RR529

Yep. I wasn't planning on buying it at launch, but I got caught up in the launch hype & caved (though I got it on PC).

Just beat the first boss and first impressions so far are great. I thought both Abyss & Vesperia were fantastic, while Zestiria & Berseria felt like they were missing something (though the latter was better), while Arise has been absolutely cracking so far.

It almost feels as if the team lost something in the transition to fully 3D games (Abyss & Vesperia still had a sort of overhead semi-fixed camera in towns & dungeons), and it's been a multi game learning experience until they've finally gotten it with Arise.

I'm glad to hear of the sci-fi angle. Zestiria & Berseria were a bit less interesting than Abyss & Vesperia for me since they dropped the magitech elements the earlier games had (though admittedly Berseria's town, dungeon, & character designs weren't nearly as bland as Zestiria's), so I'm glad to hear this game brings that back.

Played it on Switch a couple years ago & it was fun if nothing revolutionary. I felt like went from super easy to infuriatingly difficult by the end though, particularly the final boss with these falling rocks that can OHKO you (which was a recipe for disaster with this really slow platform you have to ride around on).

BTW, it's NOT a sandbox game & more like a platforming centric "Zelda"-like. You unlock islands in a linear fashion, completing certain specific tasks to access' an island's dungeon, complete it, and unlock the next island. There are quite a few optional activities to take part in though.

@Phelan, while I'm not as harsh on the newer entries as you are, I do understand where you're coming from.

I liked that Abyss & Vesperia had some industrial/magitech elements, and I think Zestiria & Berseria were hurt by adopting a more standard medieval fantasy theme, and by doing away with the semi-fixed camera angles of the older titles in towns/dungeons (with Zestiria in particular it seemed like they didn't have the budget/experience to create compelling locations with full camera control in mind, with most of it's towns being dull & having a ton of copy & paste dungeons). Berseria was a big step back in the right direction though (better designed towns, improved dungeons, and much better character design), so hopefully Arise continues the upwards trend.

I'll still get it eventually, but it's not a priority. I loved playing VIII on my Switch, but will probably get this one on PS4.

@ShogunRok, thanks!

Need to have an option for "No, I'm interested but can wait".

I picked the "nope, can't get one" option, though it's not true to my situation.

Probably in the minority, but I wish you were doing this like the NL poll, where they just post the top (insert number here) user rated games in their database that were released this year, with a reminder article beforehand telling readers to be sure to rate the games they've played this year if they haven't yet done so.

Or at the very least you could have included Trials of Mana in your hand picked selection 😀.

I totally thought this game was canned after they dropped Platinum's involvement & we hadn't heard anything about it since then. Glad to see I was wrong (don't know much about the mobile title, but highly polished JRPG epics are always welcome).

I first heard of him when he had a McDonald's promotion a few months ago (apparently it became a thing for kids to try & order the associated combo meal by blasting his songs at high volume when they were at the drive through, and a few even trolled other fast food joints by doing the same thing elsewhere).

Currently playing it and it's been a fun time. It clearly doesn't have the budget or depth of something like FFVIIR, but it's nice going back to a simpler RPG where you don't have to spend as much time in menus & whatnot.

Glad to see there's still some big names coming. I love my PSVR, but it's been a couple months since I last had the chance to fire it up thanks to my new work schedule (also still haven't been able to get my hands on any move controllers, which limits my options).

Really need to play more Samurai games. I had fun with the first 2 Way of the Samurai games on the PS2, but since then I've just played a few of the Samurai Warriors games & Onimusha Warlords on Switch (though I also want to point out that Okami is great for the Sengoku Jidai setting, though not samurai centric).

As for films I've seen the Last Samurai, plus the modern versions of 13 Assassins, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, & Zatoichi, all of which are good.

Need to watch some newer samurai anime as well. I wasn't big on Samurai 7, but I adore Rurouni Kenshin, InuYasha (not technically a samurai series, though), and really liked the Ninja Scroll movie if I remember correctly.

I hope the bundle that's just the game & move controllers comes to the US. Already have the headset itself.

@Dodoo, I think the Shantae games are actually pretty popular in Japan, all things considered.

Solid lineup. It just needs Bandai Namco, Capcom, Nintendo, & Sony to show up (not that I'd realistically expect the latter two, since they have their own things), and we wouldn't need any other events.

It's not a top tier platformer, but I found it to be a fun time on Switch.

Yeah, I was coming here to say it remindes me a lot of Astral Chain (not that that's a bad thing), but it looks like I was beat to the punch.

Would be worth checking out if you could actually get Move controllers.

I'm kinda conflicted on this game. There's so many reviews calling it bad, then there's some calling it great.

I even found one that gave it a 5/5.

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2020/04/review-disaster-report-4-sony.html?m=1

I'll just post what I did on NL (for refrence, whenever new characters are revealed for this, there is a group of people who bring up their desire for Ribrianne, the leader of that stupid magical girl parody group participating in the Tournament of Power, over on NL). Anyways, here's what I wrote.

I've seen quite a few people request Ribrianne over the course of these character reveals, and I can't help but wonder why she's so popular. So many of the Tournament of Power characters are either stupidy silly (Ribrianne & her pals, the merging robots) or generic to a fault (the wolf furries, the bionic commando looking dude, that purple rabbit guy who looks like they just slightly altered Beerus' design).

Too many of them come off as the kind of unimportant mooks you'd see get knocked out of the preliminaries in one of Dragon Ball's early tournament arcs (coming up with 60 or so new characters for the tournament was a big ask, and I think it shows in their overall low quality).

I'd personally like to see King Piccolo, Teen Bulma, Dabura, and for a real curve ball throw in Moro (the villain from the current Dragon Ball Super arc that hasn't been animated yet, but is definitely it's best so far).

On PS4 I'll mostly be playing LEGO Jurassic World, but if time allows I may hook up my PSVR to try out Firewall: Zero Hour.

On Switch I'll likely be jumping into SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (which I've had for awhile but only started up last night), but may get around to trying out Byleth in Smash too.

Remote play on Switch would be cool, especially if it would work with Switch docked (I have the two hooked up to different TVs, so it would enable me to play my PS4 games on both).

Excited to try Firewall Zero Hour. I usually don't play games without much of a singleplayer component, but I'll definitely try it free, especially as I like trying out different VR content.

I'll get the other two titles as well, though I'm not too fussed over them.

On PS4 I'm nearing the end of Kingdom Hearts III, so hopefully I'll be able to finish it off over the weekend.

On Switch I'm playing Blade Strangers mainly, but may pop over to SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, and Dragon Quest Builders (on the go) as well.

EDIT: I just learned that my copy of New Super Lucky's Tale is arriving much sooner than expected, so that'll probably be my main Switch game.

Currently playing through III, and while I am enjoying it, I think the series is due for some sort of story/character refresh.

While I'm looking forward to seeing how Sora's story ends, about half the Disney worlds aren't quite clicking with me, as naturally it's been over a decade since the last main entry, and as such newer movies are represented that I don't have a childhood connection with.

On the other hand I'm sure younger gamers are thrilled to be trekking through the worlds of Tangled & Frozen, but couldn't care less about this Sora character who'd they have to dig through a bunch of "ancient" (from their perspective) PS2 games/remasters to truly follow.

Then again the series seems to sell like hotcakes (I believe III made it into the top 10 selling games of 2019 lists for both Japan & the US), so maybe I'm worrying over nothing.

Kingdom Hearts III on PS4 (just cleared the Pirates of the Caribbean world, which is tied with the Toy Story world as my favorite in the game so far).

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna, the Golden Country on Switch (just finished up a ton of sidequests, so am thinking about moving the story forward), though since I only play that on TV, if I'm dragged out of the house at any point this weekend I'll probably continue building in Dragon Quest Builder's free mode.

That white box with blue lettering is slick. Behind that I'd say stick with the blue box/white lettering, and surprisingly I'd pick black box with blue lettering as my third choice.

I say either stick with Blue and physically alter the boxes to make them stand out from PS4 boxes (like make them smaller), or inverse it to a White color scheme with Blue lettering.

Does using the Dualshock make the combat any better compared to the Move controllers?

On Switch I just started up the original Devil May Cry, since I recently finished up Astral Chain & wanted to try an earlier Kamiya title to see how his style has evolved (might jump back into Astral Chain a time or two as well, just to nab stuff I missed my first time through).

On PS4 I'll probably continue to trudge my way through the .Hack//Recode collection, if I have the time.

I haven't gotten a code, but as I got the game with my VR bundle I already have it anyways.

@DanM, probably comes down to Disney not wanting them to do anything that would cause it to get an "M" rating, and I'm actually okay with that, as being overly adult is something the series has never been.

This is starting to sound pretty good.

Definitely not what what I'd expect coming from a Tales game, but I'm up to giving it a go.

Currently playing through Zestiria, and it's okay enough, but it has nothing on Abyss or Vesperia (which are the only other two I've played).

Should be a good watch. Got my PSVR in March and while I did take a bit of a break after playing through Moss & Astro Bot (which came with the set), I've now jumped back in playing Farpoint.

On the PS4 front I've just jumped into Farpoint on PSVR, and it's off to a good start.

On the Switch side of things I plan on tackling the lengthy Blaster build from the Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit (starter kit).

So a lot of VR for this guy.

@daldrum, 4 different games are announced in the trailer, with the mobile game being separate from the console & arcade games.

• A "realistic" Olympics game for PS4, Switch, & Xbox.
• A Mario & Sonic variant exclusive to Switch.
• A Mario & Sonic for arcades.
• A Sonic (no Mario) one for mobile.

Just got the the Astro Bot/Moss VR bundle in, so that's what I'm going to be diving into. Going to start with Moss as it looks like the more mellow of the two, so a good introduction to VR gameplay (I've already watched a number of VR compatible YouTube videos to acquaint myself to the tech, starting with nature vids like Shark encounters, and working my way up to faster fair like Roller Coaster vids, and nothing has particularly bothered me, so hopefully that's a good sign).

It's awesome tech!

Switch:

• New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe - Just got it last night and am already nearing the end of Layer-Cake Desert (World 2). I suspect I'll make some good progress this weekend.
• Tokyo School Life - My first crack at a VN. I'm liking it thus far & it's my go to game when I want to unwind.

PS4:

• God of War - Just finished my business in Alfhiem during my last session. I think I'm going to check out whatever sidequests I have going, than once I'm done with that get back on the main track.

Titanfall 2 on PS4 (on the chance I finish it over the weekend, I'll start up Dragon Quest XI).

Over on Switch I'll be continuing to work through Smash Ultimate.

May get God of War, but it depends on how my financials line up.

I've already gotten a lot in the recent sales (Dragon Quest XI, InFamous: Second Son, Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, School Girl Zombie Hunters, Titanfall 2, Unravel), plus I've bought Smash over on Switch, so I'm set for a good while.

Sony absolutely has the right to make these changes, but I think they'll probably drop it eventually as the bad publicity (even though from a vocal minority) outweighs whatever good they think they'll get from the policy.

The very fact that games like this have existed for years on PlayStation systems (and even currently elsewhere) without any issue, and the fact that anime like Maken-Ki, Kill la Kill, High School DXD (and heck, even Hollywood films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High) exist uncensored openly on mainstream venues such as iTunes, Google Play, & Amazon Video both prove that this content neither comes close to breaking the law, and that the mass market doesn't really care.

Ended up getting Titanfall 2 Ultimate Edition, School Girl Zombie Hunters, & Unraveled for just a tad over $23 (I also stacked the 20% off code that came with my system).

May get Titanfall 2 & one of the Japanese games (though not sure which one yet).

@TowaHerschel7, a few Hyperdimension Neptunia games, & Fairy Fencer F as far as I can see.

Awesome! Rurouni Kenshin is probably one of the best manga of all time. Long enough that it feels like a substantial narrative that gets you attached to it's characters, but it has a specific story it wants to tell & doesn't get bogged down with padding or unnecessary arcs just to stretch it out.

InuYasha may be my favorite manga, but RK is undoubtedly the most expertly crafted I've read.

Ordered mine from Wal-Mart Saturday night. Looks like it was a smart move to jump on it as soon as it was available. Just got the call from FedEx that it should be arriving tomorrow.

Can't wait. I'd love to see them adapt that old Gargoyles cartoon into it, however unlikely.

Improved flying mechanics, you say? How about putting Disney's ownership of Marvel (and the PS4 power) to good use, and add an Avengers world

Looks cool, but I never go for stuff like this.

I hope I have the money to just get the game. I'm usually only able to get 2-4 new games a year (as in brand new), and I know SSB3DS, KH 2.5, & Bravely Default probably take priority for me. Hopefully it'll be a good year for me, though.

Cool seeing Vita do so well, and glad to see Symphonia Chronicles get in the top 5 (can't wait for it to hit the States).

Surprised at GTAV's numbers though, as I didn't think it was that big of a series over there.