Developer: Omega Force

Publisher: Koei-Temco

Platform: PlayStation Vita*, Playstation 4

Release Date: Jan 31, 2017

ESRB Rating: T

*The Vita Version was used to review this game

Thank You Koei-Temco for Providing a Review Copy of this Game

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers is a descendent of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, but is now in a Strategy Role Playing Game setting. This isn’t the first time the long lasting Musou franchise has become a SRPG, nor is it related to the previous one, so anyone can freely jump in.

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Developer: Kadokawa Games

Publisher: PQube

Platform: PlayStation Vita*, Playstation 4

Release Date:

EU:October 28th, 2016

NA: November 10th, 2016

ESRB Rating: M

*The Vita version was played for this review

From big budget games over-hyping themselves and failing to live up to expectations, to a small, very niche title that isn’t as good as the premise made it out to be, disappointment comes in all shapes and sizes. Personally, I have a soft spot for niche titles. Bonus points if it’s a visual novel and even more points if it grabs me by the premise alone. Root Letter managed to do all three, making it love at first sight.

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Developer: Marvelous Inc.

Publisher: XSEED Games

Platform: PS4, PS Vita; reviewed on PS4.

ESRB Rating: Rated T

MRSP: $49.99 (USD)
A review copy was received by XSEED Games, thank you.

Today we’ll be returning to the Moon Cell to take a look at Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, the next entry in the on-going series of Fate games that began with Fate/Extra. To not go too far into the story of Extella (to avoid serious spoilers,) we continue after the events of Fate/Extra with the same protagonist and servant companion who now begin what could be their last battle to claim the entirety of the Moon Cell.

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Developer: Gust

Publisher: Koei-Temco

Platform: PlayStation Vita

Release Date: Jan 17, 2017

ESRB Rating: T

Thank You Koei-Temco for Providing a Review Copy of this Game

Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists and the Dusk Sea is a game of dual protagonists where both main protagonists are, ironically, nicknamed Shallie. This game is the third and final game in the Dusk series. Of course, each entry in Atelier is represented as it’s own story that has previous characters from the concurrent series in it. So if you don’t want to go out and play previous entries in Dusk, that’s fine.

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Developer: SEGA

Publisher: SEGA

Platform: PlayStation 4

Release Date: Jan 10, 2017

MSRP: Colorful Tone pack – $29.99, Future Sound pack – $29.99, both as a bundle: $53.99

ESRB Rating: T

Thank You SEGA for Providing a Review Copy of this Game.

Hatsune Miku Project Diva: Future Tone for the PS4 is actually made of two packs when you go to purchase it off of PSN. One is called Future Sound, with the other called Colorful Tone, hence the game’s title Future Tone. Each can be bought and played separately, but once both are owned it becomes a giant playlist of over 200 songs. That’s right. Not two, not twenty, but two-hundred. If you’ve played the Project Diva games before, you’ll recognize some of the songs listed in Future Sound as that’s where they’ve derived from. Colorful Tone uses music from the Project Mirai series as well as the actual arcade game itself.

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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

For full disclosure, I personally put $15 into the game’s kickstarter which was the amount needed to get the game.

Developer: Wayforward

Publisher: Wayforward

ESRB Rating:T

Release Date: December 20th, 2016

Platforms: PC, PS4, *PSV, X1, & Wii U

*Version played

Kickstarter is an interesting place. You’re essentially giving money to funds someone else’s idea. Shantae, however, isn’t a new idea at all. She has been around since 2002, with her second game releasing in 2010. In between 2012 and 2013, Wayforward even announced the third and fourth entry in the franchise. One of which was a kickstarter that received about double its initial funding goal. It’s been three years since that kickstarter, but Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is finally out. This fourth entry serves as a sequel, as well as a small reboot for the franchise. As the title suggests, the game is about a half-genie named Shantae. Shantae lives and watches over Scuttle Town as its guardian. The story here is that the genie world is in trouble, and it’s up to Shantae to save it from its impending doom- all while helping her uncle build his newest invention: the Dynamo; a machine that will keep all monsters and pirates at bay. As usual in Shantae, the plot more or less takes a back seat, and the game is filled with witty dialogue, and a few jokes that break the fourth wall.

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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.

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