With Valkyria Chronicles Remaster set to be released in Japan in under a month Sega has released a story introduction trailer for those who never had a chance to play the original game and are wondering just what they are getting into with this PlayStation 4 port of the previous PlayStation 3 exclusive. The trailer can be found below and viewers shouldn’t be too concerned about being spoiled with the contents.
As for the game itself, currently Valkyria Chronicles Remaster is set for release in Japan on February 10th and will include a demo for the battle system of Valkyia: Azure Revolution. Valkyria Chronicles Remaster has not been confirmed for Western release.
Idea Factory International has confirmed that Megadimension Neptunia VII will be released on the PlayStation 4 in North America on February 2nd and in Europe on February 12th. The initial release of the game will only feature the newly recorded English dub but those who wish to download the “Original Japanese Voiceover” will find it available as a free download through the PlayStation Store on the same day.
For those who haven’t been following the game, Megadimension Neptunia VII follows the story of Gamindustri during a precarious season known as the CPU Shift period. A full story summary from the company can be found below:
G.C. 2015— During this time of social unrest, deprecating rumors about the CPUs have begun to saturate Gamindustri. Neptune and the others worry the citizens will soon call for new leaders to replace the them and that their rule will end.
In these critical moments for Planeptune, Neptune and Nepgear mysteriously disappear. Their destination: a divergent world, nearing its catastrophic end, called the Zero Dimension. They encounter the last remaining CPU of this world, Uzume Tennouboshi, who is desperately waging a lonely battle against a colossal evil known as the Dark CPU.
Will Neptune and Nepgear be able to work together with Uzume in order to save Zero Dimension from tragedy? So begins a new adventure for Neptune…
Ubisoft is paying homage to the wildly popular lodging rental website AirBNB with their latest Far Cry Primal contest. Dubbed CaveBNB, Ubisoft is looking for for people “to show their primal instinct and prove in one tweet that they have what it takes to win the two day survival experience.” To enter, people must add the hashtag #CaveBNB and mention @FarCryGame in the tweet. The contest runs from 10:00 UK time on January 18th to 23:59 UK time on January 21st and is only open to legal residents of France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Belgium and The Nederlands. The winner will get a trip for two to France for a survival course taught by an survival training expert. Lessons occur during the day, the practical occurs at night. Check out the full information at the contest page.
Far Cry Primaltakes the series to the early days of humanity where deadly apex predators roam the world and early humans are struggling to survive. The game launches on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 23 and on Windows on March 1st.
As far as new Dragon Ball games comes this one is certainly the strangest I have ever seen! Following on from the much more tame 3DS release Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden, Dragon Ball Project Fusion has been leaked in Japanese magazine V-Jump and while very little information was released alongside the announcement, the primary image of Super Saiyan Goku and Legendary Super Saiyan Broly performing the Fusion Dance should tell you everything we need to know.
What we do know for sure is the game will be a Nintendo 3DS exclusive, will be releasing this year and it will be an RPG. There are some 3DS games which don’t make their way to International markets but with a premise this crazy I certainly hope it does, just imagine the possibilities! Drop your most crazy/most wanted DBZ fusion in the comments below!
After a short break, the Every Monday Bundle is back! Indie Gala and Capsule Computers have six great indie games for one low price from a variety of genres.
Elements: Epic Heroes – A hack ‘n slash RPG that will pit players against the Dark Lord.
Kill The Plumber – An anti-platformer that puts players in control of the hundreds of disposable minions in hopes of killing that annoying plumber.
Paradise Island – Compatible with Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and HTC Vive, Paradise Island is a MMO exploration experience made by hand.
Suits: A Business RPG – In a world controlled by The Corporation, players will follow a business man’s descent into corruption.
They Came From The Moon – Help the Bantaran aliens escape their imprisonment in the human laboratories in this casual puzzler.
Red Baron Pack – Relive some of the best dog fighting from the 1990’s with all both Red Baron games carefully ported for modern PCs.
For the first 24 hours of the sale, the entire bundle is only $1.89, so grab your copy at Indie Gala before the price goes up!
NIS America has announced that they are planning on releasing Spike Chunsoft’s tactical RPG, Grand Kingdom, in North America and Europe in summer 2016. Developed by studio MonoChro and by the director of Grand Knights History, this PlayStation 4 and PS Vita title takes place in a world where, after the fall of a great empire over a hundred years ago, Four Great Nations now war against one another to claim dominion over the continent.
Players take control of the leader of a mercenary squad where they will travel through the battle-scarred continent as they take on quests from each of the four nations and in the process they might unravel the mystery behind the downfall of a mighty empire.
XSEED Games has announced that fans of anime fighting games can expect Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel to be released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 on February 2nd in North America. The $39.99 PlayStation 4 version will be available both at retail and digitally while the $29.99 PlayStation 3 version is only available digitally.
As mentioned previously, those who pick up an early copy of the game will be able to download both Homura from Senran Kagura and Aino Heart from Arcana Heart for free for the first four weeks after the game’s release. On March 1st both characters will then be priced at $5.99 a piece or $9.99 for both.
Square Enix and tri-Ace have begun releasing what will likely be a series of videos introducing the main characters of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and they have started with the lead male character, Fidel Camuze. Fidel is a twenty three year old whose father was the founder of the most prominent fencing school in the kingdom.
You can check out the trailer below and as for the game, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is currently set to be released in Japan on March 31st for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 and sometime in 2016 for North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4.
London, UK – January 18, 2016 – Today, Ubisoft announced the launch of CaveBnB, an online contest developed for Far Cry® Primal, the latest installment of its best-selling franchise.
Far Cry, the award-winning franchise that has stormed the tropics and climbed the Himalayas, now brings its innovative open world sandbox gameplay to a time when humans were not at the top of the food chain but were fighting to climb it, bringing together massive beasts, breathtaking environments and unpredictable savage encounters.
CaveBnB will give players the opportunity to experience the wild and untamed world of Far Cry Primal, while travelling back in time to the Stone Age to discover the extreme conditions in which our ancestors lived. The winner, accompanied by a person of their choice, will travel to an undisclosed location in France and participate in expert survival training, pushing them to their limits. By day, they will develop new skills, and by night, they will have to use them to survive.
Participants will have to show their primal instinct and prove in one tweet that they have what it takes to win the two day survival experience. The Twitter competition will start at 10:00 UK time on January 18th and end at 23:59 UK time on January 21st. To take part in the CaveBnB contest, users will have to add the hashtag #cavebnb and mention @farcrygame in their tweet.
Far Cry Primal will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 23rd. The game will be released on March 1st for windows PC.
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India traces the journey of Ezio Auditore’s box. It is the second game of the trilogy, which takes players to 19th Centaury India where the Sikh Empire and the British backed East India Company is in the midst of an intense war. Master Assassin Arbaaz Mir is on a quest to rescue the Koh-i-noor diamond and Ezio’s box from the Templars in this 2.5D stealth platformer.
Story
The game picks up years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, where Chinese Assassin Shao Jun traced her bloody path of vengeance. While she successfully avenged her fallen comrades, Jun was unable to regain control of Ezio Auditore’s box. Years later, the box resurfaces along with a growing interest in the Koh-i-noor diamond by the Templars. Due to the short length, characters and the plot have little time for development. Unlike Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China which had the benefit of some background in Assassin’s Creed: Embers, players are walking into the new setting cold. The story is pretty bland and predictable. Playing through the game, it was hard for me to shake off the feeling that the plot was the same as the previous title, with some minor adjustments here or there. It is a real shame, because I think the Indian setting has a lot of potential for a full Assassin’s Creed title.
Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India has spent many months in development since the launch of the first game. At the core, both games are exactly alike. The movement system is very smooth to use, and should be mostly familiar to veterans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The controls are solid for the most part. I find transitioning between areas in stealth can be a little finicky at times, which resulted in many unexpected jumps out of stealth.
The stealth mechanics are mostly the same, with guards having vision cones and set patrol patterns. Things have been improved a bit in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India with the inclusion of the new cloaking ability, which allows Mir to burn off his Helix bar in return for guards being unaware of his presence while standing still. On the other hand, the number ammo resupply points are barely non-existent, forcing players to pick pocket guards to keep their numbers up. Considering how little time players often have to maneuver around, spending the extra three seconds to empty a guards pockets is a real pain. Players do have the option of simply killing or knocking out the guard for their ammo, but that will punish players by lowering their style score.
The level design is a bit of a mixed bag. There is one major improvement over Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China. The number of parkour based, stealth based, and puzzle based levels are spread out much better. On the flip side, the dodge and escape segments are incredibly frustrating and there are way too many of them in the game. The segments are essentially dragged out quick time events as the overall room for error is often about one to three seconds, requiring players to often put out a near perfect performance to get through. Instead, I wish Climax Studios put more focus on time based performance for the whole level or puzzle solving over the multitude of escape segments.
The leveling system in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India has been untouched, which means it is still pretty poor. To gain points to level, players are encouraged to remain undetected and leave guards unmolested. Getting spotted or getting into fights will lower the score, holding the player back from the two upgrades awarded for completing the level well, making the later game more difficult. I think a better way of handling the leveling system would have been to put points in an overall pool which awarded upgrades at specific points and then having each level provide a maximum number of points. This way allows less skilled players a chance at earning some upgrades without having to replay levels until they perfect it.
There is a bit more content this time around. In addition to the New Game and New Game Plus modes that let players replay the game with all their previous skills intact, the Challenge Room has been added to Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. Each challenge is focused on a particular skill and has three extra objectives to complete.
Visuals
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is a much more colourful game with nods to Indian art and culture throughout the game. The animations are smooth, and the game did not suffer from any technical issues in my testing. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India continues to handle transitions between each flat zone well, giving the game a really good 2.5D feel. The UI remains in line with other Assassin’s Creed titles.
Audio
The sound effects, music, and voice acting are all top notch, worthy of a AAA title. My only gripe is that there could be more voice acting in the game. Several conversations between guards and a couple of Mir’s lines are repeated throughout the game a few too many times.
Overall
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is a step forward and a big step back. It is clear that Climax Studios has taken some of the criticisms from Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China in account with their latest game, but their solutions are not really well executed. Unless you are wildly in love with Assassin’s Creed Chronicles:China and absolutely must have more, I can’t really recommend the new game. The story is pretty boring. Worst of all, the level design leads to a lot of mind numbing and frustrating parts that is quite unpleasant to play.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
