Today’s 4.1 update to Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood introduced new player housing in the scenic, Far Eastern-themed district of Shirogane. Servers went online at 6AM, putting 720 new housing plots on the market. The choicest locations were gone before many players could even clear the login queue.
In order to acquire one of the new housing plots, players had to be fast. Grabbing one involves making their way as quickly as possibly to the area their preferred plot is located in and staking a claim before anyone else. One helpful tip circulating for players hoping to score a home this morning involves setting their character to busy, so other players can’t attempt to interrupt the purchase by opening a trade window. It’s a cutthroat game that’s over in a flash.
The login queues did not help. The launch of a new update is a busy time for any popular MMO, and the 4.1 “The Legend Returns” update is pretty huge. According to reports gathered in game and in the Final Fantasy XIV forums, many players who had prepared for today’s land rush found them stuck in login queues, their hopes of a new home ticking away with each passing minute.
The new Shirogane district features its own hot springs, suitable for bathing and fishing.
Final Fantasy XIV’s housing system is notoriously bad. Where other games allow players to carve out a private space for themselves or their guild as they see fit, Square Enix’s MMO keeps available housing limited. Up until today’s patch there were three housing areas in each server. Each housing area features 12 wards, with 60 plots of varying sizes in each. That’s 2,160 spots for players and free companies (guilds). Taking into account players who like to horde housing or free companies attempting to buy up plots en masse, that’s not a lot of space.
Adding 720 more plots per server doesn’t help much, especially when they’re fresh and new and oh-so-pretty. The forums and Reddit are filled with nightmare stories about today’s chaotic land grab. It’s the worst part of an otherwise excellent patch. It’s souring the entire experience. Players are talking about canceling their accounts. My free company leader mentioned hearing someone suggest the Shirogane area’s name be changed to “Shiogane” (“shio” is Japanese for salt.)
All housing areas now feature swimming, so that’s something.
It’s a rough system, to be sure. It’s been rough for years. When housing was introduced in Final Fantasy XIV back in 2011, I was excited at the idea of owning my own little home and decorating it with all sorts of virtual FF items. Then I saw the exorbitant prices for player homes and the relatively slim chance of actually getting one, and I gave up. I am a bold adventurer. I have conquered gods, demons and kings and averted world-ending catastrophe on several occasions. My home is wherever my sword or fishing rod takes me.
To be honest, my character can’t even afford an apartment.
Seriously though, please fix this, Square Enix. I am fine with anything. Build us a Final Fantasy-flavored slum and I will live under a box, as long as I don’t have to fight for it.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Danais a great action role-playing game marred by a shoddy localization. Following fan outcry over grammatical errors, inconsistencies and typos, NIS America announced today it’s doing the whole thing over again.
In a letter addressed to “All Customers of Ys VIII,” NIS America president and CEO Takuro Yamashita acknowledged that the localization had not reached an acceptable level by the company’s standards, and an internal investigation was being held to discover how it occurred as well as ensure it doesn’t happen again. More importantly, the company is having the entire localization gone over again to fix the existing problem.
As for Ys VIII itself, we will have a new translator and editor go over the entire localization to fix grammatical errors, typos, inconsistencies, and also to take a fresh look at the dialog and characterizations. For the script, where necessary, we will re-translate and re-edit the game including updating voicework to reflect these changes.
That’s some pretty substantial bending-over-backward to make players happy right there, but an appropriate response given the scope of the flubs and fumbles made in localizing the eighth game in the venerable role-playing series to English.
One of my favorite examples involves a place named the “Crevice of the Archeozoic Era” in Japanese. It sounds so mysterious, doesn’t it?
Not only did this place already have a perfectly good English language name, the translators opted to translate “crevice” as “big hole.” Big hole.
Along with poor translating, localization errors also led to food recipe names being swapped, leaving players confused over which buffs were received when eating in-game meals.
The images in this post are all derived from a gallery linked on the Reddit page for fans of Ys developer Nihon Falcom, which organized a write-in campaign aimed at letting the Japanese video game maker know how poorly North American publisher NIS America had botched the localization.
Yamashita said the company plans to offer the results of the re-localization as a free download to PlayStation 4 and Vita players next month, with the delayed PC version launching with the updated translation.
In 2001, after a mere nine issues ending with an unresolved cliffhanger, popular fantasy comic series Battle Chasers was put on hold so creator Joe Madureira could pursue game development. If recently-released turn-based RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar is any indication, it was a good move.
The Battle Chasers comic book was pretty huge in the late ‘90s. One couldn’t walk by a comic shop or bookstore without seeing posters emblazoned with bright and colorful fantasy characters wielding giant weapons. Creator Joe Madureira is often credited with bringing the influence of manga art to Western comics, and Battle Chasers felt like a Japanese role-playing game in comic book.
But Joe had trouble getting the comic book out on a regular schedule. Between switching from creator-owned label Cliffhanger to DC and eventually Image, Battle Chasers averaged a whopping six months between issues. The series’ cancellation was not unexpected, but it was still very disappointing for fans who’d stuck it through.
Sixteen years after Battle Chasers got put on hold, Battle Chasers: Nightwar gives fans of the series a chance to get reacquainted with the comics’ group of stalwart heroes as they embark on a mildly unrelated adventure.
The game opens with sulky swordsman Garrison, hulking golem Calibretto, wizened mage Knolan, wildly irresponsible bounty hunter Red Monika and hard-punching nine-year-old Gully flying their airship over an unfamiliar island. Suddenly attacked by unknown forces, the party is separated, their airship trashed. Thus begins an epic adventure to bring the band back together, figure out why they were targeted and deal with those that targeted them in spectacular turn-based fashion.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar combines Diablo-style exploration with dynamic turn-based battles to create a clever little amalgam that’s quite fun to play. First we’ve got the overworld map, where players move from point-to-point, battling creatures and harvesting crafting materials and treasure. It’s not the most thrilling way to get around the map, but it works.
Things get much more exciting in the game’s dynamically-generated dungeons. The view shifts to something a little more isometric, giving a much more detailed look at the game’s lush environments. When not engaging in battles, players are free to explore and search for ancient texts, rare crafting materials and powerful equipment. There’s even a basic fishing mini-game, because no fantasy adventure is so urgent that we can’t have fish.
The downside to dungeons is that developer Airship Syndicate tied most of the story’s plot progression to events that take place deep within their winding pathways. Odds are if the next step in your quest is to get to a point on the overworld map, there will be a mandatory dungeon between the two points that’ll take a good half hour to clear. There are subtler ways to impede player progress.
The dungeons can sometimes feel like little more than filler between battles, but when the battles are this good, I don’t mind filler so much. Joe Madureira’s signature art system animates beautifully in Nightwar’s simple-yet-sophisticated turn-based combat.
It’s a finely-honed system that encourages using the parties’ complementary skills to maximize damage and efficiency. As battles increase in difficulty, the party is forced to work together in order to juggle buffs and debuffs, healing and damage. Spamming basic attacks is hardly ever the answer.
Plus it’s so pretty.
Now that the Battle Chasers video game is out, word is there are more comics on the way. I’m not so sure we need them anymore. Gully and friends feel more at home in Nightwar than they ever did on the printed page.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is now available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. A Switch version is in the works.
2004’s Spider-Man 2 is fondly remembered for being a pretty good movie tie-in game with some amazing web swinging. New York is a blast to zip through, but one speedrunner decided to see how fast they could complete the game without using its most exciting feature.
Slyfincleton decided to speedrun their way through Spider-Man 2 without ever using the superhero’s iconic web swinging. In Spider-Man 2, the fastest mode of travel is to toss out a line of webbing and swing around the city. Slyfincleton forgoes all of this in favor of furious wall running and long jumps that turns Spider Man into a bouncing daredevil, ping ponging from building to building like a jittery flea.
The only time that he ever employs webbing for movement is a web zip, which allows Spider Man to quickly shoot some web to pull himself forward. It gives a quick burst of movement but can’t quite match the momentum of a full swing. Using zips might feel like a bit of a technicality, but it proves essential for sequences where Spider Man is meant to spend extended time in the air, such as a battle above the Hudson River against some UFOs created by the special effects mastermind Mysterio.
Slyfincleton’s run is a bit of a gimmick; it’s the only complete “no swing” run. He finished with a time of 1:43:31, bouncing all over the place. It’s a silly run that shows off how nimble Spider Man is even when he’s not web slinging.
Fancy construction sets are nice, but there’s plenty of building to do in Minecraft proper. The first wave of Minecraft Adventure Figures from Jinx are the perfect way to just hang out at your desk with Steve and the gang.
Available this month at Walmart, Target and collectible retailers like Gamestop (they also dabble in video games), Minecraft Adventure Figures are a series of six lovingly-crafted vinyl statues celebrating the life and death of Steve, Alex and their various enemies.
I’m not normally one for toys that don’t actually do anything, but there’s something about the design of these that implies action without actually imparting any. The slight curve to the characters’ bodies, the sway of their blocky arms. They are ready for adventure, even if that adventure never comes.
The initial assortment includes Diamond Steve, Enchanted Alex (aka Hawkeye), Zombie, Zombie Pigman, Skeleton (or jack-o-lantern with Skeleton friend) and, of course, a Creeper. They run $9.99 apiece and surprise—they are sold in window boxes, so you don’t have to worry about doubles.
Check out some shots of the Minecraft Adventure Figures in relative action in the slideshow below.
You can’t go wrong with good old Diamond Steve. While staying true to texture, the Minecraft adventure figures give the characters’ bodies a slight curve, adding a sense of momentum to the stationary toys. He is charging towards a thing, and that thing is probably adventure.
Turkey scans the waiting room of the parent-teacher conference for any conversations that look ripe for some anti-Minecraft agenda. In the corner, near the pyramid of alphabet blocks, Poland and Belgium are discussing the recent failures of the school’s soccer team over Beanie Weenies and paper cups of Hawaiian Punch. As Turkey moves closer, it becomes apparent that Poland’s refreshment contains a hint of vodka.
“I dunno, I think we could use a good goalkeeper. You think Spain’s kid would be interested?” Poland’s question is punctuated by sips and masked winces.
“I’m sure my little one would love the opportunity!” interjects Turkey, “There’ll be plenty of free time once we get that insipid Minecraft out of the house. My partner and I, we like to call ourselves the ‘Family and Social Policies Ministry’, decided that there’s just too much violence in the game! You can murder those poor blocky animals any time you wish. Just yesterday I saw my child slaughtering a pig in his ‘farm’. It was horrifying!”
Belgium, on the verge of slipping another toothpick-speared Beanie Weenie into his mouth, blinks and begins to slowly lower the item back onto his plate.
Poland is the first to respond. “Wow, that’s pretty harsh, even for you. Think your kid’s gonna hold a grudge?”
“Of course not! We thought the tears would never end when we took away 4chan and Richard Dawkins’ website, but those dried up soon enough. Just to be safe, we even removed access to any Wikipedia articles related to genitalia. You know, my partner and I tried to take away the Youtube, but, between you and me, we like to lift the ban every now and then and sneak on there together late at night.”
Poland takes one last gulp from the spiked punch and sighs, hoping it’s next in line for conferences.
