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Marvel's Midnight Suns (aka What If Firaxis Made a Superhero Tactical RPG)

Exposure

Exposure

Monarch of XCOM
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He/Him/His


Led by Jake Solomon's team at Firaxis Games, this is basically the big project he's been working for a few years after XCOM 2 came out in 2016. It's basically a dream project for him as it's an adaptation of one of his favourite comic book storylines from the 90s involving the Midnight Sons group (a group featuring primarily supernatural Marvel heroes like Ghost Rider and Blade), but with some changes this time around for those familiar with that storyline.

  • The primary protagonist, the Hunter, is a completely customizable character made by you. They have a particular set of powers due to their position in the plot (you're the forsaken child of Lilith, and the only hero known to have beaten her before in the game's telling of it)
  • The groups involved have been expanded. In addition to the original heroes and villains used, the villain groups have been expanded to include at least Hydra, while the heroes have the inclusion of the Avengers, the Runaways, X-Men, and more to be later announced.
    • Although the description blurbs out there for the game does mention needing to fight "fallen" heroes, so any additions to the latter isn't an automatic boost for your side...
  • And for those coming from the XCOM end of things, probably one of the biggest changes is how the game handles non-tactical matters. You do have a home base called The Abbey, but compared to XCOM 1 and XCOM 2's HQs, it's also focused on being the place where you can develop RPG-esque relationships with the various heroes you'll be working with. (I am assuming this is all platonic but feel free to make the Bioware relationship jokes anyway)
Is currently targeting March 2022 for Xbox One and Series, Playstation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via EGS and Steam) for its release date. Full gameplay reveal is on September 1st.
 
Ah, so Chimera Squad was dipping toes in the water. No PC death, focus on team members. Sure, why not.
 
Exposure said:
  • And for those coming from the XCOM end of things, probably one of the biggest changes is how the game handles non-tactical matters. You do have a home base called The Abbey, but compared to XCOM 1 and XCOM 2's HQs, it's also focused on being the place where you can develop RPG-esque relationships with the various heroes you'll be working with. (I am assuming this is all platonic but feel free to make the Bioware relationship jokes anyway)
Is currently targeting March 2022 for Xbox One and Series, Playstation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via EGS and Steam) for its release date. Full gameplay reveal is on September 1st.
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I'M GONNA FUCK BLADE
 
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Interview with Jake about the game:

  • The relationships are indeed platonic (although he does describe it as being like "very, very close friends")
    • He also mentions some curious things:
      • Relationships are going be important if you want to fully max out a character and gain access to their ultimate ability
      • There will be characters who won't like each other in the team, with the implication that will result in character drama along the way (the given example was that of Strange and Tony are a particular duo that will have issues with each other), I imagine this will also affect relationship building if you have to choose between them at points
      • However the heroes are designed so they're immediately good from the get go so you won't have a problem where because of your prior character choices, Wolverine just sucks to use
  • There's 12 playable heroes plus your character (so for those not keeping track, there's 3 heroes yet to be announced)
    • notably, Jake uses the wording "at launch", so very likely DLC heroes are planned
  • They were contacted by Marvel execs first about a game deal
  • There's a mention of the protagonist character being able to choose being support-focused light powers or more destructive dark powers, but the latter will incur a cost on you and the rest of your team (morality system in play here?)
 
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The Game Informer article about the game went live today, so some tidbits I've spotted on the internet:

  • It's aiming to be a 40-60 hour tactical RPG. Mass Effect and Fire Emblem Three Houses were cited as inspirations for the game overall
  • Mission levels are hand crafted
  • Slay the Spire and Steamworld Quest were cited as direct inspirations for the combat systems
    • Yes this means the game has a card-based combat system
    • Each hero has their own deck that you set up
    • They get six cards per turn, by default they can play three on their turn
    • There are ways to bend or break that ruleset ala how XCOM let you bend or break the two point action economy with some abilities
  • Combat missions are tuned to be around 10 to 15 minutes in length
  • As a fun note, if you remember that Nico Minoru has a catch to her powers where she can only cast a spell once...yes that limitation is implemented in the game. (I imagine gameplay wise she's basically the "RNGesus take the wheel" character: I could see cards basically coming with a lot more randomization to what they can do compared to everybody else's)
  • Jake was also asked about XCOM. TL;DR from the poster I'm grabbing this from on resetera is that he absolutely intends to work on XCOM again and for the foreseeable future, Midnight Suns is basically a curious case of also being a big project he dreamed of doing and giving him a game he can think of completely different ideas for, because he wants to come back to XCOM with new fresh ideas after doing War of the Chosen

Also have a cropped version of a screenshot from said article:
 
Exposure said:
Jake was also asked about XCOM. TL;DR from the poster I'm grabbing this from on resetera is that he absolutely intends to work on XCOM again and for the foreseeable future, Midnight Suns is basically a curious case of also being a big project he dreamed of doing and giving him a game he can think of completely different ideas for, because he wants to come back to XCOM with new fresh ideas after doing War of the Chosen
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I mean this probably means we won't see a new XCOM game for a long time considering the gap of Midnight Suns from XCOM 2. I'm not sure if I'll be feeling this, gotta wait for the gameplay reveal tomorrow to see how it is.
 
Stream will go live in roughly from now, on IGN's channels. This will feature both the gameplay reveal trailer, a deep dive narrated by the Firaxis team (Jake and one of the other team members working on the game I presume), and an interview afterwards.

 
Ok so I vastly underestimated how much the mainstream marketing needing to go through two different big corporate marketing machines would affect things. :V

(But seriously it's weird how much more informative the game informer article that is not actually out for non-subscribers yet especially re: stuff like having some details on how the card system works)

EDIT: actually another note I can add from said article- the reason why some of the cards feature different heroes on them despite it being a different hero's turn (e.g cards with blade on them when it's doctor strange's turn) is because some cards are generics. E.g basic strikes, basic heals, etc.

again would be great Mr. Corporate Marketing Machine if you would just let this be explained instead of weirdly drawing out gameplay details like this

like I feel like whatever higher up reluctance to explain this is causing way more problems with how people are taking to it than it hypothetically solves

EDIT2: on the plus side we can make inferences about the snippets we were shown

Base upgrades are a thing

So is Research of some kind: not sure if it's a full blown Research setup or if it's meant to be a a way of making use of loot you acquire in the field and from missions for needs
(Essences used for card and costume unlocks, I am assuming atm)

Replacement for the Hologlobe. Seems to be showing a mission associated with Captain Marvel? Curious if it's all fully premade missions or if there's some smaller stuff that will act as EU/EW style randomized missions.

Shot of the tactical UI, that I'm mainly posting for the "Photo Mode" button at the bottom left there. Guess Firaxis noticed the free camera mods and went "actually yeah that should be a thing at this point anyway".
 
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Oh yeah also if you were worried about 2K trying something fucky:


Hey folks, regarding our battle card system, there are no loot boxes in Marvel's @MidnightSuns or related microtransactions to get more cards (i.e. Gamma Coils). We will have purely cosmetic character skins for purchase that do not affect game balance in any way
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Exposure said:
Slay the Spire and Steamworld Quest were cited as direct inspirations for the combat systems
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Inspiration? That's an understatement. In Steamworld Quest:

1: Each character has their own card pool, with active characters having their chosen cards combined to form the in-combat deck.
2: Play three cards a turn from a hand of six with two redraws. Cards either are weak cards that build up Steam, or strong cards that spend Steam.
3: Playing three cards from the same character gives a bonus, whereas other cards benefit if they are played immediately after a card by another character.

It looks like they copied 2 literally verbatim but for renaming 'Steam' as 'Heroism', based on their description and the way the hands look they did 1 as well, and doing 3 seems like an obvious fit for the superhero motif. Granted that's not a bad thing, Steamworld Quest was a good solid game.

That said this game is sounding awfully ambitious. Steamworld Quest has simple JRPG encounters and a finite card pool that needs to merely be discovered rather than actually change, adding X-Com style tactical maps, Slay the Spire style deckbuilding, Mass Effect and Fire Emblem style relationship stuff, etc etc... that's a lot of elements to be throwing around at once.
 
firefossil said:
Inspiration? That's an understatement. In Steamworld Quest:

1: Each character has their own card pool, with active characters having their chosen cards combined to form the in-combat deck.
2: Play three cards a turn from a hand of six with two redraws. Cards either are weak cards that build up Steam, or strong cards that spend Steam.
3: Playing three cards from the same character gives a bonus, whereas other cards benefit if they are played immediately after a card by another character.

It looks like they copied 2 literally verbatim but for renaming 'Steam' as 'Heroism', based on their description and the way the hands look they did 1 as well, and doing 3 seems like an obvious fit for the superhero motif. Granted that's not a bad thing, Steamworld Quest was a good solid game.

That said this game is sounding awfully ambitious. Steamworld Quest has simple JRPG encounters and a finite card pool that needs to merely be discovered rather than actually change, adding X-Com style tactical maps, Slay the Spire style deckbuilding, Mass Effect and Fire Emblem style relationship stuff, etc etc... that's a lot of elements to be throwing around at once.
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We can actually make an inference about 3 since I remembered they showed the squad loadout equivalent screen.

And by that I mean judging from there being a specific count for "combo cards", yeah i imagine there's going be cards meant to work in conjunction with other heroes.

At this point I'm just kinda curious if you're required to take the Hunter on missions (in which case the Mass Effect comparison actually extends a bit beyond the strategy layer, heh), or if it's just a case of marketing promotion.

Normally I would look at the black screen of that photo headshot as a hint but that just reminds me of how War of the Chosen would take photo headshots of your soldier and use a black void for the backgrounds. :V

(in fact I'm pretty sure one of the hydra units in the trailer is using Reaper art assets even)
 
firefossil said:
That said this game is sounding awfully ambitious. Steamworld Quest has simple JRPG encounters and a finite card pool that needs to merely be discovered rather than actually change, adding X-Com style tactical maps, Slay the Spire style deckbuilding, Mass Effect and Fire Emblem style relationship stuff, etc etc... that's a lot of elements to be throwing around at once.
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It's possible they've gotten some of that Marvel dosh for funding.
 
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Huh, you mean kinda like Ultimate Alliance except turn based? Sounds cool but nothing unconventional, but I'll check out the trail-

[ENTER SANDMAN AS EVANESCENCE STYLE ALT METAL INTENSIFIES]

*blinks*

Wait, what?

That's kind of a blast from the past, huh? You know like back when they used Nickelback to advertise the Spider-Man movie?
 
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Reveen said:
Huh, you mean kinda like Ultimate Alliance except turn based? Sounds cool but nothing unconventional, but I'll check out the trail-

[ENTER SANDMAN AS EVANESCENCE STYLE ALT METAL INTENSIFIES]

*blinks*

Wait, what?

That's kind of a blast from the past, huh? You know like back when they used Nickelback to advertise the Spider-Man movie?
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If the past you mean an incredibly common practice for some time in advertising (using a downtempo cover of a famous song), then yes.
 
Watching the gameplay video I was absolutely giddy when I saw that they included Blade, I did not expect his presence. It was delightful.
 
Oh yeah I found out I misremembered the day they were going to do this: a stream with actual Firaxis employees playing a mission featuring the Hunter and Wolverine vs Sabretooth will start on .

You can watch it either on the game's youtube channel:


or Firaxis's twitch channel:
 
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I like Magik as the team skyranger taxi.

I hate how they keep stressing how there's no "gameplay-related microtransactions"...which means there are other microtransactions.

Teocraso said:
I have been informed that I cannot fuck Blade.

I will camp outside the Firaxis offices everyday until this changes.
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The stuff where you just hang out at the Abbey is basically the premise of every Avengers fanfic from the past decade.

And they made it as unsexy as possible.

God, that's mean.
 
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