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Atlus bringing Stella Glow to North America

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Stella Glow, an upcoming JRPG by Imageepoch that’ll be published by SEGA in Japan, is getting an English version thanks to Atlus. Right now there aren’t any details about the North American release, aside from that it’ll be released later this year. This’ll be the first time Atlus has handled the western release of a SEGA game since they were bought by the company.

SEGA had announced that they’ll be publishing the game in Japan earlier this month, where it’ll be coming to stores on June 4th. If the game will be coming to European stores as well hasn’t been announced yet.

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Hortensia Saga – New Trailer

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After the roaring success of SEGA’s free to play mobile RPG Chain Chronicles the company seems to be investing big in mobile RPGs. Next in line is Hortensia Saga, like Chain Chronicles before it, Hortensia Saga uses the 3×3 grid for tactical-RPG gameplay. The trailer shows off some gameplay, characters as well as some pretty well animated anime cut-scenes.

No word yet on a Western release but if Chain Chronicles is anything to go by we can expect a Western release by Gumi.

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Upcoming Game Symphony Japan Concert Exclusively Featuring SEGA Music

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Game Symphony Japan X SegaThe Game Symphony Japan concert series has announced plans for a special type of performance, exclusively featuring SEGA music. This Crunchyroll article mentions that previous Game Symphony Japan performances have featured music from Sakura Wars and Phantasy Star Online. The Game Symphony Japan web page for this concert attaches an interesting subtitle for this event: “Sega Special Vol. 1.” Perhaps we may see another one in the future?

This 14th iteration of the Game Symphony Japan series will take place on October 10th at 4:30, Japan Standard Time. What musical pieces or franchises would you love to see represented? Orchestral renditions of Jet Set Radio music?

Credit for the featured image goes to above-linked Crunchyroll article.

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Typing of The Dead: Overkill update adds Custom Dictionaries with Steamworks support

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Everyone knows that typing funny words is part of what makes SEGA’s Typing of the Dead video games so much fun, especially since SEGA embraced the wackiness early on with the first entries to the series. For Typing of the Dead: Overkill, SEGA dipped their fingers in adding DLC for new word content and now it seems they are going to drop all that to allow users to make their own ‘Custom Dictionaries’ of words.

Not only that, SEGA is adding Steamworks support, meaning that you will be able to share your custom dictionaries with all of Steam. Want to make a themed dictionary based on delicate words, words that describe your mom or quotes from ‘Back to the Future’? Well, you are in luck, now you can.

Since SEGA is having their Steam sale, you will be able to pick up Typing of the Dead: Overkill for 75%.

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Classic SEGA Ads: Panzer Dragoon Zwei’s US Commercial

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You want to know how good Panzer Dragoon Zwei is? It’s apparently caused a nuclear holocaust. Think about that.

From what I’ve seen of them, SEGA Saturn commercials are…weird. Worse yet, they often aren’t really all that appealing. This one in many ways is kind of perfect example of that. Here they have this weird, quirky Japanese rail shooter where you destroy hoards of enemies atop a laser-shooting dragon, and what do they do? Compare dicks with the Playstation.

Of course, bit-measuring and graphics chest thumping was all the rage back in ‘90s video game advertising, but the sad thing about its use here is that it does nothing to make me want the game or the system. The commercial really is just kind of…lazy. It definitely has nothing on Japan’s iconic Segato Sanshiro campaign, or the Xbox’s Panzer Dragoon Orta commercial, which we’ll be getting to next month.

I’ll admit, Zwei is probably a hard game to fit into SEGA of America’s typical commercial formula. It has no attitude to it, and it’s very Japanese. That said, I doubt commercials like this did the Saturn many favors.

To wash the taste of this one out of your mouth, I’ve gone ahead and included the Segato Sanshiro commercial for Panzer Dragoon Saga below. It’s pretty much an abridged version of the Zwei ad, but its still got that awesome theme song!

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The Future of Panzer Dragoon

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It’s hard to believe Panzer Dragoon Orta is more than 12 years old. Looking back, Orta has aged incredibly well. Its visuals are still gorgeous and its gameplay still feels just as smooth and polished as it did in 2003. In an age where all sorts of obscure games are seeing digital re-releases and all sorts of franchises and genres are finding new life in the realm of digital, I think it’s a missed opportunity that Panzer Dragoon hasn’t received any sort of new release while digital gaming has been booming.

So today I thought I’d write up an article exploring the many ways Panzer Dragoon could (and should) fit into SEGA’s renewed focus on digital and mobile gaming.

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Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove Kickstarter fully funded and some funky stretch goals met

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Moments ago, the Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove Kickstarter ended and much to the delight of fans the campaign was a success and then some. With 8,873 backers pledging $508,637, $108,637 more than the $400,000 goal, fans can expect the full game as well as some stretch goal bonuses! Additional features include old school skins for Toejam and Earl, featuring their original designs seen on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games. Also returning from the 90s is the Hyperfunk Zone as seen in ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. Minutes before the campaign ended, a third stretch goal was met, adding the female lead from the third game, Latisha, as well as Toejam’s cousin and Earl’s mom.

While the base game sounded great, these bonuses only sweeten the upcoming release by bringing in characters and concepts from the first three games for a true love letter to fans of the series. Congrats to Greg Johnson and his team, and good luck on the development of the game.

In case you missed it, we interviewed Greg earlier this month on our Swingin’ Report Show podcast – give it a listen if you haven’t already!

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Chie gets her Bruce Lee outfit on for her Persona 4: Dancing All Night trailer

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Another Friday, another new Persona 4: Dancing All Night trailer. This one focusing on Chie Satonaka, who surprisingly only mentions meat once in her trailer. A new remix of “Pursuing My True Self” is also featured as Chie dances in various outfits, including one based on Bruce Lee.

This is the fifth in a series of character trailers that Atlus has been releasing. The previous trailers showed off Rise, Yu, Kanami, and Yosuke respectively. And again, the trailer was translated by bobrossfreak.

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Sports Interactive releases Eastside Hockey Manager: Early Access Edition

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Sports Interactive used to make more games than just the super popular Football Manager (that is one of the top 5 most played Steam games), they used to make Eastside Hockey Manager but that was discounted back in 2007 due to the games not being able to pay for its development costs, mostly due to the high piracy rates. But much has changed since 2007, more people actually purchase games thanks to the rising popularity of Steam and Sports Interactive is ready to give it another shot.

“We need to prove that there is enough demand to justify resurrecting the series fully. Whilst this version has ‘fake’ data, we want to show that there is a demand for a fully licensed version of the game. That won’t come with this release but, if it’s successful, it means we can go to the leagues around the world and get licenses for future, annualised, versions (in much the same way that we do with FM).”

Eastside Hockey Manager is now available to download in its ‘early access edition’ form for a mere $14.99, but only has support for English. If you are a Hockey fan and want to see this series resurrected then head over to Steam and support it with your wallet. So far ratings on Steam have been positive.

Who knows, maybe SEGA can create in-house games in early access and take fan feedback to shape the series and see if there is an audience for some of their franchises.

[Via: Eurogamer]

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SEGA Steam Sale includes deals on Valkyria Chronicles, Alien: Isolation and more

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SEGA has priced off a huge portion of their catalogue on Steam from today until March 30th in a weekend sale. This sale includes great deals like the recent PC port of Valkyria Chronicles for 66% off, Alien: Isolation for 75% off, The Typing of The Dead: Overkill and all of its DLC for 75% off and all Sonic games for 50% off.

If you don’t have any of SEGA’s games on Steam yet and have money to spend, there’s also the SEGA Super Bundle which includes most of SEGA’s games on Steam for $79.99/€69.99/£59.99. And of course Binary Domain is on sale again for 50% off, which you should really buy if you don’t own it yet cause Binary Domain is one of the most underrated gems of the last generation.

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Total War: ATTILA – Blood & Burning Pack

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Unleashing the full horror of the apocalypse! The Blood & Burning add-on brings blood effects, decapitations, limb-lops, disembowelment and more to Total War: ATTILA. Disease-ridden soldiers can be seen vomiting on the battlefield and decapitations and gore-slicked event pictures feature on the campaign map.

If that kind of thing floats your boat, the ‘Blood & Burning Pack’ is available on Steam now for just £1.99/$1.99.

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My Life with SEGA: No Limits – Available now on SEGA Saturn & Dreamcast VCD! Update: Sold Out!

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UPDATE: Even though they were free, we are marking this as “SOLD OUT” as our stock has been depleted! Don’t worry, we plan to have more produced by Christmas 2015 and if you still want to notify us by email that you are interested, please do so by contacting SEGAbits[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject line “No Limits VCD Rerelease” (you do not need to leave your address)

Last year, our YouTube series My Life with SEGA released the short film My Life with SEGA: No Limits, an action/comedy starring series host AJ and friend Mickey Mac who take on the evil Shawn who is hellbent on destroying SEGA HQ. With the release of the short film to YouTube also came the announcement that a VCD release was in the works, which would be playable on all VCD enabled devices including the SEGA Saturn (if you had the video card) and the Dreamcast (if you have the Dreammovie hardware). Not only was My Life with SEGA: No Limits on the disc, but also included was the first short film My Life with SEGA: The Next Level and reviews of Virtual-On and the Panzer Dragoon Saturn trilogy.

The release made its debut last summer at Too Many Games in Oaks, PA and while we gave several copies away… we still have some available! So how do you obtain a copy? Easy:

Want a copy of No Limits on VCD? Just email SEGAbits[at]gmail[dot]com with “No Limits VCD” in the subject line and your mailing address in the body. No purchase necessary.

Supplies are limited, so if you truly want a copy then act soon! After the break, check out the full short film as well as a download link for the special My Life with SEGA: No Limits “Sega CD Saturn” packaging we made (note: the movie will not play on the Sega CD, “Sega CD Saturn” is a cheeky nod to the short-lived “Sega CD 32X” library of games).

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SEGA shutting down service for Initial D Perfect Shift Online on 3DS

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SEGA Japan has announced that they will be shutting down online services for their free-to-play 3DS game Initial D Perfect Shift Online come this June 30th. Last time we heard from SEGA they where bragging that the game was a success with over 500,000 downloads, but this is was most likely shut down due to SEGA working on a sequel (announced last year).

So what will happen if the service ends and you still have the game on your Japanese 3DS? You can continue to play the game as long as you want, but the game will be offline only.

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Check out the groovy box art for Persona 4: Dancing All Night

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Atlus has updated their Japanese site with box art for the standard edition of Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which you can see above. As far as what the box art for the Crazy Value and Premium Crazy Box limited editions will look remains a mystery.

For those that don’t know Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a spin-off title that takes place half a year after the events of Persona 4 and this one (like the title suggests) is a Rhythm game instead of a JRPG.

The game is set to hit Japan on June 25th, only on Playstation Vita and everywhere else sometime within this year. So, what do you think of the box art?

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Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog June 2015 Solicitations – Worlds Unite continues!

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Coming this June from Archie Action its the continuation of the epic Sonic and SEGA, Mega Man and Capcom crossover Worlds Unite – which kicks off the month before in May. Courtesy of Archie, we have the latest solicits, featuring a milestone issue for Mega Man who hits the big five-oh (remember Sonic’s 50th, when Robotnik died? Seems like ages ago) and the premiere of a one shot comic Mega Man: Worlds Unite Battles #1, which expands on the battles taking place within the crossover event. Fans of older Archie stories, meanwhile, have Sonic Archives #25 which brings us ever closer to the 100th issue of the series.

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