Rising Star Games just unfurled an official list of Marvelous games that it plans to localize for Europe, including Luminous Arc 2, Avalon Code, Rune Factory 2, and a fourth game that is yet to be announced for North America: Steal Princess. We expected most (if not all) of these to reach us at some point, mainly because Rising Star Games is totally awesome and we love them.
Previous evidence has suggested that Steal Princess and Luminous Arc 2 won't be appearing before the end of March 2009, but we can't be mad at Marvelous. The company has had an action-packed Tokyo Game Show, and this is the cherry on top of a whole pile of other excellent announcements for Nintendo fans. Make the jump for screens, screens, and more screens!
Marvelous announced a 2009 release for the DS version of Grasshopper Manufacture's Flower, Sun, and Rain, probably to avoid having the game get lost in the holiday rush. But it's set to come out this year in Europe, which means that importers will have the opportunity to play the game in English several months before it's available in the US.
If a game is available in English before its US release, do you import? Did you pick up the Japanese DS versions of the Phoenix Wright games? If not, is it because of the price difference? Or is supporting efforts to put games like these in US stores worth a few months?
No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle might be the biggest news of TGS involving Suda 51 and the letters "D" and "S," but it's not the only such news. Marvelous and XSEED have confirmed a US release for the DS remake of Suda 51's PS2 adventure game Flower, Sun, and Rain, which stars Sumio Mondo, a man forced to relive the same day, in which a sunny resort is blown up by terrorists.
Of course, the game is coming out in Europe this November, so waiting until the US release may only be a cost-cutting measure on the part of impatient Suda fans. But we're happy to be able to go into a store -- eventually -- and buy it!
Well, nut. Acorn, really. Plush acorn ... in the grip of a plush squirrel. Never mind. Chances are, if you're a fan of, uh, fantasy-themed farming simulations, you've already got a copy of Rune Factory 2 preordered -- if only because there are no games in that narrow subgenre that aren't called Rune Factory.
But hey, even if you don't care about growing whatever or tending whatever or fighting whatever, Natsume will give you this plush squirrel if you preorder their game from Amazon. They keep trying to use cute plushes to sell us games ... and it continues to have a shockingly powerful effect on our resolve. Marvelous is at least as talented at designing adorable, plush-ready mascot characters as they are at designing repetitive, addictive games.
We thought we'd seen the most risqué content To Love-Ru had to offer with its bottom-slapping minigame -- we were wrong. Kotaku discovered that one of the more innuendo-laden minigames involves squirting, um, milk at a strawberry held by Lala, pink-haired alien girl and love interest of protagonist Rito.
Those with an interest in either of the activities mentioned in our title will be able to import this from August 28th. Meanwhile, if you missed it first time, the full (N entirely SFW) trailer is past the break.
The Korg DS-10 is an incredibly interesting thing. It's not really a game, and it's not really a full-fledged synthesizer. Instead, it's like a perfect middle ground of both. And, it's also something that looked incredibly daunting when first loaded up.
Holy crap is this the most awesome DS game! Seriously, when JC was talking up the title, I trusted the man's judgment, but he couldn't possibly prepare me for how utterly great the DS game is. And when I met up with the folks at Marvelous here at E3 to try out their titles, I had no idea that they were going to have to physically pull me away from Retro Game Challenge.
Lucky for me, I have a good grip. So I get plenty of play time with what is sure to be one of my favorite DS games this year.
Put this in your logbook: Avalon Code looks resplendent. Matrix Software has already demonstrated its mastery of the DS hardware through its remakes of Final Fantasy III and the soon-to-be-released Final Fantasy IV; and if the latest dozen screenshots are anything to go by, Avalon Code and its mop-topped hero can stand proud next to either of those. Thank goodness it's heading this way!
Posted Jun 27th 2008 9:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
According to Marvelous director Yasuhiro Wada, the deal with XSeed to publish the company's titles in the U.S. is the result of success in Europe. Unlike most companies, Marvelous focused on Europe first (through Rising Star Games) before expanding into the U.S.
The agreement with XSeed is more than a simple deal to publish Marvelous games. In fact, Marvelous plans to do their own publishing, with XSeed distributing. They intend to localize other companies' games, as well, and the current plan is to focus primarily on the development and publishing of Wii and DS games. We suspect that their announced European releases -- Lux-Pain and Flower, Sun, and Rain -- are high on the list of potential American releases under the new announcement, along with Avalon Code.
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 be too 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.
File this one as another crazy Japanese game. We knew about To-Love-Ru awhile back, but we never knew it'd be like this. As you can see in the video above, the main goal of the game seems to be slapping young ladies on their bottoms. Well, maybe not slapping them so much as clearing evil little things away from their backside.
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.
Marvelous announced a 
No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle might be the biggest news of TGS involving Suda 51 and the letters "D" and "S," but it's not the only such news. Marvelous and XSEED have confirmed a US release for the DS remake of Suda 51's PS2 adventure game 
Well, nut. Acorn, really. Plush acorn ... in the grip of a plush squirrel. Never mind. Chances are, if you're a fan of, uh, fantasy-themed farming simulations, you've already got a copy of 
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According to Marvelous director Yasuhiro Wada, the deal with XSeed to publish the company's titles in the U.S. is the result of success in Europe. Unlike most companies, Marvelous focused on Europe first (through Rising Star Games) before expanding into the U.S.
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 
