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.

Datura Official Trailer Released

Forgive me for the lack of Youtube link, but I can only find the official version on Vimeo at the moment and rather than wait for a Youtube version, I'll roll with it and probably strike this out.  Anyways...

So, Datura, 'that floating hand game' has an official trailer (what is this, friggin' trailer week?) now that is quite different from all the teasers we've seen so far and I'm....not quite sure what to think about it.  I'm just going to preface the whole post with that fact because I mean, the entirety of the reason I -liked- Datura from the start was because it seemed so different.  But now that we kind of have a clearer picture, I'm getting a little concerned at just how different the game appears to be, though from the group who made Linger in Shadows being involved probably should have tipped me off a little and a little earlier than now.  The trailer is more or less all over the place both literally and figuratively as one moment we see our floating hand protagonist in the back of an ambulance, and the next they're handcuffed in what I can assume is the back of a police van.  From there, the trailer goes on to take us to to the forest we've seen time and time before, the arctic, a hospital and a battlefield straight out of one of the world wars, perhaps.

Of course, that is apparently the whole point of the game, or at least that's what the GDC Footage taken a little while back would suggest.  In the video, it's explained that the Forest is sort of a 'hub' world from which the player will go to the different 'stages' after finding items of import.  After ripping the face off of a statue, the player finds a pickaxe that, when grabbed, transports them to the arctic area wherein the player has to choose between digging out a literal trophy (that I imagine grants a trophy in the final game) or a human being trapped under the ice.  It seems pretty black and white, and I don't know if the game is going to be static or if things will change based on your decisions, but in the video, choosing the person leads to the ice breaking and the player being submerged in the icy waters.  So it's quite possible that Black and White are not quite what they seem, which I would certainly hope is the case, as well as it being touched up with randomness or, again, developmental impact from choices.

Still, as the game gets nearer and nearer, I start to wonder if it's going to be a game that you can play with both hands, or if the (seemingly cumbersome) single Move Wand control scheme (barring using a dualshock) will be the only way to go.  With it saying you can 'explore', that's precisely what I want to do; I want to be able to use a Nav Controller to walk around like normal instead of looking in a direction and pressing Triangle to advance or whatever wonky sort of movement scheme shown off there.  Beyond that, the game doesn't look quite as tight as I would hope for, having a second or so lag between movement of the Wand and movement on the screen.  I suppose I just feel like I can feel all my excitement draining away for the game because it's not seeming like it's going to be what I expected or, perhaps, what I hoped.  Instead, it might simply be a really artsy game that uses the Move Wand to try and justify the peripheral.

I guess we'll find out soon enough, though, as the game is rumored to release on May 9th in the UK.  Of course this doesn't mean a lot, as SCEE and SCEA aren't quite the best at coordinating things between each other so SCEE stores sometimes see games come out weeks or even months after the SCEA folks have played it, beaten it and moved on.  Similarly, SCEE has had a couple games (not many, just a couple) come out without so much as a word for an SCEA release.  So while the ideal scenario would be that it comes out on May 9th in PAL regions, with May 8th or the following Tuesday being NA's release date (with a demo), I can't say that's going to be the case for sure, nor should Joystiq.  But, eh, they kind of do that a lot and oh well.  We'll just see what happens because there's not that much time between then and now, and I expect to see details relatively soon!

Bonus Post - Dragon's Crown Being Published by Atlus

The Playstation Blog has proved to be an invaluable source of information these past couple days with the God of War:  Ascension info and now this.  Now, we all know that the future of Dragon's Crown has been in a nebulous position these last couple months, and we were just sort of left holding the bag and waiting for further information.  And lo and behold, out of friggin' nowhere, here is said information.  It's almost like they said it was going to come out or something.  Now, while any news on the game's future is good news I'm sure, there are a few bits of that that will be slightly disappointing to those who carry a vested interest in the game, Chance.  And I just want you to know, Chance, that I'm making this post with you in mind, Chance.

Now, first off, the obvious bit is that, as stated a couple times now, Atlus will be handling the publishing of both the PS3 and Vita versions of Dragon's Crown, pictured above...kind of.  I'm guessing the picture was in the blog post to show that both games will be in physical format (as well as digital for Vita, obviously), since aside from that there's no real purpose or flair to it.  They will -also- have a little hand in the production of the game, apparently, which is likely pretty cool.  The post goes out of its way to mention that they will be 'key' members of the internal development team who has worked on the Persona series which...again, I don't really see the connection, but I think this is all hype fodder.  The post is very, very inclined to get you as excited as possible before dropping the two bits of unfortunate news on us.

First off, the game(s) will not see release in 2012.  I know, Chance, you're already looking for the Vadernoooo video, and it is unfortunate, but hey, 2012 is pretty friggin' packed already, right?  At least, that's been my opinion of the year, since I know friggin' six games that I -have- to buy before the bell tolls on January 1st, 2013.  The second bit of bad news is that the game "simply cannot retail for $29.99" as "it would have essentially destroyed any chance for profitability".  Now, I'm not quite sure if that's Atlus being super-up-front about things, or Atlus with a classic wink-and-a-nod approach, but I'm going to heavily lean towards the former.  The Vita version of the game is apparently going to go up on the Pre-Order pages as $39.99, the general MSRP for Vita games, which isn't much of a surprise.  The PS3 version didn't have any real mention, however, so take that for what you will.  If it's going to be a full-price PS3 game, then perhaps you can hope, at least, that some retailers will have a discount for buying both as they did for The Show just recently when it came out.

So that's really the long and short of it.  Dragon's Crown is still a thing that is happening and is now being handled by Atlus, in so far as publishing and certain producer positions are concerned.  We can expect it sometime in 2013, but with no real narrowed down scope beyond that quite yet.  When it'll retail, the Vita version will most likely be $39.99 as most Vita games have been, and the PS3 version will likely be anywhere from $39.99 to $59.99, since anything near the original $29.99 price-point just wouldn't offer a whole lot of profitability.  If we know one thing, it's that Atlus knows just how to make a game profitable, so no worries on that field.  Here's hoping we get some more information on it all sooner rather than later, because I know there are certain people who will be chomping at the bit for it.

The Next God of War is "God of War: Ascension"

So yesterday, in the wee hours of the Eastern Time Zone morning, God of War:  Ascension was leaked with a mock-up box art and a teaser trailer.  And quite shortly after, it was officially announced by Sony who I'm sure didn't plan on announcing the game at 1 AM PST.  That alone seems pretty much enough to state, coupled with the above trailer but, as we know, I try not to just plop down a trailer and walk off (Not that there's anything wrong with that) because I like to pretend you guys enjoy my breakdowns of them.  And I kind of like to do them since forcing myself to pick away at a trailer lets me pick out pieces I might not see if I just watched it a couple times and was done with it.  It also just makes me feel like I -did- something instead of just found a trailer for a post.  This is a writing blog, after all, so I like to be writing in it.

Anyways, before I really get into the trailer, there are a few interesting little tidbits to share before we get into the meat of it all.  The first, and likely most important bit is that Todd Papy, former Design Director for God of War 3, has jumped up into the big leagues, apparently, as he seems to be the Director of God of War:  Ascension.  I mean, he said it and everything.  This does mean, of course, that God of War is still in the hands of Sony Santa Monica, despite the trailer lacking said branding.  If you don't want to check the blog post linked above, the direct quote is, "For those of you who haven’t had a chance to check out what the team at Sony Santa Monica Studios has been working on", which is pretty indicative there.  And more news about the game is incoming, as soon as April 30th where a live-stream event will take place, showing off the game and answering select questions from Twitter that are submitted between now and....tomorrow.

Now, the fun bit.  For the trailer itself, it's quite lovely to look at, using the same sort of art style that 3 used a lot of at least (I don't remember currently if the other games had it as prominently) which was quite neat.  Of course, we don't really get a lot from the visuals and thus must then pay attention to what the trailer is saying to get the idea of the next game.  And the idea, in keeping with the name "Ascension" seems to revolve around the time before Kratos became a servant of Ares to begin with, and was but a regular Spartan Soldier (General?) fighting against the armies of Mortals.  Or, at least, part of the game will likely be that, as the Ares part might happen towards the middle rather than towards the end.  Maybe.  This is all kind of conjecture at this point, but really, it seems to hammer in the point of "Before Ares", which means a Human Kratos without the Blades of Chaos.

This presents a sort of schism in the schools of thought going into the game.  Some people think that, since in this, Kratos would be essentially a 'normal' human (overlooking that even as a Human, he was pretty much King Badass) which might lead to a different kind of gameplay overarching the game.  Really shaking up the formula instead of having it be another foray into the semi-cinematic Action scene.  Others think that it will retain the God of War spirit, but embody that with a different weapon to start, perhaps a normal Xiphos blade, or the classic Spear/Shield combo that we've come to envision as standard fare for Spartans.  Myself, I'm firmly in the latter camp, but I can understand why there is the hope embodied in the first camp, since some people, crazy people, can't allow themselves to get excited for the type of combat that has been prevalent in the God of War series from its inception.  Or, they say they don't want it, but when it comes down to it, they buy it anyway because it's friggin' God of War.

Now, as this has all been purely conjecture more or less, it leaves one wondering just how much of a prequel the game will -actually- be.  Will it contain itself into a single tale that sits before Chains of Olympus?  Or will it have a connection with God of War 3 in a sense that it will eventually place down a hook for the 'eventual' God of War IV that has made the internet rounds so extensively?  With whispers of a Spring 2013 release, as well as the idea that some First Party devs have already gotten their hands on theoretical PS4 dev tools, it could make a lot of sense to throw Ascension down as a piece to keep the God of War brand in peoples minds so that, perhaps in next year's E3, they show off a God of War IV made for the PS4.  With just so many fours, it looks so tantalizing.  Before I get too conspiracy theorist, however, I believe I should stop, since it is a bit off-topic anyways.

The big bullet points here to encapsulate one last time, I suppose, would be:  God of War: Ascension is the next God of War game.  It will be for the PS3, made by Sony Santa Monica with Todd Papy at the director's helm.  Tomorrow at some point, we'll likely have a little more info thanks to the Live Stream event, but for now, we don't have a whole lot to go on.  It -seems- to be a prequel from the teaser trailer, but anything beyond that, even trying to state something as a supposition or 'fact', is purely conjecture.  Personally, I just can't wait to play another God of War game as, unlike the majority of people who see fit to comment on Gaming News Sites, I still have deep deep wells of excitement that I tap in for the franchise exclusively.  So long as the game is as brutal as the last, if not more, I'll be happy!

Nintendo Spoiling All of the E3 News

Yeah, yeah, so it's not -all- of the E3 news, but Nintendo has officially outed two of their own announcements, which, if you think about it is a good chunk of an E3 presentation.  These two things, especially, would probably be 'big things' for Nintendo to spring (though one isn't a surprise at the least), which would have, in turn, made the presentation seem better.  I guess they're hoping on people to be excited for specific things going in, rather than hoping their 'surprises' will earn a lot of good will.  Or...I'm just overexamining things.  Which is entirely likely since I do that a lot, which is something you all know about quite well.  Regardless, I think two announcements like this is a big enough deal to talk about it for a bit even if I don't...personally care about the contents all that much.

Unsurprisingly, the first announcement was the existence of a Mario Game for the Wii U that they're planning on showing off at E3.  Now the particularly 'big' news about this is that the game will be based on the Super Mario Bros Wii - Mii Edition game that was showed off last year.  Which is apparently what is in the above picture and....doesn't look exactly thrilling to say the least.  I'm sure the end product will end up being something to possibly hold a little excitement for, I feel like until it's out and played, it will just be known as "New Super Mario Bros. Wii with Miis", indicating that they think of it not as a finished game, but as a game that is directly linked to another game as a sort of 'cash-in' attempt or something.  Luckily, this would be the first time that a Nintendo IP would be used in such a fash-...

Hrm.

Anyways, for my part, I played about five minutes of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and absolutely hated the physics used in it.  I then embraced the hilarious irony that this game was likely touted for those controls and those physics by the very same people who would bash LittleBigPlanet and its ilk as 'too floaty' or 'sloppy'.  I'm pretty sure that it's well known that the controls in NSMBW are -not- spot-on or even close, because that's part of the, er, fun of it, since it caters to the 'party' aspect of it.  The griefing that can be had with said physics in Multiplayer is likely legendary, those I would suggest partly so because it's just, well, poor unfortunately.  Regardless, that's just my opinion and it has been quite a while since I played it.  I'll just have to fall back on the ol' 'Different Strokes for Different Folks' so as to not make it seem like my word is law or anything regarding this.  Because it certainly isn't, as it's not even popular opinion.  Whatevs.

The next and undoubtedly much more interesting news is that another one of the E3 reveals will be A New Pikmin Game that has been long, long, long-awaited.  Of course, there aren't a whole lot of details beyond "We're doing it" and "People who loved Pikmin games will enjoy this", presumably meaning that it will, you know, be Pikmin 3 and thusly a continuation of the franchise in much the same way as the previous two games played.  It's going to play like a Pikmin game, is kind of where I was going with that, but that's mostly conjecture on my part.  If past reports are to be believed, this will, as well as the game above, be shown off as a Wii U game and, if Nintendo really wants to sweeten the pot, they'll announce it as a launch title as well.  So they can build up a really good launch and people can then say that a good launch line-up always makes a good system while continuing to ignore the Vita because.

Unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot about Pikmin as a series as it was one of those things that I ignored by virtue of not owning a GameCube and not caring about Wii games beyond a few non-Nintendo franchises.  (Also Animal Crossing)  I guess the thing of it was using armies of little creatures to gather parts of your crashed ship to return it so you could fix it and leave?  Every Pikmin seems to have a different element it's good with which makes party management of them crucial and adds a strategy element to the game as well.  Of course, this is all from cursory glances towards the game, so I could be well off on the concept, but that is what it seems like to someone who's just looking at the series quickly.

A Pikmin 3 has been something that I'm sure a lot of people have wanted, and I think I remember some clamoring about it last year, what with Kid Icarus finally being revamped and all.  So with any luck, this will be the game that those people want, the true threequel to the Pikmin franchise which has been fairly ignored to this point.  And...with any luck the Super Mario Bros. Mii game will be good as well.  Better than New Super Mario Bros. Wii, at least, hopefully, even though I doubt anyone will care if it's not.  But with two E3 announcements down, I have to wonder if there's going to be any other announcements to stem the leaks, or if we'll just get the usual exciting E3 fare.  Personally?  I'm hoping for the latter because it is just so much more fun that way.

My Thougts on Persona 3 Portable Thus Far

So, as you all know, I've been playing Persona 3 Portable lately, quite a lot I should say, and I do believe I've officially hit end-game (and I don't think I'm being premature in saying that), so I kind of wanted to talk about how I think about the game to this point as well as offer my idea on how it's going to unfold.  Either so when I beat it and I'm right, I can point at this post and say "I called it!" or, if I'm wrong, I can point to this post and say "Boy, I sure was off, huh?".  Either way, it's fun to be had by all as I'm no stranger to saying things and then being completely wrong in predicting them, as we all know.  It's kind of a running gag and all for this blog, so I know you're all familiar with it or will be.  Regardless, since this will have quite a few Persona 3 Spoilers, I'm taking it upon myself to state that fact as well as using a page break as I have become accustomed to doing in situations like this.

So, below this point, thar be spoilers.

Pokemon Black and White 2 Official Trailer

So, I hate to do two Japanese Trailers in a row, especially when I had another post in mind, but, I mean, this is kind of important.  As you know, I was absolutely flabbergasted by the possibility that Pokemon Black and White 2 (Officially Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2, as in two separate games) were actually -sequels-, direct ones, to Pokemon Black and White, and eventually came to the position that, well, maybe they're not sequels.  Since the above trailer is in Japanese and thus I cannot glean anything from it, I'm going to rely on Siliconera here who has some good info which paints a pretty clear picture for the games being, yes, direct sequels.  Also breaking my heart.

If you've already watched the above video (you probably should if you haven't, that is the point), then you'll notice that there are two new protagonists; a boy who doesn't understand how hair works, and a girl who suffers similarly, but in a much less visually annoying way.  If they're not upstart trainers learning the ropes under the wing of the new professor researcher (Akuroma), I may just go out and buy a hat just so I can eat it.  Also as you might have suspected, the only other person featured in a clearly-not-a-gym-leader-way is the new rival who also suffers from "What the fuck is hair", a terrible terrible affliction.  I -know- it's a slippery slope to start pointing out a 'formula' for one game series and decrying it as a bad thing, but come on, this is blatant Checkbox-ing if I've ever seen it.  The only thing this is all missing is showing off the "Team" of the game which will probably be the clueless remnants of Team Plasma ala Team Rocket in Gold/Silver.  Because it's not going to be the first thing re-purposed from the older games.

From what I've read, the setting of the sequels seems to be that, two years after the events of Black and White, your protagonist, whomever you pick, starts their pokemon journey in a dumpy little town (called a city but apparently there's not a lot there) that has apparently magic'd into existence in those two years.  Also, half the region has gotten really cold and wintery for some reason.  Which isn't directly taken from Pokemon Platinum or anything, no sirree.  Regardless, that's about all we know, but if I were to make something up, add my own little conjecture, I think it would go something like this:  The professor researcher Akuroma (he will probably get a better name in English) tasks the player to go out and explore the world to register the 300 types of pokemon that are in the Unova region, citing that the sudden climate shifts and some other weirdness has caused more species to relocate to the region.  As it has been for a decade or better, thirteen to fifteen year old kids make better data collectors than adults because hell, the kids are gonna run around the nation anyways right?  Again, purely conjecture here.  Just...going out on a limb.

I know I'm being a bit overly critical here, but it's only because I have some real strong feelings about what's going on with this, as you might be able to tell.  While a 'direct sequel' is not exactly new for Pokemon, as in all reality, Gold and Silver (and Crystal) were direct sequels to Red and Blue, since they carried the same plot over and worked at it.  The Team Rocket angle, what with it being disbanded yet some members not knowing that, meeting up with Ash Red, hell, just going back to the region in Red and Blue after some years, it was definitely a sequel.  To my knowledge, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and Diamond/Pearl/Platinum didn't carry this on, but in a sense, that's kind of the point I'm making here.  At least Gold and Silver, being a sequel, was wrapped up in being a Pokemon game as well, in that there was a whole other region, and that it was just enough content to be its own game as well as having the sequel hook.  In some ways, the sequel aspect might have been understated and not explored fully enough.  Whereas Black and White 2 offer the same region (with new locales) and seems built around being a sequel that also happens to be a pokemon game, since it follows the formula checklist.  It's partly semantics that I'm playing at here, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

In most cases, this would be the point where I say, "Despite all that, I know I'm going to buy it because I'm a whore" but you know what?  I'm not sure.  There is a good chance that I won't really care about this enough to pick it up, especially with, as I keep mentioning, the wealth of games 2012 is already offering.  Thinking about it, I have never owned a copy of Pokemon Platinum and, considering it never went down in price, there's a good chance I never will unless it's far, far down the road as a digital title on the 3DSi XL or whatever will end the 3DS line (or start the line after it), provided Nintendo goes with an online venture like that which, as everyone has proven, isn't fool-proof and isn't always easy money.  So unless something really wows me between now and its release, I may just go ahead and skip Black and White 2, hoping that something else will come out that will actually innovate the franchise.  Only time will tell if that's going to happen, though!