Super Mario RPG will test your music knowledge via the Tadpole Pond music puzzle in Melody Bay.
After arriving in Melody Bay, if you head right and step on the stone, you’ll be greeted by tadpoles that swim on a musical chart. Jumping on the tadpole stops it from moving, so you can draft a melody. You’ll earn rewards by composing specific melodies, so you’ll want to make sure to come back to Melody Bay every now and then to play a new song for the local composer.
If you miss the timing to jump on the tadpole, don’t worry, as it’ll swim back and forth between the lines.
For each song you play, you’ll unlock better healing items to buy from The Juice Bar in Tadpole Pond.
Below, we show you the Tadpole Pond puzzle solutions in Super Mario RPG and what rewards you get for playing these songs.
Melody Bay song #1: Frogfucius’ Suite #18
A nearby tadpole in the water will actually tell you what notes the tadpoles need to be, but if you’re not good at translating notes to a chart, we’ve got your back.
Arrange the tadpoles like so to get an Alto Card, which grants you one tier of membership to The Juice Bar in Tadpole Pond:
Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
With the Alto Card, you can buy Frogleg Cola, a healing item that recovers 80 HP for the whole party, for 42 coins each.
Melody Bay song #2: Mole Mountain Blues
After you save the two mole children and get the third star, you can return to Melody Bay to play a new song, the Mole Mountain Blues. Set up the tadpoles like so, to get the Tenor Card:
Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
With the Tenor Card, you can buy Finless Cola, a healing item that recovers 150 HP for the whole party, for 90 coins each.
Melody Bay song #3: Monstro Town Melody
After visiting Monstro Town, talking to the mayor, and listening to the Pink Starfish upstairs in his home, you can come back to Melody Bay to play the third and final song.
Set up the tadpoles like so to get the Soprano Card:
Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
The Soprano Card allows you to buy Croaka Cola for 200 coins from The Juice Bar. Croaka Cola fully restores your party, so it’s a useful and powerful item to keep around.
This story is part of our new Future of Gaming series, a three-site look at gaming’s most pioneering technologies, players, and makers.
The Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition
Video game fashion is often uninspired, Hot Topic-adjacent fare: T-shirts with a game logo ironed on the front, or zip-up sweatshirts with a garish all-over print of an animated character. It’s rare to see a piece of merch that feels like it’s pulled from a game-world (like the Disco Elysium jacket) or one that’s subtle enough you could wear it out to dinner without anyone knowing you’re repping your favorite RPG.
When I first saw “The Lands Between,” the Elden Ring-inspired collection from luxury streetwear brand ARK/8, I felt like I was looking at the future of game-related fashion. Nothing is so high-concept that it’s unwearable (the line is still firmly rooted in a streetwear aesthetic) but the entire collection could easily be worn by someone strutting through SoHo, or captured and posted on Instagram by Watching New York and no one would know it references a video game.
A lush, blood-red faux-fur coat that looks like the lion draped over Godfrey’s shoulder, an oversized, menswear-inspired crisp white button-down with Queen Marika stretched across the back, a few elegantly distressed crewnecks—all if it is so chic and so effortlessly cool that I can’t help but get excited looking at everything.
I was so curious about the person behind the designs that I reached out via email to ARK/8’s creative director, Dimitri van Eetvelde, to learn what inspires him and what he thinks is the future of gaming fashion.
Image: ARK/8
Finding fashion inspiration in Elden Ring
First, van Eetvelde made one thing very clear: ARK/8 isn’t a video game merch company, it’s a “fashion brand with gaming and pop culture as its DNA.” He likened it to how “skate is part of the DNA of brands like Supreme or Vans.” For him, too many pieces of game-related clothing are “very safe” items like “printed basics or pieces that are more suited for cosplay and gaming conventions.”
“The problem is that most of the licensed companies don’t care about gaming, it’s just a business decision. They sell the same T-shirt, whether it’s Jack Daniels or Iron Maiden or Assassin’s Creed,” he said. Van Eetvelde understands this approach, because he’s done it before—his first fashion company, Level Up Wear, was a printed tee and outerwear line started back in 2007, which focused on printing branded content on high-quality t-shirts. For him, Level Up Wear “was the inception of the concept of gaming and quality together,” though he soon reached a creative limit, and wanted to find a way to further explore high-quality garments and game-inspired designs. That’s when ARK/8 was born, fully materializing in 2019 after several iterations (including, briefly, as Italian-made high-end jewelry).
Image: ARK/8
The Lands Between collection marries high-end fashion with gaming, but not reductively—though items like the Boss Door t-shirt or the Queen Marika button-down clearly feature more obvious game references, there’s a sense of evocation at play here, as well. “We wanted to create a collection that didn’t feel like a repeat of the gaming merch template focusing on key characters or iconography, or using heavily illustrated prints,” van Eetvelde said. “Elden Ring was going to be approached not from a traditional asset/graphic perspective, but from a texture, world immersion angle.”
Brilliantly, the design team leaned into “exploration and content discovery” which van Eetvelde noted is a key part of Elden Ring gameplay. From there, two visual themes emerged: maps and the Tarnished aesthetic. “The map is so beautifully made,” van Eetvelde said, “The challenge was a technical one at that point, as getting it to look vibrant and detailed on different fabrics took a few tries.” The resulting “Our Lands Between Bomber Jacket,” however, is pretty wild—a “seemingly infinite print” of the in-game map, swirling colors across the model’s torso. The Tarnished aesthetic shows in the distressed but robust crewnecks, which van Eetvelde suggested mimic how players start out their Elden Ring experiences. “You start at the bottom in the game, your clothes are ragged. It’s rough, like in most FromSoftware experiences, but there’s also that robustness, that persistence of getting up and dusting yourself off, death after death.”
The future of video game fashion
With individual items ranging from $145 to $2500, it’s a gorgeous—albeit pricey—collection that elevates game-related fashion, and according to its chief designer, The Lands Between is just the beginning for ARK/8. The Elden Ring collection is the brand’s “guinea pig,” according to van Eetvelde—he gave me a sneak peek at a cool, splashy Overwatch drop coming soon that features a D.Va bodysuit I simply must have and a very cool Genji-inspired zip-up.
Image: ARK/8
“ARK/8’s mission is to establish a platform to elevate the conversation around gaming and the incredible art, music and narratives that underpin these amazing entertainment creations,” van Eetvelde said. “There’s a constant to it, it’s not just a one-off like most collabs. Fashion is a way to express our passion and show gaming in a new light.”
During our chat, he cited a few other examples of the somewhat dissonant worlds of fashion and gaming meeting and making something incredible. “I liked the Han Kjobenhavn X Diablo IV runway pieces for example, as they did push the envelope. I think the LOEWE X GHIBLI one was also really good because Jonathan Anderson really has a passion for Ghibli movies and it reflects on the whole collection. It’s brimming with details and complex executions. I want to see more of that.”
For game developers and fashion brands, ARK/8’s ethos can and should be mined for future collaborations. I want to see more high-concept runway pieces, more elevated streetwear looks, and less gaudy, ironed-on 1-Up mushrooms and zip-up sweatshirts meant to look like Samus’ power suit. Video games are visual marvels, brimming with color and creativity—lets make more clothes and accessories that speak to that.
I love Persona 5, but over the years, Atlus’ stylish, supposedly socially-conscious RPG hasn’t loved me. Queer Persona fans know the series to be fraught, and even the most passionate among us treat it like the fun uncle who claims to love everyone and still says something extremely out of pocket each holiday. I figured Persona 5 Tactica, the tactical spin-off launching on November 17, would follow all the previous games and find some way to throw a jab at queer people for no reason. But after years of feeling like one of my favorite series has been trying to push me out, Tactica opened the door for me, if only for a moment.
The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Super Mario RPG
We aren’t going to get into any big, overarching story spoilers as I explain how, but a brief scene in Tactica’s first chapter does require a little table-setting. If you want absolutely no context, maybe minimize this tab and come back when you’ve finished the first chapter.
Persona 5 Tactica opens with the Phantom Thieves, the teenage superhero vigilantes heading back into the supernatural world called the Metaverse. This time they’re facing Marie, a tyrant bride who has repurposed an entire town to hold her dream wedding. There’s no need to get into the why and who here, as it’s a spoiler, but this serves to set up the scene we’re here to talk about. It’s called “The Ideal Marriage,” and you can find it in the Talk menu in Café Leblanc after you find out Marie’s plot.
The Phantom Thieves discuss Marie’s plan in their home base, and the conversation moves on to the team’s own ideas of “dream weddings.” Ann excitedly talks about how she can’t wait to wear a white wedding dress, and it’s all very cute. Eventually, Ryuji turns to our mostly silent protagonist, Joker, and playfully asks which of the Phantom Thieves he would marry.
I went through a few stages of subverted expectations here, so hold my hand, Phantom Thief, and let me walk you through. When Ryuji asked the question, I fully expected my options to be limited exclusively to the women in the room, as that would reflect the original Persona 5’s extremely limited view of romance. These spin-off games don’t import your P5 save, so games like Persona 5 Strikers find ways to ask you who your paramour in the first game was so you can experience a little continuity.
But much to my surprise, Tactica allowed for everyone in the room to be an option, including Ryuji, who I have headcanoned as my Joker’s unrequited crush since first playing Persona 5 in 2017. Even still, my trepidation wasn’t gone, as any time a dialogue option gave me a chance to suggest how my Joker felt a door was instantly slammed in my face. Persona games haven’t just denied characters’ possible queerness at every chance, they’re often eager to turn any gesture toward it into a mean-spirited joke.
I braced myself as I chose Ryuji, ready for Tactica to hit me with the metaphorical backhand in the form of my would-be boyfriend jolting away in the opposite direction…but it never came.
Screenshot: Atlus / Kotaku
Instead, what I got was a really sweet scene of Ryuji in a stylish white tux, saying he couldn’t believe the person of his dreams had been right by his side the whole time. It was a reference to one of the best interactions between Ryuji and Joker in OG Persona 5, one often pointed to by fans as a moment that implies some level of romantic trust between the two. But here in Tactica he also acknowledged sparks had been flying between the two since they met at the beginning of Persona 5, and I thought to myself it was about damn time he wisened up to this.
As Joker stops pondering his dream wedding it’s back to reality, where he and Ryuji aren’t dating, despite those sparks. The scene then ended, and before a wave of excitement hit me, my first feeling was a sense of relief.
Persona 5‘s homophobia problem
Persona 5 has always positioned itself as a story about standing up against oppressive forces in the name of standing up for the little guy crushed under their boots. The Phantom Thieves use their supernatural powers to fight crooks as small-time as an abusive high school coach and climb up until they reach a major politician. The game tackles power imbalances, class issues, and corrupt law enforcement, but queer identity has always been its blind spot. Even as it stumbles in advocating for victims of abuse by putting those same people through the same violence after the fact, at least Persona 5 does, at some point in its 100+ hours, take a stance.
But when it comes to how identity is a marginalizing factor, Persona 5 has always been willing to shun, or even point and laugh at queer people. Men, especially. Playing the original Persona 5 as a gay man was an incredibly disheartening experience as it both refused to let me go down a romantic path with any of my male friends, and also bombarded me with assumptions of who Joker, and by extension, myself, was in its dialogue.
Image: Atlus / CloverWorks
On top of this, Persona 5’s treatment of its sole canonical gay men, two harassers assaulting Ryuji in the middle of a crowded street, remains one of the lowest points in the series. The English localization team stepped in for the definitive Persona 5 Royal version by making these characters enthusiastic drag queens eager to show Ryuji the ropes rather than predators, but even that can’t make Persona 5 an inclusive game when it’s entirely uninterested in telling a story about queer characters, even if the player is trying to push it in that direction. Sure, you can tell a random shadow in a buried battle menu that you like men, but in terms of living as a gay teen in supernatural Tokyo? Persona 5 won’t let you.
It’s frustrating because I’d argue the social link arcs between Joker and Ryuji or Joker and his rival Goro Akechi still enjoy the most romantic tension in the game, far more than most of the women the player can pursue. But really, it didn’t come as a surprise that Persona 5 was dismissive of queer identity, because Persona almost always is.
Persona 3 has weird transphobic jokes that I’m curious to see handled in Persona 3 Reload. Persona 4 nearly has interesting conversations about queer identity with party members Kanji Tatsumi and Naoto Shirogane initially being presented as possibly working through male attraction and gender fluidity respectively, only for the game to handwave those conversations, fall back on the status quo, and engage in some casual queerphobia along the way. Shoutout to Persona 2, which had a gay romantic interest in 1999. I wish your successors followed suit, but maybe they can moving forward?
Screenshot: Atlus / Kotaku
Persona 5 Tactica doesn’t make good on the series excluding queer people, and it definitely doesn’t fix that it made us the butt of the joke for almost 20 years. But it does hint that maybe the future’s looking brighter for queer Persona fans in the future. Now, even if the love stories that should’ve been there aren’t, those of us who spent years playing as Joker pining for Ryuji or Yusuke (apologies to the Akechi lovers but he isn’t here, R.I.P. to you) have something in hand to beat the headcanon allegations.
I didn’t flirt with any of the women in any of these games because I was truly committed to the self-insert bit. Now I finally have at least one scene in this whole series that acknowledges that my Joker wants to smooch his golden retriever best friend. This leaves me a little more hopeful that whoever I play as in Persona 6 might get a boyfriend of his own.P
It’s been a surprisingly strong year for the Nintendo Switch even as sales slow and fans eagerly await its successor, and today the company promoted a bunch of indie games that will fill out the console’s release calendar heading into 2024, from a new Shantae action-platformer to a port of beloved cult-hit sci-fi mystery game Outer Wilds. Unfortunately, everyone’s favorite Hollow Knight sequel, Silksong, is still MIA.
New Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Trailer Features Hot Profs, 4-Player Co-Op, And Lechonk, The Hero We Deserve
Last month’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder was the fastest-selling game in the franchise’s history, and a remake of the beloved SNES classic Super Mario RPG arriving later this month rounds out another great year for the Switch. But plenty of smaller games are also coming to the device this holiday season and beyond, and Nintendo highlighted some of the big ones in its latest Indie World Showcase.
Here’s everything we saw during Nintendo’s brief presentation today:
Shantae: Risky Revolution (WayForward)
The 2D half-genie is getting another retro follow-up to the original 2002 Game Boy Color adventure (which goes for four digits on eBay and still isn’t part of the Switch Online catalog). Risky Revolution will be a mix of old and new, with creature transformations and big boss fights as well as a four-player co-op mode and the ability to jump between the background and foreground. It’s out sometime next year.
Outer Wilds was an excellent space exploration puzzler and one of the best games of 2019. Now it’s finally coming to Switch next month on December 7. Archaeologist Edition will include the Echoes of the Eye expansion, and will be a must-play on Switch for anyone who hasn’t already experienced its compelling mysteries, deep secrets, and incredible ending, assuming the performance and visuals are still intact on Switch.
On Your Tail (Memorable Games/Humble Games)
Gif: Memorable Games / Kotaku
This is a new one about exploring the seaside village of Borgo Marina trying to unmask who’s been menacing the place by collecting clues in the form of trading cards. On Your Tail has you play as the young detective Diana, who can chill, fish, and meet new friends in this detective life sim hybrid. It’ll be a timed Switch exclusive in 2024.
A Highland Song (Inkle)
Another 2.5D narrative-led platformer? Sign me up. A Highland Song is about guiding a character named Moira on a journey through the Scottish Highlands. There’s rhythm-action elements with the music affecting how quickly you can progress, and inclement weather forcing you to change up your approach. A Highland Song comes to Switch on December 5.
Backpack Hero (Jaspel/Different Tales)
Another deck-building roguelike? Sign me up for that too! Backpack Hero looks similar to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign turned into a Magic: The Gathering deck builder except your arsenal will be dependent on how you organize the limited space in your backpack. Loot you collect from dungeons is brought back to help repair your village, which you can expand and decorate as you see fit. The game goes live today.
Howl (Mi’pu’mi Games/Astragon Entertainment)
Gif: Mi’pu’mi Games / Kotaku
Howl is a turn-based tactics game that features a “living ink” art style that lets you see upcoming enemy attacks and plan multiple turns in advance, making every encounter into a little puzzle box. A plague is sweeping through the world and the only way to defeat it is to collect resources and upgrade your abilities. You know, the usual. Howl is out now and has a free demo.
Blade Chimera is basically a cyberpunk Castlevania. There have been a lot of these retro 2D action-platformers in recent years, but Blade Chimera’s art and abilities make it seem like it could stand out. A Lumina Sword helps the hero slice down enemies and also restore old parts of the environment to unlock new paths forward. It’s a Switch timed exclusive coming spring 2024.
Death Trick: Double Blind (Misty Mountain Studio/Neon Doctrine)
Gif: Misty Mountain / Kotaku
The circus is in town and someone’s dead…probably. Death Trick is a choose-your-own adventure visual novel in which you play a detective interviewing acrobats and fire-breathers to find out what happened to a missing performer. It’s coming to Switch in 2024, with a free demo out today.
The Star Named EOS (Silver Lining Studio/Playism)
Gif: Silver Lining Studio / Kotaku
Picture a storybook where you dive into the pages and learn about your past memories. That’s what The Star Named EOS looks like. The puzzle adventure “explores photography and the ways we can capture the fleeting moments that shape our lives.” It will probably make you cry. The Star Named EOS is headed to Switch by spring 2024.
Moonstone Island (Studio Supersoft/Raw Fury)
Gif: Studio Supersoft / Kotaku
Moonstone Island might just have it all: creature collecting, dungeon crawling, deck building, card-based combat, and life sim farming. Hopefully the adorable and colorful-looking mashup of Pokémon, Stardew Valley, and Slay the Spire is half as good as the recipe suggests. The initial reviews on PC have been great. It will be a Switch timed exclusive launching in spring 2024.
Core Keeper (Pugstorm/Fireshine Games)
You probably know this one already. If you don’t, Core Keeper is kind of like Minecraft meets Zelda. Another way of saying that is it’s like crafting sim Terraria if it were top-down instead of a side-scroller. You dig tunnels to collect materials, items, and treasure that can be used to make a home-turned-factory deep underground while you search for an ancient relic. It features up to eight player co-op, lots of RPG elements, and some neat environments. The Switch port of the Steam hit is coming in summer 2024.
But wait, there’s more!
A sizzle reel near the end of the livestream also teased a bunch of other games coming to Nintendo Switch at the end of 2023 and in the year ahead. Here’s the PR:
Enjoy the Diner, a mysterious narrative adventure with point-and-click elements, available on Nintendo Switch later today!
Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist, a painting adventure in which you’re invited to explore the charming town of Phénix while creating and selling works of art, available on Nintendo Switch later today!
Heavenly Bodies, a delightfully challenging physics-based space puzzler that asks you to complete a series of seemingly simple tasks aboard a 1970s space station, arriving to Nintendo Switch in February 2024.
Braid: Anniversary Edition, a remaster of the acclaimed puzzle-platformer, with updated graphics and sound, plus newly added developer commentary, launching for Nintendo Switch on April 30, 2024.
The Gecko Gods,a relaxed puzzle-platformer starring a tiny gecko who must explore a set of mysterious islands and temples on a mission to save its friends, launching on Nintendo Switch in spring 2024.
Planet of Lana, a cinematic puzzle-adventure framed by an epic sci-fi saga that stretches across centuries and galaxies, launching on Nintendo Switch in spring 2024.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center, a captivating mystery game in which you’re tasked with investigating curses, haunted houses and other urban myths, coming to Nintendo Switch in 2024.
While most of these games are still a couple of seasons away, Backpack Hero, Enjoy the Diner, and Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist are all out today. Howl and Death Trick: Double Blind also have free demos out today. The heavily rumored “Switch 2” could get revealed any day now, but there’s still a ton of games coming to the existing hardware. Hopefully all of them will be backward compatible on whatever new console Nintendo is currently cooking up.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth isn’t out until early next year, but ahead of the game’s launch it’s been rated and reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Turns out the Teen-rated RPG will contain a “bodacious beach bod.” The question is: Who’s rocking that body?
Three Things We Learned From The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Demo
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, coming exclusively to PS5 on February 29, 2024, picks up after the events of 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and is the next entry in Square Enix’s three-part Final Fantasy VII remake project. We’ve already seen a few trailers for the upcoming RPG, but we’ve learned a bit more about Rebirth thanks to a newly posted rating description on the ESRB’s official website.
The ESRB’s rating description explains that some women in the game are “designed with revealing outfits” including “deep cleavage.” The ESRB also states that Rebirth contains “suggestive dialogue” and close-up shots of characters’ bodies. It points to one example where the camera pans to someone, presumably wearing a revealing outfit, who then says: “Just admit it. You’re obviously captivated by my bodacious beach bod.”
Now, the way the ESRB describes this makes it impossible to say who has (or thinks they have) a bodacious beach bod. So who, among the cast of FF7 characters, seems the most likely to say they have a bodacious beach bod? Place your bets now!
Other secrets revealed by the ESRB
The ESRB’s rating description of Rebirth also confirms that at least one character will be “impaled” by a sword in slow motion. Famously, and beware spoilers for a game released in the ‘90s, Aerith was killed by sword-wielding Sephiroth in the original game. You could describe what happens in that original sequence as “slow motion,” too. It seems the new remake sequel will do the same. The question is, who gets stabbed this time around?
In October, Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi promised a “big surprise” during that famous, iconic death. But he didn’t elaborate beyond that tease. Does he mean that someone else will get stabbed in slow motion? Perhaps nobody gets stabbed and Sephiroth just misses and runs away embarrassed. Or would it be really surprising to stab Aerith and trick everyone into thinking you wouldn’t do that this time around? Maybe someone just has a vision of a slow-mo stab. I’m not sure, really.
Oh and finally, the ESRB confirms that some characters get drunk and slur their speech and you’ll hear people say shit, asshole, and prick. I can’t wait!
Here’s the full ESRB description for FF7 Rebirth, coming February 2024 to PS5.
This is an action role-playing game in which players follow the story of a mercenary (Cloud Strife) on a quest to save the planet from evil. Players explore fantasy landscapes, perform missions, and battle monsters and soldiers in frenetic melee combat. Characters use swords, staffs, guns, and magic spells to fight monsters and human soldiers; combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and explosions. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence, sometimes with splatters/pools of blood: characters impaled or slashed by swords, sometimes with slow-motion effects; an assassin throwing a spinning blade at a targeted figure; characters shot by soldiers.
Some female characters are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., deep cleavage); suggestive dialogue sometimes accompanies camera panning/close-ups of characters’ bodies/outfits (e.g., “Just admit it. You’re obviously captivated by my bodacious beach bod.”). The game contains some alcohol content: as Cloud, players can drink a version of moonshine while at a bar; cutscenes sometimes feature drunk characters slurring their speech. A handful of scenes depict characters smoking cigars or out of hookahs. The words “sh*t,” “a*shole,” and “pr*ck” appear in the game.
Nearly three decades after it was first released on Super Nintendo — and despite a handsome remake for Switch, with completely redone visuals and rerecorded music — there’s still something strangely, but not unpleasantly, off about Super Mario RPG.
Mario looks all squat and cross-eyed; in fact, the whole Mushroom Kingdom and all its denizens have a sort of squashed, funhouse-mirror look, as if folding them into an isometric perspective has flattened them all out. Early in the game, Bowser’s castle gets run through by a giant, skyscraper-sized talking sword; when did you ever see a sword in a Mario game? Not long after, a Toad makes a joke about forgetting his bazooka at home. His what? Mario’s house is a wobbly, clapboard shack. Mario has a house. It’s all kinds of wrong.
This adventure, first released in 1996 as Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, was a collaboration between Nintendo and Square (now Square Enix) when both were in their mid-’90s pomp. Nintendo was winding down the SNES after an unbeatable run of in-house classics, from Super Mario World to Yoshi’s Island, while Square was months away from unleashing Final Fantasy 7 on the world. It was a meeting of near equals, and while the characters were Nintendo’s, the turf — turn-based role-playing games — was very much Square’s. The developer had the confidence to make its own tastes and personality felt in Mario RPG, in much the same way it later would with the Disney-crossover Kingdom Hearts games, and in a way few external developers working with Mario ever would again (with the recent exception of Ubisoft’s zany-but-cunning Mario + Rabbids games).
Image: Nintendo
So Mario RPG features many elements that feel like foreign bodies, even within the hallucinatory, anything-goes world of the Mushroom Kingdom. Square was allowed to create its own characters for the game — including Mallow, Mario’s first companion on his quest, who claims to be a frog but looks like a cross between a cloud and a cauliflower with stripy pants and a purple quiff. There’s a lovely score by the legendary Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter 2) that has a lush, nostalgic quality that’s subtly but profoundly different from original Mario composer Koji Kondo’s folksy melodic playfulness.
It all adds up to a curio: a game that has long felt like it belongs in a parallel dimension. Released just months before the Nintendo 64’s debut, original SNES copies of Super Mario RPG command high prices on the used market, and it has had only basic and sparing reissues from Nintendo since (it didn’t come to Europe at all until the Wii Virtual Console version in 2008). But it was also influential, laying the foundations for Nintendo’s later (and more tonally controlled) Mario RPG series, Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi. It has the same streamlined RPG systems as those games, the rhythmic inputs that add immediacy to the turn-based combat, and a similar, mildly meta sense of humor.
Image: Nintendo
For whatever reason — perhaps a hunger for any and all Mario content in the wake of the Super Mario Bros. Movie phenomenon, perhaps a newfound willingness to take risks with its mascot — Nintendo is now finally ready to give Super Mario RPG its due and integrate it properly with the Mario catalog, via this full Switch remake. It’s strange to encounter this game (for the first time, in my case) in 2023 on Switch, and it’s great that Nintendo, Square Enix, and whoever developed the remake (which remains unclear, but I’ve asked Nintendo for clarification) have so carefully kept its wayward spirit alive.
The full 3D graphical overhaul retains the original’s bizarre rendered look, wisely refusing to homogenize or standardize the designs, and retaining its off-kilter character even as it smooths out the animations. Shimomura has completely reorchestrated her score, but you can switch to the chiptune originals, if you like. There are some modern creature comforts, like a frequent autosave, but most of Mario RPG’s archaic, 27-year-old design quirks remain intact. That said, on early evidence, Square’s expert simplification of traditional RPG mechanics seems bulletproof — and the game plays very swiftly, considering its age.
As smart as the new version is, playing Super Mario RPG feels like a portal to another time — or another timeline, perhaps. A timeline where Mario lives in a shack. I’m still not over it.
On the frontline of the console wars, it’s difficult to find perspective. Whether you’ve already chosen a side and are deep in the trenches, or you’re just trying to figure out if an Xbox Series X (see on Amazon) or PS5 (see on Amazon) makes a better Christmas gift this year, you’d be hard pressed to find a measured, bipartisan take on the internet. Instead, the seemingly endless battle between Microsoft and Sony is littered with fanboys using Starfield ass mods to “dunk” on each other and CEOs arguing over console exclusives and their perceived value.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
I’m not a console warrior, nor am I a specs girl. I don’t care about framerates or ray tracing all that much; I’m not fussed about the power of processors. I grew up playing PlayStation until my high school boyfriend introduced me to Halo 2, then I bought an Xbox 360 so I could play Halo 3. I currently own a Series S and a PS5, both of which are jammed into a too-small entertainment console in my living room. But there is a distinct delineation between what kind of game I play on each device, and it’s worth discussing: I use my Series S for my competitive shooters, and my PS5 for almost everything else.
Image: 343 Industries
The Xbox comp game
I spend a lot of time playing Overwatch 2 on my Series S, but I also use its rather small storage for Warzone, Apex Legends, and Halo Infinite. These are my core four shooters that I regularly rotate between—I never play those first three on my PS5, even with the console’s extra storage space making it a lot easier to keep (and update) huge games like Call of Duty. There are a few reasons why.
As I mentioned, I got an Xbox so I could play Halo 3, which means I cut my teeth in the FPS world using the heftier Xbox controllers. As such, my hands became molded to them, my fingers grew comfortable with their curves. Even with slight variations in their design since the 360 days (like the controversial d-pad change that removed the disc in the Xbox One controller, or the extra button added with the Series X/S model), Microsoft’s controller has felt ergonomically superior for years.
The setup of the triggers and the joysticks, the way it rumbles, even the sheer heft of its plastic has always made Xbox controllers a more comfortable fit when compared to PlayStation’s DualShock and DualSense, whose symmetrical joysticks give me hand cramps. The size of the PlayStation controllers’ triggers also baffle me, and have historically made my attempts to play anything like Fortnite or Call of Duty rather miserable.
My custom Xbox controller I use every night. Photo: Microsoft / Alyssa Mercante / Kotaku
Then there’s the social aspect—I find it a lot easier to invite people to parties and chirp enemy players on Xbox’s interface. As Twitch streamer Jynxzi often shows during his play sessions, it’s easy in games like Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch 2 to find a player in your match, navigate to their profile, and send them a friend request or, in Jynxzi’s case, an unhinged voice memo. I use this feature often to reach out to players in Overwatch comp who aren’t talking and (mostly) politely request that they swap a character or heal more when playing as Moira. I don’t find those features as simple on PlayStation.
Of course, my Xbox preference would not exist were it not for Halo 3, the sole reason why I’m a shooter player in the first place. And Halo’s exclusivity to Xbox consoles is a large reason why those same consoles remain my preference for my daily competitive game session. When I have a few bad rounds in Overwatch, I can seamlessly swap to playing some lighthearted matches in Halo Infinite. Everything is right there, at my fingertips.
But aside from Starfield, an Xbox-exclusive RPG that sucked up a good chunk of my time before proving a bore, if there’s a narrative-focused game, I’m playing it on my PS5.
Image: Insomniac Games
The PlayStation prestige
There’s two major reasons why the PS5 is my go-to console for big-budget campaigns: Sony (often exclusively) releases some of the best single player games, and the DualSense’s features make my gaming experience so much better.
The controller’s groundbreaking haptic feedback system does a lot of impressive stuff. It offers different firing modes based on how far down you pull the trigger in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and adds an extra layer to Prowler Stash puzzles in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 by requiring you to apply different pressure on each side. And it feels great when it’s not offering more depth and just, literally, vibing—like when I swing through New York City as Miles Morales or ward off scaries in Alan Wake II. Swiping on the touch pad at its center adds even more layers to a gaming experience, and there’s nothing that delights me more than when a phone call emanates from the built-in speaker. And because Sony knows how powerful its DualSense is, all of the studios working on first-party games make the most of it.
Those first-party titles are, by and large, some of the most polished modern gaming experiences you can get. Whether it’s God of War: Ragnarök or Horizon Forbidden West, Sony’s games are akin to Hollywood blockbusters or fine-tuned supercars—they’re written like ancient epics, acted by icons, and so often without the jankiness that can scar new releases. Whether or not that makes them demonstrably better than other games is not the conversation here, but it is undeniable that they feel like they’re worth $70, especially when you have all the power of the DualSense in your palms.
Of course, the PS5’s storage size is a key element—though I may not care about frames per second, I do love that I can have Skyrim, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake II stored on there and regularly updated without having to uninstall anything.
Without realizing it, I’ve trained myself to boot up my PS5 when I’m in the mood for a lengthy, relaxed night of gaming that involves scouring worlds for hard-to-find objects or taking on daunting bosses, or power up my Xbox Series S when I want to shoot shit and yell into my headset. The consoles have become intrinsically linked with those different play styles, to such an extreme that, when I tried to play last year’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare II on PS5, I almost immediately shut it off and swapped back to Warzone on my Series S instead.
If you have both consoles, when do you play each and why?
A recently uncovered Rockstar Games patent suggests the developer could be using new technology to make NPCs in its games more immersive, particularly when it comes to the highly anticipated action-adventure crime sim GTA VI.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Comments: A Dramatic Reading
As spotted by Reddit user Tobbelobben30 (via Eurogamer), former Rockstar Games lead AI and gameplay programmer Tobias Kleanthous issued a patent in April called “System And Method For Virtual Character Locomotion.” The 11-page document, as Kleanthous described on LinkedIn, was “architected and implemented for games” at the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption studio. According to the paper’s abstract, the patent houses “a system and method for controlling the animation and movement of in-game objects.” In layperson’s terms, Kleanthous’ tech should make characters way more life-like. Tobbelobben30 detailed the patent’s contents in their Reddit post:
“Based on this patent, it seems like they’re using a clever system. They’ve built a library of small building blocks for character movements. These blocks can be combined in various ways to create a wide range of animations. For instance, think about a character in the game walking in the rain, feeling tired, or getting injured. Instead of designing separate animations for each of these situations, they use these building blocks to put together the character’s movements naturally. This means GTA 6 can have more diverse and lifelike animations. So, when you play GTA 6, you’ll see characters moving in ways that match the weather, their energy level, and their injuries. This makes the game feel more immersive. It’s like having characters that can adapt to different situations, making the game world feel more real and thrilling.”
“Immersive” can so often be an empty marketing buzzword thrown around ahead of game releases, but when it comes to this patent, the adjective couldn’t be more apt. Based on the tech described, Rockstar Games’ games—particularly GTA IV—should have characters with more dynamic animations, giving their worlds unparalleled realism. While Tobbelobben30 couldn’t verify if the system was used in Red Dead Redemption 2, they did say that the animations in Rockstar’s upcoming game will be “incredible.” (Kleanthous gave a talk during GDC 2021 about some similar tech used in the cowboy RPG.)
Various Reddit users have shared their reactions to this new locomotion patent. “Yeah it’s gonna be mind-blowing, even in the leaks the animations and physics looked insane,” ArkhamIsComing2020 said, referring to leaked development footage from September 2022. “Soo procedural animation? Niceeeee,” quipped ProceduralFish. “So basically if my arm gets hit with a bat I won’t be able to shoot as well? That’s kinda cool,” noted rustynutsbruh.
Kotaku reached out to Rockstar Games and Tobbelobben30 for comment.
Games For Gaza, an itch.io fundraiser for Medical Aid For Palestinians (MAP) that features 256 items ranging from games, stories, soundtracks, game assets, and more, reached its first, $10,000 goal within hours of its October 27 launch.
How Alan Wake 2 Builds Upon The ‘Remedy-Verse’
Itch.io is known for its fundraising bundles—in 2020 it sold both a $5 bundle for racial justice and anothe to help recoup funds for developers after GDC 2020 was canceled. Just this past summer, it offered 300 games/visual novels/art packs for $60, the proceeds of which went to the LGBTQIA+ creators of said content. So, it’s not surprising that itch.io would offer a $10 bundle to help support UK-based MAP, an organization that offers essential health care for Palestininans.
What is surprising, however, is how fast the bundle reached and surpassed its $10,000 goal. It was released on October 27 at around 11 a.m. EST, and by 3:15 p.m. EST bundle sales had raised more than $17,000. All of that money will go to Medical Aid For Palestinians.
“MAP is also committed to bearing witness to the injustices caused by occupation, displacement and conflict. We speak out in the UK and internationally, and ensure Palestinian voices are heard at the highest levels, to press for the political and social barriers to Palestinian health and dignity to be addressed,” the official MAP website reads.
Games For Gaza was created in response to the increase in regional violence that has taken place in Palestine after Hamas, an Islamic political and military organization governing the Gaza strip (home to over 2 million Palestinians who were displaced there), attacked Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,500 people. Since October 7, Palestine (specifically the Gaza Strrip) has been facing a nearly endless onslaught of bombings courtesy of the Israeli Defense Forces. At the time of writing, the Palestinian death toll has reportedly surpassed 7,000.
The Games For Gaza bundle includes Arcade Spirits; a romantic comedy narrative game; Muddledash, a four-person co-op octopus racing game; You Are A Wizard, a “game where you’re a dang ol’ wizard;” two-player game In The Air Tonight; and over 200 more TTRPGs, RPGs, soundtracks, journaling games, interactive novels, and more. It’s all just $10—and for an undeniably good cause. The bundle’s organizer, a game designer named Esther, shared a post on X that read, “My one request for folks supporting this bundle, either monetarily or by boosting it, is that you also find other ways to act up for Palestine. Call your representatives and urge them to call for an end to the occupation. Learn about Palestine. Support Palestinian organizers.”
Reached by Kotaku, Esther commented:
I’m honestly thrilled that the goal got met so fast; I had high hopes for us to surpass the initial goal, but one can never be totally sure of what will happen. I am so deeply grateful to everyone who contributed their games and to everyone who has bought the bundle thus far. I hope we can raise much more for Medical Aid For Palestinians, and that we can all take actions in addition to supporting this bundle to be in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Correction 10/27/2023 4:10 p.m. ET: The story originally published with the wrong headline and an erroneous goal figure.
Update 10/27/2023 4:15 p.m. ET: Added comment from organizer.
Games routinely cycle in and out of Game Pass every month, but the Xbox subscription service is about to lose some really good ones. You have less than a week left to try Persona 5 Royal, Signalis, and Gunfire Reborn. Here’s why you should give them a try before they’re gone.
I Didn’t Play Final Fantasy XVI ‘Right,’ And That’s OK
Leaving Game Pass on October 31, you have approximately zero chance of actually completing Persona 5 Royal by then if you haven’t already started it. But there’s still plenty of time to discover why so many other players have fallen in love with the demonic high school RPG sim. Signalis is much shorter and the perfect spooky Resident Evil-like puzzle adventure to play in the leadup to Halloween. Gunfire Reborn is sort of the opposite: a furry roguelike loot shooter about meditating to the flow of arena combat. Taken together, they serve up the perfect little weekend gaming buffet (and each one is available on console, PC, and over the cloud).
Persona 5 Royal
Screenshot: Atlus
The Persona series has always been great, but Persona 5 takes the turn-based RPG to a whole other level. A hyper-stylish presentation and jazz-infused playfulness makes it easier than ever to get through some of its more grueling and grindy parts. One moment you’re taking pop quizzes in class or helping friends after class, the next you’re chaining together demon-fueled combos against evil adults in surreal dungeons. Imagine being a kid all over again but with demons and the freedom to min-max your relationships and personal growth.
“Persona 5 offers the fantasy of a perfect teenage life,” Kirk Hamilton wrote in Kotaku’s original review. “With a little help from the Internet and a willingness to reload your saves, you could live this year in the ‘best’ possible way.” The Royal edition takes that same fantasy and ratchets it up even more with additional confidants, a longer school year, and tons of other tweaks like a grappling hook for dungeons. Famously, Persona 5 takes about 100 hours to beat. Consider its last few days on Game Pass as an expanded demo to decide whether you’re ready to take the full plunge.
Signalis
Screenshot: rose-engine
One of my personal top ten games of 2022, Signalis sort of came out of nowhere. Made by developer rose-engine, it’s eerie, haunting, and beautiful. You play as a mysterious person uncovering what happened in a weird facility full of little puzzles blocking your path and disturbing revelations lurking around every corner. If you’ve played the original Resident Evil games, its top-down view and low-poly horror atmosphere will feel instantly familiar and unsettling.
But punctuating the exploration and gameplay are anime cutscenes that hint at the larger story without ever letting you feel completely certain of what’s going on. There’s also gun combat that is surprisingly crunchy and requires you to be extremely mindful of not wasting ammunition. The music is incredible, too. As one Steam user wrote, “This game has done irreversible damage to my soul (it’s a masterpiece).” You can also finish it in under 10 hours.
Gunfire Reborn
Screenshot: Duoyi Games
Imagine if Borderlands and Enter the Gungeon had a baby and you get pretty close to Gunfire Reborn. The roguelike shooter is simple enough: run through dungeons, kill lots of stuff, unlock new characters and upgrades for future playthroughs. The key to Gunfire Reborn is that everything from the guns to simply throwing a grenade and watching it blow stuff up looks pretty and feels incredibly satisfying. Don’t let the fact that you’re playing as cute little colorful animals fool you: this is a first-person shooter fan’s shooter.
Every time you kill enemies you get coins you can use to purchase new weapons for your loadout. Your evolving arsenal changes how you approach each new encounter and the calculus everytime you can swap out a new ability or upgrade. Even when you’re feeling at the top of your game, Gunfire Reborn has a way of throwing something at you to knock you back down again. Thankfully, starting over again is half the fun.
Even once these three games are gone from Game Pass, you can still buy them outright for 20 percent off if you’re a current subscriber. But there will always be new stuff to play as well. Dead Space was just added today and Personal 5 Tactica, the strategy spin-off, arrives on November 17. You probably won’t beat Persona 5 by then either, but it’s plenty of time to figure out why all of the game’s characters are wearing Eyes Wide Shut masks.
Persona 3 Reload, a full-fledged remake of Atlus Games’ beloved 2006 role-playing game Persona 3, is set to release on February 2, 2024, for Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows. So take a deep breath and relax, you’ve still got a bit of time to play through October’s busy fall releases before hunkering down for an RPG-filled winter.
HD-2D, The Unique Retro-Inspired Art Style, Took Off In 2022
The remake is far from being the definitive version of Persona 3, given its lack of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 FES content, which means no appearance from fan-favorite female protagonist Kotone Shiomi. However, its various pre-order versions (and the bonus items that come with them) might soften the blow for longtime fans. Here’s a guide for what each pre-order version of Persona 3 Reload will get you.
What You Get: Pre-orders of any version of Persona 3 Reload will get you the base game, as well as six Persona 4 Golden background music tracks as bonus DLC. The bonus DLC will let you listen to “Reach Out to The Truth,” “Time to Make History,” “I’ll Face Myself,” “A New World Fool,” “Fog,” and “Period” in P3R. So if you just wanna jam to some P4G tunes and don’t wanna pay a little extra for something extra, this is the version of P3R for you.
Persona 3 Reload Digital Deluxe Edition
Atlus
Price: $80
What You Get:P3R’s digital deluxe edition will get you the base game, six bonus P4G tracks, the game’s 64-page digital artbook, and its 60-song soundtrack of newly arranged and all-new songs by the Atlus sound team.
Persona 3 Reload Digital Premium Edition
Atlus
Price: $100
What You Get:P3R’s Digital Premium Edition includes the base game, P4G’s bonus tracks, the digital artbook and soundtrack, as well as all of Reload’s DLC on launch.Here’s a description of P3R’s DLC pack:
Persona 5 Reload Phantom Thieves Costume Set
P5R Shujin Academy Costume Set
P5R Persona Set 1
P5R Persona Set 2
P4G Yasogami High Costume Set
P4G Persona Set
Persona 3 Reload Aigis Edition
Screenshot: Atlus / Walmart / Kotaku
Price: $200
What You Get: Last is the big kahuna: Persona 3 Reload’s Aigis Edition. Pre-ordering this eye-wateringly expensive version will get you the base game, a physical art book, a two-disc P3R soundtrack, a P3R DLC pack voucher, and an Aigis figure. There’s no clear information on the size of that Aigis just yet, although it looks like a standard 6-inch prize figure.
Harvest Island pitched itself as a horror farming life-sim, which immediately grabbed my attention. Another island farmer with some seriously spooky potential this October? Sign me up, am I right? Well, unfortunately, while I had high hopes for this game, I’ve struggled to find genuine enjoyment in my experience. Don’t get me wrong, the concept is great! I’m sure there will be people out there who enjoy this game. However, the execution feels a bit… lacking, for me personally, especially in comparison to recent competitors, which I’ll explain further below.
Harvest Island takes a narrative approach, placing you in the role of Will, a farming boy who lives with his father and younger sister, Samantha. Right from the get-go I was excited to see these interactions of dialogue, as powerful sibling bonds are some of my favorite dynamics in video games — think Sean and Daniel from Life is Strange 2, Yara and Lev from The Last of Us Part II, and most recently, Carmine and Kieran from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Teal Mask DLC. However, I soon found myself slightly irritated by the first interaction between Will and Samantha. To be fair, this was not through their dialogue, but instead through repetitive sound effects.
You see, Samantha is excited to join her big brother on his adventure to the Island, and won’t stop jumping around as she speaks to him. But, each time she jumps around in place, a rather loud sound effect plays. On repeat. For the entire duration of the scene. I suppose this means she was certainly nailing the role of the ‘annoying little sister’ if not anything else.
Image Source: Yobob Games via Twinfinite
By the end of this first scene, my ears felt as if they were bleeding from the noise of nails on a chalkboard, and I found myself skipping through the last sections of dialogue in a hurry to just get it over with. This may sound a little harsh, but this isn’t exactly a great way to kick off the narrative title that Harvest Island wants to be. That damn jump sound is going to keep me awake at 3 am like a sleep paralysis demon for nights to come.
Sadly, as my progression through Harvest Island continued, these sound effects did not get better, and I soon found myself growing rather sick of them. Half the time, it felt like somebody was just memeing around with Discord soundboard, and this became such an irritation to me that I had to dramatically lower sound effects in the menu, before turning them off completely. Honestly, the experience without them felt much better when I didn’t have the aggressive noise of a chicken clucking or a loud cow’s moo every time I pet or interact with a farm animal.
The soundtrack of background music for Harvest Island is actually quite enjoyable, which is why I found the sound effects to be such a shame; they were almost intruding on the calming tone that the music is trying to set.
On a more positive note, the graphics do have a nice charm to them that is more than worth mentioning. While the pixel art is nothing too modern looking, or extremely detailed or vibrant, this title takes on a slightly different approach. Instead, Harvest Island utilizes more dull tones with the majority of the environment remaining static, bringing a familiar nostalgia to old RPG games from within the GBA-NDS era.
This continues in the art for the character portraits, showcasing Will and Samantha in various poses and expressions. These portraits are very nicely stylized, and admirable, almost reminding me of elder Fire Emblem character portraits. I think the character designs, though perhaps a bit simplistic, are entirely suitable to the world in which Harvest Island has created, as they did seem to look and feel right at home in their environment.
Diving deeper into the characters, I really wanted to like Will and Samantha. Truly, I so badly tried to like them. While I did find temporary moments of joy in their presence, such as Will’s sleepyhead nature (relatable), or the scene where they both yell “HELLO GOATS!” to help Samantha get over her fear, for the most part, I found the entire family dynamic rather dysfunctional and insufferable.
Image Source: Yobob Games via Twinfinite
Right from the moment the story kicks off, Will seems to be under extreme stress from his father, tasked with the immense pressure of delivering the Harvest Offerings and completing chores without screwing things up. He’s constantly lashing out at his little sister in mean, hurtful comments due to this pressure, because he’s terrified of disappointing and angering his father. In return, this causes Samantha to retaliate with the same remarks towards her big brother, creating a rather toxic and unenjoyable environment.
I lost count of the number of times they told each other that they hated one another within my first two hours of gameplay, and while I understand that sibling relationships can undoubtedly be turbulent from time to time, I did find this to ruin the ambiance the farm offers. I came here to work hard and explore a spooky island with a dynamic sibling duo, not feeling like I wished there was a way to jump into the world to play babysitter or peacemaker between the two.
Image Source: Yobob Games via Twinfinite
Besides, their father is a total hardass. I mean seriously, he just stays inside all day, warm and cozy, while he throws all of his adult responsibilities onto his children. And then he has the nerve to get mad at them when they inevitably mess things up from time to time? I mean, come on, Grayson; they’re kids! Will is lucky on the rare occasions he makes an effort to teach him new skills, and even then, it’s pretty much just so he can take on more of Grayson’s work, the responsibility of playing a caretaker for his sister being drilled into him.
Harvest Island has attempted to establish itself as a spooky take on Stardew Valley, however, I just can’t seem to find the same level of quality in the title that is present in Stardew. The game feels somewhat unpolished or unfinished as if it needed a bit of extra time and care put towards fine-tuning mechanics, adding in extra features to tie things together, and generally wrapping things up nicely. Sadly, I don’t find Harvest Island to meet the same level of standards that Stardew or even other recent life-sim or pixel RPG games have delivered, such as Moonstone Island or Sea of Stars.
In Harvest Island, the farming tasks grew repetitive and boring rather quickly, and that was with me playing on Story Mode, which reduces the farming grind in favor of narrative. Unlike Stardew Valley and Moonstone Island, Harvest Island lacks a township or community of NPCS in which you can interact and build relationships.
Instead, you’re stuck on the family farm, wrapped up in the iffy relationships between your annoying little sister and intimidating father. While you do get to use Bless to upgrade your farm and craft new tools, it just doesn’t quite carry the same charm as rival titles.
Another thing that I found quite significant frustration in, was the fact that the game will often prompt new Quests, but give no sense of direction in where you’re supposed to head to complete said Quest. For example, one of the tasks listed was ‘take Samantha to the Island’ — yet gave no indication of where the Island was located. This left me wandering around the farm for way too long, getting irritated that every pathway seemed to be locked.
Fifteen minutes later, and I’d finally found my way, by pure luck. Maybe I missed an obvious sign in this scenario, I don’t know, but I did find it irritating that the Quests in your Journal were rather vague. This is fine for fetch quests and crop planting, as they’re fairly self-explanatory. But for main quests that push the story forward? It starts to get a little draining.
Image Source: Yobob Games via Twinfinite
Harvest Island has also marketed itself towards horror, which I think needs to be discussed. Pixel games have proven on multiple occasions that they more than have the capability of delivering great horror titles that are genuinely scary and frightening to play. However, Harvest Island does not deliver this same experience, which is a letdown.
The game definitely has subtle influences through a slightly spooky island, with odd flashes of blood or animal parts here and there, a demon, and a few minor jumpscares. However, it is by no means a ‘horror’ game. Harvest Island is not scary in the same way as other titles can be, and instead, it would likely be better off viewed as a dark mystery RPG mashup. I’ve caught glimpses of a few different titles that have been a much bigger success when it comes to a clash of the horror and life-sim genre, with Pumpkin Panic and Graveyard Keeper immediately coming to mind.
Image Source: Yobob Games via Twinfinite
In comparison to these titles, Harvest Island just falls flat, so the idea of comparing it to Stardew Valley feels almost a bit deceptive. There’s no seasons mechanic, a lack of friendly faces to converse with, and crafting seems to feel quite bare-bones. I can’t help but feel like Harvest Island was completely mismarketed with the references to Stardew Valley, which created false expectations for my playthrough.
The game also appears to still be quite buggy, which created a huge negative impact on my player experience. I found from time to time the camera would have a slight flicker as it struggled to pan following Will and Samantha, and on more than one occasion my game froze up completely, leaving me with no option other than force closing it. Harvest Island also doesn’t have an autosave feature, so every time this happened, I lost a small chunk of progress. These types of bugs make things feel extremely frustrating, and to be quite honest, dull my intentions of wanting to pick it back up.
Harvest Island was a brilliant concept that had massive potential. Unfortunately, the game is held back by its level of polish in certain areas, and being inaccurately marketed. In most scenarios, I’d truthfully find it very hard to recommend this game to fans of life-sims or horror games.
However, I think if I’d known to approach this game with the mindset that I would be going into a dark mystery narrative RPG with a slight nostalgic and retro feeling, I would have found much more enjoyment in the title. The gameplay, dialogue, and story at the beginning of the game are particularly painful, but once things pick up and the mystery starts unfolding, there is quite a bit of intrigue to be found, so the title may still be a worthy contender for fans of this genre.
Sometimes the direction in which the story leads is a bit predictable, but for the most part, there’s a fun sense of exploration, and despite not being particularly ‘horror’ worthy, things still get quite twisted. Unfortunately, the game takes too long to break into its strongest part of the story, which all unravels near the end of the game. This is a shame because while I was not thrilled by my Harvest Island experience, there was a fun sense of subtle terror in the last moments; you just have to drag yourself through the worst parts of the game to get there.
Harvest Island
Reviewer: Grace Black
Pros
The gameplay has a nostalgic charm
Character art is very nicely stylized and lovely to look at
The story, though slow and/or predictable at times, is mostly easy to follow
Two different modes to choose from, a ‘Normal Mode’ and a ‘Story Mode’ that is much lighter on farming, prioritizing the narrative
Cons
Poorly marketed in comparison of how it has been pitched to players, and what it actually is. Loud SFX often drown out the background music, creating disturbance Characters do a poor job of portraying a genuine, feel-good relationship, which creates a bad first impression Quests will often be presented to you with no direction on where to go or how to complete them An abundance of fetch quest style tasks, which can pile up and get exhausting to complete While marketed as having strong horror aspects, very little genuine moments of horror are to be found Game is still quite buggy, which impacts the player experience
Release Date
October 10, 2023
Copy provided by Publisher
About the author
Grace Black
Grace is a writer, digital artist, and character illustrator from New Zealand with a love for fiction and storytelling. Grace has been writing for Twinfinite for seven months and in the games industry for a year. She’s a horror enthusiast, occasional anime enjoyer, and die-hard Ghost-Type Pokemon fangirl. Her favorite video games include Overwatch 2, Life is Strange, The Last of Us, and Pokemon – all of which she will never tire of.
Bethesda’s newest giant role-playing game Starfield, which hit Xbox’s Game Pass service the day of its release, enjoyed a very loud launch last month.In fact, its developer singled it out as “the biggest Bethesda game launch of all time.” Now new data from consumer analytics company Circana backs up that boast with some numbers.
This Stylish Noir-Punk Side-Scroller Is Like Celeste With Guns
If you look at Circana’s sales data for September, you’ll see that Starfield was the best-selling game in the U.S. that month. “Add-on spending,” like the $35 Premium Edition upgrade many Game Pass members tacked onto their free base game to get into its Early Access, wasn’t accounted for in the data, which makes Starfield taking the number-one dollars earned spot here even more impressive.
Really, Starfield achieved these record sales in spite of Game Pass, which parent company Microsoft reportedly recognizes causes a “decline in base game sales 12 months following their addition [to the service].” Starfield’s next 11 months of sales, then, could be more contentious. There are already signs of its fresh paint chipping.
On Steam’s global Top Sellers chart, the latest Bethesda RPG fell a steep 26 spots from last week’s placement to a miserly ranking of 45, sitting between The Division 2 (#44) and Lies of P (#46), the latter of which also seems to be suffering from dwindling hype. Starfield is performing a bit better on Steam’s U.S.-only chart, lazing around the 27 slot, though it dropped 12 spots from its ranking there last week.
Big releases, especially during this packed October, keep threatening its standing. Mortal Kombat 1 and EA Sports FC 24 are right behind Starfield in September U.S. sales, Circana’s chart indicates. By some wizard magic, Hogwarts Legacy was the U.S.’s fifth bestselling game in September, though its concurrent player count seems to be shrinking ahead of its Switch port’s upcoming November 14 release.
The wizard game’s surface-level magic has carried it pretty far, though—Circana’s analysis positions Hogwarts Legacy as the bestselling game of 2023 so far. And, to Starfield’s credit, its first month was impressive enough to help it creep up to the year’s number-seven spot, right under Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. There are worse places to be.
EA’s next soccer game is going to be a bit different than most of its countless sports releases. That’s because, unlike FIFA or Madden, its upcoming FC Tactical is a turn-based RPG-like soccer game featuring magical-seeming special moves. Weird, but intriguing!
The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Madden NFL 24
Announced on October 11,EA Sports’s FC Tactical is a free-to-play soccer game for mobile devices launching in 2024. But to be clear: This new game isn’t replacing FC Mobile 24 Soccer, the pre-existing EA soccer game on phones that plays like the console version. Instead, FC Tactical is something very different, described by EA in a press release as a turn-based game that will contain over 5,000 authentic players across 10 leagues, including Premier and Ligue 1.
According to EA, matches are “simulated, with turn-based opportunities” where players will choose to defend, attack, pull off “skill moves,” or take shots at scoring a goal. Screenshots reveal an interface that looks a lot like other turn-based strategy games, just instead of tanks or fantasy warriors, there are soccer players in sports arenas.
Screenshot: EA
EA says FC Tactical will feature a variety of modes including online friend matches, ranked play, leagues, and guilds. Folks will have to “train players” to “master high-skill moves” or unlock specific traits. That sounds a lot like this is some weird soccer RPG, and things only get weirder when you look at some of the screenshots featured on the game’s website and Google Play Store page.
Some of the images show soccer players pulling off what I would describe as special attacks, complete with magical-looking visual effects like flames and energy pulses. I don’t expect any of these players are going to be summoning massive monsters to help them score a goal, but who knows?
Cyberpunk 2077’s highly acclaimed and massive expansion, Phantom Liberty, almost feels like its own game. That’s probably because the developers behind the expansion spent over $60 million on developingPhantom Liberty and $21 million on marketing it, bringing the total cost of producing the DLC to about half of what it cost to develop the entire Cyberpunk 2077 base game. And Cyberpunk’s costs rise even more when you factor in the fortune CD Projekt Red spent just plugging up the original release’s worst problems after its disastrous launch.
Phantom Liberty Is Undoing One Key Thing That Cyberpunk Got Right
On October 5, during an investor’s presentation, CDPR revealed the total budget for Phantom Liberty. Its costs were split between zł275 million on “direct production expenditures” and another zł95 million on “marketing campaign costs.” If we do some converting, that equals out to just about $63 million and $21 million in USD, respectively, or roughly $84 million total.
No matter how you slice it, spending nearly $85 million on developing and marketing a single expansion is wild and a sign of just how expensive game development is these days. It’s also a great example of how big, expensive games aren’t allowed to be flops.
Cyberpunk 2077 had to be a beloved hit, no matter the cost
Another interesting number revealed during the presentation is that CDPR spent zł178 million or about $40 million USD on bringing the game to next-gen consoles and building the sweeping 2.0 update. Add that number to the above Phantom Liberty figures and you could feasibly claim CDPR spent almost $125 million on fixing Cyberpunk 2077’s imageand saving its reputation.
However, based on how well Cyberpunk 2077 and its new expansion are selling after the update—CDPR claims there was a “surge” of sales following update 2.0—the company is likely going to wind up making a lot of money off the game. CDPR pointed out during the investor presentation that it is “confident” that the DLC and its main game will be “big sellers” for a long time, pointing toward the continued sales of The Witcher 3 and its DLC years after launch.
With the development of the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel starting and news of a live-action spin-off in the works, it makes sense that CDPR would be willing to invest so much money into making sure Cyberpunk 2077’s legacy amounted to more than a failed launch and bad console ports. It needed the game to be a huge hit with millions of fans. And it got there, even if it cost a lot of money in the end.
Storied RPG developer BioWare is downsizing. The studio announced on August 23 that it will cut 50 roles as it continues production on both Dragon Age: Dreadwolfand Mass Effect 4, telling fans it needed to take a more “agile and focused” approach to game development.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
“In order to meet the needs of our upcoming projects, continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard of quality, and ensure BioWare can continue to thrive in an industry that’s rapidly evolving, we must shift towards a more agile and more focused studio,” wrote BioWare general manager Gary McKay. “It will allow our developers to iterate quickly, unlock more creativity, and form a clear vision of what we’re building before development ramps up.”
Fifty developers at the studio will be laid off as a result of the restructuring, with McKay claiming the changes are necessary to “create exceptional story-driven single-player experiences” moving forward. Those include Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, which at one point was planned to have multiplayer live-service elements and has continued to face seeming delays and departures in top roles, as well as the next Mass Effect game, which despite promising teases appears to be many years away from release.
“If you’re wondering how all of this will impact development of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, let me be clear that our dedication to the game has never wavered,” McKay wrote. “Our commitment remains steadfast, and we all are working to make this game worthy of the Dragon Age name. We are confident that we’ll have the time needed to ensure Dreadwolf reaches its full potential.”
The latest round of cuts comes shortly after publisher Electronic Arts announced that BioWare’s longstanding sci-fi MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, would be outsourced and taken over by a new studio, Broadsword. VentureBeat also reports that BioWare has decided not to renew its contract with Keyword Studios, an in-house contracting company whose employees that were working on BioWare projects recently unionized and have been bargaining on their first contract.
A spokesperson for EA told VentureBeat other work orders had been renewed post-unionization and that it simply failed to arrive at a new agreement with Keyword Studios, meaning work for its onsite QA testers will expire in September.
James Russwurm, a member of the Keywords union embedded with BioWare for several years now, told Kotaku in a phone call that while he’s sad to see the contract not renewed he believes it’s just a cost cutting measure rather than something targeted at the union itself. KWS Edmonton United is still bargaining with Keywords on its first contract and Russwurm was optimistic an agreement could be reached as soon as the end of the year.
The company announced 800 layoffs back in March of this year. In August it posted a quarterly profit of $400 million, up nearly 30 percent from the same time a year prior.
Update 10/4/2023 5:39 p.m. ET: All of the unionized Keywords devs who previoulsy worked at BioWare were laid off at the end of September, Polygon reports. The company cited the lost contract and the employees are currently trying to negotiate over severance.
Something similar happened to bug testers contracted to work at Microsoft in 2016. Despite unionizing and negotiating their first contract, Microsoft eventually canceled its work with the contracting company, which subsquently laid all of the unionized testers off. A union-busting complaint was filed with the NLRB, but legal proceedings moved to slow to get the workers their jobs back.
Update 8/23/2023 2:11 p.m. ET: Added comment from a Keywords Studio contractor.
I love racing games, but I’m not really a racing game kind of guy. What that means is I enjoy getting beyond the wheel of a flashy car, whether it’s a half-million-dollar Ferrari or a souped-up Subaru hatchback, and trying to hug turns while grazing past the competition. What I don’t particularly care about is getting…
Once a distant star on the horizon, Starfield arrived on Xbox and PC on September 6, with a five-day early access period for those who shelled out for the deluxe edition. It’s now been in the hands of gamers worldwide for a little over a month, with folks pouring over its vast world and searching every nook and cranny for loot, side quests, and more.
This Stylish Noir-Punk Side-Scroller Is Like Celeste With Guns
As expected, a game as massive as Starfield has a ton of stuff going on (there’s 1,000 planets, remember) so a month later, folks are still discovering all sorts of unique quirks, charms, and more than its fair share of weak points to point out, celebrate, and critique.
Whether or not Starfield will be as memorable as Skyrim or Fallout remains to be seen, but within its first month, here are some of the highlights.
Starfield earns praise, with some caveats
Following its announcement in 2018, the hype for Starfield was real. Promising a scale way beyond what Bethesda delivered with Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield would mark the first original franchise for the studio since the ‘90s and take the Bethesda RPG format to a place it’s never really been before: space.
Since the highly anticipated game launched, the reactions have been largely positive, but there are some fair criticisms of its structure and the meat of more than a few of its premiere questlines. In Kotaku’s review of Starfield, I praised its scale, scope, and capacity for gorgeous vistas, but criticized a pervasive shallowness in the game’s settings, narratives, and woefully repetitive environments.
Player reviews via Steam certainly have their knives out for this Bethesda entry though, often describing the game as “disappointingly average” and “wide as an ocean – shallow as a puddle.”
Starfield’s scale and scope finally in player hands
It was understood early on that Starfield would be enormous. Bethesda touted the impressiveness of the game’s scale and talked at length about how the survival mechanics wouldn’t bog down the fun of Starfield’s core experience. as they do in other space games like No Man’s Sky
Starfield’s reception amongst those not in the industry and casual players has also been mixed. While many of us have found a calm, contemplative beauty in the game’s endless planet simulation, others have tested just how traversable Starfield’s galaxy really is, and discovered that fast travel is technically not mandatory; you can fly across a solar system if you’ve got literal hours of real-world time on your hands to burn. And you can speed up space travel with a mod if you’re so inclined.
The scale of each individual planetary zone you can land on, however, has brought up criticism from players concerning the jarring lack of vehicles. Bethesda explained that while it did consider vehicles, it instead wanted to prioritize the on-foot exploration experience. Besides, if you did have a space rover, you’d be in for a bumpy ride with all of the dead animals everywhere.
And don’t forget, Starfield has some neat watering holes if you’re looking for a break from all the space-faring adventures and just want to sit in a weird space bar with a weird space bartender.
Wacky physics, fun mods, and other shenanigans
Starfield’s engine has a wildly impressive physics simulation. Granted, Bethesda games have always had pretty cool physics, but Starfield’s seems to be a bit more realistic and lively. This has allowed players to engage in some credit theft, but also has inspired some pseudo Rube Goldberg shenanigans. You can also just pack your ship full of junk and potatoes.
Like almost every Bethesda game before it, modders have taken to improving the rougher edges of Starfield’s experience. We’re still collecting a list of must-install mods for the PC version, but at a minimum you should consider installing StarUI as it profoundly improves the experience of a game that’s already encouraging bad habits for the digital hoarders among us.
In more interesting news, one Starfield modder has taken to putting their DLSS (Nvidia’s AI-powered super-sampling tech that was excluded from Starfield’s launch due to an exclusive deal with AMD) mod behind a paywall. Now, the debate over paid mods is worth having and is not within the scope of this piece, but when you slap DRM and threaten to sneak malware onto pirated copies of a mod…that’s kinda, well shitty.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, Starfield has its share of bugs. I’ve seen a number of quest-breaking errors in my time with the game, while others are finding entire cities transported along with their ships. If my own nearly 200-hour playthrough of the game is anything to go by, save often, don’t rely on auto- and quick-saves. Starfield likes to break more often than it should.
Starfield is just getting started: DLC and more
Even after spending nearly 200 hours in Starfield, I’m still coming across new things. My opinion of it holds strong, but it’s nice to see such a large game continue to offer new experiences the more you play it.
As Video Games Chroniclepointed out, director Todd Howard stated in a recent interview that experience with previous games like Skyrim and Fallout has taught the studio to design with long-term investment in mind:
“This is a game that’s intentionally made to be played for a long time. One of the things we’ve learned from our previous games, like Skyrim, like Fallout, is that people want to play them for a very long time. […] How do we build it such that it is allowing that in a way that feels natural, and if people have played the game and finished the main quest, you can see that.”
How the future of Starfield evolves beyond just repeat playthroughs remains to be seen. It’s hard to imagine the game will see the same kind of update support that No Man’s Sky has, but Howard has repeatedly stressed that this is a game that was designed to be played for a long time.
Hype and anticipation met reality when Starfield shipped universally on September 6. It’s more than capable of delivering a fun, can’t-put-it-down experience, though it has more than its fair share of problems and weaker points. The first month has seen a number of differing opinions flourish over Starfield and Bethesda-style games in general. But with promised new features, story expansions, and a growing mod community, Starfield’s story is far from over.
Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion have a problem with wasting your time. CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG has a feature where you have to wait an undetermined amount of time for certain quests to activate, and that persists into Phantom Liberty. Even now, after the epic 2.0 update revamped a bunch of the game, it’s still making players wait around doing nothing, praying for the next mission to pop.
Phantom Liberty Is Undoing One Key Thing That Cyberpunk Got Right
I suppose you could argue this is a creative choice meant to encourage you to spend time dipping into side missions instead of just barreling through the main quest. Cool, but then you have to wait large chunks of time before you can get back to the quests you actually want to play. The largely excellent new Phantom Liberty expansion has one of the most egregious examples of this yet, and it sounds like a lot of players are struggling with it.
The final mission in one of Phantom Liberty’s two routes is called “The Killing Moon.” Without getting into the specifics, some messy shit goes down and you have to wait for a phone call from Songbird, the skilled netrunner you meet at the beginning of the expansion. While I was playing Phantom Liberty for review, I noticed that this specific wait was probably the longest I’d experienced in my three years of playing Cyberpunk 2077.
I killed time by using the in-game wait feature, knocking off side-quests, and aimlessly sprinting around the map in hopes that she’d finally hit my line. Eventually, I got the quest to proc but it took days, maybe weeks of in-game time. I discussed this moment with other reviewers who experienced the same trouble, but we couldn’t pin down any real throughline as to what finally got Songbird to make the call. It seemed arbitrary.
Now, the expansion is out, and I was watching video producer and writer Sam Greer stream the expansion on her Twitch channel. It took her around 40 minutes to get the quest to activate. This prompted me and other viewers to try and find answers as to what the hold-up was, and it turns out that a lot of people are running into this issue. There are a handfulofReddit threads about “The Killing Moon” and the painful wait to get back into the action.
Some Redditors have suggested that you need to complete the quest “Run This Town,” which you get via a phone call from Mr. Hands, before events will progress, but Greer was able to finally continue “The Killing Moon” without completing that other quest.
Kotaku has reached out to CD Projekt Red about the issue and will update the story should we hear back. But if you’re running into this problem, know you’re not alone, and the quest is likely not bugged. There’s conflicting information on how to actually get it moving again, though.
The video game industry is still reeling from Epic Games’ September 28 announcement that it will lay off nearly 900 employees. If developers at the Fortnite money-printing factory aren’t safe, nobody is. In perhaps the worst-timed microtransaction ever, Fortnite’s “Share The Wealth” emote went back up for sale on the battle royale’s in-game shop later that day.
Dead By Daylight Devs’ New Game Is Fortnite Meets Doom
It didn’t take Fortnite news accounts like Guille_GAG long to discover the emote had returned to cap off the a day full of grim news. “Epic has brought back the Share the Wealth Emote just after firing 900 of their employees…,” they tweeted. “Epic Games is under fire for selling the ‘Share the Wealth’ Emote in today’s Item Shop rotation – just hours after 830 employees were laid off,” the FortniteBR Instagram account posted.
It appears the emote, which was added to the game earlier this year in Chapter 4: Season 3, was only on sale for a brief period before being removed. According to FortniteBR and others, the emote was removed when Epic took down the entire Daily Rotation tab from the store shortly after the emote went live.
A company spokesperson told Kotaku in an email that the “Share The Wealth” emote was pre-scheduled. “The emote was taken down when we realized the mistake roughly one hour after going live,” they wrote. Epic Games acknowledged the missing feature on Twitter and said it would return during the next item shop refresh.
“We’ve been spending way more money than we earn,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in an email to staff announcing the layoffs. It was a peculiar invocation of of the royal “we,” considering the executive then proceeded to list acquisitions, expansions, and other business initiatives, like growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators, that most of the people laid off probably had no say in.
It’s unclear what sort of salary Sweeney and other executives at the company draw. Epic remains a privately owned company, so it doesn’t have to disclose any of that information. Sweeney has pushed back again the concept of a wealth tax in the past, claiming that it would penalize people like him by forcing them to sell equity in their companies anytime they become more valuable. While the larger company remains a black box, we do know that Fortnite made $9 billion in its first two years, and Epic continues to rake in “billions of dollars a year in revenue from player purchases.”
“The reality of being laid off by Epic while being treated for skin cancer has hit me and woken me from a not sound sleep and I don’t think there are words for how furious I am at the company, the leadership, their greed…all of it.” one former Epic employee tweeted overnight. In the meantime, Epic is still burning money on things like Epic Games Store, its Steam competitor, showering players with free games. The latest freebie is the action RPG Soulstice, which is normally listed at $40.
“Saying goodbye to people who have helped build Epic is a terrible experience for all,” Sweeney wrote in his email to staff. “The consolation is that we’re adequately funded to support laid off employees: we’re offering a severance package that includes six months base pay and in the US/Canada/Brazil six months of Epic-paid healthcare.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25063094/obs64_2023_11_06_15_23_51.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25066081/obs64_2023_11_07_15_02_00.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25049850/Switch_SuperMarioRPG_scrn_06.jpg)
![Dragon Age And Mass Effect Studio Lays Off 50 Devs, Claims Games Are Unaffected [Update]](https://reportwire.org/wp-content/uploads/https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/9833ae8028125c1ce1e8f6a9dbf05db5.jpg)
