E3 2019 Coverage and Demo Impressions - Day 2: Link's Awakening, Luigi's Mansion, Pokemon, and XSEED
Welcome back! As promised, it’s time to talk about day 2 of the adventures of GBAtemp at E3 2019! The first day of the conference had been amazing; going through the SEGA booth, being stunned by all the booths on the show floor, finding free swag, and being able to play through a port of one of my favorite games. Things were looking to get even better, though, as just like last year, we had a meeting with Nintendo of Canada, and the opportunity to play some upcoming games from them! Join me once more, as I detail all the exciting things that happened on the second day of the event!
Though we had already seen one of XSEED’s upcoming games, that wasn’t all that they had in store for the show. It was time to continue my tour of their booth, starting with Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin. If you have a good memory, then you’ll remember that this is the game’s third year at E3, originally popping up all the way back at E3 2017. Though I didn’t have the chance to play the game this year, I was granted an interview with Edelweiss, the developers of the game! Sakuna has been developed by the two-man studio over the past four years, who both have had prior experience working on games like Astebreed and Ether Vapor Remastered. The past two times I had gotten to try Sakuna, it had felt very reminiscent of a Vanillaware title, with beautiful artwork and fast-paced 2D action, much like Muramasa Rebirth or Odin Sphere. Not surprisingly, the developer had gotten this comment a few times, and had replied that though many make that comparison, neither of those games had been direct inspiration for Sakuna. Instead, ActRaiser had been the most influential during the development of the game, as it blends simulation with action. In Sakuna, platforming and beat-em-up styled gameplay appears to be the focus, but there’s also a season system in place, which is very important, as there’s an entire farming simulation part to the game, which will affect your stats in a major way. Just as during E3 2017 and 2018, I was happy to see more of Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin, and I’ll definitely be picking the game up when it launches on PC/Switch/PS4 this winter.
The next game I was guided towards was Granblue Fantasy Versus. I can’t say that I knew much about the series--I’m familiar with it being a gacha, and there’s a very prominent JRPG releasing soon that had Platinum Games’ assist in development, but that was as far as my knowledge on Granblue went. Fortunately, Granblue Fantasy Versus is a fighting game, by Arc System Works. If you’ve ever played Persona 4 Arena, Blazblue, or Dragon Ball FighterZ, you’ll feel right at home. Just like those previously mentioned games, Versus features exceptionally detailed spritework, and a very solid fighting system. In my attempts to button-mash, I’d pulled off a fantastic-looking special attack, which to the dismay of the player next to me, utterly destroyed their health bar. During my time with the game, I got to play as two characters: Gran and Katalina, who both had very distinctive combat styles, despite both being sword users. As explained by the XSEED worker standing nearby, Granblue Fantasy Versus has a few auto-combos to help those unfamiliar with fighting games out, though it features a very deep and complex system that hardcore competitive players should enjoy. While fighting games as a whole don’t interest me very much, I had fun with this one, just as I did with Arc Sys’ previous game, Dragon Ball FighterZ. If you’re interested, too, then this will be out later this year, for PlayStation 4.
The final showing at XSEED’s booth was a wacky little RPG called Heroland. This was, without a doubt, one of the quirkiest games available to play at E3 this year. Originally titled WORK x WORK in Japan, this title features a wealth of talent within its insanity. The dialogue is penned by the writer of Legend of Mana (Nobuhiro Inoue), the soundtrack is arranged by the old school Shin Megami Tensei composer (Tsukasa Masuko), and the very detailed and colorful graphics were done by the art director of the very beloved Mother 3 (Nobuhiro Imagawa). If that alone isn’t enough to sell you on the game, then let me take a moment to further explain the concept. In Heroland, you play as the tour guide of a theme park modeled after classic fantasy JRPG tropes. Excited customers will then ask you to take them on a journey through different sections of the park, where you battle evil enemies, who happen to just be your coworkers, in disguise. Battles will take place, though you have very limited control over your party; rather than commanding them what to do one by one, you supervise the battles, and have the power to step in every once in a while, to help direct the fight in your favor. Combining crazy dialogue with a riff on classic JRPG combat, Heroland looks like it’s shaping up to be a hilarious game that’s worth keeping an eye out for.
Saying my goodbyes to the lovely XSEED staff, after joyously passing my business cards around to anyone who would look anywhere in my direction, it was time to head a few steps over to the one, the only, Nintendo booth. As usual, they had one of the largest setups in all of the West Hall, featuring both an elaborate mansion-like booth for Luigi’s Mansion 3, along with a recreation of a soccer field, designed to look like one of the Pokemon Gyms from Sword and Shield. Standing by the entrance were workers dressed up as referees, waving yellow flags and directing the massive lines of people, just waiting to get a glimpse of the demo. Per usual, Nintendo knocked it out of the park, in terms of grabbing your attention at E3. I can remember in 2016, they had a serene booth full of cardboard trees and a cooking spit, meant to represent Breath of the Wild. In 2017, they had put up giant towers, along with statues of Chain Chomps, Boos, and even a frog, for the imminent release of Mario Odyssey. Last year, they had a much more simple display; clear cases full of painstakingly recreated weapon props of many of the Smash Bros. cast, for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For this E3, Pokemon would be Nintendo’s main focus, and star of their showcase. As I stood inside the booth, I saw elated fans get to play the latest Pokemon games for the first time, and while it didn’t cause as much pandemonium as Smash or Breath of the Wild once did, there were still dedicated fans waiting hours upon hours, just to play a ten-minute demo.
The Nintendo booth wouldn’t be where I got to play any games, however, as media instead are directed to the well-guarded Nintendo lounge. There, each journalist is privately escorted into the room, which is full of Switch units geared up to play upcoming games like Pokemon Sword and Shield, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Luigi’s Mansion, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Remake. There, I got to play three games of my choice, while talking to the lead of public relations for Nintendo of Canada, Julie Gagnon. She was incredibly nice, and so incredibly excited to show off each of the games Nintendo had to offer. Being that I got to play any three games of my choice for 20 minutes each, I decided to go with Pokemon, first, as I was super curious on how different Sword and Shield would be to Let’s Go. The moment you press start, you’re thrown right into the game, as you walk into a Gym. I had a full team of six Pokemon, set to level 50. Even if I wasn’t made very acutely aware that this was going to be a water type gym from the footage and booth decor from earlier, the puzzles were a dead giveaway. The goal is to turn off water valves to open a path to the leader, which actually managed to not only stump me, but also the two Nintendo reps by my side. They then began calling out the color of each valve I needed to hit in order to proceed. “Red! Red! Then Yellow! Wait no, blue blue blue!”, as we all laughed. While the demo wouldn’t allow me to open the menu and switch around the order of my Pokemon, I made sure to swap out each of my team in order to try them all. New to E3 was the Electric type corgi-like creature, Yamper, who made quick work of most of the gym trainers. The starters, Sobble, Grookey, and Scorbunny were all fun to use, and once the game launches, I’ll be sure to pick the small Fire type rabbit. Wooloo, the sheep, was so incredibly cute, bringing back fond memories of using each generation’s standard Normal type, like Sentret, Zigzagoon, and Bidoof. Corviknight was the downright coolest of them all, being Steel and Flying, a combination that I can’t recall using much at all in any Pokemon game, beside Skarmory.
As many know, new to Sword and Shield is Dynamaxing, the new gimmick for this set of games. I had nearly forgotten that fact, until the Gym Leader did so, immediately KO’ing both Yamper and Grookey. As the enemy Pokemon turned back to normal on the third turn, I relied on the adorable Wooloo to carry me to victory, turning into a gigantic sheep and winning the day. Getting into the finer details of the demo, I noticed that now that Pokemon isn’t relegated to the aged 3DS hardware, battles felt smooth, and much faster pace than they’d been on the handheld console. This was a gripe that I’d had with the series starting with X/Y, carrying over all the way until US/UM. The Nintendo Switch felt far more suited to displaying 3D Pokemon models, and running them at a stable framerate. I’ve been tenatively excited for Sword and Shield, and after getting a chance to try them out, I can say that it brought back a feeling of excitement I hadn’t had since the days of Black and White.
Upon completing the demo, I turned my focus away from the screen of the TV, and began to look around the room, as hushed whispers could be heard. Who could be garnering so much excitement? As I looked to my left, I could see Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario himself! He was posing with some writers, looking like he was having an absolute blast being at E3. What an awesome sight!
(That man on the left has a face that says "I know who you are, and where you keep your super secret totally legit ROM section!)
Moving on, my next experience would be with Luigi’s Mansion, a franchise that I regrettably haven’t have the chance to play through prior to this. For that reason, I found myself a little confused by some of the game mechanics, though I quickly adapted. Each room that I explored had tons of little puzzles to solve, which were a great deal of fun. The visual design of this game stood out to me, especially, looking very crisp for a Switch game. Many of the rooms required defeating a multitude of ghosts, which actually proved challenging for what seemed to be a tutorial level. New to this entry is a small burst attack, which you can use if you find yourself in a pinch, and need to distance yourself from an onslaught of ghosts. Gooigi, who is also new to Luigi’s Mansion 3, was also a prominent part of the demo, is required in order to solve some trickier puzzles that Luigi couldn’t handle on his own. Everything controlled nicely, and felt great to play, leaving me wanting to go back and play through the first two games, to be prepared for when Luigi’s Mansion 3 releases later this fall.
With that, my time with Nintendo had come to an end, along with the second day of E3. I was so grateful at having a chance to meet with Nintendo, and get to play some of the most anticipated games they had to offer. XSEED, as usual, was also a delight! With just one more day left of the conference, I'd have to make sure to experience all the other cool games on Day 3! And we'll see which games those were, next time. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the article!
