Top RPG News Of The Week: December 19th (Diablo 2, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Undecember and More!)

Happy weekend from Fextralife! If you’ve been too busy to keep up on the latest in the games we cover or are looking for a refresher we’ve got you covered! Here’s a bite-sized version of the Top RPG news of the week. Taste all the latest news across the Fextralife Wiki Network.

Check out the video above and read on for the text!

Granblue Fantasy Relink

Cygames have announced Granblue Fantasy Relink will also be coming to PC along with a new teaser trailer which was shown at Granblue Fantasy Fes. The trailer features improved visual fidelity which the director Tetsuya Fukuhara also mentioned. It shows off some of the combat gameplay and a look at characters during their downtime.
The developer also revealed that you can play the game in easy, normal and hard modes. New details about the main story were also revealed, concentrating on a narrative-driven single-player adventure happening in Zegagrande Skydom. Quests will have both single-player and multiplayer, with up to four-player co-op online. You will need to progress through the main story in order to unlock multiplayer content. You can also use CPU-controlled allies to complete quests, or tackle them solo.
Previously Cygames had announced the title would be coming to PS4 and PS5 sometime in 2022, but now have confirmed PC as well.
Granblue Fantasy Relink will be releasing sometime in 2022 for PS4, PS5 and PC.

For more on this news find it here in Granblue Fantasy Relink Gets New Teaser Trailer; Releases 2022 For Consoles And PC.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Ubisoft unveiled two major upcoming releases coming to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla including a new DLC Dawn of Ragnarok and two Crossover Stories coming to Valhalla as well as Odyssey.
Eivor will take up the mantle as Odin, the Allfather and Norse god of wisdom, in this newest expansion. Dawn of Ragnarok’s story focuses on Odin’s journey to rescue his son, Baldr. He will need to travel through the dwarven realm of Svaralfheim and become an ally to the dwarves.
Players will be able to wield magical powers that they can gain from defeating enemies. In line with the teaser Tweet, Odin will be able to make use of both Fire and Frost themed abilities.
The Dawn of Ragnarok DLC for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is scheduled to be released on March 10th. It will cost $39.99 USD and will be available for Xbox One & Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, PC via the Ubisoft and Epic Games store, as well as Stadia.
The second piece of content announced was Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories both of which are available now. This is the first-ever crossover DLC in the history of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
In Those Who Are Treasured, it will send Kassandra to Korfu Island in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. While in A Fated Encounter, you will also be sent to Korfu Island and unlock rewards based on Odyssey’s motif coming to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. A new update patch 1.4.1 adds Difficulty Settings that can let players tweak the parry timing windows and brush with death-related durations and more.

For more on this news find it here in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla DLC Dawn Of Ragnarok And Crossover Stories Revealed.

Strangers of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin

A bunch of new details were released for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. The publisher has been giving the public a consistent drip of tidbits and news ever since October of this year. But this time, they have revealed new characters we can meet, the basic jobs we might use and areas that we shall be able to explore.
In the Job System, players will be able to customize Jack and his party by assigning them different jobs, or combat roles. As with any RPG, there will be a large number of classes to choose from. It seems that currently you will need to assign your party members with a job, but Jack himself can change his job on the fly in combat. Jobs include Swordfighter, Swordsman, Ronin, Mage, Duelist, Lancer, Dragoon and more.
There are a total of three new characters announced in the Stranger of Paradise December update. One friend, one foe, and one we cannot truly be sure about. Sophia is a fellow warrior who joins Jack, Astos the king of the Dark Elves, and Tiamat a multi-headed beast also known as The Fiend of the Wind.
Locations were previewed including the Crystal Mirage, The Flying Fortress and The Western Keep. As with all news in the video/article you can check out more details on Fextralife.com

For more on this news find it here in Stranger Of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin December Update.

Undecember

Undecember, a Korean ARPG that looks like a mix of Diablo and Wolcen, had a gameplay and trailer announcement earlier this week. Needs Games based in South Korea released a slew of new trailers and information. The footage included cinematic trailers, an interview with the game director, and of course, gameplay.
The team also featured an interview with game director Inyoung Koo. Here, he proudly describes the thought process they had while developing the game. The company promises that the key concentration for the game is fun.
Many Closed Beta tests have been conducted, and they seem eager to take player feedback to heart. Undecember will be available for both PC and mobile platforms.
There was also news about Runes which is the skill system in Undecember. Players will have access to what is being called the Rune Cast, a container to hold all your skills and their respective modifiers. Once a Skill Rune is slotted into the Rune Cast, that skill will be immediately available for use. Link Runes can be attached to a Skill Rune if the colour matches an open slot, opening up a number of ways to customise skills.
Needs Games claims that gear in Undecember will hold unlimited potential. Meaning, players will be able to enchant gear to fully customize and max out their desired stats. General farming will not go to waste as unneeded items can be salvaged and broken down into base materials.
Aside from the usual dungeon crawling and loot grinding, Undecember has a few unique systems. The Chaos Dungeon will be an endgame area wherein you can customize the challenge with Chaos Cards. The difficulty and rewards will both scale depending on which cards you take with you.
Undecember will be out on PC via Steam and mobile on January 13, 2022 in Korea. Global-pre Registration has started already as of December 13, 2021.

For more on this news find it here in Undecember The Korean ARPG Gets Trailer And Gameplay Revealed.

Stray Blade

Stray Blade has gotten a brand new trailer focusing on melee combat and various weapons players will be able to use. It goes over the game’s combat mechanics including the “eight-dimensional dodging system” allowing for fluid movement. Players can also use parrying and riposte to deliver some devasting moves. The trailer shares that there are 30 different weapons to choose from. You can also execute your foes with some epic finisher moves.
There also looks to be some sort of final boss arena as the trailer shows “demi-gods” which will probably possess more challenging moves to manoeuvre.
Stray Blade is an Action-RPG where, as a rogue adventurer you will explore the Valley of Acrea with your companion the Xhinnon wolf Boji, unraveling the history of the forgotten valley. Master the powers of the three Acrean Metals to once again restore balance to the war-torn world.
Stray Blade is launching on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Epic Games Store and Steam in 2022.

For more on this news find it here in Stray Blade Gets Trailer Featuring Melee Combat.

Diablo 2 Resurrected

Diablo 2 got major news for the first patch to add balance changes to classes for the first time in 11 years. Blizzard Entertainment dropped a huge blog entry on December 15, 2021 that detailed a lot of changes that will be coming to Diablo 2: Resurrected. Surprisingly, it contained teasers for a host of balancing updates for many aspects of the game.
Blizzard intends to focus on expanding the class build diversity in this new patch. What’s even more refreshing is that it seems there will be no nerfs done to any of the popular skills. Instead, all of the underappreciated skills will be receiving buffs or usability tweaks
The design philosophy here is that they want to “empower you to be creative” in building up your character but not going too far off from each class’ theme. While Blizzard did not give any specific numbers, they did outline their thought process for each of the 7 classes.
There was also news about new Runewords which will be available as well in D2R’s first ladder season. As with Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 before it, Diablo 2 Resurrected will finally get a ladder system. It will be broken into four different modes Standard, Hardcore, Standard Expansion and Hardcore Expansion Ladder.

For more on this news find it here in Diablo 2 Gets First Major Patch In 11 Years: Class Rebalances, Ranked Ladder And More.

Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix has announced measures to tackle the unusually long ongoing login queues for Final Fantasy XIV’s growing player base with temporarily halting sales of the game and pausing free trial availability.
The queues in fact are so long that many are waiting a few hours just to get in the game during peak times and on high pop servers. However, in the recent post by the developer, they are now putting into action a number of strategies in place in order to handle the influx of new players. This includes the current halting of sales of the game itself.
Square has also announced that no new free trial accounts will be available for sign up either until they get a handle on the situation. They are prioritising paid owners of the game and those who have a current subscription in place.
The developer has shared that the problem with the solution is ongoing as they need new server upgrades, hardware that has been difficult to obtain during this time due to COVID-19 which has caused shortages. The team are considering adding new servers to each region.
Also, the suspension of the ads for the game is also going into effect as they cannot advertise a game that no new players can buy. The sales of the Endwalker expansion for current players plus upgrades will still be available.
Previously, they have issued current subs a free week of game time, however now they are giving players two weeks (on top of the original seven days) of extra game time to appease players for the long wait to log in.
If you are planning to play at all this week, I would highly recommend logging in during non-peak times if you can, as the queues are almost non-existent.

For more on this news find it here in Final Fantasy XIV Temporarily Stops Sales And Free Trial To Handle Long Queues.

Seas of Stars

The team at Sabotage Studios celebrated the Nintendo Indie World by showcasing new video footage of their game, Sea of Stars. This RPG is highly reminiscent of older games and should provide a good nostalgia trip for those who grew up with this art style.
The combat system in Sea of Stars won’t be like the usual turn-based games. Instead of simply selecting an attack or magical spell to use from a menu, hitting an action button at the same time as your character’s animation will actually increase the damage done. Aside from timing attacks, you can also perform combo attacks with multiple characters from your party.
While Sea of Stars may look like the olden RPGs, it will not feel like one. The exploration system should help with that. Players will be able to travel through the map in a variety of ways: either running, swimming, climbing, or jumping through the terrain and obstacles.
Sea of Stars releases on the Holiday Season of 2022, but no specific date has been given. It will be available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

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