If, like us, you were the kid who was always relegated to triangle duty for your grade school's annual Nativity play, then the Korg DS-10 synthesizer program is probably not for you. And by "probably," we mean "definitely," because seriously, this thing looks complex. In the above video, we're shown some of the many mysterious dials and knobs that will probably help skilled musicians fashion the tunes of tomorrow, and us to create horrible-sounding sequences of flatulent beeps that go nowhere.
Speaking of the former, we've embedded a video after the break of Japanese musician Sanodg mixing a song from scratch using the DS-10 software, four Nintendo DSes, and a mixer. His performance (and our layman's knowledge of music) suggests that this is one serious piece of kit.
The Korg DS-10 synthesizer program isn't coming out in Japan until July, and it's not coming out elsewhere until ... some other time, but it's already started making club appearances, thanks to AQ Interactive. The company posted videos of a DS-10 based performance at a Shibuya club called Linear. while it starts off a bit slow and chaotic, we think it's really cool to see music being built up from nothing, live on stage, using only the DS.
A continuation of this performance follows after the break. Who knew playing non-games on the DS could be such a public experience?
Friday Video: It's a video, posted on Friday. But it's also our chance to celebrate some of the amazing things that people do with or about their games, whether it's an official trailer or some dude's YouTube skit.
Virgin PLAY sent out a press release today confirming that they will publish AQ Interactive/Mistwalker's Away: Shuffle Dungeon in Europe this fall. They say they're releasing it in "the PAL territories," so Australia is a possibility as well.
The press release is unusually interesting, as it provides the first official English-language details of Away's storyline. Away: Shuffle Dungeon is the story of Webb Village, a small town whose residents disappear randomly, a phenomenon known as Blue Dragon Away. After a girl named Anella gets "awayed" in his place, a young man named Sword finds himself the only remaining resident of Webb. Sword must enter the "Shuffle Dungeon" to rescue the villagers.
This comes as little surprise, since AQ Interactive announced that Blue Dragon Plus would release in the U.S. by the end of the fiscal year, but we're still glad to see a firm Japanese release date for Mistwalker/feelplus's strategy-RPG sequel. It's scheduled to be out September 4, for 5,229 yen ($50).
We're slightly less enthused by what AQ Interactive decided to do with the box. It's less "grand adventure" (which is the feeling that most Blue Dragon artwork evokes for us) and more "horrific See 'N Say." The giant, blue, snake-tailed, winged horse says "Neigh! See you in your nightmares!"
As if our recent poll regarding Blue Dragon Plus and Away: Shuffle Dungeon hadn't already put you on the spot enough, now you'll have to choose one for really reals. AQ Interactive's latest financial report confirms that both will hit North America in this fiscal year, and also mentioned a localized version of the Korg DS-10 (which we already knew about).
Incidentally, there's a further four third-party portable games being brought over by Xseed, and Siliconera reckons that those could include Flower, Sun and Rain, Lux Pain, and Dungeon Maker DS. As European versions of the firsttwo have both been rumored, we'd tend to agree!
The official website for Mistwalker's Away: Shuffle Dungeon is up, with something to help pass the time while waiting for the dungeon crawler's eventual release: a Flash minigame based on Concentration/Memory (click on the circle with the word "open" on it). Away: Shuffle Minigame (that's the official title!) comprises three levels of Memory played on a 6 x 3 grid, with the goal of flipping matching pairs of cards to reveal portraits of Away's characters.
For the first two levels, it's straightforward enough: you have 60 (and then 50) seconds to find all nine pairs, just like any other Memory game. In the third level, all the cards are blank but three: one pair to match, and one card that resets the locations of those two cards. Oh, and the rows of cards are constantly moving around. At the end, you're awarded with a desktop wallpaper. Have fun! Or just download the wallpaper here (1024x768, 1280x1024).
To say we're interested in the upcoming DS-10 from Korg would be an incredible understatement. We're dying from a disease that only the DS-10 can cure! So imagine how pleased we were to receive this dose of video goodness above, where some of the features of the DS-10 are shown.
Are you all as psyched for this as we are? Will you be picking it up when it releases?
Blue Dragon Plus's combat interface has been revealed in the latest set of screens. It involves a set of three icons that appear on the right side of the touch screen. The top icon allows you to set one particular character's movement, and the bottom icon moves everybody. The middle icon allows you (we believe) to highlight multiple characters by drawing a circle around them.
Each character has a selection of "killer techniques" accessible via the bottom left of the touch screen. Players cycle through them with the shoulder buttons and then must wait for a countdown before they are activated.
We're encouraged by the presence of a new battle system in the DS game. It shows evidence of thought toward the platform, at least.
AQ Interactive has just registered a U.S. trademark for the name Away: Shuffle Dungeon. This leads us to one of two conclusions: they're thinking of releasing the game over here, or they're just trying to keep some jerk from making a game called Away: Shuffle Dungeon. It's ... probably not that. We doubt any other publisher would be that audacious (nor would they have a reason to be).
This is good news for a couple of reasons: first, and most obviously, we assume that there are people in the U.S. who would like the opportunity to play the dungeon crawler, and this is encouraging for them. Second, the fact that AQ Interactive is doing something like this makes it seem more likely that Mistwalker is going to finish and release the game at some point.
Making music on your DS has been quite fun, whether your choice for creation be Electroplankton or Jam Sessions. Korg is tossing their hat into the ring now with the DS version, the DS-10, of their synthesizer, the MS-10. But this is not news to you.
What's news to you, and the rest of us, is that the DS-10 will receive a worldwide release. No word as of yet on when exactly to expect it in your stomping grounds (that is, unless you're in Japan, in which case it's coming in July), so keep an eye on DS Fanboy for more information as it's made available.
Call your Jam Sessions virtuoso friend (and, we suppose, your Hannah Montana Music Jam drummer). You'll finally be able to start that DS-only Electric Light Orchestra cover band you've been talking about, thanks to AQ Interactive and Korg.
Korg has created a DS version of their MS-10 synthesizer with some features that not even the original has. You can create music via a keyboard interface, a free-form touch-screen panel, or a "matrix" interface (fill in squares to make notes). It's certainly a lot smaller than the real thing, while also providing the authentic "a bunch of knobs and stuff we don't know how to use" experience.
AQ Interactive will release the DS-10 in Japan for 4,800 yen ($47) this July.
After the opening of the official site for Blue Dragon Plus late last week, we can start fretting less about the game's protracted development, and concentrate more on gawking at pretty pictures.
Conveniently enough, Famitsu has just posted a selection of fresh Blue Dragon Plus screens and art, and things are looking as vibrant as ever -- it's encouraging to see Mistwalker and Brownie Brown cramming so many enemies and pyrotechnics into the DS's relatively small screens. Apparently, finding something/someone to fight will not be difficult.
And by "promise" we mean "screenshots." And also the fact that if AQ Interactive is bothering to set up a site at all, it means that they're probably planning to release the game for really reals. The "system" page on the new website confirms that Blue Dragon Plus is a "real-time simulation RPG," although the screens (which, by the way, are the first we've seen that haven't been scanned from a magazine) do a pretty good job doing that by themselves!
If you've played through the original Xbox 360 game, the site will make it immediately obvious to you that this is a direct sequel, taking place after the events of that game.
Publisher AQ Interactive announced that Blue Dragon Plus has been delayed until summer. But rather than being disappointed by this, we're quite delighted, because summer is much sooner than never. Mistwalker announced earlier this week that it had been delayed indefinitely, leading some to believe that might be shelved for good.
Away: Shuffle Dungeon has also been delayed by AQ Interactive, resulting in somewhat of a different reaction. We were surprised to find that Blue Dragon Plus has a release date now after its presumed cancellation, but this delay was a reminder to us that Away had a release date at all.Back in October, Mistwalker said that Away would be out on January 31st, and in the latest scans you can just barely make out a February 28th date. We just didn't realize that it was (supposed to be) out so soon. It's currently planned for a summer release as well.
Remember those vicious rumors regarding Blue Dragon DS being a card-based RPG? Well, looks like they may have been wide of the mark, as a new scan gleaned from the pages of Japanese publication Shonen Jump suggests otherwise. Instead, the magazine describes the game as a "real-time simulation RPG," a label that brings to mind the recently released Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. Whatever the hell Mistwalker's game is -- and the screens do suggest a kind of real-time strategy/RPG hybrid -- there's certainly no mention of cards.
Pleasingly, that March 2008 Japanese release date seems to have held, which surely means we'll have more information on this in the not-too-distant future. Go past the break for the Shonen Jump scan.
Virgin PLAY sent out a press release today confirming that they will publish AQ Interactive/Mistwalker's 
As if our 
AQ Interactive has just registered a U.S. trademark for the name 
After the 
And by "promise" we mean "screenshots." And also the fact that if AQ Interactive is bothering to set up a site at all, it means that they're probably 
Publisher AQ Interactive announced that 
_thumbnail.jpg "Prince of Persia: The Fallen King")
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man Star Force 2")
_thumbnail.jpg "Rune Factory 2")
