Valkyria Chronicles 4
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is an apology tour in video game form, with little hype to speak of. The series since the incredible original first game, has slowly devolved into irrelevance. Valkyria Chronicles 2 was a serviceable game, but released exclusively for the PSP which prevented some PS3 owners from picking it up. Valkyria Chronicles 3 never made it out of Japan and the most recent release, Valkyria Revolution was generally poorly received by many critics. I wouldn’t have been shocked if that was the end for the series.
Thankfully that’s not the case. SEGA is doing right by fans of the original and finally delivering a proper follow up. In fact, multiple times while writing this, I kept slipping up and writing Valkyria Chronicles 2 instead of Valkyria Chronicles 4. It feels so much like a direct sequel to the first. The gorgeous watercolor in motion art style is back in full effect, as is the larger scale tactical-RPG gameplay that made the first game stand out. From a story perspective, the game is returning to the timeline of the original game and it also has a darker plot that focuses on the hardships of war, racism, and leaders doing whatever it takes to survive and win.
You’d have every right to be skeptical about Valkyria Chronicles 4 based on previous history, but we have nothing but positive vibes after playing it at E3 2018.
Project 1v1
When features editor Alex Gibson learned that he was assigned to check Gearbox’s latest game, tentatively titled Project 1v1, he was very skeptical about the idea. A 1v1 shooter doesn’t sound all that compelling. There are a ton of FPS games already and this one would by its nature, lack the thrill of working with a team or having more than just one battle going on. However, after playing it, he sold.
In Project 1v1, you build a deck of cards that make up your character’s weapon loadout and skills so you can customize your combatant to fit your play style. Then, take it up against someone else’s load out in an intense, arena shooter style of gameplay. In his short time with it, Alex found it to be fast-paced, exciting, and he greatly enjoyed his time with it.
Sadly, it’s still likely a ways off, but it’s something that shooter fans should remember the name of… or not since the name will probably change but you know what we mean.
Trials Rising
If you’ve played and enjoyed a Trials game in the past, you’ll know what to expect out of Trials Rising, and based on our hands-on time with it, enjoy it as well. What really stood out to us though that isn’t being talked about enough is the comical, silly, and super fun-to-play new Tandem Bike mode.
In this new cooperative mode, two people are on a bike, one can influence the weight on the front, and the other on the back. Meaning, in order to clear Trials Rising’s challenging courses, both players will need to work in unison, with perfect coordination and communication… Or, in most people’s cases, you’ll be flailing around like mad-people, and dying over and over again in increasingly hilarious ways.
Shining Resonance Refrain
Shining Resonance Refrain is the first game in the long-running Shining series to make it out of Japan in a very long time. For a lot of people outside in Japan, their last experience with the Shining series might have been with the Shining Force strategy games for the Genesis that have been re-released through various Genesis collections over the years.
Shining Resonance Refrain is nothing like those games. It has evolved into an action-RPG developed by the folks behind Wild Arms. Still, regardless on where the series now versus what it was, based on what we played at E3, you’re looking at a solid ARPG. Combat is fast-paced, but still retains some of the tactical nature of the older games as some characters are clearly more efficient with very different roles in combat such as healing, casting, tanking, or ranged damage attacks.
The game follows the story of a human Yuma Irvan, who also happens to be an ancient and powerful dragon. This catches the attention of many in the world of Shining Resonance Refrain, as there are plenty of people that seek to either manipulate, befriend, and/or slay dragons. As you might imagine, this complicates things for poor Yuma who aside from the whole transforming into a fearsome dragon thing, is actually quite passive and reserved. Shining Resonance Refrain features romance elements though, so you’ll be able to get him out of his shell eventually, don’t worry about that.
Bottom line, if you’re into ARPGs, JRPGs, and dating sims, Shining Resonance Refrain is going to roll all of that into one nice package that you can play on any modern platform you want.
GTFO
GTFO feels like the next-gen Left 4 Dead co-op horror game that we’ve been waiting for. You and three other players are forced into a prison filled with terrifying alien-like creatures that are angry, very angry. If you so much as scratch your nose in the presence of these things they will murder your entire group.
Alex Gibson, who previewed it last week during E3, spoke about how while there are similarities with Left 4 Dead, GTFO embraces more of the survival horror elements. Ammunition is scarce, corridors are tight, and mistakes are harshly punished in gruesome ways. Eventually, you’ll be forced to go hand-to-hand with these beings when your ammo supply runs low, and that’s when thing get really ugly.
Survival horror games are fun, as are cooperative shooters. GTFO, based on what we saw, looks very capable of blending those two genres together in an effective way that we rarely see done right.
Rend
While survival games are a dime a dozen these days, Frostkeep Studios is mixing things up by rooting their entry into the genre in a setting based on Nordic myth. You’ll enjoy one of a number of factions each with a base of control over the game’s world, and you’ll not only need to fight for you own survival, you’ll need to also coordinate with allies from your faction to battle other factions over outposts and lands that house valuable resources needed for your success.
In Rend, you’ll have the freedom to venture out on your own to build you own enclave somewhere in the world, tame mounts, and work on your own personal character and also have a built in mechanic through factions to have an organized cooperative/competitive experience that is still highly influenced by how players in a particular server behave and play.
Control
It’s weird how a brand new game shown during the Sony press conference could be overlooked, and under-hyped, but here we are. Control is the latest game from Remedy, the folks behind Alan Wake, and in a hands-off session with the game following Sony’s press conference, we were very impressed with what we saw. Twinfinite’s reviews editor Zhiqing Wan, who got to see the game in action, was very confused, but still very intriguing by what she saw.
Control features telekinesis heavy gameplay where players can manipulate objects around them to protect themselves, attack enemies, or just mix them in with a good old fashion bullet to the head. Visually, everything is brought together in a surreal kind of way that almost makes environments and encounters that the players experience feel like a dream-like state. There was a strange moment where an NPC was just staring at a refrigerator like a creep and started to call for help at the sight of the main character Jesse.
If you’re looking forward to something trippy and unique, with some AAA polish, Control should be something worth keeping an eye on over the coming months.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
Finally, we wrap things up with one for the anime fans. There are a lot of games based on anime either out, or on the way, but Fist of the North Star got the attention of our senior editor Hayes Madsen, who he himself, is a big fan of anime and games.
The latest Fist of the North Star game, which is developed by the team behind Yakuza and published by Sega, unsurprisingly shares a lot in common with Yakuza, featuring a very similar control scheme for combat but a lot more violent. The main character Ken can use talismans to preform abilities like calling in a flamethrower to wipe out groups of enemies, or smash the ground hulk style to keep people away. And yes, you can explode people’s body parts and all that gory stuff too. Fist of the North Star also borrows Yakuza’s penchant for minigames, and there will be plenty of those too.
So if you aren’t already: Anime fans, Yakuza fans, or people who just like good beat-em-up games get hyped up for Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise.
