Author: Alan Wen

NME

It might be early to call, especially when we’ve still got a few months of 2022 to go, but I’m already positive who the front-runner is for 2023’s game of the year, and that’s Street Fighter 6.

• READ MORE: ‘Street Fighter 6’ preview: punchy and promising

I’ve already played Street Fighter 6, the latest in Capcom’s 35-year-old franchise so I already knew this beta would be special. But after spending a weekend in Street Fighter 6’s closed beta, its Battle Hub comes close to capturing that atmosphere online, and then some.

Fighting games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear Strive have already experimented with turning lobbies into a virtual space, but Capcom has gone the whole nine yards with a lobby that’s an arena-sized arcade space for the fighting game community (FGC). Instead of looking at dull menus while you wait for matchmaking, you create your own avatar to walk around, chat to your mates, or just walk up to a cabinet and take your seat either to spend time in training mode, or sit down opposite another player to challenge them.

You can still just turn on matchmaking for ranked and casual matches like normal, but there’s something special about being able to rub virtual shoulders with FGC pros and queuing up next to their cabinet for a challenge. Indeed, I did just that during the closed beta, and predictably got bodied by one-time Street Fighter 5 Evo champion Problem X.

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Trying to challenge former Evo champ Problem X, got close to getting a round… #PS5Share, #StreetFighter6ClosedBeta pic.twitter.com/BwdyJUuCHI

— Alan Wen (@DaMisanthrope) October 8, 2022

You’ll still want to spend time in menus, where plenty of settings can be configured such as your selected fighter, classic or modern controls, or personalising your profile banner and challenger screen. Most interesting is how some options are tailored exclusively to you, so the stage you pick won’t necessarily be what your opponent sees (spectators can say goodbye to boring training stage bouts), and if you turn on the in-game commentary, you can even have it always rooting for you.

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"Is it gonna kill?…“ #PS5Share, #StreetFighter6ClosedBeta pic.twitter.com/B7N3OFGxQ9

— Alan Wen (@DaMisanthrope) October 8, 2022

Given how games are effectively becoming social spaces, a metaverse direction is perhaps expected, as you complete daily challenges and earn credits to spend at the shop to kit out your avatar. But then there’s also lovely touches like a big screen keeping track of players on a win streak, a stage decked out with Street Fighter Chibi-style pixel art where you can take selfies, or cabinets where you can play Capcom arcade classics like Final Fight or Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo on rotation.

None of this would matter if the game itself wasn’t up to snuff. But after spending considerably more hours than just trying to figure things out on the spot on a show floor, I’m appreciating the depth of possibilities with the new Drive system, especially how to react against Drive Impacts or abusing it to push opponents against a wall and briefly stunning them so I can easily execute a Critical Art. That’s also included being on the receiving end of Kimberly players pulling off terrifying juggling combos with the American ninja’s dash and spray can mechanics.

All of this is held up by the most incredible netcode, a polar contrast to the lag that blighted Street Fighter 5. It doesn’t mean the closed beta wasn’t without issues initially, but once you’re in a match, it’s been solid 60 FPS virtually the whole time. I even played an opponent based in Australia where the connection had an alarming red display, and it was stable. On these firm foundations and with a fighter’s paradise to hang out in, Street Fighter 6 is going to be the best fighting game Capcom has ever made.

Street Fighter 6 launches on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023.

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Immortality is Sam Barlow’s first interactive movie.  After years of work in the FMV genre, Immortality is a game about the making of movies, equal parts demystifying and magical. Rather than sifting through police interrogation videos or secret recordings from intimate conversations, the latest from Barlow’s studio Half Mermaid Productions concerns itself with cinema.

• READ MORE: The 8 best PC games you need to play in 2022

We’re treated to not one but three movies, the first a late 60s Gothic erotic thriller that feels reminiscent of Ken Russell’s controversial masterpiece The Devils, the second a seedy 70s crime noir, while the third is a late 90s drama and thriller exploring fame, artifice, and duality in the pop music business.

These are the only movies to feature legendary actress Marissa Marcel (Manon Gage), but none were actually ever released, while she has since disappeared. But just how will watching these old films tell us about the kind of person she was and what happened to her, let alone what had happened in the more than two decades difference between shooting two of those films?

Similarly to Barlow’s past games, the footage is presented to you in fragments before you gradually unlock more clips. This isn’t just footage intended for the films, but also from behind the scenes, from screen tests to table reads, rehearsals to making of interviews, and even someone’s personal 8mm video diary.

Just like Her Story and Telling Lies, you’ll tumble through the clips in a non-linear fashion, as well as flitting between films, so there’s no telling what context you’ll have of a scene, added to the fact you’re taking a moment to adjust to whether what you’re seeing is real or performance (obviously, it’s all acting, but you get the idea).

While the above games had you typing in words much like a search engine to find new footage, Immortality grants players with their own piece of movie magic: the match cut. You may not be creating something as iconic as the bone-to-orbital satellite in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the same principle applies, as you freeze the frame to enter Image Mode and then select a person or object that catches your eye, which then zooms in then back out into another scene.

Select Marcel’s face from her first scene in Ambrosio and you may be transported to seeing her as a blonde in Two of Everything. Focus on a cigarette in Minsky and you’ll perhaps find yourself in another scene in that film, since everyone can’t get enough of puffing away in that era. Then there are times that it makes more audacious leaps, such as clicking a polaroid camera that takes us to a mo-cap studio with dozens of cameras on the wall.

There’s an unpredictability to this mechanic since you don’t know where it will take you, although you’re always free to go back out to look over all your unlocked footage anyway. For the first hours, the best way to experience Immortality is just letting your eyes and instincts lead you as you poke around and effectively teleport through space and time on celluloid. Before you know it, recurring characters, imagery, and narrative threads quietly lodge into your brain, and by the second half, you’ll be more determined to actively consider how to fill in the other missing pieces. It may not look like an open world game, but the sense of traversal and discovery as you point to a landmark that catches your fancy and just explore isn’t at all far off as a comparison.

It’s easy to sort through the footage, clearly dated and categorised, with optional filters available. More importantly, you’re free to scrub the footage at different speeds, backwards or forwards, while using the sticks and clicks of a controller give a tactile feel of almost manually operating a Moviola editing machine.

Yet as convenient as the tools are and how you’re free to make just instantly cut to another shot, such as a supercut of kisses, it wouldn’t matter if there wasn’t an engaging story here, some which gleefully play up their arthouse exploitation vibe while also illuminating the chemistry and conflicts happening at the camera’s fringes.

Given the first two films’ era of new-wave where underground filmmakers want to push boundaries, they capture the aesthetic and mood of the times – which is to say, expect a fair amount of sex and nudity – but being privy to ancillary footage, we’re also exposed to the uncomfortable casual sexism of the time, whether that’s a talk show host’s lecherous remarks, a male director swearing at one actress while ignoring another’s suggestions, or a veteran actor casually stealing a kiss from an actress not in the position to say no.

That’s not to say that Marcel is a mere object of the male gaze. As a newcomer, Gage is utterly magnetic in the leading role, convincing as a ravishing temptress and femme fatale on screen while fearlessly speaking her mind to her male auteurs and pushing the buttons of her male co-stars.

The only thing that might detract from the experience is that it eventually becomes more difficult to unlock new clips, with some visuals merely leading back you to an existing clip. Sometimes it’s just random luck as a visual you’ve used before may spring you over to somewhere new this time. Along with this is the use of a non-diegetic score that plays over footage quite frequently, which may evoke the mood of mystery, but often feels more of a distraction, especially if it’s not there to serve as a cue in your narrative progression.

Take care however not to overlook the audio, or haptics, as they become vital to solving Immortality’s grand mystery, though to elaborate any further would be to spoil things. The most we’ll say is that once the penny drops, it’s like discovering Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night’s inverted castle for the first time. Making a comparison with another video game classic isn’t coincidental, because underneath the excellent script, remarkable performances, and attentive set design, Immortality succeeds first and foremost as a video game.

Immortality is out now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, Android, Xbox Game Pass, and Netflix. This review was played on Xbox Series S.

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Whatever you think of golf, game developers have found inventive ways to make use of its intuitive mechanics for a variety of games over the years, from the delightfully destructive Dangerous Golf to the retro JRPG-inspired Golf Story, not to mention the absurd amalgamation of everything in What The Golf?. Cursed To Golf then is the latest golfing twist but which cleverly works in two popular sub-genres, the roguelike and the deckbuilder.

• READ MORE: The best Xbox Game Pass games you can play today

You play a would-be champion golfer set to finish their final hole in a major tournament until they’re killed by a lightning strike from a freak storm. But rather than ascending to the Elysian links you instead find yourself plummeting all the way down into Golf Purgatory.

All is not lost however as you meet a friendly Scottish caddie (aptly, he nicknames your cursed golfer ‘Wee One’) who tells you about a legend of how you can return to the land of the living if you can complete 18 holes of golf in the underworld. These don’t just contain more fiendish environmental obstacles than the crazy golf courses of your childhood seaside holiday but a mysterious Greenskeeper is constantly changing up the courses each time you fail, meaning there’s far more than 18 individual holes that exist. But is the novel concept up to Par?

The golfing in question is presented in a side-scrolling perspective like mobile classic Desert Golfing, which gives Cursed To Golf the feel of a 2D platformer, also helped by the charming 16-bit aesthetic. Instead of running and jumping, you’re swinging your club to get your ball around these often expansive and fiendishly designed courses, switching between the driver, iron or wedge clubs to suit the distance or arc you’re trying to get your ball to go.

You can liken it to being a turn-based platformer, which also makes it more approachable a roguelike compared to the likes of Spelunky and Dead Cells that demand fast-thinking twitch-based reactions, though precision remains key. While the game lets you redo the power meter, you still have to time the shot’s arc, especially if you’re trying to get it through a very tight spot, plus there are more than just rough spots and bunkers you have to worry about (each respectively limiting the kind of club you can use to get them out).

More importantly, you’re given just five shots to reach the hole before you’re whisked back to the beginning, and sometimes it takes just one little mistake to ruin your run, especially if your ball lands into one of the many environmental hazards that not only wastes your shot but also takes away another as a penalty. However, unlike a typical round of golf, it’s also clear you stand little to no chance of actually finishing a course with that limit. Instead, you’ll need to find ways to increase your counter, such as smashing the statues placed around each level, with the silver statue granting you two more shots while the gold gives four more.

The other way to top up your shots is through cards, which brings us to the deckbuilding component. You start each run with a basic deck, but you can acquire more either as pick-ups based on the route you’ve picked or by buying card packs from any stores you pass with the money you’ve earned from each course. There’s cards that let you practice or re-do a shot, but also more inventive ones, such as being able to freely control the ball in the air for a limited time as a mini rocket, another where you can change its direction mid-flight, and even some that imbues it with one of the elements like fire, thunder and ice, even though it’s not immediately obvious what function these serve.

One trick you have up your sleeve that doesn’t require a card is spinning the ball after it bounces by mashing a button and holding the stick left or right, which can give go just a little further, or maybe bring it back so that it just manages to roll out of a rough spot or to prevent it from falling off a precariously small platform. When you’re down to your final shot and you just need a little nudge for it to reach the hole, this technique can be a life-saver.

Developer Chuhai Labs also ups the risk-reward stakes by commonly steering you towards paths of most resistance. Bonus pick-ups or shop locations usually mean having to play a cursed hole where you’re afflicted with random conditions for one or two shots, some statues tend to be located in tricky places that might have you wasting just as many shots they give you, while some shortcuts are deliberately inaccessible unless you have one or two specific cards in your possession. The latter really emphasises the importance of preparing a good deck, and fortunately you can always bank cards at the shop to use in a future run.

The biggest obstacle you’ll encounter however are the bosses found at the end of each of the game’s four biomes. While obviously changing the dynamic so that you’re competing against another opponent while still keeping an eye on the shot counter, these challenges are a double-edged sword. Of course, they should feel more powerful than you, but their gimmicks can feel unfair, such as one where parts of the level literally change before your turn. While you can break idol statues that will stun them for a turn, many of these tend to require using more shots to reach, in effect making them redundant. Nonetheless, triumph and you’ll also gain new abilities that will in effect prevent you from having to completely reset your run, and at least you won’t have to play against defeated bosses on subsequent runs.

Due to its turn-based nature, a run in Cursed To Golf can also feel slow, even though you can fast-forward actions. It’s further exacerbated by just how long most courses can run for, averaging to anywhere between 15 to 30 shots, so you may be looking at a run that lasts several hours compared to the tighter 30-minutes runs of a typical roguelike.

While you’re able to quit and return where you left off, that time investment nonetheless means losing your progress and getting sent back to the first hole of Golf Purgatory feels a lot more deflating, putting me off from attempting immediately afterwards. Nonetheless, for those who are patient and persistent, this is a charming entry point to the roguelikes and deckbuilders here, held together by timeless and ever-adaptable golf mechanics.

Cursed To Golf is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Tested on PlayStation 5.

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The loop of any Monster Hunter is getting overwhelmed by a fearsome monster and then learning their quirks before overcoming them and using their parts for better gear, ready to take on the next challenge.

• READ MORE: Steam Deck review: a marvel of a miniature gaming PC

Monster Hunter isn’t a game about resting on laurels: there’s always a bigger, tougher hunt on the horizon. Capcom has taken it to heart, following the successful Monster Hunter Rise with first expansion Sunbreak. With new locations, new monsters, and tougher challenges, Sunbreak is exactly what you’d expect, even if that means there’s not much in the way of surprise.

To some extent, that’s because Rise already laid the innovative groundwork following the global smash of Monster Hunter World, introducing the exciting game-changing wirebug mechanics that made traversal and monster-hunting much more efficient, as well as the very reliable wolf-like Palamutes.

Mechanically, Sunbreak adds a few more features for the above but doesn’t bring a whole lot else new to the fold – in fact, it completely jettisons the tower defence-style Rampages from the base game, which while novel having hordes of monsters to take on at once was generally quite divisive amongst fans. The main difference then is a change of location as your hunter is called away to the medieval kingdom of Elgado on a mission to hunt Malzeno, a frighteningly powerful Elder Dragon whose ability to drain the life from other monsters makes it a threat to the overall ecosystem.

The new Elgado Outpost, which has everything conveniently in one place, does make a fresh change from Kamura Village, which was strangely split into single-player and multiplayer areas. Personally, it lacks the distinct charm of Kamura’s overtly Japanese influences, although Dango is still on the menu for buffing your hunters before a big hunt (it’s sadly however missing its own cheesy jingle).

But your main events are the new locations and the monsters that roam in them. In fact, one map is actually the Jungle area hailing from Monster Hunter 2, which will be a treat for old-school hunters who can now traverse this map in its entirety without loading screens. The new Citadel map is huge with the ruins of a gothic castle and a drawbridge at its centrepiece, which is quite fitting with the Universal horror vibes emanating from the three new monsters, dubbed the Three Lords. If the vampiric nature of the regal-looking Malzeno makes it Sunbreak’s Dracula, then the bipedal Lunagaron is the ice Wolf Man, while wild ape-like Garangolm somewhat resembles Boris Karloff’s version of Frankenstein’s Monster.

Yet fun as these additions are, a problem is that it takes a while for them to show up, with much of the early half of Sunbreak’s campaign spent on you hunting the same monsters from the base game. In fairness, this is the new Master Rank, so old monsters have learned a few new tricks and put up quite a fight – we certainly don’t remember an Aksonom taking so long to take down. These more powerful versions, including new sub-species such as Blood Orange Bishaten, do plenty to keep you on your toes, reminding you that you’ll also need to be forging new stronger gear to stand a chance lest you spend most of the hunt getting knocked sideways and humbly carted back to camp. Even then, if you’re to compare with the previous Iceborne expansion for World, where you get straight into a new map and new monster, it does feel like Sunbreak suffers from a bit of padding before you get to the good stuff, including returning favourites like Gore Magala and Seregios.

Besides new gear to add to your wishlist, the new Switch Skill Swap mechanic also provides more ways to mix up your playstyle, as you can set your loadout of unique weapon skills to a red and blue scroll, then swap between them in the middle of a hunt. While it sounds daunting having to balance more mechanics in your head, with additional UI at the bottom of the screen just to help you stay on track, it works well in practice, especially if you follow the game’s advice of keeping your tried-and-tested Switch Skills on the red scroll, while keeping your specials on blue, so it’s not as confusing as it first appears. But just like the other new content, it’s also not until later that you get new Switch Skills for every weapon type that makes this mechanic much more interesting to play with.

While still not a game you’re playing for story purposes, Sunbreak also features Follower Quests, an exclusively single-player option where you hunt alongside AI-controlled characters such as Kingdom knight Fiorayne, sister of Rise trader Rondine, which build up your relationship with them and then allow you to invite them to Support Survey hunts where you can partner with up to two characters at once. So that they’re not left out, your old pals from Kamura can also take part. It’s a nice alternative for players less interested in matching up with randoms online, plus if any of these hunters are knocked out it won’t be added to the number of times the group has been carted like it is for multiplayer hunts, and you can even try to revive them on the spot.

That said, this feature also feels underutilised as it’s very much optional and not part of the campaign, even if there are rewards in it for you. Having it exclusively single-player only also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially since there are a few story-based hunts where Fiorayne will accompany you, which you obviously still can open up for other players to join.

Despite some shortcomings, Sunbreak is still an excellent addition for fans already hooked into Monster Hunter’s loop. It’s a tougher sell for someone jumping in for the first time, since it does require getting through the base game first, and there’s not really a way to fast-track that. But then this expansion is Master mode, as the new Master Rank name implies, so it’s one you have to earn lest you want an early stomping. Prime yourself for the challenges that come, and there’s a very long post-game to look forward to, especially once you unlock the new tougher ‘Afflicted’ monster variants, while further updates planned all the way into 2023 means the hunt is far from over.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is out now on Nintendo Switch and PC. We played on Switch.

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Monster Hunter is what I call, in the best possible way, a Ronseal game – the RPG does exactly what it says on the tin. Since its global breakthrough with 2018’s World, Capcom has done even better with cutting down the faff and getting players straight into the main event, while Monster Hunter Rise streamlined it into an almost arcadey variant where some hunts could be over in less than ten minutes despite still being allotted the maximum 50 minutes typical in the series. That may be a better fit for a flexible system like the Switch but understandably comes in for criticism from core fans used to more of a challenge.

• READ MORE: Watched ‘Stranger Things’? Here’s how you can start playing ‘Dungeons & Dragons’

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is then just what doctor ordered: a massive expansion that relocates from the Japanese-inspired village of Kamura to the more medieval Elgado, but also isn’t afraid to knock you on your arse and see more hunters getting carted (community jargon for when you’re KO’d by a monster before the scene cuts to a cat wheeling your body on a cart back to camp).

As an expansion that can only be accessed once players have beaten Rise’s campaign, it should come as no surprise that the expansion’s new Master Rank quests don’t need to throw out a glorified meat puppet for your first hunt. Then again, for this hands-on we’ve been thrown in the deep end by taking on a four-star Master Rank hunt. Also, despite having sunk over 100 hours into Rise since last year, it’s been a few months since my last visit so I was a bit rusty, re-familiarising myself with my main weapons Long Sword and Hunting Horn on top of Sunbreak’s new mechanics.

Nonetheless, this hunt was the perfect opportunity to take on new monster Lunagaron, something of a cross between a dragon and an ice werewolf. The latter description certainly is in step with the spooky vibes in new map The Citadel, complete with gothic castle ruins surrounded in an ominous purple aura, though it’s like a different place entirely when the sun comes up.

To put it simply, Lunagaron hits hard. That’s especially the case when its ice elements come into force, adding a new layer of armour on its already tough scales, and when standing on its two feet, its front claws can slam down on you, swiping more than half your health. Alas, this beast had me running ragged for the 30 minutes before all my three lives were used up. But getting pounded and learning from your mistakes is exactly what you want from a new monster.

For the second hunt of the preview, I fared better, perhaps because the battering from Lunagaron had reacclimated me, but also because it was in more familiar territory, taking place in the Sandy Plains map from Rise and against returning monster Seregios. Not that Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s flagship wyvern is a cakewalk, in particular its attack that has it firing its scales like projectiles that can inflict the dreaded bleed status. I also had to deal with a Diablos roaming the map, and just like in Rise, you can expect up to three monsters roaming the map at any given time, though you can also use them against each other. In that area, the expansion has also made the ability to mount and temporarily control weakened monsters easier by letting you initiate wyvern riding with just a basic attack.

This new hunt also had me partnering up with an AI-controlled hunter, Elgado’s arena quest handler Master Arlow, while I still had my Palico and Palamute companions to hand. I can’t say it was too noticeable a difference, perhaps because Arlow was keeping his distance a lot of the time as a Gunlance hunter, but he proved his worth by dropping in some much needed heals when I found myself knocked down one too many times by the tough monsters.

Fortunately, unlike with other human players, AI hunters don’t share your lives pool, so it’s no big deal if Arlow gets KO’d, though there’ll be a cooldown period before he gets back into the action. These shouldn’t be considered a substitute for hunting with other players, which has always been core to the Monster Hunter experience, as AI hunters are only available in the new Follower Quests. They’re essentially optional side quests but nonetheless flesh out Sunbreak’s characters so that they’re not simply glorified quest givers.

While the appeal of a new expansion is more powerful gear that can be crafted from all the monster carcasses you fell (remember you can also capture them, the quicker and more humane way to end a hunt), that’s not something I was able to delve into during this preview. I was however able to sample the new switch skills added for each of the 14 weapon types, including new Silkbind Attacks that consume the wirebug gauge. Where hunters could previously customise their switch skills to fit their playstyle, you can now set two different switch skill loadouts and then swap between them on the fly. The inputs required doesn’t exactly make this intuitive at first, though additional UI at the bottom of the screen helps you keep track of all the different inputs and whenever they change whether you’re holding down ZL or just skill swapped.

Admittedly, it was a tad overwhelming trying to process all this during a preview session while trying not to get stomped by a raging monster, so I found myself falling back on the Long Sword’s reliable parrying Silkbind attack that was already in the base game. Still, I imagine hunters will be eager to dig deeper into the intricacies of each new switch skill, whether it’s swapping skills mid-combo or swapping while evading to look like a proper bad-ass.

On the basis of these hunts, Sunbreak is shaping up to be more of what fans want: more Monster Hunter to give you a run for your money, with more mechanics to wrap your head around, which should compel veterans to find new strategies. It certainly compelled me to give Lunagaron another go, overrunning my allotted hands-on session in the process. But that’s what monster hunting is all about, the drive and satisfaction that comes with one more hunt, and before you know it, hundreds of hours have flown by.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak releases on June 30 for Nintendo Switch and PC.

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If you’ve put on your PSVR headset to experience Moss: Book 2, you’ll know that, much like its predecessor, it’s an enchanting fairytale world of anthropomorphic animals (mostly of the mice kind) while the omniscient player is cast as a mysterious character known as a Reader. That storybook conceit isn’t just conveyed through the sounds of pages turning as you move from one diorama scene to the next, but also through the soothing voice of a narrator.

• READ MORE: ‘Moss: Book 2’ review: a spellbinding fairy-tale bursting with VR magic

More than just an authoritative voice, this narrator truly brings Moss and its characters to life by also playing each of their voices, from the high-pitched but courageous heroine Quill to her old wise uncle Argus, and a host of many other new and returning characters in Moss: Book 2. That’s all thanks to the wonderful talents of voice actor Morla Gorrondona who took on this role in both games, and she has kindly shared with NME the process of inhabiting Polyarc’s VR creation.

The collaboration began earlier as fans may recognise Gorrondona from Destiny where she not only created the terrifying vocal identity of the Hive but also plays the role of Hunter and Hive lore expert Eris Morn. That opportunity had come after a chance encounter Gorrondona had with Bungie’s then audio director Stephen Hodde at a GDC meeting years before.

“Sound design and VO rarely crossed paths, but we stayed in touch anyway,” Gorrondona tells us. “By happenstance, we both moved to the Seattle area at the exact same time. And maybe by design, he called me one day and said ‘Hey, I finally found a way that we can work together!’”

As Polyarc is made up of former Bungie staffers, including Hodde, you can see how that established relationship would have led Gorrondona to Moss. However, there was one other key ingredient that made her a perfect fit.

While the job of a voice actor is to inhabit all kinds of characters, as a parent, Gorrondona also reads stories to her son during bedtime. “It’s a ritual I still do with my son to this day, where there’s finding the peace and the calm of nighttime, that energy of rest and repose, that mother-child bond,” she explains, admitting that mustering that energy after a hard long day is its own dedication. “It’s been going on for ten years every night. Deciding that this is important, committing to it, and making it worthwhile is part of the magic of it too.”

Indeed, in becoming the narrator for Moss, this bedtime ritual became part of the development process as Gorrondona was given advanced copies of the script, a rarity in the voice acting business when sometimes voice actors don’t know what they’re going in to record until they’re literally in the booth.

“Polyarc very much encouraged me to make [Moss] my bedtime story for my son,” she adds, essentially taking the script as it change and grew, to workshop on it with her son, who also became part of the feedback process as he grew older, especially by the time it came to make Moss: Book 2. “[There was] lots of time to play with the pace and what the different characters might sound like and understand the story, and make sure he’s following along with the story. It was fun to bring him along in a different kind of way.”

Channelling the energy of the enthusiastic teacher, librarian, or babysitter from your childhood storytimes who didn’t just read a book aloud but made up voices for all the characters, she describes the freedom of playing around with all the voices in Moss and its sequel as “so fun so challenging”, though there’s a very natural flow to it since, in wanting to stay true to the storytelling conceit, she is performing her narration in long takes, jumping between the narrator’s voice to a character voice in real-time.

As with other voice actors, Gorrondona is no stranger to voicing multiple characters in a single game, which she had done with Horizon Forbidden West, but then these additional voices are also usually done in separate sessions. Having to quickly switch voices and ensuring they sound distinct from each other required a different mental and physiological process.

“It’s a challenge finding where the different voices live in my body and then being consistent about keeping them in their place, and making sure that they don’t sound too much alike,” she explains. “I literally envision the voice and a part of my body where I imagine the voice is emanating from – whether it’s going to be nasally, a higher register, or at the bottom of the belly. Once I designate that part of the body, when we’re recording, I can simply activate the voice by just touching the part of my body as a reminder of where the voice comes from.”

Even then, there’s still a certain thoroughness Gorrondona enjoyed in refining the voices with the developers, through table reads, and breaking down each line of dialogue. “I feel like we really felt and tasted the flavour of each word and expressed the texture and meaning behind each word in the final pass,” she continues. “Polyarc has given me so much freedom and ownership over the sound of these characters, which is such a great gift. And then we just refine it together with good meetings and conversations. I feel like doing all this work ahead of time allows for magical moments of lightning striking when we’re in the studio.”

Besides her credits in Horizon Forbidden West, we can also expect to hear more of Gorrondona in another big budget release as she is playing the role of Beyla in God Of War: Ragnarok. Ultimately, it still all comes back to Destiny, where her role as Eris Morn has also grown considerably, especially in the latest expansion The Witch Queen.

“The sense of community that comes with Destiny is really remarkable, and I feel like Bungie has done a really lovely job of giving Eris a journey and growth, I feel like her emotional state and her drive evolves over time, so she doesn’t feel stagnant at all to me,” she says. “It really does feel like magic, that I happened to meet Stephen at GDC, which just set all these wheels in motion. It just as easily could have not happened. But it did, and my life is different and better for it, and I am eternally grateful for that.”

Moss: Book 2 is out now on PSVR, with a Meta Quest 2 release set for this summer.

 

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NME

As one of the all-time greats, I’ve made a bit of a habit of replaying Resident Evil 4 almost every year, and thanks to its release on the Meta Quest 2 in 2021, I’m almost certain to pick the VR version as the preferred way to head back to face Las Plagas. Better yet, developer Armature Studios has already given me the perfect incentive to return with the brand new Mercenaries update.

• READ MORE: Jessica Curry on soundtracking ‘Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture’’s poignant exploration of loss

The Mercenaries was a mode that existed in the original game that was sadly missing at launch, a fantastic post-campaign arcadey shooter fest as you try to survive until the timer runs out while racking up as high a kill combo as possible. Indeed, the gunplay is so compelling that you actually want to extend your time in order to get a higher score.

The pace of this mode also transforms what had already been a transformative experience going from 2D to VR. It certainly feels like you have to perform actions much quicker, especially with reloading or switching weapons, in order to keep on top of the overwhelming Ganados coming from you from all directions.

Maybe it was because it had been some months since I last picked up the Quest so it took a while to adjust and remember where I was supposed to reach on my virtual body to pick up my equipment. Having to quickly reload or reach for another weapon led to more than a few coordination cock-ups as my hands would knock into things in the real world.

To be sure I was picking up items, which include the all-important hourglasses that increase your time, I also found myself pulling them real close, basically beating my chest each time, which happens a lot when you’ve massacred a horde of enemies that have all dropped item pick-ups. Now I’m starting to feel the pain of players who had reportedly been punching themselves in the boob.

One other major change for me was switching movement from teleporting to FPS-style free movement with the left stick, which feels like you’re just gliding along the ground, but ultimately felt better for keeping up with the frantic pace. But once I got used to it, I could just focus on lining headshots and making a dash for it when I heard the whirring of a chainsaw.

The best part of this update is that Armature didn’t just bring over Mercenaries but added 20 exclusive themed challenges that offer excellent variety, from the very beginner-friendly first mission where you’re toting a tommy gun with unlimited ammo to playing as Leon’s arch rival Krauser with just a knife (though you do get to charge up his killer special attack).

You’re also hugely encouraged to replay these to get a better score as the medals you’re awarded will unlock a bunch of extras that can be used in the campaign. A special shout-out goes out to the Big Head and Golden Gun modes, which totally channels the silly cheats of 90s classics like GoldenEye.

I already said before that Resident Evil 4 VR is an essential purchase for Quest owners, and now this free update makes that doubly so. Who knows, maybe Armature might even include Ada’s missions in a future update? I’ll buy it… at a high price!

Resident Evil 4 VR is available on Meta Quest 2.

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NME

One of 2021’s surprise indie hits was the Zelda-like Death’s Door, which launched just a few months after being announced to substantial acclaim. However, even without the usual long protracted build-up of hype and delays, it has technically been a long wait for anyone familiar with Manchester-based developer Acid Nerve, whose last official title was its 2015 debut Titan Souls.

• READ MORE: ‘Moss: Book 2’ review: a spellbinding fairy-tale bursting with VR magic

“We found we were really burned out after doing Titan Souls so we decided to take a big break,” programmer, designer, writer and animator Mark Foster tells NME. “We went away and didn’t really do too much. We made an iPhone game in our downtime just when I was learning Unity and it was a really casual process of making that game.”

Ideas for Death’s Door did come during the development of Titan Souls but the latter was limited by its mechanic where both the player and the boss titans die from one hit, except the bosses’ weak spot is often hidden while the player has just a single arrow. It was a gimmick that the two-person team stuck to from its game jam roots, for better and worse.

“[Titan Souls] was so defined by that minimalism and the restrictions around how we were designing it,” explains producer, designer, composer and sound designer David Fenn. “We knew that we wanted to make a game that wasn’t about that and was more like a full proper game that we’d be excited to play ourselves rather than a game developer’s game.”

Death’s Door, by contrast, was a more liberating experience, though that potential also meant the two had to make decisions on which directions to take. At first glance of its macabre theme and setting where you play as a reaper collecting souls in the afterlife, it’s not hard to imagine this could be in the vein of a brutally challenging game like Dark Souls, especially coming after a game that also drew those associations with ‘Souls’ in the title.

“Mark has a fair amount of inspiration from Dark Souls, but though I did like Bloodborne and I have recently been enjoying Elden Ring, I’m not as into some of the punishing elements of those games,” Fenn admits. So instead of the slower clunkier combat of FromSoftware games tied to stamina management, movement and combat in Death’s Door has the fast arcadey flow of A Link to the Past (or “Zelda but with intense combat”, as Fenn puts it), while the developers were also inspired by Hyper Light Drifter’s recharge mechanic where getting in close with melee hits recharges your ranged magic attacks.

One other Soulslike element the developers also decided early on not to follow was the mechanic of losing your currency upon death, which are then lost permanently if you fail to recover them before dying again. Ironic, given that the currency in Death’s Door is also called souls. “It was at the point where there were a lot of games coming out where you lose all your souls when you die, and I was just getting fatigued by it,” Fenn explains.

“We wanted to be able to explore more as well, so when you respawn, you can go ‘I don’t know how to do that, I’m gonna go somewhere else’,” Foster adds. “If you die and then you lose your souls and you have to go to that one spot again and to pick them up, you can get into the cycle of picking them up and dying again.”

But what arguably makes Death’s Door stand out is its light and genuinely funny tone, which delights in some hilarious visual gags, like how a written signpost changes after you’ve sliced the top off. That light touch started to crystallise with the creation of the reaper as a small crow, not anyone’s first choice of protagonist. The design had come from Foster, although he’s unable to recall how it came into being, although they did originally have a more humanoid traditional-looking grim reaper.

“Having this cute, cartoony character as a juxtaposition to these dark themes of death and evading death, that’s when it just became much more compelling as an overall concept to us,” says Fenn. “The people seemed to like it, there was a good audience ready for a game where you get to be a crow!”

In terms of the game’s humour, Foster says it was simply a result of their personalities coming through. “If all the writing was really dark and grim, it would be a very depressing game, because it’s always about death, so if the writing is funny, it makes it light-hearted. I think it needs that light element to it,” he explains.

Fenn adds, “A lot of those little fun touches are a result of the fact that we like to have fun while we’re making stuff, and if one of us has a fun, silly idea, then we generally put some time into adding that into the game.”

Speaking of additions, those who have finished Death’s Door will know that Acid Nerve has packed in a lot of content into this game, including a substantial post-game after you’ve supposedly defeated the final boss and the credits have rolled. Even if only a small percentage of players will have continued with this, never mind stats that show how people often don’t finish games, having these optional secrets were an important aspect for the developers.

“We’ve always really enjoyed adding stuff in games for that small group who want to find everything, because they’re the people who are really loving the game, and it’s nice to be rewarded with more surprises and more content if you put more time into it,” explains Fenn. “The world is kind of on its way to healing at that point in the story. So it’s kind of nice to be able to do more stuff in the world in that state, rather than just build up to the boss and then end straight away.”

While Foster hints that they would’ve liked to squeeze another bonus boss in there, what we have with Death’s Door is the definitive package, whether you play it on PC or Xbox, or the later console ports on PlayStation and Switch, the latter feeling well suited given the Zelda influences. Considering that even indies like A Short Hike and Paradise Killer have been keen to add updates to their games post-launch or on new ports, a decision to simply draw a line after the game has shipped is almost refreshing.

“We like releasing as much of a complete package as we can,” says Fenn. “I’m more excited about the idea of making another game than adding extra content to that game. So we’re happy with what it is, and that’s what it will be.”

That said, Fenn also admits that they’ve only just opened a Google Doc a few days ago to start typing ideas for what the next game could be, though we’re assured it won’t take quite as long as the seven years between Titan’s Souls and Death’s Door.

Given those two releases, should fans assume they’ve got Acid Nerve figured out and know what to expect next? “I feel like we have a lot of flexibility and potential options now,” says Fenn. “We could just as easily end up going with something that continues that Titan Souls and Death’s Door trajectory, but also maybe something a bit different.”

Whatever comes next, Foster puts it simpler: “We’ll just find something we’re passionate about and just follow that.”

Death’s Door is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. 

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NME

When a beloved JRPG gets a fighting game spin-off, it would be natural to assume it’s little more than a cynical cash grab. That much was disproven with 2012’s Persona 4 Arena, which was not only a solid 2D fighter developed by Arc System Works, already with acclaimed anime fighters under its belt such as the Blazblue and Guilty Gear series, but also allowed for Atlus to deliver the rich storytelling that fans loved.

• READ MORE: The best RPGs: The definitive list of the best RPGs you can play in 2022

That devotion extended to Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which could have been just an iteration like most fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike), with a smattering of new characters and mechanics to justify the release. Except in this case, it was also a proper narrative sequel, while the original Arena itself was also a direct sequel to not only the mainline game but also its predecessor Persona 3.

Of course, given its original home release in 2014 was limited to PS3 and Xbox 360 one year after the launch of their successors, it also meant it would have flown under the radar of most players save for the most dedicated fans. Its remaster is then welcome, not to mention at a decent £24.99 / $29.99 price point, including all DLC, while mechanics and balancing are up to date with the arcade’s 2.5 version.

Part of that DLC is the ability to play through all of the story mode of the first Arena, more organically integrated in this remaster, as more character paths and chapters unlock as you play through the sprawling visual novel-style campaign. One note of caution is if you’re a newcomer who wants to play the story in chronological order, select ‘P4A: Story Mode’ first rather than ‘Episode “P4”’ at the top of the menu list, otherwise it’ll be like finding yourself starting an anime’s second season.

There is however a notable disparity in structure, where Arena would have you following each character’s plotline only for some scenes to completely contradict another character’s perspective. This was improved in Ultimax, which instead splits the story perspectives between P4 and P3 characters, with a True Ending path opening up when you complete both.

While we don’t want to spoil any of the story for new audiences, it’s going to be tricky to recommend the campaign for those who aren’t longtime fans of Persona who want to see what all the fuss about, as you’re going to end up getting a few significant plot twists from both Persona 4 and Persona 3 spoiled for you.

Except, if you wanted to play those games first, you’re also going to have a problem getting hold of them on modern platforms. PC players have at least been able to play Persona 4 Golden since 2020 but that still leaves Persona 3, which is long overdue a remaster or remake. You can’t help but think that the chance to revisit the adventures of the Specialised Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) for the series’ 25th anniversary should have been a higher priority for Atlus rather than a lesser known fighting game spin-off.

Ironically, the Switch would be more suited for Ultimax’s visual novel delivery despite the mainline series having never come to a Nintendo platform in the past. While that hasn’t prevented other spin-offs in the past, such as the Persona Q series on the 3DS or Persona 5 Strikers on Switch, at least those games felt like they had more self-contained stories.

This is however more a criticism levelled at publishing decisions rather than the game itself. Because on its own merits, Ultimax is a solid anime fighter that faithfully adapts the series’ characters and their personas movesets, while delivering an energetic J-pop soundtrack as catchy as the main games, with some familiar themes included in the mix.

Ultimax further adds to the 21-fighter roster with the main cast’s Shadow characters. Instead of just mirror fighters, they don’t have personas and have weaker normal attacks but compensate by being able to use SP attacks more frequently and aggressively.

For those not here for the story, Ultimax fortunately has a variety of modes to get you into a throwdown quicker. There’s the self-explanatory Arcade Mode where you choose your character and just fight about eight match-ups, with a range of difficulty options. Matches are bookended by event scene dialogue that’s a lot snappier than the story mode, which you’re also free to skip. Meanwhile, lessons and challenge modes make for handy tutorials that allow newcomers to get to grips with the intricacies of anime fighters, in particular an emphasis on aerial attacks and movement, as well as the game’s unique Burst mechanics. If it does begin to overwhelm, you always have the option to string combos together with a single-button auto-combo function.

Another welcome addition is the RPG-inspired Golden Arena structured like dungeons as you fight a series of battles to reach a boss at the end, all the while levelling up your fighter of choice, gaining new skill buffs and debuffs, and it even has a light twist on the mainline games’ Social Link system when you select a partner character to act as a support.

But as with any other fighting game, the real longevity will come with competition with other players. This remaster has every chance of reigniting interest to make Ultimax as big as it was in the tournament circuit a few years ago. That will be greatly aided by rollback netcode, although the bad news is this isn’t coming until this summer, while the Switch won’t be getting the update at all. Who can say why, perhaps Atlus assumes the latter is for a more casual audience just in it for the story or single-player modes – it’s worth mentioning that you don’t even have to be into fighting games, as an Auto mode option essentially lets the AI do the work for you in the story and Golden Arena modes. Arc System Works’ repertoire has gotten more sophisticated in years since with the likes of Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear: Strive, but this remaster proves Ultimax still deserves to be a contender.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax launches for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on March 17. Tested on PS4.

The post ‘Persona 4 Arena Ultimax’ review: a decent anime fighter, if not necessarily the remaster ‘Persona’ fans want appeared first on NME.

NME

Judging by the success of the Fire Emblem series, there’s a healthy appetite for more tactical RPGs. So it was only a matter of time before Square Enix dipped back into the genre, and if you’ll forgive its terrible title, then Triangle Strategy is a worthy retro-inspired spiritual successor to the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics that takes a modern approach with deep narrative choices.

• READ MORE: ‘Total War: Warhammer 3’ feels like a return to classic RTS storytelling

Four years since the release of the equally hilarious-named Octopath Traveler, it’s only the second game to make use of Square Enix’s patented HD-2D art style, as classical 16-bit-style pixel art combines with modern lighting, particle and water effects that’s just a delight to behold. While we’ll be getting more of this aesthetic in 2022, including Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake and Live A Live, Triangle Strategy feels uniquely suited to it as an isometric 3D game with a fully rotatable camera, harking back to a transitional period when Japanese developers continued using 2D sprites while adapting to 3D environments, such as Square Enix’s own Xenogears and, of course, Final Fantasy Tactics.

While there’s charm to the pixel art, an overall earthy palette also makes this a more grounded affair. Sure, there may be magic spells and an elegant narrator, but Triangle Strategy feels less inspired by JRPG tropes than it is by Game Of Thrones. Not that you should expect sex and violence in a PEGI-12 game (that said, marking character deaths with their sprites collapsed in a pool of blood leaves an impact) but the world-building is layered with a rich intricate web of history and politics between the game’s three nations – the feudal kingdom of Glenbrook, the industrious classless duchy of Aesfrost, and the theocratic state of Hyzante – where you’re even privy to finding out individual character motivations beyond your protagonist’s perspective.

After a period known as the Saltiron War ravaged the continent of Norzelia, peace came to the three nations for 30 years. However, behind the diplomacy is a truce on shaky foundations, tensions and resentments simmering beneath the surface. Caught in the midst of what threatens to engulf the realm in war once more is Serenoa, a young swordsman and future lord of Glenbrook’s House Wolffort, and the path he takes is in your hands.

The paths allude to the first part of Triangle Strategy’s title, governed by a worldview made of three convictions: morality, utility, and liberty (although you might notice the rule of three is a running theme).

Crucially, plot-pivotal decisions are decided democratically by Serenoa’s closest allies via the Scales of Conviction, although you can do some Ace Attorney-style detective work and argue your case to sway the votes in favour of your preferred outcome. But convictions also relate to a whole range of actions, including your strategies in battle and even what you do in the exploration and encampment modes in between, which result in regular notifications on the top right hand corner of the screen that “Serenoa’s convictions have been strengthened”.

Which conviction however, it doesn’t tell you. It’s strange and frustrating that such a core mechanic is kept hidden, while it’s never spelled out which conviction the BioWare-style narrative choices you’re given actually align with, though the upside is you often have very nuanced responses rather than stark binary options. Nonetheless, when this can impact the paths you take and even who joins your cause, it’s like being forced to make a choice without all the facts.

I suppose keeping it opaque allows players to go with their gut the first time instead of being too calculated to get the desired outcome. In any case, choices stay intriguing and agonising because it becomes apparent there isn’t a “correct” choice that won’t yield a concession or consequence. For instance, you can bend the knee to an invading power for the sake of protecting your own, or fight defiantly even if being outnumbered will force you to use more destructive tactics that leaves your people worse off.

Then of course the second part of the title refers to the turn-based tactical gameplay. But while it’s tempting to draw comparisons with Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy is much closer to Final Fantasy Tactics in the way turns are based on individual unit speed rather than having each side move all their units in a turn. Despite the title, there’s no weapon triangle in combat, though instead you get even more tactical depth with attacks taking into account height, position and direction. Terrain can play a role too as fire magic can set some environments ablaze while puddles of water can spread the damage of lightning attacks. Another key difference is that, between battles and tough choices, you won’t find a ship sim between its characters. Even romance takes second fiddle between Serenoa and his bride-to-be Frederica, though her own arc is far more compelling as a descendant of a persecuted and oppressed people distinguished by their pink hair, though whether or not you help them depends on your choices.

The different paths in the campaign influence who you end up going to battle against, though in my playthrough, the story’s uneasy alliances and double-crosses meant almost everyone in the realm becomes an enemy sooner or later, which keeps battles as fresh as objectives are varied beyond simply wiping out the opposition. Your units may not be very customisable beyond their own specific upgrades and promotions and the large roster means not all are afforded as much screen time (using a unit more often however will yield scenes providing their backstory) but each character stands out. Some have defected from neighbouring nations to stand with House Wolffort, and, in a surprising touch, even typical NPCs like the merchant or smithy at your encampment can eventually be recruited.

Almost all have skills that are unique to them, such as the apothecarist who can use items on allies at long range or the circus acrobat who can create a clone of herself as a decoy. These skills require TP, which prevents you from spamming a unit’s most effective skills every time although you’ll regain 1 TP each turn. More importantly, any action a unit takes can contribute to gaining XP so everyone can make themselves useful besides fighting on the front lines (a follow-up mechanic however means your mage could still go for a weak strike if it triggers an attack from a more powerful ally that’s positioned opposite the enemy unit).

If, like me, you value each party member, then you’ll have to prepare to grind quite a lot of battles to ensure no one’s left behind level-wise. But even if you choose to just stick to a core party, you’re still going to find yourself repeatedly participating in optional mental mock battles so that you can keep up with the story missions’ recommended level. The grind is at least alleviated by rewarding significantly more XP to under-levelled units while you’ll keep any XP gained even if you retreat or lose a battle.

Permadeath is also mercifully absent, meaning you can still scrape through the toughest battle when down to the last person, though the option to change difficulty settings during the campaign is also welcome. That’s ultimately important because despite the grind, Triangle Strategy doesn’t want you stuck for hours on end – it’s got too epic of a yarn to tell, before compelling you to start another playthrough on another path you could have gone down. Where it lacks in Fire Emblem’s heart, it makes up with strong convictions.

Triangle Strategy launches for Nintendo Switch on March 4.

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