News: Lionhead Gets 22Shitcanned!

Microsoft Dissolve Lionhead in Grovelling Submission

Lusipurr.com takes gleeful pride in the fact that we are one of the most humble blog sites on the internet, and as such we would certainly be the very last publication that would ever want to toot our own horn by seeking to lay claim to accomplishments that are not our own. That being said, it is probably not overstepping the mark to suggest that Lusipurr.com’s Zestria (TM) blockade of the Microsoft Game Studios offices proved instrumental in undermining employee morale, ultimately leading to their acceptance of our terms for a full and unconditional surrender: namely the cancellation of Fable Legends and the dissolution of Lionhead Studios. Proof of this can be observed by dint of the fact that Microsoft did just that. Fable Legends has been unceremoniously cancelled without so much as a word’s warning to the Lionhead staff that were working on it, and Lionhead themselves are to be shuttered at the end of the month – as per our demands:

“After much consideration we have decided to cease development on Fable Legends, and are in discussions with employees about the proposed closure of Lionhead Studios in the UK. Additionally, we will close Press Play Studios in Denmark, and sunset development on Project Knoxville.

These have been tough decisions and we have not made them lightly, nor are they a reflection on these development teams – we are incredibly fortunate to have the talent, creativity and commitment of the people at these studios. The Lionhead Studios team has delighted millions of fans with the Fable series over the past decade. Press Play imbued the industry with a unique creative spirit behind games like Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba, which both captured passionate fans. These changes are taking effect as Microsoft Studios continues to focus its investment and development on the games and franchises that fans find most exciting and want to play.”

While the above paragraph might suggest that Lionhead Studios is simply being shuttered because they do not make games that people find “exciting” and “want to play”, and while the casual observer might simply conclude that this is the logical result for a studio when their last well received title was released over eight years ago – both of these explanations serve as a mere smokescreen for Microsoft to save face in the hour of their greatest defeat at the hands of the world’s foremost Zestria (TM) Barron, Lusipurr. In a state of Zestria-deprived delirium Microsoft’s hand was forced, and as a result the streets now run red with the blood of Lusipurr.com’s enemies. In the mid-to-late 2000s Lusipurr.com was created for the express purpose of decimating Lionhead Studios and ending the Fable franchise once and for all. This week our plans have finally come into fruition, and Lionhead studios will never recover from this mighty blow we have dealt them! Let it never be said that Lusipurr.com does not play the long game.

A Very Important Announcement About Tits

It is time to talk about TITS, and who does not like TITS? Substantial and well rounded – a pair is certainly more than a handful, but three is just ideal! To this end JRPG fans were given some incredibly good news this week with confirmation that The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd will be seeing a 2017 release for PC! For a while there it seemed unlikely that this game would ever see a release in the West owing to the extremely tight effort-to-sales ratio in translating such high volume games for the moribund PSP platform, however 2014’s Steam release of the original game in the trilogy opened new doors, as by all accounts it proved to be much more successful than anyone was expecting. Sadly, this time around Xseed were unable to swing a PSP/Vita release of the game, but it was not through lack of trying:

“To address some common questions thus far:

-PC version only. Sorry, but we couldn’t swing the PSP, PS3, or Vita versions of the game (and all for completely different reasons, to boot — none of which I’m really at liberty to talk about in any great detail, so you’ll just have to trust that we tried our best!).

-Localization duties are not being handled by Carpe Fulgur as with SC, but by more or less the same team responsible for the Trails of Cold Steel games. So if you liked the way Cold Steel turned out, you’ve got nothing at all to worry about with 3rd!

-Nothing is being edited out or removed. In fact, as others have said, I believe Sara will even be attempting to add the previously PSP-exclusive elements to the PC release — though of course, nothing can be guaranteed there, especially at this early stage. It’s just sort of an idea/goal at this point.

-No Japanese voices, sorry! As with FC and SC, 3rd will include English voices only, as once again, the rights to the Japanese voices were not available. (Wait’ll you hear the English voice for Gilbert, though — sooooooo good!)

So, yeah… to all y’all who said there was no way in hell 3rd would ever see the light of localization, all I can say is, EAT IT. ;) Heheheheh…

-Tom”

One finds it rather telling that JRPG localisation butchery has become so bad of late that companies now have to pointedly announce ahead of time that they do not plan on deliberately ruining the games they bring over, but what else can one expect in [CURRENT YEAR]? It really is too bad that Xseed could not complete the trilogy on the PSP, but it is also incredibly fortunate that they found success on the PC when they did. To this end Xseed have announced that between Trails in the Sky, Trails in the Sky SC, and Trails of Cold Steel the series has now sold over 350,000 copies in the West, which is great to see since it helps to secure the future localisation of these games. Xseed also took the opportunity to announce that Trails of Cold Steel II will be releasing for the PS3 and Vita in the Fall. In celebration of these announcements Trails in the Sky and Trails in the Sky SC have been heavily discounted for the next week on both PSN and Steam. The former has been discounted by 50% to $9.99, while the latter has been discounted by 30% to $20.99 – so there is no time like the present to add both highly regarded titles to your Steam library!

Final Fantasy XV Director Aims to Make Players Cry

This week the director of Final Fantasy XV, Hajime Tabata, revealed that he has been developing the game with the aim of making players cry. It is good to finally have confirmation on this point. As far back as the Episode Duscae demo it seemed like the game might be being developed to make players cry, but it was also possible that the elements seen in Duscae simply coalesced into an unhappy accident that was wholly unintended. With that in mind it is a very good thing that we finally have confirmation that Final Fantasy XV is being developed for the express purpose of making gamers unhappy, because Tabata looks to be right on target to deliver on this ambition!

“I want to create a very emotional ending to the game and want to make as many people cry as possible. You’re spending so many hours playing the game, so when I finish a game and it ends on a sour note and it doesn’t move me, it gets me disappointed. At least make me cry or give me some emotion! I want to give a moving ending for the consumers who invest so much time.”

Speaking seriously now, many fans have interpreted this to mean that Noctus dies at the end, and one certainly could not blame them for reaching this conclusion. If the death of Aeris taught Square Enix anything, it was that literally the only human ’emotion’ that matters is sadness – though possibly the saddest thing about this is that Final Fantasy fans have likely guessed the ending of the game months before it has even been released. The reason that the death of Aeris had such an impact on gaming was because Squaresoft used to be able to keep a secret, and nobody saw it coming. If in the run-up to Final Fantasy VII‘s release Yoshinori Kitase had been giving the gaming press repeated winks and nudges about the permanence of Aeris, then it is unlikely that her death would still be such an iconic moment in gaming. It made an impact because its suddenness felt like a gut-punch.

Beyond this frustration, many Final Fantasy fans have reacted with exasperation to Square Enix killing off a character as a shortcut to manipulate player emotions, when in fact Square Enix struggle to even write believable characters these days, much less ones that players can establish an emotional connection with. One can only agree with this sentiment to an extent. Tragic tear-wringing endings are certainly a valid direction that a narrative can be taken in, and are a potent tool for making an impact upon a game’s players – but the thing is that such endings have to be justified throughout the narrative as a whole, and executed near perfectly. How many of Final Fantasy XV‘s elements could one claim to have been executed perfectly? The full game is still months away, but Episode Duscae was certainly sufficient to cast doubt on the game’s overall quality. One feels that fan misgivings about Final Fantasy XV‘s ‘sad’ ending are rooted in the fear that it will simply be a transplant of Zack’s ending from Crisis Core, and one could hardly fault them for harbouring this concern.

Anime Spotlight: Luck & Logic

Luck & Logic is a magical girl anime with a difference – namely that the show’s protagonist [Yoshichika] is a guy. This seems like a pretty obvious harem setup, and after watching a couple of episodes that certainly seems to be the direction it is being taken in. The premise involves goddesses who have fled to the human world after losing a war to demons in their home realm. This causes the demons to turn their focus on the human world, and they are able to open dimensional gates and possess human hosts in order to wreak havok. In order to protect the human world the goddesses are able to combine their logic with that of humans known as logicalists, in order to clothe them in some fancy monster-bashing magical girl uniforms. In the world of Luck & Logic ‘logic’ and ‘paradox’ levels pretty much stand in for Dagon Ball Z-esque power levels for the heroes and villains respectively. That aspect is a little tedious, though the show on the whole makes for some light-hearted fun. Luck & Logic‘s strength is probably in its setting and art design, with special mention also going to Yoshichika’s father and sister, who make for some fairly decent comedy skits.

Luck & Logic began its run on Janurary 9, and there are currently nine episodes available. It is licensed with Funimation, and new episodes are simulcast on Saturdays at 8:30 am Eastern. Honestly, this is probably not a show that is worth planning one’s schedule around, but it is still quite fun for what it is – making it a good filler anime to watch in between episodes of more important shows.