PS3 Fanboy

What could SEGA be working on? Based off this newly revealed teaser site, the house that Sonic built is working on an RPG. It will be revealed in next week's issue of Famitsu which is out on Friday, September 26. Until then, we'll have to snoop around the website and make some speculative guesses.

Well so far, all we know is that the game is an RPG and has something to do with dragons. Secondly, the background music has an undeniably 8-bit sound ... an era far preceding PlayStation. Is this a hint of some sort? A remake of an old title perhaps or a retro release a la Capcom and Mega Man 9? Whatever it is, we're quite enchanted by the music, so we're definitely intrigued to find out if this will be a PS3, PSP, or downloadable PSN title.

[Via NeoGAF]

So far in Valkyrie of the Battlefield's short life, we've only seen the occasional screen or magazine scan, but now Sega has finally taken the wraps of its newest PS3-exclusive RPG.

Sega kicked off the cel-shading revolution with Jet Set Radio, but now the company is pushing the technology even further by using it to create gorgeous watercolor-theme graphics, which its calling Canvas. It really does look like a painting has come to life.

While we would have loved to see some actual gameplay, there's no denying the game looks great. Let's just cross our fingers that Sega decides to ship this baby worldwide.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi is known for creating some off-the-wall games. I mean, this is the same guy who helmed Space Channel 5, Rez and Lumines, but Angel Love Online could be the strangest one yet.

While the free-to-play MMO features the standard RPG knights, mages and robots, you'll also apparently be able to command humanoid pigs, cats, dogs, zombies with candles on their heads, Native Americans and several creatures the English language has no names for.

Although, it's difficult to understand what's going on in the video since it's all in Japanese and the screen is obscured by disturbingly cute characters, Mizuguchi and his team definitely know what they're doing ... at least we think they do.

According to IGN, the PS3's Eternal Sonata will feature new events to flesh out the game's storyline, Crescendo and Serenade will be playable characters and you'll even be able to change your character's outfits.

Although Eternal Sonata was released today on the Xbox 360, PS3 owners have to wait until next year, but, hey, it could be well worth the wait.

[Via Euro PS3 forum]

Hardcore RPG fans are all weeping somewhere, grateful that Nippon Ichi has announced a new Disgaea game -- and it looks to be exclusive for PS3. The sequel, which is planned for 2008, doesn't appear to make any "next-gen" visual enhancements for the series, but we don't think Disgaea fans will care. As long as this sequel will retain the charm that we've come to expect from the franchise, we believe fans have a lot to look forward to.

[Via IGN]

This is a great bit of news for anyone out there who has been itching for some next-gen role-playing action, but like to stay away from the "MTV of RPG: Final Fantasy" stuff. A bunch of Japanese developers sat down and discussed their plans for now regarding the PS3 and you may be happy to know that a lot of studios have started moving on to the new console. We'd talk about the bits mentioned on The Last Remnant or the Final Fantasy XIII games, but it's all stuff we've heard. With that in mind, we'll go on to more obscure titles and studios.

Level 5 has remained hush on their upcoming RPG White Knight Story ever since the showing at the Tokyo Game Show last year, but they've finally issued a statement on the game and what we can expect at E3. Level 5's president Hino Akihiro says their development is progressing well and "should be able to show everyone something really soon." In addition to that, he said the graphical quality shown at TGS is just a taste of what's to come. We're fairly sure he's referring to the scope of the enemies and places in the game. We recall hearing about a giant turtle with a city on its back?

Other studios voiced their thoughts and plans also. Gust, makers of the Atelier games as well as Ar Tonelico, have new games currently in development. It should be noted that Gust and Banpresto are finishing up Ar Tonelico 2 for the PS2, but there's no word on whether or not it will come to America. If Nippon Ichi Studios is nice, they'll bring it over even though it'll probably stay on the PS2. Please! It was an amazing first game. We gush, but we were moved by it somehow. Other studios working on titles include: Takuyo, Namco Bandai, Hudson, Sunrise Interactive and of course, Nippon Ichi. We'll keep our eyes peeled for any info on their games because we loves us our RPGs.

So, I've been asked this question so many times it makes my head spin, and since I unleashed the fury of at least one FF7 fanatic, or maybe he was just curious, I initially thought I'd answer with a comment. When I thought about it, though, it's impossible to answer it quickly. What makes an RPG great? Hell, what makes any game great? What I'm going to do to answer the question is break down what I feel are the most important components of a role-playing game and assign each area a game I feel does a fantastic job in that respect. Shall we? Please click on the "continue reading" link -- I worked very hard on this.

Final Fantasy XII won't be out for the PS2 in the States until October, but we now have a glimpse of Final Fantasy XIII thanks to Square Enix's pre-E3 press event -- and this installment in the series won't be coming alone.

Like the different titles in the Compilation of FFVII collection of games and movies, the initially announced installments in the FFXIII universe will span multiple platforms which, in this case, include both the PS3 and sufficiently advanced mobile handsets. Not much is known about the mobile-bound Final Fantasy Agito XIII, but the subtitle-less version of FFXIII will concern a gun-and-sword-toting heroine in a futuristic world, while Final Fantasy Versus XIII will focus on "a spiky-haired character," "extreme action elements," and a primary theme of "bonding" (whatever that means). Anybody ready to "resist the world"?

The multiple titles might explain the earlier rumor reported in March that FFXIII was "practically close to being finished" (maybe only one of these games was nearing completion). Whatever the case may be, we're just happy that more than one not-so-Final-Fantasy will be hitting the next PlayStation in relatively rapid succession. RPG feasting: on the way.

[Via Joystiq]

According to 1UP, the May issue of EGM contains a rumor that Final Fantasy XIII will be showing up at next month's E3 for "a brief teaser video and confirmation from [Square Enix] that the RPG will be a PS3 exclusive." RPG fans, rejoice!

What's a little shocking is that FFXIII would be unveiled before FFXII is even released outside Japan, but "rumblings" have apparently also been picked up that "Final Fantasy XIII is practically close to being finished" already. With all the delays to XII, it's certainly more than possible that a second team working on XIII's already got something to show by now.

It wasn't exactly surprising that FFXIII would show up as a PS3 exclusive--despite certain misquotes to the contrary--but you know that a new Final Fantasy is just what the next PlayStation needs (judging by how previews of FFX elevated the PS2's platform profile). Hopefully this little tidbit isn't EGM's way of stretching its April Fools' coverage to another issue (and another month).

[Thanks, Spatlase Disexia]