Out this week: Freedom Wars Remastered, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, Project Tower, Boti: Byteland Overclocked, more

The gaming industry has finally woken from its Christmas slumber to present us with half a dozen new releases. That’s on PSN and the Switch eShop, at least – the Xbox misses out on this week’s two Japanese RPG re-releases.

A handful of multiformat games are lined up for the Xbox Store though, including the zen-like orb rolling puzzler Mineral, the block shoving adventure/puzzle hybrid Rivenaar’s Grove, idle action game Tap Wizard 2, and Windborn: Journey to the South – another one of EpiXR’s avian adventures. If that wasn’t enough puzzle action, the barrel rolling Sokocrab is due out on PSN (and possibly Xbox) at the end of the week too. What’s with all the ‘Soko’ games recently?

NiS America’s Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana (PS5, PS4, Switch) is the week’s biggest release, being a reimaging of 2005’s Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which itself was a remake of 1990’s Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. No, this isn’t the first remake of a remake – Capcom has dabbled with this concept before. The Oath in Felghana features voice acting for the first time, redrawn illustrations, a turbo mode, and the ability to listen to the ‘90s soundtrack.

The same formats (and PC) also gain Bandai Namco’s Freedom Wars Remastered – an enhanced version of a cult PS Vita action RPG, now with new difficulty modes, high resolution textures, and an overhauled crafting system. Set in a colossal prison city, it’s your goal to reduce your sentence by taking on missions.

The PS5 and PC also gain Project Tower, a sci-fi third person shooter looking similar to Returnal, only featuring more puzzle elements and the ability to morph into alien lifeforms.

Then on Friday, Boti: Byteland Overclocked is due for release. It’s a 3D co-op platformer with worlds inspired by computers and similar technology. The storyline sees Boti and his companions Zero and One out to save Byteland from a virus. The PC version, released last September, gained reasonably favourable reviews.

New release trailers

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana

Freedom Wars HD Remaster

Boti: Byteland Overclocked  

Project Tower

Rivenaar’s Grove

Tap Wizard 2

Next week: Tales of Graces f Remastered, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, Things Too Ugly, Arken Age, Morkull Ragast’s Rage, Professor Doctor Jetpack, DreadOut: Remastered Collection, Vanity Fair: The Pursuit, Runny Bunny, Sokorobot, and SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada Deluxe Edition.