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Menaces and Maledictions. Malys is good.  Sometimes I think it’s best to get the most important information out of the way, to clarify that which might otherwise be lost in my meandering writing.  Malys is good.  I’m telling myself this just as much as I’m telling you. I’m reminding myself because I just got out of a session in which I was meant to take screenshots, but encountered a number of bugs that frustrated me to no end, save when the game collapsed upon itself and brought my computer to a screeching halt.  Malys is good. I think I’m lying to myself. Publisher:   Summerfall Studios Developer:   Summerfall Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released October 23 on Windows PC (Steam). Malys is the latest title from Summerfall Studios, headed by former Dragon Age writer David Gaider. Thankfully — no, mercifully — Malys differs from many other games in its genre in a few distinct ways. It’s a roguelite deckbuilder with a darker atmosphere and a much heavier focus on its story than your typical deckbuilding fare. When you begin, you start with a choice between 3 different decks of cards and then pick a path to proceed on. Through each run you'll gather cards and items which are used to (hopefully) empower you enough to fight through enemy after enemy until you reach the boss. When you defeat a boss, you move to the next floor and do it all over again. If you finish a run, win or lose, the game will spit you back out to do it all over again.  The fact that it has an engaging storyline at all might be one of its most unique aspects, as many games in this genre are light in that regard. Malys  leans heavily on its writing, each floor a vignette of your demon-hunting endeavors. That comes at a cost, however. Repeated text takes up your screen in every new run, forcing you to engage with it in some way before moving on to the battles. Yes, these walls of text can be skipped, but manually skipping the same text over and over is still work.  I wouldn’t be so bitter about it all if Malys wasn’t also buggy as hell, taunting me with slowdown and runtime issues, hitching, and freezing on loading screens. That is a recurring problem across all systems. Every interaction, every single new screen, requires multiple clicks to navigate through — something that might not be too grating if it weren’t compounded by constantly shifting UI elements, or slow animations and performance woes. For example, whenever you finish a fight, a rewards screen will pop up slowly, with the actual rewards moving into place. If you select the top reward, it will disappear and the second reward will shift upward in the first’s place. Trying to click the reward as it moves does nothing — you’ll have to wait for that particular animation to finish. Clicking on things is hit or miss even when the elements aren’t shifting, as well, with clicks sometimes not registering upon first attempt. Everything just goes so much slower than it should.  Even the fights themselves drag on. Enemy stages for the elites and bosses are interesting as a concept in a deckbuilder, forcing you to plan and prepare for additional stages and all the new abilities they bring, but enemy health pools are so large, that the fights can really drag on unless you have a build that can make use of wrath, a buff that increases the damage you do on each hit. That isn’t to say there is no variety in card types available, as Malys has a solid variety of playstyles and supporting cards. Defensive options, regeneration abilities that can also be used to damage enemies, attack-focused decks, and even a summon-based build — any number of these are at your fingertips when you play. All are viable but anything other than a deck built around dishing out damage and buffing your strength is miserable.  I wouldn’t be so bitter about it all if Malys wasn’t also buggy as hell, taunting me with slowdown and runtime issues, hitching, and freezing on loading screens. I’ve encountered bugs with enemy intent showing one action, but the demon performing another, runs where enemies were able to attack me after I had already won the fight, and status effects being misapplied across the combatants. One persistent issue is that the game runs progressively worse the longer you play it. Play for more than a few hours and the slowdown becomes almost unbearable, skipping every animation and causing weird side effects to the gameplay. Inevitably, there will be a point you need to exit the game, whether that’s of your own volition or up to the game. And if you leave it up to the game, it’s going to happen mid-fight, meaning you'll have to do it all over again. I absolutely adore the way this game looks. Malys had a Kickstarter earlier this year to help fund it, and that Kickstarter did not reach its funding goal, so they didn’t get any of those promised funds. They could have really used it. Aside from the obvious and persistent performance issues, Malys lacks balance. Shop pricing is restrictive, which disincentivizes experimentation and deters players from donating cash to the shops for forward progression. On top of that, some cards and card archetypes are vastly superior to your other options. It also suffers from glaring writing errors, such as card descriptions not matching what they do in-game, and spelling errors in those little blurbs before each fight. But Malys is good. Or at least it should be. It could be. There are some real positives here. The artwork is astounding, accentuating the dark, brooding atmosphere with its bold, menacing style. The elites and bosses in particular have some really great images, full of twisted and creepy demons who loom over their victims. Card art is strong as well, utilizing evocative imagery to great effect. The soundtrack is filled with mostly mood-setting ambient sounds, excepting the exciting vocal boss themes, which work quite well, but begin to wear on you as you play the game. The writing is strong, and I love the way each encounter is treated as its own important event, even against the small enemies. If this had launched without its major performance and UI issues, it would be one of the surest recommendations I could give for the genre. But that’s not what we got. It might not be what we ever get, either. Verdict Malys  is a darker, more story-heavy take on the deckbuilding genre. It's chock-full of great artwork, stellar music, and interesting gameplay mechanics, but is ultimately dragged down by persistent performance woes and quality errors. Spelling mistakes are the least of its worries as Malys  also has the player contend with slowdown, hitching, and bugs that threaten each run more ferociously than any enemy on the screen. Image Credits: Summerfall Studios

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is an incremental idle clicker title that simultaneously functions as a roguelite and deck-building game all at once. If all of that sounds like it is a bit beyond you, don’t worry, it plays much more simply than it sounds. Publisher:   Oro Interactive, Drillhounds Developer:   Mash Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability: Released December 11, 2025 on PC (Steam). The premise is simple, both mechanically and “narratively”. You, the player, are trapped in some casino-esque domain by a joker and tasked with earning one billion dollars. To start, you only have a single card in hand, and you earn a small amount of money when you flip it over, which is based on the type of hand you draw. These hands are your standard poker hands, high card, pair, straight, and so on. If you know poker, you’ll know what to look for and build towards, but it’s not a death sentence if you don’t; the game literally plays itself. Once you earn some cash, you can then spend it in an upgrade tree that allows you to increase your handsize, payouts, card auto-flip rate, and more.  While this is billed as an idle game, the first run is quite hands on. You’ll need to manage your upgrades deliberately in order to make earning that first billion an easy affair. Realistically, you could upgrade a little and then set and forget it while you accumulate cash, but part of the appeal is seeing all of the crazy flashes of light and coins jingling across the screen — which requires high levels of upgrades and forward progression in the story. The easiest way to do this is to play until you hit a wall in a run, where the cash you are earning is outpaced by the scaling of the upgrade requirements. At that point, you just end the run, buy your permanent upgrades, and go again. You’ll also be awarded with higher payouts as a bonus. There are no fail states in a run, either — you play as long and as leisurely as you deem worthy of your time. It is deeply satisfying to see all of the effects go off during play. And, boy, was I surprised at just how satisfying all of that is. I’ve never really bothered with an idle clicker game before, and if you had described this game to me. I probably wouldn’t have jumped in headfirst. However, it is immensely satisfying to see those numbers skyrocket and all of the visual effects pop off in tandem. Every time I thought I was going to be done I stuck around for ‘just one more hand.’ A gambler’s mindset if I’ve ever heard it. And it does satisfy a compulsive urge in that sense — rewarding engagement and interaction with quick and affirmative feedback.  This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  never veers into complicated territory, even as all of the bits and bobs are unlocked. There are systems like merging cards, card removal, incremental upgrades and so on that make manual engagement interesting, but in terms of deck-building it doesn't get much more simple than thinning out a 52 card poker deck to generate good hands. On top of this, full achievement completion (and by extension story completion) can be attained within a few short hours, but it is fun to work toward setting up a fully completed board where all of your decks are pumping out the maximum earnings on every flip, just so you can watch those numbers soar. I think that simplicity is part of the appeal, though — at least from an Idler perspective. Unfortunately, beyond the satisfaction of flashing lights and ever increasing numbers, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  doesn’t have much going for it. The story is maybe 10-15 lines of dialogue in total, the music is an abhorrent remix of “Entry of the Gladiators”, and once you’ve played beyond a few hours, there’s nothing more to see or do that you haven’t already done.  Despite those elements being underserved, I don’t feel like they are strictly necessary. At the very least, I don’t get the sense that anyone has ever picked up an idle clicker for the plot. Instead, what you get is exactly as advertised: a hyper flashy and ultimately satisfying deckbuilder idle game. If you’re in the market for something like that, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is a worthy detour. Verdict Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker  is flashy, fun, and addictive. While it is ultimately an extremely simple and short game, it is at the very least a nice way to spend a few hours if you just want to tickle the parts of your brain that like seeing numbers climb. Image Credits: Mash, Oro Interactive, and Drillhounds Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Indika  is strange. It's a third-person narrative adventure game that isn't always third-person. It’s a dark and serious 3D puzzler that is also sometimes a pixel-art platformer. It’s down-to-earth, except for, you know, all the supernatural elements. It is a game that is never content to fulfil all of your expectations. Indika  is wonderful. Indika is also the name of our protagonist, a young nun of small stature and quiet demeanor. Taking place in a fictionalized 19th-century Russia, the events of Indika  follow Indika as she tries, unsuccessfully, to navigate life in the convent while the devil speaks to her in her head. Indika’s odd mannerisms and awkward demeanor seem to push the other nuns away, as they treat Indika with a level of disdain that could gently be described as “cruel.” This frayed relationship with her sisters is no doubt the reason Indika is eventually put on the road to deliver a letter. Developer:  Odd Meter Publisher:  11 bit studios Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released May 2, 2024 on Windows PC, May 17, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and November 17, 2025 on Nintendo Switch. Early on in this task, a few things become apparent. First, Indika is quite naive. She easily trusts those around her to do right by her, and when they fail her in some way, she is quick to forgive. Second, she is deeply disturbed. I did mention that she speaks to the Devil in her mind, but this relationship goes far beyond pestering voices. The Devil and his disturbances shape the world around Indika, opening new pathways for exploration and changing the visual perception of people and objects in the world around her. The Devil can be brought to a whisper through prayer, but as the manifestation of Indika’s doubt in her religion, he can never be fully exorcized.  The Devil is not the only disturbance Indika feels, but the veracity of her perception can at times be difficult to determine. A 20-foot-tall cow and a 10-foot-tall dog are surely exaggerations, but what about the spaces we move through? How much of the environment is real? Is any of it? Indika navigates these spaces as she sees them, but where are we really? When we view Indika’s past as a pixelated, 2D isometric experience, how much of that is true? The strangeness of Indika  extends beyond the titular character, as well. In the opening hour of the game, we are joined by Ilya, a former soldier and escaped prisoner with some religious fervor and a necrotized arm. Ilya believes that he has been chosen by god and endeavors to find a means to heal his dead appendage. Ilya works as a great foil by his nature as a pious man, certain of his holiness and sure in his faith. In this way, he and Indika reflect one another, presenting opposing ideas on the nature of religion and what it means to be pious. Where Indika examines her own faith, questioning it and putting it to the test, Ilya remains cocksure. He has an answer for everything. And while answers are exactly what Indika desires to temper her faith, Ilyas's answers do not satiate that curiosity.  Where Indika examines her own faith, questioning it and putting it to the test, Ilya remains cocksure. The examination of the nature of religion is interesting, often making pointed comparisons to the practice of religion and playing a game. Indika’s faith is represented by experience points, which are gained after every pious act performed. When you pray at an altar, light candles at a shrine, or engage in some typically religious activity, you are awarded some number of points. Reach a specific threshold and your faith levels up! The game does note early on that chasing these points is meaningless; you can’t pay your way into Heaven, but that did not stop me (and by extension Indika) from trying it all the same. Beyond the “points” system and levels involved, Indika  utilizes both mundane and absurd imagery (often juxtaposed) to paint a memorable canvas upon which the game is played, and through which the aforementioned ideas and themes can be further enhanced or examined. At the risk of drowning in vagueness, I must refrain from providing too much in the way of explicit interpretation here. Indika is a short enough game that it could be played through in only a few hours, and there are enough activities to engage in and places to explore in that short runtime to make a consistently arresting experience. So, while I am gesturing broadly at the idea of “ideas”, I would simply implore you to look a little closer at the scenery, and listen to what the characters are saying. Sometimes, a room full of fish is more than just a room full of fish. While there is a strong sense that so much of the game’s narrative and imagery are painstakingly deliberate, there is at least one moment near the end that is a bit tonally inconsistent with the rest of Indika . Throughout my entire playthrough, I couldn't help but feel like so much of what was being said or shown was carefully constructed to present the ideas as something to be equally as carefully considered by the player. This single moment right before the end of the game does not quite meet that standard.  I am just unsure how any of it fits into the overall messaging that had been extolled up to that point. In some ways, it felt like the writers were looking for a way to move things along and end Indika  after having written themselves into a corner, but I do not have any certainty here, either. Was it something I missed? Was there some message or meaning to these events that has escaped my grasp? The uncertainty sours the already abrupt ending that follows. This narrative confusion in the closing act does not materially affect how I view the rest of the game, thankfully, but the same cannot be said for the crux of the engagement: actually playing Indika . The imagery goes a long way toward making the exploration segments visually interesting, but does nothing to improve what is, fundamentally, a lifeless walk for most of the game. The opening moments are particularly excruciating, such as when it tasks you with slowly delivering five buckets of water to another nun. The puzzles throughout Indika  are rarely inventive or even interesting, and most of your navigation amounts to little more than holding the stick forward. There are moments of lucidity, however, such as the pixel sprite segments that serve as the vehicles for the largest deviation in gameplay mechanics. As negative as this sounds, I rarely think of those moments in retrospect. While the act of walking itself may be boring, so much of what makes Indika  special also unfolds in those same moments. You’re very rarely just  walking; conversations between characters, absurd visual spectacle, and even some object collection take place simultaneously with the otherwise mechanically dull traversal. There is also something to be said about simply performing the act of being Indika, as the boredom of the opening section and “normal” exploration may reflect Indika’s disillusionment with her life as a nun. Rather than focus on any individual element, the totality of what Indika  does is positively enchanting. Verdict Indika  is an absurdly arresting experience. Its strong character writing, bold visuals, and excellent acting all contribute to delivering a story that consistently surprises. Its oscillation between realistic, dour moments and the humorous and absurd makes each moment shine, while also serving to blend the game into a coherent, cohesive whole. Sure, the overarching story and themes may not be exceptionally profound, but the carefulness and deliberateness with which those elements are generally handled make this a powerful experience. Image Credits: Odd Meter

The Reins of History Disclaimer: This article contains heavy spoilers for the following Final Fantasy Titles: VI, VII, X, XII, XIII, XVI, and Tactics I’ve been thinking about the Final Fantasy series a lot lately. Those thoughts have largely avoided analysis of the gameplay systems or the controversial direction of the series. Instead, my mind has turned to the stories they told and the lessons they taught me from a young age. On its face, Final Fantasy may seem like a series of completely disconnected entries, with few shared messages, stories, or even iconography. Yet, Final Fantasy has always held one consistent throughline: those who aim to oppress the downtrodden are evil and must be opposed. How each title presents these stories of resistance differs, with some focusing more heavily on government and church overreach, while others highlight systems of oppression like slavery and the impacts of such violations on the psyche of its people. Each circumstance is unique, but they all feature an overbearing ruling class that uses force to stifle and control the people they lord over.  Though many of the games eventually morph into fighting a god-like entity, those entities themselves represent or run the systems of oppression being enforced on the populace. They function as stand-ins for the specific type of corruption that has been perpetuated throughout the story. Sin in Final Fantasy X is more than just a big monster; it is the embodiment of the church that has long abused its position of power to control the people of Spira. In Final Fantasy VII , Sephiroth is the personification of Shinra’s hubris. Not only is he the product of their scientific experiments, but the circumstances that led to his disillusionment were entirely of Shinra’s own making. President Shinra overlooks the fallen plate of Sector 7. Image Credits: Square Enix As a Minnesotan, I can’t help but see the parallels between these stories I grew up on and the actions of the US government and agencies like ICE in Minneapolis. Masked secret police that hunt down dissenters, even peaceful ones, murdering anyone who dares to try and hold them to account. Roving gangs of state enforcers who target the downtrodden in an effort to eliminate the “others” and build their supremacist project, with no care for the collateral damage that ensues. The methods used to justify this violence are also eerily familiar. For instance, when Cloud and the AVALANCHE team destroyed a mako reactor in Final Fantasy VII , the Shinra Corporation sent their own secret police (the Turks) to squash AVALANCHE, dropping the Sector 7 plate on the slums below. After the fact, Shinra blames the attack on AVALANCHE, citing their status as a terrorist cell. A tactic also employed  by our government, despite evidence to the contrary. This cycle of state violence is further enabled by the legal protections that shield those in power. In Final Fantasy XII , the Archadian Judges enjoy such immunity. Much like the ICE agents in the USA, these judges wear helms that conceal their true faces, sheltering them from observation and accountability. They serve as the guardians of ‘law and order’ within the Archadian Empire, enjoying full immunity from any repercussions of their actions, and they may designate anyone they wish as an enemy of the state and punish them accordingly. The Archadian Empire itself is a project in racial supremacy, only employing Humes  outside of extreme circumstances — a fact the judges are all too keen to uphold. Of course, this type of oppression and abuse is not new to people of color in the USA. State violence has long been a method of control. Black Americans are  incarcerated en masse for petty crimes , jailed at nearly six times  the rate of White Americans, and despite comprising only about 13% of the population, they make up nearly 40%  of the prison population. Hispanic people are kidnapped, beaten, and forced into concentration camps , and people detained by ICE are taken on “starlight tours”  where they are driven and dropped off in adverse conditions far from civilization. Their capture has been facilitated in many ways by the reintroduction of racial profiling as a legal justification for “reasonable suspicion”. These newly minted “Kavanugh Stops” allow ICE and Border Patrol agents to target and detain people based on their skin color, accent, and even occupation .  These are all happening today. They’re not relics of a distant past, and all are done at the hands of local, state, and federal forces. TODAY coverage of George Floyd Protests. However, some recent events, such as the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, have galvanized large segments of the citizenry to question police involvement. The fact that the current government occupation is taking place in the same city where George Floyd was murdered is not lost on me, but things have meaningfully changed since those protests in Minneapolis. Police-caused deaths have diminished greatly, with no killings by law enforcement officers  in the entire state in over two full years, and zero Minneapolis Police Department shootings . There was a real sense that things were getting better, and despite what the Trump administration would have you believe, crime is down  across the board.  And while the recent ICE occupations in LA, Chicago, and beyond have all been done under the pretence of “immigration enforcement”, it was inevitable that this violence would turn inward, used as a tool to harm the very citizens the government is meant to serve. Moments where the apparatus of “security” morphs into a tool of domestic oppression are present in the ideological manipulation found in Final Fantasy XIII,  the territorial occupation and subsequent conscription in Final Fantasy XIV , and the hunting and exploitation of espers in Final Fantasy VI . “Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.” — Robert O. Paxton, The Five Stages of Fascism In Final Fantasy XIII,  Cocoon is at odds with the planet Pulse. The threat of Pulse l’cie and Fal’cie looms over the people of Cocoon, who have been taught that Pulse and all of its people are evil — fears deliberately stoked by their ruling class. But Pulse is dead, the people of the planet long since removed. The truth of the matter is that the Cocoon Fal’cie want to see Cocoon destroyed, but cannot do so themselves. To this end, they brand the main party with a Pulse Fal’cie, turning them into the intended instrument of cocoon’s destruction. Final Fantasy XIV ’s Garlean Empire has been a driving oppositional force in the world of Eorzea for much of its run, and utilizes tactics that can be seen in the United States. The Empire captures a territory and conscripts its people into the military, forcing them to fight for the furtherance of the Empire’s aims. They come under the banner of liberation, with messages of freedom from the terrors of beastmen and magick. But in each and every conquered territory, the local population suffers, often at the hands of locals who have become useful tools for the Empire’s goals. Characters like Fordola, an Ala Mhigan who serves as commander of a particularly brutal imperial regiment, and Yotsuyu goe Brutus, a Doman woman who acts as viceroy and lives out her days tormenting her citizens, become useful for the Empire as avatars of terror.  In Final Fantasy VI , the main character Terra is a half-esper, making her part of a race of magical beings at odds with the Gestahlian Empire. The Empire hunts espers for their magical power, draining the living essence of these beings to fuel their Magitek machinery. I find similarities here to our treatment of migrant workers on our farms in the US, who are so often used, mistreated and discarded  when it is politically convenient to do so. But how much should that distinction of citizen and non-citizen matter? Would someone not born in the US have deserved such a fate? For all the assurances that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were both good people and American citizens, I can’t help but hear the distant implication that they would have deserved it if either of those facts were untrue. I implore you to consider this: we don’t need to adhere to DHS and ICE framing in our defense of lives, especially when they so often lie  about who the people they detain are. “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism For many Americans, particularly middle-class white Americans, these infractions have been seen as minor incidents. It is easy enough to accept the story of officials when none of this is happening to you and yours. But now with the deaths of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, Parady La, Keith Porter, and more , the illusion of safety and “rule of law” is being shattered in real-time for millions of people. Circling back to Final Fantasy VI, the major event that comes to mind is when Kefka finally realizes his aim of destroying the world of balance midway through the game. This moment signals the total collapse of the social fabric of the world and an end to civilization as it had been known up to that point. Normal no longer exists. Any sense of structure in the everyday lives of FFVI ’s characters has been completely upended. It is in this moment that the survivors must find a new purpose, and they must band together to rebuild the world that was taken from them. In Final Fantasy Tactics , the death of Delita’s sister Tietra at the hands of Ramza’s aristocratic allies forces a shift in his worldview. A proud noble by both birth and upbringing, Ramza must now contend with the injustices that have been (and continue to be) perpetuated by those he once called friends and family. He recognizes that those he previously associated with are using their status and wealth to harm those less fortunate so that they may be further enriched — a position he can no longer abide. He realizes that his title and appeals to honor cannot stop the violence of the state.  For many, the events in Minnesota are such a moment. It presents an unmistakable threat to the peace and safety that had at one time been assured. With this comes the realization that simply talking to the agents will not stop them . ICE agents did not have values of decency or any moral character when they joined the organization, and there certainly was no incentive to develop it post hoc. On top of this, Donald Trump and his appointees are not aiming to calm things down , either, telling us that such events are the consequences of our opposition to their cruelty. Appealing to their better nature will not save us; they must be opposed and confronted at every opportunity. To that end, large-scale protests have been effective in galvanizing the populace; even the most sheltered among us take notice of the collective efforts of the people in the streets. As of writing, the “all” page of Reddit is almost entirely full of anti-ICE posts, across a wide range of hobbies and communities . YouTubers and Twitch streamers are speaking out, with some raising funds  for local organizations to assist in protecting their communities. CBS coverage of an anti-ICE protest. But what does opposition look like in Final Fantasy, and what can we take from it for real-life application? I think the best course of action lies in community. Final Fantasy XVI  shows us a world full of slavery and discrimination. One in which the ‘others’ of the world are brought to heel through the use of a poison brand, and by extension, the threat of death should they disobey. Despite this, multiple different resistance cells arise. The main group, first helmed by Cid and later by Clive, forms an enclave (The Hideaway) to meet the needs of the disenfranchised, which is full of formerly branded members who have come together to create a community that supports itself through trading, farming, and other activities. Disparate groups throughout the world also take on the burden together. Martha’s rest serves as an allied outpost, smuggling branded slaves and working to fight the systems that endeavor to persecute magic users; in Northreach, Isabelle and her cadre of courtesans work to keep control of the city away from the Holy Empire of Sanbreque. But resistance is not just about the physical networks we build, but also about the moral lines we refuse to cross. While Final Fantasy XVI focuses on survival through community, Final Fantasy XII  challenges us to reject the very tools and methods of our oppressors. One such moment is when Ashe is offered the power of the Sun-Cryst, a large piece of nethicite that has been used for centuries to control the people of Ivalice by providing magical power to those who hold its pieces. In this moment, Ashe is given the opportunity to take the Sun-Cryst and lay waste to the Archadian Empire, serving the goals of a shadowy cabal known as the Occuria. However, realizing that this arrangement leaves her indebted to the Occuria and that it also makes her little better than her own oppressors, she declines. She recognizes that you cannot liberate a people by using the same logic of domination that enslaved them. The power of the Dalmascan people is not in their magick or their weapons. It lies in their love for one another, in their unity. Both Final Fantasy XII  and XVI  show ways in which we can make an impact by banding together and doing the right thing. We can take lessons from Final Fantasy XVI’ s hideaway, building networks of mutual aid, feeding our neighbors, and shielding the vulnerable.   Simultaneously, we must possess the moral clarity of Ashe in Final Fantasy XII . We must refuse to collaborate with the machinery of violence and understand that our strength does not come from the authority we wield, but from the community we protect. Things like AI and mass surveillance will only serve to harm the people in the end, so they must be turned away. The Occuria in FFXII are the shadowy figures that control the course of history. Image Credits: Square Enix By saying “no” to those who would seek to steal our neighbors away and by declining the invitation to sit at the table of despotism, we can impose our will and create a better future. Helping your neighbor find food is resistance, alerting each other of the presence of ICE authorities is resistance, and even the act of cultivating joy is resistance. The stubborn insistence on living with dignity under a system that demands our submission empowers us. In recent years, it has become evident that our institutions and political leaders offer limited safeguards against malevolent actors. Rather than act as a shield to safeguard our liberties, they have become the sword used to rend them. There will be no outside party to come and fix our problems. For us to reclaim the reins of history for mankind, we must be the heroes who take up the cause and stand together with our neighbors. We must be the shield against the violence aimed at our marginalized cohorts. We must become the warriors of light to stand against the darkness of chaos, and we must do it in service to one another.

As the latest release from The Game Bakers, makers of the games Furi  and Haven , Cairn is a climbing simulation and survival game that pushes you to your limits, asking a lot of the player in an effort to convey meaning through struggle. In the story, you control Aava, a seasoned mountaineer whose latest goal is to climb Kami, the most difficult mountain of all — one no other climber has managed to ascend. Publisher:  The Game Bakers Developer:   The Game Bakers Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on January 29, 2026 for PS5 and PC The climbing controls allow the player to control each separate limb intricately, but it is neither as delicate in its handling nor as punishing on missteps as something like Baby Steps . While the baseline mechanics of climbing are easy enough to understand, the intricacies of those controls are not always intuitive. When you climb, the next limb to be used is automatically selected based upon some combination of placement and balance, but following this auto-selection will very frequently lead to awkward placements and maneuvers, or even put you into detrimental scenarios where the game lifts the only securely placed limb you have.  Thankfully, there is a way to manually select the appendage next used, and it’s a feature I suggest you try and get comfortable with quickly — you’ll need it to reach the summit. I further suggest that you set the manual selection mode to either “dial” (if on controller) or one of the various button settings. The default setting, stick, is difficult to use as it is based upon your character’s posture and, given the less-than-ideal placements you could find yourself in, may limit visibility. That said, once you have everything set up and are more comfortable with the manual selection controls, man, does this game feel smooth. There were times while climbing where things just started to click, as if I entered some sort of flow state where all of my movements would blend seamlessly into the next before I finally found myself atop the cliff I was scaling. It’s just you against the mountain. And god, does it feel good to win. Even the small climbs feel like earned victories. Rather than a meter, Cairn  uses animations and sound to help signify the quality of your holds and Aava’s condition to the player. Aava’s shaking legs, heavy breathing, and darkening vision add tension to the climbs in difficult spots and show you everything you need to know about your current position. You can mostly tell when you have a solid hold based on her hand and foot placement on a surface. Cairn just has this incredible knack for emulating the tension and struggle of climbing in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a video game before. This is largely owed to the groundedness with which it approaches climbing. While it is by no means a true-to-life sim, Aava is still just a person (although a freakishly flexible one). She cannot leap from hold to hold; her stamina and grip are actually quite limiting, and when compared to other games that heavily feature climbing, every movement must be deliberate because Kami demands it. Of course, some issues arise from time to time when climbing as well. The sort of magnetic attachment of Aava’s limbs to surfaces can become a great annoyance in tight spots. In moments when you need to cling to a specific ledge or hold, it is all too frequent that she will instead choose to latch onto an insecure surface. This will happen even when you have your hand lined up in perfect position; sometimes Aava just wants to kiss the Earth, no matter how precise your directions are. There’s no real penalty for death in normal, aside from lost time, but in survival, this ended a run for me. I just could not get her to grab a crack I was aiming at, no matter how hard I tried. Cairn just has this incredible knack for emulating the tension and struggle of climbing in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a video game before. There are some nice gameplay options that you can toggle on or off, such as survival mechanics, an auto-save feature, rewinding time from falls, and infinite climbing resources (chalk, pitons, and tape), but doing so permanently marks your save as having used “assist mode.” This is not necessarily a problem, and I don’t think anyone should be ashamed of using these tools to play Cairn , but it is worth noting that even turning them on just to see what happens or how they work will make this mark visible permanently. The route you take is open, allowing a freeform approach to your ascent to the summit. Do you take a more difficult path that gets you to your destination more quickly or take a safer path that may leave you with fewer resources? You could choose to explore more of Kami to learn more about its history and the people who have tried to climb it, or bee-line straight for your destination. In my first playthrough, I did a little exploring, sometimes going off the beaten path for collectibles and resources, but with so many routes to take and being unsure of how limiting the survival aspects would be, I did not attempt a full search of the mountain. I did much more of that on my second run of the game. I think that’s when I really fell for the game, to be honest. Truly exploring the mountain in a free-form way gave me such a deep appreciation for the care that was put into piecing together Kami. The mountain is littered with details that I missed on my first trek, like corpses with letters home or abandoned beach chairs in hard-to-reach areas. In some ways, you get to follow the journeys of the people who came before you, reading notes they left behind or seeing the ropes and pitons that might indicate failure.  Those stories mirror Aava’s in more ways than you might pick up on in the first playthrough, testing the limits of what we are willing to put ourselves through, and why we do it. What do we gain by confronting our fears? What do we leave behind in the process? That story and the examination of Aava’s will and purpose caught me off guard. I truly was not expecting to be so moved by what transpired, yet here I sit, still thinking about the journey and the intense closeness of every moment, the loneliness of climbing up the mountain, how beautifully each event within that story is married so well to the gameplay, and the lessons we can learn by playing Cairn .  When you get to the final moments in the expedition, you will have such a familiarity with what Aava can do that planning your routes and moving up to new areas becomes more of a practice in planning than mechanical performance. You will know where Aava can make a climb just by looking at it, what angle of a cliff face is still scalable, and how far you can move without a strong hold. It is a game that teaches you patience, tests your perseverance, and forces you to accept your failures.  I felt my fair share of failures as well. Moments on the climb where I seemingly hit a dead end or took on a challenge without proper preparation, and was forced to start from my last save — sometimes losing “progress” of up to 30 minutes. Despite those setbacks, or perhaps because of them, I was compelled to contend with my own carelessness; I was driven to move beyond the frustrations of disappointment. Frustrations that Aava lets you know she’s feeling, too. With every fall or struggle, Aava will fume, railing against her own weaknesses and inability to make the climb.  Underpinning all of this is perhaps the best game soundtrack I’ve heard in a long time. The score by Martin Stig Andersen, Gildaa, and The Toxic Avenger is mostly understated, featuring haunting melodies and gentle strings that play during the breathers you get between rock faces, but they are so impactful in expressing the emotion of the moment. I have genuinely broken down into tears hearing the music at times. And that is to say nothing of the more intense and layered synth pieces on the soundtrack. I fear that my limited musical knowledge leaves me unable to adequately convey just how incredible the soundscape is, but it has engendered in me a feeling I cannot escape. As I sit and listen to the sounds while writing, I can feel a tightness in my chest, a tension rising with every note, and then finally a release at the song's conclusion. It is so perfect for the game itself that it is hard to fathom. It is a soundtrack that is so symbiotic with the story events and gameplay that it becomes impossible to separate them. It is a fundamental part of experiencing Cairn . It is a soundtrack that is so symbiotic with the story events and gameplay that it becomes impossible to separate them. It is a fundamental part of experiencing Cairn. Earlier, I said Cairn examines the limits of your patience and tests your perseverance. I learned something about myself in that sense. I was not always patient, forcing paths and holds that were suboptimal simply to try to reach the next segment, only to then fall and become deeply frustrated at the mistake. But I did persevere. Through every hard moment, through every frustration and failure, I continued the ascent, and in doing so, I gained something beyond a simple satisfaction of completing a game.  Rather than focus on the things I couldn’t do, I honed an ability to learn what I could  do. To utilize what I know in order to achieve something that at first glance felt so beyond me. As I played, I bore the weight of the stress I put upon myself in every step toward the summit and saw that same weight fall away when I reached the peak itself, as if I were one with the mountain and the stars beyond. Verdict Cairn  is a climbing and survival game that examines the limits of your patience and tests your perseverance. Supported by a phenomenal soundtrack and great acting performances, it presents an exploration of the main character Aava’s will and purpose. In doing so, it holds a mirror to the players, asking a lot of us as well. What is to be gained from climbing the mountain? Why do we do it? What do we leave behind when we face our fears? You’ll only ever know if you dare to try. Image Credits: The Game Bakers Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

The Spirit Lift is set in a haunted hotel in the 1990s and follows a group of newly graduated teens as they attempt to make their way to the top. Packaged in a high-school thriller casing, it   combines dungeon-crawling mechanics (similar to titles like Etrian Odyssey) with roguelite deckbuilding trappings, delivering an interesting take on the deckbuilding genre, as the dungeon-crawling aspects necessitate a shift in your typical approach.  To start, the player chooses 3 teens to take into the party. The base number of available characters is 3, but more are unlocked as you play. Each character has their own starting cards and gear that gives each of them a unique playstyle and identity, often reinforcing the type of person they are. The jock, Tobias, has cards for a baseball bat and a basketball, for instance. After choosing your team, you’ll make your way into the manor proper. Developer:  prettysmart games Publisher:  prettysmartgames Platform:  Played PC Availability:  Released January 27, 2026  on PC (Steam). As you explore each of the 13 hotel floors, you may find yourself fighting enemies to earn gold coins and cards, upgrading cards upon leveling up, or taking part in randomized events. The events are a particular delight, as they often contain the game’s most interesting decisions. Do you risk some health for a chance to gain experience? Perhaps you’d rather search for evidence that provides some interesting narrative information over obtaining some gold. Beyond the choice dynamic, the events offer a glimpse into the oddities of the hotel. Why is there a bathtub of acid? Where did all of these party favors come from? Who is that wolf guy? There’s always something new to encounter on every floor. In many roguelite deckbuilders, such as Slay the Spire or GWENT: Rogue Mage , your navigation decisions are typically based upon an assessment of what the chosen path looks like; what enemies are there, whether there are any shops, and so on. While your primary decision-making relies on risk vs. reward calculations, you can devise a plan and choose an optimized route for what you intend to do.  Risk assessment is similarly important here in The Spirit Lift , but without a clear choice in pathways or enemy selection, it becomes more vital to do those calculations on the fly. You can’t really plan for specific encounters, events, or rewards before finding your elevator up to the next floor — you simply deal with the trials as they come to you. Thankfully, the options available to the player are plentiful. Cards are your method of engaging in combat and represent mundane items that the characters have on hand. These cards are broken down into four types: Weapons, Tools, Aid, and Trauma. Weapons are your standard attacks, doing direct damage to an enemy. Tools provide passive bonuses that last throughout a fight, such as lowering the cost of specific card types or giving enemies a debuff when certain actions are performed. Aid cards are the most versatile type of all, having the ability to heal or add buffs to the player, inflict the enemy with various status effects, or even draw additional cards. Finally, Trauma cards are special cards that harm the player in some way when the card’s conditions are met. Some may have adverse effects when drawn, or even confer bonuses to enemies when left in your hand unplayed. These trauma cards are also unique in that they can’t be removed in the shop — they must be played a requisite number of times before disappearing. Gear pieces are an additional boon for the player, offering permanent boons without the use of cards. Each starting character has a gear piece tied to them, and you can only hold 8 pieces of gear at a time during a run — at least until you upgrade this through the spirit shop. I have found gear to be the single most important element of success in each run. Getting powerful pieces of gear and then planning your deck around that is absurdly more powerful than the inverse, and getting that extra gear slot (or more) from the spirit shop makes things even easier. However, the spirit shop is more than just a place to increase relic capacity. Available only from the main menu, it serves as the metaprogression hub, a place to spend earned “Spirit Points” to upgrade the baseline health, gold, gear, etc. of your starting party. These upgrades are completely linear. Spending points can only improve your chances of victory, as there are no drawbacks to any choice that I have unlocked. When you reach the end of a run, you’ll face one of four random bosses. When you defeat the boss, it becomes available within a pool of boss options for manual selection at the start of each run. This is nice if you’d like to fight a specific enemy for any reason, but doing so negates the chance of encountering a new boss that you could have faced. Winning this final fight also ends the run and grants the player some spirit points based on their performance. Scouring the hotel halls for clues about the ongoing events, your characters will also sometimes speak to each other. These exchanges are quite short, but do offer some insight into the interpersonal dynamics or personality quirks of each teen. However, each character is strictly one-note, and those interactions are limited in number, offering very little insight into the overarching narrative or the characters’ interpretation of ongoing events. Really, there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. There are even a few benefits to choosing the same character across multiple runs. First, you’ll unlock alternative starting cards and gear to choose from, and second, you may come across events that grant “keys” to a character’s story, opening up a little more of their world for you to see. Nearly everything about The Spirit Lift  is perfectly competent, with the exception of one nagging element: the UI. The UI itself during this navigation is certainly functional, but does not feel particularly cohesive. The experience meter is reminiscent of gauges you’d see on a car, such as for a gas meter or odometer, and the party menu includes simple portraits that show audio levels (like you’d see on a car radio or other audio device) when characters speak. However, the other on-screen elements don’t in any way evoke a similar car aesthetic. Gear is depicted in small, black and white images housed within tiny, square boxes and little else; information, such as the number of cards in your deck or your available funds, is communicated through numbers stationed next to simplistic-but-fully-colored iconography — neither of which shows a connection to the meters in the other elements of the UI, or to each other.  Inspecting the UI outside of navigation leads to a bit more confusion, as well. Menus have many recognizable elements, such as your run history records being shown through a CRT screen, scanlines and all, or fast forward and rewind buttons replacing elements normally reserved for “confirm” and “back” or equivalent selections, but fail to coalesce into something resembling a whole.  Taken individually, many visual elements of The Spirit Lift  are interesting. The color palette heavily features striking hues of green, red, and purple that make objects, rooms, and enemies pop when they are meant to be the focus; the dark, cramped corridors lend themselves to an eerie atmosphere, and so on. But the lack of consistency and cohesiveness between these elements leads to a confused image on screen. The character portraits are quite detailed, but enemy sprites are flat (dimensionally and aesthetically), and objects in the environment are three-dimensional, low-poly items. I struggle to wrap my head around the design decisions that lead to this artistic muddying, but it is ultimately a minor gripe. ...there’s a dearth of narrative elements overall, but the game is still largely buoyed by its excellent card battles, regardless. That said, The Spirit Lift  has some significant bright spots. Having a large cast of playable characters leaves room for experimentation and strategizing in how you build out your deck and approach each fight. Leaning into each teen’s strengths is key to success, so forcing one particular card type or strategy is not advised in every situation. Each run is also quite short, with any excursion taking no longer than half an hour to fully complete. In terms of difficulty, this is probably on the lighter side of games within its genre. After six full runs through, I have yet to die a single time. I’ve never been close, really. I wonder how much of my success is owed to having played a large number of roguelite deckbuilders in the past, or just what the intended difficulty is meant to be, but the large number of upgrades and abundant gear choices in every ascent attempt never leave me wanting for power. Verdict Overall, I am quite fond of The Spirit Lift . Its mix of horror elements, deckbuilding, and dungeon-crawling is immediately enticing, and the card battles are fun, albeit a bit safe. While I do have some issues with the UI and would prefer more difficulty options, the game is a solid recommendation for roguelite deckbuilder enjoyers, especially if they’re looking for a more casual offering. Image Credits: prettysmart games Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

Hey there, and welcome back to the weekly news roundup! It’s been a pretty tumultuous week in the industry, between corporate closures and big-name releases, a lot is going on. That said, here are five particular stories that have caught our attention. Ubisoft Cancels Six Titles in Development, Delays Seven More Ubisoft has confirmed in an interview that six titles have been cancelled, including the remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , and seven other titles have been delayed. These cancellations also mean the end of Ubisoft studios in Stockholm and Halifax, Canada. Not much is known about which titles have specifically been cancelled aside from Prince of Perisa , but one title that has weathered the storm may surprise you. Yes, the game that has been in development for 17 full years at Ubisoft remains alive , with Ubisoft even continuing the search for development talent.  Fable Gameplay Finally Sees the Light of Day First revealed in February 2025, the Fable series reboot has been noticeably quiet in terms of marketing over the last year. This changed on Thursday, Jan 22, 2026, during the Xbox Developer Direct , when a new gameplay look at Fable was shown . Between the showcase reveal and accompanying release window trailer, there are quite a few interesting tidbits about the environments and stories that take place in the revitalized Albion. Perhaps the strangest addition are T he   Office -like cutaway interviews . Popular Cyberpunk 2077 VR Mod Hit With DMCA Strike A popular VR mod for CD Projekt Red’s dystopian first-person RPG has been taken down after CD Projekt issued a DMCA strike. While CD Projekt is no stranger to mods in their games, this particular one was deemed an issue because the creator was charging money for it, violating fan content guidelines. Despite some back and forth  between the mod creator Luke Ross and CD Projekt, the mod remains unavailable at this time.  Double Fine Announces Its Latest Zany Project — Kiln Following the hot on the heels of their recent release Keeper , Double Fine Productions has announced a new game titled Kiln. In Kiln, you sculpt pots using tools such as sponges, shapers, scrapers, and even your hands, which are then sent to do battle and put out the opponent's kiln. The announcement trailer  showcases unique imagery full of color and impressive effects. Can't wait to see more! Queen’s Blood Will Return in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Series’ Next Entry In a recent Polygon interview , remake part 3 director Naoki Hamaguchi stated plans to include and expand upon the popular mini-game, Queen’s Blood, that first made an appearance in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. “Queen’s Blood is a very popular and beloved minigame, and I believe a lot of people are still wanting something like that,” Hamaguchi told Polygon. “I want to expand on Queen’s Blood so that we are enhancing it, and giving you a more powered-up version of it when you see that third installment… Queen’s Blood is still going to be available in the third installment. We just want to expand on it.” He also made sure to assuage fears that Snowboarding would not be present in the next installment, noting fan anticipation for the mini-game. Thanks for sticking around! Come back next week and we’ll share a few more stories for you to take a look at!

Trials of Mana  is extremely faithful to the SNES classic — perhaps to its detriment. While it does a commendable job of upgrading its aesthetics to the modern era, many other aspects remain close to the original when they could have used a bit more love. The combat system works well enough in 3D, but it becomes repetitive and tedious outside of the big boss battles. Additionally, side content is bland and uninteresting to engage with, and some gameplay systems are not explained well. Thankfully, the story remains charming, despite its simplicity, and the music is exceptional at conveying the personality and tone of each area and scene, respectively. Ultimately, Trials of Mana  is a mostly boring experience. While it can be forgiven for relying on cliché material due to its nature as a remake, it could still have used some love in the margins, such as improving the flow of combat, revising tutorials, or expanding side material. Pros: Strong visual style Party building is quite open, allowing for a variety of strategies and builds Music is vibrant and works well in giving the world a personality Cons: Combat is quite boring outside of boss battles Side content is tedious and uninteresting to engage with Some systems are not explained well Developer: Square Enix Publisher:  Square Enix Platform:  Played on PS4 and PC Availability:  Released April 24, 2020  on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Released July 15, 2021 for Android and iOS; September 26, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S.

Hey all, hope you’re doing well! Welcome to our first weekly news roundup. The goal of the roundup is to highlight the news stories and announcements that are of the most interest to us in the gaming space. This is something we’ve been considering for a while, so let’s see how it goes! This week has been pretty slow in-terms of big news items, but a few updates and announcements have caught our eye. Resident Evil Requiem Showcase The Resident Evil Requiem   showcase  that took place this week revealed a ton of new info regarding gameplay mechanics and structure. The two characters have pretty distinct playstyles, with the Leon campaign more focused on action and Grace’s campaign being a more traditional survival horror experience.  Frosthaven Update — Legacy of the Algox Frosthaven  came out in early access last year (still remains in early access, actually), but still managed to end up as one of my favorite gaming experiences from 2025. It continues to get more updates in terms of story content and playable classes, so I’m always on the lookout for new information. That said, Frosthaven ’s second major Early Access content update, Legacy of the Algox, comes out Jan. 22 and adds New Playable Heroes, pets, biomes, bosses, and more. Looks to be a great addition to an already great early access title. The new environs look really cool. Super Battle Golf Oro Interactive has announced  Super Battle Golf, a 1-8 player golf game where you do whatever it takes to reach the hole first in a free-for-all take on golf. Super Battle Golf is coming out on Steam February 19th, and looks like a really fun game to play along with friends in a group if you just want to mess with one another. Monster Hunter Wilds Performance Woes An explosive claim  has been made towards Capcom in regards to  Monster Hunter Wilds ’ continued performance woes. First brought to light  by a redditor going by the handle de_Tylmarande, it appears as if Capcom has implemented frequent checks for DLC into the code of the game, dragging down the game’s performance. After independent testing by Digital Foundry , the claim seems to be accurate, with DF’s own findings reflecting that of the reddit post. Given the nature of the issue and just how widespread criticism of Wild ’s performance has been, I would not be surprised to see some sort of internal retribution for this colossal oversight. Meta Shuts Down Twisted Pixel, Armature, and Sanzaru Games Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has reportedly cut an estimated 10% of employees in its Reality Labs division. Formerly known as Oculus VR, the Reality Labs division makes products like the Meta Quest VR headsets and AI-powered glasses. Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel, and Sanzaru Games are reportedly among those affected. This seems to be signaling that Meta is finally cutting its losses after having lost billions over the last several years. You can read a full report on the subject by Bloomberg here . RTX 5070 Ti Destined for Oblivion? While it was   initially reported  by Hardware Unboxed that the RTX 5060 TI (16 GB) and 5070 TI graphics cards may be discontinued, ASUS has since put out a statemen t claiming otherwise. Despite the clarification, rapidly increasing RAM prices and demand continue to put the consumer side of the market in dire straits. Games Workshop Prohibits Staff From Using AI in Its Content or Designs As reported by Financial Times , Games Workshop (perhaps best known for its popular Warhammer series) has indicated that the use of AI is strictly prohibited for in-house development. CEO Kevin Rountree has stated “We will be maintaining a strong commitment to protect our intellectual property and respect our human creators.” This roundup is already over! Thanks for joining us and see you next week!

Originally released in 2018, Yokohama Duel was itself a revamped 2-player version of the game Yokohama . The premise of each game is exactly the same: set at the beginning of the Meiji era, players take on the role of merchants battling for control of resources and technologies in order to dominate the market. This latest edition retains that same exact premise, but does come with its own notable changes, such as new artwork, revised rules, and an alternative board design for a smoother gameplay experience. Product:  Yokohama Duel Designer: Hisashi Hayashi Publisher:   Synapses Games , Luma Imports Price: $29.99 Age:  12+ Yokohama Duel is a competitive game, just as the name implies. There are no ways or means to cooperate with the other player, so no need to take it easy on your opponent. The aim is to manage your resources and plan your card placement for most effective returns. Although there is no direct action you take against opponents, you’ll need to be ruthless in your consolidation of resources if you want to win. While the basic flow of the game is quite simple, the large amount of options and actions you can perform does offer room for strategy, though this again comes down to where you place your cards. A single game consists of four rounds, with players taking alternating turns in each round. With 11 different ways to earn victory points, players will need to plan carefully to reach the end of the game with the highest number of points in order to claim victory. For players already familiar with the original release, the updated edition’s changes are a marked improvement. The updated artwork has an almost watercolor look to it that really pops, and the revised board layout is much less visually busy. All of the iconography on the board is clear, and the tokens are sufficiently distinct from one another, so you can understand what you’re looking at from a simple glance. It just has a more streamlined feel when compared to its 2018 counterpart. Players start with 4 power cards (numbered 1-4) and resources. On their turn, players place the card with the lowest power in hand onto a location, with the rewards of that placement determined by the card’s power and associated spoils indicated on the board. You also have the option of using an extra power card to make the move stronger. If a played card has 4 or more power, the player has the option to use coins to build a shop or trading house, which grants victory points at the end of the game. The artwork is beautiful, though the board and tokens are pretty standard cardboard stock. Some notable actions you can take to gain points include: praying at the temple for points, using resources to complete contracts, or building structures. Buying cards can provide ongoing bonuses or may award points at the conclusion of the four rounds, but investing too heavily may leave you weaker in other areas, unable to accrue enough points for a win.  A major strength of Yokohama Duel  is the variability in turn-by-turn strategy available to the player. While having some moves planned out ahead of time is certainly useful, you’ll often find your plans foiled by your opponent’s placement of their cards, forcing you to adjust on-the-fly. Given the relatively tight amount of moves each player gets during the course of the game, finding that equilibrium between the various options is crucial for success. Of course, this demands efficient use of your resources to achieve. Amassing resources comes naturally, but it is up to you to ensure they are spent appropriately through building and contract completion. Any resource left unused at the end of the game is a missed opportunity for points. Overall, I think Yokohama Duel  offers a strong, strategic 2-player experience, presenting large amounts of variability in game-by-game strategies and outcomes. The game is not the most elaborate in its genre, but it does come in at only an estimated 45 minutes per game. I do think that estimate is very far into the high-end of expected playtime once you have a few games under your belt, seeing as your planning and placement will drastically improve the more familiar you become with the game. Rules are easy enough for beginners to get the hang of quickly, and the variety of scoring methods means there is always room for experimentation and improvisation. Fully recommended from me. Disclaimer: We received a free copy of this game from the publisher.

My Yakuza journey started back in 2019 when I got my hands on Yakuza 0 , a prequel to the original Yakuza  game. By then, I was already disastrously late to the party, with many of my friends having played the games leading up to 0 and loving them. After hearing praise in person and online for years, I finally gave it a shot and was immediately hooked by it. Something about the balance of humor and drama was so captivating, and the breadth of content was a breath of fresh air, allowing me to take time away from the melodrama to play darts or run a cabaret club.  Publisher:   SEGA Developer:   Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released on January 21, 2016 for PS3 and PS4, Feb 19, 2019 for PC. It is also available on Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, Amazon Luna, and PS5. It may seem confusing at first to hear me lead off with Yakuza 0  in a Yakuza Kiwami  review, but Kiwami  is almost as much of an extension of Yakuza 0  as it is a remake of the original Yakuza title. It is far more than a simple visual makeover of the 2005 original; instead, it is a total redesign built directly on the success and technical foundations of its prequel. The characters, gameplay mechanics, and even story elements directly incorporate events and mechanics that were first brought to life in Yakuza 0 . So, while the main plot follows the original title’s story quite faithfully, RGG Studios has done a commendable job of incorporating the changes from the prequel into the revised timeline. Of course, not everything stays the same. Kiryu’s aging and growth between the two titles and the shifting culture of the city of Kamurocho chief among them. Seeing Kiryu as a more seasoned character in the wake of the 80s and beyond his time in prison adds layers to his stoicism, and his return to a city that has in many ways passed him by makes him feel like a man out of time. Kiryu still lives by the “old ways” when it comes to his personal honor system and beliefs, and changes to the landscape leave him on uneven ground, though he is not without help. Kamurocho itself still feels like a living, breathing entity that has aged alongside him, retaining its iconic layout but reflecting the shift in time and tone. New stores have replaced his old haunts, the city is noticeably less bright, the disco floor is no more, and some buildings have begun to show their wear and tear. Despite these changes, Kamurocho still feels like home, and the echoes of the bygone days remain. Characters from Yakuza 0 substories linger, just as excited (or scared) to see Kiryu all these years later. The streets of Kamurocho are just as colorful as they are violent. In some ways, the contrast of then and now is similarly represented in the main story as compared to the substories set throughout Kiwami . The main plot is deathly serious and melodramatic, adhering to the original title's tone and pacing throughout. By contrast, the substories are often full of humor or more eccentric characters, though they are not free from dramatic elements either. In fact, some of Kiwami’s  best writing is held within these stories — dramatic or otherwise. One of my favorites is one that sees you reunite with your friend who runs the pocket racing circuit. He’s a character that was first introduced in Yakuza 0 , so seeing him and how he has aged is a painful reminder of the time that Kiryu missed, and how much things have changed in his absence. Throughout this substory you get the chance to help the Pocket Circuit Fighter find a new successor to take over the racing circuit, and reconnect with some other old acquaintances in the process. For as much as some things change, much in our lives endures through the ages. That said, the game feels a bit out of balance in terms of its content spread. The main story is noticeably shorter than most other Yakuza titles, and while the substories aren’t overwhelming in number, they do feel disproportionally significant. Yakuza Kiwami has a total of 78 substories, with the final one only unlocking after playing all other substories and maxing out the Majima Everywhere rank. That isn’t to say that there are too many substories; they mostly all feel worthwhile and fun to engage with. It is simply a matter of the main story taking a comparatively smaller portion of the game’s focus. The main story is noticeably shorter than most other Yakuza titles, and while the substories aren’t overwhelming in number, they do feel disproportionally significant. The experience is not without its mechanical friction, either. Combat can be fun in short spurts, but it ultimately lacks the depth required to stay enjoyable for as often as the game forces you to engage with it. It can feel like a bit of a grind when navigating the streets, though the Heat actions remain a consistent exception. These cinematic moments are always a joy, providing a necessary burst of energy and visual flair that helps offset the repetitive nature of the standard brawls.  These issues with combat frequency are unfortunately exacerbated by the Majima Everywhere system. While Goro Majima’s various disguises and surprise attacks are genuinely funny at first, the novelty wears off when you are forced into frequent encounters — sometimes without a way to avoid them. By the late game, Majima becomes an exhausting opponent with massive health pools, turning the brawls into a repetitive chore where the most efficient strategy is simply to spam (insofar as you can spam a counter attack) the Tiger Drop move until the fight ends. Despite these minor quibbles, nearly every aspect of Yakuza Kiwami  remains a colossal step up when compared to the original 2005 release. New movesets, more varied minigames and side quests, alongside the massively improved graphical fidelity make Kiwami  the much preferred way to play through the classic story. It is a safe retelling that helps lay the groundwork for future titles, and that’s plenty. Verdict Ultimately, Yakuza Kiwami  does feel like a bit of a step down from the high bar set by Yakuza 0 , in part because it must adhere to the plot and pacing of the original scenario. Despite this, it remains an engaging, moving, and hilarious experience that successfully honors the beginning of Kiryu's legend. Even if it doesn't quite reach the heights of the masterpiece that preceded it, Yakuza Kiwami  remains an excellent adventure. Image Credits: SEGA

"Whenfield" No More Back in 2022, Hypergryph first teased the follow-up to their successful tower defense game Arknights . The wait has been a long one, but the kitchen sure is cooking up a succulent meal with Arknights Endfield . It should be noted that the experiences described here are based on the second closed beta test which ran from November 29 th  to December 29 th  2025 ahead of its official release on January 22 nd  of 2026, and as such, all materials discussed are subject to change. Endfield  is an anime styled 3D action RPG with base-building and management elements set in the sci-fi-magic universe of Arknights. Sounds like a strange combination but in practice it turns out to be a perfect pace breaker to keep the game engaging for hours on end. Let’s dive in with three “Gs” to discuss: Graphics, Gameplay, and Gacha. Publisher:   GRYPHLINE Developer:   Hypergryph Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Release date — January 22, 2026 for PC, PS5, and mobile devices. Graphics P-R-E-S-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N is the name of the game and Endfield has it in spades. While the UI could use some small tweaks in some places, the game is a joy to navigate, look at, and listen to. Playing the PC version on maximum settings, I can say that Arknights Endfield  runs beautifully well — not a stutter in all of my 60+ hours participating in the Beta Test. I’m still using a previous gen AMD card, so this can be done without needing current high-end hardware. While optimization and fidelity are important to note, it’s all of the little details that caught my attention. Character idle animations, water effects on their clothing, walking animations, menu transitions — each is a pleasure to behold. The developers have heavily modified the Unity engine to achieve this look and performance, and praise should be given where it’s due, as Endfield  has more polished performance in its Beta Test than most games on release in the past few years. Putting those great visuals to use, most of Arknights Endfield ’s story is told through cutscenes. The Beta Test rounded off in the earlier steps of chapter 2, but has continually impressed throughout. A bit early to judge in totality, but there certainly were moments that tugged on my heart strings and had me on the edge of my seat. As far as it compares to its competition in the space, Endfield ’s got hands. Here’s hoping they deliver the proper knock-out on release. Endfield has a number of styles for the cutscenes: a big portion is rendered in-game, some are pre-rendered more action packed to highlight bigger story moments, and then there’s a more simplistic mission briefing style where characters discuss a plan of action over some tactical graphics. The characters animate with little micro-expressions and the stellar voice acting helps immerse you into the world. Much like the first game, the English dub in particular deserves praise. Characters often have accents, reflecting the region they are from that brings them to life more. Some even substitute their native language in conversation and battle. Technically Endfield  is a sequel to Arknights  but its story takes place roughly 150 years later.  Endfield  takes its time easing you into the world and some of the more complicated aspects but playing the first game is not a necessity. You will miss out on certain details and returning characters’ backstory, but surely there’s a lore summary to catch you up somewhere. Not to mention there’s also an anime to get you to grips with its world. Arknights Endfield is beautiful, with vibrant colors and unique designs throughout the experience. Gameplay As the meat in our meal, the gameplay makes up perhaps the most fulfilling aspect of Endfield.  For the bulk of your time in Endfield  you will be exploring a 3D world with a team of 4 characters in what is a semi-open world sandbox structure. This team you construct can target various elements, be physical status crowd control focused, or even do a mix of both. Team building is very fluid in Endfield  as the synergy between characters relies on their Combo and Battle skills more than their personal elemental affinity. You control one character in battle and spend SP to use Battle skills while the rest of your team fights alongside you. During the fights, you can trigger your team’s skills as well.  Where it gets interesting is the Combo skill, which each character has a specific trigger for. Once said condition is aligned, the character’s portrait will light up and you reactively use their Combo skill. Building chains of these between your characters is essential to a fluid experience in combat. The developers aimed to recreate the feeling of a card battler and it certainly does feel like that at times. Aside from these combos you also have access to each character’s Ultimate once you have used their Battle and Combo skills enough. Getting multiple procs of these is key. Besides that, there are also active dodge and interruption systems, taking some cues from FromSoftware titles and many other action games on the market. There are currently 6 classes for your operators: Guards , Casters , Strikers , Vanguards , Bulwarks , and Supporters . Guards and Casters will do some damage but their main role is to apply various status conditions, be they physical such as Lift or Knock-Down, or elemental such as Combustion or Corrosion. Strikers are designed to take advantage of these and will be the main damage dealers in a party. The next 3 are designed to be more supportive in role. Vanguards help you generate more SP to use more skills and deal some damage while they’re at it. Bulwarks are your classic tanks, specializing in interruptions, parries and shields for your team while sometimes offering a little bit of healing too. Last but not least are Supporters. They are closer to your traditional healers, with their main role being to help with status conditions through healing and application thereof, as well as buff your operators with Amplification statuses. Arts focused teams will often bring a Caster and Physical teams will probably need a Guard, but other than that you are free to find your preferred mix and match. In my experience it’s a playstyle preference more than anything. Do you go all-in on parries and interruptions, relying only on your dodges and a limited consumable item to keep yourself alive, or do you fancy the safety of a good healer on your team? Arknights Endfield is certainly open to player expression and I look forward to the possibilities.   Do you go all-in on parries and interruptions, relying only on your dodges and a limited consumable item to keep yourself alive, or do you fancy the safety of a good healer on your team? Another thing that feels souls-like is the exploration. Endfield doesn’t employ a huge sprawling open world, rather opting for smaller, more condensed and deliberate areas. As you progress through an area, you find bridges, ladders or ziplines to create shortcuts. You will want these as  Endfield  has recurring resources that respawn daily across its world. The ziplines specifically can be constructed to quickly get across areas of the map or even sequence break your way into places you’re not supposed to be in yet. Additionally, you need to draw powerlines to these ziplines from your base of operations. In fact, you also need to draw power to solve puzzles and various other situations throughout your adventures. Here’s where the factory and base camps come in.  As you progress the story you establish a main factory in each region you come across, as well as several sub-factories and camps. If you’ve played a game like Factorio  or Satsifactory , this will all feel familiar and get you excited because the developers specifically took inspiration from those games for this aspect of the gameplay. If not, worry not! There is an extensive blueprint system that can be shared among players so if you just want to quickly set up production lines for the materials you need, the community will have you optimized in a jiffy. For those who really want to dig in the optimization, however, you will have a field day and quite the extended gameplay hours in this aspect. Your factory and camps will eventually level up as you produce and sell the materials, giving you more options. You will also construct combat facilities, literal towers to attack or defend places. There is a tower defense sub-mission in these camps but you can place them anywhere you can draw power to so people tend to place them in high combat areas to speed along some of the farming you’ll be doing in the endgame. You’ll be revisiting the world and thinking about how to make shortcuts in it actively, so adjustments like this and crafting ziplines to speed up package delivery missions are commonplace. There's a lot of freedom in how you are able to engage with the game. The social aspect ties into exploration and your factory management. As mentioned before, players can make blueprints to share for factory templates to help one another out in the construction and optimization departments, but structures of other players will also show up in your world. Ziplines, stashes and combat facilities will help you along in your journey, similar to Death Stranding . Whether you repair them to keep them around or not is up to you. More hilariously are the little message boards you can put down — again, very souls-like. Who hasn’t had the classic “big chest ahead” or “jump here” experience right at a treasure chest or cliffside? These are very fun and very much as you know them — preset phrases and words you can combine to create a message somewhere in the world. Get creative!  There is also an Animal Crossing -esque stock market minigame where you can buy a certain number of Elastic Goods which vary by price daily. Buy low, sell high; simple enough, right? Well, you’ll want friends to sell them to since you can often buy at a minimum in your base and sell at the max premium in theirs. Satisfying to see number go up. Endfield  is dense with even more gameplay aspects, I simply can’t mention all of it or this preview would be even more of a novel than it already is and I haven’t even touched on the endgame offerings. Suffice it to say that there is always something you can do in Endfield . When we put all of these systems together, your daily loop is going to be (in no particular order): Check on your factories and associated camps for resources produced and sold, deliver packages through a convoluted and self-constructed set of zipline towers, fight enemies in a team of 4 distinct operators, and finally play the stock market with your friends by selling turnip- I mean uh, Elastic Goods.  Gacha And with that, we go to the third and final “G”. Endfield ’s gacha aspect might be enough to ward away some players (if the prospect of managing a base and factories didn’t already) but alas, the monetization method of choice is having you randomly roll on characters with currency you earn in-game or just straight up buy with real money. Let me say that, in my experience, the game has enough to offer to players without having you spend a dime, as I have in the Beta Test. Endfield will be completely free to play but certain aspects of it may be monetized to enhance or speed up the experience. In what way? Well, that’s the hard part. Let’s break it down in a way everyone can understand. Endfield has a character banner you can pull on to get more characters and power up your already obtained ones with multiple copies. You will get the highest rarity, a 6-star operator, guaranteed every 80 pulls that you do. However, it might not be the one you want or one that is featured. As of writing, the featured fancy character on the banner is guaranteed at 120 pulls. In comparison to its competition, this is a fairer way to do it — but only for the one copy. Additionally, where the competition has you spend your premium hard-earned currency on characters and weapons, Endfield  gives you the currency for weapon banners on each character pull you do. Higher rarity means more currency obtained, so, your rolls funnel into each other. Theoretically good, right? While the gear system is very interesting and adds an additional layer of strategy and build variety, characters do have signature weapons that are tailor-made for their kits. Sadly, that’s where my praise ends as this system is quite possibly my only real negative with Endfield  . Not to get into the nitty-gritty of it, but there are annoying hypotheticals with this system. If you pull your desired 6-star early, you are left with little currency to pull on the weapon banner. Pulling them late, leaves you with… honestly not quite enough in my opinion. While the gear system is very interesting and adds an additional layer of strategy and build variety, characters do have signature weapons that are tailor-made for their kits. The way to get these is only from the gacha. You can obtain a number of good alternative weapons through gameplay only and these will serve you well, surely. But it always feels better to play Guts with the Dragonslayer right? What’s Cloud without his Buster Sword? Thankfully, this was a common point of criticism across the experience, so there’s hope a rework of this is inbound for the full release. One big sticking point for me personally is that the game employs a limited character system unlike its predecessor. It feels like they’re leaning more towards a FOMO experience which is detrimental to the long-term experience and new player experience down the line. It sucks to tell a friend who likes a certain character that they’re not available for them, right now. “Tough luck, wait for a rerun” isn’t exactly engaging prospects if you started later than your friends. Verdict Arknights Endfield  is a dense package of experiences, polished up in stunning graphics, backed by an amazing soundtrack and stellar voice acting. Your gameplay loop feels very satisfying, using action segments to break up your exploration and menu management,  keeping you engaged for hours on end. With some more polish and a rework of its gacha system, it has the potential to be a truly unique experience — not just in the gacha space, but as a game on its own. Here’s hoping the developers deliver and that we see it pop up at the Game Awards for 2026. Image Credits: Gryphline Disclosure: We received access to the Beta via publisher code. Arknights Endfield will be available for free on PC, PS5, and mobile devices come January 22, 2026.