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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!

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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

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments

Thus far, we’ve seen Bravely Default and Bravely Second. There’s no question that the series will continue, and producer Tomoya Asano is already thinking about a third entry.

Speaking with Famitsu this week, Asano said:

“I don’t know what to say about that at this time [with Bravely Second releasing soon] but I already have some ideas for Bravely Third in my head. If Bravely Second sells well, I plan on presenting plans for it right away. Thank you for your continued support.”

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More: Bravely Default, Bravely Second, interview, Shinji Takahashi, Square Enix, Tomoya Asano, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 22 Comments

Update 2: Pre-orders now open.

Update: European bundle announced.

A new Wii U bundle featuring Splatoon is coming to Best Buy, Nintendo has revealed.

The package, known as the “Wii U Special Edition Splatoon Deluxe Set”, contains the console, a digital code for Splatoon, and a pre-installed copy of Nintendo Land. Pricing is set at $299.99.

Best Buy will offer the Splatoon bundle both in-store and online. The package launches right alongside the game itself on May 29.

Source: Nintendo PR

More: Best Buy, Splatoon, top

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

Nintendo will be restocking three amiibo in Japan next month. According to a tweet posted on the company’s Japanese Twitter account, Villager, Captain Falcon, and Little Mac will be available once again in early May. Hopefully we’ll soon begin seeing some amiibo restocks in the west as well!

Source

More: Amiibo, Japan, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

This week’s European Nintendo Downloads are as follows:

Wii U Download

Mario Kart 8 Pack 2: Animal Crossing DLC – €8.00/£7.00

Wii U Virtual Console

Mario Kart: Super Circuit – €6.99/£6.29

Street Gangs – €4.99/£3.49

eShop Sales

Wii U

Kirby Weeks: Part One (4/23 – 4/30)

Kirby’s Adventure Wii – €14.99/£13.49 (regular price €19.99/£17.99)

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 – €3.99/£2.74 (regular price €7.99/£5.49)

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land – €3.49/£3.14 (regular price €6.99/£6.29)

Fans of the Kirby series can also look forward to a 10% fan discount on Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush from the game’s release on 8th May 2015 until 14th May 2015. If a title from the Kirby series for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS has been downloaded before, Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush can be purchased on Nintendo eShop for just €35.99 / £31.49 / CHF46.70 instead of the regular price of €39.99 / £34.99 / CHF51.90.**

**One game from the Kirby series must have previously been downloaded from Nintendo eShop before the purchase of Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush. Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush must be purchased from Nintendo eShop on the same Wii U console or with the same Nintendo Network ID linked to the Nintendo 3DS system that the Kirby title was downloaded to.

Tetrobot & Co. – €2.99/£2.19 (Ends April 30, regular price €9.99/£7.49)

Puzzle Monkeys – €1.99/£1.99 (Ends May 14, regular price €2.99/£2.99)

3DS

Kirby Weeks: Part One (4/23 – 4/30)

Kirby Fighters Deluxe – €4.89/£4.39 (regular price €6.99/£6.29)

Kirby’s Dream Land – €1.99/£1.79 (regular price €7.99/£5.49)

Kirby’s Dream Land 2 – €1.99/£1.79 (regular price €7.99/£5.49)

Fans of the Kirby series can also look forward to a 10% fan discount on Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush from the game’s release on 8th May 2015 until 14th May 2015. If a title from the Kirby series for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS has been downloaded before, Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush can be purchased on Nintendo eShop for just €35.99 / £31.49 instead of the regular price of €39.99 / £34.99.**

**One game from the Kirby series must have previously been downloaded from Nintendo eShop before the purchase of Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush. Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush must be purchased from Nintendo eShop on the same Wii U console or with the same Nintendo Network ID linked to the Nintendo 3DS system that the Kirby title was downloaded to.

Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D Download Version – €4.99/£4.49 (Ends May 7, regular price €9.99/£8.99)

KORG DSN-12 – €14.99/£12.49 (Ends May 7, regular price €29.99/£24.99)

KORG M01D – €12.49/£9.99 (Ends May 7, regular price €24.99/£19.99)

Football Up 3D – €1.99/£1.79 (Ends May 21, regular price €2.99/£2.36)

Murder on the Titanic – €5.99/£4.49 (Ends May 7, regular price €7.99/£5.99)

Secret Agent Files: Miami – €5.99/£4.49 (Ends May 7, regular price €7.99/£6.99)

Source: Nintendo PR

More: Europe, Nintendo Download, top, Virtual Console