The X Button
The Old Frontier
by Todd Ciolek,
You know, I tried not to get too interested in Final Fantasy XIII. In its early stages, it looked like the sort of thinly imagined techno-fantasy mishmash that I was getting just a little weary of seeing in most of the Final Fantasies that came before XII. Well, I think it's time that I give in and start looking forward to the game in earnest. This has nothing to do with the latest Final Fantasy XIII character being a tattooed, spear-wielding, dragon-summoning, coldly alluring woman with a vaguely Australian accent.
Oerba Yun Fang actually showed up in a Final Fantasy XIII trailer from the Tokyo Game Show, though no one knew her name or her true role in the plot. All we knew was that she's a l'Cie who, unlike other divinely cursed l'Cie characters, works with the government faction that's trying to stomp them out. Earlier this month, magazine spreads revealed her name and the fact that she summons a weird new version of Final Fantasy staple dragon Bahamut. Though some still speculate about her motivations, she's a fully playable member of the party. She brings the game's cast to six characters, the minimum for a modern Final Fantasy, with the Japanese release of the game only two months away. And, for the clincher, she's in the newly released line of Final Fantasy XIII soda potions and collectible figurines.
The “Oerba” part of Yun Fang's name suggests that she's from the same tribal background as a previously introduced party member, the much girlier Oerba Dia Vanille. Anime fans have also pointed out Yun Fang's resemblance to Balsa from Mabuki Andou. Of course, Yun Fang has that possibly New Zealander accent in the dubbed version of the trailer, and if Square changes her voice to some generic American drawl for the final game, I'll stop playing for an hour or two in protest.
But there are soldiers with smiling faces on their helmets, so I'll start playing again.
NEWS
CHO ANIKI COMING TO AMERICA FOR REAL THIS TIME
There's a list of game franchises unlikely to ever come to North America, and for the longest time, the Cho Aniki series was at the top of that list. A comical series of 2-D shooters (plus a fighting game and an RPG), the Cho Aniki games litter themselves with Parodius-like oddities and speedo-clad, musclebound men flying through space, blasting mostly naked Greek gods in bathtubs while sprouting flowers and lasers from their bald heads. No one ever thought a company would deem Cho Aniki suitable for Western audiences, but Nintendo itself went ahead and approved the original Cho Aniki for the Wii's Virtual Console last year. Now Aksys Games is bravely taking the lead by bringing GungHo's Cho Aniki Zero here as a able PSP title.
Something of a prequel to the first Cho Aniki, Zero stars the original's spiky-haired hero Idaten and the lithe heroine Benten, though it's Idaten's two sidekicks, the bodybuilders Adon and Samson, who became Cho Aniki's most recognizable characters. Benten, meanwhile, gets two pudgy, freakish cherubs to accompany her through the game's numerous insanely decorated stages. Aksys clearly knows what they have on their hands, because their press release is full of references to men's beams, "bromance," and protein shakes.
OH YEAH, AKSYS ALSO HAS MIMANA IYAR CHRONICLES
Mimana Iyar Chronicles has no copious, humorous homoeroticism or preposterous reputation, but it's also ing Aksys Games' lineup of PSP titles for 2010. An RPG in the tradition of countless late-1990s genre fare, Mimana features sprite-based visuals, animated cutscenes, turn-based battles, and a cast of heroines grouped around a somewhat unremarkable swordsman.
It shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that GungHo enlisted Kogado Studio, maker of numerous dating simulators, for help with Mimana's characters and semblance of a plot. Aksys also touts the involvement of staffers from the original Lunar series and PlayStation Network game, because Aksys knows that people are much more likely to walk into a GameStop and reserve an anime-styled RPG than a Cho Aniki shooter.
CASTLEVANIA: THE ADVENTURE REBIRTH COMING SOON
Like Contra Rebirth and Gradius Rebirth, Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth is a WiiWare tribute to an older Konami title, in this case the worst Castlevania ever. Castlevania: The Adventure is a clumsy, slow-paced nightmare of Game Boy architecture, but its remade version seems to improve on most of the original's flaws, or at least the lack of interesting levels or sub-weapons. It also borrows from other, less horrible Castlevanias by including multiple pathways similar to those in Rondo of Blood.
It'd be entirely appropriate if this Rebirth title arrived in time for Halloween, but so far it's only hitting Japan this week. Perhaps Konami will spring some surprise with the game, and in doing so make an apology to any kid who picked up a Castlevania game for the Game Boy and spent many thankless hours being killed by giant rolling eyes.
IN BRIEF: ARC RISE FANTASIA JUMPS PUBLISHERS, NINJA GAIDEN WRITER TALKS
Arc Rise Fantasia is the biggest RPG coming to the Wii next year, the multiplatform Eureka Seven's Ken'ichi Yoshida, and minor censorship. It's out in June.
Here's this week's nostalgia dose: an interview with Sands of Destruction. Yet this interview deals with Kato's first story-writing gig, a little NES game called Ninja Gaiden II. The piece is filled with interesting details, and the most surprising is that Ninja Gaiden III actually takes place between the first two games.
IMPORT ROUNDUP: OCTOBER
GRAND TRUCKER ANIKI: SHIGOTO TO KENKA TO KOIMOYOU
Developer: Genterprise
Publisher: Genterprise
Platform: DS
Players: 1
Grand Trucker Aniki isn't the first trucking simulator on the Japanese game market, though it may be the first to mix dating modes with the usual trucker's life of hauling freight and fighting off gangs of thieves. The trucking portions play a bit like the original Grand Theft Autos, with players guiding a chosen vehicle through confined Japanese city streets from an overhead perspective. Combat breaks out among rather tiny sprites, and mini-games involving forklifts and seafood-sorting also show up. Truckers can also date several women along their routes, using the time-honored interface of giving patronizing responses while your dinner companion pretends to like whatever truck-stop you've dragged her to, you clod.
Import Barrier: DS games need no special devices to run on North America systems, though the dating-sim sector of Grand Trucker Aniki will stymie anyone not up on his or her Japanese.
Chances for a Domestic Release: Slim, but Atlus, XSEED, and Aksys have all bought and released stranger things here.
Namco Bandai
Platform: PSP
Players: 1-4
OSOUJI SENTAI CLEAN KEEPER H
Developer: Lupinus
Publisher: Compile Heart
Platform: PS2/Wii
Players: 1
Osouji Sentai Clean Keeper H's cover makes it look like an unwholesome yet superficially cute dating-sim “adventure” game, and…well, it is. But it's also a strange exercise in mini-games that all involve cleaning. See, the game's player-identification hero is charged with janitorial duties at a school where grime is symbolized by bloblike masses of contagion filling the screen. The solution lies in befriending female students and partnering them with specialized, high-voiced cleaning fairies. The Wii version of the game, released back in April, uses the remote for sweeping up classrooms and schoolyards, but the moe" twaddle.
Chances for a Domestic Release: Nothing to speak of.
RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 11-1
Electronic Arts The next week has no releases related to Japanese gaming, perhaps because publishers are all deathly afraid of Dragon Age. It's probably mere coincidence, but Dragon Age is unquestionably the big RPG of this winter. After making RPGs based on Star Wars, eastern mythology, space opera, and even Sonic the Hedgehog, BioWare takes Dragon Age: Origins to a distinctly bloody medieval fantasy world. It's part Dungeons and Dragons and part A Song of Ice and Fire, set in a stage full of elves, dwarves, and humans who all hate each other. Like most BioWare games, the story branches in many directions, through simple conversations as well as violent battles. Combat resembles the four-member party system from BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic, with both player-generated combatants and a handful of distinct story-based characters taking part. There's also no annoying alignment tracker, making the player's actions a little more gray in of morals. Lastly, Dragon Age: Origins has gallons of blood and player-initiated sex scenes, both of which I imagine you'll see when the game is d with Marilyn Manson songs. |
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