Seasons of Heaven has been something of a surprise Switch reveal, coming ahead of Nintendo's January event where - it is assumed - we'll get a more solid picture of the console's software lineup.
Based on a book by Nico Augusto and developed by California-based Any Arts Production, Seasons of Heaven is looking absolutely gorgeous, with lush environments, excellent lighting effects and detailed characters. While we've only been gifted a small glimpse of the game so far, it bodes well for the graphical potential of the Switch.
![YouTube Video](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/C1rrCdi_XjA/maxresdefault.jpg)
The full trailer will go live on Monday 19th December at 9PM PST.
Comments 98
Just came from posting it in the forums. It looks gorgeous.
Yesssssss!
That looks very interesting actually. Need to see more though
Can't wait for some more doom-mongers to try and say this looks like something the Wii U could do.
Looks fantastic & from what I've seen online, that's in-game footage as well. It seems more developers are jumping on board the Switch train all the time, it's a little easier to see why with graphics like this.
Looks good to me. It reminds me of Fragile Dreams on the Wii. I hope it's an RPG.
Multi-platform or Switch exclusive?
0:36 Samurai sword!
I just hope it isn't a walking simulator. Not a fan of that genre.
Looks good indeed. I hope it's also going to have a good gameplay. Is it called "a boy and his dog?".
@Kit Switch exclusive.
Not trying to spam, but a short paragraph from the book's description on Amazon:
"It will take you on a journey with Yann, a young boy with Asperger’s syndrome and his faithful companion, Ani, a French bulldog who Yann is able to communicate with through telepathy. As you follow along on their journey you’ll have the opportunity to meet the rest of the major players and bear witness to the enlightenment of some and the demise of others. This story will allow you to experience the awe of discovering the most beautiful, magical place that ever existed while at the same time staying only one step ahead of the dark and vile underbelly of the human race. Most importantly Seasons of Heaven will awaken your imagination and open your mind to possibilities you may never have considered."
Just wondering. Why do they show their game before the January reveal, while everybody else doesn't?
Different kinds of NDAs? Beats me.
@Dudikowski Nintendo probably wants to hide big announcements until January & March. However, smaller studios & unknown properties will have more freedom to drip information ahead of time.
Also helps that the game was leaked heavily online last week.
An artsy game being a Switch exclusive would be awesome, if only just to boost the sales at launch. If the setting is post-apocalyptic as rumored, you get another bait for M-rated game fans, which also helps a fair deal. And contrary to ZombiU, there's no Ubisoft behind this, so this will stay a Switch exclusive.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
![Untitled](http://img.memecdn.com/he-came_o_151223.jpg)
Oh, behave!
@abbyhitter my guess is that it's going to be a Zelda-like action adventure game. Just take a look at the facebook page of Any Arts studios! They seem to be almost obsessed with Zelda!
@AlexSora89 Again, a little snooping into the book confirms post-apocalypse.
"In Seasons of Heaven that is exactly what a small group of people who find themselves survivors of the greatest purge every known will ultimately come to realize. In their struggles to survive on a stripped and barren earth, they will learn that humans across the world literally died as a result of their own careless actions."
Based on a novel you say? colour me intrigued
@DanteSolablood
Sounds reminiscent to Nausicaa
Cool. Looking forward to actual details about the game in a full trailer.
It's interesting so far, but there's no way I'll get excited for it yet until more information is known.
@Ed_Fairway Haha, love Nausicaa (Castle in the Sky is my favourite however). I think the interesting part of the story was more about the lead character having Asperger's & being able to telepathically communicate with his dog. I wonder how this will be portrayed in the game?
@DanteSolablood
Then... bam. Nintendo players will boast about their own "The Last Of Us". Switch exclusive? Double bam. You want to play the gritty artsy game, you buy a Switch. M-rated game fans buy the Switch, third-parties bring the M-rated third-party games back. We get everything on the same console and everyone is happy, the end.
Looks nice. Can't get too excited based on that but interested to see more.
Hopefully it turns out to be a good game, the more the Switch has the better.
Call me skeptical, but I highly doubt that this is ingame footage. In engine surely, but not real-time gameplay. We'll have to wait and see.
Didn't see anything there that couldn't be pre-rendered. In that respect, it tells me very little about the graphical potential of Switch. Nice little cinematic, but that's all it is it seems.
@ryanrybot You may be correct about it being in-engine rather than in-game. Would make more sense for the sweeping landscape shots at the least.
It's quite interesting to note, that while it appears people are shouting "pre-rendered" already, the Wii U wouldn't be able to handle a pre-rendered video in that kind of quality.
I'm gonna check the book out, looks very nice! Consider me teased 😊
@DanteSolablood
Same, got it on DVD on my birthday couple days ago
Asperger's you say. What portrayal we talking here? accurate or Hollywood; Curious Incident or Mary and Max?
@Tsurii
Yeah, I will admit that any media portrayal of autism can be a risky business, especially when they just use it more as a plot device or have it being the only characteristic they have; case in point, Curious Incident.
That song reminds me so much of the music in Westworld.
@NintendoFan4Lyf Can you link me the page? Seems odd it needs Google Translate as they're a Californian Studio. I do know they said something similar about concept art... could be a mix up.
GRAPHICS SO GOOD OMG MMMM MUCH BETTER THAN WII U
@gcunit The point is that none of it is prerendered. This isn't a cinematic. This will be the real time graphics through Unreal Engine 4, which the Wii U definitely cannot handle. Not to mention, this will be playable on the go...
Wait, are you really that far behind the times that you thought this was a cinematic? ...Welcome to what PC gamers have been playing in real time for the past few years.
The book is only £2.28 on Kindle if anyone is interested, I just got it.
@ryanrybot Yes, this is what the game will look like in real time, through Unreal Engine 4. Welcome to what PC gamers have been enjoying for a few years now. And it's on the go for NS, as well.
Looks really good, hopefully it plays well. Starting to get hyped for the Switch now. If the event in January has enough good titles and third party is strong I will pick one up soon after launch but don't expect to be getting one on launch day.
After the Wii U I worry that a similar situation could occur with the Switch but am trying to be hopeful it won't!
This should not be an exclusive. Indie games are supposed to be independent. Making them exclusive contradicts that. Anyways this game looks and sounds dumb. Nintendo should not be wasting money purchasing the exclusivity of games like this.
I hope these graphics are doable on the switch. It seems these graphics are the target, but not running on switch yet. If they get those results I'll be more than happy. Also if the switch could pull this off we might have a very small or no gap in power differences to other consoles.
@LeRaposa
I think it's up to develovers to choose their exclusivity. It could be that it's not affordable to develop for all systems, do you not think so?
@LeRaposa Nintendo did this because they needed to show people who have apparently never touched modern PC/high end mobile gaming in their entire lives that yes, these are real time graphics that the Sandwitch will be handling on a normal basis for 3D titles. It's pretty funny watching all these reactions, it's like a city dweller taking a lifelong country/wilderness bumpkin into civilization for the first time.
"WOAH, there's so much going on all at once! There's no way this could be happening! There must be some trick to it!"
"Yes, yes, the trick is called modern technology..."
@LeRaposa The game may be exclusive, the studio is not. If a studio is independent then they have the right to make whichever deal they think is right for them. Seems they're big Nintendo fans.
@whanvee If the game isn't launching until March then they have plenty of time to get it to look this stunning. It's on Unreal 4, something we know the Switch can handle well.
Looks good, let us hope it is fun as well.
For the doubters..
@gcunit
This "game" is such a joke, it's just a crowdfunding bait, They don't have de switch devkit so....
@DanteSolablood "Can't wait for some more doom-mongers to try and say this looks like something the Wii U could do."
Pretty odd you'd be looking forward to such a scenario playing out.
On topic, I do wonder how Nintendo allowed this to be revealed ahead of the January event. They typically muzzle anything and everything with draconian control.
@gatorboi352 Lol, it was mostly sarcasm. Some people are determined that the Switch can't be more powerful than the Wii U, despite it would be hard not to be.
@gatorboi352 My guess is that Nintendo wanted to... Let the dog(s) out.
@PlywoodStick @gatorboi352 If they can't controll it, it's because it's only smoke, Any Arts Prods only hopes to make their game on Switch, it's just bluff, that's sad
@DanteSolablood
"Can't wait for some more doom-mongers to try and say this looks like something the Wii U could do."
Wow. That's a new and interesting development to me. But expected anyway.
@AlexSora89
WHAT ?! Really ?!
If this game gonna Adult content, Dang it... !!
The beauty that can be so delusive, my impression could be suddenly Flop into Negative level.
@Vee_Flames Just this morning someone stated they'd seen nothing from the Switch that the Wii U couldn't do & stated the Skyrim footage looked like Assassin's Creed for the Wii U. The delusion is real.
@bakayoshi Any evidence for this? The Studio has been around since 2012 & has no link on their social media for crowdfunding. Also seems IGN, Kotaku & most other games journalists are treating this seriously.
@NintendoFan4Lyf It's okay, I found an English version and you are correct. However the footage is in-game on the Unreal 4 engine. This should be what we see in the final game.
@DanteSolablood touché! Well done, sir, well done
@DanteSolablood because we know Nico Augusto in France and even if he is sympatic he have 0 experience in dev, he's only a dreamer, in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIydN_sclQg He explains that he's project (of creating a videogame studio in LA) was a failure. They only use the switch pré-reveal hype so kotaku and co talks about them. I hope I'm wrong but we'll see on 12/19
Looks nice. Reminds me of Breath of the Wild in some ways. Hopefully this one turns out nice. Perhaps they shown this early (before the January event) so it doesn't get lost in the crowd.
@Dakt I was wondering the same, thanks for clearing that up!
@bakayoshi We will see!
@Anti-Matter
![Untitled](http://i.imgur.com/tOy1aNmg.jpg)
Technically speaking, a game needs to be rather in-your-face to earn a higher rating. Implying is still fair game - God knows how Paper Mario: Color Splash got away with a ridiculously blatant prison joke (with a satire on censorship thrown in for good measure).
Point is... artsy games, despite being a niche thing, sell consoles, just as M-rated stuff does. If this game is mature, it's not the end of the world - there's still Breath Of The Wild as its counterpart for the youngsters.
How can people compare a game from a company with 5 to 10 dev max with a AAA from Nintendo EAD ?
@AlexSora89 Strange gas-mask wearing creators causing terror? "Are you my M-Rating?"
@PlywoodStick I understand your excitement, but I stand by my original assessment.
Thank you for the welcome though. I've been a PC enthusiast since the 90's and I've never been welcomed before.
Looks good!😃
So there it is : http://www.factornews.com/actualites/seasons-of-heaven-va-t-il-l-emporter-au-paradis-42471.html
To resume :
Any Arts doesn't have Switch DevKit (otherwise : NDA)
Any Arts doesn't have editor (communication made by their friends from gameblog)
@DanteSolablood
It depends. Are we talking about Snifits or the soldiers at the beginning of the first Fallout?
There's no way the Wii U could do this. Unless that wasn't gameplay footage.
Game looks great. The forest scenes especially look amazing. Hope the finished product looks like that.
@KirbyTheVampire 0 chance
Looks beautiful! I'm definitely interested, but I'd like to see some actual gameplay footage/action when it's available.
@PlywoodStick It is a cinematic. There's no gameplay footage. The last shot of the boy getting up off the ground could be gameplay, but there's no HUD.
Until actual gameplay is shown I never let myself get carried away. It's just a pretty animation. Video game marketing's oldest, dirtiest trick is to build hype with pretty artwork. Crikey, Watch_Dogs even gave us gameplay footage but when the PC game was released there was outcry because the advertised gameplay graphics had been dialled back.
@gcunit I messaged the developer & they confirmed the trailer is in-game/in-engine. See the Twitter screenshot above.
You can create trailers using the in-game engine without using the HUD, it's done all the time. Most of the time cut scenes are done all in-game nowadays.
@DanteSolablood As above - so was the Watch_Dogs pre-release footage.
I'm not saying this won't be representative of the final game, or that Switch can't run it, or anything like that. I'm just saying, wait for gameplay.
I'm skeptical cuz non of that was real gameplay. Remember mighty no9 it looked cool but then the final product was crap.
@gcunit I'm hoping that's what December 19th is for.
@bakayoshi Gamefreak actually confirmed they are working on a Pokémon game for the Switch. No NDA = no dev kit? Either way, the game could look this good. It's running on an engine the Switch can run & Unreal Engine seem onboard when they retweeted Any Arts Productions earlier.
Wow.. Those graphics.. Look at the grass looks nice, cant wait for the full reveal. This is a game on my list now
@abbyhitter
It reminded me of that game, too, specially with the post apocaliptic setting.
I just hope it doesn't creepy boses like Fragile Moon. Some of them were disturbing.
@ryanrybot What!? Wow, that's a shame... Well, it's over 20 years late, but there you go! Ahem That said, it's quite impressive to see this being done on a (partly) portable console. So that's something which is rather uncommon in the PC field, sans unsuccessful attempts like the NVIDIA Shield.
@gcunit "I'm just saying, wait for gameplay."
You're looking at it. It just didn't show the controls being handed off yet.
@Galactus_33
MN9 was extremely poorly optimized, and was generally a poorly made game. Not a very good basis for comparing to a game made in Unreal Engine 4, on a system with a far more recent CPU and chipset than the Wii U.
Cutting to black on motion?
For shame.
But yeah, visuals look juicy. Will be interesting to see what kind of game it is.
Well, damn!
Nice graphics!
No way it looks this good in gameplay, right? Incredible!
@DanteSolablood A book being adapted into a video game is something I've never seen before. I hope it turns out good
This is looking better and better, so I'm very curious about the full trailer that they will show on the 19th.
I understand people being somewhat skeptical, and of course this will more than likely be PC/workstation footage, since EVERY game starts its live on such hardware, but they would be smart to develop within the boundaries of the hardware, and not go all out just because you have a powerful workstation.
And since this is an exclusive title, they'd do well to showcase something that we can actually expect instead of something that looks far better than what we'll eventually get.
So, until further notice or proof of the opposite, I choose to believe that this is more or less what the final product will look like, with perhaps only a slight difference in fidelity/resolution.
Seeing no big third party has released anything about their games other then what was shown in the switch debut trailer I am not going to believe this. It looks good but it's not running on the switch. And until it is shown to run on this is just a nice looking PC demo.
No way the Switch will be able to display that. PS4 footage for sure.
@ThainEshKelch It's actually PC footage. There is no PS4 version of this game, nor is there going to be, since it's a Switch exclusive. And if the Switch can run Dark Souls 3, then there's no reason whatsoever why it wouldn't be able to run something like this game.
@ThanosReXXX Ah, well, I still stand by my previous statement. Just because the Switch can run Dark Souls 3, does not mean it does so at anything near the graphical level of the PS4 or Xbox One.
@ThainEshKelch Well, your statement was AT LEAST 50% false, so not too smart to stand by that. And besides: we don't know what's inside the Switch. Graphical fidelity is currently a market of diminishing returns, and from all reports, the Tegra hardware actually comes pretty damn close to Xbox One power, and that's the standard chipset, so who really knows what a custom chipset can do?
I've already told countless people that it's ill-informed to simply compare numbers and hardware since the architectures are completely different, so the performance gains in mobile hardware are calculated in a completely different manner, and as such, a chip that on paper seems weaker can still achieve almost the same results as a normal console chip on a visual level.
Here are some comparison clips with a Tegra X1 equipped tablet running a PS4 Unreal Engine tech demo. One between PS4 and the standard Tegra X1, and one between those two and PC. The differences are hardly worth mentioning and certainly won't bother most people during gameplay. It'll probably only be a problem to real whiners and people that are never satisfied to begin with...
And if you fast forward to 2m10s in this Nvidia presentation, you can see the entire clip running in single screen straight off of the Tegra hardware:
And please keep in mind that the Switch does not have a standard Tegra chip, and makes use of more modern architecture and API's, so that is going to perform considerably better, which will more than likely make the difference even more negligible...
And Dark Souls 3 is a current gen title, so you can't just dismiss that because that is saying a lot in and of itself. Even if it runs at a slightly lower resolution (as in 720p instead of 1080p), then it's still a testament to the power that this small device contains.
In short, the Switch will be a more than capable device, and it's no surprise at all that third parties are so genuinely enthusiastic this time around, so Nintendo truly has something good in store for us again.
@3MonthBeef Nice rambling though.
I think for me personally, Seasons of Heaven is going to be my first game on Switch and it's looking to be a damn good one from what we've seen. The world just looks so vast and full of life, and the animation of the kid in the trailer looked pretty smooth, from what I can see. But the gameplay? Well... I just need to wait till monday after all.
Nice teaser. I hope this game turns out well. Switch needs some compelling exclusive content and this looks like the type of game the console will desperately need.
Hopefully the beginning of a nice long steady stream of Switch software. Still concerned about the potential lack of ability to hook up an external HD. Where we gonna store these games! 32G internal memory not gonna cut it Nintendo! And even though I still have 220G on my Wii U hard drive, I can't display any more games despite having many windows still available because for whatever dumb reason the limitation is 300?? The fix? Delete other games which is just as bad as memory management to me! Bad Nintendo just bad and stupid. Remove that from the switch please. I Don't comprehend the reason for this limitation!! 😡
The Switch is Coming! The Switch is coming! Its looking good too gang
@joey302
Ya the 300 game install limit is bogus. Got me on both my 3DS, and soon my Wii U too. Good thing this generation is ending... looks like I'll squeak by with 300 on both of them.
Still,worst case scenario... 300 is still a ton of game installs. Even if we went 100% digital, that's still gonna account for a nice chunk of games. But I do hope they remove that limit still
@JaxonH putting aside the fact that I buy tons of games both digitally and physically and probably an exception to the rule for most, there's just no logical reason for this limit. Memory limitations is bad enough. I mean these are the some of the lesser reasons Nintendo ticks me off. Who wants to waste their valuable time managing that when we can be playing! 🤔
@JaxonH matter of fact I already have 350 games installed on my Xbox one still with 3.5 terabytes still free. I love my Wii U but jeez!
@joey302
Ya, it wasn't so bad simply because there aren't nearly as many games worth owning on Wii U, although 3DS has a good number. But if I didn't have 150 SNES and GBA virtual console games with A9LH I wouldn't have come close to the limit on 3DS. Not to mention all my games are physical, I only just dumped the carts for convenience. The stock VC selection was far too limited on 3DS as well (not a fan of Gameboy and NES).
Idk how I managed to get so many Wii U games digitally. I buy all my games physically too. I think it's the VC- Wii U has a very healthy selection across virtually every past Nintendo platform. Think I have 41 GBA games alone, not to mention Wii, DS, N64, SNES, NES and TG16.
@JaxonH yea I don't mess with 3DS much no more and my vita as well due to lack of time. But I reached 300 on my Wii U easily because of the vc games lol (although Nintendo really dropped the ball on how much better & robust the Wii U vc could've been) but I'm hoping they address the vc problem with the switch as well. Not as interested in the portable aspect of the switch either but it's a nice bonus. As Long as we can add an external HD drive to the switch to store all these games (my gut is the switch will be way more supported) then I'll be ok with it.
@Dakt Yup, I was aware of that, in my Twitter feed I actually asked if it was running on the Switch and didn't get a response. My tweets actually got mentioned on a YouTube video & they picked this up to.
@bakayoshi Actually, it's 100% chance. It is not wise to go negative in a positive world.
@Kit switch exclusive
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