Tag Archives: Phantasy Star Nova

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Massive Japanese SEGA PSN Sale Features Valkyria Chronicles III, Phantasy Star NOVA, and More

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The Japanese PlayStation Store was recently updated with a special sale featuring large list of SEGA games being discounted. For the full list, click here. It’s a sale meant to celebrate the arrival of the Spring season and will last until April 13th.

Among the list of games are Valkyria Chronicles III (PSP) and Phantasy Star NOVA (PSVita), both of which remain unlocalized for Western audiences. 7th Dragon 2020 and 7th Dragon 2020  – II are also marked down. As we know, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (due for release this summer in the West) marks the first 7th Dragon game to be localized for the West.

The list extends beyond modern SEGA games and goes to the classics. To start, Phantasy Star Complete Collection, and Phantasy Star Generations 1 and Phantasy Star Generations 2 (the PS2 remakes of the first two games) are on sale here. Additionally, some of the other notable classics include Golden Axe, Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Hunters (PS2 version of the original game), Comix Zone, and Streets of Rage II. Even more recent releases like Hell Yeah! and The Cave are on sale too.

While it stings to realize that the West is missing out on some key games like Valkyria Chronicles III and PSNova, the sale is also a testament to the vast library of IPs belonging to SEGA. Many of these are quite cheap, too; most of them run for ¥500, with the outliers being PSNova at ¥2000 and Valkyria Chronicles III at ¥1300.

Be sure to check out the list for yourself!

Developer tri-Ace Acquired by Nepro Japan

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Mobile company Nepro Japan have announced they have acquired developer tri-Ace, best known for Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile and Sega RPGs Resonance of Fate and Phantasy Star Nova.

Nepro Japan primarily works with the mobile industry, providing both gaming and non-gaming services. Nepro Japan plans to strengthen and expand their mobile gaming business, which leads them to buying the RPG developer. Prior to purchasing tri-Ace, Nepro also already owned developer Mobile and Game Studio (MGS) who are best known for the Square-Enix arcade series Lord of Vermillion and Capcom’s Okami sequel Okamiden on DS. While Nepro Japan intends to release more mobile games in the future, it is unclear if tri-Ace can be contracted by other companies to make sequels (seeing as Square and Sega own their respective properties that tri-Ace has worked on) or will be making other console games at this time.

Phantasy Star Nova: Special Gameplay Features

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The new Phantasy Star Nova demo hit PSN in Japan on November 13th. The demo is a retooled experience, featuring all of the changes tri-Ace and Sega made based off of the previous demo’s feedback. Ahead of the impending November 27th release date in Japan, I’d like to take look at some more features in Phantasy Star Nova outlined in this PSUBlog post, which had been authored before the new demo was out and takes a comprehensive look at various new media. Their writeup also confirms sidequests, called Promise Orders in this game. Fulfilling the Promise Orders from NPC’s allows you to get special bonuses like items and EXP.

To start, the new demo will feature a level cap up to 30 and introduces character creation, a feature unavailable in the older demo. Read on for more information, including videos!

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Sega’s New Nine-Minute Phantasy Star Nova Promotional Trailer

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Gematsu reports that Sega recently produced a new promotional movie for Phantasy Star Nova, ahead of its impending November 27 release. It’s meant to be a look at the major selling points of Phantasy Star Nova much like the TGS 2014 trailer; however this new trailer is even more comprehensive and detailed. While it treads over some familiar ground, with such elements as the story prologue and character creation, we do get some peeks at elements of the game that were previously not highlighted, including a look at the quest map, skill board, and home base development and customization. It appears that this video might have been made before the Valkyria Chronicles III DLC collaboration was officially announced, as this particular collaboration was not listed in the collaboration section of the video

Be sure to check it out after hitting the “Continue Reading” button. Also, check out the Gematsu article linked at the start of this writeup for a new screenshot gallery to browse through!

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Valkyria Chronicles 3 Collaboration in Phantasy Star Nova

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Valkyria Chronicles cameos seem to be everywhere lately, with playable roles in Project X Zone and Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax. Sega has announced that Valkyria Chronicles III DLC content will also be in Phantasy Star Nova on December 24th, as reported by Gematsu. The costume is based on Riela Marcellis’s Valkyria form and can be used when creating a character.

Release dates for the previously announced tri-ACE content have also been confirmed. Leading the pack is the Resonance of Fate collaboration on December 4th, then Star Ocean IV on the 11th and Valkyrie Profile on 18th.

Phantasy Star Nova Revised Demo Officially Announced by Sega Japan

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Last week, media outlets and fansites covered Sega’s announcement of planned changes to the Phantasy Star Nova gameplay experience based on weeks of feedback from their first gameplay demo. Sega Japan’s Twitter account officially announced the new, retooled demo’s release on PSN for November 13th, and noted the new demo on the Phantasy Star Nova Japanese website. The older demo has already been taken down.

Gematsu summarizes this new demo by saying it will allow players to experience the opening segments of the game, cinematics and gameplay combined. The PSUBlog notes that character creation will be an option in this demo (unlike the previous version,) and that players will be able to transfer certain content into the full game by maintaining a save file for the demo. The demo will take up 1.9 gigabytes of space, and may not necessarily reflect the final Phantasy Star Nova gameplay experience.

Phantasy Star Nova hits Japanese stores on November 27th. Credit for the featured image goes to Sega Japan’s Twitter posting announcing the new demo, linked above.

Phantasy Star Nova TGS Demo Feedback Changes

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When Sega allowed the public to try out demos of Phantasy Star Nova this past summer, they mentioned that they planned to take in feedback and possibly make changes based on what players reported to them. Gematsu reports that Sega made an announcement on their Phantasy Star Nova website detailing changes that they made in response to demo feedback. The changes are listed in the most recent post (dated 2014.10.21) under the psnova site’s Info section, but Gematsu has translated the changes for easier reading. I’ll provide some of the more general user experience changes here after the “Read More” button.

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Phantasy Star Nova TGS and Famitsu Info: Trailer, Resonance of Fate Cameos, New Character, Base System

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Pictured above are the three protagonists of Resonance of Fate: Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne, from left to right, in Phantasy Star Nova. Resonance of Fate is a title developed by tri-Ace and published by Sega, giving the latter ownership of the IP. Sega has occasionally made reference to Resonance of Fate since its release, with a Leanne costume in Phantasy Star Portable 2 and a Leanne module/costume in Project DIVA 2nd. Resonance of Fate characters also appeared in the triple-publisher crossover Project X Zone.

In any case, Phantasy Star Nova actually marks the second time these two companies share this developer-publisher relationship, putting tri-Ace in a unique opportunity to make reference to Resonance of Fate. Costume and weapon options for the three main characters will be available. Leanne, arguably the breakout character of Resonance of Fate since its release, will also be present beyond her costume options as an NPC. She is a shopkeeper and an optional party character.

The crossover makes for an interesting contrast, as the more realistic Resonance of Fate costumes are styled differently than what’s typically seen in Phantasy Star Nova, and the Resonance of Fate weapons are mostly realistic-seeming guns with little departure into becoming overly stylized contraptions. Still, it’s a nice shout out and something I personally appreciate.

Cameos of characters from other tri-Ace developed games will also be present in game. View the gallery at this Gematsu article to check them out. These featured characters include Edge Maverick and Reimi Saionji from Star Ocean IV, and Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile. Weapons from their games and costumes in their likeness are available for created characters. These franchises’ games were published by Square Enix.

Hit the break to learn what Famitsu dished out this week, alongside a look at the new TGS trailer that summarizes what Phantasy Star Nova is all about and another image of Leanne invading Phantasy Star Nova!

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Sega and Atlus’s Tokyo Game Show 2014 Lineup Announced

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We now have confirmation about Sega and Atlus’s lineup at Tokyo Game Show 2014, and which titles will be playable. This article will cover games that are not under the banner of Segalization’s localization requests and will simply present the entirety of Sega and Atlus’s offerings.

Please be aware that Sega and Atlus will also be holding stage events and broadcast streams throughout the weekend of Tokyo Game Show, which you can find near the end of the article! Italicized games are titles that currently have localizations planned for them, for reader convenience, but keep in mind that localization status is still a tentative thing. Here is a list of what can be expected:

Playable from Sega:

  • Phantasy Star Nova (Vita)
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS4, One)
  • Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (Vita, PS3)
  • Hero Bank 2 (3DS)
  • Sonic Toon: Rise of Lyric (Wii U, known as Sonic Boom in the West instead of Sonic Toon)
  • Sonic Toon: Shattered Crystal (3DS, known as Sonic Boom in the West instead of Sonic Toon)

Promotional Trailers from Sega:

  • Phantasy Star Online 2 (PC, Vita)
  • Phantasy Star Nova (Vita)
  • Yakuza Zero (PS3, PS4)
  • Shining Resonance (PS3)
  • Puyo Puyo Tetris (PS3, Wii U, 3DS, Vita, PS4, One)
  • Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (Vita, PS3)
  • Hero Bank 2 (3DS)
  • Sonic Toon: Rise of Lyric (Wii U, known as Sonic Boom in the West instead of Sonic Toon)
  • Sonic Toon: Shattered Crystal (3DS, known as Sonic Boom in the West instead of Sonic Toon)
  • The World End Eclipse (PC, Vita, iOS, Android)

Promotional Trailers from Atlus:

  • Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Knight of Fafnir

Stage Events from Sega and Atlus, scheduled according to Japan Standard Time:

  • Phantasy Star Nova presentation (9/18, 12pm)
  • Yakuza Zero presentation (9/18, 1pm)
  • Hatsune Miku Project new title presentation (9/18, 3pm) (update: this was Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai Deluxe, an expansion of Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2)
  • Phantasy Star Online 2 presentation (9/19, 3:30pm)
  • Phantasy Star Nova live demo playthrough (9/20, 2pm, different from recently released Battle Demo)
  • Atlus presentation (9/20, 2:30pm)
  • Shining Resonance live gameplay presentation (9/21, 3pm)

To speak for myself, the lineup that Sega is presenting is especially strong this year. A sizable portion of their prominent active franchises in Japan are being represented with Phantasy Star, Yakuza, Shining, and Hatsune Miku. We are also seeing a push for Sonic Boom in Japan too. Besides the representation for major IP’s, newer franchises such as Hero Bank and The World End Eclipse are being promoted. In addition, Puyo Puyo Tetris and Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax should have broad appeal: the former for its accessibility and crossover novelty and the latter for being a crossover fighter featuring popular characters. The real wildcard here is Atlus and their presentation on the 20th. Hopefully they will have more to offer regarding Persona 5 and Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem! I am also excited to finally see what Shining Resonance looks like in action.

Kudos to this Gematsu article and this NeoGAF thread, and additional thanks to the topic creator of the NeoGAF thread for translated descriptions and scheduling of stage events. Kudos also to the PSUBlog for the entry linked in the description on the Phantasy Star Nova live demo presentation.

Update, 9/18/2014: Edited to reflect that there is very likely no additional Hatsune Miku game announcement besides Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai Deluxe.