Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja announced today that the open-world action RPG Rise of the Ronin, which lets player??s explore 1863 Japan as a twin blade-wielding R??onin will be hitting PC on March 10, 2025. The PC version will launch almost a full year after releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 5 back on March 22, 2024.

According to Koei Tecmo, Rise of the Ronin will include new features exclusive to the PC version including 8K resolution support, DirectX 12 Ultimate support, Ultra-Wide and Super Ultrade-Wide monitor compatibility, 120 FPS, Ray Tracing, FSR and DLSS support, and more. Players who purchase the PC version of Rise of the Ronin will also receive an "early purchase bonus" of four uniqu?e combat styles: Hayabusa-ryu for Katana, Hayabusa-ryu for Naginata, Nioh-ryu for Katana, and Aisu Kage-ryu for Katana. The bonus also includes the Iga Ninja armor set and Iga Ninja Katana cosmetics.

In Rise of the Ronin, players utilize a variety of weapons and weapon styles to slice through various enemies in feudal Ja?pan. Along the way, you'll encounter various historical figures and have to make important choices like whether to assassinate or protect key political figures to shape and mold the world after Tokugawa Shogunate's reign over the country, amidst a period of war and political unrest.

Our very own Kristina Ebanez scored Rise of the Ronin a 7/10 last year, saying you can expect to "have fun dicing up your enemies while learning about Japan's rich culture." With the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows and several other feudal Japan-themed releases coming later this year including the highly anticipated Ghost of Yotei, I hadn't really considered checking out Rise of the Ronin any time soon. But between the hype from the recent reveal of Ninja Gaiden 4 and all the great PC-exclusive features coming to the?? Steam release, I might have to change those p?lans.

Rise of the Ronin will slice its way onto PC via S??team on March 1?0, 2025.

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After a hands-on preview of the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins back in November 2024, Origins became one of my most anticipated releases of 2025. The first three chapters got me hooked, and I not only wanted more of the fast and? simply fun-to-play combat I'd come to expect from the franchise, but I was genuinely looking forward to continuing the story.

Admittedly, this is not quite something I had expected going into a Dynasty Warriors game, especially once again telling the tale of the Romance of the Th?ree Kingdoms, a tale the series has already told man,y many times. But I found the angle of p?lacing the story and its direction more in the player's hands an exciting and enjoyable way to push the hack-and-slash series forward in terms of storytelling.

Thankfully, developer Omega Force doesn't let its foot off the pedal after the first three chapters, and in fact, things only get bigger and better as Dynasty Warriors: Origins progresses, both in?? terms of battle size—arguably the franchise's staple feature—and absolute scale.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins (PC, PS5[reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Released: January 17, 2025
MSRP: $69.99

Dynasty Warriors: Origins kicks off at the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a period of peasant revolt and uprising in Chinese history that is essentially the progenitor of the fabled Three Kingdoms period. Players take on the role of The Wanderer, a formidable warrior experiencing amnesia at the time the events of the game kick off. Now, typically, I'd argue that an amnesiac main chara?cter is a bit bromidic in nature, but it fits what Omega Force is doing with the essential reboot of the franchise with Origins.

Even though the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga has been told time and time again in this franchise, using an actual single player character rather than having you play as various historical leaders and soldiers from the period opens up unique narrative points for Omega Force. Throughout the game, you'll make friends and enemies with characters from each dynasty and are often given the choice of who to side with and join on the battlefield. It's a much-welcomed and pleasant surprise to play a Dynasty Warriors game wh??ere you get to make some choices that actually feel like they matter and have some weight behind them.

As someone who's always appreciated the historical period in which the series takes place, this is the first time I'??ve felt an actual bond with the characters rather than just assigning a "good guy/bad guy" label based on whether they were an ally or foe on the battlefield. Speaking of bonds, there's an actual Bond System at play that allows you to grow your relationship with various lords and officers from the Three Kingdoms era, unlocking unique story events with them as well as unique rewards. Maxing out a bond with a character leads to a special cutscene highlighting the bond between you and that character.

While I do think?? the unique player-created character being the MC was the right move, it did, unfortunately, affect the overall connection I had to the main character in a negative way. Throughout most of the campaign, your character is rather reserved and unemotional, mostly due to the fact that he doesn't even remember exactly who he is which is. As you progress through the story, your memories return, but in the end, I fo??und myself more interested in the connections I made with the various other major characters rather than my own character.

There are ten weapon types throughout Dynasty Warriors: Origins, most of which unlock as you play through the campaign, with the Halbe?rd unlocking after completing the campaign. The weapon type you use dictates your playstyle, Battle Arts (essentially skills in battle), as well as the combos and attacks of both your Heavy and Light attacks. Each time you use a weapon of a specific type, you'll build up your proficiency with it, unlocking new attacks and combos with them. It also progresses your overall Rank, increasing your character's Health, Attack, and Defense, meaning changing it up and trying out new weapon types can still build your character strength even if you end up not sticking with it.

I found myself drawn to the Twin Pikes weapon type, massive axe-like weapons that your character wields in each hand. I felt like a full-on berserker, cleaving through hordes of enemies with ease while occasionally jumping into the ??air to leap slam down on my opponents with the Twi?n Pikes. They deal a ton of damage—in my limited testing, possibly the most overall outside of the late-game unlocked Cresent Blade and the post-game unlocked Halberd—and come with a ton of AoE attacks to really mow through battles.

Each weapon type also has some unique cadences that you can learn and execute to give you even more of an edge for dedicating the time to learning the weapon. For example, wit??h the Twin Pikes if you hold Guard and then initiate a Heavy Attack and continue to spam the Heavy Attack button, you'll spin around whirlwind ?style—like I said, a berserker—continuously. If you manage to time your final Heavy Attack press right as the attack lands, the final attack is empowered, dealing more damage and resulting in a cool enhanced attack animation.

Thinking back on my childhood experiences with the Dynasty Warrior franchise, it's easy to remember what made them st??and out so much: the massive battles. With Origins, Omega Force redefines massive battles, with some maps hosting up to 10,000 soldiers on the screen at a time. As you progress through the campaign, the battles not only get bigger but more intense as well. Along the way your army will grow as well, giving you access to new Tactics that will allow you to issue commands to nearby soldiers in your army. The Tactics you can use range from issuing a charge to cut off an advancing arm??y or launching a targeted arrow strike to thin out numbers.

This added gameplay element felt like a refined version of the system in Bladestorm, another series by Omega Force and Koei Tecmo that features massive battles, and it's a welcome addition. There are also times when the Tactics you issue are incorporated with major development points in the historical story of the battles you are fighting in, resulting in sweeping changes to the battle and even the battlefield. The ability to so fantastically interweave the storytelling into warfare is impressive and a big step forward for the narrative approach of the series that until now has been rather lacking. And, it's all done without holding back the core strength of the franchise: its fast-paced hack-and-slash combat. If a?nything, it amplifies it.

Completing the Dynasty Warriors: Origins campaign unlocks a New Game Plus mode that allows you to continue building your character from where you ended the campaign while going back and exploring the various choice points throughout the game and giving you the opportunity to see how things differ based on your choice. You can change which faction you join, to see how the entire story would have unfolded had you joined that faction instead, all while continuing to level and power up the same character. In this sense, the NG+ mode feels more like the classic replayable grind of the series and one that I actually look forward to doing, which hasn't been the case since Samurai Warriors 4 for me.

Everything that makes Dynasty Warriors great has been built on and amplified in Dynasty Warriors: Origins. The fast-paced combat is more fluid and satisfying than ever, and I think the decision to allow players to build up their own character is the right move for the franchise moving forward. I wasn't sure how Omega Force could take a series coming up on three decades old and make it appealing to newcomers while appeasing long-time fans, but they found a way. For me, this is the best Dynasty Warriors yet, and I'm excited to see what's next.

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

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The Dynasty Warriors series is known to feature co-op, letting you team up with a friend to take on waves upon waves of enemies on screen. With the higher graphical quality on offer, however, does Dynasty Warriors: Origins co-op exist?

Can you play Dynasty Warriors: Origins co-op?

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a much-anticipated release for this month, and many fans are likely expecting the next game to be fully co-op. Well, I'm sorry to burst your Musou bubble. Dynasty Warriors: Origins, at this moment in time, has no co-op features.

On Steam, the game listing clearly states that the game is "Single-player" above ot??her tags, including Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Steam Cloud, and H?DR available.

The lack of co-op multiplayer could be due to the game's bigger scope compared to past entries in the series. "I’m happy to say the scale is bigger than ever in Origins, with more enemy and army counts on the battlefield than I’m pretty sure, well, ever," said our hands-on preview in November 2024. "In fact, with a somewhat more direct approach to combat compared to other entries in the series, you can actually find yourself quickly overwhelmed by how many enemies are actually on the battl??efield." It's too bad that we won't have a friend with us when we feel "overwhelmed" by the number of enemies on screen.

Other action co-op games to try

In addition to some earlier entries in the series, like Dynasty Warriors 8 and Samurai Warriors 5, there are other awesome multiplayer action games out there you can try instead if you're bummed about Dynasty Warriors: Origins lacking a co-op mode.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is a PS4- and PS5-exclusive title by Sucker Punch. It takes you through some vivid levels with stellar combat and a gorgeous art style. Another series that lets you take on enemies together in a strategic manner is Monster Hunter.

If you want a local co-op experience, however, Darksiders Genesis might do the trick. It plays similarly to the Diablo series. The developer "Airship Syndicate went all out with providing full freedom of movement so each character is fun to use at any point, all the way down to the Devil May Cry-like floating after leaping into the air and firing off dual pistols," said our 8 out of 10 review. "There’s combos, but not so many that?? it gets absurd."

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Koei Tecmo kicked off The Game Awards 2024 with an unexpected but exciting announcement: The reveal of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a brand-new 2D entry in this legendary franchise and a collaboration with The Game Kitchen, developers of the excellent Blasphemous series.

This beautiful animated trailer tells the story of Kenji Mozu, a young ninja who will have to protect Hayabusa Village from a terrifying army of demons while the series' protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, is far and away traveling to America. As incredible as the animation of this trailer is, the thing that immediately grabbed our attention was this game's astound?ing sprite work.

After all, The Game Kitchen is developing Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. This is the Spanish studio behind Blasphemous 1 and Blasphemous 2, two dark Metroidvania adventures that are famous for having some of the biggest, most impressive, and most detailed sprites ever seen in a video game. Choosing this studio to take over the Ninja Gaiden franchise was a brilliant decision because, as we can see in this trailer, Ragebound is going to featur??e the same incredible sprite work that we would expect from The Game Kitchen.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound will come out in the Summer of 2025, and it will be available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It's important to point out that Dotemu will be? publishing this game and not the ?company that created the IP, Koei Tecmo.

This is exactly what the Ninja Gaiden franchise needed

It may be easy to forget now, but this used to be one of the most beloved and important 2D side-scrolling franchises back in the 80s and 90s, mainly due to its fun but extremely challenging NES trilogy. The series went dormant for many years when the gaming industry pivoted to 3D graphics until the release of the 2004 reboot (simply titled Ninja Gaiden), a stunning and ruthless hack-and-slash game.

This genre was a perfect fit for the IP, which ended up thriving during the 2000s due to the success of these games. However, the critical and commercial failures of its two latest entries, Ninja Gaiden 3 and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, forced Koei Tecmo to put the franchise to sleep once again in 2014 (The only exception was the Master Collection, a compilation of th?e 3D hack-and-slash trilogy that came out in 2021)

Ninja Gaiden is way too good and iconic to remain dormant forever, so the announcement of Ragebound was a much-needed return to form for this franchise. In the trailer, we can see some fun 2D side-scrolling gameplay, complete with tough-as-nails enemies, challenging platforming, violent combat, and excellent music. Considering that The Game Kitchen excels at these types of experiences, there's no doubt that the studio will do an excellent job with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, not to mention that it will be single-handedly responsible for bringing back thi??s classic franchise.

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Koei Tecmo is one of the biggest and most important Japanese gaming companies, as it's responsible for the creation of multiple iconic franchises, like Dynasty Warriors, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and more. Fortunately for fans of the co?mpany, it recently disclosed its plans to keep prioritizing these type of products.

In a new Q&A document for its shareholders (which Automaton translated into English), Koei Tecmo detailed its expectations for the future of the gaming market. The company explai?ned to shareholders how it "?expects the console and PC game market to grow," especially after the recent release of new and more powerful hardware.

On top of that, Koei Tecmo also noted how the mobile gaming market is already mature enough and "significant growth is unlikely to be seen", citing as an example the recent growth in AAA home console releases that we saw in countries like South Korea and China. Although the company's representatives didn't list any specific games, Stellar Blade and Black Myth: Wukong are two prominent examples of this phenomenon.

Koei Tecmo is clearly pivoting to the development of AAA games for PC and home consoles, as it plans to "steadily produce AAA titles" in the near future. In order to achieve this goal, the company is aiming to increase its workforce, as it now has 2500 employees, but it plans to hire at least 5000 people in total. All of this is not much of a surprise since, as it disclosed in the Q&A, Koei Tecmo recently opened a new in-house AAA studio and has refined a new? high-quality game engine known as the Katana Engine, which is so flexible that the company is confident it'll "reduce development costs and?? improve quality."

Can Koei Tecmo keep all of its promises?

In a day and age in which more and more companies prefer to create low-budget games that can rack up a lot of money via gacha systems and microtransactions, it is a breath of fresh air to see one of Japan's biggest players favoring A?AA experiences for PC and home consoles instead. Koei Tecmo does have a history with mobile gaming, but it never committed to the format as much as other eastern companies.

There have been a few re-releases of its classic games, some mobile installments in franchises like Dead or Alive and Dynasty Warriors and its most recent endeavor, the iOS and Android ports of Atelier Resleriana. It would be a bad move from Koei Tecmo to flat out ignore the mobile gaming market, but based off of its recent output, it's evident it has be?en prioritizin??g AAA home console games in recent years.

In 2024, Team Ninja (a division of Koei Tecmo) released Rise of the Rōnin, a 3D action-adventure PlayStation 5 exclusive that received positive reviews from critics and gamers. It's also planning to release Fairy Tail 2 on December 11, the second open-world RPG based on the classic manga series by Hiro Mashima.

On top of that, Koei Tecmo plans to release more AAA games throughout 2025, like Atelier Yumia, Venus Vacation Prism, and its most promising new project: Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the first new entry in this iconic Musou franchise in 6 years, and an ambitious game that will offer a much-needed r??etur??n to formula. If it can deliver on all of these new games (especially Dynasty Warriors: Origins), Koei Tecmo's plans to? further delve into?? the AAA gaming market will work just fine.

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Not to make you feel old but the original Dynasty Warriors was released over 25 years ago back in 1997. Since then the series has seen nine main 'numbered' entries and a handful of spin-offs. It's been almost seven years since the last entry in the franchise, Dynasty Warriors 9, which I think most fans of the series would agree was quite average at best. At the time, our very own Chris Carter felt it was 'clunky and unwieldy'.

I've always been a fan of 'musou games' like Dynasty Warriors. There's something about mindlessly hack n' slashing your way through hordes of enemies that almost feels tranquil in a way. But over the years, the many releases of Dynasty Warriors—and similar style games—admittedly started to weigh on me. As Omega Force and Koei Tecmo started to diversify the catalog of musou-style games with other themes and even IP's with amazing releases like Warriors Orochi 4, Hyrule Warriors, One Piece: Pirate Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes, Fire Emblem Warriors, Berserker and the Band of the Hawk and more. The standard Dynasty Warrior formula started to become stale for me.

Fast forward a few years, and I had the opportunity to play the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins. While I typically prefer to play these styles of games on console, I previewed Origins on PC. I started with a controller, but out of curiosity switched to a keyboard and mouse just to see how it felt. In that regard, let me start by saying it actually felt way better than I expected. Button smashing just comes easier on a controller, but the keyboard controls felt just as smooth once I reworked some the key binds on things like the special attacks. Thankfully, the controls aren't the only things I felt were greatly improved in Dynasty Warrior: Origins. In fact, it feels improved in most aspects.

A real Origins story

Without knowing too much about Dynasty Warriors: Origins beforehand, let me first share with you what I quickly discovered; the Origins moniker serves a double meaning: a return to the origin of the Dynasty Warrior franchise, as well as the game's intent to tell the story of the Three Kingdoms period when the Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dynasties reigned over China. For those? not familiar, it's known as one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history, so quite fitting for a game where you are tasked with fighting massive ?armies.

Storytelling in previous entries in the franchise has been a bit lackluster, to put it mildly. It's never been a strong point of the series, but to be fair, it never presented itself as such. With Dynasty Warrior: Origins, the storytelling is much more prominent, right from the start. There are cutscenes, fully voiced characters, and more that all work together to tell the story of the Three?? Kingdoms. As someone who's very interested in the period, I'm excited to see how the story is told over the full game??.

While Dynasty Warriors is known for letting you select from a ton of staple historical characters from the period, Origins puts the player in the role of their own?? character. As you play you'll level up, getting various stat boosts, skills, and other abilities as you progress. As you get deeper into the game, you get access to those fabled heroes and can c??hoose to take them with you and even control them in battle for a period of time. I know not everyone is going to like this change, but I'm actually enjoying being my own hero and forging my own legacy this time around.

After the first battle, Origins opens up a bit into a semi-open world setting. You're able to traverse a 'World Map' of sorts and choose which regions to battle in. Each region has its own sets of battles and missions you can do to increase the peace level of that region, rewarding you with stat buffs and boosts along the way. Progressing will unlock more regions, allowing you to progress and essentially alter? the story of the Three Kingdoms based on your decisions.

Battlefields as big as ever

The major "Wow Factor" of Dynasty Warriors has always been its massive scale. You versus entire massive armies on the battlefield. I'm happy to say the scale is bigger than ever in Origins, with more enemy and army counts on the battlefield than I'm pretty sure, well, ever. In fact, with a somewhat more direct approach to combat compared to other entries in the series, you can actually find yourself quic??kly overwhelmed by how many enemies are actually on t?he battlefield.

Well-timed special attacks and the use of powerful abilities can really turn the tide of battle in Origins, especially in the 1-on-1 encount??ers with more challenging enemies. You can eventually choose to surround yourself with your own micro-army of guards and can even issue orders to them such as to defend you, charge an area, or even focus attacks on an area. This too can really change the tide of battle.

Overall, battles themselves feel a bit more tactical, or maybe even technical, compared to previous entries. Button smashing isn't quite the option as it used to be, as I said, ??you can find yourself quickly overrun by even basic infantry units on the battlefield. It's not super tactical like a Soulslike game or anything like that, but you'll have to make use of your special attacks and combos to effectively carve routes through the battlefield. It's a change for the series for sure, but a good one I feel.

After playing through the first three chapters of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, I have to applaud Omega Force for the direction they've chosen to take the series in. It would have been easy to just release a prettied-up button-mashing Dynasty Warrior game with the same playable characters and endless grind potential. I know there are certainly some pe??ople out there who may prefer that.

But for me, the innovative changes to the series provide a unique—and honestly just outright more fun—experience to the formula. Omega Force and Koei Tecmo have taken a lot of the staples from the franchise like massive-scale battles and expanded them while also improving the overall game through better storytelling, more interesting combat, and a player character-driven focus. I think this will put the series in a great spot to be appealing to both newcomers and long-time fans, and opens up for the potential to really continue to innovate in the future. Dynasty Warriors is so back, and I'm here for it.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is set to release on January 17, 2025 on PC via Steam, Play??Station 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

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Koei Tecmo and Gust have announced the next game in the long-running and prolific Atelier series: Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian. It’s coming to PC, PS4, PS5, an??d Switch in 2025.

I’m only realizing now that we skipped a year in this often-annual series. Unless you count the mobile-focused, free-to-play Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator. I don’t, because I prefer to push knowledge of that sector of video games out of my brain, but I suppose Koei Tecmo and Gust do since The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian is set in the same world.

We don’t know much about it at this point beyond the short teaser trailer. It’s also going to be a paid, single-player, console-focused, offline game. Beyond that, the press release says, “this new Atelier title will embark players on a magical adventure, featuring a new protagonist.�?The “magical adventure�?part can be applied to every Atelier? game, but I guess the “new protagonist�?part tells us something.

This is somewhat surprising since Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land was previously announced and is a??lso aiming for a 2025 release. It’s bold to release two titles of these games in? the same year since they’re invariably 40-50 hours long.

For a short while, I reviewed the yearly Atelier titles here at Destructoid, but I fell off with Atelier Ryza 3. By “fell off,�?I mean I was practically writhing in agony at the thought of doing another. Don’t get me wrong, they’re enjoyable games. They’re often very similar bu??t commonly come with new features and different mechanics. However, it’s 40-50 hours of microprogression-laden gameplay. Smacking resource nodes, filling your pockets, crafting shit. Over and over and over. It was like a target?ed attack on my personality; a way of priming me for a life of boring office work.

So, my recommendation is to play at your own pac??e and don��t just pick up every new release, but that’s just based on my personal prefer?ences and experience.

Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian is planned for release in 2025 and is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, and S?witch.

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Fate/Samurai Remnant, the latest entry in the Fate franc??hise, will receive the first of three ??DLCs soon, and it will arrive in February 2024.

Titled Record’s Fragment: Keian Command Championship, details on what to expect are still sparse. The trailer depicts Gilgamesh the King of Heroes announcing that he ??has seized control of the fates of several characters from the base game. He then announces t??he start of the Keian Command Championship.

Two more DLCs are on the way, but they've yet to be named or receive a release date, although they are to launch in 2024. Each of the DLCs will bring additional scenarios, new Servants, stages, and more. If you want access to all the extra content, a Season Pass is available which also comes with the Hallowed Relic Sword Mountin??gs bonus.

I enjoyed my time with Fate/Samurai Remnant, so the DLC piques my interest. Perhaps the only downside is that it comes during a time that already promises to be packed with enticing titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Persona 3 Reload.

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The next Team Ninja game has locked in a fairly competitive release date. Its next action game Rise of the Ronin arrives on March 22, 2024.

The new game certainly looks up Team Ninja's alley, with plenty of fast combat, slicing, and dicing. It's been known for a while, but now, we finally know when the game arrives.

At tonight's The Game Awards 2023, we got a new trailer looking at the tit?le. Set d?uring a time where the country is divided, it follows one ronin who could have a hand in shaping Japan's future.

Coming off the fairly well-received Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Rise of the Ronin does look like Team Ninja trying to keep the string of excellent action games going. But it's headed into a crowded 2024, with one particular competitor that it now shares a release date with: Dragon's Dogma 2.

Whether you going for one, the other, or both, it does look like we won't be hurting for action RPGs in the new year. Rise of the Ronin arrives for PlayStation 5 on March 22, 2024.

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You may think you're done with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but Team Ninja isn't done with you just yet. Koei Tecmo revealed a date for the third piece of DLC, titled Upheaval in Jingxiang, which touches down on December 12, 2023.

If you're looking for new challenges, there should be plenty to go around in Jingxiang. Chief among the additions is a new story chapter that finds Liu Bei's forces fighting back against the chaos the Elixir has caused. As it con?tinues to wreak havoc throughout the land following the death of Yu Ji, you'll be tasked with traveling to the Jing?? Province to put an end to its grim effects. 

Get a taste of the story in the DLC 3 trailer:

Upheaval in Jingxiang also adds new enemies and demons, a new Divine Beast, and new generals that include Guan Ping and Lady M, among others. That's on top of the new equipment and a new system �?that's all the official site says on the latter �?and higher difficulty levels for those who didn't find Wo Long tough enough already. Finally, there's a new weapon category in the Whip, which looks pa??inful as all hell.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. If you have Xbox Game Pass you can also check it out there. This has me hungry to get back to Wo Long, which I unfortunately fell off afte?r clearing a dozen or so bosses. It turns out there are multiple dozens more beyond that, so I've got my work cut out f?or me. 

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Dynasty Warriors 9 is getting another turn in the spotlight, this time in the form of a mobile game. Nexon and Koei Tecmo announced Dynasty Warriors M for a global release this winter. 

Dynasty Warriors M promises an action-RPG based on the ninth mainline entry, which left something to be desired when it launched in 2018. The mobile version for iOS and Android will be free-to-play with in-app purchases, offering over 50 Offic??ers from five factions to "collect and develop." Each Officer has their own tactics to employ across 520 stages and 13 regions.

According to Gematsu, a soft launch is live in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philipp??ines. While we wait for ??the worldwide launch, Nexon Korea shared some cinematic trailers. This one highlights the Battle of Hulao Gate:

The last we heard of Dynasty Warriors 9 was the Empires expansion that launched in 2021. M isn't the first game to strike phones and tablets exclusively. Dynasty Warriors: Overlords recently mixed Musou combat with town building, quests, and very mobile-style events. As teased in some of the videos, M will cover territory familiar to anyone modestly well-versed in the Three Kingdoms era. Settings like the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Siege of Luoyang are deeply tread hack-and-slashing gr?ound.

Will Dynasty Warriors M revitalize the greatest video game series ever? The official English Facebook page is live for anyone who wants to keep up with the game in t??he months ?leading up to its global release. 

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Koei Tecmo revealed a new trailer for Fate/Samurai Remnant, spotlighting more of the upcoming entry in the Fate series. The Omega Force action-RPG takes the series to Edo-era Japan, kicking things off to the tune of its main theme "Zanya Gensou feat. LICCA / Spiral Ladder." 

The story of Fate/Samurai Remnant continues the history-spanning Holy Grail War in a new locale. True to the Fate ?legacy, Masters and Servants are at the heart of the action, this time centering on young samurai Miyamoto Iori and his Servant Saber. With the Waxing Moon Ritual unfolding, seven pairs of Masters and Servants battle for the right to claim the Holy Grail.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgxC3edcEnY

Story and character relationships are key to the new trailer, but it also shows off some gameplay systems. There's a woodworking minigame in Gilgamesh's shop, as well as a look at the skill tree. More importantly, however, is Circe's ability to transform Iori into a pig. If you can believe it, Iori's first line of dialogue after this twist is a mighty "Oink!" Playing as said pig will no doubt be among my top honors of the year. 

[caption id="attachment_399917" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Koei Tecmo[/caption]

Fate is in your hands

Fate/stay night author Kinoko Nasu is credited in a supervisory role alongside Type-Moon for this outing. For Fate fans, character designs come from Rei Wataru, who previously provided art for one of the Fate/Grand Order manga adaptations. Their work will be featured in a special Tokyo Game Show 2023 livestream on September 21, 2023 at 6:00am PT. 

Fresh gameplay and info is on the menu for the TGS 20023 stream along with a handful of special guests. Those set to app??ear include voice cast members Kengo Kawanishi (Iori Miyamoto), Hibiku Yamamura (Saber), and Tomoaki Maeno (Zheng Chenggong).

Fate/Samurai Remnant hits PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam on September 29, 2023.

The post Latest Fate/Samurai Remnant trailer shines a spotlig?ht on gameplay and characters appeared first on Destructoid.

Otherwise, it's a rather jolly time

It has taken a while, but Koei Tecmo and Gust’s long-running Atelier series is finally clic??king with a broader audience.

The Ryza trilogy has resonated in a way no prior games have. Whether it’s the changes to the combat, the toned-down magical girl aesthetics, or Gust discovering all we ever wanted were some thicc thighs, the future is promising for this still-pretty-niche-but-not-as-niche-as-it-used-to-be franchise. I’m sure we’ll find out in the next couple of months what the next new Atelier game will be. In the meantime, we can return to where it all started with Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg.

My history with the Atelier series is rather short. Like a lot of people, Atelier Ryza served as my proper introduction, though I did previously dabble with the mobile game and Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island for the Nintendo DS. Though I was only able to put about 10 hours into the game before having to move on, my adoration for Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout piqued my interest in the rest of the Atelier franchise. While I don’t think I’ll go back to play any of the previously released games that were ported to Switch, partially on account of how they never seem to go on sale, I did make sure to set aside time for the Atelier Marie Remake.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sizYuIJitm4

And I’m glad I did. Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg is a delightf??ully laid-back crafting RPG where time is of the essence. You play as Marlone—Marie for short—as she embarks on a five-year quest to prove herself a worthy alchemist. Her teacher, Ingrid, sets her up with an alchemy shop in?? town and tasks her with creating an impressive item. That’s all there is to the set-up of this game. From there, it’s up to you to decide how Marie will spend each day of the year.

Unlike the Story of Seasons franchise, Atelier Marie doesn't condense in any way. You have five full calendar years to finish the job, but time moves way faster than you might think. Pretty much everything you do moves time forward. Gathering supplies costs a day. Collecting your spoils after a battle also ticks another day off the calendar. Traveling from town to one of the locations around the map can take up to a week. Practicing alchemy can cost anywhere between one day a?nd several weeks, depending on the rarity of the item you’re creating. And if you need to create other items before you can make your targeted item, don’t be surprised if an entire season passes you by. Near the end of my first run, I lost all of autumn and a little bit of winter trying to craft a single item.

There are a few things that don’t cross out days on the calendar. You’re free to explore the tiny town of Salburg, including checking out the tavern for requests and rumors, visiting the weapon shop, goi??ng to the academy to bone up on Marie’s education, or attempting to get into the castle. There is also a diorama mode in the Hall of Memories and an easy-access photo mode. I was excited?? to take pictures in this game, given how beautiful it looked in trailers. While it’s still lovely on my Switch, it's also too damn bright.

[caption id="attachment_391280" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Bloom lighting is alive and well in the Schigsal Kingdom. This place hasn’t known an overcast day in its life, with each season experiencing incredibly bright days that can look almost blinding on a Switch OLED. Winter, in particular, looks so bright I worried my transitional glasses would darken if I stared for too long. It’s a shame the lighting is so overwhelming here because the art direction is quite good. It reminds me somewhat of what Nintendo and Grezzo were going for with the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, but with a stable framerate.

It’s not only the lighting that picks away ??at the stunning nature of the art direction. In battle, everything moves so quickly that I never really got to enjoy the designs of the combat areas. With toned-down lighting and an easing up on the speed of battle, I could have appreciated the look of this world a bit more than I did.

Speaking of battles, they’re straightforward turn-based affairs. Marie can recruit party members around town, each with unique weapons, skills, fees, and side stories to invest in. I got through most of the game with Hallesch and Ruven at my side, though I eventually swapped out the latter for Kirielich as her special attack was far? more useful for some of the later battles. The more you battle with your companions, the stronger your bonds with them will be, leading to short story events that flesh out their motivations.

Nothing here is too hard-hitting or in-depth, but I must credit the translation team for creating a cast this well-written. Especially for Marie. After reading Koei Tecmo describe her as “careless,�?I was sure s??he’d fall into an annoying character trope. Fortunately, she never does. The game doesn’t play up her lack of student excellence as her being some sort of dummy, but rather a person who learns better outside of a classroom. It’s a great direction to go with the character, and I’m glad my expectations were so pleasantly subverted.

[caption id="attachment_391283" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Due to the player-driven nature of Atelier Marie, there are a lot of story moments and events I missed. Maybe I was rushing too much, but I never experienced aspects like the Martial Tournament and the King’s Birthday. I believe the game shares some of the blame here thanks to?? the random nature of how some things unlock. For instance, to access new areas for gathering and battling, you need to purchase rumors at the tavern. There is no set order in which y??ou unlock these locations, and one of the first areas I unlocked was marked for level 20 and above. It would be several more hours before I could safely visit it. Meanwhile, the final area I unlocked was marked for level 10 and above. By the time that finally became available to me, I'd already gotten Marie up to level 36.

As for the different events you can? experience, the game does include a handy list and how to unlock them. But because the menus are so unintuitive, I kept fo??????????????????????????rgetting about it. The menu system here is not as streamlined as it needs to be, with everything split between two cumbersome interfaces. I also couldn't find a useful calendar, something that significantly help me better plan my time with the game. As lousy as the menus are, they didn't deter me from playing.

[caption id="attachment_391282" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It was easy for me to lose hours every night this past week with Atelier Marie. The gameplay loop of gathering and crafting is incredibly satisfying, and this is coming from someone who generally hates crafting. Maybe it’s the non-confrontational gameplay or that everything moves at a good clip, but I never felt bored of it. I didn’t think this game would devour all my primetime television hours, but that’s exactly what it did. And I think the fac?t that there is a time limit is part of the reason for that.

Five in-game years sounds like a long time, but you can complete Atelier Marie in less than ten hours. That is short enough that I have no problem giving it a second run. While some might consider an arbitrary timer an outdated design choice, I’d like to see more games bring it back. Pikmin 2 and 3 are great, but neither gives me the same sense of accomplishment as beating the clock in the original Pikmin. Atelier Marie Remake does include an unlimited mode that drops the five-year limit—as well as some in-game events—but I don’t think I’ll ever bother with it. The original concept works, and I encourage anyone who’s picking this up to give it a go in its or??iginal form at least once before ditching the time limit.

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg offers a rather simple e?xperience, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. As somebody who constantly struggles to ??find time to game these days, I feel delighted to see short, succinct RPG experiences like this out there. While I wasn't able to see enough to give this game a proper review, I've played enough to recommend it to anyone who might be curious about the origins of this franchise.

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg releases on July 13, 2023, for N???intendo Switch, Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

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

The post Th??e Atelier Marie Remake needs to patch in a dimmer switch appeared first on Destructoid.

They did it their way

Stranger of Paradise was a very different lens into the world of Final Fantasy than we're accustomed to. Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo partnered with Square Enix to reimagine the story of the first Final Fantasy, creating a lo?vably irreverent protagonist with Jack Garland? in the process.

It was, by all accounts, a solid vision of an action-driven, alternative take on Final Fantasy's origins. The team continued to build on it over time, with more downloadable content and jobs, adding some classic pieces of Final Fantasy mythos in the process.

With the recent release of the Steam version, we got a chance to catch up with director Daisuke Inoue and ask some burning lingering questions about Stranger of Paradise, now a little over a year since its launch. We've previously t?alked with him about updates and feedback, so with this interview, I went a little more broad picture. We talk about adapting Final Fantasy into the action realm, the fashion, and of course, the use of Frank Sin??atra's "My Way." How could we not?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0WvpMw0Sko

What was your design goal with Jack? Did you want players to connect with him right away, or later as more is revealed about both him and the story at large?

I didn't necessarily want people to connect with Jack right away. Rather, for this production, instead of emotionally connecting with the character, I wanted people to ultimately understand why Jack was saying the things he was saying and why Garland ended up the way he did, while tracing things back to the world of the original FINAL FANTASY.

Frank Sinatra’s “My Way�?plays early on in Stranger of Paradise, and appeared in the promotional material. What was the reason you chose this song, especially when it’s pretty tonally different from the music we hear Jack listening to in-game?

It mi??ght be a bit of a stretch to say that we “chose�?the song “My Way,�?as this song is where the title began.

It all started when Nomura-san show??ed me a video with the Japanese translation of “My Way’s�?lyrics. The song is about a man who has achieved what he believes in, despite his sorrows and regrets, and although I’m sure the Japanese translation contains ??many liberal interpretations of the original English words, [it] conveyed this concept in a very cool and compelling way.

Garland standing in the Chaos Shrine expecting to "end this,�?looking back on his life?? in a way that connects back to the lyrics of the song�?When Nomura-san showed me the video, he ??suggested that this is the sort of image that he wanted to create.

I think it’s fair to say that the concept of Jack Garland was inspired fro??m there, and it set the direction for the game's scenario.

Since the implied trans?lation of the lyrics for "My Way" marked the inception of this game, no song other than "My Way" was ever considered. That is my answer.

What process went into translating popular Final Fantasy jobs into action-RPG move sets, and did you have any difficulties with some of the less combat-focused options like White Mage? Do you have a favorite job in the game?

As a team, w??e did run into some issues when trying to incorporate a few non-combat jobs into an action RPG, but withou??t exaggeration, by simply considering, “What would Jack do?�?we were able to solve these problems.

For example, even if you are a white mage, a job type with restorative abilities, if you are Jack, you could?? fight by incorporating offensive white magic while casting support magic on yourself in order to attack... Something like that.

I think the bigger issue we ran into was differentiating the jobs and making each one feel unique. We felt a strong synergy with Tea??m NINJA, who have a lot of experience in creati??ng action heavy titles, so their expertise led to the creation o??f diverse and fun jobs.

My personal favorite job is the swordsman, as its spirit of simplicity and fortitude fits the image of Garland in the original FINAL FANTASY. When I had a hard time deci?ding on which job to play, I defaulted to the swordsman because of this.

Despite the world being very fantasy driven and jobs focusing on Final Fantasy combat, the fashion of Stranger of Paradise is varied and even modern at times. What was your intent with the costume designs and equipment, and was there an intentional contrast or aesthetic you wanted to create with the party’s outfits?

Originally, the world of FINAL FANTASY was made to appear high fantasy, but is actually a low fantasy, or more of a sci-fi, world, with a mix of high-tech machines, robots, buildings, and the ancient futuristic people (Lufenians) who created them. At least, that is my interpretation. This interpretation may differ from one person to another, but as STRANGER OF PARADISE further brings out this worldview, it’s not surprising that modern interpretations of costumes and designs may be present. Rather, the design work for this project is based on ?the understanding that the world is a diverse blend of these elements.

As for the party characters�?outfits, our intention was to reflect them being brought from a modern world somewhere, so their default clothes reflect this relative simplicity or basicness. We also wanted that to inspire players to change up their jobs and equipment quickly and often while playing, so as to fully portray the diverse job system in this ??title.

When considering the direction for DLC, what was your goal with post-launch additions? Is there anything in the Final Fantasy universe you would like to still tackle?

When we were considering the direction of the expansions, we started with the idea of depicting the later lives of the characters. We were torn between having this take place either following the events of the original FINAL FANTASY or directly after the events of STRANGER OF PARADISE. However, I remember thinking that we should first properly depict their endings for the sake of the players who love this title and its chara?cters, and that we should prepare an element of play appropriate to these.

The world of FINAL FANTASY has expanded greatly, so there are certainly things we can do and things we would like to do. At any rate, I hope tha?t we can continue to challenge ou??rselves to do things that cannot be done with the numbered titles.

Are there any other franchises you’d like to see adapted, in a way similar to Stranger of Paradise?

Origin stories for The Legend of Zelda’s Ganon and Bowser from the Super Mario series immediately come to mind�?But those are completely different IPs from a different company, aren’t they? (laughs) I always wanted to know why Bowser is so fixated on Princess Peach�?but I guess I should at least answer this question with something from SQUARE ENIX, so in that case, I’d have to say DRAGON QUEST!

While it may not quite resonate with people overseas, if we dare to make the somewhat gentle/laidback world of DRAGON QUEST one that is more aggressive/thrilling, this? may be a good opportunity to have a wider audience overseas get to know the franchise.

The post We talk with Stranger of Paradise’s director about fashion, Final Fantasy, and My Way appeared first on Destructoid.

'New Title X' should be the final name, honestly

Publisher Koei Tecmo has announced that it is partnering with Japanese developer Akatsuki Games to produce a brand new, currently unannounced new game for Gen 9 platforms. As reported by Gematsu, this collaboration was announced in Akatsuki's recently published financial report.

No details whatsoever were offered about the new title, but we do know that it is in production for "next-gen" platforms, (we're really still calling it that?), and that the companies hope to release the game before the end of the financial? year. So we can, in theory, expect the game to release before March 20?24.

Koei Tecmo is, of course, famed for its handling of several popular gaming franchises, including Dynasty Warriors, Dead or Alive, Wo Long, and Ninja Gaiden. Akatsuki Games has produced licensed and original titles in all manner of genres, though the studio has more recently focused on mobile releases such as Romancing Saga Re:Universe, Dragon Ball Z: Dokken Battle, and idol-based rhythm game Uni's on Air.

Stepping up to PS5/Xbox Series X development is certainly something of? a leap from producing mobile games, but one would assume that the guidance and vete?ran nature of Koei Tecmo will help see the developer through. We will be sure to give you all a heads-up when the identity of this mystery project is finally revealed.

Akatsuki Games and Koei Tec??m??o announce joint development of new title [Gematsu]

The post Koei Tecmo and Akatsuki ?Games teaming up for mystery release appeared first on Destructoid.

Do the Wild Fang

Draw your swords, pick up your spellbook, and take my axe, as this week's entry to the Arcade Archives sees Hamster treat us to Koei Tecmo's high-fantasy brawler Tecmo Knight, now available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to arcades in 1989, hot on the heels of Tecmo success Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Knight, (known in Japan as Wild Fang), sees the titular, muscle-bound hero battle their way through the Kingdom of Valdik, on a quest to rescue the townspeople from the clutches of the terrifying Beast Demon Army, (Beasts? Demons? Nah, both). Tecmo Knight is ably assisted by his tiger pal, "Tiger", wh?o absolutely isn't Cringer, and Smokeman, a deity who provides additional attacks and abilities.

Additionally, Tecmo Knight can call upon the power of a dragon, who can defeat any opponent with a single blast of fiery breath. Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Punch Pedia.

//www.youtube.com/watc??h?v=FWHuu??Rt_lho&ab_channel=PunchPedia

While Tecmo Knight at first glance appears to be Tecmo's take on Sega's own hit, Golden Axe, (and in many ways it is), Tecmo's offering is a little more finicky and precise in its controls, ala Ninja Gaiden, which makes it a trickier challenge and thus kept it from becoming a truly well-remembered c?lassic.

Oh, and like Ninja Gaiden, it has an anxiety-inducing Continue? screen, which sees the Tecmo Knight being eaten by a giant monster as he screams in pain. Failing to add a credit in time sees a helmeted beast hack through the screen, yelling "NO FUTURE!" like a 1978 British punk. A famously violent attract sequence was also ultimately censored before release, with ??further bloodletting, (decapitations in particular), ensuing throughout the game.

Tecmo Knight is definitely worth checking out, though it cer?tainly lacks the pace an?d energy of other brawlers of the day. It is available to download now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at $8.

The post Fantasy scrapper?? Tecmo Kni??ght charges the Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

Take no Shitieshou

Koei Tecmo has proudly announced that its period piece action-adventure Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has surpassed one million shipments and? sales since its initial release. The Team Ninja-developed adventure hit PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms on March 3.

According to the publisher Wo Long, which sees a mysterious protagonist battling demons against a stylized take on the Han Dynasty, has been played by 3.8 million players so far, taking into account its availabili?ty on the Xbox Game Pass service. For all you maths majors out there, this means th?at somewhere in the region of 2.8 million players checked the title out via the subscription-based service.

/?/twitter.com/WoLongOfficial/status/1651784272792133632?s=20

Koei Tecmo released a delightful image to celebrate the milestone, which sees a trio of impossibly ador??able Panda Shitieshou demons lolling about. In the game itself, these are benign, friendly demons that offer the player random gear in return for unwanted items. Accompanying the image, the publisher notes that Team Ninja is currently at work developing updates for the title, as well as no less?? than three DLC expansions. A date for these add-ons is yet to be revealed.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is av??ailable now on PlayStati??on, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.

The post Wo Long: Fallen Dy?nasty hit one milli??on sales have some panda demons appeared first on Destructoid.

Continue?

A lot of people may remember Advance Wars series as a flash in the pan, popping out of nowhere on the Gameboy Advance and then dying out a few years later on the DS. But in Japan, the Wars series was one of Nintendo's longest running, prolific franchises, starting on the Famicom before spreading its militar??y might to the Gameboy, Super Famico?m, GameCube, and the Wii.

For folks who had been following the franchise for the 20 years up to its abrupt conclusion, hearing that Intelligent Systems had no "clear idea" on the future of the franchise felt like the end of an era. Likewise, for longtime fans, this month's Advance Wars: Re-Boot Camp remakes from WayForward has a lot more weight to it when you know how much strife this series ha?s been through.

The thing is though, when Days of Ruin capped off the Advance Wars series (or ru??ined it, depending on who you ask), there wasn't a big announcement or moment of closure that came with it. When new games are shown for the first time, marketing makes a big deal of it it. When old games power down for the last time, they often just fade away, like a former best friend that you used to go shoe shopping with, but haven't seen for years. The longer you go without texting ??or calling them, the weird it feels to hit them up out of the blue, so you just don't.

But what if you did call that friend again, a decade or more after you last planned to, and actually took t??hat trip to Skechers. Would the shoes still fit? Will your time apart prove to have made you more or less compatible pals? Here are a few games I'd love to see call again, just so we could find out.

Pitfall!

Before Mario reinvented the genre with his Super game from 1986, the biggest name in side-scrolling platformers was undoubtedly Pitfall Harry. In fact, many credit 1981's Pitfall! on the Atari 260 for being the first game to popularize the genre on home consoles, and its sequel can be seen as one of the progenitor of the kind of massive, interconnected map design that makes the Metroidvania genre what it is today. The Activision classic even got its own cartoon show.

Even after Mario stole Harry's thunder, Pitfall! hung in there for years, with later games on the SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, Gameb??oy Advance, Xbox, Wii, and as recently 2012, an autorunner for mobile. If Indiana Jones can make a comeback in 2023, there's no reason Harry couldn't do the same.

[caption id="attachment_373969" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image cred?it Lucky Kat and Sony Pictures[/caption]

Q*bert

Birdo may be the most well-known snorkel-nosed creature in gaming today, but for a time, that title undoubtedly belonged to 1982's Q*Bert. And it's not like he's a total unknown today, though that's got more to do with his appearances in films like Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels than any of his modern games. The latter movie even implies that Josh Gad had sex with hi?m an?d, apparently, got him pregnant.

Thankfully, Q*Bert's actual games managed to procreate in a much more dignified fashion, seeing a new release every 5-10 years all the way up until (you guessed it) a mobile reboot in 2019. But it's bee??n far too long since this foul-??mouthed little weirdo hopped onto computers and consoles.

[caption id="attachment_373976" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Koei Tecmo[/caption]

Rygar

Fun fact, in the original Japanese version of Rygar, the main character is only known as "The Legendary Warrior", while the last boss, a giant lion man, is named Ligar, which was mistranslated to Rygar in the localization process. If the series had managed to stick around, I'm sure that trivia would be as well knows as Super Mario 2's start as Doki Doki Panic, or how Pac-Man would have been called Puckman if Na??mco wasn't ??afraid that sassy vandals would turn that "P" into an "F".

But instead, Rygar has largely forgotten in recent years, despite a hugely successful arcade game in 1986, its multiple ports, a reimaging on the NES in 1987, a?? PS2 reboot in 2006, and enhance port of that reboot for Wii in 2009. If Kratos can become gaming's most critically acclaim?ed cranky dad, I see no reason why Rygar couldn't become a tired Greek action man of similar adoration in the near future.

California Games

Ninja Gaiden

The Ninja Gaiden series actually started in arcades before becoming one of the first action games on the NES to wow players with amazing cinema-style cutscenes. After a brief pause through the?? N64/PS1/Saturn era, it returned in a big way on the Xbox with a self-titled reboot, headed by Team Ninja, which score?d a DS spin-off and a couple of direct sequels.

The reboot trilogy was recently rereleased for modern platforms in 2021, but there hasn't been an all-new game in the franchise since Ninja Gaiden Z: Yaiba, the ill-fated spin-off from 2014. If I had my druthers, the team behind Katana Zero would acquire the rights and bring Ryu back for another comeback attack, but that's probably just a pipe drea?m.

[caption id="attachment_373973" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Hudson/NEC[/caption]

Bonk

In Japan, Bonk was called PC Genjin (Japanese translation: "PC-Caveman"), and he was the mascot for the PC Engine, the?? most popular home console in his home country throughout 1988. Beating both Nintendo and Sega at the same time was no small feat, and Bonk is one of the few cartoon mascots to pull it off. Sadly for him, the PC Engine failed to become an international hit when it launched worldwide in 1989 under the still-hard-to-type Turbografx-16 brand.

But still, Bonk managed to outlive the console he was born on, with sequels, spin-offs, and ports for Gameboy, NES, SNES, PS2, GameCube, and mobile. I'm one of the few who got to play his 2010 Wii title, Brink of Extinction, before it was canceled. Little did I know that was the last I'd see of the little guy until his original games were released on the Turbografx-16 Mini in 2020. I am 100% confident that in the right hands, people all over the world (but especially in Japan) would eat up a new Bonk game like it was a six-foot-tall hunk of meat.

[caption id="attachment_373974" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Capcom[/caption]

Final Fight

There was a time when every major arcade in the nation was home to a Final Fight machine. While the Renegade and Double Dragon games were among the first belt-scrolling beat 'em ups ever made, 1989's Final Fight was the franchise that brought it to the next level. ?Its large, well-animated characters, multiple playable characters and spec??ial moves, and general level of depth stand up even today.

There were two SNES sequels that continued the original story, the Saturday Night Slam Masters spin-offs, a Japan-only fighting game for the Saturn, and a reboot for the PS2 in 2012. But the only Final Fight representation we've seen since is in classic rereleases, like 2010's Double Impact port, and in the rosters of newer Street Fighter titles. With Streets of Rage, River City, and even the Ninja Turtles making modern hits from their classic beat 'em up formula, there's no reason that Final Fight couldn't make a comeback with an all-new title.

[caption id="attachment_373975" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Capcom[/caption]

Breath of Fire

If I'm being real, this whole list could have been filled with Capcom games. While Konami abandoned the Castlevania, Metal Gear, and Silent Hill franchises for a little while, as of 2023, they have announced and unannounced plans for all three of them. Capcom, on the other hand, let Bionic Commando, Strider, Darkstalkers, Viewtiful Joe, Mega Man X, and maybe most egregiously, the Breath of Fire series just burn out with no remorse.

We've at least seen cameos from all the games on that list in various Capcom releases over the years... except for Breath of Fire. For whatever reason, Capcom doesn't want anything to do with their one ubiquitous RPG series anymore. Breath of Fire VI was a Japan-only Windows/mobile title released in 2016. Before that, the last globally released game in the series was Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for the PS2 in 2002. The series just celebrated its 30th anniversary, with copious fan art and other remembrances getting loads of praise across social media.

One can imagine that an Octopath Traveller-style Breath of Fire VII for consoles would be similarly well received.

[caption id="attachment_373977" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image?? credit Sony ??Computer Entertainment[/caption]

Ape Escape

Sony's abandonment of Ape Escape speaks to their larger rejection of all their sillier mascots. In the PS1 era, the PlayStation's top first-party tiles were games like Jumping Flash, PaRappa the Rapper, and Ape Escape, the rambunctious action platformer about using dual analog controls to catch apes with various gadgets. For my money, it's one of the best games of the generation, and holds up better than Super Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie.

The series lived on with sequels on the PS2, spin-offs for the PSP, and PS3, and crossovers in the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Ratchet & Clank, and most recently, the PS5 exclusive Astro's Playroom. That latter title is the exact kind of B-Budget title that I think AAA developers should make more of, and taking Ape Escape back to consoles with a similarly themed title would ??be sure to be a worthy investment by Sony Entertainment Group.

[caption id="attachment_373978" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Nintendo[/caption]

Rhythm Heaven

I was the first to break the news that the Rhythm Heaven series had "died", and while Nintendo later debunked that claim, the timeline speaks for itself. The last all-new Rhythm Heaven title, Rhythm Heaven Fever, was released in 2011, and the last official title in the franchise �?the mostly greatest hits title Rhythm Heaven Megamix �?/em> was released o??n 3DS in 2015. Eight years without news isn't forever by industry standards, but it's a? long time for this particular franchise, which used to see new games every two to four years.