Lost Sphear
Lots of developers try to capture the spirit of ’90s JRPGs, but none have succeeded as well as Tokyo RPG Factory did with 2016’s I Am Setsuna. Needless to say, I’m very excited for their next game, Lost Sphear. It looks mechanically similar to I Am Setsuna, but in a new world, full of new characters, telling a new story.
Lost Sphear is due out on 24 January for PlayStation 4 and PC.
Mineko’s Night Market
Mineko’s Night Market is described as a game that “a game that celebrates Japanese culture while introducing a heartwarming story about friendship, tradition, and many, many cats.” Honestly, that’s enough to sell me on it—but if it weren’t, the gorgeous art style and promise of a more story-driven twist on Animal Crossing style gameplay would do it anyway.
Mineko’s Night Market is due out this year for PC.
Mulaka
One of the best results of the indie boom is the celebration and exploration of cultures that don’t often get the spotlight, as seen in the likes of Never Alone and Ayo: A Rain Tale. Mulaka is such a game, turning attention to the Tarahumara people of northern Mexico through an exciting action-adventure game.
Mulaka is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in early 2018.
Ooblets
Ooblets is described as a combination of Harvest Moon and Pokemon, and that’s enough to make me very excited indeed. It’s basically a farming simulation game like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, but with monster collecting RPG elements thrown into the mix. Also, it looks ridiculously cute, with its low-poly, pastel art style and adorable monster designs.
Ooblets is due out sometime this year, and is coming to PC and Xbox One.
Persona 5: Dancing Star Night
I was one of the handful of people who didn’t really love Persona 5, but if there were two things it excelled at, they were music and character design—exactly the things that Persona 5: Dancing Star Night celebrates. It’s being developed alongside Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night, but the Persona 5 rhythm game is the one I’m looking forward to most of all.
Persona 5: Dancing Star Night is due out 24 May in Japan, though a Western release date isn’t yet confirmed. It’s coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology
The underappreciated Radiant Historia was one of the best games on Nintendo DS, and a 3DS remaster—Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology—is giving it a new lease on life. A typical JRPG at first glance, it has one of the most clever and enjoyable battle systems I’ve played, with an intriguing story of time travel and alternate histories to go with it. Radiant Historia was the DS’s swan song, and it looks like it might be the same for 3DS, too.
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology comes out on 3DS on 13 February.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy
I’ve been long waiting for a sequel to (or even a port of) NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. SNK has gone one better, and is working on a successor of sorts to SNK Gals’ Fighters, a little-known all-woman fighting game for the NeoGeo Pocket Color. In a year full of great fighting games, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy might just be the best of them all.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is coming to Switch and PlayStation 4 around mid-2018.
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Valkyria Chronicles has a cult following, and for good reason: it’s a damn good series, with sharp tactical gameplay and rich stories that explore the ethics of war. We’ve been waiting for a new game for a long time, and we’re finally getting it this year in Valkyria Chronicles 4. (Perhaps SEGA could also look into finally localising Valkyria Chronicles 3, too?)
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is due out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this year.
A Way Out
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was a fantastic game for all sorts of reasons, including its creative approach to a sort of singleplayer co-op game design. Now, that game’s director leads a new studio and is working on a new game, A Way Out. It looks like a narrative-focused action-adventure game designed to be played by two players from start to finish, with each person controlling—and role-playing—one of the two main characters.
A Way Out releases on 23 March for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Yakuza has always had a loyal fan-base, but Yakuza 0 really helped draw attention to the series in the West. That puts a lot of pressure on Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the next main-series game to see a Western release—if it does well, it’ll lock in that whole wave of fans that the prequel brought in. I fully expect that it will do exactly that.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is due for release on 20 March for PlayStation 4.