Square Enix has announced that the Wii U version of Dragon Quest X will be free to download for a while – specifically, from today until midnight on March 31st. The game’s online mode will be free for the first 20 days; afterwards you will need to pay a monthly fee. The offline mode will be free indefinitely.
Note that this offer only includes the base game – the two expansions are not included.
Naturally, you can only take advantage of this offer if you have a Japanese Wii U.
With the Zero Time Dilemma website open, more details have arisen about the plot, setting, characters and more. While the website is in Japanese, Gematsu has provided translations of the material.
Prologue
-Starts December 31, 2028, in Nevada desert
-Nine men and women wake up in confinement
-Masked person announces the start of “the Decision game”, which they say the survival of the human race depends on
-The nine characters are then divided into three teams: C, Q, and D
About
-Adventure/escape game
-Mysterious character “Zero” has imprisoned the nine characters
-Escaping from the facility requires figuring out six passwords
-A password is revealed every time that a person dies
-Asks if the player will kill the other teams to get all the passwords or find another way
Cinema Part
-During certain “Cinema Parts”, characters will have conversations without text boxes
-Fully voiced
Characters
Team C
-Carlos (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita), a firefighter whose sister has an incurable disease. He also has, in his line of work, saved many lives.
-Akane (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro), a supposedly ideal Japanese woman, who is actually skilled in trickery and presides over a secret society working towards a peaceful future.
-Junpei (voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki), a detective who is pursuing Akane, who was a childhood friend of his.
Team Q
Q (voiced by Aki Toyosaki), a kind boy who wears a strange helmet and has no memory of who he is.
Eric (voiced by Akira Ishida), an ice cream shop clerk, he is normally cheerful but has been known to have a temper.
Mira (voiced by Maaya Sakamoto), she is Eric’s girlfriend. She tends to be emotionless, but her reasoning is that she’s “just insensitive.”
Team D
Diana (voiced by Mamiko Noto), a pacifist nurse who was recommended to the experiment by her boss.
Phi (voiced by Chiaki Omigawa), a blunt but intellectual woman, who joined the experiment with Akane and Sigma to “save the world”.
Sigma (voiced by Daisuke Ono), a 22-year old man whose mind is that of a 67 year-old.
Other
Zero (voiced by ???), the mysterious mastermind behind the Decision Game.
Gabu, a dog that can pass from section to section of the facility. Team members can communicate with the other teams by attaching messages to his collar.
It’s time for the latest Famitsu’s most wanted games chart! Dragon Quest XI is back up to the second spot, and was only one vote shy of tying for first.
Head past the break for the full chart. All votes were cast between February 25 and March 2.
Bandai Namco has the first commercial up for My Hero Academia: Battle for All. You can view it below.
Supply issues in Japan is something we initially heard about around a month ago. Interestingly, it seems to still be a problem of sorts.
Joshin, a big chain electronics store in Japan, recently posted a message about Wii U supply. It starts out by stating that the Premium Set is currently unavailable. Consumers are told that they need to understand the console is currently out of stock before placing an order, and Joshin has no confirmation as to when it will be available again.
Those who are really in need of a Wii U can only hope that the issue resolves soon. Joshin also won’t answer any emails about when the console will be back in stock. Units will be shipped as soon as possible, and due to an issue with resellers, only one console can be ordered at this time.
Wii U stock will be shipped as soon as possible. Consumers will be informed by email when orders are being sent out.
Thanks to Ben for sending this in.
Spike Chunsoft opened the official Japanese Zero Time Dilemma website today. Access it here. There’s not too much to see currently aside from character art and the shot below, but the site does promise that a trailer will be published on Thursday.
During the latest Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that Project Guard became Star Fox Guard. This was a title that originally debuted at E3 2014 alongside Project Giant Robot. Some may be curious about that game’s status.
In an interview with TIME, Shigeru Miyamoto indicated that Project Giant Robot hasn’t materialized into a full experience. He told the publication:
“‘Project Giant Robot’ was something we started as a second project, and unfortunately we haven’t yet decided to turn that into a full game.”
Will we eventually see Project Giant Robot become its own thing? Or will it remain as only a temporary E3 demo? Only time will tell!
Bird Mania Party hit the European Wii U eShop earlier this month, with the North American release taking place this coming Thursday. Check out a few minutes of footage below.
About a year ago, PlayEveryWare published Elliot Quest on Wii U eShop. The company then announced last July that the game, which was well-received by players and critics, would be ported to additional platforms, including 3DS.
We recently caught up with PlayEveryWare’s Thomas O’Connor for a status update on the portable version and to reflect on the experience of bringing the game to Wii U. O’Connor also spoke about a couple of other projects that have kept the company busy.
Head past the break for our full Elliot Quest-focused interview.
