Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Video Games | Tagged: Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, Deep Silver, Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisted, entertainment, Milkstone Studios, NIS America's Disgaea, PlayStation 2, playstation 4, Risen 3: Titan Lords, Steam, video games, Xseed Games, Ziggurat

Sweet Release! Ziggurat, Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, Risen 3: Titan Lords

By Jared Cornelius

Welcome back to Sweet Release!  We're in that strange part of the summer where we're in between the big releases.  The Last of Us: Remastered is a few weeks behind us, and we've still got another week until Diablo III Ultimate Evil on consoles, so it's a perfect time to ship the weird stuff. This week we dive into a series of quirky anime games, go old school in the RPG department and give top billing to a first person shooter that does something different.

If you're tired of the same stock standard military first person shooters, Ziggurat might be worth a try.  By developer, Milkstone Studios, Ziggurat is a first person shooter mashed-up with a dungeon crawler with players tackling a procedurally generated dungeon to become a more powerful wizard.  With an emphasis on battle, Ziggurat is more interested in players enjoying the combat mechanics and not suffering under the grind of RPG minutia, with Milkstone boasting of, "Simple and direct choices" when leveling up and choosing upgrades.  With the procedurally generated dungeons making the game a different experience every time, Ziggurat also features upgradable perks that carry over from game, and you also do battle with evil carrots!  Ziggurat is hitting Steam Early Access Thursday.

If you enjoyed a grid based strategy game in the last decade no doubt heard of NIS America's Disgaea series.  The isometric anime tactics game is making its return to PlayStation Vita's this week with Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited.  While it's actually a port of the PlayStation 3's Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, it contains new characters and story missions that weren't included in the PS3 version as well as all the DLC that was released for its console big brother.  I'm not going to try and explain the story because it's bananas, but I'll just say it does include exploding demon penguins.  I enjoyed the original Disgaea on the PlayStation 2 and remember putting over 100 hours into it, so if turn based grid strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics are your jam go get this when it releases on PlayStation Vita Tuesday.

In other bizarre anime titles this week, Xseed Games are releasing the almost completely incomprehensible Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed.  The game takes place in the famous Akihabara district of Japan, known as one of the geek and cosplay epicenters of the world.  You're tasked with finding a group a vampires called, "Synthesizers" and beating them out of their cloths.  It's apparently to expose them to the sun, but seems more like fan service.  It kind of overshadows the other features which do sound cool, like an open world filled with 150 actual shops and stores from the area, brawling mechanics with a huge selection of weapons, and a story that takes shots at anime and video game tropes.  The jury's still out on this one, I like the idea of satire, but satire in video games usually falls back on the tropes of, "You know that mechanic everybody hates? Good here's a joke about it, now do this dumb thing we just made fun of."  Also stripping girls in a video game seems kind of weird and gross.  Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is available Tuesday on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, with a PlayStation 4 version due sometime this fall.

Risen 3: Titan Lords from Publisher, Deep Silver, wants to take players back to an older style of RPG.  With a philosophy that "refuses to hold your hand" the Risen series has had an interesting relationship with console gamers.  With a story that screams generic, you play a warrior on a quest to retrieve your soul and battle an ancient evil.  Risen 3 does try and mix things up a bit with non-liner story and that aforementioned old school CRPG (Computer Role Playing Game) feel.  Risen 3 has gone back to a more traditional sword and sorcery setting after taking a detour of pirate themed gameplay in Risen 2.  I'd seen some mixed feeling on the last game with some players espousing the hardcore mechanics, but if that's what you're looking for I've heard good things about Divinity Original Sin.  In any case Risen 3: Titan Lords is available Tuesday on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Steam, and other download services.

The releases seem to be on back to a steady schedule so bring on the falls deluge of games!  I'm interested in learning more about Ziggurat, and I'd like to take a look at Akiba's Trip and see if it's actually a gross piece of fan service or something more.  I've also played Powerhoof's Crawl and can confirm it's a fun game, I'm also going to keep yelling about how Crypt of The NecroDancer is a great game and completely worthy of your money.  You can catch up with what I'm doing @John_Laryngitis where I tell you about all the hot raccoon eating Doritos videos, you can check out my other regular column Typing on The Dead: Bleeding Cool's Walking Dead recap, which gets a new installment this week!  I've also got an interview with Sam and Sara Ellis who did this month's Adventure Time backup in the works.  They're totally funny and nice people and you should go check them out on Twitter @ManofMissle and @saraellis.

Jared Cornelius is some guy from New Jersey's coast who's dropped in on his fair share of tourists.  If you'd like to call the inside, contact him on Twitter @John_Laryngitis

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