Persona 4 Review

Compared to last year, 2018’s release calendar has been fairly light. While some gamers might be
lamenting this, I’ve found it has been an excellent opportunity to go back and check out some titles from prior years that I missed. Thus, I’m jumped right into tackling yet another “gaming shame”, the Megami Tensei franchise. Except for two spinoff games, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and Shin Megami Tensei Synchronicity Prologue, I haven’t gotten the chance to get into Atlus’s hugely popular RPG series. A friend was nice enough to lend me his copy of Persona 4 for PlayStation 2 back in April and it's taken me a while to finish the game and put together my thoughts.

Game overview:
Persona 4 is an RPG in which the protagonist and his friends must investigate a series of grisly
supernatural murders that have been taking place in their town. The wrinkle is that the investigators are all high school students and must juggle their school and social lives in addition to gathering clues, fighting villains, and rescuing potential victims.

Observations:

• Persona 4 begins with an incredibly long set of introductory cutscenes. During the first two hours or so of the campaign, the game only requires player input two or three times. Putting non-interactive segments this long in a video game would probably even give a director like Hideo Kojima pause. Thankfully, the writing is pretty good, so this lengthy introduction still has entertainment value, but I still wish it the game’s designers would have broken it up a bit.
• As the two hours’ worth of introductory material makes clear, Persona 4 focuses on developing its characters and story above all else. I found the central murder mystery to be interesting and enjoyed getting to meet the whole cast of characters. The English language voice-overs for these characters are excellent and add significantly to their personalities.
• Atlus made some interesting choices regarding localizing this game. Despite being a 100% English translated game, locations, characters, and events all use their Japanese names (the game is set in Japan, after all). The dialog even includes honorifics with character names. It took me a little while to get used to hearing English-speaking characters calling each other -san and sempai but I have to give the voice actors credit for making it work.
• Much of the gameplay reminds me of old-school dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial. The game follows the daily life of its typical anime teen protagonist over the course of a year as he goes to school, hangs out with his friends, works a part-time job, investigates a serial murder case, and battles demonic forces (I described it as “anime” for a reason). How and with whom the player elects to spend the hero’s time will affect his personal stats. Points in the hero's qualities like "knowledge" and "expression" open up new pathways for interactions between characters but also can affect his combat performance as well.
• Since the hero juggles his high school life and his evil-battling life, I break the gameplay down into two modes: school mode and quest mode. School mode plays much like a visual novel or a dating sim (especially like the aforementioned Tokimeki Memorial). During the classroom segments, the protagonist may be asked questions by the teacher or may have to take exams. Scoring well on these segments improves his “knowledge” stat. After class, the player can elect to have their character attend after-school activities, work a part-time job, or spend time with his friends and family. These activities either boost general stats like “diligence” and “understanding”, or increase the “Social Link” score, which affects combat attributes when in quest mode (more on that later).
• Outside of all the usual high school activities, the player can enter quest mode after school. The quest consists of gathering clues about the murder mystery that the characters are trying to solve by talking to NPCs and exploring dungeons to track down suspects or rescue potential victims. There are about eight dungeons in the game and the player is given a month or two of in-game time to finish each one; missing the deadline to complete a dungeon results in a game over. Thus, managing the character’s time between school mode and quest mode is crucial. 
• The dungeons themselves are themed after each character’s inner struggle (similar to Psychonauts) but the layout of each is procedurally generated with the exception of the boss room. Most of the dungeons are eight to twelve stories tall and require and a considerable amount of time to finish (about three to five hours each in my playthrough). Running out of MP and items often means that dungeon runs have to be spread out across multiple in-game days in order to restock supplies. While I thought the character-specific theming was pretty cool and I didn't mind the procedure layouts, I couldn’t help but wish that the dungeons were a little shorter. After getting to about the sixth floor or so in a given dungeon, I found myself being a little bored of the slow dungeon crawl and wanting to just get to the boss as quickly as possible so I could advance the story.
• The combat is in the form of traditional turn-based battles in which each character in the party can summon a demon (aka a Persona) to use special skills. Most of the strategy of regular battles involve figuring out the right skills to exploit enemy weakness and execute combos. The protagonist can collect new Personas by finding Tarot cards in the dungeon and can swap between these demonic allies in mid-battle. The rest of the characters only have one fixed Persona that they stick with for the whole game. This leads to the protagonist being the only strategic variable in boss battles which makes them less interesting than they could be. It’s important to note that bosses and regular enemies alike can exploit your characters’ weaknesses as well, which can mean that a bad roll of the dice can wipe out your whole party even during a basic encounter.
• In addition to acquiring new Personas, the protagonist can also fuse his Personas together to form new more powerful ones. The power of these fused Personas is a function of the Social Link scores you’ve built up with each character. Every character has an affinity with one of the arcana of the Tarot deck, which correspond with the 22 races of demons in hell (yes, this game has some dark themes in it). Hence, the hero’s decisions in school mode can have a significant impact on his progression in quest mode.
• The connection between the school mode and quest mode of the game manifests itself in some ways that are interesting and others that are jarring. Since the dungeons take place in a hellish parallel dimension to the real world (did I forget to mention that?), things going on in school mode, such as the weather, can reflect the situation in quest mode. For example, rain and fog in the school mode portion of the game foreshadow the death of a character in the dungeons, representing a quest deadline. Since checking the local news is part of the player character’s daily routine, the weather report takes on a foreboding tone that adds to the sense of tension in the story. However, there are other times where this connection didn’t work for me. If you finish a quest mode objective earlier than the game expects you to, you’ll be prompted each day with a message that says something like “you are waiting for the situation to change”, and nothing of any consequence will happen until the original due date for that quest passes. For the first half of the game, I appreciated having this bit of downtime to meet all the characters and develop the Social Links. Yet, as the game went on, I had completed most of the social links that I was interested in and found myself wishing I could turn the clock forward past all the mundane school days and get to the next main story beat. Another instance where the connection between quest mode conflicts with school mode is the relationship between social links and Tarot Arcana. When a character asks the protagonist if he’d like to hang out, the player is prompted with a message indicating the benefits of this social interaction on the strength of his Personas. I found that this made my character seem like some sort of psychopath who weighs all of his interpersonal relationships based on the perks they’ll confer to his personal arsenal of demons. I realize that this prompt is just clarifying a mechanic in the game, but the direct acknowledgment of it in this context highlights how creepy the whole thing is.
• Regarding the character-specific theming of each chapter of the quest, Persona 4 attempts to tackle some rather heavy themes such as anxiety, depression, sexuality, and gender identity. These are ambitious subjects for a video game to tackle (especially a Japanese game from 2008) and the execution sometimes feels a little clumsy by 2018 standards. That being said, I really have to commend the game for trying. Generally, Persona 4 achieves its goal of developing each member of the cast into a relatable person that the player can sympathize and root for.
• While I didn’t know this going in, Persona 4 has multiple endings and it is extremely easy to accidentally get the bad ending. There is a key set of dialog tree decisions during a scene late in the game that determines which ending you get. To me, it seemed unclear which choices would lead to which path. I ended up reloading the scene several times only to get different variants of the bad ending each time before ultimately giving up and looking up the exact path through the dialog tree to get to the good ending. Thankfully, the game explicitly prompts the player to save the game right before this crucial scene.
• Something that is often said about the Persona series is how stylish it is. I agree. The music and character animations give the game an extra helping of personality over pretty much any other RPG.
• Some notes on how I played this game: I played on the easy setting and used a PS2 emulator so that I could make liberal use of save states. I have no regrets about either of these decisions. Losing progress due to large gaps between save points and getting wiped in unforgiving battles would have significantly hampered my ability to enjoy and finish a massive game like this.

Overall, I found that the gameplay of Persona 4 was interesting at first but lost its luster as the game went on; it was the strong characters and compelling central narrative that kept me on board for the 70+ hour campaign. I'm really glad I got to experience this landmark game and I know it will stick with me for quite some time. That being said, the investment of time and mental/emotional energy required to tackle a game as large and deep as this is something that I'm only prepared to handle occasionally. In all likelihood, it will be quite some time before I'm ready to dive into another Persona title.

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Completion Time: 73 hours

If you would like to pick up a copy of this game while also supporting this blog, check out the Amazon affiliate links below:
Persona 4 - PS2
Persona 4 Golden - PS Vita

Ease Further Into Ys

After having so much fun with my last Ys streaming series, "Ease Into Ys", I've decided to delve even deeper into Falcom's classic action RPG series with Ys Origin. This game is a prequel to Ys 1 & 2, but according to the series experts at Digital Emelas, it is said to be best played after the first two installments of the series. If you'd like to get caught up on what happened in those games, I'd suggest this YouTube video:

Unlike the other Ys games, instead of playing as the series protagonist, Adol, Ys Origin has three playable characters with their own story lines. At this point, I've already played through the first character's quest offline in order to get familiarity with the game and will be starting the second character's quest on my Twitch channel. Ys Origin is much more action-oriented than other RPGs I've played, even when compared to other Ys games, so it should make for a pretty briskly-paced stream.

If you'd like to join me on my journey up the Devil's Tower in Ys Origin, be sure to tune into my "Ease Further Into Ys" stream on my Twitch channel every Tuesday, starting tonight (Jul-17) at 8PM EDT!

This game has an awesome soundtrack! If you'd like to give it a listen while also supporting this blog, check it out via this Amazon Affiliate link: Ys Origin Soundtrack

Four Job Fiesta 2018 Wrap-up

Last night, my second Four Job Fiesta campaign came to a close and it was a wild ride! Partly because of my increased familiarity with the game, and partly due to the classes I rolled, this Fiesta went much more smoothly than the last. Here are the highlights:

• My first job was Blue Mage. Compared to last year's White Mage, the early going was much easier. Once my Blue Mage learned some basic attack magic and the Vampire skill (i.e. draining enemy HP), I had my bases covered both offensively and defensively from the get-go. It also helped that Blue Mages can use light swords and shields, so they made for serviceable physical characters as well. The only downside was that having to hunt for the correct monsters in order to learn new skills was a bit of a chore. I generally don't like classes that require doing "homework".
• Berserker was what I rolled next. I was initially concerned about giving up control of one of my party members, but this worked out really well. Having one character devoted purely to raw offense at all times allowed me to focus on using my other characters strategically. Later on, thanks to having Reeses (formerly known as Bartz/Butz) mast the Ninja job, I was able to equip a Berserker with two weapons, making him a physical damage-dealing machine.
• The one job I had in common from last year was Ninja. This is an awesome class! With a weapon in both hands and the ability to throw swords and shurikens, a Ninja is a great offensive character. When physical damage doesn't cut it, equipping them with the Blue Magic ability also yields good results since they have better magic stats than most other physical attack classes.
• My final class was the most interesting: Chemist. I was uncertain at first about how to best make use of my Chemist, but once I figured it out, she became the cornerstone of my late-game strategy. Her ability to buff my characters and serve as an item-based healer proved to be invaluable in the last few dungeons, and especially against the final boss. I had some concerns about gathering enough crafting supplies to use her to abilities to their full potential, but by the end of the game, I had more than enough Dragon Fangs and Dark Matters without having to worry about farming for materials.
• The final showdown against Exdeath went far more smoothly than I ever could have imagined! I had Cara set up as a Chemist and Lenna as a Blue Mage with the Chemist's "Mix" ability. In the first phase of the battle, I had these two ladies of science and magic whipping up all manner of buffing concoctions so that my whole party had Shell, Protect, and Reflect status as well as double their usual HP capacity! Meanwhile, Reeses was a Berserker and Faris was a Ninja; each was in the "berserk" state and equipped with a weapon in each hand. These two just whaled on the boss nonstop. Since all the chemical buffs I used carried into the second phase of the boss battle, everyone was more than capable of withstanding whatever Exdeath could throw at us. It was only a matter of time before my two berserk characters beat him into submission!

  Overall, this was a really fun campaign that encouraged me to use skills and classes that I had previously never even considered! I also finished the campaign faster and at a lower level than last year: 35 hours and at level 42. Regarding the charity side, between my contributions and those from Twitch viewers, $85 (US) went to Child's Play! I want to give a big thanks to everyone who watched or donated this year, and I'm already looking forward to next year's campaign!

Crypt of the Necrodancer Review-like

In the past, music games and Rogue-likes are two genres I've always struggled with. However,

it's currently the last week of #RhythmGameMonth and there's a major game sale going on, so I decided to give Crypt of the Necrodancer a shot.

Overview

In this game, the player navigates through four procedurally generated dungeons while moving on beat to the background music. The enemies move along with beat as well. Since this is a

Rogue-like, any items collected or progress made within each dungeon are lost upon losing a life. Thus, each dungeon must be completed in a single life. The only thing the player gets to keep after a dungeon attempt is the game's currency, diamonds. Diamonds can be spent on persistent upgrades, such HP increases, that will make subsequent dungeon runs a little easier. Diamonds can also be spent on expanding the pool of temporary items that can appear within treasure chests inside the dungeons. While diamonds can be spent after a failed dungeon attempt, they do not accumulate between multiple runs; they must all be spent before starting another run. For example, if you want a permanent upgrade that costs 12 diamonds, all 12 of those diamonds must be gathered in a single run. Overall, the game flow consists of making repeated attempts at a dungeon in hopes of either: A) making it all the way to the end, or B) gathering enough diamonds to buy an upgrade that’ll improve your chances of success in subsequent runs.

Pros

• Since this is a rhythm game, good music is essential. Thankfully, composer Dan Baranowsky delivers in a big way. If you’ve ever wondered what fighting skeletons and dragons at a rave would be like, play this game to find out. I really enjoy chip tunes and electronic dance music, so much of my motivation to push through the dungeons would be to hear the next level’s tracks. The game comes with several alternate music mixes as well and there is even an option in the PC version to replace the background music with your own MP3s.
• Like many indie games, this one uses a pixelated faux-8-bit graphical style. What sets this one apart is the extra layer of personality applied to the sprite animations. Everybody dances. The golems roll their shoulders to the beat, the skeletons wave their hands in the air (like they just don’t care), and the shopkeeper accompanies the background music by singing opera.
• This isn’t a game that you can just hack and slash your way through. Every enemy moves in a distinct way and each weapon behaves differently. Thus, survival requires figuring out the right approach to any given scenario. There is a surprising amount of strategy involved.
• The procedural level design system works quite well. While no two runs are exactly alike, there is a consistent theme within each dungeon that makes them feel distinct. With a small handful of exceptions, the game does a good job of generating level layouts that make sense and are fun to explore.

Cons

• The Rogue-like design of this game means you will be replaying the same dungeon dozens of times before you actually make it through. The randomization of the level layouts helps a little bit with the repetitiveness, but at a certain point, I was keenly aware that I was sinking a lot of time into this game without making any tangible progress.
• Crypt of the Necrodancer is both difficult and unforgiving. While I understand this is part of the appeal of the game for some players, I eventually became frustrated with the combination of sustained perfection and luck that was required to succeed. When I would have a winning run, it was generally because I managed to maintain the intense focus and patience needed to avoid taking too much damage and be lucky enough to find chests with high-level gear.

If you’re wondering why this is a “review-like” rather than a real review, it’s because I haven’t managed to beat this game and I don’t like giving review scores to games that I haven’t finished. Of the game’s four dungeons, I’ve managed to beat the first one and make it as far as the boss of the second one, but with only a sliver of health left. After spending several hours banging my head against the wall in the second dungeon, I found myself at the point of diminishing returns and have decided to set the game aside. I'm disappointed that I won't get to experience the second half of the game any time soon but at this point, but I'd rather move on to something else than burn myself out on a game that I otherwise enjoyed.

Time Played: 6 hours

Recommendation: A great choice for Rogue-like fans, worth trying (on heavy discount) for everyone else

Bastion Review

 The Kid had a lot of pretty things to smash...

I've been meaning to play Bastion for quite some time since friends have been recommending it to me for years. While many people gush SuperGiant's first game, I came away with mixed feelings.

Pros:

• The dynamic narration is easily the most interesting and distinct feature of this game. I can imagine context-sensitive narration was especially impressive back in 2011 when this game was originally released.
• The watercolor art style looks really nice and gives the environments a fairytale-like quality.
• Being able to upgrade weapons and change load-outs gives the player a lot of tactical options. I was able to experiment with a lot of different play styles by changing my character's melee weapons, ranged attacks, and special moves.

Cons:

• The gameplay is fun at first but feels repetitive long before the game is over. While this game is often referred to as an "action RPG", it really feels more like a hack-and-slash action game to me.
• I found that since the environments fade in and out of existence, I wasn't really motivated to explore.
• As cool as the narrator was, I didn't find myself particularly engaged in the story he was telling. I think the fact that the story is almost entirely conveyed to the player via the narrator made me feel somewhat detached from the characters and world.

Overall, I found playing Bastion to be an interesting experience but I was ready for it to be over by the time I got to the end of the game. The artistic presentation and weapon variety were just enough to keep me bashing my way through until the credits.

Score: ⭐⭐⭐
Completion Time: 5 hours, 24 minutes

E3 2018 Highlights: Nintendo

With everything else crammed into Sunday and Monday, Nintendo gets and an entire day of E3 to itself. Since I'm a huge Nintendo fan, this works out well for me. The event was a tight 42 minutes that was a rapid-fire series of trailers in the beginning and then a lengthy deep-dive into Super Smash Bros in the back half.

• Daemon x Machina -  A mecha action game from the producer of Armored Core. As I had mentioned in my previous E3 post, I'm a big fan of giant robots blowing each other up, so I was all about this. I really liked the art style and high-contrast colors. (trailer)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna The Golden Country - The story expansion for Xenoblade 2 was shown off and it looks like a pretty robust package. It appears to be a prequel story set before the events of the main game. (trailer)
• Pokemon Let's Go - More gameplay of the previously announced Pokemon gaes was shown. I'm interested in this mostly because it appears that the entire campaign can be completed in co-op mode. (trailer)
• Super Mario Party - Mario Party will be returning to its original digital board game format. I was amused by the fact that the trailer for this showed people playing it while camping in the woods, a continuation of the Switch advertising style. (trailer)
• Fire Emblem Three Houses - The new Fire Emblem game for Switch looks like it's going to be really good, however, we'll have to wait until 2019 find out for sure. It uses top-down perspective when commanding units and then transitions to a 3D Musou-like view for combat animations. (trailer)
• Fortnite and Hollow Knight - Each of these games that were previously available on other platforms were announced for Switch. Both were made available immediately on the eShop at the end of the presentation. When I played Fortnight on PC, it didn't really grab me, but knowing how popular the game is, I'm glad it's available on Switch now. I've heard that Hollow Knight is excellent, so I'll be keeping that one in mind next time I'm looking to pick up a new Metroidvania game. (trailers: Fortnite and Hollow Knight)
  
• Super Smash Bros Ultimate - The bulk of Nintendo's presentation was devoted to the new Smash Bros game. The main takeaway was that every playable character that has ever been in any Smash game will be present in this one, even including oddball ones like Solid Snake and Ice Climbers. It was also revealed that Daisy is being spun off from Peach to be a new character and that the roster would have at least one all-new character: Ridley from Metroid! Previously, it was announced that Splatoon Inklings are also being added to the game; some of their mechanics were explained in more detail during the presentation. Overall, this looks like the most content-rich version of Smash yet, but not a dramatic change from what we've seen before from the series. (trailer)

While this wasn't a megaton blowout of a presentation, the games that were shown looked like a lot of fun. Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Octopath Traveler will be holding down the fort for the rest of the year as far as major new releases go and there are a couple of 2019 titles that look really promising. See below for the screenshots I took while watching the conferences.

Also, if you're interested in pre-ordering any of the games that were shown and also supporting this blog, please use this Amazon affiliate link:  Amazon Video Games

Daemon x Machina

Xenoblade 2 DLC

Pokemon Let's Go

Fire Emblem Three Houses

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

E3 2018 Highlights: Ubisoft, Sony, Square Enix, Limited Run, and PC Gaming

The second day of E3 was stacked really heavily with conferences! As excited as I was for E3 this year, this was a lot to take in within a single day! I did my best to round up the highlights, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Ubisoft
Most of Ubisoft's showing this year were status updates on the games they showed last year that have yet to be released. Much of what they had on offer this year wasn't my thing (gritty realistic shooters), but there were still some things to get excited about.

• Beyond Good and Evil 2 - We got to see more cinematic scenes of this game after last year's brief glimpse. There was also a momentary look at very early gameplay footage. In the preview footage, it was revealed the Jade, the protagonist of the first game, makes a return, possibly as a villian this time around. Ubisoft said that the game is only being shown behind closed doors this year, so Beyond Good and Evil 2 is probably still several years from release. (trailer)
• Mario + Rabbids Donkey Kong Adventure - The upcoming expansion for Mario + Rabbids was presented with a live musical performance featuring Grant Kirkhop, the game's composer. The gameplay footage showed Donkey Kong and Cranky Rabbid as new playable characters as well as a beach-themed world to explore. I'm looking forward to this one! (trailer)
• Starlink Battle for Atlas - This was already looking like a pretty solid spaceship dogfighting game, but then came a big surprise: a cross-over with Starfox! Shigeru Miyamoto then took the stage with Yves Guillemot to introduce this new facet of the game. The Starfox content will only be available in the Switch version of the game. I'm a little concerned about this game's "toys-to-life" features but I'm cautiously optimistic about it for now. (trailer)
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey - I was surprised to see another Assassin's Creed game so soon! This one is set in ancient Greece and lets players choose between a male and female protagonist. Ubisoft heavily emphasized that this game is first and foremost an RPG, which seems like a continuation of the groundwork laid by Assassin's Creed Origin. This was also probably the most graphically stunning game that I've seen so far this E3. (trailer)

Sony
Sony had a very bizarre presentation that featured live music, multiple venues, and technical issues. It kind of felt like a mess. However, there was also plenty of game footage shown, though I must admit that much of it was not really my thing.

• The Last of Us 2 - This trailer probably would have landing differently with me if I had played the previous game and knew the characters. The graphics were sharp and the action was intense and visceral. During the preview, I found the abrupt transitions between romance scenes and gory imagery to be rather off putting. (extended trailer)
• Ghosts of Tsushima - A samurai action/adventure game with some really impressive enviroments. If any of the games from this conference are going to end up convincing me to buy a PS4, it will probably be this one. (gameplay video)
• Control - There wasn't much said about this game, but it looks like an action horror game with some surreal visuals. Could be interesting. (trailer)
• Resident Evil 2 Remake - The PS1 survival horror game is getting a complete modern remake! (trailer)
• Death Stranding - In the past we've only seen cutscenes from Kojima's trippy new project. There was now some gameplay footage mixed in but it mostly just showed the character walking through the environment. I'm thinking this game is still a long way off from release. (trailer)
• Spider-Man - We got to see more gameplay footage and get a better feel for the scope of the game world. This looks like it'll be a really fun superhero game. (trailer)

Square Enix 
Square Enix took a page from Nintendo's playbook and streamed a pre-recordeed presentation rather than doing a live stage show. This stream was a mostly no-frills 30-minute showing of trailers for upcoming games. There wasn't anything particularly exciting or surprising here.

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider - It looked like more Tomb Raider. I loved the 2013 game but still haven't gotten around to its sequel. In general, this new one looked good but was nothing groundbreaking. (trailer)
  
• Dragon Quest 11 -The PS4/PC version was shown and it showcased a colorful cast of characters. Since I've already got a lot of RPGs on the agenda for this year, I may end up waiting for the Switch version to come out later. (trailer)
• Octopath Traveler - There wasn't any new information about this Switch-exclusive RPG, but it's my most anticipated game of the year, so it gets a mention. We may see more of it later during Nintendo's show. (trailer)
• Just Cause 4 - The new Just Cause looked like even more chaotic open-world action and distruction than prior entries. I liked Just Cause 2 a lot since it managed to make open world traversal fun, rather than feel like digital commuting. I might jump back into the series with this one. (trailer)
• The Quiet Man - A story driven action game that transition between live action cutscenes and CG gameplay. This was only a teaser, so very little information was provided. I haven't seen a game use live action footage like this in a really long time. (trailer)

Limited Run
Limited Run streamed a faux-stage event that made amusing use of deliberately bad CG. Since they're a company that primarily focuses on distributing physical versions of previously-released indie games, there wasn't a lot of news in this even unless you're a cartridge collector (which I am not). However, there were two announcements that jumped out at me:

•  The House in Fata Morgana - In addition to physical game distribution, Limited Run announced that they are now in the localization business. Fata Morgana is a gothic mystery visual novel that was previously released on PC. While the PC version has an existing English translation from MangaGamer, Limited Run is localizing the PS4 and PS Vita versions which include additonal content. I'm curious to see how Limit Run's localization efforts will turn out. (trailer)
• Cosmic Star Heroine - This Chrono Trigger-like JPG was released on PC, PS4, and Xbox One last year and its developer has been trying to get it released on Switch ever since. It looks like Limited Run was able to pull that off. I've been interested in this game for a while but have been waiting for a Switch version, so this was very good news! (I couldn't find a Switch-specific trailer but the game will look similar to the PS4 version)

PC Gaming 
I wasn't able to sit down and give the PC Gaming show my full attention, so I only caught bits and pieces of it on my phone. The PC Gaming show tends to feature an eclectic mix of AAA and indie games and this year was no exception. Here are a couple standouts from the parts of the show I was able to catch:

•  Neo Cab - A cyberpunk noir game about a driver for an Uber-like company. I'm expecting a lot of social commentary in this one. (trailer)
• Archangel Hellfire - I'm always down for giant robots blowing each other up, and this game looks like it will deliver exactly that. This is a multiplayer expansion to the arcade mech shooter Archangel that was released last year. I didn't realize this during the presentation, but apparently virtual reality equipment is required to play this game. (trailer)
• Man Eater - A open-world action RPG in which you play as a shark and swim around eating people!? I'm intrigued. (trailer)
• Yakuza - Sega announced that the Yakuza series is coming to PC starting with Zero and Kiwami! I've been wanting to try one of these games for a while, so I was very happy to hear this. Several other Sega games are coming to PC as well. (trailer)
• Sable - A really beautiful adventure game with a striking hand-drawn art style. At first I thought I was looking at pre-rendered footage. (trailer)
• Rapture Rejects - A battle royale game by the creators of the Cyanide and Happiness web comic. It looks like the exact sort of crude humor one would expect from the comic. (trailer)
• Hitman 2 - The sequel to the 2016 Hitman game. This time 47 travels to Miami to take out targets with all sorts of weapons and tools, including a frying pan and a fish! (trailer)

This day of E3 was so tightly packed with games it's hard to get my head around it all! See below for the screenshots I took while watching the conferences.

Also, if you're interested in pre-ordering any of the games that were shown and also supporting this blog, please use this Amazon affiliate link:  Amazon Video Games

Mario + Rabbids Donkey Kong Adventure

Miyamoto and Guillemot on stage for Starlink

Assassin's Creed Odyssey with new female playable character

Last of Us 2

Ghosts of Tsushima

Control

Resident Evil 2 remake

Death Stranding gameplay

Spider-Man

Dragon Quest 11

Cosmic Star Heroine

Man Eater

Sable

Rapture Rejects

Hitman 2