Atlus have released the first trailer for their recently announced dungeon RPG Etrian Odyssey V: The End of the Long Myth for the Nintendo 3DS. It shows the game various character classes (which we talked about in an earlier article), as well as the character customization options. These customizations include changing your character’s skin, eye and hair color, as well as selecting between different voices.
During the latest Nintendo Direct, Nintendo and Atlus have announced that the Wii U crossover RPG for the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem franchises, called Genei Ibun Roku #FE in Japan, will be localized in the West as Tokyo Mirage Session #FE. Interestingly, Nintendo revealed that, because the game is set in Japan, they will be keeping the original Japanese voice track and include English subtitles, rather than dubbing the game in English. The game will be released on June 24th in North America and Europe, and on June 25th for Australia and New Zealand. You can watch the announcement during the Nintendo Direct in the video below (starting at 11m43).
Shin Megami Tensei IV Official Artworks, the official artbook of for Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei IV, is now available for purchase at select retailers! Publishing is being handled by UDON Entertainment, responsible for many other video game artbooks such as those for the Valkyria Chronicles series.
Shin Megami Tensei IV Official Artworks boosts 208 pages and has a suggested retail price of $39.99. The book will feature detailed character profiles and a glossary of terms (in English) to give added color to world of Shin Megami Tensei IV, alongside some special interviews from development staff. As for the art itself, Masayoki Doi is the lead artist for Shin Megami Tensei IV, but the game also features a handful of guest character designers with various backgrounds including Keita Amemiya (Capcom’s Onimusha series) and Yasushi Nirasawa (Kamen Rider), with other artistic talents in tow, too.
You can check out some preview images at the announcement news post that UDON made on their official website!
Etrian Odyssey V’s promotion is certainly accelerating as of the last couple of months. To start, we have an official subtitle to accompany Etrian Odyssey V- “長き神話の果て”, which is generally being translated as The End of the Long Myth. We can see it in the new logo being used as this article’s featured image.
The new world of Etrian Odyssey V is called Arcadia. And in this new world, Etrian Odyssey V will be deviating slightly from franchise conventions. Characters will be one of four races: Aslan are humans; Lunar are elves; Brani are dwarves; Cerian are beastkin. While character classes are an Etrian Odyssey mainstay, in this particular game certain classes will be exclusive to certain races. So far, the known classes for each race are as follows:
There is probably some sort of consistency to the types of classes that each race will have access to (whether or not they are support-oriented, or magic offense-oriented, etc.) but we’ll know more later. However, it does appear that there will be skills specific to each race – adding further to the complexity of character options. Director Shigeo Komori, in an excerpt from Famitsuu, mentioned that it will be more difficult to synthesize teams that work together, as units are going to be created with heavily specialized skill sets in mind. When this week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu is fully published, more access to artwork and information will be available.
Character customization will be give more depth in Etrian Odyssey V. The game is designed to give players a greater sense of freedom in character design, even down to more coloring options (specific note was made of giving characters differing eye colors.) Hair and skin colors are also adjustable.
Players will be assigning voices to the characters they create, from a large trove of voice talent. For those who were following our 7th Dragon III Code: VFD coverage, this is the same idea. A list of the seiyuu who have recorded lines for the game can be found below:
Shouta Aoi (hey, it’s the PSO2 anime protagonist!)
Satomi Arai
Akira Ishida
Touru Oukawa
Ayaka Ohashi
Yoshihisa Kawahara
Misaki Kuno
Mitsuki Saiga
Takuya Satou
Asami Seto
Atsuko Tanaka
Kousuke Toriumi
Jouji Nakata
Kaori Nazuka
Natsuki Hanae
Saori Hayami
Megumi Han
Youko Hikasa
Rina Hidaka
Yui Horie
Ayumu Murase
Tsubasa Yonaga
Some of these names are probably familiar to those who are regular anime watchers or fans of other JRPGs!
Etrian Odyssey V: The End of the Long Myth is due for release in japan on August 4th of this year, priced at ¥6,480. There will be a limited edition (priced at ¥10,778) that includes an art book, official soundtrack CD, and downloadable content. And it’s still for the Nintendo 3DS!
Development for the game is currently marked at 60%. On March 5th, 9 PM (JST), there will be a Niconico broadcast dedicated to Etrian Odyssey V featuring some of the voice talent for the game alongside premiere of its first promotional trailer.
Credit to this Gematsu article and to this NeoGAF thread for the information.
The Entertainment Software Association, the U.S.-based organization that owns E3 2016 and represents game publishing companies, announced earlier today the current exhibitor list for E3 2016. The full list was published to the official E3 2016 website; from the main site, you can browse the full list of participants by attempting a search. Most relevant to us, as Sega and Atlus fans, are these two attendees:
Atlus? No surprise there, we’ve been expecting them. Hopefully we may see something related to Persona 5. Sega Europe, by name, is an interesting listing, though. It’s hard to speculate on an explanation for why Sega is listed as such and why it would be Sega Europe specifically, but it was deliberate.
Want to see something interesting? If you go to the bottom of the E3 website while browsing, eventually a scrolling banner of participating companies’ logos will show up at the bottom. You can accelerate the scrolling of logos by moving your mouse on to the right arrow. Go click on Sega’s logo. Once you click on a company’s logo, it links to a site that represents the company. This one just so happens to take you to Atlus USA’s main website. I wonder how that happened?
E3 2016 is set for June 14-16 of this year.
Three Atlus games have been discounted on the US PlayStation Store starting today until March 1. These include the PS Vita RPG Persona 4 Golden, its rhythm game spin-off Persona 4: Dancing All Night and the tactical RPG Lost Dimension. Take a look at the list below for more information on the discounts, and a link to the PlayStation store pages for the games in question!
Shin Megami Tensei IV Final released in Japan last week. To further promote the game, special themed merchandise is being released in exclusive collaborations with certain Japanese outlets.
First, here is the products page for a FINAL collaboration with the Japanese fashion brand ankoROCK. From parkas to T-shirts to pants to fingerless gloves and even masks, there’s a lot on display. Clicking on an individual item will take you to an order page. These are indeed fashionable – anyone can see it and I myself like the designs on display. Go and take coordinated ensembles like these to Milan or Paris and show everyone what’s up.
To my friend in the picture, the red shoes are so problematic that they are giving demons power. The red is too bright and looks plastic-y, and the soles on the shoes are a little too strong. (But fashion is partially about personal taste, in the end…)
*the note at the bottom of the image suggests that the shoes are not part of the collaboration, anyway 😉
I love how the inside of the sleeves are white. It adds more color, and makes the fabric look appealing to the touch.
But just so you know, as with plenty of especially fashionable items, these skew towards the pricey side. Orders are being taken until the end of March.
Next, check out this collaboration announced with P’PARCO on the FINAL website. P’PARCO is a multi-floor shopping center for food, fashion, and pop culture items, located in Ikebukuro. this is a limited time promotion that ends on February 21. Items being offered include SMT map symbol-inspired phone jacks, three different T-shirt designs, acrylic keychains, a wall scroll, pens and a smartphone case. In addition, check out these bromides:
They come in sets of three, packaged randomly, and feature many of the important figures of Shin Megami Tensei IV FINAL, human or deity. But of course, check out the above links to see the many other items on offer.
Lastly, restaurant company TBI Group is hosting its own collaboration with SMT IV FINAL. Locations in Osaka and Tokyo will host a menu of character-themed items. The Tokyo locations will operate until March 13th, and the Osaka location will operate until March 20th. What makes this promotion interesting is that each of the several locations offer specific menu arrangements of food and drink items; there aren’t any dishes that are store-specific, but no one place is the same!
Also, BEEHOUSE is participating in this promotion by offering cocktails you can create by mixing different drinks (and the bases are named after different SMT demons.)
If you happen to be in Japan, the links I posted above will actually direct you to each of the participating restaurant’s locations. A helpful tool, to be sure!
It’s nice to see the love for Shin Megami Tensei IV FINAL continuing in Japan. Such promotions are not outside of the norm, but still fun to see. No localization has been announced for regions outside of Japan as of yet.
This is the Atlus version of our Wonfes 2016 Garage Kits post! Below, check out all of the Atlus-related garage kits that are in development, featuring characters from such series as Persona, Dragon’s Crown, and Odin Sphere.
If you’re reading this, it is now February 10th in Japan: the day Shin Megami Tensei IV Final will be released (alongside Valkyria Chronicles Remastered!) Though it’s not long after midnight there…
Anyway, 4Gamer posted an extended preview video of Shin Megami Tensei IV Final to their YouTube account. The first half or so of the video feature some dialogue scenes that set up the game’s story. The latter half of the video features gameplay – the battle system, various menu navigations, the map system.
As of now, there’s no word on the localization status of this game. Atlus tends to be rather consistent about localizations, certainly so for major Shin Megami Tensei-related games, but we’ll have to wait and see what’s in store this game in the West.
Another Shin Megami Tensei IV Final character monologue video for you to check out! This feels rather fast after the release of the Krishna video not too long ago. Anyway – we have Medusa, and Atlus’ interpretation of the iconic Greek monster with snakes for a head of hair. She is affiliated with the Polytheistic Alliance. Seems the characters that are going to be introduced here in these videos are all new – which makes sense. But we have less than a week until Final is released in Japan, so you have to wonder who else might receive a video in the few days that are left.
Credit for the featured image goes to this blogiswar article.