World Leaks

SEGA has had an incredible year with huge releases such as Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble.

However, it seems the best is yet to come as fans eagerly await the launch of Metaphor: ReFantazio, the next game from the developers behind the modern Persona series and Catherine.

Atlus

Metaphor: ReFantazio has a nostalgic ’60s aesthetic[/caption]

Atlus

Costume designs were plucked straight from Swinging London[/caption]

Sega and Atlus have been releasing numerous trailers for the upcoming game, and the look and name of one of the chara3cters has led fans to question if a crossover will happen.

Metaphor’s character Catherina bears a striking resemblance to Catherine’s character Rin, with her bobbed pink hair.

Not only do they have similar names and styles, but the two share the same character artist, Shigenori Soejima.

We sat down to talk to Soejima-san but the artist claims that any similarity is coincidental.

He tells me: “I thought pink hair would stand out in a fantasy setting, and look cool. 

“I understand that the hairstyle is similar as well, but there’s no relation between Catherina and Rin. I didn’t intend there to be.”

However, a Catherine crossover isn’t the only thing fans have been begging the long-time Persona developers for.

The modern Persona series follows life in Japanese high schools with a dollop of dungeon crawling thrown in for good measure.

As Persona gained popularity in the West, the fans have been desperately asking for a game in the series based in Europe or North America.

This always seemed an unlikely scenario given that the studio behind Persona is Japanese and uses their life experiences to shape the stories.

However, Metaphor: ReFantazio might be giving fans a taste of what they’ve asked for, with inspiration drawn directly from London.

More specifically, Swinging London and the fashion scene that emerged out of that time period.

Soejima-san says: “I definitely wanted to mix modern and classical designs with how they developed in fashion.

“The major influence was Swinging London fashion, which was something that was popular in the sixties and seventies in England.

“In the eighties things got very into t-shirts and jeans. But during the sixties and seventies, designs were really over-designed, very vivid and lively.”

This inspiration can be seen all throughout Metaphor’s fashion design with bright and vibrant colours, strong contrasts, and vivid designs.

You can see some characters mimicking popular models at the time like Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, with mini skirts, cascading hair and shift dresses.

As for the men, it’s turtlenecks and neck ties galore, bobbed hair reminiscent of The Beatles, and patterned suits.

While Metaphor: ReFantazio is set in a fantasy world full of cathedrals, castles, and dragons, there’s something grounded in its fashion design.

The Swinging London fashion scene was all about rebellion, and it feels fitting that its styles would be at home in a story about political tensions and a plot to overthrow the government.

We may not have a Persona game set in the West yet, but Metaphor: ReFantazio’s mediaeval take on Swinging London is the closest we’ve ever been.

If you want to read more about the game, check out our Metaphor: ReFantazio preview, or you can try the Metaphor: ReFantazio demo for yourself.

PRINCESS Beatrice is pregnant with her second child, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The royal and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who already share one child together, are expecting their latest bundle of joy in spring next year.

theroyalfamily

The royal family released this image of Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi with the happy news[/caption]

Getty

Princess Beatrice is pregnant with her second child[/caption]

The couple had daughter Sienna in 2021 – but Edoardo also has son Wolfie from a previous relationship.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are very pleased to announce that they are expecting their second child together in early spring; a sibling for Wolfie, aged eight, and Sienna, aged three.

“His Majesty The King has been informed and both families are delighted with the news.”

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PLAYSTATION has been having a weird day made worse by the fact that the PlayStation Network was down for hours.

People woke up to find that they couldn’t play their favourite games online, but at least another problem with PlayStation’s online functions was fixed.

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People noticed strange ads appearing on their home page[/caption]

The outage lasted several hours for reasons PlayStation is yet to reveal to players, but the confusion over PS5’s online activity doesn’t end there.

Hours before the whole network went down, preventing players from purchasing and downloading games or playing them online, PS5 users noticed something strange on their home screens.

Usually when you hover over a game you want to play on your PS5, you are greeted by the game’s name and some of the artwork.

This lets you easily tell which game you are about to boot up, without trying to look at the small icons.

However, players were instead greeted by a number of confusing messages that were unrelated to the game and often out of date.

People were posting screenshots of a number of different pages they were faced with including YouTube videos or Patch Notes about the game selected.

Others reported seeing adverts for different upcoming games and even out of date movies like Into the SpiderVerse.

Initially, players thought that PlayStation was trialling showing adverts on the home screen, something that Xbox has been doing for a while.

Players have widely criticised Xbox showing full-screen adverts when you boot up your console, and a similar change by PlayStation would be just as unpopular.

Luckily, it appears that spamming players with seemingly random ads wasn’t what PlayStation intended.

In fact, PlayStation has said that it has no intention of changing how the home screen usually displays.

The PS5 home screen has now returned to its usual self, showing players full screen art of the game they’re about to play.

PlayStation tweeted to fans that the change to the game screens was a technical error and completely unintended.

The tweet reads: “A tech error with the Official News feature on the PS5 console has since been resolved. 

“There have been no changes to the way game news is displayed on PS5.”

Between the network outage and the messed up home screen it’s been a weird day for PlayStation fans.

If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out why Final Fantasy wasn’t in Astro Bot.