News

The latest issue of Shonen Jump magazine shined a bit of light on some more details surrounding Konami's newest PlayStation 2 addition to their beloved RPG series, Suikoden V.

To kick things off, the traditional six member parties will make a triumphant return, having been downsized to four in Suikoden IV. The battle formations, although a little more free in structure than in previous titles, will also make a comeback. Among the different formations possible is a six-character arc and a setup of three rows consisting of one, two, and three party members.

As fans of the series are aware, Konami has always made a point to include characters from past Suikoden titles within the worlds of newer games. Following suit, it's been confirmed that Georg Prime (Suikoden II) will make an appearance in Suikoden V, leading to the conclusion that the game takes place within a timeframe similar to that of the first three installments.

Confirmations regarding new characters have popped up left and right as well. There's the Knight Captain Felid, who's married to the queen, Alshtat. Limsleia is his daughter; she's also the sister of the hero. Party members mentioned are Miakis, Galeon, Kyle, and Fuwala-fuwalu, yet no details on the latter four beyond their names have been provided. A highly gifted mage named Zerase will additionally become part of the entourage through the 108 Stars of Destiny, and the group's strategist, a woman known as Lucredia, will be assisted by Shius, a soldier, and Lelei, Shius' partner.

Japan is expected to receive Suikoden V in stores on February 23, 2006. Konami has announced a North American release for the game, but no date has been revealed.

Source: RPGamer

If you frequent the news forum or the front page of the site, you no doubt noticed our call for newsposters to help Silverfork with her duties of, well, posting news. We had a great response with a surprising number of auditions, and thank you to all who sent us an email to apply. Having read through them, we offered spots to three of your fellow CoN members; I'm happy to say that all three gladly accepted our offer!

So, please give your congratulations to our three new newsposters, Laszlow, Karasuman, and Zero_Hawk. They all sent in great auditions and you can look forward to getting good news from them for some time to come. We're in the process of getting them settled in now, so be ready to read!

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of Marvelous Interactive's popular Harvest Moon series, prompting a celebratory announcement of three new installments.

First off, Shintarou Mashima, president of Arte Piazza and the development team behind Innocent Life - Shin Bokujou Monogatari for the PSP, stated that the game will feature concepts of both "big adventure" and "slow life of the future". In addition to the flagship series' normal role-playing and farming and life simulations, the controlled character will have to solve a number of riddles relating to a legend spoken within the town. Innocent Life is looking at a Spring, 2006 release date in Japan.

Meanwhile, Rune Factory - Shin Bokujou Monogatari, slated for release on the Nintendo DS, will attempt to steer the series in a slightly different direction: In previous Harvest Moon titles, players were able to tend to crops and livestock on farmland devoid of any notable dangers, save the occasional rainstorm or hurricane. Rune Factory, however, will add monsters into the mix, allowing players to either capture them or fight them off in an RPG battle fashion. The game will be available in Japan sometime next year.

Finally, Bokujou Monogatari Online (Harvest Moon Online) has yet to receive a concrete announcement regarding the platform for its release, although Marvelous Interactive has said that a PC version is possible. No launch date has currently been set.

Source: RPGFan

Since I've been away from a PC for almost twenty-four hours now, I assume that most of you have already seen all this. I know a lot of you have seen the new avatars, as I myself and several of you have already taken advantage of them.

Thanks to Teta, we now have a new large gallery of stylized FFT portrait avatars - as stated, my current Ramza comes directly from them. Thanks a lot, Teta, for making them for us! Additionally, I decided to add just a couple more FF6 avatars from the PSX port, mostly of Squall being abused and Onion Kid looking chubby and goofy.

And, thanks to our new fanart team (this time, it was Mimic and Kappa the Imp), we've got a big chunk of new fanart too. This update features art from Kame, Galsic, Rujuken, Ronin, Bum's Rush, BratKitty, Silverfork, and Perigryn, and it includes some new stuff from every single game we cover! Thanks a lot to all for the submissions and work.

By now most gamers in the US are familiar with the recent bill passed in California intended to further restrict the sales of graphically violent video games to minors. This has seemingly acted as a cue for other states to follow its lead, beginning with Florida senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who introduced a similar bill this week.

Diaz de la Portilla's bill, more specifically, is nearly identical to the bill approved by California governer Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both provide corresponding examples of what constitutes a violent video game, and the limit on fines for breaking this law as well as the required 2-inch-by-2-inch label reading "18" on the covers of adult-themed games are virtually the same. Apparently the only difference between the two bills is that, under Diaz de la Portilla's legislation, anyone under the age of 18 will be forbidden to access violent games within arcades in addition to stores.

Video game legislation is becoming quite a hot topic among state leaders. Tighter laws regarding violent games have garnered heavy support on both sides of the political spectrum in recent years, and further debates aren't expected to cause a division along party lines.

Source: GameSpot

The 100,000th post came courtesy of new staffer Caesar, posting in the fabulous A Perfect FFVI World: Change it or leave it thread!

That, of course, concludes our contest as well. And, as my own personal luck would have it, we have two winners. Nobody guessed the exact day, but both DarkPaladin and Zodiac should be thanking Caesar for making them the closest guessers. They will now have first crack at a special mousepad or mug, available only to them. Of course, should they decide they don't want those special edition prizes, they can also have their pick of any other mousepad or mug from CoNStore.

What are these prizes, you might ask? Well, they'll have special customized items featuring the new CoN logo, debuting right now for this occasion:



Congratulations to our two winners, who can expect to hear from me soon, and thank you to everyone who brought us our first one hundred thousand posts!