REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A new adventure unlike anything Nintendo has done before will join the ever-expanding Nintendo universe in 2015. At a developer roundtable event on June 11 during the E3 video game conference, Nintendo announced Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The new turn-based action strategy game comes from Intelligent Systems, the developer of the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series.
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is a new take on strategy games inspired by third-person shooters. Like the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars games before it, Code Name S.T.E.A.M. tasks players with planning out strategic moves using a team of soldiers to do battle with enemy forces. But this game throws a wrench into many of the conventions familiar to the genre.
Update: Bumped to the top of the page with more screenshots, art, fact sheet, and boxart.
This information comes from Devil’s Third creator Tomonobu Itagaki, speaking with Joystiq…
“We developed the game up to an early playable version at THQ but then there was the unfortunate end of that company. Then, when we went looking for partners and found Nintendo who really supported my vision. I’m not really sure if it would have been possible ten years ago to be honest, but I’ve had a long relationship with Nintendo going back to the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Once I went independent, I definitely went over to Nintendo to say hello.”
“I like to think of myself as a warrior. There will always be accidents on the battlefield. You have to find ways through those and adapt. The world has been through financial crises in the past few years yet we’ve all found ways to continue on. One thing that’s different from my previous company is my relationship to the people I’m working with. Previously I wasn’t necessarily responsible for hiring and taking care of everyone, but my position is different now and I feel a lot of responsibility for my team.”
“I’m not one to go looking for fights in back alleys. I prefer to find them in a big avenue. That’s why I tried to pick the most major genre I could think of, the modern shooter. That’s what led me to make Devil’s Third.”
“When people play this game I want them to think, ‘What does it mean to live?’ I want them to think about life itself. What does it mean to be alive? What does someone believe in a world like this? We’re all citizens in a very fragile world order, as if it’s made of a glass, that can shatter at any moment.”
– Orochi is summoned by Dogen
– Described as the physical manifestation of shinobi malice
– Was summoned in an incomplete form
– Because of this, parts of its body are initially lacking, compelling it to rebuild itself using the wreckage of destroyed castles to compensate
– Juura is a new enemy spirit
– It takes shape as 2 spheres
– The story behind it entails the spirit falling out of a gigantic shadowy bosom
– Juura is the physical form of the collective regrets of deceased young girls who idolized adults
– Goza’s body resembles an octopus
– Goza has something of a proclivity for water
– Goza is driven mad by the faces that are drawn all over its body
– As a result, Goza subsumes a ship whole and clings to it for dear life
– Mikami is another antagonist
– Mikami is a pair of sisters whose bodies are half-human on top and half-centipede on the bottom
– Mikami likes to cause loud thunder and gusts of wind for fun that are so strong they actually break through shinobi spiritual barriers and affect the outside world
– Challenge mode
– In these, players need to clear successive rooms of enemies without being able to heal up
– A band of ten especially powerful spirits are said to be present in the mode
– Their strength are derived from the power of shinobi blood
– Get weapons by clearing rooms
– When clearing a room for the first time, players can start later runs in Spirit Den from that point as they attempt to reach the end
– The game will also feature an alternative set of Special Missions that require players to accomplish obtuse objectives in ways that aren’t viable during normal play
– Ex: destroy every crate in an area, defeat enemies only be repelling them
– Beat these missions to gain powerful equippable Shinobi Gems
– Three of these can be assigned to a character at any given time, with sharing between characters possible
– Game also has a new Desperation mode that can be triggered during Shinobi Tenshin when the player has accumulated the maximum number of scrolls that can be carried on hand
– Doing so increases attack speed and power for a limited time, as well as enables the free use of Secret Ninja Arts without expending scrolls
– You’ll take damage when an attack doesn’t land on an enemy when using Desperation mode
During the Q&A portion for the Code Name: S.T.E.A.M’s roundtable, one attendee asked if the 3DS game has slowed work on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem – a Wii U game announced in January 2013 and hasn’t been talked about since. Fortunately, the answer is no. Intelligent Systems said, “We’re right on schedule, but if I answer in any more detail I will lose my job so please have mercy on me.”
Another attendee asked prior if Code Name: S.T.E.A.M’s existence is why there isn’t a new Advance Wars. To this, Intelligent Systems said, “We are always thinking about our next iteration of Advanced Wars and Fire Emblem.”
