We've created a gallery featuring the first direct screens of Image Epoch's new RPG Arc Rise Fantasia. The images come from cutscenes, battle scenes, and dialogue, presenting a decently representative look at the new RPG from the creators of Luminous Arc.
The creepy cutscene stills illustrate the invasion of "Contaminant Dragons" on the city of Diamant -- basically creepy monsters who fly around en masse in the dark. The player's party includes Bright, a soldier (and generic spiky-haired RPG avatar), Alse, a prince who also decides to go fight for some reason, a mysterious girl named Ryphia, and the pictured Adele, a mage-type character, seen here casting Curtsy Energy Blast. At least the bit about a poison-spreading dragon army is original!
Now that the initial announcement for Arc Rise Fantasia has been made, a bunch of scans have surfaced showing some of the game in all its graphical glory. Suffice to say, it looks rather spectacular. Man, RPG developers for the Wii just aren't holding anything back these days -- which is a welcome change after a lengthy lack of titles. Let the creativity flow!
It just wouldn't be an RPG without a bunch of spiky-haired teenage boys and some girl holding a staff -- thanks to character designer Kenichi Yoshida. The director responsible for the gorgeous locations and epic battles is Hiroyuki Kanemaru, and you can check out a couple more scans after the break. Look out for more Arc Rise Fantasia news real soon, because no RPG should be left behind.
If you've played Luminous Arc on the DS (pictured), you probably have an idea of what an under-hyped little gem it was. While we might not have enjoyed it as much as a few other SRPGs, the point is, we did enjoy it. Now, some of the team behind that series are bringing their talents to the Wii.
Called Arc Rise Fantasia (no relation), both Image Epoch and Marvelous will be involved with the title. It's an RPG that involves a three-character party, all of whom share the same action gauge. Balancing your AP among your party, therefore, is part of the challenge. Other than that, the latest issue of Famitsu didn't reveal too many juicy details. We're always thirsting for more RPG blood, though, so we feel this game will be a welcome addition to the Wii's lineup.
Lack of press? Lack of press? Why, that's all wrong ... now. The latest trailer for Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility has surfaced, in English and everything. Well, there's only five spoken words from the cheerful announcers, but the gameplay content features some items the harvesting hero is working with, like "perfect turnip" and "used hoe."
It looks like a lovely, peaceful game (aside from the vicious attacks). The mix of farming and socializing has always been a great feature of Harvest Moon, and the wait for a full-fledged title on the Wii has been agonizing. Not long now -- August 26th is the time to plant to evergreen seeds of fun. And tranquility.
More beautiful Rune Factory Frontier screens have surfaced, and we're still pining over this lovely-looking game. Between the farming, monster slaying and collecting, flying whales, and glowing creatures, we're pretty much in awe of this RPG-meets-farming-sim hybrid.
Granted, not everyone who played the first title in the series for the Nintendo DS appreciated the gameplay, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Just by sticking to those basic tenets and adding visuals like these, we doubt we'll be disappointed. If Marvelous adds some extra goodies as well, that would just be icing on this agricultural cake.
You only have to check past the break to see the rest of the pretties.
Remember all those coloring contests when you were a kid? As you grew older, it became fun to scoff at the children's feeble attempts to color within the lines, and chortle at their crayon selection when a pencil was clearly the superior implement. Well, since we're all so great at drawing and coloring, it's probably a good idea to enter the Little King's Story "UMA" Contest.
A UMA is an Unidentified Mysterious Animal. Create one, and your entry is complete! Little King's Story features a whole range of wacky inhabitants, and one UMA entry will be chosen to become an in-game creature! The top 100 entries will also be featured at a museum within the kingdom.
Release some creative tension, because there is no limitation on what you can make -- be it an animal, person, entity, or even a higher plane of existence. Just keep it in this dimension, okay? Hit up the contest details, along with some sample creations, right here. Happy drawing, and good luck!
Here's a slightly random announcement: this September, those of us not in Japan will be treated to a Detective Conan (or, as it's known outside Japan, Case Closed) game, after publisher Nobilis snagged the rights to publish Marvelous' Meitantei Conan: Tsuioku no Gensou "all over the world."
Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation will see pint-sized manga detective and bespectacled, precocious sod Jimmy Kudo return to locate clues, attend crime scenes, collect evidence, and tackle mini-games. His aim? To finally catch a shadowy figure who crashes the opening of a new theme park with a series of crimes.
Truth be told, this is one for the kids (much like the Japan-only DS game), but Nobilis is doing what it can to keep the hardcore fans happy: the original Japanese anime voices, for example, will remain intact. Grab your magnifying glass and sleuth your way past the break for both a TV spot and trailer for the Japanese version.
The two companies have partnered to bring Little King's Story -- not to be confused with Square Enix's somewhat similar strategy title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- to the States this winter. Hopefully, the charming looking game won't be lost amid all the other holiday releases.
Quick primer on the game: You play as Corobo, a shy boy who stumbles upon a crown in a nearby forest. Corobo discovers that with the crown, he can charm anyone in his village and give them orders. Howzer, a bull-knight, soon stops by and tells the kid that he's now the king of the village and that it's his responsibility to lead the hamlet into building a grand kingdom. Bring your scepter into the gallery below for some kingdom-building screenshots!
There's been a disturbing lack ofpress about Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. In fact, we've probably seen and heard more about Rune Factory: Frontier than we have about Tree, which came out in Japan last year.
What we do know is that preordering the title through Amazon will get you an adorable cow plushie. Of course, it's difficult to tell when you'll actually receive the game and plush doll; Natsume lists "Summer 2008," Gamestop lists late July, Gamefly lists early August, and Amazon lists late August, to name a few of the scattered release dates.
Still, for Harvest Moon fans who were planning to buy the game anyway, a cute cow plush is a nice bonus that might make preordering through Amazon the best way to go. It's certainly not the greatest gift ever, but we think it will definitely appeal to the Harvest Moon crowd ... mostly because we're in that crowd, and we want one for ourselves.
Harvest Moon fans (like us) are probably drooling at the thought of Rune Factory: Frontier, which is releasing in Japan sometime this year (and not in other territories until forever, we'd guess). Yet by now, you should be used to the "look but don't touch" mantra, with all the screens we show you week after week.
As far as Rune Factory: Frontier goes, being restricted to looking is especially painful because the screens are nothing short of lovely. We only wish that Marvelous was quicker with the whole localization thing.
In other news, the game's official website is open for business. Since the site isn't offering anything tangible at the moment, though, you can just click past the break to see the rest of the pretties.
With Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King out and tempting obsessives with DLC, it's easy to forget about the other Wii simulation game about a tiny king building a town: Ousama Monogatari (King Story). The latest screens show off King Story's unique textured style well, but they also reveal three of the jobs that the magical king Corobo can force people to take on.
Soldiers (possibly translatable as "grunts") stay close to the king and protect him with close-quarters combat. Carpenters, labeled "normal," act both as builders and architects, designing and building new structures and roads for the town. And farmers, described as "serious," dig holes and plant crops.
Sure, these may seem obvious, but we don't think we can expect normal real-world logic to apply in a game about a kid whose magic crown makes everyone do what he says.
We can't help but be charmed by King Story. While we've never hidden the fact that we love the game's artwork and style, seeing it all in screen form makes us even giddier. Our favorite of the batch is the world map (pictured above), which features medieval-style art that's just perfect for a game of this nature.
Aside from learning that hats are serious business in this title, we've also come across a few (roughly) translated details. Since a king is nothing without his subjects, one of your tasks will be to expand your land to attract more people. There are monsters around to threaten the folks living in your country, though (see that big dragon there?), so you're going to have to vanquish those, too. There are also seven other kingdoms (you can see the eight different lands pictured in the map above), each of which has their own king. As for the towns in your country, each person has their own name, job, and business to attend to, leaving a lot of NPCs for you to interact with.
But if you're looking forward to this game, don't get too excited yet. While King Story should be releasing in Japan this summer, it will probably be a long while before this title gets localized. In the meantime, though, you can check out the screens we've posted after the break.
Normally we can't wait for Wednesdays, the day that our fellow gaming brethren report all the juicy tidbits from the latest issue of Famitsu. This week was different, though, because we found out that a game we've been looking forward to might be in trouble.
According to the magazine, Vanillaware's Oboro Muramasa Youtouden is "struggling," making us super sad pandas. Not only does the game look gorgeous with its beautiful 2D sprites and atmospheres, but also -- well, actually, now that we think about it, we don't know much about this title other than how it looks. And, considering that we haven't seen any new information or media since last fall, we're not too surprised that it might be in danger of falling by the wayside. Keep in mind, though, that we don't know exactly what this "struggling" pertains to, so it may not be as scary as we think. Until further details are released, we'll just have to hope for the best.
In other Famitsu news, King Story seems to be doing well and should release in Japan this summer, showing that at least one game we're excited about is on track.
We don't really understand Amazon's price drops. Why do the prices for some games drop? And how long do such drops last? Yet, that doesn't mean we don't love them -- especially when it comes to getting one of the best games on the Wii cheaply.
Now at Amazon (until when?) you can get No More Heroes for $39.99. That's the best deal we've seen on the game so far, and in our expert blogger opinions, it's worth every penny.
Another price drop to note is House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, which fell $5, meaning that the game will only cost you $24.99. Unfortunately, this price puts it just under Amazon's free shipping qualification by a penny, which sours the deal a little bit. Also, we can't imagine that a price drop so early in the game's life cycle could mean good things for how the it's selling, even if the sale is only on Amazon.
As far as we can tell, the price drops on Amazon fluctuate as a game goes in and out of stock. So, if you check these out and one of the deals is over, it might be worth looking again at a later date.
Gallery: No More Heroes
Gallery: House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return
[Thanks, Sorensilk!]
Read:No More Heroes on Amazon Read: House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return on Amazon
Those of you who visit this site often probably know that we're big fans of No More Heroes. If you haven't made the plunge to purchase the game yet, though, this might be a good week to do so.
From what we've heard, the game is selling pretty well, so it may be a while before it comes down in price. Luckily, GameQuest Direct is selling the title for $8 less than the $50 retail cost, meaning that it will only set you back $41.99. Sweetening the deal is a free shipping promotion through CAG. Once you add the game to your cart, just make sure to type the promotion code CAG1SHIP in the box at the bottom left corner.
If you're craving a mature Wii game but No More Heroes is still too expensive for your taste, you can also get Scarface for $24.99. The free shipping promotion applies to this title, too, so make sure to use it if you decide to buy the game.
Caveat: These sales end on March 18th, so if you're considering these purchases, make sure not to wait too long.
RPG fans, take note.
Remember all those coloring contests when you were a kid? As you grew older, it became fun to scoff at the children's feeble attempts to color within the lines, and chortle at their crayon selection when a pencil was clearly the superior implement. Well, since we're all so great at drawing and coloring, it's probably a good idea to enter the Little King's Story "UMA" Contest.
Here's a slightly random announcement: this September, those of us not in Japan will be treated to a Detective Conan (or, as it's known outside Japan, Case Closed) game, after publisher Nobilis snagged the rights to publish Marvelous' Meitantei Conan: Tsuioku no Gensou "all over the world."
Those of you who visit this site often probably know that we're big fans of No More Heroes. If you haven't made the plunge to purchase the game yet, though, this might be a good week to do so.
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