Welcome back, folks! As you read this, you've probably gotten your hands on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's remake. I am sadly still waiting for my copy! But the game looks great, and apparently the English cast is stacked! Richard Epcar and Erica Mendez as the Great Deku Tree and Princess Zelda are already some phenomenal choices, and Suzie Yeung as Saria is primed to rip my heart out. I've yet to hear Matt Mercer 's performance as Ganon in any game, but the buzz has been pretty positive, so I look forward to seeing him tickle the ivories. My favorite revelation, however, is that Cristina Vee was cast as Nabooru. Stellar news! Cristina Vee has Lebanese ancestry; I'm glad she gets to showcase it as Nabooru. This was all a pleasant surprise for me, nothing but good reasons for me to look forward to my copy finally arriving.
... Oo-weep... oo-weep... oo-weep...
Nintendo Announces Pikmin Day
I'm not a fan of "brand holidays," but brands love them, so we keep getting them. And somehow Shigeru Miyamoto has declared that November 1st is "Pikmin Day." See, if you have three Pikmin standing straight, they look like three "1"s. Hence, November ("11") first ("1").
Image via www.youtube.com © Nintendo
While a lot of folks argue over which of his babies is Miyamoto's favorite, be it his attempt at revitalizing Supermarionation with Star Fox or Donkey Kong putting Nintendo on the map or even The Legend of Zelda because of that time he showed up on-stage at E3 with a Master Sword in a puff of smoke, one gets the feeling that Miyamoto's favorite is in fact Pikmin due to how often it gets goofy little merch or little shout-outs at physical locations. Remember: outside of Super Smash Bros., Nintendo properties don't cross over much at all — but the Pikmin get special Easter Egg appearances throughout the Donkey Kong and Mushroom Kingdom sections at Universal Studios . Yoshi and Donkey Kong don't have their own holiday.
While some might have expected the first annual Pikmin Day to have some kind of major new announcement, there was no such thing; we got some minor updates regarding Pikmin stuff we already knew about, the promise of more Pikmin animated shorts, and a showcase of a Japanese Pikmin fan who knits her own cute Pikmin hats. On the one hand, this would lead a lot of people to wonder why they even bothered in the first place; a Direct and a calendar day ought to mean something big, right? But I get it from Miyamoto's side. Plenty of people are probably vaguely aware of Pikmin on the periphery but have never really played it. On that note, it's also a great way to introduce people to Pikmin; Miyamoto gave a decent overview of the series, from its original release on the GameCube in 2001, and underlined that the entire mainline series is available on the Switch. I'm not sure if Pikmin's Fantastic Planet/Tim Burton influences would help budge the needle some, but it couldn't hurt...
Image via www.youtube.com © Nintendo
We got some updates on Pikmin 4 + Dandori Academy, the upcoming port coming to Nintendo Switch 2. Biggest update: it'll support microphones, so you can give Oatchi verbal commands. We'll see how that works. We also got some more insight into how the Dandoori Academy features will work. Basically: you'll have a designated arena with Pikmin and treasures, and it'll be up to you to find the optimal path through the map to collect everything. This can include assigning teams of Pikmin to open new shortcuts, being choosy about which Pikmin to send where, and when to send them... Folks who've already subscribed to the way of Dandori (an actual Japanese term for efficiently organizing tasks to complete a goal) will be right at home here. If you run your Stardew Valley farms like a fiendishly efficient micro-nation, this one's for you. Better yet, Dandori Academy will hold weekly exams every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and doing well can earn you goodies for Pikmin Bloom, the mobile app.
Speaking of which, Pikmin Bloom is getting new expansions that feature caverns. While these caverns will feature deadly Bulborbs and will require a minimum number of Pikmin to explore, they'll offer rare items as rewards. And--you'll be able to unlock rare cavern maps by participating in Dandori Academy exams.
Image via www.youtube.com © Nintendo
Finally, Miyamoto brought in the actress Fūka Koshiba , who had been knitting some Pikmin hats and showing them off on Instagram. With her help, Miyamoto introduced a new Pikmin short in which a Red Pikmin evades being eaten by a frog. New shorts will be debuting on the Nintendo Today app going forward. But in the meantime, that's about all they had for us. Again, I think it's fine that they didn't have anything drastically new to show folks; it's enough for Shigeru Miyamoto to wake up one day and decide he's going to talk to people about Pikmin. Hey, we have Miyamoto, and Nintendo has Pikmin. They're a sign of a healthy environment, like lily pads in a pond or somesuch.
Tokyo Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest Reveals
There's a huge amount of buzz for World of Warcraft: Infinite, the likes of which I haven't seen in years. I think people are actually excited to play it. But in the meantime, Final Fantasy XIV is still kicking and had plenty to reveal during its Tokyo Fan Fest this past weekend. The Evercold expansion is still coming, and that brings plenty of chilly surprises. So let's explore some of them!
First up is the reveal of the second new job coming to the Evercold expansion: the Zephyr. Much like the Basion before it, the Zephyr is a wholly original class being brought to FFXIV, as in "not inspired by an existing Final Fantasy job." Where the Bastion is a ranged tank, the Zephyr is a ranged DPS class that combines a crossbow with a companion--an eagle. Naoki Yoshida , alias Yoshi-P, also chalks the class up to being the first true "pet class" for FFXIV.
As for locales, new titanic craft called Realmships were revealed, including Sessrymnir and Skiðblaðnir. Yes, those are both extremely Norse names. We'll come back to that in a bit. The story will have a new "branching" facet, where at a certain point players will decide on which of three arcs they'll pursue first. Players will then tackle the other two arcs in whichever order they choose. For anyone concerned about how this might affect dungeons, rest assured: the FFXIV team is working to keep party and enemy levels balanced for team make-ups, and loot will be balanced to your character's level. And let's not forget the two big Alliances coming to Evercold: the Final Fantasy VII-themed "Beyond the Lifestream," and the Neon Genesis Evangelion -themed Ghosts of Desire. (The Tifa outfit and the potential of plugsuit outfits will hit the community as hard as the 2B outfit did...)
Image via www.mmorpg.com © Square Enix
There was a smidge of discussion about the upcoming battle system; players can choose between "Reborn" and "Evolved" battle modes, each bringing unique playstyles for each Job. You'll be able to swap battle modes instantaneously, except for the new Bastion and Zephyr jobs. Those default to "Evolved." More updates on how Evolved will work is to come in the future. Players will get to use these new battle systems in a new Alliance difficulty, "Fierce." (Note: "Alliance" is FFXIV's name for "raids.") "Fierce" is planned to be a difficulty under "Savage," the hardest difficulty. Speaking of which, eight-player Savage Alliances are also coming. Normally, Savage raids have 16 players; these will be harder than hard. There are plans to retroactively apply these changes for older Alliances, but that's currently in the far future.
Character customization is going to be improved some; along with extra eye colors, face marking layering and color pickers, you can also look forward to "skins" for specific actions; effectively, unique character animations that you can buy. I'm not a huge fan of this; I'm very traditional when it comes to these kinds of cosmetics. But I'm pretty sure the role-playing crowd is going to go absolutely ballistic for them.
Image via x.com © Square Enix, tri-Ace
What folks also went ballistic for (at least online--the actual show-goers seemed a bit stumped) was when Yoshi-P teased bosses "like this" and dropped the above image on folks. There are no two ways about that: that's Lenneth, the protagonist of tri-Ace's Valkyrie Profile. With Evercold having such a strong Norse theme, it only stands to reason they'd want valkyries involved. And I guess Yoshi-P decided that characters from the extremely-Norse Valkyrie Profile would be a great fit. Bless him, honestly; Valkyrie Profile fans have been starved.
For folks not in the know: Valkyrie Profile was a series of RPGs produced by tri-Ace (released through Enix and later Square Enix , following the merger). In the first game, you play as Lenneth, one of the loyal Valkyries in Odin's employ. The world is about to end, so Odin tasks you with preparing the Earth for Ragnarok. Being a Valkyrie, Lenneth bears the souls of countless fallen warriors, known as Einherjar. Much of the game involves exploring the stories of Einherjar, then releasing their souls for bonuses. There was also Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria on PlayStation 2, a spectacular RPG that sadly released quite late in the PS2's lifespan and, as such, got quite buried. It's one of the best-looking RPGs on the console (which is saying something), and while it made the Einherjar a bit less important, it also successfully transplanted Valkyrie Profile's intense 2D combat into 3D. We also got Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume on Nintendo DS, where you instead play as a mortal warrior on a quest for revenge against the Valkyries. And then there was the unfortunate Valkyrie Elysium back in 2022.
Valkyrie Profile also made for some fun cameos in tri-Ace's other titles; you could fight and recruit her in Radiata Stories (side-note: please bring Radiata Stories back!!!), and Lenneth and her boss Freya were optional super-bosses in Star Ocean: 'Till the End of Time. But this is the first time she's being properly referenced in Final Fantasy. And that does seem to bust the doors wide open; who knows, this could also lead to cameos from Brave Fencer Musashi — or even The Bouncer. Hey, it's not like Square Enix is doing anything else with those games...
Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold has been delayed from its original January 2027 release date; Yoshi-P was very apologetic about it. The new release date will be February 23, 2027; early access begins on February 19, 2027. In the meantime, you can pick up Valkyrie Profile on the PlayStation Network , just saying...
Exploit Found for Goddess of Victory: NIKKE 's PC Launcher
I've been playing Goddess of Victory: NIKKE on-and-off since it launched four years go. In fact, as I write, Shift-Up is celebrating the game's fourth anniversary. I'll let my good colleague Josh cover the details on that event. But the game has issues right now — specifically, a massive back-door exploit that has left major swaths of the NIKKE -playing audience exposed to malware.
According to user MotherSphere, since September 27, malicious code has been found in the game's PC launcher that could potentially install malware onto players' PC. The code granted remote access to users' PCs — screenshots, passwords, browser cookies —all ripe for plundering. This is an extremely "pants to be darkened" moment for NIKKE, because as mentioned earlier the game is celebrating its fourth anniversary; not only is this a time where a lot of players are flocking to the game for free stuff, there are also various sponsored streams involving all kinds of streamers. So this doesn't just put a lot of players at risk; it also puts a lot of streamers at risk. The good news is that the NIKKE community wasted no time in looking for workarounds; MotherSphere's linked GitHub post is a great place to start. Also worth checking is Nikke.gg's hub on the matter; Nikke.gg is already a great repository of information on NIKKE, and they've been very thorough in documenting the event.
늦어서 죄송합니다. 이제 PC런처를 실행하시면, 검사 프로그램을 통해서 자동으로 지휘관 여러분들의 보안 상황을 체크하고 해결할 수 있도록 업데이트가 진행 되었습니다. 나머지 내용들은 업데이트 노트를 통해 상세히 알려드리도록 하겠습니다. 큰 심려를 끼쳐드려서 다시 한번 사죄의 말씀 전해드리고, 안전한 여정이 될 수 있도록 다시 한번 철저하게 신경쓰겠습니다. — Kim Hyung Tae, 김형태, キム・ヒョンテ (@jamm3rd) November 4, 2026
The malicious code was activated on October 23, and Shift-Up and its CEO, Hyun-Tae Kim , responded on November 4; NIKKE players received a smattering of in-game goodies for the trouble and assurance from Hyun-Tae Kim that the launcher has been fixed. The game has also shared a security check for PC players. The free gems and tickets are a band-aid on a bullet hole; many people understandably do not feel safe playing NIKKE anymore, with some even dropping the game.
However, while Shift-Up has received the lion's share of the blame, the issue is actually with Tencent ; Shift-Up doesn't have its own PC launcher for the game and contracted Tencent to handle the PC release through Tencent 's Level Infinite division. There are concerns that other games through Tencent might be vulnerable, such as Delta Force, but those concerns mostly seem unfounded at the time of writing. I have it on good faith from Josh himself that he has been instructed to run a security audit on his PC (here's hoping he doesn't have to reformat his main desktop).
This couldn't have happened at a worse time for Shift-Up, and my heart goes out to the NIKKE fans who had this bucket of ice water drenching their fourth anniversary gaming.
Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits:
If you're missing Travis Touchdown, rest assured: Grasshopper Manufacture 's Gōichi Suda (alias " Suda51 ) is well aware that next year is No More Heroes' 20th anniversary, and is reportedly working with Marvelous to get something done...
Voltage Inc. has a new otome out on Steam : in The Red Bells Lament, you'll play as a young woman joining with knights and vampire hunters as you take on the vampire-filled world of Nyx. An in-game game board will represent places you can visit and the events that unfold. And if you go to the wrong place and make the wrong choice, you can always skip back to a certain part of the story with an in-game flowchart of events. (This really ought to become a standard feature for all visual novels, not just otome games.) This one releases November 18.
Muv-Luv Alternative Schwarzes Marken is getting an English localization! After all these years, this entry in the Muv-Luv series is coming to Steam, with English and Chinese language options to boot. Originally released as a light novel, the story was divided into two games: Crest of Red Blood and Martyrs. The game takes place in 1983, as Eastern Europe navigates the unstoppable BETA invasion. The visual novels also feature artwork from Carnelian . (Hey, what's the word on her Kao no Nai Tsuki remake getting an English translation...?) There's no word yet on Schwarzes Marken 's release date; more to follow.
It's time for a new Hyperdimension Neptunia game! Hyperspace Neptunia: Unlimited brings back the anthropomorphized video game console girls of Gamindustri as they fight meteors. You can instantly transform into the girls' Goddess Forms to fly through dungeons and start battles, along with the CPU Candidates (yeah, Nepgear is back). Character customization is also a major feature, and you'll even be able to customize characters' colors... but is it really Vert if she's not green? Hyperspace Neptunia: Unlimited is set to release sometime 2027, on PS4, PS5, Steam , Switch and Switch 2--and the Switch 2 version will be a proper game-on-cartridge, not a Game Key Card!
Dragon's Dogma II still has some life in it--and it's getting a Delicious in Dungeon collab! (Fitting, given the stuff that happens involving dragons...) Players can collect official pawns and official outfit sets based on Laios and Marcille. (I'm guessing the other characters were too hard to make--alas, poor Izutsumi...) The characters are available now on the PS5, Xbox Series, and Steam versions of Dragon's Dogma II: Dark Arisen, and will arrive on the Switch 2 this November 11. The collab will be active until January 28, 2027.
That'll do it for this week, I think. Embarrassingly, I'm cutting it close to the wire for my panel due for this upcoming Kumoricon. I normally have those ready weeks in advance... so it's probably for the best that my copy of Ocarina of Time hasn't arrived yet. I can wait. At any rate: duty calls! Be good to each other; I'll see you in seven.
... Oo-weep... oo-weep... oo-weep...
This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching VTuber content, and watching tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.