The Nintendo 3DS seems to be gaining more awesome titles to it’s
already powerhouse library of games this Christmas Holiday season and Nintendo
can’t stress enough how the 3DS will be continuing into the near future. With
that said one of the awesome games that just released is a game by the name of
Ever Oasis, developed by Grezzo who you probably recognize as the team
responsible for recreating The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s
Mask for the 3DS as well as a few other Zelda games. What you probably are not
aware of is the man behind Grezzo has a history in some of the greatest games
to ever exist, greatest RPGs anyway. Grezzo is actually a development studio
formed by Koichi Ishii (Sometimes credited as Kouichi Ishii.), recognize him?
Ishii is responsible for bringing to life the wonderful Mana
RPG series starting with the 1993 release of Secret of Mana for the SNES and
every Mana game that followed up until the 2007 Heroes of Mana. Actually
technically the first in the Mana series was Seiken Densetsu for the Gameboy
but as that was brought over here and is more well known as Final Fantasy
Adventure I’m not exactly sure if that counts as part of the Mana series or
not. Koichi Ishii even had roles as early the original Final Fantasy in 1987 where
he was a planning director and was responsible for the battle graphics. Koichi
also created the ever adorable Chocobo and Moogle characters we all love so
much. Yeah this man has been around for a while but sadly he’s not had any big
projects in quite a few years with his Grezzo development team limited to just
remakes.
That all changed with the development of Ever Oasis where
Koichi returns as director after all these years. I actually wish I hyped this
game up sooner but I wasn’t all too aware of it until I got to play the demo
released for it. Ever Oasis released June 23rd last month (I’m late
again, huh?) and today I’m doing something new on the blog, I’m going to be
playing through a demo of Ever Oasis and discussing said demo. (As I don’t own
the game yet so I can only review the demo.)
This would probably be a better idea for a video but as I’m still trying
to figure out how to record games properly with a camera I think it’ll work
just as good as a written blog.
Jumping into the demo we get to see an introduction to the
storyline featured throughout Ever Oasis. The world Ever Oasis is set in is
known as Vistrahda and it’s been ravaged by the entity known as Chaos. (Not the
same Chaos as Final Fantasy.) Gentle creatures that roamed the earth turned
twisted and evil with all greenery vanishing. A certain special Seedling (The
inhabitants of this planet other then the creatures) with the power to restore
life teams up with the water spirit Esna. Together these two create a safe
haven for other Seedlings and Creatures of good, the Oasis. Small at first the
special seedling, which is who we play as (In the final game you can customize
your Player character to be female or male as well as some other customizable
options.), must embark on quests to bring in new residents and increase the
power of the Oasis, bringing order back to chaos.
Ever Oasis is an action-adventure RPG, it’s not turn based
like I first imagined it’s actually similar to Phantasy Star Universe/Online
which immediately got me interested. This game also incorporates town building
elements similar to Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, allowing you to build and
customize your Oasis as you do more quests to help out fellow Seedlings.
The first Seedling introduced in this demo is known as Evia,
after traveling the dangerous deserts she requests that you, the player, bring
her 5 cactus pulps in order to make drinks to cure her thirst. Joining you on
this quest is a creature named Miura, a Drauk with her spear. You actually get
to have three party members total including yourself when taking on these
quests. This is where we get to the whole this game being similar to Phantasy
Star Universe/Monster Hunter part. Ever Oasis incorporates a hack-and-slash
like combat but with added RPG elements such as switching weapons out and two
to three different attacks per character coupled with the ability to lock on
enemies makes the gameplay really enjoyable and just as good as it’s Action-RPG
brethren. I found the controls themselves to be very smooth, responsive and a
blast to use with the New Nintendo 3DS adding much appreciated camera controls.
When out on quests you don’t have to control just your main character using the
D-Pad you can switch to other members in your party to switch up your combat.
Each character has their own unique stats, weapons and abilities such as Miura
who uses a spear and can excavate certain spots to dig for treasure. Oh yes
another element in this game is that fact certain enemies are weak to some
weapons while being strong against other weapons so switching between party
members when on your quests is a must in certain situations.
After completing the first quest and returning to the Oasis
all the exp you gathered on your trip will be added to your party members and
level them up. Upon returning in this demo Evia soon realized she forgot the
cloths for squeezing out cactus pulp so my growing party was out questing once
again, this time joined by Roto who uses throwing Bolas as weapons. Oh yeah
aside from combat mechanics I also mentioned that Miura can excavate parts to
dig for treasure but it seems every character has their own ability to be used
outside of combat for unlocking new parts In caves and solving puzzles. The
main character has a wind gust ability allowing for dirt spots to be blown to
uncover things and Roto who joins you can get into tight spaces and even turn
into a round ball to go through the round tunnels present in places like the
Pottery Cave.
I’ve talked about gameplay mechanics but the town building
aspect has a lot to it as well, you’re able to build new stores, upgrade them
and as you complete more quests you will earn more residents to take up stores.
Completing quests also increases the level of the Oasis, allowing for more
space. Ever Oasis has a lot to it and I highly recommend you check out the demo
as well as the full version if you love it! The demo and full game are up for
download on the Nintendo eShop so be sure to go check it out. Ever Oasis looks
to be an awesome town building, action-rpg journey and is definitely on my list
of must get games in the future.
I’ve also been trying out some other demos too such as
Kirby: Planet Robobot which I know came out last year but I never got to check
it out much until recently. It’s a really awesome game that takes classic Kirby
gameplay, powerups and adds these mechsuit mechanics which add a nice change to
the traditional Kirby gameplay while not taking away from said classic
gameplay. They seem to have balanced the two mechanics out nicely and I
absolutely love how the mech suit can absorb abilities like normal Kirby can.
The demo has two levels, one a traditional Kirby level and one including the
Robot mechanics and you can download that on the eShop as well.
Other then that I’ve not been playing Video Games a whole
lot recently I’ve been busy and terrible at organizing time but I’ve been
finding time to sink myself back into some gameplay and as I mentioned
Wednesday I’ve actually started playing Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 again
recently on my Wii U. I’ve never gotten far on this game I usually end up
giving up for some reason but I’m persisting this time around. Paper Mario is a
great game and I don’t know why I’ve never completed it. (Okay I’ve not owned
it that long the Wii U virtual console was my first time actually owning the
game.)
I always find time for Pokemon however and I’ve been itching
to playthrough some of the older games again. I’ve decided to replay Pokemon
Sapphire, as all my old Pokemon from my original playthrough were transferred a
few years ago anyway, so why not? I’ve only gotten to Petalburg Forest for now
but I can’t stress enough how much I love Pokemon Sapphire and Generation 3 as
a whole. I know I’ve neglected to keep my Life as a Pokemon Trainer series
going here on the blog but don’t worry, they’re still coming. I’ve decided to
spread things out so the final blog in the series releases on Ultra Sun and
Ultra Moon’s release day… This means you’re getting Generation 2 and 3 this
month because I didn’t write Gen 2’s blog last month like I was supposed to but
hey life and other blogs got in the way, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to
it.
Leaving the Video Game topic for now I’ve got a few bits of
TV show related news to let you all know. A few days ago The Flash as well as
the other Arrowverse shows have returned to production for their new seasons.
This is super exciting news especially when the first episode’s title has been
revealed. “The Flash Reborn” will be the name of the first episode of Season 4,
which is interesting to say the least.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FLASH SEASON 3!
As you know, if you watched The Flash Season 3 and didn’t
bypass my spoiler warning without actually watching the season that Barry
sacrificed himself to the Speedforce in order to fix his mistakes by making
Flashpoint at the end of Season 2. This is similar to a certain Crisis on
Infinity Earths storyline (Which I’m actually reading right now! So stay tuned
for a big juicy blog on that.) where Barry sacrificed himself in order to save
the world from the Anti-Monitor. The
title of the first episode of season 4 is similar to a certain Geoff Jones
Flash story run named “The Flash: Rebirth” where Barry Allen returns to the
world after years of being trapped in the speedforce. Of course this may just
be a coincidence and could just be Wally West being reborn as the new Flash
with Barry still trapped in the speedforce but the official synopsis for this
season tells a different story.
“Running up
against an evil time remnant version of yourself is something no one should
ever have to do, but that’s exactly what faced Barry Allen (aka The Flash) as
he fought to save the life of fiancée Iris West from the God of Speed known as
Savitar. Barry’s victory was short-lived, however, as an unbalanced Speed Force
began to wreak havoc on Central City, forcing Barry to sacrifice himself for
the greater good. With The Fastest Man Alive now trapped inside an
extra-dimensional energy, and unknown dangers lurking in the shadows, it will
be up to Team Flash to free Barry from his own personal Hell.”
So it sounds like Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen will be
returning at some point but it may take Team Flash an entire season to do so.
Let’s also not forget the supposed main villain of next season, Cifford DeVoe
aka The Thinker who was a villain of Jay Garrick dating back to 1943. The
Thinker has a “Thinking Cap” which increases his Psionic Abilities but knowing
The Flash writer’s they’ll probably add some more cool abilities to that list.
Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of John Wesley Shipp’s Jay Garrick in
Season 4? After last season I really hope so, John makes a pretty awesome Jay
Garrick Flash. Anyway of DeVoe is the main villain this means it’ll be the
first season without a speedster of the main villain, though this doesn’t rule
out a speedster villain for season 5, possible build up or even the return of
Eobard Thawne. (Trust me Eobard tends to find his way back to reality one way
or another.)
The Flash Season 4 is supposed to be airing Tuesday October
10th at 8 PM Eastern but I’ll be bringing more updates on the show
as they’re released.
Also Spider-Man Homecoming releases in theaters today!
Get ready for some web-slinging action this time where it belongs, the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. With Iron Man playing a role in the movie as well as
Michael Keaton playing The Vulture I’m really excited to swing into this movie.
That’s a wrap for today everyone! Hope you enjoy your
weekend, whether you’re going to see Spider-Man or not.
This was ZAK Entertainment, see you next Monday!
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