Square Enix has just announced their latest title. No, not Star Ocean 5. This new one is a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android, Masters of the Masks.
What is Masters of the Masks, you ask? It is a fantasy RPG with a hand-drawn art style and pick-up-and-play turn-based combat. Here are some features that Square Enix lists in the press release:
Drag and Drop Turn-Based RPG Battles: The game features a new interface that utilizes the native landscape of mobile devices to create the most natural and easiest put-down/pick-up battle system in mobile RPGs. Players can also coordinate their warriors strategically to unleash powerful skills on their enemy.
Build Your Legend: Through victories in battle, players earn the materials necessary to upgrade their equipment (masks, weapons, shields) and make their units more powerful.
Popular Fantasy World: Players will be able to explore realms with classic fantasy races (Human, Elf, Dwarf) and collect powerful masks to discover new warriors in order to rid the land of evil that rose in the east.
Exciting updates to come: Players will be able to challenge each other to tests of strength in PvP battles to sharpen their skills.
The game also features a soundtrack composed by Hidenori Iwasaki, composer of the soundtrack from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.
Masters of the Masks is available now on iOS and Android for free with in-app purchases.
Check out some screenshots and a trailer for Masters of the Masks below:
Bandai Namco have announced that J-Stars Victory VS+ will be released on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita in North America on June 30th and Europe on June 26th. Those who pre-order the game in North America at a GameStop or in Europe will be given a special pre-order edition of the game that includes a compendium with 52 pieces of character art as well as downloadable themes for each platform.
To go along with this announcement the company has also released a new trailer for J-Stars Victory VS+ that can be found below. As for the game itself, it will still feature the same roster as it had in Japan though the title will only feature the Japanese voice track with English subtitles.
Mortal Kombat Xis finally here! NetherRealm‘s most ambitious entry in their iconic Mortal Kombat series yet is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions expected for June). Creative director and “God of Twitter” (yep, Raiden gets thunder, Fujin wind, and Ed Boon tweets) reflected;
We’ve been working tirelessly on Mortal Kombat X to give fans a new experience that is filled with features that both casual players and hardcore fighting players will enjoy. It’s been an intense ride and we’re excited to see players finally get their hands on the game!
The tenth official instalment of the main fighting series introduces eight new, playable characters, including blood relatives to some of your favorite stalwarts: Kung Jin, the cousin of Kung Lao; Cassie Cage, daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade (good on ya Johnny!); Jacqueline Briggs, daughter of Jax; and Takeda Takahashi, son of an absent father in Kenshi (tsk, tsk). Of course, those classics such as Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Raiden have returned, and now with each character having three different variations to their fighting style, the diversity and potential for high-level strategic play is larger than ever.
Oh, and did I mention Goro? #PunchWalk
The ‘Story Mode’ included is more cinematic and enthralling than ever, telling the tales of events spanning 25 years after the conclusion of Mortal Kombat (2011). Towers have also returned, coming in multiple forms: Living Towers, ever-changing towers with modifiers or stipulations; Klassic, Test Your Luck and Test Your Might towers; Endless and Survivor Towers and even Challenge Towers that you can create to compete with friends. Brutalities make a comeback, although with a new twist, and the Faction Wars meta-game adds a new wrinkle and longevity to play, all the while fueling competitive juices in every player worldwide. David Haddad, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, had this to say about the title;
NetherRealm Studios has an incredible track record of delivering engaging, fan favourite games, and Mortal Kombat X continues the tradition with great gameplay, expanding upon what has made the Mortal Kombat franchise popular for more than 20 years. The Mortal Kombat franchise is a cornerstone for Warner Bros., and with more than 35 million units sold to date and a chart-topping mobile game, Mortal Kombat X is positioned for great success. In its first week, Mortal Kombat X for mobile is currently the #1 Top Free Games Download on both iPhone and iPad in the App Store.
The mobile game, as David mentioned, is your portal to exclusive unlockables, so download it from the link above and get to swiping! Anyone with a WBPlay account will also receive a ‘Future Raiden’ skin when logging in to the console game. You’ll also be treated to a free ‘Samurai Pack’ containing three skins, which can be downloaded from PSN or Xbox Store day one. And finally, if you’ve ever wanted to see fantasy match-ups between MK icon and film icons Predator and Jason Voorhees, than the ‘Kombat Pack’ DLC is your ticket. Check out the latest batch of screenshots below and purchase your copy of Mortal Kombat X today!
Last year it was announced that Bandai Namco would be releasing Tales of Zestiria in North America and Europe sometime this year and now we have a rough idea of when that release will actually happen. Today the company announced that Tales of Zestiria will be released sometime this fall season and will include both English and Japanese voice options as well as English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
This is the first time that the initial release of a Tales game will feature dual-audio. The first English trailer for the game can be found below as well as a story description from Bandai Namco:
A brand new adventure awaits in a fantasy world filled with magic, knights, dragons and mystery in Tales of Zestiria. Two nations fight for supremacy and the fate of the realm lies in the hands of Sorey, an inquisitive young adventurer who takes on the burden of becoming the Shepherd, the one the legends foretold would become the savior of all. Together with Lailah, the Lady of the Lake, who guards the Sacred Blade, and his best friend Mikleo, Sorey soon discovers a powerful force rising in the shadows.
Earlier this month Atlus USA announced that they would be releasing Spike Chunsoft’s Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in North America and Europe next month. While no price or exact release date other than May has been announced for the title as of yet, Atlus has released a new trailer for the game to showcase some of Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains‘ features.
These features include online multiplayer, challenging missions, character customization, titan abilities, and of course plenty of titans to face off against in the many familiar locations from the anime and manga.
For those on the fence on whether to put yourself on the waiting list for a new Apple Watch, WayForward Technologies may have just given you the nudge forward. The developer has just announced they have made the first adventure game exclusively for the Apple Watch, appropriately titled Watch Quest!: Heroes of Time.
The game uses cross-play between your Apple Watch and iPhone. So, how can one play an adventure game on a watch? Let’s let WayForward briefly explain:
Gameplay revolves around choosing a hero and equipping them on the iPhone, and then guiding the Hero via the Apple Watch as he or she travels lands, battles monsters, solves puzzles, and searches for treasures. Players are invited to play passively by selecting longer, easier quests and outfitting the hero up front – or by taking on more difficult quests which require foraging for items as you go.
TL;DR: Choose and equip characters on iPhone, battle and solve puzzles on the Apple Watch.
The game is also said to include favorite characters from other WayForward titles. I know that I can definitely see Shantae on the one-sheet below:
With WayForward brilliantly taking new ways of play and making them their own — like the Mighty Switch Force games when brought to the Wii U — so it will be interesting to see how WayForward makes use of the small Apple device.
Watch Quest!: Heroes of Time will be available at launch on the Apple Watch on April 24, 2015 via iTunes.
After a successful launch on PC and Xbox One, The Escapistshave been busy chipping away at their prison walls in hopes of digging out of their PC and Xbox One prison. Today, Team 17 and Mouldy Toof announced that their sandbox prison escape game will launch on PlayStation 4. No release date as of yet, but it is probably a safe bet that the price will match the Xbox One.
The Escapists is a strategy game featuring six prisons and six different ways to break out. Players will need to earn money and gather items needed to orchestrate their epic prison breakout. The game is available on Steam for $14.99 USD and on Xbox One for $19.99.
Guitar Hero is back! After the series was unfortunately milked to death towards the end of the last decade, Activision have decided to bring back the famous brand name and release an all new game. Guitar Hero Live will be the 7th main entry for the series not counting band focused editions and other portable spin offs. The last game in the series was Guitar Hero 6: Warrior’s of Rock. Development of the game is being handled by Freestyle Games, famous for crafting one of of personal favourite music games, DJ Hero.
As you will see from the announcement trailer below Guitar Hero Live maintains key aspects of the note highway of past titles but that’s about it. Nearly everything is different right down to the logo. Gone is the punk/rock warrior/80’s aesthetic the series is known for, replaced by a much cleaner, new age look not unlike SingStar. The infamous plastic guitar has also undergone some reworking. No longer will it feature 5 singly aligned buttons, but two rows of three buttons with one white row and one black row. A big Hero Power button is also placed below the strum bar. Guitar Hero Live is strictly focused on Guitar, dropping other band aspects such as drums and vocals.
The game will feature two modes. Guitar Hero Live will see you play on a massive stage in front of a real crowd. The mode incorporates real life footage of the band and crowd reacting to your performance which is pretty cool and unique, hopefully it just doesn’t get lost in the background as people are typically focused on the note highway while playing.
The other mode is called Guitar Hero TV where tracks can be played over the original music video for that song. GHTV will feature hundreds of videos at launch spanning all different genres of music, with new videos continually added to the line-up. No track list has been announced yet but we know their will be songs featured from bands such as Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Gary Clark Jr., Skrillex, The Black Keys, Fall Out Boy, The Rolling Stones, The Killers and the Lumineers. Skrillex in Guitar Hero?! We’re as confused as you are.
The game will cost $99 U.S. at launch and will be bundled with the guitar. Guitar Hero Live is coming to a very wide range of platforms including Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii U. A mobile version is also in the works for tablets and phones, with the guitar peripheral somehow being able to connect to those devices, maybe via Bluetooth. The game is scheduled for a late 2015 release.
Interestingly, Harmonix just last month announced Rock Band 4 for the new generation consoles. They recently praised Activision for bringing back the Guitar Hero brand and said it helped confirm now is the time to bring back these types of music games. While publican the two companies might be singing the others praises, it will no doubt be an interesting battle between Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live for music game supremacy as gamers are unlikely to shell out for both games.
Last month NIS America announced that they would be giving Nagi no Asukara an English dub and would be calling it A Lull in the Sea when they released the premium edition on June 30th for $179.99 with the set including the series on Blu-ray and DVD, a two disc soundtrack, a 76 page art book, trailers, and clean opening and ending themes.
Now today the company has revealed that those who don’t wish to pick up the entire series in one package or simply want standard versions of the release won’t have to wait as long as usual. Instead NIS America will be releasing A Lull in the Sea Volume 1 and 2 as standard editions on July 14th.
These standard editions will come with 13 episodes each and will only be available on DVD but will still feature the English dub as well as the original Japanese voice track. Each standard edition will cost $39.99 when released but can also be bought together in a bundle for $74.98. Those interested in pre-ordering either the newly revealed standard editions or the previously announced premium edition can still do so through NIS America’s online store.
Agatsuma Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing Sayonara UmiharaKawase+ for the PlayStation Vita in North America for $19.99 on April 21st and in Europe “soon after.” The title will be released only on digital platforms in these countries but it is interesting to note that the North American release comes two days before the Japanese release of the game.
For those of you unaware of the game, Sayonara UmiharaKawase+ is a ‘complete re-working’ of the 3DS game where players control the twenty year old Japanese sushi chef Umihara Kawase who must navigate a world filled with conveyor belts, spikes, fish-like enemiesm, and more while using a fishing rod, a rubber fishing line, and a hook to get around.
You can check out a new trailer for the game below and it is worth noting that not only does this PS Vita release feature sixty “new and re-envisaged classic stages,” but it also includes bonus levels and the original 1994 UmiharaKawase as a bonus for fans.
