SEGA Press Event Happening in a Few Weeks

From GoNintendo comes a bit of news regarding an upcoming SEGA press event. Little is said of the event, except that it will happen in a few weeks time and that reps from High Voltage and Creative Assembly will be in attendance. I assume it’ll be at SEGA’s offices in California, though I never should assume as it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me” (joke).

Should be exciting to hear more of Virtua Tennis 4, as well as the others, however what I’m really hoping for are some reveals. Sonic Anniversary, Sonic 4 Episode 2 or Phaantasy Star Online 2 would all be great. Alan Pritchard did say to expect two Sonic game announcements in the early part of this year. More details to come, obviously.

[Source: GoNintendo and The Sonic Stadium]

Yakuza of the End now featuring celebrity zombies

SEGA held a press confress to announce 3 celebrity zombies that you will be able to find in Yakuza of the End.

The three zombies are:

  • Esper Ito – A Japanese comedian, considered to be one of the funniest. More info.
  • David Ito – David is an actor, mostly famous for his appearances in TV dramas. More info.
  • Terry Ito – Stage producer turned movie director. You can find more information here.

Three celebrities, with the same last name all turn into Zombies? Something is going on! Check out the rest of the screens below.

[Source: AndriaSang]

Yu Suzuki: Shenmue City is not Shenmue 3

Yu Suzuki sat down for an interview with Famitsu, to discuss the origins of Shenmue City and the future of the Shenmue franchise. He stated that Shenmue City is not Shenmue 3, so this should make most Shenmue fans breath easier.

“Shenmue has the image of grand scale.”But making something of grand scale requires appropriate preparation. I want to make 3 with the same volume as in the past. There have actually been a lot of requests from fans for 3 as well. There were even petitions signed by by tens of thousands of people. I wanted to carry out my obligations for the series.”Yu Suzuki

So what made Suzuki interested in making Shenmue City a social game? Mafia Wars, the popular social game you might have heard of? Well, he said he tried the game, didn’t understand it then came to enjoy it after awhile. He said that having Shenmue in this perspective was odd since it didn’t require top notch graphics and sounds, two things the Shenmue series is known for.

Shenmue City press event recap


[Two mighty men walk on stage, only one leaves alive]

The press event for Shenmue City has come to a close. What did we learn? Well not too much, but more than we knew before. The event did have a lot of ‘looking back’ at the release of Shenmue, then Sunsoft saying “We will put our full power behind Shenmue Gai (City).” How nice.

Yu Suzuki (along with Takeuchi) took the stage, to explain what Shenmue City will have to offer. They show the game, you are a student in the Hazuki  Dojo and play along side Ryo. They showed the users ‘My Page’ that gives you a list of events (missions), Kung Fu and ‘Search’ options. Search lets you find more events, Yu explains that after you do most events, you will fight a boss in the end to advance to the next stage. In the Kung Fu tab, there will be a move list that you can master.

He also explained that sometimes you will find a ‘Match’ icon in your My Page, this is when someone is challenging you in the game, but this can only happen when you ‘level up’ enough to have your own Dojo. Depending on your success, your Dojo will be ranked, the ranks actually follow the Virtua Fighter ranking system.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 to have two anime films


SEGA held a press conference for Valkyria Chronicles 3, they teased this press conference last week.  So what did we find out? First thing that was shown was the game’s theme song. It is called ” Moshimo Kimi ga Negau no Nara” and it is by pop star May’n. I guess the song will be the first single for her 2nd upcoming album, which will hit store shelves on February 23rd.

SEGA also said they are working on a two volume VC3 OVA (original video animation).  The planned animation videos will feature the voice cast from the game and is set to be released next Spring. They will be available first on the Playstation Store.

SEGA also teamed up with Good Smile Company to make Nendoroid figures of female characters, Riela and Imuka.

[Source: 4Gamer]