Stream - Page 7
Ye Shunguang Second Trailer Video
Second trailer video (the small vertical format this time around) for Ye Shunguang released just now. This means we're only a few days away from her banner official release ingame. Again, they keep focusing on her "girl next door" image pushing her hard toward the proxy as a possible love interest.
I'm sure this is going to be one of the best selling banners of all time as people really enjoy this type of characters. Especially if combined with her tragic backstory.
Christmas Celebration art
They just released a new official art for christmas from the Genshin Impact team. The three "ally" Fatui Harbinger celebrating christmas with us. Columbina with the christmas hat was ultra cute, but watching Sandrone near her playing with the hat was also absolutely adorable.
We're totally going to get Sandrone playable in a future patch later in the year. I want to play a team with just Fatui Harbingers (Arlecchino, Sandrone, Columbina and Wanderer) and see how it plays.
Yes, I know there's technically Tartaglia, but honestly I never liked his character or gameplay much.
Sereniel Home Screen is hot!
I just leveled up Sereniel in Chaos Zero Nightmare and unlocked her home screen…and honestly, what is this? It feels kind of off, like it really doesn’t fit with the game’s otherwise dark tone. It looks like they’re leaning hard into the “hot character” appeal to lure players in, but that’s not why I started playing. I was here for the horror side—the sci-fi atmosphere, fighting the unknown, the creeping trauma and psychological weight. That part still hits, especially in the new story segment (see post at https://blog.emptyblue.it/impression/chaos-zero-nightmare-sereniel-is-here-the-new-story-segment-was-good ), but this direction feels a bit disconnected.
Ye Shunguang 9 minutes trailer
I really wasn’t expecting them to drop a nine-minute trailer for the upcoming new character Ye Shunguang. That’s a lot, and it definitely feels like they’re going all-in on the promotion this time. Honestly though, it works. They did a great job making her come across as much more approachable and warm, especially when compared to the hot-but-stoic teacher Yixuan. I find myself liking her a lot more than I initially thought I would.
Now I’m really curious to see what her story is going to be about next week. The whole memory loss issue she’s dealing with sounds like it could get pretty dramatic if they lean into it. Still, knowing this game, I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up finding some conveniently magical way to fix everything in the end and I’m kind of hoping that’s the case.
Snowish Laru is the first limited unit!
Snowish Laru is supposed to be the first real limited unit of Stella Sora. I heard they fixed the rates of the monthly pack retroactively to be in line with Hoyoverse ones (instead of half which was really weird), but I worry it may be too late to save the game as most of the people have already moved away from it.
I really enjoy the gameplay of Stella Sora and it doesn't occupy too much of my time, but somehow it feels like it missed the right timing to become a mainstay. I guess I'll ride it to the end.
Patch 1.1, so far a bit boring...
I've played through an hour or so of the new area in Duet Night Abyss Patch 1.1, but I'll be honest here. It's boring and the characters are boring. There's nothing really standing out in this compared to what we got in 1.0 in terms of story depth, I wonder if it's some curse as it's always the oriental inspired zones that end up the most boring.
Again though, it's just the first patch of the new zone, maybe it'll improve with the sequels as they're still trying to set up the characters that will be part of it.
Final chapter of the Lostbelt Arc, what will happen?
The FGO final chapter of the Lostbelt Arc is really amazing. Just going through the story, revelations after revelations, surprise after surprise. I hate Marisbury for what he did to the poor Olga Marie, but I don't really know how they're going to continue from here.
Victory means disappearing as the FGO timeline is a lostbelt by itself, how will the story end tomorrow? What will part 3 be about considering the game can't end yet? Will they change protagonist or...
Natlan crew in Mondstadt Event
There's a new story based event in Genshin, seems to be centered around the Natlan crew (Varesa, Xilonen, etc...), but set in Mondstadt. Sort of an exchange program it feels. Not sure what exactly is the link between comics and the arena event that is being prepared though. It seems to have the usual mini games in each different stall and a main story divided into chapters. Seems like one of the mainline events for the patch.
Not sure the connection yet, but I guess they'll explain it further in the story. Time to keep reading.
Furina Voice lines Analysis
One of the things I've been doing in the recent weeks is going through all the voice lines of all the characters in Genshin Impact (and other games as well). I always procrastinated, but there's so much interesting lore in them that I simply can't keep ignoring.
Today was the time of Furina and she's absolutely the most adorable as you can see here. Can I take her home already? To think that I did not like her much judging from trailers alone and now Furina is my favorite character of the franchise together with Citlali.
Extra work on the site systems
Implemented a few more pages like https://blog.emptyblue.it/p/about-me and https://blog.emptyblue.it/anime-seasons/winter-2026 in the blog for users to see.
The idea is that I will cover anime series episode by episode weekly, but in order to do so I want to show people what exactly am I going to cover for the specific season. This page will be updated every season with all the airing anime and specifically which anime series I'm going to cover on a weekly basis.
Not sure yet how much time I want to dedicate to this, but expect around 7-8 series per season at least.
Dahlia release pre-patch thoughts
There are only few hours separating us from the new Star Rail patch with Dahlia. I really can't wait for it!
It seems like this is supposed to be the "real" ending of Penacony, even though I'm not really sure what they mean by that. Does it mean that what we saw in the last patch of the cycle was all fabricated by someone?
I quite like the last patch of Penacony with Sparkle and Firefly aboard the flying ship with the chase to find all the Sparkle bomb dolls and the fireworks at the end so it would be a bummer if it turns out it was all a fabricated lie.
Jahoda is an amazing character
I read a few crumbs about Jahoda's backstory and I feel like it would be nice if they had some event going further into the details. Especially to what happened before she met with Nefer and how she ended up replacing her arm with a mechanical one.
She seems like an underutilized character in the current Nod Krai story due to her being just a normal human in a story centered around supernatural entities. And despite that she still had the courage to stand and protect Columbina from Rerir nearly dying in the process.
Hopefully the future chapters will bring her some justice.
Arknights Endfield release date confirmation
Arknights Endfield is confirmed to be released on the 22 January 2026. This is one of the games I'm most looking forward in 2026. Hopefully it'll be a hit! I'll be playing the JP Server as usual to avoid early EOS as it happens on other games.
The whole idea behind the Factorio gameplay is smart and I feel it could be a hit if they deliver it properly. Of course it's the first self-published game of this company so who knows what'll happen.
The key is to have enough content dripping over time to keep the people hooked, hopefully they'll deliver on that.
Azur Promilia Journal Start and Publisher Announcement
It is now confirmed that Yostar will be the publisher of Azur Promilia in Japan which is overall a good thing. I guess expected considering they publish Azur Lane as well.
I don't think they did a great job as developers in Stella Sora, but as publishers I never had major issues with them. I'll almost surely play on the JP server as usual as those are the ones that last longer, Europe servers are generally DOA.
This journal will be used for all the information and gameplay activities that I'll do in Azur Promilia before and after the release.
Samurai Remnant Collab Video promotion
This is an old clip that was released during the new year stream before the release of the Samurai Remnant collab in FGO. It doesn't matter how many times i see it though, I always end up smiling because Tamamo Aria is just way too adorable of a fox. I can understand why Musashi is like "Can I take her home?!".
It's a shame she never got to be playable in the game aside from some quick support skills in the Samurai Remnant game. Her personal servant story with the search for the "sword" was one of the most endearing of the game. Also it would be good for variety because we need more Tamamo playable, but not only the adult forms.
Boring event, but great character designs
As I more or less predicted in my previous entry, the new Nikke event story ended up being a letdown for me. The narrative focus leaned way too heavily on the older woman, and it just never really managed to hook me. I can see what they were aiming for with the whole memories angle, and on paper it’s not even a bad idea, but in practice, it just didn’t land.
On a brighter note, I did roll for Brid just now (see image), and wow, she’s absolutely top-tier in terms of character design. I’m a huge fan of these more “office-style” looks compared to the usual girlish aesthetics. Something about that mature, professional vibe just works really well, and Brid delivers it perfectly.
Columbina release confirmed
This is the official confirmation that Columbina will be released in the next patch of Genshin Impact, and honestly, it feels so deserved. Since she’s the titular main heroine of this story chapter, it’s almost guaranteed she’ll be a strong asset, especially for any Lunar reaction teams that might come into focus going forward. I’m really excited to see how she moves the current meta and what her kit brings to the table.
Now the real question for me is whether I should roll for her weapon too… I definitely need to look into whether it actually boosts her performance in a meaningful way or if it ends up being more of a side-grade compared to some of the stronger F2P options we already have.
Nazuka released (wind character)
Nazuka (first new wind character) has been released in Stella Sora and I managed to get her with quite few rolls overall. I tried her ingame, but she doesn't feel like the "main dps" kind of character at least against bosses because her attacks have a big AOE and do less damage against a focused enemy as far as I tried.
I really need to get to read the new story chapter, but as I mentioned before it always feels like a drag reading a gacha game story that is not voiced...
Games isn't selling that well either so there's not much hope of it changing in the short term at least.
Old Teacher was funny
This teacher was easily one of the funniest elements in Pani Poni Dash. I loved how they kept that running joke of him threatening to haunt his students if they dared to disobey him, such a simple gag, but incredibly effective. Honestly, as a classroom management strategy, it worked way better than it had any right to. You know how chaotic students can get otherwise, so the absurdity of it just made the joke land even harder every time it came back.
I’m seriously considering making a full post about the entire Pani Poni Dash series once I finish this rewatch. It really deserves it. That said, it’s probably going to take a few months, since I already have way too many other series going on at the same time.
Vampires coming in! Catchy PV!
This PV for the upcoming Reverse: 1999 patch event is genuinely amazing, and I love how it seems fully centered on vampire mythology, with Repuska clearly taking the spotlight as the protagonist. The whole thing feels steeped in Eastern European influences, from the visual style to the atmosphere and implied folklore, and that’s a huge win for me. One thing I really appreciate about Reverse: 1999 is how strongly it leans into Europe as its main stage. Sure, there are occasional events set elsewhere, but Europe remains the narrative and aesthetic core, and it gives the game a very distinct identity.
That said, as I’ve probably mentioned before, I’m always a bit cautious with Reverse: 1999 events. They tend to swing wildly between being absolutely perfect and painfully boring, with very little middle ground. This one looks promising though, so let’s hope it lands on the right side this time.