In the best DS news we'll hear all day (depending on which DS Fanboy staff member you ask), Natsume announced that they're bringing Rune Factory 2 to North America this fall. While we predicted localization would happen eventually, it was always a matter of when, so we're glad to see it being taken care of. Considering that the first game in the series took a year to find its way over here, a nine-month delay (Japan got the game last January) doesn't seem too bad at all.
While we initially thought this sequel would betoo similar to the original Rune Factory, the premise adds some freshness into the RPG-Harvest Moon formula. In Rune Factory 2, you not only play as the main character, Kyle, but later you take over as his child. The game therefore spans two generations, providing us with double the fun.
If you share our excitement, make sure to check out the first English screens in our gallery below.
Marvelous has some intriguing DS wares on the horizon, yet it looks like that's where most of it will stay -- on a horizon far, far away from the majority of us. Sob.
Part of a recent financial report from the publisher contained forecasts for forthcoming releases, as spotted by a keen-eyed Siliconera commenter and posted on NeoGAF. The estimations for Avalon Code's were notable, as they included figures for the U.S. and Europe, which in turn tells us we'll be getting the diary-keepin' ARPG here in the west at some point before March 2009.
Alas, we'd only just finished chest-bumping one another and shouting stuff like "HELL YEAH" when our excitement was tempered by the realization that Luminous Arc 2 and Steal Princessdidn't have figures for the U.S. or Europe. This (probably) means that those games won't be localized this financial year (despite our hopes for the former). That's not to say they'll never make the trip across, of course, but for now it's one in, and two out.
Since we've heard about Steal Princess, we've been intrigued. The title not only has a wonderful artistic style, but now we get wind of the ability to transmit levels through Wi-Fi Connect and we're even more excited.
Players will be able to share their own custom maps, adding depth and replay value to a game that's already chock full of both these things. Too bad the game's staying in Japan.
The official site for visual masterpiece Steal Princess has updated, unleashing on us all a new video to watch. You like to watch things, right? We're not talking about boiling tea kettles here, we mean interesting things. Like video game footage.
And that's exactly what we're talking about here! Lucky, right? Indeed. Once you click on over to the official site (sorry, we can't embed it), you'll see the video in the bottom right-hand corner (the box that has the "PV" on it). Just give it a click and it'll pop up in a new window.
If there's one thing we've said about Steal Princess, it's that the art is fantastic. Seriously, are your jaws on the floor every time you look at something from the game? Our jaws have crashed to the floor a record number of times.
The latest on the game, courtesy of Famitsu's site, presents us with a glimpse into some of the items players would be using. Also, by way of these screens, we get to check out some of the game's environments. Which, by the way, look pretty good. Overall, we're liking everything we're seeing on the game.
Matrix Software's Avalon Code affords players a decent amount of customization in terms of weapons: as revealed in this latest update, you'll be able to equip a weapon in each hand, from a selection including swords, axes, crossbows and other implements. In addition, you can use items to add elemental attributes to those weapons, increasing their effectiveness against certain types of monsters.
We're sure you'll be able to identify monsters' elemental weaknesses on sight, both from having played an RPG before or from possessing a modicum of common sense (if there are ice monsters, for example, they would obviously be weak against Cap'n Crunch fire), but just in case they aren't obvious, that information will be among the data gathered when you attack the enemy with your book.
We haven't heard much about Climax's Steal Princess other than, well, that Climax is working on it and that it's a dungeon/puzzle game of some kind based on finding a key to exit each room of a dungeon (sort of a roguelike-lite?)
With Climax and publisher Marvelous preparing Steal Princess for a July 31 release, we've been given more reason to pay close attention. First, they've released four pieces of artwork that we wish were wallpaper-sized, which can be found at Inside-Games. Of course, the game doesn't use the same high-contrast anime look as these images, but they're still effective advertising (in that they are really cool). Second, if you want to know more about the actual game, Marvelous has released a commercial, featuring several simultaneous tiny gameplay clips.
We may have reason to be interested in Steal Princess. AQ Interactive's announcement of their U.S. publishing plans includes a lot of Marvelous games whose identity has yet to be revealed. It seems likely that they'd pull from their DS lineup.
Paging through the magazine, however, we spotted at least two advertisements that we wanted to share with you. As we were tearing them out to throw into our scanner, we thought, "Why not post all of the other DS ads (and the cover)?" Join us past the break for the scanned pages!
Chalk this one up in the "better late than never" category, Europe. Rising Star, niche game publisher extraordinaire, will be bringing Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon to the continent in September, only a year after the game came out in North America and two years after it first released in Japan. In case you're confused, yes, we mean the first Rune Factory, not the hopefully-soon-to-be-localized sequel.
Still, for what it's worth, this blogger thoroughly enjoyed the game. Are any of you European Harvest Moon fans excited about this news, or has that ship sailed long ago?
Remember Samurai Deeper Kyo, that anime-based game released with the Samurai Deeper Kyo DVD set earlier this year? It's a rare cart due to its limited availability with the expensive "Complete Series" collection, and it has the added allure of also providing a solid action experience, despite having been originally released in Japan back in 2002.
Well, those of you who saw the DVD set's exorbitant mark up and resigned yourself to never owning this gem might want to reconsider with Best Buy's sale price: $29.99. While that might seem like a lot to pay for a GBA game these days, that's less than half of its usual list price of $79.99! Plus, you'll also get a heap of episodes from an anime which may or may not be worth watching!
The Luminous Arc 2 love just keeps on coming. These newest screens show some Flash Drives, some basic attacks, and some character art. The Flash Drives are still a little underwhelming in the details department, but for the most part, the game looks stunning. We also like that the character pictured to the right uses a giant rolling pin as her weapon.
Localization for the game is still not planned, but after news of Etrian Odyssey IIcoming to North America, we're confident that Atlus will come through on Luminous Arc's sequel soon -- even if it's not an in-house game.
There might not be any big butts in these latest Luminous Arc 2: Will screens (posted in the gallery below), but they're still worth looking at. In case you didn't notice from previous screens, the art style is similar to the first game, but with a much more attractive interface and menu system this time. Hopefully that means the developers have fixed some of the more frustrating aspects of the first game, but then again, if this doesn't end up localized, we suppose we have nothing to worry about. After spending some time with the original Luminous Arc, though, we're hoping that we do see this game on our shores eventually.
But, are there already toomany SRPGs bound for the DS for you to hope for localization on this one? Or, would you like to see Luminous Arc 2 reach English-speaking and other markets at some point?
The official website was also updated with some wallpapers and videos, so fans of the series should head on over there and check it out. As for those of you who can read Japanese, you might be interested to know that this game is set to release on May 15th.
Just when we thought we had played the last great GBA game, Siliconera pointed us towards Samurai Deeper Kyo, a slick action title recently brought to the US by Destineer. Marvelous Interactive published it in Japan back in 2002, but that doesn't take away from how fun it looks! The game only comes packed as a bonus with the Samurai Deeper Kyoanime series DVD set, so you'll find it difficult to acquire a copy.
Anyway, the idea of having another GBA release to look forward to finding and playing reminded us how long it's been since we tapped that bottom box on the DS's initial menu screen. Months! How long has it been for you? And what was the last GBA game you loaded up?
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.
As the official hub for the Flower, Sun, and Rain DS remake, the game's Japanese site embraces Goichi Suda's (and Grasshopper Manufacture's) hip presentation, its background shifting through a collection of blown-up and blurred screenshots. Even if you don't understand the Japanese characters strewn around its pages, it's evident that something very cool is taking place. The site added a television commercial to its list of updates late last week -- jump past the post break for the video and more.
Yet another scan has popped up for Rune Factory 2, as the game is coming out next week in Japan. There's still no announced plans to bring the title elsewhere, but even if there were, we probably won't see this game in English for another year.
If you're oh-so-patiently (grumble) waiting for the game like we are, check after the break for one more teasing scan.
In the best DS news we'll hear all day (depending on which DS Fanboy staff member you ask), Natsume announced that they're bringing Rune Factory 2 to North America this fall. While we predicted localization would happen eventually, it was always a matter of when, so we're glad to see it being taken care of. Considering that the first game in the series took a year to find its way over here, a nine-month delay (Japan got the game last January) doesn't seem too bad at all._thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
Chalk this one up in the "better late than never" category, Europe. 
There might not be any 
_thumbnail.jpg "Prince of Persia: The Fallen King")
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man Star Force 2")
