Sneak Peek: Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia

“Bakugan is back.”

These are the words that Spin Team representative Cole Flott used to head off late September's briefing on upcoming news for the franchise. And he wasn't kidding. In addition to its Armored Alliance series dropping on Netflix soon, a new season by Tokyo Movie Shinsha is in the works. The studio has a glowing track record, dating as far back as Akira and as recent as Lupin III THE FIRST. They even had a hand in this summer's Rick and Morty vs. Genocider short. The main subject of the briefing, however, was an upcoming game. Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, which releases November 3 for the Nintendo Switch. According to creative lead Rick Ernst, you'll be traversing Vestroia, tasked with winning a championship in the sport of Bakugan Brawling while an evil organization carries out a sinister plot in the shadows. The plot is creature-collecting RPG bread and butter, for sure. Where Champions of Vestroia starts to stand out is in its combat, which marries real-time action and turn-based strategy.

In battle, your avatar runs around the fray collecting the energy that will enable your Bakugan to use special attacks. Certain tactics must be applied here, as it is advantageous to obtain as much energy as possible for yourself while preventing your opponent from doing the same. The abilities and attacks of certain Bakugan even affect this, presumably granting a boost to your character's speed or a debuff to your opponent. Once energy is gathered, turn-based combat comes into play, as each Bakugan has multiple moves to choose from, with different damage output, effects, and energy costs. Team building plays a big part in combat as well. Teams are composed of three Bakugan apiece, and with 80 to select throughout the game, there are many possible combinations at hand.

There are 17 species present in the game and all of them have four unique evolutions. Each Bakugan will belong to one of five factions – each of which have two factions they are strong against and one they are weak to. Factions also see similar moves and abilities set amongst them, with each faction fitting itself to different turn-based combat archetypes (DPS, Debuff, Tank, etc). It's worth putting a lot of thought into the strategy your team centers around, because this is all available online. PvP battles will be accessible and heavily emphasized, and with a metagame as flushed out as this one, I'm expecting the online community for this game to be lively.

There's also a lot of heart put into the aesthetics of this game. While it hasn't got that much going for it visually, there are a plethora of options in character customization, and the overworld seems like it's going to be vibrant. Creative lead Rick Ernst says that a lot of time was put into making NPCs and locations come alive, and with a steady flow of “Brawling clubs,” characters in need of help, as well as various secrets and treasures, you'll be spending a lot of time in it. If there was any singular issue that stood out to me in the gameplay that Spin Team showed me, it was the constant presence of lackluster music. Hopefully, though, this will be a non-issue in comparison to what it seems like they're getting right.

Champions of Vestroia appears to be a leap in quality compared to other titles in the Bakugan franchise. It boasts an in-depth battle system, character customization, and a balanced metagame for online play. Taking a look at its production grants some clues as to why this is. It's being developed by WayForward, the team behind recent Shantae and Duck Tales remasters – titles that speak to the studio's ability to take an existing franchise and craft a quality addition to it. Then we have our director, Kenny Ilko. This is the first title he's been brought on to lead a project, and it's readily apparent that he's thrown himself into the deep end of understanding what works and what players want out of creature collecting RPGs. Finally, Rick Ernst, is a veteran developer from Riot Games (League of Legends, Valorant) who has some understanding of what makes real-time turn-based combat click. This team was put together in the summer of 2019, amidst public outcry against the stagnation of the Pokémon franchise – a dilemma that left many fans of creature collecting games, myself included, looking for fresh franchises to sink our time into. This is Spin Team's answer to that demand. They aren't alone in this endeavor though. With upcoming titles like Temtem and Kindred, it'll have some stiff competition, but by no means should be counted out. Champions of Vestroia is shaping up to be a hit, and I have high hopes for its success.