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Longtime Square Enix artist Akihiko Yoshida joins Unsung Story team
Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians, the tactical RPG from Level-5 and Square Enix veteran Yasumi Matsuno, will feature the character artwork of Akihiko Yoshida. The news comes from an update on the project's Kickstarter page, which revealed an excerpt of the game's story as well. Yoshida departed Square Enix in December after an 18-year stint during which he provided art and character designs for games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story alongside Matsuno, as well as Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy XII and Bravely Default. Unsung Story is seeking $600,000 on Kickstarter by February 14 in order to continue development. With 16 days left to hit its goal, more than 10,000 people have pitched in $438,947 to the project, which has multiple $1 million-plus stretch goals to reach platforms like Vita, PS4 and 3DS.
Vagrant Story: Game of a million swords
This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again. I'm not sure when it happened, but it must have been sometime in 1999. My friend Stephen and I engaged in a sort of foreign exchange program. We didn't go overseas or anything – we just loaned our respective game consoles to each other. I borrowed his entirely alien PlayStation and a few games, notably Silent Hill, which had just come out and that I was dying to play. Meanwhile, he borrowed my Sega Saturn. (He really liked Dragon Force, which is easily worth a column of its own.)I wound up spending the bulk of my time with Silent Hill (mostly alone, eek), but I also tried out Vagrant Story, and I remember enjoying it. Fast-forward 13 years or so, and I've finally picked it back up via PSOne Classics to finish what I started. It's taken me several hours to come to this conclusion, but I think I still like it.%Gallery-176887%
PSN Tuesday: PixelJunk Shooter 2, Vagrant Story
Vagrant Story and PixelJunk Shooter 2. Those are the biggies this week in the PSN update, which may not be the thickest, but there's plenty of content to feel good about -- as long as you aren't looking for extensive PSP stuff. Take a trip past the break for all the details -- there's plenty of demos to try out. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
Vagrant Story re-told on PlayStation Network tomorrow
Xenogears last week ... Vagrant Story tomorrow ... and Parasite Eve soon. It seems the gears are finally in motion to bring all of Square's beloved "PSone Classics" to the PlayStation Network. (Still, North America has a long way to go before reaching Japan's lofty 600-game benchmark.) Vagrant Story will be available for $6 on the PlayStation Store once the PSN Tuesday update goes live tomorrow.
Sony explains the discrepancy in PS1 content between regions
Few things in this world make us angrier than the blatant inequality between the PSOne Classics catalog in the various territories said catalog is available. Sure, each region has titles which the others don't -- we're still waiting on, like, a billion Square Enix games -- but it still hurts our heart, you know? Sony's Ross McGrath recently popped into PlayStation.Blog to explain how easy it is for these games to get hung up, whether it's due to an expired license, PAL-to-NTSC compatibility or the existence of game-wrecking bugs. McGrath added, "In some cases the original publisher of the game in the US is not the same publisher as in Europe, so publishing rights need to be secured," which some publishers aren't willing to invest in. Doesn't sound like there's much Sony can do about those -- however, the PSOne Classics emulator is constantly being updated, which should help a few of the platform's buggier titles become eligible for some trans-continental voyages. Related note: The amount of money we would give Sony for a downloadable version of Vagrant Story has reached $80. That's where we're at.
Vagrant Story, Xenogears, and more rated for PS3 and PSP release
For over a year, we in North America have been taunted by the presence of Yasumi Matsuno's PlayStation masterpiece Vagrant Story on the European and Japanese PlayStation Stores. Now, depending on how optimistic you feel, there's new information that is either encouraging, or just another taunt. It's been rated by the ESRB for release on PS3 and PSP, suggesting that Square Enix plans to release it here ... eventually. It's joined by ratings for other Square RPGs, including Threads of Fate, Xenogears, and Legend of Mana, along with Working Designs-published Arc the Lad 3 (and Ridge Racer Type 4, which doesn't fit the RPG theme at all, but is still noteworthy). We can't know from the ratings when these games will be published, but we're shocked to have some PSOne Classics on the way from someone other than MonkeyPaw Games.
European PSN releases for December 22
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Wait, it is Christmas Eve, right? These PSN updates always come on Thursdays, and Christmas is on Friday so ... wait, it's Tuesday? Well, it looks like someone at Sony Europe pressed the "Release Stuff onto the PSN" button a bit too early. Either that, or they didn't want to work on the 24th. No, Europeans usually have an unflappable work ethic -- this must be some kind of mistake. Regardless, there's a whole bunch of savory morsels in this week's update, including the LittleBigPlanet Pirates of the Caribbean pack, Vagrant Story and the Adhoc Party application. Check them all out after the jump! Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
Vagrant Story finally coming to PSN in Europe
While most people recognize Square Enix as the company that gave us the Final Fantasy series, there are some who remember the company differently. Some remember Square as the benevolent force that gave Vagrant Story to the world back in the PSOne era. A truly unique action RPG, Vagrant Story brought together a great story and a one of a kind battle system. As such, many gamers (including Joystiq editors) have been slavering for the game to hit PSN. Japan received it earlier this year and now it looks like Europe is next in line. Square Enix has announced that Vagrant Story will hit the PSN in PAL territories starting December 22. The game will be sold for €5.99, an absolute pittance. Let's hope the North American release isn't far behind. Considering the bizarre gaps between regional PSN releases though, we're not holding our breath.
Vagrant Story a "natural" choice for next PSP makeover
In an interview recently, the Ivalice Alliance (the Square Enix development team behind the legendary titles Final Fantasy Tactics (Advance), Final Fantasy XII, and Vagrant Story) had a roundtable chat, so to speak, about the future of their games, of Ivalice, and what's going to happen on the PSP. Feel free to check out the discussion about all things Ivalice, but we're only interested in one segment of the discussion -- and that's Vagrant Story.Vagrant Story is the only game that hasn't gotten some form of remake or sequel and with the release of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, it seems like it would be logical for it to return. On this idea, the Ivalice Alliance responds: "Vagrant Story was a title that pushed the PS one to its limits. The technical hurdles in porting it to the PSP would be extremely high. Of course, I think it's the next natural candidate for such an update, and there's no denying its extreme popularity overseas." When asked if the hero, Ashley Riot, could appear in some other Ivalice title, there is a hint of a sequel if you're good at reading between these lines: "Even in Vagrant Story, there's really not that much we learn about Ashley Riot. Without knowing more about him, it would be difficult to include him in another title." We could learn more about him in, say, Vagrant Story 2: The Wanderer. Just an opinion.
Our most wanted PSone games
We have faith that one day, the PlayStation Store will be accessible via PSP without the need for a PS3, and will flourish into a glorious realm of classic games, one that will be untouched by the competition. Of course, homebrew users will rip their own games ... but for the rest of us, this is my personal wishlist of PSone games that I'd like to see available for download.
