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[update] SEA Phantasy Online 2 no longer IP blocking foreigners

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While SEGA announced that it was bringing the English version of Phantasy Star Online 2 way back in 2012, it obviously didn’t come. Last year PlayPark, a South East Asian company announced it was releasing Phantasy Star Online 2 in that region and in English. The issue? Well, they where IP blocking any foreign players that tried to play the game.

This continued and it was just announced that they have dropped IP blocks. That means if you want to just download and play Phantasy Online 2 without doing all the English patching! You can just head here, register and download. Please be warned that the SEA server is behind one years worth of content compared to the Japanese servers.

[Update] It seems that they are starting to block users once again. If you want to play you can always use the PSO2 Tweaker and player on the Japanese servers, which is the best version of the game. [/update]

[Source: Nichegamer]

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Atlus and Vanillaware tease their upcoming new project

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We posted earlier about Atlus and Vanillaware doing Odin Sphere Leifdrasir, a HD remake of the Playstation 2 game in HD and on PS3, PS4 and PS Vita. But that isn’t all they have in store for gamers, the companies have unleashed the teaser above. Atlus and Vanillaware gained a working relationship (working on a game together) when they co-developed Dragon’s Crown in 2013.

This could be Dragon’s Crown 2, but seeing the visuals in the trailer its leading me to believe it might be a brand new IP. What do you guys think? The game will get more details in September, catch it at TGS most likely.

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Odin Sphere Leifdrasir announced for PS4, PS3 and Vita

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Atlus and Vanillaware announced today that they’re releasing a HD remaster of Odin Sphere called Odin Sphere Leifdrasir. This remaster won’t just be a visual upgrade though. It’ll have many additions and improvements as well including new enemies and maps, a redone alchemy system, teleports between areas, an OST with new arrangements and songs, a redone fighting system that’s more like Muramasa: The Demon Blade and last but not least, you no longer need to replay stages.

The game will be released in Japan on January 14th, 2016 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. No western release has been announced yet, but seeing how this is Atlus it seems pretty likely that we’ll be getting this release as well at some point. In addition, Atlus also teased another new project from Vanillaware that’ll be revealed in September.

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SEGA releases new Spiral Knight’s spin-off Rise of Knights

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Back in 2011 SEGA acquired Three Rings Studios, who would go on to release Spiral Knights, a free to play online RPG. It seems that SEGA has decided to bring back the franchise as a mobile game that is very similar to SEGA Japan’s Chain Chronicles. Not only in combat but the flow and structure of the game keeps making me think this is a Chain Chronicles reskin that was created to appeal to the players that play Spiral Knights.

The video above has like over 15 minutes of gameplay, basically giving you the whole idea of what the game is. Yes, Chain Chronicles x Spiral Knights. Its not a bad idea honestly, you can download it now if your on iDevices via iTunes. One last thing, doesn’t this game’s name sound like a Batman comic?

[Thanks max_cady]

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Swingin’ Report Show #81: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Countdown

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Join George and Barry as they count down the final hour of the record breaking Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign! It has been as wild month, from the game’s E3 Sony stage announcement, to the ups and downs of Awesome Japan’s handling of the campaign. Hear our thoughts on how the Kickstarter was managed, the new tiers, and the recently revealed details of what we can expect in the finished game. Also in this episode, the recent comments from SEGA Games president on the company regaining the trust of gamers.

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Ends At $6,333,295, 69,320 Backers

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The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign has officially ended, earning a total amount of $6,333,295 with 69,320 backers.

Fourteen years after Shenmue II was released, and following two failed attempts at reviving the franchise (Shenmue Online and Shenmue Gai), Yu Suzuki was welcomed to Sony’s E3 2015 stage to officially announce the beginning of the Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue 3. Breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest video game to reach $1 million through crowdfunding in one hour and 42 minutes (as well as initially crashing Kickstarter’s site), Shenmue 3 continued to break records by being the second fastest Kickstarter campaign in all categories to raise over $1 million. Less than nine hours later, Shenmue 3 continued to drop jaws around the world when it reached $2 million, its 100% funding goal. Since the announcement, the money has continued to flow in, raising almost $1 million more on its last campaign day.

The game has also become the most funded video game in Kickstarter History, a record previously held by Bloodstained, the third most funded Kickstarter campaign in the “Games” category, and, most impressively, the sixth most funded Kickstarter project of all time.

The Kickstarter campaign should be considered a massive success, and now we can all rest (if only for a little bit), and await a steady flow of Shenmue 3 news until December of 2017!

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Shenmue 3 is the most funded video game in Kickstarter history with over $5.5 million pledged

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Despite many people considering the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter as being mishandled, it didn’t stop the game from reaching another legendary status milestone. It is now the most funded Kickstarter game of all time (at least until Hideo Kojima’s obvious turn to Kickstarter happens). The game has gathered over $5.5 million dollars in funding. At the moment of writing it has $5,733,751 pledged and over 63,477 backers.

That means that Shenmue 3 has beat the previous record held by Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which got $5,545,991 in funding. As of this moment it is the third most-funded game on Kickstarter, being beaten by the top cat, Exploding Kittens card game that got $8,782,571 in funding. Sadly it doesn’t seem like Shenmue 3 will be getting anywhere near close to 8 million dollars since (as of writing) its still over 2 million shy of beating it with only 9 hours left.

So now the question is, do you thinking that whatever gets funded by the Kickstarter will be enough? While it gathered a bit more funding than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, that game is a 2D Metroidvania style game, do you think that Shenmue 3 needed way more to complete its true vision? Let us know in the comment section.

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Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games heading to arcades!

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SEGA has revealed that Mario and Sonic will be heading to arcades together for the first time, as part of their latest Olympics team-up. The games will be getting location tests starting today and running through July 20 at the Club SEGA in Akihabara and the SEGA World in Kasai.

It is currently unknown whether the arcade version will be a port of content from the Wii U version or be a completely unique game. At the very least, the game will have unique controls, going by the design of the cabinets.

Mario and Sonic 2016 will be launching for the Wii U and 3DS next year. It is currently unknown when the final version of the arcade game will hit Japanese arcades, and whether or not these machines will appear in Western arcades.

Source: Inside Games (translated by Perfectly Nintendo)

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Shenmue 3 retail release not guaranteed, only backers guaranteed physical copy

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While we are approaching the final day of the Kickstarter for Shenmue 3, fans are asking if the game will have retail copies after its release and it seems that it might not be the case. According to a e-mail sent to Eurogamer from YS.NET:

“Whether Shenmue 3 will be available for retail or not is currently unconfirmed,”

The only way to secure a hard copy of Shenmue 3 when it comes out is backing the project on Kickstarter. If you don’t care about physical releases, you will always be able to purchase the game digitally.

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Fan launches demo for his Phantasy Star Online Remaster project

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If you had a Dreamcast growing up, you probably had a copy of Phantasy Star Online somewhere. Even you, the guy that bought it because it had an exclusive demo of Sonic Adventure 2 in the case. If you spent hundreds of hours playing the game online, then you will be happy to know that Youtube/Reddit user Glader has been working on a remake project for the original Phantasy Star Online game.

You can click here to check out the demo he has launched, above video talks about the project. It seems that the project is very early in development, right now its just a proof of concept showing off the core features. According to the video, it is being developed on Unity 5. Very interesting project, what do you guys think?

[Via Nichegamer]

R OiTPMY GeugD

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New 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 trailer shows off local co-op and new ‘Keep Ring Mode’ gets detailed

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While we haven’t gotten a release date in the west on the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 release, over in Japan the game is being release in less than a week! That means that 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has been getting quite the amount of information released, like the trailer above showing off the local wireless connectivity. It will be required for both 3DSs to own a copy of the game, but if you do you will be able to have a second player control Tails through your single player adventure or you can go head to head in the versus racing mode.

Like most M2 re-releases in their SEGA 3D Classics series, this game will not only have 3D, save states and the ability to save replays; but it will also have a new mode that they are calling ‘Ring Keep’ mode. In this mode you will start a stage with 10 rings, each time you get attacked the amount of rings you lose is halved. I guess we shall see how this will work when we get to play it and how it impacts the way you play the game.

If we had to predict the release date of 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the west, I would say expect it sometime in August!

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Seaman creator on Iwata, talks about canceled Seaman 3DS game

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We know that Seaman creator and IP right holder Yoot Saito has been trying to get a Seaman game off the ground for a long while. We know that in early 2008 he tried to revive the game on mobile devices with Gabo, where your fish is more evolved into an actual ape, this is a year after Seaman 2 released on Playstation 2 in Japan. The game never got a release. We also know that as early as 2012 that Nintendo had been thinking about reviving Seaman on the 3DS and in 2013 Nintendo even tradmarked ‘Mysterious Pet: Legend of the Fish with a Human Face’, which sounds like a game we all know and love. Yoot Saito finally spills the beans on Seaman 3DS which he admits he was working on for awhile, in his farewell post to late Satoru Iwata.

He also talks about how he first met Iwata back in 1996 and how he gave him the job of looking for different types of games for Nintendo platforms. Saito also talks about how his suggestions lead to the Wii controller’s speakers and how him and Iwata experimented with StreetPass technically back in the original Gameboy days. It is a really a fantastic read and shows you why Satoru Iwata will be sorely missed in the video game industry. He was one in a billion. Read the translated blog post after the jump!

Continue Reading ➜

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New Shenmue III trailer, less than 72 hours left in the campaign!

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Last night, presumably to feed off of the hype surrounding the end of Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign, YS Net released a short clip of very early footage of a Shenmue III cutscene running on Unreal Engine 4.

Rather than new content, it seems Yu Suzuki was content with recreating another Shenmue II scene. The game does look quite brilliant in Unreal Engine 4, and can only get better as development continues! Check out the original Shenmue II scene here.

What do you think of the new clip, and how much will it push the Kickstarter in these final hours? Sound off in the comments below.

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BlitWorks tells fans to continue asking SEGA for Shenmue and Jet Set Radio Future HD ports

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Spanish video game website GameSpek recently interviewed the Barcelona, Spain based company responsible for many ports, including SEGA fan favorite Jet Set Radio.

As we all know, before the Shenmue III E3 2015 announcement, the on again/off again Shenmue franchise was constantly surrounded in a wide array of rumors, some concerning ports or high definition remakes of the first two games having been started on, or even fully completed. These rumors never came to fruition, but now we have some official insight into the status of these Shenmue ports. Says BlitWorks:

“Then we thought it would be a good idea to showcase Sonic CD, Jet Set Radio and Shenmue working on the emulators to Sega, with the prospect of a commercial release for the consoles of that time. They showed interest in Sonic CD and Jet Set Radio“.

When asked if they had anything else to say to fans, BlitWorks said:

Thanks to you! We would like to tell SEGA games fans that they don’t cease to ask for ports of great games like Shenmue or Jet Set Radio Future, we are the first ones that would like to port these games. In change.org or similar webs there are several requests about that.

They also discuss Jet Set Radio‘s removal from iOS, and more. Check out the full interview here.

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