First Details for Ninety-Nine Nights II Surface

UPDATE: Famitsu.com has the article up in legible format with nicely sized screens HERE. Open for translation requests in the comments.

As announced by Microsoft at their pre-TGS press conference last year, their hack-n-slash action/RPG hybrid Ninety-Nine Nights will be making a reappearance on the Xbox 360 sometime this year.

Details have not exactly been forthcoming, but Famitsu had the first scoop on the game this week.

As with the first title, the game's main focus will be on battle, with swarms of enemies to defeat at once (along the lines of Drakengard or Dynasty Warriors). Q? Entertainment will again be taking the game's reins, but the development will be handled by feelplus (of Lost Odyssey reputation) rather than Phantagram.

N3-II, in contrast with its brightly-colored predecessor, will take a much darker tone both in design and in-game. In accordance with this, the game's main character, Glen, is a much more mature looking character, with dark armor and two blood-stained blades.

A second character, an elven woman named Sephia, was also revealed in this article, but it is currently unknown if she will be playable or not, as Glen is the only one who appears in the currently revealed screens.

The scan is unfortunately too blur to read well, so I will postpone further details until I can read it properly.

I enjoyed the first N3, if only for the hacking and slashing, but felt that it fell short in a lot of areas. I'm hoping the developers focus more on the game's story this time around, and add a bit more interaction besides just killing everything. Oh, and no more "protect the villagers" quests. I hate those.

Ninety-Nine Nights II is scheduled for release on Xbox 360 sometime this year in Japan.

Some Publishers Hint at their 2009 360 Lineups

The latest issue of Famitsu Xbox 360 had a chance to chat with some publishing companies and ask them about what they can expect in 2009. Some had favorable things to say, some did not. I've gone through and picked out the comments that I thought were the most relevant to RPGs and have translated and listed them below.

Take a look.

Microsoft
-More 1st party titles on the way – Not quite 10 titles, but more than are announced (for your reference, currently announced 1st party titles are Halo Wars, Halo ODST, Ninja Blade, and Ninety-Nine Nights II – 4 titles. A new Mistwalker title possible? See next.)
-Microsoft Japan Game Studios have titles being prepared for release (Mmm… Mistwalker)
-Last year’s theme was RPGs. There is a theme this year too, but it won’t be announced until later. (The RPG theme was announced in May 2008)

Namco Bandai
-Very pleased with how well Tales of Vesperia sold (they didn’t expect it to sell as well as it did)
-Despite the worldwide financial recession, Namco Bandai sees this as a chance to get their games out worldwide
-Namco Bandai has been putting out 5-6 Xbox 360 titles per year, and they intend to continue the trend this year. All games being prepared for this year are “high-end,” “big titles”

Bethesda
-Plan to release Oblivion Game of the Year Edition this year (2009) in Japan, though Fallout 3 DLC takes priority
-Working on a surprising “big project”
-Plan to have 2-3 big titles out during 2010

Q Entertainment
-Have been working on Ninety-Nine Nights II now for roughly 2-3 years
-Tetsuya Mizuguchi is involved with N3II, but will not be as prominent as he was with the first game
-N3II will definitely be out in full force in 2009

Sega
-One more big title planned for this year (besides Bayonetta)
-It’s a multiplatform game, but users should be happy with it (possibly Shining Force Gear?)

Atlus
-Currently developing a yet-unnamed high-profile title for Xbox 360

Marvelous
-Currently looking into planning an Xbox 360 project (other than Rainy Woods, which has been put on hold)

There were other companies that commented (like Capcom) that I didn't think had anything really to mention about RPGs, so I left them out.

However, out of the above comments, I would say that Microsoft, Namco Bandai, and Atlus are definitely the companies to keep an eye on this year. The prospect of a new Mistwalker game has me especially interested, and I'm curious to see what this "high-profile" title that Atlus is working on is. As for Namdai, I would assume the only RPG we'll get out of them this year is Magna Carta 2, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised.

Marvelous was pretty weak sauce on their comments. I wouldn't expect them to announce anything beyond more Wii titles this year.

Square Enix and Tecmo were noticeably absent with their comments, though we know that Square Enix, at least, has something else up their sleeves.

It's too bad that there are no better hints than these, but it's at least reassuring to know that companies are still developing HD titles despite the current economy.

Thanks to XNEWS for the article summary.

Any speculation?

TGS 2008: First Pic of Ninety-Nine Nights II

This is all we have for media of this game right now.

If this image is anything to go by, it looks like this game is going to be a lot darker than it's predecessor. Intriguing...

TGS 2008: Microsoft Announces Ninety-Nine Nights II

During Microsoft's TGS press conference, they announced a sequel to one of the Xbox 360's first RPG offerings, Ninety-Nine Nights. Tentatively dubbed Ninety-Nine Nights II (or N3II), the game's planning will again be handled by Q? Entertainment, but development is being undertaken by feelplus (of Lost Odyssey fame).

I felt that the original N3 had a lot of interesting ideas, but failed to execute them in any kind of interesting way. However, feelplus did a great job with Lost Odyssey, so I am staying optimistic about this sequel.

No gameplay was shown, but according to Microsoft's official press release, the game will keep the large-scale battle feel of the original. Here's hoping that the game plays a little more interestingly this time and has a more coherent story.

There is currently no offical release date for N3II, but it is pretty safe to assume it will be sometime in 2009. For those playing Bingo, you can strike off Microsoft under Xbox 360.