New Releases: April 25th-May 1st, 2019

From Syphon Filter creator SIE Bend Studio’s foray into the survival action genre with Days Gone, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age’s voyage to the Switch, and Cytus α’s massive two-hundred song playlist, a number of notable releases are due across the next seven days. Of course, none of those games have monster girls. So, if that’s your thing, then there’s the release of Moero Chronicle Hyper.

Header image: NEKO-NIN exHeart 2 Love +PLUS, PC

PlayStation 4
Arcade Archives: Psycho Soldier (digital, $7.99)
Days Gone (physical and digital, $59.99)
Face to Silence (physical and digital, $49.99)
Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark (digital, $29.99, $26.99 PS+)
Just Cause 4: Dare Devils of Destruction (DLC,  included with Expansion Pass)
UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure (physical and digital, $39.99)

Switch
ACA NeoGeo Samurai Showdown V Special (digital, $7.99)
Aces of the Luftwaffe – Squadron (digital, $14.99)
Aggelos (digital, $14.99)
Box Boy + Box Girl! (digital, $9.99)
Crashbots (digital, $8.99)
Cro’s World 2 (digital, $5.99)
Cytus α (digital, $49.99)
Death Coming (digital, $6.99)
Dig Dog (digital, $3.99)
Ding Dong XL (digital, $0.99)
Everybody (digital, $6.00)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (physical, digital, $49.99)
GoatPunks (digital, $9.99)
Gym Hero – Idle Fitness Tycoon (digital, $2.29)
Homo Machina (digital, $2.99)
Hotel Dracula (digital, $5.69)
Joe Jump Impossible Quest (digital, $2.99)
Lost King’s Lullaby (digital, $9.99)
Moai VI: Unexpected Guests (digital, $18.99)
Moero Chronicle Hyper (digital, $19.99)
Picross S3 (digital, $9.99)
Puzzle Herder (digital, $4.99)
Robox (digital, $9.99)
Secrets of Magic – The Book of Spells (digital, $9.99)
Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands (digital, $9.99)
SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech (digital, $24.99)
Super Blood Hockey (digital, $14.99)
Super Meat Boy Forever
Table Top Racing: World Tour – Nitro Edition (digital, $23.99)
Theatre Tales (digital, $1.11)
Type:Rider (digital, $2.99)
UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure (physical, digital, $19.99)
Vandals (digital, $3.99)
Witch Thief (digital, $19.99)
Zeroptian Invasion (digital, $4.99)

Xbox One
Face to Silence (physical and digital, $49.99)
Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark (digital, $29.99)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (physical, digital, $49.99)
Just Cause 4: Dare Devils of Destruction (DLC,  included with Expansion Pass)
UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure (physical and digital, $39.99)

3DS
ZARA the Fastest Fairy (digital, $0.98, New Nintendo 3DS only)

PC
Imperator: Rome ($TBA)
NEKO-NIN exHeart 2 Love +PLUS ($TBA)
Phase Shift ($12.74)
Sky of Destruction ($11.69)
Summon of Asmodeus ($TBA)
UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure ($39.99)
Yuppie Psycho ($14.99)

Robert’s Pick: As a fan of dungeon crawlers and fan-service, Moero Chronicle Hyper would get an easy selection if you don’t own the import (the Asian version has English text) or stateside PC releases. It’s twenty dollars, centers on a lead who worries that girls will consider his a perv and stars a seal who is a self-described “panty hunter”. The gameplay might be a bit lackluster but the game has a playful spirit, with stats depending on what kind of panties your members are wearing.

But I’m most eager for SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech. From what I played it seems like developer Image & Form has another hit on their hands. This time, the studio tackles on the card-battling genre, a genre I haven’t been able to escape since the two Metal Gear Acid games occupied my PSP’s UMD drive. Like many SteamWorld games, the story is certainly serviceable but’s there’s a definite ingeniousness when it comes to conflict. If you’re still uncertain, expect a full review this week.

Ryan’s Pick: BoxBoy + BoxGirl! Is the clear winner this week. The overall premise of these games is very straight forward – generate and use boxes to overcome obstacles and puzzles. Graphically the game is also simplistic, however this fact should not dissuade you from trying this satisfying puzzle game. There are a multitude of ways to utilize the boxes you generate, and coupled with excellent puzzle design, it surely will provide more value than you are expecting with over 270 puzzles to tackle.

New in BoxBoy + BoxGirl! players can join with a friend via multiplayer to tackle puzzles together and utilize Qbby’s female counterpart Qucy and also access separate puzzles that are designed for a new taller box character Qudy. The already endearing boxes now can reach the next level of attractiveness via an ingame shop that will allow you to customize your Box People. This should definitely please the players that love to personalize their characters. Give this series a try, it’s a great fit for the Switch.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Final Fantasy XII is my favourite in that series by far. The exotic locations, the brilliant aesthetic, the open design all took the Final Fantasy series forward, but it never lost its intense grasp on storytelling, either. Indeed, the political and moral plot threads of Final Fantasy XII has had me musing over that game for over a decade now… and I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that game.

But in the interest of picking something new(ish), I’m going to go with Moero Chronicle Hyper. The first time the game has got a proper release in English on a console, Moero Chronicle is a tight and well designed dungeon crawler, albeit one that’s traditional to a fault. What elevates it is the character designs. This is a game that comes to us from Compile Heart, and it is Compile Heart’s fanservice at its absolute best. Every monster girl that you battle and then recruit is distinctive, interesting, and, of course, sexy. Yes, the localisation is actually terrible and barely coherent at times, but combine timeless dungeon crawling with a bit of light erotica, and what do you have?