Last year, Flip 7 took the gaming world by storm with its simple but enthralling push-your-luck gameplay making it appealing to both casual players and hobbyists alike. A part of its success was down to its straightforward probability formula: each card had a number, and there were that many cards of that number in the deck. That made it intuitive for players to have a feel for the chances of drawing another. Now Sea Scroll has borrowed that concept but turned it on its head: rather than trying to avoid duplicates, you’re collecting them. Can it build on its predecessor's popularity?

As is often the case with small-box card games there’s nothing in the box aside from a deck of cards. But as we highlighted in our Catan: On the Road review, there’s value in having a decent-sized box to store your cards. It’s more convenient, hard-wearing and physically appealing than a tuckbox, especially with the foil detail on the box here, making the lettering pop and the fish scales shine as they should.

Fortunately the cards included are visually rich enough to impress all by themselves. Unusually the game’s artist, Yulia Brodskaya, is already recognized and acclaimed outside of the tabletop gaming world. She uses a technique called quilling to layer paper, resulting in unique and intricate designs that rival the look and feel of paint and pen for detail. Hence the name “Sea Scroll.” Each of the nine fish species included in the game has its own portrait and they’re fascinating to study and enjoy between turns.

All of Sea Scroll’s fishy gameplay revolves around its fishy card deck in which, you’ll recall, there are as many of each fish type as the number printed on that species’ card. Twelve Clownfish, for example, or four Regal Tangs, these being the highest and lowest values available. Before play, you may remove certain fish from the deck, plus a selection of random cards, depending on the number of players at the table. If you frequently play with different player counts this can be a bit of a pain. You then deal two cards to each player and lay out four random cards face-up in a row.

Turns are fast and simple. You draw two random cards off the top of the deck into your hand. You may then choose one group of face-up fish and add them to your collection but there are two important caveats to this decision. First, any fish you take this way are placed in front of you, face-up, so everyone can see what you’re collecting and how many you have. Second, it’s something you can only do three times during each game, as tracked by the number of piles before you. Finally you discard a card into the row of face-up fish: if it matches a value already there, it stacks with it.

Once the draw deck is depleted and a final turn is played, it’s time to reveal your hand alongside your collection of face-up cards and tally scores. It’s simple, but vicious: if you have the most of any given fish type, you get the number of points printed on the card. If you have at least one of that fish type, but don’t have the most, you lose that number of points instead. Given how swingy and critical this is to the overall gameplay, the rules sensibly suggest that you double-check that everyone understands how scoring works before you start play.

This is a much more intriguing way to use the “card number equals number of cards” concept than Flip 7. Although it lacks the raw excitement of that game’s mechanics, with so much riding on each single draw, by spreading it out through the whole game while also increasing the overall stakes with the threat of losing points Sea Scroll gains a lot more strategizing and an absolutely killer reveal phase: all in something you can teach and play in a quarter hour (making it an excellent quick-playing game).

At each stage of your turn, you’re looking at a number of variables in deciding what to do. The key driver is knowing how many of each fish there are available, and how many are already in the player's hands. You can’t know that for sure, of course, especially given that a few random cards are taken out of circulation before the game starts, but after a few turns you can begin to make educated guesses. Factors include taking note of what players are discarding and what face-up cards they’re choosing, as well as what’s in your own hand. It’s a lot of little things to weigh up, making decisions engaging without overloading players.

Initially the decision of what to keep and what to discard is easy but as the game progresses it becomes surprisingly fraught. The real kicker is when you draw two cards and you’re currently collecting neither value. Both of those are potential point bombs that could explode the moment the deck runs out, but you have to keep one! The obvious answer is to ditch the highest-scoring option but that’s not quite so obvious if other players are collecting them, or if it’s going into a sizable pile that someone else can grab for an impressive score boost.

Additionally, there’s a high-risk option in taking a face-up pile of cards that you know someone else is collecting. Sometimes, if you’ve got a couple of that value already, this is a statistical gamble that could pay off or hurt you badly. It’s on you to judge how likely either option is, or how brave you feel, but it’s a fun decision space in such a short game. Alternatively, you can also take a pile early as a bluff, trying to trick players into thinking you’re doing well in that number and encouraging them to discard it so you can corner the payoff. How good is your poker face?

All in all, while there’s not enough weight here to keep this on your table for years to come, there’s an impressive amount going on under the surface for such a simple game. Yet it has one more trick up its sleeve – or perhaps more accurately 13 tricks – to give it additional longevity. As well as the fish cards for actual play, and a few rules reference cards, Sea Scroll has thirteen “variant” cards each of which has a rule switch to make the game play differently.

They’re of variable quality. “Chaos” does what it says on the tin, changing the game into a mad blind grab for card sets as quickly as possible, which isn’t recommended unless you want to damage your lovely cards. Most are minor, such as “Heavy” which has you discarding two cards instead of one, which nevertheless does change the decision space around discarding, making it harder to collect sets but easier to avoid score penalties.

A couple are very much worthwhile, such as “Variety” which lets you place your discard into whatever pile you like, creating a fascinating situation where you can try and put traps into groups other players are likely to pick up. Either way, they certainly extend the shelf-life of this tiny box, making it feel like great value for money.

Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has addressed the backlash against his positive reaction to an unofficial, AI-generated video for a Final Fantasy 6 remake.

On May 18, Sakaguchi retweeted the AI-generated video on his official X account, below, reacting with: “What is this?! It’s amazing!”

なにコレ！？
すごいじゃん https://t.co/hSfhU9U4rA

The mock trailer shows the main cast (plus villain Kefka) in current-gen graphics and covers iconic moments from FF6 such as the opera scene, Terra’s Esper transformation, and even Sabin suplexing a train, plus gameplay-like scenes of Terra walking through various towns and overworlds in a style similar to recent RPGs like Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trilogy.

Although the AI video stirred up nostalgia and hopes of a modern 3D remake for the SNES classic, many commenters criticized Sakaguchi’s positive reaction. “Are you really praising something that was made without permission using generative AI?” one user reacted. Some claimed that the AI version potentially infringes on copyright in multiple ways, noting the use of Final Fantasy 6’s logo and Terra’s theme without permission).

Even SaGa series creator and Square contemporary Akitoshi Kawazu, who worked with Sakaguchi on early Final Fantasy titles, weighed in, saying: “No, Sakaguchi-san, you should have stopped after the first line,” suggesting a shocked “What is this?!” would have been a more suitable reaction from the father of Final Fantasy. In the rest of his comment, Kawazu talked about his recent run-in with an American tourist who loved Final Fantasy 6 and Sabin, adding that: “I do think that 6 would be suitable for a remake.”

In a follow-up tweet, Sakaguchi expressed surprise at the attention the Final Fantasy 6 post garnered: “Whoa, what a big reaction,” he said, adding: “I just kind of intuitively reacted to the potential” shown in the AI video. He explained that while he feels AI content isn’t good enough to use as-is, he senses potential for interesting developments in the future.

“After all, I’m the sort of person who has been propelled through the last 40 years’ work and private life solely by exciting things,” Sakaguchi concluded, acknowledging how he has always been pursuing new ideas and technology, as can be seen in the Final Fantasy series’ lasting influence on the RPG genre.

Sakaguchi’s tweet finished with a concept illustration for the Grand Staff magic research facility from his own studio’s debut game, 2008’s Lost Odyssey, with the creator adding that he “played around” with animating it (implying that he may have used gen AI to do so).

おや！？なんだかすごい反応ｗ
まあ、なんていうか「可能性を直感的に感じちゃった」ってことで
そのまんまじゃダメだけど、その先には面白そうなことも待っていそうな．．．そんな感覚っす… pic.twitter.com/bL5CyXAZbl

While many commenters said they understood Sakaguchi’s excitement for the potential of new technology, others still thought that as an influential figure in the games’ industry, he should have acknowledged the potential copyright infringement issues that currently make AI such a controversial topic.

Sakaguchi was one of the major creative forces behind the Final Fantasy franchise from FF1 through to FF10, including The Spirits Within movie. After leaving Square, he founded his own studio Mistwalker. Replaying Final Fantasy 6 is actually what inspired Sakaguchi to create his latest game, Fantasian: Neo Dimension.

It remains to be seen if Square Enix ever decides to revisit FF6, but reactions to the AI video show that there are a significant number of fans of the game that would like to see it get a full 3D remake in addition to the Pixel Remaster. But will Square Enix actually do it? In 2024, Final Fantasy 6 director Yoshinori Kitase said a remake akin to that given to Final Fantasy 7 could take around 20 years to complete, noting that because of the depth of the game and the sheer amount of content and characters, it would take twice the length of Final Fantasy 7 Remake to develop and release.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds is still talking internally about what to do in response to the game’s big killing fish debate, but players have taken the matter into their own hands, diving deeper to uncover ways of actually defending themselves.

To briefly recap, killing fish isn’t properly supported in Subnautica 2, which launched to huge success in early access form last week. You can deter fish by using a flare, but there are no tools designed specifically for causing fish damage, which means that you’re faced with having to put up with them nibbling at your heels as you go about your underwater business.

But, it turns out that there are ways to defend yourself in Subnautica 2, but you’ll have to put in a bit of work to make use of them. Across subreddits, discords, and social media, players have identified mid-game upgrades that offer some defense, and even let you kill fish in a round about way.

Warning! Potential spoilers for Subnautica 2 follow:

The Feedback Resonator, an upgrade for the Sonic Resonator that lets it fire a projectile, lets you shoot fish from a distance. You’ll need to work your way deep into the game to obtain it, but some reports indicate the Sonic Resonator can actually kill fish, so it’s certainly worthwhile.

Redditor Jeidoz suggests the Shockwave biomod upgrade, which gives you an electric discharge that can push fish away from you. And then there are the aforementioned flares when you’re in a pickle.

Jeidoz said they were able to complete the early access Subnautica 2 as it is now without taking damage, which sounds like a herculean effort. They used flares and dashed to run away from predators, then the Sonic Resonator to encourage fish to push off. Then, getting further into the mid-game, the Electric Discharge was used “for any dangerous situations,” and the Feedback Resonator was used for single-target enemies.

“In the current version of Early Access, I believe we only have mid-game (or even pre-mid-game?) options,” Jeidoz said. “With future updates, we can expect new vehicles, new bio-mods, fixed fish reactions to light, and other tools/actions. Currently, the PDA mentions some of them, but most fish only react to flares, ‘sounds’ from vehicles, the Sonic Resonator, the player, and stationary vehicles.”

So, the upshot is, the more you play Subnautica 2, the more you’ll be able to defend yourself. But this is not the outright ability to kill fish, as some want. Yes, you do kill fish “off screen” by eating them raw, cooking them, or turning them into other resources. But some players want to effectively clear the game out of fish, giving them the breathing room to bend the depths to their will.

This, though, does not sound like something the developers at Unknown Worlds will ever make possible in Subnautica 2. The developers have spoken in the past about not wanting players to conquer or dominate the environment, and that it wouldn’t feature tools that would let them slay anything that gets in their way. "We aren't a killing game," level designer Artyom "Artie" O'Rielly recently said in the Subnautica Discord. "Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill."

Still, Unknown Worlds is certainly thinking about tweaking the game in response to the debate. Also speaking in the Discord, lead game designer Anthony Gallegos said the developer can tune creature aggression to make fish less annoying to deal with.

“One thing that should help with this soon is the array of creature flinches we're doing,” Gallegos explained. “Right now they aren't communicating that you've impacted them, and that will change.

“We can do a lot without a stasis rifle for now, though," he added. "Some of it is just going to be rounds of tuning around creature aggression, downtime between when you run them off, etc. We clearly have work to do there, and we're doing it!”

If you're just getting started, we’ve got a Things to Do First in Subnautica 2 guide to check out, plus resource location guides to help you find Titanium, Silver, and more. Discover blackbox and supply crate locations on our interactive Subnautica 2 map, and make sure you don’t miss any Angel Comb Adaptations or Blueprints.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.