Capcom Showcase Recap

There have been a lot of conferences already, from the big ones like Summer Game Fest to the smaller ones like Future Games Show. As exciting as they’ve all been, the one I’ve been keenly looking forward to has been the Capcom Showcase. I’m a fan of quite a few of their series and both their recent and upcoming titles have held my attention. That being said, let’s jump into this 35-minute presentation!

We first started with a new trailer for the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion. We got to see a new returning zone, which is the Jungle from the second generation of the games. It has been updated with new elements to fit into the expansion and its appearance changes over time as well. There are also some returning monsters from previous titles, such as Espinas from Monster Hunter Frontier and Gore Magala from Monster Hunter 4. Additionally, the Daimyo Hermitaur that first debuted in Monster Hunter 2 and the Pyre Rakna-Kadaki were also revealed.

Although the expansion is coming out on June 30th, a demo for the expansion is available to download on Nintendo Switch and Steam. It will let players (alone or in co-op) go through the Jungle region, take on some of the exclusive monsters, and check out the new mechanics. More advanced quests will be available for veteran players and all of the available quests can be replayed as much as you’d like.

If that wasn’t enough, we also learned that the team already has free title updates planned to come out after the expansion. The first free title update will add Lucent Nargacuga alongside other monsters and will see the return of the Forlorn Arena locale. It’s set to come out this August.

Following it will be the second update sometime in the fall with rare species, subspecies, and powered-up monsters. In the Winter we will see the third update adding several more monsters. Additionally, we can expect more of these updates to carry over to 2023.

Following this was the Capcom Spotlight Corner which showed a tiny bit of some select games. First up was Street Fighter 6, but nothing new was shown. Given how much we saw from the PlayStation State of Play, Summer Game Fest, and from all the coverage at the private physical Summer Game Fest events, it’s no surprise that they’re going to take a break from showing the game off for a bit. They’re expected to show more off later this year.

The second and third games shown were their upcoming collection games. This first included the Capcom Fighting Collection which is coming out this month on June 24th. Next was Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium which will launch on July 22nd. It will have 32 arcade titles and the option to buy them individually as well as in a bundle. The base game will come with SonSon for free and pre-orders come with “Display Frames Set 1” to use in-game. For a limited time, everyone can also download Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior for free.

One of the more unique games we’ve been looking forward to in this showcase, especially since it’s a new IP, was Exoprimal. A story trailer was revealed and we learned the game is about an AI named Leviathan who is challenging the players by constantly releasing dinosaurs. It seems the story of the game will be about trying to stop this potentially murder-crazy AI.

In regards to gameplay, we were shown the various objectives that players will have to go through during the main Dino Survival game mode. Two squads of five each compete to complete objectives before the other does. These objectives include eliminating a specific dinosaur in Dinosaur Cull, defending a grounded aircraft from hordes of dinosaurs in Vitol Defense, escorting an asset in Data Key Security, using an “Omega Hammer” to destroy targets in Omega Charge, and gathering energy in Energy Taker.

Some missions will allow rival teams to attack and engage each other. Conversely, there will also be times when both squads have to work together to take down a major enemy. These elements are meant to change depending on player progression to keep things fresh. Story sequences and experience will unlock the more you play, although there wasn’t much detail given about this.

Two new exosuits were also shown. First was an assault exosuit called Barrage that utilizes explosives and ricochet grenades for widespread damage. Another assault exosuit was shown called Vigilant, which attacks from long-range with a rail gun. The final announcement was that the game will have a closed network test on Steam that can be applied for on the game’s website. The three sessions shown are pretty short, so it seems like they’ll be trying to stress test this hectic Earth Defense Force-like title before it launches in 2023.

Following up on this was an appearance from Hideaki Itsuno, the game director for many Capcom titles including most of the Devil May Cry series and Dragon’s Dogma. He mentioned that they were celebrating the 10th anniversary of the latter series and that a video would be released in a few days that talks about and celebratse the series further.

I’m still in the camp that believes we’re about to see a new game in the series and I’m convincing myself it makes sense they wouldn’t announce it here because Capcom did say they were only going to show updates for previously announced games. Call me hopelessly (or perhaps desperately) optimistic but if they’re making a big deal out of the anniversary, we know Itsuno is working on a project, and he even has his own custom Dragon’s Dogma baseball jersey hoodie. It has to be a new game, right? Surely not a remaster and hopefully not another anime season.

From hesitant expectations to something more concrete, we finally have a look into the Resident Evil Village DLC that we’ve been expecting since last year when they first announced it and at the beginning of this year which was the last time it was mentioned. Although we weren’t sure what to expect, I’m pretty sure no one could have predicted everything we saw.

The “Winters’ Expansion” includes three parts to it. The first is the Shadows of Rose story campaign. While many assumed a potential story campaign would occur alongside the main campaign or perhaps before it, this will take place after the ending of the main game. For those who haven’t played Resident Evil Village yet, it might be worth avoiding the above trailer in case of spoilers. I won’t dive too deep into it, but it will feature familiar characters and seemingly take place in more of a mental location than a physical one as the world itself will attack you.

The second part is new content for The Mercenaries game mode. Called The Mercenaries Additional Orders, it adds new stages and three new playable characters: Chris Redfield, Karl Heisenberg, and Alcina Dimitrescu. They’ve taken the latter’s huge stature into account as you will be able to tower over enemies, pick them up, and possibly throw chairs at them from above. Finally, the third part of the expansion will be a third-person mode for the main game. One important detail mentioned is that the Shadows of Rose campaign will only be available in this new third-person view.

An all-new bundle for the game and the Winters’ Expansion will also be released as Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition. Both the DLC and this new bundle will launch on October 28th. Resident Evil RE:Verse was also surprisingly mentioned to be launching at the same time. The multiplayer title was bundled with Resident Evil Village and held some betas before the latter was released, but was delayed into a general 2022 timeframe and seemingly forgotten. While we don’t know how much the game has changed since then, it will be interesting to finally see it launch.

Keeping the Resident Evil content coming, we got to know a bit more about the upcoming Resident Evil 4 with a hard emphasis on “a bit”. Starting it off was the same trailer we saw at PlayStation’s recent State of Play, albeit with a couple of different scenes that let us look at the older Leon. Both the game’s director and producer then came out to talk about the game and how it’s a reimagining of the original game. It will be more modern with redesigned Ganados and a darker atmosphere. However, it will still retain a lot of what made the original game special.

A short snippet of Leon walking around was then shown off. The over-the-shoulder camera is returning, but it does look a whole lot more spooky and dark than the original did. I can’t say I mind it so far, although I am intrigued by how they’ll handle the cheesier situations of the original game, such as the giant flame wheels in the castle and the large moving statue. We can all look forward to the game when it launches on March 24, 2023.

Ending the presentation was the announcement that Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the remake of Resident Evil 2, and the remake of Resident Evil 3 are now available on current-gen consoles. Both the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S versions will be able to support 4K, raytracing, high framerate, and 3D audio. Those who own the games on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One can upgrade for free to the new versions. An update has also gone live for PC users to enjoy these new advancements.

Aside from being teased about what’s next for the Dragon’s Dogma series and now having to watch the upcoming video, I thought everything shown off for the Capcom Showcase was fun and exciting. Exoprimal looks chaotic in the best way possible and both Monster Hunter and Resident Evil fans will have plenty to look forward to with the upcoming content. For those who want to watch the entire showcase as it does include more content than the above trailers, it’s available below.