E3 Press Conference Coverage: Nintendo Day 2
It’s time for more coverage of Nintendo’s E3, as their Treehouse streams enter Day 2 (hopefully in a structure that is much easier to report on), so lets see where Nintendo takes us on our journey today and I am going to pick my favorite 5 things I saw and base todays report around those.
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Pokemon Go Q&A: The game started as an April Fools joke but it evolved, pardon the pun, into an actual thing thanks to Niantic after the success of their game Ingress. Go will launch with the original 151 Pokemon, but will slowly expand to include the entire Pokedex. As with the main line games, not only will there be rarer or harder to catch Pokemon, but what Pokemon you can see and catch will be based on the environment you are in. Water types will appear near water, rock types in mountains, and so on. The Pokemon Go Plus peripheral was designed with the idea in mind of being able to enjoy your experience and not be glued to your phone allowing you to take in the environment you are walking through, as that is part of the point of the game. Mr. Miyamoto let slip that Pokemon Go Plus will be released in “Late July” which lead the team to point out that if Plus is coming out, the app probably needs to be launched before that. The price point for the plus add-on will be $34.99 but the app will remain free.
Ever Oasis: A new IP that is based on the 3DS console and created by Grezzo. A studio that was founded by one of the designers of not only the entire Mana series, but also the job system within Final Fantasy. Not a whole lot of details were revealed, other than that the game takes place in a desert. The player is able to found an oasis which works like a town, complete with building mechanics, to recruit wanderers. These wanderers will then join your roster of allies as you go out into the desert to tackle dungeons and combat monsters. It has a very egyptian style and influence to it’s design. I’m going to be looking out for more on this one, that is for sure.
Monster Hunter: Generations: The next Monster Hunter game is coming to 3DS on July 15th. The devs showed a video featuring monsters from the later portion of the game, or “Deviant Monsters” as the devs called them. The idea being that these monsters have survived and mutated so they are a little different than others of their kind. Then we got a 4 player live hunt that revealed Prowler Mode. Prowler mode allows you to play as one of the feline characters of the game, who have a unique ability to heal the other members of the party, and also have no stamina bar, allowing them to work as support characters. Finally, it was revealed that on June 30th the Monster Hunter: Generations demo will be available on the Nintendo e-shop
Paper Mario Color Splash: YES! NEW PAPER MARIO! The game provides a few new twists on the Paper Mario formula. Firstly, the paint mechanic. It seems to be a little bit like Mario Sunshine; but instead of cleaning away splotches as you did there, here you add color to colorless areas for rewards. You also only have a limited amount of the three primary colors of paint, so you have to manage it as a resource, and find ways to refill. The battle system is still turn-based. However it is now a card-based system in order to select what attacks you will make. The cards drop from defeated enemies, recolored areas, and from actual items in the environment – which are called, believe it or not, “Thing cards”. They tend to be for solving very specific puzzles or obstacles, and each one comes with its own unique animation. The whole thing looked awesome. No news on a release date yet, but wow, this looked awesome.
Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of a Forgotten Past: This is the 3DS version of the 2001 classic. I know that not a lot of people will be as interested in this as I am, but I love the Dragon Quest series. No previous knowledge of the DQ series is required to jump into Fragments. The devs that were on stage talked about how this game being released in the west is all due to fan interest, as they were not initially going to release it here, since the amount of work it would take to localize it was going to be prohibitive. After the fan output, though, they decided to go for it! No news on a release date here either.
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They also showed off Box Box Boy, Mario Party: Star Rush, Yo Kai Watch 2, Rhythm Heaven MegaMix and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, all of which looked impressive.
One thing I will say, is that I was very complimentary about Ubisoft’s approach to lots of gameplay. And EVERYTHING Nintendo showed was being played live on stage. Sure, it led to a technical difficulty or two, but I’m okay with that. The Treehouse staff REALLY knew their stuff. Nintendo should also be applauded, as the amount of women who were presenting & playing their games was refreshing to see, since the other companies’ presenters were mostly men. These women were knowledgeable & passionate about the products they were interacting with. Well played, Nintendo.
Overall today, while the same length as yesterday, FLEW past. The games rotating every half hour, and always having something new to focus on was refreshing. So very different to yesterday’s 5 and a half hour slog through Zelda. Yes, there was no showing of the NX but this should be no surprise. Nintendo was VERY clear about what they were going to show on the streams, and the NX was never mentioned.
Well that wraps up our coverage for Nintendo at E3.
Lets us know what you thought of the games listed above or even of the Zelda coverage yesterday.
Thanks for Reading!