Red hot publisher XSEED is on a roll. Delivering Wii owners with a variety of unique and lengthy Japanese game releases through this year and the next. They have made great strides in listening to the fan base and bringing out some of the best third party games previously stuck in Japan.

Little King Story

Already released to rave reviews in Europe, "Little King Story" might seem like a charming "Pikmin" knockoff at first glance, but there is a lot more to this title then meets the eye. You play as a boy king that has acquired a magic crown that lets him command people in a small village. The meet of the game involves the sim-like aspect of raising your village up and eventually conquering seven neighboring kingdoms. The game is filled to the brim with little touches. The graphics themselves offer a very warm, soft fairytale look, smartly hiding the systems limitations. Even when your kingdom has grown to over a hundred people, every one of them still has a name. The villargers also have an advanced A.I. that creates all sorts of unique situations. They will follow a daily routine, similar to "Harvest Moon" you can also enable them to get married and have kids. Amongst the villagers is an entire job class system. One area of note is that villagers are not tied down to one job forever, as once you build the appropriate building you can have them change jobs. When the time does come to take over another kingdom, you can't simply have everyone turned into a soldier. This is because even in battle, each job brings a unique skill that will be required in battle. As your wealth and land grows, you will see your quant little hall grow into a massive castle. It seems odd and is a bit disappointing that the title fails to make use of the IR on the Wii Remote. However, the game does control well and you won't have to worry about losing signal. "Little King Story" will be out at the end of July in North America.

Ju-on: The Grudge


XSEED quickly secured North American rights to "Ju-on" shortly after its announcement in Japan. The game is played with just the Wii remote, Similar in a way to "Endless Ocean" but in first person. The game is described as a Haunted House Simulator. You play as various members of a family that have become cursed like in the film. Each family member will have their own area to survive through, culminating in the actual house from the film. The game is not very long as is described as a casual horror title. The primary focus is to scare you right away, and not spend to much time solving puzzles or back tracking. One of the more intersting features is the two player option. While player one explores the house, a person holding a second remote can cause images and scary distractions to happen to player one. While limited, its sure to lead to a lot of good laughs at your friends expense.

Arc Rise Fantasia


Just released in Japan, "Arc Rise Fantasia" is the first console RPG by up and coming Japanese development house "Image epoch". To get the bad news out of the way, "Arc Rise Fantasia" wont reach North America until January or February of 2010. There is just to much text and voice work to localize. Also sure to disappoint some, the amount of voice work on the disc also limits the North American version to an English only track. During development of the game in Japan, a certain character had a costume change, as the game received a "Cero A" rating in Japan. XSEED is aiming for a "E 10+" rating with the ESRB, but if they can get away with her original, more revealing outfit then they will look into using it. The games soundtrack is composed by the legendary Yasunori Mitsuda, composer of "Chrono Trigger", "Chrono Cross", and "Xenogears". The game is traditional turn based style, but does adopt its own style. All moves cost AP points to use, the type of attack will depend on the cost required. Also, each move has a recovery amount. In other words, after every turn you gain back AP points as well. The party shares the AP points as well, similar to magic in "Skies of Arcadia". You will have a party of 6, but only 3 go into battle. XSEED noted that many points in the game your party will be split up, and covering areas seperately, which gives the player incentive to keep all 6 even leveled. Another neat feature of the battle system is that where a player is standing has an effect on who and where you can attack. Think "Grandia" and you will probably have a pretty good idea. "Arc Rise Fantasia" looks to offer the Wii a great looking and sounding traditional JRPG experience. Definitely something to look forward to in the Winter.

Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

It's true "Fragile" is coming to America and I couldn't be happier. The build at XSEED was still the Japanese version so for gameplay related content check out my import review. XSEED has only just finilazed the publishing contract, so not much is ready to be announced. They are hoping to add some extra unlockables to the end of the game. Also, the text in the game was done in the traditional vertical style of Japanese writing. It might get changed to horizontal in the American build. Also, the literal graffiti textures in the game were written in Japanese. XSEED is thinking of just putting a subtitle for the graffiti on the bottom of the screen instead of trying to have Tri-crescendo retexture the game. XSEED feels that since the game is specifically stated to take place in Japan, it would be more fitting to keep the graffiti sa it is. I completely agree. XSEED seems to be just as happy to finally get ahold of "Fragile" as I am and North America is all the more richer to be receiving this beautiful and unique experience.