We were big fans of Dead or Alive 5, both of the Vita and the PlayStation 3/ Xbox 360 versions. So when Team Ninja announced Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate, a few of us were pretty excited. Designated as the definitive Dead or Alive 5 game, Ultimate will bring together new…
Read MoreTecmo Koei has unveiled its E3 lineup, and has given us some firm release dates for its games this year. Most of these titles were known to be coming out, but now we have some specific dates and systems as well as additional details about each title. Atelier Meruru Plus:…
Read MoreYosuke Hayashi has had the ultimate trial by fire. Taking over one of the most popular game development teams within the Tecmo Koei group from Tomonobu Itagaki – that’s Team Ninja for the uninitiated – was always going to be a challenging mission. Itagaki is, after all, one of the…
Read MoreI was one of the rare few that enjoyed the original Ninja Gaiden 3. While I understood what put people off the game, there was a dynamism and intensity in the game that I hadn’t experienced before or since. But the game was indeed a critical disaster, and impressively, in…
Read MoreIt initially struck me as a little strange that the first PlayStation Vita port of GUST’s superb Arland trilogy in the Atelier series is the second one. Atelier Rorona came first and yet Totori is what we’re now taking with us on commutes around the world. Once I started playing…
Read MoreEvery so often I have to admit that I get a review wrong. When I reviewed Dead or Alive 5 on the PlayStation 3, I’d plugged about 30 hours into it, and while I enjoyed it, it didn’t quite hook into me like I wanted it to. But this was…
Read MoreTecmo Koei’s Warriors franchise has settled into a comfortable rhythm. Every couple of years we get a new numbered release. The last one of those, Dynasty Warriors 7, we got our hooks into in 2010. From there the team takes that engine and applies it to a number of spin-off…
Read MoreI still don’t quite understand where the R18+ rating for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus came from. This is a game that features violence, but even with the PlayStation Vita enhancements the violence is aging quite badly. It’s more amusing like when an anvil lands on Wile E Coyote’s head…
Read MoreOf all the JRPGs that I have played in this generation, the Atelier games by the tiny development outfit, GUST, have been the ones that I have enjoyed the most. I realise that they’re not awe-inspiring works of art, deep-and-meaningful philosophical treatises into the meaning of life and other questions…
Read MoreThe Atelier series is popular with a few of us, including one editor in particular (we’re looking at you Matt). I suspect then, that he will be even more excited than I was to see the ton of screenshots and trailer for Atelier Meruru Plus. Scheduled to release in Japan…
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