SEGA has revealed the cover art for the upcoming Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Releasing October 2, 2018, the game will retail for $59.99 and at the time of this article will release as a standard edition. But knowing SEGA, there is probably a special edition or a steelbook or some fancy box lined up. In the meantime, you can pre-order a copy for yourself at Amazon.
File this one under: “The Japanese get the coolest stuff!” SEGA of Japan has released a new trailer for the upcoming Shenmue I & II release for PlayStation 4, and in addition to the footage we got the reveal of a special collector’s edition of the game. Like the Japanese Sonic Mania Plus release, this edition will include the game in a handsome box with a special two CD soundtrack. The soundtrack will feature music from both games. Also included will be a two sided poster and, if it is anything like the other regions, a reversible cover. The special edition will retail for ¥5,990, just a little over $50, however sites like Amiami or Amazon Japan should mark it down a little.
While the game releases this month to the Americas and Europe, Japan will have to wait until November 22, 2018. You can pre-order the game now at Amiami for ¥5,300 and at Amazon Japan for ¥6,469, which includes bonus digital smart device wallpaper downloads.
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?
Last month we shared the news that Read-Only Memory, creators of the awesome SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis Collected Works and the upcoming SEGA Dreamcast Collected Works books, revealed a new SEGA focused book: SEGA Arcade: Pop-Up History. The book will feature an interview with Yu Suzuki and pop-up sculptures of Hang-On, Space Harrier, Thunder Blade, After Burner, and Out Run as well as information about each game. Now that the project has hit the funding goals, a stretch goal has been added with, if reached, will add another pop-up sculpture – the super scaler kart racing game Power Drift!
As of this article, the stretch goal has another £4,000 to go to reach £50,000 and 6 more days remain. We urge you to check the campaign out and if you like what you see to show your support!
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?
Remember Sonic 4 Episode II? It’s back, in SEGA Forever form!
Revealed today, the 2012 console and mobile game Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II has joined the SEGA Forever mobile lineup. The updated release makes the game free to play, with ads, or $1.99 to remove ads. The Episode Metal DLC, once only unlocked if you owned both Sonic 4 episodes on the same platform, is now unlocked from the start.
Prior to its original release, fans were cautious of Sonic 4 Episode II following the release of Sonic 4 Episode I. But upon playing it, the second episode was seen as a marked improvement over the first episode. Physics were more in line with what was expected from a 2D Sonic game, stages and bosses were more creative, bosses were better and the addition of Metal Sonic (and tie-in to the recently rereleased Taxman and Stealth version of Sonic CD) was fun.
If you want to play the SEGA Forever version of the game, simply check the stores for your iOS and Android devices!
SEGA has just announced that Ian Curran has been named SEGA of America’s new COO and President. The role is effective today, August 1, 2018. Ian will be responsible for maximizing profitability of the publishing of Sonic within the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africas. Ian will also serve on the board of Atlus U.S.A., Inc. In his role, he will report directly to the CEO of SEGA West, Tatsuyuki Miyazaki.
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!
On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry take their frustrations out on the recently revealed IDOLA Phantasy Star Saga mobile game. No, it’s not the platform that is the issue. What is SEGA thinking releasing a game that is so far removed from anything we’ve come to expect from the franchise? And why choose the 30th anniversary for something like this?
If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.
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.
Last year I went out to the Dave & Busters in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, which at the time was one of few locations anywhere in the US that had Daytona Championship USA. The racing bug has been in my blood since I was a kid and Daytona USA is a series I absolutely adore. So here are some of my first impressions of the game (yes I still remember).
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.
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.
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:
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]