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Niantic Reveals Featured Pokemon In Upcoming Time Limited Pokemon Go Holiday Raid

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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The Pokemon Go holiday celebrations are starting soon, and with it, trainers can obtain some unique holiday-themed items. Not only will the game feature Pokemon in holiday attires and holiday avatars, but there will also be several ice-themed holiday raid monsters as well.

Right around the holidays every year, Pokemon commemorates with updates to most of its games, releasing Pokemon-inspired holiday collection of toys, and other events to help celebrate the season of giving.

This year will be no different in Pokemon Go as fans can expect new rewards, lovable Pokemon in holiday attire, and a few icy friends from holiday raids. The raid Pokemon for this year will be all about ice, snow, and icebergs.

Beginning on December 22, Pokemon Go trainers will be able to encounter more Ice-type Pokemon in the wild, raids, and eggs. Vanillite will also be debuting in the game’s lineup. Similar to the holiday event last year, players can look forward to exclusive spawns, free premium rewards, and exclusive ice Pokemon appearing in raids. There will be a few snow Pokemon appearing in raids and one in the Mega Raid.

Pokemon available in normal raids include Regice, Cryogonal, Cubchoo, Walrein, Swinub, Sneasel, Dewgong, Alolan Sandshrew as well as Jynx and its Shiny form. Pokemon in Mega Raids will include Mega Abomasnow and abominable snowman-looking Pokemon with several strong ice moves.

It’s great to see the return of Regice as those who missed the iceberg Pokemon will have another opportunity to catch it during this year’s holiday event. Pokemon Go trainers must also take advantage of the double raid XP starting on December 22, Tuesday, 12 AM until December 23, Wednesday, 11:59 PM local time.

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Alongside all of the updates made from the Pokemon Go Beyond update, players can expect more free stuff, holiday avatars, and ice-themed field research. The upcoming holiday event will also feature double stardust, double Lucky Egg durations, double Star Piece durations, and double Catch candy. Trainers will also be able to hold and open more gifts than usual during the whole duration of the event.

Players can also obtain Pokemon stickers with a holiday flair of Whimsicott, Croagunk, and Vulpix. Probably the most significant holiday-inspired update added to the game is Cubchoo, Delibird, and Pikachu all sporting adorable holiday attires.

Pokemon Go’s holiday event will begin on December 22 at 8 AM and will end on December 31 at 10 PM local time.

Kojima Productions Teases New “Exciting Updates”

By
Aletheia
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0
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Kojima Productions has been noticeably silent after it released Death Stranding on PC this year, which has left fans wondering what the developer has planned for the future. However, it appears that the studio may be giving us something to be excited about, as Kojima Productions’ Twitter account recently posted that the team will be “delivering some exciting updates” on December 16.

December 16 will be a big day for the company, as it will mark the 5th year since highly-renowned game director Hideo Kojima left Konami and started Kojima Productions, a company that we now know and love.

E3 2016 was an extremely exciting time for Kojima Productions and for Kojima himself, as that was when the studio revealed that it was working on Death Stranding by releasing a new and mysterious trailer during the event.

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The game was launched four years after that on the PlayStation 4 and then the PC after. Since Death Stranding’s release, Kojima Productions has announced that it’s now working on a brand-new title. As a matter of fact, the developer was even working on new music for an “undisclosed” game back in October.

Naturally, this announcement made the fans buzz with excitement, with some starting to speculate what the next game might be. As a matter of fact, rumors began spreading claiming that a new PS5-exclusive Silent Hill game is in the works and that Kojima Productions is collaborating with both Sony and Konami in order to develop that.

That being said, the verity of these rumors will finally be put to the test, as Kojima Productions will finally be sharing new and exciting announcements on its social media account within a few days.

According to the developer’s Twitter post, the announcement will go live at “12AM (NYC), 5AM (UK), 6AM (CET) and 2PM (JP).” If we were to go ahead and analyze how the post was phrased, we assume that there will be more than one announcement since the tweet specifically says “updates” — which means plural.

That being said, Hideo Kojima has been conspicuously silent in regards to this. Some say that it would be too early for fans to expect that Kojima Productions would announce an open-world AAA title.

But then again, we have to keep in mind that the studio revealed Death Stranding even when it didn’t have a game engine yet. As such, anything is definitely possible. On the other hand, Kojima previously admitted that he was also interested in developing smaller-scale projects, such as manga, anime, or perhaps episodic video games. So, it’s also possible that one of the updates will be about this.

To the surprise of many, Death Stranding had significantly low sales when it was released last year, so not a lot of gamers are expecting Kojima Productions to release a sequel. However, Kojima did say in the past that if he does decide to work on a sequel, he would do it from scratch.

With that in mind, it’s possible that the upcoming announcement may reveal that Death Stranding will be released on the PlayStation 5 since the next-gen console doesn’t have its own upgraded version of the game just yet.

Mediatonic Details The Different Fall Guys Season 3 Features And Levels

By
Aletheia
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Asides from Among Us, one other title that has caught the attention of many for most of the year was Mediatonic’s Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Due to its unique take on the battle royale genre, however, it received both negative and positive criticisms. Nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped it from remaining popular and reaching the top of the charts.

Fall Guys is now on its third season, with Mediatonic releasing a new trailer to promote this fact during The Game Awards 2020. The snowy trailer showcases all the new skins and activities coming to this highly-anticipated third season while the classic “Winter Wonderland” song plays in the background.

In order to keep the hype going, however, the developer shared several details concerning Season 3, specifically the upcoming new levels and features that will be introduced in the game.

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As we all know, Fall Guys Season 3 follows a winter theme, and this extends all the way to its new levels. Recently, the Fall Guys Twitter account confirmed that players can expect Season 3 to have seven new courses. Apparently, some of these stages will simply be revamped existing levels in order to follow the wintery theme. For instance, Thin Ice is basically a themed version of the Hex-a-Gone level.

That being said, other levels will be completely brand-new. One of the most intriguing new stages is arguably Pegwin Pursuit. The game mechanics are simple: players have to chase after an adorable “Pegwin” and hold on tight to it in order to accumulate points to win.

Asides from the new levels, Season 3 will also introduce brand-new features. For example, Fall Guys will now have a ranking system called the Crown Ranks, and it will be based on how many crowns a player has won. Players who participate in this system will be able to earn unique and exclusive rewards.

Speaking of exclusive rewards, those who are subscribed to Amazon Prime will be given the chance to link their respective accounts in order to obtain even more exclusive content. However, we have yet to learn more about this feature and what the content is going to be.

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Among other features, select fans who play Fall Guys via Steam will be receiving an invite to experience the Private Streamer Lobby feature. This one requires a minimum of 40 players and a maximum of 60 in order for the match to start.

Of course, the update that will bring forth the third season will also introduce a variety of bug fixes, ensuring that players will have a seamless Fall Guys experience as much as possible. Some of the fixes worth noting include the removal of the invisible tower that could be found (or could not be found!) on Royal Fumble.

In addition, there was a previously reported issue wherein taking the crown in Fall Mountain won’t end the game. Fortunately, this has also been resolved in the update.

Even though Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has been out for several months now, many in the video game community still continue to enjoy the game and everything it has to offer. As a matter of the fact, Mediatonic’s platformer battle royale even won Best Community Support during The Game Awards, and given how responsive the team is, we think this award is well-deserved!

Ark 2 Will Be Exclusive To Xbox Series X|S Upon Release

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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One of the most shocking announcements during the recently concluded The Game Awards was Ark 2 featuring Vin Diesel which is now confirmed to be releasing on the Xbox Series X|S as a console exclusive next year.

Xbox will be the first to inform players that Studio Wildcard’s upcoming survival game has a long-running history on its platform. The classic game was one of the pioneers of the Game Preview project in 2015, making the way for a full release a couple of years later. Ark Survival Evolved was also one of the first games to take advantage of both Xbox Series X and Xbox One X optimizations, giving experiences on par with the PC for players on the console.

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Widely considered to be the most successful of the various survival titles that came out a few years ago, Ark is frequently among the most played titles across console platforms and Steam. Currently, the original Ark Survival Evolved is still available on the Xbox Game Pass along with the Extinction, Aberration, and Scorched Earth DLC expansion packs. The game is playable this way across PC and console as well as the Xbox Game Streaming for the subscribers of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

As announced on Xbox Wire, the sequel will also have active ties to Xbox, launching as a console exclusive on both the Xbox Series X|S. The game, which received its first cinematic trailer during last week’s The Game Awards, is currently set for a 2022 release. Studio Wildcard pledges that fans who will try out their survival sandbox will experience the “dramatic eons-spanning story of humankind’s evolution” throughout the series.

Hollywood actor Vin Diesel will take on the role of Santiago, a major character in the game’s story. He will also be acting as the game’s executive producer, bringing his video game development talents to the test.

Vin Diesel is said to have played over a thousand hours of the classic game and that he has also had experience in past games featuring his appearance in Fast and Furious: Crossroads and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

All of those projects were co-developed by Tigon Studios – a development studio established by Vin Diesel as a subsidiary of his movie studio One Race Films. There is no confirmation if this studio will also be working on Ark 2.

Ubisoft Holiday Event Offers Free Items To Assassin’s Creed Valhalla & Other Ubisoft Games

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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0
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As the holiday season draws closer, Ubisoft has chosen to be generous for Christmas, giving away free items for games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. This will not only event the publisher is commemorating as well. Ubisoft Connect will also be honoring the year’s end by giving a summary of the player’s last five years.

December is known as the month of giving, and all Ubisoft fans are hyped about receiving lots of free loot. Players would possibly prefer receiving official content from Ubisoft instead of modifying their Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to wrongly unlock all items.

The bonus items will possibly significantly lessen the risk of players getting their accounts suspended or banned because of hacking the game. Other video game companies have also already beginning to give free items for the Christmas season as well. Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War will also be receiving free loot boxes as soon as Season 1 launches.

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Ubisoft revealed a Happy Holidays event which began last December 14th. Every day, Ubisoft is going to give away free in-game bonuses all the way until December 19, 2020. They are also giving away free games as well, with the condition that players are 18 years old and above and of course, have a Ubisoft account.

Players can now get the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Rewards pack which contains a legendary outfit as well as a Seafarer Settlement Pack. All people have to do is make a Ubisoft account and claim their freebies.

Even for fans who don’t own any of these games for these rewards, Ubisoft guaranteed its players that they can still claim the rewards now, and the in-game content will be downloaded once they buy a copy of the game and that they are using the same Ubisoft account.

It is uncertain, however, what the next rewards will be, so fans are encouraged to check the Ubisoft official Twitter account daily in order to learn the rewards. Players never know if they might end up buying the game after all.

It is likely players can expect to see freebies from Ubisoft for its new and upcoming games. With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla being first, it is possible that the next freebies are going to be for Immortals Fenyx Rising, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs Legion. So, if Ubisoft fans have plans to purchase these games, it is probably worth their time to check Ubisoft’s Twitter page daily.

Legend of Zelda-Inspired Action Adventure Game ‘Tunic’ Finally Shares Development Progress

By
Aletheia
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Developed by Andrew Shouldice, the upcoming Legend of Zelda-inspired title Tunic was initially announced three years ago, and now a promising look at the game’s development progress has been shared with the fans.

The indie game was unveiled during E3 2017, and at that time it was one of the most unique takes on the highly-renowned The Legend of Zelda franchise. When it was announced, many in the video game community couldn’t help but feel enamored by its adorable character design and colorful style.

Tunic is an action-adventure game that was originally titled Secret Legend. It follows the story of a small fox in a comparably massive and incredibly dangerous world. Just like the series it’s inspired from, Tunic has players exploring the expansive wilderness and old ruins they stumble upon. There’s a variety of terrible creatures that the little fox has to fight off, as well.

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There are different sections in the game’s world, and these divisions can only be accessed by the players once a particular ability or item has been unlocked. It doesn’t completely follow the footsteps of the Zelda games though, as Tunic has a more isometric view — similar to a recent title by Supergiant Games called Hades.

Developer Andrew Shouldice and publisher Finji initially wanted to launch Tunic by 2019 on multiple platforms, namely on PC, Mac, and Xbox One, but the game was unfortunately delayed to July 1, 2020.

The developer recently had a quick chat with IGN, and those who have been patiently waiting for the game will be happy to know that Shouldice shared an update regarding the game’s progress along with an expected launch date.

IGN asked the lead developer how the game is progressing, to which Shouldice replied by saying that the past few years “have really hit their stride.” Fortunately, he goes on to say that the “game now ‘knows what it is’” so that definitely sounds like good news.

More specifically, the developer has finally completed the “larger overarching structure” of Tunic, he finds that it’s now much easier to include new content as well as refine the game.

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The good news is that Shouldice brought more people on board the development team, including Cuphead’s lead programmer Eric Billingsley. When asked if Tunic will be getting a sure 2021 release, the lead developer couldn’t give a specific response.

However, he does admit that “more work has been done on this game in the past year than any year before,” so we might finally get to experience this adorable Zelda-inspired title soon. Given that the title’s release was pushed back, Shouldice was asked if COVID-19 contributed to slowing down the game’s progress.

While he does acknowledge that the pandemic did affect Tunic’s development in some way, the fact that they’re a small team helped alleviate what could have been a bigger issue if they were composed of more developers.

That being said, it’s nice to know that Tunic is coming along nicely, even though the interview with IGN concluded without a specific release date or window. In any case, we don’t want the developer to rush things anyway, as a game that’s released late is much better than a game full of bugs.

Sea of Thieves Celebrates 1,000 Days Since Release With New Nostalgic Trailer

By
Aletheia
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0
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It feels only yesterday when Rare first released Sea of Thieves, and now the developer is celebrating 1,000 days since the game’s launch with a nostalgic trailer and several rewards for the players. This celebration takes place shortly after the last giveaway was announced for the Festival of Giving.

Speaking of, the Festival of Giving was announced last week, and it’s touted to be an event that provides players with a deluge of prizes and rewards. Developer Rare states that during this festival, players will be able to acquire a variety of items by simply doing different challenges beginning this January 20, 2021.

In addition to that, Sea of Thieves will be hosting both new and returning events during that time, even fan-favorites that took place during past updates. Since the event is called the Festival of Giving, pirates who are wealthier than others will be commended and rewarded for giving to those who aren’t as lucky.

Of course, players can expect Twitch rewards to be offered as well to those dedicated viewers of the platform.

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With that in mind, it is truly beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as Sea of Thieves prepares for the holiday season by offering players one-of-a-kind gifts to enjoy. The action-adventure pirate game is now celebrating 1,000 days since its release back in 2018, and it appears that developer Rare is more than willing to show appreciation to its fans via a variety of goodies.

Asides from that though, the developer dropped a nostalgic trailer on YouTube that recounted the different major events that took place in-game from day 1 through day 1,000. As a part of the celebration, Sea of Thieves players who log in to their account in the upcoming days will be given commemorative cosmetics.

According to the game’s official website, this celebration will run from December 13, 2020 through December 16, 2020, so players should definitely check their account within this time period to claim the different presents.

Those fans who enjoy the lore of Sea of Thieves will be thrilled to know that a new audiobook for the game’s novel, Athena’s Fortune, is on its way. It will be narrated by actor Toby Stephens, who some players might know as Captain Flint in the Black Sails TV series.

Another exciting announcement is that developer Rare will be releasing an official Sea of Thieves version of the Monopoly board game. There’s a bunch of other merchandise available on the Rare Store, so dedicated fans may want to check that out.

In other news, Rare has recently decided to make a significant change in the way it releases updates. Going forward, new content will be released following a strict schedule. For instance, Sea of Thieves players can look forward to big things in 2021, as the developer will be releasing major updates via separate seasons.

Similar to other popular titles, each season will have its own battle pass, which is known as “plunder passes” in Sea of Thieves. This new change will be first introduced to its players via Season 1, which will run for three months starting January.

Naturally, players can expect all kinds of new content and activities to enjoy. The developer has yet to reveal what it has planned for Season 1, but we can’t wait to learn more about it.

Xbox Series X & PlayStation 5 Scalpers Made $60M Since Launch

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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0
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According to new research, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 scalpers have made almost $60 million since the consoles were released in November. It has been extremely difficult for regular fans to secure the new consoles, and the number of scalpers using bots have made the process even more difficult for those who wanted to avail themselves an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 by Christmas. These issues also don’t look like they will be going away anytime soon.

Scalpers began becoming a major problem almost instantly after the release of the new systems, but the PlayStation 5 appeared to be dealing with the majority of it. Scalpers managed to purchase thousands of PlayStation 5 units only to resell them to customers at unreasonable prices.

The high cost of the PlayStation 5 has been found in various listings such as eBay and has continued to rise as the possibility of getting a PlayStation 5 has become feeble. Several of these scalpers are even charging up to $3000 per consoles.

Unfortunately, it appears as though scalping has worked out extremely well for some of these groups since Tom’s Hardware reports that the new systems have made scalping groups an absurd amount of cash last November.

The Xbox Series X|S were sold for about 150% higher than their suggested retail price on average. This means that scalping groups have made almost $3.5 million on the Xbox Series S and $20 million on the Xbox Series X.

Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition has been sold about 350% its retail price on average and the standard edition has been sold for about 200%. This means that scalpers have generated a profit of almost $7 million for the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and $27 million for its standard edition. In general, this means scalpers have gained almost $60 million in nearly two months from selling these new consoles.

Scalping has just been one of the many problems that have caused both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 to be hard to obtain this Christmas season. Nearly every time the PlayStation 5 has gone on sale it has caused seller websites like Walmart to crash almost instantly.

Most sites continue to sell out all of their available stock within seconds of putting them up for sale, and it appears like it might be a while before obtaining a new system is a simple process. Scalping has always been a significant problem when huge gaming consoles go on sale, but this has been one of the largest issues mainstream gaming has encountered in a while.

As long as the demand for the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 continues to soar and fans are willing to waste their funds, scalpers will continue to make this type of money off of players.

New NES and SNES Games Announced for Nintendo Switch Online

By
Aletheia
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0
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Every couple of months, Nintendo releases a new set of NES and SNES games to be enjoyed by those who have subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online. In line with this, the developer recently announced on Twitter five new classic games that will be added on December 18, including the notable SNES title Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble.

In other words, Nintendo Switch Online members will have access to Rare’s entire roster of platformer games, following the addition of Donkey Kong Country in July 2020 and Donkey Kong Country 2 in September 2020.

Alongside Donkey Kong Country 3, however, are three other SNES titles that are worth checking out as well. Out of the three other games, two titles are developed by the Japanese studio Jaleco. Namely, these games are Tuff E Nuff, which is essentially a fighting game initially released in 1993, and The Ignition Factor, which is a top-down firefighting simulator.

The fourth and last SNES title on the list is Super Valis 4, a platformer initially released in 1991 and was developed by Telenet Japan.

There’s only one new NES addition this time around, and it’s Nightshade developed by Beam Software and published by Piko Interactive. Initially released in 1992, Nightshade is a point-and-click adventure title, which is a genre that was quite popular during that time period.

The title is also available to purchase on Steam’s digital storefront, but it will cost $5 whereas Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will be able to play it — along with several other classic titles — for only a monthly fee.

It’s clear that Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble is the title that stands out the most in the list given the popularity of developer Rare and the fact that it’s still working on other popular titles such as Sea of Thieves.

However, the rest of the games are definitely worth playing or at least checking out as well, especially for those who want a nostalgic trip back to the NES/SNES era. The titles by developer Jaleco are particularly of interest, as the studio stopped developing video games in 2006, according to Gematsu. It was only this year when owner City Connection allowed Jaleco’s library of games to be licensed by others.

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That being said, many fans think that the Nintendo Switch Online service is much too parsimonious when it comes to its games, as it has a tendency to only release a handful of games every other month.

Some subscribers have an issue with this practice, especially since many games on the NES, SNES, and other platforms are already available and ready to play in the Wii and Wii U’s Virtual Console.

In any case, there was a leak that spread recently that claimed that Game Boy Advance games will be added to Nintendo Switch Online soon. Since this is still just a rumor, we can’t say for sure if it’s based on facts. If the leak is true, however, it would be a huge bonus for Nintendo Switch Online members.

For now, playing classic titles such as Donkey Kong Country 3 is a great way to pass the time, especially while waiting for new games to be launched.

Persona 5 Strikers Free Demo Might Only Be Released In Japan

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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0
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Persona 5 Strikers has recently been confirmed to receive a western region launch but it appears like a free demo outside of Japan will not be considered. In a year where the Persona franchise has seen the launch of various titles, both ports and new releases, this strikes as a peculiarity.

There was much controversy over whether or not Persona 5 Strikers would be localized at all. Speculations roamed about for the whole year, but it wasn’t until English footage leaked that the launch of Persona 5 Strikers in the western regions was verified for 2021.

This sequel to Persona 5 mixes together the combat style of Dynasty Warriors with some of the JRPG mechanics of Persona, though the title doesn’t take the events of Persona 5 Royale into account. The game launched in Japan back in February this year, with a free demo launching on the Switch and PlayStation 4 a few weeks before its official release, though the English launch will also be available on Steam, continuing Persona’s growth in the PC market.

In spite of finally getting the confirmation of the western release of Persona 5 Strikers, it appears likely that a demo for the game will not happen. A hands-off preview of the game from RPGSite reveals that “When asked if there were plans to bring the demo that was seen in Japan for both PS4 and Switch, I was told that unfortunately there were none.” The reason for this decision was not stated.

While it is probable that this could still change in the future, the possibility of this occurring doesn’t seem likely, should this information be true. But even if a free English demo won’t be releasing, the Japanese demo of the game is still downloadable on both the PlayStation Store and Nintendo eShop.

However, players would have to create Japanese accounts on their consoles in order to have access to the demo which is a moderately long process. Though the Japanese demo won’t be available for English players, it does at least give a way to check the gameplay before Persona 5 Strikers launches in the future.

The chance to play the Japanese demo does lighten the frustration that there won’t be an official English demo, though it is a shame that the Japanese demo remains the only choice to try the game for free before buying it.

On the brighter side, it won’t be a long wait before the full version releases. It is probable that the rationale for the demo not being localized could be because of the reveal of the localization being so near to the game’s release.

Whatever the reason is, the Phantom Thieves will make their introduction once more in Persona 5 Strikers when it launches on February 23, 2021.

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