EDF! EDF! EDF! We are excited to share the news today that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable will be available as a digital download on PlayStation Vita at the beginning of the year. The game will be available on January 8th, 2013 in North America for $39.99 and players will get to experience all the intense action that the Earth Defense Force can endure.

What is really cool is that Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is completely remastered from the original classic shooter (Earth Defense Force 2017) and with so many extras, players will truly get a new EDF experience that wasn’t possible before. Players will get to check out seven new levels plus dive into all the action with fan favorite Pale Wing, giving players the power to soar high over buildings in her jet pack and cause massive destruction from above.

You will also find some new enemies in the game, and blast them to smithereens with your choice of more than 230 weapons, including many new ones. For the first time, save the world with your friends in online multiplayer for up to four players in co-op and versus mode.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences with Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable and hope that you can save mankind from this insect infestation starting on January 8th! Good luck!

The Earth Defense Force is back, and I’m here to tell you what to expect when it lands on PS Vita this winter! Earth Defense Force 2017 (“EDF3” in Japan) launched in 2007 as a third-person shooter developed by Sandlot and published by D3Publisher.

In Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable for PS Vita, the core of the game (the 3D arcade action and the system features) remain the same as in EDF2017, but by adding many additional features the game feels completely transformed and remastered. These additions include an online co-op mode, new missions, enemies and weapons, and a new playable character in Pale Wing.

The story is set in the year 2017. The Ravagers — a vile alien race — are coming to Earth, and they have one thing on their minds: the complete destruction of mankind! In Earth Defense Force 2017, you are Earth’s last line of defense. You’ll be dropped into the shoes of a member of the Earth Defense Force. Your mission: stop the Ravagers from conquering Earth.

With the added online play, you can now play a co-op game with up to four players on your PS Vita, without giving up three quarters of your screen. New tactics and strategy are required when playing with friends, bringing a whole new experience to EDF2017 that I think players will love.

Every player can select their weapons, so the key to effective teamwork is to take advantage of each soldier’s attributes. There are also many new weapons that specialize in cooperative gameplay, including tools that assist and revive your fallen allies. You can chat with your friends in multiplayer, so it’s key to keep in contact and make a tactical battle plan. There is also a PvP multiplayer mode where you track your opponent on radar, then make the most of your weapons to go for the win.

You can also unlock Pale Wing, the flying female playable character, after certain conditions are met. Pale Wing did not exist in the world of EDF2017, but she came flying from EDF2 into EDF3 Portable to help the troops out against the new threat. This character requires you to play the game differently, with her flying ability and new gear, so be prepared! Pale Wing has her own set of gear, such as the rapier and laser rifle, adding even more variation to the game’s 150+ weapons. You can even have all four players play as Pale Wing in multiplayer to create a complete Pale Wing Unit.

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is packed with new features. I think fans will be most excited about being able to play online with their friends, as EDF has always been a game that players have enjoyed sharing with others. For those new to the EDF world, welcome! I think you will find an over-the-top action arcade experience that will keep you coming back to your PS Vita for more. We look forward to sharing more of the game with you in the future, as we prepare for a PS Vita-exclusive winter launch. Let us know if you’ve played EDF, and which new features you’re most looking forward to!

Hi PlayStation.Blog readers! We wanted to share first details on the Guild Update (game version 1.01) for White Knight Chronicles II. The update will radically enhance your online play options and provide more than 100 pieces of new downloadable content along with some other new features; read on for an in-depth dissection.

Guild System

One of the most exciting features is the new Guild System. By purchasing the commerce item “Guild License” at the PlayStation Store, you’ll be able to create your own Guild — a collective of GeoNet communities built by players that enables them to interact with each other online as they play. Create a Guild and you will have your own personal Guild page, which will allow you to participate in online Guild rankings, access the Guild’s exclusive HomeTown, and more. Once you create your Guild, you can pick your favorite character as a concierge (Guide) by purchasing a Concierge ticket item. Your concierge is a sort of Guild mascot that helps run day-to-day operations by managing your guild’s HomeTown, its guild tokens and GeoStones, and providind information about designated quests.

Members of a guild are allotted three guild tokens per day. Guild masters receive four a day. You can use guild tokens when creating or joining in quests. If you do, completing the quest will earn GeoStones and prestige points for your guild. You may commit up to five guild tokens to a single quest. The more guild tokens you commit, the more GeoStones you can obtain. You can carry only up to three days’ worth of guild tokens at once, though you can purchase a Token Storage Ticket, to keep up to seven days’ worth (that’s 21 tokens, or 28 for guild masters). You’ll receive GeoStones by completing quests. GeoStones are the jewels that affect your guild’s position in the rankings. There are twelve different GeoStones, and the type you are likely to receive varies based on the Guild Rank of the quest. GeoStones enable guild members to obtain prestige points, raising the guild’s reputation and improving its position in the online rankings. If your guild builds up enough prestige, it will gain a level the next time points are tabulated in the rankings. The higher a guild’s level, the more facilities and items become available in its Guild HomeTown.

Also, GeoStones can be “GeoForged” to transform them into other items. Some items may only be obtained through GeoForging, and the items you can create change on a daily basis. Boosting your guild’s level will increase the selection of items you can create through GeoForging.

Statue Factory

Statue Production has started at HomeTown’s Binding Post. Speak to Gaspard in your HomeTown to commission a statue. You can get a Statue by paying with small jewels known as Dahlia or with a Prism Ticket. Prism Tickets can be purchased either at the in-game online store or at PlayStation Store.

There are more than 150 statues dividing into 10 Statue Packs. You can check your “Statue Collection” in the Travelogue of the main menu. By placing the right combination of statues in your HomeTown, you can earn statue bonuses. Gather some statues and try it out! Here are some examples of statue bonuses:

Statue Bonuses

• Georama Stat Cap Raised (to 60)
  Place more than 1 statue. Stat cap raised to 60.
• Farmer Stat Bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types of giant vespid, troll, or fire giant type statues.
• Miner Stat bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types of scorpion, lizard, golem, or machine type statues.
• Lumberjack Stat Bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types ofplant type (such as polkan) or wyvern type statues.
• Warrior Stat Bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types of spider, assassin, or dragon type statues.
• Mage Stat Bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types of spirit, undead, or Pyredaemos type statues.
• Chef Stat Bonus +1
  Place more than 2 types of beast or greaver statues.

Check your Georama Stats to view the statue bonuses currently in effect! * Statue Factory is available only when you are signed in.

New Dowloadable Content

The Guild update will also bring more than 100 pieces of new downloadable content that yu can buy via the in-game store or PlayStation Store. In addition to the aforementioned Concierge Tickets, Guild License, and Prism Tickets, new downloadable content will include:

• Incorruptus Colors: More colors are now available to customize your
  Incorruptus.
• Artifact Plans: Will earn you Incorruptus armors with unusual colors at a
  relatively low rate.*You must have access to an Incorruptus Workshop in order to bind artifacts.
• Georama parts: 28 kinds (90 DLCs) of new Georama parts are added to
  the patch to upgrade your Georama town.

We hope you encounter more exciting White Knight Chronicles II online adventures with the software update! If you are playing White Knight Chronicles II, tell us your favorite online experience in the comments below!

Hi guys! I wanted to give you a brief outline of the story and characters of White Knight Chronicles ll, which will hit U.S. PS3s this fall. The original game “White Knight Chronicles: International Edition” (included with WKCII) began with the day of Princess Cisna’s coming-of-age banquet in the Kingdom of Balandor. When the ceremony is suddenly raided by a mysterious organization called Magi, young winemaker apprentice Leonard lead the princess to safety in the castle cellars, where he found a legendary weapon called the Incorruptus. Leonard gains the knightly powers of the Incorruptus and sets out on a journey to save Princess Cisna with his friends: Yulie, Leonard’s childhood friend; Eldore, an old but skilled warrior; and Caesar, the son of the ruler of Greede.

However, the journey to rescue Princess Cisna became a harsh one. They overcame many challenges before Leonard and his friends came to realize that they had gotten caught up in a war that had been raging since ancient times — the Dogma Wars, a brutal battle that begin 10,000 years ago across the entire continent. And they may have simply been following a destiny that was determined since those ancient days…

At the end of White Knight Chronicles: International Edition, Leonard and his friends faced Grazel at the Dogma Rift that is a great gash formed by a massive earthquake. We don’t want to spoil the ending so that is all we can say for now.

White Knight Chronicles ll continues one year after this event. The world was exposed to the advancement of the military forces of the Yshrenian Empire with people’s lives at stake. It wasn’t just the Kingdom of Balandor that was affected, but also the great nation of Faria to the far west. White Knight Chronicles ll starts with a whole new level; “Faria”, with two new characters; Scardigne and Miu.

Faria is a grand nation that exists within The Lost Forest, to the west of the Dogma Rift. It is a prosperous country that is built around a giant tree that is revered as their guardian. The designs of the buildings and the clothing that the people wear are very unique to their society. The decorations used for armor, and especially the peoples’ hairstyles can only be found here, giving it a sort of grace to their culture. In the past, they were in a fierce war against the Kingdom of Balandor. But thanks to the peace talks which were strongly pursued between King Valtos of Balandor and Archduke Dalam of Faria, the nation maintains its quiet peace. However, there has been uneasy movement within Faria since Archduke was killed in the Magi incident a year ago at Balandor.

General Scardigne, who served the nation, and a girl named Miu were fighting to defend themselves from their pursuers. This young girl was the granddaughter of Archduke Dalam who had once ruled Faria, and the nation’s only hope. Gradually, the story heads into an epic global battle for world domination…

Please meet the new characters as well as some familiar friends below. Please note that the graphics for the original characters have also been improved throughout the game including throughout the remastered original. We hope fans enjoy stunning graphics created by LEVEL-5 and we look forward to releasing the game in North America in September!

Scardigne (New Character): The general of Faria. Scardigne meets with Leonard during the attempt to save Miu from Faria’s civil war and they travel together from there. He does not show emotion and has a cold demeanor, but he is very dependable.

Miu (New Character): The kind-hearted granddaughter of the late Archduke Dalam who prefers not to fight. When the civil war broke out, her life was threatened because she was the daughter to Archduke Dalam. She fled from Faria with Scardigne, and met with Leonard. She still wonders how she can help.

Leonard: A kind young man with a strong sense of justice and a passionate side, who once used to work as an apprentice to a winemaker in the castle town of Balandor. He has a slight crush on Princess Cisna. After accidently becoming the pactmaker to the White Knight, he completed missions for the kingdom and for Princess Cisna, though he was never an official member of the royal army. He is now an official knight of the Kingdom of Balandor.

Cisna: The princess of Balandor who lost her voice and smile due to an emotional trauma from her childhood. Her castle is raided during her coming-of-age ceremony, and her father, the king, is killed right in front of her eyes by a man in dark armor. Currently, she has overcome King Valtos’s death. To fight against the Yshrenian empire and to settle the struggles in the Kingdom of Balandor, she sends Leonard as a messenger to Faria.

Yulie: Leonard’s childhood friend who lives in the village of Parma, she’s a cheerful girl who is always smiling and also has secret feelings for Leonard. At first, she was against Leonard going into battle, but after serious thought of what she can do for Leonard in this continued war against Yshrenia, she decides to swear to fight alongside him. She currently travels with Leonard as support.

Caesar: The son of Count Drisdall, the ruler of the free city of Greede. In contrast to his father Drisdall who is respected by all the citizens as the governor of the city, Caesar has a very free-spirited personality. A year ago, he traveled with Leonard as the pactmaker of the Dragon Knight. After the journey, he separated ways with Leonard and has taken up his position as lord of Greede after his father passed. Though his carefree demeanor and actions may cause people to misjudge him, his heart is honest and caring.

Grazel: The leader of the Magi force and the pactmaker of the Sun King. He believes that he is the reincarnation of Emperor Madoras of ancient Yshrenia and attempts to make the world his own. One year ago, he proclaimed the empire of Yshrenia reborn and declared war against the world.

White Knight Chronicles II is the sequel to White Knight Chronicles: International Edition, a unique role-playing game that combines an expansive story mode with strong multiplayer elements. Created by LEVEL-5, the acclaimed RPG developer of Rogue Galaxy and Dragon Quest VIII, White Knight Chronicles II offers a new chapter in the epic fantasy RPG and even includes a remastered version of the original game as a bonus!

The tale continues one year after the events of White Knight Chronicles: International Edition. Leonard, the pactmaker of the White Knight, and his team are the last hope to save the world from the Yshrenian Empire, which has set its eyes on dominating the three kingdoms of Balandor, Foria, and Greede. While the first game mostly focused on the love story, White Knight Chronicles II features a grander vision that unravels the truth behind the Incorruptus through 10,000 years of history, culminating in a true finale to the epic saga that may leave you touched by its conclusion.

The extensive multiplayer component enables you to tackle unique online quests with up to six players. The extensive Georama feature also returns, enabling you to build your own town where you can unlock materials to create powerful items to use during your adventures. Some materials can be collected only from the Georama and will give you an advantage in the story mode.

White Knight Chronicles II boasts various improvements based on user feedback regarding the original game. The battle system has improved dramatically over the original, with enhancements including new skills and spells that make combat more strategic, as well as a faster Action Gauge for speedier battles. You can also earn AC (Action Chips), used for transformation and combos, much more easily in White Knight Chronicles II. A new Auto-run feature helps you search a vaster area of maps. Finally, for the first time, you will also be able to create and upgrade a unique Incorruptus for your player avatar.

The North American version will include a fully localized version of the Japanese game with additional on-disc quests that were originally released as downloadable quests in Japan in January 2011. In our North American version, players can start from White Knight Chronicles II without completing the original game — an important point, as the Japanese version requires players to clear White Knight Chronicles: International Edition in order to play the sequel.

We are currently targeting September for a North American release. The gameplay time will easily go over 100 hours. Prepare yourselves, folks!

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is the follow-up to the highly regarded Earth Defense Force 2017, and we’re bringing three-player co-op and six-player Survival Mode over PSN to this fight! The series comes to the PlayStation 3 for the first time on July 5th, 2011.

First, some history. The Earth Defense Force series originated in Japan and started out with two titles appearing on the PlayStation 2 known as The Earth Defense Force (2003) and The Earth Defense Force 2 (2005). America’s first dose did not come until 2007 when Earth Defense Force 2017; Prior to that, only a handful of savvy importers knew what the series was about; insane numbers of huge insect enemies, massive destruction, boatloads of crazy weapons, and non-stop arcade action.

As the fourth game in the series, Insect Armageddon stays true to its predecessors. The Ravagers, an insectoid race from the stars, has come to Earth to dominate it and extinguish all human life. You play as Lightning Alpha, the leader of Strike Force Lightning and a downright badass. This elite squad of the EDF is equipped with four upgradable armor types and over 300 unlockable weapons to help kick the Ravagers off of Earth.

If you’ve never played any of the EDF games, then you might not know that the series is all about trimming the fat and distilling gameplay down to the purest fun. This isn’t some dramatic space opera with a convoluted twisted RPG storyline and moral choices. You are dropped into a level and enemies (LOTS of enemies) come at you. Your only option is to shoot!

EDF has always been about destruction, too! Pretty much everything you shoot blows up in some fantastic way. Skyscrapers come down with a single rocket and the feeling of sheer power is undeniable … if not slightly ridiculous. In EDF Insect Armageddon, we’ve kicked it up another notch with way more stuff to blow up!

The last piece of the EDF equation is the arsenal. When creating the weapons, we strived to make them as fun and destructive as possible. We utilized different shot patterns, spreads, visual effects, sound effects, and rates of fire to give weapons feel significantly different from one another. Because weapons are such a heavy focus of the EDF franchise, we wanted to allow players to expand their arsenal if they felt that 300 weapons just weren’t enough. We’re bringing out two DLC packs that players can get if they pre-order the game from Best Buy or GameStop. Fifteen far-out new weapons are included in each pack.

The first pack is called “Death From Above” (available at Best Buy) and focuses mostly on new weapons for the Jet Armor (a nod to the character Pale Wing from EDF2). In the video, you’ll see some of the offerings like the Neptanzer QH Proto; somewhat of an electric flamethrower. There’s also the Wallagis 1776L which is a heat-seeking missile launcher that sends missiles on divergent trajectories, but has super high accuracy.

The second pack is called “Pounds of Pain” (available at GameStop) and brings a slew of new weapons to the EDF’s all-new Battle Armor! The video shows off the five-shot-spread rocket launcher known as the Grimhegern Splitzer B. For fans of the Trooper Armor, there’s the RLF-17 Floorboard Rocket Launcher which shoots a volley of warheads straight upwards before they come back down and decimate everything below.

If you’re hungering for more, we’ll be writing more blogs like this leading up to launch. If you just can’t wait any longer, go pre-order the game, then come by and get a sneak peak of the game at PAX East in Boston from March 11th – 13th. It’s going to be epic with a Survival Mode contest and giveaways. I hope to see you there!