The latest report on Level-5’s Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha tell us more about the story, new characters and also the multiplayer modes.

The Story So Far

Face with the sudden threats of Alien Academy, Mamoru Endo and his teammates take the Inazuma Caravan to search the entire nation for the best talents for his team. After a match with Gemini Storm, a team from Alien Academy, director Toko suddenly removes Shuya Goenji from the first team. The move shaken the team’s confidence and in order to find his replacement, Endo and company goes to Hokkaido to find Shiro Fubuki.

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Pretty excited with this. Supervised by Yuji Horii himself, Dragon Quest Wars is a board game being developed by Intelligent System. Four monsters from each teams will battle it out on maps with grids on them. There are only six types of monsters and the equal amount of maps to choose from but as mentioned in my previous report, this seems like a simple looking but deep strategy game that can be quite addictive. The game will be out sometime this month in Japan and costs 500 DSi Points. More screens after the jump (click on the images for larger view).

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I didn’t pay much attention to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days before, partly due to me not having a DS when the game was announced and as a result, didn’t follow any news about it at all. But thanks to it being heavily promoted in the recent issues of Weekly Famitsu, it kind of grow on me. The fact that it has been confirmed for a September release in US only raises my interest even further. Here’s the last interview the mag did for the game with director Tetsuya Nomura and assistant director Tomohiro Hasegawa (published in issue 6/5) where the duo highlights some of the cool stuff of the game.

According to Hasegawa, he always wanted Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days to be played in short chunks of time where players can slowly accumulate their game time. It’s also one of the main idea behind the title, where “Days” refer to the story progressing day by day.

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Sega is introducing a new feature into Bleach DS 4th: Flame Bringer’s battle system called “Rongeki Battle” in which players will be presented with a question once a certain condition has been met. Your answer will apparently has a “big impact” on the outcome of the battle. There are also info on Ishida being playable in the scan (click for full view). Bleach DS 4th: Flame Bringer will be out in Japan on August 6th, it’s $48.90 at Play-Asia.

After months of silence, Level-5 is finally ready to tell us more about Ninokuni, the lead title for the company’s 10th anniversary’s celebration this year. A recent Weekly Famitsu article, of which this report is based on, says this is a “Dream RPG” and it surely looks like one. Read on if you want to know about what has been revealed so far.

What is Ninokuni?

Armed with a magic book (which will be bundled together with the game), players venture between real and alternate worlds, making spells, create potion and solve puzzles to help 13 years old Oliver revives his mother, who died suddenly in the real world. The two worlds move in parallel, which mean life goes on in another world if you decide to switch to a different world.

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As claimed by the headline in the article, this will be your “dream RPG”. The upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu has the exclusive scoop for Ninokuni, Level-5’s collaboration with animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli and music composer Joe Hisaishi.

The story takes place in two different worlds that moves in parallel to each other, our 13-year-old hero named Oliver lost his beloved mother and he will adventure to the alternate world (Ninokuni) to bring her back. Most characters, including Oliver, appears in Ninokuni as different version of themselves and a little fairy named Shizuku will be your guide there. The article also shows a few locations from the games, both in the real world and Ninokuni, and they all looks amazing with its details and colors. Full info when I have the mag. More images after the jump (click for larger view).

Source: 2ch

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Looks like I know where I can spent my remaining 500 Nintendo Points now. Square Enix is set to release their first ever Dragon Quest game for DSi Ware with Dragon Quest Wars this June in Japan. The official genre is “Kantan Battle” (Simple Battle) which isn’t too helpful but Famitsu says you will be controlling familiar monsters from the series for battles on a board. The game is said to has simple rule but deep gameplay at the same time where strategic thinking are required because each monster has its own characteristics and skills.

Two game modes were revealed, they are 1 Vs 1 Battle and “Survival Vs” that features 4 teams. Online multiplayer is supported through the WiFi connection. The game is being developed by Intelligent System with Yuji Horii the supervisor, Akira Toriyama the character designer and Kouichi Sugiyama the music composer. The release window is June. Click on the images below for full view.

Famitsu sat down with Level-5’s boss Akihiro Hino recently to check out the progress of the company, especially games they announced at last year’s Level-5 Vision 2008 event (see all their upcoming games near the bottom of the post). Although there is nothing too exciting out of the interview, published in 5/22 issue of Weekly Famitsu, Hino’s passion for creative games and visions are something I always admire. So check it out if you are interested.

Hino says Level-5’s prospect for the rest of 2009 is to “organize commercial events that will enliven the gaming industry“. He realized that this is a difficult task but is determined to do so. Famitsu noticed that the many announcements appear to be bearing fruits for the company right now. DS upcoming release Sloan to Michael: Nazo no Monogatari (screen above), which is part of the Atamania series, will heads the company’s challenge according to Hino. He says the game is even more interesting than he originally expected and his immediate task will be to build Atamania as a good series.

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Bandai Namco is set to announce another new Super Robot Taisen game for the DS according to pictures of the upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu. Super Robot Gakuen will be an adventure game set in school and as you can see from the pictures (click on thumbnails for larger view) is 90% done but no release date is given apart from the fall release window.

The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu has a report on Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha, the sequel to Level-5’s best selling soccer based RPG. I will write more about it when I got the mag but Famitsu posted part of the report online, which focus on the new episodes of the sequel. Check out the screens after the jump. The game will be out in Japan this October, and I’m still waiting for the first game to be localized…

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