Get a sneak peak at 17-BIT’s mystical VR survival adventure ahead of its October 7th launch

Kyoto, Japan, October 5th 2021 – Japanese gaming documentary studio Archipel has released an all new video showcasing renowned illustrator Katsuya Terada’s contributions to 17-BIT’s upcoming primitive VR survival adventure Song in the Smoke. This follows Archipel’s previous Song in the Smoke documentary, The Call of Nature, which focused on creative director Jake Kazdal’s inspirations from Kyoto’s lush wilderness.

Katsuya Terada is best known for his illustrations for The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Blood: The Last Vampire, and The Monkey King. With Song in the Smoke, Terada creates a primordial wilderness unlike any other. Part survival game and part mysterious adventure, Song in the Smoke’s fantastical creatures and stylized scenery lend an eerie, otherworldly tone to an experience that’s both action-packed and intimate.

“Terada’s work has always evoked a sense of wonder and mystique to me,” said 17-BIT founder and creative lead Jake Kazdal. “It feels rough and beautiful, imaginative and timeless. I knew he’d be the perfect fit for the eerie, enchanting primitive vibe we were going for with Song in the Smoke, and he completely blew us away!”

Song in the Smoke utilizes VR to its full potential, allowing players to expertly identify threats with sound, sight, and smell. Use the world to your advantage, and stalk your prey from the tall grass. Intuitive VR controls let you line up the perfect shot with your bow, but be careful to listen out for the creatures that may be hunting you, or else you’ll have to fight for your life with clubs, sticks, or anything else you can get your hands on. 

Get ready to craft, forage, hunt, and fight to survive when Song in the Smoke launches on October 7th for PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift platforms.

Visit the Song in the Smoke website: http://17-bit.com/
Follow 17-BIT on Twitter: https://twitter.com/17_BIT
Like Song in the Smoke on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeventeenBit

About 17-BIT
Founded in 2009 as Haunted Temple Studios, 17-BIT began as a small Seattle studio composed of veterans from Sega Japan and EA Los Angeles. Since its inception, 17-BIT launched the turn-based tactics game Skulls of the Shogun, and the love letter to 1980s arcade shooters that was GALAK-Z. Now based in Kyoto, Japan, 17-BIT is developing its most ambitious title yet with the VR survival adventure Song in the Smoke, coming to PlayStation and Oculus in 2021.

About Oculus
The Oculus team at Facebook Reality Labs lets people defy distance—connecting with each other and the world—through world-class VR hardware and software. The Oculus content team pursues the creation of best-in-class games, narrative experiences, and new VR use-cases like fitness, productivity, and travel. Oculus joins other teams at FRL dedicated to cutting-edge research, computer vision, haptics, social interaction, and more. Facebook Reality Labs is committed to driving the state of the art forward through relentless innovation.

Set sail with Billy and Friend-Ship in the new adventure platformer out now on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch

LOS ANGELES — Oct. 5, 2021 — Manavoid Entertainment and Skybound Games have launched Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan today on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch for $29.99. Join Billy and a colorful cast of characters in a wholesome, family-friendly and accessible 2.5D adventure platformer featuring RPG, creature-collecting, and puzzle elements. When the evil Leviathan drains the World of Imagination of its colors, it’s up to Billy and their crew to use the power of empathy and acceptance to make friends, discover new experiences, and help bring color back to the once-bright land!

Check out the first 30 minutes of gameplay for Rainbow Billy below:

“Rainbow Billy is a hopepunk, universal coming-of-age story that explores relatable themes like empathy, compassion, inclusion, and self-identity” said Chris Chancey, CEO and President at Manavoid Entertainment. “This has been such a deeply personal journey for us as a team to create, and we’re so excited to finally share it with people of all kinds around the world!”

Key Features:

• Explore a World of Imagination: From dark caverns to remote islands on the stormy seas, discover a rich, wholesome world filled with treasure, friendship… and danger!
• Fantastic Adventure with Relatable Themes: Restore color to a monochrome world and help your friends be their true selves in a story about empathy, courage and friendship.
• Befriend & Collect Cute Creatures: Meet over 60 strange, lovable creatures and help them in non-violent encounters! Create your own unique team to save the day!
• Solve Intricate Color Puzzles: Each world is filled with clever challenges and secrets that unlock new areas to explore!
• Vibrant 2.5D Visual Style: Rainbow Billy’s art style blends the personality of modern 2D cartoon characters in an imaginative 3D world with an energetic soundtrack to match!
• Open Accessibility: Adjust your experience with a range of accessibility features like color blindness support, a dyslexia-friendly font, single joystick controls and more!
• Fish for Resources: Because who doesn’t love a fishing mini-game?!

For more on the game, visit www.RainbowBilly.com.

About ManaVoid Entertainment

Founded in 2014, ManaVoid Entertainment prides itself on producing video games that mix and match known genres, themes and mechanics to create new and innovative experiences with a twinge of nostalgia. Our latest game, Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan, was funded on Kickstarter early in development. Since then, we’ve won the Ubisoft Indie Series Grand Prize in 2019, received additional funding from the Canada Media Fund, and were selected in the Indie MegaBooth and nominated for Best of PAX East in 2020.

With over 20 people on the team, ManaVoid is composed of AAA veterans with past experience at Ubisoft, WB Games, Eidos-Square Enix and more, as well as talented developers hired straight out of Quebec’s many game development universities. We’re an equal opportunity employer and happy to have a diverse team working on a project driven by themes of inclusion! www.manavoid.com

About Skybound Games

Skybound Games is a division of Skybound Entertainment with the capabilities to produce, develop, and license video games. The team works closely with creators to expand their unique and exceptional IP to new platforms. The Skybound Games slate houses everything from indie projects to high-budget franchise titles, with recent games including Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Before Your Eyes and The Big Con.

Tribal city-builder with a survival twist builds towards release with another big content drop now live 

Auckland, New Zealand – October 05, 2021 – Outerdawn today announced that Goblins Of Elderstone’s new Heroes of Elderstone update is now live, populating the new tavern building with heroes that can be hired to aid you on your grand adventures and pillaging raids, as well as adding a host of other new features and fixes to the game. 

The new tavern building added in the update will be a place for heroes to congregate, giving you the opportunity to hire from a large selection of random and unique heroes to help defend your goblin village or provide powerful bonuses to a trek when assigned as their party’s leader. A new batch of heroes looking for an excuse to share their epic stories and down some goblin ales will wander into the tavern every in-game Summer, giving players a fresh batch to choose from.

Players might recognise some of the heroes, such as the Goblin Adventuring Party from the wonderful  Goblins! webcomic. There are also a selection of special goblin heroes designed by Kickstarter backers, as well as the appearance of a hero from Stormbane, the novel set in an alternate version of Elderstone.    

The Heroes of Elderstone update also adds a host of new features, balancing changes and bug fixes. Highlights include the addition of the new goblin traits Insomniac, Immune, Strong, Savage, Hot-Blooded, Hippie and Speedy, adding a layer of depth to the game’s intriguing tribal simulation systems, a new warning system for conditions and needs, and a new notification system for construction sites missing resources.    

This new content drop follows in the footsteps of the Gods of Elderstone update, which added a pantheon of gods to be worshipped and exploited for the betterment of goblin tribes careful to treat them well enough to avoid their mighty wrath. 

Players will be able to get a taste of what Goblins of Elderstone’s unique tribal-based city-building gameplay has to offer in person at the upcoming EGX event taking place between 7th- 10th October at ExCel, London, where the game will be playable.   

Goblins of Elderstone is currently available in Early Access on Steam for 19.99 USD / £15.49 / €16.79 with a final launch expected early next year. 

About Goblins of Elderstone
Goblins of Elderstone is a unique take on the city-building genre with a goblin-fuelled survival approach where nurturing tribal dynamics is key. Your emphasis is not only on buildings and commerce in your town, but on crafting the culture of its inhabitants and making sure they are happy. Treat your goblins well and they will (mostly) listen to you. Fail to meet their needs and expect them to riot, steal and kill each other. In addition to gathering resources and crafting structures, you must engage a layer of diplomacy as you navigate relationships with neighboring tribes, intrepid explorers, bandits, heroes and even gods. Your wits and skill at bartering/bribery negotiations, as well as the occasional pillaging, will help you transform Elderstone from a small village into an empire to be reckoned with.

Wishlist us on the Goblins of Elderstone Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/693580/Goblins_of_Elderstone/
Join our channel: https://discord.gg/ddheRnG
Like Lost Goblin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lostgoblin
Like Goblins of Elderstone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/goblinelder
Visit the Goblins of Elderstone website: https://www.outerdawn.com/games/goblins

About Outerdawn
Founded in 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand, Outerdawn was set up as a creative, and diverse centre of game development priding themselves on creativity, fun and freedom of ideas. Working hard whilst having fun, the Outerdawn team is full of passionate people whose diversity adds to the uniqueness of the company culture which thrives on collaboration, creativity and freedom of ideas.

On back of the success of the sale, Sulake and Azerion commit to 200% emissions offset for a negative carbon footprint

Helsinki, FI — October 5, 2021 — Sulake, part of the digital media platform Azerion, announced today the reveal of the Habbo Avatars collection after a successful launch last week of their first NFT sale. This marks a first from a major existing video game IP, with over 2500 collectors purchasing more than 10,000 randomly generated, unique Habbo avatars backed by Ethereum. The appearances of the randomly generated Habbo Avatars were revealed earlier today on Opensea.

Within 26 hours of the start of the public Dutch Auction through nft.habbo.com the entire collection had sold out, with 90% sold in the final 30 minutes of the auction, showing an incredible uptake in the NFT collectibles. The Habbo Avatars launch has been one of the most successful launches within the last 7 days and since the purchases were made before the Avatars were revealed, this demonstrates the huge desire to own iconic Habbo memorabilia.

As one of the original 3D virtual, social gaming worlds – the unofficial “OG Metaverse” – Habbo has 21+ years under its belt, which means 21+ years of maintaining a strong and passionate community over 300 million strong. The Habbo Avatars NFTs represent the evolution of video game asset trading and is the first major IP breaking into the Web 3.0 metaverse.

“We are extremely pleased with the success of our Habbo Avatars project and the support that we’ve seen from the community so far. This is truly a nostalgic product, and despite being 21+ years old and one of the original metaverses, the Habbo community is still a very large, passionate and active community throughout the world,” said Valtteri Karu, CEO of Sulake. “So rich is this sense of nostalgia that the Habbo Avatars themselves were not revealed to their new owners upon purchase until October 5th. It’s really been the driving force behind this train, and it’s exciting to see how excited people are about this next step in our evolution.”

In addition, as ethical stewardship of the environment is a major tenet for Sulake and Azerion, they have committed to go beyond carbon neutrality through a partnership with Offsetra, meaning that 200% of the carbon emissions produced in the minting process will be offset through various environmental programs such as Bull Run Forest Carbon and Agrocortex REDD Project.

Check out Sulake’s Offsetra profile page: https://offsetra.com/profile/sulake

For more information on Habbo:
Follow Habbo on Twitter: @Habbo
Join our channel for the latest updates: http://discord.gg/habbo-nft
For more info on Habbo’s work with Offsetra: https://offsetra.com/profile/sulake

About the Habbo Avatars Project
The Habbo Avatars project has been lovingly assembled by pixel artists, NFT enthusiasts and community-minded gamers from all over the planet. Collectors finally have a chance to own their unique piece of nostalgia from the internet as it existed in 2001

About Habbo and Sulake
Sulake is a social entertainment company focused on providing a safe and fun online service for self-expression through its games, Habbo and Hotel Hideaway. Sulake was founded in 2000 by a small team of passionate people and now after 21 years, Habbo is still one of the largest virtual communities in the world, reaching players all over the world each month. With paying customers in over 115 countries and over 850,000 active users a month, Habbo continues to be a hugely popular and globally recognised brand.

Sulake’s mission is to enable its users to meet new people, make friends and give them a place to create and share their user-generated content in fun virtual surroundings. Sulake is a leader in ensuring online safety for children and was acquired in 2020 by Dutch media and technology company Azerion. www.sulake.com

Australia – October 5, 2021 –Kingston Technology, a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced it has been ranked top third-party DRAM module supplier in the world, according to the latest rankings by revenue from analyst firm TrendForce (formerly DRAMeXchange). Kingston retains its number 1 position with an estimated 78.02% market share on $13.2B (USD) revenue. TrendForce states that Kingston increased revenue by 2.03% YOY marking the 18^th consecutive year that Kingston has held the top spot.

Kingston maintains its competitive advantage by working closely with its suppliers, partners, and customers to remain flexible and adapt to ever-changing needs and market conditions. A driving force to Kingston’s success is their working attitude of ‘Kingston Is With You’. As one of the leading buyers of DRAM chips in the world, Kingston saw an early need for memory chips in certain markets and took a proactive approach to secure additional components needed for the potential demand such as purchasing component inventory that was bogging down their partner’s warehouses. The popular thought in early 2020 was that the technology sector would slow down due to the pandemic, but Kingston took the initiative to be prepared for those segments that would require additional DRAM; work from home PCs, gaming memory, and server farms that needed more memory for the onslaught of online purchases and activity.

Additionally, with the next generation of DDR fast approaching, Kingston is primed to provide customers with the cutting-edge speeds of DDR5. Kingston’s strong relationship with Intel will help ensure “stride for stride” solutions with Intel’s latest product launches.

“TrendForce’s findings reflect the company’s continued growth and flexibility to tackle a challenging business climate” said Kingston. “Our leading position in the market allows us to collaborate closely with our partners and vendors, and to provide education and guidance on new technology, like 16Gbit modules and the upcoming DDR5 launch, to our customers.” For more information visit kingston.com.

Kingston can be found on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KingstonAPAC
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KingstonAPAC

About Kingston Technology

From big data, to laptops and PCs, to IoT-based devices like smart and wearable technology, to design-in and contract manufacturing, Kingston helps deliver the solutions used to live, work and play. The world’s largest PC makers and cloud-hosting companies depend on Kingston for their manufacturing needs, and our passion fuels the technology the world uses every day. We strive beyond our products to see the bigger picture, to meet the needs of our customers and offer solutions that make a difference. To learn more about how Kingston Is With You, visit Kingston.com.

#  #  #

Kingston and the Kingston logo are registered trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. IronKey is a registered trademark of Kingston Digital, Inc. Kingston FURY and the Kingston FURY logo are trademarks of Kingston Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CALABASAS, Calif. — Oct. 4, 2021 — 505 Games took Tokyo Game Show 2021 by storm with its Upcoming Titles Showcase and an appearance in the Xbox Live Stream. Check out Tokyo Game Show’s YouTube, Twitch, and Huya channels to watch recorded versions of 505 Games’ showcase.

505 Games’ first official TGS participation since forming a new team in Japan in 2020 shined a light on some of the publisher’s biggest upcoming projects. 

The minds behind the classic Suikoden RPG series at Rabbit & Bear Studios proudly presented the first look at town-building action RPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising’s PC gameplay. Watch here for a glimpse of the world, story, characters, and insight into Rising’s interactions with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, the highly-anticipated JRPG launching in 2023. 

Breathtaking world-crafting sandbox Grow: Song of the Evertree took the spotlight next, showing off its whimsical world on Nintendo Switch for the first time. Composer, BAFTA award nominee and Crunchyroll Award winner Kevin Penkin (Florence, Star Wars: Visions) offered an inside look at his stirring score. Create worlds and heal the Evertree when Grow launches Tuesday, Nov. 16 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. 

Co-op monster-raising JRPG Re:Legend debuted new Nintendo Switch footage with commentary from developer Magnus Games Studio. Rescue Party: Live!’s new trailer highlighted the fast-paced, fun Championship mode ahead of launching a demo on Steam Next Fest, playable until Thursday, Oct. 7. UNTURNED creator Nelson Sexton unveiled the zombie survival game’s upcoming Elver DLC and a PlayStation 5 and Xbox One X|S launch this winter. 505 Games also presented heartwarming footage of a 93-year-old grandfather, his grandson and their great time with 505’s acclaimed racing simulator, Assetto Corsa Competizione.

The Tokyo Game Show 2021 Xbox Live Stream provided 505 Games with another opportunity to highlight three other upcoming projects. Rabbit & Bear Studios showed a first look at Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising on Xbox. Re:Legend presented a new four-player gameplay trailer. First-person cyberpunk parkour action game Ghostrunner demonstrated the graphical enhancements that launched on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Watch 505 Games’ recorded broadcast on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Huya.

To learn about publisher 505 Games and its products, visit www.505games.com.

About 505 Games

505 Games, a Digital Bros’ subsidiary, is a global publisher focused on offering a broad selection of video games for players of all ages and skill levels. The company publishes and distributes premium and free-to-play games on console and PC platforms as well as mobile devices.

Publishing highlights include DEATH STRANDING (PC), Control, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Ghostrunner, Gems of War, Journey to the Savage Planet, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

505 Games has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, China and Japan. For more information on 505 Games and its products please visit 505games.com.

What:  Free Webinar for Parents: “Harnessing the Positive Power of Video Games” featuring Patricia Vance (ESRB President), Dr. Rachel Kowert (Research Psychologist, Author of A Parent’s Guide to Video Games) and Andy Robertson (Video Game Journalist, Author of Taming Gaming), moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov (Digital Parenting & Child Online Safety Expert).

Where:  Virtual, register here
 
Keynote Title: “Harnessing the Positive Power of Video Games”
 
When:  October 6, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM EST
 
Moderator:  Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov

Session Overview:   President of ESRB, Patricia Vance, sits down with fellow family video game experts—authors Dr. Rachel Kowert and Andy Robertson—to discuss how parents can create positive video game experiences for their kids. Parents will learn about:

• How playing video games can be beneficial for their children
• How to check ESRB ratings to pick games that are appropriate for the whole family
• Household rules and parental control settings that help manage which video games children are permitted to play, for how long, and with whom 
• Available resources supporting appropriate online interactions and accessibility
• And more

The webinar will be moderated by  Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov.

About ESRB:
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is the non-profit, self-regulatory body that assigns ratings for video games and apps so parents can make informed choices. The ESRB rating system encompasses guidance about age-appropriateness, content, and interactive elements. As part of its self-regulatory role for the video game industry the ESRB also enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible web and mobile privacy practices under its Privacy Certified program. ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
 

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Players will discover more than 40 playable songs, a cast of 20 original characters and virtual live concerts that the whole community can enjoy, available on Android and iOS

TOKYO, Japan – October 4, 2021 – Play and tap to the rhythm in the public beta for HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!. Today, SEGA and Colorful Palette announced they will run a global public beta starting from October 4 3:00PM PDT through October 19 3:00PM PDT. Players will discover 28 playable songs from the first day, with 13 additional songs added over the course of the public beta. Additionally, players will be invited to celebrate the birthday of Haruka Kiritani, member of idol group MORE MORE JUMP!, at a virtual live event within HASTUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!.
 
Starting today at 3:00PM PDT, players can access Hatsune Miku: COLORFUL STAGE! from the Google Play and Apple Stores to enter the public beta.

iOS TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/iC1N2cvV
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sega.ColorfulStage.en
 
HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! is a rhythm game featuring Hatsune Miku and her virtual friends, including virtual singers like Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, Megurine Luka, KAITO and MEIKO. At the full launch of the game later this year, players will discover a cast of 20 original characters, split into five bands, each with their own musical style and backstories. Hatsune Miku’s biggest hits, including “Tell Your World” by kz, “Melt” by ryo and “ROKI” by Mikito-P as well as brand new songs produced for the game will be featured in the game. Players will tap to the rhythm and face challenges with different difficulty modes for each track that can be played solo or with friends. By earning rewards and XP for completing challenges, players can level up and unlock additional character cards through the gacha system. HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! also offers players the chance to participate in virtual live performances from their favorite in-game bands and engage with the community, participate in online events and earn rewards such as exclusive stamps.
 
During the public beta, players will be able to play a select set of unit story chapters to discover character backgrounds, and collect crystals given away daily for gacha pulls.
 
Check out the official HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! Trailer here:

Stay tuned for news on the official HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE! social channels:

• Official Website: https://www.colorfulstage.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColorfulStageEN
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colorful_stage_en/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColorfulStageEN/ 

About Sega of America, Inc.
Sega of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA CORPORATION, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. Sega of America’s website is located at www.sega.com.

© SEGA / © Colorful Palette Inc. / © Crypton Future Media, INC.
www.piapro.net　 　　　　 　
All rights reserved.

About Colorful Palette Inc.
Colorful Palette Inc. develops and operates the mobile game “Project Sekai: Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku” in conjunction with SEGA Corporation (based in Tokyo Japan, COO: Yukio Sugino) under the corporate mission “To Keep Creating Contents to Color Your Life.”

About Crypton Future Media, Inc.
Crypton Future Media, Inc. is a music technology company based in Sapporo, Japan. Since our foundation in 1995, we are importing music software and BGM media, but also develop diverse music software, such as the singing voice synthesizer Hatsune Miku. We are also the official licensor of Hatsune Miku. Our company’s team philosophy is based on “Expressing ideas with sound”. We strongly believe in our mission to develop new sounds for the future world of music.

© Crypton Future Media, INC.

New Cutting-Edge Aircraft to be Deployed in ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN

As the Project Aces team continues to celebrate the 25 anniversary of the venerable ACE COMBAT franchise, they have developed a squad of new aircraft and are aiming to deploy them this fall for ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN fans to enjoy and exploit in dog fights. Known as the Cutting-Edge Aircraft Series, this DLC package will include:

• The F/A-18F Super Hornet Block III (The Boeing Company)
• The F-2A -Super Kai- (Lockheed Martin Corporation)
• The MiG-35D Super Fulcrum (Joint-Stock Company Russian Aircraft Corporation “MiG”)
• And skins and emblems of rival and protagonist units from previous games in the series

Set your flight plan for the following trailer to see these new combat aircraft in action: 

The ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN Cutting-Edge Aircraft Series DLC pack will be available in the Americas for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PCs via STEAM® in fall 2021. We’ll have more intel to share as we move closer to its deployment date.

STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN Now Available for Pre-Order Ahead of Launch on 18^th March 2022 Launch

LONDON (October 4, 2021) – As part of a Square Enix Ltd. broadcast at the Tokyo Game Show, the company hosted a STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN™ panel where developers from Square Enix and KOEI TECMO’s Team NINJA discussed the new action RPG, gave viewers a sneak peek at multiplayer gameplay and shared that player feedback from a trial version launched at E3 is guiding some key development decisions as they work toward a March 18, 2022 launch. 

Additionally, the company announced that fans can now pre-order the game here: https://www.square-enix-games.com/sopffo

Panelists Daisuke Inoue (Director, Square Enix), Hiroya Usuda (Director, Koei Tecmo Games), Nobumichi Kumabe (Director, Koei Tecmo Games) and Tetsuya Nomura (Creative Producer) thanked players for their support and participation, outlined the below key areas for improvement that were highlighted by survey respondents and confirmed that they will be included in the final version of the game. Players excited to sample a selection of these improvements can play the STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN TRIAL VERSION 2, which is available now on the PlayStation®5 console and Xbox Series X|S.

• Graphical Improvements – The team expressed their commitment to polishing and improving visuals ahead of release. Initial visual improvements are implemented in the currently available TRIAL VERSION 2.
• Dynamic Lighting – Gameplay footage shown during the broadcast highlighted the use of dynamic lighting, which will provide a more realistic and immersive gameplay experience in areas throughout the game.
• Combat Balancing – Adjustments to the ‘Lightbringer’ ability and tweaks to allies’ break gauge and MP recovery speeds are a few of the improvements implemented into TRIAL VERSION 2 to help create an exciting, high-risk high-reward battle system.
• Difficulty Level Adjustments – Players will be able to select from various difficulty levels which can suit their preferred playstyle: ‘Story’ for a more casual play experience, ‘Action’ for action-oriented gameplay, and ‘Hard” for those seeking a true challenge.
• AI Improvements – In addition to general improvements in AI combat for Jack’s allies, players can customize their teammates jobs, equipment and abilities, and can also utilize the ‘Resonance’ feature to boost the combat prowess of allies temporarily in battle.
• Framerate Improvements and 4K Rendering

The fully subtitled STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN TGS stream is available to view here:

A deep dive on improvements discussed during the broadcast is also available on the SQUARE ENIX Blog: https://sqex.link/n39b

Jack and His Companions—Jed, Neon, and Ash
STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN TRIAL VERSION 2 is available now through October 11, 2021 7:59 a.m. (PDT) / 3:59 p.m. (BST) on the PlayStation®5 console and Xbox Series X|S. Players will be able to experience an expanded version of the previously released TRIAL VERSION 1 and provide feedback via a survey. The survey will be open from now through October 18, 2021 7:59 a.m. (PDT) / 3:59 p.m. (BST) and will be accessible from the menu screen of game.

TRIAL VERSION 2 allows players to explore the Refrin Wetlands alongside a new ally, experience new playstyles in battle with the addition of multiple new jobs, and fight against an array of new enemies. This will also be the first opportunity for players to sample the game’s multiplayer function, allowing up to three people to play together and battle monsters as an online party. A look at the online multiplayer function new to TRIAL VERSION 2 is available to view on the TGS SOPFFO stream.
 
STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN will be available on PS5™, PS4™ Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC via the Epic Games Store on 18^th March 2022. The title is currently available for pre-order—more details can be found here: https://www.square-enix-games.com/sopffo
 
More information is available here: https://www.square-enix-games.com/sopffo