The Pocket Gamer Podcast Episode 93 - Honkai Nexus Anima, Honor of Kings Ace, and not getting to play Ananta at Gamescom

Did you catch all the latest developments about Gamescom last week? Is there a mobile game you're particularly excited about? Iwan's back from the event and has both me and Will properly hyped up in this week's (New and Improved!) Pocket Gamer Podcast, where we tackle everything from HoYoverse hijinks to Tencent TBAs!

Right after Iwan admits he wasn't able to get hands-on with "anime GTA" Ananta, he gets right to it with Silver Palace, an upcoming aRPG with thrilling hack-and-slash action. He takes us through what makes it look, feel, and play differently from others in its genre, including its very distinct theming and rockin' soundtrack.

Now, I mistakenly thought it felt similar to Reverse: 1999, so Iwan happily sheds more light on it before we move on to Honkai: Nexus Anima - it's only fitting that we dive into HoYoverse's projects, as they very kindly sent Iwan to Gamescom in the first place. 

We go into the pros and cons of the creature-collecting auto-battling RPG, because I was also fortunate enough to get hands-on with the beta a few weeks ago (and so did our teammate Cristina). One of the things we did like about it is how it's able to inject its signature miHoYo humour into the creatures or the Anima, but we do feel like the gacha element might be where the power creep, well, creeps in.

This then moves us on to Petit Planet, in which Iwan offers the latest developments that have been added since the last demo I played. But for me, one of the most exciting things I saw from all the Gamescom announcements was the surprise reveal of Nodusfall, which sets itself apart from other HoYoverse projects thanks to its non-anime-styled visuals alone.

I feel like it's very Monster Hunter-esque, so Will offers his two cents on how it might play out if it were an MH-like game but with gacha elements. He does have reservations about the cosmetics and the grind, so it'll be interesting to see how the studio will address this in the future.

Onto Tencent things, Iwan shares his thoughts on both Honor of Kings World and Honor of Kings Ace, including his interesting insights on the future of League of Legends and Riot Games. 

At this point, we ask him what stood out to him the most during the event, and he turns our attention to the pavilions for Morocco and Korea. What's also very lovely to see was the bigger presence of mobile this year, because as we'll always tell you, mobile is awesome, and mobile is where it's at!

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