Friday, January 31, 2020

Game-A-Week Episode 6: Skyforge
We are officially back from our month long hiatus and we're continuing with the Future Seven arc
But first
There are two games I'd like to bring attention to that are part of the Future Seven and we're scheduled for this week but for one reason or another, could not be covered on Game-A-Week.
The first of the two is Phantasy Star Online 2 which was at the top of the list.
Strap in, because I've got a history with this game. Its quite a story.
PSO2 was originally supposed to release here in the west in March 2012
It didn't.
The game was massively successful in Japan but it just never came out here in the west.
Now, this isn't some tiny company that you would expect to go dark.
No, Phantasy Star is owned and developed by Sega.
Yes, THAT Sega. The Sonic guys.
But for whatever reason, the western release was delayed and then Sega went radio silent.
Years passed.
I'd continue to hear about how successful the game was. It was ported to EVERY system (Switch version coming soon btw), got two anime adaptions and even got THE Hatsune Miku to write a song about it. (I mean, Miku is owned by Sega also but still!)
But as long as official the website for the English version of the game that hadn't been updated since May 2011 was since up, I had hope. However little there was of it, I had hope.
Then it happened.... In the year 2015, an English version of PSO2 was released.
For South East Asia, the Philippines.
And there was an IP block on it to prevent foreigners from accessing the servers.
But surely, since an English version now existed, it was only a matter of time before it came to us. All they had to do was make a US sever, the localization was done.
They never did.
In 2016, the IP block was lifted.
We could finally play!
And I did, it was an awesome game.
24 hours later, the IP block was back up.
It was only lifted due to some kind of mix up.
Foiled again.
That was the end of that.
A year later in 2017, the SEA servers shut down.
Surely, this HAD to be the final nail in the coffin. The game had died, surely that's proof it wouldn't work outside Japan, And yet, that blasted english website had the AUDACITY to still be up.
One year later, in 2018, the final blow was dealt. The website for the game's western release was taken down. I had long accepted it at this point, but this was the final nail in the coffin. The dream was dead.
When I finally got around to doing Game-A-Week, I was prepared to just say "fuck it" and play the japanese version.
And then....
E3 2019
Microsoft had announced that they would be localizing PSO2 in full themselves for Windows 10 and Xbox One for a 2020 release.
The impossible had happened.
What was once dead, now lives.
And so, this brings us to today.
PSO2 has yet to release in the west but once it does, I will gladly do a Game-A-Week on it.
But
This is their last chance.
The game MUST release in 2020, otherwise I will just say "fuck it" and play the Japanese version. I've been patient enough.
You have one year, PSO2. One short year. Your deadline is January 1st, 2021. I hope for your success but you know what happens if you don't.

Anyway, the second game (And next on the list after PSO2) was Peria Chronicles which caught my eye immediately.
In particular it featured content creation tools which looked really cool.
Unfortunately, the game hasn't come it.
And it never will.
The game was canceled. Development had ceased, the studio disbanded. Everyone on the team was out of a job.
It became vaporware.
Which is such a shame because. Well, take a look for yourself.
I mean, this looked awesome. But now, we'll never truly know.
I wrote a post on the subreddit to pay my respects. I think it says all there is to say on the matter:
"Just found out about the news. I can't believe it. I've really been looking forward to this game for... Gosh, 5 years now? So this really bums me out. Especially since it felt like it was so close to release with the beta testing. That's what is most shocking about this. Usually, when a game I've played and enjoyed gets shut down, I like to post on the subreddit to say goodbye but this time it's a bit different. I never even got to play this one but I was looking forward to it for so long, I feel a sense of attachment to it. Not to mention it was a solid #3 on the list of games on my radar. I wasn't just casually looking forward to it, I was pretty into it as well. And the worst part about it is why I'm calling this a fate worse than death for this game. Because since it never actually came out, there's no hope of a revival via private servers like what City of Heroes got. It's actually as dead as a game can possibly be. Which is a total bummer that this is one game we'll never be able to play. But I feel even worse for all those fansites and YouTube channels that built themselves around covering information for this game. Especially Mifuyu who appears to have deleted his channel. I may be bummed out but those guys probably feel it hell of a lot worse than I do. Well, there's unfortunately not much more for me to say. I wish there was but there isn't much you can say about a game that never was. Goodbye, Peria Chronicles. You looked really good, I was really looking forward to you since my freshman year of college almost 6 years ago. I guess you were just too good for this world. (At least I've still got my secret stash of fanart of the mascot girl)"
A shame. A damn shame. It had so much potential but now... Well you get the picture. It completely destroyed any faith I had in the genre and the MMO industry. I shoudn't have expected much since the publisher was Nexon and this wouldn't be the first time they've destroyed something great. (You'll always be in my heart, Mabinogi.) But it taught me to never get excited or look forward to any MMOs from this point on. In fact, the reason why the Game-A-Week list is so big is because I don't intend on playing any more games outside of this list on my PC. This is it. As far as MMOs go, I'll only play what I know from now on. GW2, FFXIV, Wakfu and Wow Classic. Anything not on this list(Game-A-Week) outside of PSO2, Blue Protocol and Magic Legends isn't getting any attention from me. I'm done.
Anyway
That brings us to this week
Skyforge
Which is the game I actually played this week.
So when this game was coming out, almost everyone said "This is going to be the best MMO ever"
I didn't really buy into that hype, I mean, some piece of the pie has to be rotten. It sounded too good to be true but it was enough for me to put it on the Future Seven list.
Then the game released and I heard some not so great things about it. Then it fell off the face of the planet.
I never heard anyone talk about it again.
So reluctantly, I tried it out for the sake of Game-A-Week expecting to hate it. After all, everyone and their brother said it was bad so it probably is.
Except, I was pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, I actually liked it. It lacks polish and it can be buggy at times but its good mindless action RPG fun.
The default graphics are also absolute garbage so I turned it up to max. It said my computer couldn't handle it but I experienced no drop in performance so it can suck my computer's massive digitized dong.
Max graphics actually look pretty decent though.
So how this game works is that instead of an open world MMO, you're in a hub world and you select missions from a map.
And then you go on those missions which are carefully designed levels. And when you finish the level, you're brought back to the hub.
Think of something like Monster Hunter or God Eater.
There doesn't appear to be a level system but there is a rank system
Which is like levels but not.
I actually have no idea what raises your rank but I don't think I get any experience from killing monsters.
And I can't find anything online about it because this game has a non-existent playerbase. So anything the game doesn't explain, is just never explained inside or outside of the game. And let me tell you, this game explains NOTHING. So that's how much you'll ever know about this game.
Speaking of explanations, let me explain the game's lore because its pretty fucking weird.
So you're a god. Well no, you're an immortal and if you gain enough power, you can become a god.
But nothing really feels very god-like because a lot of your powers are technology based and "heaven" is a floating space station in space.
It is this bizarre mix of sci-fi and fantasy.
And there's a modern times aesthetic to it too. It really is a bizarre mishmash of thing.
In fact, the reason I play the Paladin class is because its the only one that feels like I have god-like powers.
Except, the description says Paladins are followers of the goddess Ianna so I'm really just borrowing her powers.
It's hard to explain.
I'm trying to unlock the monk class because despite being named after a type of religious followers, its the only class that looks "god-like"
I'm sorry but I'm not going to feel like a god playing the Gunner class and forgive my skepticism when a prison riot led by a mortal named Craig is a god-level threat.
Did I mention the hub world called the "Divine Observatory" is actually just a space station?
I get less of a feeling that I'm a god and more of a feeling that I'm of a hyper advanced civilization that calls itself "gods" out of pure arrogance.
There's also a battle royale mode.
Is it fun?
I wouldn't know. Nobody plays it, so I couldn't get a match going. I waited 2 hours queueing up for it and then got booted for inactivity.
Its not a matter of waiting long enough for players to show up. It's literally impossible to play this mode because literally no one plays it.
I was lucky enough to be play this game while the Christmas event was still going on.
There was surprisingly a lot to do and a lot of rewards to aim for and earn.
Its honestly one of the best holiday events I've ever experienced in an MMO which was really surprising.
Plus, you could go ice skating. Which changes your character's movement physics to start slow but speed up when you gain momentum.
It was a LOT of fun. You even did a little pirouette and glide when you jumped. Really, some of the best fun I've ever had in an MMO.
So of course, when I saw that a permanent version of the skates were on the reward list, I had to aim for it.
Unfortunately, the permanent version isn't nearly as fun. Instead of changing your movement physics, it just makes you faster.
But its at least a lot cooler than the stupid fucking Zamboni the game gives you as your starting mount.
I found the game to be rather easy.... Until I hit a difficult spike where I had to use keepaway tactics just to survive and eventually I hit a point where it was flat out impossible to progress.
I was rank 28 so I thought fighting rank 34 enemies wouldn't be so bad.
Until I hovered over my rank and it explained exactly what the system meant.
When you are fighting something that is lower rank than you, you get a 1% increase to your offense and defense for each rank you are higher.
When you are fighting something with a high rank, you get a 10% decrease to your offense and defense for each rank you are lower.
So these monsters which were 6 ranks above me had a grand total of 66% increased damage and defense against me.
When you put it like that, the difference is actually pretty huge.
So I gave up and complained about it on reddit
And before we end this, there's one more thing worth nothing
All missions are on a campaign map.
What this says to me, is that eventually, I'll have done everything. There doesn't appear to be anything like dungeons or raids (or players to do them)
So while I do like this game, I fear it may be like Star Wars the Old Republic where I like the game, but there's nothing worth doing beyond the main story.
And unlike SWTOR, the story is pretty bad. Only the gameplay is good.
I give Skyforge a 6/10. It lacks polish but its a solid action RPG experience. Whether or not it becomes a permanent addition to my gaming library or just a temporary one like SWTOR remains to be seen. We'll just have to cross that bridge when we reach it.
Here is my masterpiece: hot fire lava volcano goddess, Ninijatt Sama. .... Dude, I wish she'd step on me
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