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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter reveals development progress and future plans

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It’s normal for most Kickstarter campaigns to go silent for a bit following successful funding, mainly because those behind the campaign are now hard at work creating whatever it is you backed. Of course, in the case of Shenmue 3 which raised over $6 million, backers were more eager than usual to hear something new. Thankfully, the radio silence didn’t last too long as backers received an update last night on the development progress and future plans. Better yet, we heard it straight from Yu Suzuki himself!

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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X officially announced for PSVita and PS4 for 2016

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Here it is folks! SEGA has officially announced Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X for Playstation Vita and Playstation 4! The teaser site for the game still appears to be counting down, but regardless we now know Miku will be back on Sony hardware in 2016.

The trailer takes a look back on the last nine Hatsune Miku Project Diva games, and confirms various musicians involved with the project; as well as our first glimpse at the Playstation Vita version of the game! It’s unknown if there’s a PS4 trailer inbound but we’ll keep our eyes peeled. As for release dates, the Playstation Vita version is planned for March 2016, whilst the Playstation 4 edition is targeting Fall 2016.

It’s certainly a very exciting time to be a Miku fan though, what with Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX also being released on 3DS in a couple of weeks! It’s been stated SEGA will be bringing along a demo of the the game to the Miku Magical Mirai 2015 event, so we may get more information.

Stay tuned for this one folks!

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Yakuza creator talks about the future of the Japanese games industry

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The current issue of Famitsu Weekly held a discussion on the future of the Japanese games industry with the top tier developers from Japan. This post will mostly cover what Toshihiro Nagoshi (Daytona USA, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza) said (cuz, you know, we are a SEGA news site).

Famitsu also interviewed Toeishi Ashihara (Cygames), Hideki Kamiya (Platinum Games), Yoshinori Kitase (Square-Enix), Akihiro Suzuki (Koei-Tecmo), Yosuke Hayashi (Koei-Tecmo), Katsuhiro Harada (Bandai-Namco), and Hiroshi Matsuyama (CyberConnect2). If you want to read their replies check out Nichegamer’s article on the the whole thing. Check out Nagoshi’s responses after the jump.

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Dreamcast indie game ‘Ghost Blade’ gets release date

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Indie Dreamcast developer and publisher Hucast games has finally announced the released date for their latest title Ghost Blade. The game will be officially out on September 27th and come in a variety of editions.

What the game features:

  • Beautiful, detailed High-res Graphics
  • 5 Stage with HUGE Boss Enemies
  • 3 Player ships with different gun types
  • Instant Respawn
  • Auto-bomb enabled novice mode for beginners
  • Arcade Gameplay and Addictive Scoring System
  • Incredible Soundtrack composed by Rafael Dyll
  • 2-player mode for addictive fun

Accessories supported:

  • VMU
  • RGB cable (480i)
  • VGA cable/box (480p)
  • Original Pad
  • Arcade stick

You can check out both the regular edition and limited editions (limited to 1,000 copies) of the game. Anyone looking forward to this one?

[Via Retro Collect]

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Check out SEGA’s Sonic Dash Extreme Arcade Game

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Phantasy Star Online 2 teases Guilty Gear Xrd collaboration

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While SEGA representatives have confirmed that Phantasy Star Online 2 isn’t coming West, because, you know, stuff. SEGA is still plenty of busy with updates for the game over on their concealed SEGA island of goodness known to normal folks as ‘Japan’. We covered Phantasy Star Online 2‘s last update that added a ton of Blazblue costumes, but this time we will be getting Guilty Gear Xrd outfits.

Hit the jump to see what you’ll be able to wear, if you play the Japanese version of the game that is.

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7th Dragon III Code: VFD trailers show off ‘Fortuner’ and ‘Samurai’ jobs

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SEGA has posted a couple of trailers on their Japanese YouTube channel showing off the selectable ‘Fortuner’ and ‘Samurai’ jobs for their upcoming 7th Dragon III Code: VFD  Nintendo 3DS RPG.

The Fortuner is an astrologer of the battlefield, meaning that you can spread abnormal status ailments and cause massive damage. The weakness for a Fortuner is that they have low defense and health. While the Samurai are good all around, has a balance of offense and defense. They can also use blades and two handed-swords which unlocks skills differing depending on what way you go.

7th Dragon III Code: VFD comes out in Japan on October 15th. No western release date has been announced, which is a bit sad considering how much in-house SEGA developers worked on this one.

Hit the jump to see the Samurai class trailer.

[Source: Gematsu]

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SEGA’s Marza studio demos Unreal Engine 4 animations

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SEGA-Sammy owned CGI animation studio Marza Animation Planet has been plenty busy since they debuted in early 2006 by doing opening animations on various SEGA games (including Night of the Werehog animated short), working on the CGI movie ‘Space Pirate Captain Harlock‘ and even being confirmed as doing the CGI for Sony Pictures ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ theatrical film. Seems that the company is always looking ahead and are now getting their feet wet by trying animations in Unreal Engine 4, showing off detailed animations running on the primarily used game engine.

These are ‘real-time demos’ shown off to Japanese gaming website 4Gamer. Marza talks about how making animations in a game engine is new to them and how impress they are with what is possible. This could help SEGA’s development team create faster assets and cut development time in games. The demos they showed off included Happy Forest (above), Ultimate Bowl and Kuro 1.2 in-engine effects . To see the other tech demos hit the jump.

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Total War: Warhammer introduces us to the Dwarfen battle units

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have released the latest unit spotlight video, this one focusing a three Dwarfen units: Longbeards, Ironbreakers, and the Hammerers. Since in the Warhammer universe (much like most fantasy universes) the Dwarfen are masters at crafting and expert miners, expect some great weapons along with some amazing beards.

The video above is rather short and more of a basic introduction to the race. Doesn’t really detail all the backstories, lore and seems more like a teaser for an upcoming trailer. Let me give you more details:

  • Longbeards: Are the old, wise and experienced warriors in the Dwarfen ranks. They are respected due to being veterans and no one in the dwarfen ranks have experienced the amount of battles than the Longbeards.
  • Ironbreakers: As miners, someone has to protect the lower depths against Skaven and Goblins who try to tunnel into the Dwarf strongholds. These experienced tunnel fighters are the Ironbreakers, with a saying that for every land battle they partake in, they had dozens more underground.
  • Hammerers: Picked by the King himself as his personal bodyguards, with a rich history in Dwarfen history dating back to a High King, whose body guards got overrun and slain. Miners near by picked up the fallen body guard’s weapons and help the King escape, ever since then the King has had Hammrers as body guards.

Creative Assembly have already confirmed that Total War: Warhammer will be a trilogy. I think there is a lot of lore and back stories to make these games very interesting and deep, I just hope that the base packages are worth it. Honestly, Creative Assembly games have too much DLC.

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SEGA Tunes: Jamming out to the Gunstar Heroes OST

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So as most of you guys know we are celebrating ‘The Year of Developers‘, one of the focused developers this month is Treasure and since their cult classic ‘Gunstar Heroes‘ just got a re-release on the Nintendo 3DS we decided to have a look at the games soundtrack. Honestly, most people will be quick to give you hundreds of reasons why you should play the game, but almost none of them will mention the fantastic soundtrack.

Let’s look at some of my favorite tracks and then you can tell me some of your favorite tracks (or tracks you hated) in the comment section.

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Yakuza 5 now available to pre-order on PSN, includes 15% discount and theme

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While we don’t know the exact release date for Yakuza 5 yet, SEGA has just announced that the game is now available to pre-order on PSN. What perks does pre-ordering a digital title have? 15% off the $39.99 launch price plus a free Playstation 3 static theme! SEGA has also released the third and final developer video, embedded above, featuring Gio Corsi of SCEA Third Party Production and his interview with Yakuza series General Director Toshihiro Nagoshi and Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama. Topics include the game’s music, the developers’ thoughts on the Western release and the game’s themes.

Update: Sony has confirmed that all the Japanese DLC will be included with each copy of the game.

After the break, check out SEGA’s official pre-order press release. Yakuza 5 is so close, who’s excited?

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Preview: Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (Nintendo 3DS)

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Thanks to an advance review copy, I’ve been having fun with Miku for close to two weeks now. While this is merely a preview and not a full-on review of the game (which will post on September 4th before the game releases), I did want to give some early impressions from the point of view of a Hatsune Miku newbie.

That’s right, despite contributing to SEGA fan sites since Miku made her SEGA debut in 2009, I have not laid hands on a Miku game until I received my download code for Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX. Prior to this, I reported the occasional press release, posted trailers when they hit, and sat on the sidelines while fellow fans either bemoaned the franchise or celebrated it. Up until now, I knew about the vocaloid craze, I knew that that the SEGA developed games were rhythm based, and I loved the Domino’s Japan campaign as evidenced by my earlier reference to it. But outside of that? Miku was a mystery. But not anymore. So now that I’ve finally had a chance to play a Hatsune Miku game, what do I think of it so far and what do I think the average SEGA fan will enjoy? Let’s find out!

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Grandia II Anniversary Edition out now on Steam and GOG

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What isn’t there to like about Grandia II on the SEGA Dreamcast? Now you can relive those memories on your PC via Grandia II Anniversary Edition. Personally this is one of my favorite RPGs released during that era and for the time had a really fun combat system.

What you get: 

  • Visual upgrades to textures, lighting, and shadows
  • Original Japanese voice option
  • Additional difficulty level
  • Gamepad support
  • Steam Trading Cards
  • Steam Achievements
  • Steam Cloud Save Support
  • Selectable Video Options
  • Remapable Keyboard & Gamepad Support
  • 100 Save File Slots
  • Dreamcast VMS Save File Support

Yes, you can import your save files from the Dreamcast VMU. You can pick it up on either Steam or GOG, if you buy it right now its $14.99 (25% off) and after August 31st, it will go back up to its regular price of $19.99. I got to say, that is a damn good deal.

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Yakuza creator confirms that his new game will be shown at Tokyo Game Show

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I know that some of the more hardcore SEGA fans are a bit upset that SEGA recently teased a new Hatsune Miku game. No fear SEGA fans, because during today’s NicoNico Live steam, Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball creator Toshihiro Nagoshi teased what to expect from Sega and his team next month:

“I’m so anxious for Tokyo Game Show! Although I’m not allowed to say why I’m feeling this way, yet. We’ll announce [a new title] at Tokyo Game Show, and it’ll be a good one and I believe that Sega’s live showing at Tokyo Game Show will be the most exciting one we’ve seen in a while.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi

The producer for Yakuza, Yokoyama Masayoshi teased this game in July stating that the studio was hiring new talent. As of right now, Yakuza Team (aka Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) has over 150 workers under the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio banner. Considering that they are hiring more, this might be one of SEGA’s biggest games ever. I guess we will find out more next month at the Tokyo Game Show, but as far as them teasing it, it seems this title will not be related to the Yakuza IP.

Like always, in Nagoshi we trust.

[Source: Silioncera]

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SEGA Japan launches teaser site for upcoming Hatsune Miku game

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[This article has been edited with newly found information. This is almost 100% a Hatsune Miku game]

SEGA Japan has now launched a teaser site for an upcoming unannounced game that will most likely be unveiled at this year’s Tokyo Game Show (which starts next month). So what do we know about it so far? SEGA is calling this tease ‘neXt39‘ which is what we will be referring to the game until we find out the official name. The teaser page has the following numbers: “3939.00 / 3939” since the slash usually means division in math, it would equal to 1. Is this a clue? The screen also has strands that move in the background, 6 of them to be exact (with the only color repeating being yellow).

But Hatsune Miku also has a long series of using the number 39, specifically having a song named that. Not only that, Sam Mullen, the localization producer even explained the significance of Hatsune Miku using the number 39. Not only that a twitter user by the name of @Rorru pointed out that the teaser page’s timer ends minutes before Hatsune Miku’s birthday and that the color strands each represent a Cryptonloid. Hopefully this isn’t the only game announced at TGS, considering that Yakuza Team was teasing a new game.

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