Yes lots of new stuff. Highlights are:
U/I update today. It's pretty slick and makes things like equipping characters for Realm Synergy a lot easier. You can see how many dungeons are incomplete and not mastered (found that I had missed mastering a random IV dungeon). Note that Orb Conversion is NOT included in the update.
Sephiroth Event tonight. He gets a SSB and MC2 in a few days with the bonus battles.
Rift of Recollection (now known as Vale of Memories) has had the SSB banners translated. They're more rounded than the Japan versions but, in my opinion, that makes them significantly worse. I went from planning 150 Mythril for these banners to, maybe, a single 11X pull. There is only one Hastega Relic on these banners (Golem Flute on Banner 3). Thyrus and Sentinel Grimoire both make an appearance on Banners 1 and 2 respectively. If you don't have Wall than you should try pulling on one, or both, of these banners if you can. They are game changing. No date announced yet but it should be soon.
Christmas themed Orbfest tomorrow night: Not a lot of details are known but it appears to be similar to our last Orbfest. But no clue as to what the dungeons will look like or what banners, if any, there will be. My personal speculation is that we'll get another round of Lucky Draw banners but I have nothing to back that up.
Beginner Banner: Again no timeframe. This is an interesting one. Like the Lucky Draw banners you can only pull once. It still costs 50 Mythril to do a pull. The Relics on the Banner are pretty lackluster. It's important to note that on the Japan version Tyro had Sentinel Grimoire on it but we're getting Healing Tome (which is terribad). However the real draw for this banner is that after you do your single 11x pull for 50 Mythril you get to choose a single character specific relic. There is one relic for each realm. So even though the banner is terrible the freebie relic makes it worth drawing on. It's designed as a catch up mechanic for newer players and it's important to note that it's not time sensitive. Japan has had this banner active for a few months now and it will be around until March 2016 for them. That means that we should have access to it for a long time too so if you're hurting for Mythril you can hold off until you save up. There are a couple of really good choices for your pick: Terra's Enhancer from VI if you need a solid BLM weapon (that only a couple of people can use) and Zidane's Butterfly Sword from IX are the consensus "best" picks. Zidane's sword is the highest neutral attack weapon of the choices and a lot of people need IX synergy. Personally I'll take Lightning's Blazefire Saber since my XIII synergy is the worst. However, standard disclaimer, our picks might differ significantly than Japan.
