Persona 5 Tactica continues a fascinating tradition of Persona spinoffs that want to break you into new genres.

It wasn’t until I sat down to write this that I realized how wild the Persona brand has gotten. I mean, sure, every big brand has to have a Musou eventually. And you can see the RPG throughline that connects Persona with the Etrian Odyssey-style Persona Q. But a fighting game set in the Persona universe? A collection of rhythm games based on Persona soundtracks? The crazy part is, no matter what direction Persona spinoffs take, they always seem to land strong and find fans. Heck, I know a guy who’s chomping at the bit for a Persona 5 fighting game, even though he’s since graduated to fighters like Guilty Gear and Street Fighter.

I say all this to set the stage for what kind of game Persona 5 Tactica is. During my recent trip to a Sega event, I spent a while with the series' next tactical RPG. As a Devil Survivor fan, I was eager to see what Atlus came up with here. And after playing the game, I can certainly say that Devil Survivor is not a good comparison for Persona 5 Tactica. However, while I still need to see how the full game pans out, I think Tactica could easily find similar success to the spinoff titles that came before it.

[caption id="attachment_398230" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

New story, same great taste

So, I need to take this opportunity to make a deep, dark confession. I never played Persona 5. I know that’s appalling for a self-proclaimed RPG fan like me. It was just one of those games that wasn’t available on a platform I had on hand for the longest time, and now I lack the time for a massive RPG outside of work. I know, I’m a very, very bad Persona fan.

However, I'm happy to report Persona 5 Tactica is plenty easy to follow without playing the source material. It sets the stage for a new storyline right off the bat, moving quickly from the outset. And while the game doesn’t bother reintroducing main characters, I grasped the finer details from context. Only a couple terms were unfamiliar to me, but in short, don’t feel like you need to finish Persona 5 to understand or appreciate this one.

The story bits didn’t take themselves too seriously from what I saw. The game uses Visual Novel sequences to set the stage, with a few cutscenes sprinkled in once I got into the thick of things. Tactica's tone felt silly and fun, which I was on board with. But even if you’re allergic to stories, you won’t waste too much time before getting into the meat of the experience.

[caption id="attachment_398231" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Take cover!

During my session with Persona 5 Tactica, I sampled a handful of missions from the earliest section of the game. These were very much tutorial stages, so keep that in mind.

In the first stage of the game, you'll abundantly learn one lesson: take cover. Persona 5 Tactica fills its maps with boxes both big and small, shaping the field for tactical play. Enemies hide behind boxes and take shots at you, which you can dodge completely if you’re out of their line of sight. Conversely, player characters can snipe foes from behind cover as long as they can at least clip an enemy. Deciding where to park party members immediately became a consistent choice at the start of each mission.

It helps that the game follows traditional Fire Emblem rules with its turn order. By that, I mean you’ll move all your units before declaring an end to your turn, the enemy will do the same, rinse and repeat. While you have full analogue control of a character as you move them, this one is 100% as tile-based as any other tactical RPG. This only got a little confusing when my characters’ attack range was visualized by a circle around them. The design made it slightly unclear whether I could hit certain enemies, but I imagine I’d get used to this quirk quickly in the full game.

[caption id="attachment_398232" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Here's our chance for an all-out attack!

For the most part, your raw damage dealing revolves around ranged attacks. In Tactica, that means relying on guns, though you have your classic Shin Megami Tensei Garu and Bufu spells to nuke foes fast. Initially, I figured melee attacks would just act as extra powerful hits, but that isn’t quite the case here.

Since Persona 5 Tactica revolves so heavily around cover, repositioning enemies comes in clutch. This is where melee attacks come in. By striking an enemy, you’ll move them several tiles in front of you, Play your cards right, and you’ll make your foe vulnerable so your other units can quickly nuke them from the safety of their respective cover. Tactical RPG fans know that party strategies are core to any genre title, but they’re really important to Tactica. If you don’t plan carefully, you can waste turns repositioning your party while the enemy takes easy shots at you.

To drive the party synergy concept home, Persona 5 Tactica integrates all-out attacks from the main series. Here, it calls them Triple Threats. Basically, if your units can make a triangle around an unlucky enemy, they can unleash a combo attack. During my demo playthrough, this pretty much meant an instant KO. I will say I was never sure just how strict or loose the positioning requirements were here. It’s possible that years of making Triangle Attacks work in Fire Emblem made me overthink this. Either way, it is a nifty concept, I just wanted to optimize it more than I did.

Similarly, units can sacrifice turns to charge themselves up for the next turn. This comes with its own unique mechanics, which the game's tutorial messages really wanted me to use. So in short, while I didn’t necessarily have a ton of attacks in these early stages, I did see enough choices to keep the experience interesting. Everything served a unique function, so the basics were easy to learn. But I quickly saw how striving for perfection could become its own rewarding challenge.

[caption id="attachment_398233" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Signs of things to come

As I poked around in menus, I caught a glimpse of a skill tree system for each character. This didn’t look particularly intensive, so I don’t think anyone will need to Google “Morgana build guide” or anything. But it was nice to see some customization on the table for those who like decking out their team in tactical RPGs.

Additionally, each stage came with its own set of challenges to complete. These resembled the type of challenges you’d find in typical mobile games. For example, “Clear the stage in 4 turns” or “Take damage less than 3 times.” I felt perfectly fine with this since it veered closer toward throwing genre veterans a bone without alienating casual audiences. The game comes with several difficulty options, so I imagine the game could get wild if you want it to.

Otherwise, it was hard to get a feel for how the game will pan out in the long run. I can see the potential for greater depth later on, but I had fun messing around in these early stages. A Sega representative told me Persona 5 Tactica should last for roughly 40 hours, which seemed like a sweet spot. Compared to some tactical RPGs, that might sound like chump change. But I’d say 40 hours is enough for anyone to sink their teeth into the game without getting overwhelmed, which I imagine is what Tactica is going for.

[caption id="attachment_398234" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Alright, Persona 5 Tactica, you got me

Overall, I think Persona 5 Tactica is one to watch out for. Its combat felt immediate and fun, with layouts that made me think without ever really taxing me. And in the few places I was able to pull off a unique strategy the game didn’t necessarily point me towards, I did feel generally rewarded. I do wonder if the cover system will feel as prominent in the later game as it did in these early stages, but that’s my only major concern here. Not because it wasn’t fun, I just hope the game has more tricks up its sleeves to keep things interesting.

How Persona 5 Tactica will rank in the proud tradition of Persona spinoffs, I can’t say yet. But it offers a unique flavor of tactical RPGs that felt overflowing in its accessibility, which is enough to catch my interest. Sometimes I just want a quick Tactical fix without getting as hard into the number crunching, and it looks like Tactica will fill that niche nicely. Is it Devil Survivor? No. But Persona isn’t exactly Shin Megami Tensei either, and that’s how it found such an endearing identity. So unless the full game stumbles in any major way, I think this will be a good time for RPG fans.

Persona 5 Tactica will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on November 17.

The post Hands on Persona 5 Tactica: Your gateway game into Tactical RPGs appeared first on Destructoid.

Persona 3 Reload proved to me just how much Persona 3 has needed a remake.

Originally released in 2006 (2007 in North America), Persona 3 marks the start of the “modern” Persona series. Sure, the first games featured students summoning demons like they’re Pokémon. But your social links, life sim elements, and more – that all started with Persona 3. I know many who still consider it a series high, but honestly, Persona 3 has always been a bit hard to come back to. On PS2, the game is missing essential quality of life, such as being able to even control your own party members. And while the PSP version fixes some of this, it comes with the caveat of feeling very much like a condensed PSP game.

As someone who has tried and failed to get deep into Persona 3 myself, I’ve been deeply curious about Persona 3 Reload. On the surface, just slapping Persona 3 on top of the foundation of Persona 5 would have been enough. But after getting to test Persona 3 Reload for myself at a recent event held by Sega, I’m hopeful that Persona 3 Reload will be even more than that.

[caption id="attachment_398165" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Prepare to dungeon crawl

At the event, I was able to demo two small slices of the game. The first section gave me roughly 15 minutes inside of Tartarus, the game’s dungeon crawling hub.

Right off the bat, I can’t stress enough that Persona 3 Reload is a very, very pretty game. While it might not look too special compared to Persona 5, the new character models alone are a huge jump from Persona 3. Similarly, just as Persona 5 oozed with style via its UI, Persona 3 has much the same flourish. Everything from your main menu to your victory screens are just what you’d expect from a Persona 5 successor, even if this is a remake.

The inside of Tartarus felt familiar at the outset. Just like the original, you’ll make your way through corridors while you aim to get preemptive attacks on roaming enemies. The dungeon layout was kind of generic, but floors were brief with roughly three battles on each if you fight everything you see. The inclusion of a dash button helped minimize backtracking, and overall, the exploration felt well-paced.

Of course, this is based on the very early game. Tartarus could feel repetitive after a while, so we’ll only know how well this portion of the game holds up in the full release. I will say that, after comparing footage of the original game, the version in Tartarus in Reload does look quite a bit different with its sharp blue and green aesthetic. It felt familiar despite being new, which was a recurring theme with much of this demo.

[caption id="attachment_398166" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Returning battle mechanics

Combat in Persona 3 Reload felt immediately familiar to me, which I’d consider a good thing. You’ll strike enemy weaknesses via physical or elemental attacks, which will knock them down. Knock downs give you extra turns, and knocking the entire enemy party lets you trigger bonus all-out attacks. Reload retains the three physical elements from Persona 3, meaning that you’ll delineate between Slashing, Piercing, and Striking damage. My demo tools mostly focused on the magical end of things, though.

I was happy to see the return of Shuffle Time, which I really enjoyed in Persona 4 Golden specifically. Cards will stay face up here, making it really easy to pick which boon you’ll take following combat. I love the dynamic of wondering what cards you’ll find after a battle, especially if you, say, want to conserve healing items and hope you’ll find a card to heal you instead. It’s a small thing, but it really makes the happiness chemicals fire off in my brain.

Near the end of my time in Tartarus, I got a glimpse at a mechanic that Persona 3 Reload calls Shifting. Basically, when you knock an enemy down and earn a One More, you can donate your extra turn to a party member. In other words, it’s similar to Baton Pass in Persona 5. This side of the demo ended shortly after I uncovered this, so I couldn’t get into the specifics of how Reload handles this mechanic. However, in a game that originally stripped party member control away from the player, getting Shifting so early almost felt like an apology from the developers.

[caption id="attachment_398170" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

Some old, some new

The second section I got to test in Persona 3 Reload involved the sequence leading to the Arcana Priestess boss. I initially thought this sequence stayed perfectly faithful to Persona 3. However, I didn’t realize that a few changes were made when I compared it to footage of the original game.

For starters, the path to the boss in which the party rushes through train cars featured a bit of added dialogue. The text that I could identify as new wasn’t exactly riveting, but I did find the inclusion exciting. It showed me that Persona 3 Reload isn’t afraid to expand on the original game, even if it was in a smaller capacity.

The boss battle itself was where I noticed the starkest change. In both the original Persona 3 and Persona 3 Portable, the party is given a little more than six minutes to finish this battle. As long as you keep up a solid pace, you can take the boss down with time to spare. Reload, on the other hand, gives you a much more generous window of about 30 minutes. However, as the battle progresses, the boss will spend turns accelerating the train, cutting minutes off your time.

This kept me on edge the entire battle, since I could never tell how much time I really had to work with. Once I put an end to the boss, I had about 40 seconds to spare. This certainly wasn’t a major change to the battle. Mechanically, I could see Atlus handling this encounter this way so your timer doesn’t matter until the final stretch. Still, it marked a deliberate change, which left me excited for what the full game could bring.

[caption id="attachment_398172" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Sega[/caption]

I’m so ready for more Persona 3 Reload

Persona 3 Reload certainly has a bit of baggage weighing its own hype down. Specifically, the news that the game wouldn’t include The Answer or the female protagonist route from Persona 3 Portable doesn’t make Persona 3 Reload as definitive as many would like. I think these are valid criticisms, and my time with the game certainly didn’t change that.

That said, after my session with Persona 3 Reload ended, I knew that this was the version of Persona 3 I was going to finish. What I played was polished to an absolute shine, without a single boring second in sight. Everything from combat to exploration was engaging, to the point that I forgot I was at an event and just wanted to keep playing it for another three hours.

And the music. Oh man does this game sound good. Getting an initiative in normal battles triggers a new battle theme that riffs on Mass Destruction, which was so catchy that would have spent time in battles just listening to it if not for the time limit. I hope Atlus uploads this track early to sate my ears.

All in all, for anyone who likes Persona, Persona 3 Reload looks like an essential playthrough. Whether the final product will stay faithful to the original or take risks here and there, I’ll be excited to play this one when it comes out on February 2, 2024.

The post Hands on Persona 3 Reload: Baby baby baby yeah! appeared first on Destructoid.

Sonic the Hedgehog made sure to show up at Gamescom 2023, and with that came a treat for those who bought Sonic Frontiers. A short teaser trailer for an update called "The Final Horizon" was unveiled, promising new story, new playable characters, and new challenges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMbtrz3ut9w

The trailer itself isn't terribly illuminating on its own. We see a giant robot looking down on Sonic and friends, which goads Sonic into taking out some Chaos Emeralds. As a hedgehog naturally does, he goes Super Sonic shortly after, and the teaser ends. This might mean something to those who played Sonic Frontiers, I just didn't join Destructoid fast enough to cover it. That said, I know that Super Sonic always warrants celebration, so I'm excited for that!

Though details on The Final Horizon remain scarce, we do know it will release for free. While Sonic Frontiers remains a somewhat divisive game, I'm happy that fans of the title will get a nice bonus for their loyalty. I'll be plenty curious to see how this update pans out when it launches on September 28.

The post Sonic Frontiers to get free The Final Horizon update on September 28 appeared first on Destructoid.

Tekken 8 has been hotly anticipated since it was revealed, and now we finally have a firm release date to pin down. At Gamescom 2023, a new trailer confirmed that the game will launch on January 26, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG_gUIaRQ8I

Accompanying the release date, Tekken 8 producer Katsuhiro Harada teased a new mode called Arcade Quest. The trailer footage shows players making a custom avatar to bring into a virtual arcade, though we didn't see much more than that. We can confirm Arcade Mode is strictly a single player mode, so we know that much at least.

Additionally, the presentation noted that we'll see "all new gameplay that actually has some AI kind of infused learning aspects to it". Those words are as interesting as they are vague. Will we train characters as we advance through Arcade Quest? Your guess is as good as mine.

Also, while not a specific highlight of the trailer, our own Zoey "The Yellow Dart" Handley pointed out that Yoshimitsu makes his Tekken 8 debut here. As someone who mostly grew up with Soulcalibur, I always love to see him.

We'll learn more about everything Tekken 8 offers when it launches on January 26, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post Tekken 8 unveils Arcade Quest mode and January 26 release date appeared first on Destructoid.

We’re quickly approaching the launch of the first DLC for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, and with it has come a dripfeed of new monster info. GameFreak seems happy to stir the pot so far, with reveals like a 19^th Tera Type without much context. Yet the recently released video for the Grass/Ghost-Type Pokémon Poltchageist is wild even by those standards. I’m going to spoil the heck out of it, so watch the short yourself if you want the blind experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWrwe9fJJk

Our story starts with an older man at a festival telling a ghost story to an audience of children. Apparently, once upon a time, there was a tea master who was an obsessive perfectionist. He was so obsessive that he would yell at any guest handling his tea, leaving him alone with his craft. With no one to share his work with, he tumbled over and “fainted from exhaustion,” which the audience is meant to interpret as “this guy was so angry that he left this mortal coil.”

The master’s tea caddy changes hands in the years to come. But as you might expect from the tone of this story, that caddy is hella haunted. Filled with rage and matcha in equal measure, it proceeds to drain the life force from at least one person who angers it so it can repair everything from cracked cups to phone screens. Then Poltchageist drains life force from the audience of sleeping children before ending the video by winking at the camera.

I’ve watched this final scene three times, and I still can’t decide what’s going on. Is Poltchageist draining life force from the food, or is it straight-up attacking children?

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1693987183429116263

Poltchageist is maybe in the top 20 of most disturbing Pokémon

As longtime fans know, Pokémon isn’t afraid to get weirdly dark with its Pokémon backstories. I don’t know who wrote Yamask’s Pokedex entries, but I hope someone gave them a hug afterwards.

As for the raw gameplay details, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Poltchageist. It's very similar to Polteageist, even though it seems to share no relationship to the monster. It also joins a surprisingly robust roster of Ghost/Grass-Type Pokémon, including Generation 9’s Bramblin and Brambleghast.

From context, we can assume Poltchageist will rely heavily on draining moves. It apparently knows the ability “Hospitality,” which lets Poltchageist "restore a small amount of its ally’s HP when it enters a battle.” For context, Scarlet & Violet have gone hard on mechanics specifically for doubles battles. Tatsugiri and Dondozo for example specifically work well together, with their potential massively undermined in singles. So only time will tell whether Poltchageist’s Hospitality will help solo players out or exist specifically for the competitive scene. I know I would like to see more double battles pop up in the main game.

We’ll be sure to learn more about Poltchageist when The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask launches on September 13.

The post The new Pokemon Poltchageist is a brutal cup of matcha tea appeared first on Destructoid.

It seems like Fall Guys has been making the rounds lately. I mean, sure, the game has kind of been everywhere since it launched back in 2020. But its collaboration momentum certainly shows no signs of slowing down. So hot on the heels of Fall Guys coming to Final Fantasy XIV, we have official confirmation that the upcoming Super Bomberman R 2 will dip its hands into the Fall Guys pot as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Xm66vWDNE

These two franchises have certainly enjoyed a good relationship up to this point. After all, Super Bomberman R Online had already crossed over with Fall Guys in 2021. What makes this one a bit interesting, though, is that Super Bomberman R 2 will have the… guy from Fall Guys shortly after launch. It’ll arrive on September 14, to be specific. Called the “Bean Bomber” here, you’ll be able to unlock the little fellow from the title’s in-game store.

The Bean will join a few other cameo characters that were previously pointed out by Destructoid’s own Zoey “corn chips are no place for a mighty warrior” Handley. These include the likes of Dracula and Princess Tomato, making Super Bomberman R 2 something of a crossover fest. Considering it’s hard to tell when and if we’ll ever see a lot of these classic Konami characters, I'll welcome these small cameos when I can.

Super Bomberman R 2 will launch on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 13. Those with physical copies can play the game a day earlier on September 12.

The post Super Bomberman R 2 will feature a Fall Guys crossover at launch appeared first on Destructoid.

In my eyes, Blasphemous 2 is a story of redemption.

Throughout the blighted lands in this sequel, you will find no shortage of denizens hoping to be redeemed. Condemned to often dark, grisly fates by the entity called the Miracle, these people graciously accept their punishments, hoping that their pain will absolve them of sin. Similarly, Blasphemous 2 strikes me as a game that wants to absolve itself from its predecessor’s shortcomings. I briefly played Blasphemous before taking on this review, but I honestly couldn’t get into it. I felt the combat was stiff, the platforming was aggravating, and the story absolutely did not grab me with its ornate, often vague prose.

On two of those counts, Blasphemous 2 marks an inspired improvement. In a world where even Mickey Mouse needs a Metroidvania, games of this genre require absolute excellence to stand out. I didn’t expect Blasphemous 2 to give me the same highs as all-time genre greats like Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but that’s exactly how I felt playing much of this one. Blasphemous 2 truly shines with the love of its creators.

It's unfortunate, then, that this otherwise immaculate sequel didn’t completely cleanse itself of the first game’s sins. But I must admit that where I see imperfections, Blasphemous fans may find profound beauty instead.

Blasphemous 2 (PC [Reviewed], PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: The Game Kitchen
Publisher: Team17
Released: August 24, 2023
MSRP: $29.99

[caption id="attachment_397051" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Free will

Our story kicks off after the original Blasphemous’ Wounds of Evertide update. Set against the backdrop of dark religious imagery, our hero, the Penitent One, must battle through enemies both fierce and grotesque as they unravel a new mystery surrounding the Miracle. That said, I found the tone of Blasphemous 2 was established more by the first major choice players make.

Blasphemous 2 presents one of three weapons to bring into battle. You have the balanced option in the sword Ruego Al Alba, which should feel familiar to fans of Blasphemous. But players who prefer a nimbler option can instead opt for the Sarmiento & Centella rapiers, which rewards evasive dashing and consistent attacks. And then there’s my mainstay throughout the adventure, the Veredicto. As a Claimh Solais wielder in Dawn of Sorrow, I felt right at home with this huge ball-and-chain. Its wide attack arc makes it great for aerial enemies, but the longer animations and lack of a block button makes your positioning especially important during boss battles.

I love how Blasphemous 2 lets players tackle combat with their own playstyle. While you do eventually collect each weapon to switch between later on, I never felt like I had to use one specific weapon to win. Even in fast, fierce boss battles which looked impossible without a dedicated block button, I still found ways to dodge and deal damage with the Veredicto. I will say I didn’t find much use for the Sarmiento & Centella rapiers, as they play a bit too similarly to the Ruego Al Alba. But I’m willing to bet some players will absolutely tear the game apart using them.

[caption id="attachment_397052" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The valley of the shadow of death

The weapons don’t just add nice variety to the combat; they expand the level design too. As you make your way through the game, you’ll encounter gimmicks that use each weapon in unique ways. For example, you can hit large bells with the Veredicto that send out shockwaves that make platforms appear for a limited amount of time. Or you can stab mirrors with the Sarmiento & Centella to instantly launch a short distance in a specific direction.

This doesn’t sound like a lot on paper, but Blasephemous 2 uses these concepts to create some great platforming sections between battles. More than a few sequences actually require flipping through your weapons in rapid succession to interact with their gimmicks. I never got bored of these moments, and they’re a remarkable improvement over the platforming sections I saw in Blasphemous.

Exploration also feels great in general due to the infusion of new progression systems. Like before, you can find rosary beads and similar equipment that can grant certain passives. However, Blasphemous 2 adds Marks of Martyrdom, which functionally work like skill points. Whenever you earn one, you can invest them into your weapons to strengthen them, or expand your carrying capacity for Altarpieces that can help you specialize your playstyle. You’ll find Marks both from exploration and an EXP bar that fills while fighting enemies, which gives combat more meaning without overwriting the impact of exploration.

Blasphemous 2 does a fantastic job of dishing out meaningful upgrades without undermining its own difficulty. I always felt like the battles in front of me required skill over grinding, no matter how strong my character was at any moment. Which is good, because the challenge in Blasphemous 2 is well worth savoring.

[caption id="attachment_397053" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Gnashing of teeth

Virtually every enemy in Blasphemous 2 is a delight to take down. Most foes have distinct attacks and movement patterns, so you can’t steamroll the game with one surefire tactic. At the same time, I never felt bogged down by tanky, annoying enemies. This is a delicate balance that many Metroidvanias stumble on, so it’s refreshing to see Blasphemous 2 handle it so well.

Similarly, almost all the boss fights were an absolute joy to play. For most encounters, I often found myself getting slapped hard at first. However, incoming attacks always have clear telegraphs you can watch out for, so repeated attempts felt like opportunities to learn from my mistakes. I typically took down bosses within three attempts, usually stomping them hard once I mastered their quirks.

Blasphemous 2 consistently gave me that hard game rush without ever really feeling like a hard game. It’s a challenge, especially if you aren’t well-versed in this genre, but I never felt particularly frustrated. At the same time, victory always gave me that “heck yes!” feeling. I will say the game does weirdly dip in challenge shortly after the midpoint. It gates a few upgrade systems despite letting you find their applicable items throughout the adventure, so bosses right after this big stat jump for me didn’t have quite the bite that prior bosses did. Fortunately, the game does come back around near the end, with some especially great encounters near the final act.

[caption id="attachment_397054" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Walking by faith

The only piece of Blasphemous 2 that I never quite fully got on board with is its storytelling. Before I go any further, I will acknowledge that anyone who enjoyed piecing together Blasphemous’ lore will almost certainly enjoy Blasphemous 2. Vague, minimalist stories like this are often divisive, and I'm just not a fan of them. If my thoughts don’t resonate with you in this regard, take these words with a grain of salt. The story is still framed as a key part of Blasphemous 2 though, so it did impact my overall experience.

Blasphemous 2 makes no effort to catch anyone up if they didn’t finish Blasphemous and its Wounds of Eventide update. If you don’t know what the Miracle is going into this one, good luck. And even if you do, Blasphemous 2 strikes me as a game that expects you to only know what’s going on after its intended community solves it. All the dialogue is incredibly wordy, often saying in 15 words what could have been said in five. I followed the broad strokes just fine, but so much between the big story beats just felt meaningless.

That said, I eventually wondered if that feeling of meaningless was the point of Blasphemous 2. I don’t need to tell you that this game leans heavily on its religious imagery, and against that backdrop, it does make sense that everyone talks like they’re reading scripture. Yet in a world in which so many of its denizens attribute their meaning to the Miracle, my protagonist succeeded in spite of it. I charted my course through these lands, I acquired power through my own actions, and I decided how to use the prayers and rosary beads I found along the way. My play experience was at direct odds with the other characters, which made their dark fates all the more pitiable.

In short, my take away from Blasphemous 2 wasn’t necessarily a religious commentary. Instead, I interpreted it as a story of agency versus submission. That’s not the deepest theme to focus on, but it did kind of work for me on that level.

[caption id="attachment_397055" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The ends didn’t justify the means

Though I felt happy with this interpretation, I still think the story's execution is a bit at odds with itself. For reference, when FromSoftware does vague, minimalist storytelling, I generally think it works because it mostly stays in the background. It’s there for the lore folks to unpack, but it otherwise kind of blends in with the atmosphere.

Blasphemous 2, meanwhile, gives its story a bit more prominence. The plot is presented like you’re already invested without ever making an effort to draw players in. For example, one secret I found late in the game hit me with a horror stinger sound effect, like I just discovered something that should blow my mind. Yet while I grasped the implications, I just didn’t really care. It made the moment feel weirdly comical for me, even though that clearly wasn't the intention.

Honestly, I could forgive that on its own. But for as consistently fun and engaging as Blasphemous 2 was for me, I felt really underwhelmed by the end. I won't say more than that for spoilers sake, though the final act did have one standout moment for me. I wanted to compensate for this by doubling back and exploring to get that sweet 100% completion. But after chasing down clues and wondering how the heck to uncover secrets in rooms that apparently hid them, I realized I could be doing literally anything else with my time. So my time with Blasphemous 2 kind of ended on a whimper, but that fortunately didn't ruin the experience.

[caption id="attachment_397056" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A book of revelation

I want to reiterate that these hang-ups for me will likely be selling points for other players. If you fall into this camp, then I’m happy to tell you you’re going to absolutely love Blasphemous 2. Even with these loose ends left on my save file, I hope I can return to get that 100% completion after the community properly solves the game. Not as a critic, but just as a fan.

Even with a few grievances, I still came out really enjoying Blasphemous 2. The challenge was consistently on point, the variety of areas in the map felt consistently fresh, and I had a great time powering up and uncovering secrets. Not counting my postgame wandering, Blasphemous 2 took me roughly 15 hours to clear. I'd have been happy if it continued for another 10, which I mean entirely as a compliment. I forgot at times that I was even reviewing the game, I just looked forward to laying back with my Steam Deck and seeing what I could uncover next.

Anyone who likes Metroidvanias should absolutely make time for Blasphemous 2. Aside from an underwhelming final act, I had nearly consistent fun with this one from start to finish. From the gorgeous visuals to the customizable combat, your journey as the Penitent One will be filled with steady highs and only occasional lows. It’s a great sequel, a great game, and just a great time in general. If you were a fan of Blasphemous, you’re in for a treat with Blasphemous 2.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Blasphemous 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

To put everything I’m about to say into context, I don’t know if anyone has anticipated Hammerwatch 2 as much as I have.

The original Hammerwatch, released in 2013 by Crackshell, was the co-op indie game I played for months. It was a Gauntlet-style dungeon crawler with distinct character classes, lite RPG elements, and neat mod support. It’s a short game that you can clear in under four hours, but I got so much replay value out of it in part thanks to Crackshell’s ongoing support. Heck, it got an entirely new campaign, Temple of the Sun, as free DLC. Steam says I put over 40 hours into this one.

Meanwhile, 2018's Heroes of Hammerwatch remixed the original game’s assets into a Roguelite structure. Man did I put hours into this one. Heroes took that arcadey co-op fun from the original and gave it enough progression elements to make it really hard to put down. It offered so much to upgrade that it was easy to want one more run before falling asleep at 3:00am. This too had great post-launch support; I even double-dipped on the Switch version just so I could play it with more people.

This all leads us to Hammerwatch 2, which on paper looks to be the series’ greatest evolution yet. Not only do we have much prettier pixel art, but we have an open-world RPG filled with quests, optional dungeons, loot to find and craft, and a real storyline to follow. After having such fun experiences with the previous two games, I had no idea how something that looks this good could go wrong.

Unfortunately, it did. It absolutely, indubitably did.

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It's a dragon attack

For full disclosure, I couldn’t finish Hammerwatch 2 in time for a full review. I put in nearly 20 hours, though that was between two characters for reasons I’ll discuss later. Take that as you will.

Hammerwatch 2 begins roughly 8 seconds after the good ending of the original Hammerwatch. Seeking to escape the first game’s castle, you’re taken through a basic tutorial that teaches you several basics that should come as second nature for Hammerwatch players. Afterward, you land in the game’s first overworld area, where you’ll need to figure out how to advance the story.

Hammerwatch 2 doesn’t exactly have a gripping narrative, but I do like how it contextualizes the original game. It reminds me of how Dragon Quest II made the original game’s map a small piece of its world just to offer some scale.

Assuming you follow the most obvious path forward, you’ll find yourself in a town full of NPCs with items to sell, quests to give, and dialogue to read. At this point in my adventure, I was having a grand ol’ time. I took every quest, helped a guy clear his cellar, and set off for more adventure. This is where the trouble started to begin.

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I am afraid of the dark

The first, most obvious mechanic Hammerwatch 2 introduces is its Day/Night system. I really wish it didn’t.

Like an MMORPG, Hammerwatch 2 abides by an in-game clock that all NPCs adhere to. Most shopkeepers and important NPCs aren’t available at night, which is a complete and utter pain. Nearly every time I returned from dungeon crawling and just wanted to sell my excess loot, I’d have to buy an inn room to pass the time since no one was awake. Yes, you can’t just open a menu and rest out in the open like in The Elder Scrolls. You have to wait for the clock or pay gold just to make things open back up. Gold, by the way, isn’t exactly in excess in the early game, so this really bites.

Additionally, the game keeps track of how many days have passed during your adventure. Remember how I said I gleefully took all those side quests once I saw them in town? Well, take too long to fulfill them, and you’ll outright, permanently fail some of them. The game doesn’t tell you which quests have a time limit, nor does it tell you how long you have until you reach a fail state. One quest involved collecting materials for someone to make a filter in a sewer, and only after I returned to him with everything he needed did I learn that I apparently took too long. No rewards, just a bunch of garbage in my inventory I now have no use for.

I really, genuinely saw no purpose to the game having any time system at all. It literally only seemed to add inconveniences with no innovations or features to counterbalance them. And we’re just getting started here.

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Realistic shopping simulator

In the first town, the shopkeeper says that he can buy and sell anything, but his rates are quite bad. I didn’t think I'd miss this NPC as I progressed, but I'd gladly take bad rates for his sweet convenience.

Hammerwatch 2 likes to use multiple shopkeepers to make your basic gear maintenance way more cumbersome than necessary. Need to sell a pair of gloves in the main city of the game’s next central area? Better go to the vendor who deals specifically in leather. However, don't get that person confused with the vendor next to them who only buys and sells offhand equipment of two specific rarity tiers. These aren’t distinguished on your map either, so you better memorize what every specific shop does or have a pen and paper with you to take notes.

I can kind of sort of see what the developers were going for here. For example, every vendor’s limitations become a weird way you can optimize your gold if you know where everything is. But it’s so, so ridiculously cumbersome and adds so much minutia to Hammerwatch 2. I can understand that maybe there’s a market for games that deliberately neglect roughly two decades of quality-of-life features in gaming, but did anyone who enjoyed the previous Hammerwatch games want that? I hope for Crackshell’s sake that I’m the outlier here.

All I do know is that for all the RPG systems tacked onto Hammerwatch 2, I would really rather spend my time crawling dungeons than doing tedious, laborious management. And I wish I could say that the game knocks that classic hack and slash gameplay out of the park.

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Controller needs support badly

Both previous Hammerwatch games were, overall, pretty controller-friendly titles. Characters like the Ranger played great with two analog sticks, so that was my expectation going into Hammerwatch 2. Unfortunately, I legitimately don't know if anyone ever thought about how this game would play on a controller.

Right off the bat, Hammerwatch 2 does not accommodate fitting essential inputs on a gamepad. Heck, your three quick item slots aren’t even mapped by default. Instead, the game expects you to use a radial menu that appears by clicking the L3 button and selecting items that way. The problem is, this thing is ridiculously finicky. There is not a single chance that anyone in the heat of combat would be able to bring this up, select the item they need, and use it before they just die instead. It well and truly might as well not be there.

Then we get to the skills. Hammerwatch 2 lets you map so many skills to your hotbar that you might think you’re playing an MMORPG. Except, as you may have noticed, controllers don’t typically support layouts like this unless you’re Final Fantasy XIV. While you can map skills to button combinations (For example, left bumper plus a face button), I found many combinations were downright unreliable in the heat of combat. Exacerbating this issue is how overworld items, like a shovel or a hookshot, also need to be mapped like skills.

On top of this, just navigating menus is nearly a non-starter on controller. Using the Dpad to select things in your main menu like in a normal video game was barely even functional. So instead, I clumsily handled everything with a virtual mouse cursor you can control with the right stick. Even this feels unfinished, especially when you need to use your right stick to scroll through text which winds up sending your cursor flying across the screen.

For a game that will release on all major consoles, the controller support here is straight-up unacceptable. In no way does this reflect something ready for launch.

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I’ll play cards all day though

I will say that Hammerwatch 2’s additions aren’t all bad. An unexpected winner for me was the inclusion of a new card game called Walls of Gadir. Basically, it involves both players placing walls around a playing field to protect a fortress while building cannons to attack your opponent's weak spots. It’s a great mix of simplicity and strategy that makes it the perfect diversion from dungeon crawling. Earning some extra gold in the process is a bonus.

Additionally, you can use some neat equipment once you make sense of the obtuse menus and crafting system. For example, I crafted a piece of gear that summoned undead minions whenever I got hit, which genuinely felt impactful. And as mentioned above, the pieces of gear that give you new skills for your hotbar are… well, they’re nice on paper. It’s a shame that the loot system mostly seems to exist so you have to shuffle your gear around to have the right elemental resistance you need for a specific dungeon, which downplays the excitement you might feel from naturally finding equipment as you play.

Also, skills for each character class in Hammerwatch 2 do offer some nice progression now. Both active and passive skills have pages of different effects that you can invest points into, which does let players hone their own builds in ways not possible in past Hammerwatch games. In my case, as I played the Wizard class, I liked using lightning skills so much that I wound up investing my points specializing in them. It’s a great system that I would have loved to have seen in a previous Hammerwatch game. And that’s the biggest bummer about all this.

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I'll Hammer-watch out for the future

I got this far and barely talked about what it’s like to actually dungeon crawl in Hammerwatch 2. That’s how deeply buried the core gameplay is. And it's absolutely baffling that's the case, because I did have some real fun here when I was in that classic loop of using my skills and my wits to dispatch hoards of monsters and collect the loot they drop.

Yet even this once reliable gameplay cycle began to feel like a slog. The tanky, aggressive enemies often made me feel like the game expected me to both have friends with me and optimized gear crafted via its clunky menus at all times. I actually had to start my original file as a Paladin over so I could switch to the ranged, offense-oriented Wizard on Easy Mode. Not because the game was hard, but because it became such a drag to make progress that that was the only way I could maintain any semblance of a decent pace. I would still like to see how Hammerwatch 2 fares in its intended multiplayer environment, but I absolutely can not recommend playing solo. For comparison's sake, I could play Heroes of Hammerwatch solo for hours.

Honestly, I’m at the 2000-word mark, and I could easily go on listing grievances. I didn't even touch on the main story often devolving into fetch quests, or the way the game would hitch whenever it auto-saved on my Steam Deck. Yet in spite of it all, I still do have hope for Hammerwatch 2. As mentioned at the top, Crackedshell has a good track record of providing post-launch support. With some heavy lifting, I could see Hammerwatch 2 becoming a special multiplayer experience. Maybe let players choose to toggle off the archaic time system, rethink the controller support, and streamline all the menus. That alone would strengthen the game. An open-world Hammerwatch sounds fun, it just needs to be a world that I’d actually want to introduce friends to.

In its current state, Hammerwatch 2 feels like a game that constantly asks if it could, but never if it should. A lot of effort is on display here, but that talent was put into so many weird, backward ideas that I could only recommend it to very specific audiences. I would love to return to this game in the future if it got a hefty dose of quality-of-life features that it desperately needs. But for now, I can only point anyone interested toward Hammerwatch or Heroes of Hammerwatch instead.

The post Hammerwatch 2 is a bold step in a baffling direction appeared first on Destructoid.

By the time Capcom’s The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse debuted in 1992, we had already seen several games about Mickey Mouse on home consoles. Meanwhile, between games like DuckTales and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Capcom had a good run of great Disney licensed titles under its belt. Yet I can’t help but feel the acclaimed developer must have felt a certain weight in developing this title.

I mean, we’re not just talking any character. This is the Mickey Mouse, arguably the most famous animated character ever created. Outside of publishing Hudson’s Mickey Mousecapade, this would be Capcom’s first time giving Mickey a starring role. They can’t just make a fun platformer with some classic tunes to do this character justice. Nay, a game about Mickey needs to feel grand, exciting, and majestic. And the developers at Capcom would need the power of the Super Nintendo to do it.

Of course, I can’t say for certain that this philosophy is what drove the creation of this game. But what I can tell you is, while flawed, The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse lays a nearly ideal blueprint for what a licensed game should be. Because this isn’t just a game about Mickey Mouse; this is Mickey Mouse as seen by some of the greatest talent of the 16-bit era of gaming.

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The fastest anyone’s ever lost a dog

After you hear the lovely title screen jingle and start the game, Magical Quest lays out its plot. Mickey is playing catch with Donald and Goofy when he wiffs catching the ball, making it bounce off his head. Pluto rushes after the ball and apparently gets lost after about 5 seconds, which causes both Goofy and Mickey to go searching for him.

After Mickey falls off a cliff in his second failure of the day, he meets a wizard who informs him that Pluto has actually been captured by Emperor Pete. If Mickey wants his dog back, he’s going to have to go on a quest. A magical quest, if you will.

Obviously this is a textbook definition of an excuse plot, though I would also go to war with someone who apparently stole my dog. However, what really sets the game’s tone is the first level. Treetops immediately hits you with a distinct, beautiful set piece placing Mickey high above the clouds, featuring tall vines inspired by Mickey and the Beanstalk. You get a small area to practice the controls, so you can try jumping on enemies and flinging them around. If you're feeling brave, you can grab onto tomatoes that spin like a helicopter and send you high into the air, letting you uncover some hidden secrets.

It immediately imbues a sense of wonder and whimsy fit for a Disney game. But more importantly, it introduces players to fresh concepts that go beyond what you'd expect from the usual licensed title.

This all combines with the music, which honestly sounds quite good throughout the entire game. The Treetops theme goes for an orchestral angle, featuring triumphant trumpets and fluttering flutes that sound fit for an RPG. Not that this should surprise you, as composers Mari Yamaguchi and Tatsuya Nishimura would go on to score Capcom’s classic Breath of Fire. All these elements come together to inform you that this is a real adventure, even if it's made for kids.

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Mousey-Man X

At the outset, Mickey has trouble directly attacking enemies. He can jump on foes, and as mentioned above he can toss items and certain stunned enemies to inflict damage. It’s a clever system, especially since it leaves you feeling deliberately weak throughout level one.

This changes dramatically once you get into the game’s costume system. As Mickey makes progress, he’ll discover three outfits that expand his moveset. The first is the Sorcerer outfit, which gives him an actual attack that he can charge up Mega Man style. Next is the Firefighter, which equips Mickey with a long-range hose that can extinguish fire-based foes and move blocks around. Finally there’s the Climber gear. This features no direct attack but gives Mickey a grappling hook, letting him vault around like you’re playing Bionic Commando.

As those examples show, it’s fun to see Capcom give Mickey moves that take inspiration from their titles. But what makes this setup work so well is how the level design takes advantage of each outfit. Sorcerer is far and away your best damage dealer, so you’ll want that equipped to deal with bosses. Meanwhile, Firefighter helps solve puzzles, like using the hose to push around Thwomp-looking enemies to use as platforms. Even if the number of costumes pales in comparison to the number of powers you get in Mega Man, they have greater impact on how you navigate each level.

Though the costume unlocks come at set points throughout the game, they add a great sense of progression. In fact, I’d go as far as to argue that Magical Quest was a testing ground for Capcom to hone ideas that would pop up in some of their best SNES games.

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A little bit of RPG is all I need

In addition to the costumes, Mickey can augment his stats by exploring levels and uncovering secrets. At the start of a Normal-mode playthrough, Mickey will have three hearts (or three HP). However, by collecting hidden heart containers along the way, his life can grow all the way to ten hearts. These are well-hidden, but even as a kid I certainly didn’t need max health to beat the game. In my recent replay, I only found three containers by the end.

Weirdly enough, Magical Quest introduces some old-school RPG grinding if you’re into that sort of thing. Aside from hidden hearts, Mickey can explore and find coins. If you’re lucky, you’ll stumble into secret shops that can potentially contain recovery items, heart containers, and even upgrades to the Sorcerer and Firefighter outfits. At first, I found it weird that I wasn’t even close to affording certain upgrades when I first uncovered them. After all, the game doesn’t let you backtrack and locks certain items to specific shops.

However, I eventually realized that levels repopulate with coins and items when you die, including extra lives. In other words, if you want a maxed-out Mickey, you’ll want to explore a screen with a 1-Up hidden in it, collect as many coins as you can, and then throw yourself off a cliff so you can farm it all over again. To be clear, none of the upgrades are substantial enough to warrant grinding for them. But I was fascinated to realize you could do that, in a retro Disney game no less.

As far as I can tell, Magical Quest is Capcom’s first SNES title that plays with these kinds of concepts. In the following years, the company would release games like Mega Man X and Demon’s Crest that combine top-shelf platforming action with exploratory adventure elements. I can’t say for sure if Mickey Mouse walked so Mega Man could run. Either way, it makes Magical Quest fascinating to me on a historical level.

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Over before you know it

Don’t get me wrong, Magical Quest definitely doesn’t reach the same highs as Capcom’s best SNES titles. Some parts feel like beginner’s traps at times, with one boss that straight-up one-shots you if you don’t know preemptively know how to dodge its opening attack. Also, this one is incredibly short, even by SNES standards. By the time you get Mickey’s full roster of costumes, you’re basically a stone’s throw away from the end of the game. The fact that later levels lack the scope of the first stages make me think that Capcom intended this to be a grander adventure. But at some point, they ran out of time, money, or possibly both.

Still, what is here is impressive for a licensed game. Stages are filled to the brim with unique gimmicks, the visuals are impressive and varied, and the controls are polished to shine. Magical Quest would later see two direct sequels, which notably include two-player cooperative play. The game’s immediate follow-up, The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie, didn’t leave nearly as strong of an impression on me growing up. Additionally, I never wound up playing the final game in the trilogy, as it wouldn’t come West until we finally got its GameBoy Advance port in 2005. Needless to say, I was a bit checked out on Disney games by then.

Still, to this day, I always compare any Disney game to Magical Quest. Games like the recent Disney Illusion Island play off the concept of Mickey becoming a hero, which I can enjoy. But for me, the first Magical Quest didn’t convince me Mickey could be a hero because it said he was. It communicated this concept on a deeper, potentially more important level.

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The human hands that drew the mouse’s ears

As I watched the credits for The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse upon my most recent replay, I was taken by all the pseudonyms that Capcom's employees were known to use at the time. A Planner was listed as “MX-5 (Crushed By Cat) Kamecha,” which could be one or three people, I can't tell. There was also “Tall Nob,” who apparently worked on Capcom’s version of Aladdin as well. And those are just the first names that pop up.

It really reinforced to me just how much this game feels like Capcom rather than Disney. The people of this company really knew how to speak the language of video games, even in 1992. So in an inadvertent way, tying Mickey Mouse to their own identity is what really sold me on this character. Mickey didn’t need to be a universal mascot that adhered to pages of strict style guides. He could instead be a reflection of the people using him at the time. And for someone who happened to like the work of these developers, that really resonated with me.

I know that The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse is ultimately a glorified commercial for Disney products. But Capcom’s approach felt like they wanted Mickey to sit at the same table as any other character they owned, with all the personality and polish that entails. I wasn’t really a Disney kid, so this version of Mickey with seemingly boundless potential spoke to me. Mickey looked, played, and felt like a proper video game hero. And since I didn't really relate to the interests of a lot of kids in my rural hometown, this gave me at least something I could talk about with my Disney-loving classmates at lunch.

I don't think much about Mickey Mouse nowadays, nor do I have any real attachment to the character. But for one point in time, Capcom got me invested in this mouse and provided great memories in the process. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the real hero wasn’t Mickey himself, but the developers who knew how to make him relatable to a new audience. I don’t know where “MX-5 (Crushed By Cat) Kamecha” or “Tall Nob” is today. But I hope they’re enjoying a rest fit for legends.

The post The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse made Disney’s mascot a hero appeared first on Destructoid.

Final Fantasy XIV has been riding quite the wave of hype lately. This year's annual Fan Fest event saw not just the announcement of a new expansion, Dawntrail, but also some eye-catching collaborations and a new Xbox port. While I imagine this news was enough to get a few players back into Eorzea, those who held off are being rewarded for their patience.

From now until August 31, players who have remained unsubscribed for 90 days can play for up to 14 days for free. As usual for these events, the 14-day timer starts whenever you choose to log back in within this window. In other words, a player who returns on August 30 can theoretically play into September if they wish. Just note that the timer will start from the moment the game begins downloading updates, so try to start with a strong internet connection if you wish to maximize your playtime.

It is a bit surprising to see this promotion only apply to players who haven’t played for 90 days. Normally the restriction only mandates 30 days of a lapsed sub, so players who recently unsubbed are out of luck. It would also be nice if subscribed players got some extra free time too, but them’s the breaks. On the plus side, 14 free days is better than the usual giveaway of four days, so anyone who qualifies for this can really dig their teeth into the game again.

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A good opportunity to catch up in Final Fantasy XIV

Obviously, qualifying players would do well to use this time to catch up on the main story. After all, anyone hoping to return for Dawntrail will need to clear through the story quests added to Endwalker via its many patches. Additionally, we should only see one major patch with a few smaller follow-ups this expansion, so anyone who catches up now will be nearly ready for Dawntrail.

That said, there’s a ton of content in the game, so there’s not really a wrong way to spend your time here. I may just pop in to play Triple Triad and try on the nicest clothes, which I estimate aligns me with roughly 95% of the playerbase.

This free period doesn’t apply to new players, not that they’d have much to gain from it. After all, the critically acclaimed free trial still lets adventurers play for an unlimited amount of time before they make the subscription jump, albeit with some restrictions. Additionally, trial players can access Stormblood soon, which will add a huge amount of content to an already massive slice of the game.

Aspiring adventurers can download Final Fantasy XIV on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Xbox Series X|S owners can join the Light Party at some point after the launch of the game’s 6.5 patch.

The post Final Fantasy XIV’s free login campaign for lapsed players is live again appeared first on Destructoid.

In case you haven’t heard, Baldur’s Gate 3 is pretty hot right now. Our own Eric “Blast Man” Van Allen is loving what he’s played of it so far, noting that it showcases “a clear love for the role-playing craft at its heart.” Now, that’s all well and good for those who live and breathe D&D. But what about those of us who know basically nothing about Dungeons & Dragons outside of the existence of dungeons and–I’m going out on a limb for this one– possibly some dragons? Well, we've got a Baldur's Gate 3 guide for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Wx7eFMGkY

Our video team is here to help. In “Ultimate Beginner's Guide for Baldur's Gate III,” even total newbies will learn how to navigate the game’s early hours. This includes tips like how to build your character, and how to warm up shopkeepers with your spare garbage. As a total D&D newbie, even I felt like I could succeed in Baldur’s Gate 3 after watching this. Whether you’re here for the information or some silly jokes, you should find something to like here.

Of course, this comes hot on the heels of our ongoing Baldur’s Gate 3 coverage. Eric “Sticky Hands” Van Allen shared his own 10 tips for Baldur’s Gate 3, which contains unique tidbits you’ll want to read. He also shared some thoughts about how much Act 1 has changed since the game’s early access build (spoilers: it’s a fair amount). Expect to hear more from us about Baldur’s Gate 3, especially as we make our way through this massive title.

The post Kick back and watch our beginner’s guide video for Baldur’s Gate 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

During today's Pokemon Presents presentation, we saw Mewtwo announced as an upcoming Tera Raid encounter in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. However, another legendary Pokemon has made its appearance, and this one's much easier to get. Specifically, virtually anyone who owns either Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet can claim Mew as a mystery gift right now.

Until Monday, September 18, trainers can use the code GETY0URMEW in the Mystery Gift menu to instantly grab Mew. That's a zero and not an O in "Y0UR," since you can't input O, I, or Z in codes. For those who need a refresher, you can get to Mystery Gifts by selecting the Poke Portal option in the in-game main menu. Select "Mystery Gift" at the bottom of the menu that pops up, and then select "Get with Code/Password." If you input the code right, you should grab Mew right away.

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That said, not all Mews are created equal. Mew's moves and Tera Type will differ between each player, so you may see some funky results. For example, my Mew has a Ground Tera Type and knows Earth Power, Swift, Light Screen, and Life Dew. A little random for my endgame focused file, but Earth Power would wreck house in the early game. Anyone who can access the Mystery Gift option during this period can claim Mew, including new players.

It always feels a little surreal to me whenever I see Mew given away like this. I mean, I know these legendary Pokemon distributions happen all the time these days. But after the schoolyard hysteria over getting Mew back in the Red & Blue era, I always expect to just get this monster with a glitch or a GameShark. I don't know how great Mew will fare against Mewtwo specifically, but my Life Dew Mew will help me on my quest to always use healers in Tera Raids.

The post Mew is now available as a Mystery Gift in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet appeared first on Destructoid.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have had an interesting run of Tera Raid events. Until now, most of the 7-Star encounters have revolved around starters from previous games, usually with a strategically picked Tera Type that makes them tricky to take down. But now, with the impending release of DLC for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Mewtwo is here to kick the Tera Raid intensity up a notch.

From September 1 to September 17, Mewtwo will appear as a Tera Raid in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. It will sport the Psychic Tera Type, so needless to say, this thing's Psychic attacks will hit hard. Normally, I would say this means Dark-type Pokemon will prevail. But if there's one thing I know about Tera Raid Pokemon, it's that they love to punish their obvious weaknesses. Aura Sphere will almost certainly appear in Mewtwo's move pool.

To help trainers prepare, Scarlet & Violet will see promotional raids throughout August that drop some key items to strengthen your team. The first encounter will appear from August 9 to August 17, with the second encounter running from August 19 to August 31. We didn't receive specifics about these raids, but I'd expect something similar to a 5-Star Blissey raid. In other words, an easy loot piñata for trainers to take down in a minute before claiming rewards.

If you read my older Tera Raid guides, you could probably tell how exhausted I felt after a while. The release schedule just got so fast, and I can only use Annihilape so much before it gets stale. However, with legendary Pokemon entering the fray, I might dip into the scene again. This monster harassed me enough in Pokemon Stadium, so I've got a score to settle.

The post Challenge Mewtwo as a Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Tera Raid in September appeared first on Destructoid.

The Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest kicked off to an explosive start with the reveal of the Dawntrail expansion. While details about this new expansion remain relatively light, we did receive confirmation that two new jobs will come to the game with the launch of 7.0.

Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida announced on stage that both jobs will continue to fill out our DPS role options. Specifically, we'll see one melee DPS job as well as one magic ranged DPS join the game. These match the roles added when Stormblood came out in 2017, so we'll have to see if this marks a pattern for future expansions. Will new Tank and ranged DPS options come in 8.0?

While the job reveals may seem like business as usual, they do come in response to some community unrest. With 20 different jobs in the game, each receiving updates every expansion, some worried that Square Enix wouldn't keep up the pace of adding two jobs each expansion moving into the future. Additionally, with Endwalker concluding the game's story that began with A Realm Reborn, Dawntrail would mark a natural point to set new precedents. Fortunately, it seems like we will see a steady influx of new jobs to play for the time being.

As for what the jobs will specifically entail, we can only guess at this point. However, as has been tradition, Yoshida removed his sweater to reveal the shirt he was wearing underneath. For those not in the loop, Yoshida's shirts at Fan Fest have always acted as a vague hint for job reveals. In this case, we have the Ninja Turtles.

[caption id="attachment_394191" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Square Enix Twitch[/caption]

Honestly, your guess is as good as mine as to what this might mean. Maybe we'll get a melee staff user? Perhaps a weapon master who switches equipment mid combat? Or we'll literally just play as an Adamantoise that can rapidly spin around as it flies in the air. I'll be excited to find out as we approach Dawntrail's release in Summer 2024.

The post Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail will introduce two new DPS jobs appeared first on Destructoid.

It’s been a year since Game of the Year winner Elden Ring first lit our tarnished souls on fire, and FromSoftware looks determined to keep kindling that flame. Players can download the game’s 1.10 patch today, which brings a few key balance changes to The Lands Between.

As far as overall balance goes, we have a few buffs to critical hits (i.e. what happens when you backstab). Not only are these moves wholesale stronger, but they now inflict greater poise damage as well. We also have “decreased recovery time after a missed critical hit” listed here. It's a merry crit-mas from FromSoftware.

That said, this patch also brings a few PvP adjustments. Three of the six changes focus on poise adjustments, and the skills “Quick Step” and “Hound’s Step” have decreased invulnerability windows. This section vaguely states that this patch “decreased the damage reduction granted by some skills, incantations and items” without specifying what this affects. Guess they expect players to figure it out on their own in classic Souls fashion.

Oh, also, critical hit angles have been extended in PvP too. This patch really is the gift that keeps on critting.

Rounding out the Elden Ring 1.10 patch are a few bug fixes. Again, these read a little vague, but players apparently won't have their attack direction unintentionally shifted around as much now. Other fixes include preventing the Sacred Order skill from persisting after you change weapons, as well as making it so certain spells and incantations won't cause damage while certain effects are active.

Check out the patch notes here if you want to see them for yourself.

[caption id="attachment_356578" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via FromSoftware[/caption]

Just some balance adjustments

Overall, this patch mostly impacts players still invested in Elden Ring’s PvP scene. Nothing here will get a lapsed player to jump back in the game, unless they didn’t feel they met a critical hit quota, in which case go to town I suppose. That said, I’ll never object to seeing a game receive continued support. As long as that support addresses what the community wants, anyway.

The 1.10 patch of course comes ahead of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, which still does not have a release window as of writing. While I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath waiting, I imagine any proper new content will release alongside that. If Shadow of the Erdtree is like previous Souls DLC, it should be a good time.

In the meantime, you can find Elden Ring on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post Elden Ring patch 1.10 is out, and it’s all about the crits appeared first on Destructoid.

When a game like Disney Illusion Island puts "Illusion" in its name, it immediately evokes a rich legacy of Disney platformers.

Growing up, I wasn’t exactly a Disney kid. I had nothing against the mouse’s house, I was just more interested in mascot platformers with tragic backstories. Regardless, I loved the heck out of so many 16-bit Disney platformers. Games like Sega’s Castle of Illusion didn’t engage me because of the license, but because they offered their own unique spin on the world of Mickey Mouse. I still remember how Castle of Illusion could effortlessly transition from feeling whimsical, to mysterious, to kind of ominous when it wanted. Heck, it did all of that in the first world!

To its credit, Disney Illusion Island does not wear the “Illusion” brand lightly. Though it bares little similarity to Sega’s seminal title, I could tell how much the developers at DLALA Studios wanted to create a game that could sit alongside the greats in Disney's video game canon. In some respects, Illusion Island accomplishes this goal. I just don't think I’ll reminisce about it 30 years from now.

[caption id="attachment_393537" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Disney Illusion Island (Switch)
Developer: DLALA Studios, Disney Games
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
Released: July 28, 2023
MSRP: $39.99

Everybody's busy bringing you a Disney Afternoon

Illusion Island starts on an unexpected high note. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy meet up for a picnic on the titular island, each believing the event was planned by someone else in their crew. But just as many afternoon outings go, the picnic was not planned by friends, but by a race of hamster people who are in desperate need of help. It turns out that calamity is imminent for said hamsters if they don’t collect some magic books, and they need help from heroes who can do the job for them.

Naturally they turn to Mickey and friends to handle that adventuring. And I mean, as someone who grew up playing The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse, I must admit the mouse does have some heroic chops.

As basic as this plot sounds, it’s told in a fully voiced, fully animated scene that I found charming. It has a Disney XD vibe, but I genuinely laughed at some lines here. Unfortunately, outside of the final act of the game, most story bits don’t employ this level of production. You’ll mostly stare at unvoiced dialogue boxes that lean heavier on fourth-wall breaking jokes that just don’t land quite as well, whether you’re a Disney fan or not.

This is a small, arguably inessential disappointment. The story obviously isn’t the focus here, I just liked the fully animated stuff so much that most everything after it felt disappointing. It’s a bummer for younger audiences, but I get the vibe that Illusion Island caters more to Disney adults. Especially when you realize what type of game it is.

https://youtu.be/QiUG1YWiMIY

Mouse-troidvania

Disney Illusion Island is technically a Metroidvania. If you told me 15 years ago that the exploratory platformer genre would become so popular that Mickey Mouse would throw his hat into the ring, I would have called you crazy. Regardless, here we are. Mickey and friends will traverse interconnected biomes across the island to recover the missing tomes, earning valuable movement upgrades along the way. At the start, the mouse's party can do little more than run and jump. By the end of the game, they can double jump, wall jump, and even ground pound to access new areas.

Control and movement lay the foundation for any good platformer, and luckily Disney Illusion Island nails this. It doesn’t lock off your best movement options for long, and everything from jump arcs to movement speed feel great. The game lacks any combat mechanics, so a surprisingly nimble move set keeps the experience feeling fresh. I really enjoyed the game when it simply focuses on testing your platforming prowess.

At its best, the level design throws you at challenge rooms that utilize all your abilities. While the game’s hardest is maybe 1/10^th of what something like Celeste throws at you, the difficulty can ramp up nicely in the second half. Platforming newbies may choose to play with infinite health, so no one should expect to get stuck necessarily. But as someone who once spent a summer playing Ninja Gaiden to see if I could beat it without any continues, I was shocked that I died in certain sections of the game. Granted, this was mostly due to my own impatience, but more on that in a bit.

While swimming in the latter part of the game can feel a little loose, I felt surprised by how tight Illusion Island controlled. Movement just feels good, with a level of polish typically reserved for top-shelf platformers. This is fortunate, since this counteracts several small stumbles that Illusion Island makes along the way.

[caption id="attachment_393538" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Bouncing here and there and everywhere

The biggest, most substantial question that could not leave my head during the entirety of Illusion Island’s runtime was one I’d never thought I’d ask: why is this a Metroidvania?

Look, I grew up on enough Metroid and Castlevania to absolutely love this genre. I’ve also enjoyed non-violent exploratory platformers too. The thing is, these games only work if they give you incentive to explore, and Illusion Island just… doesn’t have that. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of stuff to collect here. I’d go so far as to call Illusion Island a collect-athon. It’s just that the things you hunt for don’t really matter.

You have Tokuns, a basic compendium of characters and enemies in the game with some banal flavor text. There’s Mickey Memorabilia, which is literally just Disney references drawn by the art team. Hidden Mickeys are, again, just small pieces of art you can find by spotting Mickey Mouse icons in the wild. And finally we have Glimts, the game’s equivalent of coins which unlock health upgrades. While I’m glad something impacts the play experience, these feel relatively insignificant since the game’s difficulty settings already determine how much health you start with.

I don’t think Illusion Island needs a robust RPG system to encourage exploration. But in a game that has precious few fast travel options until criminally late into the game, why would I want to backtrack just to unlock a picture of the wheel from Steamboat Willie? Honestly, that’s all this format really adds to the game: backtracking. Considering you can't even collect one category of unlockables until you've already explored the first few areas, I did occasionally feel that the game was just trying to pad its runtime.

To be clear, I didn't think the backtracking was necessarily egregious. But I did wish the game would have gone with a simple level-to-level progression instead.

[caption id="attachment_393539" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

D-d-d-danger! Watch behind you!

I also have to discuss the enemy design, which became more and more of a sticking point as I progressed.

As mentioned above, Illusion Island is a nonviolent platformer. I’m cool with this decision, but you'll still find plenty of enemies determined to smack you. And without combat, the game’s only way to escalate challenge from enemies involves making you wait. In the late game, I felt an alarming amount of enemies simply existed to interrupt a player’s natural forward trajectory. You can use acrobatics to dodge some foes, but many just want you to wait until they move or finish attacking. No platforming, no strategy, just waiting.

Like the level design, this isn’t game breaking. However, I eventually reached a point where I racked up deaths just because I was tired of waiting for enemies to move and tried to cheese my way past them. Sure, dying over and over to restart at the frequent checkpoints isn’t an efficient way to progress. But I'd rather die on my own terms than let Walt Disney's grunts control how I live.

After a certain point, I felt Illusion Island wasn’t necessarily getting harder as much as it was making it easier to get hit. I’m sure if I didn’t play on the hardest difficulty setting, I probably could brute force through all these obstacles. I just would have liked to have seen more exploration of the core controls over abrasive enemy placement. The developers put all this work into making movement fun, so why would they want players to not move?

[caption id="attachment_393544" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Side by side wherever we go

I do want to touch on the multiplayer in Illusion Island. While major platforming series like Rayman and Super Mario have embraced local multiplayer, I was still excited to test out how it handles here.

I had my girlfriend join my nearly complete playthrough for a session, and the results surprised me. Though she's generally unfamiliar with 2D platformers, she was able to wall jump and rope swing at my pace within minutes. This really is a testament to how natural Illusion Island feels to play, and we had a lot of fun running around together.

The problem, again, is that I don’t know why this is an exploratory platformer. While I don’t think anything of frequently opening and closing my map to track where I’m going, that constant pausing really disrupts multiplayer. Illusion Island doesn’t have a mini-map either, so even small forks in the road feel more troublesome than necessary. I mean, at several points in the game, you’ll find several branching paths. But three paths will lead to keys, all of which you’ll need to unlock a door blocking the critical path. Our takeaway joke while we played was "in Illusion Island, the only illusion is that we have any freedom."

I did like that each player could specify their own difficulty level via the health they start with. It makes Illusion Island easy to play with less experienced players when they can just turn on infinite health for themselves. But beyond that, I don’t think Illusion Island stands out as a multiplayer experience unless you specifically want to get someone into platformers. My partner and I enjoyed our session, but we didn't talk about it after we put our controllers down. And that kind of sums up the game in general.

[caption id="attachment_393541" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I’m Timothy Monbleau from Destructoid, and you’re reading a Disney review

As much as I’ve focused on nitpicks, I could overlook them all if Illusion Island offered a charming, unique experience like the 16-bit Disney classics. But outside those fun animated scenes, I never saw anything in the game that really stuck with me. All the biomes in the game just kind of blur together, with somewhat differentiated but ultimately unremarkable visuals separating them. Outside of a water zone, the whole thing just feels like one long level.

Yet despite everything, I still played Illusion Island to 100% completion (which took me just under ten hours). And even after I was left with one small incentive to replay the game, I started a second save file. Illusion Island is undoubtedly a fun game. It plays very well at its core, which is hard for me to wax poetic about. But the game does deliver on that, especially when its level design lets those core mechanics shine.

I’d compare my experience to getting a burger from a nice fast casual restaurant. It’s not the best you’ve had, but it’s good in a pinch and you’re glad you had it. And sometimes you need a diversion to entertain you and possibly a family member for a weekend.

Disney Illusion Island won’t go down in history like the best Disney platformer classics have. But it’s still a fun, if not forgettable, romp starring Mickey and friends. Those who are newer to platformers or want to get someone in on the genre will be primed to enjoy this title. Also, while I don’t think the exploratory angle does the game any favors, it may appeal to collect-athon fans. Otherwise, Illusion Island is just a reliable game for a rainy day. A perfect seven if there ever was one.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Disney Illusion Island appeared first on Destructoid.

Featuring Matt Cook from the Destructoid.com website

There is a terrifying, morbid curiosity that envelopes someone when they discover Pikmin gummy candies exist.

In her brilliant review of Pikmin 2, Destructoid’s Zoey “Stromboli” Handley discusses the empathic approach some take to the Pikmin series. Sure, the plant creatures in Nintendo’s franchise are disposable to an extent. But their tiny dying sounds and the little ghosts that fly away upon death fill me with deep sorrow. I planted those Pikmin. I plucked those Pikmin from the earth. And if I can’t keep them safe from the jaws of bizarre ladybug monsters, then did I even deserve their companionship to begin with? Every lost unit hurts my soul.

So you can imagine my reaction when I saw that certain retailers in Japan were stocking gummy candies based on the Pikmin franchise. Titled “Pikmin Can Be Eaten" gummies, there is no ambiguity that you are, in fact, playing the role of the monster by purchasing them. Fortunately, these candies are Japan-exclusive, so I shouldn’t even feel tempted to eat them. I mean, living in the United States, I would have to pay an exorbitant markup to import a pack of these. Or, even more extreme, we’d have to get someone to travel to Japan to try these gummies.

Surely that would be a silly amount of time and money to spend just to tell you how some Pikmin gummy candies taste, right?

[caption id="attachment_392744" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image by Christian from Pixabay[/caption]

Two writers spend a silly amount of time and money to tell you how Pikmin gummy candies taste

Honestly, I can’t even summarize the series of events that turned eating Pikmin into an intensive journalistic feat. All I know is that it ended with me spending money to have these candies shipped across the world to me. Meanwhile, our own Matt “Quack Attack” Cook visited Japan to give us an exclusive look at where one could buy these firsthand.

To be fair, Matt was already in Japan when I started planning this story. However, I like to imagine Matt preemptively knew we'd want to run a story about these and visited strictly for that reason. I have a wild imagination, okay?

For context about our subject, the Pikmin Can Be Eaten gummies originally debuted all the way back in 2021. While these attracted buzz at the time, the release of the critically acclaimed Pikmin 4 has naturally reinvigorated the Pikmin brand. As a result, select stores in Japan have gone all-in on not only restocking these candies, but a ton of related merchandise as well. I’d explain more, but fortunately, I don’t have to.

I’ll turn it over now to Matt “Kersplat” Cook, coming to us with on-scene coverage from Japan. I don’t know why I’m introducing him like the weather segment on the local news.

[caption id="attachment_392557" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Photo by Destructoid.[/caption]

Hunting for Pikmin in Tokyo

Matt: When I went to Japan earlier this month, I had it on my list to find all of the Pikmin 4 launch tie-ins that I could. One of the best things about any big game launch in Japan is how thoroughly it's embraced across the country. Even if you have no idea what a Pikmin is, you'd find it difficult to be completely unaware of the Pikmin 4 launch.

One of the first things I did when I got to Tokyo was go to a Family Mart convenience store by my hotel. Convenience stores are pretty much everywhere you look in Japan, and Family Mart is one of the biggest chains. It was there, at the very first stop, that I noticed a big Pikmin 4 poster in the window. Family Mart was selling download cards for the game and Pikmin-themed Nintendo gift cards. It also had a lottery where Family Mart members could win limited-time goodies and, most impressively, Pikmin-themed food for the month of July.

Given the level of promotion, I thought I'd found the Pikmin gummies at my very first stop. But alas, the gummies were nowhere to be found. Over the next few days, I checked every convenience store, Family Mart or not, for the gummies. However, I couldn't find them anywhere. It wasn't until I went to the Tokyo Nintendo store that my luck changed.

[caption id="attachment_392561" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Photo by Destructoid.[/caption]

Pikmin celebration at Tokyo Nintendo

Predictably, the Nintendo store celebrated the launch of Pikmin 4 in a big way with shelves upon shelves of adorable merch. They had everything that any Pikmin fan's heart could desire, from plushies, dolls, and socks, to, yes, the gummies.

The massive variety was somewhat overwhelming. With limited suitcase space, I bought three packs of the gummies and entered the Pikmin 4 raffle hosted at the store. Raffles often accompany big game launches. You pay a fee - in this case, 700 yen ($5) - and you're guaranteed a prize which ranges from something small like a keyring up to some really cool plushies or even the game itself. I won a purple Pikmin keyring which I was pretty happy with since the purple Pikmin is obviously the best one.

As for the gummies, they're predictably delicious. Each one tastes, rather morbidly, how you may expect a Pikmin to taste. Purple is a very good grape flavor, red is apple, yellow is orange, and blue is blueberry. If there's one complaint I have about the gummies, it's about the rare strawberry and lemon white Pikmin. This one, as it says on the pack, is a rare sour gummy that you can only find if you're lucky. Unfortunately, as with many of life's rarities, it's far and away the best one! I was supremely disappointed after trying it to find that there was only one in the pack. When I found four of the rare sour gummies in my next pack, I felt like I won the Pikmin candy lottery.

If we get sequel gummies, I hope they release some all-sour options. I'd eat those every day on my next trip to Japan.

[caption id="attachment_392746" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Photo by Destructoid[/caption]

Back to Tim as he tests his gummy luck

Tim: Thanks Matt for the exclusive look! Had I known you would be in Japan, I might have reconsidered importing these things for myself. Not that I would have expected you to think “I should really let Destructoid Guide Editor Timothy Monbleau know I’m in Japan in case he’s interested in an extremely specific Japanese candy review on this video game website.”

Also, Matt probably does not call me "Destructoid Guide Editor Timothy Monbleau" in his internal dialogue, but I digress.

Anyway, after placing an order with a friendly eBay seller, I received a pack of Pikmin gummies in about ten days. It’s, appropriately, a tiny pack of candy. That said, the packaging illustrations look elaborate compared to the usual promotional candies we get in the States. The front obviously looks pretty cute, but even the bottom crease has a ton of… words about each Pikmin (pictured above). We probably should have chosen someone with even a cursory knowledge of Japanese for this assignment.

Opening my own package after reading Matt’s thoughts, I… okay, let me put it this way. Have you ever played a gacha or loot-based game where you get absolutely nothing but garbage, but your friend is rolling .01% luck odds? Because guess how many rare sour candies I got in my bag? Literally zero.

[caption id="attachment_392740" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Photo by Destructoid[/caption]

My full distribution of gummies was five blue, three red, two yellow, and one purple. The fact that I didn’t get any of the best-tasting gummy was a real bummer. Meanwhile, Matt, can you remind me how many sour gummies you walked away with?

Matt: I found two more in the third pack.

[caption id="attachment_392739" align="alignnone" width="4000"] Photo by Destructoid[/caption]

Tim: Either you have an amazing luck stat or mine is a negative number.

All this means is that the Pikmin gummies have a lot to prove because it’s time for -

[caption id="attachment_392737" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Photo by Destructoid[/caption]

The official Destructoid Pikmin gummy candy review

What you gotta know about me is that I’m no slouch when it comes to gummy candies. Since I was a kid, gummy candies have been my favorite variety of sweets. My palate has tasted many snacks, so the Pikmin Can Be Eaten gummies really need to impress if I can’t even taste the best flavor.

That’s why I’m here to tell you that after trying these gummies, my cynical verdict is they…they taste really good.

The first thing I noticed about the gummies was, weirdly, the smell. These things have a strong juice scent to them that candy generally lacks in the United States. Considering my sense of smell is - to use the clinical word - terrible, I can’t stress enough how unique this is. I can smell them now as I type this, even though the gummies sit on a table next to my desk.

As for the taste, they’re just plain pleasant. Even after flying across the world, they have a soft, chewy consistency that really lets you savor the flavor. They're honestly both sweeter and less abrasive than many gummies I've had. The word “clean” came to my mind as I ate them, even without any context of its ingredients.

I will say each Pikmin didn’t taste particularly different from each other. They all do look different, which is fun. Sorting them out to grab pictures reminded me of how I used to play with animal crackers and Pokemon gummy candies as a kid. But if you put a blindfold over my eyes, I wouldn’t be able to identify which flavors I consumed. I do think I liked the purple one the best, but probably only because that was my rarest gummy. It’s like only getting the guaranteed SR unit in a gacha ten-pull.

[caption id="attachment_390313" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Nintendo[/caption]

We have become monsters

So overall, what have we learned from this experience?

First, obviously, is to let Matt "Luckinator" Cook buy lottery tickets.

Second, the Pikmin Can Be Eaten gummies are so good that they straight-up spark an existential crisis. I think Pikmin are precious and must be protected. However, now that I know they taste good, I understand the enemies that consume them. If I were hungry, struggling to survive, and saw a bunch of innocent yet delicious creatures approaching me, would I eat them? For the sake of my sanity, I can’t ponder the question any further. I’m afraid of the answer.

I should note that I’m not an expert on Japanese candy. These could taste no different than the usual snack, I just lack that context. Regardless, I must admit these gummies surprised me. Would I pay a 600% markup to have them shipped to me again? Probably not. But if there wasn’t a price disparity and I saw them at my local convenience store, would I choose these over other gummies? Definitely yes.

So overall, I must admit that, while thematically horrifying, the Pikmin Can Be Eaten gummies were a smash hit. The question is, on a scale of A Link Between Worlds to ten, how would I rate them? Well, it is my pleasure to award these candies a score of 9.5/10. That’s right, they're better than Pikmin 1, better than Pikmin 2, and arguably better than Pikmin 4. Geoff Keighley, I hope you’re taking notes for The Game Awards because I'm willing to bet Tears of the Kingdom doesn't taste nearly as good as these.

And I didn't even try the sour ones.

The post We tried Nintendo’s Pikmin gummies, and they’re distressingly good appeared first on Destructoid.

Gex is like Erntedankfest in Zoey Handley’s garage

When Limited Run Games announced that Gex would return to modern gaming platforms, I decided to revisit the lizard’s debut adventure. I had no idea what I was getting into.

For the uninitiated, Gex is a mascot platformer released by Crystal Dynamics in 1995. It was originally developed for the 3DO console, a wildly expensive piece of hardware that, adjusted for inflation, cost around half a month’s rent in New York City. Naturally, this is how I first played Gex. Being in elementary school at the time, the only 3DO games that really appealed to me were Gex and Soccer Kid. All I remember about Soccer Kid is that there’s an enemy that says “get awf my laaaaaand,” which I found funny.

Meanwhile, I always internalized Gex as an underrated platformer. I even revisisted it in my late teens, where I also remember liking Gex. For this reason, I thought I had a pretty good handle on this lizard’s first adventure.

Of course, the internet has since morphed Gex into a bizarre meme format. While people still revere their Spyros and Crash Bandicoots, Gex might as well be the representation of all your Bubsys and Awesome Possums. You know, mascot platformers that solely existed as products of their time. While I understood the jokes, I've always wanted to stick up for Gex. As one of eight people who ever played a 3DO, I needed to tell these whipper-snappers that this is, in fact, a good game. Because I know it’s a good game. It’s a good game, right?

Well, I stand before you today as someone who fell down the Gex rabbit hole. I am no longer here to tell you that Gex is a good game. Because after getting the full Gex experience, I can never look at this gecko the same way again.

[caption id="attachment_391830" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A tail as old as time

Gex begins with a brief cinematic showing the titular character watching some TV. After he indiscriminately eats a fly that flies in front of his face, Gex is sucked right into the screen. See, apparently that fly was a… something created by the villain Rez. So by eating it, Gex is sucked into the Media Dimension. In other words, Persona 4 is just a Gex ripoff.

There’s more to the story, but we’ll get to that later. Oh boy will we get to that later.

The ensuing 2D platforming adventure tasks Gex with collecting remotes across five TV inspired worlds as Gex spits out a stream of 90s pop-culture references loosely related to them. These are connected by a world map that a young Tim may have generously likened to Super Mario World, which could have influenced my childhood memories. I’m not here to psychoanalyze myself when I’ve still got the entirety of Gex in front of me, but it is worth noting that it did look impressive at the time.

I also must reiterate that I played this on a 3DO, and it’d be a few months until I saw a PlayStation. All I knew is that I liked Gex more than Soccer Kid.

[caption id="attachment_391831" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

More ambitious than organizing a wine and cheese party with Eric Van Allen

To be completely sincere for a second, Gex still impresses me on several fronts. For a mascot platformer, you can tell Crystal Dynamics had some legitimately great ideas they wanted to see realized.

First off, Gex himself features a creative moveset. You have your standard jump and tail-whip attack, as well as a dedicated tongue-whip button to grab and subsequently use items. Additionally, by pressing down on the D-Pad while midair, Gex can perform a DuckTales-style attack to bounce off enemies. Gex’s signature feature, however, is his ability to climb almost any wall or roof in the game. Just jump toward any applicable surface, and Gex will stick right on.

I like this, since it utilizies the fact that Gex is, you know, a gecko. It also lets the level design feature hidden areas to uncover and secrets that take advantage of Gex's abilities. For example, you’ll encounter a few narrow passageways that the lizard can't fit in. However, since Gex clings to a surface when climbing, you can follow specific wall-climbing paths to get through these spacess. I’m not saying it’s genius, but it is unique to Gex.

I also genuinely like the theming here. Basing levels around movie genres still feels relatively novel to this day. Additionally, there’s some nice graphical variety even within each world. You’ll see many different enemy types, occasionally strutting some impressive animation.

Plus, I’ll go on record and say that I like Dana Gould’s voice work as Gex. While the jokes themselves are… what they are… the delivery always feels on point. And considering the quality of video game voice work in 1995, Gex packs a surprising amount of personality. Remember, when Gex was released, people thought this lizard was genuinely funny. Electronics Gaming Monthly gave Gex Game of the Month, and that was the magazine I trusted most at the time!

I wonder if EGM’s writers ever bothered to revisit this game, and if they had the same spiral into madness that will detail below.

[caption id="attachment_391832" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Worse than playing a water level with a Roll n’ Rocker

Unfortunately, Gex suffered from development hell. That’s a story too long to cover here, but you can read the archived words of lead programmer Gregg Tavares here. Playing Gex today, the cracks in its development become extremely apparent.

The absolute killing blow to Gex is its controls. By default, Gex has a fairly slow walk speed, but he can run by holding the shoulder button. The problem here is that Gex feels floaty by default, and running gives Gex momentum that makes precision platforming way too difficult. And sure enough, Gex requires precision platforming more often than not. This requires a lot of awkward rocking of the D-Pad to pull off jumps, or just eating hits and hoping that you’ll find healing items later.

Considering the game showers you with restoratives and extra lives, I think the developers were actually aware of this issue. By the time I finished the first world, I had north of 30 lives. By the second world, I hit 99. Even with a lot of deaths, my reserves were comically inflated. It’s a bandage for sure, but not a solution. As a disclaimer, this recent playthrough was on the PlayStation version of the game. Even me, one of three people who ever had a 3DO in their house, was not about to use that version to grab footage.

Additionally, you can occasionally control Gex’s jump height by holding the Up button on the D-Pad. This might not sound like a big deal, but remember that Gex’s bounce attack requires holding the Down button. This makes some jumps exceedingly awkward to pull off, requiring me to weirdly rock my thumb at exact moments that legitimately kind of hurt to do. I have no idea why they didn’t take a page from Mario’s book and control jump height with, you know, the jump button.

Then you get into some wildly inconsistent level design. Sure, the first horror-themed world feels great. It’s even got a banger of a level theme that oscillates between sounding atmospheric and kind of rocking out. It is truly the YYZ of campy Halloween music. But the level design starts getting straight up hateful at certain points, with virtually the entire final world existing as an exercise in frustration. Considering the final boss theme is a seven-second loop, I strongly got the feeling that the team just ran out of time and energy with Gex.

You’ll find other major issues here, of course. The large sprites relative to the small resolution leads to a few too many leaps of faith, for example. But honestly, the quality of Gex’s gameplay is not what shocked me the most about this revisit.

Oh no, the thing that shook me to the core was Gex’s story.

[caption id="attachment_391833" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

You’re not ready for the Gex lore

Honestly, even if I could safely tell you Gex was a masterpiece platformer, I’m not sure anyone would care. The internet knows Gex because he endlessly spits out terribly unfunny pop-culture references with few actual punchlines. With this in mind, I started having certain suspicions about Gex as a character, which made me wonder if maybe the instruction manual housed any backstory that wasn’t conveyed by the approximately two-minutes of in-game cinematics.

Six pages. Six pages of Gex lore were in here. They changed everything.

Here’s the deal. Prior to the events in Gex, the titular lizard was apparently well-adjusted. He was the oldest of “three-and-a-half” kids and the son of a NASA researcher. However, his “carefree upper-middle-class life” abruptly came to a halt when his dad died in a freak NASA accident. So unable to confront both the tragedy and the infighting that enveloped his family, Gex decided to completely disassociate and lose himself watching TV.

Don’t worry, the story doesn’t stop there. Gex’s now-single mother apparently tried to get her son away from the TV to no success, so completely out of options, she moves the entire family from Hawaii to California. Yet even this does not shake Gex’s TV addiction. In fact, even when Gex’s mom helps introduce him to their next-door neighbor to help Gex make a fresh start, he refuses the opportunity outright. Because he explains, and I quote, “the last time he had gone outside, his dad blew up.”

This culminates in Gex’s mother removing the TV from the house outright, which triggers a complete breakdown. Gex loses his mind, tells his mother he’ll never see her again, and then leaves. As the instruction manual says, “the one thing in his life that had meaning was gone.”

[caption id="attachment_391834" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Gex keeps going

So after this point, Gex lives a miserable, meaningless existence of trying to make ends meet on his own. Even forced into the outside world, he misses his “TV friends”. This changes when Gex’s uncle also kicks the bucket, but this doesn’t trigger another mental breakdown. You see, Gex’s uncle was comically rich, so his death now means the family has money beyond their wildest dreams.

For the rest of Gex’s family, this inheritance is a new lease on life that lets them live lavishly and outright buy Australia. However, Gex himself decides to use his share of the cash to move back to Hawaii. His plan? He would buy a huge house and “spend the rest of his life watching all his old TV friends.”

Infinite wealth winds up just being an enabler for Gex’s escapism.

So that brings us to where Gex the game begins. Rez, the villain inside the TV, apparently captures Gex because he wants to make him the mascot of the Media Dimension. Rez doesn’t want to destroy the world. Gex doesn’t need to save the world. He just watches so much TV to avoid confronting the trauma of his father’s death that it literally consumes him.

[caption id="attachment_391835" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

This is weirder than playing Omori in an abandoned Toys "R" Us

So, okay, holy shit, where do I even start?

I started this journey wondering if Gex was ever intended to be funny or aspirational. I thought maybe I’d get a few lines to make jokes about, but now making fun of Gex feels wrong. Gex tells the story of a massively depressed person who quite literally cannot cope with reality without the escapism of media. He feels so lethargic that he can’t even bother to get up and make himself a meal. Rez traps him simply by waving a snack in his face.

Through this lens, the fact that Gex speaks almost exclusively through TV references becomes borderline terrifying. Even when Gex takes damage, half the time he reacts with a nonchalant quote like “I only cry at weddings”. He’s so detached from the human condition that he doesn't feel pain itself. After all, the refusal of pain is why Gex is here to begin with.

I get you probably think I’m reading too hard into this. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to connect the symbolism of TV being Gex’s crutch to cope with life and the thing literally trying to kill him. Even at the end of the game, when Gex escapes the Media Dimension, he doesn’t even leave his seat. Instead, he says “I wonder what’s on HBO” and continues to watch the screen. There is no self-awareness. No growth. Just resignation. Gex is a tragedy.

So congratulations Gex, you’ve made it on the list of the saddest mascots of the '90s. You can take your spot right under Klonoa’s throne at number one.

[caption id="attachment_391827" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Gextraordinary circumstances

I do want to reiterate that I only grew up with the first Gex game. Its sequels, which did not debut on a prohibitively expensive piece of hardware, never entered my home. While I obviously didn’t read the instruction manual until now, this is the story I had at launch. Gex didn’t have to have six pages of tragic backstory with awkward asides sprinkled throughout, but that’s what the developers decided to include. Let me know in the comments if Gex ever confronts the pain of losing his father in the sequels.

Also, just now writing this, I must point out the irony that the plot of Gex, a game intended to introduce a Sonic-style mascot, involves him literally trying to not become a mascot. But my god, if I spend anymore time thinking deeply about Gex I think my head will explode.

So overall, replaying Gex was a surreal experience. I’m left with a lot of admiration for the developers, who clearly wanted to make something special in Gex. I also feel like I destroyed this happy memory of Gex being an underrated classic by realizing just how janky the game feels today. There were a lot of parts I did enjoy. At its best, I could briefly see glimpses of a game that could, theoretically, compete with a Sonic or Mario. But the execution needed a much more deft hand, which clearly wasn’t going to happen with its troubled development.

In other words, when Limited Run Games releases Gex Trilogy, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend buying it for this game. Not without some crucial tweaks at any rate, and even then, I’d remind you that you could just as easily buy Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series. But on the other hand, confronting Gex was important in its own way. Sometimes we compartmentalize memories in ways that are harmful to us, and holding Gex on a theoretical 7/10 pedestal could have misled someone down the line. So while this replay was not necessarily a pleasant experience, it was an important one. Unlike Gex, I was able to confront my past.

So thank you, Gex, for being the cautionary tale that I never knew I needed. I’m not saying that Gex needs a gritty reboot where he accepts that he can’t run from his trauma forever. But if such a thing did exist, it could be even better than tap water at Jerry Garcia's.

The post I’ve wildly misunderstood Gex appeared first on Destructoid.

Shantae Advance is an actually new GBA game

Look, I’m not going to pretend that new games on retro hardware is a novel concept. If Destructoid’s Zoey “The Flying Zebra” Handley can write 1000+ words about an Atari Lynx game that came out in 2009, nothing should surprise me. I say should, because WayForward has announced that Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution will hit the Game Boy Advance in 2024, and it’s taken me a good hour to wrap my mind around it.

To provide some backstory, Shantae Advance is a long, long lost chapter of WayForward’s trademark Shantae series. Though it began development in the early 2000s, the lackluster sales of the first Shantae game scared off potential publishers. Refusing to release a compromised version of the game, WayForward decided to cancel the project in 2004.

Fortunately, all that work never went to waste. In a world of abysmal game preservation, WayForward had the foresight to archive the game's files. Now, approximately 20 years later, the original team of creator Erin Bozon, director Matt Bozon, and programmer Michael Stragey have reunited to pick up exactly where they left off.

In years past, the prospect of a team like WayForward releasing a title for a legacy console would sound preposterous. However, thanks to a growing interest in retro games and the efforts of Limited Run Games, Shantae Advance has what it needs to cross that development finish line.

[caption id="attachment_391474" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via WayForward[/caption]

A lost chapter of Shantae lore

In a behind-the-scenes video, Matt Bozon details what to expect from Shantae Advance. Notably, he talks about how the cancelation of Shantae Advance has impacted the series canon.

“Risky Revolution is when a lot of the main cast meets, in some cases for the first time,” Bozon explains. "We went straight into Shantae: Risky’s Revenge where everyone just somehow knows everybody. There’s an entire missing chapter of their lives that was never touched on.”

Rather than exist as a sheer novelty, WayForward seems intent on fulfilling their original vision of the game. So far, we have the promise of “multiple chapters, numerous towns and labyrinths, six creature transformations, fierce bosses, and a soundtrack by acclaimed composer Maddie Lim”. Additionally, Shantae Advance will feature four-player Link Cable support in what looks like a competitive minigame. This feature will fortunately require just one cart, though good luck finding three friends with Game Boy Advances on hand.

Overall, Shantae Advance looks legitimately impressive, even beyond its console novelty. I’ve played a lot of GBA games lately, and Shantae’s giving even the system’s lookers a run for their money. Unfortunately, WayForward has not announced any plans to release the title on modern hardware. We'll have to see if it remains exclusive to the retro handheld.

Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution will launch in early 2024.

The post Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution launches on Game Boy Advance in 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

WayForward is developing a “Port+” of Clock Tower

In a world where games like Trials of Mana have official English translations, the pool of unlocalized SNES gems is shrinking. As someone who loves SNES games and grew up on fan translations through the 2000s, I am all for this trend. So you can imagine my reaction when I learned that WayForward will bring Human Entertainment’s horror classic Clock Tower West for the first time, with a slew of new features.

Announced during the Limited Run Games 2023 showcase, WayForward calls this a "Port+" of Clock Tower. It looks like a faithful recreation of the SNES original, with a fresh localization and bonus features. Extras in this new edition of Clock Tower include an animated opening, “motion-comic cutscenes,” a vocal theme by Mary McGlynn (known for her work on the Silent Hill series), and some quality-of-life features like save states. In short, it looks similar in concept to last year’s River City Girls Zero.

While some may feel disappointed that Clock Tower won’t see a full remaster, the original visual style holds up well. There’s something about retro horror that really gets under my skin, like Capcom’s Japan-only classic Sweet Home.

https://youtu.be/ZMzM9J20MOU

A partnership with Limited Run Games

WayForward’s Clock Tower will utilize Limited Run Games’ Carbon Engine, which specializes in porting vintage titles to modern hardware. As you’d expect, Clock Tower will also see a physical release through Limited Run Games on “select platforms”. Further details will be announced at a later date.

I’m incredibly curious to see how Clock Tower will fare with a new, modern audience. I honestly could never get far in the original back in my teenage years. Mostly because I couldn’t stand the oppressive feeling that all my bad choices were leading everyone to their deaths at the hands of the Scissorman. I also wonder if the original point-and-click interface will see any modernization. After all, fans have already done as much for the SNES original.

If you feel ready for some retro horror, Clock Tower will launch on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC in early 2024.

The post After 28 years, the original Clock Tower is finally coming West appeared first on Destructoid.

Microsoft's battle concludes, the war rages on

The ongoing battle between Microsoft and the FTC has been a monumental spectacle in gaming history. Between accidental reveals and the announcement of games that almost certainly do not exist, it’s easy to forget that the fate of huge franchises like Call of Duty has hung in the balance amidst these legal struggles. Today, in a huge victory for Microsoft, a California judge has ruled in favor of the tech giant’s pursuit to acquire Activision Blizzard by denying a preliminary injunction from the FTC to block the deal.

In less legal terms, this means Microsoft can close this deal ahead of its July 18^th deadline. However, it still has to contend with the Competition and Market’s Authority (CMA) in the UK, which blocked the acquisition back in April.

UPDATE: Microsoft and the CMA have agreed to pause litigation to pursue further negotiations.

Even if Microsoft’s legal battles are far from over, today’s victory was enough for Xbox leader Phil Spencer to release a statement on Twitter.

“We're grateful to the court for swiftly deciding in our favor,” Phil Spencer tweets. “Since we first announced this deal, our commitment to bringing more games to more people on more devices has only grown. We’ve signed multiple agreements to make Activision Blizzard’s games, Xbox first party games and Game Pass all available to more players than they are today. We know that players around the world have been watching this case closely and I’m proud of our efforts to expand player access and choice throughout this journey.”

https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1678785930079944704

The FTC has not given up

The FTC sought to block the purchase due to concern over its impact on competition within cloud gaming and console markets. However, the judge ruled that the evidence presented did not indicate a lessening of competition within the gaming industry.

“This Court’s responsibility in this case is narrow,” the decision reads. “The Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content.”

Gamesindustry.biz reports that the FTC will announce new steps to continue fighting Microsoft’s deal “in the coming days.”

The post Microsoft wins FTC court battle over $69 billion Activision Blizzard buyout appeared first on Destructoid.

Elder Scrolls 9 was the best one

In case you haven’t heard, there’s been a whole thing with Microsoft and the FTC going on. Something about companies buying other companies, I don’t know, sounds like another day of capitalism to me. The important thing for those of us whose legal knowledge begins and ends with watching 2001’s Legally Blonde has been the inadvertent game reveals that just can’t stop popping up. Yet despite all the juicy news, the most recent “leak” has fascinated me on a profound level, even though I’m certain it does not exist.

As transcribed by The Verge, a lawyer representing Microsoft wanted to correct the FTC on some potential misconceptions. The result is this utterly amazing quote.

Could I clarify one issue that counsel raised with you, when you were asking about Zenimax and asked him to find a game that was most similar to Xbox, he mentioned Elder Scrolls. That is incorrect. There are two Elder Scrolls games, one is online called Elder Scrolls Online — that is a multiplayer game, it is on PlayStation today. The game he’s talking about Elder Scrolls 16... the projected release is 2026 as a single-player game. It is not anywhere similar to Call of Duty, which as you know is multiplayer and multi-platform.

Look, I get this is a bit out of context, so I’ll give the lawyer some benefit of the doubt here. But if you think I’m not going to take this opportunity to joke about Elder Scrolls 16 with you then I won’t even finish-

[caption id="attachment_389919" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Moby Games[/caption]

Chapter 1: Morrowind

Firstly, nothing has ever made me contemplate my mortality more than the sheer thought of The Elder Scrolls 16 existing. My first memory of the series was with The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind on the original Xbox.

For those who never played this classic RPG, it tasks players with dicking around to increase their stats until they are strong enough to kill all the guards and become mayor of every town. At least, that was my takeaway when I was 13. The internet has since told me that there was apparently a storyline in that game. I’m going to need at least five sources on that before I believe it.

I got a bit off track there. The point is, that was so long ago that Morrowind is allowed to drink in the United States now. Yet we haven’t even seen footage of The Elder Scrolls 6, let alone 16. By my estimation, if Bethesda does nothing but work on Elder Scrolls games, we should realistically expect Elder Scrolls 16 roughly 12 minutes before the heat death of the universe.

[caption id="attachment_389924" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I already ran out of chapter names

Let’s not get away from the other important reveal here: “it is not anywhere similar to Call of Duty.” Oh thank god. I’ve been worried about that one. Easily my biggest complaint about Skyrim was that it was way too similar to Call of Duty. They’re both in first-person, you can shoot things in both, I rest my case.

Personally, I hope Elder Scrolls 16 goes in a whole new direction. First, they gotta change that camera. Put it in a dedicated third-person view so the camera can really zoom out and show you battle arenas. Second, spice up that combat. Even if you have to scale down the RPG elements, making enemy encounters fast and frantic would really bring a lot of new fans to the series. Third, for the story, I think they should watch Game of Thrones and I just realized I’m describing Final Fantasy XVI.

I dunno, I still think it’s a good idea.

[caption id="attachment_389918" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Chapter 16: I’ll be serious now (maybe)

So obviously you can chalk much of this quote up to a mistake. By Elder Scrolls 16, obviously the lawyer meant The Elder Scrolls 6. That is a video game that we may, theoretically, see before we leave this mortal coil. One could treat this as a leak, and believe The Elder Scrolls 6 will launch in 2026.

Now… at this point, I could toss out quotes by Phil Spencer and the like that might conflict with this claim. But frankly, I don’t think I need to. In a world in which Starfield hasn’t even launched yet, I cannot close my eyes, really focus on the words, and say “The Elder Scrolls 6 is coming out in 2026” without cackling like I just saw Mega Man take a bullet for Abraham Lincoln. There is no way in all seven of the hells that The Elder Scrolls 6 will come out in 2026. I’d be pleasantly surprised if the thing even comes out within this decade.

In short, I’m left with the sinking suspicion that Microsoft did not hire this lawyer based on their Xbox GamerScore. And if you see anyone that takes any stock in their claims, kindly tell them that they are wrong. But what do I know, I just write about video games. The last good video game I played was Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose for the SNES, and honestly, Todd Howard better come prepared if he wants the next Elder Scrolls to clear that bar.

_{[Special thanks to our Freelancer Andrew Heaton for tipping us about this story.]}

The post Microsoft lawyer slips, discusses Elder Scrolls 16 appeared first on Destructoid.

Early game tips for Final Fantasy XVI

I’d say Final Fantasy XVI is finally out, but compared to previous series games, this one hardly felt like a wait. Still, I think I speak for everyone when I say that Creative Business Unit III’s take on the mainline series has drawn a lot of curiosity. Fortunately, the final product is as fantastic as I hoped it would be.

Final Fantasy XVI marks a bold new direction for the franchise. If you’re a fan of the previous turn-based entries, this game may feel downright alien at the start. Thankfully, Final Fantasy XVI takes many steps to help ease players into its mechanics. With time, you too can Precision Dodge into deadly counterattacks that trigger long, impressive combos. So whether you’re an action game enthusiast or a total newbie, here are ten tips for Final Fantasy XVI that will enhance your early game experience.

[caption id="attachment_388115" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

1: Check the blacksmith often

A couple hours after the prologue for Final Fantasy XVI ends, you’ll find yourself in your first hub area. Naturally, this is where you’ll handle some basic upkeep between exploring fields and charging through dungeons. This is also where you’ll see the blacksmith, who you should check in with often.

Crafting isn’t necessarily deep here. Basically, you’ll shove materials you found into your equipment to make some numbers a little higher. Still, don't leave those stats on the table, especially when weapon upgrades can help take enemies down faster. Check for a circle marker next to the Blacksmith or Shop icons to see if they have new goods for you!

[caption id="attachment_388116" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

2: Watch which moves deal HP or Stagger damage

In your skill tree, you’ll note that abilities have star ratings that indicate both their raw damage and their stagger damage potential. These aren’t hard to understand, but in the thick of combat, it’s easy to just spam abilities off cooldown and hope for the best. However, you could seriously boost your damage output by using your moves strategically.

This especially applies to the early game, where your pool of Eikonic abilities is still relatively sparse. Moves that primarily stagger enemies can actively waste your time if you use them when an enemy is already staggered. Conversely, if you use your strongest HP damage abilities when a foe is already staggered, you can stack 150% damage modifiers on them.

As your playstyle evolves, you may opt to ignore staggering enemies depending on your build. Either way, as you equip abilities, make sure you know what you’re putting in those ability slots.

[caption id="attachment_388117" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

3: Activate Active Time Lore when you need it

The plot in Final Fantasy XVI can get pretty dense. You may infer key details from context, but just a few key background details can help immerse yourself in the story. That’s where Active Time Lore comes in.

Anytime during a cutscene, hold the touch pad button to open the Active Time Lore menu. This will show you a small handful of lore blurbs relevant to your point in the story. This is especially helpful near the beginning of the game when terms like Dominants and Bearers get introduced in rapid succession. You don’t need to use this throughout the entire game, but definitely check your Active Time Lore if something confuses you.

[caption id="attachment_388118" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

4: Respeccing is free

As you progress your skill tree in Final Fantasy XVI, you’ll see a mixture of cheap upgrades and expensive abilities to unlock. If you have your eyes on, say, the Flames of Rebirth move, you might think to save your ability points. Don’t do this!

Respeccing is fast and free in Final Fantasy XVI. If you aren’t in combat, you can get your ability points back from any skill, no questions asked. In other words, if you’re saving for an expensive ability, invest in other skills in the meantime and reallocate those points later. As a bonus, this system makes it very easy to experiment with different playstyles. Find what works best for you!

[caption id="attachment_388119" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

5: Use ranged attacks to learn attack patterns

Bosses in Final Fantasy XVI are absolutely bonkers. We’re talking multiphase, bombastic enemies that stretch the limits of what your PS5 can even handle. These encounters can easily pummel anyone who recklessly charges, which is where ranged attacks come in.

To learn attack patterns, it helps to keep a small distance while pelting magic with the triangle button. This makes it very easy to find out how long certain enemies will wind up moves, or what areas certain attacks will strike. Then, once you have the rhythm of the fight down pat, rush in to start comboing between Precision Dodges.

Honestly, it can be easy to forget you have magic at your disposal in any given moment. If a boss absolutely prevents you from closing in on them, chucking magic can help you squeeze in a few hits as you wait for them to return to the arena.

[caption id="attachment_388120" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

6: Pay attention to your grey health

When Clive takes damage, you should notice two things about your health bar. Firstly, you’ll lose health, because… well, that’s how video games work. But more importantly, you’ll also notice that part of your health bar becomes greyed out. This is no accident.

While grey health doesn’t contribute to your overall health pool, you can restore it using certain abilities. The biggest example of this is Torgal’s Cure command, which will slowly regenerate your grey health specifically. The Flames of Rebirth ability follows the same rules with its healing properties. To heal beyond this, you’ll want to either use an item or wait for a level up, which will fully restore your HP.

[caption id="attachment_388121" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

7: Remember that you can charge attacks

Once you start unlocking skills, you’ll discover charge attack options for both your melee and magic buttons. Don’t forget you have these once you unlock them!

The game will instruct you that charged attacks can break enemy shields, but that’s far from their only use. For example, when you’re still in recovery frames after finishing a combo, you can hold down an attack button to prepare a strong strike, even when you'd normally have to wait to start swinging again. Use all the tools at your disposal!

[caption id="attachment_388122" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

8: Stock up on items if you’re having trouble

Unlike classic RPGs, you can’t grind until you can afford 99 potions to breeze through every dungeon in the game. Clive can only hold a handful of each item, but they can easily make the difference between victory and defeat.

If you're stocked on items, any potions you find will turn into instant healing. Additionally, stat buff items like Stoneskin Potions can help you withstand attacks you don’t know how to dodge or amplify your damage during burst windows. They’re relatively cheap to stock up on, so you might as well grab them in case of an emergency.

[caption id="attachment_388123" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

9: Complete sidequests when you find them

So I don’t mean to sound any alarms with this tip, but Final Fantasy XVI does have points of no return. These generally won’t take you by surprise, as the game will nudge you to take care of unfinished business beforehand. However, they do exist. I recommend you clear side quests as you progress so nothing passes you by.

Granted, most side quests in Final Fantasy XVI involve small stories that flesh out the world. They do have some nice rewards, but missing them won’t ruin your save file or anything. Completing them does make Final Fantasy XVI feel more like an RPG than a character action game, though, which brings me to my final point.

[caption id="attachment_388125" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

10: Explore and find treasure chests

Final Fantasy XVI is not an open world game, but I wouldn’t say this is a bad thing. Like the NES and SNES Final Fantasy titles, many areas hide treasure chests to uncover if you spend time exploring. I recommend checking any curious corners or hallways you find to get the most out of Final Fantasy XVI, especially if you’re approaching it more as an RPG.

While most accessories you’ll find won’t necessarily change your game experience, they still add a great sense of discovery to the game. And at the end of the day, you paid $70 to play something you enjoy. Take the game slowly, soak in the scenery, and get as invested in the world as you want.

We don't know if we’ll ever get another mainline Final Fantasy game like this again. But if there's only one tip you should take going into Final Fantasy XVI, it's to enjoy it while it lasts.

The post 10 Beginner Tips for Final Fantasy XVI (FF16) appeared first on Destructoid.

Lots of penguins in Penny's Big Breakaway too

Today's Nintendo Direct is full of surprises. In addition to some excellent RPG news, we've got some info about interesting original titles as well. A prime example of this is Penny's Big Breakaway, a new 3D platformer from the team behind Sonic Mania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAgpRYM2M8

While the game itself doesn't have too many similarities to the typical Blue Blur video game, it does promise a speedrun-centric slant with its Time Attack mode. More importantly, we got lots of yo-yo based attacks, which the titular Penny can modify with various snack-based power-ups. We can already find mentions of unlockable bonus items and secret stages, so it looks like this one will lean heavy on replay value.

Fortunately, this title won't be a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Penny's Big Breakaway will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch in Early 2024.

The post Penny’s Big Breakaway is a new 3D platformer from Sonic Mania team appeared first on Destructoid.

This is a good year for RPG fans

As a longtime RPG fan, I am losing my mind for today's Nintendo Direct. First we get the wild announcement of a Super Mario RPG remake, and now we have solid footage of the previously teased Dragon Quest Monsters followup. Even better, we know this one is arriving this year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLsr5N4-mmU

In a blog post by Square Enix, it looks like The Dark Prince will stay true to the formula of previous games in the series. Protagonist Psaro will have to collect monsters to fight on his behalf, which he can fuse into stronger creatures using the Synthesis feature. Monsters will also include Dragon Quest series favorites alongside completely new creatures for this entry.

Additionally, the world will change with the passing of the seasons. While we don't know how expansive this will be in the final game, we have confirmation that certain areas of the world will open depending on the season.

Dragon Quest Monsters is a fantastic spinoff series for a fantastic series, so any new entry is hella welcome in my book. Additionally, it looks like previous Dragon Quest heroes may make a cameo appearance here as well. While last year's Dragon Quest Treasures was nice, I'm excited to see Monsters returning to its roots like this.

We'll learn more when Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince arrives on December 1, exclusively for Nintendo Switch

The post Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince coming December 1 appeared first on Destructoid.

I am losing my mind

It was a rumor that I was certain couldn't possibly be true. In fact, even as I write this, I still can't fully believe it. But Super Mario RPG is indeed getting a full fledged remake, cementing 2023 as one of the most wild years in recent gaming history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5PJx7rlds

The footage we saw during the June 21 Nintendo Direct showed us many familiar locations faithfully recreated in 3D. While the graphical revamp takes center stage, the gameplay does appear to have some extra flourishes. For example, battles show chain bonuses and a mysterious percentage meter on the left side of the screen. What do they mean? I don't know! And I'm dying to find out!

While potential new details about this upcoming remake remain scarce, just seeing Geno and Mallow in full 3D is enough for my hype. Super Mario RPG is one of the best SNES games of all time, and now is a great time for both old and new fans to experience this classic once again.

The Super Mario RPG remake will land this year on November 17 for the Nintendo Switch. Preorders are available now.

The post Super Mario RPG remake is real, coming November 17 appeared first on Destructoid.

Like half a sitcom of Assassin's Creed Mirage

As the penultimate act of the Ubisoft Forward stream, we saw a lot of footage of Assassin's Creed Mirage. The first revealed trailer, as has been the rhythm of this show, focuses on the story. Unsurprisingly, this splices together some cinematic scenes to give us an overview of the characters and show off some environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hjico7nYvo

Of course, the real meat and potatoes lies in the subsequent gameplay trailer. This provides us almost eight minutes of footage showing what Assassin's Creed Mirage will bring to the table.

That said, we didn't receive any confirmation over whether this was an an open world or a semi-open world. I think they should have included that vital detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpYHW-M_Ac

As we reported previously, Assassin's Creed Mirage will launch on October 12 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. Pre-orders are available now.

The post New Assassin’s Creed Mirage trailers confirms it is Assassin’s Creed appeared first on Destructoid.

Also starring a "semi-open world"

During the Ubisoft Forward event, we got to see a pair of new trailers for the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The first of these was an animated trailer, which offers a pretty good time if you're a fan of the new design for the titular prince.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxP9Mx3AdEk

Of course, cinematic and animated trailers in the video game world are a dime a dozen. Fortunately, the second trailer demonstrates the proper gameplay of this title, which gives us a bit more to chew on. Director Mournir Radi said The Lost Crown has a "semi-open world," which I still can't get over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3qsC8T42Ag

The most intriguing part of this trailer is the showcase of time-based powers reminiscent of the original Sands of Time. While this gimmick might be in vogue at the moment, Prince of Persia at least has precedent for it. So far, it looks like time-based mechanics will factor heavily into both the combat of The Lost Crown and exploration of its not quite linear world. It's not a full open world, that I can assure you.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and its semi-open, definitely not closed world will launch on January 17, 2024. You can grab it on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The post Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shows off time powers in new trailers appeared first on Destructoid.

Themed headset/controller also revealed

Starfield looks to be one of the biggest games from Microsoft this year, and its trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase really wants to drive that home. Reiterating that this game comes to us from the minds that brought us Skyrim and Fallout 4, it shows off some nice areas and, of course, the vast darkness of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfYEiTdsyas

We have a dedicated Starfield special following the Showcase, so that will be our time to dive into the crunchy details. Starfield will launch on September 6, 2023. Also revealed was a Limited Edition Xbox Wireless Controller and Headset combination, which will launch alongside the game in September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NFOjh3nUF4

The post New gameplay trailer for Starfield shows off its expansive universe appeared first on Destructoid.

It's about time

Though the Xbox Games Showcase showed off many follow-ups to well-established names, we've gotten some totally original titles too. A prime example of this is Clockwork Revolution, a new game from the creators of Wasteland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDFuhaYxeMU

In a blog post by InXile Studio Head Brian Fargo, we fortunately find a few details to give this world some context. As the title might imply, Clockwork Revolution will focus heavily on time travel. Fargo promises both "dynamic time-bending combat" and a plot centered around the gimmick. It looks like players will find themselves traveling to the past and making choices that will affect the future in substantial ways.

The post notes the team is "pushing roleplaying reactivity to new heights" with this game, so we'll have to see how much player choice impacts the final product.

That said, don't expect to see Clockwork Revolution anytime soon. The post clarifies that the game is "still early in development," and that this is just a sneak peak. The trailer says the game will "come in due time," so we'll stay tuned to learn more.

At the very least, some of you may wind up with Clockwork Revolution whether you like it or not. The title will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and it will appear day one on Game Pass.

The post Clockwork Revolution is a new steampunk RPG shooter from InXile appeared first on Destructoid.