video games - The Latremie Post

Full Metal Schoolgirl review: The mean streets of production

Sometimes, while scrolling through the eShop, you stumble upon a game that hints at a life-changing experience. Sometimes it delivers, sometimes it doesn’t—but at least you get a few laughs along the way. That’s exactly what happened when I tried *Full Metal Schoolgirl*, the second game released in October 2025 from former WWE developer and occasional Earth Defense Force collaborator, Yuke’s.

### A World Tired of the Boss’s Nonsense

*Full Metal Schoolgirl* bursts with energy and a dynamite sense of humor, but unfortunately, its gameplay feels deeply undercooked and struggles to stand out in an oversaturated genre.

The premise is perfect for our times. The game’s world is dominated by corporate ownership, which has solved a labor crisis by creating a nearly fully inorganic cyborg workforce. These cyborg employees eagerly push papers, tap at computers, and perform endless tasks without pause. However, this has led to widespread abuse, and two particularly colorful cyborg women have finally had enough.

To take down the evil CEO of Meternal Jobz, these “Machine Girls” must climb a 100-floor skyscraper, dismantle the company’s management layer by layer, and ultimately face the man himself.

At first glance, the aesthetic may come off as low-rent anime-flavored cheesecake, but *Full Metal Schoolgirl* is actually a chaotic workplace satire. It’s surprisingly funny—the English dub, in particular, deserves praise for capturing all the sad, office-culture-filtered whimpering of the enemies being defeated. The theme song is absolutely unhinged, and the localization overall is on fire. The world-building flair is a riot, and the translation team deserves hearty commendation for their work.

### The Gameplay Disappointment

I was ready to have a blast just based on the game’s vibe, but sadly, I walked away wishing this fascinating premise was paired with a better game.

*Full Metal Schoolgirl* is a roguelike—because nowadays, everything has to be a roguelike, as if decreed by some unwritten video game law. This isn’t the game’s fault, but its unapologetically generic progression structure certainly is.

Between runs, you gather resources and spend them increasing your stats. Stronger stats help you survive bosses, which unlocks higher levels. That’s the entirety of the progression loop. You unlock a few new abilities along the way, but they barely change the gameplay and often feel like tutorialized gatekeeping rather than meaningful additions.

The problem is worsened by overly simple action mechanics that rarely evolve. You have a few basic physical attack strings and textbook weapon behaviors. Everything else, such as modifiers that speed up stamina regeneration or tweak maximum HP slightly, is passive with minor impact. Weapons appear between rooms but don’t meaningfully alter the gameplay beyond simple number tweaks.

For a genre that has moved beyond these basics—embracing innovative ideas, mashups, and complexity—*Full Metal Schoolgirl* feels dated and uninspired.

### Brainless Battling and Endless Grinding

What *Full Metal Schoolgirl* reminded me most of was user-made roguelike maps or islands in *Fortnite*. You start in a lobby with various weapons floating around to pick up, then fight repetitive, generic enemies using simple mechanics. After clearing a run, you return to upgrade stats just enough to inch closer to the end.

But unlike *Fortnite*, there’s no battle pass or flashy cosmetic rewards to justify grinding your brain to mush—just repetition for repetition’s sake.

### Final Thoughts

I had high hopes going into *Full Metal Schoolgirl*. My initial pitch for this review: “Hello, I want to play this because it looks insane.” It promised a fun, silly escape and even hinted at a cathartic, satirical takedown of apocalyptic labor practices.

But once the dreaded grind kicked in, it was clear this was going to be several hours of mindless battling paired with shallow game design. Such is the fate of some roguelikes in today’s market.

*Full Metal Schoolgirl* is available starting October 23, 2025, on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5. A Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146472/full-metal-schoolgirl-review-score

Pokemon Legends Z-A Walkthrough: How to complete Battling in the Z-A Royale

Pokemon Legends Z-A Mission 4: Battling in the Z-A Royale Walkthrough

Battling in the Z-A Royale is the fourth mission in Pokemon Legends Z-A. In this mission, you will learn how the Z-A Royale works in the game.

To begin, you first need to complete Mission 3: A New Life in Lumiose City. The final part of that mission requires you to visit Hotel Z. Once inside, you will complete Mission 3 and meet either Trunie or Urbain. For this walkthrough, let’s assume you meet Trunie.

Both of you will sit on the sofas and have a conversation. Afterward, you will receive a notification about a promotional match announcement, revealing your opponent as Trainer Zach. Trunie will then explain what a promotional match is and how you can start your battle with Trainer Zach.

Understanding the Z-A Royale and Promotional Matches

During the conversation, you’ll learn the core concept of the Z-A Royale and how promotional matches work. Here’s a brief explanation:

A promotional match is a battle you must win to climb the ranks and get promoted.
To participate, you need to earn the required number of Ticket Points.
In Zach’s case, you need 1,000 Ticket Points to obtain the Challenger’s Ticket.
Once you have the required Ticket Points, you can start your promotional match.

After the conversation concludes, Trunie will leave and tell you to find her when you’re ready to head out at night. This marks the beginning of the Battling in the Z-A Royale mission.

Starting the Mission

Once gameplay resumes, exit the hotel and head to the courtyard where you’ll find Trunie. Speak with her, and she’ll ask, “Feeling ready to brave the Z-A Royale?” Respond with “Ready as I’ll ever be!” to progress the mission.

Objective: Earn Ticket Points by Battling Trainers

To earn Ticket Points, you first need to head to a battle zone. These zones are easy to identify on the map as they have glowing red boundaries. If you walk straight out of the hotel compound, you will find a battle zone immediately to your left.

Inside the battle zone:

If any other Trainer spots you, a battle will automatically begin.
To earn the required 1,000 Ticket Points, you need to secure three victories.
After each win, return to Trunie to heal your Pokémon.

Proceed forward in the battle zone until you find Lida. Speak with her to learn about sneaking up on opponents and striking first to gain the upper hand in battle.

Here’s a quick tip:

Press the left stick button to crouch and hide behind objects. This allows you to approach opposing Trainers quietly and launch the first attack.

Once you’ve achieved three victories, you’ll earn 1,000 Ticket Points.

Healing and Preparing for the Promotional Match

After earning enough Ticket Points, meet up with Trunie at the nearby Pokémon Center. Heal your Pokémon there to prepare for the upcoming battle.

When you’re ready, head to the taxi lot just down the street.

Find Zach at the Taxi Lot for Your Promotional Match

Upon reaching the taxi lot, interact with Trunie. After a short cutscene, your promotional battle with Zach will begin. Zach will use the following Pokémon:

Slowpoke
Pidgey
Pikachu

By this stage, you should have a few Pokémon in your team, so swap between them to counter Zach’s lineup effectively. Defeat all three of his Pokémon to win the match.

Once you defeat Zach, you will be promoted to Y Rank, followed by a cutscene. After it ends, you will have successfully completed Mission 4: Battling in the Z-A Royale.

Additional Resources

For more information, check out these helpful guides and news:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/pokemon/pokemon-legends-z-a-walkthrough-how-complete-battling-z-a-royale

Ananta’s ‘kitchen sink’ approach to game design is as overwhelming as it is impressive

Some folks will tell you that comparisons are a lazy crutch for critics. Don’t tell your reader what a game is like; tell them how it stands on its own merits. The problem is that game design is an iterative process. One of the first video games was *Tennis for Two*, but the first breakout hit was eerily similar, yet much more refined: *Pong*. Hell, we used to call FPSs “Doom clones.”

Comparison is a useful tool because so much of game design is based on iterating on the competition. *Ananta* takes this logical endpoint by essentially acting as a blender to emulsify popular game mechanics together for something bizarrely unique in its sheer lack of new ideas.

### An Everything Bagel Game

So what is NetEase’s next big game? Well, to use a useful crutch, it is one part *Grand Theft Auto* open world, one part *Batman Arkham* combat. There is a dash of *Like A Dragon’s* zany side missions, a touch of *Spider-Man* movement, alongside some of the bones of a linear Sony first-party action game. There is also a sprinkle of *Persona* character building.

All of this is held loosely together with an anime aesthetic and gacha structure that amounts to a game feeling like a dozen experiences you’ve had before—resulting in something less than the sum of its many parts.

In a lot of ways, it’s like an everything bagel, or, more accurately, it’s like when you were a kid and your friends mixed together every flavor drink at the freestyle machine for something truly nightmarish. *Ananta* won’t make you want to throw up like a Coke, Pepsi, Seven-Up, and milk combo drink, but even after a thirty-minute demo, I can tell that its “everything, everywhere, all at once” game design approach is making me wince in places.

None of these elements are bad; in fact, in isolation, they are excellent distillations of the core ideas they are borrowing from other games. Developer Naked Rain clearly understands that video game innovation comes from iteration. However, when this many elements are combined together after being recreated so authentically, the disparate pieces quickly rub against each other and cause an untold amount of friction while playing *Ananta*.

### Concessions in the Name of Volume

This first became apparent as soon as I started playing. The demo kicks off with a story mission where our Spider-Man in a sharp business suit is ambushed by countless assailants. This is where you’re introduced to the first form of combat: hand-to-hand Arkham-style brawling.

In theory, this combat plays out just like a *Batman: Arkham* game, or *Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor*-like, or *Mad Max*-like. Take your pick. However, in practice, because so many buttons on the controller have been reserved for movement abilities you use in the open world, punching and blocking are shifted to the shoulder buttons—making the controls feel much less comfortable.

This is further exacerbated when you take out a gun, as the triggers are reserved for special moves, meaning aiming and shooting are also assigned to the shoulder buttons. That said, in scripted missions like the one I played, it’s not like you’ll need to worry about hitting your shots. The car chase segment I played through was nearly impossible to fail.

In these sequences, you magically forgo the need to reload with your assault rifle, letting loose an endless barrage of bullets.

These issues are far from deal breakers, but every element of the game feels like it has to cede ground to several other mechanics and ideas in order for things to keep functioning.

This game does have GTA-inspired driving, which I describe that way because the driving model feels just like GTA rather than other open-world driving games. However, why would you ever use that when playing as the main character, or Captain, who can literally swing above the traffic at twice the speed? Or when you could fast travel on the subway—which, yes, also has the Spider-Man-esque loading screens of the Captain commuting with city locals?

### Gacha Theft Auto

It’s worth noting that this gameplay diversity is somewhat justified both narratively and structurally.

You see, *Ananta* will apparently be a free-to-play gacha game. This means you’ll take on the role of an ever-growing cast of characters, expanded through updates and endless pulls. So, yeah, it makes sense that one character controls like Peter Parker and another has an electric unicycle to get around quickly.

In fact, gacha mechanics are one of the few things that seem cleanly integrated with the overall GTA-like open world. You’ll be able to create a roster of three characters you can quickly swap between with a “zoom out on a world map and then zoom back in” quick menu—directly inspired by GTA 5. Usually, you’ll pick up with your new character in the middle of a funny little encounter.

Keeping up the pattern of borrowing beloved mechanics, the character building from *GTA: San Andreas* is also present. After trying some side missions, I found myself taking one of my characters to the gym to level up their stats and abilities—like CJ trying to get cut.

Are gacha pulls and character leveling really something I wanted in my GTA-like game? Not really. I can’t exactly see myself excited to spend a bunch of money to pull a legendary future cop. However, I am apparently in the minority, considering the game’s recent Tokyo Game Show trailer has over five million views on the official PlayStation YouTube channel alone.

### Like Like A Dragon

After all that, and having played the game myself, I still can’t help but wonder: What am I doing in *Ananta*? What is this game?

Yes, it will have a main narrative focusing on the Captain, with set pieces and the like, but what am I doing with the roster of gacha characters? Why would I continue to put time and money into a free-to-play GTA-like?

It seems like each character you gain access to will have their own set of missions. These missions seem to lean into the wackiness of *Like A Dragon* sub-stories, with the structure of GTA filler content.

In the mission I played, I was tasked with delivering a mysterious crate in the back of a kei truck to a destination. After a quick hand-to-hand brawl and some driving, it quickly became clear that what I was delivering was a sleeping vampire—who eventually awoke due to our rough driving and vomited rainbows.

Yeah, I don’t really know either.

This mission capped off with an admittedly pretty funny sequence where the bunny girl I was playing as was recruited to continue making similar deliveries before she could even protest.

While this cutscene was fun, I realized I was ultimately partaking in the much-derided GTA mission structure, which has rightfully been called out as padded filler since *GTA 3*. I drove to a place, beat up some guys, got in a car, listened to some character dialogue as I drove, and finished the mission.

While games like *Genshin Impact* and *Honkai Star Rail* have similarly repetitive mission structures, the gameplay that they’re based on is inherently more engaging moment to moment. Genshin’s exploration and Honkai’s turn-based combat both lend themselves to a satisfying rhythm of completing dailies.

I am skeptical I would ever find similar joy driving the same streets repeatedly for missions like the one I played in *Ananta*.

### Less Is More

The more I think about it, the more *Ananta* might well be the everything bagel of video games. It sounds great on paper because I am getting a bunch of all the things I love, all filled with salmon and other toppings.

However, halfway through eating an everything bagel, I usually have the same thought: “I kinda wish I was just having a poppy-seed bagel with cream cheese. Nothing fancy, but doing one thing better than anyone else.”

I may well end up eating my words, but I wish *Ananta* was doing less.

The idea of an anime-style GTA-like game is fun, but there are so many systems and ideas taken wholesale from other games that it ends up cluttering itself with constant bloat.

While gaming innovation usually starts with borrowing someone else’s good idea and building on it, I don’t know if yanking a dozen different ideas and adding nothing to them will lead to anything other than an overcomplicated bagel.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146329/anantas-kitchen-sink-approach-to-game-design-is-as-overwhelming-as-it-is-impressive

Ananta’s ‘kitchen sink’ approach to game design is as overwhelming as it is impressive

### An Everything Bagel Game

So, what is NetEase’s next big game? Well, to use a useful crutch, it is one part *Grand Theft Auto* open world, one part *Batman Arkham* combat. There is a dash of *Like A Dragon*’s zany side-missions, a touch of *Spider-Man* movement, alongside some of the bones of a linear Sony first-party action game. There is also a sprinkle of *Persona* character building.

In a lot of ways, it’s like an everything bagel. Or, well, maybe more accurately, it’s like when you were a kid and your friends mixed together every flavor drink at the freestyle machine for something truly nightmarish.

*Ananta* isn’t going to make you want to throw up like a Coke-Pepsi-Seven-Up-milk combo drink. But even after a thirty-minute demo, I can tell that its “everything, everywhere, all at once” game design approach is making me wince in places.

### Great Alone, Cluttered Together

None of these elements are bad; in fact, taken in isolation, they are excellent distillations of the core ideas they borrow from other games. Developer Naked Rain clearly understands that video game innovation comes from iteration.

However, when this many elements are combined together after being recreated so authentically, the disparate pieces quickly begin to rub against each other, causing an untold amount of friction in the act of playing *Ananta*.

### Concessions in the Name of Volume

This first became apparent as soon as I started playing. The demo kicks off with a story mission where our Spider-Man in a sharp business suit is ambushed by countless assailants. This is where you are introduced to the first form of combat: hand-to-hand Arkham-style brawling.

In theory, this combat plays out just like a *Batman: Arkham* game, or *Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor*, or *Mad Max*. Take your pick.

However, in practice, because so many buttons on the controller are reserved for movement abilities used in the open world, punching and blocking are shifted to the shoulder buttons, making combat feel much less comfortable.

This is further exacerbated when you take out a gun, as the triggers are reserved for special moves, meaning aiming and shooting are also mapped to the shoulder buttons.

Although, when you are in a scripted mission like the one I played, it’s not like you’ll need to worry about hitting your shots—the car chase I went through was nearly impossible to fail.

In these segments, you magically forgo the need to reload your assault rifle, letting loose an endless barrage of bullets.

These issues are far from deal breakers, but every element of the game feels like it has to cede ground to several other mechanics and ideas in order for things to keep functioning.

The game does have GTA-inspired driving, which I describe that way because the driving model feels just like GTA rather than other open-world driving games. However, why would you ever use that when playing as the main character, or Captain, who can literally swing above the traffic at twice the speed? Or when you could just fast travel on the subway (which, yes, also has the Spider-Man-esque loading screens of the Captain commuting with city locals)?

### Gacha Theft Auto

It is worth noting that this gameplay diversity is somewhat justified both narratively and structurally.

You see, *Ananta* will apparently be a free-to-play gacha game, meaning you’ll take on the role of an ever-growing cast of characters, expanded through updates and endless pulls.

So, yeah, it makes sense that one character controls like Peter Parker while another has an electric unicycle to get around quickly.

In fact, gacha mechanics are one of the few things that seem cleanly integrated with the overall GTA-like open world.

You can even create a roster of three characters to quickly swap between via a “zoom out on a world map and then zoom back in” quick menu, which is right out of *GTA 5*—down to the fact that you’ll usually pick up with your new character in the middle of a funny little encounter.

Keeping up the pattern of borrowing beloved mechanics, the character building of *GTA: San Andreas* is also here. After trying some side-missions, I found myself taking one of my characters to the gym to level up their stats and abilities like CJ trying to get cut.

Are gacha pulls and character leveling really something I wanted in my GTA-like? Not really. I can’t exactly see myself excited to spend a bunch of money to pull a legendary future cop.

However, I am clearly in the minority, considering the game’s recent TGS trailer has over five million views on the official PlayStation YouTube channel alone.

### Like Like A Dragon

So after all that, and having played the game myself, I still can’t help but wonder: what am I doing in *Ananta*? What is this game?

It seems like each character you gain access to will have their own set of missions. These missions lean into the wackiness of *Like A Dragon* sub-stories, with the structure of GTA filler content.

In the mission I played, I was tasked with delivering a mysterious crate in the back of a kei truck to a destination. After a quick hand-to-hand brawl and a bit of driving, it quickly became clear that what I was delivering was a sleeping vampire, who eventually awoke due to our driving to vomit up rainbows.

Yeah, I don’t really know either.

This mission was capped off with an admittedly pretty funny sequence where the bunnygirl I was playing as was recruited to continue making similar deliveries before they could even protest.

However, while this cutscene was fun, I realized that I was ultimately partaking in the much-derided GTA mission structure, which has rightfully been called out as padded filler since *GTA 3*.

I drove to a place, beat up some guys, got in a car, listened to some character dialogue as I drove, and finished the mission.

While games like *Genshin Impact* and *Honkai Starrail* have similarly repetitive mission structures, the gameplay they’re based on is inherently a bit more engaging moment to moment.

*Genshin’s* exploration and *Honkai’s* turn-based combat both lend themselves to you finding a satisfying rhythm of completing dailies.

I am skeptical that I would ever find similar joy driving the same streets, over and over, for missions like the one I played in *Ananta*.

### Less Is More

The more I think about it, the more *Ananta* might well and truly be the everything bagel of video games.

It sounds great on paper because I am getting a bunch of all the things I love, all filled with salmon and other toppings.

I may well end up eating my words, but I wish *Ananta* was doing less.

The idea of anime-style GTA is fun, but there are so many systems and ideas taken wholesale from other games that it ends up cluttering itself with constant bloat.

Plans for Monster Hunter Wilds x Final Fantasy 14 collab started at Gamescom 2024

These last couple of weeks, Capcom and Square Enix released the **Monster Hunter Wilds x Final Fantasy 14 collaboration event**, bringing various Final Fantasy elements to Monster Hunter Wilds and vice versa. This isn’t the first time these two gaming giants have teamed up, and for this project, they were eager to collaborate again as early as Gamescom 2024.

### From Gamescom 2024 to Tokyo Game Show 2025: The Collaboration Journey

At Gamescom 2024, Monster Hunter Wilds Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, Director Yuya Tokuda, and Final Fantasy 14 Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida had a pivotal meeting about teaming up once more. This discussion eventually set into motion a new series of collaboration plans, culminating in the event we saw this year. The game leads shared these insights during a roundtable interview at Tokyo Game Show 2025.

### A Collaboration Built on Mutual Trust

For those unfamiliar, Monster Hunter Wilds launched its Final Fantasy 14 collaboration event on **September 29, 2025**. This event introduced a hunt for Omega Planetes and a related storyline, alongside new gear and cosmetics such as the Dark Knight armor set, Soul of the Pictomancer, Chocobo and Moogle skins, and endemic life like Malboro and Cactuar.

Meanwhile, on **October 6, 2025**, Final Fantasy 14 released Patch 7.35, featuring an eight-player battle against the formidable Guardian Arkveld. This quest involved a Palico and its secret companion, while players could also enjoy Monster Hunter-themed cosmetics for their characters and mounts.

### Origins of the Partnership

According to Tsujimoto and Yoshida, the foundation for this latest collaboration was laid with the success of the 2018 Final Fantasy 14 x Monster Hunter World event. Their renewed partnership began in earnest over dinner at Gamescom 2024.

Ryozo Tsujimoto reflected on the relationship:
“I’ve known Mr. Yoshida for a very long time. I have a great deal of respect for his creativity and commitment as a producer. Our first collaboration happened quite casually — we just asked if there was anything we could do together, and that led to the original Monster Hunter World event.

Last year at Gamescom, I had dinner with Mr. Yoshida and my team. We reminisced about how much fun the last collaboration was. Monster Hunter Wilds wasn’t out yet, but we were already thinking about it. While no final decisions were made then, we agreed to have more productive talks, which eventually led to the agreement at Tokyo Game Show.”

Naoki Yoshida also shared his thoughts on working with Capcom’s Monster Hunter team:
“Working with the Monster Hunter team was a no-brainer, even back in 2018. When I took over Final Fantasy 14’s redevelopment between 2010 and 2013, the Monster Hunter team reached out to support us.

Tsujimoto-san told me, ‘Why are you taking on such a crazy plan? It seems like a lot, but if there’s anything we can do to help, we want to support you, whether the game is successful or not.’ Their support was instrumental, and it’s why Final Fantasy 14 is where it is today.”

### Looking Ahead: More Exciting Content on the Horizon

It’s clear that this partnership is built on a strong foundation of mutual respect and shared enthusiasm. Both teams hope the current collaborations will not only excite fans of their respective games but also encourage players to explore what’s happening in each title.

Importantly, nearly all the collaboration content in Monster Hunter Wilds and Final Fantasy 14 has been created from scratch. Yoshida noted, “There is one scene with a character drinking a potion that we reused in Final Fantasy 14, but everything else is completely new. This will make the event feel very different from the Monster Hunter World collaboration.”

With such dedication to originality and quality, fans can look forward to more innovative and compelling crossover events between these two iconic franchises in the future.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146317/monster-hunter-wilds-final-fantasy-14-interview-tokyo-game-show-2025

Where to get the Wombo Combo Legendary Assault Rifle drop in Borderlands 4

There is no shortage of amazing Legendary Assault Rifles in Borderlands 4, but only the Wombo Combo also shoots elemental grenades alongside its spray of bullets. Unlike some of the other top-tier Legendaries in the game, it’s also relatively easy to find the boss that drops the Wombo Combo. Here’s where and how to get it.

## How to Get the Wombo Combo Legendary Assault Rifle in Borderlands 4

The Wombo Combo is a possible drop from any of the bosses in the Rippa Roadbirds Ripper Drill trio, located at the Saw’s Clench Ripper Drill site. You can find the Saw’s Clench Ripper Drill site in north-central Carcadia Burn, the northwestern region of Kairos. It’s not hard to reach, and getting back to it is easy once you’ve unlocked the Judgements Lapse Order Silo — you can return to the drill in around a minute.

### About the Rippa Roadbirds

The Rippa Roadbirds are a trio of bosses, each with a different elemental shield:

– **Baby Grunt**, who uses a Cryo shield
– **Gruntabulous Vork**, who uses a Pyro shield
– **Lil Grunt**, who uses a Shock shield

The Wombo Combo can drop from any of these Grunt bosses when they die. However, killing them can be challenging. They tend to float around above the arena, dropping bombs and other floating hazards while you’re also dealing with trash mobs.

With a proper build, none of their shields is particularly difficult to take down, but if you get caught by a cluster of their bombs, you might find yourself in Fight for Your Life mode.

### Farming Tips

Farming the Rippa Roadbirds is straightforward, but returning to the Moxxi’s Big Encore machine afterwards can be a hassle. The fastest way to get back to the machine is to jump up and over the debris pile to the right of the arena’s drop-down point. Here’s how:

1. Hop onto the sphere on the ground
2. Jump onto the rocks
3. Finally, leap onto the pipes that lead over the rocks

Once you master this path, you can restart the fight within 15 to 20 seconds, although it remains a bit annoying.

### Drop Rates and Additional Notes

In my experience, the Wombo Combo drops fairly regularly — I received two drops in relatively short order during my research. The Rippa Roadbirds are also excellent for leveling characters quickly, so there’s a decent chance you’ll pick up a few Legendaries if you spend a couple of hours grinding these bosses.

One final note: the Wombo Combo is sometimes available at Maurice’s Black Market vending machine. With so many Legendaries in Borderlands 4, having the one you want available is a bit of a crapshoot, but it’s worth checking the machine every week — you might get lucky!

—

Happy hunting, Vault Hunter!
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146170/where-to-get-the-wombo-combo-legendary-assault-rifle-drop-in-borderlands-4

Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian review: Course correction

Atelier, Gust’s long-running item synthesis RPG series, reached new heights with the debut of *Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout* in 2019. Gust used that momentum to sincerely attempt to reinvent what Atelier is in both systems and scale, leading to the massive and successful *Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land*.

At the same time, the series couldn’t escape a certain albatross hovering above Japanese RPGs. We saw *Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator of Polar Night* hit mobile and PC as a free-to-play game featuring a gacha system. The history here is as important as it is fun to recount — *Polar Night* hardly made it a year in the global market before being shut down.

The years 2024 and 2025 have been brutal for mobile spin-offs of RPG giants, with even Square Enix shutting down games left and right, some of which had been around for five or more years. In this harsh landscape, Atelier really had no chance.

Gust seems to have responded to this situation with today’s review subject: *Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian*.

—

### Part Two: Atelier Boogaloo

Set in the same world as *Polar Night*, this game is a more traditional Atelier adventure. It features turn-based combat, characters who join the journey as part of the story, and — notably — no online restrictions or currency-adjacent gameplay limitations.

While it’s impossible to know if this was intended as a mobile game or some kind of expansion to *Polar Night*, it feels more like a course correction or pivot than an entirely new entity. Unfortunately, it’s held back by systems that feel like a mobile game being fed into a proverbial wood chipper.

You can choose between two playable characters: Rias, a scrappy girl who sifts through ruins searching for treasure (while avoiding her overprotective sister who works for the local government body), and Slade, a more serious young man who inherits a mysterious relic and an empty book linked to lost civilizations.

The two meet early on, and their goals quickly intertwine, especially as Rias discovers she can utilize the lost art of alchemy. These characters have a lot of personality and chemistry, which initially makes the game seem promising.

Rias is a particularly fun twist on the typical Atelier protagonist, beginning her story by running away from a giant, rolling “Puni” (think of it as a slime from *Dragon Quest*, but obnoxiously cuter) in a ruin — a goofy homage to *Indiana Jones*. Slade, playing the straight man to Rias’s antics, balances the duo well.

I was genuinely having a good time watching these characters bounce off each other, but soon the game’s shortcomings became apparent. It caught me off guard with how sloppy it feels overall.

—

### Slapdash Adventure

After the rising quality of the *Secret* series and the go-for-broke energy of *Yumia*, *Resleriana 2* (for lack of a better shorthand) feels slapped together in almost every way. From its low-budget aesthetic to grind-heavy, menu-laden systems that scream mobile game design, it’s hard to ignore the stark difference.

Gameplay involves running a shop staffed by identical, color-swapped fairies, alongside simple dungeons that require little thought to clear. There’s an endless supply of these fairies to throw money at and recruit for your store.

Everything you need is accessed through a small, localized hub. The story is told at a snail’s pace with shallow bonding scenes peppered throughout. Alchemy feels constrained and de-streamlined compared to other recent Atelier games, seemingly designed to encourage grinding and resource management rather than creative experimentation.

During Ryza’s rise and Atelier’s growth arc, Gust released other titles too. These included a surprise sequel to an earlier Atelier game (*Sophie 2*) and a sequel to Koei Tecmo’s *Fairy Tail* adaptation. While I had some issues with the latter (*Sophie 2* remains superior), both projects retained the oomph, polish, and strong identity characteristic of Gust’s bigger releases.

So this doesn’t feel like some reined-in spin-off, or at least it’s not explainable as such. Instead, it feels like a massive step backward — one that would be extremely confusing if not for what you find when you plug *Atelier Resleriana* into a search engine.

—

### Combat That Shines

One bright spot in *Resleriana 2* is its combat. The game returns to a traditional turn-based system from the more active combat styles of recent Atelier titles but adds some engaging twists.

Combat emphasizes teamwork with follow-up attacks and features a replenishing Ability Point system. This means fights are more about maintaining flow rather than worrying about dwindling resources. Battles move at a fast pace and reward paying attention to turn order and enemy weaknesses.

It’s also a relief to command characters as a party after several years of real-time systems focusing on individual control. This refreshing combat design helps salvage some enjoyment from an otherwise underwhelming package.

—

### Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck… But Not a Duck?

Even though this game has its merits — after all, it’s still an Atelier game with the core loop that makes the series fun — *The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* is almost immediately compromised narratively by its ties to the previous *Polar Night* game.

Not only do characters from previous Atelier titles appear as dimension-traveling Wanderers (a clear tell of mobile game design influence; sorry, *Octopath Traveler* fans, but it’s true), characters from the first *Resleriana* and allusions to its story are presented as a big deal.

Unless you played that prior game before its shutdown in March 2025, it’s impossible to understand that context without consulting YouTube or other external sources. That’s a major problem.

—

### Final Thoughts

I’ve come to really appreciate the Atelier series over the years, despite initially avoiding it (time limits stress me out, to be honest). I’ve imported physical trilogy cartridges for the Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition of *Ryza 2* back when I had the means.

I share this to emphasize how much of a step backward this installation feels in the series’ evolutionary trajectory.

*Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable). It’s full of what feels like kitbashed, clumsily molded structural systems shoehorned into a single-player game that suffers deeply from its connection to a failed gacha title.

It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.

—

### Availability

*Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* is available on September 26, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A PS5 review code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146079/atelier-resleriana-red-alchemist-white-guardian-review-score

Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian review: Course correction

Atelier, Gust’s long-running item synthesis RPG series, reached new heights with the debut of *Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout* in 2019. Gust used that momentum to sincerely attempt to reinvent what Atelier is in terms of systems and scale, leading to the massive and successful *Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land*.

At the same time, the series couldn’t escape a certain albatross hovering above Japanese RPGs. We saw *Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator of Polar Night* hit mobile and PC as a free-to-play game with a gacha system. The history here is as important as it is fun to write out all the titles! That’s because *Polar Night* hardly made it a year in the global market before being shut down.

The years 2024 and 2025 have been brutal for mobile spin-offs of RPG giants, with even Square Enix shutting down games left and right—some of which had been around for five or more years. Atelier really had no chance. Gust seems to have responded to the matter with today’s review subject, *Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian*.

—

### Part Two: Atelier Boogaloo

Set in the same world as *Polar Night*, this game is a normal Atelier adventure, with turn-based combat, characters that join the journey as part of the story, and no online restrictions or currency-adjacent gameplay limitations. While it’s impossible to know if this was supposed to be a mobile game or some kind of expansion to *Polar Night*, it feels more like a course correction or pivot than an entirely new entity—and is held back by systems that feel like a mobile game being fed into a proverbial wood chipper.

*The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* lets you choose between two characters: Rias, a scrappy girl who sifts through ruins in search of treasure (while avoiding her overprotective sister who works for the local government body); and Slade, a guy whose father passed down a mysterious relic and empty book that also seem to be connected to things lost civilizations have left behind.

The two meet, and their goals immediately intertwine, especially as Rias discovers she can utilize the lost art of alchemy. These characters have a lot of personality and chemistry, making this game seem like an early win.

Rias is an especially fun twist on the typical Atelier protagonist, starting her story running away from a giant, rolling Puni (think a slime from *Dragon Quest* but obnoxiously cuter) in a ruin in a goofy homage to *Indiana Jones*. Slade is more serious, playing the straight-man role well against Rias’s antics. I was having a good time just seeing these characters bounce off each other—but soon the game itself stepped in the way, catching me off guard with how, well, sloppy it feels.

—

### Slapdash Adventure

After the rising quality of the *Secret* series and the go-for-broke energy of *Yumia*, *Resleriana 2* (I guess we can call it that?) feels slapped together in almost every way—from its low-budget look to its grind- and menu-heavy systems that are impossible not to associate with mobile game design.

Systems involve running a shop with identical, color-swapped fairies as staff, and a series of simple dungeons you don’t have to think much to get through (and find an endless array of said fairies to throw money at and recruit for your store). Everything you need to access is localized to a small hub, the story is told at a very slow pace, and it’s seasoned with shallow bonding relationship scenes with the characters you meet.

Alchemy feels held back and de-streamlined compared to other recent games in favor of encouraging grinding and resource management.

During Ryza’s rise and Atelier’s growth arc, Gust released other games. We saw a surprise sequel to an earlier Atelier game (*Sophie 2*) and a sequel to Koei Tecmo’s *Fairy Tail* adaptation. While I had my issues with the latter (*Sophie 2* rules), both of these titles still had the oomph, fidelity, and strong sense of identity as Gust’s bigger titles.

So this doesn’t feel like a sort of reined-in spin-off, or at least explainable as such. It’s like a massive step backwards—one that would be extremely confusing if not for what you get when you plug *Atelier Resleriana* into a search engine.

—

### Combat: A Bright Spot

One aspect in which *Resleriana 2* does shine is combat. It’s a move back to traditional turn-based from the more active systems in recent games, but the twists it brings to the table are fun to engage with.

It has a big emphasis on characters working together with follow-up attacks, alongside a replenishing Ability Point system that means fights are more about maintaining a flow than worrying about dwindling resources. It moves at a fast pace and rewards paying attention to turn order and enemy weaknesses.

It’s also nice to be able to command characters as a party after several years of real-time systems focusing on individual control.

—

### Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck… Not a Duck?

Even if this game has its own merits, which it does—it’s still an Atelier game with the same core loop that makes these games fun—it is almost immediately compromised narratively as well by its connections to the previous game.

Not only do characters from previous Ateliers show up as dimension-traveling Wanderers (a clear tell of mobage adjacency; sorry Octopath 0 fans, but it’s true), characters from the first *Resleriana* and allusions to its story appear and are presented as a big deal.

Unless you played that game before March 2025, it’s impossible to get that context without consulting YouTube or something. That’s a big problem, if you ask me!

—

### Final Thoughts

I’ve come to really dig Atelier over the years after kind of avoiding them for a long time (time limits stress me out, I’ll be honest), so much so that I imported the physical trilogy carts for Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition for *Ryza 2* back when I had the means to do so.

I say that to emphasize the weight of my words when I state how much of a step backwards on the series’ evolutionary trajectory this experience feels like.

*Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable) to play, and is full of what feel like kitbashed structural systems clumsily molded into a single-player game that suffers from its connection to a failed gacha joint.

It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.

—

### Availability

*Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* is available on September 26, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146079/atelier-resleriana-red-alchemist-white-guardian-review-score

Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian review: Course correction

Atelier, Gust’s long-running item synthesis RPG series, reached new heights with the debut of *Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout* in 2019. Gust used that momentum to sincerely attempt to reinvent what Atelier is in terms of systems and scale, leading to the massive and successful *Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land*.

At the same time, the series couldn’t escape a certain albatross hovering above Japanese RPGs. We saw *Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator of Polar Night* hit mobile and PC as a free-to-play game with a gacha system. The history here is as important as it is fun to write out all the titles! That’s because *Polar Night* hardly made it a year in the global market before being shut down.

—

### Part Two: Atelier Boogaloo

Set in the same world as *Polar Night*, this game is a normal Atelier adventure, featuring turn-based combat, characters who join the journey as part of the story, and no online restrictions or currency-adjacent gameplay limitations.

While it’s impossible to know if this was supposed to be a mobile game or some kind of expansion to *Polar Night*, it feels more like a course correction or a pivot than an entirely new entity—and is held back by systems that feel like a mobile game being fed into a proverbial wood chipper.

The *Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* lets you choose between two characters:

– **Rias**, a scrappy girl who sifts through ruins in search of treasure (all while avoiding her overprotective sister, who works for the local government body), and
– **Slade**, a guy whose father passed down a mysterious relic and an empty book that also seem connected to things lost civilizations have left behind.

The two meet, and their goals immediately intertwine—especially as Rias discovers she can utilize the lost art of alchemy. These characters have a lot of personality and chemistry that make this game feel like an early win.

Rias is an especially fun twist on the typical Atelier protagonist, starting her story running away from a giant, rolling Puni (think a slime from *Dragon Quest* but obnoxiously cuter) in a ruin—a goofy homage to Indiana Jones. Slade is more serious, playing the straight-man role well against Rias’s antics. I was having a good time just seeing these characters bounce off each other, but soon the game itself stepped in the way, catching me off guard with how, well, sloppy it feels.

—

### Slapdash Adventure

After the rising quality of the Secret series and the go-for-broke energy of *Yumia*, *Resleriana 2* (I guess we can call it that?) feels slapped together in almost every way—from its low-budget look to its grind and menu-heavy systems that are impossible not to associate with mobile game design.

Systems involve running a shop with identical, color-swapped fairies as staff, and a series of simple dungeons you don’t have to think much to get through (and find an endless array of said fairies to throw money at and recruit for your store). Everything you need to access is localized to a small hub, the story is told at a very slow pace, and is seasoned with shallow bonding relationship scenes with the characters you meet. Alchemy feels held back and de-streamlined compared to other recent games, seemingly in favor of encouraging grinding and resource management.

During *Ryza*’s rise and Atelier’s growth arc, Gust released other games. We saw a surprise sequel to an earlier Atelier game (*Sophie 2*) and a sequel to Koei Tecmo’s *Fairy Tail* adaptation. While I had my issues with the latter (*Sophie 2* rules), both of these titles still had the oomph, fidelity, and strong sense of identity as Gust’s bigger titles.

—

### Combat: A Bright Spot

One aspect in which *Resleriana 2* does shine is combat. It’s a move back to traditional turn-based battle from the more active systems in recent games, but the twists it brings to the table are fun to engage with.

The game places a big emphasis on characters working together with follow-up attacks, alongside a replenishing Ability Point system that means fights are more about maintaining a flow than worrying about dwindling resources. Combat moves at a fast pace and rewards paying attention to turn order and enemy weaknesses. It’s nice to command characters as a party after several years of real-time systems focusing on individual control.

—

### Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck. Not a Duck?

Even if this game has its own merits—which it does (to be clear, it’s still an Atelier game with the same core loop that makes these games fun)—it’s almost immediately compromised narratively by its connections to the previous game.

Not only do characters from previous Ateliers show up as dimension-traveling Wanderers (a clear tell of mobage adjacency; sorry, *Octopath Traveler* fans, but it’s true), characters from the first *Resleriana* and allusions to its story also make appearances and are presented as a big deal.

Unless you played that game before March 2025, it’s impossible to get that context without consulting YouTube or other external sources. That’s a big problem, if you ask me!

—

### Final Thoughts

I’ve come to really dig Atelier over the years after kind of avoiding them for a long time (time limits stress me out, I’ll be honest), so much so that I’ve imported the physical trilogy carts for Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition for *Ryza 2* back when I had the means to do so. I say that to emphasize the weight of my words when I state how much of a step backwards on the series’ evolutionary trajectory this experience feels like.

—

### Release Information

*Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian* is available on September 26, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146079/atelier-resleriana-red-alchemist-white-guardian-review-score

What do you use Eridium for in Borderlands 4?

How to Use Eridium in Borderlands 4

The mystical ore called Eridium is central to the lore of the Borderlands series and has always played an essential role in its endgame. This remains true in Borderlands 4, where Eridium is used for several valuable endgame progression and farming purposes.

Eridium has three main uses in the endgame of Borderlands 4, and you’ll need to be judicious about how you use it, as they can get exceedingly expensive:

Respec your Specializations. Cost: 5,000 Eridium per instance.
Activate the weekly Moxxi’s Big Encore machine. Cost: 100 Eridium per instance.
Use the Firmware Transfer machine. Cost: Variable.

Spend Eridium to Respec Specializations

Specializations are unlocked in the endgame, providing permanent upgrades to your characters that can scale infinitely. Since 5,000 Eridium is a substantial amount, it’s important to be intentional about where you spend your Specialization points.

One or two points may not offer a massive upgrade immediately, but they accumulate over time. Keep in mind that Specializations are build-agnostic and might not work well with every setup. If you decide to completely respec your character into a new build, you might end up spending that 5,000 Eridium — or risk losing a significant chunk of DPS.

Spend Eridium to Use Moxxi’s Big Encore Machines

Moxxi’s Big Encore machines are an exciting endgame feature that rotates weekly. They allow you to fight a select boss out in the world again with, according to Gearbox, “an even more rewarding loot pool.”

For example, if you want to fight The Bod, you’ll need to wait for Axemaul to be the featured Big Encore boss, and so on. Don’t underestimate the 100 Eridium cost per instance either. Even with increased drop chances, RNG can be cruel—you could easily spend 10,000 Eridium and not get the item you want.

Spend Eridium on Firmware Transfers

The Firmware Transfer machine is the third major way you’ll spend Eridium. While not as frequent as the other two uses, it can still consume a significant amount of resources. Costs vary depending on the type of gear to which you’re transferring firmware.

If you use this machine regularly, it can quickly deplete your Eridium reserves.

How to Get More Eridium in Borderlands 4

Most missions in the game award at least some Eridium, and killing Vile enemies and world bosses also provides a modest amount. However, the most effective way to obtain Eridium is by completing Vile Bounties.

You unlock access to Vile Bounties once you activate Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. These are higher-difficulty Vile enemies found and killed in the overworld. Each kill grants a modest but significant amount of Eridium instantly, usually several hundred when leveling, with increasing rewards as you progress deeper into the endgame.

You can also farm Eridium somewhat efficiently by completing weekly Wildcard missions, provided you can finish them quickly. While these won’t give you as much Eridium per hour as Vile Bounties or base patrols, they still add up.

It’s likely that an activity with a better Eridium farm will be introduced within the first few DLC cycles. This will be necessary, as Borderlands DLCs historically add increasingly powerful Legendaries as the game’s life cycle progresses.

https://www.shacknews.com/article/146107/what-do-you-use-eridium-for-in-borderlands-4