[GameSpot] - Princess Connect Re:Dive Kicks Off The Holidays With New Event And Characters

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Developer Cygames and publisher Crunchyroll Games are bringing some holiday cheer to Princess Connect Re:Dive with a new story arc called The Carol That Never Was. The storyline begins November 22 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET and will be available to play until December 6 at 2:59 PM PT / 5:59 PM ET, adding two new holiday-themed characters and a special edition boss battle.

The Carol That Never Was introduces Chika (Holiday), a holiday-themed rendition of Princess Connect Re:Dive's Chika, a two-star character best served at supporting allies in PvE battles. Chika (Holiday) maintains her specialty as a support character, possessing powerful skills aimed at buffing allies and regenerating TP. Her special Union Burst ability summons three unique spirits to aid her in battle.

Chika (Holiday) will be available as a brand-new Focus Gacha, running from November 22 to December 7, but she won't be added to the regular Premium Gacha pool afterwards. So once she's gone, she's gone for good and you'll no longer be able to unlock her.

The event also adds Kurumi (Holiday) to Princess Connect Re:Dive. No need to rely on gacha to unlock her--to earn Kurumi (Holiday), you'll have to complete The Carol That Never Was' special-edition boss battle a total of five times on any difficulty. As Kurumi (Holiday) will only be available so long as The Carol That Never Was storyline is live in the game, you'll have until December 6 to unlock her.

First released in Asia in 2018, Princess Connect Re:Dive launched in the US earlier this year as part of Crunchyroll's continued efforts to bring more anime games to Western markets. Since 2016, the publisher has worked on games about established properties, like Mob Psycho 100, as well as original IP with anime-like art styles, like Grand Alliance.

"I think [game publishing] goes in hand with our philosophy, which is our long-term vision to be a more significant kind of piece of that anime ecosystem, of that puzzle," Crunchyroll general manager of games & head of 360 Terry Li told GameSpot. "We already are on the video side, but I think on the game side, there's certainly an aspiration that we want to get more involved in game development, game publishing. Not for the sake of just doing that, but because we do believe that today there's an abundance of games that get made in Asia around this anime ecosystem that don't fully consider a global audience."

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