June 2020

Today Koei Tecmo  and Sony Interactive Entertainment showcased a new trailer of the upcoming Fairy Tail JRPG by Atelier developer Gust.

The trailer focuses on the Unison raid done by Ezra Scarlet and Mirajane Strauss respectively wearing the Heaven’s Wheel Armor and the Satan Soul form. 

You can check them out below.

If you want to learn more you should read our interview with producer Keisuke Kikuchi and watch the extensive gameplay video we recorded at a preview event in London.

Cyberpunk is the latest in-vogue aesthetic in video games, it seems, but the folks over at Dreadlocks Ltd were in long before the crowds with their 2D side-scrolling RPG Dex.

Originally launched for PC back in 2015 before coming to PS4 and Xbox One soon after, Dex is a deep, nuanced role-playing experience developed by a team that clearly loves and understands the genre. And now, five years later, Dex is headed to Nintendo Switch, available on July 28 for $19.99.

For those that missed it the first time around, in Dex, players take control of the titular blue-haired as she embarks on a mission to take down the powerful and enigmatic organization that rules the city of Harbour Prime. 

Basically, it’s a story as true to the tropes of the genre as the city’s neon-drenched streets. We’re not complaining.

The game comes with fully voiced characters, branching storylines and quests, multiple endings, and a wide spectrum of upgrades and skills to custom fit four distinct playstyles. That includes silent assassin, gunfighter, diplomat, or hacker.

Augmentations blur the line between being human and “cyborg,” granting Dex superhuman abilities, as well as the ability to traverse new pathways — a feature that sees the incorporation of Metroidvania-like level design.

A new launch trailer tailor-made for the platform debuts alongside today’s release date announcement:

At the beginning of 2019, Compile Heart announced Date A Live: Ren Dystopia, then delayed it almost exactly a year ago. Today, the game reappears after a long silence.

The Japanese publisher and developer released a new trailer and announced a release date for the game, which will now launch in Japan on September 24, 2020.  The platform is still only PS4.

The price will be 7,200 yen plus taxes for the physical standard edition, 6,400 yen for the digital edition, and 9,200 yen for the limited edition.

The trailer showcases the heroine of the game alongside the new one, the titular Ren, and you can check it out below.

Speaking of heroines familiar to fans of the franchise, we see Tohka, Origami, Yoshino, Kurumi, Kotori, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, and Natsumi.

The story of the game focuses on the retrieval of an unfamiliar box with a snake decoration. Apparently, opening it is going to bring trouble for Shido and his friends.

You can check out the trailer below.

At the moment there is no information on a possible western release from Idea Factory International, which published the previous game of the series Date a Live: Rio Reincarnation also adding a PC version. We’ll see if they go the same route with this one.

Today Bandai Namco Entertainment released a new trailer of its upcoming JRPG Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris.

The trailer focuses on battle gameplay showing how it works and also provides a brief explanation for those who are unfamiliar with the title.

On top of the trailer, we also get a series of videos focusing on a few of the heroines that we’ll be able to meet in the game and that will join our party, 

These include Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa. More will be showcased over the upcoming days until the game launches.

Colin Moriarty, the host of the popular PlayStation podcast, Sacred Symbols, announced via Twitter that his company, Colin’s Last Stand, acquired a 49% stake in indie development studio Lillymo Games and that he will serve as the studio’s Chief Creative Officer.

Lillymo, a Canadian studio run by Barry M. Johnson, has released three games so far: The Perils of Baking, Habroxia and Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure.

The Perils of Baking is a classic style platformer, and Habroxia a sidescrolling shoot ’em up. Both were developed solely by Johnson and feature a retro 2D art style.

Lillymo’s latest game is Twin Breaker, a brick breaker-style adventure game in the style of Pong and Arkanoid, but with a narrative twist. Twin Breaker was written by Moriarty and developed by Johnson, and both Moriarty and Sacred Symbols co-host Chris Ray Gun serve as the game’s protagonists.

While a brick breaker mechanically, the game features an in-depth narrative that gives players context for what is happening in each level, set in a science-fiction universe in which America seeks to colonize the stars.

Twin Breaker was released on PS4 and Vita and sold well enough to warrant a sequel, with plans to port the game to other systems, although specific platforms have yet to be revealed.

Moriarty has also alluded to plans for other 2D games previously, including a sequel to Habroxia, and even a classic JRPG tentatively dated to release sometime in 2022.

With the PC port here, there is tentative work on Persona 4 Golden mods. Like, for example, one to add Yosuke as a potential love interest.

The post A Persona 4 Golden Mod Is Working on Making Yosuke More Romantic appeared first on Siliconera.

After over a year of delay, Date A Live: Ren Dystopia finally has a release date in Japan.

The post Date A Live: Ren Dystopia Will Release in Japan on September 24, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Grab 3 friends and 3 of their virtual friends, because the massive Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris battles support up to 8 fighters.

The post Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris’ Big Battles Highlighted in a New Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

Both Gigantamax Coalossal and Copperajah will be more common for a while, as a new Pokemon Sword and Shield Raid event has begun.

The post Gigantamax Coalossal and Copperajah Raids Are Appearing More Often appeared first on Siliconera.

Violet is almost ready to steal your heart. The Kotobukiya ARTFX J Kasumi figure will launch in November 2020.

The post The Persona 5 Kasumi Figure From Kotobukiya Will Launch in November 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Man alive, it is all go on the [cms-block] front today. If Aria selling a 250GB Samsung 860 Evo for a mere £36 wasn’t enough, then US folk will be glad to hear that for the next 16-odd hours, Amazon US have slashed 37% off the price of our very [cms-block], the WD Blue SN550, taking the 250GB model down to an all-time low of just $44. If it wasn’t disgustingly good value when it first came out, it sure is now.

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The president of the United States of America has been temporarily banned from video game streaming platform Twitch, is an actual event in the year of our Molyneux 2020. Donald Trump’s official account had rebroadcast old campaign speeches, which Twitch moderators identify as containing “hateful conduct.” So the account is on time-out to… think about what it’s done? Of all the channels on Twitch, this seems the least likely to reform its behaviour. Somehow, 2020 still has the capacity to surprise me.

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If you’re currently in the middle of building a new PC and have been looking at 16GB RAM kits like the one we recommend in our £1000 [cms-block] build, then do I have a deal for you. Indeed, you can currently get a 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX set (the same make and model recommended in our RPS Rig) clocked at a nippy 3200MHz over at Amazon UK at the moment for an all-time low of just £61, which is cheaper than it was over Black Friday.

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Black Widow

And while that’s certainly true in some respects, after spending more than a few hours with the 2020 version, it’s clear that the updates to its visuals and gameplay are trying hard to modernize the end of the world as we (used to) know it in some fun and intuitive ways.

If you never played the original, here’s the short version: you’re Crypto 137, a clone of Crypto 136 who crash-landed on earth in the 1950s - where you now need to wreak havoc to help secure the future of the Furon empire. You do so with a host of classic sci-fi weaponry, ranging from disintegrator rays to anal probes (we never said this was Shakespeare) and flying saucers with death rays, plus some more unique abilities like mind control and telekinesis.

All of those elements are back, and have all been tweaked and updated to feel and function like a game that didn’t launch alongside the first Guitar Hero. The development team’s go-to line since they revealed the game last year is that they’re "not making a remake of the original game, we're making remake of the memories players have of that game." And that targeted nostalgia works – for the most part.

Some games not only stand the test of time, they actively defy it. That’s undoubtedly the case for Trackmania’s over-the-top time trials and deep track editor – a simple but addictive combination that’s earned the series a dedicated community for nearly two decades. The latest entry, a remake of 2006’s TrackMania Nations simply called Trackmania, feels like a return to form in many ways. But an off-putting subscription system and poor tools to actually teach you its intricacies make it a bittersweet reunion.

While there’s plenty of racing in Trackmania, the main event has always been variations on time trials. Whether you’re playing alone or against others online, you’re always really competing against your own skills. This can make a lot of Trackmania’s modes feel repetitive, whether its Time Attack, the team multiplayer of Chase or the traditional circuit-based Lap. But that drive to master a track is more than enough reason to keep coming back.

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Unfortunately, Trackmania has never explained itself particularly well, and 2020’s rendition is no different. An all too brief tutorial covers the basics, but you’re on your own when it comes to learning the mechanical subtlety behind getting truly fast times – tricks like nudging the jetpack-like reactor boost in midair to hover through midair checkpoints you didn’t see coming. That gives Trackmania a steeper learning curve than it ought to have.

Coming this fall to PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One from Harmonix and NCSoft, Fuser is the ultimate freestyle DJ simulator. It casts the player as an up-and-coming disc jockey, gives them access to over 100 pop, rap, country, and rock songs, and drops them into spectacular arenas to play a music-mixing game of Simon…

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When GDC Summer debuts in August there will be a new series of interactive sessions which promise to guide attendees through the practical steps of key game dev projects. ...

"Today, many of you use Discord for day-to-day communication. You†™re sharing thoughts about books, music, and art, creating servers to just be yourself and share moments with friends." ...

EA has asked employees to come forward if they've ever experienced abuse or harassment during their time at the company, and outlined its position by reiterating "these behaviors are never okay."  ...

Nintendo has given its first formal apology for the continued Joy-Con problems faced by Nintendo Switch owners.

In a recent investor briefing, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the ongoing issue which has plagued the Switch's Joy-Con controllers ever since the system first launched.

"Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologise for any trouble caused to our customers," Furukawa said (as translated by Kotaku).

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Kickstarter backers of The Wonderful 101: Remastered are facing long waits for their physical copies of the game - more than a month after its digital version went on sale.

Production of the game's physical copies and other Kickstarter rewards has been delayed due to the current global pandemic, developer Platinum Games and distributor Yetee previously told backers.

Those left waiting for their copy have been gifted a Steam key for the game instead.

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Reality is often stranger than fiction

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There are also a few new outfits for the summer season

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It all starts in a familiar way, with an invitation from Princess Peach. Toad Town is hosting a special origami festival, and Mario and Luigi are among the requested guests. Say no more! The brothers head out to the event, only to find that the ordinarily thriving town is ­virtually abandoned. Worse, Peach has been transformed: Her body has been reconfigured into an origami form, and her normally friendly personality replaced with a detached automaton.

[Update: The patch is now live, which brings a ton of balance updates along with the new DLC. You can find them below or read them here.]

Minecraft Dungeons launched back in May, and Mojang is teeing off its DLC strategy very soon.

On July 1, the first DLC pack, Jungle Awakens, is set to arrive. Naturally it'll take place in...the jungle, featuring classic Minecraft cuteness (pandas) and terrifying enemies (the Jungle Abomination). In all it seems like a standard extra level to run, which should last you around 15-30 minutes each time you dive in. As a reminder, you can get the DLC free with the $30 Hero Edition, or opt for the "Hero Pass" for the standard/Game Pass version.

Mojang also promises a string of free updates for the game, which adds a new "Lower Temple" dungeon into the mix, as well as new items and balance changes. For 30 bucks (which gets you the announced DLC), that's not too bad. Oh, and the game's soundtrack just officially launched.

Between this and the recent Nether Update for the core game, Minecraft is still on a roll.

Minecraft Dungeons: Jungle Awakens [Minecraft]

Last week saw the release of GungHo Online's cheerful arena shooter Ninjala. Launching on June 25 for Nintendo Switch, Ninjala hopes to capture some of the "all-ages" popularity seen by similar multiplayer titles such as Splatoon - and it seems that things are off to a pretty good start for the free-to-play title.

As noted by the developer on its official Twitter, Ninjala's downloads now total two million in just five days, half of which were amassed in the first 48 hours of release. Now of course, as a free-to-play game, the true test will be how many of these two million downloads convert into long-term regular players, but this amazing number is still a serious sign of public interest. Clearly Ninjala is a title that has marketed itself successfully.

We've seen Zelda: Breath of the Wild "out of the map" glitches before, but not like this.

You see, past methods have generally been shoddy at best. Although they get the job done, they often bug out the game, or don't allow you to save at certain points. Gaming Reinvented says they're past that now: they're post buggy-bugs.

In the below seven-minute video, Gaming Reinvented walks you through the process. You need to head to the Gerudo Canyon Stable, then grab your horse. Turn around and ride down the ravine path roughly 45 seconds into the video. Then save, and fast travel to any apparatus shrine: accessing its storage within. Reload the save, then head to a shrine "far away from the area" (the example is a northeast location).

Voilà: your character will fall off the map and then part of the process is complete. From there you need to compete in an archery game, moon jump, land on a wild horse, then moon jump across the entire map.

It's anything but "easy," as the video describes, but it's allowed folks to explore the world in a new way and break the "you can't go any farther" boundaries.

I'm not usually in the market for Limited Run Games' physical releases, but I enjoy seeing what they put together for older games I have a history with. What can I say? I'm a perpetual window shopper.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer is getting a trio of physical copies from Limited Run in July, from the most basic boxed copy on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch to the decked-out, goodie-filled collector's edition. The middle of the pack – the $59.99 classic edition of Episode I: Racer – hits the sweet spot.

_{The standard physical edition of Star Wars Episode I: Racer for folks who resisted the digital version last week.}

_{The classic edition comes with a ridiculous (yet fitting) metallic cartridge. I'm having Pokémon card flashbacks.}

_{The premium collector's edition of Episode I: Racer won't be as easy to pick up.}

VR functionality for Molecule’s creative sandbox game Dreams has long been on the agenda but today it was revealed properly for the first time. Players will be able to take advantage of the PSVR update from next month, July 28.

The update is free, of course, so as long as you have a PSVR headset you’ll be able to dive in and enjoy the game’s hundreds of creations in the most immersive way possible.

A new trailer was published by Sony today in tandem with today’s news:

In other related Dreams news, today saw the launch of update 2.14, which made the following changes:

Popular VR tactical shooter Onward is coming to Oculus Quest next month, July 30, developer Downpour Interactive and publisher Coatsink have announced today. It joins existing Steam and Oculus Rift versions of the game, facilitating full crossplay between the three.

If you’ve not heard of the Onward, it’s a military sim style of FPS that dials up the realism with VR functionality for a gameplay experience that’s incredibly immersive. The game has received an excellent reception since its launch last year.

Unlike conventional shooters, there’s no relying on cross-hairs or minimaps; the game instead forces you to physically look down your gun sights and communicate as a unit, just as you would in a real-life tactical situation.

Players can jump into the action either solo or cooperatively or solo as they sharped their skills to battle AI enemies across two game modes: Chase down all enemies in a Hunt, or hold off the enemy forces as you wait for your extraction in an Evac mission.

Onward puts a premium on skill and experience, inviting players to explore maps freely or go to the shooting range to familiarise themselves with the wide variety of weapons in the game, all of which are unique and require knowledge to operate.

Dante Buckley, founder of Downpour Interactive, said of today’s Quest release news:

“I’m incredibly excited for Onward to come to the Oculus Quest: to have players be inspired by the freedom of the platform while at the same time experiencing the realism and immersion that Onward brings to the table. And I think I speak for my whole team when I say we’re excited to see our players get their hands on the game after almost a year of development.”  

Today Anima Project reached out with a press release to announce its new action-RPG Anima Song from the Abyss.

The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but we know it’ll come for PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

It’ll support English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.

The game is based on the Anima Beyond Fantasy tabletop RPG like the studio’s previous games Anima Gate of Memories and The Nameless Chronicles. Anima Project is a small indie team formed by three developers.

Below you can check out the first screenshots and artwork.

Bless Unleashed was built from the ground-up as a console MMORPG, but today Rou8 Studio has confirmed the release of a PC version that many have been long been hoping for. It won’t be ready until early next year, unfortunately, but fans can expect a series of closed beta tests later Fall.

“We are absolutely thrilled and excited to be able to announce that we are in preparation for our Bless Unleashed PC platform launch! Bless Unleashed is a dynamic combat-driven, vast open-world MMORPG, and our players will be able to explore the world of Bless Unleashed and experience the treacherous, and menacing dungeons with other friends and foes right from your PC.” said Jason Park, Round 8 Studio’s Head of Development.

For those not up so speed, Bless Unleashed is a role-playing experience set in an epic fantasy world where players test their mettle against vicious monsters and in perilous dungeons.

Built on the Unreal 4 Engine, Bless Unleashed also features genre-leading graphics that should look even better on PC. Hopefully, too, its combo-driven gameplay mechanics, which held so much promise ahead of its console launch but didn’t quite end up delivering, feel new and improved on the platform.

Over on Xbox One, Bless Unleashed’s new Saurin Deception update recently added 150 new quests, new monsters and dungeons, and a host of gameplay enhancements.

A new trailer launched in tandem with today’s PC release announcement offers us a tease of the action:

Today Compile Heart presented new gameplay of the upcoming dungeon-crawling JRPG Mary Skelter Finale.

The gameplay is presented directly by Compile Heart president Norihisa Kochiwa playing the PS4 version of the game.

We get to see plenty of dungeon crawling and fighting, topped by wacky monsters and familiar waifus.

You can check it out below.

Mary Skelter Finale has recently been delayed to October 8, 2020, from its original launch date on August 27. It’ll come for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

The game includes the adventure mode of both Mary Skelter: Nightmares and Mary Skelter 2, on top of the visual novel Love Prison Tower Mary Skelter, which was a pre-order bonus of the second game. This way, those who haven’t played the other games can still get the full experience.

At the moment, no western release has been announced, so we’ll have to wait and see whether Idea Factory international will announce it down the line. 

It’d also be interesting to see whether it’d lose the PS4 version in the west, as it happened with its predecessor.

The original Save the World mode of Fortnite is leaving early access today and will not be going free-to-play as planned, Epic Games announced on Tuesday.

The player vs environment, cooperative mode first launched in July 2017 with plans for the mode to transition to free-to-play in 2018. Epic Games said today the mode will “remain a premium experience rather than going free-to-play.”

Those who have bought any of the Founder’s Packs will be upgraded to the next level and its rewards for free, while Ultimate Edition owners will receive the Metal Team Leader Pack and 8,000 V-Bucks.

Epic Games noted that the early access label will also be removed from Battle Royale and Creative modes, Save the World will no longer support upcoming Battle Royale cosmetics, and that development of new content for Save the World will be slowing down.

The studio did announce a new feature coming to Save the World that is focused on replayability called Ventures, “a new season-long excursion that takes place in a seasonal zone with new and unique modifiers to tackle.”

Each Venture will feature a path of continued progression and reaching higher levels earns “Supercharger materials” that raise the cap of currently owned weapons. Seasonal events such as Frostnite and Dungeons will continue to rotate with an annual recurring seasonal schedule.

The Save the World mode of Fortnite is only available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Some of the SDCC 2020 Funko Pops have been revealed, and among them are Super Tails and Silver, flocked Pokemon, and anime figures.

The post SDCC 2020 Funko Pops Include Flocked Pokemon and a Yellow Silver the Hedgehog appeared first on Siliconera.

Ready to see Media Molecule's Dreams in a new way? PSVR support will be added on July 22, 2020.

The post Dreams PSVR Support Will Arrive July 22, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

The three Fuser pre-order songs have been revealed. There's also a VIP edition to consider, if people want extra DLC right away.

The post Fuser Pre-order Songs and VIP Edition Confirmed appeared first on Siliconera.

The Trails of Cold Steel III Switch port is in an odd place, since the previous games didn't appear there. The launch trailer is here to help.

The post The Trails of Cold Steel III Switch Launch Trailer Will Help You Catch Up appeared first on Siliconera.