Wii U

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Wii U | 11 Comments

The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:

PS4 – 15,419
Vita – 14,568
New 3DS LL – 14,047
Wii U – 6,324
New 3DS – 5,324
PS3 – 4,175
3DS LL – 1,309
3DS – 1,144
Vita TV – 491
Xbox One – 170

For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:

PS4 – 17,885
Vita – 17,517
New 3DS LL – 16,955
Wii U – 6,654
New 3DS – 6,222
PS3 – 4,221
3DS LL – 1,986
3DS – 1,678
Vita TV – 511
Xbox One – 238

And here are the software charts:

1. [3DS] Girls Mode 3 – 55,179 / NEW
2. [PS4] Dying Light – 25,530 / NEW
3. [3DS] Future Card – 16,630 / NEW
4. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition – 12,175 / 97,117
5. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 – 6,926 / 137,211
6. [PSV] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Tengoku Hen – 6,542 / 143,154
7. [WIU] Mario Party 10 – 5,991 / 118,433
8. [PS3] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Tengoku Hen – 5,798 / 129,581
9. [PS4] Bloodborne – 5,674 / 190,631
10. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 2: Shinuchi – 5,659 / 2,586,851
11. [PSV] Sword Art Online: Lost Song – 5,532 / 177,145
12. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire – 5,483 / 2,598,884
13. [3DS] Xenoblade Chronicles – 5,330 / 71,167
14. [3DS] Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Kurosensei – 5,196 / 49,827
15. [PS4] Dark Souls II Scholar of the First Sin – 5,134 / 25,628
16. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2015 – 4,960 / 88,090
17. [PS4] Saints Row IV: Re-Elected – 4,776 / NEW
18. [PSV] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 – 4,543 / 80,779
19. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 – 4,542 / 961,504
20. [3DS] Theatrhythm Dragon Quest – 4,079 / 104,044

More: charts, Japan, Media Create, sales, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 9 Comments

Last night’s Xenoblade Chronicles X trailer was heavy on story, so it’d probably help to know what’s going on. Thankfully, one fan has re-uploaded the video online with English subtitles. Check it out below.

More: Monolith Soft, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 8 Comments

toi8 is busy helping out with Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem’s character designs. On his official blog, toi8 spoke about what the project means to him, and touched on how it’s a new challenge for him.

Hello. I’m toi8, and I’ll be in charge of the main character designs for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. As for when we began talking about this title, it was around the time I finished working on a piece of light novel cover art. It was around the time that I was handling one-shot work, and asked myself “what should I do next?”

As part of the generation that grew up on Nintendo consoles such as the Famicom and Super Famicom, the name “Nintendo” has a very special meaning to me. I remember being very excited upon hearing about the [Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem] collaboration.

Years later, I’ve finally been able to see it take form right before my eyes, and I find myself filled with deep emotion.

Now, let’s quickly talk a little bit about the character designs. The stage of the game is set in Shibuya, and the background shows a gorgeous world, so the character design’s direction will go with a highly saturated, gorgeous look.

Everything I’ve drawn up until now has been low saturation, so this will be a challenge of colors!

Read More

More: Atlus, Illusory Revelations#FE, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem

Posted on 9 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in Images, Wii U | 0 comments

Today’s Splatoon images bring us a Birdseye view of two very different battlegrounds.

Source

More: Splatoon

Posted on 9 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments

Mario Kart’s new 200cc update along with its second batch of DLC is less than 48 hours away, and with that comes some maintenance scheduled to make sure everything is working fine on release day!

This often happens prior to new updates, so you can expect the update to go live soon after the maintenance is over.

Maintenance times are as follows:
NA (PST): April 23rd, 2015 — 12:50AM-2AM
NA (EST): April 23rd, 2015 — 3:50AM-5AM
UK (BST): April 23rd, 2015 — 8:50AM-10AM
EU (CEST): April 23rd, 2015 — 9:50AM-11AM
JP (JST): April 23rd, 2015 — 4:50PM-6PM

Source 1, Source 2

More: maintenance, Mario Kart 8

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 40 Comments

Nintendo’s latest trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X focuses on story as opposed to gameplay. You can watch it below.

More: Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 7 Comments

The website for Edward Moore, a UX/UI design consultant on Sonic Boom, reveals that the Wii U and 3DS games were known as “Sonic Synergy” at one point.

Moore’s site also houses images of UI diagrams and early concept artwork. Another image – shown below – also seems to depict a slightly different-looking Sonic.

As The Sonic Stadium points out, “Sonic’s arms are back to being tan in colour, spikes are also different, much more like the Sega Sonic version. Amy also has some differences too.”

Source

More: Big Red Button Entertainment, Sanzaru Games, SEGA, Sonic Boom

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments

Lots of details about Xenoblade Chronicles X are starting to be translated from Dengeki Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles X guide supplement. You can find a massive roundup of information below (thanks to Gessenkou).

– No damage when falling from heights for the most aprt
– No penalties upon dying in this game
– In the fields, you can find native creature nests as well as wreckage from the Moby Dick
– You need “Field Skills” to interact with these, and obtain items
– Get rewards for registering items in the Collepedia
– The Collepedia is split into lists for each continent
– Some field items can only be found at certain times of the day and in certain weather conditions
– 4 kinds of quests: Story Quests, Kizuna Quests, Normal Quests, and Simple Quests
– Story quests require certain conditions to be met before they can be accepted
– Kizuna quests affect the kizuna (affinity), and there are many involving your fellow main characters
– Story and Kizuna quests cannot be accepted at the same time, and cannot be cancelled
– Normal Quests are taken from NPCs in the city or field, with ? marks above their heads
– Simple Quests are taken from the Quest Board in the BLADE Area, up to 20 at a time
– The board changes each time you check it; the stars indicate the difficulty, but they don’t have recommended levels
– You can Scout other player’s avatars from the BLADE Scout Console
– It costs a certain amount of in-game currency, with Scouts higher than your own level costing more
– Once you’ve raised your class to rank 10, you can change to a higher level class; your available weapons could change completely depending on the route you choose
– If you reach rank 10 with a top tier class, you’ll be able to use that class’s weapons while playing as other classes
– Dolls have excellent jumping power, so they can take shortcuts around areas you’d have to take a detour past on foot
– You can’t ride in Dolls with frame levels higher than your inner level
– “Catch” can immobilize enemies for up to 10 seconds
– There are even alien bases in the Twilluminous Forest; they’ve got a gigantic machine in an inlet too
– There are native creatures that mimic the foliage; similar creatures exist in the Valley of Oblivion too
– If you fall into the misty ravine in the Valley of Oblivion, you will die
– Lightning strikes from the ground to the sky in the Valley of Oblivion
– If you’re outdoors while they’re happening, you’ll take continuous damage
– You can head indoors or hide in caves to avoid lightning
– Auroras dance in the skies of the Land of White Ash
– There are alien bases in the caves in the Land of Black Steel, with a pipe extending far underground
– You can select one of the quests you currently have, and have its details appear on the screen
– The minimap will display a marker indicating your goal
– Inner experience is awarded by completing battles, clearing quests, finding landmarks, and Frontier Net spots, and all sorts of other things
– Exp from clearing quests is relatively low
The exp you get from battle depends on how powerful the enemy is
– Stronger enemies give bonuses, weaker ones give reduced amounts
– There are seven types of locations to discover
– Vast regions called “Zones”
– Notable places called “Landmarks”
– “Areas” spread throughout the zones
– Hidden “Unexplored Regions” and “Superb Views”
– BLADE Troop garrisons called “Base Camps”
– “Frontier Net Spots” where you set Data Probes
– Each location type gives different rewards for discovering them
– Zones give no reward
– Landmarks give Inner Exp and Battle Points(BP)
– Areas give Inner Exp
– Unexplored Regions/Superb Views give large amounts of Inner Exp
– Base Camps give BP
– FN Spots give Inner Exp and BP
– BP are used to level up Arts and Skills; need 100 BP to raise a single Art to its max level
– If the nearest data probe to an Unexplored Region or Superb View is a “Research Probe,” you’ll gain rewards corresponding to their tourism value; discovering them raises the tourism value for that segment.
– Class exp can only be obtained in battle, and also changes depending on the strength of the enemy
– You need to amass “Union Points” to progress your “BLADE Level”
– Each time you raise your BLADE Level, you can choose one of your three Field Skills to level up as well
– Union Points are obtained by doing things like “defeating native creatures,” “defeating Overed,” “obtaining collection items,” “opening treasure boxes,” or “setting data probes”
– Ex: each time you pick up an item in the field, it does up
– There are many ways to obtain points
– The three types of Field Skills are “Mechanical,” “Biological,” and “Search”
– Mechanical: Necessary for setting data probes, and opening treasure boxes that require Mechanical; since it’s required to set Data Probes, you should raise it early on
– Biological: Necessary for examining Biological treasure boxes; they’re things like dung and 3meter anthills, they don’t look like actual boxes
– Search: Dolls abandoned by aliens become treasure boxes, and it’s used to open those; they can often be found in remote regions, like at the tops of cliffs
– The amount of Union points you receive change based on the Union you’re a part of
– If you don’t progress the story, you won’t be able to access certain areas or use certain systems
– Clearing early ones especially give you access to numerous new things, so you should hurry and clear them
– The requirements for accepting story quests include “clearing a particular quest,” “meeting inner level requirements,” “using specific party members,” in addition to “meeting an exploration rate on a specific continent”
– Talk to NPCs with a ? above their heads to accept Normal Quests
– You’ll be able to see these ? on your minimap if you’re close enough, but they’re very difficult to find in the field; some are difficult to reach, or hard to see; some are also hidden within objects, like inside of containers or beneath vehicles
– There is an immense difference in the number of quests compared to the first Xenoblade
– There are several hundred Simple Quests alone
– The three Simple Quest categories are “Subjugation,” “Collection,” and “Talk”
– Subjugation: kill the designated creatures or Overed; you won’t know the target’s level until you find them.
– Collection: Gather the designated item; if you already have them, the quest will complete as soon as you accept it and leave the board; the details screen lets you know if you’ve already got some of them.
– Talk: Quests where you talk to the client; different quests can often spring forth from these, even Kizuna Quests. Recommended for lovers of sub-stories
– Some Story Quests require you to clear Kizuna Quests before you can accept them
– There are even some involving the residents of the city, not just the main character
– When you accept a Kizuna Quest, you won’t be able to cancel it; you won’t be able to remove the required party members from your party until it’s completed
– There are Kizuna talks that happen when you raise your affinity/bond/kizuna with specific characters
– You can check the unique Arts your allies have in the kizunagram
– There are Story Quests that require certain levels of affinity/bond/kizuna
– Jumping while using the Dash feature greatly increases your distance and height; use this to jump on top of and walk on rocks, and avoid enemies
– Can’t stop Dashing immediately, since you slip a bit when you stop, so you might fall off a cliff, or get spotted by an enemy
– Some enemy reaction types (sight, proximity) change with the time of day
– You can change the time at Rest Points; in the field, you use BLADE tents; in NLA you use red benches
– If you have high Bolt resistance, you can negate the damage from Lightning weather
– The weather will change if you use Skip Travel
– Tension Arts use up 1000 TP
– Soul Voices you emit are “Soul Challenges”, and activate when you press B at the right time when the circle appears on the screen
– When you successfully complete a Challenge, the “Soul Stage” goes up by one level
– At higher Soul Stage levels, you get bonus TP for hitting Perfects on the Challenges, and the Soul Voice activation rate is increased
– You won’t get TP for getting non-Perfects, and the Stage will not decrease if you fail the Challenge; it resets when you get KO’d
– When you complete a soul voice, your affinity/bond/kizuna goes up
– Weapons and Skills can change how easily you amass TP
– There are even Skills that grant you TP when damaged by weather
– It takes 3000 TP to revive an Ally
– You won’t be able to use the OC Gear without progressing the story
– Non MCs have two unique Arts
– Ex: Elma’s “Ghost Stage” grants a buff to allies that lets them avoid a fixed number of enemy attacks
– The max level for Arts is 5
– Raising the level of Arts improves there Recast Time, Melee/Ranged Multiplier, Buff/Debuff/etc Effects, Buff/Debuff/etc Duration, and Special Conditions
– When attacking enemies from their blind spots(back, higher/lower elevations), your accuracy and critical rate rises; it’s easy to get Soul Challenges when you do critical hits.
– You can Dash and Jump even in battle
– Starting a battle with an Art has a high chance of producing a Soul Challenge
– You can choose which effects your allies will get for their arts that complete the Challenge from ‘dmg+100%/200% from back’, ‘each hit+100TP’, or ‘Recast Time reduced 50%’
– When you Topple enemies, they’re unable to do anything at all, your attacks are guaranteed to hit, and damage done to them is multiplied by 1.5x
– When you destroy parts, the enemy takes more damage
– Destroying different parts add to the bonus damage[multiplier]
– You can have your allies concentrate on the same part using the Battle Menu as well
– Using Arts while in OC Gear raises the Gear Counter
– Bonuses are easier to get if you use Arts with many hits
– Gear Counter effects include: Gear time extension, boosted damage, reduce all enemy debuff resistances, regain TP with attacks, shorten Recast time

Still want to learn more about Xenoblade Chronicles X? Then head past the break for a bunch of story information!

Read More

More: details roundup, Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments

Thanks to IGN, we have yet another video comparing the upcoming Mario Kart 8 DLC courses Baby Park, Ribbon Road, and Neo Bowser City to tracks from their original games. Catch it below.

Source

More: comparison, Mario Kart 8

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments

GamesRadar was recently given an opportunity to speak with Hisashi Nogami, producer of Splatoon. During the chat, Nogami spoke about how the team wanted “to not get too caught up in Nintendo’s already existing franchises”.

He said:

“We went through a period of creating lots of prototypes. We didn’t want a franchise-based game, so we made a bunch of prototypes and one of those prototypes happened to be the game that became Splatoon. The idea was ‘something fun, something new, something different,’ not ‘a shooter.'”

Nogami also spoke about how playing other games has some impact when creating new titles:

“The development team is made up of people who play games a lot, and among them are people who play shooting games a lot, including Mr. [Yusuke] Amano, one of the game’s directors, who I’ve heard has spent his college years playing Perfect Dark. As game designers who play games, you can’t really help observing things you like and don’t like, and having those have some degree of influence on your thinking. The best way to express this is that it forms a base of thought that you bring into game development, but it doesn’t directly influence the game development.”

More: Hisashi Nogami, interview, Splatoon