Sunday, April 29, 2012

Second Source Claims Pandora's Tower Coming to the US

Another NA GameStop manager is reminding Xenoblade/The Last Story customers about Pandora's Tower.  Here is the post, and the tweet.

What I find interesting about this is that Esnel is down in Florida and NinSage (who reported the story originally) is in New York, so it isn't isolated into one area of the country.  They also both talked to managers. Maybe enough time has passed since Xenoblade's release that checking again at your local Gamestop is warranted for this title?

Thanks goes to EsnelPla, who frequents our Chat as "Metroidvanian," for the tip!


Site chat Now

Sorry for the late post but I was busy. Chat is going to happen now.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Rayman Legends for Wii U confirmed!

This site  just put up a video of Rayman Legends. It basically goes over the game play and the features and such but the major thing is that things from the real world can affect the game world by placing it on the Wii U controller. This can affect the gameplay and the difficulty drastically I feel. I think this would please everyone. 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Site Chat Tonight

Hey all, NinSage here.  Wednesday's Site Chat will go off as usual, starting at 8PM EST.  However, I will be unable to attend for dissertation-related reasons.  Have fun without me and Maxi, feel free to update this post with any usual Site Chat announcements you may want to make.


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Few small announcements

Well a few small things that were announced lately for North America.

There will be a Kirby 20th Anniversary retail disc for the Wii in North America.

Also, the New Play Control version of Pikmin 2 will finally be released in North America.

Hmm, my thoughts on this are that it's pretty great. This gives people like myself, or someone new to gaming, a chance to try out an entire series.  As far as I know this series has a really great ratio of good to bad titles.

Pikmin is a series that I haven't gotten into that much but I have played other, similar games and I enjoyed them so this is great.  In addition, people don't have to pay lots of money for the Gamecube version.

What are everyone's thoughts on these series and the lasting appeal of Kirby in general?

Monday, April 23, 2012

New Wallpapers

I've added my two most recent wallpaper creations to the Extras section.  The first is for Phantasy Star Zero, which I have been playing a lot lately with the folks over at PSO-world.com.  The second is for Resident Evil Revelations and features the game's protagonist, Jill Valentine.

Enjoy.


Let's enter NWR's KIU tournament!



Nintendo World Report is hosting a Kid Icarus Uprising tournament in the coming weeks.  You can check the link below for details as well as info on the fabulous prizes!  But, the gist of it is that they'll be playing Light vs. Dark battles which means everyone who wants to enter needs to form a team of three.

Let's form a NinTemple team!!  What two brave centurions want to join me for the sake of fun and prizes??

Sign up in the comments here or in the forums.  Let's do this, gang!

NWR LINK: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/contest/29878

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Site chat tonight at 6pm EST

Site chat will be later today and it should be interesting. So I guess we'll be talking about Nintendo Direct and what we have been playing, as well as anything else on your minds.

See you in the chat.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Nintendo Direct Site Chat

Well, I'm gonna hang out in the site chat in case anyone wants to meet up during the Nintendo Direct video that will begin in 12 minutes. I'm also hanging out in the IRC chat NWR set up for tonight. Will I get validation of my Pandora's Tower news? *fingers crossed* In the meantime, Amy is sitting next to me playing The Lion King on SNES. We were in a local game store and she played the Genesis version for a little bit and said "we should play our SNES copy when we get home!" So, we are! Or... she is at least... Anyway, see you in the chat!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Minor Site Updates

Finally got around to some small cosmetic tweaks to the Mission Statement and Extras sections, as well as updating the Mission Statement content a bit.  In addition, my first attempt at a Kid Icarus Uprising wallpaper has been added to the Extras.  This one has a "factions" theme to it ... which, I suppose means there are some minor spoilers.  You've been warned!  Also, I still can't find any "cut out" images of Thanatos or Pandora's final form.  So, those will be added when/if I ever find 'em!

Enjoy.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Site chat is going to be tonight at 8pm EST

So, a small update on my Wii.  It is sitting at a repair station at Nintendo being repaired.  It could be back to me within a week or so.  Scratch the above. They are done repairing it and they are sending it back now.  Maybe it will be back tomorrow or the next day.

As far as other things in the gaming community, did you guys hear that Pikmin 3 was announced for the Wii U? It will also be shown at this year's E3.  Well, see you in the chat!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Kid Icarus Uprising Events in the US

Well for those that want to try out the game or snatch up more AR cards Nintendo has set up more events around the country for you to do so.  Here is the link to the site.  Here it is 

The upcoming days are April 21st, April 28th and May 12th but only certain stores will be having the events on those dates so check the site for details.

New Club Nintendo Items for Aussies

So I was not aware of this but Club Nintendo in Australia recently announced their 4th anniversary gifts for the region. Here they are.


Golden Nunchuk
Stars: 3000Club_Nintendo_New_Items.jpg
Go gold with Club Nintendo's exclusive "Gold" edition Nunchuk. A perfect companion for your Wii Remote.






Also there is this.



Nintendo 3DS Pouch : Mario Hat / Luigi Hat
Stars: 1300 each Club_Nintendo_New_Items_2.jpg
A soft pouch for storing your Nintendo 3DS console in the iconic style of Mario's or Luigi's hat.
Also fits Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DS Lite and Nintendo DS (does not fit Nintendo DSi XL).








I found these over here.
 http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=news&nid=1943&pageID=6



Any thoughts on what NOA will do for a Club Nintendo item for anniversary for North American's I think the site opened up for us in  December 2008 I want to say.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Site chat is at 6pm EST

I am putting this post up really early since I don't think I will have much time to do it later.

Basically, I got my shipping labels from Nintendo yesterday but I need to prep and send it off today before the chat.  So, if I am late to the chat that is why.  I want to make sure it is being sent off on Monday from UPS as I would like it back as soon as possible.

In any case, we can talk about Sage's experience with yesterday's Kid Icarus Uprising GameStop event as well as the Pandora's Tower connection between Operation Rainfall and this site.  I think we were one of the earlier supporters of the campaign.

Anything else is fine as well. See you there in the chat.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Pandora's Tower Month starts now

Man it has been a long time since I typed one of these up.

Okay you have heard the rumors and the possible truths and what not if you are a fan of this game that I have been putting posts about for the past few days and you want to try it out no matter if you believe the stuff or even if you do there is only so much very few can do.We will keep on digging on our end while everyone else can do their part as well. We will get involved as well.


The below is from here on Operation RainFalls facebook page.

Also for North American Members here. This is how long this is going to last as far as contacting NOA for the day


It's that time again! Although the majority of this month we will be attempting a radically different approach than we've used in the past, we want to kick off the European launch of Pandora's Tower with some good old fashioned asking Nintendo of America to release the game! We'll explain our real plans in a few days once the staff have everything organized, but make sure you get your phones and keyboards ready to contact NOA on Friday the 13th!

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF YOU LIVE IN AMERICA:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Help us create OFFICIAL Wikis for the game on IGN

2. Call Nintendo of America Customer Service
Please use one of these numbers to reach NoA customer service:
  • 1-800-633-3236 (General Office)
  • 1-800-255-3700 (Customer Service)

3. EMAIL Nintendo of America
There are two methods to email Nintendo of America:
PLEASE NOTE: If you have already sent emails to Nintendo of America regarding Xenoblade, The Last Story, and/or Pandora's Tower, YOU MAY BE ON AN EMAIL BLACKLIST BY NINTENDO.
YOU WILL NEED TO SET UP AN ALTERNATE EMAIL ACCOUNT.
Doing so is very simple and only requires a few minutes of your time.
A few sites that provide free, web-based email services that you can use for this campaign are:
Gmail (by Google)
Yahoo Mail
Microsoft Live Mail
and more!

4. COMMENT & TWEET Nintendo of America
We will be focusing on TWO sites run by Nintendo of America

Full list of social media sites run by Nintendo of America:
http://oprainfall.freeforums.org/twitter-facebook-youtube-t154.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF YOU LIVE IN EUROPE, OCEANIA, OR SOUTH AFRICA:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • BUY THE GAME!!
You can buy the Limited Edition from these retailers:
  • Zavvi
  • thehut
  • NCSX
  • Tesco
  • Shop.to
  • Amazon.co.uk
You can buy the Standard Edition from these retailers:
  • GAME
  • Gamestation
  • Zavvi
  • Shop.to
ALSO:
  • Post unboxing videos and Let's Play videos and share them with us
  • Post your own user reviews and leave comments on the reviews of others
  • After spending one hour or more, go to the Nintendo Channel and rate the game
  • Be sure to thank Nintendo of Europe by sending an email to customer-support@nintendo.co.uk or if you use Twitter, you can send a tweet to @NintendoUK and/or @NintendoEurope
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have fun, keep it clean, and stay classy, raindrops.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will be pretty busy with operation rainfall like I always am and I will be doing my part. I had a few ideas earlier today that I may run by the guys over at operation rainfall.

Okay till the morning.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Pandora's Tower Day 4:Music and Sound

First off I want to talk about who does the music for the game. Just their names and what they do for the game. I may get into them in a later post.
Yuichi Hirose does the Arrangement and Acoustics for the game.
 Takayuki Kobara does the Sound Composition,Arrangement, Music Direction,Acousitics for the game.
Finally Wataru Suzuki does the Music Direction.

These are from the Japan OST and they are really stunning.



This one is really sad and solemn and near the end it does slightly give a little hope to the player that you can pull through.

This one makes me feel that I am a small piece in a grand Tower in the world just looking to see what you can do to get up to the top of the Tower. 

This one gives me the feeling of unease and and that anything can go wrong. The creepy and unease someone feels when someone is watching you. 

I like how this one just hits you and never lets up. It is riveting and suspenseful and it gets your heart pumping!
 
Finally I will wrap up with the two main ones that I think most everyone are familar with. 
 

This is the song that Elena sings at the beginning of the game. It is very nice and beautiful and soothing. A very stark contrast to most music in the game. 

 
 
 The other song is the main theme for the game. 


These are just a small sample of the music in the game. There is 34 in the game. I will be focusing on the major developers for the game next because the rest of the stuff I have on my list kinda delve into spoiler territory.  


Trail's Gone Cold

I had a busy day today. My schedule took me from out of town to mid-town to downtown and back home. During the course of this jaunt I was able to spare a few minutes to bother GameStop managers at three different locations and in two different cities.

None of them had even HEARD of Pandora's Tower. Obviously, that means they also did not have any knowledge of corporate emails telling them to begin promoting the game.

So, that's the update. Not a good day for the "let's prove NinSage isn't crazy" cause.

We'll try again this weekend, eh?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Pandora's Tower Day 3:Controls and Gameplay

First lets get what you can use to control the game with out of the way. You can use the Wii remote or Classic controller to play this game. Either Pro or normal will work.

As far as controls go here is the basic gist of it. You have a sword which is controlled by a button and there is a pointer aimed chain. With this simple and effective combat system you can mix the combat up from close and long range.

 For example you can use the chain to target specific body parts on larger foes, tie up foes at the welterweight level and bind small fries together so you can focus on their larger brethren. You can wrap your chain around an enemy and then hit it with your sword. You can get enemies from the sky and then fling them back with a crack of the chain. Then you point where you want to lob it then press A and B together. You can use air born enemies to attack ground bound enemies.


As  for the Classic Controller combat that is all done with the buttons.
There is a lot of options.Try stuff out! 

Now for the the traversing of the tower the chain does play a pretty good role in the game. There is grapple between cliff and cliff, swing between bars, and use the chain on levers. There is some puzzles like using the chain to create new pathways among other things.Thinking out of the box helps.

Oh I should also mention that there is the aspect of the items. Basically there is the point  that you have a certain amount of item space and time to make it to and and back to Elena. You have 30 total items that you can carry to start.I should also note that there is a place where you can put your items for future use at the observatory. I believe you can go back to Elena at any time and feed her anything you get from monsters but you need to get to the the top of the Tower and beat the boss and feed it to her to to get her restored fully and then on to the next tower. After you beat the boss you you can get back the observatory by warping there. The faster you do it the better. Speed Runners are gonna love this game.



Finally I will leave you with this it is the UK Launch trailer. Isn't that great music? I will be focusing on that next time. 



  Okay here is the  Basic Wii Remote controls.

Control stick Moves Aeron around.
 A is your sword attack and you can do this up to 5 times. Hold it down to for a powerful uppercut. 
B is your Chain,  grab items, reach new heights, and zoom in.
Z is your guard and you can move the control stick to dodge or strife while still holding it.
C is to pick up items and to open treasure chests.
The control pad when you move it to the left or right it scrolls between items and when you press either up or down on the control pad it uses the item. Those are the basic controls out in the Towers.

These are the controls in the Observatory.

The control stick moves Aeron around.

The A button allows you to speak with people.
The C button picks up items.
Finally the Z button centers the camera to see Elena.

Confirmation on Pandora's Tower Coming to NA GameStops


As promised, I followed up with the local GameStop manager regarding the release of Pandora's Tower in the North American territory.

The short version is that GameStop is scheduled to being taking pre-orders for Pandora's Tower around June 20th - when The Last Story goes on sale.  To hear the whole exchange, check out the latest covert audio recording provided below.  Note: As luck would have it, I caught the manager right as he was heading to the bank on his break.  Did fate do us a solid? Perhaps...


If that's not confirmation I don't know what is! Rejoice Operation Rainfall! I think this makes us 3 for 3!


Site chat will be at 8pm EST

Only a few more days till Pandora's Tower launches in Australia and Europe in fact I think fact I think it is out today in Australia. In any case I think Sage said something about that he was supposed to go over to Gamestop and  do his thing. I can't wait to see what comes of that.

See you in the site chat at 8pm EST.

First details on Capcom x Sega x Namco Bandai Strategy RPG surface

 First details for the strategy RPG from Capcom,Sega and Namco Bandai SRPG have come from Andriasang.

The 3 companies will have pairings with someone from the same company. Here are the pairings.

Capcom
Ryu & Ken (Street Fighter 0), X and Zero (Mega Man), Demitri and Dante (Darkstalkers and Devil May Cry), Chris and Jill (Resident Evil)
Sega
Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro (Sakura Wars), Pai and Akira (Virtua Fighter), Kurt and Riela (Valkyria Chronicles), Ulala and Touma (Space Channel 5 and Shining Force EXA)
Namco Bandai
Sanger Somvold (Super Robot Wars), Jin and Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken), Kos-Mos and T-elos (Xenosaga), Yurie and Estel (Tales of Vesperia), Kaito and Black Rose (.hack)
 
Also note that later in the month there will be a trailer of the game. 
 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Pandora's Tower Day 2:Characters

Aeron is a 22 year old protaganist. He is voiced by Ryan Philpottin. He is a former soldier of Athens which I find interesting since this takes place some where in the real world somewhere in the past although it is more fantasy. He has to travel up the towers and traverse the 13 towers and do what he can to get items from the monsters and thus save our next character,

Elena is 18 years old and very interesting. She seems to be religious. She seems to be a great singer. Her English voice actress is Charlotte Sanderson. As the game progresses more of her story is revealed... The final main character of the game is the...

Friendly merchant Mavda. She is voiced by Ann Beach.  She gives Aeron the Oraclos or Orihicalcum Chain so she can help with climbing the tower and in helping fighting the foes in the tower and she helped the duo into the tower when Elena when she was cursed.


Finally I will leave you guys with a character trailer of the game. Yeah it is kinda old and it is in Japanese but it does have a lot of gameplay in it which happens to be the the next part that I will be focusing on. I will be going over basically everything you need to know about about the combat and controls.

See you guys next time.


Hey, Warren! Thanks, buddy.

Over the years, many groups of people have treated Wii gamers as second class citizens.  Gaming media, game retailers, fellow gamers.  But, perhaps the worst offender has been third party developers.  Often the Wii, its huge install base and its diverse audience are completely ignored when multi-platform games are made.  If they do go to the Wii, they are often lazy, outsourced projects that don't even really try to recreate the product on the HD systems.  If the Wii is fortunate enough for a robust, ground-up exclusive, it often suffers one of two fates.  Either it does poorly and is seen as further evidence that the Wii is not a viable 3rd party platform, or it does very well and instantly loses exclusivity in the form of upgraded ports and HD-focused sequels.

Such is not the case with Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.  No, Warren Spector has shown that he is a stand-up individual.  He knows who brought him to the dance, and he's going to be honorable and dance with that one. 

Epic Mickey 2 would not be getting made if not for the dollars of Wii owners buying Epic Mickey 1.  Warren realizes this and realizes that cute, colorful, anthropomorphic, platforming might not even be what the HD-twin audience is looking for.  Thus, the Wii is the lead platform under Junction Point's development of Epic Mickey 2.  This is an honorable move and a smart one.  By not turning your back on the folks who got you there, the sales of EM2 should be on par with EM1's success.  And by not burning resources on the questionable appeal of HD productions, we have a truly "everybody wins" scenario...

Wii gamers get respect, a returned favor, and an awesome game.  PS3/60 gamers don't have to say "why isn't this on PS3/60?!?! RARR!!" And Warren Specter/Junction Point/Disney will likely see their honorable deeds rewarded with filthy, filthy lucre. =)

So... Hey, Warren! Thanks, buddy.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Pandora's Tower follow-up

~THE CHASE~
Pandora's Tower is in the GameStop computer system, but... it's been there since August.
~

The GameStop manager who told me Pandora's Tower was recently confirmed for North America was not in today and will not be working again until Wednesday.  Thus, I'll visit again on Wednesday to covertly record confirmation from the source of our previous report.

As for today, I made due with a run-of-the-mill employee to see if he knew anything.  I'm uploading the covertly recorded and thus highly cool, yet mostly useless, audio so that you all can assess it for yourselves.  As you will hear, the good news is that Pandora's Tower is listed in a part of their system which apparently indicates forthcoming release - however - it's been listed there since August.  Which means that it is probably only there as some kind of vestigial listing from when the game was first getting buzz... right?

But then, if the latest update is from August 2011, why did the manager say he got confirmation just the other day? So, I'll give a final report on Wednesday and I apologize in advance if this was just a confused GS manager and a big ol' false alarm.

Note: I used a Super Mario Bros warp-pipe sound to cover the two parts of the recording that might identify anything specific about the employees.  I don't want anyone to get in trouble!


Pandora's Tower Day 1

This is going to be an introductory post into the game for those that may not know what this game is about.

This game is being developed by Ganbarion who worked on Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS. Both of those didn't make it out of Japan most likely because of the cross overs in the game and the issues that presents. Pandora's Tower is their first original intellectual property. In Japan the games title is Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side. This is kinda important in the context of the game. In Europe and Australia there is no subtitle.


Here is the basic story for the game. Basically you have your hero Aeron and his friend Elena and there is a mysterious merchant named Mavda and a Tower. Elena is cursed and the Merchant Mavda gives Aeron the Orihicalcum Chain so he can use it to scale the Tower and to fight the monsters within the tower. Also it seems that Elena is cursed and her curse can cause her to die. The worse kind. However the monsters can slowly reverse the curse if you return to her. The balancing act is are you going to want to go back if you are inside the Tower and having fun slaying the monsters or will you do you best to go back to her and save her at every possible opportunity?


Gonna leave an Iwata Asks here.

Iwata Asks

I will likely go into the characters tomorrow.

Gameplay footage from PAX East 2012

Mario Tennis Open

Aliens:Colonials Marines

Bit Trip Runner 2

Heroes of Ruin interview.


Sonic 4 Episode 2









Cosplay and photos from PAX East 2012

Okay I am going to put the cosplay after the break I am also going to break up these posts so they aren't as crowded. All of the good cosplay will be in this post and so on and so forth for the rest of the posts. 

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Site chat at 6pm EST tonight.

Well this weekend has been interesting. Xenoblade was released and also there is the possiblity of Pandora's Tower coming to the US. I have a theory on why I got the response that I did. There was also some other news I believe I believe that PAX East is going on right now.  I think that it is in its 3rd year.

 So if you want to pick my brain stop on by and we can talk about these and other type of things in the site chat tonight. I will try to find some things for PAX East in the mean time.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Pandora's Tower confirmed for NA?

So, I've been in the car for the last 8 hours.  I was out of town all week visiting in-laws.  I stopped by GameStop to grab my Xenoblade pre-order on the way back in to town.  The helpful gent behind the counter asked if I wanted to pre-order The Last Story while I was in.  "No thanks," I said, "I'll come back and do that soon though."  He then said something that surprised me: "we also got confirmation on that other one... 'Tower something'?"  I paused... "Pandora's Tower?" He replied in the affirmative.

He said he was surprised all the Wii RPGs were coming out so close together.  I told him I didn't care about the timing but that I was just glad at the news! I grabbed my Xenoblade and artbook and rushed home to see what the surely-buzzing internet had to say about this.

I don't see it mentioned... anywhere.  Am I not on the right websites?  Is gaming media taking the Holiday weekend off?  Was this dude (manager) at GameStop completely wrong about "Tower something"?  Or is NinTemple.com breaking a huge story?

I suppose you should grain of salt this one, but, well... I believe him!

UPDATE: I'll be stopping by the GameStop in question on Monday to try and get some further confirmation.  ... I wonder if my wife's digital audio recorder would work through my coat pocket.

We don't really report news here on NinTemple so if a story comes to us, dad gum it, I'm going to see that story through!!

Xenoblade Chronicle Artbook photos

Well I got the last art book from my local Gamestop so I will be putting the art book here for all to see. I will put them all after the break. I guess I will put my thoughts her about the art book here about the art book here it is solidly made and it is pretty nice and there is small things I didn't notice about it at first glance I didn't see like the little border on the left and right side of the pages. Since most of the art in the art book is of nature it kinda blends the nature and mechanical. Also my sister was helping me take the photos and she said that the art was pretty impressive. Now for my sister to say that type of thing about a game you know it has to be impressive. She doesn't play many games with me. Anyway enjoy the art after the break.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Site chat is in one hour

Well with Xenoblade Chronicles in 2 days we have some things to talk about  for todays chat and also there was some things announced today which I will post on the blog and in the chat so that will be exciting. Make sure to stop on by for the chat.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Site chat is not going to happen today at 6PM EST.

Oh behalf of our new overlord Michael Pachter there will be no site chat today. Sorry to say this but it seems he finds these site chats to be the glue for the site so he is slowly trying to take the site apart. It seems he wants to cause discord in our community so this it the best way to do it.

 Also here is a message from Michael Pachter. I will put it after the break. Might want to read it.

The Pach Is Right

I'll admit it.  After all these years I finally see the light.  Michael Pachter was right.  Nintendo.... they're just doomed.  They don't have enough $2 games, they haven't cut price enough, their online sucks, they don't charge extra for online services. 

It's over.  Pach wins.  I can't believe I didn't see his point sooner.

What a fool I was!! And what a genius Pachter is.

I now submit this new, repurposed website, PachTemple.com, as an open apology to the man... Michael Pachter.