A few months ago it was announced in Japan that another Etrian Odyssey game was in the works by the name of Etrian Odyssey: Millennium Girl and today Atlus USA announced at E3 that they will be bringing this Etrian Odyssey game over to North America sometime this Summer under its new name, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl.
Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl contains both an expanded story mode and a classic mode that updates the original Etrian Odyssey experience with updated graphics, streetpass and other features. In Millennium Girl players have a real story mode for the first time that features five pre-made characters with personalities and voiced dialogue. To go along with this announcement the company released a handful of English screenshots for the title which can be seen below.
You may recall that last night during Sony’s E3 conference the company very briefly mentioned that they were going to be releasing a special Limited Edition Walking Dead Vita bundle. At the time, no other information was given but today Telltale Games has come forward and given us a slew of new information about their hit Walking Dead video game series.
Today the company announced that they are working on a DLC add-on to the first season of the game called 400 Days. It will be a standalone episode that will bridge the gap for the second season and will cost $4.99 (400 MSP) or will be included in the aforementioned Vita bundle.
400 Days plays as a singular episode which is going to follow the story of a number of new characters that can be played in any order and appear to all revolve around one place. According to Telltale a few choices the player made as Lee throughout season one will also have consequences in this DLC. To go along with this information the company released a small number of screenshots and a trailer for the DLC, both of which can be found below.
Great news Blazblue fans! Today it was announced by Aksys Games that they are planning on bringing the next game in the series, Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma, to North America next year in 2014. Unfortunately the company didn’t provide any extra details besides that but they Sony did provide us with a nice E3 trailer for the game which can be seen below.
Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma sees the addition of a number of new characters including Bullet, Izayoi and more, an entirely new storyline, new gameplay modes and much more. Expect more details over the next few months as Aksys reveals their plans with the title.
Today Atlus USA has released a brand new trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV which features a little bit of footage that we’ve seen before but mostly is comprised of brand new scenes and samples of voice acting.
As you can see in the video below, this E3 trailer highlights a number of the features that make Shin Megami Tensei IV unique including the battle system, though it seems that the company is really sticking with that pronunciation of “Samurai” as every character is now saying it the same way. Anyways, keep an eye out for Shin Megami Tensei IV in North America on July 16th.
We haven’t heard or seen much of Platinum Games’ The Wonderful 101 since it was announced back near the launch of the Wii U. This lack of news has been disturbing to some but thankfully with E3 kicking off today, Nintendo has released a new trailer for the game showing us some of the first gameplay we’ve seen for the game in quite some time.
Despite the silence it seems that the game has been developing quite nicely if the below gameplay footage is anything to go by. Anyways, currently The Wonderful 101 is set to be released in North America on September 15th while gamers in Europe will be picking the title up a month earlier on August 23rd.
Earlier today Nintendo kicked things off on the start of E3 with their Nintendo Direct conference and during this conference the company announced not only a brand new type of Pokémon in Pokémon X and Y but they have also given the game a worldwide release date.
As we’ve already written, the new Pokémon type is Fairy and Sylveon will be one of those Fairy type Pokémon. As for the release date, both Pokémon X and Pokémon Y will be released worldwide on the Nintendo 3DS on October 12th which is a Saturday, an odd choice of a release date but one that Pokémon fans have been waiting for for quite some time.
The trend of tower defence titles has come and gone but yet the genre still remains. Meet Defence Technica, a space-themed RTS Tower Defence title for mobile devices here to remind you why you loved the genre in the first place! Mindlessly murdering hordes of mindless aliens as they blindly charge towards your base is simply fun. Don’t expect much more though, Defence Technica really is your standard Tower Defence title. But hey, nothing wrong with that. Right?
Gameplay
As with most Tower Defence titles, the goal of Defence Technica is to defend your base via Towers. It sounds simple, but it never is. Players will find that Defence Technica has a longer learning curve than you’d expect with deep gameplay mechanics. Maps can get quite large and complex and enemies can get to you from multiple directions. Hell, even the terrain can change! There are multiple types of opponents and different types of towers work best on particular types. However enemies are stupid and are more than happy to have a glorious cannon fodder death. The player must find a way to lead these suckers down the longest possible path to their own base and guard it with towers so you can kill them before they get to the tower. To make this easier on the player, the “Silver-Eye” option is available to show the gamer which is the best path to create. These of coarse cost Crystals.
What are crystals you ask? Great question reader! I’m really enjoying this hypothetical conversation we’re having. Crytals are the currency in Defence Technica which are rewarded to the player for winning stages and such. These can be spent on using the “Silver-Eye” feature as well as cards. What are cards you ask? Wow you’re really on a roll with good questions today. I suppose that’s why you’re reading this review huh. Well cards can be bought using crystals, and cards give you an edge in battle. Each card has different effects on gameplay and they can be bought, sold, equipped, unequipped and even combined with each other to create other cards. Many levels are pretty much impossible to complete with out these. However many of them are quite expensive and almost impossible to save up to buy. Players can buy crystals with real life money though, and that’s where it becomes a problem. It’s really fun at first, but after a while it becomes near impossible to progress without spending crystals that the game encourages you to spend real life cash. It’s a total buzz kill that creeps it’s way into making the game feel less rewarding. Sure there are other modes of play for levels to earn crystals such as ‘hell’ and ‘endless’ modes, but honestly, it doesn’t cut it.
Visuals & Audio
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…there was some story poorly told with boring cut scenes. And by cut scenes I mean simple screenshots with huge blocks of texts that you’ll want to skip through straight away. Thankfully this game is not based on story but rather based on core tower defence gameplay. That setback aside, Defence Technica looks beautiful. While animations can occasionally be a little stiff, graphics and textures are a feast for the eyes. Detailed, smooth and even looking console-worthy. Truly a highlight of the game. Audio is decent and sound effects do their job. Music is exactly how you’d expect it to sound in an RTS – It’s not bad but it doesn’t really stand out all.
Overall
If you have intentions on picking up Defence Technica you’re going to get exactly what you’re probably hoping to get – a solid RTS Tower Defence game. It’s not revolutionary or mind blowing but it’s got deep game mechanics and addictive gameplay. It’s classic defence right on your iPhone. If your a fan of the genre it’s perfect for you, but if not a huge fan of the genre it might not be exactly what you’re after. It’s fun, but is dramatically held back by it’s expensive crystal system that encourages in-app purchasing. Sadly, Defence Technica fails to reach it’s maximum potential because of this. Regardless, it’s still pretty fun.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The imminent release of Paramount Pictures‘ World War Z may have youth around the world buzzing, but the Gen Y contingent of Australia have demonstrated their love for zombies in another way…
Boost Mobile had recently announced a series of three short films under the banner of ‘Stay Living‘. 4 days since their release on the pre-paid mobile brand’s YouTube channel, Boost is touting over 200,000 views!
Boost Mobile CEO, Paul O’Neile had this to say;
At Boost Mobile, we believe your mobile phone plan shouldn’t control your life or make you feel trapped. Our Stay Living campaign represents young Boost Mobile customers as the champions of the living. The films have been created to represent the battle between living a fulfilling, free and exciting life and being a slave to the conformity.
If you haven’t seen them, the action-packed scenes depict the lives of four young Australian heroes trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, fighting off the zombies they don’t want to become. On the surface, the central story lines appear to be that of your regular zombie genre; however to the clever Boost Mobile customer, the message goes much deeper than this.
Yoshi’s Island was game that helped define many childhood’s on the Super Nintendo and now it’s back! Announced during a previous Nintendo Direct, E3 this year found itself home to the debut of Yoshi’s New Island trailer and it’s looking beautiful. Interestingly enough, this wasn’t mentioned during Nintendo’s live streaming Nintendo Direct. Instead, it just randomly appeared on their Youtube channel. Filled with nostalgia and creativity, Yoshi’s New Island will be available on the 3DS. The game has no current release date but Nintendo says more information will be revealed on a later date.
Check out the trailer for Yoshi’s New Island below!
The biggest reveal of the trailer was the introduction of an 18th type: Fairy. The type will encompass the newest Eeveelution Sylveon, along with altering the types of a few previous Gen Pokemon. So far those to receive the addition of the Fairy type, are Jigglypuff (Normal/Fairy), Gardevoir (Psychic/Fairy) and Marill (Water/Fairy). In the line of combat, Fairy type moves will be super-effective against Dragon type, with the new moves Moonblast, a powerful move which lowers the enemies attack stat, and Fairy Wind being showcased.
The trailer also provided a brief glimpse of two new Gen VI additions. Who’s that Pokemon?
VivillonNoivern
Vivillon seems to fill the calling of the Gen VI bug Pokemon, a la Butterfree, though, judging by the look and name, Vivillon, may be partly Fairy type. Vivillon is also said to evolve from a Pokemon called Spewpa, though no more information has been released as of yet. Noivern appears to be a new addition to the Dragon type, suggested by the “-vern” suffix and new move Boomburst, though it also possesses similarities to the bat style Pokemon of each region, a la Zubat.
The trailer also expressed a new feature to X and Y: Pokemon-Amie. The new mode allows players to feed, pet and play with their Pokemon, seemingly adding to the happiness statistic in previous instalments. Players may also copy the actions of their Pokemon which, assumedly through use of the 3DS camera function, will make them happier.
Check out the trailer below and once again: Welcome to the world of Pokemon.
