Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Developer: Asobo Studio
Release: August 27, 2026
Rating: Mature

Rats, exceptional emotional storytelling, tense stealth, and more rats: these are the elements that come to mind when I think of A Plague Tale. Watching the young protagonists Amicia and Hugo de Rune endure unimaginable hardships to combat a supernatural rat scourge in A Plague Tale: Innocence in 2019 and its 2022 sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, captivated me, and the series has become one of my favorites of the modern era. Although Requiem’s conclusion left some tantalizing narrative possibilities for the future, I doubt anyone expected a follow-up would take players to the past and center on that game’s standout companion, Sophia. 

The fierce smuggler became an invaluable ally to Amicia and Hugo and now stars in her own prequel adventure, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. Set in 1333, 15 years before Requiem’s events, on the Greek island of Crete, it stars a younger Sophia on a quest to a mythical island, trading sneaking and slingshots for sword duels and tomb raiding. The Greek myth of the Minotaur also plays an unexpected but intriguing role. Eager to get my hands on it, I traveled to Paris, France, to play the entirety of Resonance’s fourth chapter and walked away extremely impressed with how well the franchise’s first foray into the action genre is shaping up.

The Right Fit

After launching Requiem, series developer Asobo Studio wanted its next adventure to give fans a new experience while also expanding its universe. The team also needed a break from telling another overwhelmingly grim narrative. “When we finished Requiem, we're like, okay, it was a pretty huge game, emotionally very exhausting because of the story,” creative director Eric Chort says. “It was really strong and really hard for us emotionally. So we're like, okay, perhaps we make a break with Amicia in this hard story, but we still love Plague. So what can we do with that?”

Asobo batted ideas around before realizing it wanted to create an experience more steeped in action-adventure, à la Tomb Raider and Uncharted, as a fresh challenge. The question became how to link this new game while reinventing everything else. It found its answer in Sophia, Requiem’s popular companion, whose backstory was largely a mystery. As a smuggler and a sailor, she’s fierce, well-traveled, clever, and more than capable in a fight; these traits made her the perfect character to design new gameplay systems around while opening up storytelling possibilities. After all, Sophia didn’t gain these skills overnight. Sophia also told Amicia that she had no desire to kill again, a seemingly throwaway line that Chort says offered fertile narrative ground to sew; if she used to kill, just how good was she at taking lives, and why did she stop?

According to lead writer Carol-Ann Bañuls, the Sophia we meet in Resonance remains a cunning force but lacks the inner calm she has in Requiem. “So this is the kind of character you admire for her strength, but who really resonates in you when you start to see the cracks beneath the armor,” Bañuls tells me when I ask how this Sophia differs from her older self. “So this is the difference, because in Requiem, she's already really in control of her emotions [...] she knows already her heart. You can feel she went through some traumas, but you don't know yet what it was because it's 15 years before.”

Bañuls assures me this is still A Plague Tale despite Resonance’s swashbuckling tone. The weighty, emotional storytelling fans expect of the series will remain intact, and Sophia will likely be put through the wringer, mentally and physically. “We have to go dark at some point,” Bañuls teases.

A Sharper Edge

Chapter 4: To Hell it Runs opens with Sophia, joined by a comrade named Leni, already on the legendary Minotaur’s Island, the game’s primary and singular setting, and they find themselves at the precipice of an ancient temple. The pair exchange banter about surviving a devastating raid by Venetian forces on their plunderers' gang, and as my demo progresses, it’s clear these two share a close relationship. Chort tells me Leni is one of several companions who will assist Sophia at various points in her journey. 

The staircase leading to the temple has long since collapsed, so I need to find another route. I’m prompted to open Sophia's journal, which, like Nathan Drake before her, allows her to sketch important clues and other visual hints. A page displaying the temple door has a doodle of a tree with a cloth hanging from one of its branches. I search around and see this tree at the top of a small hill. A quick look reveals a small side path that takes me up to the tree, offering a basic example of how important the journal will be for proceeding when stuck.

As we shimmy over a cliff above the door, I hear the boom of nearby cannonfire.

”Dammit, they’re already here,” Sophia says.

“Already?” an incredulous Leni replies.

“They” refers to the Venetian soldiers who have seemingly followed the pair to this island and are just as eager to break into this temple to plunder its secrets. Sure enough, we reach a perch above the door and spot a group of soldiers slamming a battering ram into the colossal doors. To reach the other side without being seen, Sophia must use one of her primary tools, a grapple hook, to swing from the branch to, in theory, the temple above the soldiers. I say “in theory” because the branch snaps, causing her to slide down the sloping earth, jumping right into the fray of the surprised soldiers in a sequence that feels very Uncharted-coded. Surrounded, she has no choice but to fight her way out.

Sophia battles with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Players can find other swords by exploring. Each sword offers a unique perk; the falchion deals bonus damage after a successful critical strike, while the kopis lets the last hit in a combo deal stun damage. You can unlock up to seven swords, and they can be missed, making them purely optional. Chort confirms Sophia will never use any other type of weapon, and that’s just fine, because the combat is fantastic as is. 

Sophia cuts down foes with three-hit melee attacks, and she can block, dodge, and, most importantly, parry incoming offense. Parrying feels great, and nailing three consecutively fills a stagger meter below the enemy’s health bar; once full, the target becomes open to attack. Pressing and holding the attack button unleashes a charged attack using Sophia's dagger that can stun certain targets and trigger a violent execution if their health is low enough. Her grappling hook is a weapon, as well, used to bind and yank a target towards her. Sophia can also kick enemies to break their guard, but I much prefer to channel my inner Leonidas and kick them off ledges to send them plummeting to a hilarious demise. If you ask me how many times I killed a foe in this way, the answer is “yes.” 

Combat feels snappy, parries are deliciously weighty and impactful, but what I’m most impressed by are the dynamic interactions. Foes can be knocked into each other to create realistic collisions, which can also stagger them. I make heavy use of this to manage the often large mobs, kicking one foe into a group to send them stumbling over like bowling pins. Knocking foes into solid surfaces like walls has the same effect, and contextual executions mean Sophia has unique kill animations depending on how she and the enemy are positioned. Leni and other companions who join Sophia during her journey also lend a hand in battles. 

Combat's quality is even more impressive given that Resonance is Asobo’s first action game. The previous Plague Tale games are stealth-forward experiences, so Chort says the team played many action games to figure out how to approach Resonance’s action, ranging from superhero fare like Marvel’s Spider-Man and the Batman: Arkham series, to more challenging titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Sifu. The team eventually found its blueprint in a modern PlayStation classic. 

“...we started to find our way with Ghost of Tsushima,” Chort says. “So, combat against a group of people, dodging, countering, the fact [that] it's pretty realistic in terms of animation and violence, of what is a samurai. So we are like, ‘Okay, so for us, what is being a plunderer? So what is Sophia?’ So she's agile, she's tricky, she's visceral, violent. So this is the basics. And then, as we had the basics with Sofia, then our reference with Ghost of Tsushima, we iterated a lot.” 

Tomb Raiding

Outside of combat, exploring the temple requires solving several cleverly designed environmental puzzles in a row. Chort tells me that the ratio of puzzle-solving to combat is evenly split in Resonance, and several of the riddles I tackle require using a mysterious orb Sophia carries. The true significance of this artifact is being kept under wraps, but when exposed to sunlight, it emits a glow revealing hidden markings in the environment. 

In one hallway, I hold up the orb to illuminate hidden ink marking the spiked pressure plates I can step on safely in a room filled with them. Another riddle requires using the orb to reveal a hidden maze on the floor; I carefully follow its paths to various exits to find the corresponding symbols at their ends, which are tied to an elaborate door lock in a way I won’t spoil. I unravel several ancient contraptions in a row, each leading Sophia and Leni deeper into the temple. When I’m not sure how to proceed, hitting up on the d-pad asks Sophia’s companion for hints, which start as vague and layer more instructions with each subsequent inquiry. 

Exploring can also uncover collectible (but non-functional) relics from the present and the past. You can also find Resonance Points, skill points used to unlock abilities from a tree. You earn Resonance points in greater quantities by fighting, though you find them in singular units lying around. Speaking of exploration, Chort confirms Resonance is not an open-world game, but instead a more directed experience similar in scope to the last two games. 

Later in the chapter, I open one particularly grand door and trigger a playable flashback set centuries prior. I’m in a past version of the same room, surrounded by dozens of ancient Minoan soldiers. However, I now control Theseus, the legendary Greek hero famous for slaying the Minotaur, in a fiery battle ritual in a room lined with torches. After chanting figures praise the Minotaur, a ritualistic fight breaks out amongst the soldiers. 

These mysterious visions Sophia experiences occur throughout the adventure, and they’re a primary reason for why she’s come to Minotaur Island in the first place. Neither Chort nor Bañuls wants to reveal much about the plot implications of these segments, but the latter does discuss the myth’s thematic significance to the overall narrative.  

“The Minotaur symbolizes violence, instinct, and loss of control,” Bañuls explains. “And with Sophia, it was the perfect character to do that, because she really struggled to be vulnerable with people in her life. So we really got deep in this. And I could maybe tell you a line we have in the game. It's ‘Monsters hide, sometimes behind familiar faces.’ And I think it can [be a] résumé [for] the game.”

Armed with a sword as Theseus, I slaughter anyone in reach, kicking more foes into a big hole in the center, 300-style. I’m then prompted to unleash a Focus Attack, a big sweeping assault activated by simultaneously pressing two attack buttons after a meter fills (done by landing successful strikes). When this short sequence ends and I regain control of Sophia, she now has the ability to perform the Focus Attack in her time. 

One would assume Sophia will learn other combat abilities in this manner, but a “perhaps” is all I can get out of Chort when I ask if that’s the case. Asobo seems especially secretive about the Theseus segments, making me all the more fascinated to know how this iconic myth weaves into Sophia’s journey. 

All In The Name

One huge element of A Plague Tale appears notably absent from Resonance: rats. Bañuls is hesitant to say much when I ask if the dreaded Macula curse that plagued Amicia and Hugo has any presence in this prequel. She does clarify that the rats are more closely linked to the plague that befell France during the historical period in which the previous games take place and, thus, have no ties to the myth of the Minotaur. However, she does tease that the island hides other secrets that may be just as otherworldly. 

I conclude my interviews with the developers with one question: Why is the game called Resonance? Chort is, again, hesitant to divulge much but offers that “It's a lot about the story and the background of Sophia and what you discover on the island; her past, what she has in mind, what sort of things that she's feeling from her childhood, and that makes her come to this island. So I can't say a lot about that, but yeah, definitely, it's what's happening on the island that has a real sense with the name Resonance.”

“What I like about the word resonance [is that] it has two significations,” Bañuls explains. “It's the way the sound resonates in the place or in an object. And there is definitely something about a call for Sophia. The island is calling her in some way. And resonance also means how you go through things, how you feel things, how it resonates in you. So it was the perfect name to have all the [meanings] in it, and I think it makes sense now.”  

I’m eager to learn the meaning of the name and much more once Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy arrives later this year. With the Uncharted series on ice and Tomb Raider only now making its comeback after a lengthy hiatus, Sophia’s solo outing is one to keep an eye on for those who have missed this flavor of third-person action-adventure games. If the rest of the game maintains the high quality of this gameplay slice, Resonance may be the entry that finally earns this perhaps underappreciated franchise more widespread love.

Sabotage Studio is officially releasing its last update for Sea of Stars today. The news dropped in a video uploaded to the company's YouTube channel, which details today's update and outlines some plans for the future. 

Dubbed "Sunset Edition," the update mainly adds a new animated intro cinematic to the game, both to clarify some later events in the game and to serve as a fitting capstone on the project's development. Additionally,  the description of Sabotage's recent video reads, "We also revisited the balancing for Normal and Hard modes. Splitting the attributes of the Tactician’s Mettle relic into two separate relics (Tactician’s Mettle and Ray of Sunset) enables a 'Normal' experience that demands more grit."

Sea of Stars is also launching on GOG.com and Switch 2 today. The Switch 2 version will be a free upgrade for those that have the Switch 1 version and adds GameShare, allowing up to three players to play in local co-op. The video also announces plans to make a collector's edition of Sea of Stars alongside iam8bit, with more details to come at a later date.

For now, Sabotage Studio is moving onto its next game, called Project Sparrow. It's been in the works for over a year, but as it's only recently entered full production, Sabotage CEO Thierry Boulanger made it clear that it's not quite ready to share yet.

Sea of Stars: Sunset Edition is available today on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, Android, and PC via Steam (where it's currently 50% off), the Epic Games Store, and GOG. For more on Sea of Stars, check out our review of the game, our impressions of its Throes of the Watchmaker DLC, our interview with Boulanger about the games impressive success, or our cover story, first released back in Game Informer issue 354.

Platform: PlayStation 5, PC
Publisher: Konami, Annapurna Interactive
Developer: Screen Burn
Release: September 24, 2026

Silent Hill: Townfall is, in several ways, following the blueprint for a successful renaissance that worked wonders for Resident Evil. It roared back with a well-received remake of a beloved second entry in 2024’s Silent Hill 2, saw a proper sequel that served as a reinvention of sorts with last year’s Silent Hill f, and now it’s making the jump to first-person in Silent Hill: Townfall. As a fan of developer Screen Burn’s (formerly known as No Code) last released game, the sci-fi horror adventure Observation, I’ve been itching to see how it would handle Konami’s most frightening franchise. After watching a hands-off gameplay demo at Summer Game Fest Play Days, the game looks to be a fusion of franchise staples with Screen Burn’s intriguing quirks.

Screen Burn is based in Glasgow, Scotland, so to imprint its unique cultural roots, Silent Hill: Townfall takes place on the Scottish island of St. Amelia. The bespectacled Simon Ordell returns to this island, beckoned by a mysterious woman appearing on his portable television device, begging him to find her. This handheld CRTV is Townfall’s reinvention of the classic Silent Hill radio and the game’s centerpiece mechanic. The screen occasionally displays video of this woman as her static-filled messages fuel Simon’s search. Screen Burn went as far as to record the CRTV’s videos using old cameras and equipment to create footage that matches the appropriate quality.

As Simon explores the abandoned city streets (with buildings rendered using photo scans of real Scottish towns), the sense of dread immediately sets in. There’s no music, and the ambient noises that occasionally break the oppressive silence can be startling. The CRTV acts as a compass of sorts; following the static signal eventually leads him to a house. Simon knocks, but no one answers. However, the door is ajar, so he cautiously creaks it open and enters the abode. 

A pile of letters lies at Simon’s feet, the top of which is addressed to Zoe Ellis. Simon calls out to Zoe, but again is met with silence. It’s here that Screen Burn tells us that Simon is not a chatty protagonist. He rarely speaks aloud when he’s alone, so his inner thoughts are presented as plain text on screen, such as “No one is here,” or “The girl in this photo looks happy” when examining a framed picture. As he inspects both floors of the impressively rendered home, Simon finds gauze used for healing and a flashlight missing batteries. Later, he enters the kitchen and finds an unexpected and disturbing item: an organ transplant container. A combination lock seals the box shut, so we’ll have to wait before we see what’s inside. Simon then finds a closet under the stairs, but it’s pitch-black inside. It’s time to look for batteries for the flashlight. 

Simon heads upstairs, and at the center of the room sits a side table with a framed portrait of himself. Why would there be a picture of him at this house? As he ponders that, he finds some batteries in one of the rooms, gets the flashlight working, and heads to the stairway closet. Now that he can see inside, he finds the problem: the fuse box needs an electricity card inserted into it. Perhaps it’s because I’m American, but I have no idea how this system works. The demoer explains that, back in the old days in Scotland, you needed to buy special cards from stores to insert into a fuse-box-like panel to turn on the power. Or at least, that’s the gist of it.  But this puzzle highlights Screen Burn’s desire to do away with the more outlandish, unrealistic puzzles of other Silent Hill games in favor of more grounded, believable riddles centered on old technology. 

Simon needs to visit a news store to find an electric card, which will bring him back onto the streets. He pulls out his in-game town map that marks points of interest and, when flipped over, has a legend on the back. He eventually finds the news store, but the front door is locked; he needs to find another way to enter. Unfortunately, it’s at this point that we meet our first enemy. A grotesque bipedal creature shambles in, its torso bound by straps like it's wearing a straitjacket. Its head, so to speak, is impaled by a metallic rectangle, giving it’s skull an axe-like appearance. Simon is unarmed, so his safest option is to avoid being seen. 

You can peek behind corners, and Screen Burn touts how its take on this mechanic is more advanced, meaning you can peek at additional, more flexible angles while remaining concealed. We also get to see another feature of Simon’s seemingly supernatural CRTV: the ability to reveal enemies through walls. Instead of sticking your neck out to see where a monster lurks, holding up the radio reveals a digital silhouette of nearby threats to provide a heads-up on their position. Using this feature, Simon slips past the monster unseen and enters a back door to the store. He finds an electri-card and his first weapon, a wooden 2x4, and exits. It’s a good thing he found that weapon because he comes face to face with the broad-headed creature he’d previously avoided.

The first-person combat is weighty and deliberate, much like in most Silent Hill games, but in a new perspective. He takes some overhead swings at the monster, creating sickening impacts, but the creature is too fast and too powerful. After just a couple of headbutts, Simon goes down. He may be fragile, but he has a useful and intriguing trick up his sleeve in the ability to instantly revive. This is due to an IV that’s, for some reason, attached to his left arm, and the revive can only be done once per death, it seems. We don’t get to see how round two goes because it’s here that the demo ends.

I love first-person Resident Evil games because I find the more intimate perspective ratchets up the scares tenfold. The same feels true of Silent Hill: Townfall. The demo retained the oppressive atmosphere I’d expect from the series as well as some presentational and gameplay staples, and I’m intrigued to see Screen Burn layer its own take on puzzle-solving. I don’t know what to make of Simon or his plight yet, but it has my curiosity as well as my attention. I look forward to uncovering the answers when Silent Hill: Townfall launches on September 24. 

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios

The Virtua Fighter franchise has been one of innovation. After pioneering 3D polygonal fighting in 1993, each successive entry has added new folds to the formula en route to 2006's critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5. However, following that, something happened: The series vanished. Sega has released revisions of Virtua Fighter 5 over the years, with the most recent one hitting just last year, but an all-new series has eluded fans. With the developers behind the Like a Dragon series and the also-upcoming Stranger Than Heaven, RGG Studio, at the helm, Virtua Fighter is finally coming back in 2027, and it may be its most innovative title since the advent of the series.

Amid a broader landscape, which sees Sega reviving many of its dormant classic franchises, with new entries in series like Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Crazy Taxi either recently released or on the horizon, Virtua Fighter also being revived makes sense. Still, according to RGG Studio, it was less about timing and more about the team figuring out an appropriate innovation to continue pushing the series forward.

"Just to talk about why there hasn't been one in so long, it's because every time we release a new number, there had to have been a really big, innovative part; it's almost like our duty," head of the Virtua Fighter IP Toshihiro Nakaya says. "The new title has to be something really awesome, innovative, and creative. That's why it took so long to get where we are. And because in that amount of time, the video game landscape has changed dramatically, the new concept here is breaking the mold of what a fighting game is, and releasing an amazing package of a game."

To achieve this innovation, RGG Studio established what it considers a new genre, the fighting adventure, with the aim to move beyond the scale of traditional fighting games and revitalize the franchise. In that way, Virtua Fighter Crossroads features a large-scale narrative that, according to RGG Studio, expands beyond what the fighting-game genre has seen to this point. Leveraging the studio's storied history with narrative-driven action games, like the Like a Dragon games, combined with an all-new action movie-inspired combat system, Virtua Fighter Crossroads redefines the franchise.

Taking place in a fictional Southeast Asian city called Vilasapara, players find themselves in familiar setting for Like a Dragon developer: an area full of unsavory characters, run by gangs. Here in Vilasapara, firearms are banned, but that doesn't mean violence isn't absent. In fact, in this seedy society, most disputes are settled via fisticuffs, to the extent that the city attracts people who are down on their luck in search of money through underground fight tournaments. 

For narrative inspiration, RGG looked toward The Watchmen comic series, to find a narrative that is simultaneously both outlandish and believable. "[Previous] Virtua Fighters have a story, but it's never been, in-game, really well documented," creative director and producer Riichiro Yamada says. "But we still want to pay homage to that, but really modernize it, so that it makes sense in the current climate. The other really important point we really drove home is that it has to be believable, even though it's sort of a different world, and some stuff might be a little off, like RGG does with their stories, it makes it very grounded."

In keeping with that philosophy, the next in-universe tournament is not so underground, as President Bato introduces the Vila Fight Fest tournament in hopes of boosting the economy. Meanwhile, a mysterious man known as The Bakunawa Killer has been targeting martial artists in the city. This serves as the jumping off point and backdrop for a story that follows four protagonists through a living city full of a venerable buffet of content for players to explore. In addition to the battle content, players can visit restaurants, participate in side quests, play minigames, and even expand and develop relationships. 

In addition to that, the story is multi-branching, adapting to the choices and actions of the player. "It's a big differentiator between other RGG titles," Yamada says. "There hasn't been a game like this, so that's why we're calling it a crossroad-style adventure."

The combat itself is more technical than a standard RGG game, drawing inspiration from the fighting game genre as a whole. Action Adventure mode features multi-opponent fights that add new twists into the franchise, but one on one battles, similar to traditional Virtua Fighter mechanics, are also available to play. However, everything just has a completely new sheen of modernity, with new systems like Break and Rush, where you can target parts of your opponent's body to "break" them, giving you the advantage. 

Meanwhile, Flow Guard is a new cinematic defense system to give players more control over how they guard against incoming attacks, and Stunner attacks open opponents to take additional damage. And thanks to RGG's love of action movies, as evident by pretty much its entire catalog, the battles play out in much more cinematic fashion; in one final blow I witness, the camera zooms in on the recipient's face as the punch connects and his tooth goes flying before he collapses in defeat.

However, RGG is hesitating to go more into the fighting mechanics, even telling us that it will ultimately be up to the players and community on whether or not the game is tournament-ready. "There's a lot of fighting game players who are going to want to know more details, more nitty gritty, more mechanics, and we hear you," Yamada says. "We just really want to show off that this is a new game, there's action adventure, there's a whole new concept. But of course, down the line, we will be explaining more and more for you guys later. It is sort of a new genre of fighting adventure. For me, the most important bit is just people can pick it up and they'll love the game. They'll play it, they'll have a great time, and it's a fusion of both genres. All that matters is people love the game."

I'm disappointed I didn't have the chance to play Virtua Fighter Crossroads, and I have additional questions about how this will all come together while still retaining the soul of a fighting game. However, it's impossible to deny that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is taking massive swings in hopes of completely flipping not only the fabled Virtua Fighter franchise on its head, but also expanding what a fighting game can even be, just as it did in 1993.

Believe it or not, Persona 4 Revival was first revealed a year ago today, when a trailer dropped during the Xbox showcase and gave the first confirmation that the highly-rumored game was real. Yesterday, we got a new look at its gameplay, along with a release date reveal, during the Xbox Games Showcase, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions. Luckily, it sounds like developer Atlus wants to give us more of those details fairly soon, as it's announced a Persona 4 Revival Broadcast will air next week. It will begin on June 18 at 4 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. ET, and you'll be able to find it on the official Atlus YouTube channel, right here.

Persona 4 Revival is a remake of the beloved JRPG first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2008. Revival, much like 2023's Persona 3 Reloaded, will update Persona 4's visuals and mechanics to more closely align with the modern entries in the series, first established in Persona 5. While we expect a general facelift and quality of life improvements, it's yet to be revealed just how different Revival will be from its source material. It also appears to include at least some content from Persona 4 Golden; fans have spotted footage of an interaction with a character named Marie that does not appear in the base game. 

We'll learn more at this broadcast next week, on Thursday June 18. Persona 4 Revival is scheduled to be released on February 18, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. For more Persona, check out this week's reveal of Persona 6. For more Summer Game Fest, check out Game Informer's coverage hub.