I'm really looking forward to Dragon Quest Builders; how about you?

I wasn't sure what to think when Dragon Quest Builders was first unveiled last summer. I love the whole Dragon Quest aesthetic, but I haven't exactly been bowled over by Minecraft or its many pretenders, so it took me a good long while to realize I could have a blast with Builders.

If I hadn't come around yet, I'm pretty sure the game's latest trailer (below) would've done the trick.



I'm especially enamored with Dragon Quest Builders' character and creature models. The town-building and resource-collecting aspects look interesting, too, although I'm still not entirely sold on them. (I liked, but didn't love, that component of Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, and I'm somewhat worried I'll be similarly underwhelmed by it here.)

How about all of you? Are any of you planning to buy either the PS4 or Vita version of Dragon Quest Builders upon its North American release on Oct. 11? If so, which version will you get?

Is it wrong that Yasuhiro Wada's upcoming game, Birthdays, makes me wish I owned a PS4?

OK, so I'm sure I could think of at least a few other PS4 games that make me wish I owned Sony's latest console. At the moment, though, Birthdays is the only one that's coming to mind. (And, yes, this is despite the fact that Yasuhiro Wada's last game, Hometown Story, was quite a turd.)

What is Birthdays, you ask? Based on the handful of screenshots that've been released so far and the trailer found below, I'd describe it as being a thoroughly Japanese mix of Minecraft and an old SNES game called E.V.O.: Search for Eden.



According to one of the first English reports about this PS4 title, which will be published in its home country by Arc System Works, it "lets players create, steadily evolve and develop environments on new lands where living things are born."

The current plan is for it to hit the streets of Japan in early 2017. Apparently European and North American PS4 owners will get their hands on it shortly after that, as NIS America's already decided to localize Birthdays for those regions. (Here's hoping they keep the original name and logo.)

How about all of you wonderful folks? Are any of you also chomping at the bit to sink your teeth into Birthdays?

Random musings on the other games that were and weren't mentioned during last week's Nintendo Direct broadcasts

The trio of Nintendo Direct broadcasts that aired a couple of days ago featured a bunch of wonderful looking games.

Two of them: localized versions of the 3DS iterations of Dragon Quest VII and VIII, which amazingly are being brought to both Europe and North America by Nintendo at some point in 2016.

Of course, Nintendo also ignored a bunch of 3DS and Wii U games during these latest Directs.

Speaking of which, here are a few thoughts on some of the ones that actually earned a mention as well as some of the ones I wish had been mentioned.

First, the chatter about the ones that were given a nod:

Bravely Second (3DS)

Bravely Second: End Layer--Unfortunately for North Americans like myself who are chomping at the bit to play the English version of this Bravely Default sequel, the only attention Second received in the Nintendo Direct aimed at our neck of the woods was a sentence or two. Still, among those few words was a promise that the game would hit store shelves here this coming spring, so I won't complain too loudly about that oversight. (If you call Europe home, you'll be able to get your hands on Bravely Second within the first three months of 2016.) Anyway, although I would've loved a specific release date or glimpse of the title's Western box art, I'm happy we at least were given confirmation it'll be out soon.

Final Fantasy Explorers--I've had the North American version of this 3DS-based MonHun wannabe pre-ordered for some time now, so it would've really sucked if I thought the footage included in this Direct was subpar to the point of turning me off of the game entirely. Delightfully, that wasn't the case. In fact, the gameplay showcased here made me even more interested in this title than I was earlier. Sure, it's more than a little rough around the edges, with low-poly character models and a shockingly iffy frame rate, but even then it looks like good fun to me. The question is, do I keep my pre-order in place for the standard edition, or do I cancel it so I can go for the pricey collector's edition instead?

Fire Emblem Fates (3DS)

Fire Emblem Fates--This is another 3DS title I pre-ordered a while back. Did the snazzy special edition, which features all three versions of the game (Birthright, Conquest and the digital-only Revelation) as well as an art book and a carrying pouch, prompt me to ditch that "standard" copy in favor of this $80 counterpart? Nope. Don't get me wrong, the Fire Emblem Fates SE sounds awesome, but I've only played about seven hours of Fire Emblem Awakening thus far, so I don't think I need to own three different iterations of its follow-up. Or at least I don't need to own all three right from the get-go.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD--Ah, a Wii U game. Finally! Sadly, unlike a lot of people, I don't find this one all that appealing--and I would say that even if I actually owned a Wii U system. That's not a rip on Twilight Princess, mind you; rather, it's more of a comment on how I feel about the Zelda series as a whole these days. In other words, if we're not talking about throwback games like A Link Between Worlds (which I adored), I just can't muster up much interest.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam--If you'd like, you can take some of what I just said about Twilight Princess HD (the part about not being able to muster up much interest, mainly) and use it here, too. Why? For starters, the Mario & Luigi series has never really done it for me, especially from an aesthetics standpoint. I'm feeling similarly apathetic about the Paper Mario series these days--which is a shame, as I loved its first two entries for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Both Super Paper Mario for Wii and Sticker Star for 3DS ended up boring me to tears, though, and none of what I've seen of Paper Jam makes me think it'll provoke a more positive reaction, so until and unless that changes, this game is getting a "hell no" from yours truly.

Pokémon Blue, Red and Yellow--It's about time, Nintendo. It's about time. Why the company decided to wait until the end of the 3DS' life to add this trio of classic RPGs to the system's Virtual Console is beyond me. Did it have something to do with Nintendo's crack team of engineers figuring out how to make it so gamers could swap monsters, which most folks surely consider to be a staple of this decades-old series? Maybe. Whatever the case may be, I'm glad I'll finally be able to try my hand at Yellow. I finished Red way back when, and later picked up a copy of Blue, too, but Yellow's always been a mystery to me. Hopefully the wait will have been worth it.

Four reasons I think Airship Q for Vita looks absolutely fabulous

In my last post, I introduced at least a few of you to an upcoming Vita--and, at some yet-to-be-determined date, PS4--game known as Airship Q.

This adorable title is being billed by its makers as a "sandbox action RPG" that's supposed to bring to mind such popular releases as Minecraft and Terraria.

If that doesn't mean much to you (or even if it does), I'd highly recommend watching the teaser trailer that's now available for your viewing pleasure at gematsu.com.

Aside from that, what are the aspects of Airship Q that have me chomping at the bit to pick up a copy as soon as I'm able? I thought you'd never ask. Here are the first few that come to mind:

1. Its box art is wonderful--This should be a well-known fact to those of you who scrolled through my most recent post (about three recent examples of especially fabulous Vita cover art). If you failed to check out that write-up, you could do worse than give it a glance now.

2. It has a feline protagonist--Seriously, how many games do we ever get to play that star a cat? Not many. Even if every other game featured these whiskery mammals, though, the one included in Airship Q is so darn cute that it still would make this title worth the price of admission. (Which, by the way, will be 2,500 yen--about $21--for retail copies and 2,000 yen for digital ones upon release in Japan.)

3. It allows players to create their own airships--Under normal circumstances, this would only moderately pique my interest, I've got to say. After seeing the dragon-shaped craft in Airship Q's trailer, though, I'm 100 percent stoked to make something similar once I finally get my hands on the game. Actually, maybe I'll make something completely different. A Kirby-inspired vessel would be cool, don't you think? Another possibility: one of the ships from my all-time favorite shmup series, Parodius.

4. It simply looks like a lot of fun--Granted, I have little to no experience with Minecraft, Terraria or any of the games that have ripped off those chart-toppers, so maybe Airship Q--the Vita iteration of which is set to hit Japanese store shelves on Nov. 19--won't prove to be as fun as I'm currently imagining it will be. I'm pretty confident it'll at least mostly live up to the hype, though, so look for me to buy some version or other of this title sooner rather than later.

Are any of you going to keep an eye on Airship Q now that you know about its existence?

(Via gematsu.com)

I've got to admit, Dragon Quest Builders looks quite a bit more appealing than I imagined it would when it was first announced

Full disclosure: I've never played Minecraft. In any form.

I can't tell you why that is, sadly. I guess it's possible I would've played the game by now if it were available for a Nintendo platform, but I have a feeling even that may not have pushed me to jump on the bandwagon.



That's not to say I have something against Minecraft or its makers or its fans or anything like that. For whatever reason, it just hasn't pinged my radar up to this point.

Anyway, as a result of all of the above, Square Enix's announcement a couple of weeks ago that it is prepping a game called Dragon Quest Builders--which seemingly combines elements of Minecraft with the Dragon Quest series--for PS3, PS4 and Vita didn't exactly send shivers up and down my spine.



I don't know that I would say I'm feeling those shivers now that I've thoroughly perused the first Dragon Quest Builders screenshots that can be seen throughout this post, but I'm definitely a lot more interested in the game than I ever thought I'd be.

The question is: will the powers that be at Square Enix actually release any version of Dragon Quest Builders in North America?



I wouldn't bet against the PS4 iteration crossing the pond, so to speak, especially since Square Enix seems so bullish on that console at the moment, but I'm not so sure about the Vita iteration--which of course is the one I'd buy if I were to do such a thing.

What do all of you think? Will Dragon Quest Builders see the light of day outside of Japan? And should that come to pass, will you buy one or more copies of it?

Shall We Do It? (Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley)

If you follow me on Twitter, you've likely seen me comment on my Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley playthrough quite a bit over the last couple of weeks.

A lot of those tweets have been pretty negative, and for good reason. This 3DS game--which was made internally at Natsume rather than by the folks at Marvelous Entertainment--does nearly everything it can to break the heart and soul of the person playing it.

First, there's the blink-and-you'll-miss-it passage of time. As in, each in-game day lasts about five minutes in the real world--which may not sound all that bad, but it surely is when you have to try to fit tending to your crops, milking and feeding your cow, chatting with semi-random visitors and many other, similar sorts of tasks into such a severely compressed period of time.

This is what summer looked like in my version of
The Lost Valley--for two whole days.

That's especially true when it comes to the portions of the game that revolve around watering flowers and other plants as well as the Minecraft-y ones that involve re-sculpting the landscape (by digging into the earth or excavating stone) in various ways. Crops are fertilized, watered and harvested one plant at a time, for instance, and digging and excavating stick to a similar formula.

Another way in which The Lost Valley attempts to deter even the most Pollyanna-ish players is tied to all of the annoying "fetch quests" that are forced on those who would like to push along the story that sits at the center of the experience.

Here's a much more typical view of my particular
portion of this 3DS game's world.

And believe me, you'll want to push along the story as quickly as you're able, as doing so allows you to eradicate from the game one of its biggest and most obnoxious issues, which is its seemingly never-ending winter.

For those of you who've yet to read or hear much about The Lost Valley, you may be surprised to learn that it drops you (or, rather, your avatar) into a desolate, snow-covered landscape. Unbelievably, that's about all you'll see for the first 20 hours or so, assuming your playthrough is anything like mine has been so far. That's because, as per the game's story, your main task during your first year in The Lost Valley is to help bring the seasons back to this harsh and deserted environment. Although it's possible you'll be able to do what it takes to see a couple days of spring, summer or fall before they cruelly snap back to winter, the most likely scenario is that your initial 120 days with this title (each season lasts 30 in-game days) will be spent staring at a blanket of white.

Presented without comment.

As I said while recording the latest episode of The Nichiest Podcast Ever, a part of me actually respects and even appreciates that The Lost Valley's developers were so brazen as to plop players into such an uninviting world. Another part, though, absolutely hates them for it, as what seemed like an acceptable-enough situation for my first few hours with the game has since become almost unbearable.

Note I just said "almost" unbearable rather than, say, completely unbearable. That's because despite all of my complaints so far, I've still devoted more than 20 hours to The Lost Valley since I first crammed its cart into my 3DS a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, something keeps drawing me back, even if that "thing" is nothing more than a stubborn desire to prove--to myself, to shidoshi, to designers who surely snickered as they pieced together this masochistic experience--I can make it through the game's abominable opening salvo.

Believe me, I enjoyed summer as much as I could while it lasted.

I'm nearly through my first year in The Lost Valley, by the way, so it's possible the game will take a turn for the better shortly. Being an avowed cynic, I'm not going to place any money on that coming to fruition, but who knows? Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised for once.

Even if I'm not, I'm planning to plow ahead (pun intended), at least for the time being. I won't be shocked if my interest in the game wanes sometime the next week or two, though, as I just can't imagine it's going to change enough once I rid the world of its oppressive frigidity to the bowels of hell--or somewhere similarly suitable--to keep my attention. 

I'll let you know one way or the other in my next "Shall We Do It?" post, of course. In the meantime, have any of you played Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley? If so, what are your thoughts on its particular pros and cons?

FYI: I'm still pretty darn keen on Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (3DS)

Actually, I'm now more interested in this upcoming 3DS title than I was previously thanks to the trailer that can be viewed below.

Sure, the game still looks like an old Nintendo 64 or PlayStation game, but that's a big part of its appeal, in my humble opinion.



Also, I just think the Minecraft-esque gameplay that's been crammed into this iteration of the long-running series--which was made by the folks at Natsume rather than by creator Yasuhiro Wada and his crew at Marvelous--looks like a lot of fun.

Are any of you also planning to pick up The Lost Valley after it hits the streets (and eShop) of North America on Nov. 4  or after it finally makes its way to Europe?

I have a feeling The Lost Valley may be my first Harvest Moon game

This may surprise some of you who haven't heard me talk about it previously (such as on the most recent installment of The Nichiest Podcast Ever), but I've never played a Harvest Moon game--despite the fact that the decades-old series of adorable "life sims" would seem to be right up my alley for all sorts of reasons.

My short explanation for this admittedly embarrassing gaffe is that I ignored the first few titles for reasons I no longer can remember and after that I quickly became overwhelmed by the myriad options (and sequels) the series presented to me.



I'm starting to get the feeling, though, that Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, the upcoming 3DS iteration that's being made internally by long-time North American publisher Natsume and not series creator Yasuhiro Wada (who helmed the Bokujō Monogatari title that will be released here as Story of Seasons later this year), may be the game that finally introduces me to the Harvest Moon world.

Why? Because I really like this version's low-poly art style--which can be seen throughout The Lost Valley's first trailer, above--for starters. I also like its seemingly Minecraft-inspired elements.

What do all of you think of this divisive 3DS game? Are you interested in it, too, or will you be passing on it--possibly so you can pick up Story of Seasons instead?

(Via tinycartridge.com)