I mentioned this in my intro post, this is a type of post I’ve done monthly since 2008 on my previous site The Save Points. I just highlight upcoming games, give my impressions on them based on currently-known info like trailers and demos and such. This includes games I’m interested in, games that may be/become popular whether or not I care about them, and random stuff in-between… Basically anything I feel bears mentioning for any reason. Obviously I can’t tell the future but I will try to somewhat keep this up-to-date as interesting games get release dates and remove games that get delayed at the last minute.

I also like to use these posts as a quick update thing, talk about recent and upcoming stuff, you know… I mean, I made a new site, posted several reviews, changed a bunch of things in the design and functionality of the blog, all has been going well on that end. And I got my second cataract surgery so I CAN SEE, without glasses… that’s pretty cool! I do have a bunch of reviews upcoming, right now on my currently-playing list I have Cathedral and Persona 5 Strikers and Bravely Default 2 and Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection… Curse of the Dead Gods looks kinda cool too so that’s a maybe… and there’s some stuff coming out in March that I’m getting… so I’m not running out of things to post for a while.

So March 2021… it has a couple of the year’s biggest heavy hitters. I’m counting: 11 multiplats, 4 Switch games, 1 PS5 game, 6 PC releases and 1 PS4 game. I’m buying a couple things in there, it’s a decent month.

Well, let’s go and see what March has in store for us! I was gonna post this a bit earlier but a State of Play was announced so I decided to wait, just in case something happened. Nothing happened, so no reaction post. Sony sucks. Maybe I should do a new “Sony is not a good game company” post for the lulz. Did one last year after another shitty State of Play.

*EDIT 03/01* Had to remove a PS5 game that I didn’t notice got pushed back yay!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Harvest Moon: One World 03/02 (Switch, PS4)

There’s an actual Harvest Moon game later on this list. Just play that. Going by everything I’ve heard about the current state of Harvest Moon, the “main” series isn’t anywhere near as good as the Story of Seasons series, which is what the actual Harvest Moon series renamed itself to because of licensing and stuff.

Neptunia Virtual Stars 03/02 on PS4, 03/29 on PC

A new Neptunia game. These are always at least a little bit fun, I’ve enjoyed most of the ones I’ve played. This one takes on the Vtuber trend. Basically the goddesses team up with virtual idols to defeat the army of Antis… Considering what’s happened with some vtubers recently, this is strangely relevant. This one is a third-person action game of sorts (with some characters using guns and others melee weapons), rather than a turn-based RPG, from what I’ve seen. Looks fine.
And it features actual “real life” Vtubers, some clips I’ve seen featured some I recognized such as Tamaki, Peanuts and Ponpoko, and the official website for the game shows a bunch of different Vtuber groups I’m not aware of… plus 9 members of Hololive including best doggo Korone and superlit sexy boomer Marine. So that’s fun.

Two Point Hospital: Jumbo Edition 03/05 (Switch, PS4, Xbone)

I played the demo for this I think on PC (or it was a free weekend thing on Steam)? It was fine, it was pretty much a similar take on the classic Theme Hospital. Consoles are getting it now. Cool if this is the kind of game that interests you.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time 03/12 (Switch, Xbox X/S, PS5)

I have reviewed this game very recently on The Save Points, it is pretty good. I hear it sucks to 100%, but if you don’t do that, you’ll have a decent time with this. I don’t think Crash’s PS1 games are particularly good, this one is definitely the best of the bunch.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited 03/16 (Switch, PC)

I played a bit of Stranger of Sword City on Vita. I don’t remember it too much, it’s one of those first-person grid-based dungeon-crawler RPGs. This features 2 games, so it might be a fun one to check out. I like these types of games, I haven’t touched too many of them recently.

Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse 03/16 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone)

This is from the original Xbox, I’ve never played it. Looking at the gameplay they didn’t seem to upgrade the graphics much, seems to just be a resolution boost. It looks like it could be kinda fun, you play as a zombie with all sorts of fun zombie abilities for combat. I think people may find it a bit dated.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life 03/25 (PC, Xbone)

And with this I think all of Yakuza is fully on several platforms. Good job Sega, took you a while.

Balan Wonderworld 03/26 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, Xbox X/S, PS5)

I was excited for this. It’s a new 3D platformer by Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic and Nights, that’s pretty exciting, right? Well… if you heard anyone talk about the demo… All hype is gone. Man this is legitimately not a good game. It’s sad because the idea isn’t bad, but there’s pretty much nothing to this gameplay. The puzzles are brainless, the actual gameplay is slow and boring, the different costumes suck (several can’t even jump IN A 3D PLATFORMER and have a singular, largely pointless purpose) and it takes so long to switch between them, there’s random stupid QTE moments… Terrible demo, there’s no way the full game will be any good either. It’s a shame, I was excited for it.

Kaze and the Wild Masks 03/26 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone)

This is a side-scrolling platformer with pixel art. It’s pretty pretty. It looks like it might actually be quite fun, it has a DKC feel to its gameplay from what I’ve seen. I might grab it at some point.

It Takes Two 03/26 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)

This is a new game by the guy who made Brothers and A Way Out, which both had some pretty interesting ideas but I think tried a bit too hard (though yes, the end of A Way Out was kinda cool (even if a bit forced)). This one is also a 2-player co-op game like A Way Out but it’s a wacky colorful platformer. Not sure what the “twist” is gonna be this time, it’s about a couple that seems to be falling out of love learning to love each other again in some otherworldly adventure or something, it could definitely go many ways… I just gonna wait for Hololive members to collab it or something.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 03/26 (Xbox X/S, PS5)

It’s also coming to Switch some time later this year. I have no picked this up on PC yet, might just wait for the Switch release… and a price drop.

SWITCH RELEASES

Apex Legends 03/09

It’s Apex. Actually a pretty cool game despite the EA logo, as long as you ignore the microtransaction garbage. However, no idea why you’d want this on any console. Controller is not a good input method for FPS games. This is cross-play so I figure console players, even good ones, get their asses kicked routinely by even average PC players.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning 03/16

I hear the versions on other platforms for this remaster were pretty bad at launch. Not really the gameplay design, but the massive amount of glitches. I’m curious if this was patched on other platforms, and if the Switch will handle it okay. I have heard a lot about this game back when it originally came out but never played it, so I am curious about this. I would probably not get it on Switch though.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town 03/23

There you go, that’s the Harvest Moon game under a different name that I mentioned earlier. If you like Harvest Moon, definitely check this out, it looks pretty good.

Monster Hunter Rise 03/26

Monster Hunter is always a HUGE deal. I’m not a big fan of the series, I think it’s mostly that I never gave it a really good shot. I did play the demo for this one though and I actually learned how to play it somewhat, and I legitimately had a lot of fun with it. So yeah, I might be buying my first MH game since the PSP. I like the weapons I tried (the horn one seemed pretty damn strong), and some of the new monsters look really cool. I might actually become an MH fan now.

PC RELEASES

Loop Hero 03/04

I played the demo for this. It’s a really weird roguelite where you don’t control the exploration (it’s just a straight loop that the hero goes through automatically at a set pace) or the combat. Instead, as the hero automatically does all that stuff, you build up the world around you, and equip the hero with better stuff, using rewards you get from the hero’s actions and your own placement of things. In-between runs you build up a base that give some new advantages during exploration. It’s an interesting game, I might get it.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 03/23

Puyo Puyo is great. Tetris is great. Combine them, you get more great. One thing I noticed playing this on Switch is that… man I’m bad at Puyo Puyo. I’m good against human players generally, but the CPU in this game wrecks me now that I’m near the end of the game. I’m much better at Tetris. This sequel adds a play mode where you have SP you use for different effects to take out the opponent’s HP bar, it’s okay. If you haven’t played the first one or this, go for it. It’s a good time.

Dandy Ace 03/25

This is a random-ish inclusion. I looked it up randomly while looking at the huge list of upcoming games on Steam (most of which are not really worth talking about), thinking it wouldn’t be notewhorty. Turns out this is basically Hades with a magician. Doesn’t look too bad, maybe a bit slower. I feel this will go under the radar, but it might be pretty good.

All the Kingdom Hearts games I guess 03/30

found this set of logos from @GarikWheeler on twitter… it includes things that aren’t in these releases

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix (which also includes Chain of Memories, 358/2, Birth By Sleep and Re:coded), Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue (which includes the 3DS one), Kingdom Hearts III (plus the DLC) and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, all coming to the Epic Game Store. 1 and 2 are good (and some of the side games that are in that pack too). 3 is terribly shit. I played the demo for Melody of Memory and didn’t like it. If you haven’t played KH before, this is a good chance to, that 1.5+2.5 pack is very nice. Just skip 3. I might grab 2.8 myself since I never played Dream Drop Distance back on 3DS… when it’s not 80$ (canadian dollars), because wtf.
Actually the pricing is all fucked. 1.5+2.5 is the cheapest when it provides by FAR the best value with like 6 games (65$ canadian), while 2.8 has 1 game, a cutscene and a 3 hour micro-game but it’s more expensive (80$ canadian)… and KH3 is crap (especially at 80$ canadian). Weird. And it’s overpriced compared to getting the same thing on PS4 (I checked, I could get ALL those games (except the rhythm one) for 60 canadian dollars on PS4). Really stupid pricing there.

Evil Genius 2: World Domination 03/30

I vaguely remember the original coming out a while ago (2004, apparently). It’s not a game I ended up playing back then, but it seemed like a fun simulator where you build an evil lair, hire minions and a doomsday device to take over the world. This is a bit more modern, could be some pretty good stuff.

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance 03/31

Huh? I had no idea this was coming out so soon. I don’t tend to highlight DLC, but this seems to add a LOT to Binding of Isaac. New floors, a shitload of new rooms (5000+ what), a ton of new items and enemies and bosses and some other stuff. Cool. I might actually jump back in for a few runs, just see how things changed since I last played it.

PS5 RELEASES

Yakuza: Like a Dragon 03/02

This came out on everything else last year. It’s very good. Buy it, whether it be on this platform or any other.

PS4 RELEASE

Gensou Skydrift 03/09

This came out on Switch some time ago, it’s a kart-style racing game in the Touhou universe, where the character you control rides on top of another character like a surfboard flying through the sky. Weird. I have no played this, but if it drops down in price enough at some point I want to grab it for the lulz.