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“Diggin’ in the Carts” interviews Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro

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The new series from Red Bull Music Academy, Diggin’ in the Carts, that we previously reported on, has uploaded it’s fourth episode, in which we get brand new interviews with SEGA music legends Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro.

For those unaware, Kawaguchi was behind the soundtracks to several of SEGA’s finest soundtrack work, such as OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, Power Drift… we could go on. To this day, he still works at SEGA, and still his output never falters. Suffice to say, he’s probably one of the most talented video game composers of all time, and his list of works is nothing to scoff at.

The same can be said for Yuzo Koshiro, whose works include the soundtracks to the Streets of Rage games, as well as The Revenge of Shinobi. In addition, he’s even worked on the new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, and if that wasn’t enough, he too has generally kept a consistent quality throughout all of his work.

He also worked on Shenmue, which is of course no small feat, with the game boasting a breathtaking score.

The episode also mentions Masato Nakamura’s work on Sonic the Hedgehog; somewhat unsurprisingly, he was unavailable for comment. It is quite entertaining to see Flying Lotus and Thundercat’s rendition of Green Hill Zone. There’s also a bit of pretty rare SEGA merch in there, as the vinyl record “SEGA Music” with various arcade SEGA tunes turns up in the possession of J. Rocc!

Overall, it’s a fantastic episode, and one I personally recommend SEGA fans check out. And if that’s not enough, an upcoming episode also features Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, so stay tuned!

You can catch the episode by clicking here!

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SEGA and The Creative Assembly announce Total War: Attila at EGX London 2014 – game to release in 2015

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SEGA and The Creative Assemblyhave unveiled a new Total War title, Total War: Attila, at this years EGX London event. Described as “challenging” and designed for “Total War veterans”, Total War: Attila will obviously feature Attila the Hun, leader of the Hunnic Empire, and his one million horsemen. At the height of his reign, his control stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. Eurogamer, which went hands-on with the game, describes how diseases will play a part in the game. The cleaner and healthier a city you have, the less a chance you have of facing disease. The spread of disease will affect player’s soldiers, which will impact their performance in battle. Other features include a region overlay which provides regional details like wealth and disposition, the return of the family tree (a feature missing from Rome II), and dynamic fire, a new weapon which allows buildings to burn and fires to spread.

Total War: Attila is expected to release next year, and we’re certain a press release is on the way. In the meantime, enjoy the above trailer and get ready to welcome Attila into your homes.

Update: The official site for the game is live, check it out and learn more about the latest Total War title.

Update 2: Press release, screenshots, cover art, and concept art after the break.

Update 3: SEGAbits forum member JRcade19 spotted a mention on the SEGA Blog that the game is due for release in 2015 on Windows PC and Mac. An interesting development, given traditionally PC and Mac releases of SEGA titles are years apart.

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SEGA (IPs) in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for Sep 15 – 21 Sep 2014

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Bayonetta-2

Although the sales of Bayonetta 2 will in no way effect SEGA’s profits, it’s still a SEGA IP and a major one at that. When it was released it quickly became a fan favourite last generation. The original was the third collaboration between SEGA and Platinum Games and was released in late 2009 in Japan and early 2010 in Europe/America. There has been much discussion about moving the sequel over to the Wii U and whether it would pay off, and now we finally get the first sales data for the title as it was launched in Japan last week, hit the break to find out how well the Witch is doing on the Wii U.

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Is a Nintendo 3DS SEGA 3D Classics collection retail release in the works for Japan?

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Spotted on NeoGAF and reported by gamestalk.net comes word that a physical release for SEGA’s 3D Classics collection for the Nintendo 3DS may be releasing to Japan on December 18th for 3,980 yen. The compilation is said to include a mix of wave 1 and wave 2 titles: 3D Space Harrier, 3D Fantasy Zone, 3D Outrun, 3D Streets of Rage, 3D Shinobi 2, and 3D Ecco the Dolphin. Also included are two bonus titles, Space Harrier 3D and Outrun 3D which originally released to the SEGA Master System and utilized the 3D glasses.

This leaves 3D Super Hang On, 3D Sonic the Hedgehog, 3D Altered Beast, 3D Galaxy Force II, 3D Afterburner II, 3D Fantasy Zone, and 3D Thunder Blade as eshop exclusives, but it is likey that if this compilation sells well, the rest will be released in another volume.

We’ll share more news on this potential release as we hear it, so stay tuned!

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SEGA takes aim and blasts Resonance of Fate onto PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3

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SEGA West has announced that Resonance of Fate, released in 2010 to the Xbox 360 and PS3, is now available on the PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3. Developed by tri-Ace, Resonance of Fate is a unique RPG featuring a combat system centered around gun-play in a steampunk-styled world. Players take control of Vashyron, Zephyr and Leanne, members of the Private Military Firm who are tasked with seeking out and completing quests for their clients.

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SEGA Retrospective: Let’s get sweaty as we celebrate a SEGA Dreamcast classic, it’s Shenmue Week!

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Welcome to a franchise week that many readers have been requesting ever since we began to dedicate seven days to classic SEGA titles, this is Shenmue Week! Like Jet Set Radio Week, we’re going focus exclusively on the first game of the franchise throughout the week. While Shenmue and its sequel are not incredibly different games from each other like Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future, we felt that both Shenmue titles are both so epic on their own that to try and cram both into seven days would do a disservice to the series. Not to mention, we love Shenmue so much that the prospect of another Shenmue Week in the future is something we’re looking forward to.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s travel back in time, before Shenmue II and before the original Shenmue. Before the series went by the codename Project Berkley, to a time in the mid 90s when SEGA’s Yu Suzuki was working on a SEGA Saturn prototype known as The Old Man and the Peach Tree.

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SEGA by Design: Power Stone 2 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Cover Art

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SEGAbyDesign

Welcome to a new SEGAbits feature: SEGA by Design. Believe it or not, SEGAbits is not my day job. When I’m not working on the site, I’m a full time graphic designer. Before I decided to make graphic design my profession, I grew up wanting to be either an animator or a cartoonist. My childhood influences included 90’s cartoons and video game cover art, and while I loved such works as the covers of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, I found myself even more attracted to the package designs that encapsulated the artwork. At the time, I had no idea what this sort of thing was called, I just knew that it was slick, uniform, and involved colors, shapes, and fonts. It wasn’t until the Playstation game Wipeout that I learned of what graphic design actually entailed through the work of The Designer’s Republic. From there on out, I knew I wanted to be a graphic designer and four years of college and seven years of professional experience later, here I am about to tear into the cover art of one of my most favorite SEGA Dreamcast games: Capcom’s Power Stone 2.

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Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Coming to Europe This November

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If you’re European and dreaded having to wait a very long time for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, then we’ve got some good news for you: you have to wait somewhat less than you used to. According to Eurogamer, SEGA is bringing the game to Europe this November in disc and digital formats. No specific release date was given, but at least we know that we just have to wait two months instead of nine.

Well, unless you’re going to import the game. If so, you can get it from the US starting September 30th or you can already import it from Japan. That or you’re one of those weird not-European people who lives there and doesn’t have to either import or wait that long for the game.

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Valkyria Chronicles’ Selvaria Bles and Alicia Melchiott enters Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax

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Fans of the Valkyria Chronicles franchise can jump for joy as SEGA & Dengeki has recently announced during Tokyo Game Show 2014 that Selvaria Bles and Alicia Melchiott will appear as playable and supporting in the home versions of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax which is set for release on November 13, 2014 for Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita.

At the moment, it is unknown how the characters will play in-game. However, screenshots are available to view on the net. The two will join the fray along with other SEGA characters, Akira Yuki and Pai Chan, from Virtua Fighter, who’ve also been announced for the home versions of Fighting Climax.

More details to be announced soon. Which SEGA character do you think would fit Fighting Climax? Leave us a comment below and hit the jump for screenshots of Selvaria and Alicia in action!

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Phantasy Star Nova getting Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean and Resonance of Fate outfits

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Seems that the developers behind Phantasy Star Nova aren’t going afraid of putting their personal touch on the long running SEGA RPG franchise. Announced at this year’s Tokyo Game Show the game is set to have costumes from previous Tri-Ace games which include Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean and the SEGA published Resonance of Fate.

Even though all the games above are developed by Tri-Ace, Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean are both published and owned by Square-Enix. I wonder how hard it was to convince Square-Enix on allowing them to use their franchises in  Phantasy Star Nova.

Phantasy Star Nova is set to release in Japan this November exclusively for the Playstation Vita. What about us in the West? No release date planned, yet. Hit the jump for screenshots.

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Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric pushed up to Nov 11

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Sonic-Boom

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for Wii U has been pushed up to November 11th from it’s original release date of November 18th. While Sega has not given a reason for this push, one can only speculate that they either wanted to match up to the release date of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on 3DS or they didn’t want to get smashed by any competition coming out around the same time. The European release dates have not been changed and are still due to come out on November 21st.

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Yakuza Zero’s TGS trailer reveals plot, looks action packed

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The previous teaser for the game didn’t show much outside that this game was going to be ‘brutal’, this new trailer gives up all the nice details about what to expect in the full game.

The game will have you play as Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima. It seems that fan favorite Goro Majima’s story is going to have to do with a past relationship and a tie-in into him losing his eye (yes, the story about his lost eye was first told as a flashback in Yakuza 4).

Now if only we could get a English version to play…

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Phantasy Star Nova Tokyo Game Show 2014 Trailer

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Tokyo Game Show media is quickly pouring out. SEGA recently uploaded their TGS 2014 promotional trailer for Phantasy Star Nova. It features cinematic elements and quick character highlights, while also offering quick looks into gameplay features like combat, weapons, and the Gigantes boss enemies. The trailer also momentarily highlights the game’s character creation, and makes a point to draw attention to the ad-hoc multiplayer mode. It’s a summary trailer for those wondering what Phantasy Star Nova is all about.

Be sure to check it out! In other news, Phantasy Star Nova will feature cameo costumes and weapons from 2010 RPG Resonance of Fate, developed by tri-Ace and published by Sega. Phantasy Star Nova is a similar situation as it is being developed by tri-Ace, though SEGA staff members are actively involved in this game’s development.

Phantasy Star Nova is scheduled for release in Japan on November 11. Localization is planned in traditional Mandarin Chinese, and there are a handful of territories besides China with speakers of this dialect including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. However, no localization is planned for other regions; hopefully this state of affairs is reversed, as waiting fans will be missing out.

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Sonic the Hedgehog to crossover into Monster Hunter 4G

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Have you ever played Monster Hunter game and thought that there just wasn’t enough Sonic the Hedgehog items in the game? Don’t worry, SEGA and Capcom have you covered with this crossover. You can get more information on Capcom’s Monster Hunter 4G site, this is being listed as ‘DLC’.

This will be a bonus costume and weapon for your Felyne companion in the game, so it isn’t some sort of major crossover. Yep, that sword is from Sonic and the Black Knight. Seems that SEGA still wants to let us know the game exist.

Monster Hunter 4G is the enhanced edition of Monster Hunter 4 and will be released in Japan this fall on the Nintendo 3DS. The game will be released in the West early 2015 as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

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Alien: Isolation’s Survivor Mode will ship with one map, rest are paid DLC

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SEGA has just released the Survivor Mode trailer for Alien: Isolation. SEGA’s survivor mode will have you complete objectives while on a timer and have other conditions like being hunted. The items you grab while doing survivor mode factor into your score, which will be displayed on the leaderboards. I assume less items used, the higher the score.

The only issue now is that, “Isolation will ship with a Survivor Mode demo featuring one playable map.” Yes, you heard that, one map. But don’t worry if you want more, SEGA has said they will be releasing the rest of the maps as paid DLC. Five packs are planned, the first one being released on October 28th and will contain three maps, a new character and new variety of enemy types.

The game comes out October 7th, and three weeks later it will already have paid DLC? This penny pinching DLC is what is hurting the industry and its shameful that SEGA went this route with Alien: Isolation after everyone felt ripped off by Aliens: Colonial Marines.

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