We attended Gamescom 2023 and got to play many upcoming titles across the gaming landscape – AAA, indie and everything inbetween. In this mini-series of articles, NantenJex will be sharing his thoughts on the games he played from his hands-on experience and providing important information on each of the titles. Trailers and links to each of the games Steam pages (or closest equivalent) will be included in this article (although many are coming to multiple platforms so if you want to get the title on a platform other than Steam then please check your systems digital store).
Granblue Fantasy ReLink
- Platforms: PS4, PS5, Windows
- Release Date: February 1st 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/881020/Granblue_Fantasy_Relink/
A grand adventure in the skies awaits! Form a party of four from a diverse roster of skyfarers and slash—or shoot or hex—your way to victory against treacherous foes in this action RPG. Take on quests solo or with the help of others in up to 4-player co-op play!
Granblue Fantasy ReLink is an action title that has been in development for ages. My understanding is that it aims to bring the world and characters of Granblue Fantasy to non-mobile gamers in a way that is keeps the core of Grnablue intact. I have never played the mobile game before but I have played many games of this genre and so I immediately knew the best games to compare this to in order to get my thoughts on this game across. I know comparing games with other games is a bit lazy but it can be effective when done right (I’m not about to say it’s a Dark Souls of anything, ok?)
First off, the core gameplay of this title feels like a simplified character-action game. Players move around a 3D space and fight enemies by using a series of different attacks and abilities. Every character has four attacks mapped to the face buttons, as well as some special abilities also mapped to the face buttons that only show up when one of the trigger buttons are held down. All the attacks are damaging but the abilities include support powers like party healing. It varies per character with each of the games many characters having their own unique functions and powers. I’m not sure how much this can customised later but what I can say is that the combat does contain combos, like any good character action game should. It also includes a super meter like it’s a fighting game, and a link meter where you and your party or attempt to pull off a chain attack. Yes, you and your party.
In Granblue Fantasy ReLink you aren’t alone. The player accepts missions and goes out in a squad of four with the other party members all controlled by the CPU, unless you are playing online multiplayer which the game does support. The structure of the game feels very much like Monster Hunter. You accept a mission, get dropped off in an area and have to find the monster that you need to take out – whether that is a hoard of mobs, a massive boss or maybe both. While you don’t rip resources off the bosses you beat, you are rewarded and can use that to presumably imporve your parties abilities. I couldn’t do that in the demo but the rewards must function for something! The game was pretty fun and I can imagine that in a party of four players it will be even more enjoyable. I did think the combat could get a little repeteitve, especially with how long bosses take to defeat, but that was the same in Monster Hunter as well and that didn’t stop that title from being fun. So check out Granblue Fantasy ReLink if games like Monster Hunter and Devil May Cry are your types of games, I’m sure you would enjoy this one.
SAND LAND
- Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Windows
- Release Date: TBC
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1979440/SAND_LAND/
SAND LAND is an action RPG where you become the main character as Beelzebub, a Fiend Prince. Lead your company of heroic misfits and explore the legendary world of SAND LAND developed by the creator of Dragon Ball & Dr. Slump, Akira Toriyama.
The official tie-in game to Akira Toriyama’s SAND LAND manga series, which is also getting an anime next year. SAND LAND is an interesting game but the version I played was fairly rough. To be fair to the developers, the demo does start with that disclaimer so when lip syncing wasn’t implemented in cutscenes and continuity disappeared between gameplay and cutscene, I was willing to forgive it. Or at least, I hope that last point is just because of it being in early development because it was a bit jarring.
In SAND LAND, players can explore a massive open-world desert based on the world of the manga. There are towns and NPCs players can interact with and various vehicles for players to drive. While I started the demo in a small landrover truck, I ended it in a huge tank that was letting me launch missiles at enemies in the wild and boulders to break down walls and create new paths. It was honestly quite fun and depending on the amount of vehicles in the game, I could see this being the key selling point. Outside of the vehicles though, the player can also initiate in combat against wild animals and bandits. There are also these on-rail driving sections but they seem like story set-pieces rather than just things that can happen. The combat is very similar to what you might find in an anime 3d fighting game. It’s very straight forward and so I hope in the final game it can be a little more complicated.
SAND LAND has the potential to be a fun open world but it’s too early to tell if it will be. At the very least, its unqiue desert setting filled with characters in Toriyama’s iconic art style help to make it stand out from the crowd.
Billie Bust Up
- Platforms: Windows
- Release Date: TBC
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1400830/Billie_Bust_Up/
Embark on a thrilling and imaginative odyssey in a 3D platforming musical inspired by your favorite timeless, magical animated films. Meet a fantastical cast of characters, take gameplay cues from the music—and try not to let the villains’ songs get stuck in your head.
Have you ever wanted to play a Disney animated musical as a game? That is what Billie Bust Up feels like. This 3D rhythm platformer has the player take control of the adorable goat Billie as she travels across various levels and meets a wide range of strange characters, each with their own unique songs and musical motifs. These songs are all being composed by Daniel Ingram, who is known for his work on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, and the ones I heard were incredibly impressive.
The demo I played had Billie meet Barnaby, a tall and dark creature who sang a very catchy villain song about all the different ways he could kill the player, and as he sang the various ways sprung to live and became obstacles for the player. What impressed me the most was how the developers had managed to create a pretty good rhythm game within the framework of a 3D platformer. Rhythm games require trust from the player, trust that if they could close their eyes and just play to the rhythm then they will succeed. So many rhythm games actually fail at this, often being very slightly off key. But Billie Bust Up kept to the beat remarkably well and it lead to this very fluid gameplay where I was jumping to the rhythm and having the confidance that I could avoid any obstacle thrown at me.
The visuals of Billie Bust Up should also be praised. Billie looks appropriately adorable, as does her little fox companion, and Barnaby moves around in a very rubberhose fashion that makes him feel like a shadow attempting to engulf the player. Most of all though, I love how the facial animations are done in this game. There is so much variety in the facial expressions the characters make and it looks so clean. You can tell the artist spent a LOT of time creating these in order to really capture the emotions of Billie and I think it paid off spectacularly. Billie Bust Up is easily one of the games I’m looking forward to the most out of this years show and I hope we don’t have to wait too long until it’s in our hands.
Hauntii
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS%, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Windows
- Release Date: 2024 (TBD)
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060790/Hauntii/
A beguiling adventure in which you uncover the secrets of an expansive and mysterious world – haunting both the environment and its denizens to craft ingenious solutions to the many challenges that await.
I was drawn to Hauntii by the vibe it gave off in its key art and trailer. A hand-drawn, immersive and haunting looking title that reminded me of other games like Limbo and Hollow Knight. It felt like my kind of vibe. What I wasn’t expecting when I ended up playing the game is that a better comparison can be made between Hauntii and Super Mario Odyssey. Yeah, unexpected I know. While visually and audibly, this game is a beautiful and serene experience with some great cinematography that takes advantage of its fixed isometric camera, the games structure feels almost identical to Mario’s latest 3D outing and that is a good thing.
Players control this amnesiac ghost and run around different environments while solving puzzles and fighting enemies. Combat plays out like a twin stick shooter although there are other ways to fight enemies: possession. Similar to Mario’s ability to posses enemies, objects and NPCs in Super Mario Odyssey, players can posses all monor of things in Hauntii. Whether it’s a ladybug that will allow players to claim up trees and float across the level, or pillar that you can then shake to knock over and crush enemies, or a creature that works as a tank in order to obliterate tougher foes, there are a lot of things to possess in this game that will lead to fun secrets and the games many collectables. Because despite how it looks, Hauntii is a collectathon. Instead of moons you collect star fragments and every world has its equivalent of regular and purple coins. These star fragments can sometimes just be found by progressing through an are but other times you’ll need to do a specific misison – like defeating a set number of foes or beating an NPC in a race. There are several different objectives to complete that will keep players engaged.
Unlike Super Mario Odyssey however, Hauntii is also trying to tell an engaging mystery story. The protagonist is recently deceased, and has no memory of the time they were alive. What’s more, they are also being chained to this mortal coil, unable to be lead into the afterlife proper. So the player needs to solve those two mysteries and the way they go about that is in the players control. The star fragments players are collecting are the key to finding out the truth about who you are and there isn’t really a set order in which players are forced to discover this truth. You use the star fragments to unlock constelations and each one contains a scene of your previous life, so players can tackle the story in a way that interests them.
I have a lot of anticiaption for Hauntii now, I think it has the potential to be one of the most memorable games of next year and with it coming out on basically everything, anyone will have the chance to play it. So keep an eye out for when that final release date drops.
Cavern of Dreams
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows
- Release Date: 19th October 2023
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2059660/Cavern_of_Dreams/
Embark on a magical quest as Fynn the dragon to rescue your unhatched siblings from the mysterious Cavern of Dreams in this N64-style 3D platformer. Gain new abilities, meet unique characters, solve puzzles, and beware of the mysterious villain.
I grew up playing 3D platformers and we are in a current boom of the genre after it vanished for a decade and a half at the start of the sixth generation of consoles. Cavern of Dreams aims to go back to that era of Nintendo 64 platforming greatness, very literally in fact. From the games presentation and controls, I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers secretly has a Nintendo 64 version running behind the scenes. It looks the part, but its almost too close to it. At times it kind of feels like one of those upscaled HD N64 games where you can see the pixels because the anti-aliasing that would’ve been there due to the hardware is gone and I think the visuals suffer for it. This game really wants to be a N64 3D platformer in all the best and worst ways.
That said, I still enjoy these games and I did enjoy playing Cavern of Dreams but it didn’t do anything to really stand-out to me. If this was released on the N64 then I’d probably put what I’ve played in the Chameleon Twist tier – certainly not a bad game by any means but also not a great game either (sorry Chameleon Twist fans). If you’re looking to scratch that 3D platforming itch then this game is certainly one to keep an eye on, but from what I’ve played so far if you are not already a fan of this genre then there isn’t really anything here for you.
Chessarama
- Platforms: Windows
- Release Date: Q4 2023
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1831830/Chessarama/
Chessarama is a collection of original chess-inspired games. Choose a game, quickly learn its rules and play through the campaigns, unlock collectibles and compete against each other on the leaderboards. Endless replayability and fun await you. Welcome to Chessarama!
Chessarama is an upcoming puzzle game that aims to take the basic mechanics of chess (Bishops move diagnol, Knights can jump over pieces, etc) and create a series of interesting puzzle games out of them. The end goal is to help even newcomers to chess understand how the game works through these intuitive puzzles and then help them translate that knowledge into actual chess. Many of these games involve planning ahead and executing a strategy, or setting up your board in order to protect a vital piece. Whether you do that latter one by throwing all of your expendable pieces at the enemy or you try to keep everyone alive is up to you. The game allows for either approach, which is great.
But what are these puzzles? I got to try out three of them while at Gamescom. The first is a gardening game with a Knight, where players have to plant seeds on every plot of land on a farm, but going back onto a previous tile will destroy that plant so it needs to be replanted. Thinking of those tile colour swapping puzzles you may have seen in 2D Zelda, but with the movement of a Knight chess piece (and other obstacles are added in later).
Next, there was a puzzle around Soccer (Football for those who speak the King’s English) where you have to line up your chess pieces in order to score a goal, however the pieces only move and kick the ball in the direction that the rules of chess allow (so Rooks can only hit in a straight line). You have to position all of your pieces first and then let the move play out to see if you can score a goal.
Lastly, there was a game about protecting a Pawn from a dragon as it makes its way to the end of the board to become Queen. This was easily the hardest game of the bunch as your pieces are only proteced as long as another piece is next to it (again, with the rules of chess applied) but the spaces you can move those pieces are limited. Thankfully the dragon doesn’t appear until you move the pawn, so you have plenty of time to think and plot out your next move.
Chessaram is shaping up to be a really clever puzzle game and is being back by actual chess masters who are helping to tweak and improve the game. There is a demo of it on Steam right now so if you are interested then go and check it out.
Machi Koro with Everyone
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows
- Release Date: 2024 (TBD)
Roll the dice to earn coins and develop your city! “Machi Koro” is a popular Tabletop game that was nominated for the German Annual Game Awards in 2015. “Machi Koro with Everyone” is the digital definitive edition of “Machi Koro”, with features from across the whole series and with the ability to play online for the first time. Let’s enjoy “Machi Koro” with everyone online!
Machi Koro is a table top game created by Grounding Inc. a japanese developer who makes both board games and video games. Nintendo fans may know them as the developers of Sakura Samurai and Nintendouji on the Nintendo 3DS. Despite the only trailer I can find being in Japanese, and no link to any Steam page, I can confirm it is releasing in English on Switch and Steam as that’s what I played during Gamescom. In fact, from my research the game is already out in Japan on Steam only, with the Switch and English versions launching next year.
So what do you do in Machi Koro? The game is a competetive city builder where players must build various facilties in order to generate money and then use that money to build a series of key landmarks. Whichever player builds all their key landmarks first wins. The game can be split into two mechanics, a dice roll and then deciding on the facility you want to build. When picking a facility, there is a limited number per game and this limit is shared by all players. So in theory you could take all of a certain facility and no other player would be able to create that building. What decisions go in to building a facility? Well first you need to be able to afford it and then secondly it depnds on its ability. Each building has a special ability that is triggered when you roll the number on top of the card. Sometimes it can even be triggered when your opponent rolls that number. The higher the number the more it costs to buy, but the better the reward, and some cards work in tandem with others so planning out your purchases carefully is the key to victory.
The second mechanic, dice rolling, is the random element. Each players starts their turn rolling a dice, choosing to roll one or two, and the outcome of roll can activate one of the buildings you or your opponent have created. These abilities often result in gaining more money, either generating it or stealing it from opponents, but if you don’t manage to roll the number on your card then nothing happens (you can still build one new building however, if you have have the money). Be aware that the dice do stack, so if you do roll two dice then there is no chance that you can activate a 1 card. So aiming for a high number may not always be the best.
The game was very fun, I understand why the original tabletop game was well regarded. I would put money on it showing up in English in a future Nintendo Direct, either a proper one or an indie one, so keep an eye out for this if you enjoy board games (or you can buy the physical board game if you can find it).
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