Atlus has announced that Baroque, the new dungeon-crawling action RPG for the PS2 and Wii is now available in stores across North America.Highly popular with Japanese gamers, in Baroque your character awakens to find the world in ruin, and his heart beset with unexplained guilt. A cataclysm has destroyed the cities and empires of men and disfigured the spirit of humanity. In this nightmare, your character must descend a mysterious tower in search of absolution while battling foes through dungeons, scour for new items to aid him in his travelsy travels, and unlock the secrets of a devastated land.

You will find death in the depths, yet learn that death is not the end of the story; in the world of Baroque, it is only the beginning.

Key Features

• Many ever-changing levels, each teeming with perverse monsters and tormented souls, the world of Baroque is a frightening and unforgiving realm.
• Take part in a unique story progression system in which the end of your life only serves to drive the adventure forward. Each time your character dies, more secrets about the forsaken world are revealed.
• The player has full control over how they shape their character and how they play the game. Find and equip a vast assortment of weapons and items, some with a variety of uses. Acquire powerful stat-boosting parasites and combine them to multiply their potency. Only the resourceful will survive.

For more information on Baroque check out our previous posts.

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Marvelous Entertainment and Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer 7, No More Heroes) have confirmed that the Nintendo DS port of the PS2 adventure, Flower, Sun, and Rain, will be making its way to North America after all. Featuring extras and add-ons exclusively for the DS, Japanese gamers should expect the game to hit their shores on March 6th, while the US version will follow “shortly”. We have not heard any word regarding a European release date either, but we will keep you updated as more information comes our way.

Storyline: Sumio Mondo is an assassin who arrives on the resort island of Lospas and takes a room at the F.S.R. hotel after being given the assignment to detect and defuse a time bomb planted on a plane which is soon to leave the island’s only airport. On the way to the airport however, Sumio encounters other hotel guests and island residents requesting his help with various problems, including searching for missing items. While Sumio is distracted by them, the airplane with the bomb on board takes off and explodes, crashing into the island. The next morning, however, Sumio awakens in his hotel room and discovers that something strange has happened - not only has not even headed to the airport yet, the airplane explosion and crash have not happened either. Sumio attempts to head to the airport to prevent the explosion and once again people who need his help appear, distracting him long enough to lead to a repeat of the previous days explosion, and Sumio once again awakening in his hotel room with the previous events having yet to unfold. As the same fateful day repeats itself over and over, Sumio finds his hotel room becomes more and more warped and twisted, reflecting the fact that he is slowly losing his mind from the repetition.

Players will control Sumio Mondo, to seek out other people’s items while using a suitcase-shaped instrument named “Katherine” to solve the mysteries about said items. Sumio can crack any secret code by using “Katherine” with a “Dial” for inputting numbers and to get the information needed, players will get hints from what people say, combined with a tourbook of Lospas Island. The DS version will feature over 50 missions in 18 scenarios, and the touch screen will be imperative when solving many of the puzzles in the game.

For more information on Ground Hog Day Flower, Sun, and Rain, check back with us often and visit two sites related to the game here and here. Hopefully, you will get the pages translated before you decide to try and decipher them yourselves.

As if playing a video game full of wubbly jubblies isn’t enough, Japanese fans of Dead or Alive Extreme 2 can now pick up a touchy-feely coffee mug as a prize at their local arcade. The main draw, however, is not the depictions of the DOA ladies themselves, but the fact that you can actually cop a feel with the added bonus of porcelain 3-D lady bumps. The problem with these cups, is not the obvious creepiness of them, but that they are not paying homage to Team Ninja’s vision of larger than life breasts that are prevalent throughout the DOA games. Then again, think how inappropriate it would look for you to be drinking coffee at your office with three inch boobs sticking out from the sides of your mug.

What about coffee mugs for the lady arcade goers as well? Where are the 3-D mugs of Altair and Geralt wearing a speedo showing off all of their masculine glory? Actually, the thought of that made me throw up a little on my keyboard. I will stick with my Garfield coffee cup thank you very much.

Thanks: Hobby Blog