Author: Zach Barbieri

Team Ninja’s open-world samurai title from 2024, Rise of The Ronin has been officially announced to be coming to steam on March 11th. This will mark nearly a year since the game was released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, having been published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, similar to Team Ninja’s Nioh from which this title draws many of its elements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-SIU_2lTLo This news was announced via the official Team Ninja X(formerly Twitter) account, along with a trailer showcasing the narrative and gameplay. Several enhancements to the PC version were also announced during this trailer and include up to 8k resolution,…

Upcoming dynamic turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was showcased as part of the Xbox Developer Direct on Thursday. As part of this the question on everybody’s mind, when you will finally set out on Expedition 33 was answered. Originally announced during Xbox’s Summer Showcase in 2024, the Montpellier-based-developed game by Sandfall Interactive title quickly became a fan favorite, drawing from classic turn-based titles while looking and being animated using modern techniques and graphics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6YNycptEzc During this showcase, we were given more information on the story, which will not have a classic JRPG focus on good vs. evil. Instead, it…

The Xbox Developer Direct had been teasing a mystery game that would be showcased during it since the event was announced earlier this month. Several rumors had suggested it would be part of a longstanding Japanese title. We now know this to be true as this mystery title was revealed to be a new entry in Team Ninja’s classic Ninja Gaiden series, entitled simply Ninjas Gaiden 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08vbgX9lpWY This will be the first new entry in the series in over a decade, with Ninja Gaiden 3 having released in 2012 to mixed reviews, shortly following the departure of former studio…

Don’t Nod has announced that their upcoming narrative-driven game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage will experience a bit of a delay, though only by a month. The title, though not officially related to the Square Enix-published Life is Strange, as well as Xbox-published Tell Me Why games that they also Developed and Created, looks to share many of the same characteristics with both titles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGdrd_yxE0M While not a fully episodic title like previous games, Lost Records planned to harken back to that era, releasing in two parts, which were referred to as tapes. These titles were slated to release a…

I never played the original Ys III: Wanderers From Ys, which predated my understanding of the wide world of gaming for years. No, I wouldn’t actually experience the Ys games till years later in 2005 when Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim would finally be released in America and felt like home. The wider adventures of Adol Christin were not needed to enjoy the one right in front of me, I was sucked into the action RPG which, in stark contrast to other series like Final Fantasy and Lunar that I was in love with at the time, even at…

Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche is reportedly set to leave BioWare. Eurogamer has reported that Busche, who served as director for Dragon Age: The Veilguard from February 2022 to the launch of the title in October of last year, is set to leave in the coming weeks. Eurogamer went on to report that while Busche is leaving the company, the studio will be otherwise unaffected by this departure as the studio shifts focus towards Mass Effect 5. Busche joined Bioware in 2019 after a stint at The Sims developer Maxis, where she worked on various projects related to…

It has been reported that Sony has canceled two unannounced Live-Service games that were in development. These two games were being developed by Days Gone developer Bend Studio and Demon Souls Remake developer Bluepoint Games respectively. Bloomberg reported that Sony had ended production on these two games, with the Bluepoint title being a God of War title, though no details have been given to that. the Bend Studio title has not, as of yet, been identified if it ever will. Previous rumors had the studio developing a Men in Black game, though whether that was the live-service game, another title…

Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on its newest console, and the successor to the Nintendo Switch, now officially known as the Nintendo Switch 2 (R.I.P Super Nintendo Switch). This news was unveiled in an official first-look trailer posted by Nintendo, which while light on detail, did confirm the platform will finally release in 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itpcsQQvgAQ The trailer makes clear that the system is meant to be more of a progression of the extremely popular Nintendo Switch platform, starting with a Switch and slowly transforming it into a Nintendo Switch 2. This begins with the new sleek black design,…

In the West, despite what anybody might try to tell you when they attempt to disparage the PlayStation Portal, the PlayStation Vita never really got the chance it deserved. There was a time during its early years I remember all my friends talking about how amazing it was but by years 2 and 3 when it became clear the Early announcement of games playing like their PlayStation 3 counterparts would be the exception and not the norm they tended to drift away. Me, recommitting to a longstanding obsession with Japanese titles that just happened to coincide with the release of…

Quite possibly one of my favorite RPG series of all time, there was ecstasy and jubilation when it was announced last year that We were getting a remaster of the classic Lunar games last year. Originally released on the Sega Saturn, then later on the original PlayStation, it has remained an influential series, often seeing both titles appear on top lists of RPGs and JRPGs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ01e5PkiA8 While we were previously told to expect the Lunar Remastered Collection at some point during the Spring of 2025, we have now been given an official release date. That date will be April 18th,…