Tag: Aksys Games
News Super Promising Fighting Game Blazing Strike Finally Grabs an October Release Date
First strike
Classically-styled 2D fighter Blazing Strike finally has a release date. The Street Fighter-inspired title's been floating around for years, but we've now got confirmation that it's launching in just a few months, on the 17th October. It's coming to both PS5 and PS4. Sporting some lovely sprite work along with an eye-catching cast of...
She's a witch!
Originally a 2022 title in Japan, Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch now has a Western release date on PS5. The highly rated (and lovingly drawn) visual novel launches on the 22nd August, and will include previously released DLC, as well as developer commentary. You play as a young man named Hikaru, who's seriously down on his...
News Investigate the Supernatural When Spirit Hunter: Death Mark 2 Comes West on 15th February
Don't turn out the lights
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II is an upcoming suspense-horror visual novel announced for a Western release, coming to PS4 on 15th February. We got a glimpse at gameplay, which now involves some sidescrolling exploration in addition to first-person investigative elements. Set in the prestigious Konoehara Academy in Tokyo's H...
Mini Review Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue (PS5) - Slow-Burn Visual Novel Gets Going... Eventually
All filler, very little killer
The beginning of Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue feels very much like a Danganronpa-style death game. 11 strangers get abducted and sent to an abandoned tropical island resort where they’re forced to stay for six months. It’s all part of some twisted reality TV show where the abductees will be given €500,000 at...
News Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue Gets Sadistic 19th October Release on PS5, PS4
No escape, no survivors
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue is a murder-themed visual novel in the style of Danganronpa, with anime teens forced to participate as contestants in a twisted reality TV show. We now have a release date, so try not to get voted off the island when Inescapable launches on PS5 and PS4 on 19th October. Developed by Dreamloop...
News Not 'Just' a Death Game, Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue Serving Danganronpa Vibes on PS5, PS4
Will they bond or break?
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but a bunch of quirky anime teens (that did, admittedly, manage to subvert stereotypes) are stuck on a tropical island, with the only way off, seemingly, to secure victory in a Death Game. No, we aren't talking about the excellent Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but Inescapable: No
News Newly Announced RPG Mon-Yu Might Have the Most Ridiculous Full Name on PS5
It's too big for the headline
Turn-based, dungeon-crawling RPG Mon-Yu is coming West on PS5. It was previously announced for Nintendo Switch and PC, but now it'll also launch on Sony's current-gen console this autumn / fall. With the actual news out of the way, you're probably wondering what the headline of this article is all about. Well, strap...
News Cool PS5, PS4 Fighter Blazing Strike Delayed to 2023, Crossplay Could Be Added
Stiiiiiirike
Awesome looking indie fighting game Blazing Strike has been pushed back at least five months or so. The PS5 and PS4 title was previously set to release this autumn, but it's been delayed to spring 2023. According to developer RareBreed, "this delay will help polish the game to ensure the best game experience possible". RareBreed also...
News Inspired by Danganronpa, the Social Thriller Game Inescapable Launches on PS5, PS4 Next Year
11 contestants compete for $500,000
Revealed today at Anime Expo 2022, Inescapable is a new "social thriller" game from Finnish developer Dreamloop that takes clear inspiration from Spike Chunsoft's visual novel series Danganronpa. The studio is wearing that on its sleeve, though, with an initial announcement that hopes to capture the attention of...
News Rad Looking Fighter Blazing Strike Punches to PS5, PS4 Later This Year
Ready? Fight!
Blazing Strike caused quite a stir when it was properly revealed last year. It's a one-on-one fighter that takes obvious inspiration from classic Capcom and SNK titles like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It's got a great 90s-era art style, cool character designs, and the gameplay looks really slick. Sadly, we still don't have a...
News Blazing Strike Channels Old School Capcom and SNK Fighting Games on PS4 in 2022
Ready?
Blazing Strike is a 2D fighting game that's punching its way onto PlayStation 4 in 2022. A throwback to Capcom and SNK classics, this pixelated nostalgia trip certainly looks the part, and we're loving the character designs. As with any fighting game, going hands-on will be the only way to determine its true worth — but there's no question...
News Horror Visual Novel Death Mark Coming to PS4, PS Vita
You're already dead
It’s still not dead yet: Aksys Games has announced that Experience’s horror visual novel Death Mark will deploy on the PlayStation 4 and, incredibly, the PS Vita in the West at some point in the future. The niche publisher’s yet to detail a specific release window, but the title first launched a year ago in Japan on...
News Little Dragons Café Is a Bizarre Blend of Dragon Rearing and Restaurant Management
Tipping the scales
Sometimes all you need to fall in love with a game is the elevator pitch, and in the case of Little Dragons Café, we’re already pondering when we can give publisher Aksys Games our money. The brainchild of Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada, the forthcoming PlayStation 4 title blends dragon rearing with restaurant management...
Review Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] (PS4)
It was a dark and stormy Under Night In-Birth
The PS4 is well served with 2D fighting games, but that didn’t stop this latest incarnation of the weird and somewhat wonderful Under Night In-Birth universe getting spruced up a little and expanded a lot to make the jump to current-gen hardware. Here, then, is the most complete edition of the deep...
Total eclipse of the heart
Protagonist Kou Tokisaka stumbles into a parallel world, The Eclipse, while trying to rescue fellow classmate Asuka Hiiragi. From there, he joins Asuka’s quest to eliminate the evil lurking in The Eclipse, while working several part-time jobs at once and attending school. Kou seems to have an overwhelming need to help...
Review School Girl/Zombie Hunter (PS4)
Zombie-kun, that's embarrassing
You should never judge a game by its title, but in the case of School Girl/Zombie Hunter, you'd be absolutely right to expect cheap Japanese schlock, complete with last-gen graphics, wonky gameplay, and panty shots. Similar to the Earth Defence Force series, this is a low budget release that's undeniably rough around...
News School Girl/Zombie Hunter Skips Class on 17th November
The over and undies
Do games get any more Japanese than School Girl/Zombie Hunter? Set in the Onechanbara universe, the forthcoming PlayStation 4 title tells the tale of five female students who must attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse using “overwhelming firepower, surprisingly specialised skills, and a wardrobe full of fashionable...
News Zero Escape: The Nonary Games Brings Its Twisted Puzzles to PS4 Next Month
Kill or be killed
A collection that contains both Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - previously unavailable on PlayStation platforms - and Vita title Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is launching on PlayStation 4 next month, publisher Aksys Games has revealed. The package should certainly make a nice...
News Hyped Japanese RPG Tokyo Xanadu Heads West on PS4, Vita This Year
Rumble in the Tokyo jungle
If you're big on Japanese games, then you may have heard about Tokyo Xanadu at some point. A Japanese action role-playing game from Nihon Falcom, the title originally launched in the Land of the Rising Sun as a Vita exclusive back in 2015 - and now, it's finally coming West. This is where things get a little more...
News First Two Zero Escape Titles Are Playing a Game on PS4, Vita Next Year
Doesn't include the third, though
Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward are being combined into a double pack dubbed Zero Escape: Nonary Games, publisher Aksys Games has announced, and it'll launch on both PlayStation 4 and Vita next year. The former is heading to PlayStation platforms for the first...
Review Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky (PS4)
Existential crisis
Dying has been a part of playing video games since the early days of the arcade, but few games in that time have killed you off right at the beginning of the story. By the time the opening credits for Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky finish rolling, our avatar – a teenage boy named Kanata – has been caught in a...
News Remember to Grab the Newest Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- Character While She's Still Free
Gettin' Dizzy with it
Dizzy, in all of her brand new and outlandish 3D glory, is finally rejoining the Guilty Gear fray this week. The announcement came following the Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- finals at Evo 2016, and we've got the trailer - complete with excitable crowd whooping - to prove it. Adding to an already incredibly diverse cast of...
News Visual Novels 999 and Virtue's Last Reward Being Ported to New Platforms
Cult classics
Fans of the Zero Escape series may feel like punching the sky right now, as Aksys Games has announced that both 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward are being ported to additional platforms. There's no word on which systems the love will extend to, but we imagine that the former will deploy on...
News Tokyo Xanadu Tours PS Vita in North America Next Year
Available physically and digitally
Your PlayStation Vita will remain more than relevant moving into 2017, as Aksys Games has announced that it will be localising Nihon Falcom's well-liked Japanese role-playing game Tokyo Xanadu for the popular portable. The game launched last year in the East, and adopts an urban backdrop as opposed to the fantasy...
Review Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- (PS4)
Cometh the hour
Those that played Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- (Sign from here on in) uncovered a fighter with depth, fun, and personality; one that introduced real rewards for aggressive play while also boasting defensive options beyond the genre norm. This bodes well, then, for the Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- (Revelator, from here on in) - a newly...
News BlazBlue: Central Fiction Comes Exclusively to PS3, PS4 Later This Year
Feeling blue
Developer Arc System Works has announced that BlazBlue: Central Fiction will be launching on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 before the end of the year. However, for the moment, the developer has only given the game a vague Winter 2016 time frame for when the game will be released outside of Japan. Central Fiction was...
News Count Down to Zero Time Dilemma's 28th June Vita Release
Tick tock
Isn't there a Muse song where Matt Bellamy wails about time running out? Never was a fan, but your host can't get that track out of his head now. Anyway, as promised, Aksys Games has announced that the third entry in the Zero Escape series, Zero Time Dilemma, will launch on the PlayStation Vita from 28th June in North America and Europe...
News Start the Countdown to Zero Time Dilemma's Vita Unveiling
Colony wars
The long anticipated Zero Time Dilemma – the third instalment in Spike Chunsoft's popular Zero Escape series – will be officially unveiled in San Francisco next month, series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi has announced. The event will take place during the Game Developers Conference, though it won't actually be held at the event. Instead,...
News Zero Escape 3 Flees to PS Vita in 2016
Patience is a Virtue
Cult series Zero Escape will be getting a sequel on the PlayStation Vita in Summer 2016, an anime panel in Los Angeles has revealed. Zero Escape 3 will continue the narrative of 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, with Spike Chunsoft and Aksys Games once again collaborating on the release. The title will be playable in both Japanese...
Review Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters (PlayStation 3)
Scooby Doo, my waifu
One of the really great things about visual novels as a format is the utter lack of effort that you have to exert in order to make the most of them. While games packed full of stressful situations and an immersive, highly tactile experience are brilliant, sometimes that's just a little too much. You want to relax,...
News Here's How Combat Works in Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters on PS3, Vita
"I ain't afraid of no ghost"
The gameplay of most titles can be summed up quite easily with words or pictures. You get a gun and blow off zombie heads or you pick up a sword and go hack-and-slash in dungeons – simple, right? Aksys Games' Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is a different kettle of fish because – well, just how do you hunt down ghosts?...
Review Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (PlayStation 3)
Better late than never
You'd be forgiven for being under the impression that Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late – the clear forerunner for 2015's most pointlessly long video game title – is nothing more than another uninspired 2D anime fighting game. It certainly gives off an initial "I should probably be playing BlazBlue instead" vibe. Developer...
Review Fantasy Hero: Unsigned Legacy (PlayStation Vita)
Nothing but a fantasy
If there's one thing that the PlayStation Vita seems to be in abundance of, it's JRPGs. Not all of these are great, of course, but some of the more popular ones will keep you occupied for hundreds of hours or more – particularly the sensational Persona 4 Golden. Sadly, time is a rude mistress that waits for no one, so if...
Review Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! (PlayStation Vita)
Girl power
When a game title has five exclamation points, there should be no doubt that it will attempt to blow your mind with a furious amount of explosions and wow moments. Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! is certainly in your face, focusing on large full screen specials that will blind you with brash colours, while still maintaining classic 2D...
Review Magical Beat (PlayStation Vita)
Rhythm stick
The goal of Magical Beat is simple to learn, but incredibly difficult to master. It’s a bit of a mix between Lumines and Tetris, where you have to drop blocks known as beatons to the beat of the music. There’s a Beat Sync Gauge which provides a metronome and information on the current tempo of the track, but it’s much easier to...
Review Mind Zero (PlayStation Vita)
Never mind this one
Without a doubt, Mind Zero appears to be a genuinely high quality JRPG. It has an enticingly sleek art direction, an atypical twist on its familiar gameplay, a diverse cast of characters, and a promising story premise, so we were naturally impressed by the brainpower that must have gone into the game. But as we delved a little...
Review Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi (PlayStation 3)
A novel idea
Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi is one of those rare video games that aren’t really video games at all. Actually, it’s a novel, cunningly disguised as something that you need a controller for. Occasionally the story will be interrupted with a choice for you to make, but largely the main goal is to keep on reading. It may be...
Review Muramasa Rebirth (PlayStation Vita)
Radiant revival
While most widely known as the family-friendly home console featuring a myriad collection of party games and fitness titles, the Nintendo Wii was also home to some of last generation’s better adult-oriented forays. Many of these titles got swept under the rug due to poor sales and a missing target audience, but some received much...
News BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Will Bring Bombastic Brawling to the Vita on 24th June
Phantasmagorical
We learnt that fighting title BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma would be making a beeline for the PlayStation Vita earlier in the year, but unfortunately weren't given a firm release date. Luckily, Aksys Games has recently announced that the title will be hitting both stores shelves and the PlayStation Store on 24th June. Who ever said...
Review BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (PlayStation 3)
Burn bright, burn blue
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is the latest game by Japanese developer Arc System Works. It’s the third title in the 2D fighting series BlazBlue, and takes place after the events of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. The release was originally conceived as an arcade game, which deployed in late 2012. It then received a PlayStation 3...
News First-Person RPG Mind Zero is Dungeon Crawling onto Vita in May
Kids these days
With the PS Vita's Japanese RPG library expanding at a steady pace, statistics and turn based battle fanatics will be glad to hear that first-person dungeon crawler Mind Zero will be delving into Sony's portable console on May 27th in North America. The release follows the story of Kei, a typical high school student who forms a...
For God's sake
A downloadable and retail title for the PlayStation 3 that’s currently only available in North America, Magus is a premium priced role-playing game that sees you step into the shoes of the aforementioned titular hero in his quest to become an all-powerful God. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The release adopts a rather...
News Want More BlazBlue? Don't Worry, Its Prequel Is Coming
Brawler does its best visual novel impression
While the fighting franchise BlazBlue may be best known for its eye-catching visuals and bizarre combat, it's also renowned for its crazier plot. And thanks to Aksys Games, you'll be able to delve further into this twisted and somewhat confusing world with the prequel, XBlaze Code: Embryo. Set to launch...
Review Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God (PlayStation Vita)
Keep calm and curry on
What would you do if a big chain curry restaurant opened up in town threatening to take over your family owned curry business? You’d pursue the legendary magical curry recipe, of course – which is exactly what protagonist Pupuru and her fuzzy sidekick Kuu get up to in Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God. In order to...
News BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend Punches onto North American PS Plus
Rebel one
Fans of fighters will be able to snag another humdinger for their PlayStation Vita this week, as Sony has confirmed that BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend is set to join the Instant Game Collection later today. The beautiful brawler will be available for free for PlayStation Plus subscribers, alongside timed trials for both FUSE
News BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II To Get 'Manga Edition' In Europe
How much do you like BlazBlue? Arc System Works is hoping quite a bit, as it's announced a limited Manga Edition collector's pack designed to accompany the European release of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
The bundle — available directly from the publisher's online store — includes the game, a localised version of the BlazBlue "Phase Zero...
News Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2 Confirmed For PlayStation Network
The Bit
Trip series has already made a name for itself on the Nintendo Wii, and now it's preparing to conquer the PlayStation Network too. Confirmed over-night, developer Gaijin Games and publisher Aksys has announced that Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien will debut on the PlayStation Network next year. The game will boast...
News Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 Coming To PSP Next Month
Flashy brawler, Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2, will make its way to the PlayStation Portable on November 5th in the UK, Arc System Works has announced
The updated version of the PlayStation 3 title that launched last year includes all of the DLC characters from the outset, in addition to a new Abyss Mode for levelling up characters. The single-player...
News BlazBlue On PlayStation Vita To Share Save Data With PS3 Version
We've know about BlazBlue for the PlayStation Vita for some time
What we didn't know was it's full name: BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend. The updated title will include all of the content from Continuum Shift II, in addition to a fresh batch of characters and scenarios. Even better, Famitsu reports that the PlayStation Vita version of Continuum...
News Ghostlight Details Bumper Agarest: Generations Of War Zero Collector's Edition
As far as collector's editions go, Ghostlight's package for the upcoming Agarest: Generations Of War Zero is pretty comprehensive
Not only do you get the game, a poster, a bunch of artwork, and the soundtrack, but if you pre-order the package from the publisher's webstore you'll also score an exclusive black t-shirt. Nifty. Hit up Ghostlight's...