May 2023

Kirara is one of those rare characters in Genshin Impact who requires the same Artifacts and weapons no matter how you want to use her. Whether you want to add her to a team as a sub-DPS through her on-field Dendro application, or as a dedicated shielder, she more or less uses the same stuff. This makes Kirara a very flexible character who can change her job at the drop of a hat whenever you need her to.

As a Sword user, your choices are mostly ones that improve her ER or EM. There is the Key of Khaj-Nisut if you have it and don’t have a proper shielder. Kirara’s shield is actually really good compared to another Dendro shielder who came out around her debut. So it’s not a waste to put it on her depending on your situation.

In a Q&A with the writing staff for Final Fantasy VII Remake, someone asked why Reno and Rude became more humanized in the updated version of the game. In response, Square Enix uploaded part of the script that the voice actors used for the game. It also explained how the Reno and Rude’s popularity, as well as the Midgar-focused plot of FFVII Remake, affected the writing.

The script is from a scene in Chapter 11 of FFVII Remake. Specifically, it’s the scene where they receive orders to drop attack the Sector 7 pillar. Reno and Rude express doubt and irritation over this decision. Reno in particular says in a self-deprecating tone that it’s too late to pretend to be a good person. This brief conversation in question is the one that most strongly shows the difference in their portrayal between the remake and the original.

The question that someone posed to the writing staff wondered why FFVII Remake focused more on the human side of these two. Part of the answer is because the story centers so much on Midgar. So the staff wanted to spend more time on exploring and developing Shinra characters. Since Reno and Rude became popular after the original Final Fantasy VII, the writing staff gave them more screen time and personality in FFVII Remake. Though they still loyally carry out their orders, they show inner turmoil about what they have to do. Letting the audience see this was a way to make them seem more multifaceted.

Rayark, the developers of the excellent Cytus rhythm action games (which we’ve covered previously), have this week faced allegations that some of the company’s artists had been laid off and replaced with, you guessed it, machine-generated imagery.

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Odds are high that, you a Kotaku reader, have played Tetris before. In fact, you’ve likely played a lot of Tetris or one of its many clones and knock-offs. But you’ve probably never played a Tetris-inspired game quite like Setris, a new take on the popular puzzler that adds physics and satisfying, shifting sand to the…

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I was collecting boar tusks for an enterprising child in rain-soaked Scosglen, one of Diablo IV’s five major regions, when it hit me: I don’t have time for this shit.

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2023 is barely halfway over and yet this year has already seenh great games coming out across nearly every platform. And upcoming releases are shaping up to be bangers, too.

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GeoGuessr players are out of this world. If there’s anything that comes close to real magic on the internet, it’s seeing players use nothing but a photo of a telephone pole on Google Maps to determine where that object actually is. And there’s probably no one more skilled at this feat than Trevor Rainbolt, known…

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Farworld Pioneers has the side-view construction and interplanetary exploration of Starbound, but adds the colony management of RimWorld. That sort of videogame-maths is useful, but in this instance it obscures the ambition of smooshing two huge games together. You should compensate for my shortcut description by watching the trailer below.

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A tweet from the Xbox Australia and New Zealand account might - might! - be teasing Psychonauts 3. That's the conclusion of much of the internet, anyway. The tweet features a picture of a noughts and crosses board (aka tic-tac-toe) in which the letters for PSYCHO are written in pink and interspersed with three green Xs.

Psycho. Noughts and crosses. Three Xs. You can see where they're coming from.

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Now that we’re halfway through 2023, Oricon released its manga sales ranking for the first six months of 2023. All of the manga on the list are serialized, or were serialized, in a Jump publication. Unsurprisingly considering the popularity of these series, all of them also have anime adaptations. [Thanks, Shonen Jump News!]

The Oricon ranking of the best-selling manga in the first half of 2023, including how many copies sold, are:

Microsoft updated the Xbox Gear Shop with pieces of merchandise inspired by the classic PC games Minesweeper and Solitaire. Some use art and designs taken directly from the games. All of them are expected to start shipping the first week of June 2023.

There are more pieces of Solitaire merchandise than there are Minesweeper items. Those who enjoy the card game can get a baseball hat, coaster set, mouse pad, phone case, and tote bag. Meanwhile, there will be a blanket, phone case, and tote bag based on the puzzle game. All items are expected to ship around the first week of June 2023, with items like the phone cases shipping out on June 2-3, 2023 and the blanket heading out on June 5-6, 2023.

Here’s a full list of all the items’ prices:

• Baseball Hat: $29.99
• Blanket: 74.99
• Coaster Set: $29.99
• Tote Bag: $29.99
• Mouse Pad: 9.99
• Phone Case: 32.99

And here's a full gallery showing what all of the pieces of merchandise look like:
[gallery size="full" ids="965596,965598,965597,965595,965602,965603,965599,965600,965601" link="file"]

The Minesweeper and Solitaire merchandise is now available to order in the Microsoft Xbox Gear Shop and is expected to ship in early June 2023. Both games are available on Windows PCs.

Earlier this week League of Legends players voted “overwhelmingly” to strike over plans to make rule changes that would cut the North American Challenger’s League—which only launched last year—from 16 teams to seven.

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In Genshin Impact, Kirara is a fairly useful four-star Dendro swordswoman who can serve as either a shielder or as a sub-DPS while on the field. Her best usage is via exploring Teyvat using her Skill, Meow-teor Kick. Teyvat is dangerous though, so a cheap way to keep your Kirara alive with low investment is to level her up. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to find Ascension materials for Kirara in Genshin Impact.

Ryu Ga Gotoku (RGG) Studio announced a new RGG Summit Summer event for June 15, 2023. This live stream will feature news and updates on the upcoming Like a Dragon/Yakuza games such as Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon 8. A countdown already appeared on the Sega South East Asia YouTube Channel.

You can see the official announcement of the RGG Summit Summer 2023 live stream event on the RGG Studio Twitter account below:
https://twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1662792394733961217?s=20

The last RGG Summit livestream was aired on September 2022. It featured many big game announcements, such as the franchise’s official name change for Western audiences from Yakuza to Like a Dragon, along with a teaser for the new Like a Dragon 8. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, a spin-off focusing on Kiryu’s story after Yakuza 6, was also announced during the event.

News on both projects, in terms of details such as gameplay or even release dates, is expected to be shared during the RGG Summer Summit. In addition, the description of the live stream on SEGA Asia's YouTube channel refers to it as a "New Release Presentation." So it is possible we'll see an announcement for a new game in the works, although the development team has not yet made any official statements.

Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series about highlighting some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also a series about you having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!

Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.

It's Diablo 4 week, which I'm excited about. I always find it strange when big games actually arrive - games I've been wanting to play for what feels like years. After all the excitement, here it is. Let's hope it lives up to the wait.

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It looks like Microsoft and PlayGround Games are getting ready to give us a fresh glimpse at Fable.

A new post on the console's official Twitter account showed an Xbox controller covered in glitter. Curious.

From the controller, a trail, still in glitter, leads along the floor, over the kitchen sink, up the stairs and across a desk all the way up to a monitor displaying the Xbox Games Showcase home screen. While this is all going on, nostalgic music tinkers along in the background.

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Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is not involved in the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, Delta.

Kojima and Konami had a public fallout before the developer launched his own studio, Kojima Productions, so this news doesn't come as a huge surprise.

Speaking to IGN, a Konami spokesperson confirmed Kojima Productions is not involved, but the developer of the remake is Virtuos who worked on Dark Souls Remastered and Uncharted 4.

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The world of pro wrestling slams into an SNES-era RPG with WrestleQuest, which now has a release date of August 8th. Inspired by the older Final Fantasies and Dragon Questies, you’ll be engaging in turn-based brawls and running around in magical pixel realms. But unlike those games, you’ll climb the wrestling ladder from fresh-faced rookie to world champ - instead of the usual RPG trope where you go from a village’s rat-killer to the universe’s god-killer. Watch WrestleQuest’s latest trailer below:

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In Honkai: Star Rail, Bronya is one of the standard five-star characters who you can get in either the permanent or the event banners. As of the current version, she is one of the best supports that you can get and easily fits into any team. Even without a lot of good Relics or Light Cones, Bronya can earn a slot in your Honkai: Star Rail party due to her useful Skill and powerful Ultimate.

For starters, let’s quickly explain how Bronya works and what Bronya needs. Bronya’s Skill removes a debuff from an ally and allows them to immediately take a turn. It also boosts their ATK by a fixed rate, which you can increase by leveling up her Trace. Her Ultimate increase the entire party’s ATK and Crit DMG by a percentage of Bronya’s own Crit DMG. Because Bronya’s Command Trace Bonus Ability passively sets her Crit Rate at 100%, you can hard invest into Bronya’s Crit DMG to take full advantage of her Ultimate.

[caption id="attachment_965664" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image via Siliconera[/caption]

While Bronya can work as a perfectly fine support unit if you just level her and her Traces up, you obviously will need some good Light Cones to make the most of her. Here are some Light Cones you can consider putting on your Bronya in Honkai: Star Rail:

Final Fantasy 16 combat director Ryota Suzuki is excited to see what players achieve with Clive's "open-ended" moveset.

Suzuki previously worked on Devil May Cry 5 and has been instrumental in Final Fantasy 16's real-time action combat.

Speaking to Game Informer, he said there's freedom in combat and teased some currently unknown abilities.

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A skilled Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has completed the game in under an hour, beating the previous record.

That is less time than I spent on the game's tutorial section.

This impressive feat was accomplished by Zdi6923, who has shared a number of Zelda related speedruns on their channel.

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In celebration of Pride Month, Blizzard has confirmed the sexuality of two heroes in Overwatch 2: Pharah and Baptiste.

Players have speculated on the sexual orientation of these characters for years, but in a new short story comic Baptiste is confirmed as bisexual and Pharah is a lesbian.

The comic has been written by Jen Stacey, senior narrative designer for the game. Baptiste and Pharah join Tracer, Soldier: 76, and Lifeweaver as LGBT+ characters in the game.

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A new item duplication glitch has been discovered in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Numerous glitches have been found in the game that allow players to duplicate any item, though these were patched out in the latest update.

Now, since the update, a new glitch has been discovered in version 1.1.2, though it's a bit more long-winded.

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A handful of former CD Projekt Red (The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077) developers have created a new studio named Blank. to make a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, "with a twist or two." 

Cyberpunk 2077 game director and The Witcher 3 co-game director Mateusz Kanik has co-founded Blank. with Jędrzej Mróz and Marcin Jefimow, both former executive producers on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Together, this new studio aims to apply "their years of experience to a clean slate" and bring "beautifully crafted games and unique experiences to players, favoring novel territory rather than well-trodden ground." A press release from Blank. says the studio has no plans to make "clones, or predictable entries." 

Alongside the studio reveal, Blank. has released concept art for its unannounced project, which is the aforementioned game set in an apocalypse, which you can see below: 

2021's Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City blended together the stories of the first Resident Evil game and its sequel, Resident Evil 2 (which received a fantastic remake in 2019), and while it wasn't a complete knockout hit, some have been asking for a sequel. It seems one might be on the way. 

According to a new report on Sudbury.com, a news organization that covers the Greater Sudbury area in Canada, which is where Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was filmed, Sudbury is receiving an $11 million injection from the provincial government, as reported by PCGamesN. This government is funding 20 local projects through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and while a sequel to Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City hasn't officially been named as one of those 20 projects, there is one called "Umbrella Chronicles," and it's receiving $2 million. 

As part of the MegaHobby Plus 2023 Early Summer announcements, MegaHouse revealed a new Persona 4 Golden Izanagi figure. This will be a new take on Yu Narukami’s signature Persona. It will be part of the Game Characters Collection DX line. However, only an unpainted prototype appeared, and there’s no release date for it yet.

Here’s a closer look at the unpainted prototype. It will be 200mm tall, which is almost eight inches.

【#megahobbyplus announcement🔊】

Introducing new item release info for…

Game Characters Collection DX series Persona 4 The GOLDEN Izanagi

It's under development!
Follow us for updates!https://t.co/e0jpwecYJM#p4ga pic.twitter.com/uGI98CkUae

— MegaHouse-Official (@Megahousejp) May 31, 2023

This is version 2 of the character. The original Izanagi joined the Game Characters Collection DX lineup back in January 2012. However, it also eventually got a rerelease two years later in 2014.

YOASOBI’s “Idol,” which serves as the opening for Oshi no Ko, is the first song in Oricon history to have over 20 million weekly YouTube views for six weeks in a row. In slightly simpler terms, this means that people watched the video over 20 million times every week for six weeks. It and the English version also topped multiple other Oricon rankings. [Thanks, Oricon!]

For the fourth time since its release, “Idol” topped the Weekly Digital Singles Chart and Weekly Streaming Chart. It is also in first place for the Weekly Singles Chart. This is the first time in May that “Idol” has achieved this. In previous weeks, it dropped from #1 to hover at #2 and #3. The English version of “Idol” came out earlier this week but it’s already the eighth most downloaded song with 6080 downloads.

As one may expect, there are a couple of divergent endings in Pocket Mirror: GoldenerTraum. In total, there are seven endings in it, as well as several Dead Ends that result in an instant Game Over. To fully understand the story and lore of the game, you will need to go through the game multiple times. This guide will help you to see all of the endings in Pocket Mirror: GoldenerTraum and uncover the secret of the die Heilige family. As a warning, this guide will contain spoilers.

No matter what, you will have to replay the game twice. There’s one ending that you can only unlock if you don’t get any of the girls’ Regalias. But most of the other endings require you to have at least one. To make things easier, you can create multiple save files. You should make your first separate save as soon as you get to Fleta's Dollhouse so you can skip Egliette's section. Then, make another separate file when you reach Sub Rosa in Lisette’s world. Sub Rosa is where it splits between the Platinum and Dawn/Goody Two Shoes endings. After seeing Dawn or Goody Two Shoes, make a new save file when the game prompts you to so that you can load up from Hades to get the other ending.

Here are the different endings in Pocket Mirror: Goldenertraum and how to get them:

Update: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People has been removed from sale on Steam. Meaning it's now Strong Bad's Cool Game For People Who Bought It Before June 1st.

Original Story: Telltale can “no longer sell” the 2008 episodic comedy Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, the developer announced in yesterday’s blog post. The studio have apparently lost the rights to the game and the series may or may not be pulled from storefronts soon, based on the slightly unclear wording of their notice.

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The highlight of Sony's 2023 PlayStation showcase was a 12-minute trailer for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - but despite impressive gameplay, reactions to its graphics have been mixed. On the surface, we seem to be getting a similar look to prior Spider-Man titles without obvious new graphical techniques - but if we analyse the trailer's gameplay segments more closely, we can get a better sense of where the game's visuals are from a technical perspective.

Right away, the most obvious visual improvement comes down to the building rendering. The Spider-Man titles on PS4 were bound by the console's hard drive and CPU, so to stream in New York City at a rapid enough clip for web-slinging traversal at up to 32 metres per second, certain concessions had to be made. Buildings were made with relatively simple, tiled textures with repeated detail. This was also true in Miles Morales and the two games' PS5 editions seem to use the same basic geometry and texture layouts as the PS4 versions.

In the Spider-Man 2 trailer, much of the action takes place in new regions of New York (unseen in the prior games) but there is some footage ripe for comparison - which reveals more varied texture work with grime and a smoother brick pattern up close, alongside different-looking windows and added vents, while other buildings in the distance are totally overhauled, with rounded-off edges, and broad, wide-set windows.

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Lucy Liu will star in a new puzzle adventure VR game, The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend.

The game will explore the real life of Cheng Shih, the most successful pirate in history who commanded a fleet of 70,000 across the South China Sea in the 19th century.

Liu, best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill, will voice Shih.

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Licensed video games are funny things. Sometimes a licence elevates a game, making it more than it would have been otherwise. I adore Respawn's Jedi games, for instance, but I doubt I'd feel the same way if they weren't set in a beloved galaxy far, far away. On other occasions, it can be overly restrictive, holding developers back as they try to work within and around the constraints of an existing setting. I rather enjoyed what I played of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Bearded Ladies' stealthy tactics 'em up based on a venerable TTRPG, so I was more than happy to take a look at the sort of follow-up Miasma Chronicles and see what it could do with a new world. Sadly it seems that the Mutant Year Zero licence was doing a lot of heavy lifting, as Miasma Chronicles doesn't have a fraction of that game's charm, while featuring some very questionable characters.

In an interview with Ascii, FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida revealed that production on a PC port will start after the PS5 version launches. There is no concrete window for when to expect it, but he stated that development will be slow and steady. [Thanks, Ascii!]

Rumors appeared in early 2023 about a PC release of FFXVI. This was due to a 2020 trailer showing that the game would come out on PC, and then a 2022 trailer talking about the 6-month PS5 exclusivity period. We took these two pieces of information to mean that the PC version of the game would come out after six months. In January 2023, Yoshida specified that the team is only focusing on the PS5 and warned against expecting the game on other platforms. Though he did not give a specific time frame for when development will start, it looks like PC players can expect to explore Valisthea some time in the distant future based on the interview.

Here is exactly what Yoshida said in the Ascii interview:

In regards to the development of the PC port, we plan to slowly work on it after release [of FFXVI for the PS5].

Weekly Shonen Sunday published the results of its Heroine Grand Prix poll. In total, 275,027 people cast in their votes. This poll included characters from series that have ended, such as Magi, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Flame of Recca. Three out of the Top 10 characters originate from Detective Conan. [Thanks, Weekly Shougakukan Edition and Denfaminico Gamer!]

The poll results for the Top 10 are as follows:

1. Ran Mouri (Detective Conan)
2. Ai Haibara (Detective Conan)
3. Kagome Higurashi (Inuyasha)
4. Ayumi Yoshida (Detective Conan)
5. Nazuna Nanakusa (Call of the Night)
6. Kanon Nakagawa (The World God Only Knows)
7. Miku (Aishiteru Game wo Owarasetai)
8. Suya Rhys (Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle)
9. Lum (Urusei Yatsura)
10. Aoi Nogami (Psychic Squad)

Two Hayate the Combat Butler characters were in the Top 30, with Nagi in 23rd place and Hinagiku in 19th. Sakura Mamiya, who is the female lead of RIN-NE was in 16th. Rumiko Takahashi, who wrote Inuyasha and Urusei Yatsura, was also the mangaka for RIN-NE. Morgiana from Magi is in 25th place and Yanagi Sakoshita of Flame of Recca is 26th.