TheAkiba » Games

Mahoutsukai no Yoru

YoU — Sat, 19 May 2012 15:10:15 +0000

After several times of delay, TYPE-MOON‘s latest work Mahoutsukai no Yoru (魔法使いの夜, A Magician’s Night, Witch on the Holy Night) was finally released last month on April 12. As part of the TYPE-MOON’s 10th anniversary plan, we just learned that the series will have a total of three parts. As an ADV game, Mahoutsukai no Yoru appears to lack of the traditional way of selecting from options and different routes. For better description, the series is a pure visual novel, without even voice casts. But the character design really stands out. Featuring Hirokazu Koyama (こやまひろかず), all the characters are just lovely and the novel is a pleasure to read. Personally like Alice Kuonji (久遠寺有珠) over Aoko Aozaki (蒼崎青子) and you can tell that from my avatar.

According to ANN, in an recent interview with 4Gamer, Kinoko Nasu (奈須きのこ), the co-founder and the writer behind all the TYPE-MOON’s works, revealed that the two sequels of the series were already in works, and the series’s story “starts in earnest” with the second game. In the recent issue of printed Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞), TYPE-MOON was considered to be the best brand in the light novel game industry (Tweet and Pic).

In addition, Nasu also talked about the future plan of the company. He noted that TYPE-MOON will take RPG Fate/Extra CCC as their first priority, and also work on the remake of Tsukihime (月姫, Lunar Princess), which has been expected for years by fans (yes, we do!). As for the 3rd volume of the DDD (Decoration Disorder Disconnection) novel series, Nasu would return to work after Mahoutsukai no Yoru is finished. Taking the delay of the series into consideration, recalling that we first mentioned about the release of Mahoutsukai no Yoru in more than three years ago, we assume it would take another few years.

For illustration fans, as a relatively new artist, Hirokazu Koyama (こやまひろかず) is responsible for the whole Mahoutsukai no Yoru series. Personally quite like his style compared with Takashi Takeuchi (武内崇), another co-founder and illustrator of Fate series. I do have to say both illustrators in TYPE-MOON are of great talent and they happened to be in the same company, together with Nasu, creating a legend that no other company in this industry can catch up with.

Like Mahoutsukai no Yoru and want to play the game? You can get it on the following online store: J-List, Play-Asia and Amazon Japan.

Source: 4Gamer

This post Mahoutsukai no Yoru was written originally at TheAkiba.

.hack//The Movie CG Film PV

YoU — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:24:22 +0000

If you still remember what we mentioned a while a ago about the CG film .hack//The Movie of game series .hack, you will probably happy with this news. With a subtitle of .hack//Sekai no Mukou ni (ドットハック//セカイの向こうに), the movie was premiered in Japan in last month on January 21st and for fans who failed to reach the cinema, Namco Bandai Games has just began streaming a 12-minute PV of the movie.

The story is set in 2024, when children have lived their entire lives since birth in a world connected by networks. A cheerful 14-year-old middle school girl named Sora Yuuki has no interest in games, but her friends get her to go into the popular network game “The World”. However, due to “a certain incident” in The World, anomalies start occurring in the real world. (Plot via ANN)

As you might have already learned, CyberConnect 2 is also working on a new game of the series that takes place one year after the events of the movie and will feature Haseo once again. Stay tuned and we will bring more updates on the game.

via Siliconera

This post .hack//The Movie CG Film PV was written originally at TheAkiba.

New Love Plus Girlfriend Mail

YoU — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:11:29 +0000

KONAMI is ready to release their latest work, the New Love Plus (NEWラブプラス) on your 3DS and according to the official website, Konami is launching a new E-mail service based on the new game. Even though I don’t know the reason why people still keep an 3DS (except for this game), as well as why I have my PSP at the bottom of my drawer, the new service sounds like a great deal to drain your wallet (around 300 JPY/Month). With a title of New Love Plus Girlfriend Mail (NEWラブプラスカノジョメール), the new service, as well as the game which schedule to release tomorrow on Valentine’s Day, enable you to receive E-mails from your New Love Plus girlfriend. The girls will send you E-mails regarding daily happenings, chatter and so-forth. No some really impress technology but it service the purpose. Since right now KONAMI has no intention to make this game available on other much more popular devices like PSP or iPhone, the new game and service has a relatively small market.

Well, actually there is are three very simple games for your iPhone. These are just some virtual dating games which can not compete with the original one. Also accidentally ran into a really poor-written post about the games while researching for this post on TIME. Have no intentions to debate for the games since I haven’t tried but the author wrote some really subjective opinions on huge site like TIME. And surprisingly, TIME let the post go without taking care of whether the content was correct. Guess they just focus on quantity instead of quality.

This post New Love Plus Girlfriend Mail was written originally at TheAkiba.

PSP Game Shining Blade PV

YoU — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:08:29 +0000

After a long time of waiting, the promotion video of PSP game series Shining Blade finally comes. The 215-minute video was streamed on Gamer featuring the battle system and character introductions. If you are a fan of the Shining series from SEGA, you should already familiar with the characters since the new game will be feature characters from the previous series with an really old story and plot. And perhaps Tony Taka’s great illustrations and all the exciting cast staffs’ performance will be the only selling points this March.

Apart from the PV, the an Anime of Shining Hearts is also scheduled to air this Sping in April. For fans who didn’t play the game before, check out the review for more. The Shining Blade game will be released on March 15, you can start the pre-order now.

[Links: Source, Official Website]

This post PSP Game Shining Blade PV was written originally at TheAkiba.

Shining Blade PSP Game to be Released March 2012

YoU — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:55:18 +0000

We’ve just mentioned the announcement of the upcoming Shining Hearts TV Anime a couple of days ago, now we have another great news from the game maker of the series. After the long wait, finally SEGA has announced its latest work of the Shining series Shining Blade (シャイニング・ブレイド) to be released on March 15, 2012. Like the previous series Shining Hearts, Shining Blade will still be running on PSP and we fans are happy not to line up for the upcoming PS Vita this weekend. SEGA has already announced the price tag (around 7,000 JPY) and it’s available for pre-order online. For those who order the retail version, a fan disc (Sakuya is so cute…) will be included featuring collection of movie, songs, card game, art book (guess that’s what most of us eager for) and so forth. SEGA has already streamed the opening Animation of the game since last month. Pretty much the same style as the previous work while it should be considered as good for a PSP game of this quality.

As for the story and setting, Shining Blade appears to be a collection of previous famous characters from the Shining series. You can choose few among 20 characters to become partners joining you during the battle, and we are able to see lots of familiar faces in Shining Wind, Shining Tears and Shining Hearts. Luckily, as I mentioned in my previous review of Shining Hearts, we finally able to team up with characters like Hayane and Maxima who lack of appearance in Shining Hearts. And surprisingly (really?), I am more than happy to learn that Sakuya (who renamed as Maxima, the future version of Sakuya in Shining Hearts) will become one of the female protagonists of Shining Blade.

However, by simply giving a new identity and description of previous characters without even redraw won’t necessary create any attractiveness for newcomers. Luckily, we have a brand new battle system featuring 3D technology and bunch of other surprises. The effect of the battle scenes is quite good as you can see below.

The game has already in my must-play list since the mention early this year, will sure to bring up review after clear the game next year. Check out the opening below.

[Links: Source, Source]

This post Shining Blade PSP Game to be Released March 2012 was written originally at TheAkiba.

Fate/Apocrypha: New Project of TYPE-MOON

YoU — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:57:27 +0000

Source reveals that in the upcoming 7th volume of TYPE-MOON ACE, a new project named Fate/Apocrypha will be announced on December 15. As you might not have learned, according to ANN, Fate/Apocrypha was firstly revealed as an online game set during the story’s Holy Grail War but failed to be released. The latest volume of the magazine will also include a demo of the upcoming Mahoutsukai no Yoru (魔法使いの夜, Witch of the Holy Night) (well, I think it has been delayed for quite a while since 2009) and a mascot figure (which is what I really want).

So far we don’t have any clue about the new project. Well, it could be a great online game and image you can fight for your own Holy Grail. But from what we can see in the below images, it could either be a PSP battle game or similar kinds. But what surprises me is that neither Takashi Takeuchi (武内崇) or Hirokazu Koyama (こやまひろかず, visit blog) is the illustrator of the new project. Which also means we can have a lot to expect.

Links: Source

This post Fate/Apocrypha: New Project of TYPE-MOON was written originally at TheAkiba.

One Piece Kaizoku Musou Game for PS3 Confirmed

YoU — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:55:47 +0000

Recent rumor of a One Piece Kaizoku Musou (ワンピース海賊無双) game for PS3 was finally confirmed. According to a full-page campaign on the latest issue of Shonen Jump (Vol.39), it is said that Bandai Namco Games will release action game for the PlayStation 3 console in Japan. Further promotion video and footage will be available during September 17 to 18 at TGS2011 (Tokyo Game Show 2011) event at the Makuhari Messe center. Bandai is running a countdown on the official website till Monday. No specific release date was announced.

To all the One Piece fans with a PlayStation 3 console, this is a great news. We used to have Shin Sangoku Musou (真・三國無双), 戦国無双 (Sengoku Musou) and Gundam Musou (ガンダム無双). As you can tell from the look of Luffy, the game will set the stage after the two-year period in the Anime and Manga series.

[Links: Source]

This post One Piece Kaizoku Musou Game for PS3 Confirmed was written originally at TheAkiba.

PSP Game Valkyria Chronicles 3 Released

YoU — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:44:30 +0000

There were several big events today. The early announced of the second generation of PSP2 (NGP), and two PSP game Valkyria Chronicles 3 (戦場のヴァルキュリア3) and PSP AVG game Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Portable (俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがないポータブル). The previous two were covered earlier on Dannychoo.com and you can check them out on Kotaku also.

Riela Marcellis

Imca

Like the game, you can now get it on Play-Asia.

Who do you like better? Riela or Imca? Watch the cute video below before making a choice For who don’t understand Japanese, it’s just some normal story happened in common Anime series. But she’s so cute! Tell us who she is. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This post PSP Game Valkyria Chronicles 3 Released was written originally at TheAkiba.

PSP Game Shining Hearts Review

YoU — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:24:27 +0000

Shining Hearts, the first game of Shining series from SEGA I played, also the first PSP RPG game I played. Released back at the end of 2010, the quality of the game, judging from the details released at the official website and over populated “illustrated by Tony Taka”, is just awesome and there could be tens of thousands of reason that I will need to give it a shot. So I did.

The Overview

Hands on and it works like a charm. The opening video offers a good quality as a Kyoto Anime (and maybe we can anticipate one in the future like Shining Tears X Wind) does and the first impression is worth the waiting. Continue to the story and you will have to choose from three heroines. Of course, Neris (ネリス) is my favorite though they have the same CV’s back: Kanae Itou (伊藤かな恵). Not a very popular voicer in my opinion but I love her voice a lot, especially in the game. The story starts and the flow is fine in total.

The System

To clear the game, I used about 40 hours. Probably a reasonable time for a RPG of this time. I used to spent around 60 hours to clear the PS2 RPG Grandia III and it is still my favorite RPG game of all, and around 100 hours for Final Fantasy XII. Back to the Shining Heats game on the Portable device, it has a great quality in terms of all the illustrations and a great battle system in my opinion.

To point out, the Pan system is unique and the official website has already promote it a lot. In the game, you can collect different materials and make Pan for any characters in order to please them or help them out. In this way you collect different sorts of Hearts and these Hearts will be helpful if you want to use Skills in the battle system.

So much for the battle system and I did enjoy the game in this way a lot and it didn’t make me bore. But the enemy is so weak that you don’t even need to clear all the dungeons in order to level up. Even though the battle system is great but the boring enemy makes the fight meaningless.

The Story

One thing I have to point out is the story itself is way below my expectation. In other words, I would totally recommend the writer to consider rewrite the story since it’s just way too common (and nothing to expect) and I really can foreseen what will happen in the next story (guess that what I feel when I was watching the Shining Tears X Wind Anime).

The Character

And about the character. If you have checked the official website you will find there are not many characters in the game, but half of them could join you during the battle. But I only spent 40 hours on it. What does this mean? There are so many characters there in terms of the game hour and you can only see them from time to time. Apart from Rick and Neris, you can only ask two more partner to join you during the battle.

However, each character has their own stories. In order to have more fun, the game also offers different stories to other characters and you can finish all the submission of each characters. Though these tasks have no direct connection to the main plot of the game, it does give us a chance to interact more with your favorite characters. It also occurred to me that there are some plots been hidden, say how Queen (クイーン) became a friend of Kaguya (カグヤ) and helped her to escape (ok, I expect an Anime). And would very much appreciated that Misty (ミストラル) can join the party.

And about something very disappointed to me, is some most popular characters cannot join your party and only showed up in those submission. For instance, Hayane (ハヤネ), the silver-color hair girl, only shows up during the submission of Rouna and if you have never tried to accomplish one task, you will never see her face if you see her a lot on the official website or other printed magazine. The similar applies to Maxima (マキシマ), the girl with black hair and has a Katana in her hand. Will, I never see her actually fight (even though she appears from time to time) and guess the Katana is just a decoration and will sure to have all kinds of excuse to buy her figure . And at the final stage of the game, she reveals who she is and this makes me pale. It’s a really strange and I have to say, please give me another scenario I think I read this before back in 1990.

The Music

There are few soundtracks in the series but are very good to me. You can get the Soundtrack from the PSP Game package (only?). And among all the good points of the series, the CVs’ hard work were greatly appreciated. We can see all the familiar names in the staff list and it’s a enjoyment to ears. And again, Neris’ voice feels like an angel to me.

Conclusion

Finally the series offer different endings and of course I picked Neris’ one. That’s the detail parts and for the rest you will have to play the game to find out.

I will say, despite all the pain and suffers above, it is still a good game but never expect it to be outstanding. And my rating for it will be 7 out of 10. The series is great if you don’t look at the story itself and guess it could lie in the reason that the illustration and game system are so great that we have over expected the story to be at the same level. And my wish is, to make the series an Anime and it will be awesome.

Interested in the game? You can get it on Amazon (EN, JP), Play-Asia and CDJapan. Visit the official website to know more about the series.

This post PSP Game Shining Hearts Review was written originally at TheAkiba.

PSP Game Shining Hearts Rocks

YoU — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:37:24 +0000

Another Shining series after Shining Tears, Shining Wind and again this time, as always, the characters are illustrated by our favorite illustrator Tony Taka while on PSP instead. The latest COMIKET (C79) is on the way and guess we should have a lot to expect this Winter.

Fans familiar with the series can call so many names, sure, with the great illustrations by Tony Taka, and the unique game systems. I personally tried the Shining Wind on PS2 for some time and it was quite good. Though it doesn’t stand out among all those fancy games like .hack series, GTA, WE11, it does do what it good at. And it’s worth playing. I even purchased a PSP to play this series and so far so good.

Interested in the game? You can get it on Amazon (EN, JP), Play-Asia and CDJapan. Visit the official website to know more about the series. Also you can join in the official campaign to win some beautiful illustration and CDs.

This post PSP Game Shining Hearts Rocks was written originally at TheAkiba.