The game is schedule to release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Steam in 2025. In the meantime demo sign ups are currently available and a separate side story set in the same world is available on Steam for free.

Follow the Developers here

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SNK have revealed a new character for the upcoming Fatal Fury game titled Fatal Fury City of The Wolves. Here we can see Marco Rodrigues in action.

MARCO RODRIGUES (Voice Actor: Earl Baylon) A Kyokugen karateka whose hefty, hot-blooded nature has earned him a reputation for being a beast in battle. With his dojo sign stolen by forces unknown, he has no choice but to hone his karate skills elsewhere in the interim—namely, at Yuri’s fitness club. Upon learning of a new KOF tournament on the horizon, Marco steels himself for what lies ahead: an opportunity to spread word about his beloved dojo, a chance to get its sign back, and (of course) a turbulent test of his Kyokugen Karate might.

Fatal Fury: City of The Wolves is scheduled to release in 2025. Platforms have not been revealed yet.

SOURCE

The post Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Marco Rodrigues Trailer appeared first on oprainfall.

I started playing JAST’s latest release, Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans, a few days ago and found it to be an interesting title. It’s pretty much what I expected given it’s a very simple title about a horde of goblins and taking over the world, but it had more mechanics than I expected and a few other surprises as well.

The story here is pretty much your run-of-the-mill isekai anime plot line. A guy is in a horrible accident and wakes up in a strange new world as a goblin. He is being led to a girl they have captured and is told to have sex with her. She instantly gets pregnant and gives birth, so the other goblins proclaim him their king. From here he explores the forest until he finds a witch named Emmy. She has a bit of a goblin fetish and is very happy to get some time in with their newly-found king. After their fun time he decides the only way home is to conquer this world and take on some magical power from the two warring factions. The Kingdom of Water is led by an elegant leader named Verina and her loyal knight Alyssa. The Fire Factor is lead by a crazy sadist named Rin and her loyal servant Yuka. These two have a big grudge with the water people because of battles that happened in the past. In order to defeat these lovely ladies, our hero will first have to gain some powers from the spirits of this land. This will help him counter their powerful magic, and there is only one way to gain their power, giving them your kingly rod!

While the story here is pretty much what you expect from a Nukige, there is some gameplay here to discuss. The game’s story unfolds in turns and on each of these you can choose an action. You can invade lands of the ladies, scout to see if you can find out more information about your enemies, breed with girls you’ve captured to bolster your army’s numbers, or explore the land in search of the spirits to gain their powers. The choice is yours, but you have to keep in mind you have a limited number of turns to break the ladies into submission in order to get the true ending.

The music and sound effects here are really nothing special but they get the job done. I think the voice acting is the standout in the sound department. These actors gave it their all when sexy times were happening and if you don’t want to share this glory with the world I would suggest a good pair of headphones.

The best part of this game in my opinion is the artwork. There are quite a few H-Scenes for each of the five heroines and one each for the five spirits, and everyone has great CG work. They are all nicely detailed and have some of the best quality I’ve seen in a more budget oriented title in a long time. As you may guess from the title, there are some extreme things in the H-Scenes and there is a lot of instant birth, but thankfully none of this is too graphic.

Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans is a pretty basic Nukige title with some gameplay elements thrown in here to spice things up. The artwork here is the real standout, but the localization deserves praise as well. They really gave these goblins and ladies a lot of character, so reading this was a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a simple but quality eroge title for $16.99, this one should fit the bill nicely. So long as some of the fetishes here aren’t something not in your wheelhouse.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post (18+) REVIEW: Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans appeared first on oprainfall.

Currently Airing:

Sasaki and Peeps

The series is the based off of a light novel that I honestly never heard of before. I read the description of it and decided it might be something worth trying. After watching the first two episodes (the first episode which is longer than a normal one) I think that the description doesn’t really do it justice. To be fair there is a lot going on in this one. It follows an almost 40 year old average office worker named Sasaki. On a whim he decides to get a pet and ends up taking home a bird he finds cute. From there things start getting crazy with his new pet being more than a normal bird. Being able to go into another world, Sasaki finds success trading things from home to this new world. He takes advantage and becomes quite the businessman there and learns some magic. While things are going smooth for Sasaki in his new life he ends up seeing an attack in our world by a killer and decides to intervene. From there Sasaki’s life takes another turn.

As a character I like Sasaki and identify with him at times. He would rather have a relaxed slow life and follow others, but things change quite a bit. The series has some good humorous moments in it so far. It’s something that I have to say is interesting which all the angles there are to it. This is will definitely be something I’m going to follow this season. – Walter

— You can watch Sasaki and Peeps on Crunchyroll.

Urusei Yatsura

Lum is back, hooray! Season 2 kicks off with a silly gimmick episode. Ten is playing with chewing gum that, when blown into a bubble, will recreate anything you think of. Ataru of course steals the gum for nefarious purposes – namely recreating the women in his life so he can ogle them. Lum, understandably, does not take kindly to this idea and hatches a plan to get back at him. It backfires in typical Urusei Yatsura fashion. I love these kinds of hijinks and they’re what make the show such a joy to watch, especially when paired with david productions’ stellar use of color and texture. The second half of the episode sees Lum suffering from temporary language loss after Ataru hits her in the head with a rice cooker. She can’t remember Japanese, and so can’t communicate with anyone. This upsets everyone at school except Ataru, who of course tries taking advantage of his interstellar girlfriend’s amnesia to try and hook up with other girls. Despite the circumstances of the episode and the heavy comedic bend, there were some genuinely tender moments here. One of my favorite things about Takahashi properties is the way she can so seamlessly blend comedy and romance, and that’s on display here. I’m really looking forward to what’s in store for the rest of this season. – Leah

You can watch Urusei Yatsura on HIDIVE.

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Anime & Manga: Jan 7 – 13 appeared first on oprainfall.

A lot has been happening lately. I’ve come down with a rather bad sinus infection, and so I’ve been trying to navigate and treat that while also carrying on my work life, my cooking, and everything else. I hate being sick, and I have had a lot of trouble handling the late-night coughing fits despite taking a cornucopia of medication.

All of that set aside, it hasn’t stopped me from watching Fan Festival 2024 in Tokyo! We got a look at a bunch of new content for the upcoming expansion, and everyone found out about the new Pictomancer job. I love how colorful the job looks to be, and I hope that it has a complexity to it that makes it easy to play but difficult to properly master. It is a bit weird moving on from the storyline that was started way back when in 1.0, but I am ready to experience the ‘vacation’ that we are being promised in Dawntrail. 

I’m honestly really excited for it, and I hope that it brings a lot of new players on board – especially with all the new Xbox Series X and S gamers hopefully coming on board.

Change and new things are ahead for us all, and I am ready to see what SQUARE ENIX has in store for us with all the Love, Eorzean Style that I can muster up. Especially once I am feeling better. If only ‘Cure’ and ‘Esuna’ spells worked in real life…

If you’ve missed an installment of Cooking Eorzea, you can check out all the prior recipes here.

Recipe of the Week

Pork Kakuni is the 44th recipe in the cookbook, and it has a difficulty rating of ‘Easy.’ Coming out of the Far Eastern archipelago of Hingashi, this is a dish that will take several hours to make. I’ve never worked with pork belly before as an ingredient, and so I am excited to see just how tender it is while it cooks in a pot with vegetables and then in a braising sauce.

Anyway, here is what the dish is supposed to look like when it is made by the hands of a professional!

Featured Ingredient of the Week

Pork belly is a fatty, boneless cut of pork that comes from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is a long cut of meat that has layers of fat surrounding the meat itself. I’ve never actually worked with pork belly before, and I’ve never bought it. This meat was surprisingly tough to cut through the fat of, and I needed to use a second knife to separate the last bits of fat away for each cube. This ingredient became my Featured Ingredient Of The Week after I worked with it and realized just how delicious and easy to prepare it was!

My Cooking Attempt

The ingredients list for Pork Kakuni surprisingly did not require me to add any spices or seasonings to the dish:

First, I removed the fresh ginger root’s skin by using a spoon to gently scrape it off. Once I finished scraping it, I measured it down to three inches, cut it, and then cut it in half again.

I then prepped and quartered the fennel bulb before preparing and slicing the scallions in half.

I then sliced the pork belly into large cubes.

I layered a large plate with paper towels and then heated a teaspoon of olive oil up in a pan.

Once the pan was hot, I added in the pork belly cubes and I let each of the sides brown. I kept having to rotate them in the pan to make sure each side had an opportunity to sizzle!

When the pork was done after about 10 minutes, I removed the pork belly from the pan, placed them onto the paper towel-covered plate, and then gently pressed each piece of pork belly to dry it.

I then added the pork belly, the quartered fennel, the halved ginger root, and the sliced scallions to a pot. I added just enough water to cover up all of the ingredients.

I brought the pot up to a boil, reduced it to a simmer, and then let it cook for two-and-a-half hours.

When the timer rang, I pulled the pork out and patted it dry. I then set the remaining soup aside to enjoy for a separate meal since there is no reason to waste a good soup. As for the pork belly, it was extremely tender and I had to be extra careful to not let it fall apart in my hands.

Setting the pork belly aside, I started to make the braising sauce. First, I got out a small saucepan and emptied the bottle of dashi stock into it.

I then added in sake and mirin to the dashi stock.

I then measured out the soy sauce and added it in too.

Finally, I added in the granulated sugar and compacted brown sugar to the braising sauce!

I then whisked it all together with a spatula until it was well-blended, heated up the braising sauce, and then added in the pork belly.

I brought the saucepot up to a boil, lowered the temperature, and then let the entire dish simmer for an hour. Every so often, I turned the pork over to make sure that every side was well-coated as the Pork Kakuni finished up!

And here is this week’s Cooking Eorzea dish! With the brand-new announcement of Pictomancer during the Keynote in Fan Festival 2024 in Tokyo, I felt like the inspiration of the job from FINAL FANTASY III (in actuality FINAL FANTASY VI, for reasons that are far too long to get into here) would be a fitting decorative piece for this week!

The Pork Kakuni was fantastic, and I ate most of it in one sitting. The pork belly was incredibly tender and kept falling apart on my fork, and I could absolutely taste the ginger root and fennel in the pork. The braising sauce was salty and savory, and it paired really, really well with the pork belly. This was an incredibly easy dish to make that was insanely delicious, and it looks far more fancy than it actually was to make!

Afterword

If I was to make the Pork Kakuni again, I absolutely would do it when I have plenty of time to do it. It is an amazing, but long-cooking dish, to make. I cannot stress about how easy it was to make and how delicious it was!

Now, ‘thank you’ time! First, as always, I want to thank Victoria Rosenthal for writing The Ultimate FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook. I also want to thank the staff over at Insight Editions for giving me permission to use the photos from their book to show how professional attempts looks like. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for Cooking Eorzea on short notice. You should check him and his works out over on X.

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in both iterations of the game. I watched the Keynote address, and I am honestly excited for Dawntrail. It looks to be an amazing expansion and I cannot wait to see what is next for the Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn! And more importantly (for me), I cannot wait for what new dishes I will be able to hopefully make for Cooking Eorzea.

In Two Weeks

I have company coming this weekend, and so there will not be a Cooking Eorzea dish for next week. It’s hard explaining to someone that we need to shop around for random ingredients at multiple grocery stores. Fun fact: I have yet to be able to buy all the ingredients for any dish at just one store so far, which is a bit crazy.

Anyway, when this column comes back, Rare Roast Beef will be on the menu! I looked at the recipe already, and it looks like it will be hearty and amazing. So please come back then to check out the next installment of Cooking Eorzea!

Have you made a dish with pork belly before?

What was your favorite announcement from Fan Festival 2024 in Tokyo?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Cooking Eorzea Week 43: Pork Kakuni appeared first on oprainfall.

With only a month and change left to go before FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH is released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on Leap Day 2024, SQUARE ENIX has managed to keep almost all of the game’s play and content tightly under wraps. With so many mysteries swirling around, I put together a list of five things that I want to see happen in FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH. 

WARNING: There will be heavy FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE and CRISIS CORE spoilers throughout the remainder of this article. You have been warned.

1) Tie CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- REUNION’s Ending and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Traces of Two Pasts Into FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH’s Plot

One of the biggest questions, for me at least, is that the ending of CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- REUNION mirrors that of its original PSP release: Zack dies at the end of the game while fighting against endless Shin-Ra enemies. In one of the most surprising moments of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE however, Zack actually survives that fateful encounter after defeating everyone thrown against him. These are two seemingly-canon continuities with two extremely different (and seemingly incompatible!) endings, and hopefully it is something that FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH will address during the game.

Furthermore, I also want the game to build upon the backstories of Aerith and Tifa that were told in the canon novel FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Traces of Two Pasts, when they open up about their respective pasts. If you read both stories, you see deep into both character’s backstories in a way that FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE doesn’t address. I would love for FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH to build upon those stories in at least some referential way so we can see how their backgrounds shape both themselves, and each other, as the story progresses.

2) Make The Minigames in Gold Saucer Fun

While FINAL FANTASY VII on the original PlayStation is a game that stands the test of time as a whole, not all of the elements of the game are quite as replayable in 2024. Case in point: the minigames in the Gold Saucer. While perhaps groundbreaking for a 32-bit console in 1997, the minigames, such as Super Dunk where you shoot basketballs, or the claw game Wonder Catcher, have clunky controls with a play-and-forget quality to them.

Unfortunately, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE’s minigames were somewhat hit or miss for me. While I loved darts and the dancing minigames and thought they were well done, I found that the squats and pull-up minigames were both tedious and frustrating to play, and I immediately swore off of them both once I got the rewards.

While FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH director Naoki Hamaguchi HAS said in a September 2023 interview with PlayStation.Blog that there will be new minigames and harder unlockable difficulty modes, it all doesn’t matter if the minigame gameplay doesn’t also improve to match the new content. After all, decent gameplay controls do matter when it comes to playing a video game since gamers hate to lose when poor game mechanics are at fault.

Fingers are crossed that this time around, all of the Gold Saucer games will be fun to play and they will make me want to go back to experience them again and again.

3) The Party Starts Using Red XIII’s Real Name After Cosmo Canyon

This is a fairly straight forward gameplay desire for me.

When Red XIII first joins your party in FINAL FANTASY VII on the original PlayStation, his default name is Red XIII. In Cosmo Canyon, Red XIII discovers his true identity and undergoes character growth, and it drove me crazy that the game would not automatically give me the option to rename him at that point. During my various replays of FINAL FANTASY VII, I would always rename Red XIII to Nanaki when he first joins my party as a poor attempt to fix that.

In an October 2023 interview with Screen Rant, FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed that all the quests in the game have both a Red XIII version and a Nanaki version to reflect the metamorphosis that Red XIII goes through after he visits Cosmo Canyon. However, there is no mention that the party will actually address Red XIII by his true name or not once they visit Cosmo Canyon and complete the story content there. Even the trailers shown so far only refer to him as Red XIII.

Hopefully, even though this will obviously require more audio lines to be recorded in the booth, Red XIII’s name switch will be something that will be hopefully done in FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH.

4) Queen’s Blood Should Be Fun And Not Mandatory To Play

One of my favorite parts of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE DLC, Episode INTERmission, was the Fort Condor minigame. Early on in the DLC, you get to play a tower defense tabletop game where the objective is to take down the opponent’s headquarters with the optimal use of unit pieces. It is a game that is fairly quick to learn, but becomes incredibly challenging as you start to fight tougher opponents. The key aspect is that while you have to play one tutorial match, the DLC does not force you to play the minigame again if you do not wish to.

At Tokyo Game Show 2023, we got our first glimpse of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH‘s card game, Queen’s Blood. While SQUARE ENIX hasn’t quite told us how to play the game yet, or how important it is to the overall storyline, we have seen how SQUARE ENIX has approached card games in the past with Tetra Master in both FINAL FANTASY IX on one side, and the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online version on the other side.

In FINAL FANTASY IX, Tetra Master is a card game that requires the player to not just learn hexadecimal in order to play, but also forces the player to play in a Tetra Master tournament in Treno. In a wonderful game with memorable characters and amazing music, the card tourney is an absolutely confusing and unfun slog that I guessed my way through to move the plot forward. Comparatively in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, Tetra Master is a simple “highest number” wins game that is easy to grasp and absolutely is not required for gameplay progression.

Here is hoping that SQUARE ENIX borrows from the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online and Episode INTERmission Fort Condor routes of gameplay and doesn’t make Queen’s Blood hard to understand, while making the player suffer through multiple required matches to proceed the storyline.

5) 23 Tiny Wishes and 89 Sent Letters

If you played CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII on the PlayStation Portable or CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- REUNION, then there are two quotes that sum up Aerith’s relationship with Zack:

“I have twenty-three tiny wishes. But, you probably won’t remember them all. So, I’ve put them all into one: I’d like to spend more time with you.”

“How are you? I wish I knew where you were. It’s already been four years now. This is the eighty-ninth letter that I’ve sent to you, but I don’t even know where to send them anymore. I really hope…that this final letter that I’m writing gets to you.”

Twenty-three tiny wishes and eighty-nine letters sent. In fact, it was that eighty-ninth letter that sent Zack to try to fight a doomed battle on his way back to Midgar to try to reunite with Aerith.

Zack’s ultimate survival in FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE was the first time that I full-on cried during a video game in years because I realized that him living means that he and Aerith can meet up again and see what, if anything, of their budding relationship is still there. While I love the reunion of Zack and Aerith in the Lifestream in FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children, and I think it is an absolutely fantastic film, selfishly, I desperately WANT them to have an opportunity to have that happy ending and relationship that was so cruelly denied to them in CRISIS CORE, in a way that doesn’t require them to meet again in death. It is a moment in gaming that hits harder than listening to Taylor Swift’s song “You’re Losing Me” when she sings about how she wouldn’t marry herself – a pathological people pleaser who only wanted him to see her- towards the end of the song.

It is the one thing that I honestly want more than anything else in FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, since it is what I’ve dreamed about since I first played through CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII in 2008, and I would gladly give up the rest of everything else I want in my list to make that single thing come true.

What are you hoping will be included in FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH?

Do you want to see Aerith and Zack reunite?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 Things I Want to See in FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH appeared first on oprainfall.

When I first saw Custom Mech Wars, I thought it looked like a lot of fun. It reminded me of Earth Defense Force with huge robots that you should be able to customize in any way you can imagine. I finally got a chance to sit down and play through the 40 mission campaign, and now I want to share my thoughts. Was this the fun and crazy mech game I’d been waiting for, or did it just fizzle out from the start? Let’s find out!

The story takes place in a time when an enormous comet is approaching Earth. While the comet will not collide with our planet, it will cause major changes to our environment through changes to our sun and gravity. There will be large seismic, volcanic, and electromagnetic events that will be catastrophic to our way of life. Many areas are evacuated, and AI-controlled robots are left to patrol these areas. You are part of the Four-Seven Security Service. This group provides some services in the abandoned areas, such as crime prevention, repair, and putting out the volcanic fires. You soon learn many of the G-Mechs working the area are controlled by an AI that has gone haywire, and it is your task to suppress these rogue units.

Graphically, Custom Mech Wars looks pretty good. The mechs have a lot of details, and there are tons of parts you can use to build these units any way you like. There are several heads, arms, legs, torsos and dozens of different weapons you can use to load out these beasts for combat. The enemy units do not differ from the ones you can build yourself, but the AI seems to have access to many parts you cannot use yourself at that time. The environments are nicely detailed as well, there are empty fields, abandoned cities, airfields, and more. The PC port doesn’t have 1440p resolution for some odd reason, but the game ran at 140 FPS on my 3060 at 1080p, so I’m guessing you could do 4K at around a solid 60 with the same card.

In the sound department, I’d have to call this one pretty basic. There are a few music tracks that play while you’re blasting your foes to pieces. These are not terrible, but nothing really stands out about them either. There are opening and ending theme songs that are nicely done, but the rest of this OST is pretty bland. The sound effects are decent and get the job done. Many different sounds, from the guns firing and G-Mechs being blasted to pieces, fit the game well and add to the overall experience. The game has voice acting that tells the story through communications during the missions. These actors do a decent job here, but this story is so basic, there isn’t much they could do to add any flavor to it.

Gameplay here is pretty much what you would expect from D3 Publisher making a game like EDF with mechs. You will take on dozens of mechs during each of the campaign missions, unlocking new parts to build better weapons and machines along the way. This all seems good in theory, since just like with other titles, you will gain better parts for completing the missions on higher difficulties. But here, it just seems like they never give you enough parts to build anything cool. I did all the story missions on normal, and there are many different mechs in various sizes, that I didn’t have nearly enough parts to complete. While I get you don’t want players to be overpowered, in a game where the selling point was, “look at all the cool mechs you can make,” having the parts available to the player to create things should’ve been priority one. They have improved things a bit through the patches that have been released since launch, but I still feel like this could be a lot better.

When you finally get some parts unlocked, building the mechs is a ton of fun. You can attach various parts to several points along each torso, arm, leg, and various other parts. These include more arms or legs, crazy accessories, or some good old fashioned firepower to blast your foes away. These include several auto guns, melee weapons, rocket launchers, lasers, shotguns, machine guns, and many more instruments of destruction. I had a lot of fun just seeing what sorta crazy creations I could come up with and painting them various colors. You can even edit their deployment animations for an extra touch.

Custom Mech Wars isn’t really a bad game, but it gets wrong the one thing that makes it really shine by not letting players have access to the parts fast enough. It’s really fun to create some crazy mech and just go out there and blast all your foes to bits during the missions, but when you have to use the same ones for most of the game because you don’t have enough parts to make what you really want, it gets a little frustrating. I’d have a hard time recommending this one at the full $49.99 price tag, but if you catch it on sale, there is some fun to be had here. It took me around 13 hours to beat all of the missions on normal mode, and you could put a ton more in if you wanted to grind out all the parts to make the really cool mechs. Hopefully, they continue to patch the game a bit more and allow players access to more fun stuff to build their crazy creations with sooner.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Custom Mech Wars appeared first on oprainfall.

The FINFAL FANTASY XIV FAN FESTIVAL 2024 in Tokyo kicked off today with a reveal of the full Dawntrail trailer, as well as a first look at the game’s newest race: Female Hrothgar. We also got an extensive look at character model upgrades using 7.0’s updated graphics system, a sneak peek at more areas of Tural, and the second Dawntrail job: Pictomancer. We also received confirmation that the Xbox Open Beta Test is expected to take place near the end of February.

During his keynote, FFXIV Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida reintroduced players to the land of Tural, where there appears to be a conflict involving succession to the throne. The Warrior of Light and the Scions will need to take sides in this conflict, and in the process travel across the lands of Tural, as well as a new area introduced at the Tokyo Fanfest: Solution Nine. Yoshi-P kept the details sparse, but this new area is a wide departure from the wide plains and watery jungles we’ve seen thus far, leaning pretty heavily into neon-soaked high rises and paved streets. We also got to see some more concept art of local tribes, including the Hanuhanu, which appear to be close cousins to the Vanu Vanu.

Pictomancer takes its queues from that same job originating in FINAL FANTASY VI, with job gear mirroring the character Relm from that game. The job will begin at level 80 in Gridania. Pictomancers wield brushes to bring their drawings to life, including monsters, weapons and landscapes. As with other spellcasters, the job will use a mix of instant and long cast abilities to both attack and buff the party. It’s not a “full support” job but not as attack focused as a Black Mage, according to Yoshi-P. (He also assured the audience that you don’t have to personally be good at art to play Pictomancer!)

The keynote touched on several other updates coming in 7.0, including the much-requested female Hrothgar, as well as updated graphics. Yoshi-P spent more than 30 minutes highlighting those updates, showing off the changes to racial models and how the new system provides higher detail and more clarity to racial features. He also discussed the upcoming raids, including the 24-man raid based off FINAL FANTASY XI, and the new eight-man raid, The Arcadion, which is an FFXIV original storyline. The upcoming Ultimate will be based on Eden. Yoshida-san was only able to show off some concept art, but for the Echoes of Vana’diel raid, we at least have confirmation the Shadow Lord will be in it (which just so happens to be one of the fights fellow oprainfall contributor and FFXIV player Quentin wrote about last year!) Along with the raids, Yoshi-P also confirmed new lifestyle content, including Cosmic Exploration, which will find Warriors of Light planet hopping, as well as the return of largescale field content similar to Eureka and Bozja.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Online: Dawntrail is currently slated for a Summer 2024 release, though Yoshida-san would not pinpoint an exact date to avoid a similar fate to Endwalker, when he had to delay that expansion’s release. FINAL FANTASY XIV FAN FESTIVAL in Tokyo will continue tomorrow. You can find the schedule here.

What was your favorite announcement of the Keynote?

What are you most excited to explore in Dawntrail?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post FFXIV Fanfest in Tokyo Showcases New Race, Job, Dawntrail Updates appeared first on oprainfall.

My favorite holiday is New Year’s Eve. It is the one time of the year when everyone is looking forward to the future together and wanting to make the following year the best one possible. It is about noisemakers and resolutions, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Auld Lang Syne, dancing and music, and spending time with people who matter.

These past 12 months have been an incredibly trying time in my life between my health issues and work and my sport activities. I’m definitely in a different place mentally than I was when I started the year out, and I have fallen a bit more in love with FINAL FANTASY XIV Online during that time period too.

For this coming year, I’ve also been trying to figure out what I want to do as a resolution – and I think it will be threefold. First, I will set a goal to lose 30-40 pounds this year as I focus on my health (boring, I know!). I’ve already been working on doing more cardio, moderating my diet, and making better life choices. I am still worried about my heart, and continuing to take proper care of myself – and even stepping it up – will go a long way towards that.

Second, I will continue to write Cooking Eorzea as much as possible. I love my (mostly!) weekly cooking column, and I want to keep writing it.

And as for my final resolution: I want to see Hikaru Utada’s SCIENCE FICTION tour in 2024. A lot of you may be saying “that name sounds familiar, but how do I know that person?” Hikaru Utada (pronouns: she/her, they/them) wrote and sang the title themes for multiple KINGDOM HEARTS games that started with Hikari/Simple and Clean in 2002 and most recently with Chikai/Don’t Think Twice for KINGDOM HEARTS III. She has been releasing music since 1999, and she has not toured since 2018.  I love her music, not just because of KINGDOM HEARTS, and I have not been abroad since I went to Rome in 2019. It will be a good chance to see a bit more of the world and to see an amazing artist perform live – if I can get tickets.

That means that I am setting reasonable, obtainable resolutions (taking care of myself and writing Cooking Eorzea) and a slightly unreasonable resolution (going to see Hikaru Utada perform) for 2024. All of these resolutions will be goals that I hope to achieve with Love, Eorzean Style.

If you’ve missed an installment of Cooking Eorzea, you can check out all the prior recipes here.

Recipe of the Week

The 43rd Cooking Eorzea recipe is a ‘Medium’ difficulty recipe from the Norvrandt region, and it is a two-day recipe to make! This proved to be a bit of a problem, because I had to find the same approximate time over two days to make the dish. I ended up having to get up around 5 AM to make the pizza dough one day and then at the same time the next to finish making the pizza. I had also never made pizza from scratch before, and so it was an interesting dish to make!

Anywhere, here is what the whole pizza pie is supposed to look like:

And here is what a pizza slice looks like in the hands of a professional chef!

Featured Ingredient of the Week

This week’s featured ingredient of the week is basil! It ordinarily would be something like San Morzano tomatoes, but I immediately was drawn to the basil plant because…well…it is the first plant that I am going to try to take care of since I had a fire in my apartment. Ordinarily, I use fresh basil leaves by themselves, but I didn’t have an option for this week. As this column goes to publish, I will have the basil plant sitting in indirect sunlight and I am already planning on potting it properly to hopefully grow out!

My Cooking Attempt

Pizza doesn’t come ready-made! Instead, I had to gather together all of the ingredients needed to make it, first:

The (very early) morning before I made the final dish, I put the bread flour, active dry yeast, sugar, salt, ginger powder, and onion powder together in a bowl.

I then added the water and the olive oil together in a bowl and whisked them together.

I then added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Once that was done, I placed the bowl into the stand mixer, and turned it on.

However, the pizza dough wouldn’t come together despite me waiting several minutes, and I realized that it was probably because I forgot to mix all the dry ingredients together before I started. So, I ended up having to throw the batch out and I started it all over again. This time, I blended the dry ingredients together.

I started the stand mixer at low, and this time, it started to turn into a dough ball! I then started the mixer to knead the dough up for another five minutes.

While the dough was kneading, I scattered all-purpose flour across my silicone mat.

I shaped the raw dough from the bowl into a proper ball shape.

I then sprayed nonstick spray into a large bowl, put the dough ball inside, covered it with wrap, and then put it into the refrigerator for 24 hours to rise.

A bit before the dough was ready, I started on the sauce. First, I minced up the fresh garlic.

I added olive oil and butter together into a saucepan, and I let them melt together. Once that was done, I added in the minced garlic, and I let the garlic brown for a few minutes.

This is how the garlic looked when it was done.

I added in the whole San Marzano tomatoes, and I mixed it together with the garlic, butter, and olive oil.

Once it was well-blended, I added in the oregano, red pepper flakes, onion powder, and sugar.

I then changed the temperature, blended the seasonings in, and I let the pizza sauce cook for about 45 minutes. Every so often, I would stir and I would lightly mash the whole San Marzano tomatoes into the pizza sauce.

As the pizza sauce was cooking on the stovetop, I laid out a fresh scattering of all-purpose flour on my silicone mat and I preheated the oven to 475 for the pizza itself.

At this point, it was time to remove the pizza dough from the fridge. The 24 hours that passed had really been kind to my pizza dough, as it had definitely grown in size! First, I punched it down and then I stretched it out across the mat.

I then divided it up into three pizza dough balls, covered them in a kitchen towel, and let it all rest for a half-hour.

While the dough was rising again, I oiled up my new cast-iron skillet.

I then generously scattered onion powder and garlic powder along the inside of the cast-iron skillet.

A half-hour after I covered the dough, I uncovered it, selected a single dough ball and then punched it down.

I then tried to stretch out the dough ball to be larger than the skillet size, but I ended up having to steal dough from one of the other dough balls in order to have enough.

At this point, my pizza sauce was ready, and I added in some salt and pepper to taste! I then set it aside and then added the pizza dough into the previously prepared cast-iron skillet.

I then scooped out the pizza sauce and then laid it out over the pizza dough.

Once the pizza sauce was spread out, I added the fresh mozzarella on top and then I brushed the crust with olive oil.

At that point, I baked the bottom crust on the stovetop for about five minutes.

I then baked the pizza in the oven for about 12 minutes.

Once the timer was up, I pulled the pizza out and sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top of it. I then put it back into the oven to bake for another three minutes.

While the pizza was baking for a second time, I plucked fresh leaves off of the basil plant. Once the pizza was done, I added it to the pizza.

And here is the final dish for this week’s Cooking Eorzea column! The red and gold confetti came from June’s FINAL FANTASY XVI Pre-Launch Celebration and August’s FINAL FANTASY XIV FAN FESTIVAL 2023-2024 events.

And here is a single slice from a side angle!

So, it turns out that I burned the bottom of the pizza in the skillet, and it had blackened. Other than that, it was absolutely fantastic! The pizza sauce was incredibly flavorful, and the cheese pulled apart as I ate it. I ended up eating everything but the bottom burned crust, and I loved the slight fresh pop that the basil leave added. The dough was fully cooked through too, and it was definitely a fluffy and fully done crust. The pizza was simply delicious, and it was incredibly filling.

Afterword

If I was to make this pizza dish a second time, I would definitely not burn the pizza bottom if I could. Otherwise, I would have probably let the dough sit in the refrigerator for awhile longer before I used it. Otherwise, this dish turned out extremely well and I was quite happy with how it turned out!

The final thank you’s for this year’s Cooking Eorzea column! I want to first thank Victoria Rosenthal for writing The Ultimate FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook. I also want to thank the staff over at Insight Editions for giving me permission to use the photos from their book to show how these recipes are actually supposed to look, and responding to my continual photo requests throughout the year. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for this series on short notice and for his photoediting work. You should check him and his works out over on X.

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in 1.0 and in A Realm Reborn. Eorzea was shaped by both of them, and my life is so much better off because of it.

Coming in 2024

When Cooking Eorzea returns at the start of 2024, I will be making Pork Kakuni from the Higashi region.

I am pretty excited to be working with pork belly, and the dish looks simply fantastic to make and eat. So please look forward to it!

What toppings do you like to put on your pizza?

What are your New Year Resolutions?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Cooking Eorzea Week 42: Pizza appeared first on oprainfall.

Super Mario Bros. 3

This week, I didn’t get to play too much, but I did complete World 3 and some of 4. I should have mentioned last week; I’m playing through this by completing every stage without the use of warping or P Wings. My hopes with this playthrough are to appreciate every stage’s design, secrets, and challenge, and to gain a renewed awe for a game that provided so much fun in my childhood.

I continue to be pretty terrible at it, though. My rusted skills don’t seem to be improving, most likely due to my inability to commit serious time to the game. Or I’m just getting older. Nonetheless, I’m enjoying all of the pleasant reminders of why I loved this game so much. That nostalgia factor is just one reason why I also love retro gaming in general.

A slight tangent now, earlier this week I was casually looking at my collection of Game Boy games and something came over me. I was remembering when I had gotten several of the games I was looking at and realized that I would never get to experience the feeling of purchasing or receiving a new Game Boy cartridge ever again. Yes I know, this isn’t quite a unique feeling, as systems have come and gone, but the Game Boy’s lifespan was quite long and was a large part of my young gaming life. It was a moment of…sadness? Loss? Longing, I think is the best way to describe it, though I did feel hints of those other feelings, too. It was strange, knowing I would never again get to look forward to the release of a new, physical Game Boy game. Nor opening the box, popping open the plastic case, or, as I often did, read the instruction booklet.

Just another indication that I’m getting older and time goes on. – Drew D.

This week in gaming I split my time between a couple of interesting titles. The first was YS 1 & 2 Chronicles. I’d never played a version of this despite playing other entries in the series, so I thought I’d give it a go. The bump mechanic is a little strange at first but it does work well overall. The game isn’t overly difficult, though there was one boss battle that gave me fits for a few minutes til I figured out exactly how to handle him. I’m just about to wrap-up the first game here, and I look forward to getting back to this later in the week.

The other game I’ve been into, Custom Mech Wars from D3 Publisher. I decided to take this one on for review cause I love mechs and EDF, so I figured this would be a mix of the two. It sorta is, but I think the mission structure could be a bit a better. I do love the almost infinite amount of ways you can customize your mechs, and the gameplay is pretty decent so far. I’ll hopefully have a full review of this one next week. -Steve

River City Rival Showdown

It’s not a secret that I have a huge soft spot for Kunio and Kunio-related games, so when the River City Rival Showdown remaster was announced for the Switch, naturally, I was interested and I picked up a copy. I loved the original version on the 3DS and I am happy to report that the game still plays well on the Switch. This game is just a real vibe with a very simple yet addicting gameplay loop. You have three days to explore town, complete quests and level up your character by beating up other gang members and delinquents. The sprites look more crisp than on the 3DS and the relatively lowpoly look works for the game giving it a rather distinct style compared to other modern beat em ups. What I forgot was just how much lore and worldbuilding is buried in this game. Just about every NPC has something to say and a lot of it further fleshes out the characters and the setting they’re in. It can be a lot to take in especially on a first playthrough, as you are trying to keep track of who is who. Still, the game lends itself quite nicely to replays as you likely won’t find or experience every event in one playthrough. There are even multiple endings based on your decisions throughout your journey. It’s a rather unique title overall and I was happy to revisit it. I’ll probably stream this one of these days. – Justin

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve added to one of these. Honestly, I’m somewhat back in one of my gaming slumps, or at least I had been most of these last few weeks, but I’ve been playing little bits here and there. A week or two ago, I was playing various Tetris games I have on Switch simply to pass a little time when I wasn’t sure what else I felt like. And of course I’ve still been keeping up with mahjong on my phone. I actually just got a great achievement the other day in Riichi City. I got their The Path to God achievement after coming in 1st and/or 2nd place for ten 4-player matches in a row. I was one win away from the next ranked room after that, but I had two losses and now I’m not quite there yet. In addition to this, most recently I’ve been trying to get back into Atelier Ryza 2. I’ve been playing Ryza 2 on and off for the last few years. I’m not sure why I can’t seem to ever finish it, but I’m enjoying playing it again. However, I’ve realized that all of my current character sidequests, which show up in the main story tab, are quite a bit further ahead than the actual main story. A couple of these sidequests require me to craft certain things through alchemy which require materials I’m not even far enough in the story to gather yet. Ultimately, I’m not super sucked into anything right now, but I’ve been cutting back enough on games during this latest slump, I should be playing a little bit more now. I’ve enjoyed getting back into Ryza 2 again. – Jenae

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Dec 10 – 16 appeared first on oprainfall.

Currently Airing:

Dark Gathering

I got a little behind so I had to catch myself up with the series. The last few episodes really began to tell us more about the new antagonists and along with them becoming known to Yayoi and the others. If you like back stories of the spirits, the graduate and the spirit at the water gate were just as dark as should be expected by this point. The battle was pretty intense and the abilities of the graduate were interesting. I did like that they showed that even though captured by Yayoi, the graduates are still very dangerous and not easy to control. I was happy seeing the castle ghost make an appearance again. While the show usually focuses on Keitaro, the newest episode instead follows Yayoi instead and without Eiko too. I kind of liked that it follows her going to school and seeing her classmates, who not surprisingly think she’s kind of odd. Things are not going to be calm though, as we get introduced to a girl at her school who has been plotting something with one of the spirits at the school. The back story on that one is dark of course too. I did like the situation with this one since it reminded me a bit of Corpse Party. I hope that we do see more of Yayoi and her classmates in the future, depending on how many make it. – Walter

— You can watch Dark Gathering on HIDIVE.

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Anime & Manga: Dec 10 – 16 appeared first on oprainfall.

Years ago when I watched Love Live! Sunshine!! I was very taken with Yoshiko Tsushima, AKA Yohane. I thought she was by far the cutest member of Aqours and her chunni antics just made me love her even more. So I was very excited when I found she was getting her own spin off anime project, Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, and even more so when Inti Creates announced they were making a Metroidvania title based off the anime, called Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. After I enjoyed the anime series, I was very excited to dig into the game to see where this story continuation was going. Let’s see how everything turned out!

The story here begins as a strange undersea dungeon suddenly surfaces near the town of Numazu. It quickly becomes all folks in town can talk about, so Yohane’s friends each begin to explore the dungeon one by one, but they never return. Yohane decides to venture into the dungeon to rescue her lost friends with the help her faithful dog Lailaps. What mysteries lie ahead of her in the dungeon, and will she be able to rescue her friends?

The story here is pretty basic, but for those who enjoyed the anime this is a great side adventure. I love seeing the girls interact with each other, and the Easter Eggs they threw in here for fans of the anime and Aqours in general. This one isn’t going to blow you away with amazing storytelling, but if you’re a fan of Yohane or Love Live! Sunshine!! you will have a good time here seeing all the girls in action once again.

Graphically the game is done in that fantastic pixel art style Inti Creates is known for. The character sprite works still comes out quite detailed this way, and all of the girls’ sprites were very cute, down to the last details! Enemy models look great as well, with a pretty good assortment of them. There are still re-colors, but I felt like there were less here than in some of their other games. The boss monsters really shine with their huge size and impressive looks. You can tell the team put some love into each one. The environments themselves are great as well. Each one is very detailed and you really get immersed into the type of area, from lava filled volcano to fluffy candy style areas. The game ran great on the Switch from start to finish with no frame drops.

In the music department, Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE really shines. Each area has amazing theme music that fits the feel of it. This includes a mysterious sounding theme for the temple and more upbeat theme as you begin to explore this underwater dungeon. The theme song, “Deep Blue”, is an amazing tune that got stuck in my head for a long time after I stopped playing this one. I wish Inti Creates would’ve included an in-game music library, or something for completing the game, so you could enjoy these tunes on the fly, but there was nothing unlocked post game. Which is one of my complaints here: it’s pretty bare bones overall outside of the main game.

The gameplay here is very much that of your standard Metroidvania title. You will explore each area of the dungeon, battling enemies and bosses as you save your friends and gain new abilities. Each girl has two unique skills, one you gain as soon as you free them, and the other when you find a hidden item in the dungeon. All of these skills can be used to slay enemies in the dungeons, such as Dia’s electric slash and Hanamaru’s adorable rolling attack. These skills can also be used to solve puzzles in the dungeon to gain access to new areas as well, but players should also look out for special items in treasure chests too. These will give Yohane some new skills and allow her to equip more accessories as well.

Yohane can purchase a number of healing items and items that will buff your stats from her fortune telling shop with in-game currency. These help you out in a pinch if you need to restore your health or Darkness points. The latter is what you use to call out your friends to help you in combat or use the variety of weapons you can cast. That’s right: you can cast a variety of weapons and accessories from the materials dropped from defeated monsters.

Weapon casts include several different types of bows and swords, each with different properties, so you can choose whichever fits your play style the best. Cloaks and accessories can be cast as well. These give you various buffs that will keep you alive during the harshest areas of the dungeon. Some will give immunity to status aliments while others may cut down different types of damage. Each one will give Yohane a boost in HP and Darkness points, so you will have to balance her out as you see fit. I went with a big HP build and tanked a lot of the bosses, but this is totally up to you.

Overall I had a great time with Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. I loved exploring the dungeon and seeing all of my favorite Aqours members once again. Each girl’s skills were very unique and suited them very well. Hanamaru having a laptop fall from the heavens to make it explode with a single touch made me laugh out loud since I got the reference from the original anime, and this is what games like this should do. I feel like the package is a bit light on extras since there is nothing to do after completing the game. No new game plus with more difficulty, unlockable galleries or even a way to listen to the music post game. It will take you around eight hours to see everything the game has to offer and I feel like it is worth the $29.99 price tag for fans of the anime or Yohane, but everyone else might want to wait for a sale to snatch this one up. While I loved everything here personally, I was a big fan of the series going into this, so I know I got a bit more out of this than those just looking for another Metroidvania to pick up. That said, I have no issue telling fans to snatch this up ASAP, it’s a lot of fun with girls you know and love.

Review Score
Overall

Game was purchased by the reviewer.

The post REVIEW: Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE appeared first on oprainfall.

Super Mario Bros. 3

It’s been ages since I last played any of the NES Super Mario titles, as I’d sooner reach for Kirby’s Adventure when feeling the urge for a retro romp, yet I’ve had the want to revisit SMB 3 for some time now. I honestly can’t remember the last time I played it, but it was definitely on my NES rather than any kind of eShop offering, as they weren’t yet available, so, yeah, it’s been a long time.

And as I expected, I’m pretty terrible at it. While I do remember the layouts of several of the stages in World 1, that’s about all I remember. Sure, I can also tell you where the pink note blocks are, as well as the two warp whistles, but I’ve forgotten what you have to do in stage 4 to get the white mushroom house. Nor do I remember the requirements to get the N Cards to appear (though one did show up). I can also vaguely remember that you can get a white coin boat to appear in World 1, but also that the requirements are pretty ridiculous.

Maybe I’ll look at a walkthrough or something over on gamefaqs at a later time. For now, I’ll slowly make my way through this with rusted skills and gratitude for a save ability in these newer renditions, all the while remembering the fun I had from what feels like a lifetime ago. – Drew D.

I spent most of this week finishing up Yohane the Parhelion: -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE-. I’ll have a full review coming shortly, but I played enough of it to 100% the map if that says anything about how I felt about it.

After that I decided to go back to past and check out Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. I own this in the collection they put on the PlayStation a few years ago, but I wanted to see how the PC-Engine release was since I was never able to play this as kid. I did own Cosmic Fantasy 2 though, which is still one of my favorite games of all time. Anyways, when I started this out I forgot just how hard OG Castlevania was; I died quite a few times until I got used to attack ranges and how the enemies moved.

I played through the first four stages so far, and I was told I could unlock Maria as a playable character and she was very overpowered. I had to see this for myself, and I can confirm she is very much that. A better ranged attack, better sub weapons, double jump and she can even heal herself. I’m pretty hooked on this and I’ll probably play the PlayStation 4 collection after this to see what changes were made. – Steve

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Dec 3 – 9 appeared first on oprainfall.

The long awaited English translation patch for TYPE-MOON and Imageepoch’s game, Fate/Extra CCC, is now complete and ready to download. Iwakura Productions first announced the project back in September 2015, and a little over 8 years later, fans will finally be able to play the title fully in English. The patch was initially teased to release by Christmas, but it is now available to download well before that date.

You can check out the release video below.

The Fate/Extra CCC Translation Team at Iwakura Productions is as follows:

• Producer/Editor – cj_iwakura
• Super Hacker – esperknight
• Translator/Master – rikkuchou
• Translator/Hero Unit – ItsumoKnight
• Incredible Hacker – Kotcrab
• Image Editors – IgorAkou, RoboticBomber
• FoxTail Translator – EDreamer
• Quality Checker – Kinsei
• Translator/Tooler – JS
• Translator/Battle/Shitposter – SnowyAria
• Stealthy Translator – khikari
• Tester: Caterer Class – Telephone_ghost

Messages from the team as well as the English patch download link can be found HERE. A link to report any bugs or typos found while utilizing the patch can also be found in the same post.

Fate/Extra CCC first launched in Japan in March 2013 for PlayStation Portable. An overseas release was never announced for the game, so fans had no way to play the game fully in English, until now. I would like to extend a big thanks to Iwakura Productions and all the Translation Team members who worked tirelessly on this patch for all these years. Many fans have been waiting for the opportunity to play this game and experience its story, and now they have that chance.

SOURCES: cj_iwakura X Post, Iwakura Productions Official Website

The post Fate/Extra CCC English Translation Patch Complete, Now Available appeared first on oprainfall.

Two-and-a-half years is a very long time. Whether it be for a relationship, a job, or even live support for an MMORPG, it is a major milestone that should create feelings of real accomplishment in anyone who achieves it. This month, Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS (PSO2 NGS) turns two-and-a-half, and the team behind the game is releasing some seriously new content that is designed to lure back old players and initiate new ones into Planet Halpha in PSO2 NGS.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to conduct a SECOND (yes, SECOND!) email interview with Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis’ series producer, Yuya Kimura, where we talked about his career at SEGA, the upcoming Super Genesis Festival, and more.

You can check out the latest on Phantasy Star Online 2 at the official website, on Twitter, on Twitch, on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube, and on Discord.

Operation Rainfall: Could you please introduce yourself?

Yuya Kimura: My name is Yuya Kimura, and I’m the series producer of Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS (NGS) at SEGA.

OR: You’ve been at SEGA for 21 years, per our last interview in June 2023. Can you tell us one or two of your favorite personal memories worked at such a historic video game company?

YK: I’ve had a pretty unique career over my 21 years here, focused entirely on the development of the Phantasy Star series.

Although there are people who have worked for the same game company for more than 20 years, it is rare in the industry for a creator to work continuously on the same series of titles over all that time. Being involved with the series for so long has given me a lot of happy memories. For example, I’ve heard several stories of people who met and got married because of the series, and I sometimes meet parents with children who play the series as a family. There have also been cases where new SEGA employees played a title I was involved in when they were young—and it was that title that inspired them to become a game developer, and now they’ve actually joined SEGA and are involved in the same title. That’s really a priceless joy that I couldn’t have experienced without having worked for SEGA for so long.

OR: Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS ver.2’s December 2023 update is focused on new and returning players for the game’s two-and-a-half year anniversary. Why did you decide to focus this major year-end update about making the storyline more accessible to those types of gamers?

YK: In June 2023, the game was upgraded to Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS ver. 2 and new elements such as Creative Space and Portable Holograms were implemented that attracted new players and brought back returning players. However, the battle content for core users released from August onwards had a high barrier to play. In addition, many people who played the content felt that the rewards were not commensurate with the difficulty level or playtime. For those reasons, some people gave up playing midway through.

In response, we made adjustments in October and November, including easing the Join Conditions to make them easier to meet, rebalancing rewards, and implementing a boost campaign. As a result, we believe that the game is stabilizing, still slowly but at a better clip than before. In addition, in December, we will be making NGS easier to play than ever before by further easing requirements and revamping rewards. We hope this will bring back inactive players and entice new users to try NGS.

OR: What kind of changes does The 2½ Year Anniversary Campaign: Super Genesis Festival have to make it so players can experience the storyline more easily?

YK: First, I would like to say that NGS has become really easy to play as of Dec 6, 2023, on a permanent basis, unrelated to the ongoing Super Genesis Festival campaign. To make it easier to catch up with the top players, there’s a permanent +300% boost to EXP Earned in Combat Sectors up to a certain level. Also, just by leveling up, you’ll get pre-enhanced equipment appropriate for your level. Until you reach the highest level, you’ll have no real problems with your equipment. Plus, in NGS, you can set up a Sub-Class in addition to your Main Class. Previously only 50% of the EXP you earned with your Main Class was applied to your Sub-Class, but now that’s been bumped up to 90%.

The latest chapter of the story is Chapter 6. We’ve eased back on the overall difficulty of progressing through the story—as a reward for completing Chapter 5, for example, you get a huge amount of the in-game currency, N-Meseta, as well as tons of avatar items. This lets you quickly push ahead with your adventures while enjoying fashion and other aspects of the game.

Regarding fashion, the period during which you can edit your body shape and other elements of your character’s appearance at the Salon for free after creating a new character has been extended to 72 hours of log in time, a significant increase from the previous 5-hour total. We also have a convenient feature where 15 days of Material Storage is automatically granted after finishing the tutorial.

During the Super Genesis Festival campaign period, we’re running a Use the Salon to your heart’s content! Campaign, and distributing a free Color-Change Pass (x15), Material Storage Use (15 Days) (x1), and more, making it even easier to jump in and play. It’s really the perfect time for new players and ARKS who have been away to come and play NGS.

OR: Also, what new content can veteran players expect in The 2½ Year Anniversary Campaign: Super Genesis Festival?

YK: First of all, overall, there will be more opportunities to obtain the 10-star Flugelgard weapon series. These will be added to some quests that did not previously drop them and drop rates will increase in quests where they already drop.

In early December, the popular Standing Quest: Leciel Exploration will be expanded with new elements and upgraded rewards. Then in mid-December, Dark Falz Aegis, previously only available as an Urgent Quest or Trigger Quest, will make its debut as a Standing Quest in an enhanced, powered-up version.

All of these are challenging, but since a 10-star weapon is included in the drop rewards, we encourage you to give them a try.

“Being involved with the series for so long has given me a lot of happy memories.”

OR: During this timed event from December 6, 2023 through January 24, 2024, there are rewards players can earn. Can you tell us a bit more about what kind of rewards gamers can expect when they participate in it?

YK: In addition to what I just mentioned about the Super Genesis Festival Campaign, from Dec 6-19, 2023 we will be running a Super Treasure Scratch campaign, where twice the usual amount of Treasure Scratch tickets can be earned in Daily Tasks and Treasure Scratch tickets will be added as drops in all Urgent Quests. Plus, during this period, you’ll be able to complete Urgent Quests twice.

In addition, starting on Dec 20, 2023, a new feature called the Reward Box will be added where, by completing the target Daily Tasks, you’ll be able to earn lots of popular past Weapon Camo and avatar items. It works like a Scratch Ticket, but in box format—that means items are never duplicated after being obtained, and, if you take the time, you can be sure to get all of the items.

There will be more campaigns and other ways to get your hands on a variety of rewards from Dec 27, 2023. Details will be announced in the NGS Headline broadcast on Dec 26, 2023.

OR: One of the biggest surprises for me in this announcement is that there will be an increase in drops for the 10★ Flugelgard series that was released as part of the November 15, 2023, patch. What kind of increase are we talking about? Do you mean that it will be spread across more events, or are drop percentage rates increasing? If we are talking percentage drop rate, can you give us an idea of how significant of an increase it is?

YK: The upward revision of the drop rate is permanent from Dec 6, 2023 and is not limited to the event period.

Regarding the increase in the drop rate, we’ve made it even higher than the Drop Rate +100% boost campaign that we had in November for a variety of content.

OR: Along those lines: How do you determine what the drop-rate percentage for items should be when you’re releasing new content?

YK: The number of drops and number of equipment for the newest weapons are checked daily, and if the actual numbers of drops and equipment are lower than the number of drops and equipment that the development staff had expected before the release, the number is revised upward, as is happening in this case.

OR: At the start of November, a new anti-cheat tool by Wellbia was implemented into Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS ver.2. Can you talk a bit about your efforts to combat cheating in Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS ver.2, and how does SEGA and your team handles people who are caught cheating in the game?

YK: Since the game launched, we have always devoted a lot of time and money to anti-cheat measures. However, while I do apologize, I am unable to give you any specifics about our countermeasures, because that information may aid rogue users in creating new cheat methods. If you are found to be cheating or otherwise violating our Terms of Service, we will ban your account for either a certain amount of time or permanently, depending on the severity of the offense.

OR: When we last talked in June 2023, Creative Space was going to be released as part of Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis ver.2. What has player feedback been like since it was released, and do you have any plans to enhance it as part of the future roadmap?

YK: We have received a great deal of positive feedback since we first announced our plans to implement Creative Space, and we feel that we have exceeded our own expectations with the very positive response we have received. We’ve also had lots of requests for things to be added, and [we] are working to respond to these as soon as possible.

OR: As we wrap up this interview, do you have any last words for people looking forward to The 2½ Year Anniversary Campaign: Super Genesis Festival?

YK: I would like to thank all the ARKS out there for playing NGS.

To express our gratitude, for the first time ever for the PSO2 series, we are currently holding a half-anniversary celebration called the Super Genesis Festival. As I mentioned earlier as well, we are running extensive, fabulous campaigns over the year-end and New Year’s holidays. These campaigns will offer tons of advantages not only to current players, but also to new players and those returning after a break, so we hope everyone will take this opportunity to play NGS.

I want to thank Yuya Kimura for participating in a second interview with us here at oprainfall about PSO2 NGS!

Are you excited about the Super Genesis Festival? What kind of fashion do you hope to wear in the game?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post INTERVIEW: Yuya Kimura Talks about PSO2 NGS’s Super Genesis Festival appeared first on oprainfall.

This week’s Cooking Eorzea column was the hardest column yet, and I seriously struggled with making it. It wasn’t the cooking skill, it wasn’t the timing in my life. To put it simply, I couldn’t find Mahi-Mahi with the skin on to use as an ingredient. The fact that I was able to make this dish at all was one of the biggest surprises of this year for me, and it took several unexpected turns to bring it to the finish line.

I reached out to every grocery store and every fish market that I could get ahold off within roughly a 40-minute drive of myself, and I simply could not source it. It was incredibly frustrating to talk to managers and employees who told me that they could not special order it with the skin on, and that they could not give me any advice on where I could find some Mahi-Mahi fillets with the skin on as none of them were carrying it at that time.

This dragged on for weeks, and it was the most frustrating experience I have had so far with writing Cooking Eorzea. I ended up emailing Ms. Rosenthal and Insight Editions, and I apologized to them both for how long my column was taking to write. Ms. Rosenthal responded and told me that this was not Mahi season, and that it would be easier to find from May through September.

I won’t lie, it started to break me. As November started to stretch on, I was thinking about skipping this recipe and coming back to it. With Thanksgiving approaching and me going back to see family in my home state, I reached out to one of the handful of fish markets in my hometown to ask.

And surprisingly, somehow…the first place I called said that they could get Mahi-Mahi with the skin on for me.

With that set up, I needed a place to cook since I was going to be on the opposite side of the country from my kitchen. I asked a pair of dear friends of mine if I could cook them dinner. This would be the first time I’ve cooked a Cooking Eorzea dish for someone since the Bouillabaisse recipe in July 2022, if you’re curious. My friends said ‘yes’, and I ended up borrowing their kitchen, their kitchenware, and a handful of ingredients to make the Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi with.

I had forgotten that I love cooking for others with Love, Eorzean Style. Cooking for friends, having dinner and conversation with them, and just seeing people that I haven’t seen in months was a special memory to have. If I hadn’t had such a hard time finding Mahi-Mahi, I wouldn’t have cooked for them. I really want to cook for other people more often here on out, if I can.

And hopefully, some of the upcoming recipes will let me do just that.

If you’ve missed an installment of Cooking Eorzea, you can check out all the prior recipes here.

Recipe of the Week

The most difficult recipe to make so far, the 42nd recipe in The Official FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook is for Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi. That is a bit ironic, since it is an ‘Easy’ rated La Noscean dish, and it truly was the easiest dish to actually make after the Nutrient-Rich Porridge that I made back in Week 5.

Anyway, here is what Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi looks like in the hands of a true chef:

Featured Ingredient of the Week

Like there could be any other possible featured ingredient for this week’s Cooking Eorzea.

Mahi-Mahi is a ray-finned fish that lives worldwide in temperate, tropical, and sub-tropical waters. They have a single, long, dorsal fin and they can live for up to five years. They are a carnivorous fish and they can swim up to 50 knots at a time. They are also, per Ms. Rosenthal, easier to find from May through September in seafood markets!

I thought obtaining birch syrup and lotus root was difficult, but Mahi-Mahi proved to be more difficult than both of them combined. I knew after a couple of weeks of searching for this fish that I would have to make it my Ingredient of the Week once I was able to finally make this dish!

My Cooking Attempt

It was really strange cooking at someone else’s home, even if they are a pair of close friends of mine. I ended up using their salt, pepper, and pre-minced garlic. Also, because I was so far away from my own kitchen, I ended up having to use their pans, utensils, and stove top to make this week’s Cooking Eorzea dish. I also couldn’t bear to bring the Endwalker Hydaelyn/Zodiark shakers with me on multiple plane flights, so I had to leave them out of this week’s column.

First, I zested the lemon. It was super weird using a zester that wasn’t my own, and I kept having to shake the zest loose from the metal device in order to get as much as possible out of it.

I then sliced up half of the lemon and set those slices aside for later.

I then ground out pepper, salt, and used the zested lemon to coat the four Mahi-Mahi fillets.

I turned on my friends’ stovetop, and I added some olive oil to their pan, and I started to swirl it around. The pan heated up fairly quickly, to my surprise!

Once the pan and the olive oil was properly heated, I added in two of the Mahi-Mahi fillets, skin down. I let them sizzle for about four minutes, and then I flipped them over and let them cook for another four minutes.

After taking the temperature to make sure they were cooked properly, I set those two Mahi-Mahi fillets aside and repeated the process with the other two Mahi-Mahi fillets.

Once I pulled out the last Mahi-Mahi fillets once they were also at the proper temperature, I added in the butter, and I let it melt down.

Once the butter was melted down, I added in the minced garlic, and I let it cook for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, it started to burn during that time. It turns out that I misgauged the temperature of the pan. After the garlic somewhat burned, I added in the all-purpose flour.

I blended it all together, and it definitely was a burned mess.

I then added the vegetable broth and the sake…

…And then the lemon juice before I blended it all together.

Finally, I added on the lemon slices, and I allowed them to all heat up.

I then ladled the ‘sauce’ and the lemon slices onto the Mahi-Mahi fillets. I ended up having to smear the sauce onto the fillets, as it was just so gummy and solid.

And here is the final Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi dish for this week’s Cooking Eorzea!

Despite burning the garlic, I was shocked at how amazing this dish tasted. The Mahi-Mahi skin was perfectly crispy, and the fish was cooked through and hot. The citrus from the lemon juice and the spark from the sake really complimented the fish well, and I just fell in love with how light and delicious this whole dish was. My friends loved it too, and they actually made fresh mashed potatoes with the rest of the butter that I didn’t use as a side dish.

I ended up using a mixture of FINAL FANTASY XI Online and FINAL FANTASY XIV Online coasters for this week’s dish, simply because I have been drawn more and more back into Vana’diel lately and I am trying to figure out if there is some way I can belong to both that realm and Eorzea at the same time again.

Afterword

The biggest issue with cooking in someone else’s kitchen is that you don’t know the little ‘quirks’ that it has. I didn’t know how quickly my friends’ pans or stove heat up, and so I ended up burning the sauce. Thankfully, it didn’t impact the flavor, but it still looked fairly ugly in the end. I would absolutely make this dish again, but I would be more cautious with the temperature I set things at when I am cooking in someone else’s home.

So, ‘thank you’ time!. I want to thank Victoria Rosenthal for writing The Ultimate FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook and for jumping in to advise me that I was looking for an out-of-season fish. I also want to thank the staff over at Insight Editions for giving me permission to use the photos from their book to show how these recipes should look, and for being patient with how long this week’s column took to write. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for this series on short notice. You should check him and his art out over on X. I also owe my friends a real, serious, thank you for letting me use their kitchen and their equipment to make this week’s Cooking Eorzea dish. Without their love and support, I would not have been able to make this week’s dish.

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in both iterations of the game. I still love this series, even if I struggle with winning the Fall Guys content in the Golden Saucer.

In Two~ish Weeks

Next up: Pizza!

I have never made pizza dough before, and so this will be a real adventure for me. I have had plenty of experience making dough from the breads section of the cookbook, and so I am really hopeful that it will serve me well with this upcoming recipe attempt!

Have you ever struggled to obtain a cooking ingredient before? What was it?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Cooking Eorzea Week 41: Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi appeared first on oprainfall.

I have never played a fashion game like this before. I know syn Sophia is the developer behind the Style Savvy games that were on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, but I’ve never played them. What caused me to take on this review is the fact that, regardless of my lack of experience with games focused on fashion, I do love dressing up my character in various other types of games which allow it. I’m that player who will sacrifice a bit of stats to make sure my characters still look good. Thus, I was very intrigued by Fashion Dreamer and wanted to try it out. Not to mention this is yet another more chill casual game, which is what I’ve been tending to lean towards when taking on reviews lately.

Fashion Dreamer is a pretty basic fashion game. By that I mean, there aren’t a lot of concepts or things going on. At the start of the game, you get a Muse to dress up. A Muse is what your customizable character is called. You can pick your hairstyle, nose, eyes, height/body type, skin tone, hair color, lips, etc. There are quite a lot of options to choose from. I should mention, though, that the body type options are limited. You basically just pick a height from the selection they have available and certain proportions change a little bit depending on the height you choose. There aren’t any sliders to decide how slender or curvy your character is or anything else such as that. You can choose from a few different face shapes, however. Anyway, once you’ve created your first Muse, it’s time to jump into the virtual world of Eve.

The game takes place in this virtual world, Eve, where there are four different Cocoon areas to hang out in. Well, there is only one Cocoon to start and you have to unlock the other three. The goal of the game is to become a fashion influencer and spread your brand. You’re able to like other characters’ outfits to collect usable clothing pieces. There is also a pop-up area where the most popular clothes and clothes other people have shared show up, so you can also hit like on those to collect them as well. In the game’s offline mode, there are pre-made CPU characters who will be around town and ask you to create Lookits for them. A Lookit is essentially a new overall outfit. Sometimes they may also like what you’re wearing and copy your outfit. Either of these will give you random rewards, such as gacha and bingo tickets and color palettes. The color palettes you can use to create your own items. You’ll need E-Points to unlock and create different clothing pieces. Creating your own clothing essentially just requires you to change the colors of pre-existing styles of clothes, and the more color palettes you unlock, the more choices you have.

E-Points you’ll get for anyone liking your outfit, liking your shared clothing pieces that pop-up in their game, stuff shown in your showroom, and so on. Your showroom is a small space you can decorate and display clothing in however you like, in addition to other items you’ve collected. The game contains both an online and offline mode. While you can collect E-Points offline, the process is extremely slow. This game is a lot more fun and active if you play online. Online you’ll see other players’ Muses in your game and be able to create Lookits for them as well, plus you’ll be able to visit their showrooms and see clothing items they’ve shared which you can then collect. The CPU characters are also present in the online mode in addition to the real player Muses. Each Cocoon area has its own gacha machine and two bingo machines. The bingo machines simply give you E-Points as a reward. The gacha machines are different in each Cocoon. They all have their own unique styles of items you can unlock randomly from using your gacha tickets. This will unlock certain styles in the clothing creation menu, so you can recolor them how you like.

There honestly isn’t a lot going on in Fashion Dreamer. The more likes you get, the more popular of an influencer you become, and as you get to higher ranks, you unlock more Cocoons. You also have a brand rank to raise from creating items. You can customize your brand symbol that goes on clothes you create and the more you create, the higher that rank will raise, which will then unlock additional clothing styles you can customize. Oh, and you can take photos, both at a photo booth spot and wherever you’re at in the Cocoon. For the photos at the photo booth, or Photo Egg as the game calls it, you’ll be able to add little decorations to and save.

Like I was saying before, there isn’t a lot going on in Fashion Dreamer. You make a ton of outfits, you travel between the three different areas of each Cocoon, dressing up other people’s characters to fit their preferences, hit like on whatever you like or want to collect for yourself, and you create clothing items over and over again. Also, after collecting a ton of stuff and creating so many outfits, I found some of the options weren’t very vast or unique. Hats for example, there are a lot of beret looking hats. The variety isn’t super vast. Not to mention, there also weren’t any bags, nor any gloves or necklaces that are separate rather than stuck as a part of certain tops. The game is really fun as a short bursts type of game where you get on only for a little bit, as a break from other games with a lot more going on. I thought the music, sounds and overall atmosphere were pleasant too. But, I don’t see it as a good game for sitting down and playing for hours on end. I was really into it the first two days I played, but after a few days, it became something I only checked in on for a little bit at a time. I played for over 15 hours, reached the platinum influencer rank and saw the credits. I believe there may be a diamond rank seeing as I still saw other players at a rank higher than me, but I imagine that would take a very long time to reach in comparison to the lower ranks prior to the game credits.

Ultimately, in the game’s current state, Fashion Dreamer wasn’t bad. I had a ton of fun dressing up my character and collecting different clothing. But, it also didn’t have much of a long gameplay life, I simply wasn’t extremely into it for more than a week. Although, you should know that this isn’t the game’s final complete release. By that I mean, various upcoming free updates have been announced. These are simply my thoughts on the game as is, before any updates have come out. I had fun with Fashion Dreamer for what it is, but it could’ve been a lot better. I don’t think I would pay the full $49.99 price for this. As it is now, I definitely would recommend waiting for a sale if it sounds like something you would enjoy. I might possibly write a follow-up in the future, should the game be substantially different or receive a lot more substance after all of the updates are out.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Fashion Dreamer appeared first on oprainfall.

After finishing up Gears of Dragoon I decided to move on to VenusBlood GAIA. I loved the previous two releases, so I had pretty high expectations going into this one and so far I’m pretty pleased. The story here follows Archduke Theofrad who has discovered a new energy source to help bring back his dying world. The Holy Dragon Empire Granleyd doesn’t like this and has declared war on him and the Sorcerous City of Energeia. Theofrad is willing to take on the empire and the rest of the world if it means he can save them from certain doom!

While I am loving the story and characters, there has been a huge change in the gameplay here as well. In the previous games you would move squads and formations around on a map taking nodes on it. VenusBlood GAIA changes this up to be more of a tower defense type of game that is turn based. You will have to defeat would-be invaders in the labyrinth under the city. This is done by placing units and traps to slow their progress and planning out how to deal with surface units as well.

I’m still pretty early on in the game, and I’m doing the Law Route first, so we’ll see if my feeling change on this by the end of both routes. – Steve

So I’m back to Star Ocean: The Second Story R now that I’ve wrapped up Like a Dragon Gaiden. I finally advanced the story to the second continent despite only levelling up to around 45 or so, but I was eager to get to the Laceur tournament sequence and recruiting Precis in Linga. Booting up this game seriously feels like coming home. It’s comfy and familiar and everything I remember from the PS1 days, but with really welcome quality of life changes that my 20-plus year older self appreciates immensely. I just don’t have the time to grind in the Lasgus Mountains like I did when I was 17. The Bodyguard skill has been a godsend, and is honestly one of the best features in SO2R that I think other RPGs with world maps should adopt. It’s the only game other than Earthbound I’ve seen that lets you immediately win fights without entering battle and I cannot fathom how this has never become standard fare after all these years. I’m also head over heels in love with the fact I can see my relationship status with my team now, so I don’t have to wait until the end of the game to know what character ending I’m actually going to get. Right now I’m on an Ashton/Rena trajectory, but knowing I can course correct at any time because I can see where my relationships all stand is spectacular. There is something to be said for the original PS1 version’s opaque systems, but again, I just don’t have the time I used to to have for needless fiddling and bullshit. I’ll still likely end up using love potions near the end just to see other character endings but knowing where I’m at is wonderful.

In the real world, I also got to visit a neat arcade! It’s called Robot City and is a comfy little store-plus-arcade setup in Binghamton, N.Y. with an assortment of pinball machines and classic arcade titles. It’s also the only place I’ve ever seen a Baby Pac-Man exist. I’ve never seen one in person, let alone played one, so having the chance to was neat. The game itself was mediocre (and I’m crap at Pac-Man to begin with), but the novelty of it was worthwhile and a nice surprise. My son thought it was the coolest thing. It’s nice being able to visit hole-in-the-wall arcades still, and this place had a very nice vibe. The store was well-kept with a decent stock of games from Atari up through PS5, while the arcade was dimly lit and a little crowded, so it gave off a really comfy atmosphere. If you’re ever in the Southern Tier region, it’s worth checking out. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Nov 19 – 25 appeared first on oprainfall.

Currently Airing:

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!

I finally got around to finishing the Netflix Scott Pilgrim anime and as a longtime fan of the series, it was great! Science Saru really knocked it out of the park capturing the comic’s look and translating that into gorgeous fight scenes and set pieces. The show is absolutely a love letter to this story, told in a way that I found incredibly refreshing. I would say that if you’re unfamiliar with the Scott Pilgrim comics or movie, you can absolutely jump in here and still get the full story, but I think it benefits from having previous knowledge of the canon. That being said, the animation on display here is some of the best, with a blend of styles and techniques that I expect from a cutting-edge studio like Science Saru. The fight scenes especially have some fantastic choreography and staging, and the way the team uses lighting to establish mood is beautiful. If I have one complaint it’s the forced focus effect they use, since it can sometimes be a bit nauseating how quickly a scene goes in and out of focus. As an experimental technique, though, I have to give Science Saru props. At any rate, this show was a ton of fun and I’m itching to give it a rewatch. I highly recommend it for old fans and even new ones, with the caveat that you should definitely at least watch the movie to get the full perspective on these characters and story. – Leah

— You can watch Scott Pilgrim Takes Off! on Netflix.

Anime of the Past:

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island

This was one movie that I’ve been wanting to watch but didn’t have a chance to see until just now. The movie is set during the One Year War in the original series, and is a remake of an episode that became somewhat infamous. I have never seen the original, but having seen some screens of it, you can tell it was one of the times in the series that quality really dropped. With that being said, this movie is definitely for those who are fans of the original series. It does not really take any time to explain anything and more or less goes off that you already know about the characters and story, which is something that I kind of like. The animation for this looks great and does give the feel of the original, with the battles being quite good. The character of Doan was pretty interesting with the life he lives when we meet him and the conflict he has with his past unit. While I liked it, it is kind of weird to me that they turned a 20-something minute episode into a movie; especially one that of doesn’t really have any real connection to the main plot. That being said, I did think it was a pretty decent movie. – Walter

— You can watch Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island on Crunchyroll.

Manga and LNs:

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

Since having caught up with the Japanese raws/ fan-translation, I’ve been doing a better job of keeping up with Iruma-kun. Things have certainly been happening, however most events, I feel, would have been difficult to talk about or go into detail here on our Week in Anime recaps. That is until this past week’s chapter, in which we get an Amelie focused chapter. Every so often, we get a chapter starring Iruma’s primary love interest from his harem/ not harem. These are always a fun read, as we get to see the normally straight-laced student council present show a wider range of emotions, especially when she has her moments with Iruma.

This chapter is a bit different from the other Amelie centered chapters, though, as this one actually stars her father, Henri, as he sneaks into the school and follows his daughter throughout her day. While doing so, he also reflects on Iruma’s achievements, wondering how in the Netherworld this seemingly innocuous boy, possibly a human as Henri suspects, has captured the attention of so many influential individuals. Having played a hand in many of the major events that have recently occurred in the Netherworld, the chapter ends on a cliffhanger, where Henri corners Iruma and Amelie and asks him…how Iruma feels about his daughter. Yup, that’s not awkward at all. – Drew D.

The Demon King’s Daughter is too Kind

This is a series I had come across over the summer and was hooked from the first chapter. The Demon King’s Daughter is too Kind is pure charm; a story that follows the demon king’s cute daughter, Dou, who is nothing like a demon at all. Dou seems to have the power to melt even the hardest of stone hearts, charming everyone she meets with her adorableness, as well as her genuine kindness to everyone she meets. There is never a dull moment with Dou, as she gets herself and her caretaker, Jahy, into perilous situations, only to delightfully use her altruism and lovable nature to comedically remedy any conflicts.

Lighthearted and uplifting, this is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for big doses of good nature and adorable humor. – Drew D.

The official English translation of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun is provided by Kodansha US
Japanese volumes of The Demon King’s Daughter is too Kind available on amazon.co.jp, fan- translation can be found on Mangadex

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Anime & Manga: Nov 19 – 25 appeared first on oprainfall.

I love the Like a Dragon (nee Yakuza) games. Like, a lot. I started playing them with the PS2 original and have adored following Kiryu’s journey all these years. So, of course a side story starring the Dragon of Dojima was right up my alley, and considering it’s a between-quel (interquel?) of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (also known as Yakuza 7) and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I had to see what our favorite Fourth Chairman was up to. His cameo in Yakuza 7 was a standout moment in a game I thoroughly enjoyed, so getting the full rundown on his activities leading up to that moment was something I absolutely needed to see for myself.

As noted, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a side story that plays out concurrently to the events of Y7, so if you’ve played that game, you know how this story is going to end, at least in broad strokes. If you were coming into this looking for high stakes, you aren’t really going to find them. What you will find is a surprisingly interpersonal drama exploring the ramifications of giving up one’s identity and grappling with the losses that come with it. When you’ve spent your entire adult life trying to remove the yoke of institutions from around your neck, how do you come to terms with submitting to a shadowy cabal that strips you of everything you’ve ever held dear – all so you can protect the ones you love the most?

Unlike Y7‘s turn-based RPG battle system, Like a Dragon Gaiden returns to the real-time brawler style the Yakuza games were known for. This time around, Kiryu has two fighting forms he can swap between: Agent and Yakuza. Yakuza style is a pared down version of Kiryu’s Dragon of Dojima style – heavy hitting, strong counters, will grab you by the head and slam you into his knee types of moves. It excels in one-on-one fights or against blocking opponents, since his basic moveset includes a stance break attack. Agent is new to Gaiden and gives Kiryu an assortment of fun gadgets to use during combat. Spider uses wires to bind enemies in place or fling them around the arena; Hornet gives Kiryu control of autonomous drones; Serpent lets Kiryu zip around the arena on rocket shoes; and Firefly is an explosive cigarette that’s great for clearing out crowds. Honestly, Agent is best for crowd control until you level it up enough to wreak havoc in EX Heat mode, at which point I was using it on single bosses as well. I found no end of delight in grabbing five or six guys with Spider and flinging them willy-nilly around a fight. Great stuff.

The battle arena returns here as well with the Coliseum, and it comes with a fun twist: Hell Team Rumbles. Throughout the story, Kiryu will have the opportunity to recruit several characters to join his Coliseum team for group matches. Unlike large scale battle content in previous games, such as Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, the Hell Team Rumbles here are real-time slug fests where Kiryu will fight alongside up to 10 NPCs against groups of enemies. You can also play as any of the characters in your roster, not just Kiryu. Characters are broken into three categories: fighter, tank, and healer. Each character can perform a special attack – raising everyone’s attack and defense, healing the whole party, etc. – but so too can enemies. You can raise teammate’s levels to 20 and their bond to three, with a higher bond leading to special effects lasting longer. Hell Team Rumbles can get pretty difficult in the Platinum tiers, so having a solid team of attackers, defenders and healers is a must, and I found Agent style really excelled here thanks to its stronger crowd control. Kiryu can also take part in standard solo fights, and you’re going to need to do a mix of everything if you want to see the Coliseum’s story play out in full.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Like a Dragon game without a ton of side content, and despite being a side story itself, Gaiden does not slack in the mini-game department. Returning are the gambling staples, mahjong, karaoke and golf, as well as Pocket Circuit, everyone’s favorite miniature car racer. While the story isn’t nearly as involved this time as it was in Yakuza 0 or Kiwami, it’s still a fun way to spend a couple hours. The new Pocket Circuit spokeswoman is Ran, a bubbly girl with adorable twin tails who recruits Kiryu to join CourStar, a Pocket Circuit location catering to adults who played during their youth. As with several of the substories in this game, there’s a strong through-line of reminiscence and handing over the torch, and I found it really well done. Nothing about the actual mini-game has changed from previous games, so it’s easy to jump right in if you’re at all familiar with Pocket Circuit. As for karaoke, this time around it’s basically all old-man hits, including Baka Mitai, TONIGHT -restart from this night-, hands, and the new song, Sayonara Silent Night, a catchy little diddy with just enough melancholy to really hit you in the feels. It felt very fitting.

Also returning are cabaret clubs, though this time around all the cabarets are a new “immersive” experience, with full motion video of women performing the hostess roles rather than in-game models based on those women. You have five girls to choose from, including streamer Kson. The cabaret plays out exactly the same as in previous games, with the girls answering Kiryu’s questions and chatting with him until you raise their affection level sufficiently to earn some alone time with them. I found the experience mildly novel, though felt there was too much delay in the video playback of each woman, giving every encounter a bit of an uncanny feel. It’s nothing insurmountable and didn’t distract that much, but if you’re used to the more seamless experience of previous games, it might take some getting used to. It was neat to see the women be themselves, though, and I always appreciate Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s commitment to using real industry members, considering how often the stories in their games attempt to dispel negative stereotypes around red light district work.

But Leah, you’re asking, how is the story? Honestly, it’s fantastic, though I feel that should go without saying. It’s a Like a Dragon game, of course the story is good. But like I mentioned earlier, the stakes here are not particularly high by Yakuza standards. Since Like a Dragon Gaiden takes place concurrent to Y7, we ultimately know where Kiryu will end up. This story isn’t about that, though. It’s focused entirely on Kiryu’s relationship with Hanawa, his Daidoji Faction handler, and the tight line Kiryu has to walk in order to keep his identity secret. It’s all about how Kiryu struggles to keep his part of an unfair bargain in which he gave up everything – even his name – to protect Haruka, Haruto and the Morning Glory Orphanage kids’ health and happiness. As a puppet of the Daidoji group, Kiryu – now going by Joryu – has no freedom, though Hanawa seems to do his best to give the former Dragon of Dojima leeway. That can’t last forever though, and when an unknown group stages an attack against the Daidoji, Kiryu’s conviction and morals are put to the test.

The basic setup is simple enough. The Daidoji are hired to assist the CIA in helping some unnamed terrorist group from another country. They’re supposed to provide cover for a gold bullion hand-off, but it turns out to be a front and the Daidoji group are blindsided by a surprise attack. Hanawa tasks Kiryu with looking into a possible connection between the attackers and the Seiryu Clan in Yokohama, which goes nowhere, but does give us a concrete time period in which this side story takes place. What Kiryu does find in Yokohama are the Omi Alliance, who are up to no good, and after some back and forth with Tsuruno, the Watase Family lieutenant, Kiryu is given a red dragon and a single clue: Akame.

Back in Sotenbori, Kiryu ends up under the wing of Akame, an information peddler. Akame acts as both a big story player, as well as Kiryu’s base of operations throughout the game, taking on an assortment of odd jobs from the city’s “jack of all trades” to help keep the streets safe for the homeless. Despite her ties to the Omi Alliance and other underworld entities, Akame has nothing but the best interests of Sotenbori in mind. She’s a fantastic addition to the pantheon of Yakuza characters and I love her. She’s fiery and a bit of a smart ass, but she’s savvy and resourceful as well. She’s also incredibly cute. The entire cast in Like a Dragon Gaiden is fantastic, though, and you’ll be hard-pressed to not find someone here who isn’t at the very least interesting.

For all my love of this side story, there were a few issues. I played on the PlayStation 5, and performance was overall quite stellar, but I did notice a lot of pop-in when running around Sotenbori, and on occasion when I loaded back into the street from an instanced area (Stilj, CourStar, some substories) the game would hang on the gray loading screen for an uncomfortably long time. There were also some really noticeable typos throughout the game and a very unfortunate open font tag during the climactic cutscene. It will likely be fixed in a future patch, but felt out of step with how clean previous titles have been regarding the text. And this is admittedly a “me” problem, but there were so many menus when doing Pocket Circuit that I felt really didn’t need to be that excessive. There’s no reason the main races and rivals at the very least couldn’t be nested under the same menu instead of having to exit out of the mini-game entirely every time.

Overall, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a standout entry in this storied franchise. Agent is a fun new addition to Kiryu’s fighting styles, and I really loved the Coliseum this time around, especially the Hell Team Rumbles. Playing dress-up with Kiryu was a ton of fun, and every game should give him the opportunity to walk down a runway. Akame is a wonderful character, and her integration in both the main story and the substories made her feel integral to this snippet of Kiryu’s life. I found the interpersonal drama with Hanawa compelling, as well as everything involving the Omi Alliance. This game also packs a serious emotional gut-punch and features perhaps the best acting I’ve seen from Takaya Kuroda to date. If you’re really craving that old school Yakuza combat and storytelling, Gaiden is a solid experience. It took me a little over 30 hours to complete all substories, finish the Coliseum, complete the main races in CourStar and defeat the lion’s share of rivals. It’s well worth your $49.99 USD.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

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