Wilds of Wisdom.
Did you enjoy that fabulous The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer yesterday? Yep, we did too. So of course we’re going to do a bit of a deep dive.
Beyond the landscape of Hyrule, the horse riding, the smoothie-making, and the Waypoints, we’ve spotted a lot of similarities in Zelda’s adventure with both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
To all the brave souls who have ventured into the world of Volgarr the Viking: I swear, I don’t hate you! In fact, I love you! I know the game is challenging, and I understand the frustration that comes with each defeat.
However, there’s a method to this madness. I want to take you through some of the design choices that make Volgarr the Viking II not just a game, but a learning experience that hones skills that I hope will be applicable in your real life.
From the outset, our goal with Volgarr the Viking II was to create an experience reminiscent of classic arcade and platform games – titles that demanded precision, timing, and perseverance. Growing up in a military family and serving in the military myself, I believe in the value of a hard-earned victory – the kind that leaves you with a sense of accomplishment.
One of the core design philosophies behind the Volgarr the Viking series is that failure is a stepping stone to success. Each death is a lesson, each obstacle an opportunity to refine your skills. The game’s difficulty is not meant to punish, but to teach.
By facing tough, pattern-based enemies combined with static handcrafted level designs, players develop a deeper understanding of game mechanics, learn to strategize, and improve their reflexes. This is an actual exercise that trains mental acuity and connection to real-world motor skills. There is a certain amount of pride that comes from overcoming challenges, feeling good and knowing you can take whatever is thrown at you.
I really wanted players to not just see this philosophy in the design of Volgarr the Viking II, but understand it by playing it. At first glance, some of the challenges in the game might feel like they’re difficult for difficulty’s sake, but every aspect has been meticulously crafted to challenge players while fostering their growth. Let me drill down on some examples:
Controls: I wanted to make the controls simple to understand, but they also had to feel tight, responsive, and predictable. That’s the key to giving players the ability to execute actions with precision. Mastering these controls is rewarding in its own right, but also helps develop skills that players can apply to other action games as well.
Pattern Recognition: Enemies and traps follow set patterns. Recognizing and memorizing these patterns hones your observational skills and enhances your ability to anticipate and react. That’s not just a good skill for gaming – that’s a great skill for life.
Limited Resources: Health and lives are limited; weapons, armor, and power-ups can be lost. By encouraging careful planning and resource management, I want to teach players to be strategic, weighing risks and benefits before acting.
No Hand-holding: There are no excessive tutorials or hints in Volgarr the Viking II. That’s so players will learn by doing – exploring and experimenting, fostering a sense of curiosity and independence. It’s about trusting the player’s intelligence and ability to learn through experience. Everything a player needs to know about how to beat the game is accomplished before they encounter their very first enemy. As they play, they will learn how to use these skills at the right times – and that’s incredibly rewarding.
Punishing but Fair: I freely acknowledge that Volgarr the Viking II is tough, but I also believe that it’s fair. Every challenge can be overcome with the right approach; different players may take a different amount of time to discover it, but they will get there. I always want success to feel deserved and motivating; failures are inevitable, but I never want the player to feel that the game is cheating them.
You’ve spotted the common thread by now: Volgarr the Viking II aims to build a more resilient and determined gamer, but also give them skills that can help them when there’s not a controller in their hands. The perseverance required to tackle our game can translate to a greater sense of confidence in facing challenges both in gaming and in life. The repeated cycle of trying, failing, and eventually succeeding builds a mindset geared towards continuous improvement and resilience – and that can be applied to anything. I have found this to be true in my life and, through my games, I hope to inspire others to discover that in themselves, too.
Lastly, we designed Volgarr the Viking II with the hope of fostering a community of players who support and inspire each other. Sharing strategies, triumphs, and even frustrations can create a bond among players, making the journey less lonely and more rewarding. Together, you form a tribe of modern-day Vikings, conquering not just the game, but the barriers to your own potential.
So, to all our players: At the end of the day, video games are supposed to be fun, and I greatly hope you find enjoyment in Volgarr the Viking II. But also know that the challenge is intentional and crafted with care. I do not hate you; on the contrary, I believe in you. Embrace the difficulty, learn from it, and let Volgarr the Viking II be the forge in which your gaming skills are sharpened to perfection. Skål!
Kristofor Durrschmidt is the CEO and co-founder of Crazy Viking Studios, as well as the former creative director of Digital Eclipse’s Bothell studio. In addition to the original Volgarr the Viking, which is celebrating ten years as an indie hit, Kris has worked on over 30games in his career for nearly every major publisher such as Activision-Blizzard , Sega, Nintendo, THQ, Disney, Konami, Capcom, SNK, and more.
Volgarr the Viking II is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Get both games in the franchise with the Volgarr the Viking I & II Bundle. For more information on the game, check out the official website.
Digital Eclipse
More than a decade after Volgarr the Viking’s chaotic, challenging debut, the barbarian king’s story continues in an uncompromising new form.
Volgarr the Viking II is a hardcore, 2D action-platformer where precision is everything and one false move can spell a brutal death. Players of the original game will feel right at home on this relentless voyage, even with the addition of new power-ups, new forms of magic, new enemy types, and a chest-thumping new soundtrack.
While the sequel delivers the same unforgiving 1980s-arcade level of difficulty as the original, Volgarr the Viking II also (mercifully, begrudgingly) offers modern quality-of-life options such as checkpoints, save states, and an undead mode. You decide how punishing your quest should be – but now anyone can be a viking!
With new and larger worlds inspired by Norse mythology, multiple endings, and a variety of ruthless bosses to conquer, Volgarr the Viking II expands and improves on the original in every way. Draw your sword, don your helmet, and chop your way through this violent viking adventure!
The post Why the Relentless Challenge of Volgarr the Viking II Means I Love You appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is being ported onto last-gen consoles. Developer Respawn Entertainment announced today that PS4 and Xbox One owners will get to play Cal Kestis’ latest journey next month.
The critically acclaimed #StarWarsJediSurvivor is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on September 17, 2024!
Pre-order now!
Xbox ➡️ https://t.co/wFlNBQefB2
PlayStation ➡️ https://t.co/EduLFc6RMK pic.twitter.com/dhhrrcc4Kh
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) August 6, 2024
In a press release, Respawn confirmed that the PS4 and Xbox One port of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be available starting September 17. EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced last August during an earnings call that a PS4 and Xbox One port of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was in development. Both versions will retail for $49.99, and Respawn touts that these ports will “feature a variety of optimizations aimed at maximizing the hardware capabilities of the consoles.”
In addition, the developer confirmed that a new update for the PC version of Jedi: Survivor will be available “in the coming weeks,” teasing that the update will improve the game’s technical performance and controls while also introducing a slew of quality-of-life improvements. Respawn continues to support the PC version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, panned by players at launch due to performance issues.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released in April 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Set five years after the events of 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, the sequel focuses on Cal Kestis and his friends as they fend off the Empire.
Despite its shortcomings for the PC version at release, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was met with critical acclaim. At the 2023 Game Awards, it was nominated for Best Action/Adventure Game, and Cameron Monaghan was nominated for Best performance for his portrayal of Cal Kestis. Additionally, IGN awarded Jedi Survivor as its Best Action Game of 2023.
In our review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which we gave a 9/10, my colleague Dan Stapleton wrote: “If Respawn makes a third game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, it’ll complete the best Star Wars trilogy in 30 years, hands down.”
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only War, unless you don’t have a 64-bit PC with an Intel Core i5-8600K equivalent and at least eight gigs of RAM, in which case you’ll have to, I don’t know, live in everlasting peace, or something. I’m pretty sure not having eight gigs of RAM is heretical, but never fear, you can probably compensate by taking a leaf from the God-Emperor’s book and arrange for a host of dying psykers to pour their brain energy into your motherboard.
All of which is to say that Focus Home have released the system requirements for huge-shouldered action game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Find them proudly emblazoned across the header image above, and written out for easier copy-pasting in the blockquote, below.
Here be dragons.
A couple of years ago, it was notable when the Switch remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were developed not in-house by Game Freak, but by a smaller Japanese support studio called ILCA. That remake project was actually ILCA’s first crack at being the lead developer on a game, and it soon followed this up early last year with One Piece Odyssey, an original JRPG based on the long-running franchise about wacky pirates. Now this release has finally made its way over to the Switch, and we’re happy to report that it’s made the jump almost entirely intact. Though it’s taken a bit of a visual hit, One Piece Odyssey still proves to be an enjoyable and accessible release that’s a welcome addition to the Switch’s considerable RPG library.
The narrative in One Piece Odyssey is a sort of ‘bottle episode’ that follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates crew after they shipwreck upon a mysterious island called Waford. Shortly after arriving, a mysterious figure takes away their power (cutely represented by everyone dropping from level 40 down to 1) and locks it away in various magical cubes scattered across the island. Even when they recover some of the cubes, the only way they can unlock the power contained within is through diving into illusory worlds crafted from their memories and reconquering trials they once faced, although events play out a little differently this time around because of how ‘fuzzy’ memory can be. The crew thus sets out through worlds based on the memories of some of their greatest struggles to reclaim their power and get to the bottom of what’s going on with this strange island.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies: Requiem for a Lost Soul – Meet the Terminus Team appeared first on Xbox Wire.
There have been many firsts for Dead by Daylight’s Killer Design team in recent years. The introduction of a third-person camera for a smaller Killer. A Killer with AI-controlled guards. A Power that consists of multiple different spells. Finding new ways to inflict pain and suffering remains an exciting challenge, and the arrival of Castlevania’s Dracula introduces yet another innovation: shapeshifting.
The vile denizens of the woods serve The Dark Lord, and he can take their forms as he chooses. Players can cycle between his Vampire form, his Bat form, and his Wolf form, with each one excelling at a different role.
Vampire form is Dracula’s base form, with the Flaming Pillar being his primary means of damaging Survivors. The attack can even traverse through obstacles, including Pallets and Windows. Wolf Form offers a third-person perspective and reduced mobility, but increases your efficacy at hunting and tracking. Bat Form is Dracula’s most stealthy form, with no Terror Radius and a snappy teleport ability.
Game Designer Jason Guzzo was tasked with bringing the legendary character into The Fog, and designing a Power that honored Dracula’s otherworldly abilities. The Castlevania team at Konami Japan were equally thrilled to see their iconic character come to life in-game, providing their knowledge and expertise at every step.
“Shapeshifting is a vital and unique part of the Dracula experience,” explains Guzzo. “It’s part of who he is, and it’s not necessarily something people focus on.”
Once the team decided on the Power’s direction, it was time to make it functional in-game. Of course, the unprecedented nature of Dracula’s abilities presented a few design challenges, particularly with the animal forms. Not to mention the fact that it would mark the first time this version of Dracula transformed into a wolf. Luckily, the Castlevania team was quick to give their seal of approval.
“There are limitations while designing animal characters,” explains Guzzo. “A bat can fly, but due to the balance of Dead by Daylight, it can’t fly over low obstacles. Unfortunately, that’s a concession we had to make. It takes some getting used to, but we must abide by our internal rules. Having a character that can fly over any obstacle would be entirely game-breaking.”
Building on the foundation laid by previous Chapters, which featured the arrival of a quadruped character (Alien) and a third-person Killer camera (Chucky), the design Team worked fleshing out each of Dracula’s three forms.
“Each form is basically a micro-killer, and we wanted players to use them however they liked, without needing to change if they don’t want to,” continues Guzzo. “On the Survivor side, we wanted facing Dracula to feel like a boss fight, where he can be anywhere at any moment with a tool to use against you.”
The Dark Lord’s forms
Dracula’s forms break down as follows: Vampire, Wolf, and Bat. “Vampire is basically your core form,” explains Guzzo. “He moves at 4.6 meters per second, making him effective at loops and chases. He’s also got the Flame Pillar, which is one of my favorite Killer abilities to use in the game.”
“The Wolf Form moves a little slower, but you have enhanced senses and a pounce attack,” he continues. “When Survivors are sprinting, every so often they’ll drop a Scent Orb. Those Orbs give you information on the direction they’re going, and collecting them grants you a small speed boost. The idea is to simulate a hunt, where a wolf picks up a trail and quickens its pace.”
“We wanted the Bat to be the most effective traversal form, so it moves very fast – 6 meters a second, with extra stealth on top of that,” details Guzzo. “To compensate, the Bat can’t attack or see Survivors, Scratch Marks, and Pools of Blood. The main reason we did this was to balance the endgame, where Bat form was extremely potent at covering both Exit Gates.”
“Bat Form has another cool ability, which allows it to teleport a short distance, including through Vault points and Pallets,” explains Guzzo. “It also invites players to consider their choices. As a Survivor, downing a Pallet may come back and haunt you when Dracula gains a new teleport spot. Dracula players will have to grapple with the same decision, as losing a potential teleport option can hurt you in the long term.”
The end result is a dynamic Power that incentivizes exploration while providing an immersive experience befitting The Dark Lord. It’s also worth noting that the Castlevania icon was designed with new players and Dead by Daylight veterans in mind.
“When we’re working with a beloved licensed character like Castlevania’s Dracula, we want the skill floor to be relatively accessible,” reveals Guzzo. “That way, fans of the franchise can use the Chapter as an entry point to Dead by Daylight and have a fun experience off the bat. We do aim to keep the skill ceiling high, so players who connect with the character can build their skill and find exciting ways to develop it even further.”
Dead by Daylight: Castlevania launches August 27. The Chapter includes a new Killer, Dracula – The Dark Lord, and new Survivor Trevor Belmont.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePop hasn’t suffered another delay but is instead being bumped up nearly two weeks to September 12, 2024.
As reported by Gematsu, developer Dragami Games confirmed the change would affect all versions of the game — PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch, and PC — in North America, Central and South America, and Europe.
The previous release date of September 25 came after another delay out of summer 2024 and before that 2023, but as its latest September 12 date is just a month away, it’s likely Dragami Games will stick to this one.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePop is a remake of the original Lollipop Chainsaw which follows high school cheerleader and zombie hunter descendant Juliet Starling as she fights through the apocalypse with her boyfriend’s severed head at her side.
“RePop is a definitive version of the game which leaves the story unchanged, with the focus on quality-of-life improvements and additional gameplay content,” Dragami Games CEO Yoshimi Yasuda said in June.
The game picked up a cult following but in our 5/10 review, IGN said: “Lollipop Chainsaw doesn’t even attempt to differentiate itself from the genre, and most of what it does try new in the realm of its characters and writing ultimately ends up taking away from an incredible-on-paper action game.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
As the wait lengthens for Hollow Knight: Silksong, other Soulsy creature features are scurrying to fill the breach. We had Deviator last week – now, it’s time for a bumper helping of the heebie-jeebies in the shape of Perennial Order. The title makes it sound like an eBay delivery of potted geraniums. The game festering beneath is actually a “plant horror” boss rusher with twin stick melee controls, unlockable “Instinct” abilities and one-hit deaths.
In a gift to headline writers everywhere, the developers, four-person Gardenfiend Games, are calling it “Hollow Knight meets Titan Souls”, and who am I to deny them? It’s got one of those “painterly” art styles, too, though other words come to mind, such as “rotted” and “unhallowed” and “manky”. It’s out on 6th September. Find a trailer nested below this paragraph like a venus flytrap poised to clamp around your fingers.
We’re less than two months away from the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Nintendo’s first Zelda game that stars the titular princess herself and Nintendo just dropped a new six-minute Echoes of Wisdom trailer detailing settlements around Hyrule and Zelda’s wild new Bind ability that looks like her version of Link’s Ultrahand power from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Much like the world of Hyrule, the footage was stuffed with secrets and question-raising mysteries, so we’ve compiled 10 things you need to know from the new Echoes of Wisdom trailer.
Nintendo revealed a major expansion of Zelda’s abilities in Echoes of Wisdom with the new Bind power. With Bind, Zelda can latch onto any object in the world and make it follow her movements. We see Zelda use this on a giant boulder, a treasure chest, and even her own Echoes. She even uses Bind on enemies to toss them off giant cliffs.
Using the Bind and Echo powers together will surely open some crazy possibilities, much like the wild combos players unleashed with Ultrahand, Recall, Fuse, and Ascend in Tears of the Kingdom. Just one example from the trailer shows Zelda summoning a mole Echo to create a hole in the ground. She then uses Bind on a moblin and drag-and-drops it into the hole the mole left behind. I can’t even imagine the dozens of possibilities that players will uncover by combining these abilities.
Similarly, Zelda can use Reverse Bond (which appears to be part of the Bind ability, I couldn’t tell you why it’s not called Reverse Bind) to follow an object’s movement herself. We saw Zelda fly by using Reverse Bond on a bird Echo, scale a wall with a spider Echo, and travel across a pit by using it on a moving platform above her.
Nintendo hasn’t explicitly told us that Echoes of Wisdom’s Hyrule has dungeons for us to explore and conquer, but the new trailer offers a few hints that the franchise’s classic labyrinths are present, at least in some capacity. When Zelda is speaking to a Sea Zora, you can spot an underwater entrance to what could be a dungeon, complete with an insignia that resembles the goddess Nayru’s symbol. Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom, and given that wisdom is this game’s core theme, maybe the dungeons or shrines are called Trials of Wisdom, or something to that effect.
Later in the trailer when Nintendo is detailing the Bind ability, Zelda is in a room that really gives off strong dungeon vibes, as she needs to move a giant boulder to step on a switch that will open a closed door. This definitely indicates that some sort of dungeon-like structure exists in Echoes of Wisdom, but if that’s full-fledged dungeons seen in top-down games like A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds or the more bite-sized Shrine approach from BotW and TotK remains to be seen.
The new trailer confirmed that outfits and accessories are part of Echoes of Wisdom, and Zelda can change clothes for both practical and stylish reasons. It’s unclear how many accessories you can equip at a time, but these are the accessories Zelda had in her inventory during the trailer:
Zora’s Flippers: Swim Speed Up
Zora Scale: Dive Time Up
Frog Ring: Jump Height Up
Heart Pin: Heart Appearance Up
There was also a flower pin in her inventory, but we didn’t get to see the description for that one. As for outfits, we see Zelda wearing Link’s hood from the reveal trailer, her classic dress without the hood with her hair in a ponytail, and a Gerudo Guard outfit.
Zelda can use materials she gathers around Hyrule to craft smoothies, each with their own healing properties and status effects. The one smoothie we see is the Mixed Milky Smoothie, which costs an Electro Apple, Fresh Milk, and 10 Rupees to craft. In return, it restores 13 hearts when consumed. This is Echoes of Wisdom’s take on BotW/TotK’s cooking mechanic, but I’m hopeful that it will fix one of my main complaints with how it’s worked to this point.
In the open world Zelda games, you can hold dozens of cooked meals at time, meaning if you prepare well enough, you can basically heal your way through any encounter. In Echoes of Wisdom, it looks like the Business Scrub who Zelda is speaking to puts the smoothie in one of Zelda’s empty bottles, which could mean there is a strict limit on how many smoothies you can hold at once depending on how many bottles you have. It’s possible Echoes of Wisdom has ditched the empty bottle mechanic and we’ll be able to carry unlimited smoothies, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Dashing around like a maniac with the Pegasus Boots is no longer the fastest way to get around Hyrule, as Echoes of Wisdom is adding horses into the mix. Once Zelda learns the carrot Echo, she can summon her horse from anywhere in the overworld. We see Zelda riding a brown horse and a white horse, so it seems there are multiple types of horses to choose from. Horses also serve a combat purpose, as we see Zelda mowing through weaker enemies while on horseback. Echoes of Wisdom’s combat is excitingly unconventional, so it’s nice to see multiple options like this for taking out baddies.
There are so many villages in Echoes of Wisdom! In this trailer alone, we caught glimpses of two separate Zora villages (for each the Sea and River Zora), the staple Kakariko Village at the base of Death Mountain, Goron City, Gerudo Town, Castle Town within the walls of Hyrule Castle, and the brand new Suthorn Village. If that wasn’t enough for one trailer, Echoes of Wisdom’s Japanese website has a new screenshot for a coastal village filled with houseboats. This is a significant number of settlements compared to what top down Zelda games usually contain, and several shots of the world appear to show off a much larger map than games like A Link to the Past – or at least a more densely populated one.
Not only does Echoes of Wisdom take inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s open air approach, it also shares UI elements with the pair of open world masterpieces. The Main Quest / Side Quest menu, choices when speaking to a shopkeeper, smoothie crafting, and world map waypoints all look virtually identical to the last two mainline Zeldas, further showcasing how Echoes of Wisdom truly integrates the series’ modern ideology into a classic, top down package.
During the spotlight on Gerudo Desert, a close-up shot of Zelda reveals that she is feeling the effects of the region’s brutally hot temperatures. Her face is red and she’s fanning herself to keep cool, which is reminiscent of how Link responds to scorching temperatures in both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. We’ve already covered that Zelda can equip different accessories and outfits and drink smoothies with different status effects, which begs the question: Will we have to manage Zelda’s temperature in Echoes of Wisdom like in the two recent open world Zeldas, or is this just visual flair? Echoes of Wisdom already borrows so much from the franchise’s convention-breaking direction, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if this mechanic was included.
The Echoes of Wisdom reveal trailer showed Zelda running through what was most likely this game’s version of the Dark World, and Zelda hopping into a portal at the very end of the trailer confirms it. We also see shadow enemies entering Hyrule through these rifts, which will likely prove to be some of the game’s tougher combat scenarios. The Zelda series has a history of Dark Worlds, and it will be fun to see what unique spin Echoes of Wisdom puts on the concept. Our glimpse of the Dark World in the announcement trailer showed Zelda quickly maneuvering through obstacles as the rift chased her, so maybe these sections will require quick thinking like Skyward Sword’s Silent Realms.
Have you ever aimed your bow and arrow at a Hylian in Tears of the Kingdom? Well, they don’t really like it, as they cower in fear at Link’s unpredictable behavior. Those NPC reactions appear to be intact in Echoes of Wisdom too, as a Gerudo guard reacts in shock when Zelda summons a bed out of thin air right next to her. To be fair, I’d be pretty surprised if that happened right next to me, too.
Those are the major takeaways from the new The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer, which launches September 26 alongside a special edition Nintendo Switch Lite. Fans are already theorizing about where Echoes of Wisdom takes place on the messy Zelda timeline and how Link fits into it all, while others are just excited to get violent with all the Echoes Zelda will have at her disposal. What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments.
Logan Plant is IGN’s Database Manager, Playlist Editor, and Super Ninfriendo on Nintendo Voice Chat. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
