Everything about the leadup to the release of Forspoken, Square Enix’s big new open-world action RPG, has been alowkeymess. But you wouldn’t know that from the launch trailer which stays upbeat on the modern-day magical adventure by taking a bunch of words out of context and spinning them into deceitful accolades.
“This Forspoken launch trailer is kind of telling us that the game might not actually be that good and here’s how I know,” trailer editing aficionado Derek Lieu said in a TikTok video that blew up over the weekend. “The biggest red flag are these quotes which are either one word long or two words long.”
He proceeded to go through each phrase flashed on screen during it, found the original source it was from, and read the larger context aloud. In almost every instance the meaning was very different from the way the words were presented in the trailer, and not intended to be taken as unambiguous praise.
In one example, Square Enix lifted the word “Beautiful” from a December preview published over at Distractify. In context, however, the quote wasn’t saying that Forspoken was beautiful but that it had the “potential” to be a “beautiful story-driven game that will pull at your heartstrings with each new chapter.” It was, after all, a preview and not a review of the final game, though the site’s editor said she didn’t take issue with how the word was used.
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
“Square Enix did ask for permission to use the quote, and we did approve,” Distractify gaming editor, Sara Belcher, told Kotaku in an email. “In our actual review, I do refer to the game as ‘beautiful’ (that was my opinion of the game’s world since the preview, which is why I didn’t personally feel the quote felt out of context). We do not charge for the use of quotes in promotional materials.”
In another example, the Final Fantasy maker quotes the word “impressive” from Game Informer. The only problem is that the word in question doesn’t even come from a hands-on preview, but from a news write-up of a gameplay trailer from a Sony State of Play. “Frey’s traversal abilities are impressive, allowing for fast movement in and out of combat, both in aerial and aquatic situations,” it reads.
To recap then, Forspoken’s newest trailer included a truncated quote of someone describing one of its older trailers. Game Informer’s actual review gave the game a 7.5 out of 10. It did not include the word impressive, instead describing main protagonist Frey’s overall adventure as “[not] without its highlights.”
Game Informer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lieu told Kotaku that the intent of the video wasn’t to claim that he thinks the game is or will be bad, but rather that the misleading framing heavily implies that Square Enix wasn’t confident enough in the game to let it stand on its own without the bogus accolades.
“They could be entirely wrong taking this approach and the game is actually good, or has merits they could be focusing on instead of looking for quotes,” he said. “So I think it says more about the people in charge of marketing the game than it does the game itself.”
Companies relying on misleading quotes from critics and review outlets is nothing new. Sometimes they remove the original context. Sometimes they just search for any source, whether it’s reputable or not, that says your game is awesome. Almost always the accolades themselves are in giant fonts while the publications they’re pulled from are too small to read unless you’re taking time to analyze them in a TikTok video like Lieu.
As a point of comparison, he also shared two Forpsoken trailers that make the game look appealing without resorting to lies. The first was a trailer for the demo released last month. The second was a recut of an existing social media trailer that was repeatedly roasted online for its Joss Whedon-style fourth-wall-breaking dialogue.
“The real problem isn’t the narration at all, it’s that they don’t lean hard enough into the tone the narration should be selling and i know that because i proved it just now to be sure,” wrote Twitter user spellbang who took the same ingredients but remixed them in a way that looked much cooler while retaining the sensibility of the original.
The artistry behind making a good video game trailer aside, lying is bad and companies shouldn’t do that. It’s bad enough when a trailer full of pre-baked footage masks, say, how poorly a game actually runs. It’s even worse, though, when companies go out of their way to try and rope independent media outlets into their deceit. Publishers are supposed to get permission before using other people’s quotes in their marketing, and to be transparent about how they will be used.
Square Enixdid not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Publisher PQube [291 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/pqube”>PQube and developer Crazy Goat Games” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/crazy-goat-games”>Crazy Goat Games will release turn-based Strategy RPG [173 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg/strategy-rpg”>strategy RPG The Dragoness: Command of the Flame” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/the-dragoness-command-of-the-flame”>The Dragoness: Command of the Flame for PS5 [4,053 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps5″>PlayStation 5, Xbox Series [3,120 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-series”>Xbox Series, PS4 [24,486 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps4″>PlayStation 4, and Switch [12,837 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/nintendo/switch”>Switch in 2023, the companies announced.
The Dragoness: Command of the Flame first launched for PC via Steam on September 1, 2022.
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
About
A Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired Adventure [656 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure with a Roguelite [70 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/roguelite”>roguelite twist. Embarking on an epic quest across the Drairthir Peninsula—a land ravaged by warring factions of Dragons—you take the role of a Commander, recruited by The Dragoness, in her bid to conquer and bring peace to the world.
Finding yourself in the ruined capital of Niwenborh, it’s down to you to rebuild this once-great city. Only by recruiting a powerful beast army and managing your resources will you be able to prepare yourself for the dangers that lie ahead—where only keen strategic thinking and tactical skill will see you emerge victorious.
It’s Your Turn to Fight Back
In a classic combat system, great strength counts for nothing without solid tactics. Enter challenging, turn-based, Heroes of Might and Magic-inspired battles. As you lead your allied creatures to victory, use what you’ve learned about your enemies’ attacks to do your best to minimize your losses. As your beast army grows in numbers, experiment with unit types and skill synergies to find a playstyle that suits your strategic thinking—and forges the best path to success.
Lose the Battle, Win the War
Your defeats will only serve to fuel your determination. Embark on roguelite adventures during which you will explore the ever-changing Drairthir Peninsula in search of vital resources, powerful creatures to add to your army, ancient artefacts to enhance your power, and enemies to crush. Each journey will unlock new beasts, skills and base upgrades. Don’t despair over your downfalls, as each time you will rise up stronger, blazing your own path through the hero progression system.
Rule the Darkness, Command the Flame
Your battle prowess alone might not be enough to save the world from succumbing to darkness. Prove your worth as The Dragoness’ Commander, by restoring Niwenborh and reinforcing its army. Gather resources, care for your beasts, manage the development of the capital and decide on the direction of your progress. In this world, your choices are everything: pick which paths to explore and beasts to collect; choose which fights are worth the effort and which should be avoided for now.
Key Features
Immerse yourself in Heroes of Might and Magic-like exploration and combat.
Embark on roguelite adventures, growing stronger with each defeat.
Take on the role of the Commander and develop her powers and skills.
Recruit a formidable army of beasts to do your bidding on the battlefield.
Fight battles that will challenge your strategic thinking.
Choose from a huge range of abilities and artefacts—experimenting with powerful skill synergies.
Gather resources to manage and develop the Capital City of Niwenborh.
At The Dragoness’ behest—put down a rebellion and regain control of the kingdom against a demonic dragon adversary.
Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast finally broke its silence regarding the game’s Open Game License on Friday, attempting to calm tensions in the D&D community and answer questions that were raised after Gizmodo broke the news about the contents of a draft of the document last week.
In a message titled An Update on the Open Game License (OGL), posted on the web site for D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast’s official digital toolset, the company addressed many of the concerns raised after the leak of the Open Gaming License 1.1 earlier in the week, and walked them back—fast. Notable changes include the elimination of royalty structures, and the promise to clarify ownership of copyright and intellectual property.
But it might be too little, too late.
Despite reassurances from the Hasbro subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) may have already suffered the consequences of their week of silence. Multiple sources from inside WotC tell Gizmodo that the situation inside the castle is dire, and Hasbro’s concern is less about public image and more about the IP hoard the dragon sits on.
The bottom line seems to be: After a fan-led campaign to cancel D&D Beyond subscriptions went viral, it sent a message to WotC and Hasbro higher-ups. According to multiple sources, these immediate financial consequences were the main thing that forced them to respond. The decision to further delay the rollout of the new Open Gaming License and then adjust the messaging around the rollout occurred because of a “provable impact” on their bottom line.
According to those sources, in meetings and communication with employees, WotC management’s messaging has been that fans are “overreacting” to the leaked draft, and that in a few months, nobody will remember the uproar.
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
Licensees are pushing back
But despite any hopes that this all might blow over, well-known publishers who have previously used the OGL—some almost exclusively, such as Kobold Press, and MCDM— have already put out statements saying that they will either be moving away from all versions of the OGL, or explicitly offering up their own gaming licenses for their core games.
The “negative impact of implementing the new OGL might be a feature and not a bug for Wizards of the Coast,” said Charles Ryan, chief operating officer of Monte Cook Games. “A savvy third-party publisher might look at where 5e is in it life cycle,” he said, and if they were planning 5e products, reconsider their investment. Monte Cook Games released their own open, perpetual license for their acclaimed Cypher System last year.
Smaller indie presses have pulled together resources to help people make third-party content for small games. Rowan, Rook and Dekard, for example, released The Resistance Toolkit, a document meant to help ease designers off the 5th edition D&D rules and into writing third-party content for their acclaimed RPG Spire.
One third-party publisher told Gizmodo that they had expected WotC to update the OGL as seen in the leaked documents, but not until 2025, during the full release of DnDOne. Now many third-party publishers have moved up their migration timeline following the publicity disaster surrounding the leaked new Dungeons & Dragons OGL.
One of WotC’s biggest competitors, the independent publisher Paizo, owner of the Pathfinder and Starfinder RPGs, is currently spearheading a campaign to create an Open RPG Creative License (ORC) that would be stewarded by a non-profit foundation. Other publishers, including Kobold Press, Chaosium, and Legendary Games, have already committed to the effort.
Another third-party publisher who asked not to be identified told Gizmodo their company “has already collaborated with other third-party publishers” to mount a legal defense of the original, circa 2000, OGL 1.0(a).
The OGL 1.1 text and the 2.0 FAQ
Last week Gizmodo received leaked draft copies of an “OGL 1.1″, and then a few days later, a Frequently Asked Questions document which referred to an “OGL 2.0.” (This is an important distinction, because while a 1.1 could be considered an update to the original 1.0(a), calling the new agreement 2.0 may indicate it’s being imagined as an entirely new, separate agreement.)
One of the most telling parts of the OGL 2.0 FAQ included a statement that clarified one of the most inflammatory points of the leaked OGL 1.1—whether or not the original OGL 1.0a would be deauthorized. The leaked FAQ said that the “OGL 1.0a only allows creators to use ‘authorized’ versions of the OGL which allows Wizards to determine which of its prior versions to continue to allow use of when we exercise our right to update the license. As part of rolling out OGL 2.0, we are deauthorizing OGL 1.0a from future use and deleting it from our website. This means OGL 1.0a can no longer be used to develop content for release.”
Although many people have come forward to debate the legitimacy of this interpretation, including former WotC executive Ryan Dancey, who helped write the original OGL 1.0, the FAQ continued to push this language. Additionally, the Jan 13 update does not explicitly state that the company will not attempt to deauthorize the OGL 1.0a. “I do not believe that the OGL v1.0a can be deauthorized,” Dancey said in an email to Gizmodo. “There’s no mechanism in the license for deauthorization.”
“When v1.0a was published and authorized, Hasbro & Wizards of the Coast did so knowing that they were entering into a perpetual licensing regime,” Dancey continued. “All the people involved at the executive level – Peter Adkison (who was Wizards’ CEO), Brian Lewis (who was Wizards’ in house counsel), and me (I was the VP of Tabletop RPGs) all agreed that was the intent of the license.”
While the OGL 2.0 FAQ was distributed across multiple teams inside of Wizards of the Coast, sources indicate that this FAQ was not released on January 12 as intended due to the impact of the canceled subscriptions and the rising tide of backlash online.
The FAQ for the OGL 2.0 also stated that “the leaked documents were drafts, and some of the content that people have been upset about was already changed in the latest versions by the time of the leaks.” However, what upset people—including copyright riders and royalties—still seemed to be in place in the FAQ for 2.0.
“The part that of the OGL 1.1 that stated once you publish under the OGL 1.1 other people can use your work as well is very similar to DMs Guild language,” explained Jessica Marcrum, co-creator of Unseelie Studios. “But that’s not ‘open’ language. And it seems like they’re using the guise of the old OGL to to pretend that 1.1 is an open giving license when it isn’t.”
Additionally, multiple sources reported that third-party publishers were given the OGL 1.1 in mid-December as an incentive for signing onto a “sweetheart deal,” indicating that WotC was ready to go with the originally leaked, draconian OGL 1.1.
The ‘Term Sheets’
According to an anonymous source who was in the room, in late 2022 Wizards of the Coast gave a presentation to a group of about 20 third-party creators that outlined the new OGL 1.1. These creators were also offered deals that would supersede the publicly available OGL 1.1; Gizmodo has received a copy of that document, called a “Term Sheet,” that would be used to outline specific custom contracts within the OGL.
These “sweetheart” deals would entitle signatories to lower royalty payments—15 percent instead of 25 percent on excess revenue over $750,000, as stated in the OGL 1.1—and a commitment from Wizards of the Coast to market these third-party products on various D&D Beyond channels and platforms, except during “blackout periods” around WotC’s own releases.
It was expected that third parties would sign these Term Sheets. Noah Downs, a lawyer in the table-top RPG space who was consulted on the conditions of one of these contracts, stated that even though the sheets included language suggesting negotiation was possible, he got the impression there wasn’t much room for change.
Getting it right
In its “Update on the Open Game License” released Friday, WotC promised that the new OGL was still in development and not ready for final release “because we need to make sure we get it right.” The company promised to take feedback from the community and continue to make revisions to the OGL that made it work for both WotC and its third-party publishers.
But it may be too late. “Even if Wizards of the Coast were to entirely walk [the leaked OGL 1.1] back, it leaves such a sour taste in and in my mouth that I don’t want to work with the OGL in the future,” said Unseelie Studios’ David Markiwski.
Meanwhile, the “#DnDBegone” campaign encouraging fans to cancel their D&D Beyond subscriptions continued to gain traction on Twitter and other social media sites.
In order to delete a D&D Beyond account entirely, users are funneled into a support system that asks them to submit tickets to be handled by customer service: Sources from inside Wizards of the Coast confirm that earlier this week there were “five digits” worth of complaining tickets in the system. Both moderation and internal management of the issues have been “a mess,” they said, partially due to the fact that WotC has recently downsized the D&D Beyond support team.
Wizards of the Coast stated in the unreleased FAQ that it wasn’t making changes to the OGL just because of a few “loud voices,” and that’s true. It took thousands of voices. And it’s clear that Wizards of the Coast didn’t make the latest changes purely of their own accord. The entire tabletop ecosystem is holding Wizards of the Coast to the promises that they made in 2000. And now, the fans are setting the terms.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
If you haven’t heard, Google Stadia is shutting down and closing shop next week. But before the never-quite-successful game streaming service dies, it has provided one neat (and free) little gift you can only play for a few days before it all goes offline.
Launched back in 2019, Google Stadia was a costly and massive investment from Google into the world of video games. Powered by the cloud aka a bunch of servers and off-site computers, Stadia’s big promise was instantaneous gaming on the go. No more updates or expensive consoles. And while it sometimes worked, the high cost of games, lack of features, small library, and internet costs ended up dooming the service. Sure, some superfans logged thousands of hours into it, but for most, it just wasn’t what they wanted or needed from a video game platform.
So it wasn’t surprising that in September of last year, Google announced the end of Stadia. In five days, on January 18, the video game streaming service will shut down. With the end so near, it seemed unlikely that Stadia would receive any new game releases. Yet, Google has published one final game. But don’t expect some big open-world RPG or remake. Instead, the final Stadia game is Worm Game, an internally developed title used to test Stadia long before it became a public service.
We probably were never meant to see or play this Snake-like test game as it sports fairly rudimentary graphics and kinda ugly menus. But in the final days of Stadia, it appears the devs working on the project were able to provide its community one final treat. Even better, anyone can play Worm Game as it’s free. (Which makes sense considering the Stadia store stopped working already.)
The game’s store page features this nice and touching description of the game and what it was used for:
Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.
Is Worm Game some incredibly important or amazing thing? Not really. However, it’s still really cool to get a peek behind the scenes, and thanks to videos of Worm Game, this little piece of test software will be somewhat preserved for folks to look back at years from now.
In other cool End Of Stadia news, Google has confirmed that starting next week, it will start allowing players to unlock the Bluetooth functionally of its Stadia controller.
This is a nice way to make the controller—which has one of my favorite modern D-pads on it—more useful and easier to hook up to more devices. I doubt the devs who worked on Stadia for years were planning for the controller to be the only thing left of Stadia in 2023, but here we are.
The last few Assassin’s Creed titles have been gigantic games that can easily take over a hundred hours to fully complete, with huge maps crowded with POIs and tons of side quests to distract you from the main story. According to Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the upcoming spin-off, is smaller and more “intimate” because fans grew tired of these giant RPGs. And the devs were more than happy to go in this direction with the latest game in the franchise.
While I’ll be the first to say that modern Assassin’s Creed games have been a lot of fun, I’ll also admit that recent entries in the series like Odyssey and Valhalla have become far too big and bloated. More recent Assassin’s Creed games, starting with Origins, have evolved the franchise from a series of smaller, stealth games set in large cities into a collection of massive open-world RPGs often filled with hundreds of quests, side quests, collectibles, and places to explore. And if you, like me, long for a smaller, more focused Assassin’s Creed, well, we aren’t alone.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s creative director Stéphane Boudon explained that while Origins, Odyssey,and Valhalla were all “great games” that let players “live an epic journey” it was clear that those players were longing for something different and smaller.
“Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale,” explained Boudon. “It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project.”
Read More:How Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Creators Snuck In Connections To Older Games
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
Boudon also said that while Miragecame about from a “convergence of several inputs” the biggest driver behind the upcoming spin-off’s smaller scale and focus on narrative came from what the community was asking for after years of huge RPGs.
Further, Mirage pays homage to the OG Assassin’s Creed game starring Altair. Mirage is set in a similar part of the world—the Middle East during the 13th century—and features actual assassins and not proto-assassins as seen in recent games.
I think all of this is a great direction to take the franchise. I want to keep playing these games, but after Valhalla, I’m not sure I need yet another 200-hour epic RPG. This could really help mix things up and keep the franchise feeling fresh and fun. I hope this is the start of a new trend where we see a mix of bigger, open-world entries (Valhalla, Origins) and smaller games focused on stealth. The franchise can support this mix and it would help avoid burning out fans who play every new game AKA me.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to release sometime this year for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
COLOPL [565 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/colopl”>COLOPL has announced Free-to-Play [127 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/free-to-play”>free-to-play 3D Action RPG [553 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg/action-rpg”>action RPG Volzerk: Monsters and Lands Unknown” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/volzerk-monsters-and-lands-unknown”>Volzerk: Monsters and Lands Unknown for PC [16,628 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC (Steam), iOS, and Android. It is known as Monster Universe in Japanese. It will launch in late January in Japanese, with plans to add English language support via a future update.
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
About
Monster breeding and action RPG. Explore the world and raise legendary monsters!
Volzerk: Monsters and Lands Unknown is a crossbreeding action RPG. Join protagonist Fina on an Adventure [653 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure to discover legendary monsters. Raise monsters, join a colorful cast of friends, and face off against powerful enemies.
Story
The island of Fort Lemuria.
Discovered in a vast ocean, this island’s rich landscape was dotted with countless mysterious ruins and inhabited by strange animals known as Monsters.
Humankind agreed to organize a Research Commission in order to investigate the island and the monsters that live there.
…Then one day, the island guardian Volzerk clashed with the legendary beast known as Magna, and both were apparently destroyed.
Ten years have passed since that day.
Without the protection of Volzerk, the monsters of the island are in danger of extinction.
However, a young girl is about to join the Research Commission.
Her name is Fina, and she is the only human alive who witnessed Volzerk’s disappearance.
With her obsessive love of monsters, Fina’s sole goal in life is to get as close to them as she can.
And deep within her heart burns the desire to once again be reunited with Volzerk.
Nexon [70 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/nexon”>Nexon has announced the development of Project DW, an Open-World [160 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/open-world”>open-world Action RPG [553 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg/action-rpg”>action RPG based on the Dungeon & Fighter intellectual property. It will be released worldwide across console, PC [16,628 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC, and mobile. A release date was not announced.
Here is an overview of the franchise, via Nexon:
Dungeon & Fighter is a PC action RPG featuring dynamic Action [847 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/action”>action play. Since its initial launch in August 2005, the Dungeon & Fighter franchise has registered more than 850 million players worldwide. In Korea, Dungeon & Fighter Mobile [2,004 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/mobile”>Mobile was released in March 2022, and continues to be extremely popular with players. Multiple other new games are now in development on the Dungeon & Fighter intellectual property, including Project OVERKILL and Arad Chronicle: Kazan [2 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/arad-chronicle-kazan”>Project AK.
(Editor’s Note: Post image is of the “Season 7 Act 2. The Meister’s Laboratory” wallpaper from the Dungeon Fighter Online official website.)
If you watch anime, you’re used to intros that alternate between being deeply emotional and serious or cheesy and silly as all hell. Sometimes it’s neither of those and is purely running off of good vibes. (Usually this is after the show in question hits a new arc.) Video games don’t always get flashy intros, and it’s a shame that’s the case. Because after watching the intro for Fire Emblem Engage, that kind of cheese is something games could stand to have more of.
Fire Emblem Engage is set to release in about two weeks, and along with impressions of the strategy-RPG, the game’s intro cinematic was released. A lot of the intro’s cheesiness is clearly owed to its song, which sounds like it was made in the 90s and then held in stasis for three decades. It’s so anime that you half expect it to end with an ad for Crunchyroll. The visuals try to hit that same cheese with colorful streaks of light corresponding with the toothpaste-colored protagonist Alear and their companions Alfred, Timerra, Ivy, and Diamant and footage of their in-game models showing off their special abilities. Maybe it’s not as strong an intro as the one for 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but Engage’s opening is fun all its own.
Fire Emblem Engage – FULL Opening [English] + Title Screen
The big selling point of Engage is that Alear and their group can use special rings to summon main characters from previous Fire Emblem entries such as Marth from 1990’s Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light or Byleth from Three Houses. That alone sounds anime as hell (image the hands of the previous heroes lifting up Alear during a key moment!), and hopefully the game is able to match the energy its opening puts off. Games like these tend to be long, so an intro should hopefully get you in the mood to defeat evil empires each time you boot it up.
Fire Emblem Engage releases for the Nintendo Switch on January 20.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Thirsty Suitors is a cross between Scott Pilgrim’s battles with evil exes, stylish arcade skateboarding, and cooking segments all portrayed through a South Asian cultural lens. Outerloop Games’ RPG stars Jala as she returns to an old town with old flames, and frames their reconciliation through turn-based battles where the simple act of talking to each other is pumped up to ridiculous levels. There’s even a stage in which Jala enters a dream world where her exes appear as powerful, distorted versions of their own self-concept. Think Persona 5 but with fewer criminals. Jala explores her old town on a skateboard (more Jet Set Radio than Tony Hawk), and when she’s home with her family, she cooks with her mother in over-the-top, campy fashion. Thirsty Suitors portrays all of its storylines in this way, but there’s a grounded humanity at its core that will be exciting to see when the game launches on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally getting a big info dump on Granblue Fantasy: Relink in the very near future. The action RPG, which has looked potentially outstanding in previous gameplay videos, will be a headline act at Granblue Fantasy FES — the franchise’s annual event that’s taking place in January.
Developer Cygames has now confirmed that Relink will have its own on-stage presentation during the festivities, promising a lot of new information. It’s possible that we’ll get a release date, as the title is apparently on track for its worldwide launch in 2023. We will, of course, be covering any relevant news here on the site.
It’s also worth reiterating that Relink will be playable at this event. A public demo will be available on the show floor, so we’re almost certainly getting fresh gameplay footage. Simply put, we can’t wait to see and hear more.
