Penny Arcade Adventures 3 Not Coming to XBLA

By Rebecca Smith,
Nearly eight months ago, we revealed that the Penny Arcade: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness episodic game series had been revived. After then-developer Hothead Games became focused on the DeathSpank series, the company realised that they simply didn't have the time to devote themselves to creating games for two series and the future of the Penny Arcade series looked bleak. Then Zeboyd Games stepped up to the plate and fans' hopes were raised.

Back in August we were unable to reveal any platforms for Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, but more details were due to be revealed at this month's PAX East festival. Well, they appeared a little earlier than that. In an exclusive interview with Joystiq, Zeboyd's Robert Boyd (one of the two men who make up the entire development team at Zeboyd games) revealed that the game will not be targeting XBLA. Instead, the game will be released as an Xbox LIVE Indie Game. Given the developer's previous history with XBLIG games Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

Despite the game's title, this instalment is going to be more of a standalone game as it has been "quite some time" since the last two episodes. The world and characters will be familiar to players of the first two games, but newcomers to the series will be able to play the third game without needing any knowledge of the first two. Although the studio is collaborating with Penny Arcade writer Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and will include some details from the wrapped up narrative created after the game's initial cancellation, Zeboyd are also writing plenty of their own narrative to cover some of the major plot points that haven't been previously covered.

The third instalment will look dramatically different though; the game has Zeboyd's typical 8-bit appearance; take a look:

Ep. 3 Screenshot 1

Ep. 3 Screenshot 3

Ep. 3 Screenshot 8


The gameplay has also been overhauled. One of the developer's major influences is Grandia, and Episode 3 will now include a "similar, pseudo-real-time combat system". A time bar will dictate when a character can perform an action. Using special attacks at the right moments can delay opponents so that they are pushed backwards along the time bar.

Ep. 3 Screenshot 2

Ep. 3 Screenshot 4

Ep. 3 Screenshot 5

Ep. 3 Screenshot 6

Ep. 3 Screenshot 7


The last piece of news to be revealed in the interview is that Zeboyd Games will also be in charge of the series' fourth and final episode, meaning that the episodic series will finally reach its finale.

Penny Arcade: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is due to be released this summer. A price is yet to be confirmed, although pricing is likely to "be in line with Zeboyd's previous games"; that would be 80 MSP then.

We've got the full list of Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 2 achievements - check the list for guides to unlocking them.
Rebecca Smith
Written by Rebecca Smith
Rebecca is the Newshound Manager at TrueGaming Network. She has been contributing articles since 2010, especially those that involve intimidatingly long lists. When not writing news, she works in an independent game shop so that she can spend all day talking about games too. She'll occasionally go outside.
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