By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Two streams in one article! (Not simultaneously, though I considered it.)
During the Capcom Showcase 2022 earlier this week, they teased a special video for Dragon's Dogma and its 10-year anniversary. Rather than just show the video during the showcase, they instead looped the stream two additional times and told Dragon's Dogma fans to stay tuned for 18:00 Eastern on June 16 for a dedicated stream.
However, that's the same timeslot that SQUARE ENIX was already asking people to attend a short but exciting 25-year anniversary stream for FINAL FANTASY VII, which is really its own distinct brand from the rest of the FINAL FANTASY franchise. That means there are TWO anniversary streams for games I haven't actually played going on at the same time. ...And I'll watch them both for your entertainment and information.
I started with the Dragon's Dogma's stream. Click here to jump to the Final Fantasy VII part. ...Ah, I can't really embed the Dragon's Dogma stream because it's age restricted. Whoops.
5:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wohQiEysqIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndLqGPqeQqM
There's a 10th anniversary Dragon's Dogma video and a 25th anniversary Final Fantasy VII video at the SAME TIME.
[6:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Since CAPCOM is a disaster with streaming lately, I'll watch Dragon's Dogma first.
[6:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This has the same annoying-ish one-minute countdown as the Pokémon YouTube livestreams.
[6:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So it's... possible that's a YouTube thing.
[6:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Rated E to M?
[6:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Dragon Dogma CAPCOM Itsuno here.
[6:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He loves tabletop RPGs and playing games in the arcade. (Why am I watching this?)
[6:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He felt that RPGs weren't action-y enough, unlike Street Fighter II.
[6:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Street Fighter II was packed with action and real-time freedom... but JRPGs didn't do that.
[6:04 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Something about arcade version of Dungeons and Dragons...
[6:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ....and working on a single-player action RPG where you could exchange characters with other people. That was his idea for the pawn system for Dragon's Dogma.
[6:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But he's off working on Devil May Cry 2 and 3 before getting to work on this action RPG.
[6:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I read the Wikipedia article on Dragon's Dogma prior to watching this.
[6:07 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It really didn't explain wot's special about this pawn system.
[6:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He's panting.
[6:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The world of Dragon's Dogma was inspired by the Welsh countryside.
[6:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They were impressed with the weeds.
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| In Japan, they have an army of Animal Crossing fans that uproot all of the weeds. |
[6:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The "pawn system" has smart human-like AI.
[6:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Which, I dunno, doesn't seem special?
[6:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Reminds me of Kirby's Team Clash Deluxe.
[6:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Where it's a single-player game (unless you have local friends, which I don't, where you can do local multiplayer and THEY TIED ACHIEVEMENTS TO IT which I've ranted about on KoopaTV), but you can summon warriors based on random people's Kirby profiles (or those of your friends) that you can bring in your party to fight bosses. Those Kirby characters have the name of your friend and the stats, but are still AI.
[6:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So I guess that was still a very novel concept 10 years ago (pre Team Kirby Clash Deluxe).
[6:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're talking a lot about visuals and the character design.
[6:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They have an important announcement.
[6:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Dragon's Dogma II!
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| From left to right: Daigo Ikeno (art director), Hideaki Itsuno (director), Kenichi Suzuki (level designer). |
[6:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's currently in development!
[6:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Likely Mature 17+"
[6:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Alright.
[6:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...Stream over.
[6:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And unlike the CAPCOM Showcase 2022, it didn't loop again.
[6:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Now let's watch the FFVII stream?
[6:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's still going live.
[6:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But I'm going to the part where the stream starts (back in time).
[6:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: FINAL FANTASY VII... FINAL FANTASY ADVENT CHILDREN
[6:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: BEFORE CRISIS - FINAL FANTASY VII
[6:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: CRISIS CORE - FINAL FANTASY
[6:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: DIRGE OF CERBERUS
[6:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I watched Dirge of Cerberus gameplay earlier today, because it's a gag of the Dinger City Mari0 Superstar Baseball channel when a game ends early due to mercy, they put in Dirge of Cerberus gameplay to extend the video length so it doesn't spoil the video ahead of time by making it obvious there was a mercy.
[6:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...Well, I kinda just spoiled the video in that description.
[6:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Intergrade is available on STEAM tomorrow.
[6:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Oh, shoot, I need to turn on English sub-titles.
[6:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (As opposed to being on the Epic Games Store.)
[6:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's compatible with the Steam Deck, which I totally forgot about.
[6:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: How widely available is that thing?
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They got a "Merchandise and Music" section... With a Digital Clock Buster Sword???
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ???????
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Uh...
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And some kind of figurines.
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And... a silver...accessory?
[6:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And a vinyl compilation of the music.
[6:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Wot's the deal with vinyl?)
[6:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: FFVII mobile news?
[6:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This is worse than the Dragon Dogma's stream.
[6:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There's some terrible shooty mobile game they're showing.
[6:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "THE FIRST SOLDIER"
[6:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "free with in-app purchases" with a Season 3 coming.
[6:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Another possibility for a remake" ?
[6:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Why are they just showing Cloud walking through barren hallways?
[6:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's like Pokémon BDSP where it's cute graphics in the overworld and then more detailled models in battle.
[6:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So I guess this is why people keep insulting BDSP as being like mobile games, but, like, that's not a bad art style. >.>
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| This is cute stuff. It really softens Sephiroth and portrays him as an huggable MAMA's boy. (That's not a bad thing.) |
[6:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS"
[6:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: In closed beta coming?
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Apparently that's something already known.
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I dunno.
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I wouldn't know about mobile stuff if I wasn't watching this.
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Here's something delighting fans everywhere.
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And it's English-voiced-acted.
[6:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Zack is doing something.
[6:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I guess there's another Zack Fair spin-off?
[6:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: CRISIS CORE FINAL FANTASY VII REUNION
[6:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: FOR NINTENDO SWITCH??
[6:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: One last video.
[6:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Available for everything else too but SWITCH)
[6:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So is this the next part of the Remake?
[6:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Zack in back-to-back trailers.
[6:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
[6:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: For PS5, available next winter.
[6:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I thought it'd be called REMAKE PART 2 but it's REBIRTH.
[6:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: REMAKE is part 1, and REBIRTH is part 2, and ONE FINAL TITLE is part 3, and part 3 will be the last one of this series.
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| FINAL FANTASY VII director Yoshinori Kitase showing FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE, the upcoming FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, and the mysterious further-coming FIN ASY VII. |
[6:29 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And that's the end of this stream, too.
[6:30 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...Interesting.
What did you think of the streams and the announcements? Or retrospectives, if you're a Dragon's Dogma fan and found Hideaki Itsuno talking about it to be touching.
Here is Ludwig's rant about not putting multiplayer-required achievements in games, featuring Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.
Dragon's Dogma II next appeared a year later with new information.
I wish Ever Crisis was coming to things other than mobile, because I love how it looks and want to play it. I hope it doesn't... use typical mobile game gimmicks.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited for Crisis Core. I always wanted to play the original, but since it's a PSP game without a digital version, there was no way for me to play it. Now I'll finally get my chance!
Rebirth looks great. It looks to me like they're keeping the playable Nibelheim flashback, which is one thing I really wanted to see. I'm still not sure where they're going with the overall story and potential changes, but I'm excited.
All I have to say about Dragon's Dogma is that they should have announced it in the Capcom showcase.
Once upon a time, a smart, talented writer wrote,
Delete“So when Dragon’s Dogma took center stage tonight, only for the announcement to be about a ‘10 Years of Dragon’s Dogma’ video… well, we Ace Attorney fans might be disappointed, but at least we weren’t hurt like Dragon’s Dogma fans were hurt tonight. [...]
My Ace Attorney heart weeps, but at least I have Shadows of Rose. Dragon’s Dogma fans, you have my sympathies and I hope that video ends in a sequel announcement for you.”
(Writer clearly ain't me 'cause I'm heartless and unsympathetic.)
I think Dragon's Dogma fans made out pretty well in the end.
Yes, I'm happy for the Dragon's Dogma fans.
Delete...Now we need our Ace Attorney announcement.
"Ace Attorney Trilogy on mobile devices earlier than announced!"
Delete