November 2023

Capcom is collaborating with Shachihata to produce stampers based on Resident Evil: Death Island. The product is open for pre-order until December 20, 2023.

There will be five variations. You can get stampers based on the image colors for Leon, Chris, Jill, Rebecca, or Claire. Each stamper will come in a special box that has the logo of the movie on the inside of the cover. There are two variations for each stamper, and you can get one with the character’s name on the side of the metallic body. There is also a version with the movie title instead of the character name.

These custom stampers are made-to-order, so you can actually use them for your signature if you want to. While stampers are more of a novelty item for those outside of Japan, they’re an essential part of life there. It essentially acts as your signature, and losing it will open you up to the threat of identity theft. While some companies and locations in Japan no longer need the customer’s seal, it’s still necessary if you want to open a bank account or buy a house.

It’s the 30th anniversary of the Magic Knight Rayearth debut in Nakayoshi, and a new Twitter account for the series appeared. According to its introduction tweet, it will focus on promoting the newest information about Rayearth.

Because of the 30th anniversary, it’s possible that we will start to see more projects and merchandise based on Magic Knight Rayearth soon. So far, the only posts from the account are the ones announcing it. It also retweeted a post from The Chara, which advertises its limited CLAMP shop. The shop will close on November 20, 2023. It features goods from multiple CLAMP works, including Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura, and Chobits.

Nintendo has uploaded a new trailer detailing the final wave of DLC courses that will appear in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It’ll come out on November 9, 2023.

You can watch the trailer here:

Nintendo split the eight new tracks between two cups, the Acorn Cup and the Spiny Cup. Here are the tracks that will be in each:

Acorn Cup

• Daisy Circuit (Mario Kart Wii)
• DK Mountain (Mario Kart: Double Dash)
• Rome Avanti (Mario Kart Tour)
• Piranha Plant Cove

Spiny Cup

According to a report on Reddit and NGA, a small minority of netizens might spark controversy in China over how Ruan Mei appears in Honkai: Star Rail. The screenshot on NGA showed that the offending user wants to report the character for her exposed belly button and sheer black windows, suggesting they can negatively affect adolescents in China due to the sexually provocative design.

Previously, HoYoVerse had to change the designs of several of its Genshin Impact characters due to them being too sexual. Mona, Jean, and Rosaria’s new designs are the default in the Chinese version of the game. Meanwhile, players outside of China only got the new designs as an alternate skin.

It’s unclear if there really is an actual controversy about Ruan Mei in China. Since the original post on NGA only had a screenshot from a single person, who seemed to have made the post to teach other people how to report HoYoVerse, it might not pick up any traction. NGA also has a history of users posting instigating troll content for the sole purpose of farming engagement. So it's still rather uncertain if anyone seriously takes offense to Ruan Mei's design.

Hokkaido Game is now available on Windows PCs via Steam. This is a parody game of Suika Game in which your end goal is to create the prefecture of Hokkaido. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

It costs 230 JPY (around $1.55) to purchase it. You can watch the trailer here:

As you can see, it heavily draws inspiration from Suika Game. It features a very similar UI. However, instead of dropping fruits, you drop various Japanese prefectures, with the ultimate goal of creating Hokkaido. Some of the prefectures in this game include Chiba, Saga, and Shiga. There are no restrictions when it comes to streaming it or creating gameplay videos.

The game only has Japanese audio. However, it has English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese text support. Since the game came out on October 31, 2023, it has accumulated a 100% positive rating out of 27 user reviews so far.

The powers that be at Larian are continuing to issue fixes for Baldur's Gate 3.

Today sees the arrival of Patch 4, which - as with previous patches - is so chunky, it has exceeded Steam's text limit.

With this update in play, those making their way through the game's many acts can expect to see many improvements across the board, but some particular highlights include the ability to now customise hirelings' appearance when recruiting them and the addition of a colour blind mode.

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Elden Ring was by far and away one of the most prolific games of last year. It won itself scores of praise and accolades following its release in February 2022, including topping Eurogamer's own Game of the Year list.

This success has left many travellers to the Lands Between eager for more. Thankfully, current word is that Elden Ring's previously announced DLC expansion is "proceeding smoothly", despite developer FromSoftware not yet announcing any kind of time frame for its arrival on platforms.

This information comes from FromSoftware's parent Kadokawa, via gaming consultant Dr. Serkan Toto. Sharing this update on X (formerly known as Twitter), Toto also added that Armored Core 6 has "sold 700k units in Japan" as of 30th September. However, while it appears Kadokawa is pleased with the game's Japanese sales, it is not so happy about its sales elsewhere.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 early access unlocks very soon - but footage from the game's campaign is already online.

A hefty chunk of gameplay is viewable already via YouTube, showing off the intro cutscene and outro epilogue of a mission, along with plenty of actual gameplay.

If you don't mind spoilers, you can watch for yourselves below.

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Sega executive Osamu Ohasi has expressed his desire for Sonic "to surpass Mario".

Ohasi is currently division manager for the 2nd Business Department, in charge of both the Sonic series and rebooting past IPs to create a "second Sonic". He was interviewed internally by Sega Japan for recruitment purposes (translated by NoisyPixel).

When asked how he plans for Sonic to grow in future, Ohasi replied: "Simply put, I want to surpass Mario."

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Back in August, a Pokémon Presents revealed that the first part of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's DLC, collectively known as The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, would hit the game in September. That has since come and gone, with players eagerly awaiting the second part of this expansion. And now, the official Pokémon Twitter account has revealed The Indigo Disk DLC goes live next month. 

More specifically, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk hits Pokémon Scarlet and Violet on December 14. As those keeping up with Game Freak's ninth generation of Pokémon know, The Indigo Disk brings players to Blueberry Academy, which is actually in the Unova region, rather than the Paldea region where Pokémon Scarlet and Violet take place. The Unova region is the setting for Pokémon Black and White, and their sequels, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. 

Game Informer can exclusively reveal Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Hidden Codex, a new graphic novel from Dark Horse Books that brings players back into the world of assassin Eivor, a medieval Nordic land, a new hidden order, and more. It will be released as a hardcover graphic novel on April 30, 2024, in retail stores and online, for $19.99 (and it hits comic book stores on May 1, 2024). Mathieu Gabella is the author, with art from Paolo Traisci. 

The Hidden Codex follows Edward, a scribe and reluctant monk after he escapes from a kidnapping performed by a clan of Vikings. After securing his freedom, Edward finds his brother missing and strange documents "blackened by a language he innately understands." 

"No one knows where these occult-looking symbols came from, but Edward has seen such writings before: in the workshop of an enigmatic wise man among the Vikings who is part of a secret order: Those Unseen," a press release reads. "An order that could offer answers to Edward, and guarantee his aspirations of freedom and knowledge. But with that knowledge, can he find and rescue his own brother before it's too late?"

Remedy Entertainment released Alan Wake 2 last month, and it's resonated with both fans and critics alike as a longtime sequel and a new game from the creators of Control – you can read Game Informer's Alan Wake 2 review here. The studio has released two updates so far, but today's Alan Wake 2 update is easily the biggest yet and includes bug fixes, visual issue remedies, and more. 

Update 1.000.008 on PS5, 1.0.0.8 on Xbox Series X/S, and 1.0.8 on PC brings over 200 individual improvements and fixes to the game, including improved audio for live-action sequences, graphical issue fixes, Performance mode improvements, improved lighting, and various mission-specific fixes, like one that fixes a bug where Saga could get stuck in the environment in one of her first chapters. 

Here are the full Alan Wake 2 Update 1.0.8 release notes: 

Greg Street, a former lead systems designer on Blizzard's World of Warcraft and executive producer on Riot Games' League of Legends MMO still in development, and NetEase Games have announced a new studio called Fantastic Pixel Castle. This studio is developing a new AAA MMO codenamed Ghost, set in a new fantasy universe. Street is joined by a founding team with decades of MMO and related genre experience ranging from World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Guild Wars 2, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Valorant, according to a press release. 

The studio is hiring and says it embraces a "remote-first structure." It is currently fully remote. Alongside today's news, Fantastic Pixel Castle has released three pieces of Ghost concept art and you can check each out by swiping through the gallery below: 

As Kotaku’s resident Soulsbud, I was stoked to check out the action-Soulslike RPG Lords of the Fallen when it debuted back in mid-October, so I booted it up and immediately navigated to the settings menu. This is always my first stop when starting any game, to ensure I can actually play the thing.

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After almost three decades, Super Mario RPG is finally getting the spotlight it deserves with an HD remake on the Nintendo Switch. After a handful of hours with the RPG, I got to relive the adventure again.

I was just nine years old the first time I played Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on the SNES in 1996. At the time, I considered myself a veteran of the side-scroller series. So, imagine my shock when I realized the Nintendo plumber was in an actual RPG with turn-based combat. While the novelty of a role-playing Mario game isn't as surprising today, with the countless Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi spin-offs, Super Mario RPG was mind-blowing for many players when it was released over a decade ago.

Nintendo announced the worldwide Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Indigo Disk DLC release date. It will appear on December 14, 2023.

To go along with the announcement, Nintendo also once again shared key art for the add-on. This second piece of DLC takes place at the new Blueberry Academy. We first learned about this school in the first update The Teal Mask, as that involved a trip between the players’ school and that school to the island of Kitakami. While there, we met Carmine and Kieran, two students from that school, and their teacher Briar. The image also highlighted how this school focuses on battling and showed the Elite Four members Amarys, Crispin, Drayton, and Lacey. 

A few of the Pokemon in this add-on also have been teased ahead of its launch. For example, we know we’ll be able to catch every starter in this new school’s location. There will also be a number of old Pokemon coming back. The new Terapagos turtle-like Pokemon will show up. There will also be new Paradox Pokemon. There will also be two new Paradox Pokemon based on Cobalion (Iron Crown) and Raikou (Raging Bolt).

Nintendo and Marvelous announced that there will be free updates for Fashion Dreamer, which came out in Japan on November 1, 2023. There will be new outfits every month, and the first wave of the free updates will come out in December 2023.

More information on the updates will appear via the official website. You can also follow its social media channels. The webpage already showed some of the outfits coming in the updates. You’ll be able to obtain clothing and accessories that look like butterfly wings. There will also be new glasses, hats, accessories, and dresses that give a character a slightly vintage look. The second update will come out in January 2024, which will include new ways to play the game and an event. The aforementioned butterfly wing items might come out in the second wave of free updates, since they seem to be part of the Fantasy Fair event.

The second part of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's DLC now has a release date: 14th December.

Called The Indigo Disk, it's the second part of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion, with the first part The Teal Mask released in September.

The Indigo Disk will take trainers to the oceanic Blueberry Academy as an exchange student and will feature the new Legendary Pokémon Terapagos, as well as a new Duraladon evolution called Archaludon.

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The CEO of Silent Hill: Ascension developer Genvid has defended the game's transactions, and said they were there to allow people to "skip time" in gaining in-game currency rather than being a way to "game the system".

CEO Jacob Navok's comments come after the game's second night of new content, and amid backlash to its monetisation scheme.

Navok posted last night on X, formerly Twitter, to respond to a wave of complaints about the game and attempt to explain Ascension's economy, which consists of in-game currency earned by playing mini-puzzles and completing live-service style tasks, whilst also providing context on the removal of global live chat.

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After a surge of investment between 2020 and 2022, money funnelled into the video game industry from private equity sources has now dropped dramatically, back to and even below previous pre-Covid levels.

Data published by Konvoy as part of its Q3 2023 Gaming Industry Report show a sharp decline in investments following the second quarter of last year.

As noted by EA Dice senior game designer Jan David Hassel, who shared these graphs on social media, investment in gaming surged to $14.78bn in 2021, and to 14.49bn in 2022. In 2023, this has now slumped to $2.09bn - around "a seventh of the investment of each of the previous two years".

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Fortnite Chapter 4: Season 4 has been one of the best seasons for Epic Games' battle royale in a while, bringing vampires, heists, and more to the game. But it ends this week, with Epic bringing players back to the Chapter 1 map for the next season of Chapter 4. Thanks to a new trailer released today, we know this throwback season is called Season OG, is a part of Chapter 4, and will be bringing with it a heavy dose of nostalgia. 

That's showcased best in today's trailer, which highlights the throwback drop spot of Tilted Towers while Juice WRLD's "Lucid Dreams" plays. Tilted Towers looks as good as we remember it, and you can check it out in the Fortnite Chapter 4: Season OG – Return to Tilted Towers gameplay trailer for yourself below: 

Fortnite Chapter 4: Season OG, this chapter's fifth chapter, goes live tomorrow on November 3. 

Platform: Switch
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release: November 17, 2023
Rating: Everyone

Omni-Man, the J.K. Simmons-voiced character from the Invincible animated series, is coming to Mortal Kombat 1 next week on November 9. Ahead of his debut, NetherRealm Studios has released the official Omni-Man gameplay trailer and alongside hard-hitting (and gory) super moves, it features a brutal and show-accurate fatality for the character. 

The trailer teases Liu Kang for allowing a Viltrumite into the Realms of Mortal Kombat before more than two minutes of Omni-Man action plays out. And closing out the trailer is the fatality for the upcoming Kombat Pack character. We won't spoil it here, so check it out in the Mortal Kombat 1 Omni-Man gameplay trailer below: 

Omni-Man hits Mortal Kombat 1 as part of the first Kombat Pack on November 9. 

For more about the game, read Game Informer's Mortal Kombat 1 review and then check out Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon on Hot Ones. 

Are you excited for Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat 1? Let us know in the comments below!

A new Call of Duty campaign is nearly here. The full game, featuring campaign and multiplayer, launches on November 10 (see on Amazon), but you can start playing the new single-player campaign today if you’ve preordered.

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Larian has dropped another colossal patch for its hugely successful Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Baldur’s Gate 3, and it brings over 1000 individual fixes and tweaks to the game just as we head into its three-month anniversary.

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Ahead of the release of the first Persona strategy game, Atlus shared a Persona 5 Tactica developer diary. In it, Producer Atsushi Nomura spent three minutes talking about how it came to be.

Nomura first discussed his past with the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off series. He noted he worked on the Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden remasters, as well as Persona 5 Royal. After that, he noted the goal with the Persona strategy game was to focus on showing off how they work together. He noted how the idea was to show how joint attacks and different skills would work together. He also pointed out how they show how All-Out Attacks and One More features fit into the gameplay. 

From there, Nomura talked more about the setup for Persona 5 Tactica. He noted how the Phantom Thieves find themselves in a new world that isn’t like the Palace or Jail from the original game or Strikers. He then said they work with newcomer Erina to face the “unjust ruler” and “revolt.” 

Here’s the full developer diary with Atsushi Nomura’s thoughts about the game. 

We now have an idea as to how some of the minigames you'll be able to play in Spy x Anya: Operation Memories work. Bandai Namco has also announced the contents of the digital deluxe edition that, along with the base game, is now available to pre-order in Japan. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

While the base game costs 7,480 JPY ($49.70), the digital deluxe edition will cost 9,350 JPY ($62.15). The digital deluxe edition of the game will come with an expansion pass for two upcoming DLCs. You’ll also be able to get a Bond-themed outfit for Anya, as well as a version of her wearing a hat of Commander Chimera. More information on the DLC will come out in the future.

We also have more information about what kinds of mini-games you’ll be able to play. In total, there will be 15 mini-games in Spy x Anya: Operation Memories. However, we only know about four of them.

• Go With Bond: Play as a dream version of Bond and collect as many stars as you can while avoiding obstacles.

Sanrio unveiled its design for the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty and hinted at coming merchandise. The theme is “The Future In Our Eyes,” which focuses on Hello Kitty being excited about the prospect of all the friends she’ll meet in the future.

The 50th anniversary design for Hello Kitty features a golden tint in her eyes that look like a sparkle. Even the smaller goods for her retain the unique eye design. Currently there are eighteen items available in the online Sanrio shop that use the anniversary design. You can get items like picture frames, key holders, and a purses.

Here is a full list of new Hello Kitty merchandise, as well as the prices in JPY:

Japanese curry brand 100 Hours Curry will collaborate with Atlus to create a special Persona 5 Tactica curry blend based on the in-game Leblanc curry. The 100 Hours Leblanc curry will appear in stores around Japan from November 17, 2023. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

The 100 Hours Leblanc Curry from Persona 5 Tactica will be available in stores until January 15, 2024. If you order the curry directly from 100 Hours, you can get exclusive Persona 5 Tactica merchandise as part of a set. The first set will cost 7344 JPY ($48.85), and it’ll come with a T-shirt, two boxes of the beef curry flavor, two boxes of butter chicken, and two boxes of the original flavor. There’s another set for 5184 JPY ($34.50) that’ll come with a tote bag instead of a T-shirt, and a 3564 JPY ($23.70) set that’ll come with a keyholder.

The Sims 4 team has lifted the lid on its upcoming expansion pack, known as For Rent. As you may have surmised given its title, this pack will allow players to give property ownership a whirl, and become a landlord.

"Revel in the hustle and bustle of Tomarang, discover unique items at the Night Market, and come home to a new Residential Rental lot where your neighbours are closer than ever," the pack's official description reads. EA and Maxis describe this new location as a "scenic world nestled in a lush tropical landscape and vibrant city skyline". It does look rather nice, I have to say.

Meanwhile, as you will be - in the Sims team's words - closer than ever, this will mean bumping into neighbours left, right and centre. When you collect your post, they will be there. When you join in with a potluck meal event, they will be there. When you head out for a run, they will be there. In short, there will definitely be a lot more happening in your immediate vicinity when this pack goes live.

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Sega has had its best financial performance for a decade, reporting total net sales this year of ¥389.6bn.

The figures come as part of a complete report into Sega Sammy's 2023. Financial figures show from 2014 - 2023, with the past year having the highest figures of all for net sales, operating income, and ordinary income across the entire business.

Sega Sammy reports consolidated sales grew "significantly" by 21.4 percent, owing to growth in its Pachinko Business and Entertainment Contents Business (games and films).

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It's rare to notice a new Football Manager's tweaks as quickly as I did with FM24. It's March 2025, two-and-a-half seasons into my traditional Manchester United rescue job, and deep into a four-way title race between us, City, Chelsea, and Liverpool. First game of my freshly-imported save from FM23 - and so first game in FM24 - and it's City away. A potential early title decider at the Temple of Doom. In a charitably patient mood I have a quick tinker with my freshly reset set pieces - least I could do, given they've reworked the system, I tell myself graciously - but faced with several pages of UI within UI, executive dysfunction wins out and I give up for now to just get to the game. How much difference could it make in one match?

Four goals difference is how much, reader. City score three in 35 minutes followed by a fourth in the second half, every single one from a set piece (header from free kick, header from corner, penalty, header from another free kick) and despite a roughly similar xG of 2.93 to 2.34, I lose four-nil.

It's important to note that what happened next was done purely for the sake of science. I reloaded the save - scientifically - and then worked through every single set piece, meticulously, and then delivered a supreme 0-0 hammering, City scraping together an xG of 1.19 from six corners and twelve free kicks, to our 2.56 (missed penalty: Bruno Fernandes. I don't want to talk about it.) Which of those two branching timelines continued on as my main save will remain confidential, but put it this way: setting up set-pieces in FM24 takes just as long as it did in FM23, and I have no inclination to do it more than once.

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Bandai Namco has revealed a brand new character for Tekken 8. Meet "living legend" Victor Chevalier from France.

"Descended from a lineage of distinguished knights, with a dream to rescue those in need, he followed the footsteps of his father and enlisted in the French Navy before joining the UN following his will to save more people," Victor's official bio reads. "As he felt the world was on the brink of being taken over by a corporate giant, he founded and trained the Raven Force - armed forces that have the authority to act at their own discretion to counter the corporation's private armed forces."

You can see him in action, kitted up with a variety of optical weapons, a very sharp suit and insults such as "bon appétit", via the video below.

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Post Malone, the Grammy-nominated and heavily tattooed musician, is a big Apex Legends fan. Last year, the well-known Octane main streamed himself playing Respawn’s battle royale to raise money for charity. So, it’s not all that surprising that the battle royale tapped Posty to be the face of its first-ever major…

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Rampant gambler, content-stealer, and little stinker xQc—aka superstar Twitch and Kick streamer Félix Lengyel—is in trouble again. The content creator has been posting video “reactions” to war footage since the most recent inflammation of the Israel-Hamas war in early October. People online are disturbed, but Lengyel…

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Things have been bad at retail chain GameStop for a while now but somehow they’re about to get even worse. Employee benefits are on the chopping block heading into next year as the gaming retailer doubles-down on cost-cutting despite holding $1 billion in cash reserves thanks to its earlier meme stock explosion. The…

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Boku no Natsuyasumi 2, which translates to My Summer Vacation 2, is the sequel to the chill simulation game, Boku no Natsuyasumi. The game follows Boku on summer vacation with his family in the countryside, as he spends his time fishing, collecting stag beetles, and making new friends. The game was originally released…

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With the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III imminent, folks are noticing something unusual about the PlayStation 5 version: it doesn’t appear to have a platinum trophy. Oddly, the game is also treated as simply DLC for Modern Warfare II. Keep in mind that this is a full $70 video game. But currently, it’s…

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The latest Kadokawa financial report revealed that development for the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is progressing well. However, FromSoftware is not ready to share a release date yet.

The information appeared on the FAQ section of the Kadokawa financial report for the second quarter (Q2) of the fiscal year ending in March 2024. FromSoftware is owned primarily by Kadokawa, with minority stakes by Sixjoy Hong Kong (owned by Tencent) and Sony Interactive Entertainment. The question inquired on the development status and release date of the DLC, confirming that FromSoftware is currently working hard on it.

FromSoftware announced the development of the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree on a post shared on the game’s official social media account on February 28, 2023. The post only included a piece of concept art alongside the announcement.

Aside from working on more Elden Ring DLC, FromSoftware is currently looking for new developers and staff members for new games and projects. The company revealed the plans for a large-scale staff recruitment campaign in October 30, 2023.

The new Baldur’s Gate 3 patch 4 is now available, and the update adds color-blind accessibility options and changes regarding Scratch and other characters. No new gameplay content appears.

The biggest change is the accessibility issue. There are three possible color-blind options in Baldur's Gate 3 after the patch 4 update is applied. When applied, the colors will change for certain UI elements. Larian noted this will apply to characters’ map markers, outlines, and portraits. 

Here's the gif showing the differences with the protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia color-blind modes compared to the base Baldur's Gate 3 game.