RPG Grind Time - Gems of E3 2016
This week's RPG Grind Time takes a look at the RPGs featured at E3 and what we can take away from their presentation.
I wouldn’t call this E3 a banner year for role-playing games, but exciting games are still on the horizon. Plenty of cool RPGs were on display and smaller reveals surfaced. Was I hoping for some cool, big RPG reveal I wasn’t expecting? Of course. Was I dissatisfied with already announced RPGs that either weren’t there or had little information? You bet, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
The magic of E3 is often those announcements you don’t see coming that get you hyped for the future, but I think developers are finally realizing the dangers of making reveals too soon. No one wants another decade-long Final Fantasy Versus XIII fiasco. Things felt much more cautious for the genre this year with more games on display that are coming in the next few months or early next year, and that’s just fine by me. I don’t mind developers waiting until they actually have something worthwhile to show before doing so.
Case in point – Mass Effect: Andromeda. If the trailer on display at EA’s press conference had hit last year, it would have been super exciting, but not seeing much gameplay as we draw closer to its 2017 release left fans rightfully disappointed. The game was recently pushed out of this year, so that doubly made it difficult to accept. Still, from what we saw in the footage, the game looks cool and promising. I like that we finally saw some of the environments and the protagonist, Ryder. Not to mention that you're the alien in this strange universe. The trailer got me excited, but I can't help but also wish BioWare provided more details. I tell myself good things come to those who wait, but Kingdom Hearts III is also testing my patience. I didn’t expect anything playable, but at least give some updates or a new trailer to tide us over. A release date feels like a pipe dream at this point. While developers may be reluctant to show off unpolished gameplay or scenes, it’s important to show confidence in the game and get a reaction from fans to see what they’re taken with and what has them concerned.
That being said, while I would have loved to learn more about CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk (at least we got Gwent!) or seen a Square Enix press conference devoted to a slew of role-playing games, I still found plenty of new titles I’m anticipating. Here are some gems from the show that I hope didn’t go unnoticed, and should have you super excited for the coming months.