We can only assume Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has a Mister Donut shop outside their offices, as they’re able to produce fully-featured and content rich Like a Dragon (nee Yakuza) games on a yearly basis. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is this 2025’s offering, starring Goro Majima as they explore the open sea while assembling a one-of-a-kind crew and upgrading their ship. Playable retro games will include The Ocean Hunter, Poseidon Wars 3D, Space Harrier 3D, and Star Jacker. Sadly though, the Xbox version is skipping retail – meaning no physical release.
Speaking of Xbox, the standard version of Avowed launches 18th Feb. The Metacritic score for this spellcasting action RPG sits at 80%. While it did gain several 9/10 and 8/10 review scores, quite a few critics did opt for 7s and 6s.
“With awesome worldbuilding and stellar character writing, Avowed reminds me why I fell in love with Obsidian’s RPGs in the first place. However, the bigger picture is that it plays it quite safe, with a by-the-numbers fantasy adventure that’s more familiar than evolutionary, and there’s bear-ly any enemy variety to keep its swords-and-sorcery battles interesting for long,” said IGN.
This week it’s the turn of PGA TOUR 2K25 to gain an early access ‘Legendary’ edition, allowing sports enthusiasts to hit the fairway seven days early. It’ll cost you £105 for the privilege, mind.
Don’t Nod, creators of Life is Strange, are also back with the two part tale Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, a narrative adventure involving four high school girls that takes place during a long ‘90s summer.
Cabernet falls into the same genre, but is viewed from a 2D perspective and stars a young vampire in a 19th century Eastern European setting.
Then there’s the creation tool RPG Maker With from NiS America, the interactive psychological horror Things Too Ugly, the New Zealand set slice-of-life visual novel Please Be Happy, an Xbox release of the low poly horror The Backrooms 1998, and the futuristic racer Racing the Gods – Beyond Horizons.
It also seems that NiS America are reprinting a bunch of their older Switch retail releases this week. Good to see at least one publisher committing to the retail market.
For those looking for a retro fix there’s a few things to consider, including the Amiga shoot’em up revival X-Out: Resurfaced, lavish looking interactive novel Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog, the Game Boy style action platformer Ninja Master Taro, and Whisker Squadron: Survivor – a roguelike Star Fox inspired shooter from the creators of Race the Sun. What are the chances of an achievement for performing a barrel roll?
New release trailers
Avowed
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
Cabernet
X-Out: Resurfaced
PGA TOUR 2K25 Legend Edition
RPG Maker With
Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog
Racing the Gods – Beyond Horizons
Whisker Squadron: Survivor
Things Too Ugly
Blow It Up
Please Be Happy
Ninja Master Taro
New multiformat releases
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
- X-Out: Resurfaced
- Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
- PGA TOUR 2K25 Legend Edition
- Cabernet
- Please Be Happy
- Bee Flowers
- The Backrooms 1998
- TactiCats
- Build Lands
New on PSN
- Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog
- Moe Waifu H Fantasy
- Things Too Ugly
- There’s a Gun in the Office
- RPG Maker With
- Whisker Squadron: Survivor
New on Xbox Store
- Avowed
- Racing the Gods – Beyond Horizons
- Blow it up
- Idle Zoo Park
- Harmony Chronicles: Demon Of The Void Collector’s Edition
- Solir
- Ninja Master Toru
- Bay Breaker
- BREAKING BRICKS
- Cavorite
- DAMN!
- Dolmenjord – Viking Islands
- Lulu’s Temple
New Switch retail releases
eShop round-up coming Thursday
- The Plucky Squire
- Silt
- Giraffe and Annika – Standard Edition
- World’s End Club – Standard Edition
- Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX – Standard Edition
- Secret Neighbor + Hello Engineer
- Graveyard Keeper: Undead Edition
Next week: Monster Hunter Wilds, Two Point Museum: Explorer Edition, PGA TOUR 2K25, BAKERU, Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, Rabbit Raid, Prison Loop, Crime Opera Fandisk: The Caterpillar Candids, Crime Opera II: The Floodgate Effect, Glover (QUByte Classics), Mycelium Heaven, 1917 – The Alien Invasion DX Remastered, Island Trouble, and a re-release of the GBA’s Ninja Five-0.