Gearbox Software was one of the many developers that appeared during the recent PlayStation Showcase, revealing the first gameplay for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Between Babymetal’s music, various enemies and spells, and Tiny Tina’s madness, it was a bit disorienting but one thing that stuck out is what looked like an overworld. Two super-deformed characters can be seen roaming about, opening a chest for loot.
This isn’t just a mini-game but an actual overworld in the game. As PC Gamer reports, you’ll move between cities and dungeons much like in a Japanese RPG. That also means random encounters as per creative director Matt Cox. “Random encounters will pop up in high grass, so if you’re on the main path they won’t pop up, but if you’re trying to explore, they will. When you touch them, you go into a small first-person area. They’ll have similar biomes, but they won’t be a part of the bigger maps.”
These encounters actually take place in smaller arenas, as you’ll go from the overworld to combat and then back (after claiming your loot, that is). Longer battles provide more opportunities for superior loot. Senior producer Kayla Belmore said that, “We’ve tried to make it worth the player’s while to discover places in this way by adding a lot of things to do in the overworld itself that are exclusive to that part of the game. Extra exploration will take the players to side maps that act almost like whole separate modules that are within the same Wonderlands universe. They’re their own separate substories within themselves.”
It’s also worth noting that armor and melee weapons are their own loot classes now (though the latter is still mapped to a melee button as opposed to being switched to). The character customization is also fairly extensive – along with choosing armor color and patterns, you can alter voice and personality, or even change their race from Elf to Ogre.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is out on March 25th 2022 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. Unfortunately, it won’t have a free upgrade option for previous to current gen players.
