Hot on the heels of the Persona 4 announcement came word via the Internet grapevine that the countdown on Square Enix's website was indeed counting down to the revelation that Chrono Trigger is coming to the DS. While I go take some valium to calm me down, enjoy the official announcement trailer. There's not much gameplay footage to go by, but I'm sure that will come in time. Get it? Time.
comic blatantly stolen from http://www.applegeeks.com/lite
So when we announced the winner of our Win a Copy of Grimoire of the Rift contest, we naturally assumed they would reply to our messages, and emails and skywriting letting them know they won. Well, that didn't happen. Luckily my magic D20s still have some oomph in them, and so we rerolled and got ourselves a another winner, an ACTUAL winner, a winner that replied to my email promptly despite it being a holiday weekend. So conga rats to you, feanaro. The game is in the mail (or will be when we get in the office tomorrow, but somehow that detracts from the cleverness of the phrase).
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Atlus just announced at Anime Expo that we here on this side of the Pacific will see a PS2 version of Persona 4 in December of 2008. No word yet on what sort of detestable things they'll make us do to ourselves to unlock our personas, but self-multilation is not out of the question. What is your pick for an outlandish way to unleash personas?
Persona 3 FES
In looking at the upcoming Wizard of Oz RPG for the DS, my mind started turning about the books I've read over the years, and which of those I think might translate well to the RPG genre. For a book to work well as a RPG game, it has to have a cast of characters that you follow along an adventure, towards one specific goal, be it "becoming the pie-eating champion" or slaying the ogre that's been eating the village children. The first books that came to mind, naturally, were the more traditional fantasy novels, but I pushed aside the Lloyd Alexander and Robert Jordan series, and took a look at those novels that would work equally well, but are not so well known.
7. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
What it's about:
When her son Timothy falls deathly ill, timid Mrs. Frisby the mouse is forced to seek help from her dead husband's friends, and is led into a tenuous relationship with a group of intelligent rats that live in a nearby rosebush. With the farmer planning for spring plowing, there is a great danger coming to all the animals, and it is only through the bravery of Mrs. Frisby and her newfound friends that the rats are able to escape poisoning by the farmer and escape to make a new life for themselves far from mankind.
Why it would make a great RPG:
This book has it all, a brave protagonist, a variety of companions that range from the zany crow Jeremy to the brave and venerated Martin, Mrs. Frisby's RPG would not only have NIMH and farmhouse kitchen stages, but also some most excellent rat-on-rat combat. While obviously a title more for the younger RPG audience, this game would still charm older gamers with its fascinating story.
A levio91 video has surfaced claiming that he was given a chance to play Diablo 3 through the Make-a-Wish foundation. While describing his experience, he lets fly that the third class playable in Diablo 3 is the Knight. Now, to be honest, the gameplay footage he shows may actually be the gameplay trailer. (Compare for yourself with the actual gameplay trailer after the jump.)
If it turns out that levio91 really is full of crap, perhaps so is the leak about the Knight class. However, the paladin was upfront and center in Diablo 2, so it makes sense that he would reappear in some form in this latest game. Either way it's intriguing. So what do you think? Is the leak viable, or just the rantings of a fevered fan looking for his 15 seconds of fame?
Yesterday in an official press release Atlus and NIS America announced that Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice will be coming to the US August 26, 2008.
In this latest installment in the Disgaea series we will follow the exploits of an Evil Academy student named Mao. From what I can tell of the combat, this looks like a lovely mix of strategy and puzzle fighting, which makes Mandifesto a happy, happy girl. Just the idea of piling characters one on top of another and swinging them around in a tower attack has made my day, and possibly my week.
This year they are releasing both Disgaea 3 and a title for the Nintendo DS, which means we will finally be able to carry these little demons around with us to the supermarket and the kareoke bar. Rather than simply porting the game to the DS, NIS America has completely revamped the title, taking full advantage of the features the DS has to offer, including local WiFi battles with nearby DS owners Unreal Tournament style. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one, and counting the days down until August 26th.
[via IGN]Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Today while I was uploading images for our Diablo 3 concept art gallery, I found a couple of the images were perfect wallpaper material, especially for a dualscreen setup. Here are a few wallpapers for you to enjoy:
Enjoy!
The more I see of Diablo 3, the more my breath is taken away. Around the office people are joking that it already has an Metacritic rating of 99, and that's saying something considering the game was just announced. The concept art alone is amazing in both its style and level of detail. Be warned those that fear spoilers of any kind, thar be monsters ahead.
This morning I sat down to sift through the cavalcade of infoz about Diablo 3, and then realized I might not be the only one searching through the various websites looking for info about Blizzard's latest lovechild. Here's what I found so far, and if you have come across anything I missed, let me know and I'll toss it up on the list.
- * Gamepro.com gives us a first look at the glorious screenshots, all 38 of them.
- * If you are as nuts over concept art as I am, you'll definitely want to pour over what Blizzard has posted over on their official Diablo 3 website.
- * Joystiq gave us a quick and dirty summary of the FAQ page for Diablo 3, proving once again that you can condense game information into its lowest common denominator.
- * Leslie Smith over on Kotaku sat down with the brain behind Diablo 3, Jay Wilson, to talk about how lore is expanding and deepening in the third installment of the series.
- * The british newspaper The Guardian interviewed Blizzard COO Paul Sams, who hinted that Diabo 3 may be coming to a console near you.
Diablo III
Finally!
The World Wide Invitational kicked off today in Paris with the announcement that Blizzard has been working on the one title we have all been begging for. Diablo 3 looks exactly as sweet as we imagined. We're following along with the Keynote now, and will update as we get more information.
My notes on the presentation after the jump.
Arturis (12)
Beros (16)
Lynxara (7)
