New Releases: February 20-26, 2025

This week, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii provides Majima with his own One Piece-style romp, Ninja Five-O reappears after a 22-year disappearance. Meanwhile, Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog (pictured) transports players back to the halcyon PC-98 era. Here’s the full list of what’s arriving on PC and consoles:

PlayStation 4

Cabernet
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (physical & digital, $59.99)
Ninja Five-O (digital, $24.99)
Please Be Happy (digital, $15.99)
RPG Maker WITH (physical & digital, $49.99)
Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog (digital, $19.99)
The Backrooms 1998 (digital, $9.99)

PlayStation 5

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (physical & digital, $59.99)
RPG Maker WITH (physical & digital, $49.99)
Spectre Divide (digital, free to play)
Whisker Squadron: Survivor (digital, $19.99)
X-Out: Resurfaced (digital, $17.99)

Switch

2222 Abyss of the Universe (digital, $7.99)
Anime Dance-Off – Space Party (digital, $9.99)
Bing in Wonderland Power Up Edition (digital, $11.99)
Build Lands (digital, $3.99)
Cabernet (digital, $17.99)
Crime Opera Fandisk: The Caterpillar Candids (digital, $2.99)
Crime Opera II: The Floodgate Effect (digital, $14.99)
Damn! (digital, $6.99)
Deep, In the Forest (digital, $6.99)
Desvelado (digital, $8.99)
Die by Anything (digital, $9.99)
Distant Woods (digital, $3.99)
EGGCONSOLE Burai: Jokan PC-8801mkIISR (digital, $6.49)
Galagi Shooter Ultimate Blast (digital, $7.99)
I See Red (digital, $10.99)
Jumper Jon (digital, $9.99)
Jupiter Hell (digital, $24.99)
Learn to Play – Penalty Shootout (digital, $1.99)
Lone Fungus (digital, $19.99)
Lulu’s Temple (digital, $4.99)
Marron’s Day (digital, $9.99)
Mimi the Cat: Meow Together (digital, $4.99)
Ninja Five-O (digital, $24.99)
Ninja Issen: The Scroll of Dimension (digital, $14.99)
Piczle Cross: Rune Factory (digital, $11.99)
Please Be Happy (digital, $15.99)
Prison Guard: Warden Simulator (digital, $9.99)
Pro Wrestler Story (digital, $10.80)
Rabbit Raid (digital, $7.99)
Real Hentai 5 (digital, $16.99)
Shadowforge Chronicles (digital, $7.99)
Spot the Odd Pictogram! (digital, $2.99)
Star of Providence (digital, $14.99)
Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog (digital, $19.99)
TactiCats (digital, $5.99)
Taiji (digital, $24.99)
The Backrooms 1998 (digital, $9.99)
Wet Whispers – Anime Shift Puzzles (digital, $1.99)
X-Out: Resurfaced (digital, $17.99)

Xbox One

Cabernet (digital, $19.99)
Damn! (digital, $6.99)
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (physical & digital, $59.99)
Please Be Happy (digital, $15.99)
Rabbit Raid (digital, $7.99)
Racing the Gods – Beyond Horizons (digital, $14.99)
The Backrooms 1998 (digital, $9.99)
X-Out: Resurfaced (digital, $17.99)

PC

Blood Typers ($8.99)
BrokenLore: LOW ($TBA)
Cabernet ($17.99)
Die in the Dungeon ($TBA)
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii ($59.99)
Ninja Five-O ($21.24)
Peripeteia ($TBA)
R.E.P.O. ($TBA)
Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog ($19.99)
The King of Fighters XIII Global Match ($19.99)
Unbroken ($9.89)

Rob’s Pick: Yes, a substantial part of Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog’s allure stems from the game’s aesthetic, which is firmly rooted in 90’s-era anime. But I’m also looking forward to the storytelling, which blends the distress signal investigation of Alien with the adventure game elements of Snatcher, potentially providing a sci-fi trifecta. Hopefully, AI is the villain, because I miss that admonition.

Like Matt, I’m also looking forward to Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which brings the Mad Dog of Shimano back to the Aloha State. Undoubtedly, that’s a strong conceptual foundation. But so far, the spin-off hasn’t offered much innovation for me, feeling like Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is treading water instead of really delving into Majima’s psyche. Hopefully, that will change before the credits roll.

Ryan’s pick: Card-based roguelike games are usually a hard pass for me on Steam, but dice is another story. Die in the Dungeon is a turn-based roguelike that lets you build a deck using various types of dice as you explore dungeons and thwart foes. This one looks like it has a fairly low bar in terms of being able to jump in and to get a feel for the core mechanics. To be proficient in the game you may need to invest some time in it, but it sure looks like a lot of fun once you are able to stack abilities to create some overpowered decks. I also really like the frog protagonist’s sprites and overall design – it reminds me ever so slightly of a kerotan frog.

R.E.P.O is worth a quick look if you like party games. On the surface it seems like it’s a horror coop game but there also seems to be a certain lower layer of humor baked into it so I’m in. The playable character designs remind me a bit of the kids show Storybots which also adds another layer of levity to the whole thing for me. The premise is you work as a group to extract loot while using a physics-based grabbing tool. Monsters help supply the horror portion, and there are also proximity-based sound mechanics. This could be a fun one to try for your next game night.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Of course you must play Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. It’s the perfect spinoff for the Yakuza series, which has always focused on offering surrealistic humour and quality action. I always figured they’d do a good job with it, but the sheer comfort with which they slotted the pirate theme in was somehow still surprising. Fits like a well-worn glove.

I’m also super interested in checking out the two Crime Opera games. These are very indie visual novels, and I suspect the first got overlooked by a lot of people, even those who like to dig deeper into VNs. It had a lot of storytelling merit, however, and told a pretty taut and effective “mobster” style story. I know the developer has been working on this sequel for quite some time, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve learned in developing VNs in the years since.