New Yoshi's Island game on 3DS~

Seems a new Yoshi's Island game was announced this morning on the Nintendo Direct presentation. Along with many other new titles. This is the only one that interests me though. My first impression is that I don't like the art style that much. They have so much to work with on the 3DS and this is what they come up with? The backgrounds and levels themselves look fine. They're actually pretty reminiscent to the original in their own way. But Yoshi, baby Mario, the enemies, and some other things... no. I'm not really feeling it. I'm not sure what they've done here with the character and object designs. I could think of numerous ways to make them better. Don't get me wrong. The game will probably still be very good game play wise and just in general. I just think the art and design of things could be much better. I'm still excited to see more information emerge on this game and I will definitely pick it up when it comes out. I'd never miss a Yoshi's Island game as a long time fan of the original on SNES. The DS game was alright too just not great. I'm hoping this one will really shine in its own way. Anyways, till next time~

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/04/17/new-yoshis-island-game-coming-to-nintendo-3ds/

Tales of Xillia Collector's Edition~

Get ready to throw your money at Bamco for once. They've actually got a pretty dang sweet LE coming for Tales of Xillia in honor of the 15th anniversary of the series. Participating retailers will have it up for pre-order at some point. It was just announced today so gotta give it time. Although, if you're in Europe you can already pre-order it off Bamco's online store right now. Obviously this is going sell out like hotcakes pretty fast so get it as soon as possible when it's available. Here's to hoping that Amazon will have it. Anyways, buy up Tales fans! Probably won't get another sweet deal like this from Bamco any time soon.

Happy Easter~

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope it's been a good one for all, no matter how you celebrated it ^^

A new Etrian Odyssey game already?

Apparently so, according to Siliconera (Link to that here). Seems that EO4 wasn't directed by Shigeo Komori, who is the series director of the other three games. Basically, he's the main face behind the EO series in general, but at the time that EO4 was in development he was busy with other things. Daisuke Kanada directed EO4 who is probably best known for the Trauma Team series. Anyways, I guess Komori wants to direct another EO game since to him it's really been 4 years since EO3. He says he's looking to take the series in a new direction. Which is always a could be good or could be bad situation but I think it'll be alright. I'm looking forward to seeing what Komori has to show. Which looks like it'll be soon since he says he feels the game is nearing completion. Guess we'll just have to stay tuned~

Digimon Xros Wars (3rd Arc) - Initial Thoughts

So, I've gotten back into finishing off the previous season of Digimon. Technically, I finished off the first two parts of it. The third arc just seems like a side story to me. There's not nearly as many episodes. I'm about halfway through it at this point. My impressions are it's still good just not as good as the first two arcs. Most episodes just revolves around Tagiru (the new main character) and his partner Gumdramon as they both try to be better than Taiki and Shoutmon. Good luck with that one. Tagiru is a young hyper kid who just jumps into everything without thinking. Gumdramon is the same way.

Basically, there are areas called Digiquartz that are very close to the real world and the Digimon living there are causing problems in the real world. They are being drawn to human emotions and feeding off it. Think of Digiquartz as like an alternate dimension of an area in the real world. Hunters (those with Xros Loaders and Digimon partners) can Time Shift into these areas from anywhere in the real world. Where ever they are standing in the real world, they go to the Digiquartz version of it.

Anyways, some old man who is a clock maker and has a Clockmon partner, seems to have created this game where Hunters compete with one another. They enter Digiquartz and try to capture the Digimon within to expand their collection. They can also Digixros their partners. There are rules to this game of course. You can only Digixros two partners at a time and only fight with one Digimon at a time. Obviously, there's something up with this old guy handing out Xros Loaders to young people.

There are plenty of characters returning onto the scene from the previous two arcs. Taiki and Shoutmon of course. Which Shoutmon is just plain badass now. He's the dang king of the Digital World. Yuu is also a main character now with Damemon. There are other surprises as well but I'm not here to spoil the show for anyone. Anyways, when I finish this up I'll give my final review of the season. Till then, hope for a localization of Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode and look forward to the English dub of this season coming to Nickelodeon at some point~

Etrian Odyssey IV released!

Well, actually it released on Tuesday but better late than never ^^; You got your copy? Cuz I got mine~ With the pre-order artbook and music CD. There's some nice stuff in the artbook, including messages from the music composer and Daisuke Kanada from Atlus. The music CD actually has the rough work of the music in the game before it was fully orchestrated. Which this is the first game in the series to have fully orchestrated music. I think it's very interesting that these tracks created with a synthesizer first became fully orchestrated in the end. I'm looking forward to listening to the tracks and then hearing the final products in the game itself. Anyways, enjoy the game everyone! I've gotta beat Etrian Odyssey III first before I start this one ^^; But expect more on this in the future~

Pokemon, Digimon, and other news~

It's been an interesting past few weeks in video games and other news. And I'm here to share some of it and my thoughts on subjects. Especially the return of one of my favorite anime series in the US~

First off, it's some Pokemon news regarding the new Pokemon X and Y games coming out worldwide in October.

It seems Eevee has a new evolution in the new games. And this could possibly be the revealing of a new type or possibly types. We haven't had any new types since Dark and Steel in the 2nd generation games a long time ago at this point. This would definitely add some great new depth and freshness that the Pokemon series needs. Gotta add new things in order to keep a series going strong. I'm very much looking forward to further news on this subject. We'll just have to stay tuned on this~

Next up is Digimon news~

It seems that Digimon World Re:Digitize is being ported to the 3DS this year. The game originally came out July last year in Japan on PSP but never came here obviously. Here's to hoping that this port together with another announcement will mean a localization finally. What's the other announcement? Well, the 6th season of the Digimon anime is finally coming to the US this year under the title Digimon Fusion instead of Xros Wars in Japan. It's set to air on Nickelodeon which I can't really complain about that. Saban is the one to buy the rights so to me it's in the right hands once again. Season 3 was the last one to be produced by Saban so I'm glad to see the series come back to them finally. Not that 4 and 5 were bad but it's still nice to see Saban once again. The series to me is still the best in their hands.

 

Digimon is back! Can't wait to see its glorious return~

In other random video game news, Etrian Odyssey IV comes out this Tuesday! Had mine preordered on Amazon since November. Dragon's Crown hasn't seen much news but apparently Atlus released a new teaser trailer for it. Tales of Xillia is possibly seeing a quarter four release. Probably December some time. But we'll see on that since it is Bamco. Anyways though, that's pretty much it for this post. A long awaited one since my last post but better late than never I guess! Till next time, everyone~

Pokemon X and Y Announcement~

Oh yeah, generation 6 of Pokemon has been announced~ And on the 3DS too no less. Nintendo had to do it at some point. And for the first time, it's a worldwide launch of the game in October. Meaning no localization wait really. That's pretty dang amazing for sure. It was pretty much announced everywhere yesterday via a special Nintendo Direct video online that everyone had known was scheduled to reveal something new since Friday. What we know so far is that the game takes full advantage of the 3DS's capabilities. Meaning the game is in full 3D obviously and judging from the video, it's definitely going to be a big step forward for the series visually wise. Or basically, a bigger step forward from what gen 5 was able to do on the DS. Other than that, it is said this generation will push the total Pokemon count to over 700. Right now it's at 649 so that's rather obvious really since every generation has added at least 100 new Pokes so far.

Anyways, as for the starters, I have no complaints about the designs at all really. I kind of like them better than generation 5's to be honest. But I'll wait to see their evolutions before I make that decision. Just don't make the freakin' fire type fire/fighting in the final form. That's pretty old at this point after the last 3 generations. Keep it fresh, guys. I'd lean towards the fire and water types at this point but we will see as more info emerges. Can't wait to see some more of the new Pokemon as time goes on. As well as any new mechanics and game play elements they add in. Only time will tell so just have to stay tuned~

Happy New Year 2013~

I'm a bit late in saying it but ^^; Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2013 brings with it some much needed good things for all of us. May we all have an even better year ahead of us~

Christmas Presents! 2012~

A Luke fon Fabre figure (with long and short hair!), Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Persona 4: Arena, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Wolf's Rain anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos movie, and The Golden Girls (Season 1). Oh and an Amazon gift card but that's not in the picture xD Anyways, all good stuff indeed~ Hope everyone else got all that they wanted this year too.

Merry Christmas~

 Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year~ Spend it with those you love.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

(Luke 2: 8-14)

Fire Emblem: Awakening U.S. Release Date~

I'm a bit late in mentioning this, but Nintendo finally announced the release date for the next Fire Emblem game on the 3DS. This game was previously revealed way back at E3 and Nintendo didn't say much about it other than it was coming. And I actually watched a video on their website to find out more about the game and that's how I found out the release date xD Anyways, release date set for February 4th, 2013~ So, pretty early next year really. This game has definitely been on my radar so I'm glad to see it coming. 3DS already has a pretty awesome game library at this point. It was worth every penny I paid for it. Anyways, till next time~

Happy Thanksgiving!

                             I know I'm late but hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving~ ^^

Etrian Odyssey IV Release Date~

 Etrian Odyssey IV release date has been revealed! February 26th, 2013~ And it's available for pre-order at most of your regular shopping sites. And you should pre-order it for sure as Atlus has come through again with pre-order bonuses. Every launch copy comes as a box set with a CD and artbook. So, you'll definitely want to get your hands on this if you're a big fan of the series. Definitely a must get~ Anyways, long time no blog post but this was certainly a reason to make one. Not had much to talk about really nor the drive to do anything on here as of late. But will try to make more as more things of interest come out. Till then~

Sprucin' Things Up~

Okay, so I decided to mess with my blog's design, color scheme, and all that good stuff. I felt it needed to be spruced up a bit after all this time and I was no longer satisfied with the way it looked. So anyways, enjoy the new look! Every thing that was on my blog before is still there. It just looks much nicer now~ Oh, and I have a blog post in the works to update on all the games I have finished that have not been mentioned yet. Which is a lot xD I've gotten way behind on my reviews so it's going to be compiled into one post with small reviews for each one. That'll get me caught up on every thing and we'll be good to go! I will try to get that up soon so until then~

And the surprise from Bamco is...

A Tales of Xillia localization! As many predicted it would be after numerous hints over all this time. Announced and confirmed at the Japan Expo in Europe. And it didn't take nearly as long to know we were getting this one as it did with Graces. Currently it is slated for release in 2013 at some point. I'm guessing it'll be pretty late next year at best. November or December time frame. Definitely some big excitement here. Now if only Bamco would offer up a special edition since the US got screwed out of that with Graces. Europe got the love there. But it all remains to be seen at this point. I'm keeping myself far away from spoilers and any information. I want to be surprised entirely like I was with Graces. Anyways, yay for another Tales localization~ Looking forward to checking this game out next year when it arrives.

Pokemon Black and White 2 Release Date!

So, we've finally got confirmation on the release date for these games. October 7th for the US and the 12th for Europe. Pretty dang fast turn around there. Definitely looking forward to this as with all Pokemon games. I will be getting Black 2 as I got White the first time around. That and Black 2 can unlock the harder difficulty mode after beating the game. Which I totally want without any inconvenience of trading for it so my decision was easily made all around really. I will see first hand just how much harder they make the game since this is their first attempt at adding other difficulties. Course I'll have to beat it first on normal but that is perfectly fine with me. Anyways, hopefully we'll get some kind of pre-order bonus as we usually do or something special like that. They're usually good about stuff like that. We shall see though in due time~

Bamco Teases at News

So, apparently Bamco has hinted at some news late this month on their Twitter page for Tales Of. Whether or not this will actually lead to anything interesting at all or relevant is obviously up in the air. Since Bamco likes to do that nonsense. But from what I saw people saying, this is similar to what they did when they announced Graces for localization. Guess we'll just have to see what the heck this is about later this month. Obviously, the only real conclusion to come to here is Xillia for localization. There's nothing else really it could be. Their line up of games is a bunch of other crap that Tales fans don't care about. So, to post this on this Twitter page would just be lame all heck if it actually had no relevance to Tales at all. But it's Bamco, so that could very well happen too. After all, they had no mention of anything really special at E3 from what I saw. It was pretty lame from what people have said about their showing. But anyways, until next time~

Link to Teased News

US Trademark Filed for Tales of Xillia & Xillia 2 Announced in Japan

 

Okay, so some interesting news I bring today. Though I'm late anyways considering the date on the article for the first piece of news. And the first piece of news is that Bamco has filed a trademark here in the US for Tales of Xillia. Apparently they had already done so in Europe so people thought it might be a PAL only release. But the very next day, Bamco did the same here. So, pretty good news but as we know filing for a trademark does not guarantee localization. It does give major hope to one happening of course. I'm just not going to get my hopes too high for this. Source here for this~

Second piece of news is that Tales of Xillia 2 was announced in Japan for this winter. Now, hopefully this isn't a Tales of Symphonia 2 deal where it's not really in depth and basically fan service. I want a full fledged game here. Course what am I saying, we haven't even gotten Xillia yet xD Still though, it is another Tales game so that's something. If we get Xillia then possibly we'll get this too. Maybe. If Bamco feels like it. Anyways, link to that here~

And that's my news for the day. Yay more blog posts from me! We'll just have to keep watching to see what Bamco does here. Until next time, folks~

Pokemon Black and White 2 Info~

What's this? Another post in a short span of time? Craziness! Anyways, joking aside, let's get to the point of this post. Quite a bit of info has surfaced about the new Pokemon Black and White 2 games. As well as a pretty amazing anime introduction movie for the games. Tis where the screenshot above came from. And with the games due out in Japan in just a month, there's certain to be even more info popping up. But for the most part, a basic idea and premise about what the games are all about has been revealed.

 Essentially, the sequels take place 2 years after the events of Black and White. It's all set in the same region but a good portion of the world map seems to be frozen over as you can see above. Obviously, something bad is up with that. But anyways, you'll still encounter all the new Pokemon from generation 5 it seems. And you still choose from the same starter Pokemon. However, the interesting thing is that you'll also encounter a lot of old Pokemon from past generations. Something that was absent from the first two games. The old Pokemon were not encountered through normal means in Black and White anyways. In Black and White 2, you'll encounter them just like any other Pokemon which is pretty awesome. I didn't like being limited to just the generation 5 Pokemon. I'm only fond of a few of them anyways so I was very happy to hear about this. I know two of my favorites are in, Arcanine and Lucario. A few others have been confirmed but we'll just have to wait for the games to come out in Japan to find out the entire list and what is in the new Pokedex.

Another cool thing that was confirmed in the games is the Pokemon World Tournament. Apparently, you can fight old gym leaders, Elite 4 members, and champions in this tournament. The details of how it works and where it is are still not really known. However, it seems you'll be able to download more trainers to battle as time goes on. Probably through Nintendo WiFi mostly. Cynthia, the champion of the Sinnoh region, is apparently the one who organized this tournament and you can see her in the screenshot above.

So, pretty much there's a lot of nostalgia and goodies for long time fans of the series to enjoy here. The male and female main character designs are of course new. This has mostly been the case with any new game. And it just seems like they're trying to build off and focus on the story more. Black and White were definitely a shift in that direction and it looks like they're continuing that path. I have no objections at all to this. More story driven is always a good thing to me. And Black and White had the best and most interesting story in my opinion of the series. But in general, I'm willing to bet there's quite a bit to do in the game. Even after you beat it. Especially if Black and White 2 are the next Gold and Silver. Which would be sweet~

Anyways, the games are due out sometime this fall here. Pretty short turn around really. But we'll know way more next month anyways. If you like to be spoiled of course. So, until next time~