E3 2016 Part 6: Nintendo Treehouse & Miscellaneous Highlights

What is Nintendo doing? It’s hard to say. Nintendo Treehouse should show if their decision to skip an actual E3 show was good or bad.

We’ll also take a look at some exciting things shown elsewhere during E3.

Table of Contents

EA
Bethesda
Microsoft
PC Gaming
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo Treehouse

Nintendo Treehouse at E3 2016

Day One

As promised, Nintendo spent the first day focused on the new Legend of Zelda game. The day began with a new trailer, which also gave it the official title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

It’s a beautiful trailer, but it left me just as uncertain about open world Zelda as I was before.

After that, they showed some new stuff from Pokémon Sun and Moon, including the new four-player Battle Royal battles. There’s also a neat new feature where the screen is shadowed as you approach a trainer who will challenge you. I like that.

Overall, the game looks good, and I think the 3D is handled better than in X and Y.

The rest of the day focused more on Zelda.

I’ll admit, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks pretty cool. I especially liked the shrines, which have puzzles and are dungeon-like even though the actual dungeons are different.

I will say this. Despite my concerns, the more I watched, the more Zelda-like it felt. I’m cautiously optimistic.

And that was the first day of Nintendo Treehouse at E3 2016.

Day Two

The second day began with a Pokémon GO Q&A. I’m not particularly interested in it, but the hint of a summer release should please fans. I didn’t watch everything Nintendo showed the second day, but here are the highlights.

They announced a new RPG called Ever Oasis, created by the man behind Mana series. It’s really cute and reminds me a bit of Fantasy Life in its presentation.

So far it doesn’t seem as story-driven as I like my RPGs to be, but I’ll keep it in mind for sure. They played it during the live stream, too.

I watched some footage from the new Mario Party, but I still prefer the old style. Then I watched a little Yo-Kai Watch 2, which looks great!

I’m getting it for sure.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions looks as fun as ever, and I’m happy with my decision to pre-order it.

Then… I braced myself. It was time for Paper Mario: Color Splash.

And as much as I hate to say it, Color Splash still looks like Sticker Star 2.0 to me.

My heart sank when I saw the same sort of level-select map Sticker Star used. Then they got into a battle. Combat looks very reminiscent of the sticker system, although maybe better. I couldn’t tell if the inventory was limited, and a non-limited inventory would be a definite improvement.

And at the end of the battle, they earned no experience. Just coins and paint (and cards, sometimes). Later they used a special card to defeat a puzzle boss, which brought back memories of needing the exact right item from a totally different level to defeat bosses in Sticker Star.

I want to be wrong. I wanted Color Splash to surprise me. But it still looks far too similar to Sticker Star for me to believe in it. Worse, this interview suggests our chances of getting another RPG Paper Mario are pretty slim.

Other

Every year, there are some great games shown at E3 that aren’t included in the press conferences. For example, NieR: Automata, which looks absolutely fantastic!

I better hurry up and play the first one. They also showed some boss footage later in the week.

Yep, NieR: Automata looks absolutely awesome!

Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy XV situation has gotten even larger. They announced a side-scrolling brawler tie-in called A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV. Unfortunately, it seems as though it’s a pre-order bonus exclusive to Gamestop and EB Games Canada. (Really? It’s not included in the super-expensive Collector’s Edition?)

The second episode of Brotherhood (the FFXV anime) was also released.

They also announced Wait Mode, which lets you pause the game during combat to choose your moves at a slower pace. As a turn-based combat fan, it feels like an excellent compromise. Everything I heard about Final Fantasy XV during E3 has me excited. I’m fully on board with it now.

In other RPG news, Tales of Berseria got an awesome new trailer. It looks awesome. I really want to believe in Berseria, despite my disappointment with Tales of Zestiria.

Capcom shared gameplay from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. I didn’t catch the whole live stream, but what I did see looked promising.

I also checked out some Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue off-screen footage, since the demo is playable at E3. It looks phenomenal, and I’m even more excited for 2.8 than I was before (if you can believe it).

Nomura answered many questions about about Kingdom Hearts 2.8, Kingdom Hearts 3, and the possibility of a sequel to The World Ends With You (YES!) in an interview.

And World of Final Fantasy continues to look so adorable and fun, I think I’m sold on it at last.

Well, that concludes another E3! What were your favorite moments and announcements this year? Which of these games do you like the most? And what do you think about Paper Mario: Color Splash?