Animeph

This year again we were at Gamescom 2018 and were able to play some of the newest games the industry has to offer.

First of all, I can assure all Kenchiro fans that Fist of the North Star Paradise Lost will be all that you can expect of this franchise. Fast paced fighting with a lot of blood, over the top animations with trashy, funny but also epic finishing moves. Cool cut scenes on the flow while fighting, which we all know from the Yakuza franchise. It was built like a classic Yakuza game: you can take quests to unlock Kenchiros special finishers, play mini games or discover secret areas in the city. I had my fun with the game and recommend it to all Fist of the North Star fans out there.

On the same stage we were able to have a first look at Segas new turn based RTS Valkyria Chronicles 4, the highly anticipated sequel to the famous anime game from 2008. This game offers the same as the prequel but with better graphics and more tactical options. You have to look deep into the mechanic of the game to see some differences towards his predecessor. We may also be excited about the new story. The developers promised a very complex story with lots of plot twists and emotional moments between the crew members of your squad. The relationships between the characters matters on the battlefield, so they told us. If you are a fan of this franchise, you can look forward for a good game, and forget Valkyria chronicles Azure Revolution.

Our next destination was Bandai Namco the biggest publisher for anime games. The most prominent game was Jump Force, an anime fighting game with a roster of the most popular shounen characters like Goku from Dragonball, Naruto from Naruto Shipudden, Luffy from One Piece, Ichigo from Bleach and many more. Jump Force is basically the spirited successor of J Stars Victory Versus and has a similar fighting system. The gameplay is very tactical. While fighting, you can switch between three characters on the fly. Every character is classified into a combat class. You have range fighters and close combat fighters like most games in this genre. The gameplay is mostly based on dodge timing, parry and creating distance towards your opponents. Some attacks needs range and some attacks are close combos. Especially the special moves are very time intensive to cast but can unleash great damage. The most outstanding part of this game is its unique art style. The skin and clothe textures, as well as moves are extremely satisfying.

At Team Ninja we got to see the new Dead or Alive 6 with an improved engine. It allows for more realistic animations, sweat, clothes that take damage and weather animations. It looks very promising so far.

Last but not least, we need to tell you about THQ Nordic and two of their most anticipated games, Darksiders 3 and Biomutant. I‘ve got to say, look forward to Biomutant. It is THQ’s most ambitious game. From the former developers of Avalanche studio, the creator of Just Cause and Mad Max, comes a giant open world action RPG with kung-fu-like setting in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s similar to Zelda breath of the Wild, where you can manipulate the vast environment of this world to your own benefit. Like Just Cause, it has a heavy physic-based gameplay where your surroundings interact with your active mutant abilities. In the end we are very excited to get this game in our hands. The second big game in THQ’s pipeline is Darksiders 3. An action RPG based on a famous comic series about the four apocalyptic riders who want to cancel the apocalypse, which has been accidently triggered by one of the riders. We are very happy to see this game being developed at last. Darksiders 2 left fans with a great cliffhanger and after so many years, fans can look forward to see the epic story of the apocalyptic riders continue as we continue.

And as always, here are some pictures: