COLOGNE, Germany—What is Scalebound? A slick, action-packed Platinum Games (makers of Bayonetta) combo-fest? A fantasy RPG with dungeons and dragons and magic spells? An epic story-based adventure? Two years after its announcement—and three since development began—I'm still not sure. Heck, I don't think even Microsoft knows.

Scalebound's Gamescom outing is the latest in a long line of short video clips, technical teases, and scripted battles that have been released since E3 2014, where the game was first revealed in spectacular fashion at Microsoft's press conference. Its debut trailer—which introduced a cocky 20-something headphone-wearing hipster named Drew and his hulking great dragon Thuban—drew criticism for the apparent douchbaggery of its lead, but there was no denying the overall appeal. A new Platinum Games title with dragons that fight and breathe fire and four-player co-op? Shut up and take all of my money.

What we know about Scalebound so far is that Drew and Thuban fight alongside each other, rather than with each other, and that it's an open-world game set in "Draconis" with RPG-like elements and real-time combat. The biggest reveal came during Gamescom 2015, when Microsoft dropped a lengthy gameplay trailer showing Drew riding Thuban—complete with light human-to-dragon banter—into battle against a group of heavily armoured soldiers. Cue some sword swinging, crossbow firing, and plenty of random numbers popping up all over the screen. Oh, and a fight against a giant mantis culminating in a fierce fire-breathing attack from Thuban.

There were a few a brief, if sometimes vague descriptions of the game's RPG and combat mechanics dropped alongside the pretty visuals (this is one of the best-looking games on Xbox One) by Platinum Games' legendary producer Hideki Kamiya. Drew and Thuban (the last dragon in Draconis) are linked, sharing the same health bar, and can perform joint attacks in battle. Thuban is fully AI driven, but Drew can issue commands, while also using his scaly dragon arm to scan enemies for weaknesses. Oh, and there's a giant glowing mushroom in Draconis called "The Pulse," which is sort of like "The Force," and links Drew and Thuban together.

"We came up with this thing called The Pulse, and how The Pulse feeds energy into these character's lives, and how it's actually the source of energy for the world of Draconis," Kamiya told IGN at the time. "There's a fine balance that we need to strike in order to maintain the believability of the world of Draconis. So the basic idea that we've defined internally is approximately 80 percent of what you see feels familiar, something you've seen or felt or experienced, but the remaining 20 percent is something that has been shaped or formed by Pulse energy." That clears that up then.

At Gamescom 2016, Kamiya briefly detailed another gameplay system, albeit a rather important one. Dragon Link is a system that allows Drew to command Thuban, swapping the third-person viewpoint for a first-person one. This gives you a wide, cinematic view of the action as you control Thuban directly, through Drew's eyes, mashing buttons to smash, and bash, and set fire to monsters with wild abandon. You can open up weak spots on enemies, or unleash a combo move, including one that sees Thuban hurl an enemy into the air in classic Platinum Games style, giving Drew the opportunity to leap in with a slicing sword attack.

The flip side is that when using Dragon Link, Drew is immobile and defenceless. If there's more than one enemy, another can easily knock Drew off his feet, which means either teaming up with other players to take on bigger bosses, or being especially strategic about when to deploy Dragon Link. It's the first sign that Scalebound might have some true Platinum Games-like combat and strategy buried beneath the lame crossbow projectiles and millennialesque smack talk. Also neat is that Thuban himself can be levelled up and customised into one of three dragon types: the default rex class, an all-rounder with classic dragon looks; a stockier tank class that walks around on all fours; and a wyvern class that's agile in the air.















You're not limited to a particular class, so you can merge a little of the tank class with the rex class, creating a hybrid dragon that shares the skills and the looks of both. Dragons can be decked out in armour too (purchased with in-game currency), ranging from samurai-inspired plates to medieval metal. There are parts for the tail, and claws, and wing tips, and head, and arms... pretty much every part of the dragon can be armoured up. Armour is destructible, though, so reckless battles will result in lost armour and cash.

Which is all fine and dandy, but how it all fits together remains a mystery. Microsoft hasn't so much shown off Scalebound as it has demonstrated a bunch of neat, but disparate gameplay systems without actually showing anyone the game. It feels like Scalebound debuted far too early, and while giving people a peek behind the curtain of game development early on is all the rage these days, something tells me that this slow trickle of information wasn't part of the plan. In January, Scalebound was pushed back from its original holiday 2016 release date to some unspecified point in 2017.

With any luck we'll get some hands-on time with the game, whether as a demo or beta release before 2017. Clever genre mashups are no bad thing, but they're a hard sell (Scalebound was shelved twice before being picked up by Microsoft), particularly for a mainstream audience. I'm excited to try it. After all, this is a Platinum Games game with fire-breathing dragons, and giant spiders, and mantises, and things that explode with much over-the-top ferocity. I'll take that, mystery and all, over another shooter any day.

Scalebound is due for release on Xbox One and PC in 2017.