Trailers On Trial - Blood Running at Sonic Speed

Welcome back to the series where we dismantle and analyze the latest trailers for game and film, Trailers or Trial. We’ll be going into a format change here soon. But before we do, let’s discuss the latest trailers for a couple of upcoming games. This week we have an actual trailer, not a teaser, for Sonic Runners and we also have a story-trailer for the much anticipated Bloodborne. 

Last time we discussed Sonic Runners, we were given little information on the game itself. We were given a title and a bunch of clips from older Sonic games to base our opinions on, leaving us with an impression that we would likely get another Temple-Run clone Sonic game like we already have with Sonic Dash. That we would get another lackluster Sonic game that wouldn’t be worth a single cent. This time around, we’ve actually been given information on the game itself along with various gameplay screens. In fact, it’s almost all gameplay we get to see as well as an introduction to a new mechanic. So… yeah… good job Sega. You gave us something to actually talk about.

Sonic Runners takes cues from older Sonic titles and actually is in the 2D sidescrolling perspective, which many believe is the only way to properly play Sonic. I disagree, but fact is this will appeal to the older audiences and this is likely easier to make universally for mobile devices over a 3D game in the styles of Generations or Adventures. Courses appear to have similar designs to those you’d find on the DS titles like Sonic Rush. In the game you can play as Sonic, Knuckles or Tails and I can only imagine there are different mechanics to each one like there have been in previous games, though that was not clearly shown in the trailer.

Other characters will eventually be playable too. I don’t speak Japanese, so I don’t know if they’re unlockable, purchasable, or NPCs you may meet in a given level. But Shadow, Amy, and the rest will be around at some point in the game too. There are also segments where you chase and beat up Robotnik, though there was nothing indicating if there’d be a normal boss fight segment or just chase sequences.

The big new mechanic relates to support characters. Support characters are little creatures that can follow you throughout the level to provide (presumably) various abilities to make levels easier. Among them we saw Chao, the Sonic Colors aliens, and I think a flinky. What they’re abilities are remain a mystery, but the way you obtain them appears to be related to roulette mini-game where you are randomly given a support character based on your performance. But that is also somewhat unclear.

Beyond that, no other details were given out. That being said, this was certainly surprising to see a follow up to that teaser so quickly (within the small lifetime of this blog series). On top of that, we got a lot more detail than I ever expected for this game and most of it was actually interested and not what I expected to see. Verdict: I won’t go as far as to say we should get hype for this game, but definitely don’t count it out yet if things continue going this way. Throw in cool boss fights and an English trailer and we may have something to get excited for.

 Moving on to our Bloodborne trailer, many are probably expecting me to lampoon it for not really showing much in the way of gameplay. But Bloodborne actually had the opposite issue (and it wasn’t necessarily bad either). Up until now, we haven’t really seen much of the Bloodborne plot or story, leaving many to wildly speculate what the game’s premise would be about. We’ve seen snippets of gameplay here or there from various convention demos and so forth. But why this world exists has not yet been explained.

In this trailer we’re getting the explanation a bit. We’re a hunter waking up for the first time. For those familiar to Dark Souls, blood now is the new souls (as in currency, level-up material, etc). This is explained with the line that blood is “what makes us human”. There is also a reference to beasts (given you’re a hunter) which is a callback to the original title idea, Beast Souls, which never made the cut for some reason. We’re also told that the hunt will begin again when you’ve awoken, giving us another reminder that this is a souls game. You’ll die and need to start over again or it’s a reference to how you’re not the only hunter and you’re starting your journey along with the others.

Visually, we get to see several different enemies, including what looks to be a bizarre boss fight, some demon-like dog monsters, and things that look like aliens with vagina mouths. And while these designs do look a smack bit odd, fact is they’re visually distinct from anything we really saw in Dark Souls, so the change in aesthetics is certainly welcome. There are a lot of cool things on display here.

There are several problems keeping me from getting onboard the hype-train here. First of which is that I was already hype for the game, but because it’s on a PS4 (which I have no intention of getting) I really can’t get all that hype for it. When will I ever get to play it? I don’t know, and I don’t feel like spending $500 to find out how good this one game is. The other issue being that I’ve never really felt like the strong points of Dark Souls titles were their story. Yes, it’s there to provide context and give a sense of what the world is like, but the selling point to me is the combat and the rich mechanics used to make the game as difficult as it is. The story is just there to give a reason for it all to happen and beyond that, it’s kind of an unclear mess unless you read every bit of lore on every enemy and item you encounter.

Verdict here is that while this game certainly looks impressive and this story-trailer has a few interesting beats to it, it doesn’t quite sell me on the experience any more than previous gameplay focused trailers have. That being said, if the game was on PC or any other console (PS3 or WiiU) I’d likely be in for getting it because it certainly looks like a fun title. So if you have a PS4, get hype. If not, then I don’t really see how this benefits you beyond reminding you the PS4 will have at least ONE good game on it… just not enough to buy a damn console for.

That’s all for this week’s Trailers on Trial. We’ll be back soon to discuss more new trailers. As always please be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe. See ya next time!