Square Enix has announced that they are planning on releasing Tokyo RPG Factory’s I Am Setsuna in North America and Europe on July 19th where it will be available on both the PlayStation 4 and PC on the same day, through the PlayStation Store and Steam.
To go along with this announcement the company provided new screenshots, a trailer, and something of an overview for I Am Setsuna explaining that it tells the sorrowful story of Setsuna, a young woman of incredible inner strength, and the sacrifice she must undertake to the save the people of her land. Players will be immersed in an emotional and unforgettable story of true bravery as Setsuna leaves her hometown with her bodyguards on a journey to the farthest land.
Nippon Ichi Software has released thirty one minutes of gameplay footage for their upcoming PS Vita RPG ClaDun Sengoku. Similar to past games in the series, players will need to carefully navigate dungeons filled with traps and dangerous monsters while playing as some of the new classes and using weaponry based around the Sengoku period in order to find clues to the “regrets” that plague fallen military commanders.
The gameplay footage can be found below and a demo for ClaDun Sengoku is currently set to be released on April 28th while the game itself will be released in Japan on May 26th.
New Character Art and Trailer Revealed for Tokyo RPG Factory’s Debut Title
LONDON (22nd April 2016) – During the PAX East Convention in Boston, Square Enix Ltd.,today announced that the debut title from its all-new studio Tokyo RPG Factory, I AM SETSUNA, will arrive in the west on 19th July 2016 on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Steam®.
I AM SETSUNA tells the sorrowful story of Setsuna; a young woman of incredible inner strength and the sacrifice she must undertake to the save the people of her land. As Setsuna leaves with her two safeguards for the farthest land, players will be immersed in an emotional and unforgettable story of true bravery. Two new pieces of artwork were also released, which reveal the heroine Setsuna in more detail, as well as Endir, another of the title’s main playable characters. Endir is a skilled mercenary, whose destiny is changed upon meeting Setsuna. Endir embarks with Setsuna as one of her safeguards on her dangerous journey to the farthest land.
I AM SETSUNA offers beautiful art and game design that harks back to JRPG classics of yesteryear, and includes various features inspired by legendary titles from the golden era of JRPGs, such as CHRONO TRIGGER®’s memorable battle system. To watch the I AM SETSUNA trailer now, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_o6PsJJp-k
I AM SETSUNA will be available digitally only in Europe and PAL territories from 19th July 2016 on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Steam®.
About Tokyo RPG Factory
Established in August 2014, Tokyo RPG Factory is a new studio within Square Enix specializing in Japanese RPGs. The studio revisits the ethos and practices used to develop for the 16-bit era and aims to re-introduce the classic JRPG style to current hardware, mixing the spirit of the past with technologies of today.
Taking inspiration from the golden era of JRPGs and their story telling, innovation and depth – the first title from the studio, I AM SETSUNA, will arrive in Europe and North America in 2016.
About Square Enix Ltd.
Square Enix Ltd., a part of the Square Enix Europe business unit, develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content in Europe and other PAL territories as part of the Square Enix Group. Square Enix Ltd. also has a global network of leading development studios such as IO Interactive™, Crystal Dynamics® and Eidos Montréal. The Square Enix Group boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY, which has sold over 110 million units worldwide, DRAGON QUEST® which has sold over 66 million units worldwide and TOMB RAIDER® which has sold over 45 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix Ltd. is a London-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
DRAGON QUEST, EIDOS, FINAL FANTASY, SPACE INVADERS, SQUARE ENIX, the SQUARE ENIX logo, TAITO, TOKYO RPG FACTORY, the TOKYO RPG FACTORY logo, and TOMB RAIDER are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Square Enix group of companies. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
MOVE OR DIE TO LAUNCH “VIEWERS VS STREAMERS” FREE CONTENT UPDATE ON APRIL 29
Update to Include Twitch Mode, Added Game Modes and Mutators, and New Characters Including Shovel Knight
Bucharest, Romania – April 22, 2016 – Millions of gamers have watched the hilarious friendship-ruining drama of Move or Die unfold from their favorite streaming personalities. Now from the mad genius minds of Those Awesome Guys, viewers will be able to directly interact with their livestreamers playing Move or Die in the upcoming “Viewers vs Streamers” content update launching April 29. This free update will also feature the debut of the “Heavy Bullets” game mode, “Teleporter” Mutator option, and adds new playable characters including the greatest garden-tool wielding hero of them all – Shovel Knight!
The new “Viewers vs Streamers” content update will be revealed at PAX East in the Move or Die booth #4165 – attendees are encouraged to come by to experience this new content update and win tiny, fabulous prizes. Also, Twitch Mode will be shown for the first time and livestreamed at the Twitch PJ Saltan tournament during PAX East on Friday, April 22 between 1:00PM through 3:00PM EST!
Viewers can choose which laser to fire in Twitch Mode against livestreamers. LASERS!
“Since forever, viewers could just watch their favorite streamers play games without being able to influence the experience in any way,” states Nicolae Berbece, founder and lead developer of Those Awesome Guys. “Games are interactive and watching them is not, so it’s time to fix that with the new Viewers Vs Streamers free content update. We allowed the viewers to take over the game through the chat and piss their favorite streamers off – it’s beautiful!”
The “Viewers vs Streamers” free content update features Twitch Mode enabling livestream viewers to pick the Move or Die game modes, and Mutator options they want to see livestreaming personalities play. In addition, four mini-games available only in Twitch Mode gives direct power to the viewers to throw bombs, fire lasers, and cause general mayhem and consternation to livestreaming players. Added game modes and options, zany playable characters, and new announcers round off one of the most exciting content updates for Move or Die.
The “Viewers vs Streamers” free content update will be available on April 29. Move or Die is available now on Steam for $14.99. To learn more about Move or Die, please visit www.moveordiegame.com, ‘Like’ it on Facebook, and follow its development on Twitter @moveordiegame for all the latest developer updates and news.
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ABOUT THOSE AWESOME GUYS
Founded in 2012 by Nicolae Berbece, Those Awesome Guys is a one-man independent video game developer based in Romania that teams up with developers from around the world to create really awesome games. After releasing Concerned Joe, a 2D puzzle platformer Flash game that generated a small, but dedicated following, Nick decided to give the title a proper remake. And so was born Move or Die, an absurdly fast-paced multiplayer party game coming out in January on Steam. For more information, visit thoseawesomeguys.com
ZOMBIE VIKINGS RAGNARÖK EDITION OUT NOW ON PLAYSTATION®4 PUBLISHED BY RISING STAR GAMES
Enhanced Physical Boxed Edition of Zoink Games’ Dead Funny Co-Op Hack ‘N’ Slash Brawler is Available at Retailers Now
Los Angeles, CA– April 22, 2016 – Rising Star Games announced today an onslaught of putrid pugilism on PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, with the launch of the physical boxed release of Zombie Vikings Ragnarök Edition, for $19.99. From acclaimed Swedish developer Zoink Games, Zombie Vikings Ragnarök Edition features five exclusive arenas, two additional player characters and a deluxe digital art book.
The comedy co-op adventure plunges up to four players into the Nordic cosmos, tasking the putrid posse with a heroic mission to retrieve Odin’s magic right eye and make peace with their rotten pasts along the way. The gloriously grotesque adventure sees players brawling, bashing, biting and buddying up to execute undead special moves across the most epic of worlds, including boiling gingerbread swamps and the oozing intestines of the giant Midgaard Serpent.
“We are excited to finally release the physical boxed version of Zombie Vikings into the hands of players”, said Martin Defries, Managing Director of Rising Star Games. “The additional exclusive content in Zombie Vikings Ragnarök Edition makes for a compelling and definitive version of this comedic and barbaric brawler”.
“We poured our heart and soul into Zombie Vikings and made this crazy adventure, which we think the players will really enjoy,” said Klaus Lyngeled, CEO of Zoink Games.
Zombie Vikings Key Features:
1 to 4-player brawler featuring online or couch co-op gameplay
Hilarious story written by Zach Weinersmith (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)
Exclusive to the physical box version of Zombie Vikings Ragnarök Edition:
5 bonus Versus Arenas
2 additional playable characters; Frostbjörn and Raybjörn
Deluxe digital art book
For more information on Zombie Vikings Ragnarök Edition, please visit the official site: www.zombie-vikings.com.
For more information on Rising Star Games, follow us on Twitter and visit the official Rising Star Games website.
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ABOUT ZOINK GAMES
Zoink is an award winning developer in Sweden who loves to innovate and create. Zoink’s last game Stick It to The Man was released on a multitude of consoles and gained critical acclaim. Besides working on their own titles, Zoink also creates for companies such as Disney, Cartoon Network, and Google.
Rising Star Games is a privately held video games publisher with a global reach. With operating offices in Europe and USA the company publishes video game entertainment across all gaming platforms from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and via Steam. With decades of combined experience and a genuine passion for interactive entertainment, Rising Star Games is proud of its ever-expanding and enormously diverse catalogue of over 120 titles.
After living as a vampire for 1,000 years, Marceline has decided that it is time for her to become a normal human again. Princess Bubblegum has been working on a cure for vampirism, and while it has yet to be tested, Marceline decides to undergo the experimental procedure. Marceline is later accused of biting and sucking the blood out of the animals in a nearby farm village, but is unable to defend herself against the accusations. Meanwhile, new enemies appear in the form of reborn vampires.
Story
Episodes of Adventure Time featuring Marceline have always been more memorable than others. Her history with Simon, now known as the Ice King, is being gradually revealed, and her issues with her father have also been the subject of multiple episodes. It is only natural that she should now be the star of several consecutive episodes. There are some things going on in the background involving Princess Bubblegum and the Candy Kingdom, and the Flame Princess and Cinnamon Bun are briefly shown together for just a few seconds, but Stakes! is primarily about Marceline. It is not particularly common for this series to delve into philosophical territory, but Marceline’s wish to become mortal is explored carefully and sensitively. Burning people alive was common centuries ago, and the writers make a good point about the pointlessness of violence based on fear and ignorance when a group of villagers raise their pitchforks and try to burn Marceline alive. Finn’s devotion to his friends really shines through during this unusually dark turn of events, and Jake becomes more relatable through his fear of the true perpetrator of the crimes against the farm animals. It is exceedingly rare to see Jake sitting a fight out, but in these episodes, he is not one of the stars of the show. This is Marceline’s adventure, both physically and emotionally.
Until now, flashbacks to Marceline’s past have mostly featured Simon. The second episode of this miniseries reveals a great deal more about her youth. A scene featuring her mother is by far one of the most touching scenes in Stakes!, and it is quite powerful seeing how the humans she encountered over the years have reacted to her. They see her as a threat even when she helps them, although some do eventually come to see her as a genuinely caring person. The only significant problem with Stakes! is that “Everything Stays” is the only episode focusing on flashbacks to Marceline’s past. Each individual flashback could have easily been the focus of a whole episode, yet they are all condensed to only be just long enough to be meaningful. Another problem, albeit a less important one, is that the events of “The Empress Eyes” make it as difficult as it has been in the past to feel any kind of sympathy for the Ice King. The earlier flashback to Marceline’s time with Simon does at least give more emotional insight into the kind of person he used to be, but the writers did not choose to have the Ice King grow, or rather regain his old identity, during this miniseries. Adventure Time has always been about taking one step at a time instead of giving all of the answers and ideal conclusions at once, so if the writers do have plans for the Ice King in the future, they may very well be worth the wait.
The villains in Adventure Time are usually too bizarre to ever be truly annoying. The Lemon Grabs have been a source of great entertainment for fans despite being disturbing, and many of the other bad guys have turned out to be less evil than they first appeared. Marceline’s enemies, the vampires and especially the Vampire King, are created according to this trend. We get to see old-fashioned vampires, hypnotising vampires and more, but the Vampire King is one of the best ‘villains’ ever featured in this series. He might have been evil once, but these episodes show that bad people can become good if they are given a chance. Such people may not always seem to deserve a chance, but in this case, the Vampire King’s dramatic shift in character pushes Marceline to really develop as a character.
Visuals
For the most part, the animation featured in Stakes! is exactly the same as it is throughout the majority of Adventure Time. However, the animation noticeably increases in quality during the climax. It seems as if the animation team got some ideas from Japanese animation, and the end result is amazing. A special opening animation sequence was created for these episodes too. This sequence helps add to the dark atmosphere of this story. The character designs remain the same, but a lot of effort has gone into creating a wide range of unique characters and enemies just for this miniseries. With a bit of editing, this could just as easily be a feature film. One can only hope that the production team creates another miniseries within Adventure Time again, or better yet, a direct-to-TV film.
Audio
The quality of the music is mixed; much of it is the same type of synthesised music present in the rest of the series, but there are a few pieces of music that help add to the emotional atmosphere. There are a few fantastic vocal songs, and the lyrics are as powerful as in Marceline’s previous songs. The voice acting maintains the same quality as before, and Olivia Olson continues to do a perfect job of voicing and singing as Marceline.
Extras
This set features animatics, song demos and an art gallery. The song demos feature basic demonstrations of the songs with Olivia Olson’s vocal tracks, and the art gallery is a short video featuring character designs for all of the characters seen in these eight episodes. These extras present a great way to spend a few minutes after watching the final episode.
Overall
Cartoon Network’s animated series tend to be all about action, but Adventure Time has differed on many occasions. It evokes emotions through the exploration of important themes such as parenthood and romance, and episodes featuring Marceline in particular are always powerful and moving. With so much creative potential, it is no wonder at all that Marceline became the focus of an eight-part story in Stakes!. These episodes depict her character and her past as sensitively as ever. If not for the crude humour present in scenes featuring Finn and Jake, this miniseries might have been one of even more profound. Even with the usual toilet humour, it raises philosophical questions about existence and asks questions about the meaning of good and evil, and then discusses them as best it can. This is Adventure Time at its most powerful and engaging level so far.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Atlus is preparing to play with the hearts of Persona fans once again as they have updated the officialJapanese website for Persona 5 with a massive countdown timer that is currently counting down to something that will be occurring on May 5th, a date that is of course 05/05.
For now the company has given no clues as to what to expect from the countdown other than a “Take Your Heart” phrase above the count down but considering we already know that the game is supposed to be coming out in Japan sometime this summer and sometime this year in the West, perhaps it might be an official release date announcement? Only time will tell.
Right Stuf has opened pre-orders for their imported limited edition Blu-ray release of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt. Right Stuf provided an in-depth synopsis of the story:
Their war has not yet ended…
It is Universal Century 0079, at the end of the One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. The space colonies of Side 4, or Moore, were previously destroyed by a Zeon attack, and many colonists lost their lives. Side 4 became a shoal zone filled with the wreckage of destroyed colonies and warships, lit by constant flashes of lightning due to collisions between electrified debris. It soon came to be known as the “Thunderbolt Sector.”
The Moore Brotherhood, an Earth Federation Forces unit made up of surviving citizens from Moore, set out to exterminate the Zeon forces in the Thunderbolt Sector in order to reclaim their homeland. To halt the Federation advance, the Zeon forces deployed their own Living Dead Division, which was established to collect combat data on soldiers with prosthetic limbs.
Io Fleming, though part of the Moore Brotherhood, hates being tied down by his homeland and family history. Daryl Lorenz, having lost his legs in earlier battles, is now an ace sniper of the Living Dead Division. When they confront each other on the battlefield, they will reach a mutual realization. These two are destined to kill each other.
This release contains a storage box featuring artwork illustrated by Hajime Katoki. Inside of the box is a 108-page “Animation Works” booklet featuring line art illustrations and staff interviews, a sleeve case illustrated by Yasuo Ohtagaki, a specially created jacket illustration and a special 16-page booklet. On-disc extras include a bonus disc containing “Documentary of Thunderbolt”, storyboards from episodes 1-4, staff and cast audio commentary, promotional videos and TV commercials. None of the extras are in English; they are only in Japanese. All four episodes are presented with Japanese and English audio tracks and English, Japanese, French, Korean and Chinese subtitles.
There will only be limited quantities available. Pre-orders can be made here for $89.99 USD (U.S. Dollars) ahead of its release on July 2, 2016. The cover art is featured below.
Atlus has released a couple of new trailers for Etrian Odyssey V: The End of the Long Myth with the first one focusing on showing off the “Dragoon” class and the second highlight Race and Union Skills.
The Dragoon is a defense specialization type that fights from the front row and is capable of absorbing high amounts of damage while the Race Skills are skills that will be specific to the previously detailed four playable races. As for Union Skills, these can be activated by your party members during a fight and allow them to team up to take down an opponent in one turn.
Famitsu has released some new information regarding Marvelous’ upcoming Fate/Extella title and with it comes a number of new screenshots for the game. The first thing they chose to highlight is the “Master” who will fight along their Servant and this time around players will be able to select between a male or female character that they can name.
The company also revealed how Tamamo no Mae’s combat form change will look, as all the playable Servants in the game will be able to shift into a different form, such as Nero gaining fire abilities. Currently Fate/Extella is set to be released in Japan sometime this year for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.
