Time-twisting adventure Life is Strange hits retail in 2016

By Danny Cowan Published November 12, 2015

life is strange retail limited edition announced lifestrangeretail header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Publisher Square Enix revealed that its episodic adventure game series Life is Strange will see a physical release in 2016, bundling the game’s five chapters in a retail package for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

A limited edition that includes a selection of exclusive bonus items will also launch at retail next year.

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Released throughout 2015 as a series of downloadable episodes, Life is Strange tells a tale in which a high school student learns that she has the ability to rewind time at will. Players use this skill to progress through the game’s storyline and solve puzzles, and choices made throughout the journey impact events that occur in later chapters.

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The physical editions of Life is Strange include the game’s full series, allowing players to experience episodes back-to-back without having to download subsequent chapters.

“We’ve seen a lot of requests from the community for a physical release and we wanted to create a package fit for Life is Strange fans,” Square Enix’s Scott Blows explains. “For those who haven’t played or are waiting to play, this would be a great time to dive into the series (plus you won’t have to wait in between episodes).”

Also launching at retail next year is the Life is Strange Limited Edition, which bundles a retail copy of the game alongside a 32-page artbook, a soundtrack CD, and in-game director’s commentary.

“The response to Life is Strange really has blown us away!” producer Luc Baghadoust states. “To be able to share that experience with our fans in a traditional boxed format is something we’re really excited about and the decision to include the extra items for the Limited Edition is a direct response to fan requests.”

The retail edition Life is Strange is priced at $30, while the Limited Edition is available for pre-order at $40.

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Multiplayer hit Mordhau slashes its way onto consoles later this year

A soldier walks away from a flame in Mordhau.

Mordhau, a visceral multiplayer game set in medieval times that was popular on PC, will finally make its way to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S later this year. In late 2019, Mordhau made the rounds as the hot and trendy new multiplayer game, like Splitgate and MultiVersus have recently. It stood out thanks to its large 64-player battles and combat that isn't afraid to be intricate, methodical, and quite brutal. While its player count dropped following its moment in the spotlight and the release of Chivalry II, Mordhau still has a dedicated fanbase that enjoys its tough but satisfying combat and medieval setting. Now, players on consoles finally have the chance to experience the game and could possibly revitalize general interest in Mordhau.
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Triterinon, the Slovenian developer behind Mordhau, will still handle developer and publisher duties for the console ports. It will feature the same combat and modes players can find on PC, including the attack-and-defend mode Invasion, the territory-based Frontline, and cooperative Horde mode. The developer also confirmed that these new versions of Mordhau will feature crossplay. However, it is currently only going to work between console platforms, so new players aren't matched up against PC players that mastered the game over the past several years.
Although Triterinon did not share a specific date just yet, players can expect Mordhau to release for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S later this year. If you can't wait to play it, Mordhau is currently available on PC for $30.

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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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Inside the unlikely Final Fantasy spinoff that time forgot

King Regis runs through Insomnia in A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV.

Did you know that Square Enix released a retro-inspired beat ’em up based on Final Fantasy XV in 2016?
Even hardcore Final Fantasy fans might not remember the forgotten game well nowadays, but it’s quite the hidden gem. Titled A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV, the unlikely spinoff game was released as a pre-order bonus with Final Fantasy XV. It follows King Regis as he tells Noctis a bedtime story about defeating Ultros, a monstrous crystal thief causing daemons to spawn all over Insomnia and Duscae. In practice, it's a side-scrolling beat ’em up that pays homage to the classic brawlers while implementing Final Fantasy magic, enemies, and more.
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Though A King’s Tale only lasts an hour and doesn’t have co-op, it’s a polished and exhilarating experience that Final Fantasy fans shouldn’t forget. It was a pleasant surprise to find this deep within my backlog ahead of the fifth anniversary of its stand-alone release, but its existence also raised many questions.
How did this project come to be? Why is it so polished? And why aren't more short but sweet games like this used to excite fans for notable game releases? I spoke to Cord Smith, executive producer and creative director on the project, to learn its history and how this forgotten Final Fantasy spinoff connects with everything from Dead Island to Masters of the Universe to Stranger Things.
At its heart, this is a story about an ambitious marketing agency that created a new kind of game through a multi-studio effort on a tight budget. And it all starts with Dead Island 2.
Retro Revenge
In the mid-2010s, Smith worked at a creative agency called Platform. This agency would often produce screenshots and trailers used in the marketing of video games. Around the time Dead Island 2 was in development and set to release, Smith and other people involved with channel marketing at the company pondered whether it could make a retro game that marketing could use to sell a notable game.
Smith asserted that it was possible, but thought it had to be done the right way to avoid producing a bad game. He found game development and animation partners to craft a small but satisfying retro game that could tie into the then soon-to-be-released Dead Island 2.
While his pitch had a high budget, Dead Island 2 developer Deep Silver and Platform accepted it. Smith and his partners now had to build something that wasn’t done much before and hasn’t been done much since. “Sure, it was a promotional game, but we were putting it on console, and we were treating it like a real game project,” Smith tells Digital Trends.

When designing it, Smith and his development partners didn’t have a playable build of Dead Island 2. They got a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what that game was supposed to be and additional information to draw from. The result of this effort was Dead Island: Retro Revenge, an on-rails beat ’em up set within the Dead Island universe.
“I love taking someone else’s IP and doing something that respects it and honors what they’re doing. but surprises them by where we can take it in spite of our limitations,” Smith explains. Ultimately, Deep Silver and Smith were thrilled with how Retro Revenge turned out. But there was a problem: Dead Island 2 was never released.
“Dead Island 2 did not make it to release, but Dead Island: Retro Revenge did, so they put it in a collection,” he explains. “That was a shame as we didn’t get to see it reach what we built it for. It never got to be the pre-order promotional thing that we wanted.”
"Sure, it was a promotional game, but we were putting it on console, and we were treating it like a real game project."