Gamescom 2025 is over and in total I played 30 different games, spanning a wide-range of genres and developers and in these five previews I want to highlight my thoughts on each one and if I think they are worth your time. As always, there will be links to the game pages for you to wishlist if something catches your eye, and this time I am also including demo links if you want to try the game yourself.

In this third set of previews we’ll be role-playing in several different worlds from the traditional fantasy to a modern day setting. We’ll be strategising, turn-taking or the complete opposite and going at our foes in real-time. There’s an RPG here for all fans of this massvie genre so read on and see what game catches your fancy.

Pokémon Legends Z-A

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
• Release Date: 16th October 2025
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Nintendo eShop

An ambitious new adventure set in Lumiose City awaits in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, coming to Nintendo Switch in late 2025. Explore the city, unravel its secrets and battle Pokémon like never before!

Pokémon Legends Arceus is, in my uncontroversial opinion, the best Pokémon game on Nintendo Switch. Even if it’s not exactly the same, a new game in this series is exciting as both Legends games are taking the classic Pokémon formula and giving the core gameplay a new twist. In the case of Legends Z-A, that twist is active time combat and it changes up the combat more than you would think.

My time with Legends Z-A consisted of a series of battles in the new Z-A League, the night time events in Lumiose City where trainers are encouraged to jump each other in the street and do battle, and then a mega evolution boss battle against Mega Absol. It was a very combat focused demo but given the gameplay twist I mentioned above that makes sense. So how is the new active time battle system?

Well once I figured out how to do it (turns out combat only initiates once you lock-on to your opponents Pokémon) it’s not that different from the standard Pokémon battle gameplay. You have no control over your Pokémon’s positioning, only your own and if the player gets hit then the active Pokémon will take damage. Pokémon are still limited to four moves and it’s still just one Pokémon out at a time, although the boss battles can see additional trainers enter the fray and support. 

It’s not all the same of course. The biggest change comes from moves now having a cooldown. With turns order removed, every move is now on a cooldown timer to stop it from being spammed. It will be interesting to see if your Pokémon’s speed stat will decrease the time you need to wait now, as that previously dictated turn-order. This encouraged me to use all of my moves rather than just spam the one super effective move like I would have in the turn-based games, as otherwise I was leaving my Pokémon standing there like a sitting duck.

Another change I noticed, and this was particularly important in the Mega Evolution boss battle, is the greater emphasis on defensive moves like Protect. I always found that Protect has very limited use in the main games and is mainly used to block two-turn charging attacks like Dig and Fly. In Legends Z-A though, Pokémon can give off signs of strong AOE moves that deal high-damage, and I found Protect is the only way to guard against it. This gives Protect greater importance in a way I haven’t seen non-offensive moves since the Mystery Dungeon games where Smokescreen was a must-have ability. 

Lastly, the aforementioned jumping of trainers in the street is the Pokémon series equivalent of the classic RPG priority system, where taking an opponent by surprise gives you a free hit. It’s a good system that encourages careful approach although not having control on your opponents position during this can be annoying. My Chikorita decided to run behind a flower pot before attacking and that blocked the attack, causing me to miss my chance at a strike.

Also, as this is a modern Pokémon game I feel the need to talk about the presentation, and I’m happy to report that Legends Z-A is by far the best looking 3D Pokémon game so far. This shouldn’t really be a surprise given the power of the Nintendo Switch 2 (yes I played that edition) but still I’m glad to see a game that actually looks to standard for a series this massive (although they really should add voice acting when Gen 10 rolls around). 

I’m really looking forward to Pokémon Legends Z-A now, especially as someone who didn’t really like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (or X & Y for that matter) and I am interested to see if the game can keep up its gameplay novelty in a way that Legends Arceus managed to.

The Blood of Dawnwalker

• Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
• Release Date: Coming soon
• Demo?: No
• Steam link: Steam Page

The Blood of Dawnwalker is an open-world dark fantasy action RPG set in 14th-century Europe. You play as Coen, human by day and vampire by night, fighting to save your family in a story shaped by your actions and the secrets you uncover.

I’ve been calling these articles ‘hands-on previews’ as I’ve only been covering  games I got to play myself but I’m making an exception for The Blood of Dawnwalker, a new IP by Bandai Namco and new studio Rebel Wolves, as I was extremely impressed with what I got to see.

Rebel Wolves is a new development studio set-up by ex-CD Projekt Red developers, in particular Konrad Tomaszkiewicz who was one of the directors of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and you can absolutely tell just by looking at Dawnwalker. Its protagonist Coen, the titular Dawnwalker which is a sometimes human sometimes vampire hybrid, reminded me of a young Geralt in appearance and its world portrays a similar medieval fantasy setting. But this is not another Witcher game with a new name. This fantasy action game has a lot of unique elements to call its own and it’s all tied into the game’s unique progression system. 

The Blood of Dawnwalker gives players 30 in-game days to complete its main story, Coen saving his family from the ancient vampire lord Brencis, and the way players spend their time is entirely open to them. Unlike other time-based games like Majora’s Mask or Pikmin, time doesn’t pass via internal clock. Instead certain actions will trigger time moving forward meaning there is far less stress here to rush through the game. Players are instead encouraged to take their time and decide their own path forward from the many options available, including whether a quest is best to tackle at day or at night.

The other main mechanic of The Blood of Dawnwalker is Coen’s curse into Vampirism. During the day, Coen is a regular human who is forced to fight with weapons or through the use of magic spells. As an ordinary human he can speak with villagers and other NPCs, investigate scenes of interest and interrogate key persons for information on whatever his current objective is (in the demo he was looking for a Silver Sword that is potent against vampires). 

Come the night however, Coen turns into a vampire and this greatly alters the players options. While Coen can still fight with weapons, he can no longer use spells. Instead he has to fall-back on vampire abilities like warping, drinking blood and slashing with his claws. Vampire Coen will terrify regular NPCs and cause guards to attack him on site, instead forcing him to sneak around populated locations – which is made easier thanks to Coen’s ability to walk up walls and teleport short distances.

As there are no quests restricted to day or night, what this all means is that the player’s approach to any given quest will be radically different depending on the time of day and it is up to the player to decide which is their preferred method forward. In the demo I was shown, Vampire Coen scaled a church wall and eavesdropped on a blood cult ceremony, learning hints to his destination. He broke into a library via an open door on the upper floor and was forced to fight guards patrolling the local ceremony before he could enter his destination. Human Coen on the other hand entered the church through the front door, chatted with its workers and did an entire side-quest for one of them in order to gain legal access to the library. Then the guards didn’t bother him as he went to his final destination. Regardless of the approach, Coen ended up at the same big boss fight but even the way the boss fought changed depending on if it was taking place at day or night.

A lot of thought has gone into giving the players freedom of approach to this game’s story and the time limit promises multiple endings depending on player efficiency and their actions, which may promote replayability.

I had never heard of The Blood of Dawnwalker before attending this year’s Gamescom but now it has become one of my most anticipated games of 2026. I’ve never actually played a game by CD Projekt Red before so I have no bias behind me when I state this. While I didn’t get hands-on practice with the game, so I can’t discuss its gamefeel, the presentation, concept and approach to story and quests has left me wanting to try it out for myself, and it became the surprise hit for me of the show.

Digimon Story Time Stranger

• Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
• Release Date: October 2nd 2025
• Steam link: Steam Page

The latest in the Digimon Story series is finally here! In this RPG, unravel a mystery that spans across the human world and the Digital World, collecting and raising a wide variety of Digimon to save the world.

I’ve never played a game in the Digimon Story line of titles so I was approaching this game as a relative newcomer, and after playing the demo all I can say is that this sure is an RPG. While Digimon often gets compared to Pokemon, another monster collecting game, I would say this title is more comparable to something like Persona. 

The player has a party of Digimon on hand and a storage they can move Digimon in and out of at will while on the field, but combat isn’t handled one-on-one. Digimon take turns based on their speed and can choose between a standard physical attack or a special attack that consumes this game’s MP equivalent. Battles usually involve taking on multiple Digimon at once and they are weak, or resistant, to specific elemental attacks, which the player will need to scan or trial and error their way through to discover. It’s a very standard turn-based RPG title.

The element of the game that stood out to me the most was actually the presentation. Unlike Pokemon, Digimon have always had a near-human-like level of intelligence, able to speak an act just like humans do. And Time Stranger uses this to great effect in its main town, having all interactable NPCs being Digimon of various evolutionary stages and types. This might be one of the most bustling RPG towns I’ve ever experienced and with all the NPCs being the titular monsters it adds an insane amount of charm to the title.

I’ve always found the Digimon World itself to be visually really cool and this game captures that vibe immaculately. It was also quite nostalgic seeing so many classic Digimon I recognised from my childhood just chilling and getting on with activities in town, whether it be shopping, fighting or just hanging out. I enjoyed it a lot.

Digimon Story Time Stranger is definitely a very polished and well executed game but I don’t think it’s doing anything that makes it really stand-out from the many other RPGs on the market. If you’re already a series fan then you’ll probably enjoy it, but then you probably also don’t need me to recommend it either. If you are new to the series like I was, and are a fan of RPGs, you’ll also probably enjoy it, but if the pull of the world hadn’t made you interested in the game before then I doubt this new one will do either.

Lost Hellden

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
• Release Date: 2026
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Resist your Sin. Reclaim your fate. Lost Hellden is an action JRPG from a team of genre veterans, featuring a gorgeous hand-painted 3D art style, a vast world to explore, and a unique phased battle system that blends turn-based and real-time combat.

Lost Hellden is the dream project of Artisan Studios. After working on a couple of previous titles, Super Neptunia RPG and Astria Ascending, the developer felt confident to forge ahead with an original fantasy story they had been cooking up for years. To do this, they are making a game that celebrates the classic RPGs that inspired them from the PS1 and PS2 era of gaming and to make it more authentic they’ve brought in some ex-Final Fantasy developers of that era to help.

Lost Hellden is a traditional RPG through and through… for the most part. Mainly in its field and map exploration. The game has the player navigate its world through fixed camera angles and kind-of pre-rendered backgrounds (more on that shortly), finding treasure chests, chatting to NPCs and fighting monsters. The enemies aren’t handled through random encounters like the RPGs of old, instead appearing in the world itself giving the players an option to engage or attempt to avoid. Where things shift is with the combat.

Combat isn’t your typical turn-based action, instead leaning towards a style similar to that seen in Final Fantasy XII. The players are thrown into a circular arena alongside the enemy and battles are split into two turn-styles: action and reaction. In the action phase, players decide both position and attacks of their party members, or set it up to let the party members work autonomously, and then in the reaction phase it’s all about dodging or guarding against the enemies attacks in real-time. It combines some of the rules of turn-based combat with more modern action-rpg gameplay elements to try and hit the best of both worlds. It’s different and refreshing.

What stood out to me the most about Lost Hellden was its presentation. The game is beautiful. While its backgrounds are presented as if they are pre-rendered, with these beautiful watercolor vistas and sky, there is actually movement in the trees and clouds that reveals it must be rendered in real time, with animation loops. It manages to capture the pre-rendered style while also feeling way more modern. A lot of the game is hand-painted in fact and it looked amazing in every scene I saw.

Obviously with any RPG, ultimately the power of the story and characters is going to be the most important factor and I didn’t get enough time in my 20 minute demo to experience any of that. But from what I did see and play, Lost Hellden has a lot of promise and one to keep an eye on for any RPG fan.

HARK THE GHOUL

• Platforms: Windows
• Release Date: 2026
• Demo?: Yes
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Slash, kick and magick your way through an adventure brimming with secrets and curious encounters! HARK THE GHOUL offers a meticulously handcrafted world to explore.

What I loved about Hark the Ghoul wasn’t just its low-poly visual style and atmosphere, which is what initially drew me towards checking the game out, but instead it was the absolute freedom the devs provide the player to traverse its world – in classical PC RPG style.

This is a different type of freedom from The Blood of Dawnwalker’s curated freedom. Hark the Ghoul embraces its DnD style origins, giving players a backstory to begin with that changes up dialogue, starting equipment and provides them with special perks like the ability to understand foreign languages without a guide. Its side quests are all optional, not even marked on any kind of compass and map, just in-game dialogue and environmental clues to lead the way. And the way some of its many weapons can interact with the environment encourages player experimentation. You can’t clear this big gap? Why not throw your spear weapon into the wall and use it as a new platform to jump across. Hark the Ghoul lets you do this.

Nowhere did this shine through more than my own playtime with the game where I managed to take full advantage of what the game provided me to sequence break the game and reach an area that the developers had not yet revealed (and one I promised not to spoil here). I didn’t glitch the game or anything to achieve this – after being told that there were multiple ways to progress and pointed towards a few options, I instead chose to ignore all advice because I saw one precarious pipe on a wall that I knew I could make with the right timing. And I was right.

Thanks to some clever foresight when upgrading my skills at the literal skill tree, I had unintentionally made the perfect build for the next area of the game, allowing me to navigate it with ease and upon understanding the spell system, I was even able to make some physic defying moves when I kicked a box into the air and froze it in mid-air, blocking a spinning fan and providing me a few seconds to safely pass into the low levels. I figured out it was possible without any guidance and I felt great for doing so.

From its retro-Bloodborne vibe to its great variety of weapons and magic, to the various ways it lets you forge your own path forward, I walked away from Hark the Ghoul excited for what’s to come and I strongly recommend it.

Dark Quest 4

• Platforms: Windows
• Release Date: 2025
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Steam Page

A turn based dungeon crawler where you create a party of heroes to go on epic quests.

From big RPGs to traditional tabletop experiences, Dark Quest 4 is a game about taking a party through a classic DnD dungeon, taking advantage of their individual abilities to fight off enemies, collect treasure and avoid traps. It very much feels like a board game with its presentation and rules, and I enjoyed it.

The game has several classes to pick from and I went with the Warrior, Dark Mage and Dwarf (actual names may be different). The Warrior was my standard bruiser – big attack and defence, ideal in frontal combat. The Dark Mage was more of a glass cannon, weak to frontal assaults but with powerful ranged magic to eviscerate foes from a distance. And the Dwarf was interesting, based around setting up traps to deal with groups of enemies. For example, the dwarf could place an explosive barrel within a certain range of himself and then set it off a turn later for massive damage, or lure a stupid enemy to attack it and do the deed themselves.

Each floor of the dungeon isn’t revealed to the player immediately. Rooms behind doors are invisible to the player until the door is opened and it encourages more strategic thinking. My party began separated from each other so I waited until all were by the door into a big room before I opened it, so that I had more of an initiative on the next turn.

Punishment for failing is also quite severe. My skeleton of a Dark Mage got his kneecaps kicked in and died. He never came back, meaning on the next floor I was down to just the Warrior and Dwarf, and began playing more stealthy, hiding from the archers line of sight so they couldn’t attack me. It was like a classic game of dungeons and dragons, just with cards instead of dice rolls. I had fun and it’s a different type of RPG than the norm, so it was a refreshing experience.

Demonschool

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Windows
• Release Date: November 19th 2025
• Demo?: No
• Wishlist: Steam Page

Demonschool is a new-style tactics RPG where motion equals action. Defeat big weirdos in between the human and demon worlds as Faye and her misfit companions, while navigating university life on a mysterious island.

Demonschool is a hotly anticipated RPG that was about to just come out but has been delayed a few months to avoid the goliath launch that is Silksong. It’s understandable but also a real shame as Demonschool is very good. It’s the real Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem game that fans were hoping for from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. 

You play as a high-school demon hunting group in a town where the resident memories of demons are being erased in real-time and it’s up to your gang to defeat the demons and solve the mystery. In the overworld and more story-driven school time elements the game plays similar to classic Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games (and when I say classic I do mean it – I’m talking the forbidden pre-Persona 3 titles here). Players can travel around their town and chat with NPCs, hang out with other party members and take on side quests all in an isometric, beautiful pixel art style.

When battles take place, the game switches up to something more akin to Fire Emblem, but with a much smaller cast. The game lets you bring four party members into battle and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. In my demo I used the following:

• Faye, the pink haired protag, is an all-arounder with a focus on knocking enemies backwards, knocking them into other opponents for additional damage. 
• Knute is the support character, providing healing and buffs to adjacent characters.
• Namako is what the game refers to as a ‘passthrough’ character, applying debuffs to enemies that she walks through and even deleting some foes from existence in the right circumstance.
• Destin is the glass cannon bruiser. He’s similar to Faye, in that he also knocks opponents back, but is way stronger at the cost of being more fragile.

Demonschool is both challenging and player friendly. Between its team composition and their movement options, the game has a lot of strategy to it and as a result, enemy encounters can be quite tough. But there is no perma-death here and the player is given ample time to try out different strategies each turn without fear. As long as the turn has not been ended, the player can rewind as many moves as they made and try out something else. It asks the player to sit-back and really think their move through, all while basking in the great pixel art and awesome vibes.

I had heard of the hype around Demonschool but this was my first time actually seeing what that hype was all about and I get it. This game has style, strategy, likeable characters and a promising story that I think fans will enjoy. It needs its time to breathe so the delay is almost certainly going to benefit it in the end.

Preview 1 (multiplayer, cozy) | Preview 2 (horror, adventure) | Preview 3 (RPG) | Preview 4 (platformers, metroidvanias) | Preview 5 (rhythm, roguelite and FPS)