Do you know what's cool? JRPGs, also Sailor Moon, also Shakspeare. Do you know who else is having these thoughts? The team at Zeboyd games. This Way Madness Lies is a mashup that I’m pretty sure no one asked for that fires on all cylinders to make an old-school RPG that is truly unique, entertaining, and incredibly engaging.

Free-to-play games have never appealed much to me. Too often they are saddled with mechanics that are reminiscent of old-school arcades; they are designed to suck money from you at a very specific cadence. Sure, there have been examples in my life, and often, the ones I like I have put money into, especially if they eschew “Pay to win” mechanics. For instance, I think I put about 400 dollars into the now-shutdown Marvel Heroes because it was a fun Diablo-style game, with lots of very nice-looking costumes. I am willing to pay for cosmetics generally, not an in-game advantage. I guess Marvel has some sort of rent-free space in my head, because the newest free-to-play game that has been taking up a lot of my time is once again owned by that infernal mouse, and that game is Marvel Snap.

I don’t know when it happened, but Falcom became at some point one of my favorite RPG studios. I can’t tell exactly when I put their output in the same thoughts as studios like Atlus, and Square-Enix, but it happened, and now here I am, just wanting to dive into the lore of Zemuria and the events that take place therein. Finally, another piece of the Trails puzzle comes to America, the first piece of the Crossbell Arc, The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero. This game originally came out in Japan for the PSP in 2010, making it downright ancient, given how many titles we see coming out every week now in America. Remember the PSP? Depending on your age, you may not. In any case, was it worth it for Falcom to have this older title localized and sold in America?

A lot of people still have toys from their childhood. I have a bunch of Transformers in a bin, some of which I have had since I was 3. I gave my niece a stuffed bear I had as a child, it was the bear from the Snuggle ads. Point is, carrying trinkets from your early years into your adult life is nothing new, and is a pretty universal experience to use for the start of a story. Releasing October 13, on Steam, Xbox, and Switch, The Darkest Tales is a story of the stuffed toy of Alicia’s childhood entering her dreams to save her from these sort of nightmare demons. You’re accompanied by a sparkling blue fairy, Navi-ish in nature to try and save your now grown-up owner.

Tinykin appears on the surface to be an homage to Pikmin, the creature tossing strategy game from Nintendo, but looks can be deceiving. It doesn’t have zero commonalities with Olimar’s adventure, but in reality, Tinykin has a lot more in common with old-school Nintendo platformers.

Now, more than ever, life feels like we are all living in a fast-forward. We rush to work through our multitudinous duties, home to eat and knock out chores, and to bed to do it all again. There are pockets of time in our day where we get to sit down, relax, and enjoy the simple moments. CoffeeTalk is a game that embodies that both in narrative and in gameplay, asking the player to kick their feet up, make some coffee drinks, and enjoy the company of others.

I have long been an Assassin’s Creed fan. Been playing since the first game, and I have beaten every mainline entry that the series has put out. I have rolled with the punches, story-tone changes, playstyle differences, bad modern-day crap, nickel-and-dime DLC schemes, XP boosters, and glitchy messes. I love the historical murder-tourism and generally I have enjoyed several of the changes that have happened with the curren batch of AC titles. While I miss the sprawling urban playgrounds of Ezio’s day, and especially the zipline utopia that was Victorian London in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, I came to enjoy the forays into the truly ancient history that AC Origins, Odyssey, and Vallhalla have put forth. While the latest entry, Valhalla, is probably the title I have enjoyed the least, it still presented enough new story beats, and a general mood that justified its existence. Does the first larger DLC pack, Wrath of the Druids justify its existence in the greater game? The short answer is no, no it does not.

The world was graced with Cuphead, one of the most impressive and innovative indie games in recent memory. Difficult bosses and run-and-gun gameplay are interlaced with stunning visuals that harken back to the 1930s Steamboat Willy animation style. Studio MDHR’s masterpiece has prompted the creation of a TV show and adorable merch. Through all of the light, the gaming community has been patiently waiting for the DLC that Studio MDHR has been working on for years. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course not only adds more content to a wonderful game, but it adds new ways of playing, making it feel fresh.

Phantom Brigade is a strategy mech game currently in early access on Epic with a familiar look and some gripping and unique concepts. I love mechs, and I love strategy games, so lucky for me, the two tend to come together a lot. I’m typically hesitant to get too invested in early access titles, but Phantom Brigade has a lot to offer even in its current stage.