Greetings, Travelers! Today we are excited to announce that Genshin Impact‘s version 4.6 Two Worlds Aflame, the Crimson Night Fades is arriving on April 24. With this update, we can’t wait to show you the power and the past of our frenemy, Arlecchino. After the crisis of Fontaine, the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers is finally ready to meet us again as both a recruitable team member and a formidable Weekly Boss.

More surprises continue to pop up across Teyvat. A large submerged ancient empire that flourished and demolished before the birth of the Court of Fontaine is finally revealing itself in the Sea of Bygone Eras. Meanwhile, Arataki Itto and Dvorak are going to rock Inazuma with a music festival and concert tour.

The Knave and the Father

In the Archon Quests of Fontaine, Arlecchino made an indelible debut even without showing her hand, balancing the fine line between ally and adversary. Upon version 4.6, we can discover more about her power, the roles she plays, and the past that made her who she is today.

As the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, Arlecchino aka The Knave shows an overwhelming strength in combat with her use of Pyro and a polearm, as well as her special mechanic — Bond of Life. First found in some Fatui Operatives and certain weapon effects around Fontaine, the Bond of Life effect stays on its target and prevents healing until the victim receives the same amount of healing equal to the active Bond of Life. However, Arlecchino is able to utilize the Bond of Life on herself to strengthen her own attacks.

When Arlecchino becomes a member of your team, piling up her Bond of Life with her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst is the key to surviving and sustaining an efficient offensive rhythm. When Arlecchino is affected by a Bond of Life greater than or equal to a certain percentage of her Max HP, she will enter the Masque of the Red Death state, converting her Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks to deal Pyro DMG which cannot be overridden, and consuming a portion of her current Bond of Life to increase her DMG of Normal Attacks and reduce her Elemental Skill’s cooldown time. Arlecchino’s Elemental Skill can apply Blood-Debt Directives and deal DMG to multiple targets. The Blood-Debt Directives can be absorbed to increase her Bond of Life when she uses a Charged Attack, or heal herself when she uses her Elemental Burst. And her Elemental Burst is the only way to heal herself in combat due to her unique Talent.

If you encounter The Knave as your enemy in the new Trounce Domain, out-healing the Bond of Life and repaying the Blood-Debt Directives she applies to you will be crucial to victory. So long as you are affected by the Bond of Life, all her attacks against you will be enhanced. But if you manage to out-heal the Bond of Life and repay the Debt, you will be rewarded as your Charged Attacks against her are enhanced. As the fight proceeds to later phases, The Knave will gradually reveal more of her true power as her crimson bone wings unfold. Travelers who reach Adventure Rank 40 or higher can now challenge her directly via the

Mixing style, action, and fearsome monsters is a familiar formula for success in action games. However, with its first PlayStation title, Stellar Blade, developer Shift Up is adding a lot of unique flair to the equation. A large point of this distinction comes from its creature design, which quickly became a focal element of the upcoming action-adventure experience.

Stellar Blade incorporates many assets in the creation of its race of behemoths called the Naytiba. These resources include real-life animal research, 3D clay models, and the assistance of famous Korean movie monster designer, Hee-Cheol Jang, who originally came on board as consultant, but ultimately became more involved on the actual design and production of the Naytiba.

We sat down with the studio and monster designer to find out what makes the Naytiba unique, delving into many of their variations, such as the Raven, Stalker, and Gigas to understand the process behind creating a new face of horror in gaming.

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The birth of the Naytiba

PlayStation Blog: Hee-Cheol Jang, how did you get involved with Shift Up and Stellar Blade? Was it your creature designs from The Host and Okja that got the conversation moving?

Jang: I remember visiting the studio one day after being contacted by Mr. Kim [Kim Hyung Tae, Stellar Blade director] and being surprised to see a workshop full of models and drawings. I think he made the offer after seeing my experience in creating clay models – scannable maquettes – for communication and 3D scanning during the design process of [movies] ‘The Host’ and ‘Okja’. At the time, the film industry was moving towards digital models using ZBrush for efficiency reasons, so I was shocked by the idea of using traditional modeling/3D scanning for creature creation for a new console game project.

How did Shift Up decide on what kind of enemy types Eve would face?

Director, Hyung Tae Kim: What Eve encounters is an unknown entity powerful enough to destroy humanity. We deliberately tried to design them to be eerie and unnerving, with missing eyes and faces stuck in the wrong places, which ties in with the content of the game.

The Naytiba have a terrifying, cosmic horror feeling to them. Why choose that direction instead of a more grounded approach?

Kim: Since these creatures never existed, they didn’t need to be realistic. We ac

Pac-Man fans have been eating dots and chomping ghosts for years and there’s no sign that our collective appetites will be satiated any time soon.

But what happens when Pac-Man fans challenge each other to find out whose hunger reigns supreme? This is the question we can finally answer in the arena of competitive eating, offered by Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs coming to PS5 and PS4 with cross-play on May 9. Early access starts May 2 for those who pre-order the Deluxe Edition.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is an online-only 64-player Pac-Man game, played across just as many interconnected mazes. Eat everything in your own maze

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The developer behind the title is Amber Studio, an incredibly diverse team with Pac-passion and excited by the challenge of bringing this gameplay to a wider audience.

In Chomp Champs, every choice made was geared towards bringing more players into the action. For example, a tutorial maze was added at the start of the game to help new players ramp up and get comfortable. Different game modes are included so that hard-core competitive players and casual fans can all find a mode to enjoy.

While there have already been multiplayer Pac-Man games where players compete to be the last Pac standing, what sets Chomp Champs apart is that you can directly travel to other mazes and interact with other players. There’s a variety of mazes like the Autumn maze, showing how Pac-Man’s world changes throughout the seasons, or you can feel some nostalgia with the Mr. Driller maze.

In each match there are 64 players, each with their own maze laid out in a grid connected to neighboring mazes by Mega Tunnels. When the tunnels open you can take the action to your neighbor which opens up a world of crazy gameplay possibilities. 

As the match goes on, the lowest-scoring mazes get slowly eliminated from the playing field. The maze border flashes as a warning, so players know to get out of that maze before it’s too late. Each time a maze is eliminated the remaining mazes click together.

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Rely on your wits in Animal Well, slip into a wetsuit with Dave the Diver and journey through mystical 2.5D realms in Tales of Kenzera: Zau. All three games launch onto PlayStation as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. And there are even more games joining April’s Game Catalog lineup. Let’s take a closer look at each. Aside from Animal Well and Tales of Kenzera: Zau, all titles will be available on April 16.

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Animal Well* | PS5

Explore a surreal, forsaken labyrinth and unravel its many secrets. Discover a mysterious, non-linear, interconnected world as you solve puzzles in over 250 rooms in whatever order you choose. Rely on your wits to avoid danger in this combat-free Metroidvania. You’ll encounter creatures both beautiful and unsettling, and have to decide what is safe and dangerous. Manipulate a pixel-art world in surprising and meaningful ways and try to survive what lurks in the dark. In Animal Well, there is more to the world than what you c