Dementium: The Ward hit Japan this year (along with a colorful launch event for the game), yet is now enduring its first public outcry in the country. According to Yahoo! News (and Google's translation tools), the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals has requested that the title be removed from shops instantly, arguing that the game could instigate "discrimination and prejudice" against sufferers of psychiatric disorders.
Interchannel distributes the game in Japan, and has yet to comment, but Mike Wilson of [U.S. publisher] Gamecock did proffer a view to MTV Multiplayer, stating that the criticism is down to a "lack of understanding or appreciation (and therefore fear of) games outside our little sub-culture." He also confessed to being "thrilled" by the extra attention the game has enjoyed as a result; as the game failed to penetrate the Japanese top 30, we know what he means.
We remarked yesterday how Theresia isn't the first survivalhorror title on the DS, but it's definitely shaping up to be the most eye-catching. We find the occasional use of color (usually red, in Theresia's case) nicely accentuates the largely black-and-white surreal visuals, making for a striking combination. You can see more in our new gallery for the game.
If you haven't already heard, this Arc System Works/Workjam collaboration is getting localized for North America this October by Aksys. Hopefully we'll be seeing some English screens soon, because we're looking forward to sinking our teeth into what sounds like a fairly highbrow plot!
Aksys has announced that it will be localizing Theresia, a title jointly developed by Workjam and Arc System Works, for a U.S. release in October. Not to blow our own trumpet or anything, but we prophetic DS Fanboy blogger JC Fletcher totally called this move almost five months ago.
The game will join a small but growing group of DS survival horror titles played from the first-person perspective, and incorporates many staple features of the genre: corridor exploration, the collecting of clues, and deadly traps.
It also appears to have a fairly dark storyline, including ... unusual family relationships. Aksys Associate Marketing Manager Harry Chang notes that the female protagonist "loves her mom... a lot". Could this be a reference to something incestuous? We've consulted resident psychic JC for another prediction, and used our "incest" tag, just in case.
Famitsu has a pretty interesting video for those of you who've been watching Twilight Syndrome: The Forbidden Urban Legend. They sat down with three of the young ladies featured in the horror title for a behind-the-scenes talk about things that we can only imagine. We don't speak Japanese, sadly.
But there's footage from the game, along with a plethora of screens! As much as we're certain we'll never get this game in North America, we still like to pretend it can happen.
Dementium: The Wardlaunches in Japan today, and Japanese publisher Interchannel-Holon could not have found a more perfect venue to promote Renegade Kid's horror title*. "Alcatraz E.R." is a novelty restaurant in Tokyo's Shibuya ward with a mental asylum theme where patrons must announce their blood type before entering. They are then handcuffed by girls dressed as nurses who serve up food in surgical trays and drinks in hospital drips.
In other words, it's a totally amazing and ideal place for a Dementium promotion. Hit the break for more gory pics of the press-only event (our invites must have got lost in the mail).
* Admittedly, they could have used an actual abandoned psychiatric asylum, but that probably comes with its own issues.
Now, the game's Japanese site has launched and it's an incredibly effective platform for advertising the title. Just checking out the site makes you think J-horror, in the likes of Silent Hill and Fatal Frame. It's a great way to market the title, we believe, so be sure to hit up the site for the goods.
Fans of Dementium (see: uh, DS Fanboy), you should pay attention. The game is headed to Japan in a few months, as it will see a release to the region on June 26th. It will retail for a price of 5,040 Yen. Other than that, Japanese gamers should pretty much know what they're in for.
The game was, in our eyes, an under-appreciated gem and a very competent FPS on a system lacking them. We can't wait to see what Renegade Kid has in store for us with their next game.
Despite Nintendo's recent press release stating otherwise, Atari has confirmed that its survival horror series Alone in the Dark will not be coming to the DS.
Eden Studios reported last April that the game would be coming to all platforms, but we started getting suspicious when no mentions of the DS version were showing up in Alone in the Dark press releases. There was always the hope that information would suddenly arise, as was the case with Assassin's Creed, but it wasn't meant to be.
Are any of you disappointed, or do you prefer to keep your survival horror games to your home console?
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.
Nintendo's indifference towards PAL regions is infamous, but there's arguably less room for complaining when it comes to the DS. See, the DS is (and we do not use this phrase lightly) an importer's dream. It doesn't faff around with region-specific software, there's a huge library of diverse and interesting NTSC-only titles, and the games themselves are cheap. As in, cheaper than they'll be when they arrive in the UK/Europe/Australia six months from now. Frankly, we can't think of a good reason for you not to import.
Which brings us to our latest anti-guide, featuring the five DS-related gifts that PAL regions won't be seeing until 2008 at the earliest -- if ever. All deserve to be imported without hesitation, so read on fellow PAL folk, and prep that credit card!
If there's one thing Dementium: The Ward delivers on, it's atmosphere. From the audio -- which is truly something special in the DS library -- to the overall mystery of the story of Redmoor Hospital, Dementium provides exactly what it promises: a survival horror/FPS fusion that you can take with you.
What it's not is perfect. Of course, no game is, but Dementium is peppered with a few looming frustrations that bring down the game experience. It is developer Renegade Kid's first effort, and at times it shows, and it's a somewhat clichéd game from a genre built on the power of cliché. The good news is that none of those frustrations are terribly huge. The bad news, however, is that some of those flaws may be just the sort that keep certain types of gamers away.
There is really only one game that came up on our radar of releases this week and it's none other than Dementium: The Ward. We like the survival-horror genre as it is, not to mention that this looks like the first engaging FPS game on the DS (not to say that Metroid Prime Hunters wasn't engaging, but the single-player was a bit lacking). We haven't a had a chance to pick the game up yet, but you can bet that we will be doing so immediately.
What about you all? Are you planning on picking up the game or are you playing something else?
After Fountainhead's Anna Kang spoke about the "younger audience" the DS commands this week, it's refreshing to see someone taking the opposite position. Jools Watsham, Creative Director at Renegade Kid, the team behind Dementium, has a lot to say about M-rated games on the DS, a system that commands an audience of, well, pretty much everyone. While some companies may be worried about sales numbers before plotting out a game, the good folks at Renegade Kid were more interested in finding ways around those barriers, and Watsham was happy to tell us all about it.
"When I think about it now, there I was trying to convince publishers to pick up our game while putting up every red flag there is. They must have all thought we were crazy! Our hope was that publishers would think our game was good. And thankfully they did. Gamecock didn't want changes or anything watered down. They just told us to go for it," Watsham said, and we're glad to hear about Gamecock's faith in the new developer. With no other titles behind them and without an established franchise to lean on, as with some of the system's other mature fare, Watsham knew they were going to face challenges with Dementium: The Ward.
In speaking with Obscure II's producer Jesse America, Cubed3 brought up the idea of bringing the game to the DS. Why not, right? Everyone else is doing it and the DS is the mackdaddy of cash cows, so we can definitely understand why they would want to bring the game to that platform.
And, they just might. Jesse stating "we are seriously considering this, and I have written down some ideas and designs, but it would be an entirely new game." She further praises the handheld by stating "I think that the DS is an extremely interesting piece of hardware, and I wouldn't mind seeing what we could come up with. I have been very much inspired by Hotel Dusk I must say. So who knows?"
We're inspired by Hotel Dusk also! We must be long-lost siblings!
Famitsu has a pretty interesting video for those of you who've been watching 
Renegade Kid's 
Fans of Dementium (see: uh, 
Despite 
