Shin Megami Tensei IV for 3DS will be released this Summer 2013 revealed Nintendo at the Nintendo Direct conference! This is exciting news, as Atlus next major title in the long-running breakout RPG series has been highly anticipated by fans, who will be ecstatic to know that they can get their hands on the game so soon!
More coming.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies will be released in 2014 for 3DS announced Nintendo via their April 17th Nintendo Direct 3DS Conference. The game will include a mind-boggling 500 new puzzles and will conclude the second Professor Layton prequel trilogy that started with “Professor Layton and the Last Specter”.
More soon.
The American box art for the Yellow 3DS XL Pikachu Edition!
The Pikachu 3DS XL is yellow in color (naturally) and features the adorable rat square and center in the middle of the front of the system. It will also include a 4GB SD Card and will cost $200. I’m pretty positive that this is the first yellow-colored Nintendo system since the Yellow Game Boy Color that came with Pokemon Yellow way back in the day! (i.e., 1999 I believe).
However it’s worth noting that the Pikachu 3DS XL system is NOT bundled with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity, the two are sold separately. Which is an odd decision, I’d think Nintendo would want to raise the profile of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series by including it with the yellow Pikachu 3DS.
Oooo very yellow!
Maybe Nintendo thinks that the Pikachu 3DS would go better with the upcoming Pokemon X & Y, and will bundle it with those games at a later date? Time will tell. Nintendo also recently released a special Fire Emblem: Awakening 3DS system bundle, for those who are keeping count.
This Pikachu 3DS-XL is a really neat looking system. I’ll definitely want to get my hands on it at some point!
As for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, it is the 3rd installment in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, which began on the Game Boy Advance with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team in 2006 (If “Mystery Dungeon” sounds familiar, that’s because it in itself is an RPG line of games developed by Chunsoft. Few of the games have made it to the West, but you may have heard of Chocobo Mystery Dungeon or “Chocobo’s Dungeon” or Siren the Wanderer, both titles in the “Mystery Dungeon” line).
A Blue Rescue Team version was also available for the original DS in 2006, making it one of the few games ever to get a simultaneous release on both Game Boy Advance and DS. The sequels followed in 2007 with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness for DS. An enhanced remake (similar to the extra-colored Pokemon editions like Yellow, Emerald, Crystal, and Platinum) was released in 2009 for DS called “Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky” that included updated features over the original Explorers of Time & Darkness games.
And finally that brings us to the 3DS game Gates to Infinity in 2013. It’s also worth noting that a WiiWare Pokemon Mystery Dungeon spin-off was released exclusively in Japan and no where else called “Blazing Adventure Squad”, “Stormy Adventure Squad” and “Light Adventure Squad” (different versions).
All Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games are a subset of RPG called a “Roguelike”. These games are normally extremely difficult, but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon makes them more accessible and gives a “for everyone including kids” spin on the Roguelike genre. Rogue-likes feature randomly-generated, turn-based maps/dungeons, tile-based battles, hardcore level-grinding (where you have to keep fighting many enemies to get strong enough to proceed) and often feature perma-death (meaning characters that die stay dead forever). Most of these games are dungeon-crawls, meaning the vast majority of the game takes place inside dungeons with multiple floors. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon however features fantastic character development, extremely witty and hilarious writing, and an incredibly deep storyline where the Pokemon themselves actually speak and talk, and are their own unique characters.
If you’ve never played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, I highly recommend it. And this is coming from someone who had never played a Rogue-like before nor is a big Pokemon fan!
Here is a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity trailer video.
About Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity:
Discover the incredible 3D world of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, where Pokémon speak and amazing adventures are always nearby! What’s more, you will become a Pokémon yourself! You’ll meet all kinds of Pokémon throughout the game, both in the towns you’ll visit and the Mystery Dungeons you’ll explore.
Have fun exploring more than 20 dungeons filled with all kinds of Pokémon, treasure, and surprises! Each of the dungeons you’ll explore has unique characteristics, including the Pokémon you’ll find, the number of floors in the dungeon, and the types of terrain you’ll have to deal with. Some of the Pokémon you battle will offer to join your team, too!
The first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game for 3DS.
In addition to the dungeons you’ll delve into during the main story, you can use the Nintendo 3DS Camera to discover Magnagates—entrances to new dungeons—by scanning everyday objects around you!
Join up with people nearby who are also playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity to explore and battle through dungeons together! Up to four people can play at a time. You can play as any of the Pokémon on your team—you don’t have to battle as your main Pokémon character.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity arrives for the Nintendo 3DS system on March 24th, 2013, both in stores and in the Nintendo eShop.
Here is a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Demo Let’s Play Video.
Happy Pie Day 2013!
Hahahaha. Gotta love this photo. It’s great to see playful pics of the President visiting with children, these pics always bring a smile to my face. :D
Can’t wait to see this!
Lots of new tour dates across the United States have been added (mostly on the West Coast, however), along with several solo shows throughout many other countries. If you live in the U.S., then 2013 is definitely your year to do what you can to try and make it out to see a Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses show! You will NOT be disappointed!
This new tour dates come off the heels of a highly successfully tour of Australia last month in February, so the Zelda Symphony truly is global now!
To buy Zelda Symphony of the Godesses tickets you can do so at the official website. Be sure to buy them months in advance, these shows are very likely to sell out!
2013 Zelda Symphony of the Godesses Orchestral Concert Tour New Dates
USA March 16 – Portland, Oregon @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
UK May 23 – London, United Kingdom: Hammersmith Apollo
FRANCE May 25 – Paris, France: Le Palais des Congrès
GERMANY May 28 – Berlin, Germany: Tempodrom
USA June 6 – Atlanta, Georgia: Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center
USA June 10 – San Francisco, California: Davies Symphony Hall
USA June 12 – Los Angeles, California: The Greek Theatre
CANADA June 14 – Montréal, Quebec: Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
USA June 29 – Austin, Texas: Long Center
CANADA September 7 – Toronto, Ontario: Sony Performing Arts Centre
USA September 12 – Seattle, Washington: Benaroya Hall
I have previously gone to see Video Games Live (also a symphony orchestral event) with my family and friends and it was AMAZING. I spent around $600 to take everyone and buy lots of merch and it was well worth it… Even though we literally had the worst seats in the house at the back row! It is still my plan to also see the Distant Worlds: Final Fantasy orchestra concert. Hopefully I’ll see both as both shows will be coming to California (I live in Arizona, right next door) this summer! :D
Nintendo Direct Valentine’s Day was a hit as Nintendo revealed lots of new information and release dates for upcoming games for WiiU, 3DS, and their digital services.
Although there were no megaton announcements, there is a lot to get excited about from Nintendo. And we have a very exciting E3 2013 to look forward too, where hopefully Nintendo will make waves with the first footage of the new WiiU Zelda, WiiU Metroid, WiiU and 3DS Smash Bros., and whatever else they have under their sleeves!
For now enjoy these Nintendo Direct full video presentations!
The English titlescreen for the USA release of Atelier Ayesha.
It is the latest game in the long-running but little-played Atelier series. An RPG franchise based on the art of Alchemy, where players spend the game exploring a world in which to find and collect various items, that they can then combine into recipes to create better items and more powerful spells in an artists workshop.
Collect items to brew more powerful potions and magic using Alchemy.
Sadly for fans of the series, most of the games have stayed in Japan. Although many of them have been localized as well. Other than the alchemy angle, the game’s are standard Japanese RPG, anime-style fare.
Here is the very anime Atelier Ayesha opening movie intro.
This latest game, Ayesha, stars a girl alchemist named Ayesha Altugle whose been forced to live by herself ever since her grandfather died. Following that event, her younger sister Nio has gone missing, leaving Ayesha alone. On the day that Nio disappeared, Ayesha was out gathering medicinal herbs… Now she sells those ingredients to make a living for herself. One lucky day, she discovers that her sister is in fact alive, somewhere in the wide expanse of the world. Thus begins her quest to find her sister.
This is what battles look like in this RPG.
Fans of the series will probably be disappointed to learn that Atelier Ayesha is the first localized Atelier game to only include English recorded vocals, and does not include Dual-Track support so you can listen to the voice acting in its native Japanese (the way most anime fans prefer it). This is a big change from past titles which always featured both the English and Japanese voices included in the game.
Exploring the field and overworld in typical RPG fashion.
However Tecmo Toei is aware of the issue and aware that fans desire dual-audio-track support, and promises that the next entry will include both the Japanese and English voices. They are in fact embarrassed that it was cut for Ayesha. They told Siliconera, “We are very sorry. We have confirmed the voice option information with Atelier series developer Gust and for this title, Atelier Ayesha, it will be English only. We know how important this is for you and we will try to implement the voice option in the future Atelier releases. We aren’t happy with the lack of a dual-audio feature either, and we understand and share the concerns of our Atelier fan community,” said Tecmo Koei Europe representative Chin Soon Sun.
A sexy purple witch dress for Ayesha.
If you aren’t familiar with the Atelier RPG series, here is some background. Ever since the early 2000’s, the West has seen several of the games released. However to the unitiated the sheer amount of releases in the series, the confusing names, and the fact that there are multiple and differing “series”, make everything very convoluted and hard-to-understand. There have been several different “series” in the franchise, and they include: The Salburg Series (the first and debut titles), The Gramnad Series, The Iris Series (the first one English speakers will be familiar with), The Mana Series, and The Arland Series. Additionally there are several side-stories and one-offs, although only one of them has been localized for the West (2009’s DS RPG Atelier Annie).
Here is the entire list of Atelier franchise releases in America (In order by release date and system):
* Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (PS2, 2005)
* Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (PS2, 2006)
* Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2, 2007)
* Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (PS2, 2008)
* Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (PS2, 2009)
* Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island (DS 2009)
* Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland (PS3, 2010)
* Atelier Toton: The Adventure of Arland (PS3, 2011)
* Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (PS3, 2012)
Phew! Still many of the games in the series have never been released outside of Japan (and some of the games just listed were not released outside of the United States).
These Japan only titles include the debut games in the franchise:
* Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg, which released for PS1 in 1997 and it’s sequels:
* Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg 2 (PS1, 1998) and
* Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg 3 (PS2, 2001).
Other Japan-only releases include:
* Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad (PS2, 2002)
* Atelier Violet: The Alchemist of Gramnad 2 (PS2, 2003)… From here is when the U.S. started seeing the games released. Even so, we missed out on:
* Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad – Imprisoned Guardian (PSP 2010)
* Atelier Violet: The Alchemist of Gramnad 2 – The Memories of Ultramarine (PSP, 2011)
* Atelier Elkrone: Dear For Otomate (PSP, 2012) and
* Atelier Totori Plus (PS Vita, 2012), although that latter game may still be released here.
We also missed out on these “Side-Games” in the series:
* Marie & Elie: Atelier Pair (Wonderswan Color, 2001)
* Marie To Elie Atelier (Dreamcast 2001)
* Hermina & Culus: Atelier Lilie Another Story (PS2, 2001)
* Atelier Marie, Elie & Anis: Message On the Gentle Breeze (Game Boy Advance, 2003)
* Atelier Lise: The Alchemist of Orde~ (DS, 2007) and
* Atelier Lina: The Alchemist of Strahl (DS, 2009).
In fact the only side-game released in the US was the second-to-last, “Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island” which hit DS in 2009 in America, but was not released in Europe. PHEW. Now that is a lot of entries, essentially one or two a year!
So if you want to know what this Atelier RPG franchise is all about, track down either the first PS2 game released in the West (Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana for PS2 2005), or the first game in the Mana series (Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, PS2 2008) or, and probably the easiest one to play and find, track down the first PS3 game entitled “Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland” (PS3 2010). Once you’ve played one of them, you can attempt to track down the others and judge whether you enjoyed it enough to seek out other games.
Very slick and very nice looking new white 500GB PS3.
This marks the first time ever that a white PS3 system has been officially released in America, and this will be the first time a PS3 system bundle has included a whopping 500GB hard drive. Keep in mind however that all PS3’s have the ability to simply unscrew the included Hard Drive for a larger capacity model purchased seperately. So your mileage may vary.
This new white PS3 system includes a matching white Dual Shock 3 controller, alongside a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus, which will instantly grant players 12 Free PS3 titles ranging from LittleBigPlanet 2, to Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One to Infamous 2, and a number of other free games and content that PlayStation Plus subscribers have access too (those 12 free games are rotated out each month however, and you lose access to them when your PS Plus Membership runs out).
This PS3 system bundle is officially called the “Classic White PS3 Instant Game Collection Bundle”, and it is definitely a great deal for those who do not yet own a PS3 system. This system is the Super Slim Model, following the original Slim model released in 2009 and the PS3 “Phat” original design released in 2006.
It’s finally coming officially! Spring 2013 in America for Wii by XseeD! THANK YOU!
Thanks to the tremendous sales success of The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles, and the infinite push of the Operation Rainfall campaign of fans who clamored, begged, pleaded, worked, promoted and pushed for the American release of these three Japanese RPG-style titles to be released; XSeed has proudly announced that they WILL finally publish Pandora’s Tower in America!
This is a huge win for American gamers, RPG/adventure fans, and a true example of the power of the consumer, who pushed for change, went out and bought the two previous Operation Rainfall Wii titles (Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story) in big numbers, and finally got the attention of publishers who decided to put the resources into making it happen!
“It’s fantastic to be bringing such a highly-anticipated title like Pandora’s Tower to such a vocal fan base,” said XSEED President Shinichi Suzuki. “North American gamers have been very patient in waiting for this game to be released, and we’re confident they will be pleased when they get their hands on the title.”
Please create a storm of support for XSeed Games! Give your thanks to the XSeed Facebook page, the official XSeed Pandora’s Tower USA Facebook Page, and email Xseed to tell them how much you appreciate them choosing to bring Pandora’s Tower, officially, to the U.S.!
Even since the beginning of the Operation Rainfall movement (which has now grown into a full-blown website devoted to covering the great games and RPGs that get lost between the cracks), Pandora’s Tower was always considered to be the least likely game of the Japanese trio to get released. Indeed, since late last year, everyone moved on and assumed it would never actually get released in the States. Thankfully that has changed, and hopefully it will become another huge seller for XSeed!
I also hold out hope that XSeed and Nintendo will come to their senses, and release all three titles in an Operation Rainfall trilogy pack for Wii U. These games deserve to be played, and the ailing Wii cannot do them justice. They deserve a re-release! This would also double as greatly increasing the Wii U’s stable of RPGs in the Wii U game library, which remains pretty much non-existent right now. If these were to be the first major RPGs released for Wii U, that’d go a long way towards making the WiiU a fantastic RPG machine.
Pandora’s Tower Synopsis:
Developed in Japan by Ganbarion, Pandora’s Tower takes the classic fairytale theme of a maiden in distress and adds a violent twist, with the protagonist setting out to slay over a dozen giant monsters and collect their flesh in order to free his beloved from an evil curse. The agreement with Nintendo grants XSEED Games exclusive publishing rights to Pandora’s Tower in North America.
A tale of unfortunate circumstances, Pandora’s Tower opens in the Kingdom of Elyria, where an unassuming singer named Elena succumbs to a wretched curse during a festival performance. Bearing an arcane mark on her back, she starts transforming into a savage monster, causing the town guards to attempt to kill her in order to prevent it. A young ex-mercenary named Aeron, whose heart has forever been pledged to Elena, whisks her away in the nick of time – and with the help of a mysterious witch named Mavda, he learns what must be done to avert her wretched fate. He must descend into The Scar, a massive chasm tied down by twelve chains connected to a floating island in its center, atop which sit thirteen interconnected towers. There, he must use his sword and a sacred chain to battle his way through each tower and extract the flesh of the boss “masters” that dwell within, which Elena must consume in order to reverse her ongoing transformation. But the clock is ticking! The longer Aeron takes to vanquish each beast, the less human Elena becomes, affecting her character and the game’s final outcome in a profound manner. Time is of the essence…
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