[PS3/Vita] New Comparison Trailer From Gamescom of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

Long title is long.

Prepare yourselves - this will be 99% fangirling and 1% actual intellectual observations, as previously mentioned on my Twitter.

So, I am awful and haven't really followed Gamescom due to a combination of things. I have been hanging out in my hometown so have been seeing lots of family. Tales of Graces f is a fantastic game that sucks your soul into it and you forget about real life. With the Origin Humble Bundle, I managed to install The Sims 3 in Japanese, another game that is soul sucking, but even more so now I can spends hours playing it in Japanese.

So there are my excuses.

However, I have been keeping an eye on any announcements or anything related to Japanese games. And, you should know by now, I am a huge Final Fantasy fan and I am even more of a Final Fantasy X fan so it's not even funny how excited I am for this remake remaster.

With Gamescom, came a new comparison trailer which I dutifully squealed at...

This video shows you the SD version, then the HD version.

The changes are quite obvious, but I will still run through them. Obviously, the menus, bars, names, everything that we see on the battle screen has been changed. It's cleaner and more modern. I'm not feeling the fonts, however. It just doesn't suit it. It almost looks like a fanmade game and they've picked a really lousy font for it. But other than that it's looking really good. I will just have to accept the new font.

The models are smoother, more defined and less blocky. Textures are more vibrant and just look a lot better.

What stuck out to me most is... DAT MUSIC. Have a good listen to it. It's been remastered and it is perfect. I mean, the original soundtrack was amazing, but this remastered version sounds even better. It really adds a whole new dynamic to it. I'm listening to it now as I write I have the biggest, dorkiest smile on my face. Well done Square Enix. Well done. I cannot wait to hear the other tracks. If I'm getting excited at the battle theme... The seven help me when I hear the rest.

So, it's still looking great. This year has seen a small trickle of information on this remaster, and with every drop of new news (can you even say that? I think I've just broke the English language) the game looks even better.

I am really looking forward to this, and will most definitely be purchasing it. Yes, it's the same game, same story, same characters... but none of that needs to change. It's an awesome game with a brand new look and I'm so excited for it I am just randomly tapping away at my keyboard I mean who needs commas when you are this excited for a game!?!

I don't.

I am trying to stay objective and not biased on this game but I am sorry guys, I think this looks amazing and I cannot wait for it - I may not like that damn font - but this is going to R U L E.

No release date yet, but I reckon it will be dropped before the year is out.

If you are excited for the game like me, you can preorder it at Playasia!

[MMO] Final Fantasy XIV Japanese TV Commercial Released

It looks like the advertising for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is in full swing in Japan!



Quite an interesting commercial - a lot more interesting than the leaked one (which eventually turned out to be the actual one!

What I thought was pretty cool was this shot of some armor...

On a Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn group I follow, someone suggested it was the Paladin AF+1 gear. It's looking pretty snazzy.

The Japanese commercial is advertising the release/launch date which is the 27th August and the Open Beta/Phase 4 dates which is 17th August until the 19th August.

Exciting stuff. Personally... I can't wait! I genuinely feel sorry for this blog... It will either turn into an FFXIV blog or I'll never update it.

I must find a balance... ;-)

[PS3/Vita] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD English 30 Minute Audio Sample

Breathes in...

SOME MORE INFORMATION ON FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD: 30 MINUTE AUDIO CLIP AND NEW SCREENS *squee*

Breathes out...

I'm bad at headlines, ok?

A little background:
Square Enix announced a HD remaster (Note: not remake - there is an important difference. I think.) of the most amazing game to ever grace the PS2 Final Fantasy X and the not so great Final Fantasy X-2. 

It's not a remake because it's not being completely remade. They are essentially just remastering it. Updating the textures, audio and cleaning off a few cobwebs (it has been 12 years since it was released. Bet that makes you feel old!).

Square Enix recently released a sample of a 30 min audio "episode", to give you an idea of how it's all going to sound.

As you can hear - doesn't it sound different? It's totally brand new. And we finally hear how they pronounce Tidus (it took 12 years!).

It has also been confirmed that the Western release of this will feature all the extra content the Japanese games got... so essentially it's the international version. If that makes sense. Dark Aeons, Penance and I think the "Last Mission" from FFX-2 is included on there as well. 

There has also been a ton of new screens released showcasing what it looks like... and it's looking great. 

Menus have been updated and there's trophies!

There hasn't been an release date announced yet, but I think it's safe to assume it will be dropping later this year. It will be available on PS3 and PS Vita.

Sources: EMGNow (more pictures!), Playstation Blog

[PS3] Drag-On Dragoon 3 or Drakenguard 3... depending on what side of the world you are on.

OK, so my boyfriend sent me this trailer of Drag-On Dragoon 3/Drakenguard 3 a while back.

I thought to myself, "This game looks awesome." So... I did some research! Then, I thought to myself, "I'll write about it on Game Otaku Desu". Then... forgot about it! But I remembered so it's OK.

I did a tiny bit more research today because there does not seem to be much around about this game. What I have managed to gather from mainly Japanese sites is that it is being released in Japan in October, it is not "Nier or Drakenguard 3 so if you were expecting that you will be disappointed" ... and that's it.

I don't know if it's just me (it's probably just me) but this game has so much mystery about it. It looks so awesome yet I cannot find anything on it that isn't in Japanese. I have searched around some Japanese sites like 4Gamer.net, Famitsu and this site (which has a more game footage. Check it out.) and cannot really find much on it which sucks. :(

But I thought I will share what I have found so far, because this game looks great, and it seems that it will be a while before we see it on Western shores... if we ever do.

From what I can find, the games story is a follow on from the manga "Drag-on Dragoon: Shi ni Itaru-aka". (They have the first chapter available on there - if you can read Japanese, give it a read!)

Zero - in all her glory

It seems it will follow the story of two "utautai" - two girls who are able to manipulate magic through songs. One of the girls is Zero, a girl with a flower sprouting of her eye and an artificial left hand. She is quite laid-back, almost being described as lazy. Whereas her sister, One, is described as being "serious and intellectual." Quite the difference.

It is an action RPG, which is always fun. From the gameplay footage, probably a lot of hack'n'slash. An interesting point about the combat is that when the characters are caked in blood, their "utautai" skills get really powerful. Awesome.

It seems they will also be releasing a 10th Anniversary Box Set when this game is released in October. The box set will include...

Drakengard World Inside book
Drakengard Chips Music CD with tracks from Drakengard, Drakengard 2, Nier Gesalt and Nier Replicant.
Drakengard Novel Prelude
Drakengard Visual Book
Drakengard 3 DLC code - which after some searching around seems to be Kaine's costume from Nier.
Drakengard 3 for Playstation 3 with an illustration by Kimihiko Fujisaka, featuring all the characters from the Drakengard games.

Phew. You can get all that on October 31st for the sweet price of 19,800 yen which is roughly $202. Best get saving!

I am not even a Drakengard fan but I am stoked for this. It looks brilliant. Very interesting story, too. Well, from what I could find about it. It is a shame that there has been no word on an English release yet, however when I was doing some searching around, I came across a petition to get Drakengard 3 localised and released in the West. May be worth signing if you do not fancy breaking the bank on importing the game over.

Or, if you are like me, you just want the game so you're gonna buy it regardless. Yeah, impulse buying rocks! ;)

Drakegard 3 is set to release on October 31st in Japan. You can pre-order a copy on the Square Enix store:
Drakengard 3
Drakengard 3 10th Anniversary Box Set
(If you need help navigating the site, let me know in the comments and I'll post up a tutorial!)

or if you prefer to do everything in English,

Pre-order it on PlayAsia - free shipping as well!
10th Anniversary Box Set - out of stock at the moment but may be restocked upon release!

Gah, I want the game now! :(

Sources: Siliconera, Square Enix JP site, 4Gamer, Kotaku JAPAN

[PS3] Tales of Xillia is making waves!

Tales of Xillia was originally released in Japan almost two years ago(!) and has only just been released in the US, with an EU released scheduled for August 9th.

It has been getting great reviews all around, when first announced in Japan, it got the most pre-orders out of all the Tales games, as well as getting a 39/40 from the popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
IGN have just recently gave the game 8.0/10, saying that the combat is fun, has an interesting story and lots of replay value.

The game is set in a world that has been divided into two by a spirit called Maxwell. In one world, Rieze Maxia, they can all use mana and live in harmony with the spirits, whilst in the other world, Elympios, they all use advanced technology and use the lives of the spirits to supply power. (You can probably see where this is going.) In order to stop them from doing this, Maxwell created a barrier around Rieze Maxia, but somehow the folks in Elympios have managed to break in, form a group and start stealing spirits.

In Tales of Xillia, there are two protagonists and at the beginning of the game you can choose which one to play. One is Jude Mathis, who at the time of the game is a medical student investigating a research facility and treating patients with suspicious injuries. Whilst there, he meets Millia Maxwell, the other protagonist who just so happens to be Maxwell's successor. The two of them then set off an adventure to stop the folks from Elympios creating a weapon powered by Spyrix (which uses the lives of the spirits!).

Millia Maxwell

It seems that the story is a stand alone, so no knowledge of the previous games is needed. However, if you are a fan of the series, it seems there is a lot of things tucked away in the game for you too.

What really interests me about Tales of Xillia is the fact you can choose from two characters at the beginning of the game. It seems that one story isn't better than the other and it is really just down to preference and how you want to play but from reading around it seems Jude's story is a bit better, whereas Milla has better battle music. So it's your call! 

The combat seems to be like any other Tales game, with a few added elements. I haven't really played any Tales of games so here is a video showing the combat! (It's better than me trying to explain it.)

As you can probably tell, it isn't a turn based system. It kind of reminds me of Star Ocean, which had some amazingly fun combat, so if you were hoping for a turn based system - don't be put off! Battles like this are usually fun and get really challenging so be open-minded! :)

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Get your own copy of Tales of Xillia at PlayAsia! (US only m'afraid! EU will version will be up in a few days so I will update this!) Though it seems this has no region protection so if you are really desperate for it, you're in luck!

Practise your Japanese and get the JP version!
And if you are a collector like me, get the game guide! Awesome if you can read Japanese then you have this awesome guide and really cool collectors item. I'm being serious. I think it's awesome.

Check out IGN's review of the game here!

[MMO] Even More Fun With Character Creation & Live letter VIII

SORRY. More FFXIV. It is a mixture of withdrawal symptoms and people making up really fun threads on the Final Fantasy XIV Beta Forums that is causing all this. Following the success of the Lala Yourself thread, they've thought up a "Male<->Female" thread. I absolutely loved the Lala one so I had to do this.

Don't they look like twins!?! 

Man, I had so much fun doing this. I am probably going to carry it on and do it with other characters I've made. Make Lalafell versions of them all and make them the opposite sex. It's too fun man. You know it's going to be a good game if it has people sat there for hours making character after character, just to keep the withdrawal symptoms at bay!

Any way, on the topic of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, it seems the next Producer Live Letter will be broadcast in the next couple of days. It seems the next one will be on the 8th, so maybe they will announce the dates for Phase 4, and we can all stop making characters on character creation.

I will be doing live updates during the Producer Live Letter so if you can't watch/don't understand Japanese/just want to watch me get excited and fan girl over Yoshi-P then you can do so at @aoiciely/http://www.twitter.com/aoiciely !

Now I'm off to go make a million more characters. Gief me XIV nao. :(

[News/Speculation] Possible Angel Beats! announcement after summer...?

Still working on that review. For now, enjoy some new exciting news about Angel Beats!...

Possible Angel Beats! game announcement?

Visual Arts' company director Baba Takahiro was recently asked by a fan on Twitter when they can expect the announcement about an Angel Beats! game, which was supposedly meant to be announced "before summer". The fan also mentioned that it had been 3 years since they first announced it.

Baba replied with "Before summer → after summer." Straight to the point.

A man of a few words - follow him at @vavasyatyou

So, it looks like we can expect some news about the Angel Beats! game "after summer" hopefully. Whenever that may be. I also think it's safe to assume that Key will be working on it as well.

Key, a company who are apart of Visual Arts, are mostly known for the their visual novel games, such as Kanon and Clannad. In the Japanese gamers community, their games are often described as "泣きゲー" (nakigee), games that make you cry. 

Best get the tissues ready.

- Jade