Fighting game fans rejoice! Your long awaited sequel arrives this week. Oddly enough, this week is also a good week for Dragon Quest fans to rejoice as well. I wonder what will happen when a fan of each bumps into each other while celebrating this joyous week? Will they ignore each other?  Or will they start talking to each other wherein their passionate display for their respective series caused heated words to fly and before you know it WWIII broke out all because we just can’t get along. Sorry Rodney. We failed you.

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher.  The following are subject to change without any warning.

Releases To Watch For This Week

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS)

Monday February 14, 2011
You gotta hand it to Square Enix for their persistence with trying to make us like the Dragon Quest series. Over in Japan it’s like some kind of mandatory cultural pastime or something. Around here, it has niche appeal at best. That’s not stopping them from localizing Dragon Quest 6 though. DQ6 came out almost 15 years ago on the SNES but was never localized for us. Last year, it was ported over to the DS in Japan and is finally done being localized for us poor folks who doesn’t want to bother with importing games. This being Dragon Quest, it’s a straight up RPG built in the classic Dragon Quest framework of turn-based combat with Akira Toriyama’s art style. DQ6 also employs a class system, which can be leveled to mastery. One of the unique things about this class system is if you manage to master the right combination of classes, you’ll unlock a hybrid class. If you manage to master that, you get some permanent stat boosts. Thankfully the port does update the graphics from the SNES version so we won’t be stuck with any Mode-7 shenanigans and whatnot. As for new features, there’s only 2, and from the sound of it, neither is all that consequential. There’s a Curling style mini-game involving Slimes. Then there’s the tag mode that does away with the addictive swapping of randomly generated maps that made Dragon Quest 9 so popular. The tag mode only lets you share your customized diorama displays with each other. Joy. Nevertheless, Dragon Quest games remain popular for good reasons. They’re reliably great RPGs. Let’s see what we’ve been missing out all these years shall we?

Let’s see, foot versus ball of fire. Who’s going to win this little encounter?

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday February 15, 2011

Everybody loves a good mashup. One of the best ones around has got to be the Marvel Vs. Capcom series wherein characters from the Marvel universe clash with the blokes from the Capcom universe. One of the first thing you might notice about MVC3 is the art style. Abandoning the sprites that has been used by Capcom in their fighting games since who knows when, MVC 3 adopts the black watercolor heavy art style of Street Fighter 4. This being a sequel and all, we’ll be getting some new characters alongside some returning favorites like Ryu, Magneto, Sentinel, and whatnot. Some noteworthy characters include Dante from Devil May Cry (The old Dante and not Justin Bieber’s older, more badass brother), Deadpool, and Thor. It’s a shame that Frank West of Dead Rising fame was cut at the last minute, but that may change down the road. Capcom also plans to release additional characters later via DLC with 2 having been already revealed. The two are Jill sporting the Resident Evil 5 look and Shuma-Gorath. Although this fighting series has never been known for having a well-balanced roster (At 36 characters large and counting, who can blame’em), MVC is much more known for busting out combos numbering in the high tens and finishing with one super move after another. Despite the lack of balance, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was pretty gosh darn popular with the fighting game crowd, and this one looks to sit comfortably next to its predecessor in their hearts. Besides, who doesn’t want to see Sir Arthur of Ghosts n Goblins fame beat the crap out of Dr. Doom?

Honorable Mention

Hyperdimension Neptunia (PS3)

Tuesday February 15, 2011

I’ve had this sentiment so many times during my tenure in Coming Soon that I really should come up with some kind of abbreviation for it. So I hereby christen OFJ, which stands for “Only From Japan.” This week’s OFJ is a seemingly regular Japanese RPG with hypercute anime, probably jailbait age girls busting out super attacks. All of this is standard fare for a JRPG, but what really sets it apart propels it straight into the OFJ category is the premise. The name of the world in Hyperdimension Neptunia is Gamindustri. Here, the regions of Planeptune, Leanbox, Lastation, and Lowee are in constant conflict with each other. Each one has a patron goddess – or CPUs (Console Patron Units) - that protects them. If I tell you that 3 of them are called Black Heart, White Heart, and Green Heart, would you be able to match them to their respective regions? You play as the 4th CPU known as Purple Heart of Planeptune in search of a book that contains the world history and theoretically has the secret needed to end the Console War. Believe it or not, the whole personification of the game console wars via cute little anime girls is not new to this game over in Japan. Also, in case you’re wondering, Planeptune is a take on the never released Sega Neptune, the theoretical successor to the Dreamcast. Given the game’s penchant to go way too far on the end of the cute spectrum that Americans just don’t like, I highly doubt Hyperdimension Neptunia would catch on anytime soon, but how often do you get to play out the console war right on a console? You just can’t get more meta than that.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP)

Tuesday February 15, 2011
How does one port over a 15 year old game whose genre has matured since the time it came out? I don’t know the answer to that, but reuniting the original developers of said game most definitely helps. Tactics Ogre is a strategy RPG that came out back in the Super NES days. It wasn’t the first SRPG, but the genre was just beginning back then. A lot has changed in the ways of the SRPG since then, and the developers seem to be cognizant of that fact and added several features to adapt to the changing of the times. First up is the C.H.A.R.I.O.T. system. It’s basically an Undo function like in a word processor program, and in this case you can undo up to 50 moves ago. This feature looks to be surprisingly detailed and even records your new sets of moves in a separate branch spawning off of whichever move you rewound to. Another change is how the game treats death, or how it helps you avoid it anyways. Tactics Ogre is the kind of SRPG where if you lose a character in the midst of combat, that character is gone forever. Here, all characters have 3 lives before they permanently die off, so take good care of them lest you lose them forever. In the pantheon of ports, it’s unlikely that you would come across one that has nearly as much additions and changes as this one. Most of it seems to be for the better, but who can tell until you try it for yourself.

Coming This Week

Tuesday February 14, 2011

Gears of War Triple Pack (Xbox 360)

Do you love chainsawing people underground dwelling orc-like beings with a chainsaw attached to your machine gun? Do you love big burly men in bedecked in hundred pound armor spouting macho lines in gruff voices while they shoot the hell out of said orc-like beings? And you don’t have Gears of War yet? Well aren’t you a lucky duck. This here compilation includes Gears of War 1, 2 and basically all the downloadble content, which include more multiplayer maps and the “Road to Ruin” campaign. Happy chainsawing!

LTTP

• Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life (DS) 2/15/2011
• Ys I & II Chronicles (PSP) 2/15/2011

I’m not much of a fighting game guy, so MVC3, despite the promise of having a wolf take on a giant robot, just doesn’t have that much appeal to me. Maybe I’ll just continue to stab myself in the eye with Demon’s Souls. How about you guys? Who’s up for taking part in the console war?

If you enjoy this article, please visit our website at www.rrbgames.com.  This feature is released every Monday.