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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 59 Comments

Masahiro Sakurai’s latest column in Famitsu is all about downloadable content. That makes sense, given how Nintendo just recently announced plans to expand Smash Bros. with additional fighters and Mii Fighter outfits.

Sakurai’s column seems to defend DLC for Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS by saying it’s “genuine” compared to day-one DLC. He also mentioned that DLC for the two games is made for the fans.

One excerpt from Sakurai’s column reads:

It’s a huge undertaking to create a fighter, so I think we can’t make them in large quantities. I’d also like to feel refreshed when the project is over. However, since we have decided to tackle [DLC] once, I’d like to offer as much fun [content] as possible. It will take a while from now, but please look forward to it.

Smash Bros. Mewtwo DLC just came out for Club Nintendo members last week, and will be available for purchase to all players starting on April 28. There are also plans to introduce Lucas in June, along with other roster additions. Fans can vote on the character they want to see included over on the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot.

More: DLC, Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 13 Comments

After Splatoon launches, Nintendo will continue supporting the game with additional content. Producer Hisashi Nogami teased upcoming plans while speaking with GamesRadar, and noted that the team hopes Splatoon “will become a franchise that Nintendo can be proud of.”

Below are Nogami’s full words:

We can’t go into a lot of detail on that today, but we do have some plans to follow up with content to keep interest in the game post-launch. We on the development team are thinking of the launch as a first step of sorts. We hope to add to that in terms of content, and even to the degree that we’re hoping that this will become a franchise that Nintendo can be proud of.

Mario Kart 8 received a ton of DLC after launch, and now we’re starting to see the same thing with Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS. Might Splatoon be next?

Source

More: Hisashi Nogami, interview, Splatoon, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Wii U | 11 Comments

The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:

PS4 – 15,419
Vita – 14,568
New 3DS LL – 14,047
Wii U – 6,324
New 3DS – 5,324
PS3 – 4,175
3DS LL – 1,309
3DS – 1,144
Vita TV – 491
Xbox One – 170

For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:

PS4 – 17,885
Vita – 17,517
New 3DS LL – 16,955
Wii U – 6,654
New 3DS – 6,222
PS3 – 4,221
3DS LL – 1,986
3DS – 1,678
Vita TV – 511
Xbox One – 238

And here are the software charts:

1. [3DS] Girls Mode 3 – 55,179 / NEW
2. [PS4] Dying Light – 25,530 / NEW
3. [3DS] Future Card – 16,630 / NEW
4. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition – 12,175 / 97,117
5. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 – 6,926 / 137,211
6. [PSV] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Tengoku Hen – 6,542 / 143,154
7. [WIU] Mario Party 10 – 5,991 / 118,433
8. [PS3] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z Tengoku Hen – 5,798 / 129,581
9. [PS4] Bloodborne – 5,674 / 190,631
10. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 2: Shinuchi – 5,659 / 2,586,851
11. [PSV] Sword Art Online: Lost Song – 5,532 / 177,145
12. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire – 5,483 / 2,598,884
13. [3DS] Xenoblade Chronicles – 5,330 / 71,167
14. [3DS] Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Kurosensei – 5,196 / 49,827
15. [PS4] Dark Souls II Scholar of the First Sin – 5,134 / 25,628
16. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2015 – 4,960 / 88,090
17. [PS4] Saints Row IV: Re-Elected – 4,776 / NEW
18. [PSV] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 – 4,543 / 80,779
19. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 – 4,542 / 961,504
20. [3DS] Theatrhythm Dragon Quest – 4,079 / 104,044

More: charts, Japan, Media Create, sales, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is launching in North America on June 2, XSEED has announced. The game will be available in stores as well as on the eShop for $39.99.

Marvelous also confirmed today that Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is coming to Europe and Australia on June 4. Unlike North America, this will be a digital-only release. Pricing is set at £24.99 / €29.99 / $49.95AUD.

Check out a comprehensive overview of Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven, along with a fresh batch of screenshots.

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven is a strategy RPG adventure from the famed producer of the acclaimed Rune Factory series. Main character “Luchs” is an unsuccessful innkeeper forced to excavate crystals to make his way in life. One day while digging, he discovers a mysterious fairy maiden encased in a crystal! On awakening, the fairy maiden starts Luchs on a fantastical adventure where he must battle monsters, discover and uncover the secrets of six more fairy maidens, manage his inn and much much more!

Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven features an innovative turn based battle system. Movement range is dictated by a circle of reach, and attacks will affect multiple enemies if they are within this circle.

Seven Heroines, Seven Stories – Each of the seven fairy maiden heroines who come to inhabit the inn have their own stories to tell, and building relationships with them will unlock new, specialised attacks to aid in combat when they join the battle party

Strategic Combat Makes Every Turn Count – “Bowl” over as many enemies with a single strike as possible, challenging players to line up melee, ranged and magical attacks so frontline enemies are knocked into others for maximum collateral damage

Craft Your Way to New Skills – In addition to unlocking new abilities, participating in Free Battles and registering for StreetPass can provide rare crafting items for use in creating new skills to help turn the tides of battle

Adjustable Difficulty Levels and More – Players can toggle among Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties, use the Fast Forward feature to speed up combat as desired, or relive fond memories via in-game movie and art galleries

Source: XSEED / Marvelous PR

More: Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven, marvelous, top, XSEED Games

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 40 Comments

Nintendo’s latest trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X focuses on story as opposed to gameplay. You can watch it below.

More: Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, GBA, General Nintendo, News | 13 Comments

USGamer put up a massive piece that recounts the history of Inti Creates. There are plenty of quotes mixed in from Takuya Aizu, the company’s president.

One of the more interesting topics concerns Mega Man Zero. Aizu first explains how Inti Creates originally wanted to kill off X, but Capcom intervened.

The main concept that we wanted to explore was Zero killing X. We wanted to come up with something really sensational. There was something about Mega Man Zero at first that we felt wasn’t quite right — it wasn’t true to our idea of the character. So we tried to resolve that by coming up with this dramatic concept.

Within the team, there was no resistance at all. In fact, right up until we went to master the game, the plot played out with Zero defeating X. However, Capcom as a company… it didn’t serve well for the company to have a series in which X is the hero and then another title where that same hero gets killed off. And so because of that, at the very, very, very end, like right before we sent the game to be manufactured, we had to change it so that the X that Zero kills was actually a copy. We didn’t have time to change the game play, though, so just the story changed slightly.

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More: Capcom, interview, Inti Creates, Takuya Aizu, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments

Lots of details about Xenoblade Chronicles X are starting to be translated from Dengeki Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles X guide supplement. You can find a massive roundup of information below (thanks to Gessenkou).

– No damage when falling from heights for the most aprt
– No penalties upon dying in this game
– In the fields, you can find native creature nests as well as wreckage from the Moby Dick
– You need “Field Skills” to interact with these, and obtain items
– Get rewards for registering items in the Collepedia
– The Collepedia is split into lists for each continent
– Some field items can only be found at certain times of the day and in certain weather conditions
– 4 kinds of quests: Story Quests, Kizuna Quests, Normal Quests, and Simple Quests
– Story quests require certain conditions to be met before they can be accepted
– Kizuna quests affect the kizuna (affinity), and there are many involving your fellow main characters
– Story and Kizuna quests cannot be accepted at the same time, and cannot be cancelled
– Normal Quests are taken from NPCs in the city or field, with ? marks above their heads
– Simple Quests are taken from the Quest Board in the BLADE Area, up to 20 at a time
– The board changes each time you check it; the stars indicate the difficulty, but they don’t have recommended levels
– You can Scout other player’s avatars from the BLADE Scout Console
– It costs a certain amount of in-game currency, with Scouts higher than your own level costing more
– Once you’ve raised your class to rank 10, you can change to a higher level class; your available weapons could change completely depending on the route you choose
– If you reach rank 10 with a top tier class, you’ll be able to use that class’s weapons while playing as other classes
– Dolls have excellent jumping power, so they can take shortcuts around areas you’d have to take a detour past on foot
– You can’t ride in Dolls with frame levels higher than your inner level
– “Catch” can immobilize enemies for up to 10 seconds
– There are even alien bases in the Twilluminous Forest; they’ve got a gigantic machine in an inlet too
– There are native creatures that mimic the foliage; similar creatures exist in the Valley of Oblivion too
– If you fall into the misty ravine in the Valley of Oblivion, you will die
– Lightning strikes from the ground to the sky in the Valley of Oblivion
– If you’re outdoors while they’re happening, you’ll take continuous damage
– You can head indoors or hide in caves to avoid lightning
– Auroras dance in the skies of the Land of White Ash
– There are alien bases in the caves in the Land of Black Steel, with a pipe extending far underground
– You can select one of the quests you currently have, and have its details appear on the screen
– The minimap will display a marker indicating your goal
– Inner experience is awarded by completing battles, clearing quests, finding landmarks, and Frontier Net spots, and all sorts of other things
– Exp from clearing quests is relatively low
The exp you get from battle depends on how powerful the enemy is
– Stronger enemies give bonuses, weaker ones give reduced amounts
– There are seven types of locations to discover
– Vast regions called “Zones”
– Notable places called “Landmarks”
– “Areas” spread throughout the zones
– Hidden “Unexplored Regions” and “Superb Views”
– BLADE Troop garrisons called “Base Camps”
– “Frontier Net Spots” where you set Data Probes
– Each location type gives different rewards for discovering them
– Zones give no reward
– Landmarks give Inner Exp and Battle Points(BP)
– Areas give Inner Exp
– Unexplored Regions/Superb Views give large amounts of Inner Exp
– Base Camps give BP
– FN Spots give Inner Exp and BP
– BP are used to level up Arts and Skills; need 100 BP to raise a single Art to its max level
– If the nearest data probe to an Unexplored Region or Superb View is a “Research Probe,” you’ll gain rewards corresponding to their tourism value; discovering them raises the tourism value for that segment.
– Class exp can only be obtained in battle, and also changes depending on the strength of the enemy
– You need to amass “Union Points” to progress your “BLADE Level”
– Each time you raise your BLADE Level, you can choose one of your three Field Skills to level up as well
– Union Points are obtained by doing things like “defeating native creatures,” “defeating Overed,” “obtaining collection items,” “opening treasure boxes,” or “setting data probes”
– Ex: each time you pick up an item in the field, it does up
– There are many ways to obtain points
– The three types of Field Skills are “Mechanical,” “Biological,” and “Search”
– Mechanical: Necessary for setting data probes, and opening treasure boxes that require Mechanical; since it’s required to set Data Probes, you should raise it early on
– Biological: Necessary for examining Biological treasure boxes; they’re things like dung and 3meter anthills, they don’t look like actual boxes
– Search: Dolls abandoned by aliens become treasure boxes, and it’s used to open those; they can often be found in remote regions, like at the tops of cliffs
– The amount of Union points you receive change based on the Union you’re a part of
– If you don’t progress the story, you won’t be able to access certain areas or use certain systems
– Clearing early ones especially give you access to numerous new things, so you should hurry and clear them
– The requirements for accepting story quests include “clearing a particular quest,” “meeting inner level requirements,” “using specific party members,” in addition to “meeting an exploration rate on a specific continent”
– Talk to NPCs with a ? above their heads to accept Normal Quests
– You’ll be able to see these ? on your minimap if you’re close enough, but they’re very difficult to find in the field; some are difficult to reach, or hard to see; some are also hidden within objects, like inside of containers or beneath vehicles
– There is an immense difference in the number of quests compared to the first Xenoblade
– There are several hundred Simple Quests alone
– The three Simple Quest categories are “Subjugation,” “Collection,” and “Talk”
– Subjugation: kill the designated creatures or Overed; you won’t know the target’s level until you find them.
– Collection: Gather the designated item; if you already have them, the quest will complete as soon as you accept it and leave the board; the details screen lets you know if you’ve already got some of them.
– Talk: Quests where you talk to the client; different quests can often spring forth from these, even Kizuna Quests. Recommended for lovers of sub-stories
– Some Story Quests require you to clear Kizuna Quests before you can accept them
– There are even some involving the residents of the city, not just the main character
– When you accept a Kizuna Quest, you won’t be able to cancel it; you won’t be able to remove the required party members from your party until it’s completed
– There are Kizuna talks that happen when you raise your affinity/bond/kizuna with specific characters
– You can check the unique Arts your allies have in the kizunagram
– There are Story Quests that require certain levels of affinity/bond/kizuna
– Jumping while using the Dash feature greatly increases your distance and height; use this to jump on top of and walk on rocks, and avoid enemies
– Can’t stop Dashing immediately, since you slip a bit when you stop, so you might fall off a cliff, or get spotted by an enemy
– Some enemy reaction types (sight, proximity) change with the time of day
– You can change the time at Rest Points; in the field, you use BLADE tents; in NLA you use red benches
– If you have high Bolt resistance, you can negate the damage from Lightning weather
– The weather will change if you use Skip Travel
– Tension Arts use up 1000 TP
– Soul Voices you emit are “Soul Challenges”, and activate when you press B at the right time when the circle appears on the screen
– When you successfully complete a Challenge, the “Soul Stage” goes up by one level
– At higher Soul Stage levels, you get bonus TP for hitting Perfects on the Challenges, and the Soul Voice activation rate is increased
– You won’t get TP for getting non-Perfects, and the Stage will not decrease if you fail the Challenge; it resets when you get KO’d
– When you complete a soul voice, your affinity/bond/kizuna goes up
– Weapons and Skills can change how easily you amass TP
– There are even Skills that grant you TP when damaged by weather
– It takes 3000 TP to revive an Ally
– You won’t be able to use the OC Gear without progressing the story
– Non MCs have two unique Arts
– Ex: Elma’s “Ghost Stage” grants a buff to allies that lets them avoid a fixed number of enemy attacks
– The max level for Arts is 5
– Raising the level of Arts improves there Recast Time, Melee/Ranged Multiplier, Buff/Debuff/etc Effects, Buff/Debuff/etc Duration, and Special Conditions
– When attacking enemies from their blind spots(back, higher/lower elevations), your accuracy and critical rate rises; it’s easy to get Soul Challenges when you do critical hits.
– You can Dash and Jump even in battle
– Starting a battle with an Art has a high chance of producing a Soul Challenge
– You can choose which effects your allies will get for their arts that complete the Challenge from ‘dmg+100%/200% from back’, ‘each hit+100TP’, or ‘Recast Time reduced 50%’
– When you Topple enemies, they’re unable to do anything at all, your attacks are guaranteed to hit, and damage done to them is multiplied by 1.5x
– When you destroy parts, the enemy takes more damage
– Destroying different parts add to the bonus damage[multiplier]
– You can have your allies concentrate on the same part using the Battle Menu as well
– Using Arts while in OC Gear raises the Gear Counter
– Bonuses are easier to get if you use Arts with many hits
– Gear Counter effects include: Gear time extension, boosted damage, reduce all enemy debuff resistances, regain TP with attacks, shorten Recast time

Still want to learn more about Xenoblade Chronicles X? Then head past the break for a bunch of story information!

Read More

More: details roundup, Monolith Soft, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 7 Comments

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is in the works for several platforms including Wii U and 3DS, Little Orbit announced today. Vicious Cycle is handling development.

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is a fully-3D action title. Here’s the official overview:

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is an all-new, real-time, fully 3D action-oriented twist on the classic story-driven graphic adventure game. Finn and Jake decide to carry on the profession of Finn’s foster parents, who were Professional Investigators. Confronted with mysterious Land of Ooo disappearances and strange events, players will interrogate colorful inhabitants, dispatch evil doers in fast-paced combat, solve mind-bending puzzles, explore new and familiar locations, and genuinely feel as if they have stepped into their own personal episode of Adventure Time.

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations launches this November. More information about the game will be shared in the weeks and months ahead. Screenshots and a tiny bit of footage can be found below.

More: Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations, Little Orbit, top, Vicious Cycle

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

This month’s issue of EDGE has an extensive feature about Splatoon. Naturally, a great deal of the piece focuses on the Wii U game, but the magazine was also able to ask Nintendo EAD general manager Katsuya Eguchi an off-hand question as well.

Discussing how Nintendo’s approach to HD development has evolved over the course of working with Wii U, Eguchi said:

“As you say, HD development tends to need a lot more people due to the higher standards required. The question of how to secure the necessary programmers and designers is one common to all companies in the industry, and everyone has to find ways of dealing with it. For example, if you increase the number of staff, there will be a greater difference in skill levels between them, which makes managing quality control extremely important.

“However, what’s really critical is making sure that this increased number of staff aren’t doing any unnecessary work. It hurts to imagine just how many people’s work would be wasted if we had to redo something. Being able to judge what needs to be done is the key to making sure that people and time are not wasted. This applies not only to decisions about specific features after development has started, but also to the starting point itself – what kind of new game to make, for example. That is critical, and getting it wrong runs the risk of the whole project amounting to nothing.

“It’s normal that, when a company decides what to start developing, the opinions of the people at the top of the organisation are given the most weight. It makes sense because the people in those roles have had a lot of experience and success stories. However, Nintendo is an entertainment company, and good ideas for entertainment can come from anywhere… Young people are also more sensitive to new trends, developments and technologies that are appearing. We are trying to use the opinions of this younger generation even at the start of a project.”

Source

More: interview, Katsuya Eguchi, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 4 Comments

Nintendo isn’t limiting its new Splatoon Wii U bundle to North America. Over on Twitter, the company announced that the same package is bound for Europe as well.

Consumers will find a Wii U console and a copy of Splatoon in the bundle. However, it appears that the European version goes with a physical copy rather than a digital copy, as is the case in North America. There’s also no pre-installed copy of Nintendo Land, with Nintendo instead opting for a Wii Karaoke U trial.

The European Splatoon bundle also carries an unexpected release date. It won’t be available until June 19, which is several weeks after the actual game launches.

Nintendo’s latest tweet is as follows:

Source

More: Europe, Splatoon, top