I am a big fans of CyberConnect2’s (they like to call themselves CC2 and worked on the Naruto and .hack games) works and their lovely character design has been a huge inspiration for me personally. After teasing it for so long, CC2 boss Hiroshi Matsuyama finally reveals the DS title that will celebrate the company’s 15th Anniversary. Solarobo (working title) is an ARPG that has been in the planning for 10 years and in production for 3 years with quite a few heavy weight collaborators behind. Matsuyama himself will the Executive Director, Takayuki Isobe the Director, Nobuteru Yuuki the character designer, Yoshitaka Taniguchi (of Super Robot Taisen fame) the robot designer and finally the opening movie is currently being made at Mad House.

Story

The story is said to be a mix of sadness and happiness that our character will goes through in this really expansive world that CC2 created. Sheparudo Republic is a nation made up of several floating islands and as you’d expect, its concept arts look amazing. Two races dominate the country, Inuhito (the Taiwan version of Famitsu translate it as Dog People) and Nekohito (the Cat People). Our hero Red Savarin is from Inuhito and he controls his Robo (the official name given to robots in the game) called Dahak-AZ103 to take on missions as a Hunter and earns rewards for his efforts.

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After two (three if you count Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha Fire and Blizzard as separate games :) highly successful game, it’s hard to imagine the year of World Cup 2010 without a new Inazuma Eleven game. Suitably enough, the theme of Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! this time is world champion as Mamoru Endo and the strongest players from Japan will fly to an island for the ultimate showdown in Football Frontier International.

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One of the main reasons I got myself a DS is the rich selection of unique role-playing games like Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey series. Its map-making feature and challenging gameplay are something I am really looking forward to. With only two months to go before its Japanese release (I will wait for the yet-to-be-announced US version though), let’s see what’s new in the third game of the series, Sekaiju no Meikyuu III: Seikai no Raihousha (my rough translation: Etrian Odyssey III: Visitors From Star Ocean). This article is based on all the Weekly Famitsu reports so far, including comments from the developers.

If you’re like me, new to the Etrian Odyssey series, the game lets you form a party of five members, march deep into dungeons which you create (using a Paint-like interface with icons for various tools) as you move forward. Leveling up, something we’ll spend plenty of our time in the game, will have different effects depending on your job class, which make it important to set-up your party accordingly. It also worth mentioning that the previous games have been hard and this don’t seem to be any different.

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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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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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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.