Right Stuf recently revealed that Yen Press will be releasing the Fruits Basketmanga series in omnibus form beginning June 2016. The collector’s edition omnibus releases will combine two volumes into one. Omnibuses 1 and 2 are scheduled for release on June 21, 2016. These deluxe releases will feature full-colour illustrations. No more details about them have been made available.
Natsuki Takaya’s bestselling manga series has been released in North America twice before. Tokyopop released the series over several years as a standard edition release and subsequently as an ‘ultimate’ edition release. The series was adapted into an anime series by Studio Deen in 2001. Natsuki Takaya launched a sequel series, titled Fruits Basket Another, last September.
Five anime films will be showcased at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne this coming weekend. The films will be shown as a part of the ‘Essential Anime Redux’.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky will be shown this Friday, the 5th of February, at 5:40pm. My Neighbour Totoro will be shown at 4:30pm and Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo will be shown at 8:15pm on Saturday the 6th of February. Princess Mononoke will be screened at 6:15pm on Sunday the 7th of February. Boruto: Naruto the Movie will be shown at 7pm on Monday the 8th of February.
The three Studio Ghibli films will each be screened from an original 35mm print in Japanese with English subtitles. Madman Entertainment’s post about this does not state whether or not any of the other films will be shown with an English dub. Tickets to all of these screenings can be booked here.
Madman Entertainment has opened pre-orders for their April 2016 anime releases. The release date for all of the following releases is April 6, 2016. They include:
Bleach DVD Movie Collection – DVD only. SRP $59.95.
Free! Eternal Summer (Season 2 & OVA) – DVD, Blu-ray and limited edition DVD and Blu-ray combo pack. SRPs $59.95, $69.95 and $99.95 respectively.
Gundam Reconguista in G Part 2 (contains episodes 14-26) – English subtitled DVD only. SRP $59.95.
Lord Marksman and Vanadis Complete Series – DVD and Blu-ray. SRPs $59.95 and $69.95 respectively.
Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2 – DVD and limited edition Blu-ray. SRPs $59.95 and $99.95 respectively.
Naruto Shippuden Collection 25 (contains episodes 310-322) – DVD only. SRP $49.95.
One Piece Collection 36 (contains episodes 434 – 445) – DVD only. SRP $49.95.
Sailor Moon R (Season 2) Part 1 (contains episodes 47-68) – standard and limited edition DVD. SRPs $59.95 and $69.95 respectively.
Samurai Pizza Cats Complete Series – DVD only. SRP $59.95.
Sword Art Online 2 Part 4 – standard edition DVD and Blu-ray and limited edition DVD and Blu-ray. SRPs $29.95 (S.E. DVD), $34.95 (S.E. Blu-ray), $34.95 (L.E. DVD) and $44.95 (L.E. Blu-ray).
Tokyo ESP Complete Series – DVD and Blu-ray. SRPs $59.95 and $69.95 respectively.
All prices listed are in Australian dollars (AUD). The limited edition Bleach box sets will include a collector’s booklet. The limited edition Free! Eternal Summer combo pack will include a character booklet, seven exclusive art cards, and a sticker set. The limited edition Blu-ray release of Love Live! season 2 will include a character guide booklet. The limited edition DVD release of Sailor Moon R Part 1 will also include a character guide booklet. All of these releases will come in special packaging.
Begun in 2013 as the child of a seven day game jam before becoming a popular Kickstarter campaign, SUPERHOThas finally announced a release date: February 25th. Developed and published by the Polish SUPERHOT team, SUPERHOT is a stylish and unique entry to the crowded field of FPS games.
Described as a ‘time-bending shooter’; SUPERHOT has the player dodge bullets, pluck weapons from fallen foes, and fight their way through hordes of unrelenting enemies, all within a delightfully stylized environment. What makes SUPERHOT interesting is its focus on the player planning their next move carefully instead of relying on quick reflexes. It encourages this with a simple mechanic: time only moves when you move. Combined with any damage spelling your doom, an immediate restart, and the lack of convenient ammo drops, it makes for an often frenetic game as you carefully dance through the hypnotic hail of bullets, plotting each step and attack carefully.
The announcement trailer is available to watch below, and once the bullet-dodging, Matrix-like game play has you hooked, it is available for preorder on SUPERHOT’s website here.
NIS America to release Grand Kingdom for PlayStation®4 and PSVita™
Following the success of the Danganronpa series, NIS America partners with Spike Chunsoft to release a new strategy title in North America and Europe
NIS America today announced that they will be releasing Grand Kingdom in North America and Europe. Grand Kingdom is a brand-new tactical RPG title developed by Spike Chunsoft for the PlayStation®4 and PSVita™ which will immerse players in the life of a mercenary troop, and allow them to experience tactical and strategic combat in an immersive campaign, as well as online.
“We are very excited to be partnering with NIS America to localize and release Grand Kingdom in the West. Danganronpa has seen great success with NIS America so far, and we are confident that they will also do the best job of bringing the experience we envisioned for Grand Kingdom to fans. We hope that fans all over the world will support us and enjoy this new game as well,” said Spike Chunsoft CEO Mitsutoshi Sakurai.
“We’re very happy to be working with Spike Chunsoft once again,” said NIS America CEO Takuro Yamashita. “Our company was built on tactical and strategy games, such as Disgaea, and it is our goal to create a legacy of fans for Grand Kingdom just as dedicated as those of the Disgaea and Danganronpa series.” NIS America is well known for their highly-acclaimed tactical RPG series, Disgaea, which saw its 14th game, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, release last year to very positive reviews and brisk sales.
In addition to the announcement, NIS America released a teaser trailer for the title showcasing some of the game’s characters and settings. Hinting at the game’s mercenary life narrative, the trailer opens on a variety of the characters that players will have access to, and gives players a brief glance at each of the nations whose flag they may fight under during their time with this strategy title.
In 2003, NIS America was established in Southern California to bring exciting, one-of-a-kind Japanese culture to North America. NIS America’s team members devote themselves to the fans. Their respect for their fans is at the heart of everything they do. As an established entertainment publisher in the U.S., NIS America is committed to continuous growth and improvement.
NIS America is a subsidiary of Nippon Ichi Software, Inc., a Japanese company famous for its unique line of strategy RPGs with titles such as Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom.
About Spike Chunsoft
Headquartered in Tokyo, Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. is a Japan-based company specialized in developing and publishing entertainment content. Spike Chunsoft has published a number of best-selling console series in Japan including Danganronpa, Mystery Dungeon and Zero Escape.
GREY GOO® RELEASES NEW FACTION WITH FREE CAMPAIGN DLC, OUT NOW
Competitive RTS Rereleases on PC as Grey Goo Definitive Edition, Featuring All DLC and Complete Original Soundtrack for New Low Price of $29.99
HOUSTON and LAS VEGAS – Feb. 1, 2016 – Grey Box, Six Foot, and developer Petroglyph have released a new expansion for Grey Goo®, now available as a free update on PC. “Descent of the Shroud” evolves the competitive, sci-fi, real-time strategy (RTS) game with a new, fully designed faction, playable in both multiplayer and offline skirmish mode against the AI. A new single-player campaign mission, taking place after the events of the main story, introduces and sets the stage for war against the Shroud, an enigmatic species that grows its units and structures, one which now threatens all life on Ecosystem 9.
“Descent of the Shroud” also brings new units to the game’s three original races. Betas can now deploy the Squall, a ranged ground unit with a knockback effect. The Goo Siphon drains health from enemies and transfers it to allies. And the Humans’ Valiant AI bot can deploy a shield that redirects damage away from friendly allies toward itself.
In addition, Grey Goo has relaunched as the Grey Goo Definitive Edition. This updated title, on Steam now for the permanently reduced price of $29.99, includes the original game, the previously released DLC campaign – “Emergence,” the “Descent of the Shroud” DLC, and Grey Goo’s expanded, complete soundtrack.
Grey Goo unites the best elements of classic RTS design with modern gameplay and production enhancements. Emphasizing tactical base-building and unit management, the game now features four distinct factions, each with their own units, structures and tech trees, across a sprawling single-player campaign and four-player local (LAN) and online multiplayer. Grey Goo has been actively supported since launch with DLC, free maps, terrain editor upgrades, a spectator mode, replay mode and dedicated multiplayer servers.
Grey Goo Definitive Edition is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB. For additional information, please visit www.greygoo.com, and follow the game on Facebook, Twitter and Twitch.
About Grey Box
Grey Box is a new video game publishing brand. Championing the ideas that video games are an influential art form and players should be treated as sophisticated consumers, Grey Box aims to set a unique standard for quality in interactive entertainment.
About Petroglyph
Petroglyph is an independent game development studio in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. The studio was founded in 2003 by industry veterans whose roots reach as far back as Dune II and the original Command & Conquer series. Petroglyph has a decade of experience developing award-winning strategy games using their proprietary GLYPHX Online engine and technology. For more information about Petroglyph, please visit www.petroglyphgames.com.
About Six Foot
Six Foot develops, produces, and distributes original entertainment properties across multiple lines of business and platforms. We evaluate and execute business opportunities in existing and emerging markets that may go unnoticed by more traditional companies. Grounded by our past, and inspired by the future, Six Foot builds the kind of experiences that provoke others to think and create.
London, UK – February 1, 2016 – Today, Ubisoft® announced that Assassin’s Creed® Identity, the franchise’s first Action-RPG, will launch on iOS devices on February 25, 2016. The mobile-exclusive game takes place during a fan-favourite time period, the Italian Renaissance.
Assassin’s Creed Identity challenges players to solve The Mystery of The Crows through a combination of thrilling story missions and countless quests. Players will create and customise their own Assassins and take them through numerous adventures in iconic settings from the Italian Renaissance, such as the Santa Croce area in Florence and the Colosseum in Rome. The Assassins will evolve throughout the game and progress from a novice to a master assassin. Characters can be chosen from four individual classes: Berserker, Shadow Blade, Trickster and Thief.
Assassin’s Creed Identity transports the fun, the freedom of movement and parkour to iOS devices using a variety of different controls: tap-to-move, dual virtual stick controls or with a gamepad. Assassin’s Creed Identity uses the Unity game engine to create stunning graphics never before seen on a mobile device, through amazing custom-made HD textures, shaders and models.
On February 3rd, a Q&A video with the Creative Director of the game will be published on the Ubisoft Youtube channel, giving more details about the game and how Assassin’s Creed was re-imagined on mobile.
Developed by Blue Byte®, a Ubisoft studio, Assassin’s Creed Identity will be available on the App Store for £3.99. The game requires iOS 7 and an iPad 3 or a later model, or an iPhone 5 or a later model.
Start February off with a bang! Grab seven great indie games for only $1.89 during the first 24 hours of the sale with the Indie GalaEvery Monday Bundle. This week’s bundle contains:
Stories of Bethem: Full Moon – A 8-bit inspired action RPG starring Khoma, a young man on a journey to break the curse on his father.
Rush for Gold: Alaska – A casual city builder with both a free-play and time limited mode.
This weekend saw the first major closed beta for Ubisoft Massive’s third person shooter RPG Tom Clancy’s The Division. The beta opened up a small section of New York City to gamers on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. With a level cap of 8, gamers were able to check out both the PVE and PVP content this past weekend.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is an interesting beast. It feels like Borderlands, Gears of War, Diablo, and Tom Clancy’s modern combat settings got together and had a baby. Players wander around a shrunk down version of New York City in the middle of winter. On Black Friday (the big shopping day after Thanksgiving for us international folks), an unknown virus struck the city and spread quickly. New York City was crippled and the government fell to the chaos that plagues the city. The government has now activated the fictional Strategic Homeland Division to bring order, stability, and good governance to the city. In groups of up to four, players wander around New York City completing a variety of missions and events that pop up.
The core of the game is a third person cover shooter. Agents are particularly squishy and enemies can soak up quite a few bullets before dropping. To survive, players hop from cover to cover and poking their head out to fire whenever possible. I like how the cover mechanic feels right now. A small shadow appears in the world when the crosshair lands on viable cover and a small line shows the route the agent will take to run to that bit of cover. Moving from cover to cover feels very intuitive and the entire world is littered with plenty of places to hide. Shooting from cover feels pretty good, though I wish players were given a little more control on where they want to pop out and shoot from.
The actual gunplay sits somewhere near the middle of the realism spectrum. The recoil is pretty severe, encouraging players to choose their shots and fire in bursts. On the other hand, enemies can soak almost the same amount of damage as players, which drags out firefights. The loot system in randomly generated and will be familiar to RPG fans. There are a variety of guns, equipment, and mods of varying rarity to be found in New York City. Rarer gear will have better bonuses that will affect character or weapon stats, allowing players to build characters that compliments their playstyle.
Complimenting the gunfire is a variety of grenades, med packs, and player skills. The talent tree, perks, and crafting were unavailable during the beta and the player skills made available were quite limited. There are three main trees based on how developed the medical, security, and engineering wing is in the player base. Since players are pretty evenly matched against enemies in terms of health and damage output, the grenades and skills are the real game changers that tilt combat to the player’s favour. Each player can equip up to three skills, two regular skills and one signature. The signature skill was not available during this beta. The regular skills are pretty varied and players should have no problem finding a skill to compliment their style. Some are active weapons, like the sticky bomb, while others are passive buffs.
The map is run as a series of instances. The uncontaminated zones of New York City seem to be only populated by NPCs and party members. These zones are where most of the missions will occur. The intensity gets ratcheted up in the PVP-enabled Dark Zones as players will bump into other agents in the Dark Zones. Ubisoft Massive has struck a pretty good balance in the Dark Zones. Agents are considered non-hostile for the most part, but friendly-fire is enabled on all agents not in the party. Damaging another player will flag the shooter with a red skull, allowing other agents to open fire on them without any consequence. Depending on the amount of damage done, the red skull will flag the player for a set amount of time. The loot that drops in the Dark Zone cannot be carried out; it must be extracted by helicopter for decontamination and dying in the Dark Zone will result in the player dropping their loot. Players can only carry six contaminated items at a time, forcing them to call in extractions often. Helicopters can be called in with a flare gun, alerting the entire area that an extraction is coming. Since each helicopter can only extract four bundles of gear at a time, they become a natural hot zone for PVP combat. A coordinated group of four can ambush unsuspecting agents, loot the corpses, extract their ill-gotten gains, and flee in only a few minutes. With the addition of proximity based voice chat, Dark Zone becomes a tense adrenaline pumping affair that inevitably leads to memorable stories that players will recount for days to come.
It was quite obvious that the main focus of the closed beta was the Dark Zone PVP areas. Ubisoft Massive did include on dungeon and a small handful of missions. Players were able to see the first story mission that sent players into the Madison Square Gardens to rescue a doctor that will set up a medical win in the player’s base. The arena is a dungeon instance, complete with an end boss. Like an MMO dungeon, enemy spawns are predetermined; however, they are an excellent test of team coordination, especially at higher difficulties.
On the audio/visual side, Tom Clancy’s The Division is living up to expectations as a AAA title. The sound effects, voice acting, and sound track are all solid. The graphics are absolutely stunning. New York City in the middle of a winter hell has been captured so well. The lighting and snow effects are a sight to behold. Of course, the game wouldn’t be an RPG without extensive character customization options. Although players were limited to a set of predetermined faces for the beta, there were plenty of clothing and weapon paint options to keep people happy.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is shaping up to be a spectacular game. Ubisoft Massive has combined the right set of mechanics from several different game genres to create a tense and wonderful experience that is complimented by a stunning audio/visual presentation. As this small taste test winds down, I just couldn’t help but think that Ubisoft might have a hit on their hands.
Time goes so fast, anyone remember the original Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS trailer where Villager received a letter to join the fight and then we found out Mega Man was in the game? Well now we are finally receiving our final piece of DLC ever for Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS and it drops on Thursday February 4th in Australia (and corresponding times around the world).
The main draw of the new DLC includes two new characters as well as the final wave of costumes for the Mii characters. Corrin from the upcoming game in the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem Fates and Bayonetta from Bayonetta 1 and 2. Bayonetta was said to be the winner of the Smash Ballot that allowed fans from all over the world to vote for who they wanted to appear in the game, however wording made it seem as if she was the winner based on what characters could ultimately be in the game (sorry Master Chief fans).
Corrin costs $8.50 on either Wii U or 3DS, or $10.20 for both, while Bayonetta, who comes with the new stage Umbra Clock Tower, costs $10.20 for one platform or $11.90 for both. To tide us over until Thursday Nintendo also released a gameplay video of both new characters fighting on the Omega version of the Fire Emblem Awakening stage with a very close finish. You can check out the gameplay video and let us know which character you’re more excited for between the two.
