Earlier this week at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann and Sony Santa Monica head Cory Barlog sat down in front of an audience for a chat about a very personal topic: doubt.

The two bantered back and forth for roughly an hour on a series of subjects that were clearly very close to both of them, ranging from their own doubts about themselves as creators to how they knew an idea was “right” or not. The two also answered a few pre-submitted audience questions, including one that Barlog read to Druckmann about sequels: “How do you and your teams approach character development over multiple games?

Druckmann’s answer, though, was surprising for someone who’s made quite a few sequels in his day: he doesn’t think about multiple games.

“That’s a very easy question for me to answer, because I never think about multiple games, because I’m the game in front of us is so all consuming,” he responded. “I think you’re jinxing yourself if you’re starting to think about the sequel when you’re working on the first game. So when I was making The Last of Us 2, yeah, sure. Every once in a while an idea pops in your head of where it might go if we get the chance to do another one. But I just approach it as, ‘what if I never get to do another one?’…I’m not saving some idea for the future. If there’s a cool idea, I’m doing my best to get it into here.”

Ten-year payoffs

Druckmann went on to explain that this is how he approaches everything, with perhaps the exception of the The Last of Us TV show since he already knows it’s going to have multiple seasons. So when sequels come around, instead of having a plan already in mind, Druckmann says he looks back on what he’s already done and asks himself what elements are unresolved and where the characters can go. “And if I feel like the answer is, they can’t go anywhere, then I go, ‘I think we’ll just kill them off.’

Obsidian’s Avowed just went live in advanced access for those willing to spend more, sending new adventurers out across the Living Lands. While they’re out there, they might discover some magical items and dangers, and apparently, a little bit of love after all.

During the pre-release run-up for Avowed, Obsidian said the game wouldn’t feature a dedicated romance system, and would instead focus on building “thoughtful relationships” with companions. Here’s a quote from an IGN interview with Avowed game director Carrie Patel, explaining the thought process:

“We are building thoughtful relationships with our companion characters,” Patel said at the time. “Ultimately, I personally am a fan of making that an option, but I feel like if you’re going to do it, you really, really have to commit and make sure that you’re giving all to fulfilling that in a way that feels both true to the character, but also creates an engaging player experience. So not something we’re doing for Avowed, but I wouldn’t say never.”

Early players and reviewers of Avowed are reporting that, actually, at least one companion has eyes for your player character. Spoilers ensue for specific interactions with the companion Kai, so if you’re looking to avoid that, turn back now.

Warning! Avowed spoilers follow:

GamesRadar reports that Kai, voiced by Brandon Keener (also the voice of Mass Effect’s Garrus Vakarian), can wind up in a romance with the player. Complete his own personal quest line, confess your feelings, and apparently you’ll get a confirmation of your happily-ever-after in the credits roll.

I’m not far enough in my personal Avowed playthrough to confirm as much, but PC Gamer encountered similar dialogue in their playthrough. The romance seems gender-agnostic too, as PC Gamer played as a male character, and GamesRadar’s reported success was with a female character.

It’s a nice little treat, especially for all the Garrus fans. It does make one wonder what shifted in development, but if love wins in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Avowed is out now in early access, so if you’re looking for a take on it, be sure to check out our Avowed review. Once you’re done with that, check out IGN’s guide to Things Avowed Doesn’t Tell You.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

The pre-registration window is officially open on PC, iOS, and Android for Mecharashi, a free-to-play tactical RPG that puts you in charge of outfitting and deploying a squad of mech pilots.

If this is your first time hearing of Mecharashi, it’s developed by BlackJack Studio and is focused on strategy and tactics. Every mech, both yours and your enemies’, is made up of four parts: a body, legs, right arm, and left arm. Each part has its own separate HP, and reducing each part to zero brings about different results.

“The core gameplay of our game is inspired by Front Mission,” the dev team told IGN. “When we reviewed the design brilliance of Front Mission, the most striking revelation came from its groundbreaking choice in 1995: while other strategy games of that time were fixated on the rock-paper-scissors style of counter systems (e.g., “sword > axe > spear”), it boldly abandoned this easy-to-grasp approach. Instead, it introduced part destruction to create a truly physically meaningful battlefield.”

In Mecharashi, destroying each enemy’s body is the ultimate goal, since that finishes them off for good. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should focus all your attacks on that one area. Taking out the legs makes them unable to move, and as each mech’s weapons are equipped on their arms, destroying those can drastically reduce their firepower and prevent powerful charged attacks. You need to assess the threat each enemy poses, figure out the best way to neutralize them, and use the strengths of each member of your squad to make that happen.

“We have adopted the charming tactical chess logic from Front Mission because it fits perfectly with the mecha + tactical chess theme,” the dev team said. “The strategic dimension has been significantly enhanced: Instead of focusing on memorizing attribute counters, players now rely on more realistic logic — destroying legs to limit mobility, breaking weapon pods to eliminate threats, and hitting the cockpit to disable combat capabilities. Each decision corresponds to tangible tactical gains.”

Destroying different parts won’t just have a strategic effect on battle, you’ll also see visual differences depending on what part you destroyed.

“We used the 3D standards of this generation to create mechs with realistic metal textures, dirt, and scratches. When a mecha’s leg is destroyed, not only does it affect the movement range, but you can see the details of the broken surface and internal spark short-circuiting — visual depth that was hard to achieve under the technical limitations of 1995.”

Each pilot in your crew belongs to a character class that defines their role in battle. Fighters are melee specialists who have powerful attacks but limited range. Raiders use assault weapons to deal high burst damage. Snipers attack from range and can target a specific part of the enemy. Tacticians can also attack from longer distances and hit multiple targets at once. Guardians protect allies and limit enemy movement. And last but certainly not least, Machinists can repair allied mechs.

You can customize every pilot’s mech — including their individual parts, weapons, and color scheme — and can assemble various bodies, arms, and legs, which affect the mech’s appearance and stats. Different weapons provide different types of attacks from different ranges. Color schemes give you the option of choosing from more than 120 colors, and you can mix and match several colors at once to fully customize the look of each mech.

“Front Mission hasn’t had a new tactical chess game in many years, and mecha is a highly visual genre,” the dev team said. “The realistic textures of mechanics and metals have strong visual appeal. Therefore, we invested a huge amount of art resources into the design of mechs and the construction of the world atmosphere.”

Once you’ve equipped your squad to your liking, it’s time to deploy. You’ll be given missions in the gritty setting of Milkhama Island, where the discovery of a new mineral known as Arashium has led to factions forming and trying to secure it for themselves. And what does that lead to? You guessed it: violence and war.

You play as a mercenary squad recruited into the government’s National Defense Force to help put down a rebel group known as The Ashes, but you’ll quickly realize that not everything is as it seems. As the story evolves, you’ll deal with corruption, complicated politics, deceit, and betrayal, and you just might become key players in a struggle that will change the course of history.

The story develops through fully voice acted chapters and sub-chapters, with each sending your team on a mission. Before each mission, you’ll have the chance to choose your combat party and their starting positions on the map. Combat is turn-based and progresses in phases until you’ve completed the designated goal for that mission. Those goals can include eliminating all enemies, destroying one specific enemy, or reaching a designated evacuation zone.

Each mech has a movement limit and attack range, which are displayed as different colored blocks on the grid-based map. Some character classes and weapon types provide unique abilities that require a certain amount of AP to use. Each character starts combat with 3 AP and replenishes some on each turn, but many attacks require more AP than a unit can gain in a single turn, meaning you’ll need to bide your time to strategically build up your AP reserves.

Destroying enemy mechs will grant AP to whoever dealt the finishing blow, so part of your strategy will revolve around AP management to make sure each party member can consistently contribute without wasting any turns. You’ll also need to pay attention to enemy mech types and weapons, since they can counterattack if you hit them from a range they’re equipped for.

Once your goal is completed, you’ll receive rewards and each member of the combat party will gain EXP. Rewards include Arashium, mech parts, weapons, Recruitment Tokens, money, and items you can give to specific party members to instantly give them EXP. Arashium is a special currency, while Recruitment Tokens are used to recruit new members for your squad.

Between battles, you’ll return to your base, where you can upgrade your mechs and pilots. During the course of the story, pilots will unlock the Bionic Computer, which essentially acts as their personal skill tree. You’ll need to gather specific items in order to unlock each node, which can provide things like stat boosts, passive skills, and combat abilities.

If Mecharashi sounds like it’s up your alley, you can go to the official website to sign up for pre-registration now on PC, iOS, and Android. It’s scheduled to release internationally later this year and will support eight languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Thai, and Chinese. If you’d like to be part of the community, you can follow the game on Twitter and YouTube.