Game news - especially RPG news - tends to slow down around Christmas time. Not hard to believe as its rare for RPGs to be released at all in December (notable exceptions recognized). But publisher dtp has decided to spruce up your holidays with a demo for their upcoming RPG, Divinity II: Ego Draconis (well, it's actually already out in Europe).As a quick refresher, Divinity II focuses around a young dragon slayer who is inadvertantly granted the powers of a dragon knight - aka, the ability to transform into a dragon - in order to save the kingdom from evil.The demo dropped yesterday morning on Xbox Live and PC for your downloading pleasure.Coupled with today's End of Eternity Japanese demo, you might just be able to survive on demos alone until you (hopefully) get some new games for Christmas! ;)Divinity II: Ego Draconis will be available for PC and Xbox 360 on January 5, 2010 in North America. It is already available in Europe.
Dust off your Japanese Xbox Live / PlayStation Network accounts, as Sega and tri-Ace's upcoming multiplatform RPG, End of Eternity (also curiously known in the West as Resonance of Fate, for some unknown reason) will be getting a Japanese demo on December 22, 2009, just in time for Christmas.For the forgetful, End of Eternity follows three PMF mercenaries, Zephyr, Vashyron, and Reanbell, as they discover the secret behind Earth's last hospitable shelter, the floating mechanical city of Basel.The demo will reportedly feature a playable scenario original to the demo, and will give players a chance to test out the battle system for themselves.I haven't done much with my Japanese XBL account since the Magna Carta II demo earlier this year, so I'll be downloading this day one. Also, moar HD RPGs please.End of Eternity will be available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 28, 2010, and sometime next Spring in North America and Europe as Resonance of Fate.[Dengeki]
Korean developer Softmax and Namco Bandai publishing label Banpresto are teaming up for the third Magna Carta title, Magna Carta II for the Xbox 360. Though its North American date is still the unhelpfully vague "Fall 2009," the Japanese version is almost upon us.But wait, you say, Tears of Blood on the PS2 had a confusing/frustrating/difficult battle system, and the original Magna Carta never saw an English release. How will I know if I like this game enough to buy it?Fear not, indecisive gamer, for Namdai will be releasing a Japanese demo of the game this upcoming Sunday in Japan (July 26, 2009). For most North American gamers, this translates into sometime late afternoon/early evening tomorrow. Bonus!The demo will reportedly feature an outline of the beginning of the game, a battle tutorial, and will end with the very first boss encounter: the Werewolf.This demo is only available for Japanese Xbox Live accounts right now, but, y'know, you don't have to actually be Japanese to have a Japanese Xbox Live account, if you catch my drift. ;)Magna Carta II will be available for Xbox 360 on August 6, 2009 in Japan, and sometime this Fall in North America.I'm hoping that I have enough time to give the demo a spin sometime this weekend so I can tell you all about it next week. :)
[Dengeki]
[Magna Carta II Official Japanese Site]
As you are likely aware, Square Enix is re-re-releasing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on BluRay in Japan with some extra goodies and tacking on a "Complete" onto the end. The goodies include some bonus footage and the like, but is unarguably most notable for its inclusion of a playable PS3 demo for the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XIII.The hardest of the hardcore North American Final Fantasy fans have probably all pre-ordered Japanese copies to ensure that they will be able to get the demo. But for the fence-sitters or the import-wary among you, it seems that the BluRay will actually be making its way to North America early this summer.The disc is touted as featuring the following:- "Legacy of Final Fantasy VII" Featurette- "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII" Original Story Digest- On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel Animated Film- "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII VII Compilation" Story Digest- Exclusive Sneak Peek at Final Fantasy XIII- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Trailers It is currently unconfirmed if the "sneak peak" of Final Fantasy XIII is indeed the playable demo, or a trailer, or something else entirely. (But chances are good that it is the demo, imo.)Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete will be available on BluRay this June in North America. It will be available in Japan on April 16, 2009.
If any of you have been holding out for the PC version of last year's The Last Remnant, you should be pleased to hear that the demo for the Japanese version will be available for download late next week on February 27, 2009 from the game's official website.The website has also revealed that the upcoming PC version will contain new playable characters that were not recruitable in the Xbox 360 version. I won't list them here though because some of them are spoilers if you haven't finished the game, (when I read the list, I was all 'What? S/he does/n't join your team?'), but you can read the list on the Japanese site here.The Last Remnant will be available on PC in Japan on April 9, 2009. There is no word on North American or European dates. There is still also no word on the PlayStation 3 version. The game is already available on Xbox 360 worldwide.
Marvelous announced today that their upcoming PSP mash-up of just about every classic genre, Yuusha 30, will be released in Japan this May.For the forgetful among you, Yuusha 30 is a series of 30-second games that require you to save the world very very quickly. The game for which the product is named is a classic turn-based RPG that pits you, the hero, against the evil Demon King. You will need to complete your quest in a mere 30 seconds, or watch the world be destroyed.In addition to the release date, Marvelous has announced a demo version available for free download via the PlayStation Store and PlayStation Spot (the PSP store via wireless internet access).Yuusha 30 will be available on PSP on May 28, 2009 in Japan.
One of the coolest little RPGs of 2007 was the original Puzzle Quest. A hybrid of tile-based puzzlers and old school RPGs, Puzzle Quest sounded like the stupidest idea I had ever heard. ...Until I played it. Then I thought it was awesome.Cue the "sequel," Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, which brings the role-playing puzzle arena to the second most popular RPG setting, science fiction.Currently confirmed for PC, Nintendo DS, and Xbox Live Arcade, I can't tell you if Galactrix will hold up to the original, but I'd say it's worth a shot. And so does the publisher, D3, apparently, as they have put out a downloadable demo for PC, which you can hop over to Big Download to grab.The demo restricts your character to level 5 max, and only allows you to travel to a limited number of star systems, but should offer a better impression of the overall game than the flash demo.Puzzle Quest: Galactrix will be available on PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo DS sometime this quarter in North America and Europe.
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.
There may be a few of you out there who didn't download the Japanese demo of Tales of Vesperia for whatever reason. That's okay. We won't judge you.
Well, rejoice, for the moment of all your patience has paid off: Tales of Vesperia demo is hot off the presses and on your North American Xbox Live! Yes! Let the downloads commence!
...On a personal note, I finally killed the boss at the end of the demo the other day. And as a bonus, you get to keep playing for a while! Sweet!
Well, here we are, standing on the edge of E3 2008. The Microsoft press conference kicks off in a few hours. However, if you're bored, you may be interested to know that the Too Human demo is now available on Xbox Live.Published by Microsoft and developed by Silicon Knights, Too Human is a hack-and-slash action-RPG set to release exclusively on Xbox 360 next month. For those of you who have followed this game at all, you know it is ripe with controversy due largely to Silicon Knights' Dennis Dyack who just can't seem to keep his mouth shut.I'm not interested in getting into the $#!+storm surrounding Silicon Knights, but the game actually looks not bad if you like hack-and-slash type games.The demo weighs in at a hefty 1.09 GB, so start your download sooner than later. You might just get to give it a spin before the press conference kicks off at 10:30am PDT.
If any of you out there are anticipating Namco Bandai's latest game in the Tales of series, Tales of Vesperia, even half as much as I am, I think you will be quite pleasantly surprised with the contents of this post.
To get a few housekeeping things out of the way, here are the final two main characters in ToV: Judith and Raven. I know, I know. Old news is old. I haven't posted anything on them until now because I was waiting to get some more info to share with you other than just their names. Read on, dear reader, read on.
Raven is a 35 year old wanderer shrouded in mystery. Though his manner of speaking is often coarse, he occassionally spouts words deep in meaning. He seems to have a generally carefree attitude about him, but at the same time gets annoyed with tasks set to him. He seems to have experienced many rough times throughout his life, but no one knows much about him for sure.
Judith is a 19 year old lancer of the increasingly rare Klitea tribe. She encounters Yuri and the party while she is traveling with a friend. Though she appears to be soft spoken, her words are often harsh, and she will regularly call things as she sees them. She acts in whatever way she thinks is right, but rarely tells people about her plans beforehand. It should also be noted that while she generally conducts herself in a calm manner, she becomes relentless in battle. Yuri takes to calling her "Judy."In addition to the announcement of these two characters, the official Tales of Vesperia website includes pics and summaries of two new locations, Developing City Heliode (JP=shinkou toshi herioodo) and Guild Home Dunglest (JP=girudo no soukutsu danguresuto). I won't bore you with location details, but if you want to see them, check the official site under story (4th line of squigglies counting down on the sidebar) then click on the second group of characters on the long, brown bar (it should be glowing).Also in the new site update are a new plethora of screens (included below), most of which show off Judith and her big... uh, spear. =)
And last, but certainly not least, is the elusive Tales of Vesperia playable demo available right the hell now on Japan's Xbox Live Marketplace (available to all Japanese accounts). If you don't have a Japanese XBL account, I've heard (this is all second hand information now) that you can, like, create one if you want. Like, you know, with numbers that you just made up, or something. Again, totally not sure about that.
For anyone unable to download that, I will have my impressions up on Monday! ;)
Tales of Vesperia will launch in Japan on August 7th, and presumably soon thereafter in North America.
Game news - especially RPG news - tends to slow down around Christmas time. Not hard to believe as its rare for RPGs to be released at all in December (notable exceptions recognized). But publisher dtp has decided to spruce up your holidays with a demo for their upcoming RPG, Divinity II: Ego Draconis (well, it's actually already out in Europe).
