EA Sports confirmed The Journey will be coming to end in FIFA 19.
Speaking at the EA Play event last week, creative director Matt Prior revealed the addition of the Champions League helped bring the story to a natural conclusion.
FIFA 19 Standard and Champions Editions are available to pre-order from GAME and Amazon
“We always had it planned as a trilogy, because one of the things we wanted to showcase was the various levels of football,” he explained.
“So we started with his breakout into the professional world of football, Year 2 he spread his wings – MLS, Europe, and now Year 3 he’s competing for the ultimate prize in club football.
He added: “The Journey’s been a massive success, so it’d be great to continue that and obviously with the Champions League as the main narrative focus.”
So, what can EA Sports do to give Hunter the send off he deserves?
Here, we discuss four key gameplay additions that could elevate the already decent Journey mode in FIFA 19.
For those of you yet to play through The Journey or the second season, don’t worry – there are no spoilers here.
That being said, we’re almost certain the game will end with Champions League final.
FIFA 19 Standard and Champions Editions are available to pre-order from GAME and Amazon
Customising your Hunter
One of the best features about last year’s game was the ability to customise various aspects of Hunter.
Depending on how ‘Fiery’ or ‘Cool’ your Hunter was, different hairstyles and tattoos would be unlocked – making the whole experience feel more personal than before.
There were different clothes, too – which was a nice touch.
Still, as The Journey moves closer and closer to RPG territory, the level of customisation should reflect this.
Binding the gamer to just one player’s appearance seems a tad archaic, so we’d like to see the option of creating your own character.
Obviously, just like in the Mass Effect series, EA would still keep the base Hunter available for those to carry on the story – but there’s simply no good reason why we shouldn’t have a more detailed character creation tool this year.
FIFA 19 Standard and Champions Editions are available to pre-order from GAME and Amazon
Multiple endings and true player choice
Whilst EA should be praised for their RPG style dialogue wheel – there needs to be more player choice.
Far too often the “fiery” or “cool” response wasn’t extreme enough – made worse by lacklustre responses from NPCs.
We’d expect to see this built on in FIFA 19 – with extreme reactions and consequences stemming from ill-managed conversations.
We want to Hunter to storm out of a press conference if he lets questions get to him.
Or be revered by the media if he shifts praise on to the team, rather than himself after a man-of-the-match performance.
For those looking for a more ‘adult’ and ‘darker’ experience, that wont be on the cards on this year.
Speaking to Dream Team Gaming last year, EA’s Creative Director Matt Prior, said: “Everyone wants to smash Gareth Walker but we’ve got a lot of limitations in terms of what we can and can’t do.
“In terms of smacking someone, it’s something we just cannot do because instantly our ESRB rating or PEGI rating would go above and beyond ‘3’.
“So, it’s one of these things that people think we we have a blank canvas in which to work but there are a lot of restrictions we have to deal with.”
An older Hunter
This is a given but obviously we want Hunter to age.
He started the game as a promising youngster and was a more complete player in season two.
Season three could see the star begin to hit his peak – or perhaps it skips forward towards when he’s a more senior player?
The return of Gareth Walker
Need we say more?
The relationship between Hunter and Walker was one of the best things about The Journey – so we’re fully expecting this to continue in FIFA 19.
The Journey has always been quite tame in how Hunter deals with Walker, which we’d like to see change.
Maybe he pushes you to the edge and you lash out – causing you to get dropped from the Champions League final?
More serious actions bring with them more serious consequences – as it’s the last in the series, EA should go all out here. What have they got to lose?
We want Walker to be even more nasty and conniving.
We really hope so.
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