Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

So, there aren't alot of anime fans on this blog crew. (Me and Oro, I think that's it?) However, being a fan, I had to give Naruto: Rise of a Ninja a try. I'll do my best to keep my fan opinions out of it. Please bear in mind though, I'm not a Narutard. I just like ninja. So, Naruto: Rise of a ninja, for those who don't watch anime, tells the tale of Leaf Village wannabe-ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, as he quests for acceptance in a village that hates him. Pretty sappy, but enticing nonetheless. The goal of the game, as the anime suggests, is for Naruto to gain acceptance and make the village of leaves respect him. That, and follow the storyline to it's zenith (About episode 80 of the anime, I believe. I could be wrong). The main goal however, is to perform missions and quests for the people of the leaf village, and make the townspeople happy. I have to say, I did enjoy it, despite its faults.

What this consists of is doing missions and quests, mostly side-missions to the main game. These missions increase your chakra (ability to perform jutsus, or powers), and health. They also give training points, used to learn combos, (as opposed to just doing them) and increase the levels of your jutsus. These side missions are pretty similar. Once you've seen one or two you've seen them all. Finding purses or scarves out in the landscape, running a race across town or in the Land of Waves, collecting coins for shopkeepers, things of that nature. The only one that is truly tedious are the races, unless you have the coordination for jumping through loops like a brightly colored Sonic the Hedgehog. Seen below is a image of Naruto performing the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)

There are other side quests that pertain to Naruto's acceptance in the Leaf Village. Only they aren't really side quests if you want to get 100% of the village happy (and get the achievement for it. At this particular moment, I'm at 54%) These missions are: Play Hide and Seek with Konohamaru, Ramen Delivery, and using the Sexy Jutsu to cheer up grumpy members of the community. (You can tell who they are. They have the mad face icon with hearts next to it)

I love the story for Naruto, so I enjoyed that part, including the anime clips it fills the gaps of gameplay with. The game itself seemed to have very little fighting, a few combat scenes here or there with rogue ninja, bandits, and bandit bosses, and the rare fight with actual cast members, to push the story along. If you want non-stop action, this is not the game for you. It's really designed for fans of the series.

Now, things I 'did' like, are the achivements, but I like that on most 360 games so far. Gives a goal outside of merely beating the game and moving on. UBISoft did something interesting with Naruto, though. It offered on the XBox Marketplace where you can download (for free), the Japanese voices. Since not all the American Voice Actors are involved in this game, this may be a relief for those who watch(ed) the fansubs on the internet. Also: A very recent addition (since I subscribed to the UBISoft Newsletter thing under Exclusive Content), I received an email that Shikamaru, a cast member from Naruto, was added to the game as a playable character (versus mode, Tournament, and that sort of thing, I imagine. I haven't downloaded him yet, but after I finish this, I should.)

It's not as action packed as I had hoped for, but the game looked amazing. The anime's music, dialogue, cut scenes were all there, and it made for an enjoyable experienced. Though, on the whole, I detested the ninja races and hide-and-seek, and am still putting those off, for the time being. The last thing I have to say I liked, when you input the jutsus', you have to do handsigns (simple ones, given by the game, it explains how), which I found to be authentic, and rather enjoyable.

So, this is my first review. I'll probably do another one later on.

Results: If you're a fan of the anime? 6/10 If you aren't? 3/10

Too much tedium to be throughly enjoyable. However, the prospect of downloading more content, or a sequel, leads me to continue working on it.

~Ishy

An explanation

First of all, why I haven't posted much since my review of FFT. My PSP fell in the toliet. Despite what Arsonist will say, it was clean at the time but that didn't stop it from frying the poor little thing. That pretty much sapped my will to write for the past few weeks.

Things have a way of working out though and in addition to getting a new PSP relatively soon, hopefully, I have finally gone next-gen and got myself a 360 Elite despite being a complete Sony fanboy. Just goes to show how badly they've fucked up with the PS3, I suppose.

Anyway, what this means for the three of you, our faithful readers is that we'll finally be posting next-gen reviews. I'll start off with Assassin's Creed shortly and go from there, throwing in the occasional PS2 or PSP game.

Edit from Arsonist18: Will also try to post some new game previews/reviews when the holiday comes. Gamers Junction will not die! ... or at least if it does we'll be in denial for a few more months. Happy Holidays! MHF2 4 Life!

See you soon.

Suikoden V Review

When a game has you playing for nearly two hundred accumulated hours, which happens to be just over 8 days of your life, you start to realise that it might be something special. When you replay an RPG, and still find new things, you start to realise that maybe, just maybe, it's something unique and special. When you find an RPG like that in England, you know it's something special. In fact, pushing off from those points, it's probably my favourite game of recent years, beating back some stiff competition.

The game's Suikoden V. To be honest, I'd never heard of the series before it was recommended to me. As the title suggests, there were four previous titles, but like most long-serving RPG series', you don't have to play any of them to be able to play the newest title in the series. If you have played the other four, then it's possible you'll maybe understand more out of a few random snippets of conversation, or recognise a character/place, but the guys at Konami designed the game equally sublimely for those who've never played a game in the Suikoden series before.

It's set in the Queendom of Falena. Don't groan about feminism, because it's barely even an issue. You play the part of the Prince, who hasn't even got a say at the throne. Unlucky. So, you end up doing a lot of jobs for your mother and father, and prancing around the globe, finding friends, enemies and the ever-so-familiar random encounters. Make sure you have enough potions for the journey ahead, and always remember to stock up on the latest, bestest armour and runes before you head out into the big bad world. Cliche after cliche, right?


Nah. For one, you'll never have enough money to just waste on the best runes and armour. Potions don't play a very big part, alongside curing rune magic, and the random encounters aren't even annoying. I hear you doubting that, but doubting gets you nowhere in life, kids. Combined with the amount of cut-scenes you're going to get, and can't skip, the encounters are a welcome break. But now the cut-scenes are the prime evil, yes? Erm ... No. No, no, no.

The best part of Suikoden is the story. It's absolutely fantastic. From the beginning of the game, there are mysteries that don't get solved for at least thirty hours of gameplay. I really don't want to spoil it for you, but even the most experienced gamer won't see at least one major story point coming. One scene leaves you waiting for the next, to explain the previous. Then another. And another. Then a side-quest will drag you to one side, but the main storyline is still apparent in your mind. I don't think I got bored with the storyline once, even with incessant running around. Can't say the same for any other RPGs.

So, aside from the story, what's so special about Suikoden? Well, a sorta-unique magic system, customizable battle formations (accompanied by their own 'formation skill'), actual war battles where you move your own units around, trying to outwit your usually superior opponent, rock-paper-scissor-esque duels, and a huge, and I mean huge, ensemble of characters. There's 108 characters in the game you can actually use, be they assisting your army, or fighting alongside you in encounters, every single one of them has some impact on you. Everyone will find a favourite character. You'll change your party a hundred times to find the right combination, and become immersed in some of their back-stories. The events surrounding Oboro's Detective Agency are particularly good. Personal bias over.


I'm supposed to name problems with the game, as well as the great things about it. Aside from a couple of broken characters, and the obvious 'Oh, crap, I went the wrong way,' there's only one. And patient gamers will not like it. To get all the 108 characters, and the best ending, you have to put about twenty or thirty extra hours into it, running around and doing sub-quests. You'll also probably need to check it up on an official guide, or ask someone for constant help, as some are stupidly fickle and have a short window to recruit, but if you blast through the story, you'll get the worst ending, miss a hell of a lot of backstory and intrigue, and feel awfully let-down. It's worth the extra hours for the extra characters. Simple.

This game deserves more recognition, rather than heaping it on the failure that was FFXII. It's got everything, and the slight niggles are nothing at all, if you have patience. But if you don't have patience, you probably wouldn't be playing an RPG anyway. I'd recommend this to any RPG gamer, to anyone who's ever played a game and wished for a little bit more story. Suikoden V has it all. An epic story mixed intricately with deep characters, innovative gameplay and fantastic scenes and movies. What's not to love? It gets top marks from me, whatever the scale. 5/5. 10/10. 100/100.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions review

Final Fantasy Tactics. Just saying the name of the game alone on the right message boards will usually start a flame war between those who absolutely loved the original in it's original Playstation form and those who prefered the "sequel", (he typed, choking down a huge amount of bile), Final Fantasy Tactics: Advanced for the Gameboy Advanced. Obviously I count myself among the former.

Unlike many of my "fellows", (this bile is starting to taste horrible), I actually played FFT:A and gave it a fair chance. The more laid-back story, the race-restricted job-classes and the judges. Unlike the perennial bad asses they would later become in Final Fantasy XII, imagine soccer referees who arbitrarily decide that the fundamentals of the game aren't allowed...so yeah, just imagine soccer refs.

Fast foward to 2007, when the RPG conglomerate Square-Enix would announce two games for the FFT series. A "re-imagining" of FFT ported to the PSP and FFT:A2 for the Nintendo DS. After the PSP version was announced, the fans of the original were salivating and it only grew as more details came out. Two new job classes, new cut scenes done in the same art style as the game itself, new items, new battles, new story scenes, two multi-player modes and last but certainly not least, a completely new translation of the game. For all of those goodies, no longer being able to steal from Elmdor seemed a small price to pay.


Then things took a turn. After the game came out, talk of sound issues and slowdown began to appear. People were worried. Just how bad was the slowdown? Would it remain in the US version? Was it even fixable? What were these sound issues? What little (supposed) news that trickled out about it was far from reassuring. The reverb effect was gone, making the sound effects sound hallow, almost cartoonish. There was no slowdown, said (supposed) customer service email replies. Videos proved that wrong. Then the story became there was nothing that could be done about it. People were not only worried, they were incensed. Square (and whoever they handed the project off to) was accused of half-assing the job.

As the US release drew nearer, the news began to get a little more encouraging. The reverb was still gone but the slowdown had been heavily reduced and now matched the PSX version. They even added voice acting to the new cut scenes, something that hadn't been in the Japanese version.

Then the game was released. I managed to get my hands on a copy the day it hit shelves and immediately immersed myself in the familiar world of Ivalice. The slowdown is there. It is worse than the PSX version. However, at it's worst it only adds 1-3 seconds on to certain attacks such as Gaffgarion's sword skills and spells such as Ice and Cure. Particularly cringe-worthy was the fact that the sound effects lagged so far behind the visuals that the end of the animations were usually several seconds of complete silence. Fortunately the sound issues didn't carry over to the masterful score, which remains as awesome as ever, (it has been remastered but I didn't noticed a difference), but it still was not a good start.

Then the new translation took over. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's still loads better than the old one. It helps the immersion into the story to such a higher degree that it was worth losing such camp lines as "Don't blame me, blame yourself or god." and "Surrender or die in obscurity!" The story is now actually understandable in later chapters and the new scenes/battles help flesh out loose ends.


Aside from those two issues however, this essentially remains the same old FFT. The multi-player is ad-hoc only, unless you have a wifi max and xlink kai, so most people won't really be able to take advantage of that.

So in the end, it comes down to two issues. Did you love the original FFT? If so, will the new stuff be enough for you to look past the almost inexcusable slowdown and sound problems? For me, it was yes a million times and I don't regret the decision. It might not be for everyone though.

Pros:

+ Tons of new content
+ Multi-player is now an option
+ Chapter 4 actually makes fucking sense now, thanks to the new translation

Cons:

- Animation slowdown
- Sound issues
- Multi-player is Ad-Hoc mode only, no Infrastructure mode was just cruel
- Not only are most of the new items all multiplayer only prizes, genji equipment (save for the armor and masamune sword) are now a multi-player only prizes

Score: 3.0/5

In the end, I just can't give this game a higher score, even if it is one of the best TRPGs ever and the one that made me fall in love with the genre. At the end of the day, it's just a touched up port of a PSX game, one with performance issues despite the power of the PSP. One of the best PSX games ever made even better, but still just a port. I would still recommend it to anyone that loves FFT or TRPGs though.

Warriors: Orochi Review

Are you sick of historically inaccurate Koei games? Do you crave a game that actually runs slightly to the course of history, with no butterfly wings, dwarfs in blue armour or renegade dancers killing highly trained generals with just an umbrella? Well, tough. Koei isn't ever going to do that, so shut up and deal with it. Surely by now, after about seven hundred editions of Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and Kessen, you'll have realised that Koei and Omega Force don't actually care what you think.

So, guess what they've done now? Combined the Warring States Period of Japanese history (Samurai Warriors) with the Three Kingdoms Period of Chinese history (Dynasty Warriors) and added a big snake and a half naked girl as an evil villain. Doesn't it just sound so riveting? Koei's next installment will be a game including a level where Winston Churchill quells the Yellow Turban Rebellion riding atop a dragon. Look out for that, folks.



But seriously, don't expect an award-winning storyline, because you're not going to get one. In fact, if you forget that there's supposed to be a story in the first time, it'll do you a hell of a lot of good in the long run. Unlike a lot of Koei games, this isn't a game that you can't say 'I like that part' about. There are a lot of saving graces, and at least 70% of them are due to the Samurai Warriors content that's crossed over, rather than the Dynasty Warriors stuff.

There's no point in me explaining the general gist of the gameplay, because if you've played either Warriors game, you'll know that's it's a standard hack and slash a thousand enemies a level, and do the occassional mission game. Nothing's changed. The L1 specials from Samurai Warriors are back, and every character's been revamped for them. Power, Speed, Technique. The three groups that decide what sort of abilites your character can have. Speed characters, for example, can double jump, whereas Power characters don't flinch from enemy attacks. The specials your character has can really affect the way you play the game, especially on harder difficulties. Unless you really know what you're doing, three low-level speed characters won't stand a chance against a pumped general like Tadakatsu on the hardest difficulty.


Another thing lifted from Samurai Warriors is a lot of good, witty character interaction. Familiar characters like Magoichi, Yoshihiro and Nene still have some obviously funny lines, and it spreads to a lot of the Dynasty Warriors characters. A lot of angsty cut-scenes, especially with the Sun family, sorta take the edge of the humour, but, for once, there are a couple of lines every few levels that will make you laugh.

The levels are quite fun, too. There's more objectives to do, and getting all the characters is a challenge in itself. Then getting them up to level 99, and finding their unique items is probably the only reason you'll play this game for longer than 10 or so hours. You'll end up finding new favourite characters and playing people you'd never really played before, through necessity, yes, but it's not a bad thing. Broadening your horizons is good, young padawan.

I know I've been through a lot of the positive points, but the negative points are still there. The game gets boring fast, and I mean fast, and like all games of this genre, it's repetitive beyond belief. There's no point in me going through the pro's and con's of something so simple. If you like mindless hack and slash and a pretty basic, boring storyline, buy this rather than a Dynasty Warriors game. If you want a better hack and slash game, buy Samurai Warriors. If you want anything with a story, don't even contemplate buying this game. Overall? 5/10. Not great.

Note: Credit goes to http://www.gamecity.ne.jp/orochi for the screenshots.

[edit] We are useless bastards; especially Arsonist

So FFT for PSP came out about two weeks ago and I've been buried in it since. With Castlevania: Dracula X chronicles coming out today and hitting stores tomorrow, there will be reviews of that and FFT coming up very shortly. I also have a retro review planned, that spans several games in a series, so that will take a bit of time but hopefully provide for some fascinating reading.

In the mean time, I'll make Connor and KDS post something if I have to capture their families at gunpoint to do it. Look for those or a crazy southern guy holding hostages soon.

Review: Monster Hunter Freedom 2

Daft Punk's "Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger." Okay, not really all those, but the new Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (MHF2) for PSP is exactly what fans should have expected, except for one big missing feature. After all the whining, there's still no infrastructure. But if you have Xlink Kai setup for online multiplayer, this really isn't a big deal anyways. If people think that it's a game breaker, then this was never the game for you in the first place.

Anyone with no idea what Monster Hunter is, you're a hunter (duh), and your job is to slay and sometimes capture monsters ranging from dragons to giant hermit crabs to harvest parts to make armor, weapons and items; all so you can slay and capture even bigger and badder monsters. That's the jist of it and it's absolutely addicting as there's a strange satisfaction in watching a wyvern 10 times your size giving its final death throe after facing off with it for the last 30 minutes. Add in some mining, fishing, and gathering, and you've got a pretty deep game that will probably last you 200+ hours at the very least. I had 500+ hours on the previous one trying to get rare armors and weapons... not sure whether or not to be proud of that, but it definitely gives you your money's worth.



So what can MHF zealots get out of this port of the Japanese Monster Hunter Portable 2nd? New maps, new town, tons of new monsters, new armor, new weapons, new weapon types (tachi, bow, gunlance, and hunting horn) and of course new missions in addition to the return of some old missions. Even certain wyverns from MHF1 now have new breakable parts and new attacks. A couple of other details I'd like to add are that your item box is now bigger, and they added a pause button, which helps prevent that time lag if you have to use the stand-by button on the PSP. Anyways, it's probably not necessary for me to drone on about it anymore if you loved the first one, because you'll definitely love the second one. 1 Million Japanese fans can't be wrong.

Useful Links:

• Kawakami's Wyvern Carving & Reward Guide (translated from Japanese)
• Limited Info Weapon Tree
• Maps and other Useful FAQs like the Farm or Felyne Kitchen List (GameFAQs)

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Review

Gamecube games aren't particularly well known, and it's easy to say the lack of games available for Nintendo's first attempt at a next-gen console was down to Sony and Microsoft's cornering of most the best-selling games on the market. However, Nintendo got a gem in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, as much as the majority of the gaming world prefers to look over it as a footnote on the glorious legacy of Cloud's spiky blonde hair. If they even notice it's even there. Considering it was Final Fantasy's return to the console that made them a franchise, they didn't make a deal of it. Depending on how many people you know with a Game Boy Advance and a link cable, it's easy to see why ... or impossible.

Play this game expecting Final Fantasy, and you're going to be truly disappointed. As soon as the monstrously long opening movie (which you can't actually skip) finishes, you'll realise this pushes the boundaries even further than FFXII did. Play this game expecting an epic storyline, with betrayals, deaths, romance and everything else Hollywood has pushed into games, and you'll be disappointed. Play this game on your own, and you won't be disappointed, just tremendously frustrated. The way to go with Crystal Chronicles lies in multiplayer. Never thought I'd say that about Final Fantasy. The major problem with this is:

- You need three other people to get the full extent of the game. Two player is as frustrating as one player. Three player is nice, but a four player adventure is the only way to make the game a complete success.
- These three people need a Game Boy Advance, and a GBA-GC link cable, and need to huddle around your little Gamecube like kids cramped around a campfire on a cold night.

If you can tick those boxes, go ahead and buy the game. If you can't, don't. But I understand that isn't a detailed enough review of the game, so I'll go ahead and give you the full low-down. Crystal Chronicles is a realtime fighting adventure, and you only control your chosen character. Realtime means that the battle and adventure aspects of the game are moulded together. No loading screens, no random encounters that begin to annoy you after the fiftieth after a hundred steps. Bonus? Could have been. Fair enough, you can hack away with the A button, actually taking half the damage you deal. But the worthwhile physical attacks, and all magic attacks require charging, and no movement whatsoever. Move, and the charging goes kaput. Obviously, higher level magic requires longer charging, but does more damage. Against the random, colourful peons, this isn't a problem, but against bosses this becomes the main reason for constant reloading. You have your slots, you choose your materia, and you duke it out with the beasts you need to defeat to get to your goal.

And what is that goal? Well, it's nothing spectacular. Miasma, a gas that's ironically only poisonous to the four player races (Selkies, Lilties, Clavats and Yukes), covers the world. Magic crystals are the only thing that turns it back from cities and towns, but they need renewing each year. So, you, noble hero, have to go out with your crystal caravan to increasingly difficult and further-away areas, fill up the crystal chalice and return home, to keep your people alive for another year. Nowhere near as serious as other FF storylines, and it fits the generally happier, more colourful setting of the whole game. Encounters with other travellers end up sustaining the plot of the game, and offering some memorable stories and a few good laughs, to be honest. I actually preferred the lack of story to the dubious story of FFXII, but that's a different point entirely.

However, like every game, it has it's downfalls, the main one being single versus multiplayer. Trying to solo the game is a challenge that hits you right in the face. On your third run around the journey, bosses become disgustingly harder than before. The first boss can be down to his last half-heart of health, after a seemingly easy battle, then stun you and wipe out all of your health. Enemies start to become more frequent and skilled, and you'll have to reload more times than you'd like to get past each act. On top of that, the system of choosing a family profession at the start of the game doesn't really work. Collect bronze and iron, and you can make better items ... but you could do that without choosing blacksmith. Bring home ingredients and your family will make you food ... but you find enough food on the journey. The last nitpick of mine would be that it's physically impossible NOT to have two Cure materias and a Pheonix Down using up your active inventory spaces. The best offence is a good defence, but it stunts your use of higher powered magic (Two Fires = Fira etc.) and becomes a major pain in the ass down the road. ... Okay, not last. The fact you can't move outside the aura of protection that your chalice gives is really annoying. However, your moogle can carry it, despite his intensely slow pace, makes this an arguably easy-to-ignore point.

Pros:
+ One of the few Gamecube games without watered down, cutesy graphics.
+ Meeting random travellers and adding entries to your hero's diary really gives you that push to move on.
+ Innovative gameplay.
+ Epic boss battles.
+ The soundtrack. Scored by Kumi Tanioka. Sublime.

Cons:
- Game steps up from 'easy' to 'insane' difficulty without any notice.
- Impossible to feel a link with your character. Your own character isn't developed at all.
- Frustratingly mapped out levels.
- The 'Cura/Pheonix Down' necessity.

But, at the end of the day, Crystal Chronicles is a fun game. If you find it, buy it. It's not too expensive, and you can get a good few hours of fun and enjoyment, on top of the challenge the later game involves. If you can get three other players with the correct credentials, it's a must-have GC title. Giving it a overall mark out of 5? 3.0.

Rogue Galaxy review - Spoilers inside

Rogue Galaxy is the tale of a young man named Jaster Rogue and the series of circumstances that thrusts him into the role of galactic savior.

To start, the story itself uses so many classic RPG cliches but presents them in a fresh and interesting way. For example, one of the main characters betrays Jaster. The game blatantly shows this happening. What it doesn't tell you right away is who, you (you being Jaster), are being betrayed to and why. Perhaps I'm just behind in my RPG-cliche knowledge but this struck me as a rather interesting twist on a standard plot device. The characters themselves follow this pattern of cliches you've seen before but are presented with a fresh take to keep you interested.

The unconventional manner of the game continues with a battle system that feels like the action-rpg style of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and a few RPG style gauges thrown in to keep things from getting button mashy, namely that after so many attacks/item uses you must pause briefly so your attack gauge can refill. While this addition is annoying at first, it does prevent button mashing to victory by some extent which seems to be the point. The first boss shows off this system quite well and is one of the funnest boss fights of any RPG I've ever played. Unfortunately the following ones are more standard fare of "whack-until-dead" which is a shame.


Unfortunately, things takes a MASSIVE downhill plunge as you start getting further into the story. Mainly, the difficulty of the random battles skyrockets to preposterous portions. If you don't save at every available chance, you will often find yourself having to redo portions of the game after a random battle wipes out your party with utmost ease. This makes progressing incredibly frustrating, to the point of nearly killing the fun of the game.

So sadly, while Rogue Galaxy showed a lot of promise, it just didn't really live up to it, mostly because of one giant and glaring flaw that never should have made it past play-testing. So rent first for sure to see if the difficulty will be an issue for you.


Pros:

+ Interesting characters
+ Fun battle system, even if it takes getting used to
+ Fresh take on RPG genre standards
+ Lilika <3

Cons:

- Absurd at times, random battle difficulty
- Bug on Juraika at the the waterfalls leaves only three options if you fall into the water during a battle: flee, die or reset
- The interesting boss battles are few and far between, with most being of the standard hit-until-dead type

Score: 2.0/5.0 - Rent first. It would have gotten a much higher score but the random battle difficulty is such a huge and inexcusable oversight that nigh-ruins the game. Having to reload the game 7 times before you finally get past one area does not constitute game play.

I blame Arsonist

He started this project. It was his idea and he approached me about it. Being bored and a writer of no talent but sick of the mainstream playing shit like MGS:PO (which I'll actually review one day soon, hint: It won't be pretty), and saying it was great gaming while completely disregarding most non-franchise offerings, I agreed.

Then he had to go and get himself a life though, that rat bastard.

So yeah, this has basically fallen to me and I plan to get things rolling again with some news and a review of Rogue Galaxy. The news will be below and the review will be in a seperate post afterwards.

You can also expect more profanity now that Arsonist isn't around. So if that kind of thing bothers you....

News:

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) ships October 30th.

FFT: The War of the Lions (PSP) ships October 9th. Voice acting is being added to the new cutscenes and the lag prevalent in the Japanese version has been fixed, according to an article by 1up.com and now matches the PSX version. Supposedly. More when I finally get my hands on it.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) is a remade version of Rondo of Blood, with the original and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as unlockable extras. Also confirmed is Maria as playable in Symphony of the night. (Yay!) The Chronicles ship October 23rd.

Finally, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS2, PS3, 360) is shaping up to be an -awesome- game, with a complete art redesign of the three returning mercenaries and new focus of gameplay where you no longer work for ExOps, but now start your own mercenary company and recruit mercs during the course of the game. Mercs 2 is supposed to ship November 6th.