Videogame trailers can be predictable nowadays. Bursts of Hans Zimmer-esque synthesised brass. Rapid-fire edits timed to thudding percussion. Dreadful down-tempo cover versions of classic songs. So it’s all the more exciting when you find one that really makes you sit up and take notice. At last year’s Summer Game Fest, The Plucky Squire stood apart, capturing hearts and minds alike from the moment storybook protagonist Jot physically leapt from the page and became three-dimensional. This ingenious idea deserves special treatment, which is why it’s vividly depicted on Edge 389’s exclusive fold-out cover.
In our extensive feature on a game stuffed with similarly creative flourishes, we discover why that trailer moment almost didn’t happen, dig into the development background of long-time friends and creative linchpins James Turner and Jonathan Biddle, and discover why the recent delay to the game’s release is allowing the development team the time to make what they hope will be “a classic”. Will it stand alongside the Nintendo favourites to which it pays affectionate homage? Time will tell, but from our time with the game, it certainly looks like another feather in publisher Devolver Digital’s cap.
Elsewhere in the new issue of Edge, we talk to the developers spearheading the rush to UEFN and find out whether Fortnite could be the next big gaming platform. We answer the call of the weird by exploring the medium’s tangled love affair with author HP Lovecraft and ask whether videogames can truly reckon with his troubled legacy. We examine the melting pot of influences behind slice-of-life indie breakthrough A Space For The Unbound, and talk to Deck Nine about how the Colorado studio changed tack to focus on its own brand of emotive storytelling. Former BioWare GM Aaryn Flynn reflects on a career at the vanguard of narrative-centred RPGs; and we look back at an unforgettable example of that genre as Time Extend considers why Nintendo is unlikely to reopen Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door any time soon.
In our Hype section, we look forward to the likes of Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Dustborn, Time Flies and Broken Roads, while in reviews we deliver verdicts on Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon, Blasphemous 2, Goodbye Volcano High and Immortals Of Aveum. And you won’t want to miss our review of Baldur’s Gate 3: after 100+ hours, is Larian’s sprawling RPG one of the all-time greats? All this and a great deal more can be found in Edge 389, which is on sale now.
