TheBlue

I think the story beats in the Club Sunshine sidequest are really fun, but it would take way too long for you guys to finish it.

So I'll just second the Nugget scene, heat compilation, and the Kiwami trailer to close it out if you guys are definitely gonna play it.

Also, I don't know if there's a better video with them, but here's one with all of the real life actors playing the lieutenants, Sagawa, and Tachibana. Unfortunately the interview is only in Japanese. Still, it might be neat to take a second to watch.

Oh...and you might recognize someone at 14:32 of this video...

I don't think it's meant to be a twist for the player as it's plainly obvious that it's not Basch. The real question is how Reks didn't realize anything. Though, he was in so much shock to cripple him mentally so I guess it's understandable.

Currently NieR and Persona 5 are fighting for my number 1 and I don't think I'll be able to decide. I haven't played Zelda yet and chances are that it will vie for #1 as well. Nioh, Horizon, Fire Emblem Echoes, and Yakuza 0 fill out the top end of my list. Tales of Berseria, Gravity Rush 2, and FF12 Zodiac Age could very well make it on the list also.

Still looking to play Night in the Woods, Pyre, Yakuza Kiwami, Hollow Knight, and Spectre of Torment.

@pompouspizza: After playing a couple of hours of this and being very familiar with the original release, I would say to not sweat the job system that much. It seems like a lot right off the bat, but pretty much every class is viable so you can't really choose incorrectly. Even never doubling up on any class and using them all will probably get you a perfectly usable team no matter the combination. The license board is also a pretty forgiving skill system as you can always just grind low level enemies to get more points.

The only real tricky thing to get used to is the gambit system but honestly, the main game is rather easy enough that you should be able to figure out simple gambit setups that work well.

Humanity's fate is fairly easy to guess early on in Automata so no, that's not that big a spoiler. If you were planning on playing it and think that you've ruined the story for yourself by learning those things, you most certainly did not.

I think I would appreciate a Binding Blade remake only if it got an extensive overhaul. Echoes stuck very close to Gaiden's mechanics while pretty much just adding some attack skills, characterizations, and balancing stat and growth changes. I played through Binding Blade recently and it's a fairly bare bones entry, which it was kind of meant to be considering the history of the series. Gaiden/Echoes has a lot of unique mechanics that help it to stand out, but I feel like you would need to add so much to Binding Blade to bring it up to speed with where the series is now. In other words, if IS continues to deny the west some of the best games in the series in favor of those Roy bucks, they better make it damn good.

I'm with you on Persona 5, I think I enjoyed it more than 3 or 4 and it's my favorite cast by far, but especially the way it was discussed on the Bomb and Beastcast made me feel incredibly defensive about it. They kind of came off discussing it like it was some 100 hour slog that had a few good points here and there and focused only on the negatives. I just hope the spoilercast Alex and Ben do isn't completely focused on their narrative dislikes.

So I actually enjoyed (and am still enjoying) SoV quite a bit, probably more than most. There's something about the weirdness and simplicity of Gaiden's gameplay that felt refreshing after Fates. I liked that I was able to use pretty much every character and the artwork and aesthetics are top notch. If they don't remake at least Geneology like this I will be...unhappy.

@egonvonholz: Yeah, you're good. Having 4 in guts and proficiency will let you start Hanged Man way earlier and continue Emperor when it pulls the proficiency check. Other than dodging the chalk the teacher throws at you early on, I don't think there's anything that needs guts or proficiency maxed out at least until towards the end of the game.

@egonvonholz: If you can't max out all the confidants then definitely max as many as possible and ignore ones you know you can't max. Fortune is very useful. Otherwise just get those stats up as much as you can. Having Knowledge at 5 or at least halfway to 5 and everything else at least 4 will be very helpful in NG+. I wouldn't sweat it too much though, having any kind of head start in social stats is enough to make maxing everything in NG+ a breeze.

I started it yesterday and have been eager to get back to it. I absolutely love the art direction and aesthetics of the game. The decision to stick as close as possible to Gaiden's design choices is both positive and negative. I know a lot of people hate that there's no My Unit or kids or whatever, but to me it feels weirdly fresh and nostalgic at the same time. The simplicity takes me back to when I fell in love with FE back when I played Blazing Sword for the first time, but I think IS did a fantastic job elevating a pretty bare bones NES game to modern standards.

If there's any truth to the "Echoes" name being a subtitle for future remakes, then the day Genealogy and Thracia are remade for the Switch will be the day I could die happy. Genealogy may be my favorite FE and I've been itching to play a fully translated and polished Thracia.

Hopefully the future FE title for the Switch will take more from Echoes than Fates. I enjoyed Fates well enough, but I don't think I would like IS doubling down on the direction that Awakening and Fates are going. At the very least, get some competent writers and editors, and stop trying to cram kids into these games unless you come up with a damn good reason for them to be there. The Hyperbolic Time dimension may be the most embarrassing thing about Fates' story.