And here it is! Project K66 revealed:

This week's fanmitsu has confirmed Project K66 to be... A Keroro Gunsou RPG!

The title has something to go as Keroro RPG: The Knight, Warrior and Legendary Pirate





Looks interesting enough for me to try and slog through when it gets released!
Unfortunately, my info stops there as my very minimal Japanese vocabulary can't help me. :/

According to Siliconera though, it uses the Tales series (Tales of Destiny, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of the Abyss) linear battle system and skits.

Sounds VERY promising to me!

Review: Fossil Fighter

First Impression:
I like dinosaurs. Growing up, before I'd had this strange obsession with dragons, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. Naturally, time to check out a game with nothing but dinosaurs and dinosaur battling.

Gameplay:
I suppose I have one formula for this game:

Dinosaur King + Pokemon + Spectrobes = Fossil Fighter.

You play as a boy who journeys to an island to learn how to be a Fossil Fighter which is technically a pokemon trainer who uses dinosau-- right. Vivosaurs, as the game calls them.
Much like Spectrobes, you can find prospective new members of your team by digging them up off the field and cleaning them. However, you can only revive Vivosaurs once you find their heads. Revival is automatic and any other body parts you find from the same vivosaur are added in to give extra experience points and attacks.



And the main point for finding these Vivosaurs and making them stronger? For battling, of course! Your character's main goal is to be a Master Fighter and to have the strongest team of Vivosaurs on the island.
Battle is a simple point and click affair. at the start of each round, you have a set number of FP which are consumed with every attack. Some attacks cost 30 FP, some 50, some 100 or more. Your FP are recharged with every round.
Each team can have up to three Vivosaur in battle at once. One Vivosaur stays in your attack area, the other two in your support area. Those in your support area give status boosters to the attacker and sometimes minus status to the opponent's attacker.



At first, only one dig site is open to you. In order to get to more places, you have to level up your fighter rank by passing a Level Up Exam. One takes place after you've completed the story events of your current chapter.
Level Up Exams are composed of a Cleaning Exam and a Fossil Battle. You will be given a point limit to reach for your cleaning and obviously, you have to win all your battles. You start off with one battle and eventually, you'll have to get through a preliminary battle.
Of course, there's more to island life than just digging up fossils and battling. Where else would an intrepid young adventurer be without foiling an evil plot or two? This game's Team Rocket comes in something called the BB Group (Big Bad Group? I'm not sure. You make the call.) and chapters usually end with you beating a member of theirs or their leader.

You have the option of using the stylus or the button controls. Either one works rather well. Obviously, only the stylus can be used during a cleaning session. On one other note, I was pretty surprised about how fast your character runs, really.

Last words:
I can't help but compare this game to Dinosaur King and Spectrobes unfortunately, because it just reminds me of them so much. I have to say that I've enjoyed this title more than I did those two. it takes the enjoyable qualities of both games and brings them together. There are plenty of dinosaurs to dig up and collect which can hold my interest for a while as I seek out my Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Also, it doesn't have Spectrobes' annoying wannabe wapanese vocabulary. I swear. Several dialogue points in that game made me wanna choke something.
Fossil Fighter is targeted for a younger audience. It's easy to get the hang of and the battles aren't all that tough.

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Rating:
Graphics: 3.5/5
The entire thing is done in a simple sort of 3D. The characters aren't all that memorable but they do have a colorful palette to work with. They... also kinda move weird, IMHO. Of course, prolly just me.

Gameplay: 4/5
The battle system requires good timing and some strategy which is good. Needs more brains than a button masher. Working for good fossils makes it worth it, as well as looking for parts to power up your team. Pretty fun. Lots to look out for and do.

Soundtrack: 3.5/5
Audio cues are quite important in this game, I think. Sound cues help locate fossils on your radar and they can help while cleaning a fossil. That's good... sometimes bad if you need to play and keep the noise down. The BGM unfortunately isn't too memorable. It's pretty generic.

The Look and Feel: 3/5
The menus are slightly strange. Instead of one menu where you access everything, they've assigned the menus to three separate buttons. X takes you to your status screen and the fossils you're carrying around. Y takes you to your team menu and the list of all the Vivosaurs available to you and start takes you to the save and options screen. Would've been easier if they'd just put it all in one menu screen.

Rating: 7.5/10

Heart Gold and Soul Silver announced for English Release!

A few months ago, pokemaniacs around the world were treated to a bit of good news: the return of Gold and Silver as HeartGold and SoulSilver. We held our breath, hardly believing the news. For the more pessimistic, it was more of "Oh no. Yet ANOTHER pokemon game." and for the fans, much screaming and fangasming was to be had.

Be prepared to fangasm yet again.... for I bring you...



THE ENGLISH TRAILER.
Now go watch it! No further commentary from yours truly is needed. Shoo! Git!

Speculated release is Spring 2010.

Good things come in threes?

More details emerged about Rune Factory 3. Lots of details, really! Japanese release date is set on October 22. Those who pre-order get a nice swag kit with a drama CD and an book containing character illustrations and an original comic.



Fanmitsu also revealed other things about the game:
Your character, Mais can turn into a monster which shows you another side of farming life. I wonder how much fun can be had if you prowl around as a werewolly...
Also new to Rune Factory 3 is the Active Seed System.

Active seed grow immediately when planted and can do a number of useful things like help in battle or with the things you've planted in caves. So far, three Active Seeds have been revealed:



Jack:
-Has a pumpkin-like form
-Sucks up enemies and deals damage

Haslider:
-Shaped like a leaf (Lilypad?)
-Can be used as a floatation device over bodies of water.

Mizubasou:
-Floral in shape
-Generates water for sown seeds

Also, Fanmitsu revealed two more eligible young bachelorettes for Mais' perusal. The so far cast list is as follows:



Shia
A kind girl who took care of you when you were unconscious at the beginning of the game. It's because of her recommendation that you started farming.

Touna
A silent girl who works at the city's weapons shop. Why she avoids relating with people is apparently a secret.

Chocola
A girl who dreams of being a chef like her father and now works at a restaurant in town. Despite her tiny size, she has a huge appetite.

Marion
An apprentice witch who also serves as a nurse in town. She dreams of being either a fine doctor or a sorceress like her grandmother. She's childhood friends with Chocola, whom she used as a guinea pig for conducting tests for her magic cures



Rune Factory just recently grew on me... Of course I'll have my eye on this one. No english release has been scheduled as of now but considering that the first two games have been ported... well... three time's a charm, I suppose!

Via [Siliconera.com / Andriasang.com ]

Screenshots: Phantasy Star Zero

After a long moment of silence, it seems that some screenshots of PS0 have emerged... confirming an english release. Thanks to news on Joystiq, it seems that Sega IS working on the English port. Hopefully, we'll see a release by fall of this year as promised.

Click on the picture for more images c/o Joystiq.



via[Joystiq.com]

Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

First Impressions: Shin Megami franchise game for the DS, yay. Yours truly being a mythology fangirl, double yay! QUETZACOATL AND LAKSHMI?! HONEY, I'M SOLD!

Gameplay: The only experience I've had with anything from the Shin Megami Tensei line is Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. That, as far as I've observed is nothing like the recent Persona games.
SMT: Devil Survivor has you in the position of the silent main character (who I will call Hero from now on). You pick his name, dialogue and which stat gets boosted every time you level up.
Hero and his two friends get trapped in Tokyo during a sudden lockdown. All of a sudden, demons start appearing. Hero and his buddies now have to fight back the demons with demons of their own and modified DS units comps.

SMT: Devil Survivor is a strange mix of SRPG, turn based RPG and Visual Novel. You pick the locations to go to via the main map. Key scenes are played out ala visual novel with dialogue boxes and static pictures. Some locations pass time and some locations have battles. As time passes through a day, certain things can happen and you can meet certain people.
Battles are done on a grid where you start out by positioning your party members and having the option of which skill you want to steal from your opponents. It starts out like a strategy RPG where you choose where your party members should move. On the grid, you can use demon skills to heal or up movement. When you attack, the scene shifts to a first person POV turn based battle sequence that lasts for at least two turns, depending if anyone gets any extra turns.
Repeat as much as necessary.



Strangely, there are no items at all available. Your only chance of healing is via heal spells. However, if you run out of MP, you're pretty much on your own.
The strategy comes in where you place your party members. Leave someone alone on the field and it's quite easy for monsters to surround and outnumber them.
You can recruit demons into your party via the auction (where you can bid for them or buy them directly) or fusion. When you get access to higher leveled demons for fusion, the auction is a good place to get fusion material sometimes. Upgrading your team is a VERY good idea, might I add?

As fun and engrossing as this game can get, it doesn't quite feel like a DS game. Everything plays out on the bottom screen. The top screen is hardly used at all. There is also no need for the stylus whatsoever. No touch screen application. It... actually feels like a possible GBA game, really. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. A game like this doesn't really need the touchscreen as it does work fine without it. I do wish they did something more with the top screen though. A field layout at the start of battle or some sorta something else would have been good.



Last Words: This game has high replayability because of the multiple endings possible. This is also hours of entertainment for mythology buffs like yours truly. brb. Squeeing over Quetzalcoatl.


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Rating:

Graphics: 4.5/5
The characters are well designed and colorful. I love their interpretations of the various dieties. I think they captured them just right. Sprites are crisp and nothing really bothers me much about the graphics. I'm slightly of two minds about the static pictures during battle but that could be just me. The overall presentation is modern and edgy which fits the setting of it all.

Gameplay: 4/5
Controls are good enough. No sloppy or confusing ones for this. Selection is your typical move-with-diagonals-confirm-with-A-button=B-is-cancel thing. Of course, this shows little use for the stylus. Then again, there isn't really any need for them anyway.
The battle system made me wonder at first as to why there was an SRPG element to it all but if anything, it does add a nice twist of strategy to your usual RPG. The turn based part makes me feel comfortable as I'm not really a big fan of SRPGs.
I find fusing fun. I dunno about the rest of you. This time around, you can customize your resulting demon by picking which skills it'll inherit from its parents. Always a plus.

Soundtrack: 5/5
There's a mix of techno for the visual novel scenes and rock tracks during the battle scenes. Catchy and good for the mood. One of the best parts of the game.

The Look and Feel: 3.5/5
I'm still a bit iffy about the fact that the top screen is barely used. There should be more use to it especially when you're dealing with an RPG. Yes, it is used in battle for displaying the profiles of your opponents and your party but I also would have liked possibly an overview of the map I'm fighting on.
Menus are a breeze to navigate through. Unfortunately, scrolling through your demon collection in the Fusion section can get a little messy and distracting even if you have the option to arrange them. Somehow, I still get a little lost.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Review: Summon Night Twin Age

This was one of the first reasons I wanted to buy a DS. Being a fan of the Summon Night games for the GBA, I was stoked to see a sequel for the DS! Lo and behold, it was NOTHING like the first two games I played but who's to say I was disappointed?

This was one of the first reasons I wanted to buy a DS. Being a fan of the Summon Night games for the GBA, I was stoked to see a sequel for the DS! Lo and behold, it was NOTHING like the first two games I played but who's to say I was disappointed?

First Impression:
The opening sequence was just recycling the stills they use in game. A full motion video would have been nice, really. When I first saw the screenshots on DSFanboy, I was a little nervous. Would this game disappoint me because they changed the battle system I oh so loved?

Gameplay:
Summon Night Swordcraft Story: you find yourself choosing which character to be: male or female and you end up picking a Summon Beast who grants you magic, helps you forge your weapons.
Summon Night Twin Age: you can STILL pick who you want to be, male or female but it doesn't matter as you can switch control to either one on the field. Perhaps the only thing that changes is points of view. You can't pick a Summon Beast this time because... the male character you have liberty of choosing IS the summon beast. This time around, you can't really forge weapons like you used to. You can have them made at the store by providing the raw materials.



You start off with a knife, an axe and a lance. I've gone through half the game with the knife which becomes a sword eventually as you upgrade your weapons. You also have a TON of healing items (50 MP restore pots that restore 200 MP?!) which probably won't run out until much later. There are also monsters to be summoned that can aid you in battle and the game gives you two level 10+ ones to start with. Drop rate in dungeon crates and urns is REALLY high. Methinks the American release got dumbed down.
The battle system reminded me of an MMORPG. You run to the enemy, click them and your character attacks it until it falls. On the side is a command list where you can put ability icons for use. Yep. Definitely MMORPG like. Sure, they got rid of the best part of Summon Night for me but what they replaced it with was rather satisfying nontheless. Kinda.
Dungeons seem short and as long as you try to beat every single enemy in it and keep your weapons and armor upgraded, they won't pose much of a challenge.
Heck, even the skill tree reminds me of an MMORPG! You spend skill points (earned during a level up) to upgrade skills or buy new ones. Upgrade a skill enough and you max it. Buy enough skills and you unlock new ones. All in all, this leads to a deeper level of character customization.
Characters join your party as events unfold but you can only have three at a time. The boy and the girl can NOT be removed. The third member of the party can be chosen from the rest of the motley crew following you around.
As Gamespot said, the AI seems a little shabby. Your party members can get caught in corners and you'll have to backtrack to get them.

Story:
This Summon Night seems to be set somewhere different from its two predecessors so don't expect to see the same thing. Sure, there are some factors that bear similarity (Summon Beasts) but it's not quite the same. Maybe it's an AU of sorts.

Last words:
As I said, Summon Night Twin Age is a different flavor from Swordcraft Story but it's the sort of flavor that wasn't at all a complete disaster. It wasn't what I expected but I wasn't really disappointed at all.
Maybe this is what it would be like if Summon Night was... yes, you guessed it. an MMORPG.

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Ratings:
Graphics: 4.5
The character designs and the sprites are bright and colorful, same with the backgrounds. They look mostly like GBA graphics though and that might be a turn off for some people. Personally, I like how they kept the charm of the older Summon Night games.

Gameplay: 4/5
Easy to pick up. Click, drag, click, drag... if you've played an MMORPG, you'll have no problems.

Soundtrack: 3.5/5
It's... cute. Well... kind of. No audio orgasms here.

The Look and Feel: 4/5
It's a nice, clean game. Fun and easy to pick up. As long as you kill everything in sight, you'll be fine. A few missions are frustrating, though.

Overall Rating: 8/10
Rating: 8.5/10