You may remember that at the start of the month Koei Tecmo announced that Omega Force is working on an Attack on Titan game for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita and recently the company decided to not only release some of the first high-res images of the game but also some new details of what to expect when the title is released in 2016.
First and foremost the game’s main mode will cover all of the story content presented in the 2013 anime adaptation while also focusing on providing a number of additional scenarios to give some extra time in the spotlight for popular characters and all characters will feature the same voice actors from the show. According to the company they will be using a “Physics Toon Shader” to present the game with the same type of feeling of the anime by fusing it with the in-game world.
The developers are trying to focus on simplifying the 3D Maneuver Gear controls so new players won’t be too off-put by the controls but they are also trying to maintain high levels of player maneuverability to provide tactical freedom to slash at the nape of a titan’s neck, though attempting to disable it by destroying arms and legs is still a possibility. Though since the titans will be large opponents, there are times that the layout of the battlefield will change due to the titans destroying buildings or walls, limiting the movement of players and providing an ever changing environment.
Hacknet was originally conceived in a 48-hour game jam that has quietly bloomed into a full blown game in the last two and a half years. Inspired by terminal hacking sims of yesteryears, Hacknet uses actual UNIX commands and a visual GUI to simulate hacking into a wide variety of computer systems. Players will start off as a small time hacker and work their way up the rankings, all in hopes of getting close enough to solve the murder of the hacker Bit.
Story
The game kicks off with the player receiving a mysterious message from Bit. He created a fail safe to ensure that if he died, in 14 days a message would be sent to player. The plot is a little slow, as the main plot only makes serious progression during the last third of the game; however, the short plot is engaging.
The developers have done a great job of giving life to the computers the player will hack into. Random chat logs, both written for the game and from bash.org; personal emails; and other files litter the computers in the game, which create the slightly eerie feeling of secretly intruding on people’s lives. It is also clear the game is actually written by someone familiar with computers, as there are small references to real life tech knowledge like the default eOS smartphone password “alpine.”
Without spoiling too much, there is a major ethical dilemma in the game that may make some players extremely uncomfortable. I appreciate the fact the developer kept this in mind. Players are provided with a way to avoid the situation, while still giving them access to the needed hacking tools the mission provides.
Gameplay
Though Hacknet won’t actually teach players how to hack, the game will teach players some basic UNIX commands. Combined with the excellent world building, Hacknet does a fantastic job of making the player feel like a hacker. The actual hacking requires players to run several programs to open up ports, defeat firewalls, and overload proxies in order to gain administrative access to the target computer. The player will need to use their wits to defeat active traces and unhackable computers. The active traces give players a hundred seconds or less to break into the system. Since the player’s computer has limited RAM, only a certain number of hacking programs can be run at once which leads the player on some really tense moments. Unfortunately, once the player figures out the most efficient method of hacking a server, the actual hacking gets really repetitive and a bit boring. The game is extremely linear in nature, with players picking up contracts until they can unlock story related missions. There are a few spots where players get the chance to explore off the beaten path, but these are too few.
Once the computers defenses are cracked, the real puzzle solving begins. Players need to snoop around the computers, combing through emails, text files, and networks to find the solution to their mission. The overall difficulty of the game starts rather low, but ramps up nicely as the game progresses. By the end of the game, there are some really devious puzzles that await the player. There are a couple creative moments that really stick out in the game because of their uniqueness. Without spoiling anything, they provide a really great surprise that either had me scrambling to work around the challenge the game threw at me from left field or left me grinning like an idiot thinking “this is pretty awesome.”
Hacknet’s controls emphasize the terminal. Technically, the entire game could be played only using the terminal, but slow typists need not worry though. The game does have a GUI that makes navigating through files and networks a lot easier. For the hacking commands, the terminal behaves like most terminal applications in real life, so liberal use of the tab key will also help players auto-complete commands and file names. I am not a fan on how Hacknet handled the list of accessible servers. Each server appears on a box in the UI. In the early to mid game, there is no issue with the layout as there is plenty of space. Once the player hits the end of the game, that box gets really cluttered, and it becomes a bit of a pain to navigate around the box.
Visuals
Hacknet has a simple UI that is reminiscent to old-school computers. The UI is well organized and the game actually comes with its own theme changer. As the player hacks their way through the game, they can make copies of other x-server files and change the layout and colours of their UI. All of the hack programs are visualized in a pleasing way, ranging from pulsing graphs to lines of code. I had one small annoyance with the UI which occurred when the game is played in windowed mode. The mail icon and Windows’ close window button are right next to each other, which caused me to accidentally shut down the game when I reached for my mail several times.
Audio
Hacknet features classic blips and bloops of computers along with a solid electronic soundtrack from a variety of artists. The game does a great job of using the music to build tension and pace the game. The only weakness is that Hacknet will play the same track on repeat for a single area, so getting stuck in an area can get pretty boring audio-wise.
Overall
For fans of terminal based hacking simulators, Hacknet is probably one of the best titles the genre has produced in the last decade. It has its flaws with its linear gameplay, hacking mechanics that get boring after a while, and weird story pacing. However, anyone who is willing to look past this will be rewarded with fantastic puzzles, a great world, and a wonderfully immersive atmosphere.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
While Gust has been rather ambitious so far this year by working on two titles for the PlayStation 4 at the same time, it seems they are both going to take a bit longer than initially anticipated. Koei Tecmo owned Gust has announced that both Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book and Yoru no Nai Kuni have been delayed in Japan.
Atelier Sophie was initially meant to be released on September 25th but has been delayed for nearly two months to November 19th to “further increase its quality” while Yoru no Nai Kuni was pushed from September 17th to October 1st for more time to be spent on “final adjustments.”
While neither of these titles have been announced for Western release yet, this delay may mean that the localization of both titles may be pushed back as well since the chances of either of these RPGs not being released in the West is incredibly low.
Earlier this year Nintendo announced that they were finally going to be bringing Yo-kai Watch, which is incredibly popular in Japan, over to the West and just recently the company announced when 3DS owners can expect to pick up the title in North America.
Nintendo has announced that they will be releasing Level-5’s Yo-kai Watch on November 6th. It is worth noting that this is the first game in the series and primarily focuses on players catching monsters who are re-imagined Japanese spirits from folklore with over 200 total different yo-kai available to find and bring into battle.
Atlus USA has released the first in what will be a series of character trailers meant to introduce the seven main characters that can be chosen in The Legend of Legacy. The chosen character will alter the story’s focus and will also start with a fixed three-person party depending on who they ended up choosing though it is worth noting that after the prologue you can adjust your party however you wish.
Currently The Legend of Legacy is set to be released in North America on October 13th and in early 2016 for Europe. This first trailer introduces Bianca and Meurs and you can read about these characters as well as check out their intro trailer below.
Bianca
A young girl with long, ice-blonde hair, Bianca awakens on Avalon with no memory of how she got there. Or anything else for that matter. She is a mild and gentle girl who despite her unfortunate circumstances and loss of memory remains optimistic. Bianca senses that the answers to her memory loss lie deep within the island, and she is determined to recover her identity.
Bianca’s base stats imply that she is well suited for a support class. She has affinities for wind and fire elements, and prefers to use short swords, axes, spears, and bows in combat.
Meurs
One of the few remaining elementalists alive. The elements have been gathering to Avalon for unknown reasons, and Meurs is determined to find out why they’ve been so attracted to the island. He communicates with the elements and travels the earth with the spirits as his guide.
Meurs also makes for a strong support ally in battle and prefers short swords with a shield. He has a strong affinity for the wind element.
As you may or may not have heard, Koei Tecmo is currently working on developing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 and they have stated that the top nine characters who are being voted on through theme downloads on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita would be included in the game with the girl who ends up in first place receiving a special first-print bonus costume when the title is released on the PS4 while the second place girl will get an outfit on the Vita version. The PlayStation 4 version of the game will be called Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune while the PlayStation Vita version will be titled Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus.
The winners of the voting will be announced at Tokyo Game Show and all downloads will be counted until September 10th. That isn’t all the news however, as the company has released some of the first screenshots of what to expect in the game, though they did note that they are extremely early in development.
It is worth noting that for now Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is only in development for release in Japan and Asia though an “adjusted” version of the title may come to the West if there is enough demand according to an interview with producer Yosuke Hayashi in Famitsu. As for the aforementioned themes, previews of what the themes of the fifteen possible girls fans can vote for can be found below:
It was previously announced that Ayane from Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden would be released as DLC for Senran Kagura: Estival Versus sometime in the future and it turns out that the day is coming soon. Marvelous has released a trailer showing off how the guest character will perform in combat as well as how she will actually look in the game, with at least two different outfits being shown off.
Ayane’s DLC will be released sometime later this month though it is worth noting that no set release date has been revealed as of yet. As for the West, currently Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is set to be released sometime this Winter for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita by XSEED Games.
With Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator set to be released in Japanese arcades next week on August 25th Arc System Works has released the opening movie for the fighting game and with it comes the reveal of a new returning character. Jam Kuradoberi, who will now be voiced by Rei Matsuzaki, first debuted in Guilty Gear X and the company has revealed that she will be added to the arcade version of Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator in an upcoming update that hasn’t been given a release date as of yet.
Jam Kuradoberi is the third character to be joining Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator‘s roster as Jack-O and Johnny Sfondi have previously been revealed.
Dropsy, published by Devolver Digital and developed by Tendershoot and A Jolly Corpse, has thwarted my expectations. My initial impressions of the game’s videos, pictures, and description left me distinctly underwhelmed. I am a picky fan of ‘point and click’ adventure games to begin with and the retro, pixelated art style did not endear itself to me and neither did the concept. The horrifying visage of Dropsy, the game’s eponymous protagonist, made me feel that the game was some sort of Pennywise simulator in which I would be terrifying children both young and old. This could not be further from the truth.
Dropsy himself isn’t a malevolent force in this world, in fact he may be one of the nicest characters I’ve ever played in a video game. All the puzzles I’ve been able to find revolve around solving other people’s problems and making them happy. I brought a sandwich to a starving homeless woman, a pocketwatch with a portrait of youthful couple to a mourning widower, and a flower to a lovelorn woman. The game rewarded me for all these acts of kindness by allowing Dropsy to hug the person they just helped.
This brings me to one of my favourite features in this game; there is a dedicated hug button. Dropsy, the horrifying clown, spends most of the game making people happy and hugging them. This makes the game very sweet in its design and brings a smile to my face even as I write this. It would be too saccharine for my tastes were it not for how the game adds in some very dark elements to balance things out.
The first ‘quest’ that you are given in the game is to head out to meet a friend of Dropsy’s for what I thought was a birthday party and to give them a present. I made my way across town, spreading joy as I went, and got to a graveyard. It was then that I realised that I had fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the quest.
All information in the game is presented in a non-verbal form with pictures largely being used to communicate what characters are saying. What I was celebrating was not, in fact, a birthday. It was an anniversary… of someone’s death. I laid the present down on the grave. Pretty bloody sombre, that is.
The game also has some surreal horror elements (which I’ve largely found to be in Dropsy’s dreams) wherein the environment takes on a the form of a pixelated hellscape with fire and brimstone. I can’t say I did not enjoy the juxtaposition with the inherently positive outlook of Dropsy himself.
One aspect of the game that I liked was that as you successfully completed puzzles and brought happiness to people around you, you’d be able to find a crayon drawing of them on the wall in Dropsy’s house. It’s a nice little feature which I feel reinforces the child-like naivety and happy-go-lucky nature of the game’s protagonist and helps reinforce a sense of progress.
The game map is expansive with many environments for Dropsy to explore and diverse NPCs to encounter. One feature that I feel that the game sorely needs is a fast-travel system or a way to get Dropsy to speed up Dropsy as his slow waddle across a screen can get on your nerves at times. There is an option in the game to make Dropsy’s shoes honk as he walks, and I found this to be mildly amusing but not able to completely overcome my frustration.
EDIT: The devs have informed me (as well as giving me a “greasy, warm hug”) that there is in fact a method of fast travel which can be unlocked.
Beneath the terrifying exterior of surreal horror, you’ll find a game which appears to have a lot of heart underneath. I look forward to playing the game after full release and I am humbled by the fact that I had to relearn not to judge a book by its cover… or to not condemn a clown by his horrifying grin.
Western fans have been waiting for their next dose of Senran Kagura and it seems that the time is almost upon them. XSEED Games has announced that Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson will be released in North America on September 15th while gamers in Europe will get it a bit earlier on August 27th. In North America the title will be available digitally for $39.99 though a limited retail release called the “Double D Edition” will be sold for $49.99 and include two music CDs containing over sixty musical tracks.
The company also announced that until September 14th the original Senran Kagura Burst will be put on sale for $19.99 and mentioned that anyone who has save data from the first game will be able to unlock the hapless ninja Murasame (Ikaruga’s brother) for free while anyone else can purchase him as $4.99 DLC.
To go along with this announcement the company has released a handful of new screenshots as well as a trailer for Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson and you can check those out below.
