For VTubers who are lovin’ it, McDonald’s Japan is handing out an asset that makes your model look like it’s holding two hash browns. You can get it for free via the company’s X (Twitter) page.

In order to get the asset, you simply need to download the provided PNG in the Tweet. Some of the direct replies to the McDonald’s VTuber hash brown hands show people using them in creative ways. One person replied showing Frieren sobbing while holding hash browns. Of course, VTubers have replied as well, showing them using it with their models. The hands are pretty pale, but it will likely be possible to recolor it to match your VTuber’s skin tone.

Currently, McDonald’s Japan is offering a limited time menu, letting people eating European-inspired burgers. You can get a beef patty burger with German potatoes, a juicy peperoncino hot chicken burger, and a bouillabaisse-style shrimp burger. All of these burgers came out in late June 2024 and are still available in Japan. When marketing these burgers, McDonald’s Japan used a Kiki’s Delivery Service-like commercial. As of the time of writing, there are no official McDonald’s VTuber assets that let your VTuber model consume a burger.

The McDonald’s hash brown hands VTuber asset is available via the official Japanese X (Twitter) account.

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Infinity Nikki is, in only the most positive sense, a dream for every teenage girl. It’s a fashion-oriented open world RPG with plenty of exploration and a rich story set in a breathtaking world. While there are some rough edges to its current build, it’s hard to say how much of it lies in its demanding graphics.

The story of Infinity Nikki follows a girl named Nikki, who is pulled through a wardrobe into alternate world by a mysterious red dress. She meets a goddess wearing a fashionable eyepatch, who grants Nikki the Heart of Infinity. This gives Nikki the power of a Stylist, but before the goddess can explain anything, enemies attack them. The goddess saves Nikki and transports her to Miraland, which is a fantasy world of fashion and wishes.

Nikki and Momo (a bizarre cat pet thing) adjust very quickly to life in Miraland. However, while Miraland looks like a fantasy utopia at first glance, they soon learn about a mysterious coma-inducing illness plaguing the nation. Thanks to her Heart of Infinity, she's able to establish herself in Miraland and figure out what’s putting everyone into comas. It’s a lot to take in at once, to be honest, especially since it doesn't take long for Nikki to start acting like she's always been a part of Miraland. I wonder if you’re supposed to be familiar with the overall lore beforehand from Shining Nikki and Love Nikki.

Let me get this out of the way: any time I mention the visuals or performance, I have to add in the caveat that my gaming laptop is give or take five years old. It also has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card inside of it. Infinity Nikki runs on Unreal Engine 5 and its default setting when it comes to FPS is “limitless,” which baffles me a little because that seems kind of insane. My computer cannot handle this game. It’s constantly stuttering and I doubt I’m seeing how beautiful the models and backgrounds really are.

Normally, I’d leave it at that. But this game feels like its target audience is around thirteen or fourteen years old. This isn’t a bad thing, but its rather demanding specs make me a little confused. Growing up, my father could be stingy when it came to entertainment. The laptop I used all throughout my childhood and teenage years literally had less storage space on it than my friend’s iPod and could barely handle The Sims 2.

If I was a kid today, playing this on a computer my dad got me, I’m pretty sure my device would just blow up. I was terrified to play Infinity Nikki during the daytime. My apartment heats up like crazy during the day and I legitimately worried that my laptop would combust. But the game seems to want a legitimate gaming PC to run properly, and I’m not sure if that makes it friendly for a general audience or not.

There’s a lot to do in Infinity Nikki. Aside from playing through the story, you can fight against enemies, dress Nikki up, and explore all the nooks and crannies of Miraland. You can also collect various currencies like Whimstars and Blings. Whimstars in particular usually make you complete a miniature challenge before you can get them. Examples of challenges include looking for a star in a given area or parkouring across platforms to get to the Whimstar. You can use Whimstars to unlock nodes in your Heart of Infinity, which can improve Nikki’s stats and unlock special outfits after completing a requisite quest. These special outfits are ones that grant Nikki access to certain actions on the overworld. For example, one outfit lets her shoot out her purification orb and another lets her catch insects (which are necessary to craft certain clothing items).

The game becomes infinitely more fun once you unlock the ability to fulfill NPC requests and challenges to dress Nikki up based on a set of given criteria. Most of the time, you just need to dress Nikki up in clothes that are a certain style. But there’s still a level of freedom that you have when it comes to expressing your own personal taste. Outside of these guidelines, you can always alter how Nikki looks in the overworld. Since you unlock the items via gacha, using in-game currency that you can collect, you can rack up a large amount of clothes and accessories in no time.

However, this is still a beta build, and it's easy to see. There are some technical difficulties, such as the audio desyncing during a cutscene. Nikki herself can be clunky to control, especially when it comes to combat. The encounters in this game tend to feature multiple enemies who surround Nikki, but she can only really attack in a single direction. She also needs to be manually directed to face that direction first, and that additional input can start to grate at times. There aren’t that many enemies that you have to deal with in Infinity Nikki, thankfully, but when you have to face them, the battles are easily some of the worst parts of the game.

Infinity Nikki is a promising RPG full of fashion and fun, though it can be very demanding on your system. The voiced tutorials and menu make it seem like it’s for children, but there’s a lot of general appeal in it through its open world exploration and character creation. Hopefully by the time the game comes out, I’ll have a much better computer so as to fully appreciate the beauty of this game.

Infinity Nikki is in development for the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. Windows PC version previewed.

The post Preview: Infinity Nikki is a Grand Fashion Adventure appeared first on Siliconera.

Capcom announced that Kunitsu-gami players have completed the Okami collaboration campaign tasks, meaning that players will be able to get crossover costumes and weapons from day one. In related news, Capcom also revealed that the theme song (which you can hear in the newest trailer) will be “Kunitsu-Gami” by singer and songwriter ermhoi. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

You can watch the new trailer (which includes the theme song) here:

When Capcom first released the Kunitsu-gami demo on July 1, 2024, it included tasks that players all needed to complete in order to unlock the Okami bonuses. The tasks were to gather a billion crystals and to find 15 hidden Lucky Mallets. Since everyone finished these tasks, everyone will be able to receive the Okami items at launch. These items are Amaterasu’s weapon and outfit for protagonist Sou, as well as a Waka outfit for priestess Yoshiro. You’ll also be able to listen to Okami music while playing the game.

Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess will be a combination between RTS, tower defense, and action. It’ll take place in a Japanese-inspired world where you set up your village and train your villagers in preparation for attacks from the Seethe. The goal is to defeat the Seethe and purify the village.

Kunitsu-gami: Path of the Goddess will come out on July 19, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC.

The post Kunitsu-Gami Okami Crossover Items Will Appear at Launch appeared first on Siliconera.

Gelato Pique has announced its second collection of luxury Pokemon Sleep items that you can wear to bed. This time, you’ll be able to get pajamas that look like Slowpoke, Ditto, Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu, Snorlax, and Togepi. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Items will go on sale from July 26, 2024 in Japan. While the US Gelato Pique store did carry the first line of items, it does not have the second collection on its website. Here are the prices for everything you can get:

• Cooling t-shirt and shorts: 10890 JPY
• Hairband: 3410 JPY
• Kids’ cooling t-shirt and shorts: 8800 JPY
• Kids’ set (parka and shorts): 14960 JPY
• Mens’ cooling t-shirt and shorts: 11880 JPY
• Mens’ set (parka and shorts): 19140 JPY
• Pajama set (shorts): 17820 JPY
• Pikachu cushion: 11880 JPY
• Pouch: 4950 JPY
• Rompers: 9680 JPY
• Sheets: 17820 JPY
• Slippers: 5390 JPY
• Towel: 1760 JPY

Gelato Pique is a rather expensive brand of sleepwear, with most of the items using its baby moco material. Baby moco jacquard is a soft and delicate material that Gelato Pique uses in a lot of its products.

Pokemon Sleep is a sleep-tracking app that lets you raise Pokemon by sleeping. It does require you to keep your phone on during the night, as it needs to record you while you’re sleeping. When you wake up, you can read a report on things like how long it took you to fall asleep and your sleep type.

Pokemon Sleep is readily available on mobile devices. The second Gelato Pique and Pokemon Sleep collaboration collection will appear in stores in Japan on July 26, 2024.

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Hexadrive has released a teaser trailer for its new horror game. It’s a very short video at only fifteen seconds long. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Here is the teaser trailer for the new Hexadrive title:

In it, you can see an old Japanese-looking house, along with some strange shadows and what looks like a tentacle reaching out from a drawer. There is a filter over everything, making it look like an old film. At the end of the teaser, the date July 19, 2024 appears. This will likely be the date that Hexadrive releases some more information on the game when it goes to present at BitSummit Drift.

So far, we know that it will be a new Japanese-style horror adventure game. According to the video description, the protagonist has wandered into a mysterious world. In order to return to their original one, they must solve puzzles and avoid monsters.

Hexadrive is an independent video game developer company that was founded by a former Capcom programmer in 2007. It’s worked on several games with other companies. Some of these games include The 3rd Birthday (with Square Enix), Okami HD (with Capcom), Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (again with Square Enix), Final Fantasy XV (yet again with Square Enix, and Silent Hill: The Short Message (with Konami). This horror game seems to be a fully independent project from the company though.

More information on the new Hexadrive game will appear on July 19, 2024.

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HoYoVerse has revealed the key visual and voice actresses for Jane Doe, an upcoming Agent in Zenless Zone Zero. There’s no information on Jane’s kit or even her faction.

According to her Agent Record, Jane is a cat Thiren, just like Nekomata. However, she lacks a lot of the physical features that Nekomata has, including the large cat ears or the cat tail. In fact, she looks a lot closer to a rodent than a cat. Some of her lines seem to suggest that she’s a bit of an untrustworthy character. In her voice actor reveal, she states that she has a lot of experience working odd jobs and she enjoys talking to the Proxy, noting that there’s something special about them.

In English, Kelsey Jaffer voices Jane Doe in Zenless Zone Zero. Jaffer’s previous roles include Ayako in The First Slam Dunk, Yaoyao in Genshin Impact, and Ayla in Punishing: Gray Raven. In Japanese, Yu Shimamura voices Jane Doe. Some of Shimamura’s past roles include Annie in Attack on Titan, Yosano in Bungo Stray Dogs, and Penthesilea/Berserker of El Dorado in Fate/Grand Order.

Jane Doe will appear as a playable character in Version 1.1 of Zenless Zone Zero. Other upcoming characters include Qingyi and Seth. Zenless Zone Zero is readily available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.

The post Jane Doe Is Apparently a Cat Thiren in Zenless Zone Zero appeared first on Siliconera.

Persona 5 Royal keyboard accessories are now available for pre-order on Infinikey. Pre-orders are open until August 12, 2024 and the items are on a discount right now.

Here are the prices for everything:

• Bundle: $145
• Deskmat: $40
• Keycap set: $110
• Keychain: $7.50

The bundle contains everything. Meanwhile, the keycaps use font that resembles the one in-game. A picture of Joker is on the spacebar and one of the larger keys. Since it’s MX-compatible and Cherry-profile, they should fit in any mechanical keyboard. The keychain also contains a MX-compatible, Cherry-profile keyboard for people to click and fidget with. Finally, the deskmat contains art of the Phantom Thieves’ all-out attacks.

As mentioned earlier, all of the Persona 5 Royal keyboard accessories are available for pre-order until August 12, 2024. They’ll ship out in November 2024. Infinikey does offer international shipping, so you don’t necessarily have to be in the US to purchase these products. As a note, the image for the bundle includes a keyboard. It won't come with that. You'll need to buy or own your own hotswappable keyboard and switches to use those keycaps.

Though not Infinikey, Persona 5 Royal isn’t the only Persona game you can get computer accessories for. Hyte and Atlus revealed a Persona 3 Reload collection in late November 2023. The collection consists of a Y60 PC case, a keycap set, and a deskmat. As of the time of writing, the Y60 bundle is not available for purchase on Hyte’s website.

Persona 5 Royal is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

The post Infinikey Reveals Persona 5 Royal Keyboard Accessories appeared first on Siliconera.

HoYoVerse shared a new trailer with Natlan Characters for Genshin Impact. The trailer, which is almost four minutes long, not only teases new characters, but also showcases the roles they will play in the Archon Quest to come.

You can watch the Ignition teaser trailer for Genshin Impact, “A Name Forged in Flames,” here:

You can also watch it in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean.

It shows the new Genshin Impact Natlan characters tossing a ball around, showing not only who we’ll see but also some of the locales we’ll explore. At the end, we see what appears to be the Pyro Archon, who’s wearing something that looks like a biker outfit. She also asks Capitano of the Harbingers if he’s ready to compete in the upcoming tournament, hinting at the Fatui’s role in the story.

Here is the English cast for Genshin Impact Natlan:

• Chasca: Lauren Amante (Melly Plinius/Entomologist in Identity V)
• Citlali: Skyler Davenport (March 7th in Honkai: Star Rail)
• Iansan: Katrina Salisbury (Nico Niyama in Kiznaiver)
• Il Capitano: Chris Tergliafera (Gundham Tanaka in Danganronpa series)
• Kachina: Kristen McGuire (Akane in Oshi no Ko)
• Kinich: John Patneaude (Quatre Salision in The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak)
• K’uhul Ajaw: Abby Espiritu (Romin Kassidy in Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens)
• Mavuika: Katiana Sarkissian (Pernilla in Epic Seven)
• Mualani: Cassandra Lee Morris (Morgana in Persona 5)
• Ororon: Nathan Nokes (Bardon in Dislyte)
• Xilonen: Beth Curry (Appears to be her first major voice-over role)

Here’s the Japanese cast:

• Chasca: Yuko Kaida (Saori in Lost Judgment)
• Citlali: Asami Tano (Saki in Zombie Land saga)
• Iansan: Ayaka Ohashi (Uzuki in The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls)
• Il Capitano: Ken Narita (Sesshoumaru in Inuyasha)
• Kachina: Yurika Kubo (Loki in Danmachi)
• Kinich Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasuke in Naruto)
• K’uhul Ajaw: Junko Takeuchi (Naruto in Naruto)
• Mavuika: Mikako Komatsu (Maki in Jujutsu Kaisen)
• Mualani: Nao Toyama (Mikhail in Drakengard 3)
• Ororon: Takashi Kondo (Ludger in Tales of Xillia 2)
• Xilonen: Fairouz Ai (Jolyne in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Genshin Impact is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices. Ahead of Natlan, we’ll get Version 4.8, which will introduce Emilie as a playable character and a new limited area for the summer.

The post Genshin Impact Ignition Trailer Teases Natlan Characters appeared first on Siliconera.

Bones revealed the six original villains who will appear in My Hero Academia: You’re Next. They’re all part of the criminal Gorrini family, who work with Dark Might to plunge society into chaos.

You can watch a trailer for My Hero Academia: You’re Next here:

The new villains outside of Dark Might don't actually appear in the My Hero Academia: You're Next trailer.

As for the cast of the Gorrini family, as well as their pictures, they are:

• Bruno Gorrini: Masaki Terasoma (Kuzuki in Fate/stay night)
• Deborah Gorrini: Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi in K-On!)
• Jill Gorrini: Voice actor unknown
• Kamil Gorrini: Yuki Ono (Josuke in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
• Paulo Gorrini: Yusuke Kobayashi (Subaru in Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World)
• Simon Gorrini: Michitake Kikuchi (Blackthorne in FFXVI)
• Ugo Gorrini: Ken Uo (Flying Dutchman in Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake)

My Hero Academia: You’re Next will be the first time that a My Hero Academia movie will be available in IMAX, MX4D, 4DX, and Dolby Cinema from day one. The movie will start airing in Japan from August 2, 2024. Aside from the above trailer, there is also a new key visual showing Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki in the midst of jumping into action, all three of them using their respective powers.

My Hero Academia: You’re Next will start airing in theaters in Japan from August 2, 2024.

The post My Hero Academia: You’re Next Villains Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Mages announced that it’s working on a game for Rent-A-Girlfriend. The game’s title is Rent-A-Girlfriend: The Horizon and the Girl in the Swimsuit, and it’ll come out for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

You can watch the teaser movie here:

More information on it will appear on August 5, 2024. That’s also when pre-orders will open. While we don’t know a lot about the game, we do know that it’ll be a visual novel or text-based adventure game.

Rent-A-Girlfriend is a Japanese manga and anime series that started serialization in 2017. The anime for it started airing in 2020 and it has three seasons thus far. As of March 2024, there are over 13 million copies of the manga in circulation, making it a fairly popular work. The story of Rent-A-Girlfriend follows Kazuya Kinoshita, who rents a girlfriend named Chizuru Mizuhara after his girlfriend dumps him. As time passes and he meets other rental girlfriends, he falls in love with Chizuru and works to make their rental relationship a real one.

The Rent-A-Girlfriend: The Horizon and the Swimsuit game is in development for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Pre-orders will open on August 5, 2024.

You can watch the show on Crunchyroll and Kodansha has licensed the manga for North America.

The post Rent-A-Girlfriend Game Announced For PS4, Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

Reiji Miyajima, the mangaka of Rent-A-Girlfriend, has announced that season 4 of the anime is in development. He thanks the fans for all of their support, as that’s the reason why it came to pass.

In commemoration of this news, Miyajima drew a picture of Kazuya and Chizuru holding hands. Around them are the various side and supporting characters cheering them on. The two of them are wearing Hawaiian shirts and matching jackets, as the fourth season will adapt the Hawaii Arc. It'll air some time in 2025.

You can watch the teaser trailer here:

Rent-A-Girlfriend is a popular anime and manga series. Serialization started in 2017 and the anime started in 2020. As of March 2024, over 13 million copies of the manga are in circulation. It follows Kazuya Kinoshita, who rents a girlfriend named Chizuru Mizuhara after his real girlfriend dumps him. After a somewhat disastrous first date, he finds out that Chizuru’s actually really mean. As they spend more time fake dating so that Kazuya can keep up appearances, he starts to fall in love with her for real and he works to make their rental relationship a real one.

Rent-A-Girlfriend season 4 is in the works and you’ll likely be able to watch it on Crunchyroll with the rest of the show. Kodansha has licensed the manga in English.

The post Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 4 Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

Good Smile Company has opened up pre-orders for Nendoroids of Kagamine Len and Rin looking like they do in the “Story of Evil” music videos. They’re available separately.

Pre-orders will close on September 4, 2024. They cost 7500 JPY each from the Japanese store and will ship out some time in December 2024. Meanwhile, the North American store has them for $43.99 each. They’ll ship out to the United States and Canada some time in Q2 2025.

Like most Nendoroids, they’ll come with several optional parts and different face plates. The “Servant of Evil” Len Nendoroid will come with items like a sword and a brioche bun. His face plates are a calm face and two different smiles. As for the “Daughter of Evil” Rin Nendoroid, she also has two smiling faces, as well as a crying one. Her parts include a bottle and a fan.

The “Story of Evil,” or “Daughter of Evil,” series of songs first came out on NicoNico in 2008. Mothy, or Akuno-P, is the producer. Unfortunately, NicoNico is still down so it is impossible to watch the original video at the moment. In total, there are seven songs that all have an interconnected story. In this series, Rin is the corrupt princess Riliane, who is the twin sister of her servant Allen, though she’s not aware of their familial relation. When Riliane is to be executed, Allen trades places with her.

The “Servant of Evil” and “Daughter of Evil” Kagamine Len and Rin Nendoroids are available for pre-order from Good Smile Company until September 4, 2024.

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Kadokawa has acquired anime studio Doga Kobo as a subsidiary. Doga Kobo is known for its work on Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and, more recently, Oshi no Ko. [Thanks, Yahoo!]

According to a report from Yahoo, Kadokawa and Doga Kobo have been on amicable terms for the past decade. As part of Kadokawa’s “global media mix with technology” strategy, it aims to increase its creative output and create anime, as well as expand its shows’ IPs. With this acquisition, Kadokawa has strengthened its ability to create anime that can be popular and profitable on a global scale.

Ryuu Ishiguro, a representative from Doga Kobo, stated that the company has worked with a lot of different companies and people to create anime. Kadokawa is one of those companies and has been a good partner to Doga Kobo. Now that Doga Kobo is in a better place than ever, it will work hard to create even better works than it’s released in the past.

Doga Kobo is an animation that was first established in July 1973 by former Toei Animation members. Actually, as of July 11, 2024, the company is now exactly 51 years old. Aside from the aforementioned Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and Oshi no Ko, it also produced Koihime Musou, YuruYuri, and Chiikawa.

As of July 11, 2024, Doga Kobo is now a subsidiary of Kadokawa. You can catch Doga Kobo’s current anime, Oshi no Ko season 2, exclusively on HIDIVE.

The post Kadokawa Acquires Oshi no Ko Anime Studio Doga Kobo appeared first on Siliconera.

A TCG based on Ultraman, appropriately named Ultraman Card Game, will come out on October 25, 2024. For the first time in TCG history, it’ll have a simultaneous release in 15 different countries and regions, as well as in four different languages. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Like most trading card games, the Ultraman Card Game is suitable for both children and adults. Aside from using it to play against other people, you can also just collect the cards. So far, there isn’t a lot of information on the game. However, Tsuburaya Production is already planning to have global tournaments in 2025 and 2026. Play tests will appear around the world some time in July 2024, with participants receiving a free deck. The YouTube channel for the game will also give a demonstration on how to play it.

The four languages that you’ll be able to play the TCG in are English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. A sample card showing the different languages is Ultraman Zero: Plasma Spark Slash. The effect reads that you can give a Zero card 2000 BP for one turn. It’s likely that the cards will be divided based on the different Ultramen in the series in a way that’s similar to how Union Arena TCG divides the different cards based on home series.

The Ultraman Card Game TCG will come out on October 25, 2024.

The post Ultraman TCG to Come Out in 15 Different Countries appeared first on Siliconera.

Clinique has announced a collaboration with Hello Kitty to commemorate the Sanrio mascot’s 50th anniversary. Though Clinique is almost sixty years old, it also states that it’s worked for half a century to help people with their skincare needs.

During the campaign, you can get an exclusive Clinique and Hello Kitty collaboration item for free depending on how much money you spend per transaction. If you spend over 6600 JPY, you can get a handkerchief. Spending over 8800 JPY nets you a pouch. The Hello Kitty for this collaboration wears a light green ribbon and an outfit that resembles the uniform of a Clinique skincare consultant. From July 31 to September 30, 2024, you can also choose a Hello Kitty set. The set will come with skincare products based on your needs, all wrapped up in the pouch.

More prizes may appear in the future. As well, there will be a special service in which Hello Kitty serves as your skincare consultant.

There will not be any special bottles as part of this campaign. So if you want to get something to remember this event, you only have the bag and the handkerchief to choose from (as of the time of writing). Other companies that had collaborations with Hello Kitty for her 50th anniversary include Crocs, McDonald’s, and CASETiFY. 

The Hello Kitty 50th anniversary campaign at Clinique will start from July 31 and end on September 30, 2024.

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