News

Trademarked some time ago, Konami recently announced a new title in the cult-favorite Suikoden series of RPGs. The game is about 50% complete, and "Tierkreis" is a German word meaning "Zodiac," - a few sparse details about the game have been released (it stars a young main named Jail and uses a four-member party of sorts) but for the most part very little is known to the public and fan forums are blazing with rumor and anticipation. There is also no word on the game being published outside of Japan.

Source: RPGFan

Chrono Trigger DS is coming to the United States on November 25, 2008, just in time to give North American games another thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but unfortunately also just in time for laszlow to pick up a new distraction from semester exams. Earlier information indicated a release in early December, but a new press release from Square-Enix gives us a new, definite time.

In other regions, the release date is still uncertain, with a "Winter 2008" release in Japan and an "Early 2009" release in Europe and Australia.

Source: Kotaku

Two games previously announced as being released only for mobile phones, Final Fantasy Agito XIII and The Third Birthday ("Parasite Eve 3"), are receiving PSP ports as early as 2009. Square-Enix disclosed this information at a private expo to media and select fans currently taking place,

Very few details are available on Agito XIII, but it is said to be an RPG with online elements and a cast of at least twelve characters. The promotional posters for Agito show a silver-haired character (no word on gender) holding a deck of cards. The Third Birthday is a spinoff of the cult favorite Parasite Eve series, starring Aya Brea several years after the events of Parasite Eve 2, dealing with an outbreak of monsters called The Twisted.

There is no official announcement for a release of either of these games outside of Japan, but here's one PSP-owning Parasite Eve fan keeping his fingers crossed.

Source: Kotaku
Also: Vampire pumpkins and watermelons

We're a little late on this, but it's still worth a newspost. Saturday morning, at Blizzard's European expo in Paris, Blizzard announced the third installment in one of their three flagship series: Diablo. Diablo III will continue the tradition set by its predecessors, with intrepid adventurers exploring dungeons and seeking to defeat some unspeakable evil, using an action-oriented combat system with RPG elements that usually proves to be incredibly addictive for players.

Diablo III has no release date as of yet, but several trailers and gameplay videos are available on Blizzard's website. Specific plot and storyline details don't seem to be available. Diablo III will have five playable classes, and for the first time players must select a sex for their character, rather than having specific classes associated with specific sexes. Two of the classes are the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor; the former seems very similar to its Diablo II counterpart, while the latter seems to combine elements of the Necromancer and Sorceress classes from Diablo II.

Now that Blizzard has new games in development for each of their primary franchises, fans of just about any Blizzard game have something to look forward to in the coming years. Personally, I hope that by the time this comes out I'll be finished with school, because goodness knows I'll throw at least a hundred hours at it. It makes me feel like tracking down my Diablo II CDs and taking my old antipode-Sorceress for a spin.

Source: Blizzard

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, the DS sequel to the GBA game Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, will hit the United States on June 24th, 2008. FFTA2 boasts touchscreen mechanics, more character classes than its predecessor, and several tie-ins to the larger Ivalice Alliance spinoff-series. For example, Vaan, Penelo, Al-Cid, and several other characters from Final Fantasy XII will also play a role in this storyline.

FFTA2 stars a hunter named Luso, who players of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions may have already seen in a playable cameo role. FFTA2 also marks the fourth Square-Enix game as part of the Ivalice Alliance and the third to be released in the United States, after FFT: War of the Lions, FF XII: Revenant Wings, and the Japan-only FF XII International. Set those calendars and charge those DSes for June 24th.

Source: RPGFan

This coming June, American gamers will be able to pick up an 80-gig Sony PlayStation 3, a single DualShock 3 controller, and a copy of the hotly-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 at a price point of $499.99 US. If anyone was already planning on eventually picking up a PS3 and MGS4, then it just got a little cheaper.

Source: IGN