Valkyria Chronicles 2: My Impressions and Views
Valkyria Chronicles 2's hero, Avan Hardins
It's been a pretty interesting last few days for Valkyria Chronicles fans. Not only has the sequel to the cult classic PS3 title, Valkyria Chronicles, finally hit North American shelves and the PlayStation Network, but there have been rumours of a Valkyria Chronicles 3 title. The rumours of Valkyria Chronicles 3 started last week when it was discovered that Sega had purchased the domain name valkyria3.jp. These rumours further gained substance when a teaser site was opened up at http://code1935.jp/ which currently features a single image with the silhouettes of character classes and tanks from the franchise and a date, September 16th, which just happens to be the first day of the Tokyo Game Show this year.
Insomniac Games boldy goes multiplatform… for 1 new game…
It's a different time these days with gamers split between the PlayStation 3, X-Box 360 and Wii, it's a far cry from the previous generation in which the King of the Mountain was the PlayStation 2. With the amount of Wiis, PS3s and 360s out there it is no surprise that more and more third party developers have decided to go multi-platform to recuperate development costs and make a profit while also being able to get their games into as many homes as possible. What is a developer to do when there is a near 50-50 split of X-Box 360 owners as there are PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners (the Wii is another story entirely)? It would seem pretty silly for any third party developer to not make the most of this and double their audience and offer their games on both consoles.
The only disappointing thing about this trend, this generation, is that it seems the majority of video game developers that have gone multi-platform are ones who were previously closely tied to the PlayStation brand, i.e. Square Enix, rather than ones who have been tied to Microsoft and their X-Box brand. We can now add one more developer into the hat of previous PlayStation-centric developers who have gone the way of the multi-platform side, Insomniac Games!
Tales of Vesperia: PS3, NO THANK YOU NORTH AMERICA
Tales of Vesperia, initially a X-Box 360 exclusive, has seen itself move from the X-Box 360 to the PS3 within a year of its release on the X-Box 360 nearly two summers ago. When the PS3 port of the game was announced, it was hoped by North American fans of Namco Bandai's Tales series that the PS3 version would be localized and released in North America. There were rumours that the title was in the midst of being localized only a month after the Japanese version was released as Troy Baker, who voiced the main character Yuri Lowell, commented that the voice cast was getting back together to record additional content for the game. This did not come as a surprise as the PS3 version, released in Japan in September 2009, had additional voiced scenes and an additional character (a pirate named Patty) that were not present in the 360 version.
Mistwalker’s Last Story?
A little over a month ago we finally heard of Mistwalker Corp's latest project after months of speculation. Over the past few months we've heard bits and pieces on the blog of Mistwalker's head, Hironobu Sakaguchi, as well as illustrations that were posted on the Mistwalker website were at best cryptic as to what the new game would be. Since the vague announcement last June it was expected that the newest game might be released on the X-Box 360, in light of Microsoft's financial assistance when Mistwalker was founded, or even the Nintendo DS, as their most recent games were released for the DS. It came as a surprise when the new title was unveiled as coming to the Nintendo Wii with the launch of an official website which includes the game's logo and a piece of music.
Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker
I just came across a news post over on Kotaku regarding some development news regarding Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. A Konami spokesperson, Jiro Oishi, during an interview on the Kojima Productions Blog mentioned that during the initial development process that the upcoming PSP Metal Gear Solid game was originally entitled Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker.
What Final Fantasy XIII looked like as a PS2 game
According to FinalFantasy-XIII.net there are some scans that have found their way online from a series of thick volumes published by Square Enix recently. Amongst this group of scans are ones from very early builds of the game built for PS2 hardware. The art style incorporated into the early PS2 builds are quite different from what we ended up in the PS3/360 version of the game. It's quite interesting to see that Square Enix changed their minds about the art styles they were planning on using with the PS2; it makes me wonder if the choice was due to the improved hardware present in the PS3.
Final Fantasy XIII: Confirmed North American Release Date
Lightning is coming sooner than you think...
So it looks like the earlier rumour was false but not far from the truth. Last week Square Enix was teasing an announcement of some kind via PlayStation Home on Friday. As Friday approached there were further speculation that it would be a trailer with never before seen footage.
Final Fantasy XIII: APRIL 15th 2010, Yes please
According to website The 13th Crystal, via French video game retailer Micromania, who posted the release date on their website. Apparently Micromania was holding a special event called Micromania Game Show earlier today and have a Final Fantasy XIII part later in the evening where the date is supposed to be official.
Also confirmed is that Eidos (soon to be Square Enix Europe) will be responsible for publishing the title in Europe. Obviously some might think, [i]What does a European retailer have anything to do with a North American release?[/i], well the game is supposed to launch simultaneously in North America and Europe which explains things quite nicely.
Update: Turns out that Eidos has denied the release date, so consider this to be a rumour for now.
Sources: Micromania (Français), The 13th Crystal
Final Fantasy XIII: From TGS it comes!
It's been a while since I last updated this site with my views and some news, and what better way to get back in the swing of things by posting up the Final Fantasy XIII trailer from this year's Tokyo Game Show.
As a nod to fans of both the original Japanese audio and English audio I've shared the trailers (via Gametrailers) below.
Serah becomes Serrah
Originally posted: 09/18/2009
In the latest issue of V-Jump in Japan we get some clear, crisp, vibrant images of Final Fantasy XIII love interest extraordinaire Serrah Farron. The images in V-Jump showcase Serrah and Snow enjoying a date during a festival of some sort in Cocoon, however things seem turn sour, in the second magazine scan, when Serrah begins solidifying into a crystal-like form.
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