Yesterday was a day for announcements, so let’s go through the highlights.
First up, the morning kicked off with the Kirby Air Riders Direct.
I won’t try to summarize everything covered in the Direct (it was 45 minutes, after all), but Kirby Air Riders sounds like a fun game where racing is secondary to a chaotic competition against the other riders. It’s also beautiful.
It got a November 20 release date and will cost $70.
Overall, it’s not a must-play driving me out to buy a Switch 2, but it’s a game I’d consider whenever I do get a Switch 2.
Moving on, the Tales remaster announcement was Tales of Xillia, as expected. It’s just the first game, so I didn’t get my wish of Xillia and Xillia 2 being bundled together.
It will be out on October 31 for Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam and features numerous quality-of-life improvements as well as most of the original’s DLC (it looks like licensed costumes were cut).
Weirdly, the pipe costume attachment has been censored, as shown on the Japanese website.
I’m not as excited as I would be if they had bundled both Xillia games together or remastered one of the older games, but at least Xillia will be more readily available now.
The next event of the day was Gamescom Opening Night Live, and you know, maybe I should stop getting so excited for Gamescom. There was little that stood out to me, although Routine showing up in the pre-show was a highlight.
Routine still exists and has a 2025 release window. We first talked about Routine back in 2014, so it’s hard to believe it’s actually coming out at last.
Lords of the Fallen 2 got a new trailer, as well. Personally, I hope the devs rename it to The Lords of the Fallen.
Jokes aside, it looks like it could be a cool game.
Monster Hunter Wilds and Final Fantasy XIV are doing collabs with each other, which was interesting to see.
The new Ninja Gaiden game looks like it could be neat, and of course I’m always excited to see more about Silent Hill f. I don’t quite know what to expect from it, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
I’m also cautiously optimistic for Resident Evil Requiem.
Those were the major highlights of Gamescom for me, but what games stood out to you the most? What do you think about Kirby Air Riders and the Tales of Xillia remaster?
Meanwhile, we can scratch Gamescom off our list of potential events for Ace Attorney news this year, but I thought it was one of the less likely options anyway. Now my eyes are fixed on TGS.
