Treasure Hunters

Down for indefinite hiatus

2010-10-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

School is getting very stressing and I have no time to update the blog anymore. Will try and eventually bring it back, I'm thinking about making it into an all gaming news site with the most important and interesting news but still with a big focus around RPGs. I'll be back don't worry just give me some time, PEACE!

Tales Of Xillia Or Tales Of Faithus, Which One Is The Name Of The Next Tales Game?

2010-10-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Namco Bandai has a new Tales game in development for PlayStation 3, but it doesn’t have a name. Maybe it’s going to be calledTales of Xillia.

Over in the Japanese trademark database,Namco Bandai filed five Tales of trademarks. They are: Tales of Faithus, Tales of Zestia, Tales of Xillia, and two katakana-sounding variations of it.

Since Namco Bandai trademarked variations of Xillia, we’re guessing that’s going to be the name of the next Tales game. But, out of the three Zestia, Faithus, and Xillia, which sounds the best/worse to you?

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Fable 3 TV ad is a corker

2010-10-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has unveiled Fable III's launch trailer - which doubles up as its US TV ad - and it's a corker.

Set to pumping Black Angels track, Young Men Dead, the ad shows a true spirit of revolution in Albion.

Fable III sees you take the lead in overthrowing the tyrant king Logan - and it's all in the video.

A statue of the previous regime is felled, war is fought on the streets, dignitaries are kidnapped. It's all gets a bit fighty.

More like this please, games people.

Fable III is released in the UK on October 29.

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Five Classic RPGs We'd Like to See Added to PSN

2010-10-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

Alundra and Arc the Lad now available on PSN

Over the past couple years, the library of Playstation Classics available through PSN has grown in both quantity and quality. With the PS1 hosting arguably the best collection of RPGs of any single console, it's no surprise that gamers the world over have demanded more titles within the genre be added to the service.

While all PS1 Final Fantasy titles (not including anthologies) have now made it onto the service, as well as big titles from the Wild Arms series, Grandia and Suikoden, there are still quite a few must-haves that have yet to find their way into this current generation of gamers' hearts.

Some of that void was filled yesterday when the hotly anticipated Alundra and Arc the Land were both added to the catalog for just $5.99 apiece. These titles can be had for around $100 when they pop up on ebay, so that's a pretty smokin' deal for two legendary games.

Still, like any spoiled brat with eyes bigger than their stomach, we crave more. Following are the top five PS1 RPGs we'd like to see made available with a quickness via PSN. To avoid the inevitable arguments that spawn from such lists, these titles are being presented in no particular order.

Still, feel free to let us know how "stoopid" we are for forgetting to mention your favorite classic RPG in the comments.

Saga Frontier

Saga Frontier had just about everything you could want in an RPG. With seven playable characters, non-linear exploration and the ability to visit vastly different planets and explore the farthest reaches of space, this game kept players entertained for hours on end.

The Legend of Dragoon

At the risk of getting things digitally thrown at me, I will admit that when I was younger and rented Final Fantasy VII for the first time, I was not impressed. I was into Tony Hawk, sports games and Crash Bandicoot at the time, so the complex, dramatic gameplay of such a game did little for me. A few months later I decided to try out Legend of Dragoon and became an RPG fan from then on. Maybe it was the lovable cast of characters, the interesting world or intriguing story. Then again, it may have been the badass Dragoon transformations. Whatever the reason, this often overlooked RPG was about as solid as they come and, sadly, will likely never see a much-deserved sequel. (Please, Sony?)

What, these? They're just my badical dragon wings.

Chrono Cross

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that, if and when Chrono Cross is made available via PSN, the game will see a first-day earnings of about eleventy billion dollars. While die-hard Chrono Trigger fans seem to be split on whether or not this PS1 sequel did the original justice, few can argue that this isn't one of the best RPGs of all time, no matter how far removed it was from its predecessor.

Valkyrie Profile

One of my favorite games of all time, Valkyrie Profile was a lot different than the typical Japanese RPG flooding the market during the PS1 days. You could fly around the world, the dungeons were built for side-scrolling and the combat was tactical, yet fast and exciting. Even better is the fact your team was made of recently departed adventurers and warriors, each with a unique and touching story to tell. It is a beautiful, beautiful RPG.

One story? This game told like sixty...Mostly about dead people.

Xenogears

Right. Like you thought this one wouldn't make it onto the list. Hailed by many to be the best RPG of all-time, Xenogears was basically the best rendition of everything you ever loved about classic roleplaying games. The epic story was engrossing, the action was fierce and the world was amazingly realized. Throw in a beautiful soundtrack and a runtime that will last you about 80 hours and you have a title that is sure to capture gamers' imaginations today as well as it did more than a decade ago.

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Tales of Graces F Limited Edition is Rather Unique

2010-10-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

I’m a bit late on the draw with this one, but I thought this limited edition box for Tales of Graces F was pretty cool. In any event, my wife is huge on cool stationary, envelopes, fancy feathery pens and all that jazz, so maybe she’ll let me import it! Check out all the goodies it comes with.

Tales of Graces F (the game, of course)
“Memorial Book” box (fancy box that looks like a book!)
Asbel Lhant feather pen (an actual ballpoint pen)
Asbel Lhant feather pen stand
Windol Kingdom official letter head (15 sheets)
Windol Kingdom official envelopes (5)
Envelope sticker seals with Windol Kingdom seal (6)
Letter from Richard to Asbel
Kuro Sophie Bookmark

All that can be yours for the low, low price of ¥13,800, or approximately $170. Seriously?! Yes, seriously.

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Zenonia Gets Mini-zed For PlayStation 3 And PSP

2010-10-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

Gamevil’s homage to classic RPGs is coming to one, actually two, more platforms. Zenoniareceived the iPhone to PlayStation Minis port treatment and will be available on the PlayStation Store this week.

Zenonia stars Regret (seriously, that’s his name) who can be an assassin, paladin, or a warrior. It’s possible to be a hero assassin since player choices determine whether Regret will fight for good or evil. In case you missed it, we posted a trailer with our coverage of Zenonia’s DSiWare port just a few weeks ago.

Like all Minis, Zenonia is PlayStation 3 and PSP compatible.

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Classic RPGs Alundra And Arc The Lad Popping Up On PSN This Tuesday

2010-10-08T17:29:00.001-07:00

It’s official. Alundra and Arc the Lad will be released as PlayStation Network downloads soon. And, by soon we mean October 12 for $5.99 each. Vic Ireland, founder ofGaijinworks, posted the news on the NeoGAF forums.

He also confirmed Arc the Lad II for PlayStation Network, which will be released "in about a month, if the plan holds."

Regarding future RPG releases over PlayStation Network, Ireland said,

"It’s more a question of ‘is it worth the effort’? It’s a complete pain in the butt to get older titles licensed and ready for PSN. If they only sell 5,000 or 10,000 or something, it’s hardly worth it after everyone takes their cut. If we’re selling 20 or 30k units (which is completely reasonable for an RPG at these prices and with the PS3 installed base), and up, it makes sense to keep grinding away at the other titles we’re working on and maybe even get some PS1 content that was never localized translated for first-time release. There are lots of possibilities, but they all hinge on sales of these first few titles, since they don’t get a whole lot better than this. If these won’t sell for $5.99, nothing will."

In addition to localizing Alundra and the entire Arc the Lad on PsOne, Working Designs published Vanguard Bandits and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete.

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Ys: The Oath In Felghana Has 1,900 Lines Of Voice Acting

2010-10-08T12:16:00.001-07:00

Being a re-imagining of Ys III: Wanderers of Ys, Ys: The Oath in Felghana looks considerably different from the side-scroller Falcom developed over twenty years ago. The PSP version, which Xseed has slated for the holidays in North America, is a bit different from the Japan-only PC release. Here’s a look at both platforms…

… plus a bunch of screenshots from Xseed’s localization.

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Sega Fire Off New Valkyria Chronicles 3 Screenshots

2010-10-08T12:15:00.002-07:00

The Principality of Gallia in Valkyria Chronicles 3 is divided up into three sections: the regular Gallian army, the Volunteers who are called upon during emergencies, and Squad 422, AKA “The Nameless.”

Squad 422 consists of members of questionable backgrounds and it essentially a unit that performs “off-the-record” operations that the Gallian army cannot. Its members are known by numbers rather than by name. Valkyria 3′s primary protagonist, Kurt Irving, belongs to this group.

The chap with his feet up on the desk below is Ramsey Crowe. He’s part of the Gallian army, but also appears to be involved with Squad 422 as a senior officer.

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Watch The Final Fantasy Versus And Agito XIII Trailers From TGS

2010-10-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

Next up on Square Enix’s list of Tokyo Game Show 2010 trailers is Fabula Nova Crystallis — or if you prefer, actual footage from Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Agito XIII.

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Now Watch Kingdom Hearts Re:coded’s Secret Talk

2010-10-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

What better way to start the day than with a glorious spoiler? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s the “secret talk” from the end of Kingdom Hearts Re:coded that Square have been talking about lately.

It doesn’t really spoil anything, but it should give you an idea of what to expect in Kingdom Hearts 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. Credit for the video capture goes to kh13.com, while the subtitles were provided by Heartstation.org.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded - Secret Ending - English subtitles from DChiuch on Vimeo.

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How Star Wars: The Old Republic tackles the grind

2010-10-08T12:12:00.001-07:00

Star Wars: The Old Republic systems director Damion Schubert hosted a panel at GDC Online 2010 this week about that excruciating aspect of gameplay known as "The Grind," which he defined as any time developers ask players to do something they don't enjoy in order to open up something that they willenjoy.
Most developers use the grind to fill out gameplay content -- handcrafted, "gold standard" content is much tougher to make, whereas grindy content is cheap to put together. But sometimes it comes in handy, said Schubert. While making SWTOR, BioWare actually found that it was putting "too much gold-quality content into the game." Players would be confronted with a Star Destroyer to fight through, a lost Wookiee to save, and a Sith quest to complete; and Schubert said that "we had, by jamming all of this good stuff together, actually made it grindy."

So to fix the issue, BioWare first cut some of the least powerful stories (the lost Wookiee didn't make the cut, Schubert confirmed), and then spaced the rest of them out. Additionally, a feature called "bonus quests" will create optional tiny grinds -- players will be offered extra grind-style goals ("Kill 10 Stormtroopers") while running other quests. That "keeps the activity level up, but lets the gold-standard content breathe," according to Schubert.

He admitted that the grind isn't always a bad thing -- developers sometimes have great reasons to add grinding, and there's a perception factor to consider, as well (one player's maximum effort is another's boring grind). But developers should be able to balance the grind with content and activities that players do care about, Schubert urged, creating a full experience that requires different kinds of efforts for equally different kinds of rewards.

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Square Enix Quickly Subtitles Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy TGS Trailer

2010-10-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Most likely, you’ve seen this Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy trailer before. The only major difference is this video, sent to us by Square Enix USA, has English subtitles. Watch it again if you missed out on what newcomers Kain and Lightning said before they jumped into fights with Chaos charcters.

While the Japanese trailer notes the PSP game is coming out in “spring 2011″, the English subtitled trailer has Dissidia 012[duodecim]: Final Fantasy just says 2011.

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Nintendo: “Dragon Quest Is Gradually Increasing Its Consumer Base”

2010-10-07T16:38:00.001-07:00

Nintendo published Dragon Quest IX North America and Europe a few months ago in July. Since then, aside from initial sales numbers, we haven’t really heard much as to how it’s doing or what their goals for the title are. At a recent investor Q&A, Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, shed some light on the subject.

Iwata says that to people who are accustomed to the idea of Dragon Quest being a phenomenon in Japan, overseas sales might not appear very impressive. However, feedback from Nintendos of America and Europe indicate that DQIX is doing relatively well in terms of overseas growth.

NOE reported that a Tag Mode event recently held in Paris was greatly enjoyed by participants and the general overseas consensus is that each time such an event is held, the number of players in attendance increases. These gatherings usually tend to involve game or anime fans.

“The fact is, when two people who happen to have common interests are in the same place by chance and if they communicate with a total stranger in an unexpected way, they appear to feel very surprised and enjoy such an encounter,” Iwata stated with regard to Tag Mode.

As such, Nintendo view Dragon Quest IX as one of their “evergreen” titles — one that keeps selling consistently after launch over a long period of time.

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New Lord Of Arcana Videos Show Off Weapons And Moves

2010-10-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

With Lord of Arcana releasing in Japan a week from now, Square Enix released two new gameplay videos showing off a couple of the weapons in the game against various badguys. These have yet to be uploaded to the game’s official website but Japanese site, Game Jouhou, got the first look:

Force Saber:

Battle Arts:

Lord of Arcana releases October 14th in Japan and sometime next year overseas.

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Tales Of The World: Radiant Mythology 3 Has New Gunman Job, 5 More Tales Guests

2010-10-06T12:22:00.001-07:00

Armed with two pistols, Gunmen join Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3. This new job shoots enemies while jumping and blasts multiple enemies with a laser blast hi-ougi called X-Buster.

Shonen Jump also reports Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 includes five more Talescameos. Cheria Barnes (Graces), Meredy (Eternia), Raven (Vesperia), Jay (Legendia), and Ricardo Soldato (Innocence) are confirmed for the PSP game.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 is slated for release next year.

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Kingdom Hearts Re:coded European Release Date Leaked [Update]

2010-10-06T12:21:00.001-07:00

Update: Square Enix just updated the Kingdom Hearts Re:coded site with the release date, January 14, 2011 for Europe. While the official page says its the same release date for North America too, games are usually not released on Fridays in the States and writing the date in the day-month format is quite uncommon.

We already knew Kingdom Hearts Re:coded couldn’t be far off after discovering an ESRB listing for it. Now we have a date for Europe.

January 14th, 2011. That’s when Square Enix are publishing Kingdom Hearts Re:coded in Europe, which they accidentally revealed via their Twitter. Shortly thereafter, they took the tweet down…but not before someone managed to retweet it.

A bunch of Kingdom Hearts fans then promptly reported the matter to KHInsider who ran the post. Three months — that’s an incredible turnaround time for localizing the entire game into multiple languages.

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Dragon Age 2 will import 'the world' from Dragon Age: Origins save

2010-10-06T12:20:00.001-07:00

You can still import an older save file into BioWare's upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragon Age 2, like you could with Mass Effect 2 -- but since you don't have a persistent character this time (whoever your Warden was in the first game is replaced by "Hawke" in the sequel), it hasn't been as clear what the save file would change in the new game.
Speaking to NowGamer, lead designer Mike Laidlaw revealed that while you don't get to import your character, you're "importing the world" as it was in your game of Origins. "Who's in charge of Ferelden, what happened with the Dwarves, who's running Orzammar?" Laidlaw said. "All of these things are reflected and accounted for in Dragon Age 2." So if you hate the way you left affairs in Origins, consider a fresh save in Dragon Age 2. Then again, maybe you like fixer-uppers.

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New Knights in the Nightmare Screens – We Have Them

2010-10-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

Knights in the Nightmare is quickly approaching it’s release date for the PSP, which, I might add, looks a lot more awesome than the DS iteration that was released last year. That is pretty evident if you check out the screens I’ve stashed after the break. Don’t forget, as a pre-order bonus, Atlus is throwing in another game if you manage to get yourself a launch copy of Knights in the Nightmare – that would be Yggdra Union, another very niche, yet very awesome, PSP title that was ported over from another system (in this case, the Game Boy Advance). So, if you want two great RPGs for the price of one, you might want to keep that in mind! The game releases on November 9, 2010.

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Open World vs Linear. Are We too Obsessed with Branching Paths?

2010-10-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

Lightning's world. Too much like a corridor?

Final Fantasy XIII. What should of been Square Enix's first and incredibly successful foray into the next generation systems found itself instead completely bogged down by criticism about the game's linearity, so much so that a lot of critics marked it down, citing that it was far too linear for it's own good.

Linearity. A phrase that, a few years back, wasn't even considered as something to describe a videogame. Can you imagine a reviewer of Crash Bandicoot back in 1996 saying that the game was too linear? No? Me either. Looking back, yes, the game was in fact basically running up or down one straight path, but did that make it any less fun? Again, the answer is no. So why, in modern society, is a linear game considered to be the devil's own evil at work?

I believe the main cause of this problem is a little something called an open-world game. Since the invention of these games, where the game world is incredibly expansive and allows the player freedom to explore it, the word linear has thus become the term of choice for describing games that don't offer this experience. How many times have you read a review for it to some point criticise the linear level design? I, for one, am becoming a tad annoyed with this term. Personally, I don't care if a game has linearity. A game is only as good as the developers behind it: look at recent games such as Final Fantasy XIII and Bioshock 2. Pretty much kept you on one straight path for the majority of the game, but it was still an exceptionally enjoyable thrill ride down the dreaded linear road of doom.

Open Worlds: Big and Barren

You could argue all you want that with the advances in technology we should expect open-world games to become the norm and that linear paths are something that should only be experienced in a by-gotten age. Take, for example, Fallout 3, one of the quintessential open-world RPG's that attained great popularity. I loved Fallout 3 - it was immersive and offered a huge game world with lots to do in. However, at the same time, reflecting back on it I realised that quite a lot of the game world was in fact quite empty, just dunes, random wandering enemies and the occasional barren tree.

Open World Shall Prevail. Resistance is Futile.

Linear pathways in games aren't there to keep the player limited, they are used by developers as tools to tell a much more compact story that encourages the reader to become interactive and be completely engaged by the plot. Square Enix director Motomu Toriyama has went on record saying the following about Final Fantasy XIII:

"In order to allow the player to become absorbed in the drama of the storytelling and the new and exciting world of Cocoon and be drawn to the characters without getting distracted or lost we have deliberately used a linear game design for the introduction sections so they can be enjoyed in the same manner as watching a film[/font]."

Sure, the game offered little in the way of exploration until the second half, but I still loved it and the story stuck with me much more. In contrast, Final Fantasy XII, which was incredibly open-world, I can't even recall what the plot was about, and I invested hundreds of hours into the gameplay. As Motomu said, they made the gameplay more linear for exactly this reason, they wanted Final Fantasy XIII to be more character and story driven and by the game's end I felt that all the characters were fully fleshed out with deep personalities.

Closing Thoughts

Linear, to me, isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many of my favourites games over the past few years would nowadays be criticised of having linearity to the highest degree. I hope that through this blog several others will also feel this way and not buy into the norm of criticising linearity, instead realising that linear and open-worlds are two very different beasts than in their own way can succeed and should thus not affect how the other is viewed.

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Final Fantasy XIII Team Hints at Sequel

2010-10-04T10:42:00.001-07:00

Interested in exploring more of the Final Fantasy XIII story? You may get your chance if the game's producer and director have their way.

In an interview in the latest Final Fantasy Ultima guide, which hit Japanese bookshops on the 30th, producer Yoshinori Kitase said that he's interested in making something that, by showing additional areas of the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, helps players to better understand the FFXIII story.

Fabula Nova Crystallis is the name of the overarching series that encompasses Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The games share a common mythology, but otherwise appear to be unrelated.

The interviewer asked Kitase is he could be referring to a "Final Fantasy XIII-2," a reference to the naming used for Final Fantasy X's sequel. Kitase responded that this would depend on fan reaction.

Elsewhere in the interview, Kitase revealed that the team that made Final Fantasy XIII is at work on their next project. According to Kitase, Square Enix has a policy of each team making a game at a pace of one title every two years, so the wait for this title will presumably not be too long.

FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama gave a couple of hints about this game. First off, it does seem to be in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, as Toriyama told player to look forward to it along with other games in the series. Additionally, he said that he hopes to incorporate into the game stuff that they were unable to do as download content for Final Fantasy XIII.

The FFXIII team originally had some big download content plans, Toriyama and Kitase revealed in the interview. Plans were in place for an area called "Seventh Ark" which would feature "quest-like play" and "free battles." This was put on hold because it didn't reach the desired quality and because of the major differences between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 network systems.

Downloadable weapons or other simple content would have been easy to implement, noted Kitase. But the Seventh Ark area was to have an exclusive play style different from the main FFXIII, making it more complicated. For his next title, he said he'd plan for online elements and DLC from the start.

Square Enix will be holding a Fabula Nova Crystallis press conference in January in Tokyo. Perhaps we'll get a glimpse at the new game from the Final Fantasy XIII team there.

Read more: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1125216p1.html#ixzz11PfkBl00

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More On That Lost Shin Megami Tensei Game

2010-10-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, we reported on what was possibly a lost multiplayer Shin Megami Tensei game, demoed by Atlus way back at the Tokyo Game Show ten years ago. The magazine scan featuring the game depicted a screenshot of Cerberus, with the game marked as a fantasy action/adventure title.

Thanks to Jessica, we now know that this “lost” game was merely a tech demo, with the source of information being a “Making of [Shin Megami Tensei III:] Nocturne” Japanese DVD she owns.

View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

You’ll need to install the Veoh player to watch the embedded video. Jessica also has screenshots and scans of other material from the “Making of” documentary, which show off early screens from Shin Megami Tensei III. Thumbnails below, high-res versions here.

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Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Won’t Have A Secret Movie, It Has A "Secret Talk"

2010-10-04T10:39:00.001-07:00

Kingdom Hearts fans looking for clues about the next entry in the series usually check out hidden "secret" movies. While Kingdom Hearts Re:coded doesn’t have a movie, there is a secret scene.

"I think the existence of a ‘secret’ part is on everyone’s mind," Tetsuya Nomura tweeted. "This time, rather than a movie or an event, I’d better call it a ‘secret talk.’" Nomura said this talk is a short conversation about important matters in future.

Nomura also talked about the scrolling shooter level in Wonderland. Players can auto-lock on to enemies and jump with the B button.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded comes out this Thursday in Japan. A release date for North America has not been announced at this time.

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Tales Of Graces F Demo Dated

2010-10-04T10:38:00.002-07:00

Namco Bandai will release a demo of Tales of Graces F via PlayStation Network on October 7. So, if you have a Japanese PlayStation Network account you can try Tales of GracesF this Thursday.

The demo lets players use seven characters in the Forest of Mystery dungeon. Tales of Graces veterans can test out accel mode, a new system that gives characters specific moves, hi-ougis (mystic artes), and see how the Wii game looks in HD.

Tales of Graces F is scheduled for release on December 2 in Japan.

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Another Look At Aya’s Lightning Costume In The 3rd Birthday

2010-10-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t been following The 3rd Birthday, that’s what Aya Brea looks like in the upcoming PSP game. She has a black tank top and torn jeans that can be ripped more after taking costume damage.

Director Hajime Tabata shared this photo of Aya in her Lightning costume. The outfit changes her look and voice to match the main character of Final Fantasy XIII.

Like Aya’s regular outfit, the Final Fantasy XIII costume takes damage too and will reveal Lightning’s L’Cie mark if she gets injured enough.

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