This Week in Famitsu

Weekly Famitsu #1181

Cover Story

This week, we are blessed with double cover stories, as we couldn't in good conscience focus only on Sengoku Basara (the drawing on the cover) when 'PlayStation Vita' is plastered across it in giant, neon-orange letters. Lucky you!

Sengoku Basara is an insanely popular series here in Japan, and the cover story this time is covering their newest iteration for the PSP, called “Chronicle Heroes”. Haven't heard of Sengoku Basara before? Think Dynasty Warriors, but instead of being based in Ancient China, it's in Ancient Japan. Also similar to Dynasty Warriors, most of the characters are based off of actual historical figures, but with one noticeable difference: they made them smoking hot. As all the historical old men have been transformed into long-haired anime pretty boys, it should come as no surprise that the series has a rabid female fanbase, which would ordinarily be unusual considering its categorization as an action-based hack and slash game. Think George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in a war game, but instead of being dignified looking old men, George Washington boasted pecs rivaling Arnold Schwarzenegger in his hey-day, and Abraham Lincoln had hair as long and black and flowing as the styling trench-coat the designers put him in, and you'll have an idea of how close this game is to portraying these characters accurately. This newest entry into the series boasts of having 32 characters (including some that might even appeal to men!) and continues the 2 vs 2 fighting system started in the previous Sengoku Basara PSP game, 'Battle Heroes'.

As for the PSVita, for brevity's sake we'll skip over the description of the new system's various features and abilities, even though they do an admirable job of covering it; all that information is readily available in English all over the internet. What isn't readily available, however, is Famitsu reader survey data! Unfortunately, the survey is quite long, too long to cover when there's dueling cover-stories; Famitsu out-did themselves this time. So, we'll just give you a few brief highlights: 31% of readers surveyed thought that the PSVita is a good name, 55% believe the prices of the two different models are reasonable, and 58% of readers plan on buying the Wi-Fi-only enabled model. As for what games Famitsu readers want to see on the console, Monster Hunter ranked as the most desired series, followed by Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid rounding out the top three.

Featured Game

Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3 and 360): Occasionally, Famitsu has the honor of being the first to announce a brand new-game on the horizon, due to the level of respect the gaming press over here has for them. This proved to be the case with this latest issue, as it has a huge reveal on Lollipop Chainsaw, a new game featuring Suda 51 (Killer 7, No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned) as the Creative Director. Boy, does it show. Suda 51 is revered for being a bit of an art-house game creator, meaning that he makes strange, strange games. Lollipop Chainsaw is shaping up to not be an exception to that, as it features a cheerleader by the name of Juliet Staring who murders zombies with a pink, heart-decorated chainsaw. If that isn't unusual enough for you, she also has a young man's dismembered, talking head as a little key-chain tied to her belt. Needless to say, this game should prove to be interesting, and we are looking forward to seeing how it shapes up.

Weird Games Found Only In Japan

The Idolmaster 2 (PS3): The Idolmaster series is a strange beast; with a huge cast of cute female characters, initially viewing any media from it would lead you to believe it's a dating-sim game. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Idolmaster 2 puts you in the shoes of a young female producer who is trying to manage a group of young wanna-be pop-idol girls. As this is actually the second one, your group already achieved success in the first game, but now they've hit a slump and it's up to you, and your god-like managerial skills, to bring them back to the top of the charts. How do you do this? You micro-manage their lives. You choose the venues the girls play at, the commercial jobs they take, and how much they practice for their shows. It's also a music-rhythm game, as during concerts and practices the player pushes a sequence of buttons in time to the music to make the girl group perform well. As mentioned before, though, it is not a dating-sim game. While there are events where you work with the young girls to improve your relationship with them and each other, it is in no way romantic or sexual. There are, however, enough pictures of cute girls who decide to go to the beach together in their bikinis to get the equivalent of a Teen rating. 

 

Idolmaster 2 is coming out for the PS3 this October, but the first one was actually an Xbox 360 exclusive, and one of the few games that actually sold well for that system here in Japan. While this one has more of a chance of coming to the States than some of the other games we've covered before, due to its lack of objectionable content, I doubt there's enough OCD people who feel the intense need to play a manager-sim game enough for it to sell well.

Hardware Sales: Week of 7/4-7/10

• PSP – 25,778 units
• Nintendo 3DS – 23,219 units
• PlayStation 3 – 21,199 units
• Wii – 12,848 units
• Nintendo DS – 7,108 units
• Xbox 360 – 1,911 units
• PlayStation 2 – 1,078 units

Top 5 Selling Games: Week of 7/4-7/10

• L.A. Noire (PS3) – 46,375 units sold
• Infamous 2 (PS3) – 30,266 units sold
• Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (PS3) – 30,224 units sold
• Wii Remote Plus Variety Pack (Wii) – 17,316 units sold
• Danboru Battle (PSP) – 14,691 units sold

Top 5 Most Anticipated Games: Based on survey results from 7/7-7/13

• Tales of Xillia (PS3)
• Dragon Quest X (Wii)
• Final Fantasy: Type-O (PSP)
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)
• Photo Kano (PSP)

Four out of the five top selling games this week are western games? Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse? Well, if it is, we still hope you enjoyed this week's 'This Week In Famitsu'. See you next time, unless the world ends....

Submitted By: Sherrie Blackwell