Ryu ga Gotoku 3 is truly a surprise announcement for me in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu (although I’m actually more excited at Shonen Jump’s Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2). Following the magazine report, Sega updated the series portal with the official logo of the game and nothing else. This announcement came only four months after Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! was released, one has to really amaze at the team’s efficiency.

Go: Ryu ga Gotoku portal.

Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (or Eternal Sonata in the West) is back in the news again with a new September release date and a few pages in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu. So let’s run the new stuff that the PS3 version of the game will get again.

Image via Dengeki Online

New Quest

A new quest related to Polka’s sickness with accompanying new voices.

Refined Storyline

Some of the storyline in the cutscenes will be refined and its flow reshuffled so that it’s easier to understand the story now. New voices will be added where necessary.

Costume Changing

Characters can changed clothes, in which there are quite a few new one added. The characters will also appear in cutscenes with the newly changed clothes.

New Playable Characters

Crescendo (shown left) and Serenade are playable now. They make up the 12 playable characters in total.

Multiple Endings

Players will get different ending based on their decisions during the game.

New Musics

Include works by Russian-born pianist Stanislav Bunin.

New Dungeons

Also include new artworks for Forte Kingdom’s characters.

Playable Characters

Allegretto and Polka

Beat and Chopin

Viola and Salsa

Falsetto and Claves

Jazz

Forte Characters

Waltz and Rondo

Fugue and Legato

Tuba

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice will be my next PS3 purchase (barring any last minute decision on importing Afrika) and I sure can’t wait for it, more so with all these news on the downloadable content (DLC) that Japan is getting. The new DLC includes Adel and Rozalin, both from Disgaea 2, as playable character at 200 Yen each while the third character is Nekomata at 100 Yen. Those who bought the characters will also be given a PS3 theme as a bonus. NIS also promise that there will be new DLC each month from now on.

Go: Disgaea 3 downloadable content info page.

Source: Game Watch

PS3 Theme

Adel

Rozalin

Nekomata

Based on a Japanese mag scan, it looks like PS3 will gets its own Tales of game that will “take advantage of the system’s power”. The scan (larger version after the jump) shows Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk, Tales of Vesperia and a mysterious upcoming PS3 Tales of game. Further below, a huge title teasing an announcement event to be held on “X Day of July”.

This will probably be an all new entry in the series as it’s unlikely that Namco organize an event just to re-announce Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume (aka Eternal Sonata) and the chances of them announcing Tales of Vesperia PS3 port right before it’s August release on Xbox 360 is almost zero. PS3 really needs more RPGs and this, if true, will be the greatest news for me and all JRPG fans.

Source: 2ch

Time to give your soul some spa treatments, the creative looking “environmental simulator” Shikitei will be available in Japan PSN today for 1,500 Yen. The 640Mb download will has more than 150 items like flowers and trees available to decorate your virtual garden, other features include speeding up the growth of the plants for the impatient types, reverse growth, automated virtual tour and a “Animal Pack” downloadable content in future to increase the amount of animals in your garden. Other new content are listed as below:

Downloadable Games

Shikitei (Full Game, 1,500 Yen)

Add-on Game Content

Minna no Golf 5 - Costume Set Vol. 2 (600 Yen)

Mugen Kairou: Jokyoku - North American Stage (Free)

Disgaea 3 - New DLC on June 27th, with one DLC per month being planned.

Initial D Extreme Stage - Comic Data starting July 3rd (a copy of the game is needed).

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Metal Gear Solid Database (Free)

PS3 Wallpapers

SIREN: New Translation (Free)

This isn’t exactly new but one of my most looking forward to game Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm was confirmed to attend Japan Expo in Paris next week. According to the official press release, CyberConnect 2 director Hitoshi Matsuyama will be presenting the game and a new trailer is promised.

GameSpot gave the game a glowing preview last April but with a bunch of fighting games coming out on the system, my most looking forward to elements of the game will be exploring Hidden Leaf Village and the supposedly unique missions. The game is currently being set for fall release in US.

Source: MCV

An extremely unfortunate event in Akihabara forced Konami to postpone the final leg of “Metal Gear Solid 4 World Tour 2008″ in Japan two weeks ago. Although Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots still went on to become best selling PS3 game in the country in its first week, Hideo Kojima didn’t forget his fans and the tour will resumes in five places over two days in Tokyo. Find out the details at the official Japanese website for the game.

Go: MGS4 World Tour In Japan details.

Don’t want to sit through hours of cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots but love the actions? Then Konami has you covered, Play-Asia.com now has Metal Gear Online listed as coming this August 14th in Japan. From the product description, this will be the exact same MGO found in MGS4. The price is only $19.90, which I think is acceptable for a title with endless replay values.

Go: Buy Metal Gear Online at Play-Asia.com.

Looks like Sega have spent all their marketing money on Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! and Senjou no Valkyria as they have to work hard to earn some much needed promotions in major Japanese gaming medias on Initial D Extreme Stage. Racing beauty Mika Kagoshima was hired as the marketing lead of the game and her task is to challenge the medias at the game so that they will publish reports on the racing title. ITmedia +D Games, Game WATCH, GameSpot Japan and Dengeki Online + PlayStation were the participants. However, it looks like Sega didn’t provide her with enough tips as Mika only managed to beat Game WATCH and Dengeki, resulting in a one-page report on the both websites and the pages of Dengeki PlayStation magazine. They do earn a free report here on PS3Hyper though. More photos from the event and new screens of the game after the jump. The game is coming on July 3rd in Japan, Play-Asia.com has an Asia version that comes with English manual which sadly doesn’t support online game modes but it’s almost $15 cheaper than the Japanese version.

Source: Game WATCH & Dengeki Online.

Update: Watch the videos at GameSpot Japan.

In the face of low hardware sales in Japan, I’m very curious how Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will do in its first week in the country. However, Enterbrain’s latest figures suggests big success for Konami and Sony, with 476,334 copies of the game sold and 77,208 PS3 systems sneak into the home of Japanese gamers in the four days between June 12th and June 15th. The software number include those in the Special Edition, Premium Pack and the Welcome Box, making it the best selling PS3 games to date in the country. Hardware bump is more than 60,000 units, Sony now sold 2,177,825 units of PS3 in Japan according to the research firm.

Source: Famitsu