GBAtemp's E3 Show Floor Coverage: Day 1
Being able to get into E3 and be in the same room with so many games and developers is a dream come true. I couldn't begin to describe to my excitement as I saw the outside of the Convention Center. As soon as I walked into the building, all I could see was an unbelievable amount of people. E3 is the very definition of the word "jam-packed"; everywhere you looked, you could see hundreds of attendees crowded around, trying to assemble into a amorphous blob of a line, trying to see the latest and greatest gaming has to offer. Nothing can fully prepare you for that sensory overload that hits you when you nod politely to the badge attendant, look up, and see the chaos that is E3.
My initial plans were to hit up Nintendo's Legend of Zelda gameplay demo first and foremost. I had gotten to the event early and had a nice place outside the Exhibit Booth door. I was ready. All it involved was a little walking, right? A bell rung out, and you could hear people hooting and cheering, as the doors flung open, badge checkers desperately trying to keep everything orderly. Despite seeing all of Nintendo's booths on the E3 Map on my phone, those little floor plans meant nothing, as people obscured your vision of anything further than a few feet. I walked with the mass group of people, heading towards a giant sign that read Nintendo. Alright! There's a giant picture of Link on the wall, the line for the demo has got to start somewhere around here, right? And then suddenly most of the group broke off and turned the corner. Huh? I quickly turned to follow them, but it was far too late. The line was ridiculous, and it was only 12:05! I awkwardly found my place in line, far, far away from where the demo was located. I pulled out my 3DS to pass the time, hoping the wait wouldn't be too excruciating. 107 streetpasses and 30 minutes later, the line had barely moved. I saw a guy a few places ahead of me talking to a security guard. Something about how it'd take at least 4 more hours for him to try out the game. That was a little alarming. As much as I wanted to try the new Legend of Zelda out for myself, I had to get to a meeting with a company called Deep Silver. I gave one last look to painting of Link on the wall, and left the line, making my way to the second floor.
On the way, Atlus' booth caught my eye. I warily stared from the queue, to my phone's clock. I just had to check out Persona 5! I made my way through, netting myself a really cool Persona tote bag for my efforts. However, once I kept walking through the line, I found myself at none other than...the kiosk for Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice. What a way to go. I laughed nervously and tried out the demo of the game, praying it would end quickly. You play as Sonic and Co., and have the power to shuffle between the powers of fire and ice, in order to solve simple puzzles. They offered the first level and a boss fight to those playing the game. It's very simplistic, with not much challenge to it, you hold right, and occasionally find a secret room to jump into and collect some goodies. All in all, the game wasn't that bad, definitely not good, but nothing terrible either. Sorry guys, no Rise of Lyric 2.0 for you. As soon as I walked away from the Atlus/SEGA booth, a huge camera crew made their way past. I stepped back a few paces, as to not get in their way, and by doing that, I backed my way into a PS4 demo of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X. The Persona line hadn't lasted very long, and I still had 10 minutes before I needed to head to Deep Silver... Why not, I said to myself, as I began a level of the game. It was hard to hear the music over everything else going on, but I had a blast playing it. It's standard fare for anyone who's played the music-based series before. Definitely pick it up later this year if you're a rhythm game fan!
Okay! Now it was time to go meet with Deep Silver, and try out two of their games. I walked into the meeting room, where they checked my name off their appointment list, and was led towards a set of four flat screen TVs, connected to PS4 consoles. A guy shook my hand excitedly and introduced himself as David Hensley. He told me I would be playing an in-development version of Killing Floor 2, cooperatively with 3 other members of the company Tripwire Interactive. I was handed an expensive looking headset as we proceeded to start up the 4-player campaign. Killing Floor 2 is a co-op FPS, where you fight off hoards of zombie-like creatures as you try to make your way through the level. The first thing I thought of as I played the game was how similar it was to the Left 4 Dead series. The game offers much more customization than Left 4 Dead, however. You can choose your character class from a range of 4 options including Berserker, (A melee-based character) a healer, and Firebug (uses well, a flamethrower, to attack). Each class has special abilities, such as being able to seal doors shut behind you, access to unique weapons, and more. Every 5 levels you obtain (you cap out at level 25) rewards you with two new skills. After you clear each zombie hoarde, you can use a trading pod, which lets you buy new weapons and replenish your ammo. The game is also very challenging! Our group managed to make it to the boss, but unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at taking it down. Graphically, the game looked awesome. The only issue with it was a little bit of screen-tearing in more expansive areas. I was told that Tripwire hopes to have the game out by the end of this year, so keep an eye out for it. I certainly know that I'll be recommending it to all of my friends to try! If you're a PC player, then a few levels of the game are already playable via Steam's early access feature.
After that, I, along with about 15 other reporters was led into a room that seemed like a mini college lecture hall. We all sat down at individual desks, decked out with giant gaming PCs, as the Deep Silver and Volition team (The guys behind Saints Row!) explained their brand new IP, Agents of Mayhem. We weren't allowed to take pictures or record anything, but the developers were excitedly telling us all sorts of information about the game. Agents of Mayhem is a third person shooter that feels very reminiscent of Borderlands in the way of it's cheesy in-your-face humor, how you have a shield meter, and down to the way the health of the enemies ticks down. You choose a squad of three characters (from a roster of 12) that you can switch between at any time by using the D-pad. Volition claims that the characters' personalities are very heavily inspired by comic book heroes, and that the art style is "stylized! theatrical! vibrant!". Visually, the game was outstanding, everything stood out perfectly. However, it had quite a few framerate stutters, and the gameplay felt a little rushed for the demo. With a release date of 2017, though, I think that'll be plenty of time for Volition to polish the game into something great.
After that, I headed to XSEED, to see what their latest games were. First, I played Shantae: Half Genie Hero, developed by Wayforward, which will be published and getting physical copies thanks to XSEED. The game will be out on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PS Vita, with physical versions being available for PS Vita, Wii U, and PS4. The game looks and plays fantastically. If you're interested in a fun metroidvania-styled game, check this out on September 27th!
Also available to play was Trails of Cold Steel II. As a fan of the first game, I was very excited to see it in action. From what I played, Cold Steel II is just as fun as the original. XSEED also had the game set up so that players were massively overleveled, in order to show off the flashy special attacks and new characters. The sequel to last year's incredible JRPG on PS3/Vita is hitting stores sometime this fall.
For fans of Harvest Moon, XSEED is bringing the latest Story of Seasons to America "sometime soon, hopefully!". Don't forget that while Natsume holds the license for Harvest Moon, Marvelous AQL are the ones making the Harvest Moon games that you know and love under the Story of Seasons name. It's worth pointing this out, since Natsume's newest Harvest Moon booth was extremely popular, but Story of Seasons' got hardly any attention.
As the conference's first day was winding down, and everyone was shuffling out the convention center, or rushing around to get that last bit of swag, I headed over to meet Idea Factory International. I met with David Alonzo and Arianne Advincula, who were extremely nice. They talked about and showed me three of IFI's latest games; MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, and Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force. MeiQ is a first-person dungeon crawler RPG, where the world has fallen into darkness, and it's up to you to traverse four dungeons in order to save the planet. The trick here is, while you have mages that can do tons of damage to enemies, they have very little HP, and won't last long in a fight. That's where the guardians come into play. Each mage can switch to a guardian while in battle-- which is the most interesting part. These guardians are completely customizable, and you can pick and choose each part in order to have different type coverage. They claim that while there's a lot of grinding to be done, they've also taken steps to lower the barrier of entry for those who fear just how difficult DRPGs can be. It'll be releasing Fall of this year. Their second game they showed me, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, is another entry into the Neptunia series. Instead of playing as the usual goddesses, you now play as the girls from SEGA's own anime series. The game has a ton of references to SEGA IP's as well as old-school Compile Heart games. Neptunia fans should anticipate the release around Fall 2016. Lastly, while they didn't have any footage to show, both told me about Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force. While this game is a "remake" of a previously released game, Fairy Fencer F, they assured me that there will be plenty of new content for returning players, and that they're excited for it's release next month. All of Idea Factory's PS Vita releases will be compatible with the Playstation TV in order to reach the largest amount of the userbase that they can.
Whew! And with that, Day 1 came to a close! I had an absolute blast here at E3, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I've made memories that I will never forget. I hope you all enjoyed reading this, and stay tuned for Day 2's coverage!
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