Good Smile Company and Max Factory join forces for new male character-focused brand

6 / 22 / 156 / 22 / 15

Today in exciting figure-related news, Good Smile Company and Max Factory have teamed up to form Orange Rouge, an all new brand focused exclusively on male character merchandise! While on one hand, I find myself asking why a separate brand is needed in the first place, if it means more products that appeal to folks like me, then I’m all for it! You can head over to their official website to see their current lineup.

Tsurumaru Kuninaga Nendoroid — The sculpt for the latest Touken Ranbu Nendoroid, Tsurumaru Kuninaga, was also released today

Fans have long complained about the comparative lack of figures of male characters, but there has definitely been a shift in the past couple of years towards companies recognizing the market for male character merchandise. Orange Rouge will bring together a variety of products from Good Smile Company and Max Factory, from Nendoroids and figmas to scale figures and other character goods. It’s very likely we’ll hear more announcements at this summer’s Wonder Festival on July 26th. I guess this means I should start saving my pennies for all the upcoming male Nendoroids…

SUPERBEAT: XONiC to bring more rhythm goodness to the Vita this fall

6 / 10 / 156 / 10 / 15

DJMax Technika Tune is, in my humble opinion, one of the most overlooked PlayStation Vita games out there. After the game was released to little fanfare for the Vita in September 2012, the future of the long-running rhythm game franchise has looked increasingly bleak… But SUPERBEAT: XONiC, developed by PM Studios with the help of Nurijoy, looks to be a spiritual sucessor to the all-but-dead handheld DJMax games. Both teams have had previous experience working on the DJ Max series, and SUPERBEAT‘s 45 track lineup sounds like it is shaping up to be as groovy as ever.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at, but sign me up! acttil, the company in charge of handling SUPERBEAT‘s English press releases, says they are working on an upcoming gameplay trailer, and I can’t wait to see how it plays. From the screenshot above, it looks like the blue and green lines move outward from the center and need to be tapped on the left and right sides of the screen.

Hectic rhythm gameplay + bright and catchy music cover art = the DJMax influence I know and love!

SUPERBEAT: XONiC will launch both physically and digitally in North America this fall. While there’s not much more information to go on at present, you can get a taste of the game’s music at the official website.

Poka Poka Airou Village DX and the adorable eCapcom tote bag

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It goes without saying that the Monster Hunter X (pronounced “cross”) news is amazing and I’m beyond excited to play it when it debuts on 3DS this winter. The other Monster Hunter news that everyone is overlooking, however, is that we’re finally getting a new Monster Hunter Diaries: Poka Poka Airou Village game! Subtitled DX (for “deluxe”) and coming out for the Nintendo 3DS on September 10th, the game looks just as adorable as ever, and comes with a number of exciting new features.

Monster Hunter Diaries: Poka Poka Airou Village DX Felyne Gudetama costume — all images via Famitsu

If you don’t recognize the lazy egg yolk on top of that Felyne’s head, I highly recommend checking out Gudetama, one of my favorite new Sanrio characters. The fact that Monster Hunter Diaries: Poka Poka Airou Village DX announced this collaboration right off the bat is a testament to his immense popularity right now. Oh, and of course there will be a couple Nintendo of collaborations, as well!

Norn9: Var Commons Joins Aksys Games’ Otome Game Lineup

5 / 27 / 15

The year is 2015. In the greatest upset in gaming history, all video games are now otome games. There is nothing else, only otoge.

Okay, I might be going a little overboard here, but when I said I wanted to see more otome games (otoge for short) in English, I never in a million years expected to see three announced in the same year! Is this a dream?! This time, Aksys Games strikes again with Norn9: Var Commons for the PS Vita. Scheduled to release both physically and digitally in North America this fall, Norn 9: Var Commons is once again developed by Otomate, suggesting that Aksys and Otomate have some kind of agreement. Not that I’m complaining, but there actually are other otome game companies besides Otomate out there!

Regardless, I may be most excited for this announcement simply because this is the one otome game coming out in English this year that I don’t already own in Japanese. Shocking, I know! You can read Aksys’ official PlayStation Blog post to get the full rundown, but the most interesting aspects of Norn 9: Var Commons for me is the sci-fi narrative and three different female protagonists! I don’t think I’ve ever played an otome game with more than one protagonist before.

Also, the art is simply gorgeous, which is why I’m going to stop my gushing and end this post with a gallery of some images from the official Japanese website.

Listen to me talk Yoko Shimomura on M Disk Playlist

5 / 23 / 15

I’m always excited to guest on other people’s podcasts, because not only do I get to talk to new people, but I also get a chance to chat about things I might not normally discuss on one of my own shows! I was presented with one such opportunity the other day when I was invited to talk about none other than game composer Yoko Shimomura on episode two of the M Disc Playlist podcast. If you like video game music, please give it a listen!

On the show, host Nitro and I discuss Yoko Shimomura’s extensive video game music history, as well as our five favorite Shimomura tracks. Nitro is extremely knowledgeable about her work, but I make up for my lack of knowledge by bringing my own special, uh… je ne sais quoi, I guess!

Of course, Shimomura is most well known for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series, and if you’re interested reading her discuss her Kingdom Hearts music, I definitely recommend checking out this transcript from her appearance on Square Enix Presents last year. If you’d rather hear the music in action along with some funny commentary, check out Sarah and Roy’s playthrough of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep! Now there’s a whole bunch of Shimomura-related media to get you through the Memorial Day weekend (if you happen to be in the US).

Now, I want to know – what are some of your favorite Yoko Shimomura tracks?

Fantastic Boyfriends Needs Your Help!

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It’s finally happening! Back at the beginning of April, I mentioned that I was working on the translation for a Japanese mobile game aimed at gay men titled Fantastic Boyfriends: Legends of Midearth. Well, the Indiegogo campaign just launched yesterday, and to get the full game localized into English, we need your help!

gordon_fantasticbfs — As I mentioned on latest episode of The Nichiest Podcast Ever, Gordon is one of my favorite characters!

If you’d like to learn more about the game, head over to the Indiegogo page or check out the post I did last month. There’s also an English website, as well as a lovely NeoGAF thread made by a fan that is chock full of information! Even if you don’t have any spare change at the moment, word of mouth is really helpful, so please spread the word about this exciting project!

And, of course, by making a pledge toward Fantastic Boyfriends: Legends of Midearth, you’ll be helping to put food on my table, so don’t forget to leave a comment here so I can personally thank you! I’m sure I’ll be talking about this game a lot more over the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for future updates.

Code: Realize English version on the way courtesy of Aksys Games

4 / 29 / 154 / 30 / 15

It’s raining otome games! First, Idea Factory International announced plans to release Amnesia: Memories for PS Vita and Steam this August, and now Aksys Games is following up with another Otomate title, Code: Realize! According to the announcement on the Official PlayStation Blog, the game will be released both on PSN and physically for the PS Vita sometime this fall.

I recently lamented the fact that Idea Factory International still hadn’t announced an otome game localization (this was before Amnesia: Memories), but the article could really have been directed at any publisher, so I’m extremely happy to see Aksys Games following suit. The fact that Code: Realize is the third otome game IP Aksys has localized says a lot for how well the genre is doing for the publisher, which is extremely exciting.

coderealizeenglish — Whatever you say, amazingly good-looking man!

Last year, I even wrote that Code: Realize was one otome game I wanted to play before the end of the year, as its steampunk aesthetic and use of famous literary characters as romance options (Arsène Lupin! Victor Frankenstein!) looked like a lot of fun. The use of recognizeable characters may help the game appeal to a broader English-speaking audience than, say, Amnesia: Memories, so it will be really interesting to see how the two fare.

Aksys Games will be launching the official Code: Realize site shortly (update: the English site is now live), but in the meantime, you can head to the Japanese website for some promotional videos, wallpapers, Twitter icons, and all kinds of fun materials.