Big Shark Gaming

Will be up on our youtube soon! Uploading it now :D

A few days ago we had the opportunity to interview NIS America, developers of games like Disgaea, Stranger of Sword City, and the new Grand Kingdom! I will be posting a gameplay video where I read the questions as well as their answers sometime next week, but I just wanted to post the text based interview first because I’m really fucking excite about it. The actual email is below. I want to thank NIS America and their Associate Product Marketing Manager, Judith Pi for their time.

Everything i Italics will be what I asked, everything in bold is their replies.

Hi Jo and Jay,

We apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience and support of Grand Kingdom. My name is Judith and it's a pleasure to e-meet you! I am an Associate Product Marketing Manager at NIS America and I am in charge of our social media accounts.

Below, please find the answers to your questions:

Q1. NIS has been known to make some incredibly fun and iconic games. One of the most popular would be Disgaea, which produced one of the more iconic gaming characters ever; The Prinny. As Grand Kingdom is set to be a new IP for you guys, will there be any surprise cameos that fans of other NIS series should be looking forward too finding throughout the kingdoms? 

At this time, there will be no Disgaea characters making cameos in Grand Kingdom, but if you take a peek in the Compendium art book that came with the Limited Edition of the game, you may find a Monokuma flag design incorporated into Grand Kingdom. That is available as DLC on the PSN at this time.

Q2. As we know, the game when released worldwide will feature all the DLC content that was introduced to the Japan version of the game, this opens many ways to play the game and combinations of teams. As I got to experience in the litedemo, some characters seem to offer better synergy with one another, so I ask, what would classes should people look into at the start of the game and try to transverse into later on? 

Every one has different strategies and tactics they would like to undertake in their journey. Personally, I created a balanced team to ensure none of my mercenaries were at an extreme disadvantage. My startoff team consisted of a Lancer, Rogue, Medic and Arcanist. A Medic is essential to keep your party alive during any fight, and what's cool is that she also packs quite a punch with her Acid Bombs.

Q3. Call me greedy, but through the lite demo I've already established the fact that I want more. The full game is set to release world wide later on this month, and it sure does come with an intense amount of content already, however, is there any plans to add even more content to the game post-release? 

Currently, we have no news about additional content for Grand Kingdom, but we will always keep our fans informed about any news we receive.

Q4. The online warfare is one that is constantly evolving in real time. Players get a sense of an app game when they receive daily log in awards and also get to work alongside other players in an ultimate quest to claim territory and win wars against rival nations. However, with the sense of an app game, I feel I have to ask if there is any intent on adding micro transactions into the game, and if so, how much of an advantage will those who do pay have over those who don't? 

We already have downloadable content available to players on the PlayStation Store. Players can purchase cosmetic items, such as additional flags for their squad. They can also purchase Charm Scrolls, which let players reassign their units stat points and unlock additional color palettes. Additionally, players can choose to purchase a variety of different Scrolls and Tomes. These items are used to reset a unit's level and increase their aptitude in a specific stat, so that stat can be "maxed out" faster when the unit is leveled back up. Players who choose to buy this DLC do not receive a significant advantage over players who don't, because these Scrolls and Tomes can be found in-game. In fact, players in the Grand Kingdom community have already begun coordinating on message boards and chat rooms to determine the best strategies for farming these rare and elusive items. As far as the Scrolls and Tomes are concerned, obtaining them requires an investment on the player's part. It's just a matter of whether the player wishes to invest monetary or temporal currency.

Q5. Just three more questions on my mind! When streaming the demo, I did notice a lot of content was hidden in an attempt to prevent scenes from being spoiled. Will this be lifted upon release of the game or will scenes continue to be blocked out? I really wish to do a full game stream of this game upon release. 

The blocked scenes occur during native streaming from your PS4 in order to prevent spoiler footage from the main story campaigns. If you possess a game capture device that can stream your gameplay, the scene blocking will not affect your gameplay.

Q6. How likely would it be that a shark class was entered into the game? Or even a shark costume for characters to wear! I mean how cool would it be to have the shark from Disgaea as a playable class! 

We are always happy to let the developers know how supportive and creative our fans are. Although we cannot make promises, we always strive to make our fans happy.

Q7. Finally, we absolutely have to ask, what is your favorite species of shark? 

I can't speak for the company, but I personally like nurse sharks. :)

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

So the soft launch has been out a little under 2 days now in the US and I’ve been playing it up. My town has 4 gyms and I and 2 of my friends have 3 of them, we call ourselves Team #FireFromSpeedway as we all used to work together and got fired from speedway, fuck you speedway (I still love your 75 cent drinks though...)

But yeah, so far Pokemon go has been pretty thrilling. I even went hiking! I do feel like I have more incentive to go out on walked or just explore, and the best part isn’t even the pokemon. I honestly felt pokemon adds the nostalgia to the game but it could’ve been digimon, or yugioh, or whatever. Having an interactive GPS (Which is what this game is) has really helped me want to explore the new town I live in where I only know where certain things are (like my jobs, bsg’s office/my home, the mall and some places to eat). but with this I can walk around, and catch pokemon while really learning my town. Having a giant beacon with a powerful Fearow atop helps too, it’s pretty close to my home, about a 2 minute walk, so if i can see that, I know I can get home without any panic of being lost in this big town. And it’s weird to say big town when I’m from well, the biggest town on the planet (NYC). But it’s really been a fun experience (besides losing my incense, and my wits about when the game kept crashing) but then when it did keep crashing I reminded myself “Oh yeah, high velocity downloads + a soft launch = chaos.” I did just about lose my mind last night when I went to claim the gym and i couldn’t complete the battle against a dead Dragonite and claim my rightful position as Gym Leader. But that was fixed overnight and now its ME. MEE!!!!

The game will sort itself out, and so far I’ve had more fun with it than I expected, but like I said, it’s a glorified, nostalgia filled GPS.

aNow there’s been a lot of speculation about Rockruff and it’s relation to the moon. Many speculate it will become a wolf in resemblance to the god Fenrir. For those who don’t know, Fenrir is the child of Loki and Angrboda. With Angrboda being a giant, this created the monster Fenrir, who takes form a wolf, has the power to destroy the world. How will this happen? Fenrir and his kids, Hati and Skoll are in constant chase of the Sun and Moon in an attempt to catch and devour their respective targets. Fenrir is known to be continuously growing in both size and power, and so he is constantly being captured and chained, but the chains have never been able to subdue him as he has always broken free.

So, a lot of people have been thinking Rockruff will evolve into a Fenrir-esque monster. And this could be cool, it’d be awesome, I’m actually a huge fan of Norse mythology, mythology in general, and Fenrir is one of my favorite gods. 

However, here’s my take on it. Rockruff evolves into Cerberus instead, name being “Cerberock” or something along the lines. He becomes a massive “Three Head Dog Pokemon.” For those who need a mythology refresher on Cerberus, here we go on my favorite god. Cerberus is the child of Echidna and Typhon, and currently serves Hades as the Guardian of the Underworld. He is stationed outside of the gates of hell waiting to destroy and devour anyone trying to escape. Now, Cerberus is famed for being a type of Chimaera as it does have a serpentine tail. Cerberus was famous for being beaten and captured by Heracles in Heracles’ 12 Labors. Cerberus was not however killed, just defeated and ordered by Hades to travel to the surface as a deal between Hades and Heracles. 

So why do I think Cerberus and not Fenrir, well, Fenrir sure has correlation to the moon, sure, but it’s more of his son, and less of him. Fenrir has more to do with terraphorming as apposed to the moon, where as cerberus has constantly had reference to the “Hound of Darkness” or the underworld. The creature that was born in the “dark of the moon by echidna and typhon.” Many cerberus descriptions involve the relation of the moon.

So how about this for a pokemon Cerberock Dark/Rock Ability: Three Heads - This pokemon’s attacks can hit 1-3 times (25$ chance for 2nd attack, 12.5% chance for a third)(Or something along those lines) Stats: 70 HP, 120 ATK, 70 DEF, 90 SP.ATK, 55 SP.DEF, 125 SPE Not to overly powerful, but has a chance to be incredibly strong with it’s ability. Special Defense can be patched in sandstorm or with Assault Vest. Moonlight is a recovery option when running something like Life Orb + Chance to 3 attack. Or even scopelens. Crunch can be main STAB as it has a chance to be 3 hits and 3 Defense stages. Jay feels it’s a little to over the top, but I honestly think it’s fine. The percentages are low enough to make it a gimmick as opposed to something you’ll be able to abuse. But Sucker punch, Crunch, RockSlide/Stone Edge, and a fourth attack looks very good so far.

Yesterday new pokemon were leaked, however today we got the full in depth look at them. Out of respect for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company we decided to wait until their official reveal today to post about them. First off we have Drampa, who is Normal/Dragon, and a presumed Special Attacker. It’s abilties are Frenzy (raises special attack in a pinch) and Sap Sipper. It is known to have Dragonbreath Next we have Charjabug, the evolved form of Grubbin, it is electric/bug and while it’s ability is unknown we do know that it learns Spark and evolves further into Vikavolt, who is also Bug/Electric and can learn Zap Cannon.

Next up is Bruxish, the Water/Psychic, Creepy fish pokemon, who has an incredible ability in Dazzling. What this does is make all Priority moves fail. This may include Protect, Detect, Quick Attack, and the likes. No word on whether this will effect Prankster or Gale Wings yet though.

Next is CutieFly, who is Bug/Fairy and gets the ability Honey Gather and Shield Dust. It is known to have Fairy Wind

Moving on we have Togedemaru, who has lightning rod as well as Iron Barbs and is Electric/Steel. What resembles a hedgehog.

Next we have Tapu Koko, which I think will be a legendary pokemon. It is Electric Fairy and has a new ability called “Elec Maker” and what this does is when it enters the field it causes the field to automatically change into Electric Terrain. No words on whether or not this will override pre-existing weather effects, but it shouldn’t as it’s more of a condition.

On our youtube! Splatoon, Grand Kingdom, Smash, and more!