Persona and Shin Megami Tensei composer Shoji Meguro is making a turn-based sci-fi RPG about private military companies gunning through the ashes of a nuclear war. He’s working with Ilya Kuvshinov, the illustrator who created character designs for Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045, and Lotus Juice, a rapper who has contributed sick beats to any number of Personae. So if nothing else Guns Undarkness is probably going to look and sound quite fancy.
But how does it play? Meguro has made his name as a musician: I have no idea how well that expertise translates to designing combat systems. It’s something to think about while you watch and listen to the below trailer for the game’s first demo, out on 24th February.
Buried in Brendan Greene and PlayerUnknown Productions’ billowing, three-part, decade-long effort to build some kind of “3D internet” there is a ramshackle but thoughtful Unreal Engine game about wilderness survival and orienteering. Catchily titled Prologue: Go Wayback! and due for Early Access launch this spring, it’s a game about finding a radio tower on a 64km2 map, generated based on a mix of in-house art and public access landscape data fed through the developer’s in-house machine learning technology.
The Pokémon European International Championship has once again returned to London this year, bringing with it competition, events, hands-on opportunities and, of course, merch.
Yes, London’s pop-up Pokémon Center is back at the ExCel until 23rd February, and it is once again packed with enough exclusive goodies to make even the most well-stocked wallets wince. We at Nintendo Life were lucky enough to pop into the store this morning to get a look at all of the exclusive merchandise, and we have assembled the following gallery to give you the full rundown of everything on display.
Overwatch 2 Season 15 appears to be going down well, improving sentiment around what was once the worst ever user-reviewed game on Steam.
We’re now nearly nine years out from the debut of Overwatch in 2016, and two-and-a-half from the launch of Overwatch 2. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 became the worst user-reviewed game on Steam ever, with most of the negative reviews focused on monetization after developer Blizzard was heavily-criticised for forcing its premium predecessor to update into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the original Overwatch unplayable back in 2022.
But while Overwatch 2 still has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam for all reviews, recent reviews have shown an improvement to ‘mixed.’ That means 43% of the 5,325 user reviews left in the last 30 days were positive.
That might not sound like much to crow about, but for Overwatch 2, which has endured overwhelming negativity since its release on Valve’s platform, it’s a significant milestone.
This improvement has to do with the recent launch of Season 15, which made a number of dramatic changes to Overwatch 2. While the roadmap ahead includes much of what you’d expect to see in terms of new content, the core gameplay itself has seen a seismic shift, including the additions of hero perks and the return of loot boxes.
“They just released Overwatch 2,” reads one recent positive review. “The recent update is what the game should always have been before corporate greed got in the way.”
“For once, I must come to Overwatch’s defense and say they really have stepped up their game,” reads another. “Going back to what worked in Overwatch 1 while introducing new and fun mechanics to the game. A certain game made them LOCK IN and I couldn’t be happier. Now we just gotta wait for next season with an actual cooler battlepass.”
That’s a reference to the hugely popular Marvel Rivals, a similar competitive multiplayer hero shooter from NetEase that’s seen 40 million downloads since launching in December.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller discussed the new reality Blizzard finds itself in, with Marvel Rivals now out in the wild and attracting tens of millions of players.
“We’re obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we’ve never really been in before, to this extent where there’s another game that’s so similar to the one that we’ve created,” Keller said.
You’d think this would be a bad thing for Overwatch, then, but Keller called the situation “exciting,” and even said it was “really great” to see Marvel Rivals take ideas established by Overwatch in a “different direction.”
Still, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had forced a change in attitude within Blizzard when it comes to Overwatch 2, saying: “this is no longer about playing it safe.”
Of course, it’s way too early to declare Overwatch “back,” and there is a push and pull with Overwatch 2’s Steam user reviews that suggests it’ll be extremely difficult for the game to improve upon ‘mixed,’ no matter what Blizzard does. Meanwhile, Season 15 has caused an uptick in players on Valve’s platform, with peak concurrent player numbers almost doubling to 60,000. It’s worth noting that Overwatch 2 is available on Battle.net, PlayStation, and Xbox, and neither Blizzard, Sony, nor Microsoft make player numbers publicly available.
For context, Marvel Rivals, which launched a new mid-season update itself recently, had 305,816 peak concurrent players on Steam over the last 24 hours.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Airship library, Innersloth and Schell Games have announced a 3D version of popular social stealth sim Among Us. Or at least, they have taken the existing VR version and made it non-VR. It’s a stab in the back for the Meta Questers, perhaps, but it’s great news for me, a person who has only ever owned the launch model of the PS4’s VR headset, and is currently using its box as a draft excluder.
Cardy, Matt, and Mat are back for some February Friday fun and frolicking as a range of delights are explored, including first impressions of the multiplayer spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign. There’s also time for a look at awards contender The Brutalist, new Adult Swin animation Common Side Effects, and visual novel dice-roller Citizen Sleeper 2.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP has received all sorts of updates since Juliet’s return last September, and the next one appears to be another update fans won’t want to miss.
SEGA is gearing up for the February 21st release of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5!
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii places Goro Majima as the sole main character of the story set after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Set on the tropical waters and islands of Hawaii, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii offers an unpredictable assortment of high seas thrills. Sail aboard the Goromaru and enjoy hot-blooded battles, a treasure trove of minigames.
Meet a charismatic cast of new characters, brought to life by star-studded actors, including First Summer Uika, Kenji Matsuda, Munetaka Aoki, Ryuji Akiyama, Ayumi Tanida, and Shunsuke Daitoh!
Story
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After losing his memory, Goro Majima, a once-feared legend in the yakuza world, sets sail in search of treasure.
Half a year after teaming up with Kiryu for a massive battle in the Millenium Tower, Goro Majima washes up with the wreckage of a boat on the shore of a remote, sparsely populated island. With no memories—not even his own name—Majima joins forces with Noah, the young islander who saved his life, and embarks on a search for clues to his forgotten past. However, what waits for them is a powder-keg world where scoundrels vie for a legendary treasure.
Push Combat to the Extreme with Two Battle Style
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In addition to his signature Mad Dog style, which is all about speed, Majima can also use his Sea Dog style to wield a cutlass and other buccaneer gear.
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With his Mad Dog style, Majima blends together a combination of punches, kicks, and knife strokes to make quick work of his enemies.
Additionally, you can swap to Sea Dog style, a swashbuckling fighting style befitting a pirate at sea. With a pair of cutlasses and three sidearms at his disposal, Majima can easily make shark bait of his enemies.
Using the Madness Gauge, Majima can summon dark deities capable of turning the tides of battle. Conjuring them requires treasures known as Dark Instruments, which you’ll need to plunder from the ships of defeated rival pirate crews.
Pirate Battles
The game takes place on and around the islands of Hawaii, where different motives collide. As you sail across the Pacific, foster bonds with your maties and battle against the scoundrels that roam the high seas!
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Captain the Goromaru as you explore the vast ocean! During your voyages, you’ll discover lighthouses, treasure islands, and various other locations. However, don’t forget to ready your cannons, as you may have to go to pirate battle with the dangerous marauders that lurk in wait!
Maneuver around enemy bombardments and send volleys of cannonballs into their ship’s hull! Once it has taken enough damage, board their ship with your crew and brawl it out to secure victory!
To really kick ass in pirate battles, you’ll need to modify your ship, strategically deploy your forces, and power up your crew! Meet over 100 recruitable seafarers and modify your ship with options that range from different designs and decorations to armor and stronger cannons!
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Minigames
You can also have fun with Karaoke, Dragon Kart, Outfits, and many other activities!
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Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Product Information:
Title
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Release Date
February 21, 2025 (Fri)
Platform
PlayStation®5 / PlayStation®4
Languages
Subtitles: Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified)
After over two dozen mainline games, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to innovate and stay relevant in an era where a great game is coming out every few weeks, but that’s exactly what KOEI TECMO aims to do with the next entry in its long-running Atelier JRPG series, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land. After spending over six hours gathering resources, doing Sailor Moon-esque magical dancing rituals, and riding around on a motorbike, I’m inclined to believe they’ll pull off just that, yet again. With more engaging combat, improved visuals, more convenient crafting, and an entirely new building system that lets you put your own personal touch on the world, there’s quite a bit to be optimistic about, even if what I saw of the story and characters was, at least so far in the opening hours, pretty boilerplate stuff for the genre.
If you’ve played any of the recent Atelier games, then you probably won’t be shocked by Atelier Yumia at first glance. All three of the pillars that have been around since its conception are still alive and well: exploration, where you run around collecting resources and solving puzzles; combat, where you fight baddens with a party chock-full of pretty anime friends, and synthesis, where you combine your hard-won resources into alchemical creations that make you stronger. But each has been given a substantial overhaul (not to mention a serious facelift) that breathes new life into a familiar formula.
Combat seems to be getting the biggest rework, with action-based systems that let you perfect parry, dodge out of the way, and switch to different range bands depending on whether you’d like to thwack enemies in melee or take them down from a distance. At lower levels, combat seemed fairly undemanding, as I was able to just unload every ability I had, swap to other characters to do the same, then repeat it all again, ending most encounters in a matter of seconds, but later on (and especially when I wasn’t properly leveled) I seriously got rinsed if I wasn’t paying attention to enemy attack patterns and working on my timing. It never got especially challenging so long as I was properly leveled, but it was nice to see a less passive combat system that I couldn’t just steamroll through while on autopilot.
Combat seems to be getting the biggest rework.
Exploration also had some improvements, like having a gun to stun enemies and collect resources at a distance, ziplines that help you navigate the map more easily once you find and activate both sides of the line, and, crucially, a badass motorcycle for you to speed around on that makes getting around much easier. Finally, there’s Synthesis, which in typically Atelier fashion is so dang complicated, you could spend quite a bit of time customizing and min-maxing every aspect of your gear and crafting new items and attacks to use in battle. Or, if you don’t have the patience like me, you can just hit “auto mode” and it’ll automatically optimize all of it for you. Not that I don’t enjoy this aspect of the series, but it’s certainly nice to have the option of leaping back into the action quickly for times where I wasn’t in the mood to tinker.
Atelier Yumia also shakes things up by adding a fourth fairly significant activity to the list of things to do as you explore and level up: the ability to build and customize settlements throughout the world map. That’s right – Atelier Yumia seems to be leaning into the cozy craze, so now you can have a little bit of Animal Crossing or Sims with your JRPG by constructing your fantasy cottage on a patch of land and spending some quality downtime with your party members. I was only able to dabble in this a bit, given the constraint of the resources available to me in the early part of the story, but I could definitely see myself sinking quite a bit of time into taming the wilds with an elaborately decorated home.
With all Atelier has going for it, I will say that it did very little to make itself stand out in terms of story. The characters and foreshadowing of the undoubtedly epic and convoluted story that starts to develop in the opening hours aren’t bad by any means, but at least so far everything has been quite predictable and retreads a lot of ground we’ve seen from JRPGs of the past. This is especially true of the characters I met during my explorations, like the ditzy by wholesome Isla and the stoic and no-nonsense Viktor, both of whom I feel like I’ve seen half a hundred times already. But this is the beginning of a JRPG, so in all likelihood it’s just going to take a while for the story to start rolling or for characters to show their true colors to any level of satisfaction, leaving plenty of opportunity for my concerns to disappear given more time.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Atelier Yumia marks the first time the series will appear on the Xbox platform, and as a Westerner who would quite like more JRPGs to be readily available, that’s pretty awesome to see. Achievement unlocked!
