I'm okay with this. FE comes out the week after and it's looking massive... I hope to be able to knock the story mode for this game out of the way before then
I've got both icons (and mario maker lmao) sitting on my Switch now and I'm pretty hype to be able to bounce between them depending on my mood. If money was absolutely no object, I'd probably have Builders 2, too.
In terms of the longevity of Ultimate Alliance 3, it's a shame, this is one of those Nintendo games that I would actually try to "platinum" if there were trophies. From what we have seen so far, there are a couple of things after the campaign (which we can only guess about the length of since Devs are literally never accurate pre-release about how long their games are.) that are looking to keep our collective attention.
1. Replaying the campaign, in a new game plus-like setting, is actually fun! Having just beaten UA 1 & 2, I can attest that the unlockable difficulty option actually adds a ton of value. You go in feeling like you have the game "figured out," and blocking and dodging become way more important as enemies can really rip through your health. I know a lot of games with NG+ don't actually entice me enough to play them, but given the large roster and continuous enhancement of your heroes, there's enough there to make it seem worth it, especially since I find the general gameplay to just be really fun.
2. The Infinity Trials are a pretty big question mark right now in terms of how much content they will add, and especially if they will be set or updating/rotating.
Looking at past games, there have always been challenges separate from the main campaign that you can tackle at your leisure. These challenges consisted of slight twists to the usual gameplay, and they were actually a nice little distraction. From what we've seen so far, the infinity trials takes the same idea and updates it for a modern audience, while just generally putting more emphasis on it.
Some challenges in UA 2 included:
- A room full of constantly spawning enemies which, on death, would give you more time in the room, so you were trying to last as long as possible.
- A larger room with multiple points to run between that you would need to capture and hold while fending off enemies.
- combat challenges against specific foes
- combat challenges that would restrict you from using your powers.
- and more.
Something I liked about UA 1's challenges that I don't think was included in UA 2 was the inclusion of character-specific missions. During Ultimate Aliiance's campaign, you would find collectibles that unlocked a character-specific mission which, if I am remembering correctly, would unlock something specifically for that character after beating it. These missions would eliminate your team in favor of forcing you to play as one character and then end with a character-specific boss fight. They were fun! And it was always a nice challenge and change of pace to have to figure out how to play with just one character.
Focusing back on Ultimate Alliance 3, we have seen a tiny bit of footage of Captain America in, what appears to be, an infinity trial that eliminated the other 3 heroes on a typical 4 person team. So, I'm sure we'll see a healthy mix of what was featured in the previous games, but again, the extent of these challenges remains to be seen.
Something I am particularly curious about is if we will see more Infinity Trials appear AFTER the game is released. At first glance, they vague resemble something like towers or multiverses in the Mortal Kombat/Injustice games. I really like how those rotate based on an online schedule and always give you something new to check out. If that was the case, I am sure we would have heard about it by now, but I am starting to think that DLC packs will come with their own Infinity Trials that you can then beat to unlock costumes or whatever based on the pack's theme.
3. The last thing the game appears to be offering in terms of longevity is in regards to the expansion pass. The description is kinda vague, but also wide in terms of all it offers.
"DLC packs will contain new content such as playable characters, modes, and additional story"
So, in addition to new characters to play around with, we'll also be receiving new modes and additional "story." I'm expecting short campaigns focusing on, or perhaps restricted to, the new characters added in the packs, and that would be great! I'm mostly curious about what new modes they have planned. A part of me wants a silly PvP mode to be added, even if it's horribly balanced and you can only play with your friends, it could be a fun distraction! If that's unreasonable, some kind of competitive online mode would be really cool, like a race to defeat enemies or clear objectives.
ALL OF THIS is to say that I don't THINK the game is gonna have content problems, but a lot of questions will be answered in like a week, so I probably shouldn't have spent the time writing all of this