Shining Ark

Shining Series artist releases his art book ‘Tony’s Artworks From Origin’ tomorrow

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TonysArtOriginRegardless of what you think of Tony Takas art since taking over the Shining franchise’s art duties all the way back in 2004, he seems to have acquired a massive following in Japan. While the Shining series has had trouble selling copies of their games, it seems that Japan responded positively to Tony Taka’s character designs. So much so that there is a ton of Shining series merch being sold, more so than the actual games. Tony Taka has even released a couple of Shining related art books as well, this will be more broad artwork he has done in the past.

AmiAmi will be selling the “Tony’s ART works from Origin” book which is set to feature various character designs from his career including magazine covers and vocaloids he has designed, including a long form interview looking at his history these past 20 years. The book will come in A4 page format, will have a hardcover backing and clear slip on box. The book will set you back 5,000 yen ($46), will have 100 pages and feature 80 illustrations. The details of the book also brag that about 30 of the character designs in the book got made into figurines. Good for you Tony Taka, I guess.

Hit the jump to check out preview pages of some of the artwork that will be in the book:

[Via AmiAmi]

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SEGA bringing its Shining spin-off arcade game Blade Arcus from Shining EX to PS4 and PS3

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SEGA Japan has announced that they are porting the 2D arcade fighting spin-off Blade Arcus from Shining to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 via Famitsu. SEGA will add ‘EX’ to the end of the game because the game will have loads of extras, including new playable characters.

In Japan the game will get two releases, a standard that will cost 6,990 yen ($56 USD) and a limited edition costing 9,990 yen ($80 USD). All first print copies come with the character Sonia from Shining Resonance. The “Blade Arcus from Shining EX Tony’s Premium Fan Box” limited edition comes with a Tony Taka-illustrated special box, “Shining Heroine Works” art book, Shining Ark character song CD, Shining Blade soundtrack CD, and “Shining Beach Heroines” swimsuit calendar.

As for it coming west, SEGA probably wants to see how Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax does later next month. As for the characters, if you are a old school Shining Force fan, don’t get too excited since all in-game characters are from Shining Hearts/Blade (some original characters for the game too). Hit the job to see who made the cut. 

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Shining Ark’s casual difficulty mode and password bread recipes

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Shining Ark, the latest Shining game in the franchise came out in Japan today for the Sony PSP. As you would expect, lots of information has started to come out, like the fact that the game will have difficulty settings like ‘Standard’ and ‘Casual’. This has been a new trend in RPGs, hoping to catch audiences that thought JRPG’s where too hard, who now can enjoy the game on casual. The game allows you to pick your difficulty at the start, choosing either won’t affect item drops or storyline. Best part is that you can scale the difficulty back whenever you want from the start menu.

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Shining Ark gets Shining Wind character cameo

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If you live in Japan, you might want to know that if you pre-order the next Shining RPG, Shining Ark, SEGA will be giving you a crossover character from Shining Wind for free. You will get Rouna Murasame, she won’t have story elements but will be playable during battle.

Sucks that we won’t see this game in the west. Shining Ark comes out February 28th on the PSP.

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