TGS 2007: No More Heroes CAM Footage

The flood of Tokyo Game Show trailers continues!

This time around, we have some camera footage of one of our most anticipated games, here at FWA -- No More Heroes. This is game is, indeed, looking better every passing trailer that is released for it. This is actually the first time in a while I've seen footage of NMH that is longer than ten to twenty seconds. This trailer includes two new characters I've yet to see -- Destroyman, and Holly Summers. I would like to point out that I haven't been following the trailers for this game consistently.

If you have already watched this trailer, and wonder where the "gorier than Manhunt 2" action is at, it's because this trailer is censored since it is probably the Japanese version of the game. I do remember seeing footage of the American footage recently; no lame exploding into a cloud of black dots when you score a kill...

I think I'll stop here. I can easily see this post transforming into a hideous, uncontrollable enigma of a rant if I continue from this point on out.

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TGS 2007: Oneechanbara R Coming to Wii

Ahahahahahahaha! Ahaha ... *gasp gasp* ... AHAHAHAHAHA!

*ahem*

I'm sorry, that is just the most awesome thing ever! Whoever said the Wii wasn't appropriate for M-rated games can go stare up publisher D3's rear-end now.

Cubed3 has just announced that the next game in the Oneechanbara series, Oneechanbara R is coming to the Wii.

"What exactly is this game?" you ask? While we don't know exactly how violent or sexy "R" will be, I can point you to the Xbox 360 title, Oneechanbara Vortex's intro and gameplay videos. I'll let the video after the jump do the talking ... if the intro sequence above hasn't already.

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Kanon Licensed by ADV Films

Uguu!

Good news for all of you key fans.

ADV has just bought the license to Kyo-Ani's version of Kanon. For those of you who dont know, this is the second series of Key's that has been licenced; the first being AIR.

Hopefully, Clannad, their new series coming out this fall is soon to follow! The industry needs to figure out a way to make licensing faster. However, for now, I'll take what I can get.

[Source: Anime on DVD]

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ADV Geneon Merger Fails

Boooo! Yesterday, talks about the merger failed. ADV will no longer be taking over Geneon's sales. However, ADV was quoted saying the following:

"We regret that we could not complete an arrangement with Geneon Entertainment," said ADV Films co-founder and President John Ledford. "We have enormous admiration for Geneon's line and wish them the best of luck."

I'm Pretty sure thats corporate speak for "die in a fire."

[Source: IGN DVD]

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TGS 2007: Time Hollow Trailer

A trailer for a new game by Konami for the DS. I couldn't find much info on Time Hollow other than this trailer that was just released. From the looks of it, a boy procures a pen that enables him to draw circles, which I assume you would use with your stylus, and see the events past through them and even travel back in time. I'm by no means a Japanese expert, but I did pick up on a little bit from the dialogue was things that had to do with the protagonist's dreams/nightmares and some tragedy that happened to his family a long time ago. It also looks as if some romance-elements will be present as well. Hey, it's shonen-esque! What do you expect?

What caught my eye was the quality of the animation. If an anime was ever released based on this IP, I'd definitely give it a shot just based on the animation alone.

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Soul Calibur 4 Gameplay Detailed

Hello! Chuu here, the newest addition to FWA. I'll mostly be here giving Ishaan a hard time, and flooding this place with anime impressions, as the fall season is about to start. However, for today, we're going to take a closer look at one of my favourite game series. I just hope you aren't sick of it from Arro, because, here comes some more info for the Soul series.


Okay, if you've played Soul Calibur 3, you know how much fun it was to make your own character. Well, that's back, but with a twist.

"As previously announced, the character creation mode that was such a hit in Soul Calibur III will work online in this version, Sasaki said. And you'll actually be able to affect the way the character plays, not just the way he looks, with your choices. How exactly that will work, though, is still a secret."

This makes me extremely happy; we don't know how it works yet, but the ability to make your custom character fight in a custom manner? That's attractive ... very attractive.

One other new addition to Soul Calibur 4 is breakable terrain. I, for one, am saddened by this feature. One of the things I loved about the series was it's unbreakable terrain and because I'm goddamned unlucky when I'm around edges be it in games or real life.

"Another addition to the series is that there will now be some solid objects, some breakable, in and around the perimeter of the gameplay field. Sasaki explained that there might be an object on the edge of the field that, if broken with enough force, will reveal an area that you can push your opponent out of for a Ring Out victory."

There is to be a bunch of new characters as well, one being Hilde, who is the first female character to be fully covered in medieval armor, as well as the first character to wield two completely different weapons, namely a long spear and a short sword. This should lead to the ability to fight up close and personal as well as at range as well as any other character can.

Well that's it for now. I cannot wait for this game to come out. Oh, and if you didn't already know, it's for PS3 and XBox 360.

Original source: Wired

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Death Note Confirmed for Adult Swim - October 20th

The news I've been waiting almost all year for! According to ANN, it has been confirmed that Death Note will indeed be aired on Adult Swim next month.

The Adult Swim network in the United States has confirmed on its online message boards that it will premiere the Death Note supernatural suspense anime series on October 20 at 12:00 a.m. The network had previously posted a television schedule with that timeslot's program title blacked out, but also broadly hinted that it would be Death Note. Adult Swim sub-licensed the series from Viz Media, which also releases the original manga series. The Viz Pictures live-action film affiliate will release the two live-action films.

Adult Swim watchers have been asking for Death Note for what seems like forever. Not all of them realize how much work is required for licensing and localization. With DVDs coming out in November, this is a smart move by Viz to build up some steam to further increase sales.

I'm not surprised that Adult Swim is teasing with new shows. I am interesting in what the other one as they have two new ones confirmed. I am also interested to know what's going to happen to Bleach seeing how one of these new shows is now taking it's timeslot.

Source: [Anime News Network]

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A.S.H. Japanese Trailer

Archaic Sealed Heat looking as great as always.
Be prepared for more coverage as we learn more about the game.

If you know me (you probably don't), I love me some grid-based strategy RPGs. Well, in reality, I'm really just a big Fire Emblem fan. The only thing about A.S.H. that has me a little iffy about it is the fact that you don't actually get to see the attacks hit the enemy, just the after effects of the attack. I'll just have to get over it, now won't I?

[ADVANCE]

TGS 2007: Soul Calibur 4 Trailer

MIIIIIITSUUUUUUUUURUUUUUUUUUUGIIIIIIIII!

Sorry, I feel obligated to say that every time the topic of Soul Calibur comes up.

We've seen some of this before, but now, with a much more cinematic perspective. Yes, my favorite fighter is Misturugi and he looks and awesome as ever. Taki has a few shots. Ivy thankfully had little screen time. Soul Calibur poster boy, Sigfried, gets angry and emo and then turns into Nightmare. One of the new characters, Hilde, gets some screen time. I'm actually very intrigued to see how a spear+sword combo fighter will play out.

I do find it strange that Hilde looks so oriental for someone with the last name Von Krone. Perhaps she was adopted. I'm not knocking on anyone or anything, I just thought it was peculiar.

[ADVANCE]

TGS 2007: Last Remnant Trailer

Tokyo Game Show is upon us, so expect some updates to games that we at FWA have been keeping our eye on.

To kick things off, first we have a trailer for Square-Enix's cross-continental RPG, The Last Remnant. If you are confused by my statement, essentially, Square is trying to make an RPG that appeals to both RPG fans in Japan and America/Europe. Japanese RPGs seem to carry some sort of a stigma in the eyes of many main-stream gamers. Square is aiming to cure this by including two characters that appeal to both the traditional RPG players, and the more action oriented gameplay favored by gamers in the West.

This is also Square-Enix's first game using the Unreal 3 engine, so I for one, as curious to see what they can pull off. You can catch a glimpse by watching the trailer above which was surprisingly in English. Some of the voice actors sounded familiar. Since the game is catered to both major game markets, I am beginning to wonder if Square will not bother with market localization by including both Japanese and English audio in the game and release the same product worldwide, aside from box-art and manuals.

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TGS 2007: Three New Kingdom Hearts in Development

...And they're all for portables. Which is and isn't a surprise for various reasons. Let's look into what exactly the deal is here.

Square Enix is, by now, well known for its attachment to "polymorphic content", which they believe makes their games more accessible (even though games from polymorphic franchises are not necessarily multiplatform). What the company did with Final Fantasy VII is indicative of what they have in mind for the future of Kingdom Hearts.

Not surprising then, that two of the new Kingdom Hearts games are on DS and PSP, and the third is for mobile phones. Sound crazy? You bet. But hey, development times are lower, cheaper and raise (more) funds for Square to invest in the development of their bigger titles for home systems, one of which will undoubtedly be a new Kingdom Hearts game.

More surprising than the fact that all three new games are portable is the fact that Birth by Sleep, the teaser trailer for which is extremely popular among Square fans, is not the next major iteration of the franchise on PS3, but instead, a PSP game. Say the lads from IGN:

On display were trailers for Kingdom Hearts Coded for mobile, Kingdom Hearts 358 / 2 Days for DS, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP. No specific release dates were given for any of the titles, save for a "work in progress" text flashed at the end of each trailer.

Story details were sketchy, but it appears Birth by Sleep will be set in "the distant past," according to text in the trailer. 358 / 2 (called 358 over two), whose title, said Square, will apparently make sense once you play the game, will take place somewhere around the events of Kingdom Hearts 2. Coded appears to be set somewhere during the course of the first KH and its sequel, indicated in the trailer with a line of text reading "time has gone by." The overall timeline is a bit muddled, though, something a Square representative admitted to while we were asking for further explanation.

Coded's gameplay had Sora running around various dungeons filled with floating red and black blocks. During battle it's possible to engage a "debugging" mode to clear away the blocks, but their exact nature and implications with regard to gameplay were not clear. 358 / 2 had a darker thematic element than KH games of the past, with all the characters, including Mickey, draped in flowing black robes. It appeared to support some kind of four player mode, though it just may have been one human player with three AI companions. Birth by Sleep featured an unidentifiable playable character during the gameplay portions of the trailer.

A dark DS game? Interesting. And goddamn it, does this mean I'm going to have to buy a PSP? Because I'm one of the many who watched the Birth by Sleep teaser on loop for hours when it was first released. As usual, don't care about the mobile title. But the DS and PSP ones ... definitely something to keep an eye out for.

[ADVANCE]

No More Heroes Finds Publisher in Ubisoft

Yes, you heard correctly. Ubisoft is going to be publishing No More Heroes, and the game is due for a Feb 2008 release.

This is excellent news in my opinion, and in light of all the kickass games coming from their end this year and the next, Ubisoft is slowly turning into my favourite non-Japanese game developer/publisher. More power to them!

In an interview with IGN, Ubisoft's VP of publishing Jay Cohen touched upon the reasons the publisher decided to pick up the title:

"Suda 51 is one of the most creative minds in gaming and No More Heroes is shaping up to be a visually stunning and immersive game with an extremely engaging storyline players will no doubt be drawn to."

Fair enough, Jay! A new trailer is also up at IGN. What's more, even this latest trailer features the music track that we've all come to associate with No More Heroes over the past year. Let's hope the piece makes it into the final game in some form as well.

For Ubisoft, this is an extremely smart move, as they could probably make a ton of money off of this game in addition to proving their dedication to the Wii. Where the funds generated by No More Heroes will go is completely unknown of course, but here's hoping that at least some of the moolah Ubi will be making off of their holiday titles will go into better Wii games.

Looks like Wii owners will be getting off to a fairly decent start in 2008. BUSTEEEERRRRRRR!

[ADVANCE]

More Than Meets the Eye to Assassin's Creed

Upon reading Gamespot's impressions of the game, I really am amazed by Ubisoft's ability to keep something as huge as Assassin's Creed's underlying gameplay under wraps, especially considering the "Ubi-leak" that took place last year, revealing a bunch of concept art from their upcoming titles.

The game, for all intents and purposes, sounds like a unique blend of gameplay
elements from Metroid, Grand Theft Auto and Ubisoft's own Prince of Persia ... some of the best elements from each of those games at that.

What excites me most is the ability to actually live the life of a lone assassin on the run. Sure, GTA is kind of cool in that it allows you to run around, be a dick and not give a rat's rear about consequences ... but putting GTA's free-roaming gameplay into context ... that is truly something. Ubisoft, I applaud you.

It seems like there's a touch of detective work amidst all the extremely gory violence. As important as it is to gut your target in the most gratifying way possible, equally important is the task of actually finding him. To me, that is probably going to be more exciting than crossing swords with many a town guard, to be honest. As I said, in this game, I hope to live the life of an assassin.

But then again, there's that touch of sci-fi to the game's overall presentation (and presumably plot) which keeps you wondering whether or not your assassin life will be quite what you expected it to.

It's a good thing a PC version and a DS version (which I'd feel compelled to check out just to put my curiousity at rest) are in development. They should more than suffice until I manage to pick up a PS3 (Goddamn you, White Knight Story) sometime next year.

It's a bit early to be talking about sequels (or maybe not. maybe it's never too early), but I would love to see Ubisoft use a different setting for each Assassin's Creed game. One in the medieval European era (this first one), one in a Japanese "Edo-era" setting, one perhaps, set in the distant future.

Looking forward to this game hitting retail!

[ADVANCE]