Sorry these Week in Gaming articles have been so sporadic the latter half of this year. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of review gaming and whenever I’m not review gaming, I’m never sure I have enough to say about other games to put out one of these articles. After the disaster that was Orange Season: which I thought was going to be a great fall game but ended up so bad I put it down early, I got a couple of recently released fall Nintendo titles to play which are very much appreciated. I’m currently mainly working my way through one of those, the first one they released, and sitting on the other one until afterwards. Hopefully I’ll have those reviews out before the year is over, or at least one of them. But on the side, I’ve finally jumped back into Stardew Valley, always a good farming game that never disappoints.

I’ve been getting the urge to go back to Stardew Valley all year but I’ve been holding back, waiting on that 1.6 update content to hit consoles and now it finally has. I quite enjoy playing Stardew on my Switch with an 8bitdo controller. I had a beach farm I started a while back, maybe last year, that I had planned on being my very first Joja route. However, I only ever got a little bit into the first year’s summer. So, since the new update is now out, I decided to start over on that route and deleted my old file. I know I read somewhere that there would be new postgame Joja content to make the route as substantial as the community center one is, thus this seemed like the best idea for me to enjoy the new content. I also ended up joining a friend online in a new multiplayer farm as well where we’re trying out the meadow farm map with blue grass.

So far I’m right about where I left off from my last attempt at this beach farm before the update. I’m in the middle of the very first summer. I always play Stardew pretty slowly, I’m not an efficient farmer whatsoever. My house doesn’t have a kitchen yet and I’m still trying to decide what tool to upgrade first, now that I have the money to go with the copper bars. My pickaxe being so weak in the mines since I’ve reached the icy area, has been an annoyance. Also, watering crops by hand on the beach has been quite slow. Yet on the other hand, I want to upgrade my regular axe a few times asap so I can clear out the regular dirt area the beach farm has that’s full of giant logs, then I can set-up my crops with sprinklers. At the same time though, I might already be about to unlock the greenhouse by the time I would be able to upgrade my axe enough, so maybe I should just focus on my watering can and pickaxe after all. I’ve mostly been collecting the stuff required for the community center because I wanted to try and do it myself as much as possible for the various rewards, and then I plan to buy a Joja membership near the end. I figure maybe I’ll leave the hardest community center requirements, like a lot of the fishing, left undone and buy my membership once I’ve at least donated all of the required farming and mining related items. – Jenae

I’ve been doing a lot of retro gaming lately, both on original hardware and through recent remakes, and it’s been a ton of fun. My sister and I recently finished Lufia, which wasn’t as good as Lufia II but had a ton of charm all its own, and getting to see the evolution between the original and the sequel reminded me of just how much innovation happened during the SNES years. Jumping from that to Mega Man Legends on the PS1 was a different kind of reminder that those early years of 3D were rough when it came to control schemes. We opted to use the directional buttons for turning and the shoulder buttons for strafing, but even then controlling Mega Man around the 3D world comes with a major learning curve. The world of MML is incredibly charming, with that 90s dub you either love or hate, and wacky hijinks abound. The cast is impeccable, honestly. I understand now why Tron is so beloved. The comedy isn’t always a hit, but I have been having a great time watching these characters interact. The animations are also beautiful, and I adore Mega Man’s expressions. That being said, we eventually caved and used a GameShark code for invincibility so we could see more of the story rather than fight with the controls, though the safety buffer it provides has given me a lot more practice with the control scheme, since I do engage with it to the best of my ability. It’s fun when you get the hang of it, but it hurts my hands after extended periods. If ever a game would benefit from a remaster with modern controls, it’s Mega Man Legends. Maybe then I’d finally get to read the dirty magazines, too.

In modern retro news, I’ve been having a blast with the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake. What a stunning glowup that retains the charms of its NES roots. I’m too old and busy to deal with the grindy nature of the RPGs I grew up with, so having some nice QoL updates here have made playing it incredibly comfy while remaining nostalgic. It’s visually gorgeous, with colorful, vibrant locations, beautiful lighting, and fun voice acting that really gives the characters some pop. I went with the most basic setup of the hero, warrior, mage and healer, but I’ve only reached the second major hub so far, leaving me plenty of time to experiment with new party configurations. The Dragon Quest difficulty feels a tad on the easy side, but I know I don’t have the patience to move up to Draconian, so I’m pretty happy having this to sit back and relax with a couple hours a night. – Leah

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

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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Nexon has announced that they are releasing the Blue Archive Anniversary OSTs (1-Year Anniversary OST, 2-Year Anniversary OST, 2.5-Year Anniversary OST) on digital streaming platforms. They will be available for YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, JOOX, and kkbox on November 18 at 3:00 AM (UTC).

The track list for each OST is as follows (the format is Song Name – Artist):

1-Year Anniversary OST

1. Constant Moderato – Mitsukiyo
2. Midsummer cat – Mitsukiyo
3. Connected Sky – KARUT
4. Shooting Stars – KARUT
5. Step by Step – KARUT/TSK
6. MX Adventure – Mitsukiyo
7. Irasshaimase – Mitsukiyo
8. Daily Routine 247 – Nor
9. Future Bossa – Mitsukiyo
10. Lemonade Diary – Mitsukiyo
11. Plug and Play – KARUT
12. Water Drop – KARUT
13. Signal of Abydos – Nor
14. Sugar story – Nor
15. ARES – Nor
16. Vibes – Nor
17. Future Lab – Nor
18. After the Beep – Nor
19. Rolling beat – Mitsukiyo
20. Accelerator – KARUT
21. Mischievous Step – Mitsukiyo
22. Mechanical JUNGLE – KARUT
23. Virtual Storm – KARUT
24. Tech N Tech – KARUT
25. Party time – Mitsukiyo
26. Endless Carnival – Mitsukiyo
27. Fade Out – KARUT
28. Alert – KARUT
29. CrossFire – KARUT
30. Interface – KARUT
31. Out of Control – KARUT
32. Mechanical JUNGLE Hard Arrange – KARUT
33. Fearful Utopia – Nor
34. SAKURA PUNCH – Nor
35. Denshi Toujou! – KARUT
36. Kaiten Screw!!!! – KARUT
37. CrossFire Hard Arrange – KARUT
38. Fevertime – KARUT
39. Library of Omen – KARUT

2-Year Anniversary OST

1. Neo City Dive – KARUT
2. Pixel time – Mitsukiyo
3. Hue – KARUT
4. Koi is love – Mitsukiyo
5. Luminous memory – Mitsukiyo
6. Water Drop – KARUT
7. JACKPOT 777 – KARUT
8. Bunny Bunny Carrot Carrot – Mitsukiyo
9. OperationD – Nor
10. someday, sometime – KARUT
11. Colorful Mess – KARUT
12. Vivid Night – Nor
13. Snow Pantomime – Mitsukiyo
14. Barrier – KARUT
15. Black Suit – KARUT
16. Crucial Issue – Nor
17. Formless Dream – Mitsukiyo
18. Oxygen Destroyer – KARUT
19. Undefined Behavior – KARUT
20. GGF – Nor
21. Hello to Halo – Nor

2.5-Year Anniversary OST

1. Midnight Trip – Nor
2. Romantic Smile – Mitsukiyo
3. Guruguru Usagi – Mitsukiyo
4. Hifumi Daisuki – Mitsukiyo
5. Coffee Cats – Mitsukiyo
6. Lovely Picnic – Mitsukiyo
7. Honey Jam – Mitsukiyo
8. Dolce Biblioteca – Mitsukiyo
9. Colorful Beach – Mitsukiyo
10. After School Dessert – KARUT
11. FEEEEVER TIME – Nor
12. Walkthrough – Nor
13. Aira – Mitsukiyo
14. Aoharu – Nor
15. Glitch Street – KARUT
16. NRG FielD – KARUT
17. Alkaline Tears – Mitsukiyo
18. Kyrie Eleison – Mitsukiyo
19. Kaphar – Mitsukiyo
20. Morose Dreamer – Mitsukiyo
21. Agnus Dei – KARUT
22. Blood Stained Faith – KARUT
23. Codex of Omen – KARUT
24. RE Aoharu – Nor
25. Moment – Nor
26. Constant Moderato Piano Arrange – Mitsukiyo

Blue Archive is available now for Android and iOS mobile devices. The global version recently celebrated its 3rd anniversary on November 8. An anime adaptation of the game, Blue Archive The Animation, is available to watch with English subs on the global YouTube channel.

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Edelweiss and Marvelous have announced Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation, a spin-off of the hit action and farm simulation game, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. The spin-off follows Kokorowa after she meets a peculiar automaton named Takebina. Meet new gods and tackle this new adventure as Sakuna’s friend, Princess Kokorowa!

You can check out the announcement teaser below.

Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation is currently in development. Platforms and a release timeframe have not been announced at this time. If you’re interested in the game, you can check out its official website and follow XSEED Games and Edelweiss on their official X accounts.

The first game in the franchise, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC. You can check out what we thought of the game HERE.

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Manga

Rebuild World

Rebuild World is a manga I had come across about two year ago after a recommendation, though I admittedly dropped it after having read the first few chapters. Dystopian settings usually don’t draw my attention, however, there are elements of bio-manipulation and AI that were hard for me to overlook. After shelving it for some time, I now decided to give this manga another look, mainly because the light novel came to my attention recently. Simply, I wanted to refresh my memory before deciding as to whether I would give the first volume of the LN a try.

This manga, and its parent LN story, follows the journey of Akira, an orphan from the slums located at the edge between one of the remaining bastions of civilization and the rest of the dilapidated world. Humanity had reached its pinnacle with technology and bioengineering, however, said bio enhancement led to the near extinction of humanity. The world is now roamed by bio-techno- enhanced animals that stand guard over the old world ruins, full of technology and items that can make one tremendously wealthy in current society. Brave individuals, called hunters, set out into the old world for these relics in the hopes of riches and power.

Akira is one such individual, however, as an orphan from the slums, he is no hunter, and terribly underprepared to face the wilds of the old world. Desperation forces him out into this dystopia with a mere pistol, and when faced against bandits and those enhanced beasts, Akira can only run. Fate would then intervene when Akira is approached by a beautiful woman, one only he can see. This woman, an AI augmented reality projection named Alpha, immediately becomes his companion by commanding Akira to move, lest he wishes to die. Surviving an onslaught of lethal proportions, Alpha later explains that Akira is quite special to be able to see her and promises to help him. Now accompanied by this AI AR projection, Akira has a fighting chance in the world, yet the reasons for why Alpha offers to teach, guide, and protect Akira remain a mystery.

I have to say, I’m feeling the same intrigue that I once felt previously and maybe this time I’ll read a few more chapters of the manga. The same con that dissuaded me though, Akira’s dull, uninspired character, is something which I’m again finding difficult to overlook. I guess I’ll try to tolerate it, as the action and mystery of the world are attractive enough for now. – Drew D.

Flying Witch

I’ve liked this manga right from the start, with its themes of magic, mythology, and the supernatural. Flying Witch follows the light-hearted story of Matoko Kowata, a 15 year old witch-in-training. She moves in with her relatives in the countryside to continue her studies while also attending regular school. She’s incredibly casual about being a witch, as are her relatives, and soon many new classmates and friends learn of her abilities.

I think what truly makes this manga stand out is how it pulls off the slice-of-life genre so well. This is a story about a witch, yet it takes a poignant down-to-earth approach. We readers are made aware quickly that this is a very sweet, playful story that never takes the supernatural elements too seriously. Combining magic and the supernatural with slice-of-life themes and the overall inviting feel of charm and casualness are what I find most impressive, especially considering how easily the mangaka pulls this off, too.

The artwork is only a bit on the minimal side, but given the length of each chapter, it’s understandable. I do wish chapters released sooner than three months apart, but that’s just me being greedy and wanting more.

For those looking for an easy read with plenty of charm, light-hearted humor, and approachable fantasy elements, then I can most definitely recommend Flying Witch. – Drew D.

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!

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Empire of the Ants was originally a strategy game released in 2000 for PC. The game itself was based on a French novel called Les Fourmis, written by Bernard Weber. 24 years later, Microid has published a new game under the same title, but the gameplay has changed considerably. Is the new experience worth it?

You start the story campaign as 103,683rd, a red ant belonging to the warrior caste. Your ant can be considered a tactician rather than a fighter, as it will not fight other enemies directly, but will instead give orders to various legions of ants. You belong to a federation of anthills that is prosperous, but is about to face various crises threatening its balance. In order to protect your federation, you will have to complete various missions which can be divided into three categories: Strategy, Tactics, and Exploration. Strategy missions are the most common missions and make up the core of the game. They usually require you to develop an anthill and capture other nests, which will be used to collect resources, upgrade your troops, or develop your powers as a general, which will be needed to win. As you face new challenges, you will have to make good use of the strengths of your ants. The strengths and weaknesses of ants rely on a sort of weapons triangle, where warriors dominate workers but are weaker against artillery ants, which in turn are weak against workers. Two other types of units will help your troops, super predators and support units. Predators are other bugs which have been “tamed” by ants, like Dung Beetles or Hornets, which are  strong against all enemy ants.

You can only control one legion of super predators, but they make a real difference on the battlefield, and you will quickly want to have them. Support units, like snails or aphids, normally help your troops by providing a passive buff. You can control your units with a mouse or a controller, but even with a controller, the controls feel extremely intuitive. I played the game with a DualShock 4and I quickly got used to the controls, which is unusual for a real-time strategy (RTS), as the majority of RTS’ are better played with keyboard controls.

Like every RTS, the gameplay introduces resources to collect in order to develop your colony. Food and wood are generally collected by building farms in your anthills, or by sending your worker ants to collect items found in your environment, such as apples or pineapples. Sometimes, you may have to defeat some bugs, like firebugs, mantis or ladybugs. You generally win by destroying the enemy’s headquarters. Using special powers might help you achieve your goals, as you can acquire abilities that can, for example, temporarily increase the speed of your ants, give them a life shield, or increase their aggressiveness with pheromones. There are a lot of powers to acquire and they will be crucial during your battles. You will also have to pay attention to the weather, as the light, humidity and general weather impact all the troops on the battlefield, improving or reducing their efficiency as well as your powers.

Tactics missions use the same mechanics as Strategy missions, but they introduce specific conditions to win, such as having to resist waves of enemies, collecting resources in a limited amount of time, or escorting a unit. Finally, Exploration missions request you to collect information on your enemy or scan your environment. For example, you might find items used by humans, like balloons or tin cans, and have to scan them. You could also have to hunt butterflies or fireflies. While your ants are very smart, they cannot swim at all, which means you will quickly drown if you don’t pay attention. Fortunately, your ant can run and jump, which will help you overcome any obstacle.

If you struggle with a mission, you are generally free to not complete it. The majority of missions are not mandatory, and you only have to achieve a certain number of missions to progress through each chapter of the history. If you struggle with Strategy, you could decide to focus on Exploration missions, for example. The gameplay, however, is not as elitist as it can be in some RTS’ like Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3 and you should be able to complete all missions if you persevere. I am generally not good at playing RTS’, but I was able to complete the campaign after playing for 40 hours. There is a multiplayer component, but I was unable to experience it.

Technically, the game runs fine and is well optimized. I played it with a PC using a 4070 Super NVIDIA Gpu, 32GB Ram and an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU. The game should be seen as an RTS which does not try to compete with references of the genre, but more as a strategy game which highlights the beauty of nature and the incredible intelligence of ants. Since the game is based on a book, it’s important to mention that the ants you will meet are depicted as more clever than in reality, which explains why they are able to tame various species of bugs or talk about diplomacy. The soundtracks are very relaxing, and you will never find them repetitive. The gameplay might look simple at first glance, but as you play you get to learn more about the depth of its mechanics.

I had a great experience with Empire of the Ants and it might be the best RTS released this year, so far, as well as one the most beautiful and fun games of the year. The game costs $39.99 or $49.99 if you want to buy the Deluxe edition. You can confidently get the standard edition now as the game has solid content to experience.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

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Denneko Yuugi, the developer behind the Machina of the Planet Tree games, have announced that their upcoming 3D action roguelite, Eternal Palace Sakura, will be heading to Steam in the latter half of 2025. It is part of the Machina of the Planet Tree series. The player controls Retla, a brown-skinned, cat-eared girl wielding dual blades, as she battles her way through dungeons, getting stronger along the way.

You can check out a gameplay PV below.

You can check out screenshots via the game’s official website below.

Eternal Palace Sakura will release with support for multiple languages including Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. A demo is also planned for release in June of 2025.  If you’re interested in the game, you can follow Denneko Yuugi on X and wishlist the game on Steam now.

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Being a fan of the Neptunia franchise, I was pretty excited to finally get around to Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. I had some health problems earlier in the year, so I missed out on the previous releases, so I was more than happy to take a look at this on Xbox Series S. Let’s see if I created fantastic video games with the girls, or if the entire game is just one big bomb.

The story here follows Big Neptune as she has once again wandered into a new dimension. This time games rule everything and the makers keep the world in balance. She soon finds herself as the CEO of a defunct game studio run by some failed Goddesses. Can she help restore this studio to its former glory and help these Goddesses on their road to redemption?

Overall, I really had a blast with the story this time around. The new characters Jagaa, Pippih and Reedio were all great additions to the fantastic Neptunia cast. In case you can’t tell from their names, these girls are based on failed consoles in Japan. Jagaa is the Jaguar, Reedio is the 3DO, and Pippih is the Apple Pippin. They bring this front and center throughout the story as Jagaa says “Do The Math” constantly, which was an old ad for Jaguar even here in the states. The girls interact with each other very well and Big Nep adds a great dynamic to this foursome. Which is good since we see a lot more from them than our beloved Consoles Goddesses and their Sisters. Though that is kind of a shame since I think those girls playing off each other is always the best.

Graphically, Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution looks pretty good. All of the character models are nicely done and stages have plenty of details, as well. Though, you will notice a lot of these have been reused from the Sisters VS. Sisters game that released a while back. Personally, I don’t have an issue with this, but some folks that don’t like reused assets may take issue with it. The game ran great on the Series S with no frame drops on my 4K TV.

Now, let’s dig into the gameplay. The first thing you will want to do as the new president of this company is make some games. This is where disc development comes into play. You will choose some developers based on their skills in the genre you’re trying to make and create game discs. The more skilled these creators are and the more upgrades you’ve unlocked, the better the game is you create. These will be packed with skills that can be used in combat if equipped on the girls just like in previous games, so it pays to make a few good ones as soon as you can.

Next, you will want to explore dungeons in each area to establish trade routes to increase your shares. This is pretty simple, just explore each one to the fullest, and I would suggest clearing out all the treasures while you’re in there as well. Once fully explored, you unlock time trials for Big Nep on her bike or races against one of the enemies in the stage. Winning these will grant you some rewards that help you develop better discs.

Combat is a lot like what was found in Neptunia: Sisters VS. Sisters. Players can equip moves to either the X or A buttons and thrash your enemies to pieces. There are a bunch of different moves to choose from and you will unlock these as you level up. You can tag in other party members after so many moves to continue the combo by pressing one of the four directions on the D-Pad. Doing this will get you a lot of bonus damage and help you defeat even the toughest foes, but if you ever need more, each girl has a big EXE Drive they can use when the Link Gauge is full and can also transform into their Goddess mode for even more damage during attacks.

Overall, I had a great time with Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. The story was great, I love the new characters, and even if the combat hasn’t changed from the last game, it’s still a lot of fun. I spent about 30 hours with this one and completed the main story. You could invest a lot more time in this if you wanted to do both of the towers and all of the fights in the battle arena, so I feel like it is well worth the $49.99 price tag. I do think it’s a bummer the swimsuits are once again locked to the Special Edition release at $69.99, they should allow you to purchase these separately and I hope they do at some point. Still, Neptunia fans will find a lot to love here, and this is also a good jumping in point for new fans on the Xbox as well.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

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Kotobukiya has produced many Trails series figures as of late, including for characters such as Estelle Bright, Rean Schwarzer, Tio Plato, and more. In addition to these already released characters, they are also currently working on figures for Joshua Bright and Elaine Auclair. Now, a new character from the Calvard arc will be joining the figure lineup. Shizuna Rem Misurugi, known as the Divine Blade of Silver, will be receiving her own figure. While not much has been shown of her figure, Kotobukiya has shared sneak peeks of the prototype. You can check those out below.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak was published by NIS America in the west and launched on July 5th, 2024. Its sequel, Trails through Daybreak II, is currently scheduled to launch in the west on February 14, 2024. The latest game in the series, The Legend of Heroes: Kai no Kiseki -Farewell, O Zemuria-, launched in Japan on September 26th, 2024.

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About The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II

No longer threatened by the mafia organization Almata, the people of Calvard have returned to their peaceful lives. But one day, a shocking series of murders involving a mysterious crimson beast sets the wheels of fate in motion once again. Various factions spring into action – both those who abide by the law to uncover the truth and those looking to capitalize on any new developments wherever possible, no matter how sinister. With chaos once again looming on the horizon, the spriggan Van Arkride receives an unexpected visitor, prompting his own investigation.

Who is behind the murders, and what is their goal? The sands of time bring old and new faces together for this thrilling second installment in the Trails through Daybreak saga.

The post Trails through Daybreak II – Story Overview Trailer appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since way back when it started on the NES. I’ve seen the series grow in many ways, and go in some directions that I didn’t really care for over all these years. That being said, I wanted to see how the latest entry, Final Fantasy XVI, stacked up when the PC version was released. I was also curious to see how my mid ranged gaming rig would hold up to this beast of a game. Let’s dig in and see what I found.

The story takes place in the land of Valisthea. These lands are divided into six nations that hold their power due to the use of magical crystals. Things begin to heat up when a strange blight begins draining the very Aether from the land. A young man named Clive Rosfield, who is the guardian to his younger brother Joshua, finds himself wrapped up in this conflict very early. With their kingdom destroyed and Clive made a slave, we will witness where life takes him and the greater destiny ahead of him.

While the story here was much darker than previous games in the franchise, I actually really enjoyed it by the end. Seeing Clive grow throughout his adventure and overcome the struggles of not only accepting his past, but learning from it was actually quite refreshing. This game may have the best version of Cid ever and his dialogue gives a lot of flavor to a story that is dead serious most of the time. I do feel that the latter part of the adventure seemed to drag on a bit longer than it should’ve, but in the end this is an adventure worth taking.

Final Fantasy XVI is a very linear experience. You will move from one story mission to the next, progressing through this fantastic tale through many cutscenes. That’s not to say there isn’t anything else to do here. There are plenty of side quests with interesting stories of their own you can partake in. You can get some nice rewards from some of these as well. This makes them great for not only the world building, but for the nice spoils as well.

The biggest change here is in the combat; everything here is fully action based. Clive is the only party member you fully control, though you can issue commands to your dog, Torgal, who helps you in battle no matter how crazy the foe is you’re facing. You will want to try and stagger your foes with slash attacks and access elemental abilities from Eikons you have collected. These skills are invaluable in combat since they will help you take on even the toughest foes. Skilled players can get advantages in combat from perfect dodges and parries, making things a lot easier. For those of us not very skilled at action combat, Square has included a story based mode which automates much of the combat. This mode is basically press Square and win, but if you want to mix things up you can leave the action combat on and use some of the assist items that will help you dodge, parry or even automatically use items in combat. I thought this was a great way to do this since it gives players the ability to set combat up anyway they like.

In the sound department Final Fantasy XVI is just simply fantastic. The entire soundtrack is amazing, from the high powered battle themes to the more somber themes as you explore towns or just chill at the Hideaway. You can unlock these tracks to listen to anytime at the Hideaway using in game currency, completing quests and some even are even found in treasure chests. I played the game with the English cast and I thought they did an amazing job bringing these characters to life. This game would’ve fallen apart without them given just how much of the story is told through the cutscenes, so if the actors did a bad job, you would’ve never got immersed into the story.

Now let’s talk about how this PC port performs. I have a Ryzen 5 5600x and plain ole RTX 3060, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to work when I installed the game, but I have to say overall things went quite well. I did have to run the game with FSR and at 1080p, but I was able to keep high settings and the game mostly ran around 60fps. There are some busy areas that would tank the framerate, but even then it never got below 30fps. I thought the Eikon battles might be an issue for this card, but honestly they ran really well, which surprised me a bit, but I was pretty pleased with the results overall. The last patch they put out makes it so the shadows take more of a hit when you go down to medium settings, so if you’re looking to squeeze out a few more FPS with a minimal hit to your overall look that would be the way to go.

Overall I had a pretty good time with Final Fantasy XVI on PC. I really loved the story and watching Clive’s grand adventure made me really think about things several times. The music is top tier and the very customizable combat is just a lot of fun. I haven’t had this much fun with a combat system since Nier: Automata. I put about 47 hours into the game and complete both of the DLC quests as well. I feel like fans of Final Fantasy will enjoy this one at its $69.99 price tag for the complete edition with all of the DLC. It’s another grand adventure for the franchise, and I have to wonder what the next entry here is going to look like. Will we go back to a more futuristic look or keep our medieval roots? Only time will tell.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review. You can read oprainfall’s PS5 review of the game here.

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Oh how innocent I was a few weeks ago. I haven’t been following Orange Season too closely honestly, but I do believe I was following the game’s official account on social media for a while and when I’d see the occasional screenshot, I was pretty intrigued. I thought this would be a fun, relaxing fall review I could enjoy spending a few weeks on. I won’t waste any time keeping you in the dark. I don’t have much good to say about Orange Season. I spent all of five hours on it and was already regretting asking to review this one after only the first 20 minutes of playing it, due to the issues it has.

First, let’s discuss what kind of game Orange Season is. Orange Season is an indie farming game. Like other farming sims, your character moves to a new town to live the charming, rural farm life. You’re dropped off at your farm, told to greet everyone in town and take care of your farm, of course. I went into this review assuming there would be some big goal like most farming games have: for example, making the town more popular and bringing in new tourists, or restoring a community center. Well from what little I was able to put up with playing Orange Season, I never actually found out if there was some larger goal beyond making your farm a success. I started off cleaning up the area you get for planting crops and got stuck at least once in the middle of a rock.

After planting a few starting crops and cleaning up the area some, I spent my time hunting all over town looking for new characters to greet and introduce myself as the new farmer in town. This is where the biggest issue came into play and a large part of why I refused to spend anymore than five hours on Orange Season. So when the map is actually working, it’s not the most helpful. The main town area where most of the characters live and hangout regularly is quite large. I don’t know that I’ve played many farming sims with a town this large. Now you’d expect that the map would help you locate characters around town; however, as you can see in the picture above, you’re merely told who’s in which section of town at any given time and I found no way to actually pull up a legitimate diagram of the town to locate these people. You only know which separate, large section they’re in and seemingly if they’re in a building or not. I saw some of the characters had a blue house symbol so I figured maybe that meant they were in their homes. Still, a majority of the houses were seemingly locked at all times as well. I imagine this could be a feature where you have to get to know the characters better to be allowed into their homes, but it was quite obnoxious and made tracking them down near impossible.

Anyway, not only was the map an extremely bare minimum of any use to me, but it constantly would glitch and become 100 percent useless. I could open the map and it’d be fine, and two minutes later open it again and the map was completely blank. No section would be highlighted, I wouldn’t see any faces of who was in the area and the cursor to move between the sections on the map was gone. Plus, the map glitching like this required a full game reset. By that I mean, I had to close out and re-open the game to fix it, only for it to glitch again less than five minutes into starting the game back up. This is a farming game where characters are constantly giving you requests to complete and you need to be able to reliably track them down. I found myself spending multiple game days simply trying to find them all at least once and greet everyone for the first quest. Then there were four characters who told me to come find them once I had and they would give me new quests, which again, I’d have to track down various characters for later to complete.

The map glitching out was only one of two big issues I had. You may have noticed earlier I mentioned getting stuck in the middle of a rock. My character got stuck quite a lot as if there was an invisible barrier all around and I’d have to wriggle my way out as best I could. I got stuck on rocks, I got stuck in a circle of trees and I often got stuck on houses. Houses you can even phase into while wriggling around trying to escape. To get off the house, away from the invisible barrier, I’d have to go up into it and then keep coming back down trying to dislodge my character. I’ve included a clip above of one occasion where this occurred. Then when I accidentally opened my map while randomly pressing buttons to try to get unstuck, the map had gone blank yet again. I even once got stuck at the very edge of the fishing dock on a lake and went on an adventure walking across the lake. The lake has this treasure floating on a wooden plank and I thought to myself, “Why not go get that treasure while I’m stuck out here?” But alas, another invisible wall made this impossible and I was not allowed to go check out the treasure while stuck on top of this lake. So I went back to the dock and wriggled all around trying to get back on and away from it.

Aside from the two big glitches that made this game completely unplayable for me, I still didn’t really enjoy it otherwise. Planting crops and growing stuff worked alright. But only the watering can and hoe had any guide for which square on the ground they were targeting. Also, trying to target anything properly seemed like you had to be at a very specific angle to do so. When I would walk right up to doors they wouldn’t activate very easily, neither to let me open them nor to get the being locked notice. I would have to move my character around a bit and come at them not quite right up front and be at the perfect angle. Not only that, but planting seeds doesn’t even have a targeting square, you kind of just hit the tool button as you walk around the dirt you used the hoe on and hope your seeds plant in the spot you want. One more issue I had was that I couldn’t cycle through the calendar and check the dates on the calendar page of the menu. It seemed there was no way to do anything with that menu, the only thing viewable is when the next festival is. I couldn’t figure out a way to physically move a cursor across the dates.

I truly went into this thinking it would be a fun farming game for fall. Even after I was disappointed and regretted asking for it in those first 20 minutes of gameplay, I still thought I could at least get through a full game year and then make my judgments after I gave it a shot. Unfortunately, the main two glitches in this game made it the most frustrating, impossible disaster I have ever reviewed. Now, I wanted to give the developers the benefit of the doubt, but then I went and looked up how long the game had been in Early Access on Steam. This game came out as an Early Access title in early 2017 and now over seven years later it’s finally received a full retail release, and they’re charging $29.99 for brand new console versions of the game. Sure, they may fix these issues later and it can become a game worth playing. Truthfully, I loved the atmosphere and I thought Orange Season was a very attractive game visually. I also had fun with the fishing gameplay. But the fact that after seven years of testing and polishing, this is the game they’re charging 30 bucks for, is utterly ridiculous. I refuse to waste anymore time giving this game and the developers the benefit of the doubt and I cannot recommend Orange Season whatsoever. I believe fans of cozy games or farming sims specifically are better off spending their money elsewhere.

Review Score
Overall

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If you’d like to know more about Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, visit the game’s official website.

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During the STEINS;GATE 15th Live -One World-, an event celebrating the 15th anniversary of the visual novel, a new title was announced. STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT, a remake of the original visual novel, is scheduled to release in 2025. It will be based off the original visual novel, not the more recent Elite release, and will feature new graphics and additional story. The visual novel’s original character designer, huke, returns to work on RE:BOOT.

You can check out the announcement teaser and some screenshots from the teaser below.

Based on the images in the teaser, the announced cast is as follows:

• Miyano Mamoru as Okabe Rintaro
• Seki Tomokazu as Hashida Itaru
• Imai Asami as Makise Kurisu
• Hanazawa Kana as Shiina Mayuri
• Tamura Yukari as Amane Suzuha
• Momoi Haruko as Feris NyanNyan
• Kobayashi Yu as Urushibara Luka
• Goto Saori as Kiryu Moeka

STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT is scheduled to launch in 2025. No platforms have been announced at this time. If you’re interested in the new title, you can check out the Science Adventure series’ official website and follow their official X account.

SOURCES: Famitsu, Science Adventure series X account

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Ys X: Nordics, the latest entry chronicling the adventures of Adol Christin, is now available in North America and Europe on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG).

You can check out the launch trailer below.

Ys X is available both physically and digitally. A physical limited edition for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch is available via NIS America’s Online Store. The limited edition costs $104.99 and comes with a physical copy of the game, a mini soundtrack, mini art book, a sling bag, a metal pin, and a postcard set.

NIS America describes the game as follows:

About Ys X: Nordics:

Following their tenuous encounter at sea, the young red-haired adventurer Adol Christin and the proud pirate Karja Balta find themselves bound by fate – and the mysterious power of Mana! As they search for a way to undo the mystical ties that bind them, they soon find themselves caught up in a conflict between two factions: the seafaring warriors known as the Normans and the enigmatic and seemingly immortal Griegr. In order to save the people of Obelia Gulf, Adol and Karja must navigate the depths of their unexpected bond and the power that it grants them.

Key Details:

• Two Heroes, One Story: Bound by unexpected circumstances, the young adventurer Adol and the Norman pirate Karja must work together to determine the fate of Obelia Gulf and its people.
• Cross Action System: Swap between controlling Adol and Karja independently or together. Combine their unique strengths to overcome enemies, and build up the Revenge Gauge to unleash devastating attacks.
• The Power of Mana: Harness the unique abilities of Mana to overcome challenges. Grapple and slide through dungeons, demolish obstacles, create new platforms, and uncover hidden treasures and critical points.
• Sailor’s Delight: The sailing ship known as the Sandras takes your exploration to new levels. Ocean travel, naval battles, and discovering uncharted islands are all made possible with this seaworthy vessel.

If you’re interested in Ys X: Nordics, you can try out a demo of the game on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC (Steam). You can play from the Prologue up to partway through Chapter 3. Demo save data can be carried over to the full game. You can also check out my review and see what I thought of the game.

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Take the fall for a murder and emerge from prison 10 years later to yakuza clans on the brink of a war that hurtles you on an intense journey of love, humanity, and betrayal. Fueled by your fists and unyielding resolve, fight your way through a bustling red-light district in modern day Japan.

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The action RPG, brings Shiki, Rebecca, Weisz, Homura and other beloved characters from the popular manga for all to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC(Steam/Windows).

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When this week’s Cooking Eorzea column goes live, it will be the first day of this year’s Saints Wake event in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online. It will also be the start of the end of the year rush through October, November, and through the Starlight Celebration and into the Heavensturn.

It doesn’t honestly feel like the holiday season is starting for me until the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Halloween-equivilent event begins, and then everything happens so fast that I find myself almost unable to keep up with it. I find myself organizing a pair of Secret Smilebringer events in real life, the weather turns incredibly cold, I travel to see people, I shop for sales, and I wonder how I am going to make the next year better than the year that just passed as I somehow also find the time to squeeze in doing the fun little events that happen in game.

Somehow, I will still find time to write this column as we go along through the busy upcoming holidays.

Now, if only I could figure out a costume to wear…

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

Recipe of the Week

This week’s side dish comes from the Thanalan region and it has a ‘Medium’ difficulty! While this is the 50th dish in the cookbook, it is only the 49th one I’ve made. I am deliberately waiting to make The Minstrel’s Ballad: Almond Cream Croissants until the very end of the column, since it has an Extreme difficulty rating.

I have never used arborio rice in a dish, let alone making risotto of any sort. I was honestly quite excited to see a dish that often gets featured in cooking competitions on TV, and I was extremely hopeful that I would be able to make it with no issues.

Anyway, here is what the Cheese Risotto is supposed to look like:

Featured Ingredient of the Week

Arborio rice is an Italian rice used in making risotto and rice pudding. Normally, when I use rice in a recipe, I first cook it in a rice cooker. Making cheese risotto was the first time I’ve ever used rice raw within a recipe, and I honestly found that to be so unique to use. All of this made me want to pick arborio rice as my ingredient of the week for this week!

My Cooking Attempt

First, a shot of all the ingredients used for Cheese Risotto:

First, I peeled and minced up the parsnips. This week’s Cooking Eorzea column was actually the first time I have ever bought parsnips in my life.

Setting the parsnips aside, I next peeled and diced up the onion. I had forgotten how the tears from chopping up the onions sting in my eyes!

Finally, I minced up the garlic.

I then measured out the chicken broth, added in a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf, and brought it up to a boil.

While the chicken broth heated up, I shredded the Parmesan cheese wedge.

Once it was boiling, I put it on a different burner on low and then I got out another pan and melted butter into it.

Once the butter was melted, I added in the garlic, the parsnips, and the onions. I then blended them all together in the pan while they softened for about five minutes.

Once the vegetables were ready, I added in the arborio rice, and I stirred to coat the rice with the butter and vegetables. I then let it all sautée for a couple of minutes.

Once the rice was ready, I poured in a half cup of white wine and blended it in too. I kept blending it in until the white wine was fully absorbed by the arborio rice.

Next came the longest, most annoying part of the dish. I kept measuring out a half cup of the chicken broth (after I removed the rosemary sprig and bay leaf) and adding it to the main dish. Once I poured out the half cup, I would whisk it all together inside the pan to blend it all together. I would keep mixing it until all the liquid was absorbed. I would then repeat it again and again and again. The longer I worked, the more engorged the rice became, and the longer I had to stir into order to get all the liquid soaked up.

Once I FINALLY got all the broth used up, I took the pan off of the heat and added in the cottage cheese and the shredded Parmesan cheese.

I then sprinkled in pepper and salt on top for seasonings.

I then blended all of that together again.

I then scooped the cheese risotto out into a bowl and added the furikake on top.

And here is this week’s final Cooking Eorzea dish for Cheese Risotto!

I am going to be honest about this week’s Cooking Eorzea dish: I didn’t care for it. It wasn’t because the dish was bad – far from it – it was more the texture. It reminded me of thick porridge, and the parsnips and onions gave it a bit of a soft crunch on top of that. I didn’t care for how it felt in my mouth, to be honest. Additionally, I wish it was a lot cheesier than what it was!

Afterword

If I was to make this dish again, I would want to make it with a lot more cheese. I would probably also try to mince the parsnips up even more, as the soft crunch got distracting after a short bit. I would probably try to add in even more salt and pepper than I did to see if it enhances the flavor further. I just don’t know if I could get past the texture of the arborio rice when mixed in the other ingredients!

Alright, it’s time to run through the list of people that I want to thank for making this week’s column possible! First, 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 these recipes are actually supposed to look- including this week’s one for Cheese Risotto. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for this series on short notice. You should check him and his works out over on X– and you really should look at them!

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in both iterations of the game. Even though we are far and away into Dawntrail at the moment, it took the efforts of both to create Eorzea as it stands today.

Next Time, In November

Imam Bayildi is the next Side dish that I will be making in Cooking Eorzea!

I have never actually baked eggplants before, and so I am excited to work with it. Please be sure to return in November to see how the dish turns out!

Let us know in the comments below!

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