SEGA has teamed up with Crunchyroll to give an exclusive speak peek at Tite Kubo’s, the main character designer for the manga series BLEACH, character designs for the upcoming Sakura Wars (2019) game for Playstation 4.
The video showcases sketches the new Flower Division character designs by the famous manga creator with many detailed expressions shown for each character. Sakura Wars (2019) will take center stage on April 28th for Playstation 4.
Streets of Rage 4 physical editions for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch are now up for pre-order at Limited Run Games. Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games have also revealed the main composer for the game. Olivier Derivière, who worked on soundtracks for A Plague Tale: Innocence, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Dying Light 2 and more. The soundtrack will also feature several guest musicians, with new contributions from Scattle (Hotline Miami 1 & 2), Das Mörtal (Hotline Miami 2), XL Middleton, and Groundislava. These join the already announced guest artist Yuzo Koshiro, however a bit of bad news as Hideki Naganuma has been announced to no longer be able to contribute to the soundtrack due to scheduling issues.
Still, the game looks and sounds great and we can’t wait to get our hands on a physical copy!
The third installment of Shenmue III downloadable content releases today, March 17th! This time, players will see the arrival of the Big Merry Cruise. Sure cruise ships are not a popular destination right now in the real world, but in the world of Shenmue they sure look enticing. The DLC features a huge cruise ship that has arrived at Chobu harbor, and inside is an all new gambling area. The ship also features special items that can be acquired by completing mini-quests onboard the ship.
Players must have reached Niaowu or have a cleared save file in order to access the latest DLC. DLC can be purchased on the PlayStation store or on the Epic Games store.
SEGA has uploaded a new trailer for the upcoming Sakura Wars title showcasing the LIPS system (Live Interactive Picture System) where the player would have make the best decisions to build romance and friendships with the captivating characters of Sakura Wars.
In addition, the launch edition of the game has been updated along with Digital Deluxe and Digital Standard Editions. Each edition and DLC will include:
Launch Edition
Reversible cover art
Sticker set featuring the main cast
Theater Costume Add-on Bundle
Digital Deluxe and Digital Standard Editions
Imperial Combat Revue PS4 Dynamic Theme
Neko Ears Add-on Bundle
Upgrading to the Digital Deluxe Edition, you will receive:
Legacy of Love Add-on Bundle: a pack of costumes and background music (BGM) paying tribute to:
The Flower Division of the Imperial Combat Revue (Sakura Wars 1, Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die)
The Flower Division of the Paris Combat Revue (Sakura Wars 3: Is Paris Burning?)
The Star Division of the New York Combat Revue (Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love)
Charming Accessories Add-on Bundle, which includes
Glasses Bundle
Dog Tail Accessory Bundle
Angel Accessory Bundle
Swimsuit DLC Bundle
Sakura Wars takes center stage on the PlayStation 4 on April 28, 2020! Hit the jump to check out screenshots and bundle images.
SEGA America got three different Yakuza directors from three different Yakuza games that are included in the Yakuza Remastered Collection. They got Daisuke Sato (Yakuza 3 director), Jun Orihara (Yakuza 4 director) and Kazuki Hosokawa (Yakuza 5 director) to sit down and look back on the series’ PlayStation 3 outings.
I really love these director, behind the scene looks into the games and its something that RGG Studios does a lot in Japan leading up to game releases. Glad we are getting the same treatment for this collection in the West. They did hint in the end that they will be doing a separate video on the stories for these games.
Explore the world of Sakura Wars as SEGA has released a story trailer for the upcoming title showcasing on what players should be expecting in the reboot that retains many of the features that made the genre-defining series such a hit in Japan, including a poetic vision, a strong cast, and a compelling story filled with intrigue, action, and romance!
Here is description of the story, courtesy of the SEGA Press:
“From the large clock tower atop Ginza train station, dominating the city skyline, to the captivating Imperial Theater standing tall at the heart of Tokyo, Sakura Wars exudes a world rich in historical inspiration and enriched with fantastical steampunk technology. The Taisho era represents a time of prosperity and optimism for Japan, an intersection of eastern and western cultures that creates a vibrant framework in which to take on the mantle of Seijuro Kamiyama and bring the Imperial Combat Revue back to glory!
Sakura Wars is set for release in Americas and Europe on April 28th for Playstation 4. You can pre-order a copy on SEGA’s official website for the game and receive a launch edition that will include reversible cover featuring the original Japanese cover art for the game, along with a sticker set featuring the main cast of the game. Click after the break to check out screenshots of the story sections.”
It was 2015 when I posted the four part retrospective of Sega of Japan’s game development. 2015 was the year where they announced a new initiative and went as far as to make their previous corporate divisions their own separate companies. Such as Sega Games, Sega Interactive for arcades and so on (which they are already undoing again in April). Sega Game’s new president, Haruki Satomi, promised that he would right the wrongs of the past, gain back the trust of consumers and also shareholders with their “Road to 2020” initiative. Of course this encompasses the evolution of their Japanese in-house studios, which are arguably the core of Sega.
Project GG will be headed by Hideki Kamiya (who directed Bayonetta & The Wonderful 101)
Its the last entry in Platinum Games ‘Hero Trilogy’ which started with Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101 (we forgetting VJ2?)
Will be a ‘big hero’ action game inspired by Ultraman
Will be the first self-published IP by PlatinumGames
Targeting all existing platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and of course PC
PlatinumGames still has two unannounced games and they are new titles; not ports.
Seems like a lot of new information, just surprised we haven’t actually gotten a name for the game. Project GG, well… good game? What do you guys think?
If you are a huge rhythm music fan, then we got a epic crossover for you. Hatsune Miku will join Space Channel 5 VR: Funky News Flash! as DLC. We don’t know when this DLC will be released but we do know you will be able to play as Hatsune Miku in the game.
The image above is from Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone, which had a Space Channel 5 costume. Not crazy to believe that this crossover was going to happen since SEGA develops and publishes Hatsune Miku games and owns the Space Channel 5 IP.
We will keep you updated on future news for Space Channel 5 VR. What do you think of Miku making an appearance?
We also found out that PlatinumGames has a game announcement on the February 27,2020 issue of Famitsu, which will line up with the ‘second star’ announcement here on their website which teases it for ‘02.26.2020‘.
What do you think PlatinumGames will announce? I personally think this will be their first, 100% owned IP for the company and I think that’s pretty exciting.
Fellow Super Monkey Ball voice actor @Briantokyojapan posted on his instagram that there will be a interesting Super Monkey Ball announcement, that something is in the works and to stay tuned. He also hashtagged #monkeyball and #SEGA. But the interesting thing is that he used a photo that just says “Super Monkey Ball” on it, leading me to believe that this might be a port or remake of the original game. Or maybe another ‘Super Monkey Ball Deluxe‘ with the first two, but who knows.
“This is going to be interesting. Something IS in the works but I’ll miss the meeting on the 25th as I’m going overseas for a week. Stay tuned! #monkeyball#sega“
It makes sense since the last released game in the franchise, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD was also a ‘remake’ of the original Wii game. They could also be creating a brand new game, since the official Super Monkey Ball twitter account ran a poll in September of last year asking fans what they want from the franchise next, in first place was a brand new game with 49.2% of the votes and in close second was a remake of the first two games with 42.1% . What do you think this Super Monkey Ball announcement will be?
Streets of Rage 4‘s publisher Dotemu has teased that they will be showing off a fifth playable character for the game. According to them the new character will be revealed with a “little” surprise… maybe? They have also confirmed that Streets of Rage 4 and Windjammers 2 will be playable at PAX East Boston.
Some people would suggest it might be Eddie “Skate” Hunter, but seeing as this game already has Cherry Hunter, Eddie’s sister and Adam Hunter; how many Hunters do we need? Some say this could be the return of Max Thunder, but he isn’t little at all. Maybe a Streets of Rage 3 character like Dr. Gilbert Zan or Roo? Eh. We shall see.
Who do you think the fifth playable character for Streets of Rage 4 will be?
If you are planning on buying Streets of Rage 4 to play the game online with your old buddies that have moved around the world, you might want to hold that excitement because a user on the Steam forums have asked the developer behind the game if they will feature online co-op and this is what he had to say:
“Going to be local co-op actually but we’ll keep the online coop idea in mind.”
Not really much to discuss but you’d think having online co-op in 2020 would be a no brainier. I do know that Steam now has a feature called ‘Remote Play’ that allows users to play multiplayer offline games, online with the feature. I don’t think PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch has these, so it seems this could be a negative for the game. Personally I play most of my games offline, but what do you think?
Now that we finally got the Yakuza Remastered Edition released the other day, I took some time to unbox the Day One edition. This Day One Edition comes with some extras, most exciting for fans is the Yakuza 5 PlayStation 3 USA replica case. In this video I compare the USA case versus the Japanese Yakuza 5 cases to see the differences.
