Oboromuramasa, Vanilla Ware and Marvelous Entertainment’s newest title in the works for the Nintendo Wii, will make an appearance at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.  This marks a year since the game was first dangled in front of gamers with no release date and very little info given at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show.  This time Marvelous Entertainment at least revealed that the game will be seeing a 2009 release.

Lucky individuals who visit Oboromuramasa’s booth at TGS receive a free omamori cell-phone cleaner with Momohime on it.  Omamori are charms which one carries on them for luck.  Their origin has ties with Japan’s native religion Shinto. In addition to the announcement of the game’s release, Marvelous has also launched the game’s main website which can be found here.

Omamori

Vanilla Ware also released Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire for the PS2, both featured visually stunning 2D graphics.  Oboromuramasa takes two ninja, Kisuke and Momohime on a journey across feudal Japan on a quest for legendary katana.

A release date hasn’t been announced for North America, but considering that Vanilla Ware’s past two titles came over, it seems quite likely.  I am not sure if Atlus or NIS will be localizing it, only time will tell.

I really love the look of this game, Vanilla Ware definitely makes the most out of only 2 dimensions.  Also, the idea of hunting down legendary katana sounds really cool to me.  I have a thing for Japanese myth and legend, and katana are steeped in both. This game has the potential for some really creative story. 

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Oboro Muramasa Yōtōden Video

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Bandai-Namco released a new Fragile: Goodbye Ruins of the Moon video. The video doesn’t reveal a whole lot more about the game’s story, but does show a bit of actual gameplay. Most of it is just Seto exploring ruins with his flashlight, nothing too exciting–still no look at the battle system, which I am  waiting for.

I noticed that there was a scene in which the graphics changed to an almost anime-like cutscene.  I wonder if that will be happening much in the game.  I have a feeling it may just be the game’s intro that is animated like that.

 At the very end of the video, all of the support characters are shown in quick succession.  If you are not familiar with any of them, you can check out my previous posts concerning new Fragile characters in the Related Entries section of this post.

I don’t own a Wii yet, I pretty much just bum my girlfriend’s when I can–this game makes we want to own one more than any other title so far…

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Fragile Character Update Part 1
Fragile Character Update Part 2

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Jaleco, a company I am sure you have never heard of, is currently working on Kizuna, an action RPG for the Nintendo Wii. The game is scheduled to come out this Winter in Japan.

The game’s story focuses on the Kingdom of Navigalia, which has had repeated run-ins with a demon king by the name of Garubalan.  Long ago, in the last great war, the demon king was sealed into a great crystal tree by a hero named Jared and his fellow soldiers.

Suddenly demons begin to descend onto the kingdom once again, in search for Garubalan.  The kingdom must once again protect itself from the demon armies, and prevent the demon king from being freed.

A 17 year old warrior by the name of Leon (Ri-an) steps forward to fight the demons.  He is described as taciturn, indifferent, and apathetic.  An unlikely hero…

Judging by the few screens that have surfaced it appears there are some very large enemies, which Leon must face, and at times, climb up to do so. 

The game’s graphics are what really set it apart from games of the same genre–the main difference being a very unique style of textured cell-shading.

When I first saw these screens it reminded me of a fusion between Okami and Shadows of the Colossus.  A damn cool combo if there ever was one.

Part of the game’s appeal can also be chocked up to the some of the veteran staff working on it, which includes Miwa Shoda, scenario designer for Square Enix–Miwa also worked on Final Fantasy XIII. In addition to Miwa, Youichi Kawaguchi, also of Square Enix, who worked on Dragon Quest VII will be stepping up as scenario and event designer.

If you can read Japanese, or just have some time to kill, I recommend checking out the game’s teaser website here. It’s actually pretty unique: the site times you, giving you about 98 seconds to read a small paragraph by candlelight concerning the games story.  Of course you could always just Ctrl+Print Screen like I did…

The Wii continues to surprise us by offering some pretty cool titles. How the Wii’s unique features will affect gameplay in Kizuna is still unknown, but I am sure it will be fun. 

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All Kotowari posts tagged with “Nintendo Wii”

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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

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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?

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