Atlus U.S.A. has revealed that Stella Glow, the strategy RPG from Imageepoch for the Nintendo 3DS, will be launching in the Americas on November 17th. The game will be released in both retail and digital form on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS for the price of $49.99/CA$59.99. Pre-orders and a limited number of launch-day copies will also be receiving a few pre-order items. You can find the list of bonus items below, as described in the official press release:
During the Sony Tokyo Game Show conference we got to see a short trailer for the PS4 version of Phantasy Star Online 2. While the quality of the video isn’t the best, some people are noticing an upgrade in terms of graphics compared to the PC version. It’ll be interesting to see if the PS4 engine does indeed deliver better graphics compared to the PC version running on its highest settings, and whether or not those improvements will make their way back to the PC version. I wish I had some good news to share regarding the NA/EU release, but sadly SEGA still doesn’t want to talk about it. While they explained the delay for Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice on their official blog today, the reason for the delay of Phantasy Star Online 2 is still unknown. Suffice to say, the franchise and its fans deserve better than that. But for now, you can check out the trailer for the PS4 version below (posted by Youtube user XCageGame)!
SEGA have posted a new trailer for the upcoming SEGA 3D Reprint Archives 2, a retail release featuring a collection of their 3D Classics game for the 3DS. We talked about the games included in the release earlier on, and the trailer also shows the new additions to the 3D Classics series that will be included in the collection. In particular, these are 3D Puyo Puyo 2, 3D Power Drift and 3D Maze Walker. Take a look at the trailer below to see the games in action on the 3DS!
Here’s to hoping we can see this released outside of Japan!
Starting today, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is now available in the EU. The game already launched in the US earlier this week, and is getting generally favorable reviews. For that matter, I’m working on my own review of the game, which I hope to release sometime next week! To celebrate the game’s launch, Sega has released a new trailer for the game which shows not only the main rhythm game, but many of the game’s other features as well (including the Puyo Puyo mini-game). Be sure to take a look at the full trailer below! Also worth visiting is Sega’s official website for the game, which shows the game’s various gameplay elements in even more detail.
Famitsu had recently revealed the existence of SEGA 3D Reprint Archives 2, a second collection of SEGA 3D Classics which will be released in retail in Japan. Today, they also revealed that the collection will include 2 new and 2 bonus games which haven’t been released before on the 3DS yet. These include 3D Power Drift, 3D Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, 3D Maze Walker, and 3D Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa!
At the moment it’s not clear if these new games will be heading West. We hope Sega considers releasing them on the Nintendo eShop, like they did with most of the previous 3D Classics games. I also hope they don’t reskin Puyo Puyo 2 if they do end up releasing it, given what happened with Puyo Puyo Quest.
The recent Magical Mirai 2015 event had a playable demo of Project DIVA X available, which allowed the fans to gain a bit more insight in the game’s new features. The random module drops during Chance Time we talked about in an earlier article happen while the song is being played, and not only that, but the characters can actually switch to the new module instantly while the songs is still playing. In the older Project DIVA games, modules were obtained only after the song was finished (either as a reward for meeting certain conditions, or by purchasing them with in-game Diva points). Interestingly, NeoGAF user ATXAlchemy mentioned getting a module drop even when he/she failed the Chance Time.
The Link Scratches from Project DIVA F 2nd apparently weren’t in the demo (although the regular Scratch Notes were). Link Scratches were a controversial addition to F 2nd since they required players to play the song at least once to memorize their rhythm, something which the veterans of the series disliked as it often ruined their attempts to Perfect a song on their first try. It remains to be seen whether or not Sega will be bringing them back in Project DIVA X.
In a somewhat surprising move, Sega of Japan has announced that Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition will be coming to the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita on December 17 in Japan. The game is an updated version of the original Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax featuring new characters and balance updates, which we talked about in some of our earlier articles.
The original game is still set to be released in the US and the EU about a month from now. One can question if revealing the existence of an updated version on more platforms is a good move from Sega. After all, this could make people think twice about buying the original game, and I’m already reading comments from people doing just that. Let’s hope this doesn’t hurt its sales too much, as a potential localization of Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition is evidently going to depend on how well Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax sells overseas. We added three images, posted by Dengeki Online, of what we assume is the console version of Ignition below.
It’s been rather quiet regarding The World End Eclipse, Sega’s upcoming RPG for mobile, PC and PlayStation Vita. The game was initially meant to be released end 2014, but it was delayed and very little information about the game was made available throughout this year.
But today, Sega announced it will be opening up pre-registration for the game in Japan. As of now, people in Japan can now register for the mobile and/or the PC version for the game. Those that do will get a few bonus items when the game launches, and registering for both the mobile and PC version will grant more items than registering for only one of them. The iOS and Android version will be launching first in October 2015, followed by the PC version in Fall 2015. The release date for the PlayStation Vita version isn’t known yet.
The latest Famitsu has revealed a bit more info on Sega’s recently announced Project DIVA X. Aside from the Free Play mode where you play the regular rhythm game, the game will now also feature a new Quest Mode. In this Mode, you will be able to take up quests from five different areas. Clearing these quests is done by raising your “Voltage”, which is visible in the first and only screenshot of the in-game UI below. Apparently completing these quests will “fill” the area they originated from, and Miku and the other Vocaloids will grow stronger as a result. In this mode, you’ll also get conversations between the characters after completing certain quests. Judging from this information, it seems like the Quest Mode may bring a bit of an RPG element to the franchise.
It’s now September 2nd, 2015 when I’m writing this article, and that means it’s been exactly 3 years since we last received an update on the official English PSO2 Facebook page. At the time, it was the last day of PAX, where people could play a demo for the English version of PSO2. There’s actually a bit of a history behind the official Facebook page, since it was initially managed by Sega of Japan. The first few updates were all in Japanese, but the staff working on the page soon noticed they were getting visits from people all over the world, and not just Japan. The staff made an attempt to translate their messages in English, and said they’d like to make the game available worldwide. Given their comments, it wasn’t actually all that surprising to see the game was eventually announced for the West.
On July 10, 2012, the Facebook page was transferred to Sega of America. In the last update from the Japanese staff, they said they were surprised to see how many people outside of Japan liked the page. At the time, the page had accumulated 14.299 likes. Unfortunately, the follow-up posts from Sega of America wouldn’t last long. While PSO2 grew into one of Sega’s biggest games in Japan, the English website and Facebook page stopped posting updates altogether. At the moment, over 100.000 people liked the page. A number that I find surprising, given the fact that the game was never released and the fact that the page seem to have been abandoned by Sega. The only activity on the page comes from the fans asking Sega for an update.
Over the past three years, Sega has been very quiet about the status of the game. A year ago, Sega posted this message, in response to a tweet from a user lamenting the lack of updates on the Facebook page.
The game is still delayed. SEGA is currently working on bringing PSO2 to the West and will update as soon as we know more.
— Sega, September 2014
We’re now a year later, and unfortunately there’s still no word on what’s going on with the game’s localization. Worse, a Sega representative stated there are no plans to localize the upcoming PS4 version. While that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, as it’s not uncommon for such statements to be made even when the company does in fact have plans to localize the game, it only hurts Sega’s image even more. Sega’s new CEO, Haruki Satomi, said he wants Sega to “become a brand again”. But amidst what seems to be an attempt of Sega to renew their image, PSO2 is the elephant in the room. If they want to regain their credibility, a good way to start is to finally talk to their fans again. I’m sure they’d be surprised at how many people still want to play this game.
Over at SEGAbits, George has also written an article around Sega’s refusal to localize PSO2. It’s well worth a read!