Last night (North America time), Xbox Japan held a special RPG Press Release where they showcased a number of Xbox 360 exclusive and timed-exclusive RPGs. Microsoft showed off their upcoming Mass Effect (which hasn't been released in Japan yet) and Fable 2.
Namco Bandai also made an appearance to showcase Tales of Vesperia, and added official worldwide release dates. ToV will be released in Japan on August 7th along with an Xbox 360 ToV Special Edition Premium Bundle. Though no bundle will be available over here, the North American release is scheduled for sometime during August. Asia will see a release sometime this summer. Unfortunately, Europe will have to wait until 2009.Square Enix then took center stage to announce tri-Ace's Star Ocean: The Last Hope (previously titled Star Ocean 4) for Xbox 360 sometime in 2009. Additionally, tri-Ace's other Xbox 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery was shown with more gameplay footage, and was described as "action-heavy." IU will of course launch in both Japan and North America this September.
Finally, Square Enix's own The Last Remnant was shown and revealed as a timed-exclusive for Xbox 360, arriving on the green console worldwide this winter. The previously announced PlayStation 3 version will arrive sometime later in 2009.
With such a large-scale RPG concentration on the Xbox 360 at this event, it seems odd that Mistwalker was not on hand to show off anything new. It may be that they are still hiding away some surprise RPG announcement for E3 or TGS.
Though the Xbox 360 has lagged behind its competition in Japan, such a constant stream of quality JRPGs for the system, and the incredible lack of on the PS3 will surely turn heads on both sides of the Pacific.
I personally couldn't be more stoked about this news. Though I was fairly conviced that SO4 would be on the 360 (there has been some very convincing evidence for a while now), it is nice to finally hear it officially.
Below are the new trailers from the event. Enjoy.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Infinite Undiscovery (this video has been posted before)
For detailed info on the games shown, check out IGN's LiveBlog of the event here.
Thoughts?
3 comments:
I'm still planning to stick with the PS3. I'm not much for realtime, action-style battle systems (I hated the battles in Tales of Symphonia) so exclusivity for more Tales games and tri-Ace games doesn't bother me. I do kind of wish that Lost Odyssey was multiplatform.
It is so weird though... The main types of games that I'm into are JRPGs and quirky uber-Japanese stuff like Katamari or Space Channel 5. I'm quite satisfied with my Wii and have always planned to eventually get a PS3 for Final Fantasy XIII among others, but I never even considered a 360 because I'm not into FPS or WRPG. It's still dominated by FPS, but the amount of JRPG exclusives on the system is truly surprising. I wouldn't have imagined it two or three years ago, and I have to say, kudos to Microsoft for going beyond the stereotype and reaching out to genres that they've ignored in the past.
Since I loved both my PS1 and PS2 (and still do), I thought for sure that I was going to buy a PS3, and never in a million years buy a 360.
Microsoft has really outdone themselves with the 360, though, with way more exclusive Japanese content than the PS3.
Though I may still get a PS3 someday (if they ever get some good exclusives and make it smaller and cheaper), I haven't regretted buying my Elite for even a second. ...It IS a little loud though...
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