New Release Round-Up (February 4, 2021)

Welcome to RPGamer’s new release round-up. In this column we look to provide our readers with details on all of the RPGs released over the week.

Cresteaju

A Japanese indie RPG developed by Shou, Cresteaju was originally released for PC in 2001, with the Nintendo Switch version released in Japan in 2020. The Nintendo Switch release is a remaster that adds new story scenarios, new music, and limited Japanese voice acting, as well as balance adjustments and tutorials. It also features an online ranking system.

Haven

Haven puts players in control of a pair of lovers, Yu and Kay, who have escaped to a lost planet in their attempt to stay together. The game features a combat system that is a mixture of real-time and turn-based and involves chaining actions with tactics and timing. The narrative is told through Yu and Kay’s daily life including cooking, eating, and sleeping, with dialogue choices that can affect what players learn about the story as well as potentially having long-term effects.

Kowloon Highschool Chronicle

Kowloon Highschool Chronicle is a remaster of the PlayStation 2 title Kowloon Youma Gakuen Ki, which was released only in Japan in 2004. Kowloon Highschool Chronicle sees players controlling a transfer student at Kamiyoshi Academy in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Though acting as a normal student, he is a treasure hunter on a mission to uncover a ruin beneath the school. Players build relationships with the new friends who accompany him while trying to avoid traps, monsters called “Kehito”, and the student council. The game features first-person dungeon exploration as well as a distinctive conversation system.

Nioh

Following the story of a half-Japanese, half-English samurai who travels to Edo-period Japan, Nioh is an action RPG that faces protagonist William against bandits, samurai, and demons. The game originally released for PlayStation 4 in 2017, with a PC version following later in the year.

Nioh 2

Nioh 2 is a sequel to Nioh and set in a fictionalised version of 1555 Japan, as constant warfare leads to the land being infested by demonic yokai. Players control a customisable yokai hunter who hides the fact they are a human-yokai half-breed. The game originally launched for PlayStation 4 in 2020.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Action RPG Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is based on the similarly-named game within the World of Darkness tabletop role-playing universe. The game follows Cahal, a werewolf of the Garous tribe, who returns to his Caern, a place of power, to look for his missing daughter and to defend it from the ruthless Endron corporation as it poisons the land.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is the latest entry in the long-running action RPG series and takes place in the “prison city” of Balduq, where Adol finds himself imprisoned. In prison, a mysterious woman named Aprilis turns him into a Monstrum, a being with supernatural Gifts and the power to exorcise monsters. Adol teams up with other Monstrums to fight against the creatures emerging from a dimension called the Grimwald Nox and to investigate the Monstrum curse and its relation to Balduq.

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