In order to prevent its localization of Climax's Steal Princess from being ignored at retail, Atlus has decided to delay the ARPG from April 21 to May 19, after already delaying it from its original March date. This gives DS owners more chance to hear about the game prior to its release, and blogs like this another opportunity to report about the game, like we're doing right now. Yes, we played right into Atlus's hands. But if the company's going to hold Steal Princess hostage until we post about it, what choice do we have? We'd like to play it this year!

Along with the announcement, as is Atlus's custom, the company revealed a bonus included with every copy. The reverse of the box cover will feature the above artwork, selected by fan votes, as a mini-poster. We're on the fence about removing part of the game's box to decorate a tiny patch of wall space, but we like options (and we like Steal Princess artwork!)

The Marvelous/XSEED publishing superteam has announced a release date for Matrix Software's action RPG Avalon Code. Should you RPG fans finish Blue Dragon Plus and Legacy of Ys this week, you'll still have Avalon Code to look forward to on March 10.

Avalon Code tasks players with filling a magical "Book of Prophecy" with monsters, people, and everything else found throughout the world. Once profiled, the pages from this book can then be used to alter the game world and "influence a myriad of parameters from monster attributes to weapon strength." The book is also useful for identifying stats and elemental weaknesses about monsters you encounter.

Monster Hunter 3 is coming to North America and Europe, according to a statement from Capcom in its 3rd quarter financial results conference call Q&A (PDF link).

"One of our leading titles is "Monster Hunter 3 (tri-)," Capcom said, addressing a question about its region-specific plans. "If we can gain recognition of this product in the European and North American markets, our market strategy will see a noticeable change."

Of course, if Capcom is hoping to gain recognition in those markets, then it plans to release the game in those markets. We had always kind of assumed it was coming, just because it's achieved such massive buzz in Japan, and because Capcom is starting to show an interest in localizing Monster Hunter games again with Freedom Unite on PSP. But it's nice to have an official statement!

Capcom announced a release window for Monster Hunter 3 yesterday at the Capcom/Pasela "Hunter's Banquet G" event in Tokyo. The multiplayer action RPG, which drew epic lines at the Tokyo Game Show, will be released this summer. Famitsu promises a full report of the event upcoming, but this is likely to be the biggest news out of it!

We assumed that MH3 wouldn't be released until some time after April, because Capcom is including a demo with Monster Hunter G, which comes out April 23. We're surprised that Capcom isn't holding this back until the fall, since this is likely to be the company's (or anybody's) biggest release of the year.

[Via IGN]

New screenshots of the dual DS-Wii release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time show off a lot of rather interesting new things! First, and most obviously, hey, it's the King and Chime from My Life as a King! Actually, as far as we can tell, it's player characters in costumes resembling the stars of Square Enix's WiiWare strategy game. Second, it seems that the Wii version has received a bit more of a visual upgrade since we last saw it. It's smoother, anyway.

Echoes of Time features a (fairly standard) "New Game Plus" mode in which players can start again after finishing the game, to find more items, including many that are unavailable the first time through. We assume that's the only way to get these costumes, for instance. You can choose either to start again with your same character and continue building, or to start a new character, which increases the difficulty!

We've been looking at screens of the ported Monster Hunter G lately, so to return to Monster Hunter 3, which is already one of the best-looking Wii games, is dramatic. Capcom's use of all kinds of crazy lighting in the sequel is effective, giving the action RPG a "next gen" feel. Really, they could make the whole thing in the ugly old Monster Hunter G engine and still sell millions of copies.

The latest screens introduce a weird locale that appears to be somehow part desert and part swamp, full of nests of giant, monstrous insects, and home to this guy. This dragon, called "Boruboros" (probably "Volvolos" or something in English) comes out of a big mud pit and attacks with his giant, hard head.

The ESRB totally ruined the surprise of Atlus's North American release of Steal Princess, but the company has cleverly announced several more games since then in an effort to make us temporarily forget about Steal Princess. It worked -- we were surprised again yesterday when they sent the press release out!

Steal Princess is a "puzzle platformer" developed by Climax, about a thief who is captured in an ancient palace and is forced to rescue a prince or be tried as a criminal. The palace is a labyrinth of more than 150 levels full of traps, platforming challenges, and, of course, demons. The game also features a level editor with online sharing!

Steal Princess is set for release on March 24, for $34.99. We won't even be done with all our Atlus games from February by then!

[Update: for those of you lusting after the game or (more likely) the controller, Capcom's Christian Svensson has announced that there will be no US release for either. "Sorry. :(" Thanks to Samfish for pointing this out!]

For such a lazily-developed game, Capcom is putting significant resources into the Wii port of Monster Hunter G. In order to get around the Classic Controller requirement (and promote sales, of course), they've announced a Monster Hunter G Starter Pack bundle featuring this awesome blue, dragon-adorned (but not Blue Dragon-adorned) Classic Controller. This is, as far as we know, just the second special-edition (Nintendo brand) Wii controller -- the first was also a Classic Controller, specifically the Club Nintendo Super Famicom Classic Controller. This is also the first official Wii controller to be released in a color other than white. In other words: a big deal. And it's so cool-looking!

The Starter Pack will retail for 5,240 yen ($59) when it is released in Japan on April 23. Both this release and the game-only release of Monster Hunter G (3,990 yen, or $45) will include a demo of Monster Hunter 3. And just like that, Monster Hunter G has become a guaranteed bestseller.

Okay, so the remake of Monster Hunter G isn't entirely a quick cash grab by Capcom as they work on Monster Hunter 3. Well, actually, it is, but it's a quick cash grab with online play, which seems a lot better. Monster Hunter G's online mode revolves around various quests given to players from their guild hall. They're about what we'd expect: kill this monster, get this item, etc. Groups of up to four can participate in the same quests, using equipment (traps, bombs) found within the quest to complete their objectives.

The game's quest-mode environments (or the real game) look much, much better than the in-town stuff we've seen, but MHG still looks exactly like the old Monster Hunter it is!

The latest update about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, Square Enix's DS/Wii action RPG, shows off some of the extra stuff that can be done in-game with pals. You can get new quests from Stiltzkin the Moogle, who has previously appeared in Final Fantasy IX and both previous Crystal Chronicles games, as well as from people around town.

One of the quests shown: wrangling wayward cattle in a dungeon! Your team must use red flags to direct wandering cows to their destination without allowing any of them to get killed. Now that's adventurin'!

When not corraling, you'll also be able to play a few multiplayer minigames, including boss rush and some kind of game about getting a floating beach ball into a whirlpool.

No, this is not a hyperviolent sequel to Endless Ocean (though that might be kind of awesome, until PETA got wind of it and freaked out), but rather a little underwater adventuring -- or hunting, if you will -- in Monster Hunter 3 (tri-).

In these latest screens, our dear Hunter is faced with an underwater beast of epic proportions that might just be a very large, distant, and pissed-off cousin to the electric eel. There's lightning, anyway. And teeth. Big, sharp, point teeth.

Sega has finally announced Phantasy Star Zero for North American and European release (press release at the "source" link, new screens in the gallery), putting to an end our (mild) fears that the multiplayer action RPG would never leave Japan. But the press release specifies "Winter 2009" -- with a promise of more info in "the coming months" that suggests that they don't mean the winter 2009 we're currently in the middle of, but the next one. As in, almost a whole year away.

Our immediate reaction was "nooooooo," but then we realized that there are just way too many DS games coming out in 2009 -- especially in the first half -- and maybe it's a good thing that we don't have to try to crowd Phantasy Star Zero in with all that stuff. It'll probably get crowded with a lot of future stuff, but we don't know that right now.

What's your take? Too far away or helpful for your monthly time/money budgeting? Does PS0 say "holiday lineup" to you?

Gallery: Phantasy Star Zero

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If this rough shot of the most recent copy of Nintendo Power is to be believed, Phantasy Star Zero will hit North American shelves this fall. A reader sent the photo in to our friends at GoNintendo, and posters at NeoGAF also report the Nintendo Power cover. Word of mouth on the game has been incredibly positive, so we would be excited even if we weren't talking about Phantasy Star Zero. But we are, so that means we're over the moon. Are you as excited as we are? If not, maybe you should check out a trailer.

Oh, and we should also mention that Sega just sent us a press release confirming the game will release in Europe.


Read -- GoNintendo
Read -- NeoGAF

Well, we've seen Infinite Interactive take on the puzzle game with RPG elements, and that went okay. Time to branch out into new territory, right? That's just what they're doing with Deathbringer -- an ARPG ... uh, with puzzle elements.

Listen, when the hybrid works, it works. And most RPGs have some puzzle elements somewhere, so despite the hilarity of Infinite Interactive doing the opposite of what they've done before, it's not too far off the beaten path. Of course, they could probably make a game about scooping doggy poop off the sidewalk and we'd play it. That Puzzle Quest was some fun. Hit the break to see what they have to say about their forthcoming Deathbringer, which will be released for nearly every console known to man. Think companions and co-op. Maybe they should have named it Awesomebringer..

[Via NeoGAF]

Our first devent look at Monster Hunter G's Wii visuals comes from Famitsu's introduction to Kokoto Village, the main town location in the game. As for those visuals, they fall squarely into the "kinda rough" range, as we'd expect from an unaltered PS2 game.

The town features a farm, which provides extra items to players willing to spend the time on upgrades and minigames. It also features various shops including weapon and armor shops. Many of the Famitsu shots show possible armor configurations, against a backdrop of the house containing the item box you can use to store those weapons and armor.