The Legend of Zelda series timeline has recently been updated to include Breath of the Wild, but it’s not as revelatory as you might think.
Nintendo’s Japanese website has been updated with the new timeline, and Breath of the Wild sits at the end, unconnected to any of the other three timelines. In an interview with Famitsu, (translated by Siliconera), Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi says exactly which timeline it rounds out is “up to the player’s imagination.”
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Dead Cells is one of the most satisfying action games I’ve ever played. It takes the progression system of a Metroidvania and transforms it into a procedurally generated action roguelite with a steep but conquerable difficulty curve. Dead Cells delivers on everything from its fast and intensely gratifying, free-flowing combat to its wide variety of interesting weapons and upgrades.
In Dead Cells, you fight your way through an ever-changing labyrinth of levels, all of which are accompanied by tense but rewarding boss fights. Its world starts off somewhat linear, but eventually opens up with multiple branching paths of different areas you can explore, all while you progress towards unlocking new weapons and abilities. You’re almost guaranteed to not make it all the way through on every run. You will die. But as your efforts lead you to blueprints for new gear or a permanent ability rune, it makes it all worth your while — even if you’re sure that death is waiting just around the corner.
Tucked away in a long-forgotten prison lies a corpse. From time to time, a sticky mass of green goo slips into the cell and gives the body a burst of life. Stomping forward, the armored mass of carrion charges through zombies and hordes of undead on a vain quest to find the way out. Fans of Dark Souls will notice… more than a few similarities, for sure, but this particular outing isn’t what it appears to be.
Dead Cells is a fascinating amalgam of several of today’s most popular indie genres. It juggles elements of tough-as-nails action games and Metroid-inspired exploration platformers, with the procedurally generated levels and random item allotments found in roguelikes. It’s impressive how it all comes together without a hitch, especially given that the persistent character growth found in games like Dark Souls or Metroid squarely conflicts with the randomized resets emblematic of Rogue-inspired games.
The balance struck here is one of unlocked opportunities. Each time your avatar stirs back to life, you’re given a fresh chance to press through the stages. You encounter them sequentially, so you have an idea of what to expect, but your choices in each will determine your ultimate path. So, for example, while the first stage is always the Prisoner’s Quarters, your next hop could be the Promenade of the Condemned or the Toxic Sewers. At first, only the former will be available. But, in time, you’ll earn runes that confer permanent changes and open up new routes.
So, while some roguelikes and even Dark Souls could, in theory, be completed in one run without dying, that (so far as we’ve found) can’t happen here. You must progress, die, and then restart to worm your way through the different routes, collecting critical upgrades that give you even more options.
Along the way, of course, you’ll have a shuffling inventory with new weapons and skills found in chests or shops. You can also pick up stat upgrades that you lose upon death as well as “cells,” which, if you survive your current stage, can be banked for unlocking rare items that will be added to your potential gear lottery pool and permanent bonuses like additional healing items.
Besides the inventory and stage shuffling, combat and platforming are the most critical aspects for you to master. And while Dead Cells executes on all of its mechanics, these two shine brightest. For starters, traversing levels is a smooth, quick process once you’ve got the basic feel for it. Your movement is precise, with just enough forgiveness to make exacting jumps feel demanding, yet achievable. And this meshes seamlessly with the action.
Enemies will respond to your presence in different ways. Some are unable to see you or react unless you’re on their platform and in their direct line of sight, while others will lob grenades at you from across a gap or through platforms, but can’t attack directly. Your goal is to read the screen and understand the different abilities of each enemy type, and to use that information to strategize and execute your optimal approach.
Countless other variables such as the presence of doors (which can be opened slowly for a stealth attack or kicked in for a stunning blow) work together to mix things up. Toxic pools, spiked floors, etc. all come together to give the right mix of obstacles and challenging foes. This also plays well with Dead Cells’ overall look and tone. Each enemy glows a bit and has a different color scheme and silhouette. The same is true for the stages themselves. Together, these easily identifiable coding systems make it intuitive to read the room and remain focused on the ludicrously quick combat without losing sight of your next target.
That’s especially critical because of the zippy pace of bouts, too. Most of the time, you’ll have two weapons or a weapon and a shield. This, combined with jumping and dodging, forms the core of your skill set. Once you get the hang of it all, you can effortlessly combine attacks and dodges, and, for instance, freeze an enemy with a spell before rolling behind them and unloading with a quick set of slashes. All of this seems like a chaotic mess at first. And it is–to a degree. Each piece of the combat puzzle is introduced gradually, so you very naturally learn how it fits into the larger picture.
Your nascent exploration through the Prisoner’s Quarters and other early-game maps may take around 10 minutes during your first few trips. It feels agonizing, too. You are vulnerable, largely powerless, and unfamiliar with your very dangerous surroundings. So much is left unexplained at the outset that the choice to just go and worry about the rest later comes as second-nature. Still, the going isn’t easy and you’ll struggle. At least at first.
But each round gives you a different set of toys to play with. The stage will change each time. One route comes and goes, perhaps a new treasure or den of foes takes its place. But that doesn’t really matter. The Prisoner’s Quarters, while unique with every run, keeps to a certain, persistent theme. The wistful music and basic ideas are the same. Through repetition, you earn not rote memorization of layouts, but the ability to take whatever weapons you get for that run and utilize them to their fullest. In short order, what took 10 minutes at the start takes 30 seconds once you’ve found your bearings.
What doesn’t always quite workout the same way, though, are the latter areas. Fewer opportunities to practice with tougher enemies means that they never quite develop the same level of familiarity. It keeps every attempt feeling tense and exciting, but it can also lead to some frustration. Spending a whole run trying to make it to one spot only to die and have to restart a 15-minute stretch of play again can be grating, but the backstop there is the permanent upgrades.
Even if you can’t make it all that far, Prisoner’s Quarters is simple enough that you’ll have plenty of opportunities to “bank” cells for the aforementioned upgrades. That gives you a sense of constant progress, even when you bomb a run. In fact, the only real issue with the adventure is that some of the better upgrades can take substantially longer than they should. It stalls progress in the mid-game a bit and can lead to a feeling of grinding your wheels. Besides that, though, Dead Cells is a phenomenal effort to blend together some very disparate genres into a tight, cohesive whole. It’s one of the better examples of how to remix ideas without losing their individual strengths.
A little cross-promotional effort between the social media accounts for Octopath Traveler and the Bravely Default series may hint at something new on the way. Following a vague teaser image, the company has now made its message more explicit and promised an announcement for something to do with the Bravely series.
The original artwork (below) shows the eight protagonists with a banner thanking fans for hitting the million mark. It didn’t take long for fans to notice that the shape of the artwork resembled the cover artwork of the original Bravely Default: Flying Fairy–the banner makes up her wing. A new piece of art from the Japanese Bravely Twitter account makes the connection perfectly clear, and asks fans to “look forward to the next Square Enix 11 BD game.” The account name has been changed to “Bravely” with a set of five blank spaces after it.
That would be enough room for “Bravely Third,” which would follow the naming convention from the sequel Bravely Second. The subtitle is one aspect to watch as the impending announcement approaches, as both “Flying Fairy” and “End Layer” contained hidden messages about their respective games.
The connection makes sense. Producers Masashi Takahashi and Tomoya Asano moved on to Project Octopath Traveler–its original codename–after finishing Bravely Second. Octopath also carries some similarities from the Bravely series, like the ability to save up attacks and unleash several in one turn. It may be that it’s teasing a full sequel like Bravely Third, or the two games could be coming together for some kind of crossover event or DLC.
Best Buy has posted its latest weekly ad, which means PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch owners can peruse a new set of gaming deals on a wide range of titles both new and old. This week’s sale has a little something for everyone, with strong showings in particular from Ubisoft and Bethesda. Let’s dive in.
It only came out in June, but The Crew 2 is already on sale for $42. It’s a versatile open-world racing game that lets you speed across the entire U.S. in an array of vehicles. The twist is that you can swap instantly between cars, airplanes, and boats. Other relatively recent discounted games include Assassin’s Creed Origins for $30 and Call of Duty: WWII Gold Edtion for $40.
The Xbox One exclusives Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Recore are on clearance for $5 each. That’s a killer deal–if you can find them in stock. Xbox One owners can also save $20 on a Turtle Beach Stealth 700 wireless headset, bringing the price down to $130.
The RPG remaster Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age has gotten a permanent price drop down to $20. The action-RPG Vampyr is permanently marked down to $40. And in case you want to fill your head with the stuff of nightmares, you can pick up The Evil Within 2 for $25.
Finally, it’s official: preseason football has begun. If you’re willing to let go of your copy of Madden NFL 18, you can trade it in to Best Buy to get a $10-off coupon for Madden NFL 19. The coupon stacks on top of the game’s trade-in value, lightening the hit to your wallet for this year’s installment.
We have more highlights of Best Buy’s gaming deals below. And if that’s not enough for you, you can check out the full list of deals here.
Margot Robbie, best known for her roles as Harley Quinn and Tonya Harding, has revealed the first look of her as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Shared via Instagram, Robbie looks the part of Tate in the late ’60s. She’s wearing a black turtleneck, a short white skirt and fittingly tall go-go boots in front of an industrial door. If there were any doubt that this is Robbie as Tate, the hashtag #OnceUponATimeInHollywood sealed the deal.
In the midst of customer dissatisfaction, MoviePass announced Monday that it will keep their subscription price at $9.95, but will now have limitations on the number of movies members can see, according to Variety.
Starting Aug. 15, MoviePass customers will have their unlimited service cut to the offering of only three movies per month. The company will also offer subscribers up to a $5 discount on any additional tickets they purchase.
MoviePass said in a press release that only 15% of its members see four or more movies per month, so they expect the new subscription model will have no impact whatsoever on over 85% of their subscribers.
It’s the first episode of New Releases in August proper, which means Madden NFL 19 is here to represent the football preseason. Joining it on the field is Dead Cells, which is finally leaving Early Access, along with another helping of kitchen chaos in Overcooked 2. Nintendo Switch gets its own port of Okami HD, and Monster Hunter World finally makes the jump to PC. Those are the big games we’ll be playing this week!
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
If you’re looking to scratch that roguelite itch, Dead Cells delivers with a procedurally generated world full of super-tough enemies and bosses. Fortunately, successive runs will net you more gear and abilities to make the trek a little easier. You can also open up shortcuts to quickly get back to whatever trap or enemy felled you before.
Further Reading:
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
Overcooked 2 is cranking up the heat in several ways. You can tackle the new recipes, restaurant themes, and levels with friends, contending with crazy new elements like moving floors, portals, and giant fires. At least the chefs can throw ingredients across the stage now, and you can take a swing at every challenge in online co-op.
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Available on: Switch
The indie darling is coming to yet another platform, and the Switch version comes with the new controls you’d expect. You can use the touch screen or the Joy-Cons to control Amaterasu’s Celestial Brush. Okami HD is also playable in the original 4:3 if you want to change up the visuals.
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Available on: PC
Okami HD isn’t the only port dropping this week. Monster Hunter World finally comes to PC, letting you party up with your Steam friends to take down big beasts with the game’s 14 different weapon styles. It’ll have graphical parity with the PS4 and Xbox One versions at launch, and Capcom says future updates may let you crank up your system to make World look even better than its console cousins.
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Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Another year, another Madden. The newest game sports “real player motion,” which will help your players maneuver much more realistically across the field. It’s also the first one to feature touchdown dances in some time, as the practice was only recently made legal in the NFL again. Longshot story mode is back, and Ultimate Team is getting new 3-on-3 matches and a leaderboard with rewards.
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Next week, New Releases will return with another batch of August games. We’ll take a look at the next World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth, as well as the kickoff of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season. And later in the month, we’ll return to the wild with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.
While comic book legend Todd McFarlane is perhaps best known for the demonic anti-hero Spawn, he also played a vital role in bringing the Spider-Man villain Venom to life. McFarlane worked for Marvel back in the late-’80s, and is credited as the co-creator of Eddie Brock, the character that was the first host for the alien symbiote. McFarlane’s work on The Amazing Spider-Man helped turn Venom from just a scary costume to a fully-formed supervillain, making McFarlane one of the most iconic artist/writers of the era.
With the Venom movie set for release in October, McFarlane took to Facebook to critique the movie’s representation of the character. In a new video, McFarlane is actually quite complimentary about the movie Venom, stating that he thinks it looks “pretty cool.” Nevertheless, McFarlane had a few adjustments to make to the freeze frame of Venom from the latest trailer, and set about making the character look distinctly scarier. Check it out below:
Venom hits theaters on October 5. The movie stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, plus Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, and Woody Harrelson. The new trailer was released week, and it gave us the first look at what appears to be Riot, another symbiote.
In related news, McFarlane is set to make his directorial debut with a movie reboot of Spawn. The film will star Jamie Foxx as the title character, and it will be produced by Blumhouse Films, the company behind Get Out, Paranormal Activity, and the Purge movies. It was also announced last month that Foxx will be joined by Avengers star Jeremy Renner. The film does not yet have a release date but McFarlane has previously stated that he wants it to have a hard-R rating and expects the budget to be between $10-12 million.
