Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

Following the release of Genshin Impact (Free) version 1.3 ‘All That Glitters’ that brought in support for controllers on iOS 14 and a lot more , miHoYo have been showcasing Hu Tao ahead of her banner and story quest going live. Hu Tao is the 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and she is joining Genshin Impact beginning Tuesday with her banner available until March 16th. The Hu Tao story quest in Genshin Impact titled ‘Papilio Charontis Chapter’ will be available permanently beginning tomorrow. You will be able to unlock Hu Tao’s story quest once you’ve reached Adventure Rank 40 or above and have completed the archon quest Chapter I: Act II: Farewell Archaic Lord. Check out the Genshin Impact Hu Tao character demo trailer below: Hu Tao uses a polearm and has various attacks that can change depending on her unique abilities in Genshin Impact to dish out fire damage. A detailed look at Hu Tao’s skills is available here . You can also watch the original Genshin Impact...

After missing last week’s show due to a personal matter (sorry about that everyone) Eli and I dive into this week’s show with a full recap of everything that’s going on in the world of Eli’s latest obsession: Call of Duty. We then recap last week’s Nintendo Direct and all of its major announcements before hitting on all the big topics of the week (or past two weeks, technically) in the world of mobile gaming, including TWO new Final Fantasy 7 mobile games being announced. Links to everything we discuss can be found in the Show Notes below. Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com . We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated! As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is excl...

Inked from developer Somnium Games and publisher Pixmain popped up on the App Store for pre-order way back in early November, which is kind of a long time for a game to be in the pre-order state. All I could think about since that time is just how jaw-droppingly gorgeous the art style was in Inked , and how much I wanted to play it. Well it’s been a long wait but this week Inked finally found its way to iOS and Android devices, and much to my delight its incredible art style is matched by its clever puzzles and touching storytelling, making this more than just a case of style over substance. The world of Inked looks like someone’s sketchbook come to life. Different base colors are used to differentiate the various environments you’ll travel through, and certain elements in each environment are colored differently to highlight them. As you can see in its trailer or any screenshots, Inked has a very unique look. However, a very short time into the game you’ll be greeted by two gigan...

Navigating the world of mobile games is always tricky business. As we’ve talked about numerous times over the years, mobile gaming has a negative stigma in the traditional gaming space, and the timing of multiplatform releases can be integral into how well your game is received. Release on mobile first and other platforms later and you risk people on console and PC thinking “That’s just a crappy port of a crappy mobile game!" Release on mobile and other platforms simultaneously and you risk people thinking “This game isn’t as good as it should be on PC and console because the developers made compromises to make sure it also runs on mobile!" (Yes, I’ve seen this argument A LOT.) The path to victory has regularly been proven to be releasing on console and/or PC first and establishing a strong fan base there, then bringing your game to mobile sometime down the line. In those cases people tend to think “Hey, I love that game on console/PC, now I can play it on the go on my phone...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 26th, 2021. Typically weeks that have heavy Thursday releases have lighter Fridays, but this week isn’t interested in following norms. There are a whole bunch of games to check out today, with Bravely Default II leading the charge. There aren’t a whole lot of big names beyond that, but the eclectic selection includes a number of games that I’m sure will find an audience. We finish things out with the sales, both incoming and outgoing, though it’s a rather smaller list than we generally have on Fridays. As I write this, the Pokemon presentation is upcoming so I can’t say much about what I’m sure includes two very big pieces of news, but we’ll probably catch up on that on Monday. Let’s get going! New Releases Bravely Default II ($59.99) SwitchArcade Highlight! Bravely Default was a surprise hit several years back by being something of an antidote to a tumultuous period for the Final Fantasy brand, but t...

With over 1 million copies sold worldwide, Tales of Vesperia is one of the most celebrated titles from BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., with the Tales franchise garnering a solid following from hardcore fans all over the world. Now, players can revisit the magic as LINE Games’ Exos Heroes launches a special collaboration event that features Tales of Vesperia heroes Yuri Lowell, Estelle, and Flynn Scifo, along with their Exclusive Weapons to boot. Running for two weeks until March 10, the special collab gives players an Increased Chance to pick the three heroes plus their weapons Second Star, White Knight Sword, and Rod. Yuri and his Exclusive Weapon will be available in the first week, while Estelle and her Exclusive Weapon will be available in the second week. Meanwhile, players can score Flynn Scifo simply by participating in the new Core Raid dungeon featuring the crossover until March 10. A 7 Days Gift event will also reward all players with Flynn Scifo. And finally, a free...

At Blizzard’s recently aired BlizzConline , the company announced big changes and additions coming to not just Hearthstone but also news for Diablo , Overwatch , and more. While Hearthstone is getting a brand new expansion and single player mode, the Year of the Gryphon is bringing in the Core set featuring 235 cards that can all be earned for free. This Core set features some returning cards and even 29 brand new cards. These cards are unlocked by levelling up each class. The cards will be unlocked on logging in once the rotation has kicked in. The full Core set of cards can be viewed here . Many of the cards are already in the game right now but they will have some tweaks. Some of my favourite cards like Deathwing (the most fun card for joke decks) and Ysera are getting big reworks for the Core set when it launches. The Core Set & Classic Format for Hearthstone are both coming soon when the Year of the Gryphon launches alongside the new expansion. Details for the Core set ...

With no new Apple Arcade release today, one of the best games on the service gets a major update. RAC7 Games’ Sneaky Sasquatch () has been updated often on Apple Arcade with new content and including events, locations, mechanics, and more. Today, Sneaky Sasquatch was updated to version 1.6 that brings in a new story chapter, the ability to scuba dive (including playing fetch underwater), play as a police officer solving cases, being able to go into sewers, and more. There’s a new smell system for when the Sasquatch smells terrible, pirate treasures and more underwater. Sneaky Sasquatch is also set to get even more updates in the future. Watch the Sneaky Sasquatch trailer below: Out of all the games on the service, it definitely felt like Sneaky Sasquatch and Grindstone were the big games a lot of people I know subscribed to the service to play. Since then, Grindstone has been ported to Nintendo Switch and I’ve seen a lot of people enjoy Little Orpheus from the games relea...

Sony held their first big State of Play event of 2021 just a couple of hours ago, and one of the big announcements during that event was from Square Enix who will be bringing an improved version of last year’s excellent Final Fantasy VII Remake to the PlayStation 5 this summer. Piggybacking on that news was a somewhat surprising announcement about two new Final Fantasy VII mobile games that are in the works. Square Enix has formally announced Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier , slated for release on iOS and Android sometime this year, and Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis , slated for release on iOS and Android sometime in 2022. There’s not a ton of information on either title just yet, but we do know that Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier will be a battle royale game that is set in Midgar before the events of Final Fantasy VII . Here’s the teaser trailer, which looks surprisingly awesome. Then there is Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis , which again we don’t have a ton of info for ...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 25th, 2021. We’ve got a ton of new games to look at today, and time is short. I had to head into the hospital today to get my stitches removed, and I even got some positive test results as a bonus. That has left me with less time than usual for a bigger workload than the norm, but we’ve got summaries of every new game anyway. Let’s get right to it, shall we? New Releases Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection ($29.99) SwitchArcade Highlight! Do you ever find yourself playing the old Ghosts ‘n Goblins games and thinking that they’re just too darned easy ? Well, have I got the game for you! Classic Capcom producer Tokuro Fujiwara returns to bring his baby back from the grave, and he’s clearly not gotten soft in his age. This game is stupid-hard. Yes, even more so than the previous games, if you play on the normal difficulty. There are difficulty options but if anything those have only made Fujiwara more ruthless. I...