Summitsphere is giving Antonblast fans one last hurrah, one year after the game first launched on PC. And it’s a content-filled update befittingly titled ‘THE END’.
On 18th December 2025, The End is bringing four brand new bosses, a boss rush, multiple new game modes (including Hard Mode), new music, and new spray cans, among lots of other little additions coming to the 2024 platformer, which is heavily inspired by the Wario Land series.
Let’s have a look at the specifics coming with The End in just a few weeks, courtesy of Antonblast’s Steam page:
This is it. THE END of ANTONBLAST will be the game’s final content update, bringing the remaining content promised to our Kickstarter backers, as well as a plethora of BRAND NEW content!
FEATURING
THE DEMON CORP This band of bastards has been rehearsing each day for the Big Tournament, and now it’s their time to shine. That’s right, FOUR new (smaller-scale!) boss fights against each member of the Demon Corp. Claim your Prize Star by defeating each of them and be granted early access into their big show! THE BIG TOURNAMENT: THE BOSS RUSH Danton has been laboring over day and night and has at last fulfilled his contract to bring the Big Tournament to life! Earn your Battle Pass and prepare to face ANTONBLAST‘s most grueling challenge: Face against the game’s nine major boss fights without facing a knock-out and claim your title of Tournament Champion! There is a big cash prize in it for the winner, too. THE LIME TRIALS The mysterious Lime Trials make their appearance. Defeat the big baddie of each wing of Brulo’s Casino, and you will be granted access to a new kind of timed challenge: Collect all Limes in the room before time runs out to recover the Souvenir Lime! And, if you feel like showing off after already collecting the Souvenir Lime, claim cash prizes especially if you beat your best time!
NEW GAME MODES As promised to our supporters, our Hard Mode and Stage Rush Mode will finally make their appearance. In Hard Mode, face the challenges of ANTONBLAST with little extra help and stricter, harder stages and bosses. Satan’s troops are a little more prepared this time! In Stage Rush, blast through the twelve stages and eight bosses of the Adventure campaign as fast as you can! Hard Mode will automatically unlock for any players who have already cleared the first stage in game; Stage Rush will automatically unlock for any players who have defeated the Final Boss. But, could there be more…?
DANTON Now that Danton’s work around the Casino is mostly finished, you will find him perusing the area. Feel free to talk to him, he’s really happy about it! NEW SOUNDTRACK AND SOUND WORK Our updated ANTONBLAST Soundtrack will be wholly replacing the existing tracks in the game. Furthermore, we have extensively touched up our sound design and have totally rebalanced and adjusted the soundscape of the game to prevent audio clipping and other nasty artifacts. The result is the game won’t be as ear-piercingly loud, meaning you can get a much cleaner view (hearing?) of what is actually going on at any given moment in the game and don’t need to turn the audio down so low. It is a much more pleasing experience on everyone’s ears. We have also shifted some sounds around, but you’ll have to play the game to hear the difference! NEW TRINKETS Brulo’s Shop has been restocked with various new items, such as the Virtual Visor, Game Brick and Pet Paint (harmless, non-toxic). Experience Anton and Annie’s Adventure under… a different light. NEW SPRAY CANS SIXTEEN new Spray Cans have been added, bringing the total to 110. Most will be hidden, strewn around Brulo’s Casino and Peanut Park, so be sure to be look around carefully! NEW ACHIEVEMENTS FOUR new achievements for you to figure out and, well, achieve! Discover the secrets of Peanut Park and engage with the new stages and boss fights and (re-)claim your Perfect title on ANTONBLAST! NEW LANGUAGE SUPPORT That’s right, you will be able to experience the glorious text and interface of ANTONBLAST in a total of EIGHT languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Latin-American Spanish and Brazillian Portuguese. We hope our more international Blasters appreciate and enjoy the work our community localizers have put into the game! LOTS OF BUG FIXES I mean, I hope you’re not surprised about it! The team has put TREMENDOUS work into polishing up ANTONBLAST into being the best game ever. We hope it reached that standard now! AND MORE! There is a LOT more that you will see that we have not talked about here. It will all be made clear… in THE END.
That’s a lot for an ending, isn’t it? Any excuse to go back to Antonblast, which we loved back when it launched on Switch last year. And it’s received a performance boost since launch.
Have you picked up Antonblast on Switch? Will you be checking out the update this month? Blast down to the comments and share your thoughts.
Nintendo’s biggest release of the month (the year?) arrives tomorrow, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally Morph Ball rolling onto Switch 1 and 2. But with the new hardware still comparatively fresh on store shelves and the holiday season right around the corner, you might be wondering which system is the place to play Samus’s latest adventure on.
Here to shed some light on how each version holds up is the above comparison video from the sublime Mr. Alex Olney. As you’ll see, the footage shows a direct comparison between the Switch 1 and 2 releases, and the latter’s beefed-up specs are immediately obvious.
The side-by-side gameplay showcases Samus in a whole range of environments, demonstrating how the game holds up whatever you throw at it. While fps is no issue for the older console, there’s something about the 4K resolution bump on Switch 2 that really sings when put in direct comparison.
Of course, this isn’t to say that the Switch 1 version provides a ‘bad’ experience in any way. We had the following to say about the S1 release in our 8/10 review: “It plays very well at a very solid 60fps in both docked and handheld, but after getting used to seeing Viewros in stunning 4K (or an internal resolution approaching it), it’s surprising how much the art direction seems to have been built with this in mind”.
What do you make of this comparison video? Will you be picking up Prime 4 on Switch 1 or Switch 2? Let us know in the comments.
Strap in, folks, because The Game Awards are almost upon us once again.
Yes, following last year’s 10th anniversary special, Geoff Keighley is sending off 2025 with a bang — if by “bang” you mean a bunch of awards, some big reveals, and more than a few sponsored ads thrown in for good measure.
In this guide, we’ll run through everything you need to know about The Game Awards 2025, including when it all kicks off, how to watch along, and the nominees to look out for.
What time are The Game Awards 2025?
The Game Awards 2025 will get underway on Thursday, 11th December (or the 12th, depending on your timezone), with Mr Keighley kicking off the Opening Act at LA’s Peacock Theatre from 4:30pm PT. The main show starts at 5pm PT.
Here’s the precise time that the Opening Act will start in your region:
North America: 4:30pm (Thu) PST / 5:30pm (Thu) MST / 6:30pm (Thu) CST / 7:30pm (Thu) EST
UK/Ire: 12:30am GMT
Europe: 1:30am CET / 2:30am EET
Asia/Oceania: 9:30am JST / 8:30am AWST / 11:30am AEDT
As always, the first 30 minutes will likely give out a few early awards (which should really be in the main show) and feature a bunch of “smaller” announcements. We say smaller, but Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound was one of those in 2024, and it was one of the best of the show, in our opinion.
Where can I watch The Game Awards 2025?
You’ll be able to watch The Game Awards 2025 via a whole host of different streaming options. The most prominent are YouTube, Twitch and TikTok, all of which are co-streaming partners, but you’ll also be able to watch along on any of the following sites:
Of course, we’ll also be watching along right here on Nintendo Life, with our live stream chat popping up shortly before the event gets underway for all of your pre-show gossip.
And if you happen to be in LA and want to attend the event in person, you can do so by heading over to the official Peacock Theatre booking site and nabbing a ticket.
How long will The Game Awards 2025 be?
How long is a piece of string?
We don’t have a precise running time for The Game Awards 2025, though it tends to last roughly 3-4 hours, so expect it to be a late one.
Which games have been nominated for The Game Awards 2025?
You can head over to the official Game Awards website if you want to see every nominee across all 29 awards categories.
If it’s just the Switch-relevant ones that you’re after, then we’ve laid out every nominated game available on Switch systems (or coming to them soon) below, and the voting categories they’re in:
Which games will be shown or announced at The Game Awards 2025?
We still don’t have all that much information about what The Game Awards 2025’s ‘Big RevealTM’ will be, though Geoff has been winding everyone up on social media with images of a weird statue in the Californian desert. Whatever could that mean?
Otherwise, the only sure-fire announcements we know we can expect are from Archetype Entertainment’s Exodus and The Ascent dev Neon Giant — neither of which are relevant for Switch (2) players, that we know of.
It’s usually best to keep your Nintendo expectations in check for these kinds of things. There’s a near-zero chance we’ll hear anything first-party from the Big N during the event, though with Switch 2 still being the hot new piece of tech in town, there’s every chance we’ll hear about some upcoming third-party releases.
How does voting work for The Game Awards?
Voting for The Game Awards is split between the decisions of the voting jury (90%) and the public (10%).
To cast your vote, head to The Game Awards website and sign up for a free account. Once you’re all signed in, head to the ‘Nominees‘ page and click on the relevant categories to cast your vote.
Alternatively, the Players’ Choice award is chosen entirely by the public, with nominees being whittled down across three rounds of voting. You can pick your favourites via the ‘Players’ Voice‘ bracket on the TGA website.
Oh yes, and you can also vote for the best creator-made Fortnite island of the year by heading to the special ‘Game Awards’ island in-game and casting your vote.
Will you be watching The Game Awards? Which games do you predict will take home the trophy? Let us know in the comments.
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
We’re in the thick of the Holiday season right now, so we’re sure plenty of you are out there looking for sweet deals to stick under the tree come 25th December. And Nintendo is adding to the festive savings with is Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle in the UK.
On the official Nintendo website, if you order the Switch 2 bundle, you’ll get a Nintendo Switch Online 12-Month Individual Membership and a Luigi ornament for your Christmas tree — or shelf — for free. That’s £429.99 for a new console, a game, NSO for a year, and a little bonus.
The deal is on until 11th January 2026 and, essentially, you’re saving £58.97 compared to buying all four things individually, which would cost £488.96. Not a bad little saving, then.
All you have to do is click on the View Offer button, then add the Switch 2 bundle to your cart, and the additional items will be added automatically.
While this deal is exclusive to the UK, it seems, we’re sure other deals are popping up across the world, and we’ll keep an eye out for the very best.
So even though Cyber Monday and Black Friday are in the past, the savings are still out there!
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Are you looking to get a Switch 2 for the Holiday season? Let us know in the comments.
We were delighted to see Ustwo Games’ gorgeous mobile puzzler, Monument Valley 3, make the jump to Switch earlier this year, and today the dev has given us even more story chapters to sink our teeth into — for free!
The ‘Garden of Life’ expansion is now available on Switch, bolting four additional chapters onto the end of the main game, packed with even more of the series’ signature perspective-bending puzzles. There are even some hidden optional puzzles to find in the bonus levels, for those after even more.
The expansion drop accompanies the news that MV3 is now back on mobile, so you can check out all the extra content wherever you please.
If the above trailer didn’t do enough to sell you on the new freebie, here’s a statement on what you can expect from the expansion by lead designer Emily Brown, and a handful of screenshots:
I am really pleased to be able to share these new chapters and puzzles, because they bring together the skills of an incredible team who care deeply about what they make. After the events of the main game, we wanted The Garden of Life to tell a story of people coming together to build a new future. A story of hope.
You’ll find Monument Valley 3 and the previous two series entries on the Switch eShop right now. Those who want to experience the full trilogy from start to finish can even pick up the collection in physical form from iam8bit.
We had a wonderful time with Monument Valley 3 earlier this year. Despite our confusion around the lack of touch controls at launch, we stated that the game “lives up to its predecessors as an excellent little puzzler with mind-tickling structures and stunning presentation sewn together with a delicate narrative thread” in our 8/10 review.
Will you be checking out this free expansion? Let us know in the comments.
After having completed Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Switch 2, booting the game up on the original Switch was an immediately familiar, if bizarre experience. The game was almost certainly made with Nintendo’s 2017 system in mind from the off given how long it’s been in development, and yet there’s something about playing it on the original Switch that just feels… odd.
Don’t leap to any mad conclusions. It plays very well at a very solid 60fps in both docked and handheld, but after getting used to seeing Viewros in stunning 4K (or an internal resolution approaching it), it’s surprising how much the art direction seems to have been built with this in mind. This also lacks the (excellent) HDR support of the NS2 Edition.
Playing this on Switch 1 when docked feels fine enough, but that crispness, that pop, that ludicrously intricate, high-contrast detail, it’s just a bit fuzzy and pixelly by comparison. I personally feel it’s almost the direct antithesis to Pokémon Legends Z-A, which actually felt as though the art style was more cohesive on the weaker platform. Textures have taken an understandable hit, and models that are further away can look quite smeary, but overall the game still looks good. I just can’t help but compare it unfavourably to Switch 2.
Handheld takes things further down, as you would hopefully have already guessed. Wide shots of Samus when she’s being loaded into the transport cannon thing just don’t look right, as though you’ve somehow mucked up some settings; you can taste the sub-720p-ness. It’s perfectly passable for such aged hardware, but I can’t help but feel that as time went on, the Switch 2 version became the focus. It’s safe to say things in the final build aren’t the crystal-clear examples we were shown in earlier trailers.
That’s another change you can expect: loading screens. They’re relatively brisk on Switch 2 to the point that Ollie rightfully didn’t feel the need to mention them in our primary review of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, but on Switch 1 you really feel them. Some of them are easily double and even triple the length, which can be a pain if you’re doing a lot of jumping from one area to another in quick succession.
All that being said, the game runs just as smoothly as it does in the Switch 2’s quality mode. I wasn’t able to shake the 60fps target at all, bar perhaps one exception when out in the Sol Valley when I presume some enemy models were loading. It simultaneously feels like it’s pushing the old hardware to its absolute limit, and yet manages to run at 60fps without breaking a sweat.
If Switch 1 is your only means of playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, you’re not going to have quite the same experience, but if you’re not looking to upgrade anytime soon and you’re keen to jump into Samus’ latest adventure, it’s well worth picking up, as there’s a fantastic game to be had. Just keep your visual expectations in check after seeing all that delicious Switch 2 Edition footage.
How on earth is it that time of year again already? It feels as though we can still sense the tight elastic of our tiny Kirby swimming trunks digging into our fresh summer sunburn, and yet here comes Rolling Stone with its Best of 2025 list, because it’s nearly Christmas. Brace for impact!
Yes, Rolling Stone has dropped its 25 favourite gaming experiences of the year and, whilst the number one spot is absolutely no surprise (congratulations to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33), we’ve been tickled pink to see that good old Donkey Kong has managed to secure a number three spot via all that wrecking shop he did in Bananza. The big man has smashed his way onto a prestigious podium there, so well done, Mr. Kong. And nice tie!
Elsewhere on the list, some 10 spaces down in fact, you’ll spot another Switch 2-shaped mention in the form of Mario Kart World. Honestly, we probably wouldn’t have expected that DK would outdo Master Mascot Mario in this way if you’d told us in the summer, but we’d tend to agree on the placement rolling (no pun intended) the great ape’s way here.
What else has delighted us in making the cut? Well, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy dropping into a very nice 7th place is great, as that really was one of the year’s big highlights on Switch, alongside the wonderful Absolum, BALL x PIT, and, of course, Hades 2, which has pulled off a blinder by snatching the number 2 spot.
Oh, and look at Silksong, all the way down (if you can be all the way down on a top 25 list) at number 12. That isn’t perhaps where we’d have expected to see such a massively well-reviewed game, but personal taste is a wondrous and mysterious thing, innit!
With a total of 11 of these games available on Switch consoles, it’s still a very strong showing for Nintendo gamers – and hopefully we’ll see Switch ports of some of these soon!
Here’s the full listing for your perusal, but check out the full article for details and reasoning:
Eight years on from its big reveal, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally arrives on Switch 1 & 2 tomorrow. To make sure that things are in tip-top condition, Nintendo has today released the launch day update, boosting things up to ver. 1.1.0 and adding a bunch of day-one features to boot.
This update adds in amiibo functionality, some sweet cinematic controller rumble, an easily accessible upgrade path to the Switch 2 Edition in the opening menu, some gallery tweaks, and then the usual adjustments and fixes.
At the time of writing, the patch notes have only been shared on the Japanese Nintendo Support website. We have included those below (via Google Translate), and we will sub-in the official English translation as soon as it is available.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Ver. 1.1.0 (3rd Dec 2025)
You can now use amiibo on the “amiibo” page in the pause menu.
Controller now vibrates during cinematics.
[Switch 2]: When you start up Metroid Prime 4 Beyond on Nintendo Switch 2, a “Switch 2 Edition” option will now appear in the menu after the title screen. Selecting this option will take you to the Upgrade Path page on the Nintendo eShop.
The rating information for the rating system “ClassInd (Brazil)” has been updated from “12” to “14”.
The condition for unlocking some movies in the “Gallery” has been changed from “achieving 100% item recovery rate” to “clearing the game.”
In “Hard Mode,” the difficulty of some enemies has been adjusted.
Additionally, we have made some adjustments and fixes to improve your gameplay experience.
“After 18 years of waiting, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond manages to replicate that magical sense of discovery from the GameCube original while pushing the series in some incredible new directions,” we wrote in our 9/10 review, describing Samus’ latest adventure as “quite possibly the boldest, most well-realised Metroid game to date”. Just one more sleep to go!
Are you ready to dive into Prime 4 tomorrow? Let us know in the comments.
11th March 2025 marked the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger. Square Enix marked the occasion by announcing that “various projects” would be coming our way over the next year, but so far, those projects have been limited to character popularity polls and planned orchestral concerts. Importantly, that’s not the remake that we all want to see and have been chatting about for years. But we’re still not ready to completely throw out all hope just yet.
You see, in the latest episode of the ‘KosoKoso Hōsō Kyoku‘ talk show livestream (translated by Automaton), Dragon Quest creator and Chrono Trigger supervisor Yuji Horii attempted to keep his lips sealed about where the series is heading — but in saying nothing, has he actually said everything?
“I can’t talk about that,” Horii-san told the interviewer when asked whether the smaller anniversary events might be “foreshadowing” bigger developments down the line. He jokingly added clarifying statements like, “Wait, if I say that, you’ll figure it out!,” “Don’t ask!,” and “I’ll get in trouble!” before the panel decided to move on with the show.
Hmmm. It’s far from anything concrete, and there’s every chance that Horii-san was genuinely just trying to get himself out of a sticky situation, but we can’t help feeling that the whole thing is a little suspicious. Hey, perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on our end.
Back in May, it seemed like Horii-san might have let the news of an upcoming remake slip during a panel at Napoli Comicon. However, it later turned out that it was just the translator bringing up the series, not Yuji Horii himself. D’oh.
At the time of writing, the best way to officially play Chrono Trigger remains the wonderful 2008 DS port, which’ll set you back a pretty penny if you try to pick it up on the resale market today. It has arrived on mobile and Windows in the years since, but come on, we all want to see it on Switch (2), right?
What do you make of Horii’s comments? Might a remake be on the cards? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
In 2020, Square Enix released an interesting ‘stopgap’ in the Octopath Traveler series called Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. This free-to-play mobile game took the gacha approach to design, regularly launching new units and storylines to interact with as the years rolled by. The company wrapped up that initial version in January this year, but it decided to design a new standalone version for consoles: Octopath Traveler 0.
Not quite a straight port of the original nor a brand new game, this fresh release converts a previously more fractured game into a cohesive traditional JRPG that features no online elements or microtransactions and feels more in line with what you’d expect from a proper numbered entry. And while it’s not the true successor to Octopath Traveler II, OT0 nonetheless stands tall as another great entry in the series.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
The narrative here is arguably the most interesting aspect, as it somewhat bucks the series trend of offering various disconnected narratives following each of the primary protagonists. For one thing, there’s now technically only one protagonist (your self-insert MC) and everyone else is merely an incidental addition to the plot. And while there’s still a nonlinear, chapter-based system that allows you to pursue the main story at your leisure, each chapter is now focused on a specific antagonist.
Even though intraparty interaction is still kept to a minimum, the storyline is nonetheless significantly more streamlined and in line with what you’d expect out of a typical JRPG. You begin as a resident of the cosy, friendly town of Wishvale, which is very quickly pillaged and razed to the ground by a nasty group of villains. After reconnecting with another survivor, you set out on a campaign of vengeance several years later, hunting key leaders of the attack, setting up the first arc of the overarching narrative.
What I really liked about this storytelling approach is how much more personal and interesting it made the rogues’ gallery of villains. Not only do the ensuing chapters explore some of the antagonists’ moral greyness, but there are some genuinely surprising and dark plot twists that add to the satisfaction when you finally get a chance to punch these people in the mouth.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
I was always a fan of the way the first two games handled their braided narratives, but choosing to centre the narrative this time on one protagonist and various villains that have made their life hell is an interesting and ultimately worthwhile change.
That all said, the length of the campaign is a long haul. Given that this is based on a live-service gacha that grew quite a bit, there are literally years of storylines to experience—the developers themselves flagged that it should take you roughly 100 hours to clear, and that’s not including the mountain of optional side content. I wouldn’t say that this tremendous length is necessarily a mark against Octopath Traveler 0, but just be aware that the pacing and quality can vary over that time, as any narrative of that size can get unwieldy in some places.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Gameplay otherwise follows the standard formula of previous games, wherein you explore a sizeable open world, pick up quests, fight in turn-based battles, explore dungeons, and utilise Path Actions to interact with the various NPCs you come across. Initially, you only have two party members, but as you discover and explore new towns, you eventually grow the party to just over 30.
All of which is to say, this is exactly how you’d expect a new Octopath entry to play, and while I would have liked to see more innovation on the gameplay side of things, it’s tough to argue that the team didn’t stick the landing with the execution of their gameplay loop.
Combat remains largely the same, with a key difference being that you now have eight active party members instead of four. Only four of them are active during a given round, but when a party member’s turn comes, they can tag out to let their backline partner take an action instead. The backline is more than just a reserve in case someone gets knocked down, too, as all characters in the rear at the end of every round also gain HP and SP.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Though the eight-character setup doesn’t massively change the overall flow of combat that we’re well familiar with by now, I really appreciated the additional strategic depth offered by the extra members. You effectively build BP (Boost Points) twice as fast now, which can lead to some crazy combos if you plan out your team right, and there’s a lot more to think through as you consider the various skills and abilities of each member and plan in advance how you’ll place them in the overall formation.
Do you put two healer characters together to maximise your healing output? Or do you pair one with a DPS character who will need to get cycled to the back to recover? The previous two games regularly asked you similar teambuilding questions, but here that more strategic approach is present to a much higher degree.
On the other hand, individual character progression has been kneecapped a bit, and I’m not as much a fan of how it’s been implemented. The ability to multiclass in previous games kept character-building interesting throughout the whole experience as you constantly unlocked new class types and found new ways to combine different class abilities to lead to some units that truly ‘broke’ the game. Here, there are no second classes; you can only progress a character along their default assigned class.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
There is some variation introduced by equipping Battle Skills and Support Skills gained from NPCs, granting boons like the ability to utilise wind attacks or increased healing output. However, these feel more limited than giving a character access to all the abilities that come along with a new class, and it leads to characters feeling pigeon-holed into the clear roles they’re designed to fulfil.
There’s something to be said about having a roster of bespoke characters who become simply more of what they already are at the beginning, but I’ve always viewed the Octopath Traveler games as encouraging you to find ways to make party members overpowered by building them far beyond their initial loadouts and here that definitely feels reined in.
Given that there’s technically only the one protagonist in this game, the Path Action system has been adapted. Now your protagonist can do all the actions (such as stealing, inquiring, or haggling) and the success rate is determined by how much you’ve grown their wealth, power, or fame stats by completing various quests and side quests. Which stat gets checked depends on what the character you’re talking to values most, and this also affects what path actions are available to use on them. Overall, this doesn’t feel like a significant change, but I appreciated how it gave you reason to regularly return to towns, as many NPCs are clearly way above the levels you’re at when you initially meet them.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Perhaps the headlining new feature is the addition of townbuilding elements while you slowly rebuild Wishvale to its former glory. Simply talking to your carpenter friend, Stia, or interacting with a workbench will turn the overgrown ruins of the once-quaint town into a grid where you can place new buildings, paths, and decorations according to your liking. Some of these buildings have a more functional passive value, too, such as how the pub allows you to bring food and prep dishes to give yourself an edge in battle for a certain number of turns.
As you find new towns, some NPCs will have the ‘Invite’ Path Action, which lets you invite them to Wishvale to contribute to the community. Every NPC has some sort of passive ability that can affect things like crop production speed or JP (Job Points) gain in battle, and housing them in your town lets you build these up over time. Plus, inviting more residents causes the overall town level to increase, unlocking new structures to build, and lets you place more homes where you’d like.
I appreciated how the townbuilding managed to feel both instrumental and optional to the game’s progression. Though there are plot reasons for why you have to build up the town to a certain point, it’s something that you can otherwise choose to ignore if you’d rather just stay on the road and keep pushing on to the next quest.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
On the other hand, there’s plenty to dig into here if you want to get in the weeds of building the most picturesque town possible as you regularly return to reap the rewards. And while there are concrete gameplay benefits from investing in and interacting with your town, they aren’t so enormous that you’re handicapping yourself if you choose to only return to Wishvale when necessary.
As far as visuals are concerned, this entry falls neatly between the fidelity of the previous two mainline games. It’s clear that it was built with many reused assets from the first Octopath Traveler, but there are some details and flourishes present that will remind you more of the second game.
The Switch 2 version runs quite well, too, and seeing the action unfold at 60fps makes everything appear that much nicer. It definitely feels like a slight step down if you’re playing this right after putting a lot of time into Octopath Traveler 2, but overall the HD-2D art style here still holds up exceptionally well and looks gorgeous in motion.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Much like how the visuals feel like a blend of the previous two games, the soundtrack offers a variety of tracks and remixes from its predecessors, with some new tracks thrown in there to accompany the new content. Though it’s a bit disappointing that we didn’t get a new full-fledged soundtrack for this release, the new music feels right in line with the previous tracks, which are just as excellent as they were when we heard them for the first time.
