ShogunRok

@The_Wailing_Doom If you're into Japanese RPGs I can't recommend the Trails games enough. The only problem with getting into them is deciding where to start.

Like @mariomaster96 says, you definitely need to play the first Daybreak before this, as it's a direct sequel.

But Daybreak honestly isn't a bad place to start with Trails. Each 'saga' in the series introduces a new setting and characters, but there are overarching storylines that carry across all the games, if that makes sense.

My advice would be to give the Daybreak demo a shot — it's quite a few hours in length and you'll get an idea of what the game's about.

If you enjoy it, you could jump straight into Daybreak. And if you like the full game, you could always work backwards to the Cold Steel saga, or even before that, when the games weren't fully 3D.

It's a massive franchise at this point but it really is one hell of a ride if you can get into it. Well worth a shot, in my opinion — just don't start with any of the direct sequels like Daybreak 2, etc.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Having now played it, I can definitely see why some fans dislike Daybreak 2. But I still enjoyed it a lot, even though its faults are quite clear to see.

Like the review says, if you can accept it as more of a character-focused Trails game, rather than it moving the overall story along, then you'll be in for a treat.

Can't wait for Kai!

@PuppetMaster @Keyblade-Dan Unless I need my ears checked, I'm pretty sure the trailer used in the actual State of Play had Japanese voice acting. It was much better!

Hey @jgrangervikings1, you've been sent your Star Letter prize via email.

I'm writing this comment just in case the email ends up in your spam folder or something.

Thanks!

@Gremio108 696 is the current record.

(Yes, I'm aware that this comment is in service of the cause.)

Updated the article since Sony's own PSN Status page is now showing that everything is offline.

Just so everyone's aware, the staff don't have anything to do with the results for this new Game of the Month system — it's purely user-voted, like our 'Best Games' lists.

So choose wisely!

@CWill97 Yep, feel free to write in again even if you've been published before.

There might be times where we mark letters for later articles, too, so there are no immediate limits to worry about!

@Mostik At the moment, we can only include the name that people use on the contact form — we don't see email addresses or anything like that.

But something to consider for the future, for sure.

@themightyant Yeah, I get where you're coming from — it's frustrating when you like something but feel as though it's never been given a chance because of maddening online discourse.

From my perspective, as someone who likes The Veilguard but can totally understand why others dislike it, it's the general lack of nuanced discussion that gets me down.

I'm not expecting every comment on every forum and social media post to be an in-depth novel, but the dogpiling leaves absolutely no room for reasonable thought.

@OldGamer999 The Pro support is great for the most part but it's got weird resolution issues and the PSSR is poorly implemented when it comes to detailed objects that are affected by physics, like hair.

The hope was that BioWare would smooth things out a bit more, but seems unlikely now.

@themightyant We can't win, can we?

Post anything positive about this game and we're called shills.

Post anything negative and it's "clickbait".

There are literally patch notes in this article, and words from BioWare itself.

The open world looks really nice, Ubisoft always gets that side of the AC games right. Hoping the combat system clicks, always felt like Valhalla was close to being great, but the lack of enemy variety and clunky animations hurt it.

Looking forward to Shadows!

It's not looking good for BioWare. 1.5 million "engaged" users (sales) isn't going to cut it for a game that was in a troubled development cycle for so long.

When you realise BioWare's last critical and commercial success was probably Inquisition in 2014 — Mass Effect Legendary Edition aside — you can't help but feel like the studio's on borrowed time.

@AlexPorto Honestly, we struggled to write any headline that properly describes the sheer ineptitude of this live service push.

They had Bluepoint making a live service God of War game...?

@PegasusActual93 I'm just joking because I write for this website!

@Drago201 Yeah I've heard it's very character-centric, rather than plot-driven. That sounds quite interesting to me as long as there's enough gameplay quality to back it up. Maybe best to keep our expectations in check!

I know it's blasphemous for me to say, but I'd love to replay the original Halo trilogy. Put it on PS5 and I'll be there day one — fantastic campaigns.

@Drago201 I've heard very split opinions on Daybreak 2, but because it seems so divisive, I'm very interested in playing it for myself.

@Rich33 I can't answer that, sadly — I don't have a display that's 120hz compatible so I couldn't test it. The 120hz option is still there, but can't comment on how well it works.

For what it's worth I haven't seen any other reviews point out performance issues, so hopefully it's been fixed.

@nyr2k2 You'll be able to play the PS4 version on PS5 thanks to backwards compatibility — it's all good!

@Haruki_NLI They used to be called 'musou' games but that seems to have died off because no one outside of the bubble knew what it meant.

I've just been calling them 'Warriors' games for years, but they're so broad and diverse now that they're becoming harder and harder to categorise.

@Haruki_NLI Neither of them are called Dynasty Warriors, either!

The year is 2025 and devs are still doing livestreams where they just talk about how amazing their game is without actually showing it.

Dawnwalker sounds great but this was 45 minutes of hot air. They got eyes on it, I suppose, which from their perspective will be all that matters.

@Greifchen Yep, you can choose between English, Japanese, and Chinese dubs.

@stocko I do wonder what kind of DLC will be released for Origins. I wouldn't be surprised if they add some kind of extra mode where you can play as different characters, or like an arena activity.

@stocko Yeah I think a lot of DW fans will criticise the fact there's only really one playable character and the rest are just along for the ride.

But like the review says, this isn't Dynasty Warriors 10 — it's trying to be its own thing with a protagonist-focused story. And to be fair, the ten different weapon types all feel quite unique, with their own combos and special attacks.

And yeah, the game does have loads of characters — basically everyone who appears in the old games up until Chibi — but the vast majority are NPCs who you fight alongside and can bond with outside of battle.

@Hyena_socks Nah, he's a set character — you can't customise his appearance outside of changing his costume (but I've only unlocked one additional outfit outside of DLC).

You can change his weapon type, of course, which changes his animations and everything — but that's it.

@stocko So each kingdom has three companion characters, so that's nine overall. Ten including the protagonist.

Sadly, you can't free play with the companion characters, although you can freely choose who to take with you when you're replaying stages after finishing the game for the first time.

Like in the demo, you can only control companion characters for a set amount of time during a battle.

@brakeman90 Thanks for reading, and you're absolutely right, that should be 'overstated'. Fixed it!

As for the subtitle size, I have to imagine it'll be patched. Crazy that it's so small to begin with, but seems like it should be an easy fix.

@Drago201 The full game feels better balanced than the demo, but that might just be because the demo is so fast-paced, and you obviously have much more time to learn the combat system in the full thing.

On the harder difficulties your allies do die pretty quickly, though, if they're left to struggle alone. So you have to be aware of how the battle's going and prioritise who you want to save. It gets intense!

On the normal difficulty you still have to keep an eye on things, but I didn't run into any huge problems.

@Reform Origins probably has the biggest emphasis on story in the whole franchise, so times have changed on that front.

It's still very much a Dynasty Warriors game, though. Even if you haven't played since the PS2, it'll seem weirdly familiar I bet.

@Dan-The-Van On the Pro you can select the 'Prioritize Graphics' option but you cap the frame rate at 60 instead of 30. So you get the best of both (and it's mostly very, very smooth).

There's also a native 4K option on the Pro, also at 60fps if you choose, but it feels more like 45fps or so.

Would definitely recommended the former option if you're playing on the Pro.

@dardel Platinum's going to take quite a while, as you need to play through all three factions and do a lot of extra stuff. I don't necessarily think it's a hard Trophy list, but it is time consuming. 70+ hours, I'd say.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I can try to answer them.

Origins really surpassed my expectations. As someone who's been playing Dynasty Warriors since the PS2 days, it's a huge relief to see the series make a deserved comeback.

Honestly, looking at that release schedule in February, this is probably a good thing for everyone involved.

@ear_wig Nah, the list was made up of games that have specifically been given a 2025 release date / window — and Intergalactic doesn't have that yet.

Having said that, I wouldn't be massively surprised if Intergalactic did launch in late 2025. PlayStation Studios games are rarely announced way ahead of release these days.

I think this might be the first ever year where none of the editorial team picked the same GOTY. Something for everyone!

@Drago201 We have! The next couple of months are crazy for new releases so we had to work out who's doing what before the end of last year.

Some interesting stats from the poll:

• Every game got at least one vote, which is quite impressive.
• Monster Hunter Wilds performed well below expectations in terms of votes, as one of the games with by far the most marketing exposure on this list.
• Ghost of Yotei was actually beating GTA 6 until the final two hours before the poll was closed.
• Generally speaking, games that are coming out soon (with a confirmed release date) got fewer votes than games that aren't dated yet, which is intriguing.
• Only one remake / remaster (Metal Gear Solid Delta) made the top 30, despite there being a total of 10 in the poll.
• We've only seen actual, uncut gameplay from 9 of the 20 games on this list.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

@ChrisDeku Being a recent Warhammer 40k convert (thanks to Space Marine 2 and Darktide) I'm 100% behind this idea.

@DennisReynolds Yeah KCD is a really interesting RPG with some great ideas — it's just a bit awkward in places. You could argue that it's the perfect foundation for a bigger (and better) sequel.

@RobN @LifeGirl We've upped it to 300 words based on immediate feedback!

@rjejr We've got the most anticipated list (voted by the community) coming up tomorrow along with a GOTY round up, and then we're done with the GOTY stuff. Another one down!

@Rich33 Thanks for the feedback, we've definitely considered putting additional stats in the article itself but the worry is it'll bloat things and maybe distract from the key information.

So the compromise is putting the stats in the top comment — but yeah, it's something to consider going forward if we can find a good way to format the info.

I'm going to use this first comment to list some fun little stats from the poll!

• Balatro lost out to The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered by just six votes.
• Dragon's Dogma 2 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard both came very close to the top 10 (good year for Dragons).
• Tekken 8 got 184 votes, which I think is the most votes a fighting game has ever got in these polls.
• It was a really good year for Atlus; SMTV: Vengeance (35th), Persona 3 Reload (16th), and Metaphor: ReFantazio (7th) all made the top 40.
• Seven of the top ten games were also included in our official Push Square GOTY rankings, so the whole process has been very consistent.
• Rise of the Ronin did quite well (17th overall) but it's the least popular PlayStation exclusive to ever feature in these polls.
• Three free-to-play games were on the shortlist (Zenless Zone Zero, Infinity Nikki, and Marvel Rivals) but only Marvel Rivals made the top 30.
• Former Xbox console exclusives Hi-Fi Rush (24th) and Sea of Thieves (41st) both finished in respectable positions.
• It was a really impressive year for RPGs: seven games in the top 20 were RPGs, and Unicorn Overlord would have made it eight, but it was cut off by just three votes.

Thanks again to everyone who voted!

@Fartingale That's my fault (kind of). I took on Ys X and just never had time to finish it because of the crazy schedule it launched in. Felt bad about it ever since because I love my Falcom games!

@tabris95 I played a few hours but sadly never found time to finish it. Seems like the kind of game I'd grind through for weeks, so hopefully I do get around to it one day.

What can we say, Rob? Every year, you somehow manage to outdo yourself (and your idiot colleagues, but that's to be expected).

Your taste in games is simply unparalleled. You truly are the guiding light of Push Square — nay, the entire gaming industry.

Bravo, Sir Robert, for you are the greatest mind of our time.

Forever yours, the Official Robert Ramsey Fanclub (which has thousands of active, highly attractive members) xxxxx