[A screenshot from the most recent Shining release, Shining Hearts]
Speaking in a recent Famitsu interview, Tsuyoshi Sawada, the man directly in charge of the direction of the Shining series, has revealed that a new title in SEGA’s long running series is in the works, read the full quote after the break;
As a developer, Platinum Games has, from the start, focused on creating new IP. That’s not to say that doing a sequel down the road isn’t ever going to happen, Platinum Games founder Atsushi Inaba told Famitsu this week.
” It’s not that we don’t want to make sequels. We’re strongly attached to the things that we created ourselves, after all,” Inaba explained. “If asked ‘which,’ we tend to take up original productions, but we’d also like to challenge making the kind of sequel that expands the worlds.”
Though some may have been disappointed that Anarchy Reigns wasn’t actually Bayonetta 2, (not me, though,) it seems that people looking forward to a sequel to one of their favorite Platinum Games titles shouldn’t give up hope entirely.
[Source: Andriasang]
Yuji Naka has teased this action game before, and now in the latest issue of Famitsu he goes into detail about his latest creation. The game will be called Tenkuu no Kishi Rodea, and like we already know, it will be sky based. The story will be written by Takumi Miyajima (Tales of Symphonia/Tales of the Abyss).
The game will let you take to the skies and shoot enemies, and it’s also said to feature ‘non flying levels’. Even though Yuji Naka originally teased this as his ‘HD action game’ it is actually heading to the Wii/3DS. So another Nintendo exclusive.
Enjoy the scans! Game is being published by Kadokawa Games, not SEGA. Just to let you guys know.
[Sexy zombie researcher? Check]
You can’t just have a game with zombies, that doesn’t work. You have to have classes of zombies, every game has to have a variety of these brain munchers and Yakuza of the End is no different. Famitsu this week introduced a few of the classes you can expect in the full game.
If you haven’t seen the other pictures, that lady in white is Reiko Hasegawa, a sexy zombie researcher. She will keep you informed on all your zombie craving news.
[Source: AndriaSang]
[Fanboy no more, Binary Domain is rumored for Xbox 360 & PS3]
According to 2ch, the latest Famitsu had a interview with Nagoshi about his upcoming new IP, which is being done with the Yakuza team and Western developers from SEGA. The new game is rumored to be called Binary Domain
The games plot takes place in Tokyo during the year 2080, Tokyo is split into classes, the poor and the rich. He said that poor Tokyo will look about the same as it does now, just more devastated. The game is suppose to have lots of focus on AI and online gameplay. The image that is supposed to be in Famtisu is described as a monk, in third person shooting fashion, shooting a robot. CGI image, of course.
The western staff didn’t want to have the game take place in Japan, but Nagoshi said it had to be in Japan because that is where he is from and if he is going to make a human drama game, it has to be somewhere he knows.
Well, maybe taking out hostess to dates (did you know they back you up against zombies?) and killing the undead isn’t your thing. Maybe. But if you played the past Yakuza titles, you will know there are mini games scattered across the city. Famitsu has listed some in their newest issue.
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.
[First scan/concept art of the upcoming game]
Yuji Naka’s upcoming game has been teased in Famitsu and it won’t be published by SEGA. The game will be published by Kadokawa Games. Never heard of them? I don’t blame you, all they have done was a port of RPG Maker for DS and some other girl anime game. But it seems the company wants to become bigger, first step is with the Yuji Naka HD game (along with a game by Grasshopper).
“The game itself is an action title that takes place in the sky. The action gameplay is what I’m focusing on the most with this project — interactivity is the most important attraction with any sort of game, and if that doesn’t evolve, then games won’t be everything they can be. Sonic was all about completely taking over the land, and Nights brought that same concept into the skies. I had always thought that action games that take place in the sky are too hard for players to cope with, but then I thought up a new method for dealing with it. That’s how this project got started. If I had stuck around at Sega, then I might have used this concept to make a sequel to Nights!” – Yuji Naka (Prope)
It is most likely that SEGA passed on publishing Yuji Naka’s title. Most likely due to how poor a bigger known IP like NiGHTS did on Wii and how he compares the concept to that or it could be due to how poor Let’s Tap did. We will never know. We wish Naka luck with his new title and if its good, of course we will all be playing it, regardless of publisher.
[Source: 1up]
Even though everyone dislikes Famitsu, it is the second magazine to review the game and its another positive hit for SEGA and Platinum Games. The magazine gave the game a 9/9/10/9. Famitsu has four people give a score and adds it up for a total. The game got a 37, three points shy from getting a perfect score.
The first review for the game was done by PLAY UK, which gave the title a 93 out of 100. They stated “Vanquish is about as good as action gaming can get.” Get hyped, Vanquish launches in the end of the month, worldwide.
[Source: Nintendo Everything]
Yakuza’s first game into portable gaming gets reviewed by Famitsu? All the Yakuza games have gotten high ratings, did Black Panther: New Yakuza Chapter go down the same path?
Surprisingly, yes it did. Famitsu rated it 9’s down the board (9/9/9/9), not perfect but pretty damn close. Now we will see what they think of the upcoming Yakuza zombie game.
[Source: NintendoEverything]
Seriously, seems that Nagoshi was serious when he said he could make a Yakuza zombie game. The latest screens in the newst Famitsu is filled with the undead.
Is this SEGA’s answer to Dead Rising? You know how we Westerners love our zombies. Should be a interesting TGS, Nagoshi posing with zombie hookers.
[UPDATE: More scans, including some gun action gameplay screens!]
It seems that the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles 3 is real and its coming to PSP. The game appears in the latest issue of Famitsu, under the PSP section.
We are unable to get scans of the feature, since NeoGAF forbids scans of actual magazine content (table of contents is OK). We should be learning more about the game come TGS.
[Source: NeoGAF]
[update] Scans and first info, hit the jump to view it.
Just like I predicted before, Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity is going to be an updated version of Phantasy Star Portable 2. The new game will have a extended story that will introduce a new character named Nagisa. She is part of the new race called Dyunmans, the game’s fifth selectable race.
Every race is going to be getting new outfits in the upcoming expansion. SEGA is also introducing the character reincarnation system, it will let players reset their character’s level and build up other stats. The game will also feature ‘Infinity Mode’, a harder difficultly settling.
Infinity will also have a visual lobby, cell phone style text input system, screenshot utility, and a tag mode mission code sharing thing. It says that there will be about 1.5x more content than Phantasy Star Portable 2. Damn, just bring this west and cancel PSP2!
More scans after the jump!
This was in the newest issue of Famitsu, teasing ‘The End’ to the Yakuza franchise? Maybe its just teasing what the upcoming title will revolve around. Maybe it will have destructible environments?
It could be anything, I just hope that SEGA does not pull a Hideo Kojima with this series and start teasing the same promises with every title (wasn’t his last MGS title like 3 titles ago?).
We shall see at TGS next month. How exciting.
[Thanks: Suzuki Yu]
Ohji Hiroi, creator of Sakura Wars, was the guest honor at a Sakura Wars pachinko event held in Asagaya. During the show, Ohji Hiori teased an upcoming announcement.
“Next month’s Famitsu might have something interesting to see. Platform or something like…“
This does not mean that Sakura Wars 6 will be announced, maybe it means they are releasing Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love in Japan on Wii. You know, since that version was ported just for the US release.
[Source: Siliconera]