Hello, hello! It’s been a while. Today, I would like to talk about our upcoming title Toukiden: The Age of Demons for PS Vita. Having sold half a million copies in Japan, it’s coming to North America on February 11th, 2014.
The Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly project started relatively soon after the first project concluded. Since we received lots of feedback that players got too scared to complete the game, we shifted our attention to making the storyline more interesting, to encourage such players to overcome the scariness in wanting to see the end of the story.
Editor’s note: With the recent release of Fatal Frame on PSN as a PlayStation 2 Classic, we reached out to Fatal Frame series director Makoto Shibata to share some thoughts on the inception of one of the most tense, atmospheric series in gaming.
If you’re a fan of ninja games, PS Vita won’t leave you wanting – or waiting. The system’s upcoming launch will be supported by two ninja-centric titles: Shinobido 2 and Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, and I spent some time with the latter this weekend. NGS+ is an updated version of an early PS3 title, which itself was an enhanced version of an original Xbox game that debuted back in 2004. Despite some control choices which have clearly evolved over the past 8 years, the source material holds up pretty well in 2012.
Playing through the first few levels of the NGS+, memories from nearly a decade ago came flooding back to me: the placement of treasures, decapitating enemies with a single charged slash (hold down the triangle button to, um, execute), and the difficulty. The Ninja Gaiden series resides firmly in the “tough, but fair” challenge department. When you die – and you will – it’s usually not due to AI cheapness, but rather a mistimed block or a delayed dodge. That doesn’t mean the game can’t get frustrating, but when you prevail, the frustration melts into delicious satisfaction. For those having trouble, NGS+ adds Hero Mode, which helps automates some blocking and dodging to help you along. There’s no shame in it.
Last time we saw Quantum Theory was at E3 2009, and the game was so early as to not even be playable. Now with this gothic 3rd person shooter at about the 50% point in development, Tecmo allowed us to go hands on before granting us an interview with Director Makoto Shibata. The playthrough helped […]
ZEN Studios has some exciting news for all you slice-and-dice fans! It’s my pleasure to announce that we have partnered with Tecmo as the inspiration for a Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 pinball table, which is the second expansion table for the PSN exclusive ZEN Pinball. Yes, the most intense action game series of all time […]
Jeff and PlayStation.Blog.Europe‘s Jem Alexander continue their dynamic duo-esque post-coverage of the Tokyo Game Show, this time with the focus on Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll from Koei. If you don’t know much about the series, here’s a primer from from Jem: While at the Tecmo Koei booth we got a chance to chat to […]