New Releases: August 6th-12th, 2020

This week, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? arrives in interactive form, with the PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC release of Infinite Combate imminent. For those uninterested in the manga/anime, fear not, there’s a multitude of other offerings, with titles like Banner of the Maid, KukkoroDays, and Hyper Scape waiting in the wings.

Header image: Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? – Infinite Combate

PlayStation 4
Banner of the Maid (digital, $14.44)
Brunch Club (digital, $14.49)
Fast & Furious Crossroads (physical & digital, $59.99)
Hyper Scape (digital, free to play)
Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? – Infinite Combate (physical $44.99, digital $39.99)
Railway Empire: Complete Collection (physical & digital, $39.99)

Switch
Aery – Broken Memories (digital, $14.99)
Alphadia Genesis (digital, $13.49)
Banner of the Maid (digital, $14.44)
City Bus Driving Simulator (digital, $8.99)
Clan N (digital, $14.99)
Cruel Bands Career (digital, $3.59)
Crowdy Farm Rush (digital, $5.99)
Drink More Glurp (digital, $8.99)
Escape From Tethys (digital, $7.99)
Frontline Zed (digital, $10.79)
Instant Sports Summer Games (physical & digital, $24.99)
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate (physical $44.99, digital $39.99)
KukkoroDays (digital, $7.99)
Memory Lane (digital, $4.99)
RogueCube (digital, $4.99)
Swimsanity! (digital, $24.99)
Titan Glory (digital, $4.99)
Twist&Bounce (digital, $4.99)
Ultra Foodmess (digital, $3.99)
Wordify (digital, $0.69)

Xbox One
Brunch Club (digital, $14.49)
Clan N (digital, $14.99)
Escape From Tethys (digital, $7.99)
Fast & Furious Crossroads (physical & digital, $59.99)
HardCube (digital, $6.99)
Hyper Scape (digital, free to play)
Swimsanity! (digital, $24.99)
UnderMine (digital, $14.99)

PC
Aery – Broken Memories ($14.99)
Clan N ($14.99)
Cruel Bands Career ($3.59)
Drink More Glurp ($8.99)
Fast & Furious Crossroads ($59.99)
Gronions ($TBA)
Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition ($49.99)
Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? – Infinite Combate ($39.99)
Room No. 9 ($TBA)
Shooty Skies Overdrive
Swimsanity! ($24.99)
Touhou Baisyunyado ~ Soap of Royal Road ($TBA)

Robert’s Pick: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is one of those properties that lures you in with the fan-service, but hooks you with some unexpectedly well-constructed world building. I still remember Hestia seizing my interests, but within a few episodes I was absorbed by the show’s meta-awareness of role-playing conventions. Additionally, the role of deities and their relationship with humans, was thoroughly intriguing.

Since I’ve rarely been able to refute a 2D dungeon crawl, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate gets the nod this week. Omega Labyrinth Life demonstrated that skulking and sexiness is an irresistible combo, if Combate can flesh out the role of Familias, this seems like a quest worth pursuing. Of course, the PC snob in me is also eager for Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition. Lately my GPU has been rendering meager doujin and indie games, which is like owning an Acura NSX but driving well under the speed limit. This week, I hope to take Guerilla’s latest for a spin and generate a bit of heat rendering that spectacular scenery.

Matt S’ Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): It frustrates me that Banner of the Maid has such a lousy localisation. It’s legible (just), but you are going to have to do a lot of filling in of blanks and interpretation to get a sense of the characters and narrative that feature within the game. As a result, unfortunately, Banner of the Maid does lack for the kind of narrative thrust it should have had.

But!

It’s also so good. As a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, God Wars, and the tactics JRPG genre as a whole, Banner of the Maid does an excellent job of recreating the essence of that genre within a Napoleonic Wars context. It’s also gorgeous to look at (that Pauline Bonaparte, whew! And she doesn’t even have twintails hair), and it is one very meaty quest. So, even with the terrible localisation, I’m recommending that one this week. Especially on Switch. Switch was made for those kinds of games.

Ryan’s Pick: I have a confession to make. I name my guitars after female anime characters. Is that weird? My 24 fret ESP E-II Horizon III is proudly named “Hestia” after DanMachi’s famous tsundere goddess. That said I’m going to go with Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? – Infinite Combate for my pick. I’m pretty happy that they decided to make this one into a game as the entire series revolves around entering dungeons to grab loot. For some reason I always felt like the supporter character Lili was like one of those loot goblins in Diablo. Maybe it’s just me…

One of my favorite characters in the series is the emotionally complex(?) Aiz who is one of the first-class adventurers that the main character Bell looks up to in the story. She was popular enough that they gave her a separate story arc from the Loki Familia perspective in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Sword Oratoria, so it’s pretty great that you will be able to play as her as well. While I don’t think this one will be an absolute face-melting blockbuster graphically or gameplay-wise, I think it will still be an enjoyable JRPG that adheres to DanMachi canon. If dating in dungeons isn’t your thing, you can trade your swords for Hyper Scape’s futuristic firearms. I’m beyond terrible at Battle Royal games, but this Ubisoft Montreal free to play FPS also looks pretty impressive and worth a download to try.

Matt C’s Pick (editor, Shindig): There’s nothing quite like soaring through the air on the wings of a bird. It’s somehow both exhilarating and completely peaceful, and any game that can capture that feeling well is a great way to take a break from the world and just lose yourself in the moment, with the wind in your face.

The original Aery was perfect for that, and the sort-of sequel Aery – Broken Dreams looks like more of the same, but with a twist: this time, you’re flying through the surreal environments conjured up by the mind of someone in a coma. That means plenty of beautiful, dreamy locations, but also a few that are a bit more sinister. Broken Dreams also promises to be more story-driven than its predecessor, with your wing-bound exploration being the key to piecing together this person’s lost memories.

I’m also curious about Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? – Infinite Combate. I’ve never seen the anime before, but the premise is intriguing and I can’t say no to a good dungeon crawler.