E3 2017 - Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection Preview

Published: June 15, 2017 9:00 AM /

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Zwei The Ilvard Insurrection

Following Xanadu Next and Trails in the Sky: The 3rd's western PC releases, XSEED announced a little over a week ago that they would be bringing Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection (otherwise known as Zwei! II in Japan) to western PC platforms later this summer. Naturally, XSEED had the game ready and playable for E3 attendees this week, and I really dug into exactly what sort of game Zwei is during our appointment with the company earlier today. My first thoughts: Diablo, Nihon-Falcom style.

I mentioned in my Xanadu Next review that Xanadu felt a lot like the developer's take on the genre, and (at least from what I played) Zwei features even more similarities to that classic PC series. Players can switch between two different characters, attacking with either a drill/sword/spear or with magical vampire arms, as well as let loose elemental magic attacks. The game is played in an isometric view and is easily the most technically impressive Nihon-Falcom PC-exclusive title (though that doesn't really say much). Character models have lots of personality and hold a lot of detail compared to other Falcom games from that era.

Although it was hard to really get a good grasp of it with the insanity of the E3 showfloor around me, Zwei, like almost every other Nihon-Falcom game, has a fantastic soundtrack, evoking a lot of the same sounds as the Japan-exclusive Zero no Kiseki. It definitely elevated an otherwise simple gaming session into something more frantic and fun; I tested out the game using mouse and keyboard, but if I were to play it again, I'd definitely opt for using a gamepad. While the controls were fine, and like most Falcom games you can play most of the game just using a mouse, I longed for both a better jump button and a better grasp of my character's movement. Clicking the middle mouse button to jump is just terrible.

Either way, XSEED hasn't released a bad Nihon-Falcom game yet, and I'm very anxious to try out the full game when Zwei launches within the coming weeks/months.

If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2017 Coverage Hub.

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James Galizio TechRaptor
| Former Staff Writer

Former Staff Writer for TechRaptor, technology and games in particular have been my passion my whole life, and to contribute to the industry has been my… More about James