A new trailer for Story of Seasons was released recently by XSEED Games as a way to welcome players into the life of Oak Tree Town, which is where they will be staying in the game once Story of Seasons is released sometime this year for the Nintendo 3DS.
The company also announced that anyone who pre-orders the game at GameStop, Amazon.com, EB Games and other participating retailers will be given a special Angora Rabbit “pocket plushie” as a pre-order bonus. For those who haven’t been following the title, Story of Seasons is the start of a new chapter for the ‘Bokujo Monogatari’ series under a new name (as it was previously localized as Harvest Moon).
Aniplex of America has just revealed the details of their English-language home-video release of Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie ~Rebellion~. The sets, which will be available from April 7, 2015, will only be sold in the Americas and in Canada. All sets will feature Japanese and English audio, English subtitles, and Spanish subtitles for the film only. All prices listed are in US dollars.
The limited edition set will include a DVD and Blu-ray of the film and a soundtrack CD. Additional on-disc extras will include the textless opening and ending animation, theatrical trailer, commercials and the ‘Collaboration Manner’ videos (Monogatari series x Madoka). Physical bonuses will include a deluxe booklet and a postcard as well as the aforementioned exclusive soundtrack CD. The set has a store price of $69.98 (suggested retail price is $79.98). Limited quantities of this set will be available.
The standard edition of the Blu-ray will include the same on-disc extras as the limited edition set and has a store price of $39.98 (suggested retail price is $49.98). The DVD release will be a bare-bones release with just the film and textless opening and ending animation. It has a store price of $29.98 (suggested retail price is $39.98).
Those who listen to Anime News Network’s weekly podcast, ANNCast, will know that people from FUNimation Entertainment occasionally sit down with ANN and discuss various topics brought up by the hosts and their Twitter followers. This week, FUNimation’s Senior Marketing Manager Adam Sheehan and Senior Manager of Social Strategy and Development Justin Rojas talked with Zac Bertchsy for over an hour about many different topics.
New announcements from the podcast include the return of broadcast dubs for the current simulcast season and a Blu-ray release for Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) sometime in 2015. It was originally released on DVD in 2013. The podcast is available here for those interested in listening to it.
The last scan before the Japanese release of Dragon Ball Xenoverse has been leaked and it brings some awesome news for GT fans. Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and Omega Shenron, two of the most powerful characters in Dragon Ball history have been unveiled to be part of the playable roster, bring the number of Dragon Ball GT characters up to a respectable five alongside Super Saiyan 4 Goku, Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta (as a pre-order bonus) and Super Android 17.
We also get our very first look at the new villain Demigra, who is believed to be the true villain of the game and be the one responsible for the actions of Towa and Mira. A silhouette for this character was revealed many months ago but it is nice to see his final demonic design. In more interesting news it seems that even the heroes of Dragon Ball will succumb to the control of the villainous Towa, as the scan shows Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo and even Gotenks under her spell! This original story is definitely going to be interesting. Thank you to ShonenGamez for translating the scan. You can click the scan (pictured above) to view it in full size.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse releases on February 5th in Japan, February 24th in the Americas and February 27th for Europe, the Middle East and Oceania after a slight release date change. The game will be available on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC through Steam. Over 20 minutes worth of gameplay from a demo in Japan was recently recorded showing off the latest build of the game and some new super moves like Frieza’s Death Ball and Goku’s Instant Transmission. You can check out the full video below.
Discotek Media recently took to their Facebook page to discuss three of their upcoming releases. Precise release dates for these releases are not yet available.
Firstly is their release of Samurai Troopers, currently slated for April. The 39-episode TV series will be released in a 5-disc English-subtitled DVD collection. Discotek stated that they are still working on obtaining the rights to the Ronin Warriors adaptation, however it will be on a separate release due to the dub being produced for an edited version of the series.
A complete box-set containing an English subtitled-version of Monster Farm will be released in either April or May. A complete collection of Ceres, Celestial Legend with dual audio will “probably” be released in May.
Following hot on the heels of the Total War: Warhammer announcement, another strategy game based on a Games Workshop brand was unveiled today. Based on the popular Warhammer 40,000universe, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is an RTS title for PC involving epic space battles between the Imperial, Chaos, Eldar, and Ork fleets. Commanders will have the ability to manage the details of every ship in their fleet and watch their crew develop as they gain experience in combat. The game will run on Unreal Engine 4.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada currently has no launch date. In the mean time, developers Tindalos Interactive and publisher Focus Home Interactive have released several screenshots of the game.
Xbox One owners can spend this weekend testing Evolve. The beta for Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Game’s upcoming competitive/co-operative shooter will be available for free to all Xbox One owners until January 19th, 3:00pm AEDT. The beta will kick things off with Hunt mode and unlock the Evacuation campaign mode on January the 18th. Those who pre-purchase the game through the Xbox Game Store will be able to unlock the third monster and the third tier of hunters for the beta and the launch of the game.
Evolve is available for pre-purchase as a Digital Deluxe edition and a base edition. Those who pre-purchase will get the Monster Expansion Pack for free, which will provide the Savage Goliath Skin at launch and the Behemoth monster DLC that will launch in the year. Evolve launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on February 10, 2015.
On January 14, 2015, the Australian Classification Board officially refused classification for Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital’s action video game Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. A screenshot depicting an edited version of the scene that resulted in this ban is included below. Reader discretion is advised.
The game was refused classification because of the uncut version of the opening movie, which depicts a man implicitly raping a bleeding woman after he violently struck her to the ground as the words “finish her” appear on the screen. This depiction is under the guise of a what appears to be a movie shoot. Some have suggested that it may in fact be for a snuff film. Officially, the game was refused classification for the following reason:
The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that “depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.”
Players are given the option to disable all scenes alluding to or depicting sexual violence at the start, but the edited version is cut short by only a few seconds. It ends at the point when the man is standing directly over the nearly-dead woman who is attempting to crawl away, which shown in the screenshot above. Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital have no plans to challenge the Australian Classification Board’s decision.
Type Moon has announced that in conjuction with DELiGHTWORKS Inc. that they will be rebooting the original Fate Online Project as an iOS and Android game.
This title will be an RPG featuring a number of characters from the popular visual novel and anime series Fate/Stay Night, as well as other Fate series properties. While there isn’t much information on the title out now it has been confirmed that Kinoko Nasu will be writing the story.
Fate/Grand Order will be released in Japan for mobile platforms in Spring 2015. Whether or not the title will be translated remains to be seen. The Fate series does have enduring popularity in the west, and as it is iOS/Android based, perhaps we will see a localization.
Sentai Filmworks has just announced that they have acquired the rights to Student Council’s Discretion Lv. 2, a direct sequel to the first season. The first season will be released on home video on March 24, 2015.
The second season premiered on Niconico in October 2012 before its television broadcast in January 2013. Many staff and cast changes were made between the first and second season, including the change from Studio Deen to AIC as the animation producer, the change of director, series script writer and character designer and the change of the voice actresses for Chizuru Akaba and Mafuyu Shiina.
Sentai Filmworks desribes the second season:
Sometimes you have to think outside the box, but Hekiyo Academy’s Student Council may go a step further and rewrite their entire universe! At least, that’s what could happen as the second season gets underway and the Council decides that their own anime might need a little spicing up. Should they introduce new characters? Add a boy’s love subplot? Or should they just continue to do what worked previously and spend most of their time chattering between themselves while working towards odd goals that might turn out to have been a little misguided in retrospect? The answer is “yes” to all of the above and more: Class barriers and the fourth wall come tumbling down as a supporting character literally takes up the challenge of moving up to main character status. The plot thickens with the mystery of a missing cake. The boundaries of love between step-siblings get pushed just a few steps beyond what’s socially comfortable and there just has to be a hot springs episode, doesn’t there? Of course there does! Join 5 student council members in search of an author as the storyline runs amok in Student Council’s Discretion Lv.2!
Lv. 2 will be released on home-video at some point in the future.
