Tales of Xillia Confirmed For The West

Finally, Namco Bandai has revealed their next Tales title for the west.  Tales of Xillia will be coming to Europe and North America.

No dates or additional information is available yet.  I’d imagine with the time frame it took for Tales of Graces f post announcement, we’d probably see it mid/late 2013.  This information was given through a tweet from the official Namco Bandai UK account.

@TalesofU:
We are very pleased to announce TALES OF XILLIA is coming to the west!

They then followed up that tweet with:

@TalesofU
Haha fear not my American friends as you are also getting Tales of Xillia.

Perhaps this was really the news the NA Community manager had for us? It’s confusing, but I’m happy either way. I can’t wait for a release date!

Sound Shapes Gets Release Date

Wow, this one slipped right passed me in the midst of the E3 chaos.  Playstation Blog announced yesterday that Sound Shapes for Playstation Vita now has a release date.  August 7th!  Here’s the other kicker, it’s only $14.99.  Want another?  It’s for Vita AND PS3!  One more kicker?  You only have to buy it once and then you can play it on both systems!  Whew, some major kicker action there.

This was one of the first titles that sold me on a Vita, so I can’t wait. It’s a musical masterpiece!  I can’t wait to get my grubby hands all over this!

They also released a awkward and creepy video of some guys giggling over the game.  Check it out!

Game Watch – Ragnarok Odyssey

Ragnarok Odyssey is an amazing action adventure title for the Playstation Vita.  It was originally release in Japan, developed by Game Arts and Published by GungHo.  On May 3rd, XSEED announced they would be localizing the title to the US, set for Summer 2012. They have also noted that it will release in physical form. Digital copy is assumed as well.

The visuals in RO are amazingly beautiful and features colorful environments.  From Forests, to Lakesides, to Caves, to Ice Caverns, Temples, Magma Caverns and more; there’s plenty to explore.  On top of the environments, characters and monsters are slightly cartoonish but not too far.  Animations are very well done and its combat is addictive to see what amazing visuals you produce in your pain delivering.  I also love that damage is displayed flying off your opponent which makes it fun to see what insane numbers you can produce.

Ragnarok Odyssey Coming To US

Wow! I’m so fired up!  After the wonderful news of Persona 4:The Golden being localized, I get another WHAMMY!  XSEED has announced they will be localizing Ragnarok Odyssey for the Playstation Vita!!  This is amazing!

No dates have been given yet.  I’ll update when I find out more!

I’ll be posting a “Game Watch” post to give a full rundown of the game.

Source: GamesRadar

Will Gravity Rush Delay Hurt It?

Back during Gravity Rush’s unveil, it was claimed as the most exciting offer Vita had.  Blogs and news sites were raving endlessly about how badly they wanted this game.  Now however, the game is released in Japan and has an enormous wait time ahead of itself for the US.  The Vita has long since been released and Gravity Rush was slated 4 months after.

Why is this bad?  Well, the hype is gone.  Noone is talking about this game anymore.  Unfortunately, without some nice marketing, I can see people missing it’s release.  Hopefully, those that are really passionate about this game (such as myself) will still remind people.  That, or the blasted demo for the game will hit before the game is release.

There’s honestly no excuse for this game not being released at release date.  It along with a solid FPS title would have made the Vita hardware sales skyrocket.  The Vita would have been a huge success.  However I feel Sony decided to stagger it’s releases for it’s own gain, and in the process crippled it’s popularity.

Now, I’m not without remedy for my criticism.  What they need to do now is play clean-up for it’s mess-up.  Release the demo ASAP, then start some marketing compagnes sooner rather than later.  Get involvement from the already huge fan base.  Don’t just sit on this and finally pop up a week before it’s release on the PS Blog.  You’ll ruin a lot of chance for sales.

Pick up the ball you dropped Sony.  Where’s the Demo?  Where’s the love?  Where’s my reason for getting the Vita?

2012 Looking Up For JRPGs

Life of a fan of Japanese gaming from the west has it’s ups and downs.  At times you get great games to spend hours upon.  While at other times you go so long wondering if Japan still loves you.  Getting a localization of great titles just seems like pulling teeth at times.  Well, it almost seemed like 2011 was one of those years.

Well, negativity aside, it looks like 2012 is shaping up.  Companies are looking to bring their great titles to the west and JRPG fans are ready to snag them up.  Here’s a lineup I put together to get you all as excited as I am.  Some may debate that some arn’t “RPG”, you get the gist.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 (PSP): While Sega told Gamespot a solid ‘no’ to it’s localization in the west, after a huge signature campagne the question of their minds being changed went up in the air again.  Maybe we won’t see it on PSP, but there’s still a chance for a Vita port which would be amazing.  So.. while most my hopes are shattered, I still keep shred somewhere in the back of my mind.  [Unconfirmed – Unlikely]

Tales of Graces f (PS3): Finally an amazing new Tales title is coming to America.  This installment is the first PS3 exclusive Tales game for the West and it gets the amazing sharpness in graphics to support it.  I may have to get a second PS3 on standby because I may kill my PS3 playing this to death.  [Confirmed March 13 Release Date]

Vita Launches in Japan

 

So it begins.  The life of Sony’s new handheld Playstation Vita begins.  I’m already drooling in envy as people are now running around with Vitas and I won’t see it for another couple of months.  I found some great pics on Andriasang.com and thought I’d share one here because it makes me cry inside….

Vita is still due to launch in US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Latin America on February 22nd of 2012.  It will be $249.99 USD for the Wi-Fi version.  The alternative Wi-Fi/3G version will be $299.99 USD.  The games have been going from $30-50 so far that I have seen, and some games require memory cards that are going from $20 and up.  So get your wallets ready!!  It’s going to be nothing short of an amazing piece of hardware and software lineup!

Image Source: Andriasang

Final Fantasy V and VI hits PSN

Finally!  Today Final Fantasy VI hit PSN in US.  With that and V hitting last month, the entire library of FF titles on the PSN is staggering.

The version of FFV and FFVI are ports from the PS1 Anthology collection so they have little upgrading and some minor CGs from the Disked version.  Some claim the load times are hardcoded from the CD version so be aware of that.  However the videos I’ve seen of it played on PS3, it looks fine.

I’m happy now as my PSP is a Final Fantasy playing machine.  Besides FF3, it now has all of the FFs 1-9.  With the side titles it has over 13 FF titles on it.

Final Fantasy Type-0 Finally Confirmed?

Well, it’s been quite a long wait.  Screenshot after video after demo of awesome FFT0 content but with no localization in sight.  It’s no wonder being as the sales are so terrible in the west for PSP but couple that with the looming Vita release in only a couple months.

However today after some looking around it looks as if some rumors are getting merit.  First Vandal, a Spanish website, posted an interview that Yoshinori Kitase hinted they were working on US/EU version.  It was then removed.  So noone could really confirm if it was a typo or a cover.

Future Feature: Solatorobo

It’s so interesting when a game just grabs me first sight.  It’s something that doesn’t happen too often for me, but when I read an article about a company bringing this game to US, I immediately got excited.  Overall the style and gameplay just looks fun and unique.  Check out the video below for more.

Solatorobo is set on the floating islands of Shepherd Republic where two races of people, dogs and cats, live