Yoko Taro saves Platinum Games

1Yoko Taro, director of NieR, has been announced as the saviour of Platinum games (Bayonetta, Vanquish, Metal Gear: Rising). NieR Automata released early 2017 and received mass praise. It sold extremely well despite the competition against Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Persona 5. It sold 1 million units and sold 7x the amount of its predecessor’s (NieR) first 7 months in Japan. It may not seem like a huge deal but it was for Platinum.

Scalebound cover art.jpgLast year, Microsoft announced their cancellation of Scalebound. Scalebound was a huge project collaborated with Platinum games. It was meant to be an exclusive for the Xbox One and also be Platinum‘s first entry into making a huge game project. Most Platinum games are licensed or contract work such as the Legend of Korra, Transformers: Devastation, and Metal Gear: Rising. Unfortunately, there was a lack of progress or announcements from Microsoft or Platinum regarding Scalebound. Eventually, the plan was cut and Platinum loss a huge amount of funding.

 

According to Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101 director and professional Twitter master Hideki Kamiya, Nier Automata and Yoko Taro single handily saved Platinum.

“Nier’s success has to this point given Platinum a new fanbase, a growing staff, a brilliant success story, an increase in qualified job applicants, and a great benefit,” Kamiya said on Twitter

“Normally, I can’t help but do everything by myself… it’s a pitiful story, but to say that Yoko-san saved Platinum would not be an exaggeration. I cannot thank him enough.”(translation via NeoGAF user BRSxIgnition).

Opinion:

The original NieR was a cult classic but the sequel: NieR Automata has received mass praise. Considered one of the best games of the year, it is extremely impressive for Platinum studio as well as Yoko Taro‘s creative works who are generally producing good games but lack popularity. Hopefully, this leads to more work for Platinum and gives companies bigger trust in Yoko Taro’s directing.

Source: Eurogamer Gamespot

Fallout 4 GOTY Edition with Pip-Boys!

If you’re a fan of the Fallout series, you’ve always wanted to own a Pip-Boy.  It is a wrist attachment that displays your character’s stats, missions, items, skills, etc. It’s a popular accessory and many people wanted one for cosplay purposes. When Fallout 4 was released, special editions came with a Pip-boy for $119. You could connect your smart phone to it and it would give you access to the Pip-Boy app that would interact with Fallout 4. They sold out incredibly fast and Bethesda even stated they couldn’t produce anymore.

Now Fallout 4 is two years old and its Game of the Year edition is finally being released. It’ll include all the DLCS: Nuka-World, Vault-Tec Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, Far Harbor, Wasteland Workshop, and Automatron. It will also include mod support and Survival Mode which was added to the game before. The GOTY edition will be $60 and will release on September 26th. The game will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

 

If you are willing to pay extra, you can buy the Pip-Boy edition if you missed it last time. It’ll be $99 with a different casing box than the previous edition. It’ll be the same design and if you have purchased a larger phone since then, it won’t fit into the Pip-Boy. It’ll only be sold in “selected retailers” and will have a limited release.

Opinion:

Personally, I don’t mind special editions. I think having a Pip-Boy is cool and if I was gonna cosplay as a character from the series, I would definitely pick one up. The game is pretty good but its definitely not as good as Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 3 in my opinion. If you really missed out on the game and wanted to add it to your collection, this is your chance.

Sources: Polygon

Gamespot

 

Nintendo World Championship coming to you! Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid Demos

Nintendo is hosting a World Tournament this October in an ultimate test of Nintendo Gaming Skill. There will be eight qualifying events across the United States at certain Best Buy Stores. Qualifiers will be from August 19th to September 10th. The game is Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. If you think you’re the best driver in the United States, try and see if you’ll qualify for the Nintendo World Tournament.

Game Mode

For 12 and under, you’ll play DS Luigi Mansion Track with a standard kart, as Mario. 13 and over, you’ll play as Bowser in GBA Bowser’s Castle with a standard kart. Both modes are Time Trial and you’ll have two tries. Those who have the best time will qualify for the final competition in Manhattan.

Locations

Select cities have certain dates so check the link to see if there is a city nearby where you can participate. There are 8 cities in total: San Jose (Bay Area), Bronx (New York), Evanstone (Chicago), Torrance (Los Angeles), Richfield (Minneapolis), Dallas, Tukwila (Seattle), and Hialeah (Miami).

Free Stuff

While you’re there, you can play Mario Odyssey and Metroid: Samus Returns demos and possibly earn a My Nintendo Pin if you’re one of the first 200 people to check in. If you bring your My Nintendo QR code, you’ll also earn 100 Platinum points.

 

 

 

 

The final competition will be in Manhattan, New York in the Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom. I will update later on as more details are released.

Sources: Nintendo

Persona Game Overload

If you love Persona, Atlus and P Studio has more games for you. Three spin-offs have been announced for the main franchise. For Rhythm Game Fans (Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, Hatsune Miku), Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night. While they definitely don’t keep the same theme as their original games, they are non-canonical stories. Persona 4: Dancing All Night had a story for the game, so it’ll be interesting to see what the developers have in store for Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night. Persona 5 had a reference to a character in Persona 4: Dancing All Night but no other mentions. They will release for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2018 for Japan.

Also, P Studio also announced Persona Q2, a sequel to the Nintendo 3DS Etrian Odyssey type game: Persona Q. All that has been shown is the logo which alludes to Persona 5 characters. The original was a connection story for Persona 3 and 4.

Sources: Polygon Eurogamer