We more or less woke up to another one of those out of nowhere Nintendo Direct uploads today, and you’ve probably already seen many of the individualized headlines. The language announcing the presentation noted that this is the final “Partner Showcase” of 2020, therefore sealing the rest of the year in terms of Nintendo’s third-party output. Will there be another first-party Direct? Who knows! But for now, here’s a breakdown of all the news from this morning.
The presentation started with Square Enix’s Bravely Default II, a game that was until now still slated for a 2020 release. Considering the lack of news on the title until now, I doubt anyone expected it to stay that way. The new release date is February 26, 2021, and a new trailer expanding on the game’s story was released. The presentation also noted that new difficulty and control options are being implemented after demo feedback, and a YouTube video detailing further changes from over 20,000 player surveys will be uploaded soon.
Multiple third-party games were announced for 2021, including Surviving the Aftermath from Paradox Interactive, a new Switch port of Griftlands (set for a summer window), and Tropico 6 landing in just a few weeks on November 6. Ubisoft’s Immortals: Fenyx Rising was also confirmed with a launch date in parity with the other versions, making that a December 3 launch for every platform.
XSEED/Marvelous had a big chunk of the presentation, announcing the next entry in the Story of Seasons (formerly Harvest Moon), called Pioneers of Olive Town. We saw footage of greatly expanded farming and gathering activities, and a release date for March 23, 2021 has been set. No More Heroes III, recently delayed to 2021, premiered a new trailer providing details on the gameplay and more importantly, scenario of this overdue sequel. And to top it all off, HD ports of the first two games were shadow-dropped on the eShop!
Hal Laboratory showed up, revealing that a new version of its adorable mobile game Part-Time UFO is also out on Switch today, and it has new features including local co-op. Nintendo also leveraged its partnership with Koei Tecmo to show off Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, dropping a demo that will let players transfer save data to the full version.
Perhaps the most shocking news of the Partner Showcase is that AAA games Hitman 3 and Control: Ultimate Edition are coming to Switch and out today respectively. If you’re wondering how the heck they’ll run, both of them are cloud-based, meaning under optimal conditions the full games will be available without visual or performance compromises. You just have to be connected to the Internet of course.
That’s really all for now! That Bakugan game showed up but just to be promoted some more, since we already know just about everything there is to know about that one. Otherwise, there’s plenty of new content available today on the Switch, so Nintendo fans have a lot of interesting new stuff to check out. If another surprise Direct happens, and at this point we almost expect it, we’ll let you know.
What did you think of the presentation? Anything stand out in particular? Let us know over at the Prima Games Facebook and Twitter channels!
