Osman Numair
Half-Minute Hero's 2 Edit Mode Revealed
New details on Half-Minute Hero 2’s edit mode, which allows players to create their own half minute adventures and share with the world, have just been announced. Once players complete a level, they can upload it onto a server, allowing fans to download user created quests and even rate them. This is quite similar to other recent games, like Little Big Planet or ModNation Racers, that allow players to express and share their creativity.
New Square-Enix Shooter Announced
Square-Enix has announced a brand new third-person shooter,Gun Loco for the Xbox 360, featuring an art style and gameplay that rings more western than most titles Square Enix fans may be used to. The game will feature an exciting, fast paced single and multiplayer experience. Square-Enix claims that Gun Loco will bring a whole new approach to third-person action games. The game will feature a run-and-gun aspect, which will encourage players to constantly be on the move while chasing or being chased by enemies.
Dragon Quest for Girls in Shibuya
When gamers think of Dragon Quest, they probably think of adventure, exploration, and combat. But a new collaboration between Square Enix and Parco, a clothing outlet in Japan, begs to differ. These two giants are teaming up to release a line of clothing directed at young female Dragon Quest fans or anyone who thinks the little slime creature is cute.
7 Trillion Girls at the Supermarket
Barcode Kanojo or Barcode Grilfriend is a new application developed by Cybird that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to take pictures of barcodes and wind up with randomly generated girlfriends. There will be more than 7 trillion possible generated girls, which will test the size limits of harems everywhere.
NIS Cancels Three Games
Nippon Ichi Software (NIS), famed for strategy RPGs such as Disgaea and Ar tonelico,recently released its company earnings for the first quarter. The company revealed they had suffered a 40% drop in sales compared to last year’s first quarter reports, or about a 15 million yen loss in profit. NIS made 32 million yen profit over the first quarter, yet it still wasn't enough to save some of its up-and-coming games. They will be canceling development on three titles as a result. However, they have not announced which titles would be cancelled. While this may be sad news for many NIS fans, there will still be plenty of games coming from the popular studio, including the upcoming Criminal Girls. The popular Disgaea series will most likely be safe as well. Chin up, guys!
[Source: andriasang.com]
Half-Minute Hero Sequel Announced
Half-Minute Hero for the PSP was a well received game by many critics in the USA when it was released back in October. According to Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, there will be a sequel to the entertaining game called Yuusha 30 Second.
The new game will included five different scenarios and will offer 90 different quests based on those scenarios. If players run out of quests, they can easily go online and download some more. Similar to Little Big Planet and ModNation Racers, players can create their own quest which can be later uploaded to a server and shared around the world.
Yuusha 30 Second will be released in Japan November 4. There have been no release dates announced outside of Japan.
UPDATE: The teaser site for Yuusha 30 Second just opened up here. It leads to a Famitsu preview with screenshots.
[Source: Siliconera]
Sega Announces Shining Hearts
Sega is taking its Shining series to the PSP with its new installment Shining Hearts. According to Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, the game will be released this winter for about $60.
According to Famitsu, the game will stray away from the action RPG style seen in previous titles like Shining Tears. Shining Hearts will be a traditional Japanese RPG where gameplay centers around the theme of love and bonds between each character. Players must collect "hearts" throughout the game, which will change the state of the players' home island, Wyndaria Island, and allow players to open up new areas to the world and progress the story further.
Charity Auction @ Fanime 2010
The Fanime Charity auction has been around for awhile and every year items are sold off for an important cause. This year’s beneficiary was the Red Cross. The auction was hosted by Ric Meyers, who is a martial arts expert and has hosted Fanime for a couple of years. There were many items up for auction. While most items go for a little less then a hundred dollars, there were some that went up to a couple of hundred dollars. Of course these items are original art pieces and sketches. There were other items that were interesting including an acoustic guitar, tambourine, and a cow bell. All three instruments were sold with signatures of all the musical guests at this year's Fanime including Flow, LM.C and Halko Momoi. Probably the most interesting item sold was a unique figure that went on a special trip to Japan. Last year, the figure was sent to studio GAINAX and has returned this year to Fanime. The figure comes with a complete set of signatures from various artists and animators from the studio. In addition, pictures of characters from various GAINAX series and signed character accessories were included in the auction. The charity auction is always an interesting event to attend. The reactions of fans to high bidding is quite amusing. Charity auction is one way for otakus to do something good for the society instead of spending all of their money on items without a cause.
Last Rebellion Review
Last Rebellion is the first console RPG developed by studio Hit Maker and published by RPG giant, Nippon Ichi Software. Hit Maker’s previous entries, Dragoneer's Aria, Blade Dancer, and A Witch's Tale were decent RPGs in their own right, but this is Hit Maker’s first attempt on the Playstation 3. The thought of these two companies working together is very exciting. Last Rebellion is a game that many gamers will over look because it's not as popular as a Final Fantasy or Star Ocean game. Does Last Rebellion have the potential to become a great hit?
Nujabes: Rest in Beats Panel @ Fanime 2010
Fanime is known for its well informed panels and open forums. Many of these events are light hearted and for entertaining purposes. This year’s Fanime had a special panel that was just the opposite. Nujabes: Rest in Beats was a panel opened to the fans of the late and great Seba Jun aka Nujabes. Nujabes had died last February in an accident in Tokyo, but the announcement of his death didn’t happen until weeks later. News of his death spread quickly thanks to social outlets such as Facebook. Nujabes was well known for his soothing beats and music compositions from the anime hit Samurai Champloo. At the panel, fans were allowed to express their remorse and the impact Nujabes had on their lives. The panel was hosted by Austin and Thomas from eigoMANGA who are both fans of Nujabes. They were accompanied by two hip-hop artist Noka and Lonewolf who later performed a tribute song to Nujabes using the fan favorite Aruarian Dance composed by Nujabes. Nujabes will always be remembered for the great songs he made and it will live on in the hearts of his many fans.