The Musou game style, as exemplified by Koei-Tecmo's long-running Dynasty Warriors series et al., has covered a lot of scenarios and settings. From the deep-space conflict of Gundam to the ancient battlefields of the Trojan War, it seems like there's oodles of money to be made pitting high-powered warriors against scores of mooks. The success of Nintendo's recently released Hyrule Warriors is just one notch in a long series of successes for this gaming formula. Now, Square Enix is jumping into the fray with Dragon Quest Heroes (no relation to the slime game).

Interestingly enough, Dragon Quest Heroes: The Dark Dragon and the Castle of Yggdrasil appears to have an original main cast of its own: the monster-hunter Akuto, the fearless amazon Meia, the warrior king Dirk, and the magical inventor Julietta. The exact number of characters from other DQ games is unknown, but I know I saw Terry from DQVI, as well as Alena, Kiryl, and Maya from DQIV. Presumably a lot more people will show up in later trailers.

On the plus side, I think they've got most of the really iconic DQ monsters represented. Who do you all think should be included next?

Presumably this is for the PS4, but there's no word on a release date. This is sure to appear at TGS this year, though, so we'll have more news then.

Last year, Hero Bank was one of the weirder experiences I had at the Tokyo Game Show. It's odd combination of Japanese pop culture, professional wrestling memes, and grade school prizefighting was a minor success this spring, being supported by an anime series and some aggressive marketing in stores. Apparently it worked well enough, because there's a sequel in the works now.

Hero Bank 2 features the same cast of characters, but their online identities have seen some upgrades. Specifically, the main character's avatar, Enter the Gold, has upped the ante to become Enter the Prize. His old rival's avatar, Dominion Dollar, has upgraded to the powerful Justice Dollar form.

With a projected release date of November 27, there's not too much time for the hype machine to mint new interest in this series, so I expect to see it at TGS 2014 for sure. In the meanwhile, we have a video:

Only time will tell if Sega is right to put its money where its mouth is in this way, or if the whole deal is just a bunch of kayfabe.

No year in Japandemonium is complete without a ridiculously boobtastic game title to ogle consider. Last year we had Starfrost Amazons and Toushin Toshi, but both of those have been in stores for months. What's next?

Our eye candy for 2014 is High School DxD: New Fight, a Vita game from Marvelous based on the popular series of light novels and anime. Not only is this a definite harem title, taking all the naughty tropes of that genre to a logical extreme, but the action generally results in much shredding of clothing. Fans of the series' actual story should be interested to hear that this game has an all-new plot, but I doubt most will care. They'll be more focused on the graphics.

Now, the official CERO D rating on this game means that it's not supposed to be sold to people under the age of 18, but on the other hand, Marvelous is releasing it as a download-only title with a heavy social gaming mechanic and a transmission date of sometime pretty soon. I have to wonder how many precociously pervy junior high school students will try to take this one out for a whirl. They even made it a free-to-download game, with in-game purchases to, er, "fill out" the experience.

A dark and hungry devil arises. Myriad underworlds lie cracked beneath his heels. A millions-strong army is left scattered and broken in his wake. He is Voiddark, and he is supreme. For now. But where there is despair, there is desperation, and those who have nothing left to lose may be the most dangerous heroes of all. It is time for revolution. It is time for revenge. It is time for Disgaea 5.

That's officially the theme for this game, by the way. Revolution and revenge, not necessarily in that order. Voiddark certainly does not lack for enemies, that's for sure. There are ten in the promotional art, just for starters. We only have details on these three, however:

First we have Kiria. He's one of the few survivors of the Lost Army, that aforementioned millions-strong group of warriors that tried to destroy Voiddark sometime in the past. Now Kiria roams the land, looking for like-minded rebels and vengeance-seekers who are crazy, desperate, or stupid enough to reform the Lost Army and make a second attempt on the Supreme Dark Lord's life.

Next is Seraphine, the pneumatic princess of the Underworld of Luxury and Splendour (Kenran Makai). Even though she's a Dark Lord and thus destined to rule her realm, she's still subject to her parents, it would seem. She's currently on the lam to avoid a particular odious arranged marriage.

Finally, we have Usalia, the last scion of the Bunny-Bunny Underworld (apparently the infernal zoning board was running out of theme ideas). She's not the strongest of demons, which is why she lets her oversized orange Prinny do most of the hard work. Unfortunately, she also labors under a strange and mysterious curse. If not regularly fed her favorite curry, she will go on terrible rampages, and suddenly that spoon of hers doesn't seem like such a silly weapon.

Disgaea 5 has a few new systems to play with, though we're only getting teasers right now. One item is the ability to invoke feelings of rage and revenge in your allies, which presumably boosts offensive power. Another is an as-yet unexplained option on the command bar: MaOhgi, or Devil King Techniques. These are separate from the usual specials, but the details are still unknown.

According to Nippon Ichi, Disgaea 5 will be out sometime next year. It will be for the PS4.

Popolocrois. Anyone out there heard of this one? It was a cute little series on the PSX and PS2 back in the day, but I'd figured it was long since abandoned as an IP. Guess I was wrong.

The Popolocrois series is getting both a revival and a crossover event at the same time, as its recurring hero Prince Pietro works to solve the mystery of the Black Beasts attacking his kingdom. To do this, he travels through a mystic portal to the neighboring world of Gallaliland for tons of adventure and... farming?

Yes, this is a Harvest Moon crossover game. The crisis is apparently not so time-critical after all, as Prince Pietro will be doing a lot of the slow-life thing in between bouts of adventuring and monster-bashing. At his side are his friends, the White Knight and Narsia the wood-witch, and even his old nemesis Lord Gami-Gami gets roped in after initially trying to cash in on the craziness.

This game will pop up on the 3DS eventually, but Marvelous has yet to give us a definite date, or even an indefinite season to aim for. More will be forthcoming at TGS, hopefully.

To answer the headline, Princess Arianna of Kaledonia certainly does, in order to survive in the land of High Lagaard and reach the mysterious ruin known as Ginnunga. What she gets is the titular hero of Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Knight of Fafnir.

The Knight of Fafnir, name to be determined by the player, is a bit of a cypher, having been raised his entire life in the great library of Mizgarz. An orphan, his past is a mystery, and his future a wall of darkness. The most frightening part is his other side, a dire transformation that comes over him from time to time. While he is understandably strong, turning into a blade-handed demon is never a good sign.

Hopefully these three can help Arianna keep her knight in check. Flavio the Ranger is an old friend of the Knight, and while he's a bit of a joker, he's got a serious side as well. He may know more about his friend's nature than he lets on. Beltran the Paladin and Chloe the Doctor-Magus are an odd-couple pair who decide to tag along with Arianna's party. Maybe it's just from curiosity, or maybe they have ulterior motives. Who can say?

Whatever happens, fans of the Etrian series know what they're getting into with this title. Hopefully the story in this remake will be up to the standard set in Millennium Girl. The game is due out on the 3DS sometime this winter, so hopefully gamers in North America will have a chance to find out for themselves soon enough.

That's all for your monthly JP, which should have been last week, but oh well. Next time you all hear from me, I should be at the Tokyo Game Show, so you'll be hearing a lot from me most likely. Until then!

And that's the news from Hi-no-Kuni,

Your man in Japan,

Gaijin Monogatari