Ikenfell is an endearing tactical RPG that gave me earworms

Ikenfell, it stands to reason that it’s practically guaranteed to happen. We can only assume the odds become even higher as the Ordinary ventures closer to the big magical fantasy school, which protagonist Maritte quickly discovers. Upon approaching the gate in search of her missing sister, Safina, Maritte suddenly starts to sling fiery spells.

Those new spells certainly come in handy, as Maritte finds herself fired up (hehe, geddit?) and ready to fight through this Paper Mario-style tactical RPG. Along with some of Saf’s old friends, you explore the titular school and surrounding areas, searching for clues that might help unravel the mystery. Ikenfell has challenging combat and lots of little secrets hidden in its 8-bit world, but it’s the loveable bunch of pals (both allies and rivals) that really made me smile. Oh, and some of them have killer theme tunes that I can’t stop singing.

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Lesbian road trip RPG Get In The Car, Loser! releases its second expansion

Get In The Car, Loser! has released its second expansion pack and this one’s chunky. For the uninitiated, Get In The Car, Loser! begins the way all retro RPGs do, with a group of young misfits who decide to fight a world-ending calamity, or sometimes to fight God. The only difference here is that it’s named after one-of-many iconic Mean Girls quotes, and yes, your party features lesbians. The antithesis of Final Fantasy 15, really.

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The Trans Witches Are Witches bundle raises over $90,000 for LGBTQ teams

RPS’ Magic Week – our two-week endeavour to spotlight magical indies – you might enjoy the Trans Witches Are Witches bundle, which is unrelated to Magic Week, but has the same spirit. The bundle is a collection of 69 games, music, zines, and other creative oddities of the magical variety. Everything has been made by LGBTQ+ creators and all the proceeds will be split between the featured teams. So far, the bundle has passed a whopping $90,000 (or £74,000) in sales, with over a week left to go.

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Blood Bowl 3 may be the most faithful Warhammer video game ever made

Blood Bowl used to be a dead game, Cyanide’s Gautier Brésard is quick to correct me: “I would say that it was a community-managed game.” In fact, for the two decades that the tabletop Warhammer bloodsport was out of print, fans worked diligently to ensure it wasn’t out of mind – creating a ‘living rulebook’ that ran to six iterations.

“Here is what may be the final edition of Blood Bowl,” read the opening page of that community manual. “This is the rulebook designed to send Blood Bowl into a perpetual format. The Games Workshop is no longer interested in providing true support for this game.”

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Rather than overhaul gear and crafting systems, Darktide should rip them out

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide have laid out their plans to improve the co-op shooter’s shopping and crafting systems. The gear system changes, due to arrive in the next patch, do sound like improvements to the current state of things. These plans do not sound better than entirely ending the tedious grinds of random rolls and making numbers bigger. Why improve when it would be better to remove?

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