Gaming News For April 2022
Saints Row
The Saints Row reboot is set to come out in August of 2022. As a result, the marketing for the upcoming title is starting up. For proof, look no further than the customization trailer, which provides a fair amount of information about one of the series’s most iconic features.
For those who are unfamiliar, the Saints Row series started out as a Grand Theft Auto clone. However, it wasn’t too long before the series went in a wackier direction, which served to differentiate it from its competitors. By the third game, the player was the head of a megacorporation fighting a U.S. military task force and by the fourth game, the player was the U.S. president fighting a time-traveling alien warlord. As such, a Saints Row reboot had become necessary because there wasn’t much room remaining for escalation, particularly since the standalone expansion for the fourth game had featured the player fighting Satan in Hell.
The Saints Row reboot seems like it is returning to a somewhat more grounded feel, though it will retain the series’s characteristic sense of humor. Furthermore, the customization trailer makes it clear that the player will have plenty of customization options for their player-character, their player-character’s clothing, their player-character’s weapons, and their player-character’s vehicles. Saints Row is one of those series in which it is perfectly in-theme for the player to shoot it out with their enemies while wearing a hotdog suit, so this is important to say the least.
Star Wars
When Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise, it made the decision to entrust Star Wars games to Electronic Arts. Apparently, this happened because Disney’s senior leadership didn’t have much experience with games, so they felt that it was better for them to leave such matters to someone else. The partnership wasn’t the most fruitful, so it should come as no surprise to learn that it is set to end sometime between late 2022 and mid 2023. As such, there are a lot of companies making a lot of Star Wars games at the moment.
To name an example, Aspyr is in the process of remaking the original Stars Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the PS5 as well as the PC. No one knows what the remake will look like. However, most people are expecting major changes to major systems, not least because the rules of the original were based on those of a tabletop RPG that hasn’t been a thing for more than a decade’s time. To name another example, Respawn Entertainment is in the process of making a follow-up to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. To be fair, this makes sense because the first game was one of the few gems to come from Disney’s decade-along partnership with Electronic Arts. Other than these, it is known that there is a FPS game, a strategy game, and a Ubisoft game being made as well. Apparently Quantic Dream is also making something called Star Wars Eclipse, though chances are good that interested individuals won’t be seeing that one anytime soon because the earliest release date is expected to be in 2027. There are some analysts who have speculated that the studio’s toxic reputation is making it difficult for it to recruit the necessary talent.
Tactics Ogre Reborn
There are a lot of series that have gone dormant but are still much beloved by their fan-bases. To name a couple of examples, there are Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, which share a setting but are nonetheless very different kinds of games. The first consisted of rather unusual real-time strategy games with RPG elements, which remain rather unusual even in the present time. Meanwhile, the second consisted of isometric turn-based tactical RPGs, which are rather reminiscent of a lot of other isometric turn-based tactical RPGs made in Japan. Something that makes sense because Tactics Ogre was quite influential. After all, the same team that made the first Tactics Ogre for Quest also went on to make the first Final Fantasy Tactics for what was still Square rather than Square Enix in those times.
In any case, Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre have been dormant for a long time. The last Ogre Battle came out in 1999 while the last original Tactics Ogre came out in 2001. There was a remake of the first Tactics Ogre that came out in 2010, though even that was more than a decade ago. As such, there wasn’t much hope for another title in either one of these two sister series until very recently when the Nvidia leak revealed that there was a Tactics Ogre remaster on its way.
Now, there is further confirmation that Square Enix is getting ready to revive the series, seeing as how it has filed for a trademark for Tactics Ogre: Reborn. It isn’t clear what this is supposed to be. The likeliest scenario is that it is a remaster of the remake of the first Tactics Ogre, which would fit with the Nvidia leak. However, there are those who think that it might be something else because the title seems excessive for a remaster. Of course, some of these possibilities are more pleasant than others. A truly new title would give a lot of interested individuals cause for joy. However, the chances of that happening seem low, particularly since it would be a much bigger gamble on Square Enix’s part than the remakes and remasters of old classics that it has been doing. In contrast, a gacha game would be much more discouraging, particularly since there is at least one example of a venerable JRPG series that has died a second, more ignominious death that way. Whatever the case, we won’t know what to expect until Square Enix is ready to reveal what it has in mind for the Tactics Ogre series.
