Sega Genesis Retro-spective: Naughty Dog's Rings of Power

Today, I'm going to be showing you a game from the 90s that you may not even know existed, one of Naughty Dog's early gaming outings before the company gained just a tiny bit of fame from Crash Bandicoot and The Last of Us. The team at the time was far removed from Neil Druckman's current successes, the game being in the hands of Jason Ruben and Andy Gavin, the co-founders of Naughty Dog Software and, later, the creators of Crash Bandicoot.

You may want to prepare yourself for this because it was a game from the early 90s that wanted to experiment, far away from the polished and beautiful set pieces this studio has become known for. This game wanted to break into RPG gaming in a fun and reckless way.

Rings of Power (Not related to the Amazon prime show based on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) took inspiration from many places, Dungeons and Dragons, religious texts, The Lord of the Rings (Purely the books), Star Wars, and any number of tropes that existed during the nineties era of table-top roleplaying. But it wanted to do them on the Sega Genesis (Or the Megadrive to folks like me in Europe), early in its life too. It was released in January 1992. Imagine Ellie and Joel having a conversation and randomly coming out with this:

The game was a console exclusive and set in a fantasy land. Kid me lost his mind trying to figure this one out.

It boasted a "functioning" save system that could soft-lock you if you used it at the wrong times and sometimes made you lose hard earned currency upon loading the game. It had the world's chunkiest instruction manual with over 200 pages of lore, character info, and food and water consumption while riding vehicles. (The dragon eats a lot of food) and a lot of lore about places. It also provided quite detailed information on all your recruitable characters and their skills/spells right down to damage, stores that sold them, and mana costs.

The story is fairly simple, The God of the world is really lazy, and this game's version of the devil is quite active, openly converting people and hunting down a reality-bending item called "The rod of creation". You're told by your master, who is definitely not going to die, that it's your job to hunt down the rings that make up this rod and deliver them back to the lazy deity, who apparently holed himself up in his tower and won't come out till humanity behaves itself.

The titular rings of power are 11 rings lost to time and myth scattered around an isometric world
The instruction manual gives you vague hints as to where all 11 are or were at one point, it doesn't tell you how difficult it is to obtain them, just where they might be. Strangely enough, some of these hints aren't present in the game itself, electing to use different clues in game. If you got this game hoping for an amazing RPG experience and got a second-hand copy of the game from someone who lost or damaged it? You were pretty much screwed. Sure, it's possible to use the in-game hints to get all the rings, but you would have to comb every single inch of the game blindly for at least 3 of them. For instance, the ring of intuition, which characters in the game will tell you is about "Solving unstructured and incoherent problems."

I never worked out what the yellow bit was for.

After you mercilessly kill a homeless man on your master's orders over a door sign, he gets killed at the academy of sorcerers by one of his own students, who is sporting a sick evil beard and bald head combo. In his last act, your master teleports you away, before he kills everyone, to the outskirts of a city with a note detailing where to find your first party member, and you should recover the rings after.

After that, you are free to do whatever you like. You can search out party members, explore, murder townspeople, make money, play at commerce, and click every single option on dialogue wheels on every NPC imaginable, hoping at least one of them will finally give you that one hint you need to progress. There's no morality system in this game, kill whoever you like, do what you like. As long as god gets their toy, they'll forgive everything you did to get it for them. And oh boy, does this game like to get into atrocities.

Here's a list of crimes you can commit and nobody will care:

- Thievery

- Piracy

- Murder (As long as you're not in the same room as witnesses)

- Bribery of public officials

- Aiding criminals

- Disrespecting the dead

- Stealing milk from children

- Feeding a small bird to a dragon

- Home invasion

- Parking your dragon in front of the inn so nobody can leave

- Regicide

- Necromancy

- Blasphemy

- Dragging your dead master's soul back to the mortal plain to terrify enemies to death while he looks like he's lost and confused in Walmart.

Does anyone know which aisle the beard trimmers are on?

Combat places your party on a grid, you can then choose spells you've found in-game to cast. It's pretty random who hits what, and all you can do is direct attacks, except when you get to the Level 9 spells like Master above. Those spells hit everything for absurd levels of damage but cost almost all your Mana points. Managing mana becomes a huge part of your exploration preparations. If you don't have mana you can't cast spells, making you much more likely to die.

How did we get to space? Can we even breathe? Well, I guess that doesn't really matter right now.

There are 6 classes all with unique skills, effects and really satisfying animations for all your effort in getting to the higher levels. You can make enemies attack each other, summon elemental attacks that affect the field, raise dead enemies to attack the living ones, and one of the really best parts of this game was the death sound. A gut wrenching cry when something died at your hands, I never got tired of it.

Exploration took place on isometric grids, similar to Final Fantasy 1. You'd move your icon around a mini version of the town you were in, the screen would wrap around your character maintaining a small grid, then when you went into buildings, you'd be zoomed in on to explore the interior. Also, you had the ability to zoom in on the square you were standing on. Sometimes you'd find treasure, sometimes enemies, but most of the time, there would be nothing.

The world was a very detailed and hectic world map, filled with a lot of towns, villages, dungeons, fortresses, the occasional cult, a town where half is old, and half is young. and… an insane asylum filled with crazy people who scream at you. Should I mention this game lets you kill all NPCs? Oh no, wait, that NPC was vital to progressing… whoops!

Orphanages and castles don't get farther apart. Also Orphanages and retirement homes.

Now I'm going to list off some interesting facts about the game that I feel are some of the highlights of the game and its sometimes hap-hazard design.

- There is a 0.04% chance that stepping on any square in the game, you will cross paths with Void, who is effectively this game's devil. You are then killed via text box and told you are dead. At any point in this game you can just die, and there is nothing you can do about it.

There's something oddly familiar about all this.

-The odds of winning the lottery were busted. If you made enough money you could simply spam the lottery and always win a fortune by mashing the buy tickets button, as long as you had enough starting capital.

- A glitch in the game allowed you to continually spam answering one specific trivia question to gain maximum experience for everyone.

- One ring requires you to show a person a picture of the ring because it's masquerading as a human. To get this picture, you have to willingly fight an incredibly tough battle that you would likely skip by camping inside an inn, which then forces you outside, making you bypass moving downstairs to confront them. The thing is, this picture is never even alluded to being important, it's just a drop you happen to get. Talk about punishing exploits!

- One ring is hidden in a place between a sun and moon temple, it's incredibly natural to look there. What wasn't natural is finding the directions to navigate the death minefield that's between you and the ring. The answer? Some dude in an insane asylum chants the directions to safely make it across. Just casually just there. You'd have no idea what he was going on about without finding the ring first.

- There was an Easter egg that if you loaded up the game while holding down certain buttons on the second controller, you would see a quite naked lady on the opening screen instead of the protagonist Buc. Sadly, this Easter egg is one of the few reasons anyone ever talks about it since it had one printing run in Europe and the USA and afterwards, EA refused to print more copies of it despite moderately good sales. The last time I can see anyone talk about this game in any detail was in 2014.

- One part has you enter a tower for information, or you can stumble randomly onto it. Sadly, the tower owner has home security in the form of forcing you into a cutscene and putting you in jail with no option to fight him. Now if you didn't save one minor NPC in a totally unrelated questline, where the NPCs plead you to execute him and not let him go. You will sit in this jail and die. The only way to be saved is to save this one guy. All because he happens to be there to be able to save you. Try figuring that one out without a guide!

And I thought death by cutscene didn't start till Final Fantasy 7!

Truth be told, I know I've pointed out a lot of this game's flaws, but that's only because I want you to see just what Naughty Dog was up to back then. Rings of Power sold moderately well, but EA didn't agree to reprint the game, sadly disillusioning the developers for a time.

But when I played it I was blown away by how much freedom I could get from a mega drive game. So much to the point I still remember and cherish this title because of how bold it was. Games like this just didn't exist on the Megadrive outside of Shining Force, which I could never get a hold of. I spent hours on this game, learning everything I could about it, and honestly, it was time well spent.

I loved this game, it was quirky and silly in all the right places, and the gameplay was sort of confusing at times, but it really made me think and want to explore. You just don't get games like this that refuse to hold your hand anymore, I will always appreciate it for giving me an unforgiving RPG experience as a teenager. It got me into the games universe in a big way since it was my effort that led to any sort of progress.

Trinity Fusion Early Access Review

Oftentimes it’s difficult to determine whether a game is a roguelike or a Metroidvania, the key difference being that you start with nothing in a roguelike and build up over consecutive runs with procedurally generated levels. And instead of that, you power up to progress further in one long run through set levels in a Metroidvania. Trinity Fusion definitely falls into the Metroidvania camp with roguelike elements. This early access game interested me because of its bright and vibrant characters hacking and slashing their way through an apocalyptic setting.

You play as one of three characters who are multiversal variants of a girl called Maya trying to save the multiverse from its collapse. The mission is to fuse the prime world and the other three worlds into one world to save what’s left. Think, Secret Wars from Marvel comics, and you’ve got your story. Meanwhile, you’ve got machines and aliens with lots of arms trying to stop you from progressing.

The game works as a 2d side-scrolling platformer with hack-and-slash elements. You start with randomly given weapons and secondary weapons, and you use them until more weapons drop from enemies once you defeat them. Enemies have a health and stagger bar, being unable to act once their stagger bar is filled.

At each level, your gear drop score increases based on how many enemies you defeat, meaning your weapons get stronger and can gain additional effects such as burn, electrocute and chill. If you happen to gain one of these, your weapon will glow in the same color as the augment, and the effect does look quite satisfying.

On top of this, you have modifiers that can affect you in different ways based on money, health regeneration, base damage, and more.

What I would hope for the future is that you may be able to invest the dropped currency in game into a weapon you really like to bring it up to your current power level, as dropping items for new ones can leave you feeling a little disappointed if you liked a particular piece only to find it drastically under-leveled for the part of the game you are on. The characters you play as all have specialization in a skill that occupies your second weapons slot.

For example, your first character Altara uses a mechanical arm to produce elemental and mechanical attacks, while Kera uses 2 handed weapons to perform powerful, focused attacks.
Some attacks can be charged like the Hammer, while some perform a flat attack like the laser beam. Once you progress through the game, you can fuse your characters together, gaining their additional weapon skills and mobility quirks.

Altaras double jump combined with 2 handed weapons can lead to new levels of strategic thinking. Ultimately it gives you far more options in combat, reminding me a little of Megaman powerup states, which this game does share a few similarities with. Enemies generally have really good designs ranging from dive-bombing squids to sword-wielding robots. I found that HP bars generally reflect the sturdiness of your enemies, with flying enemies having less HP and machines having more.

Their patterns mostly stayed the same on multiple runs, and as I progressed, I could memorize what they would be doing and dodge behind them for a clean set of hits. Something I liked was that an enemy with a large separated shield would periodically close it, not allowing you to dodge through him, making any other enemies behind or to the side of him able to hit you without much danger to themselves.

Because this makes you decide on priority targets, I found the experience much more enjoyable. Something I wasn't happy with, though, is that projectiles can hit you even if the big white “Evade” sign came up to tell me I'd dodged. Perhaps the invincibility window is a little too tight. Level design is fairly simple but has a few tricks to make trips a little less monotonous as you go through it. For example, whichever character you start with, you will begin in their world, Underworld, Overworld, or Hyperworld.

Each level has a randomly selected endpoint to move on and can include elite enemies, stronger types of enemies you’ve already come across with higher HP bars and attack power. These typically drop rare modifiers or weapons. Every so often, you’ll wander into ambushes where seemingly stronger enemies will attack you as a group in an enclosed area.

I gotta say these parts got my adrenaline pumping as not only are you fighting new enemies you won’t know how to counter, but you’re also forced into dodging and weaving through all their projectiles and melee attacks. It’s a good gameplay feature. It reminds me a tiny bit of the monster houses from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Also, the map mirrors sometimes. It’s a nice change. But sometimes the backgrounds are amazing, such as in Overworld and its mechanical focus, and then you have Underworld, where the backgrounds seem empty and hazy. While I understand this is by design, maybe in future updates, they could add a few more details.

When it came to sound, I wasn’t really too impressed with what I heard. Again I don’t know whether Underworld is supposed to feel lifeless, but I felt like I was listening to a ten-second loop with brain-piercing mechanical noises in my ear. While it is fitting and adds to the whole lifeless feeling I'm sure they meant to portray, it doesn’t help convey the fast-paced fury of dashing and slashing through enemies, a feeling I would want to feel from this type of game. With Early access titles like this, music is frequently switched out as work progresses, and I’m pretty certain this might be focused on in future builds.

So to finish up, Trinity Fusion has some really interesting features that could make it a real competitor in the field. I'm genuinely looking forward to the full release and seeing what the team over at Angry mob games can do with this solid foundation of a game.

Why You Should Play Stranger of Paradise on Steam This Month

The gloomy gates of the Epic games store have finally opened, releasing one of last year's most promising titles into the wild with all the DLC being completed. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a complete experience you'll probably not want to miss for many reasons I'm going into today.

The game is a giant meme

Chances are, last year, you heard Final Fantasy fans chanting, "We're here to kill Chaos!" over and over again for a few months. That's because of this game. Protagonist Jack Garland is without a doubt one of the most iconic Final Fantasy protagonists in recent memory; not caring about anything but his goal, dismissing the plot, like an angry gamer rapidly mashing the "Skip cutscene" button, Garland bulldozes his way through the story, hilariously being the most self-aware Role playing character ever produced by Square Enix.

He's that one DnD player you cannot control and wants to derail the story at any moment he gets bored or declares it not worth his time. If things are too simple, he'll start fighting something just to have something to do. Wanting to kill Chaos is simply his favorite method of telling NPC characters to shut up and give him what he wants. A perfect joke for those who just want to play the game.

This game is now the definitive way to experience the story of Final Fantasy 1

Final Fantasy 1 has always been a really barebones tale with a really “out of nowhere” twist. Heroes of light travel the world, beat up 4 fiends, then travel back in time to defeat Garland again, then defeat Chaos. What Stranger of Paradise attempts is to show the Heroes of Light in a far more meaningful and worthwhile light. Jack and his party embrace this, letting you experience the journey of the NES classic through gorgeous radiant graphics and battles with a robust and carefully crafted job system.

No longer are you clicking to use moves in a turn-based style. You are a master of your chosen style, using looted weapons and skills to upgrade and improve your jobs to unlock new and fused classes. Progression and cosmetic benefits galore.

Oh, and somehow the DLC also makes this a prequel to Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which is one of my all-time favorite games, so that made me very happy.

Combat is pretty fun

As an Action RPG, Stranger plays as something akin to Dark Souls but with a bit more of a fantasy edge. Playing as Jack Garland can sometimes make you feel far more brutal than a typical protagonist; regardless of whichever class you use, Jack's personality meshes well with his application of different skills and magic.

Traditional final fantasy class loadouts are made personal with Jack's blood crystal techniques, allowing for some quite flashy and over-the-top finishers. Dodge and weave your way into slicing open enemies and finishing them with overpowering might.

Party members can be switched in and out for a more casual experience or a truly difficult experience playing solo. The online co-op features also allow you to play with friends who will take the place of one of your party members.

Amazing costume design

In this game, you improve your characters through loot! Most of which have their own designs and ways to customize how your character looks. You can look like a cunning thief, a metal-clad knight, or a mythical Genji knight? There's quite a lot of armor to check out.

Nothing is cooler than Garland's final outfit, which you'll have to see for yourself in the game. Actual armor levels have a button that you can press to equip immediately; how very convenient.

So, here are my thoughts on the game. I will tell you now that Tetsuya Nomura is writing the game, and anyone who's ever played Kingdom Hearts knows that means the story can be a little confusing. But it does a good job of creating an amazing origin story for one of Final Fantasy's most overlooked entries.

Octopath Traveler 2: All Character's Chapter 1 Review

Whenever I play a JRPG, the most important factor is how a character reacts to the world around it. Some of my favorites are Final Fantasy 9's Zidane being a happy-go-lucky thief who silently deals with crippling depression, Persona 4's Tohru Adachi and his simple yet complex motivations, or Edelgard's unflinching radicalism in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. All of them boast very strong but differing perceptions of their character, so for this game, I was delighted to find many of the same and some who stick to stereotypes.

Octopath Traveler 2 follows the trend of its predecessor. It creates very likable and personal insights into a character’s mindset during textbook storylines which coalesce into one overarching story. The Octopath series has a unique charm in exploring the finer details and feelings in an otherwise melodramatic setting you've probably seen before.

I’ll be rating each party member's opening chapter on how engaging it was and which character you may wish to choose as your protagonist in your opening decision.

Agnea

A small-town dancer who wants to follow in the footsteps of her celebrity mother.

I wanted to analyze this early. Agnea's opening chapter is weakly written. You spend your time watching her dance for patrons, reminiscing about her mother, and using her "talents" (The game dubs them that) to fleece townspeople of their money and belongings. All in the name of becoming a "star." She charms her way into getting enough money to leave on a journey, either through dancing or, albeit rather, innocent coercion.

And then she fights a giant boar.

I wish I was joking. Clearly, a victim of the opening chapter formula: story > fight > story > boss. Agnea fights a monster who should rightfully wipe the floor with her: a small country town dancing prodigy. It's strange how her fighting prowess is unexplained and seemingly appears out of thin air.

This chapter is a regrettable process of creating an unrelatable character. After dispatching the boar, she leaves her hometown to visit the big city. The saving grace of this is a foreboding warning from her father that her mother passed on from similar behavior.

However, If you don't pick her as your starting character when you come to collect her, She drops the purse with her savings on the ground and almost leaves without it.

This is the justification for you meeting her in her hometown. And as you have to then play a chapter where she directly links the savings to her own value as a dancer in having gotten them, it feels like a slap in the face to think she could so easily misplace her funds.

Her interaction abilities are at least good.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Neutral good.

Agena Chapter 1: 2/10

Partitio

A genius salesman who forsakes his talents to care for his unwell father and dying town.

Victims of an unwise business decision, Partitio, and his friends live in hard times, their money leeched on by an unknown and sinister landowner who deviously snatched their silver mine.

Partitio, the merchant type… gathers up his friends to beat them up and drive them out of town. This is a welcome sight for this type of character, going against normal stereotypes of bartering to solve problems.

Partitio is shown to be a man of the people, using money for others’ benefit while knowing exactly how to get it fairly. His ability to hire others plays into the story well, and his character is established as moral, heroic, and brave. It was one of my favorite opening stories.

Partitio then sets out to "End Poverty." Possibly by force, but his grounded nature makes you believe he'll do it in a noble fashion.

And his fighting move callouts are really catchy, too: Arrow of Fortune!

His Interaction abilities cost money; I'd say they're more late-game than anything when you stock up masses of money from fighting.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Chaotic good.

Partitio Chapter 1: 9/10

Hikari

A warrior of a war-torn country, Hikari is a gentle prince in a ruthless kingdom.

Do you guys like The Lion King? Or Hamlet? Hikari's story is about a medieval Chinese aesthetic kingdom in the desert taking territory by force. Hikari's brother is ruthless and believes in strength over all, and Hikari is a half-blood prince who believes in restraint.

Naturally, he is chosen to be ruler by his father, and the brother then stages a coup and takes over, killing his father.

Hikari is then exiled to go sing show tunes with a meerkat and a warthog. I mean, seek allies to take back his kingdom. Weirdly these allies are from his own kingdom and not your party of soon-to-be god-level RPG characters.

Hikari himself is hinted to have a powerful but dark ancient bloodline; his attitude towards others is benign despite his upbringing. So I can't fault this story too much. This was the character I started with, and Hikari is a really good pick for battles.

His interaction ability duel is straight fire. You can 1 v 1 NPCs. Great stuff.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Lawful good.

Hikari Chapter 1: 6/10

Ochette

I'm just going to keep on relating to Disney movies at this rate. Ochette may as well be inspired by The Jungle Book.

Ochette is a child beastkin who pairs up with a talking animal (You choose which) and a talking lion to honor the balance of the forest. And then things start going nuts. The humans arrive, demanding more land, and the lion then proclaims: "Oh no, old age is here to claim me. Please take over the village, 11-year-old child. Also, the apocalypse is coming with sludge monsters and giant abominations, and you have to stop it."

All of this happens in the course of 1 day. So you're sent to go capture the beasts of legend.

Ochettes chapter 1 is a really wild ride, her character? She gets hungry and seems to follow an honor code. She also feeds everyone because it's her job. She's naive but good-hearted. This chapter seemed far more of a setup for later chapters. Maybe her character growth comes later?

Her interaction abilities rely completely on caught monsters, which could be a pain if you're not a monster collector.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: True neutral.

Ochette Chapter 1: 7/10

Temenos

Octopath 1 had this problem of the cleric being the worst path in the game, with many calling out the writing as cheap and repetitive. It would seem Octopath 2 fixed this.

Temenos chapter 1 is, in no short terms, amazing. It opens with you playing as the fabled heroes of Octopath lore in a story told to children in a church. It's clear this story will have massive implications for the game as a whole.

Temenos is shown to be suspiciously cynical about his own religion, making you feel he may be losing his faith, but then immediately uses holy magic to save himself from a hostage situation at the hands of heretics. His faith is apparently based on evidence, with his catchphrase of "Doubt is what I do." He believes that the truth is something he must bring to light for everyone's sake.

He then picks up a down-to-earth sacred knight companion, and they're just like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The game doesn't try to hide it. It's actually a really good homage.

But tragedy strikes, the fantasy Pope has been killed by a wild animal? Not so. Temenos engages his Batman-style detective vision and sleuths out that everything points to murder. He is the most unexpected cleric archetype I've ever seen, and I am here for it 100%.

This chapter is so good. The lore, the characters, the setup, the detective story inside a fantasy church hierarchy. It's just divine. It's the best starting chapter for me by far.

His interaction abilities are sadly mediocre. An Interrogation battle sequence and getting a follower.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Lawful Neutral.

Temenos Chapter 1: 9.5/10

Throné

I had a lot of trouble working out what I wanted to say about Throné. She's another victim of played-out plot syndrome. You start with her in a massive criminal gang, and to work out the new gang leader, the higher-ups start to pit their thieves and assassins against each other.

You go through a number of uncomfortable moments ranging from being whipped, finding out you wear a collar that can't come off, and finding that your father figure routinely tries to stab you for practice. It's quite a terrible life she leads.

The chapter is about Throné deciding she's had enough of killing and wants out of the gang by doing the only thing she was taught how to do, killing her bosses, getting the keys to her collar, and finally being free. It's very much like the hunger games, and also the exact plot of the thief from the first game for some reason.

This upsets me because, playing later chapters, her story is probably one of the most emotionally engaging, but I realized if you play this chapter, then say you play any of the other opening chapters aside from Osvald's, you are going to suffer the biggest narrative whiplash of your life. She's a good character and a solid pick, but I can't for the life of me recommend this one as your first introduction to the game.

The best interaction ability in the game steals a massive thumbs up from me. Steal is just so good. Definite main party main-stay.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Neutral Evil.

Throné Chapter 1: 5/10

Castti

You might be forgiven for wanting to skip this one. It's like a sitcom episode where the character gets amnesia and has to go through remembering what happened and why they lost their memories.

They deduce that the town they washed ashore in is being poisoned by evil monsters in the sewer that we promptly hit with an axe that all medical staff keeps on them for some reason, maybe amputation?

There's some talking with a mysterious woman who may know something about you and some stuff about you being part of an evil squad of healers that might make you evil too. It's just not enough to go on to say whether the character is worth starting with. You never actually get any story meat with her till chapter 3.

She's kind, self-sacrificing, and a party buffer for combat if you're into that.

Her interaction abilities are pure garbage. She's the character you'll most forget about when organizing your party.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Come back when you've written your backstory, Darrel!

Castii Chapter 1: 3/10

Osvald

Osvald's opening chapter is actually 2 chapters, and I'll be counting them both as his first chapter. It's an incredibly intriguing tale of a man wrongfully imprisoned but actually should be in prison.

As a scholar, you would expect him to be a nerdy, studious type; however, he's not averse to violence, detailed planning, using people, judging, and demeaning people all to get to his goal, eliminating the man who murdered his family.

Osvald is a stone-cold brutal, but deadly efficient type of man molded by 5 years of prison life and still sane enough to formulate detailed plans. These chapters document his escape from an Arctic prison island. The best opening chapter in the game in terms of story. Not my favorite, but the best simply due to the care and detail. It's like a mini-movie. You may liken Osvald to the protagonist: Michael Schofield, from Prison Break.

Osvalds abilities are to mug and scrutinize people. Both are very useful.

If I was playing DnD, I would say: Chaotic neutral.

Osvald Chapter 1 & 2: 9/10

Upon finishing the game, my final thoughts are that almost every character is a good starting point except for Agnea, while she does boast the best final boss music in the game and an uplifting story.

I would recommend that you choose: Partitio, Temenos, or Osvald as your starting character. All three boast impressive abilities and highly satisfying stories. If you love dark stories or battle royale stories, pick Throné. Finally, if you just want to play and don't care about the story, Pick Hikari. I hope you enjoy Octopath Traveler 2; I certainly did.

The Best April Fools Joke: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

There's a lot to be said for April fools' jokes in gaming, so when March 31st came around, I was expecting something. Sega saying they were killing off Sonic, their beloved mascot character was easily something my tiny brain could determine was a jape. Until it turned out to be a legitimate game.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a free visual novel created by the Sonic Social team, signed off on by Kazuyuki Hoshino of Sonic team, and published by SEGA. The premise is that Amy Rose's birthday party is taking place on a murder mystery train. You play as a timid food vendor and are told to ensure everyone is well "taken care of."

Someone will "die," and the culprit must be found. However, upon discovering Sonic's body, it becomes clear there is a more nefarious plot at work, and it's up to you to help solve the mystery.

Without spoiling anything, this story is amazing. Characters have loveable and charming responses to each other, and ongoing gags are harmless yet hilarious. References to Sonic lore that may not have been touched upon are both outwardly acknowledged and subtly touched upon.

For instance, this game includes Blaze the Cat, a character not seen in the series meaningfully since Sonic Generations. However, in the background of some set pieces, you may see fan-inspired characters, such as a “blink, and you'll miss it” reference to the player avatar from Sonic Forces.

Despite all the light-hearted entertainment, there was a point in the story where I genuinely started to feel invested, like this wasn't just some silly murder mystery game, and that they really had a story to tell, with emotional depth, character examination, and a true love for the characters and morals that the Sonic franchise should stand for, the sort of feeling that you used to get watching the Saturday morning cartoon show or Sonic Underground.

The design work on this novel is some of the best I've seen from this series. Everything is filled to the brim with color and intricately designed to evoke both Sonic the Hedgehog's most nostalgic outings and a murder mystery story. Every character has an outfit that tells you their role and personality and stays true to their in-universe self. On top of that, you have embellished scenes with ridiculous amounts of embellishment, even if only for the benefit of a small gag. @Deegeemin on Twitter is the lead artist, and I would say they and their team have gone above and beyond for this venture.

Good day to take the train!

The music is actually really good, I wasn't expecting the music to reach the levels of Sonic's storied giants like Jun Senoue, but it turns out he was involved. Troupe Gammage and Joel Corelitz arranged a score that was fitting and affectionate to the detective genre. Where they shined, though, was in the final gameplay segment that I cannot talk about but trust me, it's amazing!

Gameplay is split into two parts, finding clues and then interrogation. The latter parts require you to run through a gauntlet of spikes, traps, and attacks to collect a certain amount of rings to put your thoughts together. These segments are essentially an overhead version of the special stages from Sonic 2. While playing these sections, I found myself pushed at times to progress, but not to the point of frustration ever.

I felt accomplished, which is great! These sections were clearly not an afterthought, which is a miracle given a high-profile visual novel game like Digimon survive didn't feel its gameplay sections required any love (Still not bitter).

As of writing this, I finished the game in 2 hours and 20 minutes, so while a short game, I know that this game has left a lasting impact. About the same length as a Phoenix Wright case, I felt as though I'd just finished a really good comic or manga arc. I would gladly have played much more of this, but the game does not overstay its welcome and provides a really nice read. I would highly recommend picking this up on Steam; after all, it's free!

I think that about wraps it up and remember everyone, always look in the trash can!

Who will you be?

The Worst Isekai Anime that are still worth watching

Anyone who watches anime knows that Isekai (Translated: To another world) are some of the most shameless pieces of wish fulfillment out there. An unassuming person goes to a fantasy world and gets ludicrously powerful with very little effort. And, of course, we, as fans, have come to love them for it. The unashamed nature of pandering to video games, magic lovers, or fantasy DnD escapism artists finds its way into our hearts as a guilty pleasure allowing us to bask in tales of absurd and contrived scenarios. And today, we will examine some of the more unknown shows, so no Sword Art Online or Rise of the Shield Hero today!

Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru -

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat

This one took me by surprise, considering its mouthful of a title. This is a tale of a calculating and skillful assassin hired by a Goddess to eliminate a Hero after his death on Earth. Reborn as Lugh, he resolves to fulfill his deal and live a life denied him in the real world. It's a show keen to go into intense detail about its premise of killing a Hero, maintaining video game-style skills and abilities, and focusing heavily on reincarnated Lugh's renewed childhood, and relationship with his all-female squad of teenage accomplices.

The show explores growing up as a highly trained assassin, detective work, magical alchemy, espionage, and merchantry, and contains very well-done combat scenes. This is a must for anyone who appreciates detailed planning, humanizing, and judgment of morally gray individuals and intrigue in a world of politics and magic.

Youjo Senki -
The Saga of Tanya the Evil

I feel this anime is passed over a fair bit because of its militaristic setting and geo-political lore focus. However, this is one of the few anime that successfully explores Isekai as a punishment. The narrative explores a cutthroat businessman, sent into the body of a 9-year-old girl and then thrown into a military conflict as a high-ranking officer within an aggressive empire. Magic here is only used with military applications. It becomes clear that Tanya is a sadistic monster; the first episode shows what happens to those who dare question her orders in clear detail.

This show explores the concept of rebelling against your fate, using sheer force of will to survive, and isn't afraid to focus on a rightfully deplorable protagonist. This is one of those shows where you watch characters you like circle a monster, hoping not to become its prey, and the fact that such a person is in the form of a small child provides a satisfying wild ride of speculation.

Otome Game Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu -

Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs

This one is pretty fun. Upon sleeping after a long video game session, protagonist Leon falls unconscious and finds himself transported into the world of the game. The game is set in a world where matriarchy is in place, but knowing how the game works, he sets about trying to beat the system.

What I like about this one is that it effectively has the goal of living well, which is constantly a struggle. Women are seen as the desirable breadwinners, while men are forced to constantly work for their approval. Yet the anime goes out of its way to allow its characters to shine by disregarding the provided gender roles of the universe. Most isekai have an escape from something, and the anime itself provides the escape from gender preconceptions that some may find upsetting in their daily lives on both sides of the coin.

Nōmin Kanren no Sukiru Bakka Agetetara Nazeka Tsuyoku Natta -

I've Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills

The first episode has a scene where a guy has farmed so much that he throws a carrot at a dragon, and it explodes. If nothing else, that scene alone is worth it.

Otome Gēmu no Hametsu Furagu Shika Nai Akuyaku Reijō ni Tensei Shite Shimatta -
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

A shy hermit-like girl gets reincarnated into her favorite romance game, but she's the villain, and she's fated to die when the protagonist of the story finds her true love with any of them. Knowing that she has to stop her death flags, she sets out to change the romanceable characters for the better to save her life. The show's setting is a delightful pastoral world with a nobility hierarchy. There are passing mentions of magic, but it's not abundant enough to affect the world in any sort of apocalyptic way.

The show stars Catarina Claes, an ever-anxious but pure-hearted girl whose plans to change her fate are as benign as she is naive. She constantly tries to play a balancing act between the male and female characters, who all seem to be willing to fight each other over her at any minute. However, the strength of this show is in its absurd humor, its strong characters, and the believability of Catarina's bright and hopeful charm. Isekai rarely shows positive character growth in such a way, and It's even rarer that a romance-based show makes me root for the character as much as this one.

Isekai Ojisan -

Uncle from Another World

Finally, this one. If you ever liked SEGA games, you'll love this series. It's a love letter to the world of the past, showcasing a man who returns from an Isekai in his 30s, retaining his magic and exploring the humorous ways he wasted his time away in a world that imagines what a 90's isekai might have looked like. He and the main character attempt to reconnect with society, finding they're more alike than they might have thought.

This is a show for anyone who may have nostalgia for their days as a teenager they wished to find a new world to exist in, and those who may find interest in retro video game attitudes of the past.

The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me-dia (Review)

Ah yes, the Human mind is so intricate, so adaptive to its darker impulses, so eager to wrap itself up in the macabre and the lurking evil within us all. The Dark Pictures series is clever at creating the darkest, most intriguing scenarios, at least it's supposed to be. These are make-your-own adventure games where the appeal lies in guiding helpless characters to safety in horrific situations, or should you choose, leading them to their untimely deaths. Today I will recount my and my friend’s experience with the 4th entry in the series "The Devil in Me." Where, unfortunately, the Devil was not also in the details.

The five protagonists wait for a car to take them to the murder hotel — We're going on an adventure to Murderville!

Story

This title takes us on a journey into the mind of H.H. Holmes, a prolific serial killer in America, historically the first. The focus on this man in the game's introduction and his ties to the main antagonist is one of the stronger aspects of this adventure. The murderer within the game imitates him obsessively, even using the blueprints of his murder hotel and rebuilding it, where the game takes place. One of my friends rushed to Wikipedia to learn more about him during his play, and the historical aspect is genuinely engaging.

A menacing picture of H.H.Holmes as he promises that he will kill again even beyond death. — But it will, sadly, remove that glorious mustache from the world.

Under the pseudonym "Grantham Du'met." The killer rather clumsily imprisons your five main characters, hoping that your soon-to-be out-of-pocket director, Charlie, will uproot his entire staff to visit an exact replica of Holmes' famous hotel. Miraculously he does from a single phone call.

The story tries very hard to insist Du'met wants to play fair and will only kill your party when he has exacted superiority via murder contraptions, even handing an asthmatic member of your group an inhaler, where it looks like she may die from natural causes. However, should the rooms start to fail, he turns into a cliche, over-the-top, teleporting slasher villain, despite him both being and portrayed, as just an ordinary man. The story is about escaping a hotel designed to kill its inhabitants, but the hotel itself proves to be as flawed as the man imitating its true master.

This results in a strange disconnect where the game attempts to be overly clever despite cliche after cliche affecting the narrative and lessening it. When compared to the overwhelming sense of emotion I got from Little Hope, this story was disappointing.

Story: 5/10

Graphics

When I think of the atmosphere in the Dark Pictures games, it paints an incredibly gothic and lucrative horror scene. Man of Medan had its ship filled with dead crewmen, Little Hope's dark and twisted sense of perception from the mind of a tortured soul. The Devil in Me does have that, however, but not for half of the game. In fact, the hotel itself is chilling with an air of emptiness that mimics its owner and subsequent owners' corrupted and empty hearts. It's filled with mannequins and contraptions that echo Du'met's mechanical brain and inability to see any difference between a doll and a human life’s worth.

The player characters gather for a toast in the dining room of the hotel — Ambience is served.

However, a large portion of the game is outside the bounds of the hotel, in a sadly poor and low-effort landscape. Copy and pasted plants; looking at the ocean at points, you can see the water hasn't been rendered correctly.

The characters' faces looked as though they're missing small distinctive details they had in Little Hope. However, I found this has been fixed since, but not in time for our playthrough. I guess proof of intent to improve graphics is a good sign.

The character is standing in front of fall leaves in the woods — Ctrl + V and stick the wildlife anywhere - A poor dev on a timer, I imagine.

There is a hedge maze at one point, filled with discarded bicycles. What choices were these? It's supposed to be a murder hotel, not Hello Kitty's day-out adventure. Granted, if you take the path where you let your party die, there are a lot more gruesome and fun contraptions and rooms you get to see the killer use. These are some of the strongest scenery! Du'met himself wears a rather low-quality mask on his face. However, his clothes are designed well and the details on his stained clothing look menacing, even though it does seem slightly derivative of Leatherface. His hat is the most memorable prop piece in the game as it radiates authentic American history.

My friends spent 2 hours complaining about how it didn't measure up to previous entries, and I agree. A 7-hour game about a murder hotel should not force you to participate in a 3-hour nature romp.

Graphics 4/10

Gameplay

Gameplay in a Dark Pictures game revolves around two things: Player choices and Quick time events. These quick-time events are generally used to ambush the player to test them and score a sneaky player character death.

The Devil in Me adds balance beams and a new inventory system, which is poorly explained. You'll only notice you can use an item if you pull yourself out of the story and see a tiny icon in the bottom left of the screen. Something you won't notice if you're immersed.

Cheap and unrelated jumpscares abound whilst the game insists on repeatedly reusing the same climbing animation.

A glitch occurs making Kate's leg go through Jamie's chest. — Oops my leg slipped.

You’ll often find tiny pieces of evidence or clues to the killer's identity and motives, except this is already explained in a mandatory video segment halfway through the game, making further clues and evidence redundant. None of this even remotely helps the characters.

Finally, I want to talk about the trap rooms, the biggest selling point of this game as a psychological thriller. These rooms are not very well designed. One of them relies on blind luck on who you choose as to whether both live or one dies. If you decide to save one character, they die. If you choose the other, they both live through a Deus ex Machina. Never mind if you may wish to explore a situation with one or the other dying. No clever way to save them both. Just if you choose a specific character to die, they both live. It's absurd!

Another requires a character to be holding an item, and you choose them to die with that item if you wish them to survive. It's decent but easy to figure out.

The best one, repeatedly tries to make you doubt your decision, giving you multiple chances to change your mind. Something that I found pretty tempting and legitimately made me question myself as the character should.

Charlie risks being inflamed and must choose an escape route. — Decisions, decisions.

However, this doesn't excuse the introduction of blind luck into a choice-based game. Half of the fun is regretting or praising your decisions based on information. This game would instead have you make a decision you couldn't possibly work out on your own. Subsequent playthroughs lose a lot of glamor as a result. I'm sorry, but that one specific choice detracted from the gameplay in a massive way for me, and it's a significant choice revolving around the entire appeal of the title.

Gameplay 3/10

Characters

Thankfully, a bit more positivity now, The Devil in Me has very good player characters.

Charlie lies to his crew about finances, hoping for one big score that will save their movie studio. His interactions with his crew determine whether he's worthy of being their leader and whether he gets over his harmful lifestyle choices.

Erin is an adorable ray of sunshine who suffers from asthma. Her story is about overcoming her fears and not becoming consumed by them. Her relationship with Jamie is the series' first LGBTQ romance if you pursue it, and it's really sweet.

Jamie, likewise, is a hothead who likes to antagonize people but mellows down and shows a real heroic side as the story progresses. She's very likable, not fitting into anyone's mold of who she should be.

Kate begins this story as a Schrodinger's cat. Your choices in the game show if she's misunderstood or a bad person as until you make choices, she can be either. Her interactions with Mark show that oftentimes she's forced to make hard decisions for herself, as he won't take them with her as she would prefer.

Mark is made better by Kate. He's a perplexed man who doesn't seem to have much direction. His indecisive nature is the core of his character, mainly because it seems he dislikes the toll his actions take on others. He's a flawed character, but one is welcome in this sort of story. He is invaluable to the bad ending, making his characterization a genius narrative choice considering its contents.

Du'met is a mute killer. He really has no personality other than "Ha ha; I will kill you with my funny evil lego set." His backstory told through the optional secrets, does little to make him intriguing. You could put Jason Vorhees in his place and have the same effect. His hat is still nice though.

picture of the antagonist Du'met wearing a mask to hide is face, looking ominously into the camera

All but Du'met are solid and enjoyable. The effort put into their characterization, at least had me rooting for them to survive more than a few times.

Characters 7/10

Sound

Sadly it's pretty forgettable. The insertion of classical music at key horror moments does little to create a more tense atmosphere. This is primarily done through character moments. The soundtrack is pretty standard and the sound effects are okay. Erin's sound-amplifying microphone is the stand-out use of audio here. It's something I have to give credit to even if you don't use it very much.

Sound 5/10

To summarize, The Devil in Me is a game that did not live up to the legacy of its predecessors, not in graphical capability, not in gameplay quality and not in terms of story.

However, it does contain the core of what a Dark Pictures game is, which is an exploration into the unknown with likable and interesting characters. While this was a disappointment in many regards, it should be taken as a lesson that a deadline of 1 year to make a 7-hour-long horror story cannot meet the standards of a series that aced it when the games were 4 hours long.

This will still be a fun and entertaining time with friends, but for a solo experience, I recommend their other games, such as Little Hope or House of Ashes, if you prefer Science Fiction.

Final score: 5/10

Marvel Snap: The Rare Mobile Game With Heart

I've always asked myself the question, “what's wrong with mobile games?”

The answers I typically arrive at include: soul wrenching grinds to obtaining characters, or intrusive time saving monetization that creates feelings of shame and regret. We often envision the likes of Raid: Shadow Legends or Candy Crush within this genre, mostly because of monumental videos and word-of-mouth advertising campaigns. Even then, we mostly mock these games due to the perceived unfairness of their monetization structure.

Marvel Snap isn't like that. It's a collectible card game that is, to me, incredibly fun. You organize your deck with some of your favorite characters from Marvel Comics and play them in a 6 turn order onto a board with three random “locations.” If you gain more points than your opponent at a location, you win it. Winning 2 out of 3 locations by the end of the 6 turns is how you win the game.

The ranking system and the battle system both use Marvel's iconic Cosmic Cubes as a points system. These function as an "ELO" system, allowing you to rank up from rank 0 to rank 100. "Cubes" are earned through "snapping," which effectively increases the wager between you and your opponent. If you've ever played poker, think of it as a raise, increasing the risk for both players should they continue playing the game. Either player can activate this mechanic at any time; are you bluffing, or are you just that confident in your abilities? Who knows what reason caused you to snap? Perhaps you just want to watch the world burn.

Snapping early can make you a high roller.

The three random locations can have a major effect on the flow of the game… or they could just as easily have no effect at all. Your skill is reflected by how well you know your own cards, and how you play them with the match’s random locations. Some locations can give you a small pet rock, while others might destroy your entire deck if you're unlucky enough.

It's in this regard that the concept of "pay to win" is effectively mitigated through a high skill ceiling. Even with the best cards, intelligent interaction with the game is key. Players at beginning levels cannot be paired with those at higher levels. Additionally, cards are given to you at such a generous rate that you will often find both you and your opponent have unique advantages based on which cards you have gained at this point of your journey.

The cards with the highest rarity are often prize cards. These cards feature incredibly strong characters soaked in Marvel lore, with powerful abilities that are absolutely worth chasing after. Well, while the cards you do get are plentiful, they’re dispensed completely at random. It’s when you happen to get one of these cards while progressing that you get the sweet, sweet dopamine hit that everyone who plays this game chases.

Especially good cards to look out for are "Sunspot" which is amazing for almost any type of deck;

"Iron man" which you get very early and always maintains very good board pressure.

"Odin" who provides support for on-reveal cards.

"Death" which is a 12 power unit that can be brought down to cost 0 energy in a destroy deck.

"Iceman" and "Scorpion" are low cost staple card that debuff your opponent.

And finally the current most rare card "Thanos" which provides you with 6 infinity stones and an insane change of playstyle only that card can bring. If you see him or "Galactus" on your rotation be sure to try to pick them up, they are the rarest cards in the game.

So, are there any other rewards for playing?

Once you break out of the beginner brackets into collection level 1000, you'll start to obtain variant cards, featuring different artwork that you can level up in a prestige style. The more you use your cards, the fancier and more intimidating they become, and you choose which cards you wish to upgrade. Likewise, there's a ranked system which has its own rewards. The game just introduced a “friendly battles” mode, which promises the beginnings of a competitive format.

Finally, I would like to share my experience of buying one of the more expensive bundles. It was $99, and I gained about 250 collection levels from the purchase. Having already gained all of the season 3 cards, I benefited greatly from the "1 card per 40 chests" pity mechanic. I gained 1 new card and enough tokens to unlock another. That's 2 cards, which can only open up additional strategies The rest of my rewards were cosmetic upgrades. Therefore I can tell you that you cannot buy your way to a full collection easily. It is, frankly, a luck-based system that everyone participates in on an equal level. As long as it stays that way, this game will be worth hours of your time and investment!

Marvel Snap is free to download and play both on Steam and on mobile devices.

Top Ten Generation 9 Pokemon (Violet Edition)

You know, it's still strange to me that I've been alive throughout the entire Pokémon phenomenon. Starting with Pokémon Yellow in 1998, I've been through every single major release. So when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet came out last month, you'd think I'd be tired of their formulaic style and traditional 8 gym, evil team, beating the pokemon league gameplay by now.

Nope!

Why is that, you ask? Brand new Pokémon! The best awe-inspiring designs and cute little critters always keep me coming back. Pokémon Violet takes place in the brand new Paldean region, filled with Spanish-inspired little friends to have a fiesta with! I picked up my day 1 pre-order and dived straight into the world of Pokémon, for the 9th time, eager to find some chili peppers, and mariachi dancers!

I'm going to be giving you a glimpse into my 10 personal favorites from these new games along with my fellow Couch Soup writer and Pokémon lover, Erika, who has done the Scarlet version of this list. But Scarlet has smelly prehistoric creatures while we have our robot overlords, so you should probably pick up this version!

10. Miraidon (Info)

Miraidon may be the box cover legendary creature, but they get onto this list purely for their contribution to the story and being cooler looking than their counterpart "Koraidon." Lots of points for being the driving force behind my picking Violet over Scarlet. Still quite the odd shape, though.

9. Sprigatito (Info)

When I went into this game; I was all aboard the Fuecoco train. But then Sprigs appeared; its cute charms and happy smile won me over completely! How could anyone not love the plant cat? It's absolutely adorable!

Erika says: "It honestly pained me not to put this sweet kitty on my list. Look at those perfect paws!"

8. Fidough (Info)

I was wondering whether to put Fidough or Dacsbun here, but I went with the baby form purely because of the puppy dog eyes. Such a good dog, I had a Fidough called "Doughboi," for the first part of my journey, netting them 8th place on my list.

7. Tinkaton (Info)

This mallet-wielding malicious master of murderous mayhem is an absolute menace, and I'm completely on board. Its Pokedex entries tell of its baby form getting harassed by Corviknights, so future evolutions go full John Wick and declare war against their entire race! This is Tinkaton, they will get their revenge, and I love it so much.

6. Iron Valiant (Info)

Hoo boy, talking about this guy is riddled with spoilers. Let's just say it's a mechanical fusion of Gardevoir and Gallade, a couple of series mainstays, and add an incredibly evil mechanical aura. Looks pretty badass if you ask me. I wonder if it can charge my phone…

Erika says: "Really jealous of all the futuristic Pokémon in Violet... gosh, they look so badass!"

5. Tastugiri (Info)

I love sushi SO much. So when I saw there was a sushi Pokemon with multiple forms and patterns that go along the preparation aesthetic, I just had to get one of these little guys on my team.

Tatsugiri has an interesting pair-up mechanic with Dondozo, too, which adds a fresh layer of strategy to battles.

4. Floragato (Info)

Floragato is the middle evolution for Spriagatito: it gets a flower on its chest like it's a Spanish dancer. This form does just enough to look polished and refined before it becomes the chaotic design of its final evolution. Pretty good!

3. Palafin (Info)

It's a dolphin, it's so cute, and then it turns into a superhero. If Aquaman had one of these, nobody would ever make fun of him again. This buff beast goes from loveable to complete powerhouse with an attack stat way above the average. It's so strong that Smogon banned it from competitive matches. Fantastic.

Erika says: "I think my only negative thing was the second evolution was just a heart on its chest! That's it!"

2. Ceruledge (Info)

This is the dark and menacing Violet exclusive evolution of Charcadet. With big swords and scary-looking eyes, it's an edgy Pokemon that embraces the cold truth of warfare over honor, taking no prisoners. Really cool looking and has a very stylish design. This is the Pokemon of future values. The shiny version even has sharper edges. Nice touch.

1. Charcadet (Info)

Absolutely the cutest little guy in this generation. Deciding whether to embrace the honor of its ancestors or don a more practical and cynical outlook on life, this fire type is a soldier trying to find who it wants to be. Its design is probably my favorite one for years, and I love the aesthetic mixed with its Mega Man motif. There's enough cute energy to easily give them my top spot.

Well, there we have it, our top ten. Yours is probably a lot different than mine, though, as there's so much choice and good picks around this generation. Put your favorite new Pokémon in the comments below, or an older one if you didn't like these games. Adios!

DELTARUNE: The Poster Child For Patience in Video Game Releases

Back in the good old days of 2015, Toby Fox's critically acclaimed Undertale took the PC gaming world by the ankles and gave it a bit of a shake. It was an RPG effectively made by one man that made hardcore and casual gamer alike question the very part they play in a role-playing game.

So naturally, when Toby decided that Halloween 2018 was the time to release a demo for a new game, DELTARUNE (expressed in all caps), the anagram nature of the title quickly led people to make links to Undertale. And yet this game distanced itself from Undertale, claiming, "Your choices don’t matter." The game tries to trick you into an illusion of linearity, but this is far from the case.

Deltarune- Battle system screen shot — DELTARUNE’s battle system has you dodging everything from bones to hairballs.

DELTARUNE’s gameplay is a curious mix of Undertale’s bullet-dodging experience and a Final Fantasy style turn-based system. Within it, you have the option to either kill or spare your opponent. If you choose to kill them… well, they’re gone forever. If you choose to spare them, though, Chapter 2 allows you to recruit them to your "Castle Town." It’s a fun little collecting game that may make you wish to save every charming character you come across. However, the benefits of ejecting your enemies from existence are that you can become a more powerful player character if you don’t mind the stain to your moral standing, that is.

This is basically the core of DELTARUNE’s choice-making, and all signs point to a sizeable impact on the rest of the game. You can see that in the chapter select screen that already points to 5 more chapters on the horizon and with clear progression indicators from chapters 1 to 2. If you’re anything like me, you’ll love cross-story progression and real changes in the narrative similar to what you'd see in, say, the Dragon Age series.

Deltarune - Cat Shopkeeper Screen Shot — Even shopkeepers seem to have some insight on future events...

When the second chapter released on September 17, 2021, suddenly, the story had a divergent point, which I won't spoil here. A secret route appears only for those who had an appetite to find "the dark path" that had been so prevalent in the Undertale fandoms’ genocide route years earlier. The existence of this hidden path likens Toby Fox to a magician to me, still hiding his tricks for all to see later. I can still remember my joy in Chapter 2, finding out that there was such a psychologically intense avenue to this game that could flip the story on its head. It's a path that, frankly, could send chills down your spine should you choose to pursue it. The impact of this path being so emotionally heavy leaves me clamoring for the next installment out of concern for the characters' futures.

Deltarune - Kris Susie Ralsei screen shot — Kris, Susie and Ralsei take in the scenery of Chapter 2’s internet-based “Dark World.”

For the last two years, since Chapter 2 dropped, Toby has been gently pushing the narrative that the game will take a long time. But there's a subtle message behind the slow progress, and yet the game itself remains in its fans’ consciousness. Those of us who have played this game have become conditioned to expect something grand.

When we compare this to "Triple A" releases, which place a game into early access and save marketing for full release, DELTARUNE’s demo shines in terms of quality, promises, and deliverance. With the Chapter 2 release being a part of Undertale’s birthday celebrations, it became a part of the demo, enhancing understanding of the developer's vision. Sure, you may feel as though having to wait for possibly years is a little annoying, but the story and mechanical intrigue ensure the game stays in your thoughts. That's especially true with unanswered questions about its link to the previous game, and we still don’t even know what relation the stories will end up having to each other.

DELTARUNE will release its first paid set of chapters sometime in the future, hopefully by 2023, if Toby’s current progress shared on Twitter is any indication. When it does drop, I expect that I'll try and fail to be the first to buy it because this series is already ingrained into my heart with its charm and its mysteries waiting to be revealed in future installments.

deltarune - salesman silly strings screen shot — This man looks trustworthy. I bet he has many things to sell you...

DELTARUNE’s demo is available for you to play on PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch right now. Give it a try and join me in suspenseful waiting for the full story to be revealed! Once you've tried it out, let me know what you think.