Results tagged “video games”

Gaming companies these days are always taking a gamble when releasing a game destined never to go too far beyond niche status, especially if it's on consoles; especially if it's a retail game. A company like Sega may make some bizarre decisions, but you have to applaud them for taking a chance on a game like Valkyria Chronicles, even if you don't care for the game or genre. It was a massive gamble, and it paid off. Well, mostly.

In trying to appeal to a younger audience and put the franchise in the hands of another demographic -- the same that purchased the Phantasy Star Portable titles in droves -- Sega decided to put Valkyria Chronicles 2 (now available at fine retailers everywhere!) on PSP instead of PS3. Sure, it made plenty of fans upset, but it's not like most of them have good business sense anyway. Sega's move was actually logical ostensibly; it would cannibalize sales of the game outside of Japan since the PSP is mostly dead outside of that territory, but if it even sold half of what P*P did, they could safely disregard that audience. Turns out it didn't pay off quite as well as they thought, but it didn't sell badly.

We knew that a new Valkyria Chronicles title was on its way the minute someone discovered that Sega registered the URL "valkyria3.jp." In the middle of last week, Sega began teasing the game themselves. There's no name on the site itself, but it's pretty obvious it's what they're teasing given the clues on the site. The most interesting of those clues is the "Code 1935" part, which is the same year the first game took place. What exactly is this game going to be? Let's speculate, because speculation posts are fun!

(And I hope they're as fun to read too, because that's what matters.)

What system does Sega's 8 ball say this will land on?

PS3? PSP? PS3 and 360? Wii? Genesis? Who knows. It's certainly the most pressing question. The main site goes up on the same day TGS begins, so you can rule 3DS out since it will have next to no presence there. The most likely guess is PS3, given the original game sold OK in Japan and America on that system (I have no idea how it sold in Europe). You'd think it would be on 360 too, but this is Sega we're talking about. Don't be surprised if it's another PSP affair, though.


So what's the genre?

Strategy/RPG, of course. Or is it?

Also a pressing question! It could be a PC MMO for all we know. Not that I think that will happen. It depends on what fans liked about the first two games. The second game has multiplayer, which I suppose was intended to be a selling point good enough to make sales as high as P*P. Since it didn't, a multiplayer-focused title is unlikely. Not to say it won't have some form of multiplayer, of course.

The first Valkyria Chronicles on PS3. Will the series go HD again? Or...

Wait, when is it taking place?

The teaser site's name implies that this game takes place at the same time as the first game: EC 1935. We'll see what this actually means about a week from Thursday -- or earlier, since it might be in Famitsu that week. It's possible that it could be a Gundam 08th MS Team-type affair, where it takes place at the same time as the original but told from a different perspective. That could be great actually. Or it could be there just to throw everyone off. You never know.

It will only be a few weeks before we have either cheering or horrifying meltdowns across the internet, depending on which system it ends up on. Me? I'll look forward to it regardless of what system it'll end up on. Unless it's really a PC MMO. There's the chance that all of this could be wrong and it could just be a port of the first game for PSP; then fans would know the feeling of experiencing hilarity and sadness concurrently.

In the interim between Thursday and today, a little more info about Mega Man Universe has surfaced. No, not as much as anyone looking forward to the game would like, but hey, it's enough to make a new post over. New posts are always fun, right?

Capcom of Japan's website updated with a website for Mega Man Universe. Yes, "Mega Man Universe." That may not sound awkward to some of you initially, but the fact that it's being called that and not "Rock Man Universe" might mean a lot. Capcom still hasn't revealed who's developing this, but keeping that name in Japan implies that it may not be a Japanese-developed project; thus, Capcom's main branch wants to reflect this in every way. Especially in Mega Man's wildly differing designs. Keep in mind this theory could be wildly off base.

Instead of having to view three mostly different trailers about the same content, the website has a trailer that mostly condenses the three Mega Man versions into one, the main trailer being shown at PAX 2010 this weekend. Still no Ryu footage, though. If you don't want to, or can't, watch it at the site, they posted it on their Youtube channel as well. In HD, no less. Also provided are illustrations of the characters:

And they all look so excited to be there. "Bad Box Art Mega Man" (called "U.S. Mega Man" on that pic. No, really.) is curiously ecstatic though, probably because he's shocked he's actually getting another chance in the limelight. I mentioned in Thursday's post that "Mega Man" looked similar to the version that appeared on the American Mega Man 3-6 covers. Upon taking another glance at them and comparing them to the artwork here, he...really doesn't. He doesn't seem to look like his American cartoon version either. So he's just someone else's interpretation of what Mega Man would look like. And damn if he doesn't look hopping mad too.

Presently, I'm still rather ambivalent about MMU. The main problem with the graphics, at least so far, isn't the art style, but that everything looks completely uneven. Some of the backgrounds are obviously rezzed up 8-bit assets, and while there's nothing wrong with that ostensibly, it's jarring to see it juxtaposed with newly created environments. The fact that it doesn't have a release date could mean it's a ways off, so there's time to polish this up. There are Mega Man 2 references all over the place in the video, so if this is basically Mega Man Powered Up 2, sign me up.

A game having a change of cover is nothing surprising. Games change covers for multiple reasons, but it's mainly though fan input or the marketing team deciding the then-current cover didn't cut it. Sometimes it's not for the better, and sometimes it doesn't fix the problem, but hey, clearly someone had a different opinion here. That "someone's" taste is another matter.

But then you have the rarity, the games that go through multiple covers in a short amount of time. And sometimes ostensibly for no real reason whatsoever. Red Dead Redemption was the last one that stood out, and now we can add Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood -- the sequel to Assassin's Creed II that's totally not Assassin's Creed III -- to the list. Though its changes aren't as pronounced as RDR's, it has undergone multiple changes for some strange reason.

I wanted you readers to see cover in a good size, so I decided to go with the cover for one console here, and that just happens to be the Playstation 3 version. No, that's not because I'm biased, but I couldn't find a larger version of the first cover for the 360 version. Many sites had long replaced the cover with the second one, I'm afraid. That, or Google's Image Search is biased.

This is the first one, released to retailers around E3 after the release date was announced. It's not bad, and is fittingly in the same style ACII had. The main difference is protagonist Eizo being joined by the Brotherhood - well, four members of it, not including Eizo. Slightly obscured in the background are computer effects, which are seen while the real world protagonist Desmond enters the game's virtual world. Not a bad cover at all.

But apparently it wasn't good enough for someone, so it received another one in July. This version has a lot of the same effects the last one had, but with one major change (that you probably noticed already): Eizo's stance. It's a more neutral one compared to the possibly symbolic stance he has on the first one. Also notice that the Brotherhood is more obscured while there's more focus on Eizo himself.

And this brings us to the final cover, released to retailers a couple of days ago. Eizo once again has a stance change, this time with a more threatening stance. Americans seem to like their protagonists to be menacing, violence-thirsty bastards, so why not? Not only are the Brotherhood members no longer obscured, but there are two more of them. But it's just that they're in view this time; you can actually see parts of them on the sides of the second cover above. Rather than have potential customers wondering what exactly was on the sides, Ubi decided to remove all doubt. Lastly, the bluish hue is completely gone. It's definitely the best of the three.

This game's already had three covers, but notice that neither of them has an ESRB rating, so it'll undoubtedly have at least one more. Who knows if that will be the only change they make. If it's different than the last one above, I'll make another post about it in the future.

Despite being announced a little before the Comic Con in mid-July, and despite the Comic Con passing with Capcom attending the event, we finally received our first look at Mega Man Universe today, on the advent of this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Actually, that should be "looks," because Capcom cleverly sent different gameplay videos to various websites, namely IGN, Gamespot, and 1up. They're all prefaced by an introduction by Keiji Inafune and tease Ryu (from Street Fighter), but contain different gameplay with different iterations of Mega Man. And the game looks...well, it's something, to put it lightly.

The game resembles what a lot of people feared Mega Man 9 was going to look like prior to its unveil: a cheap, low budget 2.5D platformer with mediocre animation. That's not to say I think the game will turn out bad, of course. Mega Man Powered Up for PSP had a similarly repelling art style with mechanics that weren't quite as tight as the original, but it was nonetheless a pretty enjoyable game with a great level editor. In fact, this game's art style is the complete antithesis of MMPU's. People made some good levels with that, and if this game is a spiritual successor to that game, then more power to it.

The Mega Man's used are the most hilarious aspects of the trailer. The Gamespot version uses "Bad Box Art Mega Man," an SD version of the dude shown on this cover. He's pretty hideous, yeah, but that's intentional. He could be a fun novelty to have as a playable character. 1up's version uses "Rockman" which is the Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) you've come to know and love. The IGN one uses "Mega Man" which I guess is the western interpretation of what Mega Man looks like, as evinced by Mega Man 3 and 4's NES covers, i.e. not taken to the extreme like Mega Man 1 and 2's covers. He also has some big eyebrows, which make him look pissed. Angry Kirby Syndrome lives on!

The appearance of Ryu (No way) is likely a hint that there will be plenty of selectable characters. How many there could potentially be is unknown, but Capcom has themselves a guaranteed sale of Morrigan makes it in. Heck, maybe they'll let you make your own characters.

Capcom's still being awfully secretive about what MMU actually is, so maybe they'll elaborate on it more either over the weekend or at the Tokyo Game Show, which begins in precisely two weeks. The first look here makes me a little pessimistic as to how it'll turn out, but I'd like to think Inafune has our best interests in mind. Then again, sometimes I don't know about him.

Image stolen from NeoGAF.

Oh look, I'm breaking my "don't discuss newer soundtracks" clause, and I almost feel bad about it!

But that's mainly because this isn't the usual Recommended Soundtracks entry. Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth has some quality tunes, all of which use older technology that sounds like it's coming from a Genesis cartridge (though it admittedly sounds slightly better than that). It's a great way to pay homage to older games, especially if games in that genre aren't being made anymore. In that way, I'm recommending the soundtrack; and it's pretty easy to digest since it's a small soundtrack.


I also want to discuss the game's soundtrack because it does something many Castlevania games don't do: remix lesser known tracks. The developers behind the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow have expressed interest in providing orchestral remixes of older tracks that fans are particularly fond of.  That sounds fine on the surface, until you realize it probably means remixing "Vampire Killer," "Bloody Tears," and "Beginning" for the 10th time (a figurative guesstimate, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was literally accurate). They're all perfectly quality tracks, but does anyone really need another remix of these?

(And yes, I know this game also has a remix of "Vampire Killer." I guess it's a prerequisite.)

The fine folks responsible for Rebirth's soundtrack apparently realized this and decided to remix some tracks that weren't fan favorites, with the main job of remixing them being left to Manabu Namiki. They're redone versions of tracks that were (and are, really) woefully underappreciated but every bit as good as those aforementioned classics, and clearly someone thought they deserved another look.

Of course, the preferable alternative would be to have compositions of new music that's every bit as good as the older material. Nothing wrong with throwing in a few remixes, though.

"Reincarnated Soul" plays during the game's first stage, and originally comes from Castlevania: Bloodlines for Genesis, where it was also used for the first stage.  It's almost remarkable to see how similar they sound, but that's not surprising. There's no problem with that either. Usually the best tracks from older console games are the first to be remixed, so who knows why this one hasn't been remixed yet. I would have loved to hear it in Portrait of Ruin, given that it's a sequel to Bloodlines. That's not a complaint, though, since PoR is chock full of fine tunes:


"New Messiah" is used for the third stage, and is originally pulled from Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge for Game Boy, the only good Castlevania game on that system. The Adventure Rebirth is a reimagining of the original Game Boy game Castlevania: The Adventure, so it's fitting that it should include a track from another older portable title. Rebirth wasn't any good, so it desperately needed a remake. Both older Game Boy games have some excellent-though-woefully unappreciated tracks, so don't be surprised to see them pop up in a future entry:


"Aquarius" is used for the game's fifth stage, the final full stage, and originally hails from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for NES. This is one of my favorite Castlevania tracks ever, and I'm glad to see it get remixed. Again. It was also featured in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for GBA. That version is noticeably mellower, and I prefer the version with more of a beat:


For how brief the game is, it sure has a nice variety of remixed tracks. The irony here is that's also precisely the main problem with the soundtrack. Castlevania: The Adventure still has a bunch of tracks clamoring for a remix, and this game would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase them. Hoping the LoS team considered some unappreciated tracks as viable candidates for remixing is admittedly a pipe dream, so I hope they decide to use them if there are more "Rebirth" games.

If someone were to ask me what my succinct opinion was after playing Metal Gear Solid 4, I wouldn't be able to give them a straight answer. It's not that I can't put together precisely what I thought of the game, but it's impossible to answer that question as quick as someone would like.

That hesitation arises because MGS4 is a very uneven game. It has plenty of good parts; heck, some of it is actually pretty damned brilliant, with some of the best sequences I've ever seen in a game -- interactive or not. The problem, then, is that it falls flat on its face just as often, with the game itself taking a backseat to the excess narrative and exposition. Basically, it doesn't play to its inherent strengths as often as it should.


MGS4 features a much older Solid Snake in appearance despite taking place in 2014, a mere five years after Metal Gear Solid 2. Snake has been aging rapidly due to a seemingly unknown genetic defect, and he doesn't have much longer to live. Despite that, he's still undertaking a mission he received from Colonel Campbell: kill Liquid Ocelot. Liquid's taken residence in the Middle East, and Snake will have to wade through the opposition and rebels to make it to him. Good thing you can make it easier by siding with the rebels.

And siding with them is pretty fun too. It not only makes progressing through areas easier, but gives a new dynamic to a Metal Gear game. The controls have been overhauled to make the game feel more like a shooter as well. You can tell that series creator and director Hideo Kojima, along with Kojima Productions, paid attention to specific criticisms from the previous games, and it shows with the controls. The main problem before was that it was impossible to jump out and firefight someone in the older games if you were spotted; this is now possible. It's not as easy as it would be in your average third-person shooter (you have to hold L1 to shoot), but it's fine for a game and franchise that encourages stealth.


The camouflage system is back from Metal Gear Solid 3, and its fine tuning is further proof of Kojima paying attention to criticism. The introduction of the camo system added a new sense of veracity then, but it became tiresome going into the menu to keep changing it by the end of the game. Now, it's streamlined with Old Snake outfitted with an Octocamo suit that changes automatically to blend with the environment to keep your camo index up. It sure wouldn't have had a place during the Cold War (when MGS3 takes place), but it does in the near future.

MGS4 also finally deals with the problem of enemies having ID locked weapons that you couldn't take when you either K.O'd or killed them, something you couldn't deal with in the first two MGS games. Now you can! For a price. There's a guy named Drebin (one of many, but this one has a thing for you) who can remove the IDs for you by paying him Drebin Points (DP). He'll also sell you weapons and ammo, though the former can be very expensive. You accrue DP by collecting weapons you already have, though you empty out the ammo first. It's true that it makes the game a little too firefight friendly, but it's a blessing when you're fighting alone. I loved it when I was in need of some tranquilizer ammo.

The instruction booklet also spends pages describing how to survive in the battlefield. A shame that setting is dropped one-third of the way in. The biggest problem with MGS4 is the glaringly obvious cut scene to gameplay ratio. Anyone who's played a Metal Gear Solid title before knows they can be unbelievably talky and preachy, but the cut scenes mostly weren't too unnecessarily long. MGS3 has the best of the aforementioned ratios -- among one of the reasons why that game is hailed as the best game in the series. This is one strength MGS4 does not play to in the least.


MGS4 has plenty of cut scenes that are unnecessarily long. In what was Kojima's way of making the game more cinematic and movie-like, the character models have excessive gesticulations during many of its scenes, most of which only serve to lengthen them. It gave me flashbacks to Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, which had the same problem - though it's honestly not as bad as that game's. This is the answer to people who complained about too many Codec scenes before, and if you did I hope you're feeling sorry for yourself. I kind of dinged the comic book-style cut scenes that popped up in some of the PSP titles in lieu of CG ones before, and that's something I need to apologize for. After playing this game, I welcome them wholeheartedly.

The dialogue could also be a problem. No, not because it's full of cheesy moments, which is a series staple at this point. The truth behind some of the plot holes induced by MGS2, especially in the crazy last two hours, are unveiled in this game. Quite a few of them are confounding, with explanations that are either mind-boggling or, worse, retcon events from the last three games. Those explanations make the actions of some characters in the older games completely bizarre.


But wait, there's more! Another sticking problem is in how frequent cut scenes are, especially in the last three Acts. It's heartbreaking to see only Acts 1 and 2 follow in the footsteps of what MGS3 (and MGS1 before that) established, because the rest of the game doesn't have as much, well, game. You'll be watching more than playing, witnessing the bulk of the game's nine hours of cut scenes. Yes, NINE hours. To put that in perspective, that's more than Xenosaga: Episode I, which had seven-and-a-half. Most of the scenes and story revelations near the end are enough to make anyone who bashed MGS2's zany finale feel bad.

And man does Kojima know how to play to his fanbase. This game was supposed to be the series grand finale, the all-encompassing Metal Gear Solid title. As such, it's pack to the brim with homages and fan service. Quite a bit of it is lovely, and many of them are very clever for a video game. And all of the boss battles are homages to the first MGS game, down to having similar names. Some of it can become a little overbearing and fall flat a few times.


You can't deny how top-notch the presentation is, however. It may be a two-year-old game, and a game may have come to knock it off its throne as the best-looking PS3 exclusive since then, but it still looks fantastic. The voice acting is also as good as you'd expect from an MGS title. Everyone from the older games returns to reprise their role, and this is definitely David Hayter's best performance of Snake in the series. The music is also good, but I was disappointed to see that Norihiko Hibino didn't compose a single track. He only served as the soundtrack's director. I like Harry Gregson-Williams' material just fine, but I usually like Hibino's contributions the most. On the whole, the OST isn't quite as memorable as the last few games in the series. And you can tell there are many points where the Metal Gear theme would have played, but couldn't thanks to copyright issues.

When you think about it, Kojima tends to pump out his best work when he doesn't pay attention to his fan base. MGS4 is a game whose mere existence is living proof of how there is such a thing as too much fanservice, in a non-sexual way (though if you like the sexual kind, there's plenty of that too). There's an utterly brilliant game in here, but it's drowned deeply into the recesses of a river rife with excess pandering. That's precisely what's so upsetting about the end result of this game, and it's a crying shame that it's from a person...well, people capable of putting out much better work.

...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.

Metal Gear Solid -- and that's strictly speaking about "Solid," not any of the other games in the franchise or the spin-offs -- have had an interesting cover history. It's mostly been rather positive, standing in stark contrast to many other franchises. But in the last few years, they've taken a different turn and adopted an alternate overall style. Not for the better, unfortunately.

Many fans of the franchise, me included, love Yoji Shinkawa's art style that always accompanies the games in the direct franchise, and some of the spin-offs. His art used to be featured prominently on the covers of Metal Gear games worldwide, but for some strange reason, it's something we're not seeing much anymore. That's a shame too, because using art on the cover helps it stand out amongst the legions of generic titles that use CG (sometimes pretty badly) on their cover. The marketing execs of numerous companies seem to believe that consumers, especially in America, prefer to have their covers CG, based on the data they've supposedly obtained. Whether that data is empirical or anecdotal is unknown.

This is exactly what led to the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow cover situation. The standard edition, which most people will buy, has CG artwork for the cover. The LE, aimed at dedicated fans who are usually willing to spend more than most. An argument could be made for the LE not being worth an extra $20 (because it isn't), but that's another post (that I probably won't make). Both covers have received changes since that post, but they're only minor.

Rumor has it that Metal Gear Solid's cover wasn't originally going to be this, but the team working with the game internally fought to have this cover. Glad they did, too, because here we have something that's beautiful in its simplicity. The Japanese cover is the same. The European cover does use Shinkawa's art, but it doesn't come off as well. There's a lesson here: making a nice cover doesn't merely entail using art, but using it efficiently.

All of the covers for Metal Gear Solid 2 use Shinkawa's art, though Japan's is different from what America and Europe received. This cover comparison is actually quite hilarious for anyone who played MGS2 back in the day. The big surprise for MGS2 was that you'd actually be playing a new character named Raiden for most of the game, rather than Solid Snake; the complete opposite of what the hype and American and European cover art would imply. The Japanese cover ruins this surprise, but that's probably not a bad thing considering the negative reaction fans had to being robbed of controlling Snake.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the rare cases of each territory having a different cover. Both Japan and Europe got Shinkawa's art, with the European one being a not-as-good variant of what's present on the Japanese cover. Comparing the two, the Japanese cover immediately wins for including one of the best female characters in video games, The Boss, on the cover. Meanwhile, the American cover takes a different approach, with Shinkawa art being at the top and CG used for the remaining aspects. It's awfully busy, and certainly the least appealing cover, though the CG use isn't quite as bad as some other covers.

Like this one! Apparently someone thought Old Snake's face was incredibly appealing for Metal Gear Solid 4's cover; so appealing that they wanted to show everyone through the cover. It's not, and it's not supposed to be either, which makes for an unappealing cover. A shame Japan's cover suffered the same fate. Surprisingly, though Europe's cover also has a close-up of Snake, it does it using Shinkawa art. It's by far the best of the covers.

In fact, MGS4 has the same situation as the aforementioned Lords of Shadow. I'm saving the LE cover for one of the next entries, though.

This is only the first entry in this series, which should be wrapped up in the next entry. Unless I find something else to talk about.

It looks like Capcom did have something to show for Gamescom this week after all, despite announcing they would skip it entirely. And they brought some Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reveals with them to boot! They're two you knew were coming if you'd been following the media released so far, though. Viewtiful Joe, of the game of the same name, and Dormammu of Dr. Strange (among others) were officially revealed this week. We'd received silhouettes of Viewtiful Joe in the earlier trailers, and Dormammu was shown in the animated E3 trailer. Certainly not the most surprising inclusions for the game, especially since the former appeared in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

The surprise here is that, contrary to what some fans previously thought, Dormammu doesn't look like he'll be the final boss of this game. If the previous games are any indication, it'll probably have a massive mammoth of a boss like Apocalypse, Onslaught, or Orochi from the previous Vs. titles. I'd like to see a Capcom villain make the cut, personally.

Joe looks, unsurprisingly, pretty similar to his TvC iteration, much like Ryu and Chun-Li are. He really didn't need to change too much to fit in here. The lack of a black outline doesn't make his character model stand out as much as it did in the VJ games last generation, but he looks fine. The unfortunate part about him is that he still has the same voice he had in TvC, and Capcom currently isn't using Dee Bradley Baker, who voiced him in his own games. Baker mentioned he hadn't been contacted on his Twitter. This game won't release for a while, but they'll probably not going to change this. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Meanwhile, Dormammu looks as great as you'd expect, and has a fittingly menacing voice. His music is, well, not as menacing. But it's possible the trailer version is using a different mix, so we'll see how it sounds in game soon enough. I hope it sounds more frightening.

Most companies don't take Gamescom as seriously as E3 (though they're increasingly beginning to), so I'm glad Capcom came with some goods. We have two more characters we've seen in silhouettes that have yet to be revealed: Frank West and Spider-Man. Don't be surprised if Frank plays similarly to his TvC counterpart (in fact, his TvC inclusion may have been in preparation to this), and Spider-Man should be similar to how he was in the earlier Marvel games. Hopefully he still says "Hey!" and "Do Your Job!" as well. Expect them, and hopefully others, to be unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show next month. Meanwhile, check out some new gameplay videos for Viewtiful Joe, Dormammu, and the other characters revealed thus far.

Who's Catherine? Why, she's the new girl in town. The beautiful blond they say has it all.


Actually, Catherine's the name of a new game from Atlus for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It's being developed by the team that brought you Persona 3 and 4, and will be Atlus' first foray into HD gaming. Atlus, according to this week's Famitsu and their respective website (the latter of which I pilfered the screens you see here from), is claiming this will be a hybrid of action, adventure, and horror. Oh, and eroticism. I don't think anyone knows how this will turn out right now, but that is one hell of a formula.


There are a couple of familiar names tied to this project. Katsura Hashino is serving as the producer and director, assuming the same roles he had in the aforementioned Persona games.  Shigenori Soejima, also of those Persona games and Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity, is providing the character designs. Shoji Meguro, of many Shin Megami Tensei games, is providing the music. All of them say this game will be more adult-oriented than their previous games, and will be something no one would expect from this team. Who knows what they mean about that right now, or in what context.

Catherine is  about a 32-year-old man named Vincent, a single salaryman with no ambitions in life. He receives an unexpected surprise when he meets 22-year-old woman named Catherine, and his life begins to turn upside down in ways both good and bad. It's not that Catherine isn't his type, because her figure makes him fall for her immediately, but he also starts having bizarre nightmares he wasn't having before. This dream has him climbing a seemingly unending set of stairs, a dream he'll never wake up from unless he makes it to the top. It sounds like something from one of Haruki Murakami's supernatural novels, but that's precisely what makes it so intriguing.


Some of you folks who are well versed in anime might notice Vincent's similarity to Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop. Funniest thing, Vincent, like Spike, is voiced by Koichi Yamadera. Catherine's voice is provided by Miyuki Sawashiro, by the way. Atlus' Trauma Team, released on Wii a few months ago, also has a character that looks similar to Spike (though not voiced by Yamadera). Some of you also might have noticed that Vincent had a cameo in Persona 3 Portable.

Atlus is keeping mum on all the gameplay features this will have at the moment, but they don't have a lot of time to keep this a secret. They'll probably show more of the game at the Tokyo Game Show in a month, if they attend this year. This game is planned for a Japanese release in Winter 2010, and a release outside of Japan is unknown at the moment. This game won't be too risque, as the ad included in this week's Famitsu, complete with a tantalizing picture of how Charlotte eats pizza, indicates that CERO (Japan's rating system) has given it a C rating. CERO refuses to rate games with explicit nudity, so it shouldn't have any more sexual content than a game like Heavy Rain (which this game may have something in common with) or God of War 3. Also, I highly doubt they'd be bothering with a 360 release if it wasn't getting localized.

It's worth nothing that this game is very likely an indicator of where Persona 5 will end up, and what graphics system it will use. I certainly wouldn't mind if it looked like this. Graphically, of course. Atlus is a big fan of starting on a new generation of consoles with a game in a genre its fans wouldn't expect from them; similar to Maken X, a first-person hack 'n slasher for Dreamcast. Take a look at more of the screen shots and the first trailer on Famitsu.com, though I wouldn't recommend viewing them at work. The official Japanese website opens Monday.

Information courtesy of AndriaSang.

You've undoubtedly been hearing quite a bit about the 3DS all around the internet, this blog included. You really can't blame anyone for bringing it up, because a number of things about it look great. And hopefully it will get the media, and most gamers in general, to take portable gaming seriously. They did for a time around the PSP's launch, but that quickly dissipated when Sony fumbled about with how to market the system. The 3DS is already looking to be home to some great games, but there's a potential problem.

The thing about the 3DS is that only the top screen, a 3.5 inch widescreen display, is capable of showing 3D, with the touch screen being the same 3 inch one you see now on your DS or DS Lites (albeit with better horsepower behind it). Instead of allowing developers to have a focus on any screen given they had an even aspect ratio with the original model, all attention looks like it will be primarily fixed on the top screen this time around. This could hinder the development of games that primarily rely on using the touch screen.

The technology currently exists to make a touch screen capable of reverting between 2D and 3D, but it's possible Nintendo incorporated a non-3D one to keep the cost of the hardware down -- for them and you. That, or they fell having two different screens capable of 3D would cause illnesses or blow the minds of players. Or that the touch screen wasn't efficient enough to be used for gaming. The worrying aspect is we may not get games on the scale of Kirby's Canvas Curse or The World Ends With You; that is, game's that used the system's touch screen in an innovative manner and couldn't be done on other systems.



This could also mean something to people who play comparatively smaller games like Solitaire and Bejeweled. Those aren't games that could use 3D for any serious function, but a little added eye candy wouldn't hurt. Anyone who owns those games would have no incentive to purchase a new version of the aforementioned games. You Bejeweled fans can just sit around and ponder how good a Puzzle Quest game could look with the pieces popping out at you. You won't get that here.

That is...unless developers can find a viable workaround. It may be possible to replicate what's on the touch screen on the top screen to present it in 3D. It's something that would require the player to look constantly at the top and bottom constantly. That would work well for a puzzle game, and would be OK for a TWEWY-esque game (because it requires that anyway), but would be impossible for a game like Canvas Curse. And here people thought the 3DS would be less challenging to approach than the DS for developers.

None of this is doubting that the 3DS won't have the ability to have some great games. In fact, its initial lineup already looks incredibly promising, and it will have enough support at this point that any competitor wouldn't stand much of a chance at this point. The question will be how developers can deal with a new obstacle. Whichever way it turns out, it's going to be an incredibly fun ride, to watch and experience.

Japanese RPG fans with a DS may want to keep their eye on Radiant Historia, a game announced by Atlus in Famitsu a few weeks back.

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 Dragon Quest IX and Okamiden, sure, but that's missing the point in terms of this game. Atlus usually isn't put out games that push a console to its limits as far as technology is concerned, but anyone who's played a lot of their games knows that they have the ability of taking something low budget and making it shine. Both Persona 3 and Persona 4 are examples of this; it's the substance that counts most, after all.

Initial (and logical) speculation suggested that this game was a spiritual sequel to Tri-Ace's Radiata Stories. The concept is by the same person, and a little of the staff responsible for that game are on board for this one, including one of the character designers in Hiroshi Konishi. The only initial difference in staff involved was the music composer, with Noriyuki Iwadare being replaced by the eerily omnipresent Yoko Shimomura. But it was later revealed that most of the staff consists of members who took part in the development of the aforementioned Persona games and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.

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.

Also, the plot has nothing at all to do with Radiata Stories. Don't rule out the possible appearance of a few nods scattered around the game, though. In fact, I'd be shocked if there weren't any.

Radiant Historia hits Japan on November 3rd. It hasn't been confirmed for America, but Atlus has a good track record with releasing games for systems after most of the competition has abandoned them for a shinier, newer gadget, so there's a good chance for localization. Be sure to take a look at the official Japanese website, especially to hear a sample of Shimomura compositions.

Information courtesy of AndriaSang.

Well, I sure haven't been following it! At least not in a way that's in-fitting with the current definition of "following."

The developers behind The 3rd Birthday, the next game in the Parasite Eve franchise that you might remember, launched a Twitter account where they are posting information about the development process, answering questions from fans, and sharing pictures. This might seem ostensibly rudimentary, but it's an interesting step to take for a Japanese company. The Japanese video game development process usually places the team under a strict vow of silence, with information being trickled out to magazines like Famitsu or Dengeki weekly. This is a step towards breaking that vow, regardless of how minimal it is.

But the important question here is what they're talking about. It's not just being used to tell you when the official website has updated; they're actually revealing some interesting information on it, most of which is courtesy of director Hajime Tabata and character designer and producer Tetsuya Nomura. They're, of course, Twittering in Japanese; how fortunate and privileged we are to have multiple sites, the best being AndriaSang, translate some of these conversations for us. I'm not going to post all of the information here, because their feed has given a plethora of info. If you wanted to know whether this installment had a shower scene, look no further.

The shots you're seeing here are also from their Twitter account. You might have been able to tell that they're taken off a monitor. This game looks like it upscales awfully well. The developers mentioned that the development team they're collaborating with at Hexa Drive had originally planned to make this game for HD consoles (go down to "The 3rd Birthday development structure"). They also mentioned that a sequel will be made for HD consoles, if they have a chance to make a sequel.

Meanwhile, the official website updated this week with some incredibly short gameplay videos in the system section -- both videos are on Youtube if you can't watch them on the site.. Fans looking forward to it have been referring to the game as a third-person shooter, but I think the auto-targeting helps insinuate that it really is an action/RPG like they've claimed. They sure haven't shown any of the RPG aspects of it, but they may just be keeping that under wraps lest they spoil some info. Aya carries a pistol that has unlimited ammo, but has the choice of using three other weapons that are stronger but require ammo acquirement. Looks like they're balancing it well, since a few hands-off observations from E3 claimed it looked a little difficult.

The 3rd Birthday looks like it's coming along well, especially after its transfer to PSP was announced precisely two weeks ago. It's going to be present at Gamescom in Germany this week, though in a hands-off demo. It will be playable for show-goers at Tokyo Game Show in September. There's also supposed to be a trailer coming sometime this month -- news that also came from their Twitter account. Maybe that's what they plan on showing this week! Look forward to it; the game should release sometime during the vague time frame of either late this year or early next year.

In a way, it may not be fair to many other companies that were localizing Japanese games to single out how much better Konami's covers were. As mentioned before, many of Konami's older games took inspiration from western entertainment (unless they were based on the actual licensed property), and an homage would be provided on the covers. This made for some covers the marketing arbiters could easily allow, while others had to change theirs lest customers be repelled by the apparently repugnant anime-style look that might appear on the cover. Some of them made for results that were still pretty good, like the Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior titles, whose covers and localizations took inspiration from fantasy novels like Dragonlance; most results were messy. The current day situation is proof of how misguided the aforementioned fear was.

The Super Nintendo era displayed Konami's best line of redone western covers, from an era where Konami had a stream of quality titles. These covers are so good that I'd like you to see them in their entirety, so I'm only posting a picture of the American cover. I'm only including three examples, since others either kept the same cover, just haven't aged well, or represent the aforementioned fear. Sorry Goemon, your existence outside of Japan was seemingly never meant to be.

Castlevania's debut on SNES began with a remake of the first game in the series in Super Castlevania IV, and it's still one of the most beloved games in the franchise. And they gave it an excellent cover for its American (and European) release. It's a heck of a lot better than the awkward-looking Japanese version, which isn't bad on its own aside from the weird posture Simon has. Dracula's reaction is priceless, though. This was the best cover for a Castlevania game around before Ayami Kojima's arrival. It feels like it wouldn't be out of place on the cover of a B movie, and that's what makes it perfect for what it's going for.

Contra III: The Alien Wars was also a stunning example of the franchise and the genre during the 16-bit era. It was one of the earliest examples of cheesy 80s action movies being represented in video game form. Some of said movies had video game adaptations, but you're more likely to see retrospectives of them on lists describing the worst licensed games ever. Most earlier Contra games represented that trope better than many older games could ever do. A shame about the pit the franchise would fall into after that generation ended.

The Japanese cover has main characters Jimbo and Sully (the latter of which was probably killed last) with poses that are practically lifted from posters or scenes from American movies. It's easier to get away with this in Japan, but Konami didn't want to test the waters outside of that country.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles IV: Turtles in Time managed to be one of the best examples of having an arcade game (which was released without the "IV") at home early in the SNES' heyday, and that's among many other examples.  The Japanese version has a cover that wouldn't look out of place on an old VHS that contained three episodes of the '89 cartoon series, but some beautiful comic-style artwork accompanies the cover of the western versions.

With this being part four, this officially wraps up this series of classic Konami covers. Or does it? Don't be surprised if I decide to provide another entry in the next few weeks about Konami. But nothing tops this earlier era of covers. They have a few later covers that stick out, but their quality output really dwindled after these early halcyon days. They were still on the surface after this era, but now they've really sunk. Sad.

Castlevania has always had a mostly great history with cover art from a variety of artists. You could come up with a few dubious examples, but I'm pretty sure its reputation has been better than most franchises you could come up with. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the game being touted as a reimagining of the Castlevania franchise to help elevate it from its niche status, had its official cover art released today. Here we go!

Actually, that's pretty nice; definitely better than the temporary art released about a month back. It also looks like there will be a limited edition. Konami hasn't officially confirmed it yet, but looks legitimate, so it should be announced any day now. Looks like we have another great Castlevania cover on our hands.

Well, if only that was the cover for every version. The standard cover is a little different, and for all the wrong reasons. For a game that has some pretty good concept art, the fact that they'd put together a cover with a huge lack of creativity is pretty insulting. There's still time that they could change it, but the chances of that happening are, as always, quite minimal.

But I guess none of us should be surprised to see this kind of cover situation. Covers like this arise due to the marketing divisions of corporations concluding, through anecdotal data, that westerners happen to resonate with CG art while their eyes are glancing at multiple covers in a store aisle, hence the generic, uninspired drek we have above. It's mainly dedicated gamers that are willing to shell out extra cash for a limited edition full of material they may or (mostly) may not need on a practical scale. Said dedicated audience will also be rewarded with a far better cover.

To its credit, though, it's still a damn sight better than the repelling anime-style stuff that plagued the cover arts for Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin.

There happen to be quite a few fans around the internet who are a tad miffed at the lack of Ayami Kojima art on the cover, and I can relate to a degree. When Lords of Shadow was announced last year, I felt there was something missing, an element that makes Castlevania look like Castlevania. It wasn't until now that I realized how much I find Kojima's art synonymous with the franchise, and it's looking at this cover that hammers that point home. Fortunately, we have Harmony of Despair to see some of her new contributions.

Not that I expected her artwork to accompany it at all, of course. This game is the very essence of "reimagination" from a video game standpoint, meaning no one from the previous games is involved in this game's development. The developers don't want to show anything that associates it with IGA's creations. It's a foregone conclusion to say that Lords of Shadow is going to be an interesting game, whether it's good or not. We'll see what side it resides on come October, just in time for Halloween.

After searching for some tracks, it wasn't too long until I realized the horrifying truth: it doesn't have an original soundtrack. In fact, none of the older Shining games do. Both Shining Force III and Shining the Holy Ark, released for Sega Saturn, have music CD's with the title "Original Soundtrack," but they're really remixed soundtracks. They just wanted to confuse you.

But I'm featuring it anyway. One of the reasons why this feature is called "Recommended Soundtracks," is because I'd like to do more than just original soundtracks. Releases of remixes still fit under that definition, so I'll be able to feature Sound Story of Shining and the Darkness, the actual title of SitD's remixed soundtrack, without a "the." It was called "Shining and the Darkness" in Japan, which was probably changed for western audiences because "in" rolls of the tongue better than "and" when used for that title, and using "and" there gives the title a more abstract meaning; or, depending on your interpretation of the name, because it was borderline nonsensical.

When you listen to the soundtracks of many dungeon crawlers, they usually have mostly mellow and harrowing tracks. Dungeon crawlers put more focus on immersion and atmosphere than many other genres, and the music is used to assist with that. Shining in the Darkness does not do this, and instead eschews that for a theme more upbeat and lighthearted. That theme is also represented in the soundtrack. My choices here are going to be awfully rudimentary, so bear with me.

I personally adore the first track to this soundtrack, "The World of Shining and the Darkness," because it fully lives up to its name. Contained within its tempo is a representation of every theme the game touches upon: the feeling of adventure, danger, and overcoming the darkness of the dungeon (by grinding). It's a lengthy overture of what you're in for when you begin the game:


"The Ancient Temple" is the first dungeon theme, one you'll be hearing a lot early on. Especially in the earlier hours, where you'll have to grind and constantly go back to the inn and heal up to stand a chance as you advance into the dungeon. Well, at least until you find your buddies. It's more happy-go-lucky than you'd expect a dungeon theme in the genre to be, but it's composed well:


This last one here is the battle theme, which, seeing as how this is an RPG, you'll be hearing pretty often throughout the game. It's rife with suspense, which you can really tell about a minute into it. The beginning of the remixed version is a little slower than the actual theme, but it later sticks very close to the original:


In fact, the majority of the soundtrack sticks very close to the original, but it makes for more listenable music material because of the instruments it uses. The Genesis wasn't the most capable machine in terms of sound, and didn't have the benefit of having a Sony-powered chip like its competitor in the Super Nintendo. That doesn't mean it was incapable of producing some quality tunes, however. Good music shines through core composition, not technology, which is something quite a few video game music composers of the late 80s and early 90s understood incredibly well.

The Shining series is one of the many, many franchises where most fans are displeased with Sega's treatment of it in the last decade or so. If they're even using the franchise at all. Of all companies, Sega probably has the most classic franchises in they're arsenal where fans have expressed, at the very least, dislike for how they were handled recently, and the Shining franchise happens to be one of them.

After four Shining games last generation that couldn't be more different than their earlier counterparts -- Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon for GBA excepted, though that's a remake of the first game. They may not have been the kind of games fans wanted, but I hear Shining Force Neo and Shining Force Exa are perfectly competent Diablo-esque hack 'n slashers. The less said about Shining Tears and Wind, the better. There's also their arcade entry, Shining Force Cross, which I still think resembles Kingdom Hearts a little too much. Not to mention the unlocalized DS SRPG Shining Force Feather, which is probably closest to what fans wanted. Shame about that "unlocalized" part.

And here's a brand new Shining game from Sega. And true to form, it sure as hell isn't what you Shining fans wanted! It's Shining Hearts for PSP, announced within Famitsu's pages earlier this week. A mere glance at the game is almost enough to think it's a follow-up to the much-revolted Shining Tears and Wind, considering it shares a somewhat similar visual style with them, and has the same character designer in Tony Taka. It also has a Keyblade in the title for some reason, which might be an homage to Cross. This game is a traditional RPG instead of an action/RPG. Oh, and ex-Squaresoft composer Hiroki Kikuta is composing the soundtrack (whose work I like), and feel free to check out one of his tunes on the currently sparse official website; seems he isn't completely lost to eroge after all! This game releases in Japan this winter.

Fun trivia: This is the first time Kikuta and Tony are collaborating since Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro, Kikuta's first eroge title. Isn't that just fantastic?

It's tough to be optimistic for this game, and I'd recommend keeping your expectations low since parts of it seem a little too similar to Tears and Wind. Maybe Sega will work with Camelot again one day and revive the Shining franchise, but then I remembered we're talking about Sega here. Hopefully they surprise us.

One of the more intriguing questions posed by fans upon the announcement of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for DS was how Yuji Horii and company -- with Level 5 handling the production -- would evolve the gameplay styles of its predecessors. It's a concern voiced by fans who were quite taken by Dragon Quest VIII's epic sense of exploration and vivacity, a feeling the PS2's graphical prowess assisted with. Not to say games with lower tech can't convey a similar effect -- something people who lamented the franchise going portable claimed, which is ridiculous -- but it would have to provide that from an alternate angle.

While DQIX may be different from the installments that have come before, it actually does manage to provide a wonderful sense of realism. It's living proof that graphics aren't necessary to make a game capable of being perfectly immersive on a lower-end system, and that portability isn't a hindrance. All it needed was a change in the way it delivered the sense of a living, breathing world, something it does amicably. In ways that surpass DQVIII's, even. It's tough to do, especially when you have an entire party full of mutes, but they pulled it off.

The story revolves around themes of death, and the job of your main character is to collect a benevolessence and offer it up to the world tree known as Yggdrasil. Benevolessence is made from the souls of the dead, and forms after you've given dead spirits wandering the earth respite. These lost souls still wander around because they left the world with regret, and you have to be the one to give them ease. Everything is going OK until the Observatory, the place from which the Celestrians observe human activity, is ruptured by a mysterious force. You suddenly find yourself in the town of Angel Falls, where you were a guardian, without your wings and halo. It's now up to you to find out precisely what happened.

Though your plans, and the plans of the Celestrians, have undergone a hindrance, your itinerary remains unchanged. While finding answers to the mysterious crisis, you'll find a plethora of lost souls that need your guidance. Considering about 70% of them left with regrets, you're going to be in for some pretty sad stories. Someone once made the argument that DQ games have a lot of heart, and it's through the smaller stories that you can see that's a completely accurate assessment. They're never a distraction either; all of said small stories have something to do with the larger plot at hand that will eventually unravel.

What really helps bring the story to life is the brilliant localization it's received. Despite being published by Nintendo, all NoA's Treehouse did was oversee how the translation was going. Square Enix, in association with Plus Alpha Translations (who were responsible for all the DQ localizations thus far, save for Joker), was responsible for the localization. It keeps a lot of the accents that made NPCs a joy to talk to a la Dragon Quest IV, but it's toned down heavily enough that it won't be overbearing for anyone. If there's anything here that might annoy some folks, it's the unending stream of puns.

DQIX is a little different from most DQ games in that it allows you to make your own party of characters to venture around with. Having a party of four members of your choosing (including your main character) hasn't been seen since Dragon Quest III, but the difference here is that you can actually see your weapons and equipment visually as you customize their looks. The unfortunate effect of this is the desire to choose the best looking equipment for some characters rather than the most practical. You might be able to get away with that in the main quest, because it's mostly pretty easygoing, but don't expect to cruise through the sidequests and post-game content with your female characters equipped with a Playboy-esque bunny outfit. Of course, that depends on the quest.

The only main downside to having a silent party is that the game won't be heavily character driven. The story is fortunately told in a way that this doesn't feel like too much of a problem, but anyone accustomed to the style of some recent DQ games might miss using party talk to see what your accomplices think about specific events. Also, your fairy accomplice, Stella, does most of the talking for you if need be.

You'll also be giving all four of your characters classes, known as vocations in this game. You don't have too many to start with, but it's enough to get things done. Your main character begins as a Minstrel (this game's equivalent of a Red Mage), but you'll also have the Warrior, Mage, Priest, Fighter, and Thief vocations for the other three characters as you make them. You'll be able to unlock more as the game goes along. When you change vocations, your character goes right back to Level 1, but they'll keep their Skill Points. Besides, it doesn't take long to get your characters back to a reasonable level afterward.

Something else that helps give the game's world liveliness is how much NPC dialogue changes throughout the game. When you've managed to progress the story, NPCs from towns you've previously visited will catch word of it. Many events will also transpire within said towns, with all the NPCs giving their opinions on what's happened; and quite a few of them are comical.

Some of them will also give you quests that you can complete for something special in return. They start off easy enough to ease you into how the quest system works, but they'll ramp up in difficulty by the time you reach the middle of the game. Some of them can get a little frustrating, especially when they entail something that's a pain and the reward is something of minimal importance. You can take on up to eight of them at once, and they're mostly pretty worthwhile.

The graphics also help with its vivacity. Plenty of people dislike 3D on DS solely because it reminds them of the bygone days of the PSOne's pixellated polygons, but DQIX looks exquisite. It's easily the best looking 3D game on the system, and the only upcoming game that will give it some competition is Okamiden. Its in-engine cutscenes look great, even if they don't compare to the anime introduction in terms of animation. The only problem that hampers the presentation is some slowdown when too many things are happening on-screen at once.

DQIX's battle system won't have too many real surprises if you've played quite a few DQ games (or RPGs, even) before, but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable. Despite being 3D, battles are pretty fast-paced with actions happening quickly. They're certainly quicker than DQVIII's, whose battles were hampered by some awful loading times, but they're slower than the 2D games and remakes.

The alchemy system makes its return from DQVIII, and it's every bit as useful as it was there. You'll want to become accustomed to finding materials and using alchemic recipes to make items, because buying equipment gets a incredibly expensive, especially later in the game. You can often make better equipment via alchemy as well, and finding materials is a hell of a lot more enjoyable than constantly fighting enemies for gold, since many of them don't drop that much -- and if they do, they don't drop much EXP. The downside to using the alchemy pot in this game is having to Zoom to the same location to use it, but you no longer have to wait for it to produce your item.

Koichi Sugiyama's music here is unfortunately not his best work. One of the problems comes from hearing the best track in the game (the Observatory theme) very early in, and very little comes close to matching the quality of that theme. It's not a bad soundtrack, but it's thoroughly underwhelming and below the level of quality we've come to expect from Sugiyama in comparison to previous games.

If you have a DS and like RPGs, Dragon Quest IX is an essential purchase. It's easily one of, if not the, best game in the genre on the system. It's also fairly lengthy; after the 40-60 hour quest, treasure maps can be acquired and quests available for download -- actually "download," since they're just unlocked. What you'll find here is an adventure filled to the brim with heart and soul. The most memorable aspect of the game isn't the story itself, but the way it tells its story.