New Releases: June 22nd-28th, 2023

This week, Sonic Origins Plus dashes onto platforms, Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 opens enrollment for its hero academy, and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life offers an update of the 2003 title. Meanwhile, Nukitashi (pictured) engages with a tale of two siblings who return to an island with some thought-provoking social norms.

PlayStation 4
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed Single Player (physical & digital, $29.99)
Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine (digital, $9.99)
Skautfold: Usurper (digital, $14.99)
Sonic Origins Plus (physical & digital, $39.99)
Sonic Origins Plus Expansion Pack (DLC, $9.99)
Soulvars (digital, $13.59)
Swoon! Earth Escape (digital, $29.99)
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales (digital, $14.99)
The Callisto Protocol: Final Transmission (DLC, $TBA)
Tiny Troopers: Global Ops (physical, $24.99)
Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 (digital, $17.99)

PlayStation 5
Final Fantasy XVI (physical & digital, 69.99)
Sonic Origins Plus (physical & digital, $39.99)
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (physical & digital, $49.99)
Tiny Troopers: Global Ops (physical, $24.99)
Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 (physical $34.99, digital, $17.99)

Switch
Abandon Ship (digital, $24.99)
Alice Sisters (digital, $4.79)
Auralux: Constellations (digital, $7.99)
Beholder 3 (physical, $29.99)
BroodStar (digital, $11.00)
Castle of Heart + Jet Kave Adventure Bundle (digital, $29.99)
Charade Maniacs (digital, $49.99)
Deadliest Catch: The Game (digital, $23.99)
Dolmenjord – Viking Islands (digital, $2.99)
Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine (digital, $9.99)
Earthen Dragon (digital, $9.90)
Everdream Valley (digital, $24.99)
Johnny Trigger Action Collection (digital, $8.99)
Little Friends: Puppy Island (digital, $39.99)
Marble Ball Friends (digital, $3.99)
Neko Secret Homecoming (digital, $9.99)
Placid Plastic Duck Simulator (digital, $8.99)
Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island (physical & digital, $39.99)
Princess Closet – Fashion and love will change me – (digital, $19.99)
Raging Bytes (digital, $13.49)
Railway Empire 2 – Nintendo Switch Edition (digital, $44.99)
Retro Rollers Bundle (digital, $9.99)
Rice Bowl Restaurant (digital, $10.49)
Skautfold: Usurper (digital, $14.99)
Sky Caravan (digital, $19.99)
Soulvars (digital, $13.59)
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (physical & digital, $49.99)
Tricks Magician (digital, $4.99)
Unimime – Unicycle Madness (digital, $4.99)
Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 (physical $34.99, digital, $17.99)

Xbox One
Alice Sisters (digital, $4.79)
Apico (digital, $19.99)
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed Single Player (physical & digital, $29.99)
Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine (digital, $9.99)
Gravity Thrust (digital, $4.99)
Raging Bytes (digital, $14.99)
Reverie: Sweet As Edition (digital, $14.99)
Skautfold: Usurper (digital, $14.99)
Sonic Origins Plus (physical & digital, $39.99)
Sonic Origins Plus Expansion Pack (DLC, $9.99)
Soulvars (digital, $13.59)
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (physical & digital, $49.99)
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales (digital, $14.99)
The Callisto Protocol: Final Transmission (DLC, $TBA)
Time of War, Arkano’90 (digital, $11.99)
Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 (digital, $17.99)
Your Computer Might Be At Risk (digital, $11.99)

PC
Choo Choo Survivor ($TBA)
Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine ($9.99)
Dream Park Story ($8.99)
Forever Skies ($23.99)
Grimlord ($23.99, VR)
Hookah Café Simulator ($7.99)
Life Not Supported ($TBA)
Little Friends: Puppy Island ($39.99)
Kingdom Eighties ($TBA)
Mars First Logistics ($17.99)
Nova Lands ($17.99)
Nukitashi ($TBA)
One Lonely Outpost ($TBA)
Pekoe ($TBA)
Salty Hounds ($TBA)
Shogun Showdown ($TBA)
Six Days in Fallujah ($39.99)
Sludge Life 2 ($TBA)
Sonic Origins Plus ($39.99)
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life ($49.99)
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales ($13.49)
The Leviathan’s Fantasy ($TBA)
Tinkertown ($17.99)
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane ($TBA)

Rob’s pick: Considering the recent influx of farming sims, a remake of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life might seem curious. But many modern genre entries are gravitating toward automation. While being able to purchase machines that industrialize your workflow might be interesting, these kinds of innovations ebb away at the allure of daily agrarian duties.

Revisiting A Wonderful Life has largely been pleasing. Marvelous has streamlined some of the more basic elements, making tilling the soil and watering and a bit less monotonous. They made some adjustments with script, captures the tone of the original Japanese script. And while I’m not quite sure about decisions to rush marriage or inflationary pricing, returning to the simplicity offered by 2003 title is pleasing. Twenty years on, life lessons about working hard, treating your wife well, and spending as much time with your offspring haven’t lost their impact.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): If you’re not playing Final Fantasy XVI this week, you’re doing yourself a disservice. I’m harder on blockbusters than almost anyone out there, but this game is the real deal. Not only is it visually spectacular and looks every bit the major AAA-game, but it is also truly intelligent, with a depth of themes and philosophies that is not common in the AAA space at all. Square Enix have produced a rare piece of art indeed, and if there is any justice in this world Final Fantasy XVI will sell bucketloads and be the guiding influence on blockbuster development going forward.

Meanwhile, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life might be (much) more modest as a production, but the wholesome spirit of it and the beautiful sentimentality in the way that it looks at life makes it a must-play as well. With more and more of these “life sims” emerging, and many of them quite significant productions in their own right (remember Harvestella?), Story of Seasons continues to show that sometimes all it takes is a focus on the simple things in life to craft a stand-out experience.

Ryan’s pick: Final Fantasy XVI is going to be my choice this week. The series has always been willing to break from conventions and to try new things with each iteration of the series, so I am eager to experience some more action-based combat. I really liked the FFVII Remake’s battle system with how it definitely retained some turn-based elements, but at the same time injected more action. Now with a full-on action-based system, I think it may take a bit of getting used to after so many years of playing turn-based games in the series, but in general I think it’s the right decision. Fortune favors the bold, they say. I also think that the game is being released just at the right time, as a bit of a break from running Nightmare dungeons in World Tier III in Diablo IV is definitely needed.

One other game that I typically wouldn’t pick but caught my eye for its premise is the Steam game Life Not Supported. It’s a first-person space survival game where you become stranded outside your destroyed ship while orbiting around a planet. The goal of the game is to collect useful scraps and items that are floating by to create your own vessel to survive. Floating around outside a ship in the void of space and improvising in order to stay alive sounds like a pretty compelling premise, and I’m curious to see what types of things you’ll be able to create later in the game once you’ve been able to build a fairly basic craft. Knowing myself, once I have the basic survival down, I will immediately begin to build elaborately useless things that have nothing to do with survival. This will lead me down a path where I eventually run out of oxygen trying to build that perfect home office shed outside my craft. Sounds just about right.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I’m also jumping on the Final Fantasy XVI train this week. As a longtime FFXIV player, knowing that a lot of the creative talent behind that game is involved in the latest entry sets my expectations very high—and with Yoshi-P at the helm, someone who’s proved time and again that he can deliver, I’d be surprised if XIV falls short.

Indeed, the demo hints at a game that effortlessly balances both staying true to the heart of the series and boldly—brazenly, even—forging its own path. An action RPG with Game of Thrones as a cited inspiration would normally invite skepticism from me, with my preference for turn based RPGs and little care for George R. R. Martin’s style of fantasy, but every sign points to Final Fantasy XVI having the goods.

I’ll be checking out Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2, too. The first game’s blend of simulation, management, and RPG was a lot of fun, if a little rough around the edges in some places, so I’m looking forward to seeing where the sequel lands.