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Shop Watch August 2013

By Russ | August 6, 2013 at 1:17 am

There’s at least three solid releases this month.

But man, does the forecast for the rest of the year look grim for 360 users. Next year is livened up with Dark Souls II and… maybe something else? Ah, well.

Titles shipping the week of August 4

Dragon’s Crown, published by Atlus (PS3, Vita). Here’s a game which gained a lot of notoriety for its art style and then turned out to be fun. While the title is debuting on both of Sony’s chief platforms and allows cross=saving, there is no cross-play available. Just a heads up to interested parties.

Tales of Xillia, published by Namco Bandai (PS3). Tales games tend to follow a set formula of decent plot, above-average characterization and fantastic ass-kicking. Xillia looks to offer all this with two different perspectives to the story, as players can choose which protagonist to follow at the beginning of the game. There is a Collector’s Edition for this title, but it appears to be sold out.

Available August 11

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, published by Nintendo (3DS). Luigi’s sudden ability to open portals to the dreamworld causes he and Mario to get sucked into another adventure. I’m pretty behind on these titles, but if they have the same writing as the first game they shouldn’t be too bad.

Titles shipping the week of August 25

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, published by Square-Enix (PC, PS3). This is it – the corrective action to the original FFXIV. I’ve payed the Beta and I’m impressed by what it offer. I just hope the pay-to-play model does not jack up what is a very enjoyable MMO experience thus far.

Some Advice: If you find a Tales of Xillia Collector’s Edition at retail; pick it up. You might not get another chance with the CE going for twice retail on websites.

The Future: September brings Diablo III and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMix and October more Pokemon. The rest of the year will be filled out with several of PS3 releases, with the occasional other system thrown in.

All release dates are subject to change.  Games available for download may have varying or staggered release dates. The views of this column do not reflect the views of RPG Land.  This column brought to you by ClariS because I don’t know why.

Topics: Shop Watch