New Releases: September 22nd-28th, 2022

This week marks the arrival of anticipated titles like The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, The DioField Chronicle, and Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival. But these aren’t the only noteworthy new releases. Kena: Bridge of Spirits (pictures) get a PC port, while Let’s Build a Zoo arrives on consoles.

PlayStation 4
Deathverse: Let It Die (digital, free to play)
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of The Nine Realms (digital, $49.99)
FIFA 23 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Hokko Life (physical, $29.99, digital, $19.99)
Let’s Build a Zoo (physical, $34.99)
Moonscars (digital, $19.99)
OneShot: World Machine Edition (digital, $14.99)
Potion Permit (digital, $19.99)
Prison Tycoon: Under New Management (digital, $TBA)
Prodeus (digital, $24.99)
Serial Cleaners (digital, $14.99)
Session: Skate Sim (physical & digital, $49.99)
Severed Steel (physical, $34.99)
The DioField Chronicle (physical & digital, $59.99)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (physical $49.99, digital, $39.99)
Train Life: A Railway Simulator (digital, $29.99)
Tunic (digital, $29.99)
Watcher Chronicles (digital, $19.99)
World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing (physical and digital, $49.99)

PlayStation 5
FIFA 23 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Let’s Build a Zoo (physical, $34.99)
Potion Permit (physical, $39.99)
Session: Skate Sim (physical & digital, $49.99)
Severed Steel (physical, $34.99)
The DioField Chronicle (physical & digital, $59.99)
Train Life: A Railway Simulator (physical $39.99, digital, $29.99)

Switch
Alter World (digital, $4.99)
Beacon Pines (digital, $17.99)
Birfia (digital, $2.99)
Camped Out! (digital, $19.99)
Car Mechanic Pinball (digital, $4.99)
Classic Games Collection Vol.2 (digital, $4.99)
Draw and Color: Kawaii (digital, $12.99)
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of The Nine Realms (digital, $49.99)
Drift King (digital, $19.99)
Hokko Life (physical, $29.99, digital, $19.99)
Let’s Build a Zoo (physical, $34.99)
Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection (physical & digital, $39.99)
Life in Willowdale: Farm Adventures (digital, $35.99)
Moncage (digital, $13.49)
Moonscars (digital, $19.99)
No Place for Bravery (digital, $19.99)
OneShot: World Machine Edition (digital, $14.99)
Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Mahjong Solitaire (digital, $6.99)
Penko Park (digital, $12.99)
Piofiore: Episodio 1926 (physical $49.99 and $$79.99, digital, $49.99)
Potion Permit (digital, $19.99)
Puzzle Battler! Mirai (digital, $7.19)
Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary (digital, $19.99)
Roar of Revenge (digital, $4.99)
Severed Steel (physical, $34.99)
Shovel Knight Dig (digital, $TBA)
Slice (digital, $4.99)
SongPop Party (digital, $19.99)
SpiderHeck (digital, $13.49)
Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (digital, $49.99)
The DioField Chronicle (physical & digital, $59.99-$74.99)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (physical $49.99, digital, $39.99)
The Spirit and the Mouse (digital, $19.99)
Tip Top: Don’t Fall! (digital, $7.99)
Tunic (digital, $29.99)

Xbox One
Beacon Pines (digital, $17.99)
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of The Nine Realms (digital, $49.99)
FIFA 23 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Grounded (digital, $29.99)
Hokko Life (physical, $29.99, digital, $19.99)
Let’s Build a Zoo (physical, $34.99)
Moonscars (digital, $19.99)
OneShot: World Machine Edition (digital, $14.99)
Potion Permit (digital, $19.99)
Serial Cleaners (digital, $14.99)
Severed Steel (physical, $34.99)
SpiderHeck (digital, $13.49)
The DioField Chronicle (physical & digital, $59.99-$74.99)
Tip Top: Don’t Fall! (digital, $7.99)
Train Life: A Railway Simulator (physical $39.99, digital, $29.99)
World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing (physical and digital, $49.99)

Xbox Series S/X
FIFA 23 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Train Life: A Railway Simulator (physical $39.99, digital, $29.99)

PC
Beacon Pines ($17.99)
Deliver Us Mars ($26.99)
Dome Keeper ($TBA)
Flashout 3 ($TBA)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits ($TBA)
Moonscars ($19.99)
NeverAwake ($TBA)
No Place for Bravery ($19.99)
Pocket Stables ($TBA)
Potion Permit ($19.99)
Remoteness ($TBA)
Rumble ($TBA)
Serial Cleaners ($14.99)
Shovel Knight Dig ($TBA)
Slime Rancher 2 ($TBA)
SpiderHeck ($13.49)
Terra Invicta ($TBA)
The DioField Chronicle ($59.99)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero ($39.99)
The Matriarch ($TBA)
The Spirit and the Mouse ($19.99)
Tiny Rogues ($TBA)

Rob’s Pick: Habitually, Nihon Falcom’s games feel like digital bliss. Storylines cull from the classic, habitually offering noble heroes, the loyal sidekick, and a cast of allies who prove indispensable during the great trek. Combat is traditionally a crucial part of the formula with the developers appreciating a responsive user interface and snappy fights that rarely overstay their welcome. Aurally, Falcom Sound Team jdk produces a succession of undeniable ear worms. And when all of these components gel together, the result is transcendent.

This week The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero arrives, bringing the first of the two Crossbell games to the West. Since the game’s original release for the PSP way back in 2020, Trails fans have clamored for an official localization. Pick up Zero and it’s easy to see why. Retreating from the massive casts of previous entries in the property, the focus here is on likable rookie detective Lloyd Bannings and his team of Crossbell Police Department’s Special Support Section (SSS). Attempting to repair the tarnished reputation of the force, the SSS tackle odd jobs in an attempt to improve public perception.

The smaller number of characters allows each to be given a moment to shine in the spotlight. From Randy Orlando, your right-hand man with a partiality for vice, a partner who is persistently polite and full of charm, to a twin-tailed teen who’ll provide some playful sass once she’s comfortable with her teammates, each personality is poised to charm. Better yet, the writing is extraordinarily sharp, and it almost feels like every line of dialog is necessary. Battles are wonderfully intuitive. While they take place on grids, turns are much faster than the convention move-and-attack phases, with allies automatically positioning themselves. Sure, none of this is revolutionary (at least not in 2022). But it comes together so competently, that 40-50 hours in Crossbell feel like half of that duration.

Elsewhere, I’m looking forward to Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival. With tracks like X Japan’s “Kurenai”, Higedan’s “I Love…”, and Yorushika’s “Dakara Boku wa Ongaku o Yameta” there’s some solid Jpop as well as the customary inventory of anisongs. This week I plan to find out how tolerant the neighbors will be with a 3:00 AM drunken drumming of YOASOBI’s “Yoru ni Kakeru”.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): How dare you ask me to choose games this week, Robert? It’s actually rude to present this list of games and ask me to just pick two or three. Rude!

But, fine. I’ll play your Saw-like game of cruel decisions. The DioField Chronicle first. This is a game that has a general presentation that’s a bit like Fire Emblem Three Houses in the way it handles downtime between missions (good), a pausable real-time combat system of skirmishes and positioning (good), and a promisingly dark storyline of mercenaries, feuding nations, and medieval fantasy (good good good). This game looks good, and I can’t wait to dig in deep.

Next up The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero. I’d heard that this chapter is one of the better of the series, and was very much looking forward to it, as my experience with The Legend of Heroes was previously only the Trails of Cold Steel series, and the PSP one that I Anberniced. People weren’t joking around! Exquisitely good storytelling in Trails From Zero. The game might not have Alisa, but that’s really its only negative. This series is one of the few hardcore time-consuming committments that actually justify what they ask from players.

For an indie hit to the veins, check out Penko Park. It is, quite genuinely, what would happen if you asked Tim Burton to make a Pokemon Snap game. If that doesn’t have you scrambling to make the buy then I don’t know what to tell you other than that you and I have very different taste in things (and also you’re wrong).

And finally SongPop Party coming to the Switch is an excellent thing. There is nothing quite like busting out some SongPop Party at parties and challenging folks to see who can recognise the hits of all the decades the fastest. For the record, no one beats me at 80s and 90s music trivia. I hold my own with 00s and 70s, but when you go beyond that I’m screwed. 60s was a little before my time, and the 10s onwards is far too zoomer for my old millennial bones. The best thing about having SongPop Party on the Switch is that it is so much easier to pair up little 8BitDo controllers and the like to play with friends in local (the way trivia is best played) than the clunky Apple Arcade multiplayer setup.

Ryan’s pick: Hajimaruton! I’m going to go with Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival as my official choice. The tracklist is really impressive and there’s plenty of great songs on there including Gurenge from Kimetsu No Yaiba, Zenzenzense by Radwimps, and even Kurenai by X Japan. Granted it’s going to be tough to play this one on a train or airplane with peripheral taiko drums connected to your Switch, but I think that the game still brings more than enough fun with just the buttons to keep you practicing to get a perfect run on your favorite song.

There were three other games that I’d also like to check out, so I’ll mention them briefly here. The first was Moonscars which is a 2D platformer. I really liked the dark color scheme mixed with the really meticulously drawn animation frames. Serial Killers also looks like it will bring out the OCD in me wanting to complete each stage perfectly. But I always get caught in stealth games doing something stupid, guaranteed. Lastly, Severed Steel on PS5 is a solid choice as well, it’s a FPS with bullet time, and unique environments that are destructible. It looks like it plays pretty fluidly, so I want to try it out as I missed it when it was released on Steam last year.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): What an obscene week. So publishers all get together every now and then and just… decide to release all their games in the same week? Please stop, my wallet and schedule are begging you.

Everyone’s already covered off Trails from Zero, DioField Chronicle, and Taiko no Tatsujin, so I’ll just quickly add another vote to those and move onto something that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Potion Permit. Don’t sleep on this one, folks—I know the cozy life sim beat is getting kinda crowded, but this one stands out.

Brewing potions feels almost Atelier-like, with a puzzle mini-game that sees you trying to fit ingredients together to form different shapes. Patient diagnosis and care adds an interesting element to the whole picture, with more fun minigames and a genuine reason to explore different potion recipes beyond just selling them for money. The pseudo-Victorian setting and narrative framing of trying to earn the trust of a town with a very legitimate suspicion of—or even outright hostility towards—chemists creates an intriguing backdrop for those social systems. It’s definitely worth checking out.

And also, just quickly, NeverAwake deserves a mention. A twin-stick shooter taking place in the surreal nightmares of a girl trapped in an eternal slumber is always going to be worthwhile, but especially one whose monsters are so delightfully creepy and grotesque. Vegetables and homework never looked so terrifying.