Tag Archives: Namco Bandai

Namco Bandai Releases Teaser Site

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Sometimes all you need is a logo

Over the weekend, Namco Bandai released a teaser site that has “All Star Battle” across the screen. From what can be gathered, it’s covered with real life photos and has a countdown for this Thursday. You can see it in the link below.

Namco Bandai

As I previously reported, Namco Bandai is working with Nintendo on the new Super Smash Bros game. Can this possibly be a hint to that? It’s a little too early since they not long ago started production on the game. Maybe they’re releasing a character for Sony’s own all star game? If that’s true, it’ll be a little excessive just to say this such and such character is coming to Sony All-Star Battle Royale. Or maybe they working on their own all star game? Whatever stayed tuned for this Thursday for its big reveal and return to this page to make sure you get to the site without any confusion.

[Source]

The Man Behind Tekken Takes Disgruntled Fans To School

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He mad yo! After hearing enough whining from Tekken fans about changes to the voices of the characters, Katsuhiro Harada took to Twitter to address these fans. It’s a long one, but the basic jist of his schooling is that he’s heard people bitch about how Namco’s changed the voice actors to much of the Tekken fighters as the installments go by. This is in part to the changes made to recording technology, equipment, and format being different from how it was 15 years ago. He uses Brian Fury and his maniacal laugh as an example of a voice they’ve reused over and over (at the request of fans who like his laugh). While his voice actor is a different one from back then, the voice file for the laughing is still the same one from Tekken 3 (Brian’s debut game). He points out that the laughing voice sounds different from his normal voice, which in turn make his voice inconsistent. But he keeps it because fans would be upset if they changed it.

He also mentions that voice actors sometimes cannot replicate the same voice over the years for many reasons, including voices changing, vocal health, retirement, or contracts/rights. He pleads with them, but sometimes they have to make due with the new blood. I say good on him that he’s stepping in to shut fans up. Some would wonder why I’m giving him the pass while others get the boot. Well, compared to them, Harada (and other veterans of the industry) have been in the business for a while and know their shit. As I always say: Be a pro before you can be a dick. You can read the tweet in its entirety on Kotaku.

Tekken Head Unleashes Twitter Tirade [Kotaku]

Project X Zone To Have Over 200 Characters

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Wowza that’s a lot of characters! However this is only considering allies and enemies and not actually the main characters you’ll be controlling in the game. According to the Project X Zone blog (translated by Andriasang), “This figure includes allies and enemies. It does not include characters who appear exclusively in event scenes.” The blog also states that these aren’t no generic, wire-frame multi-mook melee fodder, but instead characters from many franchises of each of the three companies. Who could those characters be? We already know that Q-Bee is in as an enemy, but will she change sides?

Since Namco’s handling Smash Bros. development (along with Sakurai’s Project Sora), maybe they might want to share the crossover love and, you know, localize it for the West! Remember, there’s a fan campaign to get this game out in the West. So hop to it!

もっとも未知なる交差領域で [PXZ Blog, translated by AndriaSang, via Joystiq]

Smash Brothers Gets Some Extra Hands

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The main protagonist of Tales of Symphonia, one of only two Tales games released for Nintendo systems in North America. Will we see him join the fight?

We all know Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers is in development for its next installment. The lead developer guiding this project is Masahiro Sakurai of Hal Laboratory using Project Sora (the creators of Kid Icarus Uprising) as his development team. It seems now that Nintendo thinks they need some extra hands on this project by introducing Namco Bandai as a co-developer.

Yoshito Higuchi, known for producing Tales of Vesperia, has been chosen to direct the game but still working alongside Masahiro Sakurai. Yoshito Higuchi is not coming alone though as he’s coming along side with Tetsuya Akatsuka (who is the art and sound director of the SoulCalibur series) and the development team of the Tekken series.

This is interesting news indeed. Could we possibly get any guest characters from the Namco Bandai side?  Can we get a Tekken or SoulCalibur  character? Or maybe the rarity of seeing a Tales of Symphonia character? Whatever happens we are on the trail of this giant as it continues its development.

[Source] [Source]

Monolithsoft developing Project X Zone, Die Hard Arcade Represented (Along With Others)

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Shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering that Monolithsoft, the developers of Xenoblade, were also the developers of Namco X Capcom. Famitsu also divulged some info on some of the battle systems in place for Project X Zone. Like its predecessor, battles are a mix of Strategy RPG and action. You move units around on a grid and engage enemies. Here, the battles then switch to a 2D perspective where you use the control pad and “A” Button to execute moves. You’re encouraged to use different abilities and use them all in one shot. You build up a meter at the bottom to unleash special moves. It’s shared amongst all party members, so use it wisely.

Along with this news, more characters have been revealed for Project X Zone. First on the Capcom side, Morrigan has been added to the Darkstalkers team. Chun-Li joins Ryu and Ken for the Street Fighter team. On The SEGA side, Erika and Gemini join the Sakura Wars team. This makes it the biggest team so far. And holy crap, is that John McClane from Die Hard Arcade!? Well kinda. In Japan (where it was made and first came out), it was called Dynamite Deka, and the guy was named Bruno. You can read up on that here. Finally on the Namco Bandai side, the Valkyrie from The Adventures of the Valkyrie joins alone. And finally Haken and Kaguya from Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endeless Frontier join the fray.

Project X Zone is slated for release on the 3DS some time this year. Character art after the break.

Monolith Software Confirmed as Project X Zone’s Developer [Andriasang, via Gamezone]

Project X Zone Official Website

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Capcom + Namco + Sega Collab Revealed As Project X Zone

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I’m normally the center of my Capcom hate on this site. March was not a good month for Capcom at all, and boy howdy was it a PR nightmare for the company. But today, I’ll hold back my hatred for reasons you’ll see in a moment. Remember that teaser image that popped up last week that showed color bars depicted the colors of the characters (that Japanese gamers sorta solved)? Well, Capcom, Namco and Sega have revealed the game and it will be known as Project X Zone. Instead of a fighting game, it’s a strategy RPG. If your memory called back to Namco X Capcom right there, then you’ll be pleased to hear that this is the sequel. Not much else is known, but the trio did reveal which character would be in the game so far. And there’s one character I’m sure many Mega Man fans will be pleased to see in the roster. Check it out after the break.

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Check out the opening to Heroes Phantasia, Namco Bandai’s anime crossover RPG

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Heroes Phantasia, what I had though to be a new Tales game upon first hearing the name, is a crossover RPG for the PSP featuring characters from several different anime such as Slayers, Mai-HiME, Blood+, Darker Than Black, and more. You can look at the game’s introduction video below, which contains animation done by Bones, Production I.G, Sunrise, and J.C., and see which series you recognize.


Still, I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this game until today! Due to all the copyrights involved, I doubt a stateside release would have a high chance of occuring, but I can still hope. I really enjoyed Mai-HiME and have fond memories of watching it with a couple of my anime-loving friends, so getting an RPG with characters from that, as well as Slayers and the like, would be pretty awesome. Heroes Phantasia is set to be released on January 19th in Japan.

Via: Crunchyroll

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Preview

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I finally got a chance to play the demo of Ace Combat Assault Horizon on Wednesday. Long story short, regardless of my reservations of how I feel about where the series is going (it’s really just the story that concerns me), I came away satisfied with what I played that day. The demo offered two missions to play: one fighter jet, one helicopter. One played a bit differently from the previous entries, and the other is an all-new experience for the Ace Combat series. After the break, I’ll start with the tried-and-true fighter jet gameplay.

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Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Soundtrack Preview

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It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Ace Combat series. While I’ve never detailed the 5th and 6th entry in any way (and I really should, especially for 5), Each entry has had consistently good soundtracks. For Namco’s latest addition to the Ace Combat series, Assault Horizon, I’ll admit I was very concerned since every entry in the series (except for maybe the first one) took place in the fictional world of Strangereal.  This one takes place in our world and has your typical Russians and Middle Easterners as villains (where have I seen these roles before?). My concern over the story can be its own article, so let’s just talk music. So far, it seems like the music team is not letting the game’s real-world setting hamper its imagination, as each track still sounds like what you’d expect from Ace Combat. Track 2, 3, and 4 sound like oil refinery missions (ain’t no Ace Combat game complete without those). Track 5 – Spooky though brings back that epic Ace Combat feel that we know and love. Track 11 – Dogfight definitely sounds like a modern take on the Shattered Skies mission and song from Ace Combat 04. I’ll let you jusdge if the soundtrack’s sound good or not. For me, I’m liking what I’m hearing here. You can find the previews here and here.

News: Ace Combat Assault Horizon Soundtrack Sneak Peek [GamersHell]

New and Old Characters Revealed for Soul Calibur V

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Namco has shown off six new characters for its upcoming Soul Calibur V. SCV takes place 17 years after the events of the lackluster SCIV. The new main character for this entry is Sophitia’s son, Patroklos. Pyrrha, Sophitia’s daughter (thus Patroklos sister) has been shown as well. As expected, they don the sword & shield like their mother. Ivy seems to have not aged at all for the past 17 years. But I think she realized a lot of people were looking at her assets last time and decided to cover up. That ninja girl, now revealed to be Taki’s disciple, is Natsu. Will she be replacing Taki in the fighting arena is yet to be seen. Mitsurugi. Older. Badass. Siegfried is back, sporting some stubble and, if the story of Soul Calibur is anything to go by, probably too powerful for his own good. And we have Zwei, a new fighter that just screams Maxi wannabe. But, he doesn’t use nun-chucks. He appears to be using a tonfa-like sword (which would make one believe he’s had some interaction with Talim), but his weapon is much bigger than Talim’s tonfas, and he only has one. Lots of mystery surrounding this guy. Gallery after the jump.

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New Dark Souls screens are reminders of the danger ahead

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Some new Dark Souls screens are out, and I must say…they look good.

After thankfully buying Demon’s Souls on an impulse late last year, and also convincing some friends to take the plunge with me, this game easily became one of my most anticipated titles of 2011. Whether we were carefully advancing through dangerous areas, battling menacing bosses, or defending our leader from invading players, it was always exciting. And while there were a few hiccups in regards to the multiplayer scheme, overall I loved the experience. The “spiritual successor” promises to be even more challenging than the previous game and, if you know me, you know I love a good challenge.

So for all you other masochists out there, hit the jump to check out the new screens, including one with a very suspicious looking barrel.

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First Impressions: Gods Eater Burst

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With all the games coming out this month, now is as good a time as any to start up a “first impressions” section. This one is going to be about the game Gods Eater Burst, which is Namco Bandai’s recent take on a Monster Hunter type game. To be honest, I started the game without expecting very much, but I have to say I came out a little impressed.

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