Bandai Namco has released two introduction videos for the main characters in Tales of Xillia 2, Ludger Kresnik and Elle Marta. Alongside these introduction videos the company also provided a brief description of each character as well as their motivations for working together. Check out the introductions and videos below:
Ludger Kresnik
Ludger Kresnik lives with his elder brother, Julius, in an apartment in Trigleph. Calm and one hell of a cook! He yearns to follow in his brother’s footsteps and become an agent of the illustrious Spirius Corporation—but fate has other plans for him. Due to a chance encounter, Ludger meets with Elle Marta and swears to protect her on her journey to a mystical place known as “The Land of Canaan”, which is said to grant wishes. Throughout his journey, will the choices Ludger makes lead the world to salvation… or certain destruction?
Elle Marta
Elle Marta has been separated from her father during a dark and thundery night when a mysterious group of villains attacked them. Her father’s parting words are for her to “meet (him) at the Land of Canaan”. Despite her sassy and blunt nature; she tags along with Ludger to achieve her goals. But little does he know, this girl holds far more importance to his destiny than he could ever imagine…
Viz Media has recently released an English dub preview for Blood Lad that gives us a sample of some of the voice work in the series, though if you wish to watch the entire series in English you can actually do so for now. You see, Viz Media has placed all ten episodes of Blood Lad on Hulu and Neon Alley in their subbed form and you can check it out here.
For those who want to wait for the home release of Blood Lad, you can expect it to hit stores on September 2nd with a Blu-ray/DVD Limited Edition that will be priced at $69.99 and come with not only the original ten episodes, but on-disc extras such as an OVA, art galleries, outtakes from the English dub, clean opening and ending themes, and more. There will also be a physical extra in the form of a 96 page booklet as well as a chipboard case for the series.
Indie Gala and Capsule Computers released a brand new indie bundle today. Every Monday Bundle #14 contains six indie games and a bonus music album. For a single purchase, buyers will get the following titles:
RUSH– A puzzle game that will challenge players to guide their cube to the end of the level with the help of some zany tools like stop signs and conveyor belts.
As an added bonus, all buyers get F-777’s album Let’s Freaking Party. The bundle is only $1.49 for the first 24 hours of the sale, so be sure to pick up a copy at Indie Gala.
After extensive testing through Steam’s Early Access program and a few delays, Divinity: Original Sin is finally ready for prime time. Larian Studios’ co-op isometric RPG launches today after months of testing and a massive Kickstarter campaign that raised just shy of a million dollars on Kickstarter. PayPal pledges made during that period pushed the total crowdfunding to over a million dollars.
Divinity: Original Sin serves as a prequel to the well received Divine Divinity series. The game features turn based combat in the classic isometric view. Players will be able to create the exact character they dream of with the deep class-less character system and extensive dialogue options. The game costs $39.99 on Steam and runs on Mac and Windows.
Developers from The Farm 51 sat down in front of the camera to talk about the development of their new shooter Get Even. The developers hired tactical instructors and rented a shooting range to provide the team a chance to learn how to fire and handle firearms that would make into the game. Additionally, the sound engineer was able to record gunfire for the game at the firing range, providing Get Even with realistic gunfire sound effects.
Get Even is a first person shooter from Polish developers The Farm 51. The game is designed to be the most realistic shooter possible, integrating itself with technologies like Oculus Rift. The title will be released in 2015. No word on which platforms Get Even will be launched on, but the game will be released on Steam as the game was successfully Greenlit on Steam.
Extend Interactive are excited to announce that their forthcoming 2D-tactical strategy game, Panthera Frontier, will be exclusively available for Windows Phone 8. The independent games developer and publisher is inviting everyone around the world to take part in the free open BETA program, to join as Captains of the famous Panthera Federation fleet.
Panthera Frontier allows players to command an impressive fleet, with the power to recruit and train the best soldiers to form the strongest army. Following the invasion and devastating war, it is up to players to conquer the evil tyrant ruler, Wolf Empire, and restore their galaxy.
Explore a wide range of missions, treasures and resources
Devise clever strategies for offense and defence, including weapon selection
Customise and upgrade spaceships as the story evolves
Rescue civilians and be careful about distinguishing allies from foes
Be weary of hostile ships and carefully managing resources
With any tactical-strategy expedition, success relies on the player and their decisions, plans and tactical operations. Check out the free BETA here for Panthera Frontier and let us know your thoughts of the game in the comment section below.
Are you a Disney Infinity aficionado? Do you spend more time in the Toy Box than your five year old cousin? Well you are in luck because the guys over at Disney and Avalanche Software have announced the inaugural Disney Infinity Toy Box Summit.
Coming to you from Utah, the summit will pit the incredibly talented Toy Box artists from around the world in a super-powered Toy Box creation competition. As if that wasn’t enough, the summit will feature the following:
Five of the recently Avalanche-hired Associate Community Level Designers to act as mentors. They will be offering tips to the newly picked artists on how to create the best Toy Boxes.
Panels and roundtable feedback sessions with the developers
Exclusive hands-on preview of Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes
Tour of the studio
Keynote addresses from Disney Infinity executives
Live streaming webcast for public to attend in real time
In addition to all that, three aspiring attendees from the US will have the chance to join through Disney Infinity’s first ever video contest. Fans will be tasked to create a video that celebrates their favourite Disney movie using the Disney Infinity Toy Box. Disney will provide a Contest Fan Kit including approved music, graphics, and game capture tutorials to help increase the quality of video content created. Winners will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the summit and 10 additional runners up will receive a Captain America Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes Figure.
There’s a lot going around and it is good to see that Disney are still maintaining support for Disney Infinity 1.0, even though Marvel Super Heroes is just around the corner. For all the sweet Disney news as it becomes available, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Transformers movies always make a big splash when they hit the screen, and the latest installment; Transformers: Age of Extinction is no exception. The film has been out for a little under a week and if you haven’t seen it, it is ok – we have some new footage to share with you before you buckle up and drive down to your nearest cinema. Paramount Pictures have shared the latest featurette for the film, and it focuses on all those sexy new cars you know and love.
Check out the New Cars Featurette below and let us know in the comments whether or not you have already seen the latest outing of the robots in disguise, and what you thought about it if you have. We reviewed the film not long ago so make sure you check out our thoughts here and to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Transformers news as it becomes available.
Overview Giving a character, especially a lead character, memory loss has become such a well-trodden path in the entertainment industry that it isn’t even a path anymore, but something that has been used so much it is almost a ditch at this point. That being said, rarely does having an amnesiac protagonist do irreparable damage to a product which is probably why it is so common. As such, with Amnesia being an anime adaptation of a popular otome game involving memory loss, does the series stand out enough to be worthwhile?
Story Amnesia begins with the Heroine, who is never actually given a name by the way, attempting to escape a burning building only to have a vision of drowning. Despite these surprising scenes playing out, the Heroine is suddenly working at a café where she awakes in the back room after passing out on the serving floor.
This would be problematic on its own, but the girl wakes up to find that she has complete and total amnesia to the point that she has no idea who she is, where she is, or who any of the people coming in to speak with her are. Despite this odd situation, things become stranger when a mysterious spirit that only the Heroine can see named Orion appears to talk to her about her memory loss and how if she were to tell anyone about her loss of memory it might accelerate to the point where she might be unable to function as a human.
As such, Orion tells the girl to try to live out her life and continue working as a waitress at the café and speaking with the people who might be her friends in an effort to try and bring back some of her memories. As she begins doing this, she slowly tries to figure things out and even triggers a few random memories that point out her relationship with some of the men around her only for it all to come to an end when she tumbles off of a cliff.
Or so one would think. Instead the time has reverted back to August 1st, three days prior to what happened at the start of the series and not only are people acting differently and mentioning certain events in different ways, but one of the men she once knew is now acting like her boyfriend. Things continue to progress as such with the series attempting to try and dabble a bit of each male character’s pairing with the Heroine through a method that keeps viewers in the dark for far too long, though you will likely figure it out before the series decides to reveal the information during a massive info dump in the last couple of episodes.
That is pretty much all there is to Amnesia sadly. While the series does have a few entertaining aspects, it is hampered by a dull as dishwater female lead. Seriously, not only is her lack of a name an issue on its own, the girl just goes with the flow of things and rarely makes any effort to be interesting or even question what is happening to her. This blank approach might work for an otome game, but not for an anime where we have to actually have a lead character seem at least somewhat interesting. Though that seems to be asking for a lot since the male characters that she is paired up with tend to be as generic and unlikable as they come.
The only real interesting element of Amnesia is the character Ukyo who I won’t go too much in-depth due to how many spoilers surround the character, but his motivations and personality are a highlight of the series and fairly memorable despite being surrounded by an extremely lackluster cast of characters. In the end Amnesia does try to wrap everything up, though it does so by not only pulling random details together but also does so in a way that only seems to try and push the viewer into the game it was based off of.
Visuals If there is one thing that Amnesia has going for it is the color palette and the amount of detail that Brains Base put into the world. All of the characters in the series have amazing looking clothing with a ton of detail that looks great against an even better looking backdrop.
The characters themselves are fairly standard looking for an otome style adaptation with a variety of pretty boys coming in all different sizes and looks. One thing that really does stand out for me is the design choice with every characters’ eyes as they look incredibly well done with most characters’ eyes having two colors that connect in the center.
Audio Sentai Filmworks has given Amnesia a full English dub and have also provided the original Japanese voice track for people who prefer that option. That being said, the unlikable Heroine remains insufferable sounding in either voice track, so take that as you will to how terrible of a character she makes. As for the rest of the cast, the English voice work for the males is handled well enough though considering the voice actors have to try and match their characters’ personalities, you shouldn’t expect much.
The background music in Amnesia is fittingly forgettable but it is worth noting that the opening theme “Zoetrope” by Nagi Yanagi is a nice sounding intro for the series. On the other hand, the ending theme, “Recall” by Ray, is as standard as you can come for a series such as this one.
Extras Oddly enough, this release does not even contain a clean version of the theme songs, instead the only bonus features are the ‘Lost Diary Entries’ which are three minutes of dubbed content involving an almost completely non-moving scene where the Heroine reads events form her diary from before the incident and trailers for other Sentai Filmworks anime.
Overall While there are plenty of otome adaptations out there, the way that Amnesia: Complete Collection is handled should be an example of how not to create such an adaptation. While the series might have had some decent ideas at heart, Ukyo and the art style are the only real saving grace for this series since there really isn’t much going for it. Amnesia that fails at most of what it tries to do by presenting a forgettable lead character with an equally unlikable cast of male characters across the backdrop of a storyline that takes forever to do anything. Amnesia is a good name for this anime because in the end, you will likely forget about this series in the same amount of time it took you to watch it.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Logitech has announced some impending additions to their case+ iPhone 5/5s accessory line: the +trip, +wallet and two new colour configurations for the case+“system” itself. Marcus Fry, Managing Director of Logitech ANZ, stated;
We designed the case+ system to offer sleek protection and increase the functionality of your phone, without sacrificing style. Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to deliver on that promise, with new solutions that can be mixed and matched with our existing lineup to provide the functionality you want. The Logitech case+ system is the only case you’ll ever want.
Above, you can see the Blue Glacier option for the iPhone case, with Red Plum being the other new colour (not shown). Next to it is the +wallet, which allows you to keep your cards and cash neatly tucked within the stylish, slim cover. It features magnetic coupling and Magnashield technology, creating a barrier to prevent demagnetisation. And finally, on the left here is a look at the +trip, the rear of which works as a clip with minimal footprint. The +trip utilises a magnet to securely attach your phone to the mount, enabling true hands-free use in your vehicle, and comes with a universal adapter so that essentially all smartphone models are compatible.
Each will retail at RRP $29.95, poised for simultaneous launch at the end of July, 2014.
Above, you can see the Blue Glacier option for the