benjaminkicks

@casepb: I set my Xbox's location to New Zealand so I could play early.

I'm not a big Souls fan either, but on the "story mode" difficulty setting I'm having a lot of fun with the weightiness to the combat, but not having to deal with punishing difficulty and precise timing of the parrying required by the higher difficulties.

And other aspects of the game, like exploration, the writing, and indeed, the general Star Wars aesthetic, are keeping me engaged even though I'm not great at the combat.

@merxworx01: It feels very Soulsy to me, but I'm not the most experienced Souls player. Some of the mechanics, like the bonfires, are lifted straight out of Souls, and the parry system to the combat seems similar to Sekiro (which I haven't played myself). You won't do well trying to spam attacks or block, which makes it pretty deliberate in a Soulslike way.

I definitely think there's a big appeal for people hoping for a Star Wars Souls-like, especially as I imagine the harder difficulties being pretty punishing, based on how much trouble I had on normal.

I've sunk about 5 or 6 hours into the game so far and I'm having a lot of fun. It definitely does a great job at capturing the Star Wars universe. I totally suck at the combat so I moved down to easy pretty quickly, but I think there's a lot to like for people who like more deliberate action games. There's more going on than that initial gameplay demo at e3 seemed to suggest, especially in regard to exploration and the Metriodvania-like elements.

I'm enjoying the writing and story more than I was expecting to. I understand why the review embargo was so strict because of spoilers, because I don't think they've previously showed off any of the game's opening. I'm only just about to get to the Kashyyyk area shown at e3. It's a bummer though, cuz I know a lot of people will interpret the lateness of reviews as a lack of confidence for the game's quality, which is pretty far off based on what I've played so far. I'm sure it'll still sell great thanks to the license though.

I wrote a piece about one of my favorite matches, if anyone is interested:

https://benjaminkicks.blogspot.com/2019/02/misawa-vs-morishima-art-of-looking.html

The Best of the Super Juniors final match between Hiromu and Ishimori was tremendous, and probably my favorite junior heavyweight match since last year's KUSHIDA/Ospreay final.

Hiromu is so good. He's excellent at filling his matches with hate, intensity, and danger, along with his stellar repertoire of brilliantly executed moves. And even when his execution somewhat falters, like the botched reverse frankensteiner in this match, it just adds to that overall sense of danger that Hiromu embodies. Ishimori was great in his role, and pulled out some awsome stuff while showing off really impressive cardio (the pace was quite fast throughout for a 34 minute match), but Hiromu was the star.

That Korakuen Hall crowd was completely electric all throughout as well, and really added to the match. Hiromu is so incredibly over, and at one point during a really effective submission the female fans in the building were quite audibly shrieking in worry of his well-being. It was also cool to see the ovation that Ishimori got after the match too, showing that even though the fans were rooting for Hiromu, they still greatly appreciate Taiji's amazing performance and are happy to see him as part of the New Japan roster.

Between this classic of a final and his block matches with Scurll, Desparado, Dragon Lee, SHO, and KUSHIDA, I think Hiromu was far and away the MVP for this tournament.

As much as I'd enjoy watching it, I don't see them burning that matchup on the Finals that'll be sold-out anyway. I think saving it for the Dome is a better call.

It won't matter either way though, cause I think Naito will be the one winning the G1.

@turboman: They could do either of those without burning another Omega/Okada match in the blocks. Why not just save that matchup until Wrestle Kingdom, if they run it there anyway?

@turboman: How do you figure Omega beating Okada in the G1 blocks gets us to Omega/Okada at the Dome again? If that happened, Omega would most likely get his title shot at King of Pro-Wrestling in October, unless you're also suggesting that Omega wins the G1 again?

Space battles are confirmed.

@ezekiel said:

DICE isn't doing the single player, they are only handling the multiplayer. The campaign is being developed by Motive Studios and Lucasfilm.