The Investigation Team continues its trek through heaven.

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Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.

Guess what guys, it’s the slow season. Not much is going on…at all…

Let’s celebrate the start of this week with some Phoenix Wright!

The folks over at OCRemix have put out some mixed versions of the songs from the soundtrack.

Man do I love this series. OBJECTION! Classic.

No Yakuza?

In some seriously sad news, it seems that Yakuza 3 won’t be making its way to Western shores. SEGA smartly cites the 40,000 units of Yakuza 2 as a valid reason not to bring the sequel stateside. Can’t blame them, I guess.

EDIT: The interview where this was stated has been amended with claims that SEGA America’s statements were not an “official SEGA statements”

The Examiner further said

SEGA still hasn’t made any mention of an upcoming release or revealed plans to release it stateside.

Minor News

Fat Princess finally came out this week. I’ve yet to try it out.

Dragon Quest IX is up to 3.2 million units sold in Japan. Keep on rolling, you can hit 5 if you really try Squeenix!

Declining Rock Band sales have accounted for an 8% drop in revenue for Viacom. If you recall from last week, Rock Band and Guitar Hero sales are down almost 50%, resulting in this huge decrease in revenue for Viacom.

If you’re the type of person who cares (I’m not), Uncharted 2 will not have a mandatory install.

World of Warcraft sales are reported to be somewhere around 8.6 million. Just in the US! That’s insane.

L4D2

Obligatory L4D2 mention of the week!

Common Uncommon (or are they calling them Uncommon Common?) will feature bulletproof horde or zombies who were cops in riot gear before they were infected. Since they will be bulletproof (thanks to their riot gear), you’ll have to melee them down and then shoot their exposed backside.

On a totally different note, Rochelle can be seen in artwork wearing a Depeche Mode t-shirt. Why? The band asked to be in the game (and probably shelled out some cash). Not a bad idea. The whole story is that Valve was soliciting a few labels and bands and DM came through in a big way, allowing the use of their music, likenesses, and merchandise. If we get to shoot Depeche Mode zombies, I’m going to call this one of the greatest games of 2009.

Who am I kidding? This will probably be my game of 2009 like L4D was my game of 2008.

20 Years of Mother

The Mother series is 20!

It’s a terrible shame that we haven’t seen more than Mother 2 hit US shores. Perhaps I’ll pick up a Mother 3 cart while I’m abroad…

Comic-Con Cosplay!

Who’s that Pokémon?

It’s PIKACHU!

Speaking of Pokémon, Platinum players will be able to get the Member Card through Wi-Fi gift from 3 August to 13 September. Be sure to get it or you won’t be able to catch Darkrai!

And that’s all he wrote for this week folks! See you next week!

Looks like Charlie and the gang are entering Heaven to save Nanako.

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If you couldn’t already guess, a midwife/doctor type confirmed that Debora was not only pregnant, but quite far along. It brings up the tricky point of time in these video games. What seemed like hours traveling around the world map in my control must have been nine months, because Deb is apparently ready to pop. It makes sense, considering the scale of the map and the modes of transportation, but without an outright statement of “Nine Months Later” (too obvious), I find myself pulled out of the narrative a bit. Speaking of getting pulled out of his narrative, Dan is summoned down to see King Albert, prematurely ending the joyous discovery.

Expecting a fight for the throne, I went downstairs to go talk to Uncle Albert. Horii goes ahead and defies some expectation by having King Albert all but pay me as he tries to abdicate the throne. He goes ahead and plays right into narrative tropes by having the chancellor, the real head of this mostly puppet government, scheme to delay my ascension by requiring me to complete a meaningless task required of royals before obtaining the crown. My suspicions were confirmed when Dan learned that the guards were under strict orders to reveal to no one that he was the son of Pankraz.

The task was fairly mindless and easy and, predictably, Dan was jumped by some hired hitmen who were easily dispatched. Expecting more trouble, both Dan and I are surprised when our return was not met with more assassins, but there was no time to get into royal business upon Dan’s return, because Debora started to go into labor.

In a delightful callback, Yuji Horii calls back to the very first scene of Dragon Quest V by forcing Dan to pace around the throne room awaiting news of the children. Every detail was identical, down to the ticking clock in the background, only this time it was less of a cutscene and more of an interactive experience. Your mileage may vary, but as a helpless bystander forced to walk around in circles awaiting an event that I, the player, had no control over, I admit to feeling anxious and powerless as I hoped for the best, but feared for the worst, since the Chancellor was still lurking around. At last, tension broke as the good news was rushed downstairs. Dan was a father…twice over. Twins!

The callback continued as Dan rushed up to the royal bedroom and was greeted by the sight of his wife and children. The conversation naturally led to names for the children and, once again, I was able to pick names. Having missed the chance to name my pet sabrecat after my buddy Min, I briefly considered naming either of the kids after him, since Min is an acceptable name for both men and women, but since I was in Florida with my younger brother at the time, I went with David for Dan’s son and Rebeca for the daughter. Just like in the cartoons, Dave resembled his father pretty strongly while Rebeca looked a lot like Deb. Not that this is all that hard, since most Toriyama art looks very similar, but it works in this situation. The boxart seems to imply that the twins would be blonde instead of having black hair if Bianca ended up wedded to Dan, so there’s one change that I spotted from the marriage decision.

With the childbearing out of the way, nothing could stand in the way of Dan’s coronation, so the ceremony proceeded and the main character’s robes transitioned from purple to red for the occasion. I noticed at this point that it was rather telling of Dan to be wearing purple, a color associated with royalty, the whole game. It’s this kind of attention to detail that I’m sure was not an accident based on what I know about Japanese game design.

What’s a good coronation ceremony without a huge party? Surely no harm could come with every man, woman, and child incapacitated from alcohol and fatigue overnight in the stronghold of a recently wronged Chancellor. I’m sure that part X will just be the blissful end of this tale…

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As Vinny and Jeff get closer to the end of this mystery, we’re all wondering if they’ll manage to get the “true” ending, the “good” ending, or the “bad” ending. From this point on, it’s all on what they decide.

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It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up.

This year’s hall of fame class included Joe Gordon, Ricky Henderson, and Jim Rice, a fairly solid class inducted without much controversy. It seems like the controversy will only increase as the years continue to go by.

Already the HoF voters seem to be softbanning Mark McGwire from the Hall by simply not voting for him on the basis of the steroid allegations made against him and the Hall of Famers are certainly starting to speak up and become vocal about this point. Both Hank Aaron and Jim Rice were quoted last weekend as condemning the steroid era and the numbers and players they represent. While some don’t mind them entering the hall, it’s universally accepted that those numbers need to have some sort of caveat to indicate the shady methods from which they were obtained.

Another big moment with the celebration this year was a more vocal call for Pete Rose to be pardoned from his baseball-wide ban. Banned twenty years ago for gambling on baseball while a manager for the Cincinnati Reds, many, including Aaron, are calling for forgiveness, especially when compared to the problems facing the upcoming steroids class.

Gambling on baseball is a pretty serious offense, but, at least to me and Hank Aaron, it seems to pale in comparison to drugging oneself to improve performance. One can only hope that Bud Selig will take this into consideration, but considering the changed he’s already effected on baseball (interleague games, the wild card, making the all-star game “count”, instant replay on home runs), it seems that he’d much rather end his term (the day can’t come soon enough) without making such a controversial decision.

Pete Rose made a mistake, but I think it pales in comparison with these other perjurers and cheaters who remain eligible. Think about it Mr. Selig.

The Persona 4 hijinks continue at the hot springs bathhouse in Yukiko’s inn.

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It doesn’t take a genius to guess that Debora’s probably pregnant. I may have mentioned this before, but at any point in Dragon Quest V, the player can choose to have the main character chat with the members of his party. Dan spoke with Debora and she all but confirmed her impending motherhood with a “You know…I might be…never mind, let’s go.”

Further travels to Gotha are marked with few noteworthy events. Now that Dan is rather close to Gotha, he hears from the populace about the king Panrkaz whose travels took him away from his kingdom for near twelve years now. No one seems to know he’s dead. Dan’s mother even makes an appearance in some of the dialogue as some townspeople remark on Dan’s resemblance to Madalena. The recently married Dan is also offered marriage advice by some of the NPCs he speaks with, just to hammer home that family theme.

Dan finally arrives in Gotha only to be turned away at the gates. It’s not the most glamorous of homecomings and it makes me suspicious of treachery in the throne room. Lucky for Dan, there was a house adjacent to the castle. Even luckier, the house belonged to the ever faithful Sancho. I’ve mentioned Sancho a few times in passing throughout my narrative summary, but now it’s time to devote a little more time to this loyal friend. I was prepared to wonder why the localization team bothered to name the jolly companion Sancho, but it turns out that his actual Japanese name does phonetically translate to Sancho. It’s clear that Yuji Horii is trying to made a reference to Don Quixote’s loyal squire Sancho Panza. Thanks to this clear reference to Spanish literature, the localization team decided to give all of Sancho’s dialogue a written Spanish accent. I know they mean no harm with it, so I’m not really offended, especially as I consider that various regions and characters throughout Dragon Quest V’s world have their own respective accents to them. It’s just an odd localization quirk that some hate and I don’t particularly mind. I’m sure that some of the characters in the Dragon Quest universe do have distinct ways of speaking and this seems like an attempt to translate that intent.

Sancho might not be blood family to Dan, but his utter devotion to the royal family and elder status allows him to take on a fatherly role to the hero. If Yuji Horii did intend to create an extended family metaphor with his party and wagon systems, Sancho fits into it perfectly.

It turns out that meeting back up with Sancho was just the key to getting into the castle that we needed. After getting into the castle, Dan learns that his uncle Albert is running the show. Given the rather unfriendly greeting that he received the night before, I’m not certain of what’s going to happen here. Will Albert betray his blood to retain the throne? Is Dan going to have a face-off against his last remaining family? The tension (from my end) behind the meeting is interrupted by yet another collapse by Debora. It’s becoming pretty clear that something may be up with her and it could be a very bad time for it, depending on what Dan’s uncle does.

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It looks like Jeff and Vinny finally made it to the crazy beauty pageant in Persona 4. Will Charlie win?

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Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter.

Yeah, it’s old, but it’s pretty neat.