Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom – Un nouveau « JRPG » fabriqué en France ? Oui !

shiness_header_logo

 
It’s too bad Shiness isn’t coming to consoles anytime soon. This lovely Unreal tech powered crowd-funded indie RPG is only a few days into its Kickstarter campaign and almost a third of the money needed to get it onto PC and Mac at some point is in the bag. French developer Ynnis Interactive is making JRPG fans drool with some gorgeous anime visuals, a stirring soundtrack, and what sounds like fully voiced characters (like in Avatar, speaking a language created specifically for the project!), all hallmarks of a solid RPG experience. While the game will be a traditional solo experience where a party of assorted members can travel with the lead character, Ynnis is also planning some sort of online mode for their game, but it’s too early to see how it will be implemented. Given the game’s combat will be more action-oriented and in fact, play like a fighting game, it’s safe to say this is what will really make or break the game experience for many backers.

Shiness Combat Animation Sample

Shiness MangaAs you can see from that wonderfully illustrated KS page, the game certainly has the looks of a AAA game straight from a top Japanese studio like Level 5 or CyberConnect 2 (a good thing indeed) and other than some proofreading to tighten up the English translation, this one looks as if it’s going to be a winner and meets its financial target based on the overall quality and level of polish on display. Even cooler, there’s a companion manga in the works (the first chapter is HERE) that should expand the game’s story, characters and world in the same way popular manga such as Dragonball, Naruto and others did for their respective characters. This is one of those projects I hope more than meets its goals just so all three console companies take notice and maybe offer up assistance in getting the game to their respective platforms.

EDIT! In fact, if the game does indeed meet its $100,000 target, a console version will be the next stretch goal, so make it happen people! Hmmm… now that I’m dreaming of drooling over Shiness on the PS3, Xbox 360 (and hopefully Wii U!), I also wonder how well that Unreal engine runs on the Vita?

Here’s the trailer above in French – it’s slightly longer, but pretty much the same:

Anyway, you know what to do if you’ve watched those videos above and now have a big smile on your face. Pledge away and secure whatever premium you can afford while keeping both fingers and toes crossed that the game hits its goals and then some. This looks like the beginning of a beautiful relationship if it all comes together as it needs to…

Some Silly Stuff I Have Discovered This Week…

Mr. Bagel 2

1. Yeah, it’s a fuzzy picture of a cinnamon raisin mini bagel with two raisins that look like eyes and a big grin. Amusing and kind of creepy if you can imagine it suddenly talking or singing or something. This made me laugh because it wasn’t the ONLY one in that bag of bagels either. I think I saw three more, meaning someone at the factory was having a clever day and wanted to share, there’s a bagel-making robot that’s creating not so sentient life in an effort to try and start some sort of revolution, or there’s REALLY something funky going into those bagels that turns them ALIVE before they’re bagged. Well,I never did find out if the darn thing could speak, as I ate it before it could do anything funny.

Rez Plus2. Yep, that’s a copy of Rez for the Japanese PlayStation 2 and yep, that’s the infamous Trance Vibrator peripheral next to it. While I’ve played the game numerous times to completion, I’d actually never used that Trance Vibrator until earlier today when I decided to crack open the box and plug it into my Japanese PS2 to see what all the fuss was about. In a word. Oh. In another word. My. Yeah, I can see why it was marketed as and written up as just what some of you think it is. Shocking! Well, not in the least, because we could all use some good vibrations every now and then, right? Throbbing! Yeah, that’s more like it.

3. Uhhhh.I forgot what number 3 was and I blame number 2 for that. Back in a bit…

“Get Me Rewrite!” (Again!): Not So Retro Game Reviews To Make A Comeback!

Raze's Hell Cover (Custom)Okay, this one’s a doozy, folks. From early 2004 to around 2007 I was writing for a now defunct gaming site called Bonusstage.com and when the site died its untimely death after a series of DNS attacks and a double server crash or something did it in. At the SAME time, the computer I’d been using to work and game on had its hard drive burn up, putting me out of action for a time until I could get it replaced. As I wasn’t able to salvage the drive and thought foolishly that “What’s on the internet stays there FOREVER!”, I thought that whatever I wrote would be around no matter what happened. Welllll… I was wrong.

Long story short, a huge chunk of work I did wasn’t fully archived when the wheels of fate all locked up at the wrong time, I wasn’t backing up stuff properly at the home office and when you add those together, it’s a big fat mess. Or NON-mess, as there’s nothing to clean up but some crocodile tears… Continue reading