Looking for the best Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio? There are a whopping total of 46 Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio and 7 playable characters who can wield them. This means you may have a tough time narrowing down your options and choosing the best Archetypes for each character.
Archetypes are essentially forms that your party can transform into during battle in order to unlock unique magic skills and attacks. Archetypes also have access to 'Synthesis skills' depending on your party loadout.
Below we'll go through the best Archetypes for each playable character in the game as well as Synthesis options so you can build the perfect party for your adventures. If you want a broader list of all 46 Archetypes and how to unlock them all, as well as a rundown of Royal Archetypes, see our comprehensive Archetype list.
]]>Looking for a list of all Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio? There is a huge roster of Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio to choose from - a total of 46 altogether. This includes standard Archetypes and more advanced Royal Archetypes, which you can unlock as you progress through the game.
To plan your Archetypes ahead, or to simply see what's on offer, we've gathered a list of all Metaphor ReFantazio Archetypes in one conclusive list. We've also included steps for unlocking every one and go into further detail on how to unlock all Royal Archetypes and the ultimate Prince Archetype.
]]>Looking for all Metaphor ReFantazio cooking answers? Once you progress through Metaphor ReFantazio enough to take up residence at Grand Trad, you may encounter a Young Nidia Man on Sunlumeo Street who asks for information about the cooking at the Hushed Honeybee Inn.
What follows is the 'Help the Hushed Honeybee' quest wherein you must help Fabienne cook for the customers at night. To successfully pull off the quest and earn all Tolerance points with Fabienne, you must answer several cooking questions correctly. If you want to get the most out of these two tasks, we have all cooking answers listed below.
]]>Looking for all ingredients needed to make Redgrass Roasted Bidou in Metaphor ReFantazio? As you progress through Metaphor ReFantazio you'll gain the option to help Fabienne cook at the Hushed Honeybee Inn at Grand Trad.
She'll offer to teach you how to cook Redgrass Roasted Bidou, but you'll need to bring her the ingredients first. For all Redgrass Roasted Bidou ingredient locations, see our full guide below.
]]>Few games demonstrate the disconnect between graphics and aesthetic like Metaphor: ReFantazio. A pure technical analysis would conclude that it has the fidelity of an early Nintendo Switch game at best, and yet anyone whose heart flickers with even the tiniest ember of sentiment will instantly fall in love with its lavish pause screen animations. Yes, this RPG has style for days, maybe even an entire calendar, and an upside of its more dated aspects is that it runs fine on the modest internals of the Steam Deck.
]]>Graham asked me if I'd discovered what the metaphor in Metaphor: ReFantazio might be, and I replied, "I don't know haha", or something along those lines. Having given it more thought, I think there are two metaphors: 1) It plays quite like Persona. 2) Its story is like a commentary on our society… or something to that effect.
Metaphors aside, though, the game is a gigantic fantasy RPG that's technically better than Persona 5 in a lot of ways. Structurally, it feels less repetitive. It has more animated cutscenes that elevate those key story moments. You can brush aside weaker enemies in real-time combat, rather than face them in tiresome turn-based tangoes. And overall, I think it's the best game Persona or Persona-like Atlus have put out - it really is brilliant. But there's a part of me that feels like it's missing something that'll leave it less ingrained in the memory than Persona 5 once its final chapter has closed.
]]>Metaphor: ReFantazio is either a high-fantasy Persona or a Shin Megami Tensei with cool fonts and a warm heart. Edwin dug its hybrid combat system, while James was moved by its mad libs monster design. It has an October 11th release date, but you don't have to wait until then to begin plotting it and you along these various axes. There's a demo you can play out now.
]]>Having played the opening hour of Altus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio – now mere weeks away from its October 11th launch – I think it’s high time to correct a games previewing injustice. Namely, that the majority of its pre-release buzz has centred around its proximity to Persona, and not its far more entertaining quality of having the most gleefully bizarre RPG enemy design this side of Elden Ring’s horn-tooting orbpeople.
]]>Can you believe we didn't have a best JRPG list until now? Baffling. To be fair we did once tackle this topic with a preliminary blast of recommendations for those completely new to the genre. We also have a few familiar fantasys in our list of the 50 best RPGs on PC. But until now we haven't addressed the genre in its own right. In an act of contrition, we offer you this: our list of the best JRPGs you can play on PC this year, according to our own tastes.
]]>To start a modern Atlus game is to dive headfirst into an ice-cold bath of unbearably swish UI design, a brimming tub of Cool Fonts and Flash Segues. Metaphor: ReFantazio, the first (going by the colon usage) in a new series of RPGs helmed by Persona series director Katsura Hashino, is no exception. It might be set in a medieval fantasy realm, a relatively straight-laced world of square masonry and parchment maps, but it portrays bread-and-butter RPG fixtures with much the same flair as its strutting high school cousin.
]]>It’s easy to draw comparisons between Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona, given that the upcoming RPG is in the works over at Persona makers Atlus and is built around a similar ‘transform into an awesome-looking robot/creature and do battle’ concept, but so far all those comparisons only serve to highlight just how damn good Metaphor: ReFantazio looks.
]]>A little while back we were graced by 25-minutes of Metaphor: ReFantazio footage, from which I gleaned some chunks of info. Honestly, a new press release doesn't unveil a whole lot of hotness we didn't catch a glimpse of before, but it does give us a better idea of how the battle system works in Atlus's upcoming JRPG.
]]>As one of the Treehouse's resident Atlus sickos, I was incredibly happy to wake up to 25-minutes of Metaphor: ReFantazio's director Katsura Hashino talking us through some new footage. We get a look at a new rural town and the activities you can get up to, like bounty hunting. Travel on your magic mech is compared to "camping", which I wasn't expecting. And there's lots of combat on show, with transitions from real-time to turn-based battles outlined in a bit more detail. Oh and it's coming out in October, which gives me plenty of time to clear my JRPG backlog before this inevitably takes over my entire existence for the foreseeable.
]]>It turns out that Persona 3 Reload will get previously missing expansion The Answer after all, as Atlus announce that the epilogue chapter included in past re-release Persona 3 FES will be added as DLC this September.
]]>Shin Megami Tensei 5 is getting the Persona 5 Royal treatment, with an all-new Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance edition that's out in June. It features a new story path, an improved battle system, new areas, and more, as you'd expect from Atlus' history of definitive editions. What's more, while SMT 5 was a Switch exclusive when it came out in 2021, the new Vengeance edition will be heading to PC and other consoles, too. Do I have time for another enormous JRPG? Probably not, but I'll admit that it's got me very interested indeed.
]]>Persona developers Atlus have promised there are no plans to follow up Persona 3 remake Reload with an expanded re-release like Persona 5 Royal, giving us all a welcome break from the tyranny of the letter R.
]]>On the 23rd of May, I strode out of the exam hall with my head held high. Not only had we cleared out the 42nd floor of the cursed extra-dimensional horror house that was our school’s midnight alter-ego, I’d also just aced my midterms. I spent the afternoon helping my french foreign exchange friend sew a kimono for his estranged uncle, then killed some time before bed by consoling the small child I’d been hanging out with lately about her parent’s divorce.
So goes an average day in one of the very, very many days stuffed into Persona 3 Reload’s year long taste of demon-slaying high school life. A charming fantasy? Perhaps! There's plenty here for fans who don’t mind an old-school approach to grinding while exploring heartfelt, albeit cheesy, friendships. Those who don't get on with anime tropes, though, might find it exhaustingly written and repetitive.
]]>Having spent what feels like an entire lifetime in JRPG Persona 5 Royal, going back to the original Persona 3 is pretty jarring. It's unsurprising given it came out 18 years ago, but exploration is more akin to a slideshow and dungeon-running to a well-rehearsed routine.
But with an hour of Persona 3 Reload under my belt, P3's remake felt immediately familiar. It's absolutely built for a seamless transition for P5-likers and takes away some of P5 Royal's learnings, too. Unless something disastrous happens when Reload fully releases, I can't ever see myself returning to the original.
]]>Persona is one of the most stylish video game series around, which means it's a pleasure just to watch the games in action whether in one of its lushly animated cutscenes or during its in-game combat and dialogue. Persona 3 was no exception and its imminent remake Persona 3 Reload seems only to be pushing it into the modern era.
As proof, Atlus have released the opening movie for Reload - that is, the two-minute intro sequence that'll play at the start of the game.
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as Avowed, Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.
]]>I'm not normally in a rush to post marketing videos in which developers talk about how great their new game is, but I need all the help I can get in understanding Metaphor: ReFantazio. The new RPG from the makers of Persona looks stylish, dense, exciting, and almost entirely baffling in its trailers, so 14 minutes of the folks from Atlus just describing it is welcome.
]]>Between spin-offs, sequels and remakes, there are now more Persona games than you could play in a lifetime. It's exciting therefore to see Persona developers try their hand at something different, and Metaphor: ReFantazio certainly looks different. It's a high-fantasy RPG developed by Atlus and led by various former Persona and Shin Megami Tensei devs, and there's a new trailer below.
]]>The Persona 5 kids are trapped in high school, their semesters stretched into infinity by the inescapable march of spin-offs that have been retroactively stuffed into every available blank spot. Since the credits rolled on Persona 5 (and also before, and sometimes concurrently), the Phantom Thieves have spent their time in a rubbish Dynasty Warriors knock-off, got lost in a dream about a really cheap rhythm-action game and ended up trapped in a cross-generational dungeon crawler. Now they find themselves embroiled in - of all things - an X-COM style turn-based strategy game.
Your energy for Persona 5 Tactica is going to come down to how much tolerance you have for the Persona 5 brand’s Baz Luhrmann-style maximalism. If you're emotionally invested in the gang, it'll definitely help. But even if you're a Persona veteran or a total newcomer, you'll find the story a bit loose, the chats a bit tiring, and the combat a bit simplistic. Then again, if you're a Persona fan, it's still more than a good excuse to sink back into another adventure with your pals.
]]>Persona 3 Reload gives the classic 2006 RPG the remake treatment, hopefully making it seem as effortlessly stylish as the fantastic Persona 5 Royal. Developer Atlus dropped another gorgeous trailer that gives us a wee peek at its new anime cutscenes, fan favourite cast, and… wait a second. There aren’t any cool menus in this trailer and my day is ruined. But the trailer also confirms that the game is due to launch on February 2nd, 2024, so we can gawk at the level-up screens soon.
]]>The Phantom Thieves are taking their stylish fits and supernatural powers onto a turn-based grid with Persona 5 Tactica. Set sometime during the events of Persona 5 Royal, the strategy game’s latest trailer shows our chibi heroes leading a revolution against vaguely French demons and a newly unveiled big bad. Akechi and Kisume stans might notice they aren’t in the shenanigans below, but that's because both characters have been sadly paywalled behind day-one DLC. For now, check out the new trailer.
]]>Persona 3 Reload intends to be the classic, 2006 JRPG "faithfully remade with cutting-edge graphics, modernized quality-of-life features, and signature stylish UI." It was announced - or rather, leaked - just before not-E3 last month, but now there's a new trailer that shows the game's combat for the first time.
]]>Grid-based strategy spin-off Persona 5 Tactica's latest trailer introduces a new member to The Phantom Thieves: Erina. Or maybe she’s just a temporary friend. Atlus describe her as a “mysterious revolutionary with a strong sense of justice,” although it’s not yet clear what we’re revolting against, aside from vaguely-French demons. Check out the new gameplay trailer.
]]>Atlus have become a Persona factory in recent years, producing not only the mainline urban fantasy RPGs but spin-offs like Persona 5 Strikers and the recently announced Persona 5 Tactica. Thankfully they're working on something entirely new, too.
During tonight's Xbox Games Showcase, Atlus announced Metaphor: ReFantazio, a new "high fantasy" RPG from Persona 5's director and character designer.
]]>Update: Yup, it's official, obvs. More info and better-quality trailers added below.
In this week of oh so many announcements, you can't blame anyone for getting carried away and jumping the gun. Unfortunately for Persona developers Atlus, it seems they accidentally announced two games earlier than intended. Eagle-eyed fans say Atlus's Instagram today posted trailers for Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the 2006 RPG, and grid-based tactics spin-off Persona 5 Tactica. While they're no longer on the Insta, folks say they've saved the trailers so you can see them too.
]]>Persona is a series with plenty of choice as you balance your alternate dimension demon-slaying responsibilities with your high-schooling social life. Playing as a student, you're free to decide how to spend your free time, which characters to spend it with, and who to inevitably romance by the end of the game. Plenty of options, for sure, but Persona 3 Portable was the last time we could choose our protagonist’s gender in the series. Until now. Thanks to the simply titled “P5R Female Protagonist” mod, you can now replace the default male protagonist Joker in Persona 5 Royal with a she/her Joker. On paper, that would seem like a novel change in a lot of games, but in the mammoth-sized Persona 5, a change like that requires some very impressive modding.
]]>Over the weekend, footage leaked online showing what appeared to be a shiny remake of Atlus’ Persona 3 and the next entry in Jet Set Radio, apparently making Sega the latest company to pursue the remake/reboot gold. Late last year, the publisher emphasised plans to “focus on remaking and remastering existing IPs,” although they haven’t confirmed the existence of either project yet.
]]>The Etrian Odyssey series is a huge blindspot for me, and I imagine many others. They're a series of dungeon crawling JRPGs in which you pilot a party of adventures through first-person, grid-based mazes and turn-based battles. Now is your chance to fill the gap in your knowledge: the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection is headed to PC on June 1st.
]]>As a PC player, watching Nintendo Directs can be finicky business. Everything simply has a Switch logo, so how do you know what to be excited for? We hear your (very important) woes, so we’ve compiled every PC game featured in last night’s direct. There were plenty of goodies coming to PC including paranormal detectives, retro throwbacks, a new game from Don’t Nod, and more. So let’s get started.
]]>As someone whose only experience with the Persona series lay with Persona 5, I dove into Persona 3 Portable's PC re-release with one expectation: it will be old and therefore quite bad. Looking back, was I naïve? Yes. And was I wrong? I'm delighted to report that I was catastrophically wrong.
From what I've played so far of Persona 3, I reckon it's well worth a whirl if you're a newcomer, or a Persona 5 fan who's concerned that a game from 2009 won't be all that good. Not only does it stand on its own as a fun high school mystery with an alarmingly dark undertone, it almost acts as a fun history lesson too.
]]>Persona fans are passionate about the series’ various party members. This is partly due to the dozens upon dozens of hours we spend with these schoolmates. Our digital anime friends. I carried Morgana the cat around my bag for a year, so he might as well be real. As expected, then, when Atlus released the results of a character popularity poll for Persona 5 recently, fans understandably had some strong reactions, particularly over the placing of best boy Ryuji.
]]>With all the doors on our RPS Advent Calendar well and truly busted open for 2022 now, we thought it was high time to gather all of our favourite games of the year together in one handy location. If you've been diligently scoffing our Advent treats throughout December, then you'll already know what our game of the year picks are for 2022, but just in case you missed them or want to go through them one final time, we've got 'em all right here for you in our definitive Games Of The Year list. Enjoy!
]]>Today we reach day 13 of the RPS Advent Calendar. This is unlucky for some, but not for a group of cool, fast movin', psyche-battlin' schoolkids, who spend a lot of time on extra curricular activities and not enough time getting their talking cat to shut up.
]]>Is it just me, or did Persona 5 never feel quite at home on the PlayStation 4? Sure, it looked gorgeous on a big TV, its bright colours popping all over your living room, but it always felt bit wrong to me. I think it's all about pacing. Persona 5's blend of turn-based combat and life sim elements hardly moves at a breakneck speed. There's a lot of reading. A lot of listening to your pals chat about their hopes and fears. A lot of pressing one button to progress a line of dialogue onto the next. Shoving that on your 65" 4K TV always seemed a bit overkill.
Basically, I never got into Persona 5 when it first launched on PS4. I played about three hours of it and then binned it off in favour of something else. In 2020, during a moment of first-lockdown madness, I bought Persona 5 Royal for full price, thinking maybe my issue with the original release was that there wasn't enough of it, but surprisingly discovered it still wasn't for me. At this point, I'd invested £100 into my "Do I like Persona 5?" experiment and was quickly realising the result was a pretty firm "No, mate, you don't". So when I sat down with the PC version of the game on the Steam Deck to test it out, I figured I'd play it for a few hours and then never touch it again. I was wrong. I was so very wrong.
]]>I finished the original Persona 5 roughly four years ago, and it immediately earned my most coveted award: Edders Really Liked This A Lot, Perhaps More Than Anything Else. Since its updated and expanded Royal version dropped on PlayStation some years later, I've been afraid to make my return. You'd think I'd be itching to delve back into what's essentially the definitive version of the Phantom Thieves' adventure, and yet it's precisely because it blew me away the first time that I've been reluctant to go back.
Now? Now I feel silly. After playing the early portions of Persona 5: Royal, which finds itself coming to practically every remaining platform this week, including PC, my goodness me, it's wonderful to be back in Shibuya with the gang. Already it's the Persona 5 I adored, with new cutscenes and pacing adjustments to make it – somehow – even better. Have you never played Persona before? Good! Let me twist your arm. Gi-give, no - give it here!
]]>The collective JRPG fandom did a little squee and cartwheeled when Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Portable were announced for PC at Sunday’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. There was no word on whether either game would make their way to Steam like Persona 4 Golden, though. Well, never fear, because developers Atlus say both games will be coming to Valve’s storefront, as Eurogamer report. In case you missed the trailer, here it is below.
]]>Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Portable are coming to PC via Xbox Game Pass, with Persona 5 Royal due to arrive this October. Persona 4 Golden, which is already available on PC via Steam, is also coming to Game Pass. This is exceptionally good news for fans of stylish, urban fantasy JRPGs about hanging with friends, going to school and getting sucked into supernatural adventures.
]]>Almost as if Atlus had heard we were celebrating Souls Week on RPS, the Persona peeps today announced Soul Hackers 2. May I briefly say: hack the planet. Anyway, so, demons are kicking around again, and it'll be up to save the world from the apocalypse with the help of our own demons. Check out the RPG's announcement trailer below.
]]>The Tokyo Game Show 2021 has begun, and from today it'll have a bunch of announceathons from the likes of Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft and more stretching over the weekend. Like most other games events this year, TGS is a digital affair, streaming good game stuff to your screens via YouTube and Twitch. There's a heck of a lot on too, so I've had a look through the official programs and gathered some highlights right here.
]]>Atlus have launched a website for Persona's 25th anniversary on which they tease seven announcements to come between September 2021 and autumn 2022. Those announcements will include "commemorative goods, various events, collaborations, and of course game information," reads a Google Translate of the page.
There are maybe three ways here that Atlus could meet or exceed hopes regarding the Persona series, and approximately 1000 ways in which they could disappoint.
]]>Ever since its surprise launch on Persona 4 Golden on PC last summer, there's been a decent amount of chatter about PC versions of other Atlus games. Sega have said that the port's success on PC had them considering more PC ports in general and they've now attached a recent number as context for that consideration. P4 Golden has now sold over a million copies on Steam, Atlus say, which sure does seem decent for the port of a game from 2008.
]]>What better way to start your week than to become a high school student who experiences an apocalyptic event that turns Tokyo into a demon world? Today, Atlus released the Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster (which I will refer to as SMT3, because good lord that's a long title), inviting PC players to try out the series that spawned Persona for the first time (alright fine, other Megami Tensei games have been on PC, but this is the first from the main series).
]]>My favourite description of the Shin Megami Tensei games is that they’re everything the religious right accused Pokémon of being in the late 90s. Back then parents fretted that Pikachu was secretly conscripting children into Satan’s army, what with the paranormal tinge of its bestiary and the presence of ‘undead’ Ghost types. When, as we all know, the only Pokémon you need to watch your kids around is Mr Mime. Powerful Operation Yewtree energy.
All the while Shin Megami Tensei was doing its thing in Japan, actively encouraging you to negotiate with a snake with the head of a dog in order to secure your rule in post-apocalyptic hellscapes. Pikachu was just a diversion! Well played, The Devil, well played.
]]>Yakuza: Like A Dragon was the first Yakuza game to be a multi-platform release in the west at the same time as it launched in Japan, which publisher Sega reckons is the main reason it's the most successful Yakuza game to date. Thanks to that success, Sega's chief strategy officer Shuji Utsumi says that going forward, they want Persona developers Atlus to release their games at the same time around the world, and on multiple platforms, too.
]]>I've played just one Shin Megami Tensei game. "Hey, this will be like spin-off series Persona but with a focus on the turn-based combat against colourful demons," I thought. That's true, it is! But it's also rock hard and I just died and died and died until I gave up.
Today I am excited for two reasons: Shim Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster is heading to PC, and it will come with a new "Merciful" difficulty mode.
]]>Persona 5 Strikers has a final showdown against god. Pretty par for the course in a Persona game. In order to get there though, you have to get through Misty Path, which will refuse to allow you through if you stay on the beaten track. Here’s how to get through Misty Path in Persona 5 Strikers.
Spoilers for the end bit of the game.
]]>Persona 5 Strikers is out now on PC, Switch, and PS4. It’s a pretty long game though, being an entry in the Persona series. There are a number of dungeons in Persona 5 Strikers known as ‘jaills’, and they must be traversed in order to usurp the ‘Monarch’ of each one. If you’re wondering how far through the game you are, this is the page for you, as we run down how many jails are in Persona 5 Strikers.
Minor spoilers, of course, for the game’s twists and turns.
]]>As an adult, I can think of no more acute version of hell than coming back from uni and going on a summer road trip with the people I'd known at secondary school. But in fairness, if we'd all been part of a secret supernatural crime-fighting team - who did battles with often grotesque monsters in peoples' subconsciouses, no less - and had reformed for one last job involving an undercover cop, a super-advanced AI, and our old pal the talking cat, I'd probably have way more interest. Such is the summer ahead of the teen codenamed Joker, the returning protagonist of Persona 5 Strikers.
]]>Hear that? The faint murmur of a sax solo, the trundle of a cat-shaped bus, a rippling bassline. If I listen closely, I can't shake the feeling that my life's about to change again. Persona 5 Strikers isn't far off now, and I can't wait to reunite with my high school homies in this hack-and-slash follow up to 2017's endlessly stylish, turn-based JRPG Persona 5.
But as the prospect of fist-bumping my boy Ryuji and pruning some flowers with Haru draws near, something deep within me crashes to the surface once again. Persona 5 for PC! Where are you, huh? WHERE ARE Y-
]]>As I write this, I'm listening to "Life Will Change" from the official Persona 5 soundtrack on Spotify. I can't quite believe it, is this real? Yes, it has to be, as this sizzling groove is now saved to my "Liked Songs". I can see it there, with my own eyes! And many more are due to follow, as a whole host of other Persona OSTs have made their way onto Spotify too. Perhaps dreams really do come true.
]]>It looks like those Persona 5 boys and girls (and cat?) will be making another dramatic appearance on PC next year - it's not Persona 5, though, sorry. It's Persona 5 Strikers! The spinoff hack 'n' slash RPG came out in Japan this February, and now it's set to launch around the rest of the world on February 23rd, 2021.
]]>These phantom thieves sure need to work on their stealth because they've been spotted trying to make a sneaky entrance. It looks like Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, the hack and slash 'em up spinoff of Persona 5, is getting a worldwide release and on PC to boot. According to a trailer spotted on YouTube, it will launch as Persona 5 Strikers in February.
Update: Atlus have tweeted saying, "All will be revealed December 8" and have updated their official site to say "The Phantom Thieves of Hearts will return".
]]>Between Persona 4 Golden, Catherine Classic, and Yakuza 0, Sega's recent PC ports have been such a success that they have decided to keep them coming, and are planning to factor the PC into their future releases from the start.
]]>Most roleplaying games span continents, planets, even galaxies. Persona 4 Golden – the first of Atlus's celebrated RPGs to make a belated landfall on PC - is set almost entirely inside a single town. It's not even a very memorable town: neither a wistful Chosen One Village nor a bustling world hub, but a wilting suburb done up in Google Map shades of tarmac and drizzle, full of collapsing businesses, bitter old people and bored children.
]]>Rejoice, JRPG fans. Persona 4 Golden has finally been summoned onto PC. Announced just moments ago at the PC Gaming Show as part of this year's notE3 celebrations, this is the first time a Persona game has been released on something that doesn't have the word PlayStation written on it, which is pretty darn exciting if you ask me. This is a series I've been busting to play on PC for absolutely yonks, and I've been putting the PC port of Persona 4 Golden through its paces to see how it holds up.
]]>After a little teasing, Atlus have launched Persona 4 Golden on PC, making it the first (and arguably best) entry in the much-loved JRPG series to make it over. It's out right now, appearing on Steam ahead of today's expected announcement. It's a series I've been hankering for on PC for absolutely ages, so it's great to see Atlus and Sega finally opening the floodgates. Here's hoping it won't be too long before Persona 5 follows in its wake.
]]>Atlus, the makers of games including Persona and Trauma Center, are teasing that they might have more games coming to PC. They've said they'll have something to show during the PC Gaming Show, Saturday's newsblast stream organised by cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer, and I dearly hope it's PC releases for Persona. The long-running RPG series is about high school students drawn into supernatural mysteries, balancing regular life by day and battling spookies by night. They are: good. An enhanced version of Persona 5 came out on PlayStation 4 only in March so saaay that might be a good place to start.
]]>I’ve never played Catherine before. I heard a bit about it from friends and fellow journalists: the stylish interface, the intriguing story that often fumbled gender stereotypes, and, of course, the trans character. But if you sat me down before launching Catherine Classic on Steam and asked me what I expected the gameplay to be like, well… fast-paced puzzle platformer with a heavy emphasis on the puzzle part wouldn’t have been the first thing that sprang to mind. Alas, at its core, that’s what Catherine really is. And of course, it’s fantastic.
]]>The Entertainment Software Ratings Board have confirmed that console puzzler Catherine is headed to PC. Not quite the surprise that it could have been, given publisher Sega's hinting at the news yesterday through a mysterious sheep popping up on Bayonetta's Steam news page. Why a sheep? Convoluted plot reasons, but Atlus's game of anime infidelity and surprisingly difficult block-shifting puzzle action is on the way. Despite some tone-deaf writing of a transgender character, I enjoyed it when it first launched - check out a trailer from the original release below.
]]>The Japanese games industry is truly huge, and boasts some of the biggest and best titles under its' belt. PC gamers have been reaping the rewards of its renaissance. It took some time for Japanese developers and publishers to get on board, especially with consoles and smartphones remaining the dominant gaming platforms in their native country. Classic console franchises finally made their Steam debuts, with better-late-than-never ports coming with full-fat optimisation options to give you the definitive experience, there really has been never a pbetter time to be a Japanese-loving PC player.
]]>Mr. Sonic the Small Blue Animal Guy With Good Rings is back into the racing circuit. It's certainly one of the lesser beloved game franchises, and I can't help but think that's because it would be ridiculous for a character whose super-power is being super-fast to trade that power for driving cars that are equally fast to all of his competitors. It just doesn't make sense, right? I mean, Sonic and Mario facing off at the Olympics was also a game, so I guess maybe logic doesn't matter here? Team Sonic Racing brings us back to the Sonic Racingverse, and I'm sure I'm in the minority, but this is that Game Content I crave. Check out the forthcoming Team Sonic Racing trailer with me.
]]>The long-running Shin Megami Tensei series has worn many strange hats over the years. From singular (and now defunct) PC MMO to handheld dungeon crawlers and even spinning off into the mega-popular multi-genre Persona line, there are few unifying elements behind the series outside of adorable snow-sprite Jack Frost.
To promote the upcoming 3DS re-release of SMT: Strange Journey, Atlus pushed out a fake trailer for a platform adventure starring the little snowman and his fiery brother Jack 'O Lantern. It did look like a nice game, though.
One double-fakeout later, and Atlus confirmed that not only was the the 'fake' game shown real, but free, on PC, and out now. Better still for us english-speaking types, there's a (partial and fan-made) translation patch, so hit the jump for the trailer that started it all, the game, and the translation.
]]>Rock of Ages was a mad, brilliant game about rolling a boulder through historic scenery, bashing down turrets and avoiding cannon fire until you careered into your enemy's base. Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder [official site] – which came out this week – is a more extravagant take on the same formula. Its new boulders have special traits (one glows red hot and then explodes, for example), the scenery is prettier and you have a greater range of defence options at your disposal.
The game is split into two segments: first, there's an isometric tower defence bit where you place catapults, Da Vinci tanks and, er, sticky cows that can damage the enemy boulder and slow them down. Then, you race your boulder through the traps that your enemy has set up and get to their castle as quickly as possible without taking damage. The art style looks gorgeously silly, and from what I've seen it's retained the first game's excellent sense of humour.
]]>"I wanna rock!" sang Twisted Sister. Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder [official site] will deliver the rocks that Dee Snider so desires. Queen will have their own interest, having sung "O Rock of Ages, do not crumble, love is breathing still". But they will be less pleased by ACE Team's game, where players roll huge buildings down gorgeous obstacle courses, smashing through defenses, and into the base of their enemy. The rocks most certainly will crumble along the way. We'll get to see for ourselves soon, as publishers Atlus today announced a release date of August 28.
]]>It's quite nice when a videogame comes along with a pun smack bang in the middle of its title - it makes crafting a witty/cringy/puntastic headline that wee bit easier. It's also quite nice when that game is a sequel to boulder-rolling comedy action-puzzle-strategy sort-of tower defence 'em up Rock of Ages.
Five years on from the release of its forerunner, Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder [official site] is heading our way "this fall" with even more personified rocks, destructible environments, and Monty Python-flavoured artwork - not to mention the addition of four-player multiplayer.
]]>I adore the stuttering, frame-stepping animation on the giant gorilla and pterosaurs in The Deadly Tower of Monsters [official site], like stop-motion clay figures brought into an otherwise-smooth 3D video game. That's the point, see: developers ACE Team (them lot behind Zeno Clash, Rock of Ages, and Abyss Odyssey) are framing their shooter as a cheesy old sci-fi movie, so you'll also fight monsters which look an awful lot like stuntmen in cheap costumes. Always got a weird art idea, those folks.
A new trailer is here, also bringing word that Deadly Tower will launch on January 19th:
]]>I like that I can never guess what ACE Team's next game will even be, let alone look like. What might the folks behind Zeno Clash, and Abyss Odyssey, and Rock of Ages make next? A clip art second-person murder mystery. A monster movie fight up a vast tower with hokey physical special effects. A pixel art Batman FPS.
Ooh! The middle one! It's the middle one! The monster movie action with hokey physical special effects is The Deadly Tower of Monsters [official site], announced last night for release this autumn. Come see some cracking fake stop motion animation in the first trailer.
]]>I spent most of the weekend lying in bed with a maelstrom in my innards, feeling sorry for myself and occasionally checking the news on a laptop, which made me feel sorry for everyone else in the world instead. To bring the misery back home, I'd occasionally rewatch the trailer for Rollers Of The Realm, a fantasy RPG in the guise of a pinball game. It's like a modern Devil's Crush, a more fleshed out Epic Quest (Zen Pinball 2) or a less demanding take on Odama's battleballs. The reason Rollers brought about bouts of despair is that I thought it was a Playstation exclusive. Clearly I was too weary to spy the Steam logo in the corner of the screen, which leapt out at me this morning. Trailer below.
]]>"This is no place for a woman! Get outta here!" a soldier cries in the opening seconds of Abyss Odyssey. Really, a hellish abyss opened up in 19th century Chile is no place for anyone, and she certainly fares better than all those poor chaps. So begins Zeno Clash chaps ACE Team's procedurally-generated punchy platformer, as shown off in a new seven-minute gameplay video. Or six minutes of gameplay then another of cutscenes. Look, it's the start of the game, you guys.
]]>I do have a soft spot for studios who started in modding, but I look forward to ACE Team's games for more reasons than Batman Doom. From the first-person face-punching of Zeno Clash to Rock of Ages' competitive tower defence/demolition, their games have been weird and interesting and fun and ambitious and surprising and attractive. So I'm pretty pleased to hear that Abyss Odyssey is coming in only a few weeks--on July 15, to be precise.
In another genre shift (I also like that ACE Team do this), Abyss Odyssey is a roguelike-like 2D platforming beat 'em up with and a pretty deep fighting system.
]]>You know how Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure was supposed to launch yesterday? It didn't. "In order to," in the words of Tex Murphy co-creator and uncanny lookalike Chris Jones, "make sure this game is as clean and tight as can be," it's been pushed back at short notice. The crowdfunded revival adventure game is now due on May 7, developers Big Finish Games announced a few days ago. Waiting another few weeks won't hurt you too much after sixteen years, unless you woke up late having booked the day off work, wrapped a trenchcoat around yourself, popped on your fedora, and cracked that bottle of whiskey you've been saving.
Your preparations needn't go entirely to waste. To the surprise of us here at RPS Towers, so possibly you too, a demo was quietly oh so quietly a fortnight ago. It's up on Steam for your playing pleasure or perhaps displeasure, depending on how fondly you remember old adventure games.
]]>Chin up, little buddy. Maybe you fell off the monkey bars, weren't selected as the Presidential candidate, got turned down by that sapient life you deem attractive, or perhaps your Kickstarter fell short of its goal, but that doesn't mean you give up. Two of those apply to Eden Industries and by Jove, if they weren't crushed by disappointment then you shouldn't be either.
The Canadian developers last year fell short in their Kickstarter for Citizens of Earth, an Earthbound-inspired RPG where the US Vice President engages in gang violence. They picked themselves up, dusted their clothes down, found a publisher in the RPG-adoring Atlus, and plan to launch the game later this year. And you'll make the hover-hockey team one day, I know it.
]]>Zeno Clash 2 is the sequel I always wished would come to fruition, but never dared hope for. I mean, if you look at the Call of Duties or even Grand Theft Autos of the world, there's no real intrigue amongst all the announcement glitz and glamour. We already know roughly what we're in for. But the original Zeno Clash opened this swirling, cream-colored Pandora's Box of possibility, only to slam it shut - nearly taking our fingertips in the process - after a mere few hours. It was so weird and alien and gleefully unafraid to just do its own thing. But in the modern gaming world, that also often translates to "it'll sell 12 copies and confuse even typically adventurous gamers and live on only in the hearts of its most fervent disciples." Not usually the stuff sequels are made of. Against all odds, however, Zeno Clash did quite well for itself, and Zeno Clash 2 was born. But is the first-person brawling oddity all it's thwacked (and biffed and zotted) up to be? Here's wot I think.
]]>Zeno Clash 2 will most likely contain many remarkable sights but the latest video, showing six minutes of the game's opening section, isn't particularly potent. There's mention of larger areas, more freedom of movement and side quests, but it looks more like the beginning of a Let's Play series than a trailer. Maybe that makes it the polar opposite of a live action trailer, in which case I should be cheering it on. One conversation aside, it still seems to be a game about punching bizarre creatures in the snout/beak/nose/orifice/warface/palette-mouth/eye-trunk/dogbody/cataract/flesh-beard/scrotum-lid/chin-plume. Only five days until release.
]]>Old School Games' "retro"-TPS God Mode, which was announced last year, has suddenly appeared on the short-range radar of release. The game is on Steam, where it asks: "Do you like running? How about gunning?" Well, okay. But actually I like sitting and drinking tea quite a lot more.
There's a gameplay trailer below, so you can raise your eyebrows, make some kind of judgement. It does look pretty exciting. It's got power ups and everything. Oh I dunno, I am so full of mucus. And so old.
]]>Word from Atlus is that Zeno Clash 2 will arrive at the end of the month. The sequel to the world's craziest fantasy face-punching game will be an open-world sort of thing, which is a fact that makes me quite happy. For more clarification on what it takes to bring me cheer, check out the trailer below, or this interview.
]]>In Zeno Clash II, there is punching and uppercutting and kicking and kneeing and winged lion people and juggle combos and bird men and claw guns and cities that look like the industrial age as imagined by a sentient piece of chewing gum and a case of severe underbite that probably wasn't fixed because dentists rarely work with those wooden things people put paint on and piledrivers and arms coming out the ground and aaaaaaijnfdisnfinidnsekfdkffffffffthrp
]]>Atlus have released a video to promote their new title, God Mode, which doesn't look entirely dissimilar to Serious Sam and Painkiller. They player, armed with guns rather than swords, is marching through Hades killing hordes of monsters, accompanied by a spirit guide whose running commentary made me hate the very concept of audio before the end of the minute long trailer. He does have one good line though, describing the setting of Hades as "Hell in a toga". Is that actually a good line? How low are my standards at 8:30 on a Friday morning? I'm eating a dry slice of bread for breakfast because I was too hungry to bother with spreading or toasting, and I'm perfectly content. That's how low.
]]>When the game of the TV series of the book A Game of Thrones was released this summer, Alec vanished for a few days. When we next saw him, he had the look of a man who has seen terrible things, all haunted and hollow. Turns out it's a very long game and full of nastiness, although mostly of the intentional scripted sort. He said this: "it’s a troubled roleplaying game but also a really interesting and strong one. Every misfire is met by a triumph of some sort, and the one thing it is not is a lazy, perfunctory cash-in." Is the new DLC a cash-in though? I don't know! Screens and details below.
]]>Carlos Bordeu from ACE Team is excited about being able to talk about his new game, Zeno Clash II. And that makes for good reading. We talked to him about open worlds, new technology, and how a game inspired by "the punk fantasy art of John Blanche" is going to play. Read on for elucidation.
]]>There's going to be a Zeno Clash sequel in 2013! Trailer below, showing Father-Mother and Ghat leaping from a huge building, with Golem watching. Then there are huge landscapes, a giant arm sticking out of the ground, and plenty of weird-looking cities. Ace Team explain that it's going to be a much bigger deal this time: "The world of Zenozoik comes alive like never before, an open world waiting to be explored, rendered with breathtaking splendor. As Ghat, players can fully and freely explore every natural and architectural wonder his world has to offer." There's a website with absolutely no more detail over here, but we can hopefully expect more of the game's melee combat, and plenty of inspiring strangeness.
Hooray for E3 announcements, eh readers?
]]>Edit - I've been asked to note this this piece is based on the US version of the game, as published by Atlus and available for a couple of weeks now. Despite there being no oceans in the middle of the internet, the UK version, published by Focus, is mysteriously not available until June 9.
Cyanide's RPG based on the Game of Thrones TV show has consumed the last week of my life. But should I have allowed this song of stats and fire so much time on my screen and in my mind? We shall Cersei...
It goes on far too long, seems to reach a climactic conflict repeatedly but then pull back from it in favour of more stringing along and treats its characters as utterly disposable. In other words, it's faithful to the source material in an intrinsic way, not merely a stylistic one. Cyanide's Game of Thrones: The Roleplaying Game is a slow-burner with a deeply awkward opening and besieged by footballer in a pizza advert levels of voice-acting, but it builds carefully, cleverly and dramatically.
]]>Atlus and Cyanide have released a bit of footage of the A Game Of Thrones RPG. It talks about someone wanting to marry her brother, so that's nice. This is apparently a preview of one of the playable areas in the game, Castlewood. Atlus explain: "Situated on the banks of the Blackwater in the Riverlands, Castlewood is the prosperous seat of the House of Harlton, bannermen to the Tullys." You can also see this previous video for another location in the game. It's all looking a bit medieval to me.
To be honest I know nothing about A Game Of Thrones, so the excitement-factor of this particular glimpse of the game is lost on me. Anyone able to bah/hurrah about this?
]]>How's your Game Of Thrones game coming along? Everyone's making one at the moment. Mine's doing nicely - it's a sort of driving game/match-3 hybrid, set north of the Wall. It should be ready some time in 2013. Game Of Thrones: Genesis is already out (and a bit poop), and then there's the somewhat trademark infringing Khan Wars: Game Of Thrones, which just happens to show up on Google searches for the licensed versions. Anyhowever, the news is that Cynanide's other GoT game, the RPG, has a North American publisher in the form of Atlus, and with that have come some more details and a couple of screens.
(Oh good grief, as I'm writing this, we find there's to be a Game Of Thrones MMO from Bigpoint, and a Game Of Thrones social networking game too, hideously described as "FarmVille comes to Westeros.")
]]>Atlus' fancy-lookin' medieval melee-combat game The Cursed Crusade has been delayed until October 25th. I have to admit that I'm definitely interested in playing this one as the swordery looks just right. That said "looks" just right could be very different to the actuality when we get our hands on it. The output from devs Kylotonn Games has, let's face it, been a bit variable.
A fresh story trailer below sets things up for us, and it features a lot of unsmiling men in armour, doing their thing, as well as some demons.
]]>What would Chilean crazy-maestros Ace Team do after their mind-curdling FPS melee game, Zeno Clash? Well, it should have been obvious: they set about creating, Rock Of Ages, a competitive boulder-rolling comedy action-puzzle-strategy game set within several centuries of art history. Yep, it was an open niche, and they rolled right in there. It's out now, and I'm going to have to tell you Wot I Think.
]]>This looks a bit lovely. Frozenbyte have joined in on the "Let's put out a new video for Gamescom" party, and have got a lush new trailer with a first proper look at their Trine sequel, which is hopefully due some time next month. Have a good old gaze at this:
]]>Atlus have released a trailer (below) for ACE Team's bonkers rolling destruction puzzle game, Rock Of Ages, which demonstrates, via a tour of gaming history, why rock beats everything. We'd argue that shotgun trumps even that, but we don't have a video to prove it.
]]>Sometimes people make games. And then during the bit where they're making them, but before they're finished making them, they release bits of the game in videos for you to look at. The Cursed Crusade is being made and will be done in October. Below there is a bit of it to look at.
]]>Atlus have announced that their medieval melee game, The Cursed Crusade, will be released October 11th, according to Gemetsu. We've already seen lots of sword action from this Templar-based manstabber, but now there's a reveal of the more supernatural elements of the game, as you can see in the fire-and-demon packed trailer, below. There's some kind of curse involved in this crusade, that's for certain.
]]>Ace dev team ACE Team have released a new trailer for their boulder-rolling history-of-art puzzle game, Rock Of Ages, and it shows the ball in action, doing funnies. Previously we saw power ups which embue your happy rolling rock with temporary powers, such as being tough, or being on fire, and there's some of these here, too. If only life had temporary power ups beyond "mild stimulant drink" and "illegal nose treat". I want to absorb a glowy thing and be able to double-jump.
The game should arrive this summer.
]]>The Cursed Crusade has not one but TWO vicious templar thugs for you and a chum to control as you do some fancy crusadin'. What this means is that you can team up for takedowns: one guy locks swords with an enemy while the other puts an axe in his rump, that sort of thing. Kylotonn and Atlus have released a video to demonstrate this, and while it's actually a video of the split-screen Xbox version of the game, the principles of online co-op on the PC will be much the same. That means dudes getting axed, in a co-operative fashion. I like the cut of it.
]]>Gritty, medieval hack'n'slasher The Cursed Crusade (not to be confused with The First Templar) has some new shots out, and they're a bit full-on for midday on a Friday. It's almost enough to put an Englishman off his light lunch of blood sausage or kidney pie. Thoughtless French developers!
]]>Atlus send word that their forthcoming melee-combat game, The Cursed Crusade, has a new trailer out, and hot damn, it's looking fine (below). The game features dudes getting stabbed, hacked, and impaled, but in a good way, you understand. Good because this is a violent game about medieval manstabbing which sprawls across Europe through besieged castles and other splendid locales. You play a cursed Templar in the game - there's a big dollop of supernatural power under his hood - allowing you to enter a powered-up hellvision mode and kill people up with even more enthusiasm, as you can see from about one minute into the trailer.
The game - which is being developed by French dev house Kylotonn - will apparently feature online co-op and will be out this summer. Hmm, I might retroactively add this to the 2011 list, although Kylotonn did make that awful Speedball 2 rehash, so maybe not...
]]>Question: how do you feel about chopping men up with swords?
a) Fruity b) Disgusted with yourself c) Will there be Achievements?
If a or c, you'll probably like Cursed Crusade.
]]>The next game from Zeno Clash creators Ace Team, which will be coming out on the PC as well as the TV fun extenders in early 2011, is Rock Of Ages. It looks delightfully batshit awesome, as you can see from the most recent trailer, which I've totally gone and embedded right below these words. Said trailer shows a selection of things that the rock will smash, as well as some of the special powers you can expect to use. It also reveals more of the fantastic art style from the game's Renaissance period. (Intriguingly, each level has its own historical art style.) Go take a look. It's not a bad way to start a week.
]]>
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