Roleplay coming this week, 29.1.23

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We’re getting a pretty diverse set of releases to close out January. There’s turn-based and action-based fare and a bunch of adventure games to sift through, so let’s get down to business with this week’s edition of RPGs.

8-Bit Adventures 2 – January 31 (Windows)

You know, I think it’s actually been a hot minute since we got an indie RPG style around the NES/Master System era. I may have missed something big, but 8-Bit Adventures 2 stands out in a time when most studios are going back to the 16- and 32-bit eras. This game from Australia-based Critical Games looks amazing; it’s a much more sculpted, detailed version of the Final Fantasies and Fantasy stars you remember, with what looks to be a sprawling overworld, gripping narrative and textured chiptune soundtrack.

8-bit adventure 2 will debut on Steam and GOG first, but we can expect it to hit consoles sometime in 2023.

Season: A Letter to the Future – January 31 (PS5, PS4, Windows)

Man, if ever there was a game that could fill you with a sense of melancholy…

Season: A Letter to the Future is about appreciating the beauty of a doomed world, the last days of a time that you will never be able to return to. It’s a bike ride through a forgotten corner of the planet that will make you meet some special individuals, take pictures of beautiful nature and journal every step. The concept is brilliant, touching and disturbing, and I’m very curious to learn how the narrative unfolds. If you have a PlayStation 5, it might be worth picking up there with all the care the developers seem to have put into the DualSense and 3D sound features.

Superfuse (Entering Early Access) – January 31 (Windows)

Superfuse is a hack-and-slash action RPG with a particular focus on a four-player co-op experience. It will first come out in Steam Early Access, which the developers say will help them fine-tune the mechanics based on player feedback. Story content and additional game features are expected to roll out during 2023, so interested people will check in with the game periodically.

Tails: The Backbone Preludes – February 2 (Windows)

Here’s another prequel The spinea point-and-click detective game that I remember made some waves in 2021. Tails: The Backbone Preludes appears to be a detailed, branching account of four characters from the first game, and it’s exactly the moody, noir-esque game you’d expect. See our review if you want to know what we liked about the first one.

Also coming this week

Life Is Strange 2 – February 2 (Switch)

Life Is Strange 2 coming to Nintendo Switch not too long after remasters of the first two games arrived in 2021. The ever insightful Bob Richardson has been consistent in his appreciation of this adventure game; he reviewed each and every episode for us as they came out and had great things to say about each one.

Were you able to figure out the answer to my question last week, readers? The PSone-era RPG track sampled is “Dead Sea” from Chrono Cross. Speaking of nothing, I’ve been listening to a lot of Yasunori Mitsuda lately, and I came across this slick cover of a Xenogears song. With this I say goodbye until next week!