Sega Makes Me Want Samurai & Dragons, Are Teases

 Samurai & Dragons, the free-to-play Vita game that we are likely never ever ever going to get in America, is going to get quite a bit of support in the coming months, and it's all being done with very, very familiar faces.  Being that it was announced in the end of January and has released in Japan without so much of a whisper of localization and, considering Sega's status of being mostly dead on that front, it's safe to assume that I will, in fact, never get to play this game, despite being excited back then at the prospect of it.  And really, much like the rest of Sega's practices, this just makes it sting all the more since it is a genuinely awesome move.  One that, because I don't, nor won't, have the game, I have no idea of its implementation, so bear with me on it while I try to muddle my way through it.

Starting today, through September, the pack of cards initiative begins with players who simply log in to the game.  They'll gain a pack of Tokyo Jungle cards which include the Pomeranian, the dog that's become the unofficial mascot for the game because of how often it was used in trailers and the like.  Players can also get a pack of cards based on Toro if they own a 3G Vita and update their plan with the chosen 3G supplier over there.  Toro, of course, being Japan's unofficial Sony Mascot character, who you might recognize better as an announced character for the up-coming Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.  As far as 'free' cards goes, that seems to be the whole of it, but that's not even close to the whole of the cards that will be offered.  What all these sets will do is sort of up in the air, of course, as is just what the cards will be, really.  Of course, knowing me, I see "cards" and stop caring about anything that makes sense, and just start impulsively throwing money at things.

I should interrupt for a moment here and explain myself a little better.  I have, in fact, absolutely no idea what cards do in Samurai & Dragons.  Were I pushed to guess, I assume that the cards are the things that have all the actions on them that you can use in the city-building mode of the game.  So, buildings to make, improvements to enact, things of that sort, I assume that's all relegated to cards and, perhaps there's just a random element to it in the form of drawing from a deck, though I'm not sure of that at all.  One could then assume that these cards, specifically made with these characters in mind, are probably going to be universally more beneficial than those in the game already since they are 'premium' items.  Or, if nothing else, they certainly (probably) aren't going to be negative in nature, so there's that.  Could I be wrong in this?  Absolutely.  Should I have....like checked into it some before posting about it?  Most times, I would say yes, but this is a game that A) we're never getting, and B) a game that, if we were to get, -somehow-, I would want to be a little fresh on.

With that out of the way, I can begin talking about the card support that's been announced to start November 29th.  For starters, a 'deluxe pack' will be released with cards from such series...es....as Sonic, of course, Bayonetta, Yakuza, and Virtua Fighter.  (Suggested characters in the set are Sonic, Bayonetta, Kazuma and Akira Yuki)  That pack will also contain some in-game money, presumably so you can buy other cards that are less premium or hold out for the sets from the list of other announced supporting series...es, listed below:

• Vanquish
• Anarchy Reigns 
• Resonance of Fate 
• Nightshade 
• Sakatsuku 
• Sakura Taisen 
• Jet Set Radio 
• Super Monkey Ball 
• Space Channel 5 
• NiGHTS 
• Panzer Dragoon 
• Virtua Fighter 
• Sonic 
• Yakuza 
• Bayonetta 
• Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity 
• Shenmue

That is....well, that is pretty much everything, as you might notice.  Pretty much the only thing not listed that's immediately thought of is Valkyria Chronicles, which is strange since Samurai & Dragons is likely going to stay in Japan forever like everything else Valkyria Chronicles.  Actually, double-weird since Valkyria Duel is out over there which is, surprise, a card-based game as well and you'd think there could be some sort of cross-promotion there.  Maybe there will be, but it's not announced just yet, I suppose.  Also surprising to see not listed is Shinobi, I suppose, considering Nightshade is the direct sequel of it or something of that sort, but maybe that's sort of an implied thing.  I know a card dedicated to Hotsuma's scarf would be the buff to end all buffs because that scarf was boss as hell.  Still, support for Resonance of Fate, Jet Set Radio and Vanquish all seem like very very good signs for the franchises there, seeing as they're likely not the hottest IPs Sega has.  Even if they should be hotter than they are because Sega is bad at doing good things.

Of course, it doesn't end there because why would it?  That would be insanity if it left there.  Also mentioned in the Siliconera article that I linked to is the fact that there are characters designed by the Hatsune Miku illustrator that are Sega Consoles brought to some sort of life.  It specifically mentions 'characters', so I assume these aren't merely going to be cards, but perhaps playable characters?  Or just outfits that will make you look like them, I'm not quite sure.  There is basically a character for every Sega console released, including the friggin' Game Gear, so that's pretty cool on its own merits.  It seems a little bit much -just- for cards, which is why I'm suggesting it's more, but I don't really know.  When they all release in Japan and never in North America, I guess we'll see, but I can't guarantee I'll remember it by then.  What with the whole not releasing over here thing and all.

So, did I really just spend all that time detailing a big, expansive update schedule for a game that will almost positively never see the light of day in North America?  Yes.  Yes I did.  Because it's Sega, it's Vita, and it's overall just something that I think is my kind of game, even if it's not.  I'm trying to keep myself under-exposed to the game because I hold out hope that I'll be able to play its likely only-decent offerings.  The Free-to-Play structure is profitable as hell in the right conditions, and I'm sure Sega knows this, so there is a very, very faint hope that they'll release this in more territories to try and get a cashflow from them, being that there are people out there who will buy luxury things for the game when offered.  Some people who might be me if it comes to things like Yakuza-related things and the like.  Some people who honestly, truly wish for this game to hit the West now just so they can buy Yakuza cards even if they are just a thing for a single game and not an actual TCG.  Please, Sega?

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Officially Announced

So it was rumored long ago, and more recently resurfaced as something of a near-confirmation of said rumor, but now, finally, it is official:  Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is a thing that exists and what a thing it is.  Thankfully, the Playstation Blog has provided a video that isn't an entire episode of GTTV that I had to watch at 3 AM last night just to find out about this, and because I'm nice, I've provided it above.  Just...go ahead and take a look at that, let it sink in for a moment and then we can continue.

...

Ready?  Yeah?  Okay.  I know what you're thinking, and yes, it does look like Super Smash Bros. which we all kind of expected months ago when it was hinted.  Hell, there's probably not a person among us who -hasn't- thought of this idea at one point or time.  This speaks to the merit of Super Smash Bros. being a good idea, but also not broad enough to cover scenarios that we, as gaming people, would like it to cover, thus necessitating other games like it.  Like this.  So yes, it -does- look like Super Smash Bros., but you know what?  Awesome.  I honestly don't see any semblance of a problem with this whatsoever, nor do I logically see any reason why anyone should.

People are quick to cry 'rip-off' and put a real negative slant on the word, but why is it a bad thing?  Super Smash Bros. is (apparently) a highly successful and entertaining franchise with a neat, quirky concept that has been done many times before and will be done many times after this.  (the last SSB game I've played, for reference, was the original on the 64)  It's not like Nintendo has been the paragon of innovation itself, lately, so maybe let's calm down a little, yeah?  It gets a little tiresome hearing how Nintendo does no wrong and is the best at everything and such whenever someone dares to take a concept they popularized and put their own spin on it.

What really matters here is how much fun the game is and initial reports point to "Very".  Which is unsurprising, since that's just kind of how these games are, provided the mechanics are tight.  Games in the same vein that have come out in recent years seem to have overlooked that part, which I imagine is where the whole disconnect and low opinion of the game's chances might come from.  But the fact of the matter is, no matter how much people want to pretend that the Sony line-up can't be great, it's likely going to, so with the character line-up solid, we just have to look to the developer for the mechanics.  Given that it's basically a First-Party studio (I said basically) and the fact that they're likely going to be working close with other first, second and third party studios to ensure that their characters are used properly, they'll likely get a lot of additional help.  I'm really not concerned about that part.

Now, I've brought up characters several times here in previous posts, so I'll try not to re-tread my previous thoughts too much.  Clearly, Kiryu Kazuma is one of my picks for a possible third-party member, as well as Solid Snake or even Ezio, and knowing that there will definitely be third-party characters in the game is quite uplifting.  I mean sure, like I said, I expected it, but the verification is quite nice and gives me room to speculate further.  Problem is, with this open a net of possibilities, it's hard to really narrow any of then down, but I do have a few ideas.  Being a fighting game and, since the series has been particularly friendly to Sony in the last iteration(s), a cross-over fighter from Mortal Kombat (most likely Scorpion) wouldn't surprise me at all.  Between the Cross-over of Kratos in the PS3 version of Mortal Kombat [9] and the fact that they're doing a Vita-specific version of the game speaks highly to their buddy-buddy nature which suggests they just might be willing to help out.

Of course, there are quite a few people clamoring for characters from the PSOne era and there's absolutely no problem with that at all.  And with his recent resurgence to public knowledge thanks to Skylanders, Spyro the Dragon seems like another pretty easy choice.  Spyro got his start on the PSOne all the way back in 1998 and, even though it's a third-party game and series, there's still quite a bit of association there with the Playstation brand.  Similarly so would be the inclusion of Crash Bandicoot who, for a little while back then, was almost the de facto Playstation Mascot.  The series is third party now as well, but with its Naughty Dog roots, and its start on the PSOne as one of -the- titles to have, it's certainly not inconceivable and in fact, I would say it's quite likely to happen.  Or rather, I'm sure more than a few people would start grumbling if he wasn't in, despite it being completely up to another company entirely.

It's a strange position to consider and I don't think I've managed to have it fully sink in just yet.  I just sit here, trying to think of big third-party studios and the games they've had prominently on Playstation systems and all I can think about is the first-and-second-party characters, with the possibilities therein.  Playstation has been around for a long time now and while some of us might remember growing up with Sega and Nintendo going at it through the Genesis and Super Nintendo, we're in a time period now where there are people who have literally grown up playing Playstation games when we were playing NES ones.  Where we might've had our first experience with games through Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt or Crystalis, their first times were through Tomb Raider (Lara Croft is a totally viable character, by the way), Spyro, or Parappa the Rapper.  I think we would all do well to not underestimate the actual weight the characters in Battle Royale can have.

Is "Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale" "Title Fight"?

Forgive the, uh....terrible image.

So, it's certainly been a while since we've heard word of it, but the rumored 'Title Fight' has made a resurgence and how.  For a quick recap in case you forgot (and don't want to read the provided post), 'Title Fight' is a proposed fighting game that features the 'stars' of the Playstation First-Party Line-up, which is quite extensive actually.  When it was initially rumored, there wasn't a whole lot of info beyond "Trust us, this is totes legit, here's a model screen of Sweet Tooth" as well as a list of five characters that were 'definitely' in the game so far when it was, assumedly, early on in development.  Those characters being the above mentioned Sweet Tooth, Nathan Drake, Kratos, Parappa the Rapper, Sly Cooper, Fat Princess, and Colonel Mael Radec.  Aside from that, the only real information on it was that it was being worked on by a studio called SuperBot Entertainment which, as you might notice, still does not have a Wiki-Page, presumably because they haven't released a game yet, which is a thing that is said on their own web page. 

SuperBot is hard at work on our first title, being developed for the PS3. As soon as more information is available, this is where you’ll be able to find it. Screens, videos, interviews, if it’s out there, it’ll be here.

If rumors that I can't source at the moment that are directly in this Joystiq Article that I am too blind to see are to be believed, then perhaps that site will update this coming Thursday with information for this game.  Because apparently there will be another reveal of a PS3-exclusive title that day, which makes planning for my Thursday very easy (or maybe Friday, depending on when it goes up).  Aside from that, the only bit of information is that the domain "playstationallstarsbattleroyal.com" is a thing that was just registered by Sony Computer Entertainment America which would put Title Fight's official name as, uh, "Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale".  Which is...just awful.  I mean, I really don't like to poke fun at names, and I honestly don't care, but come on.  While it is clearly on-point, something a little less long-winded (coming from me, that's a laugh) would have been perfectly acceptable.  'Title Fight' might not have been quite enough, but Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PASBR) is just too much.  This is "On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness" levels of too much wordage verbosity territory here.

Really though, as I said, the name doesn't matter and with any luck, that won't be the release name.  What really matters here is what the game is going to be like which, well, is completely friggin' nebulous at this point.  All we can figure on is that it's going to be a 'fighting game' which is about as realistically concise as a newspaper that's been soaking in bleach.  There are quite a lot of sub-genres and 'styles' that have been defined in the Fighting Game genre, so knowing that it's a Fighting Game is just as helpful as knowing it's a PS3 game - which is not very.  I -imagine- we can kind of guess that, being a fighting game in the same vein as Super Smash Bros. that it might take the same approach (I'd hope not a literal copy-paste), which narrows it down a little, but it's really hard to tell.  I'd rather it not be, like a super-hardcore fighter like MvC, SF, etc. because that just ain't my scene and I'd like to grab this if at all possible.

Really, there's not a whole lot else to state here other than this is kind of what the situation is.  The character list is potentially huge (though I imagine it will be small-ish in scope for this first bout(heh)) so the ones in the above image technically aren't that off (some of them are practically guaranteed gets, even), but I can't help but hope that we'll get some cross-overs from characters that aren't first or second party, if even just as a 'cameo' character (thus assuming they might not be available for a potential sequel).  The example I gave last time was Kiryu Kazuma and obviously I'm sticking with that (because of the Exclusivity), but even Ezio, since he's making the fighting game rounds (and Ubisoft is kind of in good with Sony) or like Solid Snake (Since he has also been in a fighting game before) would work.  There is a literal wealth of characters that could be in this thing if it is, indeed, a real thing, and I can only hope that Sony picks some good ones.

Oh, Come On Nintendo!

Keen-eyed readers might recognize the above shot from the upcoming Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition that still doesn't have a better title because of the clear-cut tactics game layout it shows with Pokemon and a Japanese fan above the X button.  But, apparently Nobunaga's Ambition wasn't the first series pitched to Nintendo for a collab project.  If you guessed the first attempt was KOEI's most successful franchise in Dynasty Warriors, you would be correct, but Nintendo shot down the idea because it was 'too violent' to have in conjunction with Pokemon.  A game all about pokemon beating each other up was too violent for pokemon, a game all about pokemon beating each other up (at their trainer's orders).  Now, come on Nintendo you're not even trying here.

While I see the fact that Pokemon Tactics (that's what I'm calling it now) is likely more marketable to the world as a whole than Dynasty Warriors:  Pokemon and that's likely why Nintendo passed on DWP (either to force KOEI to bring up the strategy franchise of Nobunaga's Ambition or just leave them alone)  I can't accept that logic because it doesn't make sense.  I mean, like I said before, the entirety of Pokemon is built on your character walking atop a pile of corpses unconscious foes that he has made that way on the way to the Pokemon League to challenge the top Trainers in the land who got there by excelling in using their pokemon to beat up everyone else's pokemon.  It is a game all about violence and using it to solve your problems and that isn't changed by the fact that it does so without shedding a drop of animated blood.  There's episodes of the Pokemon anime that are more 'disturbing' for 'violence' than anything in standard DW gameplay for the sheer fact that you just sometimes see Pokemon getting wailed on by humans or other 'Mons.

Regardless, you all know me so the fact that I would buy the shit out of Pokemon Warriors is no surprise, and now knowing of its possible existence leads me to wonder just how it could've played out.  Would it be like Pokemon Tactics with Three Kingdoms dudes having their own Pokemon that they send out into battle to decide the fate of China?  Or would the Three Kingdoms guys themselves be represented by Pokemon?  That might be a little difficult, I'm sure, as I'm not quite sure there's a Pokemon awesome enough to be a Lu Bu analog, nor could I even imagine trying to replace any member of the DW cast with an existing Pokemon.  I can't help but wonder if maybe they'd go with some sort of middle-ground where the Three Kingdoms guys actually used the Pokemon in different ways - the example that comes to mind being Lu Bu riding a Rapidash into battle to replace Red Hare.  Stuff like that, though I'm not quite sure how well it'd work out on that, either.

I mean, I can acknowledge that it's a tough sell, but like I said to my friend, "Scyther's moveset would be awesome.  Can you just imagine Scyther taking down like ten Pidgeys at once with a single swipe?  I CAN.  AND IT'S AWESOME."  It boggles the mind how much awesome there stands to be here if Nintendo had been willing to give it a shot and instead we're left with a Tactics game that doesn't really look like it has a whole lot to do with the Sengoku Era aside from being, well, set in it.  I guess there's not a lot wrong with that and maybe it's just something that's really told outside of battle rather than in it, but I'd like to see a little more.  Though I guess that's what trailers are for!

The trailer shows off a little more gameplay alongside Japanese audio that I have absolutely no idea where to even begin suggesting what it's saying and, as I said, it pretty much just looks like Pokemon Tactics set in the Sengoku Era.  I'm still seeing a bit of the idea that every member of the time has their 'own' pokemon (Newly shown off in 'pairing' was Chosokabe Motochika with Oshawott and some guy I don't recognize with Smugleaf Snivy) as if you notice during the bit that starts at around 0:32, Pokemon are plopped down on the board with different era-members showing up thereafter, notably Sanada Yukimura following the placement of a Tepig (Which could by all means be his 'pairing' as I have yet to really see one for him) after Toyatomi Hideyoshi following the placement of a Chimchar which is the first form of Infernape which has been shown off as Hideyoshi's partner.  (Which might be further evidence to the previous idea of Yukimura/Tepig or, perhaps the Tepig line.)

There's still a lot of questions that'll get answered eventually, I guess.  I'm interested in seeing how it all works out, as I wonder just what degree of control the player will be able to have for the battles; will he/she be able to control everyone on his/her side, or simply his/her Eevee or whatever it evolves into?  How does evolution play up into this whole partner situation they've sort of billed the game next to?  I'm sure, by it's own merits, the game will be a fairly fun game, but I still can't help but wonder what might have been now that I know Pokemon Warriors had been on the table.  Man.

Nobunaga's Ambition to Catch 'Em All or Something

So, if you were looking at some more Japan-centric news sites yesterday, (specifically Siliconera) you would've seen as the collective of the internet had their minds blown by a surprise Pokemon announcement that was, get this, an actual surprise.  Mostly because you couldn't make this stuff up, and mostly because even after being told, you don't know what to think.  A partnership you'd never expect (Tecmo-KOEI and The Pokemon Company) throws together two franchises you wouldn't think would mesh (Nobunaga's Ambition, the Wargame/Conquering Game about taking over Sengoku Era Japan as a warlord of your choice and Pokemon) means the game, creatively named Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition, is just something out of left field.  So it's definitely surprising, but the question to be asked directly thereafter is:  But will it be good?

That's a hard question to answer right off, but the tentative answer would, of course, be "probably".  There's nothing but a couple minutes of actual footage from the game which, surprisingly, looks nothing like either games involved with the franchise, but more of a turn-based tactics game.  (Nobunaga's Ambition falls -just short- of what is classically known as RTS for battles)  Still, there manages to be a theme from the Pokemon games directly intermingled into Pokemon + NA in that the main character appears to be fine-tuned to be little more than an avatar for the player (as in Pokemon games) and can be either male or female, though both will get an Eevee all the same.  Which is....again, also appropriate given that Eevee is either a blank canvas or the perfect expression of self with evolutions depending on your perspective.  Unless you like Ghost, Dragon, Steel, Flying, Poison, Bug, Rock, Ground or Fighting types, then you're kind of screwed.

I imagine Tecmo-KOEI's main contribution here is the general idea of the Nobunaga's Ambition concept (for all I know, they're pulling from an older game than the -one- we got over here) as well as their imagining of the Sengoku Jidai main players, since there's obviously no copyright or anything of the sort on them and Pokemon could technically make one on their own if they wanted.  However, using KOEI's versions makes it easy as hell to identify just who has what, which I can share.  Obviously, Oda Nobunaga's at the forefront with Zekrom from Black/White, his sister Oichi has Jigglypuff, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has Infernape (I believe), Akechi Mitsuhide has Articuno (Possibly for being an Ice Cold killer), Uesugi Kenshin has Mewtwo for some reason and finally (for now), Takeda Shingen has Groundon from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.  I'm going to be completely honest here and say that there's little to no reason that I can discern why anybody has who they have (Especially Kenshin and Shingen - being the Dragon and the Tiger respectively, I would have thought they'd get something more thematic) but I'm not really about to argue with it.

Of course, here's the rub here as it's completely impossible to tell whether or not this will release in the west, so there's a very real chance any excitement I could have for this would have to be kept in check.  I mean, it's a pokemon game for the DS, it should come out here, right?  But at the same time, it's a Pokemon game that -isn't- pokemon as well as being a KOEI game, so that throws any reliability or firm standing out the window.  It could be just me, but I think there's a lot of 3DS push out there which has already started to rapidly phase the DS out, probably more than is necessary, so by the time this comes out in Japan and the time you'd have to add for localization, it just might not be feasible at all to release it over here.  Which I think would be a damn shame, since this could honestly be pretty neat.  It'll certainly be bringing new life and ideas to both franchises, that's for sure, and if you ask me, Pokemon is in dire need of a few.

'Title Fight' Is a Rumor, Sony Smash Bros. and Awesome

You may remember the above commercial that came out a while ago, but I've prefaced this post with it again just so you can take a look at it again/if you haven't.  Go on, you're doing yourself a favor because it's just so awesome -and- it's topical.  How is it topical, you might ask?  Well, by now you've obviously read the title and what with the rumors that that commercial meant more than it might seem, so with that in mind, just consider the idea that that commercial is just a sneak peak into what could be.  A cross-franchise fighter/brawler to the tune of a Super Smash Bros. and/or Dissidia-type game starring some of Playstation's better known characters (first party or not).

I'm not sure if 'Title Fight' is just a placeholder name or what, but there's a good smattering of information about it already, thanks to some ill-thought (or expertly-leaked?) tweets from a developer over at SuperBot Entertainment better known for...actually, I'm not sure what SuperBot Entertainment's known for, if anything.  This might just be the 'proving grounds' title for the Sony Exclusive developer which is obviously something to be wary about but, with any luck, they'll have the guiding hands of Naughty Dog and/or any other Sony-centric developer to help out as this is going to be a big thing assuredly, if only on scope alone.  But PS3 Exclusives have a (mostly good) reputation to work under, so the bar is quite high, assuredly, and these crossovers have the potential for greatness as the past has shown us.

Obviously, it's not going to be an easy test; by listing some of the main Sony characters alone, you'll start to see the first wrinkle in the whole of it.  Nathan Drake, Kratos, Sackboy, Cole MacGrath, Sweet Tooth, Sly Cooper, Ratchet And/or Clank, Jak and/or Daxter, Gabe Logan, Crash Bandicoot, they all come in all shapes and sizes and art styles which will take some doing to integrate alongside each other properly and that's just off the top of my head.  There's obviously plenty of other characters that could be considered from third party (but at least mostly Sony Loyal franchises) like Solid Snake, Kazuma from Yakuza, anybody from Valkyria Chronicles and the like, which is one of the big points people are arguing in that there simply aren't enough characters to choose from which I hope I've pointed out as a downright silly notion.  I could go on, I'm sure, and it's not even a guarantee that the game would only pull one character from a game (although, -everything- at this point is kind of a rumor yet) which would mean an even more impressive roster.

If it's not obvious already I am a man who enjoys a good crossover as much as the next guy (if not more) so the possibility of this has me drooling a bit at the scope, possibilities and implications of it.  To be honest, I'd be a little miffed if there was only a fighting game that came from this (as opposed to something more of a mish-mash of styles ala Sonic Generations) but I'd accept it nonetheless as I'm sure that, even if it doesn't live up to my hopes of being big, it'll be more than Smash Bros./Capcom vs. (franchise) at the very least (putting it at Dissidia levels) which is just fantastic enough.  I can only imagine how this all could be written up; perhaps something a little less 'intricate' (like the bar scene where it's just assumed the characters hang out when you, the player, aren't using them) or the obvious "Greater Evil" scenario, or even something else I can't quite put together here.  Whatever it is, I would hope every characters' respective writer has some input on 'their' character, of course. 

I kind of wish I had more information here to extrapolate a little, but that's really about all there is to it at the moment.  There is almost certainly a Sony Cross-Franchise game in development, it may or may not be called "Title Fight" which would indicate a fighting game, and it has every opportunity to be awesome.  Let's just hope the guys over at SuperBot Entertainment have it in them to produce something we've come to expect as it would be a shame to let something this 'big' to fall flat.  I expect that, being a Sony-owned studio, they'll have access to other developers 'in-the-know' that can make sure this whatever it is gets polished, so hopefully when something else comes out about this, we'll get to know one way or another.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to unwind from the thought of Kazuma Kiryu appearing in a game alongside Nathan Drake, Kratos and Cole MacGrath.