In 2004, the folks at Penny Arcade decided they wanted a show exclusively for gaming. Sure, comics, anime, and other nerd hobbies were cool, and those activities all had their own shows… so what about games? From that idea spawned a small 4,500 person event in Bellevue, Washington, focused on the culture and community that is gaming.
PAX East 2016 was held in Boston, MA, and it began on the 22nd of April and ended on the 24th of April. For those who didn’t catch the show live, here are all the major trailers announced.
The Long Journey Home
The Long Journey Home is a “space exploration RPG” that promises to blend the gameplay of old classics like Starflight and Star Control with roguelike replayability, “in a procedurally generated, endless surprising living universe inspired by beloved modern science fiction shows like Farscape and Firefly.” That’s an awfully tall order, and quite a shift away from the point-and-click adventures that Daedalic is best known for.
I Am Setsuna
I Am Setsuna is a Japanese role-playing video game developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square Enix. Players take control of a party of characters, navigating environments from an angled top-down perspective. Locations such as towns and dungeons are reached by navigating the game’s overworld. In towns, the party can talk with villagers to reveal plot elements, and find treasure chests containing useful items. Various items such as healing potions or “Mistone” items for escaping from battle are sold in shops in towns and across the world.
Pyre
After making two terrific action RPGs, the people behind Bastion and Transistor are throwing a curveball with their new game Pyre. Now they’re making a party-based RPG in which the battles play out like three-on-three sports competitions. Pyre is a party-based RPG in which you lead a band of exiles to freedom through an ancient competition spread across a vast, mystical purgatory.
The Metronomicon
Packing in a fully-fledged story mode with a colourful cast of musically-empowered heroes and villains, The Metronomicon sees you take control a party of eight newly graduated masters of the “rhythmic combat arts” to wage musical warfare against a multitude of dance-mongering fiends. By switching between four concurrent hero-controlled tracks on-the-fly, you’ll select and activate a wide array of abilities and spells, buffs and nukes, with your performance and timing all-important in ensuring the effectiveness of your moves.
Outlast 2
Outlast 2 (stylized as Outlast II) is an upcoming first-person survival horror video game that’s currently in development by Red Barrels Games. It serves as an indirect sequel to Outlast and is set to be released in fall of 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
The game will take place in the same universe as Outlast, but it will feature different characters and a different setting.
Ruiner
Ruiner is a brutal action shooter set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok. A wired sociopath lashes out against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother under the guidance of a secretive hacker friend. Combine preternatural reflexes, augmented tools, and the arsenal of fallen foes to tear down and dismantle the corporate titans of virtuality dealers at Heaven.
Children of Zodiarcs
Children of Zodiarcs is a story-driven, single-player Tactical JRPG that combines traditional tactical gameplay with the thrill of collectible cards and craftable dice!
Children of Zodiarcs was inspired by a of Tactical JRPGs, namely Final Fantasy Tactics and the 16-bit Shining Force games, as well as a love of playing board games and collectable card games like Magic: The Gathering. The developers have decided to bring these passions together to make a game that would resonate with fellow fans of the genre, as well as to push the envelope in fun and exciting ways.
And for more news and reviews, keep checking back at Gaming Central.
