conventional wisdom does not apply

All the more reason why it's far too early to draw any conclusions.

It's too early to draw any conclusions. Take it from Mat Piscatella, who's forgotten more about video game market research than I ever learned myself.

Hardware launches are not like game releases, anyway. It's the establishment of a new product market, and early game releases on consoles have an ebb and flow to them that later blockbusters do not. It's about building growth, not first-week sales.

I'd be annoyed if this got delayed only because of the Switch 2 port, but Falcom really does need this to be on as many platforms as it can get.

Besides, I'm sure NISA's happy with the extra time considering the rate they've been churning these out.

For story, nothing is lost here (and it arguably flows a bit better without the new stuff).

For gameplay, this kinda sucks. Luso and Onion Knight weren't anything special, but Balthier's job class was interesting and Dark Knight was a fun goal to grind towards with a big payoff at the end. Agrias' birthday event had an item that was great for Geomancers, too, and that's one of my pet jobs. Since they aren't adding new battles, this also means the game is shipping with nine fewer battles, not even including the cut multiplayer content. My biggest complaint with FFT was always that the side content was thin, and this is really not helping.

That said, what this article doesn't mention is that they are still including the animated scenes from WotL, though it sounds like they won't be in the main story, just additional content in menus. Plus, a lot of the WotL improvements over the base game (bug fixes and upgrading the script, some nice job tweaks) are already in the scope of this project anyway, and it appears it won't have the negatives, like the slowdown bug, the bad sound, or the weirdly stretched aspect ratio.

You're not going to find more text/explicit plot than you have already. That said, there is good environmental storytelling in the last zone of the game. The next zone for you (Wrecked Ship) might have a little more for you to chew on. I'd say get through that zone and then see how you feel about it. If you like it, the ending will probably feel rewarding.

Rixia Mao from Trails. I connect with her story on so many levels and she's a wonderful portrayal of mental health struggles.

I really like Dana too. She and Tia from Ys Seven are the women I tend to think about the most in the series.

Half-Life 2 always stands out in my mind for this due to it being such a physics playground.

I usually hate water areas in games, though 😂 Especially the Zelda ones.

I tried a bunch of these today and yesterday. EDIT: also tacked on impressions of demos for After Inc: Revival, Kaizen: A Factory Story, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.

In the "Shut Up and Take My Money" tier:

• Bits & Bops - Sure, it's a total Rhythm Heaven clone but, hey, why mess with a winning formula? Still, I worry about devs borrowing this heavily from Nintendo titles these days 😬
• Dispatch - I only needed 10 minutes with this to know I'm sold. The animation is gorgeous and it has a hell of a cast. Between this and Expedition 33, how are new studios getting these people!?
• Mina the Hollower - Shovel Knight's the best retro game I've seen and I didn't need to see much of Mina to know that Yacht Club delivered again. It's got a Zelda vibe (the jump especially feels just like it did in Link's Awakening) along with all that other 8-bit-with-present-day-game-design goodness. I also cut this one short so I can enjoy it in full later. Day 1 for me.

Pretty good but a couple hiccups:

• Forestrike - Hey, PlayStation gamepad glyphs! Always appreciated. Outstanding atmosphere in general. The pixel graphics are interesting; the character design reminds me of old Sierra games. I wonder if at some point during dev they considered just not going roguelite? There's real storytelling talent here and I think a linear game with increasing complexity might have been even better (and helped to not undercut the narrative as roguelite progression tends to do).
• inKonbini - Very short demo, but the gameplay seems it'd be good and vibe is cozy. Really strange that the written Japanese is gibberish. It seems too elaborate to be placeholder text, so I wonder what the story there is? It takes me out of the life sim aspect of this a bit.
• Kaizen: A Factory Story - I found a lot to like with this. I tend not to like puzzle games, but when I find one that's interesting, I tend to really like it. The setting is also great. After a very short demo, the only thing I'm not sure on is how long the full game is going to be. I'd like to get this, but the price has to be right.
• MIO: Memories in Orbit - This one was up and down for me across the board: music, gameplay, systems, visuals. The tutorial sections are outstanding work and worth the download for that alone (there's one right away). While I think the metroidvania design here is good, I wasn't sold on the graphics. At times it's difficult to parse out what's a platform and what's background, and there are weird blind spots with camera on top of that. I also can't believe they went with the map system from Hollow Knight, the only real negative of that game.
• Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - I see this one just went 1.0 after an early access period, and critic reviews have been mixed. Understandable why old Elder Scrolls fans are feeling this is scratching an itch. I think there's a lot to like here, but I might ultimately skip it. The prevailing thought I kept getting through the demo is that this studio's next game is going to be great.

Not for me:

• After Inc: Revival - This ended up playing more like a clicker game than I was expecting. This seems not bad, but this isn't my kind of game.
• BALL X PIT - The gameplay pacing on this is unpleasant, with the roguelite elements stopping the action too much. Kept wanting to get into a flow state and was constantly interrupted.
• Bloodgrounds - All the other demos I played came ready with story and this one feels underbaked in that department. What I played of the demo was almost all gameplay. Didn't see much that sets it apart from the pack.
• Dice Gambit - I don't think this strategy game gets the basics down well enough to add on the dice layer. Feels like one move should be guaranteed regardless of rolls (and lack of move undo is unfortunate also). The art style also isn't for me.

"Teaser" is certainly accurate. This was little more than a title card. So much for this coming out this year.

Would never have guessed Owlcat's new game would be in The Expanse universe, or that it would be an action RPG, for that matter.

I'm a huge fan of The Expanse so I'm going to check it out regardless, but I don't know how this is gonna go.

Fortunately, Silksong's never missed a release window before.