The Rainmaker is You

So, this week we got news that the white knight known as XSEED was stepping up, once again, and publishing Pandora's Tower for the North American territory.  I have a somewhat personal connection with the idea of Pandora's Tower being released in North America.  Way back in April 2012, I ran a series of articles and investigative journalism concerning the likelihood of such a release (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3).  The long and short of that situation is I had a GameStop manager and his employees telling me Pandora's Tower was in their system for a North American release.

The famous (and awesome) Operation Rainfall was kind enough to pick up our story (link) and even make follow-up reports on it.  However, when I tried sharing this story with bigger Nintendo sites like GoNintendo and Nintendo World Report, they mostly shook their heads politely and said I wasn't a credible enough source to run the stories themselves.  GoNintendo ran the first one and that was it.

A few weeks later, a NinTemple site visitor contacted us saying he heard a similar confirmation at his GameStop over 1,000 miles away.  We ran that story.  Then, unfortunately, that seemed to be the end of the discussion.  No major sites really followed-up after that and the hopes of a North American release for Pandora's Tower started to fade quickly.  By the beginning of 2013, the general opinion was so bleak that Jonathan Metts of Nintendo World Report commented Pandora's Tower had "no hope" of a NA release.

Well, shortly thereafter, we all got word straight from XSEED that the game would be localized under their efforts!  Huzzah! "Sage is vindicated!" said some.

But, this story is not about me (well, sure, most of this article is but the overall story is not!).  In fact, realistically, our contribution to this drama is more about faith than fruitful leads. And the entirety of this story is more about democratic action and rewarded faith.  These three great games, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, the three games most synonymous with Operation Rainfall, were too good to be ignored and those of us who participated in Operation Rainfall knew that.  We had a feeling action was worth taking because the cries for these games shouldn't be ignored and ultimately would not be ignored. People had been saying since November 2011 that games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword were the Wii's "swan song."  They had no faith that all the great games of 2012, and now the third game in the Operation Rainfall trio, would be released.

But, now, in just a few months, I'll be able to look at my shelf of games, and see tangible proof that our faith was rewarded.  So maybe, in the future, we can look back on rocky experiences like this and say "hey, sometimes it does all work out.  Have a little faith!"

3rd Person Talks with Gamestop Manager who Confirms a Reveal at the End of the Month

Well someone posted on Operation RainFall's Facebook page that at the end of the month that they will be having a big reveal for Pandora's Tower. 
Operation RainFall Facebook.

There hasn't been much on the Pandora's Tower front as far as confirmations goes lately but the end of the month is a week or so away so it couldn't hurt to wait it out.

Thanks for the heads up Evan.

Calling NOA today about Pandora's Tower.

Well Operation Rainfall is going to make one final push at NOA for the release of Pandora's Tower. If you want the game and have the time today call up Nintendo. Here is some tips and rules.

Here are some tips.

1. Pick up your phone and dial 1-800-255-3700 (This is a Toll-Free number, meaning it’s a FREE call)
2. Navigate the menu system until you hear the option for “Customer Service”. (Press “0″ for Customer Service followed by “5″ for “Other Inquiries”)
3. Listen to the awesome Nintendo hold music
4. When the Customer Service Representative (CSR) answers the phone, briefly and politely let them know that you are interested in Pandora’s Tower being localized in America. You may also inform them that the title is published by Nintendo and already released in Europe and is available in English.
5. A sample script is: “Hello, my name is ______ and I am calling today because I would love to see Pandora’s Tower in America.”
6. Keep it simple and brief, and politely thank them for their time.

Some handy pointers.

• KEEP IT BRIEF. Nintendo CSRs are extremely busy, and handle both Customer Service AND Technical Support questions. By tying up the line, you are creating wait time for customers with legitimate needs.
• BE POLITE. It is not the CSR’s fault that the game is not in their system, nor do they (or their managers) have any say in the decision-making process. They will simply make a note that you called in and requested Pandora’s Tower.
• DO NOT MENTION “OPERATION RAINFALL”. This is not only confusing for the CSRs, who do not need to know who we are, but it also ties up the line, since you will then need to explain what OpRainfall is, when they don’t need to know, and frankly probably don’t care. Politely ask to see Pandora’s Tower released in America, and end the discussion.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE HOURS: 6:00 AM – 7:00 PM Pacific Time, 7 days per week.

 Some quick facts

• Pandora’s Tower was published by Nintendo in Japan, Europe, and Australia
• Pandora’s Tower launched on May 26, 2011 in Japan and April 13, 2012 in Europe
• Pandora’s Tower was developed by a studio called Ganbarion, and this is their first original property
• Pandora’s Tower is an Action/Adventure game with hack’n'slash and light RPG elements
• The protagonist’s name is Aeron (pronounced the same as Aaron or Erin)
• The damsel in distress is named Elena
• The game recieved a rating of CERO C (Japan) and PEGI 12 (Europe), which is the equivalent of a mid-Teen by ESRB standards
• Pandora’s Tower has already been localized for Western audiences and has already been translated into English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German.
• The Wii console is region locked, meaning that it is impossible to play games from another region, even if they are in your language, without making modifications to your console. This will also void your warranty.

 Okay I will be making my call right away and then getting the word out everywhere today.

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!

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

• http://www.ign.com/wikis/pandoras-tower

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:

• Use their webform: NOA Web form
• Email them directly: NOA email

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

• Facebook - Nintendo's Facebook
• Twitter - Nintendo of America's Twitter

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.

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?

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...

~Covert Audio Recording~

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

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.

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!

~Covert Audio Recording~

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.

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 Chronicles preorder list and 83 things to know about the game.

So there is 10 days till Xenoblade comes out in the west for the Wii and up till then I am going to be posting news and videos on the front page.

First up if you haven't preordered the game here is some links to where they are accepting preorders.

Oh also in store at any gamestop will be taking preorders. 
 Gamestop.com preorder 
EB Games Canada
Nintendo's online store
Play Asia preorder
 Game Planet.com preorder.
todojuegos Chile preorder
livrariasaraiva Brazil preorder

Finally this store will have it but they are not taking preorders.
zmart Chile

If there is anything added to the preorder list I will update this list.

Next OPRainfall.com put up the 83 tidbits of the day that they have been compiling into one post. If you are in the dark about the game this list should provide you with ample infomation.

83 things to know about Xenoblade Chronicles.


Gonna put up a review post about the game next and should be up before the site chat happens in 3 hours.

Mark Rein will be surprised if the Wii U doesn't do well.

Epic VP: "I'd be shocked if Wii U doesn't do well"
Epic VP Mark Rein's comments

Quote

Epic VP Mark Rein will be shocked if the Wii U isn't a hit for Nintendo when it launches later this year.

Speaking to Eurogamer at GDC in San Francisco last week, Rein argued that parents are ready to upgrade their kid's Wii to Nintendo's new system.

"I like the Wii U. I think E3 will be a big eye-opener for people," he predicted.

"I played Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U and they are doing some really cool stuff with the controller.

"Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would. That's what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great."

Rein added that Nintendo's brand recognition and beloved IP should see it fly off shelves, though he suggested that it might have been quicker off the mark with getting the machine to stores.

"It's a great brand that a lot of parents really trust and they're probably ready to buy their kids an HD Wii that does that much more than just being an HD Wii.

"I'd love it if they'd done it last year, but I'm excited for them to do it this year. I'd be shocked if it doesn't do well.

"Did you play that Battle Mii game? Two players would play with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk and one would play with the Wii U controller?

"I would buy a Wii U to play that game in a heartbeat. And I hope people make those kind of games with our technology. I think we've yet to really see what the Wii U can do and I think at E3 this year they're going to shock us."

Earlier this year Nintendo president Satoru Iwata suggested that, more than ever, the company will be looking to partner with third parties when developing high-spec core games that fall outside of its traditional comfort zone.

Might Epic step up to the plate with a new IP for the system, a la Gears of War on the Xbox 360?

"If I had 10 development teams I'd make a game for every single platform and make that the special game for that platform," replied Rein.

"If you're the special game on that platform you do really, really well. Gears was one of the special ones on Xbox 360. Infinity Blade is a special game on the iPhone and iPad. Shadow Complex was a special game on Xbox Live Arcade.

"But we don't have 10 development teams so it's just a matter of picking and choosing what we do and doing the best thing we can for the idea that we have."

______________________________________________
    As we reported previously this is going to be pretty big news. If Mark Rein is giving high praise for the Wii U it can't be that hard to work with as far as specs go.I think we are going to be getting some top stuff visually from the Wii U. As for the comments I think he is just hyping up his engine which can't be a bad thing. I am not usually a graphics whore but this is pretty impressive.

PHASE V - The Last Story PARTY TIME!

Okay OPRainfall has entered Phase 5. So here is the deal.
 Phase 5 Last Story


IF YOU LIVE IN AMERICA: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Let XSEED know how excited you are! Follow XSEED on Facebook and say "thanks" Follow XSEED on Twitter @XSEEDGames and say "thanks" "Like" the OFFICIAL Facebook page for The Last Story Join the Official XSEED Forum __________________________________________________ 2. Help us create OFFICIAL Wikis for the game on IGN (along with Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower) We will release more details later today (I'll edit this later) __________________________________________________ 3. Call Nintendo of America Customer Service JUST SAY THANKS for The Last Story Please use one of these numbers to reach NoA customer service: 1-800-633-3236 (General Office) 1-800-255-3700 (Customer Service) ___________________________________________________ 4. EMAIL Nintendo of America TELL THEM THANKS! There are two methods to email Nintendo of America: Use their webform: NOA webform

 Email them directly: nintendo@noa.nintendo.com ___________________________________________________ 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! ___________________________________________________ 5. COMMENT & TWEET Nintendo of America TELL THEM THANKS! We will be focusing on TWO sites run by Nintendo of America Facebook -
_______________________________Nintendo's Facebook ____________________ Twitter - (tweet @NintendoAmerica) Nintendo of America's Twitter_____________________________________________________ Full list of social media sites run by Nintendo of America: Social sites run by Nintendo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.

Thanking Nintendo of America and XSeed and Mistwalker.

Okay as most of you know by now it has been confirmed by Reggie that Xseed is bringing The Last Story to North America as confirmed in the NOA Nintendo Direct. _________________________________________________ Now as the post below this one shows it has lots of contact info to NOA. OPRainfall will still be going through with this BUT they will thank them instead for bringing it over for at least cordninating all this. _________________________________________________ If you are a tweeter like I am like me and want to thank Xseed for doing this they are over here XSeed's twitter They are publishing the game. _________________________________________________ Mistwalker is the developer for the game. They have a twitter and you can thank them over here for making this great game. Mistwalker's twitter _________________________________________________ Finally my thoughts on this...This has been a great success and I can't wait to hear about more about The Last Story from people here. I'm looking at you Rocket. I think that for now we should just relish this moment for a bit then move forward and getting Pandora's Tower here. Let me know what you are thinking here in the comments.

Getting The Last Story here in the States.

IT ALL GOES DOWN, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012!! IF YOU LIVE IN EUROPE, OCEANIA, OR SOUTH AFRICA: BUY THE GAME!! 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU LIVE IN NORTH OR SOUTH AMERICA: 1. Call Nintendo of America Customer Service Please be extremely polite when calling Customer Service. The representatives do not have release date information that does not already exist on the website. Simply mention that you are a huge fan of RPGs and would like to let Nintendo of America know that you are interested in The Last Story and Pandora's Tower coming to America. You can even say that you saw these games on a website and you are wondering when they are coming out in America. ANYTHING to let them know you are INTERESTED in the games. STAY CLASSY! Please use one of these numbers to reach NoA customer service: 1-800-633-3236 (General Office) 1-800-255-3700 (Customer Service) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. EMAIL Nintendo of America There are two methods to email Nintendo of America: Use their webform: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/webform.jsp Email them directly: nintendo@noa.nintendo.com 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! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. COMMENT & TWEET Nintendo of America Nintendo of America has several social media pages that they use to communicate with fans. Keep your posts polite, and remember that Operation Rainfall does not promote piracy or boycott of Nintendo products. Remember, we are doing this because of our enthusiasm for the titles, not to show off how whiny or angry you can be. We will be focusing on TWO sites run by Nintendo of America Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Nintendo Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/NintendoAmerica (tweet @NintendoAmerica) Full list of social media sites run by Nintendo of America: http://oprainfall.freeforums.org/twitter-facebook-youtube-t154.html ----- Have fun, keep it clean, and stay classy, raindrops.

The Last Story European Release date and more Last story profiles

Okay a little late with this but here is some The Last Story news. The Last Story will be out in Europe on Febuary 24th 2012 and a few more character profiles from OPRainfall's homepage.

Finally and not to be forgotten is a Xenoblade Chronicles video. NintendoEverything took the footage from the newly opened Xenoblade website and put it all in one video. So here it is.

Xenoblade Chronicles confirmed for North America!

Well I wasn't feeling well today but I went to sleep and I woke up to this awesome news. Here is the details currently. It will be avalable in 3 places currently. Your local Gamestop, Gamestop's online store, and Nintendo's online store. You can go over to Gamestop right now and preorder the game from them. I suspect that is the same for their online store. Starting on December 19th 2011 you can start preordering from Nintendo's online store.
Here is the press release from Nintendo confirming this news.

It’s man vs. machine in a new game coming to Nintendo’s Wii™ console in spring. Xenoblade Chronicles™ asks players to use the Monado blade to take on a seemingly endless series of invading Mechon robots in a sweeping role-playing adventure.

The main character is Shulk, a weapons researcher who must confront the Mechon by wielding the ancient Monado blade. It’s the only weapon that has any effect against the Mechon, and it also enables Shulk to see the future.

Players can customize their characters with a variety of weapons and armor choices, as well as headgear, boots and gloves. As in many role-playing games, players can then gain experience and upgrade their characters. Players can watch their enemies, learn their tactics and unleash real-time counterattacks.

The vast open world of Xenoblade Chronicles is ripe for exploration. Players can avert their focus from the main story and venture out looking for other challenges and side quests. Hidden areas and unique monsters are scattered throughout the game’s massive world, which players can explore freely.

Xenoblade Chronicles has already launched in Japan and Europe, and has received unanimously positive reviews, including several perfect scores.

Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively through U.S. GameStop retail locations, http://www.gamestop.com and http://www.nintendo.com at a suggested retail price of $49.99 in the United States. Additional information about the game will be announced in the future. For more information, visit the XenobladeChronicles site

Here is the North American debut Trailer.