The podcast is charging in for another episode with John, Lorelai, Crystal, and Lilith. This week, John’s been playing more Raidou: Remastered, and Pokémon Emerald Seaglass. Both he and Lorelai have been obsessing over horses with Umamusume Pretty Derby and she’s also been playing Persona 5 The Phantom X when she was at multiple Pokémon conventions. Lilith has been going into a lot, playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Dragon Quest XI, and every Build Engine game you could imagine. Crystal has been living the good life with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. In the news we go over the Druck leaving the Last of Us TV show and a ton on the XBox Layoffs.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Social Media @TheGamesline, Lorelai, John, Lilith, and Crystal.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and tell a friend about the show!

If you want to send in questions, send them to our email podcast@gamesline.net!

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Edited by Lorelai

Video Production by Lorelai

Here’s an excerpt by Crystal:

Lorelai: Umamusume is what if iDOLM@STER didn’t have the mediocre rhythm game that it made you do for training stuff.

John: My frame of reference is immediately Monster Rancher, because that’s what I played as a kid.

Lorelai: I genuinely am shocked at how much I’ve been enjoying it.

Crystal: I’m looking at the Umamusume wiki right now; I didn’t realize there were 131 playable characters.

John: The game has been out for 4 years in Japan, and it was honestly very strange how long it took to come out over here. But it was also highly delayed for its initial release anyway. The reason why they have all the idol stuff is because it was originally supposed to come out when all the idol stuff was very big. When Umamusume came out the idol stuff was less of a thing, and now, over here, it’s even more so less of a thing. Everyone’s just kind of like, “Why are they singing?”

Lorelai: [laughs] Yep.

John: I’ll be honest, I don’t watch any of the concerts. Cancel me if you must, but I don’t. I just want to race. I want to win. That’s what I’m here for.

Lorelai: I like watching the races. It opened the ability for me to skip the races half the time, and I’m like, “No! No, I refuse!” 

John: You get to skip it if you’ve gotten first place with that character in that specific race before. But I watch it, because it’s exhilarating! You want to see your girl win! And sometimes they pull off some crazy shit, and sometimes they get last place for no reason because they don’t feel like it, and you have to deal with it. That’s sports.

I’ll actually talk about it on the anime podcast next time, but Lilith and I watched one of the movies last night with some other friends. It’s the Beginning of a New Era, and that’s why she says she likes Agnes Tachyon, because she’s in that and she’s insane and it’s great. I was ready to just be like, “Oh, you know, it’ll be cute because it’s these characters that I know, whatever.” But I thought it was just a great sports story! 

I would say the main girl is a little underdeveloped, but overall I just thought it was compelling and extremely well-animated. So I would recommend checking that out if you have any interest in Umamusume, or if you’re just a sports anime fan. It feels something like a Haikyu!! or a Slam Dunk or something like that.

Lorelai: I haven’t watched the anime yet. I’m gonna have to now, I hate that.

Lilith: Like John said, it was surprising that they were doing the sports anime “teeth gritting and screaming” except they’re all horses. But also just really impressive animation overall. At one point, I jokingly said this was Redline for horses.

John: And it is! It pretty much is!

Lorelai: Horsegirl Redline!?

The post The Gamesline Podcast Episode 57: Horse Racin’ and Subway Slammin’ appeared first on Gamesline.

5. Alan Wake 2

Due to editing and scheduling conflicts a massively long piece I wrote for the first two Alan Wakes still remains to be published, but when I wrote them I had not played this. I now have played through this twice and well? I can say I loved it. I can also say there’s a lot about it I can’t stand. It’s one of the few sequels I know that doubles down on the strengths of the original whilst introducing a brand-new set of weaknesses all its own.

I don’t want the next Remedy game to be like Alan Wake 2, but I want the best parts of this game to inform just about every other game out there, and that is a really cool feeling. I’m definitely not a kid anymore; one of my most-loved games (No More Heroes 2) is just as much if not more flawed than Alan Wake 2, for reasons that are so similar that I might one day write a piece about it. This game, though I love it to bits, has not reached such a warm place in my chest as that title. Perhaps with time it will, love comes much harder to the old, but I also have enough of a far sight to see all the things it does right and I like it a lot.

Seeing Alan Wake 2 learn so much from all the triumphs in Control has left me excitedly looking forward to seeing what a Control 2 could learn from this and even the Max Payne remake despite the heavy loss of James McCaffrey. Consider this a thumbs up and a stay-tuned-for-what-will-surely-be-a-10-plus-page-rant-about-this-game!

4. Honkai: Star Rail 

My relationship with this game has been so turbulent I feel tempted to write a new take on it every patch but for the sake of my sanity and some attempt at cool-headedness I am waiting until the end of Penacony to re-emit a judgement.

I think Belobog might easily be the second or third best story Mihyo has ever written, and beginning to end it does a better job of selling you on this adventure than I could have expected. Since then though, the pace has slowed down to unbearable levels. Though this game is cycling 2 versions faster than Genshin Impact to get to its next location, the reality of the situation is that it sees you waiting one or two patches for a single 90 minutes of story and that just gets tedious to deal with. Couple it with a disappointing development and wrap up to the confusing and unfocused story of the Xianzhou Luofu, and  the constant power creep in terms of enemies and superior units,  and come version 1.3 or 1.4 I was already dreading to log in to do my compulsory weekly SU runs.

The trailblaze continuance mission released in 1.4 that takes you back to Belobog has pretty much single-handedly kept me playing, because it reminded me that those early strengths were not imagined, and that the game could once again pull off the trick.

For the moment, Penacony is juggling some interesting ideas with some characteristically glacial pace and trailers that seem to reveal this game might be much more closely tied to Honkai 3^rd than it originally let on keep me playing, but if this game doesn’t shape up and live up to its early promises it might soon be time for me to drop it and only come back for story content every year.

3. Street Fighter 6

IT’S STREET FIGHTER. I love Street Fighter. I have also been playing Street Fighter since I was like 3. I’m so bored of it. But it’s not V. And that is worth its weight in gold, my friends. We have to congratulate our loved ones when they leave unhealthy stages of their lives. Because we will always need them by our side even if we don’t see them as often.

2. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising

IT’S STREET FIGHTER. I love Str—I mean IT’S STREET FIGHTER. I LOVE GRANBLUE VERSUS. No, but seriously, this is essentially a very light rework on the old game. It is still one of the most basic fighters released since SF2. It is a lot more aggressive, it is faster, it has more options, but it retains the dead-simplicity and accessibility that really made me love its predecessor. 

Other people, more competitively minded than me, are greatly upset at the balance in this game. Personally, I have never cared much; to me, the highest priority has always been that fighting games feel good to press buttons in, and this aces that with flying colours. The hits still retain that fast-flowing, smooth quality to them. There is hardly an “impact” to them, they have a sensation delicate that battles almost feel like choreographed dances. Everything about the flow of a match just invites a very dynamic back-and-forth that I love and find hard to get sick of.

I might not be too interested in pushing my limits in this, but I will always pop it open on a lazy Sunday and waste a couple of hours doing empty jumps into throws. Fighting games are, despite it all, still cool.

1. Hi-Fi Rush

Hey, did you know I like music? I don’t know, I feel like I don’t talk about it enough. But I really really do love music. I knew I would like this game from the moment I heard about its central conceit and it did not disappoint me once I got my hands on it.

I don’t have the best rhythm in the best of circumstances; trying to juggle attacks from opponents and staying on top of a combo meter in addition to keeping the pulse is an extremely challenging task for me. But it’s also incredibly fun! I had a lot of trouble getting used to the idea of the heavy attack as a half note and the parry being able to work in sixteenth notes. And whilst I think some of the UI could be better designed to aid in its main concept, this is the kind of challenge I am always happy to fail and keep retrying again and again.

We’ve had conversations on this site about its presentation, its story, its use of music, its compositional conceits and its cultural influences and I think it’s all there. While I can’t claim to be totally won over by Chai and friends, I also would never claim to dislike them. They are one of the best casts for the kind of light-hearted, cartoon-style adventure that this game is going for, which is in my opinion a tone that games don’t attempt enough these days.I love games that apply rhythm mechanics to other arenas. I loved Crypt of the Necrodancer as soon as I saw its trailers. And I loved this as soon as I heard about it. The path to my heart is as simple as a 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

The post Walker’s Top 5 Games of 2023 appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s time again for another episode of the Gamesline podcast. This week, John and Scott sit down to discuss all things gamin. John’s been playing Idol Showdown and of course Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed while Scott punished himself by playing a lot more Redfall.

In the news, Cygames opened up more offices, Discord decided to change the way Usernames work, and the writers guild is striking. When it comes to new games, we’ve got a new Double Dragon coming with Double Dragon: Gaiden – Rise of the Dragons, Dead Rising might be coming back, Konami might be doing something, and Final Fantasy XVI might have some gay in it.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @john_michonski, and @FKAsocks,

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Lorelai

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 2: Redfalling Down appeared first on Gamesline.

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI has had its release blocked in Saudi Arabia due to “the publisher’s unwillingness to make the necessary changes to the game”. The offending content? A reported gay party member, who is rumored to have an “explicit” scene in the game.

Gacha game and anime powerhouse Cygames has opened North American and European subsidiaries. It’s unclear what these wings of the company will do exactly, but we did recently get what seems to be the confirmation of the extremely popular mobage Uma Musume: Pretty Derby outside Japan a while ago.

Nintendo-focused video game history site Forest of Illusion shut down on April 28th due to its curator’s inability to devote enough time to the project. Luckily, all of their previous discoveries and archived content has been backed up on Archive.org.

Activision and Sony have released data that says the $69.99 price point for games has led to fewer game sales. Please pretend to be shocked.

Following the announcement of the end of their Waypoint vertical, Vice as a company is reportedly nearing bankruptcy if they cannot find a buyer soon.

The Writers’ Guild of America is officially on strike. Concerns with residuals from the rise and fall of streaming and the looming threat of AI brought the union into picket formation. While this doesn’t fully involve games, there’s plenty of video game shows that will be impacted, and the WGA has expressed frustration that more games writers haven’t joined in the past.

The first trailer for the Gran Turismo movie has dropped.

The post The Bulletin: They Added Gay to Final Fantasy appeared first on Gamesline.

Twilight Hunter Hawk was one of Dragalia Lost’s very first five star heroes, available since the launch of the game. He is currently the lowest rated five star adventurer available, sitting at Tier 3 of 6 on Gamepress’ adventurer tier list. His kit revolves around inflicting the Stun status effect whenever he uses Force Strikes after using his Hunter’s Creed skill. He has Freeze Resist which is good for combating a large amount of water enemies (the element he’s strong against being a wind type), but two of the three major farmable water bosses (High Mercury and Void Poseidon) have full stun resistance. Hawk has a niche for the Water Imperial Onslaught mission where his freeze resistance and stun are more useful, but Water IO is an incredibly broken mission with weird log obstacles that trip up ranged AI units and make them shoot into the geometry at nothing, thus making melee units far more desirable. Hawk can still be pretty effective in Water IO, but as an AI unit, he’s extremely compromised.

Archers were not very desirable party members for a while until the 1.7.1 update that allowed AI controlled units to use Force Strikes, which opened up a lot of bow users like Nefaria or our precious boy Hawk to be more usable in solo missions. Ranged units were further buffed in the 1.8.0 update, that improved the dodging behavior of the AI, making them much harder to kill overall. While I would PERSONALLY recommend putting Hawk in your main slot and playing as him yourself (because of his cool scarf), these updates mean that a lot of players can now put ranged attackers into AI controlled slots without worrying if they should be using a more practical melee unit. Because of this, a lot of ranged units have jumped up in the tier lists, and yet Hawk remains so, so low.

Not only is Hawk surpassed by powerful wind type adventurers like Maribelle, Lin You, or even the limited four star unit Addis, he was surpassed only two months after the release of the game by an adventurer named Louise. Louise is a newer five star wind archer, who reliably inflicts the far less resisted status effect Poison, and has a built in strength buff that triggers whenever the extremely common healer Lowen (who happens to be her adorable little brother) uses his defense buff. Not only is she overall more flexible, but her lack of reliance on Force Strikes immediately made her a more appealing choice than the more unwieldy Hawk, who, before the 1.7.1 update, was required to be in the player controlled spot in order to be used effectively. Many fools may also consider her sexier than Hawk, which I think is absurd!

It isn’t just one wind archer that overshadows Hawk, either! Another wind archer, Eleonora, also came out at the game’s launch and has steadily climbed the tier list until she also made it above Hawk. The kicker? She’s only a four star unit. A mere four star unit, far more readily available, easier to level up, and she was already kicking Hawk’s ass. Like Louise, she ALSO uses poison application, comes with 50% skill prep and Bog resist, which makes her a more useful pick for High Mercury and most of the game’s other content in general. She is also an extremely cute bunny girl that comes with a sick as hell cape, which leaves me to ponder probably the biggest injustice Cygames has deliberately done to Hawk. Why doesn’t HE have a cool cape??? If you weren’t cowards, Cygames, you would give him a cape to go with his cool scarf. I’m waiting, patiently.

Many tried and true Hawk fans were hoping that Void Poseidon would have an exploitable weakness to Stun that would make Hawk more desirable to play, as he’d finally have a niche beyond Water IO, but that is simply not the case. Cygames continues to shit on our precious Hawk to this day. He deserves so much better than just being a totally average unit. He’s got a really cool bird. He calls himself a “Reaper” which is, frankly, cool as hell if you ask me. He has. A cool scarf. He’s cute, and perfect, and I hope I get to draw him one day, even if he is, currently, the most disappointing five star in the game. God Bless You Hawk.

The post Dear Cygames, Stop Shitting On Hawk You Cowards appeared first on Gamesline.

As always you can support us on our patreon, follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo , @solonface, @YourPalNiall, and @John_Michonski.

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Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

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The post VGCC Episode 251: Left Mouse Does Hurties appeared first on Gamesline.

Partnering with Cygames, the company best known for mobile games like Granblue Fantasy and Idolm@ster: Starlight Stage, Nintendo has announced plans to continue their mobile foray, albeit with a little help. The first game that will be made from this partnership is Dragalia Lost, which will be an Action-RPG coming to Japan first this summer, and other regions later in the year.

As an avid player of Granblue Fantasy, I can at the very least attest that Cygames knows how to make an interesting and compelling mobile game. As a fan of Fire Emblem Heroes as well, it’s been clear that Nintendo is at least dedicated to sustaining and trying new things with their mobile games, so I’m tentatively hopeful for whatever Dragalia Lost ends up being.

The post Nintendo Announces Mobile Partnership, New Game appeared first on Gamesline.