Still busy.

So here are some links:

Namco’s next Tales of game is Tales of Xillia 2! I wasn’t expecting this at all (since only a few of the Tales of franchise have had actual sequels), and now I’m really looking forward to it.

There’s a Kickstarter page up for a new Tex Murphy adventure game! The only one in the series I played was The Pandora Directive, but it was pretty good (in spite of a few esoteric puzzles).

Good Old Games has the Ultima and Wing Commander games on sale (for another 6 hours) at half off. I played so much Wing Commander II back in the day. I had such a blast shooting down Kzinti Orions Catians Kilrathi. Once I had the computer properly configured, anyway (which was never trivial with Origin games).

I’m still pretty pressed for time (though it’s not as bad as I thought, since the law review write-on ends next Monday and not this Friday (like I originally thought)). Hopefully things will clear up by next week.

I had an idea for a post when I clicked “New Post”

But it’s completely gone now. Like it never existed.

I think it was something about Kickstarter and how it’s reviving long-dead series and genres (Wasteland 2, a new Tim Schafer adventure game, etc.), but I’m not really sure.

I guess I”ll just do some tab clearing, instead.

Falcom posted some samples of the rearranged music from Zero no Kiseki Evolution, their PS Vita full voice remake of the PSP game. Like the most of their music, it sounds great.

New this month from Baen Night Shade Books is a sendup of the John Carter of Mars books, called Jane Carver of Waar. Good timing on their part, what with the movie release (which everyone has seen, right?). I may have to buy it.

Sony sent out the Super Stardust Delta download codes for PS Vita 3G buyers who signed up for their free month of 3G with AT&T. It’s just as addictive as the PS3 version; you keep playing one more game to try to better your score.

Diablo III comes out on May 15. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to buy it.

The newest Rurouni Kenshin trailer looks awesome. They even have plans to release it internationally!

SNK is getting back into the handheld market with their new Neo Geo X, which comes with 20 Neo Geo games and an SD slot for future expansion. No word on pricing yet, though.

I added a link to my Amazon store on the right side of the page under the twitter widget; if you want used imported video games, knock yourself out. I’ll add more to it this week after going through my PS2 collection.

And finally, a comparison shot with my Vita and PSP-1000, with a game case from each:

Edit: Fixed the publisher for Jane Carver of Waar; it looks like Baen is handling the ebook, and Night Shade Books is publishing the trade paperback.

Crises of Fate

I finished up the first Ace Attorney Investigations game this weekend; instead of controlling Phoenix Wright and attempting to prove your client’s innocence, you control Miles Edgeworth (who is accompanied by various sidekicks, depending on which case you’re on) as he investigates crime scenes and deduces who the real criminal is.

As in the Phoenix Wright games, the five cases end up being related, even if at first glance they don’t appear to be. Lots of characters from the Phoenix games make appearances, including Dick Gumshoe and Franziska von Karma (I’d mention more, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise).

The logic puzzles are mostly solvable, though I did get stuck a few times; presenting the wrong evidence during testimony still reduces your health, and if you reduce it to zero, Miles fails to solve the case.

I’m not sure if the second Miles Edgeworth game is ever going to cross the Pacific; it came out in February of this year, and according to Capcom, there are currently no plans to release it outside Japan.

Fortunately, it’s a DS game and not a 3DS game; if I choose to, I can import it and play it on my US region DS.

Catherine’s getting good reviews, but…

Will it sell?

The metacritic average reviewer score is 83, and the average user score is 9.1. People like it, but the box art doesn’t exactly clue you in to the kind of game it is.

I’m tempted to buy it now instead of waiting for it to come down in price like I’d originally planned; if it’s as good as most of the reviewers say, then not getting a sequel would be a shame. I did like the demo; I just don’t know if I liked it well enough to pay full retail price at the game’s launch.

I’ll probably just wait; if Catherine had dual audio instead of just the English dub, I’d be more inclined to buy it now. It doesn’t, so I’ll bide my time.

Inform the Truth 2004

I finished playing the third Phoenix Wright game over the weekend (Trials and Tribulations); it’s the final entry in the series that stars Phoenix Wright himself (the fourth game stars Apollo Justice, and two more games feature Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor).

This game delves more into the story of the Fey clan of spirit mediums, and even features a flashback case or two from Mia Fey’s point of view (she’s Phoenix’s attorney mentor, and elder sister of his plucky sidekick, Maya). It ties up (rather neatly) plot points from the previous two games, and does a good job bringing Phoenix’s story to a close (or does it?!).

The following track plays when Phoenix has finally figured out the identity of the real killer, and can actually prove it. As he explains what really happened to the prosecutor and the judge, he’s accompanied by triumphant background music.

Examination ~ Allegro 2001

In the not-so-distant future, crime has become so prevalent that the justice system has been overhauled; trials last only three days, and are decided by judges, not juries. If the defense screws up three times, the client is guilty. The world of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is not friendly to the accused, to say the least.

Phoenix is a defense attorney, and since the police are incompetent (hey, at least this comically dystopian future has something in common with the present!), it’s incumbent upon him to prove his clients’ innocence; not only does he have to ask the right questions during the trial, and object at the right times, but he has to spend his time out of court interviewing witnesses, investigating crime scenes, and finding out who the real killer is. Once that’s done, he has to finagle the trial so that they take the stand and implicate themselves, setting his client free. The prosecuting attorney, Miles Edgeworth, was a friend of Phoenix’s back in school, and is a true magnificent bastard.

The art style might put you off, but this really is a modern take on the adventure games that were so prevalent in the ’80s and early ’90s, before the genre completely imploded. It’s fun, the puzzles are generally solvable and not completely retarded (King’s Quest, I’m looking at you), and the puns are so bad they’re awesome.

It’s been popular enough in Japan for 3 games starring Phoenix, one spinoff starring a younger attorney named Apollo Justice (yes, really), and one spinoff starring Miles Edgeworth. Takashi Miike is currently working on the live-action film adaptation, which should be … interesting, given Miike’s body of work.

Takashi Miike is helming the movie adaptation of Phoenix Wright?

That would be like John Carpenter directing a movie based on a wholesome videogame series, like Sonic the Hedgehog.

It might turn out okay, but it’s got the potential to be horrifying.

The Phoenix Wright games (initially on the GBA in Japan, but the US releases are all on the Nintendo DS) are set in an alternate reality where the legal system is fraught with bizarre rules; the titular character is a defense attorney who acts more like a private investigator. He has to prove his client’s innocence before his rival, prosecuting attorney Miles Edgeworth can convict them.

Puns abound; names are puns, places are puns, and if you don’t like puns, you’d best avoid the games all together.

More than anything else, though, the games are a throwback to the adventure games of the 80s and early 90s. If you liked those, and the obsessive attention to every niggling detail they required, you’ll do just fine with Phoenix Wright.

The most recent Miike film I’ve seen is Sukiyaki Western Django, a bizarre mishmash of the War of the Roses and the Genpei War, with a dash of samurai, and a large heaping of spaghetti western. It was bloody and violent and entertaining as hell; I’m interested in seeing what he does with Phoenix Wright.

Cathedral of the Lost

The Dig was one of LucasArts’ final adventure games; the genre was on its last legs, but they put out this game anyway.

Some of the puzzles were a bit obscure, but for the most part, the game avoided the completely random problems that plagued some adventure games (King’s Quest, I’m looking at you.).

The player controls Robert Patrick Boston Low (voiced by Robert Patrick) as he leads a team sent to investigate an asteroid on a collision course with earth. Disaster ensues, and eventually the team is transported to a distant alien world they dub Cocytus.