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Square Enix delivered a bunch of news at its E3 2019 event earlier this summer. Among the announcements were two titles now confirmed for the west: Romancing SaGa 3 and SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions.

Not too long ago, Famitsu spoke with Square Enix’s Akitoshi Kawazu and Masanori Ichikawa about the upcoming games. Topics include finally releasing the RPGs in the west, new content for Romancing SaGa 3, and more. 

Here’s our full translation of the interview:

Hello, my Chocobos and Cactuars! This week on NEP, we’ve got the simultaneous worst and best episode yet! We’ve got Jared of Avalanche Reviews guesting in, but Galen’s mic crapped out once or twice, so his commentary is a little light in a few spots.

But Jared is here to get super nerdy with us about upscaling output video on retro consoles, as all three of us bond over Resident Evil and the best boys of YouTube. In particular, Jared talks about getting the best picture possible out of the SNES, N64 and GCN consoles; the Framemeister; and technical nonsense of video and retro graphics explained in easy-to-understand detail.

If you’re enjoying NEP, please consider giving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, aka new iTunes. It’s incredibly helpful in getting us exposed to new listeners through algorithms, so we would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you for listening!

Nintendo fans don’t have to worry about Inti Creates slowing down on its support for Switch. Although the developer has been experimenting with more platforms as of late, the Big N’s console remains a top priority.

When asked about future Switch support from Inti Creates, president Takuya Aizu told us:

Inti Creates is going in a slightly different direction with the Gunvolt series. After a pair of Azure Striker Gunvolt titles, we’re now getting Luminous Avenger IX – a project starring Copen. What does that mean for the future of the overall franchise?

Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu clarified the situation in a recent interview with Nintendo Everything. Aizu indicated that there are essentially different series with Azure Striker Gunvolt and Luminous Avenger IX, both of which have different directors leading them.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

You may recall an interview conducted by Japanese outlet 4Gamer earlier this year with Monolith Soft boss Tetsuya Takahashi and Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada. It was here we learned that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has sold 1.73 million copies as of March 2019.

That same interview also had some interesting discussion about Nintendo and Monolith Soft, which we’ve now translated. At one point, Takahashi was asked about possibly experimenting with other genres, to which he seemed unsure about given Monolith’s history and his love of the genre. Takahashi compared the situation to manga artist Hirohiko Araki, who said he would never draw anything other than JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

System: Switch
Release date: August 22, 2019
Developer: Tokyo RPG Factory
Publisher: Square Enix


Tokyo RPG Factory’s offerings have been nothing short of fascinating, releasing the likes of I Am Setsuna as its debut title in 2016 and following it up with Lost Sphere in 2017. While those may have been hit or miss for a lot of people due to gameplay elements that didn’t feel fully realized or mechanically sound, their stories intrigued and impacted those that played them, giving players a much more somber narrative that hit specific themes of family and sacrifice that connected with many around the world. Oninaki continues Tokyo RPG Factory’s trend of melancholic storytelling by taking on much heavier topics surrounding life and death, making it easily one of the most depressing games I’ve played in years. However, the way it’s all presented from the art direction, music score, lands, cities, characters, and gameplay is all done so tastefully and with such finesse, Oninaki serves to be a message of growth not only through grief, but for Tokyo RPG Factory as a development studio.

As previously announced, Nintendo is hosting a brand new Indie World Showcase today that will cover upcoming indie titles for Switch. The roughly 20-minute presentation goes live at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET / 2 PM in the UK / 3 PM in Europe.

You can watch the Indie World Showcase as it happens below. We’ll have our own posts going up while the broadcast is airing. Stay tuned for additional coverage after the show, as well as further news from Gamescom 2019 this week.

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Hello, my beautiful bubbles and bobbles. This week on NEP, we’re gushing about Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Oni tries (and fails) to not talk about FE3H the entire episode, while Galen picks arbitrary battles as he defends Cooking Mama. Oni also gives some first impressions with the Grandia HD Collection, and the gang discusses all the game announcements and details we got this week! Could a Nintendo Direct be coming next month?
We finish things off by chatting about games with sequels where one was exponentially better than the other. Both Galen and Oni dive into their pasts to pull up some sore memories of their favorite games…

If you’re enjoying NEP, please consider giving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, aka new iTunes. It’s incredibly helpful in getting us exposed to new listeners through the algorithms, so we would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you for listening!

Contra Anniversary Collection landed on the Switch eShop not too long ago. In addition, Konami revealed at E3 that the company is making an entirely new game in the franchise known as Contra Rogue Corps. After the announcement was made, Famitsu spoke with producer Nobuya Nakazato about why the team went with an overhead camera angle, the game’s characters, and the new characters.

We’ve prepared a translation of Famitsu’s short interview. Continue on below to read it in full.

Things were a bit slow for Switch in the first half of 2019, but the second half is picking up in a big way. From Nintendo alone, the company released Super Mario Maker 2 in June, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and Fire Emblem: Three Houses last month, and has Astral Chain arriving in a couple of weeks. The rest of the year looks packed, including a big September. Daemon X Machina, Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and Dragon Quest XI S are launching over three consecutive weeks. We’re not even mentioning third-party releases, which includes the likes of Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Since September has so many heavy hitters for Switch, we want to know about which game (or games) you’re looking forward to the most. How many will you be purchasing? Are you planning on picking up Nintendo’s trio of published titles? Let us know in the comments below.

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