RPGs Coming This Week, 5/12/24

The Land Beneath Us – May 13th (PS5, XSX, Switch, Windows)

The Land Beneath Us might be my pick of the roguelites coming this week because it does a cool thing I’ve never seen done before. It lets you create custom directional combos to heal or cast spells, which sounds broken, but I suspect it’s balanced out by the limited space in every level. Coupled with the enemies constantly trying to kill you, every floor is a puzzle to solve. And I’m kind of into it? I’m seriously hoping this Welsh myth-inspired game lives up to the potential I’m seeing. Fingers crossed.

by Gio Castillo

Athenian Rhapsody – May 14th (PS5, XSX, PS4, XB1, Switch, Windows, iOS, Android)

Ever played Undertale on ketamine? Athenian Rhapsody is the closest I’ve seen a game get to that experience (hypothetically speaking, I swear…). It kind of just revs everything Undertale did up to 11, from its random, Toby Fox-esque sense of humor to combat with progressively more random mechanics. The trailer (above) shows one battle where you draw something in Paint. On Twitter/X and Steam, it’s described as a “[S]ouls-like platonic dating simulator with [Cooking Mama] and WarioWare style battle mechanics.” It’s unhinged… and I’m booting up the demo as soon as I finish writing this.

by Gio Castillo

Dread Delusion (Exiting Early Access) – May 14th (Windows)

Dread Delusion is an eldritch horror-tinged open-world RPG from one-man studio Lovely Hellplace. This is a modern lo-fi game production in all the best ways, with chunky polygons with gritty texture mapping that’s gorgeous to the right audience. Exploration and combat are first-person and feature melee and spell casting most closely comparable to early Elder Scrolls titles like Morrowind. There’s a surreal atmosphere to Dread Delusion; a saturated alien palette of reds, purples, greens, and blues gives the world an unearthly and unnerving vibe, enhanced by a dark ambient soundtrack. Although there are some touchstone influences evident, Dread Delusion appears so unique, particularly by modern standards, avantgarde in its defiance of modern AAA sensibilities.

by Claton Stevenson

Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution – May 14th (PS5, PS4, Switch)

Coming this week is the latest spinoff in the long-running Hyperdimension Neptunia series, which is a meta parody of the games industry featuring waifu-fied game consoles. Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution takes place in an alternate universe where the main character takes the helm of a struggling game company. It’s bizarre, even for this series. If you aren’t into the waifus, the selling point could be the company management minigame, where the point is to expand your company headquarters. The combat is mostly lifted from last year’s Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters, but there are now four party members instead of three.

by Gio Castillo

Touhou Genso Wanderer: Foresight – May 15th (Windows)

Touhou Genso Wanderer: Foresight is… very far from the first Mystery Dungeon clone in the Touhou Project-verse, surprisingly! There’s been a string of these fangames since 2010, starting with Mystery Gensokyo in 2010. People have even apparently been making Touhou roguelikes since the mid-00s, according to the fan wiki. With all this history behind it, I have a hard time thinking Foresight will be anything less than good. I think Shiren the Wanderer fans waiting on the summer update for Serpentcoil Island will find plenty to sink their teeth into here.

by Gio Castillo

Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER – May 16th (PS5, XSX, PS4, XB1, Switch, Windows, macOS, Linux)

It’s finally here. MidBoss went through hell to get from 2064: Read Only Memories to Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER, but we will soon finally return to the cyberpunk city of Neo-SF. Oh my god, the PC-98-esque graphics are more crisp and detailed than ever, and the FM synth soundtrack sounds amazing (it’s by Scarlet Moon composer Ken “coda” Snyder this time around, not 2 Mello). Characters like Turing and Tomcat return, and we’ll be interacting with them as one Luna Cruz de la Vega, the titular Neurodiver. They seem super cool, judging by the trailer I may have watched like 50 times in a row.

Listen, if you’re into point-and-click games, cyberpunk, transhumanism, and especially Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher, maybe look into NEURODIVER.

by Gio Castillo

Realm of Ink (Entering Early Access) – May 17th (Windows)

The final roguelite coming this week is Realm of Ink. No, your eyes do not deceive you; the developers are specifically aiming to create a Hades-like, and it looks like they’ve nailed it. The biggest differences are that Realm of Ink is focused on Chinese instead of Greek mythology, and it has an ink-based aesthetic reminiscent of historical Chinese art. Most else about the presentation—and the combat, obviously—is very close to Supergiant’s opus. I mean, if you’re going to imitate, might as well imitate the best, so I guess developer Leap Studio is on the right track in that sense.

by Gio Castillo

Biomutant – May 14th (Switch)

Biomutant is an entertaining RPG where you take on the role of a furry, anthropomorphic fighter in a colorful post-apocalyptic world with your actions directly impacting the environment and characters around you. I enjoyed my time playing the game on the PS4 despite some of its technical hiccups, so I’m curious how Biomutant‘s action will translate to the Nintendo Switch!

by Audra Bowling