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God of War: Ragnarok Will Bring Back Several Combat Mechanics from the Older Games

NOTE: There are spoilers ahead for God of War (2018).

God of War: Ragnarok's reveal trailer was a surprisingly packed one, and ended up revealing way more story and gameplay details than most would have expected. Specifically where the combat is concerned – which, of course, is a core pillar of any God of War game – director Eric Williams has spoken about how it is going to be more vertical, and allow players to be more expressive thanks to a wider range of tools to play around with.

At the same time, as the game's reveal trailer showed, there will also be quite a few freshly introduced mechanics that will be quite familiar to series fans. Speaking in an interview with Kaptain Kuba, Williams said that specifically where the Blades of Chaos are concerned, the development team decided to bring back "the greatest hits of things [they] didn't get to" in the previous game.

"We had a little bit of a down window between [God of War] 2018 finishing and getting the story spun up for [Ragnarok]," Williams said. "There was this part, I would say two months, maybe three months, where we opened everything up to the team. We had this thing called the idea box, and anybody could submit ideas on what they wanted, and there was just so much of people being like, 'Since we brought the Blades back halfway through the last game, we didn't quite get to bring it back 100%.'

"So there were so many ideas, like 'oh, we should bring back the grapple,' or 'we should bring back the chain pull', or what we call combo 5B, where [Kratos] latches guys out of the air and slams them down. There were just so many ideas that were like old stuff, and it was like, okay, let's go through the greatest hits of things we didn't get to, let's bring those back. So there was a lot of that on the team."

In the same interview, Cory Barlog, creative director of God of War (2018), revealed that it was his decision to the end the series' Norse saga after just two games, and explained why that decision was made. Read more about that through here.

Other gameplay-focused details on God of War: Ragnarok have also been emerging, such as the inclusion of two new Valkyries and multiple Einherjar.

God of War: Ragnarok will launch some time in 2022 for PS5 and PS4.

Lost Judgment Review – Like a Student

With Yakuza having reinvented itself and heading in a new direction following Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the void left it left behind has been instantly filled by Judgment. While Yakuza crafts dense RPG adventures going forward, Judgment is delivering the same brawler gameplay that the series had always been known for, with some wrinkles and elements of its own, and the first game did it well enough to warrant a sequel. And that sequel, Lost Judgment, does exactly what an ideal sequel should- it improves upon the first game's strengths, while also introducing solid new ideas of its own, and in the process ends up surpassing its predecessor.

Lost Judgment takes place a couple of years after the events of the first game, with Yagami and Kaito's detective work in Kamurocho continuing to chug along, but as the game begins, Yagami Detective Agency is roped into a twisted and complicated case. When a man on trial for sexual harassment is deemed guilty, during the court hearing, he informs the judge of a corpse found In Yokohama, claiming that the man was responsible for his son's suicide years ago, and though he escaped punishment because of a broken system then, he's now got what was coming to him. Hired by the man's lawyers, who happen to be the familiar faces at Genda Law, Yagami heads to Yokohama and begins investigating the case in an attempt to untangle its mysteries.

It's a strong setup that instantly hooks you, and Lost Judgment keeps introducing new narrative threads throughout its opening hours as well. By the time you're a couple of chapters in and the core of the story has properly crystallized, Lost Judgment's central narrative premise really shines, with multiple plot threads running simultaneously and affecting the others in interesting ways. It's hard to talk about all the ways Lost Judgment's story works without spoiling interesting details that are best discovered yourself, but from the portrayals of returning characters to the excellent new ones added to expand the cast, from the gradual pacing that smartly takes its time to properly set things up to, of course, the excellently written and voiced dialogue (for which the localization deserves massive props), there's no shortage of things working together in harmony to ensure that Lost Judgment doesn't stumble in the narrative department.

"Lost Judgment does exactly what an ideal sequel should- it improves upon the first game's strengths, while also introducing solid new ideas of its own, and in the process ends up surpassing its predecessor."

One particular way in which it stands out is how surprisingly dark Lost Judgment can get. This series as a whole is known for that, of course- in spite of how silly and ridiculous and over-the-top these games can get, they can also every so often go to some really dark places. Lost Judgment's story, which starts off with things such as suicide and bullying, doesn't pull any punches either, and has the capacity to hit surprisingly hard with those narrative beats. Thankfully, nothing feels like it's being done for shock value, and like its predecessor, its writing is always good enough to effectively deliver the needed impact of the more dramatic moments in the story.

And of course, the fact that the bulk of the story is set in Ijincho, Yokohama (which Yakuza: Like a Dragon fans will be very familiar with) definitely helps. You can still roam around the streets of Kamurocho in Lost Judgment, but Yokohama is where the majority of the game is set, and the change in scenery helps the game greatly. Exploring the city is always fun, thanks to a predictably wide variety of enjoyable activities to dive into, from a dancing minigame to going to the arcade to play some classics to taking part in drone races and so much more. Of course, there's also a healthy amount of side quests available, which are consistently a source of delight. Given the series' pedigree, it comes as no surprise that Lost Judgment's side quests effectively deliver plenty of interesting stories, humour, and wacky shenanigans.

The thing that really elevates the very fundamentals of exploration in Lost Judgment, however, is the skateboard, which seems like a fairly minor addition on paper, but turns out to be one of its best new features. Not long after arriving in Ijincho, Yagami gets his hands on a skateboard which he can then seamlessly pull out at any time to get around the city, as long as he isn't on pedestrian sidewalks. You accelerate by repeatedly pressing a button, and another button can be used to jump, pull off some basic tricks, and grind on rails, while coins scattered throughout the world can also be collected for points. The mechanics are fairly simple, and Lost Judgment doesn't suddenly turn into a skateboarding simulator by any means, but thanks to how seamless it is and how well its simple mechanics are implemented, even the simple act of getting from point A to point B remains consistently enjoyable through the game.

lost judgment

"The thing that really elevates the very fundamentals of exploration in Lost Judgment is the skateboard, which seems like a fairly minor addition on paper, but turns out to be one of its best new features."

Another major addition – and a much more substantial one, at that – is School Stories. Soon after Yagami's arrival in Yokohama, his investigation takes him to Seiryo High School. A sinister history of bullying and things being swept under the rug at the school is tied to Yagami's own investigation, and this kicks off an entirely separate arc that spans the bulk of the game. Yagami takes on the role of a club advisor so that he can dig deeper and deeper into the school's problems, and finishing School Stories, helping students, and taking part in school-specific activities lets you increase certain Leadership skills (which are quite similar to the social skills in Persona), which, in turn, allows you to progress further in the investigation.

The school isn't as dangerously addictive as something like the management minigame in Yakuza 0, no, but it's a sizeable, meaty part of the experience that is brimming with quality. Strong characters, varied side activities, and consistently engaging narrative progression make it easy to invest in Lost Judgment's school setting, and the fact that it is such a crucial part of the main story really helps as well, because even when you're spending hours in the school doing optional activities that have nothing to do with Yagami's primary investigation, it doesn't feel out of place.

Structurally, Lost Judgment achieves a much better balance with its brawler and investigative facets than its predecessor. Varied scenarios constantly break up the action, from tailing sections, to infiltration sections with some light stealth thrown in, to fast-paced chase sequences, to more slower-paced moments where you have to stop and observe your surroundings. Parkour is another big addition, with Yagami now being able to swing across gaps, scale pipes and walls with handholds, and walk along narrow ledges, while managing a grip meter, which is essentially a stamina meter in all but name. Meanwhile, tailing missions, thankfully, aren't quite as frequent as they were in the first game, and also generally demand more active participation thanks to some smart additions, like being able to spontaneously look at your phone or tie your shoelaces to blend into the crowd if your target begins suspecting something.

Lost Judgment

"Structurally, Lost Judgment achieves a much better balance with its brawler and investigative facets than its predecessor."

Where combat is concerned, Lost Judgment delivers in all the ways that you'd expect it to. The Yakuza franchise's brawler combat never fails to be enjoyable, and smacking thugs into the dirt while using everything from your fists to traffic cones to baseball bats remains as fun as ever. The big new addition here is the Snake Style, which is ideal for when you're taking on armed enemies and want to focus on disarming and counter-attacking, but honestly, the combat styles in Lost Judgment don't really feel all that meaningfully different from each other. Each has its own unique bells and whistles, of course, but for the most part, all styles seem equally well-equipped for most situations, so there's very little mechanical incentive to actually switching styles. Progression in Lost Judgment also ends up suffering as a result, because so much of what you can purchase using your skill points is geared towards powering up separate fighting styles. Some of those are, of course, very useful upgrades, but there weren't a lot of times when I was torn between multiple available upgrades.

Regardless of what few complaints I may have with Lost Judgment though, it's hard to deny just how accomplished the game really is at almost everything it sets out to do. From its extremely polished and distinct take on its predecessor's gameplay to its arresting story to the great localization to even minor touches and additions that collectively enhance the experience so much, Lost Judgment is an incredibly compelling game that is well worth playing.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

God of War: Ragnarok – Ending the Norse Saga After 2 Games Was Cory Barlog's Decision

The fact that God of War: Ragnarok is going to be the last game in the series' Norse saga has surprised quite a lot of people. Most people assumed that the Norse saga would be a trilogy at the very least, especially seeing as the Greek saga was also a trilogy (with three mainline spinoffs on top of that), so to see God of War wrapping up this arc in just two arcs has taken people by surprise.

And as it turns out, that decision was made by Cory Barlog, creative director of God of War (2018), himself. In a recent interview with YouTuber Kaptain Kuba, when asked about why it was decided that Ragnarok would be the final game in the Norse saga, Eric Williams – wo replaces Barlog as director on the upcoming sequel – says that the decision was actually made by his predecessor. Barlog then went on to explain that telling the entire story over the course of three games in what would roughly have been fifteen years would have stretched the narrative too thin, and that the development team felt confident it could wrap things up by the end of the second game itself.

"There are several reasons," Barlog said. "I think one of the most important reasons is, the first game took five years. The second game- I don't know how long it's gonna take, but I'm just gonna throw out that it's gonna take close to a similar time to do this. And then if you think, wow, a third one in that same [amount of time], we're talking a span of close to fifteen years of a single story, and I feel like that's just too stretched out. Like I feel like we're asking too much to say- the actual completion of that story taking that long just feels too long.

"Given where the team was at and where Eric [Williams] was at with what he wanted to do, I was like, 'look, I think we can actually do this in the second story.' Because most of what we were trying to do for the beginning was to tell something about Kratos and Atrues, that the core, the story's engine is really the relationship between these two characters. The complexity radiates out, like ripples in a pond. And we could make it an ocean, and have those ripples go just thousands of miles. But is that necessary and is that beneficial, or are we feeling like it's just spreading it too far apart? The ripples get too far apart and you just sort of lose the plot a little bit."

Barlog went on to add that SIE Santa Monica Studio is looking to craft a singular experience across both games in the Norse saga telling one story from beginning to end, an effect that he feels is "fantastic" when done right.

"That experience I had when I got the extended edition box set of The Lord of the Rings, and I was able to say, 'wow, I can sit down and have like thirteen and a half hours of this experience, playing them one after another, back-to-back. And I just thought that was fantastic, amazing. So to be able to say, 'hey man, you could probably start God of War (2018) and then play God of War: Ragnarok and feel like you're getting the entirety of the story. And I kind of want that to happen maybe before my kid's in college."

Barlog added: "Also, as we started to talk about what the story could be, about where Eric really wanted to go, the things that were interesting and exciting for him, I was like, 'Yeah, I really do think we can do this.' Because it is centralizing itself always around these characters, and then really kind of giving everybody the time that they need. Those were important things.

"And, you know, after that, [we] wanted to really make a big splash with something. Not sure what it is, but I think it'll be great."

The assumption, of course, is that once the Norse saga has wrapped up, God of War will move on to another mythology for another new arc, which was something even the 2018 game seemed to hint at. How (or if) that will be set up in God of War: Ragnarok remains to be seen. The game's out for PS5 and PS4 in 2022, so it'll be a while before we find out.

Cyberpunk 2077's Launch Taught us Not to Overpromise, Says Vigilance 2099 Developer

It is impossible in the current market for anyone to make a cyberpunk game and not be immediately compared to Cyberpunk 2077. It wouldn't be an exaggeration, in fact, to say that CDPR's game is hugely responsible for the massive boom in popularity the cyberpunk genre has seen in video games of late. But of course, Cyberpunk 2077 itself didn't have the best launch possible (if we're being mild about it), so what lessons have the games that are inspired by it taken from its not-so-spectacular launch?

That was a question we posed in a recent interview to Envoidant Studios' Nas Nakarus, lead developer on the upcoming open world cyberpunk action RPG Vigilance 2099, whose biggest takeaway from the situation is that even though he personally enjoyed CDPR's RPG, it reinforces the dangers of overpromising and rushing to deliver a product.

"I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 a lot, but I can't ignore that their launch was messy to say the least," he said. "We have learnt that we should make sure not to overpromise, make sure everyone is having fun as a main priority and avoid rushing something that we feel is not ready for the public yet. We are focused on making this a game that us developers absolutely enjoyed making so that players can feel the passion that has gone into it!"

Of course, Vigilance 2099 is a much smaller production developer by a significantly smaller team that the massive undertaking that was Cyberpunk 2077, so the two situations aren't exactly alike- but it's good to see developers taking crucial lessons from high-profile missteps by some of the bigger releases.

Vigilance 2099 is currently in development for PC and consoles, but doesn't yet have a release date. Our full interview with Nakarus will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition Hits 1.5 Million in Digital Sales and Shipments

Along with announcing that Tales of Arise had crossed one million in digital sales and worldwide shipments since launch, Bandai Namco provided updated sales figures for other titles. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, a remaster of the 2008 action RPG, hit 1.5 million in shipments and digital sales since launching in January 2019. Taking the base version into account, the title has 2.88 million in shipments and sales till date.

Tales of Berseria crossed two million in shipments and digital sales. It launched in August 2016 for PS4 and PS3 before coming to PS4 and PC worldwide in January 2017. Thus far, total franchise sales have topped 25 million units with Tales of Arise being its fastest selling title till date.

It's currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. For more details, you can check out our official review here. Along with selling well, it also set a record for peak concurrent players for a Japanese RPG on Steam, hitting 60,274 players just a few days after release.

Deltarune Chapter 2 is Out Tomorrow on PC

Almost three years after the first chapter's release, Deltarune Chapter 2 is coming tomorrow to PC. It will be available on its official website from 5 PM PT onwards. Developer Toby Fox also released a new trailer which can be seen in the tweet below.

Much like Fox's universally acclaimed Undertale, Deltarune is a role-playing game with retro-style visuals. The story focuses on Kris and Susie who venture to the "Dark World" where they team with Ralsei. Thus does their journey begin to save the world and though the combat system ditches random encounters, players can still resolve conflicts with and without violence.

Deltarune Chapter 2 supports save data transfer from the first chapter. For those who don't have the same, it's possible to play Chapter 2 "as long as you generally remember what happened story-wise, you'll be fine." Given that Chapter 1 eventually came to PS4 and Nintendo Switch several months after its PC release, it remains to be seen if Chapter 2 will follow the same pattern. As always, stay tuned for more details.

The King of Fighters 15 – Kukri Revealed in New Character Trailer

A new character trailer has been released for The King of Fighters 15 and it showcases Kukri. Introduced in The King of Fighters 14, his real name is unknown and he uses to sand to decimate his foes. Check out his moves and fighting style below.

Along with spiraling into foes and dropping heavy amounts of sand to damage them, he's also capable of teleporting behind an opponent using the same. Kukri's style is referred to as "Hot Sand Assassin's Fist" and though seemingly quite arrogant, his true nature is unknown. One of his powers consists of creating a parallel universe but whether that will play a role in the sequel is unknown.

The King of Fighters 15 is in development for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. It releases on February 17th 2022 and includes 39 characters at launch along with features like rollback netcode for online multiplayer. Stay tuned for more details en route to its release.

Deathloop – Arkane "Actively Investigating" Stuttering Issues on PC

Deathloop, the latest action adventure title from Arkane Studios of Dishonored fame, has scored really well with critics. While performance on PS5 is generally pretty good, the story is somewhat different on PC. On Steam, it currently has a "Mixed" user review score with roughly 64 percent being "Positive."

Even among those, there are complaints of stuttering and poor performance with some blaming Denuvo, the anti-piracy DRM, as the main culprit. A community manager for the title spoke about the same on Reddit and noted that, "Regarding performance we are aware of reports that some PC users are experiencing stuttering issues in Deathloop. We're actively investigating the issue right now as a priority, and will update you with more specific information as soon as possible."

Whether Denuvo is actually the cause or optimization issues are to blame remains to be seen. As such, even the PS5 version has its share of issues, from screen-tearing in certain cutscenes to slight frame rate drops and the occasional. You can read more about it in our official review.

Deathloop is currently available only for PS5 and PC due to being a one year exclusive for Sony's platform. Stay tuned for more details on subsequent updates and patches in the coming months.

Tales of Arise Passes 1 Million in Worldwide Digital Sales and Shipments

Bandai Namco has announced that Tales of Arise digital sales and shipments have already crossed one million units worldwide. This makes it the fastest selling game in the franchise with total shipments for the series hitting 25 million as well. The action RPG released on September 10th and has already garnered much praise.

Tales of Arise is about Alphen and Shionne, the former a resident of Dahna who's lost his memories while the latter hails from Rena and injures anyone who touches her. Together, the two traverse the world of Dahna, helping its denizens to rise up against their Renan oppressors. Other party members will join from the scholarly Rinwell, martial arts expert Law, noble Dohalim il Qaras and chivalrous Kisara.

You can check out our official review for the game here. It's currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC (with free upgrades for previous to current gen platforms).

Tales of Arise Guide – All Collectibles And Their Locations

Like many role-playing games, Tales of Arise has quite a number of collectibles to locate in its various realms. There are Owls, Astral Flowers, Fish, Recipes and Artifacts to find along with Gigants to slay. We'll go over what each does along with how many there are. But keep in mind that much of this is optional. Aside from 100 percent completion and earning all of the Trophies and Achievements, you don't need to get all of them.

Let's start by looking at each collectible type.

  • Owls – Owls are, as the name indicates, owls. You won't miss any of them and after defeating the first Lord, Rinwell's friend Hootle unlocks an ability that informs you when an Owl is nearby. Usually the Owl will be fairly close so they're hard to miss. Collected Owls are indicated by a white icon on the world map. A nice way to keep track of those collected is to go to the Owl Forest (which opens up after accessing Nevia Snowplains). You'll find Owls seated in different colored trees, which corresponds to the realms they've been found in. If a perch is denoted as "full", then this means you've found all of the Owls in that region. There are 38 Owls to collect in total but you need to collect 32, and then visit the Owl King in the Owl Forest to unlock and find the remaining six. Every Owl you collect will provide a new outfit piece for your characters to wear.
  • Gigants – Elite Monsters are referred to as Gigants. There are 20 in total and these are essentially bosses roaming in each realm which are tougher than regular monsters. It's worth noting that many Gigants aren't available when first visiting an area. You need to return and then seek them out (with some also being tied to sub-quests). To find the free roaming ones on the map, simply open it and look for a red icon. Defeating a Gigant provides an Astral Flower which adds +10 CP to your current total so they'll provide a fairly sufficient boost to your healing capacity and spell casting.
  • Artifacts – Artifacts are quite interesting since they essentially enable different effects that can help make the game easier. Others can add things like Chaos difficulty, and the ability to deal and receive double damage. There are 23 Artifacts in total and they can be found in chests, as rewards for finding Owls and from sub-quests.
  • Recipes – Recipes are used to unlock different meals which are cooked at campsites to give different buffs. These can include increased EXP earned, a higher drop rate for Ores and so on. You'll get five recipes normally in the story but others must be found in each realm. There are 38 Recipes in total which can be located in chests and as sub-quest rewards. Certain Recipes only become available when revisiting certain locations.
  • Astral Flowers – As noted above, Astral Flowers grant +10 CP to your overall total. In total, there are 31 Astral Flowers to find and while there are 20 to collect from slaying Gigants, you'll find another 10 from completing sub-quests and other activities.
  • Fish – Throughout the game, you'll find 12 fishing locations which are key to catching 44 different types of fish. While all fish can be caught with any rod and lure, certain lures will guarantee that a certain fish is caught. "Boss" fish are also encountered and can be tougher to catch due to having two stamina bars so keep that in mind.

Check out the videos below by PowerPyx for more details on locations for each collectible. For more tips and tricks when playing Tales of Arise, head here. You can also read our official review here.