NLG - Next Level Gaming

Square Enix is synonymous with widely known JRPG franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Nier. However, a lesser-known series that's produced some under-the-radar experiences is returning. Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered is launching on all consoles this winter.  The instruments change, but 30 years later the melody remains the same. Announcing Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered, coming this winter. pic.twitter.com/Y6D48xDK9O — SaGa Series (@SaGaGame) May 31, 2022 Minstrel Song dropped exclusively on PlayStation 2 in 2005. The updated visuals (changed from bit art to 3D) don't do much to improve the very bizarre character designs, but fans of the series that never got to play it more than a decade ago will finally get to test their skills with the game's combat and class systems.  Minstrel Song itself is a remake of the original Romancing SaGa game released on the Super Famicom in 1992. The narrative follows eight adventure

Nintendo has announced that a brand new trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet is dropping tomorrow.  The trailer will go live at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET tomorrow, June 1, on the official Pokémon YouTube trailer. As for what to expect, that remains unknown as the tweet announcing this news says to tune in to the channel "for the latest on Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet." If it's like trailers in years past, we'll likely learn more about the world of Gen 9, including some new looks at Pokémon, locales we'll be visiting, and, if we're lucky, a look at the two main legendaries that will appear on the boxes of these two Switch games.  🚨 New #ScarletViolet trailer drops tomorrow! 🚨 You read that right, Trainers. Tune in to our YouTube channel at 6:00 a.m. PDT on 6/1 for the latest on Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet! Make sure you’re subscribed and have notifications turned on: https://t.co/8Hw4hsHzDJ pic.twitter.com/CHyBhxY1JT — Pokémon (@Po

“Boy! Get ready to download the latest game I was included in,” is probably what Kratos would say to Atreus if he read this story. That’s because reliable PlayStation Plus leaker source  Deallabs has reportedly leaked the June PS Plus games and the lineup includes God of War, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker.  This news comes by way of Deallabs , naturally, as reported by Eurogamer and if it’s like previous months, the former is correct. If this leak does end up being correct, PS Plus subscribers will have those three games to look forward to from June 7 to July 5.  This wouldn’t be the most surprising lineup, especially when you consider God of War: Ragnarok is slated to release sometime in 2022. Perhaps it’s coming sooner than later and Sony is releasing God of War as a way to begin the marketing for its sequel.  This leak, if true, would techincally be the first month of PS Plus post-Sony’s revamp, which includes three new tiers of the subscrip

Working for a video game website, I engage in many playful, though sometimes heated, debates about games with my co-workers. We recently discussed the best Kingdom Hearts characters, and, surprisingly, several of us excluded Sora from the cream of the crop. However, a defender propped up Sora’s one defining good trait, his overwhelming positivity. In response, I jokingly said if optimism is all Sora offers, he should be replaced by a superior beacon of positivity: Ichiban Kasuga, star of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. We had a good laugh and moved on, but the idea lingered in my brain.  I’ll preface my next statement with this disclosure: I like Kingdom Hearts. Now that blowback immunity is activated, I think Sora is lame. He’s a good kid with a great heart, and he’s fun to use in Super Smash Bros. However, Kingdom Hearts III made me finally accept that I haven’t really been into Sora as a personality since (maybe) Kingdom Hearts II. Much of that probably has to do with his dialogue; it’s un

Back in March, I began playing Grand Theft Auto V for the first time ever. I somehow missed it in 2013, and as the years went by, I realized maybe I just wasn’t that interested in it. However, I couldn’t shake the idea that I had a GTA-sized gap in my gaming knowledge, especially as I write news stories seemingly every month about its massive sales numbers, which somehow keep increasing , the continuous flow of GTAV Online content, and more.  GTA V is as prevalent today as it was in 2013, so when the new-gen editions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released in March, I decided to finally give it a go. And, unsurprisingly to most reading this probably, it lived up to the hype . So much so that I’m still playing it today, more than two months later. I love playing through the game’s main campaign and the Strangers and Freaks missions, but I’ve found that my absolute favorite thing to do is just drive around while listening to music.  After hopping on to do just that the oth

If you’ve ever wondered if people in the world of Star Wars play sports that don't involve racing repulsorcrafts, we now know that they play at least one: Blitzball.  No, you didn’t misread that – it says Blitzball, you know, the underwater hockey-like sport played by Tidus, Wakka, and others in Final Fantasy X. That’s because in the canonized novel Star Wars: Brotherhood , which is about the relationship between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, a reference to Blitzball being played in a local lake is made. How do we know it’s the Blitzball from Final Fantasy X? Well, the author of Brotherhood , Mike Chen, is the person who revealed this fun detail, as reported by GamesRadar .  “There’s a reference to a sport called Blitzball played in a local lake. Blitzball is basically underwater hockey played as a minigame in Final Fantasy X. As a former NHL writer, I freaking loved Blitzball and spent hours winning leagues.”  #6: There's a reference to a sport called Blitzball play

It’s Memorial Day, and to celebrate the long weekend, we’re shining the spotlight on the asymmetrical multiplayer genre. This category features games where two groups face each other, but each side has unique, sometimes wildly disproportionate, skills and goals. As evidenced by many of the year’s recently released and upcoming titles, like  Evil Dead: The Game , IllFonic’s Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleased , and  Dragon Ball: The Breakers , the genre is seeing a resurgence. There’s no shortage of asymmetrical games you can jump into right now if you want to hone your skills or build up anticipation for soon-to-be-released titles. Dead by Daylight PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Stadia, PC, iOS, Android It’s hard to talk asymmetrical multiplayer without Dead by Daylight. Released nearly six years ago, the game is still a genre favorite and is on its 23rd chapter. Players split into two teams; one consists of a Killer, and the other, four Survivo

Hot off an exciting weekend of tons of news from Star Wars Celebration 2022, including the reveal of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and details about The Mandalorian and Ahsoka , a new trailer for Season 2 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch has arrived.  In it, we get new looks at the Bad Batch, of course, as well as Darth Sidious aka The Emperor and Wookiee Jedi youngling Gungi. With a look at Gungi, we now know that he survived Order 66, which sought to kill and end the entirety of the Jedi. The trailer also reveals that we can expect Season 2 of The Bad Batch to drop onto Disney+ this fall.  As you can see in the trailer above, the titular Bad Batch of heroes are still doing their thing, searching for what they want to do now that they’re free. Of course, meanwhile, Sheev Palpatine’s empire is on the rise and the crew will need to deal with that while extending their helping hands to others. It looks like they’re after new allies, too, which hopefully includes Gungi.  For more about Star W

Everyone has that Elden Ring boss they really enjoyed facing off against, even if they kicked your butt over and over again, including the game’s director and From Software CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki.  His favorite boss is Starscourge Radahn, according to a new Xbox Wire Japan blog post , as translated by IGN . As for why, the famed director cites Radahn’s alluring design as a character in The Lands Between as well as the festival surrounding him.  “It’s tough to decide, but I’d have to say Radahn,” Miyazaki said. “As an individual character, he’s really alluring, and I really like the Radahn Festival situation. There’s a literal sense of festivity and exuberance, but also a unique tinge of sadness and loneliness.”  He said when he first brought up the idea of Radahn and his festival, “no one on the team took it seriously,” which is extra funny considering this boss is Miyazaki’s favorite. He added that his next favorite bosses after Radahn are Godrick, the Grafted and Rykard, Lord of

BD-1 is everywhere these days. He starred in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order alongside Cal Kestis, will be in the just-announced sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor , and may have even been in an episode of The Book of Boba Fett . This adorable droid is now getting the brick treatment with a Lego set launching this August. Lego announced this BD-1 set at Star Wars Celebration and showed off what it can do. The set consists of 1,062 pieces and is a part of Lego's recent droid line, which consists of R2-D2, D-O, and a Probe Droid. BD-1's legs move, his head tilts, and you can open a tray that holds healing cannisters. Lego also included a display plaque that comes with a BD-1 minifigure. Now all we need is a smaller set that gives us a Cal Kestis minifigure. The BD-1 set retails for $99.99. You can see it in all of its glory in the images below: Lego also gave us our first look at a forthcoming set based on Andor , a new Disney Plus series slated to release later this year. This

Warner Bros. Montreal has altered Batgirl’s biography in Gotham Knights following backlash about the game’s explanation for her paralysis recovery. Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon is one of Gotham Knights’ four playable characters alongside Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood in a story that sees the Bat family defending Gotham after Bruce Wayne’s death. In the 1988 comic story The Killing Joke , Barbara is famously shot through the spine by the Joker, paralyzing and confining her to a wheelchair for many years in which she lent tech and information support to Batman as Oracle. In DC's 2011 New 52 comic reboot, Barbara regains her mobility due to an experimental surgery followed by physical therapy/training.  Per Eurogamer , Gotham Knights’ original  website biography for Batgirl vaguely references these events. It doesn’t mention the Joker or a specific culprit, but the offending bit was the implication that Barbara overcame her disability just by training hard. You can read the relevan

SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven't watched the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney Plus, you should avoid going any further. The latest Star Wars collectible announced introduces a new character, and it's unlike anything we've seen in the Star Wars universe. This odd companion appears to be this year's Grogu, and will be turned into a variety of collectibles that will be released this holiday season. These announcements were made today by toy manufacturer Hasbro, and happened during Star Wars Celebration, a four-day event held in Anaheim, Calif. The trailers for Obi-Wan Kenobi implied Old Ben would be keeping an eye on Luke Skywalker, but the show is more about his sister at this point. When we first meet Leia, we see she has a companion droid named LOLA (L0-LA59). This tiny, hovering droid is transforming into three different collectibles, one offering functionality that mimics the movements and sounds from the show. Hasbro's animatronic edition features a

Day two of Star Wars Celebration 2022 brought the first news of new Star Wars video games, and the announcement has been a long time coming. EA and Respawn Entertainment have officially revealed the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. This new title will continue the story of force-wielder Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. A brief teaser trailer was shown with the unveiling, which you can watch above. In it, the odds seem stacked against Cal and what may or may not remain of his crew from Fallen Order. Of the known characters, only Kestis and his trusty droid BD-1 make an appearance in the footage, though their cohort Greez's ship, the Stinger Mantis, is seen from the cockpit, empty and in a bad way in a desert. Other notable characters are the potential antagonist who narrates the trailer and a mysterious person preserved in a tube. No one seems to know who this figure is at the moment (and folks at EA are staying quiet on the subject for now), but their characteristics of wha

Team Fortress 2 remains an extremely popular game with a large active player base, but the last couple of years has seen it overrun by aimbots. A passionate group of fans has long pleaded with developer Valve to address the issue, and the company has finally responded.  Yesterday, the official Team Fortress 2 Twitter account posted a message in response to #SaveTF2, a peaceful campaign of fans working to raise awareness about the game’s rampant bot problem. Basically, bot programs have made the game nearly unplayable for some since they’ll instantly kill players upon loading up into match-ups, giving the bots users an unfair advantage. TF2 players have become increasingly vocal about the problem, but Valve has remained largely silent on the issue (even going quiet on the game’s forums) until posting the following message:  TF2 community, we hear you! We love this game and know you do, too. We see how large this issue has become and are working to improve things. — Team Fortress 2

Platform: Switch Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Release: June 10, 2022 Rating: Everyone 10+ First debuting in 2005 on Nintendo's GameCube, the Mario Strikers series has developed a cult fan base over the last 17 years. However, in the time since that original launch, the series has only seen one additional title hit store shelves. Just two years after the launch of that first game, Mario Strikers Charged launched on Wii, but that's the last we heard of the Mario Strikers franchise until earlier this year when Nintendo announced a new title for Switch , Mario Strikers: Battle League. While it has certainly been a long wait for fans of the GameCube and Wii entries, the more than 30 minutes of live gameplay I saw indicates that Mario Strikers: Battle League is worth the wait. As you might expect, Mario Strikers: Battle League carries forward many of the franchise's conventions. Players once again step onto a fantastical field of play to compete in a soccer

Platform: Switch Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Release: June 10, 2022 Rating: Everyone 10+ The Nintendo Switch has seen a plethora of Mario and company's sporting adventures. Games such as Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and even his trip to the Olympics have made an appearance on the hybrid console, but there is one sporting event still missing from the library. That ends in June as Mario Strikers is back with Battle League , and we're checking out all the new additions to the series in this episode of New Gameplay Today! Join your hosts, Alex Van Aken and Alex Stadnik, as they lace up their cleats, take to the pitch, and let you know if you should be excited about Mario's new adventure. We show off plenty of soccer shenanigans in this seven-minute video, including a look at Hyper Strikes. These super-stylized sequences can be unblockable and lead to an automatic goal (and two points), but there's a catch. Players will need to time out

I recently had the opportunity to see an extended live gameplay demo of the upcoming revitalization of the long-dormant Mario Strikers series, Mario Strikers: Battle League. You can get my full demo impressions here , but at the end of the session, Nintendo floated a little bit of extra news our way regarding some pre-launch and post-launch content players will be able to enjoy.  First, Nintendo is launching a "Test Kick" that serves as a half-demo/half-online test. The original download will give players a taste of gameplay through the tutorial and basic play, but as we approach the June launch date, players will be able to compete in online matches during specific times. The Mario Strikers: Battle League Test Kick is available today to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. While getting our hands on a game prior to launch is great news, Nintendo also confirmed some good news for those who pick up Mario Strikers: Battle League. Nintendo announced that multiple post-launch

Star Wars Celebration began today with a panel showing with a showcase of the projects Lucasfilm is working on, and the new Star Wars series Andor had the spotlight after the cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi left the stage. Not only was there a brief interview with the show's cast and crew, but a teaser trailer debuted along with the release date on Disney+ of August 31. The teaser trailer shown is musically paced with anvil-like percussion and throat-singing casting the theme of the footage. Focusing on the growing tension between the rebellious citizens and the overbearing Empire, Andor will depict the five years of Cassian Andor's life prior to the events of  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . The trailer shows those citizens preparing for conflict with imperial forces while Diego Luna's Andor voices his displeasure with the Empire over the footage. We, of course, see Cassian Andor sneaking around, but also a new look at Genevieve O'Reilly returning as Mon Mothma, who last pl

The first season of The Book of Boba Fett almost transformed into the third season of The Mandalorian , so we haven't been away from Grogu, Luke Skywalker, and Din Djarin for too long. The wait to be reunited with them again, however, will be a little longer than expected. The Mandalorian 's third season won't hit this year. The first episode is now officially slated to release in February 2023. This news comes from the first day of Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, Calif. The series' creators, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, took to the stage in front of a packed theater to deliver the update. Actor Rosario Dawson also appeared in full Jedi makeup from the set of Ahsoka to reveal it would also be hitting in 2023, but no month was given. Filoni and Favreau then surprised the crowd with the announcement of a new show called Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. This Disney Plus show is scheduled to launch in 2023 and will star Jude Law. It's yet another project touched by Fav