E3 Impressions

E3 2018 is pretty much in the books now. Overall, I thought that Microsoft had the strongest showing with their presentation; although I do not own an Xbox One (yet), I believe that Microsoft had a great line-up of games (Halo, Gears of War) that effectively showcased Xbox One's value. Of course, Bethesda also got people hyped with Fallout 76 and their Elder Scrolls 6 teaser. But, seeing that I'm a die-hard fan of the Super Smash Bros. series, I was most psyched about the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveal. Nintendo didn't seem to have too many other games to showcase, with only a brief glimpse into the mechanics of Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and some other games that we've already known about. No update on Metroid Prime 4 unfortunately. I thought Sony's press conference had a bit of a slow start with annoying intermissions, but I suppose it's important to try new things from time to time. I didn't bother watching EA's presentation since I don't care for them. Anyways, here are some of my impressions of several games that were announced or showcased. Sorry if I seem to ramble or go off-topic at times, or if there were any other games I didn't cover in as much detail.

Devil May Cry 5
I finally got around to playing through Devil May Cry 1 and 3 back in December, after many years of having these games on my bucket list. I'm glad that Capcom is going back to the main series as opposed to continuing with the reboot. However, throughout the whole trailer, I couldn't help but wonder where Dante was. After all, he is the character we love and the main reason why we play DMC. Then he appears at the very end of the trailer, looking so old and creepy... I don't know what to make of it, but I feel concerned. I haven't played DMC 4 yet, so maybe I should do that first. I don't have a well-informed opinion about Nero yet, but I still prefer having Dante as the main character (and not looking so old and weird). I'm trying to reserve my judgments; hopefully more gameplay footage will be revealed and the game will be awesome when it is finally released.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Ghosts of Tsushima
I feel like Samurai games are making a comeback! Nioh, which I still need to play, came out last year, and it's a game that hearkens back to the days of Onimusha, but with the strategic and action-oriented gameplay similar to that found in the Dark Souls series. Interestingly enough, FromSoftware, the creators of Dark Souls, is moving on to create a new game that has a Samurai/feudal Japan setting, with demons and magic (of course!) thrown into the mix. I first thought that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was going to be an Xbox One exclusive, but it looks like it's also coming out for the PS4 and PC. Joy! Let's see if I can try to finish the Dark Souls games and Nioh before it comes out...

Ghosts of Tsushima is a game that was announced a while ago, and it's another game that makes use of the Samurai theme. The swordplay mechanics in the trailer looked pretty realistic and engaging, and the game appears to be taking on a much more realistic approach compared to Sekiro and Nioh. Since I love Samurai games/movies and Japanese culture, I'm really looking forward to these games coming out.

Kingdom Hearts 3
I've been waiting too long, to the point where part of me accepted the possibility that this game may never come out. I've played every Kingdom Hearts game since the first one released back in 2002. When Sora was 14, I was 14. I kept track of the convoluted story, which only became more complicated and esoteric with each new entry into the series. KH has a plot that includes various versions of each character, too much back story, and then they thought it was a good idea to add in Inception-like dream mechanics and time travel... I used to cosplay as Riku. I love Yoko Shimomura's music for the series. But now, after so many years of waiting for KH3, I almost feel too old to like Kingdom Hearts anymore... Almost.

For the longest time, all I wanted was for this game to just come out. All I wanted was a release date. Finally, a release date was announced. January 29, 2019. Let's see if the release date gets pushed back. Hopefully we will not have another Final Fantasy XV situation on our hands. I certainly won't talk about the apparent development issues with the Final Fantasy VII remake right now.

Oh Square Enix, formerly Squaresoft, you were the first publisher outside of Nintendo that I fell in love with. You've pissed me off so much throughout the years. Your first online game took away seven years of my life. You're like a long-time, abusive lover who always infuriates me but somehow convinces me to come back and wait around for you. I can never forget the good old days when Final Fantasy games actually told good stories. Actually, these memories are the only reason why I still put up with you...

I really like how KH3 focuses on the Pixar movies. The trailer shows a lot of characters making a comeback, many of whom (the organization members in particular) I'd imagine that casual fans have either completely forgotten or couldn't care less about. The graphics look amazing, and I can tell that the gameplay mechanics draw upon everything the creators learned over the lifespan of the series. I truly hope that this game will give me and so many other longtime KH fans the closure that we've been desperately wanting and waiting for. And please, for the sake of our sanity, simplify rather than over-complicate the plot even further. Even though I feel that I have an adequate understanding of everything that's been going on throughout the KH games, most people simply can't keep up with all the keys and doors and people's hearts and people's hearts in other people's hearts and old Xehanort and Xehanort in Terra's body and Ansem who really isn't Ansem but is actually Xehanort who became separated from his body who was called Xemnas and DiZ who's the real Ansem and Roxas and Xion who are respectively Sora's nobody and clone made from his memories and...

I miss the days of when there was only one KH game and the story was so much simpler. I think KH3 will be amazing, and I can't wait. Although, I suppose waiting until 2019 isn't that big of a deal seeing that I've already waited 13 years since KH2 and 6-8 years since the last two main KH games (Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance).


The Last of Us Part 2
Brutal! That was my first response to the gameplay in the Last of Us Part 2 trailer. I love it. It's very interesting that the trailers released so far focus primarily on the human characters. The human vs. human conflicts appear to be taking center stage over the infected, but this could change. I'm glad that Ellie appears to be the main character in Part 2. I love Naughty Dog (creators of Uncharted and The Last of Us), and I agree with many people that The Last of Us tells one of the best stories in gaming. I recall that before I actually played the first game myself, I watched a playthrough of the game and felt upset at Joel's decision at the end to (SPOILER WARNING!) essentially sacrifice humanity to save one person. However, when I played the game myself and actually experienced the gameplay and character development firsthand, I found myself imagining what it was like to be in Joel's shoes, and then I had an epiphany: I would have made the exact same decision as he did. Maybe that makes me selfish or a terrible person, but I realized that I also would have chosen to save the life of one person that I cared about rather than leave their life in the hands of people I don't trust (and who were also jerks). This change in my perception of Joel's decision, in my opinion, demonstrates how video games as a storytelling medium can do so much more than movies and books (both of which I also love) through immersive gameplay, long-time character development, and story interactivity. 

Death Stranding
Knowing Hideo Kojima's style of storytelling (Metal Gear Solid is one of my top three favorite franchises), I'm not even going to try to make sense of the Death Stranding trailers so far. I know things will make far more sense once the game is actually released, whenever that might be. There's actually gameplay footage in the E3 trailer, but other then the game involving a lot of walking, and I think sneaking around (?), it's still hard to know what to expect. I hope the game turns out to be really good.

Nintendo's Partnership with Ubisoft
Starlink: Battle for Atlas was announced at Ubisoft's press conference, and Fox from Star Fox will be exclusive to the Switch version of the game. I'm wondering how many people will buy the game only because Fox and the Arwing are included. The idea of having customizable model ships that can interface with the game itself is intriguing. It reminds me of what Activision did with Skylanders, selling toys alongside the game to unlock new characters and features. Disney Infinity and Nintendo's Amiibo (and I'll not talk about my Amiibo collecting addiction right now) also made use of this concept. They also showed the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which is another game I haven't yet picked up or tried but have heard is pretty good. It pleases me that Nintendo and Ubisoft have a good working relationship, and we'll see what else comes out of their partnership in the future.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey
I have to be honest: Assassin's Creed is another series that I love, and I've played every game in the franchise apart from Liberation and Origins (waiting for a Black Friday sale). I actually prefer that Ubisoft not release a new AC every year, as the series has already experienced stagnation in its gameplay. I know that Origins tried to reinvigorate the series and change things around, utilizing more role-playing elements and timing-based action gameplay (comparisons have made to Dark Souls and The Witcher 3). I like the Greek setting of Odyssey, but I'm worried that AC is experiencing an identity crisis right now. The inclusion of branching dialogue options seems forced in simply for the sake of having them, and the gameplay in the trailer, to me, did not seem very compelling. AC seems to be taking elements from other games because the creators aren't entirely sure what direction they should take the series. This is what happens when annual game releases that, for the most part, reuse the same gameplay mechanics from previous entries result in stifled creativity. This happened to Mega Man too, which is why there's a 12 year gap between Mega Man 8 and 9 and a 8 year gap between Mega Man 10 and 11. Mega Man is also one of my top 3 favorite series, but Capcom was stupid to release 6 games on the NES, which led to Mega Man as a whole becoming devalued (hopefully Mega Man 11 can help change this, but I digress; this paragraph is supposed to be about Assassin's Creed). Similarly, Ubisoft has been stupid for wanting to release a new Assassin's Creed game every year. I hoped that the longer development for Origins meant that Ubisoft would space out AC releases more, but it seems like this year they are going back to par for the course and releasing a game every year. Also, for AC Odyssey, it seems like they do not know what they should change and what they should keep. Personally, I'm turned off by the idea of not including the hidden blade since this weapon is the biggest defining characteristic of AC. There are some things that shouldn't be changed: Mario should jump, Sonic should run fast, and Assassins in AC should have their hidden blades. Perhaps I'm being too harsh with my criticism. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions too quickly. I still want AC Odyssey to turn out good, but I'm worried that the days of AC games like AC II, Brotherhood, AC III, and AC IV Black Flag being associated with high-quality gameplay might have come to an end.

Fortnite for Switch
I think releasing Fortnite on Switch was a really smart move. I know how popular this game is right now, and though I haven't yet played it myself, I like to watch highlight videos of Fortnite gameplay. I've downloaded Fortnite to both my PS4 and Switch, but because of the controversial decision Sony made to keep PS4 Fortnite accounts restricted to PS4 consoles, I'm currently unsure of whether to try playing Fortnite on my PS4 or Switch. I'm hoping that Sony eases up and rescinds their decision to prevent players from using their Fortnite accounts on multiple consoles. No one seems to really talk about Fortnite's core game (not the battle royale mode), so maybe I'll give that a try. 

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
I'm ecstatic that this game is coming out. It's common for fighting games to reuse assets and release updated versions of popular releases, as we have seen with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Recently, I've been playing through a lot of Street Fighter games, and it's hard to keep track of all the different versions of each game. However, I've always liked how Nintendo takes each entry into the Smash Bros. series very seriously; instead of simply releasing an updated port (I don't really see the 3DS and Wii U versions as separate ports/releases since they're essentially the same game and came out pretty much at the same time), Nintendo is adding so much more by including new graphics, updating gameplay mechanics, and introducing new characters. Also, the prospect of including every single character from previous Smash Bros. titles is ambitious and wonderful. I was upset that Ice Climbers were not included in Smash 4, and I can't wait to be able to play as Snake again (in my opinion, his inclusion was one of the only good things about Brawl; I don't like Brawl). I've decided come out of retirement from playing Smash (of course, the retirement was only temporary), and I'm working hard to get better at both Smash 4 and Melee in preparation for Smash Ultimate's release. Since the gameplay in Ultimate will be faster than Smash 4, I'm hoping that it will be more akin to Melee, which is the game that I believe (and I think many people out there agree with me) is the best one in the series. I'm not necessarily an amazing Smash player, and pro players could easily demolish me. Getting soundly beaten by a competitive Smash player, who also happened to be one of my students, was the main reason why I retired from playing Smash 4 for a couple years. However, I'm good enough in Smash 4 to at least consistently 2-stock level 9 CPUs, and I'm working toward being able to 3-stock them fairly regularly. I'm better at Smash 4 than Melee, but I like Melee more, for it was the primary reason why I purchased a Gamecube. All in all, Smash Bros. Ultimate is the game I'm most looking forward to this year. I can't wait! 

Besides the announcement of Smash Ultimate, my favorite parts of E3 were the live Grim Fandango reading and the Austin Creed vs. Kenny Omega Street Fighter V contest!