Some details have finally coalesced concerning the sequel to Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero, thanks to the newly launched site.  We’ll start with the story, which promises to be amusing:

One day Etna discovers that something has been stolen from her.  Sound familiar?  In her classic fury she gathers her less-than-trusty underlings: her 1,000 Prinnies.  It would seem someone stole her… um… underwear (panties).

I anticipate a lot of hentai jokes in this game…

Apparently a notorious thief is going through the netherworld stealing various rare items.  As you can imagine, Etna wants this thief caught by the end of the day, but she doesn’t feel like doing it herself.  Who does that leave?  A magical red scarf and 1,000 Prinnies.

As you can see, the story allows for an essentially unchanged system.  The player will still challenge one stage per hour, in a certain order until dawn, or the 1,000 Prinnies go up in smoke.  There are three levels of difficulty: Hell Official Rule, Standard, and Baby-Easy:

Baby-Easy allows for an additional hit from Standard, meaning the 4th hit would kill the current Prinny.  I am guessing this was added since the last game was balls hard.  BALLS.

Another new addition to the battle system concerns the attack gauge at the bottom of the screen.  This gauge was in the previous game as well.  When it became full, the Prinny’s offensive abilities increased dramatically.  The same is true in this version, but with a few more bonuses.  First off, you get this sweet aura:

And these two new attacks:

For “Prinny cyclone”, the Prinny in question will spin rapidly transforming the end of his red scarf into a fist, clobbering any foes in its reach.  The “metabon hip-attack” simply dishes out more damage than the normal version.

In the first game I found that I was rarely able to max out my attack gauge.  It would seem I am not the only person who had that issue since an additional way to boost it has been added.

Throughout the game’s various levels you’ll occasionally come across these Etna doll/scarecrow things:

If you destory it, your Prinny will receive a large boost to their attack gauge.  I am guessing that the placement of these bonuses alter based on the level and the hour though, so don’t get too comfortable.

That’s about it for major system updates.  The second Prinny title will hit shelves in Japan on March 25th.

On an somewhat related note, the official NIS Prinny updated his blog to include some holiday festivities.  Like most of Japan, the Prinny indulged in some customary KFC Fried Chicken on Christmas.  I know it’s a terribly commercial tradition but hey, it’s also fucking delicious.  Don’t worry this doesn’t count as cannibalism… I think.

Roy nis, preview, psp 5 comments

Sega made a special Christmas Eve announcement today concerning yet another cameo in Valkyria Chronicles 2.  Is there going to be any incentive to actually play the main story?  Anyway, whether you like the rag-tag squad of would-be heroes, Edy Detachment will be making an appearance via yet another password.

This password can be acquired at Sofmap in Akihabara when making a reservation for the game.  You may recall a similar pre-order bonus password for Selvaria Bles.  Which pre-order bonus would you go with?

This is actually a really tough decision for me since I love Selveria but I also love Marina, the sniper in Edy’s group:

Marina in her new sniper’s outfit

I am not too partial on the other members however…  I guess since this is entirely rhetorical I will just say I am getting both!

Related Entries:
Valkyria Chronices: New DLC: Edy Detachment’s Challenge
Valkyria Chronicles 2: Pre-Order Bonus To Include Selveria Bless

Roy preview, psp, sega 3 comments

In just two short days the agonizing wait for Final Fantasy XIII will be over, at least in Japan.  The above video shows the game being played on Retro Game Master (aka Game Center CX), a Japanese television show on Fuji TV.

This is the first time I have really been able to watch the game being played as apposed to watching gameplay highlighted in a trailer.  Considering how close the release date is, I believe it is reasonable to assume we’re looking at the retail version of the game, which is exciting!

The first scene which impressed me is when an Adamantoise lumbers across the world map.  It’s difficult to tell, but it almost looks like it walks over the party…  The thing is just massive!  At one point a co-host attempts to engage the Adamantoise in battle.  One swift stomp to the ground instantly wipes out the leader (Fang) and most of the party causing a game over.  It would appear that this is a foe best confronted later in the game.  Hopefully there are many other formidable foes like this.

Next we get our first look at summoning in action.  After the host gets a game over, he tries  fighting a considerably smaller enemy.  Fang summons Bahamut who comes down from a glyph in the sky, as summons so often do.  After wailing on the enemy a bit, someone suggests that they try driving mode.  Bahamut begins its transformation which is reminiscent of Transformers, Power Rangers, and the like, with just a bit more class.  Fang climbs on Bahamut and a whole new onslaught begins ending with Bahamut’s Mega Flare.  Soon the enemy is razed and celebrations commence.

My only complaint if you forced one from me is that I was hoping for some way to attack the enemy on the field to get a preemptive strike or something like that.  Instead you just walk up next to them and raise your guard.  Still, the game looks fun and I am loving the epic enemies.

Roy preview, ps3, square enix, vidoes 1 comment

I can hardly keep up with the onslaught of news regarding Final Fantasy XIII lately.  It seems like as the Japanese December release grows closer, Square Enix just chucks information at us like a crazy-cat-lady throwing cats.  The latest bit of news, released over the holiday (sorry for the delay), concerns weapons, missions, and etc!  There is a lot to cover so I am going to use bullets to keep me motivated:

WEAPONS CUSTOMIZATION SYSTEM

• Weapons can be customized using a web-site while on Cocoon, or at standard save points for all other areas.
• Each character has a fixed weapon type they can use, with multiple variations available throughout the game.
• Material required for weapon customization can be acquired from shops, drops, mission rewards, or treasure chests.
• Applying these materials is essentially like applying experience points in that at a certain point, the weapon levels up.
• Each weapon has a different level limit, once this limit is reached a weapon can be changed into a “Key Item”.  Key Items are used to produce the best weapons in the game.

Increasing the level of Lightning’s Blaze Edge

ACCESSORIES SYSTEM

• Characters appear to only have 3 stats: Attack Power, Magic Power and HP.  Enhancements to individual characters come largely from abilities imbued into their accessories.  These include simple stat increases to effects such as auto-haste (aww yeah…) etc.
• Multiple accessories can be equipped.
• Equipping multiple accessories with the same boosting effects to a single character results in a bonus.

MISSIONS

Throughout Pulse the player can find a number of inscribed monuments (pictured above) which designate monsters that need slaying.  Once the player accepts a mission, if the target monster is located it will read “MISSION” above its head (top picture).  Your mark will sometimes be a very common monster, and sometimes a very tough creature.  Some images have been released of especially large critters, such as this mega-cactuar dubbed Jyabotenda:

After the target beast is felled, you can return to the monument for your reward.  Some missions are repeatable while some can only be cleared once.  There is a ranking system (in game, not online as far as I know) and successful hunts increase your rank in relation to the marks difficulty.

ETC

It has been confirmed that this title’s Cid is named Cid Raines.  He leads an air-ship and militia called Kiheitai.  I would translate it to “Rough Riders”, although that doesn’t really “historically” hold any water, I just think it sounds cool.  It also appears that Cid is not an enemy to l’Cie, but more a neutral party who I would guess may become a sympathizer.  In the final trailer, the fiery man accompanying him is named Captain Rigby.  He is a hot-blooded rebellious youth, who I would guess may die.  OMG SPOILERS!!1

Lastly, Vainlle’s summon is indeed (as a certain commenter suspected) Hecatonchires.  This is of course the first appearance of this Eidolon in the Final Fantasy series.

THOUGHTS

Wow, if you made it this far you must have a general interest in my opinions rather than just finding this on google!   Anyway, I think the part that excites me the most about this news is the weapons/accessory system.  I love being able to customize my character to an unhealthy degree.  I feel like this system will really allow for that, at least more so than most Final Fantasies.  I anticipate  a lot of menu time for me! *drool*

The mission system really doesn’t seem all that exciting to me, yet it seems less annoyingly thrust upon the player than in XII.  At least now that it’s tied into weapon customization, my interest is piqued.

All in all I am happy with the direction the game is going.  I think it’s a real contender for best game of 2010 and it comes out in just the first quarter!  That gives us three quarters to play it or I dunno… learn a language, plant a tree, kiss a hobo, etc.

Related Entries:
Final Fantasy XIII: Final Trailer
Final Fantasy XIII: Character Growth System Revealed and More

Roy preview, ps3, square enix 8 comments

Square Enix revealed details concerning the character growth system for Final Fantasy XIII dubbed  “Crystarium.”  How they managed to keep this under wraps until now is proof of their awesome-ness.  Anyway, here is a rundown on the system as I understand it:

As the player continues in the story, different crystarium become available.  There are crystarium for certain “roles” in battle.  Roles we know about thus far are “Blaster” (pictured as Lightning’s crystarium above), “Attacker”, “Jammer”, etc.  In the screens which explain this system, Lightning is a Blaster which seems to focus on long range, while Snow is an Attacker which seems to focus on close range and endurance.

When crystarium is used in battle, it will spread out, or grow.  For example, Lightning’s crystarium is a flower that blossoms as it levels up:

Each role imbues the character with different attributes.  As the respective crystarium grows, different abilities will become available.  These abilities appear on set path dubbed “power line”.  Continuing along a power line requires CP (crystarium points).  I believe this means some abilities are inherent to the crystarium while others are earned by continuing to use the crystarium.  I assume that these can be swapped (i.e. Lightning can become an Attacker, and Snow can become a Blaster).

Continuing along the power line

Changing your role would conceivably change the inherent abilities, but I think the character would retain any abilities learned by consuming CP.  Long story short:  job-class meets the sphere-grid where you can collect multiple grids.  No details are given as to how the player can acquire more crystarium – I assume each character comes standard with one, but after that I am really not sure.  I get the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg…  I hope to learn more about this system soon.

In other exciting Final Fantasy XIII announcements, Hope’s summon has been revealed to be Alexander.  For those of you unfamiliar with Alexander, he is a big holy robot.  Only in Japan, right?  Here is his new appearance:

His Driving Mode/Gestalt mode is a real stretch of the imagination…  He becomes a fort and all of his pillar… things… attack the enemy with a variety of abilities:

Moving on, some information has been released concerning Chocobos, the mighty steed of the Final Fantasy world.  First off, they’re pretty big!  In fact I think this may be the largest representation of Chocobos in any game:

At a certain point in the game, the player has the option of riding a Chocobo on the world map.  Obviously this increases the speed the player can move around the map.  There are also some areas which cannot be reached on foot and require the wiles of a Chocobo.  Areas where Chocobos can help are marked by a yellow ring (see right screen).

Chocobos can also detect and dig for treasure hidden underground.  When traversing the map, a “!” will appear above the head of the ride-able-fowl when there is an item to be found.

The player must be cautious of enemies on the map since they will attack your Chocobo.  The three feathers at the bottom of the screen represent its HP.  After getting hit three times, you lose your ride.

A new system has been introduced which allows the player to alter the weather of certain areas of the world.  That orb Vanille is inspecting above is a kind of terminal which gives options for the desired weather.  Only fal’Cie are able to use these rare terminals.

Changing the weather in a certain area can alter the ecosystem, spawning different monsters.  Details are scarce, but I believe it is possible to spawn tougher enemies by creating a more aggressive ecosystem.  With greater challenge conceivably comes greater reward!

I am really happy that a system is in place which allows the player to customize their experience somewhat.  I think this is a mark of a forward thinking title, which is surprisingly rare in this gen.

Writing all this has really gotten me excited for Final Fantasy XIII.  Now I just need to hold on until March 9th!

Roy preview, ps3, square enix 6 comments