For diehard fans of Respawn’s Titanfall series, Apex Legends remains something of a sensitive topic. The battle royale, a side project created unbeknownst to publisher EA, had originally been developed with the mind that it would be DLC for Titanfall 2, though, as is so often the case with additional content, the scope of the project grew in line with ambition, leading to the creation of the standalone title enjoyed by millions today.
Unsurprisingly, the massive success enjoyed by Apex over the past year and a half has led to its developer dedicating more and more manpower to keep fans’ hunger for new content satiated, a move that’s inevitably led to Titanfall 3 being placed on the backburner. That’s not to say the threequel is dead and buried – quite the contrary, in fact, according to recent comments provided by EA – but it’ll likely be a while until the time is found to create a third installment.
With that said, however, Apex, set in the same universe as it is, often features content with heavy ties to its predecessor, and nowhere is that perhaps more true than with Bloodhound.
As spotted by Who_is_Ikarus over on Reddit, a series of katakana symbols engraved into Bloodhound’s helmet, when translated into the Latin alphabet, reads as Taitanforu or, in English specifically, Titanfall. A neat reference in itself, no doubt, but one that’s particularly applicable to Bloodhound, given that his design was conceived way back before Apex Legends was even a glint in Respawn’s eye. Scans of an old Titanfall art book preceding the former’s release (gallery above) show a character bearing a striking resemblance to the Technological Tracker.
A terrifically well-hidden nod to the series that helped establish Respawn’s name in the industry, then, though you almost certainly shouldn’t take this as anything more. The studio has reiterated numerous times that, despite repeated requests to add them, player-controlled Titans are unlikely to ever find their way into Kings Canyon or World’s Edge. See here for the full story.
