It's been a while since I've posted some scans (mostly because I haven't been able to find them online much anymore), but I recently ran across some N3II scans, so here they are!
The scans cover several gameplay points, including character specific abilities and learnable skills, as well as different types of soldiers that can be added to your army. However, the main topic of interest in the scans is the characters.
Three of the game's main characters are shown, one of which is confirmed to be playable: Zaji the dark elf, who fights alongside the game's hero, Glen, and is also the elven queen Sephia's cousin. Additionally, Lyn, the little girl from the TGS trailer has been revealed to be a survivor from the destroyed village of Tramont, saved by Glen and Zaji. Finally, apparently one of the game's antagonists, Galdo is a grand sorcerer who has shown great talent in leading troops, and fights on the side of the Army of Night.
Ninety-Nine Nights II still has yet to receive a solid release date, but is still planned for a 'Spring 2010' release in Japan and North America for Xbox 360.
If you've been following JRPGs closely this generation - or been at least paying some attention during credit sequences after a few RPGs - you'll likely be aware of the development studio feelplus. Though they are most readily acknowledged for their development of Mistwalker and Microsoft's (opinion) best (/opinion) JRPG, Lost Odyssey, they have also had a hand in the development of Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4, and are the leading developers behind the upcoming Ninety-Nine Nights II.
With N3II making its debut in both Japan and North America this Spring, feelplus is up to something new. And, according to a recruitment ad on DODA (a Monster.com-esque site in Japan), that "something new" is a 'large scale RPG for Microsoft.'
Though no further details have been provided, many have begun to speculate on the inevitable sequel to Lost Odyssey.
If the large-scale RPG is indeed Lost Odyssey II, it would reason that Mistwalker would be involved in some way. But with Mistwalker's other "next big thing" planned for this year - not to mention N3II releasing this year - my educated guessing powers deduce that we shouldn't start salivating for this new title until next year.
Plus, forcing Lost Odyssey II to compete with Final Fantasy XIII just doesn't seem like a wonderful idea. Just my opinion.
Either way, I'm extremely interested in seeing what Microsoft's Japanese studios have up their sleeves sooner than later, so this is very welcome news.
Well, maybe "dominate" is a strong word. But given the limited number of JRPGs present at this year's event (especially on HD consoles), 4 separate hack-n-slash RPGs at one conference is enough to feel like a significant portion.
Hack-n-Slash RPGs are sort of a mixed bag. On one hand, mindless slaughter of even more mindless enemies definitely has its perks, but on the other, hack-n-slash RPGs tend to be light on interesting subject matter and heavy on pressing X repeatedly. A tight-rope walk, to be sure.
Anyways, this year's show has hands-on demos and new trailers for Square Enix and Cavia's NieR (both Gestalt and Replicant), Microsoft, feelplus, and Konami's Ninety-Nine Nights II, and Koei Tecmo's Trinity: Zill O'll Zero (known as Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll in North America). Let's take a look!
NieR Gestalt / NieR Replicant Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 Cavia, Square Enix
NieR is an interesting position of being both a multiplatform and an exclusive title all at once. Originally announced as multiplatform, Square Enix recently revealed that the game would be altered and released separately on Microsoft and Sony's platforms.
The original concept of a middle-aged father searching for the cure to a deadly disease for his daughter will be called Nier Gestalt, and reportedly be exclusive to Xbox 360 sometime next year.
Conversely, NieR Replicant will follow the same basic storyline, but has Nier (the main character) as a young man searching for the cure for his sister (who appears to be the same girl as in Gestalt), and will be exclusive to PlayStation 3 sometime next year.
Quite why Cavia or Square Enix (whoever made the decision) felt the need to alter only the main character's age and relationship to the girl needing saving, then release them "exclusively" on 360 and PS3 is beyond me.
Anyway, Cavia is a developer with a shaky history. I disliked Drakengard, but really enjoyed Drakengard 2. Also, I liked the concept of Bullet Witch, but thought the execution needed some polish. Altogether, this is a hard game to judge for me right now. It could be great, mediocre, or crappy, and I have no way of telling right now.
Ninety-Nine Nights II Xbox 360 feelplus, Microsoft, Konami
The follow-up to one of Microsoft's first attempts to appeal to the Japanese market, N3II is clearly going for a darker, more mature feel than its predecessor, and seems to be going for a more coherent story as well (though that's only a guess from watching the trailers).
Employing the development talents of Lost Odyssey's feelplus, and with the publishing cooperation of Konami, N3II touts bloodier combat, darker heroes, simultaneous co-op play, and more varied gameplay. Check it out below.
I personally enjoyed the original N3, despite its glaring flaws. I'm not sure if I like the change in style for this one, but I am interested to see if they manage to improve on the things that I disliked about the original.
Also, I have no idea why Konami is publishing this instead of Microsoft.
Trinity: Zill O'll Zero PlayStation 3 Omega-Force, Koei Tecmo
Zill O'll is an obscure RPG series that has never seen the light of day outside of Japan. With 3 previous iterations, Trinity breaks away from the series' previous traditions and goes for a hack-n-slash fest on the PS3 that has been confirmed for North American release someday.
Giving you control over 3 unique characters (a swordsman, a barbarian, and an elf girl), Trinity looks otherwise fairly generic, especially considering its obscure roots. Nevertheless, hack-n-slash fans will likely enjoy the hordes of monsters waiting to die by their hands.
So, a lot of hack-n-slash, right? Hack-n-slash RPGs tend to be pretty polarizing. Either you really enjoy them, or you swear you will never touch them. I always end up buying them if I own the system they're on, but Drakengard 2 is the only one I can ever remember seeing through to the end. (Though I did come close to finishing N3.)
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.
Ignition has released a second trailer for the upcoming DS RTS-RPG Blue Dragon Plus, and it retains that "edge of your seat" feel that they were going for last time, but actually tosses in some gameplay just for good measure. Make sure you're sitting down for this.
I'm impressed that Ignition is putting so much oomph into promoting Blue Dragon Plus. They are certainly outdoing the nearly non-existant advertising campaign that AQ Interactive backed in Japan.
My biggest problem is that though I like Blue Dragon, I still don't like RTS. Hmm, troubling.
Blue Dragon Plus will be available on Nintendo DS in North America next February. It is already available in Japan.
I liked the original Blue Dragon. It was no second coming of RPGs, but it was rather charming and had it's definite high points.
Mistwalker and AQ Interactive struck out to create Blue Dragon Plus, an RTS-RPG hybrid for the Nintendo DS that attempted to capitalize on the series by expanding on the plot of the origin, in a small, handheld-sized serving.
The 2nd of 3 Mistwalker DS games, Blue Dragon Plus has already been confirmed for North American and European release courtesy of Ignition Entertainment, and they have just released a new trailer for it (below):
As a heads-up, this trailer inevitably spoils the end of the original Blue Dragon, so those who have yet to finish it may want to skip this trailer. I must say, the trailer is quite cool, and even on the epic side of things. However, as with most DS trailers, it shows no gameplay, and is perhaps a bit misleading in that the gameplay looks nothing like the vid. Tsk tsk.
Blue Dragon Plus will be available on Nintendo DS in North America sometime next March, with a European date likely close.
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.
Chock one up for Sword Machine rumors! As unearthed from the cryptic AQ Interactive press release, Blue Dragon Plus will indeed be seeing a North American release.
Ignition Entertainment has recently announced that they will be publishing Mistwalker's most recent Nintendo DS title on North American shores in March 2009. Though no specific date has been revealed beyond that, March 2009 falls into AQ Interactive's "fiscal year 2009" (which ends March 31, 2009).
Fans of RTS-RPG hybrids or Blue Dragon should have something to look forward to early next year.
For the RTS-RPG fans out there, Blue Dragon Plus will be launching on Nintendo DS tomorrow. Being the direct sequel to Mistwalker and Microsoft's 2006 Xbox 360 RPG, Blue Dragon Plus follows Shu and his friends in the newly created Cube Worlds as they search for the reason Nene has been revived, and the mystery of the Shadow-wielding machines.
AQ Interactive has released a final trailer before the game launches via their official Blue Dragon Plus website. You can check it out below courtest of GameTrailers.
Lost Odyssey is Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s second project with his independent studio, Mistwalker, in collaboration with Microsoft as publisher, and feelplus as developer. Calling in a soundtrack from long-time composer friend, Nobuo Uematsu, character designs by Japanese manga artist Takehiko Inoue, and plot collaboration with award winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, Lost Odyssey strives for a deeper and more mature plot, realistic graphics, and a very classic approach to turn-based battles. Though the game received what many RPG enthusiasts feel was a beating by critics, the game has been very well received by fans, especially in North America.
Story: A+ Lost Odyssey follows the story of Kaim Argonar, a man fated to live 1000 years without aging a day, but through some unknown power, has been wiped of his memories and forced into the servitude of a wizard politician. Through his journeys and various encounters with other “immortals,” Kaim slowly begins to reconstruct his and his friends’ memories.
Lost Odyssey arguably has two storylines. On one hand, the game’s main storyline focuses on Kaim’s exploits as he and his companions get caught up in the political upheaval of several countries teetering on uneasy alliances. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Kaim’s memories of 1000 years of life begin to return to him, each told through “dreams” penned by Kiyoshi Shigematsu.
The dreams are optional, and are triggered by various encounters or events throughout the game, and though they don’t directly influence much of the storyline, they are absolutely gorgeous works of literature, and some of the most emotional writing ever to grace video gaming. Every now and again, I would get a little annoyed that one would interrupt the flow of the game, but after I read one or two sentences, I forgot all my reservations, and became glued to the screen.
However, the game’s main storyline (the one that you will actually be playing) is also painstakingly written, and represents one of the most compelling examples of legitimately good storytelling. The beginning starts off a little slow, but is not overly tedious in any way, and provides for a nice introduction to a much grander, much more involving story the further you play.
And indeed, Lost Odyssey is a game that starts you off interested, but becomes nearly impossible to put down the further you go. In fact, my only real complaint about Lost Odyssey’s story is that it ends. The game is literally so good, part of me wanted to play it forever.
Visuals: A Running on the Unreal Engine 3, Lost Odyssey looks fantastic. The character models are incredibly detailed, and even the in-game cutscenes could often pass for pre-renders. In fact, if it weren’t for the additional smoothing filters applied to the pre-rendered FMVs, there would be absolutely no difference is quality. Oh, and for the Unreal Engine haters, the game is not brown and grey. It actually achieves a very impressionistic look while retaining a strong link to reality.
In conjunction with the graphics is, of course, the art direction. I’ll admit that when I first saw Lost Odyssey announced back in 2005, its art direction didn’t do much for me. Too dark. Too gritty. Too realistic. However, the more I saw of the game, the more wrong I found that I was. Everything from costume design down to architecture screams attention to detail, and obvious effort was put into making the world of Lost Odyssey feel alive. Character designs are spot-on for their parts, and a few characters in particular (Seth, Sed, and Cooke to name a few) are some of the most individualistic designs I have seen in a long time.
Though I have no complaints about the game’s art direction, the game unfortunately has a few undeniable technical issues that prevent it from achieving a higher grade. Though long load times present in the Japanese version have been addressed in the North American (and assumedly European) version, the game does occasionally suffer from blips in framerate during battle transitions, and can occasionally lead to freezing (never happened to me, but did to a friend with an older console). In general this does not affect the flow of the gameplay (especially once you’re used to it), but needs to be mentioned regardless.
(As a note, it will be interesting to see if this problem is remedied at all by installing the game on your hard drive after the 360’s upcoming Fall update.)
Sound: A+ Lost Odyssey’s soundtrack is Nobuo Uematsu’s best work since the days of the original PlayStation. Simple as that. The soundtrack is absolutely epic throughout the entirety of the game, and there is not one track that I felt was dull or out of place. Indeed, I would easily rank Lost Odyssey’s music on par with classics like Final Fantasy VI, VII, and IX. Words, unfortunately, do not do the soundtrack justice. Just go play the game. You’ll see for yourself.
If Uematsu’s soundtrack is his best in a long time, the English voice acting is the best JRPG voice acting EVER. Each character’s voice is perfect for their character, and each manages a truly brilliant performance that never sounds forced or cheesy. The game was built based on the English cast, so the lip synching is spot on.
In addition, the game contains voice tracks for Japanese, French, Spanish, and a few other languages, should you be so inclined. Though I’m not sure this amount of different casts was necessary, it is definitely a testament to the effort put in by the publisher and developer alike.
The only thing that prevents Lost Odyssey’s score from taking the coveted ‘S’ rank here is (surprisingly) the Japanese voice work, which feels mostly dull and forced, and is among some of the worst voice work I have ever heard in an RPG. Ouch. However, the game was meant to be played in English, and unless you have some kind of strange vendetta against the English language, the poor quality of the Japanese track should never be an issue anyway.
Gameplay: B+ Make no mistake, Lost Odyssey plays like an old school RPG. Battles are (mostly) random and completely turn-based. Magic-users are good at magic and fighters are good with swords. Townspeople will randomly roam around town giving you repeatable information. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. For an RPG fan who really got hooked during the 16-bit era, Lost Odyssey feels almost like playing Super Nintendo RPGs again, and even brings with it a sense of nostalgia to a brand new game.
This is not to say that Lost Odyssey is without innovations. The ring system adds an action-timing mechanic to battles, allowing your characters to add effects to their attacks (elemental, monster-slaying, status effects, and so on) if the Left Trigger is released at the right time. During difficult fights (and you will definitely have difficult fights), using these rings becomes essential to your victory, and having an ample supply of rings at all times is critical (you can switch your characters’ equipment at any time during battle, so you don’t need to worry if you have the wrong ring on).
Additionally, your eventual 9 party members are classified either as “mortals” or “immortals.” Your mortals build their skills very traditionally, learning new moves and abilities as their skill levels increase. Your immortals, however, do not natively learn skills on their own, but must “link” with a mortal’s skills in order to learn them. Your immortals may also learn skills from accessories (like a poison resistance from a poison guard). These skills may then be set to various skill slots so that they can take effect in battle.
Playing straight through the story will probably take you about 50 hours, but Lost Odyssey is far from a game to speed run through, and most players will inevitably work on at least some of the side quests (like slaying the Blue Dragon) or mini-games. The game is not excessively difficult, but is far from a walk in the park either, with some of the bosses offering even the tactically minded a real run for their
money, and at least a couple of game over screens. Overall, I spent nearly 90 hours on the game in one playthrough, and even then didn’t finish off all of the extra content.
Overall: A+ I have one major complaint about Lost Odyssey: it ends. The experience was so blissful for me, that I actually dreaded getting to another disc, as it meant that I was just that much closer to it being over. I quite literally plead with the game to give me “one more dungeon before the next disc.”
In terms of “legitimate” concerns with Lost Odyssey (though I consider the above quite legitimate) are its random battles and minor technical issues. However, neither of these is enough to detract from the amount of polish the game exudes.
Lost Odyssey is a true masterpiece of RPGaming. Everything from the story to the soundtrack, from the art direction to the battle system, is swimming in quality. The game truly offers something for everyone, whether you are a hardcore RPG fan, birthed in the fires of text-based games on your Commodore 64, or a casual fan who likes the odd RPG every now and again. Lost Odyssey is not only the best 7th generation RPG on the market right now, but perhaps the best turn-based RPG in a very long time, and is a solid recommendation to anyone with any kind of love for the genre at all.
It's been a while since I've posted some scans (mostly because I haven't been able to find them online much anymore), but I recently ran across some N3II scans, so here they are!
