The devs of Coridden want your feedback:

We need your feedback!

Greetings, Shifters!

We wanted to give you a quick update on what's going on at Coridden 

Right now, we're in the middle of a playtest, and we're testing out an Alpha build of the game. Huge thanks to those of you who decided to play this build and help us catch issues early – your feedback is invaluable!  BUT, if you haven't joined the playtests because you don't want your experience to be spoiled, that's absolutely understandable.

We've already seen some coverage on YouTube and Twitch in various languages, and it's an amazing feeling to see people play Coridden and get excited about it 

[...]

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Ye Old Entertainment checked out SKALD: Against the Black Priory:

Skald Review: How does it compare to Moonring? Is this RPG worth getting?

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 The Crucible update for No Rest for the Wicked is now live:

The Crucible | Community Update

The Crucible update is now live! Check out what’s been added to No Rest for the Wicked.

Greetings Cerim, we appreciate your patience as it’s been a while since our last official communication. We’ve been heads down on Wicked, but that means we’re even more excited today to talk to you about development so far and what’s new with our first content update!

When we released Wicked into Early Access, the entire team prioritized bug fixing and other hotfixes for the first month; standard stuff for newly released games. Taking stock of how that first month of hotfixes and patches went, we feel we accomplished quite a bit — Controller Remapping, DLSS/FSR Upscaling, 32:9 support, improvements to game systems like Durability and Inventory, localization fixes/improvements and much more. Since that initial rapid-fire deployment, we’ve been entering a new phase of development internally.

So in that time, we felt it was the right time to switch from focusing on important, but smaller-scale updates to a style of development where we focus on larger, more game-changing content updates.

This has manifested itself in our first content update for Wicked called “The Crucible.”

[...]

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After many years 7 Days to Die is out of Early Access:

1.0 is Now Out!

The 1.0 release of 7 Days to Die is out!

The Fun Pimps are pleased to announce the 1.0 release of 7 Days to Die is out on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows platforms. Dive into the definitive zombie survival sandbox RPG that started it all. Navezgane awaits!

[...]

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RPFan talks about RPGs that haven't reached Europe yet:

The Classic RPGs that Skipped Europe

I got my first console back in the late nineties when I was around twelve — a PS1. In the preceding months, I spent hours thumbing through gaming magazines and getting excited about specifically playing Final Fantasy VIII (which was due out soon) and Final Fantasy VII (which I’d bought a magazine walkthrough for even though I didn’t yet own the game). When the PlayStation was finally in my hands, those were the first two games I played, along with a couple of platformers which I quickly realised were too frustrating and absolutely not for me. Final Fantasy, RPGs, and especially turn-based battle systems absolutely were, though. Those two games were my gateway into the genre, and I made it my mission (or main story quest, as it were) to play as many RPGs as I could get my hands on. Little did I know, this would lead me to a bunch of really fantastic games and also some significant disappointment. 

[...]

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RPG Site interviewed Toshihiro Kondo:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak & Ys X: Nordics Interview - A conversation with Toshihiro Kondo

Right before Anime Expo 2024, we were offered the chance to sit down with Nihon Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo to discuss the recently released Trails through Daybreak, the upcoming localization for Ys X: Nordics, and much more. During our conversation we got to learn much more about some of the decisions that went into the latest entry in both series, and some of what inspired certain elements of each.

[...]

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The 2D-Platformer Metal Slug: Awakening is now available:

Metal Slug: Awakening - Official Trailer

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Mortismal Gaming checked out Drakensang: The River Of Time:

Drakensang: The River Of Time - First Impressions

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Mirthwood will be released on September 11:

Mirthwood - Official Simulated World Trailer

Henriquejr spotted that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be released on November 20.

Fallout London is now available on GOG - Couchpotato spotted two trailers:

Fallout: London | Trailer [GOG]

The First 20 Minutes of Fallout: London Gameplay (4K 60FPS)

The devs of Phantom Blade Zero claim that their game is not another Soulslike on The Gamer:

Phantom Blade Zero Devs Promise It's "Not Another Soulslike"

• Phantom Blade Zero developer S-Games really wants people to know the game isn't another soulslike, and is actually more influenced by a few other titles.
• S-Games has explained that its desire to create "fast-paced, heart-pumping, combo-driven, and aggressive combat" means it draws more from Devil May Cry than the Souls series.
• The game also draws inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and Alan Wake for its story, which helped create "creepy vibes structured around carefully designed scenes."

[...]

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The new game in the series is called The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian:

The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian | New Game Reveal

The devs of Vahrin's Call are working hard to finish the game:

Vahrin's Call is still in development!

Hi everyone! Hope you're doing well, it's been some time since we last spoke.

First of all, we would like to thank all of you for your ongoing interest in our upcoming story-driven RPG, Vahrin's Call. We appreciate your patience more than you realise, as we work tirelessly to get this game over the finish line and into your hands.

As some of you have pointed out, we have been absent from Steam for a while. Our last update on the game's progress was posted here in December of 2023, and so, we wanted to take some time now to reassure all of you that Vahrin's Call is still in development and is progressing smoothly!

We have been hard at work this year and the game is now closer than ever to completion.

[...]

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The Turn Based Lovers checked out Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery:

TACTICAL RPG REVERSE COLLAPSE: CODE NAME BAKERY – REVIEW

Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery is a tactical RPG with turn-based combat. However, this one is going to be a little bit different. It was actually made by the creators of Girls’ Frontline, which is a mobile game. If you aren’t familiar with the mobile game, that’s quite alright. We are here to see how well this recreation translates over to a PC game. So, let’s jump in and see how well this game competes in the PC world of gaming.

[...]

CONCLUSION
With all that being said, does Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery stand its ground in the world of PC gaming or does its mobile roots hold it back? I personally think that Reverse Collapse is a very enjoyable standalone PC game. There is a lot of depth both visually and tactically that will make it enjoyable for many players. 

I found the story to be interesting and intriguing. There were constant twists in the characters’ paths that kept me wanting to see what was going to happen next. Like mentioned before, all of the cutscenes were very well done. I think the only downfall for some players would be if they did not like just having Japanese voiceovers. I don’t see that being a problem for most players though. 

I would recommend Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery to any gamer that enjoys an interesting story with a focus on tactical turn-based combat. The developers put a lot of work into making this game shine and it really shows. Feel free to go check out their Steam page if you are interred in trying the game for yourself.

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Couchpotato spotted some gameplay of The Necromancer's Tale:

Solve the murder mystery in a seance with the dead man himself

Mortismal Gaming checked out Fallout 3:

Fallout 3 - Retrospective Review

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VG247 reports that GOG will use Fallout: London as a trial run:

Good news: what GOG is doing with Fallout: London is a "trial run" for potentially supporting other major mods as a "one-click-and-run experience"

"I know that there are many amazing mods out there that we could help bring to a mainstream audience."

[...]

When it came to the decision to come on-board relatively late in the mod's development and help its crators tackle the issues outlined above, I asked GOG senior business development manager Marcin Paczyński whether the nature of the mod as something that can't be charged for like a regular game - at least without significant controversy - played into proceedings.

"Costs are, inevitably, always a factor, and here they are indeed not insignificant," he tells me, "but we were willing to take the risk in the hopes that our community, people whose voice is extremely important to us, will love what we did. Still, the best way you can support us is by purchasing Fallout 4 (or any other game) on GOG – thanks to this, we’ll be able to do more things like that in the future!"

[...]

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Couchpotato spotted a development update for Vampire Dynasty:

The Vampires will rise again

Development is making good progress

Hello night creatures,

is is time for another update.

Since you heard from us when we last emerged from the development crypt, we made some bloody good progress.

We are working on new features that will greatly enhance your gaming experience once we open the gates for you to enter the broody world of Sangavia again.
We continue to apply your feedback and are both reworking and finetuning elements in order to connect them to the mentioned new features.
Also the visuals will get an overhaul.

And we actually cannot wait to show you the results.
Yet we are unable to give you an exact date when this will be.
Except for 'as soon as possible'.

Because the next time you will hunt for blood and try to create a vampiric legacy, we want to make sure that your stay in Sangavia will be a truly memorable one.

Until we meet again, we welcome you to join the conversation on our Discord.

Mehuman Games and Toplitz Productions

The action adventure Castaway will be released on August 16:

Castaway - Launch Date Reveal

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RPGGamer checked out the Orpheus DLC:

Stray Gods: Orpheus DLC Deep Look

Stray Gods: Orpheus is emotionally raw and focuses on the idea of writing a new chapter in life, no matter how difficult or scary it may be.

Summerfall Studios’s Stray Gods was easily one of the most memorable games I played in 2023. There is something so original about a choose-your-own-adventure story in song that replaying the game over and over to see the different song options was an addictive experience. I was beyond excited to find out that Orpheus was getting his own DLC adventure, as he left such a powerful impression with only a very brief appearance in Stray Gods. The DLC focuses on Orpheus leaving the underworld to potentially write a new story for himself in the mortal world. The results are an entertaining adventure of everyone’s favourite egomaniac learning that there may be more to his story than he realizes.

The story begins in the underworld, where Charon and Orpheus are playing a game of chess. Bored of his everyday life in the underworld, Orpheus craves a change. It’s then that Hermes appears, offering Orpheus a chance to partake in the mortal world once more, and helping him on a quest to find true love and discover what he has been missing in the mortal realm for hundreds of years. From speed dating to rock concerts, Orpheus and Hermes go on an adventure chock-full of humour and self-discovery.

[...]

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Twisted Voxel reviewed The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak Review – A Fresh Start

The Legend of Heroes series is experiencing a resurgence, largely due to the increasing number of English localizations that are gradually making the entire franchise accessible to Western audiences. The latest entry to receive an official English localization is Trails Through Daybreak, marking a significant milestone as it introduces a whole new story arc.

Fans of the series are aware that it has been a considerable time since a new story arc was released. The series transitioned to modern platforms with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, which featured a narrative interconnected across nearly a dozen games. These games took more than a decade to be released. Hence, the launch of Trails Through Daybreak is a notable event as it sets the stage for a new story with fresh characters and settings. This installment also comes with an updated game engine and significant gameplay changes.

[...]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak serves as an excellent introduction for new players and a warmly received return for those familiar with the series. The game enhances its combat system with new adjustments, resulting in a more dynamic and thrilling battle experience. While it may not achieve the pinnacle of the franchise, it lays the groundwork for a promising start.

Score: 8.5/10

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Mortismal Gaming checked out The Necromancer's Tale:

Check Out: The Necromancer's Tale

Couchpotato spotted a Legends of the Round Table combat preview:

Legends of the Round Table - Official Combat Preview | Turn-Based Strategic RPG

Tim talks about RPG mechanics:

Beyond Fighting, Sneaking, and Talking

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The roguelike/survival game Rogue Night has been announced for early 2025 - a demo is available:

Rogue Night

Reclaim a fallen Kingdom

Step into a world where danger lurks around every corner. As one of the last warm bodies in Everreach-a land swarming with undead, you must gather resources, build shelters, and find allies to survive. Explore forests, ruins, and dungeons filled with secrets and treasures.

Rescue NPCs in need, and they’ll join your cause, providing valuable resources and companionship. Equip yourself with weapons, uncover hidden blueprints, and create potions to enhance your survival. Explore dangerous landscapes, solve puzzles, avoid traps, and collect treasures.

A Fantasy Roguelike Adventure!

• Fantasy Survival: Gather resources to build and survive, explore diverse locations, and rescue NPCs who will aid you on your journey. Recover various weapons and find rare blueprints, tools, and of course - gold!
• Rogue-lite Gameplay: Confront hordes of undead, harvesting their heads to unlock permanent upgrades after death. Start each new run stronger than before, gradually working your way to Necrosarian himself!
• Upgrade and Customize: Choose from 3 unique classes, 15 weapons, and over 35 upgrades to tailor your character's abilities. Adapt and overcome the challenges with a character suited to your strategy.
• Dungeons and Puzzles: Explore dungeons filled with puzzles, traps, and treasures. Use your wits to navigate these perilous environments and reap the rewards.

The RPG Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory has been released:

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory

Battle monsters, investigate insidious conspiracies and explore the dark side of (in)human nature in Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory, a unique blend of dark fantasy thriller, visual novel and tabletop RPG set in the World of Darkness universe.

UNLEASH THE BEAST
Investigate murder, monsters and madness amidst Poland’s border crisis. Play as Samira, a refugee werewolf, as her search unearths dark secrets and forces her to confront her own tragedies.

SHAPE YOUR DESTINY
Dive into two investigative paths in the World of Darkness. Help Samira solve a chilling supernatural murder or uncover the secrets of a formidable werewolf pack. Each decision impacts her story, revealing new secrets and leading to different endings. Caught in a Purgatory of fantasy and reality, will your choices end in light… or darkness?

TABLETOP RPG MECHANICS
Navigate through the game using RPG mechanics, by balancing health, willpower, rage, skills, harano and inventory strategically, making every decision critical to your survival and progression.

LEGENDARY WORLD OF DARKNESS LORE
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory adapts the new Fifth Edition corebook mechanics of the legendary tabletop RPG from the World of Darkness universe. Experience a classic role-playing session combined with the exciting new features of Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition.

ENJOYABLE FOR NOVICES AND VETERANS ALIKE
Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory can be enjoyed by both World of Darkness veterans and newcomers looking for an accessible entry into this rich, acclaimed universe. While the game includes beloved characters and places from Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest, you do not need to be familiar with either Heart of the Forest or the World of Darkness universe to enjoy Purgatory gameplay. New vocabulary is linked with pop-ups providing pronunciation tips, definitions and background lore.

With patch 1.5 secondary specialization choices in Dark Envoy were expanded:

Inspiring specialization combos

With our latest update 1.5, we expanded the secondary specialization choices for all remaining specializations to make reaching milestones more exciting. Below, we'd like to present two combinations that were highly popular during our patch testing and might inspire you as well.

Combat Medic + Guardian
The combination of Combat Medic and Guardian is one of my favorite setups, like a paladin in other games. Choosing Combat Medic as your primary specialization for adept gives the biggest HP increase with each level.

Choosing Guardian as your secondary specialization gives you abilities like Taunt and Defensive Stance, which not only regenerate your Magic Shield but also deflect 65% of incoming damage back to the attacker. Skills like Healing Crystal also improve your defenses by replenishing your Magic Shield and increasing your magic resistance by 40%. With an extra 25% boost from the passive Adept skill and more resistance from your Endurance attribute, you can protect yourself against all elements except chaos.

This combination lets you heal through elemental damage while also acting as both a tank and healer in the party. This way, other party members can focus only on doing damage, making the team stronger overall.

Sharpshoter + Elementalist
The Sharpshooter specialization, with its great passive boosts for basic attacks, benefits the most from combining with the Elementalist. Elemental Rune is one of those skills that enhances your character's elemental resistance and skill power while standing on it, and it freezes enemies who try to approach you.

Additionally, the skill Frostfire Blink gives the Sharpshooter an extra escape option, similar to the Ranger class's basic roll. These two skills work perfectly to maintain the right distance, allowing the character to focus on what it does best: dealing damage.

Discover Your Perfect Combination
The examples provided above are meant to inspire you to experiment and find the best specialization combinations that suit your playstyle. While these setups offer unique advantages, there are countless other combinations to discover. We encourage you to explore and come up with even better builds and combos. It's important to note that these examples do not include unique items and weapons, which can also be used to create excellent combinations.

We would love to hear about your innovative combinations and the strategies that work best for you. Happy experimenting!

Event Horizon team

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The Closed Beta for Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch starts on July 26:

Closed Beta Coming Soon

Tacticians,

It's finally happening! Closed beta testing for Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is from July 26 to Aug 1, and we couldn’t be more excited to share this with you.

We’re seeking player feedback to assess the game’s fun factor and gauge your enjoyment of its direction. This is a closed beta, so please note that you will be asked to agree to our Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if you are selected to participate, prohibiting streaming or discussing the game outside of our surveys and our Discord channel.

How to sign up:

1. Go to Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch page
2. Click on the green “Request Access” button.

Thank you for your interest, and we can't wait to hear your thoughts!
Follow any social sites below or wishlist on Steam to be notified of more updates.

- ODS Team

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PC Gamer reports that Stardew Valley DLCs will always be free.

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Couchpotato spotted the main cast of Dragon Age: The Veilguard on RPGamer:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Main Cast Revealed

EA and BioWare announced the main cast for the newest Dragon Age title, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The upcoming title will introduce a new protagonist, Rook, with four different voice options, two male and two female. The voice options will be performed by Bryony Corrigan, Erika Ishii, Alex Jordan, and Jeff Berg. In addition, the companies announced the voices of the seven companion characters, plus the return of Gareth David-Lloyd as Solas and Brian Bloom as Varric:

• Harding (Ali Hillis) - a dwarven scout and a returning character from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
• Davrin (Ike Amadi) - a Grey Warden who is famed as a monster hunter.
• Bellara (Jee Young Han) - a creative Veil Jumper seeking out ancient secrets.
• Neve (Jessica Clark) - a private detective within Tevinter’s rebellious Shadow Dragons group.
• Taash (Jin Maley) - a dragon hunter allied with the Lords of Fortune.
• Emmrich (Nick Boraine) - a necromancer from Nevarra’s Mourn Watch, who is accompanied by the skeletal assistant Manfred (Matthew Mercer).
• Lucanis (Zach Mendez) - an assassin from the bloodline of the renowned House of Crows criminal organisation.

[...]

RPGamer compares Shadow of the Erdtree with the original game:

Shadow of the Erdtree Is a Microcosm of Elden Ring’s Strengths and Weaknesses

It’s safe to say that Elden Ring has successfully etched itself into gaming history. Selling over 12 million copies in its first month on sale and going on to win multiple awards, Elden Ring has become a staple of many discussions about open world games. The world design is stellar, with each area feeling distinct. In contrast, each area still feels like it is part of the same world, and the construction of the world is such that the game can be as easy or as difficult as the player desires without sacrificing the intensity of FromSoftware’s famous boss design. In truth, Elden Ring is such a quality game and such a tremendous achievement that it is hard to imagine any kind of follow-up, be it an expansion or a direct sequel, being able to meet the expectations set by it. Which is why it’s impressive that Shadow of the Erdtree is as good as it is.

However, Shadow of the Erdtree can also be an uneven experience that sometimes feels tacked onto the main experience of Elden Ring rather than smartly integrated into it. The progression systems of Shadow of the Erdtree feel clunky and the narrative feels both incredibly important to Elden Ring’s narrative while being entirely too disconnected from it to feel consequential.

[...]

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Couchpotato spotted that the Closed Beta for Patch 7 has been delayed, because some bugs still need to be fixed.

The expansion Fangs of Asterkarn come with a new game mode:

Grim Misadventure #183 - Ascension

Eager to learn about the new game mode coming in Fangs of Asterkarn, Grim Dawn's upcoming third expansion?

Learn about Ascendant Mode in today's dev update!

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RPGFan checked out AI Limit:

AI LIMIT Hands-On Preview: A Sci-Fi Souls-like with Style

The action RPG landscape is dominated by Metroidvanias and Souls-likes these days. As the subgenre gets more crowded, developers must find ways to make their games stand out amidst a sea of clones. Aside from The Surge, there haven’t been many sci-fi-oriented Souls-likes, and outside of Code Vein, the anime aesthetic has been sorely underrepresented. Developer Sense Games allowed us to play the upcoming AI LIMIT, an action RPG that blends the sci-fi setting, anime aesthetic, and Souls gameplay to create a unique take on the subgenre.

While the preview was only a 45-minute section of the game, which, per the developers, amounts to about 40% of the first level, it serves as a solid vertical slice. The demo starts in the most Souls fashion: unarmed and underground. Players take control of Arrisa, a technologically advanced humanoid known as a Blader. While her mission is unclear in the demo, procuring a weapon is a priority. Thankfully, a fallen enemy with a sword protruding from their chest solves the first problem.

Players are then free to roam the underground sewer system of a ruined city. Every nook and cranny is filled with humanoid beasts that appear more mechanical than flesh. Yet from their idle poses prior to approach and their wild flailing in combat, it’s clear that the enemies are suffering a strange affliction that makes them violently rage against anything that moves.

[...]

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