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These Soma Bringer scans will energize you
Let's face it -- most of us didn't care much about Soma Bringer until we saw a plethora of awesome videos for the game last week. Now that Nintendo and Monolith Soft have gotten our attention, though, we can't get enough of it. Because of this, we were excited to see more Soma Bringer scans leaked around the internets. With a scan explosion to match last week's video explosion, these magazine pages show tons of art and screens for the game. They're definitely worth a look by anyone anticipating this title or hoping for localization. Check after the break for eight more of them.
Soma Bringer video explosion!
It appears that Nintendo finally saw what their new company Monolith Soft was up to and realized that they should really be promoting it, hence the sudden rush of video content to Nintendo's Soma Bringer page. It is most definitely to the game's benefit -- while the generic character art makes the game look unexceptional in screens, once you see Bringer in video, it suddenly becomes a top-tier action RPG. Big, well-animated sprites, incredibly lush backgrounds, and excellent animation make Soma Bringer pretty much transcend its hardware. NeoGAFfer Danj has been uploading the videos to YouTube as they appear on Nintendo's pages, but be sure to check the official site and touch-ds.jp (both linked) for updates as well, because they seem to be frequent. And check after the break for a few more of the videos.Read - Soma Bringer siteRead - touch-ds.jp
Famitsu brings the Soma Bringer in these scans
Click image to enlarge Under the developmental wing of Monolith Soft, Soma Bringer is a title we don't know that much about. Sure, we've seen lots of pretty screens (which you can see in our gallery below) and know the title will be an action RPG, allowing the player to string various combos together. The player will also be able to command a three-person party.Well, we know a little about the game. But, what we want to know about is the rich story, what with it being an RPG and all. Unless we can read Japanese magazine scans (see: we can't), we'll just have to settle for looking at screens and our imagination for now.Head past the break for the other scan.%Gallery-8412%
Super Robot Wars Famitsu scans show KOS-MOS inclusion
While much of what is available at JeuxFrance is already available in our gallery below, they do have something new to bring to the table regarding Infinite Frontier Super Robot Wars OG Saga (original ... gangsta?). You see, one of the main characters from the popular RPG franchise Xenosaga has made her way into Monolith Soft's game. It's none other than KOS-MOS.As a person who only played some of the first Xenosaga, this blogger doesn't know what kind of signature attacks or abilities to expect in the new game from KOS-MOS, but understands full well the power of cross-promotion. Whatever helps them push units, right? Well, we know some of you out there enjoyed the incredibly long Xenosaga games, so if that's you, tell us what you think and head past the break for the Famitsu scans.%Gallery-14186%
Soma Bringing the screens to you
New screens of Monolith Soft's vaguely mysterious DS project Soma Bringer have appeared, along with a few gameplay details. Luckily, this sounds a lot more like our kind of game than Monolith's best-known work, Cutscene Collection Xenosaga. In this action RPG, attacks are mapped to each of the DS's four face buttons, and the game is designed to allow "nonstop attacks." That means combos, and that means that this action RPG should be heavy on the action. There is even a "break" attack, that allows your character to break through blocking enemies.The fighting takes place in three-person parties. Three actual humans can play together via local multiplayer, or one person can bring a pair of AI-controlled characters along. We're pretty surprised by how cool this is looking!
Monolith Soft reveals a little more of Super Robot Wars
When Monolith Soft first announced their Infinite Frontier Super Robot Wars OG Saga, many people scratched their heads in puzzlement. An RPG? What happened to the long tradition of strategy games? Why Original Generation? While these screens -- many of which showed up in those scans, just not as clearly -- might not answer any questions, they do offer a deeper peek at the title. You can check them out in the gallery below.By "reveals" here, we really mean to say many of the characters are dressed in somewhat revealing outfits.%Gallery-14186%
Famitsu reveals Monolith Soft's new Super Robot Wars game
In a vaguely shocking turn of events, Nintendo's newly-acquired developer Monolith Soft has partnered with Banpresto to make a new entry in the long-running Super Robot Wars series of strategy RPGs. Oh, except this one isn't a strategy RPG! Infinite Frontier Super Robot Wars OG Saga is actually an RPG with some action elements. The game features traditional RPG combat, with parties, random encounters, and timing-based attacks.Since this is part of the "Original Generation" series and therefore contains Banpresto original robots, the licensing issues that keep most Super Robot Wars games in Japan don't apply to this one. Atlus published Original Generation 1 and 2 on the GBA in the U.S. The fact that it's being developed by a Nintendo-owned company doesn't hurt its chances either. Famitsu scans are available after the break.
Soma Bringer develops some identity
We may not have much in the way of details on Soma Bringer, Monolith Soft's forthcoming RPG, but the game is starting to look a little less generic now that we can see more of it. Sure, the actual character designs are very typical, but the characters themselves look like they have a little personality. See for yourself in our updated gallery below.%Gallery-8412%[Via press release]
RPG magazine scan time: DQIV, Card Hero, Soma Bringer
It's time again to reap the bounty from, uh, some dude with a scanner and access to Japanese magazines! Three games are shown off in today's crop (to continue the farming metaphor for some reason), all RPGs of various kinds.Most interesting (to us) is the first real blowout of images from Intelligent Systems' Kousoku Card Battle Card Hero, which we haven't heard from in about a month. Also in the "somewhat mysterious RPG project from Nintendo-owned developers" department is Soma Bringer, Monolith Soft's new RPG, which, according to NeoGAFfer charlequin, "has possibly the most generic character designs ever seen in a JRPG." It's probably going to be a pretty good game and all, but it does rather look like they put some money into a JRPG Character vending machine. "One EVIL LONGHAIRED GUY, and ... hmm, maybe GIRL IN ELABORATE DRESS."We initially thought it was a strategy RPG, but the magazine description pegs it as an action RPG.Finally, Dragon Quest IV gets a seven-page preview, which is thick with screens of, well, basically running around on the overworld and then also battling, which is what happens in Dragon Quest IV quite a bit.
Nintendo buys Xenosaga dev Monolith Soft
Japanese development studio Monolith Soft has been purchased by Nintendo from Namco Bandai, according to a press release (PDF file) from credible Japanese news source Nikkei translated by gaming site The Platformers. Our team of translators have discerned from the release that Nintendo now owns 80% of the company's stock, while Namco Bandai still retain 16% of their original 96% holdings in the developer, whose total worth is approximately 75 million yen.The studio, formed in 1999 by former Square employee Hirohide Sugiura, is responsible for the Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos series. The company is also reportedly developing Disaster: Day of Crisis, a Wii title that hasn't been seen since its appearance at E3 2006.We've contacted Nintendo further details. For the console maker, this gives them an experienced second party RPG developer. We'll keep you updated as this story progresses.[Thanks for the translation help, Patrick and Andrew]
First Disaster: Day of Crisis screenshot
Nintendo released a single screenshot of Monolith Soft's Disaster: Day of Crisis, the natural-disaster survival game announced at E3 2006. We now have our first indication of how the game will play-- that arrow suggests a Quick Timer Event. Whether that means an action/adventure game with occasional quick-button-press segments, or a Dragon's Lair-style game, we don't know. What is surprising even to us is that we're kind of hoping for the latter. We miss those laserdisc games! Are we the only ones?
