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.

Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games

Join Forces to Announce E3 2008 Line Up

Independent Game Publishers to Showcase Stellar Portfolio of Titles on Wii™ and Popular Handheld Systems

Torrance, Calif., (July 11, 2008) – Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games today announced its E3 plans which include a stellar line up of games for both Nintendo platforms, the Nintendo DS and Wii, as well as the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. Both companies will display their portfolio of upcoming titles at E3 2008 which will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 15th – 17th. E3 attendees are invited to visit the Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games booth located at Concourse Hall Pavilion #427.

”We’re very pleased to be able to give the North American audience a sneak peak at our upcoming lineup,” stated Yasuhiro Wada, Managing Director of Marvelous Entertainment. “This is just the beginning of some of the great games that we’ll be releasing in the US under our Marvelous Entertainment USA banner.”

“It’s been an amazing year for us, and we feel that we’re well positioned going into E3,” said Jun Iwasaki, President of XSEED Games. “We’ve got a fantastic partnership with Marvelous Entertainment which we greatly appreciate, and the overall line up of titles we’re showcasing is strong and diverse, which we’re exceptionally excited about.”

Games being shown under the Marvelous and XSEED Games partnership are:

Avalon Code DS

From the creative minds behind Rune Factory and Harvest Moon with the development studio responsible for the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV DS remakes comes Avalon Code, an action RPG boasting incredible graphics, a deep and engrossing story, and innovative game play mechanics. Using the main character’s ‘Book of Prophecy’, players can modify the rules of engagement during battle as well as weapon and monster attributes. The player even has control over the story as it changes depending on which gender the player chooses to play as, enhancing the ability to immerse themselves into the story. Avalon Code DS is scheduled for release Q1 2009. The game will be published in Europe by Rising Star Games*, a subsidiary of Marvelous Entertainment.

Rune Factory: Frontier Wii

From the creators of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory for the DS comes the first installment of Rune Factory for a home console. Developed exclusively for Wii, Rune Factory: Frontier features stunning graphics and takes full advantage of the Wii’s unique controls to fully immerse players in the Rune Factory universe. Rune Factory: Frontier incorporates an open-ended structure that allows players to choose the type of game they wish to experience. Whether it’s growing crops, expanding the town, fighting (or befriending) monsters or even falling in love, the experience is unique to each player. Rune Factory: Frontier Wii is scheduled for release Q1 2009. The game will be published in Europe by Rising Star Games*, a subsidiary of Marvelous Entertainment.

LITTLE KING’S STORY Wii

Little King’s Story has an art style that is very ‘story-book’ in look and a magical fairy tale quality that will intrigue and delight gamers. The storyline, visual look, and lyrical music of Little King’s Story, work in concert to transport players to an interactive, enchanting, fairy tale world. By combining gameplay elements from life-simulation, real-time strategy, and adventure genres, the many aspects of creating a vast kingdom come to life! As King, players will manage and involve their townspeople in the goals of creating this new territory; enlisting them to dig for treasure, build new buildings and otherwise better their community. Of course, leadership is a two-way street, so as King, players will try to conquer rival nations to create a single unified kingdom, while also granting the requests of townspeople at whim. The game transforms the Wii Remote™ to a royal scepter and offers players the chance to be the best king in the world! Little King’s Story Wii is scheduled for release Winter 2008. The game will be published in Europe by Rising Star Games*, a subsidiary of Marvelous Entertainment.

VALHALLA KNIGHTS 2 PSP system

Sequel to the popular Valhalla Knights, Valhalla Knights 2 promises to give fans of the original game a vast and expansive world to explore, and the customization tools to create the ultimate battle party. This action RPG (Role Playing Game) sequel adds new races, job classes, weapons, magic spells, foes, armor and more to the Valhalla Knights universe, all within an engrossing story arc. Controlling and choosing character aspects such as skills, race and appearance, players engage in real-time 6 on 6 battles, reliant on tactical combat strategies to achieve success. Supporting 2 player ad hoc network play, gamers can engage in Co-op and Versus modes with friends, or simply trade items and weapons. Valhalla Knights 2 PSP system is scheduled for release Fall 2008.

Separately, XSEED Games will unveil the company’s first official support of the Nintendo DS with three titles:

Populous™ DS

Based on the original Populous PC classic from Electronic Arts, Populous DS brings a re-imagination of the classic game, which pioneered the God simulation genre. Featuring touch-screen controls that utilize the dual-screens, players manipulate 5 elementally-imbued gods, each with their own unique miracles, within an extensive single-player campaign. Within the multiplayer wireless mode, up to 4 players can unleash earthquakes, tidal waves and raging volcanoes onto rival players’ lands. Populous DS is scheduled for release Fall 2008. The game will be published in Europe by Rising Star Games*, a subsidiary of Marvelous Entertainment.

KORG DS-10

Designed after the famous KORG MS-10 music synthesizer, KORG DS-10 is a music-creation program for professional and aspiring musicians alike. The sound sources in the KORG DS-10 come from KORG, one of the world’s top musical instrument producers, and no effort was spared in the replication of creating high-quality sounds. The Nintendo DS’s touch-screen controls are utilized to the fullest to provide an authentic feel and operability across a dual-screen layout that is unsurpassed in portable music creation. A 6-track/16-step sequencer enables precise control and provides a wide range of musical possibilities, and up to eight DS units can be linked via wireless connection to play together or to exchange sounds and songs. KORG DS-10 is scheduled for release Fall 2008.

Retro Game Challenge

An original game based on the popular Japanese GAME CENTER CX TV series, Retro Game Challenge reinvents how classic games are played. Featuring a story-driven progression, players complete short challenges in a wide-variety of fictional retro-games. Specific challenges in shooting, racing, action and even an epic role-playing game are integrated into the story, while the in-game magazines offer cheat codes as well as fake 80’s news stories paying tribute to the rich history of the gaming industry. Released to raving reviews as Game Center CX: Arino’s Challenge in Japan, the game received a Gold Award from Famitsu with a 33/40 review score. Retro Game Challenge is scheduled for release Winter 2008.

Turns out that Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura gave the TWEWY DS as a gift to Xseed's company president, Jun Iwasaki, who was Square's CEO before he left to found Xseed. Nomura also gave Iwasaki one of those Crisis Core PSPs, but apparently, while Iwasaki decided to keep the TWEWY DS, he gave the PSP to one of his colleagues.

The DS is even more awesome-looking in person; it's gloss silver, and the logo is nice and shiny.

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.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful watercolor-pencil style of the cute, humorous cutscenes (we published the trailers a while back here) - and how well they transitioned immediately into the brightly-colored game world. I watched as a wacky looking old knight came riding up on a cute, bulbous cow (yes, it was the much-revered Harvest Moon cow) in his search for the true king.

Corobo then discovers a crown, suddenly prompting his friends to prostrate in homage. Next thing you know, you're in a throne room, and as you start the game as a level one "rookie" king, your mailbox soon fills up with all sorts of mundane requests, like getting rid of a red mushroom that's annoying the townsfolk, or filling in a mysterious hole behind someone's house.

In the scene I watched, the charming, fancily-mustachioed Bull Knight explained to Corobo that the neighboring lands are under siege by Oni devils and under the rulership of false kings, which, of course, it falls to you to rally your folk to deal with. Any time you want to know the state of your kingdom or what needs doing, you return to your throne.

But, of course, you're the King, so you don't have to do this dirty work yourself. Waving your sceptre at townspeople will recruit them to your aid - you can have a few or up to a throng of fifty following you from place to place, ready to do your bidding. Many townsfolk will have different specialties; for example, a team of carpenters will build something when instructed much faster and more efficiently than a group of regular individuals.

You can often earn respect by completing these quests; the more renowned you are as a ruler, the more people will obey you. And your obedient subjects are not just faceless nobodies. They've got HP and attack points, can gain in abilities, and will even show their relationship status - given enough time, your townspeople will marry and propagate. If you don't treat them well, though, if you battle too recklessly or work them too hard, they can permanently die, and as their King, you'll have to attend their funerals. That could be very interesting.

What I saw was mostly exposition and early stages of play, but this is a title I'll personally watch with enthusiasm, because life-sim/adventure hybrids rate pretty high up among my favorite genres.

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.

Valhalla Knights 2 will be a sequel to the first only as much as, say, the Final Fantasy titles are sequels - incorporating some of the same magic systems and thematic elements, but existing in its own new world. More of a successor than a sequel, then.

Though VH2 adds more cinematic cutscenes than the previous Valhalla Knights, story takes somewhat of a back seat to quest-based gameplay, it seems. "There's more stuff to do, and more is better," said the rep.

I'm not done mentioning Final Fantasy, either. VK2's story's being written by Miwa Shoda, scenario designer for FFXII as well as Sword of Mana and SaGa Frontier, while the music's done by Advent Children soundtracker Shojiro Nakaoka.

The basic premise for VH2 involves a Goddess of Judgment, who appears every thousand years to evaluate the world and see how humans are doing. Oops, I'm showing my race bias - there are dwarves, halflings and robots, too. Anyway, this time, the Goddess determines that there's just too much war going on, and decides, in a Biblical Flood-type scenario, to eradicate all life as we know it. A witch with just a little more faith in mankind (and dwarfkind, and halflingkind, et cetera) decides to wound the Goddess to stay her hand, and yes, now it's up to you to save the world.

We know that VH2 will add three new job classes not seen in its predecessor, and two new races - in the demo I saw, you can play as one of various breeds of dog. Dogs using tennis rackets, statues and giant mallets as weapons. The rep told me that the franchise's hallmark is its character customizations; in addition to being able to select your characters' race and job class and customize their look and ability with armor and accessories, VH2 now adds the ability for you to customize faces and hair, too.

There are significantly more options across the board for VH2 - its predecessor had some 200 weapons and armor altogether, and this one's got 300. There are now over 100 items and over 70 spells, and from where I sat, the possibilities looked virtually endless. You can have up to six characters active in your party at a time, and can switch out the leader in realtime, and their entire outfit and equipment on the fly.

You can also change a character's job class at any time. Let's say you're a level 10 Priest. You can switch to being a Level 1 fighter - and keep all of your leveled-up Priest spells and your stats, too. In fact, the rep told me it'll be necessary to switch classes periodically to develop well-rounded characters. At any given time, you occupy one primary class and two sub-classes.

A grid in your menu lets you decide your battle formation - i.e., who stands in front and who stands in back. VH2's battles aren't random - all enemies are visible in the game world. If they see you, they'll try to engage you, but you can stealth-sneak past them by crouching down while you walk if you're hoping to avoid a fight. A small map on the upper right corner of the screen shows you where enemies are in relation to you, so that they don't sneak up on you, too.

If you do happen to get attacked from the back, your back row becomes your front row - but you can rapidly switch your team around in real time too, to get the mages behind the fighters and so forth. And as the battle progresses, each character builds up a gauge to use a special attack (think Limit Breaks) , and the type of attack depends on the type of weapon equipped.

Right now, said the rep, gameplay stands at a hefty 80 hours, but I was told this may be reduced somewhat for the U.S. audience. The length and intensity, said the rep, was aimed more at the Monster Hunter type of fan, so some edits might get made to suit the specifics of North American taste.

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!

Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games are Pleased to Announce Fan Art Contest for Little King’s Story

Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games are holding an artwork contest where winning entries will appear in the upcoming Little King’s Story

Torrance, Calif., (June 13, 2008) –Marvelous Entertainment USA and XSEED Games announced today that they are holding a fan artwork contest where winning entries will appear in their newly announced video game title Little King’s Story for Wii™.

100 winners will be selected – One (1) Grand Prize Winner’s illustration will become an actual in-game character, while ninety-nine (99) other illustrations will be displayed in the in-game museum exhibit! The theme of the competition is some kind of UMA, or an Unidentified Mysterious Animal. The illustration can be any kind of creature, beast, ghost, a weird man, etc; the only thing limiting the creativity of the creation is your own imagination!

The contest may be entered by e-mailing an original digital work of art in the form of a .gif, .jpg, .bmp, .tiff, or.eps file to comments@xseedgames.com with the subject heading “Little King’s Story UMA Contest.” Your illustration must be an unpublished, original work of art and the image should have dimensions of 148mm x 105mm with a resolution of 300 DPI.

Please provide the following information in the body of your e-mail:

· Name of your UMA

· Your name

· Your age

· Your address

· Your phone number

· Your e-mail address

· Name that you wish to appear with the illustration (real name or pen name)

If you prefer to send in your submission by mail, mail a standard 4.25” x 6” postcard with the UMA illustration or a CD containing the digital artwork and above listed information to:

Little King’s Story UMA Contest

XSEED Games

21515 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 1020

Torrance, CA 90503

All entries must be e-mailed or post-marked by August 1, 2008

For more information and to read the full official contest rules please visit:

http://www.littlekingsstory.com

or

http://www.xseedgames.com

Marvelous Entertainment Inc.

Marvelous Entertainment is a leading Japanese creator of interactive entertainment with such esteemed franchises as Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Luminous Arc and No More Heroes under their corporate umbrella. More information on Marvelous Entertainment can be found at http://www.mmvus.com.

XSEED Games

XSEED Games was formed in November 2004, by a small group of industry veterans led by president Jun Iwasaki with a common vision; to cross pollinate the avid gaming culture of Japan and North America. Delivering unique, innovative titles across multiple platforms and genres, XSEED Games is dedicated to publishing products that appeal and enrich the North American market. More information on XSEED Games can be found at http://www.xseedgames.com.

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.

Torrance, Calif., (May 9, 2008) - Japan-based game publisher Marvelous Entertainment Inc. and Los Angeles-based game company XSEED Games announced today their entering into a strategic co-publishing partnership. The deal will help to establish a US publishing presence for Marvelous Entertainment and will provide XSEED Games an opportunity to access and bring to market titles from Marvelous' portfolio of high quality, popular games. Under the agreement, XSEED Games will support key Marvelous Entertainment titles for publishing and distribution in North America, with the first title to be announced under this partnership, Valhalla Knights 2 for the PlayStation® Portable (PSP), scheduled to launch in fall 2008. "We're pleased to be able to announce our new expansion into the largest gaming market in the world, the United States. I'm confident that together with our co-publishing agreement with XSEED Games, we will be able to hit the ground running as we ramp up our US operations," stated Yasuhiro Wada, Managing Director of Marvelous Entertainment. Jun Iwasaki, President of XSEED Games, shared Mr. Wada's sentiments. "We're honored to get the chance to partner with Marvelous Entertainment as they establish and grow their presence in the US market. They have an exceptional library of original and creative games many of which should prove a hit with Western gamers."

Sequel to the popular Valhalla Knights, Valhalla Knights 2 promises to give fans of the original game a vast and expansive world to explore, and the customization tools to create the ultimate battle party. This action RPG (Role Playing Game) sequel adds new races, job classes, weapons, magic spells, foes, armor and more to the Valhalla Knights universe, within an engrossing story arc. Controlling and choosing character aspects such as skills, race, and appearance, players can engage in real-time 6 on 6 battles, reliant on tactical combat strategies to achieve success. Supporting 2 player ad hoc network play, gamers can engage in Co-op and Versus modes with friends, or simply trade items and weapons.

"Valhalla Knights 2 will carry on the legacy its predecessor established as a beloved game in any RPG player's library," remarked Ken Berry, Marketing and Sales at XSEED Games. "We appreciate this game being the first in our co-publishing partnership with Marvelous Entertainment as it will help to set the quality standard high for all future games coming out of this deal."

Marvelous Entertainment and XSEED Games will be announcing additional titles under this co-publishing deal in the near future, as well as more specific game details and assets for Valhalla Knights 2.

Marvelous Entertainment Inc.

Marvelous Entertainment is a leading Japanese creator of interactive entertainment with such esteemed franchises as Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Luminous Arc and No More Heroes under their corporate umbrella. More information on Marvelous Entertainment can be found at http://www.mmvus.com.

XSEED Games

XSEED Games was formed in November 2004, by a small group of industry veterans led by president Jun Iwasaki with a common vision; to cross pollinate the avid gaming culture of Japan and North America. Delivering unique, innovative titles across multiple platforms and genres, XSEED Games is dedicated to publishing products that appeal and enrich the North American market. More information on XSEED Games can be found at http://www.xseedgames.com.

XSEED Games Announces Wild ARMs XF

Journey Through the World of Filgaia With Strategic Hex Battle System

Torrance, Calif., (November 29, 2007) —- Are you ready to carry around the fate of a dying planet in your hands? XSEED Games today announced that it has acquired North American publishing rights for Wild ARMs XF, a deep and challenging turn-based strategy RPG for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, scheduled for release in Spring 2008.

Wild ARMs XF (pronounced "Crossfire") is the newest installment in the long-running role-playing series which marks a couple firsts for the franchise; the first one containing tactical strategy gameplay, as well as the first Wild ARMs game to appear on a handheld system. Wild ARMs XF offers a unique strategy role-playing experience with a hex-based grid system producing more tactical positioning options, a large number of job classes allowing vast party customization, and a wide range of mission objectives making it one of the deepest strategy games on the PSP® system. Wild ARMs XF features an all-new cast in an epic story of death, betrayal and redemption played out against the backdrop of the dying world of Filgaia.

The Story

The once vibrant world of Filgaia is slowly dying, a result of some cataclysmic event lost in the dim, misty reaches of the past. The few pathetic remnants of once mighty nations are caught up in an endless cycle of war, fighting over Filgaia's ever-dwindling natural resources. Amidst the carnage and slow decay, there is one kingdom that has until recently managed to avoid the chaos and suffering plaguing its neighbors; the kingdom of Elesius.

However, the kingdom is slowly descending into anarchy with the king inflicted with a mysterious illness that has kept him bed-ridden, intensifying the future uncertainty as the heir-apparent disappeared a year earlier and is presumed dead. An opportunistic senate has formed its own police force and is gradually usurping power from the royal family.

It is against this backdrop of political intrigue and social decay that the main character Clarissa Arwin, accompanied by her half-brother and protector, Felius, enter Elesius hot on the trail of Rupert Dandridge, the man who murdered her mother. What started out as a personal vendetta soon turns into an epic battle to not only keep a kingdom from falling, but to save the world of Filgaia from being turned into an uninhabitable wasteland.

Key Features

· Innovative hex-based battle grid system allows more tactical positioning options, such as Formation Arts and Combination Arts, as opposed to the traditional square-based battle grid.

· One of the deepest strategy games on the PSP system with over 60 stages containing a wide array of mission objectives, as well as numerous optional battles.

· Almost endless party customization with over 20 unique job classes to choose from such as Berserker, Elementalist, Grappler, Geomancer and Sacred Slayer.

· Extensive material creation options to create more powerful weapons, spell books and armor by combining rare materials obtained by sending out hired mercenaries to scavenge throughout the world of Filgaia.

· US-exclusive inclusion of a Music Library containing 20 select tracks from the game accessible any time from the game menu.

The ESRB rating and suggested retail price will be announced at a later date. Additional information on the title will be available at http://www.xseedgames.com.

Hit the jump for our Frankenreview. We take little parts of every review and shove them together like the classical monster you all know and love - better known as Swamp Thing.

G4
Chop off the realtime combat system, replace the graphics with a primitive first-person view, and you have Wizardry, The Bard's Tale, or any number of other PC adventures. You have to have been there to get in on the joke, but a few players over on the shady side of 30 should some pleasant reminder of their youths...As for everybody else, well, there's not as much here.


GamesRadar
... what little story is present, involving your main player's loss of memory and speaking in ellipses, won't be enough to keep most players mashing buttons. Not that we consider all thumb workouts unnecessary, but if enemies are going to successfully melee attack you regardless of their proximity, rendering any dynamic evasion moot, it makes us wonder why they didn't just keep it turn-based.


1UP
...Valhalla Knights becomes pure torture. You see, in order to change classes, you must remove all of a character's equipment. Since you've only got 30 free inventory spots, though, that doesn't leave much free space to actually hold this equipment. Thus, switching jobs — a simple task that should be as easy as accessing a menu option — becomes a tedious, drawn-out game of hot potato as you swap armor, weapons, and healing flasks between characters for what seems like hours on end...Oh, wait — it is hours on end.


Total Playstation
[With] Ad-Hoc-only multiplayer modes...Though you can't quest through the main game in any sort of proper co-op, you can go on specific quests to gain experience and items to help out in your solo adventure...you can also duel someone, winner take all. They're decent additions to be sure, but actually having a full-time co-op mode would have made trudging through those dungeons and doing all that backtracking a whole lot easier.


GameZone
...even with these flaws, the game's best features shine through. You'll love the fact that the game includes a wide range of weapons and equipment (all which even alters the appearance of your character). You'll adore the fact that you can add than one job class to your character, allowing your fighter to have some Priest healing abilities or a Ninja's ability to successfully sneak past enemies...Plus, the story is not bad once you get past the complex beginning.

Despite those who ripped the game (basically everyone), I still really want to play it. I miss designing my own characters and building my own teams. Plus, I love tedium. It's just great. Mark Wilson