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This is some character design! I'm in! What a crazy week we're getting. We got Not-JSR, now we are getting Not-NiGHTS (even tho this one doesn't seem like it'll play much like it). Great times to be a Not-SEGA fan I guess.

It's time... After more or less a month worth of Open Beta testing the game is OFFICIALLY OUT With as little fanfare as possible! And with less features than I expected The game will still remain an Xbox One exclusive for one more month, since PC players will be able to get their hands onto the game on Late May, as a Microsoft Store Exclusive title. Which frankly hasn't left me very hyped (lack of Steam has hurt some of my fav MS titles before and seeing the way they've been handle the Age of Empires franchise in the last year it seemed like it was a thing of the past). So much for all the platforms I guess? Or maybe people will have to wait further down the line to get other releases (some are speculating a whole year of MS exclusivity)? Some people are even suggesting that since the game requires Gold to be played on Xbox One this will also be the case on PC which is a little too much for me (not that it's expensive, but the game already has quite a bit of nice ways to get money out of me). At least these next weeks are going to be a Lutherfest... Oh Luther! How can you be so flippant! And yet so desirable!

Xbox One Open Beta comes out TODAY! And the news start rolling in! We got numerous blogposts detailing many of the game's mechanics, but the most interesting of them is the explanation of what the mission pass is. As most people expected, is kind of a season pass, the blogpost makes it sound like being a premium user gives you double the rewards but the list they used as an example clearly says otherwise, we are talking about easily three times the amount of items non paying users get, and most of them being the cool cosmetics we've gotten through the years on the Japanese server. That said, if memory doesn't fail me usually the last item on a (paid) season pass list is the item to get the cool kids season pass for the next season so here's hoping this is the case as well on this game. EDIT: Apparently, you can just straight up buy the Gold Mission Pass with Star Gems. So if true (no official word about it AFAIK), that's way more accessible than what I expected! We've also got an Open beta announcement which showcases the EQ schedule for the next two weeks and not gonna lie, it's kinda crappy. Chaos, render of tranquility (IIRC it was just called Chaotic Tranquility back in the day) is a quest where you run around the city field and face enemies from episodes 1 and 2. The Grudge of the Rampaging Dragon I believe is the Floating Continent EQ which novelty was that it was (and I believe it still kinda is) the only way you could face the Chrome Dragon with a 100% certainty, the problem is just that the items said Dragon drop got powercreeped to oblivion really fast (but hey! New item balance might change things out, apparently Elder Rifle is cool now), and I genuinely can't remember what the other EQ was except that I think it was on the coast (I believe it was also one of those Chrome Dragon quests?). Anyway, the schedule is also kinda bad because the beta opens today but apparently we aren't getting anything until Saturday... Well, I guess non-schedulled EQs will probably happen but considering the list of quests you had on the closed beta we are probably not getting any more than those 3 (and Elder might not even show up). ... I guess I'm kinda spoiled with the things that are coming eventually to the game, this is certainly a way more content filled beta than the one we got on Japan, and yet... knowing that the things that are coming are so much cooler than what we are getting now makes me feel a bit let down. (at the very least I wanted to see TD1) Also, what the hell is a Tier mission?

I'm feeling a bit sad about myself because they totally got me, I really want that Tails emote and Sonic hair... Anyway, people have been crunching the numbers and it seems like this pack is worth around $100 (give or take 10 or 20), which is pretty reasonable assuming that the Yen/AC ratio will be similar to the Dollar/AC one. The only questionable things about the pack are that (apparently) getting Ragol memories will be a pain on this server too (you get only 5 on the pack), and this... People are saying that it sounds similar to a key you can get on Japan which grants one-time access to a super quest with stupid exp and droprates, and if they are selling that as a subscription that sounds kinda iffy. Then again, this is pure speculation right now (could be something else entirely but with a similar name) but you might want to ask about this item. EDIT: We got official (from a GM) response on the game's forums regarding the ticket.

Open Beta coming up next week! For Xbox users only. I might be misremembering stuff about JP's open beta days but I'm pretty sure that if this goes on a similar direction we are not only going to get a test on the game (and region exclusive) monetization mechanics, but also the launch of the game is going to be very close to the day the beta closes, hopefully not sent to die right next to FFVII remake. Remember that if you took part of the closed beta this is going to be just an update and you won't have to download the entire game again. Also, all your progress made in the closed beta will be transferred to the Open version! According to SEGA we'll be getting more info about the beta in the coming days so keep an eye out for their social media channels (because I know I won't).