Ys: Memories of Celceta Gameplay Trailer - Karna Update

Another update for YS Memories of Celceta. The character is called Karna. In the video she uses thrust attackes against enemies. For the people who know the YS fighting system these attacks are only effective against non armor type monster.

Hopefully she is a love interest for Adol ( The red haired pratoganist) ... If so he wouldn't go beyond first base anyway xD

Just a couple of days guys and my YS Memories of Celceta copy arrives :D

Persona Channel Midnight Channel strikes again

The second teaser features visions of train stations in Japan, once again delivered by the mysterious Midnight Channel. Users online have begun speculating that these train stations will serve as the players means of transportation around Tokyo, that the next adventure in the Persona series will take players to Japan's big city after giving players a taste of life in sleepy Inaba.




Update:

The cities we are going to visit in the next persona are:

Sapporo=Odori

Sendai=Sendai

Fukuoka=Tenjin

Nagoya=Sakae

Osaka=Dotonbori

Tokyo=Shinjuku

Are you ready to travel to the big city?

Yakuza Ishin box art reveal

Yakuza: ishin producer Masayoshi Yokoyama has shared the final Japanese box art for the upcoming Playstation 4 and Playstation 3 game. I think the Otaku staff really loves Yakuza. SEGA week just ended but this game is something to look forward to. 

Oohw I forget to mention this the first box art of Yakuza in colour ( This never happened in the past for the Japanese version)

YS Memories of Celceta EVERY DAY VIDEO GAMEPLAY

XSeed has released a new video of YS Memories of Celceta.  Good news for the otaku readers. I am going to review this game. I am really exited for this one since Ys Seven was one of my favorite games on the PSP and Playstation Vita ( Playstation Network. Get it ! It's just €9,00 !) The game is known for it's awesome soundtracks and you will be not dissapointed.

Xseed will release a new gameplay video every day from now on. The first gameplay video is about Duren.

(He has the ability to do a lot of damage to armor type monster . YS is known for it's different enemy types that can only be defeated by the fighter with the right ability. Thus, you need to switch between characters because every character has a diffirent ability)

Hopefully you are just as excited as i am!

Review: Remember Me (Ps3/PC)

If you guessed right with the gif I posted yesterday then you'll already be aware of what is to be looked at today. This is a game that was hyped a bit before release (As our Aigato knows all too well) before being seemingly written off. Why did that happen? Let's find out. * I have also played through most of this game on PC. The content is identical so Ill add a note at the end of the graphics section detailing any differences*

Crash Bandicoot: A Mascot returns?

There where some rumours of Sony buying the rights of Crash Bandicoot of Activision. This all happend when the Sony Commercial #4th players revealed some images like the one below:

At 0:49 you see some traffic signs with an image of the Crash!

Some really eagle eyed reddit users cocobandicoot and holmesy spotted something very interesting about the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Activision removed the crash bandicoot franchise from it's timeline and any reference on it's website.

Is this the sign of a Mascot returning? Will we once again battle against Dr. Cortex?

The orginal post from Reddit:

The official Crash Bandicoot website, owned and operated by Activision, has been taken down. The latest archived version of the site is from this past summer, when rumors of a Sony acquisition of the franchise started popping up.

http://www.activision.com/search?cc=US;i=1;q=crash%20bandicoot

Update Persona channel : The midnight channel reveals a tease

The first tease from the Persona channel has happened. My guess is that  we get a sequel to persona 3 or 4. I personally hope a sequel to Persona 4. However, there are certain otaku members ( Kuch Geoffrey and Andi) who would like to have a new story or an sequal to persona 3.

One thing is certain Inaba here we come! PERSONA

Atlus opens Persona countdown site

Atlus countdown for their Persona announcement for this weekend is now live.  The countdown clock ends on 24th of November. Then finally after waiting for a couple of years since the ps2 era we will go back to Inaba and save the world from nasty shadows and conquer the hearts of the beautiful girls in Inaba. If you played the magnificent vita version ( Persona 4 the golden) you know what you can expect! The best JRPG series of all time.

This site was revealed by a twitter page https://twitter.com/p_kouhou/statuses/383142368825733120
And you can watch a live stream event on : http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv153939036   Chances are you will see nothing till the 24th of November.

Counting down the days!

Are you ready to invest hundreds of hours into one of the best JRPG's of all time?

SEGA Week ends..

"The challenge will always be there."

...And with Remy's Muramasa Rebirth review going up almost at the stroke of midnight last night, SEGA week has drawn to a close. I was going to look at the Master System today but with how the views have boomed these past 24 hours or so I thought Id take a break before I review a game tomorrow while Remy soaks up the adulation for his debut review. While I'm kinda sad to see the end of the themed week, Ive enjoyed looking through a lot of my old SEGA stuff, it has given me a new found drive for my SEGA hardware. The Saturn in particular has probably profited the most. Its been plugged in for almost the entire week, except for the Mega Drive playthrough, and the more Ive played of it the more fond Ive become. I'm regularly on EBay now trying to score some more games but the ones I want all sell for silly prices. That's what I get for losing my original Saturn in the first place and now having to replace it all. Playing Desert Strike the other day though gave me the urge to grab a copy of Soviet Strike on the Saturn for £4.99. I don't remember playing that one so I hope its good. Its not just the hardware either. Playing through some of SEGA's current gen offerings again have shown SEGA are not as dead as everyone thinks. Binary Domain & Vanquish are fantastic shooters that I was hoping to do a review on but ended up bundling them both into the same article. I couldn't help but do a post on Yakuza 3 though, its the best SEGA game in years for me. A truly exceptional title. I haven't even started Yakuza 4 yet but I may do later. As expected, Andi's Shemnue post was well recieved and his Fire Pro Wrestling D review for the Dreamcast would have no doubt had a few people smiling as the memories came flooding back. Its one title I may have to try myself at some point. I do have a few regrets myself that I didn't cover certain stuff but there'll be another SEGA week at some point in the future. I did mention doing another themed week at some point, but Andi pretty much died of laughter when I made mention of Atari. That's probably a little too retro I suppose.

The wonderfully animated booty in this gif is my clue to you for what Ill be looking at tomorrow for a review. On the subject of reviews, I do regret not doing one for Alpha Protocol during SEGA week. My reason for not doing so is due mainly to the fact that its a damn hard game to review. Obviously you need to stay objective with reviews and always remain critical within reason, but the stuff it does right are superb making it difficult to review, let alone score! I may do so though at some point when Ive spent more time with it. As you've no doubt noticed, our new author got straight to work last night and published a review for Muramasa Rebirth on Vita (Imported of course) and he seems to be able to import Vita games at will so no doubt he'll have more Vita content in future (although Hyperdimension Neptunia on the Vita is mine to look in to & review. All mine) With the themed week being over it now means that articles could be about anything Otaku or Niche again so there may be some surprises on there way from the staff here.

If you have any ideas for a themed week, suggestions or want to join the staff here, You can always get in touch with us on our twitter @OtakuGamersUK

Gameplay: Freedom wars

Freedom wars is a new hunting game from Studio Japan. You will hunt on abductors to save the hostages taken by abductors. By doing so you will save the hostages and your jail time will be shortened. The amazing thing about this game is that you are hunting with 8 people. Not 4 people like every hunting game but 8 people.

This game will come exclusively for the Playstation Vita in 2014

Review: Muramasa Rebirth

Hey Otaku fans,

I need to introduce myself. I’m Remy and I’m a new member of the OtakugamersUK community. I live near Amsterdam.I have been introduced to this website by the otaku guru Geoffrey wright also known MadchesterManc.

This is my first review for OtakugamersUK.  I hope you will enjoy every second of it. First I need to mention that I never played the original version which came out in 2006. The game had a good start with launch in Japan ( Wii version) but it didn’t sell the amount of copies it deserves. This review is based on the Muramusa rebirth. I had bought this game because I never played any Vanillaware title. After I heard of the superb quality of Dragons crown I had to purchase this game.

Graphics

Muramasa Rebirth is hands-down Playstation Vita’s prettiest game.  It’s not super realistic looking such as games like Uncharted golden Abyss or Killzone mercenary, but it’s gorgeous in its own way.  At the beginning of the game I had the habit to watch the screen for a couple of minutes and be amazed by the amount of detail Vanillaware has achieved in the background.  The environments you are running through, from wheat-laden fields and rural villages to dark cityscapes and eerie forests, are certainly easy on the eyes. The Bosses are so well designed you will die once or twice because your attention is drawn to the superb design of the enemies. This game is a perfect example of eye candy. This proves art style is far more important than pushing millions of pixels on the screen.

 Story

Muramasa tells two stories with certain common elements. The first story follows the ninja kisuke, who is being hunted by his clan as a traitor and doesn’t know why. The second story is that of Momohime, a princess possessed by an evil soul named Jinkuro. Jinkuro accidentally claimed her body in his quest to divinity, and will fight his way through hell and heaven to achieve his goal. Both Kisuke and Jinkuro possess the ability to wield the demon blades forged by the muramasa, evil swords that devour souls and hunger for bloud. It’s told that the wielder of the blades will slowly go insane because of the bloodlust of the demon blades. This has been mentioned throughout the game. 

Gameplay

The gameplay takes the front seat in this game. Everything is great from the start from the combat perspective. You can perform any move you can imagine with a sword; a downward thrust, an uppercut slash, a dashing cut , blocking it's all there from the start. You will use these moves quite a lot through the amazing campaigns of the demon sword wielders.

The demon blades are something really special because you can collect souls with them. Everything you defeat an enemy souls will be collected by your demon blade. These demon blades can be collected by defeating a boss or to make a sword by collecting enough souls. These demon blades are the only way to go further in the game because you need the demon blades to cut down barriers that are set up by a certain monk. Furthermore, those demon blades can break. This happens when your swords has blocked to much damage. With every block are special attack the souls in your demon sword get depleted. To prevent this you need to play smart and switch blades more often and try to learn the weaknesses of the enemies you are facing.

CHOW TIME NOM NOM

But while the setup and foundation of the game are absolutly superb, where the game somewhat fails is it's repetitive nature.  The first thing you notice after playing the game for a couple of hours is that there aren't that many enemy types. Furthermore, on lower difficulty level it feels like you are a superhuman ninja who kills everything on its pad without any resistance. You just have to button mash the square button over and over and nothing will stand against you. 

It's not just the fighting that is getting repetitive it's also the amount of backtracking you need to do. Many times in the game you need to go back from the way you came. This was for me the biggest frustration with this game. However, Vanillaware has given you a reason to backtrack certain parts of the levels. Earlier i mentioned there where barriers that could be broken with your demon blade. Sometimes there where sort of side missions where you get the mission to defeat a couple of enemies for an certain item. This was really refreshing and convinced to replay certain areas and prolonged my experience with this game.  The boss battles are the highlight of the game, and showoff how a joy this game really could be. It is really a trial and error situation. I died many times with the boss battles because I had no clue what to do. After a couple of redoing the boss fight you will discover the weak points of the boss and which sword is effective against him. Furthermore, you will notice how much time and effort Vanillaware has taken to design the enemies. Sometimes i was running away from the boss just to be at a safe distance to observe the beauty of the designs.

Eye candy ^~^

Conclusion

Muramusa is something special for me. In a long time i haven't had so much fun with a game. The combat is simple and you can perform any move you would expect from a demonic sword wielder. The graphics and design of the game are superb. From the first time you enter the world of Muramasa you will notice how beautiful this game is. From wheat-laden fields and rural villages to dark cityscapes and eerie forests this game has it all. The gameplay is sometimes repetitive from backtracking to enemies but the boss battles are the real highlight of the game. There is a real challenge in beating them. 

This game has better boss battles than most games in the dude bro society of gaming. The story is interesting and will keep your attention right from the start. However, the story takes a backseat in this game. If you are a Playstation vita owner and don't mind being destroyed by the bosses in this game you will get a game with a lot of replay value and graphics that make you wish the real world looked like this! 

8/10

一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八/00

Retrospective: SEGA Mega Drive

 "To be this good takes AGES, To be this good takes SEGA."

Today was due to be the final day in SEGA week, but I may post one more article tomorrow as I ended up being unable to do so yesterday. As was teased yesterday on Twitter I'm going to have a look back on the Mega Drive. Looking at the pic you see a Mega Drive 2. What I want to do first is talk about the Mega Drive set-up I had as a kid. Back in the day I had one of those beastly model-1 Mega Drives sat atop one of those behemoth Mega-Cd's. I also had a converter cartridge to play the few Japanese imported titles I had for my system (Hellfire and Strider the notable ones) and a copy of Micro Machine's with its 2 extra controller ports built into the cartridge for some extra multiplayer fun (I had 3 controllers luckily) It was a nice little set-up that got me through a few years at least and also stuck around when the 32-bit systems came around before I eventually bought a new console. I still, to this day, have no idea what happened to the Mega Drive.

My Yokosuka Adventure

From the intro where a mysterious man kills your father in front of your own eyes. To the outstanding graphics which still stand up well, Shenmue was and always will be something special to gamers and my all time favourite gaming experience. 

You are presented with Ryo Hazuki, brilliant genius martial arts student who is slightly awkward and naive. Upon the death of your father you decide to avenge him and track this murder down. Twists and turns along the way the story of Shenmue is a captivating tale, one where you see Ryo grow with each experience yet never becoming anything more than a highly relatable character who is more human than most protagonists.

For me the main reason I find myself returning to Shenmue 1 on a yearly basis is not just the outstanding cast but the setting. Shenmue's setting to me us my all time favourite place in gaming, to the point I can and have drawn maps for it just out of memory and it's been 100% correct. 

There was always something so captivating as when the story would hit a slow part and you were given a few days to just soak in the Yokosuka air. The amount of activities for this sleepy Japanese village were all varied and fun. From hanging out at the arcade playing some vintage Hang On or my personal time sink Space Harrier. Feeding the homeless and parentless kitten who lost it's mother the same day Lan Di descended and changed your life. Collecting small collectible Sega characters for a perfect set!. Hanging around the centre of Yokosuka's shopping district chatting away with Tom. Training in the park or arcade carpark, there is a lot to spend your time and money here.

That's what I love about this game, even the slow bits have a magical grip about it. I couldn't count the hours I lost playing the lottery in Tomato or money wasted trying to get Super Sonic for my collection!.

The NPC's all had their own routine, face and unique lines depending on what had happened up now. The streets changing with the weather and time and main characters were only a phone call away. There was mysteries to solve at your home and of course the gripping main tale but that's a story for another day.

Having the time pass as you play was an amazing feature aswell, everyone had a daily routine which meant sometimes you had to wait around or chase someone around. It's stolen moments watching the sun set over the bar district and watching the drunks emerge, knowing that the peace has now been shattered.

Another major area is the docks, for the last quarter of the day you take a job as a Forklift Driver. Not only does increase money but gives you a different change of scenery. It's a dark and gloomy place and does feel incredibly depressing while being there. Fortunately you can play on the dart machine while waiting for shifts, something I spent god knows how much yen on!. Though the darts was available in the arcade it just seemed to fit the overall pace and feeling a lot better at the docks.

Other attractions were the vending machines where you can get a nice refreshing drink while chasing Justice!. The shady Nagai Industries and the army surplus stores, even shops you never interact with will help create this outstanding living breathing town!.

Shenmue 1 and 2 are my personal GOAT games but if I had to choose despite 2 fixing issues, I would have to go with 1. If not for anything else other than Yokosuka. You do fall in love with the several settings of Shenmue 2 but you'll never feel the warmth and pure intricacy of Yokosuka, where even a day of Hang On, feeding the cat and boxing machine before the 11pm curfew feels eventful.   

Maybe one day I'll get my conclusion to this series, till then I'll always have my years trips to Yokosuka and Hong Kong. By the way does anyone know where I could find any sailors? 

Retrospective: Yakuza 3 (Ps3)

"Not Reality but Real (リアリティではなくリアル)"

With weekends being 'off days' for articles it means a couple of extra days are added to the SEGA week so it does in fact equal a week. That means articles will run till Wednesday and it will be business as usual from Thursday onwards hopefully. Seen as the Ps4 launched last Friday its safe to assume that the current generation is on it way out for most people. Personally though I think the Ps3 is still offering more than enough to stay relevant. Today though I'm going to look at, arguably, SEGA's best game this generation (One of the best games this generation. Period.) in Yakuza 3 with the curtain slowly falling on this 7th generation.