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Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut trailer questions everything
Do you even know what's in your coffee? Is that even coffee in your cup?
Senran Kagura for 3DS serves side-scrolling ninja action and total humiliation
Marvelous's new 3DS game, Senran Kagura, is a side-scrolling action platformer starring a group of five ninja school students battling evil mercenary ninjas. You can juggle enemies in aerial combos, double-jump and dash around the screen. Sounds awesome, right? Oh, by the way, all the characters are young women, "ranked" by bust size. During the game, their clothes tear off, and occasionally the screen will zoom in and display their decreasingly covered bodies in 3D. ... Senran Kagura will be out in Japan this summer.
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns headed to DS and 3DS
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns will launch simultaneously on the DS and 3DS in North America this summer. A 3DS Harvest Moon was previously revealed, but we weren't aware of the dual platform launch. The latest Harvest Moon plot revolves around two towns torn apart by a rivalry over food. As a new farmer, players will have to choose between the crop-lovin' Eastern-styled town of Konohana or the meat-meat-meat, European-styled Bluebell. In time, players will bring a truce between the towns -- likely by developing an industrial farming complex that buys out both towns and places all the local farmers into indentured servitude.
Marvelous caps 3DS game development at $1.8M per title
During a recent investor call, Marvelous Entertainment, the publisher best known for its Harvest Moon games, revealed its budget range for 3DS game development. According to the transcription of the call's Q&A session (as translated by 1UP), a Marvelous representative said that, "while costs vary based on game content," the company would spend an estimated ¥50 million to ¥150 million ($600K to $1.8M) on the development of a single 3DS game. Currently, Marvelous has two 3DS projects in the works, a Harvest Moon game and a zoo sim called Animal Resort. Not surprisingly, Marvelous' 3DS spending money is significantly higher than the ¥4.4 million to ¥43.9 million per title (roughly $50K–525K) Japanese companies spent on developing (regular) DS games last year, according to data gathered by TGS sponsor and promotional organization CESA. More interestingly, Marvelous' ¥150-million cap for a 3DS game represents a figure more than double the cost of the last year's most expensive Japanese PSP title, which, while unnamed, cost ¥59.2 million to develop by CESA's account. (The cheapest PSP game cost its maker just ¥3 million.) If Marvelous' budget is indicative of other companies' 3DS game costs -- and, certainly, some of these guys are likely to splurge -- then developing for the platform could prove more expensive than for Wii, where last year's most expensive Japanese project topped out at ¥116 million. In an era when budget gaming is dominating the handheld market, and following the disastrous combination of costly PSP game development and rampant piracy, the 3DS could be as ill-fated as the 3D technology that requires you to wear glasses. Well, that, or it'll just "print money" ... in 3D.
Half-Minute Hero sequel announced, hitting Japan Nov. 4
Famitsu recently pulled the lid off of an upcoming sequel to one of last year's ... well, one of last year's weirdest games ever, Half-Minute Hero. According to Andriasang's translation of the reveal, the game will still place a heavy emphasis on hasty adventuring -- though time will now freeze while the player is on the overworld map, giving him or her plenty of time to explore the game's five RPG scenarios. A four-player co-op mode, a quest creation tool and an "Infinite" mode which tasks you with toppling the game's biggest bosses in succession are also new additions. The best part? The sequel is titled Hero 30 Second, which should ensure no small amount of confusion amongst future video game historians. According to Famitsu, the game's tentatively dated in Japan for November 4, and is currently 77 percent complete, which is just mind-boggling in its specificity.
Marvelous focuses on PSP development in fiscal 2011
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given the company's recent executive pay cuts and low sales figures, that Marvelous Entertainment is looking to cut costs in fiscal 2011 by reducing its lineup of games slightly. Siliconera points out a slide from the company's latest earnings report (Japanese PDF downloadable at the bottom of the window) that shows only ten releases for the period between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011. That's down two from the previous year. The biggest move comes from the DS lineup, which is reduced from six games to just one. Also unsurprisingly, Marvelous is putting emphasis on PSP games. PSP development was the segment of Marvelous's game business that paid off in the last year, and the publisher is putting out more games there -- four -- than anywhere else in fiscal 2011. That includes the RPG Fate/Extra and the humiliating fighter Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact, as well as two currently unannounced games. The rest of Marvelous's lineup includes the already-released No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise on PS3 and 360, Harvest Moon: Twins' Village on DS, one unknown PS3 game, and two unknown Wii games. [Via Siliconera]
Look out! New Arc Rise Fantasia screens appear
New screens from the upcoming Ignition Entertainment published RPG Arc Rise Fantasia have emerged, featuring the game's strategic turn-based battle action. Originally announced as an XSEED published title, Arc Rise Fantasia was snatched out of XSEED's announced lineup by Ignition in late 2009. The upcoming RPG is developed by Sands of Destruction's imageepoch and is set for a summer 2010 release. %Gallery-86696%
Play a Half-Minute Hero demo for a few minutes next week
If the thought of buying before trying seems as alien as making a sandwich out of textbooks and old toilet paper tubes, then you'll want to keep reading: Rising Star has announced that a demo of Half-Minute Hero will hit the EU PSN next week. Dubbed "Hero Mode," the demo will allow players to select between three missions included in the final game. Half-Minute Hero features a series of quick challenges blending together a menagerie of genres, such as RPG, RTS and even shoot-em-ups. It's currently set to release in Europe on February 12. [Via Videogamer]
Check out more of Muramasa's lovely gameplay in this new trailer
Muramasa: The Demon Blade's US release is so anticipated around Joystiq HQ, our staff can constantly be spotted exchanging fist-pumps whenever it's mentioned. Today, a new gameplay trailer has found its way online, showcasing more of the game's beautiful action. Hopefully, when it hits stores Stateside on September 8, it will live up to our lofty expectations. If not, the only arm movement we'll be making is when we throw elbows during our daily "abuse the intern" training exercises.
XSEED no longer publishing Muramasa
You should probably sit down, we have some bad news. According to NintendoEverything, XSEED has decided it will not publish the Wii exclusive Muramasa: The Demon Blade in North America. Muramasa: The Demon Blade -- which recently landed on store shelves in Japan -- is the new action role-playing title from Japanese developer Vanillaware, makers of the cult-hit Odin Sphere on PlayStation 2.Muramasa was originally planned for release in North America as part of its US publishing agreement with Marvelous Entertainment US. According to NintendoEverything, XSEED states it still believes in the game and "will look forward to seeing it release in North America" -- as long as it isn't released by them, apparently. If you thought the wait was going to be long before... grab a Snickers bar, kids.%Gallery-33431%
Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade coming stateside
The publishing duo of XSEED and Marvelous Entertainment announced plans to bring Vanillaware's Wii-exclusive ninja-action title, Oboro Muramasa Youtouden, to the US sometime next year. The game, which will be redubbed as Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the local market, marks the second title to emerge from a co-publishing deal inked in May, following this week's release of Valhalla Knights 2 for the PSP. Muramasa looks to continue the tradition of Vanillaware's eye-poppingly gorgeous titles, Odin Sphere and Grim Grimoire, promising hand-drawn 2D sprites and side-scrolling levels. Beyond this, details are scarce, though more is expected to be revealed next week when the game is officially unveiled during TGS.
Factor in some Runes on the Wii
An announcement for all those interested in putting some hours in down at the nearest factory or processing facility -- you can now work with runes. Marvelous Entertainment made the announcement for Rune Factory: Frontier in the latest Famitsu, and that's factoriffic. We unearthed some scans, which we have here for you today. Well, not here. Up there ... and here.The series had a good showing on the DS, so it's time for the bigger console brother to take a shot at harvesting some quality gameplay. Rune Factory: Frontier also looks set to feature Raguna from the first title, as he goes about his day farming, looking for buxom beauties and occasionally roughing up a baddie or two. The game is scheduled for a 2008 release date in Japan, but hopefully it won't take long to make the international rounds.
XSEED and Marvelous join in co-publishing agreement
PSP fans will be familiar with both Marvelous Entertainment and XSEED Games. Both have been key supporters of the PSP through a number of niche games for the handheld. The two companies have announced a new partnership, in which XSEED will support Marvelous Entertainment in bringing their titles over to North America. Valhalla Knights 2 for the PSP will be the first title to be released under this partnership, which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2008. Valhalla Knights 2 is a follow-up to the previous PSP-exclusive action RPG. The sequel adds new races, job classes, weapons, magic spells, foes, armor, and more. Players will be able to partake in real-time 6 on 6 battles. The game supports 2 player ad-hoc network play, which enables co-op and versus modes. Expect more details on Valhalla Knights 2 and other titles from this partnership in the future.
Steal Princess thieves her own corner of the internet
Back when we heard that the developers behind Shining Force were up to no good on the DS, crafting an RPG for the DS that would likely suck away vast amounts of time from players, we wondered exactly what a game such as Steal Princess would include. How cruel of them to try and make a game that we would want to play for many, many hours! And now, they seek to eat up more of our time before the game is even released by launching a web site for the game? Not really. There isn't much there, right now. But, soon there will be. [Via Siliconera]
TGS07: Valhalla Knights 2 trailer shows ... artwork
What can we say? The first Valhalla Knights game was okay at best. We can't tell if the stuff that hampered the first title will be ironed out in the sequel unless we get to sit down and play the darn thing. Since that's not likely for a while longer, we digress. In any case, check out the trailer even if it's sort of difficult to hear from all the TGS hubbub. You won't see much, though. Artwork, some blurry action, and lots of crystals. Pretty, pretty crystals and arcana circle things.
Rainy Woods scans quickly materialize
Soon after we posted about the new survival horror IP Rainy Woods, we were alerted to a small set of scans released by Famitsu. The scans show off the town you'll be exploring as well as some of the more frightening and/or grotesque imagery you'll come across on your quest. The town looks nice, but since it's in the daytime, it lacks that "jump out of the alley and make you cry" feeling other games ooze. Fatal Frame 2 is still the most frightening game we've ever played; it mastered that ability, even though you were just taking pictures of ghosts. Still some of the shots make us think of Silent Hill and that's good. We'll keep you posted on this game as details emerge.
Want to walk around in Rainy Woods?
Another survival horror game, so soon after we revealed the weird sci-fi horror game on its way? It seems so and we couldn't be happier. The more the merrier in this genre of so few original IPs. This time, though, the story doesn't sound that promising unless you were a fan of the movie Identity -- we know you're out there and we don't mind. It was all right.The game takes place in the American west, with FBI agents and midgets. Rainy Woods is the setting of the story, which are, we presume, woods that are inclined to rain. Awkwardly enough, a murder takes place nearby and people think the "Raincoat Killer" has returned. Rain is a theme. The townsfolk call you in, an FBI agent who has a multiple personality disorder. As you travel the giant city and learn about the murder, you learn that something less-than-human is involved. Expect to chop up and shoot various critters of evil.Draw whatever conclusions you want. Who knows, the game could be pretty neat. Just so the killer doesn't end up being the FBI agent. That would be very, very lame.[via IGN]
