Banner Saga 2 delayed to 2016, series console ports in limbo

By Danny Cowan November 6, 2015

banner saga 2 delayed into 2016 bs2 header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Indie publisher Versus Evil announced that Stoic’s tactical-RPG sequel The Banner Saga 2 will miss its originally scheduled 2015 release date, and is now set to premiere in the first quarter of 2016.

The delay has also thrown console ports of the previous entry in the series into question, according to a Eurogamer report.

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The Banner Saga 2, currently in development for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms, is a follow-up to developer Stoic’s strategy-RPG The Banner Saga. Featuring a mixture of tactics-driven combat and choose-your-own-adventure styled dialogue sequences, The Banner Saga is part of a planned trilogy that reflects player choices and branching decision paths throughout.

Following the announcement of a delay for The Banner Saga 2, Versus Evil declined to comment whether its console ports will launch alongside the PC release or if they had been pushed back to a later date. The publisher also notes that The Banner Saga 2 will ship before a planned port of the original The Banner Saga launches for the PlayStation 4, suggesting a change in release plans.

Speaking to Destructoid, a Versus Evil spokesperson confirmed that console ports for the series are still in the works, and claims that more details will be announced “soon.”

Developed by a team of ex-BioWare staff, The Banner Saga turned to Kickstarter for its initial round of funding in 2012. The game quickly surpassed its $100,000 funding target, and went on to earn over $723,000 in backer pledges.

A free-to-play companion game, The Banner Saga: Factions, first hit Steam in 2013. The single-player campaign for The Banner Saga debuted for mobile platforms and PCs via Steam in 2014. In addition to the upcoming sequel, Stoic is also developing a board game adaptation for the franchise, The Banner Saga: Warbands.

A release date for The Banner Saga 2 is not yet known.

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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R improves an already great fighting game

Jotaro Kujo stands before a battle in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R.

While Street Fighter 6 was the talk of the show floor at Summer Game Fest Play Days, another fighting game also managed to impress me at the event. That title was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R, a fighting game based on the popular and heavily-memed anime and manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The original JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle was first released in Japan in 2013, scoring a rare perfect score from the popular Japanese outlet Famitsu. Anime fighting games vary wildly in quality, but this was considered one of the better ones thanks to its thoughtful and rewarding gameplay.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R continues that game's legacy as an enhanced remaster that does more than visually update the game and turn servers back. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R adds in new characters, voice acting, and gameplay tweaks that almost make it feel like a different game. In the years since the 2013 game this is based on came out, both JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the fighting game genre got a lot more popular. Thankfully, my demo showed that this fighting game has only gotten better with age.
To be continued
Although JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R didn't get a remake-level visual overhaul, fans should still appreciate many of the graphical tweaks and just how pretty this game is. Even though I was playing a PS4, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R was one of the best-looking games at Summer Game Fest Play Days. The anime already has an extremely distinct art style and features a cast of overly-muscular characters, so it transitions to a fighting game almost perfectly. Pulling off special moves that you've seen in the manga and anime or calling out a stand yourself is super satisfying, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R will show them in all of their extremely detailed glory.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R - Early Access Demo
Even the voiceovers and character models got updates to match the voice acting and styles fans will remember from the anime. We don't get many video games based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so it's nice to see this one put in extra care to respect the source material and improve upon the original release. That said, graphics will only get you so far in a fighting game. It's the gameplay mechanics that really ensure a fighting game lives or dies.
Thankfully, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R is a lot of fun to play.
The 2013 original was a 3D fighting game that plays more like Virtua Fighter than Jump Force. The standard attacks, combo, block, and dodge moves to be expected from fighting games are here, but characters can also summon their stands and basically get a second fighter to attack and zone with. Fights also have some other cute oddities, like having an assist character to strengthen some of your attacks or being able to taunt the other player when they are knocked down to take away some of their special meter gauges. That taunt feature specifically is not only hilarious but feels very JoJo and adds palpable benefits to what's usually just a visual gag in fighting games.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R does add a couple of new gameplay additions that players will definitely notice, including hit stops and jump dashes that give that game more competitive depth, as well as flash cancels that let players quickly cancel their current combo if they don't want to change their approach or the moves they are using

I didn't have enough time to kit out and learn combos and how to string them together, but I can clearly recognize just how these features will positively deepen JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R's meta. With auto combos for new players and revitalized online play too, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R hopefully won't have a problem attracting new JoJo's Bizzare Adventure fans to this fighting game. Whether you enjoyed the original release or want to see what a good JoJo's Bizarre Adventure game looks like, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R should be on your radar. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R launches for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on September 2. If you want to try it before then, a demo is available on PS4 and PS5 until June 21.

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Street Fighter 6 director reveals World Tour mode’s true purpose

A player stands in Metro City's Times Square equivalent in Street Fighter 6 World Tour.

While Street Fighter 6’s traditional Fighting Ground experience made a solid first impression at Summer Game Fest, its significantly more ambitious World Tour mode is still shrouded in mystery. We briefly got a look at this ambitious mode during the game's State of Play trailer. We see what appears to be a player-created character explore Metro City and other locations from a third-person perspective, breaking boxes and getting into fights with the people he meets.
In the press release for Street Fighter 6, Capcom describes World Tour mode as a "single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar." While Capcom isn't revealing more about the mode's moment-to-moment gameplay just yet, I spoke with Game Director Takayuki Nakayama at Summer Game Fest Play Days and learned how World Tour is emblematic of Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 the premier entry point to the fighting game genre.
Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer
Finding World Tour's Purpose
In World Tour, players will explore Metro City and other iconic Street Fighter locales with a player-created avatar. Nakayama hopes this experience will strengthen Street Fighter 6's appeal to those who aren't already diehard fans of the series or genre.
"World Tour is a completely different mode that delivers a completely different experience than the traditional fighting," he said. "Even if someone's not a hardcore fan of fighting games, we wanted to incorporate things to make people become fans of Street Fighter outside of the traditional fights."
World Tour certainly looks unlike anything the Street Fighter series has done before. Still, Nakayama hopes that World Tour players will learn more about the world and characters of Street Fighter along the way and fall in love with fighting games as a whole."We want players to dive into this mode and be able to learn how to love fighting games through the things that you do during the journey of World Tour," Nakayama proclaimed. "There will also be opportunities to meet some of the fans' favorite characters, like Ryu and Chun-Li, through World Tour. We want to provide an experience where players can learn more about those characters' backstories and discover what kind of people they are within Street Fighter 6."

World Tour is one of Street Fighter 6's three main pillars, the others being the standard Fighting Ground mode and the multiplayer-focused Battle Hub. He commented how it's always hard to tell how much is enough to put in a game for fans, especially following Street Fighter V's rocky reception at launch due to a lack of content. However, he hopes World Tour provides enough to negate that criticism.
"We were definitely aware of some of the criticism that we faced with Street Fighter 5, and we want to continue to learn from those criticisms and make Street Fighter 6 a better product," he explained. "It's challenging to decide how much is enough for the users, but we continue to work very hard on it and strive to create something that will get appreciation from players."
Still, World Tour seems like it could occupy players for a long time while introducing them to the concept of fighting games and the world of Street Fighter. That's not too shabby of an addition when Street Fighter 6's core fighting game mechanics are already fantastic. And Capcom's goal to make Street Fighter 6 one of the most approachable fighting games ever can be seen outside of World Tour mode.
Everyone is here to fight
During our discussion, Nakayama constantly reiterated that he wants Street Fighter to be something that can entertain and entice those who've never played a fighting game before. Part of the developer's method for making Street Fighter 6 more approachable and accessible is the addition of the Modern Control Type, which allows players to execute flash combos with simple button presses.

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Street Fighter 6 does everything it needs to as Capcom’s next grand fighting game

Street Fighter 6 made a strong first impression during its State of Play gameplay unveiling. It made an equally strong impression when I went hands-on with its traditional 1v1 Fighting Ground experience at Summer Game Fest Play Days.
Thanks to the technical prowess of the RE Engine, Street Fighter 6 is a marvelous game to look at. Its gameplay is equally impressive as it’s deepened with the new Drive Gauge and Modern Control type. While being the next grand mainline entry in the most important fighting game series of all time is a tall order, Street Fighter 6 already seems prepared to take on that challenge.
A Visual Marvel
The build of the game I played let me go hands-on with four characters: Ryu, Chun-Li, Luke, and brand new character, Jamie. Ryu and Chun-Li’s redesigns look fantastic, while Luke and Jamie have distinctive styles as relative newcomers to the franchise. In general, Street Fighter 6 is an utterly gorgeous game.
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Powered by the RE Engine behind games like Resident Evil Village, Street Fighter 6’s character models are incredibly detailed and colorful. The inner-city alleyways of Metro City and the cherry-blossom-filled Genbu Temple I fought at were vibrant and lively, and pre-game presentation always got me hyped as the Street Fighter characters pumped themselves up for the impending fight.
Fights and special moves aren’t too visually busy, so you’ll always clearly understand what moves you’re doing. Drive Impacts create gorgeous, paint-like streaks across the screen, giving these disruptive moves more satisfying visual feedback. Especially on next-gen consoles, Street Fighter 6 will be one of the prettiest fighting games ever.
Street Fighter 6 loads super fast-on PS5 too, with rematches loading nearly instantly. Those quick load times helped ensure I stuck around for even longer than my allotted demo time, but so did Street Fighter 6’s satisfying gameplay.
A delicious combo meal
Street Fighter titles have always been very lauded and popular fighting games. As genre trailblazers, the last few Street Fighters mainly focus on evolving the combo-based gameplay that sets a standard for the rest of the genre. Street Fighter 6 is no different.

You’ll punch and kick as your favorite characters, stringing together button press and stick movements to pull off wild special moves and combos. Many of the iconic combos and button presses return just as you remember them, so you shouldn’t have trouble pulling off a Hadoken a Ryu when you finally get your hands on Street Fighter 6.
In Street Fighter 6, players draw from two different gauge meters. The more traditional Super Gauge lets your character pull off their special moves. Meanwhile, the new Drive Gague lets players do up to five colorful offensive and defensive moves like the Drive Impact counter, the Drive Parry, and more. Players must manage this meter wisely, as they’ll take more damage if it fully depletes. It doesn’t revolutionize the fighting game experience but adds an exciting risk-vs-reward element to each fight.
Even though I’ve played less than an hour of Street Fighter 6, it already feels fantastic to play and like a solid evolution for this classic series. For fans that might not be as familiar with fighting games, Street Fighter 6 isn’t leaving them in the dust.
This game introduces the Modern Control type, which lets players execute special moves like the Hadoken or the Shin Shoryuken with simple button presses. Holding R2 and mashing triangle is much easier to understand than a complicated string of button press and stick movements, so fans who want to see each character’s flashiest moves should enjoy this new control scheme.