Lately I have been wondering if it’s time to stop writing these handheld gaming news blogs. Of course, I always love chatting about gaming with you all, and sharing a cup of coffee is always good. But at the same time, it seems less and less friends are dropping in to read. Might have everything to do with the hype for the Switch and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Or maybe the news that stands out to me isn’t the news that interests readers?
For now, I’ll just enjoy writing another article featuring the news that stood out to me on the 3DS, Vita or mobile. The overview I always make of the week is nowhere near complete, mind you. You might miss stuff about games you are into at the moment. But I do hope I can serve some unknown tidbits to you, or stuff about games that aren’t as popular as some others.
So, come on in and let’s enjoy our comfy cup of coffee! And if you’re reading this, I’d love some input: should I continue with these weekly uptakes on the news?
Super Mario Run on Android
Fans of Mario who own an Android phone can finally start playing the game on mobile as well: on March 23 it will be released on there as well!
Atelier Firis on the Vita
In between playing Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns I’ve started the Mysterious Journey with Firis on my Vita. For those of you who are playing too: the prologue is rather long, when Firis is still in the underground town. It made me really doubt my decision to buy the game, as the underground part is rather dark and gloomy.
Plus I’ve found that in some parts in that village the movement of Firis is a bit laggy, like the framerate can’t keep up. If you are experiencing it too, don’t worry though. After the prologue Firis finally gets out into the wide world under the blue sky, Much better surroundings and no more laggy movement either. What’s nice is that this is an open world adventure, which will play quite differently then earlier Atelier games.
Update and Balthier DLC for World of Final Fantasy
On March 23 the Vita game World of Final Fantasy will get a patch and free DLC in the tiny form of Balthier. Isn’t he the cutest? Anyway, the update brings some changes to the game (thanks, Siliconera!):
- Skip function added for battle scenes: You’ll now get to skip battle scenes, such as Mega Mirage summons and Champion summons, by pressing the circle button.
- “Fast Forward” added to configurations: Allows you to fast forward event and battles through the options menu.
- Battle response improved: Conditions for filling the ATB bar during regular encounters have been adjusted, and you can input commands quicker than previously.
- “Sephiroth,” “Balthier,” and “Sora” Battle BGMs added to settings: Having their Champion Medals will allow you to select their battle BGMs.
- “Random” option added for battle BGM settings
- Gates, save points, and new chapters recover HP and AP
Dragon Quest: The Real in Universal Japan
We’ve heard late last year, that Super Nintendo World will come to Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan in 2020, and eventually to Universal Studio’s in Orlando and Hollywood. What I didn’t know is that Universal Studios also has a Dragon Quest-themed attraction at Universal Studios Japan, called Dragon Quest: The Real. It opened last week, now is that special?
Speaking to the 200 fans in attendance of the opening ceremony, series creator Yuji Horii said: “The world that I’ve seen in my dreams is there, just before my eyes. Life is role-playing. So go out there, and do your best as the protagonist!” The attraction lets guests team up in a dungeon crawl-style featuring battles and even job classes for the players such as ‘ Warrior’ and ‘ Mage’.
The Alliance Alive for 3DS
FuRyu has been hard at work on a new game called The Alliance Alive. The Alliance Alive is an RPG game in the same style as Legend of Legacy. It was supposed to be released in Japan on the 3DS on June 22nd, but recently got delayed.
We got a bit of info about the game, like how the game includes several modes of transport. The trailer below show the ornithopter, looks like a nice way to move. Interesting game, no release date for the West yet.
Snack World anime taking off
A bit of news about anime The Snack World, which will make its debut starting on April 13 in Japan. The story of The Snack World follows the adventure of Chup and his comrades. After an evil merchant named Vinegar took away his hometown, the young man named Chup has vowed to make him pay back a thousand times over. He sets off on a journey of revenge.
This is Level-5’s fourth cross-media project. The anime will be followed by a 3DS game is expected to launch in July 2017 followed by its iPhone and Android version in December 2017.
Dragon Quest XI for 3DS
Dragon Quest XI is currently being developed for the 3DS and the PS4. Recently we got a bit more news and a look at the screen shots on the games website. As it’s in Japanese, its nice to have this article on Nova Chrystallis to tell us all about whats coming. There’s examples for towns, facilities and dungeons.
Although you don’t see any info about that on the Square Enix’s website, Nintendo has confirmed that the game is developed for the Switch as well.
Enough for this week again. Must say that I’m mildly interested in perhaps playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild in future. I hear such good things about it, I know my lady friends in the gaming group are having a great time with it. Of course, the Switch is nowhere to be seen in stores at the moment, so I don’t have to make any decision yet. I did hear though that Nintendo is stepping up production, so who knows!
Have a great gaming weekend. Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear what you are playing at the moment!
Hi there. I always enjoy reading your opinions, advice and news. I love the idea of the new atelier game, but it wasn’t physical here and I absolutely hate downloading. I love to have a game in my hand, not to resell later or pray it might go up in value. Just to feel I actually own the game. I am looking forward to the upcoming Fire Emblem game for 3ds. And finally yo kai watch 2 is coming in 2 weeks. As for games I am playing now… shamefully for the first time ever, I have not finished the latest Pokémon game! Usually I play through till I beat the elite four and champion, then casually try to steadily fill the pokedex, I left the game as I had just reached the second island. In my slight defence, I had only re-bought a vita a month prior to pokemon coming out, and I was buying rpg games where and when ever possible. So my 3ds has pokemon sun waiting not so patiently for me, and Conception 2 is very active on my vita. I want to try and finish the games I buy. I have, over the years, gained quite a backlog of games and tend to jump to the next game I buy and leave the last game a few dozen hours in. Heaven help me when I go back to them. I want to try and get conception 2 finished before yo kai comes out, because I know that will be too tempting for me. Thank you for each and every blog you write. I can not wait for what you write next.
Thank you for your kind words, Kimi! I’m glad you like my news blogs, and I’ll try to keep them coming. I do have fun writing them, that’s an important factor, right?
Shall I tell you a little secret? I love Pokémon Moon, but I didn’t make it much farther either. Somehow I missed the frantic gaming virus on that one. It’s another solid entrance in the Pokémon series, and I don’t doubt that I’ll go back to it. But to play Pokémon for me, it’s important to have the pokevirus first, willing indeed to catch them all.
So I’m not the only one that jumps from game to game. But like I wrote some time ago, it’s all about the fun in playing. And to stay in a game that isn’t catching me at that time, is like running though mud! I’m curious about the Conception games. I knew about them, but I’ve never played one. How does it compare, whats the gameplay like?
Fun should be the reason for everything. And I hope that it continues to be fun for you.
I hope that the joy of playing pokemon comes back for both of us. Maybe a little further into the game it starts to show some of that magic that makes the games good.
I agree that sometimes slogging through a game can become a battle to keep it interesting enough to finish. But my partner asked me just over a year ago, “just how many of these games have you completed?” and I could count on one hand how many. I counted pokemon as 1. 🙂 And it just made me think, how many interesting and new storylines I was missing out on. I go on about how I love rpg games, but until this past year, I had not finished any besides pokemon. I do still dance between games, I know I always will. But I do feel the need to make a start and complete them. It felt great to finish Fantasy Life, and being a complete fan of Dragon Quest, I finally finished DQ9. I have over 40 vita games, I am just shy of 200 3ds games and about 100 ds games. And more great games coming out all the time.
When I get asked, what is a game like, or how do I feel about the ending. I want to be able to give a decent answer, and as I talk, remember how great it felt to finish the game.
Conception 2 is mostly a basic dungeon crawler. The part that makes the game different to others is the team you take with you to beat the dungeons. You are ‘gods gift’. A guy with powers stronger than others. And you have 7 girls that you need to become very good friends with and make them happy. The stronger and happier they are, the better Star children you can make with them. The children have their own powers and abilities. You take them into the dungeons with you and they help you defeat the monsters inside them. Each of the main dungeons are named after a deadly sin, and each of the girls has a spirit of a cardinal virtue. Taking the right girl into the dungeon helps in beating it. Each girl needs to be treated and spoke too differently to increase their happiness towards you. One of the girls likes you to act quite dumb, while another needs you to be reassuring. To make the children, you don’t see anything naughty. You just hold hands with the girl, then you have a bouncing, fully fighting child… or children if you managed to make twins!
Me, I take one of the girls into a dungeon, level her up a little. Make 3 star children with her, then take a different girl into the dungeon to level up… with the new children. I am on the 3rd dungeon and have 6 of the 7 girls available. Working out how to talk to the girls, what gifts they might like, keeping them happy is a task itself, a fun task though! Trying to get the right star children, strongest, best abilities etc is probably the more time consuming part. They have level caps, the higher the mothers level, the higher the childs level can be. And you are always hoping to get the random God Star child, who has strong abilities and a level cap of 99, the highest possible. Yes I do love the game. And recommend it to anyone who loves rpgs, maybe with a slight difference.
Sorry to go on. Thank you for replying and I wish you all the best.
Conception sounds a bit different, right? Interesting though, I like it when a game is thinking of new ways to make the experience different then any other game, and this one seems to have succeeded! Makes me think of Ar no Surge, which had a lot of people raising eyebrows too at how the heroes had to get close to each other!
Thanks for your insight on what kind of game it is!!
Aww, I for one love reading your posts each week! You always have interesting things to say, and I always look forward to your posts. 🙂
Thanks my friend, luckily it’s still fun to make them. I’ll try to keep the coffee chats coming!
Well that’s the most important part! As long as you are still enjoying what you are doing, then keep on doing it! When it becomes more of a chore, that’s when you know you might have to change direction. I’ll continue to look forward to our weekly chats! 🙂
You have peaked my interest in Atelier Firis for the vita. I am going to keep a look out for that game. I am always looking for a good RPG that has a solid good story. Some of my favourites for the system have been, Persona 4 Golden, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Final Fantasy X, and have enjoyed, even though it is classified as RPG I don’t know, Muramasa Rebirth. It is more of an action game to me. I really haven’t explored fully the RPGs available for the Vita. My favourite on the PSP is Popolocrois and wished I could find another like it.
Popolocrois is definately a one of a kind title! Good storyline, good fighting system. You might want to look at NI no Kuni, but it’s only available on the PS. It has the same engrossing story though. Hold off on Atelier Firis for now. I’m not sure yet if this is going to be the best title for the Atelier games. The teenager Firis takes a bit of getting used to, and she can easily get on your nerves. For now, I wonder if Atelier Ayesha isn’t my favorite Atelier game, or Sophie. But I’ll get back to that.
I can’t wait to finally get to try Super Mario Run!
I think you should continue with these posts, definitely! I will speak for myself when I say Breath of the Wild has been keeping me away from reading blog posts or doing anything else for that matter. So you might be onto something there.
Thanks Matt, it’s good to know you all appreciate the news updates. I think a lot of people are blown away by Zelda, and are having a great time playing it. Have fun in your adventure my friend!
Thanks!
I’m new around the block here in WordPress for Gaming and I’ve loved reading your articles so far 🙂
Thank you, and welcome to the blogosphere!
I love your blog! Is the Atelier game a phsical game, or download. I’ve been wanting to try them since reading about them here.
Thanks Carrie! I think it’s a physical release in the US. Over here in Europe we could only get it digitally.
I’m incredibly excited for Dragon Quest XI. I wish SqEnix would port all of the early series entries to PS4 since they’ve already got them running on mobile…
Question for you. Would you consider Switch news appropriate for covering/discussing under a “mobile/handheld gaming” banner?
I agree, DQ XI looks very, very interesting!
Yes I do consider to report about it under the banner of handheld gaming, simply because you can take the game with you. I do try to include some Switch news, but it’s a bit harder as I don’t have one myself.
Love handheld gaming news! Not much of it these days on the blogosphere, especially the types of games that you yourself review (rpgs and unique games that I’ve at least never heard of but are intrigued in), so count at least one more person who reads those posts!
I can’t believe World of Final Fantasy is releasing DLC with all those perks. I recently beat Final Fantasy X and I swear the only reason I ever got through it was from the fast forward and auto battle features for grinding. That and the ability to skip summon animations may mean I can finally play it!
Thanks for reading, I’m glad I can add some uniqueness to the blogosphere. Nowadays most is about the Switch, which is great. But let’s not forget there’s more handheld gaming out there!
Please Yvonne, keep writing these delightful Handheld Gaming News posts! We portable gaming aficionados must stick together and keep the ball rolling by writing about our passion. Not to mention that your Handheld Gaming News are always rife with interesting information. If not for you, I wouldn’t have known about the Asian physical edition of Ys Origins! 🙂
Thanks my friend! I’ll do what I can, though just today I was pondering that sites like NintendoLife seem to be all about the Switch these days! But you’re right, we have to keep the ball rolling!
Wow, it took ages for Mario to hit Android. I am enjoying Atelier Firis, despite the fetch quest heavy intro. Can’t recall having any frame rate issues, although I am playing on PS4.
At the moment Atelier Firis is taking a backseat. I find I’m a bit annoyed by the game. Keep losing my way, which isn’t bad, but with the deadline of one year and the days ticking away I get very nervous. Don’t want to end up re-playing the year when I find it at the end that time is up!
Don’t worry, from what I have gathered the time limit is very generous. I have started the alchemist exam with 100 days to spare. In hindsight I regret not doing more side quests and exploration.
If you are lost I would recommend going east to the big town next to the lake. There you get a boat that takes you to the final destination.