kotowari 「理」

I was shocked to check the Persona 2: Innocent Sin translation blog yesterday and find that the progress of the project jumped from 90.5% to 98%.

This is a happy day indeed for Western gamers. The end is in sight, and we owe it all to Gemini. If you plan on downloading the ROM and playing the game, now is your chance to show support for the last stretch of the process. You can go to the most recent entry in the blog and leave comments to show your support.

Just so you guys know, Gemini isn’t just doing a straight translation, he’s also improving on the game. Here is a quote to give you an idea:

First of all, the Persona status page used a stretched version of the tarot image (82×120 vs original 80×120). I have absolutely no clue why somebody would do that. Not only did it looked bad, but it was also hiding part of the panel on the right. Smile now: no more stretched images for tarots. I’ve also fixed some of the Persona cards which had a couple typos (Emperer and Jugdement).

Gemini believes the game is still about 3-4 weeks away from beta testing (which can be a lengthy process), so we have a bit more of a wait, but it’s good to know that playing Persona 2: Innocent Sin in English will be a reality.

Related Entries:
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin Translation on the Way

Hi all,

This is website maintenance person, Foxes.  I am working hard to make the site new and improved, so please hang in there while I make some adjustments!  Expect a new layout soon!

About 10 minutes ago a friend of mine called me from his job as manager of video game software at Best Buy. He said he had some exciting news for me, so I called him back.

Apparently he, like many other Best Buy stores, received this poster.

The obvious conclusion to draw from this bit of info is that a Final Fantasy VII remake is being released for PS3 on said date.

Square Enix has toyed with the hearts of Final Fantasy fans for years by making us believe this remake was in production. Did they simply skip the hype and produce the game without us knowing? Seems unlikely, but damn I hope so.

*UPDATE* This probably doesn’t mean anything, but I just realized that Cloud Strife’s birthday is August 19th.  Obviously this isn’t the same date, but it is rather curious.

Related Entries:
The World of Final Fantasy VII as a Reflection of Modern Japanese Society

Yesterday Atlus announced suddenly that it will be releasing Eternal Poison (known as Poison Pink in Japan) for the PS2. I admit that I hadn’t even heard of the game, so I was a bit intrigued. The game’s main site just opened, but the video featured on the site is pretty short and doesn’t show much of the gameplay. I found this extended Japanese trailer which has a lot more to show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccfe5zvF3Bo

Aside from my lack of knowledge, I was further intrigued by the game’s unique gothic-lolita character design. In Japan the goth style doesn’t have quite the same connotations that it does here in the States–Japan interpreting the style as more of a nostalgia for a romantic past that never existed, whereas in the States the style is associated with antisocial misfits. Hopefully the cultural difference won’t deter  people who will be interested in it. Here is a screenshot of two of the game’s main characters, Teiji (left) and Rutica (right):

Another positive quality the game has in my eyes is its tactical battle system. This screen in particular reminds me the of Atlus’ Stella Deus. While Stella Deus was visually stunning, I thought the game’s story and repetition made for an overall bad game.

What I know of Eternal Poison’s story lead me to believe it won’t suffer the same fate as Stella Deus. Here is a brief preview of the game’s story:

On the outskirts of the kingdom of Valdia, the demonic realm of Besek has mysteriously appeared. Besek is home to creatures known as Majin, who have been a constant terror to the men and women of Alea.

Not long after the announcement that the young Valdian commander, Olifen, would marry Princess Lenarshe, the princess disappeared, kidnapped by the fiendish Majin.

The King issued a decree that he will grant the wish of anyone who is brave enough to enter Besek and rescue his daughter.

Kings and Princesses are a little overplayed, but I think the game’s darker twist will make it stand out.

All these elements combined with the later half of the video make Eternal Poison look pretty promising to me. I will keep my eye out for more updates on the game’s story and characters. You can look forward to the game’s release (complete with OST) this November 11th.

Everyone’s favorite Devil Summoner is returning for another adventure in Japan’s Taisho Era. Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou Vs The Abadon King is being released October 23rd in Japan as both a stand-alone game and bundled with a reprint of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, which is now dubbed Maniacs Chronicles Edition. It is also believed that Kuzunoha Raidou will be a secret character that is unlockable in the new version of Nocturne.

	In Raidou’s second game, he, Goto, Narumi and Asakura travel to a isolated village in the Japanese countryside to investigate a missing person. The name of the village is still unknown, but there are some images from the game showing Raidou exploring it. In the one to the left, he is examining a door which “appears to have an image of a watermelon on it.”
	In addition to the mysterious watermelon-doors, every house seems to have smoke coming from their chimneys–further proof that all is not quite right with this small town.

Raidou is suddenly attacked by several men in black masks, with one wearing a red mask. It appears the man with the red mask is the leader, but their motives and goals are entirely unknown.

To help Raidou deal with the unknown foes, he is getting some new abilities which should make the gameplay a lot more interesting for the sequel. Here are some of the new features:

• Up to 2 demons may be summoned in battle
• There are about twice as many demons that Raidou can tame
• Talking to demons has returned, but swaying them to join you is more complex
• Two demons may join forces in order to convince enemy demons to join Raidou
• Raidou can now perform some magic skills instead of just sword and gun skills

Kuzunoha Raidou Vs. Abadon King already has an official Japanese website which you can check out here. Aside from a small bit of content, the site features a pretty cool song which you should give a listen to.

I really enjoyed the first Kuzunoha Raidou game, although I admit at a certain point I lost interest in it and never beat it. The battles just became more awkward than hard as the game progressed. Hopefully the second game will be more polished and provide that which the first may have lacked.

Square Enix just had their crazy invitation-only event dubbed DKΣ3713. I don’t know how it’s pronounced either, but a bunch of announcements were made regarding some new titles. This is some exciting stuff here people. I hope you’re sitting down, and odds are pretty good you are. Jeez, where to begin…

I guess I’ll start with the not too great news and move up. Not so great news being merchandise you’ll probably never be able to find or afford:

You may have noticed that the image at the top of this article features some lucky individuals playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy. We are all eagerly awaiting this sure to be gem for the PSP. In the meantime, the game has already received its own line of Potion. Potion are carbonated sugary beverages which are released with art from their respective game on the can and often a gachapon toy or something as well. The Dissidia: Final Fantasy line of Potion features both good and evil characters on the can. Good characters have a white can, and bad characters have black cans.

As if this wasn’t enough to create a merchandising frenzy, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, in collaboration with the Japanese clothing company Roen, will be getting it’s own clothing line. Good God. Why doesn’t Square Enix just rob Japanese people and save everyone a lot of time? There is no news on Roen’s website as to when we can expect the clothes to be available to the public. Odds are it won’t be until the game’s release draws a bit closer. The picture to the right is the main character’s outfit. I am sure it comes with a frightening price tag.

Now to the lighter side of things: the games. We can pretty much guarantee we will be seeing 95% of these games in North America. If you want to know when, tack on about 6 months to their Japanese release date (give or take a month). Anyway, here they are:

*The Third Birthday was announced as a sequel to the Parasite Eve series.

A few images of the summons of the Final Fantasy XIII world have been revealed as well. They look beautiful except for Carbuncle who now looks like a Tengu:

Ifrit

Shiva

Carbuncle

OK, on to the last bit of exciting news. As you all may remember, Square Enix crushed the souls of Playstation 3 owners when they announced that Final Fantasy XIII will also be supported by its bitter nemesis the XBox 360. Well, Square Enix has kinda made it up to us.

Each copy of the Blu-Ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, now dubbed complete, will includes a demo of Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3. Apology accepted Square Enix.

Today some new info surfaced about Wii’s Fragile: Goodbye Ruins of the Moon. I hope you guys aren’t sick of hearing about this game, because I love learning about it. Every time I do I want to buy a Wii a little more. Anyway here are the new features of the game we now know about:

Personal Flame

This can actually be translated as either Personal Flame, or Personal Frame. Neither really makes much sense, but flame made me think of a smoke signal, which is used to communicate thereby making more sense at least than frame.

Anyway, the Personal Flame is that metallic backpack on our protagonist Seto. Think of it as a Pokédex for the post-apocalyptic world. Throughout Seto’s travels, the P.F will give Seto advice and analysis of events going on around him.

Unfortunately overtime the sensor on the P.F begins to deteriorate, affecting the advice and information it gives Seto. Here is a quote to give you an idea:

One moment please. I am again checking the affairs of your surroundings. Um… Uh… That… Something… The key is probably laughing…

-P.F

	Chiyo Somewhere along Seto’s journey, Chiyo blocks his path. She appears to be a young girl but her manner of speaking is that of an elderly person’s. She has an especially cautious and selfish personality. This vice stems from the fact that she is a very lonely person.
	Item Seller A mysterious individual who sells Seto items he needs along his journey. He is always in good humor and at ease despite the state of the world. He appears to wheel around a baby carriage filled with his goods.

I really love the character design for the game so far. It creates a good cohesion between the setting and mood of the game.

In addition to these updates some screenshots of a few ruins Seto will travel to have been revealed:

Related Entries:
Fragile Preview
Fragile Update
Fragile Blog

 Recently NCSoft revealed some details of their mysterious work in progress known only as Project M.  The game is confirmed to be a MMORPG called Blade & Soul, but the system that will support the game is the topic of some speculation. 

An amazing video was released to the public displaying the game’s graphics.  To be honest, judging from the quality of the graphics, they could never be for the XBox 360.  That leaves PC or PS3, or possibly both.  A recent interview with NCSoft’s president Chris Chung seems to suggest that the game will appear on the PS3.

Each Race will have 2 jobclasses, right now we only know of about three.  The Jin appears to have both a standard swordfighter, as well as a class which has levitating blades that surround the character.  For Gon I only noticed the jobclass which uses metallic fists to fight.

The game appears to feature PVP, standard MMO monster hunting, and parties of up to three people.  PVP battles seem very intense, and focus on martial arts, which is what the designers intended.  The complexity of PVP battles seems to further suggest that the game will be for PS3 rather than PC.

Some Intense PVPing

Other features worth mentioning are how players can run swiftly across walls–a really cool feature that will make for some interesting gameplay elements.

I was also quite shocked to see that when a player is hit with an especially strong attack, they are knocked back quite a bit.  It also seems that players can take advantage of when a player is knocked down.  Perhaps this means okizeme will affect combat like in fighting games.

If you frequent my blog you’ll notice that this is the first time I have talked at length about an MMORPG.  That’s just how exciting I think this game is.  If I could shed off all the responsibilities of a normal life, I might consider signing up for Blade and Soul once it’s released.

Humans can find just about any topic to squabble about, video games are of course no exception. Recently they have become a major point of a number of debates across the internets. I don’t intend to solve these major conflicts, just give my opinion and maybe get an idea of what you guys think. Anyway, here are the games:

Frat Party Games: Pong Toss

For those of you wondering what the hell Pong Toss is, it’s the politically correct term for beer pong that involves no beer. Pong Toss was released this week as a downloadable Wiiware. That right, it’s for the Wii, what other system could make a game that sounds like it was invented by puritans fun?

An actual coalition formed in Virginia and tried to petition against the game’s release. The controversy is pretty simple: “The game encourages younger kids to emulate the patterns of college-age kids,” Lisa Lombardozzi, chairman of the Coalition, said.

Doesn’t high school do that too? Be more specific please!

“Beer pong is an activity that normalizes and encourages heavy binge drinking, shows blatant disregard for the dangers of alcohol poisoning, and can cost lives and result in injury,” said Gen. Arthur T. Dean, chairman and CEO of the D.C.-based Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America

Whether or now you agree, the game was released, and Frat Party Games plans on releasing more games in the same vein for the Wii.

Fat Princess

Frantic and fun, Fat Princess pits two hordes of players against each other in comic medieval battle royale. Your goal is to rescue your beloved princess from the enemy dungeon. There’s a catch though: your adversary has been stuffing her with food to fatten her up and it’s going to take most of your army working together to carry her back across the battlefield.

This one has a variety of people angry, mainly for the comical portrayal of obesity, a real issue in America and increasingly in Japan, the game’s country of origin. The thing that shocked me the most was all the blood that comes out of your little elves or whatever they are.

Controversy or not, Fat Princess does seem like an interesting multi-player which the PS3 is in desperate need of.

Well these are the major ones worth mentioning. So what do you guys think, are the arguments valid? Should the Surgeon General start posting warnings on games for the Wii? Is Sony making fun of fat people?

Today out of sheer boredom, and inability to find something decent to post about, I stumbled onto the Japanese Playstation store. I figured it would be pretty interesting to see what is coming out over there to buy. End result: I am pretty damn jealous. But alas I feel that my jealousy will not last forever, odds are if Japan is getting these games, were next on the list right? Anyway here are some of the cool things worth mentioning:

	Xenogears Price: 600 yen (6$) Size: 755 MB Compatible with PSP and PS3. If you have never heard of this game, then you should just run toward the nearest sharp object until you suffer a mortal blow. Or you could just click on the link and read the wikipedia summary. Anyway, it’s a groundbreaking PS1 game, which is next to impossible to find these days. The 6 dollar price tag is much easier to swallow than well… the standard going price…
	Metal Gear Solid Price: 600 yen (6$) Size: 780 MB Compatible with PSP and PS3. This is the game that really makes the series. If you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, at the very least you should be familiar with this game. Obviously the whole series is ideal but if you’re in a rush to play MGS4 at least play this one! There is a whole chapter of MGS4 that probably won’t make sense to you if you don’t. I would love to have this game for my PSP too, the graphics seem to work well for the smaller screen.
	Ehrgeiz Price: 600 yen (6$) Size: 490 MB Compatible with PSP, PS3, and Dualshock 3. This game is the predecessor to the highly anticipated (but much more complex) fighting game Final Fantasy: Dissidia. There are better fighting games out there in the world, but if you have ever wanted to show your Sephiroth-loving friend up, no better way to do it then with this game. At least for now…
	Brave Fencer Musashi Price: 600 yen (6$) Size: 230 MB Compatible with PSP. I bought this game for the soul reason that it came with a demo of Final Fantasy VIII when it was released. Much to my surprise at the time, it was a damn good action/adventure/RPG game. The first one I had ever played which featured night and day, unbelievable!

Seeing such awesome downloadable content on the horizon makes me very glad that I bought my PS3. Hopefully, since all these games were localized, they will also be available on the North American Playstation store soon.