Wild Season, Eh?

I've always been a little wary on most things where Kickstarter is concerned since the whole premise can lead to some real issues on a large scale.  It's more or less a house of cards where everyone brings their own cards to someone who says they can make an awesome castle with them, and then you just have to kind of wait and see if they do, indeed, make an awesome castle out of cards that you and everyone else gave to them.  Not everyone can build awesome card castles.  Many people will tell you they can do so, when in reality they cannot.  Some attempt to, but realize they need more cards because whoops, these cards will only make like one card rampart and okay, I'm losing the plot here.  Point is, it's hard to get excited for Kickstarters unless they're being made by people who can be held to a great amount of scrutiny (I.E. known quantities like Comcept and the like) because there's at least an idea of -something- coming from it, rather than that dude just taking the cards and going to play poker with them instead.

However, when I see a project that wants to be another type of Harvest Moon game, rather than a third-person/first-person shooter of some sort, I have to take note.  And when I see a project that aims to be on the Vita, well, I have to take note.  When those two aims intersect, that, my friends, is when I have to inform you about it, because it's something that requires a bit of attention.  I only regret that my attention was not drawn to this earlier, because I'm not sure what, if any impact my attention will offer at this point.

I say this because Wild Season only has five days left in the Kickstarter at this point, and it's probably the worst five days anyone could imagine having at this point, with Christmas rolling over and the like.  It's hard to say whether or not people -have- money to give at this point, and as we know, with Kickstarter if you don't get the funding goal by the deadline, you get nothing but a bit of exposure and goodwill.  It's also something like £4,000 short of its goal, which will be hard to make up in those few days.  They always say the bulk of funding surges happen at the start and at the end of a Kickstarter, so there's hope, and I definitely want to hope because I do want these guys to succeed.  If only so I can hope they go forward with bringing it to the Playstation Family so I finally have a damn Harvest Moon-like game on my Vita.

So why should you care about Wild Season?  Well, as stated, it's a Harvest Moon-like game, though it does quite a bit differently in the formula alone, and it does have some rather interesting elements to it.  For one, it promises something of a 'darker' underlying story, primarily about a 'Secret' the Town holds, and that's kind of neat on its own merits, provided it doesn't put the game on a 'timer'.  Relationships are also much different if just for the fact that you can accrue enemies now instead of being everyone's friend automatically.  Befriending others and getting into relationships (You can be in same-sex relationships, by the way, that's a big deal) takes a more delicate touch as well, as you can be branded 'Creepy' or 'a stalker' for doing things that are notoriously ungoverned in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.  Bursting into a character's room without permission, for one - especially if you decide that's a great time to stumble over to that person and hand them a gift.  I would be a little weirded out myself.

Characters are also meant to be a little more three-dimensional than the standard HM characters who, while they have their issues, are generally built around one or two little things and thus feel a bit flat.  Wild Season's cast promises to have a little more depth, boasting actual issues and problems that aren't things you can deal with with one little chat or anything quite so easy.  You'll also be able to run for office and personally dictate parts of the town, though what extent of power you'll actually be granted is left to be seen.  You'll even be able to see technology slowly introduced into the town - HM games tend to be a little technology-adverse unless it's Innocent Life, but that barely counts.  All of those things, plus a wider selection of things to do when you have nothing pressing at the moment ensures that it'll be a very different game from what you might expect, and that's enticing.

I have a few misgivings however.  I'm not quite sure how much content can actually be present in the game considering iOS and Android are two of the confirmed platforms, but I suppose mobile games have been getting bigger and bigger (and contain large games now, like Final Fantasy Tactics: WotL and The World Ends With You) so it shouldn't be an issue.  I'm also a little....wary of them showing off the obtrusive mobile controls while the game version is clearly the PC one being played for the video.  Virtual Controllers are things that I'm not too enthused about and while I'll never have to use one, I just wish they could have shown the footage without it for now.  I'm also swinging back and forth on the art style and haven't quite decided which side of the fence I'm on with regards to that.  It's...honestly pretty good, but I'm just never up on Chibi characters.  However, I imagine I'll get over that.

So yeah.  As stated (and shown in the video), the game is being set or PC/Mac/Linux and Mobile platforms, but if they can, they would like to embrace Sony and Nintendo's indie strategies for Vita (and probs PS3/4) releases alongside the Wii U.  Harvest Moon-like games are, of course, better as portable titles since they're the type of game you'll want to be able to jump right into and play for a moment, especially when you've got a few minutes to kill between commutes or something along those lines.  Thus, I'm hoping for this to succeed and for a Vita version to materialize because it's...honestly probably the best fit of them all.  With any luck, they'll get that last push to fund them, but even if they don't, hopefully they'll have some sort of backup plan.  Hell, they can always try to contact Shahid Kamal, since he is without a doubt an awesome dude and definitely not titled "The Indie Guru" (among other titles) for nothing.

I'm personally curious as to just how weird the game is going to get, because the potential for weird, creepy shit is off the charts

A Look Ahead - Soul Saga

Now that Soul Saga has been over-funded by three times the original pledge with the Kickstarter closed, I believe it's time to really start talking about it, since this is something you'll want to look forward to.  In the interest of full disclosure, the main reason this game is on my radar is because it will be available on Vita (and PS4, Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux) a year from now when it's finished (barring delays) and it looks really, really neat.  Originally, I'd heard the intention was simply those minus the PS4 and Vita (likely because the former hadn't been formally shown off yet, nor extrapolated on, both of which we saw happen at E3 and thereafter) and none of those play options were open to me.  So, admittedly, I just sort of passed on it which is obviously a bit selfish, but it's simply because there are just so many games, you guys.  I'm sure you realize.

If you're not quite sure what Soul Saga is, because you equally haven't been paying attention prior to this point, then it's a game that bills itself as a JRPG that's been inspired by some of the classics we remember growing up like Breath of Fire, Suikoden and of course, Final Fantasy, though there are some other RPGs that it draws from which I will get into in a bit.  It starts a bit familiarly; the main character, Mithos, is a young man following in the footsteps of his loathsome (from Mithos' perspective, at least) father in becoming a Guild Leader with the ultimate goal of succeeding where his father apparently failed.  Of course, just getting to that point will take some doing as being a Guild Leader obviously isn't a walk in the park.  However, it's through this that a bulk of the rather neat gameplay mechanics come into play, which is why I wanted to point it out beforehand.

I have held off long enough, so I want to get to one of the things that made me -really- excited about the game.  The world of Soul Saga is one made up of Sky Islands that rest upon a reef of clouds, shielding them from the harsh surface world below.  Being that they are -islands- in the -sky-, there's obviously only one way to get around - by airship.  Thanks to some of the stretch goals, the developer is going to be able to implement a Skies of Arcadia-styled Airship Exploration and Airship combat system which is amazing.  I would say that that element was one of the better parts of Skies of Arcadia, but that would be lying because -all- of the parts of SoA were good parts.  The Airship Exploration/Combat is merely something that made SoA stand out from the rest of the JRPG fare at the time and with good reason - not only was it different, but it was so good.  If SS's attempt is even half as good, it's going to be worth the game alone - something that I'm not saying as hyperbole.

Really, all of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter were for love letter-type things like that to older RPGs.  After you got by the basics of funding the game itself, Voice Acting and Wii U/PS4/Vita ports, it begins.  The Airship and combat stuff, I covered as Skies of Arcadia, just now.  The Job Board is something you're all familiar with - side quests to keep you occupied in the form of villager requests and the like, all posted to a central location.  Legendary Weapons is a standard as well, though more celebrated in Final Fantasy than anything I can think of - remember getting the Ultima Weapon for Cloud in FF7, or dodging 200 lightning bolts in FFX for Lulu's best doll weapon?  Yeah, it's like that, only they have their own storylines attached, so it's probably more involved than "Beat big optional boss". 

The Guild Master and Guild Hall areas are where we start delving heavily into Suikoden territory, (Technically Skies of Arcadia as well) in that the former has you scour the land for potential guild members and entice them to join you at your HQ.  The latter then allows you to have these guild members actually -do- things, provided they're not in the party (I assume, if they can even -be- in the party) giving things a sense of life that exists beyond when you're there.  Basically, it enters a bit of management into the game, which just isn't done enough, honestly, and has only met with limited success recently (what comes in my head first is the...questionable attempts by the Assassin's Creed games - send person out, wait, they might win, get reward is hardly exciting or worth bothering with), but can be a genuinely good mechanic.  One of the other stretch goals that was met, Guild Battles, also sounds to scratch the Suikoden itch, sounding to me like the War battles that the series introduced and ran with that were quite different and quite enjoyable.  There's still a few more Stretch goals that I didn't explain, some because they weren't funded (Though Garen's Saga is going to happen even though it didn't reach that total before the funding date) or because I'm just not sure what to think of them (like the Pandora's Boxes, which sound interesting and different), and if you're interested the full list is here with fairly detailed descriptions.

Mechanically, the game just sounds outstanding - a mesh of all the best parts of the best RPGs of the past, which seems to be a popular goal of late and an admirable one to go after.  After all, these neat little parts are -why- those series were beloved, even if it didn't get them the big sales numbers that were just hard to come by back then.  The development cycle of the game is something I'll be looking after with quite a bit of interest, since I can guarantee you that fifteen of my dollars will be going this game's way the moment it becomes purchasable on my Vita.  I am thoroughly sold at this point in time, and if you're not, I seriously have to question why.  Unless...you just don't like JRPGs, which is understandable.  Even still, this is ambitious and while I hope it's ready a year from now, I'll check my expectations here.  When it's done, it's done and if that ends up being more like a year and a half or better, well, so be it.  Just make sure the game is as good as it can be, because we're looking forward to it now, DisasterCake.

please include a giant friggin' Harpoon Gun weapon for your airships please, because that thing was so awesome