DS9. Something about seeing the grittier side of the Star Trek world really appealed to me. I’ve since noticed I tend to like this in my media: set up an idyllic setting or tell a story of triumphant heroes first and then show the more “human” side of all of it in the follow-up.

I also think the latter seasons of DS9 were just damn good TV.

The social link advancement change was a pretty good move. I suspect that’s how it’s going to be going forward with Persona.

MP management is certainly a little weird in the game, but I think if I ever replayed it, I would just two-day all the major dungeons and not worry about it.

By the way, you can cut down the bathroom usage to Idlesday only.

For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn’t been topped. Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.

There are a few franchises that still have me day 1 even if they went to that price point (The Witcher, Persona, Trails). Those are always 80 hours minimum, though.

I’m thinking this list is going to fill out a bit in the next six weeks. Or at least, hopefully what gets announced won’t be mostly 2026.

Per Gematsu (and others by now, I’m sure).

This original article is a little thin, but it seems to have been corroborated by multiple attendees at this point.

Probably not, see edit to post body above.

They are both cliché to recommend at this point for video game stories, but my personal favorite video game stories are Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium.

If you’re up for Japanese-style games, I also love Xenogears and Final Fantasy X.

If you need something newer (other than Disco), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, Citizen Sleeper, and Death Stranding are all recent highlights.

The irony is outlets have never been more transparent about review process, embargoes, disclosures, etc. because of all that, and yet…

Can only lead a horse to water, though. A staggering amount of people can’t tell the difference between independent reviewers and paid influencers.

Last month I tore through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Best game I’ve played so far this year, and as I hinted at in my recent community post, it has the best soundtrack I’ve heard in years. Otherwise I was off the genre mostly, finally getting to play The Last of Us Part II with its PC release, and diving back into Baldur’s Gate 3 for a little bit with the new patch.

For May I’m leaning most towards picking up Atelier Escha & Logy again, but I do have my eye on Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven. I’m not really a SaGa player, but I’ve seen so much positive word-of-mouth on it lately.

Expert’s ambitious for anyone not dodge/parry inclined! I’d say it’s mostly challenging early though, once you get far enough in you start getting access to builds and other tools that give you different ways to mitigate incoming attacks.

Basically what I’ve been doing at work the past few days, hah.

Like you said yourself, it’s risky.

That said, I think SQEX is one of the better large publishers out there about giving ideas some leeway. Hell, they let Yoko Taro make really fucking weird shit for far longer than was reasonable until it finally paid off with NieR: Automata.

If by capital “R” Remake you mean the full three-game treatment FF7 received, Kitase’s already said they’re not planning on doing that again. Future remake projects, should they happen, will be smaller in scope. An FF9 project was leaked twice and is heavily rumored, so it’s most likely next (if it wasn’t quietly cancelled, anyway). We also don’t know exactly where it would fall on the spectrum between remaster and remake, but the Epic leak suggests it’s more of a remake.

FFT is the one I’d like to see the most, and it has even more rumors around it. But, I would expect that would look something like Tactics Ogre Reborn, mostly a remaster. It could really use some modern features, like a move undo and some UI enhancements, like a helper for zodiac signs. What I want the most from it is an orchestrated soundtrack. It’s a gorgeous work that deserves the full treatment. I’d also love to see more content, like extra side quests, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

FF6 is the most logical next step after those in terms of enduring popularity, especially if they want to target the Western market. It would probably be super controversial in the fandom, though.

I’ve actively tried not to be a Blizzard doomer, but Nexon? I guess wealth extraction is where these IPs are now. Bleh.

I can’t imagine monitoring domain registry for signs of life on games. Atlus fans are something else 😂

There is quite a bit of smoke on this fire, but then we’ve been saying the same about the FFT and FF9 projects for years now.

You’re making me want to try it again. Mine never quite hit the “growing like weeds” stage, just a very gradual decline ever since I got them. I saw that about tap water a few months ago and got a big boost after switching to distilled water. But then something happened after I tried a humidifier, possibly the particulate dust poisoned the plant just like tap water would. 🤷‍♀️

Pains me to hear it called a failure, it’s such a delightful game. While the Western release years after was not part of initial development, it’s also a landmark game in English localization history. The script brilliantly handles the puns and other specific quirks of the original Japanese while also setting a standard tone for this series and similar games that followed. For example, I don’t know if Kansai-ben was translated into a US Southern dialect in a video game before this one.

I’m so envious. I clearly don’t know how to take care of my calatheas, the last one has been giving up the ghost this past week 😔

I think this one’s going to sell quite well once word-of-mouth spreads.

I’ve played several hours of this already and the deeper I get, the more it makes me think of Dark Souls. It has that same sort of cadence in the dungeons, just turn-based instead, with a party. What’s wild is even with how derivative the concept is, it’s a brilliant, fresh-feeling idea for dungeon design. I’ve been feeling like JRPG dungeons have been stale for a while now, and I’m loving both how dangerous the dungeon trash is and how there isn’t a ton of it. Normally by this point in a more traditional Japanese-style RPG I’m starting to skip around in boss rush mode. Not here. I’m wanting the challenge.

It’s nowhere near as difficult as a Souls-like though. I’ve seen many complaints about how not-optional the dodge/parry system is, but at least so far, I think there are ways around it. I’m not even through Act 1 and there are already enough tools that even people that miss most dodges can find busted builds to offset with (and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of helpful Pictos and other loot already).

I have some nits to pick, but it’s been a great game on the whole so far. The soundtrack and voice acting in particular are top-notch.