Articles

Friendly Fire Prompts Developer Response From Playerunknown

PlayerUnknown, also known as Brendan Greene, and a popular Twitch streamer have been at odds over the past days due to a temporary ban from the wildly popular Battlegrounds.

Disney Makes eSports Regular Programming with Disney D|XP

In an announcement last week, Disney stated that two new shows would be joining its lineup. The new segment, Disney D|XP, features two shows centered around eSports.

Io Interactive Releases Final Hitman Elusive Target

Io Interactive has been the center of a couple of news stories lately. Last month, we saw them become independent from Square Enix. In the process, they retained control of their original IP.

Spider-Man PS4 Plot and Gameplay Shown at D23

Aside from the gameplay video shown at E3 this year, we’ve only known about its 2018 release window so far. Insomniac boasts that unlike Sunset Overdrive, an earlier game from the company, the game’s open world will be larger.

eSports Finally Come to Disney XD

You read that correctly. For the first time this year, Disney will host Top 8s of both Street Fighter V and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on Disney XD. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen eSports on TV. In 2015, ESPN hosted the Dota 2 International on their channel.

New 3DS Production Shuts Down Worldwide, says Nintendo

We have seen Nintendo lack in production and shipping for several of their hallmark products in the past. It started with the special edition Majora’s Mask New 3DS XL in early 2015 and continued through to the NES Mini just last year. Nintendo’s limited quantities not only made products hard to find, but made it easier for scalpers to thrive. At their peak, scalpers charging double the retail price not only disheartened fans but made limited quantities even more scarce.

Overwatch’s Doomfist Promises Real Lore

The general buzz about Overwatch last week was the release of a new hero on its public test region (PTR): Doomfist. Immediately, players welcomed the new character with glee. Finally, a melee based character in a first person shooter.

Absolver Promises Fluid, Respectful PvP

Working with Devolver Digital on the game, Sloclap recently revealed the fourth fighting style in Absolver. A heavy attack-based stance known as Stagger, it rounds out the available styles with something slower with a heavy hit behind it.

Final Fantasy XII – A Brief Retrospective of the Land of Ivalice

The event is PAX East 2017 and Square Einx’s booth is as crowded as ever. Fans of Final Fantasy XV are enjoying their first taste of “Episode Gladiolus,” Dragon Quest Heroes II has a photo opportunity with cosplayers and Kingdom Hearts fans are left wondering where the third installment is.

However, one demo the publisher had that routinely had lines was Final Fantasy XII – The Zodiac Age, a remake of the borderline-cult-hit. The phrase heard the most in the line was, “This is my favorite Final Fantasy.” The panel for the game later on that afternoon actually capped in a short amount of time.

Needless to say, for a game many Final Fantasy fans brush off as “the one with the weird battle system and bad main character,” there is a fan base for it. And a passionate one at that, as the crowd for the panel was HYPED.

Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Panel

A sea of Final Fantasy XII fans!

How is Final Fantasy XII? Was the remake worth throwing money at?

Final Fantasy XII; A Brief History


Originally introduced to gamers as a demo that came with Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII was released in 2006 to a large amount of critical praise.

The game’s development started in 2000 and was led by development alumni from Final Fantasy Tactics. Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story director, Yasumi Matsuno and Final Fantasy IX director, Hiroyuki Ito served as co-directors. Final Fantasy XII is also Matsuno-san’s only numbered entry he worked on, and actually had to step down as the game’s director due to health concerns. However, development pushed on and the game was finished by the new team of Ito and Tactics art director, Hiroshi Minagawa.

Three major aspects standout with Final Fantasy XII; the art style, the battle system, the License Board and the story and characters. Now, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (not every game in this franchise is perfect) but one can definitely say Final Fantasy XII is different and takes far more risks and dares to innovate a series that was (quite honestly) stagnant in 2006. The overall lack of anime-angst and completely overhauled art style and game play make Final Fantasy XII a bit jarring at first, but it settles in quite nicely. It’s one of the few titles where it’s style actually stands out.

The story itself can be best described as “Mediterranean-sky pirate-Star Wars.” Focusing on a small group of characters caught up in a massive holy war, XII takes place in Ivalice, the same setting as Tactics. While discussions about who the real main character is (hint: it ain’t Vaan) have been done to death, the story itself is different from the typical “save the universe by gathering macguffins” and does not have any existential questions. Instead, Matsuno, who wrote the story, wanted a simple plot for players to grasp onto. And it shows, since XII doesn’t plod around…well not the entire time.

Easily, XII’s most striking difference is its battle system. Sure, the old ATB timer is there, but fans of MMOs will be more accustomed to XII than most entries. It’s a bit slower paced, but allows for more strategic planning. The game’s maps are large and expansive, but they also allow players to avoid enemies if they choose so. It’s a far cry from the tired-and-true random battle/turn-based system most JRPGs have. And, if it’s your thing, it also urges players to keep exploring with these wide open areas.

However, the License Board system is goofy. It’s a lot of micromanagement just to level up characters, and it’s easily Final Fantasy XII‘s weakest game play element.

Instead of taking visual cues and aesthetics from anime and sci-fi, XII took inspiration from the Mediterranean, especially with its architecture. The developers actually visited Turkey and looked at ancient Roman structures for visual inspiration and it shows.

The characters still dress ridiculous, as is the standard for the series, but they seem to resemble actors in period piece costumes as opposed to futuristic cosplay. It’s a unique design choice, one that actually has not been repeated.

Other great features of XII include the music, composed by the team behind Final Fantasy Tactics. The game actually has one of the most epic sounding Victory Fanfares in the whole franchise.

The Zodiac Age – What’s Different?
So, eleven years and two console generations later, Square is giving us Final Fantasy XII – The Zodiac Age. Aside from remastered graphics and beautifully redone music the entire job and battle system have been redone. The Zodiac Job system, which was only seen in Japan, won’t have players fumbling over a License Board. The battles are actually quite fluid now, thanks to a speedup feature too.

However, what made the original work is still there. And for fans of XII, it’s an excuse to enjoy their favorite adventure one more time.

When I had the chance to play the demo at PAX East this year, I knew I had to travel back to Ivalice.

If you haven’t done so, check out our giveaway for The Zodiac Age!

Knights of the Frozen Throne – A Hearthstone… Adventure?

During a Twitch livestream on July 6th, Game Director Ben Brode and Production Director Jason Chayes announced Hearthstone’s newest upcoming expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne. Fans of World of Warcraft will immediately remember this as an iconic raid featuring the Lich King himself.

In the announcement video, Blizzard announced some new cards and mechanics. The major one being the fourth card type, hero cards. The current card types are minions, spells and weapons. The hero card is something that works much like the card Lord Jaraxxus. The hero that you have chosen to play will be replaced with an undead version of themselves to fit the whole Death Knight theme of the raid. You will also get some armor, a new hero power and in Rexxar’s case, a battlecry. Here’s the hero card they showed off.

The other new mechanic that they showed off is called Lifesteal. Whenever a minion or spell does damage with the keyword Lifesteal on it, you will heal for the amount of damage done in that instance. Here’s the two Lifesteal cards they showed off.

 

 

The full expansion will feature 135 new cards, 8 free boss fights for everyone to partake in and a unique hero card for every class. After playing through the prologue, every player will get one of the hero cards given to them at random for free, so everybody gets a fair chance.

There will be more cards revealed on July 24th and the expansion will be available to all in August, no specific date has been given. You can also pre-order 50 packs of this expansion for $49.99 and you can get a bonus Frostmourne cardback.

Splatoon 2: Off the Hook!

Following Nintendo’s Splatoon 2 Direct yesterday, we were introduced to the new duo that hosts Splatfests, Marina and Pearl.

Soonercon 2017: A Strong DnD Presence

For those of you unaware, Soonercon 26 happened last weekend in Midwest City, OK. I had the pleasure of attending the local con, and above all else what pleasantly surprised me (other than running into Todd Haberkorn at the end of Victoria Price’s panel) was how strong the Dungeons & Dragons (henceforth DnD) presence was there. As many of you know, we here at The Lifecast quite enjoy our tabletop roleplaying games and DnD, in particular, is how many of us got started. (You may recall we’ve even uploaded some of our DnD sessions, and our very own Greg has put detailed descriptions of some of his homebrews on the site!)

Before I tell you about the DnD presence at Soonercon, however, it’s first important to understand what Soonercon is: It’s Oklahoma’s longest running all-things-geeky convention. Whether you’re into anime, games (video or tabletop), comics, sci-fi, fantasy, Star Wars, Star Trek, steampunk, or even Renaissance faire culture, Soonercon has a little something for everyone. Speaking of little, it’s also important to realize that Soonercon is a more intimate convention than you may expect–an exact number of attendees this year is not yet known, but the con had an anticipated attendance of 2,000–so if you prefer smaller, more tight-knit conventions where you won’t have to worry about overwhelming lines or claustrophobic environments where you’re more likely to talk to people and make more friends and connections, Soonercon is ideal!

That being said, perhaps it really shouldn’t be as much of a surprise that the DnD presence at Soonercon was so strong. DnD is, after all, a team-based game for friends–so what better place to play it than one where you’re surrounded by like-hobbied individuals?

A chat with one of the co-chairs of the gaming department, Wren Willis, revealed that the DnD presence at Soonercon was especially emphasizing community through DnD Adventure–essentially DnD, but with about 5 separate tables (each with their own DM) going on different, but all related, quests. What one group does will affect another, and they might share the same stories or story elements or even directly get involved with each other. Basically, it’s a domino effect in DnD groups. For example: Group 1 slays a dragon, group 2 now needs an item from its carcass but group 3 already took it and wants to sell it, but group 4 is the only one with money so now group 2 needs to find either money or a different way to get the item.

Evidently, DnD Adventure was very popular at Soonercon! One glance into the tabletop room revealed several full tables of players rolling dice, telling stories, and, well, adventuring! A chat with Kyle from the DnD Adventure League revealed that there was somewhere between 50-60 people playing DnD at any given time, plus another 70 going on adventures. The Adventure League exists all across the country, usually with the same groups managing or overseeing them in the same region (for example, the group at Soonercon also told me that they manage the Adventure League at several other cons in Oklahoma and a few in Dallas).

The DnD presence wasn’t just limited to the gaming room though–a panel was held on Saturday, The Great DnD Rebirth, in which a group of veteran players (including some who have play-tested for Wizards) talked about what it was like getting into DnD 10-20 years ago versus now, what’s changed, and the general goings-on of DnD. A particularly prevalent theme was the lack of diversity one would see in DnD 20 years ago when the game was much less known. One player in particular mentioned that, growing up in the Bible Belt (as most, if not all, of the people in the room had) as far as his family was concerned, Looney Toons, metal, and DnD were the unholy trinity. Another player, a gay man, mentioned how DnD was among one of the first things his mom thought might have made him gay. A female player was also present, and she focused on the lack of a female presence in the early days of DnD.

If there’s one thing this panel made abundantly clear, it’s that getting into DnD 10-20 years ago was seen, socially, as more like getting into a cult than getting into a game. They mentioned the first times they’d ever seen DnD portrayed in the media–E.T. was the most common answer, as well as the late 90’s and early 2000’s when geek culture started to garner a certain level of coolness in pop culture. How before that time, DnD was something that a lot of people just didn’t understand and legitimately thought it might’ve been satanic activity. Perhaps why that’s why DnD now has such a generally accepting community, allowing anyone to be anything regardless of religion, gender, sexual preference, age, etc.

For those attendees who weren’t as into DnD but still wanted to play tabletop rpgs, there were a number of Pathfinder Society set-ups around as well. For those who just wanted to play tabletop, there was a small number of other, miscellaneous tabletop games (like trading card games and casual board games) throughout the room as well, in addition to a Nerf Gun war happening outside.

A sense of community in DnD, both in and out of the tabletop room, was perhaps the most common thread I noticed in Soonercon’s DnD presence. Whether it was the panel that told us how we arrived at that sense of community before it was around, or the tabletop room itself which was very welcoming to players of all skill-levels, there was definitely a strong sense of community and players just wanting to have fun present throughout Soonercon. Perhaps due to the con’s size, the DnD presence at Soonercon felt much bigger than most of its other presences (the next biggest probably being Star Wars, which boasted an incredible set-up made by Jedi OKC) around the convention–something I, as a DnD player, found very welcoming.

Unpictured, there was an impressive Jabba the Hut set-up as well

Even if tabletop games weren’t your thing, official representatives from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo were all present at the convention. If you wanted to try Arms or Horizon Zero Dawn, there was essentially no line all day on Saturday, so you could’ve easily tried a demo of either game. I was told that originally Gamestop was supposed to be present with a few game demos, but they couldn’t attend therefore allowing Nintendo and Sony to come in their place. This might’ve been why their tables were so small, but who’s to argue when you can easily get to play a demo of Arms, right?

If you’re a fan of DnD or trying to get into DnD, Soonercon would’ve been a pretty ideal place to start. A quick look around would instantly tell anyone just how many players were there, and how easy it could be to start jumping into the game now. One of the benefits of smaller conventions is a greater sense of community, and easier means of getting to try everything the con has to offer: Soonercon was such a con with DnD. You want to try Adventure League? Plenty of time and space. You’d rather play a normal game of DnD? There were still groups present playing it. Even if DnD wasn’t your cup of tea and you’d rather play Pathfinder, you could still find it around. (No Shadowrun though, sadly. At least, not that I noticed). If you’re a tabletop fan or aspiring tabletop fan who finds yourself in the Oklahoma area next Summer, I’d definitely say Soonercon is worth a visit. Despite all the mixed focuses of the con, the DnD presence was, by far, one of–if not the–strongest at the con.