Operation Backlog Completion 2026

A Reynatis Demo is Available Now

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 132024
 

A demo is now available for Reynatis, the upcoming action RPG from Furyu.

According to the demo announcement on Steam, progress is not carried over to the full game but you can get some bonuses if you’ve completed the demo.

The demo is available for all platforms Reynatis is coming to (PS4/5, Switch, PC).

We’ve talked about Reynatis quite a few times now, not only because it looks like my sort of game on its own but also because of its collaboration with The World Ends With You.

I’m interested enough in Reynatis that I already have it preordered, so I don’t know if I’ll try the demo or not, especially since progress doesn’t transfer. On the other hand, it might be good to check it out (especially to see if the Switch version has any performance concerns).

Reynatis is due out on September 27 in a year so stacked with great releases that I’m nowhere near caught up on them, but it’s one I definitely want to play sooner rather than later.

(In completely unrelated news, Voltage has a big announcement coming on September 20, so that could lead to yet another game added to my list. The upcoming weeks could be crazy.)

Are you interested in Reynatis? Are you planning to play the demo?

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam Will Be Playable at TGS

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 112024
 

TGS is coming up at the end of the month, and I have my fingers crossed for exciting announcements.

One of my most-anticipated games that’s already been confirmed to be there is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam!

Level-5 announced their TGS lineup today, and Professor Layton is on the list. Not only will New World of Steam be featured at TGS, but it will even have a playable demo!

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Fantasy Life i, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will all have playable demos in addition to being included in Level-5’s live broadcast, while Decapolice is listed as only having a video showcase. There was no mention of the new titles (two are listed now instead of just one) set to be announced at the upcoming Level-5 Vision.

I’m surprised that Professor Layton will have a demo while Decapolice won’t, since Decapolice is supposed to come out first. I already thought Decapolice had probably been bumped to 2025, but maybe Professor Layton will come out ahead of it after all.

Although the TGS demo will be in Japanese, I’m hopeful that we’ll get a better idea of what New World of Steam will be like. I’ve been getting nervous about Level-5’s delays lately, but I’d like nothing more than for them to knock it out of the park with an excellent demo.

Update: The website has now been updated to say the demos will be in both Japanese and English.

(People who play the Professor Layton demo will also get a hint coin keyring.)

A small gameplay segment was shown last November, but I don’t believe we’ve seen anything since then. Hopefully this will be a longer segment that provides a good look at the new game.

Are you looking forward to seeing more of Professor Layton and the New World of Steam?

Astro’s Playroom is a Fun Little Platformer (and I’m Excited for Astro Bot)

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 092024
 

One of the few standout titles from the June State of Play for me was the 3D platformer Astro Bot.

Astro Bot came out a few days ago (on September 6, the same day as the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection!), but while waiting for it, I decided to play Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-installed on the PS5.

Astro’s Playroom part tech demo, part 3D platformer, and part PlayStation celebration.

It shows off various aspects of the PS5 controller while you explore 3D platforming stages as a cute little robot and collect coins and collectibles related to PlayStation’s history. There’s a room in the central hub where all these collectibles go on display.

Stages are mission-based rather than the more open collect-a-thon style I prefer (with one exception), but they’re still a lot of fun, with a lot of little secrets to find. My only complaint is that I didn’t enjoy the parts that were heavy on motion controls very much.

In addition to finding collectibles, there’s an additional set of collectibles you get through a gacha machine by spending coins found in the levels. Unlike real gacha, this is fun. For one thing, there are no duplicates. For another thing, coins are pretty readily available.

And the collectibles made me so nostalgic. Seeing an old PlayStation console or a PS2 controller made me think back to the days when I used to play those all the time. It was a nice trip through PlayStation history.

Astro’s Playroom is a short game and only took me a few hours to play. But those were a fun few hours, and it left me excited to see what they’ve done with a full game in Astro Bot.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries