Since we have a break from Not-E3 coverage, I was all set to finish up my Persona 4 Golden review for today’s blog post, but the last two days had too much exciting news for that!
So instead we’re going to talk about yesterday’s Kingdom Hearts announcements and today’s Pokémon announcements.
A few days ago, a mysterious logo for Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory was found in the website for Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road. This led to a lot of debate about what it would be. Were we finally getting a Kingdom Hearts rhythm game? Would it be about the Master of Masters? Was it the long-awaited Kairi game?
How about potentially all three?
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a rhythm game due out for the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch later this year, but it also appears to feature a story focused on Kairi, including a confrontation with a man in a black coat. A lot of people think it might be the Master of Masters, especially since the acronym for the game is MoM.
I’m not entirely convinced it’s him, but I’m incredibly excited for Melody of Memory.
And if you’re annoyed the rhythm game has what appears to be critical story content… this is Kingdom Hearts. Even an actual concert contained story details; of course the rhythm game will.
Next, Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road, the upcoming mobile game about Xehanort, will be out on June 22. I saw one report that it’s a global release date, but I’m not sure if that’s been confirmed. Either way, I’m ready to give this game a chance, mobile or not.
A new Dark Road trailer accompanied the news.
But something even more intriguing that came out of the Kingdom Hearts news is the possibility that there are two more unknown Kingdom Hearts projects to be announced.
See, Square Enix also released a “Kingdom Hearts 2020” trailer, highlighting the year’s Kingdom Hearts projects, and a screen just a few seconds in shows “Kingdom Hearts series 2nd phase.” Underneath this heading are the logos for the Re:Mind DLC, Dark Road, and Melody of Memory… with two blank slots alongside them.
This suggests there are currently two more Kingdom Hearts projects in the works in addition to Dark Road and Melody of Memory. Whatever they are, I can’t wait to find out more.
Now let’s move on to Pokémon. There was a “Pokémon Presents” digital event this morning, which I skipped because I’d gotten the impression it would be all about the DLC for Sword and Shield (which I still haven’t played or even bought). Much to my surprise, when I got online, I learned they’d announced a new Pokémon Snap for the Switch!
And… that’s literally what it’s called. “New Pokémon Snap.”
I never played the original Pokémon Snap, although I watched a playthrough of it. It was a missed opportunity not making Pokémon Snap for Wii U, but I’m interested in playing this nevertheless.
They also announced a puzzle cafe management game for mobile devices and Switch called Pokémon Café Mix, and a mobile game called Pokémon Smile that will encourage kids to brush their teeth.
More news is coming on June 24, with a “big project” teased.
So there you have it, lots of big announcements for Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon this week, with even more news coming for both! Are you excited for any of these games?
I almost got to watch the Future Games Show live, and I did catch the end live once I got my Internet to cooperate with me.
They started out with the upcoming horror game Quantum Error, which I was already interested in and actually interviewed the developers about over at another site I run.
I’m not completely sold on Dustborn, but it looks interesting enough for me to keep my eye on it. After that and Ghostrunner, they went to Call of the Sea, another adventure game I’m interested in playing.
The next game was Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, the next adventure game from Frogwares, and even though I’m not crazy about it being open world, I have to admit it the idea of a game starring a young Sherlock Holmes is intriguing. I’ll have to consider it, maybe after I play the Sherlock Holmes games I already have.
I’m not a big fan of shoot ’em ups, but Cygni does look pretty. I’m much more interested in the next game they showed, though, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes. Described as a “gothic RPG” and also “horrorpunk,” it definitely looks like my sort of thing.
As you can see, this show was off to a much better start for me, with so many games right in a row that I liked. The next few after that, I wasn’t quite as interested in. Hotshot Racing, another look at Cris Tales (which I’m interested in, but I just saw it at the PC Gaming Show), Liberated, Neon Abyss, Skater XL, the announcement that GTTOD: Get to the Orange Door is coming to the Xbox One…
Then Waking, which looks potentially cool, Space Crew, and then Maid of Sker. I remember Maid of Sker being announced, and it looks like one I’ll definitely need to check out.
This is where it started to slow down a bit for me.
We had a montage of games, another look at Remnant: From the Ashes – Subject 2923, a game called The Captain is Dead, a game called Main Assembly, another look at Blankos Block Party, a new map coming to Last Oasis, and then a discussion about “the future of gaming” in general.
When they got back to showing games, they featured Wasteland 3 and then Remothered: Broken Porcelain, which I’m curious about, although I haven’t played the first Remothered.
They teased Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, then switched to another conversation, this time about cross-play.
After that, they returned with Rogue Company, Outriders, Disintegration, another look at Paradise Lost, a game called Operation: Tango, another look at Kena: Bridge of Spirits from the PS5 showcase, and a sequel to Serial Cleaner called Serial Cleaners.
Of the three shows today, this was probably the one I liked the best, mainly due to horror games. Huh.
Anyway, that wraps up our Future Games Show coverage! We’ve got a bit of a break for the rest of the weekend, but my Not-E3 coverage will return next week! What did you think of today’s news?
I was all ready to watch the Guerrilla Collective show live, but my Internet connection had other ideas. Fortunately, I did catch it after the fact.
They started with System Shock, and then a game called Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four, which amuses me since I recently played a game called Cardpocalypse. Anyway, after that was Uragun, Exo One, Almighty: Kill Your Gods, and Roki.
The next game shown was called Genesis Noir, which combines a creation story with film noir, such a strange combination I’m intrigued by it.
Doors of Insanity sounded interesting until I learned it was a roguelike, and then we got another look at A Juggler’s Tales, followed by a game called Lake, Urban Trial Tricky, and Boyfriend Dungeons. It was another long string of games that didn’t catch my attention much, with Night Call, Colt Canyon, Slay the Spire for iOS, Rigid Force Redux, Outbuddies coming to consoles, and Scourge Bringer.
I was excited to see more of Baldur’s Gate III, and disappointed to hear it’s launching in Early Access in August, maybe.
Disco Elysium is coming to the Epic Game Store, West of Dead was shown next, and Dwarf Fortress is coming to Steam. After showing a game called Valheim, which looks like it could be entertaining, and a Switch version of Dusk, they shared updates for Children of Morta, a mobile version of Moonlighter, and an expansion and board game for Frostpunk.
Next up was Liberated, then a game that looks pretty intriguing called Gestalt: Steam & Cinder.
They showed a game called Swimsanity, No Place for Bravery, and Haven, and then gave another look at Metal: Hellsinger. After that, it was time for Gonner and a new game called Just Die Already: Old People Mayhem Sandbox (yes, that’s really the title).
After that, Paradox took over for Paradox Insider, which… I guess is technically a separate show? They provided looks at Crusader Kings III, Empire of Sin, Prison Architect: Island Bound, Surviving the Aftermath, and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. That last one, I’m potentially interested in, but I’ll need to play the first one.
So now, let’s talk about the PC Gaming Show!
PC Gaming Show
This year, I was mainly interested in the PC Gaming Show because of the rumors about a Persona 4 Golden PC port. Its Steam page actually popped up before the show even began, so the actual announcement lost some of its impact when we finally got there.
Anyway, they started out with another look at Valheim, a look at Ooblets, and the announcement that Torchlight 3 is currently on Steam in Early Access. After details about Elite Dangerous, it was finally time for the big Persona 4 Golden announcement! I actually finished P4G a few days ago, so you can look forward to my Persona 4 Golden review coming soon if you’re interested in this.
Next was a horror game called In Sound Mind, which also looks pretty good.
After an exploration/city management game called Airborne Kingdom and an RTS called DwarfHeim, there was a lineup of titles from Newblood Games.
There were so many, it was a bit hard to keep track of them all, but the Newblood Games lineup did include Faith, which I played and enjoyed last October. The best part, though, was seeing the website URLs for these games and the company, because they have hilarious URLs.
devilmayquake.com
deaderspace.com
notfortnite.com
and similarly goofy URLs
Next came a strategy game called Humankind, a co-op survival game called Icarus, and then Evil Genius 2: World Domination, which looked entertaining enough.
Godfall looked more interesting than I thought when it was shown before, and Prodeus looks like a classic first-person shooter, but what really caught my attention next was Fae Tactics, a turn-based strategy RPG.
They showed a cute game called Carot, dogfighting game Project Wingman, a toy-themed online game called Blankos Block Party, Everspace 2, and a game called Inkluminati that could be interesting. After that, they showed Toy: A Total War Saga, and then a DLC for Remnant: From the Ashes called Subject 2923.
Then they provided some details about the upcoming Mafia remake, and from there showed a game called Rogue Lords that I’d be more interested in if I liked roguelikes. Similarly, Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy would look more interesting to me if not for that roguelike part.
The Call of the Void update for Dauntless was revealed, followed by a new look at the sandbox game Among Trees, but the next game that interested me is Potionomics, a potion shop sim that kinda reminds me of Recettear.
We got to see more of the very Souls-like Mortal Shell, although they decided to focus on a boss battle, which was… less than exciting and probably not the best look at the game.
Next they showed a trailer for the Shadow Man remaster, which I thought was a surprise, but it looks like it was actually announced earlier this year and I forgot about it.
After Blightbound came a detective game called Shadows of Doubt, and this one looks pretty cool.
The Forgotten City looks interesting, and Paradise Killer has potential as well. Then we got another look at the game Haven, the introduction of Cartel Tycoon, a game called Trash Sailors, and a new trailer for Cris Tales, which looks better than ever (even though I never actually did get around to playing the demo last year like I intended to).
Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms also looks pretty good.
I’m not especially interested in Weird West, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mienral Town, or New World, but then they actually showed a trailer for Dontnod’s Twin Mirror, which for a while I’d been afraid had been dropped. Next up was yet another look at Metal: Hellsinger.
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos looks potentially fun, but it loses points for making me try to spell that name (I’ll admit that I typed “dungeon of nahbuellek” into Google and let the results correct me).
I wasn’t particularly interested in much of the rest – Red Sails, Surgeon Simulator 2, The Last Campfire, Escape from Tarkov, and The Outlast Trials (although maybe I’ll look into that more if I play the single-player Outlast games) – but then they showed a trailer for Gloomwood (which might have also been in the rapid Newblood montage), and that looks like my sort of game.
And that was the end of the PC Gaming Show. Next up, we’ll be taking a look at the Future Games Show, so stay tuned!
Since we have a break from Not-E3 coverage, I was all set to finish up my Persona 4 Golden review for today’s blog post, but the last two days had too much exciting news for that!