May 2023

Good Smile Company will release a figure of Chiaki Nanami from Danganronpa 2: Despair wearing a black bunny outfit. Pre-orders are open until July 20, 2023. She costs 26,400 JPY and will ship out in September 2023 for Japanese customers. Those in North America will pay $189.99 and get her in Q4 2023.

Unlike the baggy clothes she wears in the game, the Black Bunny figure of Chiaki is more on the skimpy side. This is a 1/4 scale figure that is around 215 millimeters in height. She’s is sitting down for the figure's pose. This is actually a recolor of the Chiaki Nanami: Bunny Version figure that came out in May 2020. That one had a white hat and leotard.

Here are some more pictures of the Chiaki Nanami: Black Bunny Version figure:

[gallery columns="4" ids="965255,965254,965253,965252" link="file"]

From June 12, 2023, you will no longer be able to purchase any Pokemon shirts from Original Stitch. This is due to the closure of the company. Those who wanted something from Original Stitch should do so before June 12, 2023. [Thanks, Serebii!]

Original Stitch is a company that allows you to customize your own Pokemon shirt. You can choose your own patterns, buttons, and designs. Aside from shirts, you can also get bandanas, masks, and accessories such as aprons that have Pokemon designs on them. During 2021 when the pandemic forced countries into lockdown, it also had custom Zoom backgrounds to spruce up your work meetings. Original Stitch doesn’t deliver to every country, so fans should check the website before making a purchase.

As of the time of writing, Original Stitch’s website is not very stable due to a high volume of traffic. So it can be difficult to check what patterns are available. However, the latest updates are from 2021, and some of the new patterns from then introduced species from Hoenn (Ruby/Sapphire). This means that you won’t be able to get shirts with newer Pokemon like Sprigatito, who debuted in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

The Evangelion Battlefields service will end on July 27, 2023, a little over three years after the mobile game debuted. For reference, it launched on April 2, 2020. The official website gives a brief explanation for why the game will end, with revenue seemingly to be the main reason. [Thanks, KaroshiMyriad!]

The Evangelion Battlefields site states that the development team worked hard since 2020 to provide a good gaming experience. However, after considering the current state of the game, the intellectual property, and profits, it made the decision to end service. It thanked the players for its long years of support, as well as promises to continue working on the game in the remaining two months to make sure that it’s still a fun experience.

Items that require real-life currency will no longer be available from May 26, 2023. There also won’t be a Battle Pass Elite for Season 20, which will run from May 26 to July 27, 2023. The game will leave the app stores at 12:00 PM JST of July 27, 2023, and then it’ll end two hours later at 2:00 PM. Refunds will then be available from August 1 to September 30, 2023.

Just as it said it would, Microsoft has appealed the CMA's decision to block its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and its summary of arguments is now available for scrutiny.

In April, after months of deliberation, the UK's Competition and Market Authority made the shock decision to block Microsoft proposed $69b acquisition of the Call of Duty maker, highlighting concerns relating to the burgeoning cloud gaming sector and arguing the deal would risk "stifling competition in this growing market".

It's a position that was welcomed by some and by rejected by others. The EU, which approved the deal in May after Microsoft agreed to concessions, has been critical of the CMA's stance, and a number of UK politicians, including chancellor Jeremy Hunt, have also raised concerns. Microsoft, of course, has also criticised the decision, confirming it would launch an appeal.

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The Last of Us’ long-awaited multiplayer game was notably absent at the PlayStation Showcase on Wednesday, and now we know why: Naughty Dog says it’s not ready for show.

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As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attempts a presidential run, he’s still finding time for his ongoing hobby of angering different communities with his legislation and bad views on people and things. Now, it sounds like he’s got a new community to add to that list: furries.

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A new glitch in Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep makes it easy to farm infinite Legendary Shards through unlimited Exotic drops. It’s super simple and easy and probably won’t be around for long.

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Esports company turned Wall Street laughing stock, FaZe Clan, is at the center of another controversy as its members fight over the recent signing of Stranger Things actor and Twitch streamer, Grace Van Dien. Loud members like Nordan “FaZe Rain” Shat criticized the signing as a money grab, while Van Dien said Rain…

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This episode of All Things Nintendo asks a simple yet important question: Now that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been out for a couple of weeks, what does the rest of 2023 look like for Switch owners? Marcus Stewart joins Brian to run down what we know so far. But first, the two catch up on the news from the last week.

If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram @BrianPShea. You can follow Marcus on Twitter: @MarcusStewart7.

The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we can celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to talk about what's happening in the world of Nintendo. Along the way, they'll share personal stories, uncover hidden gems in the eShop, and even look back on the classics we all grew up with. A new episode hits every Friday!

Be sure to subscribe to All Things Nintendo on your favorite podcast platform. The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and YouTube.

Final Fantasy XVI’s Valisthea is sprawling, comprising a mix of five main nations, various more-linear dungeons, and some open field areas. The primary focus of FFXVI will be playing through Clive’s story and all it entails, but there’s more to the game than just the main scenario. 

I was curious about how players will get around Valisthea, especially with developer Creative Business Unit III at the helm. In its MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, mounts are abundant. You can ride chocobos, the Regalia from Final Fantasy XV, Magitek armor, and more. There are dozens of mounts to acquire in-game, and I wondered if that would bleed over into FFXVI. 

“To tell you the truth, it’s pretty much just chocobos,” FFXVI director Hiroshi Takai tells me. “In past Final Fantasy games, you’d have canoes or boats or cars to travel in. But in Final Fantasy XVI, because our game is based on that main world map and traveling from that world map and doing fast travel from that, we found that there wasn’t really a need for any kind of expanded type of traversal systems. So yeah, currently, we only have walking and the chocobos.”

However, Takai notes there are parts in the story where Clive will use other types of traversal, but these aren’t accessible elsewhere. 

Tamashii Nations revealed a new Dragon Ball Z SH Figuarts figure based on Goku in his Legendary Super Saiyan form. It will have his looks from the end of the Frieza arc. It will also feature a new joint structure Bandai Namco will use for the brand's figures. Pre-orders will open worldwide on June 1, 2023, and it will cost ¥ 7,150 / $50.99 (tax included).

Here is the official announcement for the SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Goku from the Tamashii Nations Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/TamashiiNations/status/1661901725001818112?s=20

This Goku will come with 3 different faces with screaming, clenching, and grinning expressions, along with 5 pairs of hands, interchangeable hair and head parts, and effect parts for the Kamehameha wave. Most notably, this will be the first figure to use a new articulation technology for more accurate and smooth poses. You can check out a 3D model visor of the figure on the Tamashii website.

It is no surprise we see more Dragon Ball figures being released, as a recent report confirmed it to be one of the most lucrative IPs for Bandai Namco in the last financial year, along with Gundam. Another example of this is the 10 million sales milestone reached by the Dragon Ball FighterZ and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 games.

Square Enix is working on new Kingdom Hearts jewelry. This latest one comes in two variants and hides a secret. Two Kingdom Hearts Roxas ring versions will appear in Japan on November 11, 2023, and each one also pays tribute to Axel and Xion via hidden art. The items will cost 24,200円 (~$172) each. The Square Enix worldwide storefront doesn't offer listings for either one yet. However, it often also offers these kinds of items not long after the Japanese announcement.

Aside from the color variations, the two rings are identical. Both Kingdom Hearts rings feature a checkerboard design on the outside that is inspired by Roxas’ clothing. On the inside, a picture of Axel, Roxas, and Xion eating sea-salt ice cream as they did in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is engraved into the band. They are also each made of 925 sterling silver. You can get them in specific sizes ranging from 7-23. The difference is one is just silver, and the other features a black coating.

Here's how the standard silver one looks:
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="965273,965274,965275,965276" link="file"]

And here's how the alternative option will look:
[gallery columns="2" size="full" ids="965277,965278,965279,965280" link="file"]

UPDATE 27/5/23: In a report released in the aftermath of Naughty Dog's statement, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has shed additional light on the behind-the-scenes decision-making currently impacting The Last of Us multiplayer game.

According to Schreier, development on the long-in-the-works title has "slowed down" after Destiny developer Bungie - which has been individually assessing Sony's many "games as a service" projects since its was acquired last year - raised concerns about The Last of Us multiplayer's "ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time".

As a result of this feedback, the Naughty Dog team working on the Last of Us multiplayer project is said to have been "scaled back", leaving only a "small group" on the project while Sony re-evaluates its direction. Bloomberg's sources say the game isn't cancelled, but that many of its developers have now been moved to other projects.

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Stone Age farming and village life sim Roots of Pacha has returned to Steam following the end of a rights dispute between its developer and publisher, who have now announced the decision to "amicably part ways under terms that are mutually beneficial".

Roots of Pacha, which launched to an extremely positive reception back in April, was pulled from Valve's storefront by publisher Crytivo earlier this month - a move developer Soda Den claimed had occurred "without [its] knowledge or consent".

"We worked hard to amicably resolve our issue with Crytivo internally," it said at the time. "Instead of working with us to address the issue, Crytivo went to Valve and authorised them to remove Roots of Pacha from Steam". Crytivo, meanwhile, claimed Soda Den had unexpectedly moved to "unilaterally rescind the contract we had worked under for three years".

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With a game as expansive and malleable as Tears of the Kingdom, there are countless ways to solve puzzles, traverse the environment, defeat your enemies, or just have fun. As the game’s been out now just a couple of weeks, players are still discovering unique contraptions, and one that’s swiftly growing in popularity…

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The official reveal of a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake was one of the headliners of Sony’s recent PlayStation 5 showcase, but it likely won’t be finished for some time. Fortunately, a collection of Metal Gear classics is coming to modern platforms this fall and it will actually include more games than originally expected.

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The Outlast Trials is excessively nasty and obscene—appropriate, considering it’s developer Red Barrels’ first follow up in six years to its, in the best way, abhorrent Outlast survival horror series. Since its Early Access release on May 18, the blood-drenched multiplayer has been sliding up the Steam charts, making…

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Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, from software like the language processor ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E to AI chatbots—and now, even Twitch streamers are starting to take notice. Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa, one of the platform’s biggest stars with over 6.4 million followers, recently dropped her own…

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Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Developer: Daedalic Entertainment
Release: May 25, 2023 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), 2023 (Switch)
Rating: Teen

At times, an event or character can be profoundly impactful to its originating fiction, but not the right choice for a dedicated spotlight project of its own. It’s hard to think of a more potent case in point than The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a game that fundamentally misunderstands the appeal of its source franchise, focusing on a character who, by almost any measure, is the wrong choice for a lead. That said, it’s not impossible to imagine the game that might somehow have made the unusual premise click. This is not that project; like its miserable and piteous lead, this game is best avoided at all costs.

Rarely do I watch a trailer for a video game more than once. Yet with Bungie’s Marathon reboot/sequel/whatever, I’ve found myself looping its slick and stylish announcement trailer. It’s not just because the trailer slaps, but because Bungie is teasing looks to be one of the coolest shooters released in years.

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Naughty Dog, the renowned developer behind franchises such as Uncharted and The Last of Us, has released a statement on its multiplayer title in The Last of Us universe. In the post, the developer says it needs more time than originally forecasted for the multiplayer project, but softens the blow by teasing an unannounced single-player-focused game.

"We know many of you have been looking forward to hearing more about our The Last of Us multiplayer game," the statement reads. "We're incredibly proud of the job our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we've realized what is best for the game is to give it more time. Our team will continue to work on the project, as well as our other games in development, including a brand new single-player experience; we look forward to sharing more soon. We're grateful to our fantastic community for your support – thank you for your passion for our games, it continues to drive us."

pic.twitter.com/DOeO8ZHSlh

When events come around, Good Smile Company often announces new figures. At WonHobbyG Spring 2023, it revealed it is working on a Resident Evil 4 Nendoroid of Leon S. Kennedy. It didn't specify if it is inspired by the original game or the remake. The company also only showed concept art of the character in a "chibi" form, so it is fairly early in development. This means we may not see it until the end of 2023 or 2024.

Here's the official concept art for the Resident Evil 4 Leon Nendoroid.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
Resident Evil 4
Nendoroid Leon S. Kennedy

Web Gallery: https://t.co/5KOpUNlBlJ#ResidentEvil4 #nendoroid #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/wv98vuEuRQ

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 27, 2023

As Good Smile Company continued its WonHobbyG Spring announcements, it confirmed four Oshi no Ko Pop Up Parade figures and two Nendoroids are in development. All of them are fairly early along in development. As such, the photos for all of them are unpainted prototypes. There will be Aqua and Kana Nendoroids, and Ai, Aqua, Ruby, and Kana figures are planned.

First, here are the Aqua and Kana Oshi no Ko Nendoroids. She'll be wearing her hat for her figure. Both seem to be wearing their school uniforms. No information came up regarding possible ones for Ai or Ruby at this event.

／
　商品化決定
　&原型初公開🌟
＼
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
ねんどろいど
🌟アクア
🌟有馬かな
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

▼#ワンホビG フォトギャラリーhttps://t.co/WZut4D2kpi#推しの子 #goodsmile #ねんどろいど pic.twitter.com/wcTzczTB0n

— カホタン＠グッスマのすみっこ (@gsc_kahotan) May 27, 2023

As is common with HoYoVerse presentations, the 1.1 Special Program for Honkai: Star Rail included codes for free Stellar Jades and items. While the global version of the showcase was delayed, the codes are now live and can be redeemed in other regions. These are limited, and they also only apply on May 27, 2023. However, if you do apply them, you'll get a stash of currency like Stellar Jade and consumables to help with your adventure.

Square Enix announced that a new entry in the Dragon Quest Monsters series is currently in development for the Nintendo Switch. The official Dragon Quest Twitter account celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Dragon Quest Monsters series with the reveal. Square Enix shared a video celebrating the history of the Monsters spin-off series, and at the end of it revealed the surprise.

The new Dragon Quest Monsters announcement video includes text in both English and Japanese, and you can see it here:

https://twitter.com/DragonQuest/status/1662292541503422465

While the announcement of this new entry in the Dragon Quest Monsters series doesn’t come with any other information, developers at Square Enix never really lost interest in continuing the series.

Dragon Quest Treasures Producer Taichi Inuzuka said to Famitsu in a December 2022 interview that the existence of the new game didn’t mean that the Monsters series was over. In fact, Dragon Quest Treasures was initially conceptualized as a Monsters game. The game shares much of its Monster-collecting ideas with the long-running sub-series.

The latest entry in the Monsters series was Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3, released exclusively in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS on March 2016.

The major antagonists of From Software games usually have a lot of shared history. Some are blood relatives, some are lovers, some are enemies with grudges stretching back centuries. A few are all these things simultaneously. But they seldom meet, reconcile or thrash out their differences in-game. By the time we encounter them as players they've become monstrous hermits, isolated and corrupted by their vast ambitions and desires.

Some bossfights do, however, let you summon an ally character from your enemy's past, perhaps to fulfil one of each game's hidden sidequests. A select group of modders have taken this concept further. They've hacked the game to pit bosses against each other, dropping them into each other's arenas and filming the results in first-person. It's a feat of bloody fan service which exposes the nuances of each boss's design.

Garden of Eyes has been making From Software's bosses murder each other since the days of Bloodborne. His first video put the game's mentor figure Gehrman and Lady Maria, coverstar for the Old Hunters DLC, up against Laurence, first Vicar of the infamous Healing Church. It's not a close match. Laurence has the reach, but Gehrman and Maria have the speed and finesse, though Laurence's second phase - in which he tears himself apart to spew lava everywhere - at least denies the pair a spectacular finish.

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After the unspeakable horrors of a five-day working week, what a relief for people in the UK to be back on another three-day weekend. We'll be mostly quiet Monday then return properly on Tuesday. The weather's been absolutely glorious out here so I'm aching to spend quality time outside. But what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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Wales Interactive has unveiled the fourth and final episode coming to its co-op horror FPS, Sker Ritual, Deadly Lover's Fortress.

The team also promised that "an extended roadmap will be revealed soon to highlight the early access progress with the 1.0 release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X release in sight", although the horror game – which is a spin-off from atmospheric horror Maid of Sker – was due to leave early access in Q1 2023.

You can check out the action yourself in the teaser below:

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What I find fascinating about Darkest Dungeon, and what I've always found fascinating about it, is how the series rethinks the experience of what being a fantasy adventurer would actually be like.

We take so much of it for granted, that experience, because we've seen it so many times. Take an adventurer - or a party of adventurers - down into a dungeon and have them overcome incredible odds to defeat hundreds if not thousands of monsters, some as big as houses and as terrifying as nightmares. And yet this seems to have no appreciable effect on them, beyond their getting stronger.

But what would that experience really be like to an adventurer, to see all of those things, to do all of those things - to encounter those horrors, and to see those terrible injuries, that anguish, that death? Profoundly traumatic, I imagine. And it's here, in this thought, Darkest Dungeon as an idea, as a concept, was born. "The central thesis that being an adventurer is a shit line of work," Darkest Dungeon co-creator Chris Bourassa tells me.

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Nintendo has forced Valve to delist a Wii and GameCube emulator from Steam, citing it violates the megacorp's intellectual property rights.

In a letter seen by PC Gamer, Nintendo issued Valve a DMCA notice, stating Valve had an "obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store".

"Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store," the demand stated.

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Another day, another Silent Hill rumour, and this one reckons we'll get new trailers from the numerous Silent Hill projects "really soon, before June".

According to horror game leaker Dusk Golem – who was long telling us that the seminal horror series had been rebooted before Konami did – a new trailer showing off the progress of Silent Hill 2 Remake, Townfall, and Ascension are on the way.

"I don't know the exact date for everything," they explained in messages posted to The Snitch's Discord channel," but I'll just say there's a new SH2R, Townhall [sic] & Ascension trailer ready to be revealed at last."

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Media Molecule has appointed former lead designer John Beech as its new creative director.

Beech steps in to replace co-founder Mark Healy, who left the studio last month after 17 years.

"Today we're extremely honoured to introduce you to our new Creative Director - @Johnee_B!" the studio tweeted.

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It can be difficult to take situations seriously in a tense adventure game when the most grave moments are accompanied by the voice acting for the first two or three words in a sentence repeating, amorphous blobs of “energy” popping in, and unnecessary quick time events (QTEs). Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I faced in the PS4 version of Star Trek Resurgence. Poignant moments could be punctuated by unnecessary inputs. Character expressions became comical.

First, Star Trek Resurgence takes place around the same time as The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The USS Resolute and its crew went through a lot. A warp core experiment led to an accident and malfunction that killed multiple people. The ship itself ended up practically torn apart. It’s about to head out on a diplomatic mission to hopefully stop a war between two normally peaceful groups. Players follow this process through two viewpoints. One is Engineer Carter Diaz, a human who was a member of the crew when the incident happened. The other is the new First Officer Jara Rydeck. She’s a new staff member taking over someone who died in the tragedy and faces some opposition both due to being a replacement and a member of the Kobliad race that will essentially die without a proper and consistent supply of deuridium. (If you followed Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you’re aware of the scarcity of that.)

Good Smile Company announced three figures of Goddess of Victory: Nikke characters at WonHobbyG 2023 Spring. However, two of them are of the same person. There will be scale figures of both Guren and Modernia. However, Modernia will also join the Hyper Body line. There are no unpainted or painted prototypes yet, only announcements.

First, here’s the Guren figure announcement.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Arts Shanghai
GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE
Scale Figure Guren

Web Gallery: https://t.co/FNdfWTqnoF#NIKKE #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/nN3p1FmhTH

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 27, 2023

And here's one of the two announcement tweets for the Nikke figures of the character Modernia. As a reminder, the Hyper Body line combines an articulated, finished figure with model kit elements as people create additional parts to use for posing.

It seems the Silent Hill 2 Pyramid Head Pop Up Parade figure is inching closer to its inevitable release. At WonHobbyG 2023 Spring, Good Smile Company shared the painted prototype of the budget figure. It last showed up in February 2022 as an unpainted prototype.

Here's a closer look at how the figure is turning out. Since it is part of the budget line, people should expect to pay around $34.99 for it once it launches.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
Silent Hill 2
POP UP PARADE Red Pyramid Thing

Web Gallery: https://t.co/1BYGuqqAAn#SilentHill #PopUpParade #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/gIkHLOH1zV

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 27, 2023

As part of the WonHobbyG 2023 Spring reveals, Good Smile Company offered updates on the VShojo Kson and Nazuna Amemiya Nendoroids. Both of them first appeared back in February 2023. At that point, we only saw chibi concept art suggesting how both could end up looking. Now, both of them are at the “unpainted prototype” phase.

First, here’s how the Kson Nendoroid looks. The pose has her wielding her sword. There are also already glasses on the prototype.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
VShojo
Nendoroid kson

Web Gallery: https://t.co/Xe2OwROO1L#vshojo #nendoroid #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/ze57KdaWmd

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 27, 2023

Next, here’s the Nazuna Nendoroid. She’s holding her staff for her pose. It also seems the figure will include her hat.

As part of the video game figures appearing at Good Smile Company’s WonHobby G 2023 Spring event, the Guilty Gear Strive Bridget Nendoroid showed up. Initially, the company only shared general art of her. That appeared in February 2023. Now the unpainted prototype is here.

Here’s a closer look at the Guilty Gear Strive Bridget Nendoroid. She’s wielding her yo-yo in the photo. However, Roger didn’t appear alongside the prototype. It’s unknown if a version of the bear will be included for posing purposes. However, the handcuff “belt” does appear around her waist.

#WonHobbyG 2023 Spring Figure Update!

Good Smile Company
GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-
Nendoroid Bridget

Web Gallery: https://t.co/lVKf7HB9nm#GuiltyGearStrive #nendoroid #goodsmile pic.twitter.com/uwxurVpDMF

— GoodSmile_US (@GoodSmile_US) May 27, 2023