Disgaea 4 to Hit US, European Markets This Fall

Title says most of it, which makes my job a lot easier.  Anyway, care of the official site is the announcement that Disgaea 4 will hit US PS3s in September, and will arrive in Europe sometime in Fall.  Additionally, NIS are running a naming contest for an in-game item, skill, and NPC, the details of which can be found this-a-way.

Mass Effect Movie Coming Out in 2012

Not to be outdone, BioWare has their own animated project in the works.  Specifically, the company announced they’re working with FUNimation to produce a feature-length Mass Effect movie, with executive producer Casey Hudson serving in the same role for the project.  Via press release, Hudson stated that “Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we will bring this rich universe to life with the utmost quality and the same attention to detail that the Mass Effect games are known for.”

At present, neither plot details nor an official title have been revealed.  The Mass Effect anime is expected to release sometime next year.

Source: 1UP

Persona 4 Anime in the Works

An animated series based on Persona 4 is on the way, care of producer Aniplex and the Index Corporation.  Officially dubbed Persona 4: The Animation, it will feature several voice actors reprising their roles from the game, including Daisuke Namikawa, Showtaro Morikubo, Yui Horie, and Ami Koshimizu.  Apart from launching the official site, Index also released a teaser trailer, which can be found over on the YouTubes.

Source: AnimeNews

What Happened This Week – Impulse Buys and Picking Fights Poorly

Goooood evening, friends! It’s news roundup time, and have we got some stories for you. Here’s the latest:

  • Stardock CEO speaks out on selling Impulse to GameStop, but the reasoning behind the sale remains unclear.  Also, he claims his fingers were broken in a “boking” accident.
  • Nintendo and Sony commiserate over stock price and handheld launch woes.  Those two should get together more often.
  • Sony says price isn’t a make-or-break factor for a platform’s launch.  Uh-oh.
  • Rumor mill discussion over an alleged Sony insider leaking E3 2011 details.  Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton to fight to the death confirmed.
  • EA thinks it can take on Zynga.  Details to follow in the documentary Wall Street 3: Make Games or Die Trying.
  • Ubisoft thinks it can take on EA and Activision.  Their likely response: “Ubi-who now?”
  • BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 deal, PopCap Games loses their mind, and much more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Impulse Buys and Picking Fights Poorly’ »

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy – Staff Review

Dissidia: Final Fantasy was a game that kind of took players by surprise.  On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that it took this long to make a fighting game out of Final Fantasy, and on the other hand, it’s hard to believe that you could honestly make it work.  The result was one of the best games on the PSP to date, so when a prequel was announced, it had some big shoes to fill.  Ultimately, Dissidia 012 is a fantastic, yet oddly named game that needs to be in your library.

Continue reading ‘Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy – Staff Review’ »

BioWare Sequel Celebration: Buy Dragon Age 2, Get Free Mass Effect 2

For those Dragon Age fans who may be a bit behind on a certain other epic role-playing series, BioWare has just the deal for you. To celebrate Dragon Age 2 hitting the one million mark in two weeks, BioWare is now offering free downloadable copies of Mass Effect 2 alongside it. The deal is accessible through registered copies of Dragon Age 2 for any platform, though the download code is for PC only.

Players have until the end of the month to redeem their codes, and all purchases beforehand are eligible. Further details and instructions can be found at the official site.

Atlus Announces Gloria Union, Launches Official Site

Paired with the images in that media update just below is information on a new RPG from Atlus. Few details were given about the title, Gloria Union, though it is set to release for the PSP on June 23 of this year. The game’s official site also went live, and can be located in Japanese here. A US release has not been confirmed.

Source: Famitsu
Translation: Adrienne “Sicondera” Beck

Mass Media 04/05/11

You didn’t think you’d get through this week without some media, did you? If you said no, great. If you said yes, I’m hurt. Deeply. But enough babbling, here’s what we have: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, Disgaea 4, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, Final Fantasy III iPod, Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection, Gloria Union, Gungnir: Mayari no Gunshin to Eiyuu Sensou, R.P.G. Mode, Sekai Yuusha, and Tales of Xillia. Have at it!

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 04/05/11’ »

Dragon Quest X Nearing Completion

With a dearth of recent information on Dragon Quest X, Square Enix has announced that work on the title is “going well” and it’s currently in the last stages of development.  Although little was discussed in detail, creator Yuji Horii did speak about the decision to bring the series to the Wii: “I feel that some users will want to play Dragon Quest on the big screen, which is why we are working toward releasing it on Wii.”

Horii stated they may bring the series back to a portal platform down the line, but that it was largely up to player demand.  He added that development on DQX was influenced by DQVII, and fan feedback over favored elements from DQVIII has also been taken into consideration.  While no release date was mentioned, he expects to have something to announce by the end of the year.

Source: 1UP

Vanillaware Confirms Grand Knights History for PSP

Developer Vanillaware, perhaps best known for Muramasa: The Demon Blade, have announced they are developing a traditional RPG for the PSP.  Titled Grand Knights History, the game will feature turn-based combat but also some form of online multiplayer.  Project director Tomohiko Deguchi is quoted as saying they intend to “set up this new kind of game, a full-on war that all the users are connected together in,” with the large number of players used to simulate a bigger conflict.

With publisher Marvelous Entertainment backing the title, Grand Knights History is expecting a summer release in Japan.  A US release has not been announced.

Source: 1UP

PSN Roundup: FFV Confirmed, Chrono Chross Tweet-Teased*

*Tweased, if you will.  More on that in a second.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy V will make it to the Japanese PlayStation Network, and is expected to launch tomorrow.  Meanwhile, producer Shinji Hashimoto tweeted that further news about the Chrono Cross PSN release, confirmed back in December, will be revealed next week.

Source: Andriasang

What Happened This Week – How to Anger Birds and Fire People

Howdy-ho, folks! Slight hiccup in this recording as my old, reliable headset mic finally gave up the ghost. Had to rely on a backup mic stand that picked up an unfortunate amount of reverb and background noise. Editing got the worst of it, but I do apologize for the lower quality. Anyway, here’s what we have today:

  • Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka responds to Nintendo, provides easily abused out of context quote about “$49 pieces of plastic.”  Let the Wang Chung comparisons begin!
  • 3DTV’s downfall: Is $3000 too expensive to see Blazing Saddles the way it was meant to be seen?
  • Sales tracker NPD restricts its data from direct media access, claims it’s not freezing out the media.  At least now when know when Opposite Day is.
  • Sizable layoffs at Sony Online Entertainment kill The Agency, and we learn how Volition was secretly awesome all this time.
  • God I hate April Fools’ Day.
  • Zynga Japan gets a new CEO, buys out even more talent, and insists there’s still gold out there.
  • Apple vs E3, G4 and GamePro caught paying someone to spam reddit article comments, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – How to Anger Birds and Fire People’ »

Xenoblade Rebranded and Confirmed for Europe

Monolith’s Xenoblade is getting a name tweak and localization for a trip to Europe. Now dubbed Xenoblade Chronicles, the game will have both English and Japanese casts, with subtitles for English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Chronicles now has a site on Nintendo’s European homepage, along with a new trailer.

The official statement can be read in full here. No exact date was given beyond “later this year.”

Dragon Age 2 – Staff Review

As if following up on Mass Effect wasn’t enough, BioWare had a major challenge in the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins. Despite its flaws, Origins boasted a malleable plot and fantastic characters, and much the same can be said of Dragon Age 2. Discarding the procedural fantasy epic for a more personal story, DA2 speeds up the action even as it paces itself on the narrative. It’s not always a healthy mix, as questionable choices intrude on and sometimes undermine serious developments, but the game easily succeeds in making this new direction fun and engaging. Whether its surpasses its predecessor, however, is far less cut-and-dry.

Continue reading ‘Dragon Age 2 – Staff Review’ »

Mass Media 03/29/11

Gooooood evening! We interrupt your regularly scheduled browsing for some media, with which you can resume browsing. So it’s less an interruption and more a supplement, really. Or, something. Whatever. Anyway, here’s what we have today: Atelier Meruru, Dissidia 012 Duodecim, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime 3, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, Final Fantasy III iPod, Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection, Gungnir: Mayari no Gunshin to Eiyuu Sensou, Moon Driver, and Persona 2 Innocent Sin.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 03/29/11’ »

Dragon Quest Heroes 3DS Given Further Details

Square Enix has released additional information about Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime 3, an upcoming entry in the series for the recently launched 3DS.  Rocket Slime 3 is set largely at sea and players will contend with hostile pirate ships as they sail about.  Square Enix intends to run a promotional campaign through V Jump – Shonen Jump’s sister magazine – wherein readers can design a pirate ship which may appear in the game.  Further details about the campaign are available in the May issue of V Jump.

Rocket Slime 3 will be available sometime this winter, though an exact release date is not known.

Source: Andriasang

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation – Staff Review

Dragon Quest is one of the biggest franchises in Japan, but it took much longer to catch on in North America. Americans did get access to the first four games, but after that, the series went into relative obscurity. We completely missed Dragon Quest V and VI. Were Dragon Quest games like largely unconnected Final Fantasy series, this would not be as big of a deal, but the Dragon Quest series is known for trilogies. The middle three games form what is known as the Zenithian trilogy, all telling a loosely connected tale about sacred equipment and the heroes that can use it. Despite coming third, Dragon Quest VI actually predates the others in the timeline and helps explain the origin of the myths that play such a central role in the set.

Continue reading ‘Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation – Staff Review’ »

What Happened This Week – AT&T Bills Zynga, Blizzard Gets Too Old for This

Hello everybody, and welcome back! Sorry to push the update back without notice, but a shortage of time this week really cut into the editing process. It’s a long story, but after careful consideration, What Happened This Week will now be uploaded every Sunday instead of Saturday. Again, my apologies. With that said, let’s get to the news:

  • Zynga buys out yet another indie developer, then tries to bribe tax cuts out of San Francisco.  Where have I seen this behavior before…
  • Blizzard moves its MMO veterans to other projects.  Negative projections may be premature, but a decade is a long time.
  • Microsoft has something big coming up for 2015.  Let the Xbox 720 speculation begin!
  • BioWare: Our romances are for everyone, not just straight men.  But don’t misunderstand, they are quite angsty.
  • AT&T rolls out bandwidth caps in May, invests in a doom fortress, and hires a short man with a bladed hat.
  • Portable gaming news, Metacritic rating people, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – AT&T Bills Zynga, Blizzard Gets Too Old for This’ »

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls Coming to PSN

In a press release, XSEED announced that it will be bringing Acquire’s Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to North America and Europe.  The title is set for a digital-only release sometime this spring for the PS3.

Legend of Heroes Followup Announced

Another entry in the Legend of Heroes series is in the works, according to Dengeki Playstation.  Dubbed Ao no Kiseki, the game is part of the Zero no Kiseki subseries and picks up a few months afterward.  Although few gameplay details were shared, Ao no Kiseki was confirmed for a September 29 release in Japan.  Limited edition preorders will include bonus Tio and Ellie Nendoroid figures, while another version comes with a drama CD.

Source: Andriasang