Rob_230

So long as it helps Sony keep it's dev teams in business then I'm all for it

Absolutely not. Atlus isn't big enough to become a persona farm and ensure any level of real quality. And then it's always a huge gamble to outsource remakes or spin offs as those studios never really understand what makes these franchises great

Happy enough with that. Tearaway is great despite the lack of creative elements and I think MM need a few wins under their belt before going back to developing a creative tool for a while

Yeah almost picked this one up on switch as I love the Danganronpa series. Held off as I heard there are quite a few graphical issues (blurry images etc) - so will absolutely be getting this in due course

@Americansamurai1 Yes, I think when Acti was purchased there was a clause preventing them from shuttering any studios, but I assume there is an expiry date on that. Probably why they were quite happy to let Toys for Bob go independent

Uh oh - Could see the writing on the wall for Arkane Austin after Redfall bombed - but I'm very surprised about Tango even with Shinji leaving. Won't do much to bolster MS efforts to gain a foothold in Japan that. Sony should absolutely look to pick up some of the talent from that studio.

More than ready for a new tomb raider. Just hope it's not too damaged by various development and publisher issues behind the scenes over the past few years

Don't see it personally. Feels too soon.

As for the game, i really need to be convinced this time around. I absolutely loved Kingdom hearts to the point I bought consoles such as the PSP specifically to play the spin off games, but KH3 was, for me at least, a big disapointment sadly. Needs a big overhaul.

Will follow the project with interest however and keep everything crossed it turns out positively

@RicebinBernacky Exactly my issue with DLC. I was pretty good at FF16, but picking this up now so long after I finished the main game sounds a daunting challenge. I had to knock the difficulty on ghost of tsushima and horizon forbidden west down to easy when I went back to them for the dlc because I'd forgotten the nuances of combat, and no doubt this will be the same when I pick it up

Genuinely forgot EA Play was even a thing

Less than no interest in BG&E 2 at this point and have no faith ubisoft will right the ship in that one.

With reservations I am interested in Star Wars Outlaws as the reveal trailer was excellent; and very interested in AC Red, although feel it will pale next to Ghost 2

Yakuza 3 was my jumping in point for the series and i remember vividly visiting Japan when it was released and it being EVERYWHERE. Remains one of my favourite titles in the series personally

@Americansamurai1 This one is by THQ nordic rather than ubisoft, so i feared the worst when it was announced. Hopefully Ubisoft make a third RPG in the future and this doesnt harm the series

I'm looking forward to revisiting FF16 when this drops, but my goodness i'll have no idea where to start with the controls and battle systems as i've not played since beating the base game. Looks like i will have to start on easy mode.

Im very tempted by a portal. I've always loved online gaming, but with kids and family life often competing for tv time, my gaming tends to be restricted to late at night. I was yearning for a portal whilst playing the dodonko island section of Like a Dragon infinite wealth, and there are many other games that i could definitely see benefitting from owning one.

Dont get me wrong, as a huge advocate for PS Vita (low key one of Sony's greatest bits if hardware), i'd love a playstation handheld with an option for native play, but as a half way house, this seems to tick a lot of boxes

Do we ever get data on digital sales? Something has gone wrong if final fantasy isnt selling.

Personally Im really enjoying it so far. Those moogles are nightmare fuel though

Enjoyed the first, but was perfectly suited for vita. Switch may be best bet for this. My enduring memory of this game however was that it glitched at the end and locked me out of the platinum 😓

Won't help that this is apparently included on game pass either. Does feel like a slap in the face to long term Atlus / Persona supporters playing on Playstation

I'll be waiting for a sale on the dlc i think. The liklihood is i wont have finished Persona 3 by then anyway as i'll be working through FF7 Rebirth for the foreseeable - and then going back to Like a Dragon Infinite wealth before i start this. I do have the base game already though. Too many games, not enough time.

@Czar_Khastik Don't give them ideas 🤣

Hopefully digital sales and worldwide total sales paint a rosier picture! Game is great so far and should be a success. Does make me wonder what those 4 million PS5 owners are playing (unless of course there has been a massive transition over to digital in Japan). Agree with others, digital and physical sales numbers definitely need to be combined now

Awkward moment when Sony print the game data on the vinyl and the soundtrack on the play disc though...

Hopefully this is a sign of Atlus learning. I think everyone is kind of done with rebuying the same game for added content, but i'll happily pay for an expansion pass if it adds something meaningful.

Having not played P3 or the answer before, i assume this is standalone content, compared to Royal where added narrative and areas were weaved into the main game - making a standalone dlc impossible

@Darylb88 Hope you're doing better, friend.

Persona 5 was a truly special game. Few games have had such an emotional impact on me either - and the Royal expansion was phenomenal, particularly dropping when it did.

Why is Ubisoft discounting their pirate game? Because they Arrrrrrr....

Sorry, will get my coat

I'm amazed Sony didnt release a physical bundle special edition PS5 with this game. From all the marketing weight behind it, this is being treated as a first party release in many ways, and that could have helped to shift more copies

Hope it does well. Its an absolute banger

Still on Chapter 6 of Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth (Dondoko island has been a complete time sink) - i think i'll need to put that on hold as really want to start this before inevitable spoilers come out

My copy just arrived. Very excited.

I still dont get why they made such a big deal about this being over 2 discs when one is just an installation disc though 😄

Hope Sony and Square dont get in a 'Tiff'(a) about this. Mistakes happen

@Czar_Khastik It does unfortunately. It says that the digital version of Final Fantasy 13 has to be installed on your SDD before play is possible - unfortunate as there isn't a digital version of FF13 available on PS5

Not for me this month (already played Sifu), but i'll be busy with various JRPG's anyway.

Hope others find something to enjoy though!

@Ico1977 i can see it on the app if that helps? The game is listed at 34.99 but if you click on the button that says 'game bundle' you'll find skate edition as one of the 4 options priced at 14.99.

I'm not in front of my ps5 right now, but if using the console you should find an elipsis next to the product name where you can select which version to buy. I don't know why Sony make it so difficult. It's not an accessible way of doing things

Uematsu is a legend. I've been fortunate enough to see him live at distant worlds, and his music has played a massive part of my life over the past 25 years or so. I dont think any other music has stuck with me for so long and had such enotional impact.

He deserves his rest and to focus on those projects that he finds most enjoyable at this stage of his life and career. It's great that he is still involved in final fantasy of course - but recent games have also shown that there are also other talented musicians like Soken (16) and Shimomura (15) that can make an impact on the series. He leaves the series in safe hands.

Thank you Uematsu for all of your work.

Surprised Sony isnt releasing a special edition ps5 for this tbh

@ShogunRok Great review. Did you find it took long to get back into the swing of things with the combat system? I was playing the junon demo on normal but kept getting smashed by the enemies. Then the amount of information being thrown at the player was just too much to remember.

Anyway, can't wait to get stuck into this game!

Are the results similar using Bing? I assume Xbox would come out top there.

Every screen is an Xbox? what kind of dystopian timeline did i fall into?

Im unlikely to buy any - at least not at full price. Sea of thieves is tempting for the monkey island content, but i may just watch on youtube tbh as i dont really have time for live service titles

@ShogunRok Yes it 100% is. Its been Phil's / Microsoft's approach to the whole generation. Its why i cant stand him.

They did it with the increase in game prices to $70, they did it with the increase in console pricing (and then did both themselves once they had stoked the fires), they did it with game pass, they did it with cross-play (which Sony introduced way before Microsoft did with the likes of Portal 2 - but people conveniently forget that), and they have done it with various other things i cant remember right now.

They paint this virtuous image of themselves and casually run down Sony's business approach, which comes across as incredibly insincere and unprofessional - and is solely done to flame the console war (despite Phil claiming he hates it).

So these comments are 100% designed to deflect from what Microsoft is doing and paint Sony in a bad light.

They're coming in time, but im convinced the 4 games are sea of thieves, grounded, pentiment, and hi-fi rush (he said 2 live service games and 2 smaller games)

@Olmaz Tencent is the one to watch imo

No. I wouldnt be buying into a new generation at launch when this one hasnt felt like its got started yet. This is like Sony trying to align a traditional console life cycle but not reacting to the new reality of game development. Normally a console would be hitting its stride at this point, but this isnt normal times.

Given the economic climate and the fact we seem to be hitting a limit on graphical fidelity, it feels way too soon to think about a transition. Particularly given how game development costs have balooned and developers are losing their jobs at an unprecidented rate. To even consider a theoretical PS6 seems wrong.

Maybe i'll feel differently in 4 years time, but i just think this gen has so much more to give

@Shepherd_Tallon next level games, who had worked on Luigi's Mansion for years - they started exploring a sale so Nintendo bought them in 2021.

In fairness Sony has been doing the same, in that Insomniac, Bluepoint, Firewalk, Housemarque were all long time partners prior to acquisition. That's why i reckon Arrowhead games will soon be acquired following the success of Helldivers 2.

I also think Sony will buy Ballistic Moon if Until Dawn Remake is successful (and Lucid Games would have been, had Destruction Allstars not performed poorly)

@KundaliniRising333 must have been playing a different demo. Looked fab to me? And more importantly it was extremely fun to play

I've provided Sony with slack on another article about this so i wont repeat it here (increasing game budgets, longer timescales etc)

BUT from a consumer perspective this does little to convince me that this generation (both xbox and playstation) has been the worst yet.

Yes we have seen some EXCELLENT games, but we haven't even tapped into the potential of PS5 yet - i completely understand why games are still releasing on last gen systems. The cost of game development means they need to squeeze every penny, dollar, euro they can out of a release - but it does mean we have few examples of titles properly testing the system. So for me, all this talk about a PS5 Pro is gross when we dont even know what the base console can do. I see no reason why consumers should upgrade.

I also dislike the hardware. I've come to the conclusion that the PS5 is a horrible design. Granted the giant vents are there to aid heat loss, but it is an invitation for dust. I have never had consoles shut down on me before, but ive had it happen multiple times with PS5 because of unfortunately located dust entering the system via said vents, which has required me to open the console multiple times to clean it out. Its ridiculous. It really dawned on me last weekend as i was cleaning the system after it repeatedly cut out during the FF7 demo and Like a dragon: Infinite wealth how ludicrous this generation has become.

Personally despite the 'drought' ive had no shortage of things to play, and doubt i will over the course of the next 15 months thanks to 3rd party titles, but i would really like to see Sony invest in smaller studios and start developing some innovative releases (a la gravity rush, concrete genie etc) rather than close any studio that doesnt release a billion dollar product.

Also, im bored of saying it, but i want Sony communicating with the fans. They used to be great at this, but the ps5 generation has been awful. The State of Play a couple of weeks ago was a good start, but hopefully with JR leaving, we'll hear more from Sony this year to set up the future slate for playstation.

Rant over. I still love Playstation - and the dualsense is ace. So there's that!

@get2sammyb surely Sony should take note of Nintendo and start doing the same. We have just seen with Helldivers 2 that a game doesnt have to have the biggest budget to be a success. Quite frankly in this day and age, it feels like the sensible way to go - smaller games, sprinkled with a couple of big games that take long to develop- whereas currently it seems to be the other way around.

Nintendo has a proven model that shows gameplay is king and when all is said and done, the giant open world and flashy graphics actually dont matter all that much.

Shawn Layden was right all those years ago when he said the current model is just not sustainable

Fantastic result. Well done Insomniac. Very well deserved

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah i agree, and possibly that fair games title from haven studios. It doesnt count, but they are also positioning the likes of FF7, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade and Silent Hill 2 like they are first party titles.

I do think Sony will get away with the gap in 'major' releases (also bolstered by the likes of spiderman 2 dlc, which will be treated as a big deal) as they have wisely sewn up alot of 3rd party deals, but they will need to sort out their slate to avoid it happening again. And they need to do a big show this year to hype fans about what is coming up to encourage people to keep buying into the ecosystem, particularly with a new switch around the corner.

This just goes to show how expensive and time intensive game development has become unfortunately. Developers are going to have to start thinking outside the box if they want to maintain a steady flow of releases (personally i'd be happy if the industry pivoted to more smaller scale releases, with the odd massive game here and there - currently games are too big and there isnt anywhere near enough time or money to play everything i want to)

The release of GTA 6 will likely buy developers a few months breathing space next year mind - as that thing will be a juggernaut that completely takes over the gaming space and column inches. Developers will likely want to completely clear out on either side of that to avoid being lost in the hype

@UltimateOtaku91 For Sony that is quite staggering given the past 15 years. That said if they are saying no major existing franchise releases that doesnt rule out new ip or smaller titles similar to uncharted lost legacy. Wouldnt be surprised to see that rumoured Atreus god of war game for example.