A few weeks ago, we trekked around town trying to find a copy of Oboro Muramasa and completely failed. “Japanese games (that are not Mario or Link) don’t do well” was a reason one employee at a games store gave us. We ended up getting it online where there were still some in stock left.
So, the game’s good. Tutorials take you through the basic moves, but even without it seasoned gamers shouldn’t have a problem. Characters talk in Japanese and subtitles are available… except more information is being given in Japanese than in the English subtitle. The game’s still playable but you’ll be missing out on some aspects of the story. It’s not as if the subtitle was scrolling so damn fast they couldn’t fit more info in.
Talking of Japonesque games, here are the screenshots from Zombie in Wonderland available from 16th March on WiiWare (800points). Made by a small Spanish company, it features fairy tale characters like Dorothy (Wizard of Oz), Snow White and Momotaro (Japanese story) toting guns and blasting zombies left right and centre.
The game’s part of a series called World Game Parade, and they hope to introduce Japanese gamers to games made overseas that even they couldn’t fail to like. (Oh yeah, Japs are incredibly insular in some ways.)
Street Fighter IV is moving house, so to speak, to iPhone too. The link takes you to screenshots of eight available characters.
Kind of glad PlayStation didn’t do a Toyota this week. Not that they apologized in their press release properly. Just mentions the glitch was due to their clock thinking we had a 29th Feb this year.
Oh and Glico’s doing a series of wooden toys again. Only available with Glico Caramel packs.
I can now happily announce the book translation I’ve been working on the last few months have finished and is now available in biggerbookstores in Japan and Amazon.jp.
It’s called 小さなチーム、大きな仕事―37シグナルズ成功の法則 in the translated Japanese version. Roughly translates to “Small Team, Big Work: 37signals’ Formula for Success”. According to our contact at the publisher, they figured it best to put a positive spin on the title as Japanese people are wary of things that have even the slightest negative connotations. Oh, and 37signals, although a well-known company in the US and amongst programmers, is not so in Japan… and well, this new title kind of helps to introduce them. (And yes, technically speaking “37signals” should be pronounced “37シグナルス”. I translated them as such but apparently they’re known as “37シグナルズ” amongst the Ruby community in Japan… and so they’ve decided to go with the popular flow as opposed to the ‘right version’.)
Personally speaking, the hardest part of this work was the damned colloquials! I get the authors wanted to come off less stiff upper lip, more casual and friendly. But the sheer amount of it… And as some of you would undoubtedly know, the Japanese language (especially in the written version) has no slang. So translating all that ‘kick-ass’ vocab was stressful.
37signals’ first book Getting Real, was in comparison easier for me to translate, I can say with some conviction! Which by the way, is only available online.
The original English version is due out in the US on 9th March under the title Rework, while the UK release is reportedly 23rd March. No idea when all other translations will be available, as of yet.
Those of you who are Japanophiles, who are into Sumo wrestling, who live over there… you guys’d have generally heard about this now. Asashyoryu (朝青龍), former Yokozuna (the highest rank of sumo wrestling), has been told to retire forcefully after ‘hitting’ a layman.
Because my mum’s a great fan of his, and maybe because his determination at overcoming the conservative views of his sumo peers inspires me (going overseas in your mid-teens and surviving, let alone succeeding, is a hard thing to do), I cannot but have a slightly biased view of this news.
Asashyoryu’s a Mongolian by birth, who around ‘95/’96 went to a Japanese high school in Shikoku and studied being a professional sumo-tori. He’s been a Yokozuna several times and at one point was touted as the man behind the enlivening of the stagnant sumo scene. And he’s only 29. Quite an accolade.
From what I can find on YahooNews (Google’s not much use when it comes to Japanese news) and Twitter feeds, he was drunk and as he got into a cab after a night of carousing, hit a layman. This has been blown out of all proportion by the Japanese media who had a field day. Sure, he hit a non-professional. But then again, he’s a pro. At a sport that hits other people on a regular basis. What I’m saying is, that as the very best that the Japanese pro sumo scene could produce, he probably knew how to hit someone without injuring them.
Although that possibility apparently never occurred to the said media. They hounded him mercilessly, along with the Sumo society, a conservative bunch of old men. I’m not suggesting Asashyoryu was infallible. But, as the proud Mongolian people (who consider him a hero) claim, it’s hard to understand the decisions made by the Japanese.
Those of you who have spent time with my countrymen would know that they are a nation which is amazingly polite to your face, but behind your back, would be unutterably false and rude. And because of the American complex they have (remember, Japan was ruled by the US between 1945 and 1951), they also have a racist attitude to anyone who’s not white, or who can speak a white-man’s language fluently without being white (as I discovered to my horror aged ten).
So, the Mongolian feel their hero has been hard done by the Japanese. Some even say it’s racism. I can’t help but agree. The Sumo society elders were afraid to admit that a Mongolian (in other words, a foreigner) could be better than the Japanese at a sport that’s considered Japanese (although there’s a Mongolian version as well).
And talk about jumping on the bandwagon! At the moment, the Japanese media’s all about being ‘nice’ to Asashyoryu, and publicly lamenting the future lack of his contribution to the national sport. I’m saddened by Asashyoryu’s untimely ‘retirement’ and disgusted by the falseness of my countrymen.
Been translating these last few weeks. 37signals’ second book “Rework” due out spring next year. The Japanese version will be published by Hayakawa Shobo. No date is set yet for that one. Because the original is written in American colloquial English, I’m having a bit of a hard time localizing some of the phrases. (I remember “Getting Real” not having nearly as much colloquial as this one does.)
These guys are responsible for this CyberBike. Added ‘controls’ have a way of disappearing into the relative unknown. It’s better that way. Anyone remember the abomination known as Virtual Boy? So can this one actually be the one that’s not going to be scoffed at?
Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker screenshots and 2D artist-demo available here.
And a new Wii control. Actually, it’s a PS3 one. Is it some kind of trend to make things that look like other brand’s equivalent? And did they not think about the confusion they might produce? And yes, compare it to the Wii Black control.
DS DoubleSys is basically a DS on iPhone/iPodTouch. Looks fairly accurate, and aside from the copyright issues, pretty joke-worthy. But North America’s taken it down off their iTunes store, or so the article tells us. Not so the Japanese store (as DS ダブルシステム), nor the English one (we just checked). Available still for £2.99.
3DDotHeroes (press blue button to get rid of the system requirements et al) will be coming out 5th November on PS3 for approx. £48 in Japan. Basically an action RPG, it feels apparently like it’s familiar to the 2D generation (think Zelda-esque). 8 bit cafe in Shinjuku had a talk yesterday by the developers. Screenshots available here.
Coming out tomorrow for 200Wii points each: Metronome and Tuner.
Of course, it just wouldn’t be summer if there were no mention of a horror game…Game with No Name: Eye (Nanashino Game) that says if you don’t complete the game within a week, you’ll die. Strangely this one’s by Square Enix – well strangely because they usually are associated with more of the fluffy bunny RPG genre. “Eye” because depending on which eye you look through, you see different things. Oh, and the official site is too Flashy for my taste with hardly an indication of where to go for more info, so have a look at screenshots and videos on the famitsu site.
Monster Hunter 3 promotional goodies are availabe now from arcade places across Japan – the participating stores are listed (if you click on the red button)
Blood of Bahamut soundtrack is available as of today here. You get a code in the original soundtrack only that may let you meet an all new boss when entered.
Luminous Arc 3 will be out this winter in Japan. Here are the screenshots.
Atom, or AstroBoy as most of you will know him, is coming out on PSP this autumn (Oct. 8th) – this is a game that’s going to be based mainly on the Hollywood film, but Atom is reputed to have some features from the original anime series. This page has detailed information on the boy robot (the Japanese version is even more detailed).
Didn’t quite realise how long it really has been. I did intentionally distance myself from this blog for a while due to my needing a break – well you try house-hunting online for hours and hours (even so, my WoW hours were pretty regular, showing how addictive and good that game really is). Hopefully, now that’s over and done with, I can get back to my usual gaming/writing care-free self.
This is the newest promo vid for Monster Hunter 3, coming out on Wii (7,340yen) on 1st August.
Here’s Kojima Productions’ site… and it has this on it. Rumours are rife as to what this teaser site is for. Some fans hope it’ll be the next MGS title.
Here’s a video of 豆うつし (lit. Bean-flick). Kind of something a salaryman would do after work, drinking at a ‘nomiya’ (a pub-like establishment), getting steadily drunk and resorting to some puerile activity. I can almost see my dad doing this and getting competitive about it. Well, it’s available on the iPhone, so getting drunk with your boss isn’t a necessity.
Appliya’s Evangelion vol.5 is out now for $1.99 from the iTunes app store. Follow the link to check out the screenshots and details.
NINJA GAIDEN Σ2 will be released this autumn on PS3, it’s been announced. To enter the site, click はい(one on left). It may take some time to load (I gave up after entering – 5mins is a long time!).
DSi sales have surpassed the 2million mark within Japan, as of 22nd March (5months since launch). There are a wide range of games available over there, and not all are meant for children and non-gamers, like in this country…which probably help to keep Nintendo’s popularity afloat, even amongst hard-core gamers.
空気読み｡DS will be released this spring for 500DSi points. It was so popular as a mobile game that it’s going to be ported to the DS. 空気を読む literally translates to ‘Read the air’ – as in understanding the undercurrents of a situation and act accordingly. In the screenshots, you’re the red guy. Answer 100questions to see how well you can act in social situations. Of course, this is based on Japanese cultural and social situations, but it’s an interesting experiment of sorts, I think. It’s based on a concept that’s very Japanese, and probably would not work elsewhere.
For those of you who are Japanophiles, check out BBCFour on Monday night to get to grips with what Japanese life is about. Mind, the journalist following the ‘Japanese obsession with fish’ (aired a few nights ago) had preconceptions which he did not get rid of. I found him a very condescending sceptic of my culture – very offensive. If only Bruce Parry or Ray Mears can go around Japan – that would make better watching.
Reishi Matsumoto is known for classics such as Galaxy Express 999 and his collaboration with Daft Punk. His latest series, Out of Galaxy: Koshika will be available on WiiWare as of 14th next month, for 500points (200points for other instalments). And surprisingly, they’ve done some ‘localization’ apparently for English speakers, so will be available in two languages.
The Professor Layton series came to an end last November, or so it seemed. The series is to get another lease of life in another trilogy, starting autumn this year. A bit like Star Wars, this set of three is to be a prequel, so the story begins with the meeting of Layton and Luke. Here’s some screenshots, courtesy of famitsu. And some screenshots from Oboro Muramasa too (out 9th April in Japan).
DS (original through to the new DSi) worldwide numbers are now past the 100million mark – it took 4years and 3months, apparently. Even the GB series took 11years 2months to reach that (currently at 180million worldwide), of which GBA is 81million.
For the Gundam geek, this news has got to be pretty cool: 18m high Gundam (RX-78-2) to be built (by Bandai Namco) at Odaiba in Tokyo, to be seen for 2months from early July. This year’s the popular series’ 30th anniversary, so other events are being planned. Now let’s hope for their sake that it’s going to be fairly secure and that there are no big earthquakes – Odaiba is built on reclaimed land.
Just to round up, check these out. From 16th this month, Uniqlo will be selling T-shirts that embody Japanese classics (games, of course). Over 20 titles are to be released between April and June. Wonder if Uniqlo branches here will be selling them too.
Check out the screenshots for FF VII Advent Children Complete. Coming out 16th April for varying prices. One set has “Cloud Black”HDD 160GB PS3 and FF XIII Trial version too… of course costing approx. £365, as opposed to £36 normally. Kingdom Hearts 358/2Days will be out 30th May on the DS, and scroll to the bottom of this page, you’ll see a lovely limited edition DSi (£182).
Space Invader piggy bank. Fully playable, apparently, weighing in at 330g (including 3 AA batteries). Approx. £42, out 26th March. A nice idea and all, but think about the strain on your eyes!