Nintendo announced this morning that you will be able to download DS demos via your Wii in the comfort of your own home instead of having to go to a download station in an official Nintendo store. This is an awesome feature that is long overdo, now Nintendo needs to pony up and get with some remote play action like Sony is trying. I will definitely use my DS more if I can try out games and see what they are like before going out to buy them.
[Via Wired]
EA sent over the first batch of screenshots from the new DS title, Orcs & Elves. The RPG looks very good and will ship November 13th with over ten hours of gameplay. From the fact sheet:
Orcs & Elves offers a breathtaking dungeon-crawling experience for any fantasy RPG gamer, featuring an Award-winning storyline spanning twelve sprawling levels within an ancient Dwarven kingdom.
As a young half-elf, a player will explore the ancient mountain-citadel of Zharrharag, a massive Dwarven fortress riddled with ancient treasure, powerful weapons, and waves of ruthless enemies.
The game will utilize the DS touch screen for puzzle solving and inventory management. I’m looking forward to checking this game out when it ships.
Looks like Eternal Sonata will be coming to a PS3 near you some time in the future. Eternal Sonata was not originally named as an exclusive Xbox 360 title, but no one had heard of it being ported over to any other consoles since it’s launch in Japan as Trusty Bell. Looks like the PS3 version has popped up on the official Namco/Bandai site. No date released just yet, but PS3 owners can breath easy knowing they will get a decent RPG coming their way, some may even hold off getting it for the Xbox 360 now.
At the Penny Arcade Expo (better known as PAX), gamers got a chance to see a developer walkthrough of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. This two part video shows character creation, the opening cinematic, and some gameplay.
I’m honestly not sure why they made this an initiative based RPG (not turn based, as pointed out by the developer in the second part of the video). I would have expected an action/adventure type of game, which probably would sell more. I’ll be interested to see some more gameplay as development progresses. I’m sure it’s got a great story, but the gameplay could be iffy.
Here’s your HD goodness.
I’ve never been a big history buff. I learned about Joan of Arc way back in grade school and high school and haven’t really revisited that time period since. But Jeanne d’Arc brings me right back. What was once a bore is now a fun gaming experience. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Jeanne d’Arc for the PSP:
Presentation and Graphics: Jeanne d’Arc utilizes both anime cut scenes and cell shaded character gameplay which works out great. The anime cut scenes look just like watching a movie, as expected. During gameplay and in-game cut scenes, the backgrounds are all layed out nicely with a distinct cell shaded feel for the characters. With everything together, it’s one of the better looking PSP games I’ve seen. The character animations are minimal, but they look pretty good. 4 of 5
The Blue Dragon Demo lets you play two dungeons: The Fortress – three floor’s of Nene’s fortress and the Ancient Ruins – Forest, which you can play either for up to 60 minutes. You can also choose the difficulty you want to play on, either normal or hard for either path. Once you choose your level you are thrown into the dungeon of your choice with your squad and the fighting begins.
First off the game visually looks good, it is like watching a Dragon Ball cartoon and you can see the heavy influence. First thing I did was fight a group of Zebra Poo Snakes. The monsters are visible on the battle field as you walk around so you can choose what battles you want to get into. One you run up to your first Poo monster, it will load up the fight scene for a few seconds, the fight scenes are very familiar to anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game in their life. You choose to either atack, defend, use an item or use your magic and the fighting ensues turn based. The major difference here is that you need to time your attacks by holding the A button and getting it to stop in a bar that is shown, the more difficult the attack the faster the bar moves. Once you kill your mob of enemies a screen comes up to tell you how much gold and experience you gained and how far from your next level each character is. Each character has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but it all seems to boil down to the shadows that fight for them.
This game boils down to a Final Fantasy game with different characters for your Xbox 360, I didn’t see enough in this demo to make me want to go out and buy it, if anything the demo confirmed that this Japanese style RPG may lose it’s appeal stateside. Seemed very status quo as far as RPG’s go.
The Blue Dragon RPG, is an import form Japan that features music from the FF guys and anime from the DB guys. That is a hefty lineup, it almost doesn’t matter what the game is like. So far the screens I have seen from Blue Dragon have not blown me away and I am not sure if it will hold the same poplarity it has in Japan, but let’s see what the main character Shu can do before we toss him ot the curb.
From the press release:
Famed game producer Hironobu Sakaguchi of Mistwalker game studio and developer Artoon present the highly anticipated Xbox 360-exclusive “Blue Dragon.” Featuring the character design of Akira Toriyama, who designed “Dragon Ball Z,” and music by Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for “Final Fantasy,” “Blue Dragon” is an epic role-playing game (RPG) centered on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends. These unlikely heroes possess miraculous strength and magical power to control phantom shadows that mirror the actions of their masters.
Hit the jump for more…
There’s not much to do on vacation in the middle of the wilderness on a lake with no internet, cell phone service, and only 3 channels on TV. Thankfully I had my PSP and a copy of Jeanne d’Arc. I got to spend a good deal of time with the massive handheld RPG and I’m very impressed. The story revolves around Jeanne (aka Joan of Arc for those Westerners out there) trying to save France in the Hundred Years War. Throw in some demons helping the English and King Henry gets possessed, and you’ve got yourself a grade A RPG.
The graphics look good for a PSP title. There’s a lot of anime pre-rendered cut scenes which are very cool, and the in game graphics have a nice cell shaded feel to them. As expected in an RPG, there’s a lot of reading and not a lot of talking. I really wish some developer would put voice overs in for RPG’s. With the size limitations on the UMD disk, I doubt it would make it onto the PSP anyway.
The gameplay is fluid with a very compelling story. You have battles at virtually every setting you visit. The battles consist of your outfit fighting against demons and English soldiers, which a specific task to win (ie. defeat the English soldier, move your troops to the North end, etc). For the turn based combat, you move your selected troop to where you need him/her to attack or use a spell, item, etc., then go at it. Even though it’s semi-repetitive, you don’t get that feel from the game due to the different environments and choice in what 5 troops you want to fight.
Overall, I’m having a very good time with Jeanne d’Arc. It’s a very long game, clocking in at around 40 hours, which is monstrous for the PSP. I think that may detract some buyers who are looking for quick pick-me-up games on their handheld. I’ll have a full review up later this week as I get some more time with the game.
Here’s a new trailer for Folklore for the PS3 showing some of the story and a lot of the gameplay. The game sure is pretty, and the story seems pretty good. It’s set to be an action/adventure game with a lot of RPG elements. It’s selling like hot cakes in Japan, and looks to make a similar impact on the rest of the world.
Here’s your HD goodness.
Peter Molyneux has always been outspoken, but this is surprising. In an interview with Kikizo, he says that “most role playing games are shit!” Ummm, right.
He went on to trash Oblivion, one of the highest rated RPG’s of recent past.
Oblivion was a great game, but the combat was rubbish; we all talked about it being rubbish.
Someone needs to slap Peter silly. His idea of great combat for Fable 2 is a single button for all combat moves. He says that consumers actually prefer to mash buttons.
You would think button mashing would be one thing I’d want to get rid of, but I don’t. For some people, it’s what they want to do.
Can I get a double of whatever he’s drinking? For a man who’s so far behind on his game, I don’t think he’s in a place to be calling everyone else out.
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