Thursday's News Bits

From Software has announced a fourth installment of their 'real-time RPG' King's Field. Developed for the PS2, King's Field 4 should be released sometime in March of 2001.

The next Pokémon game, Pokémon Crystal (formerly known as Pokémon X), has been given a release date. December 14th is the day hundreds of thousands of Game Boy cartridges will be sold. In other Pokémon-related news, the domestic versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver may be released sooner than expected date of October 16th. According to some sources, certain big stores are expecting to receive copies of the game as soon as today.

After a reasonably long wait, the N64 RPG Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is now available in stores. Ogre Battle 64 is the latest installment in Quest's strategy RPG series, taking place chronologically between Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre. It's one of the rare RPGs to hit the N64, so don't miss it!

A new Final Fantasy IX CD is going to get released on December 6th in Japan. Entitled FFIX Original Soundtrack Plus, the CD will gather tracks that weren't present on the Original Soundtrack, after "high demand from the fans". This includes music from the CG scenes but also a few extra tracks. The one CD soundtrack will go on release for 1,942 yen (about $18).

For the very few of you actually interested (:P), a new Sakura Taisen song show has been announced, following a special New Years event. Sakura Taisen Teikoku Kagekidan: New Century Countdown Hanagumi Live, as the name suggest, will take place on December 31st at 11pm at the Aoyama theater in Tokyo, and you can join the fun for 6000 yen. As for the new show, the Sakura Taisen Teikoku Kagekidan Spring Song Show will play from the 3rd to the 7th of January (..."Spring"?). It's unknown what play or book it will be based on this time, but you can buy your ticket from November 11th.

The following RPGs have been given release dates:

Dreamcast
Blue Submarine 6: Time and Tide - December 7th
Eldorado Gate chapter 2 - December 12th
Phantasy Star Online - December 21st

PlayStation 2
Dark Cloud - December 14th
Seven: Cavalrymen of Molmoth - December 21st
The Angel's Present: Story of Marl Kingdom - December 21st
Blood: The Last Vampire - December 21st

Game Boy
Dragon Quest III - December 8th

Lastly, here are the RPG sales of September 25th to October 1st, from GameJapan.

Rank (Prev. rank)	Syst.	Title	Developer	Release date	Sales of week (Total sales)
1 (N)	N64	Fushigi no Dungeon - Fuurai no Shiren 2 (Mystery Dungeon - Shiren the Wanderer 2)	ChunSoft	09/27/00	147,864 (147,864)
3 (N)	DC	Love Hina: A Sudden Engage Happening	Sega	09/28/00	35,301 (35,301)
5 (2)	PS	Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden	Enix	08/26/00	32,330 (3,793,801)
6 (N)	PS	Love Hina: Love is in the Words	Konami	09/28/00	29,820 (29,820)
7 (N)	GB	Bokujou Monogatari GB: Boy Meets Girl (Harvest Moon)	VIS	09/29/00	28,800 (28,800)
16 (1)	DC	Sakura Taisen 2: Kimi, shi ni tamou koto nakare (Sakura Wars 2: You Shall Not Die)	Red Company/Sega	09/21/00	13,573 (75,065)
19 (13)	N64	Mario Story	Nintendo	08/11/00	11,501 (598,859)
25 (5)	PS	Gensou Suikogaiden vol. 1: Swordsman of Harmonia	Konami	09/21/00	8,435 (48,377)
26 (N)	PS	Wings of Dream	Kid	09/28/00	7,557 (7,557)

Source(s):

Minaduki The GIA Gamespot Japan

Date Updated:
October 12th, 2000

Time Updated:
7:14 AM

Feena