PlayStation Foamstars (featuring Soa & friends) is launching February 6th.

[Krvavi Abadas]

That's right, the greatest idol in history is finally getting her own starring role in a video game within the next few weeks.
Some notable Soa facts™

1. Her main weapons are dual foam pistols ​
2. She never lets anyone burst her bubble​
3. Her arch nemesis is Mel T.​

Critics who played the game at Square Enix's various events have called it "a highlight at SGF" and "a responsive experience that feels finely tuned with genuine care", so it is truly the project to watch.

 

[Jahranimo]

You know, if I remember by then I would like to try this out. I did hear some good things from the press that were at SGF.

 

[Rooster]

This kinda game strikes me as the type that starts ok and isn't bad but nevertheless has its playerbase crater after a bit.

But the character designs (which imo range between quite good and quite generic) and general campiness make me think it'll have a dedicated cult fanbase.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

*In an hour after this post.

Get in while you can! If you download and play the beta, you'll get a free bonus outfit for Soa herself once the game launches!

(Do note that the beta is currently only on Playstation 5 for now, though i'd imagine they'll do a second one on PS4 closer to launch.)

 

[Raccoon]

obligatory "splatoon for straight people" joke

curious to hear what people think of this, if any of you try it for some reason

 

[Jahranimo]

I'll give it a whirl sometime tomorrow. I heard despite its shameless take on foam mechanics it's fun, so curious to see how it is.

 

[Scrawnton]

Tried the beta on PS5. My hot take? When this bombs, Square Enix's continued decline will be unstoppa-bubble!!!

 

[LonkFromPA]

Foamstar Bomba.

 

[LonkFromPA]

Tried the beta on PS5. My hot take? When this bombs, Square Enix's continued decline will be unstoppa-bubble!!!

This game will be shutdown in less that 6 months. Book it.

 

[Scrawnton]

For the record, the tutorial mentioned how you'd be "unstoppa-bubble" at least three times. That's literally enough to kill the vibe and tank this game on its own. Everything about it just seems so... forced? It's a blatant attempt at a GAAS cash grab that has no identity despite it appearing to have one.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

putting it on PlayStation Plus was a smart move, and should hopefully ensure it doesn’t have the same player retention issues that projects like Babylon’s Fall and Chocobo GP had. (if you end up missing it during the free period, the game will cost a still somewhat reasonable $29.99)

 

[zumaddy]

Square Enix has confirmed Foamstars has AI generated art in it. Disappointing.

 

[komicer]

Incredibly disappointing of Square Enix. Every time they win a bit of the fanbase back, the corpos love to squander them on the most inane decisions. Given how much artistic talents who would work for SQ too.

 

[xtoc]

Yeah i can't see this different of beign a splatoon ripoff and not even a little.
Real question: As this is only beign released on Sony consoles, is this paid by Sony?

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

genuinely incredible writing. do note that Soa is the only character who's like this. everyone else can only fire Foam using their weapons.
as expected from the Open Beta, the base gameplay is still excellent. but there's a few quirks i'm iffy on.

• the single-player missions (basically a smaller version of the co-op tower defense mode,) are extremely short and easy, being a 2-3 hour long tutorial for the most part. the rest of the game's (genuinely amusing) writing exists in the form of various in-universe podcasts and videos that randomly play in the main lounge.
• the cosmetic microtransactions are absurdly expensive, totaling around 45 dollars for a full set. in a game that is supposed to cost 30$ once the PS Plus giveaway period ends. i feel like most paid multiplayer games out there have similar content, but it's still worth noting.
• there's an utterly bizarre gatcha gem system for randomly upgrading each character's skills, with three slots to add. i'm not even sure if these actually do much.
• Square has a bad tendency to abandon their online games after a few months of support, and there's a concerning chance it might continue here. especially considering they made a statement about "reducing outsourced development and focusing on in-house large-scale game development" shortly after release.

Square Enix has confirmed Foamstars has AI generated art in it. Disappointing.

for reference, this is the AI content in question.

fairly generic images that solely appear as "album covers" in the game's gallery. i definitely think the issue was far overblown for what it was and only continued people's dismissive nature towards the game since it's initial reveal.

it's also far from the worst thing Square Enix has done with AI. having the only official English localization of a historically significant visual novel be a "tech demo" with a broken AI-powered text parser is definitely a more pressing issue. overshadowing it's legacy outside of Japan by making it "one of the worst games ever".

 

[BlackthornOrion]

genuinely incredible writing. do note that Soa is the only character who's like this. everyone else can only fire Foam using their weapons.
as expected from the Open Beta, the base gameplay is still excellent. but there's a few quirks i'm iffy on.

• the single-player missions (basically a smaller version of the co-op tower defense mode,) are extremely short and easy, being a 2-3 hour long tutorial for the most part. the rest of the game's (genuinely amusing) writing exists in the form of various in-universe podcasts and videos that randomly play in the main lounge.
• the cosmetic microtransactions are absurdly expensive, totaling around 45 dollars for a full set. in a game that is supposed to cost 30$ once the PS Plus giveaway period ends. i feel like most paid multiplayer games out there have similar content, but it's still worth noting.
• there's an utterly bizarre gatcha gem system for randomly upgrading each character's skills, with three slots to add. i'm not even sure if these actually do much.
• Square has a bad tendency to abandon their online games after a few months of support, and there's a concerning chance it might continue here. especially considering they made a statement about "reducing outsourced development and focusing on in-house large-scale game development" shortly after release.

for reference, this is the AI content in question.

fairly generic images that solely appear as "album covers" in the game's gallery. i definitely think the issue was far overblown for what it was and only continued people's dismissive nature towards the game since it's initial reveal.

it's also far from the worst thing Square Enix has done with AI. having the only official English localization of a historically significant visual novel be a "tech demo" with a broken AI-powered text parser is definitely a more pressing issue. overshadowing it's legacy outside of Japan by making it "one of the worst games ever".

genuinely, if that's what AI came up with, why did they even bother using AI? Coulda gotten the same results with none of the backlash by just licensing some pictures off Getty Images or, heck, sending a couple interns out in the city/to a zoo/to a museum for a couple hours

 

[KingOnion]

genuinely, if that's what AI came up with, why did they even bother using AI? Coulda gotten the same results with none of the backlash by just licensing some pictures off Getty Images or, heck, sending a couple interns out in the city/to a zoo/to a museum for a couple hours

I think it was literally just an experiment, I believe the devs said as much. Being able to say ‘we shipped a game with AI artwork’ is some sort of accomplishment I guess (in particular for SE shareholders it seems).

Ultimately it seems to have been quite benign. I want to check this out since I like the cotton candy aesthetic, but I ain’t paying for PS Plus

 

[Sheldon]

Yeah, these cover images confirm that when the dev said "We were impressed with what the AI came up with", they were taking the piss - either deliberately deluding themselves or humouring some executive fiat - because not only are those pictures generic AF and don't fit the vibe of the world, they still include awful AI errors despite mostly sticking to what AI is best at generating.

• the cosmetic microtransactions are absurdly expensive, totaling around 45 dollars for a full set. in a game that is supposed to cost 30$ once the PS Plus giveaway period ends. i feel like most paid multiplayer games out there have similar content, but it's still worth noting.
• Square has a bad tendency to abandon their online games after a few months of support, and there's a concerning chance it might continue here. especially considering they made a statement about "reducing outsourced development and focusing on in-house large-scale game development" shortly after release.

These two points would combine to give me little faith in the longevity of support, because high mxt prices just screams of trying to squeeze as much as possible out of a small player base you know isn't gonna grow before even they move on.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

just one (not AI generated) album cover for this release.
now you can experience truly incredible vocals like…..

Scrub baby Scrub baby Scrub that Floor
Come on baby Come on Baby Scrub some more
Scrub it to the top with the lead of all
Scrub it until you top it then we scrub it some more
Cause the bubbles go pop and the troubles go pop

and….

Be double bubble elly double pop pop
Double bubble bubble double bubble don’t stop
Hubble bubble double trouble bubble mic drop
Double over kapow

even if you don’t own a PS4/PS5, I’d still highly recommend listening to it. it really needs to be heard to be believed.
yes, literally every vocal track (except T.G.I.YAY) is entirely about foam and/or bubbles. Even the emotional track about a dull modern life devolves into the singer literally taking a bath to drown his sorrows

 

[OctoSplattack]

I wasn't ready for 90s R&B about bubble baths.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

us PlayStation store link

as it’s part of the essential tier, the games there get cycled out every month. (with the advantage that the game is permanently bound to your account after claiming, as long as you stay subscribed.)

---

in terms of the bigger news…..


Sony ran the first official online tournament for the game, I believe Square was only involved by approving the game choice. so hopefully Sony will keep these going even if official support ever gets dropped.



the microtransaction shop is giving out a free emote for the next few days, with a secondary promotion running that gives you a free crossover board and another Soa outfit for playing three online matches.
the crossover in question is a collab with the Vtuber group Hololive, which did a promotional stream for the game.
they’re also planning to give Soa an outfit based off one of the Vtubers from that group, Botan.

and most importantly, we have the date for the next “season” of new content. March 8th.


new playable character, new single-player missions, new modes. The whole lot.

and Square also dropped a “DJ mix” of the soundtrack, for some reason.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

the new character is Chloe Noir, who was actually hinted at in the various radio broadcasts available since launch, which mention a mysterious “jewel thief” performing heists.

in other news, Square has posted a developer interview about the game on their YouTube channel.

it’s in Japanese with no subtitles, but there’s still a few pieces of concept art and dev screenshots shown off. Soa at one point wielded an actual Mace at one point prior to the decision on having the game focus on Foam guns.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

focusing on those outfits (which seem tailor-made for Halloween) is very unusual, though last season re-introduced Mel T's Pumpkin outfit from the beta as one of the battle pass rewards.
also concerning is the fact this is the first season without a new Foamstar getting added to the game, meaning there's less of a hook for new players to try it. (it's currently 30% off on the PS store until May 23rd, if you missed the PS Plus promo.)

on the other hand, this is the season that's going to add the long anticipated Hololive collab outfits to the game. and for free, at that.

(specifically, the Japanese site says they're unlocked through completing in-game challenges)

---

on the community front, Toylogic has made a series of blog posts on their website going into the game's development. far more technology oriented than the Square video. but it still has a few interesting details. including some code snippets.

//エンジンのBeginPlay
void ALobbyPlayerController::BeginPlay(){
Super::BeginPlay();
// サーバーではサーバー上でのIDとして設定しレプリケーションで同期する
if(HasAuthority()){
LobbyPlayerIDAtServer = FStaticGameUtil::MakeServerUniqueIDHash(this);
}
// ローカル上での初期化をしておく
InitOnLocal();
}
//ローカル上での初期化
void ALobbyPlayerController::InitOnLocal(){
// ローカル上でのみ使用するPlayerIDをハッシュ値で作成しておく
LocalPlayerUniqueID = FStaticGameUtil::MakeLocalUniqueIDHash(this);

/* その他、ロビーで使う様々な項目に対する華麗な初期化コードが並んでいる光景を想像してください */
}
// [RPC/Client] サーバーから呼び出され、クライアント上で実行されるRPC関数として初期化を定義
void ALobbyPlayerController::ClientRPC_InitJoinedLobbyPlayerOnClient_Implementaion(){
// ローカルのプレイヤーシステムの参照をとっておく
ALocalPlayerManager* LocalPlayerManager = FStaticGameUtil::GetLocalPlayerManager();
// InitOnLocalで作成済みのPlayerを登録する。
LocalPlayerManager->RegisterLocalPlayer(LobbyPlayerIDAtServer,LocalPlayerUniqueID,this);
}

(this is specifically code for connecting to the game servers)

and the Japanese fandom ran their first unofficial tourney on April 20th, here's a livestream from the 2nd-place team/player.

 

[ProteusRidley]

Still stuck on Sony eh


welp i didn't realize it only launched 3 months ago. It feels longer.