EGX 2023 is currently running and I had the chance to go and play several upcoming games, a couple from big developers like Nintendo and SEGA, and then several upcoming indie titles. In this set of previews, I’ll share my thoughts on several of them, including the highly anticipated Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth!
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows,
- Release Date: January 26th 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2072450/Like_a_Dragon_Infinite_Wealth/
Two larger-than-life heroes, Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu are brought together by the hand of fate, or perhaps something more sinister… Live it up in Japan and explore all that Hawaii has to offer in an RPG adventure so big it spans the Pacific.
At Gamescom I played Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, a more traditional entry in the Like a Dragon series but it’s not the only entry this franchise has on the horizon. Infinite Wealth is the next mainline game in the series and is a direct follow-up to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which shifted the series genre from action to RPG. I never played it, making Infinite Wealth my first experience with the turn-based combat of Like a Dragon and it was really good.
The biggest surprise I had about the combat is just how fast it went by. Almost every encounter was against three or four fighters at a time (each being some kind of goofy group of lads, like bodybuilders or beach bums) and with my own team of four fights never lasted very long. This was definitely large in part to the characters’ team-up attacks, which showed two or three party members team up in some over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek, cutscene where they demolish a single enemy or perform an AOE attack. It was delightfully silly in a way I understand the Like a Dragon series is.
The stand-out though was Kiryu. I had heard about his unique dragon metre ahead of playing the demo and works exactly as you’d expect. When it’s full, hit R2 and Kiryu kicks the UI out the way and the game transitions back into the old series combat mechanics for a brief time. It’s basically a more involved super attack as the enemies didn’t exactly fight back in this mode, but it was super satisfying to pull off every time.
Like a Dragon isn’t only about combat of course. The series is known for giving the player the freedom to explore and do whatever they want. The second my demo started I jumped on a Segway and bee-lined my way to Karaoke where I proceeded to get a near perfect score as I watched Kiryu and Ichiban rock out on stage in an empty bar. I then got a drink of rum, fast travelled to a tram stop and activated a major side-quest of the game: Weirdo Snap.
This sub-game is a Pokemon Snap parody but instead of taking photos of lovable creatures, you take photos of men in spandex and wrestling masks doing weird poses and jostling in the city street. Apparently it’s very common in Hawaii, at least that’s what the degenerate old man who gave me a camera said. It was a surprisingly fun mini-game with everything you’d expect from a camera game being used here (centering the subject, getting them in cool poses, bigger and more in frame the better, etc).
After this, I ran along the beach waving at strangers and being told I was becoming their friend, and then immediately dived into the ocean to pick up trash and catch fish with my bare hands. The transition from beach to sea was pretty instant and I was kinda surprised the game just allowed me to swim so far out. This is where my time with the demo ended but looking around as I played I saw people surfing, delivering pizza and watching cutscenes play out that I never saw. It really shows how much there is to do in this game and that really impressed me.
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth feels like its going to be a love letter to the whole series, expanding on what the previous entry in the game did but potentially pulling from the old series as well, especially with Kiryu around. And I imagine the series being set outside of Japan for the first time will allow the developers to introduce so many new side-games and items that they couldn’t do previously.
Little Goody Two Shoes
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
- Release Date: October 31st 2023
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812370/Little_Goody_Two_Shoes/
Venture into the woods as you play Little Goody Two Shoes, a phantasmagorical horror narrative adventure where all your decisions matter!
Little Goody Two Shoes is the next game from Square-Enix Collective and despite it releasing fairly soon, I had never heard nor seen it before EGX. The game had fantastic looking pixel art though, so I decided to give it a go and it’s certainly a game that takes its time to get going; I don’t think is one that worked particularly well in the expo setting I was playing it in as its charms were not immediately apparent.
The game is described as a “phantasmagorical horror narrative adventure” but I wouldn’t have thought this when I first sat down to play the game. To me, it seemed like a survival slice-of-life game. You play as a girl named Elise who lives in the fictional German hamlet of Kieferberg. Her dream is to make it rich but for now she just has to live day by day, doing chores for her neighbours in order to get money in order to buy food. You need this food in order to prevent Elise from starving as just like many other survival games Elise has a hunger meter that players need to manage, as well as health, sanity and suspicion meters.
Suspicion is certainly an odd one but that one exists because there are rumours of a witch living in town and it seems like Elise has adopted the girl who is the source of these rumours. Elise is housing this small girl in a witches attire who is one of the games four romantic interests, and you need to keep her safe from suspicious neighbours by bribing them with food, adding even more value to the food you have to buy and more reason to work.
Everytime you work or do an event, time moves forward from morning, to midday, to afternoon, to dusk, to night and then eventually to the dream world. The latter two is where all of the horror elements that the advertising has pushed come into play as when Elise sleeps she has nightmares about being in a haunted castle. Elise can’t attack and so it’s all about stealthily navigating around the environment and avoiding ghostly objects, all while keeping your lantern lit up. You have to find keys to escape the castle before your health or sanity deplete completely, and these segments are much more involved than the slice-of-life elements that make up the other half of the game. This is the part I played so long to get to because I felt like the early parts of the game were building up to something. And I wasn’t disappointed, it was pretty tense although not too difficult.
The visuals really helped to sell it though. This game is going for a very classically shojo aesthetic with the cast all having big eyes, wide dresses and over-the-top visual elements across their outfits. I already mentioned how good the pixel art looked, but the game frequently uses 2D images when the characters are talking, and full CG artwork for important scenes, like the dates you can go on with Elise’s love interests (all of whom are girls by the way). I’m not sure it’s my favourite art style but it was certainly effective in making me try out the game, as I’d not played anything quite like it visually.
From what I played of Little Goody Two Shoes (an entire in-game day) it seems like a very laid-back game with elements of horror. This is one of those games with a lot of choices and it feels like there are a lot of endings to be had, probably based on how well you survive and who you date, so the replayability is there. However, if you only care about the horror elements then you should be warned that it only makes up about half the game and most of the cutscenes and story take place out in the real world. So be prepared for that when this game drops later this month (on Halloween in fact).
Loco Motive
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac
- Release Date: 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1709880/Loco_Motive/
On the Reuss Express a passenger has been murdered, and you’re the prime suspects. Uncover a thrilling mystery and solve satisfying point and click puzzles to prove your innocence! A slapstick adventure, packed full of deadly surprises, shocking twists and larger than life characters!
It’s been a while since I played a class point and click adventure game but that is what Loco Motive is. Almost immediately, the game felt like it would fit naturally alongside classic PC adventure games like Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry and Grim Fandango and that pretty much sums up all I could really say about this game from my time with it. It’s exactly as you would imagine – take control of one of three quirky characters who all play the same and investigate the murder of this wealthy old woman, who was stabbed to death on a moving train meaning the murderer must still be there. You do this by talking to everyone, picking up anything you can and seemingly using random items on random things in order to advance the plot (like combining a fan with a newspaper and using the wind it generates to knock over a set of keys that you need.
What’s most interesting about Loco Motive is how it tells its story. There are three characters and all are being suspected of the murder, and the game takes place in their flashbacks – their retellings of the events from their perspective. What this allows for is a non-linear story where we as a player experience events out of order. Something might happen to Arthur and then we find out later that it was due to the actions of Herman or Diana much earlier in the story, actions that we put into place as we played as them. It’s not a completely original way to tell a story but it is for this genre of game, at least off the top of my head.
If you are a fan of these types of games then keep a lookout for this one. The clever dialogue and fun puzzles harken back to the classics so if you like them then you can’t go wrong here.
Eastward Octopia!
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows, Mac
- Release Date: Winter 2023
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2305370/Eastward__Octopia/
Sam and John return in an all-new adventure! In this heartwarming story-driven farming sim, players can grow crops, tend livestock, and turn an abandoned fairground into a thriving village, with the help of the weird and wonderful cast of beloved Eastward characters.
I am conflicted. I reviewed Eastward back in 2021 and it was one of my favourite games of that year so when Eastward Octopia got announced I was excited to get back into this interesting and beautiful world and see what was new with Sam and John. Then I realised that this DLC to the original game turned it into a farming simulator, a genre I used to like and have since not had the patience for at all. So I’m glad I was able to give Eastward Octopia a try and get my feelings about it in order.
My biggest problem with farming sims is the stress that comes from managing the farm while trying to take part in all the timed events, like shopping and going on dates. That doesn’t seem to be the case here in Octopia though as the only timed event I could find is inviting the townsfolk over for dinner, and even this you can choose to skip rather than having to wait for the exact time.
Eastward Octopia is a very laid back farming sim with all the charm of the original Eastward. You can plant vegetables and fruit in the farm, and then harvest them later on to use as ingredients for John’s cookbook. You can also get animals like chicken that you need to take care of (although I couldn’t figure out how to make their feed in my playthrough) and you can fish. Fishing is odd in Octopia but that’s probably because the demo didn’t explain how it worked. After I eventually figured it out on my own it was actually very fun (basically you push left or right on the control stick to have your bait chase the fish and hit A when over the fish to ‘damage’ it until you eventually catch it).
Ultimately, despite my fears I’m now more optimistic about Octopia. I think it helps that I’m a fan of Eastward already and this DLC just has all the same lovable vibes and characters that made me enjoy the original, but the farming elements being a slower and more laid back affair suits me nicely. Rather than needing to farm to survive, Octopia instead seems to use the farm in order to further the social links with the townsfolk and help rebuild the town of Octopia.
Make Way
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows
- Release Date: Q4 2023
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1445790/Make_Way/
Speed around loops, dart through train crossings, drift around helter skelters, and unleash wacky weaponry in this modern take on classic top-down multiplayer racing games. The twist? You build the track.
Make Way is a simple couch versus game that combines the MicroMachines formula that has become quite popular in indie games in recent years with the mechanics of Ultimate Chicken Horse. For those who don’t know either of these titles, it’s a racing game where the camera follows the leader and other players lose when the person in front gets too far ahead (or they fall off the track). The twist in Make Way is that once a race is over, every player picks from a selection of track pieces of hazards and can place them on the race course wherever they like, extending the track for the next race. Then players keep racing on this ever growing track until someone wins (the conditions of which depend on the game mode).
It’s a lot of fun, as these games tend to be, and the way the track bends and twists, coupled with the items you can collect as you race, make it an enjoyably chaotic affair. There are a lot of items in this game and the best ones are the ones that you lay on the track (like mines) because if they don’t get set-off then they remain as hazards in the next race (and you can even blow yourself up by mistake if you’re not careful. The entire game also has a Hot Wheels design aesthetic going on. The cars you can choose from vary from common looking to extremely fantasy, and the track itself looks like a toy car track that’s been attached together in bizarre and extreme ways. It’s a fun aesthetic and matches the tone of this game. While Make Way doesn’t seem to be doing anything totally new, its formula is one that is tried and true for parties, drinking sessions and multiplayer fun. I believe there is a demo about to drop for the game on Steam so if you and some friends want to give it a go then give it a try and make up your own mind.
- SG Roundtable: Favourite Indie Multiplayer Game (Patreon Request) - April 4, 2024
- On Your Tail – Hands-on Impressions - November 15, 2023
- EGX 2023 Previews #2 – Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Eastward: Octopia and more! - October 14, 2023
