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Twin Breaker (PS4/Vita) Physical Pre-Sale Begins Thursday, March 5th

Hi!

You guys and gals know the drill by now: Twin Breaker, our PS4 and Vita game, launches digitally for $9.99 (cross-buy!) on March 24th. Yada, yada, yada.

And you also know that, with our friends at eastasiasoft, we're doing a physical version of the game for both platforms. Today, I'm pleased to give you the details on that.

Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols ...

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Twin Breaker's Trophy List: Revealed

Hi!

I hope you're all well, and are looking forward to the weekend ahead.

As you know, we're releasing Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on March 24th. The game is cross-buy, and it'll cost $9.99 (or your local equivalent). We're releasing the game in North America, Europe, Australia, and other locales.

We know that many of you are excited about physical copies, too, and I'm pleased to tell you we'll have all of the inform...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXX: Tactical

We get so many friggin' great questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas sent to the Sacred Symbols mailbag each week, and we can never even remotely get to them all. So this week's episode (as we do every now and again) is dedicated to the b-sides. Why won't Square Enix bring back Final Fantasy Tactics? Is 2.5D really easier and cheaper than 2D? What could make Chris a bona fide Trophy Whore? Are in-game minigames the worst thing ever? Should we really be calling video games addictiv...

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KnockBack, Episode 107: Birthdays

No matter who you are (unless you were born on February 29th!), your birthday rolls around once a year, every year, without fail. That's how calendars work, after all. What you do with that most sacred of days is, of course, entirely up to you and yours, but in our younger years, birthdays tended to mean a whole lot. There were presents, cake, family, friends, and a ton of attention. (Possibly too much attention.) And so we thought we'd spend an entire episode of KnockBack reminiscing about a...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 87: Beefy Trendsetter

Persona 5 Royal comes to western PS4s soon, but an interesting controversy has overtaken the hype. Buried within the massive JRPG's original release are a couple of scenes that a small group of players found homophobic, and in response, Atlus is making some key edits to lessen the blow. The question is, should the publisher be making these changes? Are the scenes even offensive at all? Let's chat about it, and see how we feel. Then, more news! Sony, Kojima Productions, and others are bailing ...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXIX: Sophia the Games Journalist

Sacred Symbols' audience (that's you!) has been clear: You want special guests on the show every now and again. This week, we finally oblige. Please welcome Sophia Narwitz, an independent games journalist packing a bit of sass and a lot of talent. Sophia is willing to tell difficult, often politically-charged (and even professionally dangerous) stories, and this episode of the show is dedicated not only to her fledgling career, but to her opinions, too. What's it like being a transgender writ...

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KnockBack, Episode 106 | Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

The infamous Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars films left a bad taste in many enthusiasts' mouths, particularly those who have been fans of the space opera franchise going back to the '70s and '80s. That's why it was so amazingly exciting when --  in 2015 -- Star Wars appeared primed to return to form with a JJ Abrams-led movie that had the entire galaxy eager to see what happens next. The result was something safe, but solid, with a returning cast of familiar faces joined by a new generation...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 86: The Means of Production

The American publication Bloomberg is typically a reliable source of information, and a recent story within its pages tells an interesting tale. It appears Sony is having a hard time keeping production costs of PlayStation 5 down, so much so that it's delaying the Japanese corporation's ability to determine what it should charge for the console, or if it can even turn a profit selling it. There's even reportedly a little civil war going on internally, with some powers-that-be convinced profit...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXVIII: Challenging Colin

Last week's episode of + was all about confronting Sacred Symbols' cohosts on our opinions and tastes as a collective unit, but this week's focuses all on Colin (that's me!). Sacred Symbols' listeners challenge Colin (me) on all sorts of things: The politics of the industry, the greatness (or lack thereof) of games like The Last of Us and Gone Home, the best Resistance title, hating Sonic the Hedgehog, not caring about technology, a lack of PC gaming knowledge, and much, much more. This was y...

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KnockBack, Episode 105: When I Grow Up

The Brothers Moriarty ended up with pretty awesome jobs, one of us in the gaming industry, the other in animation. But it's also true that, in our younger years, we aspired to some other professions. We ultimately found our way towards what makes us happy, but there were deviations along the way, and this week's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to the what-ifs that could have had us doing something totally different with our lives. Colin was nearly a historian; Dagan thought about law enforc...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 85: Going Viral

By now, you've undoubtedly heard of the Coronavirus, a lethal illness originating in mainland China that has so far claimed the lives of more than a thousand people. What you may not have considered, however, is how this might affect PlayStation 5. No: We're not kidding. Game consoles are manufactured in Chinese factories, and it's entirely possible that Coronavirus could delay PS5's launch, a possibility so real that even a mainstream investment firm is warning its clients of such an eventua...

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ICYMI: Twin Breaker Comes to PS4 and Vita March 24th

Hey All,

I realized I posted the news on social media today, but not here, so...

Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure is coming to PS4 and Vita on March 24th. We plan on releasing it the same week across multiple territories, including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and more.  We have no current, concrete plans to port the game to other platforms, an...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXVII: We're Wrong?!

Every week, we talk and you listen. We include lots of your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas throughout our run-of-show, of course, but it's mostly a one-way street, and we know that we say some stuff that you simply don't agree with. So this episode of + (and next week's, too!) is all about you guys and gals challenging us. Our ideas. Our opinions. Our gaming knowledge. Our tastes. Anything and everything that we talk about on Sacred Symbols and its spin-off is up for debat...

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KnockBack, Episode 104: The Warriors

New York City has long been one of the world's most important and renown cities... it just wasn't a very nice place to be for a few decades in between World War II and the 21st century. The seminal 1979 picture The Warriors captures NYC's decay and despair through a unique lens of youth and camp, and it does so with great visual flair, solid acting, and a surprising story that actually asks an interesting question: Could street gangs take America's most populated metropolis over if they put a...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 84: Enraptured

PlayStation Plus' free game offerings have always been a little hit or miss, but this month, an essential compilation comes to the service: The BioShock Collection. BioShock, BioShock Infinite, and even BioShock 2 are some of the best games last-gen has to offer, and the original title in particular is an absolute must-play. If you haven't enjoyed these gems yet, you should, and we tell you why now's the time, since they're free-of-charge and all. But how about some news, too?! Sony is sendin...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXVI: The Waiting Game

Last generation, we were seemingly flooded with timely sequels to great games, sequels that may have only taken two or three years to develop. Infamous, Uncharted, Resistance, and other PlayStation-exclusive franchises benefited greatly from these quick turnarounds, but now that we're on the precipice of next-gen, those days seem further away than ever. On this week's mailbag-centric episode of Plus, we focus on the question of industry sequels and franchising, and just what's taking so long ...

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KnockBack, Episode 103: Final Fantasy VII

With thousands upon thousands (upon thousands!) of video games released since the 1970s, it's easy for some (well... many) to fall through the cracks. Very few are seminal titles that helped to define their era, genre, or hardware. Yet, 1997's Final Fantasy VII is undoubtedly one of the most important games ever released. It brought JRPGs from niche to mainstream, put Squaresoft on the map for millions of new customers around the world, helped solidify the original PlayStation's place in a co...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 83: Mao Money, Mao Problems

When money flows from companies that call communist dictatorships home, those funds typically come with strings attached. Activision-Blizzard learned this the hard way just months ago, but it hasn't stopped western teams from accepting this cash with reckless abandon. The next business about to get gobbled up by Chinese conglomerate Tencent is the Norwegian MMO dev-slash-pub Funcom, and Tencent is even willing to pay a staggering 30% over market value for the honor. The big question is: Why? ...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXV: Our Most Anticipated Games of 2020

When it comes to Video Game Bonanzas, 2020 might be unbeatable. Not only do we have an amazing slate of first, second, and third party games to look forward to on PlayStation 4, but we also have PlayStation 5 waiting for us in Q4, a sort of cherry atop the nerdy-ass cake. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves on the hardware front. Instead, let's dwell with the present console for a while, because PS4 is primed to go out with a bang. Today's episode of + is focused on the games we're most ...

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KnockBack, Episode 102: Fast Food

They say that nothing's better than mom's home cooking (and in the Moriarty's case, that's very true). But when we're young, we seem to have an insatiable appetite for fast food. McDonald's. Burger King. Taco Bell. Whatever junk we could shove in our fat faces, we wanted. And the worst thing that could happen is hearing our parents say, "but we have food at home!" What a deathblow that was. A deathblow, indeed! So let's fondly remember the days of Happy Meals, paper crowns, ball pits, and bur...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 82: Better Late Than Never

The year started out quietly enough... that is until all of the delays began and started ruining our lives. Final Fantasy VII Remake. Cyberpunk 2077. Dying Light 2. The Avengers. Even that completely random Iron Man VR game wasn't immune! But should we be concerned about the reworked schedule? Or has the shifting calendar serendipitously bought us precious time to catch up on our backlogs? We discuss. Plus: It looks like Horizon is coming to PC, Call of Duty absolutely dominated last decade's...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXIV: To E3 or Not to E3

For the second year in a row (and for only the second year since the trade show-turned-whatever it now is began in 1995), Sony isn't attending E3, the world-famous gaming super-con held each June in Los Angeles. This came as a shock to some, but to others, it's all but expected. With PlayStation 4's meteoric success -- and with PlayStation 5 now on the horizon -- the Japanese megacorp seems perfectly content to do its own thing, on its own schedule, with its own goals in mind. But is it smart...

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KnockBack, Episode 101: The Matrix

The 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix was released at an interesting inflection point in the history of nerd culture. It launched at a time when -- with the help of Star Wars' resurgence, the soon-to-be-released Lord of the Rings movies, and others -- dorkiness went mainstream, and The Matrix might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in this regard. The story of Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, and their battle to break out from a computer simulation and into a horrifying reality, is consid...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 81: Arkham Assumption

For nearly a decade, WB Montreal has existed in the shadow of its better-known and more-beloved sister studio Rocksteady. But finally, it appears the Quebecois dev is poised to break out. Yet again, the team has teased a vague image on its social media channels that almost certainly points towards a new Batman game, something WB Montreal has dabbled in in the past with 2013's Arkham Origins. But with Rocksteady's Arkham Trilogy getting all of the respect and Origins getting precious little, i...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXIII: Backlog Blues

Backlogs haunt gamers like Abraham Lincoln's ghost haunts the White House. With so many awesome games coming out seemingly week-in and week-out, year-in and year-out, it's virtually impossible to keep up with it all, whether you dedicate all of your time to playing or not. Thing is, every enthusiast seems to have his or her own techniques for dealing with the dreaded retail and digital pile of unplayed wares, and some even claim (perhaps spuriously!) not to have a backlog at all! This week's ...

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KnockBack, Episode 100: 100 Video Games We Adore

It seems like only yesterday that we launched our retro and nostalgia podcast KnockBack, and yet it's been nearly two years since our maiden voyage. A hundred weeks on, we've naturally arrived at our 100th episode, and to celebrate, we thought we'd talk about our greatest shared love: Video games. More specifically, we thought we'd talk about 100 games we absolutely adore, 100 games any aficionado of the medium should check out. Enjoy our longest episode of KnockBack to date (four hours!), an...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 80: A Roll of the DICE

Most of you know EA-owned DICE as the Scandinavian creators of the Battlefield series (and the resuscitators of Star Wars Battlefront, too), but tucked quietly away in Los Angeles is a DICE support studio aptly called DICE LA. DICE LA is essentially the remnants of the old Medal of Honor team Danger Close that's since been relegated to secondary status, but it appears all of that's about to change. Electronic Arts has opted to dispatch the creative might of Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella t...

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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XXII: Trouble on the Horizon

The PlayStation 5 generation will be the first of its kind: An era of console where we'll (presumably) have an entire back catalog of retail and digital titles from the previous gen at our immediate disposal. This, of course, raises an interesting question all about what the hardware's native launch lineup will be, and how Sony plans on playing its hand. On today's mailbag-centric episode of Plus, let's delve into what we might see come October or November, and how Worldwide Studios should ta...

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KnockBack, Episode 99: Dead Space

 In 2017, EA shuttered its fully-owned studio Visceral, which bummed a lot of people out, since they were developing a Star Wars game. But back in 2008, before they were called Visceral -- when the team was known by the more quaint moniker EA Redwood Shores -- the talented NorCal developer launched Dead Space, one of the most beloved survival horror adventures ever created. Taking place in the 26th century and loaded with a mixture of sci-fi and religion, Dead Space tells the tale of Isa...

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Sacred Symbols, Episode 79: Game of the Year Awards 2019

2019 was an interesting year for games. While we eagerly await The Next Generation (no, not the Star Trek show, you godforsaken nerds), a litany of good, great, and even fantastic games hit our precious PlayStation 4 in recent months, and now that the last year is in the books, it's time to look back on some of the best titles '19 had to offer. Without further ado, here are our favorite games of the past 365 days or so, with a special Sacred Symbols twist: A bunch of completely made-up awards...

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