Many of you not be aware that a long while back, I started playing my first game starring a popular fourth-party character: King of the Kaiju and atomic-powered dinosaur, Godzilla. I did a full playthrough of Godzilla: Unleashed for the Wii, going through the game, getting every possible secret (arenas, concepts, unlockable Kaiju), the whole kit and kaboodle. Eventually, it inspired me to make a then-untitled Godzilla game, after a few other faillures, which developed into an Unleashed-style fighting game with several new Kaiju changing factions, a brand-new faction (not to mention), and several new mid-battle maneuvers inspired by both Injustice and the Batman: Arkham games.
This DirectCast (and come next showcase, #surpriseannouncement) will be covering Godzilla: World War III - the all-out assault between Kaiju, humanity and the rogue alien invaders (the Vortaak).
The Story[]
The story takes us all the way back to the origins of ancient Japan. It all started when the first known Kaiju, the 8-headed Hydra known simply as Orochi, terrorized the ancestors of modern Japan. Then a brave warrior (known as the Sun Warrior) defeated the massive beast and as a result, the 8 heads spawned a different Elemental Kaiju for each head:
- Varan, Demon of the Air.
- Baragon, Beast of the Earth.
- Shiigan, Blade of Lightning.
- Vagnosaurus, Creature of Venom.
- Balkzardan, Being of the Light.
- Jyaramu, the Sentinel of Shadow.
- Barugaron, Beast of Fire.
- and Manda, the classic but Anceint sea serpent.
After going their separate ways, the spawn of Orochi weren't heard of since then, but the trails they left, and the bloody corpse of their "father" unknowingly unleashed a mystical energy across the Earth, which seeded the potential for more Kaiju to pop up across the planet.
Fast forward to about 5000 years after the death of Orochi, and it's 2020. Year of advanced technology, immense defensive grids in the world, and a couple effective world meetings; Kaiju young and old have sprung up everywhere. Mothra and Battra, the Yin and Yang of the natural world; Destoroyah and Biollante, abominations of science; Gigan and Megalon, alien invaders from beyond the solar system. But none are more feared than Godzilla - a primal oceanic beast mutated by nuclear bombs exploding in the Pacific; he's had an elaborate love/hate relationship with the world - he saves humanity on multiple occasions, but in the end, humanity always tries to kill him, and he hates them for it. But as the old saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Which is always the case on more than one occasion. An extradimensional alien race, known as the Vortaak, have tried to invade with their own monsters multiple times with multiple different approaches; but in the end, Godzilla brings them down, with some help from humanity.
This time, though, the Vortaak are back once again, and using special metagenetic technology developed from SpaceGodzilla's crystal plague, they singled out and took control of the Ancients; and to raise distrust of Kaiju, they're having the Ancients wreck up civilizations and stir up trouble across the world. But someone else has been watching the Vortaak's efforts with extreme patience; and he's more than ready to snare control of the situation.
That's all I'll divulge on the story for now, aside from this: Godzilla will be, indeed, leading the charge on the Vortaak.
The Gameplay[]
So, a lot of you might be aware of the different fighting games out there having different styles of playing, but World War III has its own formula, akin to Unleashed before it; it has the monsters unleashing punches, kicks, vicious attacks, all of them having strong variants, ranged attacks (beams, shots, and other methods), grabbing (following up with a throw), and various others (it varies between Kaiju).
WWIII has all that, plus a few new techniques that are available to most Kaiju:
- Monument Maneuvers - For every arena (city), there's a large building (or monument) for which it's known. That building is key for these maneuvers, which are akin to the takedowns from the Batman: Arkham games. When a Kaiju gets its opponent near these buildings, they can use them in a special attack that causes massive damage, but destroys the monument in the process. Destructive fun.
- Special Trait - To separate each Kaiju from the other, I've added a special trait to each of them. This gives them playability in all their own rights. For example, Godzilla can temporarily become "Awakened Godzilla" in which he supercharges himself with atomic energy and becomes very powerful (at least 2x the normal for him). I've made sure that each Kaiju has a defining ability to set them apart from the rest of them (aside from stats).
And those are just the first ones I've come up with. There's plenty more left to come, but they'll come over time.
The Factions[]
As is with the last game, the Kaiju are divided into factions, each one with a different loyalty and different goal and (with some exceptions) different origins; the factions known are the following:
- The Earth Defenders: The group of Kaiju that are dedicated to preserving their home planet, its inhabitants and nature. Headed by the de facto leader Godzilla, they stand against the Aliens and Mutants and other enemies of mankind.
- The Global Defense Force: This group of robotic Kaiju are mankind's answer to the monsters; each notably different in various ways, these robots are gigantic mechanoids controlled by humans. The roster includes the following: Kiryu (better known as Mechagodzilla 3), SuperMechagodzilla (the more heavily-armed of the two), MOGUERA (Mankind's first attempt at a mechanoid Kaiju), Jet Jaguar (an Ultraman-inspired robot that helped Godzilla fight Megalon), Mechani-Kong (Man's answer to the mighty King Kong) and Mecha King Ghidorah MK-II (A lighter, fully mechanical and one-headed version of the alien monster).
- The Alien Forces: A group of Kaiju that the Vortaak use in their conquest of worlds; though not all of them are Vortaakian in origin, they are all totally loyal to the Vortaak as weapons of war. Led by Gigan and King Ghidorah in the field, this faction is bent on conquest of Earth, with some help from the mind-controlled Ancients.
- The Rogue Mutants: A rather-large collection of Kaiju that go about destroying Earth with their own agenda. The Mutants have various origins, various goals, and answer to no one. They have no leader because they follow their own mission. They're the dangerous loose cannons the GDF worries about, and the GDF are right to be.
- The Benevolent Ancients: The spawn of Orochi, the Ancients slumbered for years, until the last Vortaak invasion + the Crystal plague woke them up from their 4999-year-long sleep. The Vortaak are exploiting these ancient Kaiju, using special Crystals to control their minds and cause humanity to distrust the monsters. However, the Vortaak are completely clueless that, when they're not looking, someone else is pulling the strings of their own personal puppets, and that someone is planning on resurrecting Orochi to obtain his ultimate goal. But enough about that.
There are 5 whole factions of Kaiju, each set at each other's throat. And you guys might guess what that means: an all-out global smackdown that will cost billions upon billions of property damage, and leave only one side standing.
In Conclusion[]
The 5 sides set at each other's throats are ready for battle, but there could be a few twists here and there.
That's all I'm willing to cover for now, but be sure to catch Godzilla: World War III at the next showcase.
Guess who, fanboys?
05:26, February 18, 2017 (UTC)