Infinity

A canceled RPG for the Game Boy Color brought back after two decades by Incube8 Games, Infinity is certainly noteworthy for being a long-lost piece of video game history.  But was this a title worth reviving, or should it have stayed an obscure footnote in the long history of portable RPGs?

Infinity is a standout among portable RPGs, as it's not a relatively common case of a new game built for a retro platform.  Rather, it began development in 1999 for the Game Boy Color - a short-lived upgrade to the original Game Boy that launched in 1998 and was supplanted by the Game Boy Advance in 2001.  With that platform's launch, the development team at Affinix Software reluctantly canceled the game, as they figured it wouldn't find much of an audience on an outdated platform.  It largely faded into obscurity for many years until its developers released an incomplete prototype online in 2016, piquing fan interest.  Incube8 games, a developer and publisher largely known for publishing niche games on retro consoles, launched a Kickstarter campaign to complete and release the game, and in December of 2025 they finally did just that, releasing it as a digital ROM with physical cartridges to come at a later date.

It's easy to see why the prototype garnered the interest it did when you play it, though; this is quite a solid '90s style RPG.  Combat is somewhat reminiscent of games like Ultima, Fallout and Krondor, with turn-based battles on a hex grid.  It's also surprisingly light on UI elements - to move you simply press toward an open space and press A; doing the same to a space occupied by an enemy attacks.  B defends, and pressing A without holding a direction brings up the menu to use spells, items, gems, or attempt to run from combat.  Similarly, items and spells are indicated by icons and selected by pressing a direction and the A button in conjunction (with neutral A cycling item pages).  As one would expect, normal attacks can only target adjacent spaces, while spells (and most techniques) can reach longer ranges.  Admittedly this is a bit strange for the archer character, who must use a (1 MP) technique to target distant spaces with his weapon.

Gems are a unique feature to the game, and can be equipped and activated in battle to achieve various effects (boosting attack damaged, reduced physical damage, buffing elemental spells).  However, they do run off a finite resource called "Gem Points", with each turn they're activated consuming one point whether you use a corresponding skill or not.  In order to recharge them, one must unequip the gem and fight battles to replenish their supply of points.

The game is very reminiscent of many '90s RPGs, though, in that it's not simply a matter of equipping the "strongest" gear - on several occasions I found elemental gear that was less effective than a weaker weapon against an area's enemies.  Similarly, trading heavier armor for that which provides more magical defense is often a wise move, particularly against hard-hitting bosses.  Finally, you will have to stop and gain a few levels at times in order to progress - each new dungeon is a significant leap up in danger, random encounters are frequent and the bosses in general are quite challenging.  Having a couple of escape ropes and a good supply of healing items on hand is all but required.  Thankfully you do get a decent amount of XP and money per fight so it's not overly grindy, and being able to save on the overworld at any time with a simple press of the A button is quite handy.

The game easily ranks among the most visually impressive Game Boy color games I've seen, too.  Each character has quite a few combat sprites that are all fluidly animated; even the mundane enemies and their moves all feel distinct, to say nothing of the bosses.  The overworld map isn't a simple top-down view but is seen at a slightly isometric angle, scrolling a bit diagonally when you move along the Y axis.  Environments are also laden with subtle visual effects, such as heatwaves in the desert areas/lava caves and grass and flowers being blown by the wind.

The story is a step apart from many RPGs seen on portable platforms, too.  This is no light-hearted adventure; instead it's a ruthlessly grim tale of a world ravaged by war, plague and immoral magical experiments, with something truly wicked and maleficent brewing beneath the surface as a result of man's hubris.  Its characters are often embittered, vengeful or even self-loathing, with a majro one of note being the main protagonist Connor; he's a very depressed, embittered character, grieving the loss of his wife and regretting the atrocities he took part in during the wars waged by his king, and he very much carries a death wish for much of the game.  Other characters are equally complex and often harbor dark secrets and grudges of their own.  Basically it's much less Dragon Quest and much more Game of Thrones, which for the late '90s/early '00s was not a common sight, especially on handhelds.

Infinity is clearly a game with a lot of passion and polish behind it, doomed by having the rug pulled out under it as it neared completion.  I could easily see this game becoming a hit had it been released before the GBA's launch; for an early '00s RPG on a portable platform it has quite a bit of content and a surprisingly good, dark storyline; a common sight for Playstation games, certainly, but a relatively rare one on Nintendo consoles.  With the circumstances of its release in 2025, though, it's probably just going to remain a little-known niche curio for die-hard retro RPG fans or Game Boy enthusiasts.  Still, for the tiny audience it was Kickstarted, finished and released for, this is a fine title and well worth a look.

 

Developer: Affinix, Incube8 Games
Publisher: Incube 8 Games
Released: 2025
Platform: Game Boy Color (Digital ROM and physical releases)
Recommended Version: N/A

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven

Another remake of the Super Famicom RPG, which in turn had a mobile port/remake several years back, Romancing SaGa 2 gives it a major visual upgrade with 3D-rendered characters, animations and voiceover for all major characters in the story.  Per SaGa standards, it also plays with RPG mechanics in some clever ways; the series' trademark LP system returns once again, though unlike previous games, there is no way to recover it - once a character's LP drops to 0, they're gone for good.  In the case of the protagonist, this also ties in to the Succession mechanic - once they die or retire after a set period of time (and events completed), they choose a successor to inherit all of the skills and levels they have earned over their lifetime, which in turn get passed down to another character later on, gradually allowing the player to overcome progressively stronger challenges they wouldn't have been able to in earlier generations.  Skill levels replace the earlier entries' pure randomness, allowing the player greater chance to unlock ("glimmer") new skills as their level increases.  HP and BP likewise have levels and grant guaranteed gains once they fight in enough battles.  RS2 also incorporates some elements of a grand strategy game like Civ or Heroes of Might and Magic; conquering territory (by defeating enemies and completing quests) affects your revenue after each battle; and yes, it can fall into the negatives.  Revenue of course is spent to upgrade your characters' equipment, but can also be used to upgrade your castle town, adding new amenities like a smithy to buy newer gear or an Incantations lab to shuffle learned spells or synthesize new ones; these are not completed right away as soon as you invest in them, but require a certain amount of time to pass before they become available.  Per series standards it's a very open-ended experience; exploring every nook and cranny to find useful gear, money and potential leads for more quests is a key part of the experience.  The end result is a game with a lot of small-scale battles and dungeon crawling, with an emphasis on steadily upgrading your team over a long period of time to overcome difficult bosses and conquer more territory; essentially an odd combination of Japanese RPG gameplay and grand strategy design tropes with the curious absence of any large-scale war battles.  I'm not convinced its a fully successful experiment, but that's just the nature of SaGa - culling elements from western RPGs to make something that, for good or ill, is quite unique.  I can't even really give it a hard recommendation for that reason - if what I've described sounds interesting to you, give it a try.  If not, well, there's plenty of other SaGa games to try out, which all have their own unique blend of odd, disparate elements that may or may not come together in the end.

Developer: Square Enix, Xeen
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 2024
Platforms: PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, Playstation 5

The Outer Worlds 2

The Outer Worlds was a clever and genuinely funny satire of the dark side of capitalism on the backdrop of a campy old space serial; it had its flaws for sure, but I still found it a compelling journey and an interesting character study.  By contrast, the sequel is just constant grating Used Car Salesman dialog trying way too hard to outdo what came before.  Brandon Adler and Leonard Boyarsky's idea of "improvement" is to just make every character their personal sock puppets, constantly belting out "Look how smart we are!  Pay attention to our writing style and rapier wit!" while forgetting they have nothing to say that hasn't already been said better and funnier in the previous game. The gameplay has at least improved a little, adding in Fallout style perks upon level-up and encouraging more focused builds, though it's often frustrating to try and complete quests when you need a specific skill at a particular level and simply don't have any way around it, other than to quit out and go do more filler quests until you do.  "Flaws", an interesting if undercooked concept in the first game, now seem actively engineered to screw you over by turning you into an ineffective master-of-none character; none that I encountered ever seemed to offer a benefit worth the drawback.  Gunplay is just Borderlands Lite with its moddable weapons and overly spongey enemies that lack any real variety, and your comrades simply don't have much of anything in the way of customization; well, they do have upgrades you can find and perks to assign every five levels, but they have almost no tangible impact on making the combat feel any more deep or rewarding.  Outer Worlds 2 is your typical self-proclaimed intellectual with no real personality and nary a novel idea in its head, but that doesn't stop it from running its mouth and laughing at its own stupid jokes for a solid sixty hours; which is about forty more than I could bear.

They wanted to sell this at $80 when frankly it'd still suck even at $0.  Talk about a lack of self-awareness from such an "anti-capitalist" game... 

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: XBox Game Studios
Released: 2025
Platform: PlayStation 5, PC, XBox Series, PC