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June 14, 2019

Hello dough15,

Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

dough15 joined on the 06/14/2019.

June 14, 2019

Publisher: Private Division

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Release: October 25, 2019

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

We spent a couple days checking out The Outer Worlds earlier this year, but after seeing it again at E3, our anticipation has only increased. The team at Obsidian prepared an impressive demo that highlighted many of the game’s pillars, like entertaining combat and meaningful player choice. Plus, we got to meet a new companion named Nyoka, and she seems to be a fun addition to your crew.

The demo took place on the planet Monarch, which is home to a wildland area that is the largest single zone in the game. The player was joined by two companions: Ellie (who we have met before) and Nyoka. Nyoka is a big game hunter, and while that fact figures into her personal quest, the team at Obsidian isn’t saying too much about her backstory right now. However, we know a few things about her personality. She’s a big fan of alcohol, and she’s tough (and a bit jaded). Having her along should make you feel like someone has your back – especially since her special attack involves a furious hail of fire from an enormous gun. Like other characters you meet, Nyoka may seem a bit distant when she joins the crew, but she can become more attached over time.

If you’re a big fan of Nyoka or any of the other companions, you might want to consider delving into a leadership build for your character. Obsidian had discussed this option before, but this time we got to see the archetype in action. This development path involves investing in abilities that improve your companions more than they directly impact your own skills. Not only does this make companions more effective in combat through things like health boosts, but it also means that they can lend you additional expertise based on their specialty skills. For instance, Nyoka provides bonuses to stealth and weapon skills, since she is a huntress.

The events of the demo take the hero to a boarst (a hybrid meat) factory with the goal of taking it out. That could mean sabotaging the machinery and killing the “cystypigs” that provide boarst, or taking out the man in charge of operations. You can make this call in the moment; you aren’t bound to keep your promises to anyone about how you will (or won’t) approach a situation. And in addition to making choices about to handle key moments, you also decide what kinds of gameplay tactics to employ. One option to gain entrance to the factory is going through the front door with guns blazing. However, in the demo we saw, a stealthy approach resulted in fewer direct confrontations.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Despite evading detection most of the time (which is easier since your A.I.-controlled companions won’t tip off enemies when trying to sneak), we still saw some combat. This gave Obsidian a chance to showcase weapon modifications like a gun that shoots electrical bullets, not to mention the tactical time dilation (TTD). Like the V.A.T.S. system in the Fallout series, the TTD effect slows your perception of time and allows you to target specific areas on your foes for certain advantages. For example, if you shoot their legs, their movement is impaired and they may not be able to close the gap before you finish them. If you shoot their arms, they may drop their weapons. The goal behind the TTD system is to provide a more deliberate and strategic layer for players who are less interested in combat strictly as a skill-based shooter – though most players are likely to use a combination rather than stick to one side of that spectrum.

Balancing playstyles and accommodating different choices in a complex RPG is not easy, but from what we’ve seen, The Outer Worlds seems to be sitting at the sweet spot. It doesn’t aim to provide a world that says “you can only do one of these three things: stealth, action, or persuasion.” Instead, you play in a way you think is fun, and then you get to see how the world responds. As the list of companions continues to grow, we look forward to seeing even more personalities who can react to your actions.

June 14, 2019

lego-star-wars-skywalker-saga-endor-new.

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive

Developer: TT Games

Release: 2020

Rating: Everyone

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

If you’ve played one Lego game, you’ve played them all. As much as I love the Lego games, I usually know what I’m in for when they boot up. That all changes with The Skywalker Saga. TT Games has completely rebuilt its engine and reimagined its classic Lego formula, and the results speak for themselves. (Actually, results can’t speak, so I’ll do that for them. The results say: This game rules.)

One of the biggest changes for this new Lego game is the camera, which now sits behind the shoulders of each character. The game looks great, the worlds are highly detailed, and the Lego characters have a nice fluid animation.

The Skywalker Saga not only looks different, it plays different. Have you heard of combos? Because TT Games has. Now characters can perform a series of attack combos. Of course, you can still button mash your way through most encounters, but you’ll also have more attack options in combat. The behind-the-shoulder camera also highlights the new shooting mechanics, which are now more precise and feel more like a third-person shooter (think of an adorable Gears of War).

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

The entire game includes all nine episodes of the main Star Wars franchise – from The Phantom Menace to The Rise of Skywalker. Our E3 demo jumped into Return of the Jedi, but players can tackle each movie in any order. Once you jump into a movie, you’ll have the freedom to tackle objectives at your own pace. During the demo we watched the Millennium Falcon fly through outer space. During these open-ended sequences, players might randomly encounter roving bands of enemy fighters, and we watch a capital ship warp into view. If you avoid this combat, you can fly to a variety of planets within the Star Wars universe (at least 20 will be fully explorable in the final game). We watched the Millennium Falcon touched down on Tatooine. However, even when you’re planet side you’ll have multiple docking stations to choose from.

This sense of freedom extends to the ground-based levels. Once you've landed on Tatooine, you’re free to explore the space at your own pace, find hidden bricks, or complete various story missions. We watch Luke talk with a droid and use C-3PO to translate the droid speak. Each hero still has character-specific powers that might come in handy from time to time. We also saw familiar sights from the films, such as Tosche Station, Jabba's sail barge, and the Sarlacc pit.

I haven’t been excited for a Star Wars game in years, but The Skywalker Saga definitely caught my eye. The game looks to appeal to long-time Star Wars fans, but also looks unique enough that newcomers could have a good time.

June 14, 2019

Hello TheNewGuyDK,

Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

TheNewGuyDK joined on the 06/14/2019.

June 14, 2019

Hello erika,

Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

erika joined on the 06/14/2019.

June 14, 2019

Developer: thatgamecompany

Release: July 11, 2019

Platform: iOS

Over the years, I’ve learned to really look forward to my meetings and demos with Jenova Chen. The chief creative voice behind games including Journey and Flower, Chen approaches game development from a different perspective than many game makers, and talks about the process in a different way than many other developers, as well.

After a long development process, Sky: Children of the Light is targeting release in July, first on iOS, but eventually across the spectrum of mobile phones and tablets. Like all of the games previously released by thatgamecompany, the core concept of Sky is quite easy to grasp. You play an adorable individual, given life and energy by light and fire, and you explore a world of fallen stars, attempting to rediscover them and place them back into the sky. Along the way, you explore a variety of unique realms or lands, reachable through portals from a central hub, and most locations feature a mix of on-land exploration and grand elevated flight sequences, where your character can float and wing freely across a beautiful landscape of clouds and sunbeams. And all of it is meant to be played with others at your side.

That description isn’t how Chen describes his game, but simply what I can gather as he and I wander together through the playspace, even as he speaks to me about the more philosophical and artistic goals that fuel the project. Where Journey explored themes of loneliness, and the way a single other person could be a lifeline and companion, Sky: Children of the Light is about the broader webs that connect us as families, friends, and strangers. Chen hopes the game design simulates many of the brighter aspects of human interaction, like friendship, generosity, cooperation, and community. He’s interested in the way that people connect and build relationships, and how those relationships only truly form through non-selfish acts and discovering the world together.

While flight and exploration of the various realms is certainly important, an equal effort has been put into the ways in which players can interact with one another, usually in loving and relationship-forming ways. Emote options let you shake hands and hug, celebrate successes with each other, or sit quietly on a bench and have a private chat. You can collect musical instruments in the game, like pianos and harps, as well as musical notation sheets, which can be played by tapping in-time with on-screen prompts. Once you sit down to play some music, other people can sit down and join you with their own instruments, and you can make music together.

The game is also explicitly built to allow for dedicated gamers to play with their non-gaming friends, partners, or children. Controls defy the traditional “two analog stick” move and camera rotation pattern, and instead you simply swipe with one finger to hop in a direction, or drag with two fingers to change the camera position. In flight, intuitive motion directions let you swoop and dive naturally. If even that level of 3D navigation is too involved for some, the game allows literal hand-holding with other players. Want to guide your non-gaming spouse to that cool new island across the way? Offer them your hand, and now you simply take them with you wherever you go. Up to eight players can hold hands and move as one.

From the central hub, you’ll move into one of six distinct realms that each offer different tonal experiences of play. Among the six there’s a valley that allows for competitive flight racing with your friends, a mysterious forest filled with moments of exploration and discovery, a romantic dim-lit vault filled with secrets, and a daylight-suffused prairie of interconnected islands, filled with opportunities to meet strange creatures, almost like an alien petting zoo. In addition to these and other lands, there’s also a seventh realm that only opens up once a week, and offers more challenging “endgame” content that Chen equated a bit with a raid in an MMO.

Throughout it all, you’ll be finding and collecting fallen stars, which once discovered transform into individual NPCs with whom you can also form relationships, learn new things from, and acquire new hairstyles, masks, and all sorts of other items with which to customize your character. These fallen stars each have their own personality and things to share with you, and they slowly help to pull the curtain back on what has happened in this unusual universe.

During my time wandering the game world with Chen, we played some music together, and then he led me by hand into a realm where we had to act together in order to make a giant flying manta ray appear. Once it was flying along the wind currents, we could float down onto its back and ascend to as-yet unexplored areas of the realm.

Sky: Children of the Light is clearly a game interested in letting players discover its charms for themselves, but I have little doubt that fans of the developer’s previous work will find a lot to love here. There are elements of play that seem to directly reference aspects of Journey and Flower. However, this game is a far more social and interactive experience, and clearly one meant to have players return to on a more regular basis over many days, weeks or months, and with greater options for customization and personalization.

Mobile games have a reputation at times for shallowness or flash for the sake of flash. Whether that’s always deserved or not, Sky is a game that is set to offer something decidedly different for players when it begins to roll out this July. While there’s a lot I still don’t understand about how it all fits together, I was immediately charmed by the game’s heartfelt messaging and quiet moments of joy, and I suspect there are a lot of other players who are similarly ready for a mobile release that offers this unique breed of meditative, joyful, and socially connected experiences.

June 14, 2019

Developer: Bloober Team

Release: August 30, 2019

Platform: Xbox One, PC

I remember being a young teenager when I watched the original Blair Witch Project for the first time. I was in awe and completely absorbed in the façade that the whole concept could be real. Sure, we know now that Blair Witch Project is a piece of fiction, but the video camera aesthetic and found footage genre helped sell that realism.

One of the big announcements during Microsoft’s press conference had me completely floored: The Blair Witch Project is receiving its own first-person psychological horror video game, and it’s being created by the Polish developer behind Layers of Fear and Observer.

At E3, I sat down with Blair Witch’s writer Barbara Kciuk and developer Maciej Jacek to gain more clarity about the project. Read on below to find out why Bloober Team decided to tackle the license, their dedication to psychological horror, and what you can expect gameplay-wise.

A lot of people were surprised to see a Blair Witch game announced at the Microsoft press conference. Why did you want to tackle that license?

Kciuk: Well, our company and Lionsgate (the owners of the IP), already knew each other. It wasn't like we approached them or they approached us, it was a mutual discussion. The style of games we create is very much in the [style] of Blair Witch. So why not try this one? It's an iconic IP and having this chance was huge. We just needed to take it.

So, it's set in 1996. Why specifically that time period? Do you feel like you're sidestepping some of the mediocre film sequels that way?

Kciuk: No, that wasn't the intention. To be honest, modern technology is a problem in video games. [The ‘90s] time period is really popular in general in horror, not only in video games, but also movies and even books, because you don't have this problem like, 'Yeah, okay, I will just check the GPS and get the hell out of here.’ So it's about the technology and also because of where and when the movies take place. So it wasn't sidestepping anything. It was just, 'This is cool. Let's do it.'

Is it taking place in the same setting as the original film?

Kciuk: Yeah, but it's a totally different story. It's our original take on what can happen in those woods. But yes, the players will probably recognize some places and situations from the movie.

And this is single player only?

Kciuk: Yes. It's the best way to experience horror without someone constantly chatting in your ear. [It’s best played in a] dark room, alone, and with headphones.

What made you guys interested in the Blair Witch license to begin with?

Jacek: I think what was really cool for us is that with Layers of Fear and Observer, we really tried to [create mystery]. We always try to shift the environment around the player. What was really fun was that Blair Witch pretty much does the same thing. The characters are trapped in the forest, and trapped in this space or time loop. You're never sure what it is, to be honest. This is a thing that we had in common with the Blair Witch franchise and we can make a more psychological take on the movies from this. Not much survival, because that is not really what we do, but we made this original story in the Burkittsville Forest that’ll be more psychological and more emotional. It’s also because we don't have [several] characters like movies do. We have Ellis and his dog Bullet. We wanted, for the first time in our history, to show this process of bonding with an A.I. or NPC in the game. We think that, on one hand, it's really cool that you have someone in the forest [with you] because you're not so alone or separated from everything. At the same time, we give players a reason to care for the dog. If something bad happens to him, it’s going to affect your character and your gameplay.

Is the dog really the only other being you interact with?

Kciuk: There are a few other characters, but it would be a spoiler [to say more]. But there is a lot of dialogue in the game.

Jacek: The game starts off with you joining a search for a missing kid called Peter. But you are late to the search party, so the search party starts without you and you have to catch up with them. You have ways of communicating with them through your walkie talkie.

Kciuk: Without spoiling too much, yes, there are other characters, although you have different ways to communicate with them, because you need to remember that you are in the Burkittsville forest, so strange things will happen.

How involved are you with Lionsgate in terms of bringing this project to life?

Kciuk: We got great help from Lionsgate. They are really helping us with some insight and they are very supportive. But they're giving us a lot of creative freedom too. We are still in contact, because everything we do will be canon. So basically, we just need to keep being consistent, and we need to make sure that both of our visions match. But other than that, yeah, they've been great to work with because we can basically do what we believe is best, while still having a lot of support and a lot of help on our side. Our relationship has been very good through this whole process.

I'd like to know a bit more about the mechanics of the game. I see that you can equip a video camera. But what about enemies? Do you run from them? Can you fight them? Give me a rundown of what we can expect.

Jacek: We wanted to base it off of what we already did in Layers of Fear and Observer. The core gameplay will be pretty similar in that you will have a lot of spaces to explore. [You will] have time for this, because we don’t want to rush players through our games apart from a few sequences when we want the player to be stressed or be scared. We felt that the video camera is a really iconic item in the Blair Witch universe. We wanted to include it in the game for sure. At the start, we used it only to show the player what happened before, or to give them clues about the story. But we felt it's not enough for the game. Because you know, the game isn't like 90 minutes long; it's almost six hours. We wanted to give players some more uses of the video camera. That's why we will be using it to solve different puzzles along the way. Puzzles are directly tied to the story and to the narrative. There will be combat for the first time in one of our games. The combat won't be conventional. We won't have a shotgun or a chainsaw. This will be pretty similar to Alan Wake's combat. You'll have a flashlight, and you will be able to scare off most enemies with the flashlight.

Kciuk: But you are scaring them instead of killing them. Although, yeah, you can say that using the light is pretty similar.

Jacek: One of the most important themes in the game is your dog Bullet. He was created from scratch so it was a really big challenge for us to do this. Because you know, you have to kind of balance A.I. because it can’t be too dumb or too clever to work properly.

Kciuk: It was hard to really do this because well it’s a dog and you can't make him too doggy because he would get distracted very easily and the gameplay function won't be fulfilled. At the same time, he cannot be this this all-knowing A.I.; he has to behave like an animal. It was probably one of the biggest challenges to balance the animal A.I. so that it feels natural and very, very helpful at the same time.

Is the dog often leading you to certain clues or story moments?

Kciuk: Basically, you are given a certain [amount of] control over him. You can give him commands to perform some tasks, but he also has a mind of his own. Sometimes he will just support you. For example, he may lead you towards something, show you something, or bring something back. There is a lot of stuff he can do.

What was so iconic about the original Blair Witch film was that people weren't always sure what was real and what wasn't. I think that's really what made it such a profound horror experience. Do you feel like you want to keep those themes in the game?

Kciuk: Yes, they are important for us and I can't explain too much because I’ll go into spoilers, but the character really has a reason to question whether [he’s seeing] the witch or if he's just going crazy. I can't explain more, but you get what I mean.

So, the found footage horror genre – we don't really see that a lot in video games. Is that the genre that you are still going to have here? Or is it going to become a different take on it?

Kciuk: It's more of a first-person perspective. We are the character and we are perceiving the world through his eyes. But the found footage is also very important. Although, we used it a little different than, for example, Outlast or other games that constantly [require you to] watch the world through the camera. It's not what we've done. We are watching the world through the eyes of the protagonist, but like Maciej mentioned, found footage is part of our gameplay. It's part of the puzzles and it will affect the game.

It's a way to convey a story, because it's showing you what happened. You can also manipulate the world around you by using found footage. Basically, by using the camera, you can change certain things in the world.

You mentioned puzzles. Is there any chance you can give me some examples?

Jacek: Well, for example, when you fast forward or rewind [video] footage that you find, you'll be able to alter the environment around you. A tree might fall in the video, and then when you look around you [in the world] the tree might fall too in the environment. It might block your way or let you pass depending on where you [pause] the footage.

So that'll change the actual environment?

Kciuk: Rewinding kind of rewinds the time, at least for what you think you're seeing on the footage.

Were you fans of Blair Witch beforehand or did you become fans once you received this opportunity?

Kciuk: I would say both. I remember the movie, and well, it was really terrifying. Especially for a writer being able to work in such a deep universe is such a great chance.

I was a teenager when I watched the Blair Witch Project. My friend did not dig it at all. She was just like, ‘This is boring. I'm bored the whole time. They're not showing anything.’ And I said, ‘No, I love that they're not showing anything! I'm terrified!’ I adored that. What really terrifies me most is the idea of an invisible enemy or unexplainable entity. It just lets your imagination run wild. Is that something that you want to achieve in the game?

Kciuk: Yeah. Well, we don't believe that the Blair Witch is one single entity or some creature. We believe it's more like an overpowering force. You won't really see head but you will definitely feel her all around you, like she will have a great impact on the game, on the world, and what's happening to your psyche.

Blair Witch comes to Xbox One and PC on August 30.

June 14, 2019

Publisher: Nintendo

Release: July 26, 2019

Platform: Switch

Fire Emblem isn't what you would call a risk-averse series. Even in the 90s, its brutal difficulty set it apart from the pack, punishing players' foolhardy mistakes by permanently killing off units when they died in battle. Awakening, the most well-known entry in the series, took a risk when it combined that difficult strategy gameplay with dating-sim aspects, letting you play matchmaker with your units. This created fantastic (and sometimes heartbreaking) stories where your characters would meet, fall in love, sometimes have children, only to be vanquished forever in a sizable battle. With Three Houses, Intelligent Systems is once again taking some major risks by throwing out beloved staples of the series in favor of new systems and compelling twists.

During E3, I was able to watch an hour-long demo of Three Houses in action and play a single battle. I came away from that demo highly impressed with what saw I and confident this entry in an already well-loved series will be something special. Here were some of the biggest noteworthy changes and features Three Houses is bringing to Fire Emblem and why I think they're promising.

Warning: If you want to go in to Fire Emblem: Three Houses completely blind, do not read this. There are some spoilers that have to be discussed in order to talk about features. Nothing that the latest trailers haven’ already revealed plot-wise, but again, don't read this if you want to go in blind.

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The Structure Borrows The Right Elements From Persona

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is structured in a fascinating way. The first half of the game has you playing a professor at Garreg Mach Monastery (think Hogwarts for knights, archers, and mages), teaching students. You pick one of the three houses at the beginning of the game and become responsible for the education of the characters belonging to that house, though all the houses attend the school.

Educating them ultimately means you're teaching them lessons that will decide what class they are, what proficiency they have, and which of their peers they build strong supporting relationships with. The whole first part of the game plays out like the social simulation aspects of Persona, with you managing your relationships with your students and living out your day to day life, choosing which activities to partake to boost certain skills or relationships.

At an unspecified point in the game, the second act jumps ahead five years in the timeline. The three houses are at war. You've automatically sided with the house that you selected at the start of the game. However, you'll still be confronting the fact that many of your 'enemies' are the classmates of your students, and may even be former students you have interacted with.

It's a fascinating twist that could put the horror of war into perspective in an engaging way, as you watch men and women who you ostensibly helped mold, square off against one another in deadly combat. If the first part uses its time well, emotionally tethering you to your characters, then the second could result in some devastating Game Of Thrones-like moments (especially if you've got Permadeath turned on).

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Your Hub Is Much More Impressive This Time

Awakening and Fates both gave you bases where you could interact with your units as they rested. However, this was all done through a visual novel set up in spaces that were pretty simple to navigate and didn't offer that many sights to see. Garreg Mach Monastery is massive, a stone castle with three floors filled with classrooms, cafeterias, gardens, and various activities and quests for you to pursue.

Garreg Mach Monastery also, thankfully, has a fast travel option, so you can hop from room to room to get where you need when you're feeling lost.

There Is No Multiplayer

During the E3 session, Nintendo revealed there is no online or local multiplayer for Fire Emblem Three Houses. The company didn't delve into specifics when I asked why, but I imagine it was to devote all of its available resources to creating an ambitious, narratively-contained saga.

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You Have Much More Flexibility With Classes This Time

In Awakening and Fates, units had a fair amount of maneuverability when it came to upgrading them or changing their classes completely. However, there was a point where that flexibility ended: you could make a warrior character into various knights, skilled swordsmen, cavalry units but into a mage, for example. With Three Houses, you can make any of your units literally any class if you're willing to do the work.

Some characters will have proficiencies that make certain classes come to them naturally. However, if you invest in teaching students certain skills, you can change mages into dragon riders. You can even create an army of one kind of unit from your entire house if you want a clan barbarians or a coven of spellcasters at your disposal (but that's probably a bad idea).

You also don't have to worry about your unit's level resetting if you decide to change their class, something that was a huge pain in previous Fire Emblem games.

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You Can Recruit Students From Other Houses

Really like that one sassy student who's part of another house? Don't want to kill them in the inevitable war? No worries. You can speak with students from other houses at Garreg Mach and invite them to join your house. If you have high enough skills in the attributes they respect, they'll join you. If not, you can always beef up those skills and come back later to try and convince them to join your cause.

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Bye Bye Weapon Triangle

Fire Emblem's weapon triangle is, in many ways, the foundation on which the series' combat lies. Though the triangle has evolved since the beginning of the series with new weapons introduced to it, it basically is as follows: Sword beats axe, axe beats lance, lance beats sword. There's always been a neatness to this simplistic system that players have long appreciated about it, with Fire Emblem continuing to build other systems on top of it. An example: the support relationships, with units situated next to each other on the battlefield receiving stat boosts if they've fought in another battles together.

Three Houses throws the triangle to the wayside. Instead, the power of your attacks will be determined by your units' Combat Arts, which are essentially their special moves that they learn as they level up. One Combat Art might be useful against beasts while another might hurt archers more, and so on.

I'm a fan of this change because it means you can't buck the system if you're familiar with it. Removing the triangle means removing the comfort that many Fire Emblem fans have built up over the years and exposing them to a new system to master.

Bring it on, I say.

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The Kids Are(n't) All Right

Nintendo confirmed that romantic relationships would be returning in Three Houses on a livestream on June 12. When I asked for whether or not the dating aspects of Awakening and Fates would carry over into Three Houses, Nintendo said it didn't want to dive too deep into that discussion for the sake of spoilers. However, the company did say explicitly that there would be no offspring mechanic in this game an While some matchmakers might be disappointed by that news, it makes sense within the thematic ambitions of Three Houses' narrative, so I'm not bummed by it.

Battalions Are Your Best Friend

Another new feature in Three Houses is battalions. On the battlefield, battalions surround your unit as his/her own personal fighting squad. Each battalion has a unique effect that they can grant that unit and the units around them. For example, the battalion I saw during my battle was capable of cheering on my units. That might sound dumb, but it gave all the units nearby a 2+ move bonus, meaning they could move more spaces that turn to reach foes. Not bad.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other bonuses battalions give you.

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Tender Mercies

Like Fire Emblem Echoes, Three Houses has a mechanic that lets you rewind turns for a certain amount during battle. This means if you screw up, and one of your favorite characters bites it, you have a redo button to help you out called Divine Pulse. Once you use your set amount of rewinds for a battle, they're expended until said battle is done. In casual mode this mechanic probably doesn't matter too much since your characters won't perish. However for those playing on classic with permadeath turned on, that last chance could make all the difference in the world during a battle.

For more on Fire Emblem, check out our review of the previous game, Fire Emblem: Echoes, here.

June 14, 2019

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Techland

Rating: Rating Pending

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Dying Light delivered on its promise of giving fans a fun, parkour-packed post-apocalypse, but with Dying Light 2, Techland is striving for much more. In addition to improving parkour and polishing combat, Dying Light 2 promises unprecedented impact stemming from players' decisions. Choices you make may have consequences both telegraphed and unforeseen, with your decisions having potentially sweeping implications for entire regions of the city, and entire branches of the narrative.

In fact, according to Techland, players might miss up to half of the game's overall content based on the choices they make throughout the game. The consequences reach far beyond multiple endings on the same track. In the gameplay demo I saw, the player has multiple choices to make over the course of a mission. Do you stay with your friend who was shot or do you chase down the alleged assailant? When you catch him, do you kill him or hear him out? These choices have immediate implications for the mission at hand, but it's potentially much further reaching than that.

Your decision to stay and help Frank, or chase after the shooter kicks everything off

According to narrative designer Chris Avellone, Techland sees these kinds of consequences as an integral part of creating a great open-world experience. "The push for the game when Techland approached me with the narrative, they realized they already had a really strong open-world game, but what they really wanted to do was have an open story as well," Avellone says. "It's one thing to say, 'I have this great open world,' but if there's only one linear storyline that every player follows, that's kind of contrary to the world that's set up. This is about giving the player more freedom to explore the story as they make their way through the game. It's more agency."

I see one such consequence play out later on in the mission, as the demoer decides to leave their wounded friend, Frank, behind and hunt down the assailant right before the group embarked on a quest to convince The Colonel, a powerful man in a stronghold, to share his vast supply of water. The resulting sequence sees protagonist Aiden Caldwell take off as an NPC tends to the wounds. The demoer warns that every decision has the potential for consequences. Decisions are often required to be made in the moment, meaning you just have to act on instinct.

"There are no good choices in Dying Light 2," lead designer Tymon Smektala says. "These are you choices and that's your ending. You have to live with it, whatever it is. It comes from you, what happens in the game."

Combat now looks smoother and more polished

This choice kicks off a chase sequence. Much like the first Dying Light, the protagonist relies heavily on parkour. Dying Light 2's Aiden Caldwell has a much more impressive moveset than the first game's protagonist, Kyle Crane. This chase effectively showcases this as Aiden sprints across the rooftops. Standard moves like sliding, climbing, and mantling return, and Aiden can still ride along ziplines, but he has a few other tricks up his sleeve. The Dying Light 2 protagonist can wall run into a jump to adjacent platforms. Aiden can also parkour off zombies and even use them to break a long fall. He can even ride on doors as they open and thread the needle through holes in doors and walls.

If the standard moveset isn't enough, you have a few traversal tools to aide you. As Aiden comes to a long gap, he breaks out a grappling hook so he can latch onto a nearby rooftop and swing across the big drop. He spots the truck he's been chasing in the distance, but it's just too far away. Thankfully, you also have access to a paraglider, which the demoer uses to drift softly onto the roof of the truck.

Zombies are sensitive to light, so they congregate indoors during the day before flooding the streets at night

Watching an expert player chain these free-running moves in rapid succession is entertaining as hell, but Smektala wasn't satisfied with only catering to the best players. "We wanted to create the most immersive parkour game out in the market," Smektala says. "The important thing is anyone can pick up the game and play it. As soon as they [learn the controls], they'll be able to feel like this really agile guy and just fly through the environment. Then, if you are a skilled player and you start thinking about the skills that we give you and how these skills interact with different parts of the geometry, you get faster and faster and faster. There's a really obvious difference between a novice Dying Light player and someone who is very skillful."

Once inside the truck, Aiden comes face to face with the man he was told killed Frank. You can either kill the truck driver and exact revenge, or keep him alive and hold him hostage. In this playthrough, Aiden keeps the truck driver alive as the two drive to the compound together. Because the driver knows the correct signal to open the gate to The Colonel's stronghold, we're invited right in; if we killed the driver, we would have had to find another way.

After stealthily infiltrating the Colonel's stronghold and making his way to The Colonel's residence, Aiden learns a sad truth: his friend Frank died as a result of his injuries. Techland says that things may have played out differently had Aiden stayed with him, but there's nothing that can be done now; all that's left to do is complete the mission.

The Colonel sounds reasonable, but something is shady about him

The gameplay demo culminates with a choice: Do you carry out your mission of turning on the water pumps to bring fresh drinking water to a region in dire need of it, or do you trust The Colonel, who promises he can help you find a better way? The demoer follows the path of carrying out the plan against the Colonel's wishes. The Colonel isn't happy about that, so an intense gunfight ensues.

Aiden quickly dispatches two nearby guards with his gun, then gets up close and personal to another henchman with his modified knife that electrocutes and dismembers with every slash. Things are going as well as can be expected given the uneven odds. That is, until a heavy enters the room. Bullets and knives are no use thanks to the thick armor, so Aiden has to be a little creative. Using grappling hook we saw during the parkour sequence, Aiden latches onto the ceiling and swings into the heavy with full momentum. The impact stuns the enemy long enough for Aiden to get in and deliver a killing blow.

Aiden turns the nearby valves to drain the reservoir around the compound, delivering fresh drinking water to the drought-stricken region of the city. His mission is accomplished, but the consequences don't end there. You now have access to an entirely new gameplay area that would have stayed hidden underwater had you not drained the lake, but the consequences are further reaching than that. Not only is the compound vulnerable to attack from a nearby faction with a plot against The Colonel, but something long-dormant in the lake bed is now free to awaken. The final cutscene shows a mutated zombie clawing its way out of the muck at the bottom of the now-drained reservoir, with razor-sharp spikes on the side of its arm.

Avellone loves the idea of telling others about your story by inviting them to your city in co-op sessions. In multiplayer, the host city is the one both players see, so showing your friends how your decisions have affected the city is simple. "When you're able to see the reactivity mattering that much, and you realize it could have gone differently, but now all these other opportunities popping up because of your choice, suddenly it makes all the other choices impactful too," he says. "One thing we noticed with RPGs is that people would compare their storylines and builds, and then brag about it like, 'I feel really good that I made this choice!' When the game showcases the differences like that to such an extent... it's going to be a good thing."

Avellone says that with RPGs, you often see how your choices affect others through interactions with NPCs. He wants more with Dying Light 2's choice system. "Dying Light 2 has that [NPC interactivity with your choices], but then they kind of went one step super far and went, 'And the environments will change!' and the scope to which they do that is impressive," he says. "It's like new gameplay spaces and new enemies completely. I was very impressed."

Dying Light 2 impressed me from the very beginning of the demo, and set up high expectations. With a gorgeous world, smooth combat, impressive parkour, and lofty choice-driven ambitions, Dying Light 2 has quickly become one of my most anticipated games of 2020.

June 13, 2019

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Release: November 22, 2019

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Building on the success of the fantastic 2016 Doom reboot, Doom Eternal has a lot riding on its shoulders. The shooter that put the genre on the map has restored its sterling reputation, and fans have lofty expectations for where the series can go next.

At E3 we played an extended combat sequence that confirmed Doom Eternal is shaping up quite well. Afterward, we sat down with creative director Hugo Martin and executive producer Marty Stratton to talk about the changes we noticed in the demo.

Demons Are Your One-Stop Resource Shop

Doom Eternal still has ammo, health, and other power-ups littered around the battle arenas, but these supplies won't be enough to mow through the entire pack of bloodthirsty demons barreling down on your position. To make it through the fight, you need to take resupplies directly from enemies by killing them in various ways similar to the way you received a generous drop of ammo after using the chainsaw to slice apart an enemy.

"We felt like ultimately, [using the chainsaw] was so much more satisfying than just overfilling the levels with resources everywhere so you're tripping over them," says creative director Hugo Martin. "We decided to steer into it with this one and say, "That felt really good. What else can we do to kind of allow you to take what you need when you need it from the bad guys that you're killing?"

Chainsawing enemies still procures a healthy ammo resupply, but now you have three other techniques for collecting specific drops. Glory kills reward health, using the flame belch shoulder attachment to burn enemies yields armor, and stringing together glory kills powers up your Blood Punch super, a new rune-activated skill that lets you take down an enemy with one brutal punch.

The Corruption Meter Tracks Your Level Progress

Doom Eternal's levels are packed with collectibles, secrets, power-ups, and demons. To give players a clearer sense of if they've seen everything they need to see, and shot every demon that needs to be shot, id added a new corruption meter in the upper righthand portion of the screen.

"We think of the player like an exterminator – you're cleaning out this facility full of cockroaches," Martin says. "There are still some tucked in closets but you want to kill everything that was in that level before you leave to get all your combat points. Your current demonic corruption meter is an indicator at a quick glance."

Explaining The Neon U.I. Overhaul

One of the more controversial new elements to Doom Eternal is the bright neon user interface, which pops off the screen much more so than the one used in Doom. When I asked Martin about it, he said they are still iterating to get it right, but they felt it was essential to make these elements more visible when you're flying around the arena in the middle of a dozen demons.

"Doom is not trying to be an immersive game; it's not trying to be a cinematic game," Martin says. "It's a video game with the capital V that's dripping with demon blood. Because it's really fast, we're putting a lot of pressure on the player. It's speed chess. You've got to make decisions really fast. If I'm driving around a race car 200 miles an hour, I need all the signage and the game to be big and bold. Otherwise, I'm going to get killed. We want death to be a result of the player making a mistake and not the game screwing them. If stuff is subtle, it's the game screwing me... It's like in this game, I'm in a race car. Dude, if you have something to tell me, tell me loud and tell me fast. That's really why we do everything with the glowing one-ups, the floating question marks, and the huge health packs."

Martin encourages players to experience the game before knocking the U.I. too hard because it is a functional decision, not an aesthetic one.

Slayer Gates Replace Rune Trials

The Doom reboot featured 12 unique trials players had to complete to receive equippable upgrades to the Doomslayer. These aren't returning in Doom Eternal. Instead, id introduces Slayer Gates, secret, giant arena encounters. "They are really f--king hard, but they give you a lot of resources," Martin says.

To open a Slayer Gate, you first need to find a key somewhere in the level.

Doom Eternal Rewards Exploration

Doom 2016 featured several collectibles like trophy figurines, data logs that fleshed out the backstory, Argent Shards for upgrading your base stats, and even hidden places themed like classic Doom maps. The studio doubles down on this concept in Doom Eternal.

"We are busting our 'donkey' to make sure that every aspect of the game has real meaning for the player," Martin says. If you see like a ledge down there, leading to a little tunnel, you're like, 'I bet you there's something down there.' When you go in there, it's going to be worth your time."

The Rune Lineup Includes Old Favorites And Powerful New Options

Just because Rune Trials are gone doesn't mean runes are a thing of the past. The Praetor Suit still includes several slots that allow the Doom Slayer to equip runes that impart a variety of skill bonuses, and you can find runes by exploring the environment. Many popular options return for Doom Eternal, like the Blood Fueled rune that speeds up your movement after performing a glory kill. Id Software also designed some new ones it is excited about.

"There's one called Target Strike. It's awesome," Stratton says. "When you use mods, it slows time. It's really cool when you're doing things like using the scope on the HAR. Using the meat hook with it is fantastic."

This power is especially helpful when trying to do specific damage to a demon, like shooting the turret mounted on top of the Arachnotron or the guns on the Mancubus.

Traversal Plays A Bigger Role

The Doom Slayer has a lot more agility this time around thanks to some new tools that build on the double jump. The meat hook allows him to swing from enemies like a grappling hook, the new gloves let him scale particular walls, and the dash button helps him cross wide expanses. With all these new traversal mechanics at players' disposal, id is making much more diverse and vertical environments that require some platforming skill to navigate.

"This time around, I think level design takes a big step up," Martins says. "We got criticized that [Doom 2016] was just too many arenas and hallways."

The E3 demo had a major focus on wall climbing, but Stratton says they have many different ways to mix up the traversal from level to level. One might require you to bust chains to open levels, where another has you punching moving blocks to give you access to new areas. It almost sounds like a Mario game with bloodshed mixed in between platforming sections, but Martin insists it will still feel like Doom.

"We can knock your socks off with a killer arena, But we can't have like killer arena then another killer arena – there's only so much you can take. We gauge it from a pacing perspective, kind of like a piece of music. The arena is like a guitar solo, yeah, so let's do something else for a second. But it's always combat. It's always aggression."

No RTX Ray Tracing Support At Launch

Ray tracing is the cutting edge visual tech on the PC scene right now. This new tool allows developers to make lighting systems where the light behaves as it does in real life, bouncing and reflecting accurately off many different types of surfaces. Graphics-intensive games like Battlefield V and Metro Exodus have already added support for the technology, and id Software plans to do the same for Doom Eternal – just not at launch.

We've spent some time with that, but it is not at the top of our priority list," Stratton says. "Finishing the game, we want it to run flawlessly at 60 frames per second in 4k and we also have our streaming initiatives both with Google and the Orion stuff. Making it unbelievable with ray tracing is definitely up there [on the to-do list], but we're getting the game done first and foremost."

No Arcade At Launch, Either

The popular arcade mode, which id Software added to Doom via a free update last time around, added a lot of replayability to the campaign, so it would have made sense for id to include it in Doom Eternal. No such luck just yet.

"We're not shipping with arcade mode, but there'll be a lot of challenges," Stratton says. "But you'll have a whole track of things that you can do to earn XP. We'll probably talk a lot more about that stuff at Quakecon."

Though Arcade mode may not be in the plans right now, id has an aggressive plan for supporting the game post-launch. "When you look at Doom 2016 and look at the number of people that still play the game today, it's mind-blowing," Stratton says. "This time, we're really going to support it, we're going to give players new ways to play, fun ways to play, new challenges, new content, and keep them engaged. Engaged when they play the campaign right off the bat, and engaged long term as well. It's a big focus for us."

No Mod Support... Yet

Doom has always been associated with the mod scene, but last year's attempt to appease creators with the rigid Snap Map system fell flat. Id is rightfully moving away from Snap Map with Doom Eternal, but the game isn't quite ready to integrate mod support. However, that doesn't mean id isn't thinking about it.

"We've actually done things technically that are getting us closer to doing mod support, but it won't be immediate," Stratton says. "I think longer term. We made technical decisions years ago that we're still moving away from, and they're getting us closer to those kinds of things."

June 13, 2019

Publisher: Lionsgate

Developer: Good Shepherd Entertainment, Mike Bithell Games

Release: 2019

Platform: PC

When people think of John Wick, careful and deliberate planning probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. The action hero is defined by kinetic battles, stylish gunplay, and a sense of inertia that propels him from one conflict to the next. So, naturally, the best genre fit for a video game adaptation is… strategy? That approach to the license was a surprise when John Wick Hex was announced, but you don’t need to play the game long to see how well it fits.

As you could guess from the name, you control John Wick as he navigates levels arranged on a hex-based grid. Though it’s a tactical game, it isn’t strictly turn-based; instead, it operates on a timeline system, where different actions have different properties. For example, moving one space takes less time than aiming and shooting your gun, which is an important thing to consider since your enemies are bound by the same rules. When foes are nearby, you see all of their timelines at the top of the screen, so you need to weigh your actions against theirs. Can you fire off a shot before they can? If not, can you get out of the way? If not, how can you minimize the damage and put yourself in a more advantageous position?

In the levels we played, John Wick has several options to answer questions like that. He can kneel to increase his accuracy, and from that position, he can also roll (which helps him evade gunfire). From close range, a takedown can stun foes (or kill weaker ones), but this maneuver also comes with a step that allows you to continue moving. This syncs up with one of the core elements of the action scenes in John Wick films; characters are almost always moving, plowing forward and using whatever weapons they can get. When your handgun is out of ammo, you can throw it and use the time it’s in the air (plus the brief stun period if it connects) to charge forward and use a melee attack.

Not all of your arsenal is based on finders-keepers acquisition.. While developer Mike Bithell wouldn’t detail how players can customize their loadouts (or even officially confirm they can), he implied that you will have some way to prepare for missions beyond grabbing whatever you can off bodies. Another thing Bithell couldn’t elaborate on was a grayed-out “Watch Replay” button that appears when a stage is finished. Assuming this feature makes it through to the final release, it seems safe to assume that players will be able to watch a seamless run of the level they just finished, more focused on the rampaging than the tactical consideration.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

There are still deeper options and mechanics to explore, but the bottom line is that these elements all work together to create a sense of action that feels consistent with what makes John Wick cool. Even if the action isn’t happening at pulse-pounding speed, it seems to retain the sense of reaction, momentum, and cleverness that makes the combat in the movies so fun to watch.

We got a good sense of the gameplay in John Wick Hex, but other elements of the project are currently off-limits. Bithell can’t confirm anything about the story or voice cast (like whether Keanu Reeves will be in the game), but we do know that John Wick Hex is a prequel. In the movies, the legendary assassin comes out of retirement; the game is focused on the era before that retirement. While a deeper look into the universe would be cool, this franchise is all about the combat, and John Wick Hex seems to have the right skills in that department.

June 13, 2019

Release: 2019

Platform: Switch

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is shaping up to be a really solid entry in the franchise. If you want to know more about that game, you can read Brian Shea’s hands-on impressions from the show. However, we also got the chance to speak with producer Kensuke Tanabe who shared his thoughts on the wild world of Nintendo.

What is Gooigi’s deal? Where did that idea come from?

When I first saw the Nintendo Switch system, the fact that you can split the two JoyCons and share it with someone else to play together was such a great thing that we really wanted to take advantage of that for this game. We began to think about how to create that second player. We at Nintendo were kind of experimenting with different ways that we can have two people play at the same time, and one of them was to make a copy of Luigi, so just having two Luigis on the screen. While we were doing that, the team happened to be experimenting with using a goo-like material for ghosts. They were like, "What if we gave them a little more substance and made them out of goo?" And then those two ideas came together.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

What is the goo made of? Is it like Jell-O? Can you eat it?

You’re the second person to ask if you can eat Gooigi. [Laughs] It’s probably like gummies so you could eat it. The actual backstory is that Professor E. Gadd extracted a bunch of energy out of the ghost that he captured, and then he accidentally spilled coffee on it, and that's how the goo was made.

What is the perfect level of creepiness for a game like this? How do you make a horror themed game that is family friendly?

From the perspective of the game designers, we don't really focus too much on the scary factor. The spookiness factor is something the art team focuses on. For us, our biggest focus is what can we add into the game and what can we do to make it as surprising and exciting as possible. So when the spooky factor from the art side and the surprise and delight from game designer side come together, that creates a nice blend.

Have you been scared while playing this?

[Laughs] Well, we are making it, so we know when something is going to come out, but maybe when we find a critical bug then we're like "Oh no!"

From left to right: designer Yoshihito Ikibata, some dork, producer Kensuke Tanabe

Would you like to see Luigi in more games?

I would love to see Luigi get to a point where he rivals Mario. I'm constantly pestering Nintendo with ideas for how to bring out Luigi more to make him surpass Mario. I like Luigi more. I kind of prefer a flawed human compared to this superstar hero.

How do you feel about Waluigi then?

Waluigi is something that I’m not in charge of, so that’s hard to say. Are you saying that Waluigi and Luigi should team up? He tends to appear in games where Wario appears. I guess we'd have to make a Waluigi mansion for that.

I know we’re off track, but since there is a Wario and a Waluigi, is there also a Wayoshi? Has there ever been talks in the office of making a Wayoshi?

Yoshi himself is everything, so I don’t know what that would be like. Maybe his eyes would be like meaner or something. Maybe he would eat stuff and then just spit it out entirely whole. Or would he would be like Birdo because Birdo shoot eggs from her mouth? Is Birdo Wayoshi? Maybe.

June 13, 2019

Hello QuakeArcher,

Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

QuakeArcher joined on the 06/13/2019.

June 13, 2019

Every year our list of favorite video game experiences is filled more and more with various indie titles. E3 2019 is a great showcase for some of the many indie titles coming out this year and beyond, and these are some of titles that have caught our eye during the convention.

Be sure to come back to this list, as we'll be updating it throughout the convention.

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Cat Lady

Platform(s): TBD
Developer: Rose City Games
Release: TBD

The makers of The World Next Door have turned their eyes on something more cutesy and diabolically delightful. Cat Lady follows the adventures of one young girl in a haunted house as she and her army of cats fend off a legion of ghosts. Inspired by The Binding of Issac, the tough as nails roguelike gameplay loop proves that this adventure has more going for it than some lovely visuals and a killer soundtrack.

Embr

Platform(s): PC
Developer: Muse Games
Release: 2020 (Early Access Available Now)

Embr imagines a world where Firefighters have been Uberized, with civilians able to call upon you to come rescue them and then leave mediocre reviews complaining about it was fine you saved their lives but a real firefighter would have saved the house. Modern dark humor collides with funny mechanics, as you storm into houses, breaking windows, chopping down doors, and fighting fires to rescue ungrateful victims screaming their heads off or trapped on the toilet.

For anyone who loves the biting and fantastical humor of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, Embr is worth checking out.

No Straight Roads

Platform(s): PS4, PC
Developer: Metronomik
Release: Early 2020

Not every music-focused game is about hitting notes that come flying at you. No Straight Roads is a stylish action/adventure game is from new studio Metronomik, but it revolves around the power of music. The gameplay and soundtrack taps into the innate sense of rhythm everyone has; the music might serve as a cue for when to dodge an attack, or even as a storytelling device to indicate when a boss might be especially weak or powerful. We saw an impressive fight against a DJ that escalated from a small club to a cosmic battleground, with the two heroes (the game can be played co-op) dodging planets and firing notes – all while the cool and dynamic soundtrack kept the action alive.

Rawmen

Platform(s): PC
Developer: Animal
Release: TBD

Described by its developers as "Tony Hawk meets Splatoon," this hilarious and colorful take on deathmatch, throws several apron-wearing, scantily clad dudes in an arena and demands that they duke it out by hurling great globs of soup at one another. The action is chaotic, with items like fish you can slap your foes with to KO them instantly and hot sauce to strengthen your attacks, making Rawmen live up to the surreal quality its punny name inspires.

Its developer says that the company is currently seeking funding for the game and might turn to crowdfunding in the future, so if the game's colorful visuals or goofy concept entice you, be sure to keep a lookout on the game's web page here.

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Samurai Gunn 2

Platform(s): Switch, PC
Developer: Teknopants
Release: 2020

The first Samurai Gun thrilled multiplayer enthusiasts with its fast-paced Towerfall-like action, with every player dying in one of a katana or bullet. The second game looks to expand upon the virtues of the first with better art, more maps, and a single-player mode. We played the versus mode at E3 and came away impressed by how satisfying it was to dash through swings of the katana to land your own fatal blow with your gun and your sword.

Spiritfarer

Platform(s): Xbox One, PC, Other Platforms
Developer: Thunder Lotus Games
Release: 2020

The concept of shepherding the dead to their final destination may seem morbid, but the souls in Spiritfarer from Thunder Lotus (Sundered) pass their legacy onto you via their stories, making their final passage peaceful and joyful. The physical act of transporting them involves adding sections to your boat, which also lets you fish, grow food, and other activities as you traverse the map. Stella and her cat Daffodil (the game features two-player local co-op) travel to foreign lands, meeting new spirits, listening to their tales, and completing their transfer to the next world by helping with them via quests.

Totally Reliable Delivery Service

Platform(s): PC
Developer: We’re Five Games
Release: Summer

Hilarious physics and co-op mayhem combine in Totally Reliable Delivery Service, which has you and your friends teaming up to get various packages from one place to another. The controls are deliberately at the outer edges of precision, which leads to unpredictable situations and amusing outcomes as you try to keep your grip on your cargo. In order to make your deliveries quickly – and with minimal damage – you work together to operate vehicles (like carts and rockets), but it seems like even the best-constructed strategies are always on the verge of devolving into chaos.

We Met In May

Platform(s): PC
Developer: Nina Freeman, Jake Jefferies, Ryan Yoshikami
Release: September

We Met In May tells the story of a developing relationship through a series of short vignettes that capture the romance, humor, and occasional embarrassment of being in love. This personal project comes from developers Nina Freeman (whose previous work includes Tacoma and Cibele), Jake Jefferies, and Ryan Yoshikami. The vignettes are inspired by moments in Freeman and Jefferies’ real-life relationship, like a day at the beach where you play around in the sand and dump out Sun Chips, or the awkwardness of a messy apartment when you show someone your apartment for the first time. Though the characters and locations are very specific, the sentiments being expressed feel surprisingly universal and relatable.

June 13, 2019

Developer: Bandai Namco

Release: 2020

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

When Tales if Arise was announced at Microsoft's Xbox conference, fans of the series experienced a moment of exhilaration and then hours to days of concerned questions. Ever since the reveal, which showed a more technologically advanced Tales game than the previous titles, fans had been wondering exactly how this title is going to change up a fairly traditional series.

We sat down with Yusuke Tomizawa, the new producer of the Tales series after Hideo Baba left the company, to discuss the newest Tales game. Tomizawa himself had a sticker of Sans from Undertale on his laptop, a game which he professes a fandom for. It has been a few years Tales of Berseria, which crossed generations with both a PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 version, making Tales of Arise the first game in the series completely untethered to the previous generation and built solely for modern hardware. In the trailer, it looked like the game might be leveraging that technology for an open world RPG similar to games like Xenoblade X or The Witcher 3. Not so, according Tomizawa.

While screenshots and the initial trailer somewhat suggested an open world title, the structure of Tales of Arise is similar to other Tales games. Tomizawa pointed out that the reveal trailer had no UI, so suspicions about a lack of world map are not correct.

However, that does not mean everything is staying as it is. Tomizawa would not go into details about the battle system, but he did say that he plans to do exciting new things with it in Arise. When I mentioned the Linear Motion Battle System, he said there wouldn't be too many changes to its core formula, as he wanted the Tales audience to find comfort in the game's systems as well.

The subject of audiences was further discussed with Tomizawa, who explained that he wants to grow the Tales series with the western audience. A debut for Arise, and last year's Vesperia Definitive Edition, at Microsoft's E3 conferences was no coincidental. It gives Bandai Namco a chance to debut the title on a western stage and detail it immediately after at Japan's Tales Festa. It allows them to cover their bases for marketing to the game's multiple audiences while also trying to grow it.

Tomizawa clarified that Arise has two themes: inheritance and evolution, though he said explaining this would be a spoiler for the rest of the game. The main character was an imprisoned slave and the female heroine lives in a country that is warring with the protagonist's kingdom. Unlike Tales of Xillia, you do not pick from two different main characters, it is one story told with the enslaved swordsman.

Bandai Namco was not willing to talk about other party members yet, but did say you could expect a size similar to other games in the series.

Tales of Arise is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2020.

June 13, 2019

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Machine Games

Release: July 26, 2019

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Reader, I love Wolfenstein. I love it to the point that it's a running joke among my colleagues. I'm an absolute fanatic for MachineGames' version of the franchise, where resistance fighters take on insurmountable odds as they seek to topple an evil empire in an alternate timeline where the Nazis won World War II. I know the lore and every level of The New Order, The Old Blood, and The New Colossus like the back of my hand.

When Youngblood was announced at last year's E3, I was intrigued by the concept of playing as BJ's twin daughters in a co-op adventure that takes place after the events of The New Colossus. At this year's E3, I got to play an hour of Youngblood, which finds Jess and Soph Blazkowicz fighting Nazis in Reich-occupied France during the '80s.

I came away from my time with the impression that Youngblood challenges and tweaks a lot of my favorite things about Machinegames' Wolfenstein series, and I'm not on board with a lot of them (at least within the context of my hour of gameplay).

So let's talk about what works and what doesn't.

The Universe Is Still Gripping

MachineGames has created one of the most dour and engaging settings in a modern first-person shooter, where a cast of complex characters fights to make the world a better place while struggling not to fall apart in the process. BJ and Anya are one of the few couples in games where their creators approach their relationship with poignancy and realism; they acknowledge the pair's emotional and sexual attraction to one another and explore how that changes over time. The series also goes to great lengths diving into the traumatic mentalities of those suffering under oppressive systems and how they find joy and delight in small yet vital interactions with friends and loved ones.

Youngblood continues that tradition of deep characterization with a long cutscene that does a great job of contrasting the differences in personality between Jess and Soph. Sure, they're both jubilant killing machines when it comes to Nazis, but their interactions thus far do a great job in making each feel like they're their unique own character as opposed to just a model swap. Jess is the more confident and brash of the two, while Soph is often anxious, but cautious and tactical. They also seem to have resentment and jealously issues regarding their parents as well as a competitive streak.

As far as storytelling goes, there was a lot to mine in the brief time I had, and even more enticing unanswered questions lay over the horizon concerning the fates of characters from The New Colossus and the state of the world in Youngblood.

I Don't Like The Combat

There's this moment early on in The New Colossus where you first get the rotor-operated shotgun and then proceed to run down a hall in a train, blasting into a line of Nazis pouring out of their rooms, decking the halls with what's left of them. To me, this is what defines Wolfenstein's action: You are a constantly moving tornado of death, sucking up and ripping anything that comes at you to pieces.

Youngblood goes in the opposite direction. Enemies now have lifebars and level numbers floating above their heads. A lot of them, from the lowly grunts to the Supersoldaten are bullet sponges compared to their counterparts in previous games. During my demo, I had to blow through an entire magazine of shells to kill a single medium-tier grunt (most of my shots being up-close headshots).

There's nothing wrong with experimenting with ideas or changing up a facet of a series. However, much of the reason I love Wolfenstein's combat is that it eschews the RPG-lite mechanics of shooter looters like Destiny, Borderlands, and The Division. Youngblood's hard pivot to that rigid design bums me out, and I did not enjoy a single moment of it during the demo.

The Leveling System Is Wonky (But Promising)

Machinegames' take on Wolfenstein has always had a slight smidge of RPG with its perk system. In the three previous games, you unlocked permanent buffs and inventory-slot increases by reaching certain milestones (killing a certain number of enemies with grenades will allow you to carry more, for example). In Youngblood, the perk system has been replaced with a more traditional skill tree and leveling system. You kill Nazis, you gain experience, you unlock skill points that let you buy abilities.

On paper, this sounds like a pretty cool idea. However, the execution of it (thus far) is uneven. Alongside some stat buffs, a number of the early abilities you can unlock in Youngblood are things you could already do in every previous Wolfenstein game, like dual-wielding weapons. Having to grind to unlock abilities you should already be able to perform from the outset isn't fun. Hopefully the later skills in the tree actually give you more novel powers and advantages so that they feel like rewards worth pursuing instead of gated content I resent.

The Co-Op Elements Seem Forced So Far

To be fair to the experience I had, I played my demo with a co-op buddy not well versed in first-person shooters. A lot of the dourness of my experience can be chalked up to having to constantly revive someone who struggled with the combat during that session. A co-op session with a good friend or something else who understands the importance of communication and is skilled at shooters could dramatically improve my enjoyment of the experience.

However, outside of that experience, there are things on a design level that just aren't great. Similar to Left 4 Dead, there are segments where players have to work together to get past a gated area. Sometimes that means hitting two switches. Other times, it means fanning out to search for a floppy disc containing the key code you need for the door blocking you from progressing. These moments felt like chores more than anything else.

Hopefully the final version has fewer of these segments.

There Are Microtransactions

During the game, you collect currency that you can use to buy outfits for Jess and Soph, including suit colors and various helmets. You can buy gold bars with real-world money if you don't want to waste time looking around for the in-game currency. For a game that's never been particularly invested in fashion, it does seem like an odd enticement for players to spend money. Players can also buy weapon upgrades and attachments if they don't want to spend so long looking for those upgrades, meaning that microtransactions do extend pass cosmetics.

I'm Still Hopeful

A lot of what I've said here might sound like I'm coming down on the changes that Youngblood are making to the series rather hard. I don't do it in the spirit of someone grumpy that one of his favorite games is changing, but instead because I think a lot of what I saw are questionable design choices that directly impacted how enjoyable my experience was. All of that said, I still think there's a lot of potential with that skill tree (if the later skills are powerful) and the dullness of the spongy combat is probably lessened if you have a bud along for the ride. The bits of story I've seen have also suggested that, if nothing else, the story here will be an interesting continuation of where The New Colossus left things.

For more on Wolfenstein, check out our review of The New Colossus here.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Toronto

Release: March 6, 2020

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

In Watch Dogs Legion you can scan any NPC in the world and learn more about them. You can even recruit them to become a part of your team. There's another thing you can do with them too.

In an E3 demo, as I silently worked my way through an enemy complex, I realized that I could scan the bodies of the enemies I was knocking out. Along with information on who they are and what they like to do, you learn that these injured guards are taken to the hospital.

I asked the Ubisoft employee who was walking me through the demo if I could visit them at the hospital or find out where they went next. He said "yes." So rather than moving on to a story mission, I decided to put a way point on the hospital where these guards were taken. The game makes this super easy too, as you can place a way point on any character you've scanned.

After a short drive, I arrived at the hospital, but couldn't go inside. I instead had to hack a drone to find an external computer terminal I could interact with. To reach it I had to climb a pipe onto the roof. With a touch of a button, I was able to view all various hospital records for patients, including those of the guards I injured.

I was then given the option to help or euthanize them. I chose the latter. After ending their lives, their bios on my phone were updated with red text that outlined my murderous deed.

"That's one way to play it," the Ubisoft employee said sarcastically. I told him that I just wanted to see if I could do it, and as it turns out, you can. You can go well out of your way to finish off enemies or just be plain evil. That kind of choice is pretty damn cool.

It turns out that Elise Favis did pretty much the same thing in her detailed playthrough, as well.

Watch Dogs Legion is slated to release on March 6, 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Team Cherry

Developer: Team Cherry

Release: 2019

Platform: Switch, PC

Hidden away at Nintendo’s booth, a few choice stations were hosting a two-level demo of Hollow Knight: Silksong, the highly anticipated sequel project from Team Cherry. I had the chance to play through both levels, and the portion of Hornet’s adventure on display maintains the tradition of excellence established by the original.

An intro early in the demo helps set the stage for the story at hand, but doesn’t necessarily answer all our questions about what is happening in this particular adventure. In the original Hollow Knight, Hornet was a challenging boss and significant character to the unfolding story of Hallownest. As this new game opens, Hornet seems to have been taken prisoner, and while crossing a bridge in her caged conveyance, she bursts forth with webbing, and both she and her captors are flung down into a deep pit. From there, the focus seems to be on finding where she is, and who it was that tried to capture her.

In the first of two levels, the Moss Grotto, I explore a green and verdant leaf-covered level filled with branching climbing sections and the occasional diving bug, who I must dodge and then slash with my needle. One of the first things I notice is that Hornet mantles up onto ledges when she can’t quite make the jump, which can be a real life saver in certain circumstances.

Hornet fills her wheel of silk by attacking enemies, and once it’s full, she can trigger its use with a tap of the button. The heal happens much faster than the long and focused heal that was seen in Hollow Knight, and heals three health units. The speed of that heal changes the dynamic of play in significant ways, especially during boss fights, since it can be relied on to get you back up to fighting form in just a brief moment. The Moss Grotto area ends with a fight against a flying green bug, and I wouldn’t have survived without the availability of the fast heal.

The Deep Docks level shows off a more mechanized section of the strange world into which Hornet has been flung, filled with levers to pull and strange ringing bells that can be struck and sounded. While there, I take a few moments to explore the pause screen, and what it tells about the game. There appear to be at least two major currencies to collect; shell shards act as a crafting currency, while rosaries are a currency for trading. Here you can also see Hornet’s Needle weapon and cloak, and there’s strong reason to suspect that both can be upgraded.

At one point in my exploration of Deep Docks, I encounter a smith bug hard at work, and a conversation unfolds. In an interesting variation from the style of these conversations in the original game, Hornet regularly speaks up during these conversations and we read her dialogue in addition to the NPC’s words. Having two-way conversations like this is nice, and helps to shed some light on the nature of the character you’re playing. Hornet comes across as highly educated but haughty, short-tempered but tersely polite.

The Deep Docks level ends with a challenging boss fight against another agile blade-wielder, and I died more than once, sending me back to my most recent bench. Upon returning to the site of my death, a spool of silk could be slashed, which refilled my healing meter just before getting into the big fight again, which was helpful.

Stepping back from individual moments, Silksong plays like a dream. The same tight action, gorgeous art style, and eerie mystery that defined the first games suffuses this new project. Hornet was one of the most intriguing character from that first game, so it feels like a natural outgrowth that this new game follows her as the new protagonist. I’m also pleased that the game is taking us to a new mysterious underground locale to discover, rather than simply expanding on the original game’s destinations. In short, what I saw of Silksong suggests that players of the original Hollow Knight should be justified in being excited about this follow-up; Team Cherry is offering all the right indications that Silksong should match or exceed the sophisticated depth, storytelling, and challenge of their first game.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Nintendo

Release: September 20, 2019

Rating: Everyone

Platform: Switch

One of the highest compliments we tend to give remakes is that they look and play how we remember them. Spyro Reignited Trilogy, for example, invokes the same sense of wonder we had when we played the original, pointier versions back in the day. Playing the remake of Link’s Awakening, however didn’t feel like I was revisiting my memories of the original. Instead, it felt like a fever dream I had a long time ago had suddenly become much more lurid, and I mean that in the best way possible.

As a remake, Link’s Awakening is more in line with Grezzo’s Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask remake than, say, Resident Evil 2. My fifteen-minute demo ran me through the paces I remembered from the original game: After waking up in Marin and Tarin’s house and having a quick chat with them (as in the original, Tarin won’t let you leave without speaking to him), I ran out to retrieve my sword at the Tornobo Shores. If you’ve played the original, you’re mostly going to retrace your steps.

By now you’ve probably seen the game’s art style (just look around this article if you need a refresher), and have your own thoughts on it; a lot of people like it, but quite a few people don’t. Originally, I loved the look of most of the environments, but the characters felt off to me. Link reminded me more of a Funko-ized version of the character than the adventurer I imagined playing as on the Game Boy. But after seeing the game in action, I’m totally on board.

Link’s Awakening is one of the stranger Zelda games. Taking place inside of a dream, it gets away with things that might not work in more serious entries; characters regularly break the fourth wall, discordant characters like Chain Chomps and Kirby make an appearance, and while the places Link finds himself in tend to have conveniently diverse ecologies, Link’s Awakening has an especially weird landmass. It’s a patchwork game in a lot of ways. Crucially, the original Link’s Awakening is also a Game Boy game, which means it looks like this:

Not only is it retro in the classic pixelated sense, but the color palette is severely limited, which means your imagination is putting in even more effort to imagine what the things on your screen might actually look like. That’s the case for lots of old games, but with Link’s Awakening that effect enhances the experience, since it ties into the dreamlike atmosphere and the feeling that what you’re looking at isn’t real.

The new art style is certainly more nuanced and realistic, but still manages to get this effect across in a new way. The beady eyes on human characters and clean, shiny textures on just about everything else makes everything look like a diorama for dolls, which makes it feel like you’re playing pretend. So it still feels like what you’re doing and seeing isn’t real. That vibe is a big part of Link’s Awakening for me, and I don’t think it would be kept intact if it looked like, say, the Ocarina of Time remake, or if it used a “realistic” art style.

Not every part of the original release is kept intact, but the changes are for the better. You could move in eight directions in the original game, but Link now actually faces the direction he’s moving (instead of simply sliding around diagonally), with matching animations for slashing. It’s strange that this addition actually makes the game feel more retro, and it’s a nice touch overall.

You don’t have to struggle with one limit of the Game Boy, either. This time around, instead of having to equip various items (including your sword and shield) to bind them to the A and B buttons, your B and L buttons are now reserved for slashing and block, respectively. Most of your other tools and items have to share the X and Y buttons, but not having to swap back to your sword constantly should save a lot of menu time.

Another improvement is how you keep track of your adventure. Characters in the original Link’s Awakening guided him on his journey, giving him directions about where to go next. You had to remember that info as you played, however, and if you happened to forget where to go (or accidentally skipped a bit of dialogue), it was easy to get lost. Taking a cue from Breath of the Wild, the world map screen now lets you now place pins on it, so you can mark your destination immediately, or literally stick a pin in chests or objects you need to come back to later.

My only knock against the remake based on my playtime is the framerate, which looked like a rock-solid 60 fps in interior spaces, but had a tendency to drop to about half that when roaming outside. This happened both in docked and undocked mode. Hopefully it gets resolved before the final release, as it put a bit of a damper on an otherwise great time.

There weren’t too many surprises besides that, and that’s probably good, since this is a remake, after all (if you’re curious about how the new dungeon-making aspect will work, check out our interview with Eiji Aonuma about it). But what I’ve played makes me excited to revisit Koholint Island when Link’s Awakening comes out on September 20, since it still looks to spark the imagination the same way it did 26 years ago.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Developer: Ninja Theory

Release: TBA

Platform: Xbox

I play Overwatch almost every night with friends, and I thought about that game a lot during my hands-on session with Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge. This 4v4 third-person fighter is more about close quarters melee than gunplay, but draws close comparisons to Blizzard's shooter in its character designs, their unique powers, their classes, the user interface, and overall visual style. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with what I played.

Ninja Theory doesn't have a release date it wants to reveal yet, but players will be able to enter a technical alpha in a couple of weeks. Two game modes are planned for this session, one is an objective-control mode where players must stand on a space to capture it. The number of spaces is different on each map. The second mode is called Power Cells, which pushes players to collect power cells and deliver them to a zone. If you kill someone carrying a cell, they'll drop it and you can grab it. At this point, ranked play isn't planned, but if the game is popular, Ninja Theory sees it as a possible addition.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Much like Overwatch, the true allure of Bleeding Edge is just how different each character is both in personality and play. One of the characters named Kulev is a former Cambridge professor who, at the age of 126, dies and gives his brain to a tech friend who manages to upload his consciousness into an A.I. Since Kulev loves voodoo, he loads his A.I. into a robotic snake that is attached to his corpse. It's a wild idea that makes for a hilarious and interesting character. Right now, the story is delivered through bios, but Ninja Theory hopes to deliver those story and character details in more ways in the future.

Each character can jump, has a standard attack, dodge, and three abilities, including a super attack that slowly builds up over time. Each of the characters fall into classes of healers, DPS, and tanks. One character creates a field that slows enemies, another can turn invisible, and many of the powers can be combined with other characters' to truly mess with the opposition.

The combat is fluid and fun, at times reminding me of Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil May Cry. Getting in close and hacking away at enemies, and then dodging before they can retaliate feels good. Even though the focus is solely on competitive play, the game offers the ability to lock-on to specific targets to keep them in your sights.

Bleeding Edge is a little bare bones at the moment, much like Killer Instinct was when it originally launched, but Ninja Theory hopes to deliver plenty of content post launch, whenever that ends up being.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Annapurna Interactive

Developer: Luis Antonio

Platform: Xbox One, PC

The indie title 12 Minutes is an interactive thriller about a man trapped in a 12-minute loop, and it got some time in the spotlight during Microsoft's press event at E3 this year. The trailer below showcases the interesting premise, but we got some hands-on with with title to get a clearer idea of how the time loop works.

The game focuses on three unnamed characters (a husband, a wife, and a cop) in three rooms. Players control the husband, who discovers he is caught in the time loop after he is killed by an intruder (the cop) shortly after you start the game.

Instead of dying, the husband just starts over at the beginning of the 12-minute cycle, he retains all the knowledge he previously gained. In the short term, the goal seems straightforward: You need to warn your wife about the impending danger, and prevent the intruder from harming anyone. You do this by experimenting with items and dialogue in the apartment, trying to convince your wife while also preparing for an attack.

During the first loop, you can't do much to defend yourself. The clock runs in real time. The cop shows up around the 3-minute mark, binds you and your wife, accuses her of killing her father, and then chokes you out. But in the next loop, you (and the character) can leverage what you learned to delay the attack or improve your odds.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

For example, when the cop knocked on the door the first time, my wife answered. So during the second loop, I told her not to answer the door when someone eventually knocks, but she was skeptical. In desperation, I ground up some sleeping pills and slipped them into her water, hoping she would go to bed. She did, and shut the bedroom door behind her. Then I locked the apartment's front door, hoping to delay the cop, who started pounding and yelling when he showed up. I called 911 from a cell phone I found in the closet... but the real police didn't arrive before the intruder busted in and found me. I tried attacking with him with a knife, but he overpowered me, and the loop started again.

Even if you as a player know exactly what to do, your interactions are limited by what the husband character learns. You need to poke at the environment, gauge characters' reactions, combine items, and try to extend your survival time. But as that continues, you also learn more about your wife and the intruder's motives, and a larger mystery unfolds.

From what we played, that mystery seems compelling. Combined with the cool concept of the time loop, we're excited to learn more when 12 Minutes releases in 2020 for Xbox One and PC.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Nintendo

Release: July 26, 2019

Platform: Switch

Nintendo kicked off today's Treehouse live stream with gameplay of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The game seems to be a dramatic departure from its recent 3DS Fire Emblem titles, with a sizable central hub – dubbed "the monastery" – fully 3D battles, and a new Persona-like calendar system. Check out the nearly half-hour segment for even more details!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses launches on Nintendo Switch on July 26, 2019. You can see the game's E3 story trailer right here.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Codemasters

Release: September 13, 2019

Rating: Rating Pending

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Codemasters does a good job with the F1 license, but it's also nice to get away from the strictness of a license and the more sim-racing approach, and just get behind the wheel and drive. The return of the Grid franchise affords racing fans just that, letting them tear up the track across over 150 events encompassing different racing series.

The beauty of the game's structure – apart from being able to race muscle cars, touring cars, prototypes, and more – is that it's designed around openness. Although each series progresses linearly once you start it, culminating in a boss showdown, you can skip between the other series as you see fit. This way you don't have to feel stuck in a single racing silo.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

Grid also features multiplayer, various customization options, rewind during races when you need it, a teammate, and a rivalry system that you can see activated when you get too aggressive. Naturally these new enemies bump back in response, and although your relationship doesn't carry on from race to race, you have to spend money to repair your car, so be careful with how you use that front bumper.

On the track (using a wheel), the muscle and touring cars felt appropriately different, and the game's late-in-the-day lighting looked great. I was also pleasantly surprised when a car ahead of me skidded out and caused all sorts of trouble.

I look forward to finding out more about the game's multiplayer and other customization aspects as we approach the title's fall release.

June 12, 2019

Publisher: Nintendo

Release: September 20, 2019

Rating: Everyone

Platform: Switch

We had a chance to go hands-on with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening yesterday. While you'll be able to read our full impressions soon, one part of the game that was not available in the demo was the newly announced dungeon-creation mechanics. To learn more about how the system works, I caught up with Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma.

"As you progress through the game, you're going to encounter dungeons, and when you clear these dungeons, the rooms inside the dungeons become puzzle pieces or panels you can rearrange," he says. "As you progress through the game and clear many dungeons, you'll be able to have a variety of panels to choose from. By arranging an entrance and a boss or goal, you can arrange a real dungeon to play through."

In order to access this feature, you need to seek out Dampé, a character many players may remember from other games like Ocarina of Time. In this game, he's in charge of helping you create unique dungeons. "We understand that just creating a dungeon from nothing is very hard to do," Aonuma says. "That's why we introduced the character Dampé to be the keeper of the dungeons. He will give you challenges to complete by creating a dungeon with the challenges he gives you."

According to Aonuma, Dampé fits perfectly in the Link's Awakening world. "He's always been this mysterious character," he says. "If you remember him in Ocarina of Time, he was a gravekeeper and there was a dungeon beneath a grave, and there's a lot of things that are a little bit mysterious about him. He fits that image of a dungeon and that's why we thought maybe we'll incorporate him in the game in this way."

Probably the first thing many fans thought when they first learned of the dungeon creation feature is how similar it is to the concept of Super Mario Maker. "We were definitely influenced by what fans definitely like," Aonuma says. "For Zelda, though, we know that creating puzzles in dungeons is very hard to come up with on your own; I was a dungeon creator for a while, so I understand it can be a very hard thing to complete. So we wanted to make something that's easy to arrange for anybody, so we thought just rearranging the rooms would be a fun experience."

One key facet to Super Mario Maker is the ability to share your creations with others online. Unfortunately, Aonuma can't talk about a feature such as that just yet. "Maybe another time I can present a little bit more for you," he says with a laugh.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening comes to Switch September 20.