Reflections on the Upcoming E3

    The past few months have not been kind to gamers worldwide. The video game industry was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and as a result news has slowed to a trickle. Games in development hell have rotted away with no updates as to their statuses, while new game announcements have been scarce. But all that can and should change with the welcome return of E3 on June 12, a mere nine days away. E3 was sadly and conspicuously absent last year, also because of the coronavirus pandemic (though one must wonder why a digital event could not have been arranged as is being done this year), but it makes its glorious return this year, albeit in digital form. The conference boasts an impressive lineup a lineup, with several heavy hitters from the East participating, and a few from the West as well: Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and Capcom representing Japan, Ubisoft representing France, and Microsoft (including their new subsidiary Bethesda), Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros. (ostensibly a film production studio), and Verizon representing the United States. Notably absent are EA, Sony, and Konami. Before this E3 I had no idea Verizon was in any way involved with video games, but perhaps the company is using this E3 as an opportunity to stealthily (or not so stealthily) break into the industry, to provide it with some much-needed healthy competition. If KFC can make a video game console (which I suppose remains to be seen), then why can't a telecommunications company have a presence at E3?

A screenshot of the home page of the E3 2021 website. (Verizon logo highlight added).

    All levity aside, I'm hoping for a good E3 this year. There are many previously announced games without release dates whose presences are sorely desired at it, and since developed societies the globe over have somewhat regained their footing after shooting themselves in the foot with the hullabaloo over COVID-19, I figure that E3 2021 is a great opportunity for developers to provide updates on said games. It has been long enough since these games were announced and since developers adjusted to pandemic work guidelines that they certainly are due for an update. I'm speaking of games like Breath of the Wild's sequel, Elden Ring, Bayonetta 3, and Metroid Prime 4. Even if I don't care about all of these games, their fans most certainly deserve some news. Since I mostly care about Japanese video games, I won't be commenting on my hopes for the Western companies' press conferences, because I don't have any.

    Without further ado, I now present my hopes for E3 2021, listed by the respected companies each "hope" is associated with. Note that I don't expect all of these to occur, which is why they are hopes and not expectations. But a man can dream, can't he?

1. Bandai Namco
• Hopes: Elden Ring update and release date, plus a new FromSoftware game announcement. At the end of 2018, company president and gaming overlord Hidetaka Miyazaki confirmed that FromSoftware was developing two new unannounced games alongside the then-unreleased Sekiro. (Source here: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/from-software-sekiro-two-games-dark-souls-bloodborne). One of these games was revealed to be Elden Ring at E3 2019. The other has not been announced yet. I hope that this E3 will see its reveal. There is a good chance that it will not be published by Bandai Namco, but I'm categorizing it with said company, because it published all three Dark Souls games outside of Japan and is publishing Elden Ring as well (it also published Demon's Souls in PAL regions).
2. Nintendo
• Hopes: Breath of the Wild 2 reveal and release date, Pikmin 4 announcement and release date, plus Monolith Soft's (a Nintendo-owned studio) medieval fantasy game announcement. I personally thought Breath of the Wild was a good game, a 7/10. I didn't think it was the masterpiece that many people claimed it was, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And thus I'm interested in its sequel. As for Pikmin, well, I played Pikmin 3 many years ago and liked it a lot, so I'm most definitely interested in a new installment in the franchise. Shigeru Miyamoto last teased Pikmin 4 in July 2017, and sadly, nothing has been said about the game since. Maybe this year the game will finally get its time in the spotlight. And as regards Monolith Soft's game, for the past few years, Monolith Soft's website has contained a recruitment page for a new project, alongside some concept art. (This page can be accessed here: https://www.monolithsoft.co.jp/recruit/special/). While this project may at first glance appear to be Breath of the Wild's sequel (since Monolith Soft co-developed BotW with Nintendo), there is a separate listing for a Zelda project on the website, indicating that the two games are separate. Although nothing is known about the game yet, its concept art looks cool, so I am eager to learn more about it.
3. Sega
• Hopes: Persona 6 announcement, Project Re Fantasy reveal. Project Re Fantasy is an RPG that was announced by Atlus (which is owned by Sega) at the end of 2016 and has received almost no coverage by the developer since. At the end of 2020 its director claimed that he would like to make its reveal in 2021, so I hope that finally happens at E3 this year. But, we might be kept waiting yet. Regardless, I'm interested in the game due to its excellent concept art and high-caliber production team. The game is being developed by the core team of director Katsura Hashino, artist Shigenori Soejima, and composer Shoji Meguro, the group of men responsible for Persona 3, 4, and 5, so if nothing else, the game will at least likely have good art and character design and good music. Project Re Fantasy's teaser website can be accessed at rpg.jp, but only in Japanese.
4. Square Enix
• Hopes: Final Fantasy XVI update and release date, Babylon's Fall update, reveal of Yoko Taro's two new games. I like Final Fantasy (although the series has really gone down the gutter in recent years), so a new entry in the series is assuredly going to pique my interest. (If XVI sucks, though, I might give up on this franchise ever being good again.) Babylon's Fall looks pretty neat from the trailers released thus far, and PlatinumGames is reputedly great at developing action games, so this game has my attention. Square Enix has already confirmed that Babylon's Fall will receive an update at E3 this year, so that doesn't really count as a hope, but I'm including it here anyway. As for Yoko Taro's new games, at the end of 2020, his producer and buddy Yosuke Saito stated that they together were working on not one but two new games (source here: http://firesanctuary.com/blog/2020/12/31/yoko-taro-is-working-on-2-new-games/), neither of which has been revealed yet, so I'm waiting with bated breath to see what these new games are. Every *real* game (I'm not including mobile games) Yoko Taro makes is interesting, so whatever he comes up with will likely be worth checking out.

I'm looking forward to seeing how my hopes pan out. Maybe there will be a few pleasant surprises at this E3. Only time will tell. After E3 concludes I will be writing a post detailing my thoughts on the event, so please look forward to it. Until then.

EDIT: I also would like to see Nintendo show off a new Fire Emblem game at their conference. The latest Fire Emblem game was released in 2019, and Fire Emblem games typically follow each other within two or three years, so I think a new one ought to be coming out soon.