December 2022

The One Piece manga has been going since 1997, so as you can imagine, it takes one hell of a manga series to outsell it. Data from Japanese company Oricon, which handles statistics for manga sales, places Jujutsu Kaisen above One Piece by about 1.9 million copies sold from Dec. 6, 2021, to Nov. 28, 2022.

The manga selling well is just another part of Jujutsu Kaisen having a fantastic year. Over the weekend, it was announced that the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 film (adapted from the manga volume) is climbing the highest-grossing anime films ranks and currently sits in fifth place, having overtaken Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo.

Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t the only manga that outsold One Piece, either. As it just so happens, One Piece is fourth. The Second and third spots belong to Tokyo Revengers and Spy x Family. The Tokyo Revengers manga recently just ended, so it certainly makes sense that fans were flocking to get a copy. Spy x Family has proven insanely popular, and it makes sense that manga sales ramped up with the anime premiering this year.

What Is the Highest-Selling Manga of 2022? Answered

If you’re curious about the full ranking list:

Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast made an announcement that a lot of people have been waiting a long time for: Dungeons & Dragons is going to stop using the word “race” in the rulebook for One D&D (the upcoming major revision of the game), and would instead prefer to use the term “species” instead.

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The Uncharted movie wasn’t great, but it did make a lot of money, so someone has decided to turn it into a roller coaster. But, as I likely don’t need to point out to you, Uncharted was a film adaptation of the Uncharted games. That leads us to now, where you are reading a story about a roller coaster based on a movie…

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Neon White was one of 2022's most pleasant surprised when it landed earlier this year, somehow managing to combine old-school shooters with speed-running, a card game, and Persona’s social links. Now, having been out since June on other platforms, PlayStation owners will finally be able to play the game.

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We all know light novels can have some pretty ridiculous names to be instantly eye-catching to readers. For this exact reason, it feels like the crazier titles are the ones that end up being the most popular. One of these such light novels is getting an anime. The full title, in this case, is My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me. As you might have guessed, this series is an isekai.

The Japanese publisher of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me, Comic Earth Star’s announcement included a short video showing some of the art of the manga adaptation of the series to celebrate the eighth volume. However, we don’t currently have an estimated date for the premiere.

If you’re wondering about the plot of this series with the ridiculous name, English publisher J-Novel Club summarizes it as follows:

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Krafton
Developer: Striking Distance Studios
Release: December 2, 2022
Rating: Mature

Nearly a decade and a half ago, Visceral Games released Dead Space, a now cult-classic survival-horror game inspired by the likes of Alien and The Thing. If you've ever yearned for a return to its mix of sci-fi and horror, or if you want a near-identical experience to Schofield’s first survival horror hit, you’re in luck. Schofield's latest, The Callisto Protocol, veers incredibly close to Dead Space, for both better and worse. Unfortunately, though, it’s far too familiar. There are glimmers of greatness, namely in its opening hours, but what unfolds after is a tiresome and unsurprising eight hours that feel like a relic of the past.

Sometimes when we get sent review code for a game, the PR will say that they'll be getting PC code later, but if we want we can have a console code so we can get a head start playing the game. There are a lot of reasons that might happen, but I'll be honest: it's never a great sign. I'm usually pretty chillaxed about the occasional wonky animation or frame stuttering when a game runs, but in this case The Callisto Protocol runs so badly on PC that if it were my child and the coach wasn't putting it in to play football - even as a sub in the last five minutes, you know, just to give it a go, like - I'd be saying, "Yeah, bench the sucker, I get it."

The stuttering and slowing down whenever anything moves is especially problematic in a horror game where your survival depends on quickly dodge-reacting to sudden threats. So I can't, right now, recommend you get The Callisto Protocol on PC. If Striking Distance get it running properly? Eh. Maybe.

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Let's get it out of the way right off the bat, shall we? The answer is: yes. Yes, The Callisto Protocol is Dead Space in fancy threads.

Yes, The Callisto Protocol - just like Dead Space - takes place in deepest, darkest space hundreds of years from now. Yes, The Callisto Protocol - just like Dead Space - features horrifying zombies that don't shuffle and moan as much as they screech and barrel towards you. Yes, The Callisto Protocol - just like Dead Space - explores not just the horror of an infectious disease that reanimates the dead, but that of humanity's cold, blind ambition, too. In some respects, it does these things better than Dead Space; in others, not so much. Either way, I had a bloody good time.

Should we be surprised the games share so much DNA given they've been created (or co-created, in Dead Space's case) by the same man? Probably not. Having replayed Dead Space quite recently, Isaac Clark's ordeal burns bright in my mind, so - consciously and unconsciously - I compared the two pretty much all the way through. With similarities almost too numerous to count - Jacob's Core health bar, the inventory menu, the dismemberment system, the signature stomp, there's even a gondola scene! - I suspect it'll be hard for anyone who's played Dead Space not to make those comparisons. It's a shame, really, that Callisto will never be free from Dead Space's formidable shadow, because what it delivers - decent combat, unsettling environments, masterful light and audio design, effective voice acting - stands utterly on its own merits.

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The Ichiban Kuji for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean will start from April 2023 and participants will be able to draw for figures of the Stands that appear in this entry. It will cost 850 JPY (around $6.30) to play, and you will be able to find the lottery at Lawson convenience stores, hobby shops, and bookstores in Japan. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

It is unclear just how big or tall the statues in this Ichiban Kuji will be. They also do not look like you will be able to pose them. Aside from figures, you can also get small goods depicting the Stands. among the prizes in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Ichiban Kuji.

Here is a full list of all the Stands that will appear:

• A Prize: Stone Free figure
• B Prize: Kiss figure
• C Prize: Foo Fighters figure
• D Prize: Weather Report figure
• E Prize: Diver Down figure
• F Prize: Big towel
• G Prize: Coaster
• H Prize: Drink tumbler
• I Prize: Towel
• Last One Prize: Star Platinum figure
• Double Chance Campaign: Star Platinum figure

Banpresto will release pictures of the non-figure merchandise at a later date.

An appeal made by Activision Blizzard that blocked Blizzard Albany’s QA staff from unionising has been rejected by the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). GIbiz report the publisher tried to argue that the entire staff of Blizzard Albany should vote on the unionisation effort rather than just the development studio’s QA team, but the NLRB disagree.

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When you vow to "get outside more" and "be more adventurous" in the new year, hey, Game Pass subscribers will be able to do all that indoors. Capcom have announced that Monster Hunter Rise will hit Game Pass in January 2023, a great entry in their brill beast-bashing series. Microsoft have also detailed some more of the games coming to Game Pass before then, including Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga next week. That one might be a fun way to distract the kiddywinkles over Christmas. Read on for more future Game Pass additions.

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Striking Distance has provided a timeframe for The Callisto Protocol's post launch content.

Upcoming free DLC includes New Game Plus and a Hardcore Mode. These will be available from the 7th February.

Meanwhile, as part of The Callisto Protocol's season pass, players will be able to get their hands on the Outer Way skin collection (also coming on 7th February), the Contagion Bundle (coming March 2023) and the Riot Bundle (coming Spring 2023).

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A host of familiar faces from The Witcher are headed to Amazon's MMORPG Lost Ark.

The collaboration will bring a limited-time The Witcher island to the game, with Geralt, Yennefer, Triss, Dandelion and Ciri along for the ride.

Players in Lost Ark's home country of South Korea can play this crossover now, while those elsewhere will get to explore the area in January 2023.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: marshes, skymindedness, and the other Venice.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

I would love to live near a good marsh - just a place for me to knock around, squelching about, checking out the bugs and whatnot and feeling moody. Alas, not a marsh to be seen - which makes Paradise Marsh all the more welcome.

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Neon White, the stylish Annapurna-published anime speedrunner, is coming to PlayStation platforms for the first time.

PlayStation 4 and PS5 versions of the game will arrive in just over a week, on Tuesday 13th December, following the game's debut on Nintendo Switch and Steam earlier this year.

Neon White tasks you with shooting through levels - both in terms of the guns you fire and the speed in which you traverse. A single-player first-person shooter, it arms you with a variety of guns you can then trade-in for parkour moves via a card-based system, with the aim being to finish levels as quickly and cleanly as possible. Here's a look at how it all works:

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Google has started refunding customers who purchased Stadia hardware through the Google Store.

Earlier this year, Google announced the closure of its beleaguered cloud gaming service, stating it aims to have all refunds completed by 18th January 2023 - the date Stadia servers are switched off for good.

Now, the Stadia Twitter account has confirmed that those who made their hardware purchases via its Google Store should start seeing their refunds coming in.

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As a reminder going into the weekend, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players can now attempt a Tera Raid to catch a Charizard. This is the first of two periods offering the Kanto starter’s final form. It is the only way to get one in-game, at the moment, and people can only catch it once.

First, you need to get to the open-world portion of the game. If you already beat it and are in the postgame, you might start seeing black Tera Raid crystal dens on the map and while walking around. If you haven’t beaten the game yet and are a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, then checking the Tera Raid section in the Poke Portal might result in seeing others’ raids for it. These will only appear in-game between December 1-4, 2022 and 15-18, 2022.

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If you face Charizard and defeat it, you get multiple possible rewards. You can catch it once. If you do, you get a level 100 Charizard with the dragon Tera type, a “Charizard the Unrivaled” Mightiest Mark, and the moves Dragon Pulse, Fire Blast, Focus Blast, and Hurricane. Other possible rewards from the fight include items like an Ability Patch item, Dragon Tera Shards, Exp. Candy Ls, Exp. Candy XLs, Modest Mints, Nugget, and TM 157: Overheat.

The Nintendo Stores are debuting some new Splatoon-based merchandise items that'll be familiar to avid players of the game. The Splatoon 3 water bottle in particular replicates the look of the in-game Ink Tank toted by Inklings and Octolings. The items debuted as part of the selection at the Nintendo Stores in Osaka and Tokyo

[gallery size="medium" ids="941861,941862,941863" link="file"]

Like the in-game Ink Tank worn by the combatants, the Splatoon 3 Water Bottle is actually more of a water bag or pack. It doesn't have rigid sides, so it can be flattened and stored away when empty. It has measuring lines on the design, as well as a telltale red line. In-game the red line typically shows how much ink is needed to use a player's sub-weapon. The bottle also includes a suction nozzle, safety cap, and a carabiner to hang it from a bag. The bottle costs 1,210 Yen (about $10 USD).

Besides the Splatoon 3 water bottle, other items are on sale in the wave of new Splatoon merchandise at the Nintendo stores. One artificially distressed t-shirt resembles the default shirt given to Inklings at the start of the game. It costs 4,620 Yen (about $35 USD).

The Animal Crossing and Splatoon 3 concert that aired during the Nintendo Live 2022 are available to watch online, and each performance features English subtitles for overseas fans to follow along. The concert is just under an hour long and it is available to watch on the official Nintendo of America YouTube channel.

You can watch the concert here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETszC6w-mg

Because it is a live concert, you can hear the applause of the audience, as well as see people waving their light sticks. The concert starts with Isabelle greeting the audience before a holographic DJ K.K. Slider starts playing some of his greatest hits. Some villagers and NPCs, such as the Dodo Airlines pilots and Tom Nook, occasionally show up to dance for the audience.

At around half an hour in, the concert switches over from Animal Crossing to Splatoon 3. Deep Cut (which comprises of Shiver, Frye, and Big Man) greet the Tokyo audience, as well as introduces the special musical guests. Unlike the holograms of the Animal Crossing portion, the Splatoon 3 half of the concert showcases real people before ending with the Splatoon 3 characters.

This is the first Nintendo Live since the COVID-19 pandemic started. It took place from October 8-9, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan. Aside from the concert, there were tournaments, games, and stage events.

The Callisto Protocol, Glen Schofield's spiritual successor to his Dead Space series, is finally out and to celebrate the day, Striking Distance Studios has released a content plan detailing six months of DLC for the game. 

As previously announced, The Callisto Protocol's season pass DLC will feature brand-new death animations, presumably to be featured in the game's new story content. According to this new content timeline, that additional story is expected to release sometime next summer. Before that, though, all players will receive New Game+ and a Hardcore Mode while season pass owners will also get the outer way skin collection, the contagion bundle, the riot bundle, and the aforementioned story content. 

Six months of content coming to The Callisto Protocol beginning Feb 7, 2023, with a free update of Hardcore Mode and New Game+. More details for this and the Season Pass coming soon. pic.twitter.com/43mLjK93IP

This time of year can be stressful, but it's only the second day of December and already it seems you can't quite control your face as you'd like to. Perhaps you can ask someone to arrange it into the right emotions for you...?

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Righto, this is an odd one. You’re 505 Games and you’ve got your game lined up for a reveal at The Game Awards stream on December 8th/9th, okay? It’s set in a slick-looking metropolis positioned by the sea called Rockay City, check. The Epic Games Store is involved somehow, got it. Oh, and let’s get Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home actor Michael Madsen in to drop Geoff Keighley’s lost wallet off at The Game Awards HQ, yeah. He’s Geoff’s biggest fan after all. Excuse me? I don’t understand.

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There may not be any game more anticipated than Grand Theft Auto VI right now. With 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V being one of the highest-selling games of all time (and seeing a multitude of re-releases), fans are clearly more than ready for the next entry in the series. The long wait has felt even harsher with the recent leak of about 90 videos worth of early gameplay for this new title.

Major questions have obviously been posed about where GTA VI will take the franchise. While some want the franchise to continue pushing in a modern direction to feel more like a “sequel”, others have been more interested in the prospect of returning to past locations and time periods to be more of a “prequel.” Here are six reasons why we feel that Grand Theft Auto VI should push forward and become a sequel, rather than a prequel.

HoYoVerse announced the Honkai Impact 3rd 6.2 release date. The next update will appear on December 8, 2022. It already confirmed one new element of it. That is when the Ai Hyperion Λ battlesuit, a playable version of Ai-chan for Honkai Impact 3rd, will debut. It will also mark the appearance of a new The Honkai Salvation Log event and Herrscher of Thunder Character Card.

First, Ai Hyperion Λ: Chrono Navi is an SP MECH battlesuit. She uses a chakram to attack. When she does, her attacks can deal fire damage. Also, as a nod to Ai-chan’s helpful abilities in Honkai Impact 3rd, her playable battlesuit is designed to help support allies with buffs.

As part of the endeavor to help introduce her, there’s an event in which she’s prominently featured. The Honkai Salvation Log involves players working with her to “fix” bugs in the game. You’ll be in digital space with her. Among the rewards for doing so will be the Spectral Raven Midnight Absinthe outfit for Raven.

Hideo Kojima dropped a new teaser for his new Kojima Productions game. The latest reveal, which comes via Kojima's official Twitter account, invites viewers to "Start a new journey." Accompanied by three mysterious symbols, the teases are widely rumored to be connected to an in-development Death Stranding 2.

https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1598512751436890114

Kojima's tweet features three mysterious symbols, at least one of which appeared on earlier teases confirming the involvement of actress Elle Fanning. One symbol is a logo for something called the "Automated Public Assistance Company." The second symbol was present on the Fanning teaser, and depicts a mysterious structure under an umbrella-like shape. The third symbol shows a tentacled creature pierced by harpoons. Exactly what the symbols mean is unknown, but they appear to be corporate or organizational logos of some kind.

The latest teases appear to be leading up to a reveal set for the 2022 Game Awards show. The Game Awards official Twitter account, as well as the account of creator and host Geoff Keighley, responded to Kojima's tease with hints that more will be revealed at the show on December 8, 20222, when the show goes live.

The developer behind My Time At Portia has announced a new management sim, Let's School, which is due to launch in 2023.

It's a change of tack from a studio better known for its Harvest Moon-style life simulations - such as Portia and its follow-up My Time at Sandrock. Let's School looks instead to be more in the vein of Theme Hospital - or more specifically, the recent school-set Two Point Campus.

Let's School is described as a "cosy and colourful" management sim where, as headteacher, you design everything from the school's building layout to its school clubs.

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Nintendo once had bold plans to quickly branch out into a raft of mobile game releases - but no more. When it launched its first app, Miitomo, back in 2016, Nintendo's then-boss Tatsumi Kimishima said four more smartphone games would debut in the following 12 months.

In reality, Nintendo took several years to hit that milestone, and in the years since has shuttered several of them. Just one new Nintendo mobile game has launched in the last two years: Pikmin Bloom, developed by Pokémon Go maker Niantic.

This week, as Dragalia Lost joined Dr. Mario World and Miitomo on Nintendo's shutdown game scrap pile, the publisher offered a brief update on the continued importance it places on its smartphone efforts.

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Finally, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean is done, but I wouldn’t hold it against you if you didn’t know that because Netflix’s binge-watching model and its handling of the anime’s promotion has circumvented any hype and online discussion for it. And now I’m worried about the fate of its sequel arc, Steel Ball Run…

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Rumors are swirling that Nintendo may have underplayed its hand with yesterday’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet patch announcement, with some suggesting that the worst of the framerate issues have been significantly improved. In our own very unscientific tests, it looks like this might at least a little bit true.

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Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a fun but tangled mess of nylon, lasers, and wind-down time with Iron Man. Though made by Firaxis Games, developers behind treasured turn-based strategy franchise XCOM, Midnight Suns is its own ridiculous neon thing, with role-playing elements intricately entwined with its turn-based,…

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Dudunsparce is already the biggest joke of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Pokédex. There’s almost no visible difference between this new Pokémon and its pre-evolution Dunsparce save for an extra segment on its body. Even still, yours could be special. So if you really want to catch ‘em all, you better start double…

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Whoa, it's December already. How'd that happen? That means it's time for another round of our work experience programme, following on from the great work Eden Assiene this summer. If you reckon you'd like to cover PC gaming for RPS then read on.

The work experience programme is only for applicants from ethnic minorities who live in the UK, and applications are open from now until the end of January. We'd love for you to join us, so check out the entry requirements and get in touch.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is an improvement over Activision’s last iteration of the game in just about every way. Sure, the campaign will never reach the lofty highs of the fondly remembered original, but as a gameplay experience in multiplayer, it’s substantially better across the board. The gunplay feels significantly better, it’s obviously much prettier, and almost all of its game modes are robust and well-thought-out. I don’t think many players would take issue with any of that, but I have no doubt the lion’s share of the community won’t agree with my next statement: Call of Duty Modern Warfare II’s slower and more tactical movement is a good thing.

There, I said it! I know, it’s a controversial one. I do, indeed, hold the unpopular opinion that the movement in Warzone 2.0 is actually quite polished, which is the polar opposite to the rest of the community it seems. Hear me out.

For those not up to speed, veteran CoD sweats claim that the now-gone slide-canceling mechanic in previous games resulted in a skill gap that has now been eliminated. Now, they claim, any noob can pick up CoD and top-frag servers by sitting in corners and camping. It’s all too easy, apparently, and the very essence of the CoD experience has been diluted for casuals.

What a load of bullshit! Firstly, there’s nothing objectively skillful about smashing the Y key on your controller to perform a slide-cancel and create a slight lead for yourself. Moreover, it’s far from the only way to create a skill ceiling in an FPS game.

Today Bandai Namco released two free DLC characters for its anime fighting game JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R.

They both come from the Stone Ocean arc and they’re Weather Forecast and the final form of Father Pucchi. It’s with mentioned that Father Pucchi was already included in the base roster of the game but in All-Star Battle R different versions of the same characters are basically separate fighters.

Of course, the pairing is rather appropriate considering who the two characters are, but I won’t spoil it just in case you haven’t yet read Stone Ocean or watched the anime that has just been released on Netflix.

It’s worth mentioning that, being free, these characters aren’t part of the Season Pass that started with Risotto Nero and will still include three more characters, who are still unannounced. All of them are guaranteed to be released by December 31, 2023.

You can watch a trailer introducing both below.

Pokemon GO Season 9: Mythical Wishes kicked off yesterday for trainers around the world. This season has a large focus on creatures from the Hoenn region, especially Jirachi considering that it’s known as the Wish Pokemon. To go along with the beginning of the new season, the official Pokemon GO Twitter account released an extended version of the Mythical Wishes trailer that includes some exciting teasers.

The trailer itself starts out the same as the original teaser that was posted later last month showing trainers with multiple Hoenn Pokemon like Gardevoir, Salamence, Latios, Latias, Bagon, Ralts, and more along with a red shooting star going across the sky.

This new trailer also shows off the Mega Evolutions for the Hoenn starters in action for the first time. Previously, the announcement of their debut only included still images of Mega Swampert, Mega Blaziken, and Mega Sceptile.

Japanese Switch owners that want to get post-atomic fit can get a taste of the routine. The Japanese eShop now hosts a Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star demo, downloadable by any with a Japanese Nintendo account. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star demo is playable and features two playable boxing instructors. The first is Kenshiro, master of the Hokuto Shinken fighting style and protagonist of the series. Mamiya, the wasteland warrior, is the second instructor. Instructors coach players through the different routines, giving them the rhythm-based cues to punch to.

The demo gives players three days worth of regular gameplay. Being a fitness game, Fitness Boxing typically organizes workouts on a daily routine. The demo for Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star contains a three-day daily training routine, as well as a "fierce battle" stage set up against Shin. Fierce Battle stages set up fights against various goons, and a prominent antagonist from the series. In this case, you can take out some wasteland punks, as well as battle against Shin himself.

People with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R can now see Stone Ocean characters Weather Forecast, aka Weather Report, and Father Pucci (Final) settle things. Both characters are now available in-game. They are available for free. They also appear just as the last batch of Stone Ocean's episodes show up to stream on Netflix. Those debuted on December 1, 2022.

There's a new trailer showing Weather Forecast and Father Pucci (Final) face each other in a Stone Ocean stage. It hints at certain plot elements from this part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. However, there are no spoilers for the series in the video.

It's time for heaven…

Father Pucchi is ready, but is Weather Forecast able to handle this righteous storm?

Play as both of these characters on a new stage from #StoneOcean in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R for FREE starting now!https://t.co/sWKANs2I1j pic.twitter.com/6VLSyQjVfF

— JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R (@jojo_games) December 2, 2022

More than one Danganronpa Pop Up Parade pre-orders opened. Good Smile Company announced two are live. People can now call dibs on “budget” Danganronpa Junko Enoshima and Chihiro Fujisaki ahead of their 2023 debuts. Chihiro will show up in Japan in April 2023, then come to North America in June 2023. Meanwhile, Junko will return to Japan in May 2023 and follow in North America shortly after. Her original release’s figure is still widely available worldwide.

Both the Junko and Chihiro Danganronpa figures are static ones. They wear their outfits from the original game. Both will be under or just about seven inches tall. In the case of Junko, Monokuma also appears on the base. As these are part of Good Smile Company's budget line, they are each ¥4,800. The US storefront is selling Junko for $38.99 and has the original run in-stock now. It notes the Chiaki one will be $33.99.