E3 2019 Discussion

[King Robert]

Eh, I thought the lineup was disappointing this year. Even BK's inclusion in Smash, I didn't react very much.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Was finally able to watch the FE Three Houses gameplay after work, and I gotta say despite the slightly annoying commentators, hearing about the game and seeing it in action outside of the usual trailers is neat.

Seeing more of the monastery in full that isn't trailers is nice, loving that the characters are fully voice acted too. Those anonymous question/quiz type activity looked fun and interesting, gotta make sure to brush up more info on these characters to get these questions right (though they probably won't be too hard since you see a characters silhouette, but then again as you play more they could probably get harder?).

The auto tutor is nice, the commentator said you make the game as big as you want it to be, which while we kind of expected that already from previous info, it's still nice to know for sure at least. My first playthrough I'm definitely gonna make most of the teaching aspects, gonna make these characters skills/stats the best I can before the timeskip (and hopefully it stays). Second playthrough I'll be going through the story faster with auto tutor, it might not be the best but it'll, hopefully, make the game a bit more harder without you doing it manually.

So apparently S supports/marriage is in, but it's until after the timeskip. Good, because yeah the students are close to the same age as Byleth, but the fact that they're still their teacher kind of makes it slightly uncomfortable (at least to me, pre-timeskip Byleth is in a position of power over them, so I'd rather not romance Claude or Dimitri when we're still teaching them). At least post-timeskip they aren't in a school setting anymore and older after five years. Now I'm hoping you won't be able get to romance everyone opposite of your gender, but from what we've seen of yesterday's trailer they probably won't put too much unnecessary focus on it (though I could be wrong..).

Leveling up your professor skills is also nice, looks like it goes by a letter ranking too. Doing some tutoring, talking, eating, critiquing, etc. shows boosts of it, so that looks fun. Student motivations are an interesting touch as well, and some don't take to critiquing that well, especially depending on what class you want to train/tutor them in. And I guess, from the calendar and the character portraits, you can only do this so much in a day. Also, a little tidbit, but Ferdinand looks to be like he might favor/be good with an axe, so I might put him in the Fighter class, as he leveled up that particular skill point pretty fast in the gameplay shown. Though I think we was also shown with a C rank with a lance, so maybe a Soldier or Cavalier class can work well for him too.

Changing classes in this game might actually be my favorite compared to other games. I love how they have to pass a certification type exam to get to the class you want them in, and cause I don't have to keep wasting seals to class change lol.

Doing the seminars for Byleth looks fun as well, though we already know about this already so not too much was said.

Battles looks like from PoR and RD, heck yes! I mean it was obvious, but I loved how the battles and units looked in those games. So this really made me happy.

Wished they showed them play the fishing minigame, oddly enough I'm excited to do that.

Overall though, the game looks really meaty, both before and after the timeskip. Definitely gonna put in a lot of hours into this, especially when it comes to any new personal skills to learn about.

 

[Nero the Giant Whiscash]

most boring e3 i remember in a while i strangely was expecting more of a bang from microsoft this year same with ea

bt i assume that ecase of the pending console switch

 

[Chibster]

My best friend and I had E3 watch parties for Square Enix and Nintendo's presentations.

I'm extremely hyped for the FF7 Remake, even though it will still be split up into parts. The character designs look amazing and Tifa's reveal was just the best thing ever. I'm still sad the voice cast (especially Cloud's voice) has been replaced after all this time. :'(

I was looking forward to The Avengers, but I can't get over the character designs. I wasn't expecting Captain America to look like Chris Evans and such, but I think it could have been a lot better.

I also watched Nintendo's E3 presentation and I'd say it was pretty good. Can't say what I'd get because I don't have a Switch.

 

[Tactician Karina]

I'm still sad the voice cast (especially Cloud's voice) has been replaced after all this time. :'(

Yeah that made me sad too. IMO Steve Burton and George Newbern will always be Cloud and Sephiroth to me, the new voice cast doesn't sound terrible but it won't be the same. Made me even more sad after Steve posted a short video of himself on Twitter giving best wishes to Cody Christian (Cloud's new voice actor) and mentioning how honored he was voicing Cloud Strife for so long. :'(

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

Time for me to share my thoughts on all the games that stood out to me the most.

First off, I'm glad to see some gameplay footage from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It's good to get another single-player game in the SW universe, after two multiplayer Shooters, and unlike other reactions I've seen for the gameplay, I think it actually looks like it could be fun. I'm not expecting Jedi Outcast/Academy levels of lightsaber-dueling action, but it could still be enjoyable with all the moves and Force powers you can use, both on enemies and also on the field to overcome obstacles. And honestly, that's really the only show I watched from the EA conference, as I could scarcely care less about FIFA, Madden or The Sims.

Not sure if I really dig Cyberpunk 2077, but the presentation at the Microsoft conference was worth watching for featuring Keanu Reeves live and on-stage alone. Other than that, the MS conference just showcased mostly trailer after trailer, with not much in the way of in-depth looks for a big chunk of them, since it did cover over 50 upcoming games. Some I may be interested enough to be on the lookout for, others perhaps no so much. Wasteland 3 might be my biggest curiosity.

Maybe with The Elder Scrolls: Blades coming to the Switch, I might consider checking that out now... though I don't know much about it, admittedly, and I'm sure it won't cost $40-$60 - I'm not going to pay that much for a port of an Android/iOS game. The big surprise at the Bethesda conference was the announced revival of one of my childhood game series: Commander Keen, a side-scrolling platformer/shoot 'em up from the early nineties. Of course, then I remembered Bethesda owns the original creative studio, ID Software (well, I believe Zenimax technically owns it), so maybe it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Too bad it's a Mobile game and doesn't look like it plays like the old games, so I may not play this myself. Oh, and speaking of ID games, Doom Eternal looks to be as fun as ever, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I also want to mention that the cinematic trailer for the next expansion pack to ESO was awesome.

After watching some gameplay, I think I am now, if I wasn't already, sold on Fire Emblem: Three Houses. If choosing each of the different in-game houses, however exactly that works, yields different story paths and different endings, then that would definitely be a plus for me, since I really like those options in my RPGs. If not, then I guess that's that, and I'll just be interested to see what differences there are. I just hope that this game doesn't feature too many "Class Sim" elements, because that doesn't appeal to me. Though, I will say that playing the role of a teacher is an intriguing direction.

The game I've been looking forward to the most at the PC Gaming Show in particular was more info on the previous announced Baldur's Gate III. Besides maybe Obsidian Entertainment, there's no gaming studio who I'm confident could create a worthy installment of the Baldur's Gate video game license in the Forgotten Realms setting of D&D than the Divinity series creators at Larian Studios. There was no new trailer shown, but getting a short interview from the Wizards of the Coast creative director and the Larian Studios' founder, Swen Vincke, himself was good enough for me. And with these games, along with other cRPG classics that have gotten reimaginings in recent years, coming to all consoles this year, everyone will have the chance to check out the Baldur's Gate saga in the meantime.

It was also great to see more on Pokémon: Sword & Shield, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, as well as Romancing Saga 3 - that bit about having meaningful choices with consequences for that last game made me interested. It was an interesting surprise to see the announcement of a Breath of the Wild sequel... though I will admit that I have yet to play Breath of the Wild myself; I should probably fix that sometime. Surprisingly, I can't decide if I'm sold on the Final Fantasy VII Remake just yet. Seeing how the combat plays got me a bit more interested than before, but I want to first know if both discs will be sold separately, and on different dates, or together before I take the plunge.

 

[Stratelier]

The big surprise at the Bethesda conference was the announced revival of one of my childhood game series: Commander Keen, a side-scrolling platformer/shoot 'em up from the early nineties. Of course, then I remembered Bethesda owns the original creative studio, ID Software (well, I believe Zenimax technically owns it), so maybe it shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Speaking of, "Keen Dreams" is actually available on the eShop (not even joking). It was sort of the "filler" title between the first 3 games and the next 2-3 and primarily showcased the improved engine they designed for it. Personally I would love to see Goodbye Galaxy released, it was a technical marvel for the hardware and is still quite charming today.