Well, the time is almost upon us. A week from today – Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 – Corpse Party: Book of Shadows will be available for purchase on the North American PlayStation Store for $19.99, with a European release to follow shortly thereafter. It’s been a long journey getting this game to you guys, so it seemed prudent to give you all a bit more information about it. After all, an appetite for blood and dismay is at its best when thoroughly whetted…

And since each chapter in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows tells its own standalone story, I thought the best way to make you salivate even more would be to give a brief, spoiler-free introduction to each one. So without further ado, here’s a taste of what’s in store for you when you fire up your PSP (or PS Vita) next week.

So, are you ready? If not, there’s a whole new website full of information and images to peruse, as well as a brand new short trailer. Which means, if you’re not already scared out of your gourd… well, you will be. Oh, you definitely will be!

And let’s face it. You wouldn’t have it any other way.

Are you ready, guys? Because right now it’s Ragnarok Odyssey happy hour! Or more like Happy Day, since today we celebrate the release of our precious PS Vita title. It’s been a lengthy localization journey, but we’re proud to bring out the Ragnarok Odyssey Standard Edition for $39.99, as well as the Mercenary Edition, which includes a meaty monster guide with artwork, a full soundtrack, and 10 randomized collectable monster cards out of over 50 for $49.99.

The game itself is the real star of the show, though. Think of it kind of like Monster Hunter or Gods Eater, but with more of a Norse mythology twist and a battle system that’s all about knocking your enemies high into the air, then flying up after them and flinging them all over creation before slamming them back down into the hard dirt below. It’s a great game to pick up and play anytime, as you can just grab a quest and head out to go attack all manner of creatures and loot lots of goodies off their hacked-up remains. And if you don’t want to go it alone, you can always bring three friends with you through ad-hoc or infrastructure multiplayer – which might be a huge help when you face off against some of this game’s mammoth bosses, who can be hundreds of times bigger than you are.

And since this is basically a really cool party, I’ll be talking about those multiplayer features here today. While we weren’t able to play together too often (naturally, we’d get far too distracted trying to get our characters to properly high-five each other), the times we did play it in the office left us in fits of giggles and a welling flame of camaraderie for taking down big dudes. Because some of the dudes you fight are… well, really big and stuff.

The maps of multiplayer are the same exact maps used in the single-player campaign, and while single player is accessed through the local Guild, multiplayer is accessed through a nearby tavern. So what’s the difference, exactly? Difficulty. Multiplayer is much more difficult in comparison, and will reward players who take it on with better items which you can use to create new clothing, weapons, or just sell for some extra cash. Luckily, this difficulty isn’t closed to those who are venturing solo and want the extra challenge – single players only need to enter the tavern alone to progress through the game with a higher difficulty (y’all are crazy, though, for real).

So can a brand new player instantly be fighting on one of the last maps in the game if one of their partners is farther ahead? The answer to that is no. If you have two, three, four people in multiplayer, the quests available for your team to choose from will be decided based on the ‘youngest’ player. This means that if you have three players who are at Chapter 5, and one on Chapter 3, you’ll only be given quests up to Chapter 3. Help that last guy conquer a few familiar foes, though, and you’ll be taking on later chapters together as a team in no time.

The game has a few multiplayer friendly in-game features, too. While you can’t use voice chat, there are a flurry of emoticons and silly to serious body language options to choose from to let your comrades know how you’re feeling. There are also equippable cards that are friendly to playing with others, too, such as a card that spreads certain leftover stats to your allies should you fall in battle, or a card that helps loot gravitate more to you than others (because if sharing was caring, things wouldn’t be as fun, though some drop items are split amongst the party).
Oh yeah, and so long as someone has a North American copy of the game, you can play with them, meaning don’t sweat having everyone play in the same room to enjoy some monster hunting. It’s all online, baby!

So be nice, have fun, and do your best on conquering the toughest Giants the Sundered Lands have to offer!

Orgarhythm drops today! Don those headphones because you’re going to want to turn up the volume on this one. To make this easy for the uninitiated, the curious, or those of you scratching their heads, here’s the bottom line on XSEED’s latest PS Vita offering.

Music! Strategy! The unholy union of rhythm and little tribal guys that you can send into battle! Orgarhythm is a hybrid rhythm/real-time strategy game where you direct your own personal army by using the touchscreen to keep the beat. Destruction and creation vie for dominance on this fledgling world. You play as the God of Light, boogieing through each level in your quest to take down your brother, the God of Darkness, and you do it with style.

Orgarhythm employs a flawless use of PS Vita’s sweet touchscreen feature. The controls are very simple, the interface beautifully responsive, and your ability to direct your soldiers, absolute. Step 1: Tap the screen; Step 2: Tap again to select an elemental soldier; Step 3: Tap to choose an attack; and Step 4: drag your finger to send him out into the field to do a dance-off with the enemies trying to bar your way. Remember that: Tap -> Tap -> Tap -> Drag. Easy!

Earth (yellow) > Water (blue) > Fire (red)

If you can keep the beat you’ll also power up, build your army and add new layers of music as you play. Strategy also comes into play when you face off against your similarly color-coded foes. Orgarhythm uses a paper-rock-scissors system where certain elements are strong against one color and weaker against another. So in order to maximize your advantage when sending troops off to battle, your best bet is to deploy whatever element opposes the kind of enemy you’re facing.

This kind of elemental advantage (and disadvantage!) becomes very important to master when you get ready to face the level bosses. These titanic foes are often huge, can switch up their own elemental power at will or command hordes of elemental foes, and are always unforgiving.

(For a bit of size comparison, you are the jam between their toes. The bread crumbs under their mighty heels.)

You’ll dance through 12 stages with insane bosses, ranking and online leaderboards, extreme data tracking that records every possible detail of your play in the game, ad-hoc co-op and versus modes (2 players), and a mean AI that will switch up enemy tactics when you replay levels. And in addition to an already awesome original soundtrack of techno, rock and club beats, we also plan on releasing DLC of fan-created music!

Anyway, as I mentioned in the last blog post, Orgarhythm is a weird game, but one worth your attention if you like rhythm games with a twist. I also plan on destroying you all on the leaderboards, so if you think you’ve got some chops when it comes to music games, challenge me. ;)

Orgarhythm is a game that’s going to puzzle a lot of people. It’s certainly not a premise that I’ve ever seen before, much less played. In short, Orgarhythm is the marriage of music and strategy — and some very nice touch controls. It’s a game where you march to the beat, literally.

The premise is simple: There are two brothers, one that embodies creation, the other destruction. Together they settle on a planet and set about pumping out hordes of mini-tribal dudes who seem to really enjoy dancing. The God of Light (the brother who thinks growing stuff is neat and probably listens to Jack Johnson) is making great progress spawning kittens, erecting maypoles or whatever kind of idyllic stuff you might imagine a sparkling deity likes. Meanwhile, the other God (of Darkness) would rather just break all of his brother’s toys. Understandably vexed, the God of Light decides it’s time for a dance off and begins his slow-mo march to battle.

That’s where you come in. Using the touch screen controls on your PS Vita, you’ll direct the God of Light’s backup dancers and tap-tap-tap your way through enemies. The key controlling concept of the game is something called the tri-tap. Tri-tapping is done by tapping the screen to the beat whenever one of three sets of icons comes up.

• Tap the God of Light – This will bring up the first set of command icons.
• Select one of the groups of your color-coded minions (According to the data tracker in the game I am apparently really partial to yellow)
• Select an attack – Strikers, Archers, Catapults, Sacrifice (BOOM TROOPS)
• Then, drag your finger on the screen to send your troops off in that direction
• So: tap-tap-tap + draaaaaaaaaaaaag

As you’re doing all this, a variety of tribal, techno and off-world-sounding music will be pulsating in the background to give you cues on when to tap. So tap-tap-tap and drag to the beat. Easy.
Well, okay, that probably doesn’t sound easy for a rhythm game, but having played through it, I assure you that you’ll hit your stride very quickly and doing the tri-tap will come naturally. Words are wind, though, so check out this quick gameplay video to get a feel for the beat.

This also wouldn’t be a rhythm strategy game without some tactics. Those come into play with the game’s color-coded troops (on both sides), who employ a paper-rock-scissors system.

Using this system, you’ll want to send off the appropriate troops to tackle the appropriate enemy. The type of attack you select is also pretty important (getting into complicated-sounding territory again, I know…), but once you get the hang of the battle system you’ll feel the joy of what it’s like to be the conductor of a very violent orchestra.

There’s a lot more depth to this game than I’ve gone into, but I know what you guys really want to know.

Is the music good?

Yes. It suits the game perfectly and as you tri-tap successfully, you’ll actually add layers of extra sound to that music. It’s pretty cool. You can check out the tunes here. We’re also looking to add more music to that repertoire, so stay tuned for more info on that, all you budding musicians.

Is this the game for me?

If you like rhythm games, are into music at all or appreciate quirky gameplay, then I think you’ll like this game. Multiple difficulties, unforgiving bosses, smooth controls and unlockable content all make an addictive package, plus the in-game data tracker makes it deliciously possible to obsess over the most minute details. There are also co-op and versus modes to keep you entertained.

Will this game increase my sex appeal?

Oh, absolutely. I would not lie about this. With a title like Orgarhythm, how can it not?

Anyway, that’s just a brief look at our upcoming game. It’s music, it’s strategy, it’s unabashedly weird, and it really doesn’t do the game justice for me to just talk about, so I hope you guys’ll check out some of the gameplay videos and listen to the music. I think you’ll be intrigued. For more details, follow us on Facebook and check out the Japanese official site.

Hey guys! How are you? You’re doing awesome, you say? That’s pretty awesome, I’m doing awesome myself. And you know why? Because I’ve been playing Ragnarok Odyssey for PS Vita. In English.

[Insert gasps of excitement here]

Are you ready to stand taller than giants? You should be, because that’s what this game is all about. One day, a passage along the Millennium Peaks gives humans access to the long-sealed off Sundered Land, and because they’re really lucky, it’s filled to the brim with mighty beasts that seem to want nothing more than to destroy mankind’s territory — Trogdor-style. Only they’re not dragons with handsomely chiseled arms, they’re ugly Giants. Giants who like to smash things.

That’s where you come in. You’re a mercenary on the front lines, and once you choose your sex, job class, and how cute you are (by way of hair style/color, skin color and voice type), you’re ready to drop in on Fort Farthest like a bat out of hell. And don’t worry, you’re only restricted to your default job class for a short time — you’ll soon be able to go from hacking and slashing as a Sword Warrior to creating miniature explosions as a Mage with a mere wardrobe change. And even that won’t be a limitation soon enough, because I’m sure some of you would prefer to be dressed like you just walked out of a western while whacking things upside the head as a Hammersmith, right?

There are myriad lands with different environmental themes to discover in the Sundered Land, each with their own badass brand of monsters and Giants waiting to put their jaws (or slime — actually, that sounds kind of wrong, just go back to jaws) around your pretty little head. Accompanying these landscapes is a combat system that’s fast-paced and all-over-the-screen in the best kinds of ways. Battle your enemies using an arsenal of weapons at your disposal depending on your class, building what the title calls “tension” — the more tension you build, the more powerful, flashier and just all-around more awesome your specialized attacks will be. Thrust your enemies into the air, leaving them defenseless to your blows, or use the knockback ability to drive them clear off the screen.

What else does this game have? Well, there’s certainly more. Way more than I could possibly explain in one blog entry. But for now, I’ll leave you with one more fun fact: remember the beloved Porings in Ragnarok Online? They’re back. And you can wear them. On your head. So now that that little gem’s been unveiled, be patient girls and boys and we’ll talk again soon, okay?

After 300+ hours of time spent with the game, I feel I might have the qualifications to give it a score of badass/10. Which means 11. Maybe 11.5. But since I can’t actually score games I’ve worked on (some people might call that cheating), just remember the part where I started yelling at the screen because my favorite character, who is a Golem, started crushing on a loli Mandrake (this is actually a lot less creepy in context… okay, it’s kind of creepy in context too).

As someone who isn’t normally into dungeon crawlers, I wasn’t sure what to expect when playing Unchained Blades. I like fighting and I like dungeons, sure, but being a JRPG fan I love having my fully developed cast of characters and an engaging story even more. I’ve just never felt close to the “create your own character” thing. Or maybe I’m just lazy and don’t feel like picking out my mage’s hair color.

Luckily, this game gave me the best of both worlds. I had the pleasure of playing with an intimate, animated cast with their own goals, personalities, and relationships. When Tiana, a princess of the Phoenix Clan, proclaimed she wanted to turn into a ‘big, spiky dragon’, I wanted to slap her silly and ask what the hell kind of fantasies she was having involving dragons in the middle of the night. When Demon Clan Sylvie awkwardly avoided conversations concerning her mysterious brother Lucius, I wanted to know what thoughts were hiding in the back of her mind. I wasn’t travelling with faces and stats of my own creation; I was travelling with people who had stories to tell, and I was the one meant to discover them.

I was also worried that the combat would get repetitive, since, you know, it’s not a dungeon crawler if you’re not going through endlessly large dungeons and fighting difficult battles. Unchained Blades takes care of this as well by giving you various types of combat to play with. The first type includes traditional turn-based battles, in which you fight using up to four members of your party by blasting enemies with a series of fast, flashy and furious spells and skills. Along with that, you can charm the pants off of your enemies and bring them to your side so they become Followers, ready to either back you up in a fight (in fact, sixteen of these guys can be brought into battle at a time) or take damage in your place. Another type includes battles where your party is kicked to the curb and your Followers take the stage, fighting in battles presented by pressing a series of buttons on queue. Think DDR, only you’re dancing with your fingers and you might be a lizard instead.

The fully-fledged (get it? Because kids in the game are called fledglings hah) title Unchained Blades hits PSN today for a mere $29.99. Don’t complain, I got like 80 hours out of this game my first time around, not including side quests and a certain epilogue involving a 100-floor tower. Let’s see if you’re strong enough to meet with the Goddess and have a wish or two granted at the end. I bet you’re not. Go on. Prove me wrong.