Dark Cloud? Nah. Rogue Galaxy. Psh. Sony's new favourite proprietary JRPG is Shiro Kishi Monogatari (White Knight Chronicles). How do we know that? Because Sony just went on record to officially announce the game's sequel, before the first one hits international shores.
Titled Shiro Kishi Monogatari: Hikari to Yami no Kakusei (White Knight Chronicles: Awakening of Light and Darkness), the sequel will also be developed by Level 5, but no further details on the title have been revealed yet.
Since I haven't played the first one yet, I have a hard time getting excited for a sequel, but I think that Sony is trying to keep their positive momentum they have going right now. Can't really blame them for that.
More details on Shiro Kishi Monogatari 2 as they are revealed.
As I'm sure you're aware, Square Enix's hyped-to-the-point-of-redundancy Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America and Europe. But it currently remains a PS3 exclusive in its home country of Japan.
As you are also aware, Sony loves them some Final Fantasy. The love it more than their own IPs. So, in a move that should surprise roughly no one, Sony took some time during their presser last night to announce a limited Final Fantasy XIII-themed PlayStation 3. Astounding!
The cleverly named PlayStation 3 Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Edition will be a white coloured PS3 slim with a light pink drawing of FFXIII's heroine, Lightning on the top. The system will contain a 250GB HDD and come bundled with a copy of the game.
The new bundle will be available on the same day as the game launches in Japan on December 17, 2009, and will retail for ￥41,600 (roughly $420 USD). A little pricy if you ask me, but I doubt that will stop any hardcore Final Fantasy enthusiasts.
Sony and FromSoftware's Japanese WRPG, Demon's Souls, has been available for the PlayStation 3 since early this year in Japan, and has even been available in English in other Asian regions. But a version that North Americans can finally call their own will be available this Fall from Atlus.
That's a long time to wait, you say. I mean, wasn't the Asian version in English? Why don't I just import it? you ask. Well, Atlus understands your dilemma, and in order to try and make the decision easier for you has offered to include a bunch of extra stuff with the game.
Demon's Souls deluxe edition will be available on the same day as the regular edition, and will include an art slipcase as well as a strategy guide. Many places are also offering a limited art book for customers who pre-order on top of that.
Demon's Souls will be available for PlayStation 3 on October 6, 2009 in North America. It is already available in Japan and Asia.
I suppose these are nice additions, but I have to wonder why it took so long to localize a game that already had full English included. Was it really that bad?
The PlayStation 3's RPG lineup is starting to look decent this year with several interesting (if obscure) exclusives making their way across the pacific. Not least of which is Sony's own White Knight Chronicles.
However, as predicted, Sony doesn't actually care about White Knight Chronicles, giving it only a few brief seconds during one of their many many montages throughout the event. Sad times.
What Sony does care about is Square Enix's Final Fantasy, and they took several opportunities to remind you and I that Final Fantasy is totally on PlayStation 3.
Their first Final Fantasy name drop came with the announcement of Final Fantasy VII becoming available for download via the PlayStation Network starting today. They mentioned that they have 50 other PS1 classics that will be following it, but didn't mention what any of them are. Hopefully there will be some more RPGs?
Later during their conference, they gave us a look at a brand new, full-length, full English Final Fantasy XIII trailer, which not only gave us a better look at the game's story, but also briefly introduced a new character who we assume to be playable. I will post it soon.
However, the big Final Fantasy announcement for Sony was that the next next next FF installment, Final Fantasy XIV, will be coming to exclusively to PlayStation 3 in 2010.
Though the trailer shown was short and generally uninformative of what to expect from the game, it was revealed that the game will be an "Online" title, similar, it seems, to Final Fantasy XI.
Since Square Enix originally claimed that their next MMO would be on PC and Xbox 360, Sony's announcement of FFXIV as exclusive is suspect, especially with the "exclusively to PlayStation 3 in 2010" part, which may be indicative of a timed exclusive.
We will await further details, but it was made clear that FFXIV will be on PS3 next year. So yeah.
Unfortunately, there was no news of any other RPGs.
E3, for all intents and purposes, starts Monday morning with Microsoft's press conference. But everyone's all excited this week, showing off new stuff, releasing info and trailers, the whole bit. Who are we to stop them?
So if you just can't wait until all the new stuff, here are a bunch of new trailers for a bunch of upcoming games. Hopefully all of this is just a shadow of things to come, as I certainly hope we don't spend next week just talking about these trailers...
Alpha Protocol PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Obsidian, Sega Q3 2009 (North America)
Dragon Age: Origins PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 BioWare, EA October 20, 2009 (North America)
Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360, PC BioWare, EA TBA
White Knight Chronicles PlayStation 3 Level 5, Sony TBA
None of the above are very long or show off much in terms of gameplay, and are clearly 100% focused on hype. That said, anyone have a favourite? :P
As announced back at Square Enix's PlayStation press event last summer, the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Blu-ray PlayStation 3 bundle has been priced and detailed.
The bundle will include a 'Cloud Black' 160GB HDD PlayStation 3 (with a wolf decal on the top), a copy of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray, and a Final Fantasy XIII Trial Version Set (which includes the Final Fantasy XIII demo).
The pack will be priced at 49,980 yen (roughly $550 US), and will be on sale on April 16, 2009 in Japan.
...That's pricey for a bundled movie that I already own... Think I'll pass on this one.
In another round of Not News, Level 5 President Akihiro Hino told GameTrailers that the company's latest cooperative project with Sony, Shiro Kishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodou, will likely see North American shores.
Well, his actual quote is, "Yes, it should be (localized for North America), but the launch date has not been determined yet."
...
So, uh, Shiro Kishi Monogatari will eventually make it's way to North America. Thanks for clearing that up, Captain Obvious.
Sony (or any other company) has yet to formally announce plans to bring the PS3 title to any region besides Japan at the moment, but c'mon, I don't think anyone doubted that the game would get localized. Hino failed to mention the one detail that would actually make this newsworthy: when? It's a mystery...
Shiro Kishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodou is already available on PlayStation 3 in Japan. We'll keep you posted when a real North American release date is announced.
Remember yesterday when Sony said they have 9 PS3 games to announce that weren't on their official list? Well, here's one of them: Demon's Souls.
Developed by FromSoftware (Evergrace, Enchanted Arms), Demon's Souls is described as an action-RPG set in a dark fantasy world.
Unfortunately, the currently available scans are too difficult to read to give you full details at this moment, but from what I skimmed over, it appears that the game will be focused only on one player-created hero (who is nameless, as far as I can tell) who will be pitted against gigantic boss monsters (seemingly a common theme in a lot of darker action-RPGs these days).
Though I honestly have to say that I don't have a lot of faith in FromSoftware as an RPG developer (I don't mind their action games - especially when they're cheap), it is nice to finally see Sony shelling out for some exclusive RPGs.
Demon's Souls will be available for PlayStation 3 sometime next year from SCEJ, and will be playable at TGS next week.
I will take translation requests for the first two pages (I won't translate the interview on the last two pages) once some easier-to-read scans hit the internets.
Sony has revealed "their" lineup for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. And the list is a long one. ...Except for the fact that barely a fraction of the games they are showing are even theirs. Which is like, what?
Of the enormous list of other companies' games, the following are actually published by Sony and are RPGs:
Hands-on Titles Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da or2 - PSP
Yep. That's it.
You might think you are seeing double here, since YnKnNdor2 was already on Acquire's list, but Sony is publishing it, so you needn't worry.
Though Level 5's Shiro Kishi Monogatari (White Knight Story) is nowhere to be seen on this list, it was said that the game would indeed be playable at the show in some fashion. So yeah.
Additionally, Sony claims that they have 9 more proprietary PS3 titles and 3 more proprietary PSP titles to show off that they aren't spilling the beans on at the moment. One of those is likely White Knight.
You can check out the "full" "official" list here.
Dark Cloud? Nah. Rogue Galaxy. Psh. Sony's new favourite proprietary JRPG is Shiro Kishi Monogatari (White Knight Chronicles). How do we know that? Because Sony just went on record to officially announce the game's sequel, before the first one hits international shores.
