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After the release of Tears of the Kingdom, I was afraid that we would never see a new game in the style of the 2D Zelda game. Yet, I have been proven wrong when this game was announced. To be very honest, I didn’t have very high hopes for this game. Especially since this game was announced this summer and released in late September. I felt that this game going to be a game to fill a gap while the developers are working on a much larger game. Now, the game is released, and I have played through a fair chunk of it. So, what is my opinion on this game? Well, that’s what I’m going to tell you in this first impressions article, while I all invite you to leave a comment of your thoughts and/or opinions in the comment section down below.

Renewing the Echoes

After a short introduction where you play as Link, the main story of this game is introduced. There are all consuming interdimensional rifts appearing all over Hyrule, and it’s eating various people in the kingdom.

Link gets eaten by one of those rifts while freeing Zelda and when Zelda tells her father, the king, about these rifts… A new rift appears and replaces the king with an evil clone of himself. Zelda gets thrown in the dungeon and there she meets a fairy named Tri. This fairy gives Zelda a special staff where she can summon objects into the world using echoes. With those echoes, she escapes the dungeon and sets out on an adventure to save Hyrule from doom before the land is fully consumed by the rifts.

Something I always love about the Zelda games is that there is a different core mechanic at the base of the game. In this game, we get two things. We got the rifts to another dark world, but we also got the magical staff, which we can use to summon various echoes into the world. These echoes mean you can tackle this game in various different ways. But I’ll talk more about that later in this article.

In terms of story, this game is hitting all the same beats as your typical Legend of Zelda game. It might be disappointing, to some, that in this game there is no voice acting anymore apart from the grunts and various emotional noises. Personally, I think it adds to the charm of this game. That’s because the characters in this game are way more expressive. While the story isn’t going to leave you at the edge of your seat of “what’s going to happen next”, it’s still well quite enjoyable, and the more expressive characters add quite a lot to the charm and atmosphere of the game.

Something I really like is how in this game, you are free to explore the world at your own peace. This game isn’t limiting you to go in a certain order. While this game isn’t fully open world like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, it’s somewhere in between. You can tackle parts in a different order. Like the first two major dungeons can be done out of order. Each area is its self-contained puzzle, and everything you need can be found in that general area.

In my introduction of this article, I said that I was afraid that was afraid that this game would be a short one where you were able to beat it in a few hours. That it was going to be a game that’s supposed to hold players over for the “next big 3D Zelda title”. To my surprise, this game is rather lengthy for a 2,5D Zelda game. It clocks in at 25 hours of casual playtime, which is, to my knowledge, one of the longest 2,5D Zelda games.

Climbing with beds

Something I find myself doing quite a lot while playing this game was climbing the area with beds. I summoned various beds stacked on top of each other to climb a wall. Since, I wanted to know if the developers hid a secret on that cliff face.

The exploration of this version of Hyrule is a blast to do. While you visit a lot of familiar places and meet your usual suspects like the Zora and the Gerudo, it’s a treat seeing them again. The only thing I missed a bit is showing the impact of the rifts. Something that this game only tells through dialogue was how things got impacted by the rifts. I wish it was shown a bit more visually. Like different animations of the characters before and after. But maybe, Tears of the Kingdom set the bar a bit too high for those expectations where each major area had a certain curse.

In terms of gameplay, this game really leans into the echoes mechanic. It also remembers that Zelda is a princess and didn’t really have combat training. So, you have to use summoned enemies to your advantage to let them fight for you. Now, you do have a sword, but you can only use it when your power meter has charge. I always reserved that for the dungeon bosses or when the situation got pretty dicey. Since recharging that meter is either done with potions or by defeating monsters from the rift world. These enemies aren’t exactly common in the overworld, and the energy bar drains fast.

In general, this game hits the same general gameplay beats as all other Zelda games. You go from dungeon to dungeon, learning a new technique or skill, defeating the boos and moving forward to another dungeon. There are also side quests in this game, that give you a nice reward. In this game, you also have a nice system to keep track of these side quests, like in Tears of the Kingdom. Something they also brought over from that game is the cooking system to a degree.

That’s something I personally feel mixed about. Maybe it’s me, but I feel the ingredients are quite rare to come by and there is no real way to farm certain ingredients like in Breath of the Wild. I have to admit that it adds a certain charm to this game, but I feel it’s a bit under implemented here. Like when you first meet the potion creators Deku shrubs, they talk about recipes… And I had a hard time finding any.

Like in Tears of the Kingdom, you can also eat most of the ingredients without cooking them. While I personally dislike the fact you have to do two clicks to consume an item, I do understand why they did it. To avoid you consuming them too much. Yet, this is a change from the two previous games and I honestly really feel it’s a set backwards. A fine solution would be to give the player an option to switch between both systems.

Grezzo playset

This game was co-developed by Grezzo. Their previous original Zelda game was Tri Force Heroes. But, this game looks very similar in graphical style to the remake of Link’s Awakening on the Nintendo Switch from late 2019.

This game looks like a plastic toy set and it looks amazing. While I was playing this game, I felt amazed at how expressive they were able to make everything without breaking the illusion that this is a toy set brought to live by our imagination. I don’t have a lot of complaints about the visuals and animations. And most of my complaints aren’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Just like, I don’t have any complaints about the music and sound design of this game. If you take the music and sound design in a vacuum, you would say that it sounds just like very other Zelda game. It sounds like a remix of the familiar melodies we all know and love from the Zelda games. But, this isn’t a problem, since it sells the illusion that you are a child playing with a sort of Playmobil toy set of Hyrule and trying to recreate the sound effects and music of the game.

In terms of controls, this game plays like a dream. I rarely had problems with the controls and something I really like is the fact that with one press of a stick, you can see a view from on top when you feel the camera is blocking something. Now, there is one thing that I do have some things to criticize about. And that’s about the jumping.

It’s pretty difficult sometimes to judge how high Zelda can jump. I had moments in combat where I wasn’t aware I could jump on a higher ledge until I saw an enemy jumping backwards on that ledge. I also got tripped up several times with how far Zelda can jump. Her jump is shorter than I think, and the amount of times I jumped into a pit misjudging the jump is quite a lot. Something that would have helped is something a small landing shadow when Zelda was coming down. Then again, that must have been a nightmare to implement… So, maybe I should keep her shorter jump just better in mind.

Now, something else. Something I really like is how this game has two difficulty modes. I’m playing through this game on the normal difficulty setting and I have to say, I’m happy that I did. This game can lure you into a false sense of security. I wouldn’t say that this game is hard, but it isn’t a cakewalk either. You really need to keep your wits about you and think fast sometimes.

Being aware of what’s around you is also quite important since this game loves to hide things in little side area’s and using the map system is a must. I love how you can put pins and such on the map. Yet, I have to admit that I still keep notes in my phone like: “treasure in Gerudo dungeon, need to check later”.

The more I play through this game, the more I realize that the critiques I can make about this game are more on the minor side. Like how it feels like a waste of time when you are scrolling through a long list of echoes when you just want to find one. An easy solution would be to give the player an ability to favorite certain echoes. But then again, the sort function in the quick menu has “most used”, “recently learned” … So, it’s kinda that.

Now, you have two save slots in this game. So, you can play through this game and let a friend or a sibling play through a different slot. Now, this game also autosaves for you frequently, in case you forget to save. The game also keeps like several autosaves in case you want to return to an earlier point.

Something I really like is how this game also has a quick travel system. The system works similarly like an owl statue in Majora’s Mask or a water vane in Link Between Worlds. It makes it easy when you feel stumped by a puzzle and want to return later. The fast travel locations are very fairly placed all over the land.

While I went quite critical in this game, the more I played it, the more it won me over. This game is a new 2,5D Zelda adventure game I hope we were going to see again. The last new, non remake 2,5D Zelda game was released almost 11 years ago. And, I’m so happy to see a return to this style. I’d love to see a this style also making an appearance very so often since it’s clear there are still various unique ways to explore Hyrule and tell a story about the Hyrule legend without going fully 3D.

Apart from a few small complaints you read in this article, I honestly don’t have any major complaints about this game. This is a game I’m going to finish for sure, since I’m enjoying my time with this title quite a lot. If you are into the series, I highly recommend this title to you. If you enjoy exploration and playing with unique mechanics, I also think this game is for you. This game is totally worth it’s price tag and it pleasantly surprised me.

And with that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another one, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Dawn of a new Day

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is Nihon Falcom’s latest delve into the more than lengthy Trails series spanning many games. It is the first game to take place in the Calvard Republic, an area many veterans of the series will have heard mentioned many times in the games long running entry. It also marks the first game in the Trails through Daybreak story arc.

While Trails Through Daybreak marks a new saga the game itself comes with plenty of new and returning features, some are very familiar whilst some have a new spin on them or are completely new to the series.

The story follows Van who is known as a spriggan, a bounty hunter of sorts who does many odd jobs which border on illegal activities and while he tries to keep down on the low many fugitives and law enforcers are aware of who is is and keep him at arms length. A young girl known as Agnes Claudel approaches Van one day and asks him to help her find a rare sentimental orbment that was kept in her late family, not being the sort of work he would undertake he advises her to look elsewhere until it becomes apparent how rare and sacred the artifact is and that these fugitives are only too eager to take it for themselves.

The story and layout of the game functions similar to past Trails games in that you will start off playing through story segments of the game, fighting enemies and exploring dungeons, partake in some shopping, speaking to NPC’s and taking on side quests which push the story forward. A formula familiar to most but with a difference. There are no bonding events per say like past games, instead Van can connect with other party members and also hang around with some NPC’s, this may feel like a step back however there is a new alignment system implemented which allows Van to make choices during his adventure. The choices you make will cause three values of Law, Chaos and Gray to change. These can affect both stats and plot points later on in the game. The games characters are all charming in their own way. Like past games characters will over-react to minor situations and inconveniences and there will always be that one character who is way too excitable for no reason. One thing I noticed is how similar characters are to past counterparts. Van has a resemblance to Rean while Aaron has a resemblance to Randy. Elaine with her stoic pose and the looks of Alisa. Aaron is my favourite character because for one, I share the same name as him, he wields two swords and has fiery red hair. What’s not to love?

Trails Through Daybreaks combat takes a different approach to past Trails games but is highly unique as it is has two modes, a real-time action system similar to that of the Y’s series and has characters spamming attacks and supercharged attacks to take enemies down but can also be switched freely to a turn based combat approach. The game actively encourages both types of play. If you take the turn-based combat approach then the game will feel similar to past Trails games with combat taking place on the field with characters using Arts, Crafts and Item

While the games smaller enemies can be quickly dispatched it is worth noting that they can turn the tide of battle should you feel too cocky by knocking your controlled character off balance and starting off a battle with a disadvantage to the player.

Trails Through Daybreak comes with a plethora of new features that come with the Xipha, a phone like device introduced and developed in Calvard and is the standard battle orbment device, similar to the ARCUS but more advanced; for example Arts Drivers are equipped to the Xipha and provide a list of arts for that user, similar to how Master Quartz were used previously. Each Arts Diver has a number of unlockable slots that can hold plugins which allows customisation to the users arts loadout. Another feature are skill shards which allow players to stack elemental attributes by equipping different quartz on different lines. They function similar to the system in earlier Trails games where certain quartz generates a specific of value for that element. For example stacking Fire elements can unlock a new skill but stack it to the highest value can nullify Fire damage altogether.

There are plenty of returning features such as the speed boost which boosts dialogue and gameplay itself, cooking makes a return but feels more refined than before as Cooking actually gives you points for creating new items and recipes by further expending and providing better buffs for higher ranks.

After playing bother versions of the game on both PS5 and PS4, Trails Through Daybreaks performance on PS5 is no doubt superior when compared to the PS4 version, The performance as well as character models stand out far more, however if it was not for the PS4 version of the game I would not have been able to play through the game for more than an hour and this was due to a bug encountered early on in the game on the PS5 version of the game. After progressing an hour into the story I found a bug which caused the game to shut down after a certain cutscene. The first time I actually passed the cutscene into the next area where I had saved on turning the game off, on returning I was shut down with an error straight away which made me think there is a glitch causing this at that point in the game on the PS5 version, I did end up reinstalling the game which proved ineffective as this issue remained unresolves and the only was past it was to play through the same area on the PS4 version of the game until after that point and transfer the save data to PS5 which allows you to continue your progress. Hopefully this issue was just a one off and it is not an issue that carries on with the full release of the game.

Overall Trails Through Daybreak feels vast, there is lo loading times when entering buildings although there is a small but minor load times between areas in the game. The towns are more vibrant and there is more to explore with some nice touches such as Cars that drive past that your character can get in the way of, and blow their horns in anger as you accidentally run in front of them. Dungeons feel more like dungeons this time round which is an issue I had with certain past trails games, instead of feeling bloated with enemies and the same copy and past backgrounds, they feel more crafted with care, the first subway has trains going past as you explore and graffiti on the walls rather than just feeling like a blank corridor with enemies thrown in for the sake of it. You can still smash open boxes and zip through dungeons at lightning pace dispatching enemies as you go which is good for the grind but as you play through for the first time it always feels good to take it easy and take in the games fantastic music whilst you explore. Trails through Daybreak is easily the best looking Trails game to date and whether you are a returning fan or not you’d be doing yourself a massive disservice to pass up Trails through Daybreak.

A PlayStation 4/5 Review Code was provided by NIS America

The post Review – The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (PlayStation 4 & 5) appeared first on GameHype.

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have released the next update for Fire Emblem Heroes, version 8.8.0. The update is quite extensive and includes updates to Heroes Journey, the addition of Abyssal difficulty to United Warfront, and new skills for Legendary and Mythic heroes. Here’s the full rundown of the new update: Fire Emblem Heroes update version 8.8.0 patch notes What’s In...

The post Fire Emblem Heroes update (version 8.8.0.) released, patch notes appeared first on Nintendo Everything.

Today at the big 2024 Xbox Summer Game Fest showcase we got yet another trailer for Fable, a game that feels like it’s been coming for a long, long time. But with this new trailer, Xbox promised a 2025 launch date. We shall see!

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Another Eiyuden Chronicle patch is live for the PS4, PS5, and PC, with this one fixing things like progression problems and the PS5 resolution issue. The update will eventually also appear for the Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. 

Two of the issues only pertain to specific platforms. For example the new patch lets the PS5 version of Eiyuden Chronicle resolution run at 4K. Previously, it had been limited to 1080p. The PS5 and PC Season Pass barcade changed as well. 

There are also three progression related issues fixed in the Eiyuden Chronicle PS4, PS5, and PC patch. One would keep people from advancing the story if the HQ level passed two in certain circumstances. The other could lock things up in a Marisa section of Castle Harganthia, again when a specific issue happens. Finally, the other progression issue meant someone could get to Norristar when they weren’t supposed to if they started a New Game Plus save file.

Here are the full patch notes for the May 16, 2024 update on social media:

The last PS4, PS5, and PC patch fixed other game-breaking issues. Some involved disappearing characters. Earlier in May 2024, a patch fixed the Cooking Battle minigame on the Switch.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is available on the Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, and DLC 1-3 are in development.

The post Eiyuden Chronicle PS5 Patch Fixes Resolution, Progression Problems appeared first on Siliconera.

The stunning and lengthy Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes does a solid job of capturing the feel and style of Konami’s Suikoden series. Well, at least on PC that is. With the high likelihood of a sequel in the future — sadly without Yoshitaka Murayama — here is what I want to see in the possible Eiyuden Chronicle 2 sequel.

For all that the first game gets right, it has some major issues. To be honest, most of these come from too much emphasis on nostalgia, and less inclusion of modern features we expect from a JRPG in 2024. As such, most of the changes and improvements that need to happen come from this lack of quality-of-life. Making those adjustments could improve the experience on all platforms.

For instance, I’d love to see fast travel unlock much more quickly in Eiyuden Chronicle 2. It took me roughly 15 hours in-game to unlock fast travel. It felt way too late at that point. Even a major character joked about its absence. A huge chunk of that time up until that point was spent backtracking, and that wasn’t necessary. Rather, it pointlessly padded out the experience. Fast travel should always be reserved for places you’ve already been to, so adding it in after the prologue wouldn’t hurt the game’s progression.

In the same vein, it is high time for a proper quest log in a possible Eiyuden Chronicle sequel. Despite having more than 100 heroes to collect, there is no reliable way to keep track of their sidequests. For example, someone might ask you to collect 10 of a certain material for them. But if you happen to walk away and forget what they asked for or where to get it, you’d have to search online. It’s this type of frustrating system that makes the game less fun than it should be.

At the same time, it would be nice to see legitimate side quests. The only quests in the first game stem from the recruitments. There are no proper additional missions outside of these. Give the player the chance to get to know some of the heroes on a deeper level. Heck, give us a proper relationship and bonding system. This could lead to romance options, optional dungeons, and exclusive rewards. While it isn’t necessary to romance every character in Eiyuden Chronicle 2, having a dozen or so with their own separate storylines would be nice.

The best part about the first game is it laid a fantastic foundation. The combat, world, visual style, and everything already exists. It is now time to just build upon that with features speeding up fights. In this first game, things can take quite some time. A little more efficiency, or even just a 2x speed, would make a world of difference.

In addition, terrible launch state of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes should never happen again. The state of some platforms at release, such as Nintendo Switch, is downright unacceptable. I get not wanting to make backers wait longer, but a few more months is a better outcome than shipping a broken game. Ideally with this Eiyuden Chronicle sequel, more focus can, hopefully, be spent on tightening up the experience. The overwhelming number of bugs, performance issues, and more don’t need to be as prevalent. Instead, the Rabbit & Bear Studios can focus on providing an optimal gameplay experience.

After all, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is far from a bad game. It has a solid cinematic prologue sequence. The story is pretty decent if you get far enough into it. But little changes here and there will make the potential Eiyuden Chronicle 2 a significantly more memorable experience. One, in fact, that could be truly worthy of succeeding Suikoden.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is available right now for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

The post What I’d Like to See in Eiyuden Chronicle 2 appeared first on Siliconera.

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Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is exactly what its lofty crowdfunding campaign promised it would be: a Suikoden successor in all but its name, built by a team of veterans who first made that classic in 1995. And so Hundred Heroes is another impossibly massive, turn-based, party-centric RPG. It tells another wartorn story about resisting an empire, cut through with goofball moments where an eyepatched Aussie kangaroo might yell made-up words.

And - because doing anything else would be blasphemy - there's another 100-plus party members to find, cosy up to, and experiment with in your six-character party. Reclusive hunters, kings, talking sharks (shi'arcs here), a literal travel bag with glowing Jawa eyes, your cute auntie who does nothing but bake cherry pies - they're all here, and the cast's staggering size is still what sets the Eiyu-Suiko-den group of games apart.

Trying to catch 'em all recalls the pleasures of a collectathon as you rapidly scan the screen for signs of unusually detailed NPCs to recruit. (No interview process required - everyone's allowed in, accused criminals included.) They can pretty much be found anywhere. You'll get dozens by just following the main quest. Dozens more are in towns on standby mode until you walk into their presence. Some will only appear in the open world when you've progressed to a certain point or met prerequisites.

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Eiyuden Chronicle developer Rabbit & Bear Studios will continue working on a sequel following the death of its creator Yoshitaka Murayama.

Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes is set for release next week across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch, but in a reddit AMA the developer stated it was "moving forward with a sequel".

"That is the aim we are working towards," it said in response to whether a sequel was on the way. "We hope many players support this game."

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Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is the spiritual successor to a classic JRPG called Suikoden, and it came to be thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign. As someone with little knowledge of Suikoden, I went into Hundred Heroes thinking it was going to be a dense, old-fashioned, and slightly impenetrable time. And yes, some of it is annoying and obtuse and will almost certainly suit veterans who enjoy those quirks, but it has a surprisingly easy going nature. Hundred Heroes accomodates new players like me with combat that's simple to grasp and a story that's emotional and sprawling and absolutely worth your time.

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Eiyuden Chronicle developer Rabbit & Bear Studios will continue working on a sequel following the death of its creator Yoshitaka Murayama.

Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes is set for release next week across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch, but in a reddit AMA the developer stated it was "moving forward with a sequel".

"That is the aim we are working towards," it said in response to whether a sequel was on the way. "We hope many players support this game."

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Xbox has announced the next wave of games coming to Game Pass in late April.

It begins today with the release of Harold Halibut across cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S. "A visually arresting, warm-hearted tale of a gofer searching for his purpose, Harold Halibut flounders amongst endless fetch-quests and waffle," reads our Eurogamer Harold Halibut review.

Then later in the month the subscription service will receive the likes of Manor Lords on PC (26th April), and the day one releases Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (23rd April) and Another Crab's Treasure (25th April).

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Eiyuden Chronicles, the RPG series that’s effectively a sequel-slash-spiritual successor to nineties and early noughties JRPG classic Suikoden, will continue with a sequel despite the death of its creator earlier this year.

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The team at Rabbit & Bear Studios is continuing with the development of a new Eiyuden Chronicle sequel following the death of series creator Yoshitaka Murayama.

The studio opened up about its future and what’s next for the Eiyuden Chronicle series in a recent Reddit AMA conducted …

Firefighters came to the rescue of a driver whose semi-truck crashed through the railing of a bridge and was left dangling high above the Ohio River.

The truck was part of a three-vehicle crash that occurred around noon today on the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge, which sent one person to the hospital, according to ABC News. — Read the rest

The post Firefighter rescues driver after dramatic crash leaves semi-truck dangling off bridge (video) appeared first on Boing Boing.

Yoshitaka Murayama, creator of the Suikoden RPG series and scenario writer for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, has passed away.

The news was shared by Rabbit & Bear Studios, which Murayama founded to produce the Eiyuden Chronicle games.

"It's with a heavy heart and deep sadness we must inform you that the scenario writer and head of Rabbit & Bear Studios, Yoshitaka Murayama, has passed away on February 6th due to complications with an ongoing illness," reads the statement.

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