If you avoided picking up Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky when it was originally released then you now have the ability to pick up an enhanced version of the game for the PS Vita. Koei Tecmo has released Atelier Escha & Logy Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky in both North America and Europe and anyone who purchases the game within the first month will be given free costumes for the cast with Escha being given a Striped Swimsuit, Logy a “Last Resort” costume, wedding outfits for both Escha and Logy, and an administrator outfit for Nio.
You can check out a launch trailer for the game as well as screenshots showing off the free costumes below.
While there are plenty of English eroge being released that are little more than visual novels with plenty of sex scenes in them, there have also been a handful that include actual gameplay elements and MangaGamer has announced a release date for another one of these types of eroge. The company has announced that Beat Blades Haruka from Alicesoft will be released on February 23rd and can currently be pre-ordered(18+ Only) at the discounted price of $31.45.
Beat Blades Haruka follows the story of a boy named Takamaru Ikusabe who has been having a relatively peaceful life trying to pursue his love for the landlord’s daughter. That all changes when he is suddenly attacked by a mysterious group of ninjas and saved by a kunoichi that immediately captures his heart.
Her name is Haruka Takamori and she informs Takamaru that he is the young master of a heroic ninja clan called the Crescent Moons and that in order to put a stop to evil ninjas that are invading Japan, he must raise his forces by providing them with special powers by performing sexual acts with them.
When released for PC, Beat Blades Haruka will offer over a hundred and fifty different sex scenes as players take part in this raising simulator that contains scenes ranging from simple vanilla sequences to kinky sequences of all kinds, including tentacles, futanari, and much more.
Overview Since making their debut back in mid-2014, Winged Cloud has made a name for themselves by releasing visual novels with some outstanding character designs but these graphics usually come at the cost of a poorly planned storyline. This winter Winged Cloud partnered with MangaGamer to release a holiday themed game Sakura Santa. The question here is whether or not Sakura Santa will offer more than just some eye candy this time around.
Story Koji is a young college student who moved away from his home in order to further his studies. Despite being settling into his new apartment nicely, Koji’s focus has been entirely on his schoolwork which means that he has made no friends while away from home. To make matters worse, Koji’s parents and brother both already have plans away from the country as they are all spending the upcoming Christmas season taking trips.
As such, poor Koji finds himself alone on Christmas break with no one to spend the holiday season with. In an effort to shake off some of his loneliness, Koji decides to visit the town and to avoid all the happy couples, he ventures to an unpopular shrine where he ends up making a small wish, to find someone to spend the holidays with. After making the offering and assisting the old priest with some maintenance, it seems that Koji’s wish is about to come true as he soon finds himself encountering three girls who fall head over heels for him in an incredibly short time.
Before leaving the shrine he encounters Akina, a cheeky fox spirit whose perverted actions are a perfect match with Koji’s perverted mind, who promises that she will fulfill his wish. Shortly after this Koji encounters an old friend that moved away in Middle School. Her name is Itsumi and although she hasn’t seen Koji in years, she quickly recognizes her childhood friend and is more than willing to show off her shameless side to him. Finally the third girl that stumbles into his life is none other than a blond girl named Santa who declares herself as the real deal despite her sexy costume and proves it with some holiday knowledge that only the Claus family could know.
Despite having no previous knowledge about mystical beings, Koji only briefly questions the idea of a fox spirit before accepting her as more than an enthusiastic cosplayer while Santa requires actual demonstrations of her abilities before believing her. After these introductions are taken care of, Sakura Santa is about as straightforward as a visual novel of this type can get. The three main girls are rather cookie-cutter when it comes to their personality types and actually selecting which girl to pursue is as easy as can be.
For a few days prior to the arrival of Christmas Koji is given three different options of what to do with his day. This generally means either visiting the shrine occupied by Akina, traveling into town to see Itsumi at her work where she is generally always wearing a new lewd outfit, or staying around the apartment and being visited by the clumsy Santa. Choosing which of these girls to pursue simply involves selecting their activity repeatedly until the ending appears or mixing things up to aim for a harem styled ending.
The girls themselves are indeed charming in this game and do have a decent bit of personality, though they rarely move past their basic character elements while interacting with Koji and their storylines aren’t handled much better. Akina is the mischievous flirty girl with powers that she uses primarily to mess with Koji as the two grow closer, Itsumi flaunts her body and aggressively pursues Koji in the pursuit of a childhood romance that never got off the ground due to her moving away, and finally Santa who uses her abilities to try and cheer up those around her and bring festivities into Koji’s life while making numerous mistakes along the way that the two work together to fix.
All three of these storylines feature standard moments of drama near the end where something comes between the chosen girl and Koji but these moments lack any real impact since they are resolved incredibly fast and lack any type of punch due to how light-hearted the interactions between the cast are throughout their storylines. This means that there is some comedy to be had here, especially if you take the “lucky pervert” aspect of Koji always landing himself in perverted situations with the girls as humorous, but for the most part these routes all feel incredibly routine.
Only the harem route seeing any form of interaction between the girls in any type of format, since they are locked into their own routes otherwise, and it is when they interact with one another that we actually see them come to life a bit more, something that ultimately is lacking in Sakura Santa’s straightforward presentation and storylines. Usually in a visual novel, harem endings pay off in other ways but in the case of Sakura Santa it pays off by delivering the best actual storyline of the four on offer.
Gameplay As mentioned previously, Sakura Santa is about as straightforward as they come with visual novels. There is one early choice that makes a small dialogue difference near the beginning but plays little role into the way the story unfolds as these choices all depend on which girl they wish to visit. This means that throughout the game’s roughly three hour long run time depending on your reading speed, it is possible to see all different versions of the game’s ending and unlock every CG with very little trouble.
The title supports the most basic of extra features by allowing players to view previously seen CG art and unfortunately that is really all there is to it as there isn’t even an option to listen to the game’s background music, though more on that in a moment.
Visuals & Audio One of the best aspects of the Winged Cloud titles are the way they handle the girls in the series are handled and that remains true in Sakura Santa as each of the girls are incredibly well drawn and highly attractive. Of course the entire cast is large busted so those looking for a bit of variety there will be disappointed but there is a lot of variety present in the outfits worn by the cast as we see plenty of sexy santa costumes, lewd poses featuring a fox girl, and a variety of outfits from the cosplaying childhood friend. This means that the game is indeed a treat for the eyes as the CGs are impressive while the background artwork is also handled nicely with certain wintery elements and holiday decorations popping up when appropriate.
On the other hand, Sakura Santa completely drops the ball on background music. Despite being a holiday themed title, there isn’t an ounce of holiday spirit found in the game’s soundtrack. While not off-putting, the background music throughout this title would easily have fit in with any standard visual novel and considering there is no voice work, the addition of at least some type of Christmas styled sound effects or similar sounding music would have been nice.
Overall Sakura Santa tries to offer a festive themed experience in a rather strange package. While it certainly delivers the yuletide spirit with Santa, both Akina and Itsumi are handled in a manner only vaguely related to the holidays and feel as if they could easily have been placed into any other work. As such what we have here is a visual novel that, while enjoyable for what it has to offer in the way of gorgeous character art, doesn’t really deliver much in the way of memorable storytelling or even character development since even the smallest amount of drama is solved within a minute.
As such those who are looking for something really memorable from Sakura Santa will find themselves disappointed while those simply looking for a bit of good fun will still find Sakura Santa a run of the mill experience with some holiday fluffing. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Ok, well maybe “plop” is bad wording. How about release? Bandai Namco have released (much better) a demo for their upcoming sequel Project X Zone 2, which looks to be a fitting follow-up to the ultimate team up that we first saw a few years back.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this news other than you can download it from the eShop on the 3DS and that it will probably wet some taste buds before other people make the plunge later this month. I personally loved the first title and need to beat it again to get a refresher as if any title was a breath of fresh air, it was X Zone for the 3DS.
Whether winter is in full gear for you or you’re enjoying the summer sun, Indie Gala and Capsule Computers have put together 12 indie game for one low price for your gaming pleasure. The latest Friday Special Bundle ranges from racing games to adventure titles.
Betrayer– A highly stylized first person adventure set in the New World at an abandoned settlement haunted by ghosts.
Fancy Skulls – A procedurally generated rogue-like FPS packed full of unique enemies, items, and weapons.
For a minimum purchase of $2.89, buyers will also get:
SHOFER Race Driver – A racing sim set in the Middle East featuring real cars, tracks, and local music.
Prismatica – An award winning puzzle game inspired by Rubik’s Cubes and Sudoku.
Winter Voices – A narrative driven RPG about a girl struggling with the death of her father by battling her own personal demons in turn-based combat.
Deadlings – A side scrolling platformer featuring multiple playable zombies with unique skills.
Hatch and Slay – The initiation ceremony for freshly hatched Varaz is brutal and bloody. Escape the jungle and earn your place by surviving ten levels of fast paced action.
Subject 13 – Developed by famed game designer Paul Cuisset, Subject 13 is the journey of Franklin Fargo as he escapes an abandoned scientific facility and the grief that has consumed him since the death of his fiance.
Garfield Kart – A wacky kart racer starring everyone’s favourite lasagna eating cat and his friends.
Home Design 3D – Create your dream home or plan your next renovation with this extensive home design software.
AXYOS – A modern shooter that mixes MOBA and FPS gameplay.
For the first 24 hours of the sale, the entire bundle is only $2.89, so grab your copy at Indie Gala today.
Life is Strange – New trailer celebrates boxed release in stores now
Limited Edition Includes Soundtrack, Artbook & Director’s Commentary
The Limited Edition boxed version of DONTNOD’s multi award-winning episodic adventureLIFE IS STRANGE is out now across all territories for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
“If you’d have told me this time last year that, a year later, Life is Strange would be winning prestigious awards and topping Game of the Year lists I’m not sure I’d allow myself to believe you!” explained Luc Baghadoust, Producer at DONTNOD Entertainment. “The Limited Edition is our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s supported us along the way.”
The standard boxed edition includes all 5 episodes spanning Max and Chloe’s story. The Limited Edition also includes a directors’ commentary, a physical 32-page art book, and 14 licensed tracks from the game’s official soundtrack as well as 8 tracks from the game’s composer Jonathan Morali. You can find out more information on the contents of the box here.
The boxed edition also includes enhancements including improved lip-syncing and German, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian-Portuguese subtitles. This is also available now as a free downloadable update to the original digital game.
LIFE IS STRANGE follows the story of Max Caulfield, a photography senior who discovers she can rewind time while saving her best friend Chloe Price. The pair soon finds themselves investigating the mysterious disappearance of fellow student Rachel Amber, uncovering a dark side to life in Arcadia Bay. As well as winning Develop’s New Games IP and Use of Narrative awards, the Golden Joystick’s Performance of the Year and The Game Awards’ Games for Impact Award, LIFE IS STRANGE has garnered over 75 Game of the Year awards and listings.
Legend of Zelda fans get set for a huge March this year with two new games, a new Amiibo and a very fancy looking Limited Edition New 3DS XL all coming in the one month!
First to drop will be the The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. Originally released 10 years ago (yeah I feel old too) as a launch title for the Wii and one of the last titles for the much loved GameCube, this remake brings only some subtle changes outside of a brand new bonus area called the Cave of Shadows where Link will be stuck in his Wolf form. This challenging area can only be accessed by tapping the Wolf Link Amiibo to the Gamepad and see’s player battling increasing tougher enemies on each floor. The Wolf Link amiibo can store hearts earned in the game for the player to use while taking on the Cave of Shadows. After conquering the cave, you can save a record of your remaining hearts to the Wolf Link amiibo, and attempt to beat your score whenever you want.
Twilight Princess HD will also be compatible with five other The Legend of Zelda amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. Collection. Both the Link and Toon Link amiibo will refill your arrows, while the Zelda and Sheik amiibo will refill the heart gauge. In a devious twist, the Ganondorf amiibo will cause enemy attacks to inflict twice as much damage until the play session ends. Of course those Amiibo are already available while the Wolf Link amiibo will be available exclusively in a bundle with the game when it launches on March 5th along with a Twilight Princess soundtrack. There is no news on if the amiibo will be sold separately in the future but the game is also receiving a stand alone release on the same day for $20 less then the bundle.
Then in another not fully original title, Hyrule Warriors: Legends will be releasing on March 24th. The action game that has been available on the Wii U now for around 2 years is seeing a portable release complete with new maps, all previously released DLC and all new characters including Tetra, Toon Link and the King of Hyrule from the Wind Waker, an original female Link like character called Linkle and Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask.
The game will also be compatible with amiibo of The Legend of Zelda series characters, including the Wolf Link amiibo. By tapping the Wolf Link amiibo onto the NFC area of a New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 3DS XL system, or by using the Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer accessory with Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 3DS XL systems, players will be able to unlock enhanced weapons for Midna. Other The Legend of Zelda amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. Collection will also unlock enhanced weapons for their respective characters in the game.
The game will be available from March 24th by itself or in a Limited Edition bundle that includes a replica of Linkle’s signature compass watch and the game. The game itself cost $59.95 AU while the bundle will set you back $99.95.
If that’s not enough Zelda and Limited Edition’s for you, then maybe the Limited Edition Gold Triforce New Nintendo 3DS XL will satisfy your cravings. Officially titled the Hyrule Edition, this New 3DS XL will also be releasing on March 24th and set you back the same price as a standard New 3DS XL ($249.95 AU). The 3DS has a very strong Zelda lineup including the two remakes of the 64 games, A Link Between Worlds and the recently released Tri Force Heroes. Add to that the Virtual Console offerings which include:
The Legend of Zelda (Virtual Console, originally released on Nintendo Entertainment System)
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Virtual Console, originally released on Nintendo Entertainment System)
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (Virtual Console, originally released on Game Boy Color)
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Virtual Console, originally released on Game Boy Color)
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Virtual Console, originally released on Game Boy Color)
What a time to be a Zelda fan! Don’t forget the newest entry in the series SHOULD also be arriving on Wii U later this year, but honestly I’d wait for more information on that front before getting too excited no matter how great the game looks. Let us know in the comments what upcoming Zelda release you’re most looking forward to.
The recently formed Long War Studios have entered into a partnership with Firaxis Games and 2K Games to produce mods for the upcoming XCOM 2. Long War Studios consists of Rachel “Amineri” Norman, John Lumpkin, and James “JCLewis” Karlson, who were previously involved in developing the ‘Long War’ mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown (EU). The ‘Long War’ mod was a very popular fan-made partial conversion mod which significantly altered many aspects of the EU base gameplay. It is incredibly popular amongst the game’s fanbase and is largely seen as an improvement upon the game’s strengths while also addressing some of the weaknesses within aspects of the design.
The developers at Firaxis have outlined that they will be giving full mod support for XCOM 2 upon its release, no doubt in reaction to the popularity of mods such as ‘Long War’. The game proper will feature mods on release from Long War Studios although details of what exact content there will be has still not been released. Considering the quality of the game that I’ve seen so far and the quality of the ‘Long War’ mod itself, I believe it is safe to assume that whatever content these guys release with will be pretty bloody good.
Ubisoft and SpectreVision announced their partnership to create new VR content at the Sundance Film Festival today. The film production company founded by actor Elijah Wood and directors Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller will be working with Ubisoft’s FunHouse Studio in Montreal to create a new storytelling experience with new virtual reality technology like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the team at SpectreVision on an interactive VR experience,” said Patrick Plourde, Vice President at Ubisoft Montreal. “Their expertise in the horror film genre is exciting for us as a developer of interactive entertainment and we’re looking forward to a collaboration that will ultimately offer fans an unforgettable virtual reality experience.”
This will be the first foray into video games for SpectreVision and part of Ubisoft’s push into the next big technology in video games.
“We’re thrilled to partner with an industry leader like Ubisoft to explore the innovative and burgeoning technology that is virtual reality,” says SpectreVision’s Whalen. “The diversity of Ubisoft’s portfolio of titles from Assassin’s Creed to Zombi, makes for an ideal partnership with SpectreVision’s varied creative vision, as evidenced in films such as ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’ and ‘Cooties.’ Together, we can tell an infinite number of unique stories in a bold and original new format.”
This week’s Xbox Newsbeat has new updates from Xbox One, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Halo 5: Guardians.
New Features Arrive on Xbox One Preview and Xbox Beta App
A new build of the Xbox experience rolled out for Xbox One Preview members today along with an updated Xbox Beta App for Windows 10 on PC and mobile. The updated Xbox experience makes it easier to connect with friends and adjust the Xbox Home screen to your taste. The Xbox Beta App has added the Avatar Store, an Xbox News feed, improvements to the Trending section, and suggested friends lists. Check out the full list of changes at the Xbox Wire. The update rolls out to everyone this February.
Here’s What’s in Store for Xbox One Backward Compatibility
A new batch of Xbox 360 titles have been added to the Xbox One Backward Compatibility program. Starting today, the following games are now compatible:
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Sam & Max Save the World
Aegis Wing
Counter-Strike: GO
Age of Booty
Space Giraffe
Soulcalibur
Skullgirls
Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad
Small Arms
To celebrate the update, gamers can snag a digital download of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for free on Xbox 360 and Xbox One til February 5th.
Take Back New York with the Xbox One Tom Clancy’s The Division Bundle
Microsoft is releasing a new 1TB Xbox One Bundle that comes with a digital download of Tom Clancy’s The Division. The bundle will launch worldwide, except in China, on March 1st. It will cost $549 AUD/ $399 USD.
Infinity’s Armour Update Coming to Halo 5: Guardians Next Week
Some more DLC is coming to Halo 5: Guardians. Players can look forward to a new Arena and Warzone Assault map, the Halo 2 Battle Rifle Mythic weapon, armour sets, and weapon skins. Riptide is the new Arena map featuring a scarred planet, fully of weathered steel and sand. Urban is the new Warzone Assault map featuring open sightlines in a city environment. Check out the full changelog at Xbox Wire.
Halo World Championships – Qualifier #3 Wrap-Up
The third Halo World Championships Qualifier wrapped up with Authority moving on to the ANZ Regional Finals. Some familiar faces and major names in ANZ eSports was shut down by the new comers. Authority put together a strong performance through out the qualifier and will be facing off against Citadel Gaming, Team Immunity, and other top teams at the ANZ Regional Finals in February. Qualifier #4 will run next week.
