Something went wrong. Try again later

ZombiePie

To each and every one of you reading this; be kind, earnest, and nice to those around you.

9192 94836 2424 84109
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

ZombiePie's comments

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

It's a long shot, but holy shit duder, it has been a long time since I saw your name pop up in my notifications! Hopefully everything is doing well on your end.

I wish you nothing but the best even if this is a quick and temporary return.

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

@willin said:

I just posted my GOTY and Awards Blog so I'm glad I'm not the only sicko doing it in November.

Thank you so much for dropping this comment! With notifications still not working all that well, this made sure I did not miss this blog.

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff
Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff
Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

Edited By ZombiePie  Staff

Is that what the site is calling Quick Looks now?

@retris said:

@sparky_buzzsaw: It's what they're calling Playdates now. For some reason.

No and eh/no.

To clarify, when a video is titled "Giant Bomb Plays" that is a video that involved the staff streaming a game and the stream involved chat interactivity and one or more staff member fielding questions prompted through chat and addressed on the fly.

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

Man... remember how this game was meant to be a promotion tie-in to Bionic Commando (2009)? Wife-arm and all. It definitely has a Dark Void Zero vibe.

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

Wouldn't Robin's battle staff be considered a Bo and allow a handful of Robins in the Batman universe to qualify for inclusion on this list?

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

Not working for me either.

Is this working for anyone? Won't play for me.

I can try to ping @dtoast

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

Hey there! I love the idea of this list and feel free to let me know when you finish it and have those individual writeups.

Avatar image for zombiepie
ZombiePie

9192

Forum Posts

94836

Wiki Points

84109

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 19

ZombiePie  Staff

So... we have a slight UPDATE on this blog that virtually vindicates almost all of the red flags I waved and sirens I was trying to trigger. Square Enix have recently revealed their game lineup for TGS 2023. That lineup is:

  • Dragon Quest X Online (PS4, Switch, PC, Wii U, 3DS)
  • Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (Switch)
  • Dragon Quest Treasures (Switch, PC)
  • Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (iOS, Android)
  • Final Fantasy XIV (PS5, PS4, PC, Mac)
  • Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
  • FOAMSTARS (PS5, PS4)
  • Imperial SaGa (PC, iOS, Android)
  • Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai (PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Switch, PC)
  • PowerWash Simulator (PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)
  • Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe (iOS, Android)
  • Star Ocean: The Second Story R (PS5, PS4, Switch, PC)

Notice a few things that are missing from that list? Yeah, there's no mention of Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate OR Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake! Is there a chance either game is a "surprise?" Maybe, but that's usually not how TGS works. I don't know... this seems dire?

@toxin066 said:

front page material.

JFC I completely forgot that DQXII was even a thing.

Oh! and Enix is the bigger share

I genuinely don't think most Squaresoft and Final Fantasy fans understand that Squaresoft RPGs and Final Fantasy games do better overseas than in Japan. This is not new or breaking news, and you can even argue the pendulum swung that way starting with VI, but Enix has been the king of domestic sales in Japan, and it is not even a contest. So, when the two merged Enix having money put them on better footing.

@av_gamer said:

Overall, Squaresoft's biggest mistake was merging with Enix. Didn't seem that way at the time. Many people were excited, including myself. Two JRPG juggernaut developers merging? What could go wrong? Apparently, a lot.

Possibly you could argue with X, X-2, XI, and Kingdom Hearts the company was in the process of turning the corner without the need of merging with Enix. Hindsight is 20/20, but there were real fears post X-2 that the company did not have the finances to fun the big titles that were its primary money makers. So, the deal still went through.

I'm surprised that we haven't seen anything else from that DQ3 remake, and re-releases of all of the DS remakes of IV, V, and VI seem like they would be easy slam dunks too but that's seemingly never even been hinted towards.

The complete radio silence with the DQ3 is bananas. People like the Octopath engine and its look. Handing that engine to other devs and then asking them to use to it modernize classic titles in the Square Enix catalogue seems like a layup, and yet, it apparently isn't. Have one third-party dev work on 3, another work on 4, and shit, maybe you get someone to play around with Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon! Also, most of those pre-VII Dragon Quest games are mercifully short. What is the hold-up?

The fact that these asshats think that DQXII somehow needs to be "darker" just shows how clueless they are. I mean DQ11, despite being bright and cheerful on the surface, involved:

  • The world basically ending
  • The implied rape of a party member
  • A bloodless if open depiction of an NPC's suicide
  • The death of the child party member (technically she's like 22 and magically de-aged, but she looks about six).

I dunno what they think would be particularly darker than that or why people would want to play something like it. All Squeenix is going is risking is making the same mistake as they did with Final Fantasy - make a bunch of poorly though-out, half-baked changes in the name of "modernizing" the series. As a result, Final Fantasy has completely lost touch with what it is (which is probably why there hasn't been a good one since FFXII). On the other hand, Dragon Quest works precisely because it knows exactly what it is and it shouldn't move away from that.

You know what? This is a great point that I completely forgot to bring up in the blog. I honestly think keeping XII turn-based will be where most fans draw their battlelines, but after XI, how much darker can the series get before you lose the spirit of the series? What dark themes are you going to bring up that you have not already done? These games started out as Wizardry clones for young children that subscribed to Shonen Jump. What more is on the table that doesn't piss away that audience? Are you going to have the hero of DQ12 scrounge for survival in a post-Apocalypse? If they do that, then they better get ready for everyone to draw comparisons to Chrono Trigger!

Thanks for a great read, I learned some things!

Have they announced platforms for DQ XII? Because they probably don't need to jump to UE5 to do a Switch game, and maybe not for the Switch successor either, so let's assume it's for the PS5. Which isn't really selling all that great in Japan, and not to the younger audiences they might hope to grab, so I'm really curious how that'll go.

Enix doesn't really have any major hits in the west, right? Or anywhere, that isn't Dragon Quest, it seems like?

So Square gets all the blame, while carrying the company.. This deal is getting worse all the time!

They have yet to announce any platforms, but opting for Unreal Engine 5 means the Switch is still on the table. Unreal 5 works on all platforms Unreal Engine 4 ran on, including Android, iOS, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. I would hazard to say, considering the game is still being actively developed, there is a good chance the DQ team is banking on the Switch 2.

Also, the DS DQ games are honestly the ones that made the biggest impact for Enix outside of Japan. VIII definitely did well enough, but it was not until IX that the series finally sold over a million units in the United States and Europe.

@chamurai said:

Despite DQ being so huge in Japan, I was always team FF. It just happened to be the franchise I was exposed to first. I didn't play DQ1 until 2006-07 on my phone. I buy more DQ merch than FF because the character designs by Toriyama are just that good.

I really hope that DQXII and the DQIII remake make it out to the world and are worth the wait.

The lack of success with the DQ series outside of Japan wasn't due to a lack of trying. People forget, but Nintendo was the distributor for the first Dragon Quest and tried repping that game HARD in the press circuit. They also tried with re-releasing their classic DQ games on the GBA, but the experiment proved far less successful in the West than in Japan.

Though... that Dragon Quest 1 + 2 SNES remaster is a good time.

@av_gamer said:

I mostly agree, but Final Fantasy XVI has been well received as one of the best mainline entries in decades. The problem, as Jeff Grubb pointed out in GMM, is that Square-Enix has unrealistic expectations for their games before they put them out. They want their games to sell like Call of Duty or some other big franchise and they want to break out of the "those are the JRPG guys" label. Instead of embracing and accepting what they are known for. Compare that to Atlus and the Persona series. They aren't trying to be something they're not. They are perfecting the formula that turned Persona from a cult classic series, to a series arguably bigger than Final Fantasy today. And on top of this, making spin off games with different gameplay mechanics that are just as good. That's how its done.

Well, with Atlus you could argue they do have the mass market in mind when they make a mainline Persona game and that's because they space out the release of new titles generously enough and fill in the gaps with spin-offs and pseudo-sequels... kind of like what Dragon Quest use to do before they had an Icarus moment with Dragon Quest XII.