Persona 3 Reload intends to be the classic, 2006 JRPG “faithfully remade with cutting-edge graphics, modernized quality-of-life features, and signature stylish UI.” It was announced – or rather, leaked – just before not-E3 last month, but now there’s a new trailer that shows the game’s combat for the first time.
Pik of the bunch.
We are just a few weeks away from the release of Pikmin 4, which is set to add two brand-new types of our leaf-headed companions into the Pik ‘n’ mix. Ice and Glow Pikmin will be joining the lineup of seven other mainline types on 21st July, so we thought that now would be the perfect time to take a look back and rank all of those that we have seen so far to establish who is likely to make it into our squad.
While you do get to take the newly-added Ice Pikmin for a spin in the Pikmin 4 demo, we have decided to leave them off the following list for now since we can’t say that we have been able to see their full capabilities just yet. Who knows what icy challenges await… or not.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
A former F-Zero developer believes Nintendo’s long-dormant racing franchise has remained that way due to the success of Mario Kart.
Speaking to VGC, F-Zero artist and the designer behind Captain Falcon, Takaya Imamura, implied the game wouldn’t be worth the risk when Mario Kart is already incredibly successful (having sold nearly 50 million copies for Nintendo Switch as of November 2022).
Imamura was asked why Nintendo games such as Star Fox get more attention than F-Zero. “I think it’s because Mario Kart is Nintendo’s most popular racing game, and a new F-Zero would cost a fortune,” he said. “My impression is that [Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto] is very affectionate about Star Fox.”
The original F-Zero launched way back in 1990 and was followed up with a handful of games, the final one being F-Zero Climax in 2004. That marks almost two decades since fans last saw a new entry, despite Nintendo showing love to other older franchises with remakes like Super Mario RPG or sequels such as Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Nintendo hasn’t completely forgotten about F-Zero, of course, ironically making Mario Kart 8 DLC based on the classic racer, and last year released N64 game F-Zero X on the Nintendo Switch Online library.
In our 9/10 review of that one from 1998, IGN said: “F-Zero X is another proof that nobody does sequels like Nintendo. The developers kicked out everything that stood in the way of perfectly-tuned gameplay.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Thrilling as it may be to swing a lightsaber or shoot a headcrab in stereoscopic 3D, the VR experiences I crave most are those which use the tech to fold my brain into entirely new shapes. 2019’s A Fisherman’s Tale was one of those. An unassuming first-person puzzler about a puppet fisherman living in a lighthouse, it dazzled with its incredible deployment of VR’s unique sense of perspective and scale. It’s the kind of game that, if it featured a psychotic AI and some cake memes instead of a beard in a yellow anorak, would have been heralded as a revolution in play.
It would have been easy to follow-up A Fisherman’s Tale in the same way, make a bigger game with a few new gimmicks and a comedy lobster voiced by Stephen Merchant. But that isn’t what developer InnerspaceVR has done. Instead, Another Fisherman’s Tale bends your neural pathways in entirely new forms, offering a completely different kind of puzzling. The results are equally innovative and almost as interactively satisfying – although a lack of refinement in the latter category is a deflating puncture in the game’s dinghy.
Long-time Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu will have a new English voice actor starting in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and fans are unsure about it.
As reported by The Gamer, YouTuber Yong Yea is replacing Darryl Kurylo and gave fans a preview of the new voice at Anime Expo 2023’s Dragons of Japan panel.
“That little monologue he did was painful,” said a Reddit user in response. “And the yell at the end was very much not Kiryu.” Others were less critical of the performance, though still didn’t think it was a good fit. “Yong Yea’s voice isn’t horrible but it sounds like a 20 year old, not a 50 year old,” said one.
Here’s a clean version of the Kiryu voice & dialogue from Anime Expo in more ideal conditions. This is NOT an official recording, line, or direction from the game, it’s a quick off the cuff recording from my home booth. Wait for the final game to see how it all comes together. 🫶 https://t.co/R7j23sQUhE pic.twitter.com/HtO8JOoXdU
— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) July 3, 2023
The YouTuber posted on Twitter to defend himself though, and released a better quality but still not professional version of the audio clip.
“Here’s a clean version of the Kiryu voice and dialogue from Anime Expo in more ideal conditions,” Yong Yea said. “This is not an official recording, line, or direction from the game, it’s a quick off the cuff recording from my home booth.”
Finally, reiterating what a lot of commentors were saying in defence of the new voice actor, he added: “Wait for the final game to see how it all comes together.”
Yong Yea will star in The Man Who Erased His Name as it connects the events of Yakuza 8 and the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It’s due to launch on November 9, while Infinite Wealth only has a vague 2024 release window so far.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
As Terraria’s next major patch approaches, developer Re-Logic has revealed it’s “hard to move on” and start a new project owing to the success and demand generated by the 2011 cult game.
“After 12 years the game still sells like hot cakes,” said Re-Logic head Andrew Spinks in a Twitter post from his now deactivated account, as reported by PC Gamer. “There is so much demand it makes it hard to move on.”
Since its release in May 2011, Terraria has graced every active gaming platform under the sun, ranging from the PC and Nintendo Switch to the PlayStation Vita, smartphones, and even Google Stadia, following a fraught development process.
During its 12-year lifespan Terraria has expanded significantly in scope, thanks to a slew of patches and free content updates. It is now one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 44 million copies sold as of May 2022. It is also one of the most-played games in Steam history, boasting a concurrent player peak of almost 490,000 in May 2020, with a current all-time approval rating of 97 percent.
But all good things must come to an end, and it seems developer Re-Logic’s long, and arguably heroic display of post-launch support could finish with Terraria’s next major update, patch 1.4.5. Or, it wont. Only time will tell. The (potentially) final 1.4.5 update will see crossover content from the roguelite metroidvania Dead Cells make its way to the game, along with a slew of other updates and improvements.
It’s worth noting this isn’t the first time Re-Logic has sought to put a bow on Terraria’s post-launch updates. In an interview with PC Gamer, Re-Logic’s head of business strategy and marketing Ted Murphy pointed out the team had initially intended to end support for the game with patch 1.3 back in 2015. However, the team had too many “cool ideas” and “unfinished business, so to speak”, to walk away from the game.
2020’s Journey’s End update represented another stepping-off point, but that too was followed by a string of patches. Murphy now believes the time may be ripe “to start work on a second project”, which would allow the team to “explore ideas that might not work, or work as well in the current iteration and technology of Terraria”.
However, Murphy also didn’t rule out the potential of subsequent updates. “We’ve felt that way before — so we do never say never. When will Terraria’s final update truly happen? I don’t even think we can say that with certainty.”
In June Re-Logic revealed it had teamed up with Paper Fort Games to develop a Terraria board game. The crowdfunded offering will “expand the universe of Terraria by faithfully combining the digital game’s biome exploration, character progression, base building, and epic combat with tabletop mechanisms”, according to a Steam store update. No release date has yet been given for the project, beyond the admission it likely won’t launch until 2024 at the earliest.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
And yes, he still wants that Switch port.
In his latest video in the ‘Game Concepts’ series, Masahiro Sakurai once again goes back to Kid Icarus: Uprising. This time, the legendary game designer breaks down the game’s “unique” control scheme and explains the difficulties that the team had in developing the title.
Part on-rails shooter, part third-person shooter, Uprising has a slightly unusual control scheme that even Sakurai notes “takes some getting used to” — moving Pit with the Circle Pad and using the touchscreen to change the camera angle and aim attacks wasn’t the easiest to grasp, we’ll admit. Over the years, we wondered why a title such as this didn’t make the most of Nintendo’s Circle Pad Pro — the 3DS accessory that connected to the handheld to add an extra circle pad and shoulder buttons — to implement true twin-stick controls, but it turns out that there was a very simple answer: space.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Grid-based strategy spin-off Persona 5 Tactica’s latest trailer introduces a new member to The Phantom Thieves: Erina. Or maybe she’s just a temporary friend. Atlus describe her as a “mysterious revolutionary with a strong sense of justice,” although it’s not yet clear what we’re revolting against, aside from vaguely-French demons. Check out the new gameplay trailer.
We gave Metroid Prime Remastered a resounding 10/10 masterpiece rating in our review, and the game deserves all the plaudits. It’s a wonderful remaster for Nintendo Switch, and well worth picking up if you’re a big fan of the Metroid series. Not only that, but the game has gotten an impressive price drop in the UK recently, coming down to just £21.99 at several retailers.
It’s not like the game cost a ton at RRP either (£34.99), as Nintendo was seemingly quite sensible with its chosen price for the remaster.
That being said, at £22, this is an absolute steal and a must-buy for Switch owners. We’re expecting more great gaming deals during Prime Day 2023 next week, but this is kicking things off in style.
Other great deals you might want to consider right now include Xbox Seagate Expansion Card for its all-time low price of £139, Star Wars Jedi Survivor for just £48, and Elden Ring for just £36.
More Great Deals in the UK
Amazon Prime Day is coming up soon and will surely bring a whole slew of new gaming deals to check out. But, we’ve already got a great selection of early deals to check out right now as well. This includes one of our favourite deals of the year: 3-months of Audible for free if you’re a Prime Member. This is an awesome deal saving you £23.97 in total and grants you access to three audiobook tokens, and the entire Audible podcast library as well.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
The latest Flashback 2 trailer literally flashes back to 1992’s Flashback. Yesterday, the action-platformer sequel dropped a trailer showing off a lush jungle level that’s strikingly similar to the original game’s opening environment, but this time things have been high-qualified with pretty sun rays, explosions, and dodge rolls aplenty. Get some deja vu below.
