New Releases: September 14th-20th, 2023

This week, The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, Mugen Souls Z, and Baten Kaitos I & II arrive, bringing some memorable role-playing experiences onto modern platforms. For fans craving action, The Crew Motorfest and Mortal Kombat 1 are imminent, while fan-service devotees might be eager for Sakura MMO Extra’s (pictured) arrival on Steam.

PlayStation 4
AK-xolotl (digital, $18.99)
Gloomhaven (physical & digital, $39.99)
Inspector Gadget: Mad Time Party (digital, $35.99)
Lies of P (physical & digital, $59.99)
NASCAR Arcade Rush (digital, $39.99)
The Crew Motorfest (physical & digital, $59.99)
The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails (physical & digital, $39.99)
You Suck at Parking (digital, $19.99)

PlayStation 5
Gloomhaven (digital, $39.99)
Lies of P (physical & digital, $59.99)
Mortal Kombat 1 (digital, $69.99)
The Crew Motorfest (physical & digital, $69.99)

Switch
AK-xolotl (digital, $18.99)
Anime Sexy Girl Puzzle – Hentai Game History Adventure (digital, $14.99)
Another Crusade (digital, $17.99)
Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party (digital, $39.99)
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster (digital, $49.99)
Bright Side: Riddles and Puzzles (digital, $7.99)
City of Beats (digital, $19.99)
Dynablaster (digital, $19.99)
Enraged Red Ogre (digital, $14.95)
Fresh Start (digital, $19.99)
Gloomhaven (physical & digital, $39.99)
HexaWars (digital, $9.99)
Inspector Gadget: Mad Time Party (digital, $35.99)
Isekai Rondo (digital, $13.49)
Labyrinth (digital, $19.99)
League of Champions Soccer 2024 (digital, $7.99)
Lies as a Starting Point (digital, $8.00)
Lost Crystals (digital, $4.99)
Love Love School Days (digital, $10.49)
Mortal Kombat 1 (digital, $69.99)
Moto Racer 2044 Game Simulator (digital, $9.99)
Mugen Souls Double Pack (digital, $69.99)
Mugen Souls Z (digital, $39.99)
NASCAR Arcade Rush (digital, $39.99)
Persha and the Magic Labyrinth -Arabian Nyaights- (digital, $4.99)
Princess Bubble Story (digital, $10.00)
Puzzle Games Bundle Vol. 2 (digital, $14.99)
qrth-phyl (digital, $10.99)
Rayland 2 (digital, $4.99)
Retro Mystery Club Vol.1: The Ise-Shima Case (digital, $9.90)
Retro Revengers (digital, $9.90)
River Pirates (digital, $4.99)
Sakura MMO Extra (digital, $9.99)
Skyhook (digital, $4.99)
Solar Ash (digital, $39.99)
Summum Aeterna (digital, $19.99)
Super Brawl Rush (digital, $4.99)
The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails (physical & digital, $39.99)
Thunder Ray (digital, $14.99)
Teocida + Estigma (digital, $9.99)
You Suck at Parking (digital, $19.99)
Yummy Jewels (digital, $2.99)

Xbox One
Ad Infinitum ($34.99)
Another Crusade (digital, $17.99)
Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party (digital, $39.99)
Dream House Days DX (digital, $10.79)
Game Dev Story (digital, $10.79)
Hot Springs Story digital, $10.79)
Isekai Rondo (digital, $13.49)
Lies of P (physical & digital, $59.99)
NASCAR Arcade Rush (digital, $39.99)
Party Animals (digital, $TBA)
Summum Aeterna (digital, $19.99)
The Crew Motorfest (physical & digital, $69.99)
Ugly (digital, $17.99)

Xbox Series S/X
The Crew Motorfest (physical & digital, $69.99)

PC
Ad Infinitum ($34.99)
Deceit 2 ($13.49)
Dungeon Golf ($TBA)
Heard of the Story? ($17.99)
Lies of P ($59.99)
Mall Craze ($TBA)
Moonstone Island ($TBA)
Mortal Kombat 1 ($69.99)
Paradiso Guardian ($29.99)
Party Animals ($19.99)
Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors ($5.59)
Remedium ($14.39)
Solace State: Emotional Cyberpunk Stories ($17.99)
Spirited Thief ($TBA)
Sugar Shack ($15.99)
Sunrise’s Order ($16.19)
Survivor Mercs ($6.79)
The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails ($39.99)
The Walking Dead: Betrayal ($17.99)
Ugly ($17.99)
Wandering Sword ($TBA)
Warhaven (free)

Rob’s pick: I would have loved to endorse Wandering Sword, which is a wuxia-RPG rendered in an HD-2D style, all accompanied by a soaring soundtrack. But the script is pretty rough, and it’s been a chore to get through, which really undermines what could have been a great experience. It’s a long shot, but I’m hoping for a comprehensive edit that could possibly turn things around and not make the game such a chore.

Fortunately, The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails doesn’t suffer from the same issue, although I’ve only trudged through the Japanese version and taken a brief look at a patched version. If the idea of a Trails game that offers Ys-like action-driven combat sounds appealing, give this a shot. As always, Falcom doesn’t disappoint. Finally, there’s the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, which brings MonolithSoft and tri-Crescendo’s pair of innovative RPGS onto a modern platform. The original releases sold rather poorly despite some muted critical acclaim, so it’s great to see the series get a new shot at life.

Ryan’s pick: I can’t pass up a soulslike game, especially when the main protagonist is Pinocchio. Lies of P gets my official pick this week as I’ve really been craving the challenge of another soulslike game after my playthrough of Remnant 2. The thing that I really like about the visuals for this game is that the dreary colors and environments remind me of Bloodborne a bit. The attacks from both the character as well as the enemies seem pretty fluid, but I think with this game I’ll have to play it first-hand to get a true feel for how it plays. I also am interested in testing the ability to switch certain weapon blades and handles to create something a bit more unique for your playstyle. I think this one has a lot of potential and certainly checks off the large frightening boss requirement for me.

I’ve always been notoriously bad at Mortal Kombat games but I still really appreciate them for the amount of content that is in the games as well as how creative the fatalities have become. The Kameos that are present in the game also have me feeling a bit nostalgic as I loved playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in the arcades and I’m happy to see that both Sektor and Cyrax in their original forms are in that roster. I also noticed that the Krypt has been replaced with Invasions, so I am also curious to see how that works. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about having to unlock things in the Krypt way back in Deadly Alliance, but found it tickled the completionist part of my gamer brain a bit and it grew on me. In general, there’s a lot of fun and variety even for casual fighter fans in these games, so I suggest you give it a look as well.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Baten Kaitos 1 + 2 launching this week deserves recognition. This series was so obscure on the GameCube that even JRPG fans who had a GameCube overlooked it. They shouldn’t have. These are smart, deep and intense games, and very much epitomize JRPG thinking at its best. If you missed these on their original release, and don’t worry, most people did, don’t overlook them now.

The other recommendation that I’ll raise this week is Gloomhaven, which is an excellent board game, and an excellent digital port, now brought to consoles. Whether you are going to get stuck into this single-player or multiplayer, the fact that loading it up is about 90 minutes less work than setting the board game up makes it worth the purchase alone.