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The third (fourth if you count the PS1 RPG Koudelka) game in the Shadow Hearts series, subtitled From the New World, will be released for the PS2 in the United States on March 7th of this year at a retail price of $39.99. Developer XSeed released this information some time yesterday, along with releasing an American official website for the game. The previous two games (particularly the second, Shadow Hearts: Covenant) received critical acclaim and a strong cult following due to their unusual twists on real-life settings, bizarre and entertaining characters, deep and dark storylines, and unusual and innovative gameplay mechanics.

FTNW will play similarly to Covenant and will feature Shadow Hearts' signature setting and style, but there are a number of important changes being made. First of all, this game does not appear to be a completely obvious sequel. The first two games both starred the shapeshifter Yuri Hyuga and were set in World War I-era Europe. FTNW fast-forwards approximately fifteen years and travels a few thousand miles, being set in America in 1929, starring a young New York gumshoe named Johnny Garland, and featuring Native American bounty hunters, a American ninja-wannabe, a young vampire girl, a Mexican mariachi, and fat, alcoholic talking cat as supporting cast members.

FTNW brings back the Judgement Ring system, but also adds something called the Stock system to Shadow Hearts' gameplay. Stock meters work similarly to several other passive meters in other RPGs (ie Limit Meters, Overdrive Gauges, IP Bars) in that it will build up over time (in this case building up whenever a character deals or takes damage) to be spent later for special attacks. If you build up a character's Stock meter to maximum, they accumulate one Stock (maximum 2). Characters can spend one or two Stock to perform special attacks, or even combine Stock with other characters to perform combination special attacks. This should add a new element of strategy to the already-innovative and interesting SH battle system.

I personally really enjoyed the first two SH games (especially Covenant), so I have been waitng for this information for quite some time. I am extremely excited about this game, and consider the Shadow Hearts games to be one of the best RPG series of this current generation of consoles. Any of you with a PS2 would be doing themselves a service by checking this game and its predecessors out. With From the New World, Kingdom Hearts II, Tales of Phantasia, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion call coming out in March of this year, RPG players have a lot to look forward to next month.

Sources: RPGFan
Shadow Hearts: From the New World's official website

Just yesterday Square-Enix unleashed their new Promotion Video Podcast website. The purpose of the site is to provide promotional trailers of the developer's many upcoming games for download and viewing on iPods or similar devices free of charge. At the moment the only available trailer is that of Front Mission 5: Scars of War, a title currently unreleased in North America, but the plan is to update the site on a regular basis, adding more and more trailers throughout each month.

The fact that the website is mostly in Japanese should prove not to be an impediment, but it is unknown at this time if an English version or a multiple language option will eventually be introduced.

Source: GameSpot

The DS Lite, boasting a sleek white casing 2/3 the size of the original, was announced on Nintendo of Japan's website four days ago*. The new DS also possesses slightly different button placement (check out the link for a comparison) and four adjustable levels of screen brightness in addition to the 20%-lighter body.

This is hardly a surprise, as Nintendo has already released four versions of the Game Boy Advance over its somewhat short lifespan (counting the orignal and backlit reissues of the SP as two seperate versions), and most Nintendo fans had correctly assumed that it was only a matter of time before some new incarnation of Nintendo's strong-selling handheld was released. The DS Lite boasts a different look and some new features, and while it certainly isn't as drastic a new design as the Game Boy Advance SP was, it will probably bolster the sales of the already massively popular DS (Japanese retailers have resorted to importing American DS hardware to meet demand) to new heights.

As a person who really wants a DS but does not yet own one, if this means that any incarnation of the DS gets cheaper, I'm going for it. The new DS might look like an iPod, but it sure looks nice.

*I was intending to post this information as early as four days ago, but CoN's server troubles prevented me from doing so. Sure, this story is a smidgeon late, but I felt like it was interesting enough to post anyhow.

Source: Revolution Report

The wait that has been put upon fans of this game appears to be nearing it's end. Itoi himself confirmed that today Mother 3's definite launch date in Japan will be April 20th. With the release date set, they no longer plan to really work on the game, which in other words means the game is complete, and just waiting to release. With a nice long wait to keep people salivating over it. The game is also a GBA game, which just sweetens the deal moreso, as you can play it on the DS as well.

I can't wait for a US release, myself. I just hope that this one doesn't have the pulsating battle background which gave me migraine after migraine, limiting my ability to play to about two hours a day, if even.

Source: Joystiq

Shonen Jump magazine recently offered a more in-depth look at the RPG based on Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, starring a much younger (and much thinner) version of the hero's ex-bandit sidekick named Yangus, aptly but oddly entitled Dragon Quest Yangus.

First revealed visually at Jump Festa in December, the prequel - in league with Square-Enix's Mysterious Dungeon series - will fixate on the childhood adventures of Yangus and the trials which molded him into the, uh, "hero" he became. The story kicks off with Yangus insolubly appearing in an alternate world where he begins his quest through the true meat of the game - the ever-changing dungeons.

Just like the Mysterious Dungeon titles it takes after, Dragon Quest Yangus will contain ample dungeons to tackle and traverse that are generated randomly with each playthrough. That is, their regeneration would be limited as such if not for a new feature implemented within the game: To be blunt, this time around the dungeons will also regenerate with a purely chance outcome each time they're exited and then re-entered. Players will be forced to think twice before stepping outside of one; it will be as if a new dungeon took its place upon returning back inside.

Update! Dragon Quest Yangus is now scheduled to hit the PlayStation 2 in Japan on April 20th, 2006.

Screenshots

Source: RPGamer

Something bizarre happened to our host this afternoon, which has resulted in corruption to some of our data.

The most notable victim we've found so far is the data from our actual forum posts. I've manually fixed several serious errors in this regard, but there will continue to be unusual corruption in some old messages unless we restore an earlier version. Sorry about that.

If you spot anything else anywhere on the site which appears to be corrupt somehow, such as obviously massively inaccurate data (more so than our usual standards anyway!), odd symbols in text descriptions, or apparent programming code leaking out onto the visible site, please report to us as soon as you can where it is and what's wrong with it. We're still not sure how much this might've affected.

Sorry for the inconvenience.