It’s Fourth of July week here in the U.S., which typically means it’s a slow week for new releases or, as is the case this week, a huge RPG comes out from a Japanese developer; The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. While I am personally very, very confused by the release schedule and naming of this series, I know that it has a very invested, very intense group of fans that absolutely adore all that the Legend of Heroes or Trails series (see? confusing!) has to offer.

As if one massive, RPG wasn’t enough, this week also marks the official release of the next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, Dawntrail. After a ten year journey with the MMO, which wrapped up its story in 2021’s Endwalker, Dawntrail sets players out on a brand new adventure, taking them to the continent of Tural where they serve as champion to some kind of princess in order to determine the new leader for the nation of Tuliyollal; FUN! With the game already in early access, the typical server overload we’ve come to expect with a new launch is in full effect, and early reviews from players have not been kind to Dawntrail. Is this just the early pains of a new story, or a sign that the next ten years of FFXIV are going to pale in comparison to its first ten? Time will tell.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jul. 5^th

Developed by: Nihon Falcom
Published by: NIS America

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (PC/PS4/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Jul. 2^nd

Developed by: Square Enix Creative Studio III
Published by: Square Enix

If you prefer your online gaming to be more action based, Korean, and, well, free, then check out The First Descendant. In this looter shooter, up to 4 players will work together to complete missions and take down giant bosses. Don’t like playing with others? That’s fine, you can also play the game solo. Nexon are no strangers when it comes to online games, having developed and published many since they started out in the mid 90’s with the game Nexus: The Kingdom of Winds. Their other titles include MapleStory, a version of Counter-Strike for the Asian market, and countless other MMO’s and online shooters. They seem to know what they are doing, so this might be good.

The First Descendant (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Jul. 2^nd

Developed by: Nexon Games
Published by: Nexon

Aside from those big three, we’ve got a couple of smaller titles. First up is Hot Blood a third person brawler that is kind of reminiscent of Dead Rising. You play is a bevy of sexy ladies, beating up zombies and delivering one liner’s. The game looks appropriately cheesy and gives off a vibe that it was made for the kind of guys who whine online that there aren’t enough “sexy girls” in games anymore.

Board game fans are in for a treat this week, as well, with the release of MACHI KORO With Everyone, a digital version of the table top game. MACHI KORO is a city building game from Japan, and was the first board game from that country to be nominated for the Spiel des Jahres (think “Game of the Year”), a prestigious board game award given out in Germany every year. In this digital version, players can join sessions online, working to build their city landmarks faster than the other players. It’s cute, it’s fun, and it’s competitive.

Hot Blood (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jul. 2^nd

Developed by: DEKLAZON
Published by: Eastasiasoft Limited

MACHI KORO With Everyone (PC/Switch) – Releases Jul. 4^th

Developed by: Grounding Inc.
Published by: Grounding Inc.

Last, but not least, we’ve got a retro port, the former Japan only title Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero. Originally released for the Super Famicom’s Satellaview online service, CCSZ is a side scrolling beat ’em up from Japanese developer Masaya. This was the fourth, and final, entry in the series, with the previous three entries being exclusive to the PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16). The series was compared to the Mega Man franchise, though I wouldn’t really say “favorably”, just that they were similar; ya know?

Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero (PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S and…Super Nintendo?) – Releases Jul. 4^th

Developed by: Masaya Games
Published by: Retro-Bit

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 years ago:

That’s it for the new stuff, let’s all get psyched for Notable Releases, WEEEEWWWWW!!!!! This week’s games all kind of tie into this week’s top release, Legend of Heroes, in that they are also huge RPGs that require dozens of hours to complete. What are they? Let’s find out!

First up, from 2014, we have the game that put developer Larian Studios on the map, Divinity: Original Sin. After releasing a handful of RPGs over the previous ten years, Larian was near the brink of financial ruin. The studio had one final shot to make a hit, their…final fantasy…if you will, and decided to make an isometric, turn based RPG set in their Divinity universe. To help finish the game, Larian turned to Kickstarter, asking for $300k from backers, and earned nearly $1 million in return. This was a good sign.

Initially expected in late 2013, Original Sin was delayed, twice, finally arrive on June 30th, 2014 to rave reviews. Critics were drawn to the game’s “old school” style of gameplay, finding the gameplay mechanics and systems to be highly engaging and fun to use. Critics were also happy with the game world and its story, finding it to be an engrossing tale. While almost all of the reaction to Original Sin was positive, some critics felt that the lack of hand holding and high difficulty level could alienate some players, however this was a post Dark Souls world, hard games were now becoming the norm.

Multiple outlets called Original Sin one of the best games of 2014, and the game was nominated by both The Game Awards and The D.I.C.E. Awards in the “Best Roleplaying Game” category (it would lose both awards to Dragon Age: Inquisition). An enhanced version of the game would release on PS4 and Xbox One in October of 2015, as well as getting an upgrade on PC in December of 2015. A sequel, Divinity: Original Sin II would release in 2017, with the success of both games landing Larian a contract to make the highly anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3, which went on to bring even more acclaim (and money) to the studio. Not bad for a company that was, at one point, on the brink of financial ruin.

Moving on to 2004 with our second huge RPG, we’ve got the Namco title Tales of Symphonia, a rare third party GameCube exclusive (for a little while). Originally released in Japan in 2003, the game wouldn’t arrive in the West until Jul. 13th, 2004, and would sell a combined, worldwide total of nearly 1 million copies.

The Tales series started in Japan with the 1995 Super Nintendo release, Tales of Phantasia, and was an instant hit in that country. The series wouldn’t debut in the West until the 1998 PSX title Tales of Destiny, and while it gained a solid fanbase, it hasn’t matched the sales numbers, or cultural significance, that the series has in Japan. However, Tales of Symphonia is generally viewed as the title that brought the series to a larger fanbase, but low sales of the console prompted Namco to eventually release the game on the PS2 (Japan only), with next few home console releases in the franchise only appearing on the PS2 in both Japan and the West, and would not return to a Nintendo device until 2006 on the 3DS. Eventually, the series would return to a Nintendo home console in 2008 with the sequel/spin-off Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

Tales of Symphonia is very similar in gameplay to what you would consider a traditional Japanese developed RPG. Players take on the role of Lloyd Irving, a swordsman who may be the “Chosen One”. Lloyd is accompanied by a rag tag group of allies who travel around the world with him, which is represented by a large overworld area in which players fight monster & enemies in random encounters. Players must level up their party, buy them new weapons & equipment, and advance the story through intra-party dialogue scenes and other scripted story events.

Tales of Symphonia was received warmly by critics, but it wasn’t a slam dunk, greatest game of all time kind of reception. Most critics found the game to be a very faithful, very safe, entry in the long line of traditional JRPGs that were commonplace in the 1990’s. This led some critics, however, to believe that players may find the game too old fashioned, clinging to a genre that they felt was in need of a dramatic change. One thing that most critics agreed on, however, was that Tales of Symphonia was exactly the kind of RPG that the Nintendo GameCube was sorely in need of, as they were losing ground in the genre to their main rival, the Sony PlayStation 2.

As I mentioned earlier, Tales of Symphonia would get a PS2 port in Japan in 2004, followed by a sequel/spin-off on the Wii in 2009, before both titles were upscaled to HD and ported to the PS3 in 2014. A PC version would arrive in 2016, followed by the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One in 2023. A long standing, fan favorite among RPG players, Tales of Symphonia is well worth your time if you’ve got a few extra hours to spare this Summer.

From 1994, we’ve got our last huge RPG, the Sega CD title Dark Wizard. While Divinity and Tales were traditional, turn based RPGs, Dark Wizard is a tactical RPG, similar to games like Fire Emblem, Ogre Battle, and Final Fantasy Tactics. Developed and published by Sega, Dark Wizard is, in my opinion, Sega’s attempt to get into the genre after seeing the success of Nintendo’s Fire Emblem and Masaya’s Langrisser games (fun connection, Masaya is the same developer of this week’s new game Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero).

In Dark Wizard, players choose from one of four playable main characters. Each one functions as a kind of hero unit, who then recruit & lead their armies on the battlefield, taking part in large scale, tactical battles on huge hex-grid maps.

Critics were pleased with Dark Wizard, and glad to see that it did not the same tropes that many other Sega CD games had (heavy reliance on FMV cutscenes, limited gameplay), and instead felt like a more traditional video game that you might see on the Genesis or Super Nintendo. Critics were also quick to point out that the game’s soundtrack was stellar, with Dark Wizard having the prestige of being one of the first video games to have all of its music be fully orchestrated.

Despite the positive reviews in the U.S., it didn’t quite catch on in Japan, with scores being somewhat low. This is perhaps why we never got any sequels or spin-off’s of Dark Wizard, as the audience just didn’t exist for it, in the East or the West. Sega, for its part, already had a successful tactical RPG series, Shining Force, so there really was no reason to continue with Dark Wizard. Playing this game today is nearly impossible, aside from emulation, as it has never been ported and the original discs and consoles are difficult to come by today. Maybe it’ll get a remaster or port one of these days, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Stepping away from games and into films, 2014 saw the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth entry in the Michael Bay film series and the first without original star Shia LaBeouf. The main gimmick here is the introduction of the Dinobots, including fan favorite Grimlock. These Dinobots did not speak, but they were still cool as fuck, obviously. The movie is, however, atrociously bad.

From 2004 we’ve got the Richard Linklater film Before Sunset, the sequel to his 1995 film Before Sunrise. Like its predecesor, Sunset was written by Linklater and the two stars of the movie, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. In a season where big, loud, dumb movie often get the most attention, a smaller, quieter film like Before Sunset can thrive as counter programming. Old people and film snobs like going to the movies in the Summer too, where’s their entertainment? it’s right here, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy talking about love and shit.

Our 1994 notable film is a big one, no, it’s THE big one, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Forrest Gump. While actor Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis were already well known, household names due to the popularity of their films in the 1980’s, it was Forrest Gump that launched both of them into the stratosphere of mega stardom.

A bit of a lightning rod of a film when it released in 1994, Forrest Gump was claimed Republicans who, at the time, were locked in a heated midterm battle with Democrats. Conservatives used the film’s popularity as a way to explain that American’s wanted to go back to a simpler (more racist) time, the 1950’s, and turn away from the godlessness of liberalism, or whatever. The filmmakers claimed that Gump was an apolitical film, not praising or bashing any political party in general, which has led various groups over the years to claim Forrest Gump as “their movie”. My head hurts.

Whatever your political leanings, I don’t think you can deny the artistry and the power of Forrest Gump. It might come across as a little corny, and it certainly isn’t as cool as another great 1994 film, Pulp Fiction, but it’s a feel good flick that anyone in your family can enjoy. The cast and crew were rewarded for their efforts during the awards season. Forrest Gump won several Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects, while also being nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing (which are two different awards, for some reason).

The cultural impact of Forrest Gump was felt all over the American landscape for several years, with multiple films and television shows parodying the film, lines from the movie like “Life is like a box of chocolates”, “Run, Forrest, Run”, and “Stupid is as stupid does” being displayed on just about everything. The film’s soundtrack, which pulled from multiple decades of American music, was a smash hit on the Billboard charts, reaching #2 and staying there for seven weeks. It was one of the first CD’s I ever owned and I played the hell out if. Finally, the film also gave us the chain restaurant Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a traditional American seafood restaurant that is basically just a Chili’s or Applebee’s, but with slightly (and I mean slightly) better food.

Forrest Gump is a special movie for me, as it was one of the few pieces of media that my entire family could watch and enjoy. I remember getting the movie (on VHS) for my mom as a Mother’s Day gift one year and watching it almost every weekend for the rest of that year. Was it a little too conservative, maybe, does that make it bad? I don’t think so, because you get what you get out of it. There’s warmth, compassion, and tolerance all over the film. While it (heavily) glosses over the atrocities faced by non-white’s in the American South, that’s not what the movie is about. It’s about one guy who goes off on an adventure and, despite his perceived setbacks, he makes something of himself, through both a sharp wit and, well, dumb luck. Stupid is as stupid does, I suppose.

Our notable albums are an eclectic bunch. From 2014 we had Sia’s 1000 Forms of Fear, featuring the hit single “Chandelier” in which a young dancer wears the blonde wig that Sia is known for wearing, dancing around a dilapidated home. A later video for “Elastic Heart”, featuring Shia LeBouf, would also release to some controversy, as some viewers thought it promoted a romantic relationship between a child and an adult. Sia, for her part, apologized for the video and said she intended to put out a moving piece of emotional work, and thought the video was a great piece of art and not a promotion of child abuse.

2004’s notable album is from hip-hop group The Roots, called The Tipping Point. Honestly, I chose this because, well, there wasn’t a whole lot that came out this week, 20 years ago. I like The Roots fine enough, they’re cool on The Tonight Show, but I don’t really know much about their music or their history. Go check it out, that’s your homework this week.

Finally, 1994’s notable album is, like Forrest Gump, another 90’s cultural phenomenon, Cracked Rear View from the band Hootie & the Blowfish. However, unlike Forrest Gump, which was a massive success out the gate, it took a while for Cracked Rear View to catch on in the mainstream. One listen to the band and you’d understand why, it just didn’t sound like anything else at the time. While grunge was giving way to punk & hardcore, and hip-hop was continuing to flourish, Hootie’s inoffensive, almost bland, middle of the road pop-rock wasn’t cool or hip. It was the kind of thing that frat boys listened to, the ones that were getting law and business degrees, not the cool kids getting philosophy and English degrees.

It would take nearly a year for Cracked Rear View to really take hold, as the song “Only Wanna Be with You” blew up, turning the album into a bona fide hit, making it the best selling album of 1995. It would top the charts FIVE TIMES that year, selling 10 million copies by October of 1995, bolstered by extensive touring and promotion, including three appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, and a highly calculated and targeted roll out of the singles in rural America on smaller, low-powered radio stations.

Like Forrest Gump, the band were seen as a rising interest in “Conservative” entertainment, i.e., not punk rock, not hip-hop (AKA black people stuff), and nothing that would challenge listeners. Despite the appearances, front man Darius Rucker recently talked about the political messages in the band’s music, from racial tolerance, the removal of Confederate flags in their home state of South Carolina, to a myriad of other Liberal/progressive issues that have gone way over the heads of their more Conservative fanbase.

All this to say, don’t judge a book by its cover. While you might have preconceived notions about Hootie & the Blowfish (including their dumb name), scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find that there is substance to found.

Divinity: Original Sin (PC) – Released Jun. 30^th, 2014: Wiki Link

Tales of Symphonia (GameCube) – Released Jul. 13^th, 2004: Wiki Link

Dark Wizard (Sega CD) – Released Jul. 1994: Wiki Link

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