New Blue Dragon Content

Microsoft has announced new content for Mistwalker's RPG, Blue Dragon.

This new package of content is available for download through Xbox Live for 200 Points. It is called 6 Treasures and features six exciting new items. These items include:

1) “Whimsical Mind” – growth item that enhances a few randomly-picked categories by 0-4 levels
2) “Way of Thieves” – in-battle item that can steal rare items possessed by enemy creatures
3) “Devee Phonograph” – allows you to listen to the “Devee-tribe dance”
4) “Nothing Glasses” – visualizes all “nothing” points by means of a star-looking symbol (oftentimes you’ll find a lot of items that contain “nothing”, followed by an English-speaking narrator saying “nothing”).
5) “Shuffled Helmet” – item that adjusts magical and speed parameters (Magic +40 / Speed -40). Detrimental when used by itself because the speed parameter goes down by 50 points, but when equipped along with “Shuffled Breastplate” and “Shuffled Splint”, this item can quadruplicate the Magic parameters and reverse the Speed parameters. So it becomes the strongest equipment in the game. (Magic +160 / Speed +40)
6) Spring-wind Scarf”” – adjusts characters’ HP and Speed parameters by 20%

A previous package of content was released in late September, titled Hard Mod, features new game modes. As gamers are wrapping up the Blue Dragon storyline, they may be interested in expanding their adventure through these downloads!

Front Mission ships!

Square Enix has announced that their classic Strategy RPG, Front Mission, has shipped to retailers today for the Nintendo DS.

The origin of the popular Front Mission series has finally been localized for North American gamers. This updated version of the original introduces exciting new features, such as dual screen presentation and multiplayer modes, and bring new life to the classic series!

In Front Mission players will utilize the Touch Screen functionality to command a squad of customizable mechs (also known as wanzers) and direct them through turn-based skirmishes across the battlefields of the 21st century.

Front Mission is available in North American retailers now for $34.99.

Spellborn in Europe

The Chronicles of Spellborn’s European publisher, Frogster Germany, has recently announced plans to release the MMORPG on Q1 2008.

This release date will allow Spellborn International to additional QA testing and incorporating more content.

Frogster Studios has also licensed The Chronicles of Spellborn in the Japanese market in one of the largest closings for a single product in Japanese PC game history. Frogster will receive a percentage of future subscription revenues and a non-recoupable advance license fee of more than $1 million USD.

Spellborn International also recently completed a major step in development by performing stress-tests to check server and network stability. During the stress tests the game was able to accommodate more than 500 characters in a single zone.

Monster Hunter 3 for Wi

After a recent Nintendo press conference, Capcom announced that their upcoming Monster Hunter 3 will be a Wii exclusive title.

Oddly, Monster Hunter 3 was initially a PS3 exclusive title but high development costs on the PS3 were a deciding factor to switch platforms. The conference also saw the announcement of several Nintendo first party titles.

Monster Hunter is a major franchise in Japan with both PSP games in the series having sold over a million copies. However, the series has had limited success in North America.

Square Enix Wants the U.S.

Square Enix is apparently looking to increase their performance in the U.S. and Europe by 50% in the next three years, according to an article published in the Financial Times.

The United States is the worlds largest and fastest growing gaming market, making it particularly important to the Japanese publisher. Success overseas will help Square Enix to counterbalance the stagnant demand for games in Japan. Only 10 to 20 per cent of Square Enix's revenues came from overseas markets. However, they're hoping to increase that to as high as 50% over the next three years.

"We need to seek co-operation with a US publisher - we need local content," Mr Sasaki, senior vice-president of Square Enix, said at the Tokyo Game Show. "Our strength is in role-playing games and fantasy titles, so it is a bit difficult to appeal to the US market."

Read the full article here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5fac144a-68a4-11dc-b475-0000779fd2ac.html

Square Enix is pretty big here, but I don't know if it's EVER going to become as big as it is in Japan. Sure, there are a lot of gamers here, but a lot of U.S. gamers prefer shooters, sports games and racing games rather than RPGs... and plenty of American RPG fans prefer American style games like Oblivion as opposed to Japanese ones like Final Fantasy. I know I do...

Still, Square Enix is certainly having less trouble conquering the U.S. market than most North American companies have moving into Japan. The Japanese just don't like our games.

Lost Odyssey North American Delay

Fans of the upcoming RPG Lost Odyssey will have to wait just a bit longer.

The game, which was initially supposed to be released worldwide by the end of 2007, is now slated for an early 2008 release in North America. Japanese gamers will fortunately still be able to pick up Lost Odyssey in December 2007. Lost Odyssey is a Xbox 360 exclusive RPG from Mistwalker, developer of the recent RPG Blue Dragon.

Blue Dragon received rave reviews in Japan but has been highly criticized since its North American release. One can't help but wonder if Mistwalker has decided to delay the North American release of their second game in hopes of avoiding those same problems...

Blue Dragon Released!

The highly anticipated Xbox 360 RPG from Mistwalker, Blue Dragon, is now shipping nationwide.

Blue Dragon comes from some of the most acclaimed developers in the industry, including Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame, and musical talents of the one and only Nobuo Uematsu.

Blue Dragon promises an epic tale with innovative gameplay features, including customizable shadows abilities and charge attacks. It will be the first North American title from Mistwalker and one of the few Japanese RPGs on the Xbox 360.

RPG Titans Discuss the Genre

1Up.com has posted a really fascinating discussion between three of the RPG genres most prominent figures. First off is Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studio, creators of Fable and the upcoming Fable 2. Next up is Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame, who now works at Mistwalker, the developers of Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. Last up is Ray Muzyka from Bioware, the company who has brought us greats like KotOR and is working on Mass Effect.

The article discusses issues such as the changes in the genre over the years, thoughts on MMOs, and Xbox sales in Japan. The original Xbox did very poorly in Japan, but we all know the Japanese love their RPGs, so the games from these three fine fellows could single-handedly save the 360. Either way, I know I can't want to play them!

Read the full article here.