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Blue Dragon DS delayed indefinitely
French gaming site Jeux-France is reporting that the Nintendo DS adaptation of Mistwalker's Blue Dragon has been delayed without a future release window. The title was planned for a March release, although given its original September revelation, we thought the date was a bit suspect.Despite the indefinite loss of a portable Blue Dragon, fans of Hironobu Sakaguchi's work can look forward to other DS releases from the studio, including ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (already out in Japan) and Away: Shuffle Dungeon. [Via DS Fanboy]
Blue Dragon delayed indefinitely
We thought March might be a little sudden for Blue Dragon Plus, and it turns out we weren't alone. Mistwalker announced that the title has been pushed back, and there is no current release window in sight. No reason was given for the delay, but do we really need one? We'll just go ahead and assume that they need more than a few months to put together the sort of title we deserve.
Famitsu treats us to more Blue Dragon
Click image to enlarge The latest issue of Famitsu didn't only have some interesting stuff regarding Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, but also a spread on Mistwalker's upcoming DS entry Blue Dragon Plus. And, as intrigued as we were when it was initially thought to be a card-based game, we're now even more interested in what the game will bring to the DS. Sakaguchi never disappoints, after all.
Don't run away from these fresh scans
We've seen plenty of scans and screens for the upcoming Away: Shuffle Dungeon. Being developed by Mistwalker, Hironobu Sakaguchi's new development studio and Artoon's Naoto Oshima, it's a unique title in that the environments will be ever-shifting and ever-changing, allowing for quite the replay value, we assume. These latest scans come courtesy of Famitsu, so be sure to head past the break and give them a look over.
Away: Merchandising Opportunity
Away: Shuffle Dungeon isn't all about unreliable dungeon layouts and goggle-eyed protagonists, it would appear. The latest screens reveal magical creatures called Fuppons, little blobby things that follow you around and perform magical attacks. There are four different kinds of Fuppons, each possessing a different ability: Koorins, who produce ice and allow you to destroy barriers made of lava rock; Merameras, who shoot fireballs; Gorogoros, who generate lightning bolts; and the pictured Naooru, who can heal your party.More importantly, all four are suitable to be made into plush toys, cell phone charms, and figurines. Away is a Hironobu Sakaguchi-produced game, after all. There are screens of the other three Fuppons doing what they do best (as far as we know) at Famitsu!
A closer look at Blue Dragon
The deluge of pre-Jump Festa info continues, and with it comes a three-page spread on Blue Dragon, complete with new images. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of blue in the pictures. Who'd have thought?We've seen and heard a lot of rumblings about whether or not Blue Dragon can make the leap from console to handheld, but it's worked for so many other games and franchises that we don't have any major worries. Certainly it will look good, but after the mediocre reaction to ASH, we've got fingers crossed concerning the game play. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see that, however. For now, you can check out the scans after the break.
Away shuffles the rendering styles
We hate to disappoint you, but if you were desperately holding on to some insane hope that the blocky, sub-Final Fantasy VII look of Away's characters was somehow an artifact of a poor scan, these new direct-feed screens will disabuse you of that notion. The flat faces and blank, circular eyes continue to look really damn creepy, in character art and in gameplay. Luckily, the game is Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and not Away: Hanging Out With 1996-Era Character Art. Meaning that the majority of your game time should be spent focusing on dungeon crawling, and not face-to-face chatting with the polygon-economical cast. In fact, the actual dungeon part is 2D, character art and all. And it looks really nice. For some reason, Mistwalker and AQ Interactive have decided that the only time the characters should look embarrassingly ridiculous is when you're talking to them. Why didn't they just stick with 2D for the whole game?
Blue Dragon DS nothing to do with cards after all
Remember those vicious rumors regarding Blue Dragon DS being a card-based RPG? Well, looks like they may have been wide of the mark, as a new scan gleaned from the pages of Japanese publication Shonen Jump suggests otherwise. Instead, the magazine describes the game as a "real-time simulation RPG," a label that brings to mind the recently released Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Whatever the hell Mistwalker's game is -- and the screens do suggest a kind of real-time strategy/RPG hybrid -- there's certainly no mention of cards. Pleasingly, that March 2008 Japanese release date seems to have held, which surely means we'll have more information on this in the not-too-distant future. Go past the break for the Shonen Jump scan.
Let these scans take you Away
Move over, Exit -- there's a new rescue game in town. Away, the latest from Mistwalker, and a joint effort from Hironobu Sakaguchi and Artoon's Naoto Oshima, is set to challenge players with rescuing villagers from peril in a shifting environment. Traveling on the bottom screen? Look out, the top screen may change -- and vice versa -- and players find themselves stuck waiting until the shifting has stopped before they can move on. It certainly sounds like an interesting concept, especially when rescued villagers return home to build up their town. It sounds like the more you save, the bigger the game can get.While Away: Shuffle Dungeon certainly sounds like it could be a blast, we can't help but raise an eyebrow at the look. Oh, the environments and monster designs are fine, and maybe even great, but the characters ... they look somewhat reminiscent of MySims characters, if the MySims characters in question were very stoned and possibly annoyed. Or blank-faced and cheerful. That girl just gives us the willies. If she's in danger, we might just leave her behind. Hit the jump to see the full scans for yourself.
Lost Odyssey gets found in North America Feb. 12; free DLC with pre-order
Microsoft has officially confirmed the North American release date of Lost Odyssey -- Mistwalker's Xbox 360-exclusive RPG -- as February 12, Shacknews reports today. The massive, 4-disc, 50-hour RPG follows the amnesiac immortal Kaim, and tells the thousand-year story of his life, all penned by award-winning novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu. Pre-orders for Lost Odyssey from participating retailers will include a special download code, giving players access to a new mission and unlockable weapon. The downloadable content will eventually be made available to everyone, but will remain exclusive to pre-orders for a short while.
Mistwalker reminds us they have something besides Blue Dragon
When it was revealed that Blue Dragon would make its way onto the DS, albeit in a different shape and form than it appears on the Xbox 360, there was also another title that developer Mistwalker was to bring to the DS. Titled Away: The Kidnapped People, little was known regarding it, other than Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu were working on it directly. Now, courtesy of a Japanese press release (link goes to pdf file), new details regarding the game have surfaced. It appears that Away: The Kidnapped People is to utilize a unique randomized dungeon system. Described as an action RPG, the fine folks over at Siliconera deduced that since the Japanese press release calls the game Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and with the Blue Dragon random dungeon generator DLC for Xbox 360 being titled "Shuffle Dungeon Maker," that Away must use the same randomized dungeon feature.[Via Joystiq]
Is Mistwalker's next DS game a random dungeon crawler?
Are the Blue Dragon developers working on a "roguelike" action RPG for the Nintendo DS? And more importantly, what the hell is a roguelike?Siliconera has deciphered the Japanese press release for Mistwalker's DS title Away, which has been renamed Away: Shuffle Dungeon. Using the Socratic method common sense, Siliconera has deduced that since the Blue Dragon random dungeon generator DLC for Xbox 360 has been titled "Shuffle Dungeon Maker," Away must be using the same term to describe its primary gameplay mechanic: randomly-generated dungeons that the player has to traverse.Roguelike is a special term reserved for dungeon-crawling action games that utilize randomly-generated level design. The term comes from the game Rogue, and the genre includes titles like Nethack and Tales of Middle Earth. Away could potentially be the first game in this genre to appear on the DS (although homebrew efforts have previously been made). Roguelike or not, Away: Shuffle Dungeon is is due out in Japan on February 28 (which just happens to be someone's birthday...).
New Blue Dragon items now on XBLM
Microsoft sends word that a new piece of downloadable content is now available for Blue Dragon. This is the second bit of DLC for the game, the first -- Hard mode - being released last month. This new DLC is entitled "6 Treasures" gives players access to 6 new items that grant special abilities to their characters. One in particular -- the Shuffled Helmet -- creates the most powerful armor in the game when combined with Shuffled Splint and Shuffled Breastplate. Honestly, we haven't delved into the game, so we don't know how useful all these items are, though they will probably be welcome to those endeavoring to complete hard mode. The DLC is available for 200 MS Points. Check out the all 6 of the items contained in the pack after the break.
ASH wins over Siliconera
After hearing some negative impressions about Archaic Sealed Heat, the beautiful-yet-apparently-flawed SRPG from Mistwalker, Rolando of Siliconera approached the import with some understandable trepidation. He tried it anyway, however, and that worked out -- it seems ASH wasn't as bad as he expected. While he promises a full review later to come, for now he talks about the interesting combat system and the heavily stylus-dependent gameplay. It seems that if you're not a fan of stylus-based title, ASH is not for you ... but if you like SRPGs and don't mind the language barrier, this could be an import worth spending a little time with. Late game, he added later in the comments, things really pick up.
Video: Opening Lost Odyssey cinematic
Mmm, what's better than pre-rendered Japanese video game opening cinematic sequences that are based on massively in depth RPGs? Answer: not much. Embedded above is one of those movie quality opening cinematic from Mistwalker's Lost Odyssey. And after watching it, we bet you can't contain your urge to want to play the game, rent a horribly translated Japanese movie or at the very least order some Japanese food. Yes sir, it's that enjoyable and now we know why the game comes on four DVDs. Pre-rendered HD video eats last-gen media formats alive.[Thanks, Chris]
Decorative Sealed Heat
With Archaic Sealed Heat out in Japan, we're entering the "dead zone" for news about the game. Japanese sites will no longer be posting screens or video with their previews, and American sites won't start previewing the game until a localized version is at least announced, meaning that unless the Japanese reviews all have new screens and video, we may be saying goodbye to Mistwalker's pre-rendered sprites for a little while.What better way to keep ASH (painfully) fresh in your memory than by putting some of the game's character art on your desktop? Gpara has three different wallpapers, each in four resolutions, to keep the game on your mind in the slow ASH news season.[Via GoNintendo]
Lost Odyssey's wordy little secret
Looking forward to Lost Odyssey, the next big thing from Mistwalker? Hope you enjoy reading then, because you'll be doing a lot of it according to IGN. Kaim, the game's protagonist, often has flashbacks to moments in his past. Considering he can't die, he's been alive for a very long time, which means he has a long history to look back upon. However, instead of letting the players journey back and actually experience these flashbacks through gameplay, they are played out entirely through text. The flashbacks are actually short stories penned by famed Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu, and Lost Odyssey director Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to let players experience them in their "purest" form. All in all, there are 34 of these flashbacks, each taking 5-10 minutes to read. We have to wonder if these flashbacks are considered gameplay, because Sakaguchi has noted that fully half of Lost Odyssey's 40 hours of gameplay will be taken up by cutscenes. Japanese gamers will find out when the game is released on December 6th, while the rest of us will have to wait until February of next year. [Via Joystiq]
Gamers won't wait long for Blue Dragon DS
Blue Dragon DS, the spin-off (or possible continuation) of the Xbox 360 RPG, was just announced and now Mistwalker promises it will be on shelves by next March. Those guys work fast! But just to sweeten the pot, they've also promised another title to release even sooner -- AWAY Tsuresarareta Hitobito, aka Away: The Kidnapped People -- which is slated for January 31 in Japan. There are some big names working on Away, most notably Mistwalker's Hironobu Sakaguchi and renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu. Both titles look to have some serious potential, and if ASH is any indication, we can start expected a flood of scans right about ... now, and video precisely three days before the games are released.It's okay, Mistwalker. We like you anyway.
Lost Odyssey will require patience, reading glasses
The Xbox 360 exclusive Lost Odyssey may be a beacon of hope for the console's anemic Japanese user base, but that success will come at a price -- your eyes. According to Lost Odyssey architect Hironobu Sakaguchi, the upcoming plot-heavy RPG will feature several "1000 Year Dream" sequences, 34 to be precise, each designed to flesh out the narrative penned by Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu; and each told not through cut scenes, but rather with pop-up text, taking upwards of 5 to 10 minutes to read. Sakaguchi admits that he once entertained the idea of using voice overs for the sequences, but opted instead to make the player experience Shigematsu's work in its 'purest form', namely written word. You mean, we have to read?! The idea of spending 4 or more hours scrolling through text on the screen is not our idea of fun, and we immediately feel sympathy for those players without bionic vision, or just those playing on smaller than average sets. We'd like to think that there's a method to Sakaguchi's madness, though his admission that Lost Odyssey will clock in at 40 hours, with 20 of these devoted to non-interactive story sequences, seems to stretch the boundaries of what can be considered a game, rather than just an interactive storybook. Nevertheless, Japanese Xbox 360 owners can pick up Lost Odyssey on December 6, while those in North America and Europe will have to wait until February to go blind.
New Blue Dragon DLC ups the difficulty for free
For those out there who thought Mistwalker's Blue Dragon was too easy for your tastes, Microsoft has just released new content aimed at upping the ante for the RPG's difficulty. Best of all? It's free. Dubbed the Ultra Hard Mod, the new content has three aspects. The first is Game Plus, which allows you to start a new game using a saved file from near the end. The other two are specifically for the masochistic: Hard Mode, reportedly twice as challenging as normal, and Impossible, which is meant to play with characters starting at level 50 or higher. (If you want to do the Impossible at level 10, however, by all means go for it. Let us know how that works out.)
