Video Game News Monthly Digest #4

In this month's monthly digest, we have more rumors about Microsoft and Sony's next-gen consoles, new Vita details, and new video games information among others.



From Software (creator of Dark Souls and Demon Souls) and Namco Bandai have announced that they will be working together to create a Mobile Suite Gundam Unicorn game for the PS3. The game will be based on the first three episodes of the anime and will have chapters for the characters, Banagher, Marida, and Frontal. These character scenarios will be intertwined so when you finish one character's chapter, it will open up another character's. The mechas from the first three episodes will also appear in the game, and the game will have DLCs.

The gameplay will have a simple control scheme, which will be simliar to Another Century's Episode. One gameplay mechanic is the "Sub Flight" system in which the player can climb atop of a Mobile Suit and go into flight mode. The game developers also wanted the game to have a feeling of speed. They also focused on making the mechas feel real by paying attention to details and giving them weights. For transformable Mobile Suits, the game will show the animation of the transformation.

The game will be out next spring.

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Doraemon is the latest anime to have a 3DS video game. Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Wonders, which is being developed by Furyu (UnchainBlades ReXX, will be available on March 1st.

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Namco Bandai has revealed more gameplay information for Bakuman: The Way of a Manga Artist. One of them has you trace manga panels while another has you play as writer Akito Takagi. While walking around town, Akito will get story ideas by finding eleven types of cards (e.g. protagonist, heroine, motivation, ending, etc.); there are a total of 180 cards to choose from.

After selecting eleven cards, Akito will have to pick then the genre (drama, comedy, romance, action, reality, and horror) to form a manga matrix. Match a pair of cards that have a high affinity to each other to get rave reviews.

The game will be out in Japan on Dec. 15th.

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Namco Bandai is going to create a One Piece social game for Mobage service. In One Piece Grand Collection, you will create a character figure from one of the cast and you can battle against Luffy's rivals as bosses. The game will also have an item-based transaction system with free basic play.

The game will be available in Japan this winter.

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Namco Bandai introduced some new characters to its anime crossover game.

• Dodoro (Sgt. Frog)
  
• Kururu (Sgt. Frog)
  
• Genie (Rune Soldier)
  
• Merril (Rune Soldier)
  
• Amelia (Slayers Revolution)
  
• Midori Sugiura (My-Hime)

Even though the heroes are from anime, they will face original enemies named Irvin, Aptrio, and Red. Irvin, the ringleader of the group, is the Grand Magus of Yapp Na who took control of the country ten years ago after a strange red mist killed the entire royal family except for Princess Suun Selishe. The magic knight, Red, and his apprentice, Aptrio, serve under his command.

The game will be out in Japan on Jan. 19th next year.

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Nintendo has revealed that they will release a limited edition Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS bundle to celebrate that series's 25th anniversary. This bundle, which will have a limited amount made, will contain the 3DS pictured above and the Ocarina of Time remake.

Original Source, 1, 2



Sony has changed their their digital game activation policy. Starting on Nov. 18th, any PSN games that are downloaded on that day can only be activated on two systems instead of five. The systems included the PS3, PSP (all models), PSPgo, and Vita. Anyone who wishes to activate a game on a third system will need to deactivate the system by using remote deactivation via the PlayStation Network account management. Luckily any games that were downloaded before that date can still be activated on five systems.

Sony explained the reason for this policy change is to balance content creator rights and customer convenience.

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When Nintendo first announced the Wii U, people were disappointed to find out that the console would only support one tablet controller. However, Develop's Rob Crossley wrote in an article that the company has heard these concerns and that they are looking into way so that the upcoming console will be able to support two tablet controllers instead.

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Sony has provided more information about Vita. The handheld uses Imagine Technology's PowerVR SGX543MP4+ as its GPU. When asked what the "+" means, Imagine Technologies' PR director David Harold explained that Sony and his company collaborated together to create it and it will only be used for Sony Computer Entertainment products. He added that the "+" just means that game system specific optimizations and expansions were developed by both companies and it doesn't mean that the SGX543MP4 wasn't optimized for Vita CPU or architecture.

Its content management system will allow user to share data between Vita and a PC or PS3. It is accessed from Vita screen and has these functions:

• Copy music, video and image data
  
• Back up your Vita data
  
• In case you don't have space on your Vita Memory Card, you can download games from PS Store to your PS3 or PC first.
  
• Move Vita content that you've finished on to your PS3 or PC for storage.

In order to connect to your PC, you will need to download a special program, which will be available at Vita official website at a later time. The PS3 received a firmware update, which allows Vita to connect to the console. You can do data transfer without looking at your PC or PS3. Even though it will have PC support, Vita will not have Mac support at launch time but Sony promised that it will in the not-so-distant future.

The company also posted details about UMD passport program. Only one PSN account can be registered per UMD and that the PSN games can be accessed on the PSP and PSPgo as well. Forty compatible titles has been announced so far, but Sony planned to have around 200 compatible games released. The program will begin on Dec. 6th. While that program will be launched a week before Vita launched in Japan, Sony has confirmed that the handheld will not support Playstation Archive Games at launch. Instead it will have that support at a later time.

Vita's multimedia capabilities were also discussed. The handheld can support 720p video but cannot currently play 1080p; however, Sony stated that future Vita updates can increase its functionality. The display screen can only show 544 pixels vertical resolution so 720p is a right fit. Even though Adobe announced that it will no longer continue developing Mobile Flash Player, Sony said that they are still negotiating with the company.

Its Remote Play will upconvert video to higher resolution, which is encoded on the PS3 end. If you use this feature from PS3's XMB or the Torne DVR player, you will see experience in high resolution. However, Vita will not have full remote play compatibility. It will only be on the side of the PS3 games and to implement this feature, games will need API support.

The Music Player feature will allow you to play your music in the background while you're playing your game. Even though there are some limitations, the game's sound effects should be able to be heard over the music. The best part of this feature is that the games set up the option automatically and it's available for all games.

Vita has a high backward PSP compatibility, which was achieved by a combination of hardware and software. Future firmware updates will improve this feature. Vita won't use typical memory cards such as SD cards because Sony wants something with equal condition for everyone, and it was concerned about security. The company also added that the custom memory cards are just not used for saving games, but they are for "storage" to hold patches, game data, download content and more.

These features can be accessed while you paused your game so in other words, you can play a game and use of the program simultaneously. However, the Vita's web browser do not have this option. If you want to go online, you have to close your game beforehand.

Original Source, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7



Insider blog, MS nerd, claimed that they may have information about Microsoft's next-gen console, Xbox 720. Codenamed "Loop", the console will have a single main processor that's joined by "assistive cores" for "graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors". It will supposedly also have a modified Win9 core, with a custom-designed ARM-based processor that has dedicated assistant cores to deal with graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors. Helping spread the rumors is that Ubisoft Montreal and some EA studios supposedly have the next-gen Xbox devkits.

Likewise one of Sony's major studios has ceased production on PS3 development and focused on developing the PS4. It is rumored that the studio is developing the next-gen console's graphics technology.

Both consoles are rumored to be out by late 2012. When asked about the rumor, PlayStation Europe deputy president Jim Ryan stated, ""I think we would consider it undesirable to be significantly later than the competition [with the next PlayStation]."

Original Source, 1, 2, 3, 4



Atlus and Marvelous AQL made an announcement that they are going to adapt Persona 4 for the stage. Visualive Persona 4, which is being written by Shintaro Asanuma (Xenoblade's Shulk), will be a live performance with special effects. Kappei Yamaguchi will reprise his role as Teddie in this production.

Toru Baba, who appeared in the Prince of Tennis musicals, will be the Main Character, whose name will differ for each performance. MAQL will allow fans to submit names for him.

The show will take place from March 15th to the 20th at the Sunshine Theater in Ikebukuro.

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Two more characters from Persona 3, Mitsuru Kirijo and Akihiko Sanada who are now college students, are going to join the fighting tournament to determine who is the ultimate Persona user. Mitsuru arrived at Inaba to search for some "thing" and invited her colleague, Akihiko who travels around the world to become stronger, to participate in the tournament. The former uses a rapier and her persona, Artemisia, uses ice spells while the latter is a boxer and his persona is Julius Ceasar.

More information about the gameplay was also revealed. Each character will have a comeback move. If a character's HP is low, he or she will activate awakening mode, which will increase his or her SP up to 50 and unlock his or her ultimate attack. As for the fighting stages, only places in Inaba has been announced so far: Yasogami High School, the school gate, the music room, the gymnasium, and the Mayonaka TV Entrance.

Original Source, 1, 2



SE has announced its video game lineup for Jump Festa, which is held on Dec. 17th and 18th:

• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS360, Video)
  
• Lord of Apocalypse (PS Vita, Video)
  
• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS, Playable and Video)
  
• Kingdom Hearts 3D (3DS, Playable and Video)
  
• Bravely Default Flying Fairy (3DS, Video)
  
• Dragon Quest Monsters Terry's Wonderland 3D (3DS, Playable and Video)
  
• Fortune Street Wii (Wii, Video)
  
• Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3 (3DS, Playable and Video)
  
• Dragon Quest X (Wii/Wii U, Video)
  
• Chrono Trigger (iOS/Android, Video)
  
• Dragon Quest Monsters Wanted (Android, Video)

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It looks like Operation Rainfall has some success. Nintendo of America is going to bring Xenoblade Chronicles to North America and the release date will be in April next year. Preorder will begin on December 19th, but the game will only be available from Gamestop and Nintendo official website.

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Nichi Ippon and Classic Dungeon developers System Prisma are working together on a PS3 game, Meikyuu Touro Legasista. In this game, you play as Alto, who is on a journey to free his sister from a curse, which turned her into stone. Before you explore a dungeon, you will form a party of three; each character will have various abilities. While some are good with close range, others will be good in long distance attacks. You and your party will search the dungeon to achieve a certain goal on each floor.

Each dungeon will have puzzle elements such as traps, which can be used against enemies. During combat, you can be inflicted by poison. Even though that is the only negative status in game, there are multiple types so you will need the correct potion to heal yourself.

You can discover armor and weapon in the dungeon as well. However, each equipment has a HP-ish parameter and if its strength parameter goes down to 0, you will lose your equipment. You will be able to keep those equipment if you manage to get them to the exit, which in return restores their parameters.

The game will also have a character edit mode and it could have some cross-game collaboration. Meikyuu Touro Legasista will be out in Japan on March 15th.

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