Final Fantasy XIII Official US Release Date
Under: final fantasy, final fantasy XIII, videogames
Mark 3/9/10 in your calendars my fellow US Final Fantasy fans, just got a letter from Square-Enix as well as saw a fan post on dannychoo.com about the official release date of Final Fantasy XIII. Been waiting for the game for so long of course and as with any FF game, it probably is worth the wait. As most of you know, it'll be on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. I'm still going with my plan to buy the PS3..gotta watch the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete BluRay of course ^^.
The FFXIII figures come out around the time too, so it was bit expexted that March would be the time we'd see it.
Ar Tonelico 3
Excited to find out yesterday about Ar Tonelico 3. In case you aren't familiar with the Ar Tonelico series, think of them as a mix between a dating sim and an RPG with similar dynamics to Valkyrie Profile. At the same time the art work is amazing thus making it an anime fan's dream. Hardcore gamers might not have been too fond of the previous installments due to the large amounts of dialog (with very cute 2D girls), and old-school in-game graphics, but so far the series has delivered and the 3rd installment looks to be even better. This one is a leap ahead with cell shaded 3D graphics and looks to utilize more Action RPG commands. I'd expect it to eat up 70+ hours of my time like Ar Tonelico 2 has done (which I still need to finish). Like many good things coming from Japan soon, it won't hit stores in Japan till January and thus won't be in the states till spring or so. Right now...it's just a great piece of eye candy for us.
SasameKisscomi: Anime iPhone Kissing Game
Under: anime girl, anime iphone game, gadets, iphone, kissing game, Sasameki Koto Yuri, videogames
Get practicing people, especially guys; I hear too many girls complaining about bad kissing guys.
Anime3000 Podcast, Part 2, Future of Gaming
Under: E3, future of gaming, podcast, videogames
Here's part 2 of the Podcast from anime3000.com that I got a chance to star in. As I post, E3 is going on and many new things have been announced and shown off. Here's a list of some items from the current E3:
- Project Natal by Microsoft which is the X-Box's answer to the Wii's motion sensor
- PSP GO, the hacked down PSP in which we all spoke about in the podcast, a few days before it was officially released
- The PS3 Motion sensor
- FFXIII demoed on the Xbox 360, with a spring 2010 expect release date
- Wii Fit Plus
- New Mario games
The subject of our little rant here is the future of video games. So, where do you all think it's going? Is there new stuff in E3 that you dread or love?
As per the last podcast post, here's who's staring in the post:
- Sean Russell: Anime3000.com (Host)
- Patz (@patzprime): thegamingdungeon.com
- Evan Minto (@VamptVo): Anigamers.com
- Joshua Valencia
- and me (@princetrunks), Chuck Gaffney
Check out the podcast here.
Anime3000 Podcast, Part 2, Future of Gaming
Here's part 2 of the Podcast from anime3000.com that I got a chance to star in. As I post, E3 is going on and many new things have been announced and shown off. Here's a list of some items from the current E3:
- Project Natal by Microsoft which is the X-Box's answer to the Wii's motion sensor
- PSP GO, the hacked down PSP in which we all spoke about in the podcast, a few days before it was officially released
- The PS3 Motion sensor
- FFXIII demoed on the Xbox 360, with a spring 2010 expect release date
- Wii Fit Plus
- New Mario games
The subject of our little rant here is the future of video games. So, where do you all think it's going? Is there new stuff in E3 that you dread or love?
As per the last podcast post, here's who's staring in the post:
- Sean Russell: Anime3000.com (Host)
- Patz (@patzprime): thegamingdungeon.com
- Evan Minto (@VamptVo): Anigamers.com
- Joshua Valencia
- and me (@princetrunks), Chuck Gaffney
Check out the podcast here.
Sony PSP GO
This was something that me and the other panelists talked about in the second part of the recent anime3000.com podcast (that podcast still pending release) and undoubtedly is all over the internet. E3 2009 is upon us and leaked out before the event is the new Sony PSP Go. I'll admit..I prefer my current old PSP over this but it might be worthy for someone who has yet to buy one. No UMD drive and no dual analog controls sadly. What do you all think of it?
Sony PSP GO
This was something that me and the other panelists talked about in the second part of the recent anime3000.com podcast (that podcast still pending release) and undoubtedly is all over the internet. E3 2009 is upon us and leaked out before the event is the new Sony PSP Go. I'll admit..I prefer my current old PSP over this but it might be worthy for someone who has yet to buy one. No UMD drive and no dual analog controls sadly. What do you all think of it?
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel: Review
Been playing lots of Sacred 2 during the past week/week and a half. My first impressions before playing was a bit iffy. I'll admit, I'm not a D&D, WoW, PC-style fantasy game fan. First thought was "seems like a college-level video game project that looks all too much like the Sims, mixed in with medieval themes." I was dead wrong though. Sacred 2 is more like a Grand Thief Auto set in a fantasy world with a Diablo 2 feel as well.
The game is very open-ended. From the start of which ever character or path you choose, the exploring and fighting starts and thrust me....there is a lot to explore. The world of Sacred 2 is very massive and loaded with side quests. The use of mounts (horses, and other mobile creatures you can buy), obelisks and warps can make your journey much less time consuming. I chose to be a High Elf in the light campaign and the instant I opened up the gates of the town I began in...I was ambushed by enemies...almost to the point of death right there. The controls might take a bit to get used to but the action scheme is very customizable and with a decent amount of empty slots to add either magic, weapons and shields collected in the game.
Speaking of the game's items, it doesn't take too long to completely fill up all your inventory from the loot dropped by the vast array of enemies that litter the landscape or the random barrels and chests in caves and in random households (ah the old, break in to a random villager's house and steal their loot deal that you find in say..Legend of Zelda and others). Thankfully you can rid yourself of the extra inventory by saving it in a Hero's Chest for later use, selling it, or , of you are stuck in the wilderness, simply scrapping old, worthless items for stronger loot you find.
As you battle your magic/skills and you level up. The quickest way to level up though is to complete a large amount of side missions. Actually much of your time in the game will be completing side missions as there are over 600 of them! You can of course skip them and go to the story's main tasks, marked on the map in a gold circle..but expect enemies to be much more fierce. Some side quests are a bit dull, I'll admit but some are pretty fun with awesome boss battles at the end of them, so they are worth it. Having people play with you online in this is a great bonus and like MMORPGs, can lead to quicker execution of tasks.
There are some quirks about Sacred 2 though. The inventory system can get rather cumbersome and its rather tough to see which weapons are the best to use. Also, the game's frame rate will slow when thee is lots of enemies and magic being throw around. I have the Xbox 360 version but I hear the same happens on the PS3. Similarly, the game will have odd loading slowdowns in the towns...something I'll admit I'm shocked to see on an Xbox 360.
Despite some flaws, I still give the game a 8 out of 10. It has the pick up and play feel of older games, the open ended play like GTA and makes me now think about picking up similar games that I've for so long avoided like WoW, Diablo, and Everquest.
Check me out on Xbox Live to see my progress in this game and others.
My gamer tag is chuckgaff415.
I'm still playing through the game (its very long, another benifit) so any new tidbits I can add to the review, I'll let you all know ;-)
Check out the trailer here:
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel: Review
Been playing lots of Sacred 2 during the past week/week and a half. My first impressions before playing was a bit iffy. I'll admit, I'm not a D&D, WoW, PC-style fantasy game fan. First thought was "seems like a college-level video game project that looks all too much like the Sims, mixed in with medieval themes." I was dead wrong though. Sacred 2 is more like a Grand Thief Auto set in a fantasy world with a Diablo 2 feel as well.
The game is very open-ended. From the start of which ever character or path you choose, the exploring and fighting starts and thrust me....there is a lot to explore. The world of Sacred 2 is very massive and loaded with side quests. The use of mounts (horses, and other mobile creatures you can buy), obelisks and warps can make your journey much less time consuming. I chose to be a High Elf in the light campaign and the instant I opened up the gates of the town I began in...I was ambushed by enemies...almost to the point of death right there. The controls might take a bit to get used to but the action scheme is very customizable and with a decent amount of empty slots to add either magic, weapons and shields collected in the game.
Speaking of the game's items, it doesn't take too long to completely fill up all your inventory from the loot dropped by the vast array of enemies that litter the landscape or the random barrels and chests in caves and in random households (ah the old, break in to a random villager's house and steal their loot deal that you find in say..Legend of Zelda and others). Thankfully you can rid yourself of the extra inventory by saving it in a Hero's Chest for later use, selling it, or , of you are stuck in the wilderness, simply scrapping old, worthless items for stronger loot you find.
As you battle your magic/skills and you level up. The quickest way to level up though is to complete a large amount of side missions. Actually much of your time in the game will be completing side missions as there are over 600 of them! You can of course skip them and go to the story's main tasks, marked on the map in a gold circle..but expect enemies to be much more fierce. Some side quests are a bit dull, I'll admit but some are pretty fun with awesome boss battles at the end of them, so they are worth it. Having people play with you online in this is a great bonus and like MMORPGs, can lead to quicker execution of tasks.
There are some quirks about Sacred 2 though. The inventory system can get rather cumbersome and its rather tough to see which weapons are the best to use. Also, the game's frame rate will slow when thee is lots of enemies and magic being throw around. I have the Xbox 360 version but I hear the same happens on the PS3. Similarly, the game will have odd loading slowdowns in the towns...something I'll admit I'm shocked to see on an Xbox 360.
Despite some flaws, I still give the game a 8 out of 10. It has the pick up and play feel of older games, the open ended play like GTA and makes me now think about picking up similar games that I've for so long avoided like WoW, Diablo, and Everquest.
Check me out on Xbox Live to see my progress in this game and others.
My gamer tag is chuckgaff415.
I'm still playing through the game (its very long, another benifit) so any new tidbits I can add to the review, I'll let you all know ;-)
Check out the trailer here:
Anime3000 Podcast
Under: otaku, podcast, updates, videogames
I finally got something to add to the podcast section of this site. As of a few days ago, I was asked to be part of a podcast with anime3000.com. Big thanks to Sean Russell for asking me to drop by. This is actually part of two podcasts, both pertaining to the history of video games and where we feel its heading to. The first pod cast shown here is a look back at the different generations of game consoles and of course we talked about what the game companies did well...and not so well. The rest of our recording, to be up some time soon, is essentially the second half of our 2 hour cast and is mainly us ranting on what is to come with gaming and more ranting as well. So now you all can hear what I sound like...which is either good or bad ^^;;
On the panel was:
- Sean Russell: Anime3000.com (Host)
- Patz (@patzprime): thegamingdungeon.com
- Evan Minto (@VamptVo): Anigamers.com
- and me (@princetrunks), Chuck Gaffney
You can download the podcast to your iTunes or listen HERE
Anime3000 Podcast
I finally got something to add to the podcast section of this site. As of a few days ago, I was asked to be part of a podcast with anime3000.com. Big thanks to Sean Russell for asking me to drop by. This is actually part of two podcasts, both pertaining to the history of video games and where we feel its heading to. The first pod cast shown here is a look back at the different generations of game consoles and of course we talked about what the game companies did well...and not so well. The rest of our recording, to be up some time soon, is essentially the second half of our 2 hour cast and is mainly us ranting on what is to come with gaming and more ranting as well. So now you all can hear what I sound like...which is either good or bad ^^;;
On the panel was:
- Sean Russell: Anime3000.com (Host)
- Patz (@patzprime): thegamingdungeon.com
- Evan Minto (@VamptVo): Anigamers.com
- and me (@princetrunks), Chuck Gaffney
You can download the podcast to your iTunes or listen HERE
King Of Fighters Fan Art Contest
Under: contests, King of Fighters, videogames
Great news KOF fans! If you haven't heard yet, Ignition Entertainment is doing a fan art contest with lots of cash and prizes to commemorate the The release of The King Of Fighters XLL for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
King Of Fighters Fan Art Contest
Great news KOF fans! If you haven't heard yet, Ignition Entertainment is doing a fan art contest with lots of cash and prizes to commemorate the The release of The King Of Fighters XLL for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The 20 Year Old Game Boy
Under: gadgets, game boy, nintendo, videogames
20 years since the Game Boy came out? Man I feel old. I was 5 years old at the time in 1989 and I was already a gamer for 4 years so...yep I indeed had one. I actually still have my original Game Boy, the odd long orange carry case (more of a reason I always refer to the 1980's as the 'awkward 80's') and good old Tetris.
From there I of course got the color adapter, then Game Boy Color, then Game Boy Advance, then the DS. (I have yet to get the DSi as of this post ^^;;)
Anyone got any good Game Boy memories?
I so remember this commercial. Was on Nickelodeon when I was watching Double Dare, Fun House and Count Duckula.
Thanks to Engadget for letting me know of the GB reaching the big 2-0.
The 20 Year Old Game Boy
20 years since the Game Boy came out? Man I feel old. I was 5 years old at the time in 1989 and I was already a gamer for 4 years so...yep I indeed had one. I actually still have my original Game Boy, the odd long orange carry case (more of a reason I always refer to the 1980's as the 'awkward 80's') and good old Tetris.
From there I of course got the color adapter, then Game Boy Color, then Game Boy Advance, then the DS. (I have yet to get the DSi as of this post ^^;;)
Anyone got any good Game Boy memories?
I so remember this commercial. Was on Nickelodeon when I was watching Double Dare, Fun House and Count Duckula.
Thanks to Engadget for letting me know of the GB reaching the big 2-0.
Lux Pain Review
Under: game reviews, Lux Pain, videogames
Just recently I finished the Nintendo DS game, Lux Pain. The game was definitely something different. Depending on what type of gamer you are will determine a much different take on the game. Myself along with most of the readers of this blog will find this game more appealing than say a gamer who has no intention of getting into anime or manga.
Lux Pain in short is more of an interactive manga than say a true hands-on video game. It's akin to say a dating sim without much dating. There are moments, mainly in the bonus clips that you can unlock that almost are dates with any of the male and female characters...so almost a dating sim. Lux Pain acts more like a "mystery sim". The purpose of the game is to unlock hidden Shinen (or remnant feelings) in both the area you go to or the characters you meet to unlock the mystery behind cases of these creatures called Silent. Silent, in shor t, are like parasitic worms that feed off of bad feelings (Shinen). It sort of creates a physical reason to why people kill or commit suicide.
Finding the Shinen is not too hard at all even with a timer that appears in most searches. First time playing, you might miss one or two but a basic cycling of the stylus will let you find the Shinen withou t the need for the "Search Mode" that's available.
Eventually you will run into Silents. This is where the bulk of the actual gaming comes into play and there are three types of ways you'll have to defeat them. The latter two ways; breaking a glass shield then scratching the white orb on the screen or the "stringing corners" one, make decent use of the stylus.
Like dating sims, be prepared for ALOT of text reading. Again, this goes to my point about the game being more of an interactive manga...which is not bad since its still rare to see such games make it here from Japan; something we have been asking for.
The story is a bit confusing at first but like in any anime or manga, you will get to like many of the characters. I particularly li ked Rui and aimed much of my encounters with her first if possible ^^;; The voice acting of the characters is very good and for good reason I'll get in a second. The one issue though that you'll notice off the bat is tha t the text will not match what the voice actors are saying...it more paraphrases their statements. There are some typos and misspellings as well, but as a game developer and with loads of errors I usually catch in my own blogs, I can't bash that too much ^^; The voice acting was good and was because a bunch of popular US voice actors did take role in the game. Actors like Chris Sabat (Vegeta, Piccolo, Louis Armstrong, Kuwabara...etc), Monica Rial (Steel Angel Kurumi's Saki...and many others), and Eric Vale (the voice of my favorite male anime character, DBZ's Future Trunks)
Kudos to Ignition for getting the good dubbers but the issues in the localization can sadly be seen.
Overall, as an anime fan, I give the game a 7/10. Gamers looking for a quick and fun video game that are not anime fans might give this game a 3/10 though. My blog is for anime fans so the higher number is what you'd expect. Rent it first if you can but I didn't mind adding this game to my collection and I give it more credit than IGN or others would give it.
Here's the trailer for those who didn't see it yet:
Lux Pain Review
Just recently I finished the Nintendo DS game, Lux Pain. The game was definitely something different. Depending on what type of gamer you are will determine a much different take on the game. Myself along with most of the readers of this blog will find this game more appealing than say a gamer who has no intention of getting into anime or manga.
Lux Pain in short is more of an interactive manga than say a true hands-on video game. It's akin to say a dating sim without much dating. There are moments, mainly in the bonus clips that you can unlock that almost are dates with any of the male and female characters...so almost a dating sim. Lux Pain acts more like a "mystery sim". The purpose of the game is to unlock hidden Shinen (or remnant feelings) in both the area you go to or the characters you meet to unlock the mystery behind cases of these creatures called Silent. Silent, in shor t, are like parasitic worms that feed off of bad feelings (Shinen). It sort of creates a physical reason to why people kill or commit suicide.
Finding the Shinen is not too hard at all even with a timer that appears in most searches. First time playing, you might miss one or two but a basic cycling of the stylus will let you find the Shinen withou t the need for the "Search Mode" that's available.
Eventually you will run into Silents. This is where the bulk of the actual gaming comes into play and there are three types of ways you'll have to defeat them. The latter two ways; breaking a glass shield then scratching the white orb on the screen or the "stringing corners" one, make decent use of the stylus.
Like dating sims, be prepared for ALOT of text reading. Again, this goes to my point about the game being more of an interactive manga...which is not bad since its still rare to see such games make it here from Japan; something we have been asking for.
The story is a bit confusing at first but like in any anime or manga, you will get to like many of the characters. I particularly li ked Rui and aimed much of my encounters with her first if possible ^^;; The voice acting of the characters is very good and for good reason I'll get in a second. The one issue though that you'll notice off the bat is tha t the text will not match what the voice actors are saying...it more paraphrases their statements. There are some typos and misspellings as well, but as a game developer and with loads of errors I usually catch in my own blogs, I can't bash that too much ^^; The voice acting was good and was because a bunch of popular US voice actors did take role in the game. Actors like Chris Sabat (Vegeta, Piccolo, Louis Armstrong, Kuwabara...etc), Monica Rial (Steel Angel Kurumi's Saki...and many others), and Eric Vale (the voice of my favorite male anime character, DBZ's Future Trunks)
Kudos to Ignition for getting the good dubbers but the issues in the localization can sadly be seen.
Overall, as an anime fan, I give the game a 7/10. Gamers looking for a quick and fun video game that are not anime fans might give this game a 3/10 though. My blog is for anime fans so the higher number is what you'd expect. Rent it first if you can but I didn't mind adding this game to my collection and I give it more credit than IGN or others would give it.
Here's the trailer for those who didn't see it yet:
Anime IPhone Game, Abigale
Under: anime iphone game, iphone, videogames
Anime games are still a bit rare on the iPhone but they are slowly coming up in numbers. Well, this game in particular caught my eyes for two reasons. First off, its an anime game on the iPhone that has an anime girl as the main character. I downloaded Abigale which, by the way is by Japanese mobile developer, Meridian. It's a 2D side scrolling shooter with very nice graphics, a story, a bunch of levels and a few bosses as well. Better yet, it's only about $.99 for the intro rate and will soon only go up to about $2.00 or so after. The only issue really with it is that its got no music...kind of a downer but I'd expect maybe a later version will have music.
And as for the other reason why this caught my eye...well this will only be relevant to people who've followed my site over the past couple of years. On and off in my very rare "free time" I've been working on a gaming project I've called "Project Fumi" Since 2003 I've always wanted a mascot for the site and also wanted to create a game pertaining to her. This game, Abigail is basically the game I had in mind...but with some differences of course. These improvements would make the game better than Abigale...if I only had the damn time to draw better images than my first ones, the sprites and of course finish the game engine in which I have a bit done. ::sigh::
Anyways, here's the video of the game on youtube:
Big thanks to TouchArcade for introducing this app and for providing the video.
Anime IPhone Game, Abigale
Anime games are still a bit rare on the iPhone but they are slowly coming up in numbers. Well, this game in particular caught my eyes for two reasons. First off, its an anime game on the iPhone that has an anime girl as the main character. I downloaded Abigale which, by the way is by Japanese mobile developer, Meridian. It's a 2D side scrolling shooter with very nice graphics, a story, a bunch of levels and a few bosses as well. Better yet, it's only about $.99 for the intro rate and will soon only go up to about $2.00 or so after. The only issue really with it is that its got no music...kind of a downer but I'd expect maybe a later version will have music.
And as for the other reason why this caught my eye...well this will only be relevant to people who've followed my site over the past couple of years. On and off in my very rare "free time" I've been working on a gaming project I've called "Project Fumi" Since 2003 I've always wanted a mascot for the site and also wanted to create a game pertaining to her. This game, Abigail is basically the game I had in mind...but with some differences of course. These improvements would make the game better than Abigale...if I only had the damn time to draw better images than my first ones, the sprites and of course finish the game engine in which I have a bit done. ::sigh::
Anyways, here's the video of the game on youtube:
Big thanks to TouchArcade for introducing this app and for providing the video.
Samurai Spirits Iroha Gallery
Under: iroha, otaku, samurai spirits, videogames
For the game Samurai Spirits comes the ever so popular Iroha. She's a unique anime/game character since she's not your stereotypical (zombie-looking) thin girl. The Samurai Spirits game is not much different than say Guilty Gear or Capcom vs. SNK but to this day more figures of her are coming up out of the woodwork.
View the entire gallery here on the anime gallery page. More to come and hopefully a section devoted to her as well ^^;