Nintendo will hold a Splatoon event during the Game Party Japan 2015 on December 31 and January 1 in Tokyo, the company has announced. The Wii U game will be playable as well. I imagine the demo will be the same as the one shown at E3 in June, but maybe Nintendo will surprise us!
Another Splatoon screenshot arrived on the game’s English Tumblr account today. View the new image below, and an explanation below.
This just in! There appear to be some members of the octopus forces that hit hard like a freight train. They’re also not so easy on the eyes… Just remember this: if it’s got two legs—look out!
With the launch of Final Fantasy Explorers in Japan, Square Enix has already started selling downloadable content.
Players can purchase costumes based on characters from Final Fantasy VII. These include Cloud with the Buster Sword weapon, Aerith with the Guard Rod weapon, and Tifa with the Premium Heart weapon. Pricing is set at 150 yen each.
More DLC will be available for Final Fantasy Explorers in the future.
Four retailer-exclusive amiibo have already been confirmed for North America. Shulk will only be available at GameStop, Best Buy is the exclusive store for Meta Knight, Lucario is at Toys “R” Us, and Target has Rosalina and Luma.
This might not be the end of retailer-exclusive amiibo, sadly. Check out this message from one Best Buy Canada representative:
Having anything be retailer-exclusive isn’t what anyone wants to see. I guess we’ll see how this plays out!
Four more themes are now available for purchase in North America. They are as follows:
Super Mario: Blue
A Merry Mario Holiday
Animal Crossing: New Leaf: Jingle’s Toy Day
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
Each of these themes are priced at $1.99.
Update (12/18/14): Bumped to the top. Nintendo uploaded the first show, and made the second public again.
A few more Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland details have been translated from this week’s issue of Famitsu. Find them rounded up below.
– Battle system starts out with a symbol encounter system that seamlessly transfers into a grid-based battle area after touching a monster
– Unlock an “Atelier Astrid” mode after meeting certain conditions
– This will let players see how Astrid and Sterk lived back earlier on
– More to the mode than you would expect
– More to do once you’ve finished the story
– Meruru and Totori will swing by for a visit
– The three alchemists will have a journey to share
– One part of the story will reveal the events that led to Astrid taking Rorona on as her pupil
– Can change the difficulty
– 11 party member characters
The Xenoblade Chronicles X staff introductions continued today on the game’s Japanese Twitter account.
Director Tetsuya Takahashi posted the following about designer Hideyuki Matsumoto:
“The introduction of outside designers ends with Mr. Hideyuki Matsumoto. We both worked at the same company before and he helped out with Xenosaga, too. He’s very knowledgeable about things related to weaponry, so for this project I put him mainly in charge of designing the weapons the characters will use.”
Takahashi and Matsumoto worked together while at Squaresoft. Matsumoto has been involved with Front Mission 4 and 5, Project Sylpheed, At Tonelico, and Armored Core 3 as well as anime such as Zettai Karen Children.
Takahashi’s update also confirms that Kusanagi Company (Ni no Kuni DS, Persona 4 anime cut-scenes) handled background design for Xenoblade Chronicles X. “They’re a professional group used to creating 3D models based on drawings, so I can always leave things to them without worrying,” Takahashi noted.
Nintendo recently published a page on its Japanese website (“A sincere request to guardians from Nintendo”) addressing parental locks on some of the 3DS and Wii U’s features. Internet browsing, online purchases, and communication with other players are specifically addressed.
Nintendo notes in the section about online payments that some children have used their parents’ credit cards to purchase games on the eShop without their consent. Most of the issues arise when 3DS owners choose to save credit card information to their system. The 3DS does have a parental lock, though there are still many people out there who aren’t aware of this feature.
Nintendo’s site also has a joint message with Sony and Microsoft about the existence of parental controls in each of the companies’ consoles.
