New Releases: September 15th-21st, 2022

With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off, expect plenty of exciting game announcements. While the wait for those some of those upcoming titles might seem unbearable, there are a number of new releases that might makes the wait easer to handle. Soulstice looks to offer solid character action, while JR EAST Train Simulator lets you operate the Hachiko and Keihin Tohoku Lines. If neither of those seem interesting, Sakura Alien 2 (pictured) might be cooking up something tasty.

PlayStation 4
Akane (digital, $4.99)
Arcade Archives: Rompers (digital, $7.99)
Blind Fate: Edo no Yami (digital, $16.99)
Construction Simulator – Extended Edition (digital, $49.49)
Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder (digital, $14.99)
Jack Move (digital, $17.99)
Plunder Panic (digital, $19.99)
SBK 22 (digital, $39.99)

PlayStation 5
Soulstice (physical $49.99, digital $39.99)
Stray (physical, $39.99)

Switch
Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy (digital, $24.99)
Accident (digital, $14.99)
Amnesia: Later x Crowd (physical & digital, $49.99)
Amnesia: Memories (physical & digital, $49.99)
Ankora: Lost Days (digital, $19.99)
Bear and Breakfast (digital, $19.99)
Brutal Chase Turbo (digital, $6.99)
Cthulhu Pub (digital, $9.99)
Devoured by Darkness (digital, $5.99)
Dungeons 3 (digital, $39.99)
Foretales (digital, $19.99)
Gold Crusader (digital, $4.99)
Gundam Evolution (free to play)
Gunslingers & Zombies (digital, $8.99)
Innocence Island (digital, $19.99)
Jack Move (digital, $17.99)
Japanese Escape Games The Mansion of Tricks (digital, $4.99)
Kao the Kangaroo: Top of the Class (digital, free)
Kitten’s Head Football (digital, $7.99)
Last Beat Enhanced (digital, $7.99)
Mozart Requiem (digital, $29.99)
Paddles (digital, $5.99)
Plunder Panic (digital, $19.99)
Poly Link – Origins(digital, $2.99)
Queen’s Garden – Sakura Season (digital, $19.99)
Return to Monkey Island (digital, $24.99)
Road Redemption (physical, $39.99)
Saomi (digital, $3.99)
Shishi : Timeless Prelude Hope (DLC, $4.99)
Silent Sector (digital, $11.69)
The Dark Prophecy (digital, $9.99)
Unichrome: A 1-Bit Unicorn Adventure (digital, $14.99)
Wayward Strand (digital, $19.99)

Xbox One
Akane (digital, $4.99)
Amazing Chicken Adventures
Blind Fate: Edo no Yami (digital, $16.99)
Despot’s Game: Dystopian Army Builder (digital, $14.99, Game Pass)
Jack Move (digital, $17.99)
Knights & Guns (digital, $14.99)
Plunder Panic (digital, $19.99)
SBK 22 (digital, $39.99)
Wayward Strand (digital, $19.99)

Xbox Series S/X
Soulstice (physical $49.99, digital $39.99)

PC
Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy (digital, $24.99)
Ankora: Lost Days (digital, $19.99)
Construction Simulator ($49.99)
Foretales ($19.99)
Grid Force – Mask of The Goddess ($TBA)
JR EAST Train Simulator ($TBA)
Metal Hellsinger ($TBA)
Ninja Soul ($TBA)
Return to Monkey Island ($24.99)
Sakura Alien 2 ($TBA)
Soulstice ($49.99)
Stones Keeper ($TBA)
Technicity ($TBA)
The Outbound Ghost ($TBA)
There is No Light ($21.24)
Wayward Strand ($19.99)

Rob’s Pick: Otome can offer blissful happy-go-lucky experiences, extending idyllic interpretations of romance. If you pick up Amnesia: Memories this week, that’s nearly the case when you link up with Shin, one of the novel’s five bachelors. Sure, Shin can be a prototypical tsundere, habitually repressing his feelings and potentially even his past behaviors. But you’ll share plenty of amorous moments together.

But most of the other scenarios explore romantic dysfunction. Without spoiling anything, amnesiac (and rather generic) lead Orion repeatedly deals with some screwed up personalities. Rather than offer yet another cliched, sugar-coated depiction of romance, you deal with some headcases. But each is written with at least one or two redeeming qualities. Relationships in Amnesia are a compromise, rather than an ideal, which makes for intriguing fiction. This week Amnesia: Later x Crowd offers a compilation fan disk filled with epilogues, mini-games, new stories, and a what-if scenario. Hopefully, it will be just as messy and the main novel.

For those uninterested by handsome lads who lean toward social deviance, Matt S. seemed impressed by Soulstice: Deluxe Edition. Despite the evocative title, combat is built around two-character power fantasy rather than a succession of split-second parries, so I’m definitely intrigued. Finally, there’s JR EAST Train Simulator. It’s an Early Access release with only two lines (and DLC plans for additional routes) but I’m way too excited to see an officially licensed sim.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Don’t you love when games come out of nowhere to impress you? I don’t know why, but I had assumed that Soulstice: Deluxe Edition was going to be a Soulslike (I guess it was a combination of the name and the few screenshots I had seen). What it actually is is a Bayonetta-like action game, and that’s just excellent. We don’t get nearly enough games inspired by the Devil May Cry approach to action, so this one has been a welcome diversion indeed, and I’ll be highly recommending it in my review.

I’m also very keen on JR EAST Train Simulator. I miss Japan in every way (especially with it being Tokyo Game Show – an event that I absolutely love), so having a hyper-realistic simulator of the train lines will be something healing to me. That JR EAST Train Simulator is an actual simulator that the actual train company used for training purposes is so much the better. You can’t get more authentic and realistic than that.

Finally, I can’t help but be excited by the possibility of Return to Monkey Island. Like most people on the older end of the millennial generation, I grew up playing point and clickers like the Monkey Island series. With this game being from the creative mind behind the originals, I am looking to see what their take is on modernizing the “formula” for audiences in 2022. Hopefully it can draw in a new generation to something other than endless shooters and worthless live service multiplayer nonsense.

Ryan’s pick: Action games are my go-to this week, and Soulstice is the clear winner for me. The visuals and action in the game look spectacular. Platinum Games has set the bar really high for this genre, but from what I’ve seen from the developer Reply Game Studios both from the character models and the visual effects, the game looks very close to that level. Difficulty-wise I’m curious to see if the game is fair, or if it is designed to be played perfectly to move forward. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if it’s the latter, as I really appreciated some of the Team Ninja games for their difficulty in the past. In general, the game looks great, so it looks like a solid choice.

One other game I wanted to mention that I really liked for different reasons is There is No Light which is releasing on Steam. It’s a dark 2D action-RPG with hand-drawn animations that has almost a cartoonish feel at times with the visuals. There’s just something about the animations that had me take a second look at it, and it looks like it plays pretty fast and is brutal at the same time. I just realized that both games I chose this week have their share of blood in them, but I had to choose, I think that There Is No Light appears to be the clear winner in terms of being visceral in its visuals.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I guess this is the place where train nerds unite, huh? JR East Train Simulator also gets my attention, because the one thing missing from the likes of Train Sim World is Japanese lines. Like most of these games, it puts authenticity and realism at the forefront, and like Japanese Rail Sim: Journey to Kyoto before it, it uses live-action footage of routes rather than digitally recreated ones to really bring the scenery to life. Despite that, you’ll need a reasonably powerful machine to play it in its early access state—a GTX 10 Series GPU at minimum—but this might be the thing that finally convinces me to upgrade.

It’s nice to see Amnesia: Memories making its way to Switch, too, and with its fandisc in tow—it’s been kicking around since the PSP days, but Switch is the place for visual novels now. Otomate’s usual flair for gorgeous designs and complex, layered characters is in full effect here. It’s dramatic and romantic in equal measure, with a dash of humour while also using the amnesiac heroine premise to go to some dark and thought-provoking places. Unlike most, the different routes here aren’t just different narrative branches, but take place in alternate worlds that all differ from each other in little ways—a character who’s a close childhood friend in one route might be a university acquaintance in another. It lends a unique, slightly unsettling air to the whole affair. Later x Crowd follows that up with a direct sequel and a handful of minigames and what-if scenarios that bring a more light-hearted touch.

And lastly, because Nintendo Direct shadow drops have a habit of landing in between these weekly wrap-ups (and therefore missing the chance to get formally included in the list above), I need to mention Radiant Silvergun. The precursor to Ikagura made a surprise landing on Switch a couple of days ago, making an iconic game much more readily available than it has been. Switch is the home of shmups as much as it is the home of visual novels, and a perfect place to revisit (or discover) Treasure’s brilliant first foray into the genre.