[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

[MMO] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Producer 8th Live Letter Summary

So the 8th Producer Live Letter just finished a while ago, and boy, was it a long one!

I am just going to summarise what was mentioned, major dates and announcements in this post for those who missed it.

Open Beta Phase 4 will be from the 17th August until 19th August. For those who were already in beta, it starts on the 16th. (Yay!)
Early access will be 24th August until 26th August, and there will be no down time. That means it will lead straight onto launch.
Open Beta/Phase 4 is capped at Level 20.
PVP will be in OP/P4 but is only available to Legacy players who already have level 50 characters. It seems they want to focus on testing higher level PVP.
Player Housing will be in available in P4 in Limsa Lominsa.

Arcanist will be available in OB/P4.
 - Arcanist will mainly be a DPS class.
 - It seems Arcanist won't be as strong as other DPS classes without taking advantage of Carbuncle.
 - Carbuncle can long range DPS.
 - Stat-wise is MND (Mind) based.

Scholar as we already know is a Healer.
It was said on the Live Letter that for a fully balanced 8-man group it is advised to have both a WHM and a SCH. So nobody is left out! ;)

They showed off Summoner a few of the Egi summons they already have. More Egi will be released when the level cap is reached.
Summoner stat-wise will be INT (Intellect) based.

Summoner rocking that awesome hat

Good news for PS3 players, in Phase 4 they will be adding a screenshot feature.

Gametime cards will be available. 30 days and 60 days.

There will be a World Transfer service available 2-3 weeks after launch.

There will be a smartphone app on iOS named, "Libra Eorzea". - Good news folks, it's free!
Yoshi-P mumbled something about Android, if I'm not mistaken, it will be available a few weeks after the iOS one is released.

You will be able to retry bosses/primals with the same group... I didn't catch much of this so I will update this when I know about it.

Barber shop in 2.1 patch! So you don't have to worry if you character isn't how you wanted it. You can change hair styles, hair colour, eye colour, beard, face tattoos and face paint/colour.

There will be seasonal gear for Summer/Christmas. They showcased a few off the items. Something about fire-resistance gear is vital for one of the events!

There was some information about Crystal Tower/Bahamut's Labyrinth.
 - Bahamut's Labyrinth will explain what happened on Behemoth's Attack. (Credits to @ffxiv_finn for this one - I missed this in stream but read it on their Twitter!)
 - Crystal Tower is a 24 man raid.
 - You will be able to use duty finder to group up for a raid.
 - Crystal Tower will be in patch 2.1 - something to look forward to!

UNICORN MOUNT
 - Have to complete Conjurer quest to get it
 - Can be used with other classes

A lot of cool items for the Housing system. I saw stuff like Tonberry lights and chocobo chairs!

Veteran Bonus Award System - get rewards based on how long you subscribe, rewards for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and so on and so forth.

...and I think that is everything.
If I have missed anything out - let me know - I will add it in here.

Big thanks to the awesome FFXIV Community on Twitter who were constantly updating through the Live Letter! I missed some thing because I zoned out a few times and my brain couldn't process the Japanese quick enough. So thank you to all you guys on there!

I will edit this later with pictures and the like but yah - this is the summary for now! Hope it is helpful to someone. Be sure to check out other FF communities and Twitter because it will be available all over the place.

:)

[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!

[PS Vita/News] Hatsune Miku rhythm game coming to the West!

I am currently working on a review for a PS vita game so until then I thought I would write about the latest in Japanese gaming...

Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is coming to the West!

credit to evoxiii at DeviantArt

OK, I have this game. It's a fun game. I am not much of a vocaloid fan but it's fun to play. I saw the news here and thought I would write about it. 

Considering this blog is centered around Japanese games not being localised and brought to the west, I thought this would be a good place to start. 

YAY! Finally! A Japanese vita game is being localised and released here! According to that article, you lucky Americans are getting both a Playstation 3 release as well as it being released on the Playstation store, whereas Europeans just get it on the PS store. Either way, it is fantastic news. 

It seems from this trailer video SEGA America posted, they've went with roomaji. This makes the Japanese nerd in me very happy. I was thinking that they would just translate it into English, but it seems they have went with the lazy better option and translitered it into roomaji. Nice one SEGA. 

I was about to go into how and why this might have happened, when reading the article, something caught my eye, "'Your voices helped make this happen', said Aaron Webber,". Again, as I say, I don't follow anything about this game, so I am judging from that a lot of people expressed to SEGA that they wanted it to be released in the West.

Interesting.

Any way, great news on the Japanese game front, hope all you vocaloid fans out there are pleased! 

As I already have the Japanese version, I don't see myself getting this. If I do, it will be purely out of interest to see what they have done with it. Rhythm games are huge in Japan, but not so much over here. I think I will watch this closely, and see how it develops...

How many of you already own the original? If you already own the original, do you plan on buying this version as well? Let me know in the comments!

- Jade

Hatsune Miku -Project Diva F- is available on Playasia - get your own copy now!