The E3 2015 Thread

ayase said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
Have you played SEGA's Yakuza games? It's not exactly the same thing as Shenmue (it replaces the boring stuff with actual gameplay), and it's not exactly an RPG, but it's one of my favourite series.
I haven't. I was quite interested to give them a go, but then my PS3's disc drive died and for some reason it didn't like me replacing it with a spare from a console with a fried CPU. Maybe if I get a cheap replacement at some point (which might be worth doing as second hand PS3 games are a steal now) or if and when they decide to bring the series to the PC.

Yakuza is pretty rare nowadays (most notably Yakuza 1 and 3) but if you ever manage to get a PS3 cheap Yakuza 4, Dead Souls and eventually 5 will be available on PSN (4 and Dead Souls are £14.99).
 
I don't know about the first one, but I wouldn't call 3 rare. Just looking at Amazon you can get it delivered for just under £10 and on CeX it's only a fiver (Not including shipping, IDK how much they charge) with almost 50 in stock online.
 
ayase said:
I am kinda tempted, less than £20 is good value for a game on release these days. Also, the idea of an open world RPG in a modern day Asian setting sounds quite promising.

I need to find out more about the original games, obviously. I was about to say if combat is turn based like other JRPGs I'm less interested, but apparently it's QTE. Hmm. I don't know if that's better or worse.

You should definitely check out the games, there's nothing else out there quite like them. While, I can't guarantee anything, I think there is every chance you'd like them. As Fabricated said, it has it's clunky controls and moments, but none of that really matters as it's a game that truly immerses you in 1980's Japan and China. Including it's own take on the Kowloon walled city!! It's story, while hardly Shakespeare, is full of a unique brand of orientalist mysticism I simply can't get enough of, and the way it's supernatural elements subtly (well,for most of the two games anyway, and I ain't even mad at that bit, that amazing bit) contrast against the firmly rooted reality of the environments and certain deliberately mundane aspects (e.g the infamous forklift job), is quite simply exquisite. And that's not hyperbole, I literally haven't experienced that painstakingly nuanced blend in any other media. No other game or film for me, has made the mystical seem so believable.
I'm not surprised Fab didn't get on too well with Shenmue 2, as he never played Shenmue. These games aren't stand alone, Shenmue 1 and 2 are the least self contained games I have ever played. Their relationship is symbiotic. Again, it's all about the subtle, yet nonetheless striking, contrasts between the two. I won't spoil anything, as that is an experience that needs to be actually experienced first hand, but where 80's Yokosuka is cozy, comforting and familiar, 80's Hong Kong is dangerous, wild and unpredictable.
It's also a game in which every character, literally every single NPC that make Yokosuka and Hong Kong feel so alive, has an actual routine and little backstory blurbs written about them. You can't necessarily find the backstory's in the game, but they were still written anyway, and if you really want them, you can find them online. That is the level of detail we are talking about, no one is a faceless John in this game, from the old man you see smoking cigarettes on the park bench, to the Barbers wife, everyone is someone. Likewise, the faces (and unlike the faces we see on the Kickstarter preview, but I'm not mad) in these two games are equally craggy and characterful. They are gorgeous games, still to this day.
Winter (complete with a drunk wondering Santa) will turn to spring slowly, and you might not even realize it's happening, but you'll become attached to Yokosuka, and Hong Kong too, and when it's all over, you will genuinely miss those places and people. That's why people couldn't give up on Shenmue.

Also, for the record, the QTEs in Shenmue are fine, and they are only occasionally, not the whole game. The majority of the game is like a point and click adventure or something, punctuated occasionally,well pretty sparingly for most of the games, by Virtua Fighter-style brawls.

There is so much more I could say, but I'll stop there.

I'd also like to say that these are really nothing like the Yakuza games. They are polar opposites, chalk and cheese. Yakuza is garish, ugly, and totally lacks any subtlety whatsoever. In visuals, story, and gameplay. It's full of random battles, literally every two steps, a convoluted messy story, a cast too large to care about, and lifeless NPC's all wearing the same shiny puffer jacket's with THUG or something written on them. I have still played 2 Yakuza games to completion, but I don't recommend them particularly, and I would never ever ever ever compare them to Shenmue. The only things they have in common are being open world and made by Sega.
 
Well I'm not sure how they did it, but Nintendo managed to put on a worse show than EA....

The only thing I was even a lil interested in was SMTxFE, and that looks bloody awful too, how you screw up that concept I dunno but here we are....Well that and Fire Emblem I guess, but Fire Emblem was always gonna be a day 1 anyway.

What makes it worse is I didn't even expect much of them and I'm still let down, ridiculous. But hey if you like Mario and Amiibos I guess it may be okay for you lol never mind.
 
Really liked Nintendo's Showing this year. The highlight for me was definitely Fire Emblem, SMT x Fire Emblem and Xenoblade. Those all look super good and SMT x Fire Emblem is really making me want a Wii U, it just looks awesome. I'd like to see some straight up game play from it soon as I'd love to know if they're going to use the SMT Battle System or Press Turn. Either way, it looks great. The new Star Fox looks pretty good too and Yokai Watch might be interesting. The Animal Crossing party game was worth the announcement just to see the Giant Bomb guy's faces.
 
NormanicGrav said:
New Nier game announced for PS4, more details in the fall.

Platinum Games will be handling development.

I haven't played a Neir game before but I'm 100% behind anything with Platinum involved.

Also Just Cause 3 looks incredibly fun.
 
NIEr 2!, I CAN DIE HAPPY

I listen to the soundtrack for Nier every week or so, adore the game and the score. As soon as the art started my gut told me it was Nier, then when those few chords from the Nier score came in to the new beautiful piece of music....almost a big a reaction for me as Shenmue 3 caused.
 
More Kingdom Hearts III gameplay has been unveiled.

- New trailer!
- Tangled world has been featured (thanks to the Walt Disney Animation Studios introduction before they unveiled the trailer).
- That ship we saw during the last gameplay, yeah you can summon that anywhere pretty much. Neat.

In addition a localised version of Kingdom Hearts x Unchained Key has been announced for smartphones.
 
Buzzkillington said:
The only thing I was even a lil interested in was SMTxFE, and that looks bloody awful too, how you screw up that concept I dunno but here we are....
It's good to know I'm not alone here. SMTxFE looks to be the biggest waste of potential. How they screwed it up is beyond me.

NormanicGrav said:
More Kingdom Hearts III gameplay has been unveiled.

- New trailer!
- Tangled world has been featured (thanks to the Walt Disney Animation Studios introduction before they unveiled the trailer).
- That ship we saw during the last gameplay, yeah you can summon that anywhere pretty much. Neat.

In addition a localised version of Kingdom Hearts x Unchained Key has been announced for smartphones.
I love KH2 so much and I want to be excited for KH3, but it looks like they've added combat elements from KH3D. I didn't like KH3D.
 
Dare I say that Square's conference has been the worst one by far? It seems to have been pretty poorly planned too. We've had sections where the translator hasn't translated at all, and we just had the wonderful line - "Hello everybody my name is.... Uh....... Hi everyone-"
I felt sorry for the Japanese guy presenting on stage. This to the sort of showcase I'd have expected from Konami if they'd attended this year. Opening with that obnoxiously long Just Cause 3 video wasn't a good idea either IMO.
 
I quite like Square Enix's conference. Just Cause 3 looks really fun and I'm excited about the new Platinum game. Star Ocean 5 also looks interesting. The only things I didn't like were the repeats of trailers they showed in other shows.
 
The crowd at the Square Enix show was awful and didn't help what was already a pretty awkward conference, which was a shame because they showed some nice stuff.
 
The SE conference was a little awkward, but it was still better than EA and Ninty. Star Ocean and Nier look interesting, but since I've never played anything from either series I'll have to get the older 360 games before committing to the PS4 stuff.

One thing I've noticed thinking back on all the game trailers I've seen this last few days: Mass Effect, Star Wars, Just Cause, Fallout, CoD, there are jetpacks turning up everywhere. It's like how everything suddenly had a dog sidekick a few years back.

I hear that Bandai Namco have another game to reveal tomorrow. If it's a new Ace Combat then I can declare this to be my all time favourite E3. Every other box on my wishlist has been ticked, so come on Bamco!
 
Loved Nintendo's Digital Event, but yeah do not give a crap about SMT X FE which looks absolutely horrible in every way, shape and form especially when contrasted with the lovely Fire Emblem Fate which looks awesome. Highlight of E3 is Super Mario Maker which looks fantastic, loved the whole segment with Tezuka and Miyamoto. Star Fox is being developed by PlatinumGames so excited. Also hell yeah more Amiibo Please.

Some artwork from the Nintendo event:

Super Mario Maker, each retail copy of the game will come with the special booklet. Out September 11th.
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Next is Star Fox Zero which is out this Holiday:

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash Out Holiday 2015:

Zelda TriForce Heroes Out Fall 2015:

Chibi Robo Zip Lash Out October 9th:

Xenoblade X Out 4th December 2015:

Finally Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival which is also out this holiday:
 
E3: Shenmue III is console exclusive to PlayStation

For those of you wondering why Shenmue III was at the Sony conference and only slated for PS4 and PC, some details have come up.

Gio Corsi of Sony's Third Party Production & Developer Relations has revealed during the E3 livestream that Sony is helping fund and create the game. The idea of the kickstarter was to help gauge interest in the series rather than fund the game.

It was revealed that Shenmue III was the number-one requested title on Sony’s #BuildingTheList social media campaign, the same campaign that was able to bring Yakuza 5 to the west.

Source - Kotaku, Siliconera
 
SE's conference was very good I thought. They have done an otherworldly job of turning themselves around in the last few years and avoiding becoming the next Konami or Capcom that you expect to exit the industry completely in the near future.

Opening with a long movie of JC3 was a great idea because a) that game looks insane and b) this is E3, not TGS.

Ninty was also above average, I'm not sure what better presentation people could have expected given that we knew ahead of time that Zelda wasn't going to be there. Even there "comedy" bits were actually funny this year.

edit: Weird, I totally missed that Kibayashi Shin was writing the new Fire Emblem. Interesting.
 
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