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Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, as you’ve already seen in our first hands-on preview, is a mash-up of Borderland’s unique shooter-looter setting and the world of fantasy as filtered through the mind of a 13-year old explosives expert. We take meta to the next level by returning to Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dungeon Keep’s Bunkers and Badassery for an entirely new adventure through Tiny Tina’s cracked lens of fantasy as it exists within her mind. The world of Borderlands is presented under a fantasy veil. We are introduced to new characters, both real and imagined. One of these NPCs is Izzy, who is the owner and keeper of Izzy’s Fizzies, a “strictly non-alcoholic” soda bar.
Izzy is warm and friendly, with a soft quasi-Minnesotan accent. It’s meant to evoke friendliness, but also serves as an in-game gag. According to Senior Writer Sam Winkler, “Tina is just running out of accents” for the non-playable characters in her B&B campaign.
Meet Izzy.
The Gearbox team has an interesting approach to creating Wonderlands. Everything you do and see within the game is consistent with Tiny Tina’s rules. This means that everything you see is the result of a group of people who were given the task of creating Wonderlands as they would imagine it. The tavern setting was selected because it is a TTRPG cliché, due to the rules that govern them. Anyone who’s played D&D knows all too well how many adventures begin in the noisy, smokey confines of a tavern at a crossroads. As the fantasy Tavern is often the place where adventurers return to share the spoils of their victories, many adventures end there. Izzy’s fizzies is just that. It conforms to Tiny Tina’s rules and serves as a central point for Borderlands players returning.
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Winkler explained that it was basically Sanctuary, referring to the central hubs of Borderlands 2, and 3. As with your room aboard Borderlands 3’s Sanctuary III’s central hubs, the conditions inside the chamber will change as you move through Tiny Tina’s campaign. One of the most striking changes comes in the form prose read by Izzy’s poet. The poet will recite hidden poems as you return to the tavern. He is expanding his repertoire with every new page of prose. It’s Borderlands so I wasn’t able to hear it, but it is very likely that it will be absurd or outrageous, or a combination of both.
Izzy’s Fizzies offers soothing sonnets and other in-game activities, such as Quick Change Stations. They also offer quests that you can undertake. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands offers three levels of quests. There are major, plot and sidequests. The plot quests are pretty obvious–they advance the plot. Although they are significant, major quests do not advance the plotline. Sidequests can be triggered when you find desired posters in Wonderlands.
The tavern also has a “ancient Obelisk”, which is a combination of quests and other items. This is Gearbox’s creative team filtering its thoughts through the brain of a fictional 13 years old chaotic ballistics specialist. Therefore, an ancient Obelisk within a strictly nonalcoholic tavern is standard. The quest structure is not affected by the obelisk, which unlocks new challenges.
Winkler stated that one of the goals the creative team set when creating Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was to give players an ownership feeling, similar to what you would feel playing a tabletop campaign. This principle is evident in Izzy’s Tavern. The tavern will change as you progress through the game. If you beat a beasty that is dangerous, its head might be mounted on the wall. There are banners that you can create and personalize. Every player’s version Izzy’s Fizzies is different. You can also bring your friends along to the tavern so they can flex on you. Winkler claimed that by the end Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, “the tavern” will look completely different from when it started.
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I asked Winkler if the tavern changed at all, beyond the customizations. He gave me a fascinating non-answer, and also laughed with Senior Producer Kayla Belmore, and Creative Director Matt Cox. With a smile, he replied “No”. “But there are some changes” to other areas of the game. It is not clear what those changes will be, but the Borderlands community will surely have them all recorded and tracked within the first day following Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ March 25 release.
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