These 12 Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (March 16 - April 1)

This is getting ridiculous now. Absolutely crazy!

Octopath Traveller is a great game. I played it on switch when it launched. I didn't know it was launching on any other consoles.

Wow. I am no fan girl. I have all three systems, this generation. I have to say... Xbox is extremely aggressive this year and it's exciting!

Has octopath been cross platform for a while? I thought it was just a Switch game. Think I will give it a go. Played the switch demo. Wasn't enough to get me to buy it but I did like what I saw and will give it a go.

@Dijita I'm the same. Have all three. Xbox is doing really well. Definitely loving game pass. Incredible value.

Holy crap! Octopath Traveler is coming to Game Pass? This is getting absolutely insane. Wow.

Octopath Traveler is awesome! I played it on Switch - still have yet to the post-game mission, though.

Game Pass is on point. I really need to get through the Yakuza games before they start disappearing (whenever that may be).

Just wow! Can't believe how awesome GamePass continues to be.

I already played Octopath on Switch, and while it has some narrative issues (the 8 stories don't really intertwine or affect each other, and therefore feel/are very separate) but the battle system is really fun. I recommend H'annit for your main character - she is amazing.

Looking forward to Narita Boy!

Holy crap! Octopath Traveler coming to Xbox is worthy of a story itself. But coming day one to GamePass?!?! I love you Microsoft. I love you.

Octopath is the most notable given it was a Switch console exclusive (full Switch exclusive in 2018 then turned out to have PC release in 2019 and now Xbox). Other Square Enix Switch console exclusives will likely follow like Project Triangle Strategy.

I knew that getting an Xbox One S and Series S was a good idea!

I thought Octopath Traveler was a Switch exclusive, Also can't wait to try Outriders..

Wait, Octopath Traveler coming to Xbox?! Guys, play that game, it's bloody amazing.

Why does the link (about the 3 games leaving gamepass) say it was posted today at 16.30 when it's only 15.45?

Play Octopath everybody!

Wow, this is an impressive update!

Very, very great news!

Just rule out that FFVIIR on gamepass announcement already, Square!

Oh man, I never imagined we'd be getting Octopath Traveler. This is fantastic news. The more JRPG's on Xbox the better.

They should add Free Time perk which adds a couple of hours to usual 24 a day

Undertale, Star Wars Squadrons, Octopath Traveler and Yakuza 6 in the same month. Absolutely amazing! Gotta love the increased support for Japanese games on Xbox as well.

@HotGoomba both at the same time? puzzled here...

@FraserG makes sense, it just really confused me.
I went to comment and when it wouldn't let me I scrolled up and noticed the time stamp.

Completed Octopath Traveler in Switch. What a great RPG, I love to see it in Xbox. More JRPG for Xbox, please!

and yeah, great batch this month, list of things i wanna try just keeps growing and growing
genesis noir has a really intriguing premise and octopath traveller i also remember hearing good things about.
about the yakuza games, any advice on whihc one to start with?

I’ll back up all the comments about Octopath Traveller. Really enjoyed the game on Switch and also had no idea it was coming to Xbox.

@awason I believe most people start with Kiwami (remake of the first game) or Zero (first game chronologically in the overall story).

Wow, Octopath is massively noteworthy. Not because it's a great game, I found it highly underwhelming. It starts out great, then just becomes a repetitive boss-grind focused game like Bravely Default and goes nowhere. it never becomes the grand adventure it hints at becoming. It's not what I really look for in a JRPG but it has its niche despite its flaws.

But it's noteworthy because it's a VERY JRPG, from Square-Enix that started as Nintendo-exclusive, then went o to PC, then Stadia and Xbox.....and NOT Playstation. Let that sink in. It's a Japansese RPG from Square on XBox and Google Stadia, but not Playstation.

This might be the first JRPG, or Square game in general I can think of that is literally on every platform EXCEPT Playstation. Trouble is certainly in paradise....PS5 really is the late-gen X360 of this generation, isn't it? The generic shooter-adventure box for mainstream dudebros that ignores most other niches. It's kinda depressing, really.

Meanwhile it looks like Sega's finally brought Yakuza 6 over. Now we need to get Atlus and Falcom onboard and XB & Nintendo will be the power couple PS & Nintendo used to be.

Square-Enix doing some deals with Microsoft right now..

@NEStalgia read somewhere that there will Direct-like show from SE this Thursday. They most likely gonna announce PS4 version too at that show since it will be very weird if they don't also release this on PS4, business wise.

Damn i need a new external harddrive asap my last one of two years randomly stop working. I have so many games on tht list i wanna play

@endlessleep Yeah I agree the PS4 announcement will likely be there.

@endlessleep Maybe thats it. It would indeed be weird. OTOH there's this situation where they have announced Xbox and Stadia but not PS? That's pretty weird already.

When you compare this to the eShop and the PlayStation store, the value of Game Pass is awesome. Octopath Traveller is a noteworthy addition.

Octopath Traveler is absolute quality it’s crazy it’s going to Gamepass. I played a lot of it on switch but never finished it, the battles are great. Crazy month for Gamepass. Value.

Octopath Traveler is a MASTERPIECE. Start playing that & Undertale as soon as you can! Easily poured in 90-100 hours into Octopath, awesome game

I had NO idea Octopath was a available on Xbox!?!?

@NEStalgia I think that Series X can't be considered PS5's twin now. Game Pass is a huge difference and backwards compatibility is a light year ahead 😁.

@Secryt it’s not yet. It will be when it launches on GP.

@BlueOcean Not until we have a game where Master Chief has a sentimental story about an a war-orphaned child walking in straight lines in a narrow environment, wearing an ironic Seattle Beanie over his helmet, where we're asked hard questions about Cortana's treatment in society can XSX truly be considered an equal of PS5. I need that moment where I can truly feel gaming has reached a new level of social relevance, like "Press Y to Polish Warthog Bumper" as a tear rolls down the inside of Chief's helmet. I can proudly pre-order that game for $90 for a digital deluxe edition that includes commentaries from the developers who all live in Portland to affirm my place on the right side of social history and support my favorite charity: starving artists working for publicly traded billion dollar corporations and state my moral and cultural supremacy on the internet for my inferiors to praise to boost my sense of self-worth, which is admittedly not worth much because I just paid $90 to have a bunch of hipsters talk about how relevant their politically charged, depressing, boring linear game is.

Then I'll go play something actually fun like Doom Eternal for free on Game Pass.

@NEStalgia That was really good! It reminds me of myself playing (and not quite enjoying) PS4 exclusives 😂.

Gamepass getting better by the minute, we live in a time where all 3 major consoles are each going down their seperate paths, sony with its blockbusters and home console domination, switch with its hybrid mechanic and lower graphical philosophy but amazing games and xbox concentrating on becoming a streaming service with making gamepass as good as possible

Played octopath traveler on switch and it was a really good game beautiful old school graphics with an HD twist, looking forward to the new mobile game they are still making

@awason no

I literally just bought Octopath physical on Switch, that is why it’s now both on Xbox and Gamepass; so you are welcome guys.

Gonna have to play it on Xbox though for the achievements

@NEStalgia did you get the true boss in Octopath? I think you’ll find the story beats make sense if you do. The game is like 9 domino paths (8 MC and a few of the NPCs) that when flat paint a portrait of the final boss.

@Ryu_Niiyama I couldn't actually get myself to suffer through all the boss grinding to do it. The demo really excited me and I was super eager for the game. I bought that LE that has the huge popup book end everything! Beautiful LE. But the demo gave the impression the game was going to open up into a classic traditional RPG epic adventure. Instead it became that circular grind of minimal exploration, tiny dungeons, and then those dreadful boss battles against damage sponges that repeat and repeat and repeat phases over and over. I could almost tolerate it if it respected my time more, but no, you finally get worn down and get into that grueling loop of revive, die, revive, die while running out of revives when the boss starts the full screen attacks. I know it's supposed to be like snes games, but that was the bad part of snes games you grind and slog through to get back to the exploration and adventure. Octopath, like bravely default is ONLY that.

I got half way through the second "tier" and just couldn't go on anymore!

It's hard to explain it but both series are missing something that makes rpgs work. SMT despite being punishingly brutal doesn't suffer from that same frustrating aspect. Instead of being like old ff and chrono they end up feeling more like SaGa... And I was never a huge SaGa fan.

@NEStalgia ah. Well as a SaGa fan and a fan of the battle system and presentation of Octopath I don’t share your viewpoint but I find it to be an interesting take. (Also I’m less of a fan of FF and CT than the average RPG fan, so I think the boxes Octopath ticks for me might be negatives for you. )

I will give the caveat that when I bought Octopath I was burning away my nights and weekends as a security guard so I did a lot of grinding then and story progress during the day. So I enjoyed the battle phases as I was never under leveled. I also got lucky with Cait kills early on so I skyrocketed in levels.

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah, I think there's two types of RPG fans at this point. I don't have names for them, but the "SaGa" fans seem to be one type distinct from the others that loves the grind for the sake of the grind and doesn't want too much else in the game. There was that SaGa revival on 3DS, can't remember the name but carried over the frog character etc from SaGa. I had some fun with it but it wasn't my type of game.

To me, an RPG is all about an epic quest, journey, a road trip story (though XV took the metaphor a little bit too literally.....) Gameplay matters, but the heart of it is that journy from place A, to place B, and the change in perception of the world around you as you learn more about it. And it's about exploration, navigating the terrain, etc. I.E. traversing the terrain and the skirmishes is more important than big set piece boss battles. The Octopath demo hinted at being the former, but in reality it was all about the latter. Small little areas to grind stats in with little variety, and the actual game was just the endless bloated boss fights that you can literally waste half an hour or more of your time by dying.

And yeah, I'm definitely in the camp that defines CT1 (not CC) as the pinnacle of the RPG. And Mana (APRG, but still) I do love FF in general but it's always a love-hate relationship. SMT & Persona of course are near CT for me. SMT is a brutal grind like Octopath...but....remains a road trip as well more than Octopath.

And I have to say Bravely Default 1, even before the time loop, was one of the worst RPG experiences I've ever played. Octopath's crime is that it repeats some of the worst crimes of BD for me. Again, the boss battle rush, little exploration, though it's technically more of a road trip from point A to B. It's the jobs system. Not only do you have to grind levels but you have to grind jobs..... it all feels like such a time waster. More filler than focus.

But....I never loved SaGa.....

If you were grinding a lot maybe the bosses weren't as horrible for you. For me, I'd get to the boss which would take 30 min minimum. Or more. It would be endless "party gets nearly OHKO'd, spend 3 turns healing. Party gets nearly OHKO'd, spend 3 turns healing. Do occasional big damage, but it never ever takes the boss down. And then 30 min later finally run out of restoratives and die anyway." I really really loved the demo....it was a surprise to me how much I disliked the main game. I tried to convince myself I didn't for longer than I should have

@NEStalgia interesting no PS Octopath Traveler... Unless I missed it.

@mousieone [Keanu Whoa! gif here].

That, to me is really really huge. It's subtle, but in Japanese context is huge. That's a backhanded flip off unless it's an oversight. A niche Square-Enix JRPG for the coremost JRPG fans....Simply not being on PS is bad enough. But going on Xbox and freaking Stadia....launching on Game Pass no less, and skipping PS entirely, if it's really happening, is a CDi-level flip off to Sony rivaling Square's falling-out with Nintendo in the infamous Yamauchi "never come back."

I'm very curious to see what happens with VIIR next. We know the PS5 version arrives in summer, we know they just gave the PS4 version out on Plus. They haven't said anything about XB, but the contract is still in effect until next month. If they launch VIIR on Game Pass as soon as the contract ends, they're all-in. Though I don't know they can keep taking Sony money for timed exclusives if they're wantonly flipping them off. We do know XIV is coming to XB though it's not a priority on their timeline. But they're doing the PS5 version of that still as well and the work could be combined at least partly.

@mousieone lol yeah, i was like 100% sure it will be announced there. Now excuse me for laughing a bit 🤭

@NEStalgia i'm honestly worried that SE will just give the PS4 version to Xbox, not the Intergrade one. Also yuffie dlc.... can't expect that to arrive on Xbox before at least one year, right?

@endlessleep I thought it would be as well but here we are ...

Don’t get me wrong; I think it will go to PlayStation. It’s just more when.

@NEStalgia I’m on the fence about that coming to Xbox this year. I feel like if it was now would be a better time fire that announcement but nothing. That said the PC one hasn’t been announced either and that’s more of a mystery as there is no way that game is not going to PC.

@endlessleep Yeah, It's possible....it depends if Sony signed a separate deal for Intergrade. The fact that it's called "Intergrade" with DLC locked to it like it's a new game is a really weird, awkward way to do it. I wouldn't be terribly surprised at all if that counted as a new game with another year exclusivity contract on it. Xbox gets FF7R but has to wait another year for XSX graphics and the weird Yuffie DLC? I could see that happening. Square's king of inexplicable release methods, and Sony is in a weird enough state to moneyhat timed exclusivity on an upgrade patch and DLC, while closing their entire Japanese studio. Plus since PS Plus got a non-upgradable version, it's a given that's what Game Pass would get. Getting FF7R is still a win, though, even if the upgrade patch is delayed a year (Disclaimer I already bought it on PS even though I'd rather have it on Xb with most of the rest of the series, because it was on sale )

It's starting to just look petty though. "HA, Xbox bought Skyrim....so..soo..sooo.....Only on Playstation can you get the latest patch for last year's game! Nyahaha! "

@mousieone "I think it will go to PlayStation. It's just more when."

Will it happen this year? No. Will it happen next year? No. Will it happen someday? I believe that.

7R, It depends on what their contract requires. Think back to the XVI communications in September. All of Sony's trailer's explicitly said for a limited time. Then they kind of walked that back half-way. Then when pressed on what it meant, Square's only comment was "We have no further information on if Final Fantasy 16 will be released on platforms other than the PS5"

That alone tells us it's a thing, otherwise they easily could have said "no it won't be coming to other platforms." Hedging on the wording and the available information means "we're contract-bound" not "there's no option in the contract." True exclusivity means no need to mince words, like Kamiya's "go ask Nintendo, it's their game, they're paying for it" responses to fans asking about Bayo2 on WiiU. There's no gray area. It's not going elsewhere. Ever.

And, at this point in time with Stadia/Luna/Apple/Tencent/whatever emerging, no exec in their right mind would lock themselves out of those potential markets for more than a fixed time unless the money was really good. We saw from the Capcom leaks the money isn't really that good from Sony.

Though just because they can release doesn't mean they have full development effort on it. Like XIV that's been confirmed, but there's no date because it's not a top-most priority. It's definitely coming, but it's coming "whenever." I'm willing to bet they can't remove the duct tape from their mouths until the contract is over. That's probably in the contract. To avoid the kind of embarrassment Nintendo got from Capcom with Nintendo's MHR trailers having to announce a PC version.

Sony's really weird. For all their protestation over Japan being important, they've cut their own Japanese development, basically, entirely, and simultaneously flipped off all the Japanese devs. They lost KH and FF exclusivity entirely they never paid for last year. And now they're just moneyhatting FF alone in weird will-it-won't-it ways to lock that up. The Bethesda sale probably encourages them to tighten the noose on FF to make a PS mandatory for FF fans and keep it away from XB. And it's a brand always identified with PS. But now it creates a schism that Square's gone and created a market for the series everywhere, and I can't imagine them then just locking it to Sony again after finally expanding. It may be an (arrow to the) knee-jerk reaction to the Bethesda sale, but they don't actually own FF or Square....it would take way too much money to actually lock down the future of the series without flat out buying it which they can't afford.

IDK, Sony plays dirty in their contracts. It has the "feeling" like they're locking it all down, and the contract is designed to create that feeling, but I really can't imagine they'd really pay enough to permanently do it for either 7R or XVI.

The only way I could see Squeenix agreeing to that is if their non-PS sales are terrible for the series. Considering how much of it they've been releasing elsewhere, that seems unlikely.

(contd.)
OTOH, I'm not sure XVI actually looks good enough to care so far, either. "Oh, XII vibes...kinda meh but it's medieveal that's cool....wait, it's all dark and edgey....getting kind of a Hitman Absolution/Spilter Cell Conviction vibe now, that's not good....and there's a lot of blood....and it's produced by the DMC director......so.....XV Versus then?"

@NEStalgia pfft FF was a Nintendo game series long before Sony. Just like SMT has roots on Nintendo. People forget there were platforms before PS1. That and Sega and Nintendo both know how to play far more dirty that Sony/MS ever could.

Anyway, I don’t think they locked FVIIR down but they are freezing out the PC as well right now. And we all know these games will go to PC. Sony doesn’t freeze PC out forever. And the PC version hasn’t been announced either which makes me think something else is going on but meh

I’m good

@mousieone In fairness to Square, it was a Nintendo series because there was essentially no other platform to be on, and when Sony introduced CDs for their sountrack and FMV ambitions they wanted to try it, and VII was a hit. It was Yamauchi that explicitly told them to "never come back." They'd probably have also been on Nintendo, or had separate Nintendo games if not for Yamauchi's it's only us, or it's never us ego. As the story went, he "invited them", showered them with an expensive lunch, and then told them never to come back. It's hard to tell though, the execs and Sakaguchi keep downlplaying it in that polite Japanese way. But we know Yamauchi ran the company like a yakuza, so I'm less likely to believe the polite version. Yamauchi was not a polite man. I also like that he pretended not to know what "Nintendo" meant. He came up with that sort of "shrug, I guess it means leave luck to heaven" thing - despite a lot of fingers pointing at it actually referencing the very likely yakuza origins of the company.

But the relationship with Sony after that is shrouded in mystery. Their key series were locked to only that platform. No official exclusivity contract was ever disclosed, and yet it has all the appearance of it, and FF remains the principal brand identity of PS1 & PS2, and Playstation as a whole. Then we had Sony buying part of Square-Enix (after Microsoft was apparently all set to buy Square-Enix) , but I do wonder what deals Squaresoft had prior to the Enix merge. All we know is Sony sold their shares and a year after that FF and KH was everywhere. Even the ones that defined PS1 & PS2. And now a year after that there's Octopath on everything except PS.

Now we have 7R and XVI all mired in murky exclusivity corporate speak. We had DQXI that was announced for Switch first, and was the first confirmed 3rd party game for "NX", that then released first on PS4 (and DS)....and then took another year or so to come to Switch "for adult reasons." But then that Swtich version becomes the definitive version and is re-sold to PS customers, replacing the PS4 original. And they tried to downplay "adult reasons" the same way they tried to downplay Yamauchi throwing them out "oh, well we said we'd support NX before we knew what NX was, so we were surprised when it was a handheld" - Right. Square-Enix had no idea what NX was all that time, while confirming one of their flagship games on it first, meanwhile Capcom was making hardware suggestions for the final design for MH..... Right.

I don't know what the hold is that Sony has over S-E....but there's something there that goes beyond a formal legal contract. The relationship with the two is just too weird, and not really business-sensible.

@NEStalgia well I’m sure you can wax about what it is and isn’t.

SE does have a strong working relationship with Sony and that’s going to be there. The question now is what that looks like going forward. But to be honest, I’m just going to roll with it and play what’s tIm given.

Although I didn’t bond with OT on my Switch I’ll give it another go on my Xbox. I actually prefer Trails Combat but the game had no depth ._. The other two have depth but...

Well I’m still no 100% done with DQ 11 s which is mostly perfect is =} As long as MS and Nintendo staying fighting for DQ; I can live without FF

@NEStalgia I am sure we have had a similar convo before so I won’t bother text walling here. But I will say that you get that same story breadth in SaGa or octopath. Minus perhaps the road trip part but I think the lack of forced cohesion and levity is more organic. We’ve had enough zombie movies now that demonstrate that the end of the world doesn’t turn a group of random people into a well oiled machine. The are more a heroic Frankenstein’s Monster than essentially a special ops unit. Same with their individual story antagonists (even though it often knits together to one big bad-as with Octopath).

For me I like these games that don’t spoon feed you story. That it’s not a movie on rails with some gameplay along the way (FF games). But the world itself is the story teller. I can’t tell you anything about any FF world but you would think I am a native if you wanted to get into Octopath lore with me. That also means that even though all of these games grind for me there is more discovery involved in games like Octopath rather than FF where that just feels like gating. You must be this level to ride this ride.

I hate grinding but I love digging for story. If I kill a bunch of trees or cats along the way then that’s cool too. (Also the job system makes battles Broken Af in Octopath... if you have all the secondary jobs you shouldn’t be having boss issues. )

TLDR: it sounds like you are getting tripped up on game play and not digging for story in Octopath as it doesn’t put you on rails the way FF does. Octopath has a very rich lore and story.

Edit: still a wall of text. Sheesh.

@Ryu_Niiyama more like a text ledge, or perhaps just a text threshold. A text fence at most, by our standard for walls

Oof, lore... Sounds like the soulsborne crowd. I'm not fond of that either! But yeah, as with any video game I'd certainly like the world much better if I didn't dislike the gameplay design. It's the mix of dmg sponge bosses (really some of those battles were well over half an hour and still ended up as failures) and the lack of different environments. Like, there's a few crossroads between towns. The dungeon is a few rooms. It feels..... Compressed? I was playing star ocean first departure the other day, yeah it's an arpg, so slightly different, but it's snes and ps1... More talk than gameplay... But the world feels less compressed than octopath. Traveling to different places feels more like a journey while octo feels like a jot through some intersections. I could live with that if the dungeons didn't feel like 4 rooms with overly damaging monsters just to window dress a boss that is the entire game. Same problem with bravely default. Rpgs, to me, are more about the journey, not narrative, but journey, and the bosses are just exclamation points, not the focus.

If we take tokyo mirage (why isn't my auto caps working?? Tokyo isn't a proper noun? Ok, Google. No no, I didn't mean to activate the ai...), I had fun grinding at save areas forever because the battle system was fun on its own. Octopath and bravely I'm like a five year old "are we there yeeet?" Atlus balances not just attributes but also pacing in a way that square has lost sight of outside DQ. Yakuza 7 gets it. Then again it's overtly copying DQ to the point of the hero of light being a thing.

I don't think I unlocked all of the second job classes. It was during that hunt that I just had my fill and moved on. I was probably underleveled, partly because I always thought the next area would be that big break and it never was.

I tried the bravely default 2 demo. Granted it didn't start at the beginning of the game. But I was having fun with it at first. And the dungeon felt like more of a proper dungeon at first... But then I started getting easily destroyed and enemies started becoming damage sponges... Not even the bosses, just the enemies... But the battle system in that game isn't the most fun either. Octopath actually has the edge in fun battles imo. The whole brave/default system never clicked with me.

@NEStalgia I think the world compression was deliberate to call back snes games. But there are a bunch or towns and a visible change in regions so I didn’t mind it. The thief only treasure chests were what got me. And sometimes it was hard to see your path in a dark cave. So sometimes I got stuck grinding just trying to exit a dungeon. More games would benefit from Dragon Quest’s magic system so you can escape a dungeon.

Based on how you described what you get out of RPGs, I can see how you feel the way you do. I think my “are we there yet” is SMT. I love the lore, and narrative focus and I think the battle system is novel... I just don’t think it is fun. Yet the story carries me enough that I have beaten most of the SMT games (minus III... got sidetracked near the end). Persona on the other hand I can’t deal with. (Despite me owning all of them)

Yeah. I can’t play Yakuza 7 due to my xbone hating me. But good to know when I get a seriesx in two years. I literally decided to jump ship with 7 to xbox....and mine goes on the fritz. I’m tempted to buy 7 in Japanese on Ps4 just so I can play it.

@Ryu_Niiyama dragon quest just gets it right. Some may say it's overly simple, but it's just balances the gameplay, pacing, tone, everything in a way that's always fun. Dq is everything squares saga clones aren't.

I agree though, now that I think about it, I think I enjoyed octopaths story as a narrative more than I enjoy most FF narratives..... But the gameplay pushed me away, ironically.

SMT is the exception... The gameplay is so tight, and well paced, I can't help but love it. It's a slow affair tough. I might even buy the digital deluxe nocturne just for the easier mode. I've heard so much about that games story, but I can't imagine the gameplay won't feel like a drag after all the qol improvements in 4. If there weren't smt5 right after it I'd play normally, but 2 smt games at full strength in one year may be a bit much. But....I love persona (and tms) too. Everyone complains about the social sim, but I love the escapism.

Whichever yakuza you get, sub over dub. I'm not "one of those" people, and my Japanese listening isn't close to yours or passability, but the English dub is just soo wrong. Ichi isn't a bad english VA but he portrays a completely different tone of character... It's so jarring. A character with hair like that can't not be off the wall....

Still, I'd wait for xsx (or ps5 or pc). It performs so badly. On lower end hardware it's got to be terrible... And I don't want to think about the load times. Which would be frequent.

@NEStalgia Yeah yakuza has to be in Japanese. For one some of the seiyuu are people I’ve grown up with. When they announced Beat Takeshi in 6 I lost my mind. I love almost everything he does (except Zatoichi but I hate anybody doing Zatoichi except Shintaro Katsu).

Minus the hate for saga I agree with your assessment of DQ. I also think DQ hits personal story beats better. I’d say around age 11-12 I started noticing that there weren’t a lot of regular games for girls, especially after I had just binged all the Sailormoon games (which were beat em ups, fighters, platformers and puzzle games... oh look the genres I play today) but I picked up DQ V and that story hit me so hard.

It was generational like phantasy star but more approachable and there was more NPC growth and you had (for the time) a lot of choice in the story twists. It was dark without being scary or frustrating (Metroid was too scary and the escape countdown put too much pressure on me) and it felt less like a power fantasy for boys and more like (to me) LotR in the whole “common folks banding together to set the world right rather than the chosen one and lackeys”. Yet DQ has always had this nice blend of versatility of gameplay (number of spells and attacks made the text turn based fighting interesting) with a hint of pokemon catching before pokemon, a usually generic (save the world) but still designed to make you care about the characters narrative , great music and for some, Toriyama artstyle. I’m the weird DQ fan that doesn’t like the artstyle but likes the game series.

It did what most Square RPGs couldn’t for me. As such I was very sad by the merger. I’m glad DQ survived and I will likely dip after Horii-san retires (going mmo was the beginning of the end but XI so far is like one last hurrah to me) but I have all of them minus X in both english and Japanese and will be playing them when I am 80.

I feel like Squeenix is like Ubisoft. They chase market trends. Of you liked FF7, westerners? Spiky anime hair time with death by cutscene from here on out. Also let’s beat the FF7 horse to death with spinoffs.

As such I felt like XIII was the first series where they...planned the story from beginning to end. Even if they chased market trends a bit and said story can be a bit heavy handed in places. I did like XII, but that felt more like they accidentally made an older FF game. Which was a palette cleanser after xi. For me it’s 4, 6,12 and 13 while I like all dq except 10.

@Ryu_Niiyama I don't hate SaGa, I just never really got on with it particularly well. I do hate Bravely Default. I absolutely loathe it. Great characters, everything else about the series sucks. The new one actually seemed fun at first but then the demo just threw it into obnoxious insta-death battles and damage sponge bosses again. The hallmark of new Square (not Enix, thankfully. Mana and DQ are safe.) There's an audience for it, apparently, but it isn't me. Octopath....I'm more ambivalent. I think I'd have liked it more if I'd never seen Bravely Default. Trying to grind those bosses just brought back every bad energy BD ever threw at me.

Definitely agree on all the story beats of DQ, especially the "dark without being scary or frustrating" part, themes, tones, characters, etc. It's really the one series that gets it all right, and well balanced, without going over the deep end to make it "more of this and that." At least until it changes directors. (I don't dislike FF, in fact I like it generally, but what is with the emo obsession, the abstract nonsensical elements, and seriously why is the DMC producer making a DMC-lite FF game?! FF, at its best and its worst is many things, but DMC is not one of them. Nor should it be.) (Also agreed on Metroid - not so much scary....No one fears horror more than me and I never found (2D) metroid off-putting (I honestly haven't played that much Prime though.), but the timed escapes and the stress from that.)

Also, Square-Enix is glad you'll be playing DQ when you're 80. They'll be selling the Re-re-re-re-remaster just in time for your 81st! Only $215 if you preorder. $475 for the steelbook with Hero of Light figurine. It'll just be the Switch Pro remaster with a new chapter and rendered in 36k though. 30fps.

(And I wrote a text wall it won't let me post. So I tried to post it in 2 parts.....even the first 2 paragraphs were too big. So I have to condense the cliff notes next post.)

Interesting you'd liken S-E to Ubi. The two of them are probably my most-purchased, favorite 3rd party publishers. Both disappoint me often, and yet I can't help but like their output more than most other publishers. They chase trends, then right the ship. If we exclude FF, their patterns are a lot more understandable. FF OTOH....it's been in a rut since 7. 7 was an OK game with a great for its time presentation and world, and a nonsensical, incomprehensible, plot told poorly. The materia system was in fact fantastic though. So what do they do? They have kept trying to recreate that success for 25 years. We got FF8 which was almost literally an FF7 clone. Cloud/Seph = Squall/Seif. We got FFX with more emo spikey hair...Whiny Cloud and another nonsensical, incomprehensible story...told better I guess. Then we get 13 with Girl Cloud (Where's Dopey Cloud, Drunkey Cloud, and Cid?) in New Midgar. Then they finally said screw it, let's just actually keep making FF7 instead of trying to recreate what made it. And let's roadmap it so we can keep remaking FF7 for the next 15 years! And let's make a mobile FF7 too! Why stop there?! Why not Bravely Sepheroth? Deus Cloud? Reactor of Mana? Chrono SOLDIER? Yuffie is Strange? Tifa Bobble?

I do give them props for 9...that game sits next to DQ IMO. The one post-7 moment FF was FF again. I love that game. It's Sakaguchi's favorite as well. I also give them props doing something very different with 12. It fell a little flat, but they tried to break out of the 7 rut. I also liked it...and I don't think the older FF was accidental. My theory is that Sakaguchi was at war with Square bosses. I agree with XIII as well. I hated it when it first released. But it's grown on me tremendously, and I'm actually kind of fond of it now.

For me, it's 9, 4, 6, 12, 13, 15, which isn't so bad. I'm still worried about 16. The return to medieval is welcome, but it's going the trendy Game of Thrones route, with DMC combat from what we've seen so far. FF and lots of blood in a dark-fantasy isn't working for me in my mind. As soon as they say "more adult" (or rather "for fans that grew up with the series") I assume that always translates to "do what HBO and AMC would do."

@NEStalgia you know, I forgot about FF IX. I got it late so I never beat it. Bought it again on the Switch so I can see end credits. I liked what I played but it didn’t hook me at the time.

You can have ubi. They are like bioware to me. They start out great, chase market trends and steadily decline while becoming mainstream and then try to right the ship but by then I’m out or it’s not good enough. Case in point Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed. Granted, I will buy the sands of time remake (feels more like a remaster even though there are new assets) when it comes to Switch. But that’s just cuz I love that game.

Oh when I said that about DQ I mean I will be playing my current copies of DQ. I bought the wii collection and have all the ds and 3ds games in english and japanese. I only have XI in Japanese and that will be the only copy I buy. The dub is too off base for me. It’s fine localization but sometimes having access to the original ruins dubs for me. Not always, but sometimes.

@Ryu_Niiyama Huh, for me IX is the most memorable of the bunch. It "feels" like SNES FF brought to a more "modern" place. It's classic.

Ubi....IDK to me they still have that sense of passion for what they do, even if they fall flat, because ultimately Yves is one of the very few gaming execs that's a classic gamer, and game developer, and built the company himself. And I do think, for all their faults, that spirit makes its way into the games more than EA/Activision, or for that matter, Sony. It got top-heavy and too big, with far too much vision. The trend chasing to please investors and fortify against the takeovers has hurt a lot. And the whole global studio building has become a behemoth that can't stand. But when they nail it, they nail it. Rayman, Mario & Rabbis, Fenyx, every now and again they really shine through. Yeah, Assassin's Creed's been circling the drain since Jade left, IMO. I find it enjoyable, but it's not what it could have been. When I look at where EA and Acti....2k....Warner have been, I just fine more to like at Ubi. That having been said, EA seems to be trying to crawl through to a renaissance. It would be weird if EA is back to making great single player games while Ubi chases trends. EA used to be great before the buying spree. They've made some good moves with ME and DA - and Jedi Fallen order is great so far. Sure, it's Uncharted in Space....but it's a fun linear cinematic game after a decade of dismal SW games. I'm not a huge SW fan, but I used to like the games more than the movies.

Yeah, I can see that with dubs. I'm definitely not the "Japan VA are so much better!" crowd, but when the different localization have different characterizations entirely, it's jarring. You'd think they'd try to keep them the same, but no, they go off into different characterizations entirely. Yakuza 7 is the worst offender. Ichi's VA is perfectly fine in English....on his own he'd be a fine character. But the interpretation of the character is totally different. English Ichi is very even keel, cool, collected, plays it straight. He'd be a fine character if one didn't know better. Japanese Ichi......has a few...or more than a few....screws loose.... He's easily excitable, excessively bipolar, and generally zany. And the animations match that interpretation. You just can't go from the one to the other and feel you're playing the same game.

Edit: RE Ichi, my suspicion is that they gave the English VA Kiryu as an example of the character. His interpretation of Ichi would be completely fitting for Kiryu and matches his Japanese VA. It's like he didn't know who Ichi was when he was voicing him. Which is entirely plausible. Sega's localization, outside Atlus, has never been fantastic.

@NEStalgia I don’t see that passion you do for ubi. They like EAware went from tame to wanting a media empire and unlike Japan where you don’t stick plot in DLC (except Capcom...Azura’s Wrath), or comics/manga or the anime/movie, western devs LOVE to do that. Ubi is particularly egregious with their attempt to spiral Assassin’s Creed out and they still lost track of the story. I do respect that they are trying to return to its roots in some way, but by now it’s too little too late, for me.

At this point the only way I jump back in (for that entry) is Japan, female only protagonist, or Black protag. And before you say “some of those have been done already” I don’t think there should be a quota. This is a global organization there should be more than european linage in here and not just in side material or spin off games. Part of the reason I was drawn to the first game was it stared a middle eastern setting and characters. Sure they cheated with Desmond face, whom they made such a mix that it wouldn’t scare white people, but the rest of the world was alive with the culture of that region. I also feel wherever they are going with the plot will never catch up to the original vision.

I remember when EA meant something. My gamecube collection is filled with non sports games but I think by the time they get to that high again I will be in my 50s and I am assuming disinterested in modern gaming (granted my mom still games now so maybe not).

The sims needs real help though. I play it because it’s one of the few games where same sex marriage doesn’t require hoops but even for a person that plays simple scenarios, 4 is boring. I will wait and see on single player. I have no love for star wars so I will need another franchise to make me care about EA’s efforts. I also think it’s because I have so many other games to play that i don’t mind when I walk from a dev.

Even devs that make unique games. Nothing else plays like assassin’s creed (dishonored is close for first person but still miles away) but I am fine leaving the franchise with Kassandra.

@NEStalgia I am surprised the VA for Ichi went the way you say. I mean he looks like he is a few marbles short (the way he moves, not his appearance) and the trailer implies he is making up the DQ overlay to the fight system.

Which would be hilarious to see. Some dude beats down a gang while yelling out RPG stats and humming fight music. Newest Batman hums fight music, so it is a thing.

@Ryu_Niiyama more thoughts on ac and ea later, but for now, ichi, oh, he's definitely imagining the dq overlay... It's a plot theme... Starting in the second act. The beginning is straight yakuza, and he's a dq fan. And then he starts his hero of light thing at a certain point. It's beautiful.

The English va... Just picture Shiryu's (JP) voice with Ichi's animation and the dq thing.... It's so wrong. The JP VA nails it though. I blame the director more than the actor... Someone needed to say something.

@NEStalgia Aww man. I wish I could play!!!! I’m not buying a new xbox until 2023... I don’t wanna waste the money importing since shipping is so high (and I gotta get the rest of the sd gundam games)... don’t tempt me!

I think there is still an element of disdain for video game voice work. It’s way better than it used to be but there is still an aspect of giving poor direction or phoning it in that still happens. That would not be as acceptable in say animation. Even bad dreamworks movies have good voice acting. The movie just sucks.