Like A Dragon Gaiden: physical English copies are proving difficult to import

Western fans of one of SEGA’s most popular franchises have been left wanting for a physical edition of their latest title Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

As stated by SEGA, Like A Dragon Gaiden: was announced as a digital only title in Western countries however, English copies were stated for physical release in the South East Asia (SEA) region. As such, it has fallen to independent retailers to source their own imported stock.

Up until its release, many news outlets touted Playasia as the one-stop shop for importing a physical, region free and English copy of the game. Unfortunately, customers received an admittedly well-written, attentive and customer focused email last week explaining that the box art will be in Chinese leading the company to put all orders on hold until confirmation of customer satisfaction is received. Disappointment aside, it is a lovely gesture that shows Playasia’s attention to detail and speaks to their ideals to even check if the language variation suits their buyers’ preferences before shipping. The Chinese copies will still be region free and include English audio and subtitle options (audio via a post-release patch) meaning the issue is purely cosmetic and will not be reflected in the game itself but may still be a dealbreaker for some physical collectors… despite the lack of alternatives.

Adding to this, customers within the SEA region have begun posting photos on social media of their English physical copies including a rather neat looking limited edition that I am sure many (including myself) would have snapped up in a heartbeat! The limited edition includes a stainless-steel beer mug detailed with the iconic dragon tattoo, bottle opener coaster and eyewear case.

It makes me beg the question; What could be the reason as to why a huge chunk of the game’s audience has been excluded from the physical marketing strategy? How is it that English copies exist and yet are not made available to the UK and USA?

Currently, there are no official means to secure a physical, English copy of the game outside of SEA. My hope is that SEGA/Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio listens to their fans and collectors in the West and acknowledges their desire for physical copies of this latest title from the franchise they enjoy.

RoboCop Rogue City preview

If you are a fan of the classic RoboCop movies or shooters in general, you might be interested in RoboCop Rogue City, a new video game that lets you step into the metal boots of the iconic cyborg cop. RoboCop Rogue City is a first-person shooter game developed by Teyon and published by Nacon, and will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in November 2023.

The game features an original storyline based on the first three RoboCop films, with Peter Weller reprising his role as the titular character. The game is set in between the films RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, and follows RoboCop as he tries to bring justice to the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of Old Detroit. Along the way, he will encounter familiar faces from the movies, such as his police partner Anne Lewis, and face a new enemy that threatens the public order.

The game promises to offer a lot of freedom and variety in gameplay. As RoboCop, you can use your powerful Auto 9 gun or one of the other 20 weapons available to eradicate criminals throughout an explosive first-person adventure. You can also use your cybernetic abilities, such as night vision, flashbang shockwave, and time slowdown, to gain an edge over your enemies. These abilities, as well as your weapons, can be upgraded as you progress through the game.

But being RoboCop is not just about shooting bad guys. You also have to uphold the law by any means necessary. You can explore open areas and complete your objectives according to your own sense of justice. You can also interact with citizens and conduct investigations, such as finding evidence, interrogating suspects, and giving out parking tickets. Your choices can affect the outcome of your missions and the fate of the people you encounter. You also have to maintain your public trust score, which can influence how people react to you and how you perform in combat.

RoboCop Rogue City aims to capture the spirit and satire of the original movies, while offering a fresh and immersive experience for gamers. The game is developed using Unreal Engine 5, which ensures stunning graphics and realistic physics. The game also features the voice and likeness of Peter Weller, who played RoboCop in the first two films. Fans of the franchise will surely appreciate this authentic touch.

If you are interested in trying out the game before its release, you can download the demo from Steam.

RoboCop Rogue City is a game that lets you become the legendary part man, part machine, all cop hero and deliver justice in Old Detroit. It is a game that offers action, adventure, and choice in a dystopian sci-fi setting. It is a game that fans of RoboCop and first-person shooters should not miss.

Cities: Skylines II feature highlights 11-13

Cities Skylines 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the popular city-building game, is coming soon with a lot of new and improved features. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the latest feature highlight videos released by the developers, covering Citizen Simulation & Lifepath, Sound & Music and Cinematic Camera & Photo mode.

Feature Highlight 11: Citizen Simulation & Lifepath

One of the most exciting features of Cities Skylines 2 is the enhanced citizen simulation. Each citizen has their own Lifepath, which determines their personality, preferences, needs and goals. They either move into the city or are born there. If they are happy, they will stay in the city and eventually grow old and die of old age.

The Lifepath system also affects how citizens interact with the city and its services. For example, some citizens may prefer public transportation over driving, while others may enjoy living in high-rise apartments or suburban houses. Citizens also have different levels of education, income and health, which influence their behavior and choices.

The developers have also added new features such as family trees, social networks, hobbies and events to make the citizens more dynamic and realistic. You can view detailed information about each citizen in the new Citizen Info Panel.

Feature Highlight 12: Sound & Music

Another feature that has been improved in Cities Skylines 2 is the sound and music. The developers have added more depth, variety and control to the audio aspects of the game. For example, you can adjust the volume and frequency of different sound sources, such as city service buildings, atmospheric sounds and traffic.

The game also features a dynamic music system that adapts to your gameplay and mood. You can choose from different music genres and playlists, or create your own custom mix. The music will change according to the time of day, weather, season and city theme.

Additionally, the game supports custom soundtracks and mods, so you can add your own music and sounds to the game.

Feature Highlight 13: Cinematic Camera & Photo Mode

The last feature we will cover in this blog post is the Cinematic Camera & Photo Mode. This feature allows you to capture stunning screenshots and videos of your city in various angles and perspectives. You can use the Cinematic Camera tool to create smooth camera movements and transitions, or use the Photo Mode tool to adjust various settings such as exposure, depth of field, filters and effects.

You can also use the new Snapshot feature to save your camera settings and locations for later use. You can share your snapshots with other players or use them as loading screens.

The Cinematic Camera & Photo Mode feature is a great way to showcase your creativity and achievements in Cities Skylines 2. You can also use it to learn from other players’ cities and get inspired by their designs.

Cities: Skylines II feature highlights 7-10

Paradox have released the next set of feature hightlights which showcase the new and improved aspects of the game, ranging from familiar features that have been expanded, to elements brand new to the franchise. Feature highlights 7 through 10 have been revealed so far covering: Maps & Themes, Climate & Seasons, Economy & Production and Game Progression.

Feature Highlight 7: Maps & Themes

One of the most exciting aspects of Cities Skylines 2 is the ability to choose from a variety of maps and themes for your city. The game offers a range of landscapes, from tropical islands to snowy mountains, and each map has its own unique challenges and opportunities. You can also customize the look and feel of your city with different themes, such as European or North American. Themes affect the appearance of buildings, roads, vehicles, and citizens, as well as the availability of certain services and policies.

Feature Highlight 8: Climate & Seasons

Another new feature that adds realism and diversity to Cities Skylines 2 is the dynamic climate and seasons system. The game simulates the changes in weather, temperature, daylight, and vegetation throughout the year, and these factors have an impact on your city’s performance and needs. For example, you will have to deal with snow removal in winter, water shortages in summer, and increased energy demand in cold or hot days. You will also have to adapt your city’s layout and infrastructure to different terrain types, such as hills, rivers, lakes, and coastlines.

Feature Highlight 9: Economy & Production

Cities Skylines 2 also introduces a more complex and realistic economy and production system that allows you to manage the supply chains and trade networks of your city. You can choose from various industries, such as agriculture, forestry, mining, manufacturing, and tourism, and each industry has its own production chain that requires raw materials, intermediate goods, and final products. You can also export or import goods from other cities or regions, depending on your city’s needs and resources. You will have to balance the demand and supply of goods and services, as well as the environmental and social impacts of your economic activities.

Feature Highlight 10: Game Progression

Finally, Cities Skylines 2 offers a more rewarding and challenging game progression system that guides you through the different stages of city development. The game features 20 milestones that unlock new buildings, policies, services, and tools as you grow your city’s population and reputation. You can also earn development points by completing various tasks and achievements that reflect your city’s achievements and challenges. You can use these points to unlock new features and options for your city in different development trees, such as governance, culture, technology, ecology, and security. You can also customize your city’s identity with signature buildings that showcase your city’s style and vision.

Tren a game in Dreams

If you are looking for a game that combines creativity, puzzles, and nostalgia, you might want to check out Tren, a game within a game that is made entirely in Dreams, the PlayStation 4 exclusive game creation tool from Media Molecule. Tren is a virtual train set that lets you explore a series of rooms inspired by the developer’s house, mid-renovation, and play with various challenges and mini-games along the way.

Tren is the brainchild of John Beech, the design lead and creative director of Media Molecule, who wanted to see if he could make a “triple-A” game inside Dreams, originally on his own, while also renovating his house and becoming a parent. The result is a charming and whimsical game that reflects his personal journey and showcases the potential of Dreams as a platform for game development.

Tren is more than just a toy train simulator. Tren also features a variety of puzzles and mini-games that test your logic, reflexes, and creativity. You can solve riddles, race against time, build your own tracks. Tren is designed to be accessible and fun for players of all ages and skill levels.

Tren is not only a game within a game, but also a window into the spirit of Media Molecule, the studio behind LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway. Media Molecule is known for its passion for creativity and innovation, and for empowering players to express themselves through games. Tren is a testament to that vision, and a demonstration of what Dreams can do as a game creation tool.

Coming out 1st August 2023 on PlayStation Plus Tren is a game that will make you smile, think, and feel like a kid again.

Cities: Skylines II feature highlights 4-6

Paradox have released the second three videos in a series of feature highlights which showcase the new and improved aspects of the game, ranging from familiar features that have been expanded, to elements brand new to the franchise. The second three feature highlights that have been revealed so far: Zones & Signature Buildings, City Services and Electricity & Water.

Feature Highlight 4: Zones & Signature Buildings

One of the most exciting features of Cities Skylines II is the ability to create zones and signature buildings. Zones are areas of your city that have a distinct identity, such as a downtown, a suburb, an industrial park or a tourist hotspot. You can customize the look and feel of each zone by choosing from a variety of styles, such as European, American, Asian or futuristic. You can also adjust the density, height and colour of the buildings in each zone, as well as the road layout and landscaping.

Signature buildings are unique structures that you can place in your city to give it more character and flair. They can be landmarks, monuments, skyscrapers or even giant statues. You can choose from a library of pre-made signature buildings, or create your own using a powerful editor. Signature buildings can have special effects on your city, such as boosting tourism, attracting businesses or increasing happiness.

Zones and signature buildings will allow you to create a city that reflects your vision and personality.

Feature Highlight 5: City Services

Another feature that will make your city more realistic and challenging is the improved city services system. City services are essential for the well-being of your citizens and the functioning of your economy. They include things like water, electricity, waste management, health care, education, fire safety, police, public transport and more.

In Cities Skylines II, you will have more control and options over how you provide these services to your city. You can choose from different types of service buildings, such as coal or nuclear power plants, recycling or incineration centres, hospitals or clinics, schools or universities, etc. You can also customize the appearance and capacity of each service building by adding modules, such as solar panels, helipads or extra classrooms.

You will also have to deal with the challenges and consequences of providing these services to your city. For example, you will have to balance the demand and supply of water and electricity, as well as their environmental impact. You will have to manage the traffic flow and congestion caused by service vehicles and public transport. You will have to cope with disasters and emergencies that may affect your service infrastructure.

City services will make your city more alive and dynamic.

Feature Highlight 6: Electricity & Water

One of the most important aspects of city services is electricity and water. Without them, your city will not function properly. In Cities Skylines II, you will have more options and challenges when it comes to providing these vital resources to your city.

You can choose from different sources of electricity generation, such as coal, oil, gas, nuclear, wind, solar or hydro power. Each source has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost, reliability and environmental impact. You can also use batteries or power lines to store and distribute electricity across your city.

You can also choose from different sources of water supply, such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs or desalination plants. Each source has its own challenges in terms of availability, quality and pollution. You can also use pipes or canals to transport water across your city.

You will have to monitor the demand and supply of electricity and water in your city, as well as their effects on your budget and environment. You will have to deal with power outages or water shortages that may occur due to natural disasters or human errors.

Electricity and water will make your city more realistic and complex.

Cities: Skylines II feature highlights 1-3

Paradox have released the first three videos in a series of feature highlights that will showcase the new and improved aspects of the game, ranging from familiar features that have been expanded, to elements brand new to the franchise. The first three feature highlights that have been revealed so far: Road Tools, Traffic AI and Public & Cargo Transportation.

Feature Highlight 1: Road Tools

Roads are the backbone of a city, so naturally, they are one of the most important aspects of the game. Building roads in Cities: Skylines 2 is more flexible than its predecessor and allows for more creative use of the tools to help you realise your vision for the perfect road layout. You will find a variety of both new and returning options with road angles and enhanced curve tools to help you to create the road network of your dreams.

Some of the new features include:

• Grid mode: This allows you to create seamless city blocks with just three clicks. You can easily adjust the width and length of the grid and see the layout before placing it.
• Replace tool: This is similar to the old Upgrade tool but allows you to change existing roads more freely and fine-tune the road network by adding grass, trees, wider sidewalks or sound barriers.
• Parallel mode: This makes it possible to automatically build two roads, such as highways, in parallel, at a fixed and customizable distance. You can use all other road tool modes with this feature, so creating beautiful, smooth highway curves is possible and easy.
• Cut-and-fill roads: This allows you to build roads on uneven terrain without creating unrealistic slopes or bridges. The terrain will automatically adjust to fit the road level.

Feature Highlight 2: Traffic AI

Managing traffic in a growing city was a core part of Cities: Skylines and for the sequel we wanted to bring you a more advanced system to make the city feel more realistic and alive. The Traffic AI has been improved to make the vehicles behave more naturally and intelligently on the roads. Some of the improvements include:

• Lane changing: Vehicles can now change lanes dynamically based on their destination and traffic conditions. They can also use multiple lanes when turning or merging.
• Traffic lights: Traffic lights can now be customized to suit different intersections and traffic flows. You can also add pedestrian crossings and bike lanes to improve safety and accessibility.
• Parking: Parking is now a separate layer from roads, which means you can add parking lots or garages anywhere in your city. Vehicles will look for available parking spaces near their destination and park there until they need to leave.
• Emergency vehicles: Emergency vehicles can now use sirens and lights to alert other drivers and pedestrians of their presence. They can also overtake slower vehicles or use opposite lanes if necessary.

Feature Highlight 3: Public & Cargo Transportation

An integral part of a city’s inner workings is public transportation. Expanding as the city grows from buses and taxis to other transportation systems such as tram and subway networks. Public transportation not only reduces traffic congestion and pollution, but also increases the happiness and mobility of your citizens. Some of the new features include:

• Bus lanes: Bus lanes are dedicated lanes for buses and other public transportation vehicles. They can help improve the efficiency and reliability of your bus network and reduce the interference from other traffic.
• Taxi stands: Taxi stands are places where taxis can wait for passengers or drop them off. They can help improve the accessibility and convenience of your taxi service and reduce the congestion caused by taxis stopping on the road.
• Tram depot: Tram depot is a place where trams are stored and maintained. It can also act as a hub for your tram network, allowing you to create loops or branches.
• Subway station: Subway station is a place where passengers can enter or exit the subway system. It can also connect to other transportation modes, such as buses or trams, to create a seamless transit network.

Thrive set to expand onto the land

If you were a big fan of Spore’s cell stage - you might have heard of the open source game Thrive, which is currently in development by Revolutionary Game Studio, unlike Spore, Thrive treads much closer to science and realism. It already features a pretty well-thought out cell stage and already is exploring the beginnings of multi-cellular life. The new 0.6.2 update however starts prototyping evolution onto the land!

What’s New in 0.6.2?

• New further prototypes: going on land is now implemented, becoming aware and awakened has been added, added basic crafting, inventory and resource gathering, placing buildings and founding a settlement is now possible, accumulating resources and placing buildings is now possible in the society stage, and finally researching a new technology and placing a factory allows moving to the industrial stage. The industrial stage prototype is where the current prototype work ended up at. That stage has just a placeholder graphic for a city.
• Added entirely new 3D scenes to be backgrounds for the main menu, some of these are a bit performance intensive and can be disabled in the options
• The membrane generation algorithm is now massively faster, and only results in slightly visually different membranes
• Tweaked membrane generation to be tighter around organelles to more closely match the physics, and made multihex organelles send all of their positions to the membrane to fix large organelles in certain cases poking outside the membrane
• The editor compound balance now shows the situation at ATP equilibrium, instead of assuming all processes run at maximum speed always
• Compound cloud visuals have been slightly improved with a higher resolution noise layer
• Separation between divided cells and colonies is now much better
• Tweaked the visuals of button focus highlights, along with a few other element types
• Microbes now spawn with initial compounds that are proportional to their compound usage (instead of fixed values)
• Added late multicellular stage underwater panoramic background
• When the player now reproduces the game will try to keep the entity count under control by despawning existing entities if there are too many (player daughter cells are prioritized if they make up a large fraction of the total entity limit)
• Cells in colonies are now counted in entity limit (except the player colony as the player is not part of the entity limit)

Download

You can download Thrive from a few places, you can get it for free from their Github page, but please do considering buying it on Steam or itch.io, it’s only about £3.99 and it will help support the game’s development! It’s about time we had a game that took the best elements of Spore and actually made a good game with them!

Cities: Skylines II gameplay trailer

If you are a fan of city building games, you probably have heard of Cities Skylines, the critically acclaimed simulation game that lets you create and manage your own metropolis. Well, get ready for some exciting news: Cities Skylines II is coming on October 24, 2023, and it looks amazing!

The developer, Colossal Order, has released the first gameplay trailer for the sequel, and it showcases some of the new features and improvements that will make Cities: Skylines II the most realistic and immersive city builder ever.

What’s New in Cities: Skylines II?

Cities: Skylines II promises to take the city building genre to the next level with a fully realized 3D engine that allows you to zoom in and out of your city, rotate and tilt the camera, and explore every detail of your creation. You can also customize the look and feel of your city with a variety of themes, styles, and assets, from modern skyscrapers to historical landmarks.

But Cities: Skylines II is not just about aesthetics. It also challenges you to manage the complex systems and dynamics that make a city function, such as traffic, public transport, water, electricity, pollution, crime, education, health, and more. You will have to balance the needs and wants of your citizens, as well as deal with natural disasters, economic crises, and other events that can affect your city.

Cities: Skylines II also introduces some new gameplay mechanics that will add more depth and variety to your city building experience. For example, you can now create districts and assign policies to them, such as banning cars, promoting green energy, or encouraging tourism. You can also build bridges, tunnels, and elevated roads to create more efficient and realistic transport networks. And you can even design your own parks, monuments, and landmarks with the new asset editor.

Like A Dragon: Ishin! review

Like A Dragon: Ishin! is a remake of Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! A spin off title from the Yakuza series originally released only in Japan. Ishin! is set in the mid-to-late 1800’s during the chaotic Bakumatsu phase of the Edo period where an oppressive class system and threat of colonisation filled the minds of a worrisome country on the brink of collapse. You play as Sakamoto Ryoma, a fundamental carbon copy of the Yakuza series’ main antagonist Kazuma Kiryu as he uncovers the conspiracies and injustices that ended the Samurai era and revolutionised the future of Japan. Throughout Ishin! you will notice iconic characters from the series under a new moniker based loosely on historical figures.

As you progress through the game, Ryoma will pursue his mentor’s killer from within the Shinsengumi (an elite group of swordsmen that was organized by commoners and low rank samurai for the Shogunate) in a thrilling plot full of twists and turns that leave you wanting more. Within the game’s 13 chapters, you will begin to question allies and bear witness to the inner turmoil of a man conflicted with grief, revenge, and his quest for the truth. The story has a habit of presenting you with what at the time feels like an obvious plot hole just to make sense of it much later – this series is not known for its continuity errors or senseless narrative.

This is the first time that western audiences have seen a game from this franchise use a historically accurate event to house their fictional storyline and I must admit that they have done a good job of blending the two together. To help with the games period setting and oftentimes obscure terminology, there is a button prompt within the games dialogue and cutscenes to open a glossary of definitions and explanations on the various factions and their political motivations. While it is not particularly important to enjoy the story (which again is mostly fictional,) it does add an extra layer of intrigue for those interested in learning more and offers some educational value.

I make no illusion of being completely in love with this series and therefore biased when it comes to offering my opinion and recommendation to pick up Like A Dragon: Ishin! It is a fantastic game with a great story however, it does not mean I am unable to notice its shortcomings and there are some big ones. As I played through the game in my hunt for the Platinum trophy, I became increasingly aware of certain content that either overstayed its welcome or just outright disrespects your time. Like A Dragon: Ishin! is most assuredly for narrative driven gamers and lovers of the weird and wonderful as opposed to those who expect fluid combat gameplay and intuitive RPG-like gear systems. Unless you are a diehard fan like myself, I would warn off any platinum trophy hunters or completionists expecting an easy ride, it is anything but.

Gameplay follows the same template as its mainline semi open-world counterparts. You will explore the then capital city of Kyoto and its 6 main districts filled with substories, restaurants and wildly entertaining (If sometimes dubious) minigames and diversions that the franchise has become known for. Given the period setting with swords being more commonplace, this is probably the bloodiest the series has ever been. Cutscenes both in and out of combat (Q.T.E.’s) feature fountains of blood reminiscent of old Samurai movies where shades of crimson splatter against shoji screens as the silhouettes duke it out from behind, not to mention the various heat actions that increase in brutality as you learn more skills and follow-up attacks.

In combat you can switch between the 4 main disciplines: Brawler, Swordsman, Gunner, and Wild Dancer which blends both gunplay and swordsmanship into its own style designed for multiple opponents. Also returning is the franchises iconic Heat actions that allow you to burn meter for high-damage cinematic style attacks that both humiliate and sunder your opponents to shreds. As you progress through the game and gain experience through battle and completing substories, you will earn skill orbs which can be used to unlock new moves and abilities within the 4 discipline’s skill trees. The rub here however is after having played and upgraded similar skills in the previous games is that so much of each of the style’s basic strengths like parrying, evasion and countering is gated behind substories and higher level unlocks – relegating a long period of the combat experience to simple button mashing and monotonously cycling through the same actions because you know it is safe and deals good damage. By the time you reach those higher-level skills that unlock the full potential of combat, you may have already completed the main story which is a discredit to the depth of the combat system and how enjoyable it can be.

I’ve also yet to mention the new Trooper mechanic that allows you assign up to 4 squad members from the Shinsengumi to each of your combat disciplines for extra stat bonuses and RPG style attacks once their morale meter is filled. In truth, I found this mechanic to be grossly negligible and for the most part irritating to manage with its fusions and their requests for new weapons. The special moves themselves can be helpful to turn the tide of battle (Especially the healing ones) but the amount of time investment needed to keep them scaled with your level alongside the games other time intensive mechanics feels too much. As long as you have a couple semi-decent troopers in your squads, you can neglect this feature with little repercussion.

Minigames are the most inspired and creative they have been in a while due to the new setting and time period that lends itself to a branching out of activities - incorporating a series of more unconventional ideas like Buyo dancing, chicken racing, and farming crops at your homestead where you can also adopt and house local strays. I must admit however that spending time with the Courtesan for the completion list and playing strip Rock, Paper, Scissors leading to an overtly sexual (and incredibly difficult) bullet hell minigame made me uncomfortable to say the least.

Substories were also not the greatest this time around and a major portion of them are simply fetch quests where you revisit the same NPC’s over and over, giving them surplus junk items until their bond level is maxed out, rewarding you with a similar junk item that could have been acquired in the games battle dungeons in just as much time + extra.

Money is the hardest it has ever been in the franchise to earn and requires a lengthy process of gambling, farming, and struggling through the higher-level battle dungeons for rare but high value weapon drops. As you defeat enemies you will also collect materials of varying rarities for crafting weapons and armour at the blacksmith. Gathering these materials (although it has since been patched to increase the drop rate) is a major time investment considering the need to craft duplicate items for a chance to find bonus seals in a “seeded” crafting system. Which leads me to the games worst feature.

Compared to its original release, the crafting system has been made less intuitive, more complex, and criminally unexplained. The Blacksmith allows you to craft, enchant and disassemble any gear you may have to either increase their power, imbue special effects, or salvage exclusive materials - complex enough on its own without adding the malicious “Seeded” crafting system. What this means is that the game has already decided the outcome including the possibility of bonus “seals” or mods on your item before you even take the action to craft it, meaning you cannot simply save and reload your way to 100% completion. To do this you will need to craft hundreds of the same items in the hopes of finding the correct bonus seals just to disassemble them and enchant the seal onto a new piece of equipment. To make matters worse, the game neglects to mention anything about how this system works and expects you as the player to either ignore this feature (Which you could if you only play for story) or deep dive into community forums and youtube videos to help explain how this awful system works. There is a way to manipulate this system (And it is really the only way to even remotely get it to work) but it does not soften the blow due to the number of materials and money you will need to gather for crafting – and so begins the grind of replaying through the higher-level dungeons and gambling at the chicken races at nauseum. All the original game asked you to do was simply craft the weapon with the trait you wanted and disassemble it for the required seal… Which is what it should have been here!

Nevertheless, I did enjoy my time with this game and its gripping story that once again delivers an engaging and suspenseful thriller from start to finish and that is what I am choosing to take away from this game… Just do not punish yourself with the Platinum like I did!

Midnight Suns Storm Challenge Guide - Make It Rain

Storm’s challenge asks you to defeat the Whispers of Memory to acquire the “Hellstorm” card and destroy the Dark Crystal. With a starting a hand of “Stormshield,” “Gale Force,” and 2 “Arc” cards, you need to buff as many of her cards as possible with their “Next Turn” bonuses. Thanks to “Stormshield” you will also start with a Resist buff. On the map are 5 Whispers buffed with Frenzy, 3 of which are holding the “Vortex,” “Goddess’ Blessing,” and “Arc” cards. There are also 2 Environmental Hazards to the left and right. Redraws and Moves are disabled for this challenge.

Midnight Suns is going out with a bang for this final DLC character! Storm much like her namesake is a force to be reckoned with, her Passive Ability “Rising Storm” adds a chance of Stun to her attack and heroic cards which upgrades to include a 5% bonus for each of her cards in your hand. While this does not sound very exciting on its own, it is worth remembering characters like Hulk who gain massive damage bonuses against stunned opponents.

Storm’s playstyle rewards patience and strategic minds. Storm can simultaneously support her allies and increase her own power without teammate intervention beyond rival! Unique to Storm, her cards come with the incredibly powerful “Next Turn” feature that increases the effectiveness and power of her cards if kept out of play until the next turn or charged up with “Goddess’ Blessing.” Many of her cards include optimal bonuses like “Stormshield” that gives her 1 Resist per turn for as long as it remains in your hand or, when played can also gift allies with 2 Resist and 1 Counter once upgraded. “Live Wire” with its lack of damage and stun seems underwhelming at first glance but once upgraded applies a significant damage boost to all her cards if kept in your hand, the same goes for “Overload” which feels too situational to be considered useful with its need for electrical conduits but when you look at the Strengthened on Redraw effect it suddenly demands respect – giving her even more destructive power. Storm has it all!

To complete this challenge, you will need to cancel out the Frenzy effect with Stun and use “Goddess’ Blessing” to increase the effectiveness of Storm’s cards and finally control knockback and enemy placement.

Walkthrough

• First, use “Gale Force” to push the closest Whisper of Memory into the one behind holding the “Goddess’ Blessing” card and K.O. them.

• Second, play “Goddess’ Blessing” to buff your 2 “Arc” cards with extra chain strikes and acquire the “Live Wire” card.

• Third, Stun the Whisper of Memory holding the “Vortex” card with “Live Wire” to stop his Frenzy buff from reacting.

• Fourth, with either of your “Arc” cards, assign 2 of the 3 strikes to the Whisper holding the “Arc” card and the final strike on the one holding “Vortex.”

• Fifth, with your final 2 “Arc” cards, let loose on the Whisper holding the “Vortex” card and K.O. them.

• Sixth, both Whispers behind will now automatically attack with Frenzy but your Resist from the start of the challenge will cancel the damage from one of them and keep you alive. It also places them perfectly in front of the Environmental Hazards.

• Seventh, using “Vortex” control the knockback simultaneously for both Whispers to K.O. with the Environmental Hazards and acquire the “Hellstorm” card.

• Lastly, the Dark Crystal will appear, use “Hellstorm” to destroy it and congratulations you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Marvel's Midnight Suns review

It is not often in the modern industry that a videogame releases with what feels like a finished product. With the introduction of DLC’s and their tendency to revolve around main story content that is left out intentionally for extra sales, it is hard to find a game that offers the full, complete package on release day… enter Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Bursting with varied, purposeful, and enjoyable content, Marvel’s Midnight Suns much like the Guardians of the Galaxy Game is greater than the sum of its parts. The trepidation that comes from Marvel’s recently poor reputation for games was quickly abated and paved the way for Midnight Suns to become my Game of the Year 2022.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a strategy RPG that combines card game mechanics with turn-based combat. You play as an original, semi-customisable (Extremely basic character creation e.g., Male/Female, skin colour, hairstyle etc.) character made specifically for the game known as “The Hunter” – the offspring of Lilith; a once defeated evil sorceress risen once more thanks to the notorious HYDRA. The game focuses on the occult and mystical side of the Marvel universe in this dark, cinematic adventure spanning locations like the Sanctum Sanctorum, pocket dimensions and Limbo to name a few. Marvel’s Midnight Suns has more substance than meets the eye, the instanced based combat belies the scope of the story and its locations to almost criminal effect in comparison to its cinematic cutscenes and fantastic voiceover cast of industry superheroes. Recruiting characters from the Marvel Comics pantheon along the way, you will operate and manage your team through various activities in a revolving day and night cycle at the Abbey; a transian fortress located in a pocket dimension on the cliffs of Salem, Massachusetts.

The Abbey

Under the safety of the Abbey, you can train and upgrade your base of operations to unlock more activities and gameplay features between the daily roulette of instanced battle grounds. Within its walls you will find the Forge, Training Grounds, War Room, Barracks, Common Room, and Library.

The Forge is where you can research new upgrades like additional combat options, outfits, and passive skills. You can also unlock new cards from mission rewards in a Gacha style RNG menu, duplicate and craft previously unlocked cards and items, and finally take on character specific challenges for their legendary skill cards.

The Training Grounds allow you to upgrade and modify cards with extra features and partake in daily sparring sessions for friendship gains and stat boosts in one of the 7 secondary statistics: Critical Chance, Critical Damage, Fortitude, Resilience, Willpower, Power, and Strength. Also included within the grounds is the T.H.R.E.A.T. room where you can individually level up characters and practice deck builds.

The War Room is home to C.E.N.T.R.A.L. - a machine used to decrypt enemy Intel Caches, exchange currencies for more valuable items and to dispatch benched heroes on Hero Ops for their respective cards with a chance of being upgraded and modified if you delegate the appropriate hero for the Op.

The Library is where you can find hints on puzzles, read through logs describing more of the lore and history of the world and brew potions from collected flora around the Abbey.

Lastly, the Common Room and Barracks are where you will likely find teammates spending their evenings and where you can initiate hang outs.

Aside from that, you will also have the mysteries of the Abbey and its grounds to uncover in a third-person, pseudo-open-world full of puzzles, items to collect and treasure chests to unlock as you learn spells, dive deeper into the lore of the Midnight Suns and befriend your allies. You can even go so far as to start decorating your room with all manner of virtual photography and classical artwork found on the grounds as collectibles. Tomb Raider’s Croft Manor came to mind more than once as I explored the grounds and its myriad of secrets and unsettling locations.

With all this in mind, you would be quick to believe that Midnight Suns has an overwhelmingly expansive amount of gameplay features and mechanics (and it does), but it also does a fantastic job of drip feeding these additions over the course of the game - slowly easing the player into a daily routine of tasks without feeling a sense of redundancy in any one of them.

What I enjoyed most about Midnight Suns (aside from the challenge and intellectual satisfaction of its higher difficulties) is how much it leans into the characters and their growing relationships and discord with one another as the basis of its storytelling and immersion. Every character receives their day in the sun as the plot unfolds. With varying degrees of conflict and harmony throughout, characters will branch off into their own cliques and factions as their ideals, motivations, and methodology steer from the collective. The idea of misfits, vagabonds and disrupters coming together and forming an unlikely family offered a breath of fresh air in a sea of recent games that focus on single character adventures with supporting cast.

As I played through the game, I couldn’t help but draw similarities to one of my all-time favourite games, Mass Effect and soon realised why I was enjoying this game so much. Dialogue options and its alignment mechanic aside, in a similar fashion as aboard the Normandy, you can interact and befriend the cast of characters via various evening hang outs, club events and activities. There is even a social media proxy within the game known as Superlink where players can respond to messages, initiate hang outs, and read through some genuinely funny banter and references from each of the character’s personal timeline posts and comments.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns takes the foundations of what was Mass Effect’s relationship mechanics and builds upon it with even more activities, gameplay incentives and moments to bond and learn more about your crew, not just as superheroes but as their human and more relatable counterparts. Even when I maxed out a character’s friendship, I would still check in with them to see what conversations arise… and there is still incentive to do this for your own personal stat boosts.

As for the combat, (which almost feels like an afterthought with how much I have spoken about the games other features) your experience is totally subjective to your choice of 8 difficulties. You can essentially remove all challenge and premise of strategy or be extremely punished for a lack of forward thinking and using an unbalanced team. In groups of 3, you begin missions with a hand of random cards drawn from the decks of your chosen heroes. Once per turn you can play up to 3 cards, Move a single character anywhere on the map, Redraw up to 2 cards and play up to 3 items for the whole mission. As you progress through the game you will unlock extra bonuses to these options like adding a shove and knockback effect to your Move that can be used for free environmental kills/damage and drawing extra cards. The game relies on you being able to take out as many enemies as you can with environmental hazards, free movements and refundable attack cards before the enemy can make their move or begin to multiply. For anyone that enjoys being able to flex their strategic minds and metagame, Midnight Suns is incredibly addictive (Hence why this review is almost 4 months late.)

While there are microtransactions in Midnight Suns, these are purely cosmetic and I honestly feel like the game would have been better off without them as the game itself is already host to a wide range of unlockable outfits and palette swaps for each of the character’s numerous attires ranging from casual, swimwear and battle suits. Firaxis also added one unique feature that adds a nice touch of credibility to the games passage of time; randomised daily outfits. Once new outfits are unlocked with Gloss (The currency used for cosmetics and gifts), players can toggle whether to have characters change their clothes every day. It is one of those things that people joke about in games “Oh that character doesn’t wear anything else,” “That must smell” etc. so it was nice to see an option that helps with the immersion in that regard.

Despite being a card-based strategy game at its core, I was surprised to find that there are only a handful of cards to collect for each team member (barely reaching double digits) barring The Hunter who essentially has 3 decks to mix and match with depending on your alignment. Instead of leaving you room to experiment with different builds and playstyles for each character (of whom you will be swapping out in a steady rotation as they recover from injuries,) the cards focus more on how to optimise each character’s individual traits. While modifying your cards with extra bonuses is an option after upgrading the training grounds, these are minor alterations at best and therefore characters can never veer too far from their intended purposes. For better or worse depending on how you as a player like to enjoy your game, this narrowed approach to building decks and character customisation keeps the game accessible and easy to pick up – no one character is harder to play or learn than another. After a short time of playing (Comparatively speaking for an RPG) I had soon acquired every card for each character but I still had the incentive to collect duplicates as there is an option to “salvage” cards, giving the player “essence” as a by-product. Essence is the universal currency used to craft items and modify cards and it is very easy to get caught up in the grind for optimising your decks when the game throws so many options and randomly generated (and increasingly expensive) modifiers. Sometimes it is best to start modifying afresh on a new duplicate rather than continuing to pay the premium for your old cards 10TH attempt at rolling for something good.

Graphically speaking, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is not anything to write home about but does it need to be? They can’t all look like Horizon. There are however moments in the game where you notice how much effort has gone into making the game as striking as possible, most notably within its large-scale attack animations that are fantastically well done with spectacular strobes, shapes, and colours. Pairing this with the photo mode makes for a virtual photographers dream of Marvel based content creation and photo opportunities.

Lastly, while I am fully aware that the game is still unfortunately riddled with bugs and the DLC’s have made the game increasingly volatile with each release, (Completionists have been consistently tormented with glitched trophies and achievements) it has not taken away from the overall positive experience that I have had playing this intellectually gratifying, addictive and narratively enjoyable game. I loved it and would still recommend. Roll on the Storm DLC.

Marvel's Midnight Suns Challenge Guides

Introduction

Welcome to the Midnight Suns Challenge Guide. Midnight Suns is a Tactical RPG that combines card game mechanics with turn-based combat. You play as an original character made specifically for Midnight Suns known as “The Hunter” – the offspring of Lilith in a dark, occult, and mysterious adventure to defeat her. Recruiting characters from the Marvel Comics pantheon along the way, you will train with superheroes and upgrade your base of operations between missions. Aside from that, you will also have the mysteries of the Abbey and its grounds to uncover in a third-person open-world where you interact, enhance, and befriend these heroes with various hang outs, activities, and gifts. With all these features, the game does a great job of easing you into the routine of daily tasks as they get added… but you are here for the challenge guides so let’s get on with it.

How to unlock the Midnight Suns Challenges

Once researched at the Forge (Titled “Forged in Hellfire”) and unlocked with Credits, you will gain access to the Armory and its Midnight Suns challenges. The Midnight Suns challenges will be unlocked for every character whose friendship has reached level 5 and upon completion will unlock their Midnight Suns costume and their Legendary card. Disregarding these crucial rewards, each challenge is more like an optimised tutorial that dives deep into each character’s strength, as such I would recommend completing these challenges as early as possible so you can learn what cards work best for each character and their playstyle.

Click the links below to find the guides for the characters you need.

• The Hunter
• Blade
• Captain Marvel
• Iron Man
• Doctor Strange
• Nico
• Magik
• Ghost Rider
• Spider-Man
• Captain America
• Wolverine
• Scarlet Witch
• Hulk
• Deadpool
• Venom
• Morbius
• Storm

Midnight Suns Morbius Challenge Guide - Late Night Snack

Morbius’ challenge asks you to defeat the Whispers of Memory to acquire the “Undying Fury” card. Starting with a hand of 2 “Claw,” “Quick Claw,” and a “Mist Form+” the idea is to power up your lower damage cards enough to collect the cards you need to finish the challenge. On the map are 5 Whispers of Memory holding 2 “Shadow Strike,” “Feeding Frenzy,” and a “Claw” card, 1 Incarnation of Memory stands behind. Redraws and Moves are disabled.

Morbius operates as a hybrid character that takes inspiration from Captain Marvel and Blade. Specialising in Bleed, his special trait “Hunger” grants the Free “Bloodlust” card after 3 of his cards are played. “Bloodlust” gives Morbius an amount of Block and applies a Bleed effect to all his cards for as long as the Block is maintained – like Captain Marvel’s Binary trait. He can also chain strikes while capitalising on Bleed to deal the duration’s effect in one shot the same way as Blade. His Charm and Concealment abilities however are unfortunately less practical and effective than the Hunter’s “Mindbender” and Collar bonuses.

This challenge requires you to build up the “Hunger” trait for “Bloodlust” and apply the Bleed effect on as many of the enemies as possible to make Morbius’ “Claw” cards deal as much damage as it possibly can.

Walkthrough

• First, “Quick Claw” the Whisper holding the “Claw” card on your right.

• Second, use “Mist Form+” to increase the power of your next play and follow up with “Claw” on the Whisper holding “Shadow Strike” next to the previous target and earn the “Bloodlust” card.

• Third, play “Bloodlust” to add the Bleed effect to the rest of your cards and use “Shadow Strike” to attack all 3 of the remaining Whispers.

• Fourth, now with a Bleed effect on the Whisper holding the other “Shadow Strike,” use “Claw” to finish it off and acquire it.

• Fifth, stack up the Bleed some more with “Shadow Strike” again but focus 2 of the strikes onto the Whisper holding “Feeding Frenzy” and finish it off with the final “Claw.”

• Sixth, use “Feeding Frenzy” on the final Whisper in front of you and cash in all that Bleed effect to take him out.

• Seventh, with “Undying Fury” now in your hand and an extra “Claw” card, all that is left is to apply Bleed one more time on the Incarnation of Memory behind with “Claw” and finish it off with “Undying Fury”. Congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Venom Challenge Guide - Brain Buffet

Venom’s challenge asks you to defeat all 5 Incarnations of Memory and acquire the “Assimilation” card, once acquired you must then destroy the 2 Whispers of Memory (Incarnations stand in front while the Whispers stand behind.) Starting with a hand consisting of “Lethal Embrace,” 2 “Tendril Strike,” “Spike Burst,” and a “Web Toss+” you will need to pick your targets wisely. Among the group of Incarnations are 2 that hold the “Insatiable Hunger” and “Tasty Brains” cards. On the map you will also notice a single Environmental hazard that causes the Vulnerable debuff. As usual, Redraws and Moves are disabled for this challenge.

Venom is a veritable wrecking ball - designed to deal damage in short bursts. Their passive ability “Ravenous” increases their power but will deplete the meter every time one of their offensive cards are played. Venom’s gameplay style is completely dependent on maintaining “Ravenous” to keep him as effective as possible on every turn. With this in mind, no Venom player should be without “Insatiable Hunger” and “Symbiotic Senses” in their deck – simply to recover “Ravenous” or negate the cost of playing his cards entirely.

The key to completing this challenge is grabbing the “Insatiable Hunger” as early as possible and making the best use possible of the one Environmental hazard on the map with its Vulnerable debuff. Follow along with the video below if you need.

Walkthrough

• First, “Lethal Embrace” the Incarnation holding the “Insatiable Hunger” card, this will K.O. thanks to its additional damage on a full HP target.

• Second, with “Insatiable Hunger” now in your hand immediately play it and follow up with “Spike Burst” to hit the 3 Incarnations closest to you.

• Third, use “Tendril Strike” to attack the Incarnations with the lowest and highest HP – scoring a K.O. on the lowest HP target.

• Fourth, “Web Toss+” and grab the Incarnation to your right and control the knockback into the green Environmental hazard, causing a Vulnerable debuff and K.O. on another Incarnation.

• Fifth, with your final “Tendril Strike” use both hits to target the now Vulnerable target and pick up the “Tasty Brains” card.

• Sixth, “Tasty Brains” the final Incarnation of Memory and acquire the “Assimilation” card.

• Seventh, Buff yourself with “Assimilation” to earn a new “Tasty Brains” card and play it against one of the Whispers of Memory to earn another “Lethal Embrace”

• Lastly, “Lethal Embrace” the final Whisper of Memory and congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Deadpool Challenge Guide - Fourth Wall

Deadpool’s challenge asks you to defeat all 7 Whispers of Memory to acquire the “Burning Sensation” card and defeat the Incarnation of Memory with it. Starting with “Spread the Love,” “Mag Dump,” and 2 “Death From Above” cards you need to conserve cards that will do extra damage later in the “En Fuego” chain. Two of the Whispers of Memory hold an extra “Spread the Love” and a “Pain Piñata” card, these are your first targets. This challenge will get a bit tricky with explaining who to target so follow along with the video guide below if you need.

Deadpool is an Assassin type character, his special trait “En Fuego” slowly increases the power of his cards with each kill milestone and for as long as other teammates can keep the attention away from him, he can become a powerhouse. His “Hey #^*face!” card can also protect the “En Fuego” chain by providing some invulnerability with Resist.

To complete this challenge you will need to collect the extra cards from the Whispers of Memory as quickly as possible and make the best use of each cards enhanced effects from a high “En Fuego” chains.

Walkthrough

• First, use “Spread the Love” to target the Whisper of Memory holding the extra “Spread the Love” and “Pain Piñata” cards. This K.O. will also boost your “En Fuego” count.

• Second, with the extra damage boost from “En Fuego,” follow up with “Death From Above” on the Whisper holding the “Pain Piñata” to finish it off and earn the card.

• Third, use “Pain Piñata” to target the three Whispers on the right, this will only take out one of the three but it will add an extra stack to “En Fuego.”

• Fourth, “Spread the Love” on both Whispers on the outer sides of the group and once again increase the “En Fuego” buff.

• Fifth, with the extra damage from “En Fuego” you will be able to take out the Whisper with the least amount of health with “Death From Above.”

• Sixth, “Mag Dump” the final Whisper to receive the “Burning Sensation” card and play it against the Incarnation of Memory behind you. Congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Hulk Challenge Guide - Monster or Man?

Hulk’s challenge is easily the most difficult of the bunch and is likely where players will struggle due to an issue that automatically fails the challenge despite fulfilling its conditions. Even if you manage to reach maximum Rage as the challenge states, if you play the cards out of a specific order the challenge will still fail.

The challenge asks you to reach maximum Rage to unlock the “Worldbreaker” card and use it to defeat all 5 Whispers of Memory. Starting with a hand of “Let’s Do This,” “Crush,” 2 “Smash,” and 2 “Gamma Kick” and one Whisper of Memory holding the “Rampage” card, Hulk needs to set up the battlefield for “Let’s Do This” to do its job effectively. Redraws and Moves are disabled.

Hulk is Hulk, the ultimate powerhouse and tank of the cast. With a bevy of cards that Taunt, attack multiple targets, and Stun at the same time as boosting his Rage, Hulk can control the battlefield with ease. With every attack he takes, Hulk’s Rage meter will build and increase his power further, he can also spend it to recover HP and heighten his maximum Rage count for even more benefits making him one of the most self-sufficient characters on the roster.

As stated above, the challenge does not want you to take out the Whispers of Memory straight away but instead wants you to Taunt them into attacking to fill Hulk’s Rage meter to its maximum to unlock the “Worldbreaker” card.

Walkthrough

• First, “Gamma Kick” the Whisper of Memory directly in front of you holding the “Rampage” card and knockback into the wall behind for some damage.

• Second, follow up on the same target with “Smash” and “Crush” in that order, thanks to the Stun effect from “Smash” “Crush” will increase in power and be enough to K.O. the Whisper of Memory and gain the “Rampage” card.

• Third, “Gamma Kick” again on the lone target to your right to Taunt.

• Fourth, with “Rampage” target all three Whispers opposite to Taunt them also.

• Fifth, with everyone now Taunted use “Let’s Do This” to goad each enemy to attack Hulk and build his Rage meter.

• Sixth, with one last pip on the Rage meter to go play the “Smash” card on any of the Whispers around you and earn the “Worldbreaker” card.

• Seventh, play “Worldbreaker” and defeat all enemies. Congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Scarlet Witch Challenge Guide - Witch's Trial

Scarlet Witch’s trial asks you to defeat all 4 Whispers of Memory to acquire the “No More” card and use it to defeat the Incarnation of Memory. Her starting hand consists of 2 “Quick Toss+,” “Hex Bolt,” and 2 “Hex Field” while 2 Whispers of Memory hold extra “Hex Bolt” cards for the taking. Redraws and Moves are disabled for this challenge.

Scarlet Witch is best described as a debuffer and disrupter, she specialises in Area of Effect (A.O.E.) abilities and riddling the enemy with various effects but struggles to deal a lot of damage like the rest of the cast because of it. Best paired with characters like Magik who can control enemy placement, she can use “Chaos Reigns” to make enemies fight each other within a wide range (Compensating for her low damage output) while also buffing her teammates with “Resist” and health restoration with “Chaos Field.”

The trick to this challenge is pulling every enemy within range of her “Hex Field” to chip away at the enemy’s health evenly enough to create a systematic ladder of K.O.’s for “Hex Bolt” to increase its hit chain.

Walkthrough

• First, using both of the “Quick Toss+” cards, pull the outer Whispers of Memory towards Scarlet Witch to form a circle around her.

• Second, use both “Hex Field” cards to chip away at everyone’s health.

• Third, play “Hex Bolt” and target the Whisper in the bottom left holding an extra “Hex Bolt” card (The one with 5 health left) and acquire it on K.O.

• Fourth, “Hex Bolt” increases its hit chain each time it is played and will now hit 2 targets. So again, play “Hex Bolt” and target both of its charges on the Whisper holding the last “Hex Bolt” card.

• Fifth, with your last “Hex Bolt” and it’s now 3 hit chain, target the last Whispers making sure to use 1 charge on the one to the bottom right and 2 for the other to K.O. them both.

• Sixth, With the “No More” card in your hand, play it to defeat the Incarnation of Memory. Congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Wolverine Challenge Guide - Bone & Claw

Wolverine’s challenge asks you to defeat the Whispers of Memory and acquire the “Midnight Special” card. With 4 Whispers on the map with none of them holding cards, you need to make the most of your large hand consisting of “Chain Swipe,” “Eviscerate,” “Lethal Pounce,” “Stink of Fear,” “Let’s Do This,” and 2 “Power Slash.” Redraws and Moves are disabled for this challenge.

Wolverine is easily the most self-sufficient and multi-faceted character on the roster. With an array of buffs, debuffs, chain strikes, recovery, taunts, and potential for high damage, Wolverine fits any team and every role with ease. He is also the only character than can resuscitate himself from a K.O. without using a team revive card (Especially handy for the Ultimate III difficulty.)

To complete this challenge successfully you will need to buff Wolverine with Strengthen and Counter whilst applying Taunt and Vulnerable on as many of the Whispers as you can – making sure that you keep an even spread of damage across the 4 enemies. This is one of the few challenges that wants you to take damage as the cards themselves are not enough to K.O… It is going to be difficult explaining the steps to this challenge so follow along with the video guide below if you need.

Walkthrough

• First, use “Lethal Pounce” a target the full chain on the first Whisper to your left to gain Strengthened.

• Second, with “Stink of Fear” target both Whispers on the right to Taunt and buff yourself with Counter.

• Third, “Power Slash” both Whispers on the right and control the knockback into the wall to add some extra damage and apply the Vulnerable debuff.

• Fourth, (this is where it gets tricky to explain.) Return to the group opposite you and use “Chain Swipes” to target 1 strike on the Whisper you attacked with “Lethal Pounce” and 2 strikes on the other. You should now have applied Taunt on every enemy.

• Fifth, “Eviscerate” that same group and split the hit chain evenly across them – 2 and 2

• Sixth, all that is left is to play “Let’s Do This” and watch as the Whispers fall to your Counter.

• Lastly, you should now have the “Midnight Special” card. A crystal will appear, break it with “Midnight Special” and congratulations, you have completed the challenge.

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.

Midnight Suns Captain America Challenge Guide - Guardian

In Captain America’s challenge, you are tasked with defeating the “Incarnation of Memory” to acquire the “Shield Charge” card. Starting with only 2 “Punch” cards and a “Shield Bounce” you can’t go wrong with your card choices, just who you target and when. On the map will be 5 “Whispers of Memory,” 3 of which are holding “The Best Defense,” “Tactician,” and “Shield Bash” cards. As always Redraws and Moves are disabled for this challenge.

Captain America is not a damage dealer; his playstyle is all about building Block while taking as much of the attention away from his teammates as possible with Taunts. Much like the challenges namesake, Captain America is a guardian and he excels at it. Whenever safe he can also spend a portion of his Block value to deal additional damage with his cards. (Which is what we will be looking to do.)

To complete this challenge you will need to focus on building your Block to its maximum value in as little plays as possible whilst collecting the extra cards from the Whispers of Memory in the process.

Walkthrough

• First, Punch the “Whisper of Memory” holding the “The Best Defence” card and knockback into the wall for a K.O.

• Second, buff yourself with “The Best Defence” and use “Shield Bounce” to target the three Whispers of Memory that are furthest to left. This will give you 36 to your Block and a “Tactician” card.

• Third, use your last “Punch” card to knockback and take out the remaining Whisper of Memory netting you another 10 to Block and a “Shield Bash” card.

• Fourth, use “Tactician” to max out your Block and draw 2 extra cards; “Punch” and “Shield Bash.”

• Fifth, bully the Incarnation of Memory with “Punch” and the two “Shield Bash” cards until it goes down and gives you “Shield Charge.”

• Finally, use your new “Shield Charge” on the crystal and expend all the Block you have built up and complete the challenge. Well done!

See below for the visual guide and walkthrough on YouTube.