General Game Chat

[Moonface]

For those who are fans of Shin Megami Tensei, someone spotted that Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was rated in Korea. The rating board had a description for the game that says "it is a complete edition of Shin Megami Tensei V with improvements and additional content." It doesn't look like the rating mentioned platforms at all so no idea if it'll still be a Switch exclusive or if this version of the game will be multiplatform.

I do wonder though how Atlus doesn't hurt their own game sales when it looks like every game they put out ends up getting an updated version a couple of years later, unless they let you upgrade your existing version for a smaller cost?

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I heard about Tokyo RPG Factory. Very sad, as I Am Setsuna was a very lovely game that got a lot of hate for absolutely no reason. As for what it means when Square Enix does this -- it means they didn't make enough money for SE to be happy and they've essentially closed down the company and most likely put its previous members into other teams within SE to work on other projects.

Unfortunately SE always set their goals way too high and when they fail to meet them, they blame the people who made the games instead of themselves for their stupidly high expectations.

To give you an idea of how stupid they are when it comes to this, the new CEO recently announced that they would stop focusing on "mid level games" and only focus on their "high end" games. This despite the fact that it's been their mid-level games that have rated the highest. Games like Octopath Traveler I & II, Triangle Strategy, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Star Ocean 2 R, etc. have been the only things that keep people interested in SE any more. They don't sell tens of millions of copies though, and SE has this delusion that they are a company that can release games that sell 20+ million copies.

Worse yet is that they claim these mid-level games are under performing and that's what is costing them, when it reality it's absolutely flops like Forspoken, which may have only avoided the tag of worst game of 2023 thanks to Starflop, that have cost Square Enix millions. Not the mid range RPGs that they now want to stop making.

It's also weird the double standards they have for a lot of their owns games. They claimed to be unhappy with FFXVI despite the fact it sold over 5,000,000 copies just on PS5 alone and within its first week, yet they seem to be perfectly happy with Final Fantasy VII Remake only hitting 7,000,000 sold back in September of 2023, over three years after its initial release while being on PS4 (MUCH bigger userbase), PC (<) and PS5.

Paired up with their now obsessive pursuit of heavy AI usage in games (most likely to try and drastically cut costs of production), even after their NFT pursuits blew up in their faces (another area they bled money, but refuse to acknowledge it and blame the smaller games instead), they just need to either go under or get bought out by a company that's going to slap them upside the head and tell them to stop being so fucking stupid.

Yeah, I've viewed SE as being ridiculous with expectations ever since they said Tomb Raider 2013 was a failure because they put such a high sales goal onto it, and each game following that got a bigger budget under the idea it would equate to more sales. I always wonder what state SE would be in if FF14 wasn't bringing in so much money for them on a regular basis.

What's funny is they keep on saying that certain games didn't meet expectations, despite doing well (FFXVI), but won't say a word about absolute flops that cost them huge like Forspoken, or how much money they've sunk into dead-ends like NFTs and AI. I mean, when AI is used appropriately, it can be some what of a boon, but this is SE we're talking about and we know for damn sure that they won't be one of the ones utilizing AI in the right ways. They'll do incredibly dumb things with it that will cost them a lot of money and then blame their games for not performing well.

I can't wait to see what reason they come up with for Foamstars "not meeting expectations", instead of just being like, "Yeah, okay, trying to copy/paste Spatoon with a different skin was stupid on our part."

[Moonface]

I wonder if SE have some twisted idea that saying a game that sold well but didn't meet their expectations will somehow push people to give more support to that game because they don't want to see the IP go dormant. It's probably heavy tinfoil hat territory but it would give a reason why they just ignore the failings of games that didn't perform well even outside of SE's lofty standards because if nobody cares for the IP then making claims it hasn't done well and could not get another entry isn't going to really bother anyone. Could also be an attempt to get funding from a console maker in return for timed exclusivity like when Xbox gave money towards the cost of Rise of the Tomb Raider and had it as a timed exclusive, yet Tomb Raider 2013 had sold better on PS4 by a significant margin.

[Moonface]

Ugh. I can't tell if this interview is writing a Bloodborne remaster off the cards any time soon or if Miyazaki is giving answers he could give to these questions for any game because of a comment he makes later on:

• It is a title we hold very dear and just as much as our fans. It does make me very happy to see that there are still so many people passionate about it.
  
  
• I think having new hardware is definitely a part of what gives these remakes value. Things you weren't able to achieve on previous generations of hardware, ways you weren't able to render specific expressions - [new hardware] sometimes makes it possible.
  
  
• However, I wouldn't say that's the be all and end all. I think purely from a user perspective, modern hardware also allows more players to appreciate all the games. And so, it ends up being a simple reason, but as a fellow player, I think that accessibility is important. I think that can be the driving force between bringing an old game to a new platform.
  
  
• Miyazaki apologised for being unable to say anything more specific about remaking the PS4 exclusive, but said he was "thrilled" at the game's continued response.
  
  
• Put simply, it makes me very happy to see it's a title with a lot of specific memories, both for me and the staff who worked on it. And when we see those passionate voices in the community, of course it makes us feel thrilled, it makes us feel very fortunate to have that and to have those memories.
  

Source: Eurogamer | Elden Ring boss discusses Bloodborne remake, benefits of waiting for new hardware

What's your take on it @Dragon Lord?

[Dragon Lord]

I don't take much from it. Like I mentioned in another topic, Bloodborne is 100% owned by PlayStation, so Fromsoft has no control over a remake/remaster of the game. If PlayStation does remake/remaster it, they'll probably just stick to having Blue Point do it like they did with Demon's Souls, instead of going to Fromsoft and seeing if they'd work on it with them. Especially now that PlayStation owns Blue Point and having them do it in-house would be cheaper than getting Fromsoft to do it.

Miyazaki basically has nothing to say about it because Fromsoft likely won't even know it's happening until it would be officially announced by PlayStation if/when it happens.

[Moonface]

Right, I keep forgetting that Sony own the Bloodborne IP and therefore the ball is entirely out of Miyazaki's side of the court unless Sony passes it to them. I can't recall if the current 60fps hack for the game has any issues that come from running the game at a frame rate higher than what it was made for or not, and I also can't guess if it would either because I just don't know what any game handles like running it at a higher fps than what it was originally designed for.

[Dragon Lord]

Right, I keep forgetting that Sony own the Bloodborne IP and therefore the ball is entirely out of Miyazaki's side of the court unless Sony passes it to them. I can't recall if the current 60fps hack for the game has any issues that come from running the game at a frame rate higher than what it was made for or not, and I also can't guess if it would either because I just don't know what any game handles like running it at a higher fps than what it was originally designed for.

I've watched streamers play the 60FPS Mod for Bloodborne and I never saw them encounter any issues with the game from the increased Framerate. Usually it is a worry with Fromsoft games because back in the day when they modded Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition with a 60 FPS mode, there was a lot of issues with the game. Players would have to be careful about sliding down ladders because sometimes they'd fall through the floor at the bottom. Believe there was also some issues with some mechanics around the game due to Fromsoft usually always tying their game's mechanics into the frame rate.

But as far as Bloodborne Remake/Remaster is concerned, I'll wait to see what gets announced later this year. With it being Bloodborne's 10th next year, there's a good chance that Sony might announce any possible project with it during this summer (I assume they'll do something around when E3 used to be -- State of Play or whatever). If they don't announce anything concerning the game by... I'd say end of September, then I'll start to doubt about any chance of them doing anything with it at all. This is assuming they'd want to release a Remake/Remaster around the same time as the original. They could also just announce it early 2025 for release in September-November, but I would think they'd want to release it around the same time as the original.

[Moonface]

Right, I keep forgetting that Sony own the Bloodborne IP and therefore the ball is entirely out of Miyazaki's side of the court unless Sony passes it to them. I can't recall if the current 60fps hack for the game has any issues that come from running the game at a frame rate higher than what it was made for or not, and I also can't guess if it would either because I just don't know what any game handles like running it at a higher fps than what it was originally designed for.

I've watched streamers play the 60FPS Mod for Bloodborne and I never saw them encounter any issues with the game from the increased Framerate. Usually it is a worry with Fromsoft games because back in the day when they modded Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition with a 60 FPS mode, there was a lot of issues with the game. Players would have to be careful about sliding down ladders because sometimes they'd fall through the floor at the bottom. Believe there was also some issues with some mechanics around the game due to Fromsoft usually always tying their game's mechanics into the frame rate.

But as far as Bloodborne Remake/Remaster is concerned, I'll wait to see what gets announced later this year. With it being Bloodborne's 10th next year, there's a good chance that Sony might announce any possible project with it during this summer (I assume they'll do something around when E3 used to be -- State of Play or whatever). If they don't announce anything concerning the game by... I'd say end of September, then I'll start to doubt about any chance of them doing anything with it at all. This is assuming they'd want to release a Remake/Remaster around the same time as the original. They could also just announce it early 2025 for release in September-November, but I would think they'd want to release it around the same time as the original.

Hopefully Sony doesn't view Bloodborne as a major existing franchise for it to be affected by this, although even if it did fall into it that would just mean we can't get it before April 2025.

[Moonface]

Xbox Partner Preview Announced for March 6
The next Xbox Partner Preview showcase has been announced to take place on March 6, 2024 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT.

The showcase will run for approximately 30 minutes covering a mix of new and upcoming games, including the following games and/or publishers:

• Capcom
  
• Nexon
  
• EA
  
• Tales of Kenzera: Zau
  
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
  
• The First Berserker: Khazan
  

---

I strongly suspect Capcom will show something for Dragon's Dogma 2 since that comes out March 22; hopefully it'll be a demo announcement because I'd like to give the game a try to see how it feels compared to DD1.

[Moonface]

I think this news will fly under the radar quite a bit, but the source code for Area 51 (2005) by Midway has been located at a garage sale and released on Github: https://github.com/ProjectDreamland/area51

It might lead to some really interesting things with the game, especially since the game is legally free to download via this website: https://www.moddb.com/games/area-511/dow...pc-version

I know @Mr EliteL definitely knows of this game but did anyone else here ever play this? I feel like @Maniakkid25 probably has but I can't remember.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah yes I played that game with you briefly, think I still have the recording I took of it testing one of my devices for gameplay.

[Maniakkid25]

Yes I have, and I also know that technically, that download is illegal, because the publishing rights changed hands for the game at some point, nullifying the deal between the publisher and the USAF. However, we gotta keep Circulating the Tapes, man! It's the only way to preserve our history!

[Moonface]

Bleh, I had a feeling that somehow the game wasn't going to actually be 100% legal to download for free and that someone out there was going to have got their hands on the rights to it. Ah well, not like you can buy a copy of the game anyway.

My memories of Area 51 are that I liked the first half of the game better than the second half. Once the game moves away from fighting mutated scientists and stuff and just throws all those soldiers at you with the odd gray encounter I think it gets considerably weaker. I can remember way more locations in the early parts of the game compared to the later ones too.

[Moonface]

I contemplated making a thread for this question but I don't know if it has a very concrete answer that leaves no room for debate on it. So my question is this; is Overwatch the top case of a successful game/franchise completely shooting itself in the head? Overwatch was such a huge success and then OW2 happened, and as time goes on that game continues to manage to find something that gives it a worse reputation than it already has, and I can't think of any other game franchise that has done as much damage to itself like this one.

[Maniakkid25]

I'm sure there are games that have done worse with their player's good will, but I don't think there were any as BIG as Overwatch was. Then again, considering how Activizzard has been acting for a good decade now, I'm not surprised that OW2 is slumping. Diablo 3's Auction House, Warcraft 3 Reforged, World of Warcraft players all mass exodus-ing to Final Fantasy 14 (Which wasn't the cause of the Endwalker queue times, but DID NOT HELP MATTERS!); they've really been shooting themselves in the foot, and that's just the Blizzard side alone.