New Releases: October 10th-16th, 2019

After weeks of delays the quartet of Black Isle Studios’ titles, Baldur’s Gate, its sequel, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale arrive on Switch and PlayStation 4. Now role-playing aficionados like Matt can get their Dungeons & Dragon fix on the go. Satisfyingly, that’s not the only remarkable new release with titles like Spirit Hunter: NG, Doraemon Story of Seasons, and well as a reboot of Codemasters’ GRID.

Header Image: How to Raise a Wolf Girl, PC

PlayStation 4
A Knight’s Quest (digital, $19.99)
AeternoBlade II (digital, $TBA)
Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions (physical and digital, $49.99)
Children of Morta (digital, $29.99)
Frostpunk (digital, $34.99)
GRID (physical and digital, $59.99)
Mistover (digital, $29.99)
Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Editions (physical and digital, $49.99)
River City Melee Mach! (digital, $13.99)
Spirit Hunter: NG (physical and digital, $49.99)
The Fisherman: Fishing Planet (physical and digital, $39.99)
The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (digital, $19.99)
Valfaris (digital, $22.49)
Zombieland: Double Tap – Road Trip (physical and digital, $39.99)

Switch
A Knight’s Quest (digital, $19.99)
Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions (physical and digital, $49.99)
Bibi & Tina at the Horse Farm (digital, $29.99)
Billy Bomber (digital, $5.00)
Contraptions (digital, $9.99)
Crazy Mini Golf Arcade (digital, $TBA)
Doraemon Story of Seasons (digital, $49.99)
Duped (digital, $4.99)
Eliza (digital, $14.99)
Eternal Card Game (digital, free)
Family Tree (digital, $6.39)
Fatal Fracture (digital, $0.99)
Killer Queen Black (digital, $19.99)
Little Briar Rose (digital, $5.99)
Little Town Hero (digital, $24.99)
Marble & The Wood (digital, $13.49)
Midnight Evil (digital, $9.99)
Mistover (digital, $29.99)
Monochrome Order (digital, $14.99)
Old School RPG Bundle (digital, $29.99)
Overwatch (physical and digital, $59.99)
Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Editions (physical and digital, $49.99)
Pocket Stables (digital, $14.00)
Queen’s Quest 4: Sacred Truce (digital, $14.99)
River City Melee Mach!! (digital, $13.99)
Secret Files Sam Peters (digital, $6.99)
Silk (digital, $9.74)
Spirit Hunter: NG (physical and digital, $49.99)
Super Box Land Demake (digital, $4.99)
The Bradwell Conspiracy (digital, $17.99)
The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (digital, $19.99)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition (physical and digital, $59.99)
Valfaris (digital, $22.49)
Zombieland: Double Tap – Road Trip (physical and digital, $39.99)

Xbox One
Frostpunk (digital, $34.99)
GRID (physical and digital, $59.99)

PS Vita
Spirit Hunter: NG (digital, $49.99)

PC
A Knight’s Quest (Epic game store, $19.99)
BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre ($TBA)
Deliver Us the Moon ($22.49)
GRID ($59.99)
How to Raise a Wolf Girl ($TBA)
Killer Queen Black ($19.99)
Mistover ($29.99)
Pine ($12.34)
Radio Commander ($14.99)
Spirit Hunter: NG ($49.99)
Valfaris ($22.49)
We Were Here Together ($12.34)

Robert’s Pick: For the last few years, I’ve added a regular supplement of action driven rogue-likes to my gaming diet. Most of them are satisfying for short bursts, at least until you’ve seen the range of things the RNG will produce. Undoubtedly, this week’s release of Children of Morta is one of the better efforts out there.

I didn’t expect to be drawn in to a story about a family tasked with saving the world. But Morta evades the kind of cheesiness you might expect. Each member of the Bergson family is not only a character who plays distinctively, but also plays a part in the game’s overarching plotline. Plus, any game that has you building a house for an adopted wolf pup is a worthy effort, at least in my eyes.

Most importantly, the play of Morta is polished, sending you in procedurally generated environments with an ever-growing inventory of passive and active skills. While it may not be wildly innovative, there’s enough deviation and polish to hook someone for hours. With news of the Switch version delayed, the PlayStation 4 iteration seems like a safe bet. But now, Matt has me all eager for Spirit Hunter: NG and Doraemon Story of Seasons is the kind of brand synergy that I can’t resist.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Spirit Hunter: NG is my favourite visual novel of all time. That’s no hyperbole, I loved every second of this game so much that in reviewing it it’s been one of the few times I wish I could break the 5-star system to give a game 6/5 stars. Not as a clickbaity stunt, though. It’s just that good.

NG so effectively blends yurei ghost traditions, references to classical Japanese literature and storytelling, moments of humour, vivid characters, and even a dash of eroticism together that it forms the most vivid tapestry of horror writing you’ll see in video games. Oh, and it’s also a stunningly beautiful game from Experience Inc., one of the best talents in visual design working in Japan’s game industry. It’s the sequel to Death Mark, but you don’t need to have played Death Mark to enjoy NG, so you’ve got no excuses. I expect you all to leap into this one right now (you should also play Death Mark though, because it’s a damn fine game in its own right).

Also, here’s my obligatory mention of Baldur’s Gate and its sequel on Nintendo Switch. They’ll land on the console eventually, I promise. In the meantime you can just enjoy NG.

Ryan’s Pick: I rarely am able to turn down anything with electric guitars. Pair metal with animated 2D sprites and gore, and I just can’t refuse. Steel Mantis has brought all of these wants to fruition with the release of the brutal 2D sidescroller Valfaris. Not to be too introspective here for the moment, but I do realize I’ve choosing a lot of platformers as of late, but developers keep finding ways to keep them interesting and attractive to new audiences (and me), so here we are. This particular targeted audience has been defined as those that enjoy, “Skulls in space! Gore in space! Metal in space!” according to the game’s Steam page. Count me in.

The art from the game is done by Andrew Gilmour who was the developer for the game Slain: Back from Hell. That game was equally just as brutal, but the pixel art and animation was very well done, so I think that this will be a worthwhile pickup if you can handle ludicrous gibs and disgusting monsters. Story-wise I don’t know if it will be quite as creepy and odd as the recently released Blasphemous, but I’m sure I will enjoy it all the same. With Halloween just around the corner, I think it’s perfect to celebrate with some old-fashioned blood, guts, and partial nudity.