The Video Game Critic

So guys.

I wanted to focus on something particular to E3 that's been really puzzling me. I also have a strange theory.

E3 2015 will undoubtedly be remembered as the year of unexpected promises. The FFVII remake, The Last Guardian, and Shenmue 3 are titles that many gamers have been thinking about for almost ten years. And then, all of the sudden, all three materialize. It's an unprecedented occurrence that three vaporware titles are confirmed simultaneously. How did this all come together at once?

Sony has always benefited from the ability to undercut Microsoft (see E3 2013) because their press conferences always come later--"You heard that Microsoft does that--well WE do this." It's clear that Yu Suzuki has been wanting to continue the Shenmue series, his life's work, for some time. He's come back out of virtual retirement to do so. That was planned.

But The Last Guardian and, even more, Final Fantasy VII, seem a bit hasty.

The footage used in the latter's demo seems like it could have been cobbled together in a few months--even a few weeks. Under the right conditions, maybe even days (we don't know that it's not just unused Advent Children footage). The former could be a development build of the PS3 version (in gestation since late 2005 or early 2006). Again, how would we know? Is this really what 9 years of progress would look like?

If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am. I am excited about all of these projects, but the original promise is what got me back into gaming in the first place. Let me explain. From 2004 (the last full year of Phantasy Star Online's servers) to 2009, I can count the number of games I played on one hand: Half Life 2, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. That was it. I was bored with gaming.

The new consoles were also very expensive. Xbox 360 was a little cheaper but offered nothing that really grabbed my interest. I scoffed at the PS3's absurdly high price tag.

When I got to college in 2008, I reunited with some childhood friends and gaming gradually became interesting again. I was introduced to the amazing "features" of the Dreamcast and started to think about other games from my childhood that I never got to play. Final Fantasy VII and VIII, misunderstood by my parents at the time as some kind of sacrilegious (well, not totally unfounded) work of black magic along the lines of Harry Potter (obviously unfounded), ranked high on my list of games to play. I also got online and tried to feel around for the pulse of the gaming industry. If I were to explore new games, where would I start?

I resolved to get a PS3 after seeing footage of The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy: Versus XIII. I picked up Final Fantasy XIII and Demon's Souls in the interim. Those were the first two seventh-generation games I played.

A few years passed and still no sign of TLG or Versus XIII. I ended up falling deeply in love with From Software's games (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls). I played many of the old Final Fantasy titles. A new console generation came and no one seemed to care about the PS3's original "system sellers"--the ones I had bought into. The ones that brought me back to gaming itself. Square Enix announced that Versus XIII was not dead, to everyone's astonishment. A multiplatform title, it no longer associated itself with Sony particularly.

---

It's suspicious that Sony decided to pile all three of these games on the same E3. Last year's topics ranged from slightly interesting (PS Now) to completely insulting (the FFVII "port" for PS4). Somewhere between the backlash against that epic trolling session and Microsoft's astounding announcement of its Xbox 360 emulation program, or perhaps even after, the moment was forced to its crisis. The time to pull the trigger was now.

The promise has been officially made (in TLG's case, it's been made again). The shadows of the past are coming out into the light. This is a great (if not certainly good) moment for gaming.

What annoys me to no end about the Shenmue III announcement is that they're selling it solely to people who have played the first two. It seems to me that they could drum up a lot more excitement for it if they were to release the first two installments as downloadables. I remember reading, some time ago, that the HD remasters were ready to go, but something was holding them up. It just seems that it would make good business sense to finally usher them back into the market place!

BanjoPickles wrote:What annoys me to no end about the Shenmue III announcement is that they're selling it solely to people who have played the first two. It seems to me that they could drum up a lot more excitement for it if they were to release the first two installments as downloadables. I remember reading, some time ago, that the HD remasters were ready to go, but something was holding them up. It just seems that it would make good business sense to finally usher them back into the market place!

It states on the kickstarter that they currently do not have the rights from Sega to release Shenmue I and II. I'm sure if this keeps being supported Sega will let them re-release the two games.

Rev wrote:It states on the kickstarter that they currently do not have the rights from Sega to release Shenmue I and II. I'm sure if this keeps being supported Sega will let them re-release the two games.

If Sega had any sense it would release them both ASAP and cash in on the Shenmue III hype. Everyone who hasn't played them will be ultra curious now.

ptdebate wrote:Sony has always benefited from the ability to undercut Microsoft (see E3 2013) because their press conferences always come later--"You heard that Microsoft does that--well WE do this."

I don't buy that. I highly doubt that the people of Sony, who plan weeks in advance for E3, decided to make last minute changes to their presentation based on what Microsoft did hours earlier. They may have slipped in some shots at MS based on info they'd heard, but it's not like they were making any fundamental changes to what they were going to show in the first place.

Is it just me, or have they been talking about Last Guardian FORVER? Seems like I remember hearing about this as the "spiritual successor"
To Ico and SOTC 5 years ago....

Hey, I'm with you.

3, count them 3 vapor ware titles coming out of nowhere.

Of course, Sony needed to do something. They have no 1st party games launching this year or major exclusives this fall.

Sony sells hope like no other company. FF7 remake is huge.

Shenmue 3, not so much, at least to me. How many people really bought the sequel on the Xbox? Not all that many people. It even came with a movie of the first game. The reason no one bought it was due to it not being all that great of a game to begin with. I played the first one on the DC. It was incredibly immersive but not all that fun of a game.

As for the Last Guardian if they couldn't make it in the last 7 years, how is anyone going to believe they'll make it in the next 7 years?

Regardless, Sony had to sell hope for the future as they didn't really have a lot to offer this year. Everyone is saying E3 was a tie between Microsoft and Sony. It's hard to argue with the hope of a FF7 remake. Hell, I'm happy I bought a PS4.

I mainly bought a PS4 to enjoy Tim Schaffer's adventure games on it and am quite pleased with it. The chance to play a remake of FF7 works for me. Even if it is a few years off I'm happy.

Hey what we need now is a Panzer Dragoon Saga rerelease ! Maybe E3 2016 c'mon Sega.

Sega lost the original source code for Panzer Dragoon Saga, so we probably won't get a re-release of that, though a remake of it wouldn't be a bad idea.