Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
I hope that in this TL; Military-Realism Genre (championed by ARMA III or DCS World in particular) will be much more popular than in OTL, which simply contained to military ethusiasts (like me).
Anyways, what are the changes in the region of Middle East? Did Arab Spring or Syrian Civil War (considered to be the turning point for the New '10s) exist here in the TL of yours?
Thanks.
Anyways, what are the changes in the region of Middle East? Did Arab Spring or Syrian Civil War (considered to be the turning point for the New '10s) exist here in the TL of yours?
Thanks.
We're a bit too late into the timeline for any real new trends to emerge (unless it's something memetic like Among Us), but military realism games aren't really that much more popular than IOTL. They're doing pretty well on PC, though we don't really hear about them much in the mainstream.
The Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War were butterflied, due to no Iraq invasion. There have been some flareups in Syria, Libya, Egypt, and the like, but nothing on the level of IOTL. The biggest change from OTL is that we got an independent Kurdistan, carved mostly from Iraq with small parts of Turkey also integrated into the new country, this was the result of years of diplomatic negotiation between the Huntsman administration, various European countries, the United Nations, Turkey, and Iraq, essentially Qusay Hussein allowed for an independent Kurdistan to avoid any sanctions for the atrocities against the Kurds that he'd been committing, while Turkey got massive economic compensation, which bolstered their economy out of a near-depression. Huntsman won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize (his second), Qusay (who would eventually go down as one of the 21st century's biggest monsters, worse even than his dad) came out looking like a major peacemaker (though his atrocities would never be forgotten, and the deal remained controversial for decades), Turkey got an improved economy, and the Kurds got their own country (though they suffered horrifically in the years before).
On another note, I've finished up with my Cassunzel week stories, so I should be returning to the timeline quite soon, maybe tomorrow if things go well.
June 2019 - Battle Princess Saiyuki
2019 NBA Playoffs
First Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (8) Orlando Magic, 4 to 0
(5) Washington Wizards over (4) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 3
(3) Chicago Bulls over (6) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 2
(2) Indiana Pacers over (7) Miami Heat, 4 to 3
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (8) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 2
(4) Dallas Mavericks over (5) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 1
(3) Las Vegas Aces over (6) Memphis Grizzlies, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (7) Portland Trailblazers, 4 to 0
Second Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (5) Washington Wizards, 4 to 1
(3) Chicago Bulls over (2) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 3
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (4) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (3) Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 3
Following a hectic 2018 offseason in which Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Lob City broke up (with Blake Griffin joining James in Los Angeles and Chris Paul jumping to the New York Knicks to play with Liu Fauzeng). and other teams made major moves with their own young superstars and seasoned veterans, the 2018-19 NBA season looked to be one of the most interesting in ages, with perennial title contenders Cleveland and Seattle considered to be out of the picture. Though the Cavs would fall to 29-53 after losing James, the Sonics would rally, thanks to their young core and a few veterans like Eric Bledsoe leading them to a surprising fifth seed and a date with the surging Dallas Mavericks. In the East, the Indiana Pacers would have a bounce back year after lucking into the #1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and selecting 19-year-old phenom Johnnie Hubbard, who would slot in at the wing next to veteran shooting star Klay Thompson. The two would form a potent combination, with Hubbard having the best rookie season since Willard Jones and averaging a 21-7-9 stat line, while Thompson would lead the league in three point percentage to take the Pacers to 60 wins and the #2 seed behind the defending champion New York Knicks. Unfortunately, fans who wanted to see a revival of the 90s Knicks-Pacers rivalry in the conference finals would be disappointed, as the Pacers would lose a close second round series to Stephen Curry's Bulls, and New York and Chicago would clash in the Eastern Conference Finals.
(1) New York Knicks over (3) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 3
Stephen Curry had been denied an NBA title for more than a decade, and he came into the 2019 playoffs hungry to taste NBA gold. However, Liu Fauzeng and the New York Knicks lay in his path once again, and despite shooting the lights out in the first three games to give the Bulls a 2-1 series lead, the Knicks bounced back to win a close Game 4, before beating Chicago once again in Game 5 to put the Bulls on the brink of elimination. Curry's 9 three-pointers in Game 6 would send the series back to Madison Square Garden for a deciding Game 7, but Liu Fauzeng and his supporting cast, including a resurgent Chris Paul, would be too tough to handle, and the Knicks won Game 7 fairly easily, 131-119, thanks to a 40 point, 12 rebound, 15 assist performance from Fauzeng.
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (2) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 2
The Denver Nuggets would fail to reach the NBA Finals yet again, this time taken down by Lebron James and the Lakers in the conference championship. James and Blake Griffin formed a powerful 1-2 punch at the forward position that bullied the Nuggets in the paint and on the boards, and unlike IOTL, the Nuggets didn't have a strong center to neutralize them. They did have Willard Jones, and he played spectacularly, but he just couldn't take Denver to the promised land in this series, and Lebron and the Lakers were able to eliminate Denver in 6, splitting the first four games in the series before eliminating the Nuggets with two big wins.
2019 NBA Finals: New York Knicks over Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 1
One of the major storylines going into this series was the showdown between the two former stars of Lob City, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, one of whom would get their first NBA championship in this showdown of the two biggest media markets in the league. Though they were friendly to one another during the series itself, this was a somewhat physical series, even if it was never really all that much in doubt. Just like in 2018, Liu Fauzeng came to play, and though the Lakers tried to shove him around, even leading to a near-injury to Fauzeng in Game 3 that almost caused a fight between the two squads, Fauzeng would not be denied, scoring in the paint and from behind the arc, and thoroughly outplaying Lebron in this series. Once again, Liu Fauzeng proved himself to be the league's premier player, dominating in all facets of the game, and beginning to raise questions that he might be one of the NBA's all time greats. With three straight MVP awards and two straight NBA championships, he had already laid claim to being the game's best current player, and now he was already in the conversation with players like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson for the title of all-time best.
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For the past few months, Google and several other companies have been lobbying vigorously for a law that would ban all data capping on home and mobile internet connections, preventing internet service providers and wireless companies from offering any plans except for unlimited service. Google has been especially aggressive in pushing this law, with the company issuing numerous statements and even sending representatives to testify before Congress that "data caps are an outdated relic of Internet service, with modern data streaming rendering such plans an unnecessary barrier to innovation". With Google's new cloud gaming service Stadia said to be placing a strain on the data usage of some heavy-duty gamers, it's easy to see why the company has been so motivated to get rid of them. Service providers have fired back, with Verizon issuing a statement that reads in part, "data caps allow us to offer competitive pricing to our customers, and our research has shown that a vast majority of them will never use more data than they are allotted, with only the top 3% of users ever actually needing unlimited data in any given month. As it currently stands, it's the people who use our service the most who subsidize access for most everyday users, but if data caps are made illegal via government overreach, it will be the other way around, with regular users subsidizing the service of our biggest data consumers". Comcast, which began rolling out data caps to its customers last year, also cited research showing that only around 5% of its users will ever need more than the alotted 1 terabyte of data per month, and that it plans to cut costs for most users if the data caps continue to reduce overhead costs for its services, providing more value to its customers and passing some of the savings along to them, while also re-iterating that it would be forced to raise prices if data caps were forced to go away.
At the moment, it does not appear that the proposed law to ban data capping would pass Congressional muster, even if an increasing number of representatives and senators are open to passing such legislation. Most moderate Democrats oppose the measure, especially in the Senate, though some, like Joe Manchin (D-VA), have proposed an alternative law that would make it easier for competing services to enter a municipality, giving customers an opportunity to choose if they wish to use a service where data caps are in place. In recent weeks, President Kennedy has voiced support for regulating the use of data caps, and has also expressed that he would be open to signing such a bill if it were to pass both houses of Congress. For now, the proposed bill is being debated in the House, and may come up for a vote as soon as next month, though it's still unlikely to pass in either house at this point.
-from a June 10, 2019 article on Kotaku
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Blockbuster To Introduce A Spooky New Lineup Of Animated Shows This Fall
The Blockbuster streaming service is set to launch several new animated shows aimed at kids and teens starting in September, and the unifying theme for this year is horror, with no less than four upcoming shows that will revolve around the horror genre in some way.
The most notable new animated show, and one we've been hearing about for nearly a year now, is a new take on Beetlejuice, which last received an animated adaptation in the late 80s that saw success on both CBS Saturday mornings and airing in re-runs on Nickelodeon later on. The new show, a joint Canadian-American production, is said to be a slightly more "mature" take on the property, with less focus on comedy and more of an ongoing storyline. Like the original animated show, it will revolve around the friendship between the teenage girl Lydia (voiced by Alyson Court, who reprises her role from the 80s cartoon) and the "ghost with the most", the undead prankster Beetlejuice, who is summoned forth by Lydia to assist her in her daily life while also taking her on various adventures. The original animated series focused less on Lydia's relationship with her human friends, choosing to spend more time in the land of the dead, the Neitherworld, but in this new series, Lydia's friends will also know about Beetlejuice, and will often be involved in their escapades, while we'll also learn more about the bureaucracy of the Neitherworld and we'll dive into Beetlejuice's everyday life apart from Lydia, including an exploration of just how he got to be a ghost in the first place. The series also brings on John DiMaggio to voice Beetlejuice, taking over from Canadian actor Stephen Ouimette, who voiced him in the original series. Lydia's friends will be voiced by Kimiko Glenn and Nicki Burke, while Tara Strong, who voiced the snobby rich girl Claire in the original series, will play a role in this new series as well. It's not yet been revealed which character she'll play, while Aubrey Plaza and Keith David have also been announced in as of yet unrevealed but "recurring" roles in the new show. The first 13 episodes of the rebooted Beetlejuice series will launch on the Blockbuster service in October, but coming in September will be two more animated horror shows, including a brand new IP known as Geisthaven, which will be an action-adventure show based around three preteen kids living in a mysterious and spooky town full of hidden terrors. Geisthaven is expected to be a more "serious" type of show, with showrunner Chris Butler calling it a "love letter to the nightmares of my childhood", but still with a child-friendly tone, with some comic relief mixed in with all the scares.
Blockbuster's scary new family lineup is expected to compete with shows such as Hex Girls which will be debuting on Cartoon Network in the fall, as well as shows on rival services such as Netflix and Paramount+, both of which are also launching scare-themed shows in the fall. Paramount+ will be the exclusive home of a TV-PG revival of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, aimed at viewers who watched the show as kids back in the 90s and who are now looking for more sophisticated scare fare, while Netflix will be airing a horror-themed season of their hit Arcadia series, with showrunner Guillermo del Toro having brought in Hideo Kojima to pen an episode inspired by Silent Hill. There will be plenty of screams for kids and teens on streaming services this fall, and even adults will probably find at least one scary good show to binge before Halloween.
-from a June 19, 2019 article on Tubehound
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Game Spotlight: Star Siren: Battle Princess
Star Siren: Battle Princess is a 3-D beat 'em up game published and developed by Capcom for the Reality, Virtua, Nexus, and Stadia. The game is a reboot of the company's popular Star Siren series, which was a 2-D beat 'em up franchise focused on a magical superheroine and her friends. The reboot takes things back to basics: Star Siren's companions are all gone, though Capcom has left the door open for them to return in future titles. The focus in this game is on the titular superheroine, a schoolgirl who goes by Saiyuki in her civilian guise. Combat in the game plays out much like it does in the 2-D titles, with Star Siren able to use powerful magical attacks on her enemies, as well as melee strikes, with both accompanied by colorful visual effects much like what would appear in a magical girl anime show. The gameplay somewhat resembles OTL's Wonderful 101, and even uses many of the same systems and mechanics, giving the player a score based on how well and how stylishly they're able to defeat enemies, with the player using those points to cash in for power-ups and upgrades. With the full range of 3-D movement offered to the player, verticality becomes a major element of gameplay, with Star Siren able to leap and even fly all across the city, dashing across the rooftops of buildings and leaping down for powerful magical strikes. As players fight, they'll be able to charge up progressively more powerful and impressive attacks, which play out with impressive animations, the more powerful the attack, the more impressive it looks. Rather than performing a single mission objective in linear fashion, the player is frequently able to go out of their way to help civilians and battle foes, which provides the player with a better overall grade and better rewards, and can also show hidden cutscenes that reveal more of Saiyuki's character and the game's plot. The game's graphics are full 3-D, but with a heavy anime influence, with impressive cel shaded graphics and anime cutscenes appearing frequently, sometimes in comic-like panels as characters, both heroes and villains, react to the player's actions. The game's voice acting has also seen somewhat of a reboot, Cristina Pucelli no longer voices Star Siren/Saiyuki in the English dubbed version of the game, and instead, a younger actress has taken over the character, an original TTL voice actress who was 23 when she dubbed her lines, and who has become a fairly popular anime dub actress in TTL's world, she'd be a name as recognizable ITTL as someone like Erica Lindbeck would be IOTL. Most of the game's dub cast consists of actors who would be quite familiar to anime watchers, both OTL and TTL.
As par for the course for a typical reboot, the game serves as an origin story for this new Saiyuki, a 15-year-old high schooler in Japan who is transformed into Star Siren after being attacked by monsters during a festival at a park. The game sees Saiyuki juggling her civilian life with her new superhero life, a frequent source of tension for the character, who is unable to reveal her identity to her friends or family. Her major superpower, besides her actual magical abilities, is hope and determination... she won't let innocent people come to harm, and will battle anyone who tries to do so. The antagonists are a succession of villains, with three Big Bads over the course of the game's five act structure, each succeeding the next, with minons and subordinates galore, as well as various "monster of the day" type characters. This gives the game a very fast pacing not unlike that of OTL's Mischief Makers, with more menacing and powerful villains taking over the more the player moves through the game, other villains recurring, and a grand overall villain at the top of it all. The game's primary antagonist, the one in charge of the entire villainous army, is the Grand Architect Raythor, who has decided to launch an invasion of Earth in order to use it as a base for his armies, but also to capture Earth's Core Crystal, the source of all magical energy on the planet, which Raythor believes lies deep within the planet, but which actually has been absorbed into Star Siren herself as a protective measure. Star Siren battles through Raythor's armies before a grand battle with the villain himself, all the while dealing with various tensions and problems that she's been forced to face over the course of the game. She's never able to reveal her identity to anyone, though one of Raythor's minions who defects to the side of good does learn who she really is, and becomes an ally to her before tragically sacrificing himself in a battle in the game's final act. Ultimately, Star Siren defeats Raythor with the power of love, destroying him and sending his armies packing... with the sequel hook that he was just the beginning and that there's actually a great empire of evil up there in the stars somewhere.
Star Siren: Battle Princess is released on June 4, 2019, receiving an excellent critical reception largely thanks to the game's outstanding combat, some of the best beat 'em up 3-D gameplay in a game in recent memory, compared very favorably to Bayonetta (though obviously not as gory). Saiyuki's character is also praised, while the rebooted Saiyuki is different somewhat from her previous version, she does retain all her best personality traits and is still quite recognizable as the classic hero. The plot is a bit derivative and predictable, but most critics let this slide, as the game is meant to mostly be an homage to shoujo anime. It's easily the best selling Star Siren game in many, many years, selling faster than any game in the series since Star Siren Nakama, and ultimately becoming the best selling game in the series overall when all is said and done. It's one of Capcom's most successful reboots ever, and a much needed change of pace for a heroine that was starting to become stale.
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Other Significant Titles For June 2019:
Kirby's Dream Revolution: The Reality's second and last mainline Kirby title sees the familiar pink puffball in a very familiar 2-D action game, scrapping the party elements of 2015's Fantastic Party and just going balls-to-the-wall classic Kirby. While fans are disappointed again that it's not a 3-D Kirby game as was rumored, this is still an exceptional, content-rich title, an homage to the original Kirby's Dreamland but with so much more content, including three Arenas, each one tougher than the last, and 4 player gameplay similar to Star Allies from OTL. Almost all the classic Kirby characters returns, there are plenty of homages to old games in the series... while the fact that it's still cookie-cutter Kirby does limit it from getting truly outstanding reviews, it's just about as good as the classic Kirby formula gets, and this game averages solid mid-8s while getting a lot more sales than Fantastic Party.
Virtua Tennis: Grand Slam: An excellent tennis title for the Apple Virtua, this game features real world tennis superstars and a wide variety of different court types and gameplay styles, focusing on both simulation-style realism and VR gameplay, with lifelike motion controls (or just the ability to use the regular controller). This is an excellent tennis sim and gets good sales, and is regarded as one of the year's best sports games.
Dragon Quest: Luminaries Of Legend: An iPhone G title from Enix-Keiken, this game is to Dragon Quest what OTL's Fire Emblem Heroes is to Fire Emblem, an RPG with a heavy focus on gacha, in which players are able to recruit a variety of heroes from across the series to partake in various quests as they journey to battle an evil wizard dragon king known as Dracodominus. Despite the gacha mechanics, this is still considered to be quite a good RPG, the gameplay is classic Dragon Quest but with some nice twists, the graphics are great (easily comparable to OTL's Dragon Quest XI), and the storyline is fairly compelling. It's a massive hit in Japan and puts a lot of iPhone G units in players' hands over there, while doing decently well in Europe and the United States.
Do The Crime: Developed by Rockstar Games as a sort of top down throwback to their Race 'n Chase series, this game blends arcade style driving and shooting gameplay with the wide open world sandbox stylings of Grand Theft Auto. The player is thrown into the role of a criminal who is given missions from various crime bosses, but can also just go around committing crimes in the city, including robbery and murder. Its arcade-style gameplay and somewhat retro inspired graphics prevent it from being as bloody or gory as Grand Theft Auto's main games, but it's still quite controversial, and definitely seems designed for people who spend more time in GTA screwing around doing rampages than actually completing story missions. It's a lot of fun, and sells millions of copies, but it's not as deep or engrossing as the Grand Theft Auto games, and reviews are only good to great and not excellent. It's released on all the current consoles as well as the iPhone G, and would make it to Game Boy Zero in 2020.
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June 26, 2019
Hideo Kojima has been hard at work on his upcoming next-generation giant mech game, Awakened From The Earth, as well as various other projects over the past couple of years, including a complete remake of his classic game Snatcher, which is now complete and will be releasing in a few short months. It's a rare opportunity when he actually has some time to enjoy himself and relax, and when he does so, he prefers to be with friends. On this particular day, he's been hanging out at a bar in Tokyo with his longtime friend Masahiro Sakurai, who has just been able to celebrate the successful launch of his own project, Kirby's Dream Revolution. Like Kojima, Sakurai is a relentless worker, and has already begun work on the next game in the Super Smash Bros. series... though despite many people asking him, he's unable to reveal its existence just yet. Sakurai hopes that Nintendo will find occasion to announce it soon... the game's development is already well underway.
"I can't wait to play Snatcher all over again," said Sakurai, laughing before taking a sip from his drink. "Of course, this will be an entirely new game, won't it, Kojima-san?"
Kojima laughed, nodding before taking a big swig from his own drink and placing the glass back down on the table.
"People will finally get to see all of those exciting moments in detail! Part of me is sad, I loved to keep people guessing about what certain things meant, seeing them play out in full animation will answer questions that I'm not sure I want to answer."
Kojima certainly loved his metaphors and mysteries, though Sakurai had seen enough of the new Snatcher to know that for all the questions the new game answered, it would also raise even more.
"I don't think you have to worry... you introduce so many new plot threads and characters, they'll leave people guessing for just as long as the old game did."
"I'm glad you're confident in that... perhaps I will make another game in another 30 years!"
The two exchanged another laugh, and Sakurai took another sip from his drink. He set it down, letting out a sigh. Work on the new Smash Bros. game was exhausting... so many new gameplay modes and characters, he'd often spent more than 100 hours a week leading his team. He knew many programmers couldn't handle the crunch, and that was fine... but he was an absolute work fiend, he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he wasn't spending so much time on his games. His mind was always racing with new ideas, new designs... he shared some of them with Kojima, the two often bounced ideas back and forth, what ideas they had that weren't restricted by confidentiality agreements, anyway. He still hoped someday that the two might be able to work at the same company together, so they could reveal all their ideas to each other... sometimes it was hard for him to keep track of what things he could reveal and what things Nintendo wanted him to keep secret!
But for all the work Sakurai had been doing on his games, Kojima had been working harder... not just on Snatcher and Awakened, but on a myriad of other projects for Ubisoft. He'd been all over the world, working on one project with one company and another project with the next, he was always talking to collaborators and friends, turning down what he had to, but taking on perhaps more than he could handle.
"Are you all right, Kojima-san?" asked Sakurai, looking across the table to see that his friend seemed to have temporarily nodded off. Kojima quickly nodded, and even laughed to let Sakurai know he was wide awake and doing just fine.
"Of course, we were still talking about Snatcher, weren't we?"
"We were indeed, but maybe we can talk about something else now..."
"Who's going to be in the new Smash Bros.?" asked Kojima. "I have some ideas, and not just for my characters! I think Sadira Blackheart would make a good entry..."
Sakurai just laughed, unable to share anything about the upcoming game's roster, or even that it existed at all, though everyone knew one was coming. As the two resumed their conversation, Sakurai still had worries about his friend, who'd taken on so much work and hadn't let up in over a decade. His own doctor had warned him about the effects his schedule was having on him, he could only imagine what Kojima's schedule might be doing.
Maybe we can both get some rest after our games come out next year, thought Sakurai, trying to fight back his worries by keeping his own spirits up. Maybe you'll be able to retire, old friend.
First Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (8) Orlando Magic, 4 to 0
(5) Washington Wizards over (4) Philadelphia 76ers, 4 to 3
(3) Chicago Bulls over (6) Atlanta Hawks, 4 to 2
(2) Indiana Pacers over (7) Miami Heat, 4 to 3
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (8) Los Angeles Clippers, 4 to 2
(4) Dallas Mavericks over (5) Seattle Supersonics, 4 to 1
(3) Las Vegas Aces over (6) Memphis Grizzlies, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (7) Portland Trailblazers, 4 to 0
Second Round:
(1) New York Knicks over (5) Washington Wizards, 4 to 1
(3) Chicago Bulls over (2) Indiana Pacers, 4 to 3
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (4) Dallas Mavericks, 4 to 0
(2) Denver Nuggets over (3) Las Vegas Aces, 4 to 3
Following a hectic 2018 offseason in which Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Lob City broke up (with Blake Griffin joining James in Los Angeles and Chris Paul jumping to the New York Knicks to play with Liu Fauzeng). and other teams made major moves with their own young superstars and seasoned veterans, the 2018-19 NBA season looked to be one of the most interesting in ages, with perennial title contenders Cleveland and Seattle considered to be out of the picture. Though the Cavs would fall to 29-53 after losing James, the Sonics would rally, thanks to their young core and a few veterans like Eric Bledsoe leading them to a surprising fifth seed and a date with the surging Dallas Mavericks. In the East, the Indiana Pacers would have a bounce back year after lucking into the #1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and selecting 19-year-old phenom Johnnie Hubbard, who would slot in at the wing next to veteran shooting star Klay Thompson. The two would form a potent combination, with Hubbard having the best rookie season since Willard Jones and averaging a 21-7-9 stat line, while Thompson would lead the league in three point percentage to take the Pacers to 60 wins and the #2 seed behind the defending champion New York Knicks. Unfortunately, fans who wanted to see a revival of the 90s Knicks-Pacers rivalry in the conference finals would be disappointed, as the Pacers would lose a close second round series to Stephen Curry's Bulls, and New York and Chicago would clash in the Eastern Conference Finals.
(1) New York Knicks over (3) Chicago Bulls, 4 to 3
Stephen Curry had been denied an NBA title for more than a decade, and he came into the 2019 playoffs hungry to taste NBA gold. However, Liu Fauzeng and the New York Knicks lay in his path once again, and despite shooting the lights out in the first three games to give the Bulls a 2-1 series lead, the Knicks bounced back to win a close Game 4, before beating Chicago once again in Game 5 to put the Bulls on the brink of elimination. Curry's 9 three-pointers in Game 6 would send the series back to Madison Square Garden for a deciding Game 7, but Liu Fauzeng and his supporting cast, including a resurgent Chris Paul, would be too tough to handle, and the Knicks won Game 7 fairly easily, 131-119, thanks to a 40 point, 12 rebound, 15 assist performance from Fauzeng.
(1) Los Angeles Lakers over (2) Denver Nuggets, 4 to 2
The Denver Nuggets would fail to reach the NBA Finals yet again, this time taken down by Lebron James and the Lakers in the conference championship. James and Blake Griffin formed a powerful 1-2 punch at the forward position that bullied the Nuggets in the paint and on the boards, and unlike IOTL, the Nuggets didn't have a strong center to neutralize them. They did have Willard Jones, and he played spectacularly, but he just couldn't take Denver to the promised land in this series, and Lebron and the Lakers were able to eliminate Denver in 6, splitting the first four games in the series before eliminating the Nuggets with two big wins.
2019 NBA Finals: New York Knicks over Los Angeles Lakers, 4 to 1
One of the major storylines going into this series was the showdown between the two former stars of Lob City, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, one of whom would get their first NBA championship in this showdown of the two biggest media markets in the league. Though they were friendly to one another during the series itself, this was a somewhat physical series, even if it was never really all that much in doubt. Just like in 2018, Liu Fauzeng came to play, and though the Lakers tried to shove him around, even leading to a near-injury to Fauzeng in Game 3 that almost caused a fight between the two squads, Fauzeng would not be denied, scoring in the paint and from behind the arc, and thoroughly outplaying Lebron in this series. Once again, Liu Fauzeng proved himself to be the league's premier player, dominating in all facets of the game, and beginning to raise questions that he might be one of the NBA's all time greats. With three straight MVP awards and two straight NBA championships, he had already laid claim to being the game's best current player, and now he was already in the conversation with players like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson for the title of all-time best.
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For the past few months, Google and several other companies have been lobbying vigorously for a law that would ban all data capping on home and mobile internet connections, preventing internet service providers and wireless companies from offering any plans except for unlimited service. Google has been especially aggressive in pushing this law, with the company issuing numerous statements and even sending representatives to testify before Congress that "data caps are an outdated relic of Internet service, with modern data streaming rendering such plans an unnecessary barrier to innovation". With Google's new cloud gaming service Stadia said to be placing a strain on the data usage of some heavy-duty gamers, it's easy to see why the company has been so motivated to get rid of them. Service providers have fired back, with Verizon issuing a statement that reads in part, "data caps allow us to offer competitive pricing to our customers, and our research has shown that a vast majority of them will never use more data than they are allotted, with only the top 3% of users ever actually needing unlimited data in any given month. As it currently stands, it's the people who use our service the most who subsidize access for most everyday users, but if data caps are made illegal via government overreach, it will be the other way around, with regular users subsidizing the service of our biggest data consumers". Comcast, which began rolling out data caps to its customers last year, also cited research showing that only around 5% of its users will ever need more than the alotted 1 terabyte of data per month, and that it plans to cut costs for most users if the data caps continue to reduce overhead costs for its services, providing more value to its customers and passing some of the savings along to them, while also re-iterating that it would be forced to raise prices if data caps were forced to go away.
At the moment, it does not appear that the proposed law to ban data capping would pass Congressional muster, even if an increasing number of representatives and senators are open to passing such legislation. Most moderate Democrats oppose the measure, especially in the Senate, though some, like Joe Manchin (D-VA), have proposed an alternative law that would make it easier for competing services to enter a municipality, giving customers an opportunity to choose if they wish to use a service where data caps are in place. In recent weeks, President Kennedy has voiced support for regulating the use of data caps, and has also expressed that he would be open to signing such a bill if it were to pass both houses of Congress. For now, the proposed bill is being debated in the House, and may come up for a vote as soon as next month, though it's still unlikely to pass in either house at this point.
-from a June 10, 2019 article on Kotaku
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Blockbuster To Introduce A Spooky New Lineup Of Animated Shows This Fall
The Blockbuster streaming service is set to launch several new animated shows aimed at kids and teens starting in September, and the unifying theme for this year is horror, with no less than four upcoming shows that will revolve around the horror genre in some way.
The most notable new animated show, and one we've been hearing about for nearly a year now, is a new take on Beetlejuice, which last received an animated adaptation in the late 80s that saw success on both CBS Saturday mornings and airing in re-runs on Nickelodeon later on. The new show, a joint Canadian-American production, is said to be a slightly more "mature" take on the property, with less focus on comedy and more of an ongoing storyline. Like the original animated show, it will revolve around the friendship between the teenage girl Lydia (voiced by Alyson Court, who reprises her role from the 80s cartoon) and the "ghost with the most", the undead prankster Beetlejuice, who is summoned forth by Lydia to assist her in her daily life while also taking her on various adventures. The original animated series focused less on Lydia's relationship with her human friends, choosing to spend more time in the land of the dead, the Neitherworld, but in this new series, Lydia's friends will also know about Beetlejuice, and will often be involved in their escapades, while we'll also learn more about the bureaucracy of the Neitherworld and we'll dive into Beetlejuice's everyday life apart from Lydia, including an exploration of just how he got to be a ghost in the first place. The series also brings on John DiMaggio to voice Beetlejuice, taking over from Canadian actor Stephen Ouimette, who voiced him in the original series. Lydia's friends will be voiced by Kimiko Glenn and Nicki Burke, while Tara Strong, who voiced the snobby rich girl Claire in the original series, will play a role in this new series as well. It's not yet been revealed which character she'll play, while Aubrey Plaza and Keith David have also been announced in as of yet unrevealed but "recurring" roles in the new show. The first 13 episodes of the rebooted Beetlejuice series will launch on the Blockbuster service in October, but coming in September will be two more animated horror shows, including a brand new IP known as Geisthaven, which will be an action-adventure show based around three preteen kids living in a mysterious and spooky town full of hidden terrors. Geisthaven is expected to be a more "serious" type of show, with showrunner Chris Butler calling it a "love letter to the nightmares of my childhood", but still with a child-friendly tone, with some comic relief mixed in with all the scares.
Blockbuster's scary new family lineup is expected to compete with shows such as Hex Girls which will be debuting on Cartoon Network in the fall, as well as shows on rival services such as Netflix and Paramount+, both of which are also launching scare-themed shows in the fall. Paramount+ will be the exclusive home of a TV-PG revival of Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, aimed at viewers who watched the show as kids back in the 90s and who are now looking for more sophisticated scare fare, while Netflix will be airing a horror-themed season of their hit Arcadia series, with showrunner Guillermo del Toro having brought in Hideo Kojima to pen an episode inspired by Silent Hill. There will be plenty of screams for kids and teens on streaming services this fall, and even adults will probably find at least one scary good show to binge before Halloween.
-from a June 19, 2019 article on Tubehound
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Game Spotlight: Star Siren: Battle Princess
Star Siren: Battle Princess is a 3-D beat 'em up game published and developed by Capcom for the Reality, Virtua, Nexus, and Stadia. The game is a reboot of the company's popular Star Siren series, which was a 2-D beat 'em up franchise focused on a magical superheroine and her friends. The reboot takes things back to basics: Star Siren's companions are all gone, though Capcom has left the door open for them to return in future titles. The focus in this game is on the titular superheroine, a schoolgirl who goes by Saiyuki in her civilian guise. Combat in the game plays out much like it does in the 2-D titles, with Star Siren able to use powerful magical attacks on her enemies, as well as melee strikes, with both accompanied by colorful visual effects much like what would appear in a magical girl anime show. The gameplay somewhat resembles OTL's Wonderful 101, and even uses many of the same systems and mechanics, giving the player a score based on how well and how stylishly they're able to defeat enemies, with the player using those points to cash in for power-ups and upgrades. With the full range of 3-D movement offered to the player, verticality becomes a major element of gameplay, with Star Siren able to leap and even fly all across the city, dashing across the rooftops of buildings and leaping down for powerful magical strikes. As players fight, they'll be able to charge up progressively more powerful and impressive attacks, which play out with impressive animations, the more powerful the attack, the more impressive it looks. Rather than performing a single mission objective in linear fashion, the player is frequently able to go out of their way to help civilians and battle foes, which provides the player with a better overall grade and better rewards, and can also show hidden cutscenes that reveal more of Saiyuki's character and the game's plot. The game's graphics are full 3-D, but with a heavy anime influence, with impressive cel shaded graphics and anime cutscenes appearing frequently, sometimes in comic-like panels as characters, both heroes and villains, react to the player's actions. The game's voice acting has also seen somewhat of a reboot, Cristina Pucelli no longer voices Star Siren/Saiyuki in the English dubbed version of the game, and instead, a younger actress has taken over the character, an original TTL voice actress who was 23 when she dubbed her lines, and who has become a fairly popular anime dub actress in TTL's world, she'd be a name as recognizable ITTL as someone like Erica Lindbeck would be IOTL. Most of the game's dub cast consists of actors who would be quite familiar to anime watchers, both OTL and TTL.
As par for the course for a typical reboot, the game serves as an origin story for this new Saiyuki, a 15-year-old high schooler in Japan who is transformed into Star Siren after being attacked by monsters during a festival at a park. The game sees Saiyuki juggling her civilian life with her new superhero life, a frequent source of tension for the character, who is unable to reveal her identity to her friends or family. Her major superpower, besides her actual magical abilities, is hope and determination... she won't let innocent people come to harm, and will battle anyone who tries to do so. The antagonists are a succession of villains, with three Big Bads over the course of the game's five act structure, each succeeding the next, with minons and subordinates galore, as well as various "monster of the day" type characters. This gives the game a very fast pacing not unlike that of OTL's Mischief Makers, with more menacing and powerful villains taking over the more the player moves through the game, other villains recurring, and a grand overall villain at the top of it all. The game's primary antagonist, the one in charge of the entire villainous army, is the Grand Architect Raythor, who has decided to launch an invasion of Earth in order to use it as a base for his armies, but also to capture Earth's Core Crystal, the source of all magical energy on the planet, which Raythor believes lies deep within the planet, but which actually has been absorbed into Star Siren herself as a protective measure. Star Siren battles through Raythor's armies before a grand battle with the villain himself, all the while dealing with various tensions and problems that she's been forced to face over the course of the game. She's never able to reveal her identity to anyone, though one of Raythor's minions who defects to the side of good does learn who she really is, and becomes an ally to her before tragically sacrificing himself in a battle in the game's final act. Ultimately, Star Siren defeats Raythor with the power of love, destroying him and sending his armies packing... with the sequel hook that he was just the beginning and that there's actually a great empire of evil up there in the stars somewhere.
Star Siren: Battle Princess is released on June 4, 2019, receiving an excellent critical reception largely thanks to the game's outstanding combat, some of the best beat 'em up 3-D gameplay in a game in recent memory, compared very favorably to Bayonetta (though obviously not as gory). Saiyuki's character is also praised, while the rebooted Saiyuki is different somewhat from her previous version, she does retain all her best personality traits and is still quite recognizable as the classic hero. The plot is a bit derivative and predictable, but most critics let this slide, as the game is meant to mostly be an homage to shoujo anime. It's easily the best selling Star Siren game in many, many years, selling faster than any game in the series since Star Siren Nakama, and ultimately becoming the best selling game in the series overall when all is said and done. It's one of Capcom's most successful reboots ever, and a much needed change of pace for a heroine that was starting to become stale.
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Other Significant Titles For June 2019:
Kirby's Dream Revolution: The Reality's second and last mainline Kirby title sees the familiar pink puffball in a very familiar 2-D action game, scrapping the party elements of 2015's Fantastic Party and just going balls-to-the-wall classic Kirby. While fans are disappointed again that it's not a 3-D Kirby game as was rumored, this is still an exceptional, content-rich title, an homage to the original Kirby's Dreamland but with so much more content, including three Arenas, each one tougher than the last, and 4 player gameplay similar to Star Allies from OTL. Almost all the classic Kirby characters returns, there are plenty of homages to old games in the series... while the fact that it's still cookie-cutter Kirby does limit it from getting truly outstanding reviews, it's just about as good as the classic Kirby formula gets, and this game averages solid mid-8s while getting a lot more sales than Fantastic Party.
Virtua Tennis: Grand Slam: An excellent tennis title for the Apple Virtua, this game features real world tennis superstars and a wide variety of different court types and gameplay styles, focusing on both simulation-style realism and VR gameplay, with lifelike motion controls (or just the ability to use the regular controller). This is an excellent tennis sim and gets good sales, and is regarded as one of the year's best sports games.
Dragon Quest: Luminaries Of Legend: An iPhone G title from Enix-Keiken, this game is to Dragon Quest what OTL's Fire Emblem Heroes is to Fire Emblem, an RPG with a heavy focus on gacha, in which players are able to recruit a variety of heroes from across the series to partake in various quests as they journey to battle an evil wizard dragon king known as Dracodominus. Despite the gacha mechanics, this is still considered to be quite a good RPG, the gameplay is classic Dragon Quest but with some nice twists, the graphics are great (easily comparable to OTL's Dragon Quest XI), and the storyline is fairly compelling. It's a massive hit in Japan and puts a lot of iPhone G units in players' hands over there, while doing decently well in Europe and the United States.
Do The Crime: Developed by Rockstar Games as a sort of top down throwback to their Race 'n Chase series, this game blends arcade style driving and shooting gameplay with the wide open world sandbox stylings of Grand Theft Auto. The player is thrown into the role of a criminal who is given missions from various crime bosses, but can also just go around committing crimes in the city, including robbery and murder. Its arcade-style gameplay and somewhat retro inspired graphics prevent it from being as bloody or gory as Grand Theft Auto's main games, but it's still quite controversial, and definitely seems designed for people who spend more time in GTA screwing around doing rampages than actually completing story missions. It's a lot of fun, and sells millions of copies, but it's not as deep or engrossing as the Grand Theft Auto games, and reviews are only good to great and not excellent. It's released on all the current consoles as well as the iPhone G, and would make it to Game Boy Zero in 2020.
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June 26, 2019
Hideo Kojima has been hard at work on his upcoming next-generation giant mech game, Awakened From The Earth, as well as various other projects over the past couple of years, including a complete remake of his classic game Snatcher, which is now complete and will be releasing in a few short months. It's a rare opportunity when he actually has some time to enjoy himself and relax, and when he does so, he prefers to be with friends. On this particular day, he's been hanging out at a bar in Tokyo with his longtime friend Masahiro Sakurai, who has just been able to celebrate the successful launch of his own project, Kirby's Dream Revolution. Like Kojima, Sakurai is a relentless worker, and has already begun work on the next game in the Super Smash Bros. series... though despite many people asking him, he's unable to reveal its existence just yet. Sakurai hopes that Nintendo will find occasion to announce it soon... the game's development is already well underway.
"I can't wait to play Snatcher all over again," said Sakurai, laughing before taking a sip from his drink. "Of course, this will be an entirely new game, won't it, Kojima-san?"
Kojima laughed, nodding before taking a big swig from his own drink and placing the glass back down on the table.
"People will finally get to see all of those exciting moments in detail! Part of me is sad, I loved to keep people guessing about what certain things meant, seeing them play out in full animation will answer questions that I'm not sure I want to answer."
Kojima certainly loved his metaphors and mysteries, though Sakurai had seen enough of the new Snatcher to know that for all the questions the new game answered, it would also raise even more.
"I don't think you have to worry... you introduce so many new plot threads and characters, they'll leave people guessing for just as long as the old game did."
"I'm glad you're confident in that... perhaps I will make another game in another 30 years!"
The two exchanged another laugh, and Sakurai took another sip from his drink. He set it down, letting out a sigh. Work on the new Smash Bros. game was exhausting... so many new gameplay modes and characters, he'd often spent more than 100 hours a week leading his team. He knew many programmers couldn't handle the crunch, and that was fine... but he was an absolute work fiend, he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he wasn't spending so much time on his games. His mind was always racing with new ideas, new designs... he shared some of them with Kojima, the two often bounced ideas back and forth, what ideas they had that weren't restricted by confidentiality agreements, anyway. He still hoped someday that the two might be able to work at the same company together, so they could reveal all their ideas to each other... sometimes it was hard for him to keep track of what things he could reveal and what things Nintendo wanted him to keep secret!
But for all the work Sakurai had been doing on his games, Kojima had been working harder... not just on Snatcher and Awakened, but on a myriad of other projects for Ubisoft. He'd been all over the world, working on one project with one company and another project with the next, he was always talking to collaborators and friends, turning down what he had to, but taking on perhaps more than he could handle.
"Are you all right, Kojima-san?" asked Sakurai, looking across the table to see that his friend seemed to have temporarily nodded off. Kojima quickly nodded, and even laughed to let Sakurai know he was wide awake and doing just fine.
"Of course, we were still talking about Snatcher, weren't we?"
"We were indeed, but maybe we can talk about something else now..."
"Who's going to be in the new Smash Bros.?" asked Kojima. "I have some ideas, and not just for my characters! I think Sadira Blackheart would make a good entry..."
Sakurai just laughed, unable to share anything about the upcoming game's roster, or even that it existed at all, though everyone knew one was coming. As the two resumed their conversation, Sakurai still had worries about his friend, who'd taken on so much work and hadn't let up in over a decade. His own doctor had warned him about the effects his schedule was having on him, he could only imagine what Kojima's schedule might be doing.
Maybe we can both get some rest after our games come out next year, thought Sakurai, trying to fight back his worries by keeping his own spirits up. Maybe you'll be able to retire, old friend.
All I'm saying is that, if the most recent years of this timeline get away with the deaths of Hayao Miyazaki, Masahiro Sakurai, and Hideo Kojima, while also ending the Player Two Start chapter of the story with the death of Shigeru Miyamoto back in 2000, there WILL be tears.
In other words, @RySenkari, you had better stock up on tissues if you are planning for this. And lots of them!
Nice update! I hope Ace Combat series exist in this TL of yours, since AC7 is releasing in the same year (2019) just like in TL itself.
So one of the last games covered by this timeline will probably TTL's equivalent to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. If it's ending in 2021 and this chapter is in 2019, then this means Smash 6 is gonna be releasing sometime in 2020.
And here I thought you were done with Smash for this timeline after Mega Man.
I don't think both Kojima and Sakurai would pass away, but odds are one of them will, and the other will likely step back from active game development.
It's sad, but Japan's work culture can be very brutal and unforgiving, and death by overworking isn't uncommon over there.
I don't know which outcome is better or worse. On the one hand, it's implied that Kojima would need the Guile treatment during his twilight years. On the other hand, Smash is just as much of a powerhouse franchise as it is IOTL. I just can't decide.
July 2019 - Zelda: Retelling A Legend
The release of Game Arts' old-school style RPG Lunar: Ascent Of Althena and Squaresoft's big budget open world action-RPG Gestalt within one week of each other have given fans of the genre an opportunity to compare the philosophies with which these two companies approach their most notable genre of video games. While Game Arts is no stranger to releasing AAA titles (co-publishing Ithiel: Redemption earlier this year), and Squaresoft still makes plenty of traditional turn-based games (including the upcoming Octopath Traveler), Japan's two biggest makers of RPG titles have definitely diverged from one another over the past decade, and while both of these games are quite good (you can read our review of Lunar: Ascent Of Althena here, and our Gestalt review here), they're definitely designed to appeal to different groups of gamers and approach RPG making in two entirely different ways.
Ascent Of Althena, which was released for the Reality, Virtua, Nexus, and Stadia, is a modern RPG with modern quality of life features and graphics, but certainly approaches its gameplay in a traditionalist vein. The primary protagonist is a young blue-haired girl named Leith, whose adventure starts with her being kidnapped from her village by pirates. From there, the game progresses in fairly linear fashion, with Leith eventually joining up with five other characters on the course of her journey, which takes her across a massive world that she must learn about as she ventures forth. Combat is strictly turn-based, and though there are some gimmicks here and there, the game sticks rather strictly to RPG tropes as players make their way through. On the other hand, Squaresoft's Gestalt features a protagonist named Trace, venturing across a vast open world on his transforming motorcycle, battling biker gangs who take the form of demons. It's as dark and gritty as Ascent Of Althena is hopeful and adventurous, and features a complex action-based combat system in which players must juggle their own strikes and attacks with those of their motorcycle, which can be modified and even changed throughout the game. Ascent Of Althena is clearly inspired by anime, and features an upbeat and whimsical soundtrack with full symphonic music, while Gestalt takes after sci-fi films such as Mad Max and Blade Runner, and features a modern rock soundtrack blended with techno. The two games couldn't be more different from one another, but both can certainly be enjoyed by RPG fans, even if Ascent Of Althena will no doubt appeal more to traditionalists.
Squaresoft will continue its rock-and-roll sci-fi approach to RPG making with Final Fantasy XV, which releases next year and will feature gameplay literally based on rock and metal music, while Game Arts is continuing to produce traditionalist RPG fare, including Tryst Of Fate, which boasts a 3-D action combat system but looks positively loaded with classic RPG tropes, including a prominently featured romance storyline. It's clear that both Squaresoft and Game Arts are enjoying tremendous success, especially in Japan, and it will be interesting to see just how much these companies stick to their design philosophies during the next generation of consoles, as video games continue to change and evolve.
-from a July 18, 2019 article on RPGamer.net
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Anderson Cooper: Last night's Republican presidential debate was the first of several planned debates that will take place between now and the first caucuses and primaries in 2020. Eight prospective candidates discussed a wide variety of issues, ranging from the economy to the role of government in Americans' lives, while foreign policy also formed the basis of numerous discussions as tensions continue to ramp up between India and Pakistan, raising the specter of American military involvement in the region. Marco Rubio went into the night as the leader in the polls, and by all accounts, he did quite well, but a pair of upstart candidates, including Virginia's Nick Freitas and Michigan's John James, were also quite vocal last night, and may have improved their position in the race if early polling is to be believed. Our Donna Lampley was there at the debate, and she's got more coverage on this night that may well have changed the tone of the Republican presidential race going forward.
*Footage from last night's debate appears on screen.*
Marco Rubio: President Kennedy is pushing this country toward socialism, and I don't think Americans are going to stand for it much longer!
Cindy McCain: I think we do need to consider some kind of further sanctions against Pakistan.
John James: There are still lots of Americans who believe in traditional family values.
Donna Lampley: *narrating* Last night's Republican debate in Atlanta, Georgia, the first of what is expected to be at least four such debates between the candidates, was a vigorous, at times confrontational affair, as eight of the candidates discussed not only their ideas for America's future, but the future of the Republican party, which has been slumping for the past several years in both national and downballot races. While all eight candidates were unified in their opposition to President Kennedy, they were quite vocal in their disagreements on many of the issues that the party has been pushing since Kennedy took office back in 2017.
Nick Freitas: And I think that we should be looking to shore up our military presence overseas.
Marco Rubio: You know, I think that's the last thing we need right now, because our debt is mounting and we need to cut back on all spending, including military spending.
Freitas: Pakistan is testing thermonuclear weapons! We can't let-
Rubio: They haven't tested any weapons yet.
Freitas: They've announced their intentions to test them.
Rubio: But for you to say that they're testing them, when they haven't tested them... I'm opposed to Pakistan's government more than anyone up here, but you're pushing for military intervention.
Freitas: I'm pushing for more sanctions, senator.
Lampley: *narrating* And while Pakistan and India's conflict was a subject of much debate, the candidates also debated the Kennedy health care law, and had different solutions on how the party should treat the law moving forward. While some candidates pushed for a full repeal, others pushed for more moderate solutions.
Lindsey Graham: I think a complete repeal wouldn't be wise, as much as I don't like the idea of a public option, I think it's got to be a more cautious approach with how the new president handles the bill.
John James: The only way we can get out from under the crushing debt this bill has already created is if we repeal the public option healthcare law. America shouldn't be in the business of selling health insurance, period.
Graham: It's got to be a more gradual phase-out based on means.
James: The quicker we get rid of it, the better.
*Lampley is now shown at the debate hall the day after the event.*
Lampley: Potential Republican primary voters say that the debate was a successful one, with 50 percent of those polled saying that this first debate has caused them to consider changing their vote from one candidate to another. That's potentially bad news for Marco Rubio, who was the front-runner headed into last night's debate with about a third of the vote going in. In a poll taken shortly after the debate, Rubio was still in the lead with 28 percent, but now Nick Freitas is hot on his heels with 21 percent, while John James has surged into third with 16 percent, ahead of Cindy McCain. Of course, there are expected to be several more debates before the end of the year, and candidates have already begun campaigning, with Rubio and James both expected to make numerous stops before the end of the month in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Michigan and Florida, the home states of James and Rubio respectively, are expected to play major roles in primary season, with both primaries coming early next year and both carrying significant weight in the overall delegate count. And, of course, there could still be at least one more entry in the nomination race. Rick Santorum, who finished second behind eventual nominee Jon Huntsman all the way back in 2008 has been mulling another run, with evangelical voters, many of whom feel increasingly alienated by this crop of candidates, signaling that they'd back him if he did. There's also former actress Stacey Dash, who was a long-time panelist on The View, and has recently entered into politics, leaving The View to run for governor of California back in 2018, where she finished a close second to Tom Campbell for the Republican nomination. She skews more socially liberal than Santorum, though she is a strong fiscal conservative and has criticized both the minimum wage increase and the public option healthcare law. She's also been critical of vice president Stacey Abrams, and back in 2016 challenged her to a "Stacey vs. Stacey" debate which would have been streamed live on Videocean had the vice presidential nominee not declined the invitation. She's recently stated that she was also considering a presidential run, and is expected to make her final decision on the matter sometime before the end of the summer.
(...)
Lampley: Last night's debate failed to bring much clarity to the race for the Republican nomination, but it demonstrated that despite President Kennedy's popularity, there's still lots of opposition to his policies, opposition only expected to grow stronger as the race heats up. For ABC News, I'm Donna Lampley.
Anderson Cooper: As always, thank you for that excellent reporting. Now for our other top story out of Washington, you'll still have to watch your data after a bill that would have made Internet data caps illegal was defeated in the Senate earlier today by a 53-47 vote, after narrowly passing the House last week. The bill, which had been heavily lobbied for by companies such as Google...
-from the July 17, 2019 broadcast of World News Tonight with Anderson Cooper
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Filming Of Ang Lee's "The Legend Of Zelda" To Begin Next Year
Filming of the highly anticipated film based on Nintendo's video game franchise The Legend Of Zelda will begin sometime next year, as the film aims for a 2021 release. The project has been in the works since 2015, and Lee has been attached since 2016, though progress on production has been slow, with the script writing said to have been "a long, painstaking process" as the writing team works with both Eiji Aonuma and director Lee to produce a script worthy of the series and its lore. We still don't know much about the film itself, though it won't be based on any particular game in the series but will instead "blend the mythology and lore from numerous games to create a coherent story that will weave the narratives of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf together". Casting has been ongoing, and though most of the cast members have not yet been announced, we have received confirmation on four of the major characters in the film, including Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. Link will be played by 21-year old Welsh actor Lewis Davies, a relative unknown who has mostly appeared in stage productions but who also had a major role in the British teen drama Killing Stonie, in which he played the friend of a young man suspected of murdering one of his classmates. Davies received major critical praise in that role, and was even nominated for numerous Best Supporting Actor awards in Britain. Zelda will be played by 21-year-old Australian actress Olivia DeJonge, who again is mostly known primarily for roles in her home country. Ganondorf is being played by Idris Elba, who was the first name attached to the film, having been announced in the role of Ganondorf late last year. Elba just finished filming for his final James Bond title, which is expected to come out in November. Singer and actress Christina Grimmie has also been recently confirmed to have a significant role in the film, and it was revealed at last week's San Diego Comic Con that she'll be playing Saria, a character who appealed in 1998's The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time. Grimmie, who has been on Paramount+'s GameTV since 2017, is expected to depart the show once filming begins. She's a self-described "lifelong fan" of the series, and in addition to auditioning for Saria, she was also said to have been briefly considered for the role of Zelda by director Ang Lee, who was said to have been "very impressed" by her audition.
-from an article on Gamespot, posted on July 29, 2019
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Game Spotlight: The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane
The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane is an adventure game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, and the latest mainline title in Nintendo's ongoing The Legend Of Zelda series. It once again sees Link take on the role of Hyrule's greatest hero, as he uses the power of the weather to battle a dangerous foe with similar weather manipulation abilities. The game plays much like a modern OTL 3-D Zelda title, comparable to games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, though without the motion controls of either. It does take advantage of the Reality's VR in similar fashion to 2015's Legend Of Zelda remake, and allows the option for first person gameplay and exploration, though this gimmick isn't as pushed as it was in that title. As Link ventures across Hyrule, he'll need to visit six Temples, each of which is devoted to a particular weather phenomenon. The temples are in regions that share the names of some of the locations from Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link, and though the game is designed as an homage to that title, with numerous recurring characters and settings from that game, it's not a remake, and has been confirmed by Eiji Aonuma to take place in "an entirely different branch" of the series timeline. Link's primary mode of transport, as well as the means with which his sword can control the weather, is a Cucco weathervane that transforms into a flying Cucco and when it's not being utilized for this purpose, it becomes part of the hilt of Link's sword, which has an icon of a Cucco along with various symbols related to the weather. Instead of gaining items in each Temple, Link gains the ability to utilize various aspects of the weather, including being able to control the temperature, the speed and direction of the wind, as well as being able to summon various weather phenomena such as rain, snow, hail, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms. The player is able to draw from a limited resource pool to use these abilities, though they'll rarely ever be stuck without a required ability in the location where it's required to be used. The player can also utilize these weather phenomena in battle, channeling lightning and rain into Link's sword, for example. The player is given a great deal of creativity in how they want to approach battles and puzzles, and weather phenomena can even be combined for various effects. Of course, the classic series items (Bow/Arrow, Bomb, Boomerang) also appear and can be used by Link as they normally would, though their importance is slightly diminished compared to earlier games in the series. Exploration is fairly open in this game, though strong lightning storms do block off certain areas early on. There are plenty of towns, temples, and side quests that the player can explore for treasures and Heart Pieces, with a total of 40 Heart Pieces in all to collect, and plenty of things to spend Rupees on, with lots of mini-games (fishing is back, as well as target shooting, different kinds of racing, a somewhat involved meteorology minigame that plays out over multiple chapters of the story, an animal raising/farming minigame, and more). Link's primary mode of transportation is flying around on the Cucco, and while there's extensive fast travel available, players will usually want to fly around to get the lay of the land and look for secrets. As Link's powers grow, the Cucco will be able to fly higher and farther, which opens up more areas for exploration. The production values of Flight Of The Weathervane are outstanding: the game features significantly improved graphics from the 2015 Zelda, largely due to optimization for the Reality Neo, which allows the player to enjoy the game in full 4K. The game looks better than any Zelda title both IOTL and ITTL, with vast draw distances and highly detailed scenery and animations, with some truly spectacular weather effects as well. It features full voice acting (though as always, Link remains silent), with Cristina Vee voicing Zelda and Mark Hamill as the voice of the Thunderbird, the game's primary antagonist, and it features an outstanding score by a team of composers led by Koji Kondo.
The game begins with Link asleep in a cottage in a small town, which is destroyed in a spectacular lightning storm. Link must venture painstakingly to an ancient tower, atop which sits a Cucco weathervane. When Link claims this weathervane, a sword appears in his hands and he battles an introductory boss to calm the storm. His village is still destroyed, though the villagers have survived, and Link can talk to them for various gifts and hints before they move on to seek out a new home, after the village elder implores Link to use his sword to calm the other storms throughout the world. The game opens up here, though Link is pointed to the first town, in which a mysterious girl named Zelda is revered as a young "sage" with the ability to use magic and control the weather. Link is barely able to get an audience with her, though when he does, she reveals herself to actually be quite humble and says that she fled her kingdom in the night after her mysterious powers brought ruin to her kingdom. She claims that a great terror bird in the sky came forth soon after she began using her powers, though after she went seeking for this bird, she found a different bird who she's able to fly around on but who has little if any powers of its own. She offers to give Link a ride to a mysterious temple using this bird, and that's where the player's true quest begins, as Link is delivered to the Rain Temple, the first temple of the game. The Rain Temple is a combination swamp/water level temple, though the water puzzles are VERY simple so as not to alienate new players with difficult puzzles in the very first temple, and this is where Link learns to utilize rain and water powers with his sword. The second temple is the Heat Temple, out in the middle of a vast desert, and Link can learn to control temperature in this temple. The third temple, which is sort of the climax of the game's first half, is the Wind Temple, where Link learns to control the winds for the first time. In addition to being able to use wind powers for a variety of combat and puzzle functions, he'll also be able to use them for transportation purposes as well. The Wind Temple's boss fight is a spectacular one, as it involves Zelda's bird, which turns out to be one of the three great birds whose powers control Hyrule's weather. After the Thunderbird's first appearance, Zelda's bird, Windrider, turns temporarily insane, and Link is forced to battle Windrider in a mid-air battle in which tornadoes swirl and in which the player's control of the wind is key. Following this temple, Zelda and Windrider both disappear, and Link is temporarily separated from his Cucco, forced to take up a new, slightly weaker sword for a short time, until he comes across the Snow Temple and recovers his Cucco about midway through to battle the temple's miniboss. The Dust Temple is next, a temple surrounding a mysterious ancient city that was buried by a giant dust storm. This temple is another multilevel temple in which Link must lower layers of dust to uncover more and more of the city until he's finally able to uncover the boss below. The Lightning Temple is the final one, where the Thunderbird is said to reside and where Zelda is being held prisoner. This is built up somewhat like a final dungeon, but things aren't quite what they seem. Link actually frees Windrider about halfway through, and also nearly saves Zelda, though she ends up captured by the Thunderbird and taken to the temple's highest point. Instead of battling the Thunderbird, though, Link is forced to battle a brainwashed Zelda, who has similar weather-manipulation powers and even a powerful sword of her own (this battle is somewhat of an homage to the Dark Link fight from the original Zelda II, with Zelda being Link's "shadow" of sorts). When Zelda is defeated, she's freed from Thunderbird's spell, though she ends up falling seemingly to her doom before Link is able to catch and save her. With Zelda's help, Link is able to open the way to the Hall Of The Three, where Thunderbird is attempting to siphon the powers from both Link's Cucco (whose true name is revealed as Gallerian after the Lightning Temple sequence) and Windrider. With both their powers depleted, Gallerian and Windrider are both left unable to help at the start of the final battle, but Link and Zelda heroically battle Thunderbird anyway until the true powers of their birds are unleashed. Then, Link and Zelda battle Thunderbird together, using lightning to strike him down (just as in Zelda II). With Thunderbird defeated, his powers are dispersed to the world, where they will eventually give rise to a new guardian weather bird, while in the meantime, Gallerian and Windrider assume their rightful positions as guardians of Hyrule's weather, after giving Link and Zelda one last ride through the skies to see the peace they've brought to the world. Zelda is finally able to return to her home, where she takes her rightful place as ruler, while Link returns to his people until he is needed once more.
The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane is released on July 26, 2019, to an excellent critical reception, about on par with 2015's The Legend Of Zelda remake (perhaps slightly worse). The game is praised for its graphics and production values, while its use of the various weather phenomena is seen as a very creative take on the series' classic repertoire of items and powers. Sales are, of course, outstanding, and it would become the year's best selling Reality exclusive, as well as one of 2019's most successful games overall. The future of the series remains quite bright, though after a couple of somewhat traditionalist games on the Reality, the series' designers and Aonuma both want to mix it up for the next generation's big Zelda title. That game, of course, would be beyond the scope of this timeline, but some hints about what it may focus on could begin to leak as soon as late 2020/early 2021.
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Other Significant Titles For July 2019:
Disco Elysium: Apart from the new Zelda game and the two RPGs, Disco Elysium is the only significant other game to debut in TTL's July 2019. Launching as a PC/Mac/Stadia exclusive title, it's somewhat similar to OTL's title in its plot, though with the higher profile of detective/crime games ITTL, those games do have somewhat of an influence on the development of this game, especially since, as IOTL, it focuses on skill checks and speech trees and doesn't include any actual combat. The Crime Stories games are a major influence ITTL, as is Dick, which inspired some of the game's humor (though Disco Elysium is much more sophisticated in terms of its writing), while Miraculous Ladybug also proved to be a major influence. The game proves to be a significant critical hit, its reception comparable to that of OTL's game, making it a game of the year contender. Thanks to Google's promotion of Disco Elysium, it also becomes a big commercial hit for Google as well.
Ascent Of Althena, which was released for the Reality, Virtua, Nexus, and Stadia, is a modern RPG with modern quality of life features and graphics, but certainly approaches its gameplay in a traditionalist vein. The primary protagonist is a young blue-haired girl named Leith, whose adventure starts with her being kidnapped from her village by pirates. From there, the game progresses in fairly linear fashion, with Leith eventually joining up with five other characters on the course of her journey, which takes her across a massive world that she must learn about as she ventures forth. Combat is strictly turn-based, and though there are some gimmicks here and there, the game sticks rather strictly to RPG tropes as players make their way through. On the other hand, Squaresoft's Gestalt features a protagonist named Trace, venturing across a vast open world on his transforming motorcycle, battling biker gangs who take the form of demons. It's as dark and gritty as Ascent Of Althena is hopeful and adventurous, and features a complex action-based combat system in which players must juggle their own strikes and attacks with those of their motorcycle, which can be modified and even changed throughout the game. Ascent Of Althena is clearly inspired by anime, and features an upbeat and whimsical soundtrack with full symphonic music, while Gestalt takes after sci-fi films such as Mad Max and Blade Runner, and features a modern rock soundtrack blended with techno. The two games couldn't be more different from one another, but both can certainly be enjoyed by RPG fans, even if Ascent Of Althena will no doubt appeal more to traditionalists.
Squaresoft will continue its rock-and-roll sci-fi approach to RPG making with Final Fantasy XV, which releases next year and will feature gameplay literally based on rock and metal music, while Game Arts is continuing to produce traditionalist RPG fare, including Tryst Of Fate, which boasts a 3-D action combat system but looks positively loaded with classic RPG tropes, including a prominently featured romance storyline. It's clear that both Squaresoft and Game Arts are enjoying tremendous success, especially in Japan, and it will be interesting to see just how much these companies stick to their design philosophies during the next generation of consoles, as video games continue to change and evolve.
-from a July 18, 2019 article on RPGamer.net
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Anderson Cooper: Last night's Republican presidential debate was the first of several planned debates that will take place between now and the first caucuses and primaries in 2020. Eight prospective candidates discussed a wide variety of issues, ranging from the economy to the role of government in Americans' lives, while foreign policy also formed the basis of numerous discussions as tensions continue to ramp up between India and Pakistan, raising the specter of American military involvement in the region. Marco Rubio went into the night as the leader in the polls, and by all accounts, he did quite well, but a pair of upstart candidates, including Virginia's Nick Freitas and Michigan's John James, were also quite vocal last night, and may have improved their position in the race if early polling is to be believed. Our Donna Lampley was there at the debate, and she's got more coverage on this night that may well have changed the tone of the Republican presidential race going forward.
*Footage from last night's debate appears on screen.*
Marco Rubio: President Kennedy is pushing this country toward socialism, and I don't think Americans are going to stand for it much longer!
Cindy McCain: I think we do need to consider some kind of further sanctions against Pakistan.
John James: There are still lots of Americans who believe in traditional family values.
Donna Lampley: *narrating* Last night's Republican debate in Atlanta, Georgia, the first of what is expected to be at least four such debates between the candidates, was a vigorous, at times confrontational affair, as eight of the candidates discussed not only their ideas for America's future, but the future of the Republican party, which has been slumping for the past several years in both national and downballot races. While all eight candidates were unified in their opposition to President Kennedy, they were quite vocal in their disagreements on many of the issues that the party has been pushing since Kennedy took office back in 2017.
Nick Freitas: And I think that we should be looking to shore up our military presence overseas.
Marco Rubio: You know, I think that's the last thing we need right now, because our debt is mounting and we need to cut back on all spending, including military spending.
Freitas: Pakistan is testing thermonuclear weapons! We can't let-
Rubio: They haven't tested any weapons yet.
Freitas: They've announced their intentions to test them.
Rubio: But for you to say that they're testing them, when they haven't tested them... I'm opposed to Pakistan's government more than anyone up here, but you're pushing for military intervention.
Freitas: I'm pushing for more sanctions, senator.
Lampley: *narrating* And while Pakistan and India's conflict was a subject of much debate, the candidates also debated the Kennedy health care law, and had different solutions on how the party should treat the law moving forward. While some candidates pushed for a full repeal, others pushed for more moderate solutions.
Lindsey Graham: I think a complete repeal wouldn't be wise, as much as I don't like the idea of a public option, I think it's got to be a more cautious approach with how the new president handles the bill.
John James: The only way we can get out from under the crushing debt this bill has already created is if we repeal the public option healthcare law. America shouldn't be in the business of selling health insurance, period.
Graham: It's got to be a more gradual phase-out based on means.
James: The quicker we get rid of it, the better.
*Lampley is now shown at the debate hall the day after the event.*
Lampley: Potential Republican primary voters say that the debate was a successful one, with 50 percent of those polled saying that this first debate has caused them to consider changing their vote from one candidate to another. That's potentially bad news for Marco Rubio, who was the front-runner headed into last night's debate with about a third of the vote going in. In a poll taken shortly after the debate, Rubio was still in the lead with 28 percent, but now Nick Freitas is hot on his heels with 21 percent, while John James has surged into third with 16 percent, ahead of Cindy McCain. Of course, there are expected to be several more debates before the end of the year, and candidates have already begun campaigning, with Rubio and James both expected to make numerous stops before the end of the month in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Michigan and Florida, the home states of James and Rubio respectively, are expected to play major roles in primary season, with both primaries coming early next year and both carrying significant weight in the overall delegate count. And, of course, there could still be at least one more entry in the nomination race. Rick Santorum, who finished second behind eventual nominee Jon Huntsman all the way back in 2008 has been mulling another run, with evangelical voters, many of whom feel increasingly alienated by this crop of candidates, signaling that they'd back him if he did. There's also former actress Stacey Dash, who was a long-time panelist on The View, and has recently entered into politics, leaving The View to run for governor of California back in 2018, where she finished a close second to Tom Campbell for the Republican nomination. She skews more socially liberal than Santorum, though she is a strong fiscal conservative and has criticized both the minimum wage increase and the public option healthcare law. She's also been critical of vice president Stacey Abrams, and back in 2016 challenged her to a "Stacey vs. Stacey" debate which would have been streamed live on Videocean had the vice presidential nominee not declined the invitation. She's recently stated that she was also considering a presidential run, and is expected to make her final decision on the matter sometime before the end of the summer.
(...)
Lampley: Last night's debate failed to bring much clarity to the race for the Republican nomination, but it demonstrated that despite President Kennedy's popularity, there's still lots of opposition to his policies, opposition only expected to grow stronger as the race heats up. For ABC News, I'm Donna Lampley.
Anderson Cooper: As always, thank you for that excellent reporting. Now for our other top story out of Washington, you'll still have to watch your data after a bill that would have made Internet data caps illegal was defeated in the Senate earlier today by a 53-47 vote, after narrowly passing the House last week. The bill, which had been heavily lobbied for by companies such as Google...
-from the July 17, 2019 broadcast of World News Tonight with Anderson Cooper
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Filming Of Ang Lee's "The Legend Of Zelda" To Begin Next Year
Filming of the highly anticipated film based on Nintendo's video game franchise The Legend Of Zelda will begin sometime next year, as the film aims for a 2021 release. The project has been in the works since 2015, and Lee has been attached since 2016, though progress on production has been slow, with the script writing said to have been "a long, painstaking process" as the writing team works with both Eiji Aonuma and director Lee to produce a script worthy of the series and its lore. We still don't know much about the film itself, though it won't be based on any particular game in the series but will instead "blend the mythology and lore from numerous games to create a coherent story that will weave the narratives of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf together". Casting has been ongoing, and though most of the cast members have not yet been announced, we have received confirmation on four of the major characters in the film, including Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. Link will be played by 21-year old Welsh actor Lewis Davies, a relative unknown who has mostly appeared in stage productions but who also had a major role in the British teen drama Killing Stonie, in which he played the friend of a young man suspected of murdering one of his classmates. Davies received major critical praise in that role, and was even nominated for numerous Best Supporting Actor awards in Britain. Zelda will be played by 21-year-old Australian actress Olivia DeJonge, who again is mostly known primarily for roles in her home country. Ganondorf is being played by Idris Elba, who was the first name attached to the film, having been announced in the role of Ganondorf late last year. Elba just finished filming for his final James Bond title, which is expected to come out in November. Singer and actress Christina Grimmie has also been recently confirmed to have a significant role in the film, and it was revealed at last week's San Diego Comic Con that she'll be playing Saria, a character who appealed in 1998's The Legend Of Zelda: Temple Of Time. Grimmie, who has been on Paramount+'s GameTV since 2017, is expected to depart the show once filming begins. She's a self-described "lifelong fan" of the series, and in addition to auditioning for Saria, she was also said to have been briefly considered for the role of Zelda by director Ang Lee, who was said to have been "very impressed" by her audition.
-from an article on Gamespot, posted on July 29, 2019
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Game Spotlight: The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane
The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane is an adventure game exclusive to the Nintendo Reality, and the latest mainline title in Nintendo's ongoing The Legend Of Zelda series. It once again sees Link take on the role of Hyrule's greatest hero, as he uses the power of the weather to battle a dangerous foe with similar weather manipulation abilities. The game plays much like a modern OTL 3-D Zelda title, comparable to games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, though without the motion controls of either. It does take advantage of the Reality's VR in similar fashion to 2015's Legend Of Zelda remake, and allows the option for first person gameplay and exploration, though this gimmick isn't as pushed as it was in that title. As Link ventures across Hyrule, he'll need to visit six Temples, each of which is devoted to a particular weather phenomenon. The temples are in regions that share the names of some of the locations from Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link, and though the game is designed as an homage to that title, with numerous recurring characters and settings from that game, it's not a remake, and has been confirmed by Eiji Aonuma to take place in "an entirely different branch" of the series timeline. Link's primary mode of transport, as well as the means with which his sword can control the weather, is a Cucco weathervane that transforms into a flying Cucco and when it's not being utilized for this purpose, it becomes part of the hilt of Link's sword, which has an icon of a Cucco along with various symbols related to the weather. Instead of gaining items in each Temple, Link gains the ability to utilize various aspects of the weather, including being able to control the temperature, the speed and direction of the wind, as well as being able to summon various weather phenomena such as rain, snow, hail, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms. The player is able to draw from a limited resource pool to use these abilities, though they'll rarely ever be stuck without a required ability in the location where it's required to be used. The player can also utilize these weather phenomena in battle, channeling lightning and rain into Link's sword, for example. The player is given a great deal of creativity in how they want to approach battles and puzzles, and weather phenomena can even be combined for various effects. Of course, the classic series items (Bow/Arrow, Bomb, Boomerang) also appear and can be used by Link as they normally would, though their importance is slightly diminished compared to earlier games in the series. Exploration is fairly open in this game, though strong lightning storms do block off certain areas early on. There are plenty of towns, temples, and side quests that the player can explore for treasures and Heart Pieces, with a total of 40 Heart Pieces in all to collect, and plenty of things to spend Rupees on, with lots of mini-games (fishing is back, as well as target shooting, different kinds of racing, a somewhat involved meteorology minigame that plays out over multiple chapters of the story, an animal raising/farming minigame, and more). Link's primary mode of transportation is flying around on the Cucco, and while there's extensive fast travel available, players will usually want to fly around to get the lay of the land and look for secrets. As Link's powers grow, the Cucco will be able to fly higher and farther, which opens up more areas for exploration. The production values of Flight Of The Weathervane are outstanding: the game features significantly improved graphics from the 2015 Zelda, largely due to optimization for the Reality Neo, which allows the player to enjoy the game in full 4K. The game looks better than any Zelda title both IOTL and ITTL, with vast draw distances and highly detailed scenery and animations, with some truly spectacular weather effects as well. It features full voice acting (though as always, Link remains silent), with Cristina Vee voicing Zelda and Mark Hamill as the voice of the Thunderbird, the game's primary antagonist, and it features an outstanding score by a team of composers led by Koji Kondo.
The game begins with Link asleep in a cottage in a small town, which is destroyed in a spectacular lightning storm. Link must venture painstakingly to an ancient tower, atop which sits a Cucco weathervane. When Link claims this weathervane, a sword appears in his hands and he battles an introductory boss to calm the storm. His village is still destroyed, though the villagers have survived, and Link can talk to them for various gifts and hints before they move on to seek out a new home, after the village elder implores Link to use his sword to calm the other storms throughout the world. The game opens up here, though Link is pointed to the first town, in which a mysterious girl named Zelda is revered as a young "sage" with the ability to use magic and control the weather. Link is barely able to get an audience with her, though when he does, she reveals herself to actually be quite humble and says that she fled her kingdom in the night after her mysterious powers brought ruin to her kingdom. She claims that a great terror bird in the sky came forth soon after she began using her powers, though after she went seeking for this bird, she found a different bird who she's able to fly around on but who has little if any powers of its own. She offers to give Link a ride to a mysterious temple using this bird, and that's where the player's true quest begins, as Link is delivered to the Rain Temple, the first temple of the game. The Rain Temple is a combination swamp/water level temple, though the water puzzles are VERY simple so as not to alienate new players with difficult puzzles in the very first temple, and this is where Link learns to utilize rain and water powers with his sword. The second temple is the Heat Temple, out in the middle of a vast desert, and Link can learn to control temperature in this temple. The third temple, which is sort of the climax of the game's first half, is the Wind Temple, where Link learns to control the winds for the first time. In addition to being able to use wind powers for a variety of combat and puzzle functions, he'll also be able to use them for transportation purposes as well. The Wind Temple's boss fight is a spectacular one, as it involves Zelda's bird, which turns out to be one of the three great birds whose powers control Hyrule's weather. After the Thunderbird's first appearance, Zelda's bird, Windrider, turns temporarily insane, and Link is forced to battle Windrider in a mid-air battle in which tornadoes swirl and in which the player's control of the wind is key. Following this temple, Zelda and Windrider both disappear, and Link is temporarily separated from his Cucco, forced to take up a new, slightly weaker sword for a short time, until he comes across the Snow Temple and recovers his Cucco about midway through to battle the temple's miniboss. The Dust Temple is next, a temple surrounding a mysterious ancient city that was buried by a giant dust storm. This temple is another multilevel temple in which Link must lower layers of dust to uncover more and more of the city until he's finally able to uncover the boss below. The Lightning Temple is the final one, where the Thunderbird is said to reside and where Zelda is being held prisoner. This is built up somewhat like a final dungeon, but things aren't quite what they seem. Link actually frees Windrider about halfway through, and also nearly saves Zelda, though she ends up captured by the Thunderbird and taken to the temple's highest point. Instead of battling the Thunderbird, though, Link is forced to battle a brainwashed Zelda, who has similar weather-manipulation powers and even a powerful sword of her own (this battle is somewhat of an homage to the Dark Link fight from the original Zelda II, with Zelda being Link's "shadow" of sorts). When Zelda is defeated, she's freed from Thunderbird's spell, though she ends up falling seemingly to her doom before Link is able to catch and save her. With Zelda's help, Link is able to open the way to the Hall Of The Three, where Thunderbird is attempting to siphon the powers from both Link's Cucco (whose true name is revealed as Gallerian after the Lightning Temple sequence) and Windrider. With both their powers depleted, Gallerian and Windrider are both left unable to help at the start of the final battle, but Link and Zelda heroically battle Thunderbird anyway until the true powers of their birds are unleashed. Then, Link and Zelda battle Thunderbird together, using lightning to strike him down (just as in Zelda II). With Thunderbird defeated, his powers are dispersed to the world, where they will eventually give rise to a new guardian weather bird, while in the meantime, Gallerian and Windrider assume their rightful positions as guardians of Hyrule's weather, after giving Link and Zelda one last ride through the skies to see the peace they've brought to the world. Zelda is finally able to return to her home, where she takes her rightful place as ruler, while Link returns to his people until he is needed once more.
The Legend Of Zelda: Flight Of The Weathervane is released on July 26, 2019, to an excellent critical reception, about on par with 2015's The Legend Of Zelda remake (perhaps slightly worse). The game is praised for its graphics and production values, while its use of the various weather phenomena is seen as a very creative take on the series' classic repertoire of items and powers. Sales are, of course, outstanding, and it would become the year's best selling Reality exclusive, as well as one of 2019's most successful games overall. The future of the series remains quite bright, though after a couple of somewhat traditionalist games on the Reality, the series' designers and Aonuma both want to mix it up for the next generation's big Zelda title. That game, of course, would be beyond the scope of this timeline, but some hints about what it may focus on could begin to leak as soon as late 2020/early 2021.
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Other Significant Titles For July 2019:
Disco Elysium: Apart from the new Zelda game and the two RPGs, Disco Elysium is the only significant other game to debut in TTL's July 2019. Launching as a PC/Mac/Stadia exclusive title, it's somewhat similar to OTL's title in its plot, though with the higher profile of detective/crime games ITTL, those games do have somewhat of an influence on the development of this game, especially since, as IOTL, it focuses on skill checks and speech trees and doesn't include any actual combat. The Crime Stories games are a major influence ITTL, as is Dick, which inspired some of the game's humor (though Disco Elysium is much more sophisticated in terms of its writing), while Miraculous Ladybug also proved to be a major influence. The game proves to be a significant critical hit, its reception comparable to that of OTL's game, making it a game of the year contender. Thanks to Google's promotion of Disco Elysium, it also becomes a big commercial hit for Google as well.
What's next the legend of zelda: gat out of heck (that does sound cool though)
How about The Legend of Zelda: Rhythm of the Night?
I think the NCIS and the FBI franchises are the ones that were butterflied away, possibly due to TTL's cancellation of CSI.
How about Legend of Zelda: The Infernal Dawn, in this game you have a new villain who is basically a hylian satanist who who kidnaps the newborn gerudo prince to convert him into the next infernal lord, the gimmick is that you switch between Link in the land of balance, Zelda in the Land of Radiance, and a reformed Ganon in the Land of Infernal.
That is brilliant! Playable Link, Zelda, AND Ganondorf! It's stunning!
Maybe it's too break the cycle of rebirth that all theee want to break, maybe it could be a good anniversary title
Zelda would be a mage archer assasin archetype using stealth and magic to solve puzzles, think Shadow of War meets Assassins Creed.
Ganondorf would be a berserker type character but he would have RTS elements to him as he can raise an army of monsters to send them on raids.
Legend of Zelda -- From Hair To Eternity
Plot Synopsis: Due to stress from repeated imperilment, after her latest kidnapping Zelda goes bald. She nags Link until he agrees to find the secret of the ancient Biomancers who can grow her hair back. In the final denouement, Link must choose between saving Hyrule from a horrific penis-inversion plague, and saving Zelda's toupee. Due to the whole hero thing, he saves Hyrule, and then takes off his green cap for the first time in the entire series, revealing he is bald as well.
Plot Synopsis: Due to stress from repeated imperilment, after her latest kidnapping Zelda goes bald. She nags Link until he agrees to find the secret of the ancient Biomancers who can grow her hair back. In the final denouement, Link must choose between saving Hyrule from a horrific penis-inversion plague, and saving Zelda's toupee. Due to the whole hero thing, he saves Hyrule, and then takes off his green cap for the first time in the entire series, revealing he is bald as well.
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