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Luminous Arc Infinity to light up Vita
Sony announced a new Vita entry in the Luminous Arc tactical RPG series at this morning's pre-TGS conference. The Marvelous-published series has traditionally been limited to the DS, but there were once rumors of a PSP version. Many years on, the brand new Luminous Arc Infinity will come to Sony's current handheld. Details remain limited for now. [Image: Sony]
Imageepoch maybe working on a PSP title
Imageepoch, best know in the US for the DS RPG title Luminous Arc and the upcoming Wii title Arc Rise Fantasia, is contemplating development of a game for the PSP. Ryoei Mikage, President of Imageepoch, told Siliconera that "Next year or next, next year there might be a really cool action PSP game." For those of you who have played Imageepoch's other titles, are you excited by this news?
Luminous Arc 2 radiates to the U.S.
Clearing up doubts on whether Image Epoch's bootytastic SRPG sequel, Luminous Arc 2: Will, would ever come stateside, Atlus has announced that it is localizing the game for this fall.Why would you want to buy a lower budget Final Fantasy Tactics Advance knock-off, especially when you could just get Song Summoner for the iPod instead, you ask? We have an easy answer for that: online multiplayer battles. Also, big butts.Luminous Arc 2 will retail for $39.99, significantly higher than most other DS titles, but each copy will come in an oversized box containing a CD with selected songs from the soundtrack. Presumably, it's the same CD that was released with the SRPG's preorders in Japan.Enjoy three video clips from the English-translated game after the break! Interestingly, the voices are still in Japanese; we wonder if Atlus will leave the Japanese audio track intact?%Gallery-15251%
Arc Rise Fantasia plays a role on the Wii
RPG fans, take note.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.
DS Fanswag: The Heroes of Mana and Luminous Arc winner is ...
Another DS Fanboy contest has come to an end, and sadly, we could only choose one winner (though you're all winners to us!). Our copies of Luminous Arc and Heroes of Mana will be shipping off to reader Goldilocks, whose comment was randomly selected in our drawing. We asked: witches or rabites? And Goldilocks said: 198. Witches WITH rabites. Classic. Congrats to Goldilocks -- and to everyone else, keep your eyes on this space. We'll have another giveaway for you soon!
DS Fanswag: A strategic reminder
Lest you forget, we thought we'd offer a nudge in the direction of our latest contest -- enter now to pick up a copy of Luminous Arc and Heroes of Mana. One lucky winner will get both games! Remember, you can only enter once per day, but you have a few more opportunities before Tuesday night rolls around. Leave a comment here to get your name in the hat.
DS Fanswag: Pick up two units for your DS army!
The DS Fanboy giveaway craze continues with a brand-new shot at a couple of games, all for you. Free. The way games should be. We've got a two-pack for one lucky winner, featuring Heroes of Mana from Square Enix and Luminous Arc from Atlus, valued at $39.99 and $34.99 respectively. If you have a driving need to move some units, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post that answers a very important question between now and Monday, October 22, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. You may enter once per day only, so please avoid spamming the comments with the same thing over and over. On Tuesday the 23rd, we'll select one lucky winner in a random drawing and ship off your free games. Does it get any better than that? We think not. There are, of course, a few caveats. Winners must be both U.S. citizens and over the age of 18 (sorry, guys!). You can check out the full official rules here.So, here's the question: witches or rabites? Feel free to explain at length.
DS releases for the week of September 24th
Feel like learning? We sure hope so, since that seems to be the theme for this week's releases, at least in the U.S. Personally, we'd be most interested in learning how to win lots of money at poker, but we're not sure World Series of Poker falls in line with most of this week's titles ... if only it was a training game! Animal Genius Crayola Treasure Adventures Math Play Race Driver: Create & Race World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets To see what's up with the rest of the globe this week, jaunt on past the break.
Luminous Arc site localized along with game
Atlus played it smart, sending its press releases out before E3 officially kicks off with announcements from bigger publishers. This time tomorrow, we'll be too busy with megatons like Brain Age: With a Vengeance to even register news about Draglade's localization, a Trauma Center sequel, or, in this case, the launch of Luminous Arc's official English site. If you're curious at all about the details that separate this Marvelous-Interactive-developed title from other SRPGs -- synergy attacks, flash drives, and online battles -- definitely hit the page up. As for "extras," there isn't much there yet except for the standard wallpapers, but we're hoping for some Etrian-Odyssey-esque hilarity by the time Luminous Arc's August 14th release comes into view.
Spotlight on Luminous Arc
GameSpot recently spent some quality time with Luminous Arc, the strategy RPG Atlus is bringing to the US in August, and things are looking good. Of course, all we really need to know is that Luminous Arc offers online battles -- a feature missing in other popular DS strategy games -- and even if it were low quality, we'd probably be lining up to give it a go. Character, story, gameplay? That's just gravy. Give us our WiFi battles!Luckily for us, Luminous Arc seems to have it all: an interesting story, both new and familiar SRPG mechanics, and a choice between stylus-based controls and traditional controls. The only issue the folks at GameSpot could find to really pick on -- in this early preview, at least -- is that players can't rotate the camera, which can occasionally lead to some targeting issues. The build available to them didn't seem to have finished voice acting, either, which we assume means that the game will in fact be dubbed. But let's not be picky here. Because it's Atlus, the localization will be effective, and we'll get right into managing everyone's relationships. We're just glad to hear that we'll probably have fun while doing so. %Gallery-3274%
Luminous Arc from every angle
The combination of Marvelous Interactive and Atlus USA usually equals something unique, if nothing else. Luminous Arc, the new strategy RPG set to debut outside Japan this year, also seems to have undergone the in-depth localization that marks out so many of the titles Atlus publishes for Western gamers.In a recent fan-based interview with the Atlus team at Siliconera, Luminous Arc was compared with the classic Final Fantasy Tactics. Atlus Editor Clayton Chan, who worked on both titles, said that they gameplay in Final Fantasy Tactics definitely wins, but the characters in Luminous Arc are hard to beat. That's high praise, considering not many games can stand next to FFT. See for yourself, at least when it comes to screens, after the jump.
Lush new Luminous Arc screens
We hate to torture everyone, but these new Luminous Arc screens are so pretty that it seemed best that we all sigh together and rise up as one, railing for a release outside Japan for this upcoming strategy RPG. But we may be speaking too soon; Image Epoch, the team behind Luminous Arc, is untested -- to date, they've only contracted for other companies, so we can only guess at the quality of the game. The screenshots, at least, look good enough to eat. Check 'em out after the jump, but beware some slight watermarking.
A bounty of DS scans
Gotta love those fans who are so dedicated when it comes to sharing their pretty-shinies with the rest of us. These Famitsu scans of Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book surfaced at NeoGAF amidst a bevy of other drool-worthy images. Luminous Arc and Ninja Ja Ja Maru-kun: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword are also featured, along with Chocobo, at Go Nintendo. The original post boasts some peeks at Harvest Moon and Gundam titles as well. Surely there's something to rev every motor there![Thanks, creamsugar!]
