Minecraft is getting another spin-off in 2023. Mojang’s continual best-seller is now branching off into the strategy genre with Minecraft Legends, which looks bright and serene even as you’re knocking down enemy castle walls.
Revealed during the 2022 Xbox Showcase today, Mojang’s latest spin-off plunges you into a piglin invasion that threatens to corrupt the Overworld. To fend it off you’ll make allies with familiar foes and build up a ragtag army to fight off the invaders. But mostly I’m here for the incredibly chill looking vibes as you roam the beautiful voxel countryside.
Here’s the trailer:
Mojang is teaming up with Blackbird Interactive, the Canadian studio behind Homeworld 3, to make it. Minecraft Legends will also sport online campaign co-op and competitive multiplayer. Here’s how the developers describe the gameplay:
Minecraft Legends is a unique action strategy game. It has strategy elements at its core, but its mechanics are inspired by the immersion of action games. You get to explore the familiar yet in-many-ways-new Overworld in a third-person perspective. You will defend peaceful settlements and fight hordes of piglins to stop the spread of their Nether corruption. You are the center of every battle you lead, fighting alongside your allies while giving them directions. We’ll reveal more about how you’ll achieve the monumental task of repelling the piglins’ invasion in the coming months.
Previously hinted at in a livestream by former Giant Bomb co-host Jeff Gerstmann, Legends follows previous Minecraft spin-offs Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons. The latter is an excellent Diablo-like that continues to get new content and seasonal updates, and shows how malleable the source material’s bright and playful building blocks are. As I said back when Legends was first reported, if it can do for real-time strategy what Dungeons did for the isometric loot grind, I’ll be incredibly pleased.
