Stray is coming to the Nintendo Switch! We have a review of the game if you want to see what the game is all about.

A new Mario & Luigi RPG game opens up the June Nintendo Direct. Mario & Luigi Brothership launches November 17.

A new gameplay trailer for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn showcases the dynamic combat and movement of the title, plus a release date of July 18.

Just a couple additional thoughts and reviews I wanted to share regarding the current Steam Next Fest (which ends soon, by the way). Attaching it to the review-article I wrote seemed like a bad move, this late into the event.

1. I don't think I gave Enotria: The Last Song enough credit, and Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn might be better than I described - I was worried about the combat in both of them, but it probably wasn't fair in hindsight. Trying to get used to a new combat system (or two) can be a bit of an uphill climb until you get more familiar with their different flow. Just because they're souls-likes (or "souls-lite" in the case of Flintlock) doesn't mean I should automatically assume they'll feel like Elden Ring, even if that's currently my only frame of reference for the genre.
2. I heard great things about Sworn, but it just felt like an undercooked Hades to me...at least, one that has multiplayer. My lack of friends strikes again. I would slot it between Enotria and KILL KNIGHT, on my recommendations list found in the article.
3. If you're like me and impatiently waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong, Voidwrought might fill the...uhh...void. It's shaping up to be a fun metroidvania, although the release date is currently unknown beyond "2024". I would've put it fourth on my enjoyment-list, right after Flintlock, and I ended up putting it on my Wishlist.
4. About to try out Lords of Ravage - kind of a dumb name, honestly, but it's a turn-based JRPG where you overthrow the king and (presumably) conquer the land. Soften up would-be hero types with your minions or go toe-to-toe with them yourself; there are other "you play as the villain" games out there, but not many are actual RPGs. I'll update with an opinion in a bit.
   1. Edit: It's certainly different. I'm not even sure how to compare it to anything else; you could say it has the FTL: Faster Than Light system where random events can happen when you venture to a new space on the board - oh, FYI: this is a board-based game - but that's the only thing it takes from that title. It's very hodge-podgy with its influences, but not necessarily in a bad way. I'd probably place it just above Metal Slug Tactics on the list.
5. All-in-all, I added five games to my Wishlist this time, which is pretty cool. I don't always end up buying everything that makes it onto the list, but I'm grabbing Wild Bastards and Flintlock for sure.

Anyone play some demos from the Next Fest? Share your thoughts on them!

I'm currently still working through Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door; it's every bit as wonderful as my memory of it from 20 years ago would indicate :D
Edit: Defeated the final boss, so I guess it's just wrap-up time with the Pit of 100 Trials and getting everything else I missed.

Three weeks from now, Shadow of the Erdtree will release for Elden Ring, and I will very much be in line for that. In the meantime, I'll finish TTYD, write a review of it, and see where the rest of the month takes me. I've got all sorts of stuff I could play, and I can't help myself but add more to pile over time lol.

I was thinking of doing some "Timely Reviews" of older games, to fill in the gap: my first idea was Bug Fables, because it's like Paper Mario and it could be fun to review a similar game I've never played. That would of course involve buying yet-another game, so we'll see. I was also thinking of reviewing Wildermyth, now that the developers have finished working on it and gone into "hibernation"/shut down(?). Any suggestions would be welcome!

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Here we go.

For the entire OTA Patch Notes, read on!

The following changes aim to relieve metagame pressure created from a variety of directions, especially the Professor X lockdown decks that have recently ascended to the top of the standings in public competitions, as well as our internal metrics. We're aiming to create a pretty big shake-up, so read on!

• Professor X
• [Old]5/1 - Ongoing: Lock down this location. (Cards can't be added, removed, etc.)
• [New]5/2 - Ongoing: Moving is the only way to add or remove a card from here.

We've seen glimpses of the danger Professor X could pose over the last year or so, but rarely realized that potential. In many decks where Professor X was popular, such as Thanos, Professor X wasn't often one of the better cards. However, some things have changed and over the last month Professor X has reached new heights. And that's not just because it solves other threats–Xavier is doing significant work against a sea of matchups.

Given the gameplay of Professor X isn't something we want becoming a dominant element of the metagame, we decided to make a change once the existing card pool failed to effectively counter Professor X. This change removes two ways Professor X shut down locations: switching sides and movement. The latter is the most meaningful, as cards that can move will now be able to challenge Professor X, while Cannonball–a dominant card in its own right–will no longer create a combo. We may arrive at a better solution in the future, as we know this weakens the "story" of the card considerably.

• Cannonball
• [Old]5/8 - On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can’t, destroy it with a Rock.
• [Change]5/8 -> 5/7

Speaking of Cannonball, that card has spent weeks as one of the top cards in the game, and seen a ton of play to boot. While we're optimistic that removing Professor X will blunt that strength enough, Cannonball's dominance has been thorough and in enough different decks that we're taking away one Power. This should help ensure the metagame does shift and that a few other 5-Costs can return to the fray. If this hits Cannonball too hard, we can always revert it.

• Hela
• [Old]6/6 - On Reveal: Resurrect all cards you discarded to random locations.
• [New]6/6 - On Reveal: Resurrect all cards you discarded to random locations with -2 Power.

We've spoken at length on Hela in various forums. The deck has passionate fans and detractors alike, and has largely stayed within the tolerances we established for it. However, something else that's important to our definition of a balanced metagame is that players have options where they find problems. That's the foundational idea behind creating "release valves" within the card pool that can address various pressures. Whether Death and Sera are strong or not, Mobius is there for players who feel such threats merit special attention.

Moving Leech to 4-Cost was one of the ways we've tried to address this, but in that case the cure proved worse than the disease. We've tried subtler things, but have yet to see the kind of success we'd hoped for. We've also debated a variety of cards we could add to the game to serve this role, but new cards take time to get into players' hands. So today we're taking action very similar to what we did with Galactus, and adding functionality that will create a better balance dial on the card itself.

• Ebony Blade (created by Black Knight)
• [Old]4/0 - Ongoing: Can't be destroyed and its Power can't be reduced.
• [New]4/0 - Ongoing: Can't be destroyed.

This change is technically impactful to Hela, but that's not why we're making it. We've been happy to see Black Knight find plenty of homes after a soft start, but have decided that giving the Ebony Blade complete protection from interference is unnecessarily strong. Having a large card that's immune to Shang-Chi is novel and powerful enough to see play, and it wasn't trivial to let the Blade freely dodge locations like Negative Zone, either.

• Red Hulk
• [Old]6/9 - When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, +4 Power. (if in hand or in play)
• [New]6/10 - When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, +3 Power. (if in hand or in play)

It is with a heavy, fiery heart that we're sanding a touch more strength off Red Hulk. The goal for this card was to position it as a simple "big monster" with ranging strength, but that range hasn't been wide enough to ensure sufficient healthy competition with other 6-Cost cards. This is a fairly small tweak, but the card doesn't look like it's super far ahead in the data. There are plenty of novel decks playing 6-Cost cards that aren't Red Hulk, it's just been the default for a few too many decks aiming to make Power without leaning on heavy synergies.

• Gilgamesh
• [Old]5/7 - On Reveal: +1 Power for each of your other cards in play with increased Power.
• [Change]5/7 -> 5/9

After seeing a few of our big cards go "too big," we were more careful with Gilgamesh. The occasional Blob or Red Hulk will happen, but positioning such a card as the Season Pass would be a little more worrisome. However, after the first week of play, it looks like we were too careful.

This is a fairly fast turnaround to make on a new card, but the low cube rate of the card was in particular a large concern for us. We always want to ensure that the Season Pass card feels like a great addition to players' collection, but its performance thus far hasn't met that bar. While Gilgamesh and Blue Marvel get Very Large, the backup combos are weaker than expected and there are fewer other decks to slot into, so this change should ensure Gilgamesh's card communicates his canonical strength in-game.

• Captain America
• [Old]3/2 - Ongoing: Your other Ongoing cards here have +2 Power.
• [Change]3/2 -> 3/3

Just a small tweak to Captain America here. We hit the Spectrum Ongoing deck slightly harder than we wanted to during the last OTA, and we'd like to ensure Cap is an appealing card for early and endgame Ongoing decks alike.

• Shanna
• [Old]3/2 - On Reveal: Add a random 1-Cost card to each location.
• [Change]3/2 -> 3/4

Yeah, we're doing this again. Shanna is a tricky card to evaluate, as the card winds up taking four slots and has so much variance in Power. We don't like to change the same card a ton of times, but it's been a while since the last try. We'd held off for so long in part because we expected that Mockingbird and Gilgamesh Zoo decks might provide the lift we needed, but that hasn't been the case.

• Stegron
• [Old]4/6 - On Reveal: Move an enemy card from here to another location.
• [New]4/7 - On Reveal: Move an enemy card here one location to the right.

Stegron is one of those "fine" cards that's never really been good or bad. It's just failed to find a steady home, and we think that's in part due to the original effect's randomness hurting its appeal and its strength. Giving Stregron a more specific effect will create more space from existing cards, and perhaps lead to Stegron claiming a space all its own.

—

That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!

As noted in an article late last month, Kingdom Hearts was coming to Steam on June 13th. Well today's that day!

The article goes into more detail on what you'll find inside each game collection, but at least now we know their prices:

• HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix = $49.99
• HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue = $59.99
• Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind (DLC) = $59.99

They are each 31% off until July 11th, which is a weird number but I digress. If you want to buy the entire package all in one super-collection, you can purchase the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece, which is $99.99 (but also 31% off for a limited time).

A hundred bucks for the entire KH series is a great deal in my view: with 31% off, you're buying six full games for the price of one, plus additional cutscenes and the like to round out the story. It's too early to say, but hopefully they're solid enough ports to make the effort worth it - the games themselves are all pretty decent if-not great, so as long as they didn't mess it up this should be a big hit with newbies to the series and veterans alike.