New Releases: July 29th-August 4th, 2021

From OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos’ tale of gacha-obsessed, 2D boy loving characters to BUSTAFELLOWS’ steamy crime fiction, there’s a number of noteworthy visual novels arriving this week. Fans of other mediums can look forward to Fuga: Melodies of Steel’s test of survival, Blaster Master Zero 3’s classical gameplay, or Dragon Star Varnir’s dark role-playing adventure.

Header: OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos ~Love･or･die~, PC

PlayStation 4
Blaster Master Zero 3 (digital, $11.99)
Eldest Souls (digital, $19.99)
Fuga: Melodies of Steel (digital, $39.99)
Hunter’s Arena: Legends (digital, free via PS+)
Omno (digital, $18.99)
Skydrift Infinity (digital, $14.99)

Switch
10 Second Ninja X (digital, $7.99)
Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure (digital, $4.99)
Alone With You (digital, $8.99)
Apple Slash (digital, $4.99)
B.ARK (digital, $9.99)
Banners of Ruin (digital, $19.99)
Blaster Master Zero 3 (digital, $11.99)
BUSTAFELLOWS (digital, $35.99)
Christmas Tina (digital, $26.99)
Cuccchi (digital, $7.99)
Dragon Star Varnir (digital, $29.99)
Dungeon of Crawl (digital, $3.99)
Easy Flight Simulator (digital, $4.99)
Eldest Souls (digital, $19.99)
HORROR TALES: The Wine (digital, $14.99)
Infection Maze (digital, $7.30)
Kosmonavtes: Escape Reality (digital, $3.99)
Memory Lane 2 (digital, $3.99)
OS Omega (digital, $13.99)
Paint the Town Red (digital, $19.99)
Papa’s Quiz (digital, $9.99)
Piczle Puzzle & Watch Collection (digital, $ 7.99)
Skydrift Infinity (digital, $14.99)
Super Squidlit (digital, $8.99)
The Long Gate (digital, $14.99)
Theofil (digital, $1.99)
Trigger Witch (digital, $14.99)
Xenogunner (digital, $14.99)

Xbox One
Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure (digital, $4.99)
Blaster Master Zero 3 (digital, $11.99)
Eldest Souls (digital, $19.99)
Flowlines VS (digital, $4.99)
Fuga: Melodies of Steel (digital, $39.99)
HORROR TALES: The Wine (digital, $14.99)
inbento (digital, $4.99)
Omno (digital, $18.99)
Paint the Town Red (digital, $19.99)
Skydrift Infinity (digital, $14.99)
The Ascent (digital, $26.99)

PC
Age of Empires III: DE – The African Royals (DLC, $9.99)
Beat Souls ($TBA)
Blaster Master Zero 3 ($11.99)
BUSTAFELLOWS ($35.99)
Eldest Souls ($19.99)
Escape from Naraka ($TBA)
Fuga: Melodies of Steel ($39.99)
Grime ($TBA)
Here Comes Niko! ($TBA)
Omno ($18.99)
OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos ~Love･or･die~ ($TBA)
No Longer Home ($TBA)
Reptiles: In Hunt ($8.49)
Skydrift Infinity ($14.99)
Starbase ($31.49)
The Ascent ($26.99)

Rob’s pick: Noting that role-playing games had begun to integrate role-playing games with Western sensibilities, Compile Heart formed the Galapagos RPG label. So far, their output has been enjoyable with Omega Quintet, Fairy Fencer F, and Death end re;Quest all having their own virtues. This week, Dragon Star Varnir heads to Switch, offering one of the better narrative efforts from the studios, centering around witches postponing the madness caused by a gestating reptile. It’s dark, has a few scenes of fan-service too racy for the prudes at Sony, and offers an interesting, multi-plane take on turn-based battles.

I’m fond of games where the survival of characters isn’t pre-scripted, which adds tension to the proceedings. This happens in Varnir but also in Fuga: Melodies of Steel. Blending adorable anthropomorphic cats and dogs with a cheerless, war-torn setting, I’m intrigued by the context. Play revolves around eleven characters piloting a giant tank intent on rescuing their captive families. But the real hook is the Soul Cannon, a devastating weapon that takes the life of a crew member every time it is fired. I love these kinds of moral quandaries.

Finally, there’s Blaster Master Zero 3 which probably won’t pose any ethical dilemmas but is poised to deliver the kind of retro fun that Inti Creates is so good at crafting. In an era where most games are frustratingly padded, the updates to the classic Sunsoft series are succinct metroidvanias, that provide fun without a lot of the frustration.

Ryan’s Pick: It seems like I’m sure fated to be drawn to games with really long titles, so this week I’m leaving nothing to chance by selecting OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos ~Love･or･die~. Whatever you do, don’t tell the Chicago Manual of Style that this title has tildes in it. The only thing that it’s missing is the double exclamation, but punctuation aside I’m still really eager to try this one out. In general it seems like the anime/VN industry continuously has been moving towards super long titles so that it’s almost guaranteed that an abbreviation of the title is born.  Also, I must give due credit that it does take some courage to outright put ‘Waifus’ in the title of your game for all to see, so I can appreciate that type of honesty.

I sure said a lot about nothing above, so let’s talk about the game. This is a Yuri Visual Novel game about a female protagonist that is addicted to gacha games where she has been feverishly trying to pull her husbando. As a gacha player aiming for waifus, I know this sisyphean task all too well. Amidst all the gacha pulling, the beautiful Ren Furutachi enters the equation, causing a series of visual novel-esque events that leads to a proposal between the two female characters. In general I feel like this is a great setup, and there certainly seems to be an eclectic bunch of support female characters included as well.

I feel obligated to also mention Blaster Master Zero 3 as the series really gives me a lot of nostalgia and the original soundtrack is one of my top three favorites of all time. Graphically I think that they have done a good job with the series with keeping it still really retro but making the gameplay fresh with some interesting bosses and visual effects. If a yuri is not on your palette this week, then this is an excellent alternative.

Matt S’ pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): BUSTAFELLOWS has a lotta boys. They’re cute boys, too. If I wasn’t already romantically involved with Hatsune Miku I’d consider turning for these boys. Especially Helvetica. I mean, it was silly to name a dude after the worst font in the history of fonts (Courier’s dead sexy and all you ever need), but that’s the dude’s parent’s problem. He himself is one dreamy, smooth operator…

I’m going to stop writing that paragraph before the Internet archives it and it comes back to haunt me in a few years, but in all seriousness BUSTAFELLOWS really is something special. It’s a crime fiction “page”-turner with some exceptional production values, and a really, really good narrative behind it. This is a game that people have been begging to be localised for many years now, and I learned why almost the moment I started playing. The mystery and intrigue are thick, the scenes smoulder, the sense of danger is right there… Raymond Chandler would have approved of this game, big time.

Also, I would like to mention a game that did release a few days ago, but as I barely track PC releases I had no idea: Idol Manager. This is a game where you are tasked with building your own AKB48 and it is exactly as good as it sounds. It’s surprisingly unflinching about the seedier and more controversial elements of the industry, too. Didn’t stop me from making a group that was a full triple jump closer to a gravure idol (if not outright AV idol) group than the pop idols that the game is really designed around, though. It’s not my fault. There is the option to make lewd music right there.