Tag Archives: Nexon

What is Fareidolia?

Fareidolia is built in Unreal Engine 5 and pitched as a slice-of-life bishoujo game with a warm, lived-in world you’d “actually want to live in,” as IO DIVISION described the project when it first surfaced last year. It’s set in Anima City, an Earth-adjacent town where you play the Center Director of the Anima City Recovery Center. Your day job is running an office called Tasogare-kan (Twilight Mansion) alongside a cast of girls known as “Mates” — young women with unusual abilities who help you troubleshoot the city’s problems.

A cosy retro living room inside Fareidolia's Twilight Mansion, with a pink fridge, tube TV, wooden shelves and a cat napping on a teal sofa. — Image courtesy of Nexon Games

The pitch will sound familiar to anyone who spends time in Kivotos: comfy hangouts and character-first storytelling, but with a Studio Ghibli-style town backdrop and combat that shows up in short, cinematic bursts. According to the reveal on the game’s official TGS 2026 site, the core concept is “a nostalgic-feeling city where one spends time alongside girls possessing special abilities,” with a new trailer promised for 17 September — the show’s opening business day.

Meet the girls

The name-change reveal came with four character silhouettes filled in. All are staff or regulars at Tasogare-kan.

Fareidolia character Minié, a silver-haired explorer with yellow eyes, wearing a black tee, patterned shorts and a messenger bag. — Image courtesy of Nexon Games

Minié is the resident explorer — an ex-guild adventurer who lights up whenever the conversation turns to expeditions. Her keyvisual leans hard into that: a functional messenger bag, patterned thigh strap, and a small notebook she reads on the go.

Fareidolia character Shami, a pink-haired cat-eared girl waving in a red tracksuit jacket over a slogan T-shirt. — Image courtesy of Nexon Games

Shami is the perpetually broke cat-girl of the group. Nexon’s profile leans into the running gag — she’s chronically unlucky, watches too many idol variety shows, and spends what little she has on good-luck charms. The T-shirt she’s wearing reads mui toshoku (無為徒食), roughly “idling around and living off others,” which is very on-brand.

Fareidolia's Elevator Girl, a black-haired character in a red beret and cape decorated with blue roses. — Image courtesy of Nexon Games

Rounding out the roster is Ohana, a self-proclaimed “universal genius” who mostly channels her talents into pranks, and the unnamed Elevator Girl — a mysterious figure in a red cape and beret who operates the Twilight Mansion’s lift. IO DIVISION isn’t saying who she really is yet.

Watch the (still-Project-RX-branded) teaser

A proper Fareidolia trailer arrives on 17 September, but if you missed the original in-engine teaser, this is what the world and combat cadence looked like when IO DIVISION first pulled the curtain back:

[Project RX] Official Teaser Trailer — via Fareidolia_EN on YouTube

Life at the Twilight Mansion

The Fareidolia site leans hard into the mansion itself, and the gallery drops make it clear the daily-life loop is a real part of the design rather than a framing device. Expect a lot of downtime alongside the girls between whatever the Recovery Center’s actual assignments turn out to be.

Three Fareidolia girls napping on a tatami mat surrounded by scattered playing cards and drying laundry. — Image courtesy of Nexon Games

Whether that daily-life layer becomes the game’s headline feature or a wrapper around a heftier gacha-style meta is the big unknown. IO DIVISION has previously said Fareidolia is a much larger production than Blue Archive, and the studio has confirmed that the game will release on PC, mobile and console — the first IO DIVISION project to target home platforms.

TGS 2026 booth: what to expect

Fareidolia will be one of Nexon Games’ headliners at Tokyo Game Show 2026, which runs 17–21 September at Makuhari Messe. Per the studio’s TGS special site, the Nexon Games booth will include a full-scale recreation of Tasogare-kan, a hands-on playable demo, and a rock-paper-scissors mini-game with the characters that unlocks stamp-rally prizes. The 4Gamer news post confirming the name reveal (Japanese) also notes that platforms, price and a release date are all still to be confirmed.

Singapore angle: no local date, but familiar territory

There’s no Singapore or Southeast Asia launch window yet, and — this is important — no SGD price either, because no price has been announced anywhere. But the ingredients that made Blue Archive stick in Singapore are all here: the same core studio, the same tone, and a global-first distribution plan that already covers PC and mobile in the region through Nexon’s storefronts. That’s a stronger baseline than most Japan-first bishoujo projects, where SG fans usually have to weigh imports or region-locked stores.

Blue Archive’s Singapore-facing fandom has been unusually active this month — from the 122,046-account ban wave to a string of merch drops we’ve been tracking in our Game News coverage. Fareidolia lining up its first playable in September means the next big beat for that community is only three weeks away — with a full trailer scheduled for the same day the TGS 2026 halls open.

Sources: 4Gamer (Japanese), Nexon Games TGS 2026 site (Japanese), and Automaton West.

Game News

MapleStory × Frieren: Collaboration Starts 9 September

August 13, 2026 Nova Solaris

What the MapleStory × Frieren Collaboration Actually Includes

This is not a straight cash-shop drop — Nexon has built a full event around the crossover. Starting 9 September, players take on themed collection missions and boss-defeat missions modelled on the world of the anime. The cleverest mechanic: every monster you kill fills a gauge, and once it tops out, Frieren and her party materialise on screen to fight alongside you. It is a small thing mechanically, but the image of the silver-haired elf turning up mid-grind to lend a hand will land differently for anyone who has spent two seasons watching her quietly change the lives of everyone she meets.

Completing boss-defeat missions unlocks exclusive rewards including a custom background, and magic spells themed to the anime are scattered through the event for players to collect. Nexon announced the collaboration today through an official press release via Anime News Network.

MapleStory players battling a giant lion boss — the collab adds Frieren-themed boss-defeat missions with exclusive rewards — Image courtesy of MapleStory / Nexon

Dress Your Maple Character as Frieren, Fern, Stark — and Six More

The cosmetics line-up goes unusually deep. Avatar outfits cover eight characters: Frieren, Fern, Stark, and Himmel from the main party, plus Ubel, Aura, Linie, and Lugner — fan favourites who rarely make it into collaborations at this level of detail. Each major character also gets a matching android companion: Frierenroid, Fernroid, Starkroid, Himmelroid, and Ubelroid for a full party of sidekicks that follow your character around Maple World. On top of that, four petit pets (Frieren, Fern, Stark, Ubel) round out the collection alongside themed chairs, titles, medals, and the boss-mission background.

For those who want the full set, the combination of outfits, androids, and pets means you could conceivably run a Frieren-themed guild with matching cosmetics across multiple characters — which feels very much in the spirit of an anime about a party that stays together across centuries.

A colourful outdoor area of Maple World showing the game's distinctive art style — players will explore these maps during the Frieren collaboration event — Image courtesy of MapleStory / Nexon

A Game That Grew Up Alongside Singapore

For a certain generation of Singapore gamers, MapleStory is not just a game — it is a specific memory: logging in after school, the slow grind through Kerning City sewers, the argument about who had the best warrior build. The side-scrolling MMORPG launched here in 2005 and spent the better part of a decade as the game that defined how a lot of us understood online communities. Seeing it cross paths with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End — arguably the anime of the past two years, now into its second season — feels like two very different chapters of a gaming life meeting on the same map.

The collaboration runs on Global MapleStory (GMS), which Singapore players access directly with no regional restriction. There is no confirmed schedule yet for any separate regional server, and the event end date is to be confirmed. If you have not logged back in a while, 9 September might be a reasonable excuse.

For more gaming news and upcoming collabs, check the Game News archive.

Manga Anime, Shop and Merchandise

Blue Archive × ZOZOTOWN: Black Collection Pre-Orders Open Now

August 13, 2026 Nova Solaris

Gehenna’s Black Military Collection

The collection centres on four Gehenna Academy students — Hina, Ako, Iori, and Chinatsu — reimagined in original outfit illustrations by artist Sola Nijihashi (Japanese). The theme is unmistakably military-chic: fitted black silhouettes, red accent stitching, and Gehenna Academy insignias worked into the garment designs. This is the second ZOZOTOWN drop for Blue Archive; the first featured the Arius Squad in streetwear.

What’s in the Black Collection

Blue Archive × ZOZOTOWN Black Collection hoodie — black with red stripe accents — Image courtesy of NEXON Games / Yostar / ZOZOTOWN

The full lineup runs to eight product types, mixing wearables with desk collectibles:

Graphic T-shirts (6 character variants) — ¥4,400
Open-collar long sleeve shirt — ¥9,350
Hoodie — ¥9,900
Long pants — ¥9,900
Long coach jacket — ¥39,600
Reversible MA-1 bomber jacket (black outside, Gehenna-red lining with embroidered insignias) — ¥36,300
Big acrylic stands (4 variants — one per character) — ¥2,200 each
Rubber play mat (all four characters across a full-width mat) — ¥3,850

The standout piece is the reversible MA-1 jacket: flip it inside out and the red lining reveals embroidered Gehenna faction symbols across the back — a detail fans of the game’s lore will appreciate immediately.

Blue Archive × ZOZOTOWN Black Collection reversible MA-1 bomber jacket showing black exterior and Gehenna-red lining with embroidered insignias — Image courtesy of NEXON Games / Yostar / ZOZOTOWN

Order Dates and What Singapore Players Should Know

Blue Archive × ZOZOTOWN Hina Big Acrylic Stand in black military outfit — Image courtesy of NEXON Games / Yostar / ZOZOTOWN

Pre-orders close 7 September 2026 at 11:59 PM Japan time, with items shipping in mid-December 2026. All items are exclusive to ZOZOTOWN — there is no retail or overseas retail channel.

ZOZOTOWN does not offer direct international shipping, so Singapore fans looking to pick up pieces from the Black Collection will need a Japan forwarding service. Services such as Tenso and Buyee support ZOZOTOWN orders and deliver to Singapore; expect Japanese domestic shipping (¥1,500–3,000 roughly) plus the forwarder’s fee on top of the item price, so factor that in before checkout.

Blue Archive × ZOZOTOWN Black Collection rubber play mat featuring Iori, Ako, Hina, and Chinatsu across a wide desk mat — Image courtesy of NEXON Games / Yostar / ZOZOTOWN

Blue Archive continues to be one of the most collab-active gacha titles for licensed fashion in Japan. If the Black Collection follows the first ZOZOTOWN drop, orders will close without a restock — Gehenna fans in Singapore who want a piece of the collection should plan their forwarding setup before 7 September. Check our anime and game coverage for more merchandise news.

Game News, News

Blue Archive 5th Anniversary Update Lands 29 July — New Gacha System Sparks Community Backlash

July 27, 2026 kindaixin

1 Comment

Blue Archive turns five on 28 July 2026 — and to mark the occasion, NEXON is dropping a major update on 29 July that introduces fresh story content, new summer characters, and the biggest change to the game’s monetisation in its history. The catch? Sensei, that last part is the one getting everyone fired up.

Blue Archive raid battle gameplay — Image courtesy of NEXON

What’s New in the 5th Anniversary Update

The headline content additions are genuinely exciting. Swimsuit banners are leading the charge: Makoto (Swimsuit) and Satsuki (Swimsuit) drop first on 29 July, followed by the long-awaited Iroha (Swimsuit) on 5 August — her first alternate variant since the character launched. Iroha mains have been waiting for this one for a long time.

On the story front, the update finally delivers a Gehenna main story chapter, exploring the academy that’s been a backdrop to some of the game’s most memorable moments but has never had its own dedicated main story arc. For players who’ve been grinding through Kivotos’s narrative, this is the chapter they’ve been asking for.

Blue Archive main story selection screen with Kivotos story chapters — Image courtesy of NEXON

5th Anniversary Anime PV — via ブルーアーカイブ-Blue Archive- on YouTube

The New Gacha System — What Is Actually Changing

Here’s the part where it gets messy. As of 29 July, Blue Archive’s entire recruitment (gacha) system is overhauled. The long-running recruitment points system — where accumulated points carried over between banners and gave veteran players a sense of security — is being removed entirely.

Replacing it is a model that looks familiar on the surface but lands differently in practice:

A 50/50 system kicks in at 100 pulls: you have a 50% chance to get the featured character, 50% chance of getting an off-banner 3-star student.
If you lose the 50/50, the next featured character is guaranteed — but that guarantee doesn’t come until pull 200.
There is no soft pity — pull rates do not increase as you approach 100. You can pull 99 times and still have the same base rate as pull 1.
Pity resets to zero the moment you win the featured student. So if you get lucky at 30 pulls, you start from scratch on the next banner, with no cushion carried over.

Blue Archive school life and cafe decoration gameplay — Image courtesy of NEXON

Why the Community Is Upset

The 5.5 anniversary livestream on 26 July concluded to a wave of criticism from both the JP and Global communities. Players who were happy with the earlier content announcements hit a wall when the gacha changes dropped.

The core complaint is straightforward: getting lucky is now actively punished. Under the old recruitment points system, players who happened to pull a character early still banked progress toward future banners. Under the new system, winning the 50/50 at 30 pulls means starting completely cold on the next banner — and with no soft pity slope, there’s no comfort zone as you approach 100. As one community member noted on X: “You can very easily still go past 100 pulls and never get a rate-up character to chance that 50/50.”

For Singapore players used to juggling limited pyroxene budgets across multiple banners, the change hits especially hard. The old system rewarded patience; the new one arguably punishes consistency.

Blue Archive Recollection Lobby story scenes — Image courtesy of NEXON

Should Singapore Players Log In on 29 July?

Despite the gacha controversy, the content itself is solid — Iroha’s first alt, new swimsuit characters, and a Gehenna story chapter are all things the community has genuinely wanted. Blue Archive typically distributes anniversary pyroxene and free recruitment tickets to celebrate milestones, so there’s reason to log in even if you’re sitting this banner out.

Blue Archive is available free on iOS and Android globally, and on Steam for PC. Whether NEXON adjusts the new pity system in response to community feedback remains to be seen — but with the backlash already loud across JP and Global forums, expect the conversation to continue well past the July 29 launch.