09.05.07
Crimson/Black – sounds like an anime character
My lapse of over a month has had various contributors, mostly the genre of historical fiction, I think. And my renewed fervour of levelling and talent trees. No doubt gamers who’d read this would’ve got fresh news from elsewhere anyway, especially during the E3 fever.
My mid-week return to searching hasn’t actually brought up anything much either. Been announced today that Crimson/Black DSLites are on the way come 4th October, with the same price tag as all the rest. It does look slick, but I think I’ll wait out for a special edition first before buying another one (my Ice Blue one is starting to get worn quite a bit).
20th-23rd this month will see the coming of the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe (the nearest station being Kaihin Makuhari on the JR Keiyo Line) as per usual. Square Enix has announced that as one of their playables, FF IV will be available in their booths (which is right next to Microsoft’s according to the floor plan). The following titles will be at the booth, either as playable or just the promo vid, or as both: FF XI Online, FF CC Ring of Fates, FF Tactics A2, FF IV, Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon, Crisis Core – FF VII, FF XIII, FF versus XIII, FF Agito XIII, FF VII – Advent Children [Complete] (Blu-Ray edition), Dissidia – FF, The Last Remnant, DQ Monster BattleLord, DQ Monsters – Joker, Slime Mori Mori DQ2, DQ IV, DQ IX… etc.
Slightly off the beaten track, but interesting nonetheless, and kind of echoing my previous entry, is 流行り神2 警視庁怪異事件ファイル. Think Phoenix Wright or one of the CSI games in a horror situation, coupled with X-Files. It’s out November on PS2 under the genre of Horror/Adventure. Apparently you can take the cases from a scientific point of view, or you can believe in ghosts and other such fortean phenomena and go in from the occult point of view. Take your pick. One of the comments I had not so long ago stated that all Japanese games can be played even if you don’t understand the context much – I seriously wouldn’t recommend it with this one though. Of course, up to you, if you want to be that foolhardy.
I’ve also managed to check out a review of the new PSP-2000. Mind, it’s only a review, and one person’s point of view. But it didn’t sound that encouraging. Most people have complained of the various loading times of games on the PSP, which according to some takes up to half a minute. Well, this new hand-held isn’t apparently that much better. To his credit, the reviewer does take into account that he only tried with the games currently out, but nonetheless, the sticky point of loading time seems to remain.