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Knights Contract review: The executioner's predicament
About three-quarters of the way through Knights Contract, I noticed the architecture. For reasons too bizzare to bother spoiling, a long stretch of the game takes on an Inception-style anything-goes approach to the architecture of the player's surroundings, and it's lovely. It's all stone pillars and bridges reaching in all directions under a maize-colored sky, very much worth stopping for a second and looking around. It's not really all that much better than anything in a hundred other games out there, but by that point, it was a surprise to see something in this game that isn't aggressively awful. The reason I had noticed the architecture at all, honestly, is because I'd stopped moving. I was tired. Over the course of that chapter, the game's heroine -- a witch named Gretchen -- grows weary of her journey. She says things like "what a bother" and "let's get this over with," sentiments uncomfortably close to ones I wsa feeling at that very moment. For too much of its considerable play time, Knights Contract feels like a chore. %Gallery-111614%
Brash working with Folklore dev on film-based game
Grab your popcorn! Film-focused game studio Brash has inked a deal with the Folklore and Genji devs at Game Republic for a game based on, you guessed it, an upcoming Hollywood movie. The announcement follows Brash's recent critically-panned game adaptation of Jumper, as well as confirmed plans by the company to bring gore-porn series Saw to consoles in '09.Having Game Republic on board does give us a modicum of hope that things will turn out at least playable, with 20-year industry vet Yoshiki Okamoto of Street Fighter II and Resident Evil fame throwing his weight behind the project. Neither studio has let slip exactly which movie will be the victim recipient of the adaptation, however, stating only that it will be based on a "popular" film based in "an incredible fantasy world," and will be released sometime in 2010.
Japanese PSN game Dark Mist gets expansion, still no Euro version
The downloadable Japanese PSN title Dark Mist is getting an expansion: Dark Mist: The Depths of Darkness. Priced at ¥500 ($4.75), this update adds three new characters and a four-player online mode. The download is 148MB large.Dark Mist is an action adventure game that was supposed to hit the EU PSN, but has not yet made it's way over there. A North American release had never even been mentioned; however, we're hoping this interest in making new content for the game might somehow spark an interest in bringing it over our way. Optimistically hopeful much? Yes.
'Dark Mist' enshrouds Japanese PSN this week
A potentially pleasant surprise awaits Japanese PlayStation 3 owners this week, with a new PSN game entitled "Dark Mist" due to arrive November 8th. Developed by Game Republic -- the folks who provided us with Folklore, Genji and multiple memes involving historically accurate crabs -- Dark Mist appears to be a top-down shooter with a colorful and somewhat whimsical flair. According to IGN's translation of the game's Japanese website, players assume the role of "the warrior of light, Altemis" and must "stop the revival of the demon king" who was no doubt sealed away thousands of years before by less competent heroes.It's the price future generations always have to pay and, in this case, it amounts to 800 Yen (roughly $7). As for the chances of a US release, Sony currently has "no announcements on this title coming to the US."[Via PS3 Fanboy]
PSP Fanboy review: Brave Story: New Traveler
RPG's have taken a while to get their bearings on the PSP, but lately there have been a much larger influx of the genre onto our favorite handheld. One of the most recent releases is Brave Story: New Traveler. The game is based off of a manga, so it instantly has a stigma against it -- much like movie-licensed games have a stigma against them. How does this game work out, then? Is it an open and shut case, or there a diamond in this game that you'd be a fool to ignore? Here's a hint: there's a sparkle in my eye when I say that.%Gallery-4974%
Folklore producer admits his favorite battle, US/UK demo plans
In a recent interview with PSU, Folklore producer Eric Fong talked not only about some interesting details regarding the game, but also gave his own personal take on design choices as well as his favorite moments. It's an interesting read, so we'll summarize the best points below for fun. The two characters, Ellen and Keats, view the same events from different perspectives, but eventually end up working together towards the same resolution. We're sort of sad to hear this -- we wanted branching storylines, but so long as it wraps up well, we won't complain. Fong's favorite battle is against the Fleshrum. We've no idea what that means, but now when we play the game and get to that boss battle, we'll squeal in delight knowing it's going to be a lot of fun. When asked about the use of Blu-ray, Fong declared proudly: "Blu-ray allows us to provide a high-def audio and video experience without cutting corners or inconveniencing users with disc swaps." In addition to those funky points, Fong tells us that there is a US and UK version of the demo planned to hit the PS Store, but he didn't say whether it would be before or after the October 9th release of the game. Either way, Folklore is one of the PS Fanboy's most anticipated games, so we're ready to grab us some souls.[Thanks, Justin!]
Brave Story gets official release date
Game Republic, creator of the Genji series, is bringing a new RPG to the PSP in two weeks time. Entitled Brave Story, this RPG tells the story of a boy that must enter the world of Vision in order to save his friend from a mysterious illness. Through the game, the hero can build various attributes, such as Friendship, Courage, and Growth.Like many other RPGs, new accessories can be forged by collecting and combining the right materials. In addition, players can collect special birds for use in mini-games. Game Share and Network features will allow players to trade birds and mini-games with others.Check out screenshots and art of the game in our galleries below. Brave Story arrives on PSP on July 31st.%Gallery-4974%%Gallery-4975%
New Folklore screens and video, new grabbing technique, new everything! [update 1]
Sure, the game launched in Japan to rather confusing reception (supposedly selling only 7,000 copies its first day, but proclaimed sold out in numerous locations), but we still love to see new information surface about the game. We don't know if it's a system-seller, but we do know the game is sporting some incredibly stylish art direction and positively stunning visuals. A third movie was released, detailing a new level, new summons, and a new way to grab the soul of boss monsters. If you just can't get enough of this game, feel free to look over the recently updated official website for some more art, screenshots, monsters, and game details. If you can read Japanese, of course.[Update: fixed the first week supposition to first day. In that light, not all too shabby, really.]
Would you like some Folklore art and such?
Also known as FolksSoul in Japan, Game Republic's PS3 exclusive title Folklore has been jamming the internet full of hype-cookies ever since an impressive demo was released on the Japanese PS Store. Following that path, Game Republic has updated its site to give you a glimpse of some game artwork, demons, and of course, Ellen's many different outfits.Since the site is in Japanese, we'll help you out and guide you along. After you hit the main page, the brackets appearing under Ellen that say [6/07] are the new additions. The first link takes you to the character pages, where you can scope out some pretty neat outfits for the main heroine, or a couple demo shots of Keats. The second link takes you to some character and location art -- all of which is worth a gander. The third link sends you to demon artwork, showing you some of the things you'll encounter in your quest. We're very excited for this game and every piece of art just shows how much effort was put into this. They really want to erase Genji from our minds.
FolksSoul demo coming this Friday
Make a Japanese PSN account. Now. If you haven't, you're going to continue missing out on all the free demos the Japanese gamer crowd get. It's not tough -- sign up for one in your own language, make notes about what information goes on each page, then make a Japanese one. Why are we insisting you do this? So you can test drive FolksSoul along with us this Friday when a demo hits the Japanese PS Store.Also known as Folklore in the US, the game had kept a very low key until Gamer's Day, when a new trailer and multiple screens made an entrance and blew a lot of people away. Sure, it's absolutely a Japanese game -- lacking muscular men with big shiny guns, but it does look incredibly fun to play. So that's why we're telling you about the demo. It's rumored to be over an entire gigabyte, so make sure you've got something else to do. Try it out, then decide if it's for you or not!
New FolksSoul screenshots
Following last week's announcement that a FolksSoul demo would be released in June, Game Republic also sent out a new batch of screenshots. They look pretty good, but suffer from an unfortunate amount of JPEG compression issues and look a bit washed out. We do get a rare shot of the UI in the first screenshot though, giving a tantalizing peek at what it might be like to actually play the game. We haven't really seen much about this game since TGS 2006, but with a Japanese release date of June 21st, we should start hearing more about this intriguing title soon.
New Folks Souls images for your enjoymulation
Before you ask yourself what exactly "enjoymulation" is, we'll answer. It is the act of enjoymulating, which is where someone enjoys something so greatly they actually excrete a juice from their eyes and armpits known only as "joy-juice" -- this is the primary ingredient in many desserts, like cake. There's a reason it tastes so good. There's enjoymulant fluids inside.With the explanation out of the way, we present some new Folks Souls scans from Famitsu for you. The game looks great, but will it play great? We won't know until we get our hands on it! We're excited about weakening and using monsters to do our dirty work, but we're more excited to see if Game Republic, the fellows behind Genji, will get it together and make a tight gameplay experience.[via Jeux-France]
