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Atlus has gotten into the habit of releasing bonus stuff of some kind with all of its games. Legacy of Ys, The Dark Spire, and Super Robot Taisen Etc. all come with free soundtracks, and Hammerin’ Hero on the PSP includes irresistible figurines for preorders. Knights in the Nightmare is no exception.

The company just announced that, like its other recent DS offerings, all copies of Knights will come in an oversized box with a bundled CD soundtrack disc. In addition, preorders from “participating retailers” will include an art book!

In its press release about the bundle, Atlus blamed Charlie the Chimpanzee, the ape in charge of the Spoils program, for recent excesses. “In hindsight, hiring a non-human for this position may have been a mistake,” said Atlus PR manager Aram Jabbari.

New screenshots are available in our gallery, and we’ve got a second gallery after the break featuring preview images from the art book.

Continue reading Surprise! Atlus including free stuff with Knights in the Nightmare

Surprise! Atlus including free stuff with Knights in the Nightmare originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News

We’re impressed with Rising Star, who have been bringing a lot of niche games to Europe. The most recent one on the publisher’s list is Baroque, which will be hitting the continent on June 27th. We’re sure that Rising Star is hoping that the game will sell decently, but after seeing how it was received in Japan, the company might be a little worried. Of course, it can’t do any worse than that … can it?

In any case, we’re sure that at least some of you folks in Europe will be glad to get the chance to play Sting’s hardcore roguelike on your Wiis.

[Via press release]

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Filed under: What are you playing?

Many folks have had their eye on Baroque, taking note of its release this week. And if you aren’t one of those people, then this isn’t your week. There’s, uh, Mini Copter Adventure Flight, if you’re brave enough to try and tackle such a big adventure in such a small copter. But, other than that, nada.

So are you going to check out Atlus’ RPG? We suggest you wait for a certain gaming blog to weigh in first, as they’re in the process of reviewing it as you read this. Until then, might we suggest seeing if there is a Virtual Console game you want to download or checking out one of the many Wii games that recently received a price slash? If not, what are you playing?

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Atlus U.S.A. announced that it has obtained the North American publishing rights for Operation Darkness and Spectral Force 3 for the Xbox 360. Both games are scheduled for release in 2008.

In Success’s turn-based strategy game Operation Darkness you enter an alternate WWII-era world where history and fantasy collide! Leading an army of ruthless officers and unearthly creatures, Adolf Hitler marches through Europe, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. With his powers on the rise and his armies on the move, it falls on you and your team of elite soldiers to cut deep into the heart of the Third Reich and strike a fatal blow to Hitler’s ever-growing legion of evil!

Operation Darkness key features include:
* Lead the Offensive! Brave dozens of missions, confront supernatural creatures, and discover mystical powers as you progress through a sweeping campaign of drama and mystery!
* A Strategy-RPG with an Emphasis on Tactics! With a vast arsenal of historical weapons and a large team of specialized characters at their disposal, players will have to consider every variable as they plan their method of attack – using the environment to your advantage is imperative!
* High-definition visuals, fully-voiced dialogue, and in-game cutscenes deliver a true next-generation experience!

This is a trailer for Operation Darkness. The game was already released in Japan last month.

Atlus will also be publishing Idea Factory’s Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage, which is the first installment in the role-playing series to arrive in the West, and Atlus claims the game features more than 50 hours of gameplay spread out over more than 150 missions. Players assume the role of a mercenary commander and are able to recruit 40 unique characters to their cause.

About Spectral Force 3’s story:
Magic Era: 996. The ten kingdoms of the land, seizing the opportunity provided by Overlord Janus’s death, are attempting to unify the continent under their own banners. This is the beginning of the Great Neverland War. In order to bolster their defenses, kingdoms have begun hiring mercenary units. As new members of the Norius Mercenaries, you and your friend Diaz are eager to prove yourselves. When the squad’s commander Judo is mortally wounded in battle, the mantle of leadership is entrusted to you, and so the adventure begins…

This is a trailer for Spectral Force 3. The game was already released in Japan back in 2006.

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Filed under: News, Video

Yesterday marked the last Trauma Center Tuesday before New Blood's release next week, and that means Atlus had more surgical goodies for us. The most notable treat this week was the video of the game's introduction, which we posted above for your viewing pleasure. Aren't we just the best?

Normally we wouldn't go all ga-ga over a game's opening (okay, well sometimes we do), but this is one of the best we've seen. The art, the effects, the music, and everything about this introduction makes us weak in the knees. It was like watching the opening to a TV show ... er, if TV show openings were actually good and made us want to cut people open.

Atlus, you sly dogs, now you have us looking deeper into our wallets during this video game glut, hoping that we can stretch them enough to pick up your game next week. Does anyone else feel our pain?

On a side note, you should check out the ridiculous poem Atlus sent us that's posted after the break. Atlus, stick to making video games and not poetry, okay?
You're lucky we love you and Trauma Center, Atlus, or we'd feel really, really inclined to make fun of that poem right now. And that would make us feel really bad, since you probably had an intern stay up all night to write it.

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Filed under: News, Video

It's Tuesday, and Trauma Center: New Blood isn't out yet, so you know what that means: another Trauma Tuesday update at the game's homepage! Atlus has released a new trailer for the game, highlighting some of the new characters to be found, including ... some surgeon! Another surgeon! And a nurse! Maybe the addition of full voice acting will make us follow the plot more closely, but we doubt it. We just want to perform surgeries on people infected with bizarro alien viruses!

This week's update also brings news about preorder bonuses: if you preorder the game from Atlus's online store, you'll get one of the swanky Trauma Center syringe pens, which even people like us who can make ourselves pass out by thinking of syringes can enjoy. You'll also get (in the words of the press release) "a certificate to (virtually) operate on people!" Finally, a nice diploma to class up your wall.

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Filed under: News, Video

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Filed under: News

Official Atlus Trauma Center: New Blood updates, or "Trauma Tuesdays," now have a new home at the official Trauma Center homepage. In addition to the weekly updates, there's new desktop wallpaper, screenshots, information about gameplay modes (including explanations of co-op play) and even character bios for those of you who care about the characters beyond the fact that some of them are doctors and some of them are annoying nurses who know more about surgery than the doctors.

Currently inactive links promise video tutorials for each tool, and a trivia game of some kind. We hope it turns out to be about Trauma Center and not ... trauma centers.

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Accepted into the Great Detective Society, Mackenzie has become a fully-accredited sleuth! Trouble is, people still do not take her seriously. All that changes in the Touch Detective 2 1/2 adventure for DS, when a string of strange thefts pulls her into a puzzling plot, and she’ll have to use all of her skills and intuition to discover the motive behind the crimes and solve the mystery.

The game is already out in America and will be released by Atlus on November 23rd in Europe. The wide-eyed Mackenzie returns to solve another case. Take a look at this gameplay video:

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Filed under: Wii Warm Up

We love Trauma Center. It's just good, clean, surgical fun, and the forthcoming New Blood just looks awesome. It's just this box art we're not sure about. Maybe it's just us, but it seems so ... plain. So mundane. So not in-keeping with the other games. What do you think of it?

Look, don't get us wrong. We're likely to sink an unhealthy number of hours into it anyway, because that's what we do in the seven minutes of spare time we have per week. It's just that sometimes, we're forced to shake our heads over boxart decisions, and this is one of those times.

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