Square Enix is sharing another round of information about Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional today. With the latest news, details focus on activities that can be done by player’s partner Nochorin.
There are three new things that the players can request of Nochorin:
1. Want to take a shortcut: Nochorin will allow players to skip parts of the story – either to the following story section or at the next boss; useful for those who have already played the original Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3.
2. Want to scout: Nochorin will scout monsters in player’s stead. It may fail when trying to scout strong monsters, but you can keep giving these requests at any time. There may be also monsters that can only be scouted by Nochorin.
3. Want to pick up items: Nochorin can also pick up items required by players. Depending on its mood, it may obtain a number of items in one go.
Another new feature is Ride Combine, which combines two monsters – one ridden by the player and one ridden by Nochorin – into a single stronger monster. However, it only seems to be available during battles. When combined, the player’s monster will become bigger and more powerful. There are also special skills and abilities that are exclusive to Ride Combine.
Examples of these skills include:
– Toumabakuenzan (Fighting Demon Explosive Fire Slash): engulfs the surrounding area in an explosive fire; the lower the user’s HP, the more damage will be dealt
– God’s Judgment: Drops fierce thunder from above, and deal enormous physical damage to all enemies
And a couple of examples for abilities:
– Dragon Killer: Self-explanatory; greatly raises damage against dragons
– Item Extreme Up: Extremely raises chances of enemies dropping items
Screenshots for today’s coverage are in the gallery below.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo will be undergoing maintenance a bit later today. The game’s online services will be impacted for about an hour.
According to Nintendo, the schedule is as follows:
– 5 PM PT (December 26) – 6 PM PT (December 26)
– 8 PM ET (December 26) – 9 PM ET (December 26)
– 1 AM in the UK (December 27) – 2 AM in the UK (December 27)
– 2 AM in Europe (December 27) – 3 AM in Europe (December 27)
Nintendo has now opened the Japanese website for Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World. You can access it right here. Videos from the site are posted below.
It seems like Nintendo is pulling out all the stops for the big Switch event at Tokyo Big Sight in January. In addition to being able to try out the Switch for themselves, attendees will also get to experience various concerts.
A rock band put together by Nintendo will perform twice on January 14th and once on January 15th. They will perform various video game tunes. Finally, a big band will perform on January 15th to cap off the event. They will also perform video game-themed music.
Square Enix has released some new details and screenshots about Dragon Quest XI. We will only talk about the 3DS version here today, though naturally some of it will apply to the Switch version as well. The following info has been translated by Gematsu.
The protagonist
A young man from the village of Ishi. On the day of his 16th birthday, he learns that he is the reincarnation of the “hero” that once saved the world. He carries of the burden of a major mission as well, and leaves his hometown in order to confront his fate.
The protagonist has a birthmark on his left hand. In times of crisis, this mark glows and a mysterious power awakens inside him.
Emma
A childhood friend of the protagonist who was born on the same day. They both underwent their coming-of-age ceremony together on the day of their 16th birthday.
Camus
“I believe in it – the miracle of the hero.”
A blue-haired thief who the protagonist meets on his journey. Although somewhat rude, he has a strong sense of duty and a warm heart. He’s reliable and experienced in the ways of the world and supports the protagonist on his journey.
Head past the break for some more details and screenshots:
Two new stages have been added to Pokemon Shuffle on both 3DS and mobile today. A Mew Escalation Battle will run until January 10th. As per usual, you can get more rewards the more you play this stage; this includes Mega Speedups and Raise Max Levels.
A special stage featuring Mewtwo has also been added. It will run into January 3th.
Details for the second Global Mission for Pokemon Sun & Moon have been revealed. Players will be required to capture or defeat a total of 1 million Pokemon using the Island Scan feature. The mission will start at 4:00 UTC, December 27th and it will end on January 9th, 23:59 UTC. The reward will be 2,017 Festival Coins if the mission is successful or 217 FC if the mission ends in failure. You will receive twice the amount of FC (4,034 or 434) if your game is tied to a Global Link account.
The Wii U eShop is listing Spheroids for a January 5 release in North America. The action-adventure game will set you back $7.99.
Here’s an overview from the listing:
“In Spheroids you take control of Lucas, a jumpy Canadian boy who sets out on an adventure with his crazy scientist companion Otto after it’s discovered that the government has been hiding alternative universes from the cubic world they live in. Unfortunately, these alternative universes contain spheres that wish to turn everything round, so it’s up to Lucas to save the world from these dangerous aliens: the Spheroids.
Throughout Spheroids’ 32 levels, you’ll encounter many different environments, with multiple hazards to avoid and enemies to destroy. Items such as the “Modified Drilling Hoo”k Otto lends Lucas will help you traverse the environment with ease, with many more to find throughout.”
A trailer for Spheroids can be viewed below.
As we initially learned at the very end of November, a new wave of Mario toys will be offered at McDonald’s Japan in Happy Meals beginning on January 6. We now have a commercial for the promotion below.
Nintendo is starting to starting to branch out in a number of new ways. We’ve seen that through the company’s partnership with Universal Studios, for example. We’ve also heard about Nintendo’s new interest in video content. Movies and TV shows seem to be in the pipeline.
When it comes to video content, Nickelodeon could be one partner Nintendo is teaming up with. Fred Seibert of Frederation Studios – an animation company that has worked on Fairly Oddparents and Adventure Time – made this intriguing comment on the latest episode of Nick Animation Podcast:
“We have a project now that we’re doing that needs to go unnamed, based on one of the most world famous video games of the last 30 years, that we’ve had in our shop for twelve years without being able to get it started. But there were great characters and a great story, and eventually we got it going.”
Seibert didn’t label Nintendo specifically, but there aren’t a massive amount of names that would fit the description here. Something like Mario would definitely make sense – that franchise has been around for thirty years, and has very recognizable characters. Could we see something like a Mario series on Nickelodeon down the road?
