TAKE DOWN YOUR ENEMIES FROM AFAR WITH THE NINJA IN SADAME
The deadliness of the Japanese ninja is legendary – masters of stealth, the victims of ninjas would often never even see or hear the fatal ranged attack until it was far too late. In Rising Star Japan’s Sadame (www.sadamegame.com/us), the recently released action/RPG title for the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS™ family systems, gamers can choose the Ninja character class and carry out the same attacks from a distance.
As one of four playable characters, the Ninja is best viewed as the ranged or archer character archetype in the gaming world. Ninjas excel at mid to long range combat, utilizing the sickle & chain and shuriken to deal death from afar. The ninja is also a master at setting traps for enemies, and has extremely quick on-field movement to get the edge on her opponents.
The Ninja, as well as the previously revealed Samurai and Rogue and the soon-to-be-showcased fourth character class, features its own unique play style and will feature items and upgrades exclusive to that class. The story of Sadame and the gamer’s encounters along the main quest will vary depending on the character class chosen as well.
Set in an alternate version of the historical Sengoku, or Warring States, Period in ancient Japan that saw a near constant amount of war and political upheaval, Sadame is a frenetic and imaginative hack-and-slash action/adventure title for the Nintendo 3DS that will have players fight wave after hellish wave of demonic enemies and huge, daunting bosses. Skillfully defeat the evil hordes in front of you with a variety of combos and moves to gain experience – level up your character, improve your weapons and armor, and strengthen yourself to take on the fearsome final foes once and for all!
Battlestate Games, the creators of hardcore online shooter Escape from Tarkov, today revealed the second in its ongoing series of developer diaries, this one dedicated to the creation of 3D in-game assets and how they are bringing “hardcore realism” to life. The developers describe the process of creating a rich and devastating world – from architectural elements to weapons and characters.
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore online game that combines FPS/TPS with RPG elements. The game events unfold in the sealed off Russian city of Tarkov, which has become a scene of a local conflict between two private military companies. As a hazardous environment combat simulator, the game uses multiple system modules for ultimately immersive gameplay and a complete feeling of reality. The closed beta-testing of Escape from Tarkov is planned for 2016. Interested in testing your mettle? Sign up now for the Beta on the official game Website at:www.escapefromtarkov.com/.
To stay up to date on current development be sure to follow Battlestate Games onTwitter and “Like” the game onFacebook.
The Roccat Ryos MK FX is the latest iteration in Roccat’s popular line of mechanical keyboards. The Roccat Ryos MK FX is their first mechanical keyboard to feature per-key RGB lighting and the new Roccat Swarm software. The keyboard comes in the classic Roccat keyboard layout with Cherry MX Brown switches.
The Roccat Ryos MK FX is packed in a large box that is quite the unboxing. Nestled inside the main packaging is an elegant inner box that is the polar opposite in style to the loud outer box clearly designed to call out to gamers from the computer store shelf. The chest like-box opens up to reveal the Roccat Ryos MK FX, safely bundled in a plastic bag and plenty of plastic film to prevent scratches. The first thing that drew my attention was the incredibly thick braided cable attached to the keyboard. As usual, Roccat has been thoughtful enough to include a Velcro cable tie to help bring order to the chaotic disaster of cables that snake out of the back of most computers. At the end of the beefy cable sprouts two 3.5mm audio cables for the headphone and microphone output on the keyboard and two USB plugs daisy chained together. It would appear the second USB plug is used in the case a single USB port cannot push out enough power to run the keyboard, as my keyboard chugged away happily with only one USB plug connected.
The keyboard itself is very hefty. The body is all plastic, but the keyboard is weighty enough to not move around on a desk when pushed. I am very pleased to find five generously sized rubber feet at the bottom of the keyboard, as I find larger size tends to slip less and stay attached to the keyboard better in the long run. For those who prefer their keyboards at an angle, the two foldable feet are capped with rubber stoppers to ensure stability. On the bottom of the keyboard are several channels for cable management. The channels are large enough to fit an average sized USB cables, but there is nothing to really hold the cables in place when the keyboard is lifted.
The top of the keyboard is a mix of matte plastic, a classy ring of shiny plastic, and a dotted surface to give a little texture to the plastic. Roccat advertises the keyboard as smudge-proof and it lives up to the advertisement quite well. I really can’t commit a crime and expect to get away with it because the combination of oily skin and sweaty hands has a tendency to leave clear as day fingerprints absolutely everywhere. The keyboard does a great job of resisting all but the worst smudges, which is quite the accomplishment.
With keyboard manufacturers trying out new mechanical switches or making their own versions of the ever popular Cherry MX switches, it is nice to see Roccat is sticking with the tried and true Cherry MX Browns. Unlike some of the other Ryos keyboards, the Roccat Ryos MK FX only comes in Cherry MX Brown, which is considered to be one of the best switches for gamers. While I personally prefer the lighter touch of Cherry MX Reds, Browns are a good balance as they are quieter than the chattery Blue switches and require enough pressure to prevent accidental key presses, while still being soft enough to allow for quick double taps. One of the bonuses of using such a popular switch is the wide variety of aftermarket keycaps available for Cherry MX switches.
The keyboard uses per-key RGB LEDs. The LEDs are very bright and can be clearly seen in well lit rooms. My only complaint is that the colour transition is not the smoothest thing in the world. Using the right lighting effect can hide the sudden jumps when the LED changes colours, but when the keyboard is set to stay lit and simply cycle through colours the transitions are really obvious.
Roccat makes one of my favourite keyboard layouts. They start with a classic keyboard layout, then add a row of five macro keys to the left side of the keyboard and three more mouse-like buttons just below the space bar. My utmost favourite part is the fact Roccat has drop-kicked the caps lock key by default in favour for their Easy-Shift[+] functionality that essentially doubles all of the possible key combinations on the keyboard. Of course, if you absolutely love to cruise control while shouting on the internet, the caps lock functionality can be reassigned using the keyboard software.
Roccat is slowly transitioning their software to the unified Roccat Swarm software suite. I have complained in the past about my dislike for the old system that required installation of separate software for different Roccat peripherals. Roccat Swarm is a step in the right direction. The suite is intended to manage all of Roccat’s peripherals, while providing extra functionality through a mobile app. Currently, the base software is only available on Windows and the only mobile platform currently supported is Android. It is clear that the suite is still in development. The Windows software is stable for the most part, but I did encounter the odd crash. The macro manager is very powerful, giving users a lot more control versus the built in macro record function on the keyboard. On the flip side, I find the controls to be a little awkward. I don’t like the fact pressing enter immediately creates a new macro and delete removes the current delay, as it seems counter-intuitive when editing delay times. I am very happy to see a lot of pre-loaded macros for a large variety of titles, though the list is starting to look a little dated. The software is loaded with a variety of lighting effects. As a bonus, it provides power users with a lot of granular options and can support Alienware’s AlienFX API out of the box.
The mobile functionality is clearly in the earliest of stages. The Android app doesn’t actually support the keyboard at this time, as it is still branded for the Roccat Nyth mouse. Even more disappointing is the fact the Android app is still separate from Roccat’s Power-Grid application. Roccat has a good start and some excellent ideas with the new Swarm software, but they really need to hide the mobile software until development is complete, integrate Power-Grid software into Swarm, and do some final polish. If they can pull this off, they will definitely have one of most well rounded and feature rich software suites on the market.
To me, the Roccat Ryos MK FX is an interesting case. On the surface, it seems like a minor incremental upgrade from the Roccat Ryos MK Pro that adds RGB lighting and removes the USB 2.0 hub. It is the type of minor incremental upgrade that usually draws a cooler response versus the hype of a brand new product launch. Not a bad thing, considering Roccat is building on top of a fantastic keyboard design that is easily recommended to anyone in the market for a gaming keyboard. At the same time, the Roccat Ryos MK FX comes right as Roccat is completely revamping their software from the ground up with Roccat Swarm, something that deserves a lot of interest. The computer side of Swarm is already a solid product that needs a little bit of final polish; however, the mobile half of the software is not even ready, let alone ready for prime time as advertised. With hope, Roccat will finish up development over the next few months, integrate the Power-Grid software into Swarm, and put in some final polish to power the very solid Roccat Ryos MK FX keyboard with one of the most well rounded software suites out there for a gaming peripheral.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
It’s a big one! We’ve hit 100 Every Monday Bundles and to celebrate, Indie Gala and Capsule Computers have teamed up with Black Shell Media for a special anniversary bundle. For the next two weeks, people can snag ten indie games and once DLC for a minimum purchase of $1.99.
Gamers who pay at least $1.00 will receive:
Belladonna – A gothic point and click adventure game about a corpse rising from the dead in hopes of discovering why she died and was brought back to life.
Hordelicious – A semi-hardcore wave based arena shooter with lovely minimalist pixel art and more than 45 weapons to shoot.
Proto Raider – A single screen puzzle platformer done entirely in old school ASCII artwork.
For a minimum price of $1.99, buyers will also receive:
Raining Blobs – A fast paced arcade puzzler inspired games like Super Puzzle Fighter and Pochi and Nyaa.
Ladra – A stealth action adventure built with RPG Maker that encourages agility and stealth over combat and violence.
Rogue State – The revolution was a stunning success! The monarchy is gone and now the hardest part is here, creating a stable nation while several factions, including your own brother, conspire against you.
London, UK– 29 February, 2016 – Today, Ubisoft® released Anno 2205™: Tundra, the first major DLC for the city-building simulation from Ubisoft’s Blue Byte studio, along with a free update available today for all 2205 players. With Tundra, players will have access to a brand new sector to manage along with the Temperate, Artic and Moon sessions. In the desolate land of the Vanha Plains, players will gather new resources and complete specific quests to further improve their metropolises.
In this new 82,000 acre territory, players will discover new gameplay tactics as they need to dry the marshes before settling in the area among the muskoxen and the icy surroundings. Two new population types are also available, the Tundra Scientists and the Tundra Protectors, of which players will have to manage their specific needs. In order to fulfill these needs, five new production chains and ten new goods types challenge players to use their management skills more effectively.
A new additional module type can be unlocked by solving the sector quest and inquiring on the past generations failures. This module improves farms and factories in the Tundra sector, but also in all other regions of the game. Throughout the story quests and optional side quests, players will control a futuristic flying vehicle to hover over the desert landscapes.
A free update named “Corporation HQ” is also available today for all Anno 2205 players. This patch enhances the corporation progression screen to make it more intuitive, and to provide a good overview of the player’s achievements and improvements. With this update, players can now sell goods depending on requests to NPC traders.
Tundra is available to owners of the Anno 2205’s Season Pass, and can be purchased independently for all players.
Ubisoft is a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, with a rich portfolio of world-renowned brands, including Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s video game series, Rayman, Far Cry and Watch Dogs. The teams throughout Ubisoft’s worldwide network of studios and business offices are committed to delivering original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular platforms, including consoles, mobile phones, tablets and PCs. For the 2014-15 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of €1,464 million. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.
About Blue Byte, a Ubisoft Studio
Having opened their doors in 1988, Blue Byte’s first hit came in 1991 with Battle Isle, followed by the ever-popular development strategy game The Settlers® – which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013. Following their acquisition by Ubisoft in 2001, the studio continued work on The Settlers® series, and began overseeing the production of ANNO® in 2007. Winner of 2012 “Best European Studio” award (European Games Awards), Blue Byte expanded in 2014 with the acquisition of a new branch in Mainz. The teams are developing and operating HD, browser-based and mobile games, including Might and Magic® Heroes® Online, ANNO® Online and The Settlers® Online, captivating millions of players worldwide. In 2014 the studio successfully launched ANNO®: Build an Empire on mobile devices. Currently The Settlers®: Kingdoms of Anteria for PC and Assassin’s Creed® Identity for smartphones and tablets are in development at Blue Byte’s Düsseldorf studio while the Mainz studio works on Anno 2205 which will bring the acclaimed city-builder series into space. More information can be found at www.bluebyte.com.
This time around Koei Tecmo‘s Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 character trailer focuses on the oldest member of the roster, coming in at 1018 years old and apparently very surprised that she couldn’t bring her wings with her, the focus is on Nyotengu. In the video we see Nyotengu relax in a number of different locations in the game while wearing a variety of different swimsuits.
You can check out the video below and as for the game itself, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is set to be released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan on March 24th and the Asian release, featuring English subtitles, can be pre-ordered through Play-Asia.
WayForward has announced that they plan on releasing Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse onto the Xbox One on March 16th where the game, that is priced at $19.99 on the PC and Wii U, will be offered at a special launch week price that has yet to be revealed.
For those that haven’t been following the game, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is the third entry for the indie platformer and was originally released on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in late 2014 and then on the PC in 2015. Although WayForward has not announced exactly when they plan on bringing the title to the PlayStation 4, they have confirmed that it is on the way.
Ys Net recently shared some brand new images of Shenmue III during a presentation that was held at the Monaco Anime Games International Conferences and these images focus almost entirely on showing off the game’s colorful environments.
The company also showed off a few in-game scenes that demonstrated the weather effects and more and you can check that out below. Currently Shenmue III is being developed for the PlayStation 4 and PC and those who missed out on the initial funding scene can still back the game through Paypal. You can learn more about this method on the game’s official website.
Last week it was revealed that Bandai Namco would be including Marshall D. Teach, better known as Blackbeard, as a playable character in One Piece: Burning Blood and now V Jump has released a thirteen minute video containing a little over eight minutes of gameplay footage showing off Blackbeard’s fighting style and techniques.
You can check out the video below and as for the game itself, One Piece: Burning Blood is set to be released for the PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and Xbox One on May 31st in North America and June 3rd in Europe with a PC version also being released sometime in June.
Overview Over the last few years we have seen countless JRPGs localized that very few would have ever thought would be possible due to what a massive undertaking the translation would be. A few of these just so happen to fall under The Legend of Heroes series and with XSEED handling both the first and second chapters of Trails in the Sky, they have opted to continue the series with the most recent trilogy, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. With the second title already being localized, does the first Trails of Cold Steel offer an experience worth sinking your teeth into?
Story The story in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel begins mid-siege as we join the yet unintroduced members of Class VII as they are fighting against enemies that have invaded a vital building and are preparing to use the country’s own weaponry against it. Just as things start to look bad, the story cuts back to the beginning. Set in the Erebonian Empire, a place fans of The Legend of Heroes series will recognize, we join Rean Schwarzer as he steps off the train into his first day as a student at Thors Military Academy.
As he makes his way through the city and eventually to the auditorium for initiation, he notices that only a few students wear the crimson colored uniform that he was given. While Thors Military Academy generally has split the classes between nobles and commoners, the members of Class VII, those in the crimson uniforms, have been assembled regardless of social status, a movie that causes some small amount of friction between a few members at the start.
That all changes over the course of the game however as, once players move past the initial slow start of the title, the members of Class VII and their instructor find themselves swept into a world of war, betrayal, love, honor and more. To give more details about certain events that take place, especially a number of twists that occur in the story would do the game a disservice but let’s just say that this is an RPG that focuses heavily on delivering a fleshed out and complex storyline, though be prepared for a cliffhanger into the second game.
On top of delivering a satisfying core narrative, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel manages to do something that even games with a small core cast often fail to do. It manages to develop these characters in such a manner that it actually makes players care about the many core characters that end up becoming party members throughout the game. While a few do end up getting sidelined a bit in regards to the main storyline, the fact that the Thors Academy serves as the main base of the game allows for the title to give players moments of free time where they can freely interact with their friends and learn more about their personalities and advance their subplots. That being said, usually players will only be able to interact with a few of their members at any given time which means that it is possible to lose out on some character development if you don’t juggle character interactions well enough.
In fact, beyond your immediate classmates players will be able to watch numerous little side stories develop as other students and teachers at Thors Academy have been given interesting personalities and dialogue that changes as players progress throughout the game, meaning that I often found myself exploring in order to catch up with everyone before trying to push through with the core storyline. Learning about the backstories of the core cast and interacting with them as they deal with the various events unfolding in the story, catching glimpses at the lives of other classmates, all while diving into the massive storyline here in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel means that this is a game that can be daunting from a story perspective (a recap journal is filled out as players progress for those who may get lost) but it is one that is extremely satisfying and will leave fans wanting more and thankfully that appears to be exactly what they’ll be getting in the future.
Gameplay While players will be spending plenty of time at Thors Academy and finding their party members often being swapped out while they are sent on different field study missions, this brings us to the other hefty portion Trails of Cold Steel, the combat and customization systems. On the surface the combat in this game may seem fairly standard as it uses a four party member turn based system that allows players to strike their opponents in the field before entering into combat for an advantage. Then once entering battle they can move around the field to close or gain distance from an enemy or attack, use an item, or flee from combat.
This is all fairly standard until we get into the Craft Skills, Arts, Tactical Link system, weapon weaknesses, and elemental weaknesses. While the last two may seem fairly standard for RPGs, Trails of Cold Steel really takes advantages of these strengths and weaknesses, meaning that players will quickly find themselves learning about their foes in order to take them down in the best way possible, especially since field attacks with a weapon an opponent is weak against can lead to a battle that is practically over before it even begins.
As for the aforementioned systems, Craft Skills and Arts work fairly predictably with both allowing players to use skills of various types to either attack the opponent or buff the team though Arts draw upon EP while Craft Skills pull from CP. CP can be obtained from fighting in combat while EP works more like a mana system with both systems requiring some management and tweaking, with arts generally coming from quartz that can be equipped to each character and if the player can bring up a party member’s CP to over a hundred they can unleash powerful S-Craft attacks that can devastate an opponent in a flashy manner.
The Link system relies upon the various bonds that the party has made throughout the story so far by allowing characters to team up during battle to provide cover from attacks or help deal a finishing blow against an opponent. Using the aforementioned free time to bond with your party members allows these various link specials to be unlocked so not only does it help develop the characters in your party, it helps in combat as well. With players able to call in various types of Link attacks or assists depending on what is unlocked, there are generally plenty of options available in a fight, especially since if you have more than four party members at a time they can be swapped out with a party member on the sidelines to bring a fresh member into a battle.
This allows for a fluid and surprisingly easy to understand, despite the complicated sounding systems, combat system that never really feels unfair despite the fact that some opponents you come up against can be rather difficult. Figuring out the strategies to take down these foes and using the fast paced combat system to eliminate them as efficiently as possible delivers a satisfying experience, though ignoring these weaknesses can also lead to crushing defeat.
Of course with the meaty storyline offering plenty of content to explore and so many side-quests that I stopped counting after a while, there is more than enough content here to learn all of the intricacies of the system. Then if you feel like going through a second time, the title does offer bonuses such as link levels, items, and more that can be carried over or added into a New Game Plus mode.
Visuals The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel marks the first game in the series to be developed specifically for the PlayStation 3 rather than simply being an upgraded port. This means that those who are familiar with the series will be treated to the first 3D game in the series though don’t expect anything too amazing here as the character models, while designed nice enough to appear similar to their gorgeous character portraits, have a number of stiff animations and can appear rough looking at times.
The enemies players face off against are varied enough while the combat sequences are also handled fairly nicely and the numerous dungeons and environments that players will be exploring are designed with a unique feel to keep things feeling fresh for quite a while. It is worth noting that the PlayStation Vita version (with cross-save support) of the game doesn’t suffer much graphically outside of some artwork appearing less vivid and suffering from more slowdown than the console counterpart.
Audio For a game that contains such a massive amount of dialogue that is found in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel one must give XSEED Games quite a lot of credit because not only is nearly all of the content (outside of the main character occasionally) voiced, the voice actors that have been chosen for these roles are great fits for these characters with only a handful sounding a bit off.
As for the game’s soundtrack, this one sports an amazing collection of music that really helps add emotion to the game. There are tunes that work well for a high-tension boss battle as well as those that drive home how dramatic certain sequences can be. With such a wide-range of variety here, as well as enjoyable exploration music, this is one that fans won’t be getting tired of anytime soon while working through over seventy hours of content that can be found in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel.
Overall If you are a fan of RPGs then passing on The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel would be doing yourself a great disservice. By offering a well-crafted, albeit slow starting, storyline containing characters that you will actually begin to care about as the story progresses, and tons of content to enjoy supplemented with a combat system that may seem rather by the books but is incredibly satisfying at times, this title tells a story that can easily eat away at your time for hours on end. Trails of Cold Steel is a superb title for RPG fans, especially since it has a sequel in translation and a third title in the works. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
