Rune Factory 4 came out in Japan back in 2012, and a year later in North America. That was the final game developed by Neverland before the studio closed its doors – though some members of the team were absorbed into Marvelous for Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven’s creation.
Although there hasn’t been any sort of news about a new Rune Factory entry over the past couple of years, XSEED Games executive VP Ken Berry told Destructoid that there have been discussions about how to keep the franchise alive. Parent company Marvelous is also aware that “fans are clamoring for a sequel and are looking for ways to make it happen.”
Berry said:
“There are continuing discussions on how to keep the Rune Factory series going, despite Neverland, the original developers, no longer being around. Hopefully, something will come of that in the not too distant future, because Rune Factory 4 was the best-selling title in the series, I believe, and it’s a series that’s been growing and growing over the years. Marvelous knows fans are clamoring for a sequel and are looking for ways to make it happen.”
When Nintendo held the first round of Japanese Zelda: Tri Force Heroes online demo events last weekend, series producer Eiji Aonuma played for an hour during a live stream. The first of two final events just ended a short while ago, and Aonuma appeared on another broadcast with director Hiromasa Shikata. You can watch the recorded stream below.
The Wall Street Journal published an article about the NX on Friday, which was written by journalist Takashi Mochizuki. One of the items highlighted in the piece is that Nintendo’s new system features “industry-leading chips”.
Mochizuki has now shared just a tiny bit more on that statement based on sources he has spoken with. Here’s what he told NintenGen:
-Several people who said who have seen a demo said what they saw is impossible to run on a computer without a “industry-leading” or “cutting-edge” chips. Cutting-edge in what way, they refused to elaborate.
-And an important thing to remember, probably you know well already, is that chip specs won’t be finalized until much closer date to the release.
Mochizuki also tweeted out the following:
"Industry-leading" chip = more powerful than PS or Xbox? My answer is don't know. But that's how sources described: https://t.co/Kp6NpGSNrn
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 17, 2015
I’m not too sure how much we can make of the early comments about NX’s chips, but I suppose it makes things a tad more interesting. We’ll see what comes of this all!
On Thursday, Natsume brought Ninja Strike: Dangerous Dash to the North American Wii U eShop. View the video below for some footage from the game.
Capcom published Final Fight One on the North American Wii U Virtual Console this past Thursday. You’ll find an hour of footage from the game below.
Atlus has made some screenshots available from Shin Megami Tensei IV Final. Take a look at them in the gallery below.
ZeNfA Productions has outlined the upcoming update for ZaciSa’s Last Stand (ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimension! in Europe). Here’s a look at what’s ahead:
- Further Improvements to the gameplay performance.
- Up to 9 players can control a Drone now! This includes the person on the Wii U GamePad as well as extra controller support like Wii Classic Controller, Pro Controller and 2 people can use a Wii Remote & Nunchuk combo!
- Drones now can fire rockets at enemies! The game has a bit more action to it. Each drone will also have a new look Preview
- Even AI-controlled Drones will be able fire rockets, with setting of how often.
- Rockets do cost money, so will be powerful per shot.
- Two new maps! Both will be focused on the local Drone multiplayer. One of the maps will also be another Wii U indie crossover map! Like my BLOK DROP U and PING 1.5+ maps, this one will be interactive as well.
- Miiverse Stamps! There will be at least 8 stamps for the game in the update. Will act as a sort of Award/Achievement system. Preview
This new update will be made available for free sometime during the winter. We’ll be seeing it in either late 2015 or early 2016.
SmileBoom finally brought out SmileBASIC on the North American 3DS eShop this past week. Interestingly, the company has now revealed that a Wii U version is in development.
SmileBASIC for Wii U (PetitCom BIG) will support all creations from the 3DS version. Cloud-based saving will be included, which lets users make games on Nintendo’s handheld, save to the cloud, and then retrieve them on Wii U. This will work the other way around as well.
New features are also included in the Wii U version. It will be possible to create games that support the GamePad or Wii Remote, off-TV play is supported, and USB keyboards will be compatible.
We’ll be seeing this new Wii U version in Japan this coming spring. The application will also head west at a later date.
This isn’t all of today’s news surrounding SmileBASIC. The 3DS version will be receiving “Advanced Sound Unit” DLC this year, which provides the following:
“Advanced Sound Unit” empowers SmileBASIC to process audio signal with various methods. “Advanced Sound Unit” allows you to process audio signal in real time coming from the MIC input. You can process the signal by analyzing with a FFT algorithm or with a BIQUAD filer and put it into the playback stream to output. In short, you are able to create your own software synthesizer or guitar effectors on your Nintendo 3DS system.
Finally, while it only applies to Japan, SmileBoom is teaming up with Bandai Namco. Graphics and sounds from Galaxian, Galaga, Xevious, Pac-Man, DigDug and Mappy will be sold to SmileBASIC users in Japan.
Splatoon’s sixth European Splatfest is now up and running. This new competition will run for a full day, and the results will then be posted soon after.
In Splatoon’s latest European Splatfest, players can either be on Team Cat or Team Dog. This was actually the very first Splatfest in North America.
