Author Archives: InTheSky

New Velvet Room English Video and Screenshots for Persona 5

InTheSky February 22, 2017 Leave a reply

AtlusUSA is continuing to roll out new promotional media for Persona 5 ahead of its release later on April 4. This next set of media focuses on the Velvet Room, a cornerstone of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The video is narrated by Igor alongside some comments from Velvet Room attendants Caroline and Justine.

Personas can be fused or strengthened in the Velvet Room, and these enhancements are conveyed through various forms of brutality – execution of Personas by guillotine in order fuse them, for example. Notably, this game allows three types of fusion – Basic Fusion involving two Personas of your choice, Advanced Fusion for preset combinations of three or more, and Network Fusion to fuse with a randomly selected online player’s Persona.

Check out Atlus’ new Velvet Room trailer from Persona 5 below, followed by a set of screenshots and Atlus’ accompanying press statement!

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth Announced for the West by Atlus and Deep Silver

InTheSky January 19, 2017 Leave a reply

Atlus and Deep Silver will be handling the localization of two Utawarerumono games – Mask of Deception, and Mask of Truth – to be released for both Playstation Vita and Playstation 4. Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is slated for release in the Spring of 2017, while Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is slated for release in the Fall of 2017. Notably, both releases of the Utawarerumono games will feature Japanese voice tracks with English subtitles.

Utawarerumono is a series of games developed by Aquaplus, which you may know for Aquapazza or Tears to Tiara. It combines SRPG and visual novel gameplay elements.

As far as I know, there wasn’t prior indication for the localization of these games, but it does allow more gamers access to this series of titles that they might not have otherwise had in the same manner.

Atlus USA does note that they had to edit out some content in Mask of Deception with regards to “physical discipline of minors”, but this editing was portrayed as one part of the collaborative relationship between Atlus USA as publisher and Aquaplus as developer.

In North America, both Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth will be available physically and digitally on both Vita and Playstation 4, while in Europe the Vita versions of the games will only be available digitally (both physical and digital still being an option on Playstation 4.)

Below, please find the announcement teaser trailer for Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, accompanied by Atlus USA’s press statement announcing the game’s release. Full copy of the statement courtesy of Gematsu. Our article is closed by a batch of screenshots to promote Mask of Deception.

English Persona 5 System Overview Video – Palaces

InTheSky January 18, 2017 Leave a reply

Atlus USA has recently uploaded an explanatory trailer of their own to their YouTube account – covering the concept of palaces. It opens with a short animated cutscene featuring Ryuji and the protagonist, and it’s narrated by Morgana as it cuts through various in-game sequences. Palaces are a reflection of the corrupted wishes of people, existing in the “Metaverse”. It shows off the various courses of action required to navigate both the dungeons and its Shadow inhabitants.

We’ve reproduced Atlus USA’s full press statement that accompanies this video below, found by way of Gematsu! Check it out!

Persona 5 OST Sample Track Previews Posted By Atlus

InTheSky January 17, 2017 Leave a reply

Atlus has uploaded 10-minutes worth of music previews from Persona 5 to their Japanese YouTube channel. The game has already been released in Japan, but the Western releases for the next mainline entry into the Persona series are still due for April 4. The tracks that can be heard in Atlus’s preview video are as follows:

New Shin Megami Tensei Title Announced During First Nintendo Switch Presentation (Update)

InTheSky January 13, 2017 Leave a reply

A preview video for a new game from the Shin Megami Tensei series was unveiled amidst the titles on display during the just-passed Nintendo Switch presentation. The video itself was rather short, mostly focused on showing off a dilapidated urban locale from the inside of a building. This world is shortly brought to life by the presence of many familiar Shin Megami Tensei demons, as seen in our featured image.

Development for the game has just begun, and Atlus is listed as the sole developer. The trailer notes that the game will be made with Unreal Engine 4. There isn’t an official title listed for this new Shin Megami Tensei series title right now, but the end of the preview video did display a work-in-progress title card, as shown below:

There is no word yet on release window. Toshihiro Nagoshi of SEGA was briefly present during the Nintendo Switch presentation to announce that SEGA is exploring game development ideas and will be working with the Nintendo Switch in the future, and it seems that Atlus’s new Shin Megami Tensei title would be leading the way in this regard.

This new game is likely the main game that will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Shin Megami Tensei series. A website for the 25th anniversary of the franchise was recently unveiled, but as of this article’s publishing it hasn’t been updated to reflect the announcement of a new Shin Megami Tensei game.

Will this be a spinoff title? Or a new mainline entry? What do you expect, or hope to see? Be sure to let us know!

(UPDATE)

For those who would like to view the preview trailer by itself, we have attached it below for your viewing (credited to GameSpot):

Shin Megami Tensei Teaser - Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017

Watch this video on YouTube

(UPDATE 2 – 1/13/2017)

Atlus of Japan’s Twitter account has announced that a Shin Megami Tensei game for the 3DS is also in development, alongside the new game for the Nintendo Switch. Nothing else is known, but we’ll keep you posted!

Shenmue Remasters Planned? New Domain Name Registrations Raise Questions

InTheSky January 6, 2017 1 Reply

When Shenmue III was initially announced during E3 2015’s Sony Conference, fans immediately began to hope for remastered re-releases of the first two Shenmue games. Considering the difficulty of acquiring the two games at the current time, and as a means to boost the profile of the Shenmue franchise ahead of the long-awaited third title’s release, it was an oft-made suggestion.

Recent news of certain website domains being registered offers some hope in this direction. Initially, TSSZNews.com broke news of the registering of shenmuehd.com. Additionally, Shenmue Dojo noticed the registering of shenmueremastered.com. These two URLs, alongside a shenmuegame.com (which redirects you to YSNet’s Kickstarter page), were referenced in SEGABits‘ article on the domain name registrations; their article also includes a reference to a reversewhois page from sega.co.uk – which was used to register these URLs. But if you try to visit the URLs now, you’ll be taken to blank webpages.

As Gematsu notes in response to a SEGA Central community issues discussion video made during May of last year, SEGA has previously mentioned interest in exploring options to bring Shenmue to current gaming consoles.

The news of these two domain names being registered offers hope to the prospects of the Shenmue and Shenmue II re-releases! Let us hope that the games do come to fruition.

Puyo Puyo Tetris English Trophy List Found!

InTheSky December 29, 2016 1 Reply

An English trophy list for Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Playstation 4 has been circulating lately. Exophase has the exceedingly long list of trophies for Puyo Puyo Tetris. Should we expect to see this “Frantic Four-Player Puzzle Mashup” in the West? Let us hope so!

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a crossover project between two of the most prominent (and oldest) puzzle game franchises in existence. It was notable not just for the uniqueness of the crossover concept, but also for its release across six platforms – Playstation 3 and Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii U, and Xbox One. While it didn’t yield particularly large sales on its own in Japan, it did prompt a unique gummi candy promotion for a limited time.

Initially releasing in Japan during February of 2014, it has been quite some time since any sort of word describing the prospects of Puyo Puyo Tetris‘s localization have been noted. To begin with, the game’s potential for localization hasn’t often been publicly discussed, and Puyo Puyo games are for the most part not localized outside of Puyo Puyo Fever or the Puyo Puyo titles released as SEGA 3D Classics for the Nintendo 3DS.

Should this game be localized, one has to wonder what the choice of platforms would be. Certainly, Playstation 4 would already be a lock. Perhaps the 3DS and the Vita are under consideration? And since Valkyria Revolution is uniquely receiving an Xbox One release, maybe the Xbox One version will be brought over as well.

Update: A recent tweet from Sam Mullen possibly alludes to surprise over recent news about the English trophy list for Puyo Puyo Tetris. Assuming that Puyo Puyo Tetris is indeed being localized (which is not completely certain, at the moment, although still possible), this might suggest that localization is being handled outside of SEGA itself.

In any case, the news of a trophy list is cause for optimism!

Valkyria Series Set to Continue in 2017? New Valkyria Chronicles Game a Possibility?

InTheSky December 28, 2016 3 Replies

Valkyria Revolution is coming to Western gamers, as we learned not too long ago.

What with the lack of news surrounding the original “Valkyria Chronicles” sub-series of the Valkyria franchise, perhaps there have been many anxious fans wondering if we’d ever see something like Valkyria Chronicles again. As we are now learning, that might not be such a remote possibility.

An interview with the Japanese PSBlog featuring series director Takeshi Ozawa and producer Yoichi Shimosato (with translated comments from this nichegamer article) reveals that SEGA does not plan on keeping the Valkyria Chronicles sub-series of games dormant. What this may mean specifically, we cannot say for sure. The highest hopes are certainly placed on a high-end Valkyria Chronicles 4 set on Playstation 4, but we have yet to see how SEGA feels about such a project.

Dualshockers, by way of 4Gamer, also notes in an interview with Takeshi Ozawa that he hopes to share an important piece of news regarding the Valkyria series. He says that Valkyria: Azure Revolution is one title that expands the Valkyria IP, and that there should be more news to share about the Valkyria IP in the year 2017.

All of this being said, I will speak for myself in saying that it can be pretty safely concluded that there will be another Valkyria Chronicles title, and that it will be announced some time next year. But such a possibility doesn’t preclude it from being a mobile game, or being on handhelds, or otherwise not being a Valkyria on Playstation 4. The Valkyria Chronicles series is understood to be moderately popular in the West, but tantalizing as the prospect of Valkyria Chronicles 4 may be, it’s a risky move.

…one that we would all most certainly welcome!

But with that being said, what do you think of these new comments? Do you feel optimistic about these hints?

Valkyria: Azure Revolution Official Soundtrack Release Date: January 19

InTheSky December 25, 2016 Leave a reply

SEGA has announced a January 19 release date for the Valkyria: Azure Revolution Official Soundtrack CD, set to release in conjunction (but not packaged) with the game itself. We have used the jacket art for the CD as the featured image shown above. The CD package features all BGM tracks for Valkyria: Azure Revolution, alongside a selection of remixes and 5.1 support. It will sell for 3,240円.

As a reminder, the OST for Valkyria: Azure Revolution features the talents of video game composer Yasunori Mitsuda and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

There are preorder links open for such places as Amazon.jp (which ships outside of Japan). Famitsu’s own article on the announcement of the CD’s release date can be seen here.

Atlus Unveils Website and New Concept Video for PROJECT Re FANTASY

InTheSky December 24, 2016 Leave a reply

Atlus U.S.A. has issued a press release today regarding the formation of Studio Zero, a new internal studio of Atlus in Japan. We wrote more about the studio in an earlier article, and the official press release below contains more information. At the same time, Atlus of Japan has updated the new website and also posted a concept video for the new game the studio will be working on, currently titled PROJECT Re FANTASY. The video features real-life footage and outlines Atlus’ vision for the game. It seems the reaction to the video isn’t entirely favorable, as some people apparently expected gameplay footage. Keep in mind the team was only just formed and PROJECT Re FANTASY is still in the concept phase.