Games on my Radar #6

I've got a couple games with relatively stupid names I'm going to talk about today. Lets hope the games are better than the names. Rhyming...

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC/PS3/360) 

I've not seen an awful lot on this game yet, there is only one trailer out and a few pieces of art from what I can tell. It will either be brilliant or really dissapointing. I mean, they've got such good pedigree on the team (is that the right word?) - R.A. Salvatore is designing the world, Todd McFarlane is designing the characters and controlling art direction and they've got Ken Rolston from the Elder Scrolls III and IV overseeing stuff. They have promised a high fantasy western action rpg and I hope they deliver. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Todd McFarlane's western comic stuff like Spawn and I hope that his stuff doesn't ruin the game, or indeed that any of the other people on board do. If it all comes together, this one could be good. I don't think it will be out for ages, but I'm liking the fact that we are getting more western RPGs. I really enjoyed Dragon Age, at times it was a bit bland, but I had a lot of fun with it. If this is anywhere near it's level, I'll be happy. I'm looking forward to this one, but I'm slightly sceptical as well.

Links: Official Site / Games Radar / 

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP) Lettuce.. wha? o.o Stupid name...

I've never actually played any of these Tactics Ogre games, but I've heard a lot of good things from people on podcasts, youtube videos and various sites. So this one is a remake of the SNES game and it is being handled by the same team that did the Final Fantasy Tactics 'remake' for the PSP, which was really good I thought. I didn't get bugged by the lagging animations or other technical flaws in that game. Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to this one most out of these three games. I love strategy RPGs and this series is one I've not had the chance to try yet. I'm hoping for a deep, customisable game with a good story. From what I've heard, I'll get it from this game. I'll need to look into this series more as the release date draws nearer.

Links: 1UP / RPGamer / IGN / Siliconera / RPGFan / RPGamer

Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PC/PS3/360)

From the developers of The Bard's Tale and published by Bethesda, this will be a 3rd person action RPG with co-op multiplayer. I don't know very much about The Bard's Tale, but I think it had its fans. Regardless, I like the look of this trailer. I do like multiplayer in RPGs, if it is done well. Borderlands for example, looked like it did it fairly seamlessly. I mean, it had its flaws, glitches everywhere for example, and it might not even be much of an RPG depending on your opinion, but hopefully this Hunted game can have something in the same vein. 

Games on my radar #5

So E3 has come and gone now, and there are a few titles that have got me interested. I reckon Nintendo by far had the best show this year. Microsoft and Sony are playing catchup with their motion control systems, and didn't really announce much that we didn't know about already.
So what am I looking forward to?
Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) English gamers have been waiting a long time for a Kid Icarus game. I hope the phrase 'good things come to those who wait' applies here. It definitely looks amazing, on the same level graphically as Gamecube or even some Wii games! We've only had the NES game and a Game Boy game in this series so far. Admittedly, I don't know much about this series, but if this is one of the flagship games for the 3DS and is available at launch, I might get it. I'm still holding out for a 3DS Castlevania game at launch, I usually pick them up with my handheld at launch if available: they had Circle of the Moon for the GBA and Dawn of Sorrow on the DS. Hopefully the pattern continues for Castlevania games continues.

Epic Mickey (Wii) this is still interesting me, it looks very dark and twisted from some of the screens. I haven't been able to find much on it, but some of the concept art is brilliant.
Ignore the idiotic annotations in this vid, its otherwise a good video:


I've got a bad feeling it will dissapoint though.
Kirby: Epic Yarn (Wii)


Very interesting platformer, I'm really impressed with some of the latest Nintendo games. New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Paper Mario, etc. There are some really cool twists on the formula.
Final Fantasy: The 4 Warriors of Light (DS)
personally, I wouldn't have gone for the number 4, 'four' seems like it would be more formal somehow-Final Fantasy: The Four Warriors of Light, see what I mean? Pedantics aside, E3 has brought another video, showing mostly stuff we knew about already.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)
I've been waiting for this one for ages now, and we've got a little bit more info from E3 10. I'll need to finish off the  2nd before I get this. Definite purchase for me though. 


Another one I'll definitely be getting is Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS)


I'm a big fan of the Dragon Quest games, and this one was very well received in Japan.
So is there actually anything non-nintendo I was interested in at E3 2010? Barely. Nintendo tore MS and Sony a new one this year.
One I've thought looked like it had some potential for a while now is Ys Seven (PSP)
Damn, that collector's ed I touched on last time is awesome, enjoy this new video from E3 in the meantime. 

Games on my Radar #4

Thought I'd post another thing with some of the games I am looking forward to. Mostly future releases I'll be featuring here, perhaps some other stuff as well though. It also seems to be mainly RPGs, but not solely..I do play other stuff... :3

So what games are on the horizon?

Tales of Graces (Wii)

I don't know an awful lot about this one (as I'm not hugely knowledgeable about Tales games) but I still think it looks pretty cool from the videos I have seen so far. I'll probably try and finish a Tales game before I decide if I want this or not (I got stuck in Symphonia, and havent played much of Vesperia or Eternia psp yet~those are the ones I own at least)

Another series I basically know nothing about (although my interest has been piqued) is Lufia, or Estpolis. It was a combination of being before my time (I wasn't hugely into games that long ago) and having a lack of the consoles to play them on (NES, SNES etc)

So I am intrigued to hear that there is a remake of one of the games, the 2nd one. Link So I am hoping that the story isn't too essential to the enjoyment of this one. 

Estpolis: The Lands cursed by the Gods (DS) 

This one seems to have some really cool character art and some interesting looking aspects from the trailers.

Hopefully it works out, as Lufia 2 used to be turn based from what I have heard, it looks like they have converted it into more of an action rpg now. This remake will be coming out in America sometime soon, not too sure of Tales of Graces as to whether it has an English release date set so far.

So those are some of the games on the fringes of my 'radar' I guess you could say, essentially because they don't come out for a  while, and EU release dates haven't been set yet.

Another one I talked about last time was Ys 7, which I now definitely want to get. It looks to have an awesome collector's edition. Link

Games on my Radar #3

A couple more games sneaked into my attention recently, so thought I'd bring them to the attention of the masses, or something like that. I doubt 'masses' of people read this blog but anyways...

The first couple of games are pretty obscure RPGs, so no worries if you haven't heard of them before. If you have, well, I envy you as I really want to play these ones sometime soon and don't know that much about them. I don't think the series has come out in American or European areas at all so far. Now though, XSEED has picked up a few titles for releases in the US on the PSP. Hopefully we PAL gamers see at least some of them. I guess I can always import them, but I don't like raping my bank balance too much. Ebay imports from the US will usually cost me around £30-40 depending on the game around release time.

Games on my Radar #2

Ok, thought I'd continue this idea. I do a lot of posts with games I am looking forward to (well, I used to) and I reckon if I get some regularity and structure to the posts, the blog will benefit. 

So I was reading up about a few things online and there are many rumours surrounding a new Castlevania game for the Xbox Live Arcade. Initially the key words 'Harmony of Despair' were trademarked and this led people to speculate about whether it would be a Castlevania game, whether or not it would be related to Harmony of Dissonance, whether it might be HD (like Dawn of Sorrow meant 'for DS') and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don't particularly follow rumours and whatnot, but the mere mention of Castlevania of course had me interested. 

Take any of this stuff on Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (XBLA) with a pinch of salt. Little has actually been confirmed. 

http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/7794/2/

http://www.xboxic.com/news/6024

http://www.destructoid.com/rumor-6-player-castlevania-harmony-of-despair-revealed-172497.phtml

There are a couple links and images in those. The site which initially posted details on this '6 player co-op game' had to pull their story for some reason. Apparantely it will feature many of the characters from the series, similar to Castlevania: Judgment (hopefully it is a bit better than that though. Tbh, I didn't mind it much, but many people hated it)

Ok, next up. What've we got? Another game from the rather awesome developer Sting. It has the rather awkward name Hexyz Force (PSP). I challenge you to think of another game with x, y and z in the title. =p

I've been really impressed with the depth and artistic direction in Sting games, ie Riviera, Yggdra Union and Knights in the Nightmare. To be honest, this one looks a lot more generic, which worries me. Some of the character designs are quite cool, but some do look actually kinda bad...like that lion type creature. Check it at around 1:17 in the below video. It's eyes, or something just seems really bad. 

Regardless, I am still keeping this on the fringes of my radar. Sceptical, but interested.

Here is a gameplay trailer from Atlus:

Niiice, that chick has an attack called Purple Haze. Fricken awesome song. 

During the time that I was writing this, a hands on impression of the game got posted over at RPGamer.

There aren't actually that many games on the way that I am looking forward to, I mean there are a few, like Final Fantasy Gaiden: Four Warriors of Light (or whatever it will be called in America and here) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but most of the games that I am looking to get are out already really. God of War Collection, Fragile Dreams, Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call, Infinite Space and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey are a few I might be getting eventually. Right now I've got too many games though, gonna try getting through some of my stack before buying much new.

Games on my radar.

Thought I'd do a post with some of the games I'm looking forward to. Might make this a regular thing, I need to post more on the blog...the cobwebs and dust are piling up on here...

Trinity Universe (PS3) 

I'm not too sure, I kind of want to preorder and import this actually..since Rosenqueen do a preorder with an artbook. Limited stock, so once it runs out, they won't get it back in stock...I am a bit of a whore for artbooks...on the other hand I could wait for reviews and get it for cheaper over here...not sure what to do. It looks pretty =3

I saw this video today and man...its another RPG on the way for the Wii. Looks absolutely gorgeous.

Xenoblade (Wii)

I don't know an awful lot else about this game. Dunno what the battle or gameplay systems are going to be like yet. I do know that it is not connected to Xenogears or Xenosaga as many people believed earlier on.

Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)

This one I've had my eye  on for quite a while now, and its getting closer to a NA release. I'm fairly sure they've announced it for PAL regions but I don't have much confirmation of that. Its got such good talent behind the game, I just hope the localisation doesn't suck..I mean, the voice acting might be quite bad from what I've heard. RPGamer did a first impressions, head on over there to check it out.

One concern I have is that it really seems quite poor in places graphically, it reminds me of some of the gamecube RPGs (ToS and Skies of Arcadia), so perhaps it won't age too well.

So in addition to those, Fragile Dreams and Sakura Wars, my Wii is building up a pile of games I've not touched. I need to get it back so I can play some games on my tv now that my xbox is borked. I guess I have Valkyria Chronicles as well.