KOFZ Here comes a new challenger

I've been following the MugenChina team since 2007 I think on their progress on King of Fighters Zillion. They've already managed to put in more or less 30 characters to their roster, among which favorites such as Kyo, Iori and Athena.

 
What I'm really excited for them is their ability to convert other characters into the KOF 96-XI standard sprites that we love. Some characters where given different modes to correspond to different movesets and character sprites matching those, like Terry in Garou and Fatal Fury costumes. Some characters were converted from 3D like Alba Meira and Another K'Dash from KOF Maximum Impact. Some striker characters were given full movesets like Syo Kirishima (the Kyo prototype) while Iori was redrawn with Another Iori sprites. Some others were redrawn to fit with the 96-XI sprite sets like Iori from XII and Miu from KOF EX2.

Another thing special with this Mugen team is they are able to put up fresh characters without having to chop up other character sprites (making other character edits too Frankensteinish). Although one did get in the roster, yes I'm looking at you Mika with some of Vanessa's missing body parts. Below are original characters from the Mugen China team:

 Sima Li

Janny Tang

Unnamed New girl 

(looks like a round girl watchathink?)

Visit Mugen China to download the game. Yes, it's in Chinese, you can Google translate it if you want but don't expect smooth Engrish out there.

Link: MugenChina
Photos by: Jackie Kaisami and LMN360

Phoenix Wright

Who is Phoenix Wright?

I was asking myself that same question before when I heard about his name why people keep mentioning him to come out in Capcom crossover games. Now after some googling around I know who he is.

He is the main protagonist in the Ace Attorney series by Capcom, a novel type game where you play as the defense attorney of your clients. He is renowned for his turnabout defenses on hopeless cases, like the eponymous mythical bird coming out of its ashes. If only he wasn't disbarred then maybe we can get him for Lindsay Lohan. Ha!

I tried one game from the series titled Trials and Tribulations where you flashback how he became a lawyer in the first place. That was the third game in the series and I intend to play it chronologically so stopped playing after the prequel scenario. I loved the game, playing sorta kinda detective in a case where the evidences will pop out eventually after exploring witness testimonies. And I get to learn how a court proceeding go, albeit in the Japanese court system. Heyy, I don't get to watch any of them The Practice or Ally McBeals before yah know.

Makes me wanna pursue Law more. Well, maybe not Penal Law but Tax and/or Commercial Law. hahah

And no, I don't think he'll be appearing anytime soon in any Capcom crossover fighting game (although he did appear in SNK vs Capcom, but it was a card game yah know) unless you want him to poke you in the eye with a pen or smash your head with a gavel.

Matthew vs Ceodore

I've started playing Golden Sun Dark Dawn for some days now. Actually I started again cause I missed one Djinn and I checked the FAQs right after the very first road block. FAIL!

Matthew is the new hero of Golden Sun Dark Dawn, the third game in the Golden Sun series. He is the son of Isaac the hero of Vale from Golden Sun Broken Seal. He inherits his father's swordsmanship and abilities as an Earth Adept. And yes they are both blonde. He starts his journey 30 years after the events of Golden Sun The Lost Age.

Ceodore is the new hero of Final Fantasy IV After Years, the sequel to Final Fantasy IV (duh?). He is the son of Cecil Harvey and Rosa Farrell. He is part Lunarian, can sword-wield and can cast White magic (maybe from the mother side). And he did inherit his fathers platinum hair. He starts his joureny 17 years after the events of Final Fantasy IV.

Anyways, I'm just comparing Matthew and Ceodore because they are both sons of heroes of the previous installment before their time. I'm a big fan of the Golden Sun and Final Fantasy series (although I was bored with FF4s battle system). I'm excited with the FF4 Complete for the PSP. I hope they tweaked the ATB. hahah.

Dissidia Duodecim Flash Update

So there, I haven't updated much about which games I'm playing or following right now. One I'm most excited is the prequel to Dissidia, titled Dissidia Duodecim. It tells the story of the twelfth cycle war between the forces of Cosmos and Chaos. Many new characters are added in the game and this will tell you their story why there were not part of the thirteenth cycle.

Heniweys, the new combatants (or should they be old fighters since this one is a flashback of the present Dissidia, I got confused. hahah) are, in order of announcement via official site: Lightning (or miss Claire Farron), Kain Highwind, Tifa Lockhart,Vaan, and Laguna Loire. Lady Summoner has been presented via teaser in clip showing her performing her Sending ritual, and voila Yuna was last seen in a page in Famitsu update.

Lightning can change paradigm shift. Kain uses his dragoon abilities. Tifa's EX mode looks awful with her wearing somewhat an ultimate weapon which doesn't resemble her God's Hand, more like Twin Bee gloves. Vaan looks promising in this game as he is able to change weapons in battle the same way how in FFXII you can master any weapon you've learned via License grid, and he doesn't need to be in EX mode to be able to move like Gabranth. Laguna has more ranged attacks relying mostly on his bzookas and looks like an Irvine Kinneas clone.Yuna fights in her original summoner mode and her EX burst is Sending where she sends off multiple summons on the enemy (instead of sending the enemy to Farplane which should've been a lot easier doncha think?)

Other updates include third costumes. Most notable is the Edea cosplay of Ultimecia. Although she actually did possess Edea, why haven't they also tried having costumes for Adel and Rinoa? Cecil and Golbez's third costume comes from designs in The After Years. Gabranth's is the one he wore to impersonate Basch in the opening chapter in FFXII. All the rest are based on Amano's arts. Lightning and Cloud have an unlockable form based on 3rd Birthday and Kingdom Hearts respectively.

Other updates include assist system which I haven't reasearch on yet.

Final Fantasy IV Complete

Amano illustration featuring the 

The After cast headed by Ceodore.

I'm so excited for this one. I know I felt bored playing FF4 on GBA because I felt it was too slow. I haven't tried the DS version yet. And I know I can't play the The After sequel since it was only available as a downloadable content on mobile phones in Japan. Good luck to me.

Until fortune smile one day.

And here comes the PSP version, Final Fantasy IV Complete. It features the original game and the sequel in redrawn high resolution 2D graphics, plus a scenario that bridges the two games. As per wiki. Just one more problem, I have yet to buy my own PSP. hahah.

I 'm hoping to get that within the first quarter of the year. Right in time for Duodecim.

Now Playing: Breath of Fire V

As I said before, I am pretty much backlogged when it comes to games. I had just started Breath of Fire V Dragon's Quarter which was released seven years ago. It marked the death of Capcom's dragon franchise.

The game is straightforward and levelling up isn't that much a pain in the ass. I've been resetting the game like three or four times now and it's good that you get to retain your inventory and skills.

Now I stopped playing it again and gone back to wiki surfing. I searched for some articles in Breath of Fire and it led me tothis photo:

Ryu from 4, 2, 1, 3, and 5. Then Nina from 5, 3,1, 2 and 4.

The history of BoF. In my book, the coolest Ryu for me would be from BoF3. The coolest Nina from BoF4. Coolest dragon system would be from BoF3. Coolest ensemble from BoF2. Coolest rival is a tie between BoF3's Teepo and BoF4's Fou-lu.

Speaking of Fou-lu, Saiki (and/or Ash Crimson) looks kinda like him. Watchathink? Both were powerful royalties from the past.

Fou-lu on the left and Saiki on the right.

Anyways, I gotta return to finishing BoFV. Next time, I'll write a review slash trip-down-memory-lane for the other BoFs.

Review: Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin

Today I just finished Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS. It took me a long time to finish this game not because it was hard, actually it was a bit hard but that's nothing to grinding all the way to the top, but because I found it a bit boring compared to Dawn of Sorrow and the next in line Order of Ecclesia.

The game stars the first on screen duo on the vampire series, Jonathan Morris, an heir to the family loyal to the Belmont Clan and this era's Vampire Slayer wielder although he does not know how to unleash its power yet, and his friend and companion Charlotte Aulin, descendant of the Belnades clan of sorceresses.

The castle involves a lot of portraits, and you can jump inside these paintings, mainly because the villain is a painter who can cast dimensions inside his paintings, or something like that. You travel across a series of maps, around ten I think. And you know that in the end you'll have to face Dracula. He's never absent in any Castlevania game, I think. This time, since the game is all about duos, you fight him with Death in tag.

Some goodies I found in this game:

1. Jonathan can morph into an owl instead of the usual bat. (Well, the black one for Alucard and the white one for Soma and they have the reason why they can turn into those.)
2. When you cast 'Greatest Five' duo attack, the game would flash five Belmonts (Richter, Leon, Trevor, Juste and Simon) doing whip slashes. Leon Belmont was redrawn in 2-D. Sometimes they would show their original in-game sprite. Look at poor Simon!
3. Finishing the game unlocks two modes: Richter and Sisters mode. During Richter (misspelled Richiter) mode you play as him in his Rondo of Blood sprite including the eight-year-old-or-something girl Maria Renard also in her Rondo sprite. They could have redrawn them to the Dracula X remake for the PSP. The Sisters mode lets you play as the twins Loretta and Stella Lecarde. The always float and the only way to make them attack is to click on the touch screen. Lame.
4. Jonathan's super jump makes him do a shoryuken type of uppercut. Charlotte's double jump makes her summon a broom, which is a nod to her being a witch.
5. The map are is a thousand percent, equivalent to ten full maps, many are just mirrors of the original maps. Still, Symphony of the Night's odd-numbered-percentage map completion is still larger.

Anyways, we'll be seeing more of Jonathan and Charlotte in the upcoming game Harmony of Despair, where they'll be joining forces with Alucard, Soma and Shanoa. Poor Nathan Graves, never seen again after the moon eclipsed on him.

Rating: 2.5~3 out of 5. Low replay value.

Next stop: Glyph master Shanoa.

Coming Soon: Golden Sun DS: Dark Dawn

What is this?! After half a decade Camelot is releasing a sequel to Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age titled Dark Dawn. I haven't started searching details on this game. The only thing I know is that it will be coming out November 29th in the US.

The lead character looks a lot like Isaac. Maybe I should start playing Golden Sun again. If you haven't yet, you should. Tis the best RPG in the good old Gameboy Advance. I'm looking forward to a whole new set of puzzles.

Trailer:

Video Games | Golden Sun: Dark Dawn | E3 2010: Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Coming Soon: Tactics Ogre

Square-Enix will be remaking (or was it porting?) Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together to the PSP. I'm so excited. This is my first love before Final Fantasy Tactics came (retitled War of the Lions on the PSP). Little information can be scavenged around the net and the official site offered some only in Japanese. Poor me.

The trailer showed the tarot cards from Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. The game looks almost the same except that character portraits are redrawn and additional battle information are added on the bottom of the screen. I also missed the Forbidden Sisters Olivian, Selye, Shelly and Sisteena. And Deneb as well. Oh and there's this new punkass girl wearing mail, she looks kinda bitchy. hahah

____________________

Source:
タクティクスオウガ 運命の輪 | SQUARE ENIX

Dots and Sketches

August 26 when the official blog of KOFXIII posted new contents. It featured tournament sponsor Rose Bernstein's sketches in an alternate red and an elegant blue gown.

 We also have Botan's sketches. She should be killed for what she did to that fox.

You can see also see how they applied dot graphics on those that did not make it to the game: Chang Koehan. The other three: Malin, Momoko and Oswald are all in higher quality sprites than their previous incarnation in XI.

And we see the Harukeshi (called Those from the Past in English and alternately Those from His Distant Land) without their ceremonial garbs.