Atlus has announced that North American gamers who pre-order their copies of Persona 4 and Eternal Poison will receive a bonus 100-page artbook.

The participating locations are Gamestop, Amazon and EB Games. EB Games will only be offering the bonus in-store. If you don’t want to take a chance (I wouldn’t), then you can get the pre-orders online at the following links:

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Amazon	Price = $36.99	Buy Here
Gamestop	Price = $39.99	Buy Here
On Sale 12/09/08

Eternal Poison
Amazon	Price = $36.99	Buy Here
Gamestop	Price = $39.99	Buy Here
On Sale 11/11/08

I wish Atlus wasn’t releasing two games I want to play within a month of each other!  I don’t even think I will be done with Disgaea 3 by the November release of Eternal Poison…  So many games to play, so little time.

Still, it’s nice to see some decent (and free) pre-order incentives.

Related Entries:
All other Kotowari entries on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 can be found here
Eternal Poison Preview

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Sting’s newest volume in the Department Heaven series, Knights in the Nightmare, appears like it will have a learning curve as steep as Baldwin Street.  (Sorry, Wikipedia-nerd-humor.)

This is a great way to prepare for the game’s release on the 25th of this month.  The downloads will be available until October 7th.

It’s nice to see the Nintendo DS’s features being used to their full extent.  Who would have thought you could play demos of Nintendo DS games legally?  It’s too bad such options aren’t available to Western gamers.  Hopefully they will be at some point. 

I might play around with Minnano Nintendo Channel and see if I can figure out how to download the FSEE.  If I can, I’ll post a how-to. 

I think this is personally my most anticipated DS title of next year.  Hopefully Atlus or Sting will be announcing some details of the game’s localization soon.  Since the other Dept. Heaven titles were brought over, it seems obvious this one will as well.  Judging by these screens though, it looks like there will be a lot of engrish to clean up.

Related Entries:
Knights in the Nightmare for Nintendo DS Preview
Knights in the Nightmare Opening Movie
Yggdra Union for PSP Official

Roy atlus, japan, nintendo ds, sting 2 comments

As Devil Summoner’s release date draws closer in Japan, more details are constantly emerging.  The first and probably most exciting for MegaTen fans is the packaging for the game, as well as the special “Plus” edition:

Standard Packaging

Plus Packaging

As you can see, the cover to the plus packaging features the nameless Demi-Fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in heated battle with Raidou.  The plus version comes with a special edition of Nocturne which allows the main character to recruit Raidou.  Special editions like this, while awesome, rarely make it to the states.  I still cry every night over Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+…

Some new elements of the game’s battle system have also been revealed.  It appears that Raidou is not limited to only his katana and pistol.  He is now also able to equip spears and large axes.  There may even be more weapons he can wear…

Equipping these different weapons provides different advantages, but also alters special attacks that Raido can perform.  The image above shows Raidou performing a special attack equipped with an axe.  I believe it may be the very same special as in the video I posted here, although that one is performed using a katana.

Every MegaTen game rewards the player for locating and exploiting your enemies weakness.  The newest Devil Summoner title is no different.  The name for the new weakness-exploitation system is MAG Scheduling Battle. Weird name, I know.

The system basically allows the player to steal Magnatite from an enemy after repeatedly striking it’s weakness.  Doing so grants the player an unlimited supply of MP to continue attacking that weakness.  Since attacking a weakness also stuns the enemy, there is very little an affected enemy can do.  Let’s hope the system doesn’t work both ways…

The more I learn about this game, the more I think it will redeem itself from the previous title.  The added depth of battle definitely earns it some points in my book.  I sure wish we’d be getting the Plus edition, but I guess playing through Nocturne again would suck up a lot of time.

Related Entries:
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abadon Video
Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abadon Story Info

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Some story information on the newest chapter of the Devil Summoner series has finally been revealed.  The information concerns Raidou’s reasons for going to the isolated village, and also introduces 2 new character.

 The next new character is a mysterious white haired man.  He appears to block Raidou and Narumi’s way while traveling to the village.  Whether he is a friend or foe, and why he tries to stop Raidou is unknown.

Info on this game really seems to be trickling out slowly.  I wonder if it is to build up the hype?  I think it may be working as I am already pretty excited, even though the first game wasn’t fantastic.

I dig the setting, and the characters are really what make this Devil Summoner series interesting.  Still no word on the english release unfortunately, but it will probably be soon.

Related Entries:
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abadon Video
Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs King Abadon First Look

Roy atlus, preview, ps2 3 comments

On August 22nd Atlus held a special concert featuring live music from the most recent Shin Megami Tensei: Persona titles: Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, and Persona Trinity Soul. The event was held in Akasaka, Tokyo at a special concert hall called BLITZ.

Japanese concerts are very different from American concerts.  (Unless you go to a lot of N’Sync concerts or something…)  As you can see, it’s quite a production–dancers, effects, a huge fucking screen, the works.

The theme of the concert was that everyone who attended was a “Main Character”, and that they were actually entering the Velvet Room.  The screen up top featured witty dialog between Igor, Elizabeth, and Margret.   As always, there was loads of awesome merchandise that you’ll probably never ever own.  Sorry.

Tickets to the event were 4,500 yen, around $40 USD. Not bad considering it looks like a lot of fun.  You can check out more photos of it here.   Below is the complete setlist.  I left the songs in their original Japanese…  hope that doesn’t piss anyone off.  If you are not familiar with the songs, you can find links to download them at the Related Entires section of this post.

On a side note, this is my 200th post since starting this blog! I think it has changed a lot since it’s humble beginings as a way to burn spare time while attending school in Osaka, Japan.  I think the changes are for the better though.  I hope you guys feel the same way! 

Related Entires:
Persona 4 OST Download
Persona 3: Burn My Dread OST Download
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne OST (2 disc) Download

Roy atlus, japan, persona 3 comments