Today Tecmo Koei has announced that they are planning on releasing both a special edition of Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z which will be available in limited quantities once the game is released on March 18th in North America and March 21st in Europe with the special edition being available in both regions.
The special edition includes a copy of the game, a full-color comic book from Dark Horse Comics, an Original Soundtrack that will be a digital voucher for the PS3 version of the game and an actual CD on the 360, and a code that will unlock exclusive Yaiba themed DLC costumes for Ryu and Momiji to wear in Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate.
To go along with this announcement the company also released a number of screenshots for the game which show Yaiba fighting against Ryu Hayabusa and Momiji can even be spotted in the background of one of the images.
Ok brawlers, it is time to grab your Pokeballs, throw them into the air and call out “I choose you, Lucario!” That’s right, the world famous fighting/steel type Pokemon has officially joined the battle in the upcoming Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS.
Lucario joins the ranks as another veteran fighter, having first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii. Back then he used his Aura to wipe his opponents out. He really stood out from the pack due to the fact that the more damage he had taken, the stronger his aura attacks became. If you looked up Risk vs Reward in the gaming dictionary, you would see Lucario’s picture.
Although we can’t say for certain, it looks like the fighting/steel Pokemon will be retaining a lot of his attacks and aura abilities from the past game. Now that we know Lucario is joining the battle, do you think his ultimate smash attack will still be his original Kamehameha-style energy beam, or will Nintendo introduce MegaLucario into the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and remember to stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Smash Bros news as it becomes available.
I love a good sale. Nintendo seem to love throwing some good sales as well. Today it was announced that until February 13th, a handful of quality eShop titles for the Wii U will be on sale, in a buy one get one at 60% off promo. Already have one? Even better, as you automatically qualify for the large discount.
The games are: ‘Toki Tori 2+’ by Two Tribes, ‘Mighty Switch Force’ by WayForward, ‘Runner 2’ by Gaijin Games, ‘Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party’ by Knapnok Games and ‘Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams’ by Black Forest Games. Yes, that is quite a list, and making matters sweeter is the awesome creation going on behind the scenes in order to promote such a sale. You see, each developer involved created a trailer for another developer’s title, and got quite creative while doing so. Check out all five below, and snag your titles up today while you can!
Black Forest Games promoting WayForward‘s Mighty Switch Force:
Knapnok promoting Runner 2 By Gaijin Games:
Two Tribes promoting Black Forest Games’ Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams:
Gaijin Games promoting Toki Tori 2:
WayForward promoting Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party:
Overview
The Might & Magic franchise has been around for thirty years. Much of the formula that gained popularity with fans around the world is still intact, but the last proper entry released over a decade ago. Does the franchise’s newest entry, Might & Magic X: Legacy, have the chops to give players what they’ve craved for so long or is it dragging dead old mechanics along, one tile at a time?
Story
The Agyn Peninsula is in in a state of turmoil. Karthal, a city once considered a proud colony of the Holy Falcon Empire, is on the verge of secession. Four adventurers have journeyed to the port town of Sorpigal-by-the-Sea at the behest of their recently departed master, though they have no idea what twists and turns their expedition has in store for them.
Gameplay Might & Magic X: Legacy stays true to its roots. Designed with role playing and combat mechanics that have been around for several decades, it places its bets on the idea that fans will still appreciate it like a fine vintage wine.
Few games of renown seem to make it mainstream with classic RPG systems in place. With western RPG design taking a more action-oriented approach and Japanese developers continuing with their own style of turn-based combat, Legacy is left somewhere in the middle. The team at Limbic Entertainment, however, has done a solid job working to keep Legacy both fun and relevant.
The world of Legacy is a series of 2-D grids, which you traverse one space at a time. You move your party around with standard WASD keys, using ‘Q’ and ‘E’ to turn. The direction you face on a square can give you surprisingly varied results, occasionally rewarding you with treasure if you look in the right place. To the unfamiliar, it feels somewhat jarring at first, but quickly becomes second nature.
Placed throughout the Agyn Peninsula are various towns, dungeons, and other attractions. Major hubs provide various shops, inns, and the like. Unlike most classic first-person RPGs, though, Legacy gives players with a large open world to explore. It almost feels like a grid-based Elder Scrolls title, granting freedoms that similar titles like Legend of Grimrock can. That means you can quickly find yourself in over your head, but the risk is your choice to make.
When you start the game, you can create your own party or roll with a pre-determined group (which, I’ve realized, are the characters on the boxart). There are four races, each with four classes, so you can vary the design of your party as much as you want. It provides a wonderful sense of customization, allowing room for experimentation and replay.
As you complete quests and conquer foes, each member of your party will gain experience. When they level up, you’re given points to divvy up between things like Might, Magic, Perception, and more. On top of increasing your stats, you’re also given points to upgrade or learn completely new skills, such as dodging or earth magic. This feels like the real meat of party customization, letting you choose how each character behaves in combat and beyond. The game is also packed with scads of weapons, armor, and accessories to discover and equip.
The combat in Legacy feels old-school in a pure, refreshing manner. Your party takes turns in a left-to-right fashion. You can change character order, allowing a welcome fluidity to the cadence of combat. With limited sight comes limited attack range, in a line straight in front of you. This can be anything from a melee swing or ranged bow shot to spells that reach as far as your sight line. Just like a tabletop RPG, though, every attack is based on a virtual dice roll, occasionally leading to a frustrating misses beyond your control.
The difficulty in Legacy feels ok, but hits occasional bumps. You’ll start off against spiders, wolves, and bandits, working your way up to some nasty foes. Unless you spent time grinding or doing side quests, you’ll quickly discover you’re too weak to even continue the storyline without some extra work. You’ll have to work on other quests and beef up your team before you’re able to continue. It can be a frustrating blockade, but it encourages branching beyond the story, which can be rewarding itself.
Enemy variety is welcome throughout the game. They boast over 60 enemy types to fight, with six boss encounters. In this day and age, to hear that only six bosses exist in the world feels like a poor offering. Rest assured, though, those few encounters are fun and exciting, though difficult. You’ll have to analyze and formulate your strategy, but overcoming them is just as adrenaline-inducing as any tense first-person shooter moment.
Though Legacy does a great job invoking love for old-school game mechanics, it’s not perfect. General user interface layout can be frustrating at times, with on-screen prompts blocking buttons that should be easily accessible. The inability to easily sort your inventory is maddening as well, forcing you to scrawl needlessly over dozens of items when it could have been much more usable.
Visuals & Audio
For a game modeled after something thirty years old, Legacy does a wonderful job giving you some eye candy to gawk at. Though you may only think of the world as a grid, monsters and environments are great looking 3-D constructs accented by bright, colorful textures. Though constrained by the the UI tropes of its genre, Limbic has done a fantastic job of keeping the game both inviting and relevant with their visual design.
The sound design in the game does a fair enough job of accompanying the story and on-screen action. Sound effects help deliver crushing blows to foes with minimal visual queues, keeping the action engaging despite a lack of animation. Hearing a character repeat “Who forgot to take a bath,” every time you get in range of an enemy quickly grows tiresome, though.
Overall
Overall, Might & Magic X: Legacy is a great RPG for fans willing crack open the time capsule. Character progression and customization provide a great sense of ownership while the combat delivers in spades with vintage appeal. Striking visuals and an open-world help keep the game interesting as well. A few design choices that should’ve been updated can be frustrating, though they never really hamper the experience. The game will likely attract a niche audience given its nature, but RPG fans willing to wade into Legacy will find a deep, rewarding experience.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster will be available on March 21st for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The game contains an HD remastering of the international versions Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. Content like Final Fantasy X-2 Last Mission were never released outside of Japan.Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on February 14th, 2014.
Filth was one of the sleaziest, crudest, trippiest films of 2013, and of course became one of the top box office successes in the UK – not only because it’s a UK-made film, but I’d wager the subject matter was familiar to their youth. On the 4th of April, James McAvoy’s excursion into drugs, sex and general debauchery makes its way onto Blu-ray, DVD and Digital thanks to Icon Home Entertainment.
The movie sees McAvoy (X-Men: First Class) as Bruce, a Detective Sergeant who becomes deathly bored of his existence and turns to a mixture of cocaine, alcohol and sexually abusive relationships. This doesn’t mean he hasn’t any aspirations, as his quest for a lucrative promotion to Detective Inspector – along with reconciliation with his estranged wife and daughter – is his primary focus, and as such Bruce begins concocting a plan to sabotage his colleagues, including Amanda Drummond (Imogen Poots) in order to get it. He’s soon assigned to lead the investigation surrounding the murder of a Japanese student, but his increasingly frequent hallucinations, drug addiction and unchecked psychological issues lead him to spiral out of control. So much for that promotion, huh?
The movie also stars Jim Broadbent (Cloud Atlas, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince), Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, King Kong), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) and Shirley Henderson (Trainspotting, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). How can you not want to see Filth after review quotes such as “You’ll be scraping this film your from under your fingernails for weeks” from Timeout?! Sounds like my kind of cinema.
Paradox Interactive has unveiled that their upcoming PC fantasy war-game, Warlock II: The Exiled, will hand over the power of creation to the players themselves. Scenarios can be customized and altered to fit the gamer’s thrill for battle. And the magic does not stop there as these mods can be shared to magic wielders everywhere via the Steam Workshop!
Additionally, Paradox has released a new trailer that encapsulates the different worlds that the player can experience. I offer you fair warning; the ‘puns’ are endless. Expect phrases like: “Only a ‘luna’tic would live on the moon”. Check out the trailer below and stay tuned for more information regarding Warlock II: The Exiled.
It looks like fans of the Tenkai Knights TV series on Cartoon Network will have something to look forward to this summer with the announcement of a game based on the series on its way for 3DS. Being published by Namco Bandai, the game Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle, will put players in the role of one of the four knights of the series.
Those unfamiliar with the series should know that the series itself is based on the “shapeshifting construction bricks” from Spin Master, featuring four heroes powering up to defend the Earth from the villainous warlord Vilius, complete with a shapeshifting army called The Corrupted.
The game itself will include both Story Mode with missions to complete and a multiplayer, where players will face off to see who is the better robot. Those wanting to save Earth and the Tenkai Knights‘ world of Quarton can look forward to the release of Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle this summer exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS in the Americas.
Hozuki No Reitetsu Episode 4 – Pretty Boys Need Love Too/The Crackling Hell
Another week, another episode and I’m so glad because I cannot get enough of Hozuki No Reitetsu. Welcome back to another installment of Hozuki No Reitetsu Anime Impressions, I hope you’ve all been as excited about this new episode as I have! This week marks the release of Hozuki No Reitetsu episode four, an episode that takes us on a journey through the rich Japanese mythology as well as the inner workings of Hell and its workers.
Although not as funny this week, the episode does give us a little more insight into the environment of hell and the rules and regulations it has put in place for both its citizens and its workers. We’re met with a not so scary ghost story, a beautifully handsome pair of young men, a group of lazy torturers and one hell of a demonic rabbit in this weeks episode so, as you can already see, this is just another typical and super crazy episode of Hozuki No Reitetsu. Let’s jump in, shall we?
Pretty Boys Need Love Too:
The first of two stories in this weeks episode is “Pretty Boys Need Love Too”, which follows Hozuki and Shiro as they head over to the Crow-Tengu Police HQ to meet with a friend of Hozuki’s and a high tier worker for the department of protection. Straight up, this story wasn’t really as funny as usual which I suppose I need to put less emphasis on, it’s just something I feel like should be noted.
Here we’re met with more Japanese mythology than usual, it seems odd to even say something like that but it’s very true. A great deal of secondary subtitles outlining references to Japanese lore and/or old stories was used and I think going back to watching the episode after reading the stories would allow audiences to get more out of it. I’ve yet to do that but I suppose I can put it on my “to do” list.
Amongst the Japanese lore are the usual pop culture references; Goku’s Nimbus, the catbus from “My Neighbour Totoro” and even popular motor vehicles like Ferraris and Harley Davidsons got a mention, though are we all really surprised? We’re told a reverse ghost story by a demon taxi that really highlights how silly and odd the demon world is, especially when you find out the “ghost lady” in the story was alive the whole time. Ooooh, ooooooooooh, oooooooh! You get it, it’s ghost noises.
I was a little disappointed that the Crow-Tengu Police didn’t get much time in the spotlight but that’s just because I’m a real big Tengu fanboy. Can you be a fanboy to mythological creatures? For the most part I didn’t entirely enjoy this half of the episode, I couldn’t really put my finger on it but it didn’t have the same “pizzaz” as some of the other stories I’ve seen…or maybe I’m just a bit ticked off that the Anime tricked me when it introduced a girly-looking character and it turned out to be a boy. I guess that was my fault though, the episode is called “Pretty Boys Need Love Too”, and it’s true; we do need love.
The Crackling Hell:
Here we are at the second half of the episode which was better than the first half but not the best all together if you ask me, and since you’re reading this article I’ll take it as, yes, you are asking me. Hozuki notices that these torture demons that he’s employed are getting extremely lazy, they’re barely torturing anymore because they’re too busy taking naps and being all around lazy so in true Hozuki style he does something about it, something crazy.
He organises a meeting for these lazy bums where, at the end of it, they would have learned everything they need to know about torture in hell whilst also learning a little something about themselves…that they’re scared of rabbits. He tells them, what seems like, a children’s story about two animal friends; a rabbit and a badger, seems fairly innocent right? Wrong!
The rabbit, throughout this story, mercilessly kills this badger and some fairly brutal ways…turns out this thing wasn’t a children’s book after all. After scaring the group of demons (something I thought I’d never have to say) he introduces them to the rabbit from the story, to theirs (and our) surprise the rabbit is actually real and, not to mention, the story itself was entirely non fiction. Who’d have though? Though the rabbit is cute, it is also extremely scary and super deadly, Hozuki hopes the demons will learn a little something from here but really he just scares them enough to do the assigned work.
Much like the first episode I wasn’t really into this one as much as I usually am, maybe because of the lack of comedy due to its focus on more of the demon world, I’m not too sure. Fact is; it gave us a nice little look into the “ongoings” of the underworld, it’s proven to us that this isn’t just a “random gag, nothing actually matters” anime series. Regardless, this is still one of my favourite series’ of this season and you can’t expect every episode to be a cracker, we’ll just have to see what the coming weeks bring.
Check out more Hozuki No Reitetsu impressions HERE.
Robot Entertainment, the development team behind the tower defense gem Orcs Must Die! franchise, have released their newest game, Echo Prime, on Steam today.
The sci-fi action RPG, which previously released on iOS devices, has been given new content, improvements to visual fidelity, and reworked PC controls. To celebrate the release, the game is currently 20% off ($7.99/£5.59 instead of the regular $9.99/£6.99). Players who get the game during the sale will also get a copy of Orcs Must Die! 2 for free!
Features for the game include:
Optimized for PC
Even More Enemies and Environments
New Hardcore Mode
Upgrade Your Arsenal
Echoes of the Multiverse – Discover and unlock dozens of “Echoes”, alien life forms from alternate universes.
Share Echoes – Use your friends’ Echoes in combat to help them level-up, and level up your Echoes when your friends use them!
Random Campaign Generation
Includes the Full Soundtrack
To grab the game, you can go to their Steam page. For more information, you can check out their official website.
