Gungnir [PSP]

[briareos_kerensky]

Revelead in the latest Famitsu number, Gungnir a new strategy game from Sting, set for release in Japan on May 19.

After the epicness of Yggdra Union and the chaos of Knights in the Nightmare, Gungnir is a more traditional strategy game, with an isometric view of a tiled battlefield. Surely Sting will throw in few twist to the system, hoping it won't become as chaotic as Knights in the Nightmare or a grindfest the genre is known for.

Shinichi Ito is designing the game and Satoko Kiyuduki is penning the character design; Ito has worked on all previous Dept. Heaven games (Riviera, Yggdra Union and Knights in the Nightmare) and Kiyuduki on Yggdra Union, so it's safe to assume this is the missing chapter in the Dept. Heaven quadrilogy.

Screens and info here.

[abigsmurf]

I played Yggdra Union and the battle system seemed incredibly crude. Only played the first chapter mind. Is it worth going back to it and giving it a chance? I enjoyed Riviera.

Anyhow, the artwork for that looks pretty great and the graphics look a lot better than I was expecting. I'll probably get it if it's ever localised.

No sign of a hot springs scene though.

[briareos_kerensky]

Is it worth going back to it and giving it a chance?

Yggdra Union suffers of the tutorial syndrome, the first maps have limited access to the whole system and do feel limited. However the system is fairly complex and it takes the right amount of time to explain it in detail. Worth much more than a simple chance, Riviera to me was an average game while Yggdra Union is by far the best game Sting have done up to date and one of the best strategy games on all consoles.

No sign of a hot springs scene though.

Getting it requires a lot of work...it's impossible to get it without a guide as figuring what needs to be done is incredibly mind-bogging. Both YU and KitN (to a lesser extent Riviera) suffer from an excessive number of items that have to be acquired through random trial and error.

[abigsmurf]

I meant in Gungnir, not YU

There was some ultimate trolling for one of the hot springs in Riviera. You had to do a direction combination in an obscenely short amount of time. 15 minutes of trying and I couldn't do it.

The other one was pure button bashing and was easy.

[briareos_kerensky]

Intro movie at Gametrailers.

[briareos_kerensky]

Demo dropping onto Japanese PSN on the 19th of May.

[briareos_kerensky]

Official trailer. Doesn't show too much of the actual game but it looks like there's a chain system similar to Yggdra Union.

[briareos_kerensky]

New batch of screenshots at Siliconera.

This is supposed to be the last episode in the Dept Heaven series (episode IX and fourth game developed...will sting succeed where Xenosaga has failed?), will it feature a good ending?

[briareos_kerensky]

Confirmed as being localized by Atlus in the US. Nice Christmas present from them.

[briareos_kerensky]

The US version of the game came out yesterday, so here's a trailer:



Gungnir also has an official publisher for Europe in Index Digital Media (as confirmed by German Rating Board), but there haven't been any announcements on bringing it over here.