Did you buy a used copy of the Limited Edition of Ys SEVEN only to find out it was missing the cloth map, artbook, or soundtrack CD? Rather than searching eBay, now you can order any of these bonus items right from the source for $5 a pop (including shipping).

XSEED just announced the grand opening of their online store. Aside from individual bonus items, you can also purchase copies of various XSEED games including Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, several Ys games (both in limited and standard editions), Little King’s Story, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, and more.

Curiously, there’s no sign of either Retro Game Challenge or the recently released Solatorobo: Red the Hunter at this time, but given that the store just went live that could change. While shipping is already included in the prices, there is a $20 minimum per order. Of course, most of the games are $20 anyway, but if you were just looking to get one of those fancy schmancy cloth maps, you’ll have to throw something else onto the order.

Source: XSEED

Update: A trailer and two gameplay videos taken from the stream have been added to the bottom of the post.

The wait is over! We finally have details on the next Dragon Quest game and things have certainly gone an interesting direction. It’s titled Dragon Quest X Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online which already seems to have translations ranging from Andriasang’s The Five Awakening Races to 1up’s Rise of the Five Tribes.

The important word, though, is “online”. Dragon Quest X will evolve the ideas established in the previous game by allowing you to play with a customized character teamed up with several friends online. This includes cross-platform multiplayer between players on both the Wii and the freshly announced Wii U version. In addition to this, there will also be some kind of 3DS connectivity which seems to be in the brainstorming phase.

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Superlatives are interesting things. Even though most reduce down to simply “better” or “best”, countless hundreds have become mainstays of the English lexicon. Just pick up any thesaurus and take a look. Seriously, try it. Oh, and when you’re done, look up the word “lexicon”. You know what it means? Thesaurus. I know, right? It’s all so meta. So meta in fact, it’s beyond meta. Fun fact: Meta comes from a Greek root meaning “beyond”. What does all this have to do with the Super Nintendo you ask? You’ve got some nerve mister.

One day, way back in the summer of 1986, my friend Franklin called me and said he had just got something called a “Nine Ten Doetainment Sister” for his birthday and that he wanted me to come over and “play it”. I had no idea what he was talking about. I assumed Franklin was high (again) and was seeing ‘skin spiders’ (again). But you know Franklin, what a nut. Anyway, I didn’t really have any friends and I was intrigued at this whole ‘Doetainment Sisters’ idea. So over I went. Once there, I discovered two things: 1) Franklins’ parents had actually got him a “Nintendo Entertainment System” for his birthday and, 2) Franklin wasn’t high at all. He was drunk. Very, very drunk. Seriously kids, stay in school.

That summer Franklin and I played his NES (a term I just invented just now) until school started. I remember it well. There were so many games. My favorite? It was a tie. Between all of them. I found it to be an amazing toy game system. It was better than an Odyssey, taped to the back of a ColecoVision, stapled to an Atari 2600. But as often happens, time passed and Franklin and his NES (mostly the latter) grew apart. Little did I know at the time, but the best was yet to come.

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“This is twice as fun as how completely unsafe it looks.”

Minna no Rhythm Tengoku (meaning Everyone’s Rhythm Heaven) is the most recent entry and first console edition of Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven series. Like its predecessors, the game is composed of a number of music-driven rhythm games with simple controls. I became an immediate fan after trying out the DS game released in 2009, and was downright ecstatic when Nintendo announced a follow up for the Wii.

I was also concerned, however, since being Wii software likely entitled it to have motion gestures, and big oafs like myself can be pretty uncoordinated. Could this game have been spoiled before it even came out? (Quick spoiler: no.)

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Without a single announcement on the matter at E3, things have been looking mighty grim for RPG fans. Nintendo has still made no announcement of plans to localize Xenoblade, The Last Story, or Pandora’s Tower in North America. While each game differs in developer, all three were published by Nintendo in Japan.

At this point, a Europe release of Xenoblade under the name Xenoblade Chronicles has been announced, making the lack of plans for North America all the more puzzling. Not to mention the three already developed games would help fill out the system’s lineup while we wait another year or so for the Wii U.

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Unless you’re part of a huge media outlet, and you get a schedule of what you’re going to see, what interviews you’re going to have and when and so forth, managing E3 can be pretty daunting. This is the third time I’ve gone, but only the first time I’ve felt like I had my head above the water’s surface. And even then there is stuff I regret not checking out more deeply, not checking out at all, or not even realizing was there until after the fact. They really ought to add at least one more day, especially since a whole day’s worth of time ends up being eaten up waiting in line. Heaven help you if new hardware is unveiled that you want to see.

Anyway, to wrap up my coverage, I have a few more games I didn’t get enough from to warrant independent articles, but still wanted to give my two cents on.

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Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS is truly one of my all-time favorite DS games; one of my all-time favorite games on any system even. So when I first heard it was coming to Wii, I was ecstatic. But that quickly led to trepidation. Would Rhythm Heaven still work as well with motion-based gestures? Sure, the DS game made use of a flicking action, but that was still something physical. Trying to swing your hand or arm to a beat can be less precise. What I found, however, was a great surprise.

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The Last Story Diary is a series of articles in which I will chronicle my adventures while playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s The Last Story. While there will be no spoilers of the story’s dialogue (I don’t know Japanese), there will be descriptions of certain situations I encounter that could be considered spoilers.

After playing awhile, I came to realize the best control scheme is the Classic Controller Pro. There are no motion controls or IR sensor controls, so the Wii Remote & Nunchuck hold no advantage. In fact, that scheme doesn’t have free camera movement, though you can still snap the camera behind you. The standard Classic Controller is almost perfect, but the second L & R buttons (which the game makes use of) are next to the first L & R instead of underneath like the Pro. Both of these schemes still work adequately, but the Classic Controller Pro is by far the most comfortable.

But I digress. Back to the story!

It was time for me to enter Ruli City. Immediately, I found myself in the town’s bar. This appeared to be the main base of operations for my rag tag crew. Seiren, my dual sword-wielding warrior, seemed to be in a constant state of drunkenness everytime I talked to her.

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The Last Story Diary is a series of articles in which I will chronicle my adventures while playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s The Last Story. While there will be no spoilers of the story’s dialogue (I don’t know Japanese), there will be descriptions of certain situations I encounter that could be considered spoilers.

After fighting the glowing blue tiger until he retreated, I decided to explore The Last Story‘s online modes a bit. There are two types of online modes. Versus mode has six players fighting each other in a deathmatch while Online Raid groups you with a party to play cooperatively.

I decided to try versus mode first. Unlike story mode (which has you controlling only Elza), I was able to choose from a rather large list of characters in versus. While the basic controls were the same for each, I found each character had unique strengths and abilities.

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The Last Story Diary is a series of articles in which I will chronicle my adventures while playing the Japanese version of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s The Last Story. While there will be no spoilers of the story’s dialogue (I don’t know Japanese), there will be descriptions of certain situations I encounter that could be considered spoilers.

As I booted up my imported copy of The Last Story, I was greeted by its elegant title screen. A beautiful piece by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu plays as the screen fades to white and the title appears.

Upon choosing New Game, I was shocked to find myself in direct control within seconds. There were no incredibly long cutscreens explaining the world to me or seemingly endless segments in a peaceful town, waiting for some ancient evil to show up. Instead, a short camera pan showing my location, Lizard’s Cave, was the only thing preceding my journey through the first dungeon.

A very brief, optional video tutorial showed me the basics of the controls. Always on the lookout for treasure, I decided to venture in the opposite direction from the game’s initial starting point. I came across a weakened part of a wall which I was able to break open. This revealed a treasure chest. Yes, there was already a secret to find before I had ever gone in the direction the game wanted me to.

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