Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has confirmed in a recent interview with Bloomberg (thanks, VGC) that he is not interested in revisiting the franchise.
Granted, given that he left Square Enix in 2003 to establish Mistwalker, this shouldn’t necessarily come as much of a shock, but what’s interesting is the reasoning behind his decision. According to Sakaguchi, he loaded up Final Fantasy XIV in 2021 with the intention of spending just a few hours with the game before attending an event.
There’s nothing quite like the first time you explored Skyrim. From the moment you narrowly escape your grisly execution in Helgen and emerge into the legendary RPG’s vast wilderness, it’s an adventure that allows you to go anywhere and everywhere with no limitations, and it’s this sense of sheer freedom that’s had millions of players returning to its cold, untamed landscape for over a decade.
But after spending years exploring the many different versions of Skyrim that have been released, it’s safe to say we’re all looking for some new games to scratch that fantasy adventuring itch. So, to ease the wait until we get an official follow-up in the long-anticipated Elder Scrolls 6, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best games in the same vein as Skyrim that you can play right now.
1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
An obvious one to kick us off, but one of the best places you can go to get an experience similar in style and scope to Skyrim is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The fourth game in Bethesda’s landmark RPG series, Oblivion may be Skyrim’s predecessor, but it still has all the components that made its younger sibling such a hit.
Casting you as a prisoner who finds themselves in the center of a conflict involving demonic gods, fiery doors to a hellish plain and the murder of Tamriel’s emperor, you set forth across the land of Cyrodil on a daring adventure. Along the way, you’re free to explore this realm however you see fit, completing quests, allying with factions and building your character with new skills, weapons, armor sets, spells and more.
Simply put, it’s more Elder Scrolls, and a great way to continue your journey through Tamriel while you wait for Elder Scrolls 6. As for where and how you can play it, it’s available on PC and can be played through the Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One’s backwards compatibility feature.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The poster child of the Nintendo Switch and one of the best fantasy RPGs ever made, you really can’t go wrong with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo’s acclaimed reinvention of its seminal series really has it all: a secret-filled open world to explore, a range of physics-based systems that you can toy with to battle enemies and navigate precarious terrain, phenomenal quests, a stunning art style, and much, much more.
Breath of the Wild is a game that never holds your hand. It lets you loose into a fully explorable Hyrule, sets you up with some essential tools and, from there, you’re free to do what you please. Whether you want to scour the land for lore tidbits, climb to the peak of the tallest mountain or even head straight into the final boss room, everything is available to you from the moment you make your descent from the Great Plateau.
It gives you the reins and lets you do whatever you see fit. If you’re looking for a game that has the same freedom and unguided exploration that makes Skyrim so compelling, Breath of the Wild is a perfect substitute. It’s available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can also jump straight the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, but you’ll get a similar experience.
3. Dragon’s Dogma 2
One of the more recent releases on our list, if you’re looking for a big, sprawling RPG that puts exploration at the forefront, Dragon’s Dogma 2 could be a great pick. Spread across two realms, Vermund and Battahl, Dragon’s Dogma 2 drops players into the boots of The Arisen: a player-created warrior whose heart has been stolen by an ancient dragon.
Tasked with finding and killing this dragon, they embark on a quest across a vast, untamed world. Much like Skyrim, the true draw of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is its heavy focus on exploration. Its world is full of secrets to uncover, and with monsters patrolling every inch of its map, you’ll quickly amass organic stories as you clash with colossal foes and survive dangerous encounters by the skin of your teeth.
It’s also a deep RPG with various classes to master, a wide range of weapon types and armor sets, and a unique party system where you can recruit allies created by other players. All in all, it’s sure to satiate those hungry for a massive fantasy RPG on the scale of Skyrim. It’s available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
In the pantheon of 100-plus hour RPGs, Geralt’s quest to stop the Wild Hunt in The Witcher 3 is a top-shelf pick. Set in a morbid, Slavic-mythology-inspired world of monsters, magic and shady politics, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is often lorded as one of the best RPGs ever made and for good reason. It boasts a giant open world filled with difficult battles, morally gray choices that affect the outcome of quests and an engrossing story to follow.
You play as Geralt: a gruff, white-haired, yellow-eyed mercenary searching for his surrogate daughter, Ciri. His quest will take him on a perilous journey, where he’ll face mythical monsters and evade the ever-present threat of the spectral warriors known as the Wild Hunt.
Much like Skyrim, The Witcher 3 sets you up with the basics and then releases you into a lore-rich fantasy world untethered. Whether you want to live the bounty hunter lifestyle, taking on contracts to kill monsters while ignoring the main quest, or face the Wild Hunt head-on by following its supremely well-written story, it puts the control in your hands. The base game and its two sizable DLCs are well worth a playthrough once you’ve conquered everything Skyrim has to offer. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Moving away from high-concept fantasy and into the more grounded world of a realistic medieval epic, another game that manages to capture the sense of unbridled freedom Skyrim offers is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Quickly becoming a cult hit when it launched in 2018, Kingdom Come: Deliverance tells the tale of a blacksmith’s son on a quest for revenge.
Set in Bohemia in the 15th Century, the story follows an apprentice named Henry living in a small village. After his parents are brutally murdered during a Cuman invasion, Henry is forced to flee, entering the service of Lord Hanush of Leipa and pursuing the men who killed his parents. From here, the game lets you loose on a giant open world complete with authentic medieval locations to explore, a range of open-ended quests which react to your decisions and an intricate battle system to master.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an experience that focuses on immersion, from its high-stakes battles to its range of survival mechanics, which task you with managing everything from food and sleep to your hygiene and armor degradation. If you’re looking for something a little more involved than Skyrim or an RPG with a more grounded setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is definitely worth a look. It’s currently available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
6. Elden Ring
One for fans of a challenge, Elden Ring is a punishing game, but one that’s more than worth the blood, sweat and tears it takes to roll credits. FromSoftware’s latest serving of bleak RPG goodness is simply one of the most gratifying RPGs ever made, and that’s not just because beating some of its most challenging bosses makes you feel like you’ve just gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Elden Ring just fundamentally masters the art of exploration, from hiding routes to brand new areas off the beaten path to burying useful rewards for those who choose to search every nook and cranny. No area is meaningless; no detour is fruitless. It makes you feel like you’re charting your path across a living, breathing world. A dying world that takes pleasure in crushing you beneath its boot, definitely, but one that rewards your curiosity all the same.
With the game’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion now available, there’s never been a better time to play. So if you’ve finished Skyrim, are looking for a new world to explore and don’t mind getting eviscerated by a giant lobster or two, The Lands Between could be worth a visit. Elden Ring is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
7. Fallout 4
Granted, it’s the furthest thing from a fantasy RPG, but if you’re done with Skyrim and want something that shares its design philosophies, Bethesda’s work on Fallout 4 naturally has a lot in common with The Elder Scrolls series. It’s a massive open-world RPG that focuses on letting you build a unique character, explore sprawling environments and complete quests. The major difference is that you’ll be shooting big green mutant abominations while listening to alternate-history corporate propaganda instead of casting spells at mud crabs.
Taking the series to Boston, Fallout 4 sees a new vault dweller, known as the Sole Survivor, embark on a mission to save their kidnapped son from a mysterious faction known as The Institute. Much like Skyrim, that mission is just one of the many objectives scattered throughout the Wasteland, and you’ll be able to explore freely without an invisible hand guiding you down any single path. It’s a great way to get an experience that shares the same DNA as Skyrim with a post-apocalyptic twist. Fallout 4 is playable on PlayStation, Xbox and PC and remains one of the best Bethesda games available.
8. Dragon Age: Inquisition
Bioware’s most recent take on the sprawling fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition is another big ol’ fantasy RPG that offers over 80 hours of gameplay to sink your teeth into. Tasking you with saving the realm of Thedas from mysterious rifts opening in the sky, you’ll lead a faction known as The Inquisition as you explore a series of massive open-world maps, defeat monsters and uncover a new Dragon Age story.
Much like Skyrim, Inquisition allows you to build a character, pick their class and race, and then set forth on your adventure. As you journey through the game’s various worlds, you’ll add new party members to the Inquisition while completing a range of quests and making choices that affect the story, your keep and Thedas as a whole.
In essence, it’s another meaty fantasy RPG to play after you’ve wrapped up Skyrim, and there’s never been a better time to get stuck in, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard slate to launch later this year. Dragon Age: Inquisition is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
9. Baldur’s Gate 3
On a gameplay front, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Skyrim don’t share much in common. Baldur’s Gate is a top-down CRPG that focuses on strategic fights, carefully constructing a party of characters with complementary abilities, and completing quests by using your chosen party’s list of stats and skills.
However, Baldur’s Gate 3 is arguably one of the best introductions to CDRPGs out there, and a must-play for those who enjoy a big, expansive fantasy RPG like Skyrim. Its world is a carefully curated expanse of tactical combat, engrossing storylines and outstanding quests, the latter of which react and evolve to your choices, leading to a playthrough that feels distinctly tailored to you. But the biggest boon of all is how it freely allows you to play your way.
From giving you the option to mix and match a mind-boggling number of classes, races, backstories and more in the character creation screen to giving you free rein with how you approach and complete quests, Baldur’s Gate 3 encourages you to experiment and tinker with its systems to your heart’s content. If you liked how Skyrim never pointed you in a direction or forced you down a set path, Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be a game you get along with. It’s available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
10. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
A cult classic brought back to life through its 2020 remaster, Kingdoms of Amalur is a great pick for those who’ve wrapped up their time with Skyrim and are looking for a new fantasy RPG with fun combat, a huge world and plenty of quests to complete. The story takes place in the world of Amalur, with the player taking on the role of the Fateless One: a corpse brought back to life by the Well of Souls, severing them from fate.
After waking in a pile of bodies, they embark across a realm known as the Faelands in hopes of stopping a destructive force fated to eradicate Amalur’s people. Along the way, you’ll be able to build your character, pick a class and freely explore the Faelands, completing quests, delving into dungeons and bringing down formidable threats. It’s available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
11. The Forgotten City
The Forgotten City is a unique entry on this list because it actually started its life as a Skyrim mod. However, it doesn’t take long to see why it was given the full game treatment. The Forgotten City’s story starts in modern-day Italy, as you wake on an island and discover you were brought to shore by a mysterious woman. After a brief conversation, you search a strange ruin in the center of the island and, somehow, are transported back in time to Ancient Rome.
It’s a killer set-up, but it only becomes more compelling when you realize this city is stuck in an eternal time loop, and whenever a mysterious law known as the “Golden Rule” is broken, the loop resets. From here, the Forgotten City takes the base fundamentals of Skyrim and uses them to craft a completely different type of experience. The Forgotten City is, at its core, a detective game; one that tasks you with talking to citizens, learning more about the Golden Rule and uncovering clues to solve its underlying mystery. It’s almost entirely devoid of combat, and that makes for a game that somehow doesn’t feel like Skyrim at all while retaining the game’s inherent DNA.
If you’re looking for something akin to Skyrim that plays with the formula and tries something wholly different, The Forgotten City is more than worth a look. It’s available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
12. Outward
Another one for the fans of a hardcore adventure, Outward is an RPG that casts players as a regular, everyday person instead of some prophecised warrior fated to save the world. Their initial task is simple. Pay off a debt hanging above their head within five days. However, it quickly spins into a large-scale open-world epic, as the player crosses the land of Aurai, faces tough threats and contends with the elements to survive.
What sets Outward apart is its focus on realism and consequence. It includes various survival systems, which force the player to contend with hunger, sleep and the harsh environment around them, while quests and other objectives can fail if they aren’t attended to in time. There’s no fast travel in Outward and, in the place of a standard respawn system, you cannot die, instead triggering random events that move you around the map.
In short, it’s a game with a ton of interesting systems, and one that’s well worth a look if you’re searching for Skyrim’s sense of open-world exploration with a few twists to keep things interesting. Outward is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
13. The Elder Scrolls Online
Another obvious one, but if you’re ready to move on from Skyrim, why not continue your Elder Scrolls experience with a few friends? As the name suggests, The Elder Scrolls Online is an MMO take on the series, allowing you to visit various realms across Tamriel while completing a laundry list of new quests.
From Skyrim and Cyrodil to Morrowind and Highrock, there are a lot of returning locations for longtime fans of the series, as well as some brand new locales to explore, including the Khajit homeland of Elsweyr and the High Elves’ home of Summerset. Along the way you can tag along with other players, bringing down enemies, completing missions and building your own unique characters.
If you’ve exhausted everything Skyrim has to offer and want more Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Online is a surefire bet, especially as the game has been updated with a multitude of DLCs over the years. The Elder Scrolls Online is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.
Remember, this list evolves as users rate the games within, so head to the game profiles and rate them out of 10 if you’d like to see the rankings below change. Enjoy!
The collection of NES games available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers continues to grow over time, albeit slowly, and there are now over 70 retro releases from the original Nintendo Entertainment System to enjoy via the subscription service.
Elden Ring developer FromSoftware has released the first hefty game update, Version 1.12.3, following the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, which reduces the strength of overpowered weapons.
Detailed on publisher Bandai Namco’s website, the patch includes several changes and bug fixes including the reduction of power of several weapons deemed too strong.
The Smithscript Dagger and Smithscript Cirque have both had their throwing attacks’ range increased too, slightly compensating for the overall damage reduction. The full patch notes are available below.
In our 10/10 review, IGN said: “Like the base game did before it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree raises the bar for single player expansions,” we said. “It takes everything that made the base game such a landmark RPG, condenses it into a relatively compact 20-25 hour campaign, and provides fantastic new challenges for heavily invested fans to chew on.”
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Update 1.12.3 Patch Notes
PvP-exclusive balance adjustments
Decreased the damage and damage animation of the shearing vacuum effect of the “Swift Slash” Skill.
General balance adjustments
Increased the Intelligence scaling of the Carian Sorcery Sword and slightly decreased the base damage.
Extended the throwing attacks range for the following weapons:
Smithscript Dagger / Smithscript Cirque
Changed the placement of the bosses in the re-fight against the Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius bosses to be in the same position as in the first fight.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks Skill to deal more damage than expected.
Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks and Wall of Sparks Skills to deal no damage while some special effects were applied to the player.
Fixed a bug where some special effects of a right-handed weapon would also be applied to the following Weapon Skills when cast with the left hand:
Feeble Lord’s Frenzied Flame
Discus Hurl
Fixed a bug where successfully guarding while attacking using the Thrusting Shield weapon type would consume less stamina than intended.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from cancelling the attack recovery of two-handed strong attacks by rolling for certain weapons of the Backhand Blades weapon type.
Fixed a bug that caused the Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle weapons to deal double damage under certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug where the Arcane scaling of the Bloodfiend’s Arm weapon was higher than intended when setting an affinity. The status buildup of the heavy attack was also reduced.
Fixed a bug where the Faith scaling of the Gazing Finger weapon was not being applied correctly.
Fixed a bug where the damage animation of some attacks of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword against players was different than expected.
Fixed a bug where the attack affinity of some attacks of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword were different than expected.
Fixed a bug that caused some affinities for the following weapons to be higher than intended:
Smithscript Dagger
Smithscript Cirque
Smithscript Axe
Smithscript Greathammer
Smithscript Spear
Golem Fist
Smithscript Shield
Fixed a bug that caused enemies to heal when the Maximum HP reduction gradual HP reduction effect applied by Black Knife Tiche wore off.
Fixed a bug that caused summoned NPCs to behave differently than expected under certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug that where the unblockable bite attack of the Golden Hippopotamus boss would connect with players more easily than intended.
Fixed a bug that caused text to display differently than expected.
Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.
Possible unstable performance fixes
For the PS5 version of the game, unstable framerate may be improved by using the “Rebuild Database” option from the device’s safe mode.
In some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be unintentionally enabled and cause unstable performance. Please check the Ray Tracing setting in the “System” > “Graphics Settings” > “Raytracing Quality” from the title screen or in-game menu.
In the PC Version, the message “Inappropriate activity detected” may appear without cheating.
To fix this issue, please verify the integrity of the game’s files before restarting the game.
In the PC version, unstable framerate may be caused by third party applications that control mouse behavior. Deactivating these third party applications may improve performance.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Can you believe we didn’t have a best JRPG list until now? Baffling. To be fair we did once tackle this topic with a preliminary blast of recommendations for those completely new to the genre. We also have a few familiar fantasys in our list of the 50 best RPGs on PC. But until now we haven’t addressed the genre in its own right. In an act of contrition, we offer you this: our list of the best JRPGs you can play on PC this year, according to our own tastes.
“We will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U”.
Last year in May, Nintendo’s Japanese support service revealed it would be ending repairs for the Wii U when its current parts inventory ran out. Now, in an update just over a year later on its website, it’s announced this service has officially ended.
Here’s a rough translation, explaining how it’s run out of the replacement parts necessary to repair consoles, with the company now no longer accepting repairs this week as of 3rd July 2024. This includes Wii U peripherals. You can see on its official website the many other systems it’s no longer accepting repairs for, which covers pretty much all of its previous generation handhelds and consoles.
Playing with nostalgia-laden imagery from the early 2000s, Zenless Zone Zero sees developer HoYoverse pivot gracefully from the fantastical settings of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail into an enticing urban dystopia. It’s a universe where you’ll duke it out in glitzy real-time fights as a trio of streetwear-clad agents, solving simple puzzles as their handler between battles to help them navigate a labyrinth of encounters – and that’s before you get to the carousel of social side activities layered on top. A mouthful of tasteful influences combine into something effortlessly stylish but also a bit inconsistent, occasionally undone by a lack of depth. Yet Zenless Zone Zero got its hooks into me regardless; its relentless charm compelled me to keep fighting, one combat puzzle or bowl of ramen at a time.
Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a world where monster-filled pocket dimensions called Hollows have devastated civilisation. While much of humanity has been wiped out, the cyberpunk bastion of New Eridu survives through a fraught codependence with the Hollows and the valuable resources found within. You play as either Belle or Wise, a brother-sister hacker duo with a knack for navigating this dangerous territory, tackling commissions from a roster of lovable rogues searching for their next big score. It’s a unique and gritty setup that, while convoluted at times, kept me engaged by testing my strategic intuition across a smorgasbord of challenges I became hungry to best.
Your brawling excursions embark from the retro tech-strewn backroom of the siblings’ video rental store, where you’ll pick from an impressive roster of unlockable agents to make up a three-person party and then dive into the perilous Hollows, trading success for XP and upgrade resources. The review build provided by HoYoverse ahead of launch gave me access to all of the currently available agents, and I soon found an affinity for the ones from a faction called Victoria Housekeeping, thanks to their charming British inflexions and battle maid outfits. My personal favourite of the bunch, the shark-tailed Ellen Joe, swipes and slashes with an icy blade, stacking elemental debuffs on enemies and dropping blase quips in the process. While the makeup of your dream team will largely be in the hands of the Gacha Gods, as characters are unlocked through the genre’s usual method of randomized pulls, it’s handy that story missions allow you to try out the cast without the need to pull them first.
Despite how intense it can seem in motion, Zenless Zone Zero’s combat is forgiving and approachable. You have a basic attack and a dodge for timely escapes from signposted attacks, as well as the ability to swap to other agents to avoid scrapes, parry, or compound their combos. Building an enemy’s daze meter leads to a persistently satisfying chain attack, a slo-mo quick-time event where your colleague swoops in to lay the smackdown. Basic and ultimate abilities round out each character’s combat options, though like any good action game, there’s plenty of variety available through the combination of timely button presses and latent passives.
Districts are full of details that make them a joy to explore.
Challenging boss encounters surfaced to test my reflexes, though I rarely felt overwhelmed as long as I could connect the dots of my combat strategy and juggle incoming attack patterns to keep different enemy types at bay. Intricate build-tinkering systems, difficulty options, and endgame content help raise the skill ceiling for challenge-hungry players, but Zenless Zone Zero seems content to stay out of your way if you just want to simply pick it up and do some flashy moves. Elegant animations footnote most of your attacks, down to the way domestic demon Van Lycaon gracefully lowers his metal heels after a kick. Ultimately, the focus is on indulging the fantasy of fighting with one of Zenless Zone Zero’s wonderfully designed and passionately voice-acted characters rather than rivaling the likes of Devil May Cry with its combat nuance – a tradeoff I’m comfortable with, even if it means less mechanical depth.
Unfortunately, the dazzling combat is undermined by an overabundance of hacker puzzles meant to signify the link between your team of agents and the proxy guiding them through the Hollow from back home. You’ll be kicked into a labyrinth of chunky CRT monitors between pockets of combat, pushing a little avatar around to trigger mechanisms that lead to your next checkpoint or encounter. The fuzzy aesthetics of this mode are delightful to look at, but the process feels arbitrary and murders the momentum. After marching through walls of screens, I started seeking out the next encounter as fast as possible to boost my morale and return to the frenetic action sequences that actually make Zenless Zone Zero compelling.
That hefty loop of taking on commissions and then venturing into the Hollow to complete them could easily be all there is and it wouldn’t feel scant, yet surprisingly, it only accounts for half of what’s here. The other half is a life simulator where you’ll roam cosy suburbs, manage your heroes’ Blockbuster-esque business, and maintain relationships with locals through dialogue-driven side stories across an atmospheric day-to-night cycle. While not strictly an open world, Zenless Zone Zero’s stunning districts are thoughtfully dressed with environmental details that make it a joy to explore. From rusty riverside kiddy rides to messy bedrooms and vandalised backstreets, there’s attention paid everywhere you look that helps centre you in this fashion-forward science fiction world.
Once the initial excitement of exploring Hollows started to settle, I became drawn to all the extracurricular activities I had at my fingertips. Stocking my video store turned into the nexus of my daily routines, as each morning, I’d start by pairing eclectic videotapes from my collection with the genre demands of the public. After that, I’d need to venture outside in search of better merchandise, completing tasks for locals like solving quirky riddles or taking editorial pictures in order to earn my VHS reward. That symbiotic process worked well to funnel my attention toward the different social activities, not to mention the money provided by running my business certainly helped fund my story mission exploits.
This side of Zenless Zone Zero isn’t quite as focused as something like the Persona series it’s so clearly inspired by, so there are some dull spots, but it offers an engaging workload for players to log in and tackle on a daily basis nonetheless. All of your activities are tied together well via a helpful submenu called the Inter-Knot, which let me find my rhythm amid all of the options I was handed. This in-game, everything app quickly became my best friend, taking on the role of job finder, social media platform, and, most importantly, scheduling tool, ensuring I wasn’t completely paralysed by the overwhelming prospect of what to do next.
I enjoyed shirking my pressing responsibilities by chasing high scores at the Godfinger Arcade, whose moreish snake and spelunking minigames stole an embarrassing amount of my time. But the funny and sometimes profound substories left the biggest mark, reminding me of the human stakes in this world. One side quest involves a homeless robot whose ghostly silhouette scares a local citizen, leading to a surprisingly moving crossed-wires situation. Easily forgotten in a sea of adorable shopkeepers and in-game currencies, the underlying frailty of Zenless Zone Zero’s post-apocalypse is always in frame. Overarching themes of displacement and corruption come through in the cinematic story and the design of its city wards, which range from dilapidated to gentrified.
Given the unusually generous nature of HoYoverse’s review build, it was difficult to get a clear picture of how Zenless Zone Zero’s progression systems will feel long-term, but nothing I’ve seen looks wildly out of line with the developer’s other gacha games. Still, it’ll be illuminating to start again on a new account at launch and get accustomed to the grind in a more organic live service setting (and we’ll be sure to update this review if things are unexpectedly out of line). Regardless, I forged a strong attachment to this rich world and its cosplay-friendly characters by the end of a main story that easily takes dozens of hours to complete, and left feeling that this ambitious pivot certainly lives up to the high standards set by Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.
Nintendo has now released its second batch of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD icons. As you can see, it includes even more Luigi, Professor E. Gadd and Polterpup icons. This latest wave will be available until 10th July 2024.
I’ve spent every evening the past week reuniting with a dear old friend. Super Monkey Ball and I were inseparable back in the GameCube days, but we grew apart when the series traded in its perfect blend of devilish challenges and finely-tuned physics for bland level design and imprecise motion controls aimed at a more casual audience – so you can imagine my apathy when Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble’s initial announcement focused so heavily on the uncontrolled chaos of its 16-player online battles. But I’ve never been happier to be wrong, as tucked away inside Banana Rumble is the greatest set of traditional Super Monkey Ball levels the series has seen since the GameCube originals, backed up by tight mechanics that give me the complete control I needed to overcome its demanding late-game obstacles. Monkey Ball is finally back, and now all I want to do is roll.
Banana Rumble’s impressive set of 200 courses is divided into 20 cartoony worlds containing 10 stages apiece. In classic Monkey Ball fashion, the setup is delightfully simple: You have 60 seconds to roll your monkey from the start to the goal, but the hurdles between those points change radically across the adventure. The opening stages aren’t too challenging, smartly acquainting you with Banana Rumble’s mechanics so you’re ready to go when it does turn up the heat.
As a certified Super Monkey Ball 2 master, I had no trouble with the first 80 levels or so. But they’re still a joy to roll through, as I had to deal with curves, ramps, rails, switches, and bumps reminiscent of the level design seen in the excellent Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2. Plus, speedrunning is a classic element of the originals, and it was a ton of fun to see how rapidly I could blast through levels that don’t demand too much precision, like stages where you can slam dunk into the goal with a perfect launch right from the start if you know what you’re doing. I realized pretty quickly that Banana Rumble was a return to form for the series, and I had the best time rolling through the early levels while bopping to the wonderful GameCube-inspired soundtrack.
That breezy feeling didn’t last long, though, as Banana Rumble does not hold back in its second half. The 10 EX worlds unlocked after completing the main story delivered on all the Monkey Ball challenge I’ve been begging for the series to bring back. Suddenly, I was dealing with grueling stages that truly tested my monkey mettle, from crazy rotating contraptions to invisible tilting seesaws to the narrowest of walkways you have to carefully tiptoe across, Banana Rumble is constantly introducing new challenges and smart twists on old ones. Some of the final levels took me dozens of attempts, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling when my main monkey AiAi finally breaks through that one elusive goal. In fact, I’ve been so engrossed in completing every stage Banana Rumble has to offer that one night I couldn’t even be bothered to get up to turn the lights on after it got dark outside, so I was sitting in complete darkness rolling my monkey around until well past midnight. Totally worth it.
Chaos, Controlled
That fantastic stage design and variety means nothing unless it feels right, and Super Monkey Ball nails it for the first time in decades. While it may look like you are directly moving your orb through each course, Super Monkey Ball is actually about controlling the stage, not the monkey. At its best, the control stick is aligned 1:1 with the angle of the stage, giving you pinpoint-precise command over how the terrain tilts – and in turn, how your monkey rolls through it.
2021’s Banana Mania (which remade all the levels found in Super Monkey Ball 1, 2, and Deluxe) should have been a home run as it returned to the best stages in series history, but the controls were so sluggish and imprecise that it made them overly frustrating at best and borderline unplayable at worst. Exact controls are a necessity for the toughest levels, and Banana Rumble handles so well that whenever I fell off the stage it almost always felt like my fault, which inspired me to improve on the next run. Banana Rumble even offers extensive control options for both the stage and the camera, so I cranked every possible setting to the max and found that gave me the expert level of control I was seeking. The physics aren’t entirely perfect – sometimes I didn’t get the level of bounce I expected when dropping from a high ledge – but this is still easily the best-feeling Super Monkey Ball since the first two.
This is easily the best-feeling Super Monkey Ball since the first two.
Banana Rumble has also finally ditched the series poorly-implemented jumping mechanic (if I’m tilting the stage and my monkey is trapped in a ball, why would they be able to jump?) in favor of an exciting new spin dash, which takes a page from Sonic the Hedgehog and lets you charge up and release a quick burst of speed. Whereas the jump never amounted to more than a gimmick in past games, the spin dash is a genius evolution of Monkey Ball’s core mechanics. It’s only mandatory in a handful of levels, but almost every single stage has some sort of shortcut or exploit that’s only possible to pull off thanks to this new ability.
A properly-aimed spin dash can catapult your poor monkey across the map in the blink of an eye, and it’s a speedrunner’s dream to uncover all the ways to take advantage of this smart addition. Banana Rumble rewards players who understand the mechanics and level design with optional routes hiding in plain sight that require expert skill to reach, and it adds a lot of replay value to an already packed adventure.
Banana Split-Screen
Multiplayer has been welcomed back to the main game, which was shockingly missing from the last two entries. You can tackle all 200 stages with up to three other players in split-screen local multiplayer or online co-op. Playing with others online is pretty seamless – I played through the entire campaign online with a friend and we never had a disconnect. Banana Rumble also runs at a very smooth 60 FPS when playing alone on Nintendo Switch, and it maintains that level of performance when you add online play into the mix. The frame rate takes a slight hit in split-screen, but not to the point where it feels unplayable.
Playing with others turns Banana Rumble into a surprisingly strategic cooperative experience. Everyone begins the stage at the same time, and only one player has to complete it in order for the group to move on. This also makes each level’s optional missions easier to complete: Every stage tasks you with collecting a certain number of bananas, completing it in under a certain number of seconds, and finding the hidden golden banana which often requires a high-level technique to snag. Assigning one person to get to the goal as fast as possible while the rest seek out bananas adds a fun layer of planning to the whole experience. I even had fun tackling levels online with random players, as I helped some Monkey Ball rookies clear some easier worlds and worked with others to grab some tricky golden bananas in later stages, using encouraging emotes and phrases to cheer my teammates on. I only wish Banana Rumble also included a more traditional Challenge Mode where you take turns and work through all of the levels individually at your own pace.
One issue with online multiplayer is that it kicks all of you out of a party after you complete a world, so I would have to share a new lobby code with my friend every single time we wanted to keep playing. Additionally, when working through the adventure mode online, Banana Rumble doesn’t show you the story cutscenes, meaning if you want to know what’s going on with AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, GonGon, and their new friend Palette, you’ll have to either play locally or catch up on all the cutscenes in the gallery after the fact. I don’t play Monkey Ball for the story – and the story here is extremely basic and barebones anyways – so I actually preferred not seeing the cutscenes so we could get straight to the stages, but it does feel like a strange omission.
Banana Rumble’s biggest monkey’s paw wish is its aforementioned battle mode. Longtime Super Monkey Ball fans know how iconic legacy party games like Monkey Target and Monkey Bowling are, but there’s nothing here that held my attention for more than a couple minutes. The five modes all feel extremely shallow and uninspired, with so few maps in rotation that I felt like I’d seen everything they had to offer after less than an hour. There’s generic racing, banana gathering, and bomb passing that feel like cheap knockoffs of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s battle mode. I’m guessing others feel the same way, as it took me several minutes to find a match with a full 16 players just a few days after launch. The performance also takes a serious hit in battle mode, reducing the smooth 60 FPS of the adventure mode to a choppy slideshow at times. Local multiplayer comes with its own set of limitations, as you can’t play battle mode online with two people on the same system, and three-to-four player battles aren’t even an option locally.
The five battle modes all feel extremely shallow and uninspired.
But even if you completely ignore Banana Rumble’s undercooked battle mode, there’s still so much to do here. I’ve already completed all 200 stages, but I’m nowhere close to finishing all of the stage missions – some of which I’m still scratching my head at as I try to figure out how I’m supposed to grab dozens of bananas and make it to the goal in time. There are hundreds of cosmetic items to buy with in-game points to style your monkey, too. I’m a simple man, so I bought AiAi’s classic orange T-shirt from the original games and called it good, but it’s cool how many outfits and accessories are available for Banana Rumble’s 12 playable characters (or more, if you get the optional SEGA Pass that adds Sonic the Hedgehog and friends to the mix).
“We were working on getting the rights to this game for several years”.
2002’s The Thing is widely regarded as one of the best horror games based on an existing media franchise. Many licensed horror games are sadly relegated to genres that require a specific setup, such as asymmetrical multiplayer or short VR experiences, but The Thing — a third-person squad-based shooter — dared to go one step further, telling its own unique story that serves as a proper sequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 movie masterpiece.
It’s not a game that frequents mainstream remaster wishlists, but Nightdive Studios is nevertheless delivering what few of us realised we wanted with The Thing: Remastered. Announced during IGN Live and scheduled to land on the Switch later this year, Computer Artworks’ original is getting the full revamp treatment, with updated visuals, improved lighting, numerous quality-of-life tweaks, and more.
