Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Microsoft Japan Spring Press Conference Confirms a Few RPGs

To commemorate selling a million 360s in Japan, Microsoft held a press conference today in Japan showcasing 31 upcoming titles. Unfortunately, there were only 3 RPGs shown, and you have already heard about all of them.

First off, Namco Bandai has confirmed Magna Carta for release on Xbox 360 late this summer in Japan. Developed by Korean studio SoftMax, and published under Namdai's Banpresto label, Magna Carta II follows a young warrior named Juto who becomes involved with the young princess Zephy during a civil war in their country.

The game's first official trailer was debuted at the event (viewable below), and the press was given hands-on time with it. Namco Bandai also announced that the game's official Japanese site has now gone live HERE.

Magna Carta II will be available in Japan on August 6, 2009 on Xbox 360.



Second, Sega took some time to show off their tri-Ace-developed RPG, End of Eternity, due out simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime this winter in Japan. tri-Ace's Takayuki Suguro, the game's director, said he wanted to take the know-how from tri-Ace's previous two 360 RPGs to make an awesome game.

The game's first trailer was shown again (embedded again below), and the press were given a look at how the game plays. Unfortunately, no concrete release date was given yet.



Finally, Microsoft took the liberty of showing off the Japanese version of BioWare's sci-fi shooter-RPG, Mass Effect, which, by now, is totally old news here in the West.

Mass Effect will be available on Xbox 360 on May 21, 2009 in Japan.

I personally can't imagine that this is everything Microsoft has planned for this year in Japan. Don't get me wrong, I think End of Eternity and Magna Carta II look interesting, but it just seems a little underwhelming. Like, where's Mistwalker? What's Square Enix doing this year? Doesn't Atlus have something to show off sooner or later? I can't help but think there's more they aren't telling us right now...

Thoughts?

[XNEWS]
[Famitsu]
[Dengeki]
[Xbox Official Press Release]

2 comments:

zerolocked said...

Magna Carta II look SWEET!!! Do you have any idea about the battle system? (like turn/action based??)

Brandon said...

from what I've seen it looks action-oriented, but I'm not sure if it's totally real-time or not yet. the game's new official site is absolutely FULL of info. i'm slowly sifting through it all.

if you are interested in it, i would definitely recommend heading over there and watching the other trailer (i haven't found an embeddable Flash version yet). when you get to the portal site, instead of clicking on ENTER, click on MOVIE (bottom right) and watch the second trailer (on the right side).

i will definitely be covering it more in the future. :)