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Ragnarok Odyssey Ace treks to EU, AUS, NZ next week
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace brings its additions to Europe, Australia and New Zealand on April 30, and that Wednesday due date points towards a PS Store release [Update: GungHo confirmed to Joystiq it's PSN-only]. Ragnarok Odyssey Ace is the updated version of Game Arts' Vita action-RPG, and it brings the game to PS3 for the first time as well as Vita, along with cross-platform play between console and handheld. Monster hunters breaching the new version will find all the DLC from the original bundled in, but in terms of what's new, there are an assortment of fresh bosses, AI companions, skills, and dungeons to master/lose hundreds of hours to. [Image: GungHo Online Entertainment]
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace journeys to PS3, Vita on April Fool's Day
An English-language localization of Game Arts' action-RPG Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will hit the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita platforms on April 1, publisher Xseed announced today. An upgraded multiplatform version of 2012's PS Vita-exclusive Ragnarok Odyssey, Ace layers new bosses, equipment, and features on top of the previous game's existing content. Ace boasts a new AI mercenary mechanic, allowing players to tackle the game's challenges with assistance from computer-controlled companions. Ace is also compatible with all DLC released for Ragnarok Odyssey, and many existing character attributes and unlockables can be directly transferred over to the new game. The PlayStation 3 version of Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will be available at retail and digitally via the PlayStation Network for $39.99. The PS Vita port will hit PSN at $34.99, while a physical edition packaged with a soundtrack CD will retail for $39.99. [Image: Xseed]
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace to hunt for loot and Porings in early 2014
The cross-platform compatible update to last year's Ragnarok Odyssey will start knocking numbers out of monsters in early 2014 as Ragnarok Odyssey Ace. Both the PS3 and Vita version will cost $39.99 and include all DLC released for the original game, but launch copies of the Vita version will contain extra loot in the form of a 25-song soundtrack. Ace will construct a new Tower of Yggdrasil dungeon filled with randomly-generated dungeons for players to bash their way through. Ace also carries an "enhanced battle system" as well as new bosses and items. Those that own the vanilla version of Ragnarok Odyssey will be able to bring over their character's "basic physical features." Weapon or monster cards will be transferable, too, as long as they aren't equipped to clothing or previously required via the Vita's Near app.
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace journeys to North America, Europe this winter
Marvelous USA (formerly Xseed) announced that it has secured the North American publishing rights for Game Arts' PlayStation 3 and PS Vita action-RPG Ragnarok Odyssey Ace. A European release is also in the works, courtesy of Japanese publisher GungHo. An expanded version of last year's PS Vita release Ragnarok Odyssey, Ace boasts numerous gameplay additions and includes all of the original game's DLC. Ace additionally supports cross-platform play, giving PS3 and PS Vita players the ability to party up and quest for loot together. Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will launch this winter in North America and Europe. Marvelous USA plans to show off the PS Vita version at E3 in June.
Grandia: How a forgotten JRPG solved the problem of repetitive combat
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which primarily focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. This week, however, Rowan focuses on a forgotten JRPG: Grandia. One of the core issues facing most role-playing games is how they deal with repetitive combat. Since RPGs tend to be so much longer than normal games, with a wider scope, it's much more difficult for them to create unique battles like a shorter action game can. So RPGs tend to have constant, similar, repetitive fights. These are often derided by players and critics under umbrella terms like "random battles," "grinding," or in massively multiplayer games, "trash." Yet RPGs need those regular battles to keep the games interesting. With rare exceptions, the player skills are unlikely to be tested in terms of skill outside of combat, and most RPG stories depend on violence and its consequences. This makes combat an integral component of the pacing of RPGs. Successful RPGs tend to strike a balance between combat, exploration, and storytelling. When one of those three part is left unchecked, the game can become boring – and it's usually excessive repetitive fighting that's the issue. For decades now, RPGs have attempted to make their regular battles more interesting, and less likely to be described as trash or grinding. Japanese RPGs have historically tended to experiment with different combat forms more aggressively than their Western counterparts. Some games, like the Suikoden series, tries to avoid the combat issue by making combat smooth and unobtrusive, as I wrote about in a prior column. But not every RPG can, or should, de-emphasize combat. When combat works, even in common random battles, it can be the best part of an RPG. How can RPGs avoid having combat be too repetitive and meaningless?
Vita puzzle platformer Dokuro chalks up PSN release in Oct.
Dokuro, a very cute puzzle platformer from Grandia developer Game Arts, will be released on Vita in North America in October. The PSN exclusive game stars a little skeleton man who attempts to rescue a princess from the Dark Lord who kidnapped her ... and who happens to be Dokuro's own master.Dokuro must move ahead of the Princess, manipulating the environment and solving puzzles to create a safe path for her. Later, you gain access to abilities, like a "Hero Transformation" that lets you fight, and chalks that allow you to redraw the chalk drawing-esque environment.
Free-to-play Vita game 'Picotto Knight' is adorable
Game Arts' next, as-yet-undated PlayStation Vita game is a rarity for consoles, in that it uses a free-to-play model. It's also really, really cute.Picotto Knight is a four-player online side-scrolling action game, in which players control tiny "Cocoroids" who use a variety of hand weapons to fight the minions of the Demon King that threatens the planet Pico.Players can level up their characters as they fight, and equip them with a variety of accessories, some of which may make them look like a kitty. Picotto Knight has so far only been announced for Japan.
Ragnarok Odyssey journeying to North American Vitas sometime this year
In addition to bringing Orgarhythm stateside sometime before the end of this calendar year, XSEED has also announced equally nebulous plans to localize Ragnarok Odyssey for North American audiences and their Vitas. This follows the game's Japanese release last February, though how closely it'll follow remains to be seen. Set in the same world as Ragnarok Online, Odyssey is a Monster Hunter-esque runabout wherein the player's (fully customizable) character traverses the world, hunting "monsters and giants" as they do so. Players can choose from six different job classes, switching between missions when necessary, and play cooperatively either online or via local ad-hoc network, the later of which supports up to four players at a time.
My year long quest to defeat Grandia 2's (almost) final boss
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. Once upon a time, it took me a solid year to beat what I thought was the final boss of Grandia II.Now, before you start making fun of me, I want to point out that even one GameFAQs guide refers to Valmar's Core as "very extreemly (sic) absurdly abnormally ridiciously (sic) giganticly (sic) impossibly hard!!!" This was also right around 2000, and online help was a little harder to find at that time. I was more or less on my own.With that in mind, think about all the things that can make a final role-playing game boss difficult. In my experience, those elements include high speed, a wide variety of attacks that target the entire party, multiple body parts, and healing spells. Valmar's Core includes all of those elements and more, meaning that your only hope of killing the thing is removing its ability to heal itself before blitzing it. There's simply no way to last long enough to take out all three of its heads and its core before it wipes out your party.In many ways, it's the perfect final challenge for the JRPG in which the main wrinkle is that the protagonists and villains share one time bar in a race to see who acts first. The three heads and the core act independently of one another, which strains the ability to interrupt the icons with an attack before they reach the point where they can attack -- the main mechanic -- to the absolute limit. One mistake, and Valmar's Core will show no mercy.
Silpheed Alternative: Menace from Beyond the Stars hits Android
We don't know which is more astounding, the fact that there's a new Silpheed game, or the fact that it's for Google's Android OS. Silpheed Alternative: Menace from Beyond the Stars is the first entry in the series in over a decade, spiritual successors notwithstanding. Much like its predecessors, Silpheed Alternative pits the player against impossible odds and an immense armada of warships in one of mankind's few available fighters. Unlike its predecessors, however, Silpheed Alternative eschews the series' traditional isometric viewpoint and shmup gameplay in favor of three-dimensional dogfighting, ala X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. The game is available now on the Android Marketplace for $2.99, compatible with Android devices running 2.1 or higher.
Game Arts founder Takeshi Miyaji passes away at 45
G-Mode announced today that its CEO and founder Takeshi Miyaji died on July 29 at the age of 45. Cause of death was not released as part of the statement. Miyaji co-founded Game Arts at the age of 19, and is best known for creating the Grandia series, as well as his involvement in other classics like Silpheed, GunGriffon, and Lunar: The Silver Star. In 2000, Miyaji founded G-Mode, a development studio focused on the then-emerging mobile-phone gaming market. He will be succeeded as CEO by Ryu Okoriyama, CEO of Gaia Holdings.
Grandia coming to Euro PSN November 10
Considering Grandia's innovative, pseudo-real-time battle system, it's ironic that Europe has spent years waiting for its turn to see the game hit PSOne Classics. The game hit the Japanese PSN in April 2009 and landed on US PS3s earlier this year, and now the Game Arts favorite will finally be available on the European PSN starting November 10 (tomorrow!). For just €7.99/£6.29, you too can relive one of the greatest RPGs of the 32-bit generation and experience a battle system that today's games still have trouble topping.
Grandia coming to PS1 classics on PSN this week
PlayStation classic Grandia will make its way to the PSN this Thursday, February 25, at a price far less than what you'd pay for a new or used copy. For $10, North America can finally access the RPG that's been on the Japanese PSN since April 2009 -- and on the Sega Saturn since 1997. Grandia stands out from other JRPGs with its exciting combat system, which was obviously in its infancy during the first installment. In fact, we've been waiting for another high-profile game to iterate Grandia's turn-based battle system for years. Y'all just wait, when Joystiq publishing is off the ground, we'll iterate the heck out of it.
Download The Magic Obelisk's soundtrack for free
Whether or not you've tried Game Arts's puzzle platformer The Magic Obelisk, you can now check out a portion of the game for free. Specifically, the portion of the game that comes out of your speakers. Game Arts put a ten-track soundtrack for the game (which is called Shadow Walker in Japan) up on its website as a free download. For some reason, the company also put up a 3D model of one of the game's robot characters. Maybe you could import it into Unreal Tournament, or use the file to make a papercraft model! Or, perhaps, if you have access to a 3D printer, you can make a figurine. Or something. [Via GoNintendo]
Game Arts already working on another downloadable game
Game Arts has another downloadable title in mind after last week's release of its self-published WiiWare puzzle adventure The Magic Obelisk. Takahiro Nishi, producer of Obelisk, told Siliconera that "Our development team is now engaged in the next downloadable game." The experiment in smaller-scale downloadable software must have been a success, then, for the Grandia developer. Nishi declined to name the platform for the new title, but in a previous Siliconera interview, he had nothing but kind words for WiiWare, praising its "easy to work with development environment" and an audience that is accepting of "unique and new concepts like ours." We thought briefly that Nishi could have been referring to the new PS3 version of Thexder Neo, but Game Arts doesn't list either the PS3 or PSP versions of Thexder Neo on its website, indicating that another developer made the updated versions of the shmup classic. %Gallery-80770%
Thexder Neo transforming into a PS3 game
After the ESRB rating for Game Arts' Thexder Neo listed it as a PSP and PS3 game, Square Enix released the downloadable shooter remake on PSP only, leaving PS3 retro fans vexed and un-Thex'd. However, a post on Square Enix's Facebook page reveals that the transforming spaceship/robot will make an appearance on PS3 after all. "With PS3 graphic THEXDER NEO becomes more THEXDER," Square Enix PR staffer Akira Kokushoh said, suggesting that the new version isn't just a direct port of the PSP title. The game will be out sometime in 2010 -- possibly on the early side, since Kokushoh indicated that the game is almost complete. [Via Gamerbytes]
NintendoWare Weekly: Castlevania ReBirth, Pilotwings, Oregon Trail
Nintendo's been on quite the roll recently, providing plenty of content in its weekly offerings -- and today is no different. There are ten new titles to check out, including high-profile downloads such as Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, Oregon Trail and -- finally! -- Pilotwings on the Virtual Console. Head past the break to check out the full list.
Game Arts' 'The Magic Obelisk' for WiiWare emerges from shadow next week
Game Arts announced that its original WiiWare action game, The Magic Obelisk, will be available on the North American Wii Shop next Monday, December 28, for 500 Wii Points. The game, released in Japan as Shadow Walker: Boy of Shadow, Fairy of Light, stars a tree spirit named Lukus, who travels the world in search of the most beneficial place to turn into a tree, and a light spirit named Popo, who uses his ability to create the shadows Lukus requires to move. Game Arts got its Wii experience through the co-development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the subsequent creation of TMNT Smash-Up, but the developer is better known as the creator of the Lunar and Grandia RPG series, as well as the shooters Thexder and Slipheed. In the announcement of the North American date, Game Arts president Kazuki Morishita called The Magic Obelisk "a game that has been truly a labor of love for us." %Gallery-80770%
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony gets 'definitive' Limited Edition
Has any game been remade and repackaged into "Limited Edition" bundles more often than Lunar: Silver Star? With the announcement of this special edition PSP package from XSEED, we think the answer is "no." The Limited Edition will include a UMD version of the game, soundtrack CD and a set of 13 "bromide" collector cards "highlighting the girls of Lunar." Oh, game publishing companies, you know what fans want. The press release calls this the "definitive version of Lunar: The Silver Star." That is, until the next time they decide to remake this game. The Limited Edition will cost $40, $10 more than the standard edition, and will release on PSP in Q1 2010.%Gallery-80575%
Game Arts localizing Shadow Walker as 'The Magic Obelisk'
We didn't have to wait long after the Japanese release of Shadow Walker to hear news of a localized version. Game Arts opened a site for The Magic Obelisk, as the puzzle adventure will be known, though it bears a 'TBA' release date. Two trailers have been translated to English (and are available after the break), making the shadow path creation gameplay even easier to understand -- and explaining the story, kind of: "Experiencing meaningful encounters and partings ... a pair of spirits travel through the world to find the meaning of existence." Sounds ... deep, for a game about a little boy and a fairy pushing rocks around. The game's info page makes it a bit more concrete: Lukus is a tree spirit who wants to find the perfect place to become a tree "to find to help somebody in the world," and a light spirit named Popo travels with him. Now that sounds more like a video game premise.
