Siliconera

LEGO Fortnite feels like one of the best surprises in gaming in a long time. Epic Games and LEGO came together to offer a survival experience that feels like an amalgamation of multiple titles into one monumental offering. It may not be perfect, but it lays the foundation for something special.

LEGO Fortnite feels like a mix of games like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons, and Animal Crossing. It takes the standard survival and building mechanics of Minecraft, tosses in farming and relationships from Story of Seasons, and has the idea of building houses and recruiting lovable villagers, like in Animal Crossing.

The Dynasty Warriors series' development team from Koei Tecmo's Omega Force published its 2024 New Year's Card. The team has been known for sharing a new card with a Chinese zodiac animal theme every New Year's Day. As 2024 is also the Year of the Dragon, it features characters closely related to the mythical creature.

Two of the most closely related characters are Zhao Yun, whose courtesy name "Zilong" includes the "Long" hanzi letter meaning "Dragon," and Zhuge Liang, who is also known as the "Sleeping Dragon." Omega Force also put Guan Yu and Ma Chao into the picture, since the team used the Dragon as a motif for both characters' outfits. All four characters in this card are affiliated with Liu Bei's kingdom of Shu.

Yamato Takeru, the Saber-class Servant from Fate/Samurai Remnant, appeared in the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order. Type-Moon revealed at the very end of its Fate Project New Year's Eve 2023 TV program that the character would join the mobile game on January 1, 2024. Players in the Japanese server have confirmed that a new gacha banner featuring the Servant appeared right at midnight in Japan's time zone.

This character debuted in Fate/Samurai Remnant, an action RPG available on the PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC. As the Servant of the game's protagonist, official outlets had to keep the true identity under wraps shortly after the game came out in late September 2023. Type-Moon formally removed the restriction after it published an interview on the game's official website on December 22, 2023.

Type-Moon has also uploaded a new TV commercial video on Fate/Grand Order's YouTube channel. The last five seconds of this fifteen-second-long trailer features Yamato Takeru. The video is also available to watch right below:

Koei Tecmo and Omega Force released a trailer for the upcoming first DLC pack for Fate/Samurai Remnant. The DLC will be called Record's Fragment: Keian Command Championship and is set to release sometime in February 2024.

The trailer features Gilgamesh, King of Heroes and textile wholesaler, announcing that he "seized control over [the] fates" of various masters and servants from the game. Details are sparse but he seems to be holding a kind of formal tournament variation on the Waxing Moon ritual. We will also have to wait and see whether this DLC story will be set concurrently with the main Fate/Samurai Remnant story or exist as separate, alternate timeline-type situation.

Gilgamesh is a recurring servant in the Fate franchise based on the historical Babyolonian king of the same name, appearing in the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel as a potential antagonist. In Fate/Samurai Remnant he appears as a rogue Ruler class servant running a shop in Edo called 'Babyloni-ya".

You can watch the trailer via Youtube below:

Type-Moon and ufotable published the second teaser trailer for the upcoming movie anime adaptation of Witch on the Holy Night. As previously promised, the studios aired the trailer right after the Fate Project New Year's Eve TV program had concluded in Japan.

When ufotable published the first trailer in December 2021, it only showed a simple scene of Aoko Aozaki and Alice Kuonji gazing through a starry night sky on a field of flowers. The new second trailer features more locations and action scenes. It concludes by showing Aoko unleashing a powerful magic attack.

However, ufotable has still yet to announce a release window for this movie. The large Japanese text at the end of this trailer simply informs that the movie anime's production is still in progress.

The new teaser trailer for the Witch on the Holy Night movie is also available to watch below, via Aniplex's YouTube channel:

On paper, 2024 is already gearing up to be one of the best years gaming has seen in a long time. From Persona 3 Reload to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, players have a wealth of potential future classics to choose from. We wanted to discuss what our most anticipated games of 2024 are.

2024 is already shaping up to be a year that will hurt my wallet. But out of all of the releases, I'm most looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I need to know more about what's going on with Zack and those seemingly alternate timelines, and I need to know immediately. Persona 3 Reload coming out just a few weeks prior will help with the wait, but it might also bloat my backlog if I'm not fast enough! -- Daniel

My answer is a little biased since I got to play a preview of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth back in September 2023, and I was floored by it. However, the sequel remake is, without a doubt, my most anticipated game of 2024. Rebirth is not only shaping up to be another excellent reimagining of Final Fantasy 7 but it's also looking to be one of the best open-world games released in years. However, I couldn't call myself a true Atlus fan if I didn't also mention Persona 3 Reload as the runner-up to my most anticipated release next year.

The first volume of the manga retelling of the light novel Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Age 15 is out now, courtesy of Yen Press, and it’s a fascinating exploration of Osamu Dazai and Chuuya Nakahara’s routes. Which means, fittingly enough, the best parts of this first volume are when we get to see these two Bungo Stray Dogs characters play off of each other.

Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Age 15 starts with both characters at their very beginnings. Despite their ages, both are established individuals and known for their power Chuuya is head of a gang called Sheep. Dazai is a member of Port Mafia on his first assignment to investigate rumors regarding a reappearance of the former, deceased leader of the organization by the new leader Ogai Mori. (Mori happens to also be the man who killed him.) 

My Poison Princess is Still Cute is one of the romantic comedy manga series I’m most excited about at the moment, because the premise of this Yen Press series is so delightfully simple and goofy. Each chapter is this self-contained slice building on the relationship of former enemies married as part of a political agreement, but it works because each one is such a genuinely nice and affable person who does like their spouse.

Humans and demons used to be at war, with the immortal Loren and princess Raffy being the secret weapons of both armies. As part of a peace agreement, a political arrangement was made between the two of them. It was thought to be advantageous for many reasons. Part of which being that Raffy occasionally lets off a hazardous poison mist, and Loren revives even if it kills him. 

Japanese strategy guide site GameWith held a poll for everyone’s favorite Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. With close to 152,700 people who put in their vote, Meowscarada shone in first place.

You can see the full results of the unofficial poll at the GameWith website. Since the site included pictures of the Pokemon, you can understand the results even if you don’t know the Japanese names. The full results list had 100 Pokemon on it. However, we'll only show the top 20, as well as how many people voted for each.

Here are the top 20 results from the Pokemon popularity poll of Scarlet and Violet on GameWith:

1. Meowscarada (2674)
2. Fuecoco (2148)
3. Chandelure (2022)
4. Sylveon (1991)
5. Tinkaton (1896)
6. Lucario (1874)
7. Mimikyu (1815)
8. Clodsire (1773)

Cyprus-based Owlcat Games forged itself a reputation for sprawling CRPG adventures with lengthy narrative branches to explore, but that have a tendency to strain under the weight of the interlocking systems. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader trades fantasy crusades for spacefaring ones, but still cleaves to the house style, for better or worse.

Though about as much has changed as stayed the same, to Owlcat's credit it feels more like a confident iteration on their preferred systems rather than simply running out of ideas. What remains is a solid scaffold to explore some of the less common themes and locales of the Warhammer setting, while what has changed feels very deliberate.

HoYoverse has launched a new web event for Honkai: Star Rail called Fables of the Stars, which features the upcoming character Black Swan reading New Year's fortunes. Players can earn Stellar Jades and larger prizes like iPhones and Swarovski jewelry until the event ends on January 5, 2024.

The event, playable in a web browser, will require players to have reached a Trailblaze level of 4 or higher on their connected account. Participating will allow you to receive a fortune from Black Swan in the form of cards featuring various characters from the game. Collecting enough of the 14 cards in the Fables of the Stars event will award Stellar Jades for use in Honkai: Star Rail itself.

Players can then share duplicate cards with other players to complete their collections, which will also enter them into the drawing for prizes based on the character shared. Sharing Black Swan's card, for example, gives you a chance to win some Swarovski accessories while sharing Dr. Ratio's could win you a bath toy.

You can find more details on the HoYolab post or through the announcement tweet below:

In recent years, RPG games in the style of Paper Mario have become a genre of its own. While I love the original Paper Mario RPGs, I find myself struggling to love most “Paperlike" games, with some notable exceptions. Born of Bread is one such exception, and while it doesn’t completely distinguish itself from its source of inspiration, it understands what made games like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door so enjoyable in the first place while trying to build on top of the original recipe.

Like the Paper Mario series, Born of Bread is light on story. The events of the game start when the Queen asks the royal baker to create an extravagant new bread dish to accompany her supper. The baker then accidentally creates a living flour golem that he names Loaf and adopts him as his own. At the same time, a group of archaeologists digging around mysterious ruins accidentally awake five mischievous demons that quickly head to the castle to restore their power. Loaf and the demons fight, starting off a journey across the land to stop them.

Netflix has shared a video detailing the making of process for Pokemon Concierge, the latest stop-motion animation set in the world of Pokemon that just released on the streaming service. The behind-the-scenes video details how Pokemon like Psyduck, Dragonite, and Pikachu were animated in the series.

The making of video covers the animation process behind the Netflix series, showing how the rigging was done for the puppeteering. Pokemon were given small details to make them more emotive and the protagonist Haru, was also given many different faces to allow her to express a variety of emotions.

Pokemon Concierge was first announced on February 27, 2023 during a Pokemon Presents as a collaboration between Netflix and The Pokemon Company, and focuses on a Pokemon resort on a tropical island. It is at this resort where Haru (JPN: Non, ENG: Karen Fukuhara) works as a concierge alongside her friends Alisa (JPN: Ai Fairoz, ENG: Imani Hakim) and Tyler (JPN: Rita Okuno, ENG: Josh Keaton) as they help humans and Pokemon guests alike enjoy their vacation.

The video of the making of Pokemon Concierge can be viewed below:

In an interview with Famitsu, Zenless Zone Zero producer Li Zhenyu talked about how he and his team crafted the world of New Eridu. He also states that the world of Zenless Zone Zero is completely separate from the pre-existing Honkai and Genshin universes.

Though Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, the story is anything but pessimistic. He wants to focus on human-oriented plots, as well as a sense of community and city life. He also wanted to share his childhood experiences of hanging out with his friends at the arcade, talking about movies at the video rental shop, and listening to music at the CD shop. That’s why he set the story in such an urban environment. These details were present in the closed beta as well. The Proxies run a video rental shop. Something you can do from time to time is recommending movies to customers.

HoYoVerse will be at Comiket, which will run from December 30 to 31, 2023. You’ll be able to find them selling Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail goods at Booth #2511. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

Aside from the above two games, you’ll also be able to get items based on Honkai Impact 3rd. Depending on how many items you purchase from each intellectual property, you might receive a gift. You can check out the official webpage it has for its line-up. In general, its items range from keychains to standees to mousepads.

Some more unique items are the Klee’s Jumpty Dumpty mug and a plush of Taroumaru. The mug in particular is something that you can get online from either HoYoVerse’s official shop or resellers. At 2000 JPY ($14.20), buying it directly from HoYoVerse at Comiket is a much cheaper option though. As for the Taroumaru plush, it’ll cost 3000 JPY ($21.30). If you purchase from the booth, you’ll be able to get a special bag that shows Paimon, Kiana, and March 7th. It’ll also have the “Tech Otakus Save the World” slogan. However, there's only a limited number of these bags.

In an interview with Famitsu, Zenless Zone Zero producer Li Zhenyu discussed how his team worked on coding the combat. He believes that he and his team have created one of the best battle systems in the current action game scene.

In our preview of the closed beta for Zenless Zone Zero, we commented on how similar the combat is to Honkai Impact 3rd's. The Famitsu interviewer asked Li how he and the team differentiated their games. He states that how heavy each hit feels, how smooth the action is, and how good it feels to play are what differs Zenless Zone Zero from Honkai Impact 3rd. The impact and sense of rhythm on-screen in battle give the player a "very exciting" experience.

Eight Bit has shared the character designs for Nagi and Reo as they’ll appear in Blue Lock: Episode Nagi. This movie will cover Team V’s time during the First Selection Arc. [Thanks, AnimeTV!]

The key visual for the two actually shows them from when they were on Hakuho High School’s soccer team. Nagi and Reo used to attend the same high school before Ego invited them to join the Blue Lock program. The school did not even have a soccer team until Reo founded it so that he could aim for his goal of winning the World Cup. Though the boys are much newer to the game than most other characters in the series, Hakuho High School never lost. It was only when they entered the Blue Lock program that the duo first experienced defeat.

You can watch the trailer for Blue Lock: Episode Nagi here:

Shueisha announced that the release date for their combined Weekly Shonen Jump 6/7 Issue will be delayed in certain regions in Japan. The combined issue is scheduled to be released on January 6, 2024, but will be released later in select regions due to distribution issues. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The following regions and prefectures will receive shipments of the Weekly Shonen Jump 6/7 Issue on January 8, 2023:

• Hokkaido
• Chugoku Region
  • Tottori Prefecture
  • Shimane Prefecture
  • Okayama Prefecture
  • Hiroshima Prefecture
  • Yamaguchi Prefecture

The official Pokemon YouTube account shared a brand new Pokemon short called The Adventures of Snorlax & Cubone. The new episode is a compilation of four shorts that were initially released on social media and focused on the growing friendship of Cubone and Snorlax.

The animation is part of a larger campaign called Project Snorlax, which focuses on merchandise, comics, animations, and other promotional materials highlighting Snorlax. Directed, storyboarded, and written by Yoshimitsu Saito (visual effects on Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy, Resident Evil Zero), The Adventures of Snorlax & Cubone shows the growing friendship of Cubone and Snorlax across the four seasons.

The beginning of the short shows Cubone crying alone under a full moon during the summer when suddenly a bunch of mushrooms begin to glow under the moon's light. Cubone is drawn into the forest, where more glowing spores float around, and the Pokemon stumbles across Snorlax, who is eating piles of glowing mushrooms. This interaction begins their unlikely friendship and shows how they start to care for each other.

The animated Pokemon short can be viewed below:

Square Enix is bringing back FFXIV Heavensturn's 2023 items just ahead of their annual New Year's event, which begins on December 31, 2023. Players can purchase the Heavensturn Domaru attire and Crane Banner from the Final Fantasy XIV Online Store.

The Heavensturn Attire pack comes with the Heavensturn Domaru, Heavensturn Kote, Heavensturn Haidate, and Heavensturn Sune-ate, costing $5 USD. Square Enix describes this pack as a stylish set of armor made to commemorate Heavensturn in-game and serve as gear fit for adventuring. The armor comes in red and gold but can be dyed into alternate colors.

Images of the pack when worn can be viewed below:

Movic will release two Psycho-Pass replica watches based on the Wristlink from the anime series as part of its 10th-anniversary celebration. The Psycho-Pass replica watches will be available for pre-order until January 31, 2024, and are set to release on May 3, 2024. [Thanks, PR Times!]

The two Psycho-Pass replica watches are designed off of the Wristlink found in the anime series, so the face of the watch is meant to give the impression that a hologram could appear. The wristband of the watches can stretch, allowing fans to wear the watch over the sleeve of their clothing or against their skin.

The Psycho-Pass replica watches come in two styles: the Supervisor version and the Executive Officer version. The Supervisor version of the Psycho-Pass replica watch features a sleek silver design with a matte texture. It comes with a single chronograph that measures seconds.

The Executive officer version of the Psycho-Pass replica watch features a glossy black design that gives off the vibes of a handcuff. It has a simple watch face with hour, minute, and second hands. Each watch will come packed inside a box with the logo of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Public Safety Bureau stamped in foil on the top.

Images of the watches can be viewed below:

After a week of PlayStation, Switch, Xbox and PC awards, we’re finally here: Siliconera’s Game of the Year 2023. Will a platform champ take the crown, or is there a shot for a surprise winner? There’s only one way to find out. Come on, scroll down a little bit and see.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2023 archive.

Honkai: Star Rail

Genshin Impact developer HoYoVerse tried its hand at a more traditional JRPG experience with Honkai: Star Rail, and the result exceeded our expectations. It may not have Genshin’s fun exploration or interconnected world, but it turns out that the team’s truly stellar writing and characterization can carry a game on its own.

Baldur’s Gate III

All five Vtuber group Hololive English Advent members will receive new outfits for the 2024 new year. Their new outfits will be themed after the New Year’s celebration and will debut on each member’s official YouTube channel.

The announcement revealing the decision for Hololive English Advent to receive New Year’s outfits was posted on the official Hololive English Twitter (X) account. A teaser video showcasing each new style's silhouettes was released, along with the dates and times for each reveal stream. Each stream is scheduled to go live on January 1, 2024.

See the official announcement and teaser video in the post below:

[embed]https://twitter.com/hololive_en/status/1740583446140027322[/embed]

Here is the complete schedule for Hololive English Advent’s New Year’s outfit streams:

• January 1, 2024, 5:00PM PST, 8:00PM EST: Shiori Novella.
• January 1, 2024, 5:30PM PST, 8:30PM EST: Koseki Bijou.
• January 1, 2024, 6:00PM PST, 9:00PM EST: Nerissa Ravencroft.
• January 1, 2024, 6:30PM PST, 9:30PM EST: Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssgard.
• January 1, 2024, 7:00PM PST, 10:00PM EST: Collaboration Stream.

The members of Hololive English Advent will receive their new New Year’s styles on January 1, 2024.

Ahead of the official launch of Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoVerse has shared some wallpapers of the various factions from the game. They are all only available in one resolution.

According to a post shared on Twitter (X), this is to alleviate players’ longing for New Eridu. Now that the Equalizing Test server shut down, not even the beta testers can get their hack ‘n’ slash fix. In total, there are five wallpapers to download, and you can check them out here:

The Final Fantasy series isn't a stranger to sequels, as Final Fantasy X, VII, and XIII each received numerous follow-up entries in their respective franchises. Here are the Final Fantasy games we would like to see get sequels.

Final Fantasy games that deserve sequels

While some of the Final Fantasy games in this list do officially have sequels, it'd be nice to see more entries in these individual series. You can check out our small but compact list of FF games we'd love to see sequels, or more entries for, below.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Yuffie will appear as a boss in Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis as part of the The Wily Hunter event. It’ll start on January 1, 2024, at 12:00 AM JST.

For reference, 12:00 AM JST in Japan would be 7:00 AM PT/10:00 AM ET. It would also be on December 31, 2023, rather than January 1, 2024. So Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis players overseas will, technically speaking, be able to access this content while it’s still 2023.

There is a short trailer for the Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis The Wily Hunter event, with Yuffie making a brief appearance. You can watch it here:

VShojo has announced that as of December 31, 2023, Amemiya Nazuna will no longer be part of the company. This looks to be a cordial departure, as both sides decided to end their contractual arrangement.

The company posted a statement on its Twitter (X) account. Aside from her last day and the fact that this was a mutual decision, the statement says that Nazuna will retain ownership of her intellectual properties and assets. In other words, she will be able to continue her VTuber activities under the Amemiya Nazuna persona. VShojo ends the statement by hoping that Nazuna’s fans continue to support her endeavors. The personality behind Nazuna is also a VTuber with Voice-Ore as Mikeneko, or Koito Ria.

Astlibra Revision a surprising indie action-RPG developed by a single person for over 15 years. It is also simultaneously the most and least fun I’ve had playing a game this year. I jumped into it not sure what to expect. After a powerful first half introducing a fun combat system and engaging plot that kept upping the tempo, the writing started to lose gas at a pretty alarming pace. While the game makes efforts to make up for it, it never fully recovered from the blow.

Astlibra Revision follows an unnamed protagonist fleeing from a horde of demons attacking his hometown. After running away, he finds himself trapped in one of the vast uninhabited Frontier lands of the world, with the raven Karon as his only companion. The protagonist then embarks in an eight year journey with Karon to find his hometown and his childhood friend Anulis. As part of their journey, the duo finds the Libra scales, an artifact said to be able to change the past, and finally reach civilization. This is simply the introduction to the world of Astlibra though, as the main duo is shortly after joined by a cast of interesting characters and the story expands into an odyssey that defies time and fate.

Selen Tatsuki will take a break from streaming for a while due to a medical situation. The Nijisanji English VTuber broke the news on her own X account after a brief period of silence since her previous post.

The social media post revealed that the person behind the VTuber had an accident, and she had to be brought to a hospital. She regained access to her phone the day before the announcement, but she will have to stay under supervision for a few more days to make sure that her injuries are healing.

Selen's announcement tweet is also available to view right below:

Most games these days appear on the PC, but to be a truly great PC game, it really has to take advantage of what the platform can do. That’s been a tougher task than ever in 2023, with the rise of handhelds like the Steam Deck challenging the expectations of how a PC game should look, control and perform. These three games, though, stood above the rest.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2023 archive.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

This remake of an RPG classic puts its own spin on the “HD-2D” idea, retaining the nostalgia of tri-Ace’s PS1 original but with a new sort of look. And if you know, you know, but The Second Story R is a great opportunity for the tons of players who missed the game the first two times to see what makes it so special. After the last, you know, decade or two that the franchise has had, it’s refreshing to see it revisit its more successful past.

Fate/Samurai Remnant

The recently published demo version of Tekken 8 includes optional Color Support accessibility settings to support players with visual impairments, such as color blindness. The game's director, Katsuhiro Harada, also joined the conversation on X by mentioning details behind the new implementation.

Harada revealed that he and his team had previously developed a test build of Tekken 7 with accessibility settings. However, the team never implemented the new settings to the public releases. They instead opted to polish the features further to be implemented well in Tekken 8.

Harada's tweet, which also quotes the user-uploaded footage of the accessibility mode in Tekken 8, is available to view below. The quoted post also contains a thread showing screenshots of various accessibility settings from the game:

Square Enix has announced that it will terminate its operation services for Engage Kill on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at noon JST. It has also immediately ceased in-app purchases that let players purchase the in-game premium currency Orgonium with real money.

The developers cited difficulty in providing services that could satisfy players as the primary reason for shutting down the mobile game. Engage Kill is part of Project Engage, a joint mixed-media project set up by Aniplex in 2022. The first part of the project features the anime and manga title Engage Kiss.

A-1 Pictures produced the anime version of Engage Kiss, and it completed a single-season run from July 2022 to September 2022 with 13 episodes. The manga serialization also launched on Square Enix's Manga UP! platform, and the company also published its first tankobon volume in February 2023.

Nintendo published the Japanese Nintendo Switch yearly download ranking for 2023, revealing that Suika Game was in first place. The viral game managed to overtake even Nintendo's blockbusters like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4 to get the top spot.

Nintendo combined the download numbers for each title from both individual and bundle purchases made from January 1, 2023, to December 20, 2023. However, it only considered titles with a CERO rating in Japan, so games with only an IARC rating were not included here.

Here is the complete top 30 list from the Japanese Nintendo Switch 2023 download ranking:

1. Suika Game
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
3. Pikmin 4
4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
5. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

The Nintendo Switch has an impressive array of exclusive titles, but its immense success also means it is home to countless ports of retro games and titles from other platforms. These five best Switch ports are must-plays for owners.

Best Switch Port for Action Fans: Nier: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition

When it comes to action games, the best Switch port players should check out is Nier: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition. You don’t need to play the original to enjoy this thrilling hack-and-slash RPG adventure about two androids on a quest to save humanity. This port works and looks so much better than it should. It offers excellent gameplay and a surprising story with numerous endings.

The Pokemon series experienced a decent, but modest, year in 2023 with Scarlet and Violet and their DLC, some events, Pokemon Sleep, Detective Pikachu Returns, and updates for existing titles. As we look ahead to the future, here are the Pokemon games from new titles to ports to remakes we hope to see this year in 2024.

Pokemon Games We Want in 2024: Gens 1-3

With the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Online libraries available, it is high time for the first three generations of Pokemon games to be available on Switch. The first two generations came out on 3DS, so it is time for their arrival on Switch alongside Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

In an interview with 4Gamer about video game developers' 2024 aspirations, Yosuke Saito and Mariko Sato of Square Enix have announced that they are working on new, unannounced games for the company. It’s likely that they are two separate projects. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

For reference, Saito is the producer of the NieR and Voice of Cards series. He also worked on Gems Company, along with Monaca, which is the music production studio that NieR and Drakengard composer Keiichi Okabe founded in 2004. Meanwhile, Sato produced Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion.

There is not a lot of information about the games, whether it’s announcement window, genre, or platform. Saito states that he’s going to work hard in 2024 and that he may or may not announce something new. In Sato’s message, she first thanks fans for the reception towards Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, as well as talks about Zack’s brief appearance in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer. She then also says that she’s working hard so that she can announce a new title, and wants fans to look forward to the day when she can reveal it.

In an interview with 4Gamer about his plans for 2024, Eiji Ishida of Atlus teased an unannounced game that is still in development. However, he did not mention if Atlus will be able to reveal it in 2024. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

The interview that 4Gamer conducted was with a large number of video game developers, asking them to look back on the year and give an idea of their aspirations for the next. In Ishida’s case, he stated that he is working on an unannounced title.

Though he does not know when they will be able to announce it, he and the director are working hard to complete it. So he hopes that people will look forward to when they can reveal it to the world. Ishida is the director for Soul Hackers 2, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. He also worked as a designer for the Kuzunoha Raidou series and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

In the Version 1.6 update of Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoVerse has adjusted the AI for Pela when you use auto-battle. While the information sheet on HoYoLab did not provide specific details, the adjustment seems to be that Pela will no longer use her Skill.

The auto-battle in Honkai: Star Rail will prioritize having characters use their Skill whenever possible. In Pela’s case, her Skill, Frostbite, deals Ice DMG and removes a buff from an enemy. However, prior to this update, she would use her Skill even if the enemy did not have a buff on them.

While Skills help a character regain their Ultimate faster—and in Pela’s case, her Ultimate is the meat of her utility—her using her Skill means that she is taking away Skill Points from characters who might need it more.

Version 1.6 is the latest update for Honkai: Star Rail, adding in new events such as Critter Pick and characters such as Ruan Mei. There is also a new Echo of War that you can challenge every week so long as you complete the Trailblaze Continuance “The Blue—When the Stars of Ingenuity Shine,” which drops materials that you need for new characters such as Xueyi.

Godiva will release chocolates based on popular Sanrio characters starting on January 11, 2024. You’ll be able to buy them in Sanrio stores (both online and offline) and in the Sanrio corners of department stores. [Thanks, Denfaminico!]

As per usual, Hello Kitty and My Melody are two of the stars. Cinnamoroll, who debuted as a Godiva mascot in 2023, will also be available. The new Sanrio mascot for this year will be Kuromi, making for a total of four variations of the Sanrio Godiva chocolates. Each gift set will come with a plush of the Sanrio mascot, as well as a box of chocolate bonbons.

You can check out more pictures of the Sanrio gift sets from Godiva here:

Several prominent game creators from Bandai Namco shared their plans and aspirations for 2024 in 4Gamer's end-of-year compilation. The producers for the Tales Of and Ace Combat series are particularly preparing for the 30th anniversary, both of which will fall in 2025. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

One of the biggest teasers by the company comes from Yusuke Tomizawa. The producer has been mostly preoccupied with the Tales Of series as he recently released the Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn expansion in November 2023.

While Tomizawa is preparing for the Tales Of series' 30th anniversary in 2025, he also revealed his involvement in several other titles. However, he did not specify whether these titles will be related to Tales Of or other franchises he previously worked on, such as God Eater.