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Atlus brings Luminous Arc stateside
While the Game Boy Advance was home to a wealth of strategy RPG titles, the Nintendo DS' selection of SRPGs has been poor in comparison. For a handheld with unique features that seem to be made for the genre, games like Fire Emblem and Rebelstar Tactical Assault have been sparse on the portable. Atlus USA must have sensed this injustice, announcing plans to publish Luminous Arc, a Japanese SRPG, for the North American market. Luminous Arc pits the forces of the righteous Garden Children against an army of Witches intent on warring with God. With features like item-crafting, online battles, and touchscreen support, the game definitely pushes portable SRPGs in the right direction. Import impressions have been positive, but we will wait until Luminous Arc's US release before we judge it against GBA classics like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis.
Makai Wars resurrected; Disgaea to continue
Makai Wars, a strategy RPG for PSP, was long thought to be dead. Gone. Canceled. Well, it looks like the project isn't quite over yet. RPGFan held an exclusive interview with the fan-favorite Nippon Ichi Software, and they've received confirmation that the development team has resumed work on this long-delayed game (it made its first appearance at E3 2004!). Surely, the brisk sales of Disgaea Portable have something to do with this PSP resurrection? According to RPGFan, "The performance of its PlayStation Portable debut, Disgaea Portable in Japan apparently exceeded internal expectations. Furthermore, future handheld releases are also under consideration." Of course, we Americans still haven't received a localized version of Disgaea. While a portable sequel would be great, our pleas for the PSP version of Disgaea to head stateside seem to be largely ignored. [Via IGN]
Generation of Chaos gets a sequel
There sure are a lot of RPGs coming to Sony's handheld. Rezel Cross isn't the only new RPG to be announced recently. NIS America recently announced plans to bring over a sequel to Generation of Chaos. Although the original Generation of Chaos failed to impress critics, NIS is hoping that this second attempt will fare better. Most importantly, they'll address the crippling load times that have cursed so many PSP RPGs.Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos is yet another strategy RPG for Sony's handheld. You'll be able to play as three different characters from three different worlds: the lower, upper, and the coolest of them all: the divine world.[Via Siliconera]
Jeanne d'arc impressions, fresh from Japan
Anoop from IGN Japan was able to get an extended play session of the recently released (in Japan) Jeanne d'Arc. He explains that Joan is sent on a quest from God to destroy the evil troll-infested British empire. Although there's a hefty amount of dialogue and cutscenes in the game, Anoop notes that the story feels a little "disjointed." The real focus of the game is the gameplay, and it appears that Jeanne d'Arc gets all the conventions of the SRPG genre... including its flaws: "The focus with this title is on gameplay, and if you're into Japanese style strategy games, that should be just fine. You'll recognize the grid-based strategy from games like Final Fantasy Tactics... Jeanne d'Arc suffers from some of the flaws that tend to plague games of this type. Preparing your characters for battle with new equipment and accessories is too much of a chore." The game features some annoying loading times, but it appears the game is compelling nonetheless. "I keep coming back for more," the preview says. It appears that strategy RPG fans have a lot to look forward to, if this game ever comes to the States.
Video Sandwich: November 16, 2006
More ads from Sony for tonight's Video Sandwich. These two are from the other side of the Pacific, and they show a very different style than what's available here in the States. First, from Japan is a ridiculously awesome ad for Jeanne d'Arc. You might not know Japanese, but seeing Japanese business men go crazy is always funny, no matter what language you speak. Finally, we have this pretty awesome Korean ad for the Talkman. Man, they make the most romantic ads over there in Korea!
TGS 06: Gamespot goes hands on with Jean D'Arc
Gamespot has just went hands on with Jean D'Arc, the strategy RPG based on Joan of Arc, at the Tokyo Games Show. Although they couldn't read a lick of any text due to the game being in all Japanese, they did play enough to tell the main game will be similar to other grid-based games, like Nippon Ichi's insane library of great SRPGs. One aspect of the game that seems pretty interesting is when Jean receives damage, she, at times, will take a page out of the Hulk's book by transforming into superpowerful Jean and inflicting major damage upon her enemies. After a few turns, Jean returns back to her normal self. They go on to say all the basic elements of an SRPG are here and graphically, is much better than any other similar game on the PSP to date. Unfortunately for us, there's no definitive information on whether we'll get this game stateside. Keep your fingers crossed boys and girls. (Via Gamespot)
