By way of correction, I have apparently been caught up in a rush of mass hysteria, failing to read the actual Japanese title of Tecmo and Matrix's recently released DS RPG, Nostalgeo no Kaze, selfishly subsitituing an "a" where there is actually an "o."
Hence, Tecmo's official name of the game in question is Nostalgeo no Kaze, meaning Wind of Nostalgeo, rather than Nostalgia.
Forgotten about Sega's PSP RPG, Garnet Chronicle? I did. Seemed really generic to me, and therefore safe to forget about.
Well, while I was out, the game got released in Japan, and GameTrailers was nice enough to encode the opening video for our entertainment. Check it out below:
The anime opening is not bad (not great, but not bad), but fails to disprove my generic feeling towards the game. I guess it has a half-naked elf girl. That's unique, right?
Anyone interested in importing this? Will you pick in up if it comes to North America? Or will you ignore it no matter what? Let me know in the comments!
UPDATE: It seems the game has received an English version, though not technically in North America. Released under the name Crimsongem Saga, the game is for the Asia market and completely in English (so I'm told). For those interested, here is the link for the item on Play-Asia.
As per request, here is the translation for the latest Famitsu article on the upcoming DS RPG, Nostalgia no Kaze (Wind of Nostalgia).
Set in the world at the end of the 19th Century, Wind of Nostalgia follows the story of 4 young adventurers who board an airship for individual reasons. This article focuses on 5 of the game’s features, in addition to short introductions to the 4 main characters.
First, the characters:
Eddy A young man of England’s famous adventurer family, Eddy has inherited a strong sense of justice from his father Gilbert. After his father goes missing during an expedition, Eddy determines to become an adventurer himself and sets out to look for him. Lovingly using his father’s airship, the Maverick, he departs on his journey.
Padd A young man hailing from the slums of London, Padd has been separated from his parents since birth, and has no knowledge of what kind of people they were. He is seen as the older brother of the children from the slums, and is very good at looking out for them. He has a somewhat cold attitude, and is uninterested in dreams or adventures, but out of a desire to search for his long-lost mother, he leaves London with Eddy.
Fiona A quiet young woman possessing the power of “miracles,” Fiona is being targeting by an organization known as the “Ancient Fathers Society” due to her ability to draw immense power from lithographs known as Tablets. She is saved from an attack at the beginning of the adventure by Gilbert, but passes out shortly thereafter. She later meets up with Eddy and decides to join him.
Melody A young girl from the village of the few remaining wizards, Melody is strong-willed and often selfish, but possesses great skill in magic. She is asked by Eddy and his friends to create a power source for their airship, but she refuses. However, after a mysterious sorcerer named Hartman attacks her village, she agrees to join the group in order to defeat him.
Next, the game features:
1. Airship Customization Throughout the game, you are able to change your airship’s blade, cannon, and other parts. New parts may be purchased and fitted at airship docks at various cities. Through equipping more powerful parts, you can swing airship battles more in your favor. The look of your airship will also change depending on which parts you use.
2. Use Points to Expand Your Skills Eddy and his friends can use special abilities known as ‘Skills.’ Each character utilizes unique Skills playing to that character’s strengths, including sword moves and magic. Skills level up through distribution of SP (Skill Points) which are earned from battle, and new Skills will become available as certain existing Skills reach a certain level.
3. Adventurer’s Society Quests By visiting the Adventurer’s Society offices in the worlds 7 different cities, you will be able to accept job requests called Quests. Through fulfilling these jobs, you will be rewarded based upon the Quest in question. Through Quest completion, your Adventurer Rank will improve, allowing you to receive new jobs. Quests are not integral to the game’s story, and can be accepted regardless of the game’s story.
4. Seeking out the World Treasures Eddy and his friends will be asked by an ally named Evans to seek out the remnants of ancient societies known as World Treasures. The resting places of these World Treasures can be found only through meticulous information gathering and searching throughout the world. You will be rewarded based on how many World Treasures you have found.
5. Complete the Adventurer’s Notebook After passing the Adventurer’s Society Entrance Exam, you will be able to receive the Adventurer’s Notebook. Throughout your various travels this book will become filled with notes from Eddy’s Journal (which records the events of your journey), your battle data, dungeon details, enemy information, and various other things. Filling this notebook will require you to travel around the world, and is one of the game’s features.
Wind of Nostalgia will be available on Nintendo DS in Japan on November 06, 2008. Those who pre-order the game will receive a free select soundtrack and information guide. There is currently no word on a North American or European release at this time.
How shall I preface this one? How about, "Here is another Avalon Code trailer!"? Was that alright?
The game definitely looks like it has some good ideas, but I have to admit I'm just not all that interested... I just don't know about playing as a 5 year old, y'know?
Perhaps the funniest part of the whole "every frickin' game is on DS" movement is that trailers for the games try to pretend like they actually aren't DS games. They throw around a lot of artwork, CG/anime scenes, some kind of theme song for 90% of the video to get you thinking "Hey, this looks neat," all the while burying a couple of actual in-game scenes somewhere in the middle.
Well, Marvelous' new trailer for Matrix-developed Avalon Code is no different. Give it a watch and see if you can spot the actual game footage somewhere within the beautiful hand-crafted montage. It's kind of like Where's Waldo, only more depressing.
Avalon Code will be available in Japan on October 16, 2008, with a no-date-confirmed-yet North American release courtesy XSEED Games.
Remember a while back when Tecmo announced that it would be publishing a new DS RPG developed by Matrix (the FFIII and FFIV DS guys)? Y'know, the one that kind of had a Skies of Arcadia feel about it? Wind of Nostalgia? Sure you do!
Well Tecmo just recently released a brand new "debut" trailer for the game, showing off its main characters, locales, airships, and all of that good stuff. And though the game takes place during the 19th century here on Earth, it, of course, features some heavy fantasy elements. As expected, it still retains a very heavy Skies of Arcadia feel for me, what with outdated 3D models (that the DS is so good at), the big emphasis on airships and airship battles, and the old school anime design.
The trailer also reveals a release date for Japan: November 6, 2008. Not too far off.
I really didn't cover XSEED's E3 offerings at all. This is partially because there wasn't a lot of new media released for any of them, and partially because they don't really interest me very much. (Hey, at least I'm honest about it.)
I've posted a little bit on what I could find. The majority of it comes from IGN, so if you're really interested in any of these titles, I would suggest checking their coverage.
Little King's Story (Nintendo Wii)
Developed by Cing Published by XSEED (North America) TBA 2008
Valhalla Knights 2 (PSP)
Developed by K2 Published by XSEED (North America) Available September 15th, 2008 in North America
Avalon Code (Nintendo DS)
Developed by Matrix Published by XSEED (North America) TBA 2008
Rune Factory Frontier (Nintendo Wii)
Developed by Marvelous Published by XSEED (North America) TBA 2009
Note that all of these games are published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan. Looks like XSEED is really utilizing that partnership right out of the gate.
By way of correction, I have apparently been caught up in a rush of mass hysteria, failing to read the actual Japanese title of Tecmo and Matrix's recently released DS RPG, Nostalgeo no Kaze, selfishly subsitituing an "a" where there is actually an "o."
