New Releases: August 31st-September 6th, 2023

This week, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Monochrome Mobius (pictured) head to Sony’s console, while Starfield lands on Xbox Series S/X and PC. If you missed 2010’s Rune Factory 3, this week offers an opportunity to catch up on the agrarian-driven adventure and its half-human, half-wooly lead character.

PlayStation 4
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (digital, $39.99)
Chants of Sennaar (digital, $19.99)
Gourmet Warriors (digital, $9.99)
How 2 Escape (digital, $12.74)
Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten (physical & digital, $59.99)
Somerville (digital, $24.99)
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge – Dimension Shellshock (DLC, $7.99)
Tenebris Pictura (digital, $19.99)
The Big Con (digital, $14.99)
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (digital, $26.99)

PlayStation 5
Baldur’s Gate 3 (digital, $69.99)
Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten (physical & digital, $59.99)

Switch
1997 (digital, $6.99)
30XX (digital, $19.99)
Aquapark io (digital, $4.99)
Baseball Club (digital, $9.99)
Big Farm Story ($34.99)
Buggy Racer (digital, $4.99)
Catlord (digital, $14.99)
Chants of Sennaar (digital, $17.99)
Elasto Mania II (digital, $11.99)
Eventide 2: Sorcerer’s Mirror (digital, $14.99)
Farming Tractor Simulator 2023: Drive Combine & Trucks (digital, $14.99)
Flupp The Fish (digital, $1.99)
Gastro Force (digital, $6.99)
Gourmet Warriors (digital, $9.99)
High Sea Saga DX (digital, $10.80)
Hole io (digital, $4.99)
How 2 Escape (digital, $12.74)
It’s a Wrap! (digital, $17.99)
Jelly Fruits Adventure: Magic Match 3 Puzzle (digital, $9.99)
Kovox Pitch (digital, $6.99)
Masala Drive (digital, $3.99)
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship (digital, $9.99)
Norn9: Last Era (digital, $49.99)
Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Dropout! (digital, $6.99)
OU (digital, $16.99)
Paper io 2 (digital, $4.99)
Ralph and the Blue Ball (digital, $2.99)
Rune Factory 3 Special (physical & digital, $39.99)
Sakura Fox Adventure (digital, $9.99)
Taito Milestones 2 (digital, $39.99)
The Shape of Things (digital, $5.59)
The Thief Simulator 2023 – From Crook to Boss (digital, $13.99)
Trapped in The Dim Mansion (digital, $4.99)
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (digital, $26.99)
Truck Simulator 2023 – Driver Europe (digital, $13.99)
True Virus (digital, $8.99)
Yakiniku Simulator (digital, $4.99)

Xbox One
Bloons TD 6 (digital, $13.99)
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (digital, $39.99)
Chants of Sennaar (digital, $19.99)
Dreamers (digital, $36.89)
Hexapoda (digital, $12.99)
How 2 Escape (digital, $12.74)
Starfield (physical & digital, $69.99)
Tenebris Pictura (digital, $19.99)
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge – Dimension Shellshock (DLC, $7.99)
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (digital, $26.99)

PC
Chants of Sennaar ($17.99)
Pocket Bravery ($19.99)
How 2 Escape ($12.74)
Mega Man X Dive Offline ($29.99)
Pocket Bravery ($19.99)
Rune Factory 3 Special ($39.99)
Starfield ($69.99)
Tamer Vale ($TBA)
Tiny Witch ($TBA)
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge – Dimension Shellshock (DLC, $7.19)
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (digital, $29.99)

Rob’s Pick: As someone who typically loves retro compilations, the first Taito Milestones entry was a bit of a disappointment. Not only was there no supplementary material to accompany the games, but the era the collection covered didn’t have many breakout hits beyond ‘1981s Qix and ‘87s The Ninja Warriors (‘83s Elevator Action is the obvious outlier).

But Taito Milestones 2 helps to turn things around. Darius II and The NewZealand Story are essentials, while Liquid Kids is another worthwhile quirky platformer with Bubble Bobble-style mechanics. Gun Frontier and Metal Black certainly aren’t classics, but they demonstrate Taito pushing forward in odd directions. Specifically, everything from Metal Black’s power-ups, music, and visuals don’t quite feel harmonious, as if designer Takatsuna Senba wanted to break away from convention. Meanwhile, Ben Bero Beh’s blend of Donkey Kong and firefighting manages to not feel like unessential filler.

Then there’s Rune Factory 3 Special, which offered one of the more peculiar plotlines in the series. Here, you play a protagonist who can turn into a creature that looks like a sheep. That makes you the perfect catalyst for uniting the monster and human world. And while that might sound corny, when the setup creates motivation for crop cultivation and dating the local ladies, I’ll be the savior-sheep the world needs.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): As someone that loves Utawarerumono with a passion, I can’t wait to dig into Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten. I’ve resisted buying it on PC so I can enjoy it on console, and now it’s just around the corner. I’m so very excited. Bring on the VN/Tactics JRPG combo! We so rarely get games based on Japanese native Ainu aesthetics and culture, so that alone makes this series quite the special experience.

Also the girls are pretty. So pretty.

I also echo Robert’s thoughts on Rune Factory 3 Special – I’ve been playing it since the preview stage, and I really love how well the game looks and plays blown up on the Switch screen. It’s still got all the quirky charm of the DS original’s aesthics, just bigger and bolder. And what a fascinating, weird, wonderful bunch of characters to boot!

Ryan’s pick: Starfield steals the show for me this week because it’s been a very long time since I’ve touched an action-RPG game that got close to the amount of fun that was in Skyrim. It seems that a lot of the features of the game borrow and improve upon popular elements seen in other space games such as the ability to have ships like in Destiny and No Man’s Sky. At its core, my hope is that it will still encompass a lot of the fun exploration elements of Skyrim. Hopefully, dragons won’t kill the NPC in town that I need to finish a quest line this time. Fingers crossed. The downside to the game is that you are limited to playing it on PC or Xbox Series X, but if you have one of the two I think the game is really going to be impressive and will hopefully supply plenty of content and memes for years to come.

Another completely different flavor of game also caught my interest with the Steam release of Pocket Bravery. Graphically the sprites for some reason ever-so-slightly remind me of the old arcade fighting game during the Mortal Kombat era called Time Killers, but the characters are a bit more chibi and with better animations. Fighting-wise though you don’t have to hack the limbs off your opponents like in Time Killers, so I think the game itself will be pretty approachable for most fighting enthusiasts. The fighting style is a bit closer to that of Pocket Fighter and SNK fighters seen on the Neo Geo Pocket, and there are also some nice modern amenities added such as the training area which shows each character’s hitbox during the attack frames. In general, it looked pretty well done with a unique roster of characters, so I think it’s worth a quick look if you like fighting games.