Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for March 22nd, 2021. In today’s article, we’ve got a tiny nugget of news to check out before diving into a trio of Mini-Views covering three equally good but very different games. There are also some new releases to check out, with the best of the bunch being the follow-up to the intriguing steampunk dungeon crawler Vaporum. We round things out with the usual lists of incoming and outgoing sales. Let’s get into it!
News
‘Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster’ Comes West May 25th
Atlus’s PlayStation 2 masterpiece Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne is considered one of the finest RPGs of its generation, and I know quite a few people who rank it as one of their favorite games in the genre overall. An HD remaster of the game was announced for release on the Switch and other platforms a while back, and it was released in Japan in the autumn of last year. While it had some issues, it has received a few patches that helped things quite a bit. I’m not sure if those issues had anything to do with the gap between its Japanese release and the West, but hey, we’re getting the game in good shape right from launch.
That Western launch is May 25th, by the by. The game will sell for $49.99, with a Digital Deluxe version available for $69.99. The latter will get you access to the game four days early (May 21st), the Maniax Pack DLC (adding Devil May Cry‘s Dante), Merciful Difficulty, the Mercy and Expectation Map Pack, and the Shin Megami Tensei BGM Pack. Presumably some or all of that will be available piecemeal for those who opt to get the regular edition first. If you haven’t played this game before, it’s absolutely worth the premium price being asked. If you have… well, it depends on how much you want those little improvements and additions, I guess.
Mini-Views
Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited ($49.99)
This two-pack of dungeon-crawling RPGs offers a nice mix of experiences for fans of the genre. Stranger of Sword City has more of an open, highly-customizable Wizardry feeling to it. The intriguing story set-up sends you off on a challenging adventure that gives you a lot of systems and options to chew on. I rather enjoyed this game when I first played it on the PlayStation Vita, and this updated version has a number of meaningful improvements, especially for those that found the original a little too tough. Saviors of Sapphire Wings feels a bit more beginner-friendly, with more of a focus on its story and characters and less on making the player dig deep into its sub-systems. Oddly, while I was looking forward to playing the new-to-the-West Saviors more, I ended up enjoying my replay of Stranger more. Still, both games are well-crafted dungeon RPGs and the fact that they offer slightly different experiences is one of the biggest strengths of this pack.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Everhood ($14.99)
I’m a bit conflicted with Everhood. It’s biting a little too hard off of Undertale for my liking. Not in any underhanded way, mind you. It’s just very clearly a post-Undertale game in how it presents itself. Why does that bother me? No idea. Swimming past that, this is a really neat adventure game with a great hook. You’re a wooden doll trying to recover your missing arm, and your journey will have you meeting all kinds of strange and amusing characters. The battles are where the game truly shines. You have to dodge, jump, and counter-attack on a Guitar Hero-like interface where enemy attacks come down the lanes. It’s a little hard to deal with initially, but the game is forgiving enough with its difficulty options that you should be able to get the ropes sooner or later. Once you do, it’s tremendous fun. All up it’s not the longest game around, but you certainly won’t regret the time you spend with it.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Signs of the Sojourner ($19.99)
How utterly interesting this game is. While the overall plot didn’t knock my socks off, there’s some impressive character work here and the way you discover what each of them is all about is really clever. Rather than just picking dialogue choices to guide the narrative, you’re instead playing a card game. Certain cards represent different feelings, and you need to match the flow of the conversation if you want things to go smoothly. Or maybe you don’t want things to go smoothly? Each person you talk to will give you another card to work with, but that may not always be a desirable thing. As you play, you get a sense of what each character is going to be about and can build your deck appropriately to handle them. With a bunch of different paths to play through and endings to reach, it’s worth doing a replay or two just to feel things out a bit more. I wish the overarching plot was a little more engaging, but I found enough in the moment-to-moment to keep me quite satisfied.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
New Releases
Vaporum: Lockdown ($21.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
The original Vaporum was a cool steampunk take on the classic Dungeon Master formula, and this prequel brings another heaping helping of dungeon crawling fun. Grid-based navigation, real-time combat, interesting puzzles to solve, lots of loot and gadgets for character customization, and a fairly interesting storyline make for a worthy addition to any sturdy adventurer’s library. I’ll warn you right now: the back half of the game has some of the more ridiculous puzzles I’ve seen in this sub-genre, and they fly fast and frequently. If you’re more into these games for monster battling and exploring, you may find the emphasis on puzzles off-putting. Otherwise, this is an easy game to recommend.
Olympic Boxing ($7.99)
Again I must ask, Pix Arts: are you aware that you can’t just use the word ‘Olympic’ in your game title without a license? Well, I guess if Nintendo doesn’t care you’re probably not going to either. Anyway, this is a bare bones boxing game with some hideous character models and lousy gameplay. You can play in single-player or pull in a friend for a local multiplayer bout. There are eight boxers who all look like mild variants of a default character. They apparently each have their own characteristics, so that’s something. Even setting aside the naming thing, this is a bottom-of-the-barrel effort that doesn’t even have the courtesy to be bad in an amusing way.
Return of the Heir ($4.99)
This feels like an indie take on the classic Oliver Twins Robin Hood game, which itself would be almost certainly be an indie game by modern standards. Time is weird. Anyway, you come back from a war and find some goons have taken over your castle. Using your natural agility and your finely-honed archery skills, you have to take back what’s yours. Broadly speaking, your goal is to find your missing family members and recover the treasures that have been stolen. You have a limited number of lives and hit points to complete this with, and you’ll find plenty of traps and enemies to take those away from you. It’s a bit janky, especially in terms of its visuals, but if you’re looking for something with the scent of a classic micro-computer game about it, you may want to roll a fiver on this.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Select New Games on Sale
Hyper Sentinel ($1.99 from $7.99 until 3/26)
Mystery of Woolley Mountain ($3.99 from $12.99 until 3/26)
Mermaid Castle ($3.99 from $4.99 until 3/26)
BringIt to MOM ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/26)
Silk ($2.59 from $12.99 until 3/26)
The House of Da Vinci ($4.99 from $9.99 until 3/28)
Colorful Colore ($1.99 from $2.99 until 3/29)
The Hong Kong Massacre ($11.99 from $19.99 until 3/29)
Touhou Spell Bubble ($43.99 from $54.99 until 3/30)
Cooking Festival ($5.49 from $10.99 until 4/1)
Unrailed! ($13.99 from $19.99 until 4/1)
The Wardrobe: Even Better ($6.79 from $19.99 until 4/1)
Ramp Car Jumping ($4.19 from $12.99 until 4/1)
Wingspan ($14.99 from $19.99 until 4/1)
Root Film ($31.99 from $39.99 until 4/2)
BFF or Die ($5.99 from $7.99 until 4/2)
Super Space Snake ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/4)
Die for Valhalla! ($2.39 from $11.99 until 4/4)
Steamburg ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/4)
Thea: The Awakening ($7.19 from $17.99 until 4/4)
Tetsumo Party ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/4)
Immortal Planet ($5.99 from $14.99 until 4/4)
Stab Stab Stab! ($3.99 from $9.99 until 4/4)
Elden: Path of the Forgotten ($4.79 from $15.99 until 4/5)
Princess Closet ($17.49 from $24.99 until 4/5)
Frozen Friends ($1.99 from $9.99 until 4/5)
My Bewitching Perfume ($13.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Diamond Girl ($13.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Yumemidori Nostalgia ($16.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Byakko-tai Samurai Boys ($16.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Street Basketball ($1.99 from $5.99 until 4/5)
Real Drift Racing ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/5)
Stones of the Revenant ($3.99 from $9.99 until 4/5)
Postal Redux ($5.99 from $9.99 until 4/6)
Among Pipes ($5.59 from $7.99 until 4/8)
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi ($5.59 from $6.99 until 4/8)
Wild Trax Racing ($3.19 from $7.99 until 4/8)
Kropki 8 ($1.99 from $3.99 until 4/8)
Kakurasu World ($1.99 from $2.99 until 4/8)
Wordify ($2.49 from $4.99 until 4/8)
Chess Minimal ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/8)
Sudoky ($1.99 from $3.99 until 4/8)
Shikaku Shapes ($1.99 from $6.99 until 4/8)
Dungeonoid ($3.84 from $6.99 until 4/8)
Futoshiki Math ($1.99 from $6.99 until 4/8)
Soap Dodgem ($1.99 from $5.99 until 4/8)
Lines XL ($1.99 from $3.99 until 4/8)
Divine Ascent ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/8)
Curling ($3.95 from $5.99 until 4/8)
Kiai Resonance ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/8)
Gangsta Paradise ($7.49 from $9.99 until 4/9)
Cargo Crew Driver ($8.99 from $11.99 until 4/9)
Vampire: Coteries of New York ($8.99 from $19.99 until 4/9)
Vampire: Shadows of New York ($8.44 from $12.99 until 4/9)
Unknown Fate ($8.99 from $14.99 until 4/9)
Galactic Trooper Armada ($2.99 from $5.99 until 4/9)
Gorilla Big Adventure ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/9)
LocO-SportS ($1.99 from $5.99 until 4/10)
#womenUp, Puzzles Dream ($2.06 from $6.19 until 4/10)
Fobia ($1.99 from $9.99 until 4/10)
Metaloid: Origin ($4.19 from $6.99 until 4/11)
Ghost Sweeper ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/11)
Rusty Spout Rescue Adv. ($4.19 from $6.99 until 4/11)
Golf Peaks ($1.99 from $4.99 until 4/12)
Path of Sin: Greed ($2.09 from $14.99 until 4/12)
Family Mysteries: PP ($2.09 from $14.99 until 4/12)
Super Battle Cards ($1.99 from $5.99 until 4/12)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 23rd
16-Bit Soccer ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/23)
Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace ($15.99 from $19.99 until 3/23)
Demon’s Rise: War for the Deep ($2.79 from $6.99 until 3/23)
Event Horizon ($1.99 from $5.99 until 3/23)
Farabel ($1.99 from $9.99 until 3/23)
Funbox Party ($1.99 from $2.49 until 3/23)
Gradiently ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/23)
Grood ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/23)
Hexagon Defense ($2.99 from $3.99 until 3/23)
Mail Mole ($11.99 from $14.99 until 3/23)
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae ($7.14 from $11.90 until 3/23)
Mushroom Quest ($1.99 from $2.99 until 3/23)
Pew Paw ($1.99 from $6.99 until 3/23)
That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow will see some notable releases as Tuesday is quickly becoming the back-up day for big games that want to avoid the end-of-week rush. Games like Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, Overcooked! All You Can Eat, and Tales from the Borderlands are all on deck, and we’ll have summaries of all of them. We’ll also have whatever news and new sales come along in the interim, plus some reviews and/or Mini-Views. I hope you all have an excellent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
