A new scan of Dragon Quest Swords popped up a few days ago. For those of you who don't know, "Dragon Quest Swords" is a first person RPG for the Wii. You use the Wiimote (and I think the Nun-chuck too?) for combat. Swinging the Wiimote like a sword to do attacks. Theres also special moves, where you have to cricle the wiimote around over your head to build up power. The game looks like it'll be pretty interesting, with real nice character designs from Akira Toriyama(I'd say some of his best work yet, or at least in recent memory), and an interesting combat system. I'm really looking forward to this game.
As always click the image to see a larger version.
Wow, just wow... Everytime I see more of this game, it makes me want a 360. I'm a really big fan of celshaded graphics, and this game has some of the best I've ever seen. If/when this game comes out in American, and it has a Japanese voice option, I will have to buy a 360...
The game comes out June 14th in Japan. If you're interested, you can pre order it here.
Well it seems Square Enix will be talking about Star Ocean, in an upcoming event... This is quite surprising, I kind of thought they had forgotten about the series, haha. Now they haven't said anything about if the game is going to be a remake, or new game in the series. I would kind of like a Star Ocean remake for the DS. That would own so much! Or Star Ocean 4 on the Wii?! Well as soon as the info is released, I'll be sure to post an update.
I'm quite excited, Star Ocean is my 3rd favorite RPG series. Though 3 wasn't all that great... I wish they'd go the way of the Tales of series, and make a high res Sprite-based 3D game. Cause the all 3D graphics of Star Ocean 3 just weren't as great, as the awesome 2D graphics of the first two games(Well the 2nd game was a 3D, but it still used 2D Sprites for the Characters.)
When Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS was frist announced, it was said to be an action RPG with a big multiplayer feel... But with this new magazine scan, comes new info that the game is no longer action based, and has went back to the series original, turn based battle system. Still has the awesome looking character creator, and multiplayer, just the battle system changed.
I don't know if i'm interested in this game just yet. It certainly looks promising, but I've never really been a fan of the Dragon Quest games. Maybe this will be the game, that gets me into the series.
"Atlus has announced Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 for release in North America in summer 2007. The game will be packaged in a deluxe collector's box, which includes a 52-page fully-colored artbook as well as a soundtrack featuring the game's composer, Shoji Meguro.
In this title, players assume the role of a high school student that was orphened as a young boy. He recently transferred to Gekkoukan High School on Port Island, where he is attacked by creatures of the night, known as shadows, shortly after arrival. This assault jars awake his subconciously sleeping Persona, Orpheus, allowing him to defeat these monsters.
Shortly after this, he learns that there are others just like him at his new high school. From them, he learns of the Dark Hour, a hidden time existing between one day and the next, a time swarming with shadows. These enemies have been increasing their attacks on people, nicknamed "The Lost," who have inexplicably transformed into mindless zombies.
Under the supervision of school chairman Shuji Ikutsuki, the young boy must now join with his classmates in hope that they can stop this ongoing threat of humanity. Players must juggle two different types of gameplay in this title. During the day, a normal high school student, and a defender of the world by night.
"Persona 3 is the most exciting, challenging, and ambitious title in the SMT series to date!" said Yu Namba, Project Lead for P3. "While still faithful to its roots, it takes the series in a bold new direction with the implementation of the Social Link system, where your relationship with not just party members but also a huge cast of characters is critical to your success!""
An other RPG for the PS2 i'm looking forward to, this game has been a long time coming to North America... I'm glad we'll at least get something extra from the release.
Dear lord...I need to learn to love long ass battles! Cause the cut scenes in this game look amazing!
For those of you that don't know, this game is a remake of PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics game. It's coming out for the PSP on the 10th of May in Japan. From what I've read it features new job classes, voiced 3D celshaded cut scenes, and add story pieces.
I first saw a video of this game in later 2006, and I was amazed(still am amazed really) by the cel shading in this game. I know it's pre rendered, but if Square could pull off graphics like that in a full FF game(maybe one of the remakes they've been talking about, FF6 in that kind of style I wouldn't mind at all) I'd buy it so fast! Assuming I have the money, and the system to play it on....
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War Jump Festa Japanese Subtitled Trailer
This game looks really nice, but the lack of online play has made me bitter...So I Probably won't be getting this, cause Crystal Chronicles is all about the multiplayer. Well at least thats where the fun was in the Cube verison. This game is suppose to be out sometime this year. Not quite sure when exactly. And a crap load more here
So, can you tell I'm really excited about this game? I found these screens over at rpgamer.com I just editted away the black boarders, that were for some reason left in the screens...
A cool thing I noticed while looking through the screenshots, was the return of the book loading screen! You should know about such if you played the game, or read my review. The updated verison in Odin Sphere looks awesome, though sadly it seems you no longer need your grandmother to read to you. Anyways check out the screens! You can view a larger image, by clicking on the image it's self!
Siliconera did a "mini interview" so to speak, with Atlus about Odin Sphere. A few new info about the game was given, but instead of copying the whole interview, and pasting it here I'm going to just do a write up about the interesting news that was given. Plus it would kind of be cheap just to paste it here. So yes, if you do want to read the interview in full Click Here. If not continue reading!
- Lead artist was George Kamitani, the President of the Vanillaware, many other artists went into making up the art. I kind of wish he asked who did the Character design... - The story has a Shakespearean feel to it, in it's presentation, and such. Like Princess Crown the game has an old fairy tale/children's story tone, and not the happy children stories. Noooo~ this game's story is like the old gritty children's story! That were told to scare the children into being good, and all that fun stuff!
- Odin Sphere will feature an item crafting system of sorts.
- The game is designed so even people who aren't good at fighting games/platformers can still strategize, and find a way to overcome whatever obstacles they may face. But done so that the action is still kept fast.
- "There are many ways to be victorious against your adversaries."
- There are 5 main playable characters in the game
- The Character system/story works in the same manner as Princess Crown, you'll need to play through the first character to unlock the other chapters in which you play as another character. Playing through all the characters/chapters unlocks the final chapter.
- Chapters take place simultaneously, giving you variety of perspectives on the events that unfold.
- All 5 playable characters have different fighting styles and special moves. Gwendolyn is a straight-up brawler who favors heavy attacks and defense. Cornelius isn’t quite so powerful, but he can move quickly around with his jumping attacks. Mercedes is markedly different from the others: her crossbow makes her a distance fighter, and her ability to fly lets her speed around the stages, blasting enemies high and low. Oswald, as befits an assassin, is strongest in short bursts, and a wise player would dash in, unload a short but powerful combo, then retreat to regain his strength. Velvet needs enemies to be slightly further away from her than the other melee fighters, but her attacks tend to leave her vulnerable and require a steady sense of when to fight and when to run away. - The Characters all seem to be well thought out, each having their own personal motivations. Though you might think they are all on the same side, their allegiances actually vary.
Well that's it! Once again, Odin Sphere comes out May 22nd in North America! I'm really looking forward to this myself!
Cue the ready steady go music, and yell "Osu!" to wish me good luck! Cause I'm off to my interview at Mcdonald's now! OSU!
EDIT: So, turns out the interview isn't until wednesday, 2-4PM! Oh well, so I had a picnic with Mom, Sister, Baby cousin, and aunt. Also listened to the Player One Podcast - Pokemon special, boy did that bring back the memories... I like remember every thing they were talking about, like the "Hey You Pikachu", and the "Pokemon minis", and all that other good stuff. It really made me want to play a pokemon game again... If I get this job, I'm going to pick up the new one for sure.
Hmm I think Pokemon may have been the first game that made me not so active in the outdoor world. I remember there was a big event going on, at the firehall in my old town... And I had just gotten Pokemon Blue like a few weeks ago or something, and my friend's were like, "Come on Jake, come to the firehall there's stuff going on!", and I was like "But Pokemon! I just got past the 3rd gym!"(or something along those lines). So my friends were like "Come on! You can play that after!", and I was like "No!". Thus they went off without me, and I stayed home playing Pokemon Blue in my living room.
Boy was I addicted to that game back in the day, everyone was after awhile. I remember pretty much every kid, and teenage on the island played pokemon. We use to trade, and fight Pokemon all the time. Watched the TV show every time it was on, making sure not to miss an ep. Even played the card game for awhile... Wow, were those crazy times. I'm glad I got to be part of the BIG pokemon fad in the late 90s. Tis a fond memory!
I'm quite excited about this game, even though the first isn't even out in english yet... But I've played, and liked the first game quite abit! Only the controlls were a bit iffy at times. Hopefully this one will be more tight in the controls department. Knowing the first game is coming out, I won't be importing this game, like I did the first though.
So to tie over the wait for Odin Sphere, I bought Princess Crown for the PSP. It's a game that originally came out in 1997, for the Sega Saturn in Japan. It was released by Atlus, and made by Vanillaware(If you've read my other posts, you should know about these guys by now. If not, they make awesome looking 2D games...That's all you need to know!).
The game was sadly never released outside Japan... But as luck would have it, the games script was translated by a person on the web, called "Anoop". So importers who didn't know Japanese could still play this wonderful game.
In 2005 the game was ported to the PSP, which a few little added things, like 3 different screen modes, and alittle gallery type thing.
So yes, I've never owned a Sega System(Nintendo fan back in the day.) nor did I pay attention to the games on Sega systems. So I never really knew about this game, until Odin Sphere popped up. And boy, this game makes me wonder, "What else did I miss on the Sega Systems?!" Cause this game is great!
Princess Crown PSP Promo
Okay so enough about history, let me speak of the actual game it's self. It's a 2D side scrolling RPG, just like Odin Sphere(which is a spiritual-sequel to Princess Crown). The game is told through a storybook like setup. Which is actually kind of cool, cause the game does something with the loading screen, that I don't think alot of RPGs have ever done. At least this is the only game, I know of that as a loading screen as such, so let me explain.
When you boot up the game you in control of a little girl, your Grandmother is going to read you a story, so she tells you to pick up the book you want her to read. The game's story is split into books. Each of the 4 Characters(I'll explain about the Characters in a few) has his or her own story. At the start of the game you only have one book to choose from, but as you beat that characters story you unlock the other character's story in which to play.
So you walk over to the book you want, and you press down to pick it up, then you walk over to the grandmother, and you hand her the book, and she asks "Now where were we?". This is where you choose from 4 bookmarks(which are your save files, or if you want start from the beginning.) Once you choose a bookmark, the grandmother begins to read the little girl the story, thus starting the actual game.
Pretty cool huh? Theres also a cat you can pick up and set on the grandmothers lap, and in the PSP game this opens up the bonus features. I hear in the Saturn verison it opens up the options screen.
So yes, that's the loading screen! Pretty original it tis!
The Main Characters are all pretty cool, like I said theres 4 playable characters in this game. Only instead of playing as one character, and having other characters join your party, you play as just one character at a time.
The first character you play as is "Gradriel" she's the Princess of the land, who's mother was a brave queen that lead the land, with sword in hand.(Whoa, I just rhymed...) So not feeling like she's doing enough for her people by sitting around, Gradriel decides to escape the castle, and help the people first hand. She's joined by a little fairy whom after getting a certain item slightly helps out in combat, and such. So the first half of her story plays out kind of like a series of small quests, helping out the town's folk and such. Then after traveling the land you come back to the castle to find out shit's not the same as it was and that Evil might have been unleashed by your sister(mistakely of course). So you set off to get to the bottom of all this.
Now I haven't gotten past this point yet so i'm just going to explain the other characters as they are when you meet them playing as Gradriel.
The first other playable character you come across, is a little Magican girl called "Proserpina" who's causing trouble, for some unkown reason. She's alittle annoying, and doesn't like people getting in her way(which you, as Gradriel happen to do quite a lot.) She has a goblin companion, like Gradriel's Fairy.
The next Character you meet is "Edward", he's a Half-demon swordsman whom is known as sort of a dragon slayer. He's your strong, but slientish type. And you get to know him fairly well playing as Gradriel. He dreams to become a knight for the princess, but due to what his father did to the kingdom back in the day he thinks he'll never beable to achieve his goal. He has a little dragon companion, kind of like Gradriel's Fairy.
And lastly you have the pirate! Yup, there be pirates in this game! ARR! *ahem*, his name is "Portgus". A feared pirate, who really isn't as bad as the rumors say he is. He saves Gradriel from another group of priates whom are working for a man who says he's Portgus, but is really a fake. He has a Parrot as his companion.
The Battle system is pretty interesting, it's random battles of course. But instead of fighting a bunch of monsters at a time, the battles are 1 on 1. You fight in real time, moving with the D pad, and attacking with the O button. Different button presses do different moves. For Instance you can do a dash attack by pressing down and O. Or air attacks by jumping in the air by pressing up and O. There's also special attacks, and items.
Items are used by pressing "Trinagle", which opens the items menu. You can hold up to 8 items at a time. But as you progress you gain more bags, which allow you to hold more items.(One bag = 8 item slots.) Of course, you can only use the items that are in your "USE" bag. The other bags are just for storing items.
There isn't really magic attacks in this game, so if you want to cast a spell you use attack scrolls. Healing is done through food(which you can pick from trees, get from monsters, or buy from stores) most of which you have to cook. For instance killing a dragon might gain you some Dragon Meat, but you can't just use it as is. You have to go to a bar, and get the bar tender to cook it for you. It's kind of neat, and certainly isn't a hassle, like in some other RPGs.
Dungeons are filled with all you'd expect from an RPG, though I haven't really run into any puzzles yet, and I'm around 15 hours in. Though this is no big deal, as the battle system is really fun, and the story enjoyable.
Music and sound effects are also good but nothing that really stands out. Pretty standard RPG music. Sadly no spoken dialog, though the characters do make battle crys, and such. Which is kind of a shame, cause a great looking game like this could really have benefitted from voice acting in the cut scenes. I know the game is old, but at around the same time Valkyrie Profile had voice acting... So I don't see why Atlus didn't put the extra cash into getting voice actors.
Oh well all and all Princess Crown is a great little game, and if you own a PSP(or Saturn for that matter), and don't mind following the english dialog on your computer. You should give this game ago! You won't be dissapointed! I shall give it, a 4 out of 5 stars.
This can not end well... Or can it? It seems Square-Enix(off the power trip of it's success with Final Fantasy GBA and DS remakes) has decided it's getting into the "remake world".
Well it's great they announce this finally, I mean we've already been seeing a crazy load of "ports"/"remakes" latly from them. But can this really be a good plan?
I loved the remake of FF3, and I'd love for them to maybe remake FF2, and actually make it not suck. But some how I don't see that happening any time soon, as FF2 is already being ported to the PSP in a few months.
So on one hand, this is great! Cause in my mind, Square-Enix hasn't made a good NEW game since the PS1 era. But on the other hand remaking a crap load of games that have already been ported to death, seems abit like over kill, or milking...
And the other thing is how would they go about this remaking? I could see them fucking up alot of awesome classics, doing something like this. I guess it all depends which system the remakes end up on, and which games they choose to remake. I'm all for remaking of the kind of "broken" games. But Does Chrono Trigger, or FF6 really need a remake? And what would they add if they did? 3D graphics? Don't you think that'd ruin the charm of those games? Now a high res 2D remake of Star Ocean, I'd pay money for that!
And does this mean not as many new games from Square-Enix? Sure they'll always be making new crappy FF games, and DQ games, but what about their other series? Come to think of it do I even want any of their other series? The Japanese Verison of Dawn of Mana was pretty crap, and I haven't heard of them making any other games other then FF spin offs and ports and remakes and blah...
Anyways i'm going all over the place with this! Bottom line, Square-Enix could fuck up alot of classics doing this, but then again they aren't really the king of RPGs they use to be. So maybe fully remaking, some of their older stuff would be a good idea.
As long as they are good, and don't stray far from the original, I'll buy them...
So, it seems May is going to be a sexy month for us RPG fans! There be a crap load of RPGs coming out, and seeing as April will be ending in just a few weeks, I thought I'd do a round up of all the RPGs coming out in the happy month of May!
North American Releases 8th | .hack//G.U. Vol. 2//Reminisce | For the PS2 15th | Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon | For the PSP 16th| Etrian Odyssey | For the DS 22nd| Dawn of Mana | For the PS2 22nd| Odin Sphere | For the PS2 29th| Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm | For the PS2
Japanese Releases 04/26th | Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings | For the DS 10th | Final Fantasy Tactics Shishi Sensou | For the PSP 17th | Odin Sphere | For the PS2
As far as I know, that's it for RPGs in May...
Dear lord the PS2 is alive, and kicking... To bad Sony decided to make the PS3...
Also just a note Osu Tatakae Ouendan 2 comes out on the 17th of May! I know it isn't an RPG, but it is a game that interests me to no end! Click here to Pre Order it at Play Asia, and help me out at the same time! Yay!
Grim Grimoire yet another sexy 2D game coming out for the PS2. It's by the same folks making Odin Sphere, only instead of side scrolling RPG, it's a side scrolling RTS. --------------------------------------------------- Buy The Japanese Verison Now, from Play Asia! --------------------------------------------------- The game is out now in Japan, and I was playing a few chapters of it. I have to say this game is quite good. I was not expecting to like it, as I'm more into RTS using a mouse...So I thought the game might control awkwardly using the PS2 controller. But surpirsingly it works wells, and I really enjoy it.
Grim Grimoire 5 Min Japanese Trailer
The graphics are great, in the same style as Odin Sphere. The drama scenes have large hand drawn pictures of the characters that are all animated VERY nicely! Like to which I've never since before...For Instances the characters actually move like they are breathing, it's a really cool effect. And the charcter design, wow... Is it good as you can see in the trailer, the detail and style is amazing.
Grim Grimoire English Trailer
Once again, thankfully there will be a Japanese voice option, in the North American release... I really can't stand the main character's english voice...
The game is coming out June 19th. But I haven't heard that offically, so the date might change.
From what I've gathered,(my Japanese isn't good enough yet to understand alot of what was going on in the game) the story seems to be really good too.
"Lillet Blan, a young magician who is admitted to a prestigious yet mystical magic school; however, on the 5th day of school, everyone mysteriously dissapears. Lellet awakens the next day to find out she's once again living out the first day of school! However her memories of the previous days are intact, giving her the opportunity to solve the mysteries behind the disappearences and prevent the tragedy from occuring." ~ copied from IGN.com
The story, (as one would probably assume with a set up like that) involes many a twist and turn, and is not as light heated as one would think.
All and all I'm looking forward to this game alot more then I was, having now played the Japanese verison abit. If you're in to RTS games, and like beautiful 2D artwork you should pick this one up for sure.
Dear lord, does this game have me excited! No, not that kind of excited... I speak of the pure excitement, not the "In the Pants Excitement" you were more then likely thinking about...
Odin Sphere is a 2D, side scrolling RPG for the PS2, coming out May 22nd, 5 days after it's release in Japan, which is of course the 17th.
Odin Sphere Japanese Trailer
As you can see the game has some pretty sweet graphics! And the Japanese voice acting, is top of the line! Thankfully, Atlus has comfirmed a Japanese Voice option will be in the North American release. I say "thankfully" cause... the English is not my cup of tea...
Odin Sphere English Trailer
I just hope if the game has anime cut scenes they keep the Japanese voice acting, cause that was one of the things I didn't really care for about AR Tonelico...(It had a Japanese voice option but even if you chose it the anime cut scenes would still be voiced in the english, which if you haven't played it, is really bad...)
Odin Sphere Japanese Trailer 2
This game is going to be one of the last great RPG stands on the PS2, and if you're a fan of the 2D RPGs like me, be sure you pick this one up! It's by Atlus, so it'll probably be a pain to find...I hear they don't print very much copies of their games.
Dear, Ronald Mcdonald. I am well informed of you not being a real person, but that doesn't change the fact that some people still think you are... I'm talking about the manager I met with this week, the one that kept speaking of you as if you were, a living, breathing person, and not just some pedophile dressed as a red haired clown, that sends little kids to search for his magical "bag".
I seriously suggest that you run a mental health check, on all your managers. You might be surprised by the finding...
Sincerely, The Undisclosed
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So, welcome to my multipurposed blog!
I have no idea what my full plans for it will be, but time will tell! As it usually does...
For now I plans to track news on RPGs that I'm interested in, keep up to date on the releases, and if I get the job i'm gunnin' for, I'll probably write about it too, just to let off steam of course(that is assuming the manager I'll have to deal with is a bitch all the time, and I didn't just catch her at a bad time).
Yes... I'm applying for a job at Mcdonalds, not the greatest job choice I know, but hell! I need the money! I'm also applying at subway...that places seems happy! Maybe I'll get a job there instead! Oh well, I'll take what I can get honestly...
As always click the image to see a larger version.
