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Ghost Stories haunt the DS
Another anime-to-DS adaptation is heading to Nintendo's handheld, this time for the series Ghost Stories (known as Gakkou no Kaidan in Japan). This game by Compile Heart will be an adventure title, in which you investigate the disappearance of a friend. We love the combination of adventure and horror, so we hope to see this get localized.Spencer Yip from Siliconera speculates that Gakkou no Kaiden DS will see an international release, which eases our minds a little bit. Something to be aware of for those unfamiliar with Ghost Stories, though, is that the game probably won't scare you. Even though it can be considered a horror title because of the subject matter, the animations and tone are meant to appeal to younger teens. This also won't be the first Gakkou no Kaidan software in existence. A game based on the anime and manga was made for the GBA four years ago, but was essentially a compilation of minigames. The DS version thus sounds much more enticing.
Fifteenmania
GameStop's Game Days sale doesn't really hold too much of interest to Wii owners, other than maybe $20 copies of The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, and Frontman guitars for $40. However, concurrent with the temporary markdowns done for this sale, GameStop has marked down Compile Heart's cephalopod puzzle game Octomania five bucks, to $14.99. Amazon has also marked the puzzler down to $15.Octomania involves rotating 2x2 grids of octopi one space at a time to shuffle them onto a grill, in order to make takoyaki. If that's not enough to make the thing irresistible, it's got a wacky story mode and, most importantly, online play. Of course, that means you'll have to convince other people to buy and play it.%Gallery-15386%
Sugoro Chronicle: Monopoly with monsters
Sugoro Chronicle: Migite ni Tsurugi wo Hidarite ni Saikoro (Sugoro Chronicle: Sword in the Left Hand, Dice in the Right) is another hybrid board game/RPG, though unlike Dokapon Kingdom, this one seems to be original for the Wii. Sugoru Chronicle, developed by Compile Heart, uses 2D character portraits of its characters, as well as 3D models in battle. The game is a Monopoly-like competition for acquisition of money, with a few interesting RPG-based modifications, most notably battling between characters. There are over 100 jobs the player can choose from, which seem to affect abilities in battle. Sugoro Chronicle will be out in Japan this August. Their only Wii game to date, Sharuui Takoron, was localized as Octomania by Conspiracy Entertainment, so that would be the most likely avenue of stateside release.
Take a trip to the Dungeon of Windaria
After getting wind (yes, we know) of Dungeon of Windaria, we were intrigued. Maybe because we like the visual style we were presented with, or perhaps its our unnatural love for the act of crawling about in dungeons and killing countless enemies. Whatever it is, this new video isn't helping.Unlock most Japanese teaser trailers, this one is longer than 10 seconds. The rub is that about half the trailer won't be understandable to any of you who cannot read Japanese. Still though, nestled deep within is some tasty gameplay footage. We know how you all like that!
A retro game for a retro anime
Windaria is a classic anime movie from 1986 that tells dual Romeo & Juliet stories in a fantasy setting, as two pairs of lovers are pulled apart by the wars of their kingdoms. And now it's a dungeon-crawling game for some reason! Compile Heart has released the first screens of the new Dungeons of Windaria.While exploring random dungeons as one of the movie's protagonists, Izu, may not make much sense, at least Compile Heart has the right idea with the style -- totally 2D vintage dungeon-RPG. Maybe the randomly generated dungeons are a good match to the randomly licensed anime, though, now that we think about it.
Compile Heart goes puzzle crazy
Japanese developer Compile Heart, which contains members of Compile (who developed Puyo Puyo and just about everything else we have loved) plans to release a three-part (so far) series of puzzle games for the DS, called the Puzzle Mate series. Crossword Mate features Japanese crosswords, Nanpure Mate is a "number place" (also known as sudoku) game, and Oekaki Mate is a picross collection. These, however, differ from other such products in one important way: the puzzles are large. All three collections feature larger playing fields than usual, which leads to things like the nightmarish multi-screen picross puzzle seen in the screenshot here.And speaking of nightmarish, coulrophobes will be terrified to see the mascot for this series, a clown drawn by Famitsu artist Susumu Matsushita.Read - Crossword MateRead - Nanpure MateRead - Oekaki Mate
Now we want all our comics in DS form
Famitsu has precious few (well, precious two) screens of DS de Yomu Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori, the DS adaptation of Tezuka's Phoenix manga, but there's enough information there for us to get an idea of the presentation, at least. Basically, the full page appears on the bottom screen, and one panel at a time is zoomed in on the top screen. It's a very similar approach to Marvel Digital Comics' Smart Panels viewing style. We just hope that, unlike with Smart Panels, you are also able to move the panel view around manually in order to see more than just the focal point of each panel.The 12 volumes of Phoenix are being divided into three DS cartridges, each retailing for 4,179 yen ($37). $37 isn't terrible for four books' worth of manga, but collecting whole series in DS format could still become painful quickly.
Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix coming to the DS
You may expect some terrible DS platformer or something to be built from this comic license from legendary Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka, but that is not at all what developer Compile Heart is doing. Phoenix (also known as Hi no Tori/Fire Bird) is coming to the DS in its original form. As manga.DS de Yomu Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori is a collection of Phoenix comics to be read on the DS, featuring extra visual and sound effects (such as the screen shaking to emphasize a dramatic panel). Of course, other helpful features like bookmarking are also included. No word as to how much of the Phoenix backlog will be covered in this collection, though we doubt it's the whole thing. It'll be released in May for 4,179 yen ($37.50). If it works out, Compile Heart will expand the Read on DS series.
The Frogman Show homepage is awesomely senseless
We could look at screens of Compile Heart's bizarre The Frogman Show all day. We don't know what we're looking at, but we enjoy looking at it. The new website doesn't help at all! With limited Japanese reading skill and no viewings of the television show to provide context, we can look at the randomness and just let our minds go in a Zen-like fashion.We get the feeling we'd have marginally more of an idea if our Japanese were better, but there's just no making sense of some of this stuff. For instance, what is that thing? A DS creature of some kind? The website features lots of screens and even three incomprehensible movies for you to stare at.[Via Dengeki]
PS3 Fanboy impressions: Agarest Senki demo
It's difficult to play games in a language you don't know. However, based on the nearly infinite well of RPG experience under our belts, we can make a few pretty obscure parallels to the recent demo of Agarest Senki that popped up on the Japanese PS Store this past week. If you're unaware of the title, it's a strategy RPG that harkens to the like of all those Nippon Ichi titles, except this one spans generations of characters that are born, fall in love, and breed according to your actions. It sounds fun on paper, but what happens in the demo is more confusing than biting into a donut to find it's filled with salad.
Record of Agarest War gets some hardcore strategy on
If you've been eagerly anticipating the collaboration of three fairly large role-playing developers/publishers from Japan, you will have probably heard of Record of Agarest War. As a mixed effort between developers RED and Idea Factory, published by Compile Heart, you know you're getting two things: anime girls and role-playing. Everything else is just bonus, like a strategy RPG. If you want to see more on the game, look at the official site.The screenshots released for this game are, well, only impressive to those actually looking for an SRPG. Two of the screens are admittedly throwaways, but one gives you the opportunity to see what to expect. The layout of the game seems to be a strange cross between Disgaea and Suikoden Tactics. Since both of those games were fantastic, we're not going to pass judgment on this game yet. We do wonder how much titles like these benefit from the move onto Blu-ray and HD gaming, though.
Record of Agarest, formerly known as Phantasy Star III, enters
The crowd who enjoyed the Phantasy Star series on the Sega Genesis are surprisingly sparse. Not because the games weren't that great, or niche, but because the Genesis wasn't exactly the system to turn towards for your role-playing fix. The third Phantasy Star game, subtitled Generations of Doom, was the black sheep of the bunch and left a sour taste in many longtime fans' mouths. Why? Don't ask us, or Morgan Webb. We thought it was fantastic. Apparently Idea Factory, Red Entertainment, and Compile Heart thought so, too, because their new title Record of Agarest shares the most interesting factor to that "black sheep".Record of Agarest puts you in a the position of controlling a main character, going through what we assume will be a paper-thin story, choosing a bride and having a kid. You then take control of the child and so on and so forth for five generations. Each generation explores a new continent, much like the "generations of doom" explored more and more parts of the Alisa III in PS3. We expect more partner choices and branching stories in Agarest, though. That aside, it seems to be planned out as a standard RPG -- turn-based battles and all. Does it sound like we're bitter? We're not. We're excited, since we thought the whole generation-spanning aspect of the Genesis classic was wonderful and we'd love to see an evolved form of it take shape. Our eyes are on this probably-import-only title, due out at the end of September in Japan.
