New Releases: January 12th-18th, 2023

Beyond One Piece Odyssey (pictured) and the early arrival of Persona 3 Portable on PC, this week brings a number of notable titles. Games like Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, NEScape! and Terror of Hemasaurus reference beloved retro titles, while Breakers Collection bundles a pair of ‘90s-era NeoGeo fighters. Here’s the complete list of what’s arriving across the next seven days:

PlayStation 4
Aurora’s Journey and the Pitiful Lackey (digital, $TBA)
Breakers Collection (digital, $19.99)
Dungeon Munchies (physical, $34.99)
One Piece Odyssey (physical & digital, $59.99)
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (digital, $16.99)
Wings of Bluestar (digital, $14.99)

PlayStation 5
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (physical, $19.99)

Switch
Back To Brother (digital, $4.49)
Breakers Collection (digital, $19.99)
Burrow of the Fallen Bear: A Gay Furry Visual Novel (digital, $19.99)
Chasing Static (digital, $14.99)
Drago Noka (digital, $19.99)
Dragon Fury (digital, $24.99)
Dungeon Munchies (physical, $34.99)
DUSK ’82 (digital, $4.99)
Fight of Steel: Infinity Warrior (digital, $12.74)
Go Rally (digital, $20.00)
Japanese Escape Games The Abandoned Schoolhouse (digital, $4.99)
Kids Party Checkers (digital, $3.49)
Lone Ruin (digital, $14.99)
Memorrha (digital, $19.99)
Mrs.Cat Between Worlds (digital, $4.99)
NEScape! (digital, $9.99)
Raiden 30th Anniversary (physical, $49.99)
Suhoshin (digital, $18.99)
Terror of Hemasaurus (digital, $14.99)
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (digital, $16.99)
Wings of Bluestar (digital, $14.99)

Xbox One
Breakers Collection (digital, $19.99)
NEScape! (digital, $9.99)
One Piece Odyssey (physical & digital, $59.99)

PC
Aquatico ($22.49)
Barista Simulator ($13.49)
Bing in Wonderland ($TBA)
Breakers Collection ($19.99)
Burger Bistro Story ($TBA)
Dear Monster ($TBA)
Demon Roots ($TBA)
Drago Noka ($19.99)
Farlanders ($TBA)
Gatewalkers ($19.99)
One Piece Odyssey ($59.99)
Persona 3 Portable ($19.99)
Scrap Games ($TBA)
Simrail – The Railway Simulator ($TBA)
Surviving the Abyss ($TBA)
The Lost Village ($TBA)
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 ($9.00)

Rob’s Pick: Occasionally, a licensed game is so awful, it leaves me pessimistic for any subsequent adaptations for the property. That was the case with One Piece: World Seeker, which undid any goodwill generated by the One Piece: Pirate Warriors games. With one of the most tedious sandboxes ever seen in a commercial product, World Seeker is the type of offense that should have resulted in a 4 billion berry bounty placed on developer Ganbarion (Jump Super Stars, Pandora’s Tower).

So, when I first heard about One Piece Odyssey, I was skeptical. But ILCA, the studio behind Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, borrowed Dragon Quest XI’s basic blueprint. The result is a turn-based, semi-linear role-playing experience for the Straw Hats. And if you’re looking for a respectable RPG structure, reproducing the traditionalist stylings of Yuji Horii and company is one of the best approaches around. Pleasingly, Odyssey adds a few distinctive trimmings, like giving each playable pirate their own explorational ability. If you’re a fan of the property, taking a voyage aboard the Thousand Sunny won’t disappoint.

This week, Switch owners get a couple of interesting ports. Terror of Hemasaurus builds on the kaiju destruction of Rampage, adding some acerbic writing and an exhilarating mechanics like making skyscrapers fall like dominoes. Meanwhile, Wings of Bluestar is a pretty solid STG. Projectiles are plentiful, but the protracted speed of enemy bullets and the ability for secondary guns to fire in different mitigates the difficulty.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): It’s good to be back! Thanks for having me on your weekly wrap-up again this year, Robert!. For my big pick this week I’m going with One Piece Odyssey. I am so happy that the developer, ICLA, decided to focus on giving players a clean, easy playing, breezy JRPG. This one isn’t going to be remembered as one of the genre’s all-time greats, but it also doesn’t get anything wrong, and when backed with the predictably joyful antics of Luffy and his crew, it’s a good, fun time, and an excellent first JRPG of 2023.

For a (far) more niche thing, I’m quite interested in checking out NEScape. I wouldn’t have known this existed if I didn’t see it pop up on the “coming soon” section of the Switch eShop, and it may well be terrible. However, the developers have captures that aesthetic of early point-and-click adventure games (think Shadowgate and Deja Vu), and I absolutely loved those games and how they looked. I’m keen to give this a chance.

Ryan’s pick: I’ll never miss a chance to play a game starring my favorite Devil Fruit user and his crew, so naturally One Piece Odyssey is my pick. There’s a lot to like as the entire Strawhat Crew is available as playable characters – even Brook and Franky. I think that they definitely chose some really great story arcs from which to pull characters, with Dressarosa being one of my favorites. I’m a bit curious how they will mash all that content together, but no matter what, it will really be great to fight against some of the 7 Warlords of the Sea and older Marine Admirals. Likewise, they clearly made this game for fans of the series, as they have also included a lot of the great support characters for each arc that fans love, including Rebecca, Vivi, and even Karoo.

I’d also like to echo Terror of Hemasaurus which is coming out on Steam. Rampage is the one game in my past that I would always bring out to play coop with friends because it just let you keep continuing until you crushed cities in all 50 states or just gave up on NES. It just let you keep playing, which was always a lot of fun because after the 20th level it became almost like muscle memory. This new game adds additional side scrolling along with some spectacular explosions and carnage, so I think it surely is worth a look if you like kaiju monsters or just like running amok in general.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I’ve never been able to get into One Piece, despite trying both the anime and manga a couple of times. I like the concept, but it’s just never really clicked into place for me, for whatever reason. But if anything can do the trick, it’s a solid, well-made JRPG, so One Piece Odyssey certainly piques my interest. Where other games emphasise action (something the source material certainly isn’t lacking), a turn-based adventure that plays more closely to the classic JRPG should help the characters and story shine.

I like the look of Drago Noka, too. It’s a mash up of city builder, life sim, and RPG that sees you managing a village on the back of a dragon. Grow crops, craft items, and welcome new villagers… when you’re not engaging in dragon battles. It’s an intriguing concept, and a particularly ambitious use of the Wolf RPG Editor.