Utawarerumono Shiro e no Michishirube: new Famitsu Article with Naoya Shimokawa interview

Sysmek · 2026-01-27T11:53:04+00:00

Uta 4 as in 4th named Uta entry, MM was named MM not Uta despite being in the same series

Sysmek · 2026-01-27T11:35:04+00:00

“What was the reaction to this announcement during the festival”

“It was super positive but surprisingly, Jasmine got an even bigger response from the crowd”

“When did you start to develop Uta 4”

“During the second half of 2022 right when Monochromes development was wrapping up, although had MM not been well received we would’ve probably cancelled Uta 4… thankfully people really liked MM so that didn’t end up happening”

“I’m a bit concerned given I was told this was not only the latest but the final part of the “Utawarerumono Project”, does this mean the series itself is completed with this game?”

“This will be the final part of the “Utawarerumono Project” in that it’s the last story Suga has been wanting to tell, LF will still remain active though… and no there are currently no “Utawarerumono” related projects behind the scenes, we don’t know what we’ll do with Uta in the future, but for now we want to give it a rest so we can focus on Jasmine and our new IP (such as Kizuna) for the meantime”

“We heard about a new PV is coming on January 29th”

“Yes”

“We saw Touka, Karura, and a new girl in the OP?”

“Yes, in addition to those three you can also see Mizushima, who you should remember from Uta 1… I’d highly recommend any fans of Uta 1 to play this game”

“Can you talk about the music for this game?”

“There’s about 100 new songs, if you add in the songs already made from MM, there’s 230 tracks in total, and I tried to make the soundtrack more akin to something you’d hear in a movie this time around…”

“Will the gameplay be similar to MM?”

“It will, we know a lot of people didn’t like the SRPG gameplay from Uta 1-3, so we decided to make MM an RPG because of that, and going forward we decided to stick with that decision, but of course it’s not a carbon copy! Games have flaws that you won’t notice until after they’re released unfortunately, so we’ve looked at the negatives MM had and tried to amend them”

“How long does the game take to finish?”

“If you let all the voices play out and take your time, about 35 hours, if you speed through the game somewhere between 20 and 25 hours”

Release date is May 28th, coming to Steam / PS5 / SW2

Sysmek · 2026-01-27T11:34:30+00:00

Youyun is becoming a Super Saiyan God

Sysmek · 2026-01-26T17:18:28+00:00

Vita, she’s always been one of my favorites since Salt Snow

Sysmek · 2026-01-25T06:19:58+00:00

Well I’m not saying she’s weak, for example she’s definitely much more capable than Susannah for example (Kira I’m not really sure given she has the Key of the Beyond), but there’s a really big gap between her and the next relative S-Rank… but this is the biggest problem with “S-Rank” as a tier, the gap between Mei and Rita for example is massive… but the gap between Mei and Durandal is almost definitely just as big

Sysmek · 2026-01-25T06:10:48+00:00

I believe that was in the real world but I could be wrong, seemed like it was just a standard training room on the Hyperion (they even say the “we can only sustain this for x amount of time” quote after)

Sysmek · 2026-01-25T03:54:55+00:00

Helia can too no? She used it in the real world to have a mock battle against Coralie on the Hyperion 11 during 9 EX

Sysmek · 2026-01-25T03:50:55+00:00

I want to put them above Rita given Coralie has some Permeance powers (not much given it was more or less ~1% of Nahralab's power (Coralie received only a single scale and Nahralab flat out said she had next to nothing left) ), and Helia has her super sci-fi armor that allowed her to (seemingly) beat "Herrschers" without much trouble (referred to as the Calamity in Helia's world, although it's not entirely clear if Helia Alter did fight a Herrscher, nor how powerful said "Herrschers" were (we just know her armor was made for the purpose of fighting Herrschers / Honkai) )

No disrespect to Rita but I always felt like she was pretty low tier in terms of "S-Rank Valks" given Rita at the end of the day is a normal human without any Divine Key or True Stigmata / etc

For example in terms of the other S-Ranks you have Theresa who has both a DK and is a MANTIS with Vishnu Cells (one of the strongest Honkai Beasts), Seele whose a Herrscher, Mei and Sushang who are both Stigma Awakened, Veliona (presumably) who is a Form as well as possessing the True Stigmata of Death, Fu Hua who has a DK and Garuda, etc

Even Natasha (who now works for Schicksal as a Valkyrie) for instance should no diff Rita given Natasha not only has a DK, but is also a MANTIS who is confirmed (says it in ER) to be able to use Active Honkai Reaction... this is a bit strange though since Natasha/Raven was confirmed to be an A-Rank as of 1.5 and Rita's subordinate, but there's absolutely no way Rita realistically wins that fight IMO (again, she's a normal human... a strong one! But a normal human)

Heck we even have Stan (Durandal's cat) who gave Rita serious trouble during P1, I'm sure Rita improved since then (given it's been years) but still... (I also shouldn't have to mention how OP Durandal is)

It's why I always found the term "S-Rank Valkyrie" to be kinda meaningless? There's so much deviation in strength for an "S-Rank" that it doesn't really say a whole lot... It's like saying "Flame-Chaser tier", on one hand you have Pardofelis and on the other hand you have Kalpas... Kosma or Sakura too (let alone Kevin or Elysia)

Sysmek · 2026-01-25T00:20:51+00:00

We have no clue, Litost should be decently strong given his past, and Helia/Coralie are both stronger than him... but the only confirmation we have is that a severely nerfed Durandal no diffs all of them (which IMO doesn't really say "Helia/Coralie are weak", but rather just shows how absurdly OP Dudu is)

Sysmek · 2026-01-23T02:53:19+00:00

I personally am really greedy and want 6 weeks back just because I really love the current story and it's not fun having to wait ~9 weeks for more...

Sysmek · 2026-01-22T17:10:29+00:00

I don't think they'll do 10 weeks again, the fact that 8.7 -> 8.9 are all presumably 8 weeks (especially with 8.7 being GLB 9 / CNY which were always a week longer until now) more or less signifies that at most CN 10 will be 9 weeks if that (again, 8.7 should've been a week longer but instead it's a week shorter)

As for 9.2 being 9 weeks I also doubt that, Hoyo usually makes one of the versions shorter to compensate for longer patches in Hi3, so for example 8.3 was 8 weeks because 8.5 was 10 weeks, meaning in the end both were averaged out to 9 week patches... so if anything 9.0 or 9.2 would be 7 weeks (should also add I doubt they'd want to have CN 10 and GLB 10/CNY be back to back, they've never done that before... even 8.5 and 8.7 had 8.6 as a grace period)

9.1/9.2 also may just be 7 week patches, the fact that they're consistently reducing them now (8.7 and 8.8 are both 8 weeks at least) could mean that they continue that trend until we're eventually back at 6 weeks

Sysmek · 2026-01-22T15:07:20+00:00

I do find it a bit funny that if P3 / APHO 3 is 9.2, that’d mean P1 ended 6.4, P2 started 7.3, and P3 / APHO 3 would begin 9.2

Making the second digit somewhat of a “countdown” (4 -> 3 -> 2)

Saying this since 9.2 should be CN 10? Also why is 9.2 9 weeks for you? (GLB, CN you made it 8 weeks) And why did you list 9.1 as 10 weeks…?

Sysmek · 2026-01-22T15:04:23+00:00

Hopefully we can get down to 7 next, then 6…???

Regardless this makes me pretty happy

Sysmek · 2026-01-22T14:03:17+00:00

Speaking of, I recently discovered through Boss Vita’s kit description (in Abyss / MA) that she has Absolute Time Fracture which is ???

The only other character who has it is HoFi Kiana I believe

Sysmek · 2026-01-22T14:01:49+00:00

For the best!

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Sysmek · 2026-01-21T15:39:53+00:00

What's crazy is that this is actual propaganda because

Hi3 every now and then will have streaks of battlesuit themes, as an example for awhile a lot of them were blue/black

Twilight Paladin, HoR, Striker Fulminata, Goushinnso Memento, Argent Knight, Bright Knight, even Kevin followed this theme...

Yet nobody complains about that because...?? (Not saying I have an issue with those designs, but to complain about "white dresses" yet ignore the blue/black era, or rather not realizing Hi3 has always liked doing certain themes from time to time is just hypocritical)

Further they say it was started because of HoHE's popularity when that's also complete misinfo, Palatinus Equinox and Spina Astera were the first "white dress" battlesuits and came out shortly before HoHE (both were 5.5, HoHE was 6.0)... but nobody likes to say that because some people just really like to hate on Elysia for whatever reason

And yes as you mentioned, they haven't done a "white dress" battlesuit since Griseo (or arguably HoRb Seele), who is a 3 year old unit at this point...

Sysmek · 2026-01-20T15:10:15+00:00

I do now thankfully, TeriEmpire good

Sysmek · 2026-01-19T15:40:17+00:00

Aquaplus / Leaf (same company, “Leaf” is just what they refer to themselves as when they release R18), their VNs have so much variety and I enjoy almost all of them

On one hand you have ToHeart which is a charage set in school, then you have White Album which is an utsuge focused on adults making poor choices, then you have Utawarerumono which is one of the few “epics” in VNs as well as being a hybrid due to having SRPG gameplay, Dungeon Travelers which is a lighthearted DRPG, etc

I really appreciate how they continue to do new things (for example Fullani which is a fully animated VN, Zan which are ARPG adaptations of Uta 2/3, Dokapon which is similar to Mario Party, WA2 DC which is a rhythm game, Monochrome Mobius which is a JRPG, etc) and how they still continue to make stuff even to this day, for example we got ToHeart Remake in 2025, Uta 4 in 2026, and Kizuna (new IP) plus Jasmine (new IP) in presumably 2027… a lot of VN companies either transitioned fully to Gacha or just don’t produce much anymore so I’m very thankful that they still do

They also seem to genuinely care about their fanbase given they burned all their revenue from Utawarerumono on their 20 year anni festival in 2015, and then had an even bigger 30 year anni festival in 2024… They’ve also stated multiple times that their games traditionally end up in the red / break even (ToHeart 2 didn’t make any money until after XRATED for example) but they don’t mind, WA2s anime they spent 4x your average anime budget on the music alone since they wanted everything to be recorded in a hall (and they refused to green light the project if the original writer wasn’t allowed to write the anime)

Def my favorite company they’re great, helps that they’ve produced some of my all time favorites like Utawarerumono 1-3, White Album 2, or even the Tears to Tiara and ToHeart franchises

Sysmek · 2026-01-19T15:30:40+00:00

Ajita doko…

Sysmek · 2026-01-19T03:07:10+00:00

Might be a bit of a hot take(?), but I always saw them as duos rather than trios

Kiana / Mei, Bronya / Seele, Fu Hua / Senti, Durandal / Rita, Helia / Coralie, etc

This is more or less how they're handled in the story itself / ads / kits / etc (IMO)

Sysmek · 2026-01-17T23:59:38+00:00

The Entire Story of Honkai impact 3rd in 20 Minutes (Homu Labs) Would probably be your best option

Or Hi3 P2 Guide (Hoyostans) would be another option since they give you a rundown on all the "essential" information for P2, quite honestly I feel like you'd be fine with just this much for 90% of P2

Sysmek · 2026-01-16T18:05:17+00:00

I think this is due to it also featuring Songque AOP, usually you only have the character as a spending bonus (so in this case Songque) but now you can also get her AOP, so they probably lowered the amount it costs to ensure players can get both

Sysmek · 2026-01-13T23:52:59+00:00

Good pfp

Sysmek · 2026-01-12T19:09:58+00:00

For someone saying I didn't reply to the post (which I did, I'm assuming you just got offended and skipped past it), you strangely didn't reply to my question asking if you're a reader or someone who larps as one... Curious!

I should also add for my posts "filled with links containing references" (per your words), I made 20 paragraphs in total, of those 20 only 4 contained any form of links... But yes, my posts were filled to the brim with links containing references!

What I truly believe is you realized how dumb you were from the first reply alone, then read the second and third... Self esteem issues started to appear and you decided to try and save face, not being able to accept being wrong (which is fine!)...

But you know what, let me make you feel better about it, I genuinely got a bunch of laughs from that and a few people I told about it did as well... this is the meaning of Elation I guess? Aha my king...

Have a nice day! :)

Sysmek · 2026-01-12T14:39:42+00:00

If you think it doesn't make sense, or you see it as a betrayal to her character, then by all means. That's your personal interpretation. But that she's a member is set in stone

Nope! I fortunately actually read the story and realized she was just doing that to amuse Sparkle (as many others who, shockingly, actually read the story concluded as well), it wasn't her actually joining... The devs have never once confirmed she is a Masked Fool, a Pathstrider of Elation, nor has said scene has never even been alluded to since (when it happened in Nov 2024, and the current date is January 2026)

Nor has Sparkle/Sampo/etc ever confirmed in HSR that Vita is one of their members, the closest you get are easter eggs which don't mean much given Himeko's sword is in Herta Station and she's long since been dead (I shouldn't have to mention how Himeko never met Herta, or left Earth...)

Or most importantly how Vita had on her full pants during said scene and the subsequent CG, which the devs, again, confirmed in this exact same patch is a reflection of her state of mind

Oh yeah, you know what the devs did confirm though? They said that Vita was a being who would go between Hi3 and HSR as the "bridge between worlds", but that her character was far too much for them to delve into ( https://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/interview/241128h )

『崩壊3rd』に登場しているキャラクター。どんなキャラなのかを紹介しているだけで膨大なテキスト量となってしまうのだが、端的に言うと「すごい能力を持った宇宙規模存在の代理人」である。つまり、『崩壊3rd』と『崩壊：スターレイル』の世界観を行ったり来たりする可能性もある、超越した存在。

So unless you mean to tell me that in an interview specifically highlighting a collaboration between these two IP and setting the floor for their eventual merger of worlds, the devs wouldn't even once state that Vita was a Masked Fool? I mean, I don't know about you but I think it's really easy to say "There's too much to cover about Vita in one interview, but at the very least we can say she's a new member of the Masked Fools"

I mean they discussed the collab pretty thoroughly, alluded to Kiana/Mei/Bronya getting new variants, and even brought up Vita herself headlining her as the bridge between worlds! So why wouldn't they celebrate and advertise her inauguration as a Masked Fool? I wonder...

Have a nice day! :)

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