Announced back in July it was reported that Konami was porting the cult classic, Shadow Of Memories (or more commonly known as Shadow Of Destiny in the US), onto the PSP. Strangely enough, I had just bought the Playstation 2 version about a month or so beforehand. I was a little late when it came to experiencing this game, but was happy I took the time to nonetheless. I was also quite worried that this wouldn’t make it back to American shores a second time around considering how mediocre sales were.

The game wasn’t insanely popular, but if I recall it had a good deal of the Silent Hill team working on it. It is a very unique game where you’re trying to prevent your own death, and to do so you must constantly time travel. The graphics, sadly, have not been upgraded for the port; however, there is a new vocal cast in the Japanese release. Konami announced today that America’s will also be able to delight in the port, which is very exciting. It’ll be good to see a new batch of people try out this game, but at the same time I am interested in who they might cast.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…

Fans of the long standing Metal Gear franchise are already aware that Kojima is attached to two more games, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker & Metal Gear Solid: Rising. This was teased before E3 and announced fully during the event. Now that the Tokyo Game Show has finally come around, there’s been more news and a new trailer concerning the prior game.

Speculation is already running wild so I figured I would inject a dose of my own. For those who haven’t seen the trailer you can do so below, but I advise instead watching it here on the official site for better quality.

There is quite a log of dialogue English speakers will miss out on from watching a subtitle-less version, with their only salvation being the song near the end. Most will notice the addition of an English theme song, which hasn’t been really apparent since the release of Metal Gear Solid 3′s Snake Eater. I’ve already attempted to search for Donna Burke’s Heaven’s Divide across the internet, but it seems to be an unreleased track as of now.

The trailer itself starts out rather slowly, but by giving it a chance there is a clear comparison to the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to a rather memorable and spoiler filled scene. Amazingly the PSP graphics in turn seem as good, which is rather hard to believe since most PSP games are a downgraded version of what the Playstation 2 could do. I do believe most fans will start to get excited for Peace Walker, merely because the other PSP games of the series aren’t up to this level.

It is already confirmed by those who have played the demo on the Tokyo Game Show floor that Ashley Wood still has a hand in the drawings. Most of these were featured as cover art and still art during cutscenes for the previous games. They will be used in the new game as well, but will have more of an interactive feel as players can zoom into them and explore other concepts of the images that would give more insight into the story. You can vaguely see this during 6:59 of the trailer through 8:48.

At this point we are given a better introduction of the characters. Released a few days ago was the following scan which showcased said character, but the scan itself is grainy and it is rather difficult to see each in detail.

From first hand accounts, it appears that Galvez is attempting to get Snake to fight for him and/or Costa Rica against the CIA (whether it actually is the CIA yet is questionable at most). Miller, your comrade, seems to like the offer itself, but Snake is far more shaky on the matter. It appears at this point, to better convince Snake, Galvez introduces Paz who appears traumatized from the war. At this point it appears Paz is making the most impact through the trailer, though we are unaware what her role directly is. Costa Rica now must rely on the group Militaires Sans Frontières, the mercenary army that will eventually give rise to Outer Heaven. This will finally fill a large gap within the story, and should make many fans excited.

Going through the characters one already strikes my interest and seemed to resemble an old favorite. Specifically Huey appears to look a lot like Otacon, but not only that, it sounds as if the same Japanese voice actor makes a small few speeches of dialogue within the trailer itself. I could be kidding myself, though checking on Wikipedia Hideyuki Tanaka is supplying the voice for the character. I’m positive due to the timeline that it isn’t Otacon with a codename, but I’ll jump on the bandwagon and say outright I believe it to be his father.

This would be increasingly interesting considering we’re already aware of Otacon’s mother and sister, but not his father. In previous games it was known that Otacon’s grandfather was involved in the Manhattan Project while his father was born on the day of the Hiroshima Bombing. Peace Walker takes place in 1974, the Hiroshima Bombings occurred 1945. If my theory is correct, then Huey would be twenty-nine which doesn’t look all that wrong.

As of yet there is little else I wish to really examine since the game will be out in the coming year if all goes to plan. It looks quite far along, so hopefully I can be patient until then. Though I am at a cross as to why there is so little word on Metal Gear Solid: Rising. I’m unaware if they are attempting to avoid overshadowing the PSP game, or if they just don’t have enough done with the game to really show it anywhere. There is still so few details on Rising that I’m still sitting on the fence on whether or not I wish to play it. I suppose Kojima will reveal his hand when he is ready. Tricky bastard.

As promised, the PSP section is now up! I’m quite addicted to the little handheld, and was surprised I wanted so many games for the darn thing. Oh well, I know Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 are going to be the real monsters. Within the next two days I’ll add another section. Thank you for being so patient~!

Valkyria Chronicles was a game originally made for the Playstation 3. It had decent sales in Japan, but the US sells were clearly lacking. Shortly proceeding the game was an animated series focusing on the events during the first game. About two months ago a sequel was announced, but sadly it isn’t what anyone is expecting.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 will be brought to North America in the Summer of 2010. The biggest downgrade here is the fact the game will be put on the PSP. Not only is this a poor release window considering Final Fantasy XIII is also coming out at this time, but the game’s fans will probably be against the Playstation 3 to PSP swap. I’m certainly angry myself considering that the game was so beautiful on the Playstation 3. I doubt the handheld version will be as appealing or emotionally sound. For those who still believe, here’s the trailer released by Sega.

I’m slowly getting my game list along. I knew it would take awhile as my collection is rather hefty, so I started with a small section. The Super Nintendo page is up, please enjoy~! I may add more Wishlist items shortly, but as of now it’s fine as it is considering the rest of games I have to add.

I expect PSP to be up next, technically the page is halfway done, but is missing Wishlist and Pre-order items.