Thursday, February 10, 2022

Nintendo Direct February 2022 Roundup

Edelgard artwork from Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes 

Well, I hope you didn't expect any Zelda news, because there weren't any... Not a big deal, as predicted the sequel to Breath of the Wild will most likely get its own focused Nintendo Direct later this year, maybe around the usual E3 time in mid of June, even when there's apparently no actual E3 this year. So, don't panic, this was to be expected and the time will come.

If you've already expected Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the biggest surprise announcement was probably Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. This was fast, considering that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity isn't that old and even got DLC last year. But this is with all likelihood the main project the guys at Koei Tecmo were rushing to do after Age of Calamity, when they first didn't consider making any DLC for the latter.

It's the same picture as Hyrule Warriors, really. First they made a general Fire Emblem Warriors game that spans the most popular titles in the series, like Fire Emblem: Awakening. And then came the big hit with Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Nintendo Switch, which now gets its own dedicated Warriors game, much like Breath of the Wild did.

It's also not a major surprise that this is going to happen, but it's surprising how quickly Koei Tecmo is making these games. After Xenoblade Chronicles 3 they should definitely make a "Xenoblade Warriors", though.

Otherwise, the most interesting news (for this blog at least) concern existing games: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Metroid Dread. The latter is getting free updates, where one is already available, and the former gets a long season of additional DLC filled with retro cups. More on this in follow-up posts.

2 comments:

Lankelink said...

Did you play FE Three Houses? I vaguely remember a post where you bought some FE games. Are you interested in the new FE Warriors? And while we are on the FE topic, are you still playing FE Heroes?

Personally, I'm really interested in the new FE warriors game because I loved the cast from 3H. I hope it is not needed to grind as much as the first FE Warriors, though. I never got all the upgrades for the characters, the same as I never got all the upgrades in HWDE... all those silver and gold materials you needed, it was absurd.

I prefer the Age of Calamity approach. While the roster was much smaller, I felt that the game was easier to "complete", and I prefer that. Let's see about the sory... I don't have high expectations in that regard.

TourianTourist said...

Hey Lankelink,

Three Houses is still on my ever-growing to-do list, but I might play this in the next months, because I'm interested in Three Hopes as well. It would be good to play through Three Houses at least once until then.

I'm still playing FE Heroes, though the game is making me more and more despise it with its free-to-play shenanigans, where I might stop eventually. It was a good entertainment for when I used to go to work via tram multiple times per week, but for the last two years it has developed into a bad habit more than anything. I still enjoy it as an overview of the FE universe and I like the byte-sized battles more than the main games, where the gameplay is really what's keeping me out there.

Fire Emblem is kind of like the opposite to Zelda, where I love the gameplay, but don't really care about the story and characters that much. Something like Three Houses seems to have interesting story and characters, but the gameplay isn't really for me. I still haven't even finished FE Awakening... I just can't be bothered. Maybe Three Houses is better, though.

Anyway, like you I also prefer the quality over quantity approach of Age of Calamity when it comes to Warriors games. Actually, the original Hyrule Warriors used to be around the same size originally, it just turned into a busywork abomination with all its DLCs and the 3DS version. Especially raising the level cap from 99 to 255 was a mistake that Age of Calamity luckily hasn't repeated (except with its weapon building). But when Hyrule Warriors first came out it was very enjoyable to complete.