It may be a bit hard to believe that twenty years ago today the Resident Evil series debuted with an infamous mansion filled with countless zombies and many other monstrosities filling the dark ominous hallways.
Ever since Capcom brought the Resident Evil series out on March 22, 1996 the series has become a very iconic and one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time with 66 million copies sold worldwide and expanded into feature films, novels, and various types of merchandise.
With this year being the 20th anniversary of the series Capcom will be releasing a series of developer interviews featuring commentary from some of the team members who have played a vital role in developing the brand into what it is today and they have kicked things off with an interview with producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi that you can check out below.
Gust and Koei Tecmo have been working together for quite a few years now after being purchased back in 2011 and while the company is fairly well known for working on their Atelier and Ar tonelico series, they have started to branch out a bit recently and Nights of Azure is a clear sign of the developer trying new things. Now, with Nights of Azure set to be released next week in both North America and Europe we had the chance to ask a few questions about the title.
Nights of Azure is something of a departure from the Atelier and Ar Tonelico titles that fans are familiar with. Where did the idea for this type of game come from?
Director Nakai had previously worked on the 4th Atelier title, “Atelier Judie: The Alchemist of Gramnad” and had reflected the effect of blending various items in battle. The system of items that has been incorporated into Gust titles since Atelier Judie lead to Arnice’s equipment specification system. This equipment system can be reinforced based on a combination of completed items made of the characteristics of blending each item together.
In ‘Nights of Azure’ the characteristics of Arnice can be changed by her equipment and the formation of Servans. Furthermore, Director Nakai was in charge of creating the characters and the world. Nakai’s experience with Atelier Ayesha and Atelier Jude has influenced the development process of ‘Nights of Azure’.
When first revealed many fans were a bit caught off guard by the darker looking nature of Nights of Azure. What led to creating a title with a darker theme?
We had an idea for the battle system in our first draft. Arnice would play a centre role in fighting alongside demons known as Servans. Based on this idea, we created the settings that would fit a dark and fantasy world.
The bond between Arnice and Lilysse has been promoted quite a bit. What type of relationship can we expect to see between these two?
Arnice and Lilysse are close friends and they cherish each other. Due to this relationship it sometimes can become too much, they sometimes collide, drift apart and somethings just don’t go too well. Even though this does happen we encourage players to enjoy their story too.
The fighting style Arnice appears to favour while fighting against the demons is fast-paced. What should fans expect from the game’s combat system?
Previous Gust titles were command-choice type of games with not many action elements. We aimed to develop a RPG that players can enjoy with a refreshing feeling in battle which is reflected by Arnice’s growth and a choice of Servans.
Arnice is capable of using a number of different Demon Forms in combat. What type of balance was the team looking for with these different forms?
The function of transformation is like using a bomb in shooting games. This may be used as coup de grace, or in a clutch. It sometimes shows a breathtaking power with a combination of certain weapons equipped by Arnice. Players can also enjoy finding what combinations increase the power of transformation.
Collecting and commanding demon like creatures to fight alongside the main character is something that fans of RPGs are growing quite familiar with. What helps set Nights of Azure apart with the Servans?
The dependence of Arnice’s growth with accessories is set up to a large degree. Players can enjoy collecting her accessories with excellent bonuses after defeating enemies and whilst exploring the map.
From what has been shown of Nights of Azure’s gameplay footage, it appears that battles take place in a more limited area than other RPGs. Does this mean that the title centres more on hub-based missions or can players expect an open world to explore?
Yes, each battle is set on an individual state, as the game progresses new stages will be unlocked to play.
With Nights of Azure being released on the PlayStation 4 as well as the PlayStation Vita, are there any major differences between the two versions?
In terms of the gameplay there is no difference between the two platform releases.
Gust-chan is being offered as a bonus for Nights of Azure and is a nice bonus for longtime fans of Gust and other cross-over titles but is there any thought of including guest characters from other series such as Atelier?
This is the very first time for Gust-chan to be included in any game titles. I am sure that Servans including Gust-chan have a lot of possibilities to make collaborations in the future. We currently don’t have any information regarding that at this moment, with that in mind we will continue to explore various possibilities.
Nights of Azure is set to be released for the PlayStation 4 on March 31st in North America and in Europe on April 1st.
HOYTS TEAMS UP WITH RIOT GAMES FOR VIEWING PARTIES
HOYTS have become an official sponsor of the Oceanic Pro League (OPL), the League of Legends professional esports league in Oceania, and also come on board as the the official Oceania viewing party partner for all major League of Legends esports events during 2016.
Damian Keogh, HOYTS Group CEO said, “HOYTS are excited to partner with League of Legends esports gaming to give our audiences a diversity of content, so they can experience more with their friends and family. The esports genre continues to grow within the Australian market, consumer demand is high and we want our guests to experience these events the best way possible, on the big screen.”
Mark Cox, Riot Games Oceania Marketing Director added, “We look forward to working with HOYTS and extending our esports viewing experience to the big screen for our players. Throughout the year, players will now be able to attend community cinema events across Australia and New Zealand to watch local and global esports broadcasts live amongst friends in an electric cinematic atmosphere that they wouldn’t necessarily experience at home.”
In October last year, 36 million unique viewers, plus over 1,500 HOYTS cinema goers across Oceania, watched the League of Legends World Championships final between SKT and Koo Tigers, held at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena – a record-breaking high viewership for any esports event.
In Oceania, esports is growing fast, with over 10,000 attendees at the OPL Grand Final at Sydney’s Luna Park in August last year and 1,500 people watching the livestream at HOYTS.
This year, HOYTS will exclusively screen 9 key events on the League of Legends calendar live in HD via satellite feed. Confirmed events to date are as below, stay tuned for more info and confirmation on events to come:
OPL Split 1 Final – April 5, tickets on sale Tuesday 29 March.
International Wild Card Invitational (IWCI) – Date TBC
Mid Seasonal Invitational (MSI) – Date TBC
OPL Grand Final – August 13
International Wild Card Qualifiers (IWCQ) – Date TBC
World Championship Finals – Date TBC
Participating HOYTS cinema locations in Australia and New Zealand include; Broadway (NSW), Highpoint (VIC), Carousel (WA), Norwood (SA), Stafford (QLD), Sylvia Park (Auckland) and Riccarton (Christchurch).
Visit http://promo.oce.leagueoflegends.com/en/hoyts-viewing-parties/ for more information. Stay tuned.
In more than a few ways it felt like Minecraft: Story Mode‘s fourth episode served as a proper ending to the season and in a way it might actually be the case. Not only did it see the end of the core story arc, it also was the end of the rapid release schedule that Telltale was taking with the series. Now three months after the fourth episode was released, Telltale Games has announced that the fifth episode will be arriving on March 29th.
Although Minecraft: Story Mode was originally slated for five episodes, it seems that Episode 5: ‘Order Up’ will be serving as the jumping point for three more episodes that will be released in 2016 as this fifth episode will serve as a way to bridge the gap between the Wither Storm arc and one that will follow the New Order of the Stone through brand new adventures.
Back in December Sega announced that they would be bringing Yakuza 0 to the West and today the company has narrowed down something of a release window. The company has announced that they will be bringing Yakuza 0 to North America and Europe in early 2017 and it will be available both physically and digitally as a PlayStation 4 exclusive as the PlayStation 3 version is not being localized.
In an interesting fashion, Sega has specifically stated that they are the only company working on bringing Yakuza 0 to the West rather than involving PlayStation. With Yakuza 0, players get to step into the sartorially immaculate shoes of Kiryu and Majima *before* they became the Dragon and the Mad Dog respectively. As such, players will find out just how bad things can become for a foot soldier in the Yakuza.
Last week we learned that the next trailer for the upcoming Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy anime would be debuting on March 26th and thanks to this early issue of Weekly Famitsuwe also have some new details about what to expect as far as the characters go.
The two small images reveal that twelve new characters, all belonging to Future Foundation, will be debuting in the anime series while the other image shows that Makoto Naekgi, Kyoko Kirigiri, Aoi Asahina, and Yasuhiro Hagakure will also be returning as their slightly older selves.
The issue asks the question of how these twelve new characters are related to Naegi and the rest of the group and we will likely learn more when the new trailer for Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy debuts in four days.
Offworld Industries released the latest build for their realistic FPSSquad today. The update focuses on quality of life improvements and balancing issues.
The optics have been tweaked a little to provide more realistic magnification and give some variety to different kits by tweaking the time to target acquisition compared to iron sights. The effect of jumping on stamina has also been tweaked. The cost of the first jump has been lowered substantially, but the penalty has risen on successive jumps to discourage bunny hopping.
Offworld Industries expanded two maps today and will be releasing an expansion to a third map later in the week. The final two maps will see an expansion in the v6.0 alpha. Two more maps are in the pipeline and the developers hope to provide an update in the near future. Additionally, the map UI has also seen some updates to improve performance and the artwork for maps. Offworld Industries plans on releasing a full blown UI and art upgrade in the near future.
Finally, an official server licensing scheme has been implemented. These servers are expected to have an active administration team, strong server hardware, run vanilla Squad game rules, and foster a positive teamwork oriented community.
Thanks to a large banner hanging above the hall during Anime Japan Expo 2016 it has been revealed that Tales of Zestiria the X, the upcoming 20th anniversary Tales anime project, will be debuting this summer in Japan. Produced by Ufotable, Tales of Zestiria the X will likely cover most, if not all, of the story presented in the JRPG that was released last year in the West for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.
This marks the second full anime series for the Tales franchise and although little is known about how the series will be presented but we have been given the tagline: “The journey of the Shepherd transcends Zestiria.”
Square Enix has announced that they plan on releasing Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness in North America and Europe this summer for the PlayStation 4 as the PlayStation 3 version will not be released in the West. As a bit of an added bonus, the title’s western release will include both the original Japanese voice track as well as the freshly recorded English dub.
To go along side this announcement Square Enix has released three videos, one focusing on the story and two introducing characters, as well as a set of screenshots for Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness that you can check out below.
For the last couple of months Koei Tecmo has been releasing character trailers for each of the nine girls that will be in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 and now that the game is set to be released at the end of the week, they have released the final trailer and it happens to focus on the classic character Kasumi.
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.
