PS4-exclusive titles include LEGO Jurassic World, LEGO Worlds, Rogue Lords and Tales of Zestiria. Need for Speed Unbound and The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition round out the PS5-exclusive titles.

As for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, they gain access to two PS4/PS5 titles – Jet Moto 2 for the PS One and Resistance: Retribution from the PSP era – and two PS4 titles – Tales of Symphonia Remastered and Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. All PS4 titles should be playable on PS5 with backwards compatibility, further increasing the number of offerings.

PlayStation Plus currently has 47.4 milion subscribers. Head here for more details on active users for PlayStation Network, along with other sales updates from Sony.

Sony’s ongoing streaming service continues to add games this month, and it looks like May is going to be a pretty big one. Not only will we see the latest installment in the megahit Batman: Arkham series, there’s a little something for everyone this month even beyond that, with a lot of different games joining the catalog.

As detailed via the PlayStation blog, May boasts a pretty impressive list of new titles. The headliner is, without doubt, Batman: Arkham Knight, the conclusion to Rocksteady’s Batmansaga. Not too far behind is Konami and PlatinumGames’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Ultimate Edition, which includes not only the base game, but all the DLC as well.

For the younger audiences there’s, Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game. There’s also something for the mystery minded in Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter, and a PS3-to-PS4 upgrade for Tales of Zestiria, along with a lot more. You can check out the whole list below.

These games will be available this month on the PS Now service for subscribers, which you can stream to any PlayStation 4 or capable PC. It also allows you to download any PS4 or PS2 game directly to your PlayStation 4.

• 8-Bit Armies (PS4)
• Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4)
• Brawlout (PS4)
• Dangerous Golf (PS4)
• Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game (PS4)
• Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (PS3)
• Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Ultimate Edition (PS3)
• Miko Gakkout Monogatari: Kaede Episode (PS4)
• Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (PS4)
• Tales of Zestiria (PS4 Upgrade)

So you can understand why I was cautious going into Tales of Zestiria- I’m not the games’ biggest fan to begin with, and from what I gather, Zestiria generated a fair bit of controversy in Japan earlier this year upon its release there. I was fully prepared for another disappointment. All of it was unnecessary, however, as Tales of Zestiria proved to be a surprisingly fresh and fun take on the series’ established conventions, and a game that I greatly enjoyed my time with, in spite of its numerous apparent faults.

"Tales of Zestiria proved to be a surprisingly fresh and fun take on the series’ established conventions, and a game that I greatly enjoyed my time with, in spite of its numerous apparent faults."

Tales of Zestiria is a traditional ‘Hero’s Journey’ fantasy epic- we have a world in peril, besieged with dark forces, and currently in an ‘Age of Chaos,’ and a hero, the prophesized ‘Shephard,’ who arises to save it. We have a race of supernatural beings, whom humans cannot even perceive, let alone communicate with, unless they truly believe in them, and open their hearts to their resonance. We have a journey about saving the world, and setting out to fulfill your destiny.

Really, it’s nothing special. Tales of Zestiria sticks to the template, some times almost to a fault, but on the whole, I enjoyed its take on the formula. It helps that the game mixes and matches things up a little, introducing them when you least expect it (an early game revelation regarding the hero Sorey’s true nature is particularly memorable), which keeps things unpredictable, as juxtaposed against the game’s more predictable structure.

It also helps that Zestiria has a largely pleasant cast of characters. Once again, these are all characters that follow established archetypes, and characters that very rarely seem to grow beyond the tropes that define them, but they’re all likable, and seeing them interact with each other keeps the story enjoyable even in portions of relative lull.

Tales of Zestiria also sidesteps some of the more egregious excesses of its immediate predecessors when it comes to its storytelling- the past few Tales games have been marked by some poor, hamfisted writing, over the top and contrived situations, terrible voice acting, and relatively poor production values. Zestiria, which began its life as a PS3 game, hasn’t thrown off all of these shackles, but it is a noticeable step up. The voice acting suits the characters and is never jarring (at the very worst, it is inoffensive, with maybe one or two exceptions), the writing seems to be a lot more grounded this time around, the anime cutscenes seem to be fine, if not particularly impressive, and while the game still veers into anime territory a lot, the larger story sticks to its fantasy template, and provides a grounding for the player to stay invested in.

"The graphics, though gorgeous, thanks to a very pretty artstyle, are besot by sparse environments, which stand in stark contrast to just how open and vast the world is."

There still are issues, of course- the graphics, though gorgeous, thanks to a very pretty artstyle, are besot by sparse environments, which stand in stark contrast to just how open and vast the world is. Meanwhile, the music is grating, repetitive, and annoying, and I am sure that it will be the soundtrack to multiple nightmares from here on out, simply because of how bad it is.

All of these issues are easy to ignore, however, thanks to the game largely playing well. Tales of Zestiria’s battle system is a real time action battle system. It can look deceptively simple, and on lower difficulties, and in earlier portions of the game, it is actually entirely possible to button mash your way through encounters. But the entire thing has a startling amount of depth to it- multiple different kinds of attacks, which can be mapped to different buttons, stringing combos, proximity to enemies, elemental attacks, assigning tactics to your party members, action points which govern just how much you can do, character builds, passive abilities, skill stacking, equipment, and more, slowly start stacking up to create an almost overwhelming array of options for you to explore.

This last part is important- I am actually still not sure I fully understand the game’s myriad of systems (I swear I lucked my way into a few important combinations that gave me a great build), and that has to do with just how terrible the game is at explaining all of them to the player. Right at the beginning of the game, there is a tutorial dungeon that will take most players 30-40 minutes to finish, and during this dungeon, a tutorial message pops up just about once every five seconds to explain some mechanic or the other to you. But this is terribly done, because the messages never actually explain anything, usually leaving you confused, they don’t connect a new system they introduce to the other systems (even when such a connection exists), leaving the player without a larger context, and in most cases, they introduce concepts and gameplay mechanics that a player will literally not be able to use for hours and hours, because the game, like most RPGs, has a curve with which it introduces mechanics.

"This last part is important- I am actually still not sure I fully understand the game’s myriad of systems (I swear I lucked my way into a few important combinations that gave me a great build), and that has to do with just how terrible the game is at explaining all of them to the player."

The tutorials are definitely an issue, but if you stick with the mechanics, the startling amount of depth, and the sheer funness of how the game actually plays in the moment to moment gameplay, will definitely get you on board. Series fans will forever debate on Zestiria’s battle system’s ultimate ranking compared to other games in the franchise, and while I have nothing to contribute to that discussion, I can at least safely endorse it as being fun, deep, strategic, and addictive.

Ultimately, that is Zestiria’s true strength- warts and all, it is still a great game to play, and I do not hesitate in recommending it to fans of either the series, or the genre, at all. Whereas Zestiria is not the kind of genre defining game that can be recommended safely to everyone, like Symphonia or Vesperia were, it is still a good Tales game, and after years of bad Tales game, that was enough- it has resparked my faith in the franchise, and eagerly has me looking forward to its future.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Bad DLC is sadly all too common in the present gaming market, and nothing exemplifies this more than DLC that is basically just an excuse to shoehorn some microtransactions into a full priced retail game. It was outrageous when a game like Forza Motorsport 5 or Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain did it; that hasn’t changed now either. Which is why the fact that Tales of Zestiria does the same thing is so annoying.

Tales of Zestiria will let you straight up purchase levels, HP, and Experience Points. To anyone who has ever even vaguely encountered an RPG, you probably know that these three are the lifeline of the game- progression in the game is governed by the player trying to maximize these values. Letting players purchase these for real world money, even when it is only optional, cheapens the entire game.

The full list of stat boosters and items in the Adventures Item pack can be seen below.

• Double Experience
• Double Gald
• Double Grade
• Double Normin
• Double Herbs of Goodness
• Item Expansion
• Katz Trio
• Level Up +5
• Level Up +10
• Max HP +1000
• Red Bean Pancakes
• Red Herbs of Happiness
• Rice Crackers
• Skewered Rice Dumplings
• Speed Arte Mastering
• Strawberry Rice Cakes
• Super Star Trier
• Sweet Bean Jellys

Tales of Zestiria is available on PS3, PS4, and PC.

Looks like Bandai Namco will be doubling down on the PC platform as a hotbed for games in their Tales franchise going forward. After announcing that Tales of Zestiria will be coming to the PC later this year, alongside a PS4 port, they have just announced that fan favorite and venerated classic Tales of Symphonia, still widely considered to be the best entry in the franchise, will also be coming to PC next year.

“We’re proud to reveal that Tales of Symphonia HD will be coming to PC Digital! This will be based off the HD version released last year and will be hitting digital shelves in 2016,” the publisher said.

They also revealed that pre-ordering Tales of Zestiria on Steam could lead to a free copy of Symphonia HD on PC. “Finally, the pre-purchase bonus for Tales of Zestiria on STEAM will depend on the number of pre-orders! Once the pre-purchase reaches a certain milestone, bonus content will be made available for all users where the final step is Tales of Symphonia HD is given to all STEAM pre-purchasers!” they said.

Hell, I would pre-order Zestiria for that, especially considering how well Symphonia has held up over the years.

After loads of speculation of possible PC and PS4 ports for the game’s localized version, once Tales of Zestiria was announced for the west, it was still, after all, a PlayStation 3 exclusive. That said, it seems like we might not have the full picture here- at least one major US retailer seems to think that the game will be headed to the PS4 as well. There was a listing for the PS4 version of Tales of Zestiria on BestBuy.com, before it was removed, which is, of course, not suspicious at all.

The listing is interesting, because it also seems to leak a 10/27 release date for the game – previously, we just had a vague ‘Fall’ release announced – and if we assume that the listing was accurate (which its removal would indicate that it was), then we might also have the release date for the game on hand now.

Is it true or is it not? No official announcement has been made yet, but we might see something at E3 next month. We will keep you posted.

The radio silence on Tales of Zestiria’s localization had everyone convinced that the game was being ported to the PlayStation 4 and/or the PC fir western audiences, which would make far more sense than a PS3 exclusive in the current market climate. And now, the radio silence regarding them localization has finally been broken, and… it’s still a PS3 exclusive, guys, sorry.

But on the plus side, we do finally have a release date for the game. Sort of. It has been confirmed to be launching in the west this Fall.

We also have a new trailer for the game showcasing the English translation and voice acting, and… yikes. While the translation itself seems to be standard fare, that voice acting simply sounds awful. Thankfully, Bandai Namco have also confirmed that the game will have dual audio, so you can always just switch to the superior Japanese dub if the English voices bother you.

Tales of Zestiria launches exclusively on PS3 (it seems) in Fall 2015. Stay tuned for more coverage.

Bandai Namco’s Tales of series is one of the longest running and most consistent series of games ever; it is now nearing its 20th anniversary, so it follows that the company wants to celebrate the milestone for one of its most consistently performing brands.

And apparently, they will be doing that by revealing something exciting and surprising very soon. “An anniversary won’t be complete without massive surprises… Stay tuned for amazing news over the upcoming months!”

As to what this surprising news might be, it might have something to do with the already leaked PC version of Tales of Zestiria, the latest entry in the series, as well as the long speculated PS4 one- both of which would make the game far more viable for a western release (already confirmed, by the way) than it is now, being as it is just a PS3 exclusive.

Whatever it is, we will keep you posted.

This list is in no particular order.

15. Dead Island 2

All right, I know what you’re thinking: Dead Island 2 isn’t an RPG. But it kinda is, actually. Technically, it’s an action RPG. You’ve got stats, perks, upgrades, an experience system, and even classes to choose from, in terms of the characters. Dead Island 2 is set in sunny California, and will feature more fragile, and more deadly, zombies, according to developer Yager. You may have heard of them – they were responsible for 2012’s incredible Spec Ops: The Line.

Namco Bandai unveiled Tales of Zestiria to celebrate 20 years of the franchise, but didn’t reveal too much information about either protagonist. For that matter, we know next to nothing about the game’s setting or its plot. Siliconera has revealed new information about the protagonists though.

The male protagonist’s name is Slay apparently has a pure and kind personality with a can-do attitude that specializes in one-handed sword usage. He will also be voiced by Ryohei Kimura, who’s better known for voicing Joshua in Subarashiki Kono Sekai (aka The World Ends With You).

On the other hand we have Alicia, who is a princess that prefers the rigours of battle to sitting back. She uses a spear as her default weapon and is voiced by Ai Kayano, better known for her role as Yomi in the anime Senran Kagura.

Tales of Zestiria is currently scheduled to release on PS3. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.