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Soul Calibur V Story Mode Intended To Be “Four Times Bigger”

Soul Calibur V was good, but it lacked some of that trademark "oomph" for which the franchise is so well known.

Some were expecting a heftier story, for example. Well, did you know the developer had initially planned to implement a much more robust story mode? According to what game director Daishi Odashima told Train2Game , the story aspect was supposed to be "four times bigger." Unfortunately, "time constraints" meant they couldn't do exactly what they wanted and the story mode had to be scaled back.

Odashima said Namco Bandai "didn't have the staff or the time" required to realize the "full vision" of the intended storyline. Essentially, what we got was a plot that mostly only focused on two characters (Patrokolos and his sister, Pyrrha), and each individual character was supposed to have a story. That's actually pretty standard, but as Odashima said:

"Our first plan on the storyboard was that we had every characters story, and actually we do have it in the studio, but time-wise, man power-wise we weren’t able to do it and only one fourth of what we planned to do is in the game."

He added that many of the stories "got full voice-overs" during the development phase, but they never got used. Hopefully, the team can find a way to use them in the future, but Odashima isn't quite sure how… More downloadable content, anyone? Although fighting games aren't necessarily expected to have great plots and in-depth character development, Soul Calibur had always put a bit more effort into these elements than other fighting franchises. Too bad it didn't all work out in the fifth installment.

Related Game(s): Soul Calibur V

Sony Wasn’t Able To “See The Value” In Demon’s Souls

Demon's Souls turned out to be one of the most impressive PlayStation 3 exclusives of the generation. So why did Sony pass on the prospect of publishing it in North America?

Well, in short, because when they first saw it and played it, it was "crap." That's a direct quote from Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida is speaking to Game Informer . But when the interviewer said he felt one of Sony's biggest mistakes was not publishing Demon's Souls in NA and Europe, Yoshida replied- "Absolutely! Tell me about it! 100% agree!"

He then went on to talk about the differences in Japanese and Western game development. For instance, in Japan, he says game design is "made horizontally where all assets are made in parallel, so it's difficult to figure out what the final state of the game is going to be." This is in contrast to the Western style, which is "typically a vertical slice;" i.e., one can see what the end result will be like in the early goings. As for Atlus' RPG:

"For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, 'This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.' So I put it aside."

Yoshida went on to say they "definitely dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint" because they weren't "able to see the value of the product." But it's all a learning process and sometimes, it's tough to know what game might end up winning the hearts of consumers and critics. As for the Demon's Souls IP, Yoshida said they don't sell their IPs and now that they love From Software's stuff, the future is wide open.

So what's next? "Evil Souls?" "Devil's Souls?"

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: The Battle Begins Next Holiday

We got a peek at it in Tekken Hybrid , but the final console version is still a ways off.

At the Spike TV Video Game Awards last night, Namco Bandai provided fighting fans with an estimated launch date: holiday 2012 . The trailer showed off Asuka and Lili fighting Kazuya and Brian in silhouette; check it out:

No specific date beyond the vague "holiday 2012" and no platforms were confirmed. Tekken Tag Tournament was a PS2 launch title and much like that classic installment, TTT2 will boast a 2-on-2 format for combat, with the capability of tagging in a teammate. Obviously, we all remember doing just that during the early days of the PS2.

I may not have been a fighting fan, but no new PS2 owner avoided TTT altogether. That would've been just plain silly.

Related Game(s): Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Namco Bandai Ships 1.5 Million Darkened Souls

If you were up for the challenge, you weren't the only one. It seems publisher Namco Bandai needed to meet high global demand.

According to developer From Software (as translated by Andriasang ), Dark Souls has now shipped 1.5 million units to stores around the world.

As you can see by the region listings, North America received the largest number of copies (620,000), while Europe got 470,000, and Japan saw 370,000. Remember, From Software released the game exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in Japan, so that number is substantial. Of course, none of these numbers indicate actual sales performance, but when shipped stats are this high, we have to assume people are buying the game.

Obviously, one should expect it to surpass its predecessor, Demon's Souls , as the original IP was only released for the PS3 (everywhere, not just Japan). Dark Souls is multiplatform outside of Japan so that should definitely help with the overall sales. It'll be interesting to see the PS3/360 split, though, won't it…?

Related Game(s): Dark Souls

Namco Supports PlayStation Vita With Three Launch Titles

The PlayStation Vita has earned an official North American and European launch date of February 22 and now, Namco Bandai has confirmed their support.

The publisher will give US gamers three new titles when the Vita hits store shelves: Touch My Katamari , Ridge Racer , and Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen . …if you have to ask why the new Katamari installment boasts such a bizarre name, you're not familiar with the franchise.

Said Namco Bandai Games America Vice President of Marketing Carlson Choi:

"We’re pleased today to officially confirm three titles for the PlayStation®Vita system to gamers across North America excited for the launch of this impressive new handheld gaming device. Between the innovative new gameplay features in the irreverent new Touch My Katamari, the blistering speed and online connectivity of the gorgeous new Ridge Racer, and the intense, open-ended, assassin-based action of Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen, NAMCO BANDAI Games will be delivering top-tier content for the launch of the PS®Vita in a very big way."

In Touch My Katamari , fans get an all new feature that allows players to use the rear touch panel of the Vita to stretch the ball horizontally or vertically. They say "more details" will be revealed soon. Ridge Racer uses Vita's Wi-Fi and "near" functionalities, and Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen will let players play as a master assassin. The latter is developed by Acquire Corp., well known for other ninja stealth titles and "countless smash hits."

The more launch titles for Sony's new portable, the better.

Want Tales Of Xillia? Then Buy Tales Of Graces F

Bottom line: they'll support it if you support it.

The Tales role-playing series is always popular in Japan, but it has more difficulty gaining sales traction in the US. Therefore, after Tales of Vesperia released for the Xbox 360 in 2008 (and met with low sales), Namco Bandai hasn't brought us the next three installments…yet.

The third on that list, Tales of Graces F , will launch for the PlayStation 3 next year, as will Tales of the Abyss for the Nintendo 3DS (a port of the PS2 version). And Namco Bandai associate brand manager Josh Sepielli has good news for all RPG fans:

"There's going to be continued support for the Tales series that we've never had before. We've taken a lot of steps as a company from the point we've released Vesperia to where we are now. There's a lot more coordination with Japan when we're getting these games, when we're getting information. We're going to start getting the timing closer together. We're very focused on being a lot more international."

However, when asked if Tales of Xillia would come to US shores, Sepielli seemed optimistic but also had to get realistic for a minute. He admitted that the Tales fanbase is loyal but not very large, and if the games in question bomb, Xillia will probably never show up. It's just like what happened with Valkyria Chronicles II . So RPG fans, you know what to do: support those RPGs so we can get more!

Related Game(s): Tales of Graces f , Tales of Xillia