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Blue Dragon Plus flaps our way next March
Only the twin juggernauts of Wii Fit and Rhythm Tengoku Gold could prevent Blue Dragon Plus from seizing top spot in the latest Japanese charts. Ignition Entertainment will be hoping for similar results when it publishes the big-haired, monster-summoning JRPG to not-Japan, and today it announced a North American and European release date of March 2009, falling in line with its promise of a release this fiscal year. That's still quite a wait (you could say it will drag on, if you were a blogger looking for a lame joke to brighten up a dry story), though should nicely pad out a traditionally quiet time of the year.%Gallery-15148%
Away's bosses: better with a friend
Famitsu has new screens of some of Away: Shuffle Dungeon's bosses, including the first, the "blue crablike thing" Dave encountered at E3: Shuffle Show Floor. It stabs with its pointy legs, and is only vulnerable in the (conveniently) bright red jewel on its chest. The other bosses shown include a big blue worm who lives underwater (not a blue dragon), and a big ambulatory palm tree monster.These bosses can be fought alone or in the special "Raid Battle Mode" that uses local wireless. In this mode, two players can take on a harder version of a boss, and earn better loot for doing so.
Away: Shuffle Dungeon in motion
For a game whose central gimmick is a constantly-moving environment, video seems like a natural fit for promotional materials for Away: Shuffle Dungeon. It's easier to explain the "shuffling" of the dungeons by just showing you. And yet there really haven't been many trailers for Mistwalker and Artoon's collaboration.This one features a bit of everything: cutscenes, battling, and lots of walking around in dungeons that get all messed up before your eyes. The boss battles look particularly epic, with the camera zoomed in and panned down for a more cinematic perspective. It's like the game shuffles between a Zelda: A Link to the Past look and an Ocarina of Time look.%Gallery-20078%
Away: Shuffle Arsenal
Dave mentioned multiple weapon classes in his hands-on report of Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and now Famitsu offers new screens and descriptions of each of the four classes. They're all pretty standard accoutrements of the adventuring business, but we'll take any details we can get about Mistwalker's (otherwise) innovative dungeon RPG.The sword is (obviously) balanced in speed, attack power, and reach. Spears attack straight forward and can knock down enemies. Daggers have short reach and low strength, but allow Sword (the character, not the weapon) to attack quickly and use combos. The axe is the slowest, but most powerful class of weapons. It can hit multiple enemies simultaneously.Really, in a game about dungeons whose landscapes periodically shift like slot machine reels, it's probably okay for a few things to be conventional.
E308: DS Fanboy hands-on with Away: Shuffle Dungeon
When I arrived at Majesco's booth on the now very diminished E3 show floor, I saw their offerings and immediately leaped toward Away: Shuffle Dungeon. The demo build only had one dungeon available, as well as the world hub and a boss fight.%Gallery-20078%
Blue Dragon Plus website adds a new trailer
Blue Dragon Plus is only a few months away (if you happen to live in Japan). It's not too much of a stretch to expect a delay in North America, despite the vague "fiscal year" confirmations we've been hearing about. The artwork of Akira Toriyama must be acknowledged on a tiny screen real soon, or RPG fans are going to start dishing out angry mob justice.The "promise" we experienced with the Blue Dragon Plus website has been somewhat fulfilled, after being updated with a new Japanese trailer. While this isn't especially handy for English speakers, it does run for over three minutes, giving fans a good deal of gameplay footage, CG cutscenes and character art. We've managed to circumvent the awkward media player on the website and rustle up the trailer in all of its YouTube glory, so check it out and get your Blue Dragon nerve twitching.%Gallery-15148%[Via videogaming247]
E308: Away screens shuffle into view
We've got a long time before we'll see Away: Shuffle Dungeon in the U.S. -- it's dated for January -- so we won't fuss over the smattering of screens. The game still looks decidedly odd, but there's nothing like a good dungeon crawl on the DS, and the art style is somewhat better in certain game shots than in others. Slip into the gallery to compare. %Gallery-20078%
Don't run away from these new Away screens
Game Watch has a plethora of new screens for Away: Shuffle Dungeon. They run the whole gamut from gameplay shots, down to concept art of a variety of the title's NPCs. There's also some nice information available, such as brief descriptions of all the NPCs and how they play into the game's story. With it finally getting a concrete release date in Japan, and with Majesco bringing it to North America (let's not forget Europe, as well), are you pumped for Mistwalker's title? Or, are you more excited for Blue Dragon Plus?
Archaic Sale Heat: SRPG import for $11
Now might not be the best time to order a Japanese copy of Archaic Sealed Heat, what with E3 right around the corner and a U.S. localization likely, but Play Asia is doing its best to convince us otherwise! The import online shop is selling copies of the gorgeous Mistwalker-developed title for only $11.90 (plus s/h). The deal lasts until next Monday, too, so they're giving us a lot of time to talk ourselves into it.As far as SRPGs go, you really can't find anything cheaper! Well, unless you pick up Square Enix's iPod-exclusive Song Summoner for $4.99.
Majesco bringing Away Shuffle Dungeon stateside
When Majesco announced last month that it would dedicate the bulk of its 2008 lineup to the Nintendo DS, we took this to mean that the company would do its part keeping store shelves stocked with casual games and cooking sims aplenty. We were unprepared, however, for the Cooking Mama evangelist to take up publishing duties for Away Shuffle Dungeon, the oddly named DS "roguelike" RPG from Mistwalker and AQ Interactive.Offering a mix of both 2D and 3D gameplay, Away Shuffle Dungeon promises to cast players in the role of a lone hero branded with the unfortunate name, Sword, as he races to collect treasure and rescue prisoners caught in dungeons before they "reconfigure," hurting anyone left inside. The game also boasts some impressive credits, which include such luminaries as Final Fantasy sire Hironobu Sakaguchi and esteemed composer Nobuo Uematsu, as well as character designs by Sonic creator, Naoto Oshima. Even so, we're still having a hard time getting over that title, and even now have simply begun referring to Away Shuffle Dungeon by a label more fitting its newly-named publisher. Readers, we give you Dungeon Mama.
Majesco bringing Away toward North America in January
The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly features a nice preview of Mistwalker's Away: Shuffle Dungeon, which also happens to contain a nice bit of news: the game is given a January 2009 release date for North America, with Majesco publishing. This is somewhat surprising since AQ Interactive, who is publishing in Japan, owns an American game publisher; in addition, dungeon crawling is pretty divergent from the kind of casual games Majesco generally publishes.Not that we're complaining, of course. Away looks awfully clever, and we're just happy we'll get to play it. One warning: given the history of this game, we wouldn't get our hopes up for it to make January.%Gallery-20078%
Delay: Shuffle Dungeon
Away: Shuffle Dungeon has already been announced as a PAL release (and sort of announced as a North American release), even though the Japanese version of the game isn't out yet. AQ Interactive, Virgin PLAY, and (probably) Xseed should be able to give us firmer Western release dates for the dungeon crawler now, because the delayed Japanese game finally has its own date. Of course, that date is even later than the vague "summer" named in the last delay statement.AQ Interactive announced the final (probably) release date for Japan yesterday: October 16, right in the middle of the "fall" release window Virgin PLAY planned for Europe. Unless AQ Interactive is planning a simultaneous worldwide release, we expect the late release will cause the European version to get bumped into next year. The U.S. version still has yet to be officially unveiled.
Away shuffling into Europe
Virgin PLAY sent out a press release today confirming that they will publish AQ Interactive/Mistwalker's Away: Shuffle Dungeon in Europe this fall. They say they're releasing it in "the PAL territories," so Australia is a possibility as well.The press release is unusually interesting, as it provides the first official English-language details of Away's storyline. Away: Shuffle Dungeon is the story of Webb Village, a small town whose residents disappear randomly, a phenomenon known as Blue Dragon Away. After a girl named Anella gets "awayed" in his place, a young man named Sword finds himself the only remaining resident of Webb. Sword must enter the "Shuffle Dungeon" to rescue the villagers. And then the dungeon shuffles. Obviously.
Last chance: win Lost Odyssey
This is it people, the very last chance to win a copy of Lost Odyssey. Clocking in at over fifty hours, it's the perfect game to fill the summer gaming gap. Okay, so maybe it's not perfect, but it's free, right? As of this post, there is only one hour to go before the giveaway is over. For your shot at winning, head over to the official giveaway post, follow the directions, and, most importantly, relax.
Reminder: Win Lost Odyssey
Hey fanboys, just a quick reminder that a copy of Lost Odyssey is still up for grabs. Entering the contest is as simple as leaving a comment on the official giveaway post (no, not this post, silly!), so get crackin'. Don't forget that you can enter once per calendar day (Eastern Time), so it's okay to enter today if you also entered yesterday. In fact, entering every day, including tomorrow, is the best way to maximize your odds of winning. Now, head over to the official giveaway post and enter already!
ASH pops up on ESRB's site
Tactical title ASH, short for Archaic Sealed Heat, could be headed to the North America. It recently popped up on the ESRB's website, which, as you all know, pretty much means we can expect to hear news confirming our suspicions soon. The question is, though, do any of you still care about it, since it wasn't received with wide, open arms abroad?Any of you interested in ASH? Did you already import it when it was on sale?
Lost Odyssey: Seeker of the Deep dungeon DLC
Releasing this Friday, May 23rd to the Xbox Live Marketplace is a new chunk of dungeon DLC for Lost Odyssey called "Seeker of the Deep". And for the 400 Microsoft point price of admission, the Seeker of the Deep DLC will add a new dungeon to the mix where (we expect) lots of dungeon shenanigans will take place. Lots of dungeon shenanigans and dungeon moistness ... uhh, yeah. Also, if you don't own a copy of Lost Odyssey, we oh so humbly remind you that there's a copy up for grabs as part of this week's Fanswag Weekly. Enter today! [Via Joystiq]
Blue Dragon Plus in Japan this September with uninspiring box
This comes as little surprise, since AQ Interactive announced that Blue Dragon Plus would release in the U.S. by the end of the fiscal year, but we're still glad to see a firm Japanese release date for Mistwalker/feelplus's strategy-RPG sequel. It's scheduled to be out September 4, for 5,229 yen ($50).We're slightly less enthused by what AQ Interactive decided to do with the box. It's less "grand adventure" (which is the feeling that most Blue Dragon artwork evokes for us) and more "horrific See 'N Say." The giant, blue, snake-tailed, winged horse says "Neigh! See you in your nightmares!"%Gallery-15148%
Blue Dragon, Away: Shuffle Dungeon confirmed for U.S.
As if our recent poll regarding Blue Dragon Plus and Away: Shuffle Dungeon hadn't already put you on the spot enough, now you'll have to choose one for really reals. AQ Interactive's latest financial report confirms that both will hit North America in this fiscal year, and also mentioned a localized version of the Korg DS-10 (which we already knew about).Incidentally, there's a further four third-party portable games being brought over by Xseed, and Siliconera reckons that those could include Flower, Sun and Rain, Lux Pain, and Dungeon Maker DS. As European versions of the first two have both been rumored, we'd tend to agree!
DS Daily: Looking forward to it
With all of the impending games to hit the DS, which excite you the most? We don't have to tell you how pumped we are for Super Dodgeball Brawlers and the games coming from Mistwalker, but what about you all? What titles on the radar have you all giddy and feeling funny in the pants? Space Invaders Extreme? Edgeworth's game?
