You know what’s great? When developers actually listen to fan feedback when making their games.
Over the past few months, Square Enix has released a number of demos for Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, giving players an opportunity to experience some if its mechanics. Fans voiced some changes that they would hope to see in the final version, and the game’s staff followed through.
Players will find that characters now run 20% faster. Even better, the enemy encounter rate hasn’t been changed. Fans had previously felt that Tiz walked too slow.
Pushing the slide pad affects the running speed. Push just a bit, and the character will move slowly. The character will run at full speed if it’s pushed all the way up.
These aren’t the only changes made in Bravely Default. Character standing positions when you talk to them have been modified and the team has corrected a sound timing issue encountered at the inn.
You can view a comparison video showing the changes here.
There is another Bravely Default demo planned for Japan. The next trial will offer a taste of the title’s battle system.
Thanks to Smeagle for the tip.
The Wii Virtual Console game removals are starting to build up in Japan. Today, the MSX releases Aleste and Eggy were pulled from the Wii Shop Channel. Reasons for their removal were not provided.
The staff behind Assassin’s Creed III discusses what it’s like to prepare their game for E3 and more in the video above. It’ll be one of the many games on-hand at Ubisoft’s press conference and booth.
Killer Freaks from Outer Space may have been in the works since 2009.
A LinkedIn profile from Yoan Fanise lists the development period. In October 2009, Fanise contributed to Killer Freaks’ “Pre production audio direction, Sound effects creation, Music and voice direction.”
We do know that Killer Freaks wasn’t always a Wii U title. It was originally pitched as a completely different project for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It would have featured those crazy Rabbids from Ubisoft’s now well-known IP.
Shigeru Miyamoto continues to receives praise for his work in the video game world. After two days of deliberation, a decision was reached to honor Miyamoto with Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award of Communication and Humanities.
Magnum photo agency and philosopher Edgar Morin were the other two finalists.
Speaking about the award, Miyamoto said:
“I feel very proud to know that I’ve been chosen to receive the Prince of Asturias Award of Communication and Humanities.
“This distinguished award represents not only my work, but the entire work of my friends and partners which whom I’ ve worked in my career.
“In the future, I’ll keep continue working hard to make possible that the videogames keep offering happiness and joy to all the people from all generations and to the whole word.”
Time Travelers is rated CERO C in Japan (ages 15 and up), so it gets the lovely black boxart.
Update: Annnd the big answer to all of this is that it’s not happening, which is probably what made this slightly confusing in the first place. Ubisoft Montpellier is making a Wii U game (Rayman Legends, surely), but a new studio hasn’t been formed. The end.
It appears that Ubisoft has opened a new studio dedicated to making Wii U projects. According to the LinkedIn profile of director Hervé Masseron, more information could be divulged at E3 2012.
A blurb on his CV roughly translates to the following:
“I work on the new game studio dedicated to Montpellier’s new console NINTENDO WII the U. … Meet at E3 for more info”
Masseron has been with the new studio since January 2012.
Another LinkedIn profile, which comes from concept artist Aymeric Kevin, mentions that Michel Ancel and Jean Christophe Alessandri are supervising Rayman Legends.
These findings have led to some speculation that Rayman Legends could be a Wii U exclusive, probably due to the fact that it’s being made by Ubisoft Montpellier. And one of the LinkedIn profiles above does mention that a Montpellier team is “dedicated” to the Wii U. Still, any exclusivity has not been confirmed.
The overall scope of Ubisoft’s new studio is a bit unclear. Is this a brand new division inside Montpellier? Has the Montpellier studio simply been divided? Or is this just a temporary shift in staff?
