Nioh 2 is not to be trifled with. Building on the original's tough-as-nails reputation, Team Ninja's second samurai action-RPG brings back the original's penchant for punishing and highly nuanced combat. The sequel hones the original's distinctive take on the Souls-like without completely reinventing itself. The result is a long, tough slog that will push even the most challenge-hungry players to their breaking points as they fight for every inch of ground and become master samurai.

Despite the title, Nioh 2 is a prequel, revealing the secret history of a decades-long period of war in medieval Japan. As the silent, customizable hero Hide, you fight to uncover the secret nature of "spirit stones," which grant supernatural power, and defeat hordes of Yokai across the country. The plot, which you mostly hear through cutscenes and exposition between missions, has an interesting historical bent, but it is really just glue to hold the levels together. Historically relevant names like Nobunaga and Tokugawa play into the saga, but whatever flavor they add in the moment fades the second you take control and it's time to start killing demons.

But that's okay. Nioh 2's story gives just enough context for you to follow along and make you feel like you're making progress without getting in the way of the gameplay. Nioh 2's definitive feature is its challenge. With core mechanics refined from the bones of Dark Souls, Nioh 2 boils down to a series of battles and duels in all kinds of situations. These battles demand intense precision: Not only are your attacks and skills limited by a stamina meter--called Ki--but any extra attack or mistimed movement will leave you exposed, often to an attack that will cost you a substantial amount of health. Like other Souls-like games, there is a painful pleasure in mastering whatever opponents the game throws your way.

When a video leaked in 2018 of a rumored Harry Potter RPG, fans went into speculation overdrive over what it could possibly be, which developer is behind it, and most importantly – if it’s even real.

From the footage and the supposed leaked synopsis, we know the alleged game is a third-person, open-world RPG that takes place in the 1800’s – well before Harry Potter was born, and even before the Fantastic Beasts series, which takes place in the 1920’s. We previously broke down the possibilities on where the game could fit into the Harry Potter timeline, including potential familiar characters that could make appearances.

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Following the leak, many fans speculated on Reddit, sharing why they thought it had to be real – with some specifically saying the gameplay footage simply “looks too good” and was likely too far along to be fake. At the time, Warner Bros. Entertainment Interactive had all videos of the footage taken down due to "copyright grounds" as described on the original YouTube takedown screen, but the company never made an official statement acknowledging whether such a game was in development. Because there is official Harry Potter music and logos in the video, it's unclear whether Warner Bros. removed it due to copyright infringement or for the fact the game really is in development.

Every few months, the footage reappears or some other tidbit of unconfirmed information ends up circulating around the internet, with people wanting to hear more. WB remains silent, though, and aside from the original video published in October 2018, nothing else has released of significant importance that gives us major insight to the rumored game. However, some things have surfaced that have since told us what the game is not, and we have rounded up below everything we know about the leaked Harry Potter RPG.

Harry Potter RPG Gameplay: What Type of Game Is It?

Players allegedly will be able to freely explore the world, and will have an entirely new experience in the wizarding world compared to the books and films, according to the synopsis.

Harry Potter RPG: What Type of Game Is It NOT?

When the video originally leaked, a news reporter for BBC, Lizo Mzimba, tweeted in response to the footage saying an unannounced RPG was currently in development, titled, Harry Potter Magic Awakened – along with other games thought to be on the way.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment ended up announcing Harry Potter: Magic Awakened in October 2019 – but not as this console RPG Rather, it is an upcoming mobile card game that will have role-playing elements, and takes place after World War II. The game will first be released in China under Warner Bros.’ newer game label, Portkey Games. That new label has two games released so far: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, a mobile RPG, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, developed by Niantic and similar to the popular Pokemon GO game.

Warner Bros.’ Portkey Games label launched in 2017, with its first game reveal in 2018, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. Games under the label will take place in the Wizarding World, which was created by author J.K. Rowling – but Rowling "has entrusted the design and creation of the games" to Warner Bros. and the developers, so she will seemingly not have an active hand in the development.

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Portkey Games states they are creating both mobile and console video games under the label. However, they have yet to announce any console video game – it has only been mobile game releases so far, which seems to indicate a console or PC game announcement is inevitable.

What Developers Are Likely Behind the Harry Potter Game?

Any developer behind this game would, presumably, have to be under the Warner Bros. studio umbrella, as they own the rights to the Harry Potter franchise. We'll disregard the idea that WB has brought in an outside studio for this project for now. After cutting down on unlikely possibilities, the most likely studio – and the main rumored one at this time – is Avalanche Software.

Back in 2017, Avalanche had job postings that included looking for people with a, "deep understanding of British culture and grammatical presentation" along with concrete knowledge of gaming narrative, specifically in the realm of RPGs.

We also reported in 2018 that other job postings from Avalanche teased the studio’s next project as being a, "large-scale console game project," and a "AAA"-sized RPG.

Rocksteady was previously on the list of speculated studios, especially since they still have an unannounced AAA game and are based in London, but it has been reported in numerous places their upcoming game is not Harry Potter.

WB Games Montreal is also seemingly out of the running, as they heavily teased their upcoming project as a new Batman game earlier this year, and Monolith was preoccupied at the time of those job postings with Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

Which Harry Potter Characters Could You See in the RPG?

Even though the rumored timeline says the game will take place in the 19th century, there are a few significant characters who were born during that time period.

Albus Dumbledore was born in 1881 and his friend-turned-foe Gellert Grindelwald was born in 1883. Although this doesn't leave a lot of time to see one of these two in the Wizarding World within that century, there's still a possibility they could make an appearance, as Dumbledore began at Hogwarts in 1892 at the age of 11, and graduated in 1899 with honors. However, Grindelwald attended Durmstrang before he was expelled, and never attended Hogwarts school – it is also unknown if he ever went to Hogwarts on any extra curricular field trips.

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Harry Potter's godfather and close father-figure throughout the books, Sirius Black, has a family tree written by J.K. Rowling that goes back eight generations (six generations that can be publicly viewed). Sirius' oldest ancestor is Licorus Black, who was born in 1808, and is the possible grandfather of Iola and Elladora Black, who are five generations previous to Sirius. Elladora was born in 1850, and Iola around 1852, which means overall, we could see connections to the pure-blood wizarding Black family in the rumored RPG.

The final – and infamous – character's family we could see in some way, is Lord Voldemort's grandfather, Thomas Riddle, who was born in 1880, and Voldemort's grandmother, Mary Riddle, who was born in 1883. They were both muggles though, along with Voldemort's father, who also went by Tom Riddle (senior), and was not born until 1905. But since various Harry Potter games have held clues and subtle nods to the history within the stories, there's always a possibility we could see the name floating around in a cut-scene or listed on a town flyer.

Harry Potter RPG Rumors: What's False and May Be True

On March 6, GameRant reported a rumor that an announcement would be coming soon on the leaked Harry Potter RPG, after a new job listing at Avalanche Software went up. However, the job listing had no indication to anything Harry Potter related or British culture, and is for an Associate Lighting Technical Artist.

The listing included that the position was for a "soon to be announced AAA title" and since Avalanche is the studio rumored to be developing the leaked Harry Potter game at this time, others assumed this meant it had to be for the Harry Potter game – but there is no confirmation on that rumor nor anything substantial leading to it.

In response to E3 2020 being cancelled, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reported on March 11 that WB Games had plans to talk about upcoming games from its lineup, including WB Montreal’s Batman, Rocksteady’s unannounced game, and a Harry Potter game that “had leaked in 2018" – which has since been the latest rumor that has circulated on the alleged game.

For more details on where we could see the leaked Harry Potter RPG go in the 19th century Wizarding World, read our breakdown on where we think the story direction and gameplay might lead, including sorcery laws and creatures that might pop up in the game, and stay tuned to IGN for all the latest developments on the rumored Harry Potter game.

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Jessie Wade is a proud Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff who has been waiting for this game since she first ready Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (not Sorcerer's) Stone. Let her know your thoughts on all this Wizarding World goodness on Twitter @jessieannwade.

If you had asked me to write out a checklist of features I would expect to find in a Metroidvania, my final list would be pretty close to what I found in Mindseize. It's a decent one, too. Solid, even. And, for all that, just a little bit dull. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with an unimaginative adherence to the basic Metroidvania formula, but Mindseize also fails to inspire with its approach to theme-setting and story development. The final result is a competent but unspectacular action-platformer with precious few ideas of its own.

You play a father bent on exacting revenge on an evil sci-fi organisation that, uh... seized the mind of his daughter. An early unsuccessful encounter with the Big Bad leaves Angry Dad disabled but, with the help of a good sci-fi organisation, able to continue his crusade by transplanting his own mind into a robot. It's nonsense, of course--though it's inoffensive nonsense, sparing in its narrative dumps and blessedly easy to ignore.

More urgent matters involve exploring the various planets, each of which is presented as a vast network of 2D platforms appropriated from conventional stock--the jungle area, the industrial factory, the rainy dystopian nightscape, the caves littered with glowing crystals, and the caves that are a bit darker because there are no glowing crystals. They're all there, present and correct, and no more imaginative than similar scenes in countless other games.

If you had asked me to write out a checklist of features I would expect to find in a Metroidvania, my final list would be pretty close to what I found in Mindseize. It's a decent one, too. Solid, even. And, for all that, just a little bit dull. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with an unimaginative adherence to the basic Metroidvania formula, but Mindseize also fails to inspire with its approach to theme-setting and story development. The final result is a competent but unspectacular action-platformer with precious few ideas of its own.

You play a father bent on exacting revenge on an evil sci-fi organisation that, uh... seized the mind of his daughter. An early unsuccessful encounter with the Big Bad leaves Angry Dad disabled but, with the help of a good sci-fi organisation, able to continue his crusade by transplanting his own mind into a robot. It's nonsense, of course--though it's inoffensive nonsense, sparing in its narrative dumps and blessedly easy to ignore.

More urgent matters involve exploring the various planets, each of which is presented as a vast network of 2D platforms appropriated from conventional stock--the jungle area, the industrial factory, the rainy dystopian nightscape, the caves littered with glowing crystals, and the caves that are a bit darker because there are no glowing crystals. They're all there, present and correct, and no more imaginative than similar scenes in countless other games.

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