Sunday Summaries 23/10/2016: Final Fantasy Type-0

I can't really escape the elephant in the room, especially when that elephant can turn into a portable... what's the closest small animal to an elephant? A hyrax? A portable hyrax, with detachable limbs. This metaphor, which I've murdered to death for its ivory, means only one thing: the announcement of the new Nintendo platform, the Nintendo Switch, coming March 2017. Would've been so much easier to start with Will Smith or a joke about pegging, I know.

Definitely a promising line-up, but how many of these guys will just deliver years-old ports?

I'm fairly ambivalent about the Switch. I am excited for a new console in the abstract, but I don't know much about it yet beyond which third-party partners Nintendo has lined up and some of its specs, the latter of which I couldn't care less about. But what the Switch also represents to me is a harbinger of doom for my Wii U, and possibly my 3DS as well. I don't imagine Nintendo will throw the high-earning 3DS under the bus quite so quickly as their gamepad-enabled money vacuum, but Switch seems poised to replace both with its hybrid nature, allowing Nintendo to focus on games ideally suited to either portable or big TV gaming without worrying that one genre will underperform in sales compared to the other. Plus, having a united singular platform with a distinct name will make it far easier for industry outsiders, like gift-buying parents, to avoid confusion between the names of Nintendo systems old and new. The proprietary format, which we briefly saw in the trailer, looks to follow the 3DS's cartridge-based format, so let's hope that there's some compatibility there and maybe also a touchscreen on the beagle-shaped portable pad part to make those games playable. I realize that's a lot of asks, but playing the 3DS games I already own on a big TV will go a long way towards convincing me to invest in yet another Nintendo platform after being burned on this Wii U business. Two years! That's all I got out of this Wii U. Ugh, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Could be worse, I guess. I could've bought an Oculus Rift.

Jumped the sun on this one, but it's coming moon enough.

Two other small pieces of business: First, I want to correct an error (just imagine the Beastcast's jazzy corrections theme playing here) in last week's Sunday Summaries where I erroneously reported that Pokémon Sun/Moon was out last week, when it's only the "special demo version". I'm not sure why release information websites felt the need to announce a demo in their listings, but I guess Pokemon is just that important. I'll get back around to it and the Sun Myung Moon jokes sometime in late November, which is when it actually will come out. Probably. Screw it, I'm not taking any release info for granted.

Second, I wanted to equivocate a little on a term Vinny inadvertently coined on the last Beastcast: "Procression", the portmanteau of procrastination and progression. That is, having a checklist of goals to complete and collectibles to find in an open-world game that doesn't involve much in the way of dedicated mental energy on the player's part, just the (factually baseless) sensation of advancement in a relaxed, zero-stakes atmosphere ideal for an adult who has had a busy day of paying the bills and needs to unwind doing something more or less mindless but still, even if only speciously, makes them feel like progress has been made. It's a concept I think has a lot of weight when it comes to describing the design philosophy behind a great number of contemporary AAA games, which invariably seem to adopt an open-world model, and how that model continues to appeal to us in lieu of more focused, linear (dare I say "cinematic"?) adventures. I have this sense that the top-level of this industry will eventually become exclusively enormous open-world games and competitive online shooters/MOBAs, unless something new can come along and prove to be more profitable. Fortunately, the industry's got many tiers to enjoy these days that we can safely leave the AAA-level behind if it has nothing to offer for the moment. No better time to be playing video games, as they say.

(Oh yeah! And it's my birthday on the 25th! Send me stuff! No, don't. (Do.))

New Games!

"Funko dolls" still seem like an odd visual influence to draw from. Does anyone actually like those melon-headed things?

You'd think I'd be sick of Final Fantasy spin-offs after spending a week or two with Type-0, but nope. World of Final Fantasy, while not seeing too much in the way of positive news from folks who've spent some early time with it, still strikes me as a goofy fun time in a universe that I'm comfortably familiar with; it feels like the Final Fantasy equivalent of Tales's Radiant Mythology sub-series, which is essentially an excuse to jam a whole bunch of Tales characters together from different worlds into a non-canonical alternate universe where they've all lived side-by-side for as long as they can remember. The last two times Final Fantasy in particular has done this created some divisive games: Dissidia, which I didn't much care for, and Theatrhythm, which I absolutely adored (especially the improved Curtain Call). World of Final Fantasy will be a game I'm keeping my eye on, if not necessarily purchasing on release. I mean, I'm too cheap to first day purchase anything anyway, but that's where my head is at.

As for the normals, though, they'll be celebrating the continuation of shooter season with the bipedal biparty that is Titanfall 2. Giant robot suits never really go out of fashion and fans of the first have been clamoring for a decent single-player campaign that this sequel is all set to deliver, so I expect we'll see a lot of dull Titanfall content this week. let's just hope the GB guys play the Xbox version, or they'll be getting the same kind of online abuse that one dev saw for having the temerity to show off a newly minted PS4 disc, as if it implied that they were skipping over the Xbox One this time around. Already I can see that the fanbase around that game will be filled with rational good-natured chaps. (Right, like Battlefield's and Call of Duty's are any better.)

Could we see the return of Pinto Bean?

Dragon Ball: XenoVerse 2 and Farming Simulator '17 are two games that I have zero interest in actually playing, but am happy to see arrive because we're practically guaranteed two Vinny bangers when it comes time to Quick Look them. I'm not sure who he intends to rope in for some DBZ talk, presumably poor Alex who'll just be nodding along obliviously as Vinny explains the various Saiyan power levels in detail.

We have some serendipitous timing, since I'll likely be receiving the base model on Tuesday, but this week sees the long-awaited DLC for Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel. Knowing zero lore for that game, besides the high quantity of callbacks I've been hearing about, I'm not sure who or what Ariandel is and why her/its ashes are important. I can only assume it's not going to involve growing up destitute in 1930s/40s Ireland, having to contend with younger siblings constantly dying of curable diseases while also putting down 30ft tall demons.

There's also that new Skyrim remaster, or to give it the full title: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. I'm not particularly enthused about jumping back into Skyrim again - or at least not without a copious amount of mods, something that the PS4 will no longer support according to a pissy Bethesda. For a game made five years ago, Skyrim's been doing the rounds a lot recently, huh? It also appeared in that Nintendo Switch trailer too, though I can imagine that was some symbiotic tie-in promotion for this remaster.

Wiki!

As with last week, I've been going through the three regional lists Wikipedia has for TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine games that have been released on Wii Virtual Console and adding those releases, with all relevant information, to their pages. There's sometimes upwards of six releases to add at once - the four regions (on the above lists, Australia and Europe are combined, but they're separate on our site), plus Wii U Virtual Console and PS3 PSN releases - so progress has been fairly stop-and-go. I managed to hit my target of completing everything up to "N" - the halfway point of the alphabet. I think I'm actually more than halfway done, however. As a whole, this project has been... well, you remember that bit earlier about "procression"? It's like that.

Vinnyvania gave me a hankering for more IGAvania. So sue me.

With this Nintendo Switch announcement and the above wiki busywork, my mind naturally drifts to how Nintendo will handle that particular online digital distribution feature moving forward. It seems likely that it'll see a familiar iteration of the Virtual Console, perhaps with a focus on porting over Wii U and 3DS games if the Switch is intending to replace both, but I'd like to hope that Nintendo finally bites the bullet and attempts a subscription model like PlayStation Plus or Netflix with its vast back library. That will mean ensuring a large number of games are available at the launch of such a service, filled with all the NES/SNES/GBA/N64/Wii games anyone could conceivably want to pay a monthly subscription for, but I think it'd be a good first step to exonerate the ridiculous pricing structure they have right now, a hoary holdover from when reselling older games digitally was still in its nascency. I bought Aria of Sorrow for less than £5 in the Halloween Sale they got going on right now, which I think is a bargain, but there's many more on there that, even when discounted, seem far too pricey for games that would be old enough to drive were they people and not games.

I give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt that a large portion of that isn't so much arbitrary gouging than recouping the costs for tweaking those emulators for the new consoles and keeping them on a server, and it seems likely Nintendo will want to continue pushing the nostalgia as hard as they can especially if the Switch loses most of its third-party support after a few months and we'll once again face the grim reality of owning a Nintendo console that sees a brilliant first-party launch every three months and nothing else of worth to buoy it in the meantime. Heck, I'd pay a basic $5 p/m fee for just the 8-bit and 16-bit games, with optional $10 p/m rates for N64/GBA and $15 p/m rates for Wii and GameCube. I'm sure there's more than a few ways they can handle it that'll make them plenty of cash for new projects without turning away customers.

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD!

You know, I never did play that FFXV demo. Figured the full game's close enough by now.

While I'm not quite finished with Final Fantasy Type-0 - I'm on the seventh chapter, which I believe is also the penultimate one - I feel like I have its number. Well, it has several numbers in it, including almost all the main cast, but I mean that I've figured it out. The game is built around its gameplay first, and everything else is there to support it. I realize I started last week's appraisal purporting a similar sentiment, but it wasn't as clear to me then as it is now.

The gameplay thing is most evident in how the game is built around replays. I spoke about the limited time in getting stuff done during the heavily scheduled "free time" between story missions, and that's part of it; there's not nearly enough time to do everything, so just do whatever you feel like and come back for the rest on a subsequent playthrough. Equally, the missions themselves are strictly timed and offer great rewards for players who make it to the end quickly and relatively unscathed. Harder difficulties present the same mission again with tougher enemies, the hardest of which boosts the enemies by 30 levels to keep it challenging for those on new game plus, which carries over a lot of character data including levels, skill tree progression and equipment. The game is also packed with bonus dungeons, some of which offer shortcuts between the various world map sectors while the rest are filled with rare items and attached to side-quests. Because none of them are necessary for core story progression, some require a far higher level than you can ever expect to reach in one playthrough - my best cadet right now is at level 40, a significant way past the rest who are hovering between 28-35, and I imagine the game will end long before he or anyone else hits 50. Conversely, these bonus dungeons have enemies going up to level 128, from what prodding I've been doing. (The secret superboss, because every Final Fantasy has to have one, is level 200. That's not going to be something you can pull off on your first time through, if ever.)

Well this is... overt.

Many RPGs are predicated on the idea of subsequent playthroughs, letting you continue on with what you've achieved thus far and presenting ever tougher challenges for the seasoned player and their team to face. Diablo and the hack & loot games like it are obvious exemplars, but this sort of thinking has been infiltrating Japanese RPGs for a while too. Consider how Persona 4 (a digressive shout-out to @clagnaught for finally finishing his "Best of the Endurance Run" series!) lets you carry your persona compendium and social-based stats from game to game, increasing the number of dialogue options on subsequent playthroughs, or Tales's ever-present Grade system which allows the player to pick and choose which new game plus carry-overs and bonuses to take with them on their next attempt. Dragon Quarter was one of the first cases I'm aware of where frequently stopping mid-playthrough and starting over from the beginning, keeping some amount of what you'd earned, was more or less compulsory for finishing the game (the first Dead Rising went on to use a similar system, though its sequels quietly dropped the idea). In a manner of speaking, Type-0 continues that legacy, creating a Final Fantasy that wasn't so much meant to be beaten once for its story and then left behind, but revisited over and over, its portable-friendly compartmentalized structure affording near endless replayability in short sessions. That's also why you have fourteen playable characters - there's perhaps too many options to consider for just one playthrough alone, but if you're going to be potentially playing this thing for a hundred hours it's nice to have some variance to lean on.

This epiphany is somewhat at odds with how I intended to play the game. I've spoken about my completionist tendencies, but in order to acquire the best gear, reach the max level, fight every creature and completely fill the "Rubicus" - a book that keeps track of all the game's events, cutscenes and major characters that you can peruse to make sense of the game's occasionally Byzantine plot - you need at least two playthroughs (and probably a third) to see and acquire and record everything. It's definitely not a knock against the game, but it's clearly a bit more involved than I was anticipating. Fortunately, all the trophies can be acquired on a single playthrough, so I can be content with a Platinum at least even if most of the game's challenges and secrets remain untouched.

In case you didn't think this game was anime enough, there's an ongoing sidequest to buy expensive gifts for an attractive teacher and then use them to spy on her. She'll have less clothes the more often you do this. The very definition of Creeper Cam.

But, man, I haven't even scratched the surface of the cool ideas this game has. It definitely has a surfeit of imaginative game design, which gets nothing but respect from me. The game lets you level up a character by sending them off to train with other players overnight while your game is turned off! I think the actual mechanics behind those late-night sorties are a bit more influenced by AI algorithms than other humans, but it's a neat concept that lets you quit the game but still feel like progress is being made in your absence. The game also has "Expert Trials", which are essentially optional missions equivalent in length to the mandatory story-critical ones, only they're far higher level and effectively impossible for those on their first playthrough unless they've spent a lot of time grinding. Each one only appears at a certain point in the game's story and the usual result of their completion is the liberation of a particular town or territory from the enemy forces; these towns are automatically taken when the game's story moves forward, so these missions are resolved whether you're involved or not, but it greatly expands the game with a lot of new content for anyone on their second or third playthrough, corroborating what I've been saying about how this game was built for replays.

Type-0 is a fascinating game, all told. Its mission-based structure, overabundance of systems and unconventional storytelling that effectively treats a class of fourteen students as the collective protagonist might turn off those looking for a more conventional JRPG, especially from the otherwise predictable Final Fantasy franchise, but the game's got some serious depth to it. I hesitate to say it, but it might have to join a whole bunch of other games I've played this year in a special "inevitable revisit" category. Are recursive backlogs a thing?