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Thursday, September 17, 2020

Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | September 2020: The MONSTER HUNTER Direct!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This was much more interesting than what I was anticipating.

We have had a July 2020 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase, as well as an August 2020 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase. We know what to expect from these: Third-party companies (non-Nintendo) showing upcoming Nintendo Switch titles and making announcements.

However, we (...or, at least, I) didn't expect the twist from today's Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | September 2020. It was immediately followed up with a dedicated Monster Hunter Direct!





I'll write about all of the non-Monster Hunter stuff first, and then get to the real part of the article.

The Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase | September 2020


They announced Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise, with the line, “Customise your instructor's outfit to provide even more variety for your workouts.” Showing the instructor in some heavily-reduced clothing. That was followed up with, “Use all of these features to help keep you going.” There is also a new NPC named Karen, which is a name people dislike nowadays.

There was also the announcement of Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, coming exclusively to the Nintendo Switch this Summer 2021. Nintendo Switch Online members will be able to download a time-limited full version of Disgaea 5 Complete starting from September 23 to September 30, but you probably can't finish the whole thing since the game claims to be “hundreds of hours” long. In other news, I've been pronouncing Disgaea wrong. (“Diss gay uh” is apparently incorrect.)

There is Empire of Sin, which reminds me of that meme mobile game Mafia City (or at least its ads). It has snazzy music in the trailer, at least. Meanwhile, BALAN WONDERWORLD reminds me of A Hat in Time, since they're both transformation-based 3D platformers. (Oh, by the way, we're gonna talk about 3 3D platformers tomorrow.) Rune Factory 5 reminds me of Animal Crossing plus Story of Seasons plus...a battle system.


Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase September sheep Rune Factory 5 Balan Wonderworld
Multiple developers wanted to make a Wooloo tribute, I guess? Join Momo's.
And I know Mokomoko in Rune Factory has existed before, but they could've shown a Buffamoo and didn't.


Lastly, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is somehow now available on the Nintendo Switch despite being published by Xbox Game Studios. (Though the first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, is also on Nintendo Switch.)

Monster Hunter Direct of September 2020


First of all, Monster Hunter is supposed to have a cat, Palico, as the mascot. But Monster Hunter Rise from CAPCOM is introducing another animal buddy, Palamute, which is a dog that gives strong Zacian/Zamazenta vibes. Boo. Anyway, Monster Hunter Rise features the Wirebug creature, which is a grappling hook/Spider-Man-esque navigational tool. These can be used in combat—increasing maneuverability—as well as exploration.

Monster Hunter Rise will be exclusive to Nintendo Switch when it releases March 2021, which is nice, since the Nintendo Switch never received Monster Hunter: World.

However, what is much more interesting to me is Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, which is a turn-based roleplaying game with a deep story using Monster Hunter characters, as opposed to the normal series which is a grind-y action multiplayer title. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is releasing later in 2021, is not as far in development as Rise, and got almost no details in the Direct. I've played the extensive demo of the first Monster Hunter Stories on the 3DS (which, by the way, is no longer in production as a hardware family), but I never bought it, not even at 30% off. HOWEVER, it, and other Monster Hunter games on Nintendo 3DS/Switch, are on sale. In particular, Monster Hunter Stories is 50% off until October 2.

Is Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin a direct sequel? In other words, should I buy and play through the first one if this one interests me? (I should note my New Nintendo 3DS XL is kind of a disaster and has a maximum battery life of around half an hour now, so buying 3DS RPGs may be a poor idea.)

CAPCOM promises more details at Tokyo Game Show 2020 in a little over a week, which brings me to something else on my mind.

MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 2: Wings of Ruin lying if I wasn't nervous
The next line is the girl thinking everything will be alright.
...I didn't include that part since that's not how I feel.


I've previously stated that the mythical “Ace Attorney 7” should get a reveal at the Tokyo Game Show 2020. CAPCOM even has a dedicated presence. However, their schedule is looking a bit... packed right now, between two Monster Hunter games, a Street Fighter V tournament, and the two games shown in yesterday's PlayStation 5 Showcase, Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition and Resident Evil Village. Sure, the schedule can change without notice, and surprises may happen, but I'm feeling... rather pessimistic now. It wouldn't make sense for CAPCOM's Ace Attorney team (assuming it still exists) to have resources reallocated to make action titles, horror titles, or RPGs. Where are they? What have they been doing? When will we see their work?



Ludwig easily liked this September 2020 Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase more than the July and August ones, since this had interesting content without also including offensive gross content. (See August's especially for an example of that.) Comment what you liked (or disliked) about this Partner Showcase, including if you found more worth in the non-Monster Hunter content than what was portrayed in this article.


Ludwig was correct that there was no Ace Attorney reveal at the Tokyo Game Show 2020, but CAPCOM's other games didn't get much news, either, despite days dedicated to them!
The next Partner Showcase is in October 2020, and believe it or not, but it's even better than this one.

Ludwig played through the Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise demo. He wasn't thrilled.
BALAN WONDERWORLD is an offensively horrible game. Remarks on its demo here.
The next new bunch of information on Monster Hunter Stories 2 happens in March.

14 comments :

  1. The fact that there's going to be a Disgaea 6 really makes me wish I had the patience to finish the first game (I have it on Steam.) And then the 2nd, which I also have on Steam. So that I could theoretically work my way to the 6th. But...it's just too grindey!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That explains why they're hundreds of hours long and talking about level 99s and quadrillions of damages.

      Delete
    2. Yeah pretty much, exactly. It's a gimmick to get people to grind up the game's playtime. Like, the levels in Disgaea 1 get up to I think 9999 but the final boss of the STORY is a mere level 120.

      ...And even getting THAT far is too grindey for me.

      Delete
    3. Do bosses get more stats per level than you do? :x

      Delete
  2. "Meanwhile, BALAN WONDERWORLD reminds me of A Hat in Time, since they're both transformation-based 3D platformers."

    I don't think I'd call A Hat in Time "transformation-based" just because you put on hats with different powers. The transformations in Balan Wonderworld look much more involved.

    "But Monster Hunter Rise from CAPCOM is introducing another animal buddy, Palamute, which is a dog that gives strong Zacian/Zamazenta vibes."

    And strong Repede vibes, so I thought we were getting a Tales of Vesperia sequel or something crazy like that at the start of the trailer.

    "Is Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin a direct sequel? In other words, should I buy and play through the first one if this one interests me?"

    Judging by the trailer, it doesn't look like it's a direct sequel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, don't challenge my vibes. >_> We'll see how the transformations go.

      I've seen a lot more people reference Repede in comments sections and the like, so you're right on that. Colour scheme too.

      If it's not a direct sequel, does that mean you won't directly tell me to get the first one? :p

      Delete
    2. I really enjoyed Monster Hunter Stories on the 3DS (it's also on mobile devices), but not to the point where I'd bug you to play it ahead of the sequel.

      Also, if it turns out they are connected story-wise, there was an anime adaptation of the first game, too.

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    3. (Yeah I'm obviously not getting a mobile version of it, ever.)

      wtf CAPCOM made an anime of it? ...Is that a Japan-only thing?

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    4. Nope, it's in English too. It even got a dub. The anime didn't get great reviews, and apparently the dub has some odd translation issues where they changed monster names, but it does exist. It also has 75 episodes, which is much longer than I expected.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Hunter_Stories:_Ride_On

      Delete
    5. It's very confusing that the Wikipedia article has 48 episodes but the infobox says there's 75...!

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    6. Hmm, looks like there are 48 episodes in the first season, and then the second season was never translated. So the others are available only in Japan. Crunchyroll's page says "Due to licensing issues, we do not know when episode 49+ will be available."

      (I can only find 70 total listed, though, so I don't know where Wikipedia got the other 5 from.)

      Delete
    7. Well they cited the CAPCOM website for the anime, but there's no number that says 75 on there. Maybe an editor did... ORIGINAL RESEARCH.

      Delete
    8. I managed to find some places that list all 75 episodes.

      Delete
    9. Maybe you should edit the Wikipedia article then. >.>

      Delete

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