Scope out some new stories, try a few demos, in Steam's visual novel fest

No Man's Sky developers recently teased its next update, titled Echoes. It's out now and it adds a new race of robots, expanded space combat, and a series of story quests that tie many of its new features together.

Entergram will release CIRCUS-developed romance visual novel D.C.5 ~Da Capo 5~ for PlayStation 4 and Switch on December 21 in Japan for 9,878 yen, listings at retailer such as Amazon Japan and Biccamera reveal.

Even cursed years such as 2020 can occasionally hide small nuggets of greatness. One such nugget was the curious visual novel Milky Way Prince, which beautifully mixed surreal 2D images with even more surreal 3D backgrounds, all wrapped up in a toxic love story. Just when you thought a visual novel couldn’t get any more stylish, developer Lorenzo “Eyeguys” Redaelli comes back to one-up themself with Mediterranea Inferno, a rare game that makes you want to gobble its colours up with your eyeballs. Oh, and it’s out right now.

PROTOTYPE will release a Switch version of yuri visual novel The Curse of Kudan on December 21, the publisher announced. It will feature English, Japanese, and Chinese language options.

YouTube is trying something really cool on Android phones. You know how you sometimes have a song stuck in your head, but you don't know what it's called? Well, YouTube is testing a way for you to find that song by humming, singing, or even just recording a bit of it.

PROTOTYPE will release Key-developed romance visual novel Kud Wafter: Converted Edition for Switch on November 22 in Japan for 5,280 yen, the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals.

Publisher dramatic create and developer HaccaWorks* have announced otome visual novel Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri for Switch and PC (Steam). It will launch in 2024 worldwide with English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language options.

MiHoYo have released Genshin Impact 4.0's update, adding a new area, story elements, characters, domains and equipment to the gacha-driven free-to-play action RPG, which I remember having a lot of fun with last year. I've since inhaled a vast amount of shonen anime, and have accordingly been looking for a moment to spend time with Genshin, one of the better anime games on the shop - perhaps this is it.

G-MODE and Plus81 have announced Shinjuku Soumei, a visual novel “that questions the value of life in a city where life and death intersect.” Platforms and a release date were not announced.

Aokana: Four Rhythms Across the Blue studio sprite has announced visual novel everlasting flowers for PlayStation 4 and Switch. It will launch in 2024 in Japan with English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese language support.

The latest Forged in Aeternum features the New World team talking about the process of adding 2.5d cinematics to the game in order to create additional opportunities to flesh out story and lore content. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is set to become a much bigger game next month with the release of the Phantom Liberty expansion, but fans of the open-world RPG by CD Projekt Red don't have to wait for the expansion to experience some brand new content in Night City, thanks to some new quests made by fans.