Retro sci-fi RPG CrossCode has been bolstered by a big update today, chucking in new quests, S-rank battles, an arena and, more important than any of that, loyal pets who will follow you around on your adventures. CrossCode's already a huge game—and pretty great—but there's always room for pooches. 

Dogs are far too precious to fling into battle, of course, so don't expect your pets to get stuck into the extremely brisk real-time combat. They'll just hang back and give you moral support. Remember to thank them once you've killed your enemies. 

Next to the pets, the most notable addition is the Rhombus Square Arena. Inside, you'll be able to arrange fights against regular enemies, dungeon enemies and bosses. Each cup contains multiple rounds, either taken on individually or in a rush mode where you do the cup in one go. Medals you win can be exchanged for coins that can in turn be spent on new gear, decorative stuff and pets. The extra step seems a bit unnecessary.  

The new combat rank makes enemies respawn faster, so you can try to get longer combat streaks, while the turret defence mini-game now includes a challenge mode and, yes, more rewards. 

CrossCode 1.1 is available now. There's also a demo on Steam if you're in the market for a new RPG.

CrossCode, the 2D sci-fi RPG that's proving a big hit in Early Access, will launch in full on September 20, developer Radical Fish Games has announced.

Expect fast combat, physics-based puzzles and old-school, SNES-style graphics, along with a story that will take more than 20 hours to complete. 

I'd never heard of it until last month, but the Steam user reviews suggest it's worth keeping an eye on. 96 per cent of its nearly 2,500 user reviews during Early Access have been positive, and it was chosen as one of Steam’s top-rated, least-played games last year.

In a blog post announcing the release date, Radical Fish detailed exactly what will be added in update 1.0. Several existing areas of the game are expanded, and a new area called Rhombus City—the largest city in the game—has been added. There will also be more party members, quests, boss fights and enemy types.

Several extras that the developer promised during Early Access will arrive after full release, including a New Game+ mode, a boss rush mode and several NPCs. The game will likely get extra DLC in the future, depending on how the release goes, Radical Fish said.

Read the blog post for more details, and grab a free demo on the Steam page.

Highly rated 2D action RPG CrossCode will leave Early Access in September, Radical Fish Games has announced. 

If you haven’t heard of it before then—judging by its user ratings on Steam—you should probably get to know it. It was also picked out as one of Steam’s top-rated, least-played games last year, so it probably deserves a little more love.

It combines 16-bit SNES-style visuals with a more modern physics system, fast combat and puzzle solving. There's plenty of loot to find and sci-fi dungeons to explore, and it'll take between 20 and 25 hours to blast through the full story when it comes out.

The developer's YouTube channel essentially chronicles CrossCode's development in real time: each video, a couple of which are released every month, is around five hours long and shows the development team at work on various aspects of the game, whether that's adding new facial expressions or tweaking enemies.

It has a free demo on Steam so you can try it out before the full release in September. A more precise date will arrive in early August, the developers said in a blog post. You can watch it in action below, but just bear in mind this trailer is a year old.