What Is Siliconera Looking Forward To At E3?

Are you excited about E3?  So are we!  Here are the names, games, and trends Siliconera past and current contributors have on the mind going into the big show. Not all of us managed to get our predictions in before the almighty deadline, but most of us are present and accounted for!

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Jenni:  Know what I want to see at E3 this year, as unlikely as it may be? More otome. You heard me. Aksys has finally run out of Hakuoki to put out, unless they pick up the Sweet School Life. (Which I’d totally be fine with, btw.) Idea Factory International is officially a thing. So let’s see some more otome games! Amnesia would be preferred, though I’d love some Diabolik Lovers. Maybe get some Quinrose up in here, and bring in Arabians Doubt or Alice in the Country of Hearts. Make my heart pound, E3 attendees.

Tommy:  Now that everyone has their new consoles out, in general, I hope to see more time dedicated to upcoming games rather than whatever apps or new features they plan to add on their OSes. Hopefully something awesome that’s more than the next entry in an established yearly franchise, though what’s awesome is entirely subjective. For something specific, the one thing I want to hear the most about is Monolith’s X. On a lower priority level is SMT X FE.

Ethan:  I want the 3DS to finally grow into the successor to the DS.  Square Enix teased The World Ends With You 2, I want to see it.  Now that the Lords of Shadow trilogy has concluded, I want some DS style handheld Castlevania goodness.  I want Dragon Quest to be localized again. I want Advance Wars to come back. I want more Golden Sun. I want Final Fantasy that isn’t a made-to-be-ported-to-iOS music game that isn’t as good as Elite Beat Agents anyway.

Nintendo has said that they want this next year to be a harvest year, a year where they leverage the 3DS userbase to sell oodles of software.  There are a ton of successful DS franchises that could make the jump to the next hardware iteration and I want to see all of them.  Where’s the next Final Fantasy Tactics game? Where’s Trauma Center? Where’s the sequel to Starfox Command, which was secretly the best Starfox game ever?

I feel like the 3DS has the Mario games and a great Zelda game, but what made the DS one of the greatest platforms ever was how many B list franchises showed up and thrived.  Now that there are a lot of units out there and hardware sales are slowing, it’s time to release all the high quality games that don’t sell hardware. Hotel Dusk. Ouendan. Metroid Prime Pinball (which was also secretly fantastic). The sky is the limit, and that’s even without Nintendo announcing anything original.

Thomas: Well I’ve always been a pretty big Dragon Quest fan, so if you’re asking me about what I would really love to see at E3, the answer is obvious.  I want to see Dragon Quest VII’s remake on the 3DS get announced for localization. The original game on the PlayStation still lives up as one of the longest JRPGs ever made—taking over 100 hours to complete, and that’s just the main quest—if we count all the side quests, then oh boy! Plus in my opinion, Dragon Quest VII has some of the best art in the series from veteran character designer Akira Toriyama. It is a charming game with a thoroughly long story, and stands as one of the last releases made by developer Heartbeat before their hiatus period. After which Heartbeat key member Manabu Yamana created Genius Sonority.

Now the series has never been as strong here as it is in its homeland, but the past few installments have garnered moderate success, and since the last collaboration between Square Enix and Nintendo—Bravely Default—went off without a hitch, I remain hopeful. Doesn’t hurt that a few years back Nintendo just casually revealed the localization of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 at E3 without any prior warnings, and that we have all those new trademarks that can tie into the Dragon Quest series floating around lately. There’s one trademark in particular that I personally feel can be nothing but Dragon Quest VII’s subtitle.

Here’s hoping to be able to experience the fully 3D version of this game by developer ArtePiazza in the near future.

Laura: What with the recent announcement of Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, I’m pretty excited for anything Pokemon-related. It’s probably much too early for any announcements on OR/AS itself, but there is that fighting game (Pokken?) floating around, but perhaps that’s been pushed back for Hyrule Warriors.  I would love to see something about the Pokemon fighting game, though.

And of course, there’s X. X has looked amazing in all the trailers thus far, and it’d be wonderful to learn more about it. And this comes out of nowhere, but I’m also interested in seeing more about Evolve. The gameplay isn’t anything I’m into, but the concept looks fascinating and I would like to see where it goes.

Yusouf:  E3, E3, E3. Every year E3 is becoming more of a battlefield more than an expo and it’s really interesting to see how the games industry is trying to woo its audience with varying degrees of success.

Being a devout fighting game player, I was quite thrilled when Siliconera found out that Nintendo trademarked the title “Pokkén Fighters” and “Pokkén Tournament” around last year. If there is a good time to unleash it to the world, then E3 definitely is one of the best there is. Aside from that, Nintendo will probably show more of Monolith’s X and Hyrule Warriors.

On Sony’s side, they will probably showcase Destiny and (maybe) Titanfall 2. Also to capitalise on the Souls series’ craze, an improved Deep Down demo and a grand unveiling of From Software’s Project Beast. If we only  get Last Guardian footage and not a demo, I’ll assume it is still far from being finished.

As for Microsoft, there will be a mention of Forza Horizon 2, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a new Gears of War and a demo of Sunset Overdrive. Since Kinect is not mandatory anymore, so I hope Rare will be showing something new that isn’t Kinect-based.

Hayden (Miau Miaut):  My wish is for an E3 where the industry in the West finally admits the visual novel exists. Steins;Gate—let the rest of the world know of it. Find a place for the indie revolution to include the doujins and ELVNs. MangaGamer—don’t just save the sneak peeks at the Innocent Grey family for ComiCon.  And someone step up and rescue Ever 17. I judge a man based on his acceptance of Tsugumi’s end.

Kris:  MICROSOFT: While I could be boring and predict Call of Duty and Halo Quadrilogy or whatever, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that they’ll be showing off some bizarre Japanese games. I say that we see the rumored Platinum exclusive get some onstage time, alongside maybe something from Mistwalker. The Xbox One launches in Japan in September and is pretty much doomed to be a niche console like the 360 over there. I want to see that niche rewarded. Given what we’ve seen of Microsoft’s strategy lately (funding crazy stuff like D4 and Crimson Dragon), I think they do, too.

NINTENDO: I’m pretty sure everyone has quietly agreed that the Wii U finally bringing the fire this year with Smash Bros, Bayonetta 2, and Hyrule Warriors. While I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot that justifies the Wii U’s gamepad, I think E3’s going to have some core-centric games make the system look like a heck of a Super GameCube. I think the inevitable Wii U Zelda is going to get away from the Wind Waker/Twilight Princess art direction dichotomy, and not in a terrifyingly ugly way like Link Between Worlds. I hope we’ll all be [pleasantly surprised/aghast and taken aback] by how different the game seems from what we know.

SONY: Sony has to juggle 3(ish) consoles this E3 and since I’m running out of room, I’m going to shotgun each one.

  • Vita: …not much outside of ports. Maybe the previously announced Gravity Rush 2, and if we’re lucky Type-0 Remastered. I still hold hope in my heart for Phantasy Star Online 2!
  • PS3: If anything, a Persona 5 trailer. Long shot: Yakuza 5 (I want to believe!).
  • PS4: Some lovely third party games like MGSV, The Last Guardian, and Project Beast. A weird assortment of indie, AAA, and B-games that recalls the variety of the PS1 days… and a Devil May Cry 5 tease.

Robert:  This is going to be the most Zelda-heavy E3 to date: this year we will finally see an official announcement for Majora’s Mask 3D, slated for Winter 2014. It will come with a special edition iteration of the midnight-purple 3DS (now in XL) in time for the holidays, or soon thereafter. We’ll get a trailer and name for Zelda Wii U following the hype for Hyrule Warriors, trying to push the realism we saw in the Temple of Time video demo two years back.

Another Metroid game will be revealed and showcase the GamePad as an exploratory device (Scanning!). We see one new IP for the 3DS and WiiU. Finally, Shulk makes it to Smash.

MrSirFeatherFang:  It’s been a while since Konami has done anything with Silent Hill. I would think it’s one of their more well-known franchises and would expect them to have at least some info regarding its status. We got three games in 2012 and since then, no word on anything…

Bandai Namco localizes God Eater 2 for the west. If Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment can be localized… I don’t see why they wouldn’t bring this over.

Capcom reveals Hideaki Itsuno’s (director of Dragon’s Dogma and DMC3) new game. Hopefully after the hit that Dragon’s Dogma was, they’ve got him working on something big.

Jack:  Honestly, there needs to be something new, exciting, and most importantly, actually coming out this year announced at this E3. I’m no good at concrete predictions, but I’ll give it a shot: Nintendo will have some exciting plans for the fall, including a franchise or two people have been clamoring to return. Balloon Fight is back, you heard it here first!

Sony will have a big focus on PS4, but I’m hoping they can squeeze some Vita games in there. Heck, I’ll take just a Vita GAME as long as it looks interesting and isn’t a port of something. Microsoft will announce a new Battletoads and it will be amazing.

For stuff we do know about, I think Kojima’s Phantom Pain trailer featuring “just men descending into madness” will be one of the biggest highlights of the event. Really just Phantom Pain footage in general; I’m finally having time go all in on Ground Zeroes and it lays out a really exciting foundation for the main feature. Beyond that, there needs to be release dates on all kinds of Nintendo stuff like Bayonetta 2, Smash Brothers, X, and seriously, when is Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney coming out in the US?

Dream E3 announcements include Mega Man Legends 3 returning and helmed by Inafune, Yakuza 5 being localized with a release date of tomorrow, and Reggie Fils-Aime revealing himself to have been a cyborg all along.

Caleb:  I’m actually really interested in seeing more in regards to Nintendo’s NFC (well, NFP I guess) figures. I mean, just look at how it worked out for Disney Infinity or Skylanders. I’m looking forward to what Nintendo reveals about these little guys, especially in regards to how they can sync up to big name releases like Smash Bros. or Mario Kart.  Since Nintendo appears to be pursuing a completely different path than those previously mentioned NFC games, it will be interesting to see what the company has to say.

I also want to see how things go down on the monetization side of things. Since the NFC reader is built into the Wii U GamePad, that opens up quite a few choices. I predict that achieving certain goals in various games will make unlockables accessible in other games. For instance,  beating a certain race in Mario Kart could unlock a customization accessory in Smash Bros. Maybe something with character stats as well.

Ishaan:  I think Square Enix will show off their new Deus Ex game at E3 with a vague “2015” release window. Since Final Fantasy XV isn’t going to be at E3, perhaps Square will announce Final Fantasy Type-0? They’ve mentioned the game several times at this point, and I find it hard to believe that they won’t show anything at all from their Japanese division at E3.

On the Nintendo front, I feel X will end up being one of the games that makes heavy use of the Wii U GamePad. We’ll also see some major third-party Nintendo 3DS games from Japan announced for western release. At least one of them will be published by Nintendo.

I also think this will finally be the year that Ubisoft announces Beyond Good & Evil 2 in no uncertain terms for next-gen systems. I suspect we’ll see some sort of concept trailer or tease at E3, but nothing in terms of gameplay, because the game probably isn’t far enough along yet.

Sato: Last year’s E3 was all about the new consoles with Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One, and now that we know what they’re all about, I expect to see things shift more towards the games at this year’s event. Each year, I split things between what I hope to see, and what I expect to see, so let’s start out with the latter.

Capcom didn’t really have much to show for last year, so I expect to see a little more from their side this time around. They stated that Resident Evil 7 won’t be shown at E3, but perhaps they’ll surprise us with something completely unexpected.

Naughty Dog has been through some staff changes, and I’m curious to see how that affects the next installment of their series in Uncharted 4. I really enjoyed the dialogue in past games, but after the recent departure of Amy Hennig, who previously worked as the lead writer and creative director for the series, it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out on their end.

Ah, Square Enix… always high hopes and expectations. I can go on and on about what I hope for, but since we’re talking about expectations, I have to cut it a bit shorter since they just announced that they won’t be showing Kingdom Hearts III or Final Fantasy XV.

However, I’m looking forward to seeing some neat stuff for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s upcoming 2.3 patch. As a fellow adventurer of Eorzea (shout out to the Mog Knights FC on Cactuar!) I’m looking forward to seeing the new job classes and the Gold Saucer. As producer Naoki Yoshida previously stated, they’re looking into adding more non-combat related features, which I feel the game could currently use, so that should be interesting to see, as well.

As far as hopes go, I hope to see a localization announcement for Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest VII? X? Please? Seriously, any title will do (yes, even more of the mobile ones.) I also hope to see some new mind-blowing fighter that surpasses all our expectations (hello, Pokkén Fighters!)

Aung (Drakos Amataras):  Hmmm… I’ve gotten used to culling my own expectations, so I’m not even sure what to expect from E3. Maybe new footage (and hopefully information) on The Phantom Pain?

Food for thought:

Five different people predicted we would see Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III. All five of those predictions were edited out of this post.


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