Sunday at the show sees us revisiting some games we saw last year as well as grabbing a few new ones to look at as well.
Regalia: Of Men And Monarchs (PC)
I love a good tactics RPG and they’re not really something that you see that often nowadays, particularly outside of handhelds. Regalia: Of Men And Monarchs aims to change that by offering a deep premium tactics experience for the PC and PS4 (As well as the Vita). The game first debuted on Kickstarter and quickly raised double what the developer was asking, smashing through every stretch goal along the way.
While I only got to experience a combat segment the developers have loaded a hefty amount onto their plate and are currently planning to include some 4X elements such as settlement management as well as a relationship manager similar to what you might see in a Persona game.
The game already looks remarkably polished, featuring tons of great looking art and an already very deep battle system. During my play I noticed what I might describe as small balance issues that kind of threw off the flow of combat, but certainly nothing game breaking. Beyond that the devs seemed very receptive to feedback so I think this will be a smart one to keep an eye on.
Hob (PC, Xbox One, PS4)
When you play Hob it’s hard to believe that its release date is still so far away. An undetermined release date no less. We spoke pretty extensively about the Torchlight dev’s new project last year and seeing it again I was struck by how little had visibly changed during that period.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, and I’m not saying the team isn’t working very hard on the game’s content. But I will say that it has a very nice sense of completion to it already in its current state.
This is definitely going to be a game to watch when it releases next year. You can read Lucio’s more thorough write up from last year for specifics, but I’m confident this will make a nice splash when it’s finally released.
Mekazoo (PC, Xbox One, PS4)
This is year two seeing Mekazoo at the show and much like Hob there’s not a lot of huge differences to latch onto. I spent some time in the game’s co-op mode and still came away liking the unique cooperative gameplay.
Mekazoo’s co-op is unique in that both players are never in control at the same time. Instead one player will be in control while the other player will have to pay close attention and wait for the right moment to wrestle away control and use their animal’s own unique powers. It’s a system that requires quite a bit of communication and also has a high potential to lead to griefing so it’s no surprise that this will be a local multiplayer only title.
The characters aren’t particularly charming or exciting, but what it lacks in charisma it more than makes up for in its gameplay. If you enjoy platformers, especially high speed ones you should definitely check out Mekazoo when it releases later this year.
Super Senso (Mobile)
As I mentioned earlier the world isn’t exactly teeming with tactics RPGs. I enjoy the genre, but I don’t typically see them as big money makers, and I especially don’t see them as mobile F2P titles. TURBO Games is aiming to change that with their upcoming release, Super Senso.
The game largely takes inspiration from Advance Wars, taking the strategic ideologies of the best-selling Nintendo title and moving it onto your phone. The game is aiming for a F2P model paired with a ranking system so that people who do decide to make purchases theoretically won’t meet up (and subsequently destroy) newer players who are avoiding paying anything for the game.
The brief demo I saw was only running on tablets but TURBO’s Sr. Director of Biz Dev, Ray Bautista, mentioned that the game would indeed be coming to phones as well, although truly competitive players will likely prefer the bigger screen.
If the idea of a tactics RPG on your phone sounds appealing to you, you should be able to get your hands on this baby before the year ends.
