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Disney Dreamlight Valley “Mysteries of Skull Rock” update incoming, patch notes [update: trailer]June 17: We’re about to see another Disney Dreamlight Valley with Gameloft readying “Mysteries of Skull Rock”. It launches for Nintendo Switch tomorrow, June 18. Mysteries of Skull Rock adds the latest content with Peter Pan, Adventures in Never Land Star Path, and more. Various improvements are planned such as friendship levels. The full rundown is as follows: Disney Dreamlight... The post Disney Dreamlight Valley “Mysteries of Skull Rock” update incoming, patch notes [update: trailer] appeared first on Nintendo Everything .

Nintendo EverythingJun 18

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma – ReviewEven though we’re fans of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Story of Seasons, we probably preferred the Rune Factory series a bit more as it combined cozy elements with more traditional JRPG mechanics. Fae Farm recently provided gamers with a similar experience, adding a dungeon-crawling component to the mix where you really had to grind a lot to make any progress. Even so, the game proved to be enjoyable and accessible to newcomers to the genre. All of that aside, we were really looking forward to the subject of today’s review, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Early footage made it seem as if Guardians of Azuma would be a big overhaul for the series, with many new elements. While this is true to a certain extent, we do feel that the series would benefit from a few more modernized mechanics. Story In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you’ll play as a so-called Earth Dancer who has the power to restore balance to the world. The game lets you choose one of two characters, which you can give a name of your choosing, if you desire to do so. The world has suffered through an event called the Celestial Collapse that has taken away almost all the power from the nature gods. As a result, the world has been fractured into small islands, and blight has spread across the remaining parts of the world as well. The game follows the typical amnesiac storyline where you must gain your powers back, invigorate the gods, and eventually become the hero the world needed all along. The overarching story is a bit simple, but there’s enough incentive to keep pressing onwards. Progressing bonds with other characters is a key component here, and it also adds a lot of charm to the mix. Character-specific quests often have their own separate storylines. Graphics Even though Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is not an ugly game at all, it does look a bit dated. The colorful cast of characters looks charming, albeit rough around the edges. The bonding sequences often use the exact same animations for most characters, which also does not help with immersion if you’re dedicating some time to bonding with the different characters. The world is fun to explore, but it feels rather empty and lacks variety in terms of assets. All in all, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma looks like a cute title that would have been impressive two generations of consoles ago. While these are negative comments, the game still packs a lot of charm and is pleasant to look at. We were always happy to unlock new areas in the game, as these did present us with a few new item options and new enemies to defeat. The boss designs were quite neat, so that’s certainly a plus. Sound In terms of sound design, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma nails it to a tee. The music is relaxing but also upbeat and adrenaline-inducing when it needs to be. Even the more repetitive tracks in the town areas never lost their flair, even during prolonged gaming sessions. There’s also a surprising amount of voice work in the game, as most main dialogues are fully voiced. The voice cast does a formidable job bringing their characters to life, even if many of these characters stick to stereotypes within the JRPG genre. While we would have loved full voice acting for side quests and other minor dialogues, it’s not uncommon for titles such as this to focus on the main content instead. The SFX are decent, but nothing to truly write home about. Gameplay Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a fairly traditional JRPG. The Rune Factory series, in a sense, could be described as Harvest Moon (or Story of Seasons) with combat, and this is probably also the reason why it has been attracting a very diverse audience since its first title back in 2006, aptly named Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you’ll cultivate fields, help bring new life to different cities, combat monsters, bond with a variety of villagers, and eventually defeat a great evil and settle down. The offset is very straightforward, and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does manage to ease you into most of its mechanics without feeling too overwhelming. The overall progress curve is quite pleasant, as you gain experience with literally every action you perform. You’ll gain experience per weapon type, per sacred treasure you use, for socializing with the other characters, and so on. For all of these actions, you’ll get experience for that specific skill tree. On top of that, you also get general experience that can be used for any skill tree. It’s a fairly rewarding system, and it does give you quite a bit of freedom. If you dislike a certain weapon type, you can still invest general experience in it to level that skill tree as well. Combat itself is not that complicated, and it often boils down to spamming your attacks, casting the odd skill or two, and dodging incoming attacks. As Rune Factory still involves bonding with other characters and settling down with the character of your choosing, you’ll also spend a lot of time talking, going on outings, or handing out presents. It’s fairly entertaining to unlock the bonding quests as you increase your bond level, but the generic outings are perhaps a bit bland, as these are nearly identical for all the different characters. The aforementioned bonding quests, however, are properly fleshed out and a joy to play through. On top of bonding with key characters, you’ll also have some farming to do, and in Guardians of Azuma, you’ll even have to rebuild parts of the villages. In assigned building areas, you can place field tiles, buildings, and decorations. These last two will also provide you with permanent stat upgrades or other passive bonuses. You can manage your growing population by assigning jobs to them, and you can even evict slackers. It’s a fun new system that adds a bit of depth to the otherwise simplistic farming mechanics. Even with Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma’s enjoyable gameplay loop, it does suffer from very dated design choices in some departments. For starters, item stacking in the inventory is a tedious process. For example, identical food items don’t stack, and if you craft a lot of these, your inventory may be filled to the brim with food items, not leaving any room for any other items. Luckily, excess items are sent to the storage box automatically, and you can access the storage box from a lot of places. The controls also feel a bit clunky at times, and there is no rhyme or reason as to which ledges your character can climb and which ones they cannot. Placement controls for buildings are also extremely finicky, making an otherwise relaxing experience frustrating at times. Luckily, this is negated by the ‘overhead’ mode, which allows for more precise movement and placement. It feels like the solutions to some of the more annoying parts are already there, but simply not implemented that well or clearly explained to the player. It’s mainly minor things, but when you combine them all, it becomes clear that the series needs a few more modern touches here and there. Conclusion Even though Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does have a few dated components, the overall package is very enjoyable. We enjoyed exploring the different islands in the world of Azuma, and the story was more than captivating enough for us to keep pressing onwards. With so many romanceable characters, you’ll probably find your pick of the litter, and you can always come back for a second playthrough if you change your mind eventually. The combat was entertaining, albeit a bit simplistic, but grinding for materials and items proved to be very rewarding. We particularly enjoyed the new building mechanics, adding a bit of additional gameplay depth. All in all, this was an entertaining entry in the long-running Rune Factory series, and we hope to see the developer flesh out some of the newly introduced components in future installments.

3rd-strike.comJun 21

Devolver Digital’s Enter & Exit the Gungeon are bringing bullet hell mayhem to mobile this summer, pre-registration now openDevolver Digital has announced to launch its hit bullet hell dungeon crawler, Enter the Gungeon, and its arcade spin-off, Exit the Gungeon, on both Android and iOS this summer, priced at $8.99 and $4.99, respectively. The spin-off title is returning to mobile after its initial launch on Apple Arcade. Get ready to face bullet storms and … The post Devolver Digital’s Enter & Exit the Gungeon are bringing bullet hell mayhem to mobile this summer, pre-registration now open appeared first on GamingonPhone .

Mobile Gaming News and AnnouncementsJun 21

Eiichiro Oda’s Genius Strikes Best With ‘One Piece’s Worst Character Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is full of amazing individuals who inspire us. Characters like Kuma motivate us to be better people despite our hardships, while characters like Sabo teach us to never give up despite being challenged at every phase of life. Even the antagonists manage to teach us a thing or two. Among these […] This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire

FandomWireJun 21

Wordle hint and answer today #1463 (June 21 2025) Need a hint for today's Wordle answer? Entering one wrong Wordle word is fine, entering two is still okay, but from three wrong guesses onwards, things may get a little… tense. If you're hoping to prolong your victory streak, let us give you some Wordle first aid. Every day, Wordle presents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses? All you have to help you in finding the Wordle answer are the contextual clues you gain from each guess - but often, that's not enough. Wordle can be tricky, you see, and it's not unusual to look for a little bit of help if you want to preserve your year-long winstreak. In this guide we'll offer up a selection of Wordle hints to help you figure out today's solution for Saturday June 21. Scroll down a bit further and we'll also reveal today's Wordle answer for 21/6, and a definition of the word if you need it. Read more

Rock Paper Shotgun Guides FeedJun 21

NYT Connections hint (Sat, 21 Jun) Need a hint for today's Connections on Saturday, 21st June? If you didn't know it before, you probably know it now… Connections riddles are tough . Find at least three themes and the puzzle shall be complete, but that's easier said than done. If you feel you need a little push, take a sneak peek of today's puzzle solution below. A single word reveal or a major theme reveal may be just what you need. Read more

Rock Paper Shotgun Guides FeedJun 21

Still Wakes The Deep: Siren’s Rest ReviewSink and swim The post Still Wakes The Deep: Siren’s Rest Review appeared first on WellPlayed .

WellPlayedJun 20

Even the Meta Quest can be an Xbox—Leaked images show an Xbox branded Quest 3S that could shadow drop in just a few days Xbox and Meta have partnered to create an Xbox branded Meta Quest VR headset, rumored to cost approximately $399 and to shadow drop on June 24. Images of the headset have appeared on social media.

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