Foamstars (PS5/PS4) - 4v4 Splatoon-Like - February 6, 2024

[6souls]

https://twitter.com/SOKENsquareenix/...729288192?s=20

[6souls]

[Tyrath]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXVI/comme...ideo_sound_on/

This is the best and only good thing to come out of this game

[6souls]

PS5 Open Beta Announced for Friday, September 29 – Sunday, October 1

SQUARE ENIX® has announced a playable worldwide open beta for FOAMSTARS™, its brand-new foam party shooter exclusive to PlayStation, which will commence on September 29. Revealed during today’s State of Play broadcast, the “FOAMSTARS OPEN BETA PARTY” invites PlayStation 5 players to experience this over-the-top, chaotically foamy competitive shooter in advance of its official early 2024 release. Access to the beta is free and available to download from the PlayStation™ Store when live.

As a thank you to every player who takes part in the open beta, an exclusive cosmetic item for the character Soa will be given upon downloading the full game at launch.

“FOAMSTARS OPEN BETA PARTY" weekend schedule:

• Friday, September 29 @ 6pm PDT – Sunday, October 1 @ 11.59pm PDT

Sony flew influencers and YouTube personalities from all over the world out to LA last week to try out the games featured in the showcase. Reactions to the game have been positive saying it's basically Splatoon and it's fun.

[6souls]

February 6th, Free for PS+ Subs Until March 4th

SQUARE ENIX® has announced that FOAMSTARS™, its new online 4v4 foam party shooter exclusively for PlayStation®5 (PS5®) and PlayStation®4 (PS4®), will launch globally on February 6, 2024. To bring the foam party to as many players as possible, FOAMSTARS is included in the PlayStation® Plus monthly game line-up from launch to March 4, 2024, giving all subscribers the chance to redeem, download, and play at no extra cost. Players who redeem during this period will keep the game in their PlayStation Plus library and be able to continue to play for as long as they have an ongoing subscription. Beginning on March 5, 2024, FOAMSTARS will be available for $29.99 via the PlayStation® Store and requires a PlayStation Plus subscription.

FOAMSTARS will receive free themed seasonal updates over the span of one year. Seasons present players with an array of new experiences, including cosmetics, playable characters, maps, and game modes. Each season will come with an optional Premium Season Pass for $5.99. Those who purchase the Premium Season Pass will immediately unlock Season Pass characters and can earn additional season-specific cosmetics.

Three PvP multiplayer gameplay modes will be available at launch, including Smash the Star, Happy Bath Survival, and the newly revealed Rubber Duck Party. Each mode has three maps expertly designed to intensify the gameplay experience and deliver original, fun, and strategic experiences with every match. As an added challenge, maps are randomized for matchmaking to keep everyone on their toes.

In addition, Foamstar and Squad Missions introduce solo and team based PvE experiences, where players are tasked with protecting Bath Vegas from a series of randomized encounters. Missions give players the opportunity to learn about the FOAMSTARS athletes, hone skills, and play with friends, helping everyone to feel prepped and ready to foam in the competitive PvP matches.

Lastly, FOAMSTARS will contain numerous in-game Challenges that yield exciting rewards, such as a new playable character, or hefty experience bonuses for Season Pass progress, to those who complete the varied in-game foamy tasks.

[6souls]

SE's first AI game

https://twitter.com/gamedevdotcom/st...87385803485653

[Kaisha]

Checked it out for a couple hours on PS4 since no one else I know did across various groups. Some quick thoughts in that time:

- I absolutely hate everything about this game's writing and voice acting. Thankfully I can zero out the volume on the latter, since I doubt even having it in Japanese would make me tolerate how they never shut the hell up.

- Framerate is all over the place, and gets worse as the map is filled with more foam (non-issue on PS5 I'd hope). Bit embarrassing they couldn't maintain a target imo when there's only ever 8 players onscreen at once

- Gyro aiming is a plus
- Match music is surprisingly good and probably the highlight for me


- It's a 4v4 game, with 6 out of the 8 characters available from the start, with skills tied to each character. You can't pick duplicates on your given team. Why they tried to make this a hero shooter with such a small cast is beyond me

- No one likes battle passes that give character-specific rewards but here we are again

- Game utilizes FSR on PS4 (PS5 also I figure), and it's real bad about hiding it with the rampant ghosting/artifacts, especially on the team intros, pictured in the spoiler.

Spoiler: show

- The Duck mode with the tug-of-war payload is aggravating as hell to play due to how it handles collision against the mobile duck thing. You have to run up a ramp on its backside to reach its top to take claim of it, but the server likes to keep nudging you around, even when you're supposed to locked in place on top getting the dash prepared.

- Single player content of what I saw was mainly wave-based objective defense. Got bored of it real quick, and the dialog was a major turn-off.

- For whatever reason Canada has its own matchmaking region (can change at the main menu) and it's slow as hell during east-coast prime time. Had to shift mine over to USA to get queue times under 2min. Why there isn't a West/East North America option instead is beyond me.

- There's nothing on the characters to differentiate what team they're on other than their outline colour, which gets confusing at times when some of the character's default looks are aligned with a specific foam colour.

- The core gameplay with the 4v4 mode where you take out the enemy team's marked target X amount of times is actually quite alright. Surfing the foam to get around feels good. I prefer the characters with the shotgun-style spreads, so that further limits which of the 6 I play that I have access to. Building up foam on the ground with your primary weapon seems pointless. Better off using a skill on a character that dumps a decent amount in one spot to create an unsafe/choke point for the opposite team to either have to also pop a skill to neutralize, or slowly whittle it down with their guns.

- I like having to slam into enemies with the surf board to finish them off, although most players I came across seem oblivious to knowing you can help your teammates out of a dying state via the same means, despite the mandatory tutorial making you do it at least once.

- I really don't care for this Barbie-doll Anime aesthetic or the character designs


Probably going to put more time in it in the coming month since the trophy list is rather easy looking, and I like the core mode. I don't know if it has any legs, especially when next month rolls around and its $30 price tag gets slapped onto a game that already has over $200 in MTX cosmetics and a battle pass.

[6souls]

Plot twist: It's canon that the stars produce their own foam and spray each other with bodily fluids

[Kaisha]

Sorry for the bump - https://www.square-enix-games.com/en...-season-update

Game pretty much going into maintenance mode w/ a fixed rotation of events after January.