As you may or may not have heard, Koei Tecmo is currently working on developing Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 and they have stated that the top nine characters who are being voted on through theme downloads on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita would be included in the game with the girl who ends up in first place receiving a special first-print bonus costume when the title is released on the PS4 while the second place girl will get an outfit on the Vita version. The PlayStation 4 version of the game will be called Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune while the PlayStation Vita version will be titled Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Venus.
The winners of the voting will be announced at Tokyo Game Show and all downloads will be counted until September 10th. That isn’t all the news however, as the company has released some of the first screenshots of what to expect in the game, though they did note that they are extremely early in development.
It is worth noting that for now Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is only in development for release in Japan and Asia though an “adjusted” version of the title may come to the West if there is enough demand according to an interview with producer Yosuke Hayashi in Famitsu. As for the aforementioned themes, previews of what the themes of the fifteen possible girls fans can vote for can be found below:
It was previously announced that Ayane from Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden would be released as DLC for Senran Kagura: Estival Versus sometime in the future and it turns out that the day is coming soon. Marvelous has released a trailer showing off how the guest character will perform in combat as well as how she will actually look in the game, with at least two different outfits being shown off.
Ayane’s DLC will be released sometime later this month though it is worth noting that no set release date has been revealed as of yet. As for the West, currently Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is set to be released sometime this Winter for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita by XSEED Games.
With Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator set to be released in Japanese arcades next week on August 25th Arc System Works has released the opening movie for the fighting game and with it comes the reveal of a new returning character. Jam Kuradoberi, who will now be voiced by Rei Matsuzaki, first debuted in Guilty Gear X and the company has revealed that she will be added to the arcade version of Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator in an upcoming update that hasn’t been given a release date as of yet.
Jam Kuradoberi is the third character to be joining Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator‘s roster as Jack-O and Johnny Sfondi have previously been revealed.
Dropsy, published by Devolver Digital and developed by Tendershoot and A Jolly Corpse, has thwarted my expectations. My initial impressions of the game’s videos, pictures, and description left me distinctly underwhelmed. I am a picky fan of ‘point and click’ adventure games to begin with and the retro, pixelated art style did not endear itself to me and neither did the concept. The horrifying visage of Dropsy, the game’s eponymous protagonist, made me feel that the game was some sort of Pennywise simulator in which I would be terrifying children both young and old. This could not be further from the truth.
Dropsy himself isn’t a malevolent force in this world, in fact he may be one of the nicest characters I’ve ever played in a video game. All the puzzles I’ve been able to find revolve around solving other people’s problems and making them happy. I brought a sandwich to a starving homeless woman, a pocketwatch with a portrait of youthful couple to a mourning widower, and a flower to a lovelorn woman. The game rewarded me for all these acts of kindness by allowing Dropsy to hug the person they just helped.
This brings me to one of my favourite features in this game; there is a dedicated hug button. Dropsy, the horrifying clown, spends most of the game making people happy and hugging them. This makes the game very sweet in its design and brings a smile to my face even as I write this. It would be too saccharine for my tastes were it not for how the game adds in some very dark elements to balance things out.
The first ‘quest’ that you are given in the game is to head out to meet a friend of Dropsy’s for what I thought was a birthday party and to give them a present. I made my way across town, spreading joy as I went, and got to a graveyard. It was then that I realised that I had fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the quest.
All information in the game is presented in a non-verbal form with pictures largely being used to communicate what characters are saying. What I was celebrating was not, in fact, a birthday. It was an anniversary… of someone’s death. I laid the present down on the grave. Pretty bloody sombre, that is.
The game also has some surreal horror elements (which I’ve largely found to be in Dropsy’s dreams) wherein the environment takes on a the form of a pixelated hellscape with fire and brimstone. I can’t say I did not enjoy the juxtaposition with the inherently positive outlook of Dropsy himself.
One aspect of the game that I liked was that as you successfully completed puzzles and brought happiness to people around you, you’d be able to find a crayon drawing of them on the wall in Dropsy’s house. It’s a nice little feature which I feel reinforces the child-like naivety and happy-go-lucky nature of the game’s protagonist and helps reinforce a sense of progress.
The game map is expansive with many environments for Dropsy to explore and diverse NPCs to encounter. One feature that I feel that the game sorely needs is a fast-travel system or a way to get Dropsy to speed up Dropsy as his slow waddle across a screen can get on your nerves at times. There is an option in the game to make Dropsy’s shoes honk as he walks, and I found this to be mildly amusing but not able to completely overcome my frustration.
EDIT: The devs have informed me (as well as giving me a “greasy, warm hug”) that there is in fact a method of fast travel which can be unlocked.
Beneath the terrifying exterior of surreal horror, you’ll find a game which appears to have a lot of heart underneath. I look forward to playing the game after full release and I am humbled by the fact that I had to relearn not to judge a book by its cover… or to not condemn a clown by his horrifying grin.
Western fans have been waiting for their next dose of Senran Kagura and it seems that the time is almost upon them. XSEED Games has announced that Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson will be released in North America on September 15th while gamers in Europe will get it a bit earlier on August 27th. In North America the title will be available digitally for $39.99 though a limited retail release called the “Double D Edition” will be sold for $49.99 and include two music CDs containing over sixty musical tracks.
The company also announced that until September 14th the original Senran Kagura Burst will be put on sale for $19.99 and mentioned that anyone who has save data from the first game will be able to unlock the hapless ninja Murasame (Ikaruga’s brother) for free while anyone else can purchase him as $4.99 DLC.
To go along with this announcement the company has released a handful of new screenshots as well as a trailer for Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson and you can check those out below.
While Koei Tecmo is planning on releasing Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence on September 1st for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC the company is planning on giving those picking up the PC version of the game through Steam a bit of a bonus.
For one week after launch Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence will be available at a $10 discount through Steam and will also come with three additional playable scenarios that have been detailed below:
The God of War Descends, which tells the tale of Kagetora Nagao, 4th son of Tamekage Nagao, who replaces his weak brother as head of the Nagao clan. When the liege lords of his clan are unwilling to recognize such a young and inexperienced youth he must force them into submission and prove his superiority as a commander. This is the origin story of Kenshin, the general who became known in Japan as the “God of War”.
Stronger than an Alliance, which follows the stories of two young men, Takechiyo Matsudaira and Kipposhi, who grow up to be two of the most significant figures of their time, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Nobunaga Oda. This scenario explores their time growing up together and sheds some light behind the forging of their strong alliance and friendship.
Dawn of Revolution, in which Nobunaga finds himself caught in a struggle for control with many other powerful lords. This scenario centers on Nobunaga’s grand plan to unite the land, and the historical drama it ignited.
Koei Tecmo has also released a handful of new screenshots for the title that highlight how civil developments will take place in the game by building up the infrastructure of towns as well as castles.
Overview Fans of the Hyperdimension Neptunia series in the West have been swimming in titles over the last few months as there have been four games released so far this year. Sure, two of them were spin-offs and the other two are remade versions of the original trilogy, but with a PlayStation 4 title waiting in the wings and two more in development, it looks like next year will be an even busier year for fans of this ever-expanding series.
Until then, we have Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation, a the most recent title to be released in the West and the final remake for the original series. Is this title that takes what was originally found in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and expands upon it worth picking up?
Story For the most part, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation still presents the same storyline as Victory, though there are a number of immediate differences noticeable at the beginning of the game including a bit of a twist. Neptune and the rest of the CPUs have grown incredibly lax during the many years of peace that have existed between the previously warring nations and spend most of their time playing games with one another. In fact, the first time players are able to play the standard game comes in the form of a virtual reality world developed by Vert allowing Neptune to dive into the game.
Despite Neptune’s younger sister continues to dote on her and do odd jobs to keep citizens of Planeptune happy, the oracle Histoire has grown furious with Neptune’s actions and orders her to go out and take on some jobs as a CPU should. After completing a few simple quests with Nepgear, Neptune heads out alone where she runs into an easily frightened protestor advocating for a world without CPUs. After this certain encounter takes place, Neptune finds herself once again plummeting through the sky.
Only this time, rather than landing near Compa she finds herself landing on Noire and a new girl named Plutia. While Neptune finds it extremely strange that Noire seems to have no memory of who she is, it quickly becomes clear that she has been transported to a different dimension where people can only become CPUs by discovering rare items and that the fledgling nation of Planeptune is ruled over by Plutia, an air-headed but kind and caring girl who is also known as Iris Heart where the HDD form personality shift is taken to an entirely new level. Stuck with no way home and only a small connection to her dimension, Neptune finds herself in a world where the battles between the nations of Lowee, Planeptune, Lastation, and Leanbox are only just beginning. Only there are far sinister enemies pulling the string in the background, many of which will be very familiar to those who have played previous games in the series.
Now while Re;Birth 3 may sound a bit serious due to Neptune’s situation, anyone familiar with the series should know what to actually expect with the title. While the story does have its fair share of drama, Re;Birth 3 continues to excel at being a satirical parody of the game industry as a whole while taking the well-established characters that fans know and love at this point and creating brand new stories for them to take part in. There are a few adjustments here and there to add extra jokes as well as plenty of parodies to keep the title feeling fresh with up to date references, something that is essential due to the almost constant fourth-wall breaking nature of the series.
Gameplay The core of Re;Birth 3 remains very similar to past remakes that see players experiencing the aforementioned storyline through visual novel segments and spending the rest of their time exploring dungeons and fighting against enemies. These dungeons remain similarly structured to past games, though now there are floating invisible boxes (parodying Mario) can be jumped into to receive money and items. When you run into enemies you can attack them early with a Symbol attack to obtain an advantage in combat, though the opposite will occur with a missed swing.
Once you find yourself in combat, there are a few changes here and there that come in the form of how EX finishers. Previously players could always take advantage of the Rush, Power, and Break style attacks to either deal numerous attacks, deal extra damage, or break through an enemy’s guard respectively, and while the same is still true in Re;Birth 3 now EX Finishers are based off of how much SP a character has. Since Skills use up SP and HDD forms also drain this meter players must either use an item or deal and take damage with a character to refill the meter properly to add extra attacks to their character’s standard combos (though these can now be extended eventually with a fifth combo slot) meaning that many fights may simply be standard slugfests rather than anything flashy, especially since many of the skills and transformations are best saved for stronger opponents and bosses.
Once again Stella’s Dungeon mini-game returns in Re;Birth 3 and while it is still similar to past versions of the roguelike distraction, more refinements have been made. Players can equip Stella with weaponry, armor, a Stone that often provides various bonuses, and even have a Scout join her in order to navigate through an endless tower this time around with the player being able to select what floor for her to try and reach before escaping the tower. As she heads through the tower she will obtain various pieces of equipment that will be useful for her next trip but also various Plans, materials, and items that can be used by the player.
Of course just like before, if you are overconfident and Stella fails in a dungeon she will lose all equipped items as well as any Scouts that were assigned to her. This isn’t too much of an issue however as it is always possible to find more in time and since players are able to send Stella out and then either focus on the core game or put the Vita down for a bit it makes for a great little side-game with some great rewards for those who feel like taking Stella for another spin.
As with past games in the Re;Birth line-up players are capable of taking and using the Remake system to not only add new items to the game, but adjust difficulty levels, change the types of enemies or items that appear in a dungeon and even adding new dungeons to the game. This is handled by Plans still though the actual gathering of the items required to complete these Plans are made easier since the game tells players where they may actually find the item this time rather than having to try and figure it out themselves.
That being said, while it is still possible to gather plenty of simple Plans rather easily, many of the important Plans, such as the aforementioned fifth attack combo for a character are now hidden behind challenges that must be completed. This means that while the game doesn’t necessarily require the player to grind for levels in order to advance through dangerous situations (though this may be necessary at times due to occasional difficulty spikes) it does mean that it may require a bit of grinding to unlock specific Plans.
It is worth noting that due to the size of Re;Birth 3, all of the DLC characters that were originally included in Victory plus the brand new characters brought from past Re;Birth games or introduced in this title are not in the game by default. They must instead be downloaded via free packs from the PlayStation Store and can then join the player’s party a few hours into the game. This is of course nothing to be concerned about since it detracts nothing from the game, but it is worth noting so players do not miss out on these extra mascot characters.
Visuals & Audio Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation is an impressive looking JRPG featuring even more vibrant colors than the original title thanks to the Vita’s capabilities. The character designs remain nicely detailed in the field while their character portraits during story sequences nicely animated. Of course there is still quite a bit of fan-service to go around but nothing that should drive fans away at this point. That being said, the number of re-used enemies continues to be a bit of an issue as many staples from the franchise continue to appear as regular foes far too often.
As mentioned a bit earlier, there are some size issues when it comes to Re;Birth 3 and this means that the game initially only features an English voice track. While the English cast has returned to perform their characters exactly how fans of the series have come to expect and the new characters fit in perfectly, especially when it comes to Plutia’s personality shifts, those who prefer the original Japanese voice track can find it for free from the PlayStation Store.
Overall While fans of the series who have already played through Victory will find a similar enough storyline here in Re;Birth 3, with freshened up humor combined with a batch of new and refined mechanics, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation closes out Idea Factory International’s set of remakes quite successfully as fans looking to re-experience the title will find more than enough new content to enjoy while those who have only been following the remakes will find a very humorous light-hearted RPG with plenty to offer.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview First person dungeon crawlers have been on the rise with countless titles being released in the West. Some of these titles come from well-known developers who have had quite a few successful titles but other titles need something to help set them apart from the rest of the growing crowd. That is where Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal comes in as it features a title dripping with fan service. With almost every enemy being a monster girl in some form and plenty of risqué CGs is there more to Dungeon Travelers 2 than eye candy?
Story Five hundred years prior to the start of Dungeon Travelers 2’s storyline the demon king that commanded swathes of monsters was defeated. While the demon was gone and humanity settled into hundreds of years of peace, monsters still roamed the land in diminished numbers. That is where people known as Libras come in, as they possess the ability to seal monsters away in magic books to remove them from an area for good. Since Libras have almost no combat ability whatsoever, they play the role of a commander leading a party through danger.
In the present time, Fried is a Libra fresh out of the academy who is quickly assigned to the extremely understaffed Royal Library. Alongside a well-meaning but easily flustered boss he spends his time here researching his favorite thing in the world, the monsters that continue to threaten humanity. Shortly after arriving he is given his first mission to investigate a cave where he finds that his first companions happen to be friends from the Royal Military Academy named Melvy and Alisia.
After a bit of exploring the group finds that a strange shrine has been destroyed by an exceptionally strong creature, leading into a quest that will find the group attempting to prevent the world from falling into ruin. Along the way Fried’s group will grow to quite a large number as there are over a dozen different party members that eventually join the fight and all of them have unique little personalities and pieces of story to go along with them.
There are many times while exploring a dungeon that a character in the party may put the group to a quick stop to discuss something related to the most recent battle or about the environment they are exploring and there are plenty of times that, even if you didn’t finish a dungeon, returning to the main base will trigger a scene with one of the girls where they usually end up growing closer with Fried in some way.
While the characters in Dungeon Travelers 2 are plentiful and well-written, the core storyline is unfortunately a bit of a slog. Due to the nature of the title being a dungeon crawler there are many times that the player will need to spend quite a large amount of time adventuring before finishing off an area and even then the story moves along at a slow pace that is also rather predictable, especially given the first few twists that the title throws your way, making the character interactions a great way to break up the predictable story and breath some fresh life into the game from time to time.
Gameplay In Dungeon Travelers 2 players will spend most of their time crawling through dungeons in first person where the map will automatically be filled out as you progress through the various rooms and hallways. There are a number of different traps, pitfalls, invisible walls, one-way doors, and even teleportation tiles scattered throughout certain dungeons and it is worth noting that traps will not always hit all members of the party as it is possible for characters to avoid receiving damage or negative status effects. In another little change to the standard formula, if a character is afflicted with a status effect, such as silence or freeze, they can recover over time by walking through the area.
As you head around the various dungeons players will randomly encounter monsters, though most monster fights do seem to occur after going through a previously unopened door, and all of these battles take place in the same first person perspective. With a party limit of five that can be ordered into two rows, players must make use of a turn based combat system to defeat their opponents using standard attacks, skills, and items or potentially run away if a fight is too risky.
Splitting the party into two rows allows for the various weapon ranges, some of which only work from the back row or the front row, to be more effective while also diverting attention away from some of your squishier party members. The front line fighters generally will be attacked the most though enemies can still target party members in the second row, just far less often and usually for reduced damage. This is essential due to one feature that I haven’t seen in an RPG in quite some time, almost all spells have casting times.
When a character is ordered to cast a spell on their turn, they will begin chanting for a set time, often pushing their potential spell behind an enemy’s turn which can leave healing spells ineffective if they target an already weakened party member. This means that players will need to plan accordingly with items as relying only on spells can be rather dangerous, especially since chant times can be interrupted entirely causing the spell to fail. The opposite is also true as it is possible to force an enemy to stop chanting a spell in similar fashion.
As you go through the game your party will gain levels and obtain growth points that can be spent on various skills ranging from passives that provide simple stat buffs or cause the character to counter-attack from time to time to various skills. While the initial group make up will consist of a fighter, a mage, a spieler, an interesting maid class, and a scout, they can all change classes upon reaching level fifteen. At this point players can choose between two path lines for a character’s growth to go down while the level thirty specialty class unlocks even more special abilities.
There are plenty of special ways to focus on developing your party and with the amount of characters that eventually join Fried’s group there is plenty of ways to fiddle around with your party and come up with a group that works well for any given situation. Of course if you happen to make a mistake, you can also choose to level reset at certain increments and properly experiment with a class. It is worth noting however that only characters brought with you into dungeons actually earn experience points so this may mean that neglected characters who are then brought into a fight will be at a severe disadvantage, requiring some grinding to make them useful.
Grinding is a rather tedious task in Dungeon Travelers 2 as even standard opponents can be rather dangerous if taken too lightly. It is worth noting that players can save anywhere in a dungeon which is a nice touch and something to remember considering it is entirely possible to find yourself quickly losing to a large group of enemies that happened to catch you at the wrong time. This is especially true when it comes to facing off against a boss as most boss opponents completely overshadow the standard enemies that players fought on the way in and are usually accompanied by a number of minions which means that if you go in without preparing (which is made a bit easier since buffs can be cast before entering a fight), then you will find yourself overpowered and facing a game over screen.
Alongside level grinding players will also need to grind for equipment all equipment drops need to be identified before being equipped and while some may be rather useful, other items can be entirely useless and since you cannot use them until returning to the base there are occasionally some long treks to be had (though shortcuts can be unlocked) simply to equip better gear.
Visuals & Audio As mentioned in the start of this review Dungeon Travelers 2 is not a game that those who are offended by a little skin being shown off. Outside of anthropomorphic fruit, nearly every monster in the game is a scantily clad monster girl and while there is no actual nudity shown off, certain boss enemies do end up in a rather disheveled looking state before Fried seals them away. There are a number of other ecchi CGs that crop up from time to time with the girls that join Fried but none of these are really over the top and provide plenty of eye candy to appreciate.
Now that that is out of the way, the standard visuals are fairly standard. While there are a number of enemy sprites in the game and the characters are all very nicely detailed, the actual dungeons are rather bland looking with plenty of repetitive hallways. Battles mostly feature static imagery with the occasional spell effect being flung around while the dungeon variety is fairly low.
This release of Dungeon Travelers 2 only features the original Japanese voice track but thankfully this is handled quite well as the voice actresses match their characters’ personalities perfectly and there are plenty of subtitles to go along with the dialogue. As far as the background music is concerned, most of the soundtrack is unsurprising for a game such as this but it does its job well enough.
Overall Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal’s storyline is bogged down with plenty of slow moments where players will need to grind through very uninspired dungeons to progress through the game, however it makes up for this with plenty of great character moments spread throughout the title to lighten-up the experience and provide depth to the girls who join Fried in his journey. Combine this with solid combat mechanics and some great looking sprites and CGs and you have a title that not only manages to deliver a satisfying dungeon crawling experience but one that can stand on its own even if you may not like how ecchi it can be at times.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Shout! Factory has set the release date for their DVD release of Gosei Sentai Dairanger. They announced that they would be releasing the series in July.
Elements of the 1993-1994 series Gosei Sentai Dairanger were adapted into Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. The complete original series will be released on DVD in North America and Canada on November 10, 2015 with Japanese audio and English subtitles. The set will come with 10 discs. It can be pre-ordered at Shout! Factory’s website.
The three Tribes of the Daos Empire — Shura, Dai and Gorma — were peaceful until the Gorma set out to conquer the planet, launching a magical war between the Gorma and Dai Tribes that lasted for 5,000 years. In the end, both civilizations were lost… until now. The evil Gorma have returned. Now, it’s up to Master Kaku to assemble a team of kids with high levels of chi to become the protectors of the Earth known as the Dairangers!
Pre-orders made at the website linked above will be shipped two weeks prior to the release date.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! is the third season of the on-going spin-off series of Type-Moon’s Fate/stay night series. It is adapted from Hiroshi Hiroyama’s manga. Silver Link (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Non Non Biyori) has once again handled the animation production, with the key production staff returning from previous seasons of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. The chief director is Shin Oonuma (ef:a tale of memories) and the series director is Masato Jinbo (Kyo no Asuka Show). Series composition is handled by Kenji Inoue, the creator of Baka and Test. Nozomi Ushijima once again adapts Hiroyama’s character designs. Music composition is once again handled by Terushige Yoshie (Celestial Method, Tokyo ESP). Sentai Filmworks provided a synopsis of the series:
Illyasviel von Einzbern’s life has become ridiculously complicated since the Kaleidostick Ruby convinced her to become a magical girl and join the quest for collecting the seven Class Cards. Since then Illya’s gained a new friend and partner in the form of Miyu Edelfelt and even encountered her own magical twin! One would think she deserves a little time off, but a trip to the beach quickly turns into a new quest and Illya instead finds herself in the middle of a magical feud!
Gatchaman Crowds Insight iss produced by Tatsunoko Production. It is directed by Kenji Nakamura (Mononoke). The music composer is Toshiya Ono (Perfect Insider). Yuuichi Takahashi (Macross Frontier) returns as the character designer, adapting Kinako’s original character designs. The music composition is handled by the team of Kazuhiro Watanabe and Takao Kondo, who previously worked together on Wolf Girl & Black Prince. Sentai Filmworks describes the series as follows:
Picking up where the hit Gatchaman Crowds left off, Gatchaman Crowds insight flips the premise of its predecessor to explore the more dangerous side of the same technology. After all, arch villain Berg Katze wasn’t destroyed, so much as he was absorbed, and if globally connected networks of super beings can be used for great good, they can also be used for the purposes of evil. When the Prime Minister is attacked by a mysterious new organization, suspicions flare as to who is ultimately responsible, and who the public can actually trust.
Details about the eventual home video releases of both of these titles will be made available in the future.
