Axe of the Blood God: Our Most Anticipated RPGs of 2018

Axe of the Blood God is our weekly RPG podcast hosted by Kat Bailey and Nadia Oxford. You can find the previous episodes here.

In this week's episode of Axe of the Blood God (download link here), we sort through the most interesting RPGs that we know about for 2018 (so far).

At first blush it looks like a fairly weak year for RPGs: Some ports, some remake, some sequels to middle-tier franchises like Valkyria Chronicles and Ni No Kuni. Monster Hunter World might be the biggest thing going in 2018, but it's hard to even say whether it's really an RPG. But things can change in a hurry. Indeed, a single "beep" from CD Projekt Red was enough to set off a media whirlwind. In the meantime, there's still quite a lot to cover. Join us!

Also: We're in the process of choosing the next subject for our series of RPG Reports! Here are the candidates:

Witcher 3
Cosmic Star Heroine
Fallout New Vegas
Valkyrie Profile

We'll be keeping an eye on the comments here and also running polls on social media. We will announce our decision next week along with the first episode of the new Report!

Want to share your thoughts on RPGs? Email us at usgamer@usgamer.net. We may read your letter on the show! Keep those Perfect RPG Teams coming, folks!

Where to find us (Subscribe, rate, and review!)

Show Description

Kat and Nadia dive into the upcoming RPGs of 2018 with previews of Valkyria Chronicles 4, Dragon Quest XI, Pillars of Eternity Deadfire, the World of WarCraft expansion, Monster Hunter World, and much more! Plus: Discussion of Dark Souls on the Switch, The Worlds With You: Final Remix, and Ys VIII.

Music from Axe of the Blood God is courtesy of Lena Chappelle, who has also contributed the themes to Active Time Babble and Roleplayers' Realm. I also use music from the RPG Music Pack over at rpgmaker.net. Check it out!

This article may contain links to online retail stores. If you click on one and buy the product we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here.

Comments 19

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#1 TorkPenderloin 6 months ago

Fallout!!!!!

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#2 mattcom26 6 months ago

Cosmic Star Heroine (obvs)

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#3 riderkicker 6 months ago

While I enjoyed the Monster Hunter World demo, I can't justify plunking down the $60 so easily. It's a game easily worth hundreds of hours but I won't find the time to play it because I'll be tackling my backlog while playing the other RPGs I'm eagerly awaiting!

So besides Yakuza 6 (still shocked by the art style), I concur with the assessments of Dragon Quest XI, and Octopath Traveler. I'm definitely getting DQXI on the 3ds day one, as I get through handhled RPGs much quicker as a highlight of the series is to grind while you can watch TV. POT looks very interesting and is a throwback while being something different, they should just reveal it as a FFVI sequel or remake.

Shin Megami Tensei V that's still too early right? Strange Journey Redux is making me regret not finishing the DS version. I haven't gotten through IV yet! Oh yeah the dancing games are supposed to come out this year?

Ni no Kuni, watched a sibling play for like 20 minutes but she got bored. Hopefully the sequel is zippier.

I am anticipating Super Robot Wars X as usual, as I'll take whatever English game comes out!

Get pumped for Trails of Cold Steel 3?

#4 Gamer-Law 6 months ago

My vote is for Cosmic Star Heroine. I cannot help but feel that it was dealt a tough hand by releasing in a year of so many outstanding games. There are many people who, in any other year would have loved the game, seemed to forget about or overlooked it entirely. For this reason alone, I think the Blood God should remind people that it is out there and worth playing.

The bugs at launch made for a tough start, but once you moved beyond that, the game was fantastic. It reminded me of Phantasy Star in all the best ways.Edited January 2018 by Gamer-Law

#5 pdubb 6 months ago

Cosmic Star Heroine. A very good American take the JRPG deserves some time under the microscope

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#6 quasar- 6 months ago

I’m still pretty enthused to see Bards Tale 4.

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#7 mattcom26 6 months ago

@Gamer-Law All great points... the Blood God comandeth Cosmic Star Heroine!

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#8 riderkicker 6 months ago

Sony sent the what did you play in 2017, and Persona 4 and 5 are on the top of the list, next is that SD Gundam game.

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#9 Drachmalius 6 months ago

These are some good games, but its gotta be Witcher 3 hands down

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#10 SatelliteOfLove 6 months ago

The best Megaten game to get in on is still Nocturne.

Some would say it is a masterpiece, even...

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#11 Orcitect 6 months ago

The Witcher 3, because it has the potential to tell a slightly different story from anyone else’s.

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#12 ryanplusplus 6 months ago

Cosmic Star Heroine!

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#13 FTLMantis 6 months ago

Despite its problems, Shadows of Valentia brought me back to Fire Emblem. After not being able to finish any of the Fates games (despite owning the special edition!) and absolutely hating Awakening (the gameplay, the writing, the maps, everything was just so bad) I played through SOV twice and loved it the whole way through. I loved the variations on the gameplay that it brought back, much to my immense surprise. The new magic system with the wider variety of spells in particular was great. It showed me that part of the problem with the new games was that they played it too safe, and that the small changes it made (pairing up) were just awful. I want the new FE game to make meaningful, fun changes just like SOV did, but then actually put them on good maps. Should be doable, in theory, but I fear that they'll be sticking with what they know worked on the 3ds. Still excited regardless.Edited January 2018 by FTLMantis

#14 cddb 6 months ago

oh man, please have Nadia do a Dark Souls 1 report.........I would love hearing that

also Kat, I love Strange Journey as well and FYI the SMT game "Soul Hackers" (for 3DS and originally Saturn) is the most similar, tonally and otherwise, imo,, you might really dig it. however I've never played the english version,, I imagine the dub must be bad

#15 moochan 5 months ago

@SatelliteOfLove I agree SMT Nocturne is the best in the series (including Persona) but if you come into SMT/Persona now and try to play Nocturne it's not a fun game to run. One major thing is the lack of control over skills that transfer over when you fuse. But another is the lost of the main character skill with the demons you take in. So you could mistakenly lose a great skill not knowing you can never get it back.

I would vote for Witcher 3 but I would advise to turn the difficulty down to the lowest setting since the combat isn't really fun (however better than 1 and 2 that's for sure).

#16 SatelliteOfLove 5 months ago

@moochan

It teaches one to plan, and to endure loss.

The Vortex World would have no less survive to give birth to their Reason!

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#17 avangkala 5 months ago

لباس زیرEdited January 2018 by avangkala

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#18 stacyopitz 5 months ago

Such a wonderful post. You really know how to engage your audience and I did not leave a single word out. You are really good at this, so don’t stop for nothing.

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#19 psncore 13 days ago

very nice to see, i love this game and you write some great content about it my friend. PSN Code Generator

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