 What's up everybody, I'm TheMangoose, you are awesome and it's time for the monthly summary of the spiritual successors to Paragon. As always, I caution you that this video is meant to recap the progress so far for people that haven't been tracking these games the entire time. If you've been staying up to date with Four of the Minions, then you probably already know all of this. The four games I'll cover are, made of Buff and Core, made of Studios with Predecessor, and Dying Games with Aetherial, Clash of Souls, and Visionary Games with Project Phoenix Rising. For each game, I'll start by answering the big three questions to the best of my ability. Those questions are, when is the alpha? Is it going to be on the PlayStation Network? I say PlayStation Network now instead of the PlayStation 4 because the 5 is set to be released reasonably soon, and will they use the Paragon Heroes? After that, I'll do a brief rundown of the game's history followed by the most recent updates. Made of Buff and Core, when is the alpha? We currently don't know. It was previously scheduled for April 27th, but has been delayed, and there hasn't been any information as to how long that delay will be. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Yes, Made of Buff has already taken strides towards bringing Core to console. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? Also yes, they plan to eventually implement all of the Paragon Heroes. Now the history of the game. Made of Buff started as two separate companies, Unleashed Games and Brain Dead Games. The two merged together and incorporated to become Made of Buff. They released a six-part Proof of Concept, however much of what they showed will not make it into the final product. In fact, they've recently removed the Proof of Concept videos from their YouTube to avoid confusion. If there was one shared theme from the Proof of Concept, it's that Made of Buff is focusing on creating a customizable game so that each player will have a unique experience when playing. They plan to have 15 playable heroes for the Alpha, however I shy away from saying who those heroes will be because they've made a few substitutions. Your best bet to find out is by visiting their website at madeabuff.com. When the Alpha does release, it will have 10,000 slots available for testing. They will be rolling these slots out over time, so don't expect all 10,000 on the first day. There is currently no way to sign up for the Alpha. The best thing to do is join their Discord link in the video description, follow them on Facebook, or sign up for their newsletter on the website so that you can stay up to date on any announcements. The most recent news for Core includes a good look at their map. They allowed several influencers access to the map in order to display the progress to the community. Shameless plug here, but my subscribers got the very first look at the map on for the minions. Made of Buff has also recently announced merchandise available for purchase, giving fans a way to monetarily support the game while receiving something in return. I've already mentioned that they delayed their Alpha, but along with that announcement, they displayed their UI concept which can be found on the YouTube channel. If you have sharp eyes and a good understanding of MOBAs, you can pick out some exciting features that they have planned. Something else I've mentioned already, but is a recent development for the company, is the website, madeabuff.com. Head over there for updates and sign up for their newsletter. On to Omega Studios with Predecessor. When is the Alpha? It's currently in progress. The Alpha released for a few days at the very end of March, but has since been down for updates, but it still is technically in the Alpha stage of development. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Yes, they have a few steps to take towards that goal, but they do plan to bring the game to console. Will they have the Paragon Heroes? Yes, Predecessor will be using the assets released by Epic to eventually bring all the Paragon Heroes back. Omega Studios was founded by Sergeant Smoky, a man who wanted to bring back the legacy era of Paragon by using Epic's assets. Since then, they've picked up a small yet skilled team to handle the development of Predecessor. All of the members of the development team have been streaming their progress on the game, offering fans an unprecedented amount of transparency. They have five heroes currently in the Alpha, Gadget, Muriel, Murdoch, Severog, and Fingbell, but plan to eventually include all of the Paragon Heroes. Probably the biggest recent news out of all the games, Predecessor actually launched their Alpha test. The game was only up for a few days, however we got to see that the map is very similar to Legacy. The Hero Kits have been rewound to Legacy Era with a few improvements, and they are capable of running gameplay on their servers. The Alpha was however plagued by bugs. To be expected for an Alpha, it is what it is, and the team at Omega had to bring the game down for maintenance and improvements. Probably the biggest problem with the Alpha was a large amount of input lag which they planned to fix by implementing something similar to the gameplay ability system used by Epic. Now for undying games with ethereal clash of souls. When is the Alpha? No exact dates here, but you can tentatively expect the Alpha in the summer of this year. It may, you know, move on to the fall. It's definitely going to be this year. I expect summer, but that could change at any time. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Again, yes. They do plan to bring the game to console, but much like the other companies, they plan to get the game working on PC first. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? No, ethereal will create their own world with their own characters. Ethereal was in the works well before the announcement to close Paragon. As such, they aren't limited by the conventions of Paragon and have instead planned a very ambitious evolutionary step in the progress of the MOBA genre. They plan for the game to be 6v6 on a map that has lanes that float on top of each other and an entire class of heroes that can fly. They draw inspiration from a variety of games to create both art style and gameplay. They plan to have a 14 hero roster for their alpha with 2,000 slots available. Undying has decided to have a paid access to their alpha so you can expect to pay somewhere around $20 for a key. There hasn't been much announced for ethereal in the past month. The few updates we've gotten were almost all in the form of new artwork for their myths. They did announce the winners for their lore contest and true to what they said, those two people are now part of the Undying team. While April wasn't a big month for the game, I have a suspicion that there are going to be major things coming in May. And finally, Visionary Games with Project Phoenix Rising. When is the alpha? I don't know, I have no idea when their alpha is going to be at all. I'm very sorry. Will it be on the PlayStation Network? Yes, they also have plans to bring the game to console, but like with the other companies, they have some steps they need to take first. Will they use the Paragon Heroes? No, they made it clear from the beginning that they intend to create their own world in Heroes. Visionary Games and Project Phoenix Rising was probably the first company you heard of that were attempting to create a Paragon 2 as people are fond of saying. They got off to a good start, beginning production of the game before Epic released the Paragon Assets. After the Assets were released, they decided to move forward with their own world in Heroes. While there was a large blow to the company that slowed production for the game in November, they have not stopped creating it. They currently plan to demo the game in the future with a one-lane 3v3 map, but the first thing they will release for the community to play is a full 3-lane 5v5. No big current updates for Phoenix Rising. They have said several times that they do not plan to release any information about the game until they have something that they feel the fans deserve. Hopefully I was able to hit on some key points to put out the information you guys are looking for. If you want weekly updates, big and small, be sure to tune in to For the Minions, a weekly podcast that I host with Mandy Mal every Thursday at 8pm EST. Before I go, I just want to remind everyone that no matter which game you root for, each and every one of these companies is hard at work creating something for us to enjoy. Be a shining light in your favorite community and try to avoid throwing shade at the others. Hit that like button if you learned something and subscribe now or be prepared to sort through hundreds of videos about Mongooses in a vain attempt to find my channel. This is the Mangoos signing off, you guys have a good one.