What I'm looking out for
The many showcases this June, ushered in by Summer Game Fest, are well in the rear view mirror by now. The dizzying array of reveals left us with hundreds of games to think about and now I am stuck on just one question; out of all these titles coming to us in the coming months and years, what do I actually want to play? What am I truly excited to see? So, I did the only thing I could think of to narrow down the list. Starting with each showcase, I watched them all again one by one: SGF, State of play, Xbox showcase, Nintendo direct. I poured over them deliberately missing the hype from the initial reveal and was left with a solid handful of releases that I am especially interested in.
Now, lets get the obvious few out the way, these games are must plays and perhaps even day one buys. Skipping out on Persona 6 isn’t even a question fans of the franchise would entertain, but what has so far been revealed to us is quite meagre. I’m sure there are plenty of internet investigators willing to dig in to what little we were shown, but I am more than happy to admit that I am already buying and move on. I am very curious about the title card though, its giving Ghostbusters?
Another must play for me, that did actually have a good showing, is Gen Atlas. The newest outing for auteur director: Fumito Ueda, director of the previous classics; Ico, The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus. The latter title is understandably the game I have the most experience with as it has come to be quite the cherished classic. There is a timelessness to the gameplay loop of exploring barren yet beautiful lands in search of creatures of enormous size to do battle with. Gen Atlas, it seems, will be something of a return to that form. This time with a sci-fi twist. If the movement system can balance agile airborne acrobatics with slower grounded climbing physics it will be a dream to play. And if some sombre theme can be expressed that really resonates with me, I think we could be in for a modern classic.
The last title that we have seen almost nothing of but has me preemptively planning my time-off, is Guild Wars 3. I already shook hands on going all in on this MMO with a friend of mine. And well, if it’s predecessor is anything to go off, this is the kind of game you clear of months off of your schedule and no-life the game for a while. Some of my most cherished gaming memories live in the world of Guild Wars 2, getting 100% map completion, doing all the jumping puzzles, and chatting with my buddies while we waited for mega events. My only concern so far with this new entry, is the short bit of movement on display. It does seem to be borrowing elements from ever popular open world gatcha games like Genshin and WuWa. I have played a my fair share of these types of games and while I don’t hate them I am on the fence as to whether or not they would sit well in a MMO. My last romp in this world I was a tree guy who had my bear eat all my enemies. I am so looking forward to who I will become next. Right of the bat those are my must plays. Even without all that much to go off of, I will be picking those games up. The next group of games could be categorized as nearly the opposite.
There is some trouble stirring from within as I take a look at my list of anticipated games. That is to say that, I don’t have a Nintendo Switch 2, I don’t particularly want to have a Nintendo Switch 2 and I have no plans to purchase a Nintendo Switch 2. And yet. . . Three of my most anticipated games are stuck fast to the Nintendo console. I am not yet a devoted fan of the Fire Emblem franchise. However, Three Houses was tied for my number one Switch experience and I played through the campaign three times. It was everything I wanted at the time and perfectly satisfied the niche of befriending and training students to go in to do tragic battle. I skipped the next title in the Fire Emblem cannon, but Fortune’s Weave could very well be my second beloved Fire Emblem experience. In this upcoming release, similar to Three Houses you will spend your time in a Hub World and work to gain allies and strengthen your party before a deadline. I am all in one the character designs already, which is half the battle with Fire Emblem games, and I love the coliseum-type setting the have going on with the heroic games. I can already tell that Leda will be my ride or die, a gorgeous tragic musician looking for revenge is tailor made for me. I do hope there is a greater cast of characters yet unseen, because the trailers so far pretty much just showcase the four mains. The series has characterized itself with a sprawling cast though, so I don't really think I need to worry in that regard.
Another Nintendo franchise that I am not especially tied up with is Xenoblade. I have played one two and three, and they are good fine and great, respectively. This new outing is not connected to the previous entries and is acting as it’s own stand alone game in the series. It’s to soon to say but perhaps it will be a springboard into a brand new trilogy. My first reaction that I immediately sent to my groupchat was “its xenoblade: Three Houses” based on this new games school setting. It isn’t clear how big a role this school will have in the game, but as you can tell from my previous entry comparing it to Three Houses to me is a great compliment. One thing you can count on, and the main reason why I keep coming back to the Xenoblade games, it is guaranteed to have a spectacularly crafted world. Monolith Soft is the best in the industry at creating varied, expansive and dynamic worlds and terrain. Even without an excellent jrpg story these games would be worth playing on their own to simply explore and make your own adventures.
Likely surprising no one, my last entry in the Nintendo catalogue is the remake of Ocarina of Time. Ocarina is a beloved game to many and I am no different. I will glaze the game until the end. If people say its great but a little over rated I will be on of those crazy people saying its actually so good that it is still underrated. So the biggest question mark, possibly of the decade for me is. What are they going to change? And I do hope they change, a lot even. After all, I can probably play through the original with my eyes closed. So if they do a simple overhaul of the graphics on a modern engine, it will end up being a novel, yet unexciting experience for me.
If I could have my way. If I could change what I want changed and keep what I want kept, It would play out like this; more dungeons, an everchanging world, and more NPC dialogue. It is quite documented that there was planned content that never made it into the original game. Chiefly, some cut dungeons, some item functionality and more importantly, the fates of the citizenry of Hyrule. In Ocarina of Time, once you save a kingdom or village from its fate, nothing really happens. The world feels stuck in stasis for much of the later portions of the game and my main hope is that they fix that by having the world reflect your actions. There could be many more lines of high impact dialogue with npcs we were never able to speak with in the second part of the game. The next thing I would have changed is the over world and dungeon design. The game feels massive on its original N64 system, but if you translated that to a modern game one to one, I think it would feel small and cheap. Its important however, that the game feels distinctly Ocarina in its design philosophy and not breath of the ocarina. Sticking with what has worked for them these last two Zelda Titles would not work for me at all within the context of Ocarina. The main things I would not change are the core themes and atmosphere of the game. Much of the existing dialogue I would hope to stay the same and only be expanded on. The esoteric ramblings of Kaepora Gaebora, Sheik and Impa (if you know you know), have left a lifelong lasting impression on me about the nature of strife and growing up. Now, I will likely not get exactly what I want from the remake, but it’s potential for being either a greatest game of all time contender, or a massive disappointment keeps it a very interesting title to speculate on. And either way I need to see how it turns out. Of course I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and get a switch 2 to find out. Sigh.
Well, half of my most anticipated games are on a console I didn’t want, and the other half are still so far out some of them don’t have real trailers yet. But I’m not too stressed about it, I mean, we all have our massive backlogs to tide us over the wait right? For me I can play Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Remake when that comes out, and then maybe another Ocarina of Time Randomizer.