GamersHeroes Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:37 AM Allowing players to build a top-notch hospitality empire, the world of Evil Goose Games, GaveDev.ish, and Gamersky Games' Inn Tycoon has now fully released on Steam. The post Tavern–Management Inn Tycoon Now Fully Available on Steam appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
GamersHeroes Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:55 AM Celebrating some of the most ambitious games in development for your favorite classic consoles, Mega Cat Studios, MAGFest, and Indie Retro have revealed the finalists of the Super MAGFest 2026 Indie Retro Homebrew Showcase. The post Super MAGFest Indie Retro Homebrew Showcase 2026 Finalists Revealed appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
GamersHeroes Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:19 AM A bold, visually striking remake of 2000's DRAGON QUEST VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, Square Enix and HEXADRIVE's DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined is set to feature new storylines. The post DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined Featuring New Storylines appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
GamersHeroes Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:57 AM Hailing from the BrokenLore saga, a psychological horror tale of cyberbullying, identity loss, and emotional isolation awaits when Serafini Productions and Shochiku Games' BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW launches worldwide January 16. The post BrokenLore: UNFOLLOW Launching Worldwide January 16 appeared first on GamersHeroes. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:55 AM
For a limited time, you can save big on the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models of the Crucial BX500 Internal SSD. The post Crucial BX500 SSD Hits Record Low at $0.07 per GB, Making Storage Feel Practically Free appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:39 AM
The Death Stranding 2 director wanted to correct 'misunderstandings' on social media The post Hideo Kojima Deletes Photo And Distances Himself From Cartoonist After Political Backlash appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:36 AM
Despite the title, the movie draws inspiration from several Mario games The post Six Takeaways From The <em>Super Mario Galaxy Movie</em> Trailer appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:25 AM
Save 25% on the Anker Prime Docking Station with an LED smart display for a limited time. The post This Anker Docking Station Featuring 14 Ports Hits an All-Time Low With Early Black Friday Discount Despite Being a Brand-New Model appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:00 AM
Also: Outer Worlds 2 gets a massive patch, Borderlands 4 is flooded with good guns, and Sega did something not terrible The post <i>Avatar: Fire And Ash</i> Is Over Three Hours Long, So Go To The Bathroom First appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:57 AM
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer shows a side of Mario I really didn't like The post Hang On, Why Is Mario Being Such A Jerk In <i>The Super Mario Galaxy Movie</i>'s Trailer? appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:55 AM
The IWGB is moving forward with legal claims over allegations of union-busting The post Union Goes To Court After Rockstar Refuses To Discuss <i>GTA 6</i> Firings appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:55 AM
Ahead of Black Friday, save 25% on the Blackview MP100 mini PC over at Amazon. The post Forget Mac Mini, Amazon Clears Out This AMD Ryzen 7430U Mini PC at an All-Time Low and 3-Year Warranty Included appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:25 AM
It's time to treat yourself to an early holiday present. The post ASUS Goes All-In for Black Friday as Its 2025 ROG Strix G16 (RTX 5060) Gaming Laptop Drops Lower Than Ever appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:17 AM
Get ready for a new frontier, and new threats The post <i>Arc Raiders</i> Is Getting A New Map But Players Have To Work To Unlock It appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:04 AM
Fans were not amused by skins that cost half the price of the game The post <i>Arc Raiders</i> Lowering Skin Prices And Issuing Refunds After Backlash appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:55 AM
Being productive and streaming on the go has never been cheaper. The post Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ Just Hit a Price Apple Would Never Offer, Selling Out Fast After 10K+ Units Sold appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:25 AM
For a limited time, you can save $100 on the Amazon Fire TV 40" 2-Series HD television. The post Amazon's 40″ Fire TV Already Matches Last Year's Black Friday Price, Practically Free Right Now appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:08 AM
The sequel is coming to theaters in April The post First <em>Super Mario Galaxy Movie</em> Trailer Shows Bowser Jr., Rosalina, And More appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 8:57 AM
The Now You See Me: Now You Don't bucket designer understood the assignment The post This Is One Of The Most Clever Novelty Popcorn Buckets I've Seen appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 8:55 AM
Early Black Friday deals are here, and it's the perfect time to snag a high-end gaming laptop for less. The post Alienware's 2025 Aurora 16 Laptop With NVIDIA RTX 5060 Hits All-Time Low, Hundreds Off Before Black Friday appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 8:53 AM
Nexon doubles down on AI as others balk The post <i>Arc Raiders</i> Publisher Defends Generative AI And Says You Should Assume Everyone's Using It appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 8:25 AM
LG's brightest OLED gaming monitor delivers 280Hz speed with true blacks, and it's selling at a new record low price. The post LG Quietly Drops Its 27″ 280Hz OLED Gaming Monitor, Now Hitting Record Low for Early Black Friday appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Wednesday, November 12, 2025 7:45 AM
Build the iconic Millennium Falcon LEGO set with 921 pieces. The post Amazon Quietly Drops LEGO Star Wars Sets, Millennium Falcon Now Going for Mere Cents appeared first on Kotaku. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:31 AM Following months of leaks, AMD has finally confirmed that its future CPU architecture will be called Zen 7, after its upcoming Zen 6 chips. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:23 AM Half-Life Insecure follows the events of the Black Mesa incident from another perspective, and the mod is finally finished after four years. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:41 AM Mecha Break producer Kris Kwok addresses the free-to-play mech game's player base as it attempts to set a new course for future updates. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:56 AM Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 didn't release in the best state, but its new patch and roadmap suggest key issues will soon be fixed. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:02 AM By packing its game performance-boosting 3D V-Cache tech into a new budget gaming CPU, AMD is bringing X3D on AM5 to its lowest ever price. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:00 AM The Arc Raiders Breaking New Ground event will have us repairing old tunnels, but the pay off is more than worth the collective toil. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 8:19 AM As Escape From Tarkov nears its long-awaited 1.0 release, Battlestate Games' COO Nikita Buyanov tells us why the extraction shooter will stay true to its hardcore roots. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 7:44 AM The Star Citizen alpha 4.4 PTU patch notes are here as the new update arrives in testing, and those annoying RNG-based injuries are gone. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 7:26 AM With a blazing fast 14,800MB/s read speed and available in capacities from 1TB all the way up to 8TB, this Samsung SSD is fantastic value. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 7:19 AM Dispatch episodes seven and eight will tie off Robert Robertson III's time in the dispatch box, but I'm absolutely ravenous for more. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:35 AM After receiving a concerned email from a World of Warcraft Classic player, game director Ion Hazzikostas offers much-needed reassurance. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:24 AM New Age of Wonders 4 DLC Thrones of Blood lets you live out the vampire lord fantasy, while the Gargoyle Update welcomes new players in. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:07 AM Marrying the breakneck pace of Call of Duty's Zombies mode with the tension of DMZ, Black Ops 7 Endgame could very well be onto a winner. |
PCGamesN Wednesday, November 12, 2025 5:36 AM The Whispers in the Woods DLC is the perfect excuse to return to Pacific Drive, and its horror is worth the pain of its new systems. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 12:00 PM  Yesterday the handsome daredevils at Eurogamer, and in particular that arch-instigator of Discourse, Rick "also freelances for RPS" Lane, published a review of extraction shooter Arc Raiders in which they gave it 2 stars out of 5. I realise none of you treehouse regulars speak Eurogamish, so for clarity, I am not talking about massive hydrogen reactions in outer space. This is what they call a "scoring system", whereby videogames are transformed into numbers and symbols that are made to fight each other for our entertainment. Some say this is the Real Videogame. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:24 AM  GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games have had legal claims filed against them by the UK's IWGB union, with the latter alleging that Rockstar have so far declined to meet with them for negotiations following the recent firing of over 30 workers. The initial reason given by Rockstar for those firings was "gross misconduct", with the company subsequently claiming that the staff had shared confidential info in a public forum. The IWGB, meanwhile, have accused Rockstar of union busting. Protests spearheaded by the union took place outside Rockstar North and Take-Two's UK offices last week, and you can read our reports from both here and here. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:00 AM  Back in my university days, a few friends and I played Yulgang Online, also known as Scions of Fate. An early 2000s Korean MMORPG with a Chinese martial arts theme, Yulgang was one of dozens of free MMOs we dabbled in. While we never got beyond the "kill X number of things to level up" grind, it was novel to run around in a wuxia-themed world, which was a rarity in localised-into-English PC gaming back then. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:01 AM  Doings are afoot in the retrofuture scrapmetal world of Arc Raiders. Developers Embark have announced that a major new update called North Line will roll out tomorrow, 13th November at 1.30am PT, 4.30am ET, 9.30am GMT and 10.30am CET. It'll add Stella Montis, a region beyond the Rust Belt that is described as "cold, pristine, and filled with the remnants of humanity's lost ambitions." I am picturing a landscape awash with Betamax cassettes, Bored Apes and Soviet space shuttles, where Raiders pick through old branches of Toys R Us. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:52 AM  A teardrop of bog bordered by slithers of fertile ground. The locals call it Natrixia – I call it Sausage Island, and it's at the heart of my domain in Anno 117: Pax Romana. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:40 AM  Gah! I've lost them again. My precious brows and burns, they've gone walkabouts! Luckily, The Outer Worlds 2 latest patch aims to take care of instances of misbehaving hair. That's far from the only fix in what's a very beefy list, with companion buffs, crash corrections, and instances of weird NPC antics also having been tended to. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:32 AM  A mouse cannot live on adorable visual aesthetics alone, but Winter Burrow is definitely handsome enough to get me through to lunchtime. In this just-released survival game from Danish developers Pine Creek Games, you play a rodent who has returned from the Rodent Big City to fix up their old treestump home. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 5:11 AM  If I wanted to party anywhere in the Marvel universe, I'd be reserving my beanbags and buckets of lentil chips for Dr Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. It's a big posh wizard's mansion, full of shelves of worrisome books and glass cabinets housing all manner of mystical nonsense that would make for an easy conversation starter, and probably some mildly apocalyptic drunken high jinks. I mention this because players of Marvel Rivals appear to agree with me. According to publishers Netease, a lot of you have been hosting impromptu mixers in the Sanctum Sanctorum when you really ought to be murdering each other dead. They don't call it a "Doom Match" because it's about speed-dating with your mortal adversaries, lads. Still, Netease are nothing if not bendable in the face of customer whim. The meet-ups in Sanctum Sanctorum have inspired them to release a full-blown non-combat map set in New York's Time Square, where 100 players can rub shoulders without yoinking each other's arms off. |
Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 5:04 AM  Yep, Elden Ring Nightreign developers FromSoftware are definitely planning to release some DLC for the action RPG by March 2026. A DLC dubbed The Forsaken Hollows was revealed at last night's PlayStation State of Play, and is set to drop on December 4th. |
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Siliconera Wednesday, November 12, 2025 12:00 PM
Koei Tecmo has published details about the upcoming expansion DLC for Dynasty Warriors Origins during the November 2025 State of Play. The new DLC will have the title "Visions of Four Heroes," and it will notably add new story routes, weapon types, and playable characters.
The trailer shown at State of Play primarily shows how the player can enter an alternate story route where they can side with Zhang Jiao and his Yellow Turbans group. The company also showed a sneak peek that confirms Ziluan's partner Zhuhe as a new playable character.
More details for the DLC have also appeared via the game's official website. It adds that players will be able to access alternate routes featuring not only Zhang Jiao but also Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, and Yuan Shao. Other than Zhuhe, the company also revealed Diaochan and the unknown character shown in the trailer as additional companions.
In addition, the DLC will bring two new weapon types in Bow and Rope Darts. Players who have pre-ordered the Dynasty Warriors Origins DLC ahead of its release on January 22, 2026, will be able to get an exclusive Yellow Turban Attire for the game's protagonist.
Koei Tecmo has also uploaded a standalone version of the trailer on its YouTube channels. Other than English, the trailer is also available in Japanese and Chinese voiceover versions.
Dynasty Warriors Origins is readily available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Koei Tecmo will release the Nintendo Switch 2 port on January 22, 2026, and the "Visions of Four Heroes" DLC will also appear on all platforms on the same day.
The post Dynasty Warriors Origins DLC to Add Stories and Weapons appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:00 AM
As expected from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct, the focus ended up being a first trailer for the upcoming film and reveals of Rosalina and Bowser Jr. Brie Larson will step into the role of the heroine, who only appeared briefly in the video, while Benny Safdie is behind the new villain. It will be in theaters in April 2026.
This trailer begins with Jack Black returning as Bowser, working on a painting in a castle of Mario as a skeleton. It then zooms out to show he is very tiny and in a small building inside Princess Peach's castle, and summoned Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) to speak with them. He then shows a painting he made of himself with Peach to get their opinion, erupts with anger when Mario criticizes it, then suggests he's turning over a new leaf. We then see Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Mario watching the Star Festival referenced in both the Super Mario Galaxy games. From there, we see her and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) exploring an underwater world. More active scenes with Mario and Luigi racing on bikes on a desert planet and Peach fighting Ninjis follow that. At the 1:43 mark, Bowser Jr appears for the first time to rescue his dad. Everything closes out with a Rosalina reveal after the 2:01 mark, with her thwarting an abduction attempt.
You can watch the first The Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer below, with both its Rosalina and Bowser Jr scenes appearing after the 1:40 marks.
The full Direct feature includes an appearance from Jack Black for the Bowser Jr reveal. Brie Larson and Benny Safdie did not appear in that stream.
The original Super Mario Movie is available now physically and digitally, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will appear in theaters worldwide in April 2026.
The post See the First Super Mario Galaxy Movie Trailer appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:00 AM
Capcom and the Japanese branch of KFC announced a crossover between the fast food restaurant and Monster Hunter Wilds that includes cosmetic in-game pendants of a Colonel Sanders Felyne and a KFC Chicken Bucket Felyne. These are tied to Gochiso Set White and Spice Up Set Red add-on packs that can come with either a ¥1,350 two-piece chicken meal or ¥1,700 meal. People can start ordering them online on November 13, 2025, though in-restaurant orders start on November 19, 2025, and the promotion is expected to last until December 16, 2025. Select stores will also have standee displays of characters with KFC food. There will also be a contest for people in Japan who make applicable online orders to win one of 20 themed hoodies or 200 pass cases.
Here's how the promotion works. When you order your meal set, it arrives in a box with either the Red or White DLC pack. The ¥1,700 meal will also, for a limited time while supplies last, come with a sheet of stickers featuring the crossover designs for characters. If you get the Gochiso Set White, you get the Colonel Felyne Pendant, 5 Sharp Kunafa Cheeses, 5 Turbid Shrimps, 5 Specialty Sild Garlics, 5 Delishrooms, 5 Fluffy Eggs, and 5 Eastern Honeys. The Spice Up Set Red comes with the Felyne in KFC Bucket pendant, 5 Mega Demondrugs, 5 Mega Armorskins, 5 Demon Powders, 5 Hardshell Powders, 3 Heavy Armor Spheres, and a Commission Ticket. All of the ingredients and items in those add-on sets can be earned in-game.
Capcom and KFC also shared a few screenshots showing both types of Felyne pendants equipped on a Hunter's weapon, so you can see what it looks like in the field or when someone is riding on a Seikret.
And here's how the boxes and stickers look:
As for the merchandise possibilities, art suggesting how they'll look appeared on the official site. The hoodies are available in red and white styles, with the red one featuring icons of KFC items in the game's style and the white one saying, "It's finger-lickin' wild." The pass cases feature one Felyne dressed as Colonel Sanders and another of the character in a KFC chicken bucket. Here's the official art showing how those could look:
FFXIV and Genshin Impact KFC events also appeared in Asia.
Monster Hunter Wilds is available for the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the KFC crossover will run in Japan between November 13, 2025 and December 16, 2025, though some elements are in effect while supplies last.
The post Monster Hunter Wilds KFC Adds Felyne DLC Pendants appeared first on Siliconera. |
Siliconera Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:00 AM
Gust cooks when it comes to its deluxe (DX) releases of entries in its Atelier JRPG series. They include the base games, all DLC, and typically quality of life updates and improved performances or graphics. When ones like the Arland and Dusk trilogies appeared, it also meant updated versions of the "Plus" versions of the games that might be remakes or feature improved or extended storylines. In the case of the Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack, we never saw "Plus" release of the games, but the versions here feel like improved director's cut iterations of each JRPG with enhancements and additions that vastly improve the experience.
Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack covers Reisalin "Ryza" Stout at three periods in her life as she gets an opportunity to study alchemy, learns about ancient threats reemerging, investigates the Klint Kingdom, learns more about the Underworld and Philuscha that live there, and eventually goes looking for the Code of the Universe itself. It's a coming of age story as we see her start to find her footing and a potential passion, discover what she should be doing next as everyone around her makes more visual progress toward their goals, and then winds up as a respected alchemist herself. Likewise, it also feels like an ensemble piece at times, since we're also watching the growth and development of her friends Klaudia Valentz, Lent Marslink, Tao Mongarten, Patricia Abelheim, and even Bos Brunnen over the course of the three games as well. The scale gradually builds, going from her home on Kurken Island to eventually the city of Ashra-am Baird and Kark Islands.
Gameplay remains largely consistent among the three Atelier Ryza games, though the scope increases as the JRPG series goes on. Alchemy systems change slightly, and Ryza becomes more capable in terms of exploring opportunities with each installment. We tend to find assignments that are both main story missions or side-quests that could involve crafting or handling opponents. When it comes to crafting, that means visiting different locations and biomes to collect the unique materials found in each one for recipes, then heading back to Ryza's atelier to use the system of the hour to make things. Each ingredient may have different traits and qualities, which can affect the final synthesis. Some tasks could involve getting to certain places or fighting certain kinds of monsters. In which case, we head into turn-based battle systems to assault opponents. Naturally, party members' equipment is created via alchemy, and we'll also be using things like bombs and potions Ryza created to supplement more traditional attacks and abilities.
Since we have seen all of these games before, the real question might be why it's a good time to revisit these new Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX versions, perhaps even as a whole, rather than going back to the previously released games. I played through the three on the Switch 2 and, while the original Atelier Ryza titles did show up on the Switch, this is their first time on this new console. Visually, they look much better here even before we take into the really clear and concise UI touched up for these installments. The framerate feels much more stable, especially during battle or in busier areas with a lot of materials, environmental objects, and enemies moving around. It felt like it did consistently remain at 30 fps. As I played these originally on other platforms, the updated visuals and character models almost look a little smooth, sharp, and jarring, but things are crisper than they did before. (Maybe it's just me, but water looks really weird in some cutscenes in the first game on the Switch 2!)
The three games in Atelier Ryza: Secret Trilogy DX Pack are also the full versions of each JRPG, adding to the "deluxe" element, as we're getting every free and paid update in the Switch 2 release. Things like additional difficulties, photo mode, and extra maps and campaigns right away, instead of waiting for patches or paying for add-ons, is a great bonus and shows how well those integrate into the main experience.
But the biggest changes here are the newly created additional characters, storylines, and functions exclusive to Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack. I sort of feel like Atelier Ryza 2 and 3 got the better additions here, due to their extras including more stories with certain playable characters and some quality of life bonuses. However, one of the original Atelier Ryza extra stories offers extra insight and support for events later in the series! The Kilo & Bos bonus storyline, in which we play as Kilo, helps explain why the partnership and relationship between those two matters. It shows quite a bit of growth on his part and is a great complement due to it filling in a gap in the original story. The After Ryza 1 story isn't bad, but it felt more like filler to me.
To compare, all of the additions in Atelier Ryza 2 and 3 in the Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack felt a little more meaningful to me, due to the way they fit in with the stories told in those games and involve characters and situations that seemed pretty pressing. Bringing Empel and Lila back as playable characters for the second title feels important, considering they were prominent members in the first and third adventures and did appear in the story here, and their Empel & Eliza adventure and Zelepsto Cave location feel like they add to the overall narrative. Bringing back Clifford and Serri from the second game for a new playable section in the third feels like it's better closing out Serri's story arc, and of course I won't say "no" to more playable Kilo.
With the new features in Atelier Ryza 2 DX and 3 DX in Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack, I couldn't help feeling they were maybe designed as both quality of life, time-saving measures and bonuses for each JRPG to aid players who might have been overwhelmed with the larger scale of these two games. They're handy for anyone, to be clear. But I got the impression newcomers might like them best. After getting into the second adventure a bit, Fi can appear as basically a field companion who floats alongside Ryza. Its presence helps with sensor map and healing purposes, which I found made it easier to spend more time outside, wandering around, and collecting things. Since I tend to prioritize stockpiling resources in Atelier games and want to make the most of every exploration period, it ended up being useful for staying outside longer. The third game adds Wind Beasts. When they are alongside Ryza, they pick up items for you so you don't have to stop every few feet whenever something catches your eye. That feels more like an efficiency fix, so you still can get "something" while exploring even if you're prioritizing getting a certain mission objective completed.
In general, quality of life feels like a priority with Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack, so all of the games feel like they're on pretty equal footing in terms with what they offer. I loved the new basket and storage options, since I do love collecting as many ingredients as possible, and more room across the board is appreciated and seeing how much space is left in the first two games is so much better. I also loved how the mount system changed for the second two games. We can gather without dismounting, which keeps the flow from being broken up.
But more importantly, I feel like the nature of the Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack makes it easier to appreciate the story that's told. The first Atelier Ryza game debuted back in Fall 2019. The second showed up in late 2020/early 2021, depending on where you lived, so it didn't feel like too large of a gap between continuing things. But the third was a March 2023 release. A lot can be forgotten in the span between 2019 and 2023. Since we're getting them as a whole now, I found it easier to appreciate the nuances and development of all the characters and notice all the connections and influences in the story.
The Atelier Ryza Secret trilogy is my favoritearc, and the Deluxe Pack DX versions are the best way to experience games in this JRPG series. They look and run better, with the Switch 2 versions being rather impressive. The minor adjustments and quality of life additions feel helpful. The actual new content in each game is substantial. It is the best time to see Ryza come into her own as an alchemist again.
Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy Deluxe Pack will appear on the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, and PC on November 13, 2025.
The post Review: Atelier Ryza Secret Trilogy DX Pack Is Quite a Director's Cut appeared first on Siliconera. |
Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:45 AM
Stella Montis is going to be the fifth overall and first new map in ARC Raiders, and it's coming soon to the game.
We have seen Stella Montis on the map, but it has remained closed so far. However, we will be able to access it pretty soon as part of The North Line update that goes live on Nov. 13 across all platforms. The countdown will help you keep track of when the new map goes live and what to expect from it.
ARC Raiders Stella Montis release countdown
The North Line update goes live on Nov. 13. This includes Stella Montis, new enemies, weapons, and more. This will be the first significant update for ARC Raiders since the game launched, and it should be great for beginners and veterans alike.
If you're eager to jump onto the new map as soon as it becomes available, this countdown will help you keep track of the time.
The countdown is based on the following timings.
However, there's a slight twist as the actual unlock time for Stella Montis is uncertain. The reason is simple: Stella Montis won't be unlocked by default.
Instead, the community will have to work together to complete the Breaking New Ground quest. The objective will revolve around restoring the tunnels to Stella Montis and earning Merits in the process.
The Breaking New Ground quest will be available at the same time the countdown expires. There will be new challenges as well for the community to trigger the Staking Our Claim Phase II. Additionally, we are also getting two new enemies in the form of Matriarch and Shredder. Plus, we will be getting new play styles, weapons, and explosives.
In a nutshell, plenty is coming our way, and if you have approached the endgame, it might be time to go up to the Topside.
The post ARC Raiders Stella Montis release countdown: Exact date and time appeared first on Destructoid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:42 AM
The Witchful Thinking Star Path has arrived with Disney Dreamlight Valley's Return to Beast's Castle update, and it features loads of festive fun to enjoy. This event is packed with duties you can tackle to claim exclusive rewards.
All the Star Path events are fairly large, which can make them a bit tricky to navigate. You can also only see a few missions at a time, making it tough to plan ahead as needed. If you want to ensure you're prepared to get the full event done, here are all the Witchful Thinking Star Path duties and rewards in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Table of contents
All Witchful Thinking Star Path duties in Disney Dreamlight Valley
In total, there are 74 duties to complete throughout the entire Witchful Thinking Star Path event. These missions involve tasks like mining, fishing, cooking, crafting, and much more, so there's plenty to get done around your village. Here's a breakdown of all the tasks you need to complete and how many Tokens you get for finishing each one.
All Witchful Thinking Star Path routine duties in Disney Dreamlight Valley
In addition to the main duties, you can also tackle some routine duties, which unlock on a weekly basis across the course of eight weeks. Here are all of the routine duties you can tackle, which will be updated each week as they arrive.
All Witchful Thinking Star Path rewards in Disney Dreamlight Valley
There are six pages of main rewards you can earn throughout the Witchful Thinking Star Path, plus four pages of bonus prizes to claim after that. Here's everything featured in this event and how many Tokens you need to purchase each item.
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:26 AM
ARC Raiders developers continue listening to the community and are introducing changes to its economy, reducing the overall prices of cosmetics and refunding those who paid the premium before these tweaks. A duo mode is also coming out as a middle option between solo and trios.
As per a Nov. 12 announcement by Embark Studio, the developer behind ARC Raiders, the team has "reviewed our prices and made adjustments to lower prices where applicable," aiming to reduce the overall costs of cosmetics in the game. Those who overpaid before the tweaks will be "compensated" for the difference in the form of Raider Tokens, the in-game currency.
Players have been complaining about steep cosmetic prices in ARC Raiders ever since launch, pointing out that skins should not be so expensive in a paid game, highlighting that the same would be fine in Embark's previous title, The Finals, which is a free-to-play title. It is more than welcome that a developer would actively reduce the cost of microtransactions in this day and age, and I commend Embark for listening to feedback.
On the other hand, Embark is also heeding community calls for a duo mode, which would be an interim way to play that is neither solo nor trio. No longer will you and your one friend in life have to suffer at the hands of a full three-stack every time you dare to venture topside (at least not all the time). A new mode, with only duo teams, is coming to the game alongside the price tweaks mentioned above.
However, the way it will be implemented might wind up matching trios and duos together occasionally, as the system functions as a "prioritization" that aims to match squad configurations, but does not "100 percent guarantee" that it'll happen. It's a bit complicated, but a welcome addition nonetheless.
The price changes go live on Nov. 13 at 3:30am CT, with the extra mode probably coming along with it.
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 11:26 AM
This article is written in partnership with Arknights: Endfield
At first glance, Arknights: Endfield may look like just another gacha game. A team of anime-styled characters executes flashy moves in a semi-open world while you explore, level up, and manage your squad.
But that would be a reductive description of Gryphline's new sci-fi modern fantasy endeavor, and after spending a few hours with Endfield, I was itching for the closed beta to fire up on Nov. 28 so I could dig deeper into the game.
So what makes Endfield different? I'd wager the crisp presentation, unique characters and combat, and the factory system will be what pull most players in. Presentation-wise, the game looks gorgeous, from the characters and cutscenes to the menus and spells. There's a deliberate cinematic flair on display that easily arrests your attention.
As an example, after the tutorial, I was given my first mission on Talos-II, the moon where you'll be spending your time. I don't recall the last time I was so invested in a mission briefing. While the characters discussed the situation, the screen was filled with maps and graphs, beeps and boops, dynamic camera sweeps, and slick menus popping in and out. It was all classic sci-fi future-screen stuff – flashy, impressive, over the top, and immersive.
And that's part of Endfield's goal: a cinematic level of quality across the board to pull you in. This wasn't the case with the original Arknights, Hypergryph's tower defense game. Story elements were 2D and text-driven, whereas in Endfield, they're fully 3D. The transition from 2D to 3D posed challenges, though, especially since Gryphline went back and reworked the story and cutscenes based on player feedback.
"Generally speaking, it was a lot of trial and error," producer Light Zhong said. "In Endfield, in our earlier versions, we tried experimenting with cutscene delivery, narrative animations during dialogue… eventually we realized we preferred a more cinematic style.
"We're constantly improving on it."
The presentation lends itself well to the characters and combat, too. Hypergryph's design philosophy revolves around what they describe as "anime realism." Yes, they know you're playing an anime game, but at the same time, they want the characters to look and feel realistic.
"There's a lot of neat little design ideas in every character," explained lead designer Ryan. "We tried to make anime characters that blend naturally into a realistic environment for immersion."
In a saturated market, however, it takes a lot to differentiate one character from another, including the archetypes they wield (of which there are Physical, Nature, Electric, Heat, and Cryo in Endfield). So far, there are 24 characters, called Operators, you can build a four-person squad with. While at first glance many might look similar, a second look reveals an exceptional amount of detail. From the textures and layers of the coats and jackets to the personas of the characters themselves, there's an impressive variety on display in Endfield—something Zhong says they actively worked toward.
"This anime realism style actually gave us the opportunity to go into special character textures that you don't really see in other gacha games," said Zhong. "We actually included a lot more intricate designs and gadgets and gimmicks and attachments… our character designs, when compared to those of other games, focus more on … looking modern and cool."
Taking things further, little character moments highlight Operator personalities. Take, for example, Da Pan, an anthropomorphic panda chef. Stylistically, he's wearing a leather jacket and a wok on his back, but when you first access him in the menu, he puts his aviator glasses on with his chopsticks. The dual-sword-wielding Chen Qianyu, one of the first characters designed for Endfield, is introduced with an over-the-top, superhero-style landing, leaning into her confident and adventurous personality.
Combat itself is a treat, both visually and practically. On the visual side, it's what you'd expect from a polished anime-style game of this nature: lots of effects, fluid movements and animations, and big skills that feel great to unleash.
The real-time combat feels fairly straightforward at first: hold down a button to perform a combo and toss out a special move or ultimate skill when you can. There are layers to this system, however, that make it easy to pick up but hard to master. First, while many gachas have only one character on screen at a time, Endfield puts all four team Operators on display, which enhances the feeling of rolling with your squad taking on the world.
Second, because all the characters are on screen, it makes executing combos far more enjoyable. After you meet certain requirements in combat, you're prompted to perform a combo with a team member, during which they dash in, time slows briefly, and the camera zooms in slightly to enhance the focus and impact. This little touch leans further into that cinematic feel of the game, like you just pulled off something worth noticing. The slowdown effect on combos is also a nice, albeit brief, reprieve as you focus on what to do next.
And lastly—and here's where the layers start stacking up—skills and combos apply status effects that can ramp up your damage if used correctly. For example, stacking the vulnerable status, rather than using a skill to consume it on the first stack, amps up the damage significantly. Finding the best path to applying the variety of status effects for optimal damage will mean experimenting with your skill trees, gear, and squad composition, further deepening the combat experience.
"[It provides] players with a lot of strategy options, maneuvers, and moves that they can try," said Ryan.
Factories are the last major selling point for Endfield, something unique to the gacha genre. Early on in the game, you unlock the opportunity to set up a factory. As you explore the world of Talos-II, you gather resources that can be converted into items and gear at your factory (provided you have the right equipment).
This seems fairly straightforward and simple, but like combat, it houses a fair amount of depth. Your AIC (Automated Industry Complex) is your base of operations where you automate production. You lay down drilling equipment, belt lines, processing centers, and assembly centers to carve out your own little industry. Furthermore, players can create and share blueprints of their production lines, allowing newer players to catch up quickly without having to do too much heavy lifting.
"Through factory and base building, we can initiate some active social behaviors between the players," said Ryan. "It allows players to have more involvement."
The goal, Ryan says, is to have players continue engaging with Endfield through exploration and base building long after they've completed the story.
Overall, I was very impressed with my time in Endfield. The combat felt fast and fluid, the characters felt unique, the presentation was top-notch, and the world was fun to explore. I'm looking forward to jumping back in during the November beta.
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 10:13 AM
Sony revealed that Ghost of Yotei, Ghost of Tsushima's sequel, has sold 3.3 million units since its Oct. 2 release. Those would be great numbers for pretty much any game, but especially for one that so many tried to kill in the crib for silly reasons.
Why did people try to boycott Ghost of Yotei?
Assassin's Creed Shadows, another game featuring Samurai in feudal Japan, faced immense backlash ever since its announcement, because players would have to pick between either a female samurai or a male samurai who also happened to be black. Many didn't like the idea, even though Yasuke, Nobunaga's own Samurai, existed in real life. That backlash didn't work, as Shadows turned out to be a fairly good game that went on to become the second-highest-selling title in the series.
The surprising result prompted the grifters in command to point the angry mob toward the nearest target, a samurai game where we play as a woman. The move clearly didn't work out either, as on top of selling like hot cakes, Ghost of Yotei is hitting it with critics and fans alike, with average scores of 8.6 and 8.2. It's even currently neck and neck with Ghost of Tsushima, which sold over 2.4 million units in the first three days, but took over four months to cross the 5-million mark. Also, Yotei originally came out on the PlayStation 4, a console that had 30 million more units in the wild than the PS5. Sony also announced that the company's console-selling ability hasn't fallen off, though, as the same financial report states it has already sold 84.2 million consoles worldwide.
Here's to looking forward to the future of Ghost of Yotei. With Marvel's Spider-Man as the highest-selling PS5 game with a little over 11 million units sold in eight months, and Helldivers 2 with 4.5 million units sold, Yotei is already very well positioned to go down as one of the most successful titles on the console. I have to wonder just how many of the people who attempted to boycott Ghost of Yotei are secretly playing it and having a blast with this guiltiest of pleasures.
You can now play Ghost of Yotei on the PlayStation 5.
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:51 AM
Leveling up your characters is essential in Inazuma Eleven Victory Road, and taking the optimum path is going to improve the process and save time.
If you have early access, you'll get extra time to level up your characters. The method I have mentioned here uses the team-level difference bonus system of the game and allows you to level up a few characters pretty quickly at a time.
Best way to level up your characters in Inazuma Eleven Victory Road
The easiest way to level up your characters is just to use them in different matches. While effective, this isn't the optimum method. The efficient method involves using Ranked matches and loads of losses (yes, you'll be losing a lot).
The last part is to hope for a match against an opponent who is rated significantly higher. Matching against such a team will result in higher XP for all your players. This multiplier will also apply to the two/three higher-rated players that you inserted in your squad.
You can also do this process by including all level 1 players if you want. The results will be better as you're almost guaranteed to go up against a team that's rated higher. This, in turn, will guarantee faster level-up for all your cards.
You'll level up your cards irrespective of the match results. Hence, it doesn't matter if you lose and drop in ranks. You can always use your main team to gain back the lost ranks later and qualify for all the rewards.
That's pretty much the best way to level up your characters inside the game. Do remember that the amount of XP you gain will be less if your team is more evenly matched with the opponent. Hence, it might be worth playing with an extremely weak team if it comes at the cost of a potential victory.
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 9:44 AM
With the Amanda the Adventurer trilogy now complete, there's a lot to ponder over when it comes to Hameln's intentions, the Anomaly's purpose, and understanding what happened to the show's creator, Sam Colton.
No longer are theories needed, for (almost) everything has been answered in the world of Amanda the Adventurer. But if you need a refresher or are looking for a rundown on what we've learned across this indie horror trilogy, here's the answers to the biggest questions in Amanda the Adventurer.
Table of contents
The entire Amanda the Adventurer story, summarized
Riley Park inherits her aunt Kate's house and with it came recordings of the Amanda the Adventurer show that was cancelled years prior. Riley's involvement continues Kate's legacy to find and rescue star of the show, Rebecca Colton. The first game ends with Riley destroying the television and Kate's house being burnt down, but that was only the beginning. A masked figure, later confirmed to be Joanne Cook (friend of Kate), leads Riley to Kensdale Public Library. The goal shifts from understanding what's going on to the destruction of all Amanda the Adventurer tapes. Similar to Kate's goal, Joanne wants to figure out what happened to her brother who mysteriously disappeared, like other children in Kensdale.
While the community grew concerned over the strange and otherworldly effects the show had on their kids, Hameln continued to push their safe narrative. The missing children were being lured into their arms by Amanda's words. Their goal? To build a bridge from the Darkness into our reality, using children as the guiding vessel. Hameln is long gone by the time Riley comes in, yet someone had a hand in Kate's mysterious accident. Joanne destroys a tape but angers Shepherd, Wooly's monstrous form. Riley retreats into the secret hatch behind Kate's office.
The shocking thing is that the missing children weren't taken very far. Hidden directly underneath the Kensdale Library was a maximum-security facility for Hameln employees to experiment on the stolen children, implanting the entity in Rebecca which would fuse with her, later spawning the Colton Anomaly. Riley works at restoring Rebecca's memories by reminding Amanda of her childhood. Rebecca remembers her father and best friend, Maggie. Riley is then allowed to enter the chamber to free Rebecca after two decades of captivity. By breaking the last tape, both Rebecca and the Anomaly are whole again.
What is Hameln?
Hameln is a façade. On the surface, Hameln appears as a Media Company, but their true intentions are far more nefarious than corporate greed. A cultist background, Hameln are a group called the Curtain. Obsessed with the Unseen, the Curtain wanted to "return to Darkness," bringing the Unseen into the Light. Hameln's name and logo is a direct reference to the Pied Piper, luring children away to punish their parents. But, the Curtain's true intentions was to harbor entities inside malleable children so that they may control said entities.
Only Amanda and Wooly have blatant links to the entities, where sigils (Kate called this "energy transfers") were used to both summon and entrap the Unseen, much like demonic possession. However, the child's mind had to be trapped too, where Rebecca was purposely experimented on and placed into an induced coma. Her body aged while her mind stayed childlike. All child subjects were tested on and placed inside the show, their bodies fed with their favorite food to ensure neither avatar or child died. The googly eyes that represent the show's mise en scène are the missing kids, breathing and reacting to Amanda's words.
What happened to Sam and Rebecca Colton?
We finally got confirmation on what happened to Sam and Rebecca Colton. Sam breaks out of his prison disguised a kid's bedroom after hearing the authorization code to this room. He tries to take Rebecca with him, but his escape attempt backfired. The Anomaly broke through Rebecca's neuropsychic system (the connection between the mind and nervous system), appearing like a twisted form of the Amanda avatar from the show. Sam Colton is killed in the blast, where the Anomaly disappeared into the facility's infrastructure, wreaking havoc on any Hameln employee that upset Amanda.
The leading star of the show, Rebecca, was taken, experimented on, and tricked into harboring an entity to do Hameln's bidding. But her avatar, Amanda, wasn't controllable. The Anomaly attacked if Amanda perceived any action towards her as harmful, resulting in injuries and deaths in Hameln's facility. Hameln then swapped the plan to destroying the tapes, so to sever the link between Rebecca and the Anomaly.
What is the Anomaly?
The Anomaly is an unnamed entity, perhaps one of the mentioned names in the games: Bael, Paimon, Baalam, Belial, Mara, or Iblis. The Anomaly existed exclusively in Rebecca's mind, having being placed there in a summoning ritual when she was only seven years old. It wasn't until Sam tried to save his daughter that the Anomaly managed to escape from Rebecca's mind, taking a physical form in the real world. We assume this is what Hameln wanted, but the connection between host and parasite was far too strong. Hameln didn't predict that the Anomaly would react as if it was Rebecca.
Who is Wooly?
Wooly is a Hameln employee called Marcus Moutman. Hired onto the Pneumatransference Department, Marcus signed his death wish incredibly early on in his career. Rather than being manipulated at a young age like Rebecca, Marcus actively chose to hand over his mind, body, and soul to Hameln. It seems like Marcus didn't fully know what he was signing up to or that he wasn't an active member of the Curtain. Rather, Marcus came across as a man that wanted to do big things and be remembered for it.
While many thought (and rightly so) that Wooly was a wolf in sheep's clothing, the man behind the avatar was more of a placid people-pleaser. But much like Rebecca, Marcus would soon forget who he was and fall victim to the more aggressive, short-tempered side of the Shepherd. Marcus eventually let the Shepherd fully take over as he probably realized he wasted his years, got left behind, and is just as trapped as Rebecca. He destroys his avatar, and in turn, himself.
What is Shepherd?
Shepherd was an experiment conducted by Hameln scientists to create a more controllable setting inside Amanda the Adventurer. The goal was to destroy all tapes that featured the Amanda avatar so that the Anomaly no longer acted as if itself and Rebecca were one and the same. I believe Shepherd was single-handedly the reason behind Kate's car crash. What I can't work out is how Kate's final words recorded on cassette ended up inside the TV show and why there's a secret hatch to Hameln's facility behind her office. Unless this was all an attempt to get Riley and Joanne here so that Shepherd could destroy the remaining tapes?
Who is Chicken Scratch?
Chicken Scratch is the name given to the Opossum character in Amanda the Adventurer. Neither Amanda or Wooly recognize him, hinting that his appearance is unexpected. The Opossum is Jordan Cook, Joanne's missing younger brother. We learnt about Joanne in the first game, who sent a letter to Kate, looking for help with finding Jordan. The strongest evidence that Jordan is Chicken Scratch is in Amanda the Adventurer 2's secret cutscene for the true ending. This short scene shows that the Opossum recognizes Joanne's voice on the walkie-talkie and calls out to her.
I assume the reason he can't talk well is so Jordan cannot reach out to Joanne as she was trying to find him. Hameln knew about Kate's investigations and took out anyone who got close to the truth. A question that remains is why Jordan has the animated character of the Opossum, where other children present as mere googly eyes, unable to talk or move. The monitors near the pod room in Hameln's facility indicate that staff were observing the integrity of a subject. If they were able to adjust these like video game modifiers, it could explain why Jordan cannot talk and only appears on a handful of tapes.
Both Wooly and Amanda had monster versions of their avatar, demonstrated by the recurring sigils on pods and inside the Chapel. Jordan's pod was in the same room as the other subjects, so how did he have a physical avatar in the show?
We theorize the only reason Chicken Scratch (AKA Opossum/Jordan Cook) had an avatar while the other kids appeared as eyes fixed onto inanimate objects was because they weren't as obedient as Jordan. Hameln likely reduced their avatars to eyes only. Surely Amanda the Adventurer would have had other characters when the show was most popular, meaning other children should have had avatars. We know children like Lauren and Jordan were subjects and that Hameln could terminate the life support whenever they wanted, as Shepherd's attack in the pod room sucked the life out of Chicken Scratch and all eyes (including on all future tapes) became empty.
Amanda the Adventurer timeline, summarized
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Destructoid Wednesday, November 12, 2025 6:56 AM
Bond Stars are arguably the most important currency to find in Inazuma Eleven Victory Road, and they will allow you to get new characters.
Once you obtain Bond Stars inside the game, you'll be able to use them in the Chronicle Mode to unlock new characters. Here's the catch, however, you can't get Bond Stars from Chronicle Mode. This guide will help you earn the Bond Stars and then use them to get the new characters.
Table of contents
How to get Bond Stars in Inazauma Elevent Victory Road
While you can use Bond Stars in the Chronicle Mode, you'll have to play the Competition Mode to earn them. The easiest way to get Bond Stars is by playing online matches against other players. Both ranked and casual lobby matches qualify for this.
Once you complete an online match, you'll get Bond Stars irrespective of the results. As of writing, I have yet to find any other way of obtaining Bond Stars outside the online matches. Thankfully, you don't need to win an online match if you're looking to earn Bond Stars.
How to use Bond Stars in Inazuma Eleven Victory Road
Once you have earned Bond Stars, you can use them in the Chronicle Mode. Just follow the step-by-step methods to complete the process.
To use the Bond Stars, you'll need at least five of them. You can always check the complete list of spirits by clicking on Available Characters from the bottom-right corner of the screen. I would always advise you to do this before spending the Bond Stars.
Every node has a pool of Common, Rare and Hero characters. The odds of obtaining the spirit of a high-tier character are significantly less. The spirit you get will be handed to you at random (think like a gacha).
If you're looking to find a specific character, use the Constellation Search feature. You can search either by Team Dock or by their names. The search results will come up with all the nodes that feature your desired character. Proceed opening the nodes with your Bond Stars and hope to get lucky.
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