#action rpg

Nihon Falcom has released dual-dimension action RPG, Kyoto Xanadu -the Blooming Phantom, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam in Japan. Clouded Leopard Entertainment released the game on the same date for the same platforms in Asian regions outside Japan. The Asian region release supports Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese text. To celebrate the…

Well I gotta start the blog somehow am I right. "The medium is the message." You ever hear someone say this? Well I think this might be a good way to kick off my angle on things. I promise this is going to be about games at some point. Bear with me. The edges of the page are where art begins and ends. Outside its edges, what you see is just the habitable chaos of life. You don't think, looking at a knocked over trash bin, that there's some kind of "point" to that. It's just a thing that happened. Gravity, or something. Who cares. There are doughnuts to eat.

Within its edges, that maelstrom of natural forces vanishes. Intentionality appears in its place. Within those edges, you know everything within it was intended for you to see. Contained there is something that existed in someone's mind. And they chose to show it to you. Their body was the interstice between their mind, and the physical existence of the object they made, that you now get to experience. Their muscles, their firing synapses. And they used it to communicate, by pressing their thoughts, into a confined space for someone to see. Everything within it is a choice.

The original intent of the phrase "the medium is the message" was to say that a medium, like TV, or a song delivered to you by Spotify, is itself, something with more culturally changing force than whatever art the medium is containing, might be. The TV gets you sitting on your couch. The Spotify digital library and a pair of earbuds get you occupying every spare minute of your time with some kind of curated audio. But from an artistic perspective, the phrase takes on a different meaning. In the same way that the artist chose what to put on the canvas, they also chose what medium of art they wanted to use to express themselves, in the first place.

Consider, being a musician of some kind. If you're a modern musician, probably, you play songs. Roughly, a 2 or 6 minute long piece of music, that probably gets played on a music app, Youtube, the radio, and so on.

But if you're a 18th century musician, probably, concerts are your thing, right? You play in huge orchestras. There's a composer. The music is complex, necessitating pages of sheet music. A crowd is meant to show up and quietly experience it.

Probably, someone writing music for an 18th century orchestra, makes something different than someone making folk songs. Songs that are meant to be easy to relate to and memorize, lyrically and melodically. Meant to be hummed to, maybe.

That folk musician would probably never think to make a melody like an electric guitarist might. The electric guitarist's melodies, aren't necessarily meant to be memorized. They're often meant to be challenging, or stimulating to follow. A crowd shows up, but they aren't meant to be, in a relaxed, quiet state. They're meant to get to a very heightened state of excitement and satisfaction.

The medium, is itself, part of the point of getting you to experience what the artist wants you to experience. Books, no matter how evocative they are, are not lesser paintings. They aren't a clumsy substitution for an image, outsourcing the skill of painting to the power of your brain. The experiencing of the written word, is itself, the point. Language. Pulling you through the haze of possibility and imagination down a specific path, with words, is the craft of books. But poems are not small books. The goal of a poem is different from a book, but the only thing that changed is the constraints. Less is not more. But more is not less. Less isn't less, and more isn't more. Get me?

The size and type of canvas determines what form the artistic expression can take. Not the value of it. A bigger book isn't a better book, a smaller poem isn't a better poem. 10 instruments in a song isn't better than 2. It's all about intent. The constraints, define the range of intent.

So, the medium, as well as the genre, set constraints that force artists to work within the specific, material and social context, where their vision can be communicated. It ends up encouraging different kinds of work.

So, games, am I right

Games are strange as an artistic medium, for a lot of reasons. I won't get into all of them here. For now, I'm just concerned with just that concept, of defining the edges of the page.

Games are an interactive, audio-visual experience.

The type of interactivity with the experience that a game gives you, is itself, part of the message.

Is it a game that is meant to keep you on your toes, reflexively pressing buttons in response to a changing situation? Or does it want you to focus your tempo into highly considered timing?

Does the game let you turn the camera? Is looking around a 3D environment, mechanically important to it? Is it asking you to explore, or is it purely something to do with combat design?

Does this game ask you to have precise button inputs? Can you get more out of it by having good input technique? Is it an accident, than you can? Is memorization important?

Does it make you responsible for putting together something that can mechanically overcome obstacles? Do you need to make sure you do enough damage and have enough health? Do you need to decide what your own difficulty spikes are going to be?

What is it asking you to learn or improve at, if anything? Does a certain level want you to learn to control your movement better? Is an area intended to make you feel desperate for healing items or ammo, forcing you to second guess even your mechanically correct choices?

What is it trying to make you feel? Does it want you to physically feel how stupid and hopelessly untalented the Covenant thinks Grunts are when you use a Needler? The unavoidable casualty and human cost of war, maybe?

This is essentially the case for making games difficult. Games that are easy for you, can't ask you any of these questions. They cannot get you to unpack their design. A game that you find easy, will allow you to barrel through it without ever needing to inspect any detail the devs included. What "the point" is, of any mechanic, attack, event scenario, or tuning, just cannot be uncovered, without the interactive aspect of this medium forcing you to engage with it. You'll never truly feel Mario's momentum, until you're forced to account for it to succeed.

It is also worth mentioning that difficulty also makes glaringly obvious, where bad choices were made, or where there was a lack of care.

In any case, difficulty makes you see the edges of the page.

This is something unique to videogames. I know of no other medium where, the point where the art starts and stops, isn't immediately apparent. It is special to games that you only get to know, by touching it, and feeling it out.

In this respect, It is also very annoying and condescending, to be sold shallow ways of trying to make the medium more appealing. What if it were bigger? Bigger levels? More content? Voice acting? More dialogue? More characters? What if you could hit harder and harder, so things died faster? What if you died slower? What if every single object that a human could conceivably carry could be fit into the player's inventory? What if there was just more.....stuff? To interact with?

Yeah man, what if the page was just, like, huge. Then the writer could write even more words onto a page.

Don't get me wrong. Vast can be good. Voice acting is great, sometimes it's cute when you can turn the in game TV on and off, sure.

But the mentality, of simply adding more, is vapid and immature.

What if the painter had a canvas big enough that they could paint beautiful mountains on one side, but still had enough room to play Tic Tac Toe on the other side with their homies?

It becomes obvious when you look at any other medium, how just adding more, dilutes what the art is trying to communicate.

What if there were just, more dialogue, re-emphasizing the same point over and over? Or sections where characters just chill and nothing happens? Have a tragic death scene? Well what if there were two? What if my poem covered two topics instead of one? We can do how dusty roads are, AND how to beat the devil in a fiddle contest.

There ARE experiences that are exclusive to each other. It's real hard to have a serious romantic tragedy, also be a meta, post ironic, quip delivery system.

One can only make one painting at a time. It cannot be two images.

I would love to ask of game devs, to stop hedging their bets. Please stop going through the checkbox list of things that have been shown to sell well, and putting them all in one game. Focus. Constrain your ambition into a single form. Don't make me wonder which aspects of your game I'm supposed to interpret and take seriously.

Hand-drawn isometric action RPG Lunarium will launch for PC via Steam on July 29 for $17.99 / €17.99 / £15.99, publisher Imperfect Games and developer Lunarium Game Studio announced. It will support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

“Lunarium beautifully balances narrative depth with challenging and dynamic combat encounters, appealing to action and RPG fans alike,” said Lunarium Game Studio director Jixiang in a press release. “Players will finally be able to embark on this memorable journey and unfold the intertwined fates of Ave and Lune on July 29!”

Here is an overview of the game, via Imperfect Games:

In the grim, crumbling world of Lunarium, embark on a fateful adventure as two young women striving to restore peace to their collapsing homeland. Engage in reaction-rewarded battles as swordmaster Ave, neutralizing incoming attacks with perfectly-timed parries and dodges. Team up with the mysterious sorceress Lune, and cultivate Resonance Points during encounters to weaken foes and synergize the ladies’ powerful onslaughts. Equip a robust selection of charms, known as Embroideries, to gain passive advantages to turn the tide in dynamic battles. Gather precious materials along the way and enhance equipment in the Temple, a blessed sanctuary granting a cozy respite from the dark and oppressive chaos enveloping the world. Lend a light hand with Lune to overcome tricky obstacles while venturing through gorgeously hand-drawn landscapes including the forgotten Forest, ruined Castle, and dreamlike Archipelago. Take down ancient golems, silence mutated creatures, and confront formidable bosses in epic battles to upgrade Ave and Lune’s skill trees and gain advanced abilities.

Explore themes of memory, self, and meaning in a compelling story of sorrow and resolute determination. Trace the lost origins of both protagonists, discovering the hidden truth behind their converging paths to reach two memorable endings, accompanied by a thematic, evocative soundtrack.

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer

Echoes of Aincrad, the latest game in the Sword Art Online universe, is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Unlike most of the previous SAO games, your created character takes the lead role instead of series protagonist, Kirito. You can check out the game’s launch trailer below.   To celebrate the game’s launch, the Japanese and English SAO video game X (formerly…

Echoes of Aincrad – Gameplay

After being part of the beta test for the long awaited Sword Art Online we find ourselves trapped within the death game as a normal player, playing alongside allies trying to survive in the early stages of Bandai Namco's Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online.

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Echoes of Aincrad returns players to the iconic floating castle that started the Sword Art Online saga, reimagined as a brand-new action RPG adventure. Step into the shoes of familiar heroes and new allies as you battle your way through the deadly floors of Aincrad, where every encounter brings you closer to uncovering a mystery that threatens both the virtual world and those trapped within it. Explore beautifully recreated environments, complete quests, and forge bonds with companions while reliving the excitement and danger of one of anime's most beloved settings.

Combat delivers fast-paced, real-time action built around fluid swordplay, powerful Skills, and coordinated party attacks. Customize your character, acquire stronger equipment, and challenge formidable bosses that demand quick reflexes and strategic teamwork. With cinematic storytelling, expansive exploration, and thrilling battles inspired by the original series, Echoes of Aincrad offers both longtime fans and newcomers an exciting journey through the legendary world of Aincrad.

Echoes of Aincrad Developer: Game Studio Inc. Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam PC Release Date: 10th July, 2026 Price: $69.99 USD

NIS America has released a demo for action RPG Disgaea Mayhem for PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Switch, and PC via Steam, the publisher announced.

Here is an overview of the demo, via NIS America:

Players will get to tackle three stages using any of the seven different weapons featured in the full game. Do you prefer the versatile range of a bow or the satisfying heft of an axe? Find out by trying out all different weapon types before the game’s full launch on July 23! In each stage, players will take on dozens of enemies and a boss fight—perfect for getting a feel for Disgaea Mayhem‘s action combat.

Disgaea Mayhem is due out for PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Switch, and PC via Steam on July 23 in the west. It first launched for PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Switch on January 29 in Japan and Asia.

Watch a new trailer below.

Demo Trailer

Soulslike action RPG sequel Mortal Shell II will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam on August 20, publisher Playstack and developer Cold Symmetry announced.

Pre-orders are available now for $49.99 / £44.99 / €49.99 / ¥6,490. A “Devout Edition” is also available for $59.99 / £49.99 / €59.99 / ¥7,620, which includes the base game, up to 72 hours of advanced access, and the exclusive Obsidian skin set for all eight playable Shells.

PlayStation 5 users can also pre-order the physical “Revered Edition,” which includes the base game, SteelBook case, art book, fine art prints, and the pre-order bonus skins Obsidian and Skeletal Harbinger, all housed inside a collector’s box.

Here is an overview of the game, via Playstack:

About

Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel to Mortal Shell that significantly expands on the original with unrestricted, adrenaline-charged combat, deeper weapon design with extensive upgrade options, and an emphasis on free exploration.

This action RPG offers an immersive, interconnected open world, expansive yet deliberately compact, designed to unfold its twisted landscapes and hidden structures while respecting the player’s time.

Their Flesh is Your Weapon

The dormant forms of forgotten warriors are scattered throughout Mortal Shell II‘s shattered world. Once discovered, each Shell can be awakened and possessed, unlocking their innate strengths and unique abilities. Evolve your own style of combat by harnessing the diverse unique abilities of each Shell, and unravel their secrets through the discovery of lost memories.

Cleanse a Ravaged World

Mortal Shell II‘s compact open-world connects over winding footpaths guarded by the desperate and fanatical. Those who wander are rewarded with new story elements, Shells, powerful and strange weaponry, upgrades, curiosities and more. Step through derelict temples of ancient deities, across forbidden forests and icy graves, into citadels carved from bone. Scattered between these lost landmarks are more than 60 dungeons, each providing a formidable challenge to the talents and weaponry you have accrued on your way.

Dethrone False Gods

You are the Harbinger, a being prophesied to reclaim the blessed Undermether’s stolen Ova from the daunting creatures that ruthlessly guard her unborn. Mortal Shell II‘s combat system is agile yet grounded. Unrestricted by stamina, players exploit multiple tactics to shatter enemy posture and strike critically.

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer