Among Us fans will be familiar with the game's MedBays, which pop up on various maps. Here, players can complete tasks like scanning themselves (although, you don't do this on the Airship, if I recall correctly).

MedBays are all fairly simply designed, with beds and other items you might expect to see. Nothing out of the ordinary, unless you count the little beans running around here and there, trying not to get got.

However, it turns out these simple room designs were unintentionally controversial, thanks to the inclusion of a red cross on the wall of The Skeld's MedBay.

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The next Pretty Cure anime series will break a barrier for the series' 20th anniversary. Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure will debut the franchise's first-ever male Cure character. Ever since Futari wa Pretty Cure debuted in 2004, all members of each series' team of "Cure" magical girls have been female. That changes when the series debuts on February 5, 2023. [Thanks, Oricon News!]

The first male Cure is Cure Wing, who will be voiced by Ayumu Murase. He played Shouyou Hinata in Haikyuu!, Aki Hayakawa in Chainsaw Man, and Ryou Asuka in Devil Man Crybaby. Strictly speaking, there has been one male Cure before Cure Wing. In 2018's HUG! Pretty Cure (or HUGtto! Pretty Cure), the character Henri Wakamiya transformed into Cure Infini to resolve a crisis. However, the transformation was limited and temporary. Cure Wing is a permanent part of Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure's cast, making him the first male Cure to be a member of the core team.

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NASCAR, the governing body for America's blockbuster stock car racing series, has announced a tweaked rulebook for the coming season - and amidst the changes there's clarification that Ross Chastain's GameCube-inspired wall-ride from last year's race at Martinsville will no longer be allowed.

Chastain made the bold move on the last corner the Xfinity 500 that takes place at Martinsville - one of the smaller ovals on the NASCAR circuit, demanding a tight line from competitors - slamming his car into the wall to drive around the outside of five cars to leap from 10th to 5th position.

"I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube which I had growing up," Chastain said after the race. "You could get away with it, and I never knew if it would actually work [in real life]."

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Sony's latest financial results covering Quarter 3 of Fiscal Year 2022, which consists of the last three months of the year, reveal the PlayStation 5 had its best quarter on the market yet. 

The company has surpassed 32 million PS5 units shipped, sitting roughly at 32.1 million, after shipping 7.1 million during the last three months of 2022. It's important to note this isn't a sell-through number so theoretically, there could be consoles sitting on shelves still. But a company ships more units when the demand is there, so it's likely that the majority of these shipped consoles were sold. 

PlayStation did just as well on the first-party software side of things, selling 20.8 million during Q3 of Fiscal Year 2022, which is almost more than double the 11.3 million sold during the same period in 2021. Of those 20.8 million, roughly 11 million were of God of War: Ragnarok, which was the console's big holiday release. 

Elden Ring received a surge in sales at the end of 2022, which has been attributed to its success at The Game Awards.

FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa published its third quarter earnings earlier today, with "worldwide blockbuster" Elden Ring driving a 206.4 percent increase in net sales across the gaming division.

"In part as a result of the title winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022, an overseas game award event held in December, the number of units sold increased again. This reaffirms the long-lasting popularity of the game," reads the report.

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There may be a winner in the race to be first in the world to (officially) clear Final Fantasy XIV's The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) raid. Raiding group Neverland claimed a clear around 2:23 AM EST on February 1, 2023 (about 4:23pm JST), according to a tweet from group member Zeppe Monado. If recognized, this would make Neverland's the official FFXIV Omega Protocol World First Clear. For its part, community site FFLogs appears to have verified the clear as well, with the log stating that it took Neverland more than 1,000 attempts to beat the mammoth six-phase encounter.

https://twitter.com/ZeppeMonado/status/1620684220413935616

The race to surmount the challenge has been mired in controversy. After Team UNNAMED claimed the FFXIV Omega Protocol world first clear on January 31, 2023, evidence emerged that members had used third-party tools and hacks during the fight. Square Enix stripped the members of UNNAMED of the titles and achievements from the clear, and ordered them to discard the weapon rewards. Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida also issued a statement further condemning the use of such tools.

Silent Hill publisher Konami has today slashed its financial forecast for the 12-month period ending this March 31st, with expected profits almost halved.

Konami had hoped to make a 76.5bn yen (£480m) operating profit for the year, but now expects to arrive at 42.4bn yen (£270m). Konami's revenue forecast is also down for the year, though not by as much - from 320bn yen to 303bn yen.

The publisher is tight-lipped as to the exact reasons why it has so dramatically changed its finanical outlook, and simply stated it related to "the profit plan for some titles in the digital entertainment business".

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MegaHouse is releasing a new One Piece figure of Zoro Roronoa as a child as part of its G.E.M. Series of figures. The figure costs 7,480 yen (roughly $58) and is expected to release by the end of September 2023. This is the second figure in the series, the previous one being a similar figure of Luffy as a child. Pre-orders open on February 2, 2023.

https://twitter.com/mega_girlshobby/status/1620603053668962304

The name of the figure is “Zoro Roronoa Run! Run! Run!” It features a child version of him carrying two big Japanese swords as he runs and looks behind him. The figure includes a stand designed after Shimotsuki Village, Zoro’s hometown, located in East Blue. That is where the dojo in which Zoro trained can be found. The figure includes a movable neck ball joint. When both figures are put back to back, Luffy and Zoro look back at each other as they run in opposite directions, as a nod to Zoro’s awful sense of direction.

You can check out the figure in more detail here:

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Last year, MegaHouse announced two other One Piece figures, one of Ace D. Portgas and another one of Yamato.

The “Zoro Roronoa Run! Run! Run!” One Piece figure will be available for pre-order on February 2, 2023, and it will appear by the end of September 2023.

Okay, we all agree that the ocean is kind screwed up right? Like, we’ve all seen that YouTube video showing how deep the sea is and unanimously agree that it’s, like, terrifying? As much as I love relaxing subaquatic city builders and exploring underwater alien worlds, I want games about stuff in the sea that makes my skin crawl to think about. Enter Full Fathom.

So, Full Fathom isn’t out yet, or even has an official release date, but I just love the idea and look of this game. Being developed by Daemon House, this is an oceanic survival horror where you’re trapped in a derelict submarine that has sunken to the depths of an abyssal sea. You need to navigate your surroundings and keep the sub up and running to make your way back to civilisation, aka a rusty tin can is your last lifeline.

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Kadokawa Game Linkage released an art book of Bayonetta 3. The book has 384 pages and consists of character art, CG, background settings, image boards, and more. It also contains comments from the development staff in regards to the process behind designing Bayonetta 3. [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]

Other than information on how PlatinumGames designed the character and setting, the Bayonetta 3 art book consists of data from the early stages of development. For example, you can check out the first draft of the conceptual art, as well as details for stages that did not make it into the final game. There are lyrics (both Japanese and English) for songs from Bayonetta 3 as well.

For each character, you can look at how their outfit looks from various angles. There is also their profile, as well as beta designs. It is very likely that it will be similar to the Cheshire video Platinum Games released, in which the the development team discusses how it went about bringing the character to life.

I've been listening to a lot of The Joy Formidable recently, namely the Welsh band's 2008 hit Whirring. "Turn the dial on my words, I can feel they fall short," sings frontwoman Rhiannon Bryan before the band takes over and the guitars escalate to a rapturous peak. The song is, perhaps, about not being able to express emotions in words, the music taking over all feeling for an almost seven minute long crescendo. And that's how I feel about Hi-Fi Rush as I struggle to put my enjoyment into words.

Whirring is one of a handful of licensed tracks used in the game, accompanying a late-game climactic level. Without spoiling too much, it's the kind of level where you're approaching the big bad boss and all your friends are with you and the music hits this euphoric high at just the right moment. It proves the power of licensed music, whether that's a mournful Linda Ronstadt song in the midst of a post-apocalypse, or a young hero with a metal guitar smacking some robots.

Hi-Fi Rush thrives on these sorts of moments. Everything fizzes and bops in time, enemies pop in a whiz and a bang, and the beat pulses through your fingertips.

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Last night was a restless one for the Steam Deck. In addition to a huge client update for the handheld PC, Valve pushed out a Proton Experimental update to fix a crashing problem with games that use the Ubisoft Connect launcher on Steam.

Ubi’s launcher had received an update of its own, sadly one that interfered with the ability of Proton – the layer of software that helps made-for-Windows games run on the Linux-based SteamOS – to keep it compatible with the Deck. Indeed, just like the 2K Launcher last year, with the added irony that the affected games (which include The Division 2, Watch Dogs Legion and Ghost Recon Breakpoint) only arrived on Steam in the past few weeks.

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Plus a sci-fi text adventure and some edgelords on jet skis

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Fans have been clamouring for a sequel to Titanfall 2 since its release in 2016, but it looks like we might need to put those hopes on hold for a little longer. According to a report from Bloomberg, EA have cancelled an unannounced project codenamed Titanfall Legends, a single-player mash-up between Titanfall and Apex Legends - Respawn’s battle royale, set in the same universe. Around 50 devs were working on the game before its cancellation earlier this week. EA are reportedly trying to find other positions for the devs, but those that aren't rehired are being laid off with severance.

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Those looking to sink their fangs into Arkane Austin's upcoming first-person vampire shooter Redfall will need to make sure they keep themselves online at all times. Yes, that's right, even when playing through its campaign in single-player.

This news was confirmed on Redfall's new FAQ page, where it reads:

"Will playing Redfall require an online connection for single player as well as co-op? A persistent online connection is required for single player and co-op."

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Sony seems to be finally solving its PlayStation 5 stock issues, following a bumper Christmas sales period that saw the PS5 record its best quarter to date.

7.1m PlayStation 5 consoles were sold in the three months ending 31st December 2022, up 83 percent on Christmas 2021. Overall, Sony has now shipped 32m PS5 consoles worldwide.

Looking ahead, Sony seems confident it can continue to keep PS5 in stock, too. The company has now raised its annual PS5 target to 19m, up by a million units on what it previously expected. This means Sony expects to shift a further 6.2m consoles before 31st March.

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A new system software beta has launched for the PlayStation 5 that adds Discord voice chat, VRR support for 1440p, and more.

The beta is available now, with invites sent out via email to participants in the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, and France.

Integrated Discord voice chat is one of the biggest additions, allowing players to connect with friends and chat across multiple platforms via the PS5.

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Fire Emblem Engage features a huge cast of characters, which means someone like Lapis could get left out. She’s one of the first folks you’ll meet when leaving Firene. She fights alongside Alcryst, one of Brodia’s princes, as his retainer. She’s also a practical, precise young woman who is fantastic with a sword. However, she might need a bit of investment to really get going.

What I love about Lapis in Fire Emblem Engage is that it feels like she can’t be hit. She’s the sort of character you can put ahead of your other forces to sort of “protect” them, then enjoy as she assaults foes and their attacks miss her. This is partially due to the unique skill Share Spoils. It means she gets -10 Crit if an ally is right next to her. However, she does get +10 Avo/Hit in exchange. Given she’s also a Backup type of unit, which means she’ll jump in for Chain Attacks, you want her to be near her allies and take advantage of both benefits. I’d also encourage pairing her up with Marth sometime. While she won’t get any weapon proficiency, since she’s already “good at swords,” you can get her to inherit Perceptive to increase Avo by +15 if she initiates combat for 250 SP. You could also spent 500 SP, 1,500 SP, 3,500 SP, or 4,500 SP on Avoid +10, +15, +20, +25, or +30.

Lapis and Goldmary are playing Sekiro while the rest are playing Fire Emblem pic.twitter.com/uxfrk1v3mz

— Razor (@RaZor921) January 29, 2023

Gah, really. EA has reportedly cancelled a single-player game set in the Titanfall/Apex Legends universe. Bloomberg broke the news and it settled on the office here like a chilly winter fog. Everybody shivered and felt a bit grimmer about things.

Thoughts, firstly and most importantly, to all concerned. Even outside of the job shakeups, it's just horrible, I imagine, to have so much creative effort, so much hope, disappear in a single moment. And thoughts to Respawn as a wider entity too. Because this team is absolutely staggeringly good at single-player games, and here's one we won't get.

Inevitably, it sent me back to thoughts of Titanfall 2 and its glorious campaign. And this is the thing: it's not the thought of the loss of another game in this world that's so upsetting to players, I suspect. It's the loss of another single-player game by this team that knows how to make single-player campaigns sing.

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Sometimes I want to describe games in the most high-brow way possible. I might smugly write something like “it elevates the genre” while sipping wine and eating cheese, musing on how a game pushes the media forward as an art form. Other times I just want to write that a game is really bloody good, actually, and I like it lots.

Hi-Fi Rush falls into the latter category. Developer Tango Gameworks shadow-dropped the rhythm-action game out of nowhere shortly after an Xbox presentation, jettisoning The Evil Within’s murky mental hospitals and Ghostwire: Tokyo's supernatural shinanigans for something markedly different: bright pulsating neon colours and a gang of loveable anime ruffians, where every whack and dodge is underscored by a beat.

Hi-Fi Rush is an action-adventure game with a mechanical core fuelled by musical beats. Protagonist Chai has undergone a risky medical procedure and emerged from the other side with a robot arm and an iPod accidentally implanted in his chest meaning his every waking moment is punctuated by a catchy beat. We too see these rhythmic motions, as Hi-Fi Rush's soda pop-infused world moves to this steady pulse - platforms move in time with the music, lights flash in pleasing rhythmic patterns, and enemies attack to the beat of the drum.

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Like Gatsby, I guess I know the power of the green light. Out on the dock, down in the dungeon - the light! The light! I reach for it. I can't wait. It's not love. It's better than love. It's - wait! It's only the chance to split my fireballs into three and ping them all off in different directions.

Superfuse is an action RPG very much in the style of the Diablo games, You see things from an above-ish angle, and you are small as you crawl across the various faces of the game's worlds, surrounded by hordes of swarming, kiting nasties who it is altogether a pleasure to smash to pieces. You kill, and you get more powerful as you kill. More XP, which means levels and skill points. More gold. More loot. More of an understanding, perhaps, of how the game likes to stage a fight.

And then! The green light.

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Hi-Fi Rush is the new hotness that everyone’s been talking about over this past week. It was surprise released last week, unveiled as a new rhythm action game from Tango Gameworks, best known for releasing The Evil Within and 2022’s Ghostwire Tokyo. Hi-Fi Rush was definitely a huge surprise drop, and it’s already getting tons of praise for its innovative mechanics.

Game creator and director John Johanas spoke with MinnMax in an interview this week to talk about the origins of the game and the pitching process, which you can check out in its entirety down below.

Johanas mentioned that he when coming up with the core concept, he wanted to create a rhythm action game that was both accessible and felt good to play. He brought up comparisons to indie darling Crypt of the Necrodancer, a game that was all about moving and attacking to the beat, but also mentioned how the game would punish you if you weren’t able to actually stick to the beat.

Hi-Fi Rush is different in a key way: when you attack, your hits will always land on the beat. You’ll be rewarded for properly timing your hits of course, but the point was that the game would feel good and satisfying to play no matter what.

On February 5, the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury with English dub will air on Crunchyroll. Ahead of that, Crunchyroll has revealed who will be the English voices of the named characters. As an aside, the Prologue (which you can consider to be the technical first episode) is already out in English.

The full English dub cast list for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (in alphabetical order) is:

The Twitter account for the upcoming Rohan au Louvre movie has posted additional cast members who will appear in it. As a reminder, Rohan at the Louvre will debut in Japan on May 26, 2023. Issei Takahashi, who played Rohan in the Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe live-action series, will reprise his role for the film.

These are the four actors who will be joining the Rohan au Louvre movie, as well as their parts:

• Mysterious Woman Nanase: Fumino Kimura (Mother Game: Kanojotachi no Kaikyu)
• Rohan Kishibe (Youth): Kento Nagao (My Neighbor, Chikara)
• Art Appraiser Tatsumi: Masanobu Ando (Battle Royale)
• Museum Guide Ema Noguchi: Minami (Vision)

Aside from being an actor, Kento Nagao is also a member of the boy band Naniwa Danshi.

The Rohan au Louvre manga originally came out in 2010 in Japan. To be more precise, its debut was in 2009 when the Louvre showcased Araki’s work (among others) at its The Louvre Invites The Comics exhibit. Like the other stories in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, it features only Rohan in a bizarre case unrelated to Stands. For this adventure, Rohan investigates a painting that can attack people using memories.

Nintendo is bringing back their Game Voucher system, which is absolutely a great way to save a little bit of money on Switch games if you’re planning on buying at least two of them. It’s worth noting that the Game Vouchers are only eligible for purchase for Switch Online subscribers. Clearly, Nintendo’s looking to attract more subscribers and if you already have a subscription, these are certainly worth looking into.

The Vouchers will cost $100, but they’re eligible for use for two $60 games, allowing you to save a total of $20 in the process. There are some limitations of course; you’ll need to use the Vouchers within 12 months of purchase, you can only have up to eight at any point in time, and they’re only eligible for a limited selection of games.

That being said, the catalog includes titles like the upcoming Bayonetta Origins and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, as well as more recent releases like Fire Emblem Engage and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. It’s definitely a good deal worth keeping an eye on if you’ve missed out on a few Nintendo games over the past few months and are looking to catch up.

Granblue Fantasy will re-run the Cardcaptor Sakura collaboration event from February 1-9, 2023. The event originally ran in 2017. This will be the first of Granblue Fantasy’s Special Collab Pass, which will also includes the Code Geass and Persona 5 events. During the Cardcaptor Sakura collaboration event in Granblue Fantasy, you can get a free copy of Kinoshita Sakura. [Thanks, Inside Games!]

Depending on what ending you get, you can fully ascend Sakura through the story. You can also get skins for Sakura based on outfits from the show. One of them is the outfit she wore when she sealed The Thunder, and the other one is from her match against The Watery.

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Other characters who appear in the event are Kero, Syaoran, and Tomoyo. All of the voice actresses from the Cardcaptor Sakura will return to reprise their roles. The story of the event (whose official name is Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura and the Mysterious Sky Journey) starts when Sakura has a weird dream. Afterwards, a fight with a magic circle sucks her, Tomoyo, Kero, and Syaoran into the Granblue Fantasy world.

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After four months of open beta testing, Valve's long-promised overhaul for Steam's Big Picture mode is live for everyone, giving the ageing UI a welcome, Steam-Deck-inspired makeover.

Steam's Big Picture mode was first introduced all the way back in 2012, providing a fullscreen, controller-focused UI option specifically designed for use with TVs and controllers. Since then, revisions to Big Picture mode have been incremental at best, and Valve's recent major overhaul for Steam's desktop mode left Big Picture looking particularly long in the tooth.

Thankfully, in July 2021, Valve announced it would be replacing Big Picture's increasingly musty design with the far more modern UI created for its Steam Deck handheld gaming PC, introducing an updated home screen providing easy access to recent games, universal search, a new controller configurator, and more.

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Capcom has updated its platinum titles ranking to reflect sales figures as of December 31, 2022. Platinum titles are games that have passed over one million worldwide sales. The most recent game on the list is from 2021, so the majority of the platinum titles are still legacy games from past years.

The top ten list as of December 2022 is:

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is having a decent day today after beating revenue and user activity forecasts for its final fiscal quarter of 2022. But its VR division isn’t helping the company make money. In fact, it’s costing the company billions in losses.

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The news of the moment for Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak has to do with the upcoming Title Update 4, but Capcom has more planned. A brief shot of the MH Rise Sunbreak roadmap for 2023 teases further additions, including new monsters and features. Seen during the February 2nd livestream event, the roadmap promised that Title Update 5 is coming in April 2023, roughly 3 months after Title Update 4 drops on February 7th.

Here's a look at the MH Rise Sunbreak roadmap for 2023.

The roadmap trumpets the first three Sunbreak title updates launched through 2022, which added new areas, layered weapons, monsters, and an expanded follower system. As detailed during the livestream, Title Update 4 (version .14) adds Velkhana from Monster Hunter World Iceborne, as well as Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax. Meanwhile, Title Update 5 didn't specify which monsters would be added to the roster, but they will be a "Returning Elder Dragon" and a "Powered-up monster".

It’s not Obon season just yet, but restless spirits will get an early Sending. A kabuki stage play of Final Fantasy X will take place in Spring 2023. You will be able to watch it from March 4, 2023 to April 12, 2023 at IHI Stage Around Tokyo. It will have 35 shows during that period. There is a teaser video for it, in which the actor for Yuna performs a Sending. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Renowned kabuki actor Nakamura Yonekichi V will play Yuna in the kabuki show. Holographic Pyreflies appear on stage in the video as well. Unlike the soundtrack in Final Fantasy X, there is a distinctly Japanese feel to this arrangement due to the usage of traditional Japanese instruments. The music director who arranged it, as well as Nakamura Yonekichi V, previously worked on the Nausicaa kabuki stage play.

You can watch the Final Fantasy X kabuki Sending here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quH6v75QsX8&

With Monster Hunter Rise now available to players across all major platforms following last month's PlayStation and Xbox release, Capcom is turning its attention back to post-launch content support for paid expansion Sunbreak, promising a bunch of new stuff - including a returning elder dragon - in its latest free Title Update.

Arriving next Tuesday, 7th February, Title Update 4 gives Sunbreak hunters at Master Rank 10 or above the opportunity to take on Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's memorable - and extremely formidable - elder dragon Velkhana, which has the ability to freeze water particles in the air to create devastatingly powerful ice attacks.

Velkhana is joined by Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax - which, like the Risen Teostra, Risen Kushala Daora, and Risen Chameleos before it - has overcome the affliction to become a supremely powerful variant, available to battle from MR 160 onward. Both additions come with associated gear and skills, and can be glimpsed in Capcom's Title Update 4 trailer below.

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You can hear someone tell you Tom Brady’s age (45!) and it doesn’t really hit you, because the guy still looks pretty fit and healthy. To fully grasp the length of Brady’s tenure on this Earth, then, you need to realise that the man has appeared in a video game for the PlayStation. Like, the original PlayStation.

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During the February 2023 Monster Hunter Digital Event, two monsters ended up in the spotlight. Both Velkhana and Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax will join Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak in the free Title Update 4. They'll both appear in the game on February 7, 2023.

People will be able to fight Velkhana when they hit MR 10. People might recognize this icy Elder Dragon from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. This marks the monster’s second appearance in the series.

Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax will be available at MR 160. This is yet another Elder Dragon. It’s a bit older, however. It first showed up in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, with the Crimson Glow variant appearing in Monster Hunter Rise.

We also know how the Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak armor for both of these new monsters will look.
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Ingenious though the maneuver might be, it’ll incur a penalty in future races

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