The Atelier series continues in May 2012. Click through for an official trailer!
Late Friday night, NIS America officially announced plans to bring Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland to both North America and Europe this May for the PlayStation 3. Meruru marks the conclusion of the Arland trilogy which includes both last year's Atelier Totori and 2010's Atelier Rorona.
Time is a harsh mistress.
As a fan of the Persona series, I'm delighted by the release of Innocent Sin. It's the one chapter I've never been able to experience, solely because it was left in Japan more than 12 years ago. Now that it's here, my feelings on it are mixed at best. Truth be told, Persona 2 is not a game that has weathered the years well. It's full of old school RPG designs and has been completely eclipsed by Persona 3 and 4. At this point, Innocent Sin is a game that only the most diehard of fans will be able to appreciate.
It doesn't suck, but that's not for lack of trying.
Magnacarta 2 is the latest entry in the historically unremarkable Korean RPG franchise. The first appeared on PC, and the second, better known release, called Tears of Blood, was released on the Play Station 2. There have been quite a few changes since its last appearance: it's on a new platform, has a newly overhauled combat system, has a new world and story, and uses the newer, flashier Unreal engine 3 to power its visuals. The one thing that hasn't changed, however, is the fact that the game still remains unremarkable.
The opening cinematic for the PlayStation Portable game that is to be released on June 06, 2012.
Available now for the PC at http://www.roseportalgames.com/.
Sora and company's next adventure coming exclusively to the 3DS.
Sure, we knew that Square-Enix was working on a 3DS entry in the popular Kingdom Hearts series in Japan, but any information beyond a few snippets of footage and the suggestion that it would be coming at some point to the west was non-existent at best. Which is why today’s announcement that Kingdom Hearts 3D is indeed coming, and much sooner than many had predicted, is such welcome news.
Nobunaga's Ambition is a franchise based by Tecmo Koei on Japanese history, so we'll have to wait and see how Pokémon fit in...
Record of Agarest War 2 will be available in North-America, and Europe in the Summer of 2012 for the PlayStation 3.
Proof positive that you need longer than 18 months to make a follow up to a great RPG.
Fabled RPG developer BioWare has seen great success with their two original IPs during this console generation. These releases are on opposite ends of the spectrum: Mass Effect is a grand sci-fi space opera that melds role playing with action, while Dragon Age is an epic fantasy that feels more at home on the PC. This dichotomy was the most evident with 2010's release of Mass Effect 2, a game that many considered to be the best release of the year, and yet it did away with most of the role playing elements that put BioWare on the map. It was hard to tell where Dragon Age 2 would fall in the BioWare pantheon. Would it hold onto the deep RPG roots of Dragon Age: Origins, or would it be an action game with branching dialogue trees, like Mass Effect 2? The answer, as with most things, lies somewhere in the middle. But we'll come back to that in a moment.
The hardcore RPG fan may have a new banner to rally around.
Starting life as an MMORPG, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has morphed into one of the more interesting original IPs to be released next year. The game is being developed by industry newcomer 38 Studios and strategy game developer Big Huge Games. These names may not carry much weight, but they have some serious big name talent working on Reckoning’s game world, most notably being revered fantasy author R.A. Salvatore and comic god Todd McFarlane who have created the game world and artwork respectively. Lesser known, but still a heavy lifter in his own right, is Ken Ralston who was the lead designer on Morrowind and Oblivion.
