Table of Contents

Summer Game Fest 2021
Koch Primetime
IGN Expo Livestream
Guerrilla Collective Day 2
Wholesome Direct 2021
Ubisoft Forward
Devolver Forwarder
Gearbox Entertainment
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase
Square Enix Presents
PC Gaming Show
Future Games Show
Limited Run Games
Capcom
Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct

Today was the Nintendo Direct, the final show of E3 2021, and I was hopeful that it would rise above the recent lackluster shows.

They started with the latest character being added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Kazuya from the Tekken series. Then they announced that Life is Strange Remastered Collection and True Colors are both coming to the Switch (with an animated trailer that had me curious at first, but that’s just the trailer).

After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy again and then Worms Rumble, we got to see Astria Ascending. I’ve been intrigued by Astria Ascending since it was first announced. It’s a console remake of a mobile JRPG, and I think it looks pretty interesting. It’ll be out on September 30, right after all the other games I’m looking forward to this year.

Two Point Campus was shown again, followed by the announcement of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, which leaked earlier this week. It’s a remastered collection of the first three Super Monkey Ball games.

Then they announced a new Mario Party game! Mario Party Superstars brings together 5 boards and 100 minigames from the series, with both local and online play, and I’m kinda interested even though I’m not much of a multiplayer person. I’ve had fun with Mario Party.

They followed that by saying they don’t have anything to show about Metroid Prime 4 just yet… but instead they announced Metroid Dread, a new 2D Metroid game and the next mainline game. It looks so good, and I want it. It comes out on October 8, which at least gives me a little breathing room after the rush of games.

(So far, I’ve only played Metroid Fusion, but I want to play more Metroid games.)

Just Dance 2022 and Cruis’n Blast were shown next, followed by the much-rumored announcement that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is coming to the Switch along with its A New Power Awakens DLC. The rumors of this port kept being denied, but now it’s official! I was actually tempted to buy Kakarot a few times, but kept holding off because of the Switch rumors. It’ll be out on September 24, of course, on top of everything else I’m looking forward to.

Mario Golf: Super Rush got a new trailer, and so did Monster Hunter Stories 2. The world in Monster Hunter Stories 2 looks beautiful, and I’m excited for it.

There’s also going to be a new WarioWare game called WarioWare: Get It Together!

Then they showed the new trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V, including its leaked release date of November 12 (11 in Japan). I’ve never played a mainline SMT game, but it looks pretty cool. I’m tempted to try the series sometime.

Danganronpa is also coming to the Switch in a special collection called Danganronpa Decadence, which includes all three games and the new expanded spin-off Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp.

Now, one of my specific hopes for this E3 was that we’d get some Fatal Frame news. I was hoping for a new entry, a collection of the older games, or at least for Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water to escape dying on the Wii U. And I got my wish, because Maiden of Black Water is actually coming to all major platforms later this year!

They showed some stuff for Doom Eternal, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2, and Strange Brigade, then showed Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope again.

Next… Advance Wars is back? Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a remake of the first two games, and it’ll be out on December 3. I tried the first Advance Wars and couldn’t really get into it, but I’m happy for all the fans who were hoping this series would be revived.

They ended with Legend of Zelda news: a look at the Age of Calamity DLC, a new trailer for Skyward Sword HD, the announcement of a special Legend of Zelda Game & Watch system, and then the moment most people were waiting for, a new trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild.

Personally, I couldn’t stick with Breath of the Wild and the new trailer does nothing to convince people, but I know people are really excited for it.

Phew, what a Nintendo Direct! No sign of Bayonetta 3 or a new game from Monolith Soft, which were my top hopes, but we’ve got a Fatal Frame port, a new Metroid game, and lots of other exciting announcements! As far as I’m concerned, this Nintendo Direct was a success and the best show of E3 2021.

Bandai Namco’s show is apparently just going to be House of Ashes, so that’s it for our E3 2021 coverage! I’ll be watching the Nintendo Treehouse gameplay segments, so I’ll write a new post if they reveal anything that I should have included here.

What did you think of E3 2021 and the Nintendo Direct?

Table of Contents

Summer Game Fest 2021
Koch Primetime
IGN Expo Livestream
Guerrilla Collective Day 2
Wholesome Direct 2021
Ubisoft Forward
Devolver Forwarder
Gearbox Entertainment
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase
Square Enix Presents
PC Gaming Show
Future Games Show
Limited Run Games
Capcom
Nintendo Direct

PC Gaming Show

The PC Gaming Show began with no audio. Off to a good start.

Fortunately, we finally got sound. The jokes about the show going off without a hitch and a bot scanning to confirm there were no hitches made me wonder if perhaps the lack of audio was intentional, as a joke.

Anyway, they showed a lot of games… mostly games that didn’t particularly interest me, so let’s take a look at some highlights instead of going through them one by one!

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong sounds like it could be interesting, although the trailer told me pretty much nothing about the game itself.

Soulstice, however, looks pretty cool! I’ll be keeping my eye on that one.

The next one that caught my attention was SacriFire, an RPG currently on Kickstarter. I don’t know if I’ll back it, but I’ll certainly keep it in mind. Songs of Conquest also looks interesting, although I’m not sure it’s my sort of game.

Future Games Show

As soon as the PC Gaming Show ended, the Future Games Show began. I was mainly interested in checking it out to see what Xseed’s announcements would be. Once again, it was filled with a lot of games, so I’ll go through the highlights.

Grow: Song of the Evertree looks pretty, although I might not like it, since it’s a sandbox. A Tale of Paper is a platformer that also looks pretty interesting, and Beacon Pines looks really cute.

We got to see a new trailer for Eldest Souls, which I remember being announced, and I liked it… although I’m not crazy about it being a boss rush game.

A game called Harold Halibut looks neat, especially because they made all of the models physically and scanned them for the game. The next game shown after that was Happy Game, which was absolutely horrifying.

Tails of Iron, which is described as an “RPG-lite,” had a pretty interesting trailer.

Lust From Beyond is also getting an M-rated edition, which is coming to consoles as well. I reviewed the definitely-not-safe-for-work edition for MonsterVine, and I’d say it’s worth checking out.

Xseed was featured with Akiba’s Trip, Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, Rune Factory 4 Special, and Rune Factory 5. So… their new announcements turned out to just be ports of Story of Seasons and Rune Factory 4, which disappointed me a bit.

Detective thriller Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View looks intriguing, and so does Immortality, the game they ended on.

And that was the end of the Future Games Show, as well as the end of today’s E3 events! We’ve still got a couple of smaller events tomorrow, followed by the final two on Tuesday to finish things off. What are your thoughts on E3 so far?