Nintendophiles 06.25.09: Tales of Graces, Bioware on Wii, High Voltage Online
Posted by Theo Fraser on 06.25.2009
In the latest edition of the Nintendophiles, 411’s Theo Fraser discusses Tales of Graces, Bioware’s plans to develop for the Wii, confusion over Dragon Quest IX, High Voltage Software’s aim to provide a better online experience, new Tingle titles, a new Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and much more! Check out the full column for all the details!
Hello and welcome to the latest installment of Nintendophiles! Apologies for appearing later than scheduled this week; I managed to lose my house keys and thus got locked out of my own house for the evening. Cue: night on a friend's couch, locksmith in the morning, and a very angry landlord. It's been a fun day. Anyway, here we are, better late than never, although unfortunately we seem to have hit the first of the "post-E3 dry spells" where not much seems to be happening as all the major companies have already made their big announcements and such at the LA event earlier this month. Nevertheless, let's get down to business and cover what we do have for you this week, starting off with some Tidbit News!
~Dragon Quest IX confusion. Gamers were confused about whether or not Dragon Quest IX offered WiFi co-op multiplayer, as this was something Square Enix had failed to be explicit about. The PR department cleared it up, and unfortunately co-op play is only accessed via local wireless play. Better get some Dragon Quest-loving friends then!
~A new Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was in development for the Wii, it was revealed as part of the legal battle between Ex-Factor 5 workers and company founders. The project may well have been handed over to a new studio, but due to the on-going legal battles, it is likely stagnant at this point in time, so don't expect to see anything any time soon. That sucks, I frickin' loved the Rogue Squadron games.
Namco Bandai show off new Tales of Graces trailer
I was a huge fan of Tales of Symphonia, and ever since its release I've been keeping a close eye on the Tales Of franchise, waiting for the next blockbuster instalment. It's almost criminal that the fantastic Tales of Innocence on the DS wasn't given a Western release, and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has still yet to arrive in Europe (although is projected for a September on-sale date), but that doesn't stop us looking ahead to the new ‘mothership' title, Tales of Graces, which is almost certain to see a worldwide release, despite no Western dates being set just yet.
Tales of Graces follows the exploits of Asbel, who is to become the Feudal Lord of his city Lhant after his father's death. The story is said to be one of the longest Tales episodes yet at around 70 hours, so you can bet there will be a ton of twists and turns along the way as you encounter new friends and foes alike.
The new trailer demonstrated pretty much all aspects of the game, or at least every aspect that has been revealed thus far. We see our hero running through all manner of different locations, before transitioning into a montage of combat footage. I really like the presentation of the field/town screen, as the drawn-back camera shows off the beautiful environments in all their glory and actually enhances the sense of grandeur and overall scale of the world.
Combat looks to be standard Tales fare, although this time there seems to be more of an emphasis on blocking attacks and countering. The red exclamation mark appears just as the enemy is about to strike, so it would seem that an appropriately-timed block allows you to counter with a stronger, more impressive retaliating blow.
The latter part of the trailer runs through a couple of cutscenes, and they look cool but...you know...they're cutscenes. Nice to see more fluid animation used though, instead of the restricted movements of the characters in Symphonia. Graces uses an updated engine, so we can expect a fair bit of graphical flare. The game is on target for a Winter 2009 Japanese release, so in terms of localization for the US, we're probably looking at late Spring next year.
High Voltage pushing for online experience like 360/PS3
Credit: Nintendo Everything
The Conduit finally saw its highly-anticipated Wii release this week, and with it came one of the best online multiplayer offerings currently available on the console, with 13 modes to choose from. However, it still doesn't match up to some of the multiplayer greats on rival consoles, such as Call of Duty 4, for example, and this is something High Voltage Software want to rectify. Rob Nicholls, lead game designer for the company, recently commented on The Conduit's online multiplayer, and it appears that future projects (perhaps even The Grinder) will be able to provide a multiplayer service akin to what can be found on the PS3/360.
Rob Nicholls:It IS available in public (both worldwide and regional) matches, but yes only with Friends (people you've shared codes with) in those matches. We don't have an invite system. However, you can see from the main multiplayer page how many Friends you have online and then see from the Friend list who they are and what type of game they are playing. You can then elect to join that friend or not. Character limit on profile names is 8; there is no ability to do "clan tags". And no, you cannot rename your profile without losing your multiplayer information. These are all things we will be addressing in future products; however for Conduit we focused on the gameplay first and getting a good system up and running on Nintendo's servers. IF multiplayer does well, this will give us more to push with when we want to make the experience more like other titles on other platforms.
Bioware interested in Wii development
Credit: IndustryGamers, VG247
BioWare, the company responsible for some of the best Western RPGs the industry has seen in the past decade, has expressed an interest in developing for the Nintendo Wii, with reportedly some as-yet unannounced projects already on the way.
Ray Muzyka, BioWare's General Manager, revealed the company's plans, whetting the appetites of RPG fans who haven't had all that much to sink their teeth into on the Wii thus far.
Ray: Muzyka: [The team are] intrigued by the idea of developing on Wii but we have nothing to announce right now. We do have some unannounced projects that we're not ready to talk about yet, and they are different from some things we've done in the past.
Muzyka mentioned that the team aren't bothered by the Wii's ‘not-as-powerful architecture', and as we've seen with titles such as The Conduit, developers willing to put the time and effort in can squeeze out some juicy visuals from the Wii's innards. What particularly interests me about Muzyka's statement is the concept of the team doing something ‘different' from what they've done in the past. Of course, this could simply refer to the use of motion control, which BioWare haven't tinkered with before, but I'm more inclined to say they've got a concept for a game unlike anything else in their catalogue.
Upon hearing of a BioWare Wii title, many jumped to conclusions and assumed it was merely a Wii instalment of Sonic Chronicles. But after a lukewarm reception for Chronicles on the DS, I highly doubt that, and likewise it's not exactly ‘different' from past projects. Rumors early last year said that BioWare were bringing one of its key franchises to the DS, but there's been no sign of Mass Effect, Jade Empire or Knights of the Old Republic on Nintendo's handheld thus far. Could one of these make the transition to the Wii? Again, that's not a new or ‘different' concept. Most likely, we're in store for a brand new IP, and a Bioware title built from the ground up for Wii can only mean good things. Stay tuned on this one!
Tingle teasers: W...T...F...
Credit: Kotaku
Last week I briefly mentioned Nintendo's teases for a new Tingle game, and this week Nintendo made the reveal, unveiling two Tingle projects.
The first is a DSiWare application, called Too Much Tingle Pack, and is already available in Japan for 500 Nintendo Points. The application is basically a collection of random tools and mini-games, such as a fortune telling mini-game, a "Tingle timer", a Tingle calculator, a marionette Tingle dancer and a Tingle coin toss. Strange...
A little less odd is a ‘proper' game, a sequel to the DS' action-RPG Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland entitled Color Changing Tingle's Love Balloon Trip. That sounds INCREDIBLY dodgy to me so I'd expect a name change for a US release! The theme of Rupeeland was money, and this time round the theme is apparently ‘woman'. *Shudders* If I see Tingle get it on with someone, I don't think I'll ever sleep again.
I've always found the idea of a Tingle franchise to be more than a little peculiar, especially as so many people despise the guy, but it seems to go down well in Japan. Before we finish up here, however, I wanted to bring to your attention the little 20 second clips Nintendo posted on its official Japanese site as teasers for these Tingle games. This is Nintendo at its trippiest, and after watching them countless times, I'm still not sure what to make of them.
Those teasers were creepy! Took me a few seconds to realise what the static was about, but then I saw it when I looked hard enough... Tingle's staring at you! His face is in the static!
Posted By: Jimmy (Guest) on June 25, 2009 at 05:40 AM
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