It’s no secret that I absolutely loved “Xenoblade Chronicles” (2010) on the Wii. It takes a special kind of RPG for me to push everything else aside and dump 100+ hours into sidequests and story (which alone takes up at least 50 hours of your first play-through), but “Chronicles” was gorgeous, well-written and flush with excellent battle systems that they took the time to introduce and incorporate so you wouldn’t be overwhelmed right out of the gates. Your party was full of well-written characters that each had substantial depth and made you care for their individual outcomes and dreams. In the end, the plot jumped a teensy bit off the rails, but overall the narrative helped build the backbone for the most trope-free, fun, innovative and rewarding JRPG to come out in the past ten years. 

 Enter “Xenoblade Chronicles X”, which retains talented writer and designer Tetsuya Takahashi and will again include an open world exploration that can take place on foot or in glorious Mechs. (And… is this a hint of a “Battlestar Galactica”-esque, search for “Home” story that I sense in the narrative?):

In pursuit of their goal for “seamless exploration,” they’ve yet again shown that the sprawling world can be seen across backgrounds of the hugely immersive environments. One of the best aspects of “Xenoblade Chronicles” on the Wii was that, no matter how strapped they were with the Wii’s hardware at the time, they still managed to pull off gorgeous environment art that seemed to reach off into the distance forever (all of which you were able to explore by the game’s end). Did you ever notice that the load times for travel from place to place were almost nonexistent? How did they pull that off on a Wii!?! Seriously!

And, fear not, fans of the Nopon! “Tatsu free at last!” was clearly included for one reason – to let all the true Xenoblade fans know that their love for the fluffy, wing-clad, whimsical race will never die! (I don’t care what the haters say. Riki was one of the best non-human party characters in any JRPG!) 

As a fan of the series, the developers, and especially of RPGs with elegant mech design, I’ll be pre-ordering “Xenoblade Chronicles X” for sure, but we unfortunately still have quite a wait to go through since it’s likely not coming out until late 2015. In the meantime, don’t forget that you can always go back and play through “Xenoblade Chronicles” on your Wii U (with crisper rendering and reduced load times!), and experience it in its full glory. Now, if you’ll excuse me… 

Doublefine Productions and 2 Player Productions have released a retrospecive on “Grim Fandango’ discussing the surprise announcement that it will be coming to PS4 and Vita. The retrospective video was posted to the Doublefine YouTube channel as well as the PlayStation Blog from 2 Player Productions. You can check it out below!

Hi, we’re 2 Player Productions, the documentary team that brought you Penny Arcade: The Series, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, and the Kickstarter-funded Double Fine Adventure! Two years ago, we teamed up with Double Fine Productions to prove that “Adventure Games are not dead!” Well, they’re dead now, but in the way you’ve always wanted them to be! Tim Schafer’s beloved LucasArts classic Grim Fandango is back, and we’ve put together this short retrospective documentary to get you primed for its upcoming release.

The PlayStation YouTube channel has released this teaser for Doom, and is stating on their blog that the game will get a deeper reveal at Quake Con in July. For now, we have a teaser and some hope. Those who purchased “Wolfenstein: New Order” were given beta access to the title when available. Hopefully that will be sooner than later. Trailer below!

“Bloodborne” is one of the few console exclusives shown off by Sony last night that is forming up to be a AAA title. The trailer, while creep, and definitely intriguing didn’t lend much to the story or premise of the game. Luckily, the creators have just put a much more in depth look up on the PlayStation Blog for your edification.

Taking place in an ancient city known as Yharnam, you are playing as a sick villager who has made a pilgrimage to Yharnam in order to be healed. What people don’t know is that while the town is the center for healing, it is also plagued with a unique disease that the inhabitants are battling daily. Your character will have to navigate the streets fighting monsters and demons infected with this disease in order to get help. 

In Bloodborne, the combat is based on intense life-threatening battles.

In order to do that the developer is keeping the strategic roots of “Demon’s Souls” present in the game while adjusting it to be a much more aggressive system.

Photo Via PlayStation

From the beautiful and melancholic architecture to the debris lining the street, Bloodborne will deliver an extremely rich and detailed world, all thanks to the power of the PlayStation 4 system. In addition, the PS4 system has allowed us to have an expanded draw distance, so we can show more of the world at any one time. New lighting effects allow us to add more atmosphere and tension to the game, making the horrifyingly detailed beasts and giant boss enemies you’ll be facing even more frightening.

Photo via: PlayStation Blog

This looks to be one of the more interesting exclusives for the system, and has an eye-catching universe. Horror fans should have a good experience with this one, in case you missed it the trailer is below.

If the gameplay of “Assassin’s Creed Unity” didn’t get you excited enough to preorder the game then this might just push you over the edge. Ubisoft announced details on the collector’s edition and preorder bonuses.

Image from Ubisoft.

As you can see, the collector’s edition doesn’t have a ton on items but, in my opinion, is a quality over quantity situation. The main items are a 16-inch figurine of the main Assassin, Arno, standing on top of gargoyle (he’ll make a nice addition to the top of my shelf). You also get a music box that plays a version of the theme song from “Assassin’s Creed Unity.” In addition you get a copy of the official soundtrack, an art book and two in-game missions: “Killed by Science” and “The Chemical Revolution.”

I didn’t see a price on the assassin’s website but found the set listed at Gamestop for $129.99.

The most unique bonus for preordering though has to be the “Guillotine Spin to Win” game. Every Friday, until the game is released, players can win prizes including trips to Paris, Ubisoft Montreal, Comic-Con; games; clothes and entertainment systems. You can also win additional spins to keep you coming back.

For some extra cash, $60, you can also get a life-size replica of Arno’s “Phantom Blade” for display or to be worn (cosplay anyone). Ubisoft says supplies will be limited and to order it now to guarantee you get one. It “features a functional hidden blade, retractable crossbow arms, and a soft firing dart.”

All in all not a bad collector’s edition; however if you’re looking to pre-order just the regular game keep in mind that where you get the game from will determine what bonus you get. You can see a full list of all the collector’s edition and pre-order bonuses here.

“Assassin’s Creed Unity” will be available October 28, 2014.

Here is Nintendo’s Treehouse Event!

Nintendo’s Digital E3 Event has come and again, and if you missed it, or would rather read, we at Big Shiny Robot! Are going to provide you with a summary of the events.

Nintendo opened with an amazing short that looked like Robot Chicken produced it. Just after they announced their new NFC functioning toys Amiibo’s. These toys will integrate into games through the game pad, provided the game is compatible. So far it will work with “Super Smash Bros.” for WiiU. It was also mentioned that the toys will function with “Mario Kart 8”.

Shortly after they jumped into the first game, “Yoshi’s Woolly World.” slated for 2015 this Yoshi’s Island done in yarn looks to be a lot of fun. Instead of carting physical eggs, you instead have yarn eggs to manipulate the world. The game will have a version of cooperative play with multiple Yoshi’s as well as a slew of levels. They spent a considerable amount of time talking about why yarn was used before moving into their next title.

If you’re familiar with “Super Mario 3d World” then you’ve played the precursor to the upcoming “Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker” slated for Holiday 2014. This game puts you as toad hunting treasure through various levels in a 3d world, against some of the most popular Mario villains.

Next we were treated to more information on the new “Zelda” title which will be completely open world. This will influence the puzzles, combat and problem solving. While this was an awesome display, the game will not be around until 2016 at the earliest, based on what we were shown. Still, it looked incredible.

Hyrule Warriors was given even more details with playable characters of Impa, Link, Zelda and Mydna all with unique powers to use in game. Hopefully the cast will continue to grow as we gain more information. If all goes well the game will also be compatible with Amiibo.

“Kirby and the Rainbow Curse” looks to be a sequel to “Curby’s Canvass Curse” from the DS. This WiiU title looks fun, but I’d rather play a classic style Kirby any day.

Next a new trailer of Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire, this remake looks amazing, especially with the addition of Mega Evolutions for the characters, and the legendaries. November 21, 2014 can’t come soon enough.

Next we saw Xenoblade Chronicles X from Monolith Soft. RPG fans are getting what they need, I’m not so sure on this one.

Next Nintendo decided we needed to see “Mario Maker” for WiiU. This looks amazing since you are able to modify existing Mario levels and challenge yourself, or make them fun. The interface has a lot of “Mario Paint” elements that bring up stacks of nostalgic emotions for me. Let’s hope it keeps growing.

“Splatoon” has an opportunity to be an incredibly fun multi-player WiiU shooter. Hopefully we get to learn about online battling, and a faster release date!

Next Platinum Games came out to discuss “Bayonetta” and “Bayonetta 2”, which is hitting WiiU this holiday season. Provided no punches are pulled this will be the game that the hardcore gamer is looking for. The bundling of the two titles, as well as the cosplay options for Nintendo characters, is definitely worth looking into if you have never played “Bayonetta.”

Finally we were shown Palutena as a playable character for Smash Bros. and there was a potential hint at Dark Pit also being involved.  With this and the Mii being integrated into the Smash Bros world, this stands to be the greatest Smash yet. It is also worth nothing that just after the conference Nintendo released the pricing for the Gameube Controller Bundle which will run $99.99 for a controller and the adapter; Smash fans get ready, the season is coming soon. 

What did you think of the Nintendo conference? Are you rushing out to buy a Wiiu? Are you proud of your purchase? Sound off below!

Out of everything Nintendo showed us today “Hyrule Warriors” got me the most excited. Check out the trailer and let us know who other than “Link” you want to play as most. As for me having “Zelda” defend herself for a change (not counting “Sheik”) will be a nice change of pace.

“Hyrule Warriors” will be released September 26, 2014.

Since everyone else has toys, Nintendo has got to jump on board. The difference is they’ll integrate it across multiple titles and use characters we already know and love. To say that I’m not 100% ready to collect all this stuff would be an out and out lie. Hopefully, the Treehouse event will give us more insight. Check back for the embed for that, until then check out the trailer!

Yoshi is made out of yarn, and it plays like Yoshi’s Island. it is cute cuddly and fun, check it out!