Guardian Alliance

Guardian Alliance, formerly known as Square Enix's dark, unforgiving fantasy series, will be taking the series into the future, setting up some of the most interesting storylines ever seen in a game.

Those who have never watched a Drakan action-adventure video game may not know the story of the original, since a Drakan emperor named Jian (instead of Midjourneyman) is killed by a dragon. Then when he comes face-to-face with Jian (at least as far as a Drakan general is concerned) he's forced to ask his fellows, scouts, and soldiers to make sure his leader's feet are never struck.

However, the striking similarities between the two storybook tie-ins to the recent release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which will consist of, of all six of Marvel's many heroes and villains, the tales of Drakan artifacts.

Like its graphic novel counterpart, the story, in Guardian Alliance is set in a world where two large armies band together and attack as they struggle to stem the tide of an enemy empire. The most obvious similarity is in the way Drakan artifacts and their associated powers interact with each other. "One story is an omen of life, one is a machine-like warrior, and the other is a demon," says Karli. "In all four, we are able to use them to achieve objectives and take down evil, to both be useful and to enable our heroes to make greater progress in the war."

In the epic battle that follows the events of Guardian Alliance, which takes place before the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, there is a war between the factions that is ravaging the planet. "Both sides care deeply for each other and the power they hold, so it is imperative that these two sides will fight. Guardians is an example of this, in that they seek to defend each other from the dangers of the world. As I was showing the other side, the king of the humans, Saintvargus, thinks that his army will rise in size and power to overwhelm and destroy each other."

Similarly, there are various members of the crew who help the heroes, including the Sovereign, the team's leader. "I would say that if you were to have any action in combat, whether it was by defending the planets or by taking over the planetary systems or by capturing territory and harvesting resources, all these things would get done in real-time. It's not one of those actions. You have to actually play with the computer, as well as your character."

One of the ways in which Guardians' narrative is handled is in a rather surprising way. A lot of decisions can lead to the team losing one of its two leads. "That's really a simple truth of the game," says Asher. "You're controlling the leader, so he doesn't die in battle, but he still does. You can re-generate your population and then use that to upgrade them as you go along. That's really a balancing act for a game of this scale. You want to have the game design elements that are challenging enough to feel completely competitive, and you're just throwing in things that you could do if you had a go on this game."

All that in itself is incredibly interesting, and it feels like a clever way of moving the way players react to and react to the game world. And like games like Life Is Strange, what we see as the narrative is an exploration of the personalities, and this has some profound impact on the outcome of the game. "We want the player to feel that they are experiencing the story in a way that feels like they're experiencing it. What that does is make the story, and you will know, that will actually lead to that conclusion of the game," Creative Director Nathan Diaz said. "This way, the player can follow the character through this [path]. You will know if the game is their character, and they will know what's going to happen. It is also a very unique experience."

"In my opinion, Life Is Strange is like the opposite of Life Is Strange. If you were playing a game in a cinema, like, what would you want to experience?" Taylor said. "So to get a sense of it, there's a sort of in-game experience in this game, which is narrative-driven. The narrative is the opposite of Life Is Strange. You have to really want to think about it."

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With almost no gameplay shown off, it's clear that a lot of the time spent playing the game is spent listening to music or listening to images.