Marvelous And XSEED's E3 Line Up - RPG Goodness

Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED games are teaming up for E3, showing off their line up of upcoming titles together as one united force of goodness. While the focus is mainly on the Nintendo DS and Wii, there is a PSP game in the form of RPG sequel Valhalla Knights 2 to spice things up. The name of the game here is RPGs, and the two combined have them in spades. For the Wii they've got three outstanding offerings - Rune Factory: Frontier, which takes the RPG/farming sim combo from the DS games to the console market, Avalon Code, a new RPG from the team behind Rune Factory and the Final Fantasy III and IV DS remakes, and the recently announced Little King's Story.

For those of you with a low tolerance for hit points, the dynamic duo will also be showing off XSEED's first DS games, Populous DS based on the classic PC game, KORG DS-10, a music creation program, and Retro Game Challenge, a mini-game title based on the Japanese Game Center CX TV series. Perhaps these three non-RPG titles will calm me enough to keep the Rune Factory fan in me from dry-humping their booth.

We've heard Xseed is publishing Marvelous' Little King's Story on the Wii this Winter (you can stop calling it "Project O" now), and between the gorgeous art style, charming look and the somewhat Harvest Moon-influenced gameplay blend of real-time strategy, adventure and RPG, there's a lot to clasp our hands in hopeful anticipation about.

Wait, there's more: The all-star team behind the game includes Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba, art director for FFXII.

I got to see an early demo of the kingmaking of little Corobo, the shy boy who the player must nurture into a wise and strong ruler.

Publisher XSeed admits that the first Valhalla Knights was just a wee bit of a hardcore grind, targeted squarely at that sector of the Japanese audience - and the non-Japanese fans who share their tastes.

So will Valhalla Knights 2 change things up a bit? Make things a little bit easier, more accessible? Add some simple modes, some auto-leveling, some easy outs?

Not so much.

"This one's actually a little bit harder," the Xseed rep told me when I went to go see Valhalla Knights 2 today. And, I'm told, that's exactly how the core JRPG fanbase wants things. In fact, the entire game's been built to accommodate the fanbase's feedback, and is shaping up to be a veritable wishlist of JRPG elements that could conceivably blow some minds when it hits PSP, likely in September.

Have Your Art In Little King's Story

Marvelous' upcoming Little King's Story, formerly known as "Project O," has some gorgeous art, so it's not a stretch to guess it might inspire some fan art. With that in mind, Marvelous and its publisher, Xseed, have announced an art contest, with the winner's design to appear in the game.

One artist will be chosen among 100 winners submitting an original picture of a creature, person, ghost, beast, or anything like that - the chosen design will become a character in the game, while the other 99 will be featured in the in-game museum exhibit.

The requirements for a valid entry are pretty specific, and all info and submission instructions are included after the jump. Pens, pencils, paint, go!

We just found out that Marvelous Entertainment's Wii-exclusive"Project O" has a real name, if you haven't heard: Little King's Story. It's due for a Winter 2008 release in North America, and today we learn that it will hit the PAL territories in the first quarter of 2009, being published by Rising Star Games (Xseed handles North America for Marvelous.)

The all-star team behind the game includes Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba, art director for FFXII. Pretty exciting, if you ask me!

It's the story of a shy little boy named Corobo who suddenly becomes a king, and gameplay sounds a little bit life sim, a little bit real-time strategy and adventure, as you might expect from Marvelous.

Japanese RPG fans, rejoice. Japan-based publisher Marvelous Entertainment announced a co-publishing partnership with L.A.-based XSeed, who's best known for Shadow Hearts: From The New World and Wild Arms 4 and 5. Through the deal, Marvelous, who among other titles publishes Natsume's Harvest Moon series, gains more North American presence, while XSeed gets to publish some of Marvelous' upcoming games here in the U.S.

Slated for a Fall 2008 launch, the first title they'll co-publish is Valhalla Knights 2 for PSP, a sequel to the April 2007 RPG that the two companies also co-published.

Full release follows the jump.

There's no doubt about it—the Wii is in dire need of some decent third party titles. That's why we find director SUDA-51's/Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes so intriguing. A sort of Grand Theft Auto meets Killer7 meets light sabers, the game promised to bring action, humor and style to the Wii...without Mario or his friends.

So what did the critics think? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out: not quite every review, but probably more than you're going to read anyway.

Harvest Moon Creator Wants to Make Spore-Like Game

Eventually, I'd like to make something like Spore, where you create something, and from there, new stuff is going to be created again and again and again. In a micro world, like The Sims for example, you have the city expanding but you can't see it. But you want to be one of the people living in the city, and to be a part of this growing too.

No More Heroes Video Trio

Marvelous Entertainment brings us a trio of No More Heroes videos. They are short and sweet but really give you a feel for the style and humor of the game. I'm really digging the 8-bit style elements like the pulsing heart and markers. The fist one has a little gameplay with some fighting, while the second shows how you power your weapons and yourself up. My favorite though, is the third clip featuring a look into lead character Travis' room which features some Japanese robot and figure collectibles, a short stint with a kitten and trip to the can with an amazingly weird and hilarious put-your-pants-back-on dance.

Make the jump for the other two videos.

Project O Trailer 2, Apricot

The second in the collectible series of 2, this Project O video...is really something. "I'm Apricot...umm...will you make me your queen?"

Shh. You had us at "umm."

Project O Trailer (Now in English)

Clarification on Halo Comic

Frankenreview: Valhalla Knights (PSP)