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Review: 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (3DS)

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7thdragonreviewI have been complaining that SEGA should bring over the 7th Dragon series since it debuted on the Nintendo DS way back in 2009 and now we finally got our first entry with 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (which has been confirmed to be the last entry as well). The7th Dragon series had SEGA veterans like Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia fame) and composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage series, Etrian Odyssey) involved to help craft the long running series. While we missed out on first couple games and a couple of spin-off titles; its nice to finally get to play a official localized version of the game.

But was the last game really worth the wait? Well, let’s find out.

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Stories International to adapt SEGA’s Rent A Hero into a movie

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Via Deadline comes news that Stories International, a joint media venture between SEGA and Hakuhodo DY Group launched in 2011, plans to release a movie based on the 1991 Mega Drive game Rent A Hero. The movie will be spearheaded by filmmakers Steve Pink and Jeff Morris, with Pink’s credits including Hot Tub Time Machine, High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank and Morris’ most recent credit being the upcoming Netflix project The True Memoirs of an International Assassin starring Kevin James. The original Rent A Hero starred the character Taro Yamada as the “Rent A Hero”, a hero for hire that needs to complete various tasks to save the day and pay for his suit. The game never saw release in the West, though a fan made english hack exists and an Xbox remake almost released to the West but was cancelled – though the finished translated version exists and is playable.

Stories International’s president and CEO Tomoya Suzuki and Hakuhodo DY Group are slated to produce. Meanwhile, Evan J. Cholfin of Stories International will oversee the film as executive producer.

So… first Shinobi and now Rent A Hero! What do you think of SEGA’s upcoming films? Sound off in the comments below!

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7th Dragon III Code: VFD DLC will be free for first week buyers

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Did you know that 7th Dragon III Code: VFD will have a array of DLC released? SEGA has confirmed that early buyers won’t have to pay a cent for the DLC, as long as you buy it during its first week of release. Mark your calendars because 7th Dragon Code: VFD hits store shelves on July 12th in North America.

Here are some of the DLC release dates:

July 12, 2016

  • Gold Rabi Outbreak! quest: Gold Rabi encounters. Free until July 18, 2016. $1.49 after.
  • Nagamimi Doll: free DLC that adds a talking Nagamimi to the player’s dorm.
  • Seed Outbreak! quest: Dragonsbane Seed encounters. Free until July 18, 2016. $1.49 after.

July 19, 2016

  • Code: Otaku!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020’s Hacker. Free until July 25, 2016. $1.99 after.
  • Code: Student!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020’s Samurai. Free until July 25, 2016. $1.99 after.

July 26, 2016

  • Allie’s Death March: boss rush of every encounter, with the bosses at their max level. Free until August 1, 2016, $1.49 after.
  • Code: Lucier!: recruit 7th Dragon 2020-II’s Lucier. Free until August 1, 2016. $1.99 after.
  • To My Beloved Unit 13: unlock classes’ ultimate weapons and the Blaster Raven character. Free until August 1, 2016. $1.49 after. (Note: only available in the quest list after beating 7th Dragon III Code: VFD.)

7th Dragon III Code: VFD is also coming to Europe, thanks to Deep Silver that has just announced a publishing deal with SEGA/Atlus.

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Yuzo Koshiro’s studio releasing ‘Gotta Protectors’ on 3DS e-shop

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If you didn’t know, Yuzo Koshiro is part owner of a development studio called Ancient Games. This studio is responsible for some big SEGA hits like Streets of Rage 2, Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor games and Vatlva (not so much a hit). While the studio has stayed mostly in Japan with new releases, that is about to change as they announced their new game ‘Gotta Protectors’ is coming to the Nintendo 3DS e-Shop on July 21st. Gotta Protectors or Protect Me Knight 2 (as its known in Japan) is a cooperative action tower defense game. This is how Ancient describes their game:

“Gotta Protector is a cooperative Action, Tower Defense game.
You become hero and battle against a bunch of monsters!
Train them, Get items and powers! Protect your princess!”

Gotta Protectors will retail digitally for $12.99 and have an additional FM sound pack as DLC for $7.99 bucks. Seeing that the composer for Gotta Protectors is Yuzo Koshiro himself, it might worth picking up the DLC even at that price. You can check out the game’s page for more information.

[Via: Tiny Cartridge]

 

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic & Friends New Concept Art Revealed Reaction

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During the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Event in Japan, Sonic Team showed off some never before seen Sonic & Friends concept art prototypes. Some of these previously unreleased designs shows off early ideas for some very famous Sonic the Hedgehog characters. On this episode of SEGA News Bits, George and Barry have a look at each of the newly released Sonic the Hedgehog character designs and tell you their opinion.

If you like our SEGA News Bits content, make sure to subscribe to us on our YouTube channel to get more.

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Cave Story being ported to SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive

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If you haven’t played the 2004 indie game ‘Cave Story‘ then you are really missing out on a classic PC game. But don’t worry a retro developer is ‘demaking’ the classic for release on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. The game will scale down the graphics to run on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive 16-bit hardware (I think it still looks pretty damn close though) and will have the full soundtrack (remade for Yamaha YM262 sound).

Not only that, the developer has already released a playable demo of his Cave Story demake. You can download it here. The Cave Story demo is limited to the first few areas of the game. You can also see gameplay of Cave Story running on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive hardware above.

Download Demo Here

[Source: Retro Collect]

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SEGA News Bits: NiGHTS into Dreams turns 20 years old

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NiGHTS Into Dreams hit the SEGA Saturn 20 years ago, leaving a generation of gamers mesmerized by its beautiful 3D graphics and surreal dream world. Today on the SEGA News Bits we will be talking all about Sonic Team’s NiGHTS franchise including a retrospective (of its two whole games) and even cameos the purple jester has made through its 20 years of existence.

So sit back, hit play and let’s chat about NiGHTS into Dreams. If you like these SEGA News Bits videos, hit subscribe on our YouTube channel to see more!

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Publisher Deep Silver to bring Atlus and select SEGA games to Europe [Updated with press release]

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Moments ago it was tweeted out by Deep Silver, the video game publishing division of German multinational corporation Koch Media, that they will be bringing Atlus USA and select SEGA titles to Europe. This will include Atlus titles Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. No further details are known as of now, but we are hoping a press release hits soon. This is both great news and bad news for European SEGA fans. It’s great that more games from SEGA and Atlus will be releasing to Europe, but it is bad news as it is a major sign that SEGA Europe – a publisher in their own right – are so disinterested in their own titles that they must rely on an external publisher to bring them over.

No word on what these select SEGA titles would include, but I would wager they’d be the more niche and/or Japanese titles like Hatsune Miku and 7th Dragon III: Code VFD. This is just my guess however, as we do not an any confirmation of what SEGA titles to expect as of yet.

Updates as the story unfolds after the break.

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic the Hedgehog turns 25 years old

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Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th anniversary officially kicked off on June 23rd, which was of course the release date of the eponymous game that started it all. In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry look back on 25 years of Sonic by spin dashing through all the main series Sonic Team developed console games. There are quite a few to get through, so consider this more of a SEGA News Smörgåsbord. Why are you still reading this? Click play and enjoy!

What are your favorite Sonic games? Let us know the comments below and like always thanks for watching! If you like our SEGA News Bits videos, make sure to subscribe to us on our YouTube channel.

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Multiplayer Showcase Lights the Fuse with Saturn Bomberman

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Why stick to fireworks when you can use bombs? A new Multiplayer Showcase installment is out featuring one of the most popular SEGA Saturn multiplayer experiences, Saturn Bomberman starring Hudson Soft’s all-star lineup in a massive free-for-all. We’ll be taking a look at the different stages and examine the differences in the eight and ten player modes, the Saturn’s six player adapter, and how the title holds up to the rest of the Bomberman lineup.

This episode is going to be released in smaller chunks which allows the episode to come out faster. Be sure to subscribe to the channel to keep up with new installments and more multiplayer matches.

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SEGA has acquired Amplitude Studios

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AmplitudeSEGASEGA has announced today that they have acquired French developer Amplitude Studios. Amplitude Studios is responsible for the Endless franchise which span different genres but known for its turn based strategy. Amplitude Studios is working on Endless Space 2 which is set to hit Steam Early Access later this year.

Amplitude Studios wrote this about joining SEGA on their developer blog:

“Of course you could wonder, “Why Sega?” If you were to ask just Mathieu and I, we could easily answer with the words “Creative Assembly and Relic!” because we are HUGE fans of their games. The opportunity to join them is incredible for us, a real dream come true.

But the bigger reason why we wanted to join SEGA was how they treat their internal studios. Often, studios are controlled by a central department that dictates what games they should do, and how and when. But SEGA is a company that offers its support to the creators, positioning itself as a service provider, helping studios to reach their goals with only one objective in mind: Quality!”

SEGA Europe President and COO Jurgen Post had this to say about Amplitude Studios:

“To have the opportunity to add a studio with the growing reputation of Amplitude’s, to the SEGA family, is an exciting one and reinforces SEGA Europe’s position as a market leader in publishing high quality PC games,”

What are your thoughts on the latest acquired studio by SEGA? Do you think they did the right move tapping into the indie market? Let us know in the comments below.

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Dreamcast homebrew game Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles getting reprinted

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The 2007 indie Dreamcast game Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles will be receiving a re-release this year, it has been confirmed.  Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles had been sold out for years and now developer Yuan Works Co., Ltd has teamed up with DragonBox Shop to re-release their famed puzzle game.

The studio announced that it was working on a new title called ‘Little Ninja‘, after Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles but it seems they are gauging interest for homebrew games, since Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles came out almost a decade ago. Yuan Works Co., Ltd also set up a Patreon to get development for Little Ninja off the ground.

If you haven’t played it Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles it mixes Bejeweled type puzzle gameplay with a over world map and old school JRPG like story elements. The re-release will have bug fixes and is up for pre-order for only $9.36 (plus shipping). Not a bad price at all.

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Puyo Puyo CharaGumin Series 3 figurines announced

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SEGA has announced 4 more figurines in the Puyo Puyo series of CharaGumin, as part of Puyo Puyo celebrating it’s 25th anniversary. These figures are the announcement of Schezo Wegey, Witch, Raffine, and Suketoudara with a blue Puyo, ready to be assembled later this year.

A CharaGumin is essentially a beginner friendly model kit based on different characters from anime and video games, with the majority of details already filled in, allowing for quick assembling. All you need is super glue, sandpaper, clippers, degreaser, and some paint to fill in minor details. The amount of parts depends on the figurine, though figurines exceeding 100 are rare.

If you have no interest in these figures or want to start collecting these figurines, you can buy previous Puyo Puyo series CharaGumin containing Arle Nadja, Carbuncle, Amitie, Ringo Andou, Satan, Sig, Draco Centaur, and Onion Pixy, along with other miscellaneous CharaGumin, on the official CharaGumin website. There’s also other SEGA CharaGumin from series like Valkyria Chronicles and Sakura Wars if you’re interested. Still, the opportunity to assemble a fish with muscular legs is too good to pass up, baby.

[Source: SEGA Japan]

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First Look: Sonic the Hedgehog’s Lego Dimensions figure

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This morning Mark Warburton, a producer at TT Games Publishing posted the first look at the Sonic the Hedgehog figure in action. If you didn’t know Sonic the Hedgehog will be included in the latest update of LEGO Dimensions. Mark Warburton showed off Sonic the Hedgehog‘s Lego Dimensions figure in a mock race against Superman. You can check out more photos of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s Lego Dimensions figure at the bottom of the article.

We also did a SEGA News Bits episode where we discussed our thoughts on Sonic the Hedgehog joining LEGO Dimensions. What are your thoughts about Sonic the Hedgehog’s Lego Dimensions figure? Tell us in the comments below!

[Via: NeoGAF]

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Rumor: SEGA Blast Heroes a new mobile SRPG gets leaked

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According to the mobile game website PocketGamer there is a new mobile game by SEGA, which features classic game IPs. Not only that, mobile ads for SEGA Blast Heroes (the games name) have been popping up. The ads describe the title as a ‘strategy RPG’. The Facebook page behind the ads leads to a page called ‘SEGA Mobile’ which has a bit over 150 likes at he moment. If you click to download the app from the ad, it takes you to StoreMaven, which is a service to help test upcoming app store conversion rates.

Below are some screenshots of the supposed game called SEGA Blast Heroes. Of course, it looks like it would play like Chain Chronicle. Just looking at the screenshots leaked so far I see Samba De Amigo, Space Channel 5, Sakura Wars, Valkyria Chronicles, Jet Set Radio, Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd, and a lot of unknowns populating the screens. It also seems that you will be fighting generic looking villains, which is a bummer.

This game doesn’t surprise me considering SEGA’s mobile division put out a survey asking fans about classic SEGA franchises. What are your thoughts on the rumor? Would you play SEGA Blast Heroes?

[Via: Segalization]

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