Xbox Game Pass gets one of 2021’s best games today

By Tomas Franzese February 20, 2024

Bandai Namco Entertainment

Iron Mask and Shionne attack in Tales of Arise. — Bandai Namco Entertainment

The next batch of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass this month was just revealed. Leading the pack of games being added to the subscription service today is Tales of Arise, a critically acclaimed RPG from Bandai Namco Entertainment that Xbox previously leaked was coming to the service.

Tales of Arise was released in 2021. The latest entry in a long-running RPG series, it follows a slave and girl inflicted with a curse as they rise up against the kingdom of Rena. It sports real-time RPG combat, and is one of few games to score a five-star rating from Digital Trends.

Recommended Videos

“Tales of Arise is a game I would recommend for anyone looking for ‘the future’ of the JRPG genre. This game could easily be Bandai Namco’s Final Fantasy 7,” De’Angelo Epps wrote in our 2021 review. “It feels tailor-made for the era and pushes the barriers for RPGs thanks to complex combat, weighty storytelling, and gorgeous visuals.”

An expansion titled Beyond the Dawn continued the story last November, but that’s not included in this Xbox Game Pass release.

Microsoft accidently — and briefly — listed this game in the headline of the Xbox Wire post about the previous batch of Xbox Game Pass titles. It didn’t come to the service until today, February 20, though. Here’s the full list of confirmed titles coming to Xbox Game Pass between February 20 and March 5.

Tales of Arise — February 20
Return to Grace — February 20
Bluey: The Videogame — February 22
Maneater — February 27
Madden NFL 24 for Xbox Cloud Gaming — February 27
Indivisible — February 28
Space Engineers — February 29
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun — March 5.

As is typically the case, some games are also leaving Microsoft’s game subscription service this month. On February 29, Xbox Game Pass will lose both Soul Hackers 2, a solid sci-fi RPG from Persona-maker Atlus, and Madden NFL 22, an older entry in EA’s long-running football series.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Gaming Staff Writer

Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Cross-platform support is becoming more important in the world of video games. Multiplayer hits like Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite have pushed crossplay into the limelight, and now most AAA multiplayer games release with at least partial cross-platform support. Finding every cross-platform game is no easy feat, though, so we did the hard work to bring you a comprehensive list of games that support crossplay.

Unfortunately, there aren't any rules when it comes to crossplay, so each game handles the feature a little differently. To make matters more confusing, certain backward-compatible games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X still support crossplay on the most recent hardware, even if there isn't an official release for that hardware.

Gaming

The best external hard drives for Xbox Series X

The Xbox Series X's 1TB sounds excellent on paper, but in reality, Microsoft's console only offers about 802GBs of storage due to updates and the operating system. You may find yourself filling up your space quickly, especially if you're looking to download every new title that becomes available on Xbox Game Pass. Let's face it, Call of Duty alone takes well over 100GBs of storage — and with the system targeting 4K resolution, games are only growing in size.

The Xbox Series X is compatible with any external hard drive up to 16TB of storage. Games optimized for the Xbox Series X can only be stored on, but not played from, an external drive due to the games being designed to take advantage of faster loading speeds and Xbox Velocity Architecture. However, when it comes to storage for your Xbox Series X, there are many options to choose from as your game library expands. We have compiled a list of external drives that will make your gaming experience seamless. Note that they will come with the proper cables needed to connect to your Xbox console.
Seagate Storage Expansion Card

Gaming

April’s most anticipated RPG is coming to Xbox Game Pass

We've learned about the titles that will come to Xbox Game Pass throughout the back half of April, and several of them are games getting added to the catalog the day they launch. Of those, the most notable is Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

While that name is a mouthful, RPG fans will want to pay attention to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes as it is a spiritual successor to the long-dormant Konami RPG series Suikoden. Many of the developers who worked on the original Suikoden games worked together to reimagine the concept for the modern era, creating an RPG with over 100 recruitable party members, engaging combat, and a gorgeous pixelated art style that gives Square Enix's HD-2D games a run for their money. Prequel game Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is already on Xbox Game Pass too, so Microsoft seems all-in on backing this Suikoden successor as we wait for Konami to release remasters of those titles or a new game in the series.