News - Mind Zero Release Date

Aksys Games today have announced that Mind Zero will launch on the PS Vita physically and digitally in the US on the 27th May.  The title is also set for release in Europe on the 28th May, but only in the digital format.

Mind Zero sees you playing as Kei.  A high schools study whose life becomes complicated when he creates a contract with creature, knows as a "Mind", who has deadly powers.  The government after him, Kei, along with his friends, must discover the secret behinds the "Minds".

Check out the first English trailer for Mind Zero below;

Retrospective: Tecmo's Deception/Devil's Deception (Ps1)

The original Deception, launched in 1996 on the ol' Ps1. Referred to as Tecmo's Deception in the US & Devils Deception in the EU, its worth a look at with the latest iteration currently abound. With Albert (@GloriousBagel) currently penning a review for Deception IV for ourselves, I had a thought the other day that having a look back at the original on Ps1 may be a good idea leading into the review. So Ive spent the past few days playing around on Deception for those interested in a walk down memory lane.

Kokumeikan (刻命館)

News: Persona Q latest Trailers

The latest Persona Q character trailers have been released -

Koromaru

Kanji

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is set for release on June 5 in Japan and penned for release in fall 2014 for the US on the 3DS.

Source [Siliconera]

News: Latest Project Diva F 2nd Trailer

With Project Diva F 2nd getting a release in Japan lately, SEGA have seen fit to release another mammoth 12 minute trailer showcasing all the songs available in the latest release. A few notable inclusions some may notice from previous versions, which isn't as bad as you would expect. With the refinements & updates to the games engine, things will no doubt be suitably improved over the previous release. The game is already available in Japan with a release in the west set for later in the year. For those that can't wait or Import, There a demo available on the Japanese PSN store for you to try featuring 3 songs (Cinderella, Packaged, Suki Kirai and Lariat) which we may look in to for a short impressions piece.

Source [Siliconera]

News: The Legend of Zelda Zone Launch Trailer

A new DLC map will be released today for the Wii U version of Sonic Lost World entitled “The Legend of Zelda Zone”. This will be styled & inspired by numerous areas from the Nintendo's  Zelda franchise. You'll be tasked with collecting pieces of the Triforce and other items throughout a level & Sonic even dresses for the occasion with a Link-esque green tunic and cap. “The Legend of Zelda Zone” DLC is available to download for FREE on Wii U through the Nintendo Wii U eShop.

Source [Dualshockers]

News: The Guided Fate: Cross Thesis Awakening Story synopsis

Nippon Ichi software recently revealed a sequel to The Guided Fate paradox named The Guided Fate: Cross Thesis Awakening. A story synopsis was recently released -

Several years after the revolution from a certain young man’s fate… a powerful demon known as Satanadia has fallen; however, the absolute superiority of the demons continued to dominate, as angels and demons continued to shed blood across the war-plagued lands of the realms.In the midst of the heated war, there was one area in the heavenly realm, where guerrilla tactics have been used as an effort to keep themselves from falling. This is where they’ve continued God’s research on the ultimate anti-demon weapon, the Fate Awakening Crystal, that could change mankind into gods themselves. Meanwhile, the people waited impatiently in the human realm.

The protagonist is on his way back home from school, when he is suddenly attacked by an ensemble that fell from the sky. He dies shortly after his heart is pierced. However, after being saved by a mysterious girl, he finds himself somewhere he’s never seen before… as he awakens in the heavenly realm. After having the Fate Awakening Crystal transplanted within him, it has been decided that he will be taking part in the war between angels and demons.

From force and suffering, comes the “ultimate choice,” which at times results in the unexpected killing of others, involution, and other irrational consequences… but in order to defeat the enemy, the protagonist will have to choose between the death of two beloved women. He can only save one of them… which path will he ultimately choose?

It all sounds a little more fleshed out than the original with the prospect of multiple playthroughs by making different choices sounding a little tantalising. On your radar? The reveal trailer embedded above may help if not. The game is set for July in Japan with a localisation still to be announced.

Source [Siliconera]

News: Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day set for EU

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day, a collaboration between Suda 51 &Crispy's! Inc's Yohei Kataoka, is making its way to the Ps3 on 18th April in the EU. This bundle is made up of four animated short movies (including Academy Award nominee Possessions ) and a side-scrolling 2D game that follows the exploits of a high school girl that transforms at night into an assassin of sorts. The gameplay consists of you chaining combos with a violin and taking on gigantic enemies against a a nicely rendered Japanese style backdrop, with hits slowing you down & the rate of your accumulatiuon of points. Is this announcement something thats been on your radar? If not, maybe the trailer will change your mind.

Source [PushSquare]

News: Famitsu interviews Naoki Yoshida

During a pre-GDC interview with Famitsu, Naoki Yoshida shed some light on his thoughts about making MMORPGs with a free-to-play model, versus subscription-based titles.

Famitsu begins by asking about Yoshida’s thoughts on subscription and free-to-play games, and why he believes Final Fantasy XIV must stay subscription-based.

“I don’t recall ever saying that it ‘must’ but rather, ‘a good choice to go with,’ says Yoshida. “Actually, when the MMORPG rush started around 2005, about 100% of them began with subscriptions. The reason being, when there’s a stable subscription, you can easily see how much profit you can make each month. And you’d also want a stable development team to go with it.”

“When there’s a F2P model, it goes like, ‘we sold this much for this month, but who knows how much we’ll sell next month,’ and also makes employment unstable. When that happens, the developers will also feel uneasy, and it makes it harder to draw the roadmap from there on.”
“In order to have customers enjoy the game for longer periods of time, you’ll want to properly release content on a regular basis,” Yoshida says. “With that in mind, you’ll need a good development team, and in order to support that, a stable profit would be better.”

“I’ve always thought that MMORPG producers are all very nice,” says Yoshida with a laugh. “That’s not because of all the profit [they’re making], but because they’re making money in a stable fashion, and properly investing it back into the game. The reason they’re able to continue doing that, I believe, is because the content that comes from the updates is just fun.”

“When you go F2P, you can’t make money from the game’s content itself, but rather, you have to make profit from items and things based on time, or else the game can’t continue. However, even if you’d like to focus on updating the content, you’ll be required to work on many items and the shops used to sell them, and that’s not related to what makes the game fun, right? When you want to put 100% of your energy into making new content, but you have to split 30~40% of it into ways of making money, you might end up thinking, ‘why am I making this?’”

“However, developing MMORPGs costs a great deal of money, and in order to acquire such vast funds, you need to go through all kinds of investors to put in money as you develop,” explains Yoshida. “When you start a subscription-based game and fail to deliver the gift of all the subscribers you promised to the investors, they will immediately sense the risk, and say, ‘I’d like to have my money back,’ or ‘I can no longer invest in you guys.’If that were to happen, there’s no way you can keep going with the subscription.”

 “Once you can no longer charge customers, you won’t even be able to update anymore,” he continues. “In the end, you’ll be forced to go F2P in order to immediately increase sales so that you can pay back the investors, while you try to keep it going. I believe that is the harsh reality of the present day.”
“Also, I believe that players lately don’t like the idea of having a daily time restriction,” Yoshida says. “I personally feel that way, too. Instead, starting out lightheartedly, then suddenly having a high voltage of gaming experience, and you can quit whenever, but when you look at the total [time played] you realize that you’ve spent an incredible amount of time on it—I believe something like that is what’s ideal now. I think games that have that going, with PvP features, such as League of Legends or World of Tanks, are perfect for F2P.”

“In the end, I believe it boils down to choice,” concludes Yoshida. “When it comes to business models, you choose from things like “what’s best for what game,” “what kind of experience you want it to convey,” and “how you’ll administer it”; it’s not a matter of simply what’s best, what’s strong, or what’s weak… well, I plan on talking about it at a GDC lecture.”

“Really, you can just change your choices depending on the games. If demands change, you can also just change your choice. Rather than having a backward way of thinking like ‘I’m going to change it because we’re not making profit,’ go with a more positive one like, ‘I’m going to change it to increase the number of players.’ If there’s a misconception that I’m just persisting in subscriptions, then it’s wrong.”

Famitsu then asks Yoshida whether, if there’s demand from players to sell them items he would do it.

“If it won’t have an effect on the game’s balance, and the demand is there, and we can deliver such items, then sure, I believe we’d sell them,” answers Yoshida

Famitsu finishes the talk by asking when Yoshida made up his mind on the subject of selling purchasable items.

“The demand from players [for them] are really high…” he replies. “Even for one of the question items for our next Letter from the Producer, there was a question that asks ‘when will we be able to start buying items?’ and it had about 400 thumbs ups on it. I felt that the times sure have changed.”

Source [Siliconera]

News: WiiU Virtual Console GBA release schedule

Nintendo announced earlier that they will be starting to roll out more releases for the GBA Virtual Console during April in the US. The list of GBA games & dates for April so far is:

April 3rd:
Advance Wars – $7.99
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga – $7.99
Metroid Fusion – $7.99

April 10th:
Kirby & the Amazing Mirror – $6.99
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! – $6.99

April 17th:
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity – $6.99
Golden Sun – $7.99

April 24th:
Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 – $7.99

As well as off-TV play these games will feature Restore Points that act as save points during the game, as well as Miiverse functionality. No word yet on an EU release, but they can't be too far off. Any titles in paticular your hoping makes its way into the Virtual Console GBA library?

News: Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth set for the West

A surprise announcement sprung up today concerning Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth on the Vita. A localisation has finally been confirmed, curiously though it's from Idea Factory instead of the usual NISa. No firm date has yet been given, just a 'summer' window has been noted so far for both the US & EU. No word on physical or digital release either but there's more news to come at a later date