OK, let me clarify before I even begin. I bought the World of Warcraft mount that outsold StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, in-game, entirely for free. Now let's back this up a little bit. In September 2023, former Blizzard developer Jason Thor Hall revealed that a paid mount in World of Warcraft netted Blizzard Entertainment more money than sales for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. The mount, at the time, cost $15 and could only be purchased with real money. However, as of August 1, 2024 the infamous mount is now available to obtain entirely for free, in-game, for 900 Traders Tender (a free currency) for the entire month of August.

I should also clarify that Hall did not explicitly reveal which mount outsold StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, but internet users have done their sleuthing and have more or less come to the conclusion that the mount in question could possibly be the Celestial Steed. It's a horse made up of constellations, and in my opinion, not the best looking thing out there. But I guess given that the T&W Trading Post probably didn't exist in 2010, and mounts were more of a challenge to obtain, I can see the appeal of buying one right out of the shop and having one (especially since it seems to have flying) ready to go. Granted, you would still need to level up to unlock the ability to ride it, but I guess I get the appeal.

I suppose, above all else this mount is a time capsule of sort. It was probably incredible looking for the time it came out, with it's semi-transparent body and unique effects that sprinkling out stars around the horse and it's rider. At the same time, this mount more or less reaffirmed that corporations could make a hefty chunk of change for microtransactions. I, myself, am guilty for purchasing things through in-game stories. I've bought several Fantasias in Final Fantasy XIV, and a couple of cosmetic items. I've even purchase an outfit in World of Warcraft, or sometimes I buy characters in games like The First Descendant to get access to who I want to play immediately. I fully acknowledge I'm part of the problem.

It's just incredible to see a mount, that potentially set a trend, available for free in the long-running MMORPG. And I guess even more-so that I could just grab it and go without dipping into my wallet. A part of me wonders what long-time players feel about things that were originally only available for real-money now being available for free. And another part of me wonders what other mounts potentially made more profit in World of Warcraft than the Celestial Steed. I suppose we may never know that, and it's probably for the best. Because there's a part of me that feels a physical sort of pain when I know that this horse potentially contributed to the death of one of my favorite RTS franchises.

World of Warcraft is available for PC.

The post I Bought the World of Warcraft Mount that Outsold StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty appeared first on Siliconera.

When Blizzard Entertainment had Overwatch playable to the general public for the very first time at Gamescom in 2015, I queued up for line with a swarm of attendees and waited for hours to get my hands on the game. I liked what I played. So much, in fact, that I played a healthy amount of the game when it first released. And I've been craving a similar Hero Shooter ever since. Marvel Rivals has more or less scratched that itch with it's 6-vs-6 formula and lack of Role Queue, reminiscent of the early era of Overwatch, but it's a shame I can't seem to get a Closed Beta key through the Twitch Drops campaign — because I would really like to play with my friends.

Mine is not an unpopular opinion on this matter. The Reddit is full of users complaining about how bad the roll-out for Closed Beta keys are, with bots swarming the redemption page every 5PM PST/12AM UTC. As of July 27, 2024 eBay is full of keys that can be purchased between the range of $30 to $100, which is steep for a Closed Beta. But given that you will be able to unlock an exclusive Venom skin, one that is reminiscent of his color scheme in Marvel versus Capcom 2, and the desire for players post-Closed Beta to want to show off their participation in this limited test, it doesn't surprise me that keys are being snatched up and sold for a profit.

I'll provide a quick breakdown of how these keys are acquired. You can watch any Marvel Rivals Twitch stream for an hour and be eligible to obtain a key. Keys are distributed through the Marvel Rivals website, assuming you're lucky enough to redeem one. Every time a new period of key distribution starts, the page where you can redeem your keys lags out. Sometimes it logs you out of your Twitch account, which means you need to spend a few seconds or a minute logging back in, or you have to make it through a CAPTCHA. All of these things mean you are probably not getting a key to the Closed Beta.

If you are fortunate to get a key, then you can only redeem one key through the in-game client for the entirety of the Closed Beta. Keys also go particularly fast, with 20% to 14% being available to redeem maybe a minute or so after key redemptions go live. Which sucks. Because if you aren't on at the exact time redemptions refresh, you're probably not getting a key.

And playing Hero Shooters without your friends is no fun. I mean, I've definitely solo queued in Marvel Rivals enough to get me over half-way through the Battle Pass and close to that Cyan Venom skin during my three days with the Closed Beta. But when even one of my friends also got access, I was having a lot more fun. And even more when two and then three were able to jump in. We were queuing together and figuring out team synergy. We were having fun and working together to box in enemies for me to swallow them up as Jeff the Shark and spit four opposing players off the map! It was great! And it required a lot of coordination to make happen. I'm sure you can do that through communicating in game with randoms, but there's a lot of fun to be had with friends.

These kinds of games have become social activities, ways for friends to spend time together overseas, or even just for a handful of matches to satiate their desire for carnage — or yearning for something like Overwatch that isn't Overwatch. That's me, I'm that person. And I want to be able to get my friends to join in on the fun so they can also experience the really cool moments I'm experiencing in game. Because I want to drag them into this, and I think the way Closed Beta keys are being distributed is making that really hard, and even potentially leaving a bad taste in the mouth of those that can't participate.

I will probably play Marvel Rivals when it releases. It's my kind of slop. But I genuinely feel bad for people that have been looking forward to this, or even dedicated time watching streams that won't be able to participate. Because who knows, maybe they'll feel burned enough to just not play the game.

Marvel Rivals is currently in closed beta on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

The post Marvel Rivals Twitch Closed Beta Keys are Impossible to Obtain appeared first on Siliconera.

A new announcement from Ryukishi07 will appear on August 2, 2024 according to a Tweet made on the official 07th Expansion X (Twitter) account. Additionally, the Tweet shares that whatever Ryukishi07 plans to announce will be his first experience with this kind of work. No further information was shared.

Ryukishi07 is the creator of both the Umineko: When They Cry and Higurashi: When They Cry; paranormal visual novels set in a distinct location, with some interconnecting narrative threads that do loosely tie the series together. Higurashi: When They Cry has received several anime adaptations, with the most recent having released in 2017. The last Umineko: When They Cry anime adaptation appeared in 2009. Both series have received manga adaptations.

However, most notably, Ryukishi07 is currently tied to Silent Hill f. Silent Hill f is a new installment in the Silent Hill series, which will take place in a Japanese village outside of the titular town. Little information has been shared concerning Silent Hill f. This includes a general scenario synopsis or list of potential characters that will appear. Silent Hill f was announced in 2019.

Silent Hill f is in development. A new announcement involving Ryukishi07 will appear on August 2, 2024.

The post New Ryukishi07 Announcement to Appear in August appeared first on Siliconera.

Adult Swim announced a release date for the upcoming Uzumaki anime adaptation. The announcement came alongside the release of a short teaser trailer, providing a glimpse at some of the horrors viewers will witness when the anime arrives on September 28, 2024. Consumers will be able to watch the anime adaptation the same day of release on Adult Swim, and it will be available the following day, September 29, 2024 on the Max streaming service.

As mentioned previously, Adult Swim released a short teaser through YouTube. It contains roughly one minute of footage, and includes various scenes from the anime. As a warning to viewers, the teaser contains body horror, blood, gore, and disturbing imagery.

You can watch the teaser below.

Originally slated to air in 2021, the Uzumaki anime has received several delays. Subsequent updates did appear in 2023 and 2024, which included more information about the series, such as voice actor announcements. Uzumaki will be a total of four episodes long, and will feature Japanese and English voice acting.

The release date for the Uzumaki anime adaptation will release on September 28, 2024 on Adult Swim. It will appear on Max the following day on September 29, 2024.

The post Uzumaki Anime Adaptation Release Date Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

World of Warcraft is perhaps one of the longest enduring MMORPGs, having launched November 2004, it will have been in service for nearly two decades this year. It was a game that I initially shunned, but warmed up to over time as my interest in other MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV waned. But as I sat with friends, discussing all of the games, specifically MMORPGs, that we played, I realized something: World of Warcraft could benefit from more linear expansion and story progression.

I meet up with a friends at a local restaurant to get out of my apartment, and we sit and talk about games that were formative to us during our youth between picking at cheese covered short ribs slathered in a spicy marinade and Korean corn cheese. We talk about Starcraft, and how despite effectively starting the Esports scene in Korea it has fallen into decline, and how incredible Warcraft III and its subsequent expansion, The Frozen Throne, was. Since I am still new to World of Warcraft, with the decades old MMORPG still retaining it's glossy shine to me (probably because I haven't had to trudge through Shadowlands or Cataclysm in full, yet) I bring it up. We are both lovers of Sylvanas Windrunner and Arthas Menethil and I talk excited with them about the attention to detail put into The Undercity, the capital city for The Forsaken — undead who have broken free from the Lich King's influence to live as a mostly independent people. I tell them about the bruised and rotten flower petals that the now undead citizens of Lordaeron threw in joyous celebration at the return of their crown prince, how the bells still sing for Arthas, and how his voice still echoes in the throne room where he slew his father in an act of patricide to overtake the city and condemn his people to undeath.

I share all of the stories told to me about Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, two of World of Warcraft's first major expansions, realizing that neither them or myself will be able to run through them as they were. And that in some cases, you will not be able to experience them at all if you progress a character in retail too far to make use of Chromie's time distortion, which does let you play through old World of Warcraft expansions to an extent. You see, there is a cut-off for this around Level 50, which prevents you from accessing other expansions as they mostly were. I say mostly, because the divisive Cataclysm expansion changed the world map in such a significant way that even major landmarks were destroyed and various locations altered with the arrival of Deathwing. Which I'm sure was exciting when that expansion launched! And further down the line, certain starting zones were changed to show the flow of time in Azeroth, which is something I actually like in World of Warcraft over Final Fantasy XIV. Final Fantasy XIV does have some time lapse between expansions, but everything is more or less static. There isn't a greater change in the world, characters don't grow up or age or die, which I think works to the detriment of the MMORPG, but it does do one thing right in terms of progression: it's completely linear.

Final Fantasy XIV requires you to go through A Realm Reborn to get to Heavensward, and Heavensward to get to Stormblood, and so on. You can, of course, purchase a story skip to bypass all of this content which I've done for alts, but for the most part you need to engage in the Main Scenario Content in a specific order to see storylines unfold in a way that ushers you through what feels like a chronicling of major, significant story events. World of Warcraft has these things — the resurgence of the Scourge and the awakening of the Lich King, the Burning Legion pouring forth out of emerald green demon gates, to name a few. Not all World of Warcraft expansions hit their mark. With the community at large disliking Shadowlands to such an extent that it's become shorthand for middling expansions that it's even permeated the Final Fantasy XIV community in terms of how that own portion of MMORPG players have come to regard Dawntrail. But I think going through the story in some linear fashion would be great for World of Warcraft.

Yes, you would have to endure old content which means a lot of fetch quests and running around old maps. But having played Classic Season of Discovery, I think that would be a great boon. That content forces you to engage with the world and learn about it in a way that has you exploring these old zones, and it would breathe life into regions that have otherwise gone neglected. You would get to learn about the relationship each of the small villages you discover have with the world at large, you'd get too experience characters grow old and change and even die, instead of just popping into the world as is. Yes, instanced zones still exist so people can experience some starting areas as they were, but it'd be cool (if not maybe impossible) to see Blizzard Entertainment impliment this on a larger scale.

Maybe this is just me wanting to see more players in old zones, or wanting people to experience some of the best story content World of Warcraft has had, or maybe it's just me being nostalgic for characters that Blizzard Entertainment just still haven't been able to top. (I won't deny, I have a huge bias for Arthas, but he's iconic for a reason!) I know I definitely feel this way because I've played Season of Discovery; because I've experienced those old starting zones and spoken to those old NPCs that I know become significant. It's nice to see where things begin and where they will potentially end, and I think World of Warcraft does have some solid character writing even if it isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I think it's a shame people can't experience some of the best bits of what World of Warcraft does have to offer, and having that linear progression would maybe enhance their experience. I know it would for me.

World of Warcraft is available on PC.

The post World of Warcraft Could Benefit from Linear Expansion Progression appeared first on Siliconera.

Japanese VTuber Korone Inugami will appear on the Sonic Station broadcast as a special guest. The broadcast will be held on July 30, 2024 at 4AM PT/7AM ET/1PM CET/8PM JST. It will appear on YouTube. Those interested in the broadcast can click the bell button on the video to receive an alert once it goes live.

The Sonic Station broadcast with Korone Inugami will also feature information on new Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise. Information about the broadcast was shared through the official Sonic the Hedgehog Japanese X (Twitter) account.

You can view the broadcast below.

This is not the first time Korone has appeared on a broadcast or program related to Sega's iconic blue mascot. On September 27, 2023 Sega announced that the dog-girl VTuber would appear at the Sonic Square collaboration event held at Fuji-Q. The event also included an AR spot where attendees could take a picture with Korone, and have the chance to win signed merchandise. Korone is a known fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, and has even received a line of special crossover merchandise, featuring the VTuber in a Sonic-themed outfit.

The Sonic Station Live broadcast with Korone Inugami will be held on July 30, 2024 at 4AM PT/7AM ET/1PM CET/8PM JST through YouTube.

The post Korone Inugami to Appear on Sonic Station Broadcast appeared first on Siliconera.

Humble Games announced that it's publishing division is currently undergoing massive restructuring. Several employees under the publishing division announced that they had been let go on social media platforms such as X (Twitter) and LinkedIn. [Thanks, Game Developer!]

Humble Games, through it's publishing label, has published titles such as SIGNALIS, a fixed camera angle sci-fi survival horror game that we thoroughly enjoyed, and Coral Island, a farming sim that slots into the "cozy" genre that naturally including farming and romance.

According to a statement from Humble Games, titles currently in development will remain unaffected by the closing of the publishing label. The statement came after the reports that the publishing label had been shuttered entirely from former employees that worked as part of the division. As of July 23, 2024 there has been no word from developers that have received funding from Humble Games on current, in-development projects, about this affecting their titles.

This restructuring will not affect employees or activities concerned with the Humble Bundle section of the company. On October 17, 2017 Humble Bundle was acquired by IGN Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ziff Davis. Under Ziff Davis, IGN Entertainment has gone on to acquire the Gamer Network, which includes Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG427.

The post Humble Games Publishing Label Undergoing Restructuring appeared first on Siliconera.

One June 14, 2024 Arc System Works announced that it would adapt Guilty Gear into an anime with the help of Sanzigen Studios. An image featuring Sol Badguy, Sin Kiske, and a mysterious new character was shared, teasing who would potentially play an integral role in this upcoming adaptation. Siliconera had the opportunity to sit down with Guilty Gear Strive Producer Ken Miyauchi, Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers Associate Producer Seiji Mizushima, and Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers Series Composition Writer Norimitsu Kaiho.

Given how expansive the lore and narrative of Guilty Gear is, with the first title in the series released in 1998, I asked what the challenges were in adapting the "rock and roll" action and intricate lore into something comprehensible for those unfamiliar with the fighter. Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers Associate Producer Seiji Mizushima had an answer.

"Guilty Gear has a twenty-five year history, and it's quite a difficult question of how do you turn that into an anime. But we want a new audience to be able to get into Guilty Gear series, and also do something that satisfies the old fans. The big challenge was really how do we protect the world and setting of this IP. " Mizushima went on to state that the production team for the anime worked closely with Arc System Works to ensure that this was done.

"Originally, this came together because the former BlazBlue Producer, Mori Toshimichi, approached me and asked how could we make something like this work. More than anything, we needed to have a strong and solid vision moving forward, otherwise it wouldn't succeed. That was the original discussion we had around the production of this project." He shared. "We ended up working very deeply with both the creators on the side of Arc System Works and the people on the animation side as well. So if you want to talk about how intertwined they are, I would say it's an almost one-hundred percent collaborative effort."

Guilty Gear Strive Producer Ken Miyauchi also weighed in saying, "Once we formed that team and assured that level of collaboration, we had the Guilty Gear Strive narrative director looking at the story and we also decided to bring in Norimitsu, who is a script writer and very well known for his work on Guilty Gear." Miyauchi stated that Norimitsu is one of the most trusted script writers when it comes to Guilty Gear, as he had worked as a script writer on previous Guilty Gear related projects. He also revealed that Norimitsu helped write the scenario for the anime. "Norimitsu would write the scenario and bring it to Arc System Works and we would have weekly meetings for quality and lore checks." This even included making sure that characters wouldn't say phrases they otherwise wouldn't say.

"We didn't want players of the Guilty Gear series to feel like the anime wasn't in line with the storyline they were already familiar with. We wanted to make sure everything was aligned. At the same time, we also focused on bringing in newcomers from the anime." We want to make sure that there wouldn't be a reliance on understanding " Miyauchi also stated that they wanted to create something that wouldn't rely too heavily on newcomers needing that deep understanding of Guilty Gear lore for them to get invested, making it more accessible to people that may be exposed to the series for the first time.

Regarding Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, Series Composition Writer Norimitsu Kaiho stated that it will be tied into previous established Guilty Gear narratives and lore. "It's a standalone in a sense that newcomers will be able to jump right in and enjoy it for what it is, but is connected to the old lore which will have a few things long-times fans may find exciting in the story." On the subject of characters that have long since been missing from the main roster of Guilty Gear, I asked if we would see some of these faces (like Robo-Ky) return. Both Norimitsu and Miyauchi laughed, Miyauchi telling me that they couldn't answer that specifically. However, he did mention that there are a few characters that didn't appear in Guilty Gear Strive that would show up in Dual Rulers. He did not specify as to which.

When asked about a prospective sequel series, or a film, if Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers performs well, Norimitsu said he would love to create another story if given the chance. "I would like to see a possible sequel." Miyauchi added on. "Maybe the story of someone like Chipp, or something more character specific, or another type of drama. But all of these ideas are just something we'd like to see, and realistically, the first step we'd need to see is success with the anime."

We ended up moving the conversation into something more focused on Guilty Gear Strive and the growing popularity of the franchise. I had played several Guilty Gear games in the past, but I had always known the community to be relatively small. However, that's changed with Guilty Gear having an incredible presence at EVO and other fighting game tournaments. Miyauchi shared that he was elated to see that Guilty Gear Strive had surpassed 3 million players. "Some of our teams are quite surprised, I think the Arc System Works executives were not really expecting this level of success. Before I joined Arc System Works in 2018, I was just a casual player who liked playing fighting games. From that perspective, I knew that Arc System Works IPs like Guilty Gear had the potential of reaching this level of success. That's why I joined the company and became a Producer." He stated. Miyauchi mentioned that when Arc System Works announced Guilty Gear Strive had one million players, he knew it could do more and that when that number eventually jumped to three million, that it surprised him. However, he continues to aim high and hopes that five million players will be reached sometime in the future.

When asked about the hope that Guilty Gear: Dual Rulers will attract entirely new fans to Guilty Gear Strive, and even entice them into playing older entries in the series, Miyauchi shared his thoughts. "I'm not expecting all of these new fans to get into the fighting game, because even some long-time fans don't necessarily play a lot of fighting games and are instead attracted to the characters, lore, and music." He says. "I just hope that they will like what they like." I know that the level of success behind Guilty Gear is because of our very strong and enthusiastic community from previous entries in the series, and many of those fans discuss various things about Guilty Gear. " Miyauchi also said that he recognizes the success of the Guilty Gear franchise is largely owed to its dedicated and enthusiastic community, and that he knows that the various facets of this community will be more than willing to help newcomers come into the fold.

The Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers anime series is currently in development with no known release date. Guilty Gear Strive is readily available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and Windows PC.

The post Interview: Guilty Gear Strive Dual Rulers Will be Approachable to New Fans appeared first on Siliconera.

Square Enix is no stranger to brand collaborations. Through the lifespan of Final Fantasy XIV, the developer and publisher has teamed up to distribute unique mounts and emotes to players that participate and gobble up collaboration goods for the aforementioned rewards. The most recently FFXIV collaboration is with bubble tea brand Gong Cha to reward players with an exclusive mount, which everyone was excited for.

For posterities sake, I decided I would actually attempt at participating in a Final Fantasy XIV collaboration. Now that I was in North America, it would be significantly easier and I wouldn't be barred from obtaining a unique mount because I could get a specific Butterfinger bar in Germany, or the Pizza Hut at the hauptbahnhof (or main train station) wasn't part of a previous collaboration because it wasn't located in the United States. And with Gong Cha having so many locations in my neighborhood I figured that there was a high chance I'd be able to obtain the exclusive collaboration mount (which is just a variation of a mount players can already obtain in game entirely for free, they just put a crown on a pig).

This was absolutely not the case. The Gong Cha FFXIV collaboration started on July 17, 2024. I thought about getting some bubble tea from Gong Cha on July 18, 2024 which meant that there was a high chance I would not be getting the mount. Which was entirely correct. I called my local Gong Cha to ask if there were any FFXIV mount codes still available, and I was promptly notified that no, there were not. Doing a quick search on Reddit and Twitter, I learned that Square Enix and Gong Cha decided that codes would be given out on scratch cards that are apparently in limited supply. Instead of taking the route of printing a code on a receipt, the code would instead be distributed through a select amount of these scratch cards. So even if you did go to a participating Gong Cha location (because not all of them are), you'd run the risk of spending around $20 on bubble tea for nothing — not even a commemorative key chain, since those are also sold out depending on the store you go to.

Now $20 on a mount is a bit steep. But arguably, it is cheaper than most everything you will find on Square Enix's official Final Fantasy XIV Online Store. Mounts there range from $12 to $37 depending on how many players each mount can carry, how old a mount is, and if it was tied to a previous seasonal event. Even then, paying $20 for what is effectively the same mount players can get through Nu Mou Tribe Quests in Shadowbringers feels a little pricy.

Now this isn't the first time Square Enix has had some difficulties with Final Fantasy XIV collaborations. There was the aforementioned Pizza Hut collaboration, which distributed a pizza eating emote through purchasing a pizza from participating locations, that also distributed codes in limited supply. This emote can now be purchased on the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store for $7. Or the Butterfinger collaboration, which netted players an exclusive chocolate-colored Korpokkur which were then made available through a Twitch campaign in 2024 to celebrate the release of Dawntrail. There were difficulties redeeming codes for this, so I suppose Square Enix figured that distributing this mount for free was probably a good idea. This makes me wonder if the now-exclusive Porxie mount will eventually be available to obtain through other means. Which would be nice, because I guess these collaborations are mostly about the experience of gathering as many Butterfinger bars in your arms as possible to get mounts for you and your friends, or waiting two hours for bubble tea only to be told that the store has run out of codes.

Final Fantasy XIV is a popular game, there's no doubt about that. So it makes me wonder why code distribution for these exclusive mounts or emotes are distributed the way they are. I mean, it's definitely a system that works for Japan, but that can't be said for other regions. And I think of Square Enix is going to continue to try and bring brand collaborations to North America and Europe, they should do so with those respective regions in mind. Because the worst case scenario are these codes being sold online for hundreds of dollars, which is already happening, and players feeling burned by a lack of proper rollout for what should be an exciting event for the community.

Final Fantasy XIV is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X. The FFXIV Gong Cha collaboration will run from July 17 to August 28, 2024.

The post I Tried to Get the Gong Cha FFXIV Mount, They Ran Out of Codes appeared first on Siliconera.

ATLUS announced a collaboration between its official merchandise branch and California-based fashion brand M.RAGE. A total of two official Persona 3 Reload jackets will be available to purchase from M.RAGE on July 19, 2024. Consumers can purchase the jackets online through the M.RAGE website, or at the M.RAGE booth at Evo 2024.

As mentioned previously, a total of two jackets will be available to purchase. The first jacket, the AIGIS RACER SERIES will cost $120 with the second jacket, the PERSONA RELOAD COACH JACKET available to purchase for $85.

You can take a look at both Persona 3 Reload M.RAGE collaboration jackets below.

Unfortunately, both jackets are strictly limited to consumers in US and Canada. There is no international shipping available for either jacket at this time.

This is not the first time a notable IP has collaborated with M.RAGE. Previously, Arc System Works teamed up with the brand to release a series of Guilty Gear jackets featuring characters such as Bridget and Baiken. These jackets were also only available to consumers within the US and Canada, with the Bridget jacket appearing shortly after the announcement for her inclusion in Guilty Gear Strive.

Persona 3 Reload is available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. The M.RAGE collaboration jackets will be available for purchase on July 19, 2024.

The post Persona 3 Reload M.RAGE Collaboration Jackets Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

A black mist pours through a scarlet torii gate, with fingers clamped firmly around its edges. Pale pink light emanates from a thousand lotus petals that dance beneath the feet of a priestess as a masked warrior moves in tandem, slicing through insect-like demons that pour forth. Dawn breaks and these creatures melt away into webs of red ichor. As the maiden dances, she purifies the land around her and brings calm to a now-cursed mountain. This is Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, Capcom’s latest foray into an entirely new IP.

The narrative of Kunitsu-Gami is a simple, but effective, one. The Seethe, a malicious presence, escaped from its confinement on Mount Kafuku. The Maiden Yoshiro must press back against the defilement that has now corrupted the inhabitants of the village and destroyed the settlements throughout. The player does not assume the role of Yoshiro, but instead Soh, a summoned warrior that is capable of assisting the Maiden in her banishment of the Seethe. With sword in hand, Yoshiro and Soh work together as she dances to rid the world of this malicious presence, with you as her protector. The game is straightforward and uses the narrative as a means to get players right into the action, with its Japanese aesthetic and focus on folklore designed to create something that feels like a reasonable attempt at a new one-off IP for Capcom.

Kunitsu-Gami eases the player into its various systems. The game will guide you through its base building mechanic, which in truth is more or less the restoration of smaller shrines and areas that have been destroyed due to the pervasive presence of the Seethe. You cannot restore or rebuild any of these structures immediately and will instead need to assign a specific number of villagers to said reconstruction, with the passing of time dictated by completing missions. Restoring these areas will reward the player with Musubi, which can then be used to upgrade the masks you equip your units with. I ended up grinding away, setting my villagers to the task of rebuilding statues and buildings, before major encounters which allowed me to upgrade these masks to empower my units.

Masks more or less serve as a class system of sorts, with more becoming available as you progress the story. Villagers can be assigned roles before and during stages, depending on whether it is a generic tower-defense stage or a boss fight. There are more than a handful of different roles that can be obtained through the game, with each role a villager can assume based on the mask they have been assigned to wear. The first role players will unlock is the Woodcutter, which attacks enemies in its immediate vicinity as a melee class, with the second being the Archer. From there, you can unlock roles such as the Ascetic, which provide more supplementary skills such as creating barriers. There are other roles too, such as Ninja, which can play instrumental parts in specific stages, as each stage is more or less a puzzle players can solve through the use of these roles. I personally favored ranged roles such as the Archer, which gave me ranged support as I would tear through Seethe, attacking and blocking and micromanaging my units as Soh. Having a more active role in combat was honestly refreshing, and instead of just watching units fight I was more involved and more attentive.

At its heart, Kunitsu-Gami is a hybrid tower-defense and real-time strategy game. I would even go so far to say that it could even qualify to be called an action game, given that there are various combos you can perform to slice through and banish Seethe to varying effect. But at its heart, Kunitsu-Gami is about protecting a singular objective — that being the Maiden Yoshiro. Yoshiro, and Soh, are tasked with removing the “defilement” from Mount Kafuku, but this can only be done by escorting her to various Shinto shrines located throughout the mountain. Is it your duty as Soh to escort her through various stages, breaking through corrupted torii gates and banishing the Seethe that pour through. However, you’re not alone in this objective.

During the day, players can cleanse each stage of the defilement, freeing villagers from brightly colored, chitinous cocoons. These villagers can then be assigned roles through the use of the aforementioned mask system and then put into position before sun sets and the Seethe crawl out of the defiled torii gates. (You can also command units to reposition to attack and defend with a simple press of a button, which makes things less complicated to a degree.)Thankfully, you can change the role of your villagers during stages, which is sometimes necessary.

Kunitsu-Gami doesn’t always telegraph what enemies will be pouring out of these corrupted gates, so it’s often good to have a healthy mix of ranged, support, and melee units. But again, if you need to swap it up you can do so in the middle of combat for a price. This means that swapping out masks isn’t something you can infinitely do in the midst of battle. Swapping masks costs crystals, which can be earned during stages, but only in a finite amount. Boss encounters function similarly, except you are given the opportunity to prepare before a fight without a timer ticking down for you to banish the corruption and free villagers to aid you as Yoshiro dances towards the torii gates you need to purify.

But what is most striking about Kunitsu-Gami is its art style. The game is saturated with bright colors and kaleidoscope effects that accentuate each swing of Soh’s sword. Environments are full of strange, insect-like growths that blossom into flowers of a vibrant pink with the corrupted torii gates sealed with a mass of gray fingers that dig inward. There is a level of uncanniness there that lends itself well to the game, encapsulating the unknowable nature of the Seethe, or rather that they are not of our world. I generally do not like to draw comparisons between games, but a lot of the designs in Kunitsu-Gami reminded me of the insect-like nature of the shibito in Siren: Blood Curse, also known as Siren: New Translation.

I absolutely adored the designs of the Seethe, each more uncanny than the next as they ventured deeper and deeper into the unknowable. Notable yokai such as the Kamaitachi appear, but not in a way that I would expect something so significant in Japanese folklore to be represented. Instead of a weasel, or something resembling a weasel. The Seethe version that appeared in this game was a mess of wispy flesh with something comparable to a wasp stinger attached to its lower half. The art direction in the game is really just fantastic, and one of the best things about Kunitsu-Gami, which I found myself enjoying despite how sparse the narrative actually is.

What I can say for Kunitsu-Gami is that it feels like a game that could have existed on the PlayStation 2, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It’s experimental and interesting, and I’m glad Capcom Development Studio 1 was able to make this game. The way it builds on the tower-defense genre and gives the player a more active role through the use of Soh as an avatar makes the game immediately more involved and interesting. I hope Kunitsu-Gami ends up garnering some kind of success so that it can show Capcom that these risks can be taken, even for AA titles, so we can see more of what its various development studios can create outside of established franchises.

Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess will come out on July 19, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC.

The post Review: Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Is an Exciting Tower-Defense Game appeared first on Siliconera.

During the CAPCOM NEXT Summer 2024 broadcast, Koshi Nakanishi, Director of Resident Evil 7, confirmed a new Resident Evil title is in development. However, specifics about the title have yet to be shared. This includes a potential release date, and what characters will appear in the upcoming installment.

Nakanishi stated that there were some challenges in deciding what to do after Resident Evil 7, but that over time he was able to find a clear vision for the next title. He hopes to be able to share more information in the future. You can see what he has to say in full through the official CAPCOM NEXT Summer 2024 broadcast at 39:00. Due to age restrictions being put on the video, it cannot be embedded into this article.

In October 2021, Capcom announced Resident Evil 7 had surpassed 10 million units sold worldwide, making it one of Capcom's best-selling titles to date. The game received a direct sequel with Resident Evil Village, which starred protagonist Ethan Winters. And in June 2024, the developer announced that this entry in the Resident Evil series would be released on Mac and iOS devices on July 2, 2024.

A new Resident Evil title is in development. More information will appear in the future.

The post New Resident Evil Title in Development, Lead by RE7 Director appeared first on Siliconera.

Square Enix has been coy concerning information about Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, with very little information coming out since the announcement of the remake in May 2021. However, it recently invited Siliconera to give the game a spin and see what playing this HD-2D remake of a classic Dragon Quest title would be like.

I was able to sit down and play Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake during Summer Game Fest, and I was not disappointed. Granted, I have never played Dragon Quest 3, so I'm coming at this from the perspective of a newcomer. A majority of the Dragon Quest games I did play were a part of the Monster series, and knowing that Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D will be the place to start for those unfamiliar with the series was a relief.

Chronologically, Dragon Quest 3 takes place before the first Dragon Quest game, which Square Enix stressed. It would make sense that this game would be given the HD-2D treatment, and then subsequently released on modern platforms. Players assume the role of a nameless hero who is accompanied by a small party as they set out on a quest to defeat the fiend Baramos who is intent on destroying the world.

The section of the game that I was able to play took place at the beginning, which allowed me to explore one of the starting villages and really soak in the visual changes in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D. Generally, I'm not a huge fan of HD-2D, since a lot of the finer details of pixel sprites are often hard to see through bloom and other visual effects like blur, like in Octopath Traveler, but the game is gorgeous. There is just the right amount of detail and saturation to make the sprites pop and the bloom effect isn't overwhelming. I spent some time wandering the town and talking to NPCs, trying to buy weapons and armor I couldn't afford, and meandering for a bit before I decided to make my way to the overworld map.

Fields of green were dotted with tightly condensed trees to make up small forests, which were home to a variety of monsters, including the iconic slime. Combat takes place from a first person perspective, with the menu allocated to the upper lefthand side of the screen. The monsters are pulled forward in perspective to give the background some depth, and their designs look great in the HD-2D style. Now, the game was a bit harder than anticipated. But we were warned that Dragon Quest 3 isn't the easiest game in the franchise by far. So I more or less just spent my time battling slimes and other creatures, getting the hang of the turn-based combat system and just soaking in how pretty the game was.

It was a good enough taste of what Dragon Quest 3: HD-2D Remake will be like on release, and has me excited. The game is gorgeous and the combat is cut and dry enough that it seems approachable to newcomers. Overall, I think Square Enix made the right decision to choose this art style for the HD-2D remake and that in choosing to remake Dragon Quest 3, that this could be the perfect place for those new to the franchise to jump in.

Dragon Quest 3: HD-2D Remake is currently in development and will come to the Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on November 14, 2024.

The post Preview: Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake Is Cute and Colorful appeared first on Siliconera.

A man sits in a dark room, his flaming red hair spilling from beneath his helmet. His eyes are golden, pupils slit though bearing the same cross found throughout The Lands Between. He raises a spear, a snake twining around his arm. Messmer the Impaler, the face of FromSoftware's Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, murmurs secrets to me as he pulls back his arm and proclaims me an enemy. Leaping into the sky a ball of red flame gathers in the mouth of a serpent, and he comes crashing down nearly killing me in a single blow. But I fight back. I fight for my life as the jaws of that terrible beast come down on me again.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree doesn't open with the same kind of dramatics I described above. That's solely saved for more cinematic boss fights. Instead you are transported to another realm beyond The Lands Between. It's a new and foreign place where Miquella the Kind discarded his flesh and Messmer's flame ravaged the world of the undying. The setup is compelling enough in its own right, pulling on narrative threads left unanswered in the base game, while still managing to weave its own set of mysteries throughout.

Improvement in performance is one of the best things to come with Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. I did not experience major framerate issues, outside of a few instances when the game would freeze, somehow still be responsive to my inputs, and then rapidly catch up a few moments later. I do want to mention that this ended up affecting my entire system and my audio card. This has only ever happened with Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. Outside of that, I did run into one other issue which was isolated to a specific area in the DLC where if I stayed in one spot for too long, I would clip through the ground and fall to my death. I cannot explain why this happened, but I replicated it several times just in case if this was a one time issue. It was not.

While the performance for the Shadow of the Erdtree was a vast improvement, I still take umbrage with dropped frames or outright freezing in a game where movement and invincibility frames mean life, death, and progression. Obviously, this has impacted my overall score, which I think is fair given what I've just outlined. Elden Ring is a far from perfect game in that regard, but it is still functional enough that I was able to enjoy myself once I conceded that the build I had carried through the base game into the DLC was simply not going to cut it.

Through the course of my first review, I used the Reduvia Blood Blade to devastating effect. It carried me through a majority of the game before I switched over to the Hoslow Petal Whips that I enchanted with Frost and Bleed. These were powerful and had a significant amount of poise damage, on top of applying a generous amount of Bleed to common enemies and bosses. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, but whatever nerf happened made me hang up my whips and forced me to pick up the Reduvia once more before I ended up respecing to more effectively use Rivers of Blood and Mohgywin's Sacred Spear interchangeably. Bleed damage is still king. With enough finesse, I was able to clear most bosses with relative ease through the use of both and my Mimic Tear Ash... when I remembered I could use it.

Boss fights in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree are challenging and sometimes feel unfair. Some feel underpowered, while others feel vastly over-tuned in terms of mobility. There were a couple of fights that I did breeze through due to the sheer amount of Bleed damage both my Mimic Tear and I did in such a short amount of time, but others with more aggressive and agile movement were frustrating. The Dancing Lion shown in trailers more or less serves as a roadblock for players with its high mobility and how it dances between lightning and frost attacks. This isn't the hardest boss however, but is more or less a sign of what you will come to expect.

That said, I felt like the Elden Ring DLC was definitely trying to funnel me into specific builds or build certain stats that I had neglected, like Vigor. Even through powering up my resistances through the use of Scadutree Fragments and Ashes, it never felt like quite enough. The add-on does expect you to be at least moderately skilled and at around level 150 if you want an easier experience. I made the mistake of going in at around level 100, which was fine. It just made the game significantly harder, at least in my opinion.

The new weapons are also interesting, as their movesets are more agile than anything I've seen in the base game. A set of claws I took off of the body of a naked man I found wandering the forest with some animal companions had me leaping and lunging. A pair of twin blades I acquired from a boss allowed me to spin elegantly across the battlefield. But in the end I resorted to using my Rivers of Blood just to get through the DLC. I will probably go back and try out other weapons I acquired just to see what they're capable of as I help my friends through Shadow of the Erdtree, or help them get to the point of starting the add-on.

NPCs are aplenty in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. This realm between realms is populated with them, each a servant of Miquella the Kind. I had no issues completing their quests, as they seem to be complete, with progression allowing me to summon specific NPCs as companions during boss fights integral their own backstories. One of my favorites was Ansbach, a follower of the Blood God Mohg. I thought his decision to forgo worshipping Mohg was strange until I reached a specific point in the story, which began to unravel more and more of the narrative which is arguably a lot more clean cut than Elden Ring or anything from the Dark Souls series. These characters' motivations are made clear and you understand where their allegiances lie, but there are still mysteries to be found and context clues scattered in items you can find around the map. One of my favorite additions in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is how NPCs will actually talk during certain boss fights, allowing you to glean more lore. Ansbach had a lot to say during one specific encounter, with more dialogue spoken between Ansbach and several adversaries depending on how long it took me to kill certain enemies. Or even finding a random NPC after slaying a dragon that asked me to summon him for another fight to learn even more bits of lore. These were neat little touches.

Summoning them does have a downside, as they will affect how much health a boss has by specific increments. But I more or less bit the bullet and summoned them for at least one or two attempts to get as much dialogue out of them as possible. Even if it was something of a double-edged sword. It is also worthwhile going back and speaking to NPCs whenever you complete a boss fight or make any kind of progress, as they tend to move around the map constantly.

While I was interested in how Messmer the Impaler would fit into the lore and overarching narrative of Elden Ring, I felt like his inclusion in the DLC story was perhaps one of the weakest, with the aforementioned NPCs being the strongest additions. Messmer exists to be feared and is implied to be the favorite of Marika, but little else is known about him outside of obvious parallels to Jörmungandr. Miquella's role in the conflict between the Gods is expanded upon, along with his implied seduction of Mohg. You learn about this supposed realm of undeath, what the Warrior Jars truly house, and the misery that has swept over this world. Some of it feels superficial, and at times shallow, answers to questions we did not ask, but help flesh out certain narrative elements that existed in the base game. As you can imagine, there is a lot to sink your teeth into, and lore hounds will more than likely love this DLC. (It's me, I'm a lore hound.)

In regards to the map, Shadow of the Erdtree is smaller by far, but has more verticality. I was navigating up and down cliffs on the back of Torrent, carefully teetering on the edges of rocks and gravestones to find monochrome fields of red chrysanthemums, or racing through plains of dried grass. The castles and keeps are impressive, sprawling structures that reminded me of Anor Londo, though not half as large. There were other areas I chanced upon as well, which keeps the spirit of exploration alive that was present in the base game. And as I navigated these areas and discovered more secrets and defeated more bosses I clocked in around fifteen hours of total playtime. But I'm almost certain there is still more for me to do.

Shadow of the Erdtree is more Elden Ring, just with a much better performance. However, I was underwhelmed by some of the locations and felt as though the boss fights weren't challenging in a way that felt rewarding when I did manage to beat them. There's a lot of good in Shadow of the Erdtree, but as I sat on my feelings once I defeated the final boss, I realized that I thought it was really just alright. If you aren't a massive fan of FromSoftware games or adore the lore in Elden Ring, this DLC might be something you want to wait and purchase later. But if you adored Elden Ring, you will probably fall in love with the game all over again through Shadow of the Erdtree. Regardless, I'll probably spend another twenty or so hours in it, digging for nuggets of lore I might have otherwise missed.

Reviewer’s PC Specs

• Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz
• Installed RAM 32.0 GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Elden Ring is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree will be available on all mentioned platforms on June 21, 2024.

The post Review: Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Weaves New Mysteries appeared first on Siliconera.

During Summer Game Fest 2024, I was given the opportunity to play Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. While I was given a limited number of characters to choose from, that didn't make the experience any less enjoyable. The cel-shaded characters look fantastic, and having the English voice cast reprise their roles made jumping into it all the more exciting somehow. It felt like being a kid again, eager to watch how the Cell Saga would unfold or what new power level Goku, Vegeta, or Gohan would unlock in some miraculous turn of events.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is every bit a fresh entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series down to the controls. Everything is simplified, with attacks and dodges being easy to execute in comparison to Dragon Ball FighterZ. Instead, players navigate a 3D space where they can move to the side to avoid blasts, teleport behind their opponents, or ascend and descend through massive environments. What makes it different from its predecessors, however, is the Sparking system, which allows for you to perform a special attack associated with the character you're controlling. You need to charge your ki in order to perform this skill, along with anything that isn't just a quick jab or a kick, so you need to make sure you're in the clear to avoid taking damage or getting absolutely destroyed by your opponent.

There were several moments where I audibly shouted in excitement as I triggered environmental effects that included the destruction of the World Martial Arts Tournament stage as Majin Vegeta when using Final Explosion. (Yes, if you use Final Explosion you can, in fact, K.O. yourself.) Or when I was able to fuse Goku and Vegeta to create Gogeta to pummel Buu into the ground. Moments like these make Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero exciting. While I wasn't entirely sure how I managed to fuse Goku and Vegeta, other than the requirement being that the versions you select are from the same arc, it was still exciting.

Other than triggering these effects and fusions I spent a lot of time constructing teams that were accurate to certain showdowns in the Cell and Buu Saga. I played as Android 17 with Android 18 as my secondary character against Goku, Yamcha, and Piccolo. I blew myself up as Majin Vegeta while fighting Buu. But just to test the general strength of characters I also just picked a whole slew of Goku to fight Golden Frieza and Beerus.

I was informed that not all of the characters are balanced, but they were instead made to be accurate to their appearances in the Dragon Ball series. This meant characters like Mr. Satan would not be able to fly. Additionally, characters like Golden Frieza and Beerus would be exceptionally powerful. However, this didn't stop me. I managed to beat the CPU with little effort, but I still found the game fun and these little skirmishes were great to learn the base mechanics of Sparking Zero.

Everything I've seen has me extremely hopeful for the full release of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. Even with the limited amount of characters we were given, the game was great. It was everything I remembered about Budokai Tenkaichi, and encapsulated the feeling of turning on my GameCube and squaring up against my friends. Bandai Namco has more than certainly captured nostalgia in a bottle, and while Sparking Zero may not turn out to be the most balanced fighter, it sure is a hell of a lot of fun.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will come to the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC worldwide, and its official release date is October 11, 2024. The official website is also live now.

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