This time last year I wrote a column declaring how 2016 could be the year of Nintendo. I was way off. Instead of making any predictions this year I’m going to focus on the three games that I’m looking forward to the most. They are in order of anticipation:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This is one of the reasons I thought 2016 would be so successful for Nintendo. Initially scheduled for a 2016 launch Nintendo pushed this title into 2017 to support the launch of the Switch. Breath of the Wild will be available for both the Switch and the Wii U. I plan on playing it on the Wii U. After all the demonstrations Nintendo had showing the game played with an integrated second screen experience I have a feeling the Wii U will be the overall better experience. I just hope they don’t pull any shenanigans of releasing it on the Switch and then waiting a few months to release it on the Wii U.
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After viewing gameplay of Breath of the Wild it finally closes any gaps and brings the franchise truly into the realm of open world RPGs. Though I’d argue that the franchise has been an open world adventure ever since the first installment. We will see Link use a variety of weapons that are new to the franchise and that suffer durability loss as well as armor that offers resistance to the extreme cold. We won’t be stuck putting on only a ring that halves or quarters incoming enemy damage.
As much as we have seen of the game so far Nintendo has still done an excellent job in keeping a lot of it shrouded in mystery. We still don’t know exactly how Zelda fits into this story and there are those that speculate she may even be a playable character. Just because we have only seen people play as Link doesn’t mean we only play as link. We should see this title sometime in March.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
This is the first title we should see released this year with a street date of February 28th. Horizon: Zero Dawn is an open world RPG set 1000s of year in the future. This is an Earth no longer ruled by humans but taken over by robotic dinosaurs and other animals.
The protagonist in Horizon is Aloy. From watching the different videos online we can make out that Aloy is an outsider. She appears to have been abandoned by her mother and was raised by a man. I get the impression that he isn’t Aloy’s father but was picked by the village. She was considered a curse so it’s safe to assume that her father may not have been in the best standing with the village, that or he took pity on her.
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Aloy is curious about who she is and how she fits into the world. She decides to strike out on her own against the advice of her father and the adventure begins. In one of the most recent videos it ends with Aloy walking into a mechanical door. This could be into a ship or into a dungeon. The plot thickens.
Horizon is being developed by Guerilla games. Primarily known for the Killzone franchise this is their first attempt at an RPG. They are using their own proprietary game engine Decima. Something that should really stand out is Hideo Kojima has chosen to use the Decima engine to make his new game Death Stranding. Kojima definitely knows a thing or two about open world games and if he thinks Decima is good enough for him we should take that as a vote of confidence the engine can handle Horizon.
As a bonus Horizon features a powerful young woman with a bow and arrow as the main character. Anyone else get a new Tomb Raider vibe from this? That’s never a bad thing.
Scalebound
This is the game I admittedly know the least about. That’s also because it is the furthest out on the Horizon. While it’s due out in 2017 I could see this being a holiday release. I haven’t see anything indicate that we could expect it out close to the summer time.
In Scalebound you’ll take on the role of Drew and his dragon Thuban. Drew appears to have been plucked out of 201x America and dropped into a medieval world full of knights in armor. Drew looks like your normal teenager with the the exception of a draconic looking arm covered in scales that blends into his chest. Drew also has a symbiotic relationship with Thuban where if one of them dies so will the other.
Combat takes place in a third person camera where you’ll primarily control Drew. You’ll also be able to call on Thuban for support and do special moves where you’ll shift to a first person camera from Thuban’s perspective.
That’s my top three for 2017 that I’m looking forward to the most. Breath of the Wild will be available for the Wii U and Switch. Horizon will be on the PS4 but have 4k support for the Pro. Scalebound is a crossplay title and will be available for both the XBox One and the PC. All three of these games are gorgeous in their own way and if the gameplay holds up should be great experiences.
New for this year I’m going to add a tag at the end of my columns. I’ll let you know what MMO I’m currently playing and what non MMO i’m focused on. Typically those will be clearing up my backlog of games to play. I’d like for all of you to play along too. I do read the comments and I’m genuinely curious to see what all of you are playing as well.
Currently playing:
- MMO: Black Desert Online
- Other: Metal Gear Solid V
