Final Fantasy XIII: Meet Hope Estheim

By Roy | Published: July 28, 2009

Hope Estheim

I knew that there needed to be a character to balance the XTREME coolness of characters like Lightning and Snow in Final Fantasy XIII;  a character who tips the opposite end of the hero scale, lacking physical prowess, self-confidence, and wacky gizmos.

The new character is named Hope Estheim and he is only 14 years old.  He’s also pretty ticked at Snow.  Remember the Mom in the Final Fantasy XIII demo who bravely took up arms with Snow, only to meet her end when a PSICOM robot blew up?  That was Hope’s mom.  Before dying she asked Snow to protect Hope, meaning despite Hope being all pissy, Snow will honor her wish.  Uncomfortable!

Hope uses a boomerang in battle which means he is probably your standard long-range character.  Also he and Vanille are pretty close, which I find funny because I thought they were the same person in just about all the videos where they were dressed in the purge clothing.  When everyone is pretty and has pretty hair, things can get confusing.

Related Entries:
Final Fantasy XIII: Summon Info
Final Fantasy XIII Battle System Mechanics

Posted in final fantasy xiii, preview, ps3, square enix | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Promo Video

By Roy | Published: July 27, 2009

Well, I am back from  my vacation, which was far too short.  I hope you all enjoyed the work of guest writer Julius in my stead. I know I did!

What better note to return on then more media on the new MegaTen game: Strange Journey?  This video appeared on the game’s official website not long ago and offers a slightly better look at Strange Journey than the initial Famitsu screens.  Mainly some pretty impressive cut-scenes and artwork.  It looks like Atlus is really pushing the limits of the DS on this one…

The scenes of the city and caravan of snow-vehicles I found especially impressive.  Also, the art seems much darker than we’ve seen for a while from MegaTen.  Devil Survivor had a younger feel to it, but really lacked the visual creepiness I have come to love and expect with MegaTen titles.  I think we can pretty much thank Kazuma Kaneko for that.

In terms of what the voice-over is talking about, it basically sums up what Julius already covered.  If you are interested, definitely check out his article here.

Strange Journey is set for an October 8th release date in Japan, a day after my birthday in America, which technically is the same day if that makes sense.  In case you didn’t know what to buy me… *ahem*.  I expect a carefully planned stream of info from Atlus up until that date, which I will of course be covering.

Posted in atlus, nintendo ds, videos | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger 2-Disc Limited Edition OST

By Julius | Published: July 24, 2009

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So, I recently picked up BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Maybe you heard of it? The beautiful 2D arcade fighter that has fighting game fans going crazy over it since it was released for the PS3/360 (or earlier if you were lucky enough to live near an arcade that had a BB machine)? Well, you know what the best part of that game is? It’s the music, which was composed by none other than the great Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of the acclaimed Guilty Gear series of fighters. His usual blend of heavily symphonic orchestras mixed with blaring guitar riffs is very much present in this OST. It’s a style you will come to expect of Daisuke once you get to know his work, but it never gets old. It’s a redeeming quality of his talent that has kept me so enamored with his music for many years.

Thankfully, Aksys Games packaged all first-run copies of BlazBlue with a 2-Disc OST (along with a bonus DVD and a fancy doubled-width box to store it all in). Also, Aksys did something wonderful and put on six additional tracks featuring remixes by none other than Oh No. If you don’t know who Oh No is, than you don’t know what music is. The acclaimed hip-hop producer (though labeling him as just that is a major understatement to his talent) is the younger brother of Madlib, who himself is an acclaimed music producer. He is also a known gamer who often incorporates video game sounds into his music, so this type of project is perfect for him. I would have paid money just to have this OST with only the six remix tracks by him on it.

Even if you don’t pick up BlazBlue, passing up on the OST would be a big mistake, which is why I included download links for both discs of the Calamity Trigger Limited Edition OST at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Tracklist

Disc 1:
01. Calamity Trigger (Arcade Opening)
02. Nocturne (Title Screen)
03. Blue Beating (Character Select)
04. VS (Versus Screen)
05. Challenger (Challenger Music)
06. Bright (Console Credits 1)
07. Rimelight (Story Mode BGM)
08. The Road to Hope (Arcade Credits 1)
09. Limited Again (Arcade Credits 2)
10. Continue (Continue Screen)
11. Game over (Game Over Screen)
12. Winner (Winning Music)
13. Glow-Up (Psych-Up Music)
14. Impulse (Astral Heat music)
15. Rebellion (Ragna)
16. Imperial Code (Noel vs. Jin)
17. Weak Executioner (Litchi vs. Arakune)
18. White Requiem (Ragna vs. Rachel)
19. Under Heaven Destruction (Ragna vs. Jin)
20. Lust SIN (Jin)

Disc 2:
01. Bullet Dance (Noel Vermillion)
02. Queen Of Rose (Rachel Alucard)
03. Catus Carnival (Taokaka)
04. MOTOR HEAD (Iron Tager)
05. Oriental Flower (Litchi Faye Ling)
06. Thin RED Line (Arakune)
07. Gale (Bang Shishigami)
08. Marionette Purple (Carl Clover)
09. SUSANOOH (Haku-men)
10. Awakening The Chaos (v-13)
11. Black Onslaught (Boss Ragna)
12. Blood Pain (Mirror Match)
13. Open The Gate (When The Gate Opens Theme)
14. Altar (Story Mode BGM)
15. Highlander (Story Mode BGM)
16. Curse (Story Mode BGM)
17. DJ Oh No Remix 1
18. DJ Oh No Remix 2
19. DJ Oh No Remix 3
20. DJ Oh No Remix 4
21. DJ Oh No Remix 5
22. DJ Oh No Remix 6

Download Disc 1 | Download Disc 2

Posted in guest blogger, merchandise, ost | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

New Shin Megami Tensei announced, entitled Strange Journey

By Julius | Published: July 23, 2009

globe

What’s this? Yet another Shin Megami Tensei? Yup! Hot off the heels of the recently released Shin Megami Tensei games Devil Summoner 2 and Devil Survivor comes Strange Journey, which will be yet another venture to the DS for the SMT series.

Last week a new teaser site came up on the Atlus Japan website. All it showed was an image of the Earth with a large black hole where the South Pole is located (pictured above). What this teaser site’s message tried to convey was supposed to be revealed on July 24th, but thanks to someone who went through the page source, a small image file was found that gave the secret away a bit earlier than Atlus Japan originally planned. The image revealed the site to be about an upcoming Shin Megami Tensei game called Strange Journey, complete with a tentative release date of October 8th.

tease

Of course, Famitsu has the first details about Strange Journey, sprawled on six total pages. Let me give you a rundown on the info:

You play a nameless Japanese elite soldier who, along with various other soldiers and scientists, have been sent by the country to investigate a strange rift that has appeared over Antarctica. The people of the planet has named the other world the rift leads to as the Schwarz-verse. However, once you and your team reach the other world, you find out it’s much worse than anything anyone could have imagined. The Schwarz-verse is overrun by demons and mythical beasts who threaten to pass through the rift and destroy your home planet. The ship you’ve arrived in, the Red Sprite No. 1, serves as home base while your in the demon-infested world. Three other ships also exist; the Blue Jet No. 2, Elves No. 3, and Gigantic No. 4. Whether these are unlocked as you go along or if your original ship is just upgraded isn’t made clear.

Your exploration crew is made up of many different specialists, and three of them are revealed:

portraits

Captain Gore – The Captain of the Schwartz-verse exploration team. On account of his exceptional skills and leadership abilities, he was appointed to be the leader of the team that determines the fate of mankind. “So long as all in this ship cooperate, investigation is not an impossibility.”

Himenez – An American who has had experience in campaigns. He’s worked his way up from the bottom and, looking forward to the rewards after this is all done and over with, he volunteered for the team. “As long as I get what I deserve, I plan on contributing what I can as long as I’m not dead.”

Selenin – A Russian scientist, she was recruited based on her knowledge related to the Schwarz-verse. “The populace is being deceived with the false information that there is a large blizzard storm, but the truth is…”

An interesting aspect of Strange Journey is that everything is seen through a first person perspective on the top screen. Your character has a device on his wrist that is similar to a Pip-Boy 3000 from Fallout 3. This device is viewed on the bottom screen, and its only confirmed functions so far is a map display, but more are expected to be present in the game. Members of the exploration team also don a special kind of suit called a Demonica Suit. The suit has many different capabilities, such as adjusting to the atmosphere more capably depending on the area you’re in, searching for hidden enemies, and a system that lets the suit improve itself. The full details aren’t known about this yet, but it almost seems like the Demonica Suit will be doing all the leveling and ability learning, as opposed to the character who’s actually wearing it. I find this to be a very intriguing feature to Strange Journey, and look forward to learning more about the Demonica Suit’s role in the game.

The rest featured in the Famitsu article are just some small tidbits, here are the highlights:

  • Over 300 demons are featured, more than any other SMT game to date
  • Demon conversations return to aid you in their recruitment
  • Relationships with your crew play a huge role in the story – so big that the world can either be saved or be destroyed at the end depending on how you interact with them

Something else that’s worth a mention is that Strange Journey is the beginning of yet another spin-off series of the Shin Megami Tensei games, as it isn’t part of the Persona, Digital Devil Saga or Devil Summoner spin-offs, nor is it Shin Megami Tensei IV. Strange Journey has quite a lot to live up to since it’s bearing the MegaTen name. With the absolutely stellar releases in the SMT series for the past 10+ years or so, I have no worries that Strange Journey will be able to follow suit with its predecessors and provide us with an experience we’ve come to expect from the franchise.

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Source: Nintendo Everything, Siliconera

Posted in atlus, guest blogger, nintendo ds, preview | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

XSEED Will Be Localizing The Wizard of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

By Julius | Published: July 22, 2009

Oz

XSEED announced earlier this week that they will be localizing The Wizard of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road (called RIZ-ZOAWD in Japan, which is an anagram for Wizard and Oz) for North American shores. This isn’t very surprising, as XSEED has made their interest for the title quite clear before it was even released in Japan back in December of 2008. Even so, to get official word from XSEED that they will in fact be localizing it makes this RPG fan incredibly happy.

The great thing about TWoO:BTYBR is that it follows the original story of The Wizard of Oz, but only up until a certain point. The story is followed accurately up until Dorothy, along with her new party in the form of Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion, arrive in Emerald City to talk to the Wizard. From that point on, the game gives it’s own imaginative spin on the series and what happens next.

Artistically, everything about TWoO:BTYBR is top-notch. From the colorful and very beautifully 3D rendered game world to the charming, uniquely designed characters. For instance, Tin Man’s design gives him a much more robust appearance which goes perfectly with his job as the heavy hitter of the group. And I really can’t stress enough how beautiful the graphics are for this game. They just might be the best the DS has to offer so far.

As for the gameplay, everything is controlled with the stylus. The player moves Dorothy through the game world with a giant trackball on the bottom screen. There are no random encounters, instead the player must make contact with the enemy while traversing an open field. Once a battle is initiated, it will be carried out in a first-person perspective, much like in the Dragon Quest or Earthbound series. Characters’ abilities are also heavily influenced by their storybook counterparts, i.e. one of Lion’s special abilities is giving your party the chance to flee from battle, which is inspired by his cowardly attitude. Check out the first Japanese trailer, as well as a gameplay video to get a better look at TWoO:BTYBR.

YouTube Preview Image YouTube Preview Image

Honestly, after the announcement of this localization by XSEED, I think they might be one of my favorite American publishers of Japanese gaming. Not only are they bringing over one of my most anticipated Japanese games of the past year, but they’ve practically read through my personal wish list of wanted games and are seeing to it that they get a proper release stateside. We have Fragile, The Sky Crawlers, and Ju-on to look forward to by the end of 2009. Not to mention Beyond The Yellow Brick Road is expected for a Fall release here, so we certainly have a great deal to look forward to thanks to XSEED. The only problem they made so far is their choice for the American TWoO:BTYBR boxart… yeah. American publishers really need to learn to just keep the original Japanese boxart:

box

Posted in artwork, guest blogger, japan, nintendo ds, xseed | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment