It isn’t all Zelda in the house of Mario. Nintendo has announced a new 3DS game called Ever Oasis on its recent Treehouse E3 live stream. The game is the brainchild of game designer Kouichi Ishii, the man behind the Mana series of games as well as the creator of the ever lovable Chocobos and Moogles from the Final Fantasy series.
If you’re wondering just what it’s about, Ever Oasis is about Tethu, a young boy who is on aa quest to find his older brother, who’s been spirited away by the forces of chaos. In order to do that, he must create a village in the middle of the desert to serve as a launching point for his quest.
Players of course, take the role of Tethu and from there, they’ll have to begin their management of their village/oasis. Based on the demos shown, players will have to grow plant-like shops called Bloom Booths in the oasis, which they will then have to keep stocked. This is so in-game characters will come through and purchase their wares which then gives money to the players allowing them to grow even more Bloom Booths.
However the management sim aspect of the game is just one part of it as players will also be able to explore the desert and dungeons. That’s where the more RPG aspect of the game comes in. Players can form party consisting of wanderers from different tribes that come into their village. They can pick and choose each party member carefully as different tribe members have different abilities that can be used to complete puzzles and get through dungeons.
Of course Ever Oasis wouldn’t be much of an RPG if it didn’t have some battles involved. The game will also feature combat encounters with enemies like spiky armadillos, a giant scorpion, and a lion statue with wings called Baastu.
Again, each tribe members in the game will have their own, unique weapon that’s more effective against some enemies than others and the game will make players switch control of characters here as well to find out who works best.
With this blend of management sim, RPG and puzzle solving, it seems that Ever Oasis is one game we should be looking forward to from Nintendo. Too bad we don’t know exactly when it’s coming out but we will definitely keep an eye out on this game as it looks like its set to be one of the better releases for the 3DS.
