Mar. 28 to Apr. 3 3rd Party News Roundup

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3

According to Media Create, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 was the top selling game in Japan this past week. Between March 24 and March 27, the game sold 368,665 copies.

The company also states that Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 sold through 59.16% of its initial shipment. In comparison, the previous game in the series, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2’s 3DS remake, sold 444,000 units with a 78.65% sell-through. Media Create points out that Joker 3 lacked in both numbers and sellthrough rate, making it look like a sluggish turnout in comparison.

Famitsu magazine has now published a review for the game, which has been translated by Nintendo Everything and you can find it here.

Finally, you can find some more footage of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 below:

Ace Attorney 6

Capcom has recently revealed the first set of images from the special edition of Ace Attorney 6, as well as a Limited Goods Set, comprised of the physical merchandise from the special edition, but not containing the game itself. Both of these are exclusive to the Japanese e-Capcom store and include a newly-written original drama CD, a visual postcard book, Bokuto’s tote bag, a Kuttari plushie, and an original box. The special edition not only includes the game, but also e-Capcom-exclusive first print bonus: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 6 acrylic dot mascot, a limited bonus of 2 short stories titled “Asoberu! Gyakuten Gekijou”, and for early buyers, three “Special Costumes”.

The special edition sells for 9,100 yen, while the Limited Goods Set costs 4,800 yen. The standard edition of the game is also available for pre-order for 5,800 yen, and includes the 6 acrylic dot mascot, the “Asoberu! Gyakuten Gekijou” short stories, and the Special Costumes.

Capcom later published more pictures of the LE contents, which included a poster set. One of the posters depicts pixel art of the characters found in the game, and among them is Ema Skye, which could be an hint at her return in this game. It isn’t a 100% official confirmation that she will be in, but it does seem quite likely that the scientific investigator will be in Ace Attorney 6.

You can find the images below:

Ace Attorney 15th Anniversary

Capcom recently opened the official website for the 15th anniversary of the Ace Attorney series, which you can find over here.

The site contains a special message from Ace Attorney managing director Shu Takumi, so here’s a translation, courtesy of Court-Records:

Sixteen years ago, we started with a single idea: “a mystery game series the likes of which had never been seen before.”

With that, we put together a team of just seven people – and a year later, in October 2001, “Ace Attorney” was born.

At the time we had the burning desire to make a game that people could enjoy for 10, or even 15 years, but now here we are fifteen years later… almost without me noticing, Ace Attorney’s grown to become a truly massive project. As its creator, I’m incredibly moved and happy that it’s come this far.
Thinking over all that’s happened, I get the feeling that the series always had the warm support of its fans, and it’s something of a happy series because of that. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

As we pass through this momentous 15-year mark, I hope you all look forward to the ever-expanding world of Ace Attorney.

Meanwhile, in an interview with 4Gamer, some of the cast and crew of the recently debuted Phoenix Wright anime gave more details on the show. Director Ayumi Watanabe and main game developer Shu Takumi teased that there will be a section of the show that shows Phoenix’s past, based on certain lines dropped in the first game.

For a roundup of the various details covered in the interview, check out this post on Court-Records.

Assassination Classroom: Assassin Training Plan

Bandai Namco has released a new gameplay video for Assassination Classroom: Assassin Training Plan. You can find it below:

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice

After the recent confirmation that Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice would release September 27 in North America, Nintendo of Europe has announced that the game will be releasing in that region on September 30.

Here’s the relevant tweet:

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice launches in Europe for Nintendo #3DS on 30/09! pic.twitter.com/vPzTsMw93S

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) 30 de março de 2016

Yakashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka on the Sonic series

IGN recently got an opportunity to speak with Sonic creators Yakashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka at SXSW about some of their memories while working on the Sonic series. You can find the video interview below:

SEGA now publishing games by Atlus USA

As you probably already know, SEGA acquired Atlus back in 2013, and the still ongoing process is now coming to an end. From now on, SEGA will be publishing all Atlus USA games as a means to streamline its business operations.

This news will have little impact on consumers, since SEGA isn’t ditching the Atlus brand, and Atlus will still act independently.

SEGA provided Game Informer with the following comment regarding how the Atlus acquisition has benefited the company:

“Since Atlus U.S.A.—renowned for the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, and Etrian Odyssey franchises—integrated with SEGA of America, the ATLUS expertise has allowed SEGA to localize and publish popular Japanese titles in the west, including the Yakuza series, Project DIVA series, and more.”

Besides this, Ivo Gerscovich has now been named as the new head of the Sonic brand and its related businesses in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. He’ll serve as the Sonic chief brand officer and senior vice president of SEGA of America.

Shin Megami Tensei IV Final

Atlus had released a new video showing off the first batch of DLC for Shin Megami Tensei IV Final. It takes a look at the newly available costumes and missions. You can watch it below:

Etrian Odyssey V

Atlus has recently published a new Etrian Odyssey V video showcasing the game’s character creation options. Check it out below:

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight has received a new update, bringing the game up to version 1.1.

This new patch takes 23 blocks (2.8MB) of free space, which is pretty small, but according to Atlus, it just fixes a bug with the suspend save, so it’s to be expected.

Yo-Kai Sangokushi

Level 5 recently published the opening movie for Yo-Kai Sangokushi, which just released in Japan this past Saturday. Take a look at it below:

Natsume on Medabots and game localization

Natsume has published a second portion to its Winter Q&A with fans. In it, the company shares a small update regarding the state of Medabots and how they choose games for localization.

Here are the specific quotes:

Medabots? 🙁
-Eric, Facebook

Nothing new to report on the Medabots front. We’re sadface too. We’re happy we were able to launch all four GBA games (Medabots and Medabots AX, both Rokusho and Metabee editions) on the Wii U Virtual Console. And we are definitely hopeful we’ll get a chance to localize another game in the future.

Can you tell us a little bit about how games are chosen for localization? What kinds of factors influence the decision?
-lirishae, Tumblr

We have a few guidelines for choosing titles. The first is that the game needs to fit into our company model. That is to say, it is a unique and niche title that has the ability to grow its respective market. Second, we don’t release games that would be rated M. We like to keep everything family friendly. We love taking chances of quirky and special games that might not ever make it to the western market, such as Chulip, A-Train, or Afrika. There are a lot of other factors as well, but those are the basics.

River City Ransom SP

Arc System Works recently announced that River City Ransom SP has been delayed to June 2nd in Japan, from its original release date of April 28th.

The company stated the dealy is necessary to further improve the game’s overall quality.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

The team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has shared a new development update video as part of a post on the game’s Kickstarter. It starts off by showing the katana animation, and then highlights a “grid” map used to test different aspects of the project.

You can find Koji Igarashi’s explanation and the video below:

Hi, everyone! This month we’d like to show you something that few people outside the development team ever get to see: A work-in-progress “grid” map that we’re using to test stage size, scrolling mechanics, enemy placement, and more. I’ve provided some narration to make it easier to see where we’re making progress.

We’re also revealing the katana animation. To provide our animators a reference for the motion, the team filmed me swinging an umbrella. Days after the video shoot I still had some muscle pain, but let’s please keep that between us…

Doll Fashion Atelier

Teyon has announced it will be bringing Mebius’ downloadable 3DS game Doll Fashion Atelier to the North American eShop on April 7, for $4.99.

Here’s an overview of the game:

Follow your infinite imagination and sense of fashion to create one-of-a-kind stylish dolls!

Choose a doll from 5 different themes: Pretty, Gothic, Victorian, Princess or Antique, and dress it up in stunning clothing pieces! There are over 600 items available, including clothes, shoes, accessories, hairstyles, make-ups and more! Add a frame and a background, draw a doodle and take a photo with a camera on your Nintendo 3DS.

Players will also be able to show off their doll collections by creating albums and saving them to their SD card or sharing them on Miiverse.

Finally, here’s a trailer for the game:

Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus

Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus is now out on the North American Wii U eShop, and will soon be available in Europe on April 7. Due to that you can find a new trailer for the game below, followed by some gameplay footage, courtesy of NintenDaan.

Justice Chronicles

Justice Chronicles, Kemco’s latest RPG, is now out on the 3DS eShop in both North America and Europe. You can find the game’s official trailer below:

Minecraft: Story Mode

Telltale Games has released a trailer for the fifth episode of Minecraft: Story Mode. You can find it below:

Virtual Console

Below you can find a trailer for the Japanese Virtual Console version of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the GBA.

n-Space is closing down

n-Space, a game developer with over 20 years of experience, is now shutting down.

Even though the company hasn’t made many games for Nintendo’s platforms lately, it still played an important role in its history for developing titles such as Geist (for GameCube) and Heroes of Ruin (for 3DS), and porting several iterations of Call of Duty and other recognizable titles to Nintendo’s consoles. You can find a list of their works over here.

The news of the closure was originally passed along by artist Ben Leary. He shared the following message on Twitter:

n-Space has closed. My statement – https://t.co/HaV3mv9ihI pic.twitter.com/uwaNpOft1u

— Ben Leary (@Polygoblin) 29 de março de 2016

It’s always sad to hear about these companies and studios closing down, but we can only wish their employees to be able to rebuild their careers elsewhere. Good luck to all the n-Space developers!