New Releases: August 4th-10th, 2022

This week, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (pictured) delivers wuxia action, while Two Point Campus offers players the chance to build and manage a university. If neither of these pique your interests, GigaBash provides some pugnacious kaiju conflict with plenty of collateral damage.

PlayStation 4
Arcade Archives: Dig Dug (digital, $7.99)
GigaBash (digital, $34.99)
South of the Circle (digital, $11.69)
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (physical $99.99, digital $49.99)
Two Point Campus (physical & digital, $39.99)

PlayStation 5
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (physical $99.99, digital $49.99)
Two Point Campus (physical & digital, $39.99)

Switch
90” Soccer (digital, $4.99)
After Wave: Downfall (digital, $11.99)
Arcade Paradise (digital, $19.99)
Book Quest (digital, $6.99)
Cleo – A Pirate’s Tale (digital, $14.99)
Cult of the Lamb (digital, $24.99)
Gale of Windoria (digital, $13.49)
Hindsight (digital, $14.99)
Japanese Escape Games: The Retro House (digital, $4.99)
KOKORO CLOVER Season 1 (digital, $16.99)
Lost in Play (digital, $19.99)
QUByte Classics: Thunderbolt Collection by PIKO (digital, $7.99)
My Dangerous Life (digital, $12.99)
Roll The Cat (digital, $4.99)
Sofiya and the Ancient Clan (digital, $7.99)
South of the Circle (digital, $11.69)
Two Point Campus (physical & digital, $39.99)

Xbox One
Arcade Paradise (digital, $19.99)
Cult of the Lamb (digital, $24.99)
Gale of Windoria (digital, $13.49)
Turbo Golf Racing (digital, $TBA)
Two Point Campus (physical & digital, $39.99)

PC
Boneraiser Minions ($TBA)
Camp Canyonwood ($15.99)
Farthest Frontier ($TBA)
GigaBash ($34.99)
Hard West 2 ($26.99)
Hindsight ($14.99)
Lost in Play ($TBA)
Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll ($19.99)
PlateUp! ($14.39)
Pulling No Punches($TBA)
Turbo Golf Racing ($16.19)
Tyrant’s Blessing ($TBA)
Vanaris Tactics ($8.99)

Rob’s Pick: Reviews for Sword and Fairy: Together Forever will inevitably point out the game’s flaws. Make no mistake, the title commits a few. Combat isn’t always as fluid as it should be and cinematics are undermined by low framerates (but at least the action is sinuous on a PlayStation 5). But cataloging these blemishes is missing an important point: Sword and Fairy 7 is a treat for the senses. From detailed environments that capture the grandeur of nature to fantasy realms right out of a summer blockbuster, this is a showcase for technical artistry. Now, add an exquisite soundtrack led by traditional instruments like the guzheng and dizi, and it’s easy to overlook any of the game’s transgressions.

Many of us have enjoyed action role-playing games that were born from Japanese and Western sensibilities. For decades, Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been interpreted by Omega Force as everything from a turn-based geopolitical simulation to a hyper-kinetic action title. But Together Forever is a Beijing-developed game that offers a more direct interpretation of Chinese mythology. So, while the structure employs familiar mechanics like growing movesets, nurturing spirit animals, and playing a Magic the Gathering-style card game, everything else feels refreshingly distinct. Oh, and Matt’s got it wrong. Bai is best girl.

Ryan’s Pick: Kaiju monsters may not be quite as celebrated as they are in Japan here in the West, but I have been a huge fan since I was a kid so I am going to suggest GigaBash this week. I’ve always loved games with huge monsters due to their sheer size and the fact that one of the typical key features of games in this genre is the sense of scale. Being able to plow through massive buildings with ease by throwing your enemy, or decimating everything in your wake with a massive beam equally provides me with much joy. The level of detail for the environments is pretty well done, which was a feature that really helped draw in my attention. As of late I don’t necessarily find myself being able to play much local multiplayer, however the fact that online is an option is equally attractive. With ten different playable kaiju, I think it’s worth a look.

Not a kaiju fan? Then perhaps it may be time to mentally detach and play something that may require a bit less brain bandwidth like Boneraiser Minions. I really like this 8-bit roguelite featuring endless waves of undead enemies to dodge as your minions continue to kill enemies swarming around you. Your tasks as a player require you to dodge enemies and make the right decisions with choosing the appropriate upgrades, so overall it seems like a simple yet fun premise. I get the feeling like this one will be pretty easy to get the hang of playing, but will take some experience to really take advantage of all the upgrades the game has to progress through it. The one part that may not be for everyone is how many sprites are on the screen at the same time, but for me I like the added challenge of having so much happening on the screen at the same time and while trying to accurately track where the character is at every moment.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): You can always count on Devolver Digital to pick up the strange and intriguing, and Cult of the Lamb certainly fits that mark. A mashup of action roguelike and and base-building, of macabre horror and comedy, of cute and grotesque certainly makes an impression, especially in the context of growing your own cult and waging war on rival doctrines. How well all these pieces come together remains to be seen, but Massive Monster’s latest certainly strikes a chord for originality and style.

And because I’ll always have a fondness for arcades, Arcade Paradise looks like a lot of fun. On one hand, it’s a management sim about turning an old laundromat into a thriving arcade, which is already an appealing enough prospect—who doesn’t love a good tycoon game, especially one built on something as full of joy as a game centre? And on other hand, it’s a collection of arcade-style minigames, because getting free run on all your cabinets is half the draw of running an arcade in the first place.

Matt S’ pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Ooooooh Sword and Fairy: Together Forever has pretty people in it. I mean, it is an excellent game for all the reasons that Rob there mentioned (this is a really, really good game), but also Yue makes me feel things that are right up there with Marie Rose and Hatsune Miku.

And now, in all seriousness, with so many JRPG series trying so hard to innovate, or go dark places, or appeal to “mature” players, the fact that Sword and Fairy is out there happy to, simply, be a “J”RPG, is nice. It’s so refreshing to have something so comfortably follow the structures, narrative beats, and themes of the genre’s history. This is right up there with my favourite games of this year. And this year has been packed with them.

I’m also really looking forward to getting stuck into Two Point Campus. I am forever a sucker for the simulation genre, and Two Point Hospital was great fun. Not perfect. Not the best in the genre, but fun and engaging and easy to sit down with on a Sunday morning with that rare downtime coffee. I’m sure Two Point Campus will deliver more of the same.