Fans of 2023’s Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, got a delightful surprise this morning during the Nintendo Partner Direct, with the reveal of a surprise sequel coming to Nintendo Switch. It’s called Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, and it’s coming out in just two weeks, on February 19.
The Mermaid’s Curse follows a young pearl diver named Yuza who one day, while working, sees a ghostly version of himself. This sets off a chain of other strange incidents: corpses washing up, a girl with no memories, and townsfolks with ulterior motives. As Yuza, you’ll question people around the island to try and find out what’s going on, while also diving into the waters of the bay for clues. All of it has ties somehow to a centuries-old legend of a mermaid, and true to form, it all seems kind of creepy!
The original Paranormasight debuted in 2023 on Switch, PC, and mobile. While thematically similar, it told a different mystery story with different characters, and it’s unclear if there will be narrative times between The Seven Mysteries of Honjo and The Mermaid’s Curse. The first Paranormasight was well-received, and currently stands at an 85 critic score and 8.9 user score on Metacritic. We’re still waiting to hear if the new game will come to other platforms, but given the mobile and PC releases of The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, it seems like a reasonable expectation.
You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Nintendo Direct right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Retro PC game sellers GOG have faced criticism recently for using a piece of artwork made using AI tools to promote their store’s new year sale. The storerunners have since claimed that this banner was a work-in-progress asset which slipped through onto the store by mistake. Now, the platform’s managing director has revealed that the company are “not planning on making absolute statements in either direction” in terms of their future AI use, following the backlash.
Konami has stepped out from the shadows to gift us with a rather lovely shadow drop on Switch and Switch 2. Yes, Super Bomberman Collection is out today for both consoles and will feature a total of 7 unique games.
So we’ve got Super Bomberman 1 through 5 along with the original Famicom versions of Bomberman 1 and 2. A new Boss Rush mode has also been added, while GameShare is available for those who want to dive into multiplayer.
Set Sail with These Tips to Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
Joyce Tammany, Marketing Manager, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
Summary
Get some useful tips on Vocations and learn about quality-of-life features for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.
Learn how you can utilize a variety of strategies and utilize shortcuts to succeed in battle.
Dragon Quest VII Reimaginedis available today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
Whether you’re a first-time player or a seasoned Dragon Quester, you’re in for a treat with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, available today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title! It builds on the beloved original turn-based RPG with fresh visuals, refined gameplay, and tightened pacing for an unforgettable adventure through past and present. Even if you’ve played the original, there are plenty of new features, so here’s my advice for making the most of your journey!
Mix up your Vocations
Like many other RPGs, playable characters in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined can be assigned to a job class – called “Vocations” in DQ terms. And if you’ve played an RPG before, then you know it’s important to have a balanced party. Having only Warriors may seem beneficial when fighting strong enemies, but you’ll have a tough time keeping your party healed without a Priest.
Fortunately, you’ll have a lot of flexibility to play with different Vocations, thanks to the new Moonlighting feature, which allows your party members to hold two different Vocations at once! You can even change their Vocations in the middle of a dungeon if you need to fine-tune your strategy. (I recommend keeping one Vocation maxed out while you try a brand new one, so you’ll always have some strong spells and abilities.) Just keep in mind that after maxing out one Vocation, the accompanying skills are removed once you switch to another.
Tip: If you need a little boost in training, look for an item called the “Seed of Proficiency,” which adds a level to your current Vocations.
Set the speed of battle…
Whether you’re looking to breeze through a dungeon or savor every moment, you can adjust the battle speed to your liking. You can also try the auto-battle feature and sit back while your party works for you. You can also set different auto-battle strategies for each character.
For example, “Show No Mercy” really packs a punch, but it also depletes your magic points quickly, leaving you possibly defenseless in the middle of a quest. “Focus on Healing” ensures your characters don’t die, though you can get caught in a loop if your characters don’t fight back. When in doubt, use “Fight Wisely” for a solid balance.
Tip: Bosses will be harder than normal enemies, so I recommend switching to manual inputs and settling in for some classic, cozy, and challenging turn-based battles.
…and customize your challenge
Instead of only offering pre-set difficulty levels, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined also lets you adjust several settings to make your adventure easier or harder. You can deal more (or less) damage, change the amount of Vocational Proficiency, experience, and gold you earn, or stop enemies from attacking you on the world map.
Tip: If you want to level up your Vocations faster while still enjoying a good challenge, just toggle the setting for proficiency earned to the max!
Beat vicious enemies for accessories
If you notice enemies that are a different color from their regular counterparts, those are vicious enemies. They’ll be harder to beat, but they’ll drop useful accessories if you defeat them.
Tip: If you have the resources to survive the fight, don’t pass up the opportunity to take them down!
Get a closer view during gameplay
The diorama-like graphics of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined especially shine with the normal camera, but it might be positioned a bit farther away than you’re used to.
Tip: If you want to inspect anything closer, there’s always the appropriate toggle in the settings.
Add shortcuts to the directional pad
Some very useful commands can be mapped onto the directional pad so that you don’t have to always go into the menu. At first, you can only assign the “Heal All“ ability to the d-pad, but you’ll unlock more options throughout your journey, like the “Career Sphere”!
Tip: One unlockable option is “Nose for Treasure” which will help you locate undiscovered treasure to help get that sweet, sweet loot.
Play the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Demo!
Sometimes the best way to start is to jump right in! The free Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Demo covers the first several hours of the game – perfect for helping you get your sea legs if this is your first Dragon Quest.
Tip: Your save data from the demo will carry over to the full game when you’re ready to set sail — and you’ll also get an exclusive costume for Maribel.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is available now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined Digital Deluxe Edition
Purchase DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined early and receive a costume for your Hero along with other helpful items.
[Early Bird Bonus]
・Trodain Togs (appearance changing costume for your Hero)
・Seed of Proficiency x3
*These items will only be available to customers who purchase the game by 23:59 on 4 March 2026.
*The “”Seed of Proficiency”” is an item that can be obtained by progressing in the game.
*These bonus items can be received from the “”Claim Special Rewards”” menu in-game.
[Purchase Bonus]
・Green Slime Shield
*This bonus item can be received from the “Claim Special Rewards” menu in-game.
Includes the full game, “Additional DLC Sets”, and 48 hours of early access to the full game. Embark on an epic adventure ahead of everybody else!
[Contents]
・DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined base game
・DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined “Additional DLC Sets”
Additional DLC – The Road of Regal Wretches
Additional DLC – Luminary’s Livery
Additional DLC – Jam-Packed Swag Bag
・48 hours of early access
・White Wolf Costume (Appearance changing costume for Ruff)
*After the launch of DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined, the “Additional DLC Sets” and each additional DLC will also be available for individual purchase. Please be careful to avoid making duplicate purchases.
*Some items in the additional DLCs can also be obtained by progressing in the game.
*To play The Road of Regal Wretches, you will need to progress in the game and unlock the battle arena.
*The Road of Regal Wretches can be accessed by talking to the She-Slime at the battle arena reception desk.
*Contents such as the costumes and items can be received from the “Claim Special Rewards” menu in the game.
*The content included in this bundle is also sold separately. Please be careful to avoid making duplicate purchases.
Purchase DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined early and receive a costume for your Hero along with other helpful items.
[Early Bird Bonus]
・Trodain Togs (appearance changing costume for your Hero)
・Seed of Proficiency x3
*These items will only be available to customers who purchase the game by 23:59 on 4 March 2026.
*The “”Seed of Proficiency”” is an item that can be obtained by progressing in the game.
*These bonus items can be received from the “”Claim Special Rewards”” menu in-game.
[Purchase Bonus]
・Green Slime Shield
*This bonus item can be received from the “Claim Special Rewards” menu in-game.
“There’s more to the world than this island… And we’re going to prove it!”
Set sail on an adventure spanning past and present in DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined!
As a bright-eyed young fisherman’s son, you’ve lived your entire life on the peaceful island of Estard. Your journey begins with a simple question: is there more to the world than this small island kingdom?
On a quest for answers, you and your childhood friends discover the Shrine of Mysteries and are swept back in time. There, you uncover the shocking truth that entire lands have been sealed away by a malevolent force.
The fate of the world now rests in your hands.
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined brings a timeless classic to life in a whole new way with charming diorama visuals, updated gameplay mechanics, and a streamlined story,.
For seasoned adventurers, rediscover a tale of plucky companions that is brimming with joy and heartbreak. For fledgling heroes new to the series, this is a great place to begin your DRAGON QUEST journey.
■A Diorama Brought to Life
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined blends a beautiful diorama art style with Akira Toriyama’s iconic character designs to make every encounter feel vibrant, heartfelt, and full of adventure. From lush forests and bustling towns to ancient ruins and whimsical monsters, every environment is bursting with color and personality.
■Travel through History to Restore the Present
Scattered stone fragments unlock portals to long-lost eras with their own challenges to solve. Restore the islands, solve mysteries, and make allies in the past to breathe life back into the present.
■A Beloved Tale with a Streamlined Narrative
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined is told through a series of vignettes with an overarching narrative. The main story has also been streamlined to make the journey more accessible to all players.
■Classic Combat, Improved!
The battle system in DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined has undergone significant changes. Turn the tides of battle with new vocational perks. Each vocation has its own unique ability, from all-out attacks to those that support your allies. Battle speed adjustments and an auto-battle feature are also available. Battles can progress without interruptions between each turn, depending on the tactics selected for the protagonist and allies. While on the field, players can pre-emptively strike monsters and instantly defeat them If the monster is weaker than the party.
■Moonlight and Level Up Two Vocations at the Same Time!
Customize your playstyle with the new Moonlighting mechanic. Having two vocations assigned at once provides access to the skills, magic spells, and unique perks from both.
*There is also a bundle product that contains this product. Please be careful to avoid making duplicate purchases.
Wait, Leon Kennedy is in Resident Evil: Requiem? Yeah, okay, we’ve known that for a bit now, perhaps longer than Capcom wanted us too. But what is news today is that the long-rumored Leon S. Kennedy amiibo is real, and coming alongside the previously announced Grace Ashcroft amiibo this summer.
This was announced during today’s Nintendo Partner Direct, which showed a trailer for Reqiuem mostly containing footage and news we’ve seen already. We knew about the February 27 release date, the Gold Editions of Resident Evils 7 and 8 releasing alongside it, and the special Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. We’d also already heard about the Grace Ashcroft amiibo before.
But we didn’t actually know about Leon. He was, uh, strongly suspected, even before we officially knew he was going to be in the game, something Capcom tried to keep hidden way longer than was necessary. Since his officialy reveal at The Game Awards, we’ve seen a sudden surge of love for the classic protagonist, with fans referring to him as a “Hot Uncle” and comparing him to Keanu Reaves. He’s set to be getting a roughly equal amount of screentime to fellow protagonist Grace, so it only makes sense they’d both get amiibos.
You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Nintendo Partner Direct right here.
With perfect timing, the modders behind the Van Buren remake in Fallout: New Vegas have released a new teaser trailer.
UnitedWestTeam released the teaser, which sets up Fallout: The New West, the fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas inspired by Fallout: Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 that was in development at Black Isle Studios in the early 2000s before the franchise moved over to Bethesda.
Fallout: The New West aims to adapt the core narrative threads of Van Buren and turn them into a fully playable story built in the New Vegas engine. Expect modern gameplay systems, expanded roleplaying opportunities, and “the mechanical depth and tone that defined classic Fallout,” the modders said.
Here’s the official blurb:
Fallout: The New West is a fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas. In many ways, it tells the same broad story envisioned by Fallout: Van Buren, but restructured and expanded to form a cohesive, playable experience. The project’s primary narrative goal is to take the disparate plot threads and unfinished concepts found in the original design documents, including for example, the NCR–Brotherhood conflict, the Great Tribal War between Caesar’s Legion and the Daughters of Hecate, the fight for the soul of the Mormon State and much more, and weave them into a satisfying, unified narrative that adheres to the main plot as described in the design documents.
Players assume the role of a new protagonist, released from captivity in 2253, known as “the Prisoner,” and the story is set in an alternate continuity that predates and reinterprets the events of Fallout: New Vegas. Unfortunately due to many Van Buren concepts being folded into FNV, we cannot set the project in the same timeline. Our secondary goal is to incorporate many of the modern gameplay conveniences introduced through Fallout: New Vegas and its more than 15 years of modding, while preserving the distinctive mechanics and design quirks of classic Fallout found in the original design documents. Much of Fallout’s original charm is an acquired taste, and one that we believe remains worth acquiring.
It sounds exciting, and given the success of Fallout: London, which had Bethesda’s blessing, it may even have a chance of survival. Indeed, a new demo is apparently due out soon (an initial demo, which released under the name Fallout Revelation Blues, came out last year). This alternate start demo under the new name of Fallout: The New West will be followed up with the entirety of Act 1 of the game as a vertical slice, the modders said.
Cain, who worked on the first two, much-loved Fallout games in the mid-to late 90s before leaving Interplay to start a new studio called Troika Games, revealed that in the middle of 2003, an unnamed Interplay vice president asked him to play the Van Buren prototype, saying: “I don’t think they can get it done, so I’m just going to cancel it. But if you look over it and give me an estimate there’s a chance I wouldn’t cancel it.”
Cain said he played the prototype for two hours and asked the development team a number of questions before delivering his verdict to the vice president. “I said, ‘I’m convinced in 18 months you could have a really good game shipped.’ And he said, ‘huh, could it be done any faster?’ And I was like, ‘oh, shoot, I’ve said too long.’ I said, ‘well, even if you did a death march crunch I don’t think you could do it faster than 12, and then you’d be shipping something that was unbalanced and buggy, and the team would be destroyed. So I don’t recommend that.’
“And he said, ‘OK, thanks.’ As we walked out he basically explained any answer over six months was going to result in him having to cancel it, meaning the answer I just gave got the game canceled. But he was going to cancel it anyway. He thought it couldn’t be done in six months, and I just confirmed that to him.”
According to Cain, the cancellation of Van Buren was, ultimately, about money; Interplay’s dire financial situation meant it simply did not have enough cash to fund more than six months of further development. Interplay went on to close Black Isle Studios and cut its entire staff. The company released the console spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but it was not enough. That same year, Interplay announced a licensing deal with The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda for future Fallout games, and in 2007, Interplay sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda outright. The rest is history.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
With just hours to go until today’s Nintendo Direct broadcast, an updated ratings board listing suggests Hollow Knight could get an imminent Switch 2 release.
Team Cherry’s long-awaited game is now listed for Switch 2 with a February 5, 2026 release date, per the website of European ratings board PEGI. Hey, that’s today!
Nintendo is due to air its latest Partner Direct later today, at 6am Pacific, 9am Eastern or 2pm UK time. This third-party game showcase will include 20 minutes of announcements featuring titles headed to Switch and Switch 2 that aren’t developed by Nintendo itself — such as Hollow Knight.
Don’t tune in expecting a new Mario game announcement, then, but do keep an eye out for more news on other upcoming Switch 2 releases such as this month’s Resident Evil Requiem, and the promising-looking 007: First Light. Oh, and Hollow Knight now too. What will this new edition contain?
Alongside releasing Hollow Knight again on Switch 2, Team Cherry is now busy working on Sea of Sorrow, its first expansion to Hollow Knight: Silksong. Will we see more of this today as well? Time will tell, but as ever IGN will be reporting all of the major announcements live.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Approximately 15 years, two months, and 14 days ago, Quintin Smith (RPS in peace) lobbed the headline ‘Poker Night At The Inventory Released Today‘ onto this fine site. On this day, February 5th – approximately 479,821,535 seconds further on in time – I’m here to tell you Poker Night At The Inventory is coming back, baby.
Gosh, how is it February already? We don’t know about you, but January actually flew by this year, and looking at the stacked line-up of games for the next few weeks, we suspect we’ll be seeing March before we know it.
Yes, February is set to deliver a bunch of bangers for the Switch and Switch 2 (so much so that we’re kinda hoping the upcoming Partner Showcase doesn’t include any shadow drops!), so as per the norm, we’ll be going through 14 titles that we’re particularly excited for. You can check out the individual games listed below, but please do give the above video a watch for all sorts of lovely commentary from Alex and Mai.
