Since this is the full version of Tales of Arise, we’re getting both the base game and Beyond the Dawn expansion. The initial adventure takes place during the Crown Contest on the planet Dahna, with the Five Lords Balseph, Ganabelt, Dohalim, Almeidrea, and Vholran competing to collect the most astral energy in their Master Core to become Sovereign of Rena, the twin world to Dahna. When Alphen, a mysterious Dahnan in an iron mask enslaved under Balseph, meets Shionne, a Renan with a curse that creates thorns that hurt anyone who touches her and a Master Core that spawns a Blazing Sword only Alphen can wield due to being unable to feel any pain. The expansion takes place a year after the end of the original game and involves Alphen, Shionne, and their allies after they encounter a young woman named Nazamil who is both a Dahnan and Renan. While attempting to help the persecuted teenager, the group also ends up dealing with the aftermath of the original game.

So coming to Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition on Switch 2, I’ve had quite a lot of time to think about the original game’s story and the follow-up expansion. I still feel this is a strong story for the series, especially once we get to the sort of trademark “reveal” that seems to be a staple for the series. I think my biggest critique coming back to it years later is how conveniently the party pairings sometimes read. (What with Alphen with Shionne, Dohalim with Kisara, and the hints of Law with Rinwell.) 

I do feel like the main campaign tells a stronger tale than the Beyond the Dawn plotline with Nazamil. There are some valuable insights there, such as explaining what happened with certain technologies, showing how people are adapting to the changes in the world, and addressing prejudices following the last Crown Contest and war. It is interesting and a fun playthrough, especially if someone did love the main campaign and cast. I feel it sometimes isn’t as compelling.

The mechanics remain strong and feel as comfortable in Tales of Arise on the Switch 2 as they did when first release. It’s still an active combat system with four players available at once, with buttons being used for Artes and Techniques, competent dodge mechanics, an Over Limit system that rewards skilled evasion, and Boost Strikes to power up attacks. Some characters can feel truly different when you play as them, such as Kisara coming across as a tank with her moveset and guarding and Rinwell playing as though she’s a true mage. The Emblem system also makes acquiring new Artes and Techniques feel more eventful.

In terms of performance, Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition on the Switch 2 works wonderfully. It absolutely maintained its 30fps frame rate admirably during my battles and when exploring the overworld. If someone had told me sometimes it even did better than that, I’d believe it. The 1080p handheld view is great, and most of the textures looked spot-on. I know the PS4 version I played years ago also locked in at 30fps and 1080p. I hopped into an older save on that system while playing the Switch 2 version in handheld mode and I think it’s more impressive on Nintendo’s console considering it wasn’t docked when testing it out. Now, it isn’t going to be as good as the PS5 performance, since that could hit 60fps/1620p or around 30fps/4k. But what we have here looks well, runs well, and loads quickly.  

Even finding the owls somehow seems easier and less annoying in Tales of Arise on the Switch 2. I don’t know if there was a post-launch patch that I missed when going through the PS4 version of the game, but I sometimes had the most difficult time pinning them down and hearing the audio queues. Here? Not an issue. The Switch 2 speakers in handheld mode make it easy to pin them down and they’re very visible when you do find one in the field. 

Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition is as strong of a JRPG on the Switch 2 as it was on the PS4, and the port works perfectly. It runs so well, and it’s a delight to play in handheld mode. This also being the full and complete version of the game with the expansion and cosmetic DLC also helps it feel like a strong new staple to the system’s RPG library.

Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn Edition will be available on the Switch 2 on March 22, 2026. It will be available physically, but as a game-key card release.

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This year, there will be three ways to watch the June 2026 State of Play and see the teasers for PS5 games. Two are obvious ones. It will be streaming on Sony’s official PlayStation YouTube and Twitch accounts. It will also appear on the big screen at some Alamo Drafthouse locations. Six locations will offer free tickets for showings for it. Sony said people near the Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Raleigh, and San Francisco Bay area theaters can attend. 

You can see the placeholder for the State of Play below.

Only one game is confirmed for the showcase so far. That’s Marvel’s Wolverine, the PS5 game that looks at the X-Men hero over various periods of his life. This will offer an extended look at it ahead of the September 15, 2026 debut. We might also see more of Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a PS5 and PC fighter from Arc System Works and Sony that involves many comic heroes and villains.

The next Sony State of Play showcase will look at PS5 games like Marvel’s Wolverine at at 2pm PT/5pm ET/11pm CET on June 2, 2026. 

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Bkub had previously designed a merchandise lineup focused on the Persona 5 protagonist “Joker” in late 2025. The artist returns to add more illustrations based on Persona 5: The Phantom X‘s protagonist “Wonder” and earlier protagonists from the first four iterations.

Pre-orders for this merchandise collection are available via empty.tokyo until June 10, 2026, and the company will then ship the items domestically within Japan in July 2026. The prices will range from ¥550 (~$3.45) for a random badge or a set of four stickers, to ¥6,160 (~$38.75) for a box of eight small acrylic stands.

The Bandai Namco group is also separately producing new Persona wafers that it will sell via the Japanese Premium Bandai website. Pre-orders for the wafers are immediately available on the Japan-exclusive site, with a 20-in-1 pack priced at ¥3,420 (~$21.50).

This will be the third time Bandai has released Persona-themed wafers. The company first released wafers based on Persona 3 and 5 in 2024, followed by a second batch that added Persona 4 in 2025.

The 30th anniversary of the Persona series will formally fall on September 20, 2026, which is exactly 30 years since Atlus released the inaugural Persona entry for PlayStation in Japan on September 20, 1996.

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The official YouTube channel for the show also uploaded a trailer for Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War – The Calamity. You can watch it here:

As mentioned earlier, the theatrical debut of the first three episodes will be a one-day-only event. People who go will receive a set of three key animation prints. Ticket applications close on June 10, 2026, and they’ll announce the results on June 13, 2026.

The United Cinema Aqua City Odaiba location will also have a premium stage greeting before and after the show (though the one afterwards is exclusive to members of Klub Outside). Tickets for this one cost 3500 JPY ($22). Klub Outside members can also receive a limited edition sticker drawn by Tite Kubo himself. The guests for this event are: Masakazu Morita (Ichigo), Noriaki Sugiyama (Uryu), Shinichiro Miki (Urahara), Yuichiro Umehara (Jugram), and Shunsuke Takeuchi (Askin).

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War – The Calamity will start airing in July 2026. It’s streaming on platforms like Hulu and Disney+ if you wish to catch up on previous parts.

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Many of the items focus on that Pikachu variant. Like many of the special edition Pokemon Pikachu plush, the Excavator version is dressed in a full costume. It stands at about eight inches tall. The outfit doesn’t seem removable. It costs $29.99. We also see the character on items like a keychain, pin, sweatshirt, and TCG accessories.

Here’s a full list of all the Pokemon Fossil Museum merchandise now available outside Japan. 

• Adventurer Backpack – $39.99.
• Archeops Skeleton Acrylic Key Chain – $12.99.
• Compass Logo Hat (One Size-Adult) – $24.99.
• Compass Logo Magnet – $9.99.
• Excavator Pikachu & Aerodactyl Pullover Hoodie – Adult – $49.99.
• Excavator Pikachu Acrylic Keychain – $12.99.
• Excavator Pikachu Logo Pin – $9.99.
• Excavation Pikachu Pin – $9.99.
• Excavator Pikachu Plush – $29.99.
• Excavator Pikachu Pokemon TCG Playmat – $24.99.
• Excavator Pikachu & Tyrantrum Skeleton Commemorative Coin – $12.99.
• Lanyard – $8.99.
• Pikachu Hat (One Size-Adult) – $24.99.
• Pikachu Hat (One Size-Youth) – $19.99.
• Pikachu Sweatshirt – Adult – $49.99.
• Pikachu T-Shirt – Adult – $24.99.
• Pikachu T-Shirt – Youth – $19.99.
• Pokemon TCG Card Sleeves (65 count) – $7.99.
• Pokemon TCG Double Deck Box – $12.99.
• Pokemon TCG Zip Binder – $24.99.
• Postcards (5-pack) – $9.99.
• Puzzle (500 pieces) – $12.99.
• Skeletons Mini Magnets (9 count) – $19.99.
• Skeletons Mug (12 oz) – $14.99.
• Skeletons Pin Box Set (4-pack) – $34.99.
• Skeletons Poster – $14.99.
• Skeletons Puzzle (100 pieces) – $12.99.
• Skeletons T-Shirt – Adult – $24.99.
• Skeletons Water Bottle (17 oz) – $21.99.
• Stickers (4-pack) – $11.99.
• Tote Bag – $14.99.
• Tyrantrum Skeleton Acrylic Key Chain – $12.99.
• Zip-Up Hoodie – Youth – $39.99.

Here’s how all the items look: 

The Pokemon Fossil Museum will open on May 22, 2026 at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, and the Pokemon Center is already selling plush and merchandise tied to it. 

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While the star of both series is Lucius Modestus, the time traveler from Rome who ends up in modern Japan and back again, this chapter focuses entirely on his wife Satsuki in Japan. Following events in previous chapters, she’s ended up separated in her family and back in her hometown. This installment focuses on what her life is currently like, the obligations she faces as a result of being there, and her thinking about what she could and should do next. At the end, we do get to see Lucius again and Marius, acting as a teaser for what might possibly happen next. 

The original Thermae Romae manga ran for for five years and ended up being chronicled in six volumes. Yen Press handled that release. The original nine-episode anime is streaming on Crunchyroll, and the 11 episodes of the Novae one is on Netflix. 

The Thermae Romae Redux sequel manga is running in Japan, though we don’t know when chapter 15 will appear. 

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While Dragonite is of course a fixture here, the star is Hana. She’s adored the Pokemon mail carrier who brings her letters her whole life and wants to do that same job. So much so that she joins the Paldean Post Office as an employee. At the moment, she only sorts mail alongside her partner Fuecoco. When they find a letter with no address, the two get a chance to find out who sent it and where it is supposed to go. 

Here’s the full English version of the Pokemon special episode “Dragonite and the Special Delivery.” If the style looks familiar, it’s because Comix Wave Films previously worked on Suzume and Your Name. 

We’ll need to wait until 2027 for the next mainline entry in the series. That will be Pokemon Winds and Waves. However, while that is still a bit away, Nintendo has teased it. We learned what the starters for it will be, and the main theme song appeared online.

The most recent games in the series are Pokemon Pokopia for the Switch 2 and Pokemon Champions for the Switch, Switch 2, and eventually mobile devices.

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Here’s the announcement post, which only confirms that a new FuRyu game will be revealed later this week and shares the AnomalyZCO account. It included a single image with obscured images. There are no clues as to what kind of game this might end up being.

As for the AnomalyZCO account, it shares videos about unusual products design to “help” people. One of the first videos involved a candy bar that could affect emotions and someone’s mental conditions. Another involved a frozen ice bar treat that could affect a person’s body temperature. The May 19, 2026 post noted that the products showcased may be regulated, suggesting a temporary end to reveals. 

This means there are three titles from the company on the way. First, it confirmed a remaster of the former 3DS and Vita JRPG Exstetra. That will appear worldwide on PCs. Then it announced a new entry in the Crystar and Crymachinaseries called Crymelight.

The new FuRyu game will be revealed on May 22, 2026. 

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In the case of Avatar Arcade, heading into it lets someone Spar with a Master or start a Battle Tour. The former is a single match where you set the difficulty to take part in one match. It’s a means to get items, gears, and moves. The latter involves a course with multiple battles, endings from past Street Fighter games, and other rewards. Entering one shows you how many stages, the course and opponent levels, and proficiency you can expect. New Challengers can also pop up during a run. This allows you to earn Outfit 2 costumes for masters by filling Acquisition Gauge by fighting them. 

If someone selects Random Avatar Match, they can immediately jump into matchmaking or head into Training Mode. Here, people can access every Master Style, Special Moves, and Super Arts to create a character, with the Breakneck Brawler Outfit also available. Entering a random match tosses you into a fight where Level Sync ensures parity and fixes levels and base parameters. Fighting lets you earn more equipment, with the Avatar Points being able to be spent in the Avatar Room Rewards.

Here’s the trailer showing what to expect from the Avatar Arcade and Random Avatar Matches modes in Street Fighter 6. 

This is one of two major updates arriving at the end of May 2026. That same day is when the Ingrid DLC will appear. This marks the next major appearance of the Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max heroine.

Street Fighter 6 is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, and Windows PC, and Avatar Arcade and Random Avatar Matches modes appear on May 28, 2026.

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The video explains that Elliot is traveling to different time periods in the hopes of finding a way to save a doomed kingdom. He travels alongside a fairy who helps with unique abilities. Since this is only a sample, we can’t explore all four ages found in-game, but can at least sample some of the story and combat. 

Here’s the full trailer looking at what to expect from the demo. 

This is the second The Adventures of Elliot demo to appear, with the first being a debut trial that came out alongside the July 2025 Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase. It was followed by a feedback survey. In the past, it did something similar with Bravely Default II. 

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales will come to the Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on June 18, 2026, and the prologue demo is available now. 

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This game will place the player in the role of Nozomi, who has a younger sister named Hikari. The latter has been studying at a college in the Nagano prefecture, but she has not been in touch around the time news broke out that another student from the same college was murdered. As an armchair detective, Nozomi will have to scour two sites in the fictional internet—the search engine Glome and the social media platform Z—for clues about Hikari’s whereabouts.

One of the promotional images for this game hints that it is also coming to Xbox Series X|S. However, Zakuzaku sent the press release to numerous Japanese outlets—namely Gamer, Famitsu, and DenFamiNico Gamer—and all of them only mention Switch, PS5, and Steam as the release platforms. The game’s release for the Xbox platform is therefore not confirmed yet.

RD’s Remote Deduction will be available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam in 2026. A new playable demo build of the game, featuring the Glome website, will appear at BitSummit PUNCH in Kyoto’s Miyako Messe on May 22-24, 2026.

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While the Petit Planet Stardrift Test beta is ending, HoYoVerse did explain two ways to preserve “memories” of the experience. One involved Nalo’s memories. It noted that if you go to the Cafe Untamed Feedback Survey and take it, Nalo will remember. This is optional, so someone who does want to start fresh in 1.0 can by opting to not take it. 

The other event is called Share Your Planet Memories. This runs until March 25, 2026. To take part, a person must go to HoYoLab and create a post either with a written record of the beta or a screenshot. Then, use the #Stardrift Test Check-In hashtag. This earns someone a Oumuamua profile background.

We still don’t know when 1.0 of Petit Planet will launch. It’s possible news could come around Summer Game Fest 2026 or the 2026 Tokyo Game Show. 

Petit Planet is in development for the PC and mobile devices, and HoYoVerse’s Stardrift Test beta will end on May 25, 2026.

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Though this is a Yoshi game, things kick off when Bowser Jr finds an odd book in his father’s library. After reading about some creatures in it, he heads off in his Clown Car in search of one of them. However, this leads to him inadvertently getting sucked into it, the vehicle crashing, and the Yoshis all finding the book left behind. It’s then that the book wakes up and  introduces itself as Mister Encyclopedia. (Mr. E for short.) It explains that it chronicles different creatures in its pages, but can’t actually read itself. Since that information is gone, it asks if the Yoshis would like to read through and investigate the creatures it chronicled to recover the discoveries.

Rather than a typical stage and world structure, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book adopts a structure that ties in with the book theme. Each chapter is associated with a different biome, and the levels are entries for each entity. We use Mr. E’s monocle as a magnifying glass to read, then teleport into, the book to get firsthand experience with the characters inside. Some are friendly! Others don’t seem to pay the Yoshi much mind. (You can choose which color character you control, so it isn’t always Super Mario staple Yoshi.) There are hostile ones too! Rather than the goal being to get through an entire stage, it’s to trigger certain reactions or happen upon different discoveries via interactions with the beings in the book to fill up the article associated with each one. 

It’s that experimentation that makes Yoshi and the Mysterious Book so fascinating, since the ways of acquiring information aren’t always obvious. Yes, Yoshi licking the folks he encounter is always one of the first things on the to-do list, as are things like trying to pop them on the back for a ride or ground pound them. But other situations can involve leading characters somewhere, forcing them into certain encounters, pairing them up with other established creatures, and going through certain situations. These gives you entries that can be worth a certain number of stars and fill up their section, with said stars being put toward the hallmarks needed to unlock new Chapters in the Table of Contents so you can learn and unlock more. Getting the three-star discovery in an area unlocks a portal to hop out, but you can also head to the in-game menu and choose to leave it at any time. 

What ends up making it feel even more special is the way in which Yoshi and the Mysterious Book grows. There’s a lot of depth to it. In each Chapter biome, there will typically be one or two creatures immediately accessible. Others won’t show up until you start to chronicle those other characters. Once they do appear, their emergence might add more encounters or options to existing stages, making it worth revisiting those locations for more details. There are constant excuses to pop back and revisit. And, since there is a hint system tied to stars we’ve collected and a living ink blot creature that nudges you toward beings you should revisit for new insights that open up additional things, it also feels like it is impossible to get lost or overlook anything truly important. 

I also didn’t expect the narrative to be woven in so well, considering this does feel more like an adventure where the goal is to learn about creatures. It is woven into everything in a natural way. At the same time, when Yoshi does encounter Bowser Jr and Kamek the execution provides opportunities to learn more about the character that is the “star” of that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book level. It’s not only advancing the story. It’s introducing a new puzzle and chance to learn. 

Another thing I loved is how the way it is all handled means you can unlock so much so early on, allowing you to approach the additional Chapters in the way you’d like. Now, when I went into it, I decided I want to max out as much of the first biome and its critters as I could. As a result, but the time I was done, I had actually unlocked the second, third, and fourth due to the number of stars accumulated. So I could then hop around and prioritize investigating creatures I found most interesting or cutest, which felt like a really fun and unexpected way to play. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not only an unusual platformer, its experimental nature can make it feel like an entirely new type of experience. I’m delighted by the idea of popping in and out of levels to investigate new finds about creatures and learning about what to expect from them based on an array of interactions. Especially since each case feels quite different from the other, turning every character into a puzzle to solve. It feels like a casual, relaxed sort of safari. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will come to the Switch 2 on May 21, 2026. 

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The official Japanese trailer offers an example of how it looks. People will take photos of peoples’ faces or uses ones on their camera roll. This will then be used in a WarioWare style minigame that is only a few seconds long and involves using a touch screen to achieve a result. For example, one instance in the video involved eating corn, and another getting critters off of a person’s face. Another minigame involved unwrapping two people who’d been covered in bandages like a mummy, with only their eyes visible. Even some of the sound effects bear similarities to WarioWare ones.

Here’s the full Japanese trailer.

The last entry in the WarioWare series was Move It, which appeared on the Switch. That entry’s minigames involved motion controls, as the name suggested. Prior to that, WarioWare: Get It Together’s gimmick involved multiplayer, with up to two people in the campaign and four otherwise each using a Joy-Con to pick a character and play through the microgames. 

Pictonico will come to Android and iOS devices on May 28, 2026. 

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Over the past few years, Square Enix has been replacing the old Final Fantasy XI servers with newer and stronger ones. Fujito explains that the newer servers allow for virtualization, which makes them easier to maintain. Instead of physically restarting the server, they can just run a process for that.

Fujito adds that these server replacements are for letting the game continue service, rather than so that the team can add more content without overloading them. If they wish to update the servers to further develop the game, they would need to make proper plans to do so. Currently, even though the servers have been virtualized, they’re still the same as before, so they’re simply maintaining the systems and programs.

At the end of the interview, Fujito floated the possibility of new developments to the game once he secures more resources. Since there hasn’t been any new story since the Voracious Resurgence, he would like to do something about that. However, the people he needs are working on other projects, and so he would have to wait until they’re free. At the same time, he is asking engineers to look at the middleware for resource management, so once they’re done with that, they can make new cutscenes again. Right now, they’re laying the groundwork for more potential content.

Final Fantasy XI is readily available on the Windows PC.

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