The new Nintendo Direct has come and gone, with a lot of huge news, especially for JRPG fans. There weren’t any earth-shattering reveals, but just about every one of Nintendo’s sprawling fanbases got something to tide them over until the next big game is announced. We’ll run you through the biggest headlines and reveals from this stream.
If you’re looking for news on the new Legend of Zelda game, then check out our article on the newly revealed title Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Fire Emblem Engage - January 20, 2023
It continues to be a good year for Fire Emblem fans. First they saw the reveal and release of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and now a new main-series game is coming our way. You may remember earlier in the year there were some leaked screenshots involving a protagonist with half-blue, half-red hair. It turns out they were spot-on, as they’re the face of Fire Emblem Engage. This seems to be set in the future of a previous Fire Emblem game, with the trailer heavily touting the return of Marth alongside the protagonist. Whether Marth is the only returning character remains to be seen.
Octopath Traveler 2 - February 24, 2023
Just in case that wasn’t enough JRPG action for you, the 2018 game from Square Enix, Octopath Traveler officially has a sequel on the way. It touts eight new protagonists and promises more heavily intertwined stories than the first. Improvements have been made to the path action mechanics too, with each one doing something different depending on the time of day. Exactly how these stories play out remains to be seen, but here are the names of each protagonist (in Octopath order, otherwise why even bother?):
- Osvald the Scholar.
- Castti the Apothecary.
- Throné the Thief.
- Ochette the Hunter.
- Partitio the Merchant.
- Agnea the Dancer.
- Temenos the Cleric.
- Hikari the Warrior.
Splatoon 3 new Splatfest - September 23, 2022
In the first post-launch Splatfest, fans will be entering Splatoon 3 to answer the age-old question, “If you were stranded on a desert island, what one thing would you bring?”. The options are Gear, Grub, or Fun. It starts on September 23 and runs until September 25 at 9pm PDT.
Mario Kart 8 DLC Wave 3 - Holidays 2022
The next wave of the Mario Kart 8 DLC is on its way at some point during the holiday season this year. Two of the eight tracks were shown off on the stream. The first was Merry Mountain, a Christmas-themed track from Mario Kart Tour, and the other is Peach’s Gardens from Mario Kart DS.
Pikmin 4 - 2023
One of the few games that we didn’t get a release date for, Pikmin 4 is a long-awaited entry in the series. Not a whole lot is known about it yet, as the trailer shown was only a small teaser, but Shigeru Miyamoto did mention that the Nintendo Switch allowed for much smoother and simpler controls, which sounds like a good thing.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
