Surely this is where it’ll end. One bug is attacking the train I’m meant to be defending. Another is about to destroy an apartment building. And for every building I lose, I lose another Power Grid point. I’ve only one left and once it’s gone, the Vek win.
If you’ve played FTL, you’ll remember the very particular kind of clammy-palmed panic it’d conjure as you’d face another seemingly no-win situation. Into the Breach will bring that feeling right back, and it’s wonderful. Developed by the same team, Subset Games, Into the Breach is FTL’s long-awaited follow up. It’s built on the same building blocks of roguelike progression, intricate interplays of abilities, and slow, knuckle-gnawing tension, but it also couldn’t be a more different kind of game.
Now, my Lightning Mech could run up to the bug attacking the train and lightning whip it to death. But the attack will chain into the adjacent train and destroy it, too. Every move I try either fails to deal with both bugs or destroys the train. This is impossible. It’s over.
Into the Breach is a turn-based tactics game in which your squad of three mechs is pitted against a swarm of ground-dwelling bugs, the Vek. Each level is played out across just five turns on an 8x8 grid, and your ultimate goal is survive, to build up the strength of your mechs, and to make it to the final denouement, in which you finish off the Vek for good.
Into the Breach s tactics are tight and controlled because you know the exact results of your every move.
Its party trick is that you get to see the moves the Vek will make on their turn. Tactics games are, at their core, puzzle games, but while most involve a good deal of luck and guesswork, Into the Breach’s tactics are tight and controlled because you know the exact results of your every move. You know what the Vek will be attacking, for what damage and in what order. And that evens the odds, even while you’re almost always outnumbered.
You also have amazing weapons on your side. Thinning the Vek’s numbers is always a good idea, but they’re not always about killing, since most can also move them, relocating their attacks. If you’re clever, you can make them attack each other or push them into bug-killing water. There are always many options, but you’re rarely sure you’re making the best ones. This is why, despite each battle taking place on just 64 tiles and across five short turns, I routinely spend 30 minutes on them, agonising over my choices. You will, too.
Wait. What if my Hook Mech pulls the bug attacking the city with its grapple? OK, the city’s still in danger because the bug charges in a straight line, but now it’s sitting a tile away from the bug attacking the train, and… I’m a genius. I move my Boulder Mech in and lob a rock between them, pushing both away so both attacks will hit nothing. We’ll live another day.
One of Into the Breach’s greatest strengths is that while its tactics are exacting and complex, its strategy involves a good deal of choice and variety. Each campaign run takes place across four themed islands. Each island features a set of levels from which you’ll choose four to battle on before playing the fifth one to protect your HQ from a final assault, and each level has different objectives. You might need to protect a coal plant or speeding train, to kill at least seven enemies, or to destroy a dam. If you succeed, they’ll grant certain rewards, either Power Grid points, Reactor Cores (which power up your mechs’ abilities and weapons), or Reputation, a currency you’ll spend on weapons and other gear to equip your mechs for the run.
You don’t lose the game if you fail objectives—only if you lose all your Power Grid—so you’ll constantly be weighing up the pros of one move against the cons of another. When push comes to shove, is it better defend the coal plant in order to win a Reputation point but leave your Combat Mech open to an attack? Or is it better that it definitely survives the level? The Power Grid ultimately defines your fate, so keeping it healthy is top priority, but looking after your mechs is a close second: when destroyed, their pilot is killed, replaced in the next battle by an AI which can’t earn XP and therefore won’t earn extra HP, movement and other abilities. But if you don’t earn better gear, you probably won’t survive the stiffer challenge of later levels. This is a game of hard choices.
Each squad is a joy to learn, each battle a new test of your skills. The challenge never stops changing.
After completing your second island, you have the option to go for the final battle, or you can fight on the other two islands to gather more gear, but the challenge scales with how far you get. Into the Breach is easier to finish than FTL, but it’s designed as a score-attack game, with medals awarded for how many islands you liberated before winning, your final score defined by the number of lives you saved. But you’ll also play with a mind to unlocking new squads of mechs by completing special achievements. The squads each have a different focus, so the Rusting Hulks tend to deploy attack-cancelling smoke, while the Hazardous Mechs deal big damage but get damaged back. Each squad is a joy to learn, each battle a new test of your skills. The challenge never stops changing.
For those who loved FTL for its thoughtful and clever design, it’s all here, too. But Into the Breach is a much tighter, more focused game. While there are plenty of weapons to experiment with, pilots with differing abilities to unlock, and level gimmicks to get your head around, you’ll have a very good idea of its breadth in your first run. For some, Into the Breach might lack a sense of mystery and expansiveness, but for me, it’s more than enough to fuel a hundred hours or more of the most consistently rewarding tactics I’ve played in many years.
This year's Tennocon, Digital Extremes' convention celebrating Warframe, will take place on July 7 at the London Convention Center in London, Ontario, the studio announced today. Tickets will go on sale on February 28, while a $20 "Digital Pack" with a Glyph, Sigil, Armor set, in-game currency, and other items will be available for purchase beginning on April 3.
Tennocon 2018 will feature developer-led panels and workshops, Warframe-related activities, game kiosks, and "a gamut of surprises." Canada Learning Code, an educational program that teaches coding and related skills with a focus on women, the disabled, indigenous youth, and newcomers to the country, will also take part as an official Tennocon partner.
"Partnering with Digital Extremes is thrilling to us because it exemplifies the link between excited first-time coders and a fully-fledged, digital product," Canada Learning Code CEO Melissa Sariffodeen said. "More women than ever are learning technical skills at an earlier age, and our programs guide them to build viable skills and techniques with a can-do attitude. Building this partnership with Digital Extremes opens the doors of our students to a world of opportunities right here in London, Ontario."
Tennocon tickets will be available at warframe.com, at four price points:
Full Day Ticket – $30 CAD – includes full-day access to the conference and Swag Bag, plus digital Glyph, Sigil, Cosmetic (Armor Set), 370 Platinum, Digital Art Piece, and exclusive access to Baro Ki'Teer in the TennoCon Relay.
Collector's Ticket – $75 CAD – includes full-day access to the conference, Swag Bag, and Collectors' T-shirt, plus digital Glyph, Sigil, Cosmetic (Armor Set), 1,000 Platinum, Digital Art Piece, and exclusive access to Baro Ki'Teer in the TennoCon Relay.
Limited VIP Ticket – $250 CAD – includes full-day access to the conference, Swag Bag, Collectors' T-shirt, VIP Brunch at Digital Extremes, Early Access to TennoCon, and a Collector's Statue (choose from Valkyr, Nyx, Rhino, Mag), plus digital Glyph, Sigil, Cosmetic (Armor Set), 1,000 Platinum, Digital Art Piece, and exclusive access to Baro Ki'Teer in the TennoCon Relay.
Limited Legendary Ticket – $1,000 CAD – includes full-day access to the conference, Swag Bag, Collectors' T-shirt, VIP Brunch at Digital Extremes, Early Access to TennoCon, a Collector's Statue (choose from Valkyr, Nyx, Rhino, Mag), 4x TennoCon T-shirt mega-pack, NPC Voice Recording Session (Voice a Relay NPC!), DevStream Team Session (Ask your own questions for a 15-minute personal Devstream!), Custom Personal Glyph (We'll design a Glyph with you that's yours), plus digital Glyph, Sigil, Cosmetic (Armor Set), 1,000 Platinum, Digital Art Piece, and exclusive access to the Baro Ki'Teer in the TennoCon Relay.
They call it Tennocon, by the way, because the player-controller faction in Warframe is known as the Tenno.
It's been almost five years since we first looked at Ghost of a Tale, a fantasy RPG about a mouse named Tilo who goes on an adventure through a world populated only by animals. Following its successful Indiegogo campaign in 2013, developer SeithCG released a beautiful trailer in 2014, completely missed its planned 2015 release, launched an early access version in 2016, and said in 2017 that the game would be out in full in 2018. Whew!
Today, the studio firmed up the March 2018 launch window with a proper date of March 13 on PC, with Xbox One and PS4 versions to follow. The extra wait for consoles is for what may be the most indie reason imaginable: "I want to make sure we address everything before we start entering the 'certification dance'," developer Lionel "Seith" Gallat wrote. "I have a very poor internet connection and I can’t upload huge files back and forth as quickly as I wish."
Ghost of a Tale follows Tilo on his quest through Dwindling Heights Keep in search of his true love, Merra. As a mouse, he's not great in a fight, so the gameplay emphasis is on stealth, disguises, and evasion, rather than simply punching a path to victory. Gallat said in the launch date announcement that the game should last 8-10 hours "if you don't care much about the quests and story," and nearly double that time if you do.
He also released a bunch of new screens showcasing the current state of the game's gorgeous visuals, and a couple that compare it to the game as it was in 2015, which you can see below. Ghost of a Tale is available for prepurchase from Steam, GOG, and Humble for $20/£15/€20; the price will increase to $25 at launch.
As reported by Famitsu (via Gematsu) game director Hajime Tabata has also suggested the base game will receive four slices of DLC which will run into 2019. As told via the game's official news broadcast, Active Time Report, FF15's premier premium episode will be named "Episode Argyn"—following a player survey held last year, says Gematsu—with three other packs set to follow from now through next year.
Speaking to the demo, here's its Steam page blurb:
Take the journey, now in ultimate quality. Boasting a wealth of bonus content and supporting Native 4K (3840×2160px) ultra high-resolution graphical options and HDR 10, you can now enjoy the beautiful and carefully-crafted experience of Final Fantasy 15 like never before.
The Final Fantasy 15 Windows Edition Playable Demo is a preview of the full game. We will continue to work on all aspects to ensure FF15 Windows Edition will be a great experience for PC gamers.
Not long ago it was unthinkable that Japanese RPGs would be ported to PC, much less that some of the best JRPGs ever made would find their way to our platform. Japanese RPGs actually have a rich and mostly forgotten PC history, and that's finally come back around. Today, you can play blockbusters like Final Fantasy on PC, cult favorites like The Legend of Heroes, and even western games made in the style of Japanese RPGs.
We've collected our favorites below, with consideration of how they look and play on PC. That means, for example, that the ugly PC port of all-time great Final Fantasy 6 isn't on this list, and we didn't include other emulated classics, like Sega's Phantasy Star 4 or Shining Force.
Here's our guide to the best JRPGs on PC—and not even half of them are Final Fantasy games.
Tom S: The best Final Fantasy, obviously. What do you mean Vaan is an earnest, irritating child and the plot makes no sense—have you met Tidus from Final Fantasy 10? I’ve never really been into Final Fantasy for the plot anyway; I’m in it for the spectacle, and I love Final Fantasy 12’s world and the weird band of heroes you assemble. That’s the main reason I persisted long enough to properly engage with the gambit system and, oh boy, it’s a beauty.
I love RPGs that allow any character to become anything you want. I can arm Vaan with a greatsword and watch him get pummeled forever on the front line of every fight. I can develop a team of four attack mages if I want. That would be dumb, probably, but the point is I’m free to make my own bizarre mistakes and break the game in cool new ways. The fast-forward command in Zodiac Age is a blessing too. I wish more games let me buzz through the nonsense to get to the good stuff—in this case, a combat system that allows for a ton of experimentation and whole deserts full of T-Rexes to test it on.
Basically what I'm saying is don't play Final Fantasy 12 if you want to be able to enjoy other games.
Wes: Don't listen to the naysayers who claim Final Fantasy 12 plays itself—its combat system is brilliantly customizable, letting you take precise control over your party in critical moments and automate the busy work with super specific AI commands. It's way more satisfying to put together intricate rulesets that tell your party members to cast haste when there's MP to spare, heal when you drop below a certain HP threshold, and target the enemy you know needs to go down first. It's like a strategy game layered on top of traditional JRPG combat, and just one of many ways Final Fantasy 12 is brilliant.
Another way: an all-time great localization by Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder, which gives FF12's dialogue far more flavor than your typical JRPG. A voice cast of British stage actors are a vast improvement over familiar anime voices.
Jody: Wes is spot-on about the combat—it's so good it ruined the similar system in Dragon Age: Origins for me. Leveling up is a great fun too, with new abilities chosen from a massive chessboard web thing, each new choice unlocking similar abilities around it. That system kind of ruined the similar one in Path of Exile for me, so basically what I'm saying is don't play Final Fantasy 12 if you want to be able to enjoy other games.
The plot's not such a strong point, borrowing from Star Wars even more shamelessly than Star Wars borrows from its own inspirations, but I found myself not really minding. If you're going to steal then steal the good stuff. That's a saying I made up myself.
Wes: There are horny robots in sci-fi, and there are sad robots, but it's rare for there to be robots that are both horny and sad, and even rarer for those two emotions to somehow power a story as fucked up as it is philosophical. Nier: Automata is tragic and touching and a very particular flavor of weird that's hard to pull off in a game, much less an action-RPG that's mostly about flashy sword combos. Automata relentlessly pursues the idea of peeling back the layers of a story, letting you see it from multiple perspectives before the eventual payoff to make it really hit home. Action game developer Platinum is also in fine form here, delivering a combat system that looks incredibly deep and flashy, but plays like a much simpler Bayonetta, with enough upgradeable weapons and abilities to satisfy the RPG side of the equation.
Andy K: The atmosphere in Automata is so distinct, so unusual, that there really isn't another game like it. Its blend of bleak sci-fi and melodrama is beautifully harmonious, and provides a nice contrast to the kinetic, thrilling combat. The fighting doesn't have the same level of intricacy or depth as other Platinum games, but the gorgeous, interconnected, and varied world makes up for it. From sun-bleached deserts and crumbling cities, to abandoned amusement parks and robot villages, it's a hell of a place to exist in.
Wes: One extra note: while Automata's PC port is serviceable, a few nagging issues can be easily fixed with the community-made FAR tool.
Wes: No other RPG I've ever played has the consistent charm, whimsy, and characterful writing of Final Fantasy 9, Squaresoft's Playstation swan song. At the time it was designed as a throwback to the earlier era of Final Fantasy, and even 15 years later it's a lively game with genuinely touching moments and comic relief that's actually funny. Zidane, for example, is still a refreshing protagonist compared to most stoic or emo JRPG heroes. He's playful, occasionally an ass, and almost indomitably optimistic—but a few darker moments keep him from being one-note. As in many other JRPGs, the plot gets messy by the end, and the final boss is infamously out of left field, but FF9 is the rare occasion where those issues really don't matter much. It really is about going on this journey with these characters and exploring every single nook and cranny of their world, because there's always something there to reward you.
Marvel at how they don't make 'em like they used to. And to be honest, they barely made them like this, even back then.
The PC version of FF9 isn't drastically improved like FF12, and sadly its PS1-era pre-rendered backgrounds getting the up-res treatment can only go so far. Some of those backgrounds are video files thanks to moving elements, and they're pretty blurry on a bigger screen. On the bright side, the port runs great even on a laptop's integrated graphics, and the character models look nice and sharp with cleaned up textures true to the original art. There are also lots of little enhancements that make the game nicer to play: an easy UI option for challenging random NPCs to a game of cards, a fast-forward option, and cheat codes for skipping encounters, getting max money, etc. that can help you focus on the story. Final Fantasy 9's greatest weakness was always a slow battle system that pushed the Playstation to its limits, and fast forwarding is a welcome fix.
If you've never played FF9, you have a chance to marvel at how they don't make 'em like they used to. And to be honest, they barely made them like this, even back then.
Austin: As a strategy game, Valkyria Chronicles is much less complicated than the likes of XCOM, and I reckon that's a point in its favor. It's deep enough to get its hooks in you, but not so granular that you lose sight of its characterful cast or remarkably touching story. Where many strategy games often turn into spreadsheets, all stats and resources and hit percentages, Valkyria Chronicles keeps things small and personal and uses the squads you assemble to tell a bigger story about an underdog country's fight for survival in a war-torn continent. Likewise, the combat, which is part top-down strategy and part third-person-shooter, does a good job of inserting you directly into conflicts. It was great on PlayStation 3, and its fabulous 2014 PC port really got it to sing.
Austin: There are still far too few Tales games on PC, but at least we got a good port of Berseria, the best Tales game in a decade. In a series filled with sickeningly saccharine stories, Berseria had the guts to actually get a little dark, and not in the usual edgy JRPG way. Well, not just in that way, anyway. Protagonist Velvet's hunt for revenge is reckless and seemingly futile—and, as a result, dramatic and actually interesting. Berseria's story is more than just bearable, and that's a huge step forward for Tales.
That said, combat is the breadwinner. Fighting in Berseria is every bit as fast and flexible as previous Tales games, but it makes several additions that simplify the process of upgrading and using skills without sucking any fun out of it. It's still immensely satisfying to create your own combos by stringing together basic attacks and punctuating your assault with extravagant special attacks, and now it's much more intuitive thanks to improved skill-mapping and character-swapping.
Austin: Disgaea has only gotten better with age, and bears the distinction of being one of the few true Japanese tactics RPGs on PC. It's one of those rare series that's so consistently good, your best bet is just to play the newest one you can. So in the absence of Disgaea 5 and Disgaea D2, PC gamers will have to make do with good ol' Disgaea 2, which is like winning $60 million instead of $70 million. Woe is me, guess I'll just have to make do with this fortune instead.
Disgaea 2 really is a treasure trove. This is a game where you can stack eight characters on top of each other like a totem pole and then hurl a meteor at an unfortunate slime to deal 10 million damage. Between proudly over-the-top turn-based combat, dozens of unlockable and customizable characters, and infinite Item World dungeons to conquer, it's a frankly irresponsibly deep game that can guzzle hundreds of hours in a single breath. It's got that classic Disgaea humor and strategy, and just plain more of everything else. And thankfully, it also got a much better PC port than the original Disgaea.
Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
Developer: Tales of Game's Studios | Link:Official site
James: I’m annoyed that Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden isn’t just a joke. Hold it up to any SNES JRPG and you’ll find that its world is as detailed, battle system as complex, and story as melodramatic as the rest. Shut Up and Jam Gaiden was made for laughs, but nothing within betrays its cyberpunk setting and rich, sprawling lore. That’s the whole point I suppose: it was created after the developers read Michael Jordan’s Wikipedia page and got stuck on a tidbit about the fan debate over whether the movie Space Jam is considered canon. It was unclear if the debate referenced the Looney Toons universe or Michael Jordan’s life, so they set out to make a game that melds real players from the NBA and a ‘post-cyberapocalyptic New New York’.
The world lives in fear of basketball, a game recently outlawed due to Charles Barkley’s reckless use of a Chaos Dunk that killed a stadium full of people. With all those lives and the death of a sport on his hands, Barkely leads a tortured life, so when another Chaos Dunk kills millions in Manhattan and he takes the blame, he sets out to find the truth. It sounds stupid, and it really is, but the long con—the real punchline—is finding out how much you care a dozen hours in.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment | Link:Humble | CDKeys
Andy K: It was clever of Ubisoft to get Obsidian on board for its South Park game. Without the Pillars of Eternity studio's RPG chops, I don't know if it would've been half as good. What I love about The Stick of Truth is that, as well as being a wonderfully authentic, interactive episode of the show, it's a great RPG too. It's more streamlined and accessible than Obsidian's usual fare, but that makes it a perfect fit for a game like this.
Based heavily on the turn-based combat of Final Fantasy, it makes use of elemental magic, buffs, debuffs, and summons—albeit with a typically absurd or offensive twist. So instead of summoning Bahamut, you summon a gun-toting Jesus. And instead of inflicting poison, you inflict 'grossed out' and make enemies puke. It's an entertaining combat system, brought to life by superb animation and an abundance of very silly jokes.
Sam: The first Final Fantasy to have voice acting also had terrible voice acting—something that subsequent games, including FF10-2, would rectify. Final Fantasy 10's notorious laughing sequence is far from the only thing it deserves to be remembered for, though. Its progression system all happens via the Sphere Grid, sort of like a boardgame where every node unlocks a new ability or stat boost. This allows for extensive (and by the late game, wonderfully breakable) customisation of characters, allowing you to turn a white mage into a warrior if you really want to.
It's one of my favourite games ever made and I play it every couple of years. There you go.
This supplements what's otherwise a fairly traditional turn-based combat system, but battles tend to be over quickly and progression is always brisk. Along with a neat, intuitive crafting system and more in-depth use of the summon creatures from previous games, there's a lot going on in FF10—plus it has Blitzball, an underwater football-like minigame that's one of my all-time favourites (though everyone else seems to hate it). Even if the story, involving a giant city-destroying whale and time travel (of a sort) doesn't suit you, the tropical fantasy setting is original and still evocative more than 15 years later.
It's one of my favourite games ever made and I play it every couple of years. There you go.
FF10-2, meanwhile, picks up after the city-destroying whale is gone—and the world is a cheerier place. It brings revamped combat, built on a job system where your party can switch roles mid-battle. The tone is noticeably sillier and more slapstick than the first game, which doesn't appeal to me too much. That said, I know a whole bunch of people love 10-2's all-female cast, and the choice to travel where you want from the start of the game is bold and interesting, even if the main story arc is dull compared to the first game.
Wes: I couldn't care less about Tidus, Yuna and crew, but I love the battle systems of both games. 10's had some brilliant tactical depth, fun customization, and the still-appealing concept of breaking damage limits to crack that 9,999 ceiling. 10-2's is different, but even better, combining fashion with the classic Job system. It's super fast-paced but miles deep, and swapping jobs mid-battle and gradually collecting skills that work well together is JRPG combat at its best. Plus, both games look great on PC thanks to some HD touching up, and they'll run on years-old hardware, even integrated graphics. What a combo.
Lauren: In traditional JRPG fashion, Recettear stars a plucky teenage heroine up against preposterous odds. Unlike the hordes of heroes before her, Recette’s nemesis is a mountain of debt she can only pay off by managing her absent father’s floundering item shop. With the guidance of Tear, her loan shark turned business partner, Recette splits time between bartering with customers, arranging her shop, and diving into randomly-generated dungeons for marketable loot. Each day, Recette chooses what to do with the four time-slots between sunup and sundown while the calendar marches towards her next loan payment. Recette’s adorable naivete is explained no better than by her well-meaning catchphrase “Capitalism-ho!”
The whole thing is this bundle of sunshine and sweetness, even though it's about being crushed by debt.
Recettear became the first Japanese indie game to release on Steam when it was translated and localized for Western audiences in 2010. Despite the two-man translation team and very conservative sales expectations, Recettear was well-received by critics and players, more than doubling the first month’s expected sales. Recettear offsets the repetitive burden of shop-ownership with the repetitive demands of dungeon crawling in just the right ratio to make both more engaging than they would have been alone. To its benefit, Recettear scrapes the surface of systems like party management that are often deeper in larger games without allowing them to weigh down the flow between activities. Despite its age, Recettear continues to spread by word-of-mouth and inspire new indie games like Moonlighter to emulate its management-meets-dungeon-crawler hook.
Jody: Recettear is a great way in if you've not played many JRPGs. It doesn't take the more ridiculous cliches of the genre seriously, and it's got a much better translation than 90% of other Japanese games, with actual jokes and relatable characters. It's set in this weird pseudo-French fantasy land but everyone has motivations that make sense, from the drunk thief to the greedy fairy loan shark (don't listen to Tear's advice to start at 130% and haggle from there, that's way too high). The whole thing is this bundle of sunshine and sweetness, even though it's about being crushed by debt.
Wes: Zeboyd Games has been adding modern twists to the designs of classic JRPGs for years now, with games like Cthulhu Saves the World. With Cosmic Star Heroine, the team set their sights on Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star and made this tight sci-fi RPG with a clever, brisk battle system that requires some real thought and planning. Combat revolves around abilities that can only be used once until you defend, turning battles into strategic matches where defending at the right time is especially important. The story outside of battles is just as brisk as the fights, making Cosmic Star Heroine the rare JRPG that doesn't outstay its welcome. It's less homage than it is a thoughtful 2017 take on how JRPGs were made 20 years ago, and how they could've been done better.
If JRPG battle systems are your thing, Cosmic Star Heroine is a fantastic playground.
Steven: Don’t let the lo-fi graphics fool you. Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a rich and exciting action RPG that has aged wonderfully from its original PSP version (which was itself a remake of an even older PC version). Forget the slow tedium of turn-based battles: Oath in Felghana is a run-and-slash action RPG with some seriously intense bullet-hell boss battles set to a killer synth rock soundtrack. If you like the idea of a Japanese-flavored RPG but aren’t looking for a 150-hour-long story or all the boring side quests, Ys is a great alternative. It’s relentlessly fast-paced and there’s a wide selection of difficulty levels so you can tune down the grinding if you’re really looking to breeze through it.
There’s still all the trappings of a JRPG, but Ys is lean and incredibly punishing. It sometimes feels more like an arcade game than a proper RPG, but if you love min-maxing stats there’s still level and equipment progression to mess around with. Like Final Fantasy, there’s a reason why there’s over a dozen entries in this series (and any of the ones on Steam are worth playing).
Wes: This is going to come across as a strange endorsement, but I don't think the first chapter of Trails in the Sky, likely Nihon Falcom's most beloved RPG series, is anything special. The character archetypes and dialogue and general vibe are about as straightforward anime JRPG as they come. The turn-based battle system is pretty straightforward, with just enough complexity to get by thanks to the way you mix magical orbs to unlock new spells. Fans like to point out that every NPC in the game has their own little life, with new dialogue to discover every time you go back to them across a sprawling journey. And that is true, but it's all the same basic, largely uninteresting RPG background patter you've seen before.
So why is Trails in the Sky SC—or Second Chapter, the sequel to that first game—on this list? Because, while I think Trails in the Sky is actually a pretty average JRPG, it does a remarkably good job of introducing you to its world to tell a larger story, continued directly in this sequel. It's a slow burn that makes you invested in the Bracer Guild (a sort of anime civilian marshal service), several kingdoms with their own political machinations and rich history, and characters that manage to be endearing in spite of their tropes. The individual story beats may often be cliche, but over the course of two games Trails in the Sky manages to go deep and wide, giving you the satisfaction of solving small mysteries and saving whole countries. If that world pulls you in, you'll have a pair of games that tell a single, sprawling story across a hundred hours, like a longform TV show. There's really no other RPG series on PC quite like it.
Nvidia has made available its 391.01 WHQL driver release for GeForce GPUs, and with it comes 'Game Ready' optimizations for Final Fantasy XV, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and World of Tanks 1.0.
With regards to PUBG, Nvidia performed some internal benchmarking and found that GeForce GTX 1050 owners stand to see a 7 percent performance increase at 1920x1080. Likewise, Nvidia's benchmarks highlight the same performance gain for GeForce GTX 1080 owners at 2560x1440 and 3824x2160, and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti owners at 3840x2160.
Here's a look at the full set of data:
Bear in mind that these are Nvidia's benchmarks, not our own. That said, the testbed Nvidia used consisted of an Intel Core i7-7820X processor paired with 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, running in Windows 10. A beefy system, in other words.
As for Final Fantasy XV, a version for PC is launching a week from tomorrow. It will arrive to Windows with 4K support "and a ton of other enhancements and additions" that Nvidia was eager to point out, such as Turf Effects and HairWorks.
Nvidia spent some time stomping out bugs with this latest driver release. Here is a rundown of the fixed issues:
[BeamNG]: Dynamic reflections flicker in the game.
[Call of Duty WWII]: Flickering shadows occur in the game.
NvfbcPluginWindow prevents Windows from shutting down.
Booting from a cold boot results in black screen on a multi-monitor system.
[3DVision]: System shutdown time increases when Stereoscopic 3D is enabled.
[Nvidia Control Panel]: The Display->Adjust desktop color settings->Content type setting is reset to “Auto-selected” after rebooting the system.
[GeForce GTX 980/1080 Ti]: OpenGL program may crash when trying to map a buffer object.
[Notebook][GeForce GTX 965M]: Drop in GPU performance occurs.
Old MacDonald had a farm. And on that farm he had a library of user-made 3D models, courtesy of Pure Farming 2018's official modding tools, which will be available to players at launch. E-I-E-I-O.
With a tractor here and a harvester there (and ploughs, trailers, trucks and more), publisher Techland tells us players will be able to import custom-made machines from their preferred 3D software—which can be shared in turn with the game's community.
Here's a dune buggy:
"Modding is a huge feature for the farming community so we simply had to have it in our game," says developer Ice Flame Games' Grzegorz Skwierczyński in a statement. "The tool we offer is intuitive and universal, giving players the flexibility to get really creative with what they add to the game—even going beyond traditional farming machines. We were testing it using one of the models provided by Techland as you can see in the video."
With the promise of "every custom machine you can imagine", Techland says it'll release more information following Pure Farming 2018's March 13 launch.
With so many famous historical figures to choose from, how does Firaxis decide which characters to include in each installment of Civilization? Ghandi's a given, obviously, but even then the surprisingly nuke-happy pacifist doesn't represent every aspect of India. In a panel at the recent PC Gamer Weekender, Firaxis' senior producer Andrew Frederiksen, and the DLC's lead designer Anton Strenger, explained how they came up with the cast of characters for Civ 6's Rise and Fall expansion.
This time around, they wanted a cast that would fit with Rise and Fall's Dynamic Empire's system, which sees empires rising and, well, falling over distinct historical eras. The team picked figures who would embody this theme, but who would also meet fan expectations, and sometimes surprise them, which sounds like a delicate balance to achieve. They wanted a diverse cast from a variety of historical periods, who would also look rather good standing next to each other in a cast photo.
As Fraser noted in his positive review, Rise and Fall introduces several new or returning civilizations, including the Cree, Scotland, Korea and the Netherlands. Naturally, the inclusion of new civs allowed the team to geek out and research the historical figures who would be the most appropriate figureheads for each civilization.
Frederiksen and Strenger discuss the base game's strengths and weaknesses in the full panel, below, while explaining their reasoning for the changes made for the recent Rise and Fall expansion. Ultimately, they wanted to improve Civ's capacity for emergent storytelling, something that lead to the creation of the Dynamic Empires system.
Into the Breach is a subversive "micro-strategy" game (that's actually surprisingly deep, so says our Steven) from Subset Games, the creator of 2012's FTL: Faster Than Light. It's filled with powerful mechs and hostile aliens and has an awesome soundtrack. It's out tomorrow and now has a launch trailer.
Here's that:
Beyond its 16-bit era aesthetic, Into the Breach's most interesting quirk is letting players see their enemies' moves—and letting them respond to them—before they've had a chance to make them.
On the face of it, this doesn't sound plausible—however here's Steven putting the Mystic Meg of strategy games through its paces:
Earlier this month, Subset's Justin Ma and Matthew Davis gave Steven exclusive access to a prerelease build of Into the Breach. I found the following extract particularly interesting, as FTL's risk/reward balance often pushed my buttons:
It took me dozens of hours to beat FTL on easy difficulty, and even after sinking in dozens more, I’ve never beaten it on normal. According to Davis, that’s pretty standard for most players. But I was almost shocked when I beat Into the Breach on normal on my third attempt.
"The game is slightly more solvable than FTL as once you get a hang of it, you’ll be getting to the end far more often," Davis says. "We intend for people to finish the game and then go back and explore new options and let the randomness drive its longevity. You’re always coming across new combinations that are fun and unique. I'd describe Into the Breach as something more like a board game. It’s not that you beat a board game, but you take it out to play for an afternoon and then you put it away and come back and play it again. It’s not something that you beat and then never touch again."
This departure from the punishing difficulty of FTL is going to be contentious, both developers suspect. There’s no big bad boss battle waiting at the end of the game to completely vaporize all the work you’ve done building your squad. But there’s a greater sense of joy to be found in each battle and the surprising ways they can unfold.
In a community Q&A posted on the official forum, Klíma answered a long list of questions from fans, discussing everything from his favourite music playlist, to the day-to-day activities of an executive producer.
When asked what he thought of Kingdom Come: Deliverance being considered by some as a AAA game (that is, a big-budget game with significant time and financial investment), Klíma said that while he didn't think that KCD was a AAA—particularly as he thought most big games were too forgiving, better suited to "the most casual and absent-minded players"—he didn't necessarily consider it as an indie game, either.
"I don’t see KCD as competing with the likes of Assassin’s Creed or Shadow of War," he said. "We simply don’t have resources to create a game like that. I don’t view us as an indie game either, though.
"The trend I see in ‘real’ AAA games, like the ones I mentioned above, is toward making games more and more forgiving, better suited to the most casual and absent-minded players; they are games that in effect are ‘playing themselves’. So, you have all those different markers, prompts and handy hints that you never have to think about what to do next.
"On the other hand, we see a trend among indie games that are both more original and less forgiving, but because of limited budgets they have to go for a format that is somewhat simpler to develop for, e.g. many of them are 2D platformers or top-down scrollers," he added. "KCD is an attempt of bridging the two: it is an indie game at heart – more hardcore, more demanding, more fierce – but with the visuals and production values of AAA game.
"I freely admit though that I wish we had more time to polish the game before the release, that’s what AAA game deserves."
Klíma finished on thanking the community, stating they were "the best fans a game could wish for" and adding that "seldom did I see such mature, reasonable and supportive community".
In our Kingdom Come: Deliverance review, we gave it 84, stating: "Bugs and performance issues aside, Kingdom Come is a seriously satisfying role-playing experience set in a rich, reactive world."
