The Miraculous Ladybug franchise you transformed into a Video Game is quite nice ! I'm french and i didn't know it existed tbh before you did the first one !

Where did you get this idea ?

Well, I like the Miraculous Ladybug cartoon a lot, and I just thought it might be interesting for it to become a video game ITTL, with the POD being that Michel Ancel and Thomas Astruc meet up. The rest is pretty much history ^_^

Of course, the recent revelations about Michel Ancel made this an... interesting update to write :p
 
Well, I like the Miraculous Ladybug cartoon a lot, and I just thought it might be interesting for it to become a video game ITTL, with the POD being that Michel Ancel and Thomas Astruc meet up. The rest is pretty much history ^_^
I have two things to say on the matter of Miraculous Ladybug 2...

1: So, essentially, we have a repeat of the OTL scenario that resulted in Kingdom Hearts? That just makes this deviation even better!
2: Would we see Adrien and Marinette find out about each other's secret identities in the third game? I mean, we have every revelation BUT that twist in the second game, so why not go big or go home?
 
The Miraculous Ladybug franchise you transformed into a Video Game is quite nice ! I'm french and i didn't know it existed tbh before you did the first one !
Mostly because even if set on paris, is more popular in Korea and the americas than in europe, French seems prefer Echii Tail or Radiant
 
Fall 2016 (Part 6) - The Expanding World Of Acclaim
Destined 3

Destined 3 is an action/adventure/brawler title published by Acclaim. It tells the story of a secret organization of superheroes dedicated to protecting the world and its people, despite the fact that they're being hunted by almost every government on Earth. It continues the events of the previous two games, and focuses mostly on some of the heroes who were playable in those titles, though it does introduce a couple of new playable characters to the mix, for a total of eight playable characters in all. The production studio heard audience complaints about Destined 2, and so the combat was fancied up a bit, with more moves available to each character, an emphasis on counter-striking and the use of special abilities, and also an upgrade to enemy AI and more creative bosses. Overall, this makes for a combat system that features a lot less repetition of enemies and tactics, and gives each character their own distinct feel. The six returning heroes from previous games are Matt, Sarah, Canopa, Arty, Vargas, and Astrid, with the other heroes making cameo appearances but not in playable form. They're joined by Revv (voiced by Greg Cipes), a young man with the ability to transform into a human-car hybrid, complete with flames and missiles, and Levia (voiced by Cristina Vee, who uses a voice much closer to her OTL Velvet Crowe voice than her Ladybug voice), a woman with the ability to transform into a water snake and command the powers of the deep ocean. The game goes somewhat back to basics. Unlike Destined 2, it doesn't assume that the player has played the first game, and so there are more tutorial levels, and skill trees and combat are somewhat more intuitive (leading to accusations of dumbing down by some). Overall, the game still has a very smooth, enjoyable challenge curve, no matter what route players take through the game. Routing missions is a lot more important in Destined 3, as the players will ultimately have to choose what hero's path to follow, which can have major consequences for certain characters in the game. Depending on the player's actions, it's possible for numerous important NPCs to die, including all four heroes from the two previous games who aren't playable in this one, and it's also possible for Sarah to die during a certain story route. Players are generally told before making important decisions that there are consequences to their next choice, but those consequences aren't made clear until the mission plays out. Fortunately, it's always possible to go back and replay a mission a different way, with mission selection appearing on a "branching paths" map of sorts. Overall, Destined 3 plays a lot like most other superhero brawlers on the market. It's a bit more polished and a bit more epic, intended as the third and final part of a trilogy of games, and it has the best graphics of the three titles, with enhanced options for the Virtua S and Nexus Pro (and eventually, the Reality's 4K model).

Destined 3 features a three-way clash between three different organizations, each with distinctly different goals. There's the underground superhero network led by Matt, which, despite being in hiding from world governments, still pops out to rescue people who need saving. There's the governments of the world, most prominently, the United States government, with elite agents tasked with stopping superheroes and supervillains alike. The government isn't "evil" in this game, most agents are simply doing their jobs, and there's no one like Lucent in Destined 2 with explicitly evil intentions. The government also secretly employs a few superpowered individuals, one of whom plays a major role in the game. Finally, there's the Breaker Force, an organization of villains who want to cause chaos and take over the world. They're pretty much your standard group of evil bad guys, but they have a complex agenda, and their leader, a powerful shadowmancer named Draga (voiced by Kim Coates), is a very intriguing character. Most of the missions in Destined 3 features the superheroes battling the Breaker Force to save innocent civilians, with the US government caught in the middle. Their lead agent, Ami Kenai (voiced by Maggie Q) is working in a partnership with a superpowered teenager, Sam (voiced by an original TTL actor, a 17-year-old boy). Sam has the power to transform any substance into almost any other substance, and his government handlers call him the Alchemist, while Ami has a somewhat big sister/little brother relationship to him and tries to protect him. The fate of the Alchemist becomes one of the game's central plot points: Draga wants to get his hands on Sam's powers, while the underground superheroes think the government is using him. At the same time, Draga is attempting to start a rebellion of superpowered individuals, using the fact that the government is trying to catch and kill them to try and convince them to join his side. About halfway through the game, a major confrontation causes Sam to accidentally transform either Krista, Shadow, Blazer, or Jillian into metal, an irreversible process. There's no way to avoid this death sequence, though this is the only guaranteed death in the whole game (the canon scene, which most players will see, is Jillian being killed, as her own powers were starting to go out of control). This causes Sam to run away, while Ami is captured by Breaker Force and used as a hostage to try and lure Sam in. Ultimately, the superheroes have to rescue Ami from Breaker Force (during which time, another superhero can be killed, though this isn't guaranteed). Breaker Force ends up starting a massive rebellion of powerful supers, and eventually, the government is forced to ask Matt and his group for help. Sam, feeling guilty about his actions, is eventually lured in by another member of Breaker Force (a woman named Kali, who has a more diplomatic approach than Draga but is no less evil), and is eventually converted to Draga's side, forcing the superheroes to act. In the climactic final battle, the player ultimately is faced with two ending choices: the "bad" ending, in which Sam is saved and Draga is defeated, but Sarah is forced to sacrifice herself in the process, or the "good", canon ending, in which Sarah is saved but the player has to face a much more dangerous final boss fight against both Sam and Draga (though Sam is still saved regardless). Draga is killed, and the government ends its program to captured and kill superheroes, though the victory is bittersweet, as many superpowered individuals died in the fighting, including at least one of Matt's friends. Sam decides not to join the superhero group, instead leaving with Ami to practice his powers in isolation, while the game's ending shows the superheroes doing what they do best: saving people, though now they're doing it freely.

Released on November 18, and accompanied by the typical hype storm from Acclaim, Destined 3 is a critical and commercial success, though not to the same extent as previous titles. Critically, it's an improvement over Destined 2 thanks to the improved combat and boss fights, but it's still not a groundbreaking brawler by any means, and is mostly a fanservice, crowdpleaser game, designed to appeal to fans of the property and somewhat failing to attract new players despite its noob-friendly tutorials and learning curve. Sales would also decline from those of Destined 2, with the game doing fairly well over the holidays, but falling a bit short of blockbuster status. Regardless of the game's mixed success, the IP, which consists of comics, cartoons, and action figures, is still doing quite well, and remains one of Acclaim's most valuable properties. The adventures of this current group of heroes is set to continue in those ancillary products, though the games themselves will begin to focus on a new team of superheroes as Acclaim starts working on the series' fourth installment for the next console generation....

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Acclaim To Acquire Eidos In $1.1 Billion Deal, Adding Tomb Raider And Other Properties To Its Iconic Repertoire

Two major game companies are set to merge after several months of back-and-forth negotiations, bringing an end to debate about which game company the growing Acclaim would be looking to acquire. Acclaim's long-rumored acquisition bid for Eidos stalled out in 2014 due to financial concerns, but the company's increased success over the past year brought negotiations back to life, and finally, the two companies closed on a deal to merge, with Acclaim purchasing up a controlling share of Eidos stock worth just over a billion dollars. Acclaim had been mentioned in rumors to acquire Eidos as early as 2012, with many rumors swirling around the potential addition of Lara Croft to the company's Acclaimed Champions fighting game (which ultimately didn't happen). Acclaim's financial struggles at the time scuttled the deal, but the company's financial footing is a lot more sound these days, with the company bringing in increased profits from television and movie adaptations of its properties, and its comic book line settling into a strong third place, just behind DC and Marvel, establishing itself as a member of what is now considered a "Big Three" of comic book companies. Eidos has recently seen increased fortunes as well, thanks to strong sales for its most recent Tomb Raider title, but the company was still considered to be in somewhat difficult financial straits, with production of its upcoming open world game The Gatherer said to have drained much of Eidos' finances over the past year. Now, Acclaim will pick up production of The Gatherer, which is still scheduled for a release in the first half of 2017. It will also add the recently released Nosgoth MMORPG to its holdings, though the game's development team has already stated that the deal will have little impact on the game's day to day operations (and in fact could mean the addition of some Acclaim properties to the game). Meanwhile, Lara Croft, Kain, and Raziel will join Turok, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion amongst Acclaim's iconic roster of characters, and though it's probably too late to add them into Acclaimed Champions as DLC, there's a good chance we get to see them in the sequel (we're already taking bets on Lara vs. Turok!).

-from an article on Blargo, posted on December 1, 2016
 
Acclaim To Acquire Eidos In $1.1 Billion Deal, Adding Tomb Raider And Other Properties To Its Iconic Repertoire

Two major game companies are set to merge after several months of back-and-forth negotiations, bringing an end to debate about which game company the growing Acclaim would be looking to acquire. Acclaim's long-rumored acquisition bid for Eidos stalled out in 2014 due to financial concerns, but the company's increased success over the past year brought negotiations back to life, and finally, the two companies closed on a deal to merge, with Acclaim purchasing up a controlling share of Eidos stock worth just over a billion dollars. Acclaim had been mentioned in rumors to acquire Eidos as early as 2012, with many rumors swirling around the potential addition of Lara Croft to the company's Acclaimed Champions fighting game (which ultimately didn't happen). Acclaim's financial struggles at the time scuttled the deal, but the company's financial footing is a lot more sound these days, with the company bringing in increased profits from television and movie adaptations of its properties, and its comic book line settling into a strong third place, just behind DC and Marvel, establishing itself as a member of what is now considered a "Big Three" of comic book companies. Eidos has recently seen increased fortunes as well, thanks to strong sales for its most recent Tomb Raider title, but the company was still considered to be in somewhat difficult financial straits, with production of its upcoming open world game The Gatherer said to have drained much of Eidos' finances over the past year. Now, Acclaim will pick up production of The Gatherer, which is still scheduled for a release in the first half of 2017. It will also add the recently released Nosgoth MMORPG to its holdings, though the game's development team has already stated that the deal will have little impact on the game's day to day operations (and in fact could mean the addition of some Acclaim properties to the game). Meanwhile, Lara Croft, Kain, and Raziel will join Turok, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion amongst Acclaim's iconic roster of characters, and though it's probably too late to add them into Acclaimed Champions as DLC, there's a good chance we get to see them in the sequel (we're already taking bets on Lara vs. Turok!).

-from an article on Blargo, posted on December 1, 2016
I am surprised by this!

One thing to note. Would we see major companies serving the SJW crowd much less than IOTL, or even not at all? I mean, it should be almost too easy to butterfly Snowflake and Safespace from the Marvel lexicon.
 
I have two things to say on the matter of Miraculous Ladybug 2...

1: So, essentially, we have a repeat of the OTL scenario that resulted in Kingdom Hearts? That just makes this deviation even better!
2: Would we see Adrien and Marinette find out about each other's secret identities in the third game? I mean, we have every revelation BUT that twist in the second game, so why not go big or go home?

Adrien and Marinette will find out each other's identities in the third game, yes.

One thing to note. Would we see major companies serving the SJW crowd much less than IOTL, or even not at all? I mean, it should be almost too easy to butterfly Snowflake and Safespace from the Marvel lexicon.

Yes and no... social justice as a whole is more prominent ITTL than IOTL, however, it's also not as big of a deal because things are less polarized in general.
 
Yes and no... social justice as a whole is more prominent ITTL than IOTL, however, it's also not as big of a deal because things are less polarized in general.
So no popular sterotype of "SJWs" developed by the alt-right. I guess that means 2016 here will atleast be a little better than OTL.
 
Adrien and Marinette will find out each other's identities in the third game, yes.



Yes and no... social justice as a whole is more prominent ITTL than IOTL, however, it's also not as big of a deal because things are less polarized in general.
YES!

I'm not sure whether this is good or bad. Of course, I asked that question because of the harder competition between Marvel, DC, and Acclaim, which made me think of the more recent New Warriors team, which explains why I namedropped Snowflake and Safespace.
 
Fall 2016 (Part 7) - Bioware's MMO Masterpiece
Gearworld

Gearworld is an MMORPG/shooter developed by Bioware and published by Valve exclusively for the Steam platform on PC. It takes place in an ecumenopolis of massive cities without end, set in a futuristic world that's a mix of steampunk and cyberpunk aesthetics. Its plot centers around a war between three main factions: human workers and their robotic allies known as Scraps, corporate soldiers and their robotic enforcers, and a powerful army of robot rebels that have turned their backs on humanity and wish to destroy both human factions, along with a few human sympathizers outfitted with biomechanical upgrades. The great war is set amongst a post-apocalyptic environment where the world is littered with the remnants of a much larger war that involved powerful war machines, some of which are still active and attack members of all three factions. Gearworld combines PvE elements (which are the majority of the playing experience for most people, with the PvE missions helping players to acquire gear and knowledge of the world for PvP combat) and PvP combat between the three factions, which can be either free/open PvP in designated areas, or PvP missions in which players are tasked with engaging a squad from the other faction that has entered into a PvP area. PvP combat can be highly rewarding, with stronger loot/experience/prestige rewards, so players are encouraged to team up and do PvP when they can, though the bulk of the game's combat focuses on PvE missions, which involve things like scouting certain areas, engaging a team of enemies or a boss, finding certain objects, or rescuing protecting NPCs. While there's a designated slate of PvE missions that can be sort of considered a "campaign" (about ten hours worth of missions designed to level players up from 1 to around 20), there's also a lot of rotating PvE missions that players can either take on solo or team up to complete, either with a squad of friends or with randoms from their faction (or sometimes other factions). Players can have up to three characters on the same account: one for each of the game's three factions (Scraps, Suits, or Gearheads). The Scraps want freedom for themselves and their robot allies, and want to set up a large offworld colony where they'll be free of corporate control and the robotic death squads, the Suits want to re-establish corporate dominance over the world and want to make a profit, and the Gearheads want to destroy all humans (though their ultimate goal is a bit more complex than that, as revealed through later story material). Gameplay itself gives players the choice between a first person or third person shooter perspective, and players can have a wide variety of weapons. In addition to the standard gun and melee weapon choices that are present in most shooter games of this type, there's a variety of unique weapons as well, including drones, bombs, gravity cannons, psychic-based weaponry, and others that players can not only find and buy, but also build out of the huge variety of materials they can find throughout the game. Gearworld's crafting system is among the most complex of its type ever to appear in a game, and it allows for an enormous amount of freedom to build whatever weapons the player desires, most of them with some kind of steampunk aesthetic. You can build tricked out guns, crazy blunt weapons, spiked armor that will damage anyone that hits you, mechanical boxing gloves, launchers of all kinds of different projectiles... there's literally billions of different combinations, rewarding experimentation and creativity, with new materials and weapons constantly being added to the game. Bioware is careful to ensure that weapons and armor are properly balanced, so it's not really possible to make something truly gamebreaking, but it is possible to make something really powerful. In addition, the game has a real-world auction system (similar to the original Auction House from Diablo III) that allows players to sell what they create. This system, like in OTL's Diablo III, is maligned by some players, but it's much better implemented in Gearworld, and it's only possible to buy from the Auction House after accomplishing certain goals in the game, so you can't just buy your way to the best gear immediately. Gearworld is a truly massive world, with several large cities, a vast underground area, and some more open areas on the outskirts of the cities, though the game does take place in an ecumenopolis, so it's not possible to escape the cities entirely. Each city has its own distinct feel. There's Scrap territory, Suit territory, Gearhead territory, neutral territory, and hostile territory inhabited by mechanical beasts, including the Raptors, massive robotic birds who jealously guard their territory and are sort of the "mascot" of the game (think the Songbird from OTL's Bioshock Infinite combined with a Stormbird from OTL's Horizon: Zero Dawn, but bigger than both). Taking them down earns tons of loot and prestige, but only a high level team can even think to take down the larger ones. Gearworld has absolutely gorgeous graphics, which really shine on high-end rigs, though the game can also be enjoyed on moderately good rigs and even on certain models of Steam Machine consoles (which are selling somewhat well, and which see more sales as a result of Gearworld, not on the same level as the dedicated game consoles but better than the Steam consoles from IOTL). The game also features plenty of named NPCs and a strong voice acting cast, including Gina Rodriguez as the legendary Scrap heroine Galvez, who was the first worker to strike back against the corporations but who mysteriously disappeared and now lives on only in legend, Alan Tudyk as Palladium Rex, leader of the Suit faction and the richest man on the planet, who committed a number of atrocities during the war, and Harry Lennix as General Arsdale, leader of the army that pushed back the robotic hordes in an epic battle, who now tries to keep the peace between the Scrap and Suit factions to unite them against the Gearheads. The Gearheads themselves are voiced by computerized speech modules with different effects applied, giving them a truly "inhuman" manner of speaking, though later on, Gearhead NPCs appear who are voiced by humans (and the human Gearhead sympathizers are also voiced by humans, including a young mechanic named Null voiced by Michaela Dietz who becomes a more prominent character later on in the game's progression).

Gearworld is released on October 29, 2016, after a six-week delay from its original September 2016 launch date, in order to patch up bugs and polish the game's final release. It's probably the most anticipated new MMORPG since Final Fantasy Online 2, and also among the most anticipated games of the year overall. Reviews for the game are generally highly positive, praising the combat system and deep character creation/loot mechanics, though some aspects of the game's storyline and PvE are criticized, preventing the game from achieving an exceptionally high score (it averages in the low to mid 9s, making it one of the year's best reviewed games but not the best). It would be the fastest selling Steam exclusive ever, achieving over a million sales in its first 24 hours of release, and over two million in its first week of release. Though the game costs $59.99 to purchase, it's a subscription-free game, with operating costs subsidized largely by cosmetic DLC, which allow players to trick out their characters in all kinds of ways. There are also mission packs available exclusively through DLC, though there's no DLC-exclusive loot and no real way to get an advantage by paying (one could argue that the mission packs are "sort of" pay-to-win, though they're mostly played for their unique stories and not for any kind of special loot). Gearworld, unlike Necrocracy 3, is considered a major success at launch, living up to the hype and in some cases exceeding it, instantly becoming the most widely played subscription-free MMORPG in existence, and delivering a serious challenge to the supremacy of World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy Online 2. It would become one of Valve's most profitable enterprises, and the game would receive lots of content updates and new storylines as the months progress, while the game's first major expansion would be pushed for a holiday 2018 release. Gearworld also draws a lot of attention to the Steam platform, even more than it had already, and would become a killer app for those looking to purchase home Steam consoles (though most of the hardcore Gearworld players would stick to PC, touting the benefits of playing on a high-end rig). Gearworld would catapult to the top of most Game of the Year lists, and in a year as crowded as 2016, that would be a source of major bragging rights for Valve and Bioware, the latter of which would continue to work on Gearworld while pivoting toward their next project, which they hoped would be a single player epic to rival the acclaim of the original Necrocracy, though it wouldn't see release for several more years.
 
Fall 2016 (Part 8) - Scalebound
Scalebound

Scalebound is an action RPG developed by PlatinumGames and published by Apple exclusively for the Virtua. The game, which focuses on a young man named Drew and his dragon named Thuban, is very similar to OTL's canceled title for the Xbox One, and combines elements of hack and slash games like Bayonetta with RPGs like The Witcher, with some elements of OTL's Astral Chain mixed in. Apple was significantly more involved in the development of Scalebound than Microsoft was IOTL, helping to push the game to completion while PlatinumGames worked on both this title and Bayonetta 3, with Apple utilizing its own development team to assist Kamiya and his team with numerous elements of the game. Apple also helped to make the game different from the earlier Dragonwar, which was being compared somewhat heavily to Scalebound, and Apple wished to differentiate the two titles to avoid fan confusion and gameplay redundancy. Scalebound is a much more combat oriented title than Dragonwar, while also featuring a less emotional plot that's based less on Drew's interaction with other humans and more on his interaction with Thuban. As in the original OTL concept, Drew and Thuban are linked to one another, and if one of them dies, it's a game over. Players control Drew most of the time, but can switch over to Thuban, and will level both of them up separately over the course of the game, with Thuban also receiving his own equipment. Unlike OTL's Scalebound, which started out with dinosaurs but then excised them from the game as development progressed, there are dinosaurs in TTL's Scalebound, which appear as enemies that must be battled by Thuban and Drew. The world of Draconis, where the game takes place, is more savage than the world in Dragonwar, with a more medieval level of civilization, and opposing armies that have tamed dinosaurs, while Drew and Thuban mostly wander alone, trying to avoid the large civilizations and armies that roam the countryside. Like in Kamiya's original OTL concept, Drew doesn't originally hail from Draconis, but has arrived from modern times, and must find his way home before he and his dragon are killed or captured by enemy forces. Also like the OTL concept, Scalebound is somewhat of an open world game, though not quite so open as the original concept, as the game has taken on a bit more of an episodic form like Platinum's other titles (it's more open than say, Astral Chain, but not as open as Dragonwar, for example). Scalebound utilizes the Virtua's graphical power quite heavily, and was in fact designed with the Virtua S upgrade in mind, with full 4K animations and environments when played on the new model system. It also utilizes 3D virtual reality heavily, and as in the original concept, the player's vision shifts to first person when controlling Thuban, allowing players to truly immerse themselves in becoming the mighty dragon. Drew is voiced by Troy Baker, who gives the character a bit less of a world-weary performance than some of the other roles he's known for (Drew is from the modern world, after all).

The game's storyline sees Drew, the protagonist, awaken in Draconis after a near-death experience. He's nearly killed by some soldiers on raptors, but is saved by Thuban, who then nearly kills Drew himself before sensing something in him and running away. Drew eventually catches up to Thuban, and is bestowed a mysterious "dragon arm" by a woman called the Matron of Dragons, which allows the two to share a bond. The Matron tells Drew that in order to return home, he must first help Thuban regain his full power by collecting five Dragon Runes scattered about the land. Each of the Dragon Runes is guarded by a hostile kingdom, and Drew and Thuban must deal with each kingdom in a different way if they are to collect the runes. These runes correspond with the five elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal. The Fire Rune restores Thuban's flame, allowing him to breathe fire. The Water Rune allows Drew to heal Thuban with his Dragon Arm. The Wood Rune allows Drew to commune further with Thuban, and to ride him outside of battle. The Earth Rune gives Thuban the power to create powerful quakes, while the Metal Rune allows Drew and Thuban to transform. Each Rune can only be obtained by helping its corresponding kingdom with a certain problem, or in some cases, by defeating the evil ruler of that kingdom. The kingdom where the Metal Rune is kept is the final one encountered in the game, and its ruler, the Tyrant King, has a bond with a powerful t-rex, much the same way that Drew and Thuban have bonded. The Tyrant King appears throughout the game, and he seeks Thuban's power for himself, to commune with his t-rex and to become a superhuman being with the powers of a dragon, though once he learns that Drew hails from another world, he seeks to travel to Drew's world and conquer it with his newly gained powers, meaning that he must be stopped if Drew is to have any hope of returning home safely. Drew and Thuban progress through the five kingdoms, assimilating the powers of the Runes and helping the people of the five Kingdoms while trying to avoid the wrath of the Tyrant King. However, a final confrontation is unavoidable, and eventually, the two do battle in truly epic fashion, with Drew and Thuban both transforming into powerful new forms to battle the empowered king and his mighty dinosaur. After an epic clash, the Tyrant King is defeated, and Thuban's power is restored, but there's a problem... if Drew goes back to his world, Thuban will be cut off from Drew's soul energy and will die. Drew decides to stay in Draconis with Thuban and his new powers, and much of the world left to explore... though there's still plenty of danger out there, the two will face it together as bonded partners standing against evil.

Scalebound is released in early December 2016, alongside the release of the Virtua S (and is of course offered in a bundle with the new console at a slight price savings). Reviews are mostly quite positive, averaging in the mid to upper 8s, praising the game's graphics and combat, though they are a bit disappointed that the world isn't as open as initially promised, and the story also leaves a bit to be desired compared to its RPG contemporaries. It's still quite the epic game, and Hideki Kamiya considers it a triumph, especially since he was able to complete it while working hard on Bayonetta 3. The game's ending definitely leaves room for a sequel, though it'll take some time before it's known if sales are good enough to warrant one, as the game doesn't sell quite as well as some of the major holiday blockbusters of the year. It's still fairly close to Bayonetta 2 in terms of sales, and as the price starts to come down in 2017, sales begin to pick up, especially as hype builds for Kamiya's next Virtua project.
 
Fall 2016 (Part 9) - Adventure, Yes Sir
Super Mario Adventure

Super Mario Adventure is an open world 3-D platformer exclusive to the Nintendo Reality. Combining elements of previous 3-D Mario titles, as well as the OTL Switch hits The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Adventure is the latest 3-D platformer in the Mario series, serving as a successor to 2012's Super Mario Laboratory and introducing open world gameplay to the franchise for the first time. The basic plot is quite similar to that of OTL's Super Mario Odyssey: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and intends to marry her, and Mario has to team up with a sentient hat named Cappy in order to rescue her and save the day. Mario has most of the same moves that he has in Odyssey: he can run, leap, dive, and stomp with incredible agility, and can throw Cappy to gain extra height and distance. The other major cap mechanic, the ability to jump into the bodies of enemies and objects, isn't present in this game, but in place of that mechanic, Mario is able to do a few more tricks with Cappy and even control it a bit more independently than the player was able to in OTL's Odyssey. The world of Super Mario Adventure consists of a massive central hub area (sort of like Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time) that serves as an introductory world and has 50 Stars to collect (Adventure uses Stars instead of Moons like in Odyssey, and there are less of them to collect, 500 in all as opposed to the 800+ in Odyssey), which connects to 10 large "worlds" and 5 small "worlds" each with their own contingent of Stars, along with a number of small micro-"worlds" with one or two Stars to collect in each. Unlike in virtually every other Mario title, it's possible to visit nearly the entire world of Super Mario Adventure right away: most of the game's "worlds" are accessible from the start of the adventure, and there are only a few areas gated off by locked doors and switch blocks (and those areas are accessible as well by speedrunning/sequence breaking). The game presents storyline events and bosses via "alerts": special events that happen after Mario hits certain thresholds of Stars, in which the area that Mario is in can be invaded by a certain enemy. Most of the time, this will be one of the Broodals, the rabbit-like wedding planner enemies who also opposed Mario in Super Mario Odyssey IOTL, and they're fought fairly similarly to how they're fought IOTL, though sometimes they'll mix things up or bring in a special robot or helper. During "alerts", the world that Mario is in will be gated off, forcing Mario into a boss fight, depending on the area he's in (the boss will be something appropriate for that area, so it's possible for the player to manipulate the boss they have to fight by being in a certain place when they collect a Star). These boss fights will sometimes be accompanied by cutscenes that show Bowser, Peach, the Broodals, or the world's denizens reacting to Mario's progress, and these cutscenes tell a linear story accompanying a highly non-linear game, giving the player a sense of progression. Apart from these forced encounters and the small number of locks and gates, the world is truly free to explore, and it's possible to stumble on anything, from an interesting platforming challenge to a massive new landscape rich with Stars and sights. The game actually somewhat resembles Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins in the way that the player can approach exploration and progression, and also takes a bit of inspiration from Apple's Endotherm games, with landscapes and worlds blending into each other somewhat. The graphics are some of the best ever seen in a console game, and players can enjoy just exploring the world and seeing everything there is to see. The music, by Koji Kondo, is quite rich and features incredible variety, and a few songs from OTL's Super Mario Odyssey, including a slightly lyrically changed "Jump Up, Super Star!" and "Break Free" appear in the game, as well as a few of Odyssey's world tunes. The game features some voice acting as well, though again, not to a great extent, as this is a Mario game, so Mario and Bowser mostly communicate in grunts, sounds, and very short one-word phrases. The Broodals get full voice acting during cut scenes, as well as Peach and Pauline (Pauline is voiced by Kate Higgins, as IOTL) and some of the Toads as well.

Of course, the game contains a huge variety of different worlds and environments, all seamlessly connected to one another. Some of the environments are quite similar to how they appear in Super Mario Odyssey: Wooded Kingdom, Metro Kingdom, and Luncheon Kingdom, for example, all appear very close to their OTL forms, though they appear as differently named areas without the word "Kingdom" attached to their names. We also see a variant of OTL's Ruined Kingdom, though it's significantly larger than IOTL, allowing for more exploration of this dark and post-catastrophe realm. There are also desert and beach areas, though they're somewhat different from the desert and beach areas in OTL's Odyssey, while there's also a large plains area that's an updated version of Bob-Omb Battlefield from Super Mario Dimensions, a huge cave complex combining elements of Vanilla Dome and Hazy Maze Cave that connects to several different areas, a huge haunted area with roaming Boos and a massive haunted mansion, and a frozen tundra area with a large mountain and an enormous sentient snowman. Those are just the ten "large" worlds, the "small" worlds include a toybox/block area designed around hardcore platforming, a racetrack area that's an homage to the Mariokart series, a craggy mountain menaced by high winds, a large volcanic plain, and an underwater area connected to the beach and the large cave. Each world has its own selection of enemies and at least one boss, while having a minimum of ten Stars each (some areas have much more). The player can enjoy the game's default perspective, or they can view the world in first person, with the Reality's VR calibrated for both options (it's recommended to play in classic third person mode, but some people do enjoy certain quieter areas of the game in first person, while others play fully first person as a challenge). As Mario explores the vast realm, he'll come across people that he can help, challenges that he can take on, and discoveries that he can make. Every 10 Stars or so, he'll engage in an "alert" fight and a little more of the game's plot will play out, as Mario gets closer and closer to saving Peach from Bowser and the Broodals. The four Broodals from OTL appear in this game: Topper, Harriet, Rango, and Spewart, but there's also a fifth Broodal: a gothic-inspired Broodal girl dressed all in black, named Veil. Unlike her siblings, who actively oppose Mario's mission, Veil just looks on, flipping her hair back, casually insulting her siblings, and calling their wedding plans "stupid". She doesn't seem to be in the mood to help Mario either, she's just a disinterested, disaffected observer who occasionally shows up to make comments, or sometimes carries off her siblings or picks up the pieces of their destroyed machines after Mario defeats them, more annoyed with their antics than with Mario beating them up, and for most of the game, is simply a comic relief character, someone to serve as a foil to the sillier Broodals and to somewhat humanize them a bit. Out of the game's 400 Stars, Mario must collect 150 in order to access the game's final two worlds: the first world is Bowser's fiery castle world, connected to the volcanic plain, but unlocked once 150 stars are collected, enabling access to Bowser's castle and the surrounding environs. After Bowser is defeated here, he and the Broodals escape to the Moon, similar to Super Mario Odyssey IOTL. Mario must go to the Moon and defeat both the Broodals and Bowser, and after Bowser is defeated, there's an escape sequence in which Mario must carry Peach to safety... however, as he reaches the game's final area, Veil, the last Broodal, is there to confront him. After binding Peach up in energy chains and trapping her inside a glowing sphere, Veil confronts Mario, telling him that while her siblings are annoying, they're still family, and she's fed up about all the times Mario's messed with them... then, as "Break Free" begins to play, Veil attacks Mario with dark magic, kicking off the final boss fight in which Mario must dodge a huge variety of spells thrown at him by Veil, before eventually getting the chance to platform up to her and jump on her head. After six such strikes (in which Veil uses more and more powerful magic as the fight progresses), she's defeated, disappearing into black sparks and smoke, and Peach is finally saved. Mario and Peach return to the Mushroom Kingdom, while Bowser is once again sent packing. Of course, the game's not over: defeating Veil opens up a new segment of the world to explore, and after collecting 250 Stars, another new challenge opens up, while collecting 399 Stars opens up the game's ultimate challenge, the Darkest Side of the Moon.

Super Mario Adventure is released on November 18, 2016, exclusively for the Nintendo Reality. It's released alongside the VR Super accessory, a more powerful VR headset for the Reality, and there's of course a VR Super bundle available for $199.99 including both the new headset and Super Mario Adventure. The game can be enjoyed without VR at all, as it's a massive Mario game with a huge variety of things to do, and the critical reception for the game is equal to if not slightly better than that of Super Mario Laboratory, making it one of 2016's best reviewed titles (though not quite as well reviewed as OTL's Odyssey). Critics love the massive world variety and the variety of the platforming challenges, as well as the graphics, music, and gameplay creativity. It's not quite as quirky as Super Mario Laboratory, and there's not as many things to do as OTL's Odyssey without the Cappy transformation mechanic, but the sheer amount of exploration that's possible makes this a Mario game like no other, and it becomes the Reality's best selling game of the year by far, while also helping to drive more Reality sales in a season where Nintendo has to compete with the Virtua S and Nexus Pro.
 
Fall 2016 (Part 10) - One Last Trip Before A Whole New World
Terror Trip 2: The Nightmare Revisited

Terror Trip 2: The Nightmare Revisited is a horror/adventure title developed by Pyramid Games and published by Psygnosis. It's the direct sequel to 2012's indie sensation Terror Trip, and much of the same team behind that game also worked on this game, including the two directors, brother and sister team Alex and Ariel Hirsch. As such, the game shares some plot and character elements with OTL's cartoon Gravity Falls, though TTL's game is somewhat scarier and more mature. Like the previous game, Terror Trip 2 shares a lot of gameplay elements with OTL titles such as Alan Wake and Until Dawn (and TTL titles like Pocatello), focusing more on exploration and mystery solving rather than combat, and allowing players to discover secrets and learn the game's lore at their own place, while also featuring plenty of story sequences and character development. Teenage twins Dirt and Claudia return as the game's primary protagonists, along with their friends Kim, Jesús, Jules, Rickon, and Alma, and a few new teenage characters who are introduced as friends of the protagonists, while also bringing in a few new adult characters (including a character who's a lot like OTL's Grunkle Stan) as well. Terror Trip 2 is an indie, but with a large budget for an indie, comparable to that of games like OTL's Senua's Sacrifice, with graphics and content rivaling that of some AAA titles. With much of the profits from the original Terror Trip going into this game's production, Terror Trip 2 has probably the largest budget of any indie game to date (while Psygnosis has the game positioned as its largest project apart from Cyberwar 5, putting more promotion into the game than even their upcoming Wipeout title). Even with the larger budget, Alex and Ariel have had pretty much free reign to do whatever they want with the game, loading it full of quirky humor, wacky thrills, and the occasional pop culture reference. Though the game plays much like the original, there are some new gameplay elements added, including some extreme sports and arcade-style minigames to help players pass the time, some improved character interaction features that include branching dialogue paths and characters that "remember" certain choices and statements made by the player, and some Talos Principle/Myst-inspired puzzle solving, while the world itself has been expanded outside of Willamette Falls (the setting for the original game, which returns for this one with some changes), and is about 2 to 2 1/2 times larger than the world of the original Terror Trip. The original game's voice cast returns to reprise their roles in this title, and Alex Hirsch voices some of the new characters, including the Grunkle Stan expy. One of the game's most prominent new characters is a girl named Luz, named after OTL cartoon animator Luz Batista, who works for Pyramid ITTL as a character designer. This reflects the influence of Dana Terrace, who created the Owl House cartoon IOTL, but who works as a writer and game designer for Pyramid ITTL. TTL's Luz is significantly different from her OTL counterpart (apart from being Dominican-American like her namesake), TTL's Luz is 18 and is much more laid back than the OTL character, and also has longer hair. She's one of Claudia's new friends, and probably the game's most prominent new character. There's also Sage, a young man that the characters meet in their return trip to Willamette Falls, who becomes a love interest for Claudia and another of the game's most significant new characters.

Terror Trip 2 sees Dirt, Claudia, and their friends returning to Willamette Falls, not on a school trip, but instead, after being called there by a mysterious voice in their nightmares. Since their trip to the town a few months back, a lot of things have changed. A shady businessman named Parks (the Grunkle Stan expy) has begun buying up a lot of property in Willamette Falls to capitalize on the terrifying events of several months before, and becomes a sort of secondary antagonist as he tries to obstruct or scam the teens at every turn. Indeed, more mysterious things have been happening, and Dirt and Claudia start investigating almost right away, while the others (save for Kim, who leaps right into the investigation) mostly want to distract themselves from all the scary happenings. Jules has been somewhat depressed since she and Will broke up, while Claudia's friend Luz, who decided to tag along after being jealous that she didn't get to experience all the scary stuff before, seems somewhat bored with everything that's been going on. Claudia soon meets with Sage, who has more information on everything that's been happening, and Dirt goes off with Kim more than he does Claudia, as Claudia is distracted by Sage and by her own fears of the unknown. We also learn that Dirt and Claudia have been having a lot of tension between them, since they plan to leave for different universities in a few months (somewhat reflecting the conflict between Dipper and Mabel at the end of season two of Gravity Falls). This conflict will ultimately play a major role in the events of the game, as Eidolon, the strange eldritch force behind the events of the previous Terror Trip, is once again working behind the scenes to cause trouble and claim human souls. Eidolon takes on a Bill Cipher-esque role in the game, though it's played somewhat more seriously, and instead of being voiced by Alex Hirsch, Eidolon is voiced by Kyle MacLachlan, who uses a much more menacing tone. It's revealed that most of the strange events occurring in Willamette Falls are due to the wandering spirits of several teenagers who mysteriously disappeared 50 years before. Each of these teenagers has a "counterpart" amongst the current era teens (except for one, which comes into play later on), and as we play through the game, we begin to learn more about who they were and how they disappeared. The wandering spirits cause more and more trouble in Willamette Falls as the game progresses, and their own struggles and the circumstances of their deaths mirror those of their current era counterpart. We learn that these spirit teenagers called Dirt, Claudia, and their friends to Willamette Falls, and that they intend to "replace" them in the real world by causing them to have a desire to disappear, by causing conflict and despair amongst them. One by one, the spirit teens make their move, and Dirt or Claudia have to help their friends overcome these conflicts, while also helping the spirit find peace and move on. Most of these conflicts are resolved fairly easily, but some are more troubling: for example, Luz has a crush on Jules, while Jules wants to reciprocate but can't move on from Will and from her own shame about her sexual identity, while the teenage spirit girls haunting them reflect this conflict because they were tricked into committing suicide during the 1960s because they were never able to express their own sexuality. The scene where Claudia helps Luz and Jules realize their own feelings while also helping the spirit girls make peace with what happened to them is not only a landmark LGBT scene in a video game, but also one of the most poignant scenes in the entire series. However, even as Dirt and Claudia are helping their friends, they're being driven further and further apart by their own conflict, and this causes Claudia to make a pact with Eidolon that causes her to lose her own soul, allowing her replacement, a young woman named Eliza, to manifest in the real world. Meanwhile, it's revealed that Sage is one of the spirit teenagers as well, the only one without a counterpart, as he's the only one of them who willingly made a pact with Eidolon, helping Eidolon kill the others in return for power. At the same time that Eidolon tears away Claudia's soul, Parks has managed to buy out the whole town, and is bringing in a team to tear down some of the old landmarks, which would jeopardize any chance Dirt has of bringing peace to the wayward teenagers' souls (which Eidolon has managed to imprison even after Dirt and Claudia were able to make peace with most of them). While Dirt, Kim, and Eliza (who Dirt eventually convinces to leave Sage and Eidolon's side and help them rescue Claudia) go to battle Eidolon and Sage, the others, led by Luz and Jules, must prevent Parks' plan to bulldoze half the town, by sabotaging his business deal (even while Eidolon's activities cause all sorts of havoc in the town). In a heartfelt scene, Dirt is able to get through to Claudia, and the two agree that even though they'll be going to separate colleges, they'll always be family, and the two are able to use their combined wits and skills to take down Eidolon, condemning him back to the dark spirit realm (and he drags Sage with him). The others save the town, forcing Parks to pack up and take his shady business dealings elsewhere. The teenage spirits from the past are able to go to the afterlife in peace, and Willamette Falls is saved.

Terror Trip 2 is released in November 2016 for the Reality, Nexus, Virtua, Connect, Gemini, PC, and Macintosh, with a mobile version released in 2017 for high-end devices. The game is received quite well by critics, who praise its characters and storyline, though they do consider the gameplay to be a bit dated, and the plot itself isn't quite as memorable as the original game, so reviews average only in the low to mid 8s. Sales are quite strong, making it one of the most successful indie titles of the year alongside Laser Star and Stardew Valley, and overall, the game is considered a big success for Pyramid, though not a surprise success like the original. Surprisingly, this would be the last Terror Trip game: much like OTL's Gravity Falls, the series would go out on a high note even if it could've gone on a bit longer. The Hirsch twins cite a desire to move on from the series, they don't want to do another "big" game with this IP, though the story would continue in the form of smaller, mobile games, chapter-based periodic titles, and ancillary materials such as webcomics and novels. The company has been producing lots of other games in the meantime, most of them cheaper mobile titles, RPGs, dungeon crawlers, and puzzlers, and Pyramid wants to continue with those, while putting more of this game's profits into expanding the company and increasing the amount of games they're able to put out in a year. Terror Trip 2 wouldn't be the last major game from Pyramid, though... indeed, work on the company's next major project would begin even before Terror Trip 2's release, and would take on a somewhat different feel from the two Terror Trip titles, while allowing some of the company's new staff to flex their creative muscles. Indeed, the idea for this next game wouldn't come from Alex or Ariel, but from someone who'd played a major role in the development of Terror Trip 2, and who now had an idea of her own for the next great RPG...

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Next Big Pyramid Project Won't Be Terror Trip 3: Hirsch Twins Tease "Isekai" RPG Concept

Pyramid Games just launched Terror Trip 2: The Nightmare Revisited, the long-awaited sequel to its 2012 hit mystery/horror game. Sales figures haven't yet been released, but the game is currently #3 on Nintendo's online store, behind Super Mario Adventure and Call Of Duty: Altered Warfare, and #2 on the Nexus store behind only Miraculous Ladybug 2. In a recent interview on G4's X-Play, the game's directors Alex and Ariel Hirsch discussed not only their thoughts about the game, but also their plans for the future, and their new game concept is quite different from anything the company has produced before.

Most surprisingly, Alex Hirsch stated that the company was probably "done" making any more big Terror Trip titles, citing a bit of burnout with the latest game toward the end of production, and also that there was "nowhere else to go" with the concept, at least in video game form. While this may come as a shock and a disappointment to fans of the games, Hirsch said that fans shouldn't be too worried, as there would be at least one more "small" game set in the Terror Trip world, and that it would likely be a chapter-based mobile game, a more low tech approach that wouldn't take up too much of the company's resources. He then said that he and Ariel would be stepping back from the company's next big project, serving in more of an advisory and supervisory role while a team of new writers took on their upcoming game, said to be an RPG based around the "isekai" concept, in which the player is teleported from one world to another, and must find a way to adapt to their new surroundings while getting back home. Japanese games are no stranger to this trope (the name Isekai itself is Japanese for "other world"), and the upcoming Scalebound will feature a version of this trope for its protagonist Drew. However, the idea of the player getting to create their own isekai character is a bit more novel.

Ariel Hirsch expanded on the upcoming game when asked by X-Play host Elisa Melendez. Though she didn't give a lot of information, she did say that the game's world was one of magic and mystery, and that the player would need to befriend denizens of this world and learn spells in order to make progress. She also said that the game's world would be "huge and epic", comparable to games such as Fallout 3 and Necrocracy. She then said that the game is still very early in development and would take a "few more years" to complete, and that in the meantime, Pyramid would be focusing on smaller titles as they did during the production of Terror Trip 2. Alex added that it probably wouldn't be until 2018 that the first footage of the game itself would be available, but that smaller things such as concept drawings might be released before, depending on how much progress the team was making on the game.

-from a November 12, 2016 article on Games Over Matter
 
I see the isekai trend has infected this TL too. :p
Isekai exist since 80's, the thing is modern Isekai was heavily influence by zero no tsukaima and a lot of DQ parody fic in japanese WEB, when the former could be butterfly away, the latter is hard, as DQ already is japan pastime by the time the POD struck
 
Isekai exist since 80's, the thing is modern Isekai was heavily influence by zero no tsukaima and a lot of DQ parody fic in japanese WEB, when the former could be butterfly away, the latter is hard, as DQ already is japan pastime by the time the POD struck
To be honest, I think "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" should be considered the first Isekai.

Plus, I think that the "Isekai" could be the equivalent to "The Owl House" on that TL.
 
One of the game's most prominent new characters is a girl named Luz, named after OTL cartoon animator Luz Batista, who works for Pyramid ITTL as a character designer. This reflects the influence of Dana Terrace, who created the Owl House cartoon IOTL, but who works as a writer and game designer for Pyramid ITTL. TTL's Luz is significantly different from her OTL counterpart (apart from being Dominican-American like her namesake), TTL's Luz is 18 and is much more laid back than the OTL character, and also has longer hair. She's one of Claudia's new friends, and probably the game's most prominent new character. There's also Sage, a young man that the characters meet in their return trip to Willamette Falls, who becomes a love interest for Claudia and another of the game's most significant new characters.

Next Big Pyramid Project Won't Be Terror Trip 3: Hirsch Twins Tease "Isekai" RPG Concept
Oddly enough, I was actually wondering if The Owl House will be a video game from Pyramid Games ITTL, to the point where I almost directly asked that question before reading this update. And with these two tidbits, I have my supposed answer before I even popped the question.
 
To be honest, I think "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" should be considered the first Isekai.
That is timetravel(yeah people at the time thought that happened) but now should be considered an isekai. We might have older examples but the point is..that modern isekai as we know, come from the fics of japanese internet.
 
Oddly enough, I was actually wondering if The Owl House will be a video game from Pyramid Games ITTL, to the point where I almost directly asked that question before reading this update. And with these two tidbits, I have my supposed answer before I even popped the question.

It is indeed The Owl House that will become a game ITTL. It won't be called that, and it'll play out slightly differently, but most of the characters and elements will show up in some fashion. The biggest change is that instead of Luz being the protagonist, you'll get to make your own, but any details beyond that will be revealed later :)
 
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