September Live Magazine

LIVE SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2018

WIN

A double pass for Venom! pg. 24

INTERVIEW: Spike Spencer - REVIEW: Spider Man - A Love Letter to Jurrasic Park

Go to page 24 for details on how you can go in the drawn to win tickets to see Venom! (Australia only)

From the Editor Hello and welcome to the September edition of Gametraders Live! As some of you may know this is my second edition of Live Magazine and I am incredibly excited and happy to be able to bring this to you all once again! This issue we have interviews with Spike Spencer and Neil Kaplan by our excellent writer Paul Monopoli. As well as an article about venom, brought to you by Shaun Stoddard, and two articles from Scott Sowter. One an anaylsis of the sucess of Marvel and the other a love letter to Jurrasic Park. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to take a moment here to say a huge thankyou to all three for their continuous commitment and contributions to Gametraders. As well as encourage any of our readers to email us with your own contributors! In conjunction with those articles, we also bring you our usual reviews, for games such as the new Spider Man and Overcooked! 2 to name a few.

Emily Langford Emily Langford, EDITOR

What’s inside “Sixty-five milion years ago our planet was ruled by dinosaurs. Massive, unimaginable creatures of flesh and blood walked, roared and ate.”

“What if someone who was unafraid to kill and was a lot more physically imposing had the same powers as Spider-Man and was unaffected by his SpiderSense?”

pg. 20 INTERVIEWS WITH SPIKE SPENCER AND NEIL KAPLAN

pg. 28

pg. 14

THE LIVE TEAM EDITOR & DESIGNER: Emily Langford

WRITERS: Shaun Stoddard from Spinions by Shaun Scott Sowter, Entertainment review and opinion Paul Monopoli, Interviews / Retro Editor Ben Dye, Stephen LaGioia, Evan Norris, Nicholas Taylor, Paul Broussard & Adam Cartwright VGChartz

A MARVEL TO BEHOLD

Pg. 10

8-45 MOVIES 24 VENOM GIVEAWAY 46-101 GAMES REVISITING NO MANS SKY, pg 48 OVERCOOKED! 2 REVIEW, pg 54 DOWNWARD SPRIAL REVIEW, pg 66 OCTOPATH TRAVELLER REVIEW, pg 72 FIRE EMBBLEM VS HYRULE WARRIORS, pg 78 MARIO PAPER SERIES ANALYSIS, pg 84 INTERVIEW: BROMIO, PG 90 INTERVIEW: RATALAIKA GAMES, PG 96

SPIDERMAN REVIEW

pg. 60

FEATURED BOARDGAME

DINOSAUR TEA PARTY “You’re looking well, darling. One lump or two?” It’s the most sought-after invitation of the year: Dinoton Abbey for high tea. Now you’re all gussied up in your finery and ready for some tea and chitchat. One problem: You can’t remember anyone’s name. Who’s that, sporting the fancy brooch with her pet chicken? Is that Jeannine? Beatriz? Oh, dear. If you’re not careful, you’ll commit a faux pas everyone will be gossiping about. Dinosaur Tea Party is a game of pure deduction for 2-5 homo sapiens. Each player takes a card corresponding to one of the dino guests. Players take turns asking each other questions or guessing their dinosaur’s name. If someone guesses your name, draw a new card. The first player to guess three names, wins the game.

SPIDER MAN 2018 POP VINYLs!

JURASSIC POP VINYLs!

ASK STAFF FOR PRODUCT DETAILS / RELEASE DATES! Get it all at Gametraders! Order in-store.

MOVIE

VENOM DOUBL PASS GIVEAWA

WHO IS VENOM? A PROFILE OF A LEATHAL KILLER

LIFE FINDS A WAY: A LOVE LETTER TO JURRASIC PARK

LE AY

(ANIME) INTERVIEW: SPIKE SPENCER AND NEIL KAPLAN

A MARVEL TO BEHOLD

A Marvel To Behold The Marvel Cinematic Universe exploded

Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s insane. The

Iron Man. In the ten years that have followed

market control is Star Wars. But the coolest

onto the scene in 2008 with the release of

we have seen twenty films dominate the box

office. Avengers Infinity War undoubtedly the biggest of them all lands in home release in August after netting itself a tidy sum of just

over two billion dollars at the box office. There is no doubt that Marvel has dominated the

only franchise coming close to that kind of

fact is not only that Marvel is the king of the box office, it has also dominated our small

screens too. Marvel has a staggering line of TV shows with eight shows running concurrently on a number of networks. With the Disney acquisition of FOX still looming over us all

cinema screens of the globe since 2008. In fact that would take the tally up to ten shows. if you look at the top twenty highest grossing films since 2010, six of them are a part of the

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an absolute behemoth.

But what is it about the MCU that keeps

us clambering for more? Why is it that this franchise despite its massive scope is just

continuing to steamroll at full speed? Warner

Let’s break it all down. Here are some of the key

DC Extended Universe, with arguably more well-

dominate the world.

Brothers has attempted a similar thing with its

known characters than Marvel’s initial outings, yet is has proven to be a meagre success.

Star Wars is in the process of it’s expanding

universe, yet it’s latest outing with Solo proved a disappointment also. Marvel marches on.

ingredients that seem to have helped Marvel

Characters

The characters that populate the MCU are as diverse as they are dynamic. Ultimately this may be the key reason for the monumental success of the series.

They are characters that we all love, or love to hate, or hate to love, or just plain hate. With a few exceptions Marvel’s characters have all been fairly well sculpted and lovingly brought to life by a committed and

dedicated cast. From the stock Chris Evans as Captain America, the pomp and snarky Robert Downy JR as Tony Stark, the attitude of Bradley Cooper as

Rocket, the intensity of Charlie Cox as Daredevil, THE INTENSITY of John Bernthal as The Punisher. The list

and the talent goes on. They gave us Loki, literally the most likeable bad guy ever! And they ripped our

hearts out when Thanos took him away. They have created and built a world full of people we have become invested in. So, step one! Make your characters likeable. Check!

Patience

Woah woah. Slow down. Take your time… It took

Marvel five movies and five years to get us to the Avengers. By that stage we knew the characters, we even knew the villain, then boom! 2012 saw

The Avengers hit the big screen. At the end of the Avengers it was revealed that Thanos was the big

bad in the background of this whole thing. Pulling

Loki’s strings. Yet it took us six more years to get to Thanos finally taking center stage to go up against

our beloved band of heroes. That is a long play. But it

is one that seems to have worked. It built gradually to

what is the biggest event they have attempted. It gave time for the world to build and be explored, for us to

meet all the pieces of the puzzle required for it to give us the maximum impact. The slow progression and build up has been a key to the series success.

Risks

Every now and then it proves it’s worth taking a risk. The biggest example of this working for the MCU is absolutely The Guardians of the Galaxy. Before the release of that film very few people knew or cared about Star-Lord or Rocket or Groot. Marvel took a massive risk to bring the movie about a talking Raccoon and his living tree pal to the big screen. Yet the film was a huge success, spawned a sequel and the entire cast appeared in Infinity War. I for one am still waiting for Tony Stark to meet Rocket Racoon. Just... Imagine it. The series has also taken risks on the TV front. Agent Carter was a modest hit despite only having two seasons. A female led super-hero (sort of) TV show set in the fifties. It was hard sell and ultimately the show didn’t get too far. Which is a damn shame because it remains my favourite MCU TV show. Peggy Carter was an amazing character and deserved more attention. But at least we can say Marvel gave it a shot. Black Panther also a risk with an almost entire African cast. It is sad to say that we live in a world where a film having a predominately black cast is a risk, but the box office has been dominated always by white casts. Then Black Panther came along and showed us all how it’s done! The film made a huge one point three billion dollars at the box office and has become a

a cultural phenomenon. The only shame out of all of the MCU’s risks, is that it has taken so long to have a female led film, but with Captain Marvel on the way next year, hopefully it will have been worth the wait.

Leadership

Every good ship needs a skilled captain. Marvel’s Kevin Feige the president of Marvel Studios has proven to be the man for the job. Under his watch the MCU has grown from strength to strength. He is the guy we have to thank for assembling the MCU as it is today. He has had his work cut out for him, but safe to say he has done a pretty good job. Never before has something like the MCU been attempted. Multiple films and TV shows all being apart of a shared universe with characters jumping between films and story arcs that have spanned a decade. I doubt we will ever see anything like it again. With hard work, dedication and a rabid fan base I doubt it will be going anywhere soon. It surely is a marvel to behold. Written by Scott F. Sowter Twitter: @ScottFSowter

SCOTT SOWTER

LIFE FINDS A WAY:

JURRAS

A love letter to

SIC PARK S

ixty-five million years ago our planet was

While the films have bounced back and forth

creatures of flesh and blood walked,

hits at the box office and that comes down to

from the face of the Earth by some equally

about Ian Goldblum. It’s the dinosaurs. That’s

ruled by dinosaurs. Massive, unimaginable there is no denying that they have all been solid

roared and ate. Then they vanished, wiped

unfathomable cataclxysm. What we were left

with is bones, fossils of these incredible giants that once rolled our world. In 1993 the film

Jurassic Park was released around the world.

Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs back to life.

the film’s stars, and no, for once I am not talking why we watch. Jurassic Park has provided us

the ultimate window into our imaginations. It has breathed life back into one of the world’s

most amazing wonders. I remember distinctly as a child; my parents took me to a museum

As a kid in the 90’s I was a dinosaur kid, as many and I just remember sitting in awe in front of were and still are. Seeing Jurassic Park on the

a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The size is just

were, alive, breathing, walking, roaring like we

used to move. We could picture it, in our minds.

big screen was a life changing event. There they had only imagined. This year sees the release

of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom the fifth film in the Jurassic franchise, showing that there is

still blood in this pre-historic beast. Apart from

being spectacular pop-corn adventure films the

Jurassic Park series has succeeded on one other fuel, pure magic.

staggering. This enormous meat eating creature The way it walked, the way it ate, hunted, the

thunderous crash it must have made as it ran across the earth.

Then when those perfect ringlets of water rippled out across the surface of a cup of water in the film we all got to witness the power of one of the world’s biggest creatures. I remember that scene so vividly. The feeling it put into me. I was never scared, as my parents feared I would be as a young child. I was excited. I didn’t care that the human characters where about to be eaten, I was just grinning ear to ear.

“THE T-REX WAS ALIVE!”

It eats the lawyer! So cool! No-body like him anyway... I’m sure my parents often worried about my sanity. I just cared about the dinosaurs. It sparked in me and many of my generation and undying obsession with these creatures. That is the magic of Jurassic Park. While films like Star Wars and Avatar have taken us beyond the stars to other worlds

to things of pure imagination. It still fails to compare for some reason to the magic of Jurassic Park. Dinosaurs are something most children are obsessed with. For some of us that never goes away and maybe that is the real magic. These films have the ability to take us back to being children. They make us feel awe again. Awe at the amazing things that used to be here, things we can only dream about. They make those old bones come alive. Life finds a way.

By Scott F. Sowter Twitter: @ScottFSowter

YOUR ShAUN SAY STODDARD

WHO IS VENOM?

A PROFILE OF THE LE

EATHAL PROTECTOR

On October 4th this year Sony will release the solo debut film of Venom. It’ll be the first real attempt by Sony at creating a ‘Spidey Without Spidey’ Universe. Reading about the other adaptation of characters, using the Spider-Man license, Sony wants to bring out kind of gives the impression that they have a lot riding on this movie. So why make a movie of Venom specifically? Why think that he’s the one that can start your universe? Well to answer that let’s take a deep dive into Marvel comics history!

From the outset, Venom was set up as a villain for Spider-Man. Bonded to Eddie Brock after Spider-Man used a church bell to get the symbiote to leave him. Venom found Eddie, who was praying in the same church, and bonded quickly with him through their mutual hatred of Spider-Man. What if someone who was unafraid to kill and was a lot more physically imposing had the same powers as Spider-Man and was unaffected by his Spider-Sense? That’s the basic idea of Venom. It worked incredibly well in his first introduction, where Venom had an almost horror movie vibe to him and has continued to work when various writers have remembered that Venom is meant to be a little bit terrifying. Throughout his stories and not always well written appearances in Marvel comics, the Venom symbiote has given birth to everyone’s favourite maniac Carnage. Who became an almost constant thorn in Venom’s side, and the 5 symbiotes used by the Life Foundation. The Venom symbiote has also been bonded to a grand total of 11 hosts (give or take weird retcons and shifts in storyline), been a superhero, a super villain, a spy and a space knight, and everything in between. In alternate universes it’s been a suit of goo created to cure cancer, a ninja, a zombie and oddly enough an anthropomorphic pig.

But always Venom seems to come back to Eddie Brock, the disgraced journalist and that’s the Venom we’re getting in the movie. And arrayed against our Lethal Protector? The Life Foundation. I for one, am looking forward to seeing what Sony can pull off.

By Shaun Stoddard

DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY

One of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters takes center stage as Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) becomes

the host for the alien symbiote Venom. As a journalist, Eddie has been trying to take down the notorious founder of the Life Foundation, genius Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) – and that obsession ruined his career and his relationship with his girlfriend, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams). Upon investigating one of Drake’s experiments, the alien Venom merges with Eddie’s body, and he suddenly has incredible new superpowers, as well as the chance to do just about whatever he wants. Twisted, dark, unpredictable, and fueled by rage, Venom leaves Eddie wrestling to control dangerous abilities that he also finds empowering and intoxicating. As Eddie and Venom need each other to get what they’re looking for, they become more and more intertwined — where does Eddie end and Venom begin?

WIN A DOUBLE PASS! Thanks to Sony and Gametraders you could win a double pass to see Tom Hardy as the new Marvel antihero VENOM when it hits cinemas October 4 All you have to do is go to the Gametraders Facebook page and like the competition post, tag who you’re going to take and comment why you want to see Venom!

DOUBLE PASS GIVE AWAY

PAUL MONOPOLI

INTERVIEW WIT

ts ers Robo m r o f s n a Tr Optimus : e is u g is in D Prime

ITH NEIL KAPLAN During the Friday of AVCon I was given the opportunity to speak with a man I had previously conversed with, Neil Kaplan. I had last caught up with the man who refers to himself as the ‘budget Peter Cullen’ at Oz Comic Con in 2015. Upon reminding him of this he elaborated by saying he was the ‘budget friendly Peter Cullen’, taking over from Peter as Eeyore and Optimus Prime, among others.

Christopher Walken, arguably one of the most impersonated celebrities of all time. Neil claims that his Christopher Walken is possibly one of the worst in the world but that when it comes to impersonating someone: “There’s the real impression and the impression that distills what we all think of”.

I decided not to ask Neil to do his Recently Peter had mentioned that he based impression, but he explained that while his the voice of Optimus Prime on his brother. Christopher Walken impression is pretty Neil said that while this is true, the origin bad, it has its advantages. of the autobot leader’s deep vocal stylings owes much to a Western movie hero. “Bad impressions make for really good original characters. People don’t realise “If you listen to the rhythm it’s very where the base comes from, and then when quintessential for what a lot of you’re really dedicated to it, it just comes to impressionists did for their version of John life.” Wayne, so I would tend to say that when I do Peter’s version I tend to lean into that Neil explained that he was able to take the John Wayne-ishness”. quirks and twitches of Christopher Walken’s voice and use them to voice a shortFor there series ‘Robots in Disguise’, Neil circuiting robot. used a slightly different voice for the role. “And nobody knows, because it’s so horrible. “(it was) vocally similar, but not necessarily They had no idea it was Christopher with the same sort of pattern”. Walken”. We discussed impressions, particularly

The last time I spoke to Neil we had so much to talk about that I neglected to ask him about how he got involved in acting. I decided to remedy that by asking him that very question.

“Add the letter r onto ‘bananas’, so what you do is you say ‘bananars’. I was like ‘oh my god!’ And I cannot do a Liam Neeson to save my life, but I can do that!”

Neil remembers that the show didn’t have the budget that Saturday Night Live would have upon its arrival, so the impressions had to be spot on for the actors to be recognised in the roles they were playing. He particularly admired the one-word impressionists.

“When I started getting cast in shows that would have dialogue I fought back. I would start reading the play as we would have the read through and by the end of the play I would have the voice figured out”.

Neil became the ‘kid who did impressions’, “I’ve always been fascinated by the human and nothing was off limits. Children, adults, voice. I grew up watching a TV show in the anybody with an interesting voice was up states, when I was a kid before Saturday for grabs. He would enter talent shows, Night Live even came into existence. which led to him performing in plays. This It was called The Kopycats, and it was created an intellectual spark for the young impressionists. Rich Little and Frank Gorshin, thespian, who took this opportunity to hone believe it or not”. his future craft.

“There are a lot of people who do oneword impressions, which are genius! When you can do one word, or one syllable and people get it…” Neil then taught me how to do a one-word impression of Liam Neeson.

This is a skill that Neil shares with aspiring acting students that he works with. He encourages people to find the character. “When you’re reading through your copy you’re trying to find the character. Read the description, read the direction, read the copy itself, and as it starts to influence you let yourself go, let yourself drift… you let the words move you”.

Voltron: Legendary Defender - Emperor Zarkon

Naruto: Shippuden - Madara

Naruto: Shippuden - Masked Man

Bleach - Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto

Bleach - Rusaburo Enkogawa

Transformers Robots in Disguise - Optimus Prime

Bleach - Gesell

Justice League Heroes – Gorilla Grodd

When creating the voice Neil explains that while you may initially find the voice for a specific scene, that this voice might not be representative of the entire story the character is involved in. He explains that it’s about understanding what created that voice inside you and how you can adjust it for different scenes while staying true to the emotion that led you to that voice. I asked Neil about how he deals with direction that might conflict with the voices he creates. “That’s the thing. I don’t create the voice. I create the character and the attitude, and what will happen is as the character comes into focus… sometimes that voice will get dragged over, because now all of a sudden he’s not as angry as you thought in your first read through, or there’s more subtlety, he’s not quite as in your face, or you start working with the other actors and as their

characters develop you (drag the character over to where they should be). I don’t think of myself as doing voices, I think of myself as playing characters”. Neil cites James Earl Jones, the man who has played two of the most famous fathers in cinema history. These characters developed completely differently and as such you will never mistake a line from Darth Vader with a line from Mufasa because the attitude is completely different. “James Earl Jones, as far as I’m concerned, is an amazing actor but he has the vocal range of Y to Z… so it’s obviously not about just the voice. It’s about his dedication to the character, to their inner life, to their values, to their goals, and how they go about achieving those goals, and when those things change, if you’re really dedicated, the voice should follow”.

“It’s just a different facet of doing what we did when we were five years old. It’s just pretending… and somewhere in our lives school and traffic, work and the world, politics and the weather, and everything beats that out of us”. Neil says it all comes down to imagination, a skill that actors need to be able to personify the characters they are playing. While doing my research for the interview I saw that Neil had delved into comedy in his younger days. I asked whether it was something he still had an interest in pursuing. “Yes, very much! But I’ve given into fear for so long I almost don’t know how to do anything

kmon

Digemon: Haw

else. And fear is the main reason I haven’t been on stage in a long time… It’s funny because I’ll do conventions, and I’ll host stuff and I’ll talk off the top of my head for an hour and a half and people will be laughing and it’s when it’s like ‘no, you’ve gotta memorise the joke, you’ve gotta have it written and you’ve gotta have every word of it down… and that just terrifies me”. With that said, Neil has a few projects he is trying to get off the ground that are on the ‘funny side’. He enjoys going on Twitter and sharing jokes, even if they are for niche audiences. As long as the joke lands he’s satisfied.

At this point we were getting the wind up from the AVCon media staff, but Neil decided that after two interviews he wanted to make sure I had all of my questions answered. I decided to ask Neil what he loves about Australia and why he keeps coming back. “What do I like about being down here? Well, that I can come down here and do my Scottish dialect and none of you know it’s crap! … You know, that’s fun. That’s nice. You know… each time I come down to do a convention I make new friends and it’s not a commodity that I have overflowing in my life… so that speaks to me. I’m attracted to the architecture down here. I enjoy the people, and let’s be honest: Not a whole lot of South American countries are big fans of the work I’ve done because they hear my Spanish counterpart, so that

kinda limits some of the places I can go to as far as convention travel. As much as I’d love to go to China or Japan it’s like ‘well, I’m gonna have to do that on my own’ because they’re hearing their guys”. Neil would love to meet some of his counterparts, particularly the Japanese seiyuu for Madara Uchiha, whose voice he used as a basis for the English dub. After a quick tale about voice actors in a karaoke bar, which really doesn’t translate to the written medium, we are given the hard wrap up. We thank each other, and he goes off to do his next interview possibly anticipating our third encounter.

Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli

Evangelion - Shinji Ikari

Martian Successor Nadesico - Akito Tenkawa

Bleach - Hanataro Yamada

PAUL MONOPOLI

INTERVIEW WITH SPIKE SPENCER Neil Kaplan had vacated his seat to take part in other interviews. The void in front of me was filled by the shape of Spike Spencer, another voice actor I had previously interviewed. Rather flatteringly, Spike remembered me from AVCon 2013, when he had previously attended as a guest. When I last spoke to Spike he declared that he was going to roll down the hill on the side of the River Torrens. This never happened, and it was something I joked about with some of my AVCon friends before the interview. They suggested that as Spike is now a family man that he might not be so keen to do this. “That makes no difference whatsoever! Rolling down a hill, I mean… come on!... My wife really wants to, so we might just do that”.

“I’m married, I have an 11 month old baby boy who’s here with us. I have done more voice over work. I’ve done a lot of other training as a coach. I’m a sales coach, a dating/relationships coach, relationships/ sales dynamics”. During the last AVCon Spike had presented a dating tips panel, details of which can be found at dontkillyourdate.com. A book on the subject, ‘Foodgame: The Ultimate Recipe For Dating Success’ is currently with the editors and will be available soon. So Spike has been quite busy, though he confesses that the bulk of his time is spent raising his son.

I asked Spike what he had been up to since we last spoke.

Blazblue - Arakune

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic - Snake Spike worked with AVCon to make the event a family affair, with his wife judging the cosplay event, which their son, Declan, will be participating in. If you saw a very young Woody from Toy Story then that was Spike’s son!

Spike is also quite the foodie, trying different local cuisines as he travels the world participating in conventions. Last time we spoke he was waiting on a kangaroo pie. I thought I’d ask him how it was.

“He took his first step last night in a pub! He was actually standing against a little plate glass and there was some scotch there and then he turned to my wife and took a step towards her. I’m like, ‘OK, he was staring at scotch and took his first step in a pub. He’s YOUR son!’ That’s my boy!”

“I had the kangaroo pie and, this is my seventh time down here so, I cooked some kangaroo last week in Sydney myself and I just love the food down here. I do love kangaroo, it’s great, but I love meat pies. I remember that my first meat pie was at the zoo in Melbourne and I was just like… blown away”.

Spike is open to introducing his son to the world of voice acting, should he wish to work in the industry. He claims that Declan has the lungs for the job, though he will be encouraging him to do whatever he wants in life.

Though Spike has eaten plenty of meat pies since, he hasn’t managed to find one that tops that first experience from a vending machine at the zoo. It’s an experience he can’t quite share with his wife, who suffers from a gluten intolerance.

I asked what it is that he likes to cook at home, to which Spike shared his recipe for Thomas Keller style baked chicken. Several of Spike’s favourite recipes can be found on the website, dontkillyourdate. com. “I like to explore though, like while I’m here I’m like ‘OK, what is THE BEST food I should have while I’m in Adelaide? Like, in Melbourne I would say go to the Chinatown because they do great duck. I love that. In Sydney… I dunno, you know, it’s so eclectic. But when I’m in a locale (and I ask) what’s the local thing? What is it you’ve gotta have? And they always tell me”.

Upon this revelation I shared the not so secret recipe of the pie floater, an Adelaide specialty. Spike had actually eaten this before in Sydney of all places! Most of Spike’s meals are typically meat and three veg, though it’s how he works with the food that makes it special.

“I will say this. I’m not such a snobby foodie that I won’t go to McDonalds and get a Big Mac, because I grew up with that stuff, and I’m like ‘yes, it’s crap, it’s awful, it’s horrible and amazing sometimes! So, I won’t judge”.

Blazblue: Continuum Shift - Hazama

After this we decided it was time to discuss Spike’s acting career, as this was the whole reason for the interview. I have an appreciation of food as well, and could have devoted the whole interview for it. However, I’m not sure that Gametraders would have published it. I asked Spike how he got the storyline for the characters he voices in video games. At that point he can’t play through the game like the player can, so does he read the whole script first? “Mainly you just focus on your character because a lot of times we don’t have access to any of this. I’ve done jobs where I don’t even know what I’m doing. Here’s the character, the director says ‘OK, here’s what’s going on and here’s what you’re feeling, go! You do that.’ So when people think about an actor who’s doing a role, you have to… understand the actor is only doing what the director tells them to do. If you don’t like the way an actor did something don’t blame the actor, because we’re doing what we’re told. That’s our job”.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy - Puni Jiro

This was something that happened back in the early days of mainstream anime dubbing, where shows like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z were criticized for heavy changes to the script and mispronunciation of specific words. I mentioned to Spike that in the early days of the internet it was the voice actors who used to be negatively spoken about the roles they performed. “Well they don’t get it. I mean, if you understand the business of it then you need to talk to the director, because our job is to do what the director tells us to do.

Code Geass - Rolo Lamperouge

Another actor said a long time ago, ‘I’m an instrument. You tune me. That’s what I do. So you tell me higher, lower, this way, that way, whatever it is… there!’ I mean, hey. Someone hired Jar Jar Binks”. Earlier in the week I had read that Ahmed Best, the actor for Jar Jar had experienced depression for a long time over the fan hatred of his character. This is something that Spike was not at all surprised to hear.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn - Daryl McGuinness

“I believe that, and it sucks because as annoying as the character was, hey man, voice wise it was a great gig!... I did Supanova years ago with Jake (Lloyd) who was Anakin and his mum told me stories that I was just like… it’s insane what people do to people. It’s like, oh my gosh! They had to move and all kinds of things so it messes people up, and they don’t realise, hey, it’s just another human being doing a job that somebody else is telling them how to do it. So you know, go get a life and stop harassing them”.

Back in 2013 AVCon screened a subtitled version of Neon Genesis Evangelion 3.0 in anticipation for the upcoming dub release. It ended up coming out three years later, which was an unusually long time to wait for an anime dub, particularly one as anticipated as this. “Well, it’s funny because we did the… I forgot what year it was… I want to say it was 2012 or something. We showed it. We had a preview at New York Comic Con and twelve hundred people saw it and loved it and said ‘yay, it was great, it was awesome’ and I was like, it’s coming out! And a year later they called me in to do some pickups on it and I was like, ‘is this ever coming out?’… but it takes its own sweet time. Nobody tells me. People are always going ‘Spike, what’s going to happen?’… Do I look like I’m part of the franchise? I mean, I come into a booth, I scream, I leave. That’s my job”. Spike has since heard through the grapevine that Gainax are advertising for animators to work on the final film in the series, Evangelion 3.0+1.0. Spike agrees that the naming conventions for these four movies have been difficult to understand.

Durarara! - Saburo Togusa

I wondered how it felt revisiting the same character and the same series over and over again. “The 1.11 was a complete redo of everything, so it was just like stepping back into the original series and going ‘OK cool’, I’m a little bit older, obviously… a lot older, and you know, but I still get into the character and I can still do it. It’s like I have the voice, I mean, my voice has gotten deeper so we said… it wasn’t just my thing, it was the director. We said we’re manning him up a little bit… I think it’s awesome, I love it. And you know what, let me say something. It’s funny, I get this a lot. People like goes ‘Spike Spencer hates Shinji’, well first of all, no. Shinji’s a two dimensional character and by the way, not real. And second, it’s a character”. I’ve never had this impression from Spike, but apparently it does the rounds in fan circles. One of the things Spike likes to do during signings is to draw on pictures of Shinji. He signed my laserdisc of the first 2 episodes back in 2013 and drew glasses and a beard on the character. As Spike says, when you “man up” Shinji he looks just like his father, Gendo.

I asked Spike about his time working on Doraemon. Johnny Yong Bosch had previously told me how much fun it was to work on the show, and Spike also had good things to say about it.

“You know, it was a long time ago. I haven’t done it in years… I was Ace Goody and it’s basically a younger Shinji, and it was fun… I auditioned for Doraemon and didn’t get that, but I got to play with it and a cute, fun little series”.

Spike said he occasionally can get lost in the many series he’s been involved in as similar plot lines and stories can create a blur of memories. Anime has certain styles and tropes that remain the same for almost every series that comes out of Japan. This has its advantages, as the more anime he works on the more he understands how certain voices and sounds work in specific situations.

Bang Zoom! Dub Dragon Ball Super - Majin Buu

As a Dragon Ball fan I had to ask Spike about the Bang Zoom! Dub of Dragon Ball Super, in which he plays Majin Buu. It’s hard to get ahold of any footage from that show, as we receive the Funimation dub in Australia. I asked Spike whether he based the voice on his Funimation counterpart, Justin Cook. “I don’t think so… This may sound bad for me, I don’t research because the director’s gonna tell me what to do and a lot of times I don’t want to colour what I’m doing. I’m like, ‘OK, you’re the director. You’re the boss. What are we doing? We’re taking it in a different direction? Great, now I’ve got to unlearn everything I’ve already learned and go in.’ And I’ve had episodes where I’ve done that and they’re like, this other voice just keeps creeping in because I’ve already got it on my brain. So I don’t want to do that, so I go in and am like ‘what are we doing? Oh, Majin Buu. He sounds like what? You want this? Let’s try this voice. Ahhh! Whatever!’ And they go ‘yeah, that’s it. Great!’ OK, so I have no idea what (Justin Cook’s) Majin Buu sounds like”. I asked whether fans tend to know more about the roles that Spike plays that he does himself. “YES! YES! And they’re like, ‘sign this’ and I’m like, ‘was I in that?’ and they go ‘yeah, you were this guy’… and I look at my

resume and like ‘yeah I was, look at that’”. I thought I would use my last question to ask about roles he is uncredited in. “You know, I don’t know how that works, honestly… It could be a paperwork snafu. It’s not something that I did, like ‘oh, I don’t want to be credited’. I don’t care. I did the work, I’m proud of it. If I don’t want to be credited then why do the work?... If it’s hentai then I’ll give you a different name, but it’s fun. It’s a fun name… If I do another one you’ll see as ‘Heiney Pickelhammer’”. And on that note we were given the signal to suggest it was time to end the interview. Spike said that due to business interests he has in Australia he may be making more stops on our shores. Personally, I look forward to seeing him again.

Interview conducted by Paul Monopoli

gameS

REVISITING NO MANS SKY

PAPER MARIO SERIES ANALYSIS

COMPARING THE NINTENDO WARRIORS: FIRE EMBLEM vs HYRULE

INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS

BEN DYE

REVISITING N

NO MANS SKY Hello Gamesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; No Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sky launched back in 2016 to more hype than even the vast majority of AAA games. Prior to release many people - myself included treated it like it was going to be a great leap forward for gaming. All of the promises of procedural generation, the idea of an infinite universe awaiting to be explored, and bumping into people across a universe of space, seemed like such novel ideas. And then we played the game.

Amongst other things there was little guidance on how to do anything; most of the player base started out on horribly deadly planets and were confused as to how to expand from there. Options were also limited, not least the base-building functionality. And of course the people you might hope to bump into weren’t even there. In the end, No Man’s Sky was a bitter disappointed; a lonely and shallow experience. That was then, however. Since 2016, the game has received update after update, slowly pushing it from being a mediocre game to a decent one. Now, with the

release of the ‘NEXT’ update, it has finally made the move from decent to pretty great. Visually it has improved significantly. A large number of new assets have been added to the game to give the whole procedural generation gimmick a fresh coat of paint. Now the game really does have a wide variety of planets, creatures, and flora. So far, every planet I’ve visited since the update has been markedly different from all of the others. One felt like Mars, for example, another like a deceptive oasis planet plagued by acid rain, and one even like the planet Hoth from Star Wars.

I’m currently in the process of fervently constructing my own glorious base on a planet that I found with my aforementioned it. It almost feels like Minecraft in space, but with stronger visuals and the addition of some enjoyable exploration components. This is the game I wanted (an expected) at launch. Unlike Minecraft it doesn’t get aesthetically boring either, at least not so far. The sheer number of possibilities, especially with future updates, should ensure that it remains interesting for a long time to come.

There are far, far more computer characters, pieces of technology, races, and fleets than ever before; and items, things to discover, and beings to interact with are all over the place. Random NPC ships will fly overhead every now and then, which makes the experience feel much less lonely. Granted, I’ve only encountered one real person thus far (and that a Steam friend), but the ability to join another player’s session and unlock their bases to go through what is in effect a Stargate is a huge improvement.

When No Man’s Sky first came out I was incredibly excited. I came from an Eve: Online background and loved many aspects of that game but simultaneously hated how slow it felt and how you never had direct control over your ship (it’s a point and click game, for the uninitiated). When No Man’s Sky was announced and shown off, I soaked it in like Squidward eating Krabby Patties. Then, when it was released, I played it for about three hours before hanging up my boots and walking away from the depressingly isolated and limited experience.

What makes this update even better are the implications for the future of the game, with this as the basis for what to expect. Hello Games’ press release was rather telling of the developer’s intentions in this respect:

Now? Now I can’t stop playing it. Every day I feel an eager temptation to play it, and when I do I’m lost in this universe for at least an hour (which is a lot of time for me to devote to a session). I love the exploration, the discovery, the interaction with aliens, and the possibility of easily and meaningfully interacting with people. I love that the resources required are always available in some way, shape, or form, and usually rather easily. I love that I continue to learn as I play the game, figuring out how to do things better and more efficiently. I love the gorgeous sunsets on beautiful planets... which quickly turn into deadly hot acid rain. I love that I can literally pick it up and play for a bit, quickly save, and then resume right where I left off. I love how easy it is for friends to join my play sessions. There are so many things about this game that I love, now, that I could keep going on like this for quite some time.

future.”

“This is an incredibly important update for

us, but it’s also just another step in a longer journey, and we’ll continue to support No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable

future. This is an incredibly important update for us, but it’s also just another step in a

longer journey, and we’ll continue to support No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable

No Man’s Sky has gone on a long journey, from being straight up bad, to middling, to now good. So who knows, it’s possible that one day No Man’s Sky will eventually morph into a superb game. In truth, dozens of major features that have been added to No Man’s Sky since its disastrous launch in 2016, and many more significant tweaks have been made beyond that. If you own the game but quickly gave up on it back in 2016 then now is a great time to experience all of these improvements for yourself. I can honestly say I have never seen such a drastic turnaround in all of video gaming - No Man’s Sky was a complete and utter disappointment but now it’s finally fun to play.

By Ben Dye, VGChartz

Stephan LaGioia

REVIEW NS:

OVERCOOKED! 2 I

never thought I’d experience a game that so authentically captures the stresses of being a chef at a bustling kitchen - or at least what I presume those stresses would be like. And yet, Team 17’s Overooked! 2 manages to capture it. I mean that in the best way possible, by the way. Taking its cue from the first entry, this sequel utilizes the ingredients of what made Overcooked so enjoyable and adds some delectable additions of its own, including online multiplayer.

If you’ve played the original it likely won’t take much for you to jump right into the action and get acquainted with the frantic multi-tasking the game demands. The controls are pretty simple and only require the use of a few buttons for the main commands. Not being well-versed in Overcooked culinary arts myself, there was certainly a learning curve that I had to shake off with so much going on around me. After 20 minutes or so of stumbling around, dropping food on the floor, burning things, and falling down pits, it all clicked, and the game’s enjoyment elevated massively. Essentially, you’re tossed into one of a number of unique kitchens, complete with an array of cooking tools and crates full of food items at your disposal. You’re immediately put on the clock as you and at least one other chef must scramble to whip together a laundry list of varying dishes. You’ll often have to prepare these items by way of chopping, steaming, frying, and/or baking.

The rate at which you accumulate points will depend on how quickly and orderly you assemble these items. Following completion of a stage, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be awarded 1 to 3 stars, the latter of which usually requires a synchronized assembly line born of teamwork and ample communication. You can jump into either a local or online multiplayer mode with relative ease, and decide to face off in a cooking throwdown Iron Chef style, or choose to band together to crank out as many food items as possible within a 3 minute span. You can pick your chef from a number of cartoony options, both human and

animal, and unlock more as you progress. In addition to boasting a larger lineup of chefs, Overcooked! 2 also replaces the soup recipes that so heavily permeated the original and swaps them out for a much more diverse lineup of dishes. These range from sushi, to a couple of the sequelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more elaborate additions - flapjacks and cakes. This new lineup, along with a few old classics like the burger, keep the experience feeling fresh, as most of the food items come with their own separate process for cooking and preparation.

While the game revolves around a pretty simplistic core, there are certain nuances you can exploit in order to run your kitchen more efficiently, which can go a long way in nudging over the 3 star cliff. You can allocate various tasks to certain players, such as dish washing or serving, and can choose to fulfill orders in the order they pop up to receive extra tips. You can now even toss food items directly into the arms of an awaiting chef or into a pot or pan to save on time. Overcooked! 2 mostly hits that sweet spot of solid mechanics and simplistic gameplay thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy enough to grasp, but provides room for completionists and die-hard chefs to shine and earn that triple star ranking.

The game comes with a pretty standard campaign mode that gives you a quick tutorial before plopping you onto an overworld map containing a number of colorful kitchens, each with their own characteristics, equipment, and hazards. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be cooking in everything from sushi kitchens wrought with conveyor belts, to pit-laden coal mines, to hot air balloons that force you to scurry across moving platforms. Some of these stages go a tad far in tossing random elements at you, but most add a certain charm and do well in keeping you on your toes in a creative, chaotic way. The variance in the environments also helps the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cute and colorful art style flourish even further, giving a delightful sense of character.

The campaign comes with a simplistic, but nonetheless amusing narrative involving the cheekily named “Unbread”. Yes, as you might imagine, these are zombie-like bread creatures, and they’re apparently taking over the Onion Kingdom. Naturally, you’re summoned by the great Onion King - who looks exactly as you’d expect - to keep the hordes at bay by satiating their hunger.

The difficulty stays at a manageable level even when playing solo and painstakingly forced to swap between 2 chefs - and ramps up pretty steadily throughout. The game also does a nice job of providing new recipes and gameplay elements at an easy-to-absorb trickle, so the mode proves a fun and useful 5 hour diversion, though the real meat of the gameplay lies in the local and online multiplayer.

Local multiplayer was a blast in my experience, and felt as much a couch co-op game as an exercise in communication. My matches were filled with people shouting commands and recipes at eachother, frantic moments of exhilaration, and plenty of laughter-beckoning blunders. The online play doesn’t quite offer this same charm, nor the ability to talk directly with one another on the Switch version, despite being enjoyable in its own right. Thus, despite this newly included online multiplayer feature, couch co-op still stands out as the highlight of the game and the best way to experience Overcooked! 2. Aside from the lack of communication options (basic emotes notwithstanding), I had a surprisingly smooth and endlessly enjoyable experience playing online. Players usually were on the money with tasks and there was a fair degree of working around the lack of communication through quick wits, improvisation, and multi-tasking. I was usually matched up quite quickly, and only got an occasional bit of lag stutter. The head-to-head mode is ideal for the competitive types, but for my money, the more simplistic Arcade co-op portion proves a perfect blend of action-packed intensity and mindless cooking fun. Playing with 3 others can occasionally get chaotic, but it’s certainly preferable to managing multiple tasks on your own. The online could perhaps have been fleshed out a bit more, as its customizations are limited and

there’s no leaderboard to be found. Still, it works well enough, and goes a long way in extending the game’s shelf life. The original Overcooked managed to be something of a sleeper hit and its sequel further reminds us why this quirky co-op franchise has won over so many. Ghost Town Games and Team 17 have sprinkled in just the right amount of new elements to strengthen and further flesh out the experience without overwhelming it. While your levels of enjoyment playing solo are likely to be tepid, those looking for co-op multiplayer gaming excellence should look no further than this charming, addictive sequel.

By Stephan LaGioia, VGChartz

Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4) Review

arvel’s Spider-Man is without a

which is also very good) and thrusts you

game ever made. The world

The first mission in the game feels both like a

doubt the absolute best Marvel

Insomniac Games have created, even with its many and varied references to the greater

Marvel universe, feels so authentically Spider-

Man that it’s almost unbelievable. The systems they’ve implemented, the gadgets and suit

powers, serve well to enhance the experience and feeling of being Spidey.

The game starts you in as a 23-year-old Peter Parker in the midst of working to bring down

the Kingpin (continuing basically straight from

the prequel novel Spider-Man: Hostile Takeover,

straight into a fully immersive New York City.

well-designed tutorial and a hugely impacting part of the story, which feels so damn good.

“The story is where this game well and truly shines” It shows you everything you need to know to

get started, including introducing you to the

swinging mechanics literally straight out of the gate... or rather window.

These swinging mechanics are a big part of what makes this game so fun, with an emphasis on fluidity and building up speed using different techniques. Traversal in open world games is always touch and go, with some being really good and some being incredibly boring. Luckily Spider-Man gives you enough variations to enable you to move throughout the city quickly, which opens up directly after the tutorial. Collectables and side missions periodically open up as well, which keeps it fun from start to finish. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s telling that I only used the fast travel system

once (when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s introduced. It never forces you to use it after that). Combat in this game is heavily Arkham inspired, but with more of an emphasis on movement over brute strength. The different gadgets enable a wide array of play styles and the use of aerial combat gives a more 3-dimensional aspect. Learn to love the dodge button, and make sure to make liberal use of webbing people because the earlier you web, the less people you have to punch repeatedly.

I must talk about the voice acting for a moment. The voice cast of this game is phenomenal. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not even a character I can single out as the best or a stand out because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all amazingly good. The motion capture is also incredibly well done, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had multiple people walk

past and ask what movie I was watching, which is just incredible. Every character is fully realised and acted incredibly well, and there are some hard scenes particularly towards the last third of the game which are phenomenally well done. Kudos to all the actors and workers involved.

The story is where this game well and truly shines though. The interactions between Spider-Man, his supporting cast and his villains are incredibly well done. The journey the story goes on, with the revelations about certain characters taking center stage in the late game, is well realised. Also, I have to mention the incidental storytelling, with the collectables and newspaper clippings you find throughout the game helping to establish a believable world where Spider-Man has been active for almost a decade.

In a year where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gotten such amazing games such as God of War, the fact that a game like Spider-Man could be released and be as good as it is, is absolutely amazing. If you have a PS4, go buy this game and experience it for yourself. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a monumentally well realised experience and one of my favourite Spider-Man stories ever.

By Shaun Stoddard

Evan Norris Review YOUR SAY

DOWNWARD SPIRAL: HORUS STATION

(PS4)

Few things are as alien and inhospitable as

some striking sci-fi ideas, impressive zero-

noiselessly through the inky, empty vastness

(strengthened by a menacing electronic

a derelict space station drifting aimlessly,

of space. It’s a terrific setting for a science-

fiction or horror tale, and first-person actionadventure game Downward Spiral: Horus

Station knows it. Part 2001: A Space Odyssey, part Dead Space, Horus Station — the first of a planned anthology series — owns

gravity controls, and thick, tense atmosphere soundtrack from HIM frontman Ville Valo),

but suffers from repetitive tasks, enemies, and stage layouts, a missing sense of progression and geography, and incoherent, evasive storytelling.

The story in Horus Station is

of Horus Station, thanks to a clever

bewilderingly — vague. An astronaut

extend a hand by pressing up on

purposefully — and sometimes

wakes up on the Horus space station after a catastrophic event. Sections

of the installation have broken apart, entire areas are on lockdown, and hostile security robots run amok.

As the nameless, faceless hero pulls the station back together, destroys

rampaging robots, and re-engages

control scheme where players can

the left control stick, grasp a nearby bulkhead or console, and launch

forward simply by releasing the stick. At first, it’s a bit daunting, but after a

few minutes it becomes a responsive, liberating experience — even better, ostensibly, in the optional VR mode.

a host of deactivated systems,

Shooting is worthwhile also, mainly

its extraterrestrial purpose comes

arsenal of firearms. Among them: an

more information about Horus and into view. Even so, that “more”

information is, by the end of the adventure, insufficient.

Developer 3rd Eye Studios deserves much respect for opting for

environmental storytelling in its zerogravity thriller, and in the process

skipping cinematic cut-scenes, but the game’s vagueness come at a

price: an often incomprehensible

storyline that leaves the player with a nagging question by the time

the end credits roll — did I miss something?

As you decipher the game’s abstruse story, you’ll explore the multi-

chambered station in zero-g, fight off murderous robots, and solve

a few simple puzzles. Navigation

without gravity is the principal joy

because of a surprisingly diverse

introductory pea-shooter, a semiauto pistol, a scattershot gun, a

sniper weapon, and several more.

Players can equip weapons in either

the right or left hand (the same goes

for a hookshot device and a portable

motor, which make mid-air navigation easier). While Horus Station’s armory and shooting mechanics are solid,

its enemy encounters are decidedly

less impressive. The same rival robots appear again and again, and attack in similar patterns. Basically, if you

unholster your weapon early, you’re likely to win. If the floating foes fire

first, it’s probably game over — which means a quick reset at a nearby

checkpoint, with all your progress

intact. Overall, firefights aren’t nearly tactical enough and fall on the repetitive side.

patrolling security bot, but

— Horus Station offers up

players will settle into a

online multiplayer, staged

for the majority of the game, monotonous groove.

Objective design suffers not

only from uninvolving quests but a general confusion

over progress and place.

meant to be doing, and why

exactly you’re doing it in the first place. There are maps and monitors throughout

Horus that flash information, but rarely do they provide

with Kubrick-esque tunnels, bulkheads, hallways, and

doorways having a similar

appearance. Objectives tend to repeat as well: locate

insight into how far you’ve

or deactivating a large,

game succeeds, even if its textures and lighting are merely middling. Valo’s

ambient soundtrack is the

real star here, anyway. It sets the hazardous, unexplained mood perfectly, and strings

you along to the final frame.

break orbit. Every good sci-fi

storytelling can be a gift, particularly in a cerebral

sci-fi setting, but 3rd Eye

Studios strays too far into the incomprehensible.

played solo or in online co-

large parts of the station

Judged by that metric, the

instructions and oblique

left ahead. Again, vague

There are a few mechanically like manually docking two

isn’t about graphical fidelity;

For all its atmospheric feats,

In addition to the four-hour

interesting sequences,

pre-launch.

come and how much is

key card, insert fuel rod,

navigate across open space.

online lobbies were vacant

it’s about atmosphere.

in the station, what you’re

station has a samey look,

its weapons. Unfortunately,

uncommon to be unclear

proximity to other key points

designs. The Horus space

story and populated with

A game like Horus Station

about where you are in

game’s objective and level

in environments from the

As you hover around the

Horus installation, it’s not

Repetition also infects the

deathmatch and horde via

campaign, which can be

op, and in one of two modes — “engage,” a traditional

adventure, or “explore,” which removes any hostile threats

Horus Station struggles to

idea and engaging mechanic is paired with a repetitive process or confusing

narrative. Armed with better enemy AI, more complex

puzzles, and a fleshed-out

story, the game could make a mark on the genre. Hopefully future titles in the anthology

series will succeed where this game falters.

By Evan Norris

NICHOLAS TAYLOR REVIEW

Octopath Octopath Traveler is the newest RPG from Square Enix, a developer held in legendary regard mainly because of that very genre since decades past. Having been featured heavily in Nintendo Directs since its unveiling, Octopath Traveler seemed by all accounts to be Square Enixâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main project for the Nintendo Switch, to the extent that it was even published by Nintendo in every region outside of Japan.

Given the pedigree of the developer when it comes to RPGs, Octopath Traveler instantly has very high expectations to live up to, and honestly, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no exaggeration to say that it is on par with the legendary games Square produced back in the golden age of 2D RPGs. The first thing that really stands out about the game, and which caught my attention in the very first trailer, is the unique graphical

Traveler (NS) style that the developers themselves dubbed “HD-2D”. At first glance, it seems reminiscent of SNES-era games, but you quickly realize that Octopath Traveler’s aesthetic goes above and beyond, bringing a new twist to the old sprite-based graphic it’s honoring. After putting a few hours into Octopath Traveler, the biggest question I had was how nobody seemed to have had this

idea for graphics before. It’s a distinct style which merges everything that’s loved about classical 16-bit masterpieces with new technology, and the world feels all the richer for it. You analyze every nook and cranny on the screen to see if there might be a hidden path there, and the more I gazed in-depth at the art of the game, the more I fell in love with its entire visual approach.

In today’s gaming world of extremely high-quality graphics, it’s rare to have something wow you visually, unless it has a very distinct art style. Puzzling as it may seem, Octopath Traveler gave me similar vibes to those I experienced playing Donkey Kong Country on the SNES back in my childhood, where it felt like it may have changed the entire scene for games of its type. Just as Donkey Kong Country served as a predecessor to the 3D quality we would see everywhere a few years later, it does feel like Octopath Traveler will go down as a trendsetter, with many 2D games following its visual approach. I certainly wasn’t expecting sprite-based 2D graphics to be brought to new levels in this day and age, but Octopath Traveler and its “HD-2D” really does give me that vibe when I play it. The gameplay is reminiscent of classic RPGs like the 2D-era Final Fantasy titles, though it also takes some inspiration from the more recent Bravely

Default series, with a battle system that feels like a more refined version of the Brave Points system we saw in that game. In battle, your characters will gain a Boost Point at the end of every turn, which can be spent to attack multiple times or strengthen a spell you’re casting. Besides this, each of the eight characters present in the game has unique abilities, such as the hunter H’aanit being able to tame monsters and call them in for backup in later fights, or the cleric Ophilia who fills the classic healer role with spells which will restore your allies’ health points. Characters also have unique abilities outside of battle when they interact with NPCs in the overworld, such as the dancer Primrose being able to lure characters to follow her, or the merchant Tressa who can buy items from NPCs who wouldn’t usually be selling them (and sometimes ones that aren’t ordinarily available in stores at all).

Although each of these overworld skills is effectively repeated in another character (for example, both H’aanit and Olberic challenge NPCs to do battle), there’s more than enough variety to go around, and you can mix and match amongst the 8 potential party members to fill your 4-character party to your liking, and switch between characters throughout your adventure for the optimal experience. The big draw of Octopath Traveler is, of course, what’s alluded to in the very title; namely that there are eight paths, with each of the eight characters having their very own adventure to embark on, with the rest of the characters serving as little more than hired help to achieve their goals. That said, the characters’ stories are definitely solid enough to intrigue you on their own, and while the rest of the cast mostly feel like supporting cast members when they’re on somebody else’s chapter, you definitely get a strong feel for their motivations, backstory, and personal journey during their

own intricate storylines. The player gets to choose which path to pursue, with each character’s next story chapter being clearly marked out on the world map, meaning that you can continue a certain character’s storyline and ignore the rest if you want to, although you’d probably have to do a fair amount of grinding to be able to successfully pull off such a focused playthrough. Because of the interesting characters, it can almost be difficult to decide which storyline to advance next. Regardless of whether you decide to go all-in on each of the characters or not, Octopath Traveler is a pretty big game with lots of things to do. Besides the main stories, there’s an abundance of sidequests and interesting areas to explore, but if you’re a player who prefers linearity, the game indicates what’s good to do next by displaying main quests on the world map, including level recommendations for each of them, giving you a clear sense of guidance if you’re just trying to get through the main stories.

All in all, Octopath Traveler is an ambitious game in a lot of ways but doesn’t necessarily cause a huge shake-up to the genre. Rather, it goes back to basics and does everything it attempts to do exceptionally well. The battle system feels rewarding and nostalgic, but without any of the old qualms that retro RPGs can bother you with when you replay them, and the characters are quite varied in their abilities. On top of this, you can later unlock subjobs and advanced jobs, allowing you to evolve your party even further, which gives you a distinct sense of choice even beyond just picking which story to unravel next. In an era where people have lamented the lack of RPGs which maintain that old school feel from many of our childhoods, Octopath Traveler is an extremely welcome breath of fresh air, and it’s hard to imagine it going down as anything other than a true classic both for Square Enix and for Nintendo.

By Nicholas Taylor

Paul Broussard

Comparing the Nintendo Warriors:

Fire Emblem vs. Hyrule

ver the course of the Wii’s and Wii U’s

respectively, while Fire Emblem Warriors, based

in short supply for Nintendo. For one

for 3DS and Switch in 2017.

lifespan, third party developers were

reason or another, third party games simply

on Fire Emblem (duh), launched simultaneously

weren’t selling very well on Nintendo home

As someone who’s enjoyed both games quite

that did produce sales was valuable. One such

on the two and comparing them. I’ll be placing

consoles. As a result, any sort of partnership

fruitful partnership was with Koei Tecmo, who

developed two games based off of the Dynasty Warriors series, but focusing on story and

characters from specific Nintendo franchises rather than the usual Dynasty Warriors cast.

Hyrule Warriors, based on The Legend of Zelda, was released for the Wii U in 2014 and later

ported to 3DS and Switch in 2016 and 2018,

a bit, I thought it might be worth looking back them head to head in a number of different

areas, determining which I think was the better title, and ultimately picking one game to

recommend to people who might be interested in trying a Nintendo Warriors title out. So, with that in mind, let’s get started.

Presentation

Right off the bat, which game presents itself

slightly, if only because I like the few original

better? From music, to levels, to just the general songs introduced in FE Warriors more than the ones found in Hyrule, but again it’s very close. overall aesthetic, which title provides more glisten to surround the meat of the experience with?

On the other hand, Fire Emblem wins easily

Hyrule and FE Warriors both provide some very

story content. Hyrule’s graphics have dated

interesting takes on areas pulled from their

respective franchises. Being able to run around Fire Emblem areas that were previously only

viewed from a top down perspective is a real

treat, while looking at Zelda areas reimagined and mixed with each other is also extremely

enjoyable. Hyrule Warriors gets a slight nod in

this area due to having a few more levels from

its 3DS version, but both earn high marks here. The music for both games is also (pardon the pun) rock solid as well, with electric guitar

remixes of songs found throughout the games pulled from. FE perhaps edges ahead here

in regards to graphical quality and post-

considerably since the Wii U release in 2014, and don’t look significantly better on the

Switch. FE Warriors’ more stylized aesthetic does and likely will look quite good for

some time to come. And while both games have roughly equivalent story modes, FE Warriors stacks up better in regards to

post-game content, with its History Mode

providing a much more enjoyable incentive

to fight additional battles than Hyrule’s rather schizophrenically organized Adventure Mode.

WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS

Roster of Characters

Much of the appeal of crossovers like these lies in being able to play as a variety of different

characters from the series being represented.

Both Hyrule and Fire Emblem Warriors market themselves on the player being able to play as various protagonists and/or antagonists

from the series’ past. Since Link is usually the

only playable character in Zelda titles, and Fire Emblem is more about giving orders to units

than actively playing as them, these crossovers present the first real opportunity for many

people to directly control many characters that they may have always wanted to.

In that regard, it’s hard not to feel at least a

little disappointed in Fire Emblem Warriors, and its DLC, opting to pull from just three games:

Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates. Hyrule

And this doesn’t even touch upon the sheer

playable characters from three games as well,

Warriors, who reuse the same moveset.

Warriors, at launch anyway, only featured

but since then has added both protagonists

and antagonists from titles across the series.

Conversely, FE Warriors only offers characters from those three titles, even with its DLC. In fairness to FE Warriors, there are far more

characters from the Fire Emblem series that fans really want to play as, so it would never have

been realistically possible to satisfy everyone, but this doesn’t even seem like trying. The

infamous “too many swords” excuse doesn’t

hold up either, given the sheer amount of sword characters already included both in the main game and the DLC.

number of clone characters included in FE

Camilla and Hinoka are similar to Cordelia,

Celica is similar to Marth, Navarre is similar to

Lyn, Lucina is similar to Chrom, Tharja is similar to Robin, Owain is similar to Ryoma, etc. In

total, of the 34 playable characters available with DLC, ten have a copied moveset. By

contrast, Hyrule Warriors has 29 characters, all with unique movesets. And this doesn’t even touch on some characters having different

weapons, each of which provides entirely new movesets.

WINNER: HYRULE WARRIORS

Gameplay

As important as representing your series well is, playing well is just as significant, and it’s

here where Fire Emblem Warriors shines over

Hyrule. A number of significant improvements are either unique to or simply present in FE Warriors that are not available in Hyrule.

Arguably the most significant improvement

is the ability to change characters on the fly, which allows players to quickly be in several

places on the map rather than having to run back and forth constantly. This function is completely absent in the Wii U version of

Hyrule Warriors, and while present in both the

3DS and Switch versions, it’s significantly limited and, in many cases, not even available.

FE Warriors also brings in the concept of the

weapon triangle from the Fire Emblem series,

The last major benefit present is that, while

between units. This, in turn, helps alleviate a

the movesets that are there tend to be much

which functions essentially as type advantages lot of the bullet (or sword?) spongy nature that tougher enemies would otherwise possess.

Having trouble with a tougher foe? Plan your

units’ positioning correctly so that you can take advantage of the weapon triangle and give

yourself an advantage in combat. This also adds a degree of strategy to the game, and it adds another much needed layer of complexity to

keep things interesting later in the game when the joy of simple button mashing has worn

off. Hyrule lacks any equivalent, and as a result

many foes will require long stretches of running up, getting a few hits, and ducking out before they attack again. Taking down foes is almost

always enjoyable in FE Warriors, whereas it can turn into something of a grind in Hyrule.

FE Warriors does copy a lot of its movesets, more enjoyable than the ones in Hyrule.

Playing Lucina/Chrom is probably the most fun I’ve had in a Warriors game, and other

characters such as Lyn, Robin, Lissa, Ryoma, Olivia, Frederick, Azura, and Oboro are all

incredibly enjoyable to use. While Hyrule has

a greater variety of movesets, they are often a lot slower, more easily interrupted by enemy

attacks, and just don’t hold the same visceral appeal as most of Fire Emblem’s. Out of the

movesets in Hyrule, I only found myself really enjoying Ganondorf, Zelda, and Tetra, and

leaving a lot of the cast relatively untouched.

WINNER: FIRE EMBLEM WARRIORS

Overall

Simply put, while Hyrule Warriors feels like a better celebration of the series, Fire Emblem feels like a superior overall game. If you’re

looking for a celebration of the Zelda series,

it’s hard to go wrong with Hyrule. However, if you’re in any other category and looking to

try out a Nintendo Warriors title, Fire Emblem Warriors would be my recommendation.

There may be a bit more content for Hyrule

in the way of playable characters, but quality beats out quantity in my opinion, and Fire

Emblem Warriors is certainly the more quality experience.

By Paul Broussard, VGChartz

YOUR Ben Dye SAY

Paper Mario Series Analysis:

COLOR SPLASH

(PAINT STAINS) FROM VGCHARTZ.COM

have long felt that the Paper Mario series

First up is Paper Mario: Color Splash, and if

there, at least based on its roots, but many -

tears will fuel my ever-growing linguistic might!

is one of the best video games series out

especially those outside of the Nintendo family - probably have no idea why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talked about

quite so much. The idea behind this five-part

analysis of every Paper Mario game currently available is to work through each game quickly sifting through the pros and cons of each title for fans and non-fans alike.

you love this game then prepare to weep; your

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because Color Splash is, without a doubt, a prime example of Nintendo sacrificing what

fans want for the sake of innovation. Instead of returning to the roots of what made the series

great, Nintendo continued a sub-par pattern

that had been established in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

The Negatives

Centered on collecting stickers/cards, Color Splash is, unfortunately, bland. While past

games featured numerous different cultures and races, with levels based on wonderfully imagined and unique aesthetics, Color

Splash continues where Sticker Star left off - with toads everywhere. And I mean that. They are literally everywhere. If you read

up on the developer team’s justification for this, it’s utter nonsense. They wanted it to

‘feel’ like a Mario game, which ignores all the different and wonderful species/creatures

from the original three games and from the multitude of other Mario titles as if they aren’t canon.

It felt like the Star Wars expanded universe being retconned all over again. Are you telling me Rawk Hawk doesn’t exist, or

Dimentio, or Count Bleck, or the dozens of

other crucial characters from the first three

titles? I tolerate minimalism in the real world (though it isn’t my cup of tea). I cannot

tolerate it infiltrating a game series I love above any other.

Another flaw is the sticker collection. Before important battles, this can be a nightmare.

If you don’t want to obsess over a simplified game akin to Roshambo (rock, paper,

scissors), then you can look up how to get through it online to unlock thousands of

gold coins and then just buy all the cards

you need. Sadly for me, I played it before there were any guides out there.

I imagine the majority of the lowly 860,000 people that bought this game at retail (the

worst sales in the series) were in the same boat as me, which meant they had to do something that’s incredibly rare for a Nintendo game:

grind. “Am I suddenly in an MMO,” I wondered to myself, “surrounded by ore nodes I have to mine in order to build some amazing thing?”. Paper Mario is supposed to be fun, with the ability to beat the game if you obtain the

limited skill set required (in general) and learn

certain patterns. Now, all of a sudden, you had to farm for huge stickers for hours on end in order to progress. Who thought that was a good game design?

On top of that, in Color Splash had Nintendo decided to make two games in a row that employed the same design. The previous title - Sticker Star - actually sold the second most in the series, so an argument could be made that people didn’t mind the new system at all. On the other hand Super Paper Mario sold the most out of any title and that had taken a completely different approach.

Those results are both great and horrible at the same time. What in my view is the best game in the series, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, had the highest attachment ratio of any of entry. But the second best was actually Color Splash and if Nintendo decides to look at just attachment ratios, we may never see the franchise return to what many of us want (a more traditional Paper Mario game).

When it comes to sales it’s probably more useful to look at physical attach ratios, which roughly work out as follows:

Color Splash could, however, be considered a bit of an outlier when it comes to attachment ratio because people were starving for a game on a system that was woefully unsupported. That’s purely speculation and I could be wrong, but either way it sold less than a million at retail, which is definitely lacklustre.

Super Paper Mario – 3.7% Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 3.3% Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – 10.3% Paper Mario – 4.2% Paper Mario: Color Splash – 6.1%

The Positives

There aren’t many positives, but the game

at other 2D objects and determine their color,

CGI is absolutely stunning. The ‘thing’

benefit?).

is undoubtedly gorgeous and the opening items, like those in Sticker Star, also produce

or is Mario only aware of this is for the player’s

some laughter in the middle of fights or in

After that, however, it feels like scraping the

with a fun sense of humour.

with positives. And so...

overcoming obstacles. It’s a light-hearted game

The idea of paint being stolen is also quirky

because it feels like the game is breaking the

fourth wall (after all, can a 2D object really look

barrel or plucking at straws trying to come up

Conclusion

Color Splash is definitely the worst entry in the series as far as I’m concerned. It’s essentially a

visually more impressive version of Sticker Star

but with an almost entirely unoriginal concept. I am just hoping its poor sales are either blamed on the still-born platform it released on, or

(hopefully) on the series’ recent direction. If it’s the latter then there’s hope that this will either lead to a return to the franchise’s roots or a

reboot. Either way, I hope this entry doesn’t stain the series permanently.

YOUR SAY by Adam Cartwright INTERView

INSPIRATION, KICKSTARTE

BROMIO (PATO

ER, PATO BOX & VITA WITH

BOX)

Kickstarter has been a rather mixed bag for Vita (as I wrote about in a previous article), with a number of great games released but many more still unavailable despite the creators happily taking funds from avid handheld fans. Despite this, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult not to get excited about some of the more interesting-looking upcoming projects and undoubtedly the stand-out of these is Pato Box, a boxing-adventure game starring a duck that features 3D exploration mixed in with Punch Out style fighting. The game is due for release on Vita this

month

(following

successful

launches on PC and Switch), so I took the opportunity to talk to the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creators from Bromio about the project - in particular I wanted to know what inspired them to make the game in the first place as well as what convinced them to bring it to Vita.

First off, tell me a little bit about yourselves. Who makes up Bromio and what do you all do? Antonio: Hi! We are 9 people working at Bromio - Samir as Product Manager, Luis as Lead Programmer, Heri as Game Designer/Technical Artist, Colette as Animator/Illustrator, Emma as 3D Modeler, Joaquin as Progammer/QA, Abraham as Illustrator/Community Manager, David as Programmer and myself (Antonio) as Game Director/ Programmer. In the development of Pato Box we also worked with

What made you decide on

Cesar from 2think Design Studio

Kickstarter as a means to fund

Vita as a target platform

and Controvol.

Pato Box? Did you find it

for the game?

difficult to pitch the game to Can you tell me about the history

traditional publishers?

of your studio? How did you first get started in videogames?

Antonio: We were able to get in touch with Sony some

César: We wanted to maintain

time ago and we got access

all the freedom we could in

to dev kits pretty early on.

Antonio: We started development

the development. While we

Unfortunately we weren’t

of games in 2013, we were focused

had some money saved for

able to develop a game for

on mobile games as a learning

the project we knew that the

it until Pato Box and we saw

point since getting our game

development time could be

that the gameplay would be

released on the AppStore and the

reduced by the help of backers

perfect to have on the go

Google Play Store was easier at that

turning it into a crowd funding

and that’s why we decided

time than Steam. After developing

project and also use it as a tool

to support the Vita.

a couple of mobile games we

to let more people know about

wanted to make a bigger game and

our dream and help us make it

that’s when we started developing

happen.

Pato Box.

Was the response by the Vita

positive response from the

How have you found working on

community what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d hoped

community and they supported

Vita as a piece of hardware? Is it

it would be? Were you pleased

us a lot on our Kickstarter, so

difficult to develop for? Have you

with the feedback you received?

releasing the game on the

had to make substantial changes

platform is a big priority for us.

to Pato Box to get it running?

really interested on the game being

How did you first come into

Antonio: The portability on the

made for the Vita, and just like

contact with Sony regarding

system is great but it has been

many of the development team,

Vita development? How has

difficult for us to adapt the game

there were fans of the system that

Sony been to work with?

for it. The stages on Pato Box

CĂŠsar: We met a lot of people

really got into it once we showed

are kinda big and we made the

one build of it at PAX. We were

Antonio: We met our contact in

mistake early on of not taking

really pleased to find out we were

Sony at a development event in

the Vita memory into account, so

not the only ones that wanted this

Mexico and they have been very

getting the 3D exploration right

game on Sonyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portable system.

supportive from the start; we

has been a challenge for us. Most

received a dev kit really quickly

of the changes were made on the

Antonio: When we announced

after getting in contact with

exploration side but we are did

the game was coming to the

them.

our best to keep the experience as

Vita we got an overwhelmingly

similar as possible to the PC version.

What engine does Pato Box run

Has it been difficult raising

Let’s talk about the game

in?

awareness of your game

itself. What was the

within the ever-growing indie

inspiration behind Pato

market?

Box? What made you

Antonio: Pato Box runs on Unity - the engine has been

decide on a boxing duck?

great for us and we feel really

César: I wouldn’t say it has

comfortable using it.

been difficult but rather a slow

César: The character and

process. We have relied on

some of the story was

How long did it take to

the users and their opinions

pitched at Bromio based on

develop the game in total?

on the game and how they

a comic book I created in my

recommend the game on social

free time. The main character

Antonio: The PC version took

media and blogs. We have

was charismatic enough

around 1 year and 8 months

been lucky enough to grab

to bring attention to the

to develop. After that release

the attention of some popular

whole idea and we started

we have been working on fixes,

webpages that got interested

brainstorming every idea that

the arcade mode, and the ports

in it as well expanding the

would bring the character to

of the game for around 4-5

exposure of it.

life.

months.

Did you feel the need to

How difficult is the game? Did

Will the game be PlayStation

fill a hole in the market left

you want to challenge players

TV compatible?

by narrative-driven boxing

or make it accessible for

games like Punch Out?

newcomers?

Antonio: We are working on it!

César: We thought that the

César: At the end we decided

Will you attempt a physical

logical answer to making a

to have a very challenging

release of Pato Box if the

game based on the character

game that felt fair to the player.

opportunity arises?

using the comic aesthetics

We always had in mind the

would be Punch Out. The fact

newcomers to this kind of game,

Antonio: Yes! It’s something we

that there was need in the

but we wanted to maintain the

really want to do but we are still

market for that kind of games

challenging aspects of the Punch

looking into it to see what is our

just made it click afterwards.

Out series.

best option.

What features make Pato

What is the expected length

Finally, two questions I’ve been

Box unique? What made

of the game? Anything

asking everyone – what are

you decide on including

to encourage multiple

some of your favourite games

exploration-based elements in

playthroughs?

you’ve played on Vita?

César: I think it really depends

César: Tearaway, Gravity Rush,

César: Pato Box will show you

of what type of player you are.

Hotline Miami and Sound Shapes.

a world that is a mixture of

For some the fights are the core

serious themes and places

within the game and they will

Antonio: Persona 4 Golden and

mixed with some really stupid

jump right to the action, trying

Gravity Rush are my favorites.

moments and characters,

to achieve a high rank within

making it a bizarre and unique

each fight. Others want to dig

Which of the two Vita models

experience. Most of the fights

into the story of the hero and

(LCD or OLED) is your favourite?

were designed to keep the

his world and will try to find

simplicity of the Punch Out

every secret and detail around

César: OLED for me, it looks

controls but to expand on the

the characters, not to mention

gorgeous.

mechanics surrounding enemies

the collectables we left scattered

to make it an original game.

around. I like to think you can

Antonio: OLED also, the screen is

The exploration-based elements

jump back to the game anytime

amazing.

are meant to show more of the

to do all this stuff and discover

story of this world and act as a

more easter eggs hidden within,

“break” between the hardcore

or just to get better at the

fights in it.

bosses.

addition to the fighting?

I’d like to thank Antonio and Cesar for taking the time to talk to me. You can follow updates on their game Pato Box and any future Bromio projects via their website, but they’re most active on Twitter! - Adam Cartwright

INTERView by Adam Cartwright

Porting, Partnerships, Vita & the Future

Ratalaika Games At the start of 2017, indie porting studio/

With the team being active on Twitter and

publisher Ratalaika Games revealed on Twitter

regularly engaging with the Vita fanbase, I

that it had received a Vita dev kit and was

took the opportunity to contact them to ask

working on porting its titles to the console. Fast

all about their mantra, their future projects, as

forward to the current day and the team has

well as personal thoughts on the Vita as a piece

built up an impressive portfolio of more than

of hardware and the buyers who still purchase

10 games for the Vita, with plenty more on the

games for it. What I got in response was one of

way too. These tend to be shorter experiences

the most enthusiastic replies Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d ever seen and

that provide a fun dose of portable gameplay,

a wonderful set of answers (including a few

but with the studio expanding into genres such

surprise reveals too!), making it quite possibly

as text adventures, the developer seems to be

my favourite interview yet.

an interesting variable in the future of Vita in its twilight years.

First off, tell me a little bit

How did you first get into

Has Sony’s public

about yourselves; who makes up

contact with Sony? Was it an

withdrawal of support for

Ratalaika and what do you all do?

easy process to get hold of a

the handheld discouraged

Vita Dev kit?

you at all from future development?

We’re a team of two people! We work in porting & publishing games

We pitched a self-developed

to consoles. I code and work on

game a loooooong time ago, it

Meh, not really, I think it’s

marketing / promotion duties and

was never released but it was

still a good niche for indies

my partner does testing and product

how we got into all consoles

to work on! As long as the

management, submitting everything

actually! We got our PSVita

games run on it we will keep

to the platforms holders!

devkit to port a few games -

targeting it for sure.

YOUR SAY

initially we had only PS4. Vita’s fanbase tends to be

What is the company’s history? When were you founded and what

How has Sony been as a

very vocal on social media

was your first project?

partner? Have your contacts

- have you found this

in the company been

encouraging to continue

It was founded by myself a few years

encouraging in bringing your

bringing titles to the

ago back in 2013. Back then I was

titles to the Vita?

platform?

as most indie developers. Also

Pretty good! We’re really happy

Yeah! Actually it’s one of the

worked for OUYA and some other

with working with them and the

reasons that we keep making

Android consoles, then after a few

promotion they do. We caught

Vita ports! All the fans love

failed games I moved on to porting

PSVita a bit late so they never

them, which is great.

because it was easier as I suck as a

asked us to port anything to it

game designer!

or encouraged it in any way.

working on mobile only projects

In general, how is Vita to develop for? Do you run into regular difficulties in porting games across? Quite hard actually, the CPU is pretty power-less so it’s not easy to optimize for, also it has some downsides like the save system or the special resolution.

How is the submission process for Sony compared to Nintendo? Do you find one more onerous than the other? It’s easier and faster, also more predictable, which is great. As an indie dev there is nothing worse than not knowing when your game will be out of QA! How do your partnerships with independent developers to port their titles usually happen? Do you approach them or do they come to you? It really depends, initially we approached many devs, Like Twin Robots, Squareboy vs Bullies or League of Evil. After a few releases some devs started to approach us! Like Petite Games or TETRA’s Escape’s creators. Devious Dungeon was actually a recommendation from League of Evil’s developer. Do you have a favourite game (past or future) that you’ve worked on/are working on? I think Devious Dungeon! I played it back when it released on mobile years ago, so I loved playing it all over again as a DEVELOPER/PORTER! I never thought that could ever happen, not even in my wildest dreams!

What engines do the games you port run in? Do they require a lot of effort to adapt to consoles? Normally Unity3D or native code, like C or C++. We also do Java, Haxe, Lua... Depending on the game and the possible revenue we can adjust. What genre do you have most fun working with? I think adventure games - I really love a good story! So they are by far the best I think. Are there any dream Vita ports you’d love to work on? Hmmmm, I think not really at this time, we love working on small/unknown games so they can have a second chance on consoles; the one that they never had on Steam. Let’s talk about specific games - how is the porting of Devious Dungeon 2 coming along? Will it include something new? At the moment we’re not working on it yet! We’re working on Random Heroes 1 first =). It should release later this year hopefully.

Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming game TETRA’s Escape? Well TETRA’s Escape is a puzzle platformer where you have to control a bunch of characters that can change shapes to solve the levels. It’s a bit hard sometimes but we’ve prepared a guide for those who get stuck, like me lol... Similarly, what is this new adventure

You’ve teamed up with eastasiasoft for a physical

game you have been teasing - and what

release of One More Dungeon and Signature

can we expect from the title?

Edition Games for The Count Lucanor. Do you think initiatives like these are important for preserving

Well, as you may have heard/seen on some

titles into the future?

social media and trophy hunter channels we frequent, we’re working on an adventure

The Count Lucanor was published by Merge Games

game port.

digitally too, that’s why they did the physical edition. At

It’s a bit longer than usual, it would need

the moment we prefer to keep the digital publishing in

~100-140 hours for the platinum according

house too when possible so, we will probably reach to

to the game developer. Also it’s most

eastasiasoft for physical releases - probably all of the

probably PEGI 18.

titles they want!

Can we expect physical releases for any of

Finally, two questions I’m asking everyone -

your future Vita titles? Is the decision on a

what are some of your favourite games that

physical release made by you or the game’s

you’ve played on Vita?

developer? I think Day of The Tentacle Remastered! I always Probably yes ;) The call is up to eastasiasoft

loved that game.

haha - they do Asia for all our games so they

Which of the Vita models is your favourite

pick the ones they like the most!

(LCD or OLED)?

Is there a chance we may see some of your

I like the OLED more, but I think that’s just

Switch-only ports like Vaccine or I and Me

because I play more on it. My dev unit is LCD and

come to Vita?

my retail ones are OLED :)

I doubt it to be honest... I was contracted for

Vaccine for Switch, I didn’t even publish it, so there’s not much for me to do there anymore... I and Me is a bit so so. Maybe yes, maybe no, only time will tell... Do future Ratalaika projects still have a chance of landing on Vita? Any unannounced ones that you can give us some hints on? I think we will keep making Vita titles all through 2018 and 2019! As long as the game runs it will land there. Some may not if they don’t run well enough, but we will be doing our best to launch as many games as possible. I think we could have ~10/12? We have more games for 2018 and 2019 already registered with Sony =D

I’d like to thank the guys at Ratalaika for taking the time to talk to me. You can follow updates on the developer’s future projects via the official website - but the team is most active on Twitter. - Adam Cartwright

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