Featuring: Mike Salbato, Patrick Gann, Audra Bowling, Gio Castillo; Edited by Paul Dennis

Tracklist

Toneless Feelings
0:03:51 – Tears of Feelings (evbtl08) (comp.&arr. Chikayo Fukuda / vocal Tomoyo Mitani) – .hack//Link
0:07:53 – Toneless (comp. Nobuo Uematsu / arr. Kimio Itoyama / vocal YVONNE) – Anata wo Yurusanai

Snowy Jungle
0:29:01 – ‌Calinca Tundra & Calinca Ruins (vs Reaverbots) (Makoto Tomozawa) – Mega Man Legends 2
0:31:13 – ‌Shibuya – Jungle Navigation (Yuzo Koshiro) – 7th Dragon 2020

Written in the Stars
0:51:02 – Crimson Star {PSP “Growlanser” OP2 (Male Version)} (Noriyasu Agematsu {Elements Garden}) – Growlanser PSP
0:54:59 – Rendezvous of the Stars – Ready to Fly – (English Version) (Chiaki Fujita {Sing Like Talking}, Additional Music by Bill King) – Summon Night 5

Extra Gurumin
1:06:26 – Sight of Silence (Falcom Sound Team jdk) – Gurumin
1:10:05 – Battle (Shinji Hosoe) – Fate/EXTRA
1:35:36 – Gio’s Bonus Track!

Album Links

.hack//Link GAME MUSIC O.S.T.

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• CDJapan

7th Dragon 2020 Original Sound Track

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• YouTube Playlist (Unofficial)

Anata wo Yurusanai Original Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music

Crimson Star / Maho Tomita

• VGMdb

Fate/EXTRA Limited Sound Track

• VGMdb

Gurumin Original Sound Track

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music
• Spotify

Mega Man Legends 2 Original Video Game Soundtrack

• VGMdb
• YouTube Playlist (Unofficial)
• Black Screen Records – Vinyl

Summon Night 5 Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• YouTube Playlist (Unofficial)

Listen and subscribe where you please, and leave a rating if you can! Email us your feedback: music@rpgfan.com

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Tea Punk Teas

In years past when we’ve covered Origins, we discussed the odd and novel businesses surrounding soaps so players can smell like their characters and tins with herbs in them for an odorific atmosphere during role-playing sessions. What about sipping tea reminiscent of Malenia or a dragon you’ve smitten—or been smitten by? Tea Punk Teas has you covered, and we were impressed by their catalog of wares. On the pricier side, without question, these blends smelled the part. We didn’t get a chance to sample their work, but their alchemist assured me that taste came first, then the name. They also have a light-hearted game about biscuits to go with the tea, and while we had a good time with it, it’s certainly on the extremely lighter side of complexity.

Escape Rooms

Imagine showing up to an escape room that always seemed to have a line in front of it so that you could chat with its designer, only to be questioned about why you’re covering Origins when “RPGFan only covers video games.” David Welch’s Boot Hill Heroes earned a respectable 70% from us back in 2014, and he never forgot. Filled with appreciation and handshakes, we caught up with him about his sci-fi escape room that leans heavily toward riddles, technology, and teamwork.

While Origins is ostensibly about tabletop, miniatures, and D&D-style RPGs, escape rooms have been a constant presence at the event, and Welch has found enough success going from convention to convention to quit his day job and become a full-time escape room designer. His work differs from any other escape room I’ve done, though, as his relies heavily on computers that look a great deal like those in Star Trek. While players meaningfully impact the room with their screens alone, some back-end stuff takes place, such as Welch updating the tech when players place something in a transmogrifier. We didn’t get to sample the room ourselves, but if his stated success and the line of people we always saw seated outside of a closed door are any indication, escape rooms are here to stay at Origins.

If you’re interested in more of what David Welch has been up to, he’s currently working on an outdoor escape room in the style of Shadowgate. Something more in line with what we do here at RPGFan, he also has an escape room called Cabin of the Cackling Man, which is about a cursed retro video game reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda, which we absolutely cover.

Inclusivity

We also met two LGBTQ+-centric booths in the exhibitor hall, one with a non-profit group offering resources on inclusivity in a variety of arenas, and another—Rainbow Quest—designers of a trivia game akin to roll-and-move games of yore. Tabletop Gaymers is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote inclusivity and visibility. Their booth at Origins certainly had a wealth of information, and I picked up a few fliers for my own education and to help me learn how to set up a gaming safe space for students I work with.

What struck me about Rainbow Quest was its emphasis on stimulating candid conversations without shaming would-be allies or queer folk in case something was lost in the details. After speaking with Dr. Brian Kaufman, Ph.D. in Industrial-Organization Psychology, it became clear to me that his goal with his game, which he has worked on for decades over several iterations, is to educate and affirm. Too often, those curious are scared to engage in difficult conversations, and with Rainbow Quest, those worries melt away as inquiry is its core. When I asked what he plans to do about the ever-changing vocabulary and nuance around topics discussed in the game, he said he wasn’t sure yet. Making another edition feels bad, because it pressures people to buy a whole new copy. He thought offering a printable PDF online might do the trick, but he also said that he hasn’t received one complaint about his game, including older editions that refer to “the other gender.” I think an entertaining resource like this earns its keep by injecting something positive into the world, even if a few of the cards may no longer be accurate.

Production

Are you an aspiring game designer who wants to avoid publishers? Are you curious about developing a game, but find the entire process a daunting prospect? For the first time I’ve noticed at Origins, manufacturers and companies who support crowdfunding endeavors were present to show off what they’ve done for several successful titles. Hive Interactive offers assistance to Kickstarter creators, which is more important than you might think. What makes a successful Kickstarter campaign requires a variety of touches that may not be intuitive to someone who just wants to make a fun game; I’ve had such conversations with board game designers, miniature developers, and even successful business owners. Specifics and pricing structures are clearly defined on their website, so if you anticipate needing help getting your project off the ground, they appear to be well-connected with a history of victories for independent projects.

Similar, but in a bit of a different direction, GameLand was set up at the event as well, and they handle manufacturing and production. Since 2006, GameLand has helped several projects get off the ground with relatively complex designs (like layered cardboard wheels to track resources). Having gotten a chance to get my hands on some of their work at Origins, the quality is either without comparison or as one would expect. Miniatures, plastic vehicles, metal dice with a satisfying weight, and intricately engraved coins—whatever you want, it seems like they can do it. Communication and working with designers during the lengthy manufacturing process seem to be GameLand’s chief priorities, as well, because while making good components that reflect a developer’s vision is important, it all falls apart if something goes amiss from idea to shipping.

For the uninitiated, Eric Lang is one of the premier designers in the world of board gaming, with several titles falling within the top 500 on BoardGameGeek, and even a couple in the top 100. Blood Rage, a Viking journey to Valhalla, is probably his most noteworthy title, developed way back in 2015; it sits at a cushy rank 50. For you RPGFanners, you might recall our two Bloodborne: The Card Game reviews—the base game, and the Hunter’s Nightmare expansion—from a few years ago, which Lang also developed.

In my conversation with Lang, we spoke about his ability to choose what games he covers, and that he’s not taken on a game he wasn’t interested in working on. A Bloodborne fan, he spoke about having already thought of the card game’s design when he was approached about the opportunity. Lang’s approach to designing games is a sit-on-it approach, as he likes to revisit his work months after touching it. In this way, he becomes less personal and defensive about his work, as he can more easily scrap what doesn’t work and fine-tune that which needs a facelift. When conversing with his fellow designers, he often hears stories from folks that they simply can’t get rid of something because they put x amount of hours into it; he no longer has this problem.

We also discussed his views on balance. Balance is a constant discussion in both video games and board games, especially among consumers. The idea of balance is held on a pedestal, but Lang has no problem accepting that some facets simply don’t need to be balanced. Why shouldn’t a card or five, for instance, be relatively overpowered? This creates a “wow factor” when players get such a card, especially in cooperative games. In competitive games, like the Bloodborne card game, fellow players can even the scales by simply aggressing on the lucky player. My own insertion here is that I think playing with a reasonably sensible group of players who can recognize when someone’s shooting ahead is a fine way to insert balance into the game.

Lang spoke about what he called “sandpapering the lows,” an idea many designers admire. In his mind, though, Lang says that if you try to shave the lows, you minimize the peaks, which can water down the experience. Lows should exist, as they allow for highs to exist as well. In addition, he stated that if no lows exist, the middling experiences become the lows, and then what’s achieved is mediocrity. I enjoy this perspective, because I’ve grown to love games when they make me feel something, even if it’s not great; the opposite of love is not hate. It’s ambivalence.

I could have spoken to Lang for another half hour, but my time got interrupted by another developer who had something to say; I didn’t mind at all, as I had already monopolized Lang’s time. This person was none other than R. Eric Reuss, the genius behind the critically acclaimed Spirit Island, a cooperative game developed in 2017 in which players take the role of island gods to terrorize and straight-up murder imperialists. (It’s as fun as it sounds.) My gaming group and I instantly fell in love with this outstanding title, which currently sits at rank 11 on BoardGameGeek’s top games list. He immediately apologized for injecting himself, and when I found out who he was, my jaw dropped, eyes wide. I asked to shake his hand because his game had meant so much to us, and I couldn’t believe I just happened to meet him by chance. And speaking with Eric Lang, no less! The two spoke about views on design, seemingly in a different language, and it felt like watching two masterwork painters talk shop.

These are the experiences that make Origins a fantastic event to attend. Not only did I get to speak with Eric Lang, I got to—by pure chance—see him speak with another favorite designer of mine. My wife and I walked away after a warm departure with smiles from ear to ear. What a joy.

Find all of our coverage for Origins Game Fair 2024 below, including a chat with Eric Lang, a look at some games featured this year, and more:

Thank you to all who run the giant event that is Origins, but most of all, thank you to the attendees, whether hawking wares or shelving wares once home. The event’s certainly changed from pre-COVID to post-COVID, but inclusivity and board game adjacency are continued, welcomed themes. Heavy hitters may be stepping aside, but that allows for independent developers and smaller titles to take the spotlight. Origins may be evolving with the times, but that is in no way a bad thing.

Ostensibly, many consider short games to be simple and luck-based. Nuanced or complicated rules don’t make for a breezy experience. But what if a game could require skill and last a mere five minutes? Enter 5-Minute Dungeon, a completely cooperative game with leveled bosses where time is the limiting factor. To win, players have to hack their way through a set number of enemies in less than five minutes so that they can beat the big baddie.

With a hand of three to five cards—depending on how many heroes are delving into the dungeon—players flip over an enemy card with a funny title and artwork and the all-important symbols players need to spend to beat it. Magic, speed, arrows, swords, and shields are wonderfully colored so that all players can easily understand what to play and quickly say, “I don’t have any” or “I have three speed, don’t worry about it.” Eventually, players will learn a form of short-hand, as just saying a couple words eats up precious time.

To add some strategy, players pick a class at the beginning, like paladin, barbarian, wizard, or huntress. Each player board has an opposite side with a similar character, such as thief and ninja on the reverse. Usually a male and female variant, the only real difference between genders is their special ability, like discarding three cards to automatically defeat an obstacle for one, and discarding three cards to let another player draw four cards for the other. Each class also hosts a different deck, with leanings toward some symbols (e.g. paladin has more shields, barbarian has more swords, etc.) In addition, each deck has a few special abilities that can dramatically help players, such as a holy hand grenade to automatically beat a mini-boss or tricky event, or the ability to completely donate one’s hand to another player. You can even stop time for some lengthy communication before playing another card and resuming time. Decks don’t reshuffle, so wisely spending cards is key to victory. Players can freely discard to find the card they need, but doing so can knock a hero out before reaching the villain.

Starting out with the Baby Barbarian with a measly twenty enemy deck, players will likely have a pretty easy time with the first and second boss. The third and fourth boss can definitely thwart players with some slow play, while the fifth and final boss will require strategy and thoughtful, snappy play. The game ends after beating or losing to a villain. Continue play or move on with your day: it’s that simple.

The wonderful thing about 5-Minute Dungeon is that it’s not only quick, it feels meaty. By virtue of injecting urgency into the simple gameplay, most players will have a fun, intense time, win or lose. While 5-Minute Dungeon certainly fits RPGFan’s coverage and that’s why I’m talking about this title, I’d be negligent if I didn’t mention that designer Connor Reid also developed 5-Minute Mystery, another fantastic title we got to demo at this year’s Origins. So, get shuffling, heroes, because the griffin-door and rather unpleasant pheasant aren’t going to beat themselves in a matter of seconds.

I must have been sleeping on AllPlay pre-pandemic, or they’ve just grown tremendously since then. Initially a luxury board game table developer, AllPlay has leaned heavily into publishing board games that they describe as “approachable and easy to learn,” which I agree with, except for our first title: A Message From the Stars. Want something more from a word game? What we have here is a game in which alien life is trying to communicate with us, but wouldn’t’cha know it, we don’t speak the same language. So, in lieu of that, we have to give brief clues to one another using logic, simple math, and word descriptions. Even the person who demoed the game with us admitted that many people approaching her table didn’t initially understand what was going on.

Each player cooperatively works with another player, the alien, to figure out what the heck they are trying to say through letter identification. Players use a board with all the letters of the alphabet listed under three sections for addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Each letter has three different colors depending on how often they are used in our language, and each color can only occur a certain amount of times. The alien will write a word that approximates the keyword and write a number under it to signify the numerical value that players must puzzle out. It won’t give the players all the information they need, but it can help them narrow down their choices. Only able to supply a few clues, players must respond with their own word to approach one of three words they need the alien to guess, while also trying to get more information from the alien depending on how they respond to that word with their new clue. Honestly, the whole thing took me a few rounds of play to fully grasp, but the investment was worth it as we all had a great time working together and coming out on top.

9 Lives

AllPlay has also sought to bring some Japan-only titles to the US by localizing their work. One such title is 9 Lives, a game initially developed in 2015 by Taiki Shinzawa. Cat lovers beware, because if you have even the slightest inkling toward trick-taking card games, you’re going to need (not want) this game. No partners here; in 9 Lives, players are tasked with bidding how many tricks they will take. By using an adorable cat figurine, they can lay the cat longways to take two numbers or face toward a single number with intent to earn that many tricks only. Higher risks mean greater rewards (more points) because at the end of four rounds, or whoever gets to a specific point value first wins.

Now, here’s where the magic happens: when a trick is played, the high card, or trump, wins. Normal. The winning player not only gets the trick, but they take one of the losing cards into their hand. Play for the round ends when any one player runs out of cards. In this way, a round can go extremely long or short. Think carefully, as going above or below your bid may sink you, though each bid also has a high bid. So, if you bid 5, for example, that 5 may also be paired with a 12 on the bidding board depending on how the game’s set up. This means if you miss your 5 bid, you can always hit 12, but that will take some fancy play to get there. The other players know that, too. It all sounds simple, but I’ve honestly never played a trick-taking game like this, and it was an absolutely cerebral blast. Also, the cards have cats on them. Maine Coons get the 9 spot, of course.

Keep the Heroes Out

Keep the Heroes Out is a charming cooperative game in which players have to—you guessed it—keep the heroes out. You are the villains trying to keep your treasure safe from paladins, wizards, and all sorts of do-gooders. Card-driven, players set up traps and attack good guys as they come rushing in to take smaller treasures that power them up, or hurt the villains (that’s you). At some point, the do-gooders give up; through strategic play, the villains can survive with their loot another day. Although Keep the Heroes Out came out in 2022, I bring this up not only because it fits our theme here at RPGFan so well, but also because expansions are constantly being released, including right now. Oh, also, the artwork is absolutely adorable and crisp, and almost made me purchase the game by itself.

Little Alchemists

If you’re anything like me, you’re nearing forty, have kids, and can’t wait to brainwash them into one of your favorite hobbies. Little Alchemists will do the trick, and while it’s not fully available just yet, give it a couple months. CGE’s Alchemists is a brain burner in logic, reason, and worker placement hijinks. My wife loves this game, but I still don’t fully understand it. Anyway, if you’re on the slow end like me or have kids who love the idea of smashing mushrooms and bugs together to make elemental potions, then look no further. With seven (yes, seven) difficulty levels, your four-year-old can earn their wings at level one and work their way up to level seven. Or if you have a smart six-year-old ready to enter at level three, start there. If your husband’s an idiot, you can start at level five.

What you’re trying to do is essentially guess-and-check by choosing two elements to discover what kind of potion they make, which is randomized every game. If you make enough discoveries, you win. Sounds like just plain old luck, right? Well, if you’re paying attention, taking notes (on the higher levels), and able to rule things out based on what other players are taking and creating, you can use information on other players’ turns to snag a potion before they do, earning yourself more points. Brewing potions at the right time can boost players, as offers are intermittently made in the game to incentivize concocting an air potion, for instance. Everything is app-driven, so no mistakes can be made trying to figure out what ingredients actually create. The whole thing pops off the table with colors and artwork that is sure to charm your kiddo.

Natera: New Beginning

Here we are at our promising and entertaining prototype. Natera: New Beginning is a card-driven worker placement title that found humanity getting a little too big for their britches as its pursuit for intellect accidentally turned the entire world into animals. Oops. Fortunately, you’re still pretty smart and can turn this post-humanity world into a thriving cityscape again. Not sure we learned anything here, BUT that’s okay, because we have an engrossing, meaty game reminiscent of other hits like Terraforming Mars and Ark Nova. In fact, I got a chance to play the prototype with Eric Fugere and he told me he got this idea from Terraforming Mars, one of his favorite games. But don’t worry; this is no mere copycat.

While every deck in Natera is unique, the card anatomy is like nothing I’ve seen in any other game, specifically with regard to cost. Every card has three different costs using three different resources, but the resources are not always weighted the same way. One card may cost five brains, two arrows, and one heart, while another costs two brains, eight arrows, and nine hearts. In many games with multiple resources, they are typically valued sequentially, such as wood being the weakest and gold being the most valuable; not so in Natera. I assume every card costs a seemingly random value because different animal tribes have different leanings and ease of access. So, for bears, getting arrows may be no problem, but they could have trouble getting brains, while the reptiles may have the exact opposite situation. So, a cost of nine hearts may be effectively cheaper than four brains for some clans, but maybe that card is less useful for the bears than it is for the beavers.

Cards aren’t all Natera has going for it, though: the board boasts typical worker placement tendencies, such as putting one of your three workers on a five-heart space to get five hearts, or two batteries to get two batteries. To spice things up, the board is divided into four quadrants with loyalty tracks, and a central area with no loyalty track. The center district offers larger rewards for placement, but doesn’t benefit from loyalty and requires players to discard a card. However, if you’re the bears, you don’t have to discard, yet bears are also large and can bully other players out of sought-after spots anywhere on the board by virtue of their size. On the other hand, reptiles may be excellent at gathering food and have an easier time recruiting specialists with an abundance of food, something the bears struggle with. This description may make it feel like each tribe is forced into a pathway, but upon our initial experience with the game, I found decision-making much more complex and nuanced. I couldn’t simply ignore food as the bears, and found some specialists would help my strategy, so I had to find a way to get more food. Fortunately, if I gathered enough crates, I could build a house on one of those worker placement spots I had seen my opponents going to frequently, forcing them to provide me food every time they went there (from the bank, not the player). Loyalty tracks lead to unique placement areas that only a player with high enough loyalty can access, and these are randomized every game.

While we didn’t get to play a full game, Fugere told us that a Kickstarter is pending and will launch later this month. He has been working on this game full-time for two years, and has a spreadsheet he has labored over to achieve some semblance of balance. He can’t wait to push his baby out there, as he believes it is finally in a good place. What we got to experience at Origins was a gameboard that draws the eye, lovingly crafted game components, and an artist who brings these anthropomorphic critters to life. Although it’s not technically in its final stages, Fugere clearly took pride in what he could show us, and we would have had no way of knowing of its existence if he hadn’t set it up in the free play area after exhibitor hours. Only at Origins!

Echoes of the Emergent is the latest game from the ironically named RNG Party Games, a studio dedicated to narrative-driven experiences. They first made a name for themselves with Bloom, a hybrid between light farming simulation and a visual novel told through text messages. Its dialogue often lacked authenticity and there was an acute lack of interplay between gameplay systems, but it was such a unique experiment that I was on board for whatever the studio did next.

Interestingly, Echoes of the Emergent doesn’t try to push conceptual boundaries like its predecessor did. You’re strictly reading text boxes accompanied by images and audio, putting all the heavy lifting on the story. The writers stepped up to this task; their prose shows an evolution over their previous work.

This tale recounts the plight of Ayumi, a teenager who appears to be the last living human in Tokyo following a world-ending event of unclear (at least initially) origins. She spends every day scavenging for food to survive and treasuring the few moments of peace she’s allowed between these danger-riddled outings. This is complicated by her bouts with anxiety that amplify her fear of going outside and the crumbling infrastructure that make being indoors a safety hazard itself. Dwindling food supplies in her area thrusts her into exploring beyond the mental safety of her boundaries, exacerbating her panic.

Following Ayumi through her struggle to survive is grueling, yet it never feels miserable thanks to fantastic pacing and perfectly timed flashbacks that slowly reveal the mystery of the world and her place in it. There’s a precise pacing that never lingers too long on scenes while still providing them room to breathe. Other moments drag on to help the player understand Ayumi’s anxieties, resulting in a portrayal of the mental illness that felt accurate from my perspective as someone who lives with it.

It’s impossible to discuss much more about the Echoes of the Emergent’s story without spoiling its surprises, but every turn kept me hooked. I couldn’t put the game down during its roughly 3-hour runtime. Unfortunately, it doesn’t entirely stick its landing. The conclusion hinges on its least compelling plot thread with unclear logic, and after wrapping this up, unceremoniously boots you back to the main menu. It feels as if the focus shifts away from Ayumi’s internal growth in these final moments and she’s never given the resolution she deserves. It’s unfortunate that the missed potential caused by a rushed ending dampened the game’s emotional impact after walking away.

I was similarly disappointed by the lack of interactivity. This isn’t to say that player choice should’ve been shoehorned into a story where it’s unnecessary, but simple additions like using the crank to open doors and food cans would’ve broken up the monotony of pressing “A” to read each subsequent text box. Not utilizing the Playdate’s signature feature was a missed opportunity to give Echoes of the Emergent some unobtrusive player agency and justify it as a platform exclusive. Not every Playdate game needs to use the crank, but Echoes of the Emergent offers nothing in lieu of it.

Speaking of questionable platform exclusivity, the Playdate’s lack of a backlit screen felt at odds with the tone of the game. Echoes of the Emergent is an eerie and isolating experience, one that would be best suited for playing in the dark on a system that supports it. While I don’t knock the game for this, it’s an unfortunate irony, and hopefully the game gets ported to other platforms where nighttime play is feasible.

It’s actually to Echoes of the Emergent’s credit that it still engrossingly captures its desolate world through art, music, and sound effects despite this platform-based setback. The abandoned locales that Ayumi traverses are displayed with distorted shadows and subtle gyrating animations that often sent chills down my spine. It’s an effect akin to early polygonal horror games — an obfuscation of detail that leaves your mind to fill in the blanks and spur fear. This is counterbalanced by more cleanly illustrated scenes when Ayumi is at ease, showing the beauty of life when her world is otherwise devoid of it.

The developers allow you to disable the text box at any time by pressing down on the d-pad, allowing you to soak in every detail including those the text covered over. I often found myself taking a few moments to let the art breathe, taking in Ayumi’s surroundings before carrying on with her adventure. For a game that uses full-screen art on a small screen, this was a smart feature.

A multi-faceted soundtrack complements the art’s achievements and seamlessly moves between discordance, heart-pumping thrills, and bliss. This mirrors how Ayumi feels at any given moment; anxiety breeds distortion and warbly tones, while other heightened emotional states add clarity with tense beats or warm synths. A large bank of sound effects also gives the world a heightened sense of realism. You’ll want to plug in headphones to get the most from the game’s soundscape.

I have a few outstanding quibbles with Echoes of the Emergent that I hope are addressed in an upgrade. For one, there are a few typos that stick out, even if they’re scant. There were also moments when the framerate tanked, causing buttons to become less responsive. The game is also devoid of standard-issue visual novel features like a text log, fast-forward function, and multiple save slots. The first of these was an inherent feature of Bloom’s text message conversations, so I hope the team can implement it here. Finally, some extras like a gallery for art and music would be welcome. Bloom had a soundtrack mode, and Echoes of the Emergent deserves the same.

But these flaws and even a less-than-stellar ending don’t override all the ways in which this game prevails. On a platform better known for its quick arcade games, Echoes of the Emergent stands out as one of the most substantial narrative offerings. Every Playdate owner owes it to themselves to give it a shot, especially at the low price of $8. It left me even more excited to see what RNG Party Games is cooking with their forthcoming RPG For Home.

While the probability of their new title being a new Xenoblade title is high, Takahashi referred to the new project as a “new RPG title.” While past titles were created with teams on the small size, he admits that it is hard to maintain such a size in the current video game development landscape. Takahashi also emphasized the ability for teams to work laterally, as more and more aspects of games flow into each other, such as characters, combat, sidequests, etc. Interestingly, he brings up open-world titles as an example (please bring back Xenoblade Chronicles X!).

Here is a list of positions Monolith Soft is aiming to fill:

• 2D Designer (Artwork staff, leader position)
• 3DCG Designer (Characters)
• 3DCG Designer (Maps)
• Development Environment Engineer
• Field Level Designer
• Assistant Director
• In-game Animator
• Effects Designer

For the full letter from Tetsuya Takahashi, check out Lugalbanda’s translation. Previous translations include Tetsuya Takahashi’s message on the Xenoblade soundtrack collection.

What could the new title be? Xenoblade Chronicles 4? A follow-up to Xenoblade Chronicles X? Xenosaga Episode IV? Okay, maybe not that last one, as much as my heart yearns for it, but stay tuned to RPGFan as we learn more!

Source: Lugalbanda

Preview the newest trailer below, featuring updated graphics and revamped combat.

Fate/Extra, the first RPG in the Fate series, made its debut in Japan back in July 2010, followed by a North American release in November 2011. I’m glad to know that Fate/Extra Record‘s combat has been completely redone, with a deck-building dramatic command battle that improves the scenario, as our PSP review states that the combat of the original falls short of delivering a great experience.

Fate/Extra Record Overview

About

The “Moon Holy Grail War” begins anew…

The setting is a Spiritron virtual world called “SE.RA.PH.” built on the moon. Masters and Servants team up and fight for survival in pursuit of the “Holy Grail,” an omnipotent wish-granting device, in the Moon Holy Grail War which begins once again…

This is a remake of Fate/EXTRA, the first Fate series RPG originally released on July 22, 2010, now revamped for modern hardware with an expanded scenario, refreshed character graphics, and dramatic command battles utilizing a highly strategic deck-building system.

Master and Servant

128 of the world’s top hackers, each capable of transforming their soul into Spiritrons, are selected as Masters to participate in the Holy Grail War.

The Servants they form contracts with are the souls of legendary heroes and eminent figures from history, whose true names are concealed. These Servants are materialized as Spiritron life-forms and are assigned to one of seven classes, such as Saber or Archer.

Through their shared struggle, where they entrust their souls to one another, their pasts and hidden desires intersect.

Staff

• Original Story and Scenario: Kinoko Nasu / TYPE-MOON
• Original Character Concept: Takashi Takeuchi / TYPE-MOON
• Planning and Direction: Kazuya Niino / TYPE-MOON studio BB
• Character Design: Arco Wada

Screenshots

Fate/Extra Record is scheduled to launch sometime in 2025 for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Stay tuned here at RPGFan as we anticipate an official release date of this title and keep checking back for more announcements of RPGs being remade in modern platforms!

Source: Gematsu

The compilation features updated box art drops the “Pixel Remaster” branding, dubbing the release as “Anniversary Edition”. Copies will include a sticker sheet with 12 character sprites from the series.

For those who are new to the series or haven’t played these six genre-defining RPG classics, here’s a video overview (from last year) of what you can expect.

Final Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary Edition Overview

The first six FINAL FANTASY games have been updated with beautiful new 2D pixel graphics designed to look great on HD displays, rearranged soundtracks overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu and improved gameplay features, including modernised user interface, auto-battle options and more.

The games are available on PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam now digitally, either separately or as a collection comprising FINAL FANTASY I – VI.

Key Features

The pixel remaster versions of these classic games have some awesome features that make them even more enjoyable to play than before.

These include the option to:

• Change soundtracks: The Pixel Remaster series features utterly superb new orchestral arrangements of FINAL FANTASY I – VI’s soundtracks. However, we know some of you may want to recreate the original experience of playing these games, so you’ll be able to switch between the original and rearranged soundtracks.
• Change fonts: The console release of FINAL FANTASY I – VI gives you the option to switch between two different fonts: the default font and a new pixel-based font that recreates the feel of the original games.
• Turn off random encounters: Sometimes you just want to explore in peace, so a feature in the Pixel Remaster games lets you turn off random encounters completely. This means you can roam the world without being harassed by monsters. That also means you won’t get stronger, so be careful how you use it…
• Adjust experience: Speaking of getting stronger, want to speed things up a little? Boost features let you adjust the experience gained by up to four times. Perfect if you want an easier run through the games.
• Auto-battle: With a press of a button, you can make characters automatically perform their last action. It makes battles fly by!
• View extras: Get a closer look at the many monsters you’ll face in the bestiary, marvel at the beautiful illustrations in a gallery, and enjoy the incredible soundtracks in a music player.

All these features are, of course, optional, but they mean that players of all types – from those who played the originals to those who have never played a classic FINAL FANTASY game before – can have a great time with these six awesome adventures.

Screenshots

Final Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary Edition is now available to pre-order for $74.99 at participating retailers. The collection releases on October 8th for PS4 and Switch.

Collectors who missed out on the first run (including myself), now’s your chance! As for digital players, it’s worth noting that all six games are currently 20% off on the PS Store and Nintendo eShop.

Stay tuned here at RPGFan for all things Final Fantasy!

Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom begins its tale in January 1864. Our protagonist, Chizuru Yukimura, is a young woman disguised as a boy for safety reasons. She travels alone from Edo (the city later known as Tokyo) to Kyoto in search of her missing father, a well-respected doctor knowledgeable in Western medicine. She comes upon a gruesome scene of white-haired, red-eyed samurai dismembering and killing people, only to be saved from a similar fate with the timely intervention of members of the Shinsengumi, famed swordsmen loyal to the Tokugawa Shogunate keeping the peace in Kyoto. As it turns out, the Shinsengumi also have reasons for seeking Chizuru’s father. She becomes a ward in their care, serving as the “Demon Commander” Toshizo Hijikata’s page. However, conflict and danger are never far away in this turbulent period of Japanese history, with revolutionary upheaval and war ever looming. With a demonic supernatural element added to the shadows of historical events, Chizuru, over the years, becomes a witness to the sincere pride of warriors as the Shinsengumi continues to fight what might be a losing battle.

Given the above story synopsis and the authentic history behind the legendary “Wolves of Mibu,” it should be no shock that Hakuoki‘s narrative has tragic and dark undertones. There’s no shortage of severe and painful moments throughout the various routes, and the descriptions routinely depict war’s gruesome and sad sides. That isn’t to say there aren’t some hopeful or sweet moments, too, particularly along the “good” ending routes. Still, I appreciate how realistically tempered the developers handled the plot’s political intrigue and warfare drama. The story told here is very human, despite the occasional supernatural elements at play, with characters who are realistically flawed yet ultimately likable. This sentiment also extends well beyond the numerous love interests to include the supporting cast, such as the tragic figures of Isami Kondou and Genzaburou Inoue. The intermixing of believable, gradually developed romance against the backdrop of a revolution makes for a powerful narrative that even those hesitant about otome titles should try. Chizuru is also a compelling heroine with standout personality traits regardless of the love interest route you’re on, making her far from a blank self-insert type.

As stated, Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom combines Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms into a single package. These two titles provide all the character routes readily available in the game’s PSP release and six additional character storylines. The added routes for Shinsengumi captain Shinpachi Nagakura and especially the Shinsengumi Watch member Susumu Yamazaki were enough of a draw, quickly becoming two of my favorite storylines. However, new character additions such as Hachiro Iba and Kazue Souma also stand out. The developers ensured that all routes make narrative sense, and the common route for Kyoto Winds is expanded with additional scenes to ensure the new characters believably fit the branching plot. They even tweaked and lengthened the occasionally more antagonistic character Chikage Kazama’s route to help it cohesively fit better into the plot, arguably strengthening his route’s subsequent romance. Given that this version of the Hakuoki story is the “most complete” compared to the original release by providing so much extra content, it’s not difficult to recommend it to both Hakuoki fans and visual novel fans.

But that also puts Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom in a precarious situation. I can wholeheartedly recommend the title to those who haven’t played Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms yet, and I’d do so with gusto! But this port might not be a must-buy for fans who’ve already purchased those games for Vita or PC, as the Switch port doesn’t do much other than combine the two games. There are no added bells or whistles to entice returning players to replay. If you’ve already exhausted all of the story routes for Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms, there’s nothing extra here you haven’t already seen.

You automatically begin the Kyoto Winds half when starting a new game in Chronicles of Wind and Blossom. You must see a character’s route through to the end before you can open up an Edo Blossoms playthrough, and that’ll only be for the character whose route you just unlocked fully in Kyoto Winds. You must also play through the common route and see its various scenes once before you can skip through them to speed things along for subsequent replays. The common route is quite lengthy, and since I’d previously played Kyoto Winds and seen most of it, this made my first playthrough, in particular, feel like a slog. Admittedly, I became hooked once I uncovered previously unseen scenes, but that’s something returning players should consider.

Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom plays like a traditional visual novel in every respect. You advance through the game’s text until you reach a decision point that impacts how a given scene plays out. You may uncover a CG illustration or new dialogue, depending on your decisions. You can save manually and skip text already read in previous playthroughs. After playing through the game, you open up a helpful Record of Service menu option that lets you choose to start a story scene you’ve already unlocked so that you can skip specific early story points if you’re so inclined. That’s about it for extras, besides the expected CG Gallery that lets you view CGs you’ve unlocked.

This time, there’s a new English localization for the script, though I’m hard-pressed to say it impacts the story presentation since both translation versions are strong. There are a few typographical and grammatical errors in Chronicles of Wind and Blossom, especially in the second half of the Edo Blossoms portion. Still, they’re not frequent or distracting. The voice acting is superb, though some characters have such quietly spoken lines that it can be hard to hear them. This low voice issue is most notable with characters such as Toshizo Hijikata or Chikage Kazama compared to the more boisterous Shinpachi Nagakura or Heisuke Toudou. The soundtrack is quite dynamic, and I especially enjoy the new opening theme for this version of the game as it’s one of the few extras afforded to Chronicles of the Wind and Blossom. The character artwork and CG illustrations are gorgeous to behold, and I love how expressive the character portraits are. The visual indicator for when a character’s affection for Chizuru rises is quite distinct and eye-catching, too.

Overall, there isn’t much critical I can say; Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom combines the series’ two “most complete” titles into one lengthy adventure, easily making it the definitive edition of Hakuoki. Newcomers and those who’ve only played the PSP port of Hakuoki should try this version of the groundbreaking otome VN. Still, those who’ve played Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms in their entirety might not find enough new content here to warrant a second purchase unless they want to play on the Nintendo Switch. As it stands, Chizuru’s adventures with the Shinsengumi remain powerfully compelling.

Summon your bed, get comfy, and watch the new trailer below:

Zelda runs into various inhabitants in the Kingdom of Hyrule throughout her journey, including the Gerudo tribe, Gorons, Deku Scrubs, and Sea and River Zoras. Throughout your adventure, Zelda will help these various groups through quests, keeping track of it all in her handy Adventure Log. You are rewarded with the good deed of helping your people (and more tangible prizes).

In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the mysterious creature Tri helps you both with puzzles and traversing your environment. One power, Echoes, allows Zelda to summon objects from the environment to get farther or defend herself from enemies. Another ability, Bind, allows Zelda to pull objects with her movement, such as guiding a huge boulder over a cliff. On the other hand, Reverse Bond does the opposite; you’ll be able to attach Zelda to the movements of creatures, like flying in the sky along with a bird.

However, for more traditional travel options, Zelda can ride on a horse and travel instantly through waypoints to get around Hyrule quickly. Accessories and outfits will also allow her to increase skills such as her swim speed. Tasty smoothies can also add extra effects, like health recovery, if you have the right ingredients.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Screenshots

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches for the Nintendo Switch on September 26th. Pre-orders are available now on the eShop. If you want to go the extra mile, the Nintendo Switch Lite: Hyrule Edition, which includes Nintendo Online + Expansion Pack for a year, launches on the same day.

Stay tuned to RPGFan for everything The Legend of Zelda!

Very few podcast, article, or video topics on the internet get folks more enthusiastic or more up in arms than tiers, lists, or a combination thereof. On today’s emotional episode of Retro Encounter, four panelists play a fantasy-draft style game to place the main-series Final Fantasy games (plus FF Tactics) into five tiers. What quintet of RPGs land in the coveted S tier? Which panelists skipped the PS3 and PS4 entries in the series? Listen to find out! Prepare to feel feelings! 

Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Kyle Cantelon, Aleks Franiczek, Zach Wilkerson; Edited by Michael Sollosi

Opening and ending music by Miles Morkri

Listen and subscribe where you please, and leave a rating if you can! Email us your feedback: retro@rpgfan.com

More: Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro | Podbean | Podcast Addict | Player FM | View all Retro Encounter posts

Alabaster Dawn Overview

Description

Alabaster Dawn is an Action RPG that builds on the best aspects of Radical Fish Games’ previous title, CrossCode. It features a deep combat system, challenging puzzles, and a mysterious world teeming with secrets, all bundled up in an engaging story. The shadow of Nyx has fallen—warping the world into a wasteland and vanishing the gods and their people. Now, Juno the Outcast Chosen, awakes to an impossible task: bring it all back.

History

Development on Alabaster Dawn has started around the time the last CrossCode DLC (A New Home) has been released. Initially (and for a long time) known as “Project Terra”, the Project started by… writing a new engine. Just like CrossCode, the game is based on HTML5. However, this time we decided to use WebGL to support 3D graphics. Additionally we decided to rewrite our entire CrossCode codebase from JavaScript to TypeScript in order to simplify ports for consoles. After several years of prototyping and building a new solid foundation… we finally settled for the name “Alabaster Dawn” and were ready to properly start working on all that content we’ve planned! Currently, the game is still in a rather early state content wise, but relatively far developed in terms of features. We’re close to reaching a proper vertical slice that will demonstrate all major features. Just like with CrossCode, we will consider releasing Alabaster Dawn as an “Early Access” title to support an extended development time and gather more feedback to further improve the game to its best possible state.

Features

• A unique 2.5D art style combing pixelart with a subtle 3D perspective
• A deep combat system featuring combo trees, 4 elements, and 8 unique weapons that can be quickly switched between at any time
• A large environment to explore that will change and develop as the game progresses
• Settlements that will be built from rubbles into bustling towns.
• Several larger dungeons filled with puzzles and large boss fights
• A complete RPG system with leveling, equipment, and skill trees
• A unique cooking system that combines healing and buff consumables with a leveling system, designed to avoid item hoarding
• All the exploration and jumping that you loved (…or hated) from CrossCode. The 3D helps with the perspective!
• A detailed movement system with auto-jumping and precise collision
• An engaging story about rebuilding a civilization with lots of surprising twists
• Original soundtrack by Deniz Akbulut (aka Nagi Shirakumo)

Alabaster Dawn Screenshots

Radical Fish Games will showcase Alabaster Dawn at this month’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. So if you happen to be there, drop in and say hello to the devs, and be sure to let them know RPGFan sent you. Alabaster Dawn is available to wishlist on Steam now, with an expected Early Access release in 2025.

Keep reading RPGFan for all the latest RPG news!

Before diving into the list, I first want to give special recognition to mecha. These giant machines are pivotal in numerous gaming series and genres. Some RPGs I particularly love that incorporate mechs include 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Front Mission, and Xenogears. However, I put mecha in a separate category from robots. Mecha do not usually have their own personalities or sentience but rather function as a vehicle or weapon to be piloted by organic beings. Sorry to anyone anticipating Magitek Armor showing up on the countdown.

So with that housekeeping out of the way, on to the list. Meatbags, enjoy!

10. Machines (all of them) – Horizon Zero Dawn

To kick off the list, I have to give credence to an outstanding robot-heavy RPG. A thousand years before the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, a plague turned combat machines against humanity, causing a global armageddon. Humans remain as tribes, trying to survive against the remaining ancient predators. Horizon’s protagonist, Aloy, must defeat a wide variety of animal-like machines in combat or, in some cases, reprogram them to assist in her quest. 

Each machine presents a unique challenge, often requiring Aloy to learn its movement patterns and exploit its weak points. The various machines and challenges keep combat tense and fun throughout the adventure. For me, the standouts are the turtle-like shell walkers, amphibious snapmaws, and enormous behemoths. Without question, machines are a huge part of what makes Horizon’s world so special.

9. Cait Sith – Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith is definitely the strangest Final Fantasy VII party member. In fact, I would guess that many people are unsure what the creature actually is. According to official Final Fantasy lore, he is a, ahem, remote-controlled anthropomorphic cat that often rides atop a large stuffed moogle that he commands with a megaphone. Obviously. I know Cait Sith is certainly not the most revered FFVII character. In truth, the poor guy is often tagged with the “useless character” description. However, I have an affinity for characters that provide comic relief (which may become more evident by the end of this list), especially in games whose characters and arcs are often overly serious.

Cait Sith provides an unpredictability—both in story and battle encounters—that is peculiar and whimsical regardless of the circumstances. Anyone who has seen his reaction to FFVII’s major character death knows what I mean. Cait Sith’s true nature is still up for debate as well. Though he is purportedly controlled remotely by Reeve (the one Shinra suit who seems to have a soul), ample evidence supports sentience and free will. His effectiveness in battle is governed by luck and RNG. While this can sometimes lead to unfavorable outcomes, his “Game Over” limit break can instantly eliminate any boss in the game. Also, animals (even the robotic variety) are always preferable to humans, am I right?

8. Legion – Mass Effect 2

Golden-era BioWare was without equal in creating memorable characters, and while Legion may not be the most well-known, they rightfully belong on this list. Legion is part of the Geth, a collective artificial intelligence designed by the Quarians as a workforce. Many Geth play major antagonistic roles in the Mass Effect series, siding with the ancient Reapers on their quest for a galactic purge of organic lifeforms.

Legion is a unique and fascinating companion who provides Shepard insight into Geth history, philosophy, motivations, and biology. Legion is actually a collection of 1,183 AI programs inhabiting a single mobile platform—a literal hive mind. Always addressing Commander Shepard as “Shepard Commander,” Legion frequently drops quotes and deep insights that differ from those of “organic” Mass Effect 2 party members. Within Legion, players can see the potential benefits and consequences of AI’s expansion in the future. 

7. Nick Valentine – Fallout 4

While not the only robotic companion available in Fallout 4, this synth private investigator is the best of the bunch. Nick is a specialized prototype designed by the literal underground Institute to handle artificially implanted personality traits. Nick Valentine is actually the name of a pre-war detective whose memories were uploaded into the synth. Valentine is a rare example of an artificial being with actual human memories.

After the Lone Wanderer rescues Nick from Vault 114, the synth lends his investigation skills to help track down their missing son. He operates Valentine Detective Agency in Diamond City with the help of his long-time secretary, Ellie Perkins. An adept computer hacker and perceptive detective, Nick can prove an invaluable wasteland companion. He also brings a dry wit and charm, creating memorable dialogue interactions. I’m particularly fond of bringing him into Brotherhood of Steel territory and watching him casually tear apart their anti-synth prejudices.

6. Aigis – Persona 3

Aigis is the first entry on the list (not the last) whose character arc revolves around understanding human emotion. Engineered as an anti-Shadow weapon and bestowed with a personality module to give her a sense of self, Aigis also has a complicated relationship with the game’s antagonist. In the early parts of the game, she is exclusively focused on her mission, aside from having a strong affinity for the main protagonist, Makoto. Although her personality allows her to present herself as human, she does not understand the human psyche and often acts outside social norms (often leading to humorous situations).

Throughout Persona 3, she increasingly desires to understand what it means to live and experience genuine human emotion. This concept is common in JRPGs (more on that later), but some characters and games are more impactful in exploring and executing that theme. Aigis experiences significant growth, learns to understand morality, cares for others, and experiences the feelings associated with loss. The more she awakens to understanding human emotion, the more it leads to major revelations. She understands the concept of feelings over logic and must confront the reality that she will outlive her human companions. Perhaps the biggest lesson we find in her story is finding meaning in life’s more simple aspects. A realization most of us could learn and benefit from.

5. Claptrap – Borderlands series

CL4P-TP—more commonly called “Claptrap”—is the most recognizable NPC in the Borderlands series and among the most recognizable in gaming. Its popularity will likely grow upon the release of the upcoming Borderlands movie, in which Jack Black will lend his voice to the beloved bot. From the opening of the original Borderlands to the franchise’s most recent spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the little wheeled, mini-fridge-sized robot has been a constant in a chaotic universe.

Created by the Hyperion Corporation as a general-purpose robot, Claptrap was programmed to be overenthusiastic. Throughout the series, it guides and offers assistance to the vault hunters. Think of Claptrap as a cross between R2-D2 and the robots from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Its particular blend of charisma and humor is perfect for the Borderlands franchise and plays a huge part in establishing the overall tone. However, Claptrap’s personality often reveals deeper layers than just comic relief. At times it expresses fear, loneliness, and even symptoms of PTSD. Its character has also grown and now has a fleshed-out backstory, as well as a significant role in the plot throughout the series. Claptrap reaches rarified robot status as the most famous and beloved character of a franchise.

4. Robo – Chrono Trigger

Initially created to assist humans, Robo is found dormant and abandoned in a future timeline by Chrono Trigger’s party. In this post-apocalyptic reality, Robo is seemingly the only robot not intent on destroying humans. After being repaired by Lucca, he joins Crono and his friends to save the world from annihilation. In a game full of memorable and endearing party members, Robo is without equal in his versatility.

In contrast to his murderous counterparts, Robo has a strong sense of duty and a desire to help others. He provides the party with logical analysis and unique insights as a machine. Though not as developed in understanding human emotions as some other entries on this list, Robo shows curiosity, empathy, and kindness. He is also the most well-rounded protagonist in battle and can fit seamlessly into almost any party composition. Eventually awakened to his past and purpose, Robo plays a central role in the Future era of Chrono Trigger. His personal odyssey forces him to battle a former companion and help the party overcome Mother Brain, a rogue mainframe that has reprogrammed robots to oppose humanity. By the game’s end, Robo forms touching relationships with other party members, especially Lucca. In a game that features many sci-fi and fantasy elements, Robo admirably represents robot-kind.

3. KOS-MOS – Xenosaga series

The unofficial mascot of Monolith Soft, KOS-MOS, first appears in the Xenosaga Trilogy. One of the more underrated (perhaps polarizing?) JRPG anthologies of the PS2 era—sandwiched between the more celebrated Xenogears and Xenoblade Chronicles series—Xenosaga is a sci-fi epic with complex lore and characters. There is no better example of this complexity than KOS-MOS.

KOS-MOS is a cyborg specially engineered by galactic megacorp Vector Industries to combat gnosis—beings from a separate plane of existence and the main enemies of the series. There are many functional similarities between her and Persona 3’s Aigis. Throughout Xenosaga’s episodes, she plays a central role as her personal and overall narratives deepen. She questions her nature, purpose, and the boundaries between her artificial intelligence and human emotions. Her relationship with the series’ main protagonist, Shion, drives the trilogy’s story, and her character develops greatly. Beyond her major role in Xenosaga, KOS-MOS has essentially become the face of Monolith Soft. Beyond her inclusion as a rare blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, she has crossed over into more than 20 other games, encompassing a broad range of genres.

2. 2B – NieR: Automata

Throughout this list, the themes of awakening to, struggling with, and finding reason behind emotions and existence have been prevalent. Yet, no game does a better job of examining these topics (and other deep philosophical ideas) than NieR: Automata. The game’s main protagonist, 2B, is the ultimate model of an android coming to grips with these profound topics. In addition to her emotional depth, she is an absolute force in battle and does it all while wearing heels and a blindfold. While I was initially puzzled by her design, like almost all aspects of the game, her look has a purpose and symbolizes her greater conflict.

What more can be said about the most recognizable android from NieR: Automata? Within the scope of this list, I can barely scratch the surface of the philosophy, depth, and nuance of 2B and the game’s narrative. You can find far more comprehensive breakdowns at RPGFan. Aleks Franiczek wrote an excellent feature on NieR: Automata’s narrative design, and Retro Encounter did a full two-part podcast covering the game. If you crave more in-depth 2B analysis, then look no further.

1. HK-47 – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The Star Wars universe is full of memorable droids, but perhaps none in any Star Wars media is as laugh-out-loud funny as HK-47. The personality of this bloodthirsty droid left a profound impression on me and countless other gamers. BioWare created a genuinely original character that redefined what droids can be. Explaining to someone unfamiliar with Knights of the Old Republic how such a brutal and dark character can also be so endearing is difficult. First, let me reiterate my fondness for humor in RPG characters. HK-47’s snarky demeanor and propensity for calling organic beings “meatbags” are the basis for his status among the funniest and most memorable characters in all RPGs.

Originally programmed by a Sith Lord to hunt Jedi, this ruthless and effective assassin is purchased by the protagonist on Tatooine. HK-47 immediately establishes his disdain for organic lifeforms and his penchant for eliminating them. Throughout KotOR, the droid reveals more about his history, including his habit of being responsible for the death of several previous owners. HK-47 also plays a part in KotOR’s major revelation, adding depth to his character and clarity about their motivation. He is such a beloved party member that BioWare included him as a playable character in the sequel, and the droid continues to appear in various forms of Star Wars media (action figures, novels, and other video games). Droids play a huge part in shaping Star Wars, and HK-47 stacks up with any iconic robots from the movies, television shows, or books. 

Conclusion

So, with that, my countdown of the best RPG robots is finished. I just wanted to add a brief statement for any robots or artificial intelligence that find this article in the future:

I’d like to make known that I, for one, welcome our new machine overlords. I’d like to remind them as a trusted voice of journalism, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their robot-producing Geno Domes.

Let’s start with the hardest part: the story. Dawntrail sees the Warrior of Light and a few of their trusted companions journey west to the vibrant nation of Tural to help their new friend Wuk Lamat compete in the Rite of Succession. The Rite is an important contest that decides who will rule as Dawnservant, and Wuk Lamat is determined to win to preserve peace for her people. As you might expect, some of the other competitors are not as noble in their aspirations, and it quickly becomes apparent who the primary antagonist of the expansion is. As you travel through steamy jungles and arid deserts, you learn more about the people and cultures of Tural, and Wuk Lamat grows from a lovable but inexperienced do-gooder to a strong and charismatic leader. Midway through the story, the game throws a curveball that makes things much more interesting and has implications for the wider world beyond Tural. But Dawntrail is ultimately Wuk Lamat’s story, and that approach has pros and cons.

On the plus side, Wuk Lamat is a good character. She’s endearing, occasionally a bit of a goofball, and I think some of the things she learns throughout the expansion will resonate with players. There are also several secondary characters I enjoyed getting to know through her, and Dawntrail even managed to subvert my expectations a few times, something that Final Fantasy XIV is quite good at.

The downside is that Dawntrail focuses on Wuk Lamat a little too much, to the detriment of the supporting cast and the pacing of the overall plot. Even the Warrior of Light takes a backseat, which may irk some players who are used to their character having a more central role in the story. I liked Wuk Lamat from her first introduction in Endwalker’s Patch 6.55, and I even grew fatigued by just how ever-present she is in the story. Barely any of the returning characters get the chance to grow as a result, and it even feels like some of the new characters are disserved in their own expansion. This also extends to Dawntrail’s antagonists, who lack the development to become compelling villains in their own right and instead only serve to further Wuk Lamat’s story.

To be fair, Dawntrail is the start of a new narrative arc, so some growing pains are to be expected. As much as I take issue with the focus and pacing of the plot, I still enjoyed my time in Tural. But let’s just say that if Dawntrail is the A Realm Reborn of this new story arc, then I’m very much looking forward to the Heavensward equivalent. They’ve laid the groundwork here so future expansions can soar.

If the story in Dawntrail is a bit of a letdown, the gameplay is the complete opposite. I thoroughly enjoyed the new dungeons and trials, both in terms of design and difficulty. The first dungeon actually reminds me of Holminster Switch from Shadowbringers, in that it sets a tone that immediately feels different and refreshing compared to past dungeons. While there are a few simple bosses here and there, the general level of challenge feels a bit higher and more engaging, particularly in the new Expert dungeons unlocked after finishing the main story. The new Extreme trials are also a ton of fun to learn and farm, and they strike a good balance between being accessible enough as the first “hard” content of the expansion without feeling too easy.

The high quality of the gameplay extends to the Arcadion, Dawntrail’s 8-man raid series. This first tier introduces us to the titular arena, where competitors battle each other for the entertainment of the masses. While the story may initially sound kind of boring compared to past raids, the fights are anything but dull. Each feels unique and interesting, and all of them are decently challenging — and, dare I say it — a little hard. Savage will undoubtedly be crazy by comparison, but it’s nice to see a step up in difficulty for normal content.

Of course, dungeons, trials, and raids aren’t the only new gameplay content in Dawntrail. We also have updates to existing jobs and two brand new DPS jobs, Viper and Pictomancer. While I’ve only had time to sample each, they both feel like fun new additions. Pictomancer in particular is interesting in that you have a certain amount of freedom to choose when to paint the various art motifs that make up its special abilities. You still have a rotation, of course, but it’s not as rigid as other casters, and combined with the lovely artwork aesthetic and high burst damage, the job can appeal to players on several levels. Viper’s double-bladed moves are flashy, and it looks like a complicated job on the surface, but the smart UI design makes it a breeze to play. It might actually feel too easy for more experienced DPS players, but those who find melee jobs a bit intimidating will doubtless appreciate how the UI guides them to the correct abilities. I know I do!

New expansions always bring a host of updates (too many for me to mention in this review), but Dawntrail is unique in that it includes Final Fantasy XIV’s first major graphics update. As I’ve mentioned in past reviews, the game has sorely needed improved visuals for quite some time. And while it’s not exactly a night and day difference after patch 7.0, the update is immediately noticeable and even stunning at times. Texture resolutions are much improved, the lighting system has seen a complete overhaul, and the density and quality of foliage and other environmental objects have been increased, to name but a few changes. Players will immediately notice this when they view their characters — my miqo’te looks gorgeous — but it’s quickly apparent as you explore Dawntrail’s new zones how the update has impacted both the fidelity and atmosphere of environments. The new fog system, for instance, adds a lot of ambiance, and there have been plenty of times when I’ve just stood in awe of various vistas. The art design of Final Fantasy XIV has always been top-notch, but it feels like the dev team now has the tech to really make it shine.

Speaking of the new zones, Dawntrail gives players a whole new country to explore, one heavily inspired by Central and South America in the expansion’s first half. I won’t discuss how successfully or respectfully the game adapts the culture of these regions, as I don’t think it’s my place to speak for those who hail from said cultures. But from a visual perspective alone, the lands of Tural are lovely. Capital city Tuliyollal is bustling and colorful, the jungles of Kozama’uka are lush and vibrant, and the skyline of mountainous Urqopacha immediately grabs your attention. During the second half of the expansion, the areas take on a very different look and feel, and while there are some standout locations — notably Solution Nine, with its neon pink and purple towers — I didn’t feel quite the same level of awe. That’s not to say that the second half of the expansion is a letdown per se, but more that it’s a product of how the story shifts, with all the pros and cons that come with it.

One thing that remains consistent throughout Dawntrail is the quality of the music. At this point, it should come as no surprise, but I’m still genuinely amazed at how many quality tunes Masayoshi Soken and his team can churn out. We’ve got jazz, light and playful interludes, dramatic boss music, mysterious ruin themes, and — because it’s Soken — pulse-pounding rock. There are a lot of pieces I just can’t get enough of, and even the basic battle theme is enjoyable to listen to this time around. As is customary for Soken, the soundtrack is also highly thematic, with every dungeon arranging the music from its respective zone. You’ll also hear the expansion’s titular main theme referenced in a lot of different places, and while I don’t think it or “Smile,” the end credits theme, are quite as good as their counterparts from past expansions, I still appreciate how they make the whole experience more cohesive.

There’s much more I could say about Dawntrail. I haven’t even had time to talk about crafters, gatherers, role quests, or the addition of female Hrothgar, but in these areas, it’s mostly business as usual. And in some respects, that’s true of Dawntrail as a whole. This expansion is the start of something new, and new stories need time to ramp up intrigue and build to a climax. Dawntrail’s story itself is a bit of a letdown, but the foundation has been laid for future expansions, and I know Creative Studio III can make the most of it. Meanwhile, the gameplay is fantastic, the graphics update is lovely, and the music continues to impress. Dawntrail may not reach the bar set by Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but it’s still a lot of fun to play.

First up, we have a version of the game fit for a princess. The Collector’s Edition of Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut is available for pre-order from publisher Serenity Forge for a staggering $199.99 USD. It includes the following items:

• Physical copy of the game on Nintendo Switch/PlayStation 5
• 7” Princess Statue
• Swinging Arm Action Acrylic Standee
• Black & White Optical Illusion Keychain
• Reflective Lenticular
• Severed Arm Enamel Pin
• Metal Bookmark
• Mirror Sticker Sheet
• Soundtrack Download Card
• Collector’s Edition Box

If you want the game a lot cheaper but still with a few goodies, the Premium Physical Edition will be more up your alley. For $44.99, you’ll get the following:

• Physical copy of the game on Nintendo Switch/PlayStation 5
• Mirror Sticker Sheet
• Soundtrack Download Card

About Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut

You’re on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess.

You’re here to slay her. If you don’t, it will be the end of the world.

She will do everything in her power to stop you. She’ll charm, and she’ll lie, and she’ll promise you the world, and if you let her, she’ll kill you a dozen times over. You can’t let that happen. Don’t forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.

You’re not going to listen to him, are you? We’re supposed to save princesses, not slay them…

The Pristine Cut Features

• 3 brand new chapters replete with mysteries — and consequences.
• Never before seen Princesses who will all murder you without a second thought.
• Expansions to familiar routes. The Den, The Apotheosis, and The Fury each have more than doubled in length.
• Over 35% more content overall — and all of it filled with great opportunities to listen to me and do your job.
• A new ending. And hopefully one that saves the world rather than damns it.
• Track your progress: Cherish your memories, relive your exploits, and uncover deeply hidden secrets with the new gallery feature.
• Over 1,200 new hand-penciled frames hand illustrated by Abby Howard.
• Over 2,500 new lines of dialogue fully voiced by the impeccable Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight.

Yes, prepare yourself for an expanded journey filled with new perils, difficult choices, and unforgettable encounters. Will you stay on the path to slay the Princess, or will the new chapters alter your fate? (That said, while I wish free-will weren’t a thing here, I cannot emphasize this enough: you have to slay her. Please.)

Slay the Princess – The Pristine Cut launches digitally for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and as a free update if you own the original Steam release sometime in Fall 2024. The collector’s and premium physical editions will launch for PS5 and Switch sometime in the first quarter of 2025.

Stay tuned to RPGFan as we get closer to the fall! Whatever you do, you better slay that princess! The fate of the world depends on it!

Shin Megami Tensei the Board Game Features

1. Captivating demon figurines : The game will feature 72 demon figures, including some new demons prototyped and we believe it was created in 3D based on the official game setting.  Fans can paint their own figures and even use them for display.
2. Demon Fusion and Negotiation : Players get to experience true to the video game building up allies and eventually creating Demon Fusion to bring even more powerful allies into play.  Throughout the game players will interact with demon encounters to attempt to recruit them as an ally in an exciting choose your own adventure style mechanic which will affect the outcome of negotiation.

The Shin Megami Tensei series and its spin-offs, such as the Persona series, are well-loved by many here at RPGFan, so this announcement is very exciting if not slightly unexpected. Right now and throughout the northern hemisphere’s summer, we are celebrating Summer Megami Tensei, a season-long streaming event featuring our resident streamer Scott Clay playing through a wide array of SMT and associated titles. Tune in on Twitch to see all the demonic hijinks and even some giveaways courtesy of our collaboration with Pin Box.

No official release date is available at this time, but the Kickstarter campaign for Shin Megami Tensei the Board Game launches on September 10th.

Players with a subscription at the Expansion Pass membership tier can play the Pokémon spin-off upon release.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team was released on the Game Boy Advance in North America in 2006. It acts as a roguelike spinoff of Spike Chunsoft’s Mystery Dungeon series, focusing on turn-based dungeon crawling where players take on the role of an amnesiac Pokémon who joins up with a rescue team. The player Pokémon takes risky jobs to save those in need, while slowly figuring out the mystery of who and what they mean both to themselves and the wider world around them.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team Screenshots

This addition to Nintendo Switch Online follows in the footsteps of beloved RPG classics being added to its ever-growing library over the last calendar year, such as the Golden Sun duology, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.

If you’re curious about what RPGFan thought of the original GBA version of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, feel free to check out our review, penned by site alumni John Tucker!

Stay tuned to RPGFan for all news on Pokémon and RPG!

The Game Boy Advance was a magical little device, home to RPG classics such as Golden Sun, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak. Now, an exciting new Switch and PC game aims to bring back the golden age of GBA adventures. Heavily inspired by Quintet classics, Golden Sun, and even drag culture, I’m proud to present Tako no Himitsu: Ocean of Secrets, a new action RPG follow-up to 2021’s Save Me Mr. Tako.

Eight hundred years have passed since the great Shadow War between the human race and octopi, resulting in the latter species being wiped from history. Peace fills the land (for the most part; rising political tensions and the slow disappearance of wild animals would hint otherwise) when suddenly, the discovery of a lone octopus throws the world into turmoil and threatens to bring long-lost secrets to light. Explore a vast and beautiful world, solve environmental puzzles, fight strange shadow monsters, and discover the hidden truths behind the Shadow War!

In Tako no Himitsu: Ocean of Secrets, you’ll play as six different characters, each with unique abilities, backgrounds, and personal trauma, including a drag star, a would-be journalist, and a tragic mercenary. While the game takes place in the same universe as Save Me Mr. Tako (an adorable Kirby-esque action game), you needn’t have played the first title to understand this new installment; avid fans, however, may want to keep an eye out for some familiar places and descendants of the original cast.

Fellow humans won’t be your only companions in this game, as you’ll have the chance to befriend several long-lost octopi, each with special abilities to help you in combat and exploration. Between all the action, you can train and nurture your tentacled friends at the mythical Octopus Fountain (accessible through save points), inspired by Chao Gardens from the Sonic series. Combat will have you form a party of three in which you control one character at a time, switch between party members, use different skills, and try out flashy combo attacks using “symbiosis feathers” obtained from enemies. Symbiosis attacks come in various fun flavors, including a rhythm minigame and a stylish drag queen transformation!

Before any tiny octopi arrive to drag this article off to their aquatic abode, I should mention the game’s stirring soundtrack, featuring some very special guests. Save Me Mr. Tako players may recognize the game’s lead composer, Marc Antoine Archier. Joining him for a few tracks are Japanese fan favorites Masanori Hikichi (familiar to fans of Terranigma) and musical superstar Motoi Sakuraba (from Star Ocean, Golden Sun, and Valkyrie Profile fame). Exciting!

Tako no Himitsu has already rushed past its initial funding target and all revealed stretch goals, with other surprises remaining. The developers are planning for the game to swim your way in late 2026; until then, you can try the Steam demo featuring two chapters of GBA-style fun. I’ve had my eye on Tako no Himitsu since its announcement in 2023, and I can’t wait to delve into its beautiful pastel world. Remember, RPG friends: Octopi are teammates, not food!

Disclaimer: While it’s possible some of us at RPGFan may be backers of the games mentioned in these articles, this does not influence our coverage or our featured game choices. We make our selections simply based on the active campaigns we feel our readers might find interesting, and we are not given special access or perks by the developers.

tl;dr: We think these games show potential and want to share them with you.

First up, Ben embraces his inner robot pirate with the sequel to 2015’s TRPG, SteamWorld Heist, SteamWorld Heist II. The latest entry in the multi-genre SteamWorld series, Heist II delivers a side-scrolling, turn-based spin on XCOM-style gameplay with a healthy dose of adorable steam-powered robots. Does it live up to the first game and the rest of the series?

Then, did the hit Amazon series leave you craving a new Fallout game? Well, as usual, the modders are doing what Bethesdon’t with the astonishing full Fallout 4 conversion mod, Fallout London. This mod completely recreates London, England and its boroughs, giving the famous city a post-nuclear apocalypse vibe. Yes, it was made by fans, but can it deliver a New Vegas-style experience to Fallout 4?

Featuring: Jono Logan and Ben Love; Edited by Jono Logan

Listen and subscribe where you please, and leave a rating if you can! Email us your feedback: podcast@rpgfan.com

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Kill the Shadow Details

• Hints and Evidence – Freely choose how you enhance your abilities–strength, spirit, charm–and select your own methods to investigate cases–psychological warfare? Bribery? Or simply beating your suspects? Deduction System: Collect, analyze, and connect related clues to create your own unique investigation path

• Seeing the Past – “The Shadow”, a strange creature attached to you that reads memories and reconstructs the traces of the deceased “Don’t worry, Ah’Guang, we’re just using each other. You use me to find the culprit, and I, well, I love tasting those bizarre stories, hahaha!”, says the Shadow.

• The Ways of the World – Meet various characters in the city: the energetic girl with a camera, the elegant Mrs. Ruan, the rumoured goddess who can cast spells, and the elderly fish-selling lady. Discover the stories behind them. Encounter characters like the self-righteous Captain Wang, Lao Citou’s son Xiao Citou, the foul-mouthed Little Rascal, and the deceased Master Ruan. Earn the hearts of your favourite characters by completing certain events!

• Retro and Neon – The combination of 3D environments and 2D pixel art characters creates a unique artistic style with a striking contrast between modern and retro aesthetics. Explore a variety of diverse and freely explorable scenes: the dilapidated steel forest factory, the muddy shipwreck dock built on water, the Zhulong Walled City blending the fictional traditional Ma Island and Imperial culture, and the bustling old city district.

Kill the Shadow is being released in late 2024, and RPGFan will share a more definite release date if and when it is made public. A demo is currently available, and those interested can download the demo or wishlist now on Steam.

Kill the Shadow Screenshots

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Fields of Mistria (Entering Early Access) – August 5th (Windows)

Fields of Mistria is a cozy farm sim/RPG adventure in which you help a town rebuild, uncover magical secrets, and potentially find love along the way! I’m not exactly adept at this particular genre combination, but the colorful character designs and vibrant pixel graphics of Fields of Mistria are enough to pique my interest. The more information I uncover about the title, the more my curiosity deepens.

Fields of Mistria involves a fully customizable main character along with a farm homestead you can tailor to your preferences alongside activities such as farming, fishing, mining, and crafting. You can even raise animals while enjoying RPG adventuring mechanics to aid you in both battle and farming. There’s magic to be had outside and inside combat too! Fields of Mistria utilizes changing seasons to alter quests and provide new incentives to continue your adventuring. The game boasts over thirty memorable NPCs to interact with, some of whom you can even deepen your relationship with. Fields of Mistria enters Early Access this week, and I’m eagerly awaiting the full game release!

by Audra Bowling

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Cat Quest III – August 8th (PS5, XSX, PS4, XB1, Switch, Windows)

I… am shocked I haven’t played the Cat Quest games yet. Seriously, these games aren’t just for kids, although they very much are good choices for young’uns. They’re action RPGs that we know certainly won’t break the bank or end up being timesinks. Most important: they’re flat-out the cutest games you’ll ever see. That’s the objective truth.

Cat Quest III is the latest entry in this seven-year-old franchise, and it’s about a lot more than simply sailing the high seas to purr-loin treasures. (Okay, I’ve expended the one cat pun I’m allowed to make.) There’s a heavy focus on exploration this time around, and local co-op is expected to return!

by Gio Castillo

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Moonless Moon – August 8th (Windows, macOS)

Moonless Moon is an indie visual novel based upon a scenario written by Kazuhide Oka. Players take on the role of Yomichi, a young woman living a relatively normal life, save that every evening she finds herself transported to different and wholly unique worlds. Despite the bizarreness of her circumstances, she manages to enjoy the time spent there, becoming friends with the worlds’ intriguing inhabitants. But is what she’s experiencing truly reality?  And does Yomichi even want to return to her everyday life?

Described as something of an interactive music video, this VN contains memorable music sequences and tracks by notable artists. There are also riddle puzzle segments to help you advance the story, along with different endings depending on the choices you make. Moonless Moon is an intriguing premise full of creative vision, and I’m eagerly looking forward to its release this week.

by Audra Bowling

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SteamWorld Heist II – August 8th (PS5, XSX, Switch, Windows)

SteamWorld Heist II hits consoles this week, nine years after its predecessor and two months after shining as one of many indie stars during the Guerilla Collective Showcase 2024 in early June.

Players take on the role of Captain Quincy Leeway in this turn-based, side-scrolling, seafaring adventure. They will need to prepare their crew to explore the Great Sea and solve various problems throughout the world, the most pressing of which concerns the water used to power the steambots themselves.

How do you know we are looking forward to this indie gem? Our own Ben Love already has his review posted over at RPGFan’s main page. Ben notes that although the story initially presents a serious situation, the game itself remains in good humour throughout, with side characters and crewmates who do a good job of providing additional flavour to the world. Ben’s takeaway overall?

Heist II has shaken up the formula with a new and expanded setting and more in-depth class mechanics without losing the simplicity and accessibility that made the original so beloved.

Sounds like a pretty solid endorsement to me. If you have been interested at all in getting into the SteamWorld series, this might just be a great place to start.

by Kyle Cantelon

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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Isekai Chronicles – August 8th (PS5, XSX, PS4, XB1, Switch, Windows)

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Isekai Chronicles is Bandai Namco’s latest anime spinoff, and one facet has my interest piqued—the city builder. I’m someone who deeply enjoyed similar mechanics in games like Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising and Dark Cloud, so I pretty much immediately took notice here. One of my favorite things in this hobby is when combat-focused games let you have productive downtime, and I know I’m definitely not alone on that front.

Isekai Chronicles is mostly a side-scroller action RPG that retells the anime (up to the fight against the Kingdom of Falmuth), but it does deliver two new stories from the original author, so fans won’t necessarily feel like they’re treading old ground.

by Gio Castillo

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Tokyo Coffee: Grinding in the Pandemic – August 8th (PS5, XSX, PS4, XB1, Switch, Windows)

Tokyo Coffee: Grinding in the Pandemic intrigued me the minute I heard its premise: you play as a barista in a Tokyo cafe during the heyday of the COVID-19 pandemic, adjusting to the time period’s circumstances while making coffee beverages and interacting with customers who are just as unsure about their new pandemic reality. The patrons might even open up more depending on the beverages you create, allowing you to maybe uncover new scenes by choosing to stay open later than the guideline norms.

The game’s been designed to be newcomer-friendly to those who not familiar with the coffee-creating process, so everyone can enjoy the art of creating a great cup of coffee while tapping into a nostalgic tinge for a time that wasn’t too long ago, but somehow still feels like a lifetime ago, casting its characters through an empathetic lens. Tokyo Coffee: Grinding in the Pandemic admittedly had me curious with the mere mention of delicious coffee, but the premise promises that I might just come enjoy a cup when it releases.

by Audra Bowling

Also Coming This Week

A bit of background is necessary to understand the place that Papers, Please holds in gaming history. It all started with its one-man-band developer Lucas Pope, who left his comfortable job at Naughty Dog after Uncharted 2 to work on personal projects. Here he began to make a name for himself in the independent gaming scene with free projects typically created for game jams.

Chief among these was The Republia Times, a precursor to Papers, Please in which you’re tasked with laying out the front page of an authoritarian country’s propaganda rag in order to garner public support for its government. To force your hand, the government holds your family hostage, their survival hinging on your willingness to conform. As you progress through each day, a resistance force begins inserting secret missives amidst selectable news blurbs asking you to tank the paper’s reputation and help topple Republia’s government, only for their new democratic government to perpetuate the same cycle as its forebear. This provocative statement on the role of the media apparatus as a political mouthpiece caught the imagination of many, leading to fascinated coverage and award nominations.

Pope clearly had the framework of something special with The Republia Times, and he’d realize its potential with Papers, Please just over a year later. This to-be landmark release maintained the concept of placing players in an unappealing vocation under the thumb of an oppressive government, with your family’s survival dependent on your performance. However, its massively expanded scope draws a web of moral quandaries that leave you to ponder the role of bureaucracy under authoritarian rule, the dehumanization endemic to border control, and how easily a personal code of ethics slips away when ignoring it is the only way to keep your family alive.

To expound: you take on the role of an immigration officer inspecting the passports and myriad documents of prospective entrants to the fictional 1980s-era Soviet Bloc country of Arstotzka (to which Republia is a neighbor). The inspection process is overwhelming given the number of items you must cross-check, daily bureaucratic ordinances that change the rules, and an unwieldily large handbook to sift through. Your desk space is too small to display all this material at once, meaning you’re left scrambling through a clutter of papers as you seek out discrepancies. Mastering Papers, Please’s gameplay is intentionally all but impossible because this chaos inevitably leads to errors. It effectively conveys the stressful nature of the job, though it’s never frustrating due to responsive mouse controls, and Pope’s clean art direction makes it easy to identify documents based on their shape, size, and color.

Of course, there’d be little challenge in examining documents if not for a ticking clock that demands expediency alongside accuracy. Each workday lasts a handful of minutes, and your salary is based on how many entrants you can correctly process in that time. Mistakes can cost you dearly, as those beyond the first two result in a stacking pay cut. At the end of each day, you allocate your earnings toward food, heat, and medicine for your family. Failure to do so can quickly spiral into the untimely death of your kin, a responsibility that factors into every choice you make while at the border.

When trying to perform your duties on the straight-and-narrow comes up short (and it likely will), you’re left to resort to unsavory income sources. I won’t go into everything this entails for the sake of spoilers, but at their simplest, they come in the form of bribes for turning the other cheek to improper documentation or contraband smuggling. You incur citations for these acts, which in turn increases the pressure to perform perfectly; these risk-reward moments permeate every corner of Papers, Please.

Further, bribes are vehicles for the game to explore morality. For example, a man seeking revenge may bribe you to let him in, only for the next day’s paper to run headlines about the murder they went on to commit. Perhaps the person murdered was themselves a murderer, but does your playing judge and jury actually qualify as justice? In other cases, it may be as simple as whether or not you let an entrant’s spouse through despite their lack of documents. Scenarios like these populate Papers, Please without providing clear-cut answers to the virtue of your actions.

These scripted entrants are also how Papers, Please doles out its broader plot that impacts the ending you receive. I’m hesitant to say too much about this because the unexpected ways it can play out are critical to the game’s impact. What’s worth noting is how every story branch plays out entirely through core game mechanics during your daily shifts, resulting in a convincing illusion that the world is emergently reacting to your choices. It’s a smoke-and-mirrors trick that works even when you know what’s coming. Different playthroughs may require different adaptations depending on how well you perform your duties.

There are also a handful of nice touches worth noting. The downtime at the start of each day where you can organize your desk, decorate your booth, and on certain days speak to colleagues and supervisors makes the world feel authentic. Events that take place outside your booth as displayed along the top of the screen make the world feel alive. There are also optional items to spend extra cash on that often add little to the gameplay but help characterize your family beyond a list of relations.

If all this sounds like more work than fun, you’re not entirely wrong. Papers, Please isn’t where you go for a traditionally good time. In fact, it’s a constant pure pressure cooker that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But it’s exactly this visceral reaction that makes it utterly engaging. The interplay between every system results in a complete symbiosis of gameplay and narrative; every choice and even moments of inaction have rippling effects across the rest of the game. Plus, the tactile nature of clicking and dragging items around your booth is endlessly satisfying, and there’s an undeniable dopamine rush every time you correctly approve or deny an entrant. This is only more potent once you’ve played enough to have memorized much of the handbook, creating a sense of learning on the job.

Papers, Please does offer an easy mode that awards a fairly substantial bonus to every day’s salary. On one hand, I applaud this addition for making the game more accessible, though I also strongly recommend not enabling this unless you absolutely must. The game’s narrative stakes and overall meaning are derived from its intentionally stressful gameplay. This is not a game you blast through to reach the end; in fact, the endings serve only to enhance the moral ambiguity of the journey you took to reach them. The game also lets you replay any day at any time so there’s no worry about ruining a playthrough if things going awry. This is also a smart compromise for those looking to find all 20 of the game’s endings, though most of them are pretty similar outside of those on the final day that conclude the storyline your actions dictated.

Also on the accessibility docket is a toggle to disable nudity when scanning entrants, covering their private parts with underwear. This broadens the demographics that can play the game, though it’s probably not a game suited for younger folk, regardless. It also makes the game playable in public spaces and on streams. However—and it’s as strange to type this as read it—I highly encourage trying the game with nudity on. It’s a key method through which Papers, Please dehumanizes entrants, alongside their incomprehensibly garbled voices, procedurally generated faces, and documentation that boils their existence down to generic characteristics and numbers. Scanning them thus feels particularly gross, as with the click of a button you shred them of what remains of their dignity.

The cold, heartless dystopia that is Arstrotzka is tangible in every aspect of Papers, Please’s visual presentation. The concrete walls and sheet metal are oppressively utilitarian, and the muted color palette—aside from that vibrant Arstrotzkan red—somehow only dampens the vibe further. Procedural generation for non-story characters also helps ensure that the game remains fresh on repeat playthroughs. Pope’s artistic prowess arguably improved in fidelity with Return of the Obra Dinn, but for me, he’s yet to top Papers, Please in tone, function, and iconography.

If there’s one aspect of Papers, Please that has aged less gracefully, it’s the soundtrack. The main theme remains a great tone-setter as it alternates notes in tandem with the title card’s iconic march-like scroll. However, it’s undermined by cheap-sounding audio quality and a broken loop. The few other tracks—which I find compositionally weaker to begin with—fare even worse as they try to emulate a greater number of instruments at once and sound like a compressed, single-track mess because of it. Those songs only play during endings, so it’s only a minor issue. On the other hand, the harsh sound effects and voice warbling implemented by Pope are the cherry on top of making the world feel destitute. These are what you hear for the majority of your playtime, so it was critical to nail this.

Lastly, it’s worth touching on Papers, Please’s robust endless mode, something I admittedly forgot existed before returning to the game for this review. While this game is largely lauded for its story, this is a great addition for anyone who wants more of the cross-examination gameplay without any weighty narrative beats. The three variants (timed, perfection, and endurance) can be paired with rule sets emulating the document requirements of four different points in the story. There are some nags, though, like how the scoreboard opens a web browser and only one specific ending provides the code to unlock the mode. It matters little, as the code is easy to find online, but it’s still baffling as anyone who completes all 31 days of the story will have developed the skillset and game knowledge needed to play endless. (Not to mention that the particular ending required to receive the code is one most players won’t receive on their initial playthrough.)

Since the 2013 release of Papers, Please, Lucas Pope has continued to release related media. Most noteworthy are the fantastic short film he co-wrote that explores a day in the life of the immigration officer and a browser-playable LCD handheld demake he co-developed with his wife for the game’s 10^th anniversary. He also created a spiritual successor in Mars After Midnight earlier this year, though I personally wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it. And of course, we must mention Return of the Obra Dinn, another game that garnered Pope awards and critical acclaim, including from us not once but twice.

I truly believe that Papers, Please is a game that everyone should experience, but saying any more than I have would tarnish the surprises in store for first-time players. Alternatively, if you’ve played the game before, I highly recommend a return trip. It’s a timeless classic.

We control Jemma, a girl who’s dissatisfied with her sleepy town and routine way of life. Venturing beyond her town’s walls is a bit of a no-no, however, because the Hold protects its denizens from static, a force that roots people in place and consumes their essence. Jemma’s a bit different, though: cared for by her adoptive mother and the townsfolk, no one knows her origins. She has the ability to slide objects around, looping them around the other side barring any static obstacles. In doing so, she can solve several problems. Though her departure’s met with mixed reception, she muscles her way out with her power and begins her journey of self-discovery.

Ostensibly light-hearted, Arranger carries some themes clearly directed at our comfort culture and reliance on technology. Static seems to be a metaphor for people who idle around and enjoy leisure, letting all the work get done by robotic flying birds, for example. This lifestyle dissatisfies Jemma, and in fighting static here and there, she helps new friends discover the benefit of change, novel experiences, and doing things for themselves.

While I don’t necessarily enjoy how bold and in-your-face the messaging is, I appreciate the innovative interplay between gameplay and storytelling. Jemma’s ability to move objects in the environment around to get past obstacles and solve puzzles demonstrates exactly what she tries to help others see. Static and new mechanics get in the way, but she can solve problems through perseverance, she can solve her own problems.

Tutorials and teaching occur through action with little exposition or writing to prompt players. If a new object or challenge presents itself, Arranger almost always shows the player how to navigate it or lets them figure it out for themselves. The temptation to tell players is clear, because so many games do that, but Arranger’s simplicity assists in letting players get messy. What helps is that players can’t die, making experimentation low-pressure and risk-free.

I wouldn’t call myself an expert at puzzles—Zachtronics games give me a headache—so when I say the puzzles in Arranger are on the accessible side, know that this is likely true for most people. If a puzzle does flummox, know that accessibility features in the options screen allow players to skip puzzles. At three separate moments, I had to take a break and come to a puzzle later when I was stuck, which did the trick each time. The more challenging puzzles occur in optional content areas.

Most of the game unfolds in an open world, though parts are compartmentalized into rooms. Naturally, each room houses a puzzle, tasking Jemma to get from point A to point B by moving obstacles in the room around. To explore, players often have options about what to do and where to go, though even these choices can be limited. Although mostly on-rails, Arranger feels like a game of exploration, and that’s partly because of the visuals and distinct environments Jemma comes across.

Setting aside unique obstacles to navigate, players usually have to move an object along a narrow path and figure out how to get around it. Since everything in a row or column moves with her, just walking in a straight line doesn’t usually help, though moving something beyond the edge of a path loops it behind Jemma, Jemma included; this is a core mechanic throughout. Unique mechanics litter the world with themes of grappling hooks, teleporting doors, rafts to cross water, and static objects that never move.

As referenced earlier, Arranger’s color is the key to enjoying this world. We’re not just solving puzzles; we’re discovering vibrant greens in the jungle, shades of yellow and brown in the desert, and strange purples in labs littered with static. All the while, Jemma ambulates and animates in charming fashion. Another fascinating choice is the background drawing approach. Most players would focus on the foreground because that’s where Jemma and the traversable paths are; however, take a second to stop and take in the surroundings. Hand-drawn still images appear and disappear beneath the foreground, creating a chronological story. Each image represents Jemma as her sprite walks along the path: characteristics of her surroundings and pictures that communicate emotion. Some of the background is a generic pattern, like leaves or sand, but these images appear in patchwork to express what Jemma may be seeing or experiencing. From an artistic perspective, this is a novel, welcomed touch.

Musically, Arranger relies on strings and percussion that complement the energy of the visuals. Don’t expect too many brooding tunes or intimidating tones. Well-composed and executed, the soundtrack and sound effects assist the vibe Arranger is going for, which can oftentimes blend into the background as a result.

Arranger is a fantastic introductory game for an older child or young adolescent who has an interest in puzzles. The artwork and quirky playstyle instantly drew my daughter in, so a parent looking to tag-team a game with their kid could easily pick this one up. The message, while a bit preachy at times, is a healthy one that I think would resonate with most kids.

For me, I wish the game had a bit more bite to it. The optional content was more my speed in terms of puzzle solving and felt satisfying to crack. Most of the game felt a touch on the easy side, and while easy isn’t the same as bad, I was left wanting. That said, Arranger’s story, chill atmosphere, and unique art style make it an adventure worth trekking.

Apart from the beautiful anime-style visuals, the launch trailer above included a glimpse of three songs performed by various composers and vocalists. Fans can look forward to hearing the full version of each when the “Moonless Moon Streaming Live” livestream goes up August 4th on YouTube.

Moonless Moon isn’t Kazuhide Oka’s first work, but it is the first to get localized. He previously worked on other visual novels such as Natsuno-Kanata – Beyond the Summer and Piano at 5 a.m. Sadly, those two positively received titles have yet to receive official English translations.

Moonless Moon Overview

Introduction

When night falls, she wanders into another world.

Moonless Moon is a text-based adventure game following a girl as she travels through a variety of different worlds.

Night brings her to a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, an island in the sky, and many more worlds beyond the realm of reason.

The Plot

Yomichi is a normal girl living an average student’s life—except for one thing: sometimes, after sunset, she finds herself transported into a different world.

Be it a desert on the moon, a coffee shop inside of a tunnel, or an island in the sky, she enjoys her time in these new places, making friends each time.

However, this leaves her with some questions.

Do I really have to live in my daytime world? Is that life, the one where I go to school each day, the real one?

In this story, she tries to find out more about the worlds surrounding her and what they mean for her.

The Characters

Yomichi, the girl who travels from world to world, and the many unique friends she makes in the process.

What makes it unique

• Moonless Moon feels like a music video that you can play through, full of unforgettable art and music.
• During the “riddle” parts of the game, you will have to complete the story yourself to go forward. These are fun, intuitive puzzles where you look for keywords and place them in the text.
• Moonless Moon features several original tracks with animated music videos to go along with them. Dive into this unique world and its who’s who of musical talent.
• Depending on your choices, the story will progress toward different endings.

Screenshots

Experience getting isekai’d every night when Moonless Moon releases on August 8th for PC via Steam. Stay tuned here at RPGFan for more indie RPGs and visual novel recommendations!

SteamWorld Heist II sees Captain Quincy Leeway and his ragtag group of Steambots braving the high seas and searching for the mysterious source of the planet’s water crisis. All Steambots need water to power themselves, and some strange malady has caused the planet’s water to become corrosive to the Steambots’ insides. The Royal Navy, staffed entirely by Dieselbots (who run on oil rather than steam), takes advantage of the crisis, pushing the Steambots into hiding and ruling the land with an iron fist. It’s up to Captain Leeway to get back his ship, acquire a full crew, and address the water crisis to save the Steambots’ way of life. 

The stakes of the narrative are high, but the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The emotional core of the story lies with Captain Leeway, who grew up in the shadow of his mother, the legendary Krakenbane. Throughout the story, Captain Leeway struggles with feelings of inadequacy but gains more confidence with the support of his crewmates and becomes a hero in his own right. Your crewmates and a robust cast of side characters do a nice job of fleshing out the world and adding a bit of personality to story scenes, and the progression of events is satisfying without getting in the way of the turn-based tactical gameplay. 

Unlike the previous game, which took place in the far reaches of outer space, Heist II occurs entirely on a single planet covered by vast bodies of water broken up by many islands. While this might initially seem like a step back in scope, there is significantly more variety here. Lush tropical biomes transition into harsh, inhospitable arctic ice floes, setting Heist II visually apart from its predecessor. How the player interacts with and explores the world also varies along with this change in setting. The previous game had locations connected linearly along nodes on a map; in SteamWorld Heist II, you pilot a ship across a vast overworld map and select missions in any order. Story progression limits access to some areas or specific ship abilities that need to be unlocked, but overall you have a greater degree of freedom in which missions you complete. This open approach prevented any particular mission from becoming a roadblock to progress, as I always had multiple options if a specific mission proved too challenging for my crew. 

While the more open-ended world design is a nice change of pace, SteamWorld Heist II also adds naval combat to the mix, and unfortunately, this aspect of the gameplay is a mixed bag. Unlike the core turn-based strategic combat in missions, the naval combat is real-time on the overworld map. As you sail around the various island locations, enemy ships will cross your path and attack. In the early hours of the game, naval skirmishes can be particularly dangerous since your ship has few upgrades or weapons to fight back. There is also a lack of control to contend with; you have direct control of your ship’s movement, but your ship’s weapons will fire on their own automatically when enemies get in range and position.

The main issue is that you cannot aim and move independently, so my attempts to dodge enemy fire often caused my attacks to miss the enemy. As such, naval battles devolve into a frantic experience of weaving between enemy ships and hoping your weapons hit their mark. However, once you have upgraded your ship with additional weapons and armor, the battles lose all sense of challenge and danger. By the time I hit the mid-game, I was effortlessly blasting through entire fleets of enemy ships, my reinforced ship hull shrugging off damage without needing to dodge incoming fire. The naval combat provided an additional way to earn currency, but it felt tedious rather than exciting. 

Thankfully, the game’s approach to exploration and discovery saves the overworld experience. As you sail around the open seas, you uncover more points of interest on the map. Some locations are particularly well-hidden and reward you with significant upgrades or gear. Others require the use of ship abilities you unlock throughout the story, like dashing or the ability to dive underwater. Heist II’s world design borrows from Metroidvania games, and you are rewarded for returning to old areas with these new abilities to discover hidden secrets and even additional missions.

Steamworld Heist II’s greatest strength lies with its turn-based combat, and Thunderful has done an excellent job meaningfully expanding upon the first game’s core mechanics. The core elements of positioning behind cover and manually aiming your shots remain as satisfying as ever, but the character progression systems got an overhaul. This time around, characters start as one of six distinct character classes. Each class has unique abilities suited to their role: Snipers focus on dealing damage from afar, Brawlers have increased health and armor that helps them get into melee range, and Engineers have utility skills like buffs and healing, etc. You can change a character’s class simply by swapping out which weapon they have, enabling you to swap roles on the fly to better suit each mission. 

As characters level up in a particular class, they unlock new abilities and also cogs, which you can spend to carry those abilities over to a new class. This allows for a wide variety of character builds as characters master additional classes. For example, you can combine the high accuracy and increased damage of a Sniper with the ability to take additional turns with each kill from the Reaper to create an offensive powerhouse or the healing and damage buffs of an Engineer with the high armor and mobility of a Brawler to create a Steambot that is nearly impossible to kill. Each character also has a unique character-specific skill, which helps differentiate between characters even if they are using the same class type. 

The number of options and combinations at your fingertips may sound overpowered, but Heist II maintains a good gameplay balance through its enemy and mission design. The first game focused almost entirely on missions where your bots would infiltrate a location, gather the loot, and then extract from the enemy base. This basic format is carried over into Heist II, but with additional objectives and variations that shake up the formula. Some missions might have you survive for x number of turns or defend a specific character, while others have you fighting a single large and powerful boss enemy. Each mission also has optional side objectives that grant additional rewards if completed. Even at the end of the game, I still found new mission types, ensuring that combat never felt monotonous or stale. 

Enemy variety is another strong point, as multiple enemy factions with unique character classes and abilities stand in your way. At the beginning of the game, you mainly fight the Royal Navy’s Dieselbots. Most Dieselbots have roles similar to your Steambots, but they also have Captains who can bestow damage buffs, shields, or other benefits on their units. Further into the game, the Rattlers arrive, a cult of bots who have traded their metal parts for bones. The Rattlers have a particularly nasty class type called Shamans, who can place totems on the field that act as cover but will also debuff your characters or summon a swarm of melee attackers each turn. Some of the best missions feature multiple factions at once. For example, there is a mission where your crew infiltrates a Royal Navy prison and can open up the prison cells to unleash the Rattlers against the Navy, only to have them turn on you once the Dieselbots have been defeated. The fact that enemies have special classes and you are always at a significant disadvantage in troop numbers keeps battles engaging even when your characters are fully upgraded. 

SteamWorld Heist II continually impressed me throughout my roughly 30-hour playthrough. Thunderful has done a wonderful job carrying over the immediacy of the engaging sidescrolling combat mechanics while expanding upon the design in meaningful ways. The addition of character classes adds a new dimension to building your crew, and the expanded approach to the world design had me exploring every nook and cranny for more secrets. Captain Leeway’s seafaring adventure is a must-play for any turn-based strategy fan.

Over six years ago, we got together to chat about the instant indie class, Undertale. But, Undertale‘s staying power is so strong that we decided to get together and chat about it again, this time with an all new panel. Is Papyrus still delightful every time he comes on screen? Did any of us have the heart to do a Genocide run? Hot dog? Listen in to find out!

Featuring: Zach Wilkerson, Alana Hagues, Aleks Franiczek; Edited by Zach Wilkerson

Listen and subscribe where you please, and leave a rating if you can! Email us your feedback: retro@rpgfan.com

More: Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro | Podbean | Podcast Addict | Player FM | View all Retro Encounter posts

Featuring: Mike Salbato, Michael Sollosi, Patrick Gann, Gio Castillo; Edited by Paul Dennis

Links for this episode

• Michiru Yamane on YouTube
• Yuzo Koshiro on YouTube

Tracklist

Legends in Obscurity
0:06:09 – ‌Amaty, the Ancient City (Yasunori Mitsuda) – Soma Bringer
0:09:39 – Yellow Brick Road (Hitoshi Sakimoto) – The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road

A Good Mana Is Hard to Find
0:28:48 – ‌The Guitar’s Serenade (Shu Takumi, arr. Noriyuki Iwadare) – Gyakuten Saiban Tokubetsu Hōtei 2008 (Apollo Justice)
0:33:22 – Beyond the Pale Blue Sky (Kenji Ito) – Children of Mana

Darkness and Soul DS
0:51:10 – The Unknown Floor (Arrange Version) (Kenichi Arakawa) – The Dark Spire
0:54:33 – ‌Demon Castle Pinnacle (Michiru Yamane) – Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

I’m not gonna spend my life being a color.
1:18:07 – Scene – Blue and White [Event: Truth] (Yuzo Koshiro) – Etrian Odyssey
1:20:33 – ‌Anville Town (Go Ichinose) – Pokémon Black & White
1:50:50 – Mike’s Bonus Track!

Album Links

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow & Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Original Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music
• Spotify

Seiken Densetsu DS Children of Mana -Original Soundtrack-

• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music
• Spotify
• YouTube Playlist (Official)

The Dark Spire Original Soundtrack

• Our Review (2008 Release)
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music
• Spotify
• YouTube Playlist

Sekaiju no MeiQ (Etrian Odyssey) Original Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music
• Spotify

Gyakuten Saiban Special Courtroom 2008 Orchestra Concert ~Gyakuten Meets Orchestra~

• Our Review
• VGMdb

Nintendo DS Pokémon Black・White Super Music Collection

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• iTunes Store / Apple Music

RIZ-ZOAWD (The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road) Original Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb

Soma Bringer Original Soundtrack

• Our Review
• VGMdb
• YouTube Playlist (Unofficial)

Listen and subscribe where you please, and leave a rating if you can! Email us your feedback: music@rpgfan.com

More: Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro | Podbean | Podcast Addict | Player FM | View all Rhythm Encounter posts

I must confess that I feared how this playthrough for Retro Encounter would turn out. It had been years since I last booted up Dark Souls, and having recently gone on a month-long Elden Ring spree both preparing for and playing through the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC I couldn’t help but wonder how going back eleven years in quality-of-life features and design changes would turn out.

While I can’t say the fears were completely for naught, since places like Lost Izalith remain a complete chore to get through, I was more amazed at how well the game as a whole has withstood the test of time. The magic of the interconnectedness of Lordran remains a singular experience that not even the FromSoftware has been able to capture since. 

Whether you’re a newer player exploring FromSoftware’s celebrated catalog, or a passerby wondering what the heck “Soulslike” even means, this timeless classic is sure to have something for those willing to give it a shot.

Gio Castillo

Revisiting my favorites has occasionally led to disappointment, but I can emphatically say that is not the case for Dark Souls. This game remains excellent, and replaying it helped me to appreciate its less-celebrated aspects. For one, I started to find beauty in the environmental design of places not named Anor Londo; the likes of Darkroot Garden and the Catacombs are so full of character and history in their own right. I also grew to love bosses I’d previously dispatched without much thought, such as the Four Kings and Great Grey Wolf Sif. With Sif, I noticed the little details, like the cute way he does his spin attack or how he starts to limp when he’s close to death. He’s such a good boy! Sad face.

With that said, I did have to scrape against some parts of Dark Souls. This game is not above cheap shots (e.g., the Capra Demon, the Great Hollow), but those are thankfully few and far between. Also, FromSoftware has refined a lot of Dark Souls’ ideas in the 13 years since it was originally released, so adjusting to the jankier movement and mechanics took some time. But the best part of this game—the Artorias of the Abyss expansion—has held up tremendously well. Its enemies and bosses wouldn’t be out of place in Elden Ring, and the tragedy of Oolacile is endlessly fascinating. My advice for the final boss: find Sif! He’s such a good boy.

Aleks Franiczek

I remember my first playthrough of Dark Souls more vividly than most other games. Because it was my first game in the FromSouls extended universe, that initial playthrough involved what seemed like a mountainous mechanical learning curve just to be able to comfortably dispatch a trash mob of enemies. It involved the consultation of guides, unpleasant surprises that had me Seathing, and more deaths than I’d like to dwell on. I took an extended hiatus from the game after reaching Sen’s Fortress before coming back two years later to finish what I started. It was a unique love/hate relationship that eventually became pure love as I sunk more into the absurd logic, surreal atmosphere, contemplative flow, and architectural brilliance of the game’s world.

Even after playing all the other FromSouls games, there’s still something unreplicated about Dark Souls that makes it my favorite. Yes, it’s janky compared to later Souls games, but I think that jankiness is a distinct part of its character. You can sequence break in interesting ways. The sound design still has the weird, uneven mixing of earlier FromSoftware games. Areas like Blighttown and Tomb of the Giants test the will as much as the fingers. The second half is full of experimental level ideas that, although varying in quality, keep you engaged with creative premises. Everything about the way the game feels and plays contributes to a consistent vision—even if it’s a vision that embraces incoherence. Most Soulslikes polish Dark Souls’ punkish roots to a poppy sheen that loses something in the process.

Ben Love

Revisiting Dark Souls after so many years and so many FromSoftware games built on its foundation has been such an enlightening experience. The intricacies in the interconnected world design have carried over into the legacy dungeons and open world in Elden Ring. The introduction of Covenants changed the series’ approach to multiplayer. The aggressive and complex movesets of the DLC bosses set the template for all Souls series bosses to come after. So much of the roots of FromSoftware’s current output come from this title, and it’s only in coming back to the game after so long that I’ve been able to truly appreciate everything this game established.

Although the game lacks many of the later mechanics and design elements that make later entries like Dark Souls III and Elden Ring so interesting to replay are missing here, the game still drew me back in due to the strength of the environmental design and core mechanics. The lack of weapon arts is especially noticeable, but the absence of a wider variety of movesets allowed me to focus more on the basic foundation of blocking, dodging, and parrying. I was struck by how much Dark Souls still has to offer, and returning to it granted me a greater appreciation for how far the series and its developer have come.

Michael Sollosi

I’m a relative newcomer to playing FromSouls games, and this is my first time playing Dark Souls. I was concerned about Dark Souls’ reputation for unforgiving difficulty and minimalist presentation, because, well, what if I hated it? What if I struggled to finish the game before recording? What if I found Lordran’s bleak emptiness too boring? Was I going to be a contrarian? 

I shouldn’t have worried, because Dark Souls is just as excellent as everyone said it was in 2011. The boss fights are intense and difficult, but never maddening or unfair. The dungeons are dark and arduous, but also impressively atmospheric and interconnected. I even liked my Chosen Undead’s combination of knight armor and giant scythe. I’m in so deep now that I started checking prices on the Solaire Amiibo from 2018. 

I’m going to use this space to advocate. If you’re like me, and avoided FromSoftware’s dark fantasy RPGs for several years because of reputation or intimidation, please try them anyway. Dark Souls is a masterpiece of an RPG that rewards focus, patience, and persistence. Praise the Sun.

Check out three Elemental Vessels you’ll wield in the game, allowing all five playable characters to change their classes and take on the power of the elements:

For even more details about the Elemental Vessels of Earth (Gnome Shovel), Light (Lumina), and Darkness (Shade Sight), the PlayStation Blog sat down with Vision of Mana‘s director Ryosuke Yoshida and series producer Masaru Oyamada in a full interview about the subject. For more from Masaru Oyamada, be sure to check out RPGFan’s very own interview with him!

Maybe you’ve heard enough details at this point that you just want to play the game already. In that case, a demo is available now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam! Check out the demo trailer below:

Players who take on the adventure early are granted three weapons for Val in the main game: Gladius (a small sword, available in chapter 1), Falx (great sword, available after unlocking the wind class) and Horn Lance (you guessed it, a lance, available after unlocking the moon class). Unfortunately, you won’t be able to carry over your progress to the full game, but these weapons should more than make up for it.

Visions of Mana Gallery

Visions of Mana launches for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 29th. Stay tuned to RPGFan once we return to this legendary series!

Source: Gematsu, Twitter/X

Tengoku Struggle combines elements from Japanese folklore with unique twists that modernize the concept of Hell, treating it as an otherworldly correctional facility connected to Japan. Prisoners who have displayed good behavior can spend the rest of their sentence working a job in Asakusa among the living. The most heinous of sinners, however, continue to be punished until their soul disappears—unless they have unfinished business when they were alive to keep their soul firmly intact. As expected from the same team that delivered the lore-intensive Olympia Soirée, Tengoku Struggle spares no expense in establishing how its version of Hell functions. Details about Hell’s conventional mythology and the game’s own additions are explored in the story and helpfully cataloged in the menu’s Library. The effortless blend of traditional elements and modern twists lets players easily believe in this version of Hell, even with its goofier, blatantly modernized aspects, like how King Enma, the ruler of Hell, sells merch of himself in Asakusa’s stores to raise additional funding.

The game isn’t entirely silly, however: when five of Hell’s criminals escape, King Enma sends his adopted daughter—default name Rin—and a not-so-merry band of four prisoners to stake out Asakusa and drag the escapees back to Hell. As a provisional Hell Guardian, it’s Rin’s job to lead and keep the prisoners in line. However, the hardened criminals naturally see her provisional status—and gender—as a weakness to exploit. While this setup unsurprisingly paints the sinners in a negative light, it lays down one of Tengoku Struggle’s major expectations: watching the prisoners grow to respect and, eventually, love Rin. This setup neatly comes to fruition at the end of each love interest’s route, but at the cost of a different story expectation: Rin and the prisoners must defeat the escapees in battle and bring them back to Hell, but they can’t just train to get stronger and challenge their adversaries. The story quickly establishes the escapees as impossible to defeat—unless the route’s love interest can unlock the true potential of their Desire. 

Desires are magical skills developed from the host’s lingering desires from their time among the living. These skills range from ice powers to shooting a gun without running out of bullets. The nature of the characters’ Desires, combined with battling the escapees, suggests Tengoku Struggle is an action-oriented otome game, with romance serving as a supporting pillar, which isn’t the case in practice. The only way for each love interest to power up their Desire is for them and Rin to trust each other completely. The result is Rin spends most of each route on dates and doing other mundane activities with the route’s love interest to raise their trust. Rin gets to see the unexpected side of each guy, and some scenarios are incredibly heartfelt, like how Yona, a pirate samurai who took lives when he was alive, has a soft spot for children. 

While these ordinary encounters seem like a reasonable way to intermingle the game’s action with its romance, the mundane leaves no room for the extraordinary. Tengoku Struggle emphasizes the need for the love interests and villains to battle but focuses too much on being a slice-of-life story with supernatural elements—to the point where some characters even comment on the surprising lack of action. The few existing battles aren’t as nicely choreographed as other action-focused otome titles like Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom or Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. Once Rin and the love interest have complete trust in each other, they face that route’s target escapee in a final bout, using their maxed-out Desire as little more than a makeshift deus ex machina to save the day. The game struggles to balance its innate desire for stylish action scenes peppered with unique bits of lore with its push for a more homely romance story featuring fantastical, supernatural elements.

Each route also feels surprisingly disconnected from the others. Although Rin and love interests must round up five escapees, each love interest only targets one of them. The final, “true” route involves a massive clean-up of the entire enemy operation that has been built up over the course of the story. Otherwise, each route focuses on one love interest and tries to focus on one escapee. But because Rin spends most of her time on cute dates with the prisoners, there isn’t much of an opportunity to explore the intriguing philosophical ideas the escapees present, such as what causes people to sin and when and if sin can be justified.

At the start, you choose to develop Rin’s relationship with one of three of the prisoners: Sharaku, who wants to defeat the executioner Asaemon; Yona, who has his sights set on the samurai Sansaburo and his partner Izumo no Okuni; and Kikunosuke, who wants to convince his sister Azami to come back to Hell peacefully. Although each route successfully concludes each love interest’s quarrels with their specified escapee, they all have a lingering sense of incompleteness as the remaining escapees remain free in Asakusa.

After completing the initial three routes, you unlock JacK’s, a human who is allied with the escapees. As an initial adversary, his route feels much more balanced between romance and the story’s overarching conflict, since getting close to him is innately tied to getting closer to the escapees. The final route of Tengoku Struggle is the great thief Goemon’s. As the “true” route, his has the most relevant narrative depth—specifically about Rin, who has no recollection of her time alive—but it doesn’t necessarily pick up the slack from the previous storylines. Because certain details aren’t introduced or explored thoroughly in previous routes, some characters’ sudden relevance in Goemon’s route feels almost spur-of-the-moment, as if every illustrated character has to be important in some way, so they become pertinent only when the story needs them to be. Tengoku Struggle isn’t nearly as masterful at weaving together twists and turns as a game like Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation- or even Olympia Soirée. The resulting finale does tie up all the loose ends and is satisfying, but it’s not enough to make the game one of the otome genre’s best.

Tengoku Struggle is a good, but not outstanding, game. It plays with all manner of expectations, with some successes and missteps, resulting in an above-average experience. Its memorable high points don’t reach the same heights as other otome titles, so it doesn’t feel quite like a must-play game. But it’s a good enough experience for those interested in its core concepts, which feature a fun blend of lightheartedness and earnestness with modernity and tradition. Playing with expectations and mixing together unlike elements can have a great payoff when done right, but Tengoku Struggle -Strayside- falls just short of greatness. It doesn’t leave you disappointed so much as it leaves you wishing the story had followed its own inclinations a little more. If it had either balanced out the romance and action or went all-in on the romance, it could have risen above the sum of its parts. Despite its shortcomings, it’s still an enjoyable experience as unique as the disparate elements it tries to unify.

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The Dragon Prince: Xadia – July 30th (iOS, Android)

To tie in with a critically acclaimed sixth season, Netflix and developer Wonderstorm are putting out a free-to-play mobile game called The Dragon Prince: Xadia. This hero-based hack and slasher is not to be confused with Tales of Xadia, a tabletop RPG based on the TV show. It’ll feature the characters Rayla, Viren, and Amaya—each with unique movesets—along with new environments across the land of Xadia. The story events will be canon, which should be a decent incentive for fans to try it out.

by Gio Castillo

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Minds Beneath Us – July 31st (Windows)

Minds Beneath Us is a dystopian cyberpunk narrative adventure from Taiwanese studio BearBone. It takes place in a near-future Asian metropolis where AI has reached societal saturation. A new AI-free internet emerges by way of interconnected human minds, creating a burgeoning jobs market for the vast vulnerable and unemployed masses. This porous, interconnected consciousness has seemingly unintended consequences: a digital phantom finds its way across the void, inhabiting an unsuspecting citizen.

Minds Beneath Us employs a striking 2.5D presentation, with dynamic camera direction adding cinematic depth and atmosphere. Both dialogue and action choices will effect the progress and outcomes in Minds Beneath Us, with hidden options revealed by keen eyed exploration of the gritty scenes. A dark and mysterious adventure awaits players seeking a futuristic thrill.

by Claton Stevenson

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Sword of Convallaria – July 31st (Windows, iOS, Android)

Sword of Convallaria is an isometric tactics RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, even enlisting those games’ renowned composer Hitoshi Sakimoto. However, unlike those influences mentioned, Sword of Convallaria is free to play, opting for the now common practice of multiple in-game currencies, character collection by earned or purchased summons and play gating via a stamina system.

A recent story trailer showed a definite medieval fantasy tone with warring kingdoms and layers of political intrigue. Politics and endless war are nothing too new for the genre, but it may offer a good framework for a service game of this type; the ebb and flow of power and conflict could give this title some legs in a very crowded corner of the industry.

by Claton Stevenson

Also Coming This Week

Another nice feature is the ability to turn off the random encounters. I often did this when the party needed to hightail it back to a town to heal or restock. Yes, this is an old-school RPG with random encounters. The encounter rate is high at times but not unmanageable since battles play out quickly. I would not advise keeping random encounters off the whole game, or you’ll lack the EXP and money to do, well, anything. Vay is not an overly lengthy RPG. I finished it in about 12 hours thanks to these optional features and other baked-in upgrades like increased walking speed.

The aforementioned quality-of-life features are wonderful, but Vay is still an unabashedly old-school RPG with old-school inconveniences. For example, item shops don’t tell you how many of a particular item you have, so buying them involves hopping in and out of menus that, while functional, are clunky to navigate. The item menu, in particular, is cluttered, has only one reordering option, and limits how much the party can carry. The menu interface had these issues in the original game and I would have liked revamped menus in this update.

Other old-school elements include the absence of any quest log, so you need to pay attention to what NPCs tell you in order to determine future objectives. New characters join the party at fixed levels lower than the protagonist’s. This is where having the new EXP multiplier helps. EXP and money accumulate through traditional turn-based battles that are largely self-explanatory. Vay does not feature any complex character growth systems or gimmicky mechanics. Its bread-and-butter JRPG gameplay is as traditional as it gets.

Traditional mechanics befit Vay‘s classic RPG tale. Prince Heibelger (Sandor in the 1994 localization; this incarnation uses character and location names based on the original Japanese version) is about to marry his lady love, Elin, in a poignant ceremony. Unfortunately, the evil Danek empire has other plans. They raze Heibelger’s castle with weapons of mass destruction, kill his parents (the king and queen), and kidnap his bride. The king’s dying words send Heibelger on a quest to revive the legendary Vay armor and save the day. The story progresses linearly with no sidequests, minigames, or other distractions. Heibelger is laser-focused on his objectives and Vay‘s progression reflects that, though there are a few plot twists along the way.

During his journey, Heibelger meets several characters who join the quest. The characters aren’t the most developed, and dialogue is stilted at times, but there was a valiant effort to give the writing personality. NPCs bemoaning the economy in a small fishing village, for example, show the townspeople’s frustration at the evil empire squeezing out their livelihood by commandeering their waterways. On the other hand, some attempts at comic relief fell completely flat. Vay is an earnest game with an earnest protagonist, so the Working Designs-style attempts at lowbrow humor cheapen that vibe. Thankfully, this version omits that 1994 localization’s infamous farting fairy nonsense (which was never in the original Japanese version, by the way). Vay fans know what I’m talking about.

Vay was one of the first RPGs for the Sega CD and showcased the platform’s power via full-motion video anime cutscenes interspersed throughout. They look choppy, grainy, and dated by today’s standards but were a visual marvel thirty years ago. These are voiced cutscenes, and this remake offers a choice of English (from the 2008 port) or Japanese voice tracks. Optional subtitles are available as well, regardless of chosen language. I recommend selecting the Japanese voice track since it has the better voice acting. I would also turn on subtitles since both voice tracks sound slightly muffled.

Vay‘s in-game graphics, by contrast, do not showcase the Sega CD’s power. Despite environments having crisper outlines and more vivid colors than typical Genesis/MegaDrive RPGs, Vay‘s locations have limited colors and textures, making most places look and feel similar. For example, every castle I went through had the exact same tiles in the exact same shades of grey. A more diverse color palette and a greater assortment of tile textures would have added much-needed variety to Vay‘s environments. The sprites look alright but don’t fully resemble the lovely shoujo-style art from the cutscenes. The most jarring is Leifang (Rachel in 1994 localization), who has red hair in cutscenes, yet her sprite has blue hair. The upgraded battle backgrounds look terrific, though, especially those for late-game dungeons. You can swap to the original battle backgrounds if desired.

Vay‘s music is decent, but there is too little of it. The music selection is extremely limited, and repeatedly hearing the same town and dungeon themes gets tiring over the long haul. The final dungeon doesn’t even have its own theme. It recycles a piece of music from the beginning of the game! On a positive note, the music looping is far smoother now than in prior releases. There is no longer a pause between when a piece of music ends and starts playing again. Sound effects are preserved from the original but are not very good. For example, hitting foes with melee weapons sounds more like a fart than a slash or punch.

Vay‘s 2024 incarnation is far from perfect and still rather old-school in many regards, but has enough modern quality-of-life features to offer a rosy nostalgia trip. I’ve always had a soft spot for this often-overlooked title and am glad to see it nicely updated like this. Vay is not a game for everyone, even those nostalgic for Sega CD RPGs, but seeing a solid version of it readily available and easily accessible is a wonderful thing.

The game begins with Bomberman piloting a spaceship carrying captured monsters back to a prison on Planet Bomber. Some villainous lights show up and steal his engines, wrecking the ship. The monsters escape into the vacuum of space but somehow land on a nearby planet where they wreak havoc because they’re jerks. Bomberman crash lands on the planet and vows to fix his ship and recapture the escaped monsters. At no point does he vow to understand how astrophysics works since everyone should have died.

The core gameplay is classic Bomberman: plant bombs and blow stuff up. Most bombs explode in the classic cross-style pattern, and you can always blow yourself up as well. Bomberman has always been simplistic at the roots, but that’s also its strength. There’s a reason the series has, for better or worse, largely stuck with the same design all these years. For his GBC quest, Bomberman inherits a life meter, equipment, and items from Zelda to help mix things up. Bomberman can even equip two weapons simultaneously, just like our beloved swordsman.

Bomberman begins his quest in Peece Town (sic), a hub to Quest’s four areas: Field, Forest, Beach, and Desert. A few residents mill about the town, but they never have much to say, and their dialogue doesn’t seem to change. There are only two points of interest in town: the game’s only save point, found next to the wreckage of Bomberman’s ship, and the bomb workshop, which I’ll get to shortly.

If you’re wondering how our diminutive, bomb-generating hero plans to recapture those monsters, you guessed it: by blowing them up. This raises all kinds of questions. How do fiery explosions capture anything? Does the game end when you blow yourself up because you’ve captured yourself? Who knows.

Anyway, Bomberman Quest doesn’t have basic enemies like its inspiration. Instead, each enemy encounter is a mini-boss fight, and only one enemy appears at a time. Portraits and dialogue introduce each fight, giving each monster and our hero some personality. These conversations are often ridiculous, like the onion monster who makes Bomberman tear up or the tree monster who rudely burps at him. Some monsters only speak gibberish, which Bomberman attempts to understand. Appropriately, the game doesn’t take itself seriously at all.

Despite Bomberman Quest’s opening scenes depicting the monsters making a mess of things, they mostly keep to themselves. Some wander around aimlessly, but others will aggressively attack you. There’s a fair amount of variety in their behaviors and attack patterns, but that’s inconsequential mainly since the solution—blow them up—is always the same. Defeating a monster awards a new bomb type or item, like health restoration or a bomb component for use at the bomb workshop. Monsters respawn, but you can run right by and ignore them. However, it is necessary to defeat all the monsters to get the best ending.

Each area has several dungeons, one of which contains the area’s boss. These dungeons are painfully simplistic. There are switches, environmental hazards, etc., but nothing you haven’t seen before. Other games, notably its inspiration, do it much better. More than anything, making it through a dungeon requires having the correct bombs and items, like steel boots to step on certain switches or the glove to throw bombs at faraway levers.

Bosses are just like any other monster encounter except more hectic. They’re fast and have a ton of life and special skills, like throwing whirlwinds at you to push you back. Regardless, it’s still just a matter of hitting them with your bombs, although they can hurt themselves. In fact, during the first boss fight, I hid behind a wall and waited for the boss to kill itself. I didn’t even damage it myself—I’m just that good.

Defeating a boss (and some of the regular monsters) awards a bomb core, a component that lets you build a new type of bomb at the bomb workshop. The bomb formulas are simple: bomb core + component = new bomb. Mixing a bomb core with rubber, for instance, creates a rubber bomb, which bounces when you throw it. Some bosses also award new types of bombs. There are 15 types of bombs, and if that seems like too many, that’s because it is.

Most of these bombs are impractical and unnecessary. You can beat the game with the default bomb, the flak bomb (for flying enemies), and the aqua bomb (which, as far as I can tell, is only required for one monster). There are homing bombs, remote control bombs, bombs that curve left or right, bombs with a damage range that increases while you hold it…I rarely used any of these. The ice bomb, which freezes enemies in place, is a no-brainer and significantly better than the others.

Bomberman Quest’s items follow suit. Taken from its own series and Zelda, there are speed shoes, jump shoes, a shield, a variety of armor, a hammer, rock-pushing gloves, a lamp…it’s a long list. All these items lead to constant item swapping, and it’s a complete chore. Weapons, equipment, and items are separate menus. If you need to change your bomb and equipment, it’s at least ten button/cursor pushes to make it happen. I’m not exaggerating, either. I just did it, and I counted!

With all the bomb types and items, it feels like Bomberman Quest is simply unfinished. Scuba gear lets you explore watery areas, though only a few exist. You use the rock-pushing bracelet twice. The lamp isn’t ever necessary. None of the items have interesting uses, and many should have been permanently active once obtained, which would cut down on the item swapping. Even the bomb workshop isn’t necessary. Its only real use is expanding your bombs’ range. The game would be the same if you earned all the bombs from monsters instead.

Some bombs and items have nonsensical uses. For example, you can’t damage the aforementioned burping tree monster with the default bomb. It’s quite proud of its imperviousness and brags about it. The left/right curving bombs can hurt it. Why? No idea. They aren’t functionally different than any other bomb aside from their curved trajectories. You can only trigger a specific switch type by dashing into it. Smacking it with a hammer or blowing it up does nothing. It’s a weird design choice because bombs are the most powerful thing in this universe until they inexplicably aren’t.

While Bomberman Quest’s graphics are simple, they’re charming in the way that most Gameboy games look. Bomberman and the monsters show different expressions when damaged, which is a nice touch. The opening and closing stills are also impressive. Bomberman is large and expressive, and his real antagonist is intimidating. I wish the developers had paid as much attention to the in-game graphics as they did to these stills. Maybe that’s where the budget went. Simplistic graphics aside, there are a few cut corners. Bomberman’s bomb is its own tile, replacing the tile you set it on. It looks…cheap. This design keeps your bombs separate from the bombs of bomb-laying enemies, but why not shade it instead? Similarly, swimming has no animation either. You walk through the water like any other location.

I will say Bomberman Quest’s soundtrack is appropriately Bomberman. There’s a nice mix of energetic, upbeat themes for exploring and fighting and some “spooky” intimidating themes for dungeon delving and boss fights. I’ve always enjoyed Bomberman’s music, and Quest’s composers clearly understood the assignment.

I wish I could say the same for the design. With so many bomb types and items, Bomberman Quest should have been a grand adventure, but it fails to incorporate the Zelda elements meaningfully. The combat feels random, and exploration is painfully simplistic. You mainly use items to access areas, not solve puzzles. It’s also shockingly short, mostly linear, and utterly devoid of side quests. Given such clear inspiration, I expected much more.

Bomberelda— sorry, Bomberman—Quest desperately tries to follow in Link’s footsteps but misses the point. It’s not enough to borrow Zelda’s items and core progression. Zelda gives you reasons to use its equipment and items: compelling puzzles, intelligent enemies, and engaging level designs. Bomberman Quest uses them for gatekeeping purposes instead. A Zelda-like Bomberman could work if the right developer were to tackle it. As it stands, this bomb is primed but lacks a fuse.

Five Retro Encounter panelists recently finished the first Dark Souls, and it’s every bit as impressive, intense, and moving today as it was in 2011. Today the panel talks about the game’s undercooked second-half environments, the fully-realized DLC episode, and the emotional turmoil upon discovering why certain bosses were present in their current forms. Dark Souls 1 isn’t punishing or unfair, just be patient! 

Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Gio Castillo, Aleks Franiczek, Dom Kim, Ben Love; Edited by Paul Dennis

Opening and ending music by Miles Morkri

If you were an RPG gamer from the early years right up to the PS3 generation and lived in Europe, you understand the subtext here and probably feel my pain. Not only did we often have to wait a year or more after the US to get games, we were overlooked for releases frequently and missed out on some absolute bangers because of this. Games that have since become revered cult classics or exemplars of the genre that we may never get to experience. In some cases, Europeans finally have access in the form of a digital or remastered version. In other cases, we are still waiting, hoping for one to materialise. Let’s look back at some of the biggest, most popular, and strangest omissions from the European RPG back catalogue.

While I’m on the subject of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Tactics seems like a good place to start. Back in the nineties, FFT wasn’t really on my radar because I hadn’t yet discovered the strategy RPG genre. Over the years, I’ve heard so much about this game: its intricate and well-crafted story, the depth of the customisation and job system, and fantastic soundtrack. By the time I was ready to give it a try, the PS1 was ancient history. This was lucky since I discovered this game had not released in Europe anyway until its more modern portable versions. It was also surprising to me, especially considering the love this game gets in the community and its influence on games like Triangle Strategy, Fire Emblem, and the entire SRPG genre. I’m now in a position where I need to play it but want to hold off in case a certain rumoured remake gets announced. FFT wasn’t the only early big-name SRPG skipped in Europe, either. I’m looking at you, Tactics Ogre.

Next, I want to look at some games missing from long-running series, starting with one of my favourite of all time, Suikoden. Suikoden I and II both released in Europe and didn’t sell any differently than other regions, which makes it even more disappointing that Suikoden III, the first one on the PS2, never saw a European release. Suikoden II is a fantastic game, setting a high bar for political storytelling full of plot twists and drama with the tale of Riou, Jowy, and Nanami forming a peak in the five mainline game-long series. The decision to skip the game following this and return to Europe with the very mediocre Suikoden IV was certainly a choice! Suikoden III was eventually available in Europe digitally on the PS3.

A second series already established in Europe decided to skip its third entry — Grandia. Both Grandia I and II were favourites, and I remember being very excited when a third game was announced, only to have that dashed when a European release date was not. The one thing that makes this a little easier to be at peace with is that many regard Grandia III as the weakest of the main games. A forum comment I spotted even described it as “one of the biggest mainline sequel disappointments in the entire RPG genre.” What a burn! Even though it retained the brilliant combat system of its predecessors, there was a very clear drop in the quality as a whole, particularly in character and story, both highlights of the first two games.

Fans of Tri-Ace games might remember that their early games were rather hit-or-miss as to whether they would release outside the US or even Japan. On PS1, the first Star Ocean (one of the longest-running series mentioned in this article) was not released outside Japan until 2008 on the PSP, over ten years after its original release. Valkyrie Profile was another huge cult classic that did get a US release on the PS1 (though copies of this version are rare and expensive) but never made it across the Atlantic until Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, the PSP enhanced port.

This version snuck up on me back in the mid-2000s. I had obviously heard of the game and how well-regarded it was: the pacey, unusual battle system and heavily Norse mythology-inspired, emotionally impactful story set at the end of the world. I was also very keen to play it because of how much I love the Star Ocean series but somehow missed that it was getting a re-release. On a shopping trip, I came across a US import (the US version of Lenneth came out a year before the EU version, because of course it did) and, knowing the PSP could play imports, I dropped the cash right there. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to play it again, as a European release hadn’t been confirmed at that point. The last of Tri-Ace’s main console games to not release in Europe was Radiata Stories on the PS2.

Speaking of imported copies of games, here’s a short list of significant games I discovered in a local gaming shop: Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, and Chrono Cross. Teenage me used to go in and wish I could play these based on the box art. You know that face characters pull in anime when they look at something delicious/sexy/cute, with the huge starry eyes and watery-mouthed grin? It was very that. Especially with Legend of Mana, whose beautifully illustrated watercolour-like cover really resonated with me. Of these three games, Legend of Mana was the only series with games released in the EU, namely its predecessors Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana.

Threads of Fate was a standalone game and Chrono Cross a sequel to Chrono Trigger, which was JP and US release only. These three games make more sense to me in terms of why European versions were never greenlit, but it still stings. Thankfully, Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross have modern remasters that show off the stunning pre-rendered backdrops and pop with colour. Unfortunately, a release of Threads of Fate seems unlikely due to poor sales of the original, even though it’s often looked back on with a lot of fondness. We can hope!

I wanted to end with probably the most baffling of the EU omissions. First off, Xenogears. I have heard so much about this game and its controversial second half with game format changes due to budget constraints, but even with these issues, I’m pretty confident I’d love it. As a big fan of media involving mechs and bleak sci-fi drama, it sounds right up my street. Without Xenogears, there is no precedent to release the follow-up first episode of Xenosaga in Europe, either. And indeed, no release, which makes the decision to go ahead and release Xenosaga Episode II truly puzzling! Naturally, I’d heard of the series and bought myself a copy, even though it’s an episode midway through the story. (It did come with a DVD film of cutscenes from Episode I.) “I don’t mind going in on Episode II because surely Episode III will follow so I can play most of the trilogy,” I thought to myself. Wrong! Episode III also bypassed Europe. Imagine watching only the Empire Strikes Back, reading The Two Towers, or playing Mass Effect 2, and being fine never experiencing the first or last parts of their respective trilogies. No, I can’t either. At least we’ve had all three parts of the magnificent Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy and can live in hope that we might get a Xenogears and Xenosaga trilogy re-release someday. Please! 

Now, I can’t cover every single RPG that didn’t release in Europe in this article, and I’ve clearly missed some other big names. So, I thought I’d do a short honourable mention section to finish things off, containing some other games I wish I’d been able to play earlier (or at all, in some cases): Final Fantasy VI, Tales of the Abyss (the PS2 version), the Lunar series, Grandia Xtreme, Wild Arms 2, Chrono Trigger, every Dragon Quest before VIII and SaGa Frontier.

Thankfully, staggered and region-specific releases for RPGs seem to be rarer and rarer since the PS3 era. There are still some, mainly down to the lengthy localisation times, including some popular series like Trails, but at least these are releasing worldwide and aren’t gated to particular regions. Finally, RPG fans of Europe, we have some form of justice!

Stellar Blade is a sci-fi action RPG and the first full-fledged console title from Shift Up, a South Korean developer known chiefly for their mobile gacha games. On the roster is director and famed artist Hyung Tae-Kim—best known for his Magna Carta, War of Genesis, and Blade & Soul designs—setting the game up for success regarding stylish and eye-catching visuals and set pieces. Players control Eve, an android sent from the heavens to attempt to reclaim Earth from horrific and vicious monsters. Throughout the game, Eve teams up with a small band of humans, though it’s painfully clear that the Earth’s inhabitants have a completely different concept of just what a human is, as seen by the myriad mechanical parts littering every citizen who walks the streets. Thankfully, this does get addressed in the story later on.

Unlike its biggest inspiration, Stellar Blade’s story is one of its weakest points, taking place on Earth in the distant future, where a strange species known as the Naytiba emerged and brought the planet to ruin. The writers were on to something uniquely interesting with the biblical themes and concepts being twisted and formed into something new. However, they do little with the pieces they have beyond naming characters and locations such as Adam, Eve, Lily (Lilith), and the city of Xion. The heroine, Eve, is often simply referred to as Angel due to her descent from the skies, though any other term would’ve had the same effect. As someone who loves seeing mythology get twisted and given a new context, I felt Stellar Blade’s biblical elements were more interesting on paper because they’re only half-present in the game.

The characters, however, are ultimately quite likable, though the side characters steal the show. The shady back-alley dealer Roxanne keeps Eve on her toes with her enigmatic personality and bizarre attempts at flirting with Eve, the ghostly android Enya—who is little more than a singing torso at first—serenades the patrons of a rundown bar, and the reclusive fisherman Clyde teaches Eve the ins and outs of angling. However, one character stands out the most: D1G-g2r. This strange digging drone is an existentialist through and through, yet his whimsical and adorable musings make him stand out amongst a cast of colorful characters.

The world of Stellar Blade consists of mostly linear zones with dramatic set-pieces, though two wide-open areas house most of the side content. The large zones are littered with enemies ranging from fleshy body horror beasts to mechanical soldiers looking like they came straight from a scrapyard. Unfortunately, these zones require a bit of runaround to activate fast travel, so traversing the sands and wastelands for the first time can be both confusing and tiresome. Mercifully, most side quests are brief, save for a few that are part of a chain or require further progress in the story. The linear zones, however, are far more focused and snappy while focusing on more environmental storytelling, though the fast travel checkpoints are painfully far apart.

Combat is where Stellar Blade excels the most. The game takes a page from Sekiro’s book by focusing on parrying and expertly timed dodges while adding a touch of Bloodborne. Though the game has some elements of Soulsborne games, Stellar Blade is not a Soulslike. Movement remains fast and fluid until the blade is drawn, prompting Eve to slow down and take a more focused and tactical approach. The flow of battle is kinetic and exciting, leading to flashy clashes with monstrous foes ranging from unsightly trash mobs to terrifying mid-bosses that would fit into Monster Hunter World’s Rotten Vale.

Battles are fun and satisfying, with every encounter serving a proper challenge that tests players on their enemy knowledge and general skill. The parry mechanic feels incredibly rewarding with impactful sound effects and lights that add a notable emotional excitement every time that ever-so-satisfying ‘shink!’ rips through the speakers. Perfect dodges feel just as rewarding yet add a more fluid and acrobatic display. Special dodges, counters, and finishing moves make combat wildly flashy and diverse. With a skill tree that allows the player to easily respec, the wide array of combat options is almost dizzying and allows for each player to find their groove.

While Stellar Blade shares a lot of similarities with NieR: Automata, the most striking connection between the two games is the soundtrack. MONACA, best known for their work on Automata, created Stellar Blade’s soundtrack with the same touch of wondrous creativity and beautiful composition expected in a NieR game. However, Stellar Blade does manage to form its own identity by mixing hints of pop ballads with sweeping and dramatic music. From minute one, the game sinks its otherworldly claws into the player’s shoulder and haunts them with unforgettable melodies. Yet, when blades and bullets fly, the music takes a dynamically upbeat turn to match the energy and emotion of battle while keeping those serene vocals running in the background. When the battle is done, the music reverts to those gentle tunes, and the seamless flow shows MONACA’s mastery over the aural arts.

Stellar Blade is a visual spectacle for most of the game, though large portions are set in a dry wasteland or sandy dunes. Naturally, these open zones are home to the majority of the game’s sidequests, so players will spend a large amount of time traversing them. Initially, I was a touch disappointed stepping into the wasteland after roaming the rainy city streets of Eidos 7. Yet, the wasteland’s barren nature grew on me. It felt like a reminder that the world Eve and her allies are striving to save is little more than ruin. The largely brown and yellow open landscape does allow the set-piece dungeons, cities, and space station to stand out even more. The linear sections, most notably the Levoire areas, are the most appealing. These areas take a hard turn into sci-fi horror and look like they are right out of Dead Space, Prey, or Resident Evil’s lab sections.

Overall, Stellar Blade is a fantastic action RPG, yet it’s not without its faults. A sizeable number of character interactions read like an MMORPG sidequest with awkward movements during dialogue and strange canned animations. The voice acting, while serviceable, generally lacks emotion and feels largely forgettable. As a fish out of water, Eve is generally ignorant of the world and needs explanations about practically everything despite being a soldier. However, by the end of the game, she’s more confident and powerful, and she has a few banger lines as she approaches the final bosses. That said, the game ends just as her development starts to take off. While it sets the stage for a more snarky and badass Eve in the sequel, it feels like she needed just a couple more hours to establish a notable, more memorable personality.

Finally, Eve’s revealing costumes caused quite a stir at launch. While they’re entirely optional, some are borderline pornographic and may prompt side-eye from friends and family. Thankfully, there are just as many stylish and fashionable outfits that feel straight out of a K-pop video. On the flip side, there is a giant teddy bear outfit that is both adorable and hilariously ruins dramatic cutscenes, so there’s that. I stuck with the default outfit throughout the game, as we have so few RPG heroes whose primary color is green.

Ultimately, Stellar Blade met most of my expectations, though it did fall short with the story and pacing. The combat, music, and world design are something special, and the monster design feels straight out of a cosmic horror game. While Stellar Blade is heavily influenced by NieR: Automata, it fails to take its crown. To end on a painfully unoriginal pun, Stellar Blade is ‘NieR enough‘ to tide fans over until Yoko Taro manages to extort more money out of Square Enix. It may feel unfair to constantly compare Stellar Blade to NieR: Automata, yet with such blatant influence, it would be a disservice to ignore the developer’s clear and beloved inspiration. South Korea has been on such a wondrous tear lately with their takes on beloved games such as Bloodborne-inspired Lies of P and Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children’s XCOM influences, I would love to see the country become a major player in the RPG genre.

Here’s the launch trailer, showing off gameplay and presenting what you can expect from this short-but-sweet game:

The tale of Castaway is very simple. Players take on the role of Martin, whose spaceship crashes on an island, and set out to find his missing dog companion. It is divided into two parts: Story Mode (Island) and Survivor Mode (Tower). Players can only access the 50-story tower after completing the story. Learn more regarding this title in its overview below.

Castaway Overview

Embark on an action-packed adventure in Castaway, diving players into a pixelated and retro universe. Assume the role of Martin, whose spaceship crash-landed on an uncharted island where his faithful pet was taken by hostile creatures. Retrieve your weapons and venture out to rescue your kidnapped companion in this endearing and unexpectedly dynamic world.

Story Mode/Survivor Mode

Beat the 3 bosses in the concise and delightful “Story Mode” to unlock the thrilling and addictive “Survivor Mode.” Ascend a 50-floor tower, with each level presenting increasingly challenging trials!

Key Features

• For All Ages: From the “pacifist” mode without enemies or “invincible” to the challenging “unfair” mode, Castaway caters to all ages, from seasoned gamers to younger players discovering the genre for the first time. Try to complete the game as quickly as possible thanks to the speedrun mode!
• Charming Pixel Art Graphics: Immerse yourself in a 2D retro pixel art world reminiscent of classic adventure games. It’ll feel like coming home!
• Unique Weapon Abilities: Solve puzzles by acquiring weapons with distinct characteristics – the sword for speed, the pickaxe for power, and the grappling hook for increased mobility.
• Enchanting Soundtrack: Enjoy chiptune melodies, whether heroic or haunting, paying homage to the 8-bit console era!

Screenshots

Castaway crash lands on August 16th for PS5, PS4, XSX, XB1, Switch, and PC. For more indie discoveries, stay tuned here at RPGFan for all the RPG coverage!

Source: Gematsu