Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima recently echoed Tom Cruise when talking about his future plans, declaring: “I want to keep creating things until I die.”
Since starting out in the industry at Konami in 1986, Kojima has created a variety of games, including Snatcher, the innovative sunlight-based GBA title Boktai, and the infamous P.T. demo. In a recent interview centering around Kojima’s latest game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Game*Spark asked Kojima about his motivations and thoughts on why he continues to make games.
“I’m the same as Tom Cruise (laughs),” he said. “My life has been dedicated to creating things. That is my joy. I want to create for as long as my body and my brain keep working. I will think about (stopping) if it begins to inconvenience the people around me, but I want to keep creating things until I die.”
In likening himself to Cruise, Kojima is probably referring to the recent comments made by the actor at the premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. On the red carpet, Cruise told The Hollywood Reporter that he will never stop making movies, even quipping that intends to keep making them into his 100s.
Talking of movies, in Kojima’s comment to Game*Spark, he didn’t specify creating games, just creating. This suggests that Kojima is open to making something that is not a game in the future. In a recent video interview with French media outlet Brut, Kojima revealed that, depending on how Kojima Productions is doing after it has completed Microsoft game OD and Sony game Physint, he would like to make a movie.
With their long cutscenes and cinematic presentation, some have argued that many of Kojima’s games are already movie-like (we’ve even worked out exactly how much of each Kojima game is cutscenes). However, in the interview with Game*Spark, Kojima addresses this, explaining that even though his games are influenced by movies, he is always focused on making a game first and foremost.
“I grew up watching movies, so they influence the lighting, character modeling, direction and so on (when I make a game), but I am conscious of the fact that I am not making a movie, and my fundamental approach is to consider what can only be done in a game, including an odd sense of playfulness,” he said.
Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Kojima Productions.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
Nintendo fans now know who developed Switch 2 launch title Welcome Tour — the mini-game collection that also acts as an interactive instruction manual for the new console, which many have suggested should have been included for free.
While Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour doesn’t state it within the game itself, Mario Party studio Nintendo Cube, formerly NDCube, has now updated its website to confirm the game is its work.
Nintendo Cube is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Nintendo founded in 2000 that frequently handles the company’s various mini-game collection projects. It developed the so-so Wii Party (not to be confused with the better Wii Play, which came with a packed-in Wii Remote), as well as the disappointing Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival on Wii U.
More recently, Nintendo Cube released the functional Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for Switch 1, before the infamous Everybody 1-2 Switch — a party game sequel launched with little fanfare that earned Nintendo some of its worst review scores in recent memory. (“Everybody 1-2-Switch might be the first party game I’ve played where I ended up with fewer friends afterwards,” IGN wrote in its 4/10 appraisal.)
But it’s for Mario Party that Nintendo Cube is best known, having taken over as the hugely popular party game series’ main developer beginning with 2012’s Mario Party 9 onwards, and continuing with Mario Party 10, Mario Party Star Rush, Mario Party: The Top 100, Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars.
Nintendo Cube’s next launch is (deep breath) Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, a Switch 2 update for Super Mario Party Jamboree that makes use of the new console’s mouse controls and optional camera peripheral, due to arrive on July 24.
“Even if Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour were the pack-in game it feels like it was meant to be, the execution of its charming concept is a muddled collection of quaint tech demos and boring factoids dressed up as an uncompelling completionist checklist,” IGN wrote in our Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
There’s no doubting Hideo Kojima’s devotion to the art of video games. But one question that has followed the Metal Gear master around for much of his career is “Why doesn’t he just make a movie?”. This sentiment no doubt stems from the perception that his work at both Konami and Kojima Productions has been cutscene-heavy, opting to tell stories through often-thrillingly orchestrated cinematics rather than organic gameplay design. But is this perceived notion a reality? And, more importantly, does it even matter?
Well, I’ve done some number crunching and worked out what portion of each of the mainline Metal Gear Solid games, plus the duo of Death Strandings, is cutscenes. In some cases, it’s what you’d expect. In others, not so much…
How much of each Kojima game is cutscenes?
To work out just how much of each game is cutscene, I’ve used the average time to complete a main story playthrough, sourced from How Long to Beat’s data. I’ve then taken the total runtime of each game’s cutscenes and used it to assess what percentage that runtime is of the average playthrough. The results are:
Metal Gear Solid: 20.29% (11hr, 30m average playthrough, 2hr 20m of cutscenes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: 23.21% (13hr average playthrough, 3hr 1m of cutscenes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: 26.35% (16hr average playthrough, 4hr 13m of cutscenes)
Metal Gear Solid 4: 40.63% (18hr 30m average playthrough, 7hr 31m of cutscenes)
Metal Gear Solid 5: 8.13% (45hr 30m average playthrough, 3hr 42m of cutscenes)
Death Stranding: 15.75% (40hr 30m average playthrough, 6hr 22m of cutscenes)
Death Stranding 2: 15.97% (37hr 40m average playthrough*, 6hr 1m of cutscenes)
It is important to note that this percentage relates to cinematic cutscenes only. Codec calls or other such in-game conversations are not included, as they require some player interactivity to progress.
What do those percentages reveal about Kojima’s career?
It turns out that the original three Metal Gear Solid games follow a similar trend – cutscenes make up around 20-ish percent of the overall playtime, with each subsequent entry gradually contributing to a very slight upward trajectory. It’s with Metal Gear Solid 4 that things really shift. With 40% of it being cinematics, it’s not too far from the truth to say Guns of the Patriots is half cutscenes. Understandably, the game has become the poster child for Kojima’s cinematic indulgence, something only emphasised by length – the story famously crescendoes in a 71 minute-long final cinematic. That’s just 10 minutes shorter than the 1995 animated film Toy Story.
The same can’t be said for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, however. A game with a troubled development path to say the least, it suffers from the exact opposite issue as MGS 4: a paper-thin story. With just under 4 hours of cutscenes in 45 hours of gameplay, it’s a starkly low ratio by comparison to its predecessors. MGS 5 is undoubtedly one of the greatest stealth games ever made from a mechanical perspective, but its lack of narrative throughline (and, to be honest, ending) prevents it from feeling like a full Kojima package.
And then we have the Death Stranding games, which feature runtimes akin to The Phantom Pain, but a cutscene percentage closer to that of the first Metal Gear Solid. The result is a duology of games that feel more narratively complete than MGS 5, but not as trapped by cinematic ambition as Kojima’s more indulgent projects.
Are there too many cutscenes in Kojima’s games?
With all that data crunching out the way, let’s address the real question: is Kojima too reliant on cutscenes? I think the answer lies in each individual project, or at the very least each era of his career.
Across the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy, between a fifth and a quarter of each game is cinematics. Is being passive for that duration a problem? I’m not so sure. In the PS1 and PS2 era, telling complex stories was harder to do in player-controlled scenarios, and so that’s where cinematics, codec calls, or lengthy dialogue sequences came into play. The first three Metal Gear Solid games were lauded during their time, and are still revered, for their cinematic approach to presentation, and those early trips through Shadow Moses, Big Shell, and Soviet forests flowed beautifully. They told their tales through a healthy amount of cutscenes, yes, but never at the cost of gameplay, which ushered in never-before-seen approaches to stealth-action and many experimental fourth-wall-breaking surprises. They were cutscene-heavy, but never at the expense of the game itself.
That unquestionably changes with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. 7 hours and 31 minutes of it is spent idly watching cinematics that play out on either side of its linear stealth corridors and boss battles. Kojima had a grand story he wanted to tell, with multiple threads that needed tying up from across the trilogy that preceded it, but this arguably came at the cost of the game itself. The story isn’t necessarily a bad one, it just all-too-frequently interrupts the stealth-action we all desire from one of Snake’s adventures. And often they can be excessively lengthy – I’ve already mentioned the longer-than-a-movie finale, but the cutscenes that bridge one act to another often feature TV show-like runtimes.
Things go in the complete opposite direction with Metal Gear Solid 5, and while some of that can be blamed on its fraught development cycle, much of its reduced cutscene percentage is down to the switch from linear to open world design. This expanded vision aligned with “modern” game development trends in 2015, as massive maps full of opportunity were all the rage in a post-Skyrim world. Crucially, though, the open worlds developed around that time by studios like Bethesda, CD Projekt Red, and even Ubisoft were packed with narrative elements, both at small and large scale, made up of a combination of environmental storytelling, companion conversations, and cutscenes. Kojima didn’t subscribe to this formula, though, perhaps through a stubborn adherence to his traditional methods of sectioning off gameplay from story. But that big open world meant that more time was spent in active gameplay scenarios, and few individual missions in The Phantom Pain actually progress the plot as you play through them. The main story is told largely via cutscenes delivered as part of your trips back to Mother Base, and your time there is much more limited than your time in the field. This approach is simultaneously very Kojima, but oddly removed from the storytelling complexities we’d come to expect in 2015. It’s a fantastic game, but less so when viewed purely through a narrative lens, and the noticeably low number of cutscenes reflects this.
Heading into 2019’s Death Stranding, it may not have been a surprise to see Kojima head back to his roots when it comes to story construction. Sam Porter Bridges’ tale is told predominantly through cutscenes, and rarely during any of the many, many deliveries he’s asked to do. There’s the odd exception – Higgs planting a bomb in his cargo that he has to quickly dispose of, for example – but for the most part, story is reserved for hologram chatter (Death Stranding’s answer to codec calls) and beautifully rendered cinematics.
Both Death Stranding games are of a similar length to The Phantom Pain but, crucially, they don’t feel anywhere near as narratively sparse. The core gameplay, in which you connect various cities around a continent via delivering items and extending the internet-like “Chiral Network,” may not act as a direct vehicle for the story, but your mission goals never feel entirely divorced from the themes of human contact in a digital age. And so while the majority of the plot is therefore still told via cutscenes, as was the case way back in 1998 for Kojima on the original Metal Gear Solid, everything in between still feels narratively richer than it does in Metal Gear Solid 5.
Kojima’s effect on single-player stories
We’ve seen that the ratio of cutscenes can vary significantly across Kojima’s library, but how does his work compare to other studios working in similar spaces? Metal Gear Solid did, afterall, practically shape what modern-day PlayStation would become. We can see the impact of its legacy in many single-player, story-focused games – a recent prime example would be The Last of Us Part 2. 15.55% of its average playtime consists of non-interactive cinematic cutscenes, a percentage incredibly close to both Death Stranding games. Similarly, Grand Theft Auto 5, another open-world game with cinematic aspirations, is 12.5% cutscene on an average playthrough.
In both The Last of Us Part 2 and GTA 5, there feels like there’s a lot more story going on between cutscenes compared to Kojima’s games. Characters are constantly conversing to build out each other’s backstories, and radios chatter away to paint pictures of their worlds. But this constant noise can be overwhelming, and frankly, wouldn’t suit the worlds of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding at all. Both are built around protagonists that work in isolation – deep behind enemy lines, or trekking on a lonesome delivery path. This solitude, which enables stretches of reflection and contemplation, are what make these worlds – particularly that of Death Stranding – so singular to wander. The thought of story being injected simply to speed up the flow of its delivery feels counterintuitive. You don’t embody Sam Porter Bridges expecting an audiobook. Instead you get something of a therapeutic white noise machine that plays in between new chapter milestones.
So, should Kojima “just make a movie”? No. He’s created some of the most engaging worlds and unique mechanical gameplay experiences, both of which have helped shape the entire medium. We’d all be much poorer without his contributions. Should he be less reliant on cinematic cutscenes, or incorporate story into his missions? Perhaps. But his approach has worked well enough for me so far, and I don’t think a couple of blips 10-15 years ago should change my perspective on that. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach manages to tell a highly engaging story in only the way Kojima knows how, and I wouldn’t want him following a trend at the risk of receiving anything less interesting.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
A developer who worked on Microsoft’s now-cancelled Perfect Dark reboot has addressed the claim that last year’s gameplay demo was “fake,” and said the glimpse was a vertical slice of the project running “in-engine.”
Perfect Dark was one of several projects canned by Microsoft this week as part of the company’s latest devastating cuts to Xbox staff and games. Developed by The Initiative, a studio Microsoft is now shutting down, alongside Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics, Perfect Dark had rarely been glimpsed since its initial announcement back in 2020.
That all changed last year when a “gameplay reveal” video aired as part of the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024. And it’s this video that has since sparked questions over how much of what it shows corresponds to actual, working game systems.
Earlier this week, Kotaku writer Ethan Gach posted on social media that he had been told last year’s demo had been “basically fake.” The question of the gameplay demo’s legitimacy was discussed in more detail by former Perfect Dark developer Adam McDonald, who now works as a senior game designer at Cuphead maker Studio MDHR.
“It is actually in-engine,” McDonald said. “I was one of three level designers that worked on it. It worked best if you played it the way the person playing in the video plays it, but it still worked even if you didn’t hit the marks perfectly.
“There’s some fake stuff in it,” he continued, “and the real gameplay systems shown off worked juuust enough to look good in this video. We were rapidly making real design decisions so as to not knowingly lie to players about what the game will be. The parkour is all real, the hacking/deception is mostly real.
“The combat is ‘real’ in that someone had to really do all that stuff in the video, but it’s set up to be played exactly that way and didn’t play well if you played it a different way.”
What McDonald is saying then, is that there’s nuance here. Like many vertical slices meant to showcase a project that’s still in development, it was made to work just enough, and to give a sense of how the final game would have appeared, had the project survived until launch.
McDonald’s suggestion here seems to be that the team behind it intended to show something that gave as accurate a sense of what Perfect Dark would be as was possible. That said, some elements clearly still sound like they were a work-in-progress, even if they were meant to be representative.
“I’m seeing big controversy over ‘THIS WHOLE THING WAS FAKE’ and it’s annoying me, so I wanted to say something,” McDonald concluded. Then, in a reply to another user, McDonald said “it was a pretty typical vertical slice” and “I don’t think we were particularly deceptive with it.”
He added: “It’s probably more real than you think. We were figuring stuff out on the fly in time to include it in the demo, doing our best not to ‘lie’ to players. There’s some fakery but quite a lot of it was legit.”
The Stop Killing Games initiative has reached the crucial 1 million signatures milestone in its quest to preserve video games for decades to come, but its fight isn’t over yet.
The self-described consumer movement soared past the goal yesterday, July 3, cementing its status as an impressive petition in gaming history and a movement that has plenty of gas left in the tank. It’s all in the name of protecting the video games players love – and even the ones they don’t – as the industry steadily marches toward a digital future.
Social media feeds have since filled with reactions from supporters praising an operation that could help save multiplayer and single-player games for future generations. While gamers take to the internet to celebrate, spokesperson and organizer Ross Scott says reaching 1 million signatures is good news but far from a victory.
“OK, the breaking news: The European Citizens’ Initiative has crossed 1 million signatures – except it hasn’t,” Scott said in a video update uploaded yesterday. “This is going to kill morale, but there are two things going on here. The first we knew was coming. Every time somebody makes a mistake when they sign the Initiative, their signature gets invalidated. So that means we need more signatures to make up for everybody’s mistakes.”
So, yeah, that sucks.
It’s an important variable in the equation on the road to 1 million legitimate Stop Killing Games endorsements, and it’s just one flaw to consider. The other involves reports Scott has received regarding fabricated signatures that could be artificially inflating the initiative’s progress.
“First off, I want to say that this is not a Change.org petition,” Scott adds. “This is a government process. Spoofing signatures on it is a crime. Please do not do this. They’ll be checked later by the EU commission, and my guess is the fake ones will get turned over to the Europol or Interpol, and they’ll follow up on this.”
To anyone who made a mistake or isn’t sure if they signed the EU initiative already, you can contact the official spokesperson (Daniel Ondruska) and he can direct you on how to reach the EU to sort it out. His contact is on the page under “more info”https://t.co/EpnNTDR85U
To account for what could be a significant number of invalid Stop Killing Games signatures, the initiative has altered its ideal goal to be 1.4 million signatures. At the time of this story’s publication, Stop Killing Games has reached 1.07 million endorsements ahead of its July 31 end date.
“So, yeah, that sucks,” Scott continued. “We’ll just keep plodding away unless we can figure out what the safe numbers are. Sorry this isn’t a big victory celebration. This is just kind of suspenseful and tense instead, and will probably hurt the morale of people signing.”
It means everything from The Crew to Concord could theoretically remain online to enjoy should the initiative amass enough public complaints to see the European Commission pass a law protecting consumer rights. Ideally, players could see live-service and multiplayer titles like BioWare’s Anthem, which was given a shutdown schedule just yesterday, could continue on in some form should a publisher decide to sunset support. Success could also mean single-player games that rely on online components, such as Death Stranding or Dark Souls, could remain intact, too.
WEAK
I know Anthem got panned, but it’s another example of one that seems like it had a cool looking world to run around in. I was interested in trying it out and keeping my expectations low. Yet another example of why SKG is so needed.https://t.co/fDsq0ZsP8K
Stop Killing Games wants to save the art that developers pour their hearts into while protecting consumers who prefer to access games they’ve already paid for, and it’s a movement that hundreds of thousands of game players are already supporting. Following its promising launch last year, however, the initiative struggled to maintain the support it needed to push its way through to the eyes that needed to see it.
Stop Killing Games’ chances at a successful campaign became so dire that Scott went as far as to publish a video titled “The end of Stop Killing Games” just last week. In the hour-long explainer piece, Scott listed a lack of exposure as one primary cause behind the lack of support. It was the Hail Mary the initiative needed, though, as prominent YouTubers like Jacksepticeye, penquinz0/Cr1TiKaL, Ludwig, and more were quick to voice their support with their own videos.
All within the weeks since Scott shared his concerns, Stop Killing Games has gained hundreds of thousands of signatures, resulting in a solid chunk of the more than 1 million names attached to the movement today. Success remains uncertain even if Scott is able to reach that magic 1.4 million number, with even more uncertainty lying on the other side of that goal post. Still, as outlined by Scott on the Stop Killing Games website, he feels optimistic about the future of game preservation if the signature goal is met.
“If we can pass the signature threshold,” Scott says, “there is a very strong chance that the European Commission will pass new law that will both protect consumer rights to retain video games that customers have purchased and advance preservation efforts massively.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
A real-time strategy take on Resident Evil has been announced for iPhone and Android, developed in “close collaboration with Capcom to ensure authenticity and quality.”
Resident Evil Survival Unit is being co-developed by Joycity Corporation, a Korean mobile gaming company that previously made Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, another licensed real-time strategy spin-off.
A full reveal of Survival Unit will take place next week but, until then, a single piece of artwork released today offers the smallest of clues to the game’s setting.
Amid a suitably dark and ominous atmosphere, a vehicle is stopped in the woods next to an advertising billboard for… you guessed it, Umbrella Corporation. The ad shows two happily smiling people, with the tagline: “Our Business is life itself…”
Umbrella existing likely places Resident Evil Survival Unit before the events of Resident Evil 4, by which point the evil organisation has crumbled. Could we be looking at the woods around the Arklay Mountains, near Raccoon City? We can just about glimpse a mountain range in the background, so it’s possible.
It’s easy to imagine a real-time shooter taking advantage of the events seen in and around the Resident Evil game, where several teams of STARS commandos — characters that fans have now grown to care about — most be poked and prodded into action, while kept alive for as long as you can.
An accompanying press release states that Survival Unit is “designed to appeal to both long-time fans and new players,” suggesting we will see some familiar faces or settings here.
And with the main series headed back to Raccoon City in Resident Evil Requiem, and supposedly picking up the storyline of Umbrella, now seems a good time to revisit the setting and events that started it all.
Resident Evil Survival Unit will launch in Japan, South Korea, North America, Europe, and Asia, published by anime company Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony. More details will be confirmed next week via an online showcase, set to broadcast via YouTube on July 10.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Releasing alongside a highly anticipated Switch 2 exclusive, the amiibo is now available through the My Nintendo Store UK for £16.99, with orders capped at three per customer.
Like other amiibo, though, a unique dual-character figure doesn’t just look great on your shelf. It also unlocks in-game content for Donkey Kong Bananza. Most notably, this includes the Diva Dress costume for Pauline, which grants the ability to make the appearance of discs after defeating an enemy twice as likely.
But that’s not all. By scanning either the new DK-Pauline amiibo, the Power-Up Bands from Super Nintendo World, or any of the other Donkey Kong series amiibo; solo Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, etc; gold “KONG” tiles with explosive power will appear. You can hurl these during gameplay to wreak extra havoc in the game’s many environments, and add an extra tactical edge to DK’s new adventure.
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Nintendo also confirmed during its dedicated Donkey Kong Bananza Direct that the game supports every previously released amiibo. Scanning non-DK series figures will instead get you giant material balls, which you can also make DK throw to traverse certain stages.
Preorders on the My Nintendo Store UK include standard delivery for £1.99 or free shipping if your order hits £20 or more. If you were planning on ordering any other DK figures (like those above), or games, like the various bundles for Pokemon Legends: Z-A, you may as preorder one of those now and save yourself a few pounds.
I’ve checked by adding both items to my basket testing the checkout and, even though Pokemon Legends: Z-A is releasing later than the Donkey Kong & Pauline amiibo on October 16 (meaning both will arrive via separate deliveries), shipping will still be free for the entire order.
The amiibo announcement follows a jam-packed Nintendo Direct showcasing Donkey Kong Bananza’s return to 3D platforming. New features include wild Bananza transformations, skill trees, a costume shop, and the creative DK Artist Mode where players sculpt and paint items and characters.
Donkey Kong Bananza drops in just a couple of weeks, and with this amiibo, you’ll be more than ready to swing into action and have a cool figure in your display.
I’ve always been skeptical of Persona spin-offs. How can you twist such rich games into new shapes while maintaining the intricate details that make the series so beloved? Well, when it comes to the most recent addition to the family, Persona5: The Phantom X, the team at Perfect World appear to have done just that – or, at least, that’s how it seems on the surface. With beautifully animated cutscenes and a goosebump-inducing soundtrack, The Phantom X makes it clear early on that it isn’t keen to shake up the Persona formula. What it does do, however, is infuse that already excellent base with the all too familiar premium currencies of a mobile-focused gacha game. I have a more to play before my final review, but no matter how close it comes to recapturing the magic, there’s already a creeping sensation that this walk down memory lane is going to make way for endless grinding eventually.
Despite being a Persona 5 spin-off, The Phantom X doesn’t centre around Joker and his crew – instead, you’ll be playing as a fresh protagonist, Nagisa Kamisiro (though you can still pick your own name), in an alternate timeline version of that story. A seemingly average student, Kamasiro’s life changes when an adorable owl called Lufel calls on them to fight back against the misery and hopelessness enveloping the world, and to turn the tables against the great despair that clouds the hearts of the public. Unable to refuse, Kamasiro learns to wield their inner Persona and travels to the shadow world to help clear out the collective unconscious, one monster at a time. If you’ve played Persona 5, you’ll quickly notice that The Phantom X is following its formula beat by beat.
To fight off the aforementioned evil, you’ll bounce between beautifully recreated Tokyo neighborhoods and the monster-filled Metaverse, seeking out misbehaving fiends and infiltrating their minds while learning to master the series’ trademark turn-based combat that centers around elemental weaknesses. And because Kamisiro is a teen, you’ll also have to balance studying, part-time work, and home life, too. With all of its obvious derivations, The Phantom X struggles to conjure fresh ideas or immediate excitement in the shadow of a nearly decade-old modus operandi, but it at least manages to successfully clone the Persona formula, and that will be enough for some.
Thankfully, where the gameplay itself feels overfamiliar, the surrounding cast of characters provides enough mystery and warmth to keep things interesting. Alongside Kamisiro, you’ll meet the baseball-loving Motoha Arai, your husband-obsessed neighbour Kayo Tomiyama, and adorable schoolmate Tomoko Noge, to name a few. With energetic voice acting to back up their emotive and often humorous dialogue, it’s clear there’s been an effort to give the NPCs a sense of self, or at least the ones I’ve met so far. It didn’t take me long to forge an emotional attachment to them. Morgana’s anthropomorphic owl counterpart, Lufel, is a particular standout, and I am thoroughly enjoying a running gag about their somewhat archaic vocabulary confusing the school-aged NPCs.
The Phantom X follows Persona 5’s formula beat by beat.
You’ll spend most of your days in Kamisiro’s shoes doing time-progressing tasks like studying for school in local cafes, working at the Konbini for cash, and buying groceries that you can use to cook back at your home. I’m still scratching the surface on how integral these side tasks feel in the scope of saving the world, though I’ve been enjoying making shopping lists and gawking at iconic Tokyo landmarks all the same. Particularly, wandering through the bustle of Shibuya Scramble and spotting its famous puppy mascot amongst the beaming electronic signs felt like a wonderful ode to a city I’ve come to love in both real life and games.
Aside from being a typical teen, much of your time in The Phantom X is spent in battle, and your combat expeditions launch from the Metaverse app located on Kamisiro’s phone. You can access these challenges anytime from the overworld, but you’ll need to use a naturally refreshing currency called Stamina to reap the rewards. Focusing on the mainline story missions will help keep you on track in terms of difficulty, though you can also explore a variety of combat challenges as you please to stockpile loot and earn experience, too. This is where the first hints of grinding come into focus but, mercifully, the combat in The Phantom X is very moreish and easy to sink time into.
The Phantom X bases its combat system on Persona 5, meaning it’s turn-based with engaging reactive elements. When you roll up on a baddie, you’ll cycle through your party one member at a time, choosing between melee attacks, ranged attacks, and special Persona abilities. Similar to Pokémon, the enemies you’ll face, as well as the Personas you deploy, all have elemental strengths and weaknesses (like fire or ice) that can be exploited for extra damage. It’s a tried-and-tested system with enough diversity in its moveset to keep battles fresh, and even if you are starting to tire of it, the imagination-stoking enemy designs pull a good amount of weight throughout. What makes Persona combat truly unique, though, is the series’ bold interface design and legendary battle themes. I promise, no matter how many times you’ve already heard Persona 5’s Last Surprise, it just doesn’t get old.
Sadly, no amount of vocal flair from singer Lyn Inaizumi can make up for the sizable array of gacha systems and currencies you need to balance in The Phantom X. While there are characters and Personas you can unlock through the story, the quickest way to bolster your team is to engage in the lucky dip Contracts menu. In line with most other Gacha games on the market, you can earn the currencies you need to pull by grinding, or cut to the chase and pop in your credit card details to get an instant boost. I’m still only about 10 hours into my playthrough, and I’ve not hit any obvious roadblocks, but I can see them coming. At my current level, I have enough cash to buy health items, as well as a plethora of unique currencies to upgrade my Personas, weapons and more. Plus, when it comes to actually engaging with the gacha spins, I don’t feel like the boost they provide are hugely necessary to my success yet. Inevitably, this won’t last, though, and I can see cash-shaped hurdles on the horizon.
Outside of the inclusion of premium currencies, perhaps my biggest issue with The Phantom X so far is that it feels more like an uncanny reflection of Persona 5, rather than a unique take on its established lore. Other spin-offs like Persona 5 Tactica or Persona 5 Strikers feel like strong additions to the series that come at it from a completely different angle, whereas The Phantom X is more of a well-executed imitation. It’s not to say that I’m bored, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both its combat and getting to know the characters so far. The first few chapters of its story are well-written, appropriately shocking, and do well to hook you into the world. But The Phantom X’s “do-over” take on the story The Phantom Thieves just isn’t providing a new enough experience to warrant the amount of time (or possibly money) I’ll need to invest to see it through when Persona 5 and its predecessors are readily available and feel far more curated and engaging.
While I’m mostly enjoying my time with Persona5: The Phantom X so far, there’s still so much to explore before delivering my final review, like investigating the depth of the upgrade systems and the long-term impact of premium currencies as you progress. As a fan of the series, it’s hard to look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes to fresh Persona 5-related content. But as of right now, I’m just unsure about how The Phantom X can deviate enough from the core material to compel me to invest in it long term – only time will tell.
Black Bolt and White Flare are out in Japan, and prices are already settling on the most sought-after cards. I’ve been following the early market closely on TCGPlayer and eBay, and it’s clear which cards are leading the packs… get it?
Zekrom and Reshiram are pulling in the highest numbers, while full-art Trainers and EX cards are also climbing fast. For now, here’s a look at the most expensive cards from both sets right now, based on what I’ve found.
Black Bolt: Japan’s Most Expensive Cards
I’ve been tracking Black Bolt and White Flare since their Japanese launch, and the early market has already picked its favorites. No surprise, Zekrom ex 174/086 leads the Black Bolt pack at $343.12, and it’s not even close.
The alternate Secret Rare version, Zekrom ex 169/086, is holding strong too at $171.29. Both are big pulls with bold art and high early demand. But it’s not just dragons making waves.
N’s Plot 173/086 is already climbing to $97.51, making it the priciest Trainer card in either set. Mid-tier cards like Kyurem ex 168/086 and Serperior ex 167/086 sit in the $50 to $60 range, while Meloetta ex and Genesect ex are slightly lower but still fetching healthy prices for new EXs.
Even the cheaper cards, like Kyurem ex 160/086 at $10.93, or Snivy and Pansage, both hovering around $20, are drawing in early collectors looking to complete those secret rare numbers before the English release.
White Flare: Japan’s Most Expensive Cards
Over in White Flare, things look just as competitive. Reshiram ex 174/086 has taken the top spot here, priced at $347.76, basically mirroring Zekrom’s dominance.
The second Reshiram ex, 168/086, isn’t far behind, fluctuating between $159.95 and $181.85.
Then there’s Hilda 173/086, which is shaping up to be the Trainer pull from this set. It’s listed at $110, but already hitting $121.36 on eBay.
Beyond that, we’ve got Hydreigon ex at a solid $57.50, and a few mid-range hitters like Keldeo ex, Jellicent ex, and Whimsicott ex, all sitting around $25 to $30.
Even cards like Oshawott 102/086, Zoroark, and the alternate Hilda 166/086 are seeing interest around the $16 to $24 range.
These sets are just getting started, and the market’s already showing clear lines between casual rares and serious collector targets.
Where to Buy Sealed Boosters (JP)
Japanese Cards are more popular than ever. The challenge is getting hold of them, which is where TCGPlayer comes in. Instead of paying for importers and stores’ fees from getting this stuff for retail in Japan to get into your hands, you’re paying market value for sealed products.
There’s plenty of chase cards in a booster box for Black Bolt and White Flare, specifically one secret rare, full art, hyper rare or alt art alongside 3 art rares. I’m not saying you’ll get your money back in card values, but it’s fun ripping boosters open. It’s the next best option if you’re not just buying cards standalone for display.
Black Bolt White Flare Preorders
There’s been recent preorder restocks for big box retailers such as Walmart, so we’d recomend keeping an eye on these listings to secure your day one sealed product.
Black Bolt and White Flare sealed products are also on TCGPlayer, although they’re all over MSRP which is to be expected on the secondary collectors market right now. My advice? Wait until after release on July 18 to see where to market setles before making any big moves.
This Week’s Pokémon TCG Crashers and Climbers
With Black Bolt and White Flare wrapping up the Scarlet & Violet era, all eyes are now on what’s next —and Mega Evolution is officially back.
The Japanese Championships 2025 confirmed MEGA Symphonia and MEGA Brave as the first entries in the new Mega Expansion Packs, launching August 1 in Japan. These sets reintroduce Mega Evolution ex cards in a powerful new form, now Stage 2 Pokémon worth 3 Prize Cards when knocked out.
Cards like Mega Gardevoir ex, Mega Venusaur ex, and Mega Lucario ex are leading the charge, and collectors are already snapping up classic Mega cards in anticipation of their return to the spotlight.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
EA has announced it will shut down BioWare’s Anthem on January 12, 2026.
Because Anthem’s only content is online, this means the game will be unplayable after that date.
Premium in-game currency will stop being sold today, though existing balances will still be able to be used until the game shuts down. The game will be removed from EA’s storefront on August 15, 2025, but will still be available for download if it’s already in your library until it officially shuts down.
Anthem launched in February of 2019 to lukewarm reviews, including our own 6.5/10 which criticized the grindiness, lack of polish and variety, and a mismatched story. The game had sold 5 million copies as of December of 2023, which fell short of EA’s target of 6 million copies in the first few months. Though EA continued to update and improve Anthem in the months that followed its launch, in February of 2021, EA ceased active development on the game. The following month, its game director departed the company.
In an FAQ, EA stated that no layoffs occurred at the company as the result of Anthem’s sunset. This will come as a relief, given that EA has undergone a number of massive staffing cuts in the last few years that have left staff reeling.
As for BioWare, it’s currently fully focused on Mass Effect 5 after the sales failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
