A Wild West horror RPG is hitting PS4 and PS5, while one of the very best JRPGs of all time is coming to the Switch 2.
I’m basically a PC gamer, so in terms of turn-based RPGs, there’s absolutely no lack of games to play for us PC folk. If you’re one of those who prefer to game on a PC, you’re pretty well spoilt for choice, which is fairly apparent from the sheer number of articles I write (the vast majority of which will be PC related of course).
This week though I’m looking at consoles to highlight two RPGs which have been on PC for a long time and are finally arriving on new platforms. Both of them I think are very much worth your time.
Hard West 2 Brings Its Supernatural Posse to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S
Robbing a train full of federal gold would be a perfectly reasonable career move for an outlaw. Robbing the Ghost Train suggests that someone’s completely missed the risk assessment. That’s where Hard West 2 kicks off with Gin Carter and his gang realizing that their next big score is going to be a trip to the devil to retrieve Carter’s stolen soul.
Developed by Ice Code Games, the tactical RPG originally launched on PC on 4th August 2022. The console version is being ported and published by Klabater for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
The mechanic that makes the gunfights so interesting is Bravado. Killing an enemy gives you a character’s action points back, which in turn gives you the opportunity to keep attacking and chain together multiple kills. In practice, that means you’re encouraged to think about the order of the entire assault: who you weaken first, who delivers the final shot, and what the character can do with those refreshed actions. A good turn can easily become a sequence of takedowns you’ve carefully planned. Aggressive planning is clearly rewarded.
Your posse develops along the lines of the Western with collectible playing cards which you use to build up your characters’ abilities into poker hands. Guns, explosives and trinkets are all available, and your decisions during the course of the campaign will have an effect on the loyalty of your companions and on which skills you can access. The campaign also takes the fighting into the moveable, with train robberies and horse chases being possible. Witches and all manner of other supernatural beings add their own twist to frontier life.
For the console version, Klabater points to the controls and navigation, which have been designed with the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S hardware in mind. It’s already listed on both the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Store prior to its November 10th release.
Metaphor: ReFantazio Takes Its Royal Campaign to Switch 2
A dead king, a cursed prince, and a tournament for the throne all give Metaphor: ReFantazio a very different set of problems to grapple with. It’s set in the UK of Euchronia and follows our young protagonist and his fairy companion Gallica as their attempt to save the prince sees them drawn into a royal tournament. Gaining support involves traveling across the land and picking up allies from the various warring factions.
Made by ATLUS’ Studio Zero and published by SEGA, it’s a fantasy JRPG that launched in October 2024. Its release on the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 12th 2026 brings the game to a new audience following a run that included taking Best RPG at The Game Awards 2024.
Combat is a mix of direct attacks whilst you’re exploring and then turn-based party battles. You can clear the weaker stuff in the field; the tougher enemies will require you to go into the command-based system, and the first hit you land can give your party a real advantage. Character customization is all down to Archetypes (a job system), which allows your companions to switch between different combat roles. Playing around with those different roles will alter your party’s capabilities, and you can go a long way with Synthesis Skills to create different combinations for each encounter.
There’s also the issue of simply finding enough hours in the day. Dungeon runs, quests, relationships and the development of your virtues all vie for time on the calendar. Your time spent traveling on the gauntlet runner takes you from one town to another and to all sorts of distant places. How you spend that time is what makes the journey. You’ll obviously have to be your own scheduler if you want to become the next ruler.
The Switch 2 version supports TV, tabletop and handheld play, so you can do your royal duties wherever you like. Nintendo has an estimated download size of 62.1GB, so it may be worth making some space before 12th November. More info is available on the Nintendo eShop page.
