot of new Nintendo-exclusive games coming to Switch can at least be argued as great ideas for the portability alone but New Leaf is pretty much the best Animal Crossing and it was on 3DS. So again, I'm really just popping popcorn and seeing what happens rather than tattooing Isabelle on my chest.
BABYLON'S FALL (PC, PS4)
excitement: 2/5
Babylon's Fall is pretty much just a trailer at this point. The only reason it is on this list is because I liked the trailer and I liked Platinum Games. I have played at least 5 of their games (that I can think of). I hate one, am largely disappointed with another, very much appreciate one, and really liked the other two. There is not a whole lot more to say here. There are very few game companies that I really feel safe latching onto and Platinum is one that has given me at least an okay time with the exception of Revengeance. They are doing some fantasy shit and I want to see where that goes.
BAYONETTA 3 (Switch)
excitement: 4/5
I really like Bayonetta 1 and 2, so when I heard that Bayonetta 3 was going to be Switch-exclusive, I was pissed. Now that I have a Switch, I am less pissed. I still don't really know where they can go with the plot or gameplay of Bayonetta that will make it significantly different enough from 1 and 2 to justify full-price but I'm curious enough to consider it. That's just how much I enjoyed the first two games. Bayonetta 1, 2, and 3 are all made by Platinum so as I stated for Babylon's Fall, I'm more curious than anything. At least for Bayonetta 3, I can be excited for what might be over what we have already seen... which in the case of Bayonetta 3 is pretty much nothing.
CONTROL (PC, PS4)
excitement: 4/5
Not much has been shown (to my knowledge) of Control and no one I have talked to really knows what it is. It is being developed by some studio called Remedy. I don't know either. It's a third-person shooter with some sort of odd gravity-manipulation mechanic. In conjunction with this, a lot of the stylized visuals seem to showcase environments being constantly affected by gravity or a lack thereof. I am not the biggest fan of shooters, especially modern ones, and especially modern ones going for a creepy atmosphere but if the E3 2018 trailer is anything to go off of, Control seems to be doing all three aspects gracefully. It looks like a solid shooter with a vague yet functional gimmick that seems fun to use. Control also seems to have enough uniqueness to its graphics and mechanical concepts to be a fresh game and solid contender to those- eh- not so fresh. The game doesn't just look dark, it looks like a game that leaves you in an unfamiliar environment. The way things are shifting around in the said environment, sometimes rapidly and sometimes ominously, makes the situation seem daunting even with the power of gravity and whatever the weird sci-fi Lego gun in the trailer is. It is not often that a fairly unknown title leaves me more excited than the bigger franchises but Control has me incredibly intrigued and I recommend trying to Google it while it's still relevant because naming a video game "Control" is going to be a tragic mistake down the line.
DAEMON X MACHINA (Switch)
excitement: 3/5
Daemon X Machina is a Switch exclusive for whatever reason and is a game about mechs that I think looks cool. The combat looks like it has just the right amount of clunky movement to be a fun robot shooting game. It also has a material collection component that reminded me a bit of Custom Robo and that always has me interested, seeing as there has not been a Custom Robo game in over a decade. I also like its very polygonal art design that is not very common in the current age of pixel-art versus 4k high-res "realism". If you like the idea of blowing things up with a customizable robot then Daemon X Machina is worth checking out until something in the future convinces me that it sucks.
DIGIMON SURVIVE (PC, PS4, Switch)
excitement: 4/5
I just want to start this one out by saying I am genuinely surprised and in slight disbelief that I am talking about the new Digimon game for the third year in a row! Digimon is a pretty dumb franchise with a lot of inconsistencies and general qualitative mediocrity but I really like the concepts and art direction for most of it so I keep hoping they will make good games. Usually, they don't. Many people born in the 90's or early 2000's will probably argue the PS1 games but I have played them enough to know that they really aren't great and are indisputably flawed. Digimon World 2 was close, Digimon Rumble Arena 2 was fun (not great, but fun), and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was really solid. Of those three games, we have a dungeon crawler, a brawler, and a story-centric turn-based RPG. Digimon Survive is a tactical RPG with a lot of glorious 2D art. So far, I can't help but notice the fact that it is a little hard to read who is on what team on the map at first glance. You can tell on the HUD and it isn't necessarily difficult to find out but in comparison to tactical RPG titans like Disgaea, this seems like a strange oversight that could be easily fixed. I am also scared of the few minutes I have seen of the story because it looks like it has the potential to bog down a lot of the pacing. I am also pretty sure I saw a Telltale/Mass Effect-like choice being made as well, which almost always turns me off. The main gameplay seems fine enough and I am curious to try it out one day. The trailer and the game's music also seem to give off a somber tone. This is not to say that emotionally bittersweet moments never happen in the other games but making it so prominent in the trailer and during a video of actual combat leaves me to believe that the overall tone of the game will be bittersweet. That is either going to be a very unique take on the source material or unintentionally hilarious. I would not be entirely upset if it did what Digimon Story did. That is to say that Digimon Story had a much more haunting conflict at its core but laced with enough comedy and a solid enough strategy system to make the game consistently fun and not brooding or taking itself too seriously. The good thing about Digimon only having a small handful of well-crafted games means that my expectations for it are already neutral-to-low going in. I just hope it surprises me like Digimon Story did but I'm not betting on it.
FINAL FANTASY VII, IX, and XII: THE ZODIAC AGE (Switch)
excitement: 4/5
I have always liked the Final Fantasy games that I have played to some degree or another but never got around to VII or IX. I had a copy of the original version of XII on PS2 but neither that disc or my disc reader was ever really top-notch. Being able to play VII and/or IX wherever I go seems like a grand idea. For whatever reason, and this may just be me, playing Final Fantasy on a handheld is incredibly convenient. Two of the Final Fantasy games I have spent the most time on were Final Fantasy VI Advance and the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy III. Being able to pick at it piece by piece and continue finishing off something to a save point when I get home is something I have always valued and will be even more convenient on the Switch. They will also be fairly inexpensive. I am mostly just glad they are porting these games to the Switch, I'm not sure if I will get around to any of them this year.
I didn't include Final Fantasy X and X-2 because I already have the PS3 remasters of those but those are coming to the Switch at the same time.
INDIVISIBLE (PC, PS4)
excitement: 5/5
Indivisible is an RPG with an active battle system and platforming elements. It already has many things I appreciate in 2D platformers and in RPGs. There are a lot of Paper-Mario-reminiscent mechanics in the game and many interesting ideas implemented for how to control your party. Guarding and countering enemy attacks is also consistently challenging and heavily reliant on timing, something not very common in RPGs. Indivisible is a crowdfunded game from the people who made Skullgirls, another game I really liked. I backed the game (technically twice) so I will be receiving a PS4 physical copy and a Steam key upon release. I am sure I will at least talk about the game on this blog, if not also on the channel.
THE LAST OF US PART 2 (PS4)
excitement: 4/5
I am not a big fan of cinematic games but Naughty Dog is a notorious developer of such games that I can at least salute. Naughty Dog created two of my favorite games of all time (Crash Bandicoot 2 and Crash Bandicoot: Warped) so if only for that, I still respect them. I played a lot of Uncharted in its heyday and who the fuck am I kidding, I played Uncharted 4 and liked it more than probably warranted. I'm saying I'm a giant hypocrite. The Last of Us was heavily story-based but its survival mechanics and more grounded movement made it feel more like a game than Uncharted. It is by no means perfect but no game is. The sequel has supposedly been in development for a very long time and gameplay has been shown. What was shown was a lot more linear and sticking to the story than most of The Last of Us has in its shootout waves but perhaps that was just to easier portray the game in trailer form. I am not completely enthralled with a new installment starring Joel and Ellie because I feel that it defeats some of the artistic purpose of the first game's ending but am still willing to give it a shot.
MEDIEVIL (PS4)
excitement: 3/5
I never played more than a demo of the original Medievil but of all the remakes cashing in on old games coming out these days, this one seems to be one of the most tasteful. A lot of the main things turning me off to trying the original version today seem to be repaired in the new version, such as draw distance and potential camera issues. I may try this one day but as you can see, the list of things I'm interested in this year is already quite large and I probably won't even have much time to touch those.
POKEMON (Switch)
excitement: 4/5
I don't know anything about what is going on here yet but Nintendo has been suggesting that it won't be like Pokemon Let's Go so I am certainly okay with that. Pokemon Let's Go doesn't look terrible or anything but I know there is a lot of shit they did to baby the players in a game that was already targetted towards 8-year olds. I'm not one of those competitive EV/IV training people either. I'm all for an enhanced casual Pokemon experience but I don't think making Pokemon easier is the same as enhancing it. Nintendo has been hinting at Pokemon on the Switch for a while and confirmed that this year they would release a mainline inclusion on the Switch. The most recent Pokemon game that I really enjoyed was Pokemon Omega Ruby. ORAS (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire) did a lot of things that made certain aspects of the main formula easier but added so many other things to achieve and build on that streamlining those aspects made the game itself a better RPG. It wasn't just made easier to appeal to a younger crowd since most game developers making kid-friendly games these days just assume that kids are all mentally defective. Adversely, I really don't like X and Y, yet ORAS's use of that engine worked in its favor. This goes to show that turn-based RPG's are really easy to screw up. I think that this is mostly in part to how much the game rules rely on numbers. Billy Hatcher, for example, was an incredibly flawed game but one with a lot of unique mechanics that make it fun to mess around with. Turn-based RPG's naturally don't have similar mechanics in that regard so big design oversights can really hurt the final product, even Pokemon notwithstanding. There were a lot of things about Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon that turned me off because of this ideology but also a lot of fun gimmicks that I applaud. I really don't know where they are going to go with this one. I expect nothing.
SEA OF SOLITUDE (PS4)
excitement: 2/5
Sea of Solitude looks very pretty but I fear that this might be all it has going for it. What little gameplay was shown has a lot of the character just moving forward and not doing a whole lot else. The unique art style is the only reason this is on this list and if I hear more about it being an actual game more than a visual experience then I will be exponentially more intrigued.
TOWN (Switch)
excitement: 4/5
Town is being made by the developers of Pokemon and it looks like a very quirky RPG. I can't even point out anything making it inherently groundbreaking but at the same time, it certainly does not look normal. I'm already psyched to see where it goes and whether or not it keeps its title. Town. Just Town.
Well that's it. In about 10-13 months I'll come back to this and see what happened okay thanks for reading bye have a good night and all that.
