Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 18 Comments

Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii featured a quest log that could quickly become very long and intimidating for some players. For the game’s successor, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Monolith Soft is looking to make “a much more user-friendly experience”.

Executive producer Tetsuya Takahashi told EDGE this month that in the Wii U game, “objectives and relevant people will be displayed on the map.” Monolith Soft is also implementing “a number of other features to help with quests”.

More: interview, Tetsuya Takahashi, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 12 Comments

Don’t expect Nintendo to ditch dedicated gaming devices anytime soon. Shigeru Miyamoto expressed the deep need for such hardware in an EDGE interview this month, telling the magazine, “A unique software experience can always be realized with unique hardware that has a unique interface.”

Below are Miyamoto’s comments in full:

“As I said before, there are always people who really want to get deeply into a game. We want to create, and they want to experience, something unprecedented all the time. For us to meet these goals, we need dedicated hardware that is designed to cater to the needs of these avid gamers. People might say that software is software. No. A unique software experience can always be realized with unique hardware that has a unique interface. That is why I believe Nintendo is, and will be, sticking to these dedicated gaming machines.”

More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top

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

At one point, Nintendo “talked about the possibility” of featuring Mario as the main player character in Splatoon. That’s according to Shigeru Miyamoto, who revealed the information to EDGE this month.

Miyamoto told the magazine:

“There were heated debates over who the main player character should be. Whether it should be Mario, or a squid. When we talked about the possibility of it being Mario, of course we could think of the advantages: anybody would be willing to touch it as soon as we announced that we had the new Mario game. But at the same time, we had some worries. If it were Mario, we wouldn’t be able to create any new IP.”

Splatoon was first announced at this year’s E3. It’s a brand new third-person shooter of sorts from Nintendo and includes completely unique characters.

More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, Splatoon, top

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

Eiji Aonuma, producer of Zelda Wii U, shared extensive comments to EDGE this month about the game’s open world without giving too much away.

EDGE started out by asking Aonuma about the challenges of adapting a linear design to a world that can be freely explored. He said in response:

In the original Legend of Zelda, there was no clear way to lead the main character to his goal. It was something that we entrusted to the players to find by themselves. As the game later expanded into a franchise, the structure of the game worlds became more and more complex – especially with the introduction of 3D – making it necessary for us to point the player in the right direction. Consequently, progression in the games became more linear.

To recreate a similar experience to the original, we have to give the game world a simple structure that players can understand intuitively. In doing so, it’s very important that we make every aspect of the world feel real and physically connected, so that it’s doesn’t look fake.

We can achieve this thanks to the hardware features of Wii U, but to truly get a deep understanding of the game world, we also need a real map that depicts the world as it is. The GamePad is very effective for displaying this, and thus also [for] providing players with a constant hint on where to head to. I think we can safely say that the innovations in this new game are only possible thanks to the Wii U hardware.

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More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, top, Zelda Wii U

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments

Lots of details about Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden have emerged from this week’s issue of Famitsu. You can find all of today’s information rounded up below.

Yuuri Kozukata

– Goes to the mountain to search for the owner of the shop, Hisoka Kurosawa
– Voiced by Risa Tawata

Miu Hinasaki

– Girl searching for her missing mother
– Her mother vanished when she was a child
– She’s never known the love of parents and feels empty
– Heads to the mountain believing her mother is there
– Voiced by Maaya Uchida

Ren Hojo

– Failure of an author
– Has known Yuuri for ages
– Whimsical and is scolded by his assistant for it
– He hears of a custom involving burial photos, and goes to the mountain to research for his new book. Voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Hisoka Kurosawa

– Owner of the shop
– Uses kagemi skills to search for lost things
– Goes to the mountain to look for a missing girl and vanishes
– Voiced by Atsuko Tanaka

Rui Kagamiya

– Ren’s assistant
– She respects him, calling him sensei, and as well as helping him out she thinks of him as family
– Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto

Locations

– Explore 3 main locations at the start
– These include forest and buildings around the mountain

Mikomori Onsen

– An abandoned old, big house known as a famous ghost spot where lots of ghosts are

Kurosawa Antiques

– Also a cafe
– Yuuri lives and works here
– People come here to request lost things be found, or have their fortunes told by Hisoka

Shirazu no Mori

– A forest in the mountain
– Ever since it became famous as a suicide spot, there’s been a big fence around it, which people sneak in through
– There are also rumors of a murderer hiding inside

Gameplay

– Plays out a bit like mission mode
– Choose your mission and then you unlock new missions
– You can replay missions as much as you’d like
– Once you complete the chapter goals, you get the next chapter
– Your goal is to find people
– Each person has different reasons for going to the mountain and getting there, so you’ll have to gather as much info about them as you can
– You can use something that’s like a “scent” of a person from things like a hair, their documents etc.
– That aids your “kagemi”
– Then you use your clues to search for them
– If you chase the memories of them you’ll find them, so you have to follow their past footsteps
– When you find them and “bring them back” from their spiriting away, it’s mission complete, but you’ll have to watch out for the ghosts lurking
– You can also use your “ghost sight” to find hints from ghosts
– Looks kind of like hidden ghosts in other games
– Gameplay on the TV
– Map on the GamePad
– The touch system for picking up items is back
– Ghost hands are also back

Source

More: details roundup, Famitsu, Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden, Japan, Koei Tecmo, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Images, Wii U | 1 Comment

More: Famitsu, Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden, Japan, Koei Tecmo, scan, top

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

More: Famitsu, scan, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 43 Comments

Nintendo is placing more of an emphasis on its core fanbase these days. It’s quite the contrast to the Wii and DS era, in which the company produced many titles for the casual player and looked to target this demographic.

But now, as explained by Shigeru Miyamoto in this month’s EDGE, Nintendo isn’t as interested in catering to those who have a “passive” interest in games.

He said:

“[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland. Their attitude is, ‘okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.’ It’s kind of a passive attitude they’re taking, and to me it’s kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games].”

“In the days of DS and Wii, Nintendo tried its best to expand the gaming population. Fortunately, because of the spread of smart devices, people take games for granted now. It’s a good thing for us, because we do not have to worry about making games something that are relevant to general people’s daily lives.”

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More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top

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

This week’s Japanese software sales are as follows:

1. [3DS] Youkai Watch 2 – 77,465 / 2,289,983
2. [PS4] The Last of Us: Remastered – 30,587 / NEW
3. [PSV] Bullet Girls – 29,690 / NEW
4. [PS4] Diablo III – 17,832 / NEW
5. [PS3] Diablo III – 15,816 / NEW
6. [WIU] Hyrule Warriors – 15,142 / 84,232
7. [3DS] Yoshi’s New Island – 12,931 / 157,092
8. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 – 12,075 / 639,710
9. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2 – 10,831 / 119,689
10. [PS3] Ultra Street Fighter IV – 7,928 / 61,859
11. [3DS] Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken – 7,246 / 145,967
12. [3DS] Youkai Watch – 7,189 / 1,252,231
13. [PSV] Monster Hunter Frontier G – 5,183 / 26,352
14. [PSV] Chaos;Head Dual – 4,662 / NEW
15. [3DS] Pokemon X/Y – 4,255 / 4,132,144
16. [PS3] GTA V New Price Version – 3,938 / 49,220
17. [3DS] Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson – 3,829 / 59,948
18. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 – 3,376 / 2,371,488
19. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 3,367 / 3,778,065
20. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 – 3,321 / 3,330,825

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

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 5 Comments

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

3DS LL – 28,788
Vita – 15,309
Wii U – 8,985
3DS – 6,914
PS4 – 5,923
PS3 – 2,376
Vita TV – 1,118
PSP – 324
Xbox 360 – 177

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

3DS LL – 42,365
Vita – 20,825
Wii U – 18,161
3DS – 9,429
PS4 – 6,913
PS3 – 6,260
Vita TV – 1,491
PSP – 416
Xbox 360 – 160

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