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This Week (May 3 - May 9) |
This week’s headlines saw the gaming industry looking both backward and forward at once. Nintendo fans finally have a new Star Fox game (a remake, but a new entry nonetheless), while Square Enix is eyeing fan-requested DLC for the eventual third game of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. Not to be outdone is RGG Studio’s next project, Stranger Than Heaven, featuring celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Ado. But these are but a taste of what transpired.
Our reviews this week, meanwhile, gravitated towards personal journeys, whether in a small konbini, curated mixtapes, or treks across harsh lands. Even the more action-oriented and strategy-heavy titles share a common thread of having compelling ideas that are occasionally tempered by some rough edges expected of early access titles. Nevertheless, these games are propped up by atmosphere and heart more than spectacle alone.
Here’s a quick look at some of the week’s biggest gaming headlines.
Gaming News At A Glance
Star Fox Makes Surprise Comeback This June
Civ 7 Brings In Its Biggest Update Yet, Featuring Revamps And Major Overhauls
PRAGMATA’s Future Looks Bright, May Get Sequel
Girls’ Frontline: Blue Butterfly Contract and Reverse Collapse: F Say Happy Anniversary
City Of None Is Celeste Co-Creator’s New Game
Other News and Developments This Week
Review Roundup: May 3rd to May 9th
Beauty in Memory, Melancholy, and the Spaces Left Behind
⚫︎ Sea of Stars Mobile
⚫︎ Mixtape
⚫︎ inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories
Other Reviews This Week
Great Ideas That Still Need Further Tuning
⚫︎ Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
⚫︎ Alabaster Dawn
Other Early Access/Previews This Week
Gaming News At A Glance: Star Fox Returns, Civ 7 Gets a Big Update, PRAGMATA Sequel is a Possibility, 2 Girls’ Frontline Titles Announced
Star Fox Makes Surprise Comeback This June
Nintendo shocks fans from all over the world with the sudden announcement of a Star Fox 64 remake coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on June 25th this year. In a surprise Star Fox Direct on May 6th, Nintendo Senior Executive Officer Yoshiaki Koizumi took the stage to announce the big news, sharing that all characters and visuals have been revamped from the ground up, as well as gaining fully voiced dialogue.
Familiar characters such as Fox McCloud, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Falco Lombardi come in with new, updated designs. Although the game will be given a fresh coat of paint suitable for modern audiences, the levels, the gameplay, and the banter between the characters will remain mostly unchanged. Additional features include new difficulty modes and new mouse controls to cater to the Nintendo Switch 2’s capabilities, as well as an all-new game mode called Battle Mode, an online multiplayer.
Civ 7 Brings In Its Biggest Update Yet, Featuring Revamps And Major Overhauls
Civ 7’s Test of Time update is the title’s biggest major update yet, coming in hot with "fundamentally game-changing" updates this May 19th. One of the biggest changes to come is the addition of Time-Tested Civs, a feature long requested by players that allows them to keep the chosen civilization throughout an entire campaign. Prior to this, the game stipulated that players would need to adopt a new civilization every time they advanced to a new historical Age.
Alongside this, new systems such as the "Apex Age" allow for access to a certain civilization’s unique set bonuses and Age-appropriate Civic Trees or progression paths, as well as the Syncretism system that gives players the power to adopt Unique Units or military-based units and infrastructure from another civilization in its Apex Age for more variety on combinations and strategies.
That is only a snippet into the major overhaul that Civ 7 is going through, with more content updates such as a new Victories system, the replacement of the Legacy Paths system into Triumphs, and more.
PRAGMATA’s Future Looks Bright, May Get Sequel
With PRAGMATA’s popularity off the charts, developer and publisher Capcom now appears to invest and grow more into their newest IP, possibly even leading to a sequel. Capcom USA Chief Operating Officer Rob Dyer shared his insights to GameFile in an interview, saying that "We're at a point now where we've got another IP that Capcom, and god bless them, has an arsenal, that we can continue to go down."
PRAGMATA, despite being a new IP, surpassed one million copies sold just two days after its launch. To celebrate the milestone, Diana, one half of the game’s iconic "Dad Simulator" duo, even "hacked" the game’s official X (Twitter) to thank fans for all the love and support they received. With this upward trajectory, it would be not out of line to think that Hugh and Diana’s adventures will still continue someday.
Girls’ Frontline: Blue Butterfly Contract and Reverse Collapse: F Say Happy Anniversary
Girls’ Frontline (GFL) continues to make waves during its tenth anniversary, revealing that not one, but two new games are coming to PC, consoles, and mobile devices this year and in 2028. First on the line-up is Girls’ Frontline: Blue Butterfly Contract, a PvE third-person shooter with a focus on co-op gameplay, set to launch on Android and iOS in 2026. Fans since GFL1 will be able to recognize some of the battles slated to be featured in the game, such as the Singularity event, this time in 3D. Its dedicated trailer also appears to hint at deeper lore to come.
Next, with a release year of 2028, is Reverse Collapse: F, the first GFL universe game to come on PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, alongside its usual PC and mobile versions. It feels similar in scope to the previously mentioned game as a "sci-fi co-op PvE shooter" for four players, but seemingly leans towards the direction of extraction shooters and resource looting.
Details for both games have been scarce, but with Blue Butterfly Contract coming up real soon, fans are surely on the lookout for more.
City Of None Is Celeste Co-Creator’s New Game
City of None is the newest Metroidvania adventure announced by Celeste co-creator Noel Berry, developed in tandem with his brother, Liam Berry, set to release in 2027. Players will follow a wooden-bodied protagonist spirit exploring a ruined and collapsing metropolis ruled by greedy Barons, through the city’s five sectors. It is up to them to save the city and reclaim their freedom from these tyrants.
While another long-awaited game from the studio, Earthblade, was unfortunately cancelled, the announcement of City of None brings light to Extremely OK Games’ future. Gameplay details are scarce, but an 18-track-long soundtrack is available on the game’s official website, a sneak peek into the game’s music. City of None will also be showcased in the Kyoto-based indie game festival BitSummit in late May, along with a playable demo.
Other News and Developments This Week
⚫︎ Stranger Than Heaven, Yakuza Studio’s Next Title, Features Snoop Dogg, ADO, and Other Stars
⚫︎ FF7 Remake Part 3 Could Get DLC If Fans Demand It, Says Game Director
⚫︎ Grave Seasons Gets a New Deep Dive Video From Blumhouse Games and Perfect Garbage Studios
⚫︎ Ash Echoes Global to Shut Down in June 2026
⚫︎ Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Deep Dive Details Revamped Parkour, Stealth, and Combat
⚫︎ Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure Releasing on PS5 and Switch 2 This Fall
⚫︎ Space Marine 2 Extends Live Support Into Year 3 After 12 Million Players Milestone
⚫︎ Horizon Hunters Gathering Second Playtest Arrives May 22 With New Hunters and Region
⚫︎ Total War: Warhammer 40K Will Let Players Strategically Destroy Terrain
⚫︎ Tekken 8 Adds Kunimitsu as Season 3's First DLC Fighter With May 27 Early Access and June 1 Release
⚫︎ Control Resonant Reveals Multiple Factions and More Enemy Types, Including a Supernatural Bus
⚫︎ Snowbreak: Containment Zone Returns with New Event After Extended Shutdown
⚫︎ Warhammer 40K Dawn of War 4 Previews Mechanicus Units and Commanders
⚫︎ Mortal Kombat's Future Plans Include A New Game, Co-creator Ed Boon Confirms
⚫︎ XDefiant Could Still Come Back, Says Former Producer
⚫︎ Paranormal Activity: Threshold Canceled After Release Disagreement With Paramount
Review Roundup: May 3rd to May 9th
Beauty in Memory, Melancholy, and the Spaces Left Behind
This week’s reviews found beauty in memory, in melancholy, in the spaces people leave behind. Inkonbini: One Store. Many Stories and Mixtape both rely on nostalgia and conversation to explore how fleeting moments shape our lives long after they pass. Meanwhile, Will: Follow The Light trades this for isolation and grief. Sea of Stars on mobile, though, embraces nostalgia in its more adventurous form on mobile devices.
Sea of Stars Mobile
Sea of Stars gets a mobile release, so this means revisiting the pixel-perfect world of Valere and Zale, two Solstice Warriors destined to protect the world from monstrous creations of the Fleshmancer. This turn-based RPG is a love letter to the classics, following the duo and their childhood friend, Garl, as they master the powers of the sun and moon to thwart an ancient evil.
This is a port that feels entirely at home on a touchscreen. It is incredibly optimized for a $10 game that offers a lot of value. The combat is still great, as it avoids being a mindless button-masher. However, the two lead protagonists can feel a bit hollow compared to the side cast, and combat doesn’t evolve significantly over the course of the long journey.
Mixtape
Mixtape tells the story of three best friends—Stacey, Cass, and Slater—on their final day of high school in the 90s, as they head to one last party together. The game is a narrative adventure that plays out as a series of playable vignettes triggered by a curated soundtrack of old-school hits, ranging from Devo to The Smashing Pumpkins.
The game is gorgeous. It sounds amazing. The vignettes that show up throughout are creative and evoke nostalgia. Its writing, too, is earnest and heartfelt. However, the experience can feel mechanically simple at times, with some segments relying more on vibes.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories
Inkonbini: One Store. Many Stories follows Makoto Hayakawa, a college student who returns to her rural hometown in 1990s Japan and takes on a short night shift job at a local convenience store. Over the course of six days, she serves customers, restocks shelves, and becomes part of their everyday lives. It was a simple part-time job, but it evolved to show the hidden stories carried by ordinary people.
The game’s strongest quality is its cozy writing and atmosphere, with the store setting acting as a backdrop for emotionally grounded character interactions. Its minimalist gameplay supports this. However, this genre comes with its slow pacing and simplistic gameplay that could leave players hungry for more, especially for players expecting more interactivity.
Other Reviews This Week
⚫︎ Will: Follow the Light Review | Lost Potential In a Disappointing Voyage
Great Ideas That Still Need Further Tuning
Our Early Access reviews, meanwhile, show two very different but equally ambitious attempts to refine established formulas. Both Alabaster Dawn and Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era build on the foundations of its genres (action-RPG in the former, and classic turn-based kingdom management in the latter) while layering in new systems meant to deepen their variety. They, however, reflect the strengths and growing pains of early access releases: bold ideas and strong foundations still waiting to be further tuned.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a return to the franchise’s classic formula. Here, players manage towns and lead armies across a hex-based battlefield. It is a prequel in the series’ established universe that aims to be more accessible to newcomers.
The game is still the Heroes of Might and Magic that longtime fans know; the layered kingdom management and satisfying turn-based combat are still there, now presented in a painterly fantasy aesthetic. However, it’s still clearly a work in progress. Some systems feel unbalanced, the pacing can stretch across larger maps, and certain elements of polish and clarity still need refinement. Despite these issues, the game is already showing strong potential as a faithful yet modern evolution of the series.
Alabaster Dawn
Alabaster Dawn is a 2.5D action RPG, where players take on the role of Juno, the Outcast Chosen, tasked with restoring civilization by exploring monster-filled regions and rebuilding lost settlements.
Like with Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Alabaster Dawn has a strong foundation. It has a deep and expressive combat system, which fuels an engaging gameplay loop. However, systems aren’t fully balanced yet, and there are still noticeable areas that need polish and clarity. The game, though, shows the hallmarks of a great action RPG once it fully matures through development.
