MLB The Show 21: Fernando Tatis Jr.'s Cover, Trailers, New Gameplay Features
Apr 14, 2021
San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. bats during a spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics, Thursday, March 18, 2021, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
The upcoming release of MLB The Show 21 will be met with great fanfare thanks in no small part to cover athlete Fernando Tatis Jr.
After establishing himself as arguably the face of Major League Baseball in 2020, the San Diego Padres superstar was picked to grace the cover of this year's video game from Sony Interactive Entertainment:
Fernando Tatis Jr. has been announced as the cover athlete for MLB The Show 21.
There was a brief moment in the first week of the regular season when it looked like the release of The Show would be a somber moment.Tatis injured his left shoulder on a strikeout in San Diego's 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants on April 5.
The Padres later announced Tatis suffered a partially torn labrum, but he wouldn't need surgery. The 22-year-old is eligible to come off the injured list on April 16 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, though the team has not confirmed if he will be activated on that date.
Even though there may be a bit of a wait to get the real Tatis back on the field, gamers can take control of the virtual version as soon as Tuesday.
For obsessive gamers and MLB fans, Sony Interactive Entertainment is releasing a special Jackie Robinson edition of the game.
To honor his legacy, $1 will be donated to JRF MLB The Show Scholars supported by PlayStation Pathways program for each copy sold in the US. Preorder the Jackie Robinson Edition for early access: https://t.co/bOZEF378QC#MLBTheShowpic.twitter.com/JzSf8sBf8A
The special edition release will include all the features of the standard version, plus a Diamond Choice pack, Ballplayer Equipment pack, 10 The Show packs, three Gold Choice packs and a Robinson bat skin.
Preorders of the Jackie Robinson edition also come with four days of early access to the game.
As for the content of this year's game, San Diego Studios recently released a trailer showing gameplay footage:
The notable new features in this year's game include a stadium creator that allows gamers to build a custom baseball cathedral for their favorite team to play in.
Pinpoint pitching is the biggest gameplay addition, with Matthew Liebl of FanSided breaking down how it acts as a more detailed version of the traditional analog and meter tool that has been used in the past:
"Pinpoint Pitching combines a little bit of the Meter and Analog pitching functions along with a new specific gesture motion that you'll perform with the R stick. This motion will be rated on a GRD system: Gesture Performance, Release Timing, and Direction of Release. If all three are performed correctly, you'll generate a perfect pitch with very, very high accuracy."
One significant change for this year's release of MLB The Show is it will be available on current and next-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The series has been a Playstation exclusive since it launched in 2006.
Per Tomas Franzese of Inverse.com, a Playstation representative said MLB made the decision to open the game up to Xbox owners.
"As part of the goal for this year's game, MLB decided to bring the franchise to more players and baseball fans," the PlayStation representative told Inverse. "This decision provides a unique opportunity to further establish MLB The Show as the premier brand for baseball video games."
In addition to being available on both systems, MLB The Show 21 will have cross-platform capability for Playstation owners to play online against Xbox owners.
MLB The Show 21 will be available on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles on Tuesday, April 20.
Outriders Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips
Apr 8, 2021
Despite feeling familiar, Outriders is one of the most ambitious releases of 2021.
It feels a little early in the year to make such a proclamation, but the cover-based looter-shooter is a strong combination of several juggernauts in that space, including Destiny and Diablo, with some Gears of War and even Mass Effect inspirations clearly felt. That, plus the fact brand-new franchises instead of sequels are just a brave thing to do these days.
Developer People Can Fly hasn't blinked in the face of these challenges, though. Even better, the game has ignored some of the staples of the genre, such as the games-as-a-service model. This is a single-player game with co-op that makes it even better, minus all the competitive multiplayer stuff that holds back other similar titles.
And did anyone mention it's a ton of fun? Outriders has clear-cut drawbacks and issues, especially once comparisons start flying, but it's a heavyweight game that could have some serious legs.
Graphics and Gameplay
Even graphically, Outriders will have to compete with Destiny-like comparisons. And that doesn't do it many favors.
To paint in broad strokes, the largely horizontal levels throughout the game have some varying texture issues, and character models come off as a little stiff. Big setpieces off in the distance of levels attempt to provide scope, but it's hard to overlook some funky-looking trees or pathways. It's not a bad-looking game, but one can't help but think it feels dated at times.
Still, old-feeling or not, there is a surprising amount of variety to each of the different locales, and they end up pretty memorable. It helps that the overall color palette is one of the most memorable in recent years, hitting on decadent darks and all ranges of the spectrum to keep things interesting.
There seems to be a give-and-take thing going on with the immersion. In one of the bases, for example, there's a surprising amount of detail. There are bars, shops and plenty of spots worth looking at that do a bit of worldbuilding. There's great background noise, from conversations that flesh out the world and ambient sound that hints at much bigger things happening beyond what the player can see.
But the drawback is the character models aren't all that great or varied. In one early example, a bare-knuckle boxing match up on a stage that NPCs have cluttered around to cheer on features identical NPCs actually fighting in the ring. Stand around long enough in any of these spots and repetitive dialogue and NPC movement tends to happen. It's deep, provided a player is on the go and not hanging around too long.
One fun thing the game does well in the presentation department is the use of different camera angles and even some camera shake during cutscenes. It sounds like a little thing, but it keeps an otherwise so-so story interesting and gives off the vibe of huge Hollywood-style production values.
In motion, performance holds up well, but it can be tough to see exactly what's happening once the big particle effects come out to play. To its credit, one can get distracted looking at those impressive effects and varied enemy times.
It's hard not to think of Gears of War when playing Outriders thanks to the cover system. That's not a knock, either. Gears' cover system nailed down third-person shooters perfectly years ago, and this is largely much of the same.
The cover system is momentum-based. Slide to the right side of a piece of cover and two clickable pieces of cover further up the way will have prompts on them. Slide to the left, it's the same deal. It feels familiar and works well.
That said, the cover system is often toosticky and gets in the way despite the familiar feeling. Sometimes clicking the cover button just doesn't seem to do anything, which is a death sentence with enemies closing in and grenades flying. Other times, the character gets stuck as if he fell into an enemy's glue trap.
That's all to say, it's not perfect, but it feels good enough to the point players don't have to think about it too often. When the problems rear, though, the whole momentum of gameplay can take a serious hit.
Enemy A.I. is much better than expected out of the box. One of the many major issues with a recent game launch in this vein, such as Anthem, was the enemy A.I. that almost felt like a placeholder. They were mobs that had no real apparent goal in combat besides serving as cannon fodder.
That's not the case here. Enemies are varied and smartly work together as teams. While long-ranged baddies take potshots from behind cover, melee types rush the player's position, to keep the example basic. Enemies will relocate smartly to new cover, too.
Maybe the biggest catch there is it becomes a little laughable how consistently accurate enemies are with grenades. It's a mechanic to keep the player moving and prevent cheesing, but it can feel relentless.
But again, the idea is to keep the player right in the thick of things. Three of the game's four classes rely on mostly close-quarters combat to excel. That juggling of magic and weapons in the fray is where the flashbacks to the excellent Mass Effect 3 multiplayer comes into play.
What is sure to be the overwhelming favorite, the Trickster, has an amazing-feeling teleport ability to get up close and personal. That's key because the melee abilities grant shields that keep the character in the fight. The Devastator is more of a traditional tank, and the Pyromancer is exactly what it sounds like as a mid-range fighter. Only the Technomancer is technically a ranged-only hybrid of damage-dealing and support and/or heals for the other three.
The core gameplay loop can be as simple or as deep as a player wants—and it is incredibly rewarding either way. The key is combining the three equipable class spells with complementary armor and weapon perks. Just going out in the world and trying out new builds is a blast, if not a little intimidating given the number of possibilities.
That's all before trying to make a build mesh well with the build of other players—likely all to match a specific threat.
As hinted, the classes feel quite a bit different from one another, which will encourage experimentation. There's a respectably large number of spells exclusive to each class that helps this feeling, though weapons and armor being equipable by any class is a boon all of its own.
Outriders handles difficulty through a World Tier system in the Diablo vein. It smartly scales with the player's level and abilities, though players can crank it up even higher for better loot drops. But, fair warning: Players can actually lose enough points to have the game lower the World Tier.
When exploring, the world itself can be an issue. Sometimes it is just plain hard to tell what is traversable and what isn't, so players could spend some time trying to attach to a wall and leap over it to go explore and only end up looking like a goofball—it's merely the boundary to the current playable area. Some of this is the fault of the game looking good in the player area and out of bounds, but better-defined areas would help.
Boil it down into one word? Fun. There are some rough edges graphically and in gameplay, but the tradeoff is a big emphasis on the stuff that matters.
Story and More
Outriders is a hard game to get a read on when it comes to the story and themes. It's very serious early, throws in an uptick in comedy later and then some weird dialogue and/or voice acting doesn't help.
Narratively, the game is a little all over the place. Early on, one conversation includes a heartfelt story about someone's sacrificial father that turns into snapping selfies. The main character seems...edgy. He or she has quips here and there but usually comes off as disinterested.
It's the sort of tale in which the player will probably find themselves invested but also forgetting the names of characters when they have a supposed big moment in the cutscene. Still, humanity needing to find ways to survive post-Earth, only to turn on each other in the presence of apparent beings with god-like powers, is fun despite the faults.
To its credit, Outriders is as deep as a player wants it to be. If a player wants to treat it like a B-level sci-fi thriller while sprinting to the endgame, cool. But there are a ton of little lore details sprinkled throughout the world in conversations and discoverable journals, should players really want to dig in and get immersed.
But now to the really important thing for a game like this—the loot. Players collect a ton of it, as expected while playing the percentages while trying to level up as the game itself clicks into gear.
Like similar titles in the Destiny vein, the low-tier weapons and armor look bland and forgettable, and when players try to use the highest-rated items to stand the best chance at surviving, it looks like they took a trip to a dumpster and picked out some random junk.
But that's the point usually in the looter genre—if the low-tier stuff looked great, it would hurt the really rare stuff. The problem is, some of the rarest stuff unlockable early on is hit or miss, visually speaking. That's an eye-of-the-beholder thing, really, but some rewards will astound, while others wouldn't get used were it not for certain perks. Regardless, players will use the most powerful stuff no matter how it looks, but the hope has to be that endgame items and the rarest of the rare are jaw-dropping in a way Gjallarhorn or Thorn were in a game like Destiny.
Overall, it's just missing the charm of a series like Destiny. Some of this is the fault of the game's third-person perspective. Were it first-person, like some of its competitors in the genre, players would be up close and personal with their rarest guns at all times. In Outriders, guns are tucked in front of the character mostly out of sight as the camera centers behind and above the player.
Those guns can level up and even have mod slots. Items necessary to do this mostly come from breaking down other weapons and gear, which makes for a solid feedback loop—all those pointless extra items looted during gameplay break down into something useful.
The seemingly mandatory character skill trees are—as always—bloated with minor stat bumps as a player progresses. It's not a bad thing to make minor upgrades while pursuing a certain style of build, it's just tired because it's in most genres now. That said, the ability to re-spec whenever is just another big mark in the "good" column.
We'd be remiss not to mention the fact Outriders doesn't have multiplayer in the PvP sense—which works to its favor. Games like Destiny have struggled since launch to balance single-player and competitive multiplayer at the same time, resulting in a pendulum that makes a gun or armor too strong for solo play and useless in multiplayer, or vice versa.
Here, there aren't any balancing issues like that. Some things are overpowered and some things could use some help, but it's not a big deal because it doesn't hurt another user's experience in a multiplayer arena. Players can play how they want to play, and provided something isn't game-breaking, it's probably there to stay and part of the loose fun the game provides.
As such, the game also respects a player's time. There isn't a games-as-a-service model in the Destiny vein aimed at pressing the fear-of-missing-out button.
But there's always a but, and it's a big one here: Despite the respectable model, the game still has an always-online requirement. That's a bad way of doing things for what can be a single-player game, as evidenced by the alarming number of server crashes and disconnects on opening weekend even while playing alone, all before the game deactivated cross-platform play.
The co-op component isn't A+ stuff, either, as players never know what they're going to get if they leave their own lobby open for randoms to join. There's a voting system, so randoms can't just spam through cutscenes or moments a player wants to see, but there also doesn't appear to be a viable voice chat option.
Speedrunning Tips
Outriders could end up having a pretty healthy speedrunning scene once players really dive into the endgame.
Given the wide range of player builds and weapons, it should be fun to see groups tackle speedrun missions as they level up and unlock the rarest of items in the game. The creativity needed within the game's constraints to blow through endgame content the quickest and get world-best or world-first times like those pursued in Destiny raids should make for an entertaining viewing experience.
On a more basic level for the game's launch, speedrunning the story means the usual suspects pop up. Runners will need to take to memorizing every inch of every level while skipping cutscenes and dialogue.
Out in battle, if playing co-op, the right team balance is a must. At this point, one of each class makes the most sense, with the Technomancer dealing out more healing than anything else, especially once things start getting really oppressive late in the game.
If we're talking a solo speedrun, the Trickster might just be the best bet. Smartly weaving between cover points to get the drop on enemies, slowing time, slashing them up for extra shields and then teleporting out is a money set of actions for many encounters. Bosses will be a little tougher, but a nice combo of ranged weapons to deal out damage while abilities are on cooldowns should help.
With a game this deep, the endgame speedrunning scene will look quite a bit different a few months post-launch, but it's just another element that ties the entire package together well.
Conclusion
Outriders isn't afraid to draw inspiration from other sources while elbowing for room with the juggernauts of its genre—also earning some goodwill merely for being a game without any of the microtransactions and pitfalls of the games-as-a-service model.
That isn't to say it is without its seriously rough edges. The issues from launch need to get cleaned up, and some of its in-game flaws can distract quite a bit.
But as a whole, Outriders has some really fun gameplay and tried-and-true RPG systems working in the background of an overall well-made looter-shooter.
Players will have to wait and see if, how and when Outriders evolves from here, but the game as-is now is a fun ride with a lot of longevity to it for those players who want to invest some time in the genre.
Augusta National to Be Featured in EA Sports' Upcoming PGA Tour Video Game
Apr 7, 2021
Spectators pose for a photo at the entrance to Augusta National Golf Course before a practice round for the Masters golf tournament on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
On the eve of the 2021 Masters teeing off, EA Sports has announced that Augusta National Golf Club will be featured in the new EA Sports PGA Tour video game.
EA Sports shared the cover art for the new game, which is subtitled "Road to the Masters."
Cam Weber, executive vice president and general manager of EA Sports, issued a statement about the addition of Augusta to the game (h/t Business Wire):
“We’re honored to partner with Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament, to feature the course and its traditions exclusively in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. EA SPORTS is committed to growing the love of sports for everyone, and through our partnerships with the PGA TOUR, Augusta National and the other majors, we will bring new and longtime fans closer to the biggest events in golf than ever before.”
Electronic Arts announced on March 29 it was making a new golf game for the first time since the release of Rory McIlroy PGA Tourin July 2015. The game will be available on next-gen consoles, including the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
This will be the first video game to feature Augusta National Golf Club as a playable course since Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 was released in March 2013.
An official launch date for the game has yet to be announced.
Monster Hunter Rise Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips
Apr 1, 2021
If Monster Hunter World and its grand Iceborne extension were a reset for the storied franchise, Monster Hunter Rise is a fitting name for the trajectory of the series.
World brought the series to a global scale with huge setpieces, modern functionalities and a noteworthy visual shift, earning rave reviews (90 on Metacritic). Rise sits positioned to do much of the same, with Capcom leaning into lessons learned from the last entry to offer another grand adventure where increased mobility is the focus.
Thanks to the functionality of the Switch, Monster Hunter can get back to its handheld roots—where some of the best games in the series had previously called home—while building upon the incredible foundational reset that started with World.
While it won't have the benefit of taking players by surprise this time, matching or exceeding expectations is one battle Rise looks primed to win.
Graphics and Gameplay
Rise will surprise many with its visuals.
It's not World or Iceborne on a specced-out PC by any means, but the game being a Switch exclusive for the time being hasn't hurt it at all thanks to Capcom's powerful RE Engine. The superb character models and fidelity of the world will have players thinking they're playing a first-party Nintendo game, which is usually the only time Switch graphics look this good.
The vibe of the series remains. The monsters look just as good as those offered up in World, if not better, and the same cutesy vibes of the village and its furry inhabitants is much of the same. A colorful overall palette and whimsical soundtrack give it all that distinct Monster Hunter feel.
It wouldn't be a shock to series veterans to find out that each biome of the map has a distinct feel. But it's worth noting just how impressive it is that each biome appears to have its own ecosystem and details littered throughout each, such as ruins, which flesh out some background story lore for the observant players.
On a technical level, Rise might be the most impressive Switch game to date. It's presenting a big world and bigger monsters in solid detail while not losing much in the way of performance, even in handheld mode.
That said, this isn't the same immense, broad and dense-feeling environments of World. It's certainly smaller to fit the console's capabilities, but that's not readily apparent unless blatantly looking for it. This is the apex of what a Monster Hunter handheld game could have ever looked and felt like, yet it holds up strong on bigger screens in docked mode, too.
If there's a drawback in the presentation department, it's little things like some up-and-down voice acting, repetitive dialogue and sounds, and things going from voiceover to just reading lines of text. That plus what seems like lip-syncing that didn't bother trying to match the English voicelines.
The impressive presentation and technical package is a welcome upgrade alongside what largely feels like a tried-and-true Monster Hunter experience.
Starting with the basics, the 14 weapon types return with some new features. It feels like there is more depth to each one, further changing up the feeling between the choices. Combat is just as snappy and responsive as what the series offered in World—if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
That's just not where the series chose to evolve this time. It won't take long for players to figure out the "Rise" portion of the game's title—the new explorable areas are all about verticality.
The new Wirebug, similar to the Clutch Claw introduced in the Iceborne expansion, is a persistent part of the gameplay now that has a cooldown. This new device lets players grapple and swing vertically or across gaps. It's even useable in the village itself, helping to get the player where they want to go faster. It feels like any wall is scaleable now, which opens things up.
And the Wirebug innovation to the formula hardly stops there, as it has refreshing roles in combat, too. It has different interactions with all of the weapon types, adding another layer to the depth of combat.
Also on the combat front, it lets the player pop back up after a hit. That doesn't sound like much, but veterans will be intrigued by that idea—taking a hit and instantly popping back up instead of remaining downed like in the past opens the door for a ton of new opportunities.
The game also leans heavily into the animal-companion side of things. The Palamute is a rideable friendly who can throw an assist during the course of adventures. Palicoes return and can again heal, set traps or offer tips out in the wild, and players even have an owl companion they can call down to their arm and send on tasks.
Taming non-friendly monsters is on the menu, too. Riding those is now an option, which can be a fun time. The drawback seems to be a less dangerous, wild feeling to them, though, plus a lack of those epic, random monster vs. monster clashes that would unfold in World.
One interesting tweak is the addition of Spiribirds, discoverable critters in the wild that provide stat buffs during a mission—not unlike cooking recipes in past games. It's a bit of a mixed reaction; this would seem to encourage exploration of these bigger areas, yet it can quickly become an annoyance if starting a mission over multiple times.
There's been a significant streamlining to the series gameplay that veterans will appreciate. Mining a resource takes a single button tap. Thanks to the tools available and level structure, wandering aimlessly in search of a monster isn't really a thing.
The game still doesn't do the best job of making new players feel welcome. Tutorials are there in droves and accessible in the menus at all times. But the sheer complexity of Monster Hunter and its uniqueness compared to other games simply works against it no matter how good the tutorials are. That's something players will overcome in time, but as usual, new players will feel overwhelmed early.
That said, the path to the endgame, where the real meat of the game should reside, seems to largely function as a broader tutorial again.
It helps that Rise is just fun to play. The gameplay formula hasn't changed too much: grab a mission, spec out a character and build to tackle that mission, drop into an area and hunt the target while collecting things along the way, then finally return to base. It can be as simple or as in-depth (with stat sheets) as players want it to be early in the experience.
Flicks of brilliance are tucked in here and there. Players can zip toward a massive monster in full-blown anime fashion; riding the Palamute up to it, shooting into the air via the Wirebug, unsheathing a weapon and attacking from above to start things—to name just one scenario.
What's important atop all of this is the refreshing, speedy traversal options thanks to the Wirebug. The pace of the game has been upped for the better, and the nature of the hunts feels less repetitive, which makes for a sort of exclamation point on an upgraded experience.
Story and More
Story has never been a deal-breaker in Monster Hunter, but it has to be said that World and Iceborne took big strides in this area. World really gave off the feeling of exploring a new, well, world, and Iceborne was a stunning departure from the familiar with icy undertones as characters explored a new island.
Rise is a bit of a step back, with only a few cinematics to tie things together. There isn't much of a story, even compared to World. And World's story wasn't must-see stuff by any means, but it did aid a sense of discovery and progression as it unraveled and rolled out new areas and bigger bads in the process.
That's mostly gone, with players working from mission boards and reading dialogue that generally doesn't make the player feel like they're driving the story. Again, it's not a deal-breaker, but one can't blame players for expecting a jump.
The usual sense of level and monster progression makes it in despite the story, though. Ranking up, upgrading equipment and joining higher-level events—like the older entries in the series—means encountering the same monsters but with unexpected surprises such as new moves. Not only is it a serious sense of progression on that front, but it's also a good way to prevent things from feeling stale despite fighting the same monsters over and over.
Rampage, the big-ticket item as far as new modes go, seems like an organic evolution for the series. Players must defend the village or one of its surrounding areas from an onslaught of big bads ranging in size from eye level to Godzilla and beyond.
Between attacks, players can set up defenses and dole out commands to others. It's got a tower-defense vibe, and it is just as addicting and enjoyable as most of those, even on the mobile phone scene. Really, it feels like a natural fit for the series.
And that home is worth defending because of some savvy functionality within it. Besides the usual stuff, like chefs who can cook up recipes and blacksmiths who can mold weapon and armor upgrades, the Buddy Plaza lets players send their animal friends off on missions to procure resources and the like—it's a fun minigame of sorts that lets players efficiently kill off downtime spent in the village.
On the actual monster front, some good friends from the old games return, oftentimes with a wrinkle or two. The new additions to the game, which we won't spoil, feel at home in the series and are a blast to stumble upon and challenge.
As hinted, the game is a bit of a technical marvel. Even online matching is a breath of fresh air for the Switch (or Nintendo console) in general. Compared to a juggernaut like Animal Crossing's slogging online functionality, Rise offers up a simple lobby system that is quick and easy to use.
We'll have to see how the endgame evolves as Capcom adds to the game over time, but Iceborne got this right where World failed, so the presumption is things will be quite good. Grinding for upgrades in a faster-paced game where what used to be 40-minute fights can be completed in half of that—plus all the added mobility—should keep players coming back for more.
Speedrunning Tips
Iceborne followed in World's footsteps by offering a fun speedrunning element for players, whether it was tackling the whole expansion's story or one monster fight at a time.
The arrival of the Clutch Claw as a means of traversal only made things more interesting, both from a getting-around standpoint and in battles themselves. Most of the best full-game runs managed to hover in the four-hour mark while helping the speedrunning community blossom on viewing platforms like Twitch.
Rise should be no exception in large part thanks to the Wirebug, which ups the pace of the gameplay quite a bit. That should only make things more entertaining in tandem with the usual Monster Hunter speedrunning must-haves like map memorization and specific builds for each fight.
Early on in this feeling-out process for speedrunners, simply charting and understanding the best possible way to get around maps is a must. So is specializing in a certain weapon class. Bows were incredibly strong in Iceborne, while things like the Insect Glaive seem to continue to struggle.
Nailing down one weapon class and the proper pre-adventure routine is critical. Understanding what armors and stat buffs to get via meals will decide just how quickly things can go out in the wild. Players will also need to figure out whether it's worth going for the additional buffs scattered around each area or merely beelining it to the next big fight.
As always, buff and item management, as well as the fresh feeling of companion management, will be highly individualized based on the type of run and specific encounter in a game this deep.
But that's what makes the speedrunning aspect of it so appealing on a broad scale, right? The quicker pace could mean faster times than ever and a consistently competitive leaderboard, leading to a long shelf life for the game in speedrunning circles.
Conclusion
Switch was a natural fit for Rise. The detail of its world and functions feels tailored for the console, not jammed on after initially being made for other systems.
That isn't to say Rise feels like the next big thing for the series. It's merely a small step forward, and players who were turned away by the gameplay loop or combat won't find much of a reason to dig in. At the same time, the leap from past games World made sets the table for a bit of an unfair comparison.
But, the Wirebug and its allowing a much faster gameplay pace and verticality felt like an organic, natural next step for the franchise. For those who enjoy the unique experience, the gameplay loop is superb and deep as ever, with the multiplayer side again the preferred method of discovering the world and its towering monsters.
Comfortable in its skin and taking smaller, proper steps toward something even greater for the series, Rise is easily the best game for the franchise to date.
EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Video Game Announced for PS5, Xbox Next-Gen Consoles
Mar 29, 2021
Lee Westwood, of England, hits from the rough on the 18th hole during the third round of The Players Championship golf tournament Saturday, March 13, 2021, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
EA Sports is making its return to golf video games.
The company announced a partnership with the PGA Tour on Monday that will see EA Sports develop a game for next-generation consoles. According to the release, players will be able to create their own career featuring The Players Championship, FedExCup playoffs and "more unforgettable events."
"EA Sports and the PGA Tour have created some of the most memorable golf video game experiences together, and we couldn't be more excited to expand our sports portfolio with a new golf title on next-gen hardware," said Cam Weber, EA Sports executive vice president and group general manager. "Our team of passionate golf fans is meticulously recreating the world's top courses such as Pebble Beach, and we can't wait to give fans the opportunity to compete on some of the most iconic PGA Tour courses and win the FedExCup."
EA Sports previously produced golf games from 1990 to 2015 before discontinuing the series. The series was famously released under the Tiger Woods PGA Tour moniker for 16 years.
Woods will not be making his return to the EA Sports series after inking an exclusive rights deal with 2K Sports earlier this month.
It seems likely that certain players will extend their licenses to EA Sports while others are in the 2K game. With no exclusive rights deal for either of sports video games' two biggest companies, it'll be interesting to see how the competition shakes out—both from a qualitative perspective and in terms of player/course appearances.
The 2K series does not currently license agreements with golf's major championships like the U.S. Open, The Masters or The Open Championship. 2K and EA Sports will likely spend much of their time in development fighting for the rights to major courses like St. Andrews or Augusta National as a way to entice fans over to their game.
Augusta National previously had an agreement with EA Sports beginning with the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 release.
EA did not announce a release date for its upcoming golf title.
R.B.I Baseball 21 Review: Gameplay Videos, Features, Modes and Impressions
Mar 17, 2021
It feels like a critical year for R.B.I Baseball 21.
The smaller annual series put forth by developer MLB Advanced Media not only gets a first chance to tackle a new console generation this year, it no longer has the luxury of being the lone baseball game releasing on multiple consoles—MLB The Show, formerly a PlayStation exclusive, is going multi-platform.
Not that R.B.I Baseball 21 really wants to compete with the heavyweights. It's a smaller, arcade-based series slowly incorporating big-ticket items from other games. But as that happens, it leaves niche territory and heads for bigger things.
That includes this year, where a number of notable upgrades attempt to lure new and returning players alike.
Gameplay
MLB Advanced Media really hit one out of the park (sorry) at the right time with this series.
While the real sport was trying to grasp at ways to keep onlookers interested and capture a younger audience, R.B.I Baseball got revived and offered quick-hitting gameplay that had a ton of pick-up-and-play potential and was simply a blast.
It's more of the same this year for the series, now one year removed from revamping pitching and batting.
The options in the batter's box to gun for quality contact or to throw it all into power and hope for a home run is still a fun, arcadey way to work the timing-based experience. Actually hitting a homer still feels a little limp, but overall, it's almost akin to an enjoyable stress-relieving exercise to take part in the offensive side of things.
Picking from a variety of pitches before winding up and letting it go toward home plate is in again and feels great amid the arcade backdrop. With the modern controls, it's a nice touch to have an effort system that broadens where a pitch could end up over the plate, making for a fun risk-reward sort of minigame.
Luckily for players old or new, player agency is one of the big-ticket themes of this year's release. There are a handful of batting controls and camera angles players can choose from before or during a game. That doesn't sound like much for modern sports games, of course, but it's notable here because the individual can tailor the experience to their liking, which only makes the gameplay better.
Besides pitching and hitting, gameplay in general again feels great for what it is. Pickoff attempts remain an entertaining timing-based minigame, the pace of games is fast enough that fielding doesn't feel like a chore, and while hiccups like a limited number of animations to make every player feel the same persist, some of the smooth presentation upgrades make any negatives small by comparison.
Graphics and Presentation
R.B.I Baseball isn't going to rival The Show in terms of broadcast prowess in the presentation department by any means.
Yet it's clear upping this area is a point of emphasis for MLB Advanced Media. And now that some of these advancements to the series have gone live, it's obvious it was the right decision.
The first big-ticket item is play-by-play commentary from Fran Charles of MLB Network. It's not perfect, just like any announcer in video games aren't, but it does bring some much-needed realism, if not levity, to the action. The calls often come in by the pitch to provide context, and while generic at times, they brighten the experience.
Another fun step forward for the series is time of day finally arriving. Stadiums have always been well-done compared to their real-life counterparts, and now we get to see them progress with realistic time-of-day happenings like sunsets, for example.
The series didn't totally ignore player-model woes from past games, either. While they can still all start to look samey after a while, there was clearly some work put in to upgrade the presentation. It's never going to rival a bigger sports game's ability to implement those little individual things superstar players do, but doing a side-by-side comparison to last year's game is notable.
A nice touch this year is leaving camera angles in the hands of players. Add in a solid soundtrack and it's clear the series continues to make strides in all areas, not just in gameplay. Newcomers to the series might knock it for not having more of a big-budget broadcast feel with sideline reporters, extensive intros and outros and more, but R.B.I Baseball 21 does enough for what it's trying to accomplish—and it should be interesting in future years to see how much it keeps pushing in this area.
Franchise and More
R.B.I Baseball implemented franchise a while ago now, and it remains the most appealing part of the series.
While it does have its limitations if players compare it to a bigger sports game, the franchise mode here retains the smooth pick-up-and-play feel in the bigger confines of a full season and postseason. Players can choose how many games make up each season, play the free-agent market and strike trades with teams among other general things expected of the mode.
Elsewhere, the full list of modes isn't as intimidating as it is in other sports games. Players can organise an exhibition, take part in a home run derby or even take their talents online to spar with fellow players.
These are all fun side activities that retain the feel of the base game and make for strong multiplayer sessions, either on the couch locally or online.
More interesting might be some of the extras going on behind the scenes. Outside of picking modern or classical control schemes and camera angles, the game also offers modern-feeling gameplay sliders found in other games. This lets players control minutiae like fielder speed, for example, and lets each player dictate how the game feels—and in the worst-case scenario could address problems with the A.I. before awaiting a patch.
An uptick in customization was a natural, organic way for the series to turn with some necessary details like franchise locked into the experience.
That makes create-a-player a big-ticket item this year, and it's a little more robust than some might expect. There are a wealth of things to customize, right down to the gear—such as bat color and bat-grip color— though it can be a bit shallow at the same time (there are only 10 facial hair options, for example).
As hinted, R.B.I Baseball 21 takes some natural steps forward for the franchise. More ways to fine-tune the experience for each individual is a nice way to go atop an already sound gameplay experience. Painting in broad strokes, the series continues to mark big items off the checklist and continues to do so in a strong manner.
Conclusion
It's safe to tab R.B.I Baseball 21 as the best game in the series to date.
While individual player expectations will still shape overall reception, this arcade-based experience only continues to improve as more modern items like customization, gameplay tuning and better presentation creep their way into the series.
A year removed from key on-field boosts, this year's game offers organic-feeling upgrades to key areas. Yes, other games did them first, but the overarching package creates the perfect environment for onboarding new players to the series and presents a good ceiling for veterans, too.
2021 NBA 2K League Draft Results: Full List of Selections Ahead of Summer Slate
Mar 14, 2021
Fans cheer as Charles
The 2021 NBA 2K League draft saw 63 new players enter the world of professional gaming Saturday night as Season 4 draws near.
Lakers Gaming held the No. 1 overall pick and went with consensus top prospect Arshia Karimi, who goes by the tag Krazy and will be tasked with helping turnaround a club that went 3-13 en route to a last-place finish in 2020. Karimi averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game during the combine and is able to play multiple positions.
With the 28th pick, CLTX Gaming selected Alaina "DjLayyy" Haney as the first woman drafted in franchise history and the highest-drafted woman in 2K League history.
The league also added a few international players with Spain's Mario "avemario32" Ortega Ariza joining Cavs Legion GC at No. 41 overall, while Australia's Meason "xMilo—" Camille going to Pistons GT at No. 62 overall.
NBA 2K League Season 4 will take place this summer with the schedule to be announced at a later date as Wizards District Gaming looks to defend its 2020 title.
Supercross 4 Review: Gameplay Videos, Features and Impressions
Mar 8, 2021
Monster Energy Supercross 4 represents a turning point for the now long-running series from developer Milestone.
The series spent its last few iterations fine-tuning things such as physics and gameplay while making sure the multiplayer side of things nailed down community track sharing and dedicated servers.
Still, the series has thrived for its on-course performance and not for its overall feature set. That changes in 2021 as Milestone's racer moves into the next generation, which means more horsepower and new features.
The question remains the same—is it enough to woo newcomers and annual players alike?
Graphics and Gameplay
Even without a next-generation bump, the Monster Energy Supercross series has done a good job visually.
Racers have always sported good details and smaller items like jersey movement, the vehicles themselves have always been glossy eye-candy and the tracks have degraded well over time in response to the race and Mother Nature itself.
Consider that all amped to 10 on next-generation consoles and PC this year. Visuals look better than ever and paired with the excellent sound design, riders feel smaller than ever in big stadiums, and the sense of speed is only improved.
What the series has struggled with in the past is actual immersion, though. Some of that is addressed here. Crowds are loud and move well enough from distance. Stadiums boast critical attention to detail, like the banners in the rafters of specific teams and realistic video boards players can see themselves in as they work on the track. In first-person mode, rain on goggles and bits of mud spray make for key notable features.
Still, immersion isn't perfect. There still isn't a lot of beef on the career mode when it comes to cutscenes. There are some new little things before the race, but otherwise, it's just some fireworks and not too much of a broadcast feel.
But as usual, some of those presentation issues fade when considering the gameplay. It's again weighty and responsive, with what feels like an even greater attention to the types of feedback offered by different surfaces.
While last year's game felt like it slanted more toward an arcade approach, this one feels a tad more grounded. Track degradation is again a major factor to consider when blinding down the straights and into big turns or trying to micromanage a series of jumps in a sea of competitors.
Another noteworthy item is rider A.I., which hasn't always been the best in the past. Oftentimes it could feel like opponents didn't really make mistakes unless encouraged by the player, which gave things a robotic feel. Either the A.I. tuning or something else has changed because opposing riders seem to make more mistakes now, which is as it should be given how random a race can be at times.
As always, assists are on the menu, which help the player tilt the game more toward simulation or back toward arcade, complete with the expected rewind function. It's still rewarding to work toward improving, then tick off more of the assists. Of course, leaving them all on is an option for those players who don't want to worry about rider-bike balance.
Overall, there is a more strategic feel to the gameplay now, as the key to reaching a podium finish is thinking two or three steps ahead based on what the track presents. Even thinking laps ahead based on how, say, rain is creating muddy ruts around bends, is a key to succeeding.
Keep in mind gameplay is boosted across all platforms on next-generation consoles thanks to the additional horsepower, which means a smooth 60 frames per second in different resolutions.
Career Mode and More
One of the biggest points Milestone has focused on for the arrival of the next generation is more features for the popular career mode.
In this iteration, players start as a "Futures" rider with the goal of working up to rookie and pro statuses through skill-tree upgrades and winning during a season.
That new skill tree is extensive, with an ability like cornering having multiple items to upgrade over a number of modules in the futures, rookie and pro sections. There are multiple different categories with these modules spanning things like braking and overall control, whether in the air or on the ground.
Players can tackle events, training and objectives in a journal to earn skill points. Given the variety of challengers players face in each big race, it's easy to presume most players will simply take a measured approach to investing skill points instead of specializing only in one thing. But still, it's nice to have the option.
That journal is one of the bigger talking points of this year's release, and while it's not anything fancy, it's also staggering in the number of items on the checklist. For example, completing 200 jumps while racing offers skill points. If nothing else, it's nice to gradually earn skill upgrades as a reward for simple time investment.
Creating a rider on the game's initial launch still isn't the most extensive process. But there's enough in the way of different faces and hairstyles to make a noteworthy character. There's also a prompt early in the creation process to pick a custom celebration for a top-three finish, which is a nice touch to help players stand out more.
Elsewhere on the customization front, this latest entry in the series again feels like a love letter of sorts to the sport. Players can dig deep into performance alterations all over the place, including things like handguards, saddles, grips and more.
In this sense, it does feel like a bigger release this time out, with more than 100 riders across different divisions such as 450SX and 250SX. Ditto for courses, with the 11 stadiums and their assortment of tracks numbering at nearly 20 total.
Also big on the checklist this year is a brand new compound, the open-world area for players to explore, work on skills and partake in races. This time it's based on parts of Maine, which means a gorgeous coast of a backdrop while racing through the pine trees and past interesting worn-down stone architecture.
The compound also boasts some collectibles to uncover, which lead to some small unlockables. If nothing else, it's refreshing that a deeper bit of exploration of the giant open space is encouraged by this. Players can also bring in up to three friends for some varied action, be it free-roam or competitive.
And while players could point out that the Compound free-roam area isn't the most impressivething in the world, the alternative is a racing game with a limited number of tracks and events. Which is to say it's refreshing that such an idea even came to life and a welcome one as it provides some much-needed variety.
New options have been added to the core of the track editor experience. Things like starting structures have new options that mix up the usual formula, even if the list of items isn't huge. As in the past, players can take their creations online via an uploading process. Given the wealth of new pieces available, it should again be fun to see what the community can come up with—plus add longevity to the game's lifecycle.
As in the past, Monster Energy Supercross 4 boasts dedicated servers to offer up a smooth online experience. The overall suite is good enough to get players in and keep them playing, with a lobby browser, private lobbies and the race director back on the menu. That last item still feels like it's the most appealing because of the way the director is able to come up with some creative experiences by tweaking things like physics.
Conclusion
Monster Energy Supercross 4 doesn't take any great risks while riding into the next console generation.
But it didn't really need to based on the solid gameplay foundation laid in the past. A slightly more grounded feel, some clear improvements in A.I. and more modern options in the career and the Compound make for a nice package.
Right now, this fourth offering is the best yet in the series. There are some obvious areas of refinement that need to happen in the future, such as an expanded presentation. But the gameplay is tuned well and the emphasis on multiplayer continues to be a strong point for the series.
Bravely Default II Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips
Feb 25, 2021
Bravely Default II isn't shy about its classical inspirations and plenty bold (or brave) about where it chooses to innovate.
The latest in a strong line of role-playing games heavy in the JRPG category, Bravely Default II leans heavily into its innovative battle systems and a gorgeous world to weave a gripping tale.
Developer Claytechworks, with Nintendo handling publishing worldwide, aims bigger with this release on Nintendo Switch after the prior two entries were on handheld systems.
It's a recipe that certainly works on paper, with the turn-based combat, immersive world and strong cast of characters looking like an ideal fit on the Switch. But like any number of brutal boss battles in the game, the execution on a moment-to-moment basis will decide how the first jump to big consoles for the series is remembered.
Graphics and Gameplay
Bravely Default II is a gorgeous game in many respects.
The art style is engrossing, with beautiful, memorable towns. An early one features a sandy desert area half-submerged in a flood, with pole boats dotted around the sunken areas. That's just one of many examples of superb storytelling through visuals. Details like a waterway adjacent and below the player path is stunning and provide backstory to the town without throwing it in a player's face. In one instance, there is a waterfall visible behind a building interior. Most times the towns and buildings do fun things with perspective, too.
Each area is unique with a fitting citizenry, and out in the open world, many staples of the classic genre such as wandering monsters persist. In battle, it's never too difficult to see what's going on, and the escalating nature of magical and job moves are strong enough for the turn-based format.
That world isn't just window dressing like it could have been, either. The non-town segments of the open world don't just look great. There is plenty of interaction to be found, including chopping down grass to find items, uncovering secret chests and even stumbling upon brutally difficult fights (with the monsters outlined in red). Thankfully, there's even an auto-run feature tucked into the menus.
The day-night cycle doesn't go to waste either. In towns, certain quests only open up at night. Out in the world, night is a time for monsters, so players can encounter even more than usual while exploring, lamp in hand.
It helps that the soundtrack and music are so, so good. Tunes accompanying each town are liable to get stuck in a player's head—and that's 100 percent guaranteed of the battle music. The same can't be said for the voice acting, which ranges from superb to sounding way too forced at times, depending on the accent and context of the situation. It would also be nice if catchphrases weren't repeated so many times per battle turn while, say, using the Fira spell four times in a row. Those pair poorly with another big issue with the presentation.
The biggest problem with the visuals in Bravely Default II is the characters. Sounds harsh, but when the game cuts into a cutscene where characters talk to one another, things just fall apart. It's like the game wanted to straddle the line between realism and anime with the models, and it comes off as odd. Characters look like bobbleheads on smaller bodies as they parade around the screen, often distracting from what can otherwise be really important story beats. It worked on the handheld games but suffers on a bigger console.
Jarring disparity between character models and beautiful world aside, the game's namesake again shines in the form of the battle system.
At its most basic, the "Brave Point" system functions as a clever way to manipulate the constructs of a turn-based battle. By pressing "default," a player can defend and bank one of their turns to use at a later time. By using "brave," players can cash-in future turns up to negative-four, unleashing a flurry of attacks or magic before having to sit out until their counter is back to zero.
And that's just the turn-based system. Players have items, magic, the jobs system and plenty more to juggle in a given battle. There are also vulnerabilities for elements and weapons that go both ways and finer details like catching a group of baddies from behind, which lets the player's group start with a turn advantage.
It all sounds intimidating and is, though gunning through the mobs early in the game is simple enough and akin to training wheels. It takes time to figure out who should use which weapons, what items to stock up on and how to chain together jobs for the best offensive or defensive output.
That said, the easiness of the early battles makes the bosses seem all the more difficult. Early bosses can feel like endgame material, even when a player doesn't go out of their way to avoid optional fights in the overworld.
Maybe the idea is to encourage players to experiment and find the right combination of party members, weapons, magic sets, jobs and all that jazz for the right situation. But it has to walk the tightrope of letting players go about the game in the way they want, too, so it sometimes comes off as feeling way too difficult. That leads to the experience seemingly hinging on grinding out levels to even be competitive against some bosses.
Call it a minor annoyance and one almost expected of JRPGs, though. The battle system is addictive in its simplicity, and the satisfaction of emerging victorious is downright engrossing in its complexity. It's a mixture of tried-and-true traits with just the right amount of innovation that can keep players happy and having fun for a long time.
Story and More
Story-wise, somewhat like the gameplay, Bravely Default II goes some expected and unexpected routes.
There are some groan-worthy moments to the story, which features the typical hero's journey and when several prophesized folks happen to come together at just the right time to save the day. But Bravely Default II weaves in some unexpected shockers to combat the tropes and truly creates some moments players won't soon forget.
Characters especially get fleshed out via optional conversations. These aren't extensive cutscenes by any means—the participants yak it up about timely events and otherwise from mere panel portraits that aren't voiced. But those who take the time to invest in some reading get a treasure trove of character development and understanding of motivations and actions.
Of course, the story gets a massive assist from the downright breathtaking world. Even side quests offer some intrigue too, whether it's just details about the world or stumbling upon an interesting character. The really special ones seem to have voiceovers, and even if the listed rewards for the wide ranges of tasks don't seem worth it, sometimes it is just to hear what folks have to say.
The game also innovates in some fun ways that aren't all that typical. Exploration mode, for example, is something players can set at a vendor in town before taking a break from playing. The game detects when the Switch is in sleep mode and sends a friend off in a ship to go on missions that reward the player with items and goodies.
It's not only fun to read about the adventures, but the items are very useful. This one little system makes level-grinding easier, which is important because there are so many things to grind. Whether it's just sheer level or the level of a new equipped job, players need all the help they can get, and this system is A-plus stuff in that regard.
Speaking of assists, this one has the typical JRPG items fans will expect. There are tents to restore the party, dungeon escape items, cures for things like silence, MP restores and on and on. The same goes for the weapons and equipable clothing and armor. Swords, bows, spears, helmets, armor and more all with their own properties, passive benefits and tucked into a weight system players need to manage for each character.
We could go on for hours about the seemingly endless items in the game. Specific types of monster bait spawn specific types of monsters and an experience multiplier happens when fighting more than one group of baddies at a time, for example.
The mentioned Jobs system is a way of sorting characters into roles. Players can find a big number of Jobs by collecting Asterisks. A Black Mage, for example, dishes out plenty of elemental damage, while a White Mage turns the magic inward, healing and protecting teammates.
But like everything else, it's not that simple. Players can assign a job and sub-job to a given character, meaning both sets of options will be available during battle. There are also passive benefits tied to each job. A character who levels up, say, four different jobs, can then mix and match the passives they actually equip—and this is where players can discover the overpowered builds.
Bravely Default II should also receive plenty of praise for its extensive menus and player onboarding process. The tutorials pause the game and walk players through details and are then reviewable later in the menus. Ditto for the party conversations.
While it's an intimidating game, any sort of information a player could wish to find is tucked into the menus. They can be hard to navigate at first, but the feeling fades quickly. There are even different difficulty options to ease the burden of the grind and/or the boss fights.
Speedrunning Tips
The Bravely series always made for interesting speedrunning fodder because of the battle system, which let skilled runners go all-in on interesting strategies and character/job tandems that blitzed through the games.
Rest assured Bravely Default II will be more of the same, and likely on a much more appealing level now that it isn't confined to a handheld system.
First, the basics. Flicking on auto-run from the menus is a must. So is skipping dialogues and cutscenes. Learning when and how to take battles out in the open world to make sure the party's level stays where it needs to be is a must too. Simply practicing pathing to get the quickest routes through dungeons is also critical.
Early on, one of the more interesting strategies looks like letting the powerhouse character take a job that can encourage other players to attack him and only him. He can soak up the punishment and characters with other jobs can cast magic that also encourages enemies to attack him. Meanwhile, magic users who are borderline glass-cannon types go ignored by the baddies while unleashing devastating attacks.
But that's just merely one very basic example of the flexibility permitted by the Jobs system. It's sure to make speedruns incredibly interesting from the moment the game launches and will likely be the backbone of a strong community for years to come.
Conclusion
It's certainly hard to complain about the Bravely series returning to offer up another stellar JRPG experience that feels almost endless in its complexity and playability.
Thankfully, the story itself has some amazing and unexpected moments. It's only boosted by an incredible world, wonky character models notwithstanding.
Courtesy of the Jobs and battle systems, Bravely Default II is a triumph of a 2021 release and a monster in its specific genre lane. It's addicting in the best sorts of ways, and the experimentation permitted by those systems is something that carries the whole experience from front to back.
If it sounds like just another spectacular Switch release, it is.
Persona 5 Strikers Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips
Feb 24, 2021
Persona 5 Strikers might end up being one of the more interesting releases in gaming this year.
Developers Omega Force and P-Studio take a beloved franchise and cast of characters, slam them into a new-feeling genre and manage to offer up a direct sequel with potentially broader appeal while not feeling like a strange side-release.
A sequel to the 2016 classic Persona 5, Strikers sheds the strict JRPG confines of the series and embraces more of an action-RPG feel. That's the biggest diversion, though, as the characters, presentation and story scream direct sequel.
Releasing across multiple platforms, including PC, how Strikers executes the attempt at opening the series to a broader spectrum of players could say much about what comes next.
Graphics and Gameplay
Strikers could pass as Persona 5 to those not paying enough attention.
The game is, in a word, vibrant. Everything from the flashy menus to the creative, eye-catching characters and beyond places the game happily at home in the series—all while the varied soundtrack pumps in the background, surely getting stuck in the heads of those who hear it.
Granted, the colorful trip to interesting locales while monsters and magic fly left and right can get overwhelming at times on the screen during battles. But the eye candy is a visual treat most games can't pull off, nor does it suffer greatly for it in the performance department.
Speaking of visual treats, the anime cutscenes interspersed with in-engine conversations and gameplay are fantastic and high quality. It's also easy in the chaos of battle to miss some of the finer details that are done so well, such as great-looking environmental shadows.
Of course, things looking good in this anime-stylized series isn't anything new. At worst, the designs are distracting to a player and not appealing. At best, it's one of the most interesting releases of the year that won't see much competition in the creativity department.
The same might end up being said for the gameplay, too.
Strikers is not a traditional turn-based RPG. Instead, it is a fun hybrid blend of genres. Exploration is a simple dungeon-crawler, while actual battles are hack-n-slash fun in the Dynasty Warriors genre (Musou). It should be noted that this isn't a simple reskin of a Dynasty Warriors game in the way, say, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity felt. It's heavy on the Persona 5, which is a huge deal.
Battles will feel familiar to those with experience in such a genre. Characters tend to face overwhelming odds against an impressive amount of enemies on the screen at once, making the light and heavy attacks all the more stunning and powerful-feeling.
At its most basic, characters are equipped with a melee and ranged weapon, albeit varied enough to make each character feel distinct. They also come equipped with a huge list of combos that make the possibilities seem endless.
The Persona system is a fun wrinkle to the well-trodden genre, too. Summoning a character's Persona pauses the action and lets the player filter through some spells to cast during combat. This is a simple system at face value, though the layers of strategy it presents are many—before long, seasoned players will be flipping through multiple spells across several characters in different areas to hit on weaknesses and environmental details.
It's all well controlled, too. A simple tap of a button switches characters, and while the action on the screen can look overwhelming, it's always rather intuitive to control. Maybe the only exception is juggling it all so fast on the fly, especially when working in things like environmental attacks. But the adjustment period isn't long despite how chaotic things look on the screen.
Jails will give Persona 5 players deja vu in the form of palaces. Going to the Metaverse to upend a baddie to impact the real world remains a fun concept, though it seems pretty blatant these are dialed down and more linear this time.
The linearity is a fair complaint across the board. The puzzles aren't very puzzling and the dungeons mostly ask the player to go down a straight path and maybe around a bend before stumbling into waves of enemies that need cleared out and mini-bosses or bosses that seem to vary in difficulty.
But overall, Strikers is a pleasant surprise in the gameplay department in large part because some of its contemporaries that got side-tracked into this genre stumbled. This doesn't, and it's a fun, fast-paced mixup that fits snugly in the series.
Story and More
Story is another area Strikers could have ran into trouble. Asking new players lured by a different gameplay system to understand a story that could take 100-plus hours to beat and was released five years ago would have been a problem.
Instead, players don't need to be familiar with the series, but it sure sweetens the experience for those who have invested hours and hours into it. While it's littered with little references and nods that hardcore fans will adore, the bulk of the game and tale it weaves is enjoyable enough without having played its predecessor.
This one takes place five months after Persona 5's conclusion and boasts a sprint across Japan with some familiar faces. It's a fun romp, and each stopping point on the map has its own feel that surely represents the real-world location well. That said, it's a little like the level and dungeon design in that it's disappointing in its linearity and brevity. One location, for example, is just a parking lot.
What we can say about the story is it takes a nice modern twist. The baddies, normally just overlords of their own little universes, can now influence the masses this time out. It's a nice call to the perils of social media and such complicated topics, even if the payoff to besting the negative characters who made poor choices or had improper goals isn't always satisfying.
But things do struggle a bit when we don't paint with such broad strokes.
Much of the depth and RPG-ness of the characters just isn't here like it is in the base game. Maybe that's to be expected given the nature of this release, but it's still a little disappointing. There's a "bond" system in place between characters, but none of those in-depth social mechanics of the past. At times, it can leave conversations feeling a little ho-hum.
This is actually a bigger deal than it seems given how integral the social circle was to the base game. Plotting out an entire day's worth of RPG goodness while juggling relationships, often on a deadline that created tension, was a thrill.
There are side quests to tackle and the usual gauntlet of items to earn that assist in battle, but even these feel dialed down. The Velvet Room also returns and still permits the creation of new Persona, though it is clearly scaled back a tad as well.
Still, if the overarching tradeoff is an inspired genre-blend that doesn't feel forced and the bulk of the experience is a blast, it's hard to complain too much. It's not like Persona 5 hasn't amazingly passed the test of time. Some tradeoffs had to happen, and as disappointing they might be, they're clearly the right ones.
Speedrunning Tips
It wouldn't be much of a shock to see Strikers develop a big speedrunning base.
Persona 5, after all, maintained a healthy speedrunning community for a long time. In a testament to the depth of that game, the world-record time is still over the 15-hour mark.
Eventually—on paper—Strikers could undercut such a number. It will take some of the basics, like slamming through cutscenes and dialogue and taking the most direct routes possible in dungeons after some practice pathing.
Unlike other Musou games, there aren't bases and such to steal and collect, so speedrunning is as simple as picking and choosing the fights a player wants. As a bonus, tucking tail and running isn't penalized. Meaning, it will come down to a time vs. experience debate for optional battles, as the characters will need to be properly ready for the endgame.
In the majority of battles against mobs, initiating specials to pull off an all-out attack is the quickest route to getting through to the critical points of the game. Bosses and endgame moments have specific weaknesses to exploit that will need to be discovered and memorized during pathing.
Given the wealth of options and style of playthroughs available, Strikers should be appealing to skillful runners and an interesting watch on streaming platforms.
Conclusion
Strikers should walk the tightrope between hardcore Persona fans and newcomers quite well.
In the end, it's impressive that Strikers manages to upend the base of the series gameplay, innovate on it with a new genre, and still feel like a superb Persona game.
Yes, there are some shortcomings in the form of a few select in-depth RPG systems that are lacking or absent. But the fresh take, combined with a continuation of a beloved series and storyline with familiar characters makes for a strong effort.
Even better, Strikers is available across a number of platforms, including on the go with the Nintendo Switch. Given what should be a strong reception while casting a wider net than usual, Strikers could be the first of many multi-device efforts in the series to roll out over the next generation.
