Fighting game tournament ARCREVO is coming back and will be headlined by Guilty Gear Strive, the latest title in the long-running Guilty Gear series.

Riku Ozawa from Arc System Works revealed the news about the fighting game tournament during the company’s special program during Tokyo Game Show 2021 on Sunday.

The event will be held in three general regions — North America; Japan and Korea; and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) — though no specific cities were announced.

Qualifying in North America begins December 11 and the finals will be held on March 19, 2022. The event will be held online in February of next year in the Japan and Korea region, while qualifying for the EMEA region begins this month, with the finals taking place in February 2022.

Last year’s event was canceled and switched to an online event, ARCREVO ONLINE 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The preliminary rounds for ARCREVO 2021 will be held online. The finals in each region will take place either online or offline, depending on the COVID-19 situation in each location.

In other news, the Guilty Gear Strive soundtrack was released on Friday and is also available on streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify.

Arc System Works is also selling new Guilty Gear themed merchandise, such as a Sol Badguy T-shirt and a pillow featuring the character May and one of her animal companions, Mr. Dolphin.

Guilty Gear Strive was released earlier this year and will have more DLC content added in the coming weeks and months.

Goldlewis Dickinson, new to the series, was the first DLC character released for Season Pass 1 in July. The second, Jack-O’ Valentine, a character who has played a big part in the series’ lore, was added in August. Those additions took the playable roster up to 17 characters.

There are plans to add an additional character within 2021 and to add two new characters, two additional stages and more story content in 2022.

Jason Coskrey is a writer based in Tokyo. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey

Fighting game tournament ARCREVO is coming back and will be headlined by Guilty Gear Strive, the latest title in the long-running Guilty Gear series.

Riku Ozawa from Arc System Works revealed the news about the fighting game tournament during the company’s special program during Tokyo Game Show 2021 on Sunday.

The event will be held in three general regions — North America; Japan and Korea; and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) — though no specific cities were announced.

Qualifying in North America begins December 11 and the finals will be held on March 19, 2022. The event will be held online in February of next year in the Japan and Korea region, while qualifying for the EMEA region begins this month, with the finals taking place in February 2022.

Last year’s event was canceled and switched to an online event, ARCREVO ONLINE 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The preliminary rounds for ARCREVO 2021 will be held online. The finals in each region will take place either online or offline, depending on the COVID-19 situation in each location.

In other news, the Guilty Gear Strive soundtrack was released on Friday and is also available on streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify.

Arc System Works is also selling new Guilty Gear themed merchandise, such as a Sol Badguy T-shirt and a pillow featuring the character May and one of her animal companions, Mr. Dolphin.

Guilty Gear Strive was released earlier this year and will have more DLC content added in the coming weeks and months.

Goldlewis Dickinson, new to the series, was the first DLC character released for Season Pass 1 in July. The second, Jack-O’ Valentine, a character who has played a big part in the series’ lore, was added in August. Those additions took the playable roster up to 17 characters.

There are plans to add an additional character within 2021 and to add two new characters, two additional stages and more story content in 2022.

Jason Coskrey is a writer based in Tokyo. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey

Publisher 110 Industries and Soleil, a game development studio comprised of Team Ninja veterans who worked on both the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, has announced Wanted: Dead, a new third-person fast-action game for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC set in a low-tech sci-fi version of Hong Kong that will allow you to master combat with both guns and melee weapons. The team cites Bayonetta and Devil May Cry as inspirations. Wanted: Dead also includes "an in-depth investigative side where players must analyze evidence and dive into real police work."

Key members of the team include former Team Ninja employees that left Tecmo with Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki in 2008. All senior developers that worked on Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II, DOA, DOA2 and Xtreme Beach Volleyball including producer Yoshifuru Okamoto, director Hiroaki Matsui, and lead planner Natsuki Tsurugai. See the uncensored Wanted: Dead announcement trailer above and the first several screenshots below.

As Lt. Hannah Stone, head of the "Zombie Squad" that operates outside of the normal purview of the police, players will have the choice of whether to engage enemies up close with melee attacks (including "a limb-severing mechanic that changes enemy attack patterns") or bring them down from afar with guns. As you can see in the uncensored trailer above, Wanted: Dead definitely shows its Ninja Gaiden roots in addition to its Bayonetta and Devil May Cry influences.

There is no release date as of yet as from simply "2022," but stay tuned to IGN for much more on Wanted: Dead in the coming months.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Publisher 110 Industries and Soleil, a game development studio comprised of Team Ninja veterans who worked on both the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, has announced Wanted: Dead, a new third-person fast-action game for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC set in a low-tech sci-fi version of Hong Kong that will allow you to master combat with both guns and melee weapons. The team cites Bayonetta and Devil May Cry as inspirations. Wanted: Dead also includes "an in-depth investigative side where players must analyze evidence and dive into real police work."

Key members of the team include former Team Ninja employees that left Tecmo with Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki in 2008. All senior developers that worked on Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II, DOA, DOA2 and Xtreme Beach Volleyball including producer Yoshifuru Okamoto, director Hiroaki Matsui, and lead planner Natsuki Tsurugai. See the uncensored Wanted: Dead announcement trailer above and the first several screenshots below.

As Lt. Hannah Stone, head of the "Zombie Squad" that operates outside of the normal purview of the police, players will have the choice of whether to engage enemies up close with melee attacks (including "a limb-severing mechanic that changes enemy attack patterns") or bring them down from afar with guns. As you can see in the uncensored trailer above, Wanted: Dead definitely shows its Ninja Gaiden roots in addition to its Bayonetta and Devil May Cry influences.

There is no release date as of yet as from simply "2022," but stay tuned to IGN for much more on Wanted: Dead in the coming months.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

In a special broadcast aired at Tokyo Game Show 2021 Online, Sega and Atlus showed new gameplay footage of Shin Megami Tensei V, due for a Japanese release on November 11, 2021. This demo differed from the one on the show floor and published yesterday by IGN, and featured an extended battle against a red ogre.

The player (a Japanese game writer named Mafia Kajita, a self-identified fan of the series) explored a sandy ruined area of Tokyo, leading him to compare the sights to the famous sand dunes of Tottori. Monsters freely roam the map and are not only visible but audible to the player; masked Ippon-Datara wailed from underneath their masks, making a horrible sound. Kajita engaged in several small fights, showing off a variety of attacks on weaker monsters, including a Mermaid's scream which can freeze enemies and shatter them if they run out of HP.

Shin Megami Tensei V battles aren't all about fighting though, as the player can choose at any time to try and talk to the demons and work something out. Kajita met a trio of "crazy birds" and befriended one immediately, ending combat and netting a new party member at the same time. Other monsters needed more convincing: A bicorn told the hero he "smelled like a human," prompting Kajita to choose the response, "I ate their food". The bicorn was repulsed, saying, "Human food is GROSS," so it passed him an antitoxin item and promptly vanished.

The encounter with the giant ogre began in conversation, as the beast bragged of his strength and ferocity before admitting a problem: He's so strong and so scary, none of the other monsters will share their problems with him, they just run away. He tasked the player with finding out which monsters need his help, offering them a chance to become a "boss" in his organization. However, despite talking to several small creatures, none of them would admit to this. Kajita returned to the ogre to break the news to him, and it enraged him. He went outside and threatened the other monsters, leading them to beg for help from the player character, making the ogre madder and triggering a battle.

The fight took a long time, as the ogre had so much HP the game would not display the total number. Kajita wore the grouchy giant down by exploiting his weak points (receiving extra combat actions) and putting him to sleep such that he would miss his turns. The pattern did not hold up, and the ogre was able to hit Kajita’s entire party for massive damage. Eventually the time came to end the segment, but Kajita refused to put the controller down. The staff relented, giving him "five minutes" to finish the battle.

The extra time was just barely enough to get the job done, as Kajita finished the ogre off, forcing him to admit he felt "shame" before running away. Not only did the little demons thank the player and reward him for the fight, but the ogre also gave him a present and the game considered this a completed quest.

During a non-interactive segment, there was new footage shown of a cutscene between four powerful looking demons. They each identified themselves as coming from different regions around the world: Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia and India. Each demon’s character design lined up with its geographic origins as well. Kajita compared the scene to the Avengers, but also admitted that it was so short, he doesn't know what relevance it has to the story. Most of the program featured speculation about the narrative of the game, as the staff admitted that very little information regarding the plot has been made public.

As the program wrapped up with release information and showing off a deluxe edition, the English broadcast team reminded the audience that local launch dates and packaging will vary by region. For the United States, Shin Megami Tensei V is scheduled to arrive on November 12, 2021.

Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan who uses Twitter and Twitch as feitclub.

In a special broadcast aired at Tokyo Game Show 2021 Online, Sega and Atlus showed new gameplay footage of Shin Megami Tensei V, due for a Japanese release on November 11, 2021. This demo differed from the one on the show floor and published yesterday by IGN, and featured an extended battle against a red ogre.

The player (a Japanese game writer named Mafia Kajita, a self-identified fan of the series) explored a sandy ruined area of Tokyo, leading him to compare the sights to the famous sand dunes of Tottori. Monsters freely roam the map and are not only visible but audible to the player; masked Ippon-Datara wailed from underneath their masks, making a horrible sound. Kajita engaged in several small fights, showing off a variety of attacks on weaker monsters, including a Mermaid's scream which can freeze enemies and shatter them if they run out of HP.

Shin Megami Tensei V battles aren't all about fighting though, as the player can choose at any time to try and talk to the demons and work something out. Kajita met a trio of "crazy birds" and befriended one immediately, ending combat and netting a new party member at the same time. Other monsters needed more convincing: A bicorn told the hero he "smelled like a human," prompting Kajita to choose the response, "I ate their food". The bicorn was repulsed, saying, "Human food is GROSS," so it passed him an antitoxin item and promptly vanished.

The encounter with the giant ogre began in conversation, as the beast bragged of his strength and ferocity before admitting a problem: He's so strong and so scary, none of the other monsters will share their problems with him, they just run away. He tasked the player with finding out which monsters need his help, offering them a chance to become a "boss" in his organization. However, despite talking to several small creatures, none of them would admit to this. Kajita returned to the ogre to break the news to him, and it enraged him. He went outside and threatened the other monsters, leading them to beg for help from the player character, making the ogre madder and triggering a battle.

The fight took a long time, as the ogre had so much HP the game would not display the total number. Kajita wore the grouchy giant down by exploiting his weak points (receiving extra combat actions) and putting him to sleep such that he would miss his turns. The pattern did not hold up, and the ogre was able to hit Kajita’s entire party for massive damage. Eventually the time came to end the segment, but Kajita refused to put the controller down. The staff relented, giving him "five minutes" to finish the battle.

The extra time was just barely enough to get the job done, as Kajita finished the ogre off, forcing him to admit he felt "shame" before running away. Not only did the little demons thank the player and reward him for the fight, but the ogre also gave him a present and the game considered this a completed quest.

During a non-interactive segment, there was new footage shown of a cutscene between four powerful looking demons. They each identified themselves as coming from different regions around the world: Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia and India. Each demon’s character design lined up with its geographic origins as well. Kajita compared the scene to the Avengers, but also admitted that it was so short, he doesn't know what relevance it has to the story. Most of the program featured speculation about the narrative of the game, as the staff admitted that very little information regarding the plot has been made public.

As the program wrapped up with release information and showing off a deluxe edition, the English broadcast team reminded the audience that local launch dates and packaging will vary by region. For the United States, Shin Megami Tensei V is scheduled to arrive on November 12, 2021.

Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan who uses Twitter and Twitch as feitclub.

The development team behind Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin have been taking player feedback to heart as they work to improve the game ahead of its release next year – in ways even they didn’t expect.

After hearing all the speculation from fans about the identity of Chaos following the initial demo that was released in the summer, the developers — a collaboration of minds from Square Enix and Team Ninja — went ahead and included his name (Jack Garland, i.e. the name of the main character) in the new trailer that was shown during Tokyo Game Show 2021.

“The protagonist is Garland, and I’d had in mind for a while that one day, I’d like to tell the story of how Garland turns into Chaos,” producer Tetsuya Nomura said during a special presentation for the game on Saturday night. Nomura participated as a voiceover, while other members of the team and two guest players appeared in person. “But for some reason, the trailer spoiled the twist, I guess.”

Jin Fujiwara, one of the producers, told the team the proverbial moogle was out of the bag already, leading to the inclusion of the scene at the end of the TGS trailer.

“Fujiwara told me as well,” Nomura said. “He said, ‘People outside of Japan have figured it out already, let's just reveal it’.”

Other than spoiling Nomura’s twist, the feedback the team received from the first demo has led to a number of changes. The graphics have been given an update and the lighting has been adjusted after players complained the initial demo was too dark. The new demo — and presumably the final game — will also support rendering in 4K.

“We’ve put a lot of energy into making sure that it runs at a high frame rate, even at that kind of high resolution,” Koei Tecmo director Hiroya Usuda said.

Even though there was positive feedback from the first demo about the gameplay and the game’s responsiveness, the team still made adjustments in that area. The Lightbringer attack, for instance, now consumes more MP, but lasts for a longer duration. There have also been tweaks to MP and how fast the break gauge refills.

A new feature called Resonance has been added to help improve the usefulness of the NPC characters in your party. The other characters will be more aggressive in using their abilities while Resonance is in effect. The feature was added to improve the AI performance of the NPCs in your party. Players can now also change the jobs of the other characters in their party.

The NPCs can now be equipped with new gear, which was the team’s way of solving the issue of the copious amount of loot drops, which led to players saying they couldn’t use it all. The game's tutorials have also been tweaked and new ones have been added to help introduce players to this game's world.

The game is hard, similar to Team Ninja’s Nioh series, and the difficulty levels have been rebranded as “story” and “action”. Additionally, the game’s difficulty will not change based on whether it’s being played in single or multiplayer mode.

“We wanted to make a difficulty level for people who want to focus on enjoying the story,” Square Enix director Daisuke Inoue said of the story difficulty setting.

Gameplay of the multiplayer portion of the game was also featured during the showcase.

“We received a lot of feedback from people who wanted to play multiplayer, or who wanted to play with their friends,” Inoue said. “That was something we really wanted to include as well.”

Three members of the panel — playing as Jack, Ash and Neon — teamed up to tackle the new area from the demo, the Refrin Wetlands, the new area from the current demo. One of the guest players mentioned some of the refrains in the stage’s soundtrack sounded familiar, and then wondered if she should not say anything else, which Inoue quickly agreed with — possibly hinting at some sort of potential callback.

The multiplayer section showed the three-person team taking on enemies and using the abilities of the job classes they chose for their characters. They pummeled enemies in unison and eventually took down the boss, after some close calls, to end the trial.

Job classes also come into play in multiplayer and can be used strategically in some cases. For example, a white mage who charges a spell for long enough will be able to widen the area of effect and benefit the rest of the party.

Since the difficulty does not scale in multiplayer, the developers said it was probably easier to play in a group rather than alone.

The team will also be taking feedback from the second demo and applying it to the final game. The current demo will remain available on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S stores until October 11. The survey, where players can submit feedback, will run until October 18.

The game, which is a spinoff from but not a direct sequel to Final Fantasy, is scheduled for release on March 18, 2022, but pre-orders for a standard edition and a digital deluxe edition are live now. The title is part of the Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary, which will be in 2022. To learn more, you can also check out our first preview after getting our hands-on the game.

Jason Coskrey is a writer based in Tokyo. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey

The development team behind Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin have been taking player feedback to heart as they work to improve the game ahead of its release next year – in ways even they didn’t expect.

After hearing all the speculation from fans about the identity of Chaos following the initial demo that was released in the summer, the developers — a collaboration of minds from Square Enix and Team Ninja — went ahead and included his name (Jack Garland, i.e. the name of the main character) in the new trailer that was shown during Tokyo Game Show 2021.

“The protagonist is Garland, and I’d had in mind for a while that one day, I’d like to tell the story of how Garland turns into Chaos,” producer Tetsuya Nomura said during a special presentation for the game on Saturday night. Nomura participated as a voiceover, while other members of the team and two guest players appeared in person. “But for some reason, the trailer spoiled the twist, I guess.”

Jin Fujiwara, one of the producers, told the team the proverbial moogle was out of the bag already, leading to the inclusion of the scene at the end of the TGS trailer.

“Fujiwara told me as well,” Nomura said. “He said, ‘People outside of Japan have figured it out already, let's just reveal it’.”

Other than spoiling Nomura’s twist, the feedback the team received from the first demo has led to a number of changes. The graphics have been given an update and the lighting has been adjusted after players complained the initial demo was too dark. The new demo — and presumably the final game — will also support rendering in 4K.

“We’ve put a lot of energy into making sure that it runs at a high frame rate, even at that kind of high resolution,” Koei Tecmo director Hiroya Usuda said.

Even though there was positive feedback from the first demo about the gameplay and the game’s responsiveness, the team still made adjustments in that area. The Lightbringer attack, for instance, now consumes more MP, but lasts for a longer duration. There have also been tweaks to MP and how fast the break gauge refills.

A new feature called Resonance has been added to help improve the usefulness of the NPC characters in your party. The other characters will be more aggressive in using their abilities while Resonance is in effect. The feature was added to improve the AI performance of the NPCs in your party. Players can now also change the jobs of the other characters in their party.

The NPCs can now be equipped with new gear, which was the team’s way of solving the issue of the copious amount of loot drops, which led to players saying they couldn’t use it all. The game's tutorials have also been tweaked and new ones have been added to help introduce players to this game's world.

The game is hard, similar to Team Ninja’s Nioh series, and the difficulty levels have been rebranded as “story” and “action”. Additionally, the game’s difficulty will not change based on whether it’s being played in single or multiplayer mode.

“We wanted to make a difficulty level for people who want to focus on enjoying the story,” Square Enix director Daisuke Inoue said of the story difficulty setting.

Gameplay of the multiplayer portion of the game was also featured during the showcase.

“We received a lot of feedback from people who wanted to play multiplayer, or who wanted to play with their friends,” Inoue said. “That was something we really wanted to include as well.”

Three members of the panel — playing as Jack, Ash and Neon — teamed up to tackle the new area from the demo, the Refrin Wetlands, the new area from the current demo. One of the guest players mentioned some of the refrains in the stage’s soundtrack sounded familiar, and then wondered if she should not say anything else, which Inoue quickly agreed with — possibly hinting at some sort of potential callback.

The multiplayer section showed the three-person team taking on enemies and using the abilities of the job classes they chose for their characters. They pummeled enemies in unison and eventually took down the boss, after some close calls, to end the trial.

Job classes also come into play in multiplayer and can be used strategically in some cases. For example, a white mage who charges a spell for long enough will be able to widen the area of effect and benefit the rest of the party.

Since the difficulty does not scale in multiplayer, the developers said it was probably easier to play in a group rather than alone.

The team will also be taking feedback from the second demo and applying it to the final game. The current demo will remain available on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S stores until October 11. The survey, where players can submit feedback, will run until October 18.

The game, which is a spinoff from but not a direct sequel to Final Fantasy, is scheduled for release on March 18, 2022, but pre-orders for a standard edition and a digital deluxe edition are live now. The title is part of the Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary, which will be in 2022. To learn more, you can also check out our first preview after getting our hands-on the game.

Jason Coskrey is a writer based in Tokyo. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey

Get your bubbling cauldrons ready for winter as Koei Tecmo will release Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream in North America on February 25, 2022 for PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

This new entry in the Atelier series (which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year) is a sequel to Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, first released in Japan in 2015 but more recently ported to the Nintendo Switch.

You can check out an exclusive look at the introduction to the game below:

In her first adventure, young alchemist Sophie Neuenmuller ran her own business in the town of Kirchen Bell but struggled with her craft. She discovered a floating, talking book of alchemic recipes named Plactha. This book shared her extensive knowledge with Sophie in exchange for help in regaining her memories and original form. Sophie also partnered with non-book friends as she gathered materials for her alchemy and they collectively fought monsters in the wild using Sophie's handiwork. As players learned how to master the in-game alchemy systems, Sophie gained experience as an alchemist, gaining access to more complex creations.

For the upcoming sequel, Sophie and Plachta will continue their friendship and journey outside of Kirchen Bell to a new realm called Erde Weige. There she discovers a young alchemist also named Plachta, but this one doesn't seem to know Sophie at all. In Atelier Sophie 2's new world, up to six party members form two teams and battle monsters in "multi-linked turn-based battles". Switching from exploration to combat is now instant, with no more loading or transition screens between the two gameplay modes.

It's not all fighting though, as Sophie still needs to use her alchemy talents to combine materials into new substances. The panel synthesis system from the previous game will return, offering players a choice on how they wish to create their concoctions. Regular panels allow for easier creations, but "restricted" panels can produce stronger stuff — if players know how to use them.

The very first Atelier game debuted in May of 1997 exclusively in Japan, originally for the Sony PlayStation but later ported to many other consoles. Sequels and spinoffs followed soon after, but it took years before an Atelier game was officially localized. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, would be the first title to see an international release, but recently Koei Tecmo has taken a more global, multi-platform approach with the series (including releasing on Steam).

To celebrate the franchise's upcoming 25th anniversary, a website is already up to highlight the latest news surrounding the event. Koei Tecmo America is also offering a Limited Edition version of Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream exclusively through the NIS America online store, with an art book, deluxe fabric poster, keychain, bonus soundtrack CD, and an exclusive DLC costume.

Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan who uses Twitter & Twitch as feitclub.

Get your bubbling cauldrons ready for winter as Koei Tecmo will release Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream in North America on February 25, 2022 for PlayStation 4, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

This new entry in the Atelier series (which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year) is a sequel to Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, first released in Japan in 2015 but more recently ported to the Nintendo Switch.

You can check out an exclusive look at the introduction to the game below:

In her first adventure, young alchemist Sophie Neuenmuller ran her own business in the town of Kirchen Bell but struggled with her craft. She discovered a floating, talking book of alchemic recipes named Plactha. This book shared her extensive knowledge with Sophie in exchange for help in regaining her memories and original form. Sophie also partnered with non-book friends as she gathered materials for her alchemy and they collectively fought monsters in the wild using Sophie's handiwork. As players learned how to master the in-game alchemy systems, Sophie gained experience as an alchemist, gaining access to more complex creations.

For the upcoming sequel, Sophie and Plachta will continue their friendship and journey outside of Kirchen Bell to a new realm called Erde Weige. There she discovers a young alchemist also named Plachta, but this one doesn't seem to know Sophie at all. In Atelier Sophie 2's new world, up to six party members form two teams and battle monsters in "multi-linked turn-based battles". Switching from exploration to combat is now instant, with no more loading or transition screens between the two gameplay modes.

It's not all fighting though, as Sophie still needs to use her alchemy talents to combine materials into new substances. The panel synthesis system from the previous game will return, offering players a choice on how they wish to create their concoctions. Regular panels allow for easier creations, but "restricted" panels can produce stronger stuff — if players know how to use them.

The very first Atelier game debuted in May of 1997 exclusively in Japan, originally for the Sony PlayStation but later ported to many other consoles. Sequels and spinoffs followed soon after, but it took years before an Atelier game was officially localized. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, would be the first title to see an international release, but recently Koei Tecmo has taken a more global, multi-platform approach with the series (including releasing on Steam).

To celebrate the franchise's upcoming 25th anniversary, a website is already up to highlight the latest news surrounding the event. Koei Tecmo America is also offering a Limited Edition version of Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream exclusively through the NIS America online store, with an art book, deluxe fabric poster, keychain, bonus soundtrack CD, and an exclusive DLC costume.

Diamond Feit is a writer/podcaster in Osaka, Japan who uses Twitter & Twitch as feitclub.