The Four Commanders of Valkyria: Azure Revolution are leading antagonists who represent the Rus Empire, the enemy to the Jutland Kingdom. Throughout the course of the game, Amleth and the Jutland Kingdom forces will be tasked with fighting against each of the Four Commanders. Each of these villains will pilot a large mechanical behemoth that must be taken down by the party. The members of the Four Commanders are:
The first major details on Atlus new RPG project, currently known as “Project Re Fantasy“, have emerged from the newest issue of Weekly Famitsu. To begin with, it’s a classical fantasy RPG rather than an RPG set in a modern environment. There are three storyboard images included in this week’s magazine, each of which are symbolic of an idea: “bonds” represented by four people and a dog in a carriage, “journey” represented by an elf girl and human boy on a horse, and “creating new ideas based off of the past” represented by soldiers fighting a dragon; it is familiar fantasy imagery. The preview image released yesterday in fact only represents the atmosphere that Atlus are trying to capture, and doesn’t for certain represent someone that will be used in the final game itself. Here they are below:
“Let’s Party Night!”
Soul Reverse Zero is planning a special Christmas Event! It started on December 20th, and will run to December 26th, 3pm JST, with the summoning period closing one day later. The detailed news breakdown can be found on this news post at the official Soul Reverse Zero website.
The event will feature SSR Dorothy as the main attraction, alongside random draws for SR Beatrice, and SSR Maria Theresa. Special attention is given to Dorothy in the news post cited above, but the coin drop rate for draws will also increase during the time of this event. If the player equips the SR Beatrice or SSR Maria Theresa cards from this Christmas event as sub-members, they can keep these bonuses after a quest. These will only be available during the time of this year’s Soul Reverse Zero Christmas Event!
Famitsu recently announced some bonuses for SEGA 3d Reprint Archives Volume 3 FINAL STAGE; those who have save data from Volume 1 or Volume 2 will unlock another game, separately!
Save Data from Volume 1 on your SD Card will unlock the game pictured above – Girl’s Garden. It was only ever released in Japan, features the designing and programming talents of Yuji Naka, and revolves around a girl who collects flowers so that her boyfriend doesn’t leave her.
Save Data from Volume 2 will unlock Champion Boxing. It’s a left-to-right boxing arcade game, and is the first title that Rieko Kodama and Yu Suzuki worked on for SEGA. Have a look at it below:
Both of these titles saw release on the SEGA SG-1000, the first console made by SEGA.
SEGA Reprint Archives Volume 3 FINAL STAGE will release in Japan this week: December 22, for Nintendo 3DS. It will include:
Famitsu broke the news that Atlus has formally announced development of a new RPG project. The new game will be unveiled at a niconico livestream, set to be broadcast on December 23rd, 8pm JST.
In advance of the game’s unveiling, a teaser site was put up by Atlus – a simple site featuring a message from Katsuhiro Hashino, the director and producer of the game (and of Persona 3 through Persona 5, and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and Catherine…a known quantity, to say the least.) The new title is being developed by “Studio Zero”, a new studio designed for this project and hopefully for many other new projects.
“It’s not Persona, or Shin Megami Tensei“, as the heading of the website claims. If it’s neither of the two, what sort of game is it?
SEGA of Japan has uploaded a promotional trailer for Valkyria: Azure Revolution that showcases the Vanargand, an elite unit representing the Kingdom of Jutland whose members are tasked with coordinated opposition to the Rus Empire and the Valkyria named Brynhildr.
The trailer is just short of two minutes and offers voice clips and a brief stylized in-game model portrait of each of the Vanargand members. In the order that they’re shown, the characters are: Amleth (of The Five), Godot, Brigette, Helena, Blum, Tilda, Isaac, Daryl, Sara, Jordur, and Ophelia, the heroine. These are the characters who will actively be fighting on behalf of the Jutland Empire and, so far as we know, will often serve as player characters.
A new post to the Japanese official SEGA website celebrates the 500k shipment mark being crossed for Yakuza 6 with regards to sales in the Japan and Asia region. This sales figure total covers both physical and digital sales, and is especially noteworthy since it has only been one week since the game’s wide release. It should also be said that, considering the prevalence of mobile gaming (particularly so in Japan), seeing the continued endurance of the Yakuza series is remarkable.
The above-linked post also mentions in its first paragraph that sales for the Yakuza franchise has crossed 9 million worldwide. What with the boom in Yakuza series localizations, we can hope to boost that number even further ourselves. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will release in the West in 2018, and Yakuza Kiwami will release in the summer of 2017.
It’s unfortunate that Yakuza 6 did not release earlier in the year, as it would have qualified for a Gold Prize. The more accolades, the merrier!
Larry Hryb of Xbox updated his list Xbox One backwards-compatible titles, and among them is Atlus’ adventure / puzzle cult hit Catherine. The blog post featuring a list of backwards compatible titles is updated to reflect the inclusion of Catherine, alongside other games such as CLANNAD and Planets Under Attack.
Since its release, Catherine has been well-received for its unique story concept and gameplay hybridization, and Catherine’s competitive scene has received a second wind as of late, as well.
Some of the SEGA titles of note that are also currently available on Xbox One through backwards compatibility include Phantasy Star II, Jet Set Radio Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, and Bayonetta.
Every year, Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan and Asia conducts an award ceremony that honors games of particular commercial success released on PlayStation. Last year, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Yakuza 5 received distinction.
This year’s winners have been announced, and SEGA games are well-represented!
In the newest blog update to Ys.Net, Yu Suzuki disclosed that development for Shenmue III has entered its final stages, and that new videos will be published for public viewing early next year. Work on Shenmue III is gradually shifting from development to the production, though the development team is also still working hard on motion capture and voice acting tests.