3rd-party News and Announcements

[wanderingshadow]

Here's a bit of irony for you. Great Giana Sisters is coming to the DS. Who would've thought Nintendo would let a Mario rip-off be released on one of their systems?

[TV Eye]

I've never heard of this game before, but judging by the picture, it must be cold out. Look at dem pokies! How did that get past the censor board?

[Grandy02]

Was the original game even officially released in the US? I almost only read about Europe when it comes to this game. Those pokies probably weren't the problem there. I even saw covers of German video game magazines from the 1980s with uncovered nipples.

You never heard of the game? Hm, most of the fan following is obviously from Europe. I would like to know if the game ever came to the US, though (and what box art it had).

[Manspeed]

I believe it was once rereleased for mobile phones with much cuter looking artwork. Lemme go find it.

EDIT: Here. It's a tad small though.

[Grandy02]

I saw this artwork before. So it was released in America for mobile phones? But was also the original game released in the US?

There's also a very different alternate box art beneath the "pokies" one, it says "The Brothers Are History!". ;D
toggle.zweioe.de/toggle64/covers/giana.jpg

[Nester the Lark]

Dragon Quest IX for the DS isn't even out yet, but Square Enix went ahead and announced that Dragon Quest X is in development for the Wii.

So, PS3/360 gets Final Fantasy XIII, and the Wii gets Dragon Quest X? Not bad, not bad.

[Da Robot]

Dec 10, 2008 17:57:47 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

Dragon Quest IX for the DS isn't even out yet, but Square Enix went ahead and announced that Dragon Quest X is in development for the Wii.

So, PS3/360 gets Final Fantasy XIII, and the Wii gets Dragon Quest X? Not bad, not bad.

That announcement was so important that even Iwata was there to attend.

[Volray]

Q1 release dates for third party games here. Though I'm not really sure what's new and what's not.

The Conduit's not there, though. Wasn't that supposed to come out in Q1? Or am I thinking of another game?

[Nester the Lark]

Wow. I didn't realize that many high profile games were coming out in Q1. I hope some of them are good.

Anyway, GoNintendo insinuates that Nintendo's official release list is "full of mistakes." Case in point, Capcom is planning to release Dead Rising and Moto GP in Q1, but neither is listed on Nintendo's schedule.

[Nester the Lark]

According to GoNintendo, Famitsu* reports that the original Game Boy game SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend II) is being remade for the DS, and is due out in Japan later this year. 1up.com also has a blog entry about it. SaGa creator Akitoshi Kawazu mentioned a while back that he had an announcement for the 20th anniversary of the series, so I guess this is it.

I've mentioned more than once that I've lost interest in RPG's -- specifically, turn-based Japanese RPG's -- but this is an exception. The avant garde nature of the SaGa series defies some of the conventions that have since turned me off from traditional JRPG's, so I find its approach refreshing. I also used to play the original FFL2 quite a bit (and I still have the cartridge), but I never beat it.

No international release has been mentioned, but consider me curious.

Hardcore Gaming 101 has an excellent article on the SaGa series, which of course I highly recommend. I noticed while browsing their forum that Final Fantasy fans tend to hate the SaGa series, while SaGa fans hate FF. I find that pretty interesting.

Also interesting is that Akitoshi Kawazu was the producer for the original Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and I believe he continues to oversee the series. Knowing that, it's a lot easier to understand why that game is the way it is, and in fact, that's why I've come to have an appreciation for it.

*EDIT: It wasn't Famitsu, it was actually Weekly Shonen Jump.

[BeamClaws]

What's so bad about the SaGa series? It was enough like FF to be called FF Legend!

I played the original FFL, I always got bored and turned it off and started over, but when I actually bothered getting ahead, it got really fun.

Another interesting thing is that Nester lost interest in turn based JRPGS. I have to agree that they get boring, and they're all the same, and that's why I look for innovation, and DragonQuest is boring (I said it.)

[Nester the Lark]

Jan 14, 2009 18:37:33 GMT -5 BeamClaws said:

What's so bad about the SaGa series? It was enough like FF to be called FF Legend!

I don't think they called it Final Fantasy Legend because it was like Final Fantasy. Rather, it was for the brand recognition. Just about every game Square released in North America after the original Final Fantasy had the name slapped onto it (with the exception of Rad Racer II) up until Secret of Mana in 1993. And even then, that game was originally going to be titled Final Fantasy Adventure II.

Fans of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and any other JRPG don't like SaGa due to its admittedly odd quirks. Like the fact that weapons break, and thus you have to keep buying more of them. Or that stat-building is random and not based on experience points. Or even the non-linear, open-ended gameplay. (Altho, FFL2 is pretty linear.)

SaGa fans don't like FF, DQ, et al, for basically the opposite reasons: the linearity, the restriction, the rigidity, etc.

It's interesting because FF and SaGa are like two sides of the same coin, yet they appeal to entirely different audiences.

[Koopaul]

Okay, this is interesting...

kotaku.com/5133933/ok-whats-the-dea...ountdown-clocks

[Savage Adam]

Here's an interesting new Sega teaser site I found for some "mystery game".

It's got a mushroom... COPYRIGHT ENFRINGMENT.

[Koopaul]

Dude, I just posted that.