...is the shortest, most content-lite demo I've ever played. Seriously, I'm in awe.
Perhaps it's something I should have realized upon seeing that the file size was a mere 240MB, but it still felt threadbare after playing through it. The hypothesis that compression could have been the cause of the small file may have been adequate prior to playing it, but nope. My immediate reaction afterward was wondering whether I missed something, but again, nope. And part of that file size is reserved to having the choice of both English and Japanese languages.
Otherwise, it was a fun five minutes. It consists of merely the first boss battle, which pits Naruto (with Sakura as an assist character) against Kakashi. Prior to the battle, instructions about how to control your character -- well, characters if you want to throw Sakura into the mix, but you only summon here with L1 or R1 -- are plastered all over the screen. The description makes it seem awfully daunting, but upon beginning the battle you'll see how easy it is to play. The battle overall is pretty easy as well, allowing you to easily grok the controls. Please keep in mind that I'm someone who didn't play the first game, so the game's style reminded me mostly of Power Stone.
The presentation is utterly fantastic, with some cel-shaded HD graphics the anime wished it looked like. There are also a few beautiful piano renditions of some of the music from the game. I'm sure Naruto fans are already sold on this game. I haven't been too much of a fan since the original series' descent into the void of fillerville, but I enjoyed the demo. If you're not a fan, I don't know if I can recommend it. If only the demo had more content.
In recent news, looks like Atlus is publishing some Naruto games, namely Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke for DS and Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles for Wii. Atlus fans' reaction? Utter rage, and I'd expect nothing less from the internet. Of course, it's all silly since they're merely publishing the Naruto games being localized by Tomy. I'm all for it if this helps Atlus make some money. Besides, they've published much worse. Any company that took a chance on a game like Shiren the Wanderer, which sadly tanked so badly that it probably killed the chances of any other game getting localized in the franchise for a good while, has definitely not sold out. Heck, their name isn't even on the covers.
Perhaps it's something I should have realized upon seeing that the file size was a mere 240MB, but it still felt threadbare after playing through it. The hypothesis that compression could have been the cause of the small file may have been adequate prior to playing it, but nope. My immediate reaction afterward was wondering whether I missed something, but again, nope. And part of that file size is reserved to having the choice of both English and Japanese languages.Otherwise, it was a fun five minutes. It consists of merely the first boss battle, which pits Naruto (with Sakura as an assist character) against Kakashi. Prior to the battle, instructions about how to control your character -- well, characters if you want to throw Sakura into the mix, but you only summon here with L1 or R1 -- are plastered all over the screen. The description makes it seem awfully daunting, but upon beginning the battle you'll see how easy it is to play. The battle overall is pretty easy as well, allowing you to easily grok the controls. Please keep in mind that I'm someone who didn't play the first game, so the game's style reminded me mostly of Power Stone.
The presentation is utterly fantastic, with some cel-shaded HD graphics the anime wished it looked like. There are also a few beautiful piano renditions of some of the music from the game. I'm sure Naruto fans are already sold on this game. I haven't been too much of a fan since the original series' descent into the void of fillerville, but I enjoyed the demo. If you're not a fan, I don't know if I can recommend it. If only the demo had more content.
In recent news, looks like Atlus is publishing some Naruto games, namely Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke for DS and Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles for Wii. Atlus fans' reaction? Utter rage, and I'd expect nothing less from the internet. Of course, it's all silly since they're merely publishing the Naruto games being localized by Tomy. I'm all for it if this helps Atlus make some money. Besides, they've published much worse. Any company that took a chance on a game like Shiren the Wanderer, which sadly tanked so badly that it probably killed the chances of any other game getting localized in the franchise for a good while, has definitely not sold out. Heck, their name isn't even on the covers.
Yeah, you'd be intrigued too.
Spot the Easter egg in this pic!
Don't you wish you had dreams like this?
For a game this late in the system's life, it...well, it's certainly not a looker. We're seeing games now that really take advantage of the system's 3D hardware like 
Radiant Historia takes place in the land of Vancool, and the main character, Stok (no, really) lives in the country of Alicetel. Alicetel is, unfortunately, not in a good state, with the country being in the heat of war and on the verge of becoming a desert wasteland. Stok eventually stumbles upon the power to travel through time, and is told that he and his power will be important for the fate of the world. It sounds generic on the surface, but how the story will be told will be the most important factor. You'll be able to see enemies on the field, and it uses a turn-based battle system.
Tail Concerto was an anime-style action adventure game released on PSOne back in 1999 (well, '98 in Japan), a game in a genre that once seemed destined for prosperity, but has become somewhat of a lost art these days. It centered on the adventure of a dog police officer who, along with the accompaniment of his mini-mecha, made it his itinerary to find some mysterious magical crystals for his investigation. Most people who played the game got their initial exposure from an entirely Japanese demo that was included in an issue of Official Playstation Magazine (RIP). Despite the language barrier, it wasn't tough to figure out what to do, and in the end, it was a brief-though-endearing experience. Though it seemed like it would be stuck in Japan for good initially, it was Atlus that realized it had attained a small following through the demo. It was pretty tough to find shortly after its release, Atlus releases and all, but it found its audience.
Pardon the horrifying JPEG compression, please.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America may have been 
And they're also delivering it in a spiffy limited edition, called the "Black Phantom Edition." And it looks, well, pretty damn spiffy. It includes everything the American version had: the game, artbook, soundtrack, and a strategy guide. The press release says it includes a "new artbook" and a "brand new strategy" guide, perhaps implying that it has some updates from the American version. Don't rule out the possibility that it could be PR talk, but that sounds like a nice incentive to get people who might have already imported it to purchase it again. Well, along with the limited edition of course.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a lot of gamers who know what Shiren the Wanderer is, even among a subset of them who happen to like RPGs. Shiren has both the fortunate and unfortunate reality of belonging to the roguelike genre, a set of games whose itinerary it is to be very challenging, and force the player to think about every decision they make lest they suffer the consequences. It's not a popular genre due to how nail-bitingly hardcore it is, but gamers with a masochistic streak would like them.
Nice to see the cover uses the Japanese art this time to a tee. There's no word on if Atlus is localizing the 
Speaking of Shiren's art, it's a shame to see that they're changing the art style for the Japanese release of Shiren the Wanderer 4 for DS. It looks as if the franchise's developer, Chunsoft, wants to aim the game towards a wider audience. That's perfectly fine and all, but...ouch. Another interesting tidbit about the game is that Spike is publishing it in Japan, not Sega. Spike is also publishing the aforementioned PSP port of Shiren 3. Apparently, something happened between Chunsoft and Sega's relationship.
And guess what? 
The entire package. Or is it?
For some strange reason, people are still importing the Asian version despite Atlus announcing it back in May, so they're fittingly 
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