I didn't end up making a huge dent in my GOG wishlist. Very few games went down to $1.99 or below, which is my threshold right now. I've got some car repairs coming up--I've been getting things done a bit at a time as I can afford them--so I need to be cautious with my cash. Which really sucks, given how many goodies seem to be released over the summer. Curses! Same for Steam, nothing has really dipped down to a tempting price so far. I did pick up their Sherlock Holmes adventure game bundle, which has 6 games for $5.99. Very nice.
The E3 conferences are over, too, although the rest of the trade show begins today. My friends and were crossing our fingers and hoping for some good news. Seeing some actual Kingdom Hearts 3 footage and the like. We got a very brief trailer, essentially confirming 1. It's still a thing and is still in development, 2. still coming to PS4 and XBoxOne, but probably PS4 first, 3. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are still playable, and 4. The world of Tangled will be a playable level, but we don't know if the characters will be playable. Oh, and some new characters, but pretty much every KH game has at least one new original character. Still no release date, but I wouldn't expect it before summer 2016.
Nothing on Final Fantasy XV, but Square Enix did confirm several shocking announcements: The Last Guardian will finally be released next year, they are starting a Kickstarter for Shenmue III, and yes, they will actually do a remake of Final Fantasy VII for PS4. No release windows for anything yet, it seems this is more of a "Yes, we've been listening to the things you're begging us for, we're finally going to do it, now please stop asking."
Also, Nintendo announced before E3 that they are bringing Mother, the previously Japan-only prequel to Earthbound, to the eShop for WiiU. The Mother series are classic NES/SNES-era RPG games that have reached cult status; we only ever got the second game, Mother 2/Earthbound, here in NA. That was not touched on in the Nintendo direct.
I must admit to being disappointed, since nothing that I was personally hoping for happened. Here's Miss Scarlett's Disappointed Hopes Wishlist:
- Nintendo: announce a NA localization of The Great Ace Attorney, the latest game in the Ace Attorney franchise, coming to Japan this summer
- Nintendo: announce new third-party IPs for the 3DS, or any games for the New 3DS
- Sony: announce the addition of more PS1 Classics to the PlayStation Network, such as SaGa Frontier, Jade Cocoon, etc.
- Sony: give us any scrap of news regarding Persona 5
- Square Enix: announce a NA localization of the upcoming SaGa game for the Vita...or really, announce anything for the Vita at all
- Anyone/everyone: announce an initiative/commitment to continue bringing previously un-localized classic Japanese games to the eShop/PSN/etc.
I realize that not everything I want is necessarily feasible, etc, but here are my thoughts:
- I can kind of understand no announcements for the two games I want, since they're not even out in Japan yet. Actually, we have very little info, still, about SaGa Vita. Maybe they will be announced for NA after their JP release?
- It's the 30th anniversary for Mario, plus people have been screaming for new Zelda and Star Fox, so again, I can see why Nintendo would be focusing on that for now. But really, NOTHING for New 3DS? Then why encourage people to buy it?
- Sony seems scared to remind mainstream NA fans that they are a Japanese company, so they will probably withhold news about FFXV and Persona 5 until the Tokyo Game Show in a few months.
- The release of Mother might encourage Nintendo and competitors to look at their library of classic Japan-only games. Digital distribution takes away a lot of risk.
- A lot of my wishes and desires revolve around older franchises, and with the revival of series like Shenmue, Mother, etc, I feel like this may become more feasible in the future. It will be interesting to see how these play out.
So I am still at where I was before. There is a good half-dozen indie titles for the PS4 that I'm interested in, but they all seem to be aimed for 2016 release dates...some of them don't have release dates at all. I will get one eventually, if only to play Kingdom Hearts 3, but that still doesn't have a release date. Plus, the PS4 is still too pricey for me right now. I'm perpetually broke and very stingy when it comes to expensive hardware, and I won't pay more than $300 for a console. I'll probably end up waiting a few years, for the library to build up and the price to drop. and by that point, there will be a PS5, lol.
The Vita is very interesting, even more so given that I can play Vita games on the PS TV--I really need to research it more--and there are a few titles that I would play. If we got SaGa Vita, I would definitely pick it up. But the fact that Vita didn't make an appearance at E3 gives me pause. I wonder if Sony will try to move on to the next thing soon? Or will they try to revitalize it? Time will tell.
Nintendo, you better give me a reason to get the New 3DS, or I'm just going to pick up the 3DS XL instead. The backwards compatibility of the N3DS is nice, but there's still a $40~ dollar difference right now, and that's the cost of a new game! I can wait, but not forever.
In better news, Gust is going to be giving us a new Atelier game. Best news I've heard all day. :)
And finally, Atlus Japan announced that first-pressing copies of Persona 4: Dancing All Night will be getting a special bonus disc that includes Persona 5 information, including an exclusive, brand-new trailer. I've heard that the trailer is over 10 minutes long, which sounds like enough time to feature some gameplay. The game launches in about a week, so hopefully somebody will upload the trailer to Youtube once they get it...
Miss Scarlett, signing out!
