Seattle-based developer A Sharp has unveiled Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out, a sequel to 2018’s Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind.
Published by Montreal’s Kitfox Games, Lights Going Out will offer players more turn-based, storybook strategy combat. While the sequel is a standalone experience, players can import their saves from Ride Like the Wind to carry over some choices.
Set during the end of the world, Lights Going Out tasks players with making decisions that will determine the fate of a small clan. This includes managing the group’s relationship with the remaining gods and their followers by making offerings, building altars and more. In total, A Sharp says there are over 500 interactive scenes with multiple, system-driven outcomes.
Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out will release on iOS and Steam this summer.
The Last of Us Part Ifinally debuted on PC on March 28th, but it’s been a bumpy launch, to say the least.
In the past 24 hours, players have been reporting a slew of technical issues with the remake of the seminal 2013 PS3 game, including repeated crashes, inconsistent framerates and lengthy wait times to load shaders. At the time of writing, the game has a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam based on more than 7,000 reviews.
Naughty Dog, the original developer of The Last of Us that also assisted port studio Iron Galaxy on the PC version, took to social media to acknowledge the issues.
The Last of Us Part I PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported.
We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.
“We’ve heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you’ve reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches,” tweeted Naughty Dog. The developer also directed players to a page listing known issues with the PC port while also asking players to submit a ticket for any others they my encounter.
It’s a remarkably bad look for PlayStation, which had already delayed the port by a few weeks for extra polish. It’s also a blemish on Naughty Dog, specifically, a studio renowned for its tightly-crafted, highly-polished games. “We want to make sure that The Last of Us Part I PC debut is in the best shape possible,” wrote Naughty Dog in a February 3rd tweet of the delay. “These additional few weeks will allow us to ensure this version of The Last of Us lives up to your, and our, standards.”
The port also comes several months after The Last of Us Part I was released on PS5 with no significant issues.
Further enhancing the issue is the fact that this port was meant to coincide with the recently concluded first season of HBO’s hit The Last of Us series, which directly adapts the first game. Clearly, PlayStation is positioning the remake as an entry point for people who were introduced to the IP through the series. What’s more, PlayStation also didn’t make review copies available ahead of release, which meant that buyers weren’t able to get any advance feedback on how the PC port actually runs.
Over three years ago, my friends (including MobileSyrup gaming editor Brad Shankar) and I visited Japan for the first time. Over the duration of nine days, we travelled to the busy izakayas in Tokyo, the spiritual streets of Kyoto and the vibrant Blade Runner-esque, neon-light-filled Osaka.
I was left awestruck by the country, and as soon as I returned to Canada, I was eager to go back to Japan. My trip left a lasting imprint on me and reaffirmed my desire to teach English there, with my ideal location being Kyoto.
However, the world changed shortly after returning home (can you believe that the COVID-19 pandemic started three years ago?), and so did the trajectory of my life. Suddenly, travelling to Japan seemed lightyears away and the itch to experience even a little bit more of the country grew stronger.
Then, I discovered Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza 0.
What I thought would be a welcome distraction quickly became one of my favourite games of all-time. Though the gameplay is a simple 3D beat-em-up, I loved how it balanced wacky humour with deeply serious and emotional moments. It also cleverly combined the setting of Japan’s fascinating bubble economy with its gameplay, using huge stacks of cash to upgrade your move-set.
What added to my Yakuza 0 Japan trip simulation was the insane amount of mini-games that you can play, from disco dancing and karaoke to classic arcade games and billiards. At a time when I felt that big open-world games were starting to become more tiresome to play, having a smaller but vastly dense sandbox area was refreshing.
After my Yakuza 0 playthrough, I was hooked, finishing Kiwami and Kiwami 2 in quick succession, along with going back to revisit the minigames. Though I ended up taking a break from the series, I felt drawn back after seeing the announcement for Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a remastered version of the Japan exclusive of the same name, handled similarly to the Kiwami games, including graphical improvements and added content. It’s considered a spin-off, featuring the same characters from previous Yakuza titles (this time including beloved characters from Yakuza 0) but with different backstories and personalities.
Even though we’ve gotten more Edo-based samurai games recently, such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Ghost of Tsushima, Like a Dragon: Ishin! was more enticing because of the distinct charm that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio adds to its games.
That said, Ishin! excels in its narrative and gameplay, though with a few shortcomings.
The undercover samurai in modern-day Kyoto
The story involves Ryoma Sakamoto (resemblance based on Yakuza hero Kiryu Kazama), a lone samurai coming back to his hometown Tosa after his sword training in Edo. In a span of a few hours, Ryoma becomes embroiled in a political civil war conflict between the Bakufu, the current authoritarian military government, and the Loyalist Party, a group dedicated to the Emperor with plans to overthrow the government. After a series of events, Ryoma ostracizes himself from Tosa to pursue his own investigation in the city of Kyo (modern-day Kyoto) with an undercover name.
This leads to an interesting dynamic in the story, as his sworn brother is the leader of the Loyalist Party while he becomes a high-ranking captain in Bakufu’s elite samurai army, the Shinsengumi. Without going into spoilers, I found the story to be quite interesting, especially compared to the more crime-focused Yakuza counterpart.
However, while you get more out of the game if you played the past Yakuza titles, it also spoils a bit of the plot because some characters follow the same fate. This was quite apparent at the start of the game with Ryoma’s reasoning for leaving Tosa in the first place. Thankfully, the predictability does fade after you get into the real meat of the story, and despite this issue, the inclusion of the Yakuza 0 characters was fantastic, especially in regards to the boss fights.
Ryoma Sakamoto’s bizarre adventures
For a Yakuza/Like a Dragon title, sub-stories are just as important as the story, and Ishin! has some great ones.
From helping out a good-hearted loan shark to aiding a person who’s being ignored for talking literally all day, these side-quests provide lots of humour to keep players engrossed in Kyo.
There is also a lot to do in the city, and at times, it feels overwhelming when you’re trying to progress through the main story. Whether it’s the dozens of people that you can befriend or the countless mini-games, it can be a detriment because your progression is constantly interrupted (though you’re free to just ignore it).
On top of all this is ‘Another Life,’ a farming simulator where Ryoma can grow produce, cook food, own pets and sell various goods. It doesn’t help that despite the great narrative, Ishin!‘s pacing can be quite slow at times. If you’re trying to breeze past the story, you may find that there’s a lack of action set-pieces, especially if you’re a newer fan who started off with Yakuza 0.
Saying all of that, the advice that I have for playing this game will sound bizarre. If you have the time (which, as an adult, feels shorter as you get older), my recommendation would be to play the game at your own pace and not speed through the story. Complete the sub-stories you want, develop the farming business you desire and embrace Kyo’s wackiness and chaos without any constraints. You’ll get a more enhanced experience that way.
The art of the sword… and revolver
Like most of the Yakuza games before the switch to a traditional RPG system, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a 3D beat-em-up where you use different battle styles to defeat multiple enemies.
There are four combat styles to choose between:
Brawler — the traditional battle style from previous Yakuza games where you fight with your fists or can pick up nearby objects to smack the living hell out of enemies
Swordsman — use your katana for highly damaging strikes at the cost of range and mobility
Gunman — prioritize a revolver to shoot enemies from afar with ease
Wild Dancer — uses both swords and revolvers to perform chaotic combos
Wild Dancer is especially devastating, as you can perform combos to a single enemy or use a spinning gun attack to blow away multiple people at once.
However, a new addition to the combat with this remaster are the Trooper Cards, which act like special moves that you can manually control or perform automatically. In the original game, you can only use Trooper Cards in the dungeon-crawler minigame, but now, they’re usable in regular gameplay.
It’s a bit similar to the deck system in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, where specific cards can perform combat moves, buffs, or healing. You can also assign three cards to each battle system, meaning you can have a deck of 12 catered to a specific play style. The Trooper Cards are great to use and add a bit more strategy to boss battles, specifically. However, it’s, thankfully, not complex compared to an RPG system, so you won’t constantly be shifting cards around for specific battles once you have a comfortable loadout.
Reliving Kyo through emotional connections
If Yakuza 0 was used to recreate my trip to Tokyo and Osaka, Like a Dragon Ishin! was my way of experiencing historic Kyoto and reminiscing over my own emotional connections to the city.
Thanks to the new graphical uplift, Ishin! looks really beautiful, especially at night when you can see the lanterns lit up near the river and towns. It’s by no means groundbreaking compared to current-gen games, but for someone who has an interest in Kyoto, it’s a great way to bring the Edo-period prefecture to light.
This setting enhances the game, distancing itself from the urban locations of previous Yakuza games while offering a fresh sense of discovery. Personally speaking, it’s a dream combination of my favourite place in Japan with my interest in ancient history. Because of this, I’ll always connect my emotional experience of Kyoto to this game, which will encourage replayability because of the sheer amount of content and my own sentiments on the prefecture.
Overall, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a great remaster that should be on your radar whether you’re a Yakuza fan or new to the series. It’s both familiar and distinct, allowing players to familiarize themselves with the series without knowledge of the past Yakuza games. Furthermore, it allowed me to reminisce about my first trip to Kyoto because of my ties to the area.
For that, Like a Dragon: Ishin! delivered an experience that was priceless to me, and as I revisit Japan later this year, it will be a game that I remember as I walk through the streets of Kyoto again.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! is available on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.
Several Bethesda titles and other games are on sale on Steam right now following the recent Xbox Bethesda Developer_Direct. Check them out below out below:
At the young age of 28, that’s not exactly something I’ve given much thought. But as I went through Season: A Letter to the Future, I found myself contemplating just that. It’s a weighty question, to be sure, but it’s one that Montreal-based Scavengers Studio handles with unparalleled beauty.
In Season, you play as a young woman named Estelle who must leave her secluded village to collect memories of the world before a cataclysm lays waste to it. What I appreciated the most about the game, though, is that despite that outwardly dark premise, it’s actually got a refreshing sense of optimism. Rather than dwell on the doom and gloom of it all, you’re encouraged to celebrate life in the present, and that makes for a thoroughly engrossing experience. That begins with your bike, which is your primary method of navigation. Through a rather ingenious use of the PS5 DualSense’s adaptive triggers, you have to alternate between L2 and R2 to start cycling, and inclines create increased resistance to the feeling of pedalling up a steep hill. While the bike itself frustratingly got stuck at times when pedalling near walls or tight corners, the handling of it is surprisingly immersive on the whole.
On your bike, you’ll ride through abandoned mountainous stretches and grassy hills, soaking up every bit of the lush scenery and stunningly picturesque art style. At any point, you can use your camera or voice recorder to capture your surroundings, and it’s through these collections that Estelle will monologize her inner thoughts. Given that she’s never left town, there’s a lovable wide-eyed innocence to these remarks, and I enjoyed hearing her perspective on everything from the gorgeous landscapes to different breeds of sheep. You’ll then be able to place these photos and recordings in a notebook through an engaging sort of scrapbooking minigame. In other words, you have to decide what to preserve, giving quite a bit of heft to something otherwise so trivial. Admittedly, this doesn’t change the final outcome of the story, but it’s still a thoughtful and even exciting exercise — not unlike putting together an actual time capsule.
These moments of isolation are actually meditative, too, as they create a sense of intrigue as to what’s happening in this world. Indeed, there is a mystery here — not just about the nature of the cataclysm, but of a previous war that devastated the land. In this way, there’s a good deal of environmental storytelling in Season; you get to see firsthand all of the ways that the people have managed to press on after tragedy.
Naturally, all of this only makes your inevitable encounter with a handful of villagers who are making their final preparations feel even more impactful. It’s through these characters that Season truly comes to life. Free of any sort of ticking clock or threat of combat, the game simply tasks you with spending time with these people. On the whole, each interaction isn’t overly long, but still manages to feel utterly meaningful in terms of personal stakes. In one situation, I spent time with a mother who was figuring out which of her late son’s mementos to carry with her, which immediately created a tight emotional connection to her. After all, she entrusted me, a complete stranger, to weigh in on such pivotal decisions. Elsewhere, I came across a lonely artist in a forest and helped her make peace with her legacy. Each character’s tale is heartfelt in its own way, and I adored uncovering each of them.
In many other stories, such scenes could have been far more depressing, with characters wallowing in despair in emotionally manipulative ways. Season, however, resonates because it does the exact opposite. In sharing these quiet, intimate moments of warmth with the villagers, I came to learn about the resilience of a beautiful land and its people — a sense of spirit that will carry on no matter what happens. This, in turn, made my responsibility to choose what memorialize feel even more profound. Forget just sharing snapshots of the environment — what should I take forward those precious few moments of wonder and joy and human connection that I had?
Ultimately, that’s what makes Season such a remarkable game. Unlike most end of the world yarns, Scavengers wisely opts to avoid conflict and tension in favour of taking it slow. In so doing, it creates a melancholic-yet-uplifting atmosphere that’s enriched by the compelling characters that you meet on your journey. It’s a powerful, introspective experience, and one that I will stick with me for a long time.
Season: A Letter to the Future will launch on PlayStation 4/5 and Steam on January 31st.
Note: While we want to celebrate a quality game that was no doubt created by many innocent and hard-working developers, the work conditions at Scavengers should be acknowledged. In January 2021, GamesIndustry.biz reported that Scavengers Studio leadership was fostering a toxic work environment. Specifically, creative director Simon Darveau was accused of sexual misconduct, harassment and verbal abuse, while CEO Amélie Lamarche was said to have enabled him.
Following the publication of this report, Scavengers apologized for its lack of communication surrounding the situation and pushed Darveau to a non-managerial role but claimed an external audit “did not find the presence of systemic sexual or psychological harassment at the studio.” It’s unclear whether situations have improved at the studio.
Steam has kicked off its big 2022 Winter Sale, offering discounts on all kinds of games.
See below for a list of some of the deals. Note that some of these are part of the main Winter Sale, which runs from December 22nd to January 5th, while others may have slightly different durations.
Valve has launched its revamped Steam Mobile app on Android and iOS.
The company was beta testing the updated app earlier this year, but this marks the official wide release.
To start, the app sports a redesign that streamlines navigation, making it easier to manage your Steam account. From the app, you can download games to your PC, browse Steam and make purchases and receive notifications about sales and friend requests.
Further, Valve says the app offers improved security by letting you simply scan a QR code to sign into your desktop or PC. The company adds that it’s looking into expanding this functionality to Steam Deck.
You can see the updated app in action in this brief video:
In other Valve news, the company recently announced that its popular Steam Deck handheld is now available for outright purchase — no reservation process required.
Valve’s Steam Deck is now available for purchase without any reservation.
As spotted by Twitter user @Lbabinz, visiting the Steam Deck page gives you the option to ‘Buy now,’ with deliveries estimated to occur within one to two weeks.
It’s a significant move from Valve, which has been operating under a reservation system since last year. Previously, people would have to place a small deposit and then wait any number of months before receiving an email that gave them a small window in which they could complete their purchase and await shipping soon thereafter. For example, a friend and I pre-ordered our Steam Decks in June and just received them within the past week.
Now, though, the supply constraints seem to have improved enough for Valve to do away with this reservation system. That said, it’s unclear how long this might last — it’s always possible Steam could revert to reservations down the line — so you may want to purchase a Steam Deck sooner rather than later if interested.
The base Steam is priced at $499 CAD and comes with a 64GB Embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC) and carrying case. However, you’ll likely want to go with one of the other two models, as they’re SSD-powered and, therefore, a lot faster. The middle Deck costs $659 and comes with a 256GB NVMe SSD, carrying case and exclusive Steam Community profile bundle, while the most expensive model is priced at $819 and comes with a 512GB NVMe SSD, premium anti-glare etched glass, exclusive carrying case, exclusive Steam Community profile bundle and exclusive virtual keyboard theme.
Online games retailer Fanatical has a big Star Wars bundle for quite a low price.
The ‘Star Wars Collection’ includes 14 games set in the galaxy far, far away for $24.19 CAD, down from the regular $109.99.
Here are the bundled games:
Star Wars: Battlefront II (Classic)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars — Republic Heroes
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars Empire at War: Gold Pack
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Starfighter
All told, there are quite a few gems in there. BioWare Edmonton’s Knights of the Old Republic is widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever made, and its sequel, as well as the likes of Battlefront II, Jedi Outcast and Republic Commando, are also especially well-regarded.
The sale runs until September 28th and will give you a code for Steam or Windows PC. It’s worth noting that the Star Wars Collection also includes a five percent off coupon towards your next Fanatical purchase.
There’s also a ‘Studio Spotlight’ on deals if you want a more specific breakdown of where each comes from. The full list of Games From Ontario offers can be found here. The sale runs from September 7th to September 14th at 1pm ET.
However, the world changed shortly after returning home (can you believe that the COVID-19 pandemic started three years ago?), and so did the trajectory of my life. Suddenly, travelling to Japan seemed lightyears away and the itch to experience even a little bit more of the country grew stronger.
