Today, a new video for Scalebound was shown at Microsoft’s E3 briefing that really proves bigger is better. It shows a boss fight that one Microsoft employee described as “the largest boss ever seen in a Microsoft game.” The sense of, err, scale is mighty impressive as it took a squad of four humans and their dragon compadres in online coop to drop this mighty beast. And all of this was accomplished despite the fact that the cheesy-looking protagonist was wearing a pair of headphones he obviously stole from the star of Jet Set Radio.
This fight proved that the dragon owners really know how to train their dragons as they all worked in synchronicity to attack the humongous monsters in different ways. Dragons took to the air and used their fireballs and fiery breath to distract the monster while their human trainers fired lasers and magical arrows at vulnerable spots. At one point, the humans mounted the dragons, and they all attacked in unison.
One unusual strategy was performed by the main character’s dragon as he used his tail to knock his trainer up onto a platform (miraculously, his headphones remained intact) so he could be in a closer vicinity to the monster. The trainer then put on his headphones, I assume to use some special ability, and resumed attacking. I’m not sure why the rider didn’t just mount the dragon and fly up there.
The beast took cover under water at different points in the battle and emerged in various forms with the obvious intent of destroying everything it came across. It swung huge tentacles and slammed gigantic crab claws into the ground. The monster also had some sort of plasma ray that shot out of its mouth. The immense size of this creature made the large dragons in the area look like small reptiles
Eventually the attackers ripped a huge part off of the monster, which revealed a large heart that was the obvious weak spot. Then all the attackers worked together to weaken the enemy. When it dropped to the ground, they all furiously attacked its heart and finally put an end to its miserable existence. It was a glorious death!
Despite some questionable design decisions, I was really impressed with the fight both visually and also in terms of gameplay. Even though I had no idea what was going on, it was amazing to see such a giant monster get dropped by a well-coordinated squad of much smaller creatures. If this is the type of fight that’s common in Scalebound, I can only imagine how fun it will be to team up with friends and tame every beast we encounter.
