With Persona 3 Portable (henceforth known as P3P) release 3-4 days back, here’s a blog entry with hilarious translation of the game’s promotional video.

Click on the picture for the site link!

For everyone else playing Love Plus, check the event schedule! A girl techno unit called Parfume will be playing at the event hall, starting on the second week of November.

Wait, girl techno? Parfume? Wait, what?

Will Love Plus emulate reality to the extent of there not being seats at all (And thus potentially make Rinko angry at me for dragging her to a crowded mosh pit of crazed fans?)? Will there be a PTA?

I… I don’t really understand anymore. I’ll go! I’ll go to this Parfume live!

And sign me up for PTA.

In other news, Fujita Saki (Voice of Hatsune Miku) has gone from voicing bananas to voicing pudding. I am gripped by a sudden urge to get one of those.

Part 5 of Famitsu’s P3P Creator’s Blog series. This entry features Susukida, who designed the event scenarios in P3.

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Hi.

Susukida, in charge of the direction of Persona 3 Portable here.

Till now, I have been working alongside Hashino and Soejima in Persona 3 and 4, designing event scenes, adding bits here and there to pace the story, but this time I will be working with the game system director Kido on the system layout and graphic design!

And here, I will talk about an aspect of Persona 3 Portable which has significantly changed the gameplay, the event scenes.

I believe there are readers who have seen magazine coverages and visited the home page, but in this port of Persona 3, the daily map (Aside from the dungeon, in town and in school) and events will be taking place as 2D character based scenarios. This is to improve the loading speeds and make gameplay a more efficient experience.

In events, character portraits will be displayed to the left and right of the screen, and conversations will take place between these two characters. There will be more variations and expressions in character portraits than those in the PS2 version.

Also, it is possible to fast-forward (Skip) scenarios. In your second playthrough, you can skip scenarios you have already read.

In the day map, focus has been placed on the speed at which movement can be made.
If we kept to the same movement system as the PS2 version, where one had to walk about the map, loading speeds will be slower and movement will be sluggish.

That is where we changed the day map backgrounds to 2D, and you move your characters over this 2D map… Which greatly shortens the load time and is better suited for portable-console gameplay.

In addition, the well-received shortcut button in Persona 4 is implemented, and makes movement more convenient and enjoyable.

To make it even faster, I would recommend a “Data Install”. Upon selection of the “Data Install” option on the title screen, a part of the game data will be installed on the memory stick.
Elements such as events and the day map and other aspects can be loaded without placing stress on the console, so please do try it out!
(The data install option is not needed on the 「PSP-GO」, so please do look out.)

Now that I’ve covered quite a few of the changes, I will introduce some of the new character accessories/equipment and omake screen captures.

It’s less than a month to the release date.
We can finally deliver a new Persona 3 experience to everyone!
On behalf of the staff, we’ve put a lot of effort into creating this, so we have confidence in it!
On 11/1, please enjoy a new one-year!
Thank you for your support!

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Hi, Hashino here.

The release date of Persona 3 Portable is drawing near

Getting into the Top 30 Most Anticipated new game releases on Weekly Famitsu has been something greater than what we had expected.

The readers may have had a chance to experience the game at the Tokyo Game Show last week, too.

How was it?

Right now, on the Persona 3 Portable home page, we’ve been receiving many messages of encouragement and questions. We might have a chance to answer those on the main page, so please do keep them coming!

(At Tokyo Game Show, Persona 4 managed to bag the Japan Game Awards 2009 “Excellent Game Award”!! Many thanks to all the fans and visitors for their encouragement. As a production representative, we thank you!)

Kuma is thankful too!

In Persona 3 Portable, some of the developments in Persona 4 have been implemented as a system improvement. Also, to make the portable version easier to play on the move, there have been some changes to the old system. We aim to set a new standard in portable RPGs in developing the game.

Game content will be introduced in various other places, so this entry will focus on the load speeds of scenes in the game.

…That being said, the video from the previous entry featured a PSP-GO, and so the load speeds were not UMD based, and was faster… That should be something to look forward to, but I think that there were some who were wondering “What would the load speeds be like with a normal UMD?”.

The scenes have been made for fast loading even on an UMD.
The team has developed it for portable play, so actions can be completed faster and more efficiently than on the PS2 system.
During tests, truth be told, there wasn’t much confidence in this part of the development, but with the staff’s hard work, there should be quite a significant improvement.

(Videos of gameplay can be viewed at the original post here)

…How is it?

Also, we have a function to install data on the console itself.
Using this, loading and reading speeds should be greatly shortened.

The fastests speeds will be on the full-install on the PSP-GO, but even on the UMD, players should be able to get decent loading speeds.

(This was taken on a development console, but the gameplay should feel something like this. The cache wasn’t used in gameplay. Load speeds vary on several factors, so please just use this as a rough gauge.)

Now, for the next entries, the two directors will bring you more detailed information about the game straight from the development office.

Since they spent a lot of effort on creating this game, I’m sure they have many interesting things to share!

(If its only about how much they’ve suffered, I’m sorry ^^;)

Please look forward to it!

An update of translations of the entries on the Famitsu Persona 3 Portable Creator’s blog. Meguro Shoji probably needs no introduction, and I’m really looking forward to the new tracks.

On to the translation of his first entry!

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Hi, This is Meguro, in charge of the music of Persona 3 Portable

It’s been a month since the announcement of Persona 3 Portable, and some game screencaps have been released, so I’ll continue with an update on the music side.

If you choose the female main character in Persona 3 Portable, there is a selection of music tracks just for her route

There probably aren’t as many songs as you would expect… The music will be changed for the town, school, battles, etc.

Of course, if you select the male main character you will hear the Persona 3 BGM as it originally was, and even on the female main character’s path, if there aren’t any new tracks the music will be the same as the PS2 version, and this would have been so.

Now, on the new tracks created for the female main character, the sound direction will maintain the atmosphere of Persona 3 while adding a little feminine vibe to it, so I tried composing with a soft and melodious mood to the music.

There will be vocal tracks too, and for this, a new vocalist Fujita Mayumi has been put in charge of these tracks.

The Persona Series has been blessed with great vocalists, and Fujita-san was perfect for the female main character’s BGM with her beautiful voice.

Also, during the battle scenes, Lotus Juice (A Japanese person), who contributed his rapping to the PS2 version, will be collaborating with Fujita-san!

And the opening theme (A game’s signature) for the female character’s route will be done by Kita Shuuhei.

That’s right, Kita-san who sang the OP for the Persona Trinity Soul anime.

To match the female main character’s story, the direction of the music is different from the PS2 opening 『Burn My Dread』

The song is entitled 『Soul Phrase』

The day after the publication of this blog entry will mark the opening of Persona Music Live 2009.

It was held at Akasaka Blitz last year but this year it will be at Wel City Tokyo, which is also known as that Kouseinenkin Kaikan.

We somehow managed to arrange for the use of this awesome hall for the concert, but thanks to this, ticket sales were brisk.

This is also thanks to all Persona fans.

Kawamura Yumi-san, Lotus Juice-san (A Japanese person), Hirata Shihoco-san, Kita Shuuhei-san and Fujita Mayumi-san will be performing, and there will be songs from Persona 3 Portable as well.

Kita Shuuhei-san might sing the new opening 『Soul Phrase』!?

I could only test out the characters with my copy of the game last weekend, trying to unlock all the characters. I like Kara no Kyoukai’s Ryogi Shiki the best, so obviously she’ll be my favourite character in the game (previously, I always change to Arcuied/Len as my main character(s) ). As she’s new, I need to learn out suitable combos to met out against my foes, and youtube enabled me to search for one video that’s pretty useful. Before that I was using Half-Moon Style, but after watching this video, I might convert to the Cresent Moon Style instead..

Am I slow, or has this been announced on some corner of the internet? It says Little Busters Converted Edition after all, and doesn’t that refer to the PS2 edition? Still, it says Nintendo DS under console.

I… don’t know what to think anymore. In any case, here’s the link to the original post on Famitsu. The baseball bit would work out just fine on the DS, though…

Edit: It seems to be a typo, and is now fixed to say PS2 on the source.

Hi,

It may be sudden, but have you seen this week’s Famitsu?
Doesn’t it sound like shady rumor material?

No gravure here (But of course),
This is the scoop on Persona 3, the PSP port!

Title screen images. We have a shujinkou-ko!

With that said, I’m Hashino of Atlus, in-charge of the development team.
We’ve made SMT3~Persona 3, 4 to date with this team.
Looking forward to your support.

From today onwards, I get to use this space to bother the other members of the development team.
Updates may be irregular, but I’ll bring you the insider information(!?) on P3P
For everyone who wants to play a portable version of Persona 3, please stay tuned!

On a light and energetic console like the PSP, we hope to bring the amusement of Persona 3 to a greater number of game fans. With this hope in mind, the development team of P3 and P4 are putting their all into this port!

Even with that said, it isn’t just an ordinary port, everyone.
Many, and various things are happening (Or should I say, have happened!?)

In P3P, as director, and along with the team who made P3 together and love P3, we put a lot of heart into this.

The fruit of everyone’s hard work, with content nearing completion, which would make you think “Ah, but you all really put too much enthusiasm into this!” (It’s really near completion, all that remains is the mastering!!)

In the hopes that this will become a classic RPG to be associated with the PSP platform,
I’ll put my anticipation into this, and continue the reporting.

Hm, it was a lot of work (Or rather, we’re in the midst of a whole lot of work)
We thought the conversion from PS2 to PSP would be smooth, but we were so wrong…
Keeping things the same -> but porting it to a portable console, meant we had to change some of the gameplay aspects, but to have such a large-scale change…
Plus an additional mode which was included on a whim but now takes up a huge part of the game.
It’s the start of a hell and a path of no return.

From the director’s view, the development team’s work is nearing completion.
As to how well it was made… I wonder! (Nah, I think it’s really well done.)

To players who feel like playing P3 again after a long time, and to players who have played the PS2 version before, the PSP port has content which you’ll probably enjoy playing through once again.
Do check the updates here from now on, too!

To end off, here are videos of the console (development/debug work in progress).
(Videos can be streamed from the blog page)

Kuma is debugging too

Playing through portable P3 with ease-.
Check back for news here again!

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The videos have some pretty funky new music, so grab your headphones!

I thought they would want to remake P2 for the PSP first. Probably too much trouble?

Preorders for P3P are open at Amazon.jp here
The official site opens on the 24th of August.

Now, time to get my copy of Famitsu…

Today i am interviewing topguN, topguN played for a team called sydney underground in a game called counter-strike: source.
Hitting the professional gaming scene around 2006 topguN travelled around the world in the league known as “theCGS” and experienced large crowds, hardcore gaming, intense moments and years of professional gaming.

So topguN how is your career lately?
Not much of a career mate, all I do is train.. but in CS terms its quiet, but there will be alot of competitions coming up soon, n ill be sure to play in as many as i can – and hopefully win.

When exactly did sydney underground start for you and your career. and how did you get involved?
The CGS had been around before that, but it was only in the US – thanks to some spending they were able to go worldwide and create teams from Europe, Asia, and of course the Sydney Underground which i got drafted to play for.

During the online quals, we played our last match on my birthday, which was September 13, and that was when it kicked in that we were going to travel overseas to represent Australian source, it was an awesome feeling.

Can you give us a quick explanation of what counter-strike: source is and how a match works
Counter-Strike Source is a team game, with 2 sides, terrorists and counter-terrorists, Five players per side, 15 rounds a half, at half time the teams will swap sides which then gives both teams a chance to defend and attack.

What was it like travelling the world. meeting people. the crowd’s for you?
The happiest times in my life were definately while we were travelling, Other then everything being paid for, it was just a great experience to witness
gaming at its best. During the final season of the Asian championships, there wasn’t a day where we werent asked for photos, or to sign autographs.
Gaming in Australia is nothing like it is in Asia, and thats a damn shame.

Were you ever featured on tv show’s?
Once, After winning in Asia, Good Game, a show on ABC did a little feature on Professional Gaming, and luckily for me I was around to mopup the fame :P

Whats your greatest moment you remember about traveling with your team?
Our very first time together, in Malaysia, we beat the Wuhan Dragon 10-8, which sealed the deal for us to be paid players, and also travel to the US.
Beating WNV was a good feeling, but knowing that we were going to be paid to play, was by far the greatest feeling I’ve had. Like a dream come true.

What was the competitive scene like. other team’s. challenging level’s etc?
The scene was definately alot different to what we were used to here in Australia, Every team had their own play style, and they were all extremely good.
It took a bit of time getting used to the level of competition that we had to compete against, but it only made us a better team. It was good to show that we
had what it took to match it with some of the greatest teams in the world.

Do you have a favourite moment in a competitive match that you remember?
Every match we had in the Pan Asian Championships was a favourite moment, the whole team played out of their skins, that was when we were crowned the Asian Champions
I remember one round, against Wuhan, I pulled off a few big shots with the Deagle, I got up – 1 by 1 pointed to all the players and the manager, and said BOOM. I felt untouchable at that point :P

With your career today what are your future plan’s and plan’s for the moment?
I’m a man with no plans – Whatever happens happens, we’ll see what the future has for me, when the future comes ;)

What’s your favourite counter-strike weapon?
Ooo, hardest question so far..
haha I’d have to say the AK47, deagle, AWP.. depends on my mood :P

Do you have any closing comments?
A shoutout to Racs, for helping out in the gaming industry in Australia as much as he has, and keeping me out of prison :P n a thank you to yourself for takin the time to interview me :)

Aion: Tower of eternity Review By Serenity

Critic Reviews

- RPGFan Aion is an incredibly polished experience that refines the best aspects of the genre and creates a spectacular new world.

- PC Gamespot An Adventure worth the monthly fee’s and the time

Review – Serenity

Aion: Tower of eternity, follows a story of your character constantly evolving into the world that it provides, with two races  of Elyos and Asmodian. the story evolves through quests and CGI/in-game movie scenes ( a first of its kind besides guild wars ) and you can really feel the depth they have put into this game

For example. standing still your character will move around, hold up an umbrella in the rain, or stretch from boredom and show you that it want’s to move around and explore.

Fighting fatigues you, the more health you loose. the weaker your character gets and it shows, you bend down and your movements become much slower.

A lot of little details are payed attention to in this game. even the way a tree blow’s in the wind or the rain fall’s depending on which way your running and the wind blows the dust to a certain direction.

For me, this makes the game extremely exciting and more enjoyable than most bland games that leave out the little things that I think matter.

All in all a great game. and worth the money. the leveling system is unique in its own right. the armor crafting system is great, the PvP system is stable and balanced, and the graphics are untouched by any other MMORPG right now.

Graphics – 8.6
Game play- 9.6
Storyline – 7.5
Character development – 9.7

All in all I’d give it a 9.6/10