New Releases: September 26th-October 2nd, 2019

The beginning of October might be a dissonant time for Switch owners. This week they’re privy to YU-NO and well as ports of Darksiders II, Dragon Quest XI, FIFA 20, and Ori and the Blind Forest. But a tempting line-up of new releases has the power to wreak havoc on wallets, especially when titles like Alliance Alive HD and Indivisible are imminent.

Header image: Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue, PC, Switch, and PS4

PlayStation 4
Code Vein (physical & digital, $59.99)
FIFA 20 (physical & digital, $59.99)
YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world (physical & digital, $49.99)

Switch
2048 Battles (digital, $2.99)
80 Days (digital, $12.99)
Arcade Archives Time Tunnel (digital, $7.99)
Ball Attraction (digital, $7.99)
Barry Bradford’s Putt Panic Party (digital, $5.99)
Button Button Up! (digital, $10.79)
Car Mechanic Simulator Pocket Edition (digital, $19.99)
Chop is Dish (digital, $3.00)
Cyber Protocol (digital, $9.99)
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition (physical & digital, $29.99)
Detective Dolittle (digital, $2.99)
Dragon Quest (digital, $4.99)
Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (digital, $6.49)
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (digital, $12.49)
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition (physical & digital, $59.99)
Dreaming Canvas (digital, $4.99)
FIFA 20 Legacy Edition (physical & digital, $49.99)
Fight’N Rage (digital, $19.99)
Freedom Finger (digital, $14.99)
Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX (digital, $14.99)
Habroxia (digital, $6.79)
Lanternium (digital, $9.99)
Neo Cab (digital, $17.99)
Northgard (digital, $34.99)
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (digital, $19.99)
Paper Train (digital, $9.99)
Petoons Party (digital, $19.99)
Reaper: Tale of a Pale Swordsman (digital, $5.99)
Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate Edition (physical & digital, $34.99)
Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (digital, $4.99)
Super Crate Box (digital, $4.99)
Talk it Out: Handheld Game (digital, $2.99)
YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world (physical & digital, $49.99)

Xbox One
Code Vein (physical & digital, $59.99)
FIFA 20 (physical & digital, $59.99)

PC
Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue ($TBA)
Code Vein ($59.99)
Cube World ($TBA)
FIFA 20 ($59.99)
Flotsam ($22.49)
Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX ($14.99)
Master of LinCard ($TBA)
Memorrha ($TBA)
Nanairo Reincarnation ($TBA)
Neo Cab ($17.99)
Onii-chan Asobo ($TBA)
Our Lovely Escape ($TBA)
YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world ($49.99)

Robert’s Pick: Anyone who cares about visual novel history should consider taking a look at YU-NO. Originally released in 1996, ELF Corporation’s visual novel demonstrated what the medium was truly capable of achieving. Previously, most VNs were rather quaint, often focusing on matters like romantic entanglements. Although YU-NO doesn’t shy away from amorousness (it was an eroge that was later adapted into a four-part hentai), it also embraced the exploration of the metaphysical. By using the Reflector Device, a contrivance sent by your deceased father, Takuya Arima is able to explore parallel worlds, revisiting events from divergent perspectives, paving the way for brainy novels like Steins;Gate. The soundtrack was created by the late Ryu Umemoto aka MIZINCO, who’s considered one of the best FM-synth chiptune composers. It’s a bittersweet reminder of talent taken from us far too soon.

With that said and done, I’ll also be picking up Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age. It’s a proficient port that contains all of the original content along with additional character-specific stories and the ability to switch between modern 3D rendering and 16-bit style visuals. I’ve been hooked on the series since the start and given the gratification I had with the PC release of Echoes of an Elusive Age, I’m eager to replay the game on the go.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): After pre-emptively picking Baldur’s Gate last week (I blame Robert. His initial list of releases gave me false hope last week), I’d pick it again this week. But there’s been another delay…

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Yu-No. I didn’t know much about this game prior to booting it up, and I was greeted with a spectacular panty shot within the first minute. I think this game and I will get along just fine. Assuming it’s not all oppai, I mean. Variety is good!

Ryan’s Pick: Bandai Namco is no stranger to the brutally difficult action-rpg genre, but as only the publisher of the Dark Souls series it does make sense that this publisher would want to create their own IP to call their own. That is exactly what they have done with Code Vein, which is my pick for the week. I have high expectations that the gameplay will feel like a proper Dark Souls game, and equally hope that it is just as difficult.

Aesthetically the environments and enemies appear to utilize similar specular shaders like in the Souls series to give everything a lot of sheen and to accentuate the copious amounts of blood being shed. One important distinction however is that this game is made in Unreal 4 rather than in From Software’s proprietary engine. I think that it’s a great choice, as visually the engine is able to accomplish things that other engines cannot. Lastly, I really like the character design and choices that were made for the protagonists in the story. Granted the art may not for some, as the characters are clearly more anime inspired, but I think it will make this game unique from the others in this genre. Story-wise I am not quite sure what to expect, but I am pretty excited to start dodge-rolling around all fancy-crazy whilst hacking at gigantic bosses once again.

Jay’s Pick: At first glance it looks like a pretty slow week but I think the correct word for it is understated. It’s actually impossible to overstate just how important this week is, even if you aren’t interested in any of the games (you should be though).

Code Vein will introduce a whole new audience to the rapidly expanding Soulslike genre, YU-NO is a remake of a groundbreaking visual novel from 1996 that continues to act as the blueprint for the entire genre and will be coming to the West for the very first time, and Dragon Quest XI S will be the first ever simultaneous worldwide release in the beloved series’ long history.

Given the importance, I don’t think I can make 1 singular pick this week. Dragon Quest XI S is a must-buy for JRPG-loving Switch owners who haven’t yet played it on PS4. Code Vein is something fans of Soulslikes should have their eye on, and it should also be on the radar for anyone turned off by the visual style and Westernised/realistic setting that composes most of the genre. YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world is something everybody who’s in any way interested in Japanese-developed games should want to experience.