The cultural back-to-school season also exists in the video game world: the months of September and October are historically well-stocked with releases, and fall 2024 is no exception. The Duty brings you five video games you can’t miss this season.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
The release of a new installment in The Legend of Zelda series generally means one of the biggest releases of the season, or even the year. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom does not escape it.
Coming September 27th to Nintendo Switch, this new 2D adventure takes up the graphic style of the remake of Link’s Awakening of 2019. But this time, it does things differently: for the first time in the series, players embody Princess Zelda herself. Gone, then, is the confusion caused by embodying the hero Link in a series bearing the name of the one we usually have to save, at least for this opus.
In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdommysterious rifts leading to the Void appear across Hyrule, forcing Zelda to save her kingdom and Link, who has been captured by one of its rifts. However, unlike Link, Zelda does not fight with a sword, but with a magic wand that allows her to create “echoes” of objects and enemies she finds in the world.
The game thus further emphasizes the puzzle aspect of the series, proving that Princess Zelda’s power truly comes from her wisdom.
The Plucky Squire
Earlier in September, it is The Plucky Squire which should capture attention. This is the very first game from the independent studio All Possible Futures, founded by two industry veterans, Jonathan Biddle and James Turner. The latter is particularly known for having been the first non-Japanese designer to have designed a Pokémon.
The game tells the story of Jot, a children’s book hero who must explore the fictional world of Mojo. However, he will venture off the pages and into the real world to continue his quest. Fusing 2D sequences and 3D environments, The Plucky Squire offers various puzzles and several combat scenarios. In short, a multitude of mechanics to deliver a very varied gameplay.
Colorful and innovative, The Plucky Squire is intended to be a game for everyone, and could very well serve as a reminder of the creativity that independent studios bring to the gaming world. It arrives on September 17 on PC, Xbox Series X&S, Switch and Playstation 5. A physical version is due out in February 2025.
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Bringing classics up to date is a practice that is spreading in the video game industry. In recent years, it has been impossible to experience a back-to-school season without a remake or revised version allowing players to (re)discover masterpieces of the past. Horror is also part of the game: after the multiple rehash of the series resident Evil In recent years, it is the turn of Silent Hill 2 to receive a new brushstroke.
This classic follows James Sunderland, who receives a mysterious message from his wife, who died three years earlier, inviting him to join her in the even more mysterious town of Silent Hill. What follows is a journey through his psyche peppered with bizarre and nightmarish elements.
The adventure has won over fans of scary games since its release on PlayStation 2 in 2001: on the review aggregator Metacritic, the original has a very respectable score of 89 out of 100. Silent Hill 2 Remake arrives more than two decades later, a few weeks before Halloween — October 8 — on PC and Playstation 5.
Dragon Age:
The Veilguard
After being spoiled a year ago with Baldur’s Gate III From Larian Studios, fantasy role-playing game fans will once again be extremely well served this year with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. BioWare’s iconic series is making its return after a decade, with the latest episode, Dragon Age: Inquisition, having landed on screens in 2014.
The Veilguard continues in some way in the path traced by its predecessor by offering action-oriented gameplay, but not neglecting the strategy that is the trademark of role-playing games. However, it abandons the shift towards the open world that had been initiated by Inquisition in favor of a more tightly-knit story and mission-based gameplay structure. Serving as a direct sequel to the first three games in the series, The Veilguard allows the player to create their own highly customizable avatar. It also continues to enhance the companion system that made the franchise successful, with a mix of old and new characters who will accompany the player on their quest.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is coming October 31 to PC, Xbox Series X&S, and Playstation 5.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
With Assassin’s Creed Shadowsthe open-world game series spanning human history, is making its comeback with an episode set in feudal Japan. A period and location never explored by the saga, but long requested by fans of the series.
Developed here by the Ubisoft Quebec studio, the game is described as an evolution of the recent installments of the series, where action has taken precedence over discretion. In order to honor the roots of the series, but also its reinvention over time, Assassin’s Creed Shadows offers two protagonists. The stealthy ninja Naoe will be accompanied by the samurai Yasuke, more robust, but more clumsy during the infiltration sequences.
The latter is also the first playable character in the series to be inspired by a real historical figure. Yasuke is an African who arrived in Japan as a slave and became a samurai under Oda Nobunaga, an important daimyo of the Sengoku period of Japan, who will be at the heart of the story of Shadows.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming November 12th to PC, Xbox Series X&S, Playstation 5, as well as recent Mac and iPad devices.