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Irem Collection Volume 1

Some of the greatest and most requested action arcade games will be available to modern gaming platforms. With iconic action titles such as R-TYPE, Air Duel or Hammerin‘ Harry, irem shaped the games industry since the 1980‘s and was one of the leaders in the arcade era. With very few exceptions many of these titles have never been brought to modern console platforms or remained Japan-exclusive. Most of them even have never seen a release on physical media up until now. So ININ, Tozai Games and irem are finally joining forces to bring them to modern console gamers. Tozai Games and ININ will be responsible for Japanese as well as worldwide digital releases on Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox.

ARCADE MILESTONE FOR COLLECTORS

The outstanding quality of these games often even used as a benchmark for others in the genre make the upcoming releases an exciting experience for both (modern) retro enthusiasts and casual players looking for new -or so far unknown- gaming adventures around the globe. With the outstanding history of irem as a studio and their iconic games shaping an entire industry, the collection is particularly interesting to collectors of video games and players interested in video game history and culture. To process the rich story of irem games, Strictly Limited Games will publish several Limited and Collector’s Editions for the upcoming volumes of the irem Collection.

READY VOLUME 1

The first volume of the irem Collection is an updated homage to the Japanese-exclusive ‘Arcade Gears‘ series (released in the 1990s on Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation) and comprises three legendary shoot ‘em up games Image Fight, Image Fight II and X-Multiply.

Image Fight first appeared in 1988 as a vertical scrolling Shoot ‘em Up. It became one of the most successful table arcade games at that time in Japan and is still being regarded by many fans as one of the best shmups ever made. In addition to this arcade version, the upcoming volume will also include the PC Engine/TurboGrafx version as well as the NES version from 1990. The game is set in the year 20XX, the moon collapses after an explosion caused by aliens which proceed their offensive against mankind. To settle the situation, the player must go through an eponymous training process called “Image Fight”, before they are allowed to join the combat to fend off the invaders and earn everlasting glory.

Image Fight II was released in Japan in 1992, after the success of the first part. Unfortunately, the game never made it to the west (except for a Wii Virtual Console release, that is). It is set in the year 2051, the alien forces try once again to exterminate humanity. The player must take over the role of pilot Sho, the main character in the story, switching to a new generation of ships. The story is really outstanding in this game, the introduction of visual scenes reminiscent of animes especially intended for the PC-Engine SUPER CD-ROM version strengthen the story and add depth and a second dimension to this game, shaping Sho as a real hero in this unequaled approach to building a SHMUP storyline.

X-Multiply is a side-scrolling shooter originally released in 1989 for arcade (M72). The combination of science fiction and biological elements makes X-Multiply extraordinary even though it flew under the radar of many gamers: The player is controlling a miniaturized ship getting ‘injected’ in an evidently humanoid body and is using tentacles attached to his ship to fight alien parasites killing humans in detailed as sinister designed stages located inside that corpse.

LIMITED PHYSICAL EDITIONS OF irem GAMES

The hardly rivaled quality of these games will be cumulated in outstanding Limited and Collector‘s Editions exclusively published by Strictly Limited Games.

The Limited Editions of the irem Collection Vol.1 include Image Fight, Image Fight II and X-Multiply, an exclusive titlesheet design and an English manual and are limited to 4,000 individually numbered copies for Nintendo Switch and 1,500 each for PS4 and PS5, at a price of 34.99€ / $34.99.

The Collector‘s Edition will frame the games and complete them with their matchless Original Soundtracks as well as physical collectibles to deep dive even further:

The premium Collector Box will be realized in format 4:3 as an homage to the screen ratio at that time. The print quality and the magnetic closure collect all the items in a suitably exclusive way.
The Original Soundtracks will be realized on 3 CDs sitting in a Digifile. The format gives room to every game and its unparalleled music.
A Visual Compendium will include backgrounds on the games, their history, feature unique insights and lay out level and character designs, from pixel sprites to context art.
A Collector Coin in a separate box will make another nice link between the different volumes of the irem collection. The design is inspired by classic arcade coins and includes not just both logos and key elements from the games‘ visuals.
A package of Retro Print material will complete the collection. Next to reprints of flyers from back then which are now getting localized the first time into English, there will be mini-DIY reproductions in the style of the NES game box, a marquee sticker, a foil catching the vibe of arcade light panel designs and posters showing the key visual in impressive size.

They will be limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies for Nintendo Switch and 999 each for PS4 and PS5, at a price of 89.99€ / $89.99.

In time with Volume 1, Strictly Limited Games will offer bundles of both Limited and Collector‘s Editions including the upcoming volumes 1 to 5 of the irem Collection in an exclusively designed slip case. The Limited Edition bundle will be limited to 3,000 individually numbered copies for Nintendo Switch and 1,000 each for PS4 and PS5, at a price of 159.99€ / $159.99 and the Collector’s Edition bundle to 1,000 individually for Nintendo Switch and 500 each for PS4 and PS5, at a price of 429.99€ / $429.99.

The limited physical editions of irem Collection‘s Volume 1 will be available for Pre Order from 30th of April 2023 exclusively on StrictlyLimitedGames.com.

About Strictly Limited Games
Strictly Limited Games is a German publisher based near Stuttgart, specializing in releasing a curated selection of digital download-only games in exclusive collectible physical editions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. The company was founded in 2017 by Dennis Mendel, a former scholar for game studies and advisor at Fraunhofer Institute, and Benedict Braitsch. Both passionate collectors with a combined collection of over 7.000 digital and physical games for all console generations, their intention is to form an opposite pole to the current trend of digital-only releases. All collectors’ editions are available exclusively at Strictly Limited Games online store www.strictlylimitedgames.com.

About Tozai

From the classics of yesterday to the original IP of tomorrow, Tozai Games delivers lasting gaming experiences to passionate gamers around the globe. Based in Bellevue, Washington, and Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, Tozai Games is an experienced team of professionals dedicated to building successful licensing and publishing relationships around the world.

Keep up-to-date on Tozai Games’ upcoming projects on the Tozai Games Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Tozai, on Twitter @TozaiGames and at http://www.tozaigames.com/ and http://www.tozaigames.co.jp/.

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Character Trailer

The Netherworlds of Hinomoto are home to a myriad of diverse characters.
Meet the protagonists of Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless and see how a chance encounter will result in an intertwining of destinies!

Traverse the wastelands of Hinotomoto in this epic SRPG adventure bursting at the seams with with over 40 character classes, and loads of new features including Jumbification, Hell Mode, Item Reincarnation, new and improved auto-battle, and online ranked battles.

To hell, with honor!

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, coming to
Nintendo Switch™, PS4™, PS5™ and PC in fall 2023

Dungeon Drafters Review (PC)

Japanese developer Dangen Entertainment was nice enough to toss me a copy of Dungeon Drafters to check out,and I am both glad they did and appreciate it.

For those that are unfamiliar with this title you play the part of an adventurous hero that is about to explore one of several locations,one of the first being a sort of forest. The first boss will just absolutely destroy you.

This first area will introduce you to the card system. See in this world cards are magical, and they are essential to the world as a whole. You will make your way to this boss on a grid based system with your 3 action points per turn that you can either move or use cards with. Even in rooms without enemies you move across the grid.

The rooms never feel big and I love that

At first the game will feel a bit out of place with it’s rogue-like system and it’s Hub town,but it doesn’t take long before you will feel right at home here talking to everyone, finding new cards gathering info and just all around getting to know the world.

The graphics are beautiful,and really one of the highlights of the game for me. The colorful world is just vibrant and full of life,I never felt like I was just staring at something for the sake of its existence.

Battles themselves are pretty intuitive and simple to figure out, even with the games very well done explanation. Simply use your AP to move around the grid and attack enemies using your cards. Each enemy reacts differently,many of which you can see what types of attacks they have. One early enemy has a single hit point and he explodes when he dies causing damage to everyone around him. Smart players however will simply push him away preferably closer to enemy units.

The game is full of small details like this that make the game amazing. Fans of these types of games will love it,and I can happily give it an 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters PS4 Review

The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster on PlayStation 4 is a simple remaster. The graphics are greatly improved from the NES original but is far from the best looking remaster,even of this game.

It has several quality of life improvements however including the ability to turn off random encounters and to be able to turn off experience and gil gain and multiply them by up to 4. This makes the game as easy or as hard as you want, and if you put them to times 3 or 4 you can basically play the game normally without ever having to grind. However any grinding with those settings will turn the game into a breeze. Even the final boss becomes a joke as you can easily hit level 99.

This is why the game is a Trophy Hunters dream. There are a million guides for this game considering its age and you can beat the game and get through it’s story in probably 8 hours for the platinum with only maybe 1 or 2 enemies to complete the enemy list trophy posing any challenge.

The game play itself is a simple turn based RPG and there isn’t exactly a lot to say on this game. For about $12 it was a fun game to play. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Announcing Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten!

Embark on an adventure in the newest installment of the Utawarerumono series, Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten!

The quiet life of Oshtor, a young man living in the frontier province of Ennakamuy, is abruptly shattered when he encounters a mysterious young girl named Shunya. She informs Oshtor that his father, whom he had thought was deceased, is actually alive and currently in the land of Arva Shulan–a mystifying country that doesn’t appear on any maps. Guided by his morals, Oshtor joins Shunya and embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind his father’s strange circumstances.

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten is coming
to PS4™ and PS5™ in fall 2023!

Steel Defier (PS4/5 Review)

Steel Defier is another game tossed my way by the fine folks over at Ratalaika Games, and we all know how much I love those guys. They always toss me such fun little gems to check out. Last week they hooked me up with Ultra Pixel Survive and over the weekend I spent some time playing Steel Defier.

Steel Defier is a simple game, you are trapped in a malfunctioning space ship and as the sole survivor your mission is to escape. Each room is a slightly more difficult wave of sliding boxes, lasers and other assorted defenses to stop you as you collect 15 key cards to unlock the doors.

There is no real guesswork involved,it has a map that is easy to follow to the exit and the game isn’t overly difficult. Not to say the game is easy, I was able to complete it in less than an hour and get the platinum in not much longer and all through normal gameplay. Simply collect all the power ups and complete the rooms on the ship and escape. Hop on over to the survival mode and collect 50 key cards in one run and boom, easy platinum.

The game cost about $5 (US) and was honestly a good looking game with a nice a nice sound track, and I was able to get both the PS4 and PS5 platinum. I played a few runs even after I got the platinum to see how long I could last in survival mode (72 for those that are curious) Definitely pick this one up, especially if you are a trophy hunter. For what this game is definitely a 9/10 must buy for anyone looking for something to just pick up and play or that is looking for some easy platinum trophies.

Ultra Pixel Survive PS5 Review

Ultra Pixel Survive is another indie title Ratalaika games was nice enough to send me to check out, and I always appreciate that.

This title is a bit different from what they normally send my way, it is a simple side scrolling survival game. At least it seems that way at a glance.

The Bunny girl is one of many fun characters

The game features many characters,from simple swords men and lumberjacks to dragon knights (don’t get excited it’s a guy with a spear not a real dragon) and even a plague doctor. The premise is simple, you can chop down trees, but up rocks and various other things to create spike traps, walls or food to protect your house and survive as long as possible. These materials can also be used to build anvils and such so you can upgrade your equipment.

At the start you will notice you only get one character and you will need to unlock the rest with these red gems that are rare to come across during game play. You do have to buy these,but the coins you earn in game is the money you use to buy them, no real money is used to do this. Simply kill monsters, save your money and use that money to either unlock new characters or power up your favorite characters so they start each run stronger and stronger.

This woman offers advice and occasionally scolds you for hiding out

I have in essence explained the entire game to you,and truthfully it’s not exactly much harder to master. But damn if this game isn’t addictive. I tossed this title and told hey check it out and toss us a small review. Instead this game quickly sucked up around 30 hours of my life over the course of my daughters spring break and shows no sign of slowing down. I definitely recommend picking this one up when it launches April 14th. It is an easy 9/10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

new Announcment Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom ChroniclesRhapsody II Spotlight Trailer

Experience Rhapsody II & III for the first time in the West! Following the events of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, join young Kururu, the daughter of Cornet and Ferdinand, on her quest to find true love in Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess! Then, gear up for another dose of musical adventures as the songs and stories continue in Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom!

New Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters Coming April 19th

As many of you are aware back in 2021 Steam was given the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy 1 through 6. This was met with plenty of mixed emotions by many since veterans of the many other remasters felt the graphics weren’t good enough or they didn’t add enough new content (or any at all) or that they removed some things other remasters had.

Other people pointed out that these were Pixel Remasters of the original versions of the games and were simply graphical and musical improvements of those. I obviously have no opinion because I have not played them, but now console games, at least Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch players will soon have the opportunity to do so. Coming April 19th the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy 1-6 will be coming to console. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

New DREDGE PS5 Review

Every so often I get the chance to review an Indy title with an interesting concept that seems a bit off,but I need to know more. Black Salt Games and Team17 were awesome enough to toss me a copy of such a game,and that game is DREDGE.

The idea is simple, and it plays just as simple as it sounds. You are a fisherman, who crashes their boat at a small port town of Greater Marrow. You are quickly given a new boat and told you can pay it off as you help out the town.

You will start by meeting the townspeople, they are nice enough people that are willing to fix your ship and buy your fish along with selling you upgrades and sending you on some fetch quest. Oh and they do give you one small rule, don’t go out at night.

Rule 2: be careful what you try to investigate

The fishing is done with various mini games, timing hitting buttons with the green box, or hitting the circle when it lines up or in the case of dredging up new items making sure you don’t hit certain spots on a spinning sort of dial. It is all very well done.

I did get a little tired of simply fishing during the day and decided I needed to see what would happen if I went out at night, because like anyone else told not to do anything I have to try it out. The darker it got the higher the level of panic level went. The fish also became more rare and sold for more money.

This is when things started to get weird. Eyes began to stare at me from a distance. Red smoke would begin to follow me and attempt to overtake my boat as I would flee not wanting to risk losing my days haul. The longer you spend out at night,the worse these things become until the stop being things that watch you and become things that can end your game prematurely.

The game isn’t perfect,I wasn’t a fan of the inventory system. Imagine the Resident Evil cache case. I often found myself having to toss out fish or wood I needed for upgrades because I needed something else just a little bit more. It made the game more difficult than it needed to be in some aspects when other things were made quite simple and relaxing.

The graphics and sound could have been better I’m sure,but personally I loved them both. I don’t think I will ever forget the first time I heard a foghorn in the night or when an arm of what I can only describe as a kraken crushed my ship because I decided to try to rush back to port in the night.

I know I haven’t mentioned the story and that is intentional. First, you are either going to love it or hate it and second I feel like it should be seen blindly just like I did.

I do however feel comfortable saying this game is a great buy. 8/10 with ease,and at $25 this is one of the better Indy titles on the market.