Ubisoft has confirmed that their World War 1 set, puzzle-adventure game Valiant Hearts: The Great War, will be releasing on June 25th. The game is being developed by Ubisoft Montpellier (best known for their work on the new Rayman games) and will be available for download on Xbox LIVE for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and on PC at the price of £11.99 (as we predicted the AU price was later confirmed to be $19.95).
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is the story of crossed destinies and a broken love in a world torn apart. Players will experience a touching yet comical adventure which focuses on the journey of four people as they brave the battles and difficulties of the Great War following their faithful canine companion (I really hope the dog doesn’t die, he’s adorable). All of the main characters are inextricably drawn together, and friendship, love, sacrifice and tragedy befall each as they help each other to retain their humanity against the horrors of war.
The team is using the UbiArt Framework (which was employed to great success in the latest Ubisoft release Child of Light) to easily and efficiently animate the game’s comic-book style straight from the artist’s original concept art. A new trailer titled Comeback has also been released which you can view below. For more information on Valiant Hearts: The Great War, please visit the official website.
As a kid that grew up being read fairy tales, I never truly understood them. Like most children I took these types of stories as they came, not looking any deeper into the messages and morals behind each and every story but I was just a silly kid. As a grew older I began to show a disinterest in fantasy-type storytelling looking to indulge myself only with things that spoke to me on a very shallow level. Now, being in my 20s, I’ve started looking back and researching on the origins of these stories, what they represented, what they SHOULD have taught me and they inspiration that led to their creation.
Unfortunately it was too late for me, my interest in sitting through another “Disney” movie or reading another children’s book simply to try my hand at understand the more deep-seeded themes and issues within them had depleted…then “Child Of Light” came along. It was a game I thought I had no interest in but one that allowed me to understand the types of subject matter that have inspired countless pieces of entertainment throughout the ages. Thanks to “Ubisoft” and “Child Of Light” my eyes were pried open and left subject to the beauty of a well-written tale. Let’s see if I can maybe open up yours.
Story
Players will follow the melancholy yet ultimately uplifting story of the young princess Aurora. The beautiful girl with locks of blood red hair falls ill one sorrowful day and unfortunately passes away much to the distress and heartache of her father and the people of the Austrian kingdom she is to one day govern. Waking up in a strange world filled with abnormal flora and fauna, Aurora soon realize that she’s no longer in the world she once used to dwell. She soon meets with a quirky little creature named Igniculus who refers to itself as a “firefly”. Igniculus helps the princess partners with her as they continue through the misty forest but the two aren’t alone for very long. The two eventually are eventually confronted by a mysterious cloaked being who explains to Aurora that an evil entity has taken away the sun, moon and stars of this world.
With the world covered in darkness, there’s no way Aurora can return home but what if she was to recover the sun, moon and stars? Would she then be able to be within her father’s embrace once more? Aurora (alongside her firefly friend) now travel through this “new” world, making friends, shining a light in the darkness and all the while trying their very best to save this world and to get Aurora back to her own. At first glance, the “Child Of Light” story seems like quite a generic one but I beg that you not take my explanation of it to be exactly how it comes across. The depth of the storylines and the complexities of the characters within are what really makes this game so fantastically beautiful. The story itself is clearly inspired by classic fairy tales, in fact, most things in “Child Of Light” are fairy tale-inspired. The game’s dialogue is all in rhymes, each character bounces off of the other and when certain characters forget to do that, Igniculus always has something to say.
To have dialogue written in such a way that is both obvious yet not overdone is quite the feat for any writing team. It just so happens that the one for “Child Of Light” did it perfectly. It deals with the themes of death, loss, darkness, depression and the rising above the negative to attain the positive. Aurora grows as she meets new characters and goes head-to-head with dark creatures. She’s not just a little girl; she’s a princess, a warrior and a shinning beacon of light in a world that has succumb to darkness. The story is see deep and interesting, it’s filled with so many things to see and so many varying character to interact with as well as small side stories that’ll range from putting you in a solemn space to having you in stitches. It’s a fleshed-out piece of work with not a plot hole in sight and some of the most engaging scenes to ever be present in a title of its kind…something I wish I could see in a great deal of other game releases.
Gameplay
“Child Of Light” somehow does something I would have never thought possible: It mixes classic platforming with an odd but incredible style of turn-based RPG gameplay that (alongside its many other positive aspects, may just be the defining element that places it high above the rest. Journeying throughout “Child Of Light” allows players to enjoy the most perfect example of fundamental side-scrolling platformers. “Ubisoft” has taken the basics of the gameplay style and absolutely perfected in an entirely satisfying way. My thoughts are that they realized that the platforming style of gaming doesn’t NEED to be drastically changed or reinvented so they simply didn’t and it worked beautifully because it mean that they could focus on the matching of the two genres rather than the overbuilding of just the one…Though, in saying that, they’ve done something sensational with their take on turn-based strategy titles but we’ll get onto that soon enough.
While platforming throughout the game you’ll run into a lot of familiar obstacles and puzzles that you’ll have to overcome to be able to move on. In battle (executed by coming into physical contact with an enemy icon) you go up against a maximum of three enemies at a time. Markers representing your party members and the individual enemy units are placed on upon what I would call a “time line” (not a timeline). This “time line” indicates how close a character is to executing an attack. Once you begin to think about it, the battle system is quite similar to that of a race. Some characters are faster while others are slower but there are a bunch of varying factors like simple character type (mage, warrior, etc) and status ailments/boosters, some of which speed up or slow down the speed of a character. Units can also be interrupted while attacking which sends them back on the “time line”, this alongside so many other things can make battles in “Child Of Light” quite fierce. The fighters you’ll recruit into your party are all pivotal characters in the story of “Child Of Light” and the differences between each of them gives players good reason to implement them into their battle strategies. No character is like another which is absolutely fantastic as there’s no overlap and no reason to exclude certain character because “they can’t do this as well as THAT character can”, which is quite a convincing argument for RPG players like me.
There is a leveling system in the game that revolves around experience earnt from battles and even though you can only have two character battling at one time (with the option to switch out instantly) the experience points are dealt out to every character which eliminates the worry of any getting left behind. With leveling comes the character skill tree: For each level you gain, you’re given one skill point which can be used to develop the individual characters in exactly the way you want. Each character has a unique skill tree and many different ways of using them depending on which branch you decide to upgrade first. “Child Of Light” also features an extremely helpful multiplayer option which puts a second player in control of Igniculus the firefly who can heal party members, slow down enemy units and help Aurora through any dark caverns whilst all the while finding her treasures that she may or may not be able to access herself. “Ubisoft” have implemented just about as much as they possibly could into this title without making it feel muddled up and convoluted. Gameplay-wise “Child Of Light” is absolutely brilliant. There’s nothing more to be said. Simply brilliant.
Visuals
To say that the aesthetics of “Child Of Light” are breathtaking would be a grievous understatement. Literally as soon as you begin the game you’re met with a series of incredible still images which are used in conjunction with spoken dialogue to set up the adventure in which you’re about to embark on. Past the opening sequence and into the actual gameplay portion of the title you’re thrown into a world that, although clearly 2D, has enough layers (both foreground and background) to make reality seem flat. “Child Of Light” truly looks like a storybook brought to life and I couldn’t imagine any other visual style to have represented that better. The visual intricacies are incredibly impressive. The very first thing you notice is the dynamic movement of Aurora’s hair, after that it is the animation difference between her and the rest of this strange world that you notice; there is a clear that characters like Aurora are from another world, not only through dialogues speaking of such a thing, but from the actual animation.
While she is well-rounded and liquid in movement, the rest move more like paper marionettes rather than 3D character models. The world itself, each and every environment, has such an air of wonder yet danger about it. It’s almost hard to describe in a way that truly makes sense because, well…it doesn’t. To have this much environmental depth in a game that describes itself as a “side-scrolling platformer” shows that, really, anything is possible. The way characters move and react to certain situations is nothing short of “real”: Aurora, while traveling through different settings, tends to look around at everything she can, showing us that she’s just about as intrigued by the whole thing as we are. Aurora, wielding one heck of a sword, finds it hard to gracefully wield it seeing as how it’s bigger than her: Winding up for attacks and dropping the sword as she raises it above her head to symbolize victory shows this as well as showing her fragility and bringing players back to Earth having them think “oh right! She’s just a little girl!”.
Audio
“Child Of Light” has one of the most auditorally-pleasing soundtracks that I’ve heard in quite some time. While other games have great soundtracks with great music, the tracks in “Child Of Light” felt like green tea for my ear canals. Tracks were mostly made up of soothing, whimsical0sounding notes that perfectly matched the vibe of the game and the environments players must traverse through but, at an instant, you could be thrust into battle and there you’re met with booming sounds of pure exhilaration. That mixed with the ultimately rewarding sounds of the crashing of Aurora’s sword, the jingling of Rubella’s bells as she struck an enemy or the whizzing of Finn’s magical attacks zapping an overgrown praying mantis.
It all just sounded so damn good! There isn’t a great deal of voice acting in this game, in fact, it only comes up every once in a while but, in the places where voice acting was present, the performances were absolutely brilliant. Beatrice Martin (known as “Cœur de pirate“) composed the music for “Child Of Light”. It was her inclusion in the development process that, I believe, truly brought out the best of this game’s audio. Having someone extremely talented and highly experienced with sound and music on the team really did many huge favors for “Child Of Light”. Mrs. Martin was able to bring the very best out of every scene by composing music that could flawlessly represent auditorally the feelings that it was trying to portray visually. From the first track to the final sound effect. Simple brilliance.
Overall
It’s almost like I’m lost for words when it comes to describing this game in any detail but, while playing it, it is truly hard to determine what you’ll say seeing as how it could be summed up by simply saying it was “perfect”. “Child Of Light” opened up something within me that I honestly didn’t think was there, something I thought I’d lost years ago when I reached the end of my fairy tale-liking stage of life, something that WASN’T opened up by the constant flow of fairy tale-based “Disney” movies but now I can feel it.
For a person like myself to not enjoy “fantasy” titles in gaming, it was actually quite a surprise that I liked this game as much as I did. To think but a week ago I walked into a local game store, was asked if I was there to purchase this game and replied “No. I’m not really into that stuff.” but here I am, I’ve opened myself up to a brand-new type of game and I’ve fallen victim to its wonder. While there are plenty of other games being released on the PlayStation 4, it’s more games like this that we need to prove that the next generation has truly begun.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After several days of sleuthing by the Don’t Starvecommunity, the puzzle has been solved. The little messages being dropped by birds in game since the release of the “Reign of Giants” expansion pack were hiding the multiplayer support announcement. Don’t Starve will be releasing multiplayer support as a free update for all players. Currently, the team has a working prototype and they hope that an alpha testing phase will kick off this summer. The development team has made a lengthy announcement post on the Don’t Starve forums to address many community concerns.
Don’t Starve is available for PlayStation 4 and Steam. The “Reign of Giants” DLC is only available for PC at this time.
If you happened to play Mugen Souls then you probably are already familiar with the Captivate system which involved Chou Chou performing various moe poses to try and attack her enemies weakpoints. Well that system is returning in Mugen Souls Z though this time around Syrma will be trying to capture her opponents.
Today NIS America released a new trailer highlighting the Captivate System as well as the various “fetish poses” that Syrma can use to try and captivate her enemies. Syrma will have eight different personalities similar to Chou Chou and you can check out the full details below. As for Mugen Souls Z, it is currently set to be released in North America on May 20th.
Turtle Beach announced that they will be creating a line of Star Wars branded gaming headsets. The line will be headlined with headsets featuring the upcoming animated TV series Star Wars Rebels. Gamers will be able to get a first look at the headset line at E3 2014 this June.
“As a company in the gaming and entertainment space, we can’t help but be excited by the prospect of working on Star Wars headset designs in collaboration with Lucasfilm,” said Bob Picunko Chief Marketing Officer at Turtle Beach. “We are looking forward to introducing state-of-the-art headsets that appeal to both casual and elite players who are fans of Star Wars.”
The Star Wars Turtle Beach headsets will be released in Fall 2014. No word on which headsets in Turtle Beach’s line will receive the Star Wars treatment just yet.
Today Gust and Tecmo Koei have released the first full trailer for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea. In this trailer many of the game’s mechanics are shown off such as exploration, battle, and alchemy as well as a few of the characters that are in the game.
You can check out the trailer below and be sure to keep an eye out in the final few seconds as Escha and Logy’s opening video appears for a few seconds, though it is currently unknown if they will play a part in Atelier Shallie in any way. Currently Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is set to be released in Japan on July 17th and will likely be released in North America sometime in early 2015 if Tecmo’s localization history for the series is anything to go by.
Today Rebellion and 505 Games have released an almost five minute long gameplay trailer for Sniper Elite 3 showing off tons of new gameplay footage, details on the game’s storyline and pieces of footage that go over how the player can use the game’s new environments to their advantage.
Sniper Elite 3 features a number of new mechanics that allow the player to mask their presence and even vehicle destruction that is just as detailed looking as the gruesome kill cams. Check out the full video below to learn how to take out your targets with the best of them once Sniper Elite 3 is released on the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Last month Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes teased a CGI trailer that would be released later on and now that full trailer has been released and you can check it out below. The trailer shows an armored warrior try to take down a lich looking enemy only for the spell to not even cause the enemy to flinch before sending a monstrous dog after the warrior who just barely manages to defeat it before having to face off against even more creatures summoned by the lich.
The trailer also gives us the game’s release date which, showing that Risen 3: Titan Lords will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on August 12 in North America and August 15 in Europe. Previously announced details involve the game having an overhauled fighting system and a new animation style. There will also be three guilds available to play through and a number of other factions to help pad out the experience. Risen 3: Titan Lords’ official box art has also been revealed and can be found to the right.
Remember how Compile Heart was teasing an announcement for their Galapagos brand? Well today that announcement has been made courtesy of Famitsu and it happens to be a JRPG called Omega Quintet for the PlayStation 4. While a number of games have been announced and released on the new console, this is the first JRPG to actually be announced as a PS4 exclusive.
Omega Quintet is being described as a mix between idol management and an RPG where mysterious creatures called “Beep” are starting to affect the minds of humans and destroy the world. The five heroines in this game are able to defeat the Beep through singing. As you can see above and below, a single screenshot of the game has been released so far as well as character art for all five girls with their names as follows: Otoha, Kyouka, Kanadeko, Nene, and Aria. Currently Omega Quintet is set to be released in Japan on September 18th.
Today Nintendo announced that they are bringing out two new Pokémon games later this year, though how new they are can be subjective this time around since these games are redone versions of the Game Boy Advance release of Ruby and Sapphire.
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire as they are called will be released worldwide in November 2014 and no details have been announced for these games as of yet, though a “new adventure” and “new world” appear in the trailer which you can check out below which might mean that the games have been given more than just a modern overhaul.
