PAX West Indies 2019 (Final) – feat. ‘Indivisible’, ‘Shovel Knight Dig’, and more

After plenty of PAX coverage, I’ve finally got the last of the indies out of the way! There were too many good games to cover this year; hopefully you were able to find a few that caught your eye!

Indivisible

Indivisible is a game that, at this point, needs no introduction. From the creators of Skullgirls comes a new gorgeously 2.5D-animated game that seeks to bring back the gameplay popularized by Valkyrie Profile. After a successful crowdfunding campaign back in 2015, Indivisible will finally be releasing this October, and it’s shaping up to be worth the wait.

A pastiche of Southeast Asian mythologies, Indivisible’s story follows Ajna, a girl who sets out on an epic adventure to discover the origins of her mysterious powers. She’s joined by a colorful cast of heroes, each of whom possesses unique abilities that will help her both on and off the battlefield. Lab Zero’s signature 2D animation shines even brighter against a vividly designed 3D backdrop. Ajna’s world comes to life in a stunning array of colors and motion as you explore extensively detailed vistas and delve into fast-paced action-RPG combat.

With Skullgirls under their belt, developer Lab Zero is no stranger to game polish. The team brings back their fluidly stylish sense of design with a game that just feels good to play. While there are bits of platforming here and there, the real meat behind Indivisible lies in the combat.

True to Lab Zero’s fighting-game background, Indivisible calls for fast-paced strategic button-mashing as you control four characters in battle. A combination of button inputs, stick directions, and proper timing makes all the difference between hacking away at your enemy and truly comboing them down for big damage. You can’t just randomly button-mash, however. Each character has limited actions on your “turn”, so you need to be judicious with how you fight.

This game looks and feels pretty incredible; the four years in-development have clearly been well spent. With their release right around the corner, Indivisible is shaping up to be one of 2019’s most anticipated releases, an accolade that’s well-earned.

Bravery Network Online

If there’s one thing that Pokemon shares in common with Smash Bros., it’s that the competitive community has evolved far beyond the original scope. Pokemon Showdown, a browser-based Pokemon combat simulator, developed a strong following of players who wanted to do away with the fluff of catching and training to focus purely on the battles. Bravery Network Online is the result of a hardcore Showdown fan looking to to take the game even further that that.

Bravery Network Online is stylishly flashy, with an aesthetic that perfectly suits the punchy combat. Players pick from a pool of combatants, each with their own set of unique moves and stats. One of the big differences between BNO and Pokemon is the lack of type-effectiveness. Strengths and weaknesses are instead based around more of a binary “type” system of physical vs. technical, which still manages to keep the strategy of Pokemon types without their cumbersome granularity.

The other key difference in BNO’s combat is the “Flourish” mechanic. As your fights progress, you build up charges that can be stockpiled and used to augment existing abilities. These added bonuses might come in form of extra damage, higher hit rates, self-heals, etc. While BNO is undoubtedly built on the Pokemon framework, it’s different in all the right places to make it stand out as an evolution to the decades old franchise, rather than a copy of it.

Shovel Knight DIG

Ya know him. Ya dig him. It’s Shovel Knight, baby.

The Shovel Knight series has been the darling of the indie gaming scene ever since he first dug his way into our hearts more than five years. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the stellar gameplay, inspired by games like Mega Man and Ducktales, Shovel Knight himself is a helluva mascot. His striking design is up there with the best of them, and Yacht Club’s sense of style and color come back in spades with Shovel Knight Dig.

Unlike previous games in the Shovel Knight franchise, Shovel Knight Dig focuses on vertical movement rather than horizontal. The name says it all: your primary objective is to dig down, collecting treasure and smiting your enemies along the way. Skillful platforming is still required, but the inclusion of dirt blocks in Dig makes for some neat twists on the traditional platforming action. If Shovel Knight is adjacent to a dirt block, you can tap the “dig” button to rapidly shovel through blocks in one of the four cardinal directions.

The freestyle digging mechanics mesh wonderfully with the traditional action platforming. Yacht Club is a master of gamefeel design, with every step, every jump, every swipe of the shovel flowing smoothly from one input to the next. Shovel Knight Dig speeds up the pacing with enemies and environmental hazards that actively chase you down. Once you get into the rhythm of the mechanics though, you’ll find that digging comes just as easily as breathing.

Journey to the Savage Planet

Part No Man’s Sky, part Aperture Science, Journey to the Savage Planet has players embark on an intergalactic journey at great peril to their own wellbeing. You take on the role of an employee at Kindred Aerospace, rated 4th Best Interstellar Exploration Company, who has been dropped off on an uncharted planet in the faraway recesses of the galaxy. Either solo or with a friend, you’ll venture out into this savage wilderness and tame it for the benefit of all humanity (and a paycheck).

While it’s an FPS, combat takes a bit of a backseat in Journey to the Savage Planet. The demo at PAX featured two different enemy types, small rotund birds and flying electric jellyfishes, that acted more as environmental hazards than real threats. Savage Planet’s primary focus was on exploring, and the game gives you plenty of tools to do that. Set in a colorfully lush alien world, you run, jump, and zipline all across a wide expansive map as you chart out the unknown terrain. Fans of the Metroid Prime series will also enjoy the “scan” mechanic, which allows players to take a deep dive into their surroundings to uncover more about them.

Journey to the Savage Planet has a distinctly goofy feel to it that’s embodied in much of the game’s presentation. Your employer, Kindred Aerospace, makes a point of assuring you that you (and they) are galactic pioneers, charting out a course for humanity. Never mind the shoddy equipment, thinly veiled questionable business practices, or utter disdain for native flora and fauna. Journey to the Savage Planet also features co-op play, so you can trample on this lovely alien world with your friends!