W"Abercrombie Station" is a science fiction short story by American author Jack Vance. It first appeared in the February 1952 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. It is about an orphaned 16-year-old girl, Jean Parlier, who is hired to seduce a wealthy heir to a luxury space station-resort. On her arrival at the space station, she discovers lies, moral turpitude, and betrayal. In 1965, it was packaged with the sequel, Cholwell's Chickens, as Monsters in Orbit and published in an Ace Double edition. In 1976 it was reprinted, with the original title, in The Best of Jack Vance. Most recently, it appeared in Hard Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance, published in 2010 by Subterranean Press.
WAnalogue: A Hate Story is a visual novel created by independent designer and visual novelist Christine Love. It was created with the Ren'Py engine, and was first released for download on the author's website in February 2012. A sequel set centuries after Love's earlier work, Digital: A Love Story (2010), Analogue revolves around an unnamed investigator, who is tasked with discovering the reason for an interstellar ship's disappearance once it reappears after 600 years. The game's themes focus similarly around human/computer interaction, interpersonal relationships, and LGBT issues; but focus primarily on "transhumanism, traditional marriage, loneliness and cosplay."
W+Anima is an internationally published ten-volume manga series by Natsumi Mukai. The story focuses on four "+Anima" characters—humans who have metamorphic abilities, and are shunned by society as a result.
WBlast of Tempest is a Japanese manga series written by Kyō Shirodaira and Arihide Sano, and illustrated by Ren Saizaki. It was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan from July 2009 to March 2013, with its chapters collected in ten tankōbon volumes. A 24-episode anime television series adaptation by Bones aired from October 2012 to March 2013. The anime series was licensed by Aniplex of America in North America and by Madman Entertainment in Australia.
WBloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Metroidvania-styled video game developed by ArtPlay and published by 505 Games. The game's development was led by former Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi and is considered a spiritual successor to the series. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in June 2019, for iOS and Android in December 2020, and for Stadia in July 2021.
WBravely Default, known in Japan as Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, is a role-playing video game developed by Silicon Studio for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console. Bravely Default was originally released in 2012, while an expanded edition subtitled For the Sequel was released in 2013 in Japan, Europe and Australia, and in 2014 in North America. This expanded edition used the subtitle Where The Fairy Flies in territories outside of Japan. Square Enix published the game in Japan, while Nintendo handled publishing duties overseas. The gameplay uses a turn-based battle system and job system, in addition to incorporating options to combine job abilities and adjust battle speed and random encounter rates.
WCholwell's Chickens is a science fiction novella by Jack Vance from 1952. It was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine in August 1952. It is the sequel to Abercrombie Station. The book Monsters in Orbit included both novellas in one volume. Both novellas have the same protagonist, Jean Parlier, a bright, attractive 16-year-old girl who is an orphan. In Abercrombie Station, Jean goes to a space station to try to seduce its wealthy, eccentric owner. In Cholwell's Chickens, the now-wealthy Jean sets off to her home planet of Codrion to try to find out about her parents.
WCorrin is the player avatar and main protagonist in Fire Emblem Fates. A Hoshidan prince/princess raised in Nohr, they are forced to decide which of two opposing nations to join, their birthplace or their adoptive homeland. Aside from their appearance in Fates, Corrin received more widespread attention from their playable appearances in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series of fighting games. Their character design and inherent personality traits were regarded positively by journalists, but their status as an "avatar" character in Fates received mixed reactions.
WDogs is a Japanese manga series by Shirow Miwa. The first manga of the series was published in 2001 as Dogs: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark. In 2005, a manga sequel began serialization in the manga magazine Ultra Jump as Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, continuing the storyline. The Dogs: Prelude manga volume has been adapted into a two-volume original video animation series (OVA) by David Production in 2009.
WDrakengard, known in Japan as Drag-On Dragoon, is a 2003 action role-playing video game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2. The game is the first installment of the Drakengard series and features a mixture of ground-based hack-and-slash, aerial combat, and role-playing elements which have become a staple of the series. The story is set during a religious war between two factions—the Union and the Empire—with the war tipping in favor of the Empire. The player controls Caim, a deposed prince of the Union, in his quest for vengeance against the Empire. Wounded in battle while protecting his sister Furiae, he is forced to make a pact with a red dragon named Angelus. As they journey together, they join with Hierarch Verdelet on a quest to prevent the Empire from destroying magical seals that keep the world in balance: Furiae acts as the central seal, and her death will drop the world into chaos.
WThe Hound of Death and Other Stories is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom in October 1933. Unusually, the collection was not published by Christie's regular publishers, William Collins & Sons, but by Odhams Press, and was not available to purchase in shops.
WFragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is an action role-playing game for the Wii developed by Namco Bandai Games in co-operation with Tri-Crescendo. The game was released by Namco Bandai Games in Japan on January 22, 2009. It was later published by Xseed Games in North America on March 16, 2010, and in Europe by Rising Star Games on March 19, 2010, followed by its release in Australia on October 7, 2010.
WHow Much of These Hills Is Gold is a 2020 debut novel by author C Pam Zhang. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction. How Much of These Hills Is Gold was published in North America by Riverhead Books and in the UK and Commonwealth by Virago Press.
WThe Last Story is a Japanese action role-playing game, developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive for the Wii video game console. Nintendo published the title in all regions except for North America, where it was published by Xseed Games. Initially released in Japan in 2011, the game was released in western territories through 2012. The Last Story takes place upon the island fortress of Lazulis, in a world that is slowly being drained of life by an unknown force. The story focuses on a group of mercenaries looking for work on Lazulis; one of their number, Zael, dreams of becoming a knight. After receiving the mystical "Mark of the Outsider", Zael becomes involved with a noblewoman named Calista in an ongoing war between humans and the beast-like Gorak. During gameplay, the player controls Zael as he and the mercenary group to which he belongs undertake missions on Lazulis. Zael can command the rest of the mercenary squad during missions, and fights in battles that involve action, tactical and stealth elements. Multiple online multiplayer modes were also present.
WThe Maze Runner is a 2009 young adult dystopian science fiction novel written by American author James Dashner and the first book released in The Maze Runner series. The novel was published on October 6, 2009, by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, and was made into a 2014 major motion picture by 20th Century Fox, directed by Wes Ball.
WOri and the Blind Forest is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on March 11, 2015 and for Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019. Players assume control of Ori, a small white guardian spirit, and Sein, the "light and eyes" of the Forest's Spirit Tree. Players are tasked to move between platforms and solve puzzles. The game features a save system called "Soul Links", which allows players to save their progress at will with limited resources, and an upgrade system that gives players the ability to strengthen Ori's skills and abilities.
WOri and the Will of the Wisps is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One, and by Iam8bit for Nintendo Switch. Announced during E3 2017, the title is a direct sequel to 2015's Ori and the Blind Forest, and was released on March 11, 2020 for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 17, 2020. The game received an optimised version for the Xbox Series X/S on November 10, 2020. The game is a 4K UHD, Xbox One X Enhanced, and Xbox Play Anywhere title.
WShulk is a fictional character and protagonist of Monolith Soft's 2010 role-playing video game Xenoblade Chronicles, part of the Xenoblade Chronicles series of video games. Shulk gained an increase in attention and popularity upon his inclusion in Nintendo's 2014 crossover fighting games Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. While future Xenoblade entries are not centered around Shulk, Xenoblade Chronicles X features a character creation tool that allows the player to create characters that resemble Shulk, complete with both of his voice actors Adam Howden and Shintaro Asanuma, and he was featured in Xenoblade Chronicles 2's "Challenge Mode" downloadable content (DLC).
WTegami Bachi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Asada. The series was first serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Jump from 2006 to 2007, and then transferred to Jump Square, where it ran from 2007 to 2015. It chapters were collected in twenty tankōbon. Set in a fictional land illuminated by an artificial sun, it follows Lag Seeing, a Letter Bee with the ability to see the memories of people and items, and his personal dingo Niche on their journeys across AmberGround.
WTerror in Resonance , also known as Terror in Tokyo, is a Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA. The anime was created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, with character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa and music by Yoko Kanno. The anime began airing on Fuji TV's Noitamina block on July 10, 2014, and its final episode aired on September 25, 2014. In total, it was made up of 11 episodes. Funimation acquired North American streaming rights and released an English dub on DVD on January 19, 2016. Anime Limited and Madman Entertainment acquired streaming rights for the UK and Australia, respectively. Funimation premiered the series at Anime Expo on July 5, 2014.
WThe Two Orphans is a historical play by the French writers Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon. It premiered on 20 January 1874 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris. A melodrama set during the French Revolution, it takes place in five acts.
WXenoblade Chronicles is an open world action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. Initially released in Japan in 2010, it was later released in the PAL regions in 2011 and then in North America in 2012. A port for the New Nintendo 3DS was released in 2015, and a high-definition remaster for the Nintendo Switch was released in May 2020. Xenoblade Chronicles is the first entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, a subseries which forms part of the larger Xeno metaseries. Although no direct narrative connections exist to previous Xeno games, it incorporates aesthetic and narrative elements from both fantasy and science fiction. The game features navigation through an open world split into zones, side-quests tied to party members' affinity, and a real-time action-based battle system which incorporates the main character's ability to see brief glimpses of the future.