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Previews dropping next Thursday (on the 25th) and reviews are dropping two days ahead of release (on the 21st May):  Reviews releasing just two days ahead of launch would normally be a bit of a yellow flag, I feel, but with this being a remake, makes total sense; feel it'd probably get lost in the shuffle otherwise.  I feel like the previews might be more important than the actual reviews this time around, because anything worth flagging is likely to come up in those, and so long as there's nothing crazy, I can't wait 

It's the first, absolutely one of my favourites  I watch it every year or so and it never fails to blow me away. The story and characters and world are great, but that music?  It's my favourite Ghibli and favourite animated film (sorry, Prince of Egypt), and is in the eternal showdown up against a couple of others for the position of my favourite film of all-time.  One of the greats 

The fact that they highlight 100+ playable characters certainly makes me think it'll be the case they're all useable, but honestly I've kept the Kickstarter campaign at arm's length to avoid being spoiled, so I'm not sure if that's going to be a weird wording thing when all is done and dusted.  But the way they word it certainly makes it sound like yes, there will be 100+ characters capable of joining your party (though not all at once, because I guess that'd be more of a rave) Begin corrections music pleaseeeeee  The Suikoden series did not, in fact, gives you access to 108 "playable" characters to collect and battle with – while those games task you with assembling the 108 Stars of Destiny, not all of these Stars were playable (i.e. able to join your party and go out into the field): some would stay back at your base/castle to serve a purpose as an NPC, whether it be small talk, or as a shop or mini-game facilitator; others would only join the party temporarily; and some were entirely optional recruits that while technically Stars of Destiny, wouldn't be required recruits to meet the quota of 108 Stars for the game's true ending. There are also one or two branching recruits from what I remember meaning choosing to recruit one Star might mean not getting another, and so on.  Looking it up, both Suikoden and Suikoden II have ~80 playable characters, and this number tailed off in later games as the series went on. If I'm remembering right there were technically over 120 potentially recruitable Stars in Suikoden II.  Alright you can stop the corrections music if it's still playing now  Hopefully you and others here leap at the chance to play the first two when that remastered collection releases  though their silence on the re-release is a bit deafening  OR FACE THE WRATH OF BEING ADDED TO MY IGNORE LIST  (I'm kidding) (maybe) Murayama never would've done it because of his good relations with Konami after leaving, but the thought of it saying "108+" instead of just "100+" gives me a good chuckle 

Should I take this as "Better than anything else", or "Nothing is worse than this"? I hope it's the first one, because I really like this film (rewatched it not too long ago, too).

Demo impressions: still rough around the edges. It feels good to play, and it mostly hits that fast-paced cartoony feel it's aiming for. But I see three issues already. Levels are way too big. Each level in the demo is roughly twice as long as your average Wario Land 4 level. One of the escape sequences is 5 literal minutes long, and if you die during it, you get sent back to the moment you turned the switch. It really highlights just how long these can get. There are secrets and collectibles scattered throughout the level that you have only one chance to try and get (sometimes it's because they're dependant on breakable, non-respawning blocks, but mostly it's because the levels are filled with points of no return): if you fail to get them for whatever reason, you need to open the menu and select "Restart from Checkpoint". And you better hope that checkpoint wasn't too long ago. The "springy ground-pound" and the "shoulder bash-run" are two distinct moves assigned to the same button. Might seem fine at first, but it becomes obnoxious for many a platform section. The first two seem tied to the game's design philosophy, but the third point can still be fixed before the full release. Overall, this feels like a game that was made for hardcore Wario Land 4 fans, specifically the ones that like to speedrun through levels. Hopefully the final game won't alienate the more casual folk. Demo impressions: This game looks and plays lovely, but I got some major ABZU vibes from it. Seems that the gameplay loop is just exploration, jumping and gliding. I do hope the final game has some puzzles to solve or something, because "exploration-only" gets old somewhat fast for me.