General Game Chat

[Moonface]

I did pass across a trailer for that shadow drop, but with how little fanfare it seemed to be getting and that I'd never heard of it before, I assumed it was some random port of a mobile game or something that was trying to find a console audience, kinda like that one Octopath game that was originally on mobile.

It is weird though for SE to release the game on every non-Switch 2 platform except for PS5. If they do plan for a physical release on PS5, why not just do what a lot of other companies do and release the digital version now and mention in the trailer and stuff that a physical copy will come later? Especially since anyone with a digital only PS5 isn't going to care for a physical release anyway so why not just grab those sales now?

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So, if you've somehow been living under a rock, there's a new speedrun out: "Getting Sued By Nintendo 100%". At least, that's what it seems like, considering the new game announcement that just dropped.

The game in question is Pickmon, and even from the name, you can already see the problem. Oh, it gets so much worse than that. Developed by PocketGame (Hey, that's not a confusing clone of Pocketpair), this game lifts liberally from several different series, with Pokemon and Legend of Zelda being the obvious ones. It's also basically a Palworld clone in gameplay: Open-world, survival crafting, farming, base building, catching monsters (this time with cards!), you get the drill by now.

Pull out the popcorn; this one is gun b gud.

Dang, the fact the capsule art puts a creature with a minigun front and center just really makes it blatant this game is trying to ride the coattails of Palworld. Then we get to the screenshots:

1. Those tall pillar things in the background are very reminiscent to an area with those exact same structures in BotW/TotK. Now sure, a geological structure isn't exactly something any game can claim ownership of, but it is one of the more distinct areas from BotW and was clearly chosen for that reason.
   
2. That bird is skirting close to being a Zapdos, but holy shit look at the red thing in the back! I had to do a double take to not think it was just Groudon's model being used! XD
   
3. Eh, the Akira reference isn't really egregious given how many times other media has given homage to it, but I can't say it gives me a lot of confidence for the third screenshot in a row to not be something that feels/looks wholly original.
   

The other screenshots after it didn't flag anything for me as quickly as the first three did, but maybe there's things in them I didn't notice due to lack of knowledge.

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In something interesting I saw just now in my overnight insomnia, I didn't know that games released since 2024 with Denuvo protection hadn't been cracked at all. Well, all except for Doom: The Dark Ages, which is the first and only one of those games to have been cracked. Maybe it was some other protection system or it just really has been that long, but I swear there was a time where a new game would come out and within days it would end up being cracked. Whether that was also Denuvo back then or not, it's impressive that an anti-piracy software actually managed to last for so long and even then, this might not mean every other 2024-onwards Denuvo game is getting cracked in the near future too.

[Dragon Lord]

I did pass across a trailer for that shadow drop, but with how little fanfare it seemed to be getting and that I'd never heard of it before, I assumed it was some random port of a mobile game or something that was trying to find a console audience, kinda like that one Octopath game that was originally on mobile.

It is weird though for SE to release the game on every non-Switch 2 platform except for PS5. If they do plan for a physical release on PS5, why not just do what a lot of other companies do and release the digital version now and mention in the trailer and stuff that a physical copy will come later? Especially since anyone with a digital only PS5 isn't going to care for a physical release anyway so why not just grab those sales now?

Yeah, I don't know why they didn't release on PS5 too, unless they have some weird deal with Nintendo that prevents them from releasing on PlayStation. Thinking more on it, Bravely Default II also never released on PlayStation, even though it released on Steam (originally Nintendo Switch exclusive). 

I'd have to do some serious digging into it, but it is weird that both releases have skipped PlayStation now (though BD2 never released on Xbox either, which makes BD Remaster releasing there but not PlayStation 5 even weirder). 

I know other SE games that were Switch exclusive originally took an extended time to release on PlayStation, like Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy, but the fact that BD2 still hasn't seen a PS release doesn't give me much hope of seeing the BD Remaster releasing there. 

Would love to see Square Enix surprise me and not only release BD2 and BDR on there, but also go back and give Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy physical releases on the system. The fact that I can have physical copies of OT2 for PS4 and PS5, and OT0 for PS5, but not have a physical copy of the first OT for PS4 and PS5 really burns my buns. C'mon Squeenix, get on it (or at least let Limited Run Games do physicals for OT and TS).

[Moonface]

I tried looking into it in the hopes of maybe finding some clue, but it seems SE is just really arse backwards about ports. Like I didn't know OT1 was ported to XSX first and came to PS5 later, but OT2 was ported to PS5 first and came to XSX later. That fact could convince me SE just uses a dartboard to decide what platform gets a port first for how nonsensical that decision is.

[Dragon Lord]

Oh yeah, their releases of the Octopath Traveler games has been really messed up. Like when you really look at the release schedule for each system, you're just left scratching your head:

For PlayStation, Octopath Traveler II was the first release on the system (February 2023), with the release of the first game not happening until over a year later in June of 2024.

Then you look at the other releases of the first game: Switch in 2018, Steam in 2020, Xbox One in 2021, and then THREE YEARS LATER finally coming to PS4/PS5.

But then Xbox had to wait until June 2024 for Octopath Traveler II (which is coincidentally the same month that PlayStation finally got Octopath Traveler).

The release of the games in this series have been such a mess and it makes absolutely no sense. Octopath Traveler 0 is the first release for the series that actually was normal. I don't know if Nintendo just has SE's balls in a vice grip when it comes to some of these games or what (Triangle Strategy also took almost a full three years to come to PS5 and XSX after its original Switch release). But yeah, Square Enix wonders why they have been failing all of the years and then you look at the mess that the release of these games has been and its no wonder why.

But I just gotta have hope that some day BD Remaster and BD2 will land on PlayStation 5 so I can add their trophy lists to my collection, haha. Also hope that we see physical releases of some of these games too -- as I mentioned, I'd love to see LRG do some. They have worked with Square Enix before, as they are doing a production for Star Ocean: First Departure R. A lot of people complain about LRG, but as long as it means I can get a physical copy of a game that otherwise had no chance at it like Star Ocean: First Departure R, then I am 100% okay with waiting however long it takes to get it in hand. So if they can use that previous partnership with SE to give us physical copies of OT1 and Triangle Strategy on PS4/PS5, I would throw all of the money at them and be happy to wait for as long as it took to finally add those to my collection.

EDIT: Funnily enough I decided to look into if there's been any news about physical versions of these games on PS5, and it turns out that last week it was announced that Southeast Asia would be getting physical copies of Triangle Strategy for PS5. Though it looks like Square Enix, once again, took the cheap route and instead of releasing North American versions of physical copies, they are just going to make people in NA/EU import these Asia versions of the game. This is something Square Enix has done a lot over the years. I just don't understand why Square Enix hates making money so much.