Sydney, Australia. – April 22, 2022 – Warner Bros. Games’ LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga, the latest LEGO Star Wars™ title featuring all nine Skywalker saga films in one brand new game, has surpassed all previous LEGO console game launches. The game has sold through 3.2 million units globally in its first two weeks and has exceeded sales records across every platform, region, and edition. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga launched on April 5 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 5® (PS5™), PlayStation®4 (PS4™) consoles, Nintendo Switch™ and PC.
Adding to the expansive roster of playable characters in the game, Warner Bros. Games released the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story™ and the Classic Characters Pack for all platforms this week. The Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Character Pack includes Jyn Erso™, Bodhi Rook, Cassian Andor™, K-2SO, Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbu and Director Krennic. The Classic Characters Pack includes classic variants of Luke Skywalker™, Princess Leia™, Han Solo, Darth Vader™ and Lando Calrissian. Both packs are available for standalone purchase and as part of the Character Collection (Season Pass), which contains all seven downloadable content packs with playable characters from across the Star Wars galaxy.
Developed by TT Games in collaboration with the Lucasfilm Games team and published by Warner Bros. Games, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga delivers an unforgettable experience through the Star Wars galaxy with the biggest roster of LEGO Star Wars characters and vehicles to date, new immersive combat mechanics, a vast array of planets to explore, and much more!
The LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Standard Editionis available for $89.95 (RRP). The LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Deluxe Edition is available for $109.95 (RRP) and includes the base game, Character Collection (Season Pass), and physical retail versions will include an exclusive LEGO Star Wars minifigure, Luke Skywalker with Blue Milk. The Character Collection contains seven downloadable content (DLC) packs with playable characters from across the galaxy including many from outside the nine saga films. The DLC packs are The Mandalorian™ Season 1, Solo: A Star Wars Story™, The Classic Characters, The Trooper Pack, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story™, The Mandalorian Season 2, and The Bad Batch™.
This morning, Wizards of the Coast hosted the first D&D Direct revealing this year’s biggest Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) announcements. You can find the full video here, or individual videos covering each announcement here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMHspJ92-hg
The 30 minute announcement revealed brand new content for adventurers, in addition to details around the new D&D film and updates on Baldur’s Gate 3. See below for more details.
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
A brand new campaign setting, Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, offers players a new universe to explore, featuring cities built atop asteroids, monster’s lairs within them, or dead gods floating in the ether. Spelljammer includes three hardcover books including The Astral Adventurer’s Guide, Boo’s Astral Menagerie bestiary, as well as Spelljammer’s own adventure the Light of Xaryxis in addition to a unique Dungeon Master’s (DM) screen and poster map. The Astral Adventurer’s Guide features everything a DM needs to kick off their own adventure in space, including six new playable races. Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is available for preorder now, and will release on 17 August 2022.
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
The latest anthology of D&D adventures, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel features stories written by 16 creators inspired by their lives, backgrounds, cultures and myths. The anthology covers 13 new adventures, and 15 new locations for characters from levels one to 14. The anthology is available now for preorder and releases on 22 June 2022.
Dragonlance is returning to D&D later this year featuring a brand new adventure book and battle game to create a new way to play D&D. Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is an adventure book that tells a brand new story at the beginning of the War of the Lance. Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn introduces a war game experience to D&D 5th Edition, featuring large scale military battles.
Wizards have released a fresh Starter Set for those eager to jump into D&D for the first time. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle offers a fresh new adventure, in addition to new digital onboarding tools and everything you need to play. The new D&D Starter Set is available for preorder now, and will release later this year.
More details have been revealed about the upcoming D&D film, including its official title, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The official release date has also been confirmed for 3 March 2023.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Presented by Larian Studios, new footage was shared following the most recent updates on Baldur’s Gate 3. Gameplay footage highlighted high fidelity visuals, characters, brand new classes and locations as well as combat. Fans can jump into the early access now, with a full release planned for 2023.
D&D Direct also shared first looks at brand new Campaign Cases, the latest Neverwinter expansion Dragonslayer, and brand new D&D Play Series Legends of the Multiverse. Visit the Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel for more details.
To celebrate Earth Day today (22 April), Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Senior Director, Environment, Social, and Governance, Kieren Mayers, has shared a blog post reflecting on the progress made by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) in addressing the company’s footprint on the planet.
As part of Sony Group’s Road to Zero plan, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has made ambitious commitments to reducing the environmental impact of its products and business activities as well as finding ways to use PlayStation content to inspire social change.
Some of the key initiatives in the past twelve months include:
Sustainability engagement is popular with our PlayStation community. For the recent Horizon Forbidden West launch, to raise awareness about climate change and protect biodiversity, the game narrative was connected to real-world action. Through this and other consumer engagement activities, SIE has invested in planting more than a half million trees with selected partners and organisations.
We’re investing in high-quality carbon offset projects. To celebrate Earth Day with our PlayStation community worldwide, we are happy to announce that SIE has offset carbon emissions equivalent to 100 million hours of average console electricity use during gameplay*. Through the Gold Standard Organisation, SIE is supporting a combination of initiatives aiding biodiversity and sustainable living within developing countries and investment in new renewable energy capacity.
Using the power of video games to raise awareness and inspire change. SIE will participate again in this year’s Playing for the Planet Green Game Jam. PlayStation Studios’ Media Molecule is hosting an interactive Green Game Jam for their community to create games on the theme of ‘Sustainable Farming’ in Dreams. For each of the first 1,300 games created and uploaded during the Game Jam, SIE will plant up to 100 trees for a maximum total of 130,000 trees in partnership with The Arbor Day Foundation.
Supporting data centres to transition to renewable electricity. SIE worked with the data centres that house our game streaming servers to ensure their facilities meet the latest efficiency benchmarks, while encouraging them to transition to renewable electricity consumption wherever possible. Using 2020 as a base year, 78% of the electricity used for streaming PlayStation games came from renewable sources.
SIE continued to address the Work-From-Home impact of our employees. SIE has also addressed an estimated share of the electricity use for our employees while working from home by purchasing carbon offsets to cover the impact throughout FY2021. The main SIE offices in the US and Europe continue to use 100% renewable electricity, and offices in Japan are transitioning to fully renewable electricity by the end of this fiscal year.
Reducing our impact by addressing material usage in PlayStation game boxes. In FY2021, we started integrating recycled plastic in PlayStation game boxes into our supply globally. In total, 10% of the plastic used for producing our game boxes over the year was sourced from post-industrial waste.
Driving change as a united gaming industry. SIE is a proud founding member of the United Nations Playing for the Planet (P4P) Alliance that launched in 2019 and SIE will continue to work toward contributing to UNEP goals.
New Campaign, New Features, New Endgame Coming June 30
SYDNEY, AUS (April 22ND, 2022) – SQUARE ENIX® today announced OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER, a massive upgrade for OUTRIDERS™, the high-intensity looter shooter where survival demands aggression from People Can Fly, the developers of Gears of War: Judgment and BULLETSTORM, andSquare Enix External Studios, the minds behind SLEEPING DOGS® and JUST CAUSE®.
Watch the OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER Spotlight here:
OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER is a brutal 1-3 player co-op looter shooter set in an original, dark sci-fi universe, where you create will your own Outrider from one of four powerful classes. Begin with the original OUTRIDERS campaign or use the all-new Level 30 Boost to jump straight into the WORLDSLAYER content with a fully geared up Outrider and journey across the diverse and deadly planet of Enoch.
Face off against the most deadly Altered ever encountered, Ereshkigal, in humanity’s last fight for survival. Beyond her, even greater horrors exist in the ultimate endgame experience, taking place in the ancient ruins of Tarya Gratar.
Combining aggressive gunplay with violent powers and an arsenal of increasingly twisted customisable weaponry and gear-sets, OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER offers countless hours of visceral gameplay from one of the finest shooter developers in the industry – People Can Fly.
Watch the OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER Trailer here:
“We can’t wait for players to experience WORLDSLAYER. In addition to a whole new story, we’ve introduced a number of new features that really expands and improves on everything players loved about the original game,” said Bartek Kmita, Creative Director at People Can Fly. “WORLDSLAYER includes nearly a hundred new legendary items, higher gear level caps, Apocalypse tier difficulty, Apocalypse gear, and new ways to progress your Outrider with the all-new PAX tree and Ascension levels. Not to mention the Trial of Tarya Gratar, a new endgame experience that’s different from anything we’ve done in OUTRIDERS before”.
OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER will be available on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Steam, Epic and Windows Store, Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now on June 30th, 2022.
Existing OUTRIDERS owners can purchase the WORLDSLAYER Upgrade to access WORLDSLAYER content.
For more information, watch the rest of OUTRIDERSWORLDSLAYER Broadcast here:
Established in 2002, People Can Fly, is one of the best AAA game development studios in Poland and one of the leading UNREAL ENGINE studios in Europe. People Can Fly operates in Warsaw, Rzeszów, Newcastle and New York, with newly opened start-up studios in Łódź (PL) and Montreal (CA).
PCF made its mark on the shooter genre and is known for titles such as Bulletstorm: Full Clip (launched on April 7, 2017) , Gears of War: Judgment (published in 2013), Bulletstorm (an original, Unreal Engine 3-powered onslaught of ‘kill with skill’ gameplay and blockbuster moments, published in 2011.) and Painkiller (launched in 2004).
Besides Outriders People Can Fly is currently working on two other AAA projects: new game for Square Enix and recently announced original, action-adventure title for Take-Two Interactive.
People Can Fly made its debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in December 2020.
About Square Enix External Studios
Square Enix External Studios is a London based development and publishing group that works with top development studios across the world, establishing new intellectual properties and developing new franchises within the umbrella of the Square Enix group of companies. Square Enix External Studios have been responsible for multiple games including the Just Cause® and Life is Strange® series, as well as titles such as Batman: Arkham Asylum™ and Sleeping Dogs®.
About Square Enix Ltd.
Square Enix Ltd. develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX®, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content in Europe and other PAL territories as part of the Square Enix group of companies. Square Enix Ltd. also has a global network of leading development studios such as Crystal Dynamics® and Eidos Montréal®. The Square Enix group of companies boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY®, which has sold over 168 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 84 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 88 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix Ltd. is a London-based, wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
Unleash your most artful tactics to secure the victory in 1v7 and 1v1 strategic battles
April 22, 2022 — World of Tanks is more than just sheer steel and firepower; it’s about tactics and strategy, and the latest event takes this up a gear! Players can master the Art of Strategy from today until early May.
The event consists of two formats which feature Tier X vehicles exclusively: 1v1 and 1v7. The 1v1 RTS-style format will see two Strategists engaged in a battle of wits for supremacy on the battlefield using the squads of 7 vehicles at their command. The 1v7 format pits 7 Tankers against a single Strategist and their 7 vehicles that await orders. The 1v1 mode is available from today, allowing players to familiarize themselves with it and its nuances before taking on the 1v7 one, which arrives on April 25th. And no matter which side a player land on, Strategist or Tanker, the path to victory is the same: destroy all enemy vehicles or capture the base.
The two roles are different from each other: Those playing the Strategist role will command a squad of seven AI-controlled Tier X vehicles, that operate independently, as the Strategist sets stances and issues appropriate commands throughout the battle. They will also be able to set routes for their vehicles as they watch over the battlefield in a “bird’s-eye” view. Unlike the Tankers, the Strategist has auxiliary defences in fixed positions that act as independent combat units. At any time during battle, the Strategist can also take control of any one of the 7 vehicles in their squad and command them individually.
Both sides will only have a minute pre-battle to decide their tactics and set themselves up for victory. This 60-second period will play a massive part in the outcome of the battle. The Strategist can use this time to deploy their vehicles and set up their defences, while the Tankers will assign roles that fit their vehicles and contemplate which avenues should be their key routes. Players who take part in the Art of Strategy event will have access to two daily missions for both roles (four in total). By completing daily missions, they’ll get closer to customization element rewards that include styles, inscriptions, decals, badges and 5 unique fully trained crew members, all of which come with Brothers in Arms as a zero perk and enough crew XP to immediately learn another perk or skill of the player’s choice, as well as medals for winning battles.
Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has grown to become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices around the world, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Millions of players enjoy Wargaming’s titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include the free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz.
World of Tanks is the first team-based, massively multiplayer online action game dedicated to the golden age of tank-engineering. Immerse yourself in epic tank battles with gamers all over the world. Your arsenal includes over 600 armoured vehicles from 11 nations, carefully detailed with historical accuracy.
Immersive Language Learning Game Influent Schools Android Devices Today
LOS ANGELES – Apr. 21, 2022 – Influent, the immersive language learning game from Three Flip Studios that has taught new languages to more than 500,000 students on Steam, declares class in session on Android via the Google Play Store today.
Learn a new language by virtually encountering everyday words and objects commonly found in real-world settings, improving both vocabulary and listening skills in more than 20 languages. A complement to other language learning tools on the market, Influent also teaches situational context of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in a gamified format to make language learning fun and engaging.
Discover the world of Andrew Cross, the young inventor of a revolutionary language-translating device known as the SanjigenJiten, capable of scanning objects and translating their names into any language. But when the greedy CEO of a massive tech company steals the invention, Andrew sets up a fundraising livestream. He pledges to livestream himself mastering over 400 words in a language learning marathon to raise the money needed to take them to court.
Explore Andrew’s apartment to learn the words for hundreds of everyday objects, such as the pillows on his bed, games on the shelf, and food in the refrigerator. Play through comprehensive challenges that help hone both visual and auditory memorization, like piloting a remote-controlled spaceship in Space Vole and blasting lasers at the correct objects for given words.
Customize vocabulary lists to focus more time learning troublesome words, track progress, and monitor setbacks by measuring proficiency to make sure words go from tongue-tied to eloquent. Discord integration helps language learners share their progress, get help, and even help others.
“I’m super excited to bring the fun of language learning to a new audience and get Influent into the hands of players on Android devices,” said Rob Howland, Co-Founder of Three Flip Studios and creator of Influent. “Whether you’re on a commute, have ten minutes to kill, or are just winding down for the night, helping people learn new languages in an engaging new way has always been the goal of Influent and this new mobile edition makes it much more accessible.”
Influent launches today on Android via the Google Play Store as a free download with French, Italian, and Korean packs available at no cost plus 20 additional language packs available for $3.99 each.
Influent’s long list of language packs include English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Swedish, Latin, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Russian, Bulgarian, Dutch, Polish, and Welsh.
Three Flip Studios is a passionate two-person development team. They published Influent on Steam, a language learning game developed under a research project at the Entertainment Computing Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and have since launched Armed and Gelatinous, the frenzied multiplayer arcade space shooter in select arcades throughout the US.
To learn more about Three Flip Studios, please visit its official website.
Hack and Slash Through a Violent Cyberpunk Megacity to Discover The Truth Behind Your Limitless Resurrection
BEIJING, CHINA – APRIL 21, 2022 – Developer eBrain Studio has announced that a free playable demo for the roguelite action-thriller LOOPMANCER is now available on PC via Steam. Enter a megacity underworld in the Far East as Xiang Zixu, a private detective investigating the vanishing of a famous reporter. Following a crucial lead, he is murdered, only to awaken in his bed. Xiang discovers that time resets when he dies, bringing him back to his apartment. What the hell is going on!?
Watch LOOPMANCER’s new gameplay
Kill, die and enact revenge in an infinite cycle to uncover the connections between your case, your murder and your limitless resurrection. Slice bionic cyborgs, deformed mutants, and street level gangsters. Unlock cybernetic enhancements, high-tech guns, and explosive abilities to perfect the art of slow-motion annihilation.
“You’re just a petty detective!” says Wei Long, LOOPMANCER’s flamboyant mob boss, when first confronting Xiang. “Put the word out. Whoever kills this guy gets a 500K reward!!”
In LOOPMANCER, players will explore seven massive cyberpunk levels, each with its own unique aesthetic and design. Avoid hidden traps and solve clever puzzles across bustling streets and chilling ghost towns. Every death is an opportunity to revisit one of these intricately designed levels – with different, randomly generated layouts to feed your adrenaline rush.
Make choices and investigate side paths in each level to unlock seven unique endings. Discover how each decision you make affects Xiang and the twisted lives of the people you meet. Do you have what it takes to become a LOOPMANCER?
LOOPMANCER’s free playable demo is now available on Steam. The game will launch on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store in 1H 2022.
The demo integrates NVIDIA DLSS for performance boosting. NVIDIA DLSS is an AI super resolution algorithm accelerated by Tensor Cores on GeForce RTX GPUs. It allows the game to render at 1080p, improving framerates. It also uses AI and game engine data to deliver the image quality of a native 4K output.
The full version of LOOPMANCER will include RT. Please stay tuned for more updates.
ABOUT EBRAIN STUDIO eBrain Studio is a Beijing-based 21-person team currently hard at work on its first game, LOOPMANCER. The title will launch on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store later this year.
Outlive the Dead in Pinball FX’s New “World War Z” Table, Out Now
Battle hordes of undead in the first new table for the next-generation pinball game
Zen Studios has revealed “World War Z Pinball,” the first new table for Pinball FX since the game’s recent launch into early access. Outlive the dead by rolling through swarms of zekes and scoring big to help the survivors escape the Central Mall.
“World War Z Pinball” Table Features:
Set up your defenses, collect weapons and fight to survive and climb the leaderboards
Defeat special enemies like the Bull, Gasbag and more as 3D characters on the playfield
Explore the mall on the mini-playfield to collect ammo, traps and raise your score
Send balls up the escalator ramp to move between floors
Load up the auto-turret and blast zombies in Machine Gun Madness
Make a stand against the undead swarm and battle massive hordes in Wizard Mode
“World War Z Pinball” is available today exclusively as DLC in Pinball FX for 60 tickets. Pinball Pass subscribers can access the table in-game for free.
Pinball FX is digital pinball evolved, featuring a growing collection of new and enhanced tables inspired by the biggest names in entertainment, plus faithful recreations of pinball’s most famous machines with Williams Pinball and inventive new Zen Originals creations! Experience the action with advanced Pro Physics simulation, 4K HDR visuals with ray tracing, and new content coming throughout early access.
Pinball FX is free to download in early access for PC on the Epic Games Store. It is expected to officially launch on PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch later this year. Keep up with the latest updates by visiting www.PinballFX.com, and following the team on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
SAN DIEGO – April 21, 2022 – Psyonix, the San Diego video game developer, announced a brand new in-game event called Knockout Bash that begins in Rocket League on April 27 on all platforms! Knockout Bash will include a new Limited Time Mode (LTM) called Knockout, Event Challenges and Rewards, and Golden Gift Baskets.
The content featured in Knockout Bash is:
The Debut of Knockout – In the new Knockout LTM, 8 players must knock each other off platforms or into Hazards until one player is left standing. Knockout has no balls or goals, a Rocket League first, and features new mechanics like Attack, Block, Grab, and more to master. Players will compete in 3 new Arenas (Quadron, Carbon, and Calavera) in Knockout and to learn more about the LTM, read the latest blog post HERE. Additionally, a video detailing the creation of Knockout will be released soon as part of a new video series called “Under the Hood.”
New Event Challenges – Players will be able to complete new Event Challenges to unlock Spring-themed items such as the Florescence Wheels, Monarch Boost, or the animated Flutterby Decal.
Golden Gift Baskets – Players can earn Golden Gift Baskets that unlock a mix of classic items from the Victory, Accelerator, and Turbo Item Series.
Twitch viewers will also be able to receive the Bob’s Ramen Player Banner Twitch Drop by watching select Rocket League streamers when the event begins.
ABOUT ROCKET LEAGUE Winner or nominee of more than 150 “Game of the Year” awards, Rocket League is one of the most critically acclaimed sports games of our generation. Rocket League is a high-powered hybrid of arcade-style soccer and vehicular mayhem with easy-to-understand controls and fluid, physics-driven competition. Available on Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Epic Games Store, Rocket League includes nearly endless customization possibilities, online Ranks and Competitive Tournaments, a fully featured offline season mode, multiple game types, casual and competitive online matches, and special “Mutators” that let you change the rules entirely.
To learn more about Rocket League, please visit www.RocketLeague.com, “Like” it on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter @RocketLeague for all the latest developer updates and news.
ABOUT PSYONIX™ Based in San Diego, CA, Psyonix is a critically acclaimed video game developer and a leading expert in Unreal Engine technology. For more than 20 years, the studio has been a driving force behind some of the most successful games in the industry, including Gears of War, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Bulletstorm, Unreal Tournament III, Unreal Tournament 2004, and the award-winning sports-action hit, Rocket League®. Psyonix joined the Epic Games family in 2019.
Many games are released every single day, so it’s difficult, especially for a new developer, to stand out. Kraken Academy!! is Happy Broccoli Games’ first game, and to attract attention, they decided to use very eye-catching promotional visuals with bright colors and nice-looking drawings. Time travel is not a new concept, be it in movies or video games, but here it’s approached with a lot of humor making the concept feel fresh.
Story
The player plays as a teen boy starting at a new school called Kraken Academy. The school is composed of multiple clubs that each represent an activity: there’s the music club, the art club, the sports club, and the drama club. However, soon after the main character arrives, he discovers that the school is in danger and that he’s the one that must save it from destruction. To achieve this task, he will only have three days.
The game doesn’t take itself very seriously, a lot of the characters and situations are intentionally absurd. For example, the main character becomes the disciple of a giant kraken, and the player can befriend a girl turned into a living broccoli. There’s even a parody of Ace Attorney. Still, I found myself interested in the main storyline and I really wanted to discover the secrets behind the school. Additionally, I liked most of the characters and thought it was fun to do their side quests so, that I could befriend them. But, as it is often the case with humor, the game might not appeal to everyone.
Gameplay
The core gameplay is very simple. It mainly consists of going around the school, talking to NPCs and to smash bins and lockers in order to obtain bottles that can then be exchanged against in-game currency. Overall, the gameplay is very fluid and satisfying.
Some events in the main story will require the player to play through quick time events to make sure the character realizes tasks correctly. While I understand that these QTEs were added to make the gameplay feel a bit more dynamic and engaging, in my opinion, they were not necessary and, after a while I even found them to be rather annoying.
Towards the end of the game, the gameplay changes a little bit for the duration of a few boss fights. The player will have to dodge attacks and hit the boss at the right moment. Even if these fights are easy after a couple of failures, there’s the option to skip these parts, which I think is great.
The game revolves around a time travel mechanic. There’s only three days, from Monday to Wednesday, to save the school. Most quests will have to be achieved on specific days, but if the player misses the deadline, there’s still the possibly to rewind time and go back to Monday. An option to make time go forward is also present which is useful, especially when completing side quests. A game mechanic based on seeing the same three days again and again might sound boring. Yet, it isn’t because each time a quest of the main storyline is achieved a new part of the school will be open. Meaning new buildings to explore, new characters to meet as well as new side quests.
There’s an emphasis on completion thanks to in-game achievements and a completion percentage that is shown each time after saving. To complete the game at 100%, the player has to achieve both the main storyline and all of the side quests. This is obviously a way to increase the lifespan of the game. I’m not usually the type of person to fully complete games outside of the main storyline, but I enjoyed how that aspect was designed here, and I did continue playing even after finishing the main story.
Visuals
The game is mostly made in rather basic pixel art. It is not the best-looking pixel art I’ve ever seen in a video game, but it’s still easy to tell what the locations and objects are supposed to represent. On the other hand, the drawn visuals are gorgeous and help to make the multiple characters feel unique. These visuals were clearly inspired by anime, which is something the game totally embraces during its animated intro cutscene. I want to add that the in-game menus look very good, and it is clear that a lot of efforts were put into making them.
Audio
The soundtrack was not bad, but it didn’t leave much impression on me either.
Overall
Overall, I enjoyed playing this game and I recommend it! I did have some issues with the repetitiveness of the QTEs, I also wish that the school grounds would have been bigger and the soundtrack more memorable. Still, the game is very enjoyable with a fluid gameplay, fun characters, and a humorous and rather engaging story.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
