At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we were able to sit down with NetherRealm Studios’ Ed Boon, Thiago Gomes, and Dominic Cianciolo, along with voice actors Kelly Hu and Yuri Lowenthal, to discuss Mortal Kombat 1.
Hu and Lowenthal discussed a bit about their characters and the changes made to them as the next installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise serves as a reboot for the series.
The interview follows a big reveal that happened during the Mortal Kombat panel that took place yesterday, which revealed that Homelander, Peacemaker, Omni-Man, along with returning Mortal Kombat characters Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda will be available in the first Kombat Pack. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon explains why the studio chose Homelander, Peacemaker, and Omni-Man as guest characters and how all three appropriately tie into the theme of the first Kombat Pack.
Read on for our full San Diego Comic-Con interview with NetherRealm Studios.
IGN: It’s been a while since we saw Li Mei. When was the last time we saw Li Mei in the series?
Ed Boon, Creative Director: I think it might have been Armageddon, was it? It was quite a while ago. Yeah, we’re very excited. One of the returning 3D characters, which has been requested quite a bit from our fans.
IGN: Where does Li Mei fit into the story here? Dominic Cianciolo, Story Director: So Li Mei in the reboot of Mortal Kombat Universe is the first constable of the city of Sun Do, which is Outworld’s capital city. So she’s responsible for policing and maintaining order and that kind of thing. And before she had this role, she was the head of the Umgadi, which is the new palace guard for the royal family of Outworld. And so she’s got a lot of responsibility. She’s obviously a very tremendous fighter and she’s got a really enhanced position in the new universe.
IGN: Now, what’s her play style like in Mortal Kombat 1?
EB: We tried to incorporate a number of her signature moves that she’s had in the previous games, but nowshe’s got this fireworks effect thing. I don’t know, Tiago can elaborate on that.
Thiago Gomes, Art Director: A lot of her effects are really these bright colors and they lean back into the aesthetic of the Sun Do city, and there’s a lot of really bright, awesome effects that are associated with it. IGN: Very cool. I believe you’re also sure that Tanya and Baraka are both coming?
EB: Baraka we had to bring back obviously, but instead of, story-wise, just that being part of his race, it’s more of an infection and it’s like a disease. So both Mileena and Baraka have this disease called Tarkat, which causes them to have the growths in their teeth and all that. So a lot of these characters are coming back as you know them, but their origins are completely different. That’s the big draw of this game is characters that you know in completely brand new story.
IGN:So in terms of that timeline reset, what were the elements of Mortal Kombat lore that you’re most
excited to tweak and have fun with?
DC: I, there was a lot, I mean, when the decision was made, we wanted to reboot, wanted to do something different. I was really looking at all of that great foundation that we had had before. And so in talking with Ed about it, what he really wanted to do was take that foundation, but take the story in a completely different direction so that we’re surprising people and adding that novelty to it. And so being able to play with the classic Sub-Zero, Scorpion relationship, playing with Mileena’s origin and her relationship to Kitana and Sindel, it was a lot of fun to be able to tweak all of those things and just push them in a slightly different direction.
EB: There are hints of things that, again, there’s always a competition between Scorpion and Subzero, but now they’re not deadly enemies who are trying to kill each other. They’re brothers and it’s a brotherly conflict. And so that’s one example of all the kind of things that we’ve twisted around with the characters, the relationships, and throughout the game. And again, Liu Kang and Raidon have literally switched. Liu Kang is like the God and Raidon’s the more common person, and so it’s great. To me, that’s one of the things I’m most excited about with this game story.
IGN: And you’re playing Smoke?
Yuri Lowenthal, Voice of Smoke: Yes.
IGN: So what is this version of Smoke like?
YL: I’m going to throw it back to Dominic just to make sure that he’s in the right place as far as the
lore goes. I mean, one of the things that really attracted me to this when I was originally cast was I said,
“I’m not really big into fighting games.” And then Dominic started going down this story path with me
and I’m like, “Oh, that’s something I can connect to.” That’s what got me excited finally about this in
particular, was all the story that’s coming into it and the story that’s being created, but now as far as
where he is in the Liu Kang and all the, yeah.
DC: Smoke. He’s very similar to what we’ve seen before? The big difference is that we are playing up the relationship that he had with Kuai Liang, Scorpion, and it is taking that relationship and deepening it and fitting that into that whole brother dynamic. He’s the adopted brother of Subzero and Scorpion, and it really levels up their conflicts and their relationships.
IGN:And as for DLC Fighters, I think you’ve confirmed now it’s official Peacemaker, Homelander and OmniMan. What a trio.
YL: When I heard that I thought it was a joke. The best.
IGN:Is there a theme? Because I think with Mortal Kombat X and 11, there were sort of a theme to your DLC characters, horror movies and action movies. What’s the theme here? EB: Well, obviously it’s R rated or M rated heroes and villains more from the comic book genre. Again, Peacemaker, Homelander, Omni-Man, they’re all in this hyper and violent category of guests. And that’s the theme there along with the Mortal Kombat characters of Takeda and Quan Chi. And I’m drawing a blank, and Ermac. If you think of the Omni-Man and the Homelander, that’s the kind of category that is our guest characters.
“If you think of the Omni-Man and the Homelander, that’s the kind of category that is our guest characters.
IGN:I imagine for a lot of viewers of the boys watching fatalities being performed on Homelander will be cathartic.
DC: Oh, yeah.
EB: I think a lot of people just seeing Homelander and Omni-Man in the same frame will be just, again, one of those classic who would win in a fight kind of scenarios that players will be able to see the result of.
IGN: So Mortal Kombat 1 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and S and PC and Nintendo Switch. First of all, how is that even possible?
EB: A lot of work, a lot of optimization, but we are very excited with how that version is turning out too.
IGN: I’m excited to see that one too. Let’s see. The Kameo Fighter system, there’s a lot of conversation in the community. How do you feel about the fan reaction to that mechanic coming out of the recent online stress test?
EB: Oh, we couldn’t be happier. The players have come up with, which is exactly what we wanted to
happen. They’ve come up with their own combos that we’ve never even seen before. And once
something like that happens, we really get excited because then we feel like we’ve thrown out the tools
for the sandbox for players to just come up with their own stuff. And that’s exactly what happened, and
I couldn’t be more excited about how players have embraced that feature.
Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima seems to be teasing something very Death Stranding-related on his Twitter account, which may be related either to Death Stranding 2, or to the upcoming Death Stranding film adaptation.
In a tweet posted last night, Kojima shared multiple photos of what appear to be a motion capture (mocap) stage with an actor moving around several large prop boulders. The stage is surrounded by what looks like an enormous LED wall similar to what was used to film The Mandalorian, except this one has what is clearly a Death Stranding background. On it, we can see snowy mountains, multiple BTs in the distance, a small campsite with multiple tents, and a completely unknown new figure looming large on the left-hand side that could be anything: a new enemy, a new ally, a new boss, a weird mech…it’s impossible to say.
We’re short on details of exactly what’s going on here, but we can learn a little more about the kind of stage Kojima appears to be using, at least. We visited Epic Games’ The Volume stage last year where we learned just how it works and is possible, and Kojima’s seems to be very similar.
We know very little about Death Stranding 2 so far, which was officially revealed at The Game Awards 2022 with a look at Fragile and an older Sam Bridges. At the time, Kojima said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, he rewrote the entire script for the game from scratch.
Hopefully, some sharp-eyed sleuths can deduct more details about what Death Stranding-related mystery is going on in these photos…or we’ll just have to keep waiting for Kojima’s drip feed of teases to continue.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom introduced an array of new gameplay mechanics before the game’s official launch, one of which was the ability to build an incredible amount of vehicles, devices, and contraptions. Anything you could think of, you could build — within reason, of course. But even that original reveal of the building mechanics had me thinking; can you build a mecha in this game? The second I got my giant robot-pilled hands on the game, I knew what I had to do. Hyrule can deal with its problems on its own, at least until I could get my hands on a working mech suit.
If you need help building the basics, like a hot air balloon, a car, or a boat, we’ve got guides for that too. Don’t forget that you’ll also need to get plenty of Energy Cell Upgrades in order to power your giant robot.
At first, the pickings are pretty slim — when you only have access to pots, fans, wings, steering sticks, and flame emitters, not much can happen mecha-wise. But we can start experimenting and see what systems we can play around with. Flame emitters are a great idea for a weapon, but right now, they just spit fire indiscriminately and waste a ton of power. The fans and wings are going to be great for moving around and getting the other parts we need, at least.
Take two carts, a stabilizer, and a steering stick to create the mech’s torso.
Lay one cart up on the ground, wheel side up, and attach a stabilizer to one of the short ends of the cart, then attach the steering stick to the other free end of the cart.
Sandwich it all in with the other cart, wheel side down, and we have a solid base to work off of.
Unfortunately, we haven’t figured out a way to get this mech to walk (almost like real life). But we can at least get the thing to move, so we can adapt.
Take two big wheels and attach their axles to the bottom corners of the cart, near the stabilizer.
Position these big wheels towards the back of the mech.
Once you’ve got the big wheels on, flip the torso over and attach two small wheels to the front, in between the two big wheels.
Now that we’ve got the wheels attached, the mech should at least stand on its own.
Take two pots, attach the pot sides together to make a ball and socket joint, then attach that to the top corners of the torso.
Do this a second time for the other side, and our mech now has arms!
Attach two construct heads to the shoulders next to the steering stick to give our mech some pauldrons (and more places for weapons).
Then, take two more construct heads and attach them to the ends of the pot arms.
Now all that’s left is to arm our mech and start clearing out some monsters.
Attach any variation of cannons and emitters to the construct heads you’ve placed on the mech; the construct heads will make it so the weapons don’t constantly fire and waste your battery power. Once you get near an enemy, the construct heads will trigger and start attacking them with your chosen weaponry. We’ve decided to go with a quadruple beam emitter setup here, but you can give it any combination of elemental emitters and cannons you’d like! You can even stack weapons on top of each other for added efficiency — just make sure you’re keeping an eye on your power consumption!
If your speed is more of a one-man army without all the tech, take a look at IGN’s armor guide for recommendations and locations of the best armor sets. You can also check out which weapon fusions are strongest with our guide.
Hana Kim is a freelance writer for IGN. For more from her, follow her on Twitter at or Bluesky.
NetherRealm Studios appeared at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss its upcoming game Mortal Kombat 1, including how PlayStation and Xbox’s next-gen consoles help enhance the small details found in the game.
During the panel, Thiago Gomes, the art development director at NetherRealm Studios, elaborated on how the ninth generation of home gaming consoles allows the studio to show more little details and interactions in the costumes and levels.
“With the new consoles, we have a lot more power to show a lot more little interactions, including the little robot that comes in and cleans up all the blood,” Gomes said. Little details, such as the stitches on Li Mei’s costume, are also noticeable, thanks to the power of the new consoles.
Gomes also explained how the environments are lush and really pop when visible. The panel also showed some visual aids to illustrate the point, such as a living forest, but also reassured fans that there will be classic Mortal Kombat levels.
Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon was also one of the panelists, and he teased that Mortal Kombat 1 will have an expansive single-player mode. “We have a very expansive single-player experience… that we’re not talking about,” Boon said. “It’s brand-new and very exciting.”
In addition to discussing the technical aspects of Mortal Kombat 1, the panel also unveiled a slew of new characters joining the roster. Returning Mortal Kombat characters Li Mei, Tanya, and Baraka will be available on the base game roster. While the first Kombat Pack confirmed that Homelander, Peacemaker, and four other characters will be available when the DLC launches.
Mortal Kombat 1 is out September 19 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
After numerous leaks and rumors, NetherRealm Studios has finally confirmed that Homelander and Peacemaker will be coming to Mortal Kombat 1 as special guest characters. They’re joined by Omni-Man, the Image Comics hero created by Robert Kirkman, who also stars in Invincible, and returning Mortal Kombat characters Quan Chi, Ermac, Takeda, Li Mei, Tanya, and Baraka.
NetherRealm Studios revealed Mortal Kombat 1’s new roster additions during its San Diego Comic-Con panel, which featured several members of the development team alongside series director Ed Boon.
Homelander and Peacemaker are the most notable additions to Mortal Kombat 1’s roster. They are part of an established tradition of guest characters that has previously included the Xenomorph, Predator, and other characters. An Amazon listing a few months back revealed that characters Homelander would be joined by Quan Chi and Omni Man-in the first DLC Kombat Pack, but this is the first time that he’s been actually revealed.
Homelander found fame as the main antagonist of The Boys, and with Gen V now having a full release date, he’s been popping up in more games of late. His other appearances include a cameo in Call of Duty, where his heat vision has proven to be very powerful. Peacemaker, played by John Cena in the series written by James Gunn, has also proven popular since his well-received show in 2022.
Omni-Man isn’t as well-known as Homelander and Peacemaker, but he’ll be familiar to comics fans. Played by J.K. Simmons in Invincible, his reveal coincides with the impending release of that show’s second season.
Outside of a few cameos from other franchises, the first DLC Kombat Pack also confirmed that the other three characters include Ermac, Quan Chi and Takeda.
Li Mei returns with Tanya and Baraka
In addition to its DLC characters, NetherRealm Studios also confirmed that Li Mei will be joining Mortal Kombat 1’s roster. Previously played by Tara Strong, Li Mei last appeared as an NPC in Mortal Kombat X. Her addition is part of a broader effort to redefine the origins of Mortal Kombat’s familiar characters.
Elsewhere, Tanya and Baraka will also be playable. All three appear to be on the roster rather than appearing as Kameos — a somewhat controversial system that has turned some fan-favorite characters into unplayable assists. Baraka is a particularly well-known character with roots going back to Mortal Kombat II.
Mortal Kombat 1 was announced in May during a Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call. A sequel to 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11, the next major installment in the franchise, serves as a reboot for the series and “will introduce a reborn Mortal Kombat Universe.”
Mortal Kombat 1 arrives on September 19 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. For more information on Mortal Kombat 1, check out our interview with series creator Ed Boon on why NetherRealm chose to develop Mortal Kombat 1 over Injustice 3.
Fans of the Spider-Man video games from Insomniac already have a bit of a history of being weird about unimportant, minute details in the games. This tendancy almost reared its ugly head again this week after a new Spider-Man 2 trailer debuted at Comic-Con, as fans were convinced that Insomniac had done something drastic to change Mary Jane’s face from the original game.
No, they didn’t. It’s the same face, same model, same actress. Everyone calm down!
The issue was addressed on Twitter today by Insomniac director, community and marketing, James Stevenson, who confirmed to multiplepeople that MJ remains unchanged. Her haircut is different in the sequel, and it’s entirely possible that improved face scanning tech has made her model more accurate, but it’s the same face.
The good news is, everyone seems to be taking the correction in stride. A thread on the SpidermanPS4 subreddit has community members largely responding positively to the news, with one especially active reply thread jovially mocking the community by suggesting “People don’t realize they would absolutely fall for Clark Kent’s ‘disguse.'” They’re not wrong!
With its debut in 2013, this year indie game festival BitSummit celebrates a full decade of operation in Kyoto, Japan. That first show, a one-day invite-only event, bears little resemblance to the spectacle that BitSummit has become, one that filled the first floor of the Miyako Messe convention center and drew thousands of paying visitors.
As a longtime resident of nearby Osaka, I look forward to BitSummit each year for my chance to play new games and meet new developers in my proverbial neighborhood, an event that still maintains its independent spirit even as it seems poised to outgrow its primary venue. I saw so many exciting and unusual projects in Kyoto this past weekend that it was a genuine challenge to whittle my list down to just 10 games; feel free to check out my Twitter feed for a look at everything I played over the three days of BitSummit Let’s Go.
Algolemeth
Artificial intelligence has graduated from the pages of science-fiction to the cusp of modern society, sparking debate as we must decide what tasks we can ethically remove from human hands and assign to machines. Thankfully, Algolemeth presents an unambiguously positive set of circumstances for using AI, as it tasks players with programming a party to fight their way through a dungeon.
Solo developer Tomohiro Iizuka explained to me that Algolemeth is a portmanteau of “algorithm,” “golem,” and “emeth,” the latter word infusing golems with life in Jewish folklore. Algolemeth completely automates what we usually consider the primary draw of the genre: Turn-based combat against underworld creatures. By default, your four adventurers march forward and attack whatever they face, inevitably falling to stronger, more prepared monsters. Iizuka told me the full version will incorporate a risk/reward mechanic, requiring players to decide when to withdraw their heroes to collect spoils from battle. Each victory earns you more nodes with which to enhance your automatons’ behavior. As you receive commands from defeated enemies, you repurpose their skills for your own crew.
Before long, I was able to program my healer to restore their allies’ HP while my mage raised their attack prowess. More advanced nodes also introduce conditional logic; the healer will only spend their MP if a party member’s health drops below 50%. Otherwise, they attack. These upgrades let my crew proceed further into the depths, earning more rewards and opening up even more complex processes, demanding I forge more advanced flowcharts to strengthen my squad. I never learned advanced computer programming but deciphering the logic of these processes held my attention more than the usual “fight/magic/item/run” grind of most dungeon crawlers.
Umbraclaw
Inti Creates has been on a roll lately, using their 2D pixel art prowess to deliver one action platformer after another. The studio released Gal Guardians: Demon Purge back in February and has a new title, Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue, coming in November. The newly announced Umbraclaw, however, offers a twist on the company’s usual Metroidvania fare.
For starters, Umbraclaw doesn’t star a cool anime protagonist wielding a sword or a gun. Instead, you take control of a cat named Kuon. A dead cat, more specifically, one who has woken up in the Soulplane clinging to memories of the little girl who cared for him. Forget about weapons; Kuon lacks the opposable thumbs to wield anything at all, so his only choice is to dash and dodge his way past the less-than-friendly creatures he meets. Should anything in the Souplane hurt him, Kuon dies, again.
Should Kuon fall, it costs him one life, but he reanimates and gains a new power, making his journey easier.
However, we all know the saying that cats have nine lives, which Inti Creates and Blaster Master Zero director Satoru Nishizawa apply quite literally to Umbraclaw. Should Kuon fall, it costs him one life, but he reanimates and gains a new power, making his journey easier. Initial deaths grant Kuon modest attack abilities, but after a few more missteps, I saw Kuon transform into a full-on battle cat with advanced jumping and fighting techniques. However, the reanimation cutscenes which play after each death indicated that Kuon was slowly losing his memories of the real world and his beloved owner.
I cannot explain the plot ramifications of this death mechanic given the brevity of the demo, but after a run of releases with a heavy anime aesthetic, I found Umbraclaw a refreshing change of pace for an Inti Creates game. At present it does not look or feel quite like any other action game and I’m eager to see where things go from here. If nothing else, I’m eager to watch speedrunners clear the game someday while retaining all nine lives.
Cato
Speaking of cats and myths, I’m sure anyone reading this has seen the meme about cats landing on their feet and toast landing jam-side down, so any cat with a piece of toast on their back becomes an anti-gravity device. In Cato, you control both a cat and a piece of toast who must work together to escape a labyrinth of puzzles. The cat cannot jump on its own while the toast only makes short hops, but when they unite, they can spin indefinitely through the air.
Since the two characters can essentially fly as a team, the puzzles in Cato all involve splitting the two apart via switches and sensors that require careful planning to navigate. The rooms also contain advantageous devices like toasters which can propel sliced bread at high speeds and glass tubes which the cat, being a liquid, can navigate with ease. The demo version is freely available on Steam for cat lovers and toast fans alike.
Allen Wang from Cato publisher Gcores told me that just two people are developing the project which began at a game jam last year. Working remotely, the two only met in person for the first time this past June. One half of the duo, responsible for the game’s adorable art style, actually made it to BitSummit; I correctly guessed that he owns a cat in real life.
Word Game
Word Game stands as my personal game of the show because it completely won me over from the moment I saw it.Taking the concept “text adventure” literally, everything on screen in Word Game is made of text. Not in a Rogue or Dwarf Fortress abstract way, but a direct one-to-one representation by using kanji, the Chinese writing system popular in many Asian cultures, Japan included. Walls, trees, doors, all kanji. Even a dog’s bark comes out as kanji.
Where things get extra interesting is how Word Game uses its presentation to maximum effect. Any dialogue or narration written on the screen has equal weight with the characters and objects the player interacts with. This leads to Baba Is You style puzzles where the player (also represented as kanji) manipulates the text to change the reality of the game world. For example, removing the character “fu” from the Japanese word “fukanou” turns “impossible” into “possible.” Besides pushing and pulling kanji around the environments, the player also gains the ability to split characters into their smaller components and merge them into new kanji.
The bad news is Word Game only works if you can read kanji and there’s no way to localize it into any alphabet-based language. The original game, available on Steam in full, is in Chinese, but the demo at BitSummit translated the dialogue into Japanese. As a non-native speaker I did my best to make sense of the information overload, taking advantage of the game’s built-in hint system whenever I failed to perceive a way forward in the story. Like any good puzzler, solving a dilemma in Word Game delivers a sublime sense of accomplishment; I don’t think I smiled more while playing anything else at the show. Whether you’re fluent in Chinese or just studying it casually, I welcome any curious readers to try the free version, Word Game: Episode 0. It’s far more engaging than the usual flash cards or language app, and a Sony representative bestowed it the PlayStation Award at BitSummit’s finale on Sunday.
Shinonome
I had heard of Shinonome before I arrived at BitSummit because, thanks to investing hundreds of hours in Vampire Survivors, the Steam algorithm recommends to me any and every “action roguelite” game it can. Yet while those two words do vaguely describe Shinonome, it feels like a label ill suited for this game’s particular vibes.
According to its Early Access page on Steam, Shinonome “is a new type of escape game” which lines up closer to how the game works. Set in a haunted house from Japan’s past, your character enters through one door and must find her way to an exit using her limited toolset plus whatever items she might discover along the way. That includes weapons, candles to light dark places, and food to replenish her always-depleting stamina.
Shinonome walks a delicate balance between action, roguelike, and horror.
The game plays out from an overhead viewpoint, similar to that of the original Legend of Zelda, especially since the rooms are all the same size and they all connect along cardinal directions, forming a basic grid. As you might expect, the house is not empty. The player can encounter a number of different creatures or spirits as they open doors in search of safety. Sometimes not opening a door is the wiser strategy, as sound cues can indicate movement in the next room over.
Shinonome walks a delicate balance between action, roguelike, and horror. While the monsters are generally on the cute side, it’s still unnerving to open a door and see multiple creatures come crawling out. Standing your ground and fighting can work, but running away is also valid, although unlike in The Legend of Zelda, these foes continue to pursue you from room to room. A careless player (or a brilliant one) might find themselves parading a conga line of enemies behind them. In my BitSummit demo, I safely escaped but, like any good thrill ride, immediately wanted to go back for another round.
Birth
With its emphasis on insects and featuring characters having non-human skulls for heads, one might assume Birth to be a horror game. However, the actual experience struck me as charming and inviting due to its mysterious atmosphere. After waking up at the start and fixing breakfast, your character looks into the mirror, giving you a chance to customize the outfit and accessories your particular skeleton-person wears. After that it’s off to the city to build yourself a roommate.
As outlined on the game’s Steam listing, “Birth is an adventure puzzle game about constructing a creature from spare bones & organs found around the city in order to quell your loneliness.” Again, this might sound like the premise to a horror game, but the mood is the exact opposite. You investigate small businesses and personal spaces, solve simple puzzles to collect items, and slowly gather the pieces you need to assemble your new acquaintance—all while soft renditions of classical music play in the background.
I spent at least 20 minutes with Birth at BitSummit and had to tear myself away from the computer to move on to other displays. Since she has already released the full game, solo developer Madison Karrh opted to show the finished version rather than build a demo. She also described her game as “autobiographical”; I must assume she meant that metaphorically as she didn’t strike me as the Frankenstein-type and I could not see her skull as we spoke.
Dome-King Cabbage
One of the delights of attending an annual event like BitSummit is getting to experience a game’s growth and evolution first-hand. Given how long the process can take, especially for those working on their own often in their spare time, some developers end up bringing the same project to the show more than once.
Such was the case with Dome-King Cabbage, a game I first saw in Kyoto back in 2018. Described at the time as a visual novel, it invoked memories of playing Pokémon even as its pastel-colored art far outmatched the graphical capabilities of the Game Boy. I came away impressed, and solo developer Joe Buchholz received an award from IGN Japan for his efforts. A sample of this incarnation of the game still exists on his itch.io page.
Five years later, Dome-King Cabbage has metamorphosed into an almost unrecognizably different project. While still identifying as a visual novel, the game now opens with a stunning array of surreal 3D models. Graphically speaking, these segments of Dome-King Cabbage are in a class unto themselves; I couldn’t compare them to any other title I’ve seen all year, AAA games included.
Five years later, Dome-King Cabbage has metamorphosed into an almost unrecognizably different project.
However, Dome-King Cabbage offers more than text to read over dynamic images. In another segment, I had access to a full RPG where I selected a monster to join me before setting out on a quest. While clearly taking cues from Pokémon, this portion of Dome-King Cabbage combined pixelated 2D sprites with 3D backgrounds, a 2.5D effect seen in modern-retro titles like Octopath Traveler.
Dome-King Cabbage remains a work in progress, even five years later, but its evolution over that time shocked me. I don’t know how the visual novel and RPG portions of the game meld together, nor do I know what kind of story can support two disparate genres and aesthetics like this. All I can do is wait and see what Joe comes up with next.
(Full disclaimer: Dome-King Cabbage was recently signed by publisher Hyper Real, a sister project of IGN Japan.)
Akurra
Another long-time-coming project is Akurra, a Game Boy Color-style overhead puzzle game that feels like a long lost release from the year 2000. While it resembles Link’s Awakening or the Oracle games from The Legend of Zelda, there’s no weapons, monsters, or combat to speak of. Instead, your hero—who comes to after washing up on the beach of a deserted island—pushes his way to explore his surroundings and solve puzzles.
Building a game around shoving boxes around invites comparisons to Sokobon, a classic puzzle game that has appeared on many platforms over the last four decades. However, Akurra has a much more relaxed, open-ended feel. In the demo version, players have free reign to walk around and tackle challenges in any order. Collecting keys and unlocking shortcuts opens new paths to more puzzles, with some portions of the island still locked even after I found every secret I could find in my playthrough.
Akurra creator Jason Neuman launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund development back in 2020; since then, he has worked full-time to complete his game. While the demo I played last week—available on Steam at the moment—didn’t seem much different than the one I played three years ago, the overall level of polish seen here is remarkable. Puzzles and exploration go together like chocolate and peanut butter, and I’m always ready for more dessert.
Sky the Scraper
A fair number of indie games in recent years have taken the “life simulator” approach, asking players to manage their time and budget their money while performing some manner of everyday task. Sky the Scraper—winner of this year’s IGN Japan Award—runs with that concept only to soar 50 stories into the air, pairing hum-drum realism with pure action fantasy.
I wouldn’t call myself agoraphobic, but I seldom visit the upper floors of skyscrapers, let alone venture outside to clean the exterior. Regardless of my personal ignorance, however, I am confident the actual job strays far from the version we see in Sky the Scraper. Players dangle from a single cord and shift themselves back and forth, swiping at grime and grease as they swing by. Your cleaner can grip the building for more controlled movement and more effective washing, but at the cost of stamina. Cling to any surface for too long and you lose your grip, falling off the screen and incurring injury. This doesn’t necessarily end your game, but you will need to spend in-game time recovering, costing you in-game money.
In contrast to the literal high-wire action of performing your job, the rest of Sky the Scraper is decidedly down to earth. Paying rent, answering texts, and simple bedrest are all equally important to keep your character housed, loved, and fit. These portions add a tinge of darkness to the experience, as a reminder that nothing is more dangerous than the ever-present threat of eviction.
Death the Guitar
From the moment this year’s lineup at BitSummit was announced, I already had my eye on Death the Guitar for Name of the Show. The game is remarkably high-concept: you control a guitar and you use your music to kill those around you. According to the promotional materials, the guitar is on a mission of revenge on behalf of its owner, a pitch-perfect premise for a video game, one that ultimately received both the Famitsu Award and the Vermillion Gate Award at show’s end.
The good news is Death the Guitar does not require any musical knowledge to enjoy, with simple controls: Press one button to jump, press the other to strum your strings and slay anything in your vicinity. The initial stages contain basic platforming elements, but things get more challenging once your enemies start carrying guns. As soon as their attack range exceeds yours, Death the Guitar becomes a race to kill-or-be-killed.
Death the Guitar does not require any musical knowledge to enjoy.
Fortunately, you control an electric guitar, which means you also generate a shockwave when you attack. These discharges can activate amps to give you a boost, shatter glass, or even trigger remote platforms. Crushing an enemy under a heavy block works just as well as blowing out their eardrums with your righteous shredding.
Death the Guitar restricts itself to a cool blue and gray color palette, acting as a canvas which makes the bright-pink blood you spill as you play look all the more dramatic. It’s a game that demands quick reflexes, but one that also offers unlimited tries for each level, instead scoring your performance based on time spent and number of lives lost. At times it drove me crazy with its difficulty, but I found myself replaying stages over and over just to make sure I left no bad guy un-splattered.
Diamond Feit is a freelance writer based in Japan.
In a livestream, associate game director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher discussed the thinking behind the 1.1.0 patch that sparked uproar within the Diablo 4 community for drastically reducing player power.
“It’s not the greatest play experience for players out there,” Fletcher said. “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear.”
“We know that reducing player power is never a good experience,” Joe Piepiora added. “Sometimes we just don’t get it quite right.”
Patch 1.1.1 is expected within the next two weeks, perhaps just a couple of days after another livestream set for Friday, July 28. This patch hones in on improving the power of the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes in particular after both suffered drastic nerfs. Specifically on the Sorcerer, players can expect a boost to survivability, Blizzard said.
The patch will also increase the density of monsters in Nightmare Dungeons and in Helltides, two key endgame activities. Addressing inventory concerns, 1.1.1 will add an additional stash tab in which players can store items. The elixir stash size will be brought up to 99. 1.1.1 also brings character respec costs down by about 40%, so players feel more inclined to try out new builds.
Crucially, the upcoming patch will adjust XP gain from level 50 to 100 after players complained about hitting a brick wall from around level 70. “We are not trying to slow down the game,” Shely insisted. “We want level 100 to feel like an achievement, not feel like a job,” Piepiora added.
In the shorter term, a hotfix is planned for release later today, July 21, that will reduce the difficulty of Nightmare Dungeons. According to Blizzard, Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons are “excruciatingly difficult” for most classes and require players lean on specific builds in order to have a chance at defeating them. This difficulty change should result in Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons feeling more like Tier 70 Nightmare Dungeons currently do.
“We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear.
During the livestream, Blizzard said it had created new processes that should prevent a patch that drastically reduces player power in the way 1.1.0 did from happening ever again. From now on, Blizzard will let some builds be overpowered until it has provided compelling alternatives. “We can’t nerf those overpowered builds without providing compelling alternatives for players to pursue,” Shely said.
Additionally, these big meta-changing patches will always occur at predictable times, such as at the start of a new Season. Blizzard will of course react quickly to bugs that case game-breaking damage or crashes.
“Ultimately, ARPG games are about power fantasy, and about us inviting players to break the game to some extent, and find fun toys we’ve made, do crazy things with them, and we need to make sure we’re not punishing players for doing that,” Shely said.
Fletcher announced communication changes that mean Blizzard will always provide patch notes through streams or a blog post at least a week before the actual update hits “no matter what”. Blizzard’s next Campfire Chat is set for Friday, July 28, when it will dive deeper into the changes coming in patch 1.1.1.
Despite various issues, Diablo 4 enjoyed an enormous launch that saw over 10 million people play in June. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time, and has fuelled record revenue and profits for the company. If you’re still playing, check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The talking grab bag, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get you some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.
Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he’s got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We’ve rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Where Is Xûr Today?
Xûr’s location can be found at The Tower on July 21through July 25. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. Hang a left when entering the hangar and you’ll come face-to-face with space Amazon.com.
What’s Xûr Selling Today?
Exotic Engram
Black Talon – Exotic Sword
Lucky Pants – Exotic Hunter Helmet
11 Mobility
3 Resilience
18 Recovery
11 Discipline
10 Intellect
10 Strength
Total: 63
Synthoceps – Exotic Titan Gauntlets
22 Mobility
11 Resilience
3 Recovery
12 Discipline
2 Intellect
20 Strength
Total: 70
Getaway Artist – Exotic Warlock Gauntlets
6 Mobility
21 Resilience
8 Recovery
15 Discipline
12 Intellect
2 Strength
Total: 64
The Titan gauntlets have an impressively high stat total, but unfortunately a lot of that is in Mobility. Still, an impressive enough feat to consider picking up. The others? Not so much.
Exotic Weapons
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Paracausal Shot
Chambered Compensator
Alloy Magazine
Moving Target
Textured Grip
Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Cranial Spike
Extended Barrel
Flared Magwell
Snapshot Sights
Short-Action Stock
Nothing to get super excited about with these exotic weapon rolls this week. Mid at best, and not great at all at worst. Probably an easy skip!
Legendary Weapons
Iota Draconis – Fusion Rifle
Extended Barrel/Smallbore
Accelerated Coils/Projection Fuse
Feeding Frenzy
Adagio
Charge Time Masterwork
Nature of the Beast – Hand Cannon
Fastdraw HCS/Steadyhand HCS
Tactical Mag/Steady Rounds
Snapshot Sights
Rangefinder
Handling Masterwork
Threaded Needle – Linear Fusion Rifle
Corkscrew Rifling/Hammer-Forged Rifling
Accelerated Coils/Particle Repeater
Rangefinder
Vorpal Weapon
Reload Speed Masterwork
Disparity – Pulse Rifle
Arrowhead Brake/Corkscrew Rifling
Steady Rounds/Flared Magwell
Eye of the Storm
Desperado
Ambush
Handling Masterwork
Tears of Contrition – Scout Rifle
Chambered Compensator/Full Bore
Appended Mag/Alloy Magazine
No Distractions
Focused Fury
Extrovert
Handling Masterwork
Seventh Seraph CQC-12 – Shotgun
Smallbore/Barrel Shroud
Appended Mag/Extended Mag
Quickdraw
Vorpal Weapon
Reload Speed Masterwork
Eternity’s Edge/Crown-Splitter/Quickfang
Stats vary by class
My picks this week are Threaded Needle, Nature of the Beast, and Seventh Seraph CQC-12. The linear fusion’s got Rangefinder and Vorpal, which can be good for boss encounter DPS, the hand cannon’s got Snapshot Sights and Rangefinder (good in certain PvP builds), and the shotgun has Quickdraw and Vorpal Weapon, which might also be good for boss DPS depending on the encounter.
Warlock Legendary Armor
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Tusked Allegiance set which includes:
Tusked Allegiance Gauntlets
2 Mobility
7 Resilience
16 Recovery
2 Discipline
19 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 52
Tusked Allegiance Chest Armor
8 Mobility
10 Resilience
9 Recovery
12 Discipline
6 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 51
Tusked Allegiance Helmet
18 Mobility
9 Resilience
2 Recovery
2 Discipline
16 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 53
Tusked Allegiance Leg Armor
13 Mobility
14 Resilience
2 Recovery
6 Discipline
13 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 54
Tusked Allegiance Bond
Another absolutely terrible set of armor rolls for Warlocks this week. Don’t buy these, folks.
Titan Legendary Armor
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Tusked Allegiance set which includes:
Tusked Allegiance Gauntlets
6 Mobility
6 Resilience
16 Recovery
2 Discipline
6 Intellect
18 Strength
Total: 54
Tusked Allegiance Chest Armor
11 Mobility
2 Resilience
12 Recovery
2 Discipline
6 Intellect
18 Strength
Total: 51
Tusked Allegiance Helmet
26 Mobility
2 Resilience
2 Recovery
6 Discipline
6 Intellect
12 Strength
Total: 54
Tusked Allegiance Leg Armor
18 Mobility
2 Resilience
6 Recovery
2 Discipline
20 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 54
Tusked Allegiance Mark
Bad armor, Titans. Real bad. Don’t do it.
Hunter Legendary Armor
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Tusked Allegiance set which includes:
Tusked Allegiance Gauntlets
19 Mobility
6 Resilience
2 Recovery
2 Discipline
10 Intellect
10 Strength
Total: 49
Tusked Allegiance Chest Armor
6 Mobility
6 Resilience
13 Recovery
12 Discipline
6 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 49
Tusked Allegiance Helmet
11 Mobility
2 Resilience
13 Recovery
6 Discipline
11 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 49
Tusked Allegiance Leg Armor
26 Mobility
2 Resilience
2 Recovery
12 Discipline
6 Intellect
6 Strength
Total: 54
Tusked Allegiance Cloak
Hunters confirm an absolutely dreadful legendary armor week. Not sure what’s going on with our robed boy, but he needs to get in the Solstice spirit right quick.
The World of Warcraft community is jubilant after brazenly tricking an AI-generated games news website into publishing an article covering a fictitious upcoming feature, known simply as ‘Glorbo’.
The spread of AI-generated news has been a subject of controversy and debate in recent years, and has seen certain websites dispatch bots to scrape information from the underbelly of the internet and use it to mould simplistic articles.
Having seen similar tactics used to extract info from the World of Warcraft community, Reddit user kaefer_kriegerin created a post entitled ‘I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!’ in which they gave an impassioned account of a fictitious feature coming to the game.
The vigilante’s goal was to entice bots into taking notice of the post, and to subsequently trigger the creation of an article detailing the nonsense therein. To put it another way, kaefer_kriegerin’s post was something of a Trojan horse, but in lieu of Greek soldiers, the digital construct was filled with malicious tomfoolery.
Feels soooooo good to be able to talk about Glorbo finally, I remember my first day at Blizzard we were just starting to work on implementation, and that was almost 15 years ago!
“Honestly, this new feature makes me so happy! I just really want some major bot operated news websites to publish an article about this,” wrote kaefer_kriegerin, as spotted by PC Gamer. “I have to say, since they started hinting at it in Hearthstone in 1994, it was obvious that they would introduce Glorbo to World of Warcraft sooner or later. I feel like Dragonflight has been win after win so far, like when they brought back Chen Stormstout as the end boss of the new Karazhan? Absolutely amazing!”
Those words, in that order, are nonsense, and always will be. However, that didn’t stop bots in the employ of the website Zleague.com from scooping up the word salad and regurgitating it into an over formatted news blast. How do we know the article was written by a bot? Well, the author of the Zleague article had penned over 50 articles in a 24 hour period. If they aren’t digital in nature, then someone needs to ask if they’re OK.
“World of Warcraft (WoW) players have been buzzing with excitement ever since the announcement of Glorbo’s introduction,” read the Zleague post, which has since been taken down. “The highly anticipated new feature has sparked a wave of positive sentiment among players, who are eagerly awaiting its impact on the game.”
The article also picked up on the comments made by fellow Reddit users, who piled on with a mixture of joy and apprehension regarding the ‘Kliclac’ item that would be coming to WoW with the Glorbo update, and that, again, does not exist.
“One aspect of Glorbo’s introduction that has sparked differing opinions among players is the mandatory item Klikclac, explained the Zleague article. “Reddit user Mezmodian expresses excitement about the item, claiming that it will significantly increase the power of certain classes.
“However, kaefer_kriegerin disagrees, stating, ‘Making Klikclac a mandatory item is a huge punch in the gut for casual players. I don’t have the time to farm Zoop for that!’ This debate highlights the divide between players who appreciate the power boost Klikclac offers and those who feel it unfairly disadvantages casual players.”
Naturally, kaefer_kriegerin and other members of the WoW community were delighted with their victory. Activision Blizzard employees further stoked the flames, with CCO and EVP of corporate affairs LuLu Cheng Meservey simply tweeting “they found out about Glorbo”. Kyle Hartline, a senior game producer on WoW also weighed in, posting it “feels soooooo good to be able to talk about Glorbo finally, I remember my first day at Blizzard we were just starting to work on implementation, and that was almost 15 years ago!”
Feels soooooo good to be able to talk about Glorbo finally, I remember my first day at Blizzard we were just starting to work on implementation, and that was almost 15 years ago!
World of Warcraft is almost 20 years old at this point, yet its ability to create news, AI-generated and otherwise, remains as potent as ever.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
