Crack Ciphers, Not Websites!

Welcome to “Siliconera Speaks Up,” our newsletter for the site! This’ll be a summary of the past week’s anime or gaming news, a little reminder of things to come, and our insight on what games you should pick up next. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Top 10 Stories From the Past Week

1. Sword Art Online Characters Will Appear in Racing Master

2. Final Fantasy XI Recitation Stage Will Launch in March 2025

3. Review: Homicipher Asks You to Learn and Keep an Open Mind

4. Are These Characters Missing in Dynasty Warriors Origins?

5. NieR Automata Sequel Is Imminent After Anime and Reincarnation

6. Past Lives Finally Resurface Oshi no Ko Volume 8

7. The Best Early Black Friday Gaming PC Deals

8. Parco Announces Cinnamoroll Colorful Christmas Party

9. Hatsune Miku Gundam Metaverse Concert Schedule Published

10. Stellar Blade is a Clumsy Imitation of NieR: Automata And That’s Why I Love It

Notable Mentions

1. Vtuber Ceres Fauna Will Graduate From Hololive English in 2025

2. Hololive’s Sakamata Chloe to Stop Streaming in 2025

3. Netflix Shares The Summer Hikaru Died Anime Teaser Trailer

4. New Lyrical Nanoha Manga Project Is in Production

5. Mika Pikazo Disney Collection Inspired by Iconic Characters

Speak Up Sesh

Happy December, everybody. Can you believe that in only a matter of weeks, it’ll be 2025? My goodness, does time fly. Hopefully you all had a great year so far, and here’s hoping that you’ll have a great holiday season as well. That being said, we still have an entire month to go…!

There’re a lot of things coming up and a lot of things that came up this week. Infinity Nikki just came out, for example. This is an open-world dress-up adventure that involves exploration, combat, and fashion. Honkai: Star Rail also launched a major update, introducing popular character Sunday. Granted, HoYoVerse is dealing with its own set of controversies at the moment, so the mood for Sunday isn’t as celebratory as one might think. It’s a little ironic considering his name. Aside from games, The Game Awards is coming up soon. Quite literally next week. December 12—save the date!

As a quick note for Infinity Nikki, though, be mindful when you visit their website! As of the time of writing, a hacker infiltrated it to post messages promoting self-harm (and Genshin Impact?). Some netizens also warn against downloading the client, as well as the client for Love and Deepspace, for now. Hopefully by the time this newsletter reaches your inbox, things will have calmed down!

Now let’s look at some of the more popular stories from the past week. A nice variety of stories made it to the top 10, ranging from the usual suspects (Sanrio, Final Fantasy, and Hatsune Miku) to some surprising entries. The Homicipher review was a popular one! The game itself has accumulated almost 4,000 reviews on Steam thus far, and it’s “overwhelmingly popular.” It’s a horror ADV in which you need to decipher body language and codes to communicate and understand what the characters are saying. And there’s romance involved…? Though it’s technically an otome game, the concept and gameplay looks so interesting that even those who usually aren’t interested in otome games want a piece of Mr. Crawling, apparently.

Sometimes, it’s good to branch out of your comfort zone with games. I’ve seen some people I never thought would touch Infinity Nikki start playing it, and they’ve been posting so many pictures of their cute outfits. I also downloaded Dave the Diver, even though I never touch games that take place under the sea due to my thalassophobia. In fact, I bought it precisely because I wanted to conquer my fears. For those who plan on watching TGA 2024, or follow along with coverage, maybe you can take this opportunity to check out games you only heard about in passing, but never thought to try for yourself. Who knows? You might just find your next favorite title.

Upcoming Releases

• Marvel Rivals (PS5, Xbox Series X, Windows PC) - December 6

• Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC) - December 10

• Fairy Tail 2 (PS4, PS5, Windows PC) - December 12

• The Spirit of the Samurai (Windows PC) - December 12