The Games of September 2018

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Warp Zoned Staff

It’s Labor Day here in the US, but we’re busy working hard to catalog all of September’s biggest upcoming game releases. And there are a lot of them.

Like everyone else, the Warp Zoned staff is very much looking forward to Sony and Insomniac’s new take on Spider-Man. But we’re also excited to get our hands on Square Enix’s massive new RPG, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age; Team17’s alien adventure, Planet Alpha; Crystal Dynamics’s “Young Lara Croft” finale, Shadow of the Tomb Raider; and Nintendo’s standalone RPG expansion, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country.

You can find out why each of these games has us so excited after the break.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (September 4)
Though we never got a chance to try out Dragon Quest X on this side of the Pacific, Square Enix has made good on their renewed pledge to re-popularize the franchise in North America. With a bevy of spinoffs making their way to multiple platforms in recent years, it’s been a good time to be a Dragon Quest fan. And now that the latest full-fledged sequel is coming back to consoles (Dragon Quest IX was a DS exclusive) I’m even more excited.

The mainline games in the franchise are all punched out of a pretty standard turn-based RPG template, so I don’t expect Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age to break any new ground in that respect. But stepping back into a world with characters designed by Akira Toriyama and hearing that familiar battle music is all I ask for. Oh, and maybe an evil lord to vanquish too. – John Scalzo

Planet Alpha (September 4)
A game I’ve been following for a while is Team 17’s Planet Alpha. Every trailer I have seen has struck the same chords as Journey, and left me mesmerised by how beautiful its alien planets look. I’m also impressed by how well the 2.5D world interacts with the level itself, with the camera twisting slightly to reveal more, like an alien dinosaur-esque creatue eating leaves from a nearby tree, or alien lasers cutting up the world in the background as well as the ledges you are leaping from. Although it’s multiplatform, I’ve been putting in a lot of time on my Switch with platformers and MetroidVania titles, and this seems like such a perfect fit. – Andrew Rainnie

Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition (September 6)
September is an amazing month for games coming out on the Switch, especially games that have already been out for other systems. I’m not normally one to buy a game multiple times, but the new boss and weapons in the Switch version of Hyper Light Drifter are just too amazing to pass up. Plus, I’ve always wanted to play it on the go, and this makes that dream come true. I can’t wait to get into that immersive, moody world again. – Nicole Kline

Spider-Man (September 7)
As soon as I get back from lying on an Indonesian beach for two weeks (it’s called a honeymoon for a reason folks), I’m going to be swinging through the stunningly-rendered streets of New York as Spider-Man. Seriously, this game has me giddy. After decades of Activision’s woeful efforts to capitalise on its Marvel licenses, Insomnaic looks to have cracked it in the same way that Rocksteady did with the Arkham series (and possibly Superman, but I digress). The marketing for this game has been phenomenal, teasing enough without giving away all the game’s secrets. The fact that Miles Morales is not only in the game but also part of the storyline (as opposed to just an Easter Egg) only adds to by my excitement.

Now, if only they can squeeze in a Deadpool cameo… – Andrew Rainnie

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (September 14)
It’s hard to remember nowadays, but there was a time when Lara Croft was a bit of a joke. But Crystal Dynamics (thanks to writer Rhianna Pratchett) has managed to reinvent the character for a new generation of gamers. Their Lara is tough, resourceful, and adventurous, and all those qualities have been on display in Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s pre-release material. The jungle setting is giving me some serious Indiana Jones and Predator vibes, and the emphasis on stealth is something we haven’t really seen from the franchise before.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider might be “The End of the Beginning,” but I predict that this version of Lara Croft will stick around for quite some time. – John Scalzo

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country (September 14)
Oddly, I’m conflicted about whether or not to get Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country. I adored Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, but the sequel fell shy of hitting its greatness. The story was overly complicated, with enough back story to churn out a prequel, but perhaps that was the plan all along. I didn’t find the combat as challenging as the first game, where I had to think about the class of my player-character and their abilities.

That said, I did manage to put in over 120 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but I just don’t have more time to devote to what is essentially the backstory of that game. I may pick it up in the far-flung future, but I’d rather wait for a new sequel with a better combat system and a more-focused story line. This makes it sound like I hated XC2, but I loved it and its huge, expansive, beautiful worlds. But it didn’t quite hang together as well as it should have.

What are you looking forward to this month? More games scheduled to be released in September 2018 can be found right here…

September 3, 2018

September 4, 2018

September 6, 2018

September 7, 2018

September 11, 2018

September 13, 2018

September 14, 2018

September 18, 2018

September 25, 2018

September 27, 2018

September 28, 2018

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