Inventory:Full magazine

issue 01 | March 2013

Final Fantasy XIV: A Franchise Reborn Final Fantasy XIV rises from the ashes looking more promising than we ever dared to imagine

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Studio Ghibli & Level 5 together creates the most beautiful game of the year

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Reality is a story the mind tells itself.

An artificial structure conjured into being by the calcium ion exchange of a million synaptic frings.

A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence.

And our minds can lie. ...Never doubt it.

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

07

Final Fantasy XIV: A Franchise Reborn

13

A victim of market change & corporate inertia

17

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

25

Virtual reality’s new hope

29

Orbis unmasked

33

The Crossroad

6

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Final Fantasy XIV: A Franchise Reborn My first act after entering the open game world is to tilt the camera towards the heavens.

A bright red orb hangs suspended there, a celestial monarch attended by an aurora and shooting stars. This is what I have come to see. The game itself, after all, still lies well short of its potential.

Trying to get started with Final Fantasy XIV in its current state is an exercise in patience. The combat system is unintuitive, other newcomers are few and far between, and the world feels restrictive and forbids you from jumping over so much as a pebble. However, things are not all bad at first glance.

The attention to presentation, a hallmark of the franchise, is manifest in the game’s elaborate cutscenes. The graphics are beautiful--if your system can handle them. This juxtaposition of quality with carelessness characterizes FFXIV and tells the story of a franchise in transition, one that has seen better days.

Seven mainline Final Fantasies after Final Fantasy VII, the series is not what it once was. Final Fantasy XIII released to a reception from fans that was lukewarm at best, and its sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2, sold less in its first week in Japan than Tales of Xillia ­– a shocking turn of events for a franchise that was once unassailable by other companies.

However, even set against that disappointment, no entry in the series has crashed and burned as spectacularly as FFXIV. Its MMO predecessor FFXI had proved to be the most profitable Final Fantasy ever, and expectations initially ran high. The subsequent critical and commercial panning FFXIV received at launch was unprecedented in series history. The backlash from fans was unanimous. The financial fallout was blamed for a $148 million loss in the company’s fiscal year. Rumors swirled that much of the game’s development had actually been outsourced to China. The failure was so complete and so

7

total that Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada would later publicly admit that FFXIV had “greatly damaged” the entire Final Fantasy brand.

Fortunately, this disastrous outcome would prove to be a wake up call for the company. Within two months Square Enix issued an unequivocal apology to players and shook up the project’s leadership. Producer Hiromichi Tanaka took the fall and was pushed out of the company. Nobuaki Komoto, a veteran of Final Fantasy XI, switched from director to lead game designer.

In their place, one man was selected to lead a complete overhaul of the game as both producer and director: Naoki Yoshida, a complete unknown who had mostly done work on arcade games. In his announcement, Wada lauded the new appointment as “a passionate individual for whom customer satisfaction has always taken top priority,” citing his “skill to bring together and effectively helm a team.” With the fate of the franchise in his hands, Yoshida quickly earned the benefit of the doubt from the players that were left by making a habit of answering questions and listening to criticism on the forums. His work ethic became the stuff of legend as stories circulated about how he answered an average of 230 e-mail daily while sleeping only three hours a night.

Yoshida would not be in this alone. The call to arms would place nearly 300 staff on FFXIV development as Square Enix scrambled to repair the damage.

Ultimately there may be no better indicator of how seriously the company is

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

taking the plight of FFXIV than the words of Yoshida himself: “In the 25-year history of the Final Fantasy series, there hasn’t been a Final Fantasy that has failed,” he said recently. “We can’t -- we just can’t -- let this game end in failure.”

Thus the FFXIV team had new leadership and new muscle, determined to restore faith in Final Fantasy. The question now was how to do it.

One surefire way to appeal to longtime fans is to invoke elements of previous games. “Up until about VII, you did have things that were pretty much similar throughout the series, but since then it’s been drifting off to completely different things every time--and losing that Final Fantasy feel,” Yoshida explained in an interview with RPGSite. “With A Realm Reborn we wanted to really get it back to that FF feel.”

This new focus is already evident throughout the design of FFXIV, and it is likely no coincidence that FFVII in particular is a frequent source of inspiration for the development team. Materia was one of the first new systems to be patched into the game, allowing for players to craft and use the iconic items for equipment augmentation. A Realm Reborn, the complete revamp previously known as Final Fantasy XIV 2.0, will introduce Limit Breaks.

Yoshida has even talked about bringing the Gold Saucer amusement park to Eorzea. That’s not to say that FFVII is the only entry that is paid homage

by Yoshida’s vision. Magitek from FFVI is featured prominently and A Realm Reborn will offer Magitek Armor as player mounts. The Crystal Tower from

FFIII will be reimagined as a raid dungeon. Yoshida has made it clear that he wants to bring in influences from across the series in the hopes of appealing to Final Fantasy fans both old and new. But of course fan service cannot replace content, mechanics, and all the other essential features of a quality MMO. Towards that end the massive FFXIV team has been hard at work on a new, more scalable graphics engine for A Realm Reborn that will run smoothly and look decent on both older computers and the PlayStation 3.

The combat system is being completely redone, the server architecture is being rewritten, zones are being rebuilt from the ground up, and yes, you will be able to jump. The complete list of promised changes thus far reads like the index of an encyclopedia.

A Realm Reborn will be so different, in fact, that it will require a brand new client to run. Current players will have their character data ported over, but the brand new systems and world will likely present just as much of a learning curve for them as for complete newcomers.

An echo of Nibelheim: Nael van Darnus walks through the flames.

This brings us to the current FFXIV storyline and the lynchpin of Yoshida’s plans to remake Eorzea: The forbidden spell known as Meteor. A recurring fixture in the Final Fantasy series, Meteor has never been more important than it was in FFVII, where it was featured on the logo of the game itself.

Summoned by Sephiroth to cripple the entire planet, Meteor gave the world two weeks to live.

8

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

The currently running story arc in FFXIV revolves around the villainous “We were about a month into testing and they dropped the release date on Garlean Empire calling down Meteor to devastate the land of Eorzea. Player us,” Vasch recalls. “And we all just went ‘Oh no, we’re not ready.’” characters are involved in a struggle against Nael van Darnus, the imperial Legatus behind this ruinous plot. Nael seems deliberately reminiscent of “It was rough,” Rykku agrees, “but when they announced that Tanaka was Sephiroth, and not just because he wants to summon Meteor, which is also stepping down and that they were going to be making 2.0 my husband and referred to as Dalamud in the FFXIV lore. Nael holds unsettling conversations I decided to stick with it and watch the changes as they happened, and the with Dalamud in the same way that Sephiroth converses with Jenova. There game has changed drastically in my opinion.” is even a shot of him walking through flames that is very similar to Sephiroth’s famous scene in Nibelheim, and his boss fight is accompanied by a Latin This seems to be a point that is universally agreed upon. Every player I meet has nothing but praise for Yoshida, who has been affectionately nicknamed chorus.

“Yoshi-P” by the community. They gush that his team has worked miracles Meanwhile, originally seen only as an orange dot in the sky, Meteor draws since the launch period, building a relationship of trust with players through visibly closer with every patch. While the impending cataclysm resembles monthly development letters and promises that are always kept.

World of Warcraft from the perspective of game design, it is thematically an obvious callback to FFVII. Unlike FFVII, however, in FFXIV players know that “They said ‘chocobos next month!’” Vasch tells me. “And next month we had chocobos.” their bid to halt Meteor is doomed from the start.

Back in Eorzea, I turn away from Meteor and navigate the city of Limsa Lominsa with all the skill of a fish out of water. Approaching the largest crowd that I can find, I ask if any longtime players would mind being interviewed. Two individuals going by the names Rykku Olvarr and Vasch Soloxelle volunteer to show me around while I ask my questions. Both of them have been playing the game since the first alpha test and remember well the chaos of the launch period.

9

It’s obvious from the beginning that Vasch and Rykku are both devoted fans of the Final Fantasy series. Vasch tells me that he got his start with Final Fantasy VI on the SNES. Rykku became a fan by watching her brother play FFVIII. As Meteor looms above us, I quiz them on their feelings about the influences taken from FFVII.

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

“I think we’re pleased not just because it’s an FFVII reference, but because it’s actually a good gameplay feature,” Vasch says of Materia. “It gives crafters other ways to make gil besides repairing and selling gear.”

“Everyone I know loves the whole 7th Umbral Era stuff,” Rykku adds, referring to the Meteor storyline. “I just like how they’re using these references to explain how the world around us is changing.”

But do they think that other fans will give the game a second chance? Rykku is optimistic.

“I would hope that people who played at launch that are coming back to try A Realm Reborn would come back with an open mind.”

“Well,” Vasch interjects, “maybe a little memory of the bad launch so they can appreciate how much it changed.”

Out of questions to ask, I thank my escorts for their time and prepare to bid them farewell. Rykku stops me.

“You going anywhere right now?” she asks. “There is something you should go check out, it’s close by.”

Why not?

As a White Mage, Rykku teleports us to a place called Camp Bloodshore. She then changes jobs to Bard and grants us Swiftsong for faster movement.

After that it’s a quick jaunt to an NPC who puts us in jail after we profess to believe in the words of the Wandering Minstrel. In prison we meet said Wandering Minstrel himself, who looks suspiciously like Naoki Yoshida. The character offers us encouraging words about the arrival of Meteor and the rebirth to come -- and then we are spirited away back to Limsa Lominsa. It’s a nice personal touch from the man in charge.

Before parting ways, my new friends in Eorzea assure me they have faith that A Realm Reborn will live up to the legacy that was built in no small part by FFVII. As for the rest of the franchise going forward, they tell me that the jury is still out. Yoshida said recently that you can lose your fans’ trust easily and quickly, but that regaining the same is difficult and takes a long time. Vasch certainly seems to agree: “I don’t even want to hear about FFXV until Versus XIII drops and FFXIV 2.0 is running well.” He then asks to trade and gifts me 100,000 gil. “A little something to get started,” he says and I certainly see myself needing it after Meteor hits.

The beta for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is set to begin towards the end of the year. Even now Meteor continues its descent, and just like the citizens of Midgar seven games and fifteen years ago, we can only wait and wonder what its arrival will bring.

By Isamu Fukui, photos by Square Enix

10

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

11

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

12

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

A victim of market change & corporate inertia The former publisher knew it had to change, but lacked the focus needed to rebuild its business I’m not sure if anyone really expected THQ to weather the storm. Hoped, certainly, but hope and expectation are not the same things, and it would have taken equally huge doses of optimism and delusion to believe that THQ’s business could continue in its present form. Placing Jason Rubin at the company’s helm was unquestionably a good move - the Naughty Dog founder has an enviable track record and quite rightly commands the respect of the industry - but by the time he took the role, THQ’s stock had already crashed and layoffs were well underway. The company was mortally wounded; Rubin’s failure to resuscitate his terminally ill patient should not reflect in any way on his own talents and abilities.

In the end, THQ’s fate has been moderately ignominious, with the firm’s development studios and intellectual properties being carved up between industry rivals in a widely reported asset sale. A smaller offer was on the table to take on the entire THQ business and keep it operating as a publisher, and there has been some unhappiness about the fact that this offer was rejected in favour of the asset sale. However, I’m convinced that the firm’s administrators made the right call here. A “rescued” THQ would have limped on like a crippled animal, shedding talented staff already spooked by one brush with corporate death. Games would have been sent out to die. Studios would have been shut down and developers laid off before they could find new paymasters. THQ may cease to be in an auction, but at least superb studios like Relic and Volition have stayed largely intact and found new homes. “A ‘rescued’ THQ would have limped on like a crippled animal,

13

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

”

Even a huge company would struggle to maintain a serious and successful interest in so many different sectors, and THQ was not a huge company.”

shedding talented staff already spooked by one brush with corporate death.”

Even after the asset sale, the skeleton of THQ still has to go through Chapter 11 proceedings (including a handful of remaining assets, such as Vigil Games and the Darksiders franchise), but it’s fair to call time on this one at this point.

Stripped of assets like Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and upcoming titles Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth, there’s no viable business left here, and the THQ brand itself has never had the kind of resonance enjoyed by the oft-resuscitated Atari.

Indeed, if we’re to write an epitaph for the company, it’s worth lauding its success in the latter years in shaking off the poor reputation it once suffered, back in the bad old days when gamers joked that the name stood for “To Hell with Quality”. The very fact that its passing is being lamented at all reflects very well on those who helmed it through the tough final years and established a positive reputation even as the ship sank beneath them.

neither the first nor the last victim of this change - I’ve recently been playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a solidly made and perfectly serviceable (if rather soulless) RPG title which would, ten years ago, have been a decent business prospect as a second-tier title. In today’s market, its failure to achieve breakout hit status doomed its creators at 38 Studios to bankruptcy.

The modern console game business is a harsh mistress indeed. It stands to reason that bigger companies weather market transition better than their smaller rivals. Activision or Electronic Arts can afford to haul products that don’t match up to AAA status back into development until they do so; they can afford to invest heavily in marketing and flex distribution muscle to ensure their products get pride of place at retail. The decline of the second tier of console game has impacted on them, making their business riskier, but enough scale and financial clout can paper over some of the cracks, at least. THQ, far smaller than such giant publishers, enjoyed no such comforts.

What, though, are we to list as the cause of death? Market transition, perhaps?

There’s no doubt that the console market is feeling the squeeze - not at the top end, where Call of Duty and its ilk still shift by the bucketload, but secondtier titles, Double-A with aspirations to the Triple, have been badly hit in recent years. Once, these were the meat and potatoes of the games business - reliable titles, satisfying popular genres or based on popular licenses, which would rarely achieve wild success but equally rarely failed to turn a profit.

Today, the “Double-A” market is a wasteland. Moderate success no longer happens; success has become more binary, more polarized than ever. THQ is

However, being small doesn’t have to mean throwing in your cards. Being small can also mean being agile - and it’s worth observing that in some regards, THQ did exploit that agility. The firm’s relatively small product slate allowed it to swing its reputation around much faster than EA or Activision might expect to, as observed above. Market transition has opened up new evolutionary options for game creators and publishers - one set of doors may have slammed shut in their faces, but others have opened at the same time, new markets and new business models that offer a chance to capitalise on change rather than being destroyed by it.

14

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

If anything, THQ’s great failure may be that it lacked the confidence to pick Yet for managers trained in business schools that often preach a mantra of one of those doors and walk through it. The company focused much of its “diversify!”, The notion of focus is a frightening one, conjuring up images of effort on creating core gamer titles on console and PC which would give it eggs in one basket, chickens counted prior to hatching, and probably various a stock of valuable, self-owned franchise IP and a solid reputation among other poultry-related admonishments. By the time Rubin, a veteran steeped gamers. In this, it had some reasonable success - far from a spotless track in product experience and no doubt keenly aware of the value of focusing record, either commercially or creatively, but success nonetheless. However, your efforts, arrived at the helm, it was too late. THQ spent too long trying to THQ, perhaps in denial of its own lack of scale (a pretty small company can be everything at once, and ultimately, ended up being nothing at all. The best nonetheless feel very big from the inside), also tried to open lots of other thing to come out of all of this, which bears reiterating, is that THQ’s studios doors. It made a significant investment in mobile games, actually diving into mostly look like they’ll survive. Relic, Volition and THQ Montreal have all been that market well before many of its rivals, but didn’t adapt well to the App taken on as going concerns by successful rivals (Volition, interestingly, goes Store business model or to the demands of social gaming. It invested heavily to German firm Koch Media, whose slow and patient growth as a publisher in the uDraw tablet device for the new demographic of casual console has been underscored by last year’s success with horror title Dead Island). owners, primarily aimed at the Wii - an expensive input device which was There’s some hope that Vigil Games, too, will find a new home. If THQ has admittedly a good idea, but for which even a company five times THQ’s accomplished anything in recent years, it has incubated these talented size would have struggled to build a viable market. It was slow to recognise studios and, in its final days, has secured a future for them. For that, at least, the collapse of the kids’ console game market, throwing good money after the company will be missed. I only hope that the hard work and dedication bad on the Nickelodeon and Pixar licenses long after children had turned to of the staff who made it happen, and turned THQ’s reputation around under mobile and online games for their franchise fix. Hardcore PC and console some very tough conditions, will be recognized by the rest of the industry titles; mobile games; a hardware and peripherals business focused on the - and appropriately rewarded when the time arrives for them to seek new casual console market; children’s entertainment... These are disparate employment. I wish them all the very best for the future. and far from complementary businesses, and the fact that they sit under the broad umbrella of “videogames” doesn’t mean very much any more.

Even a huge company would struggle to maintain a serious and successful interest in so many different sectors, and THQ was not a huge company.

By Rob Fahey, photos by THQ

15

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

16

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Studio Ghibli is the creator of beloved animated feature films like “Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away” and “Ponyo.”

Studio Ghibli hasn’t made many forays into video games, although its influence is all over popular Japanese series like “Final Fantasy” and “Dragon Quest.”The witty, beautiful, and endlessly creative Ni no Kuni is a treasure not to be missed.

What a delight Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is! It’s charming but never cloying, complementing its vibrant cel-shaded art and good-natured

child star with plentiful doses of wit and joy. The clever dialogue dips into a bottomless well of puns, keeping you grinning wide, if not laughing out loud at the constant goofiness. More importantly, this Japanese role-playing game possesses great soul, exploring a son’s love for his mother, and the vast expanses he’s prepared to cross in the hopes of a reunion. Hearts are broken and restored, hidden motives are revealed, and lost relationships again blossom, even after great evil has torn them asunder. This is a wonderful world that you will be eager to lose countless hours in as you adventure through its enticing realms.

Oliver is the cherry-cheeked center of Ni no Kuni--the boy who would save the world, as so many youngsters do in RPGs. But the world he saves isn’t his own. Oliver lives in Motorville, an Anytown, U.S.A. sort of place--the kind you might see depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting. Children laugh and play, cars drive slowly along the shrubbery-lined streets, and mothers shop for bottles of milk and sacks of foodstuffs. On the occasions you visit Motorville throughout the game, your travels are accompanied by slurring violins and trilling flutes and oboes. The music tells you all you must know in just a few notes: Oliver’s world is idyllic, and his childhood untroubled by cares of the adult world.

This all changes drastically when Oliver’s mother dies, saving his life after his reckless motorcar antics. But there is a whisper of hope amid the grief: mom has a soul twin--a great sage living in a fantasy world, currently trapped by a

17

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

18

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

19

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

20

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

villainous fiend called Shadar. For Oliver, Shadar’s defeat means the possible liberation of his mother from death itself. For the denizens of the parallel world, it means liberation from his magical tyranny--or so their story goes.

fun, sincere line readings that never cross over into self-parody.

The result is a world you love to be in, which is just as well: even as the game seems to wrap up its story with an emotionally satisfying conclusion, it Thus begins your journey alongside a heartbroken young boy desperate to presses forward, refusing to let plot threads dangle, and uprooting any sense restore order to his life and his world. Oliver is the soul of the adventure-- of complacency. The whimsy of the writing is matched by the whimsy of the and his companion Drippy is the wit. Drippy is hardly mere comic relief, but world and the situations you encounter. This is a game in which you explore his enthusiasm is infectious. He frequently refers to himself as High Lord of the pastel-colored innards of a giant wobbling mother before she fancifully the Fairies in a delightful Welsh accent, egging Oliver on during moments of erupts and you experience a second birth of sorts. Unusual? Yes--but also uncertainty. It’s in Ni no Kuni’s most surreal scenarios that Drippy’s dialogue utterly enchanting. Even the smallest moments deliver glee. A llama with a tickles the most--places where lines like “These littlies are nowhere near as gourmet appetite wants yummies. A traveler keeps misplacing his diary. A fragile as they are egg-looking!” make a silly sort of sense. His follow-up line: wannabe diva of a molten monster warbles a few notes that could break “When I was their age, I ate squid for breakfast! Proper hard I was!” Drippy’s a champagne glass. This is a world of wild imagination, and so you pursue a wonderful sidekick (though Drippy sees you as his sidekick, to be fair), and every side quest and peek into every nook, knowing that a surprise lies in remains a joy, even 60 or more hours in. wait.

As you traverse the overworld and its various cities and dungeons, the squat All of those nooks burst with beauty, and become even more varied as you Drippy skips merrily along, a lantern pierced through his nose. His boundless explore further. When you first arrive in the overworld near Ding Dong Dell, energy occasionally causes him to stumble, but he bounces right back into you’ll be enthralled by the sun-drenched meadows and glistening waterways. gear without ever losing his goofy smile. He’s an instant classic of a character, But later, you roam golden deserts, icy plateaus, and misty swamps, where brought to life by fantastic voice acting, a trait the character shares with the the eyes of crooked trees look upon you in displeasure. Cel-shaded games entire cast. Oliver’s young actor hits just the right balance: endearing and often sacrifice detail in lieu of bold outlines and primary colors, but Ni no Kuni gung-ho, but rarely sickeningly sweet. Fantastical characters like Ding Dong doesn’t use its style as a crutch. Rather, the cartoonish visuals are heightened Dell’s King Tom--a feline ruler referred to as His Meowjesty--are uplifted by by extraordinary visual details. In a Motorville shop, each storefront and

21

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

hanging flower planter is given careful attention, making it the hometown you wish you had grown up in. As you make your way towards a village, your party visibly shivers from the cold. These excellent small touches are crucial in creating a sense of wonder.

conveniences must be earned by dedicating a couple dozen hours first.

You spend a lot of time in combat. Connecting with enemies initiates battle, and Oliver is joined by two other party members on the field. But Oliver and his buddies don’t have to do the fighting on their own, though they certainly can if you wish them to. Instead, they usually deploy creatures to do it for them, Pokemon-style. Each party member can equip up to three familiars, which means you have as many as 12 combatants at your disposal during battle, though only three at any given time. You gather creatures by fighting them: every so often, Esther gets the random chance to lull one into submission. You can then name the creature and add it to your stable

The impact of the fantastic soundtrack cannot be overstated. A fairy village in Ni no Kuni isn’t like a fairy village in any other game, and the music reflects as much. When you enter, the oom-pa-pas of tubas lend this place the exact right kind of circus atmosphere. Explore a dungeon and you hear a rising scale motif, which in turn raises the tension. And then there comes a moment when Oliver’s friend Esther raises a musical instrument in song, warmly intoning the game’s main theme without additional accompaniment.

And it’s here you recognize how much meaning this one tune possesses--and The action is typically a lot of fun. During combat, you control only one how amazing it is that it never grows tiresome, but rather, gains emotional character/familiar at a time; the AI handles the other two participants. power over time.

The action isn’t exactly real-time, but you still maintain direct control, maneuvering into effective position to attack, defend, or unleash magic or Much of the success of a role-playing game hinges on its world, its people, other special skills. In the most challenging skirmishes, you must pay close and its story, and Ni no Kuni is thankfully rich in all of those areas. But attention to visual indicators to take a defensive position at just the right generally, interacting with the game is as joyous as watching and hearing it. time, or to interrupt a creature’s attack with a well-timed strike.

Structurally, the game is much like many RPGs to come before it. Towns and dungeons are linked together by a massive overworld that you first navigate Later hours can have you flipping back and forth between characters madly, on foot, then by boat. Even later, you navigate by dragon, soaring through trying to maintain a proper balance of healing, offense, and defense, all the skies with ease from one locale to the next. You also unlock the ability to the while being aware of your opponent’s weaknesses, and trying to nab quick travel to and from places you’ve already been, but in this world, such the healing and mana orbs they occasionally drop. Such battles are highly

22

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

entertaining, and once all the systems are in place, you can rarely afford to be complacent.

Familiars level separately from their handlers, so the majority of battles end with a pronouncement that at least one pet or another has gained a level. (Fortunately, your 9 active pets gain experience even if you don’t order them into combat.) The constant notifications give you a great sense of progress, which is important given the amount of grinding needed to keep a decent number of creatures ready for battle. Newly-captured familiars are weaklings, and it takes time to get them in tip-top shape. And even after spending significant time with them, some familiars just aren’t that effective, rarely (if ever) getting used because there are battle-ready creatures that you’ve already leveled up. As a result, you’ll probably have a number of reliable pets you keep with you at all times, and will switch out a few other slots here and there to take advantage of particular magical skills--or just for the thrill of seeing a new pet in action.

The possibility of bringing along an ineffective familiar might lead to frustration if you aren’t careful (and sometimes, even if you are). There are some notable difficulty spikes which are compounded by potentially imbalanced parties.

Yet even at its most challenging, it’s hard not to appreciate the grotesqueries you face, and the possibility of getting to nab one for yourself. You won’t add boss creatures to your pen, but that hardly makes the boss battles less rewarding. Bosses require the most party micromanagement, and are often

a wonder to look at to boot. Among them are a slithering snake in Egyptian garb, hissing at you with its menacing purple tongue; a horned demon, its obese figure belted by gnarled branches; and a rubbery invertebrate with blinking lights rimming its bell and tentacles, giving it the look of a carnival ride.

Outside of the story quests are seemingly infinite side tasks to pursue, many of them focused on Oliver’s ability to siphon excess amounts of emotions like love and ambition from passersby and offer them to brokenhearted citizens needing a pick-me-up. It’s a cute and pervasive activity that makes perfect thematic sense within the narrative, though you aren’t limited to such simple tasks. You can take down monsters to earn rewards, help a street vendor assemble the most delicious curry you ever did taste, and collect a sun-shaped creature in order to help a plant grow. Throw in a battle arena, an alchemy system, and hidden caves to explore, and you have more than enough to keep you busy for a while to come.

Ni no Kuni is a stupendous game because there’s so much to do in it, and because all of it is just so good. The hallmark of the greatest RPGs is that you don’t want to stop playing them, and Ni no Kuni proudly joins that elite group of games providing such an enticing world that you can’t imagine never having visited it. The only problem, of course, is that you may never want to leave.

By Kevin VanOrd, photos by Level 5/Studio Ghibli

23

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

24

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Virtual reality’s new hope In a suite on the 36th floor of the Venetian Towers during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I’m surrounded by members of a little gaming company that seems poised to take off in a big way. They’ve been triple-booked all day long, but have squeezed me in for a demo in the early evening hours.

That demo was of the Oculus Rift, of luck. I’d heard about Oculus Rift he started to frequent government his 2004 game, Doom 3. He asked if a prototype head-mounted virtual from friends of mine who game a lot auctions and shop for used hospital Palmer could sell him a unit. Palmer reality display hacked into a pair of more than I do, but I was unaware equipment. ”That’s the only place explained that it was just a prototype Scott ski goggles. I’m trying to digest of just how rabid the hype was you can find affordable, high-quality but agreed to let Carmack borrow what I’ve just experienced when the around this little company and its head-mounted displays,” he says. it. Carmack then took the device to hotel phone rings, and it’s answered 20-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey Over the years, he amassed 43 of the E3 gaming convention in June

by Oculus’ vice president of product, (although nobody seems to use his them. ”I can’t confirm this,” he says, 2012 to show off how it worked Nate Mitchell. He’s doing his best last name). In the time I’ve been in ”but I think I have the world’s largest with Doom 3. The gaming press was to be diplomatic, but the caller—an the room, three other journalists private collection.” At a certain blown away—everyone wanted to Egyptian game developer who’s been from the gaming press have come in point, he began tinkering with his know the maker of the VR goggles. trying to get in contact with them all for demos, and the level of fawning own hardware designs and software day long—is obviously desperate. admiration they express makes me coding to make what he considers According to Palmer, at the time he had just launched a Kickstarter ”We’re seriously booked,” Mitchell realize that I’ve stumbled upon not perfect VR. campaign to sell a build-your-own says. ”We could try to squeeze just a cool product but a gaming He was on his fifth major iteration, VR kit for DIYers, but he started you in for a demo tomorrow. But I industry celebrity in the making. readily sharing his designs in to sense a bigger potential for his can’t guarantee…” The developer is insistent, he must get his hands on Palmer calls himself a virtual-reality gaming chatrooms, when he heard design as a consumer product. He a dev-kit device now. Mitchell lays enthusiast who has been collecting from John Carmack. Carmack, the decided to change the fundraising dissecting head-mounted legendary designer of Doom and campaign and offer completed it out for the guy. The devices won’t and be available until March, but the displays since he was a boy. The Quake who pretty much invented developer kits for $300. In almost no company has already sold out with Irvine, Calif, native tried almost every the first-person-shooter gaming time he had raised $2.5 million.

10,000 pre-orders placed through commercially available VR helmet genre, was looking for virtual-reality Kickstarter: The developer is out and was uniformly disappointed, so hardware to use for an update of

25

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

26

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

”

Right now our goal is to get the 10,000 orders out the door by March,” he says. But he’s cautious not to let people think what he’s currently selling is a consumer product. It is a developer kit, with hardware and software tools for those who want to tinker with, and build for, a new technology.

It only takes a few minutes with the were no rapid-fire guns or enemies Oculus Rift goggles on your head to to fight, just a highly detailed world realize what’s got people so excited. to ”walk” through. Chen encouraged And it’s not just in the gaming me to look around and look up to industry—Palmer and his staff see the snow falling down and the have gotten considerable interest cathedral steeple rising up into the from the military and research night sky. ”Rotate your head and communities. The experience is look behind you,” he said. I look in so immersive that it’s actually a bit the direction of Chen’s voice and disorienting. Because the device find nothing but a lonely street. A currently has no headphones, the walk into the cloistered entryway user is dropped into a 360-degree of the cathedral felt claustrophobic, visual world that does not match the but a few steps more and the ambient sound in the room. Joseph cathedral opened up to a sprawling Chen, senior product manager, interior with arched ceilings. After a guided my demo. Chen strapped few minutes of this, Chen asked me the device to my head and then to stand up, and I was struck by how stood behind me; while I remained difficult this task suddenly seemed. seated in the ”real” world, I moved ”Don’t worry,” he said, ”I’ll put my through the virtual environment hand on your shoulder to make using an Xbox controller. With the sure you don’t bump into anything.” goggles on my head, I was in a digital He had me turn around and I could representation of a medieval village feel myself being guided through in the midst of a light snowfall. There two different worlds at the same

27

time: The real world, where Chen was making sure I didn’t bump my shins into my chair, and the virtual world, where I was looking through the falling snow at a bridge in the distance. Finally he removed the device from my head. ”Welcome back,” he said. The Oculus goggles are packed with an accelerometer, gyroscope, and even a digital compass to track the position of your head and sync the game’s visuals to the direction you are looking. That’s been the goal of VR since its first boom in the 1990s, but until recently sensors have made the experience a jerky, glitchy affair. The Oculus goggles sample positioning data at 1000 Hz, Chen says—most current cellphone sensors run at a fraction of that speed. Most of the movements of the head map to familiar gaming controls—look left, right, up, and down. But some

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

don’t: The goggles allow you to tilt your head to one side or the other, a feature for which the team had to develop a new code, Chen said.

At first while wearing the Oculus I assumed there are two screens, one for each eye. But that’s not the case: Inside the device is a single 5.6-inch monitor viewed through large lenses, one for each eye. Chen shows me on a larger monitor what is being displayed on the screen inside the device. It’s then that I understand what makes the system work so well. The image from the game is predistorted into two side-by-side stereoscopic frames, and the large lenses grant you a wide field of vision. There’s no sense of warped perspective at the edges because the image on the screen corrects for the lenses’ distortion.

I talk with Palmer after the demo, but the customers who placed the sitting on a disheveled bed while Kickstarter orders. ”Right now our he paces around guzzling a can of goal is to get the 10,000 orders out Dole pineapple juice and describing the door by March,” he says. But he’s his vision. Palmer is barely out of his cautious not to let people think what teens, and he carries himself with he’s currently selling is a consumer the electric excitability and cocky product. It is a developer kit, with self-assuredness of a smart young hardware and software tools for kid talking about his favorite subject. those who want to tinker with, and But he’s also surprisingly grounded, build for, a new technology. insistent that members of the press like myself not let the hype about I ask him the inevitable question the Oculus Rift get out ahead of the that he’s heard all day long. When product itself. He doesn’t want to will there be a consumer product for let the excitement squeeze it into gamers to buy? But he’s not biting. the marketplace before it’s ready. ”It would be irresponsible for me You get the sense that he’s been to say when we’ll have consumer waiting all his life to make this one products,” he says. He has no perfect object, and now the stars idea what feedback he’ll get from are aligning to let him do just that, developers, and if they say the device so he’s not about to let anyone else needs some new functionality, he’s compromise his vision. He’s taken not going to release a product until no venture capital money, so he and it has that functionality. His team his team are beholden to no one is already working on integrating

sound, but after 10 minutes of discussion about headphones I realize he is very opinionated on the subject, and not about to staple on substandard headphones. Palmer is also hoping for high-refresh-rate screens to enter the mobile space, since he’s disappointed by the motion blur of his own prototypes.

He’s also excited by the prospect of higher-res screens entering the pipeline—he wants to add that, too.

Before I go, I ask if I can get a picture of myself with the headset on.

Mitchell gladly agrees, but Palmer has put the device on himself and suddenly seems so peaceful and calm inside the world of his own creation that I haven’t the heart to interrupt him. Like the developer on the phone and like legions of excited gaming fans, I’ll have to wait.

By Glenn Derene, photos by Oculus

28

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Orbis unmasked: What to expect from the next-gen PlayStation Digital Foundry presents hard data on the technology inside Sony’s new console... and its upcoming Xbox rival.

Both the next generation PlayStation - and its Xbox competitor - feature eight-core CPUs clocked at 1.6GHz according to sources trusted by Digital Foundry. The main processor architecture driving both consoles is said to be derived the new “Jaguar” technology currently in development

by Intel’s arch-rival, AMD. These are low-power processor cores designed for the entry-level laptop and tablet market, offering an excellent ratio between power consumption and performance.

The PC Jaguar products are set to ship later this year in a quad-core configuration - next-gen consoles see the core count double with some customisations added to the overall design.

Married to the eight-core processor, Orbis also features Radeon HD graphics hardware. We’ve previously

29

suggested that AMD’s mobile “Pitcairn” design - the Radeon 7970M - could be a strong basis for a nextgen console graphics core in terms of power consumption and die-size.

Running at 850MHz and featuring 20 of AMD’s “Graphics Core Next” compute units, our information suggests that Orbis shaves off 10 per cent of that number, offering up 18 CUs in total, and sees a mild downclock to 800MHz. Incorporated into a design dedicated to cuttingedge visuals and gameplay, this hardware has some serious potential.

It is perhaps more than coincidence that these specs offer up the 1.84 teraflops metric for the Orbis GPU that was mooted yesterday, assuming that the figure is calculated in the same way that it is for AMD’s current “Graphics Core Next” range of products. At this time we cannot

confirm the make-up of the Durango graphics hardware - rumours have circulated for quite some time that it is some way behind Orbis, but equally there has been the suggestion that the GPU itself is supplemented by additional taskspecific hardware. We could not confirm this, but an ex-Microsoft staffer with a prior relationship with the Xbox team says that two of these modules are graphics-related.

cores. We’re assured that this is bespoke hardware that is not a part of the main graphics pipeline but we remain rather mystified by its standalone inclusion, bearing in mind Compute functions could be run off the main graphics cores and that devs could have the option to utilise that power for additional graphical grunt, if they so chose.

Previous rumours have suggested that Orbis runs its CPU cores along However, there’s a fair amount with some graphics hardware inside of “secret sauce” in Orbis and we a standalone, custom AMD Fusion can disclose details on one of the core with a separate, discrete GPU. more interesting additions. Paired Our sources suggest otherwise - all up with the eight AMD cores, we of these elements are embedded find a bespoke GPU-like “Compute” into the same piece of silicon, and module, designed to ease the we can confirm that the internal burden on certain operations - codename for the processor is physics calculations are a good indeed “Liverpool”, as was mooted example of traditional CPU work some time ago. Sony does have some that are often hived off to GPU form here for pushing the envelope

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

�

Orbis has a singular focus on delivering high-end performance without breaking the bank - our take on the specs is that this is a machine built to last with a huge amount of potential.�

30

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

The Radeon 7970M laptop GPU appears to be a pretty close match for the processing tech inside the next-gen PlayStation - there’s a small reduction in clock speed and the amount of compute units, but otherwise it’s very close. Here’s what this tech can achieve in pure PC terms with Crysis 2 performance compared at the very high and extreme graphical presets. Freed from Windows and incorporated into a fixed console design, this GPU will really have room to show us what it’s truly capable of.

- PlayStation Vita represents the only mobile GPU processor that combined quad-core ARM Cortex A9s with the PowerVR SGX543 MP4. Even on the power-hungry iPad 3, Apple stuck with dual-core CPU architecture at the same 45nm fabrication node.

chip inside the original PlayStation 2 - neither of which factored in the separate graphics hardware, which in both cases was even larger. By our reckoning, the more efficient

”

the mains overall once we factor in RAM, CPU and storage power draw. This compares favourably to consumption that sailed perilously close to 200W on the original

The next-gen Xbox refines DirectX 11 for a fixed hardware gaming platform while Orbis sees a revised version of the LibGCM API used on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.”

The news that so much processing power is packed onto a single eight-core set-up still leaves plenty versions of the Xbox 360 and processor is highly significant to of space for integrating the main PlayStation 3 and should reduce the point where credibility could GPU onto the same die, with space the dangers of another RROD/YLOD be stretched somewhat. However, to spare. This offers up significant debacle. helping to explain matters is the production cost savings and brings make-up of AMD’s Jaguar tech - down overall power consumption.

We also have hard data on Orbis’s each core occupies just 3.1mm2 of memory set-up. It features 4GB die-space at the 28nm fabrication Bearing in mind that the 7970M of GDDR5 - the ultra-fast RAM standard. Factor in L2 cache, and draws just 75W and that Orbis cuts that typically ships with the latest the overall CPU component could out a couple of compute units in PC graphics cards - with 512MB be as little as 75-80mm2 in total. combination with a drop of around reserved for the operating system.

That’s in contrast to the 235mm2 of six per cent reduction in clock speed, This is in stark contrast to the much the launch PS3’s Cell processor and we can easily envisage the unit slower DDR3 that Durango will the 240mm2 of the Emotion Engine drawing no more than 150W from almost certainly ship with. Microsoft

31

looks set to be using an offshoot of eDRAM technology connected to the graphics core to offset the bandwidth issues the use of DDR3 incurs. Volume of RAM is the key element in Durango’s favour - there’ll be 8GB in total, with a significant amount (two sources we’ve spoken to suggest 3GB in total) reserved for the OS. There’ll be a relatively high CPU overhead too, with potentially two cores reserved for the customisable apps Microsoft wants to run in parallel with gameplay. Orbis has no such ambitions and may power past the new Xbox simply because it focuses its resources on out-andout games power. There’s always the possibility that Microsoft has looked at the prior success of Nintendo and its own Kinect and come to the conclusion that chasing after the maximum in raw horsepower isn’t

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Here’s what a mobile Intel quad-core with Radeon 7970M can achieve on Battlefield 3 - superb performance at 1080p on medium settings and still highly impressive on the high preset. This is the kind of ballpark processing performance we expect to see on next-gen consoles, but bear in mind this is couched in PC terms. In a dedicated gaming box, we should expect much better once developers get to grips with the hardware.

the way to win the next console war.

to thermal limits, we reckon this is a fairly good ballpark comparison to an eight-core AMD CPU (primarily aimed at entry level markets, remember) running at a relatively low clock speed.

state of affairs borne out by both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3: While Durango continues to hoard by 2007, PC hardware had already many of its secrets, we now have moved significantly beyond the raw a very good idea of the basic horsepower offered by current-gen architectural outline of the next-gen consoles, yet games like God of War PlayStation. So the question is, what 3, Halo 4 and Uncharted 3 have sort of performance ballpark are we Of course, these ballpark tests are extracted visual performance that talking about here? In our Radeon not the be-all-and-end-all of next- could only have been dreamed of 7970M review, we ran Battlefield gen power - let’s not forget that back then. Based on what we know 3 on medium settings, and Crysis the new consoles are dedicated about the next-gen consoles, there’s 2 likewise on its very high preset - games machines gifted with a host little reason why history can’t repeat both at the magical 1080p60. With of advantages over PC hardware. itself. some frame-rate drops we could Factor out the overhead of the ramp that up to high and extreme Windows OS, introduce ever- That said, the AMD connection that respectively for a perfectly playable, evolving development tools written defines both Durango and Orbis visually arresting experience. In for a fixed platform, and consider confirms that both consoles are our tests the Radeon GPU ran in the performance advantages of a much closer in design to gaming concert with a 2.3GHz Intel quad- dedicated design - particularly the PCs than their predecessors, which core CPU; bearing in mind the firm’s fast interconnects between CPU, may result in stronger ports to the domination over AMD in single- GPU and RAM. What we have here is computer format, not to mention thread performance, not to mention hardware that easily punches above the upcoming Steam Box - a piece the Turbo Boost technology that its weight compared to performance of hardware free to evolve and automatically overclocks the CPU couched purely in PC terms. It’s a grow more powerful year upon year

in a way that Sony and Microsoft’s boxes can’t. And surely Valve must be looking at these specs with perhaps a little relief - AMD’s CPU architecture is designed with power efficiency in mind, and in pure performance terms, even an eightcore set-up should be comfortably out-performed by a fast, modern desktop Intel quad-core processor. In developing and optimizing next-gen titles for the lower power console CPUs, it would be richly ironic if PC owners reaped the benefits...

By Richard Leadbetter, photos by Sony

32

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Cyberpunk 2077 We haven’t seen or heard very much about CD Projekt RED’s next role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077, but this Thursday we’ll get to see a teaser trailer. You’ll find a screenshot from the trailer below, which shows off a police uniform for an officer in the game’s setting of Night City.

In case you’re not familiar, CD Projekt RED is responsible for the excellent role-playing series The Witcher. Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the pen-and-paper role-playing game and currently has no release date.

Based on what CD Projekt RED has said so far about Cyberpunk 2077, it will be mature in tone and the game will have a sandbox-style structure. You’ll use guns, implants, gadgets and other types of high-tech equipment to engage in a type of gameplay that CD Projekt RED has said will, “pump adrenaline through players’ veins and be consistent with the celebrated Cyberpunk spirit – rebellion, style, edge, uncertainty.”

By Charles Onyett, photos by CD Projekt RED

Hawken used to demonstrate the difference Nvidia’s PhysX makes Nvidia is happy to take any opportunity it can to highlight why gamers should be using a GeForce card inside their gaming rig. So what better way than to load up the Unreal Engine-powered Hawken to show off what you can do with Nvidia’s PhysX? PhysX is a real time physics engine that Nvidia took control of when it acquired Ageia back in 2008. It’s understandably an exclusive for Nvidia hardware and is offered to game developers as an SDK they can implement the features of in a game. The video above is one such advantage PhysX brings, specifically, the use of particles to show off destruction and weapon effects with much more detail. According to Nvidia, you just can’t see these effects without PhysX is available. I’m sure AMD would have something to say about that, though.

There’s also a new feature of PhysX on display in the video called APEX Turbulence, which can simulate particle motion using velocity fields. To me, it looks a little bit false/over used in this Hawken demo, but with a bit more fine tuning it could certainly add something to the overall effects in a game. Nvidia has been shipping PhysX support with its graphics cards for a number of years now, but you’ll definitely need one of the more recent cards to run Hawken at this level of detail. If that means buying a new one, at least you won’t have to shell out some cash for the game as it’s free to play.

By Matthew Humphries, photos by Adhesive Games

33

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

PS Vita with HDMI, USB ports patented Sony files patent application for updated version of portable device with two new ports.

A new version of the PlayStation Vita could include HDMI and USB ports. A patent application (via PatentBolt) filed last year--but published this month--details a new configuration of the device with additional ports.

The official PS Vita FAQ page states that Sony has no plans to introduce a video output option for the device, though that information is current only as of August 2012.

No additional information was provided, and a Sony representative declined to comment.

Sony is gathering media for a PlayStation Meeting in New York City on February 20 where the company is expected to announce the PlayStation 4.

If Sony does have a new PS Vita model to unveil, it is possible the company would do so during this event, though this is, of course, not confirmed.

Sony recently slashed PS Vita sales projections by 3 million units.

By Eddie Makuch, photos by Sony

Ghost in the Shell Online Game to be ‘Hacking FPS’ The staff at the Ghost in the Shell Arise press conference revealed more details on Tuesday about the Ghost in the Shell Online (tentative title) PC game.

The staff revealed that the game is classified as a “hacking-FPS” (First Person Shooter) game. Neoburu, a subsidiary company of game-developer Nexon, is in charge of the game’s development. The game lets players strengthen their characters by utilizing information and remodeling their cyborg bodies. Players will also be able to collaborate with Tachikoma to fight. Nexon plans to release the game in the first half of 2014. The company also plans to release the game worldwide, although a timeframe for the worldwide release has not yet been revealed.

Nexon announced in December that it had signed an agreement with Japanese publisher Kodansha to develop and release a PC online game based on the anime titles Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society. The company’s releases in Japan include MapleStory, Arad Senki (Dungeon & Fighter/Dungeon Fighter Online, the inspiration for the Slap Up Party -Arad Senkianime), Mabinogi, Sudden Attack, and around 60 other games. Nexon currently operates in more than 100 countries and territories in Asia, North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

By Famitsu, photos by Production I.G

34

I N V E N TOR Y : F U L L

Editor in Chief | Tom Riskier Art direction and Design | Eirik Strøm Redaction | +4786574245 Redaction | Inventory@full.com Inventory : Full magazine is published by MMM Publishing , UK 20a The Coda Centre 189 Munster Road London SW6 6AW United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7381 1200 F: +44 (0)20 7381 1334 E: info@mmmpublishing.com Š 2013 Inventory : Full magazine | All Rights Reserved All views and opinions expressed are those of the authors of Inventory : Full magazine

35