Break (of the)

After the madness of the past week, we get a break. BlazBlue hitting the US is the biggest thing happening (in either hemisphere), unless you need to see the next Onechanbara movie. Other then that, a few marginal happenings are Dux finally trickling out onto the DC (yes, that's Dreamcast), with the standard edition available for $30 instead of the $20 they originally planned. The LE is still on pre-order. At that price it's suddenly less interesting. Also the PC might be getting another one of those point-n-click thingies, Mata Hari. Is there going to be a context sensitive "strip" command? I've*cough* ...GAMERS have been waiting for that one ever since Kings Quest The One With The Girl. Since I've recently lost my Windows gaming ability (the best DirectX support you can get through a VM is 8, WTF?), I don't think I'll be picking that one up. Maybe I can clobber together some of the spare parts I have lying around to make a top-of-the-line-for-1999 "gaming" rig. Shouldn't the Radeon 9550 be open sourced by now? Trade secrets my ass ATI.

Rebel 2: BlazBlue Consumer OST is hitting July 1st. It's pretty bad ass, I might just Jump In(tm). I've been itching to pick up some OST's lately, might go for a fighter set, BB and SFIV. The next few weeks are pretty barren, gots to make my own fun.

Rebel 3: OK, after actually doing some research myself, instead of relying on other people's loose interpretation of things, it seems that that Consumer Edition OST is a pretty big scam. It's essentially a single Append Disc to the two-disc arcade OST set that's been out for months. If you want to hear the tracks that play during the fight, you need to pick up that one, is you want a vocal theme sung by Noel Vermilion, pick up the CE. That makes things a little simpler for me, but more expensive, as usual.

In addition, it turns out I'm doing it all wrong, since the US Limited Edition of the game (the only edition) comes with a 48-track soundtrack, which happens to be almost the same amount of tracks found on the arcade and consumer OST's combined (they total 50). edgeCrusher Lose.

Gained in translation

Ubisoft seems to be getting it. The Japanese branch, at least. (Although, to be fair, the American branch is pretty good with localizations too.) Last time I had to praise a shittacular project like X-Blades. This time I can give Ubi-Japan props for properly localizing a game that's probably a lot better then that, Velvet Assassin. X-Blades actually did decently in Japan, I wonder if VA will have similar success. I'd like to see that personally (unlike in the case of XB). I don't care for the game per se, but increasing awareness of the 360 in Japan (or Western developers in general) is neat to see, and will hopefully have a positive side effect of whipping the Japanese game industry into shape, technically and creatively. When international devs compete, we win.

Oh snap: The girl ding the VA in VA is Yuko Kaida, who is the voice of Aya from the Onechanbara games. Hawt.

Welcome back to...

The first Cyberia by Xatrix Entertainment, was my first PSX game ever. Because of this, it will always have a place in my gaming lexicon. It was a decently fun game too, so naturally I always wanted to try the sequel. The problem was, Cyberia 2 never got ported, and was left to wallow in the murky depths of PC gaming, circa 1996. Which back then meant DOS, or Windows 95 if you were rich, Soundblasters, EMM386.exe errors, and all sorts of scary things. And the ultimate insult to injury? THAT is where the $2,000 gaming PC stereotype comes from. *shudder*

As of this posting, I've played maybe 5 minutes of this one. Most of that time was spent staring at the Game Over animation. Still, it's Cyberia 2, so I owe it to myself to see it through to the end, just because it took me 13 years to finally get my hands on it. $6 shipped. Worth every penny.

Update: Umm, so like, there's no puzzles in this game is there? What made the first Cyberia enjoyable was the mix of puzzle solving, adventure/exploration, and arcadey shooting. So far Cyberia 2 has been an endless shooting gallery. With the bumpy car ride being especially annoying. I'm fairly certain my DosBox emulator runs this game hell of a lot smoother then anything from 1996 ever did, so if I have trouble moving the mouse fast enough to point-n-shoot at dudes, I can't see how this was deemed playable back then. Maybe it wasn't, which explains the lack of a port. Also, Zack seems to have lost his hair, and his balls as a result of the events of part 1. What the fuck?

We have new releases

If you told me in 2003 that I'd be able to buy anime games in bunches on the 360 I'd have laughed in your face. Six years, and $200 later, here we are. I actually always wanted to pick up Aoi Namida for the OG Xbox, but never got the chance, so I decided to make that up by picking up Time Leap. This completes my dating-sim game quota for LIFE. Never again. (Unless people start localizing and releasing them at bargain prices.) The other two were much more common on the XB back in the day, but we had to settle for scraps instead of exclusives. Now for some impressions:

BlazBlue is fucking awesome. It looks incredible in stills, but it manages to maintain that, and even impress while in motion. You hear that? I was impressed by this game. I haven't been impressed by a video game since Sonic-fucking-1 on the Genesis. Looks without substance underneath are worthless (hi Guilty Gear), luckily the producers at Arc System Works realized, and most importantly, learned from their mistakes (again, Guilty Gear). The game is very fun to play, and seems very well balanced not only between each character, but also within each character's move sets. Similar to SNK's games, the different strength attack button used, can change the execution of the move, if it's even available (a special move performed with the A button, doesn't guarantee a stronger version when performed with the B or C buttons. Nice). This has the noteworthy effect of forcing the player to think while attacking, instead of just mashing the buttons (yeah, you know what I'm going to say here). Music is awesome too. Quite rocking, like GG before it, but has more of a symphonic grandeur found in today's black metal, thankfully without the off-key wail of a English-as-a-second-language frontman. I actually noticed quite a few similarities between the themes here and the ones from the superior Korean-exclusive OST from Guilty Gear XX #Reload. That only makes me like this game more. I will play the shit out of this one, I predict. Excellent work Arcsy, and Aksys (and Tose). On top of all that, the Japanese disc actually contains the entire US game, and automagically changes the text depending on the system settings, and alows you to select your favorite written language. Channeling SNK can only lead to good things in my book.

Mamonoro wasn't nearly as impressive, unfortunately. Maybe I should have played this one first. After BB, anything short of stupendous would be a disappointment. Technically, it's less of a shooter, and more of an overhead action game. You're actually given "full" control of the character, and have to navigate the stage yourself, no auto scrolling here. You're free to move and shoot in any direction, independently of each other (as long as it's not "back"). This is achieved similarly to G.Rev's helicopter shooter, Under Defeat. Moving the stick rotates the player character, pressing and holding down the fire button locks the angle allowing you to move to the right while continuing to shoot left, for example. It's the best you can get with a stick and some buttons, but it doesn't lend itself to a manic shooter too well. Luckily, the crazy bastards over at Gulti included an option for dual stick control, similar to all them XBLA games. (I haven't tried it out myself yet, but it should make things a little less hectic, from a control standpoint. I prefer to get killed because I didn't dodge the bullet in time, not because I didn't know which button to press). It also doesn't help that the difficulty seems a little skewed too. The first few stages are a cakewalk, then you're thrown into a ruthless boss rush. Sort of how a fighting game cheats by giving the boss ridiculous damage, instead of smarter AI. This too in an SNK-ism, but G.Rev looses points for that one. Music is unremarkable, and the characters are pretty boring, save for Fururu, as expected. I'll give it a fairer shot eventually, and hopefully I'll end up playing it more then Senko no Ronde (=once, I am regret).

Last was Time Leap, since it was the least action oriented of the three, and since it was dark by the time I got around to it. I wasn't about to chance anyone catching me playing this crap in broad daylight. It's a bog-standard ADV game, with the gimmick of "real time 3D polygonal characters." Why is that a "gimmick," you may ask? Because all other ADV games are entirely hand-drawn 2D art, and almost all of them use completely static images. (The only notable exception I can think of was Amagami, which had an impressive amount of animation. For an ADV game.) Sure the models look good, and are very animated, always fidgeting and moving while delivering their lines. The problem is, the animations are stiff, and artificially sequenced. Hair flip, hand on hip, back to hair flip, hair flip again, hand on hip, another hair flip. It makes it seem like the characters all suffer from ADD, and can't keep still for a even a second. The character graphics are nice and can pass for next-gen, but the backgrounds are crap, low res, pixelated stills that look like badly compressed JPG's. Weaksauce, Prototype. I haven't done or seen anything mindblowing yet, but there have been a few laughs, mostly from run-of-the-mill anime hijinks. Like I said, I picked it up for the novelty, wasn't expecting anything, wasn't disappointed.

The wrong kind

As if Americans didn't have enough of a bad reputation overseas, we're letting Tomy Tallarico go to Japan on official business. I foresee visa restrictions increased on future travels to the country after September 21st.

Crud

SNK gave the Japanese launch of the home port of KOFXII a very US-like date of "July," replacing the previously announced "July 16th." A delay in the country of origin means a global delay, which has been rumored in the US for a while (probably since Ignition never committed to any even remotely specific date, just "Summer." So if it slips into August, hey it's still "on time"). That Korean July 10th date is looking more and more suspect.

Yes it sucks, yes it's the same thing that I always harp on US publishers for doing, but you know what the difference here is? SNK explicitly told me (the press) about it. The customer finds out about delayed product launches in America when the game doesn't ship on the day that's listed. This usually prompts the retailer to arbitrarily reschedule the game for the following week, and hope that the publisher actually delivers, or it gets bumped back for another week. SNK will no doubt issue another press release in the next few weeks announcing the new date. No surprises, everything by the book. Professionalism. Why is that so rare these days?

Thursday update: Sure enough, the Korean version just got "July-ed."

Hentai VS Generation

It's one of those unexpected things, that no one really wanted in the first place, but it's cool to see anyway. Some crazy fools are actually localizing Agarest Senki (the first one). But it's not for the US, it's for EU. Anime hijinks en Francais will ensue on August 21, for a very reasonable price of $46.90.

Thank you for your order

Time Leap (Japan, NTSC J) .............................................$ 64.90

Blazblue (Japan, NTSC J) ................................................$ 68.90

Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta (Japan, NTSC J) ...$ 64.90
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Total ............................................................................$198.70

Before shipping. This is what's wrong with the world today. Some other things that are wrong with the world include Agarest Senki Zero, and Atelier Rorona this week, BlazBlue US next week, and just for laughs, the second Onechanbara movie on DVD. I'll wait for the Blu-ray.

epic

ep⋅ic [ep-ik]
–adjective
...
3. heroic; majestic; impressively great
4. of unusually great size or extent


Quite an appropriate description of Street Fighter Artworks. "Tome" would also be fitting. This thing is big, and extensive. It has almost every single piece of Street Fighter artwork. It omits some, but includes a whole lot of rarer pieces by all of SF's official artists, from back in the days of the original Fighting Street/Street Fighter, all the way up to Street Fighter IV, with stops along the way at the Zero series, EX series, VS series, and various animation projects (they even throw in some Cannon Spike, for crying out loud). My personal favorites are the silly group scenes, like 'Super School Fighter II X', or 'Summer Vacation' by Kinu Nishimura artist on SFII'/SSFII/SFIII. Or anything by CRMK, or ex-SNK artist Shinkiro, this book is just full of win.

Presented by Tengen

First the game was delayed, when it hit it was technically wonky, then a show-stopper bug was discovered, now it turns out the source code was bootlegged. It turns out the 360 port is in fact based on the PS2 port, which explains the technical shoddiness. Like copying a copied VHS tape, the quality degrades with each port, and unexpected bugs can creep in to the program. Mystery solved, but no fix is available for the copies that managed to sell, and no reprint has been announced, assuming one is even coming. Now I'm getting worried about Ketsui's prospects. I'd rather this important game not be handled by these same clowns. I've lost faith in you 5pb. (Your record label is still cool, though.)

Prototype Rider

Mask likes it. They can put one of those Famitsu thumbs-up stickers in the box, with Mask's face on it instead of that stupid fox. Masked Rider reference is included. I guess the similarities begin and end with the premise, guy gets turned into monster by evil organization. Will pick it up for $19.90, preferably the Korean version. I love their rating symbols.

Teh hax0rz

Got an interesting email in my inbox today. It was basically a grovelling apology over the fact that Famitsu.com's server security was compromised recently allowing unauthorized parties access to account holder's information. Since Famitsu.com doesn't conduct any financial business, this meant email addresses were the most personal information "stolen." I've never received an email like this before, and I've had my much more valuable information stolen before. I guess the Japanese do these things differently too.

(Yes, this is pure filler.)

The calm

This week is pretty much blank. The only thing that's remotely interesting is Grasshopper Manufacture's Flower, Sun And Rain. A DS port of a PS2 game, with PS1 graphics (yikes). Next week, however, is huge. At the top of the heap is BlazBlue for PS360. I decided on the 360 version, since I have a few Arc System Works games for the system already. I was a little blindsided by Mamonoro coming out on the same day. Not getting the LE then. Last on the 360 is Time Leap, which is only impressive because of its graphics. I'll save it for a sale (which will probably be $59.90, knowing the market niche).

Then, believe it or not, come the PS3 games. Both RPG's, one of them not by Idea Factory. I know, I couldn't believe it when I herd it either. First is Gust's Atelier Rorona. It's no Final Fantasy, but it's a next-gen sequel to a long-running franchise, so it's quite welcome. The Idea Factory drops Agarest Senki Zero. Agarest has no chance in hell of coming over, but I'll grab Rorona when it gets localized. What's that now, the fifth PS3 game worth owning?

Pro-Gear Spec

SNK put up a long-ass trailer for Dokimajo Plus on the official site. It looks to be more of the same Dokimajo stuff, but with more variety this time around. It's only really notable for the Neo Geo boot-up animation parody, frankly. If you're brave enough to watch the rest of it, you'll notice that the Star Radish April Fool's joke game is actually included in playable form. That and a cameo from G-Mantle. I guess SNK is making Dokimajo a "serious" franchise.

Half-way there

Another Senko no Ronde DUO location test will take place this weekend. The version on test will have 12 playable characters. That's half the cast from the promotional artwork right there.

Next pick-up ready

I guess the only thing we can count on this week is From Software. Oreike hits stores on Thursday. Other then that, I believe that Black Sigil "ships" this week, as promised by its publisher. That's a great word. It essentially lets the game be a week late while claiming to be on time. I guess Graffiti Entertainment saw the gap between releases and decided it's a good time to make their game available. How thoughtful, too bad it ain't gonna work, I'd rather pick up the Street Fighter artbook or some Laserdiscs instead, suckers.

Update: After actually doing some research, a few more notable things popped up. First, Prototype comes out tomorrow in The States. I don't know jack about that game, assuming it's one of those "sandbox" things that are all the rage with the kids. The thing of note is that Suda51 mentioned on his blog that some players in Japan are looking forward to it. He probably just meant Mask, but Suda's the man, so if he name checks it, that's good enough for me. Next up is Miami Law. That's one of those "adventure" games that seem to be catching a foothold on the DS these days. Don't care about the game per se, but it is the very first project from Gaijinworks (apparently that's still on the down-low), Victor Ireland's new company. It's cool to see him still in cahoots with Hudson. I expect great things from this outfit. Then next week, we get another one of those adventure/mystery joints, this one being Flower, Sun, And Rain, an early entry from Grasshopper Manufacture ported to the DS. I might have to check that one out. A story-based game by Goichi Suda, my head hurts already.

The saga continues

You may have heard about that Virtual On Oratario Tangram port to XBLA. I don't really care for VO, so I didn't bother with it, but quite a few nerds do like it. The thing is, if you're the sort of nerd that loves Virtual On enough to buy it again, are Japanese, AND own an Xbox 360, Hori figures you're the type of nerd to spend roughly $300 on a pair of twin sticks. (This is why I'm not a VO fan.) That's all standard operating procedure (see Tekki). The bullshit comes from Hori's non-commitment to the Xbox, still, after all these years and games. Not only is the price abnormally high, the stick will only be available through mail order, and will only be produced when a certain number of pre-orders have been placed. Where have I heard this before? Hori's red-headed stepchild-like treatment of Xbox gamers continues.

Knights in the hotness

Carefully packaged, still banged up.

Waiting for my DS battery to charge.

Update: Man, I fail. I played for a little bit on Saturday, and I'm already past the point where I gave up in the Japanese one. It feels like Atlus tweeked the game a little, or I just don't remember the enemies shooting off so many bullets. Saving seems faster too.

Everything old is old again

Finished off GameSpite Quarterly Issue 1. I do believe they've done it. It isn't quite the pinnacle of the written word, but it definitely kicks ass. The theme of the issue is a celebration of the Game Boy, commemorating its 20th anniversary. That basically means capsule reviews of most of the notable games, arranged chronologically by era, early years, heyday, decline, Pokemon. A handful of articles about other portable systems the GB toppled on its march towards legend and myth: Game Gear, Wonderswan, Neo Geo Pocket; and couple of fillers. Some of the games are must-have's (none of which I actually had), some are pure garbage, some are just notable oddballs. It all adds up to exactly what it set out to be, a celebration of the little handheld that crushed its enemies, saw them driven before it, and singlehandedly kept the Big N afloat long enough to launch the Wii. All articles are good, with the only ill-fitting piece about Fable II tacked on at the very end for some reason. (Needed to fill up two more pages?) Technically the layout is pretty low rent, with articles accompanied by a few low resolution, monochrome screen shots stolen from various websites (some still bearing their watermarks). This is very much a book, rather than a mook, but the asking price is quite low so it's a non-issue. (It also matches the topic at hand, this time at least.) Overall GSQ #1 proves the concept that video game print works for pretty much all the stuff that the video game press has avoided doing. I'm definitely picking up the next issue, and I hope this particular venture, or at least the idea, takes off. I'd like to get some glossy color pics by the time we get to the Genesis anniversary issue. I give GameSpite Quarterly #1 160 out of 144 pixels.

SNK Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Not exactly, but it's the closest we'll ever get. Cell phones are the least risky platform for silly things like this, but also so choked with crap your game needs a gimmick to just be noticed. I don't blame SNK for clobbering this together and throwing it up for ¥300/month. Consider it an investment in future KOF's. (Requisite joke: I didn't know butt bumping is an aquatic sport, I propose we add it to the next Olympics.)

You can grope them now

No wonder the dev had his face obscured and voice distorted during that Inside Xbox interview. I take back anything good I said about Dream Club. It just went from brilliant to shit. Preorder canceled.

1K isn't enough

SNK dropped the Tsukibito press kit into reporters inboxes over the weekend. The game hits on August 6th, at the standard price of ¥5,040. The genre is listed as adventure, which does little to explain what the hell is going on in those screenshots. At least owning this one won't get you sent to jail.

Random name generated

One is "hard," one is "core." Surprisingly, Cross Edge is not repulsive. The battle system basically boils down to button mashing, strategic thinking is purely optional. That sort of describes Demon's Souls pretty well too. Though that one is more of a lemming-in-armor type scenario. Run headlong into a death trap, respawn, repeat. I haven't sat down long enough to get very far in it since it is a very time consuming game. There are no checkpoints, so when you die, it's all the way back to the beginning for you. Technically it has come very far since the TGS build of 15 FPS, but there is still some totally tubular slowdown when barrels, spells, and bodies start flying around. They got their money's worth out of that Havok engine.

Spreadsheet under fire

Knights In the Nightmare, that is all. Next week we may actually get Black Sigil shipped. With KItN in my DS card slot, that one isn't even a blip on my radar, sorry d00ds. Then From drops Oreike in Japan next Thursday. I tried the demo out, it's interesting, but not mind lowing. It basically borrows a page from the Keiji Inafune book of game design, where you have no choice but to die, and restart the level over again to make progress. The trick is that while you're re-playing the same area, your ghost from the previous play-through is also running through the stage. That's actually the trick to solving the puzzles and advancing in the game, so dying is mandatory. That's a little hard to swallow for anyone who spent countless hours of their youth practicing and perfecting ways NOT to die. Oh well, I guess Nintendo shifted that paradigm for us whether we like it or not. Maybe I'll download it to my PSP Go in six months when it's cheap.