Which Assassin’s Creed Valhalla edition is right for you?
Now that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has been fully revealed with today’s trailer, loads of information about Ubisoft’s next entry in its popular franchise has been unearthed. This includes details on each edition of the game, as well as pre-order bonuses. This Assassin’s Creed Valhalla pre-order guide will tell you everything you need to know about pre-ordering the game, including price, bonuses, and versions.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Standard Edition
The Standard Edition of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is exactly what you expect it to be. For $59.99, you will get the game when it inevitably launches in the Holiday 2020 release window. If you just want to get in on the action without all the bells and whistles, this will be the version you are looking for.
It should be noted that there is a pre-order bonus. If you decide to purchase any edition of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla today or any day before the game releases, you will receive the bonus mission, The Way of the Beserker. There are no details for the mission, but the art shows the protagonist Eivor with a bet bear that has a scar across one of its eyes. It looks pretty awesome.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gold Edition
The Gold Edition of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will cost a $109.99 for Xbox One and PS4 and $99.99 for PC. Prices for next-gen console versions have not been announced, but it may be safe to assume it will share its predecessor’s price tag. Additionally, the price difference may be due to the PC version being a download while the console version including a physical Steelbook case.
The edition will come with the base game, as well as the Season Pass. Ubisoft has not gone into what the DLC roadmap will look like for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but the promotional images state it will give holders access to “epic new content, explore new lands, and discover new gear.” It also says there is a bonus mission available at launch but isn’t clear if that is the previously mentioned The Way of the Beserker mission or an entirely different one.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Ultimate Edition
The Ultimate Edition of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will cost $119.99 across all platforms. Again, prices for next-gen consoles have yet to be listed, but it may be safe to assume it will be the same price.
This version will come with the base game, the Season Pass, and the Ultimate Pack. This DLC is made up of several packs that may help you with completing Eivor’s quest. This includes the Beserker Gear Pack, Berserker Settlement Pack, Beserker Longship Pack, and a set of runes. How these items will affect gameplay is still uncertain but they look pretty cool.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Collector’s Edition
Last, but certainly not least, is the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Collector’s Edition. This version will set you back $199.99. As of right now, the Collector’s Edition is only available on the Ubisoft Store; it also seems that it is only available for PC and Xbox One. Since next-gen versions have yet to be listed, there may still be a possibility PS5 and Xbox Series X will have Collector’s Editions available at a later date.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Collector’s Edition includes everything from the Ultimate Edition (base game, Season Pass, Ultimate Pack) plus a ton of physical goodies for the game. Here is a full list of everything included with the Collector’s Edition as listed on the Ubisoft Store page:
The high-end Ubicollectibles replica of Eivor and her Drakkar (height: 30cm)
Ultimate Edition of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Collector’s Case with a unique artwork
The Ubisoft Store Exclusive Steelbook with an iconic design inspired by in-game emblems
Viking Statuette of Eivor with his raven and Dan axe (height: 5cm)
Premium Certificate of Authenticity serialised with the unique number of your Collector’s Edition
Three Lithographs showcasing some of the most stunning concept art created for the game
Soundtrack of the game
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is scheduled to launch in Holiday 2020 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, PC, and Stadia. If you’ve been out of the loop since yesterday, the new cinematic trailer just dropped giving us an idea of what to expect from the upcoming game.
If you check the site enough, you’ll have noticed me waffling about Respawn Entertainment teasing the arrival of a new legend heading to Apex Legends when Season 5 drops next month. Today, we’ve been given an actual reveal so we no longer have to speculate on who it is.
The new legend is revealed through a “Stories from the Outlands” trailer. We’ve previously seen Crypto, Wattson, and others have their own backstories explained through these series of videos that also have a really nice art style to them. Loba’s arrival has been foreshadowed since the end of Revenant’s launch trailer back when Season 4 started.
In the video, we’re introduced to Loba, who after witnessing her father’s assassination at the hands of Revenant, the last legend to arrive in the game, turns to a life of crime as a thief. It looks like she also makes some friends who are on the same path as she battles people with melee combat. While nothing seems concrete, it looks as if Loba may have a staff that allows her to…jump further? There also looks to be a device that seems to explode into an electronic blast of sorts.
It seems that she passes the time with stealing while also tracking down Revenant on the side. When she announces that she’s off to bed, a member of her…gang? says, “I found him”. Shortly after Revenant’s face appears on a large screen in front of Loba. Alongside his face are Hammond Industries files and her father’s assassination contract.
Apex Legends is free-to-play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It’s currently going through a new Battle Armor event as it leads up to Season 5 which is due to arrive on May 12.
The Xbox Series X launch is quickly approaching. To that end, the team at Microsoft is giving us a brand-new look at gameplay at Inside Xbox on May 7.
With the Xbox Series X still currently on schedule to ship in 2020, it’s finally become the time for Microsoft to start giving us a look at what games for that system will look like. In lieu of a massive E3 showing, the team is instead giving us our first great look at Series X gameplay at the next Inside Xbox event. It kicks off on May 7. We don’t know exactly which games will be there. That said, it’s hard to imagine a world where we don’t see some heavy hitters. Check out the announcement below.
You want to see games for the Xbox Series X? We want to show you games for the Xbox Series X.
Check out First Look next-gen gameplay from our global developers partners within #InsideXbox on Thursday, May 7 at 8am PT. pic.twitter.com/xVdgIeRBJX
Again, outside of a date and time, there isn’t a ton of new info here. However, if this thing isn’t chock full of Halo Infinite footage, I’ll eat my left shoe. In a recent interview with IGN, Phil Spencer did say that they wouldn’t hold the console launch off for any one game. That said, if there is anything they need to show, it’s Halo. That game alone will move systems, especially if it’s able to hit the console’s launch window.
Of course, the Xbox Series X event will have more than just Halo. Games like Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk 2077, or Outriders might make an appearance. With all the news coming out today about Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, it might make the most sense. But don’t rule out something like Watchdogs: Legion. And there are sure to be several games we know nothing about. Those will likely factor in as well.
Regardless of what games are shown off at this Xbox Series X event, it’s going to be great to just see some of them in action. With E3 shut down because of the coronavirus, events like these are going to be the norm this summer. Xbox seems to be making the smart move and getting out in front of the pack with this May 7 event. Be sure to stay tuned to DualShockers. We’ll have all the news out of the next Inside Xbox and everything else happening in video games.
If you were lucky enough to own a Dreamcast then you will have experienced some of video game’s most iconic and beloved titles. Even though the console had a very short life span of only a few years and subsequently Sega’s last home gaming console, many fans around the world considered the console ahead of its time and count the retro system as one of the best. Dreamcast fan and artist Pierre Roussel has taken this treasured console and put his own spin on it while also exhibiting some of the many classic games that found their home on the system.
In Pierre’s Dreamcast artwork, he has creatively sectioned off four levels as we get a look inside the 1999 gaming system in his exploded concept. Those familiar with Dreamcast games won’t need a grand tour of all the video game characters brought to life that is shattered around each platform inside Pierre’s Dreamcast vision but for those who don’t recognize them all, here’s a quick list: Skies of Arcadia, Powerstone, Grandia 2, Sonic Adventure, Ready 2 Rumble, Ikaruga, Shenmue, Space Channel 5, Phantasy Star Online v2, Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Seaman and Jet Grind Radio. If I missed any out, please let me know!
I think one of my personal favorites, which is pretty hard as there are so many good games all for different reasons, is Crazy Taxi. You wouldn’t believe the number of hours I spent in that game trying to get the highest score by performing ridiculous stunt moves and picking up anyone I could while also trying to keep them in the car with my horrendous driving. At night I still hear “Hey, hey, hey! Ready to have some fun? I got some kicking music, and I’m ready to see you drive! Get those coins out of your pocket, throw ’em in the machine, and let’s get started! CRAZY TAXI!”
Pierre has created a wonderful nostalgic memory with his creative talents in which any Dreamcast fan would be proud to have framed on the wall in their home. Thankfully, Pierre and his wife run an Etsy page so this beauty can be yours for the reasonable price of $19 where you can show it off to all your friends (once quarantine is over of course) If Dreamcast art really doesn’t tickle your pickle, Pierre has other artworks up his sleeve. How about an Xbox 360 exploded art piece? If that doesn’t cut it there’s also some really cool PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 prints too.
Last year you may have seen Bethesda’s fully customized Sega Dreamcast that runs Rage 2 in one of their social media giveaways but to be honest, I much prefer the original design – simple and clean, that’s the Dreamcast I remember and love. If you still play on your Dreamcast and why the hell wouldn’t you be, Retro-Bit is working on a new Dreamcast controller aiming to be released later this year. Even though I personally think the original controller is perfect how it is, the new features included allows you to have it wired or wireless which I guess is a nifty concept. The “new and improved” controller will have repositioned triggers, a six-button layout, and an altered analog stick, as well as the D-pad and analog sticks, giving it a new and modern twist – which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion but each to their own.
You can check out Pierre’s Instagram for a closer look at all of his illustrations that include the likes of Dungeons and Dragons art, Cyberpunk, World of Warcraft, and many other fantasy-themed concepts. You’ll also find one or two cat pictures in there, too – did you expect anything less?
Yesterday, on April 29, 2020, Ubisoft partnered with artist BossLogic to reveal Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s heavily rumored Viking theme. In an eight hour stream (which has been conveniently condensed to four minutes in this video), the artist essentially created the key art before our very eyes. An exact timeline was not revealed, but according to our brief research, we predicted the game would take place when the Vikings invaded England and took control of Bamburgh from the Anglo Saxons.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is set to launch Holiday 2020. It is confirmed that it will be a cross-gen title, however, it only mentioned Xbox One and Xbox Series X in the trailer. On the game’s official website, it does confirm it will also be coming to PS5, PS4, Stadia, and PC. Solely mentioning Xbox in the trailer may indicate Ubisoft is partnering with Microsoft in some fashion for its next entry in the popular action-adventure franchise.
Originally launched in 1997 and 1999, Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2 both are top-down open-world games featuring the core gameplay and ideas you experience in the latest entries of the franchise. At the time, both games turned into commercial success for Rockstar Games in terms of sales as they were launched on the top-selling platforms of the time, including PlayStation.
Rockstar Games never released any official remastered or reboot versions of the two first games in the GTA series, and it makes it somehow surprising to see those games have been listed for a console that arrived two generations after. That said, some rumors justify this action as a way to bring PlayStation’s classic titles to PS Now service on PS4, though it’s just an unconfirmed explanation.
As you can see above, both games have a release date of today, with the original game rated for 16 years old users and GTA 2 rated for mature people (+18). While the new ratings seem odd and mysterious, it might all be a hilarious mistake by PEGI’s rating system.
Sony officially stopped producing PlayStation 3 consoles in 2017, though the software support of the console is still on. The only iterations of the GTA series that launched for the console were Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V.
Rockstar Games is currently working on the next mainline installment of the GTA series. While a recent report by Jason Schreier suggests that GTA VI is in the early stages of development, a former Rockstar insider believes that the studio has already finished nearly 60 to 70 percent of the development process for its upcoming project.
The Last of Us Part 2 official PlayStation page reveals that you are going to need 100 GB of free space on your device to install the game.
Naughty Dog’s upcoming hit, The Last of Us Part 2, is another game in the current generation that joins the 100 GB club in the case of file size, according to its official PlayStation page.
With the video games evolving visually over generations, the file size of them has also increased with a similar slope. Nowadays, it wouldn’t be surprising anymore if a game requires 100 GB of free space or even more. Many big titles of the current generation such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Gears of War 4, required over 100 GB of free space, and The Last of Us Part 2 will also be joining them as it launches in June. Not to mention that the physical version of the game will be shipped in two discs.
The Last of Us Part 2 was set to be released in February, but the long process of development forced the team to push it back to late May. Unfortunately, the disastrous situation caused by Coronavirus has made Sony delay the game one more time until June 19.
Recently, one of the developers behind the game leaked lots of gameplay footage and cut-scenes including heavy spoilers on the plot, each character, and end of the game. Based on what rumors suggest, Naughty Dog and the developer who leaked the clips couldn’t come to an agreement in terms of payments and as a result, the developer leaked some essential parts of the game. However, it’s still unclear whether the story above is trustworthy or not.
Less than 24 hours after the leaks appeared on the web, Sony revealed the new release date in order to avoid fans from watching the leaked footage. Later on, Neil Druckmann, one of the directors behind The Last of Us Part 2, reacted to the leaks by describing his team and himself “heartbroken.”
If you didn’t have the time yesterday to sit through over 8 hours of a live stream showing some reveal art for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, then you can watch the entire thing in 3 minutes in the form of a wonderful timelapse.
Yesterday Ubisoft’s streaming channels were taken over by Australian artist BossLogic. Kode A lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is well-known for creating fantastic works of art, such as this Marvel poster featuring Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. There’s this Iron Spider digital painting that I really like too. You can check out his work over at ArtStation as well as Instagram, and through his website.
The stream started with a blank slate, and over time more and more details are added as expected, with numerous references being used. Myself and a few of the staff here at DualShockers sat through hours of this watching and trying to decipher what we could about the upcoming game. So far, I’m under the impression that the castle featured on the right is Bamburgh Castle which was invaded by Vikings after a battle with the Anglo-Saxons.
HISTORY!
The center character was also worked on slightly throughout until finally, toward the end of the stream more details started piecing the character together more. It looks as if it could be the protagonist, which would mean we get to play as a bearded assassin with a lovely axe!?
Honestly, while some people found the stream to be a slog to watch, it was incredibly fascinating to see everything come together. BossLogic has worked incredibly hard on this, and if you want to spend 3 minutes watching the fast version, you can click the video above.
We don’t know much about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but we do know that in total, 15 studios have worked on the game. An official trailer will be dropping later today too which should give us a better look at what to expect.
Yesterday, after sitting for 8 hours watching BossLogic create some incredible looking art for the reveal of Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhallathere was an official tweet that details exactly how many of Ubisoft’s studios have been working on the title.
In a celebratory tweet, Ubisoft Montreal said, “Exciting! An immense congratulations to our studio warriors for all the good work and passion building to that reveal.” they also add “We’d also like to thank the 14 co-dev studios all around the world. You know who you are, and we’re thankful for your dedication!” They end the tweet with “Skà l” which is a Danish/Norwegian/Swedish word for “Cheers” or “Good health”. There’s some trivia for ya’.
Exciting! An immense congratulations to our studio warriors for all the good work and passion building to that reveal. We’d also like to thank the 14 co-dev studios all around the world. You know who you are, and we’re thankful for your dedication! Skà l! pic.twitter.com/hBPpFZKkrP
It appears as if Montreal is the main studio working in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with 14 unnamed Ubisoft studios working to help bring the game to life. The fact 15 studios are working on the game is insane, especially considering how the last installment, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey had 7 studios working on the title. However, according to Wikipedia, 8 Ubisoft studios worked on the game in total. I for one am excited to see how long the credits are going to be! Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s credits lasted for around 30 minutes.
There’s currently not a lot of details on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as of yet but a trailer is to be launched today which will give us a better look at the Viking setting.
Besides the Mother / Earthbound diary, new goods and new content should be announced by Shigesato Itoi through the Hobonichi Mother Project.
Mother / Earthbound fans might have something new to look forward to, if they like diaries. On April 30, Mother original author Shigesato Itoi revealed with his company Hobonichi the upcoming release of a Mother diary. The diary is part of a new endeavor titled the Hobonichi Mother Project, and it’ll be a notebook containing lines of dialogues from Mother 1, Mother 2, and Mother 3. The book is scheduled to launch in 2021.
Hobonichi Mother Project was introduced with a trailer, and it’ll include similar daily-life goods and content linked with the Mother /Earthbound games.
The written narration in the trailer, near its end, teases that “many news that will please Mother fans will be announced”. This obviously doesn’t necessarily point out at something like new ports of the games, as more goods would be more realistic.
Still, if you’re a fan of the Mother series, you might, just in case, want to register to the newsletter on the project’s official site. If you can’t read Japanese, just click the button at the bottom and then type in your email address. Then just click the buttons.
Mother has a huge fanbase worldwide so it could definitely get some kind of ports, remasters or remakes.
Mother 1 / EarthBound Beginnings first launched on NES in 1989. Mother 2 / EarthBound launched on SNES in 1994. Mother 3 first released on Gameboy Advence in 2006. A Mother 1+2 compilation is also available on GBA, released in 2003.
Earthbound characters nowadays are also popular in particular thanks to Super Smash Bros. Protagonist Ness appeared in all Super Smash Bros games including Smash Ultimate.
We’ll be sure to tell you if more interesting Mother stuff gets announced so stay tuned. Meanwhile, you can try out playing the series if you’ve never tasted it. You might like it. They’re reputed to be excellent RPGs. It’s probably a good COVID-19 lockdown series.
Cris Tales continues to look like an incredible love letter to classic RPGs. Its blend of great art and time-bending gameplay make it one to watch.
Cris Tales was one of the stand-out games at E3 2019. The love letter to classic JRPGs gives you the power to experience its world in three different time periods, letting you turn the tide of battle by changing the past. The innovative mechanic is incredibly intriguing, and now the team at Modus Games has provided us with an even more in-depth gameplay trailer. It’s a long one at 22-minutes; however, it’s well worth a watch. Check it out below.
As you can see, this is still early alpha footage. That said, Cris Tales continues to look excellent. The art is absolutely stunning and the way the game uses its time-travel mechanic to improve its turn-based combat is a joy to watch. If you’re a fan of classic JRPGs, you must have Cris Tales on your radar. Fortunately, if you’re sitting on the fence, Modus Games has some great news for you.
If this is your first time hearing about Cris Tales, you probably don’t know that it has a demo live on Steam right now. Its been there for a while, but it’s worth pointing out for newcomers. While this 22-minute video is a great primer, getting your hands on an early build of a game is a must-do. I played through it late last year and it made me a believer.
Cris Tales has a planned release window of sometime in 2020. When it launches, the game will come to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One. If you haven’t played it yet, I highly suggest giving the demo a play.
Xbox Game Pass continues to sore for Microsoft while hardware sales take a dip due to the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic.
Today, Microsoft reported its quarterly financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year. This led to some good news and also some ”meh” news with the good news being that Xbox Game Pass continues to grow.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, revealed during the investors meeting that the popular gaming subscription service has reached over 10 million subscribers. He also mentioned that during the last quarter the company recorded “record levels of engagement.” with about 90 million monthly active users on Xbox Live.
Additionally, Nadella stated that Xcloud actively has “hundreds of thousands” of users while it is still in beta. The streaming service has a wide catalog of games on Android while the iOS version is still pretty bare bones.
While the success of Xbox Game Pass was part of the bright side of the meeting, hardware revenue was not. Xbox hardware revenue was down 20%. Microsoft says that the reasoning behind this was due to recent price decreases in hardware.
Overall, gaming revenue for the company was down 1% year-over-year and Xbox content and services revenue was up 2% with $33 million. Microsoft stated that the increase in Xbox content was an attribute to the shelter in place order that many countries experienced across the world due to COVID-19.
The gaming segment of Microsoft recorded a revenue of $2.35 billion in the third quarter. This was down $14 million compared to last year’s revenue.
It is great to see gamers all over the world are hopping on Xbox Game Pass. The service continues to be one of the best deals in gaming. Even if you do not want to pay full price for the service, there are always buy 3 months, get 3 months free deals on Amazon or eBay that can be taken advantage of. Game Pass continues to stack more and more quality games as the months pass.
Another month, another helping of Xbox Games with Gold offers including Overlord 2, V-Rally 4, Sensible World of Soccer, and Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor.
Have you ever wanted to lead a minion army into battle? Maybe you’ve always dreamed of testing your driving prowess in rallycross? Well now is your chance as Overlord 2, V-Rally 4, and a couple of other games are the Xbox Games with Gold for May 2020.
Similarly to previous months, there is a total of four games offered, two of which are playable via backward compatibility. The two Xbox One games are Bigben Interactive’s V-Rally 4 and Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr. The two Xbox 360 games are Codemasters’ Sensible World of Soccer and Overlord 2. Altogether, this is valued at $119.96 with a total of 3770 gamerscore you can earn.
Each game is offered during a certain period of time. Here is a list of all the May 2020 Xbox Games With Gold, platform, and when you can begin downloading the game:
V-Rally 4 — Available May 1 to 31 on Xbox One
Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor – Martyr — Available May 16 to June 15 on Xbox One
Sensible World of Soccer — Available May 1 to 15 on Xbox One and Xbox 360
Overlord 2 — Available May 16 to 31 on Xbox One and Xbox 360
In order to gain access to next month’s Xbox Games with Gold, you must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber. In addition to monthly free games, you’ll get discounts on select games as well.
You can also become a Gold subscriber with Xbox Games Pass Ultimate. For $15 a month, you can get the Xbox Games with Gold offers, as well as access to over 100 games including Gears Tactics, Metro Exodus, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (coming in May).
Personally, I think this is a pretty week month in comparison to the April 2020 Xbox Games with Gold. Overlord 2 is definitely the most intriguing of the bunch for next month and one that I may check out. I’ve never heard of Sensible World of Soccer, but out of the four, it has the best Metacritic score, so that may be worth playing as well. The Warhammer 40,000 game will certainly appease Xbox Live Gold subscribers who are fans of the series, but it doesn’t look like it did well critically. Regardless, if you are a subscriber, it never hurts to check out “free” games.
Famitsu published new details on NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… through a new interview with Yoko Taro, Yosuke Saito, Keiichi Okabe, Takahisa Taura, and Kazuma Koda.
The upcoming NieR Replicant game and the NieR series altogether has a huge feature in this week’s Famitsu Magazine, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the franchise. The feature includes a fan poll revealing which characters are the most beloved (by Famitsu readers who took the hassle to vote so it’s not that representative), photos of popular cosplayer Enako cosplaying 2B, and new artwork. It also includes an interview with Producer Yosuke Saito, Director Yoko Taro, composer Keiichi Okabe, Takahisa Taura, and concept artist Kazuma Koda. The interview reveals new details on NieR Repilcant ver.1.22474487139… . Here are the details summarized thanks to Game’s Talk. Most of it is elements we’ve heard about, but we’ve got some new bits of info too:
NieR Repilcant ver.1.22474487139… isn’t supposed to be a remaster but more like a new upgraded version of the game. Nonetheless, the cutscenes’ screenplay and camerawork didn’t change, akin to what a simple remaster would do.
The main appeal of the game will be its additional parts, and this is what the development team is spending the most effort on.
The gameplay will be slightly more action-like so it’s more enjoyable for those who like NieR Automata.
Takahisa Taura is supervising the action gameplay part. In the interview, he explains he likes the original NieR Replicant the way it is and personally doesn’t want to change it much. But Yoko Taro, Yosuke Saito and Toylogic wish to change it.
The music of the game was all rerecorded, and the songs, chorus, etc are of higher quality. Longer versions of certain songs were added. The new additional parts will have brand new music, and a lot of voiced lines, probably with the previously mentioned characters voiced by Yui Ishikawa and Natsuki Hanae.
Streets of Rage 4 is a great continuation of the classic series, though it doesn’t do anything revolutionary.
The name Streets of Rage is a calling card back to the early days of video games. They’re days that I wasn’t around for, but from experiences in my own arcades, I understand; people lining up at a cabinet, crowding around someone who’s made it further into the game than anyone else. More than anything, Streets of Rage carries a legacy.
With Streets of Rage 4, that legacy continues in a polished, modernized fashion, although that only goes skin deep. Streets of Rage 4looks, feels, and plays like an old school beat-em-up, for better and worse, and there’s a lot of worse. And although you can’t go wrong with the classic, heart-pumping action that comes out of a brawler like this, there are some issues that prevent it from being anything but just another entry in the series.
Pure, Aged, ’90s Cheesiness
It should be no surprise that playing through Streets of Rage 4 is something that requires a minimal amount of attention. You don’t really need to know what’s going on to have a pleasant time with the game, although playing the past titles will grant some additional context. The game’s story is chock full of throw-backs to old characters, and even brings some back to fight again.
However, since it’s in the game, I feel the need to talk about it. The story of Streets of Rage 4 is nonsensical, poorly written, and serves only to direct the player towards the next level. The cast of characters transport from one backdrop to the next, ready to beat up baddies all over again.
That said, the story isn’t all that integral to the game. If there was an attempt at building characters, having some kind of sub-plots or arcs, I would say the opposite. Instead, the game’s story is strictly utilitarian, and it does its job decently. There were times however when Streets of Rage 4 seemed like it wanted its story to do more. Nearing the end of the game, with tensions rising and fights against final bosses coming up, I actually began to get invested. That feeling ended after the final boss fight when the game promptly rolls credits before you can even think another cutscene will happen.
One thing I can’t ignore is a distinct lack of voice acting throughout the game. In between the game’s story levels are cutscenes in which the characters figure out their next move and yell at their enemies. It’s very much written like a cheesy ’90s action movie, which had me laughing a lot of the time. But every time I would see a line pop up on the screen, all I could think about was how much the game would benefit from equally cheesy voice acting. Not only would it lend a bit more life to the otherwise lifeless cast, but it’d also be hilarious.
Thankfully, letdowns in the game’s story didn’t continue over to its other non-gameplay aspects. Streets of Rage 4 is the best-looking and sounding brawler I’ve played to date. Considering that Streets of Rage 3 released in 1994, it’s not that hard to imagine its sequel looks much better. Characters are beautifully animated, and attack animations aren’t just visually impressive: they carry weight. When you throw an enemy into the ground, it’s guaranteed to look like they just broke a rib.
I also have to mention this game’s soundtrack. Every level has its own themed track, as do boss battles, and nearly every single one will leave you bobbing your head. Its retro-style synth is a great callback, while electronic tones and drums bring Streets of Rage 4’s OST into the modern age. I would personally be shocked if at least four of the tracks in this title don’t end up in a gaming playlist on Spotify.
Bringing The Beatdown
Like I said before, the story of Streets of Rage 4 is only a vehicle to take the game’s characters to new venues where they beat the snot out of baddies. Thankfully, that part of the game is well-executed and brings plenty of fun to the table. That’s not to say it’s not lacking in some departments, though.
Combat in Streets of Rage 4 is just like combat in any other 2D brawler. You go up to someone, hit the button to attack them, maybe sometimes pull out a special, and boom they’re dead, cue the “Go Right” indicator. The game doesn’t mess with that formula much, although it did change up how special attacks work. In other brawlers, using a special attack results in some lost HP. That’s not the case in Streets of Rage 4; instead, health is temporarily taken away. You can earn it back by beating on opponents, but if you’re hit once, you’ve lost a chunk of HP rather than a sliver. It’s a great mechanic that rewards players for playing well rather than punishing them for using a powerful move.
Where Streets of Rage 4 shines is in its multiplayer. I played halfway through the game solo before running back the whole story again with a partner. Suffice to say, the game is much more fun with another fighter on your side, especially in the later levels when fights get drastically more challenging. I’m not the best at beat-em-ups, but even by level four, I was having a hard time getting to a boss solo, let alone reaching them. Playing with a partner, on the other hand, presents a rewarding yet challenging time in the game, and once we turned friendly-fire off, we were popping off to 80-hit combos.
If you’re a fan of Streets of Rage, you know that there’s a decent cast of characters to play as, and in this title, that trend continues. The game presents you with 5 different characters, all with their own move sets and quirks. Each character has the same basics, but an extremely strange decision was made with a majority of the cast – they can’t run. Out of the five character cast, three are punished with only being able to walk. That makes them easy targets for groups of enemies, and impossible to dodge with. Not to mention, it’s not exciting seeing your character walk in the middle of a fight. Cherry and Adam are the characters to play as, since they have more mobility than the rest. For a game like this, I really don’t want to recommend playing as certain characters – some shouldn’t be any more or less viable than the others. That being said, I’m not sure if I could beat the game playing as Axel, Floyd, or Blaze.
Eventually, another mobility issue came up in the form of vertical movement. Naturally, you can jump horizontally, but being limited to walking up or down the 2D plane while enemies can jump that way only left a bad taste in my mouth. During our playthrough, my partner and I both remarked on how much better combat would be if we could move around a little easier, a point that still rings true after finishing the game.
Speaking of which, after finishing the game, you’re presented with a few other gameplay options: Arcade, Boss Rush, and Battle. Battle is simply multiplayer where you face off against another person, which isn’t as fun as it sounds. Combat against other players simply isn’t as intense or interesting as it is against groups of enemies. Factor in that two of the playable characters are better than the rest, and the game mode simply falls flat.
Arcade and Boss Rush, on the other hand, are well worth your time – if you’re up for a challenge. Arcade tries to recreate the pressure you feel at an actual cabinet: you’ve only got one life to beat the whole game with. It puts the pressure on and doesn’t let up, making for a genuinely challenging experience that would leave even the best beat-em-up player sweating. Boss Rush also presents a genuine challenge, and it’s just what it sounds like. Boss battles are some of the best parts of the game’s story mode, and going up against them one after the other is yet another satisfying, difficult experience.
Hanging Up The Gloves
After my eight or so hours playing and beating Streets of Rage 4, I left it feeling like I got what I expected. It’s the sequel to a beloved, classic side-scrolling beat-em-up that plays like other titles in the genre. The few changes it makes do set it apart, but questionable choices with the game’s story and some gameplay mechanics left me feeling mixed.
That being said, during my time playing it, Streets of Rage 4 was a blast. When you’re playing with a friend, shut your brain off and just try to make it through some of the genuinely difficult levels, this game hits the standard of what I expect a brawler to be. It’s fast-paced, energetic, great to look at and listen to, and simple enough to just hop on and have some fun.
While it has been a long wait, Sakura Wars is a satisfying blend of everything that the franchise has done well for a new generation on PS4.
Claiming that Sakura Wars (aka Sakura Taisen) is a huge franchise is an understatement. The steampunk, East meets West stylized series featuring courageous women who act as a theater revue by day and fight demons at night left a huge mark on Japanese pop culture and on anyone who encountered it. When Sega and Red Entertainment released the first Sakura Taisen game on Sega Saturn in 1996, it made history with its peculiar aforementioned mix of genres and atmospheres. Most notably, it mixed various dating simulator, tactical RPG, and adventure elements (what we commonly call visual novels in English) together. By far, it wasn’t the first game that strove to create mixes like these. Red Entertainment themselves weren’t at their first attempt, as Sakura Taisen followed in the footsteps of games such as the Galaxy Fräulein Yuna series.
Sakura Taisen, however, is the first franchise of its kind that managed to reach such mainstream stardom, at least in Japan. This is in part thanks to a very unorthodox idea back then that the franchise pulled off. The seiyuu, Japanese voice actresses and actors, of Sakura Taisen would all regularly hold “Kayou Shows”–musicals similar to the ones that players experienced in-game–that greatly contributed to establish the franchise’ cult status. Putting the seiyuu themselves in the spotlight through stage events, streams and radio shows is usual nowadays, but it was a very novel idea back then, as Sakura Taisen‘s original author Oji Hiroi recently pointed out. Today, many game and anime franchises all do their own stage play musicals in the same vein.
While the Sakura Taisen series reached a conclusion with Sakura Taisen 4 in 2002, followed by a standalone Sakura Taisen V in 2005 (the sole episode that officially left Japan), the series never truly stopped. Indeed, the mainline game part stayed dormant, but anime, manga adaptations and spinoffs, mobile games, apparitions in crossovers such as Project X Zone, and real life events such as art expositions kept it rolling around over the years. And last but not least, the Kayou Shows continued for all these years. Fan demand for a new game never relented, and Sakura Taisen is such a big piece of Sega’s (and gaming) history that culturally and business-wise, a game comeback was only a matter of time. When, and how, were the main questions. And the answer is this brand new PlayStation 4 game, titled Shin Sakura Taisen/New Sakura Wars in Japan, and simply rebranded as Sakura Wars overseas.
Sakura Wars, the PS4 game, is the first main game of the series in 15 years. Officially announced in March 2018 and revealed in March 2019, Sakura Wars is Sega’s attempt to fully relaunch the franchise worldwide, hence why a localization in multiple languages was announced from the get-go. The game is accompanied with its own novel, manga, and a multitude of new crossover collaborations and goods. Seeing the game is already available in Japan since December 2019, an anime sequel also started this April. A stage play was planned as well, but was sadly canceled due to COVID-19.
To be honest, as I relentlessly covered Sakura Wars news via the monthly streams that Sega organized for the game, part of myself was scared. I asked a lot of different questions to myself: “What if the game sucks? What if they only show the good parts on stream? What if I end up hating it?” I’ve rarely been this scared of being disappointed when it comes to my hobbies. It would have been incredibly painful to see the series fail its comeback and fall into oblivion. As I grabbed the game in Japanese, part of my doubts were dispelled after spending some time on it. I even attempted live translating part of the game to show my enthusiasm and spread awareness. Now with this English version, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with the game, and I can finally affirm this now, with conviction: Sakura Wars brings back the franchise that everyone loved in a magnificent way, all while making it accessible to neophytes.
Sakura Wars works both as a sequel and as a reboot. The game’s intro explains how the cast from the previous games all disappeared after a decisive battle against the demons, and introduces instead a brand new cast of main characters. Players are put in the role of Seijuro Kamiyama, a young, talented ex-marine ship captain, who’s now assigned as the captain of the Flower Division. The Flower Division is the core battle and theater unit of the Imperial Combat Revue, protecting Tokyo from demons. All big cities in the current world of Sakura Wars similarly have their own Combat Revues, and they are about to participate in a big tournament to hone their skills. However, the Imperial Combat Revue is facing both a financial and identity crisis, and it’ll be up to Kamiyama to give the Flower Division members the trust they need to overcome their issues and win the tournament, all while fighting off a new demon threat.
You might be wondering why I’ve yet to touch upon the gameplay aspect of Sakura Wars in this review, but you’ve actually been experiencing it already if you’ve read this far. Just like its predecessors, Sakura Wars is an ADV, a pure and thorough Adventure game akin to what we call visual novels, and should be approached as such. You’ll be spending the vast majority of your time in the game reading the dialogue and events unfolding as you control Kamiyama and interact with the characters.
The game reintroduces the series’ LISP system, which are short-timed dialogue choices selected with the directional stick. This aims to make the players realistically think about their words and strengthen immersion. Most of the time, players will have a clear choice between either acting in a positive and gentle way (Top Choice), in a harsh and stern way (Left Choice), or being some kind of creep or clown (Right Choice). Beyond these obvious dialogue choices, you’ll have to do your best to figure out the characters’ feelings, as always picking cliche anime lines about friendship and love won’t work. Kamiyama himself isn’t a self-insert; he has his own personality, and will choose his own words in certain crucial moments, where you’ll instead be urged to pick the intensity of said words.
The true difference in Sakura Wars compared to its predecessors isn’t the change from a tactical RPG system to action RPG elements for its battles; I’ll get to that later. It’s the fact that the game has switched to full 3D. This is a revolution for the series, and Sega made the best out of it. The past games let you roam around the Imperial Theater, which is the Imperial Combat Revue’s base of operations, via a 2D map where characters were represented in Super-Deformed, SD style. When you triggered dialogue with other characters, the games switched to a visual novel-like style, with the characters illustrated with 2D artworks and occasional anime cutscenes. It had (and still has) its charm.
On the opposite side, Sakura Wars lets you explore its environments in full 3D. This choice wasn’t simply fueled by a desire to make the series more appealing to a new generation of players. All of the concepts and mechanics unique to the Sakura Taisen series have been tirelessly thought over by the development team. They have all been improved and adapted to 3D. Exploring the Imperial Theater and the city has never felt so rewarding and immersive. While each area barring the Imperial Theater is quite small, they are packed with small details, fun NPCs, and points of interests. Kamiyama’s own thoughts and observations when inspecting elements will evolve together with the story. Sakura Wars is full of intricate world-building, most notably thanks to the contribution of military specialist and world setting advisor genius Takaaki Suzuki. Simply heading to your next main objective pointed out on the Teletron, Kamiyama’s steam-technology powered smartphone, will probably only make you experience half of the game. You’ll end up missing a myriad of optional events, which aren’t necessarily pointed out on the map, Bromides to collect (photographic portraits of the characters), minigames, and lore.
The most striking aspect introduced thanks to 3D is how Sakura Wars handles its dialogue and events. Nearly all the dialogue is presented through in-engine cutscenes, and each one is stunning. Except during their pre-rendered cutscenes, I dare you to find any other typically Japanese game with as much camerawork, screenplay, and especially lively characters during dialogue. Be it Yakuza, Persona, the Tales series, Ni no Kuni, or any offerings from smaller independent studios like Falcom or Nippon Ichi Software, the characters will most certainly simply be standing there when chatting. Most of the time in several of those games, you will be cycling through minimal, prepared in-advance movements and expressions.
Meanwhile, Sakura Wars feels as if specific movement patterns and facial expressions were tailor-made for every single dialogue in the game. They’re always on-point with the discussion and emotions conveyed by the characters. This is so disconcerting compared to what Japanese games usually offer that I’m convinced some players will dislike how the characters in Sakura Wars are constantly in movement. In-universe it makes perfect sense, as the members of the Combat Revues are all used to performing arts and expressing themselves with their bodies.
As for the ever-changing expressions of the characters, you might have heard how multiple artists have worked on Sakura Wars. The original character design of the main cast was handled by Bleach‘s Kubo Tite. Other original character designers handled side characters in the game, and we have K-On‘s Yukiko Horiguchi, Sword Art Online‘s Bunbun, Strike Witches‘ Fumikane Shimada, Pokemon‘s Ken Sugimori, Haruhi Suzumiya‘s Noizi Ito, and Persona‘s Shigenori Soejima. However, it’s important to note that similarly with an anime’s production, another single character designer redrew all the designs so that they’re easy to animate and more uniform. That task was handled by Masashi Kudo, who did a terrific job. In fact, Masashi Kudo in the past did the exact same job with Kubo Tite’s designs on the Bleach anime. As such, there’s absolutely no sense of disunity when it comes to the characters’ designs, despite the various artists.
Sadly, overall, I’d say only 60% to 70% of Sakura Wars‘ dialogue is voiced, and it’s the biggest disappointment that I have with the game. It’s especially jarring to see such incredible vivid dialogue scenes being left unvoiced. Sega’s auditioning for the game, which included singing–seeing as each character has their own theme song–brought us an all-star and talented cast of seiyuu. It’s a huge shame they didn’t get to fully demonstrate their skills. Pre-rendered anime cutscenes are back too, and are in 3D as well. These were handled by famous 3D anime studio Sanzigen. Ironically, the sole lackluster visual aspect of Sakura Wars lies in some of its 2D illustrations used to depict certain scenes in the game, with some of them being of varying quality. Going out of your way to interact with the characters and experience as much of the dialogue as possible, the core gameplay will have a direct influence on the minor gameplay elements, the battles.
Each story chapter in Sakura Wars follows a typical mecha anime pattern, with the characters heading to sortie near the chapter’s conclusion, setting up a fight scene for the climax. Characters in the Sakura Taisen franchise fight demons using Combat Armors, which are mecha powered by steam and magical spirit energy, mixing steampunk and fantasy elements. This is where a stern warning is due: you definitely shouldn’t expect to be playing a traditional JRPG. Sakura Wars and its predecessors do not feature numbers to grind, equipment to maintain and skills to learn. The only variable which makes your characters stronger, or weaker, are their Trust Levels, the only way to influence Trust Levels are through your dialogue choices. There’s no real changes to the battle system throughout the whole game, except for Team Attacks that you’ll unlock as you increase Trust.
The battle stages aren’t that big and are globally pretty easy. If you do get a game over, you’ll always be able to restart with extra help. While there are many different types of enemies, none of them will stay etched in your memory. The only exception are the bosses, all introduced with huge on-screen Kanji, following Sakura Taisen tradition, and something you might be acquainted with through Skies of Arcadia and Valkyria Chronicles.
As an important note, the battle system of the original Japanese release of the game had no lock-on system and instead used an automatic homing function, which made it hard to hit flying enemies, most notably. This isn’t a problem anymore as a patch has long been released, adding a lock-on system, a better radar, limited button remapping, being able to save anytime, and last but not least, a dialogue log with voice playback. These improvements will be included in the Western version, so make sure to download the day one patch. However, the patch was only made available to reviewers a little bit before embargo, so some reviews might mistakenly point out these faults, even though they are now patched.
In any case, you’ll only be fighting for around 20 minutes for about every 3 hours of gameplay, and despite being so simple, the battles are still fun and do their job well. The battles, like the rest of the game, are also filled by cool dialogue and incredible cutscenes, including dialogue choices. The music by the legendary Kohei Tanaka (One Piece, Gravity Rush, among others) is always on-point as well, and it’s the combination of these factors that makes these climaxes so awesome. But ultimately, the battle system of Sakura Wars in itself is marginal. Rather than changing from a tactical RPG to action RPG, the battle system might as well have switched to Sega’s match-three puzzle game Columns, and it wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Rather than the battles, what makes Sakura Wars so good is definitely its cast. It’s a purely character-driven experience. Japanese games tend to traditionally include a stereotypical cast, which gradually shows its uniqueness as you play. Sakura Taisen is and always was the culmination of this concept. The protagonists fight to protect the world and follow huge cliches based on their country of origin. The villains simply wish to see humans suffer for no reason. Everything is cheesy, but it works terribly well. The original script, written by 428 Shibuya Scramble‘s director Jiro Ishii, doesn’t stray from these traditions of the Sakura Taisen series, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Each chapter mostly focuses on a single main character, but all the others will play a role too. This is especially true for the second half of the game, when all the characters have already gone through a good chunk of development. Each character’s individuality slowly unveils itself through the multitude of dialogue events, and you just can’t help but fall in love with the characters.
Ultimately, while we might call it a dating sim, Sakura Wars is quite different from most. Of course, in the same vein as its stereotypical characters and plot, Sakura Wars is also filled with cliche anime situations. Kamiyama often finds himself in “lucky pervert” incidents depending of your choices. I’d add Sakura Taisen is one of the few franchises that manages to make sexual fan service moments and “romantic comedy” misunderstandings like these actually comedic and funny. Still, you shouldn’t expect anything steamy to happen, as even the unlockable optional flirting scenes are very tame. Indeed, your true goal in Sakura Wars isn’t to whoo girls, it’s to make the team members feel at home and have a place where to belong. I believe this is why the nomenclature of the series always used “Trust Levels” instead of “Affection” or “Love” levels.
Moreover, while we control Kamiyama, the true protagonist of this new Sakura Wars is Sakura Amamiya, the most devoted member of the Flower Division, who aims to restore the Imperial Combat Revue to its former glory. While the game includes a dive into each main character’ psychology and worries, everything revolves around Sakura Amamiya. She’s the sole character on the game’s case artwork, the first character you see in the opening anime sequence, and she’s the one getting a typical mecha anime midseason upgrade. It’s not a baseless choice as to why the ongoing manga version and sequel anime both put the spotlight on her.
Sakura Wars might even be too much centered around Sakura Amamiya at times. Most side characters, and those who belong to the other Combat Revues fought during the tournament, barely interact for most of the game with the main cast besides Kamiyama and Sakura Amamiya. Moreover, while the tournament battles are centered around 3 vs 3 team battles, only two members of each Combat Revue we face off against are introduced. Their third combatant is always a nameless, faceless character we’re never introduced to.
Nonetheless, in Sakura Wars the girls are always the true stars of the stage. This approach is one of the many reasons why the franchise as a whole is so inspiring and attractive to anyone, despite being a dating simulator for hetero male anime otaku. Furthermore, Sakura Amamiya idolizes Sakura Shinguji, one of the main characters of the past games in the series, which brings us to the final important point; how meta this Sakura Wars is.
The first part of Sakura Wars‘ story features an obsolete Imperial Combat Revue shunned by all and on the verge of shutting down. It’s almost as if the game is reflecting the image of the franchise itself in the eyes of younger folks who didn’t live through it. Then, you’d be amazed at the numbers of NPCs who trashtalk the new characters while singing the praise of the old ones. Sega is fully aware of grumpy fans who claimed on social media that instead of a new cast, they’d rather have the ex-main characters back even if they were into their senior years. Players can regularly learn about the previous cast via the Imperial Theater’s archives, with Kamiyama sharing words of admiration. And then you have Itsuki, an embodiment of the good fan, with whom you can fangirl with while chatting about both the old and new characters.
As a newcomer or as an oldtimer, your overall opinion of the game and its characters will grow positively as you play, exactly mirroring how the Imperial Combat Revue slowly regain its fame through the main story, making for a unique experience. Overall I’ve rarely seen a game manage to deliver a commentary on itself, all while handling fan service perfectly, brimming with love and respect for its own legacy. I clearly remember the excitement I’d feel when I was a kid looping the Sakura Taisen games’ anime opening sequences while dreaming of playing the series. Experiencing Sakura Wars on PS4 feels exactly like that. The dream is back.
Before concluding, I’d also throw in a word regarding the English localization of Sakura Wars. As I mentioned earlier on, I’ve partly played the Japanese version, and I must say that the English translation is amazing. Despite the Japanese heavy setting, It doesn’t go with the simple choice of keeping Japanese terms and honorifics, and yet still retains what makes the series’ atmosphere so unique, and conveys everything that needs to be conveyed. Every ten lines I was in awe and reminded of how much I suck as a translator.
In conclusion, while Sakura Wars never feels like it cuts corners, you can clearly tell, with the lack of full-voice acting or the nameless third combatants thing, that Sega didn’t fully believe in themselves. Sega is incredibly eager to make the series reach glory again, and brought to the development team all-star artists, writers and seiyuu, but at the same time was reluctant and wary. They believed in this comeback but lacked conviction to put more resources on the table, which is slightly disappointing. A more ambitious and polished sequel would definitely have the potential to become one of the most iconic Japanese games in years, similarly to Persona 5. With full voice acting this time, even denser content, more interactions between the main and side casts, and an attempt to make the battle parts into something more than narrative climaxes, you’d have the formula for a masterpiece. Sales would follow suit, boosting the franchise’s popularity worldwide, and we could even see the past games finally get official localization.
Unless you religiously scorn the act known as reading, there is absolutely no reason to avoid grabbing Sakura Wars on PS4. If you’ve read the integrity of this review, you need to hurry up and grab the game right the hell now. It’ll make you discover a fresh universe full of surprise. If you’re a complete stranger to this culture, it will surely be the game that makes you realize what’s so good about Japanese games, anime and manga. In an era where the most exported Japanese cultural products are battle stories inspired by Dragon Ball, playing Sakura Wars can be a gateway that will definitely broaden your horizons.
