Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax announced

Sega announced a new 2D fighting game called Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, which feature characters from popular light novels (and their anime adaptations) published under Dengeki Bunko.








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sllVigl8n1E

The game is a crossover 2D fighting game featuring multiple fiction works, not unlike games like Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match. It is developed by Ecole Software / French Bread, which are known for the fighting games Melty Blood and recently Under Night In-Birth.

As of now, the confirmed characters to make make appearance are Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Asuna from Sword Art Online, Misaka Mikoto from To Aru Majutsu no Index (aka A Certain Magic Index), Kirino Kousaka from Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (aka My Sister Cannot be this Cute), and Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara!!.

Limited location tests will be held this month, and more characters will likely to follow. A crossover dream match featuring popular anime characters can draw attention. Shounen Jump is also having its own crossover fighting game due for released called J-Stars Victory VS. Will these be available overseas? That is very hard to say.

Website:
http://climax.sega.jp/
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Kantai Collection anime adaptation announced

The team behind the increasingly popular web browser game for anthropomorphised Japanese WWII warships "Kantai Collection" (aka Kan Colle) has announced an anime adaptation is on green light, and that a PS Vita port is also being developed at the moment (release date not known).


As mentioned last month, Kantai Collection is a simulation and management game where you look after a fleet of Japanese WWII warships in the form of anthropomorphised girls, and take them to battle against alien-like warships, of which some of them are also partially or fully humanoid as well. The game does not feature plot, and there is not much of a setting too. Nevertheless the game generates a lot of fanart and doujins based on the ships' characters.

There has been speculations that the game will eventually be so popular in Japan that an anime adaptation may happen soon or later, and it does happen, though it may not be aired until the next summer in 2014.

This leaves a big question: What is the anime going to be about?

As all of the characters are based on WWII warships (and more will be coming with future updates), an reenactment of the Pacific War is possible, but it can be tragic as in real history a majority of the ships sunk, which does mean permanent death for that character in the game's equivalent (though you can still get more from crafting or as drops, but it can still be a shock for players). Another possible route will be a plotless, slice-of-life approach, which will be more of a comedy instead.

Summer 2014 can feel like a long way away. At the moment the game's popularity is glowing hot, and I hope it will remain high by the time anime comes out. Is it going to be good? I have no idea, as I don't even know how they would do it. We'll see how this will develop. :o

Source:
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201309/26040709.html
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Ace Combat Infinity announced

Project Aces announced their latest Ace Combat game for PS3, titled Ace Combat Infinity. It will be available to download on PlayStation 3 as a free-to-play online game.

There has been several teaser images and trailer by production team Project Aces and its video game producer Kazutoki Kono throughout the summer, most with little solid information, but the latest trailer released during Tokyo Game Show this month has a bit more detail so far:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt096VSSEPo







Ace Combat Infinity will feature a setting based on Earth but with events based on most of its previous games in a separate fictive world, where an asteroid hits earth despite multiple governments' attempt to build superweapons to stop it. World order has taken a great hit, and there mercenaries are hired to fight. The story is still not exactly known, but the game will feature a singleplayer campaign, and a competitive co-op mode (the main gameplay mode) where two teams fight the same enemies but compete for the most damage inflicted. A lot of boss-like superweapons from previous games such as the Stonehenge railgun network will be expected to make appearance in this game.

Being a free-to-play game, Ace Combat Infinity will feature microtransaction of some sort, and posing limits of game play by having a fuel system, where you use up "fuel" or energy units per play and these need recharging by waiting out a period of time, or pay for extra standby energy units with money. The producer mentioned the system to be similar to that for Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation, which is also a free-to-play game under Bandai Namco Games.

The game is expected to be released sometime this year.

While it's good to hear that there will be a new Ace Combat game, the free-to-play approach can be a little worrying in my opinion. Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation, which Ace Combat Infinity will have its microtransaction system based upon, has a long waiting time. You can play up to three game sessions in a row, which are 10 minutes each, and after that you'd have to wait for the energies to recharge, where the rate is 2 hours per energy before you can play again.

The exact system for Infinity is still yet to be known, but I hope the waiting won't be as long as that for Battle Operation, of which Chinese localisation was released in Hong Kong network back in March. I stopped playing Battle Operation mainly because it's mostly waiting than playing. Free-to-play works relatively well in social games and smartphone games because you can pop in and play now and then, but for game consoles one would expect to sit down and play for as long as he likes.

A lot of games now under Bandai Namco Games have taken the approach of free-to-play concept. This includes Tekken, Soul Calibur, Ridge Racer, and Gundam Battle Operation as mentioned above. Now Ace Combat Infinity will come under this category as well. Unlike the Gundam game this should most likely be a global release, with the producer's intention to attract greater audience. Will it be successful? Well we shall see once the game is released.

Images from Ace Combat Facebook page
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Custom mod Nendoroid Puchi Shoukaku

Web browser game Kantai Collection (aka Kancolle) is becoming immensely popular in Japan. While merchandise are announced and some are now available for pre-order, some people make their own. Here is one that is spread around recently, which is a custom mod nendoroid puchi Shoukaku by Katakori (カタコリ), based on the Japanese aircraft carrier of the same name.


Anthropomorphised aircraft carriers in Kancolle are depicted as girls in Kyuudou (Japanese archery) attires. Shoukaku is no exception, who is drawn by コニシ.


Back. The ship details, as well as the planes that form the arrowheads, are taken directly from a 1/700 scale Shoukaku model.


One of the WIP pictures. The head is from Ultimate Madoka. Epoxy putty is applied for the chest plate and sleeves. It is also later applied for the legs as well.


Skirt part with guns mounted from a 1/700 scale Hibiki destroyer model.


White line on the skirt is made with carefully carved out finish sheet, which are very thin coloured films as an alternate solution to painting over fine details I suppose.


Printed decals for flight deck and head band.




The finished nendoroid. She looks much cuter than I expected!


All work and images are from Katamari (かたまり).

Links:
http://katakori-t100.hatenablog.com/entry/2013/09/07/231323
http://katakori-t100.hatenablog.com/entry/2013/09/12/235503
http://katakori-t100.hatenablog.com/entry/2013/09/21/185901
http://katakori-t100.hatenablog.com/entry/2013/08/19/233000
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Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter Project

Former character designer and producer of Mega Man video game series (aka Rockman) Keiji Inafune is developing a new game called Mighty No. 9 with the help of Kickstarter crowdfunding project.

Mighty No. 9 is an all-new Japanese side-scrolling action game that takes the best aspects of the 8- and 16-bit era classics you know and love, and transforms them with modern tech, fresh mechanics, and fan input into something fresh and amazing!

You play as Beck, the 9th in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk. Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet!

Mighty No. 9 is being developed for the PC with gamepad support (of course!), and will be made available through Steam and DRM-free digital distribution methods. Other platforms, including home consoles, Mac, and Linux, are a high priority, but only if we can afford them via stretch goals. Should we reach those goals, anyone funding the project will be allowed to choose which version of the game they would like to receive. The estimated release date is spring 2015.

Overall, Mighty No. 9's concept and rough story line will sounds highly resembling to that of the original Mega Man - a 2D platform game where the protagonist robot will have to defeat rogue robots, obtain their weapons, and ultimately confront the one behind the chaos. In a way it will be a spiritual successor to Inafune's Mega Man series back in his Capcom time. What makes Mega Man memorable with fans was not necessarily the graphics or story, but rather the fast paced gameplay, easy control, and hard difficulty.


Within just 2 days of its reveal, the project already met its minimum funding amount of 900,000USD. Fans are really getting pumped for it, which is shown by how quickly the minimum funding goal is reached, and even breaking through some of the extended goals already! The game is only just in the planning stage, and is forecast to release in 2015, so we will have quite some time to look forward to.

Will we still get to see more Mega Man / Rockman from Capcom? Unfortunately as Inafune no longer works in Capcom (his latest works, including Mega Man Legends 3 / Rockman DASH 3, were cancelled against his wish, which contributed to him leaving the company), it's really hard to see what is up for its future there, but hopefully its ideas and features will be succeeded down to Mighty No. 9.




Website:
Kickstarter page
Japanese page
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Battleship Girls Game: Kantai Collection

Within the recent months, and especially with last month, there has been an increasing popularity with anthropomorphic versions of Japanese WWII warships. The source of the popularity? A social web browser game from DMM called Kantai Collection (艦隊これくしょん, meaning "Fleet Collection"), which is simply known as Kan Colle or Kancolle (艦これ).

Kancolle is one of those freemium social games where you build / collect warships anthropomorphised as girls, customise their weapons/equipments, and send them out to battle or expeditions. Much of the process, especially the battles, are automated, which makes it ideal for one to run the game in the background while you do other stuff, and come back to check on it now and then.

As for girls, there are already quite a few favourites out there among the fans:


Destroyer Shimakaze. This was one of a kind, using a special steam engine to achieve high speed. There was a plan to produce more ships of such class, but was never realised due to a lack of industrial capacity.


And this is Shimakaze in Kancolle.


Shimakaze is so popular that Max Factory revealed a figma action figure is now in development during WonFes Summer 2013.


Japanese battleship Kongou, the lead ship of her class. She was designed by a British naval engineer, and was one of the last Japanese warships to be built outside Japan.


And here's Kongo in Kancolle. Due to her historical background, she throws in a bit of English here and there in her lines.


Each girl has normal appearance as well a "damaged" one. Here is Kangou looking "damaged", with parts of her cloth torn off, with the guns smouldering on her back.


Of course the famous Yamato made it through as well, which was one of the biggest battleship ever made.


And not surprisingly it's one of the best ships in the game.


Overall, Kancolle is more of a management game, where you build and customise your fleet of girls and enjoy the artworks and voiceworks. It's one of those social games where it's for burning time

For those who are interested, someone posted a video introducing it with a brief history and gameplay information:

www.youtube.com/embed/gYZWkwcwTP8

As DMM restricts overseas users from accessing its service, one would require VPN or a proxy IP address in order to register and start the game.

For more general information you can read it up on Kotaku.

I started playing very recently, after having to queue for daily lottery to get into the server (as servers are now very full due to increasingly popularity). Each ship, or girls, have their voices and say various lines depending on the actions done or the situation they are in, and some of the stats and dialogs reflect on their performance in WWII, therefore those who know about their real ship counterparts may understand some of the internal jokes. There is a lot of waiting involved, especially for repairs if you just came out of a nasty battle, but you can just leave it in the background while you do other stuff. You can actually lose the ships you own for good if their HP get depleted to 0, which can be quite a heavy blow if they are high level ships that you've been training with for a long time, so retreat when necessary is always a good choice.

With the game mainly featuring warships from Imperial Japanese Navy (at least for the moment), Kancolle is a kind of game that is unlikely to be available or localised in other places. Who knows? Maybe ships from other navies will also be introduced?


Game website:
http://www.dmm.com/netgame/feature/kancolle.html
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Distant Worlds in Hong Kong 2013

Last Sunday I went to attend the premiere of Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy concert for Hong Kong.

Distant Worlds is a symphony music world tour featuring music from the main Final Fantasy series, where the majority of them are composed by Nobuo Uematsu, with the exception of the latest titles as he no longer works in Square-Enix (formerly Squaresoft). Final Fantasy's music is well known among video game fans, and I am glad to be able to attend it myself!


The concert was performed by City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) and Die Konzertisten Chorale, with Arnie Roth as the conductor. The main composer for a majority of Final Fantasy series Nobuo Uematsu also made guest appearance, where he sat in one of the very front rows.

The picture above was taken just before the concert starts, with lights darkened prior to the conductor's entrance. A large screen is hanged above the orchestra, which plays clips or artwork slideshows when the music of the said Final Fantasy game is performed.


As for the list, I got a bit of help as I have difficulty remembering all the pieces and their orders. If I got any wrong please do let me know!

Prelude

Liberi Fatali (FFVIII)

Victory Fanfare

Opening - Bombing Mission (FFVII)

To Zanarkand (FFX)

Memoro de la Stono ~ Distant Worlds (FFXI)

Dear Friends (FFV)

Vamo' Alla Flamenco (FFIX)

Battle Theme Medley: Clash on the Big Bridge (FFV), Seymour Battle (FFX), & Those Who Fight (FFVII)

Chocobo Medley

Final Fantasy (FFI)

Don't Be Afraid (FFVIII)

Phantom Forest (FFVI)

Theme of Love (FFIV)

Dalmasca Estersand (FFXII)

You're not Alone (FFIX)

Blinded by Light (FFXIII)

Opera "Maria and Draco" (FFVI)

Terra's Theme (FFVI)

One-Winged Angel (FFVII)

The final song "One Winged Angel" was revealed via Nobuo Uematsu, who came up to the stage and sung the first few lines of the chorus. Nobuo didn't make any speeches in the concert, but listening him singing briefly was rather amusing.

Overall, the concert was of great pleasure to attend and to listen to. Staple pieces such as "To Zanarkand" and "Theme of Love" are there, which I very much looked forward to. There were more pieces from FFVI than I have expected - with 3 in total. "Maria and Draco" was performed with 3 singers and 1 more person as a narrator, making it the longest piece performed in the concert.

The lack of pieces from FFII and III is a bit of a pity, as there were medleys of them in the past concerts. Maybe next time I suppose?

The one problem I had was the choice of location. The concert was held in one of the exhibition halls with seats arranged in rather peculiar way, with a lot of empty spaces at the sides and even between blocks of seats. This is nothing compared to, say, the Royal Albert Hall in London where Distant Worlds was performed. The Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui would make a better choice for such a concert in my opinion.


Outside the concert area, a whiteboard was available for fans to write or draw for Nobuo Uematsu.


And another whiteboard was there for fans to draw their favourite characters to their pleasure.



There were also PS3s set up nearby with Final Fantasy X HD Remaster demo, as well as those for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo. I had a quick go on Lightning Returns, where gameplay is still inherited from the previous FFXIII games, but seemingly even a little more fast-paced (and perhaps more button mashing). I got postcards as souvenirs from the staff for trying out the demo!


The conductor Annie Roth said that he "can't wait to come back to Hong Kong again", so this is definitely great news for Hong Kong! I do hope that they will change the location to somewhere more suitable for a symphony concert!
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Miho's Panzer IV in Battlefield 1942?

A silly little post
Miho's Panzer IV from manga and anime Girls and Panzer in Battlefield 1942?


This is a Panzer IV Ausf F2 in a Battlefield 1942 mod called Battlegroup42. I know someone who works on the mod (which is still active and in development after all these years!), and as a silly proposal asked him to do a quick change on the insignias of their old Panzer IV model to those from Girls und Panzer. This is the result, but please don't mind too much on the misplacement of the tracks; it's most likely a coding error.


In Girls and Panzer, the Panzer IV Ausf D (an early production variant) is the tank commanded by protagonist Miho Nishizumi for her school team. Originally equipped with the 75mm KwK 37 gun, her Panzer IV is later upgunned with the longer 75mm KwK 40 gun and now resembles the mid-war Ausf F2 variant. Towards the end of the anime it was also equipped with armouered skirts that makes the tank resemble the late war Ausf H type. This one is based on the F2 as seen midstory in the anime.


Girls und Panzer sure brought a wave of hype in the recent months. I watched it mostly for the WWII tanks. Personally I don't find the characters very memorable, nor is the plot particularly interesting (but that's not a main point in this anime), nevertheless the tank battles, while not understandably not realistic, are quite exciting to watch, and there are quite a lot of WWII references dotted here and there throughout the anime. Some are obvious and spoken out, others are pretty subtle and are only found by the enthusiasts.


That tank is just a rough placeholder based on the current old model; there is a better Panzer IV model that will be replace it in the next patch of mod. Will the tanks from Girls und Panzer make an appearance? Well, that is possible *if* we have enough people to show interest in it. ^^;

Battlefield 1942 is actually now free on Origin to celebrate its 10th anniversary. In case you're not interested in Battlefield 1942 but still interested in tanks, there is also the World of Tanks, of which there are fans who made Girls und Panzer tank skins for them as well as audio mods.

Pictures are from the Battlegroup42 mod
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Distant Worlds coming to Hong Kong

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY worldwide concert tour is finally coming to Hong Kong! The date is set to 27th and 28th July at 7:30pm in Asia-World Expo (near the Chek Lap Kok airport).


Image from Gaming Union

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY (in short Distant Worlds) is a symphony orchestra concert tour featuring music from each major title of the Final Fantasy video game series, with Arnie Roth conducting and composer Nobuo Uematsu making an appearance. After the initial successes with the concert tours within Japan and in the USA, the world tour Distant Worlds started in 2007 in Stockholm, and is continuing to perform in various places to this date.

Nobuo Uematsu is best known for composing music for early Final Fantasy series (sole composer for Final Fantasy I to IX, but also contributed to a few more titles afterwards with other composers). While he no longer works for Square-Enix (then Squaresoft), he still makes appearance as special guest for the Distant Worlds tour.

Tickets are now available at Hong Kong Ticketing as well as at Sound of Faeries Boutique. Prices range from 680HKD to 1680HKD, with the most expensive tickets allow you to be seated right in front of the stage, as well as a chance to meet Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu personally for a photograph.

I listen to a fair amount of video game music these days, and I've been a fan of Final Fantasy's music. For years I long wished for such a concert to come to Hong Kong, and this is finally a dream coming true! Definitely going there with my sister!

Website:
http://ffdistantworlds.com

Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/ffdistantworlds
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