Last week a seven-minute trailer for Yakuza Zero was shared with fans on the internet. We wrote about it here.
Kotaku East published an article this week containing that same trailer but with English subtitles added on to the video. The same writer has previously published another article featuring English subs for a different Yakuza Zero trailer.
The trailer is embedded onto a video player on the Kotaku article. Be sure to check out the trailer with subtitles here!
Pictured above is an early promotional image describing the bonuses found in early North American copies of Etrian Mystery Dungeon. The items include a special outer box cover (similar to Project X Zone’s Limited Edition, for those looking for reference,) a 28-page artbook that also includes information on basic elements of the game like class descriptions, and the “Rough Sketch Ver.” soundtrack CD, which contains six tracks that are “work-in-progress” versions of background music found in Etrian Mystery Dungeon. The final designs of the items are subject to change.
Atlus also released an English trailer for the Protector class, the tanks of the series. Perhaps Atlus will be steadily releasing trailer for each class over time, leading up to the game’s April 7 release? Atlus USA also is offering a special prize (to be announced later) for a randomly chosen fan who shares the Protector trailer on Facebook or Twitter. It’s worth noting that part of the trailer’s title is “10 Weeks of Giveaway Info!” so this program could be an extended affair. If you’d like to participate, be sure to get on it! The video description says that the “first winner” will be chosen next Tuesday, or January 27.
Continue reading to check out the trailer.
Talk Amongst Yourselves, a subsection of Kotaku featuring article contributions from Kotaku readers, reports that a fan group is working on a private English server for Phantasy Star Online 2. Titled “Polaris”, the project is produced by only a handful of fans whom have successfully created a private English server with create-a-character and English chat capabilities fully working so far.
Atlus announced an April 7th, 2015 U.S. release date for Etrian Mystery Dungeon during today’s Nintendo Direct. The game will be made available through physical packages and the Nintendo 3DS eShop. First-print copies and preorder copies will also come with a bonus soundtrack CD for the game, though it isn’t entirely clear if the bonus CD will contain the entirety of the game’s soundtrack. There was an English trailer made viewable through today’s Nintendo Direct to promote the game, but it’s actually the same trailer made available during the end of December of last year. It is however, nice to see Atlus and Nintendo promoting the game.
In fact, a while ago AtlusUSA streamed themselves playing the game, a YouTube video of which can be found here.
A trailer for the Landsknecht class was also made available today…in English! The video is not a carbon copy of the Swordsman video produced for Japan. To accompany the trailer, Atlus also provided a description for viewers to check out, alongside a general press release description for the game. Continue reading to check out both.
Sega recently announced the release dates for Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX in a press release. The release dates for each of the regions are as follows:
North America: May 26, 2015
Japan: May 28, 2015
South Korea: May 28, 2015
Europe: May 29, 2015
Sega also teased plans for retailer preorder programs, saying that the details for these promotions will be announced at a later date. The game will be released both digitally on the Nintendo 3DS eShop and in retail stores.
Continue reading if you would like to view the text for the press release. It offers an overview of the game, including some of the features present in the game. Be sure to check out this Gematsu article for a gallery of new screenshots!
The Yakuza Zero video series continues with a video focusing on the game’s characters. The cast looks to be fairly large, if at least the official website is any indication. There will be new and old faces spread amongst Kiryu and Majima’s campaign.
Interestingly enough, early on the video we see comparisons between Akira Nishikiyama’s likeness in Yakuza 1 (in all his PS2 glory) and his graphically spruced-up and younger look. In fact, around the first half or so of the video covers previously-introduced characters, while the latter half shows off newer characters. There are short dialogue clips for the characters shown off.
Be sure to continue reading to check out the video!
YouTuber, NeoGAF user, and Yakuza fan HyperBitHero recently put out an awesome YouTube video for the Yakuza games explaining why this franchise could be Your Next Favorite. The Your Next Favorite Series is a video series produced by HyperBitHero that takes a look at franchises that the author loves, and hopes to share that passion with others by offering insight and explanations for newcomers to a franchise or those who are unsure if they should buy a game.
This video for the Yakuza franchise is a singular video but it is quite long: approximately 52 minutes long. But I hope that doesn’t put anybody off; it offers a nice overview of the franchise through the honest perspective of the author. He also offers his opinions on the games that fans of the franchise can think over, like why Yakuza 2 is his favorite currently localized game. I thought the video raised some interesting points — for example, while some new players may be reticent to embrace playing through the games in variations on the same location (Kamurocho,) you get to see the location and characters evolve and change over time, which adds more weight to the mythology.
Continue reading to check out the video! And be sure to comment on which game new players should play first – the video author suggests the first game if possible, contrary to conventional debate between the third or fourth!
Yakuza Zero is set to release in Japan in around two months. Ahead of its looming release date, Sega put out Yakuza Zero’s first commercial, also viewable through the Ryu ga Gotoku Youtube channel. It’s quite short (15 seconds!) but it does signify that Sega should be escalating their advertising for the game. As it stands, Yakuza Zero is already receiving some interesting and nice promotion with their weekly video series and Sega has generally advertised Yakuza well in Japan, in my opinion.
No word on Yakuza Zero’s localization prospects yet, but sales of Yakuza 5’s European and American releases could catch Sega and Sony’s attention.
Continue reading to check it out!
Gematsu recently published a new article containing a couple of helpful videos and some information on special skills for the new Wanderer class. The information for the Wanderer class was found on the Wanderer subcategory of the official website’s Character Maker section. If you visit the Character Maker section, you can also check out pages for the nine other announced classes. Each character class’s page allows you to check out color variations by clicking on the number icons found underneath the character art.
To get back to the Wanderer class, the site lists three Representative Skills and one Special Blast Skill. The Wanderer’s Representative Skills include Stone, Hunt, and Tunnel, and the Special Blast Skill for this class is Gust. The descriptions for the skills are below, quoted directly from Gematsu:
Representative Skills
Special Blast Skill
It isn’t entirely clear what the meaning is between the delineation of the different types of skills. It doesn’t seem like the skill hierarchy is carried over directly from Etrian Odyssey IV, at least; Auto-Resurrect, Knockout Blow and Party Heal are all Representative Skills for the Medic. It appears Etrian Mystery Dungeon will have its own skill hierarchy.
I’d like to add that the official website for the game does feature some interesting additional content; there is a wide variety of Twitter icons featuring color and gender variations for different classes if you go to the Special section of the website.
Be sure to continue reading to check out the videos!
After a break last week, the Yakuza Zero video series continues with a focus on money. This is the video to watch if you want to be a Money Master, as the awesome intro to the video shows. Seeing as how Japan’s economy is currently in a recession, perhaps printing some yen bills with Majima and Kiryu faces on them may be the key to boosting consumer spending?
Money is given more focus in Yakuza Zero than previous Yakuza games. When enemies are defeated, they “bleed” money that players use to level up their characters. Besides that, Yakuza Zero is a prequel game that takes place in the late 80’s in Japan: a time noted for Japan’s asset bubble economy, or a period of economic boom preceding the Lost Decade of the 90’s. Viewers can expect to see coverage of Kiryu’s Money Island sidequest and Majima’s Cabaret Club sidequest here too. In fact, they take up a rather large portion of the video, so if you’re looking to familiarize yourself with how the sidequests may operate, be sure to take a look!