I’m not exactly sure what I expected from Square-Enix’s E3 showcase but I was still slightly disappointed by it. One thing I will say about it is that it certainly was a thing that happened and it was short. And, to be positive, there was still some exciting stuff shown in a scant 30 minutes which took the form of a clip show as opposed to a regular E3 conference.
The showcase kicked off with some extended gameplay footage of the next Tomb Raider game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This game had already been briefly shown during Microsoft’s press conference but we got a more detailed look at it here with Lara Croft taking down a gang of soldiers in a jungle setting. There was also a new camouflage mechanic that looked pretty fun. The recent Tomb Raider games have been great and I’m looking forward to this one.
Next up was a patch for Final Fantasy XIV which may seem like an odd thing to include in a showcase, but FFXIV has a huge following and is actually a pretty great MMO, especially if you’re a Final Fantasy fan. An upcoming content update will include a crossover with Monster Hunter World.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit has a ridiculous name but is a spin-off of Life is Strange and is being released entirely for free. Not much else was revealed about this other than some of the characters and settings from it will lead into the highly anticipated Life is Strange 2.
Dragon Quest XI‘s western release got a well-deserved promo. Square-Enix’s other huge RPG franchise has never really caught on in the West the way it has in Japan where its popularity far exceeds Final Fantasy. Square-Enix really want it to do well outside of its native market and have taken a long time localising it. Hopefully it does well when it hits our shores on the 4th of September.
The next trailer was for something called Babylon’s Fall by Platinum games for PS4 and PC. I still have no idea what this was about but it looked pleasantly bonkers which can only be a good thing.
Nier Automata is finally getting an Xbox release which isn’t really big news, but the more people that get to play this, the better. Octopath Traveller was also briefly shown for Nintendo Switch and it’s still looking fine in all its 16 bit-esque old school JRPG glory. This is coming in only a few short weeks on July 13th.
Just Cause 4 was shown off and looks like a Just Cause game, only bigger, with the series’ regular huge open world taken to a ridiculous extreme complete with cyclones and other deadly weather systems. This was followed by a short teaser for The Quiet Man, yet another trailer that didn’t really give anything away and ended with the promise of more information to come.
The showcase closed with Kingdom Hearts 3 but at this point, it feels like Square-Enix have been previewing this game for years. The trailer showed off new worlds related to Frozen, Wreck-it-Ralph and Tangled, among others. Kingdom Hearts has a famously baffling storyline and the rather long trailer did little to dispel this or explain itself to newcomers. Still, this game will do well thanks to its huge number of fans and the new Disney tie ins.
So not exactly a terrible showcase, but with no Final Fantasy VII remake news or anything really new, it’s hard to walk away from this year’s showcase completely satisfied.
