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Shop Watch July 2010

By Russ | July 3, 2010 at 6:39 pm

Behold July:  Persona 3 Portable, Dragon Quest IX, Arc Rise Fantasia and Harvest Moon.  July is all about quality and little about quantity.

Sometimes I feel bad for my DSi.  It sees almost no love anymore.  I still have a copy of Kingdom Hearts Math I should beat in the system before Birth by Sleep arrives in September, but I feel too lazy to do it.  Have you been feeling the same way about your DS system?  July may change that type of attitude.  Dragon Quest games have appeared on Nintendo’s handheld system in the form of remakes, but the next flagship installment of the series is DS-only.  I wonder how many people will dust off their systems for the game?

Recently Released

Final Fantasy IX, published by Square-Enix (PSN).  FFIX has been added to the PSN’s library.  All the main PSOne Final Fantasy titles are now available.

Fantasy Earth Zero, hosted by GamePotUSA (PC).  Square-Enix sold the rights to one of the MMO’s the company developed to GamePotUSA.  A shame my laptop is absolute crap.  I would like to give this a try.

Titles shipping July 6 (barring shipping problems due to holiday)

Persona 3 Portable, published by Atlus (PSP).  This is a port of Persona 3 to the PSP with the ability to play as a female main character, added full party control, new costumes, and a few new things to get in your way or help you.  I believe the FES addition to the game is not in this edition.

Titles shipping July 13

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky, published by Square-Enix (DS).  The Dragon Quest series has been seen in North America more often lately due to DQ IV and V making headway over here.  The ninth installment of the series marks the first time the game has been made exclusively for the handheld market.  Hopefully it does better than the other DQ DS titles, which have made their way to the bargain bin very quickly.

Titles shipping July 26

Arc Rise Fantasia, published by Ignition Entertainment (Wii).  Some of you may remember Xseed’s name attached to this game, especially since it is a Marvelous Entertainment product.  As I understand it, every now and again Marvelous Entertainment wants a game to have more exposure and has Ignition do the work, since Ignition has a larger advertising budget than Xseed.  This does cause one small problem for games done by Ignition.

Harvest Moon: Animal Bazaar, published by Natsume (DS).  It’s Harvest Moon with 100% more animal husbandry and retail!  Maybe not, but the title sure makes it seem that way.  And why am I still covering Harvest Moon games?

Dragon Quest: Slime Speaker Stand, produced by Hori (DS).  This thing is amazing.  It’s a speaker shaped like a blue slime, and it’s about the cutest damn thing out there.  Seriously, type this thing into Google and prepare to be over-cuted by its design and then probably grossed by its $50 price tag.

Some Advice:  Persona titles tend to wind up at the $20 to $30 mark.  P3 and P4 on the PS2 both hit GameStop’s Game Days bargain bin.  P3P may do the same.

I’ve never seen a DQ game not find its way to a bargain bin.  I’ll be waiting.

I mentioned a small problem with Ignition’s games – they drop in price like rocks.  This is good for you, since Arc Rise Fantasia will also be in a bargain bin.

Harvest Moon title?  $20 future.

The Slime Speaker is about the only collectible available this month.  Unless GameStop carries it.  Then it will be clearance-priced soon.

It’s odd I mentioned quality at the beginning of the column.  DQ IX and P3P are good games, and Harvest Moon titles do not tend to disappoint.  So why are these games heading to the bargain bin?

The Future:  August has Ys Seven and Valkyria Chronicles 2; both of which produce favorable feelings within both me and my nethers.  Fallout: New Vegas seems Hell bent on an October release, and for some reason the makers of Arcania: A Gothic Tale are trying to challenge it on the same day.  Final Fantasy XIV will see a PC release on September 22 and September 30 with two different editions.  And the rest of the year has yet to shape up.

All retail games (with the exception of those marked as street-dated) will be in stores one day after their release. Release dates also tend to be shipping dates. All release dates are subject to change.  Games available for download will have varying release. The views of this column do not reflect the views of RPG Land.

Topics: Shop Watch