Today I chose to take a snow day and call out of work. That means I was able to go to all the websites which are normally blocked at my job! I haven’t heard much about 7th Dragon so I decided to check out the game’s main site to see if there have been any major updates.

An introduction movie was added which shows a few screenshots as well as some cutscenes.  I was pretty impressed by the later half of the video (0:35-end) which shows a battle between a dragon and a party.  Here all the jobclasses are introduced in quick succession showing the chibi and normal form of each member of the jobclass.

Seventh Dragon comes out in Japan this March, and I eagerly await hearing something about its Western release so I can make my team for real!

Related Entries:
Sega Announces Seventh Dragon for Nintendo DS
7th Dragon: That’s a Lot of Dragons
Tokyo Game Show 2008 Highlights

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Fluency in Japanese certainly is not necessary to appreciate the goings-on at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.  Thanks to the internet, neither is actually being in Japan at any point in your life.  Dengeki’s website has several videos highlighting different video game publishers and their booths at TGS.

The videos are for the most part devoid of language, simply focusing on the scenery and the games themselves.  Here are some links to the videos, enjoy!

Opening Video
Square Enix	Sega	SCEA
Marvelous	Level 5	Konami
Koei	Capcom	Bandai Namco

Did you notice a lot of women dressed in elaborate outfits?  They are called Companion, or Companion-san, and each booth has their own.  In some cases, a particular game may even have exclusive companion-san often clad in cosplay.

Companion-san walk around their relative booth providing hand-outs and answering questions about games.  They are quite knowledgeable, and (most of the time) their outfits are pretty awesome.  Famitsu made a compilation of all the different outfits, which you can check out here (part 1) and here (part 2).  Also, Dengeki has one other video featuring the elaborate outfits as well.  You can check that out here.

And now, Kotowari’s awards for best, and worst Companion outfit at TGS 2008!

BEST	WORST
Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 (TRI)	Square Enix

Good show Capcom, you even have me a little excited for the next Monster Hunter.  I would also like to give honorable mention to Microsoft as much as it pains me.  They had not one, but two really cool outfits.

Really Square Enix? All that talent and that’s the best you could do?  Was Tetsuya Nomura taking a nap or something?  Next year get him to design some belts and zippers!

Related Entries:
ALL OF THEM

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I may not have been one of the lucky individuals who attended this year’s TGS, but thanks to the echo chamber that is the internet, I got all the info I wanted.  This year’s event was filled with hands-on previews, free merchandise, and some surprises as well.

Bandai-Namco’s booth featured a playable demo for their upcoming Wii title, Fragile.  One lucky individual at Dengeki managed to play it despite high demand, and low supply.  The reviewer discussed the controls of the game a bit.  The Wiimote acts as Seto’s flashlight, and the joystick on the nunchuck is used to move him.

The reviewer wanted to take his time and explore every bit of the ruins in the playable demo.  Sadly, a bathroom break made that impossible.  He described the game’s dark atmosphere as both intriguing and frightening.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Marvelous Entertainment had set up a booth to show off their newest Wii title in the works, Oboromuramasa.  The Wii is looking pretty damn good these days… I really need to pick one of them up…

It was possible for visitors of the booth to play a hands-on demo of Oboromuramasa, and some received the omamori cell phone cleaner pictured above.  Obviously this is for the purpose of making me extremely jealous and eager to get the hell out of this country which is slowly sinking into oblivion.  I am bad at staying on topic today…

A while back Chunsoft and Sega announced that a sequel to Furai No Shiren DS is on the way, entitled Furai No Shiren DS 2: The Desert’s Magic Castle.  Naturally I was excited since I receive some strange pleasure from rogue-like games.  Well, at TGS, it was announced that the infamous enka singer Jero, will be singing the theme song for the game.

The theme song’s name translates to “trial”, or “test”. After the announcement, Jero performed the song live for all in attendance.  What a combination; enka, a musical style adored by elderly Japanese women, and rogue-like games, adored by the most hardcore video game nerds alive.  I foresee great things…

The game which is my most recent obsession, 7th Dragon also had a good sized booth which attracted its share of spectators.

Visitors to the booth could play a hands-on demo, and received these stickers which feature chibi-fied versions of the various jobclasses in the game.

The event will continue for two more days, allowing individuals not affiliated with the press or major video game companies inside.  Take that E3.  Jerks.

Related Entries:
7th Dragon: That’s a Lot of Dragons
Oboromuramasa At Tokyo Game Show 2008
All Korowari articles concerning Fragile can be found here

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7th Dragon’s Japanese release is still a ways in the future, but that doesn’t stop Sega from putting some new info out there on the game.  I was surprised to learn that the game’s title isn’t just for sounding cool and being in English, as is sometimes the case with Japanese games.  There are indeed 7 total dragons which threaten the existence of mankind.  The 7th of which is pretty damn big:

The game takes place in the small town of Kazan located in the world of Eden.  Kazan is one of the few towns remaining.  As the Dragons take over more of the world, a mysterious flower blooms in places where humans can no longer live. The flower is called furowaro （フロワロ）. If you find an area where the flower grows densely, odds are a Dragon is close. 

Some details on a few of the game’s jobclasses have been revealed as well. Characters appear in their normal form when looking through status windows, but during battle they will revert to their adorable chibi-form.  Three jobclasses have been confirmed by Sega, the rest I can venture to guess about, but don’t castrate me if I am wrong.  First are the confirmed Jobclasses, click the image to view their non-chibi versions:

Fighter

Mage

Rogue

The rest I am guessing about, click their chibi-form for a larger image of their chibi-form:

Samurai

Paladin

Princess

Medic

Now keep in mind, like the Etrian Odyssey series, each jobclass has several different appearances, so if you’re not crazy about any of them, there are others to choose from. Personally, I think they are all pretty cool, especially the Mage and Rogue.  Man I can’t wait to make a team!

Does anyone else think that the white dragon looks like Fou-Lou’s Astral Dragon from Breath of Fire 4?

Related Entries:
Sega Announces Seventh Dragon for Nintendo DS

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Recently Sega and the creative forces behind Etrian Odyssey have announced a new Nintendo DS title scheduled to be released in Japan sometime next year. The game is called 7th Dragon, and features some of the damn cutest sprites I have seen in all my years of vidya gaming:

The game tales place in a world called Eden, where dragons rule, and man’s only hope for survival is to rid the earth of them.  The player is able to assemble a team for the very purpose of doing battle with the dragons.  There are a variety of job classes, each with 4 different sprites to choose from.  The ones known about so far are the classics: Mage, Princess, Rogue, Knight, Samurai, Fighter, and Healer.

Character maintenance will be extremely similar to Etrian Odyssey in terms of jobclasses, selecting and learning skills etc.  Likewise the battles are still turn-based and dungeon crawling is the name of the game.

Sega has released the following “impression movie”:

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at all the adorable sprites acting all serious in the movie.  Still my interest has definately been peaked in the game.  I was able to pull some screenshots of the game off of Famitsu’s website:

I am guessing that all of these screenshots are of the DS’s bottom screen, since there are times where it looks like a selection can be made using the stylus. Unlike Etrian Odyssey, the player’s characters will be visible both while traversing the world, and during battle.  Personally I think this is a nice upgrade, especially since I put a lot of thought into arranging my team.

Some fans of the classic quality of Etrian Odyssey may be a bit disappointed, but I believe 7th Dragon will be on par with the series.  Japanese gamers will be able to slay hoards of dragons Spring of 2009.  In the meantime you can check out the game’s official website here.  If you are interested in looking at more screenshots of the game you can find those here.

Related Entries:
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard OST
Etrain Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard English Release Official

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