[ indie navi ] features

KLab Finds Chinese Partner to Bring World Fantastic Eleven to Asia

Posted 20:15 EST on 26FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in features, previews » KLab, kunlun, world fantastic eleven

KLab today announced it is teaming up with Beijing Kunlun Technology to bring its soccer title World Fantastic Eleven to Asia. Kunlun will handle localization, publishing, and promotion of the title in China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea.

Kunlun is a leading publisher of PC and smartphone titles in its homeland of China. The company operates koramgame.com, the largest social games platform in mainland China. This partnership with KLab is seen as a part of the company’s efforts to expand into the development and publishing of native smartphone apps.

World Fantastic Eleven is presented by KLab as a combination card collecting game and sports title. For World Fantastic Eleven, KLab procured licenses from the Japan Football Association and FIFPro, allowing the title to feature cards with the real names and likenesses of over 2,000 footballers from around the world.

Going beyond the typical “fantasy football” fare, World Fantastic Eleven also allows players to directly participate in matches. The promotional video (shown below) indicates players will be able to direct their players using touch-based commands. KLab’s promotional site describes the matches as being presented in a “digest style”, giving players ample opportunity to make choices that dictate the outcome.

As seen in the below video, the matches are fully 3D, which will likely be a selling point with smartphone owners.

World Fantastic Eleven is slate for a spring release in Japan, with an Asian release through Kunlun shortly thereafter. KLab intends on publishing the title worldwide, although it has not clarified whether it will take on additional partners to do so.

News source: 4Gamer

Famitsu Interviews Tales of Link Developers

Posted 19:25 EST on 20FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in features » akatsuki, bandai namco, tales of link

Bandai Namco’s Tales of series has long enjoyed popularity with JRPG / action RPG fans. Last August, Bandai Namco revealed development of Tales of Link, an entirely new entry in the series for iOS and Android, being developed in collaboration with social games developer Akatsuki. Tales of Link will feature returning characters from previous Tales titles along with original characters in linked battles of up to twelve.

Bandai Namco recently set a tentative spring release date for Tales of Link, and on this occasion Famitsu App sat down with four of the title’s key developers to discuss the game. Below are some of the highlights of the interview.

From left to right: Genki Shiota (Akatsuki CEO), Kazuya Yamamoto (director), Hironori Naoi (director), Ryuuji Oodate (chief producer)

Image source: Famitsu App

Famitsu: First off, could you tell us a bit about what lead to the decision to work with Akatsuki in developing Tales of Link?

Oodate: We’ve already released a browser-based title, Tales of Card Evolve, but we’ve been thinking for a while that we have to release a social game native to iOS and Android. The plan to do so had been in place for a while, but just when we’d got to thinking about how to find a partner company for the project, we first met the people from Akatsuki and everything just clicked.

[...]

The people at Akatsuki had also been thinking it was about time to develop a native application and had already accumulated a good deal of the needed tech and knowledge. So we figured, why not work together?

Shiota: We’d also decided it was time to focus on developing native apps, but the development costs were becoming a concern. That being the case, both our companies agreed it made sense to collaborate on a game to create a game engine we can both use going forward.

Famitsu: So the idea was to share knowledge related to the technology used for developing native apps?

Shiota: Yes, basically. Mr. Oodate is very particular in how everything is planned out. I mean that in a good way. So it was decided we’d put Mr. Oodate’s planning abilities to good use, and that we’d focus on development. In simple terms, we handled the the nuts-and-bolts development, while making good use of the expertise and knowledge related to developing native applications that came our way from Bandai Namco. That was the relationship.

Oodate: We (Bandai Namco) have a lot of experience creating games for the PSP and 3DS, so we know how to make games that have a “consumer title” feel to them. However, we didn’t think it would be the right approach to try to shoehorn a consumer title approach into the development of a native application. We needed to find a way to make a game that you could play with one hand while eating lunch or what have you, but that felt more developed than your typical browser-based title. Since both our companies have experiences creating games on opposite sides of the spectrum, we brought our ideas to the table and brainstormed together, moving forward that way.

Famitsu: What was the original concept for the title?

Oodate: Both of our companies wanted a game engine that would be competitive going forward, as the trend is toward native applications. For that reason, we put a lot of emphasis on originality. It might sound a little revisionist to say this now, but we really wanted a system where you felt like you were communicating with the character by tactile input, not just mechanically tracing lines. To that end, we put our character IP to good use, making it so that characters would respond to touch input by talking, posing, etc.

Famitsu: How will the recurring characters fit into Tales of Link‘s world?

Naoi: It’s similar to how there were recurring characters in the Tales of the World titles. Characters from the Tales of main series [that appeared in Tales of the World games] were treated as being from a parallel world, and called “the knight from …” or “the princess from …” The system in Tales of Link is based on that system.

Oodate: At first, the idea was that the Tales of characters were heroes of the past, who were no longer living. As development went along, we had a lot of conversations like, “Wouldn’t it be fun if this character crossed over and was in Tales of Link?” We changed the whole story around at the last minute to go with that approach. (Laughs.)

[...]

Naoi: We booked a recording studio and re-recorded all of the voice work for the main scenario.

Oodate: We thought, why not raise Tales of Link to the status of a spiritual successor to the Radiant Mythology series, and I feel we’re doing that. When we released a bit of information about Tales of Link to kick off pre-registrations, some users wanted to think of the title as a successor to the Radiant Mythology series, and we figured if that was the case, we should respond to those expectations. We’re positioning Tales of Link as a title in which players can look forward to the involvement of characters from other titles.

Famitsu: The Tales of series is well-known for its involving stories. Will Tales of Link be presented as a scenario with a proper ending?

Oodate: That’s a really good question. (Laughs.) The story is divided into chapters, but there’s no “final” chapter. One thing that sets social games apart from consumer titles is that you can keep adding more and more content for players to enjoy. That being said, we still want to keep an eye on how players are responding to the chapters to continue expanding the story, sometimes even in ways that subtly subvert players’ hopes and expectations.

[...]

Naoi: Taking into consideration the need to make this feel like a Tales of game, a good story is important. Since we’re approaching the story as a group performance, even when the main scenario is wrapped up, there’s still the question of what some other character was doing when some event was unfolding. That way we can keep adding to the story.

Famitsu: Shortly ago, you let us look at the battle screen. The game system seems like it was pretty similar to [Akatsuki's] Thousand Memories. Will there be any elements that really give the system that Tales of feel?

Yamamoto: Yes, there will be. Like we mentioned before, Tales of Link will be different from Thousand Memories in that the focus will be on “lots of connections”. In Thousand Memories, after a certain number of battle turns had passed skills could be employed, but in Tales of Link, as links are made the “link count” grows, and you spend that to use skills. For example, if the link count is at 100, you could use the same character’s skill that costs 20 skill points three times if you wanted to. It’s kind of similar to MP in that respect.

Oodate: [...] Thousand Memories emphasizes managing costs, and that’s where the strategy of its system lies. Since you’re managing costs, if was possible to take out an enemy without linking up, you’d want to do that. That’s fun in its own right, but in Tales of Link we’re trying to make the game more accessible. We’re focusing on making it so that people will think, “Connecting is a lot of fun!”, or, “It’s really to my advantage to link up.” Probably Thousand Memories is the more cathartic title. It’s fun to hold back and wait until you can link your characters up for one huge hit, but Tales of Link doesn’t require you to hold out quite as much.

Yamamoto: Another thing, you brought up alignments a minute ago. Another feature of Tales of Link is that you think about the alignments of the weapons and armor your party has equipped when forming your party.

Famitsu: Will there be any equipment in Tales of Link that appeared in previous Tales of titles?

Oodate: Yes, we’ve already had the equipment redrawn and put in the game as cards, focusing mainly on the equipment that had been introduced up to Radiant Mythology 3. [...]

Oodate, discussing the care that went into the battle system: The feel of the game changes completely depending on how you define the range of sensitivity to touch input. In this game, if you accidentally make a big mistake, it can be really irritating, so we put a lot of work into balancing the sensitivity to prevent that from happening. We balanced it down to the pixel. Also, tempo. It’s crucial not to mess up the player’s tempo, and we put a lot of focus on that from the outset.

Naoi: The chibi character attack animations are really detailed, so we’d love for people to be able to look at them closely, but we put so much care into the tempo of the battles that players will barely even see it.

Additional information

When asked about recurring characters, the interviewees didn’t give a great deal of information. However, they confirmed that The Dark Wings would make an appearance, likely as in-battle support / curative effects. The developers also eluded to appearances by Agria and Dhaos, saying it would “make the world of Tales of Link too small” if only hero characters made cameos.

When Tales of Link is released, there will be 130 characters available, although it was not clarified whether these were all characters that could be incorporated into the player’s party, or if the count included characters appearing as support items and the like.

When asked, staff admitted that they’re feeling a bit of pressure being handed the reigns to such a storied franchise, particularly since they’re aware that they can’t include enough characters from previous titles to keep all of their fans happy. Still, future updates give them the opportunity to include new characters, or to give deeper back stories to characters already included.

Finally, although there will be a battle colosseum for players to take on a variety of monsters in, the team members did not comment on whether there will be player versus player modes.

Given the history and popularity of the Tales of franchise and the treatment some popular franchises have received when being introduced to smartphones, a bit of wariness on the part of fans is understandable. Given the development team’s apparent commitment to fine-tuning the battle system and paying homage to previous titles, Tales of Link may just shape up to be the kind of JRPG experience smartphone players are looking for when it’s released this spring.

Controversy Over DQM Super Light Gacha Leads to Refund Ruckus

Posted 18:37 EST on 07FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in features » dragon quest monsters super light, gacha, square enix

There are numerous ways developers monetize their otherwise free-to-play titles, with a few standing out in their ubiquity. “Stamina” systems place caps on daily play time, allowing users to “regain stamina” by purchasing it (usually through in-game currency) or by sending tweets and Facebook invites to their friends. Another, more straightforward system, offers powerful weapons and armor for purchase. Some games allow defeated players to purchase what amount to extra lives and continues.

Japanese developers of smartphone and browser titles have been quick to incorporate all of these methods, but in Japan the gacha reigns supreme. Gachas are essentially lotteries. Players purchase gacha chances in the hope they’ll receive premium prizes. Instead, users usually receive mundane prizes, and sometimes no prize at all.

Many people argue this system is too similar to gambling, and the Japanese government seems to agree. In 2012, the Japanese government banned a particularly controversial form of gacha known as kompu gacha.

The “kompu” is short for “complete”, and the idea was to do just that: to keep earning or purchasing chances at the gacha lottery until winning every item in some set. Completion of the set netted a powerful item that could not be earned any other way. Of course, some of the items in the set were extremely rare, leading to instances of people spending the equivalent of hundreds and even thousands of dollars to complete their collections, in the end not managing the feat.

Japanese players have tolerated gacha systems, but few would say that they like them. The negative press and consumer outrage surrounding kompu gacha systems (and their eventual banning) did little to endear gacha systems to the public.

Although the non-kompu variants have continued to be ubiquitous, news surrounding the gacha system in Square Enix’s Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light is indicative of players’ mounting frustration with the system.

The controversy started when one Youtube user took Square Enix up on its claim that the odds of winning a particularly rare creature had been boosted as part of a campaign. Enthusiastic to show off the rare monster on his Youtube channel, he documented his gacha attempts — all sixty. In the end, although he received a few A-rank monsters, after spending somewhere in the region of the equivalent of 300 dollars, he had not one S-class monster to show for it. Not even the monster Square Enix had claimed was “easier to win” as part of its campaign.

As the video made its rounds around the Web, other users incensed over similar experiences demanded of Apple they be given their money back. They pointed out that the graphic used for the gacha greatly exaggerated the odds of receiving a gold-colored rare monster map, and argued that this was false advertising.

dragon quest monsters light gacha screen

To the surprise of most, Apple took the claim seriously, giving many users App Store refunds. At this point, Square Enix had little choice but to respond, temporarily shutting down the gacha system.

Square Enix’s response was vague: it would “change the specs” of the gacha system. Of greater interest is the action Square Enix took: those who’d used the gacha were given a “present” of in-game currency determined by how many times they’d played the controversial gacha. In other words, a refund.

DQM Super Light developer Takamasa Shiba also responded, reiterating that Super Light can be played and enjoyed without using the gacha system. Shiba promised Square Enix would “expand the game contents that can be enjoyed without spending money”, and that it would “make the fact that the game can be played without spending money more clear to players”.

Users were less than impressed with these vague promises, so today Shiba went into the specifics. Square Enix will reduce the in-game cost of the gacha from 500 to 300 gems per try. The odds of receiving prizes will also be adjusted:

S rank: changed from 1.3 percent to 3 percent
A rank: changed from 4 percent to 6 percent
B rank: changed from 10 percent to 18 percent
C rank: changed from 45.7 percent to 48 percent
D rank: changed from 39 percent to 25 percent

The updates will go into effect over the weekend, Saturday at the earliest.

The story doesn’t end there, though. In its coverage of the unfolding events, Yahoo describes a “spreading fire” on the notorious message board 2 Channel, as users demand refunds from the publishers of numerous titles featuring gacha systems.

Yahoo News describes numerous threads where “refund templates” have been upped for other posters’ convenience, and threads where users have posted proof of actual refunds. Yahoo’s writer acknowledges the images may be fakes, but points out that with the abundance of similar stories, there’s a strong possibility there’s some truth to the reports.

Among some of the demands for refunds:

colopl’s Quiz RPG: the Mystical World of Wiz: “Accidentally selected the most expensive gacha“
Bandai Namco’s Gundam Conquest: “Updates lowered the value of my in-game items with no prior warning”

Yahoo’s article reports that, in light of the news of refunds, posters are sending in demands for all manner of reasons, with gacha systems and unannounced spec changes the most common.

2 Channel users are notorious for being confrontational and over-the-top. The ruckus should be regarded accordingly. However people may feel about gachas, they’re extremely lucrative; this controversy won’t bring the system toppling down. Instead, developers will adjust their games’ gachas while keeping a close eye on the changes their competitors make, arriving at a new equilibrium players will tolerate.

Still, in its own provocative way, 2 Channel is also a bellwether. The reactions of its posters cast into sharp relief that the gacha system is something many smartphone players simply tolerate.

Culture Brain Announces a New Baseball Game, and It Looks Terrible

Posted 17:21 EST on 07FEB2014 by: tim walker in features » baseball simulator 1.000, culture brain, flying dragon, hiryu no ken

After nearly a 20-year hiatus, 8-bit era survivor and Hiryu-no-Ken System originators Culture Brain have announced a new game in their Chojin Ultra Baseball series (known in the west as Baseball Simulator 1.000).

The new game, Chojin Ultra Baseball: Action Card Battle, will be released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan this March, and it looks terrible. Gloriously terrible.

Allow me to explain….

Founded in 1980, Culture Brain rose to the height of its fame (or infamy, if you will) in the U.S. during the NES era as strangers in a strange land who just didn’t quite fit in. Their games, like Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll and Kung-Fu Heroes, were not always technical masterpieces (partially because of the amount of time it took for them to reach these shores, and partially because of them not being state-of-the-art products to begin with). Their print ads (see below) were bizarre, headache-inducing pieces of work, packed to the brim with mistranslated/poorly-worded text. Even their name seemed out of place in an era of Konamis and Taitos.

Despite many of their games looking and sounding dated, Culture Brain releases almost always had some little nugget of brilliance buried deep within that kept me playing despite their flaws. Sure, Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll might have all of the fluidity of a shark trying to swim through a lake of Bisquick, but it also had a pretty neat idea for a combat system. The Magic of Scheherazade was a legitimately great RPG that was too far ahead of the curve in many of its experimental concepts to gain widespread popularity. And Baseball Simulator 1.000 did not look as technically impressive as other NES baseball games at the time, but the Ultra Moves created an experience unique to the platform.

Which brings us to the new game. At first glance, it looks pretty bad: The polygonal graphics look horribly dated (bad even by 3DS standards) and lack detail, animation is somewhat stilted, and the game is not priced like a budget title (it will retail for roughly $48 U.S., about the same price as The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sells for in Japan). Oh, and it’s also a card game: Players do not actually control their baseball team, but instead choose which pitch and hit cards to play during each round.

That said, Culture Brain may still have a diamond in the rough on their hands. For one thing, the level of absurdity that appears to dominate this game is delightful. A couple of GIFs from Hachima Kikou perfectly illustrate the tone they’re going for:

The storyline for the game (translated from the official website is also pretty out there: “It is an age of tremendous popularity worldwide for Superhuman Baseball and the Ultra League. The World Ultra Baseball Cup (WUBC) will be held to determine the world’s greatest Superhuman Baseball team! Through a certain chain of events, Kiryu and Torajiro, who are attending the Alcatraz Baseball School, were asked to participate in the WUBC…” This sort of gonzo setup is perfectly in line with the bizarre storylines that were printed in the manuals for their NES games, and shows that they haven’t completely deviated from their origins, even 25 years later.

Another thing to remember about Culture Brain is what I stated in my opening line of this article: They are survivors. Think about it: How many Japanese publishers from the NES era are still around today in their original forms? Many have merged with rivals to survive (Tecmo with Koei, Square with Enix), while others winked out of existence some time ago (Data East, Jaleco, Technos). Culture Brain has never been hugely successful as an entity, yet they’re still here today, and they’re still publishing games (their peak output seems to have been in 2004 (when they released 11 titles), but they still consistently publish 2-3 games per year). In an industry where developers and publishers go under on a regular basis, that’s admirable, and shows that they’re doing something right, despite the questionable merits of their products.

Chojin Ultra Baseball: Action Card Battle will probably not hit the top of the sales charts, but it may prove to be quirky enough to merit your attention. Here’s hoping that it generates enough cash for Culture Brain to keep the lights on for a bit longer so that they can continue to both mystify and entertain us in their own special way.

100 Turn Hero: Text Translation and Setup Guide (Part II)

Posted 12:16 EST on 28JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » 100 turn hero, half minute hero, iOS, kotaro yoshida, ritterz, RPG

One of our goals here at indie navi is to assist gamers who aren’t necessarily fluent in Japanese with getting import games up and running on their U.S. mobile devices. With just a little bit of guidance, many of the games we cover can be fully enjoyed by Western gamers who are not fluent, and we’re more than happy to help you navigate through the menu screens to get you started.

Welcome to the second part of our translation/guide to Kotaro Yoshida’s 100 Turn Hero! (Check out my impressions of this gem of a game here, and check out Part I of our guide for information on the introductory/tutorial stage in the game) In this addition, we’ll guide you through the menu screens to familiarize you with all of the game’s options and its weapons upgrade system.

Now that you’ve completed the first stage, it’s time to familiarize yourself with everything you can do between quests. The game will guide you through weapon upgrades and management first.

The Weapons Box holds all of the weapons you’ve collected so far. Since the concept behind 100 Turn Hero is that you never actually fight monsters while they’re able to move, you’ll never take damage in combat. Therefore, unlike conventional RPGs, there is no armor to worry about equipping, just weapons. Go ahead and tap the Weapons Box to proceed.

Like the instructions say, double-tapping on a weapon will take you to the upgrade screen. Go ahead and tap on the Default Knife twice.

There’s a lot of information to cover on this screen, so let’s examine it very carefully. First of all, the top portion shows your current Hero Level and the number of Jewels you currently have. The main purpose of your Hero Level is that it dictates how much it will cost you to upgrade your weapon (very important if you want to avoid spending real-world money in the shop, and if you want to avoid spending too much time grinding). We’ll see exactly how it works in a minute. Jewels are used mainly to purchase weapon upgrades. You might also remember from the first part of our guide that any gold you find during a quest will get converted into Jewels (at a ratio of 2:1) once you’ve beaten the Boss for that stage.

The box in the upper left shows the weapon you’ve selected and its current level. A weapon’s level increases each time you upgrade it. Upgrading it beyond your current Hero Level will cause the cost of the upgrade to double.

The box below this shows the weapon’s strike range. The arrow indicates that Fandele is facing north, and the red square indicates strong damage; therefore, when using this weapon, position yourself with an enemy in front of you (on the red square) to damage it. Other weapons might show dark or light orange squares as well; these squares indicate that the weapon will hit monsters standing in those squares for minor damage (the lighter the shade, the lower the amount of damage inflicted).

The box in the upper right shows the attributes of the weapon. Attack Power indicates how much damage your weapon will inflict. Charge Rate indicates how quickly (number of turns) the weapon can be charged up to unleash a special blow that deals many times the normal amount of damage. Guard Chipping indicates how quickly the weapon can wear down an enemy’s defenses from successive hits (allowing successive hits to inflict more damage). The numbers after the arrow indicate how much the attribute will increase if you purchase an upgrade. Finally, the text below the attributes indicates any special skills that the weapon possesses. These include inflicting more damage on certain types of monsters, increasing one of your attributes even further, and increasing the amount of gold dropped by monsters.

The next box is a brief summary of the weapon. The box directly below it indicates how much it will cost to upgrade the weapon to the next level. (Note: If the text is red here, it indicates that you do not have enough Jewels to upgrade the weapon) Three of the buttons below allow you to select which attribute to upgrade, and the last one sends you back to the Weapons Box. Go ahead and tap Attack Power for now to upgrade that attribute.

Go ahead and tap Upgrade! to increase your weapon’s Attack Power to 12 points. Incidentally, the text in yellow is slightly deceptive: The game lets you know that you’ve received a discount for not trying to upgrade a weapon beyond your current level, but does not bother to explain that the discount has already been applied. (in this case, the upgrade costs 30 Jewels; if you had attempted to do the same upgrade at Hero Level 1, it would have cost you 60 Jewels)

Again, the price indicated here reflects the full price (120 Jewels). You can always upgrade your weapon beyond your level, but since you can carry three weapons into battle at once (and will often need to), you’re going to save a lot of money in the long-term by not upgrading beyond your current level.

We’ve gone ahead and upgraded the Woodcutter Axe as well. Refer to the summary of these screens above, and note the differences between the two weapons. Once you’re done, tap Go Back to return to the Weapon Box screen.

Now let’s take a look at the other options available from this screen. Again, notice that you’re allowed to have three weapons equipped on your character before heading into battle, and can keep six more in storage (we only have three right now, so all of those squares are empty). To move weapons around, just hold down on a weapon icon and move it where you want it to go. If you move a weapon onto a square occupied by another weapon, the two weapons will swap positions in your inventory.

What’s that, you say? Nine slots aren’t enough for you? Okay, we can deal with this: Go ahead and tap Increase Slots.

You can double your slots if you’re willing to pay for it. Unfortunately, there is no way to increase the number of slots you have available for combat, so the only advantage to buying more slots is to allow you to keep more weapons at HQ to choose from. (side note: The game will force you to either buy more slots or sell a weapon off if you try to go into combat without any empty slots (since you earn a new weapon every time you complete a quest)) Our personal advice is to keep this option in mind for the future, but don’t waste your Jewels on it for now: Increasing your slots is expensive at this juncture and provides little benefit. Tap Go Back once you’re finished here.

/a>

You probably don’t want to sell anything off right now, but let’s take a quick look at how selling works anyway. Just tap Sell on the Weapons Box screen, and you’ll be taken to the first set of screens above. Selling is easy: Just tap anything you’d like to sell, and it will be marked with a red stamp. Once you’re done, just tap the Sell button at the bottom of the screen to sell off everything that has been marked and collect your Jewels.

Sort, the final option on the Weapons Box screen, allows you to reorganize your inventory with a single tap (again, not very useful yet since your weapons stock is pretty low). Try it out if you’d like, then tap Go Back to leave the Weapons Box screen and return to the Main Menu.

From here, go ahead and tap Menu to proceed to the next set of options.

Here’s what the game calls the Menu Screen. We’ll go through these one at a time, so go ahead and tap Settings first.

This brings up the game’s sound settings. Go ahead and tap the buttons to disable the Sound Effects and Background Music (both are great, so shame on you if you tweak either of these options!). Tap Go Back once you’re done, and then Purchase Jewels to check out the shop.

If your wireless connection is down (like ours was, briefly), you’ll get the first set of screens; otherwise, you should see various Jewel packs for sale (second set). Again, after several hours of play, we have yet to encounter a need to purchase extra jewels, but you may want to kick in a few yen anyway, if only to thank Mr. Yoshida for creating such a fun game.

Tap Go Back when you’re done, and then Present Box for something interesting…

This is your chance to spread the word about 100 Turn Hero and earn some swag for it. Both options send you to Safari, where you can log into your Twitter account and either leave a pre-generated tweet, or else create your own. (the first option is to praise the game; the second is to brag about your accomplishments) Either option nets you 500 Jewels for free, so it’s an easy way to get some extra in-game cash with just a little effort on your part.

Once you’re finished tweeting, tap Go Back to return to the Menu screen.

The remaining two buttons are pretty self-explanatory: Play Other Games from ritterz! opens up a page with Safari that shows ritterz’ other apps. Send a Request for Support allows you to contact the development staff if you have any concerns about the game.

Finally, tap the little Staff icon in the lower-left corner of the screen to view the credits for the game (already in English).

Once you’re through, hit Go Back to return to the Main Menu, followed by Quest.

Here’s where you can select a new quest to begin and view your medals for completed quests. Just tap on any of the monster icons that are lit up to view a summary of the quest, and then tap Try It! to take it on.

We’re almost done, but there’s one more important screen to take a look at. Go ahead and start a quest (either the new one available, or the one you just finished), and hit the Pause icon once you’ve cycled through the dialogue.

Here’s what the Pause screen looks like. First of all, let’s start at the bottom: In order to unpause the game, you’ll need to tap Back to Quest, not the Pause icon at the top of the screen (which is nonfunctional). Keep this in mind in case you accidentally pause the game and can’t seem to figure out why you can’t get back to the game.

The topmost option, Icon Location, allows you to re-position the icons used for pausing, switching weapons, and attacking.

The next option is Control Method. The default option is Control the Character, which allows you to move Fandele around the screen normally with your finger. Switching this to Control the Ground causes your finger motions to rotate the ground underneath Fandele’s feet, effectively reversing up and down while keeping left and right the same. (we’re not big fans of this control option ourselves)

Finally, selecting Quit will take you to the self-explanatory menu screen above. There is no penalty for quitting out of a quest at any time (aside from having to start over from scratch), so don’t be afraid to use it.

That should be more than enough to get you started on your way in 100 Turn Hero. We’re not going to translate the rest of the in-game dialogue at this time (there’s a lot of it!), but we are playing through the game, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you happen to need a little more guidance. Good luck, and we’ll be back soon with even more great translations for you!

100 Turn Hero: Text Translation and Setup Guide (Part I)

Posted 11:39 EST on 27JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » 100 turn hero, half minute hero, iOS, kotaro yoshida, ritterz, RPG

Welcome to the first part of our guide to Kotaro Yoshida’s 100 Turn Hero! (Check out my impressions of this gem of a game here) Today we’ll be showing you how to get the game up and running, and then we’ll walk you through the game’s first level.

It’s really not that hard to figure out what to do on your own, but we thought that you’d like to at least know the backstory before you get too far into the action. For this guide, the screenshots really tell most of the tale, so we’ll keep quiet for the most part and just let them do the talking (ProTip: Tap on the screen to advance the dialogue).

The good news about 100 Turn Hero is that it is actually available on the U.S. App Store, so you do not need a Japanese iTunes Account in order to play it. Just search for “ritterz” on the App Store (it’s only listed under iPhone games, but will play just fine on your iPad as well), and you should find it for 99 cents, along with a couple of other great games from Mr. Yoshida. (or else click here to get it right from the web)

The bad news is that the game is still in Japanese. We’re hoping for a localized version, but until that day comes (we hope it’s coming!), we hope that our translation will help you get started on your adventure.

Unlike many Japanese apps we’ve tried, 100 Turn Hero doesn’t get waded down with text-heavy menu screens and promotional offers at the onset. Just tap the screen to begin, sit back, and watch the story unfold……

(Note: We’ll go ahead and skip the Japanese screens for now to avoid overcrowding. We’ll add them back in for comparison once we go over the menu system in Part II of this guide.)

Pretty riveting stuff, eh? Now that you know how the story begins, let’s learn about the controls and how to play…..

As you can tell, moving around in 100 Turn Hero is a snap (no mushy virtual control pad here!). The only thing you really need to pay close attention to is the exact direction you’re facing before attacking so that you don’t end up wasting your turns.

It’s combat time! The red box (or boxes) show which target(s) you can hit with your current weapon. Since Shadow’s technique has stunned the monsters, there’s no need to fear counterattacks…for now (see below). Just walk right up to the monster, position Fandele so that she’s facing the right direction, and tap the Weapon icon to attack.

Congratulations on vanquishing your first foe! Don’t forget to pick up any coins that your enemies leave behind. More importantly though, be sure to heed Shadow’s warning: If you use up your 100 combat turns and the boss is still standing, it’s game over (back to the quest selection screen).

Even though the dialogue above is lacking in revelations, it’s normally worth your time to seek out and enter any buildings (like this castle) that appear on the stage map. It won’t cost you any of your precious turns, and you may pick up a tidbit or two of information on how to kill the boss. Certain buildings also contain merchants selling temporary power-ups to boost your stats, helping you use your turns more efficiently.

Weapon-switching is probably the most critical element of the game. Tapping the Switch button will swap your current one with the next one you’re carrying (you can bring up to three different weapons into battle). It also briefly shows you the stats for the new weapon, including any Special Skills it might have. (neither of your default weapons has any special abilities, but you’ll eventually acquire weapons that can do more damage to certain enemy types, earn you more gold, etc.) However, the Woodcutter’s Axe does hold one advantage over the Default Knife since it can damage two side-by-side enemies at once.

One thing to keep in mind about weapons that damage multiple enemies is that not all hits are created equal. You’ll be able to tell exactly which targets will receive major damage from a particular weapon (and which ones will only receive minor hits) once we’re done with the Tutorial level and can look at the Weapon Stats screen.

We’ve finally reached the Boss! Boss characters normally have thick hides, which is why it’s not only important to level up before you reach one, but also to upgrade both the Charge Rate and Guard Chipping attributes on your weapons (we’ll cover this in Part II). Hit him enough times, and your weapon should start to flash; this means your weapon has become charged from successive hits, and your next blow will deal massive damage to the….regular-sized enemy crab.

Congratulations on completing Stage 1! You can go back and replay this stage as often as you’d like in order to earn more money and more experience. In this instance, it took us 39 turns to beat the stage; if you can beat it in fewer turns, you’ll earn more experience points. The gold you collect throughout the stage gets converted into Jewels (2 gold = 1 jewel), which can be used to pay for weapon upgrades. Also, the summary screens for stages after this one also include a maximum value for the number of jewels you can earn after completing that particular stage.

You’ll also earn a new weapon every time you complete a stage, including stages you’ve already completed. (this can be a great way to earn some extra cash: Run through a lower level stage several times, and then resell the junk/duplicate weapons you pick up)

The number of turns you have left when you beat the stage is converted into Experience Points, boosting your Hero Level. Note that this is separate from the level you begin a stage at (which is always Level 1). The main advantage of your Hero Level is that it keeps prices reasonable in the shops for upgrading your weapons, allowing you to do more damage to enemies and make further progress. In this instance, completing the stage in 39 turns means that we gained 61 XP (100-39). If we were to replay the stage and complete it in 34 turns, we’d gain another 5 XP.

The text at the bottom of the screen is always a random hint on gameplay. We should be covering most of these as we delve deeper into the game.

This concludes Part I of our guide. In Part II, we’ll wrap things up by going over the menu screens, and giving you a few pointers on progressing through the game. Look for it soon!

CROSSxBEATS: Text Translation (Part III)

Posted 13:21 EST on 23JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » capcom, cross beats, cross x beats, CROSSxBEATS, naoki maeda

Welcome to Part III of our guide to CROSSxBEATS! (Go here to read my thoughts on the game, here to check out Part I of our walkthrough, and here for Part II) In this edition, we’ll walk you through setting up a User ID, give you an overview of the main menu screens, and squeeze in a little bit of shopping.

(Note: Whenever possible, we’ll try to put the original Japanese screen next to our translation for reference. In instances where Japanese text is minimal, we’ve opted to show just the translated screen.)

Now that you’ve completed the tutorial for the Unlock Challenge mode, you’ll end up on the screen shown above. Choose any User ID you’d like (up to 8 characters); even though this is a Japanese game, the keyboard should default to your native region. Hit OK when you’re done, and then you’ll be asked to pick a region.

Japan has a lot of prefectures and districts, so this part might seem a bit overwhelming, but it’s really not that hard. Unless you happen to live in Japan (and know your region’s name in kanji), go ahead drag the arrow all the way down to the bottom of the list.

Ah, that’s more like it! Just tap “Overseas”, and then you can move on.

Any 4-8 digit password will do here.

This screen shows the User ID, Region and Password you’ve selected (we’ve blacked our own password out in the screens above). Hit “Cancel” to go back and redo them; otherwise, tap “OK” to move on…

The game will often give you bonuses for logging in. In this case, you’ve earned 100 units of Link Energy. (Note: This is a component of the social aspects of the game. Right now, we’re focusing mostly on the single-player modes of CROSSxBEATS, but let us know if you’d like to see more on the multiplayer modes in the future!)

When you log in, you’ll typically get one or two event pop-ups like the one above. (this is just an example; obviously, these will change over the course of time) Just tap “OK” to move along.

And here’s another bonus for you (we told you’d be getting more Premium Tickets!).

Since we’ve got two prizes to collect, let’s go ahead and take care of that right now. On the Main Menu screen (the first set of photos above), click on the present box icon. This will show you all of the rewards you’ve yet to formally collect yet. Your box can hold up to 200 items, so you don’t need to worry about snagging them all right away. If you want to go ahead and collect them now, just tap “Get All”.

Now let’s take a look at what else you can access from the Main Menu screen. Go ahead and tap on “Mission” in the lower-right hand corner, and you’ll be taken to the screen above. Missions are special challenges that you can complete in order to earn rewards. It’s a passive system, so you do not have to actively take on a Mission to complete it; just fulfill the requirements, and you’ll be granted your reward. Also, the more Missions you clear, the more will be added (we were at 20 when the photos above were taken; we currently have 19 completed and 42 available).

Here are the three main choices available from the Main Menu. We’ve already tried both Music Play and Unlock Challenge in the previous installments of this guide.

Event mode offers you the chance to take part in time-sensitive events where you can submit your high scores to try and beat other players. The screens show above are for an event that has already been completed. There is actually a pretty cool event scheduled to start in the next day or so (scheduled for January 24th-30th); we’ll have all the details for you in a separate piece later today!

Tapping the Menu icon in the upper-right corner on most screens will take you to the screen above with shortcuts galore (we’re not going to go over all of these today, but we’ll look at a few). The buttons on the left include the three main game modes, a shortcut back to the Main Menu, and a shortcut to your Friend List. The Shop is what we’re going to be looking at next, so go ahead and tap on that icon (you can also access the Shop via a button on the Main Menu).

Time to shop! The Tutorial will walk you through how to purchase Premium Tickets (they’re free in this case, so don’t be afraid to claim them). They leave out some pretty important details here, but they’re covered in the screens below.

Here is where the game gets a bit devious. You do not purchase tickets and items directly with real-world money; instead, you purchase them with in-game currency, known as Crossbits (Cb). And you purchase Cb with (you guessed it!) real-world money. Look over the last couple of screens though, and it’s pretty easy to do the conversion: 1Cb = 1 Yen (approximately $0.01 U.S. at the current exchange rate). Check out the ticket prices in Cb and do some further conversions, and you should discover that the average track play-through (which “costs” 3-5 tickets) will run you around $0.25 to play when all is said and done. Just remember that you don’t have to buy anything: Your Play Tickets will replenish over time.

That about wraps it up for CROSSxBEATS Part The Third. We’ll try to finish things up in our next installment. Look for it soon!

CROSSxBEATS: Text Translation (Part II)

Posted 18:09 EST on 20JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » capcom, cross beats, cross x beats, CROSSxBEATS, naoki maeda

Welcome to Part II of our guide to CROSSxBEATS! (Go here to read my thoughts on the game, and here to check out Part I of our walkthrough) For this section, we’ll delve into the Unlock Challenge Mode to help you earn some more tracks to play.

Now that you’ve played through a track in the main mode of the game, it’s time to try an Unlock Challenge. As stated above, once your gauge fills up from playing the regular tracks, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock even more tracks.

(Most of these screens are pretty self-explanatory, so we hope you’ll forgive our brevity this time out…)

This last one though is worded a bit awkwardly in the original version of the game: In this case, you’re unlocking the Standard difficulty ranking for this new track. Subsequent challenges will give you the chance to unlock higher difficulty levels for these tracks.

It’s worth noting here that you can normally choose your own Clear Requirement by tapping the arrows next to the requirement shown here. Since you’re in the Tutorial right now, you’ll be restricted to the requirement shown here for now.

So, yes, hit the target score of 15,000 points, and you’ll unlock the Standard difficulty version of Touch of Gold. We’ll get into how to reach this score in a moment, but first, there’s more….

The game is more than fair in letting you unlock tracks: Even if you don’t score enough points during your attempts, you’ve still got a chance to earn Album Cover Pieces, which can be used to unlock tracks you just can’t seem to master.

As shown above, if you just play through the entire track this time, you’ll earn 10,000 Unlock Points, which is enough to get the Album Cover Pieces, but not enough to unlock the track by itself….

Having people on your Friends List can be quite beneficial, as shown here. The extra oomph from KANATA (an NPC being used for this tutorial; they won’t be on your Friends List once you’re done) will boost the 10,000 you get for completing the track to 15,000, giving you enough points to unlock it for good. (Don’t worry: Most of the tracks are a bit more challenging to unlock than this one!)

And we’re ready to go! …But not so fast! Sorry, but it’s time for a hard lesson in the economy of CROSSxBEATS…

You might recall that each track costs Tickets to play. You’ve already exhausted your regular stock of Play Tickets, so you’ll have to pony up some Premium Tickets to play this time. The main difference between the two is that Play Tickets are earned back over time (one for every 20 minutes of time that passes, with a maximum stock of 10), while Premium Tickets can either be earned by fulfilling certain in-game requirements or else purchased in the Shop with real-world money. (don’t fret about using these up for now; you’ll get some more freebies soon)

Again, just play all the way through the track, and….

Congratulations! It’s all yours. Again, notice that the higher difficulty levels are still locked. Play through enough tracks in the main game, build your meter up, and go to Unlock Challenge mode to try your hand at unlocking these on your own.

That’s it for the Main Tutorial. There are a few more things you’ll need to navigate through though, such as setting up your Log-In ID and Region. We’ll be back to lead the way in Part III tomorrow!

CROSSxBEATS: Text Translation (Part I)

Posted 18:41 EST on 17JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » capcom, CROSSxBEATS, naoki maeda

Welcome to Part I of our guide to CROSSxBEATS! (Go here to read my thoughts on the game) For this section, we’ll walk you through how to download the game and will guide you through the first part of the tutorial.

First of all, you will need to have a Japanese iTunes Account set up in order to play this game. CROSSxBEATS is free to download and play (with in-App purchases), and you do not need a credit card to set up an account (though you will need at least a 1,000-Yen ($10) iTunes Card from Japan). Follow this link for an excellent walkthrough on how to go about setting up your account.

Once your account has been set up, go to “Settings” on your iOS device, select “iTunes & App Store”, click on your Apple ID, sign out, and then sign back in with your new Japanese account (keep this information handy for later so that you can log back in with your regular Apple ID). Close Settings, and open the App Store.

CROSSxBEATS is pretty easy to find on the App Store: Just tap the Search box, type “Cross Beats”, and you should see it right away. (the game works on both the iPhone and iPad, so download it to the device of your choosing) Click on the FREE icon to download the game, enter your password (if prompted), and wait for the game to be installed. Once the installation is complete, open up the App, and you should be greeted by the screen below.

We’re starting a new game, so go ahead and tap “START” to set up a new account. You’ll have to wait a bit after this for the game to download some more data.

It’s Tutorial time! The game goes over basic notes first.

The Tutorial is live, so you’ll need to tap on the notes to move on. Try to tap the convergence point the instant before the two arrows merge together. (Note: The hand icon on the screen is there to show you where to tap next, so just follow it if you’d rather zip through faster (or, alternatively, just hit the ALL SKIP button in the upper-right corner))

Step 2 is pretty self-explanatory. Just watch your timing!

Step 3 introduces Holding. Although you need to keep your finger pressed down the whole time, you are not penalized for keeping it on there once the note has vanished, so don’t be afraid to err on the side of caution.

Flicking adds a little more variety to CROSSxBEATS. Just pay attention to the direction of the pin, or you’ll miss.

And that’s it for the main Tutorial! Your virtual guide will now show you a bit of how the game flows.

You’ll be able to explore the other gameplay modes and try the other tracks later, but you’ll have to play through this one first.

Welcome to the economy of CROSSxBEATS. As stated on the screens, you need to spend tickets to play the game. Tickets recover (slowly) over time, and you also have the option to purchase more in the in-game store. We’ll cover this in detail in a future installment; the Tutorial gives you more than enough tickets to proceed, so you’re safe for now.

Insert “game play” here. Give the track a try, and then you’ll be able to move on…

Good job! Hopefully you scored better than our “B+” (be nice: It’s hard to take screen captures and play well at the same time!) Continue to advance the text here, and your guide will start to walk you through the Unlock Challenge mode…which we’ll be back to cover on Monday! See you then!

Pop’n Rhythmin: Text Translation (Part II)

Posted 11:36 EST on 13JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » iOS, konami, pop'n music, pop'n rhythmin, walkthrough

Pop’n Rhythmin, Konami’s iOS adaptation of their Pop’n Music franchise, is the first game we’ve selected for this process. (Go here to read my thoughts on the game) In Part I, we walked you through downloading and setting up the game, learning basic gameplay, and understanding many of the options screens.

In Part II, we’ll take a look at Treasure Mode, a board game mode that allows you to unlock items by spending points earned by playing the main game.

Now that we’ve played at least one round of the main game in Part I, other options should be available on the Mode Select screen. Treasure Mode is the meatiest of these, so we’ll tackle it first (we’ll touch on the other modes in Part III(!)). Go ahead and tap the Treasure Mode icon.

The first time you play in this mode, you’ll be greeted by a couple of screens explaining the basics on how to play.

Here’s Page 2. Just tap “Close” once you’re ready to move on.

Welcome to Voyage of Exploration, your first destination. Just tap the name to advance.

No sea voyage can begin without setting sail first! The two icons shown here indicate the number of presents and tickets you’ve collected so far. Tap “Set Sail” to move on.

Welcome to the first Map (game board)! Let’s review the buttons at the bottom first. Mode Select will take you back to that screen.

Characters takes you to the Character Selection screen, allowing you to change characters. Right now, your only choices are Mimi and Nyami (a subtle play on J-Pop duo Puffy AmiYumi). You can tap on the individual characters to read their profiles, or scroll through to subsequent pages to view more characters. You’ll be able to unlock new characters once you’ve collected at least 5 tickets, allowing you to play the Character Lotto.

Collection takes you to the Collection Selection screen. You can choose either Song Collection or Wallpaper Collection to view what you have unlocked so far. You’ll need to collect 9 parts/pieces of each to unlock one.

Retire lets you quit in the middle of playing. Only items you’ve gotten since you last crossed the goal line will be saved.

Ready to play? Just tap “Move” to bring up the spinner.

The following screens illustrate the basic gameplay flow for Treasure Mode. Once you’ve hit Move, the spinner will start spinning around. Tap the numbered area to make it stop, and your character will advance that number of spaces. Each time you use the spinner normally costs 20 Treasure Points.

Advance Spaces move your character forward a predetermined number of spaces. (Note: We’re not going to translate all of the in-game text for Treasure Mode, but we’ll give you a few examples to get you started)

Back Spaces send you back a predetermined number of spaces. Believe it or not, this can actually be useful at times, since it may allow you to try again for a Treasure Space you had already passed.

Trap Spaces (which you’ll encounter on later maps) result in a negative effect that will last for a certain number of turns. In this case, the darkness will hang around, making it difficult for you to determine where to go next. (there are areas on the later maps where you can choose your direction of movement after spinning when you come to a fork in the road)

Warp Spaces (again, these show up later) warp you to new locations on the map.

Landing on a Treasure Space rewards you with either part of a song or a piece of wallpaper. Once the present on a Treasure Space has been opened, it will not be restocked during subsequent playthroughs.

Instead of spinning right away, you can choose to tap your character and then select to activate their special ability. In this case, Nyami’s We Love! ability pulls a fellow Pop’n player onto your map, and earns you Treasure Points for landing on their square. You can use a character’s special ability as often as you’d like, as long as you have the Treasure Points to spend!

Congratulations, you’ve reached the goal! You might have noticed that you do not need to spin an exact number of spaces to land on the goal, so it’s really not hard at all. The tricky thing about Treasure Mode is spinning the exact numbers necessary to land on each of the Treasure Spaces to claim your gifts. The good thing is that you can try as many times as you want as long as you have Treasure Points available, and that’s rarely a problem early on: You earn a certain number of Treasure Points back for completing a level, and it often ends up being more than you’ve spent to begin with! (the game does sometimes give you Character Tickets as a reward instead)

Clearing a map for the first time gives you access to an additional map or area. The higher-level ones become quite complex, but provide you with many more Treasure Spaces.

As we mentioned before, there’s more detailed information on how Treasure Mode works under the Settings menu. To get there, go back to the Mode Selection screen, tap Settings, and then tap Treasure Mode under the How to Play section.

Here are the How to Play screens for Treasure Mode. A few types of Spaces we did not cover yet are mentioned here, and there is also a detailed explanation of how the Character Lotto works.

This concludes our guide to Treasure Mode in Pop’n Rhythmin. Play around in the Main Game mode for a little while, and you should have more than enough Treasure Points to start making progress and unlocking stuff.

We’ll be back with the final part of our guide next week. In the meantime, Keep On Pop’n!

Social Game Info Lists Its 20 Titles to Look Out for in 2014

Posted 19:09 EST on 09JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in features » 2014 preview, capcom, GREE, konami, square enix

With all of the titles being released in Japan for mobile platforms, it can be tough to know on what to keep tabs. Fortunately, Japanese mobile platform media outlet Social Game Info has compiled its annual list of titles to look out for in the coming year. With everything from a Golf RPG to a mystery social title from industry giant Square Enix, this is shaping up to be an interesting year for iOS and Android users.

Golf on Your Smartphone! Guruguru Eagle

Guruguru Eagle (loosely: Lucky Eagle Golf) comes from developer Aiming, known for its mobile action RPGs Valiant Legion, Logress of Swords and Sorcery (develped for MarvelousAQL), and Griffon: Record of the Phantom Tower (developed for Sega Networks).

The developer is taking what they know and applying it to a whole new genre: golf. Players can customize their avatars appearance to the Nth degree, and send them to the tee against opponents, or in modes like the relaxing “one hole, one minute” mode. By clearing a hole, players are rewarded with new clubs, outfits, and accessories, as well as in-game currency to spend on the same. “Golf RPG” probably wouldn’t be the first game a developer would think to put out for mobile platforms, making this one to look out for in 2014.

Images source: Guruguru Eagle official site

Sword of Knights

Another title by Aiming, although closer to the RPGs by which the developer made its name. What sets this title apart is its approach to dungeons: the look and function like a board game. Players move through the board game-like dungeon panels at a time, landing perhaps on battle panels, treasure panels, or uneventful Free Parking(-esque) spots. Lead illustrator is Alco Wada, known for a variety of manga works and game illustrations.

Image source: Sword of Knights official site

Furubokko Heroes

Loosely: Full-Power Kick heroes. Develped in collaboration between Drecom and CyberConnect2. Furubokko Heroes gained media attention when through aggressive media relations it gathered 100,000 pre-registrations, offering registrants a shot at its “Flying Get Gacha”, potentially earning a special unit for use upon release of the full title. Similar to Level 5′s WonderFlick, the draw is in the simple tactile pleasure of its flick-based combat.

Image source: Furubokko Heroes official site

Dragon Dice

Konami’s title further shortens the gap between mobile RPGs and full-on MMORPGs. Players log in and go about their tasks in a shared environment. When taking on tough baddies, players can call out for help and get other players to join in on the battle in real time, arranging attacks and setting up combos via text chat.

Ryusenkei Encounter

A “tactical RPG” by developer GMO Game Center, presented through the Android games application platform “G Gei”. Players select to be a member of one of four schools, gathering “astral spirits” to form their battle parties. The game’s main draw is its adrenaline-injected take on the strategy RPG formula: players have 3 turns to win or lose, strategically placing their astral spirits on a tiny 3 x 3 grid to make best use of the tiny window of opportunity. GMO promises the battles place no limit on the number of participants in battle. Players can move their “home bases” about the game world, collaborating with other players and aiming to gather as many points for their school.

Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul

Not much is known about this title, but expectations are high given the combination of the pedigree of developer DeNA (owner of the popular mobile social networking site and games platform Mobage), and the high profile of the Evangelion name.

Image source: Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul official site

Attack on Titan

You’ve got to hand it to DeNA: they know how to get their hands on hot properties. Like Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul, this title was only recently announced, so little is known, but the Attack on Titan name alone makes it worth keeping an eye on.

Tower of Odin

Another title presented by DeNA, although this time a localization. Created by Korean developer Haiwan Entertainment, the tower defense title Tower of Odin has already been downloaded over a million times in its native land. Set in a land called Asgard, towers were built to protect the powerful crystals lying beneath them from marauding Valkyries. It’s the player’s job to make sure the Valkyries don’t get their claws on the crystals.

Starting on the lowest level where the crystal is located, players build one floor atop another, their tower reaching ever higher into the heavens. Players place various “gear” (weaponry) about the floors strategically, to stem the Valkyrie tide. Players also populate their towers with “heroes”, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, building for them floors littered with weaponry suited to their breed and battle style. Doing so draws out the heroes’ full skill, more effectively repelling the Valkyrie hordes.

Another mode allows players can also try to attack the towers their friends and other players have built, receiving in-game currency for their victories. The currency can be spent toward increasing and better equipping the floors of their own towers, encouraging competition among players.

Images source: Social Game Info

WonderFlick

Although the attention it’s been receiving has not been all positive, WonderFlick is still highly anticipated for the quality track record of its developer, Level 5. Battles are carried out by flicking medallions at foes, chaining them together for combos for extra damage, to heal the party, and to achieve a variety of useful effects. Level 5 is also touting its UniPlay system, whereby game data is saved to the cloud and shared between devices, with eventual releases to PlayStations 3, 4, and Vita as well as the Wii U and Xbox One announced.

Tokyo 7th Sisters

Developer Donuts made a splash with its motorcycle racer Tantora. The developer hopes to make lightning strike a second time with its take on the “raise an idol” genre, which it touts as a “idol-raising rhythm & adventure game”.

7th Sisters takes place in the year 2034 where, in stark contrast to present-day Japan, pop idols have all but disappeared. The music for the “rhythm” part of the title is made up of original tunes by up-and-coming “vocaloid artists” (composers using vocaloid software like that featuring the Äber-popular Hatsune Miku to provide the vocals for their tracks). The “adventure” unfolds in a take on the perennial “girl get” story formula, where players meet up with the girls that, with the player’s guidance, may go on to take the entertainment world by storm.

Uncommon for an iOS release, the game will also feature full voice acting and background music, and Donuts promises the how the story unfolds will be based on the player’s involvement.

Merc Storia

From Happy Elements, publisher of titles like Majoca Majoluna and Ensemble Girls, comes the “line strategy RPG” Merc Storia.

One of the title’s main draws are its real-time cooperative quests, which allow players to team up with friends and tackle quests together. The game also boasts an upward of 200 types of units, including gladiators, wizards, and monks, with high-quality animation altered to suit the weapon the individual unit is wielding. It’s said the graphic style and moving story line have been a hit in testing with younger players.

Celestial Craft Fleet

KLab’s latest is an “action battle game” that combines an easy-to-understand 3D battle system with simple but deep simulation elements in building your fleet. In these real-time “mission battles”, players attempt to swipe enemy crafts in connected strokes, taking them down this way. By clearing battles, players are rewarded with experience points, parts for their craft, and “crew points” to use in attempts to get extra powerful prizes from the in-game gacha machine. Similar to an RPG, as players succeed in battle, their strength and other stats rise, allowing them to tackle more powerful foes. Players can also participate in 20 on 20 multi-player battles, coordinating their strategy in real time via in-game messaging.

Already 100,000 people have pre-registered, placing it in the top spot for pre-registrations in both the App Store and GooglePlay, demonstrating keen gamer interest in the title.

GUNS ‘N SOULS

Billed as a “high-speed action RPG”, GUNS ‘N SOULS is a collaboration between games industry giant Square Enix and Shift, the developer of titles such as God Eater 2 and Freedom Wars. Among the developers are Gyoutoku Kitajima (participating as scenario writer, known for his work on Chaos Rings, Yuusuke Naora (overseeing character design, and known for his involvement in the Chaos Rings and Final Fantasy series), and Robert Ferrari (participating as lead creator, known for his work on MOON DIVER).

GUNS ‘N SOULS is being designed from the ground up to take advantage of touch controls and features voice acting by a talented and experienced cast, as well as the graphical flourishes for which Square Enix is renowned.

Images source: Social Game Info

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Shooters

Characters from the popular, long-running manga appear in the game as medallions used as projectiles to topple foes. Bandai Namco promises the medallions will include characters from series’ staples to the lesser-known. In anticipation of the upcoming second season of the anime, Stardust Shooters features characters which appear in the first two story arcs (covered in season 1 of the anime) as well as those who make their appearance in the “Stardust Crusaders” arc, which will be the focus of the second season. Bandai Namco also plans on releasing in-game events corresponding to the Stardust Crusaders arc will be released along with the release of the second season of the animated series.

Stardust Shooters is being developed by Drecom in collaboration with CyberConnect2.

Images source: Social Game Info

Tales of Link

Initially planned for release this past autumn, the latest title in the popular and long-running Tales of series has been delayed until spring of 2014. Players battle along side their party of adventurers, using finger strokes to “link” characters together and perform powerful combo attacks. Bandai Namco calls this the “Touch Link Battle” system, from title derives.

A first for the series, players can put together parties of up to 12, with 9 of these members able to battle alongside one another. (Bandai Namco has not clarified whether cooperative play will be enabled.) Little is known about this title, expectations are high on the basis of the series’ pedigree.

Hero and Thousand Satan

Another title from Orange Cube, developers of the aforementioned Sword of Knights, Hero and Thousand Satan is an action RPG with a retro feel planned for release this winter to iOS. In traditional fashion, players assemble a team and level its members up through battle as they scour the title’s many dungeons for treasure. Players can also challenge their friends to “duels” or link up to going dungeon delving together. As players are victorious in duels, their “duel rank” rises, for which the player receives various in-game rewards.

The battle is simple and automated, and even when the player’s character falls in battle, the items recovered from the dungeons remain in inventory, making Hero a title that will be accessible to anyone.

Nekketsu Taisen: Kunio-kun TD

Or, as the series is known to English speakers: River City Ransom. Kunio-kun TD is a unique take on the tower defense genre, with settings and mission goals influenced by the series’ heritage. Kunio-kun TD features a story mode and a player-on-player mode.

With its tower defense focus and player-on-player mode, Kunio-kun TD receives speculative comparisons to the extremely popular Battle Cats. BARF!, indeed.

Granblue Fantasy

Granblue is an RPG in development for the Mobage platform by Cygames and its subsidiary, CyDesignation. Character design is being handled by Hideo Minaba, who has been involved in numerous of CyDesignation’s previous RPG hits, and the characters are brought by veteran voice actors and actresses. Granblue is unique as a “browser game aimed at smartphones”, CyGames claiming the title will push the boundaries of what a browser-based title can do.

With Granblue originally slated for a 2013 release, CyGames has already begun to raise awareness through television ads and other venues. The heightened awareness will no doubt be a blessing when Granbluye is released in 2014.

Monster Hunter: Roar of Cards

Publisher Capcom and developer Grani (most well-known for its GREE title Valhalla’s Gate) will bring an installment in the long-running, incredibly popular Monster Hunter series to the GREE social platform early this year.

Capcom promises Roar of Cards will feature monsters and themes that will be familiar to the series’ fans, but the main draw is the battle system. Taking a cue from many MMORPGs, Roar of Cards encourages players to enlist in guilds, so they can team up in real time to topple powerful monsters. Players can also take on quests together, encouraging the cooperative play that has made the Monster Hunter series such a mainstay.

Mystery Collaboration Between Square Enix and gloops

Now revealed to be called Glorious Blaze. Beyond that, not much is known. Social Game Info includes this one in their list on the strength of the two companies behind it.

To readers versed in video games, Square Enix likely needs no introduction. gloops, on the other hand, remains relatively unknown in the West, despite being one of the most profitable social game developers in Japan, being named Mobage’s 2011 “Partner of the Year”. That Square Enix selected gloops as its collaborator suggests this will be a social game of some sort.

News and images source: Social Game Info

Pop’n Rhythmin: Text Translation (Part I)

Posted 11:53 EST on 06JAN2014 by: tim walker in features » iOS, konami, pop'n music, pop'n rhythmin, walkthrough

Pop’n Rhythmin, Konami’s iOS adaptation of their Pop’n Music franchise, is the first game we’ve selected for this process. (Go here to read my thoughts on the game) In this section, we’ll guide you through the setup process, cover the basic settings, and get you into the main game. (In Part II, we’ll cover Treasure Mode and touch on the other available modes)

First of all, you will need to have a Japanese iTunes Account set up in order to play this game. Pop’n Rhythmin is free to download and play (with in-App purchases), and you do not need a credit card to set up an account (though you will need at least a 1,000-Yen ($10) iTunes Card from Japan). Follow this link for an excellent walkthrough on how to go about setting up your account.

Once your account has been set up, go to “Settings” on your iOS device, select “iTunes & App Store”, click on your Apple ID, sign out, and then sign back in with your new Japanese account (keep this information handy for later so that you can log back in with your regular Apple ID). Close Settings, and open the App Store.

Tap the Search box to begin your search. Before typing anything, select “iPhone Only” as your category (Pop’n will work on the iPad as well, but it’s categorized as an iPhone-only app), and then change “All Categories” to “Games”. Type “Konami” into the search field, and Pop’n Rhythmin should be among the results. (Note: You may have to reset the category to “iPhone Only” when searching on an iPad; the store likes to arbitrarily switch this pack to “iPad Only” for some reason) Click on the FREE icon to download the game, enter your password (if prompted), and wait for the game to be installed.

Once the install has been completed, fire up the app. You’ll be greeted with the title screen. The Japanese text here reads “Touch Screen (to begin)”. Do so, and you’ll be greeted by the text-heavy screen below

This is just the standard Usage Agreement screen. You can click on the red button in the center to read the terms, the lower-left button to opt out (bouncing you back to the title screen), or the lower-right button to accept and continue. The agreement is lengthy, but it’s pretty similar to the type of document you “sign” with Apple after an iTunes update.

(Some light reading material for you. Don’t worry: You’re agreeing to adhere to Konami’s guidelines while playing online, not to relinquish your firstborn for use in a Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa sequel.)

Once you’ve agreed to the terms, tap the title screen again, and the game will begin downloading further data required to run. This will normally take a few minutes to complete.

Once the update has been completed, it’s onward to the game, right? Well, not just yet: You’ll be bombarded with a few walls of text first. Don’t panic though: We’ll guide you through them!

The screen shown above is the Log-In Bonus screen. The Pop-kun shows that you’ve logged in today, and the text indicates that you can receive a new song for the game by logging in 30 days (note that you’re logged in whenever you activate the app). The News banner at the top of the screen provides you with random information on this and other Bemani apps from Konami.

This is information on a specific event. In this case, installing all of the available Bemani apps (this game, plus jubeat (pronounced “YU-BEET”)plus, REFLEC BEAT plus, and GITADORA) will unlock a special free track that’s playable in all four games.

The game now allows up to 20 friends on your Friends List (increased from 6).

The latest update to the game (which we’ve already installed during the download above) adds Twitter functionality, Daily Log-In Bonuses (see above), and Push Notifications (hooray?).

Something called BEMANI Stadium is underway, and apparently Pop’n players can take part as well to win some kind of (presumably virtual) cards. Sounds interesting, but we’d rather play the game, thankyouverymuch.

Several text-walls later, we’re finally allowed to play the game! “Game Play” is the only option available initially, which is fine, since this is the heart of the app. Tap on this icon, and you’ll be taken into the Tutorial….

The song you’ll be practice-tapping to is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a good song to ease you into the game’s basic mechanics.

(Note: As stated in the review, the little anthropomorphic blobs that appear on the screen are known as “Pop-kuns” (lit.: “Mr. Pop”). We’ll refer to them as “notes” from now on when translating the in-game text)

“The object of this game is to tap the notes in time to the music!”

“Tap notes of the same color at the exact moment they merge together!”

“Okay, let’s get tapping!”

Like the instructions say, wait until the two notes come together to touch them. The better your timing, the better your score.

Incidentally, if you want to pause the game, press down on the triangle icon near the top (don’t just tap it). The pause menu shown above displays the following options (in order): “Resume”, “Restart Song”, “Return to Song Selection”.

“Notes with trails behind them are called Long Notes.”

“Tap these when they merge, but don’t lift your finger until the whole trail has disappeared!”

(Hint: Although you have to keep holding down on the note until the trail behind it disappears, the game does not penalize you for lifting your finger up too late)

“Notes with numbers written on them are called Number Notes.”

“Tap them the same number of times as the numbers shown!”

(Hint: The rhythm on tapping the Number Notes correctly matches the rhythm of the song being played. Generally-speaking, it’s a quick double-tap motion (for “2′s” at least), but the speed varies depending on the particular song.)

“Star Notes must be tapped simultaneously!”

“Tap both Star Notes at the same time!”

“And that covers all of the controls!”

“Alright, now let’s give it a try!”

The remainder of the tutorial throws all four types of notes at you. Remember what you’ve learned, and tap appropriately!

“Remember what you’ve learned, and try to play all kinds of different songs!”

Here’s the Song Selection screen, where you’ll be taken when selecting “Game Play” from now on (hope you weren’t married to that Tutorial level!). The button in the upper-left of the screen takes you back to the previous menu (and is present on many of the menus that follow, so just keep in mind what it looks like in case you wish to backtrack). The box on the right shows how many Treasure Points you’ve accumulated so far (required to play the Treasure Mode game, which we’ll cover in Part II of this feature). The three song tracks available initially are shown here, as will be any future ones you purchase from the Store or unlock by playing the game. We’ll come back to those in a minute, but first, go ahead and press the reddish button in the lower-left corner (“Settings”).

Here is the Settings screen for the game. The first section is just labeled “Settings”, and includes “Sound” (more below) and “In-Game Cinematics” (moving the slider to the “Off” position removes the cutesy characters at the bottom of the screen). The next section, “How to Play” features “Game Play” (more below) and “Treasure Mode”. The final section, “Inquiries”, includes “Inquiries” (which opens up a link in Safari to allow you to contact Konami for support) and “Show Information on the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions” (which links to a page of legalese related to making in-game purchases).

Clicking on “Sound” takes you to this sub-menu. The three sliders are for “Background Music Volume”, “Sound Effects Volume”, and “Tap Sound Volume”.

Tapping “How to Play” takes you to a series of five screens running through the gameplay elements of the main game. We’ve covered some of this already, but we’ll go ahead and translate all of the text here since there are some finer points that have not been covered yet.

This screen reads as follows, from top to bottom:

“Let’s select a song and a difficulty level!“

“Choose ‘Game Play’, and then tap the album cover of the song you’d like to play!”

“Tap the icon for the difficulty level you’d like to play at!”

(N) “Start here”

(H) “This is a bit challenging!”

(EX) “Challenge yourself at this level!”

“Game Controls“

(white line) “Note”

(speech bubble) “Starting to merge!”

(speech bubble) “Tap at this point!”

“The object of this game is to tap the notes in time to the music!”

“Tap notes of the same color at the exact moment they merge together!”

“Types of Ratings and Stage Clear Requirements“

“A ‘Rating’ shows how good your timing was when you tapped a note!”

“Types of Ratings“

COOL!! “You tapped it perfectly!!!”

GREAT! “You tapped it just right!!”

GOOD! “You tapped it!”

BAD… “You missed!”

“Score over 70,000 points to clear a stage! Try to clear the stages while matching the rhythm to get as many ‘COOL’ ratings as you can!”

“Types of Notes“

“Notes”

“Regular Notes. Notes of the same color will merge together!”

“Long Notes”

“Tap these when they merge, but don’t lift your finger until the whole trail has disappeared!”

“Number Notes”

“Tap these the same number of times as the numbers shown!”

“Star Notes”

“Tap 2 Star Notes at the same time!”

“Screen Layout“

(top to bottom)

“Clear Line (The moon is replaced with the sun once you score over 70,000 points!)”

“Pause Menu (hold down for a few seconds to call it up)”

“Combo Count (Shows how many notes you’ve tapped successively)”

“Score (Get over 70,000 points to clear the stage)”

“Groove Gauge (“Shows your ups and downs while you’re playing!”)

We’ll leave the play instruction screens for Treasure Mode alone for now (they’ll be covered in Part II of this feature, when we discuss the other game modes). For now, hit the “Return” button in the upper-left part of the screen to go back to the Song Selection menu.

The two options next to “Settings” are “Song Order” and “Recommendations”. The latter takes you to a screen that shows songs your friends have recommended for you. The former takes you to a screen where you can elect to sort the songs in a few different ways, such as by artist or difficulty level. For now, let’s select the first song (“Earnest Trip”) by tapping its album cover.

The name of the song and the artist (“Last Note.”) are displayed at the top of the screen. Underneath your score is “Compare Score With Friends”, which takes you to a screen that lets you compare scores across all difficulty levels with anyone on your Friends List.

Back on the Song Selection screen, tap on any of the three stars to select a difficulty level (though each track has three difficulty levels, there are also degrees of difficulty within the level, indicated by the numbers in the stars (an EX 7, for example, is harder than an EX 6)). Finally, tap the pink button at the bottom (“Decide”) to start playing.

The Results Screen will appear once the stage is finished. This is pretty self-explanatory; the only Japanese here is your cumulative Treasure Points (upper-right) and the track title (below that).

Tapping the screen takes you to this next screen, which shows you how many Treasure Points you’ve earned. Clicking on it again returns you to the Song Selection screen, where you can select another track to play.

This should be enough to get you well on your way to tapping along to the (ahem) Rhythmin. Again, we’ll be back with Part II shortly, which will cover the other modes in the game.

Yuuji Horii Gives His Thoughts on Dragon Quest and Smartphone Development

Posted 17:33 EST on 23DEC2013 by: indie navi news staff in features » dragon quest 8 for smartphones, noriyoshi fujimoto, takehiro andou, yuuji horii

An interview with Dragon Quest mastermind Yuuji Horii recently appeared on Famitsu.com’s mobile / smartphone games blogSumage Revolution. The interview was conducted by Takehiro Andou, games producer and general manager of one of Square Enix’s mobile development departments. Also in attendance was Noriyoshi Fujimoto, producer of Dragon Quest VIII for smartphones. Below are some of the highlights.

Andou: [...] As someone involved in the smartphone games industry, and as a fan of games, I was thrilled to be able to play Dragon Quest on a smartphone. According to reports, all of the Dragon Quest main titles, from 1 to 8, will be playable on smartphones, and there’s even Dragon Quest Monsters Light, an entirely new title coming out for mobile platforms. On top of that, Dragon Quest X will soon be playable on tablets. [...] Could you shed a little light on the meaning and thinking behind all of these Dragon Quest titles being made available for smartphones? In your opinion, Mr. Horii, is it that smartphones have come to be the “games device” most people are familiar with?

Horii: It’s not that smartphones are a “games device”, it’s just that they’re a device that nearly everyone has. That said, it is becoming the norm among the younger generation to play games on smartphones. That being the case, the idea behind this project was to make it so that these games could also be played on the smartphones everybody has. In actuality, it was a good while ago that we began developing Dragon Quest titles for smartphones.

Fujimoto: We actually began developing the prototype of Dragon Quest VIII for smartphones about three years ago. It was when we showed the prototype to Mr. Horii that development of the Dragon Quest series officially got underway.

Fujimoto (discussing making Dragon Quest VIII available for smartphones): Since at first it was in the spirit of research, we thought we’d see if we could port Dragon Quest VIII, the highest-spec of the older titles, to smartphones. At that point, we were able to make a graphically faithful port. However, since there’s no controller on a smartphone, we tried various user interfaces, including the idea of a physical, plug-in controller. We also tried both horizontal and vertical screen presentation. In the course of a year of trial-and-error testing, we realized it would really surprise users to discover the game was easy to control and enjoy in vertical mode, and with Mr. Horii’s input arrived at the UI you see in the final product.

Andou: I also used to make console games, so I had my doubts that games could be fun to play with just a touch interface. I know it’s still a matter of debate for a lot of people, but I’ve come to be of the mind that full touch interface titles can be played and enjoyed just as well as titles that use a physical controller. How do you feel about this issue, Mr. Horii?

Horii: I think people who use smartphones on a daily basis are used to touch interfaces. Those people probably have a preference for touch interfaces. Without actually seeing how people are reacting to Dragon Quest VIII‘s touch interface, I can’t say if they’re enjoying it for certain, but we put a lot of focus into making the title easy to play with a touch interface.

Andou: [...] Mr. Horii, what do you feel smartphones do a good job of making easy to understand? And what do you feel they can make difficult?

Horii: Well, with Dragon Quest VIII, I don’t really feel there was anything that was made difficult to understand, but there were things that were difficult to communicate to players. We put a lot of effort into making the game so that once you play it you’ll understand how the controls work, but it was still a title made to be played with physical buttons, so there can be some frustration for players adjusting to the lack of buttons. Bearing in mind how we can keep this frustration for players to a minimum is really important. [...] When we made the first Dragon Quest, the Famicom library was almost entirely action games. We really wanted to show people that the Famicom could be home to enjoyable RPGs, too. Times have changed and these days there are a lot of people who don’t own any game consoles, and do all of their gaming on smartphones. Like with the Famicom, we want to show those people that smartphones can be home to fun, real-deal RPGs.

Andou: Mr. Horii, you’ve been on the front lines witnessing the evolution of hardware since the era when PC games ruled the roost; do you feel that smartphones are having the same impact that, say, the Famicom had? Or do you feel they represent something different?

Horii: I can’t really put it into words, but I feel that the impact smartphones are having is in some way different from the impact the Famicom had. Smartphones are telephones that can also be used to surf the Web and check email. They’re a window to the world; true all-in-one devices.

Andou: This is kind of a simple question, but Mr. Horii, do you use a smartphone?

Horii: Mainly for surfing the internet and checking my email. I play Mushroom Garden and Battle Cats, sometimes though. (Laughs.)

Andou: What was it about those two titles that got your attention?

Horii: Probably how you can play for little bits at a time. Also, since they were made to be smartphone games, the controls are really good.

Andou: [...] Recently, a read an interview with you, Mr. Horii, conducted by [the author and manga writer] Kazuo Koike, and I was surprised to see you say, “In the past, games weren’t free, so it was really important they be enjoyable. Recently, there’s a movement toward games that are free to play and are just intended to be distractions. It’s really changing the way games are made.”

Horii: I said something like that? (Everyone laughs.) [...] Pricing games has gotten to be difficult. With all of the games that are free to play, or that cost around 100 yen, games that cost a few thousand yen seem expensive. Even so, if we were to make a game like Dragon Quest VIII really cheap up front and to charge for items… just doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t want to do that. [...] Now smartphone games stores only have “free to play” and “not free to play” as categories. I think it would be better if the games that aren’t free to play were broken down into two categories: games that cost a bit more up front, but that don’t hit users with additional charges for things like items, and games that are around 100 yen or so, but ask users to pay for additional items and the like later on. This would be easier for users to understand, and it would be easier to convince users to make a purchase. If 100 yen games and 2,000 yen games are lined up in the same place, it’s the natural human response to feel like the latter are really expensive.

Fujimoto: Games that charge for items are often made so that you basically can’t get to the ending and it becomes extremely difficult to progress if you don’t purchase items, and end up costing a pretty penny. With something like Dragon Quest VIII, users know what it is, and they know how much enjoyment they can expect to get out of the title. With an original title, it would be pretty tough to set up a profitable business model.

Horii: Users are going to balk if they see some unknown title asking for 2,000 yen, in the smartphone games world.

Andou: I started out making games for home consoles that cost several thousand yen up front, and now I’ve moved into making games that are free to play. My feeling has been that “pay now, play as much as you want, forever” -type titles aren’t going to go away.

Horii: Games that are free to play, but that make it impossible to reach the end without making purchases are going to instead cause players stress. I’m concerned that, for that reason, these games will make a lot of people just not want to play games at all. [...] You can spend 1,800 yen to see a two-hour film, or you can spend 1,800 yen to buy a smartphone game from which you can get many days’ worth of time of enjoyment. Yet the 1,800 yen game feels “expensive”. It’s mysterious, that feeling.

Andou: [...] I’m changing the subject a bit, but as a fan of yours, Mr. Horii, I’d love to play a title that you created for smartphones from the ground up. It’s probably a bit sudden to be asking about new titles, but if you’ve had any ideas for games that use smartphones’ phone capabilities or internet functions, I’d love to hear about them. For example, maybe a game like The Portopia Serial Murder Case, but you would have to use your smartphone’s telephone capabilities to solve a case. Do you have any ideas like that?

Horii: Nothing comes immediately to mind. (Laughs.) However, I do think there are modes of play unique to smartphones that would be a lot of fun. Right now, we’re porting Dragon Quest titles 1 through 8 to smartphones, and since these games were originally for home consoles, there are parts that feel a bit forced. However,if we made a game designed specifically for smart phones, it would be a game with a very different approach, to be sure. [...] Smartphones are operated by touch, which leads pretty neatly to investigation, I think. For that reason, I think you could probably make a pretty interesting adventure game. Rather than moving a cursor over the area you’d like to investigate, you just tap where you’d like to investigate, or where you’d like your avatar to move. Thinking about the interface, I bet you could make a pretty deep adventure game.

Horii, discussing game systems: From a worldwide perspective, there are a lot of light gamers in Japan, whereas in other countries you see more of a hardcore fan base. [...]

Andou: [...] Is that the reasoning behind the “super light” in Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light? I was thinking it was a pretty unique name.

Horii: In the home console versions of Dragon Quest Monsters, you put a lot of time into raising your monsters, but in Super Light that element has been largely cut, so we figured we’d add “super light” to the title. (Laughs.) [...] Right now the staff and I are doing a lot of trial-and-error development and making good progress, so we hope everyone is looking forward to playing Super Light.

Horii, discussing the upcoming release of Dragon Quest X for tablets: There’s a strong element of taking on a new challenge, with Dragon Quest X. With Dragon Quest VIII, the challenge was in seeing how to implement a UI suited to smartphones. With Dragon Quest X, the challenge is in seeing how it will work out using cloud-based implementation. [...]

Andou: [...] Now that numbered titles in the main series have appeared on smartphones, does this mean we can expect to see future, numbered titles appear on smartphones?

Horii: Well, it’s not really as simple as that. At present we’re leaning toward no smartphone release for Dragon Quest XI. There are still a large number of hurdles to overcome to make a smartphone release practical.

Horii, wrapping up the interview: With the smartphone-related announcements we’ve made, the thing I most want to stress is we’d like for people who aren’t gamers to be able to enjoy games. The Dragon Quest series’ titles are the full, robust games. We’d like for longtime fans of the series to enjoy these ports, as well as people who are new to the series or who have never played these titles before. I still can’t say for certain that smartphone users are interested in playing large, console-like titles, so we’re going to have to see how smartphone users react to Dragon Quest on their devices. This is one more challenge we’re taking on.

News and image source: Famitsu.com

Image of Yuuji Horii from Tiny Cartridge

Old-School Shooter Hits 3 Million Downloads in South Korea

Posted 18:09 EST on 16DEC2013 by: tim walker in features » 1942, iFighter 2, shmup, strikers 1945

Attack 1942 for Kakao is not your typical free-to-play game: It has much more in common with classic shooters like 1942 or Strikers 1945 than it does with Angry Birds . But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a huge hit in South Korea: The game recently surpassed 3 million downloads on Google Play in that country.

Attack 1942 is actually a modified version of iFighter 2: The Pacific 1942 from Hong Kong-based developer EpicForce Entertainment Limited. The game has been out in some other regions since last year (including both iOS and Android in the U.S.), but did not debut in South Korea until this past September, when the rights to release it were acquired by local publisher gumi Korea. (According to 4Gamer, gumi is investigating their own version to regions like Japan as well)

Once released in this region, it took off like a rocket, racking up over 2 million downloads in just three weeks and jumping to the top of the free-to-play games chart on Google Play in half that time. In a market that tends to favor domestic products, it sits alongside Candy Crush Saga as one of the few games to ever crack the Top Ten bestsellers list on the Kakao chat service platform.

It appears that there are a few main factors at work that have helped the game to be successful. First, the game is popular with South Korean gamers in their 30′s and 40′s, who seem to have a lot of nostalgia for 1942 and its ilk. (after trying the game out ourselves, we wholeheartedly agree: iFighter 2 has graphics, music and gameplay on-par with games from the Strikers series and later sequels to 1942 like 19XX)

Another contributing factor to the game’s popularity seems to be the social game aspects that only exist in the South Korean version of the game. While iFighter 2 does take a page from other free-to-play games by offering in-game purchases (you can either earn new fighters by using the basic P-47 fighter to earn in-game currency, or you can use real world money to unlock them), Attack 1942 takes things a step further by including social game elements, including a popular feature where your friends can send you lives to use after your own supply has been exhausted.

And finally, we have the pilot artwork shown above, which appears to only be in the South Korean version of the game. While the game is great on its own merits, we have a feeling that these additions from gumi Korea certainly didn’t hurt the game’s potential downloads.

Video Game Legend Takahashi Meijin Takes on the New Action RPG Kritika

Posted 16:59 EST on 06DEC2013 by: tim walker in features » GameOn, hudson, kritika, RPG, takahashi meijin

As reported yesterday, GameOn has just released the Korean action-based RPG Kritika in Japan. In order to generate some publicity for the game, they asked Japanese gaming site 4Gamer to have a celebrity play the game and to write up that individual’s impressions on it.

The staff at 4Gamer thought it might be more fun to call in a professional for this, so they contacted former Hudson executive, spokesman and island adventurer Takahashi Meijin to give Kritika a try.

The following is our translation of the original interview conducted by 4Gamer, in which the gaming guru discusses his impressions of Kritika, his current hobbies, and where all of his discretionary income is going these days.

Games should not just be fun; they should allow you to burn off pent-up frustration

4G: Now that you’ve played Kritika, what are your impressions of it?

TM: I enjoyed how the action was fast-paced right from the beginning; it just flew by! It’s a fun game, and I found it hard to stop playing. Online games aren’t typically known for having such high levels of action. It feels more like a console game.

4G: Action-based games require quick responses. Did you feel like the controls were up to the task?

TM: It was pretty easy to make my combos connect just by pressing the attack button. You have to cool off for awhile after using your skills, and I was afraid I was going to fall over waiting to recharge (LOL). The level of frustration here is just right.

4G: Just frustrating enough, huh?

TM: Games can’t just be “entertaining” all the way through; there need to be sections where your frustration level builds up so that it becomes resentment. There also needs to be an instant where the resentment you’ve built up explodes, or the game is not really entertaining. Games become too easy and cease to be entertaining when everything goes the way you think it’s going to go (though, naturally, if a game is too difficult, it will drive average players away). I think it’s important to fine-tune a game in such a way that pent-up resentment can lead to feeling exhilarated.

4G: Certainly exhilaration alone does not make for a good game.

TM: It could be said that striking this balance is one of the major themes for Kritika, a game sold on its action and the feelings of exhilaration associated with it. I thought the first stage of Kritika was pretty average in difficultly, not quite hard enough. People who want to play games with substance might be seeking something that’s a bit harder. They might think, “That’s it?” if they’re able to breeze through the first boss in 5 or 10 minutes. (LOL)

4G: But the first stage is just for practice, right? (LOL) By the way, Kritika has three character classes: Warrior, Rogue and Mage. Which one did you like the best?

TM: The Warrior class. I tend to go with attack power over defensive power when I play RPGs. Waving around a huge sword and taking down monsters is exhilarating. I’d recommend the Mage for players that don’t want to take a lot of damage, since that class specializes in ranged attacks with projectiles and spells. The Rogue will probably be the most popular class though, since that’s the only female character. As for back-stabbing with that dagger…well, it’s kind of big, but I think players will enjoy using it to quickly slash through enemies. And then there’s those shorts she’s wearing… (LOL).

4G: Oh yeah, those. (LOL) I think that look will make her pretty popular with players. To change topics, what were your impressions of the graphics?

TM: I liked them: Rather than going for a photo-realistic approach, they’re pleasantly cartoony. I personally have some resistance to taking out enemies if they look like real human beings…. I’ve never really cared for games where you have one person directly injuring another. The graphics here are cartoony enough that I can put that aside and enter the world of the game.

4G: Now that you’ve actually played it, what’s your opinion on it, and do you think they should change anything?

TM: It might be good to add some kind of mode for beginners. I think it would be hard for a novice to make it to an enemy if they don’t know what they’re doing. Maybe they could set it up with a mode where pressing a certain key would automatically bring you right up to an enemy (“Z” is already used for something else in the game, so maybe “F” or “G”?). On the other hand, it might be good to put in some kind of ultra-strong boss for experienced players that might take 30-40 minutes to defeat.

4G: You said earlier that the first stage was easy, but getting used to the controls might take longer, depending on the individual. People like the two of us who are used to playing PC games might not realize how long it could take novices to get the hang of it. So what kind of gamers would you recommend this title to?

TM: Basically, I’d recommend it to younger generations. However, I’d also like for gamers from the Famicom era to give it a try. Some of those old Famicom games had what I would classify as an absurd level of difficulty. Any dads out there who grew up playing those games (like Spelunker)–where a fall from the smallest ledge meant instant death–should be able to handle this game without any problems.

4G: You’re always saying that you’d like to see games used as a tool for communicating between parents and children.

TM: If a game is entertaining, then it would be great for both parents and children to share that experience together. For example, get Kritika up and running on your old standby desktop PC, then go out and buy a laptop for the kids so that everyone can play together. Also, it might be good to have a joystick on hand especially for Kritika (LOL). You could assign different buttons for skills and write the names of the skills on them.

4G: Or maybe just use stickers with the skills written on them? (LOL) Speaking of which, do you use any special devices made for gamers when you play video games?

TM: Normally, I just stick to the basics, but I do use arcade-style joysticks when I play shooters on game consoles. I’m a guy from a bygone era, so I like my controllers to have lots of buttons on them. Steel Battalion on the Xbox 360 was the best! I love running down those switches one at a time to fire up my mech. (Note: It’s assumed he’s referring to the game on the original Xbox, not the Kinect-driven sequel. –Ed.)

4G: By the way, do you play online games in a closed environment?

TM: Yeah, I play a lot of browser-based games. Genre-wise, I enjoy tower defense type of games.

4G: Do you spend money on in-game purchases as well?

TM: If I enjoy the game I will. I have a set monthly budget for gaming, and since its money I’ve set aside for all types of gaming, I’ll make in-game purchases in an online game if that’s what I’m currently stuck on. My wife understands about this sort of thing, but she’ll kill me if I spend too much (LOL).

4G: While this varies from person to person, I think it’s important to have a limit on how much you’re going to spend.

TM: It’s tricky since I have many interests. The other day I bought a replacement digital camera for recording my travels. This one is a model from overseas, and it has laser pointer so that you can tell where you’re facing when you take a picture. It’s quite convenient.

4G: Ah, I see. I know from your blog that you have many different interests. It must be hard to budget for all of them.

TM: Having a lot of hobbies is rough! And there are times when I lose interest in some of them. In the 80’s I was into MIDIs…now I’m more hung up on DTMs. I bought all kinds of sound sources, a keyboard, performance software and an 8-track multi-recorder, and spent 3 months trying to perform “Finlandia”. (a symphonic poem from 1899 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius –Ed.) But, ultimately, I realized, “This is not going to make me a pro.” (LOL) I ended up selling my entire setup to a friend.

Takahashi Meijin: Then and Now

4G: It seems like, once you become interested in something, you keep trying it until it makes sense. (LOL)

TM: I couldn’t imagine marrying someone like that. (LOL) By the way, right now, I’ve got three monitors set up in my living room.

4G: Three of them?

TM: One for watching TV, one for watching movies, and one for gaming. I like to play video games while I’m watching TV or a film. With TV programs, you can just leave it on and pick up bits of it by listening.

4G: Well, I could see having TV on in the background while gaming, but can you really do that with movies too?

TM: Yeah, you can’t really do both well. Sometimes I throw on a movie I like and just level my character up in an RPG while it’s playing till it gets to a scene I like.

4G: Ah, I see.

TM: Story is important too, but then there are those scenes that are hard to watch that can really make you jump. For example, in Glass Mask, I don’t want to watch those scenes where Maya is being bullied over and over again. But of course I’ll stop gaming if it’s a film I’ve never seen before.

4G: Right, since you want to concentrate on what’s happening on the screen. So, finally, could you please a message to the readers who are looking forward to Kritika?

TM: I would say, “Just give it a shot!” It’s basically a free-to-play game with certain items that cost extra, but the initial part can be played without spending a dime. I think people will be having so much fun once they hit around Level 20 or 30 that they won’t want to stop playing it, so I’d say download it and try it for yourself. Right now I’m at Level 15, after using the same character for several hours, and I really want to keep leveling them up and see what new skills they’ll get.

4G: Thank you very much for your time!