This Week in Mobile Games

Cold Comforts

This week's This Week in Mobile Games is being sponsored again by our friends at Grand Summoners!

Hello, and welcome once more to the latest installment of the column! With everything happening and set to happen in mobile games over the next month or so, I've found myself looking to get back into Genshin Impact after months away, and trying to see how long it'll take me to catch back up with the big story beats ahead of its impending major update.

As for exactly why it seems like every free-to-play and live service game (both on mobile and other gaming platforms) seems to have something planned for the mid-to-late August period, it's largely down to timing:

• July and August fall right in the middle of the summer months in many regions, coinciding with many games' summer-themed event schedule.
• By the same token, many games also launch in the summer, adding anniversaries to the mix.
• Quarterly financial reporting also falls around this time, giving companies an incentive to juice their numbers with a burst of revenue at the last minute, or hype up coming quarters with new announcements and activities.

Yes, some busy times are a-coming, for this is:

Genshin Impact 7.0 Update Sends Travelers to Snezhnaya on August 12th

Perhaps the biggest news of the week (at least, among the kinds of games we like to pay attention to here at TWIMB) involves Genshin Impact's own strategy for beating the heat: Sending you someplace cold. Indeed, developer miHoYo is sending players to the frozen northern land of Snezhnaya on August 12th, when the game's massive 7.0 update, Everwinter Without Mercy, goes live. This promises to be big, considering that miHoYo has been teasing this update for at least the last four months. The whole thing's been hyped as the first step towards the end of the game's current main storyline (which it's maintained and expanded on since launch in 2020) and the beginning of whatever comes next. At the very least, when all is said and done, players will have to have a new main goal beyond "Visit every nation in Teyvat and confer with its Archons." 

The update casts Snezhnaya as a techno-magical superpower of sorts, its snowy landscapes riven with tran lines, steampunk accoutrements, and impressive winter palaces. The framing fits in with the way the Nation of Cryo's agents, the Fatui, have functioned as a sometimes virtuous, mostly sinister faction throughout the game's story to date. All isn't so well in the chill, though, as a particularly catastrophic blizzard threatens to plunge the country into an energy crisis that players will likely have a hand in helping address (naturally).

Besides the new region, Genshin Impact 7.0 will also debut new gameplay mechanics, such as new elemental reactions based on Cryo, and most notably, a fancy set of tech-goggles that gives the Traveler an entirely new third-person shooter combat mode. Though Genshin Impact has always had ranged combat mechanics and more recently introduced gun-wielding characters in various capacities, actual shooter gameplay was effectively unheard of before the news about 7.0 dropped. Of course, with a new update comes new characters, and the new additions to Genshin's roster consist of Snezhnayan swordswoman Odette, a Fatui operative, and Alyosha, a hunter with a wolf-like buddy.

It'll be interesting to see just what miHoYo has planned to take advantage of the new mode of engagement. This is purely speculative, but given that Genshin Impact is also the host of Miliastra Wonderland (miHoYo's attempt to leverage its biggest moneymaker into a Fortnite- and Roblox-like user-generated content platform), I can't help but imagine adding shooter mechanics could also eventually expand the options available to that slice of the community's creators.

Heaven Burns Red Main Story Set to End For Real With Chapter 6

Speaking of "taking big steps in the main story," Heaven Burns Red is looking to close things out for good with the next main story chapter. According to an official developer stream teasing the 4.5th anniversary, Producer Yohei Kakinuma announced the game's 6th chapter - and also announced that said chapter would be the final one of the story, after which the main story would be concluded.

It's quite rare for this kind of game to get a permanent conclusion, but going by comments from Visual Arts CEO Genki Tenkumo, this kind of ending's been in the cards since before the game launched. According to Tenkumo, the main plotline of Heaven Burns Red was hashed out in a 3-day retreat run by lead writer Jun Maeda way back in 2018. While many things changed and took shape over the course of the intervening years of Heaven Burns Red's development and writing done post-launch, the general shape of the story has held firm the whole time. In other words, it was always the plan. Chapter 6 will also introduce a new squad of playable characters, in the form of the members of Squad 19-A.

That being said, there's still a lot up in the air for the game as it exists today. Things like how long it'll actually take to deploy the chapter, and what shape the storytelling will take overall, are still in active development. Events, side stories, and other material from the writing team will be added during Chapter 6 and beyond, so folks shouldn't be worried about the game shutting down anytime soon, just that the main narrative isn't meant to continue forever.

"Endings" like this aren't unheard of. Girls' Frontline's main story is over as of May 2026, though the game is still active and receiving new content in both China and on its global server. Instead, new narrative developments are now the province of the game's sequel, Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium. The Japanese edition of Fate/Grand Order concluded its Cosmos in the Lostbelt story arc at the end of this year, but since then has been laying the groundwork for a third arc. And let's also not forget that Heavens Burn Red developer Wright Flyer Studios also ended the main story of its other game, Another Eden, last year, though that game is still online and receiving new events and stories.

That said, a free-to-play or live service game getting any ending in a narrative sense is still rather rare. The same volatility in the space that leads many games to celebrate "anniversaries" in 6-month intervals rather than yearly is the same one that leaves many games to uncertain fates, shut down unceremoniously alongside boilerplate announcement text lamenting "economic conditions" or "difficulty providing the expected quality of service," and other euphemisms for "the money ran out," and "we aren't growing fast enough." 

Perhaps Wright Flyer and Visual Arts are on the right track, planning out story arcs beforehand and accounting better for potential shutdowns to ensure that stories come to some semblance of satisfaction if "market forces" rear their ugly head. Ideally, such an approach would be paired with the practice of better preserving live games after their deaths, via "memorial" rereleases (as happened with the aborted Sakura Revolution), single-player redesigns (such as Octopath Traveler 0), or something as simple as producing a cutscene archive, like Toho Games did for the defunct Sakuna of Rice and Ruin mobile game, which shut down on July 27th after a less than 6 month lifetime.

Fate/Grand Order Gets A Glorious Animated Promo to Celebrate Its 11th Anniversary

Aniplex and Lasengle are celebrating the 11th anniversary of the Japanese edition of Fate/Grand Order, and as is the tradition at this point, have released a lavishly produced promo video commemorating the adventure to date. This one feels a bit special, though, since, as mentioned above, the game has just concluded its most recent years-long Cosmos in the Lostbelt story arc. In fact, up until January this year, that finale was even thought by some to be a signal that the game itself was shutting down (as unlikely as that sounds for something that's proven very profitable so far). 

Though the third main story arc of FGO, titled The Beginning of After Time, debuted on June 3rd, the 11th anniversary promo celebrates everything that players went through on their journey through Cosmos in the Lostbelt, this time through a lengthy 7-minute short that focused on none other than Fate franchise OG Archer (perhaps better known these days as Emiya). The short frames his adventures through the seven Lostbelts and beyond, and features voiced lines and cinematic presentation evoking many key moments over the course of the story. It's also beautifully produced, and is an able demonstration of Aniplex and Storyboarder/Director puccapucca02's ability to grasp veteran FGO players' heartstrings and give them a sharp tug. 

It definitely worked on me in ways I didn't anticipate, getting me all misty-eyed seeing moments I didn't react much to when they were new, like the climactic encounter of Lostbelt No. 4: Yuga Kshetra, or the heartbreaking abstraction of Lostbelt No. 6: Avalon Le Fae's plot. Perhaps, for a game that's very much an old-school mobile title that regularly struggles against the inherent limits of its default presentation as an unvoiced visual novel, there's some real Aura in seeing these Hype Moments rendered very expensively and artistically on screen. 

I also appreciate that it's such a sharp contrast to the celebratory air of the 10th anniversary promo, which feels like a commercial featuring everyone's favorites hanging out and having fun. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's good to see a sign that the people in charge of Fate/Grand Order remember and appreciate why so many players have stuck around for the past decade and change.

Suikoden Star Leap Becomes the 1st New Suikoden Story in 14 Years

Did I mention "a decade and change"? Turns out that on August 7th, Konami kicked off a new era for the long-dormant Suikoden (a.k.a. Gensou Suikoden) series by launching Suikoden Star Leap in Japan, alongside promises to detail the planned global launch (as well as its PC version) at a later date. Star Leap is a new free-to-play game that happens to be the first actually new Suikoden franchise story in close to a decade and a half. The last Suikoden release was Gensou Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki, a PSP-exclusive RPG that never left Japan.

Konami's been on something of a redemptive arc over the last few years, recapturing some of the goodwill its name once evoked in players by backing several crowd-pleasing new games, among them new repackagings of the Metal Gear Solid series, fancy (if frankly unnecessary) remakes of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Silent Hill 2, and the well-received ryukishi07-penned Silent Hill f. 

It hasn't slacked on smaller-scale and mobile-centric releases either, with a light-touch remaster of the original two Suikoden games bringing many millennial-age fans' memories back to the fore, yours truly included. Now Star Leap is set to capitalize on that nostalgia as well, since it's set in the same timeline as the five main Suikoden titles, and takes place some years before the original Suikoden game, in a land neighboring the Scarlet Moon Empire that was the first game's setting. While games like Suikoden 3 and 4 took some risks in messing with the structure and framing of the series, Star Leap takes most of its cues from 1 and 2, which makes some sense, seeing as they remain the best-liked entries in the franchise. 

The player-nameable hero sets off on a journey to rebuild his home after a mysterious foe sets the village aflame. Along the way, players will encounter a host of new characters and the younger versions of Suikoden series alumni, particularly Viktor, Flik, Humphrey, and Odessa. 

Star Leap also includes a number of classic Suikoden features, including a 2.5D graphical style and a turn-based battle system, as well as a larger "war mode" with real-time strategy features. There's even a system for revitalizing the player's village to use as a home base, in keeping with series tradition.

As Suikoden is a series close to my heart, I've been keeping an eye on Star Leap, despite my misgivings with the prospect of taking up yet another free-to-play, microtransaction-supported game. With luck, Konami will have the foresight not to hinge the series' future on a single mobile game's success, as the competition is so fierce and the market so saturated that even well-made games struggle to stand out or secure a spot in their players' lives.

Maidens' Corner (Mini Edition): Love and Deepspace Takes a Hit in the Wallet As Player Boycott Continues

It's been a few weeks since it broke, but the saga that started with the untimely abortion of Love and Deepspace wolf-man Valko continues to make an impact, particularly on developer Papergames' coffers. According to estimates out of China and from firms like Sensor Tower, Love and Deepspace's July revenue has dropped significantly from previous highs, with some figures suggesting a drop of as much as 66% compared to June. The drop also affected LADS' place in the revenue rankings published by the app stores, pushing LADS out of the top five (to 16th place), and enabling the amusing/terrifying sight of all three major miHoYo games taking places in the top three rankings (with Genshin Impact leading).

Meanwhile, the official communications channels for the game have continued to get clobbered by irate fans, with social media posts about the recent Caleb-centered event (trailered above) flooded with Valko-related replies, general complaints, and other grousing.

While the boycott is naturally centered around Valko, it's not all about bringing him back. As I mentioned, The Valko Incident has become a rallying symbol of sorts for the many issues Love and Deepspace players have with the game and the perception that Papergames hasn't listened. While I'd wager that the chances of Valko coming back as he was when he was first revealed, if at all, are slim, numbers like this should serve as a wake-up call. 

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Pulls Out the Stops for a Persona Series Crossover Event

If there's one thing that feels like a rule of thumb when operating a free-to-play or gacha game, especially one with an anime-adjacent style, it's to expect a visit from the Phantom Thieves of Persona 5. Indeed, Persona 5 crossovers have shown up so often across various games and genres that they've become a joke of sorts, one that also tends to be associated with the game shutting down some time afterward. And it seems Shift Up is about to take its chances by announcing its own Persona crossover for Goddess of Victory: NIKKE. 

Perhaps they're banking on the fact that this isn't technically a Persona 5 crossover, but one focused on the Persona series as a whole, seeing as it's commemorating the 30th anniversary of Atlus' golden goose. As such, characters from Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Royal, and Persona 4 Golden will all show up in NIKKE's world on August 13th. There, they'll interact with NIKKE's own squad of Phantom Thieves, consisting of the characters Phantom, Miranda, Quency, and Delta. 

Players who participate in the event can net a playable version of Persona 3 android Aigis, while those with some gems to burn can try rolling on the gacha for playable versions of Queen from Persona 5 and Persona 4's Yukiko Amagi. They'll also be able to plop down some cash for a new costume for Phantom and a costume that puts Yukiko in her inn kimono. All three characters will be animated in NIKKE's now-signature, live2D style, complete with a chance of spicy physics.

Crossovers like this aren't particularly out of left field for NIKKE, considering the game's got characters from as far across the multiverse as RE:ZERO, Chainsaw Man, Resident Evil, Lycoris Recoil, and Neon Genesis Evangelion in its roster. But as an active NIKKE player myself, I do have to say that while the crossovers are big opportunities for players to try the game, they're frequently where the game's writing is at its absolute weakest. Outside of the novelty of seeing these characters adapted to NIKKE's idiosyncratic visuals and mechanics, the event stories barely exist as such, with little in the way of strong character moments for anyone. The only exception so far in my book has been the NieR: Automata crossover, which shone through because Shift Up is so enamored of NieR: Automata that they chose to rip the game off twice: Once to make NIKKE and another time to make Stellar Blade. 

So if you do decide to join the Persona festivities, I'd suggest you do so with the expectation to get more out of sticking around for the main story rather than seeing your Persona faves crouching behind cover.

Blue Archive Enrages Players With Major Changes to Its Gacha System

If a Persona 5 crossover is said to be a sign of bad luck in the gacha space, one more potent portent of doom would be to see a game's developer messing around with the gacha system itself. That's the fire Blue Archive developer Nexon is playing with right now, going by a change announced late in July on the Japanese edition of the game. Coinciding with the 5.5 Anniversary and the in-game summer swimsuit event was a change to how the game's gacha system works.

Under the original system (which is currently active in Blue Archive's global edition), players could roll on a banner and accumulate "Recruitment Points" that, once reaching the equivalent of 200 rolls' worth, could be exchanged for the featured character of the player's choice, regardless of banner. Notably, this point accumulation did not reset upon getting a featured character, allowing lucky players to potentially score multiple copies of a desired character or earn other featured characters during each 200-point "spark run". 

However, the new changes brought Blue Archive's gacha system more in line with the system used by the popular miHoYo games, namely the implementation of a "50/50" chance system based around 100-roll intervals. In other words, instead of accumulating recruitment points, players would get a 50% chance of netting a featured 3-star (SSR) character every 100 rolls, with the banner character guaranteed on the 200th roll. This pity resets if the player receives the banner character within that 100-roll interval.

The change quickly sparked debate both for and against the system, both among the Japanese players directly affected and among global and Chinese players, who expect the change to land on their servers in a few months. Some argued that the system was better, since it lowered the threshold for scoring a rare character, while others argued that the loss of recruitment points and the implementation of a 50/50 drained flexibility from the system, particularly during always-popular limited-rarity banners (which are relatively rare in Blue Archive compared to its peers).

The change sparked such a furor that producer Yongha Kim apologized on Twitter and admitted that the company's shortfalls in communicating details "damaged trust" between the player base and the developers. He claimed that the changes were rooted in a desire to avoid the "stress" of having to spark for a character one really wants, and introduce ways to guarantee a character sooner. That said, he didn't say that Nexon and Yostar are walking the changes back, so it looks like this'll be the new norm for Blue Archive players in the near future.

Ultimately, it'll be down to how the system works out in practice. As a player on the global version myself, I'd say that higher-level Blue Archive play tends to rely a lot on having specific characters at high levels of progression. That tends to prize a stable, reliable system with as close to fixed costs as possible rather than increasing the odds on a gamble. Thus, the recruitment point system works to establish a flat (if high) "spark cost" players can save for and plan around. It remains to be seen if the new system can work to preserve a bit of that certainty.

There's been a lot of news already, so let's close out the column with a few more tidbits:

• Wizardry Variants Daphne is currently running a Final Fantasy XI crossover, which features a number of playable characters from the long-running MMORPG plumbing dungeons like the school of old. Despite seeming somewhat incompatible with the microtransaction-driven model of mobile games, Wizardry Variants Daphne has proven to be an intriguing adaptation of Japan's best-loved dungeon-crawler brand, so it's refreshing to see it debut some cool-looking events.
• Free-to-play game Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost is going to shut down after nine years in operation,  because its publisher, Ambition Co., is itself shutting down and going into provisional administration, a form of bankruptcy proceeding in Japan. The shutdown announcement came with a notice that players won't be able to get refunds for their in-game currency, but it remains to be seen whether or not such a notice violates Japanese law.
• Open-world Monster-collector Palworld is getting an MMO-style mobile spinoff developed and operated by Garena (of Free Fire fame) called Palworld Online, scheduled for release sometime this year. This isn't to be confused with the main version of Palworld itself or the Krafton-developed mobile game Palworld Mobile, which seems to be positioned as a PVP-based competitive title. Neither game has a trailer or much concrete information available at the moment.
• Remember Astrae Oratio, that free-to-play game run by former Blue Archive luminaries? It's opening global closed beta signups on August 19. A new(ish) trailer also solidifies its look and gameplay as well, and it seems to be a 3D RPG that reminds me at first glance of Honkai: Star Rail, but with Blue Archive's style.
• The closed beta test for BanG Dream! Our Notes launched on August 6. An evolution from Bushiroad's older BanG Dream: Girls Band Party rhythm game, Our Notes focuses on the more drama-filled side of the Bandori franchise, particularly Ave Mujica and MyGO!, with a particular emphasis on cinematic storytelling and a neat "immersive home" home screen. I saw one user on social media characterize the game's vibe as "we're too dramatic to be represented by mere chibis," and I agree.
• Developer Hotta Studio announced that the next regular update for Neverness to Everness will launch on August 19th, bringing the game up to version 1.3, adding a new main story episode and the characters Zanko and Linko.
• Brown Dust 2 has flown too close to the sun once again, and was slapped with regulatory attention in its home country of South Korea. According to a livestream announcement, developer Neowiz will be forced to modify several saucy in-game costumes to comply with Korean censorship laws. Brown Dust 2 is infamous for riding very close to the border between merely sexualized and outright pornographic character art, and has caught fire in countries like Germany and Vietnam before. This is the first time it'll be hit in South Korea, though. Players who purchased the offending costumes will receive some gems as compensation, and can even opt for a refund if they'd prefer.

And that's it from me, for now. At the rate things are going, I've little chance of catching up with Genshin Impact, but I am looking forward to (eventually) seeing the frozen north at my own pace. Keep safe, and I'll see you next time.