For Honor is increasing the art and nuance of melee. According to Ubisoft, it's not just a brawler, or a buttonmasher, or a fighting game. Ubi is trying to coin a new genre, even if they don't quite know what to call it yet.
Jason VandenBerghe is For Honor's Creative Director. The guy is a visionary, a warrior-poet of sorts; you can sense that in him. He wants to translate the feeling—the purpose—a person acquires when they pick up a weapon. For him, the question isn't What's your favorite: Vikings, knights, or samurai? The question is, What ideals to you believe in: Vikings, knights, or samurai?
It takes the entire concept of For Honor much deeper, even if they're really only innovating by making you choose a fighting stance with the right thumbstick. Still, I appreciate the idea of cutting deeper emotions into video game combat.
For Honor is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. No launch date yet, but since it was just announced at E3 2015 in June, I'd expect it's more than a year away.
