Those things are on the same plane of importance. Nah, i'm kidding: The Japanese Emperor is WAY less powerful.
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
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AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
The Japanese Emperor is WAY less powerful.
I'm sorry. But in all seriousness and joking aside, with another topic how's China ITTL? I imagine butterflies haven't hit them (or at least the Communist Party) particularly hard, but almost anything in twenty years can happen.
China is one mystery boxes you need a lof of things to unlock...still goverment wise is not that different as Tiamenn sadly was pre-pod and something hard to butterfly away. Still i think mostly the same but besides some details to be mentioned later...something was China unbanned console earlier(thanks dr wei yan) but still only rich people afford it till a little later. The most biggest butterfly is Brandon Lee being a current and future chinese movie megastar(taking a role alongside Stephen Chow OTL and ITTL)
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Things pre-PoD are definitely a little hard to butterfly away without making that the actual PoD itself, but I digress, this is a timeline with some of the greatest games (n)ever made, not one on the politics of the CPC.
With the unbanning of consoles earlier, there would probably be less of a market for the infamous bootleggers of various games across China. And depending on how early it is combined with TTL's various butterflies, this world may or may not get the NES "demake" of Final Fantasy VII.
(Say what you will about this, but aside from being quite difficult and missing a lot from the original, it is, for the most part, pretty faithful to the content it's based off of. For me, the earlier settings and renderings of this NES 'port' definitely an inspiration for some of my unpublished side-works set in gritty cyberpunk or even nowpunk dystopias.)
Wonder why NES? they already have done bootleg snes game including the infamous Hong Kong 97
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
IIRC, the NES or "Famiclones" thereof were more widely available or at least affordable in the rural regions of mainland China, according to this article on another bootleged game. Don't quote me on it but:
I will go out on a limb and say that the whole genre of shanzhai games in China can be compared to the general view of the Internet on fanfiction: Sturgeon's Law applies, but sometimes you'll find something that's actually pretty darn good if you know exactly what you're doing and you are careful in your approach. (Or you can stumble into it accidentally, that's fine.)
I should also mention that nobody in their right mind in China would create the absolute abomination that is Hong Kong '97. It was actually made in 1995 in Japan by a rather... eccentric individual who claimed to make this game intentionally awful, but I understand what you mean. HK97 still exists ITTL, confirmed here in case anyone forgot.
(EDIT: HK97 was an SNES game on a floppy disk or something like that, for clarification.)
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Jejeje..well that explain somethings...he sucess when takeshi failed, made an awful game
Spring 2010 (Part 2) - JRPGs Springing Up Everywhere
Worlds With Wings
Worlds With Wings is an anime-styled JRPG developed by Level-5 for the Nintendo Sapphire. It shares some thematic and artistic elements with OTL's Ni No Kuni, though without the Studio Ghibli involvement that game had. It takes place in a big, whismical world, and features turn-based battles that take place on a wide, circular plane that the player can move around freely on to dodge enemy attacks and reposition themselves to place attacks of their own. Characters can attack noAArmally or use special abilities such as magic or sword techniques, giving the game a semi-action style (players can't attack at will, but combat positioning matters and there are some timed attacks similar to Super Mario RPG). The game features a traditional overworld, towns, and dungeons, and a musical score by Joe Hisaishi, along with an English voice dub performed by British actors, another element it shares with OTL's Ni No Kuni. The plot revolves around a young boy named Gerry who discovers a beautiful angel-like girl named Seraphina. He must protect her from soldiers sent by the Dark Emperor to take her away and use her mysterious power. Along the way, he teams up with a wily merchant girl named Lora and a grizzled soldier named Haggar, and eventually, an anthropomorphic rat man named Scuttles and a defecting dark mage named Abner also join along. While the game does seem to imply that Gerry and Seraphina have some romantic feelings toward each other, because of their age the game portrays their feelings more as precocious puppy love than anything truly serious, while Lora and Abner have some romantic tension between them as well. Worlds With Wings features a wide variety of environments, ranging from peaceful grasslands to sea-like kingdoms, and features not just human creatures, but anthropomorphic animal characters, robots, slime people, and even sentient ghosts. It's as epic and diverse of a game as OTL's Ni No Kuni, and despite the lack of Ghibli involvement, the game's beautiful art style and excellent production values win it accolades nonetheless. The plot, while mostly light-hearted, also has plenty of poignant moments in which major NPCs are tragically killed, seemingly villainous characters are revealed to have good sides, and even the Dark Emperor has some justification behind his actions. Like in OTL's Ni No Kuni, the Dark Emperor isn't the true final boss, but instead, Seraphina's mother Angelina is the game's final protagonist, who, after the Dark Emperor is defeated, seeks to purge the world with an army of angels after believing it is too impure to be allowed to survive. After being defeated, Angelina realizes the error of her ways, but slips into a deep coma, having spent too much of her power to sustain her life force. Seraphina realizes that she must return to the heavens to guide her mother's angelic subjects, and bids Gerry a tearful farewell. Gerry becomes the youngest knight ever while Seraphina watches him from above, awaiting the day her mother awakens and that she might be able to return to the world below. Worlds With Wings is considered one of the best Sapphire RPGs to date. It's a major hit in Japan, and thanks to a promotional push by Nintendo of America, sells marginally well in the States also.
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Shin Megami Tensei: Goddess Orbital
A JRPG developed for the Sapphire by Atlus, Shin Megami Tensei is a spinoff of the popular RPG series, and takes place in space, on a space colony populated by a crew of scientists who are gifted in dealing with demons and goddesses. In the future, Earth is under constant threat by waves of powerful demons from space. While humans are able to make deals with some of these demons to aid them, most demons are hostile to humanity, and Earth's only defense is these space colonies populated by both scientists and powerful goddesses that humans must keep happy. These goddesses (there are a total of 71 in all, giving the game a sort of "collect 'em all" element to it) are able to move into colonies that humans are able to purge of demons, and once living there, they can be kept happy by granting them various amenities, making them more powerful (and also allowing the player to see some cheesecake scenes of the goddesses in various sexy outfits). The goddesses are generally more powerful than demons in battle (and entities such as Lakshmi who appear as demons in other SMT games appear as goddesses here and are one of a kind), but they're harder to keep happy, and the player must invest a good deal of Macca to keep them satisfied. Eventually, once enough colonies are purged and populated, the human scientists can travel to the Demon Moon, an exact copy of Earth's Moon from which these demons are spawning. The Demon Moon is surrounded with its own colonies, and these colonies are populated by evil goddesses (or at least goddesses aligned with the demons) that the scientists must defeat and/or recruit. These colony purges, which take the form of traditional dungeon crawls, are interspersed with tactical RPG battles somewhat like the battles in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, where humans must defeat an army of demons. Failure to win the battle might result in the loss of a colony, forcing it to be explored and purged all over again. Goddess Orbital is seen as one of the stranger SMT spinoff titles, but is popular amongst a small niche of players. North American sales are low, but just high enough to have justified porting the game over. Persona 4, which will see North American release on the Sapphire in early 2011, is expected to perform much better.
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RPG Showdown: The End Of The Beginning vs. Heroes Of Valor
Supernova RPG fans struck gold these past few months with not just one, but two epic RPGs released exclusively for Nintendo's handheld. The End Of The Beginning, released in April, saw plenty of love on this site for being one of the best handheld RPGs in recent memory. Published and developed by Game Arts, it's a game that will be familiar to fans of some of the other excellent titles by this company, particularly the Lunar series. It's a bit of a throwback, with a mix of 2-D and 3-D graphics, but its battle system, which features a traditional turn-based system combined with dynamic movement and field mechanics, is one of the more unique in its genre, and its anime-inspired visuals and characters make this game one to remember long after players are through with its 40-60 hour main story. The game is largely divided into two main segments: its first half, in which a band of intrepid adventurers attempt to prevent an encroaching apocalypse, plays mostly like a fairly standard RPG quest, including a journey around the world and a dastardly villain, a black-clad man named Shock Tal, whose deadly serious demeanor and mysterious powers stand in sharp contrast to the party. Unlike most RPG villains, Shock Tal works alone, refusing to employ henchmen and frequently killing other evil characters as often as the heroes do. Shock Tal helps to bring about the fabled apocalypse, leading to a second half in which the heroes must rebuild the world that was destroyed. Final Fantasy VI, which came out 15 years ago, had a similar plot about a world-destroying apocalypse, but The End Of The Beginning shows a world even more dramatically transformed, and introduces a brand new villain that himself is a contrast with Shock Tal, who resurfaces in the most surprising way possible. The game features outstanding music and a passable English dub, and is an essential Supernova RPG that's already won plenty of fans on both sides of the Pacific. Then we have Heroes Of Valor, another traditional style RPG with its own interesting twist on combat, with moves that level up literally every time they're used, but that weaken a specific part of a character's body, forcing them to rest or use expensive healing salves to recover more quickly. The game has a more modern art style than The End Of The Beginning, utilizing more realistically proportioned characters that wouldn't seem out of place in a modern Final Fantasy game. It also features a unique musical score with fast-paced rock/metal music that drives the action and gives the game a feel of a modern action movie. Heroes Of Valor has the technical cachet to stand up to The End Of The Beginning, but it's also somewhat shorter, with most players only needing about 15-25 hours to get through it (not counting the 5-10 hours of sidequests, which are more numerous than those in The End Of The Beginning). When Heroes Of Valor came out last month, we liked it, but didn't give it as high of a score as Game Arts' epic title, mostly criticizing the game for its length and its characters, who we felt weren't quite as compelling. Heroes of Valor also has a less talented voice cast, which might have contributed to how we felt about the game's characters. Its plot largely revolves around its heroes attempting to prevent the creation of a weapon system that draws energy from the mythical Phoenix, lest mankind's meddling awaken the rage of a fallen god. The plot does have some interesting twists, but can't quite match up to The End Of The Beginning, which almost felt like two games in one.
In the end, we felt that both were good games, but The End Of The Beginning is more likely to stand the test of time, thanks to its epic length and memorable characters. You can't go wrong with either, and we recommend both for serious handheld RPG aficionados.
-from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on July 10, 2010
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Valkyria Chronicles II
The sequel to 2007's original iTwin exclusive title, which was highly acclaimed and was a major hit in Japan (and a cult hit in North America), Valkyria Chronicles II also comes exclusively to the iTwin, and in addition to improved graphics and a better combat system, features a plot that's much more epic in scale and features dozens of memorable characters, both friend and foe. The Shadar Force mechanic from the original game, in which the player could recruit highly talented mercenaries (who could join up with the enemy if the player failed to recruit them) is gone, replaced by a more subtle system of alliances and mercenaries in which the player's actions are more influential in deciding who ultimately becomes an ally. The game's plot sees the hero character, named Festus, placed in charge of a squad of young recruits who serve as an advance squadron to monitor the activities of a neighboring militaristic kingdom known as Gadanza. Gadanza is ruled by the powerful Queen Myrenia, who is set up as the game's primary villain, in command of a massive army seeking to conquer neighboring territory in order to chase out or kill the inhabitants. Festus' squad is eventually given the task of assassinating Myrenia, but struggle just to get near her, while Gadanza continues its advances. Finally, they are able to isolate Myrenia, but as it turns out, she's just the puppet of Gadanza's true leader, General Loxar, who has been the one organizing the campaign of extermination. Festus and his squadmates have the opportunity to kill Myrenia, but hesitate when she expresses her desire to die, and eventually decide to take her with them instead. Loxar uses Myrenia's “abduction” as an excuse to ramp up his army's campaign, while Myrenia decides to atone for her country's deeds by becoming a soldier in the army standing against them. The player's actions during the second half of the game decide whether Myrenia will live or die. Either way, Loxar is defeated and imprisoned for his crimes, and his campaign is halted, but the war has left destruction across the continent, and it's unclear what form the peace will take in its aftermath.
Considered one of the best RPGs of the year, Valkyria Chronicles II is a major hit, exceeding the critical and commercial success of the original title and even becoming decently successful in North America after its release there in June 2010. It's excellent counterprogramming to the Sapphire's slate of RPG hits, and solidifies 2010 as a sort of “comeback” year for JRPGs, with the year's best games in that genre still to come.
Worlds With Wings is an anime-styled JRPG developed by Level-5 for the Nintendo Sapphire. It shares some thematic and artistic elements with OTL's Ni No Kuni, though without the Studio Ghibli involvement that game had. It takes place in a big, whismical world, and features turn-based battles that take place on a wide, circular plane that the player can move around freely on to dodge enemy attacks and reposition themselves to place attacks of their own. Characters can attack noAArmally or use special abilities such as magic or sword techniques, giving the game a semi-action style (players can't attack at will, but combat positioning matters and there are some timed attacks similar to Super Mario RPG). The game features a traditional overworld, towns, and dungeons, and a musical score by Joe Hisaishi, along with an English voice dub performed by British actors, another element it shares with OTL's Ni No Kuni. The plot revolves around a young boy named Gerry who discovers a beautiful angel-like girl named Seraphina. He must protect her from soldiers sent by the Dark Emperor to take her away and use her mysterious power. Along the way, he teams up with a wily merchant girl named Lora and a grizzled soldier named Haggar, and eventually, an anthropomorphic rat man named Scuttles and a defecting dark mage named Abner also join along. While the game does seem to imply that Gerry and Seraphina have some romantic feelings toward each other, because of their age the game portrays their feelings more as precocious puppy love than anything truly serious, while Lora and Abner have some romantic tension between them as well. Worlds With Wings features a wide variety of environments, ranging from peaceful grasslands to sea-like kingdoms, and features not just human creatures, but anthropomorphic animal characters, robots, slime people, and even sentient ghosts. It's as epic and diverse of a game as OTL's Ni No Kuni, and despite the lack of Ghibli involvement, the game's beautiful art style and excellent production values win it accolades nonetheless. The plot, while mostly light-hearted, also has plenty of poignant moments in which major NPCs are tragically killed, seemingly villainous characters are revealed to have good sides, and even the Dark Emperor has some justification behind his actions. Like in OTL's Ni No Kuni, the Dark Emperor isn't the true final boss, but instead, Seraphina's mother Angelina is the game's final protagonist, who, after the Dark Emperor is defeated, seeks to purge the world with an army of angels after believing it is too impure to be allowed to survive. After being defeated, Angelina realizes the error of her ways, but slips into a deep coma, having spent too much of her power to sustain her life force. Seraphina realizes that she must return to the heavens to guide her mother's angelic subjects, and bids Gerry a tearful farewell. Gerry becomes the youngest knight ever while Seraphina watches him from above, awaiting the day her mother awakens and that she might be able to return to the world below. Worlds With Wings is considered one of the best Sapphire RPGs to date. It's a major hit in Japan, and thanks to a promotional push by Nintendo of America, sells marginally well in the States also.
-
Shin Megami Tensei: Goddess Orbital
A JRPG developed for the Sapphire by Atlus, Shin Megami Tensei is a spinoff of the popular RPG series, and takes place in space, on a space colony populated by a crew of scientists who are gifted in dealing with demons and goddesses. In the future, Earth is under constant threat by waves of powerful demons from space. While humans are able to make deals with some of these demons to aid them, most demons are hostile to humanity, and Earth's only defense is these space colonies populated by both scientists and powerful goddesses that humans must keep happy. These goddesses (there are a total of 71 in all, giving the game a sort of "collect 'em all" element to it) are able to move into colonies that humans are able to purge of demons, and once living there, they can be kept happy by granting them various amenities, making them more powerful (and also allowing the player to see some cheesecake scenes of the goddesses in various sexy outfits). The goddesses are generally more powerful than demons in battle (and entities such as Lakshmi who appear as demons in other SMT games appear as goddesses here and are one of a kind), but they're harder to keep happy, and the player must invest a good deal of Macca to keep them satisfied. Eventually, once enough colonies are purged and populated, the human scientists can travel to the Demon Moon, an exact copy of Earth's Moon from which these demons are spawning. The Demon Moon is surrounded with its own colonies, and these colonies are populated by evil goddesses (or at least goddesses aligned with the demons) that the scientists must defeat and/or recruit. These colony purges, which take the form of traditional dungeon crawls, are interspersed with tactical RPG battles somewhat like the battles in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, where humans must defeat an army of demons. Failure to win the battle might result in the loss of a colony, forcing it to be explored and purged all over again. Goddess Orbital is seen as one of the stranger SMT spinoff titles, but is popular amongst a small niche of players. North American sales are low, but just high enough to have justified porting the game over. Persona 4, which will see North American release on the Sapphire in early 2011, is expected to perform much better.
-
RPG Showdown: The End Of The Beginning vs. Heroes Of Valor
Supernova RPG fans struck gold these past few months with not just one, but two epic RPGs released exclusively for Nintendo's handheld. The End Of The Beginning, released in April, saw plenty of love on this site for being one of the best handheld RPGs in recent memory. Published and developed by Game Arts, it's a game that will be familiar to fans of some of the other excellent titles by this company, particularly the Lunar series. It's a bit of a throwback, with a mix of 2-D and 3-D graphics, but its battle system, which features a traditional turn-based system combined with dynamic movement and field mechanics, is one of the more unique in its genre, and its anime-inspired visuals and characters make this game one to remember long after players are through with its 40-60 hour main story. The game is largely divided into two main segments: its first half, in which a band of intrepid adventurers attempt to prevent an encroaching apocalypse, plays mostly like a fairly standard RPG quest, including a journey around the world and a dastardly villain, a black-clad man named Shock Tal, whose deadly serious demeanor and mysterious powers stand in sharp contrast to the party. Unlike most RPG villains, Shock Tal works alone, refusing to employ henchmen and frequently killing other evil characters as often as the heroes do. Shock Tal helps to bring about the fabled apocalypse, leading to a second half in which the heroes must rebuild the world that was destroyed. Final Fantasy VI, which came out 15 years ago, had a similar plot about a world-destroying apocalypse, but The End Of The Beginning shows a world even more dramatically transformed, and introduces a brand new villain that himself is a contrast with Shock Tal, who resurfaces in the most surprising way possible. The game features outstanding music and a passable English dub, and is an essential Supernova RPG that's already won plenty of fans on both sides of the Pacific. Then we have Heroes Of Valor, another traditional style RPG with its own interesting twist on combat, with moves that level up literally every time they're used, but that weaken a specific part of a character's body, forcing them to rest or use expensive healing salves to recover more quickly. The game has a more modern art style than The End Of The Beginning, utilizing more realistically proportioned characters that wouldn't seem out of place in a modern Final Fantasy game. It also features a unique musical score with fast-paced rock/metal music that drives the action and gives the game a feel of a modern action movie. Heroes Of Valor has the technical cachet to stand up to The End Of The Beginning, but it's also somewhat shorter, with most players only needing about 15-25 hours to get through it (not counting the 5-10 hours of sidequests, which are more numerous than those in The End Of The Beginning). When Heroes Of Valor came out last month, we liked it, but didn't give it as high of a score as Game Arts' epic title, mostly criticizing the game for its length and its characters, who we felt weren't quite as compelling. Heroes of Valor also has a less talented voice cast, which might have contributed to how we felt about the game's characters. Its plot largely revolves around its heroes attempting to prevent the creation of a weapon system that draws energy from the mythical Phoenix, lest mankind's meddling awaken the rage of a fallen god. The plot does have some interesting twists, but can't quite match up to The End Of The Beginning, which almost felt like two games in one.
In the end, we felt that both were good games, but The End Of The Beginning is more likely to stand the test of time, thanks to its epic length and memorable characters. You can't go wrong with either, and we recommend both for serious handheld RPG aficionados.
-from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on July 10, 2010
-
Valkyria Chronicles II
The sequel to 2007's original iTwin exclusive title, which was highly acclaimed and was a major hit in Japan (and a cult hit in North America), Valkyria Chronicles II also comes exclusively to the iTwin, and in addition to improved graphics and a better combat system, features a plot that's much more epic in scale and features dozens of memorable characters, both friend and foe. The Shadar Force mechanic from the original game, in which the player could recruit highly talented mercenaries (who could join up with the enemy if the player failed to recruit them) is gone, replaced by a more subtle system of alliances and mercenaries in which the player's actions are more influential in deciding who ultimately becomes an ally. The game's plot sees the hero character, named Festus, placed in charge of a squad of young recruits who serve as an advance squadron to monitor the activities of a neighboring militaristic kingdom known as Gadanza. Gadanza is ruled by the powerful Queen Myrenia, who is set up as the game's primary villain, in command of a massive army seeking to conquer neighboring territory in order to chase out or kill the inhabitants. Festus' squad is eventually given the task of assassinating Myrenia, but struggle just to get near her, while Gadanza continues its advances. Finally, they are able to isolate Myrenia, but as it turns out, she's just the puppet of Gadanza's true leader, General Loxar, who has been the one organizing the campaign of extermination. Festus and his squadmates have the opportunity to kill Myrenia, but hesitate when she expresses her desire to die, and eventually decide to take her with them instead. Loxar uses Myrenia's “abduction” as an excuse to ramp up his army's campaign, while Myrenia decides to atone for her country's deeds by becoming a soldier in the army standing against them. The player's actions during the second half of the game decide whether Myrenia will live or die. Either way, Loxar is defeated and imprisoned for his crimes, and his campaign is halted, but the war has left destruction across the continent, and it's unclear what form the peace will take in its aftermath.
Considered one of the best RPGs of the year, Valkyria Chronicles II is a major hit, exceeding the critical and commercial success of the original title and even becoming decently successful in North America after its release there in June 2010. It's excellent counterprogramming to the Sapphire's slate of RPG hits, and solidifies 2010 as a sort of “comeback” year for JRPGs, with the year's best games in that genre still to come.
BONUS: Pop'n'Music TwinBeat PARTY Tracklist
pop'n music TwinBeat: PARTY♪ (iTwin; JP release late 2008; US release early 2010)
The 16th pop'n music console game, and the 2nd in the TwinBeat sub-series. The music and aesthetic is largely taken from the arcade pop'n music 16 PARTY♪.*1 The release of a new game might have been considered a financial burden, but the fact that pop'n is very eminently playable on a handheld controller as well as the arcade-style 9-button controller (or the "Shake'n Swing" mode retained from the previous game, but that's mostly for casuals).*4 It's a modest success in both Japan and to a somewhat lesser extent in the US, and the game's reception convinces Konami to continue releasing beatmania IIDX console games in Japan (a US release for that series was considered but scrapped, as it was seen as much more difficult and therefore less accessible, but this only drives up imports).*3
The effects of the more widespread console releases are also already being felt in the arcades, with pop'n music 18 TUNE STREET having begun location testing in August 2009 and released in Japanese arcades around the same time as this game's US release. The theme takes players to a bustling (somewhat American-influenced) city, with a previously planned theme of Sengoku-period Japan being dropped as "too hard to sell to foreign markets".*4 Of course, for localisation, all Japanese titled songs had their names romanised.
pop'n music TwinBeat: THE MOVIE, the next game in the series, was released for iTwin in Japan in the dying days of 2009.
Song List
[GENRE] Title / Artist
Licensed music (JP version): *5
*6 Climax Jump pop'n form / 鳴瀬シュウヘイ
DSCHINGHIS KHAN / (cover) *7
JIVE INTO THE NIGHT / CYDNEY *7 *8
Love so sweet / (cover)
Somebody Stole My Gal / (cover) *7
コンピューターおばあちゃん / V.C.O. feat. ALT
月光花 / (cover)
ケロッ！とマーチ / パーキッツ
粉雪 / (cover)
「名探偵コナン」メイン・テーマ / (cover) *7
パラソル (nu pop'n mix) / risette feat. TOMOSUKE x seiya-murai *7 *9
そばかす / (cover) *7
創聖のアクエリオン / (cover) *7
天体観測 / (cover)
月のワルツ / MAKI
KONAMI Original (default): *10
[AMBITION] existence / parsec
[BLAZIN HARD ROCK] Last of "First". / Des-ROW+Y *11
[CAFE PARTY] EURO PICCOLA / ELEKTEL
[CHEER-PARA] 3・2・1→ Smile! / パーキッツ
[CHIP POP] Realism / muRay *11
[COLLAPSE JAZZ] Ergosphere / TOMOSUKE
[CONTEMPORARY NATION 3] Echoes / 猫叉Master
[CYBER DIGIBEAT] UNLIMITED / NMR
[EMO] Sorrows / Asako Yoshihiro
[FALSE MARCHEN] みずうみの記憶 / Dormir
[GIRLS ALTERNATIVE] Pick a Path / 阿部靖広 feat. 森亜紀子 *11
[HINDI POP] マハラディーン / Q-Mex
[HYPER J-PARTY ROCK] MIRACLE FLYER!! / TËЯRA
[LINK] 空澄みの鵯と / あさき
[LIVELY BOOGIE] TwinStep / Mutsuhiko Izumi+ショッチョー *11
[LOVELY PARADISE TUNE] LOVE☆BA☆ZOOKA! / DJ YOSHITAKA feat.ななっち
[MINIMAL FUSION] 天地創造 (分子生物学的進化論) / Naya~n
[NEW RAVE POP] Run To You / Sota Fujimori feat.Runa
[PICO PUNK] マスカレード・ア・ゴーゴー / 航空電子
[POPCORN PARTY] microwave popcorn / Mr.T
[SHOEGAZER] chilblain / Glaring Radiokids
[SUISEI RAVE] BI-BUN-SEKI-BUn / 中央値算出チーム
[VISUAL 4] Desire / 色彩乃夢 feat. Hyuga Rei
Returning Songs (default):
[A.I. TECHNO] 0/1 ANGEL / V.C.O. feat. ALT
[CLASSIC] Chaos Age / Waldeus vön Dovjak
[ELECTRO] Invisible Lover / PICKLES
[EUROBEAT] Twin Bee -Generation X- / FinalOffset
[SKA] CASSANDRA / 亜熱帯マジ-SKA爆弾
[SUPER EURO] WE TWO ARE ONE / Lala Moore
[WORLD TOUR] Miracle 4 / good-cool
[ZEN-JAZZ] 明鏡止水 / TOMOSUKE feat.あさき
Perfect Party Event:
= Phase 1 =
[BEAT 4 DB] 無限軌道ゲームミックス / D-crew+1
[CELTRANCE] NORTH / WALL5
[HEAVIER METAL] I'm Alive / Mutsuhiko Izumi feat. AD/DA *11 *12
[J-TEKNO TRANCE REMIX] Quick Master -Naked Trance Mix- / SADA
[MAKINA] SigSig / kors k
[MERICAN ROCK] NA NA NA ロケンロー・キング / Togoシェフ vs. ミッキー・マサシ
[SMOOTH SOUL] Runnin' Away / 青野りえ
= Phase 2 =
[COOKIE FANTASY] Hearty Party / OJ ENSEMBLE
[COWGIRL COUNTRY] Country day / Anna Vieste *13
[HYPER JAPANESQUE 2] 華爛漫 -Flowers- / TËЯRA
[JIG REMIX] Tir na n'Og (Europa GT Remix) / inOak
[KEMARI] Kicky Kemari Kicker / ROUTE No.1 KIZOKU UNIT
[MAXIMUM] Mighty Guy / CHIHOMI
[MELO POP CORE] Love in White again / Sana *11
= Phase 3 =
[ELEGOTH REMIX] the keel (Nu-Style Gabba mix) / teranoid
[EPIC POETRY] Blind Justice ～Torn souls, Hurt Faiths～ / Zektbach
[ESOTERIC SLOWCORE] Ganymede / 玄武 *13
[HIP ROCK REMIX] 大見解の新見解 / CALF
[JAPANESQUE PROGRESSIVE] たまゆら / 佐々木博史
[SPANISH BALLAD] Dance to Blue / 伊藤賢治
[TRANCE CORE 2] Amaryllis / DJ YOSHITAKA *11
= Phase 4 =
[ASIAN RAVE] HAGOROMO / cheetah KAMATA
[CLASSICAL FUSION] The Moonlight / Ludwig c21st *11 *14
[HOUSE] 20, november / DJ nagureo
[LITTLE ROCK] Little Rock Overture / 惑星計画
[NEGAME ROCK] 瞭乱ヒットチャート / ギラギラメガネ団
[SPY REMIX] Spicy Piece(Ryu☆Remix) / Ryu☆
[WORLD TOUR 2] Magical 4 / good-cool
= Phase 5 =
[FUTURIST RAVE] STAR LIGHT =in MAXIMUM= / NM vs. DE-SIRE *11
[GLOSSOLALIA] 万物快楽理論 / あさき
[HYPER J-METAL] North Wind ~RЁVOLUTIФNAЯY~ / TЁЯRA *15
[PSG BREAKCORE] CHIP'N RIDDIM / L.E.D.-G
[PROGRESSIVE] V / TAKA
[VIKING] バイキングマン / ブタパンチ
[VIOLIN PROGRESSIVE] ポルターガイスト / 96 feat.藤本美樹
= Finale =
[TOY CONTEMPORARY] シュレーディンガーの猫 / Cait Sith
= Ending Song =
[AFTER A PARTY] Have a good dream. / private states
Notes
*1 This, of course, is the TTL equivalent of pop'n music portable 2.
*2 This means it doesn't suffer the diminishing sales and increasing expense of production that music games do OTL.
*3 OTL, IIDX[ console ports ended with 2009's EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST.
*4 OTL, TUNE STREET was pop'n 19, with Sengoku Retsuden (theme as I described) being pop'n 18. In fact, TUNE STREET was one of the considered themes for pop'n 18 OTL.
*5 Several licenses were cut and replaced for the US release. Not being particularly versed in the US pop scene of TTL, I'll have to leave what they were replaced with to your imagination.
*6 New licensed songs do not have genres starting with this version, as OTL. As in OTL's pop'n music portable 2, old licensed songs have their genres cut.
*7 This licensed song was retained for the US release.
*8 This song was licensed for another BEMANI game OTL, but never for pop'n.
*9 This song gets remixed, unlike OTL, where time constraints forced it to be put in as is.
*10 Songs in OTL's pop'n 16 that are victims of the butterflies: @n H@ppy Choice; EFFECT; UNBOUND MIND; 証; 純愛ホスト☆午前5時; 愛車はタワシで洗ってる!?; こなもん屋人情歌; プリンシプル. These songs mostly have equivalents in the TTL songlist.
*11 Original song to TTL.
*12 A surprise sequel to the song "I'm on Fire" from pop'n 2. Like the original, the EX chart contains an infamous pattern requiring you to hit the same button repeatedly.
*13 This crossover has not happened OTL.
*14 Rearrangement of "Moonlight Sonata". Ludwig c21st is a collaboration unit made up of 96, Yoshihiko Koezuka, Des-ROW and Naya~n.
*15 This remix is original to TTL.
The 16th pop'n music console game, and the 2nd in the TwinBeat sub-series. The music and aesthetic is largely taken from the arcade pop'n music 16 PARTY♪.*1 The release of a new game might have been considered a financial burden, but the fact that pop'n is very eminently playable on a handheld controller as well as the arcade-style 9-button controller (or the "Shake'n Swing" mode retained from the previous game, but that's mostly for casuals).*4 It's a modest success in both Japan and to a somewhat lesser extent in the US, and the game's reception convinces Konami to continue releasing beatmania IIDX console games in Japan (a US release for that series was considered but scrapped, as it was seen as much more difficult and therefore less accessible, but this only drives up imports).*3
The effects of the more widespread console releases are also already being felt in the arcades, with pop'n music 18 TUNE STREET having begun location testing in August 2009 and released in Japanese arcades around the same time as this game's US release. The theme takes players to a bustling (somewhat American-influenced) city, with a previously planned theme of Sengoku-period Japan being dropped as "too hard to sell to foreign markets".*4 Of course, for localisation, all Japanese titled songs had their names romanised.
pop'n music TwinBeat: THE MOVIE, the next game in the series, was released for iTwin in Japan in the dying days of 2009.
Song List
[GENRE] Title / Artist
Licensed music (JP version): *5
*6 Climax Jump pop'n form / 鳴瀬シュウヘイ
DSCHINGHIS KHAN / (cover) *7
JIVE INTO THE NIGHT / CYDNEY *7 *8
Love so sweet / (cover)
Somebody Stole My Gal / (cover) *7
コンピューターおばあちゃん / V.C.O. feat. ALT
月光花 / (cover)
ケロッ！とマーチ / パーキッツ
粉雪 / (cover)
「名探偵コナン」メイン・テーマ / (cover) *7
パラソル (nu pop'n mix) / risette feat. TOMOSUKE x seiya-murai *7 *9
そばかす / (cover) *7
創聖のアクエリオン / (cover) *7
天体観測 / (cover)
月のワルツ / MAKI
KONAMI Original (default): *10
[AMBITION] existence / parsec
[BLAZIN HARD ROCK] Last of "First". / Des-ROW+Y *11
[CAFE PARTY] EURO PICCOLA / ELEKTEL
[CHEER-PARA] 3・2・1→ Smile! / パーキッツ
[CHIP POP] Realism / muRay *11
[COLLAPSE JAZZ] Ergosphere / TOMOSUKE
[CONTEMPORARY NATION 3] Echoes / 猫叉Master
[CYBER DIGIBEAT] UNLIMITED / NMR
[EMO] Sorrows / Asako Yoshihiro
[FALSE MARCHEN] みずうみの記憶 / Dormir
[GIRLS ALTERNATIVE] Pick a Path / 阿部靖広 feat. 森亜紀子 *11
[HINDI POP] マハラディーン / Q-Mex
[HYPER J-PARTY ROCK] MIRACLE FLYER!! / TËЯRA
[LINK] 空澄みの鵯と / あさき
[LIVELY BOOGIE] TwinStep / Mutsuhiko Izumi+ショッチョー *11
[LOVELY PARADISE TUNE] LOVE☆BA☆ZOOKA! / DJ YOSHITAKA feat.ななっち
[MINIMAL FUSION] 天地創造 (分子生物学的進化論) / Naya~n
[NEW RAVE POP] Run To You / Sota Fujimori feat.Runa
[PICO PUNK] マスカレード・ア・ゴーゴー / 航空電子
[POPCORN PARTY] microwave popcorn / Mr.T
[SHOEGAZER] chilblain / Glaring Radiokids
[SUISEI RAVE] BI-BUN-SEKI-BUn / 中央値算出チーム
[VISUAL 4] Desire / 色彩乃夢 feat. Hyuga Rei
Returning Songs (default):
[A.I. TECHNO] 0/1 ANGEL / V.C.O. feat. ALT
[CLASSIC] Chaos Age / Waldeus vön Dovjak
[ELECTRO] Invisible Lover / PICKLES
[EUROBEAT] Twin Bee -Generation X- / FinalOffset
[SKA] CASSANDRA / 亜熱帯マジ-SKA爆弾
[SUPER EURO] WE TWO ARE ONE / Lala Moore
[WORLD TOUR] Miracle 4 / good-cool
[ZEN-JAZZ] 明鏡止水 / TOMOSUKE feat.あさき
Perfect Party Event:
= Phase 1 =
[BEAT 4 DB] 無限軌道ゲームミックス / D-crew+1
[CELTRANCE] NORTH / WALL5
[HEAVIER METAL] I'm Alive / Mutsuhiko Izumi feat. AD/DA *11 *12
[J-TEKNO TRANCE REMIX] Quick Master -Naked Trance Mix- / SADA
[MAKINA] SigSig / kors k
[MERICAN ROCK] NA NA NA ロケンロー・キング / Togoシェフ vs. ミッキー・マサシ
[SMOOTH SOUL] Runnin' Away / 青野りえ
= Phase 2 =
[COOKIE FANTASY] Hearty Party / OJ ENSEMBLE
[COWGIRL COUNTRY] Country day / Anna Vieste *13
[HYPER JAPANESQUE 2] 華爛漫 -Flowers- / TËЯRA
[JIG REMIX] Tir na n'Og (Europa GT Remix) / inOak
[KEMARI] Kicky Kemari Kicker / ROUTE No.1 KIZOKU UNIT
[MAXIMUM] Mighty Guy / CHIHOMI
[MELO POP CORE] Love in White again / Sana *11
= Phase 3 =
[ELEGOTH REMIX] the keel (Nu-Style Gabba mix) / teranoid
[EPIC POETRY] Blind Justice ～Torn souls, Hurt Faiths～ / Zektbach
[ESOTERIC SLOWCORE] Ganymede / 玄武 *13
[HIP ROCK REMIX] 大見解の新見解 / CALF
[JAPANESQUE PROGRESSIVE] たまゆら / 佐々木博史
[SPANISH BALLAD] Dance to Blue / 伊藤賢治
[TRANCE CORE 2] Amaryllis / DJ YOSHITAKA *11
= Phase 4 =
[ASIAN RAVE] HAGOROMO / cheetah KAMATA
[CLASSICAL FUSION] The Moonlight / Ludwig c21st *11 *14
[HOUSE] 20, november / DJ nagureo
[LITTLE ROCK] Little Rock Overture / 惑星計画
[NEGAME ROCK] 瞭乱ヒットチャート / ギラギラメガネ団
[SPY REMIX] Spicy Piece(Ryu☆Remix) / Ryu☆
[WORLD TOUR 2] Magical 4 / good-cool
= Phase 5 =
[FUTURIST RAVE] STAR LIGHT =in MAXIMUM= / NM vs. DE-SIRE *11
[GLOSSOLALIA] 万物快楽理論 / あさき
[HYPER J-METAL] North Wind ~RЁVOLUTIФNAЯY~ / TЁЯRA *15
[PSG BREAKCORE] CHIP'N RIDDIM / L.E.D.-G
[PROGRESSIVE] V / TAKA
[VIKING] バイキングマン / ブタパンチ
[VIOLIN PROGRESSIVE] ポルターガイスト / 96 feat.藤本美樹
= Finale =
[TOY CONTEMPORARY] シュレーディンガーの猫 / Cait Sith
= Ending Song =
[AFTER A PARTY] Have a good dream. / private states
Notes
*1 This, of course, is the TTL equivalent of pop'n music portable 2.
*2 This means it doesn't suffer the diminishing sales and increasing expense of production that music games do OTL.
*3 OTL, IIDX[ console ports ended with 2009's EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST.
*4 OTL, TUNE STREET was pop'n 19, with Sengoku Retsuden (theme as I described) being pop'n 18. In fact, TUNE STREET was one of the considered themes for pop'n 18 OTL.
*5 Several licenses were cut and replaced for the US release. Not being particularly versed in the US pop scene of TTL, I'll have to leave what they were replaced with to your imagination.
*6 New licensed songs do not have genres starting with this version, as OTL. As in OTL's pop'n music portable 2, old licensed songs have their genres cut.
*7 This licensed song was retained for the US release.
*8 This song was licensed for another BEMANI game OTL, but never for pop'n.
*9 This song gets remixed, unlike OTL, where time constraints forced it to be put in as is.
*10 Songs in OTL's pop'n 16 that are victims of the butterflies: @n H@ppy Choice; EFFECT; UNBOUND MIND; 証; 純愛ホスト☆午前5時; 愛車はタワシで洗ってる!?; こなもん屋人情歌; プリンシプル. These songs mostly have equivalents in the TTL songlist.
*11 Original song to TTL.
*12 A surprise sequel to the song "I'm on Fire" from pop'n 2. Like the original, the EX chart contains an infamous pattern requiring you to hit the same button repeatedly.
*13 This crossover has not happened OTL.
*14 Rearrangement of "Moonlight Sonata". Ludwig c21st is a collaboration unit made up of 96, Yoshihiko Koezuka, Des-ROW and Naya~n.
*15 This remix is original to TTL.
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Indeed it is, with Persona 4 about to be released in Japan and headed to North America in 2011. So far the series hasn't made much of a splash, but it has been there.
Bieber's talented enough that he'd probably be discovered SOMEHOW. With much of the attention of the artists who discovered him IOTL diverted by the Asian pop boom, Bieber stayed in Canada, but he's now dominating Canadian Idol, so we'll see what happens...
Skrillex still hasn't made it big yet, he just heard Nujabes was in Los Angeles and got in touch with him for a jam session. He's still only known mostly locally, but he is a rising star on the scene.
I dunno about that...
Right now, Bill Trinen is serving in the OTL Reggie role. He's as competent a businessman as Reggie, but without the charisma. At this point, Nintendo's content to let their games do the talking, but that could change in the near future. Trinen will probably still be the speaker at E3 2010, but after that, who knows?
I could've sworn I saw some recent threads go past 10,000 posts, but I can't say for sure.... if I need to make another thread I will. It'll probably just be a "part 2" to this one.
Mmm, so far not too much has changed with China. The different situation with things such as oil, Pakistan, and the lack of an Iraq War has affected things, but the overall political structure and strength of the party hasn't changed all that much. There might be a bit more gaming, but we'll touch on that in a future news update.
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Oh, and a quick announcement... once again, Massively Multiplayer is nominated for multiple Turtledove Awards!
This year we're up in the Best Pop Culture Timeline category...
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...best-pop-culture-timeline-voting-poll.462535/
And the Best Quote category...
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/2019-turtledoves-best-quote-voting-poll.462556/
So if you'd like to vote for us to win a Turtledove or two, we'd love your support!
Well, hopefully it does better in the US. Persona games are an interesting example of seeing a franchise noticeably get better by each installment. 1 & 2 were too much like SMT, Persona 3 was like the prototype that still felt a bit too much like SMT, Persona 4 really set the stage for how the Persona series could be, regarding the down-to-earth (relatively) nature and providing the most grounded setting while balancing the fantasy. Persona 5 streamlined it with better character writing, tying in the NPC interactions with in-game effects and so on.
Also good luck in Turtledove!
Well Persona was basically a spinoff of Shin Megami tensei IF itself, a more divergent evolution happened with the time(as Digital Devil Saga took the If niche)
He probably means Reggie's upcoming retirement from NOA. Truly a sad event.
May his body always be ready in our hearts.
That was wednesday...Reggie retirement is trully the end of a era..I'm talking today fiasco..guess who?
Well, Reggie Fils-Amie just announced his retirement, Tye Dillinger just got released from WWE thus starting another round of speculation on whether he's gonna jump to AEW in time for Double or Nothing, Robert Craft, the owner of the New England Patriots, is under suspicion for sex trafficking, and a new episode of What Happened When just got posted. Today's episode: WCW Chi-Town Rumble 1989: Flair-Steamboat I.
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