04.23.07
Posted in Japanese, News at 1:36 pm by yuka
FF Revenant Wings site has new wallpapers up, and they change on a daily basis. The ones up on show at time of writing for example will be available for the next 24hours until 12:00 on tuesday. I’m assuming however, that the time is set to the Japanese one… and so calculate the time difference wherever you are (UK-wise, think 8hours behind them).
FF Tactics 獅子戦争 (Battle of Lions) also has some downloadables in the appropriate section, with the TV ad, coming online before the actual TV showing. (There’s two at the moment, and this one’s the second one.)
NTTDocomo has announced a new series of phones that resembles a Wii in some of its capabilities – the 904i series. SH904i has, for example, a ‘card reader’: take a photo of a card given by your business associate, and it automatically gets into the phone contacts, without you having to laboriously type each and every character. D904i and P904i has motion control, while F904i has upped its security by adding finger printing technology. They all still look the same though, so unless you have a compulsion to buy new phones all the time, it doesn’t seem that great. (I am one of those members of society that feel I have no need for mobiles and so won’t get one to the chagrin of friends, so my views are biased.)
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04.12.07
Posted in Japanese, News at 12:34 pm by yuka
DQ Swords (download section has a wallpaper up) is coming out on 12th July for approx. £34 in Japan. Square Enix has also been busy with six new titles for the DS coming out this summer, that’s hardly games-related, but dealing with the genres of hobbies and interests called DS: Style: 地球の歩き方DS (3 separate softwares that deal with a detailed guide for tourists to Italy, France and Thailand); 花咲くDSガーデニングLife (for gardeners… ironic, considering a lot of people won’t be able to afford a garden living in the suburbs); DSでクラシック 聴いてみませんか？ (listening to classical music on DS); 今日から始めるDSヨガレッスン（仮称） (Yoga lessons). As regards the first tourist based software, they’re thinking of releasing Taiwan, NY and Hawaii versions as a second set, and following them with ten more titles within this year.
From today, it’s now possible for Wii users to use the Internet channel download service. Download for free until the end of June – afterwards, 500Wii points will be deducted via credit card. Those of you who had downloaded during the free service time, will be able to continue using it for free… so say this source. i-filter for Wii will ensure that your kids don’t get access to dodgy sites etc – again deals for the launch is available, but only if you can read Japanese. Either way at £1.50 a month, it’s not much to quibble about. The virtual console on Wii is due to release Star Fox 64 this month, among other titles.
According to this article, Heroes of Mana has changed the perceptions of many Mana fans. Action adventure, it has been pretty much, and yet this one’s turned to the realms of RTS (real time strategy). “Get your ingredients, make your army” type, basically. I guess the review makes it sound like Puzzle Quest, another hybrid adventure game.
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04.07.07
Posted in Reviews, UK at 1:20 pm by yuka
We finally got a Wii a few days back, and no, didn’t have to pay an extortionate amount for that. The first day of playing brought forth muscle ache the next day – must be the unusual ways in which you have to move that controller sometimes. Still, when Elebits comes out, I’ll be waiting with controller in hand, ache or no ache.
Along with the Wii, my betrothed got me Puzzle Quest for the DS. Here’s some screenshots for people who don’t know what it is. It’s fairly simple: you solve puzzles to defeat bosses, forge items, research your mount, research spells, and capture creatures. Pretty addictive, to the point that my character is now a level 26 after about 2 solid days of playing. It’s not often that I find games that are good enough to keep me playing so continuously.
But… and there is a ‘but’, as with any game that has been rushed out onto any platform, and worldwide at that, there are some bugs you may encounter during gameplay. No other reviews online seem to mention any of these, so maybe people haven’t played enough of it to discover them, but they have managed to annoy me a wee bit too much.
1) Screen scrolls interminably downwards… to stop in the middle of a sea on map section. It happens most often when I’ve been playing it for a couple of hours, and if I try to scroll back up, it just rolls back down again. So reset time. After reset, you may notice that the last few matches may not have been saved, and you do end up doing it all again (frustrating if it was one hell of a battle).
2) Someone reviewed that dialogues have glitches, as in it doesn’t show properly occasionally. I haven’t had a problem with that, but during the battles, I’ve had what was supposed to be ‘4 of a kind’ or ‘5 of a kind’ come up in some weird blurred out incomprehensible yellow glyphs. Again, reset does help, but save point might be a bit boggled.
As they seem to happen every few hours, it hasn’t improved my temperament of late. So, if you’re the type of gamer who gets irritated at the mere mention of a ‘bug’, this game’s not for you. On the other hand, you’re used to ‘bugs’ and like playing puzzles of the Zookeeper or Bejeweled type, this game is a must for you – you won’t have a life for a while after this though :p
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04.02.07
Posted in Japanese, News at 8:55 pm by yuka
FF CC as reported last time has got its first trailer (part of the opening event) up and running here. It may take a while to load though, and most of you are unlikely to understand the blurb that’s delivered in high-pitched ‘child-ish’ voices (there aren’t that many voice actors, so those voices may be familiar to you from animes and such).
Also on DS, NINJA GAIDEN： Dragon Sword will be coming out sometime this year under the genre of ‘Action Adventure’. For screenshots, click here. And for the afore-mentioned Xbox360 game about Chopin’s dream, they introduce the characters here. Be prepared to boggle at their version of Chopin.
Next up is a PS2 game coming out on 12th for £35.70, titled Grim Grimoire, under the genre of ‘Magic/Fantasy Real Time Simulation’. Be warned however, that like most Japanese sites, the official site is Flash… and so it’ll take an age to load. For the first batch of the game, there’ll be a freebie of a soundtrack CD that’s also has a music vid on, apparently. The story’s set in a magical school (Harry Potter, anyone?) in which a disaster that kills everyone occurs five days from when our main character starts her studies. She doesn’t die, because somehow, she’s transported to exactly five days ago. So, crack the mystery and save the day – that’s the general plot. I can’t for the life of me work out what’s so special about it, but some people seem really excited about the game.
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