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Import your orcs from 'Shadow of Mordor' into the sequel
Your perfect orc enemy (and ally) from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor are coming along for the ride in this fall's sequel, Shadow of War. Mordor has just gotten an update that adds the "Nemesis Forge" to the game that will import your personalized, highest-ranked orc captain and buddy into War once the game comes out October 10th. Now, this isn't automatic. Nor will it simply read your game save and do its trick, so you need to have the old game laying around if you want Grishnak the Red to inhabit War.
Playdate: Exploring a new world in 'Xenoblade Chronicles X'
So you want a big, open-world adventure with stunningly huge maps and a plot that revolves around the extinction of the human race, but Fallout 4 isn't available for the Wii U? Monolith Soft has you covered. Sort of. Xenoblade Chronicles X takes those same themes and applies them in a wildly different manner -- putting the last of humanity on a gorgeous, lush planet somewhere in the depths of space. Join Tim Sepala and me as we look at Nintendo's take on open world gaming and, quite honestly, marvel at how gorgeous this game is despite the Wii U's less powerful hardware. The fun starts at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific right here in this post, on the Engadget Gaming homepage and, if you want to join us in chat, at Twitch.tv/Joystiq.
New trailers for Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2
We got quite a bit of 3DS news from today's Nintendo Direct, but it wasn't without a few tender morsels for Wii U owners. In addition to Little Mac appearing in Super Smash Bros, Game Boy Advance games hitting Virtual Console and the announcement of NES Remix 2, Nintendo rolled out new trailers for some of the Wii U's biggest upcoming games. Settle in and get comfy for a few minutes as you take in fresh footage of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, and Bayonetta 2.
Project X Zone gets 'Ghost' demo on eShop next week
Fanstravaganza Project X Zone already has an "Imperial" demo available for download on the 3DS eShop, but the game's official Nintendo page says there's another demo coming on July 2. The second demo is called "Ghost" and will give players a look at a completely different segment of the game. Project X Zone (pronounced "Project Cross Zone," because Japan) is a turn-based strategy RPG that mashes up characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Sega franchises. The game came out in Japan last year, and just recently arrived here in North America.
Why Xenoblade Chronicles represents the past, present, and future of Japanese gaming
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. If you want to know where Xenoblade Chronicles came from, you need only look toward two sources. There's Monster Hunter, which is the inspiration for seemingly every modern JRPG from Dragon Quest IX to more blatant knockoffs like God Eater. And there are MMORPGs, which have come to exercise a great deal of influence over Japanese gaming culture as a whole.Xenoblade Chronicles, and Monster Hunter too, are like this for a reason. Work and school start early and end late in Japan, and any time at home is usually either devoted to the family, or sleeping. Many gamers have migrated to manga cafes, which have been dominated by MMORPGs like Lineage for about a decade now. MMOs have in turn influenced loot-centric cooperative handheld games like Monster Hunter, which serve as the other alternative for busy students and salarymen.This trend presents a dilemma for Japanese developers. Japan simply can't get enough Monster Hunter and its ilk, which is all the more reason for developers to keep cranking them out. Global audiences, however, have been slow to embrace co-op RPGs. That's where Xenoblade Chronicles comes in – an RPG with all the trappings of an MMO or a Monster Hunter, but wrapped in a traditional, single-player JRPG.%Gallery-152491%
Xenoblade Chronicles director naturally influenced by Western design; details changes for NA/EU version
Xenoblade Chronicles executive director Tetsuya Takahashi should probably have a lot to say given his latest project's tumultuous journey to worldwide launch, but his extremely concise interview answers to us indicate otherwise. When we asked Takahashi how Xenoblade Chronicles' development scaled comparatively with past projects, he simply told us, "There's no doubt that the scale of this project was large compared to past projects." O ... okay then!He got a bit more verbose on other subjects, however. How different is the NA/EU version of Xenoblade Chronicles from the original Japanese release last year, for instance? "We made some minor bug adjustments and revised some of the written content for localization. There were also some places where we made minor adjustments to the game balance, but none of the changes resulted in significant differences from the original (Japanese) version," Takahashi said. Takahashi also spoke to his approach to development of modern RPGs. "I like Western game design a lot, so there were places where I referred to it without thinking about it." But that's not to say Xenoblade Chronicles is a product of a Japanese dev looking solely at Western design philosophy. "Xenoblade is not just influenced by Western game design; it has also undeniably inherited the DNA of Japanese RPGs." Find out for yourself just how that plays out when Xenoblade Chronicles arrives on US retail shelves tomorrow.
Xenoblade Chronicles arrives in the US in 'April 2012' [update]
After this morning's accidental retail reveal of Xenoblade Chronicles coming to North America, Nintendo has made the game's launch official, pinning an "April 2012" release date to the much hyped Wii RPG. Nintendo teased the reveal earlier today with a new gallery of Xenoblade artwork that mysteriously popped up on Facebook, though at the time there was no news attached to said tease. Despite Nintendo not giving a date to the game, this morning's image indicated an April 3 launch. GameStop's website, however, reflects an April 2 date, post-official announce. We're just gonna go with "early April" for now. So, after this, now all the Operation Rainfall folks need to do is get those other two Wii RPGs to come out in the US, and we'll be all set! We'll get right back to helping with that just as soon as we get through Skyward Sword and Xenoblade Chronicles. In, like, 120 hours, give or take. Update: According to the official PR that Nintendo of America just sent out, the game will be sold exclusively through GameStop retail outlets and Nintendo.com's website for $49.99.
Xenoblade Chronicles headed to North America on April 3, 2012 [update: it's true!]
Update: Nintendo of America has since confirmed that the game is in fact coming to North America in April 2012, though the company did not give out a specific launch date. Despite Nintendo's many attempts to dissuade your unshakeable confidence that, yes, eventually, Xenoblade Chronicles would arrive on North American Nintendo Wiis, it seems strong will may pay off. An image posted on gaming forum Neogaf shows what appears to be a listing from GameStop's internal point of sale system with an April 3, 2012 launch date attached. Strangely -- and further confirming the listing's legitimacy -- is a little note next to the listing which says it'll be, "GS [GameStop] Exclusive." Could the game be arriving only at GameStop locations in North America and eschewing other retailers? Is this just a retailer-specific version? It's unfortunately unclear. More bizarrely, Nintendo's Facebook account seems to be hinting at a forthcoming announcement, with the sudden addition of new artwork from the game. Much ballyhoo was made earlier this year by Wii-owning RPG enthusiasts when Nintendo of America initially indicated the title wouldn't be released in North America, eventually inciting a series of events ("Project Rainfall") meant to get NoA's attention about the outcry. The other two games that fans requested from Nintendo in that campaign, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, remain without launch windows in North America. We've contacted Nintendo and GameStop for comment, but expect we won't hear anything until one of the two decides to make this listing more official. [Image credit: Neogaf]
Xenoblade dev Monolithsoft recruiting for Wii U game
Nintendo-owned developer Monolithsoft (who made the Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos games before it was purchased) announced today that it's looking to hire new staff to work on its latest project -- a Wii U game. The studio is looking for programmers, planners, CG artists, 2D designers, effects designers, and more. In other words, it's looking to build its roster significantly for this project, which suggests a big one. Of course, the last three games Monolith made for Nintendo were Xenoblade, Disaster: Day of Crisis, and Soma Bringer, so we're already pessimistic about the American localization prospects of this unreleased, undeveloped game.
Disaster: Day of Release
After being announced almost two years ago (note: two years in the game industry is roughly equivalent to 853 Earth years, or at least it feels that way) Famitsu finally managed to yank a Japanese release date for Disaster: Day of Crisis from beneath the rubble.July 3rd is the day to note down in your BFF journal, and are we relieved about that. The long stretches of silence in the build-up left us fretting about the fate of the title, but now we know: the natural-disaster-survival-me-do is definitely coming! Yaaay!While we're on the subject of Japan and release dates, we should also mention that Famitsu has Super Mario Stadium Baseball down for a June 19th release. As someone who finds baseball to be a dense, impenetrable mystery (this could have been written for me), I'll leave it at that.Update: Image credited (thanks, Brian)[Via Go Nintendo]
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.
More Disaster: Day of Crisis screens emerge from the rubble
We like having updates for Disaster: Day of Crisis. It's a pleasant change to the norm of not knowing what is going on. And, as we told you yesterday, we're very much glad the game is still alive. These newest screens, especially the one at the top of this very post, get us so excited for the game. We can't wait until we can get our hands on it.Head past the break for some more screens.
Disaster: Day of Crisis's resuscitation combo
If there was ever a game we were waiting on to see some actual substance from, it's Disaster: Day of Crisis. And, much like the character receiving treatment above, we're glad to see the title has been given the 'ole CPR. While we'd like to say these new screens are accompanied by some kind of release window, sadly we can't say anything to that effect. But, that won't keep us from enjoying the knowledge that the game is still alive and breathing.Check past the break for the other new screens courtesy of JeuxFrance and Dengeki.
Mystery trademark revealed: Monolith Soft's Soma Bringer
Last month, Nintendo registered a bunch of trademarks in Japan that were primarily Wii-related (which led to some confusion when we spotted Nintendo Magic on the list). One of the more mysterious trademarks was something called "Soma Bringer." Along with about a billion other things, the identity of Soma Bringer was revealed today in a Nintendo conference. It's a new strategy RPG (from the looks of it, at least) developed by Nintendo's newest acquisition, Xenosaga developers Monolith Soft. Just from looking at the screens, we see attacks mapped to the face buttons, and multiple camera angles. As a new Nintendo-published SRPG, we're sure we'll be hearing more about Soma Bringer soon.%Gallery-8412%
Monolith Soft now part of Nintendo's monolith
All those Wii and DS profits must have been burning a hole in Nintendo's pocket, because they went developer shopping and picked up Monolith Soft. We guess they really liked that one screenshot of Disaster: Day of Crisis.Monolith Soft is responsible for the reviled Xenosaga series (the Japanese limited edition release of Xenosaga II included the unfortunate figurine seen here, nicknamed MOK-KOS), the crossover strategy game Namco X Capcom, and, in conjunction with Tri-Crescendo, the two Baten Kaitos games. Maybe now we'll get that pseudo-religious science-fiction Kirby RPG we've all been waiting for!
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?
