Author Archives: George

Atlus announces Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth for 3DS

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While it seems that most publishers have left the Nintendo 3DS for the Nintendo Switch, Atlus isn’t quite done. They just announced Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth for the Nintendo 3DS which is set to launch November 29 in Japan for 6,980 JPY (about $63 USD).

Persona Q2 will feature cast members from Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5; including female protagonist from Persona 3 (guess they were left out in the last one?). Above this post I posted the TV spot that had been released, Atlus is teasing the official trailer won’t release until August 6 at 12:00 JST via the Persona twitter account. There will also be a 10-page Weekly Famitsu preview on August 9th, so we will have a ton of new information soon.

Its not surprising that Atlus will continue to support the Nintendo 3DS, they also supported the PlayStation Vita for a long time after Sony abandoned it.

[Source: Gematsu]

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SEGA Financials doubles down on resurrecting classic IPs, leaks Yakuza 6 on PC and teases 3 unannounced digital games

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SEGA has posted its latest Financial Statement for the first quarter, which was released earlier today. This financial year is going to end on March 2019. One of the first big bits of news is how SEGA-Sammy’s latest financial report leaked Yakuza 6 for PC, right under their major 2019 titles:

It says here 4/2018, which seems to line up with the PlayStation 4 release. But if you look on the platforms, SEGA-Sammy posted it as the title being on both PS4 and PC. As you know, we just got Yakuza 0 on Steam the other day and have been promised Yakuza Kiwami in the near future. Could we be getting a Yakuza 6 soon as well or is this just SEGA making a mistake?

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Shining Resonance Refrain Review – AKA Tales of Resonance (PS4, Nintendo Switch)

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It’s hard to believe that Shining Resonance Refrain is the first Shining series game to come outside of Japan in over a decade. While the franchise use to be a stable of SEGA back in the 90s, it seemed that us Westerns have been kept in the dark on the recent releases, until now. Shining Resonance Refrain is a definitive release of the PlayStation 3 exclusive Shining Resonance. So was the wait for the return of the Shining series worth it?

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Valkyria Chronicles 4 English prologue trailer released and localization interview

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SEGA really seems to be taking localization more seriously these last few years. First we got a new prologue trailer in English for Valkyria Chronicles 4 and not only that we also got a interview with SEGA Associate Localization and lead for Valkyria Chronicles 4 Andrew Davis. He went on to reveal details including that English voice over work took 10 weeks, talked about matching characterization, and the fact that Ragnarok the dog has the same voice for both Japan and the West:

No, Ragnarok has the same voice actor for both English and Japanese. Funny story – we did actually record an English track for Ragnarok, but the feedback from our Japanese team was that even with additional post-processing, he sounded too much like a small dog – Ragnarok is more of a medium-sized dog. The English actor’s growls were really well-received, but the barks weren’t quite there, so we stuck with the Japanese actor. It’s unfortunate, it would have been my big break in a voice acting role…

You can check out the full interview over at the PlayStation.Blog, lots of cool tidbits of information. Make sure to pick up Valkyria Chronicles 4 comes out September 25 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC! Here is a sample of the 100-page art book that will come with the Memoirs from Battle premium edition!

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New Persona 5 Haru and Ryuji Figma Figures Announced, Makoto Figure Gets Sneak Peak

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Atlus has teased a few Figma figures coming out soon for Persona 5, which seem to be tied into the upcoming anime. The two figures they announced was Haru Okumura as Noir and Ryuji Sakamoto as Skull. Prior to these new Figma figures, the company has been hard at work on the Makoto Niijima as Queen figure. You can see the sneak peak on that figure after the jump.

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What do you think should be the future of the Phantasy Star franchise?

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These past few weeks we have been talking quite a bit about Idola Phantasy Star on SEGAbits. The game seems to been met with a lot of negativity and it isn’t just from a whiny SEGA fan like yours truly. I think one of the more shocking things about the mobile game is that the director basically came out and said that Idola Phantasy Star Saga will be the future of the franchise and they want it to replace Phantasy Star Online 2. That means that they want Idola Phantasy Star Saga to be out for at least half a decade, considering that Phantasy Star Online 2 came out way back in 2012. I’ve seen a lot of people reach out to us on Twitter and tell us how they wished SEGA handled the Phantasy Star brand.


But here at SEGAbits want to hear from YOU, the reader. How do you wish SEGA would handle the Phantasy Star brand moving forward?

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SEGA Japan contest giving away Sonic Mania art by Ken Sugimori of Pokemon fame

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SEGA Japan’s Sonic Channel is holding a pretty awesome contest giving away original artwork by Ken Sugimori (known for Pokemon, art director at Game Freak). According to SEGA Japan’s tweet it will be given to someone on twitter and they did link to this write-up with Ken Sugimori giving his impressions on Sonic Mania and its features. I do love the ending where he asks SEGA to do a ‘Space Harrier Mania‘, ‘Phantasy Star Mania’ and ‘Altered Beast Mania’. Hey, I wouldn’t complain if SEGA had a Retro line of older games coming back like Sonic Mania.

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Idola Phantasy Star Saga Producer and Director talks changed setting, link to past games

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As you guys already know, I wrote a long whiny post on why I wasn’t too into Idola Phantasy Star Saga mobile game and now we get some more clarification from the Director and Producer on the changes in setting. Gathered by Siliconera, according to the change in setting:

“The reason why Idola has a different setting and worldview from Phantasy Star Online 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2 es, is because it could become a hurdle for people who don’t play PSO2 if it were directly related. Although the game has been made to be easy to get into even for those new to the series, the common elements in the series still remain. Idola is also meant to bring back those who stopped playing PSO2 and PSO2 es, as something “Phantasy Star-like”. That said, there may be some smaller connections to the world of Oracle from PSO2.”

As for having some connection to the past games, considering this game is a 30th Anniversary title, they said:

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Yakuza 3 PlayStation 4 demo hits Asian PSN stores

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We already knew that Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 was going to hit the PlayStation 4, with Yakuza 3 coming out August 9th. What I didn’t expect was them to do a demo for the Yakuza 3 release. But it seems SEGA has launched a demo on the Asian PlayStation Store which includes: Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and other Asian countries. The demo hasn’t even hit the Japanese PSN store yet!

If you didn’t already know this Yakuza 3 port will be the definitive experience on console, running at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. As for a Western release, SEGA hasn’t discussed it but don’t be shocked if they do end up announcing it sooner than later.

[Source: Gematsu]

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Rare SegaSonic Bros. arcade prototype to be playable at California Extreme this weekend

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This upcoming Saturday California Extreme arcade & pinball event is happening in the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara, California. The event will last 2 whole days (July 28-29) and feature quite a number of speakers. While all that is nice and fun, one of the biggest surprises is that the long lost SegaSonic Bros. prototype will be playable at this event.

If you didn’t know, SegaSonic Bros. is a 1992 puzzle game for the Sega System C2 designed by Fukio Mitsuji (Bubble Bobble fame), the game never got a full release due to bad location testing in Japan and was considered lost until arcade board collector ShouTime revealed that he had a working board back in 2016. ShouTime will be bringing that working prototype board to California Extreme for arcade enthusiast to play. I sort of wish I had a heads up on SegaSonic Bros. being playable so I could have made plans to go and try it. Are any of you guys going to California Extreme? Check out more info here.

[Via Arcade Heroes]

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SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Classics’ free VR update for PlayStation 4 out now

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If you have been playing the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Classics and wished you could use your PlayStation VR headset, you are now in luck my friend. SEGA has just tweeted that the free PlayStation 4 VR update for the collection is out now.

I went online and saw some streamers try the VR update to see how it worked and it looks pretty cool. Obviously most of the impressive ‘immersive’ VR experience comes from the 3D game room when selecting the games, when you are in-game its just a regular screen (in VR!). You can check out GAMERTAG VR’s Stream of it to see what its like. This is cool, I like free updates. I think SEGA should do this more with their games especially Sonic Team games that never seem to get issues ironed out.

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Why I think Idola Phantasy Star Saga looks terrible

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The other day SEGA announced their new mobile game Idola Phantasy Star Saga, in which I did a write up on the news where I said the game looked terrible. It seemed some people didn’t like the idea of me having a ‘hot take’ on a newly released trailer. Some people thought I was judging the game too early, but the issue is I’m not. When I said that Idola Phantasy Star Saga looked terrible, I meant that what we have seen so far has looked terrible. Of course, you don’t have to agree with my opinion and I’m always open to listening to people that disagree, but this is the long version of why I think Idola Phantasy Star Saga looks terrible.

But let’s get into it:

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Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 hits English Android and iOS stores

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Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 English has officially been released on both Play Store and iTunes shop, the game marks the first SEGA developed Shin Megami Tensei title. I tried it on my Galaxy Note 8 and the game has some slick graphics, including full screen support for my extended display, really well done music and it truly does feel like a Shin Megami Tensei game. So far, so good. I’m not that far into the game just yet, so we shall see.

You can check out the official mobile website here, are you going to try Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2?

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SEGA announces Idola Phantasy Star Saga for mobile, looks terrible

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The trailer is the new debut trailer for the brand new Idola Phantasy Star Saga, which is mean’t to celebrate the franchieses 30th birthday. The only issue here is that they stripped out almost everything that made ‘Phantasy Star‘ a Phantasy Star game and made it a cheap,  generic JRPG mobile cash grab. Instead of having cool characters, art from the franchises history they just turned everyone into waifus because it sells. The good news is that the game has Producer, script writer and world builder Shuntaro Tanaka (Valkyria Chronicles, Sakura Wars, Phantasy Star Online 2), Tomomasa Chin (Valkyria Chronicles 2, Phantasy Star Online 2 )as director, and Sho Mutsuura (Phantasy Star Online 2) as art director.

Going to be honest, its a bit sad state of affairs being a Phantasy Star fan right now. First we got screwed from a Western Phantasy Star Online 2 release and now SEGA has this planned for the franchise. SEGA West hasn’t talked about bringing the title over to Western mobile, I personally wouldn’t bother. The game is set to come out later this year. Hit the jump for more info on the characters and their backstories:

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Phantasy Star mobile countdown website launched, celebrates franchises 30th Anniversary

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SEGA has launched the following Phantasy Star website, according to the site this upcoming announcement will be part of the Phantasy Star 30th Anniversary. The first Phantasy Star launched in Japan way back in 1988 on the SEGA Mark III (Master System outside of Japan).

According to the website this announcement is slated for iOS and Android mobile users. According to the site this will be a RPG, no idea if this means that they will go back to the franchises roots or if this is just another mobile cash grab. I will say I’m digging the Phantasy Star 30th Anniversary logo, looks like they included a silhouette of Myau from the orginal Phantasy Star.

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