August 2023

Premium Bandai announced the return of the Kirby inhale cushion plush. It costs 9,676 JPY (or about $67,) and it is expected to come out in Japan in January 2024. Pre-orders are now available from the Premium Bandai online store. This particular Kirby plush was originally released back in May 2019.

Its formal name translates to “Inhale, Kirby!” This Kirby cushion depicts the adorable pink round hero with his mouth open, while using his signature absorb ability. You can use his tongue as a cushion to rest your head. The size of the plush is roughly 8 inches tall and 9 inches wide (or about 21 cm tall and 23 cm wide).

You can take a better look at the Kirby inhale cushion plush on the gallery below.

[gallery columns="5" size="medium" ids="976266,976267,976268,976269,976270" link="file"]

Kirby’s round and soft complexion has proven to be perfect for multiple lines of plushies and toys. Some of which include a line of recent Kirby’s Dream Buffet plushies, and Kirby and Waddle Dee plushies that include a USB warmer cable.

Level 99 Games is going to kick off a Kickstarter to crowdfund Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game on August 22, 2023. It will seek $150,000 by September 14, 2023 to fund the project. If funded, the estimated release window is July 2024. There is also a free demo deck people can get from the company while supplies last. These demo decks are also being handed out at Evo 2023.

Players will choose their fighters and place them on the board. They will then need to use the cards in their deck to power up and attack each other. This will lower the health of the fighters on the field, with the last one standing winning the match. The $99 standard edition tier, which will cost $130 when it comes to stores, includes 20 characters and a total of 695 cards. It also includes two silver coins and a neoprene, double-stitched playmat. The $179 collector’s edition tier adds 20 acrylic character standees, four gold coins, and a second playmat. If someone goes up to $499, they also get BlazBlue: The Board Game and Under Night In-Birth: The Board Game, which are both compatible with Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game.

Here's how the prototype looks:
[gallery columns="4" size="full" ids="976157,976158,976159,976160" link="file"]

As for the free demo, people get one metal coin and a two-player deck that includes two characters. People can test out matches with Ky Kiske and Sol Badguy to see how the fighting system works.

A new announcement for Persona 5 Tactica confirmed that Kasumi and Akechi will appear in the game as Day One DLC characters. Aside from showing them, the announcement video touched on some of other new details such as what the Velvet Room will look like. It also showed off how Fox, Queen, Noir, and Oracle will look like in the Persona 5 Tactica style.

The Nyahoo News announcement is over thirteen minutes long and it's on Atlus’s Youtube channel. You can watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3kQ9SGBmCw

Kasumi and Akechi will appear in the “Repaint Your Heart” Persona 5 Tactica DLC episode, with Akechi appearing in his Prince outfit. The DLC story follows a mysterious artist, Guernica, who creates artwork around town in a single night. Some of the graffiti even features Arsene, whose appearance should be unknown unless you’re a Persona user.

Kasumi asks for Joker’s help to uncover what’s going on, and they meet up with Akechi, who also happened to be investigating it. It’s unclear how many spoilers from Royal will be in Repaint Your Heart. This pertains to events and revelations that happen in Maruki Palace. As you can expect, Akechi’s Persona is still Robin Hood. Meanwhile, Kasumi will use Cendrillon.

As for other characters from the previous games, Lavenza will be the attendant of the Velvet Room. The steampunk aesthetic of the Velvet Room appears in the Fusion method, as well as in Lavenza’s wear. She has what looks like a leather apron over her usual dress. As well, Fusing Personas will look like melting two gears together.

We will see a new Pokemon Presents showcase that will go over new game announcements and details appear next week. The presentation will air at 6am PT/9am ET/3pm CET on August 8, 2023. No exact details about what we'll see came up in the tease. However, we do know this will be a lengthy presentation that lasts 35 minutes.

Here's the official reveal. The presentation will air on YouTube. There's no preview page live for it yet.

The next #PokemonPresents arrives soon, Trainers!

Tune in to our official YouTube channel at 6:00 a.m. PDT on August 8 for 35 minutes of Pokémon news and updates! https://t.co/Lxoud6kVxF pic.twitter.com/xe65FmqEn5

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 4, 2023

Genshin Impact Version 4.0 will not only advance the story and introduce some new playable characters, but there will also be events for you to get to know Fontaine better. Lynette will also be a free character for those who are over Adventurer Rank 25. When you get her from the events page, you’ll also get enough Ascension Materials to immediately raise her over Ascension 1.

https://twitter.com/GenshinImpact/status/1687443654397304832

The first event is Mega Meka Melee, which will give players a free Bennett after meeting the Invitation Criteria. He will have a role to play in the story since he is the inspiration of the Fontainian toys. You have to help a workshop collect enough materials that they can make toys based on Champion Duelists. Mini-games during this event include an underwater parkour challenge, a combat challenge, and a rhythm game.

The next 4.0 Genshin Impact event is Relic Records: Creations of the Hydro Nation. Awards for this one include new Ascension Books, Primogems, and the like. It focuses on defeating specific enemies or finding Fontaine local specialties. It’s to familiarize players with what you can fight and obtain in the new region.

During the Fontaine Special Program, HoYoVerse revealed the release date for the Genshin Impact 4.0 update. The new update will appear on August 16, 2023. The 4.0 update adds new characters, the new Fontaine region, underwater exploration and combat, and new quality of life features. The release was accompanied by a trailer showcasing the upcoming new content.

The region of Fontaine will appear in version 4.0 of Genshin Impact, and it includes new underwater exploration and combat mechanics. Additionally, the story of the new region will involve a prophecy and a trial.

You can take a better look at the new trailer for the Genshin Impact 4.0 version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hJ5J5QiyIY

Additionally, HoYoVerse recently revealed a few new quality of life features that the new update will bring to Genshin Impact. These include a multi-layered map that allows players to view underground and above ground areas, as well as an increase to the inventory limit.

Baldur’s Gate III is taking over Steam right now, but one small save bug is stopping some players in their tracks and forcing them to lose valuable progress in their journeys.

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It feels like this week’s passed quickly…perhaps owing to the wild news? Just for starters, a certain former president got indicted a third time, pop star Lizzo broke a million hearts, and that supposed room-temperature superconductor is still keeping us nerds in suspense.

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Somerville is bringing its mysterious alien invasion to PlayStation consoles on August 31. The game comes from Jumpship, a studio formed by former Playdead (Limbo, Inside) CEO Dino Patti.

It centers on a small family rocked by a sudden alien invasion of Earth, who must now survive by running and hiding. The game’s eerie atmosphere and lack of dialogue lend to the game’s enigmatic nature, and multiple endings offer various truths about the threat you face.

Somerville launched for Xbox and PC last November to generally warm reviews, though was noted for its rough technical performance, which has since been improved in post-launch updates. In a press release, Jumpship promises the PlayStation port will be the “best version of Somerville yet” and will feature DualSense haptic feedback.

For more on Somerville, you can read Game Informer's Somerville review and editor Kyle Hilliard's opinion piece on why it's the best alien invasion game since Half-Life 2. 

Immortals of Aveum is an upcoming action game that mixes a fantasy world and its magic with first-person shooting. We've played a chunk of it and enjoyed it – read our full hands-on preview thoughts here – but now, we've heard a track from the game's score. And you can too because we can exclusively reveal that track today. 

It's big, robust, and heroic, fitting if the full game is anything like what we've gone hands-on with. After listening to this track, we interviewed the game's audio director Aubrey Hodges, composer Jamie K, and media composer Tom Hawk about the game's score, how the team created a soundtrack that blends hip-hop with orchestral arrangements, and so much more. 

The Cerebral Puzzle Showcase is back again on Steam, offering heavy discounts for over 200 puzzlers and over 40 demos for upcoming headscratchers. That’s quite a lot of puzzle games, so let’s stretch those dusty noggins with some good old recommendations.

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I'm not usually one for character creators. I don't like squinting at brow density or sliding the juiciness of my lips down a scale, twisting and turning my character as if it really and truly matters when I drown them in chainmail anyway. But getting my fella right for Baldur's Gate 3 was of utmost importance, as they'd be my 100+ hour vessel for awful, awful decisions. And I've started off strong, having created an awful little guy.

Let me introduce you to Edders Sheeran, the bard. On the surface he seems like a cheerful sprite, ready to pat his little drum and have everyone do a nice little dance. Truthfully, he is a psychopath who suppresses the urge to kill, thanks to a malevolent background choice that most would leave for a second playthrough, so as he plays Shape Of You, he also imagines the Shape Of You Dead.

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The Phantom Thieves are taking their stylish fits and supernatural powers onto a turn-based grid with Persona 5 Tactica. Set sometime during the events of Persona 5 Royal, the strategy game’s latest trailer shows our chibi heroes leading a revolution against vaguely French demons and a newly unveiled big bad. Akechi and Kisume stans might notice they aren’t in the shenanigans below, but that's because both characters have been sadly paywalled behind day-one DLC. For now, check out the new trailer.

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Welcome to the second ever RPS 100: Reader's Edition. Over the last week, you'll have seen our own RPS 100 list counting down our favourite games of all time (and if you haven't, do go and have a look at Part One and Part Two when you've got a spare moment), as well as some additional features about the games that made it into our collective top ten. But now it's time for your list, as voted for by you, the RPS readership. There have been some interesting movers and shakers this year, and some rather intriguing new entries, so read on below to find out what your 100 favourite PC games of all time are for 2023.

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Following in the footsteps of its older sibling, a remaster for seminal shooter sequel Quake 2 will reportedly get an official announcement at next week’s QuakeCon 2023, which is an in-person event for the first time since the pandemic era. Earlier in the year, Quake 2’s remaster accidentally poked its head out in a ratings board leak, but let’s all pretend to be surprised when Bethesda announces it next week, okay?

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Do you have the power to raise and control the undead? This is the question RuneScape 3’s new Necromancy skill asks its players.

Necromancy is the 29th skill to be released into RuneScape 3, and arrives three years after the last, Archaeology. It’s not just a skill though - Necromancy is the first new combat style to ever be released in RuneScape after 22 years, and more akin to a new class in other MMOs. Sitting outside of the established combat triangle of melee, range and magic, Necromancy is neither stronger or weaker than the game’s other combat skills. Instead, it was designed to offer players an alternative form of combat they can learn and experiment with.

Ahead of its release on Monday 7th August, I was given a preview and hands-on time with Necromancy, and able to reach Level 20.

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An update to Gran Turismo 7 will add in the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 '18 car as seen in the forthcoming Gran Turismo film.

Update 1.36 will go live on 7th August (8am UK time) and includes the car as part of a free gift campaign until 28th September.

A new livery will also be added that recreates the GT-R as seen in the film.

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The third Nyahoo News video that Atlus released for Persona 5 Tactica gives some details about Yoshiki Kingdom. This is another region in the new Metaverse that the Phantom Thieves must deal with. Unlike the more Western Marie Kingdom, Yoshiki Kingdom has a heavy Japanese aesthetic.

Yoshiki, the ruler of Yoshiki Kingdom, is obsessed with love. However, he also keeps a close eye on everyone and forces anyone who breaks the rules to go to labor camps. He calls this "working for love." Like with Marie Kingdom, the Yoshiki Kingdom story in Persona 5 Tactica is very similar to a lot of previous dungeons in past games. Despite his terrible crimes, Yoshiki physically resembles a Buddha statue, and he has several samurai-like Shadows that he uses to control his people. Yuki is a local who helps the Phantom Thieves to try and free her country from his dictatorship.

[gallery columns="2" ids="976294,976293" link="file"]

During the investigation, the Phantom Thieves will dress up in disguise. We can see them looking like samurai and geisha. This is part of their plan to infiltrate Yoshiki Kingdom’s Aizen Legion. However, when they’re inside, Yoshiki appears before them. He seems to have past with Toshiro, since that’s exactly who he’s looking for. You can watch the cutscene here:

https://youtu.be/g3kQ9SGBmCw?t=141

We can now pre-order FFXIV Fan Festival London 2023 merchandise ahead of the event. The Japanese and US storefronts both are already selling things that will appear later this year. This isn't the first time Square Enix did this. For example, pre-orders opened for the Las Vegas event's items ahead of that event appearing in July 2023. All of the latest items are expected to ship in October 2023 in North America, while the Japanese store offered an October 21, 2023 release date for everything.

Here’s the full list of the special FFXIV merchandise for the London 2023 Fan Festival:

Ahead of the Honkai: Star Rail Kafka banner, HoYoVerse kicked off a "Catch Kafka" event and fan art contest. Both involve opportunities to see more of and promote the upcoming character. Each one is also live now.

With Catch Kafka, it’s essentially a brief choose your own adventure at an official website. You’ll follow the Trailblazer, Stelle to be specific, and attempt to catch up to the new character. So right away, it will mention containers are blocking Stelle’s way. If you destroy them, you can’t move forward. However, choosing to operate the control panel will let you proceed. If you make it through, you’ll see an image with Kafka and reminder that her banner begins in-game on August 9, 2023. People who share results via Twitter before August 11, 2023 can have a chance of winning merchandise based on the character. People who share also will get a “message” from her on August 9, 2023.

A new key visual and trailer for the Mononoke movie is out, along with information on the new voice actor for Medicine Seller. Hiroshi Kamiya will take over the role in place of Takahiro Sakurai. The new trailer shows more information on what the movie will be about.

In the trailer, Medicine Seller describes what “mononoke” are, in which a human’s negative feelings fuses with the power of ayakashi. The women of Ooku are calling mononoke to it, and Medicine Seller has come to get rid of them. In the trailer, you can see a lot of the show’s characteristic and colorful style.

You can watch the trailer via the official Twin Engine YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-SryQQmRs&t=2s

While Takahiro Sakurai voiced the protagonist, Medicine Seller, in the original Mononoke show, Twin Engine removed him from the role. This is due to Sakurai’s previous infidelity controversies. As the Mononoke movie takes place in Ooku and focuses on both the suffering and salvation of women, Sakurai’s troubles with them did not fit in with the message that the studio wanted to convey.

Coming off the heels of The Witcher’s final season with Henry Cavill, an executive producer of the fantasy series came forward to address some fans’ accusations that the show’s writers don’t respect the books.

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The Witch From Mercury, the latest entry in the long-running Gundam franchise, not only features the series’ first lead female protagonist, but also proudly centers a queer romance. In Gundam’s 40+ year history, there has been plenty of gay subtext, queer secondary and tertiary characters, and fan shipping, but never…

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Baldur’s Gate III has a whole suite of useful Twitch integration features, and players are already enthusiastically taking notice after its August 3 release. Larian Studios’ eagerly anticipated entry in the BioWare-created Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game series seems to have thought of mostly everything a…

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A new Destiny 2 cheat maker is ruining its competitive multiplayer, and Bungie is banking on its string of recent legal victories to crush it. The Sony-owned studio filed a lawsuit against the group behind the Ring-1 software as it claims the days of players “feeling free to engage in a wholesale assault” on the …

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Look, I could justify this month's Reality Bytes in any number of ways. I could say the VR launch cupboard is a little bare at the moment, with Steam's New Releases list offering up a lot of dour military shooters, dubious Early Access projects, and fantasy dismemberment porn. I could say that The Room VR: A Dark Matter has just received a PSVR2 release, so now seems an opportune moment to revisit this acclaimed spin-off puzzler. I could say that The Room VR is the only entry in the series RPS hasn't covered yet. But to be perfectly honest, I just fancied playing The Room VR. So there.

Oh all right, there was a slightly more specific reason why I wanted to revisit a game that came out just three days after Half-Life: Alyx. Upon its launch, there wasn't much else like The Room on VR devices, a dedicated puzzler with high production values that didn't feel the need to throw in a gun to shoot or a melon to chop. Now, there are bunch of fantastic VR brain-ticklers swimming in the pond, such as the time-travelling epic Wanderer, the perspective-bending A Fisherman's Tale series, and the ingenious automation extravaganza The Last Clockwinder.

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It's been a while since I picked a game that irritated me quite so much. I quit playing Frank And Drake twice before even meeting its second protagonist, but something about it kept pulling me back.

It's partly the style. Some gorgeous rotoscoping gives its few characters a sense of constant motion that's unreal and very lifelike at once, and it's sometimes pushed further by having them decelerate to a blurred freeze frame when you stop walking. The backgrounds are static but interactable things shimmer a bit, like in old cartoons where you could always tell what was background and what was going to do something. More than that, though, it had me intrigued.

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To war, for free this time. Age Of Empires 3: Definitive Edition rolled into battle three years ago to spruce up the real-time strategy classic for modern PCs. Series stewards World’s Edge have now announced a free trial version that allows newbies to jump into the game for as long as they wish, as long as they can handle some restricted content.

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I'm not afraid to admit this, but it's become increasingly obvious over the last few days of playing Baldur's Gate 3 that my ability to create interesting custom characters is severely lacking compared to other members of the RPS Treehouse. Case in point, our Ed breezily announced yesterday in our team Slack that he was playing as a Dark Urge bard called, wait for it, Edders Sheeran like it was no big deal whatsoever. I'm not gonna lie, a tiny part of me died inside upon hearing this, simply because of its sheer (not a pun), unadultered brilliance. I mean, come on, it's so good it should actually be illegal.

But it also confirmed to me a deep dark truth about myself that I think I knew deep down, but had kinda been pushing under my equally drab mental carpet for years and years. I'm quite boring at the end of the day, and am the type of person who, no matter the game, always creates basically the same identical person every single time.

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Bandai's Tamashii Nations announced that a NieR: Automata 2B SH Figuarts figure is on the way, and 9S will eventually follow her. Pre-orders already opened for her in Japan ahead of her January 2024 launch. She will eventually appear worldwide as well, though the announcement tweets didn't offer a release window.

The Japanese announcement offered a few more details. The figure will cost 8,000円/$56. She is based on her NieR: Automata Ver1.1a anime appearance. There will be multiple face options. The first photos seem to show one with her “blindfold” and three without. The three without have a neutral expression with open eyes, closed eyes and a small smile, and open eyes with a shouting expression. She’ll also come with a Virtuous Contract sword she can wield and Pod 042.

Here's a gallery showing off the 2B SH Figuarts NieR: Automata figure.
[gallery columns="7" size="full" ids="976419,976421,976420,976424,976422,976425,976423" link="file"]

9S only appeared in one preliminary photo. It showed him posed alongside 2B. There's no release window for him yet.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="976418" link="file"]

At Evo 2023, Arc System Works and French-Bread announced Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes. The next entry will continue the series’ story on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC via Steam. 21 characters are confirmed, and it will offer rollback netcode. It is set to debut in 2024.

Things pick up after the original game, with Hyde heading off to face Kuon the Aeon after Linne disappears. This means he’ll head into the Night, as will other familiar faces from the original game and updates.

Here’s the first trailer.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m55Ju_OmSvU[/embed]

The first batch of screenshots also appeared and confirmed the following 21 returning fighters:

• Akatsuki
• Byakuya
• Carmine
• Chaos
• Eltnum
• Enkidu
• Gordeau
• Hilda
• Hyde
• Linne
• Londrekia
• Merkava
• Mika
• Nanase
• Orie
• Phonon
• Seth
• Vatista
• Wagner
• Waldstein
• Yuzuriha

And here's the first set of screenshots for the game:
[gallery columns="7" size="full" ids="976164,976165,976166,976167,976168,976169,976170,976171,976172,976173,976174,976175,976176,976177" link="file"]

A pop-up store selling merchandise featuring artwork by Junji Ito will appear at the variety goods section of LOFT Umeda in Osaka, Japan from August 25, 2023. The store is set to recreate the chaotic atmosphere of Junji Ito's worlds. Horror-themed decorations based on his works will appear throughout.

The store will display three new works and nine full-color reproductions Junji Ito created specially for this event. Original goods sold at the store will not only feature the newly-drawn works, but also a selection of artwork from Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, an anime that debuted on Netflix in January earlier this year. Over 20 new items are scheduled to be sold at the LOFT Umeda Junji Ito pop-up store, including t-shirts, tote bags, towels, stickers, and keychains.

Have a look at some of the available Junji Ito merchandise in this gallery:

[gallery ids="976345,976346,976347,976348,976349,976350,976351,976352,976353,976354" link="file"]

With any purchase over 3,300 yen ($23), one can badge featuring Junji Ito's artwork will be given away at random. There are three variants, and they glow in the dark.

See all three variants in the gallery below:

[gallery ids="976357,976356,976355" link="file"]

Acclaimed martial arts adventure Sifu is nearing the end of its journey; developer Sloclap has announced the game will be getting its last-ever content update on 7th September.

Sifu has, of course, been around for a while at this point, having launched for PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store back in February last year. It made the jump to Xbox and Steam this March, bringing its acclaimed third-person, single-player action - which Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called an "elegant martial arts meditation on temporality and self-possession" in his Recommended review last year - to a whole new audience.

Throughout that time developer Sloclap has steadily expanded and improved on the original experience - which charts a young Kung Fu student's vaguely magical quest for revenge following the murder of his family - releasing a wealth of free content updates, most recently in the form of its Arenas expansion, which added around 10-hours of fresh gameplay nine new locations and "45 merciless challenges spread over five game modes".

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