Author Archives: Gammalad
Cyberdimension Neptunina 4 Goddesses Online Comes Westward this Winter
Idea Factory International has announced today that Cyberdimension Neptunia will be heading to PlayStation 4 and Steam in North America and Europe this Winter!
Stock up on your Nepbull, because Vert’s inviting you on a dungeon raid! We’re excited to announce that Cyberdimension Neptunia™: 4 Goddesses Online will simultaneously release on both the PlayStation®4 system and for Steam users this winter! Its console debut will be available in both North America and Europe both physically and digitally.
–PR
This game is the latest spin off entry in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, and the first spin off in the series to make its way to the PlayStation 4.
You can expect the following out of this new game:
- 4 Person Dungeon Raids – You’ll never go it alone in the dungeons when you’ve got 3 other party members helping exterminate dungeon fodder in this hack ‘n’ slash adventure! Choose the one you control whenever you want!
- You CAN Cast that Here – Be prepped for any situation when you can map multiple skills to each face button, and max out your meter to unleash a flashy “Awakening Skill” that will devastate those who cross you!
- +10 to Fashion – Show off tons of cosmetic gear that can be resized, rotated, and placed anywhere! Ever seen a mustachioed fairy pirate DJ? Now you can!
- Nep_Main Joined your Party – Play online with up to three other people for extra loot and harder enemies, plus use the in-game chat feature to really make it feel like an MMO! (It’s not.)
So be sure to stay on the look out for further coverage of this game on our site including a review later this year!
New English Persona 5 Trailer Shows off the Velvet Room and Persona Fusions
Atlus USA has released a new trailer and a ton of screenshots showcasing the new Velvet Room and how one goes about Persona fusions in this game. Now let me tell you this, it’s pretty intense!
The trailer itself shows off Igor’s new voice actor and the english voices of his two new assistance. Check it out, but be wary of spoilers in the comments!
Persona 5 launches in the west on April 4th
Yakuza 0 Review So You Want to be a Yakuza?
Developer: SEGA
Publisher: SEGA
Platform: PlayStation 4
ESRB Rating: M
Release Date: January 24th, 2017
MRSP: $59.99
Thank You SEGA for Providing a Review Copy of this Game
Yakuza 0 is the latest entry in the long running Yakuza series and acts as a prequel to the series as well. In this game you get a closer look into the back stories of the series two biggest characters: main protagonist Kazamu Kiyru, and Majima Goro. Here we see their life from their early days in the Japanese criminal underworld, and get an idea of what led them to where they are now in the current Yakuza games. So how does this prequel fair for the overall series? Well, I am hoping my review can give my experience in this game justice.
Super Mario Maker 3DS Review
Developer:Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
ESRB Rating: E
MRSP: $39.99
Thank You Nintendo for Providing a Review Copy of this game.
“Super Mario Maker 3DS” is the latest Wii U game that Nintendo is bringing to the 3DS. The game touts itself as being a fun Mario Maker experience, but on the go. So, how does this portable version of the game stand up to the critically acclaimed 2015 Wii U title? All I can really say is that it is lacking, in more ways than one.
Super Mario Maker 3DS’s gameplay is very similar to that of the Wii U, but instead of using the Wii U gamepad to create the levels, you instead use the touch screen on the 3DS to drag and drop things to create the levels. While it may be harder to create intricate designs compared to the Wii U gamepad because of the size of the 3DS, it still gets the job done.
Similar to the Wii U version of the game, you have to be able to complete your levels before you can share them. The gameplay mechanics are as smooth as ever when going through your own Frankenstein creations of levels, and the limits to what you can create are still boiled down to what your imagination can think of. With the ability to take this game on the go now, it’s extremely easy to pick up and play this game to scratch your creative itch.
Visually, Super Mario Maker 3DS is alright. The 2D Mario themes are all really good and transitioned well onto the 3DS; it’s when you get to the New Super Mario Bros content the issues arise. The “New Super Mario Bros” style really doesn’t transition well to the 3DS. I honestly suggest creating levels with any of the other 2D elements, as the 3D ones are just jarring.
However, while the game does indeed have a lot of good things going for it, it has a lot of things holding it back. The biggest issue with this is the lack of content compared to the Wii U version of this game. The more major difference being that you are unable to upload your levels onto the online database of other levels, instead the game opts to share your creations with others around you through Streetpass. While the Streetpass features are cool, as they allow your friends to help finish levels you haven’t finished creating, it feels like without the online capabilities of the game, it misses the entire point of what made the Wii U version of the game so great. The ability to upload my levels onto the internet and see several people play my levels was the main reason why I continued to play Super Mario Maker; I took feedback from players and used it to create better ones. With that reason, and few people around me actually owning this game to Streetpass with, I grew bored of this game after a few hours.
Sticking to the theme of the games content, while the game does have a ton of premade levels for you to go through, and still has the Mario challenges in it, the game just feels completely lacking when there is a more complete superior version, with Amiibo support, on the Wii U. It just baffles me that so much content was ripped from this game, that it feels like a shell of its former self. You do not have the ability to download levels either that you play, nor can you favorite or rate them. This was really disappointing as I managed to play quite a few good levels that I wanted to favorite, or come back and finish later, but due to the nature of this game I was unable to.
At the end of the day, Super Mario Maker 3DS excels at the level editing the Wii U game was known for. Sadly, that was only a fraction of the full Wii U package. While the game does boast to have a hundred built in levels, I feel like that they should have just taken those and repacked the game as New Super Mario Bros 3, as the sheer lack of online functionalities makes this game very hard to recommend. If you can still find a Wii U, or already have one and are debating on whether or not you should pick up this game, I would say just get it on Wii U.
5/10
+GUI is still good
-Lack of features
-NSMB theme looks bad
Gaming Gamma 1st Annual Game of the Year Awards
It’s that time of the year everyone! Welcome to the first annual Gaming Gamma Game of the Year Awards! Here we pit the best of the best games we reviewed this year against each other for the title of Game of the Year! We only have a few simple rules on how a game can be nominated for our sites GOTY award:
- The game must have been reviewed on our site.
- The game must have come out this year.
Well that’s really it! Since it’s our first Game of the Year Awards we have a bit of growing pains to work with but we hope to do this every year! So let’s start out with the individual categories!
Atlus Gives More Information on their new Studio, Studio Zero
Earlier this morning Atlus USA provided us with some more insight on their new development studio; Studio Zero and their first game Project Re Fantasy: A Fool’s Journey Begins.
ATLUS, the developers behind the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series, and Katsura Hashino – director of ATLUS titles including Persona 5, Catherine, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and others – are launching a new internal studio called Studio Zero. Within the studio’s new logo is a story in and of itself: The number 0 is the “Fool” arcana for tarot cards – the void from which all other things begin – and punctuated with the imagery of a young child on a journey.For the game itself, though not much information is available as it is in the earliest of stages of development. But a few things are apparent from the outset – it will be a complete departure from the SMT and Persona series, and a return to the roots of where the Japanese games industry began with fantasy role-playing games. However, as ATLUS has always challenged the prevailing styles of RPG design, it is at the core of Studio Zero’s mission to do this again, imbuing the traditional fantasy RPG with a distinctively ATLUS flavor. Hashino is tapped to be the game’s director, along with other legendary ATLUS names. Along on the journey will be Shigenori Soejima from the ATLUS Artwork Team, responsible for creating the character art of the denizens of this new fantasy world, and Shoji Meguro from the ATLUS Sound Team, who will breathe life and depth into the new world as music composer.“We take seriously this goal of creating a game with the care and detail expected by the people who love ATLUS games and home console games,” said Hashino. “We haven’t determined yet what platform our new game will be, and I imagine this project will take a long time until completion. But we’ll be working hard at this challenge to truly deliver something new and incredible for all our fans.”While Hashino is focusing entirely on building Studio Zero from the ground up, Soejima and Meguro will maintain their responsibilities to the Persona series. Likewise, P-Studio, the production team in charge of Persona, will continue to operate at full strength to develop new entries to fulfill demand for the series. As the startup, Studio Zero will be a driving source of innovation for all ATLUS development. Keep an eye out on the official website, rpg.jp for additional updates.-PR
Valkyria Revolution Heads to the West Q2 2017
This morning SEGA has announced that the entire new series branch in the Valkyria Chronicles series, Valkyria Revolution will be heading to the west on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PlayStation Vita (Digital Only) in the first half of next year.
The Valkyria, the embodiment of death is returning to the battlefield in Valkyria Revolution and players will have to do – and sacrifice – whatever is necessary to seek out their vengeance. Previously reported as “Valkyria: Azure Revolution,” the newly titled Valkyria Revolution will release in the west both physically and digitally for the PlayStation®4 and Xbox One™, and as a digital-only title for the PlayStation®Vita. Valkyria Revolution is also in a sense a revolution from the traditional Valkyria Chronicles universe, as it’s set in an alternate timeline based on the European industrialization era and eschews the traditional turn-based strategy gameplay for a new hybrid of real-time combat and tactical strategy across battlefields. Valkyria Revolution will be available in Q2 of 2017.
All it takes is a single spark to start the inferno of war, and in the story of Valkyria Revolution, players will experience that firsthand. Five lifelong friends consumed by personal revenge plunge an entire continent into a terrible war, sacrificing the lives of countless innocents for a cause based on twisted half-truths and outright lies. This “Circle of Five” use their combined influence in their political and military positions to motivate their small, economically blockaded homeland to rise up and become a powerful resistance against its imperialist oppressors. Will the Circle of Five be remembered as heroic liberators, or will their selfish motives expose them as traitorous conspirators who sacrificed untold lives just to carry out a personal vendetta? Players will watch this history unfold in Valkyria Revolution and find out the truth behind the events…
Valkyria Revolution Features:
- A Brush with Death – Turning the tide of battle in Valkyria Revolution is Brunhilde, one of the last of the ancient and powerful Valkyrur, magical beings with near limitless power. She’s bound by oath to the enemy forces and players will have to figure out how to defeat her.
- Prepare for LeGION – Valkyria Revolution has a brand new battle system that mixes real-time combat and tactical strategy. Players can take control of the battlefield using brazen combos or cunning tactics and finding a balance between them is the key to excelling in skirmishes.
- The Ingenuity of War – Through adversity comes great engineering, and with a besieged homeland, players will have upgrade their existing weapons through branching customization paths.
- A New Painterly Look – Valkyria Revolution has a refined look thanks to the new Gouache rendering engine, giving the graphics a unique canvas texture.
- Classic Composer – Valkyria Revolution has a vibrant soundtrack brought to life by the incredibly talented composer Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Stella Glow)
Now it should be noted that in Japan the game was actually called Valkyria Chronicles Azure Revoltion, but the Azure title was dropped from the western release. SEGA explains this reason as follows:
1) The way the first Valkyria title was localized had a really nice ring to it: Senjou no Varukyuria (lit. Valkryia of the Battlefield) became Valkyria Chronicles. When faced with Aoki Kakumei no Varukyuria (lit. Valkyria of the Blue Revolution), a literal translation was unwieldy, and difficult from a graphic design standpoint as well, and adding in extra punctuation (e.g. Valkyria: Azure Revolution) didn’t help either. So we stuck to a similar cadence of the first Valkyria title and went with a two-word title. Plus:2) Given how vastly different the two games are (Revolution drops the turn-based gameplay, takes place in a different time period, different world, different almost everything), the new name helps to ensure the two titles stood equal but apart from each other.
Yooka Laylee Canceled for Wii U, heading to the Switch
Due to technical limitations of the Wii U, Playtonic Games has announced this morning 
that the Wii U version of Yooka Laylee is being canceled. However, never fret Nintendo fans, as Playtonic games is making the switch to the well, Switch! Yooka Laylee will now be released on PS4/Switch/XBO and PC. With the PS4/XBO/PC versions releasing on April 11th. This is what Playtonic games had to say to backers regarding this situation:
The Playtonic team is sad to confirm that despite our best efforts and exploring every possible avenue, we’ve encountered unforeseen technical issues that unfortunately mean it will be impossible for us to release the game on Wii U as initially planned.
We can however confirm the exciting news that we are now working very closely with Nintendo to look to bring Yooka-Laylee to the upcoming Nintendo Switch. We’re looking forward to exploring the opportunity and will have more details to share early next year.
We’d like to apologise to those affected by this development and offer all Wii U backers the opportunity to move their pledge free-of-charge to any of the versions launching on April 11th (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac or Linux) or upgrade to the Nintendo Switch version when we announce further details in 2017.
-Playtonic Games
So Wii U backers can either change their pledges to other platforms, or await for more updates on the Switch version to make the full switch.
Yooka Laylee so far looks really amazing, and I am glad that even though the Wii U version was having technical problems that Playtonic Games was able to have a back up plan to still bring this game to Nintendo fans to enjoy.
In the mean time, check out the latest trailer for the game!
Atelier Sophie and Nights of Azure Head to Steam February 7th, 2017
This morning Koei Tecmo dropped a surprise announcement that two of their PS4 Gust games will be making their way to Steam next year.
It’s is very interesting to see Koei Tecmo making the jump to PC with these games. Hopefully Koei Tecmo will do these ports justice and we can have two amazing PC ports of these good games. Let’s also hope that this could lead to future PC ports of other Atelier games in the future. Atelier Sophie and Nights of Azure launch on Steam on February 17th, 2017.
Period: Cube ~Shackles of Amadeus~ Will Release Spring 2017 in the West
This afternoon Aksys has announced that they will be localizing Idea Factory’s PS Vita game Period:Cube ~Shackles of Amadeus~ and it will release this Spring.
Aksys Games and Idea Factory proudly announce that Period: Cube ~Shackles of Amadeus~ will release Spring 2017 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system! In search of your older brother’s whereabouts, you join the online RPG, ‘Arcadia’ in hope of discovering clues. Having lost consciousness after being drawn into a mysterious light, you wake up within the game’s fantasy world! Confused and shaken by your strange yet familiar surroundings, you learn that the only way to escape this world of life-or-death is to clear the game. As the game world begins to crumble and fall apart, you’ll have to rely on your expanding powers for survival!
–PR
This game looks like it will be quite the treat for PS Vita owners wanting to add a new Visual Novel to their collection, check out some of the key features in this game:
Many Roads to Victory
A branching narrative and multiple endings ensure each player will be leading their own unique story! Choose carefully, as each decision changes the path before you.The Danger is Real
Prepare to be sucked into a virtual world like no other! Fraught with peril, every move could be your last. As the lone hope for Arcadia, only you can defeat the powerful forces of darkness!Gripping Narrative with 30+ Hours of Gameplay
Period: Cube ~Shackles of Amadeus~ offers stylized characters, beautiful visuals and an intriguing story that will challenge your very perception of reality!-PR
Check out some of the latest screenshots for this game too:
The Gaming Gamma 