Back in the day, you might have wondered: Hey, why does Mario take damage when he bumps into a Goomba in the original Super Mario Bros.? Turns out, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto had an answer: The enemies were biting you. We just never actually saw that happen. Well, that changes in the soon-to-be-released Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Actual Italians Tell Us What They Think About Super Mario
In the latest installment of Nintendo’s ongoing web series, Ask the Developer, the folks behind Wonder answered some wide-ranging questions about the upcoming Switch-exclusive platformer. They revealed that it wasn’t really influenced by the movie, that it was developed differently than past Mario games, and the strange work that goes into making 3D models look good in a precise 2D side-scroller. It’s really interesting stuff! But perhaps my favorite bit to come out of the first two parts of this long Ask the Developer is the backstory on why Goombas bite Mario and other characters when they get close.
According to Wonder’s art director, Masanobu Sato, he once heard someone explain that when Miyamoto was asked why Mario takes damage after bumping into a Goomba in the original game, he answered, “It’s because the Goombas bite him.”
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku
However, as pointed out by Wonder’s director, Shiro Mouri, even if that was what was happening, due to “hardware limitations” back then the game couldn’t show that detail. Super Mario Bros. Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka, who has been working on Mario games for nearly four decades, further explained that was why Koopa Troopas turned around to face Mario when you bumped into them in the NES classic.
“We tried to express them biting the player by making them turn around,” said Tezuka.
“But now we are able to show those expressions,” said Sato.
The devs say that in Wonder, the moment a Goomba does damage to Mario a small animation is triggered that shows the iconic enemy biting the plumber (or whichever other character the player is using.)
“Yes, and when they bite you, they’ll do it with a smile on their face!” added Sato.
I highly recommend reading the full interview as it reveals more behind-the-scenes information about how the game was developed and where all its wacky ideas come from.
Today at New York Comic Con, it was revealed that voice actor Matt Mercer, perhaps best known as the Dungeon Master of popular actual-play webseries Critical Role, will be starring as gunslinger Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second chapter in Square Enix’s ongoing remake of the classic ‘90s Japanese role playing game.
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Previous trailers for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have showed off a variety of different locales, as well as characters not featured in the first chapter, 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, including Vincent Valentine. Much of the game remains shrouded in mystery, however, as the remake project isn’t just a faithful retelling of the original story, but sees its narrative branching off in some bold new directions. Today at NYCC, a panel featuring voice actors from the highly anticipated sequel revealed a bit more about what to expect.
While Matt Mercer did voice a few characters in the first entry of the remake project, they were mostly minor NPCs with names like “Wall Market Thug.” During the October 14 panel, Mercer revealed that he auditioned for Valentine in Rebirth, saying that he “put all of his energy” into the audition. Then, he didn’t hear back for nine months. And when he finally did get a callback, it only said that he’d once again play nameless NPCs.
In what he described as a prank played on him by the folks producing the game, Mercer said he was brought into the booth to record lines for a random NPC when the screen containing the script started glitching out before fading to black and presenting him with another character: that of Vincent Valentine. Quite a way to find out you’ve got the job.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases on February 29, 2024 for PlayStation 5.
As Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s February 29 release date grows ever closer folks are getting antsy about seeing beloved characters like Cait Sith (pronounced “Kate Sihth,” apparently) Vincent Valentine, and Cid party up with Cloud. Although creative director Tetsuya Nomura has already confirmed that the aforementioned characters will join Cloud in combat similarly to how Red XIII did in Final Fantasy VII Remake, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be introduced in the same order as in the original game. We don’t even know where Rebirth will end given the remake trilogy’s altered timeline. But one fan believes their wild theory pinpoints where Rebirth will end, and it involves FFVII’s cigarette-smoking scientist, Cid.
HD-2D, The Unique Retro-Inspired Art Style, Took Off In 2022
In 1997’s Final Fantasy VII, Cid joins the crew long before they make their way to the City of Ancients, a place we’ve seen the Rebirth cast explore in the latest trailer. But for whatever reason the Rebirth trailers still haven’t shown off Cid, despite revealing other, arguably bigger, characters like the vampire-coded Vincent Valentine. And this Reddit user believes they know why.
Yesterday, nikokow59 shared a screenshot from the Final Fantasy VII Trivia Twitter account to the FFVIIRemake subreddit about a scrapped story beat of the classic game that would have prevented Cid from joining Cloud and crew until an even later point in the game. According to the FF7_Trivia tweet, Cid wouldn’t have joined the party until after Sephiroth summoned Meteor. Talk about cutting things close to the buzzer beater. Another tidbit of this scrapped concept involved Shinra sending Cid out on a suicide mission to offset the celestial body with a rocket of his own making, as if he was in some video game version of the 1998 Bruce Willis film, Armageddon.
“In the OG [Cid] didn’t really need to follow the party, so this time that could be a good reason,” Nikokow59 wrote.
Nikokow59’s theory would also suggest that Cid’s famous rocket experiment, which originally took place before the events of FFVII, would instead be a part of Rebirth’s story and serve as the game’s cliffhanger. That would make a lot of sense considering there’s still an entire third game to come to complete the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy. Do you think Nikokow59’s theory holds water, or will Square Enix end Rebirth on a different note?
Either way, we’ll have to wait a while to find out, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth doesn’t launch until February 29 on PlayStation 5.
The Wii U was certainly not the most successful console Nintendo’s ever released, and while some may fondly remember it in 2023, at least one person actually bought a brand new Wii U from a store as if it was 2013 all over again.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
Launched in 2012, the Wii U was Nintendo’s follow up to its massively popular Wii console. While the Wii would go on to become one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time, things went much differently for the Wii U and its tablet controller. The console never came close to selling as well as the Wii, and by 2017 Nintendo had moved on to the Switch, which would go on to outstrip the Wii U’s lifetime sales in its first year. But we can now add one more Wii U sale to its total tally.
This odd stat comes from Mat Piscatella, executive director at Circana (formerly NPD) who posted on Twitter (X? Whatever) that one (1) new Wii U was sold in the United States in September. According to Piscatella, this is the first time a new Wii U has been sold in the U.S. since May 2022. Which is also very strange, now that I think about it.For those unaware, Circana tracks “individual store level sales data” to keep tabs on what people are buying and selling. They then sell that data to folks who care. What that also means is that this Wii U wasn’t a used one at GameStop or something like that. This was a “new,” sealed Wii U console that was finally sold a decade after launch.
How did this happen? We don’t know specifically, but as folks who have worked retail at big chains have explained in the comments below Piscatella’s tweet, this isn’t that uncommon. Speaking to some folks I know who have worked at stores like Walmart and Target, old shit can get buried in the back. Or maybe a Wii U had been sitting for the last decade on a store shelf in, like, Georgia or Montana and finally, after a decade, someone decided to buy it and play some Super Mario 3D World. I hope they enjoy it!
Also, Piscatella added that three new PS Vitas were purchased in November 2021. I’m glad these forgotten consoles, sealed up in boxes and buried in storerooms or lost inside decrepit Best Buys, are finding homes. Brings a tear to my eye.
Detective Pikachu Returns is out on Switch today, October 6, and as someone who considers the original 2016 3DS game to be one of my favorite things Pokémon has ever done, I’m stoked. But Nintendo’s adventure game sequel exists in a weird place, because the 2019 live-action Detective Pikachu movie may have already wrapped up its story.
HD-2D, The Unique Retro-Inspired Art Style, Took Off In 2022
While the circumstances are a bit different, the Detective Pikachu movie does the whole “Game of Thrones” thing of ending a story that wasn’t quite complete in the source material. Did its ending end up spoiling the video game sequel that wouldn’t launch for another four years? As I play Detective Pikachu Returns, I assume I probably know what’s going to happen at the end. However, I’m not totally sure, because the game has a cute scene that references the movie and affirms that the game is doing its “own thing.”
The scene in question takes place maybe 30 minutes in. Protagonist Tim Goodman is speaking with his mother Irene and sister Sophia about his detective adventures alongside the titular Detective Pikachu. Apparently, the mystery-solving duo has become so well-renowned for their work that they’ve made a movie about the first game’s case. Sophia says she thought the movie was “pretty good,” but laments that she and her mom don’t show up in it at all. Tim says he has “no idea, but movies usually do their own thing, don’t they?”
2019’s Detective Pikachu movie follows a lot of the same plot beats as the 3DS game it was based on, such as Tim and Pikachu being able to talk to each other while they search for Tim’s dad Harry. But Irene and Sophia don’t appear in the movie at all; Sophia doesn’t even seem to exist in the film’s continuity. Her now being upset about that in Detective Pikachu Returns, and Tim’s nonchalant response, is a cute meta reference to the real movie and the liberties it took with the source material.
Tim’s mother, specifically, is very different in this new game, because she was long dead in the film’s chronology. Harry grew distant after Tim’s mother’s death, leading to tension between the two. But she is alive and well in Detective Pikachu Returns. Does that mean she gets a happy ending now? To be determined.
Whatever happens, the most comforting thing I’ve experienced playing Detective Pikachu Returns is its repeated insistence that your mystery-solving electric mouse isn’t a cop in the games; in fact, they’re actually pretty at odds with Ryme City law enforcement so far. We stan a private investigator vigilante king.
Castlevania: Nocturne, the sequel series to Konami’s popular animated vampire saga, Castlevania, recaptures the magic that its predecessor brought to the dance back in 2017. A tightly written show with multifaceted heroes and villains, outstanding action sequences, and imaginative monster designs, its meticulously constructed dialogue will have you hanging off of every word. Simply put, Castlevania: Nocturne makes sure that nearly every scene in its eight-episode season is equal parts purposeful, engaging, and beginner-friendly to viewers who may have missed the original series.
A Saucy Romance Game Where You Play As Dracula
The show,which takes place 300 years after Castlevania and loosely adapts the PC Engine classic Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, is set during the height of the French Revolution in 1792, and follows Richter Belmont, a descendant of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, who, alongside his adoptive sister Maria Renard, fight to stop a tyrannical “Vampire Messiah.” The pair have the cards stacked against them because the big bad, Erzsebeth Báthory—who’s based on the folklore surrounding a real-life historical figure—has allied herself with counter-revolutionary aristocrats and key political figures around the world, and plans on using her ungodly powers to blot out the sun so vampires can terrorize the world at their leisure. Suffice it to say, this generation of vampire hunters has one hell of a task ahead of them and the show doesn’t shy away from showcasing them being out of their depth.
Rather than setting up Maria and Richter to be hyper-capable carbon copies of their predecessors, as popular generation-spanning anime like Naruto are wont to do, the show instead opts to underscore how their inexperience puts them on the backfoot during nearly every deadly encounter in the show. Unlike Sypha and Trevor, who we meet as fully realized adults in the midst of their epic and perilous quest, Maria, Richter, and their newfound allies Annette and Edouard possess a youthful eagerness to rush into the fray headfirst without a tangible plan, and it backfires. After all, Richter is only 19 years old and hasn’t been tasked with saving the world as often as his ancestors have, so it’s to be expected that he’ll have some growing pains as a hero.
Nocturne’s greatest strength is how it allows its heroes to be vulnerable. While Trevor’s sardonic swagger in Castlevania comes as a result of him weathering years of failure and pyrrhic victories, Richter’s haughtiness derives from his fear that he won’t be strong enough to save the ones he loves. Basically, Richter is the embodiment of the Mike Tyson quote, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” His metaphorical sucker punch comes in the form of Olrox, a charismatic Aztec vampire who murdered his mother when he was a boy, traumatizing him to the point that he can no longer use magic and freezes up in fear or flees whenever Olrox makes a sudden appearance.
Image: Netflix
Richter’s cowardice never comes off as grating, but instead humanizes him by making him a fallible hero who still has a lot to learn before he can face Erzsebeth or Olrox. Personally, I found it beautiful that Nocturne’s hard-knocks coming-of-age tale for Richter let him cry on multiple occasions as he worked through his trauma, something anime protagonists are rarely allowed to do. Rest assured, Richter inevitably comes out the other end as the hero that fans of the Castlevania games have come to love, and he does so in a gratifying way that pays off toward the midway point of the season.
Nocturne isn’t afraid of letting its side characters bask in the limelight, too
Much like how Castlevania transformed Isaac the forge master into the most compelling character in the show, so too does Nocturne with Annette and Edouard, newfound allies of Richter and Maria’s. While the French Revolution provides set dressing for Richter and Maria’s fight against Erzsebeth and her cronies, the show also weaves in the Haitian Revolution, letting its Black characters partake and triumph in their own revolutionary struggle.
In episode three, Freedom Is Sweeter, written by Zodwa Nyoni, we learn that Annetteescaped from slavery in Haiti, where the slave trade was under the vampiric rule of Erzsebeth and her French regime, and partook in the Haitian Revolution using Creole incantations to aid Saint-Domingue ’s freedom fighters. It’s in this episode that we also discover how she and Edouard, a talented opera singer who initially felt at odds with the show’s grimdark premise, used his status as a commodity and a free man to aid Annette in her escape from a slave plantation after the brutal death of her mother. This episode is a clear standout this season, brilliantly meshing real-life events with Castlevania’s fantastical lore. Nocturne does something rare and extraordinary by making these Black characters, who in the hands of another anime might have been fridged to motivate its Caucasian heroes, the emotional lifeblood of the series, even as it establishes the pair as effective narrative foils to Maria and Richter.
Castlevania: Nocturne’s first season lays the groundwork for a series that has the potential to eclipse the greatness of its predecessor while raising the bar for video game adaptations in the process.
Part of the appeal of video game remasters and remakes is the prospect of playing an old game on better hardware that can, ostensibly, run it better than your old console did back in the day. That is the hope, at least. Unfortunately, not every “remaster” is an improvement over its source material—just ask the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy collection. Now, eyes are turning toward Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1., with fans hoping it doesn’t run into those same issues. On that front, today saw the emergence of one new slightly disappointing tidbit.
Tears Of The Kingdom’s Newspaper Questline And The State Of Hyrulean Journalism
The original 1998 PlayStation Metal Gear Solid ran at 30 frames per second, and Konami has now confirmed that will still be the case for the newly remastered edition launching in the Collection on October 24. News of this comes from a graph on the compilation’s official website, which says the first MGS adventure will run at 30fps on all platforms, while Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will run at 60fps on all systems except for the Nintendo Switch.
To be clear, the original Metal Gear Solid ran at 30fps when it launched in 1998, but it being locked to that lower framerate across the board seems odd in 2023, especially when its sequels will apparently have some scaling depending on which platform you buy them on. (For reference, MGS2 originally ran at 60fps, while MGS3 was originally a 30fps game.)
Here’s the full rundown:
Screenshot: Konami / Kotaku
There’s been chatter about the games’ graphical resolutions as well. It’s a bummer to see that none of these games will run at 4K resolution, even on PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X/S. This lack of 4K support was confirmed back in August.
All of this comes ahead of Konami’s separate, upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake. That’s titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, presumablyso the number doesn’t scare anyone off from playing the game. MGS3 was a prequel in any case, so you didn’t need to know everything going in to understand it.
A giant batch of new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth interviews and previews just dropped to kickoff Tokyo Game Show 2023 and the sequel is sounding more promising than ever. Here’s everything we’re learning from Square Enix’s latest marketing bonanza around the upcoming timed PlayStation 5 exclusive.
HD-2D, The Unique Retro-Inspired Art Style, Took Off In 2022
The new round of hands-on impressions come from two demos, one taking place during the Nibelheim incident flashback that sees Cloud fighting alongside Sephiroth, and another showing off open-world exploration around the outskirts of Junon, the sea-side military city with a giant gun mounted on it. Writers at IGN, Polygon, GameSpot, andmore came away impressed by how the sequel expands on Final Fantasy VII Remake’s world and mechanics, though many are still eager to find out more about how Rebirth will deviate from the original 1997 PlayStation game’s story.
“As with the previous game, we have strived for the right balance between old and new scenes in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but we also tried to take on more new challenges than we did in Final Fantasy VII Remake with some of the new scenes,” producer Yoshinori Kitase told the PlayStation Blog last week. “I am confident these new scenes will be wildly enjoyable for fans and newcomers alike.” Time will tell. For now, here are a bunch of interesting new details going around in today’s previews.
At 150GB, Rebirth is huge, but you won’t be swapping between two discs
Image: Square Enix
Director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed to Game Informer that the total size of the game on PS5 is 150GB, with 100GB on the first disc and 50GB on the second. Unlike the PS1 version, however, players won’t be swapping discs midway through. Instead, they’ll download the whole thing at once and then be able to play the entire game with either disc inserted.
The game ends after the Forgotten City
Image: Square Enix
Creative director Tetsuya Nomura also confirmed to Game Informer that Rebirth will go up to and include the end of the Forgotten Capital, known as the City of Ancients in the original game. That’s where Aerith dies in the 1997 version, but given how the remake trilogy is messing with the canon, anything could happen this time around.
You can go on monster hunts
Image: Square Enix
Like Final Fantasy XII, XV, and XVI, Rebirth will have special enemy hunts out in the sequel’s much more expansive, semi-open world. According to Polygon, players will encounter extra difficult monster variants while exploring that can be defeated in specific ways to earn extra rewards. Hopefully the game uses this to showcase some deep cuts from Final Fantasy VII’s bestiary.
Synergy Skills and Abilities are like combo techniques from Chrono Trigger
Image: Square Enix
Revealed in the most recent State of Play trailer, party members this time around will have an extra slate of attacks called Synergy Skills. These open up while blocking and allow multiple characters to work together, like Cloud knocking Barrett’s gun fire into nearby enemies. Synergy Abilities are even stronger, andGameSpot likens them to Chrono Trigger’s combo techniques. They basically combine multiple characters’ limit breaks into an extra powerful finisher.
There’s crafting
Image: Square Enix
Fortunately, it doesn’t look too menacing. Players can pick up random materials while out in the world and use them to make phoenix downs and other recovery items. It’s not clear how extensive the system will be, but it probably beats running back to town when you run out of potions.
Sephiroth is playable
Image: Square Enix
Players could command Sephiroth for a short bit during the original game’s Nibelheim flashback, and the new demos confirm that’s the case in Rebirth as well. There’s apparently even an extended sequence where he and Cloud team up to fight through enemy hordes, with players able to control the super SOLDIER as he unleashes hell with his giant Masamune blade.
Vincent is not, but he’ll still fight with you
Image: Square Enix
Teased during the latest trailer, IGN confirms the former Turk turned shapeshifting gunslinger can’t be controlled but he’ll still accompany players in the late part of the game as Red XIII did near the end of Remake. Nomura hinted to Game Informer that Vincent may join the player’s party for real by the final game in the trilogy.
Nobody’s seen Cid yet
Image: Square Enix
The cigarette-smoking, curse-spewing pilot was absent from the latest round of demos. That doesn’t mean he won’t be in the game at all. In the 1997 version’s timeline, Cid joins the crew long before they make it to the City of Ancients. Rebirth has a ton of ground to cover, however. Either Cid is being held back for a later reveal or his content has been moved to a later part of the trilogy’s story.
Cloud can swim
Players can get some laps in around Junon if they want, the demos confirmed. Whether there will be anything to discover or fight in the water remains to be seen. Will the spikey-haired punk get an alternate speedo costume? He’d better.
The Junon dolphin is back
Swimming will also be crucial for one of the most memorable scenes from the early part of Final Fantasy VII: riding a dolphin to the upper layer of the Junon military base. Simply called Mr. Dolphin in the original, he looks great in 4K and his return shows Square Enix isn’t shying away from the 1997 version’s absurd mini-games.
Here’s Red XIII riding a chocobo
I can’t believe this is real.
You can pet the baby chocobo chicks
Chocobo breeding returns in Rebirth, complete with blue, green, and golden chocobos. But there are also chocobo chicks, they are adorable, and Cloud can pet them. It’s a beautiful Kodak moment before he hauls them off to the Gold Saucer racetrack.
Zack will get an entire episode to himself
Image: Square Enix
Cloud’s First Class SOLDIER friend had a very minor role in the 1997 game but it expanded significantly in subsequent adaptations and spin-offs, most notably Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Kitase told IGN that the black-haired swordsman will be getting a lot more facetime in Rebirth. “There will be a new episode with Zack, that will contain even more of him than the Remake,” he said. “I’m not able to say much more than this as I would like for players to play and experience this with it in their own hands.”
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV) Current goal: Bring some game history to life (and survive the damn bird)
“Wait,” I hear you saying. “You’re playing something called The Making of Karateka? That sounds like a documentary, not a game!” Well, my friend, it’s both!
Karateka is a hugely influential and important game from 1984, designed by Jordan Mechner, who would go on to create the original Prince of Persia, among other well-regarded games. This new release from prestige emulation studio Digital Eclipse lets you play Mechner’s classic, of course—multiple versions of it, in fact, as it was released for numerous platforms in the ‘80s. But it aims to do more than that. Through interviews, archival materials, and other supplements, it aims to contextualize Karateka within the larger scope of game history, providing insight into what makes it significant, and why we should still appreciate it today.
I often lament that game history—even from as recently as 40 years ago—is so often overlooked and erased, as many people playing and writing about games today simply lack a real awareness of or interest in the age of Atari and Apple IIc. It’s very important to me that it not be forgotten, and that the games of that era continue to be recognized for both their significance to the medium’s development and for the playability and enjoyment they can still offer today. I haven’t even fired up The Making of Karateka yet, but if Digital Eclipse’s recent release, Atari 50, is any indication, this one will also do a wonderful job of illuminating an important piece of game history.
The studio is calling this the first in its Gold Master series. I very much hope that it’s successful enough to be merely the first of many. Game preservation guru Frank Cifaldi recently said on Twitter, “If the world is to take video games seriously as an art form, we must be able to support products like this.” I strongly agree. — Carolyn Petit
Friends, the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hype train has left Midgar station and is barreling toward us at a fever pitch in the run-up to the RPG’s PlayStation 5 release date of February 29, 2024. Y’all see that new trailer? If you haven’t, you’ve probably at least heard fans squealing about the first look at Vincent Valentine, Zack not being dead like he’s supposed to be, and several other cool moments. All that’s well and good, but there’s one moment in the trailer we are not talking about enough. And we should be, because the best character in all of Final Fantasy VII is coming back in Rebirth: Andrea Rhodea, the king of the Honeybee Inn.
I Didn’t Play Final Fantasy XVI ‘Right,’ And That’s OK
Andrea is one of the best additions in Final Fantasy VII Remake’s new spin on an old story. He’s the owner and lead dancer of the Honeybee Inn, which was a brothel in the original 1997 Final Fantasy VII. In Remake the Honeybee Inn is a lavish nightclub, complete with extravagant dance routines, stunning costumes based on the titular bug, and a hunky pansexual king running the place.
The changes worked on a few fronts. It made the Honeybee Inn a more memorable touchstone of Cloud and Aerith’s time in the Wall Market rather than a weird, uncomfortable detour tinged with gay panic. Now it’s a celebratory moment about the freedom of expression and breaking down gender norms. The updated scene let Cloud dress in drag without shame and felt like a real queer space in a game that was otherwise willing to assume Cloud was involved with a woman as long as they were in each other’s proximity. Sure, Cloud and Aerith are just passing through, but it was a meaningful moment for Final Fantasy VII’s larger world to show that queer people and places exist.
Even as a person who doesn’t love Final Fantasy VII Remake for a lot of reasons we won’t get into—don’t get me started on my lack of faith in Square to pull off an Evangelion-style meta-commentary after nearly every extended universe it’s done in Final Fantasy has undermined the source material in some way—the Honeybee Inn scene remains an all-time great moment for me in the series. It’s joyful to watch unfold, and Andrea is one of the most captivating characters for as little screentime as he gets.
Given that he’s a side character and pretty tied to a specific location the party is departing at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, I didn’t think we’d see Andrea again in Rebirth, or the third game that will wrap up this revamped story. But it looks like we’re heading to the Gold Saucer in Rebirth, and Andrea is about to dance his ass off once again.
And look at this king fucking go. He was a charismatic dancer in Remake, even when saddled with a newbie dance partner like Cloud. Whenever I heard a catchy pop song back in 2020 (say, anything from Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica”) images of Andrea and Cloud dancing immediately entered my mind, like an old screensaver or music video. So I’m sure the new choreography he and his crew are working on in Rebirth will stamp itself onto any pop album I listen to in 2024.
Square Enix
I really loved Dion and his gay relationship in Final Fantasy XVI, but because of a few disappointing decisions Square Enix made with the character, I still left that game a bit saddened by its apparent hesitance to showcase his love story with the same confidence as it did his straight counterparts’. Fresh off Remake’s Andrea, an incredibly proud queer man in the Final Fantasy universe, Dion’s treatment felt like two steps forward and one step back. I don’t expect Andrea will play a huge role in Rebirth, but I’m very glad to see he’s back, killing it on the stage, and looking fine as hell in white.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues after the eventsof Final Fantasy VII Remake, which took the first major section of 1997’s classic RPG Final Fantasy VII and translated it into an action-RPG. Remake’s storyline also changed up some details, both big and small, to create what appears to be a new timeline that is both separate from but somehow connected to that of the original game and its many spin-offs.
PlayStation / Square Enix
Today’s trailer for the upcoming Rebirth shows this new sequel will continue to shake things up, depicting Zack from Crisis Core carrying Cloud into a city, something that doesn’t happen in the original game. (Also…Cloud riding a Segway?)
Interesting stuff! Anyway, the new trailer looks cool, so you might be excited to pre-order the game ahead of its February 29, 2024 debut. About that. The standard edition of the game will cost $69.99, and the “deluxe” will be $99.99. But the biggest, most expensive version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the collector’s edition…and it costs more than a Nintendo Switch.
What’s included in the Collector’s Edition of FF7 Rebirth?
•Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – Deluxe Edition Art BookMini SoundtrackSteelBook® Case
•Large Collectible Statue Approx. 48cm / 19 inches tall and depicting the iconic antagonist Sephiroth in highly detailed sculpting. The wing can be detached.
•Moogle Trio Summoning Materia (DLC) A summoning materia that can call “Moogle Trio” in the game.
•Magic Pot Summoning Materia (DLC) A summoning materia that can call “Magic Pot” in the game.
•Accessory: Reclaimant Choker (DLC) A choker with an effect of restoring HP when an enemy is defeated.
•Armor: Orchid Bracelet (DLC) A bracelet that gives courage to traverse an expanding world.
•Armor: Midgar Bangle Mk. II (DLC) A bracelet worn by travelers leaving Midgar.
So, does all of this sound like it’s worth $350? For some, the answer is probably yes. For others, a solid maybe. And for many out there, like me, the answer is a strong “nope.”
Personally, the prospect of a $350 edition of a video game makes me roll my eyes so hard they fall out of my head and I have to scramble around on the floor for a few minutes to pick them back up. But I’m also not a person who cares much for statues or collectibles. At the very least it’s nice that Square Enix is including a physical copy of the game in this pricey package!
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on February 29, 2024 exclusively on PlayStation 5. The base game costs $70. The deluxe edition is $100. And as mentioned, the Collector’s Edition, at $350, costs more than an Xbox Series S.
Today Sony held another State of Play event, showing off upcoming titles for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Today’s event featured expansions for Resident Evil 4 and Tales of Arise, another look at a very funny walking simulator, and one epic, mega huge trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which will launch on two (count ‘em) discs on February 29 of next year.
I Didn’t Play Final Fantasy XVI ‘Right,’ And That’s OK
Let’s get into it.
Baby Steps
Devolver Digital / GameSpot Trailers
You know, sometimes you just wake up in a mud puddle in the forest and need to figure out how to walk. Well if you’re lucky or something and haven’t experienced that in reality, then Baby Steps looks like a solid simulation of such an experience. Try to walk, fall down, talk to yourself, rinse and repeat.
Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord
Sony Pictures Virtual Reality / PlayStation
PS VR2 will be seeing some cooperative ghost-capturing action soon with Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord.
Resident Evil 4 Remake VR mode
Capcom / PlayStation
Ready to play Resident Evil 4 yet again? PS VR2 will soon be home to a VR mode for Resident Evil 4, featuring the reimagined gory violence of this classic, undying entry in the legendary horror series.
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways
Capcom
Starring Ada Wong, Resident Evil 4 will see an expansion by way of Separate Ways, which will tell a parallel story to the main events of RE4. It releases on September 21, 2023.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Ubisoft / PlayStation
James Cameron’s brightly colored fantasy world is coming to the land of video games by way of a first-person adventure adaptation (though you’ll get to ride some flying creatures in third-person, it seems). Like in the movies, those pesky humans are out to destroy the serene and lush environments of Pandora. It’s up to you to stop ‘em.
Ghostrunner 2
One More Level / IGN
Ghostrunner 2 will be arriving on PS5 on October 26. You can download a free demo of this fast-paced run-and-slash game today.
Deep Earth Collection PS5 plates and controller colors
PlayStation
If you’ve been looking for some new colors for your PS5, there are some on the way with Volcanic Red, Cobalt Blue, and Sterling Silver.
Helldivers II
Arrowhead Game Studios / IGN
In a close look at Helldivers II gameplay, today’s State of Play showed off the cooperative nature of this third-person shooter. With four players taking on some beastly lookin’ aliens, this looks like a pretty good excuse to round up some friends to devastate some alien wildlife.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Insomniac / PlayStation
Today we got a closer look at the open-world environment of Spider-Man2. Not only will you have Manhattan Island, but also Brooklyn, and Queens—also known as the best borough.
Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn
Bandai Namco / PlayStation
Tales of Arise will see a new DLC expansion hit PS5 on November 9, 2023.
Honkai Star Rail
miHoYo / PlayStation
Featuring eye-pleasing combat and some slick anime style, Honkai Star Rail launches for PS5 on October 11, 2023.
Foamstars
Square Enix / PlayStation
This Splatoon-like trades ink for foam and features specific characters similar to that of a hero shooter. The open beta launches in late September.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Square Enix / PlaySttaion
Anticipation is at a fever pitch for the continuation of Final Fantasy VII’s remake project. Today’s trailer showed off some classic environments and scenarios from the original game, as well as some wildly unexpected twists (what’s with Zack carrying Cloud into Midgar?). We also saw some vehicular travel including an, uh, Segway? There’s a ton of stuff packed into this trailer, so you can bet we’ll be watching it several times over. And then some more.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on February 29, 2024.
And that was it for today’s brief but very cool State of Play event. Now, I’m gonna go daydream some more about Final Fantasy VII.
The fall season is fast approaching and with it comes a new lineup of games for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Keeping in line with last month’s diverse catalog of PS Plus offerings, September’s list features role-playing games, first-person shooters, and gorgeous story-driven games coming to the service on September 19.
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First up is Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139, the 2021 remaster of Square Enix’s cult-classic 2010 action-RPG, Nier: Gestalt. Summarizing this predecessor to creator Yoko Taro’s later mega-hit Nier: Automata is a bit of a tall task considering its many twists, turns, and multiple endings. All you need to know is you play as a nameless protagonist as he and his party of outcasts battle against hordes of otherworldly monsters to save his kidnapped sister. The game is chock full of anime-esque weapons and even more (slightly clunky) anime-inspired combat and its soundtrack unequivocably fucks.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim – 13 Stories Trailer | PS4
Another big get in September will be the sci-fi time-traveling with mechs (!) saga 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Developed by Vanillaware, 13 Sentinels follows a group of high school students who summon giant mechs to defend their city from invading kaiju. 13 Sentinels plays like a mix between a tactical tower defense game and a 2D side-scrolling adventure game with lovely background art. If that’s a sufficient elevator pitch for you, I would advise keeping a notepad on hand because the game has a bunch of mind-blowing twists that’ll make your brain whirl.
PS Plus Line-Up For September 2023
Here’s everything else coming to PS Plus in September:
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Star Ocean The Divine Force
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
Unpacking
Planet Coaster: Console Edition
This War of Mine: Final Cut
Cloudpunk
Contra: Rogue Corps
Tails Noir
Call of the Sea
West of Dead
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness
PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls
And here are the additional games coming for PlayStation Premium members (it’s mostly more Star Ocean):
It can feel good to put the controller down at the end of Armored Core VI, comforted by the knowledge that you survived its most brutal skill check bosses and learned to configure your complex mech for whatever new hazard Rubicon threw your way. It would be a mistake not to pick it back up again though, as Armored Core VI’s new game plus mode is where a great game starts to get even better.
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After you beat the game’s final boss and the credits roll, Armored Core VI brings you back to your mech hanger and presents you with the very first mission all over again. At first it seems like you’re just repeating the entire game, only this time with all of the shotguns, missile launchers, laser swords, and new mech parts you collected during your previous run. But then little changes start to pop up—additional snippets of dialogue, unexpected new choices you can during various missions.
Armored Core VI has “good” and “bad” endings, and a few branching missions along the way, but its new game plus mode is more than just a chance to take the road less traveled. There are entirely new battles and narrative twists that add new depth to the game’s thrilling but barebones story. If you’re playing and enjoying FromSoftware’s latest mech game, do yourself a favor and don’t sleep on its new game plus.
The first wrinkle comes in chapter one’s Attack the Dan Complex sortie. You’re hired by Balamb to join its squad of “Red Gun” jarheads and destroy Rubicon Liberation Front MTs and facility generators. Only this time the rebels radio you halfway through and promise to pay you to double-cross the Red Guns and defend the dam. Adding to the drama is the fact that the fight is legitimately hard, punishingly so if you try to sleepwalk through, and still challenging even if you go in with your best late-game loadouts.
Rokumonsen is one of the many pleasures that awaits you on a new game plus playthrough. Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
New game plus unlocks additional parts too, as well as more Arena matches to earn the chips needed to fully upgrade your OS Tuning skill tree. A lot of the missions stay exactly the same, but they’re perfect testing grounds for all of the gear you purchased but didn’t play with the first time around. Boss fights like Balteus and the Sea Spider, meanwhile, are incredibly satisfying to rip through with ease in less than 60 seconds. And some of my favorite characters in the entire game didn’t appear until subsequent playthroughs.
Armored Core VI has three endings total, the third and final of which is both the most satisfying from a narrative point of view and the most difficult to achieve, not least of all because it requires beating the game three times. I’m not usually one for toiling through the same levels over and over again with minor changes just to unlock a cutscene. The thematic resonance of “cycle of violence” stories can only take these thinly veiled attempts at padding so far. Armored Core VI’s new game plus mode, like its base game, doesn’t mess around though, and I’ve only fallen more in love with it each new time I’ve beaten it.
The next mainline 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, looks fantastic, shaking up the franchise’s formula with new powers, worlds, and enemies. In particular, one new power that turns Mario into an elephant became quite popular online. However, at first Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, wasn’t a fan of the odd transformation.
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder, out later this October on Nintendo Switch, looks well…wonderful! The game features a new, revamped art style that looks 10x better than the New Super Mario Bros. games’, and is filled with new ideas and gameplay mechanics, including Elden Ring-like multiplayer features and a huge roster of playable heroes: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, Toadette, and Nabbit. But perhaps the most talked-about new additions to the Mario formula are the new power-ups, including one that turns Nintendo’s plumber into a large pachyderm. Apparently Miyamoto had some…thoughts about Elephant Mario during development.
In an August 31 interview with IGN,Super Mario Bros. Wonder director Shiro Mouri and producer Takashi Tezuka explained that during production of the game, Miyamoto did provide feedback and notes, but he wasn’t in their “hip pocket” all the time “whispering” in their ears.
“Sometimes he would come by where we are working and look at things and give some opinions,” said Tezuka. “He would generally observe things and make comments here and there.”
Miyamoto had some notes on Elephant Mario
However, according to Mouri, Miyamoto did have a problem with Elephant Mario, at first.
“It was a phase where we still had tentative visuals for Elephant Mario, and we had plans to adjust the visuals already,” said Mouri. “But he had come and taken a look before that and he gave us the sharp comment that ‘This doesn’t look like a Mario character.’”
Nintendo
According to Mouri, Mario’s dad also took issue with how Elephant Mario sprays water from his trunk, saying that “if an elephant was actually spraying water, it wouldn’t move that way.”
I like to imagine that Miyamoto comes home and spends hours watching elephants in the wild via documentaries and old videos on the internet, closely studying their moves. And finally, all that hard work paid off. Good for him.
Where did the idea for Elephant Mario come from?
In a separate Thursday interview with Wired, Mouri and Tezuka explained that the idea for Elephant Mario came from the desire to create a power-up for the famous plumber that would make him big and able to shoot water. Elephant was the natural choice.
However, when they wanted to let Mario dig underground, they didn’t go with a “mole Mario,” as they wanted him to be able to also take out enemies above him. So naturally they did what anyone else would in that scenario, and slapped a working drill on Mario’s head. I can only assume what Miyamoto thought about that.
Tezuka also pushed back on the idea that Mario games can’t change or evolve, telling Wired he asks his team to come up with wild ideas and not to worry about rules or limits.
“I do think people have ideas that Mario [games have] to be a certain way. There are certain limitations that people have in their own brains,” Tezuka said. “If you think it looks cool, it’s going to be fun. Do it.”
Super Mario Bros. Wonder—and all of its wild power-ups—launches on October 20 on Nintendo Switch.
It’s become tradition over the last few years for modders to import Carl Johnson from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas into different video games. And with FromSoftware’s latest game, Armored Core VI, it didn’t take long for someone to add CJ. In fact, it happened in less than 24 hours.
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Released on Friday, Armored Core VI is the first entry in FromSoftware’s mech franchise in over a decade. And it’s a very good game. In Kotaku’s review, Ethan Gach called it a “sometimes messy” but also “exhilarating and exhausting” game that is unlike anything he’s played in a long time, rewarding players who like to tinker and experiment with bombastic action and intense boss fights. In a lot of ways, it’s a perfect Armored Core sequel. But there’s always room for improvement. For example, Armored Core VI doesn’t normally include CJ from Rockstar’s hit open-world game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Let’s fix this glaring oversight.
Thanks to the fast work of FromSoftware modder and YouTuber Dropoff, Grove Street’s very own Carl Johnson is playable in Armored Core VI. Though, uh…be warned that CJ flying around as a giant mech-like warrior was never intended by God and the end results are disturbing. Impressive and fast work, sure, but you might have some nightmares afterward.
Now for the bad news. At the moment, the CJ mod for Armored Core VI isn’t available to download anywhere, including Dropoff’s Nexus mods page. So while Dropoff (with the help of modder TKPG) was able to add CJ to FromSoftware’s latest game in less than 24 hours, you can only watch for now.
Hopefully, soon enough, you’ll be able to take to the skies and die 30 times to a giant tank robot as San Andreas star CJ.
Ever since Pokémon Scarlet and Violet launched last year, a subset of fans have been asking for one particular piece of merchandise: Penny’s Eevee backpack. The satchel Penny wears throughout the game is made to look like the normal-type fox Pokémon, and given that Eevee is one of the franchise’s mascots, I’m surprised it took The Pokémon Company this long to capitalize on its popularity. But it finally has, and Penny’s Eevee backpack is up for sale…albeit only in Japan, for now.
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The Eevee backpack is part of a “Paldea Pokémon Trainers” merch line made up of products based on characters in Scarlet and Violet. This includes replica items, such as the electric-type gym leader Iono’s hair bow and Elite Four member Rika’s gloves. These accessories will launch in Japan on September 16, and the Eevee bag will run ￥6,930 (roughly $47 USD). But as of this writing, there doesn’t seem to be any word on a western launch. You can try keeping an eye on the Pokémon Center website, but it seems like this is a Japan-only promotion for the moment. If you’d rather not risk missing out on it, you can likely import it through third-party sellers. For the rest of us, we can simply bask in its glory.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Personally, I’m bummed this line isn’t highlighting Professor Turo, the best character in the game. Just give me a little Turo plush, Pokémon Company. Or just anything that acknowledges the existence of the hot professor. I’m offering you money, but the only merchandise that exists of him is in the trading cards. For shame.
The Pokémon Company will have a handful of new characters to add to Scarlet and Violet’s merchandise lines when the RPGs’ two-part DLC launches, starting next month with The Teal Mask on September 13. The second part, The Indigo Disk, is slated to come out sometime later in 2023.
On Friday, Sega revealed the second trailer for its latest upcoming Yakuza game, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, which sees longtime series protag Kazuma Kiryu take on the role of a gangster super spy with Spider-Man gadgets and explosive cigarettes at his disposal.
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The Man Who Erased His Name, which takes place between Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like A Dragon, follows Kiryu as he assumes the identity of a secret agent named Joryu after faking his death to protect his adopted children at the end of Yakuza 6. Apparently, Kiryu does a piss-poor job of keeping his new identity a secret, and winds up getting involved with a rival yakuza family that knows his past and is threatening to harm his children at the Sunflower Orphanage. I hope these goons aren’t within grabbing distance of a bike rack, because they’re in for a world of pain threatening those orphans.
Unlike Yakuza 7’s turn-based action, The Man Who Erased His Name will focus on action-based combat and will have two fighting styles: Yakuza style and Agent style. While Yakuza style sees Kiryu perform his typical street brawler fighting moves, Agent style will let Kiryu use new super-spy gadgets like rocket boots, explosive cigarettes, and Spider-Man-esque wires to take down thugs. You can see them both in the new trailer.
Sega / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Aside from showcasing some scenes from the game’s melodramatic story, The Man Who Erased His Name’s will also see the return of many of the series’ light-hearted mini-games, which will include playable retro Sega titles like Sonic the Fighters, new karaoke songs to sing, as well as revamped cabaret club side-quests. However, instead of managing dates for customers like in previous games, players will instead go on dates themselves in a semi-live-action format similar to the internet chatroom and gravure photoshoot minigames from Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2. The game will also let you customize Kiryu’s outfits before he hits the streets by having him wear a fedora and shades for the first time in the series as well, which is rad.
The butt-end of the new trailer also revealed that The Man Who Erased His Name will include a playable demo of the next, next entry in the series, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which’ll see Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga as dual protagonists. A clip from LaD: Infinite Wealth shows Ichiban in handcuffs, likely for the public nudity we witnessed in the Summer Game Fest trailer, before an older Kiryu breaks him loose.
Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is slated to come out on November 9 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Windows.
Nintendo is registering several new patents from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that are extremely broad, to the point where they seem unreasonable for other developers to be beholden to.
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Automaton, a gaming website that focuses on Japanese games like Zelda, has a roundup of the 32 patents Nintendo put forth. Some of them are specific to Link’s latest adventure, including things like Riju’s lightning ability, which lets the player target enemies with a bow and bring down a lighting strike wherever the arrow lands. The weirder ones are related to baseline game design and coding that applies to plenty of other video games on the market. One of the hopeful patents relates to the physics of a character riding on top of a moving vehicle and reacting dynamically to it in a realistic manner.
The distinction, according to Automaton’s translation of Japanese site Hatena Blog user nayoa2k’s post on the matter, is down to how Tears of the Kingdom codes these interactions. Link and the objects he rides on move together at the same speed, rather than Link being technically stationary on top of a moving object as is common in the physics of other games. The two are functionally the same, but given that plenty of video games displayed characters who can walk around on top of moving vehicles, it’s highly unlikely this kind of approach hasn’t been utilized before.
On top of trying to patent the tech, Nintendo seeks to patent the loading screen that shows up when the player is fast-traveling across Hyrule. This specifically refers to the screen that shows the map transition from the player’s starting point to their destination. Sure, that’s pretty specific and not something every game utilizes, but it’s still such a general concept that it feels almost petty to patent it when it’s hardly an iconic draw of Tears of the Kingdom.
It’s not uncommon for game developers to try to patent mechanics and features. One of the most famous examples is when Bandai Namco had a patent on loading screen mini-games, which finally ended in 2015.
Who knows if these patents actually go anywhere? But when game design concepts are gatekept like this, it only leads to a loss of innovation for other devs. Though these specific patents are small in the grand scheme of things, they can be a slippery slope for things like WB patenting Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System, which should be in more games.
Lords of the Fallen was already a game, one that came out nearly 10 years ago by developer Deck13 (Atlas Fallen) and publisher CI Games. It was fine, but felt too much like a lackluster facsimile of FromSoftware’s Dark Souls formula to have much of an identity of its own. CI Games is back, though, with newly founded studio Hexworks to take another stab at Lords of the Fallen. And this time around, at least based on the previews, it sounds like a stellar Soulslike might be in the offing.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Out on October 13 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, Lords of the Fallen is a third-person action-RPG with an interesting conceit: With the help of the Umbral lantern, you can reveal secrets hidden in the land of the dead while still traversing the world of the living. But should you die and end up in Umbral—which will happen since this is a Soulslike—you’ll still be able to fight for your life for the chance to return to Axiom. Die here, though, and you’ll start back in the land of the living having lost your XP. Typically Soulslike stuff, but that two-realm implementation offers a new perspective for the genre, something the previews call attention to.
So, considering the game comes out in two months, here’s a roundup of what early players are saying about Lords of the Fallen and how, as many of them purport, it’s sounding like an exciting Soulslike worth paying attention to.
After playing the opening hours of 2023’s Lords of the Fallen, our journey through this nightmarish world was eerily familiar, yet filled with a current-gen polish that games like the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne could only dream of. Our initial impressions were that the game felt a lot like the PS5 remake of Demon’s Souls, which is not a bad thing, but from an aesthetic point of view, Lords of the Fallen leans even more heavily into the grimdark setting.
Image: Hexworks
I’ve played a couple of hours of new Lords of the Fallen and crucially, I can tell you it’s: good. If you’ve played a Soulslike before—or as Hexworks wisely describes the genre, which extends to Nioh, The Surge, and the rest, tactical action-RPGs—it’ll be immediately familiar. You can create a character from one of several preset classes, ranging from glass cannon mages to sword-and-shield warriors, with some more lore-y archetypes in between with a little clan-based backstory behind them: a raven-like archer, a brawler with a twist of wolves.
The moment-to-moment in my Lords of the Fallen demo ticked most of the Souls boxes I have when it comes to combat, but this game distinguishes itself in its concept of dual worlds. Axiom, the land of the living, is more or less the “normal” dimension, but it exists in parallel with the Umbral realm, the land of the dead. The two realms run simultaneously as you play, which takes advantage of tech on latest-gen platforms. It’s similar to The Medium or Titanfall 2‘s Effect and Cause mission, but spread across an entire sprawling dark fantasy world.
What surprises me most, however, is Umbral. This is the realm of the dead and exists parallel to Axiom. It can be accessed at almost any time, in real-time. But, once you’re there, you must fight through its more challenging enemies to reach an access point that brings you back to Axiom. While you can select to explore Umbral on your own, Lords of the Fallen will bring you there almost every time you die. Dying gives you a second chance in Umbral, where, if you survive, you can reach the realm of Axiom once more. This eases the usual challenge of the genre—mind you, Lords of the Fallen is still extremely tough—but also opens up a unique playground for puzzles I welcome.
By tapping into two distinct worlds at once, Hexworks completely revamps how we view death in a Soulslike. Lords of the Fallen turns the most infamously iconic, eternally frustrating thing about a FromSoftware game into more than a second chance: It’s a second world, one that functions entirely differently from the place we start out in. The result is a varied combat experience in a truly untamed universe, one that pulses with unknown wonders and its fair share of chills—no matter your familiarity with the genre.
Image: Hexworks
There’s a great fluidity to Lords of the Fallen’s combat too. You can seamlessly flow from light attacks to heavy attacks, and can even change weapon stance in the middle of a combo as well. I could start with two light attacks, press the stance switch button, and do another light attack, I’d get a unique attack in which my character seamlessly goes from a dual-wielded slash, into a two-handed thrust. This is even better when you add magic to the equation, as you’re able to easily swap between melee and magic attacks even mid-combo. It opens the door for a lot of freedom of expression through combat, which is something you don’t see all too often in the Soulslike genre.
While in the Umbral world, enemies slowly become more aggressive and powerful, but the XP multiplier increases as well, amping up the risks as well as the rewards in an enticing way. Being able to respawn allowed me to progress much faster and alleviated some of the frustrations that come with the genre. The Umbral world also offers access to shortcuts and gives you wild abilities that mirror Jedi powers. Lords of the Fallen is at its strongest when it leans into the mechanics of the Umbral world.
Umbral also softens the difficulty level of its chosen genre—up to a point. If you die in Axiom, you are resurrected in Umbral, then given another chance to defeat your enemy before you give up the ghost completely and need to corpse-run from the last Vestige to reclaim your Vigor (Lords of the Fallen’s souls). This doesn’t refresh your healing items, though, and the longer you spend in Umbral, the more Dread builds up, and the trickier things get. Enemies get tougher, and increasing numbers of zombielike creatures materialize in your path—they’re easy to kill, but their presence complicates the battlefield considerably.
Outside of exploration, you can use the lantern to rend a baddy’s soul from its body, then batter it for extreme damage. You can’t do this all the time, as you’ll need to power the lantern up to do it. This can be done by bursting pustules in the Umbral realm and sucking up the resultant juice, but if you can’t find a pustule, you might encounter an enemy with a blue glow—which means they’re invulnerable unless you reveal their parasitic Umbral companion floating alongside them. Hoover this critter up and not only can it power your soul attack, it will also remove their pal’s aura of invincibility.
Image: Hexworks
The game is not as obscure as its FromSoft progenitors, and that works in its favor, because when you’re being pulled in two directions and interrogating the tension between worlds, you want a sense of what’s going on, and where to go. Lords of the Fallen is all about playing as a heathen, shunned by the world for embracing a dark lantern that allows them to traverse the realms of light and dark. It’s all about being sacrilegious, defying the common knowledge and tasting the forbidden fruit. If you wanted to do away with subtext, you could say it’s what Hexworks is doing in discarding the commonly held beliefs around how death should work in this genre. How traditionally hard it must be. But the studio eschews that. And the result, at least at this early stage, is unique and compelling.
My time with the 2014 version of the game was quite frustrating. While the review is no longer live—the site I wrote it for is now defunct—I essentially said that, although the game had a compelling narrative, its cumbersome gameplay and unintuitive systems made for an ultimately forgettable experience.
The previews of the new Lords of the Fallen reboot are based on just two hours of gameplay, so a lot of questions will remain unanswered until the game drops in October. But based on everything I’ve read so far, Lords of the Fallen is sounding like it’ll be a pretty solid take on the Soulslike style of game.
Lords of the Fallen launches on October 13 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
