Toomanywires

I haven't done one of these Musings posts for three years. In the last edition, I was opining the end of my Witcher 3 DLC journey, saying farewell to the Wii U and discussing the newly revealed Switch and the possibility of it running Skyrim.

As we now know, Skyrim runs on everything. A future far greater than I could have ever imagined.

Video games, then.

1. Sayonara Wild Hearts

Yes it has a very silly name, but Sayonara Wild Hearts is a wonderful little game about pop music and moving very fast through purples and pinks. It's Rez-like in places, which I love, though the marriage between music and gameplay is not as tight. It's short, which I also love, stylish - love - and it always makes you feel like you are doing something awesome, even if you are essentially just guiding your character down a tube.

The pop-electronica score is decadent and perfectly fits the visuals - or perhaps it's the other way round? My interest never wavered, in part thanks to an ever shifti…

I originally posted this at Critical Gamer
Project Resistance was a surprise. Announced just a few days in advance of Tokyo Game Show, it was a welcome addition to what was shaping up to be a very limited selection of demos at Capcom.

The initial announcement offered only the basic details. I understood the premise, but everything else was a mystery to me. It made for a nice change, going into a demo unsure of what to expect.

As we waited for our turn at the kiosk, we were given tablets that ran instructional videos. Only then did I start to understand what exactly Project Resistance is.

Project Resistance is a 1 vs. 4 asymmetric online survival horror. The group of four are the survivors, trying desperately to escape a trap-laden and zombie infested series of rooms. The team consists of one each of the following: a healer, a hacker, a tank, and a guy who's tasty with his fists. His name is Samuel. At the start of each stage, players race to pick their favourite; during my demo, I…

I've already posted impressions from Day One and Day Two, as well as previews for Final Fantasy VII Remake, PC Engine Mini and Yakuza 7, with Project Resistance to follow in the next day or two. I've used up nearly all my words, but there's still a handful of games left to discuss.

Nioh 2 was the main draw at Koei Tecmo. I haven't played the first game, so I was at somewhat of a disadvantage here. However, by the end of the demo I had definitely gotten the hang of it. Death came early and often, but each failure revealed a little more about how to approach each enemy and progress further.

Death is not overly punitive, thankfully, and the restarts are quick and painless. Our protagonist's repertoire of moves includes heavy and light sword attacks, which you can alter by switching stance, and a comparatively weak bow. You can also unleash the beast, transforming momentarily into a Yokai to deal heavy damage. This came in handy during the end of stage boss, an over-si…

I originally posted this at Critical Gamer
Yakuza 7 is a departure from what came before.

Series lead Kazuma Kiryu is out, to be replaced by another hard-man with a big heart, Ichiban Kasuga, and the main location has switched from the familiar Tokyo setting to Yokohama. However, the biggest change is to be found in the combat. The series has long been known for it's free-wheeling action, but Yakuza 7 will feature turn-based encounters.

While Yakuza has never hidden its RPG elements, it has been known first and foremost as an action series. Well, that is about to change. Yakuza 7 looks to be an RPG through and through and, from what I played, it's looking very promising indeed.

The TGS demo focused on Kasuga and two of his associates, an ex-cop by the name of Adachi and a drifter called Nanba. Following some lively discussion the trio decide to head out for the day and make their way to Hello-Work, an employment agency. As you'd expect, their journey is quickly derailed an…

"Push run button"

Run button? Does it mean press forward? That must be what it means. Hang on, no there is a Run button - how weird. I'd best press that then.

I had never played a PC Engine until three days ago, when I spent some time messing about with the Japanese Mini at Konami's booth at Tokyo Game Show.

I am assured that the emulation is excellent, being that it comes from developer M2. I can confirm that the games run smoothly, but I have no frame of reference for comparing them to the originals. The system looks tidy, the controller is solid, and the audio, experienced through headphones, is crisp. Despite there being 57 games available, the interface is uncluttered and the option menus are easy to navigate.

Now we've got all that out the way, let's get back to my never having played a PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16 or whatever you prefer to call it. The original console has long been a mystery to me. I have no history with it, and don't recall being aw…

I went into the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo with a certain amount of apprehension. The original is one of my all-time favourite games, but I was quite content with it remaining in the past. I certainly wasn't clamouring for a remake.

Re-imagining such an iconic game sounded like a thankless task. If you keep it faithful to the original, then what's the point of remaking it? However, if you make wholesale changes you risk infuriating the fan base. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Updates were scant following the initial announcement and we all assumed, perhaps correctly, that Square Enix were struggling with their golden goose. However, SE broke its silence earlier this year, and we've since been treated to new footage and demos which have, for the most part, been warmly received. Still, I was reserving judgement until I'd tried it for myself.

So I headed straight for Square Enix at the start of TGS Day One, and I was very happy with what I found. It manage…

You can find my Day One Round-up here.

That was a surprisingly productive second day of Tokyo Game Show. I got there early, I played plenty of games, I wrote, I met good people, and I stuck around until the end. Day Two usually consists of me wandering around the halls aimlessly, despairing at the length of the lines, wanting to play more games but secretly not really wanting to play more games. This year was a huge improvement.

That being said, I'm tired. I'm nodding off as I write this, barely able to keep my eyesopkdnbichecnercr3oooe3hunf4iejiasjdioweid99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999opppppppppppppppppppppppppp-----pp

Did I say that I played a lot of video games today? 'Cause I did.

The Games

I started the day off by pegging it straight to SEGA and the Yakuza 7 demo. This was my second go, but this time I focused on the mini games. I think I may be in love with Y7. Go-karting, cycling, getting men with spiked maces for hands to punch other men very har…

Crayfish! Buster swords! Mr X! Kojima! Socks! Perverts! Exclamation marks! Day One of Tokyo Game Show 2019 is over, which means it’s time for me to write a brief round-up blog before I collapse from exhaustion and beers.

Games

I went straight for Square Enix and the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo as soon as the doors opened, and I was rewarded for my forward planning. I didn’t have to wait at all and was treated to an outstanding demo. It’s early days, but it’s great to see all the positive vibes surrounding this game – a game that could so easily disappoint its fans. I’ll post a full preview in the next day or so.

I came out of the Yakuza 7 demo bouncing. It was daft, the turn-based combat was a breath of fresh air, and I’m considering playing it again tomorrow. I also played Nioh 2 (not ideal as a demo-game), the PC Engine Mini (I am bad at video games) and Project Resistance (didn’t enjoy it, but not sure if that’s a fair reflection of the game or not). Previews for most of, if not…

Tokyo Game Show starts tomorrow and I am very ready for video game Christmas. I'll be covering both press days here and also over at Critical Gamer.

I'll be making a beeline for the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo as soon as the doors open on Thursday. I expect to be bitterly disappointed, upon finding that the line has already been closed. Newly announced Resi game Project Resistance sounds promising and I will definitely be trying out Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Iron Man VR has piqued my interest, and I'm keen to spend some time in the indie area. With this gen wrapping up and the next not yet revealed, it's likely to be a subdued show for new, high-profile games. Therefore, I'll need to spend some time with experiences outside of my comfort zone. A rhythm game, for example, or some abysmal hentai shit.

Those are the games. What follows is something else.

You need to plan ahead for TGS. It's a long day spent on your feet, suffering through Japanese humidity and bat…

Next week, I'll be attending and covering Tokyo Game Show. To reacquaint myself with regular blogging, I'm going to write something every day this week. About video games. Every day. Probably.

Be warned: This post contains light spoilers for Fire Emblem: Three Houses
I chose the yellows, and it was the right decision. The Golden Deer are my children and I love them very much. Even Ignatz.
I've not yet finished Three Houses, but I think I'm around 80% there. Over the last forty hours, I have grown very attached to my students. They are a bunch of unique characters, brought together by age, location, their love of Teach (me), and their willingness to kill ex-classmates when I tell them to.

At the midpoint, the story jumps ahead five years. This has allowed me to admire the development of my boys and girls from students to real life movers-and-shakers. Personalities have changed and relationships have shifted during my time spent in a bad-magic induced coma. But most impor…

Next week, I'll be attending and covering Tokyo Game Show. To reacquaint myself with regular blogging, I'm going to write something every day this week. About video games. Every day. Probably.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is out this week. This is very exciting but also mildly daunting.

My Monster Hunter World crew is getting back together. We've dusted off our Line Chat and begun searching for our came-in-the-box headsets. We all put in at least one hundred hours last year, slicing and bashing our way through turkey dinosaurs and angry pig elephants. All but one of us were veterans of previous Monster Hunters, and for the most part we knew our shit, or at least enough to be competent.

But that was a year and a half ago. As much as I'm dying to jump back in, I'm wary of the steep (re)learning curve that I know awaits me. There will be new things to learn, returning mechanics that made little sense the first time around, and an online lobby system that is as clear…

Next week, I'll be attending and covering Tokyo Game Show. To reacquaint myself with regular blogging, I'm going to write something every day this week. About video games. Every day. Probably.

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Yakuza 7 is officially a thing. It'll be out next January here in Japan, and will follow at a later date elsewhere.

It will be the seventh mainline Yakuza, but that number is misleading. Parts one through five have all had remasters, and there have also been numerous spin offs. Yakuza 0 was an entertaining prelude to the series; Kenzan and Ishiin took our lovable thugs back to feudal Japan; Dead Souls pitted our heroes against the undead and the PSP games cast a new lead into familiar surroundings. At its worst, Yakuza has been decent. At its best, it has given us some of the finest games of the last two generations.

I've been playing since 2010, which is when I first picked up Yakuza 3. When Sega halted localisation, a mistake that has since b…

Next week, I'll be attending and covering Tokyo Game Show. To reacquaint myself with regular blogging, I'm going to write something every day this week. About video games. Every day. Probably.

As you already know, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is out now. The universally accepted "Best Final Fantasy" features modern additions like graphics, faces that don't look like arse, and trophies/achievements. So let's have a look at the Trophy list and use it as an excuse to reminisce about the second best game ever made.

Lionheart - Obtain All Trophies
Classic.

Quezacotl - Unlock the Guardian Force
As a teen, I frequented a number of Final Fantasy forums, under the handle Quezacotl22. I even made a little banner with a picture of the GF alongside my name. My parents were worried about me during my mid-teens, and with good cause.

Shiva, Ifrit, Siren etc. - Unlock the Guardian Force
WARNING: GFs may make you forget inconsequential things like the entirety of your childhood…

Next week, I'll be attending and covering Tokyo Game Show. To reacquaint myself with regular blogging, I'm going to write something every day this week. About video games. Every day. Probably.

I'd almost forgotten about Resogun. Not totally of course, but it'd been a long time since I'd last given it a moment's thought.

I played Housemarque's masterpiece to death when it first arrived as an obnoxiously generous PS+ game at the PS4 launch. I learnt the patterns, the sounds and the enemy types, all in a effort to set the highest possible score.

On bad nights, I'd play for hours on end, restarting every few minutes, once I'd realised that I wasn't on course for a world-beating score. Come the early hours, I'd have nothing to show for my evening of stick twiddling except a headache and an ever-growing sleep deficit.

On the good nights, I'd slip into the zone. All instinctive movements, completely in-tune with the flow of action, and always i…