Tokyo. October 10th. The Day of the Dot. Sounds ominous, no? Worry not, for the Dot Heroes have come to save the day! Or at least to promote the upcoming release of 3D Dot Heroes, that most weirdly retro of all PS3 titles. The dev team held a press conference and shared their thoughts and the experiences which led them to want to make such an homage to the 8-bit games of yesteryear, especially the classic Atari game Spelunker. The star of that game even made an appearance alongside the Dot Hero.

--edit I forgot to mention this, but the development team has such a love for old Spelunker that they have named 3D Dot Heroes' most insane level of difficulty "Spelunker Mode". On this setting, the Dot Hero possesses all the strength and stamina of the original 8-bit Spelunker. That is to say, he'll die if he gets sneezed at too hard. Sounds fun and rage-inducing.

Names are a perennial problem for game developers, I would imagine. There's the need to convey the essence of a game in just a few choice words, versus the risk of making a name too generic to be memorable. Some resort to bizarre spellings (e.g. Hexyz Force, RIZ-ZOAWD, WiZmans World), others can just rest on tradition and not worry (e.g. Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy).

And then there are a few that just don't seem to give a damn about it. Like the folks behind Legendary Hero's Legend - Legendary Saga, which has to be the most severely redundant title I have ever seen in a video game. The blame can't be pinned on the developers for this one, though. It's a licensed property based on a popular light novel series in Japan.

The plot, as best I can figure, runs something like this: King Shion, ruler of the Dominion of Roland, received a report one day. This report concluded that the relics of the Legendary Hero could, if gathered together in one place, have the power to end wars before they even began.

There's no way a ruler would let something like that pass without notice, and so the author of the report, the apathetic Lyner Root, finds himself partnered with a dango-obsessed lady knight for a typical Grand Adventure™.

Ferris the knight is tougher than she looks, and so is Lyner, who possesses the power to copy and learn the magics of his enemies. Onward they journey through 3D dungeons in a first-person perspective, all the while facing down vicious monsters and humans who stand in the way.

Legendary Hero of Legend is scheduled for release "sometime this winter."

Do you have what it takes? Do you have the heart and soul of a builder, a planner, a maker? Have you ever played some cheap, third-party title and thought, "I could do better?"

Well, it's time to put your money where your mouth is.

The RPG Maker series returns once more, this time to the Nintendo DS. What are they touting now as upgrades to the design formula? First, the character customization-- there are apparently over 800 combinations of physical attributes to work with. Second, the map customization makes a claim to over 1500 options. Third, the enemies -- I'm not sure what's new here, but they felt the need to discuss the setup for monster creation and battle planning, though. Fourth, the music -- 150 themes and variations from which to choose. And finally, the text support -- the DS touchscreen allows for quick text input via a digital keyboard.

So, anyone feeling creative? I think I'll name my new hero character Dan Alpanama, just for giggles.

I mentioned this once a long while back, but there's a new (or rather, old) Mega Man title coming soon to the DS. The original Mega Man Battle Network gets a system upgrade and a new moniker: Operation Shooting Star. So how does it look?

Not too different from how I remember it, to be honest. I'm sure some changes have to have been made though, if only to allow for the supposed tie-in scenes with the Star Force sub-series.

And here's an extra bit for those with an eye for swag: sports bottles emblazoned with the images of both digital-age Mega Man heroes on the side.

Anyone out there heard of Battle Spirits? It's (yet another) collectible card game in the spirit of Yu-Gi-Oh that's been on sale in America since mid-August, I think. It popped up in Japan a few years back and has gained much popularity since then. Just this year an anime series debuted, all about the adventures of the kids who play the game. It's kiddy and cartoony, but the newly announced PSP tie-in game is largely the opposite.

Battle Spirits - Heroes' Soul is certainly an active-looking game for something inspired by a deck of cards. In fact, it's an action RPG that uses cards from the real game to cast magic or summon allies. The story takes place within the cosmos of the cards, with no connection to the "real" world, it seems. The anonymous, fully customizable hero and his companion Spiri are on a journey through the six worlds of Battle Spirits, each represented by a different color/energy and hosting a different variety of enemy types. The Red world belongs to the dragonkin, while the Green is home to the nature spirits. Undead armies haunt the Purple while mechanical soldiers roam the White. Blue is the province of the mighty and strong, and Yellow belongs to the fairy-tale folk.

There's no word on what the story might actually be like, but the scenery looks interesting.

Here's one that seems to have come out of the blue: Shonen Magazine & Shonen Sunday White Comic RPG, or Shonen White Comic for short. I'd heard absolutely zilch on this one before I found the title on this month's release list. Once I knew it was out there, it was easy enough to find the game's home page, but I didn't even have any serviceable pictures to use for the column until fellow RPGamer DQ5 came through for me and located some in the Famitsu site archives.

So what is the Shonen White Comic RPG?

Well, it's a game about a boy. A boy who has just seen his dad sucked into an alternate dimension by forces unknown. So far, that's pretty par for the course for a shonen story. Then Kindaichi Hajime and Edogawa Conan show up to help. Now it gets weird. Those two are the most famous detectives in the shonen super-genre right now, and they're just the start of the cameo-fest that is White Comic. From what I've seen, the list also includes characters from Fairy Tail, Negima, Mr. Ajikko, Hayate no Gotoku, Inu-Yasha, Fist of the North Star, Ashita no Joe, Me-Gumi no Daigo, GS Mikami, Urusei Yatsura, Cyborg 009, and a few more that look familiar but I just cannot place them at the moment.

Wow, that's a lot of reference links. The Konami site promises upwards of three-hundred fifty character cameos, most of them summonable through the blank pages of the game's eponymous White Comic. The game itself arrived in stores late last week.

We're into the final weeks now. Final Fantasy XIII is due in stores in almost exactly two months' time. With all the means at their disposal, how are the marketing people at Square Enix going to promote this one? Well first of all, they're going back to the things that helped them before, soft drinks.

No, it's not Potion™ this time, it's Elixir™! Square Enix and Suntory Drinks Co. have teamed up once again to provide semi-decent beverages in collectible aluminum canisters for the enjoyment of fans. And while supplies last, they even have collectible figurines to help sweeten the deal. I just hope they made this run of drinks a little more limited in production than the last time. I swear, half the convenience stores in my area still have Dissidia-themed Potion drinks in stock.

Salud!

Sorry for the one-week delay in updates. I hope this week's slightly longer than normal column helps to make up for it. I predict November is going to be one big mess for updating, though. Be forewarned!

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

Your man in Japan,

Gaijin Monogatari