Jung-hyun Park, the first editor to have helped with the popular Attack on Titan manga series, has been arrested in suspicion of murdering his wife. Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department have charged him with homicide after the assistant editor-in-chief of Kodansha’s magazine continued to change his story about how he found his deceased wife.
According to NHK News, the husband called for emergency services on August 9th at 2:50AM to report that his wife “had collapsed” and claimed that she had “fell down the stairs.” He later changed his story to say that she “committed suicide by hanging herself by a handrail” only for an autopsy to reveal that the cause of death came from strangulation on Kanako’s neck. With no evidence showing any other possible suspects and the entire family home at the time, the police arrested Park though have issued a statement saying that he is “maintaining his innocence.”
Less than five months ago we saw the release of Hatsune Miku Project DIVA X in the West and now fans of the famous Vocaloid and her friends are going to get a massive dose of Miku once again at the start of the year. Originally released as an arcade game back in 2010, updated in 2013, and given various upgrades over the years, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone was eventually released on the PlayStation 4 and now that Sega has brought this entry to the West, is it worth picking up?
Gameplay
In many ways Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone feels like something that sets a different tone for the Project DIVA games. Rather than implement a story of any kind or place various barriers in the way of the player, the first thing that is done when starting up the title is a tutorial that gives players the run down on the various input methods to the familiar tune of “Ievan Polkka“ before throwing them into the vast array of options that this title has to offer.
Now it is worth noting that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is available in separate packs, with Colorful Tone and Future Sound being available for $29.99 a piece or together for $53.99 at a discounted bundle and it is fairly clear that unless you happen to dislike all of the songs in one of these packs, that picking up both versions is the way to go as you will find that over 220 songs are available to play right off the bat when both packs are purchased.
This may seem a bit overwhelming at first and believe me, it can be, but thanks to the ability to sort the songs alphabetically, by difficulty level, Vocaloid, and completion level you’ll easily be able to find which songs you want to tackle at any given time. Those who find specific songs they enjoy can easily favorite them with a tap of the touchpad making them easy to access at any given time. Now one thing that is a bit disappointing in this release is that while over 220 songs are offered in this game, unless you are extremely skilled or are fine using the “No Fail Mode” that prevents the player from losing, you will be quite challenged to play a number of these songs.
I say this because while over half of the songs are available all the way from the Easy difficulty level, the other songs are only available from Normal and a few are only available at the Hard level. This news may be disheartening to some since certain songs are not available on lower difficulties, which is an odd choice, but it is interesting to note though that every song can immediately be seen in music video mode if you choose to simply enjoy the performance or played using the aforementioned No Fail Mode.
If you do happen to be extremely skilled at the game, then you can add a little twist into the game by adding in various elements such as hiding notes, making them fly across the screen even faster than normal, or have them be surprise notes. There is even an Extreme difficulty level that isn’t accessible until songs are cleared on Hard so while things may be a bit unbalanced for newcomers, those looking for a real challenge can find it here in Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone.
In fact, thanks to the controls of the game and the way that it has been adapted from an Arcade machine, this is one of the hardest games in the series so far. This is partially due to the fact that while there are fewer inputs to generally worry about, as the game generally uses only four of the face buttons at most, there are also a number of new note types to keep an eye out for. These include hold notes that can be held for bonus points, notes that must be input at the same time that generally are given a pop-up diagram of what to tap to avoid confusion, analog stick inputs, as well as swipes that make use of the touchpad. Touchpad notes tend to be fairly finicky to get the hang of as starting too soon can cause the whole note to be missed while ending a slide will give the player less points and possibly ruin a combo they would have otherwise been able to build up by timing their inputs correctly.
As you rack up points to complete songs, including sequences that allow the player to rack up large points and even trigger a stage effect, there are various levels of completion for each one with the player given points that can then be used to purchase costume modules, hairstyles, and a handful of accessories for the Vocaloids to wear. There are a massive number of costumes to unlock with points in this game and while many songs have unique costumes designed specifically for that song, which is shown as the recommended outfit in the shop when you enter it on a specific song, there are also various fan-favorite costumes that reference other Sega titles such as a Sonic costume, Valkyria Chronicles, and Space Channel 5.
Unfortunately outside of the base gameplay mode and the outfits that can be unlocked and accessories that can be worn, players will find that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone doesn’t really expand much beyond that. This is in part due to it being an arcade port so the only other options available to the user are to compile a list of songs they want to play in a playlist manner and allow them to play like music videos, which I actually have running while writing this review. Those who enjoyed the little slice-of-life interactions with their favorite Vocaloids may be a bit disappointed by the bare bones nature of the game outside of the performances but the clear focus spent on the rhythm gameplay will delight fans of the genre.
Visuals & Audio
As soon as players begin their first song they will recognize that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone is a big visual improvement over the core games that we have seen in the past. Thanks to their roots at the arcade, each of the character models are impressively handled and the music videos that they are set against are as flawless looking as ever. In fact, many stages you remember will look basically the same while the Vocaloid dancing or performing the song will stand out thanks to the redesigns and the massive amount of costumes that players haven an option to select from. Unfortunately unlike past entries, while the lyrics have been Romanized into English letters Sega has not provided English translation for the lyrics in this entry.
It is worth noting that while this game may not feature some of the most recent hit songs from creators; it does feature what many may call the greatest hits that the series has had to a certain point. Almost every popular Vocaloid song including some variants are included in this release and there are a wide number of genre to select from though players will need to listen to/perform some of these songs to find out how they sound for themselves as there is no sort option in this regard. With so many great songs to choose from, including some classic Sega tunes, and the outstanding looking videos they are set against that can be viewed at any time, players will be in for a real treat here.
Overall
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone may feel like it doesn’t have a whole lot of legs outside of its core gameplay thanks to the fact that it’s arcade roots leave it without any Vocaloid interactions or gift giving but there is really no need for that. Thanks to the fact that this title features a staggering number of songs to play and an exceptional presentation for every song, players will be more than happy with what is on display here, making it a must-have for fans of Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid music in general.
Koei Tecmo has released three new character introduction trailers for Musou Stars and this time around they are focusing on two familiar characters as well as one that is brand new for this game. The two characters that fans of Koei Tecmo’s series will recognize happen to be from the Warriors games with Zhao Yun being from Dynasty Warriors and Yukimura Sanada being from Samurai Warriors.
As for the brand new character, she is called Tamaki and you can check out her video as well as the other two below. Currently Musou Stars is set to be released for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan on March 2nd.
Atlus is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Shin Megami Tensei series with a couple of little creations. Not only have they launched a Shin Megami Tensei 25th anniversary project website but they have also revamped the Twitter account that has been used to promote the series.
The account began stating that they anniversary project has begun, that the special site has opened, and that fans of the series should look forward to more updates in the future. Whether this means something new to the series being announced, such as a new game or a re-release on new consoles, or possibly just material for fans of the long running series to enjoy, is yet to be seen.
Yesterday Seven Seas Entertainment announced a pair of manga license acquisitions and they are continuing on that role with another one that fans of a certain Vocaloid will be happy to hear about. The company has announced that they have acquired the license to Ontama’s Hatsune Miku Presents: Hachune Miku’s Everyday Vocaloid Paradise.
The first volume for the manga series, which will be released in full-color like the original release, will arrive on October 17th and for those who are unaware of the manga it is the first fan creation to be officially recognized by the Vocaloid world. Hachune Miku is the small and spirited spin-off character of the famous Hatsune Miku. Equally recognizable by her long pigtails and affiliation with leeks, Hachune Miku and her friends go on their own adventures.
Thanks to this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine we now know exactly what game Nippon Ichi Software was teasing with their recently launched teaser website. The game is called Tsuihou Senkyo, or Exile Election, and will be released for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita sometime in the future, though apparently the game is already 90 percent complete.
According to the magazine, Exile Election will be an adventure game that is set inside of a closed amusement park where an election is held that hangs the lives of its twelve characters in the balance as they each campaign to have someone else executed. Similar to a certain other dark visual novel series, this title will also feature a mascot character in the form of a strange looking bunny named Alice.
Square Enix has announced that they have exceeded six million copies of Final Fantasy XV shipped to stores and sold digitally. This news comes fairly shortly after the launch day shipments of five million. It is worth noting that Square Enix did not say they were doing anything special to celebrate reaching six million but they did take the chance to reiterate the various improvements and additional content that is being added to the game.
This includes the “Moogle Chocobo Carnival,” a special in-game event that brings an exciting festival to the whole city of Altissia, that will begin on January 24th and last for a limited time with all users who download the Holiday Pack or premium Holiday Pack+ being able to access the content.
With Nioh set to be released on the PlayStation 4 in a little under a month Koei Tecmo has released a new minute long video focusing on an event scene in the game. This scene features the protagonist of the game, William Adams, encountering a female ninja, also known as a kunoichi, named Okatsu who calls him a “drunk samurai” while he tries to get across to her in English that he isn’t one.
You can check out the video below and as for the game itself, Nioh is set to be released by Sony in North America on February 7th, February 8th in Europe, and by Koei Tecmo on February 9th in Japan.
Register for the Closed Beta and Participate in War of the Factions, and Help Determine Which Faction Reigns Supreme
Ubisoft® has announced that the For Honor™ Closed Beta will be available from January 26–29 on current-gen consoles and PC. Those still waiting to pledge their sword can sign up to have a chance to participate in the closed beta at forhonorgame.com/war.
Coinciding with the Closed Beta, Ubisoft is launching War of the Factions, a limited-time event which will help answer the question: When the mighty Vikings, deadly Samurai and bold Knights finally collide on the battlefield, who will reign supreme? War of the Factions will track all multiplayer activities across all platforms from all players during the Closed Beta, and will reward players for fighting for their factions and honor the winning faction with additional rewards. The rewards will transfer to the full game and only be available to Closed Beta participants.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with other Ubisoft studios,* For Honor offers an engaging campaign and thrilling multiplayer. Players embody warriors of the three Great Factions – the bold Knights, the brutal Vikings and the enigmatic Samurai – fighting to the death on intense and believable melee battlefields. The game’s innovative combat system puts players in total control of their warriors, allowing them to utilize the unique skills and combat style of each hero to vanquish all enemies who stand in their way. For Honor will be available on February 14.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with other Ubisoft studios*, For Honor offers an engaging campaign and thrilling multiplayer. Players embody warriors of the three Great Factions – the bold Knights, the brutal Vikings and the enigmatic Samurai – fighting to the death on intense and believable melee battlefields. The game’s innovative combat system puts players in total control of their warriors, allowing them to utilize the unique skills and combat style of each hero to vanquish all enemies who stand in their way. For Honor will be available on February 14, 2017.
*Associate studios are Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Toronto, Blue Byte, a Ubisoft studio.
Razer is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thief that made off with two of Razer’s Project Valerielaptop prototypes. The laptop was overshadowed by Razer’s projector prototype Project Ariana, which hauled in many awards at CES for the gaming company. But even then, the triple 4K monitor laptop turned a few heads at the show, pulling in several awards at CES 2017 on its own merits.
Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan made a Facebook post raising the possibility of industrial espionage as the motive for the theft. The two prototypes were lifted from Razer’s press room on Sunday, during the tail end of the show. The $25,000 reward will be up for a full year and tips can be emailed to Razer.